by Benjamin Houston | Sep 2, 2021 | Business Development
With the economy creeping to a halt and everyone shifting to work-at-home and online engagement, there are a lot of unknowns in front of all of us for 2020. We want to reassure you that GroundPoint Engineering has been operating fully and succeeding in this “virtual... 
by Benjamin Houston | Jul 1, 2021 | GIS
The first part of this article was mostly me whining about the problems associated with mapping change. This part focuses on solutions. One of the fundamental principles introduced earlier was the idea that we need to account for “allowable error” in the data. We... 
by Benjamin Houston | Jun 21, 2021 | GIS
What’s the Problem? In the geospatial profession, we really have great data. And we have LOTS of great data. And a bunch of that data has been around for a pretty long time. Which means as more and more new data arrives on the scene, buried in there somewhere is the... 
by Benjamin Houston | Apr 20, 2021 | GIS, Water
Culverts Are A Problem Let’s face it, most of the culverts in your Town are old. And quite often there is no record of when they were installed. Plus, in the past 50 years or more, the surrounding landscape has changed. That means runoff has changed too. At Indian... 
by Benjamin Houston | Dec 29, 2020 | Business Development
In November 2020, I sent an email to about 1400 people asking for help in understanding what they saw as the most pressing current issues with geospatial data and technology. Thanks to everyone who responded! As a general description of those that did respond: Roughly... 
by Benjamin Houston | Dec 2, 2020 | Water
This past Fall (2020), GroundPoint was fortunate enough to participate in the Southeast New York Stormwater Conference, being led by the Lower Hudson Coalition of Conservation Districts. For such as small group, the sessions, conducted virtually over the course of... 
by Benjamin Houston | Oct 13, 2020 | Drones, GIS
Does anyone remember the old TV add campaign “Is it live, or is it Memorex”? It’s a great reminder that even though we continually strive to make technology reflect reality, it doesn’t always match reality. At least not…exactly. And if you haven’t ever read the quote... 
by Benjamin Houston | Sep 1, 2020 | GIS, Water
Mapping wetlands in accordance with the US Army Corps of Engineers standards requires of evaluation of three things: wetland hydrology, wetland plants, and wetland soils. Typically, that requires standing in the field with a shovel or a soil auger, and marking the... 
by Benjamin Houston | Jul 28, 2020 | Drones, GIS, Water
Drones & Environmental Monitoring One of the great values of remote sensing technology is that it not only allows us to see things, but it allows us to MEASURE things that we wouldn’t otherwise be able- either because we just cant get close enough to measure it... 
by Benjamin Houston | May 18, 2020 | Drones, GIS
What’s measured is improved As communities respond to both the need for and the availability of better geospatial data, so does their need to understand HOW that data was created, and its implications for the underlying accuracy. And that doesn’t just mean throwing...