Award Winning Products & Service

Aerial Services' Commitment To Clients Shows With Awards

Aerial Services has been bestowed a number of nationally recognized awards and ratings for their outstanding products, services, and customer support.

USDA-FSA's Small Contractor of the Year Award For Aerial Photography & Processing

Aerial Services, Inc. was named the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) “Small Business Contractor of the Year” in 2006. Kirk Fisher, Vice President & CFO of Aerial Services, accepted the award in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2006. The USDA FSA’s Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO) nominated the company for its outstanding work in 2005.

Geoff Gabbott, Contracting Officer for the USDA FSA APFO, stated, “USDA is extremely satisfied with Aerial Services’ performance on the imagery contracts they have with APFO. They have always provided us with exceptional work in a timely manner, with the best customer service relationship.”

Aerial Services has completed numerous projects for the USDA. Since 2002, Aerial Services has acquired imagery of more than 42,500 primary sampling units (PSU). Aerial Services has worked with the USDA on NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) since its inception in 2001. In 2005 Aerial Services flew roughly 134,000 miles of photography in Iowa and Minnesota for NAIP and plans to fly approximately 265,000 miles of photography in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Oklahoma in 2006.

Aerial Services has been the prime contractor for this project since its inception in 2002. In 2006, Aerial Services was awarded the largest NAIP project to date (19,212 Quarter quadrangle image tiles [DOQQs]). To complete these annual projects Aerial Services assembles and manages an all-star team of fliers and ortho production providers to deliver the NAIP imagery to the USDA-FSA-APFO.

USDA-NRCS “Outstanding” Rating For Scanning & Georeferencing

Aerial Services traveled to seven South Dakota county offices with a high-resolution scanner and scanned approximately 3000 certified wetland designations. Travel and scanning on-site was required because the documents were of such high value and irreplaceable. These documents were aerial photo enlargements of various quality and all contained hand-scribed linework that had to be digitized after scanning.

The scanned imagery was then georeferenced to available mapping and orthophotography using a 4-5 point affine transformation. All lines and polygons were then digitized into ESRI ArcMap and delivered as countywide mosaics.

Aerial Services was awarded and “outstanding” rating on their performance of this project and was given two extensions to accomplish additional work in South Dakota (project is currently still in progress).

MAPPS Excellence Award For E-Docs Asset GIS

Nearly 30,000 historical land surveys, maps, infrastructure design drawings, land corner records, and other documents were stored at the Washington County Engineer’s office and filed in traditional filing cabinets, map drawers, and boxes. These documents were only available in the County office after trained personnel located them. Disorganization from many decades of use, along with new documentation being added to the files regularly, led to an unacceptable situation. A solution was required so all information could be archived, made easily available to County staff, and made accessible to the public in a geospatial context.

Aerial Services was responsible for consolidating existing paper and digital information residing within the Washington County Engineer’s office into a comprehensive, efficient, and cost-effective geographical information system based on the ESRI platform. This project included, but was not limited to, the GIS system’s design, document handling and scanning, data attribution and entry, and online interface implementation.

ASI also implemented several innovative and cost-effective measures for the County. Such thinking led to the concept of identifying the minimum data fields needed to design the GIS indexes and searches required. Then, compressed scans of historical documents, viewable to the user with a click of their mouse, removed the need for expensive data entry. Combining the scanning technology, compression techniques, and existing geospatial concepts made the project a success. Further, tools were included to make updates, accumulating assets, and asset documentation easy for County employees to include within the existing GIS framework.

This project was awarded national recognition in July 2007 by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) as the best “Small Project.”

Aerial Services' E-Docs Asset GIS won a MAPPS Geospatial Excellence Award in 2007.

External Links

USDA-FSA (usda.gov)

USDA-NRCS (usda.gov)

E-Docs Asset GIS Award

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