GPS World

Tag: Louisiana

  • Esri’s disaster recovery tools at work in Louisiana, California

    Esri technology has been in full force in Louisiana during both the search-and-rescue phase and cleanup and disaster recovery efforts following massive flooding in Baton Rouge. Esri’s ArcGis Online is providing a way to collect, monitor and report field activities to be sure all departments are on the same page using real time imagery, data and apps.

    In an emergency situation, location is a key component in response efforts — from maps showing affected areas to first responders; to where relief supplies are located; to evacuation routes and impending weather.

    Baton-Rouge-Esri-disaster-O
    The Esri Story Map references the locations of civil air patrol photos.

    Esri’s Disaster Response Program provides software support, data support, and consulting/technical support for active disasters. The program is available to any agency supporting a disaster, regardless of whether they are an Esri customer.

    Currently, the Esri Disaster Response Program is supporting the efforts to respond to the wildfires in California as well as the flooding in Louisiana, but the tools are called into action on countless disaster situations and are available at any time.

    For the flooding, a Public Information Map is updated continuously with multiple data streams such as social media and weather reports. There are also a Flooding Story Map and a Local Impact Map available. Similar resources are available for the wildfire emergency.

  • Louisiana DOT goes mobile for levee inspections

    The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has deployed TerraGo Edge for the inspection of flood protection infrastructure including levees, dams and reservoirs.

    The DOTD’s Public Works and Water Resources Division inspects more than 1,100 miles of levees, four times every year.

    The legacy inspection system was a custom-built application developed by an engineering services firm, which used Trimble Yuma ruggedized tablets. Over time, the system became less reliable and database updates were cumbersome and problematic. To truly fix the system would have meant more custom development services and other expenses.

     

    Each of the six Yuma tablets, fully configured, ran around $6,000. The annual software maintenance was also expensive at around $18,000, which did nothing to improve the reliability of the system.

    “We really wanted a cloud-based system, so we wouldn’t need to maintain a database server on-site. And if we could deploy an Android solution, those tablets would only cost us about $200, so the hardware would be pennies on the dollar. We could break and replace a lot of Android tablets compared to a traditional, ruggedized GPS tablet at $6,000,” said Doug Taylor, Director of Levees, Dams and Reservoirs at the DOTD.

    After a series of successful field trials, DOTD knew it had found a mobile solution that met their requirements across the board for reliability, ease of use and customizability, all with a cloud-based database solution at a fraction of the cost.

    TerraGo Edge’s customizable forms mean the DOTD never has to pay a software services fee for modifying a hard-coded solution again. They can design their own forms, maps and workflows, flexibly changing them whenever needed to improve the speed and quality of inspections and maintenance.

    “Honestly, my favorite part about TerraGo Edge is that it’s just easy to use,” said Taylor. “It’s easy to use in the field and it’s easy to get information and reports out whenever we need them. The challenge is always how to figure out the right forms and inspection workflow. We have hundreds of codes and things change over time. With Edge, we can customize our forms and process today, and know we can adjust things in the future. ”

    To learn more about the Louisiana DOTD customer success story, download the case study.