HamiltonCountyIN_RFP_2027_Orthoimagery.pdf

RFP for Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project Page 1 of 22

Request for Proposals for Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project

Since the 1990’s, Hamilton County has been a leader in the State of Indiana (and across the nation) in designing, developing, distributing, and maintaining high-accuracy and high-detailed digital Geographic Information System (GIS) data layers to serve our county agencies, city partners across the county, and our citizens. This RFP for the Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project will provide the county with a fresh update on its orthoimagery data.

Contents Part 1: RFP Purpose

Part 2: Project Overview

Part 3: Proposal Instructions

Project Schedule

Part 4: Selection Criteria

Part 5: Proposal Format

Part 6: Proposal Components

Part 7: Specifications

Hamilton County GeoHUB

Project Plan Development

Surveying and Photogrammetric Equipment and Software Used

New Aerial Imagery for Orthoimagery Mapping

New Digital Orthoimagery

Part 8: Summary of Deliverables

Project Data for All Required Datasets:

Technical Support Data for All Required Datasets:

Part 9: Quality Control / Quality Assurance (QA/QC) of All Deliverables

Attachment A: Fee Proposal Form

Attachment B: Existing Survey Control Points

Attachment C: Project Tile, Boundary, and Reference Geospatial Data

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Part 1: RFP Purpose The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to receive proposals for Hamilton County to select a Contractor or Contractors with proven expertise in modern geospatial data acquisition, processing, and delivery capabilities to provide the following professional services for the Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project.

This RFP does not constitute a contract for services performed or to be performed. The 2027 project includes the following key components:

Digital Aerial Photography (NADIR): Acquire new four-band nadir digital aerial photography and associated data products.

Digital Orthoimagery: Develop new high-resolution natural color (3-inch pixel) four-band digital orthoimagery data products.

Preliminary Unrectified, Georeferenced Images (NADIR): Deliver preliminary raw unrectified images in uncompressed GeoTIFF format delivered within two weeks of acquisition of the aerial imagery.

Ground Control: Hamilton County has established over 200 horizontal and vertical ground control points, (see Attachment B: Existing Survey Control Points).

Aerial Triangulation: Use new aerial triangulation (AT) techniques to extend and densify ground control for the production of digital orthoimagery for 1”=50’ scale mapping.

Respondents to this RFP must address the acquisition, processing, and delivery of all required datasets to Hamilton County in calendar year 2027 (see Project Schedule in Part 3).

All proposals submitted become the property of Hamilton County and will not be returned. Additionally, all questions, responses, and price proposals will be made public. The County is not responsible for any costs incurred by the Respondent in proposal preparation, presentations, site visits, samples provided, or benchmarks performed.

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Part 2: Project Overview

About Hamilton County, Indiana Hamilton County, Indiana is in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Statistical Area and recorded a population of 347,467 in the 2020 Census. Ranked third as one of the fastest growing counties in Indiana, the county has seen an increase in its population 24 out of 25 years since 2000. Residential and commercial development have replaced many farm fields in the southern part of the county, with the northern part today remaining agricultural. Hamilton County also ranks among the top three counties in Indiana in terms of key indicators such as local investment in infrastructure, public-private economic development partnerships, business-friendly permitting and planning, and workforce quality, making it an attractive destination for businesses and residents alike.

Hamilton County is also home to four of the top 20 largest cities in Indiana: Carmel (5th), Fishers (6th), Noblesville (10th), and Westfield (15th). These four cities partner with the Hamilton County GIS to support the development of the countywide orthoimagery, elevation, and planimetric basemapping efforts, while each city also develops and maintains their own robust GIS with many additional data layers.

About Hamilton County GIS Since the early 1980’s, Hamilton County has contracted for the annual development of and updates to high-accuracy and detailed countywide aerial photography and digital orthoimagery. By proactively adopting the latest advances in both computing and mapping sciences, the county’s mapping efforts have led the evolution from printed basemaps to today’s 100 percent digital Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data all publicly available on the Hamilton County GeoHUB site -https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/.

Historic Orthoimagery Data: Advancements in the county’s orthoimagery program has led this evolution. Prior to 1996, the Hamilton County Surveyor’s Office scanned and georeferenced photography to generate the approximately 5-foot pixel imagery.

By 1996, the county acquired its first 1-foot pixel orthophotography, based on panchromatic aerial photography for all the county townships, minus Noblesville Township. The next year, 6-inch pixel imagery was acquired for Noblesville Township only.

In 2005, the Hamilton County GIS Office acquired countywide leaf-off digital orthophotography as part of the State of Indiana’s first statewide orthophotography program. Since then, the county contracts for new orthoimagery every year, and has advanced from collecting countywide 1-foot pixel imagery in 1996, to countywide 6-inch pixel imagery in 1998, to now collecting countywide 3-inch pixel 4-band orthoimagery starting in 2017.

Additionally, every four or five years the county contracts to update its elevation and planimetric basemap GIS layers.

Information about the Hamilton County Imagery Program can be found on the Hamilton County Imagery Hub website: https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/pages/imagery-hub.

https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/ https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/pages/imagery-hub

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Historic Elevation Data: In 2016 the County was one the first of three counties in Indiana to adopt the new USGS 3DEP standard and collaborated with the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) to successfully contribute the county’s first countywide QL2 (2 ppm) Lidar data products into the USGS 3DEP program through the USGS Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) program, in 2019 Hamilton County collected countywide 3DEP QL2 Lidar, and in 2024 the County collected countywide 3DEP QL1 Lidar at 27 ppsm. The 2024 project included Hamilton County’s participation in the FY25 and FY26 USGS 3DNTM geospatial data program’s “3DNTM Data Collaboration Announcement (DCA)” to share the county’s new QL1 3DEP Elevation data in FY25 and new 3DHP Elevation-Derived Hydrography (EDH) data in FY26.

Historic Planimetric Data: Over the years with the development of higher resolution digital orthoimagery, digitizing detailed planimetric vector map layers in the county was reduced significantly as end-users began to rely on high-resolution orthoimagery as a replacement for the traditional 3D/2D digitized vector basemap layers. By 2019, only 2D road edge-of-pavement, building footprints, surface hydrography features, and 3D 1-foot vector contour and spot elevation layers were being mapped and updated, with the end-users relying on the 6-inch pixel orthoimagery to identify other planimetric features.

New Innovative AI/Machine Learning Land Cover Features: In 2024 Hamilton County introduced an innovative AI/Machine Learning approach to replace its traditional planimetric basemap data. Using the County’s new high-resolution orthoimagery and Lidar data, automated feature-extraction techniques were used by Ecopia AI to develop detailed, countywide land-cover vector datasets. The resulting layers included building footprints, tree canopy, roads, driveways, parking areas, sidewalks, open water, forest/shrub areas, grass, and agricultural land. These new GIS layers provided end-users with consistently mapped, readily usable vector polygon features to directly support geospatial analysis, while retaining the high-resolution orthoimagery as the primary visual basemap.

Historic Hydrography Data: In 2019 the 2016 hydrography feature layers were updated in 2D using traditional photogrammetric map compilation. Separately, drainage features identified as Legal Drains have been mapped and attributed in separate GIS layers by the Hamilton County Surveyor’s Office to support County regulatory requirements. Additionally, the cities have integrated selected 2019 surface hydrography features into their community’s storm sewer utility network GIS layers.

New Innovative 3D Hydrography Data: In 2024, Hamilton County significantly advanced its hydrography mapping by developing a new elevation-derived, three-dimensional hydrography dataset using the County’s high-resolution QL1 Lidar and hydro-conditioned terrain data. Unlike the previous 2D photogrammetrically compiled hydrography, the new data were developed as an interconnected 3D surface-water network aligned with the underlying terrain and designed to support the U.S.

Geological Survey (USGS) 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP). The dataset includes rivers, creeks, streams, canals, ditches and drainageways; lakes, reservoirs and ponds; mapped wetland/swamp-marsh features; and important hydrographic connectivity features such as culverts, crossings, dams and spillways. The work also incorporated the County’s Legal Drain information to provide a more complete hydrologic framework for drainage analysis, stormwater management, watershed delineation, engineering, regulatory activities, and future integration with the national 3DHP.

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Details of all 2027 required data collection efforts in this RFP can be found in Part 7: Specifications.

Project Area Hamilton County is approximately 20 miles by 20 miles for a total of 402.11 square miles, (See the red line in Figure 1). The basemap layer has a specific mapping area limit defined. The data is available in Attachment C and is described below.

Orthoimagery Mapping Limits: The new orthoimagery must include full delivery tiles/files for the complete delivery area. This delivery area includes all of Hamilton County plus approximately a 3,000’ to 6,000’ buffer outside the county boundary to fill all of the county’s 8,648 1,250’ x 1,250’ Ortho tiles, for a total area of approximately 22 x 22 miles, or 484.694 square miles. (See the Gray tiles in Figure 1 and the closeup view in Figure 2. Additionally, see Figure C-1 in Attachment C for more information.

Figure 1: Hamilton County Boundary

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Figure 2: Southwest corner of Hamilton County showing full 2-tile (2,500’) buffer on the south, and full 4-tile (5,000’) buffer on the West, North, and East

Terms Used: Specific terms or phrases used in this RFP are defined as follows:

County: Hamilton County, Indiana.

Contractor: The company that is hired by Hamilton County to provide the services requested in this RFP. To provide additional context and clarity, the terms Contractor and Respondent are used interchangeably in this RFP. The Contractor is also referred to as the Prime Contractor to clarify when Subcontractors are also part of a Project Team.

Contractor or Contractors: Hamilton County reserves the right to select one or more Contractors to perform specific portions of the work specified in the scope of work in this RFP. If Hamilton County selects more than one Contractor, individual agreements will be negotiated and signed with each Contractor.

Subcontractor: A Subcontractor is a company that is a part of the Project Team and is hired by the Contractor and is identified in their RFP response to perform a specific portion of the work specified under the scope of work of the RFP.

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Project Team: Refer to the Contractor and all its project staff members, plus all Subcontractor project staff members.

Respondent: The company responding to this RFP. Although Subcontractors can and should contribute information to an RFP response, the Respondent to this RFP must be the Prime Contractor.

Required Layers: Required Layers are those geospatial data layers that Respondents must include in their RFP response to the Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project.

Part 3: Proposal Instructions Registration: To acknowledge your intent to submit a proposal; and to receive addenda, answers to information requests, and other important communications regarding this RFP, it is imperative you register your interest in this RFP by visiting the Hamilton County Bid Opportunities and Solicitation website: Bid Opportunities and Solicitation | Hamilton County, IN and creating an account.

The Bid Opportunities and Solicitation website includes instructions and links to the registration process.

Submission Instructions: Submit the complete proposal to the eProcurement site via the link below:

https://www.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/2130/Bid-Opportunities-and-Solicitation

Emailed or faxed proposals will not be considered.

The original proposal must be signed by a person who is authorized to sign contracts for the Respondent.

Deadline: Proposals must be submitted to the Hamilton County eProcurement site no later than the Proposal Due Date shown in the Project Schedule on the next page.

Sample products must also be received or submitted to the eProcurement site by the Proposal Due Date shown in the Project Schedule. The eProcurement site does not accept ZIP files and the file size limit for the eProcurement site is less than 1 GB.

Proposals and sample products received after the deadline may not be accepted.

To submit sample product files larger than 1 GB, mail a flash drive to this address:

Joan Keene Hamilton County GIS Director One Hamilton County Square

Noblesville, IN 46060

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Project Schedule The County has established the following schedule for RFP release, proposal submission, proposal review, Contractor or Contractors selection, project initiation, and the project data product deliveries:

RFP Release Date (County) August 31, 2026 RFP Registration Deadline (Contractor) September 8, 2026 RFP Question & Answer Deadline (Contractor) September 15, 2026 RFP Response to Questions & Answers (County) September 22, 2026 RFP Proposal Due Date (Contractor) October 8, 2026 RFP Proposals Opened at County Commissioner Meeting (County) October 8, 2026 RFP Optional Shortlist & Oral Presentations (Both) October 30, 2026* RFP Contractor Selection at Co. Commissioner Meeting (County) November 23, 2026 RFP Contractor Selection Announcement (County) November 23, 2026 Project NTP (Contract Negotiations and Signing Complete) (Both) December 18, 2026 Project Kickoff Meeting and Draft Project Plan Discussed (Both) January 15, 2027 Project Plan Finalization (Both) February 12, 2027 Project Ortho Data Acquisition (Leaf-off) (Contractor) February (Mid) – April 2027 Project Data Layer Delivery Dates (See Below) (Contractor) May 1, 2027 through November 1, 2027

Preliminary Image Service and Unrectified Images May 1, 2027 Pilot delivery for Required Products June 1, 2027 through October 15, 2027** Orthoimagery Products July 1, 2027

Complete the 2027 Ortho Project December 30, 2027

Respondents must acknowledge this Project Schedule in their RFP proposal response, as well as provide any feedback or recommended changes to this schedule.

* Hamilton County, at its discretion, may identify an optional shortlist of Respondents from all RFPs submitted and invite selected Respondents to make a virtual oral presentation [e.g.

Microsoft Teams] to the County to discuss their RFP proposal in more detail. All costs incurred by the Respondent’s Project Team in the presentations or site visits are the responsibility of the Respondent. After any such presentation, visit or demonstration, proposals may be evaluated again.

** Pilot data deliveries are required for all Required data products contracted for. Pilot data deliveries are expected [and should be scheduled] to be delivered 30 days prior to the full product delivery dates shown in the Project Schedule above.

Proposal Acceptance and Rejection The County reserves the right to accept any proposal, to reject any or all proposals, to waive irregularities or informalities in any proposal and to make the award in any manner deemed in the best interest of the County. This includes dividing portions of the work between two or more Contractors.

Questions: If you have any questions about this RFP or the proposal procedures, submit them to the Hamilton County eProcurement site by the RFQ Questions & Answers Deadline indicated in the Project Schedule. Requests received after this deadline may not be considered. All requests received by the deadline will be answered by the County via the eProcurement site to all registered recipients of this RFP. The requestor is responsible for notifying the County of any problem in receiving replies.

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Single Point of Contact: Responders should contact Joan Keene and no one else. Disregarding this directive may disqualify the responder from further consideration.

Part 4: Selection Criteria

The following criteria will be used to evaluate proposals. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, nor is the arrangement of the criteria meant to imply order of importance in the selection process.

Compliance with RFP Instructions: The proposals will be evaluated for general compliance with instructions issued in the RFP. Noncompliance with significant instructions may be grounds for proposal disqualification.

Technical Expertise: The proposal will be evaluated on the Project Team’s demonstrated technical suitability for performing the project services.

Technical Approach: The proposals will be evaluated on the technical approach to the project. The County will consider the following items in its evaluation:

• Altitude, sensor, and method of photo acquisition

• Number of flight lines and forward overlap, and sidelap percentages

• Number, location, and type of ground control points

• Ortho-mosaicking process methods including generation and location of seamlines

• Other relevant components

Sensors: The County requires the Project Team to use digital sensors for all parts of this project data acquisition (nadir aerial imagery).

Quality Control: The proposal will be evaluated based on the apparent effectiveness of the Project Team’s proposed quality control program. Attention will be paid to the process for finding and correcting obvious errors prior to final delivery.

Professional Registration: The proposals will be evaluated for professional registration. The Project Team must include an ASPRS-recognized Certified Photogrammetrist and a Professional Land Surveyor licensed to practice in Indiana. Sufficient supervisory staff for the Project Team must be located in the office[s] where the work will be done.

Indiana Registration: For Indiana based companies, the Contractor or Contractors must provide the County with a copy of valid business registration and copies of any licenses required to perform this work in Indiana from the Indiana Secretary of State Office. For all non-Indiana based companies, the Contractor or Contractors must provide the County with a valid Certificate of Authority to transact business in Indiana from the Indiana Secretary of State Office. For more information see https://www.in.gov/sos/business/.

https://www.in.gov/sos/business/

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Subcontracting: Other than the Subcontracting companies and their roles and responsibilities already defined in the Contractor’s response to this RFP, no portion of the work awarded under this contract shall be assigned to a new Subcontractor except with the prior written consent of Hamilton County.

Consent to assign any portion of the work awarded under this contract shall also not be construed to relieve the Contractor and its Subcontractors (Project Team) of any responsibility for the fulfillment of this contract.

Non-US Labor: It is the County’s preference to have all work performed within the United States, but this is not a pre-requisite. The Contractor may propose to perform certain components of this project work outside the United States using their own staff or Subcontractors if it is shown to benefit the County.

Firm Background: The proposal will be evaluated based on the Respondent’s background, including the number of years in business, size, and financial stability.

Staff Qualifications: The proposal will be evaluated based on the Project Team’s demonstrated staff qualifications, including the required professional registrations.

Local Project Experience: The County prefers to select a Contractor that can demonstrate successful project experience in the State of Indiana or at a minimum within the Midwest region.

Similar Project Experience: The proposal will be evaluated based on project experience that is of a similar technical nature and complexity, for clients that are similar in size, location, and type as Hamilton County. Specific attention will be paid to Orthoimagery acquisition experience.

Schedule and Availability: The Respondent’s projected schedule and resource availability will be evaluated in the choice of a Contractor, although the County understands that the actual beginning and completion dates are subject to the Notice to Proceed (NTP).

Sample Data Products: The sample digital orthoimagery products will be an important factor in demonstrating evaluating the contractor’s ability to meet the requirements of the County’s specification.

Fees: The Respondent’s fees (See Attachment A) will be considered in the choice of the Contractor.

Part 5: Proposal Format

All proposals must follow the same format. No exceptions to this format will be accepted. To be accepted for evaluation, the proposal format must address all required components in order. The aim of the required format is to simplify the proposal preparation and evaluation process, and to ensure that all proposals receive the same orderly review.

All proposals must include all the components identified in Part 6 below.

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Part 6: Proposal Components

• Cover Letter: Provide a one page cover letter. Include the original signed cover letter with the original proposal and a copy of the cover letter with each copy of the proposal.

The cover letter should provide the following:

• A brief statement of the Respondent’s understanding of the project

• The name, title, phone number, email address, and street address of the person in the proposer’s organization who will respond to questions about the proposal

• Highlights of the Project Team’s qualifications and ability to perform the project services

• Section 1: Company Overview: Provide the following information about your firm:

• The firm’s name, business address, and phone number

The year the firm was established

Former names of the firm, if applicable

The type of ownership and parent company, if applicable

The location of the office or offices that would provide the project services

A brief statement of the firm’s background, demonstrating longevity and financial stability

• Section 2: Project Services: In this section, which is intended to be the heart of the proposal, describe the methods, sensor(s), hardware, and software you intend to use to perform the project services described in Part 7 of this RFP, and your expertise with them. Include information about your quality control program.

• Section 3: Project Team: Start the section by introducing the designated project manager and the project team members. Remember that the selection criteria in Part 4 require the proposed team to include an ASPRS-recognized Certified Photogrammetrist and a registered Professional Land Surveyor licensed in the State of Indiana. Include a Project Team Organization Chart.

For each key person you would assign to the project, include a one page résumé that includes a summary of professional qualifications, relevant project experience, education, and professional registration. The maximum number of résumés is 10.

• Section 4: Related Experience: For three relevant projects, include a one- or two- page project description that demonstrates similar capabilities in similar projects, for similar clients. Include the name of the client organization, the name of the person who can be contacted for reference, the contact information for that person, and a link to the client’s project website.

• Section 5: Proposed Schedule: Review the Project Schedule included in Part 3 of this RFP. Include your schedule for the completion of the project services and the deliverables identified in Section 2 of your proposal. Include proposed start and end dates. Describe your projected resource availability for the anticipated duration of the project.

• Section 6: Fee: Complete the Fee Proposal Form from Attachment A.

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• Section 7: Sample Data Products: Provide samples of each deliverable via the eProcurement site or submit a Flash Drive by mail. The samples should have been created by your company with the same type of technology and processes you are proposing for this project. The samples must meet the following requirements:

• Sample Digital Orthoimagery

• 24-bit natural color plus NIR Band samples of 3-inch pixel orthoimagery

• GeoTIFF format (compressed samples not required) with projection and georeferencing defined in the GeoTIFF file header

• Section 8: Additional Information: At your discretion, include additional information that supports your proposal, especially information supporting any optional products/services you propose. However, choose the additional information carefully, because this section of the proposal should not constitute the bulk of your submission.

Part 7: Specifications

Hamilton County GeoHUB

The most up-to-date Hamilton County geospatial data layers are available for viewing and download from the Hamilton County GeoHUB site: https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/.

Project Plan Development

A Project Kickoff Meeting will be held before any acquisition or production begins. The Project Team will use their RFP response along with any final contract negotiation details with the County to present a DRAFT Project Plan to the County at the Project Kickoff Meeting. At a minimum, the Project Plan shall include a final project schedule, proposed imagery ground control and flight plans, an imagery acquisition resources plan, and the data acquisition quality control plans. Also, for each geospatial data product to be produced from this newly acquired imagery data, the Project Team will document in the Project Plan an initial pilot area and all production areas block for each product. Additionally, the Project Plan will document the final technology, processes, workflow, quality control procedures, and associated product documentation used to create each deliverable product for the County. The County will work with the Contractor to review and finalize this Project Plan before production begins (See Project Schedule for dates).

Surveying and Photogrammetric Equipment and Software Used

It is in the County’s interest that the Contractor uses the most cost-effective technology (equipment and software) while maintaining the required product accuracy. The specific surveying and photogrammetric technology used by the Prime Contractor and any Subcontractors for ground control collection, imagery acquisition, AT processing, digital orthoimagery production, and quality control and data accuracy checks must be described in your proposal. Unless approved by the County in advance, the technology used by the Contractor and any Subcontractor for production must be the same as identified in their proposal.

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New Aerial Imagery for Orthoimagery Mapping

• Aerial Image Acquisition: The Contractor must acquire color imagery during the Spring of 2027.

The imagery will be used to produce the digital orthoimagery products. The specific sensor to be used for Aerial Image Acquisition compilation must be specified in the proposal. The sensor used for the project must be the same as that identified in the proposal.

• Horizontal and Vertical Control: The horizontal coordinate reference system for this project shall be NAD83(2011) / Indiana State Plane Coordinate System, East Zone, U.S. Survey Feet (EPSG:6459). The vertical coordinate reference system shall be the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88), U.S. Survey Feet (EPSG:6360). Where GNSS-derived orthometric elevations are used, GEOID18 shall be used as the applicable NGS geoid model.

• Note: As of August 2026, NGS still supports NAD83(2011) and NAVD88 as the current operational reference frame/datum; the forthcoming modernized NSRS (NATRF2022/NAPGD2022) has not yet replaced them operationally.

All project control, aerial triangulation, orthoimagery, elevation data, and other geospatial deliverables shall be referenced to these coordinate systems unless otherwise approved in writing by Hamilton County.

The Contractor is encouraged to use the County’s existing horizontal and vertical ground control points where applicable. The Contractor is responsible for identifying and establishing ground control of sufficient density and accuracy in the specified horizontal and vertical datums that meet the County’s accuracy requirements for the deliverable 3-inch pixel orthoimagery data produced from them.

Any new ground control established for the project must be established by a Professional Land Surveyor licensed in the State of Indiana. All new ground control points collected shall be documented in a tie sheet and marked so that other surveyors can easily relocate them and survive throughout the project's timeframe. All control points established for use in the project shall become a deliverable of the project. (See Attachment B for details of existing control).

The Contractor shall propose their approach for controlling the orthoimagery acquisitions and shall describe the method used to ensure consistency and compliance with accuracy standards.

• Targeting: If targets are used, the Contractor must schedule targeting for all horizontal and vertical photo control points with the County based on the scheduled aerial imagery acquisition.

Targeting must occur before the aerial imagery is acquired and be maintained until acquisition is completed and accepted.

All target panels must be of an appropriate size for the scale of photography and sufficiently light-reflective to create a high contrast with the background. Targets must be secured with the center of the target over the station. Proposals should specify the target material, size, and shape to be used.

• Flying Height: The flying height must be at an appropriate altitude to produce digital orthoimagery to meet or exceed the current ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standard for 1:600 (1”=50’ scale) horizontal mapping accuracy and capable of generating 3-inch (0.25-foot) pixel resolution

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• Flight Plan: After the scope of services has been determined, a final flight plan will be designed by the selected Contractor and approved by the County.

• Environmental Conditions: Aerial imagery should be obtained when the sky is sufficiently clear;

the ground is sufficiently free from snow, haze, smoke, dust, and cloud shadows; rivers and streams are within their normal banks, and deciduous trees are sufficiently barren to permit the intended uses of the imagery. Spectral reflectance from water should be minimized and should not obscure shoreline features. In no case will the maximum cloud cover exceed five (5) percent per image. The solar angle must be 30-degrees or more above the horizon at the time of exposure.

• Flight Inspection: The Contractor will, immediately after the aerial imagery capture, inspect it for cloud shadow, color, exposure, and clarity, as well as sidelap, endlap, and crab. The Contractor will provide a quality control summary report to the County in digital format within a reasonable time after the aerial imagery acquisition date. The report will describe conditions during the flight, including, but not limited to, flight date, aircraft used, weather conditions, altitude, subcontractors, scales, resolutions, camera type, number of flight lines, number of tiles created, and datum utilized.

• Building Lean and Shadows: In urban areas, the Contractor will minimize building lean and shadows and minimize the displacement of obscuration of roads in areas with tall buildings and bridges. At a minimum, all vehicular roads adjacent to tall buildings should be visible curb-to-curb without being obscured by buildings. The Contractor’s proposal should clearly explain the methodology to achieve these results.

• Reflights: The Contractor, for no additional fee, must correct aerial imagery that does not meet defined specifications. All reflights must be centered on the plotted flight lines and must use the same sensor.

• Description of Methodology: Proposals must include description of the production process and the quality control measures to be included.

• Preliminary (Unrectified) Images: Hamilton County requires a set of preliminary images to be delivered within two weeks of acquisition of the aerial imagery. The purpose of these images is for applications which do not require rectified images, such as code enforcement.

These images should be in GeoTIFF format. Each image should be referenced to an index map (e.g. shapefile) showing the center point of the preliminary images. There is no requirement for rectification or overlap of these images, but they must be oriented with north at the top of each image.

• Sample Imagery: Before orthoimagery production starts, a representative sample of urban, rural, agricultural, forest, and wetland areas shall be submitted by the Contractor to the County for review and approval of radiometric settings, including color balancing, overall tone, dodging, brightness, and contrast. Image radiometry shall be agreed upon before deliveries commence.

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The Contractor shall be accountable for matching the approved image settings across all subsequent imagery deliverables.

• Aerial Triangulation (AT): The Contractor must use aerial triangulation (AT) techniques with sufficient IMU data and ground control points to produce the digital orthoimagery to support current ASPRS 1:600 (1"=50' scale) map accuracy standards.

New Digital Orthoimagery

Required products include:

• County-wide 24-bit natural color digital Orthoimagery with a 3-inch (0.25-foot) pixel resolution, to include 256 levels of value for each color band (red, green, blue, and NIR)

a. Preliminary Imagery Service (WMS) and raw unrectified image in uncompressed GeoTIFF format

b. Orthoimagery Imagery files in uncompressed GeoTIFF format

c. Orthoimagery Imagery in MrSID and ECW File format

1. Compressed Tiles

2. Countywide Mosaic

3. Township Mosaics

• Tile format shall follow a gridded layout, with each tile covering 1,250' x 1,250'. Full tiles are required with no No-Data pixels. Tiles are delivered in NAD83 Indiana State Plane Coordinates, East Zone, U.S. Survey feet.

• The tile naming convention can be found on the Hamilton County GeoHub’s Dataset Download Land category: Imagery 2024 Tile Index.

• The County and Civil Township boundaries are also provided. (See Figure C-1 in Attachment C).

Part 8: Summary of Deliverables The Contractor will be responsible for producing and delivering the following Project datasets and all additional support datasets and documentation listed below. Reporting documents may be in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF format. All data to be delivered to the County on USB external hard drives or flash drives for smaller datasets.

Project Data for All Required Datasets:

A. Digital Orthoimagery

1. Preliminary (unrectified) images in GeoTIFF format

2. Preliminary Image Service for Hamilton County’s Independent QA/QC

3. Final digital orthoimagery tiles with 0.25-foot pixel resolution delivered in GeoTIFF format containing the correct georeferencing tags

4. Final Orthorectified Imagery in MrSID and ECW file format

1. Compressed Tiles

2. Countywide Mosaic

3. Township Mosaics

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Technical Support Data for All Required Datasets:

A. Digital Orthoimagery

1. Ground Control Points Used in Project

2. Sensor Calibration, IMU Acquisition, and AT Reports

3. Continuous DEM surface used for orthorectification

4. Ortho Mosaic Seamlines

5. Independent Orthoimagery QA/QC Callouts and Results

6. FGDC Metadata for each deliverable product

All mapping and other products produced for this project shall be consistent across the County’s entire project area and meet or exceed the ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data as stated within this document.

All products and services produced for this project become the sole property of Hamilton County and cannot be used or reproduced without written permission.

Part 9: Quality Control / Quality Assurance (QA/QC) of All Deliverables

Contractor QA/QC: The Contractor will offer a rigorous production process QA/QC methodology and in compliance with current industry production standards and ASPRS accuracy standards. The Contractor will follow the production processes identified in their approved Project Plan and provide associated reports documenting these results for each product delivery made to the County.

Before full production deliveries are made, the Contractor will deliver a small test (Pilot) area of completed tiles/files for each deliverable product including pilot area production reports and both Web-based and Hard Drive Pilot data deliveries to test all deliverables and components of the Project Plan. Before full production for a product is approved, the County will perform an independent QA/QC to verify the processing, visual quality control of the pilot products, digital file format/content/naming, and other data delivery quality parameters.

County Independent QA/QC: The County will perform independent quality control/quality assurance checks of all pilots, initial, and final delivered products and reports delivered by the Contractor. The County may also hire an independent (3rd Party) Contractor to be part of their Independent QA/QC Team to assist the County in this process.

Orthoimagery Accuracy Tests: The County will perform Independent horizontal and vertical accuracy tests of the orthoimagery datasets delivered following the most current ASPRS horizontal and vertical accuracy standards and NSSDA accuracy testing requirements.

To support the County’s Independent QA/QC effort, the Contractor shall post all new Orthoimagery layers to a web-based viewing application for use by the County’s QA/QC Team (including our independent QA/QC Vendor) to perform our initial QA/QC review and feedback. The County will use

RFP for Hamilton County, Indiana 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project Page 17 of 22 this system for a visual review and acceptance of the work performed before the Contractor delivers the data to the County on hard drives. For all hard drives delivered to the County, the Contractor will also deliver a copy of all data on hard drives to the County’s QA/QC Vendor. The Contractor’s system shall provide a means for the County QA/QC Team to create quality control call-outs on the QA/QC application provided.

After the Contractor makes the call-out corrections for each deliverable product, the Contractor will then make the digital file delivery to the County and its QA/QC Vendor on hard drives. The County QA/QC Team will then perform final digital checks of each product to verify the call-out corrections were made, and that all digital files are in the correct format, are usable and not corrupt, and conform to the delivery specifications documented in the final Project Plan.

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Attachment A: Fee Proposal Form

Project Title: Hamilton County, IN 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project

Company Name:

Work Phase Fee Required Products:

Project - Web-based QA/QC Tool for Orthoimagery $ Ortho - Survey Ground Control $ Ortho - Aerial Imagery Acquisition & Processing $

Ortho - Preliminary Imagery (unrectified) Images & Image Service $ Ortho - 3-inch Pixel (.25’) Digital Orthoimagery Processing and Delivery $ Ortho - Final Orthorectified Imagery in MrSID & ECW File format $ Ortho - Technical Support Data Deliverables $

Total Project Fee (All Required Products) $

Authorized Signature:

Date:

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Attachment B: Existing Survey Control Points

The Contractor is encouraged to use the County’s existing horizontal and vertical ground control points where applicable. The Contractor is responsible for identifying and establishing ground control of sufficient density and accuracy to meet the County’s accuracy requirements for the deliverable 3-inch pixel orthoimagery data products produced from them.

The County’s existing ground control layer is called “Section Corners”. Each point on the map also includes a hyperlink to its survey tie sheet.

Some of these control points have been used in the previous County Ortho-Lidar projects, and the County encourages using existing control where available, but the Contractor should not assume that sufficient control exists for the entire project area.

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The most up-to-date Hamilton County geospatial data layers are available for viewing and download from the Hamilton County GeoHUB site: https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/.

A copy of the Hamilton County 2026 Orthoimagery Control Points document titled “ISS 2026 Orthophotography Control Points” can be found in the Attachments folder in the Project Documents tab in the eProcurement site.

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Attachment C: Project Tile, Boundary, and Reference Geospatial Data

To assist the Contractor in preparing their proposal response, this attachment includes information about the County’s geospatial data files including the Ortho-Lidar project tile grid, project and product boundaries.

The most up-to-date Hamilton County geospatial data layers are available for viewing and download from the Hamilton County GeoHUB site: https://geohub.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/.

Figure C-1 Hamilton County Boundary, Ortho-Lidar Tile Grid, and Civil Township Boundary

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Figure C-2 Hamilton County Survey Department Section Corners