Professional Articles Article Archive
Cooper County Web Tool Displays Land-Parcel Data
Boonville Daily News
Internet surfers can check out aerial pictures of Cooper County locations using a new public Web tool, the county’s assessor said last week.
“The main reason we checked into this was that our old photos were flown in 1981,”Jim Lachner said of the new online geographic information system, available at coopercogis.com. The aerial photos now online were taken in February 2006, he said.
The public site is aimed at giving users limited information about county land parcels. A separate paid version of the site is available to businesses or private individuals for $120 a year, or to taxing entities such as schools or towns for $300 a year, Lachner said. Midland GIS worked to train staff at the assessor’s office and continues to provide technical support, said Matt Sorensen, the company’s vice president. The company has provided its mapping services to more than 30 counties and at least 20 municipalities in Missouri, he said.
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March 3, 2010
Arma, KS First City to Adopt KMEA's G-MAP
Kansas Municipal Energy Agency – POWER FACTOR
A city of 1,500 with 735 housing units, Arma decided to embark on the G-MAP beta test in August to address the virtually non-existent maps of their electrical system according to John Gorentz, Arma Director of Public Works and member of the G-MAP Committee.
"We had a pencil drawing of where some of the switches and three-phase wire went, but it hadn't been updated since probably the 1960s," John said. "In the case of a tornado or other emergency when someone would have to come in and help us, we would have nothing to give them to tell them where any power components had been."
Certainly all cities are feeling the pinch of the current economic downturn, but John said the benefits of G-MAP far outweighted the costs for Arma, who mapped the location of poles, transformes, pad-mount transformers, phasing switches, substations and critical points through G-MAP.
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January 19, 2010
GIS Mutual Aid Program (G-MAP) Becomes a Reality for KMEA Cities
Kansas Municipal Energy Agency – POWER FACTOR
Utilizing the services of Midland GIS Solutions, the Kansas Municipal Energy Agency (KMEA) has developed the G-MAP program which will create a uniform, Agency-wide Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. It will allow interested member cities to adopt the technology, at a significantly reduced cost, to better oversee their electrical systems. GIS is a technology Midland uses extensively to help local governments manage utilities, integrate hardware, manage software and data, and analyze and display geographically referenced information.
GIS technology can help cities in a variety of ways, according to Kirk Larson, Vice President of Operations for Midland GIS Solutions. "It provides accurate locations and good depictions, which help the city with asset management, capital planning and maintenance...plus, if the town has an emergency, they don’t have to rely on paper maps or the memory of staff members."
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January 4, 2010
GIS Put to Use in Local Cemeteries
Maryville Daily Forum
For almost a year the local firm of Midland Surveying Inc. has been working to record each of the cemetery’s more than 10,000 occupied, reserved and empty plots in order to create a computerized geographic information system (GIS) database and interactive map. City staff who access the map on their computer screens see outlines of each of the cemetery’s 10 additions filled with small rectangles representing individual plots, which are colored gray for open, pink of occupied and purple for reserved.
A couple more mouse clicks open up a text box containing information about individual grave sites, including the decedent’s date of birth, date of death, age at death and a legal description detailing the grave’s exact location. Push another button, and the screen displays a photo of the tombstone.
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October 26, 2009
KMEA G-MAP Project on Track to Enhance Mutual Aid Responses
Kansas Municipal Energy Agency – POWER FACTOR
Locating the components of the municipal electrical system is a critical first step in responding to any power emergency.
After severe events such as major tornadoes, transformers and power lines are often ripped up and transported significant distances. This can pose a serious challenge to rescue workers if component locations are not well-documented and easily accessible.
To address such situations, KMEA formed a committee in early 2009 to develop a comprehensive and uniform agency-wide GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping platform to enhance Mutual Aid responses. Guided by he 12-member committeeand in partnership with Midland GIS SolutionsKMEAs Mutual Aid GIS Mapping Program (G-MAP) is already making progress toward its goal of developing a mapping system available at group rates for any interested member city.
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September 24, 2009
Pictures of Power: GIS Project to Put Utilities on the Map
Kansas Municipal Energy Agency – POWER FACTOR
It was early evening when the twister struck. It had rained all day, but by dusk, the wind and rain subsided. Then it came, first the calm that was almost eerie, then the powerful winds, howling like a freight train. When residents emerged from their homes, they were confronted with a landscape they barely recognized. Trees were uprooted. Houses were picked up and deposited blocks away. Power poles and lines were jammed through buildings or tossed like little sticks into nearby fields. It was hard to even get your bearings; all the familiar landmarks had been destroyed or relocated.
If a scenario like this occurred in your town, how would you begin to locate components of your power system, assess the damage and put the pieces back together again? Printed diagrams? The first-hand knowledge of a veteran power supervisor? Maybe. But, lets say the diagrams had been destroyed in the storm, or the supervisor was injured or out of town. What then?
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September 24, 2009
Midland GIS Solutions Teams Up With Iowa’s Leading CAMA Provider
The Iowa State Association of Counties – March 2009
Midland GIS and Iowa’s leading CAMA provider, Vanguard Appraisals, Inc., have a working relationship to bring our valued clients the best in GIS and CAMA solutions. The most notable of these solutions is the development of Midland’s unique integration software, CAMAlink. Midland GIS Solutions’ CAMAlink application allows a county to interface their CAMAvision® software with their GIS program.
Solid Foundations
Professional Surveyor – July 2008
We often hear the old cliché defining GIS as “Get it Surveyed.” This actually stands true for two municipalities in Iowa, Scott County and Guthrie County, as they are currently developing GIS programs with surveying methods and research as the core foundation. Two related companies, Midland Surveying, Inc. and Midland GIS Solutions, are providing professional services to assist with constructing this foundation.
Timing, Technology, and Cooperation Combine to Create A Successful GIS
Missouri Municipal Review – June 2008
Timing can often be a critical component in the success of a municipal government program and this has certainly been the case with the city of St. Joseph, Misosuri’s (72,663 pop.), geographic information system (GIS) mapping program. Cooperation can also be a major factor. These elements came together to effect the history and the ultimate outcome of the City of St. Joseph’s mapping program.
GIS For Health Industry Mapping
Missouri County Record – Winter 2007
Throughout the initial years, Midland GIS Solutions has primarily been involved with assisting entities build foundational GIS programs and develop data in preparation for more advanced applications. As these organizations are becoming more familiar with GIS, and with the vast power inherent within these mapping programs, demand is increasing for broader applications. One of the foremost of these advanced applications involves the vast field of health care management.
A Geospatial Marriage
Point Of Beginning – October 2007
A land surveying company, a geographic information system (GIS) company and a title insurance company: Is there a more obvious marriage of business? John Teale, PLS, and Troy Hayes, PLS, don’t think so. They’ve been striving toward maintaining their status as premier providers of professional land surveying and GIS services in the Midwest since 1999. The marriage of these three businesses is serving Central U.S. residents well.
GIS the Survey Way
Professional Surveyor Magazine – June 2007
When a Midwest surveying and engineering firm expanded into GIS, it applied land survey methodology. Its experiences with a county and city prove it pays big dividends.
Land surveying has been around since the beginning of time. Geographic information systems (GIS), on the other hand, is a relatively new technology. The digital data contained within a GIS is quickly becoming a primary mapping and analysis instrument for wide ranging applications in business, government, education, and many other fields. Data contained within GIS mapping systems see myriad uses such as land assessment, land survey research, economic development, land planning, and development.