Tag Archives: Engineering

5 Barriers to Building GIS Programs in Small Governments in New York State

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Some barriers instead might be considered missed opportunities but there continues to be specific issues which stifle geospatial growth

Over my 30+ years of managing the Westchester County GIS program, I worked extensively with local governments across the County.  Forty-three in all, ranging from Yonkers, now the third largest city in New York State to several villages which are little more than one-square mile in size such as Buchanan along the Hudson River with a population of 2,302 (2020 Census). All uniquely different in their attempts – and interests – to build geospatial capacity.  Some have been successful while many others have struggled for a myriad of reasons.  This is particularly true among the 23 villages.

Now “on the other side of the firewall” (thanks, Sue Knauss) and working for myself, I’ve been able to see and work further into the organizational framework of these smaller governments.  Confirming many of the observations I made while working with Westchester County that I believe inhibit the development of building geospatial programs at this level of government. Admittedly, the small Westchester County village just north of the Bronx is different in many ways from a small village in Chemung County and one could argue the sample size is too small to be reflective of the entire state of New York, but I would suggest these obstacles to geospatial development are conceptually very similar across the state.   Furthermore, the term “Village” is not necessarily synonymous with small government as the Village of Port Chester 2020 population here in Westchester County was 31,581 – larger than many towns across the state.  So as a point of reference for this article small governments generally mean those with a population of less than 5,000.  Plus or minus.

GIS implementation “how-to” articles, management and primer books, and cautionary experiences shared by software vendors and consultants often include recognized issues such as budget constraints, limited technical expertise, or the lack of a realistic, phased implementation plan, as major culprits in initiating geospatial efforts.   I experienced and witnessed many of these same reasons, though the following are five specific barriers which I believe have a major impact in building GIS programs in small governments across New York State. 

In no particular order:

  1.  Staff Continuity: On the urban fringes, professional staff, particularly in the front offices, turn over at an amazing rate.  Assistants to Village Administrators, Managers, and department heads/commissioners – those who are often tasked to coordinate or serve as a liaison to special projects covering several departments such as GIS implementation – are often on the move.    And it’s not just in the administrative offices where staff turnover is impactful, but also throughout key program offices and departments which touch on GIS implementation such as planning, assessment, public works, and water departments, among others.     Any successful GIS Manager will tell you one of the most important factors in building the program, or any new government initiative, is staff continuity.  Including those who are in charge of managing consultants involved in helping build the GIS program.  Losses in these areas are often a major setback and derail any progress that may have been made in the GIS effort.  In some cases, losing years of work.  It doesn’t matter how good the implementation plan was or the technology being deployed.  

2.  IT Support:  Many small governments often do not have full-time IT staff and normally contract out for this support.  And with it, much of the focus is on infrastructure items such as the network, desktop and peripheral hardware components, client software installations/upgrades and as is the case in all governments and businesses now – maintaining the firewall and supporting cyber security efforts. These contracts, which are often with smaller IT firms, rarely include the support or guidance on multi-department applications such as geospatial programs which increasingly include mobile applications and its peripheral components.  This is not to say smaller IT firms cannot support GIS, it’s just not normally in their wheelhouse.   In small governments, needed GIS support from IT resources for a “government-wide perspective” is often extremely limited.

3.  Software Application Silos:    In small governments where there is often an absence of an overarching “IT committee” and/or the like, as well as combined with the lack of full-time IT staff as noted above, it is not uncommon for individual departments to be left to themselves to make their own business software decisions.  And as software vendors continue to push for and offer cloud-based/browser only solutions for their software products, it is even easier for individual departments and programs to go rogue and operate further in obscurity from the primary or seemingly “adopted” computing environments in the organization.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for IT support in small governments (I’ve even seen this at the City level) to not even know what browser-based business solutions some departments are using on a day-to-day basis.

What makes this difficult in the GIS space is that practically all business software solutions now include some kind of “mapping” component –  if only to render the application data on some form of generic base map.  Most often Google Maps.   Often the user interface even includes the term “GIS” when simply viewing program data on a map – this being the extent of the “GIS” functionality.  And if and when the broader discussion of a GIS for the government is ever started, these same departments are slow, if ever, to join the effort.  Not knowing the larger intricacies and benefits of a shared, multi-department GIS program – the response is normally  “We already have a GIS“.  Little interest in the shared data model, to say the least of a common address file which most business software products normally ship  to support geocoding.  This cloud-only software application delivery model (mobile apps, too) is very common now in local government permitting, code enforcement, inspections, and even public safety disciplines to name just a few.

If it’s not broken, they are not going to try and fix it.  Let alone spend more money.  Making it very difficult to garner interest for a government-wide discussion on a unified GIS solution.  

4.  VIPs with an Attitude:    That may sound a little harsh, but the fact of the matter is that  just one dominant personality in small governments can impact the  decision making process over a wide range of internal technology issues – not just GIS.  Such individuals exist in all levels of government, but in smaller ones, where staff are few in numbers and  VIPs normally being senior staffers – frequently with decades of service – his or her opinion is often unquestioned.  Your first onsite meeting with folks who are genuinely interested in the GIS goes well – that’s why you’re there in the first place.  But during the second or third on-site meeting which is held to take a deeper dive into the concept – the VIP with an Attitude shows up out of nowhere acting like Lord Vadar.  Often packing a lightsaber.

Because of their decades of institutional knowledge, they have been ordained to know what is best for the good of the order.   Even if he or she isn’t even directly involved in geospatial.  Like a good defense lawyer, raising just an iota of doubt on what is deemed such a good idea by so many others.

Magically the VIPs have the ear of the Budget Director, Comptroller, Finance Director, fellow high ranking directors, or highest elected official.  Or the Town Board.  And so forth.  Across the municipal landscape they can be found in one of many program areas:  Public Works, Finance, Building Department, maybe a small Planning office, or even a long standing consultant who isn’t even on the payroll.  For whatever reason, he or she feels threatened by the technology which is being considered and increasingly adopted elsewhere.    Particularly if the VIP has not taken the time to understand the benefits that geospatial programs can bring.

But it’s not going to happen while they are still around and/or have something to say about it.  In my hometown, early GIS efforts were thwarted by the Receiver of Taxes.  Yes, Receiver of Taxes.  Largely because this office was responsible for “computer related” expenditures.  And nothing was going to compromise his/her annual computer software and hardware needs.  To this day, the program has never gotten on track.

There is really no good solution for the VIP with an Attitude problem in small governments. Sometimes retirement and attrition takes care of the problem though this may take years.  A change in administration sometimes helps, but in small governments new administrators rarely question long standing, senior staff members.  If anything they embrace the input and advice of VIPers.

And the beat goes on.  

5,  Consulting Engineers: Small governments often do not have a professional engineer on staff and normally contract out needed engineering services.  Engineering firms, whether small or large, which secure these services can have a profound impact on the use and development of GIS in small governments.  Though many small governments today do not see or consider their consulting engineers in this capacity.  Most aren’t even aware of the possible connection.

Back in the day of desktop/client GIS solutions, such support by consulting engineers was unrealistic.  But now, with easy-to-use cloud-based offerings such as ArcGIS Online, consulting engineers, along with their arsenal of AutoCAD related products and technologies, can simply envelope this “GIS service” into annual support services contracts.  At many levels of government, and particularly true in smaller ones, consulting engineers come in contact with all types of municipal geospatial data.   While infrastructure data (storm, sanitary, water distribution systems) are often the most obvious, consulting engineers duties also often include staffing local Planning Boards, serving as a liaison to utilities and a myriad of regional, state, and federal programs which include geospatial connections, as well as being involved in a host of local surveying and land/property record issues.    Depending on the in-house GIS resource capacity the consulting engineer maintains and the licensing agreement with the software vendor,  consulting engineers can offer a range of GIS capabilities to get small governments started for minimal investments. 

The reasons are many why this connection is not more common, but this “barrier” is more of a business relationship that more small governments should try and leverage with their consulting engineers.  There are positive and long term benefits for each party.   

Summary

At the end of the day, yes, the scale of small government operations and the scope of the geographical area covered may not seem to justify the investment in a comprehensive geospatial program.  Leading to a perception among the local elected officials, perhaps even department heads, that the benefits may not outweigh the costs.  Though the path I took in and out local government buildings, a basic lack of education and awareness of the geospatial benefits was still always an issue.  Particularly among the highest elected official and governing boards.  But it doesn’t stop there as I believe there still continues to be a significant lack of awareness or understanding of the broad spectrum of geospatial technologies among elected state representatives as well.    

For years, I’ve passively monitored the websites of New York State Association of Towns and New York Conference of Mayors as a source of ideas for articles for this blog.  Both organizations represent elected officials (including council members, boards, clerks and other municipal staff members as well) and are an excellent source of advocacy for small government programs and funding where geospatial technologies can be applied (i.e., transportation, infrastructure, public safety, environmental protection, etc).   Even New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) for the most rural of our state counties serves in this capacity as well.  If one takes the time to drive around and research each of the association websites, including using key word search tools, there is little reference to GIS or geospatial technologies.  Or for that matter, little of the technologies that geospatial is wrapped into. 

These organizations would be an excellent source of geospatial awareness at their newly elected training programs or annual conferences – which are extensive.  Helping connect geospatial to the programs they fund and how the tools are applied locally.   (For this article I looked for similar training sessions for newly elected New York Assembly members but could not find any specific programs).  Perhaps an opportunity for organizations like the NYS GIS Association or our emerging academic programs to provide training session/seminars to these associations.

There will continue to be exceptions, but until the opportunities and awareness of geospatial technologies are better understood, small government GIS programs in New York State will continue to struggle.

GeoSpatial Business Spotlight: H2M

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Location:        Corporate Office in Melville, New York /  10 Other locations 

Website:          www.h2m.com

Employees:    372 in Melville / 110+ in satellite offices

Established:   1933

H2M is a multi-disciplined professional consulting and design firm focusing in the fields of architecture, engineering, and environmental sciences. From treatment facilities to public safety buildings, land surveying and road reconstruction, and from site assessment to remediation, H2M has helped design and build throughout many communities across New York State since 1933.

Geospatial Support in Water Supply Systems

H2M has built its engineering practice around its service to water clients working directly with municipal water suppliers and private water utilities. The company’s work in this space has grown significantly over the past five years and is built on decades of combined municipal and private A/E experience. Recent work has focused on supporting public and private water systems to comply with new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rules which require an initial inventory by October 16, 2024. One of the rule’s requirements mandates the inventory must be made publicly available online for systems serving a population of more than 50,000 people.

H2M’s primary water-related consulting includes, but is not limited to, comprehensive and cost effective water engineering, water quality analysis, distribution system mapping, water storage tank inspections, water quality testing services, lead service line (LSL) inventory, leak distribution analysis, main break mapping, hydraulic (pipe) modeling, and a full suite of online and mobile mapping applications utilizing industry leading GIS software solutions. Fully integrated GIS applications include access to maintenance logs, field notes, spur maps, tap cards, valve sketches, as-build drawings, and photos.

The scanning and indexing of historical hardcopy records of water system features adds great context and valuable information to new GIS-based applications

Complaint tracking, customer notification, and work order management functions are also supported by H2M as many infrastructure GIS systems are integrated with Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) programs such as Cartegraph, IBM Maximo, Cityworks, Tyler, AssetWorks, Infor, and Lucity. These systems often consume published GIS map services, ensuring dynamic connectivity for real-time data analysis and review.

In the realm of field data collection, mapping and viewing software is augmented by powerful mobile apps. ESRI’s suite of mobile software products includes Field Maps, Survey 123, Workforce, and QuickCapture. These mobile apps can be augmented by connecting to external GNSS devices for real-time coordinate correction and higher accuracy data collection.

H2M’s work in the water system space includes the delivery of dashboards to which have become increasingly popular among administrators and decision makers providing a direct and “live” link to water system databases. Such dashboards access to pie charts, spreadsheets, photos, and mapping/viewing windows

Illustrative Projects:

Greenlawn Water District

H2M assisted the Greenlawn Water District in meeting new EPA lead service line inventory requirements by accurately geocoding each of their 12,017 service accounts and creating a data schema that complies with New York State Department of Health requirements. H2M reviewed multiple sources of information to determine service material including approximately 12,000 tap cards, dozens of hardcopy record replacement maps, and municipal records that include date of construction. Based on this information, H2M created an inspection map in ArcGIS Online which allows the District to determine areas with unknown service material and suspected lead which requires further investigation. H2M deployed Esri Field Maps as well as a Survey123 inspection form for the District to record their field inspections. This allows the District to easily document field inspections with notes and pictures, which are tied directly to the core GIS inventory data. Furthermore, H2M created multiple dashboards in ArcGIS Online that provide a dynamic snapshot of known and unknown service line material. This enables the District to quickly see the quantity of accounts that require further investigation and action, should replacement be required.

Online map viewers are easily configured to visually classify the types of water system materials owned by both the water district and by property owners

Village of Garden City Water Department

H2M was tasked to perform the Village-wide Lead Service Line (LSL) inventory and to develop a searchable, map-based data repository within its existing ArcGIS Online environment. As part of this work, H2M’s geospatial team reviewed several thousand individual records provided by the Village, including Excel spreadsheets, Building permits, plumbing permits, and nearly 1500 engineering plans. Information pertaining to water service material was transposed from the source materials to the GIS data. Source documents were also attached to the GIS data to facilitate simplified, map-based retrieval in the future. In addition to scanned documents, H2M incorporated information from engineer field observations, customer reports, and date of construction, as documented by the Nassau County assessor’s office.

Every street-side and customer-side water service within the Village is mapped and catalogued by its documented material and status.

Veolia North America (formerly SUEZ Water New Jersey

Veolia owns, operates, and maintains a network of hundreds of miles of transmission and distribution infrastructure serving more than a million residents in numerous municipalities/institutions throughout the State. In advance of the proposed State of New Jersey lead service line regulations, Veolia launched a comprehensive lead service line replacement (LSLR) program in 2019. Veolia sought assistance from H2M architects + engineers (H2M) as Construction Administrator and Construction Observer to support the regulatory compliance goals and ensure detailed records of field activity, including digital mapping in a GIS framework.

The initial scope of the 2021 LSLR program was characterized by the performance of dig-and-determine for1,900 services and the replacement of approximately 1,200 (lead and non-lead) lines within the Veolia Hackensack Public Water System Identification (PWSID), which has since been expanded to 4,600 dig and determines and 2,500 replacements.

The most challenging portion of compliance for Veolia and H2M was in the identification, cataloging, mapping,and replacement of lead service lines in systems. Service line inventories must result in the categorization of services as either: LSL, brass with suspected leaded gooseneck requiring replacement, galvanized requiring replacement, or non-lead.  Particularly vital to the success of this effort was the creation and maintenance of a set of standards intended to document compliance with the updated federal Lead and Copper Rule and ensure continuity of critical infrastructure data for future operations. To accomplish this, H2M utilized a novel, tablet-based data collection tool to document each crew’s daily activities and ensure immediate QA/QC access to the Veolia leadership team.

H2M’s work has ensured Veolia remains EPA compliant and ahead of the new requirements schedule.

 Hicksville Water District

Since 1996, H2M has supported the Hicksville Water District and as part of this work, a service line material inventory was created for the District utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Leveraging existing District data which exists in both hardcopy and digital format (tap cards, record replacement maps and date of construction records) and combining with field collected datasets, H2M continues to assist the District in meeting EPA Lead and Copper regulations. This also includes complying with public/private water system data standards established by New York State Department of Health.

ESRI’s ArcGIS Online provides an excellent framework to establish and serve easy-to-use map viewers that will allow residents to look up service material by either address or account number. H2M’s efforts support compliance with the regulation and increased transparency for the municipality.

Water distribution systems built before the 1950s often had distribution networks that were built with lead piping

Summary:

The team of GIS professionals maintain technical fluency in the constantly-changing
GIS industry software and practices including the ESRI and AutoCAD platforms.
Software flexibility and expertise in deploying need-based solutions ensures H2M’s clients have the information they need to continue to provide the highest level of service to our communities.  A more detailed description of H2M’s capabilities and geospatial work in the water systems industry can be found in this presentation.

In addition to applying and creating solutions for the water systems sector, H2M’s geospatial team also provides client services in the following areas:

  • BIM Integration
  • Community Planning
  • Data Conversion
  • Digitization of Records
  • Environmental Data Analysis
  • Geodatabase Design
  • Geospatial Analysis
  • GPS Data Collection
  • Hydraulic Modeling
  • Mobile Application Development
  • Municipal Asset Management
  • Online Mapping
  • Raster Analysis
  • Special District Mapping
  • Wetland Delineation

H2M is an ESRI Business Partner and was recognized with their ArcGIS Online Specialty designation for the continued deployment of successful online and mobile mapping solutions.

Contact:

Christopher M. Kobos, PMP
Director of GIS Services
H2M architects + engineers
538 Broad Hollow Road, 4th Floor East, Melville, NY 11747
tel 631.756.8000 x1731 | direct 631.392.5359 | mobile 516.946.9832 | fax 631.694.4122

Summer Reading: The Drones Are Amongst Us

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Transformation geospatial technology is emerging as a “must have” in government GIS programs

Last month Governor Kathy Hochul announced the completion of the Skydome facility at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, Oneida County. Located in a former airplane hangar, the indoor facility is the largest indoor drone test facility in the nation and a major investment in New York’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Test Site.  This investment adds to the already impressive UAS and high-tech ecosystem in the Empire State centered along the Syracuse-Rome corridor.  Its no news at this point that UAS are a transformation technology in the GIS and geospatial space with cutting-edge research and development going on right here in our backyard.  The Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) website provides a great example of this growing technology space which includes government, industry and academia.

The governor’s announcement made me go back looking for my notes on the Systems and Technologies for Remote Sensing Applications Through Unmanned Aerial Systems (STRATUS) 2022 Conference held May  23-25 at SUNY ESF which I wanted to participate in and attend, but the scheduling didn’t work out.   The 2022 show was the fifth STATUS conference which brought together more than 100 professionals from across the United States and Canada.  New York’s geospatial community, including those from a host of academic institutions and local and state governments, was well represented in the nine technical sessions which included both oral and poster presentations covering topics including mapping and surveying, agriculture and forestry, flood and water quality monitoring efforts, hardware and software, and flights and operations. Great homegrown UAS research work coming out of Cornell, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Binghamton, Hobart and William Smith College, and SUNY ESF.   One of the keynote speakers was Ken Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of NUAIR who I interviewed as part of a 10 Questions column last fall.  The STRATUS 2022 program guide, including abstracts and presentations can be found here. 

And for those coming out of college or those looking for a mid-career change – its a great job market.   If not a great job skill to augment any current geospatial position.    Commerical UAV News reports the top five drone pilot industry markets (in order) include:  mapping and modeling, thermal imaging, real estate photography and videography, inspections, and movies and television.  Another publication predicts that by the year 2025, at least 100,000 jobs will be created for drone pilots. (btw – while putting together this article, came across an update on New York State drone laws and regulations as of July 21, 2022).

Seemingly now present in every significant geospatial data collection effort at all levels of accuracy and need, drone usage will grow exponentially throughout government in the years ahead.  As governments continue to remain concerned over drone liability, privacy, and cybersecurity issues,  industry and consulting firms will continue to provide the bulk of drone and UAS operations.  This may change slowly over time, but the near future work will be supported largely by the non-government workforce.  One exception to this will be in the public safety arena where government staff will continue to be aggressively trained and licensed internally.   

In other areas it will be most likely specific drone consulting firms or engineering companies will step-in and provide drone/UAS services.  Many engineering companies have already  positioned themselves well in supporting government geospatial projects by building GIS capacity and offering a wide range of services skillsets – both on the desktop and in the field.  And drones are a perfect fit as part of their surveying and mapping consulting work particularly for smaller to mid-size governments with limited or no technical staff.      These same engineering firms now offering full service GIS programs including the managing of online products such as ArcGIS Online to data warehousing.  Particularly advantageous to local governments as datasets get larger and larger as the televising of infrastructure systems (sanitary, storm, potable water, etc), above ground 3D modeling, building information models (BIM), and high resolution imagery continue to be captured and developed in municipal governments.  Continued advancements by the major software companies such as ESRI and AutoCAD, and their business partners,  on the integration of drone generated data such as lidar only extends the ease of use and accessibility of drone/UAS technology for government organizations.

And with high accuracy mapping and surveying being one of the most common applications of drone/UAS use, particularly in context of the quality of imagery captured and increasingly larger geographic footprints of data being collected, might it lead to  the discussion as to how the emerging drone/UAS technology augments larger publicly – funded efforts such as the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP)?  While the 3DEP program covers much larger geographic areas and is plane-based, is there a way to add smaller project areas which are drone/UAS  based and meeting appropriate federal lidar specifications to public data warehouses and inventories such as the U.S. Federal Mapping Coordination website?  Expand the State elevation library to include locally collected data?  There is so much elevation data being collected across the state by so many sources.

Summary

Government GIS/geospatial practitioners will do well to follow and participate in technology specific conferences and associations such as those represented at STRATUS 2022.  Many of which are becoming more accessible by being available online.   Industry specific conferences in engineering, public works, public safety – even agriculture – now serve as an excellent source of specific applied geospatial technology tools.  And drone/UAS technology is a common thread among them all. 

Coming to a geospatial application close to you soon. 

10 Questions: Larry Spraker

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My guess the name Larry Spraker doesn’t need much of an introduction across the New York State and New England GIS landscape.   His work and contributions since the late 1980s to the geospatial community are many and have included efforts from academia, government, and for many years the private sector.  As well as a ton of volunteer work with GIS user groups and the like. It has been an privilege crossing paths with him in so many ways over the years.  

So depending on the time of day, I recommend grabbing your favorite beverage, pull up a chair and continue reading.  There’s a lot here.  And after you are done, close your eyes and envision Mr. Spraker in another time or comos. Or, as the immortal Rod Sterling would say on the Twilight Zone “Another Dimension”.  Under the bright lights, behind the desk, and waving his hands fevorishly.  Yup, that’s him in his new gig – performing his best Chris Berman “Swami Sez” imitation as he hosts the 6PM ESPN SportsCenter broadcast.

Enjoy.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Let’s start from the beginning.   The Albany-area boy goes to SUNY Albany for undergraduate and then on to Indiana State for graduate work.  How and when did geography become your educational and professional focus? 

Spraker:  I originally went to UAlbany as a Communications major with aspirations to be a sportswriter. After realizing that was a tough gig that didn’t pay particularly well (at least back in the early 80’s), someone recommended Computer Science. After a few courses, I really liked programming, but hated the high-end math courses such as Calculus and Differential Equations. A minor in Computer Science didn’t require the math courses, so I went to my advisor and asked “What would be a good major with a Computer Science minor?”. He listed a number of majors that included Physics, Math, and the last one he mentioned was Geography. I had already taken 6 credits in Geography as electives, so I asked for more details and somehow this guy had a fair bit of knowledge in this area and explained just enough of cartography, GIS and remote sensing to pique my interest. I registered for Intro to Cartography and Intro to Remote Sensing the next semester and fell in love with the both courses, and quickly found my new major. I focused primarily in Remote Sensing as an undergrad, and my professor, Floyd Henderson, really encouraged me to go graduate school. At the time Indiana State University was a leading remote sensing program, having the first remote terminals into the mainframe computers at Purdue which was the state of the art for image processing software. Floyd knew the professors at ISU, wrote me a recommendation and helped me get a Research Assistantship, so I packed up my car with everything I owned and drove to Terre Haute, Indiana for 2 years and finished my Masters. Although I focused a lot on Remote Sensing, I got exposed to a lot of GIS as well, and by the end of grad school had really got the GIS bug.

As an aside, after I graduated from ISU and came back to the Capital District, Floyd called me and asked me if I would teach his Intro to Remote Sensing and Aerial Photo Interpretation classes while he was away on sabbatical that year. So I returned to SUNY Albany as an adjunct professor and taught his classes that year. When Floyd returned, I stayed on as an adjunct faculty member and transitioned to developing and teaching several GIS courses. I really enjoyed working with the students and ended up teaching at SUNY Albany for 17 years.

Continue reading →

10 Questions: Christine Gayron, Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, PC

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Christine Gayron currently serves as President of Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, PC (GdB) based in Melville, New York.   The company provides a wide range of geospatial products and services for clients in the Empire State.  As part of eSpatiallyNewYork’s continued effort to reach out to the statewide geospatial professions, we were able to meet and have a conversation at the 2019 New York State Association of Licensed Surveyors (NYSAPLS) annual conference.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  GdB was created in 2010.  The company has made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time and adding a lot of new technologies along the way – GIS, drones, laser scanning, etc. – how is the company making it all happen?

Gayron:  I only hire people who are awesome. They are the ones who make it happen. I just bring in the work and create a company culture that makes the employees want to be the best at what we do. I have to credit my partner, Greg de Bruin, for constantly pushing the envelope, and insisting on investing in technology, and Jason Graf, my partner in charge of operations, for putting the technology in everyday use. Greg introduced GIS in the 90’s before I started my career. I actually think my contribution was my ability to run the business and bring work in, creating a revenue stream that would allow us to afford to make the investments. So I grew the company and oversaw things and generated profit, while the technology nerds in the company figured out how to customize software and put new technology into use.

eSpatiallyNewYork: Tell me a little bit about your education.   B.S. in Geology – how did you make the jump to surveying?

Gayron: I have a BA in Geology from CUNY Queens College and a minor in secondary education. I thought I was going to be an Earth Science teacher, but a month into student teaching, I realized teaching was not for me. I wasn’t sure what to do. My stepfather saw an ad in the paper for GIS Specialists at an engineering firm called A. James de Bruin & Sons, the predecessor firm to Gayron de Bruin.  It was in Bethpage, NY, the next town over from where I live. I had taken one class in GIS in college. The mapping aspect of geology interested me more than the rocks and minerals part, so I applied for an entry level position. I was hired to draft utilities and base maps for utility company conduit design drawings. Then I worked with one of the engineers on the conduit design. I designed hangers to support conduits underneath a couple of bridges over the Long Island Expressway (LIE).   I also designed horizontal directional drilling of conduit underneath the LIE. When the conduit design work dried up, I started doing more boundary surveying and control surveys for NYSDOT.  I used GIS to plan control networks.  At 23 years old, I was managing design survey projects. There was lots of opportunity at the small family owned firm and I was good at seeing what needed to get done. As I approached licensure in 2010, my boss, Greg de Bruin, and I decided to partner and form Gayron de Bruin.  It was time for Greg to start planning for retirement and I was the successor.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Early on, traditional surveying and engineering companies were a bit slow embracing GIS technology/software but today this intersection is complete.  GdB is part of the ESRI Partner Network and has ArcGIS Online Specialty Did GdB have ESRI capacity from the beginning?

Gayron:  We’ve always been an ESRI shop. We saw how ESRI had discounted licenses for schools and government and we knew that was key. As we are geospatial data collectors and data managers we push GIS as a data management tool to our clients.  We try to provide this to all of our clients. GIS is just one of the tools in the toolbox. It used to be a hard sell to get clients to use GIS, but ArcGIS Online (AGOL) has made that a lot easier because we can set up the GIS tools, bring the data in, and show them how to view, analyze, and manipulate it.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Are the new/younger generation of surveyors – and engineers – who are just getting into the work force have a broad enough understanding/experience with GIS software?

Gayron:  We hire a lot of people right out of college with GIS education. We find that they have a basic understanding of what it can do, but how we use it in surveying and engineering is usually new to them. Most of it is learned along the way. I think this is true of most industries – college gives a basic foundation and only scratches the surface. Getting into the workforce is where the detailed applications and user expertise is developed.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Speaking of data, what has GdB’s experience been in obtaining government data?  I see that elevation certificates and tax parcel data are key business components in your space.    What’s been your experience in getting this digital data across New York State?

Gayron: Orthoimagery has been very attainable and useful. Parcel data is useful for elevation certificates as you suggested. Tax map line work is valuable for getting an idea of what the parcel layout may look like, but it can be deceiving. We try not to use it on our drawings because we are licensed land surveyors and if we put a line on the drawing, it’s got to be in the right place. We love to see government offices scanning their maps and storing them in a GIS and making them available, but this is still rare.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Drone technology is becoming a geospatial game changer.  What’s the GdB read on this evolving technology?

Gayron: So drones are all the rave, but they are really just another cool option in the geospatial tool box – a glorified robot camera holder.   It’s really the software that connects drone flights to GPS and uses drone photography to create point clouds and 3D surface models that I find impressive. Like other tools such as LiDAR, it is the accurate and precise control that yields accurate 3D models. The software is key in reconciling the data with the ground control.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  This is impressive  – “GdB is ranked in POB Magazine as one of the top 100 Geospatial firms in the United States.”

POB magazine gathered data in 2015 and 2016 on revenue in the geospatial community. I’m attaching the articles so you can see how they used the data to rank firms. They stopped doing it after 2016, but I’m certain we would rank even higher on the list now!

eSpatiallyNewYork:  How does Honeoye Falls, New York fit into the GdB business plan? It’s a long way from your Long Island headquarters!

Honeoye Falls is just outside of Rochester. So we wanted to expand the company and it seemed we had the choice to expand geographically providing the same services or we could expand our range of services to include more civil engineering. We decided to stick with what we are good at and do it farther away. My partner, Jason Graf, LS, found New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) data available online. It listed NYSDOT projects by location and contract budget. He manipulated the data in GIS and created a heat map to see where NYSDOT was spending the most money. The New York City area glowed the brightest, of course. The next “glowiest” cities were Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. With Rochester in the middle of those three cities, it seemed like a place to look into. We had some contacts there and did our research. Within one year of starting to think about a Rochester office, we had the branch office open with 5 employees. 18 months later, we have 11 employees and they are all busy! Scott Smith, LS, the Branch Manager, is building an all-star team upstate. I truly believe that the bringing on the right people drives our success. As we grow, we are putting effort into making our operation more structured and efficient, but as stated above, we only hire people who are awesome, and I want them to feel appreciated for their ideas and contributions.

eSpatiallyNewYork:  What are some of GdB’s current larger or unique projects using geospatial technologies? 

Power companies are putting out very large corridor projects requiring surveying and mapping of several miles along a proposed power line route. I think these projects are coming about as new forms of energy generation are being developed. They need transmission lines to connect the new power plants, solar panel fields, and wind farms to traditional power grids. We also do large mapping projects for design of infrastructure in New York City. The city’s infrastructure is crumbling and needs upgrading. One of the first steps is mapping the existing conditions. These jobs are always a huge rush.

eSpatiallyNewYork: Considering all of GdB’s business – what is the breakdown between private and business clients? 

Most of our work is for government agencies. The breakdown is aboutt 80% government agency work, and 20% private clients.

eSpatiallyNewYork: Tell us about the online teaching you do through GeoLearn?

I met Joe Paiva, the founder of GeoLearn, before I got licensed because I took his review course when I prepped for the Licensed Land Surveyor test, and then I would see him at conferences a couple times per year. Joe is an excellent presenter. Joe knew that I was doing some presentations to professional organizations and he knew that my company was using GIS and other new technologies in Land Surveying – so he asked me to present courses on GIS for GeoLearn.  I prepared power point slides just like I would for a live presentation. I flew to GeoLearn’s studio in Kansas City to record them. It’s actually much easier to present this way, because you only have to present 10-15 minutes at a time to create the segments. Being in the studio was a very cool experience!

eSpatiallyNewYork:  Work aside, I understand you’re a triathlete and compete in many similar events.  What’s next on your calendar? 

Last year, I qualified for XTerra World Championship race in Maui. This is an off-road triathlon consisting of an ocean swim, mountain bike, and trail run. Unfortunately, I was injured a couple weeks before the race and didn’t go. This year, I am not signed up for any races, which is an interesting experiment, because I’m still training, but without the pressure of an upcoming race. So I know I’m doing it because I really love it. I usually wake up at 4:30am and train early in the morning. I’m done by 8am in time to get my kids off to school and get to work. I am married to a NY City Firefighter and we have three amazing children, who are very active. Right now, I’m ok with putting my racing career on hold to attend their lacrosse games, concerts, and cheer competitions.

Contact:

Christine Gayron, President
Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, PC
cgayron@gayrondebruin.com