Category Archives: Energy/Utilities
Cooperative Effort Takes Off
Tapping into UAS technology creates possibilities for a northern Arizona utility. Sometimes, the most effective, revelatory, progressive solutions to a problem can be found in the unlikeliest of places. Case in point: three and a half hours north of Phoenix in the city of Lakeside, Arizona, an electric cooperative that serves more than 33,000 member...
TheGeoDude on The UESI Conference
I’ve attended a lot of conferences over the years. They’ve primarily been either surveying-focused or technology- (GPS, laser scanning, reality capture, CAD) focused. The recent Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI) conference, held April 22 to 24 in Pomona, California, was my first conference with a strong mix of civil engineers and surveyors; a show...
Getting out Is a Good Thing
Field Notes Although I have been active in the surveying profession in several ways over the years, including serving as the editor of Field Notes, I really haven’t ventured out much to seek face-to-face encounters in various venues and settings, but that recently changed a bit and has produced a new perspective for me. In...
Open Source for Enterprise Solutions
A geospatial firm integrates open-source GIS and cloud services for the DoD’s IT security, a giant energy co-op managing 2,500 miles of transmission lines, and the USACE as they monitor dredging vessels. Too often, clients maintain outdated and inefficient workflows because they fear that building applications to improve processes would be too time-consuming and expensive....
Powerline Inspection
Drone? Ground? Helicopter? For years now drones, UAVs, UASs or whatever you wish to call them have been the revolution that promises to change the way we live. Five+ years into the drone revolution we are seeing some change—but it has certainly been a slower progression than expected. Linewise Aerial specializes in transmission line inspection...
Night in the Afternoon: A US Solar Eclipse
What you need to know about the 2017 solar eclipse The upcoming solar eclipse will leave a 70-mile-wide trail of darkness across the United States on August 21, 2017 (see the map of the eclipse path on pages 44-45). This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many people. While another total solar eclipse will make...