Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
GIS has been available in its earliest form for the last 50 years. Until recently, the systems were utilized on few platforms due to a lack of standardization and high costs. The availability of new and free open-source GIS packages have allowed utilization by governments large and small, schools, utility companies, and critical infrastructure companies.
21 Design Group, Inc. has taken root in these markets and created over 25 GIS maps for municipal and private utility company clients with another 63 maps currently in development. Map operation is currently in six states; however, long-term expansion goals anticipate a presence in most Midwestern states. These maps are continually updated with new information provided by the client or via in-house data collection at the location. Through the use of programs such as Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D and ESRI ArcMap 10.6, we are able to push maps to the ESRI servers and allow access to the maps via ESRI ArcGIS Online website or ESRI Explorer on mobile devices for field use.
Each map typically falls into one of three categories upon our initial kickoff: data collection and creation, data conversion, or map maintenance. Depending on client scope, on-site data is obtained via Licensed Land Surveyor, and the new map is created. From there, the desired information is attached to each item, and the map is uploaded to the end user’s preferred viewer. In some cases, this information has already been collected, but must be converted to a GIS usable format with needed information added and the map uploaded. Finally, some clients already have the maps created and are in need of ongoing map maintenance. In each case, we treat every map and client with the same importance and attention.