Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019 - 9

Riegl VUX-1LR, can capture 750,000 points
per second with a 15-millimeter-accuracy,
eye-safe laser, while moving at 20 meters per
second.
As a comparison, '90's airborne LiDAR
that provided 8 to 10 measurement points
per square meter (PPSM) was considered
"robust." Current collection methods with
the Pulse Aerospace Vapor 55 UAS equipped
with Riegl VUX-1LR can provide 300 to 500
PPSM, as well as penetrate the densest vegetation to obtain accurate ground mapping.
Ultra-high-resolution imagery is also a
reality. When flying 80 feet above ground
level, the Phase One 100-megapixel camera's
ground sample distance (GSD), or pixel size
on ground, is 1.7 millimeters. You would
have to be on your hands and knees to see
the same level of detail captured while flying
nearly eight stories above the item of interest.
A host of other sensors provide data
and data fusion, and opportunities for land
surveyor services, not previously possible.
Sensors include gamma for radiological evaluation, multi-spectral for vegetation health,
magnetometer for mining support and fugitive methane emission detection utilizing
specialized laser technology, to name a few.
There is virtually no limit to the data
fusion possibilities to benefit the client and
project. Projects have fused gamma sensor
data onto LiDAR providing the client with
completed terrain and surface radiological characterization of abandoned uranium
mines. A common data fusion, "colorized
LiDAR," adds the RGB value to each LiDAR
point, creating enhanced visualization for
the human viewer. Data fusion can also be
the result of utilizing sensors with different
accuracies, such as a terrestrial laser scanner
(TLS LiDAR) for high-accuracy detail on a
dam face and fusing that data with wide-area
coverage by UAS LiDAR capture.

Big data

All these new and emerging tools and
data-handling technologies mean more
work-equivalent to more data collection-
is being performed by fewer field staff. In
fact, the amount of data is hitting an all-time
high, reflected by storage requirements for
digital survey data growing from kilobytes
in the 1980s, to megabytes, gigabytes and
terabytes, and today's petabytes range.
Even more significant than the amount,
however, is what you do with the data. Collectively called "geospatial intelligence," it
focuses on understanding the needs and
purposes for aggregating and analyzing all
the information. A long-time focus of the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), geospatial intelligence has
proven that the complexity and costs associ-

Photos courtesy of Jason Kack, PLS.

ated with collecting and storing all this data
can be reduced by determining as early as
possible what data is useful not only for the
project, but beyond.
The project survey industry for civil applications, however, has not kept up, and must
rethink its role. Instead of the traditional survey services defining "what is," we need the
proactive and integrated approach of a geospatial advisor, who looks at what could be.
Working with the project manager and others, the geospatial advisor considers a host of
questions, from the earliest point of project
development and throughout all phases:
How much data should we collect, where
should we store it?
How can we extract what we need at different times?
How can we keep it current?
Who should pay for it?
When should we collect it, why are we
collecting it, how should we collect it?
For those surveyors who work to stay current with technology and embrace this new
role, the possibilities are endless for career

advancement and variety of work performed.
Within ASCE/UESI, this concept fits
very well into broad-ranging initiatives,
such as Every Day Counts (FHWA) where
the theme is "Collect data once, use many
times." Another example is ASCE's Grand
Challenge, which requires using these advanced survey tools and techniques to reduce life-cycle costs. A third is ASCE's Engineer Tomorrow initiative, where continuing
education and certification are necessary.
Nowadays, you must almost be a futurist to figure out a long-term benefit analysis
for determining possible uses of locational
geospatial data. That is where some aspects
of our survey world are going, and UESI's
Survey and Geomatics Division has the opportunity to help us get there. *
JAMES ANSPACH, PG(r), Dist.M.ASCE is current
past-president of UESI and global senior principal of
Cardno's Utility Engineering and Survey Practice.
JASON KACK, PLS, vice-president-Project Delivery and cofounder of DataSight USA, has 30-plus
years of survey experience on large projects.
SUMMER 2019 Utility Engineering + Surveying 9

Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019

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