Merrick & Co LiDAR Application wins Grand Award

16 July 2007, 7:38pm

Bretton Woods, NH, July 16, 2007- Merrick & Company's "Environmental LiDAR Applications in Columbia, South America" has been selected as the Grand Award winner in the first annual MAPPS Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards, presented today at the MAPPS 25th Anniversary Summer Meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

Awards are presented in six categories. The winning projects are "Torini 2006 IFSAR Mapping Project" by Intermap Technologies, Englewood, CO in the Photogrammetry/Elevation Data Genergation category; "SAV Mapping for Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay and Environs" by Photo Science, Inc., Lexington, KY in the Remote Sensing category; "AT&T Digital Land Base" by Michael Baker Jr., Inc., Beaver, PA in the GIS/IT category; "Washington County E-Docs Asset GIS" by Aerial Services, Inc., Cedar Falls, IA, in the Small Projects category; "Dallas Area Rapid Transit" by Bohannan Huston, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, in the Technology Innovation category; and "Environmental LiDAR Applications in Columbia, South America" by Merrick & Company, Aurora, CO, in the Airborne and Satellite Data Acquisition category and Grand Award winner.

The project awards competition was judged by five distinguished panelist representing a diversity of knowledge in the geospatial community. The judges included Don Evick, a retired professional engineer from office of the chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who served as chairman; Dr. Pamela Lawhead, Director of the Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences (IAEGS) at the University of Mississippi; Bob Burtch, professor of surveying engineering at Ferris State University; Cyrena Respini-Irwin, senior editor of Geospatial Solutions magazine; and Marc Cheves, founder of Cheves Media and publisher of The American Surveyor Magazine.

The panel evaluated 13 projects submitted for review in the six categories. "The judges were very impressed with the high quality and diversity of the submissions, and the breath and depth of the expertise of the firms. All of the projects exhibited very effective and innovative use of the most state-of-the art mapping technologies to solve important real-world problems. Many of the projects had to overcome significant logistical and scheduling challenges. The projects not only provided reliable and detailed engineering data, but had substantial economic, social, environmental, and/or political benefits as well. And, all of the projects resulted in a high level of customer satisfaction," said Evick.

Commenting on the Grand Award project, Evick said, "The judges were impressed by not only the difficulty in mapping very diverse, complex, and fragile areas, but that Merrick personnel also had to deal with threats posed by both the Atlantic (Caribbean) and Pacific hurricane seasons as well as armed guerilla forces and narcotics traffickers. To deal with these formidable logistical challenges, Merrick ingenuously mounted multiple LiDAR sensors in a single aircraft, allowing maximum data acquisition in minimal time and producing high-precision topographic data and imagery. The judges also noted the social benefits of Merrick training and employing local personnel to process the data. Merrick's high quality data acquisition under difficult circumstances will support the sustainable management, development and enjoyment of a very sensitive and exotic coastal ecosystem,"

The winning projects were presented at an awards banquet sponsored by Microsoft at the
MAPPS 25th anniversary summer conference at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, NH by Mr. Evick on behalf of the judges.

About MAPPS
MAPPS was formed in 1982 by a small group of U.S. photogrammetry companies as the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors to represent the interests of private photogrammetric and aerial surveying firms. Since then, MAPPS has expanded in size and scope to become the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the spatial data and geographic information system field in the United States. Current MAPPS memberships spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, hydrography, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Members, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.

www.MAPPS.org

Geo: International