Merrick LiDAR Services for Oklahoma Natural Resou

15 January 2010, 10:07am

Aurora, Colorado – January 15, 2010 - Merrick & Company is providing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data collection and data processing services for 7,766 square miles of five watersheds located in Oklahoma. The work is being done under a contract with AMEC Earth & Environmental, who is the prime consultant, for the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS). It is part of a five-year engineering and geospatial service indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for the watershed rehabilitation program that includes dam safety assessment, design, design review, flood inundation, and construction management. The data will be used by the USDA-NRCS for use in dam assessment and hydrologic and hydraulic models.

The LiDAR data is being collected between December 1, 2009 and February 28, 2010 over a snow-free terrain. The collected LiDAR data will be filtered to remove 95% or more of the vegetation, buildings, artifacts, man-made features, and noise. Deliverables will include classified LAS files and ESRI Digital Elevation Models (DEMs).

The Watershed Rehabilitation Program covers over 11,000 dams located in 47 states that have been built since 1948. Many of these dams are nearing the end of their 50-year design life and rehabilitation of the dams is needed to address critical public health and safety issues in these communities.

These watershed dams are part of the U.S.’ aging infrastructure that includes highways, bridges, and storm sewers. Local watershed projects represent a $15 billion investment in the national infrastructure. Local projects are federally assisted, not federally owned projects. Local sponsors own the dams and are responsible for their operation and maintenance.

Some of the work in the Watershed Rehabilitation Program is being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Benefits of Watershed Projects:

Watershed projects provide flood control, municipal and irrigation water supply, recreation, soil erosion control, water quality improvement, wetland development, and wildlife habitat enhancement on more than 130 million acres across the country. Annually the Watershed Program yields benefits of more than $1.6 billion.

Merrick & Company

Geo: International