WROC EARNS ‘ BEST OF STATE ’
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin recently honored the Wisconsin Regional Orthophotography Consortium project with a 2016 Best of State Award , presented to projects representing the highest degree of technical innovation , client satisfaction , and contribution to the engineering profession . Winners of this award are eligible for the Grand Award , the highest award at the state level , which will be announced at the ACEC WI Award Banquet on March 18 .
He explained that state and federal officials might use the data for forestry applications or natural resourcefocused initiatives . County soils experts might want to review the data to get a detailed look at the plant types in the area or determine the type of soils present , and municipalities could use it to map and locate such features as utilities , manhole covers , and water valves .
Scott Hand , supervisor of GIS services for Wisconsin Public Service , said the Green Bay-based utility company got involved in the WROC program to more efficiently collect imagery for 16 of the 21 counties in its service territory .
“ For us , the biggest benefit is that it ’ s been kind of a one-stop shop to be able to get all this data ,” Hand said . “ In the past , we would ’ ve had to contact all of those counties individually . We ’ ve done that with some other data types , and it becomes a real nightmare because each county can have the data in a slightly different format . Joining WROC has made it a lot simpler to go to one source to get all that data . It ’ s a big time-saver .”
Another draw was getting “ leaf-off ” imagery , when views of what ’ s below aren ’ t obstructed by vegetation .
“ The majority of our service territory is very wooded , and the free imagery you get with Google Maps or Bing Maps is all leaf-on , which reduces the benefits of the imagery by not being able to see all of our above-ground equipment and facilities ,” he said .
Level of detail ‘ incredible ’
Tyler Grosshuesch , GIS analyst and coordinator at the Adams-Columbia Electric Cooperative , was first introduced to WROC in its 2010 cycle when he was employed elsewhere . So pleased with the orthophotography and LiDAR products received , he approached his current employer to get on board in 2015 .
“ One of the cooperative ’ s principles is commitment to community , and we saw this as an opportunity to work with the counties to benefit our members – and get some higher resolution imagery that wouldn ’ t have otherwise been possible ,” Grosshuesch said . “ This is just an incredible improvement in the detail you ’ re able to see and the overall information you ’ re able to get from looking at the imagery .”
Ayres ’ Nienow said the data ’ s resolution has gotten consistently higher through the years – from 18-inch ground pixel resolution to 6-inch-pixel resolution or less – with features now more distinct than ever before . Nienow likens it to viewing an object with and without binoculars .
“ If there ’ s something that you want to see out in the distance , you can tell the general outline of it , but you can ’ t tell what it is . If you look again and focus those
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