Environmental: Achieving Responsible Solutions

GIS Integration

As part the services we provide to our clients, LAI integrates GIS applications into our projects. A Geographical Information System (GIS) is a combination of mapping capabilities and database management which our staff uses as a tool to query, analyze, and map data in support of the decision making process.

By maintaining an up-to-date GIS data library for much of central and northern Minnesota, we are able to pull up detailed maps and imagery about a potential project before going out in the field.

A key layer in our GIS is the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), which gives us an indication of potential wetlands on a site, allowing us to more accurately estimate our effort on your job and improve our efficiency in the field. Other GIS layers we use include:

2003 Color Aerial Photography
USGS 1:24,000 Scale
Topographic Data
Lakes, Rivers
Cities, Townships
NWI Wetlands
Public Waters Inventory
Parks, Trails, Forests
Roads, Streets, Highways