Aerial Maps of Rural Community Gathered
Low-flying planes and crews painting nearly 2,000 yellow arrows on public streets can only mean one thing: St. Bernard Parish is becoming a high-tech government.
Public Works Director said the painting, which has been under way for several weeks, and the flyovers, which began recently, are part of an effort to compile accurate and complete aerial maps of the parish.Although the work is part of federally mandated improvements to the parish’s sewer collection system, the information ultimately will be part of a graphical information system, also known as GIS. It’s a system that electronically maps critical information about an area’s utilities and streets, such as location of underground water, sewer and drainage pipes — things that parish workers have had guess at in the past when trying to pinpoint a problem.”Most all the municipalities and counties are going to a GIS system because it’s easy to see and retrieve information (from) for planning, assessment, routing emergency vehicles and it has very good engineering applications,” he said. For instance, the computer will be able to track repairs and routine maintenance and help with scheduling such work.Eventually, “all of our subdivisions’ lot lines will be transferred on to there to show rights-of-ways and roads. There are a multitude of planning things, such as tracking zoning changes, buildings permits, coastal zone permits that can be included. You are taking information that is in a database and linking it to a picture,” he said. “It’s easier to see how things fit together when you can see this.”The parish recently signed a contract for about $270,000 with BFM Corp. for the flyover work and for the basemap, and BFM contracted with Gulf Coast Aerial for the flyover photography, Turner said. The end result will be a digital map that includes not only an outline of the sewer system, but also the location of levees, lakes, ponds, roadways, railroads, driveways, fences, utilities and habitable structures superimposed on the aerial photographs.Parish Chief Administrative Officer said the plane successfully photographed most of the heavily populated areas from Arabi to Poydras but probably will have to fly over the less populated areas next week because this week is expected to be cloudy.The computerized satellite footprint maps will help the parish comply with new EPA regulations that are expected to require utilities to know exactly how their sewage collection systems work so that sewage overflows can be reduced and planners will be able to better determine the impact of new subdivisions before they’re approved.There will be monitors and rain gauges, and they will be able to tell where the rainfall is getting into the system, then you will be able to determine where there is needed improvement and repairs, and you will be able to predict flows.For now though, the work is a small part of a $2 million-plus study of the sewer collection system.The director of planning for the Regional Planning Commission, said St. Bernard is in line with other parishes in its efforts. In this day and age, (it) has become almost a necessity to have information in an electronic form because GIS systems give you the capability to be more efficient in the way you handle the system and the way you can meet the needs of the public.
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