As civil engineers work to design, build, maintain, and improve infrastructure, geospatial data provides valuable insight into the physical world. With the right mix of data, civil engineers can digitally model real world scenarios and analyze infrastructure conditions to more effectively serve their clients’ objectives. 

For example, a civil engineering firm working with a state department of transportation (DOT) to improve the climate resilience of bridges can layer detailed road network, land cover, elevation, and historical weather data with 3D bridges to understand which infrastructure is most at risk during an extreme precipitation event, and develop sustainable enhancements based on that specific location’s conditions. Thanks to advancements in geospatial technology, all of this planning and analysis can be done without ever even visiting the bridges in question, meaning teams can save costly site visits for actual infrastructure work.

There are many different ways to harness the power of geospatial data to drive positive outcomes in civil engineering client engagements. In this blog, we’ll explore the most popular geospatial data resources for civil engineers, plus provide a couple real world examples of how this data is used for transportation planning, stormwater, and telecommunications permitting projects.

Top geospatial data resources for civil engineering

When sourcing geospatial data for a civil engineering project, it’s important to keep in mind three key criteria: completeness, accuracy, and freshness. Ensuring geospatial data is comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date means that projects will not be derailed by incorrect information, and that civil engineers can develop the optimal solutions for their clients based on actual conditions in the real world. 

With these criteria in mind, civil engineers can scope out the usability of different geospatial data types. From manually collecting data to accessing open source and third-party datasets, there are a few different ways civil engineers can approach geospatial data sourcing for a client project.

Manual data collection

Traditional geospatial data collection methods are manual, requiring civil engineers to physically survey a project site or digitize features from imagery. Manual data collection is helpful when there is a specific type of information needed that can only be recorded on-site, but is really only feasible across small areas. 

Many civil engineers eat up a large portion of their billable hours manually digitizing or surveying, leaving less time for the strategic analysis their clients really want to leverage the firm for. A best practice for civil engineers is to only manually collect the data that absolutely cannot be captured otherwise, and to look for every opportunity to source data from reputable providers. This helps civil engineering firms scale their client engagements, ultimately providing more value to their clients and growing their own revenue by opening up new capacity to take on more strategic projects.

Open source data

Luckily, there are many free or open source geospatial data resources available to civil engineers as they source the right datasets for their client projects. For example, many civil engineers leverage the openly available demographic data from the US Census Bureau to add important context into their analytics. Knowing which neighborhoods have a high density of people living with disabilities, for instance, is a critical input into a sidewalk accessibility and ADA or PROWAG compliance study. The government offers a wide variety of free data resources that civil engineers can leverage for geospatial analysis; NOAA recently launched a new open source 1-meter raster land cover dataset for all coastal communities in the US, providing crucial insights for infrastructure projects in those areas. 

While open source data from the government is a great place to start looking for geospatial data for civil engineering projects, a good rule of thumb is to make sure the data meets the completeness, accuracy, and freshness requirements of a particular project. Open source data is not always kept up-to-date, and can sometimes have gaps that could be detrimental to a client engagement. For some data types, it’s best to partner with a third-party provider to ensure you’re working with a digital source of truth for the physical world.

Third-party data

As geospatial data has become more commonly used across industries, civil engineers now have their choice of companies specializing in data creation to work with. From collecting satellite or aerial imagery to creating vector layers for analysis, there is an entire industry of geospatial data providers offering datasets for civil engineers to use in their client engagements. Unlike open source data, third-party datasets do come at a price, so it’s important for civil engineers to thoroughly evaluate a source and its methodology before purchasing it. If the data is not comprehensive, accurate, or up-to-date, it will not provide any leverage to a project, and could actually hurt the project outcomes.

Ecopia AI (Ecopia) is a third-party data provider who works closely with civil engineers, the public sector, and other geospatially-enabled organizations to create reliable and cost-effective datasets that accurately represent the real world. Our artificial intelligence (AI)-based mapping systems ingest geospatial imagery from our global partner network and extract high-precision vector features at scale, all with the human-level accuracy you’d expect from a trained GIS professional. Civil engineering firms work with Ecopia to extract standard and custom features for client engagements, spending valuable billable hours within their clients’ budgets on strategic analysis rather than manual digitization. With the scale and quality provided by Ecopia, civil engineering firms can ultimately take on more projects and deliver more value to their clients.

Geospatial project examples for civil engineering

Through our work with civil engineering firms around the world, we’ve seen a variety of use cases for geospatial data. In general, we tend to see geospatial information used for the following civil engineering projects: transportation planning, stormwater management, and telecommunications permitting. Here’s a quick breakdown of three projects we recently worked on to give you an idea of how AI-powered geospatial data can scale your own client engagements.

Transportation planning

Many civil engineering firms are hired by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), DOTs, and other government organizations to conduct mobility analysis and suggest infrastructure improvements based on the findings. Ecopia regularly works with civil engineers on these types of projects, leveraging our expertise serving both the public and private sectors to deliver high-quality mapping data that meets all necessary requirements. When it comes to mobility analysis and transportation planning, civil engineers often turn to Ecopia to efficiently digitize crosswalks and sidewalks, which provide a foundational layer for understanding where pedestrians can safely traverse through a community. Given how extensive sidewalk and crosswalk networks are across an entire municipality (or even state), plus the necessary detail that must be attributed to such data for it to be useful, traditional data creation methods are too resource-intensive to be feasible.

For example, Alta Planning + Design (Alta) enlisted the help of Ecopia for a mobility analysis study in Mt. Shasta, California. Layering Ecopia’s width-attributed sidewalk and categorized crosswalk layers with mobility and hazard data, Alta was able to evaluate traffic stress adjusted by network connectivity and conduct a zonal analysis to determine which locations were likely to be utilized for walking, biking, and electric micromobility. The data was also used to identify gaps in infrastructure which could lead to safety issues, and visualized in infographics to communicate these gaps to the general public and get their input into the mobility plan.

Learn more about Ecopia’s work with Alta Planning + Design here

Stormwater management

Civil engineering firms also work with municipalities on stormwater infrastructure, particularly the rollout of stormwater utility fees (SUFs) based on impervious land cover. These SUFs help fund ongoing stormwater infrastructure projects and enhance a community’s overall climate resilience. To best serve stormwater clients, civil engineers source or create land cover data that is then used to calculate the amount of impervious surface on each property and its contribution to runoff. Civil engineers also create flood models for municipalities to help them better predict and mitigate hazards in an extreme precipitation event. In both cases, Ecopia helps civil engineers rapidly produce high-precision land cover data from up-to-date geospatial imagery, greatly reducing the amount of effort required to manually digitize a planimetric-level detail map and opening up project hours for strategic consulting.

Ecopia recently worked with civil engineers at Jacobs as they helped the City of Peterborough develop an integrated flood model (IFM) for more resilient stormwater management. Using comprehensive land cover data from Ecopia, Jacobs was able to help Peterborough develop an IFM that incorporates all storm sewers, watercourses, and surface drainage across the entire city. With this information, city officials can accurately define overland flow, depths, and velocities for a range of stormwater events and ultimately mitigate future flood hazards.

Learn more about Ecopia’s work with Jacobs here

Telecommunications permitting

As communities expand telecommunications networks, they often engage a civil engineering firm to understand where the network should go and how current infrastructure may impact the network rollout. For instance, using 3D buildings, trees, and bridges is helpful to understand how taller infrastructure may impact signal strength, and mapping building density and population can highlight where connectivity gaps may be. Civil engineers are also brought in to help with the actual network rollout, which requires permitting from the municipality. For these projects, civil engineers typically use road marking map data to understand utility right-of-way and also know where to repaint markings after the construction work is complete. Ecopia works with civil engineers, local authorities, and telecommunications companies on these types of projects. 

For example, civil engineers work with Ecopia to efficiently digitize road markings and expedite construction permitting for telecommunications projects. With detailed and precise vector layers of paint stripings, civil engineering firms can not only fast-track their utility right-of-way analysis but also accurately repaint road markings once asphalt has been repoured after underground work.

Learn more about Ecopia’s work with civil engineering firms here

Scale client engagements with AI-based mapping

The use cases for geospatial data in civil engineering are essentially limitless, especially as more and more third-party providers produce data about infrastructure that civil engineers can use to successfully execute client engagements. Thanks to advancements in AI-based mapping, civil engineers no longer need to devote countless hours to manual digitization, and can instead focus their billable hours on in-depth analytics that truly achieve their clients’ end goals. 

To learn how you can leverage AI to scale your civil engineering client engagements, take on more business, and deliver more value to your customers, get in touch with our team.