Sometimes large projects require basemapping that the budget for conventional survey and mapping can't cover. Other projects receive approval as the full fury of winter arrives, setting back the survey schedule. Time or money constraints don't need to compromise your project's success. Performance-Based Mapping (PBM) may be the solution to your immediate basemapping needs.

PBM tailors project basemapping to performance specifications developed by the project team members. Once referred to as the "cut and paste method", new digital technology is making the task easier and more popular.

Depending on the accuracy and detail you need, it may be applicable on your project.

PBM is suitable when features being designed have less stringent design tolerances and require little or no relationship to vertical grade. Projects such as pressurized pipelines, communications conduit lines, master plans, and landscape plans don't always need high-accuracy basemapping. These projects may only require plans showing general topographical features and having accuracy within several feet.

Before the digital technology was available, engineers, architects, and landscape architects used many kinds of mapping, such as United States Geologic Survey maps, county planning maps, and highway record drawings, for these projects. Maps were cut and pasted on boards to create a clean map for copying onto mylar, but it was not very versatile due to different scale and rotational factors.

With digital cutting and pasting, it is now possible to scan, digitize, merge, warp, and plot new PBM. Digital mapping is infinitely more versatile than hard copy mapping. The scale can be manipulated, the orientation on the drawing can be rotated, and features can be turned on and off with the click of the mouse.

Conventional survey and mapping provides accurate results but requires significant financial commitment and weather that cooperates with your time schedule. PBM is a less expensive option. Weather is not a concern because it relies on other sources, such as existing maps and databases, including GIS.

It is true that these digital wizardry tools take time and resources. However, the investment is small when compared to the cost of conventional survey and mapping. Our data shows that it is definitely worth considering the options.

During 1999 and 2000, PBM was used on two municipal projects, saving taxpayers approximately $800,000.

For a new fiber-optic communications system with traffic monitoring TV cameras and variable message boards along a busy corridor in Monroe County, PBM was provided for 24 miles of expressway. Conventional survey and mapping for a corridor this long would have cost over $600,000. The resulting 2D PBM drawings cost the taxpayers less than $35,000.

When Monroe County DOT staff expressed interest in identifying and locating the components of their existing Traffic Signal Interconnect System, record drawings were scanned and key features digitized to create one countywide mapping file. Through the use of PBM, Monroe County met all of their goals for a fraction of the cost of conventional surveying and mapping.

For situations when PBM is appropriate, you can accomplish the goals of your project while achieving great savings.
If you are interested in Performance-Based Mapping for a project, or have further questions, contact Tim Gawenus at (585) 334-1310 or tgawenus@fisherassoc.com.