San Antonio, TX, November 20, 2009 - MAPPS (www.mapps.org) has recognized Merrick & Company as the winner of the association's third annual Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards competition for their "Levee Recertification Using Geospatial Technologies" project. The "Project of the Year" was awarded during a ceremony at the ASPRS/MAPPS Specialty Conference in San Antonio, TX. The project, utilized aerial LiDAR technology and an advanced hydrographic survey to generate valuable elevation data for the City of Wichita, Kansas.

"The Merrick team did not merely think in terms of what had been done in the past; they actively pursued new ideas and pushed the envelope with new technologies to provide deliverables that would continue to add value for the client long after the immediate project was completed," said Robert Burch PS, CP (Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan), chairman of the independent judges panel.

MAPPS awarded winners in five technical categories. They were Intermap Technologies for "Intermap Technologies Completes NEXTMap Europe" in Airborne and Satellite Data Acquisition; Photo Science "Spatial Data Interoperability at the Florida Department of Transportation" in GIS/IT; Kappa Mapping, Inc. "Color Infrared Imagery Makes Accurate Vernal Pool Mapping Possible in Bar Harbor, Maine" in Small Projects; Optech Technologies "New Product Introduction in Hardware: ALTM Orion" in Technology Innovation; and Merrick & Company in the Photogrammetry/Elevation Data Generation category.

"Once again, MAPPS member firms have demonstrated the professionalism, innovation, and societal benefit that the private geospatial community provides to enhance our quality of life," said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello. "Day in and day out, MAPPS member firms are providing quality services, data and technology products. The Excellence Awards are but one reminder of the valuable service our members perform. Merrick has once again been selected by our independent panel of judges for the Project of the Year. I am pleased to commend their achievement and that of all the firms that won, those who entered and those who serve their clients every day."

The judges for the program included Burtch; Dr. Pamela Lawhead, Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi; Dr. Adrian Moore, an economist at the Reason Foundation, Los Angeles, VA; Dennis Morgan, CP, retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, MO and Christine L. Grahl, editor for POB magazine and POBonline.com.

About MAPPS
Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. Current MAPPS memberships span the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. MAPPS provides its 170+ member firms opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement. For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.

Award Winners (Back Row): Bob Burtch, Judges' Chairman; Donald Carswell, Optech Incorporated; Doug Jacoby, Merrick & Company; Gary Florence, Photo Science (Front Row) Claire Kiedrowski, KAPPA Mapping, Inc.; Gary Outlaw, Merrick & Company; Garth Lawrence, Intermap Technologies, Inc.; John Palatiello, MAPPS Executive Director