News and Events

Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

Disaster response and resilience

A recent survey revealed that many people believe that natural disasters are more frequent and severe than in the past. It turns out that this observation is backed up by facts. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the frequency of natural disasters is increasing year-over-year. There were 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 22 in 2020, tallying a price tag of at least $92.9 billion.

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Kari Campbell Kari Campbell

Key Trends in 2024

The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” is well underway. Back in 2011, economist Klaus Schwab coined the term to refer to the rapid digitization and accessibility of technologies that spark a global shift in processes – in everything from how we communicate to how businesses and governments are managed.

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Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

It’s National 811 Day

811 Day was created to bring attention to a significant but unfamiliar issue – the high cost and safety impacts of underground utility strikes.

Quantifying the cost and safety impacts of utility strikes is difficult. A compilation of various studies estimates that the direct cost of each strike is $4,000 -- but that doesn’t take into consideration the cost to repair and restore the damage. Taken together, the cost of the strike plus the cost of restoration, the total is 29 times the cost of the direct damage itself.

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Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

RFID + GIS = SUE Enhancement

Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) that leverages Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) deliver substantial benefits in the management and protection of underground assets.

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Kari Campbell Kari Campbell

RFID - technology that keeps on giving

We’ve all heard of RFID, a technology that’s been around since the 1930s. Did you know that it’s now one of the fastest-growing technologies in the world?

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Kari Campbell Kari Campbell

Marking and Mapping - Two-factor Verification for Underground Locating

It’s spring and construction is booming . . . hopefully with fewer actual “booms”, caused by utility strikes. Safe digging is something that’s near and dear to surveyors and any profession that involves excavation. As I mentioned in my last blog, preventable utility strikes cost at least $60 billion annually, not to mention the loss of life and life-altering injuries that can occur.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

It’s National Engineers Week!

Most engineers would argue that it’s always engineers week, but this week is the “official” week to highlight the stunning array of engineering accomplishments and types of engineering that make our lives easier in every way.

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Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

Blossoming Blooms

Harmful algae blooms (HABs) are occurring more and more frequently in lakes, rivers, streams and coastal areas across the United States. Further, HABs are occurring where they were never found in the past. View a map from the Natural Resources Defense Council that tracks HABs across the United States.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

Today is GIS Day!

Most people don’t really think about how geographic information provides the framework for our entire existence. We exist as living organisms in time and space. Our minds may be occupied with far-way thoughts, but our memories are inextricably tied to the place where they were created. As long as we live and breathe, we always have a location. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Surveyors say, “To be is to occupy a position relative to two axes.”

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

It's World Creativity and Innovation Day

The United Nations passed a resolution creating this day to celebrate the creative economy, which actually makes a lot of sense, considering the entire world is just beginning to come out of a pandemic that really forced us all to get creative just to do our jobs.

Fortunately, surveyors have made creativity a way of life. It seems like we have a pretty straightforward job – use our tools to verify property lines, monitor structures for movement over time, lay out the lines for construction, etc.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

GIS Day is November 18

Little did I know that dusty old geography would become the one of the most interesting (and explosively-growing) fields in science. Today Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is shaking up the world of geography – and statistics, data analysis, spatial data, modeling, geostatistics, cartography, data integration, GPS – and on and on.­

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