Access to these geospatial resources is intrinsic to the operation of local governments, and their use and application will only grow as technology continues to advance.
WILMINGTON, Ohio (PRWEB) May 26, 2020
Clinton County, Ohio, has signed an annual contract with Woolpert for STREAM:RASTER, a subscription software service that hosts, maintains and facilitates access to geospatial imagery in the cloud. The Southwest Ohio county owns large volumes of high-quality orthoimagery for use by the public and local, state and federal agencies.
“Most counties map between every year and every three years to support their planning, engineering and land management data needs,” Woolpert Vice President and Geospatial Program Director Brian Stevens said. “Due to the sheer size and expanding applications of geospatial imagery, storing, managing and distributing this data has become a major challenge for many counties and municipalities. STREAM:RASTER was developed in direct response to this need.”
Clinton County has accumulated layers of geospatial data, including large imagery datasets, since initiating GIS operations in the 1990s. Stevens, who has worked with the county for more than 20 years, said Clinton County Engineer Jeff Linkous was instrumental in the county’s early adoption of GIS. He said that support has continued to benefit the county as technology has advanced and geospatial applications have grown.
Stevens said mapping Clinton County in one flight at a standard 6-inch resolution creates about 200 GB of data. Upgrading from 6-inch to 3-inch resolution, which can vary per the needs of the collection, quadruples the size of the dataset.
“When you upgrade to 3-inch resolution, as Clinton County did this year for the city of Wilmington, you quadruple the size of that dataset,” Stevens said. “Hosting and maintaining that volume of data, on top of the existing historical data, is challenging, time-consuming and costly to perform in-house.”
Clinton County GIS Manager Joe Merritt said the size and storage of the county’s imagery base mapping data was becoming counterproductive. He said accessibility constraints were limiting use by county offices and the general public, thus reducing the data’s usefulness and compromising years of investment.
“We have imagery from 20 years ago that we couldn’t access effectively,” Merritt said. “This subscription service provides an easy, ready and cost-effective solution to a problem that has literally been building for years. With this service, we’ll have access to this data across the county without worrying about future costs in software, storage or IT staffing.”
Woolpert Chief Innovation Officer Jon Downey said this hosting service is supported by the firm’s experience collecting, processing, and managing data and imagery for local, state and federal agencies.
“Over the years, we’ve seen geospatial datasets grow and the demand for access to those datasets become greater than ever. At the same time, we’ve seen our local government clients hamstrung with limited budgets for staff, storage and servers,” Downey said. “Access to these geospatial resources is intrinsic to the operation of local governments, and their use and application will only grow as technology continues to advance. STREAM:RASTER was designed to evolve with geospatial data and imagery to support communities effectively around the world. We’re happy to be able to provide this support.”
About Woolpert
Woolpert is committed to a vision to become the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, and one of the best companies in the world. It’s a vision we’ve been fine-tuning for decades. It guides our decisions and investments, provides our clients with optimal solutions and offers our employees unrivaled opportunities. Woolpert is recognized as a Great Place to Work by its employees and is America’s fastest-growing AEG firm. With more than a century of experience, close to 1,000 employees and 30 offices, Woolpert supports public, private, federal, and U.S. military clients nationally and around the globe. For more information, visit woolpert.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.