[SatNews] ...offers mapping software, integration services, training and expertise at no charge and equipment rentals at significantly reduced rates to those involved in flood assessment and recovery.

The Compass family of geospatial companies has established Compass4Colorado, a collaborative effort to make high-tech GIS and mapping capabilities available at no or low cost to organizations involved in the recovery activities related to the devastating Colorado floods. Free flood-mapping webinars and workshops will be offered starting in October.

Compass4Colorado (www.Compass4Colorado.com) offers mapping software, integration services, training and expertise at no charge and equipment rentals at significantly reduced rates to public- and private-sector organizations engaged in flood assessment and recovery. The Compass4Colorado campaign will remain active through March 31, 2014, with support from four additional Colorado companies – Trimble Navigation of Westminster, Laser Technology of Centennial, DigitalGlobe of Longmont, GeoSpatial Experts of Thornton – and Esri of Redlands, Calif.

“Companies, utilities, and government agencies across Colorado and Nebraska are faced with assessing the full extent of flood damage as recovery begins,” said W. Brant Howard, Founder and Chairman of CompassTools. “We believe that geospatial technologies, especially mobile field data collection, can help this assessment phase proceed more quickly and accurately so the impacted communities can rebuild sooner.”

Before the flood waters had begun to recede, the Compass companies were taking urgent calls from local municipalities and utilities that needed to survey high-water lines, delineate inundation zones, and photo-map damaged assets. CompassTools found that many organizations requesting assistance with assessment activities had some in-house GPS or GIS capabilities, but they required software upgrades, equipment integration or personnel training to deploy them effectively.

“If a Colorado or Nebraska organization in the flood-affected areas doesn’t have GPS or GIS mapping capability, we will make sure they get it,” said Howard. “If they already have the technology, we’re going to make sure they can use it.”

The Compass family of companies, CompassTools, CompassCom and CompassData, are authorized distributors of products and services for Trimble, Laser Technology, DigitalGlobe, GeoSpatial Experts, and Silver Business Partners of Esri.

With support from these organizations, Compass4Colorado includes, but is not limited to, the following offerings at no charge:

• Webinar (October 7) and workshops (October 17/November 12) dedicated to field data collection techniques to support assessment and recovery efforts
• One-year subscription with configuration service for Trimble Terraflex mobile data collection software
• Configuration of TrimbleConnect for water/waste water inspection leveraging Esri ArcGIS Server
• Integration of Laser Technology laser rangefinders into GPS data collection workflow
• Integration of FEMA inspection workflow on mobile devices
• Esri ArcPad and ArcMobile configuration and support
• Three-month subscription to GeoSpatial Experts GeoJot+ photo-mapping application
• Ground control points to support CompassData processing of DigitalGlobe flood imagery

 

In addition, Compass4Colorado will offer reduced rates on the following:

• Trimble GPS and Laser Technology laser range finder equipment
• Field inspection and assessment services
• Precision orthorectified DigitalGlobe imagery

For a complete listing of all Compass4Colorado offerings and terms, please visit www.Compass4Colorado.com. Or call 303.627.1810 or 800.728.5066.

Other geospatial organizations interested in offering additional products or services to the Compass4Colorodo effort are encouraged to contact a representative at the above numbers.