BEAVERCREEK FIRM MAKES TECH AVAILABLE TO HOUSTON
Beavercreek-based firm places before-and-after aerial imagery on web.
A Dayton-area engineering company is lending its distinctive imaging technology in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation.
Beavercreek-based Woolpert has collected, processed and delivered high-resolution, before-and-after aerial imagery within days of the disaster and made it available to the public at no cost.
These maps, found at woolpert.com/harvey, enable viewers to navigate and enhance specific sites across Houston, offering what is thought to be the highest-resolution data available within this time frame, Woolpert announced Tuesday.
“We’re not getting paid for this,” Woolpert Senior Vice President Shan said while working in Houston. “We’re not asking to get paid for it. It’s just a very helpful tool.”
“This is just something we do because we have this unique capability,” he added.
This imagery will let local, state and federal officials identify specific areas most in need of resources and allows anyone with Internet access the ability to check on neighborhoods, property damage, road closures, etc.
Imwalle said Woolpert was able to use similar images in South Carolina during flooding in Columbia in 2015. Where these kinds of images were helpful was in recovery, in helping direct where to put “boots on the ground,” he said.
But they also can clue homeowners in to areas of devastation — and the condition of their own homes.
“Anyone can log on to the site and type in the address of their house and a loved one’s house, too,” Imwalle said.
The images can help direct not only recovery planners, but can shed light on where to send insurance adjusters, Imwalle said.
“It’s prioritizing which bridge, which infrastructure you focus on, doing on your assessment first,” Imwalle said. “And obviously for anyone displaced — what does my house look like.”
The Woolpert website is expected to get “millions of hits,” Imwalle said.
Woolpert waited for the high-water mark to be reached in Houston on Friday, collected aerial imagery, flew the imagery back to its headquarters in Beavercreek processed that data, and shared the resulting maps immediately to its public website and application, the company said.
This 1-foot imagery was paired with comparable imagery collected in 2016, and installed in a beforeand-after online slider to easily identify dams, bridges, homes, workplaces, etc., affected by the disaster. Woolpert said it is conducting more aerial collections as weather allows to augment this imagery. These maps also will be adjusted manually over time to improve accuracy.
Woolpert also has made its staff available to the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the city of Houston Office of Emergency Management, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and other local, state and federal officials to further this effort.