Engineering Blog

Latest Posts

The 3D Elevation Data Program is a Game-Changer

For decades, engineers have relied on a patchwork of data consisting of field surveys, orthographic photos, and other sources to piece together baseline topographic data for infrastructure design…

Try GeoSTORM Free

Browse All Posts

The Evolution of Civil Engineering

How BIM is Reshaping the Future Civil engineering, the backbone of infrastructure development and architectural innovation, is undergoing a monumental transformation. At the heart of this revolution is building information modeling (BIM). This innovation refers to a digital representation of a building’s characteristics, all contained within a single file, allowing for easy…

Read more

Hanging on Every Word

Photo By Kim Shiflett – KSC-20160408-PH_KLS0003_0047, Public Domain, Link Photo By Ben Stanfield – Link, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Photo By Los Angeles Air Force Base Space and Missile System Center – 171025-F-PP655-236, Public Domain, Link Successful business people of the past and present attain almost mythological status. Note the outpouring of…

Read more

A Coffee Bar and Other Perks

The workplace is changing, and signs of this change are everywhere. From companies with in-house bistros to Google’s dog-friendly spaces and Microsoft’s family benefits, the workplace is slowly evolving. Companies state that the underlying goal of these programs is to support employees, attract the best job candidates and foster work environments that…

Read more

The Lesser Known Engineer: Nikola Tesla

Public Domain, Link Over a century ago, a gifted man by the name of Nikola Tesla toiled away on his inventions in an upper flat of a derelict New York City apartment house until the early hours of the morning. In the afternoon when he took his daily walk, he would make…

Read more

How Do We Plan for the Next Flood?

We are at a crossroads. For several years now, we have been aware of the fast-declining state of our country’s roads, bridges and other elements of our country’s infrastructure. The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) issues a report every four years on the state of our nation’s infrastructure. According to ASCE,…

Read more

Keep the Beast out of the Bay

The massive volume of water that makes up the Great Lake ecosystem boggles the mind. Consider that the Lake Superior basin alone contains the largest quantity of freshwater found anywhere in the world. According to Dan Egan, author of the recently (2017) published and much acclaimed book, The Death and Life of…

Read more

A Sandbar in Frontier Chicago and the Canal that Shaped a City

How can a shoreline considered too wild to comfortably travel by foot or other means be transformed into a global hub for business and trade? Today, the Port of Chicago, with facilities at the mouth of the Calumet River (Iroquois Landing) and further inland at the junction of the Grand Calumet and…

Read more

Alexander von Humboldt and Building a Better Bridge

Photo By Joseph Karl Stieler, Public Domain, Link Today’s scientists, engineers and resource managers know that a project’s success depends on a variety of factors, including the analysis of several environmental parameters. We know that the natural systems we are analyzing are complex. We know that water temperature, flow velocity, substrate type…

Read more

Before LiDAR: Early Aerial Mapmaking

The first maps on record that took advantage of an aerial perspective were sketched from the deck of a hot air balloon under the auspices of the Civil War’s Union Army Balloon Corps. Aerial reconnaissance exercises took place regularly during the American Civil War and creating a rough map was strategically key.…

Read more