Using Geospatial Data to Monitor Progress and Prevent Cost Overruns

Sometimes, unexpected issues extend project times. Monitoring project progress is essential for ensuring you're on track to deliver projects promptly and efficiently.

Geospatial data and tools can be used to track progress in real time and even detect issues before they occur to prevent costly overruns. You can share this data among teams and stakeholders to optimize resource use and for clearer communication.

Learn more about using geospatial data to monitor progress and improve timelines below.

Data Acquisition and Integration

Geospatial data includes location-based and descriptive data and comes from many sources, including:

Aerial photography
Satellite imagery
Architectural drawings
Land surveys
Meteorological data
Cell phone data
Utilities
Coordinates
Demographics
Traffic
Social media data

By combining these sources in one place, geospatial data can map these data points to provide a complete picture of your project. Instead of reviewing in siloed spreadsheets, geographic information systems (GIS) allow you to compare relevant information easily.

An example of geospatial data integration is building information modeling (BIM). Used in construction, BIM allows teams to visualize how their designs interact with physical geography while overlaying detailed information about building specifications or materials.

In other applications, such as city planning or infrastructure improvements, you can integrate geospatial data into digital twins of cities. These are virtual, accurate representations of reality that incorporate various datasets, from modes of transport to cell phone signals, to help make substantiated decisions.

Early Issue Detection

Geospatial data can help you predict obstacles you may encounter in your project, including:

Site boundaries: Using geospatial data can ensure a building or planning project is being carried out in the correct coordinates while observing neighboring boundaries. It also helps with discovering access restrictions for heavy equipment or supplies.
Supplies: Sensors and cameras can track materials in real time, ensuring a continuous flow of supplies without impeding construction. The right quantity can be restocked in the right place, cutting costs associated with overordering.
Safety hazards: Before workers enter the field, you can remotely survey an area to check for potential hazards. This protects people and machinery and can help prepare safer routes in tricky terrain.
Changing weather conditions: GIS can consider changes in weather conditions and how they'll affect project progress.

By predicting potential delays, you can proactively resolve issues to keep your project moving forward and prevent cost overruns.

Real-Time Progress Monitoring

Drones can provide updates on-site progress in real time. These unmanned solutions are highly customizable, and you can deploy them with high-resolution RCB cameras and premium LiDAR sensors.

The Internet of Things enables drones and their payloads to create a 3D representation of an object or area, called a point cloud. Every point has coordinates, so the model can accurately represent the real-time progress of your projects. It is also possible to create layers within point clouds to track progress compared to the original design to see how much work remains.

Mobilize Your Resources More Efficiently

GIS can track people and vehicles as they move, helping you monitor your vehicle fleets and crews. By bringing in other data, such as traffic and weather updates, you can mobilize your resources more efficiently and be more agile in the case of obstacles. Many logistics companies use GIS to assign their drivers the most optimal routes.

Cost Management and Optimization

At each stage of your project, geospatial data can help you stay on budget while making the best use of your resources. In the planning stage, GIS-based mapping and surveys can be carried out to account for any potential obstacles. This can help you create an accurate cost estimate for your project.

It also allows you to produce more accurate quantity takeoffs by comparing drawings and plans to digital models. You can order more precise quantities of materials, reducing waste. At the same time, you can assign the ideal number of team members, vehicles, and resources to your project, which all help to balance costs and make optimal progress.

In agriculture, GIS can help workers and stakeholders increase crop yields while reducing costs by optimizing the use of their land and resources. Satellite imagery, maps, and models can help make the best use of land.

GIS allows individuals to cross-reference topography and soil type surveys against typical climate conditions. Geospatial data also means farmers can monitor their crops in real time to target their efforts where they matter most.

Collaboration and Communication

Clear communication is key to improving a project's efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Team members and project stakeholders can access GIS systems to share transparency in a project's progress. Transparency can effectively motivate progress from all collaborating parties and allows you to quickly identify any areas where extra effort may be required.

GIS also allows for better collaboration, as you can share precise geospatial data with the relevant parties to help make better decisions. For example, in utility mapping, technicians can mark the locations of gas, water, and electricity facilities and any hazards using a GIS system. These utility maps allow other contractors to make informed decisions when approaching their work.

Using GIS to share data between multiple companies or departments working on the same project can help avoid data overlap. This saves time and resources and ensures a clear dataset from which to make decisions to progress a project. Additionally, all parties can develop new solutions and ideas based on their combined geospatial data.

You can also use geospatial data to create records. At the handover of a construction project, you can pass on the GIS data to the site owner for future maintenance or building projects.

GIS systems can use cloud technology to keep parties updated with developments as they happen. This allows you to share your project's data and deliverables digitally with your team and stakeholders. Storing geospatial data in the cloud means you can access it on or off-site, with all information in one place to allow for efficient collaboration across projects. The cloud also offers a secure space to store large amounts of geospatial data and can be scaled as needed.

Find Dependable Geospatial Products and Expertise at Duncan-Parnell

Using geospatial tools can help your project make efficient progress from the start, with digital models to prepare for obstacles and calculate optimal resource usage. This data helps you make more efficient, cost-effective decisions by having all the information you need in an accessible format.

To keep your projects moving forward, choose Duncan-Parnell. We offer the latest geospatial solutions from industry-leading brands such as Trimble and Spectra, from tripods and tribrachs to hydrographic surveying solutions.

When you partner with Duncan-Parnell, you can harness our knowledge base formed over 75 years of experience. Our specially trained team is ready to assist you with geospatial solutions for your business.