I have been a surveyor for almost four decades. I, like most
of you, have seen technology advance at an unprecedented pace. Where we have
been and where are we going in the engineering surveying world of data
documentation through a technological mindset? Technology isn’t from the
imagination to make our lives harder. It
comes from the concept of making our lives easier…. more profitable…. more
precise. This is change. When it comes to apprehension what we are
really talking about is change. What happens to people when they are
overwhelmed by change and how we adapt to it.
So, if we dare to dream we must dare to accept. To go where no man has gone
before…
Visionary, Gene Rodenberry dared to stretch the imagination
of the future. Growing up as a kid working cattle one of the popular television
shows at the time was Star Trek. Imagination of technology then was the
communicator you hold in your hand (although some of you are still holding on
to the old flip phone technology). No one flipped a phone like Captain Kirk.
Uhura had a communication device in her ear that today we call hands-free
calling. We are exposed to 3000 messages daily. This over-stimulation of sensory
levels increases distortion, how we perceive reality and how we think. To
compensate for this psychologists say we must increase the level of accuracy to
process information. In short, the more rapidly changing the environment the
more information the individual needs to process in order to make effective
rational decisions.
Terrametrix is facing change. In my early days of surveying
we took a shot every 25’ and that information was considered gospel,
unchallenged. Dead reckoning is a good example of antiquated field approaches.
Although it was not wrong, it did not result in a complete representation of
the real environment being documented. Today, technology allows us to acquire
enough accurate information to access it when we need it, how we need it and
where we need it. It started with a vision. When we started Terrametrix as a
safer way to collect survey-grade data and keep our crews safely out of the red
zone the long-term goal was to find a company with the same commitment to
safety. Even when the technology like mobile LiDAR is proven, the concept of
changing a mindset can be convoluted. Some change we accept more readily than
others because the need is greater than the apprehension. Safety is a forceful
driving component for anyone involved in the AEC world and our new company
TREKK Design Group gets it. Like anything else filling a need drives
innovation. As early as the 1980’s the VanGuard 2000 came out of the need to
keep the surveyor safe along the roadside. The Gene Rodenberry vision of the
mobile mappers today is terrestrial mobile LiDAR.
As Terrametrix we had the LiDAR technology to accomplish our
safety goal, now we have the horsepower to fully deploy the technology. When
departments across multiple platforms use the same data the costs of acquiring
that data is reduced. It’s a simple
financial plan. "Map it once use it many times" was introduced by Congressman
Doug Lamborn (R-CO) intended to streamline federal bureaucracy dealing with map
making. Currently, more than 40 different federal agencies have geospatial
activities. Advances in mapping technology and demands for mapping products
have created greater demand in the federal government for geospatial services.
However, the coordination between agencies often fails to produce the best
information for the best price. Frequently, multiple federal agencies will
request mapping of the same area at the same time, wasting federal resources,
and taxpayer dollars. TREKK is leading the way by example as a forward thinking
multi-disciplined, women owned civil engineering firm. Our team is excited to
be the in-house provider of LiDAR. It should be an exciting new enterprise. See you on the TREKK side!
