TAMPA, Fla. – As part of the MAPPS/ASPRS Joint Specialty Conference here this week, MAPPS announced the winners of its sixth annual Geospatial Excellence Awards in seven categories. Leading the list was AeroMetric, of Sheboygan, Wisc., which took home the award in the Photogrammetry/Elevation Data Generation category as well as the Grand Award for best overall project for its work for the Navajo Housing Authority.
AeroMetric’s project involved developing orthoimagery and digital elevation models (DEM) for 30,000 square miles across four states. It was selected “because of AeroMetric’s ability to overcome challenges that included a large, multi-state project area, logistical and technical complexity in both acquisition and model generation in a remote, rugged topography with extreme and abrupt changes in elevation,” according to a MAPPS press release.
“AeroMetric’s project for developing a geospatial land base for the Navajo Housing Authority was truly an exemplary project in the judges’ estimation,” said Robert Burtch PS, CP, Professor Emeritus, Ferris State University, and chairman of the judges’ panel, in a statement. “Not only did this project deliver a tool to help the Navajo Nation improve the delivery of public services, it also provides a model for how other public sector entities can partner with the geospatial profession to cost-effectively deliver very large, complex projects.”
MAPPS also awarded Photo Science’s project, “LIDAR for the North East,” in Airborne and Satellite Acquisition; Merrick & Company’s projects “Enhancing Airfield Safety with LIDAR Technology,” in Remote Sensing, and “Barrenlands, Bombs and Boundary Surveys,” in Surveying/Field Data Collection; the Sidwell Company in GIS/IT for their “City of Storm Lake GIS/GPS Project”; Kappa Mapping in the Small Projects category for “Mapping Fishing Gear and Lines to Reduce Whale Entanglements”; and RIEGL USA’s project “Scanning the Seas” for Technology Innovation.
“The projects entered into the sixth year of the Excellence Awards Program again demonstrate the ingenuity and professionalism that the private geospatial community provides to their clients and to enhance our quality of life,” said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello in a statement. “The awards highlight the ability for firms to work with clients to provide solutions that are within budget and have long lasting societal benefits on a daily basis.”
A panel of independent judges evaluated projects submitted by MAPPS members for the awards program.
