Sanilac County Residents will be experiencing multiple twin engine planes flying low, in a joint effort between the USDA, NRCS, and USGS to collect LiDAR information. LiDAR stands for “Light Detection and Ranging” and works very similar to the sonar pulses that a bat uses to fly! This technology will offer Sanilac County an extremely accurate Geological Map which will be very useful for your Drain Office, Road Commission, FEMA, and the Economic Development Commission.
Sanilac County residents will also be able to access this info for farm tiling, building permits, Homestead planning, Parks and Recreation planning, as this map layer will be added to the rapidly developing GIS Mapping system, offered at no cost to personal users.
Residents can experience the new GIS Map at: www.sanilaccounty.net
These planes will be flying many north/south and east/west grids at an elevation between 5-7 thousand feet, throughout the day AND evening hours and will begin as soon as the snow melts and flooding decreases, but MUST be complete before the leaves come out.
This multi departmental joint effort has already saved local taxpayers over $250,000 and will benefit future projects in the millions of dollars, in upcoming engineering related costs.
