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

Hamilton County, Indiana is requesting proposals for the 2027 Aerial Photography and Digital Orthoimagery Project, with proposals due October 8, 2026 and a registration deadline of September 8, 2026. The county is seeking a contractor or contractors with proven expertise in geospatial data acquisition, processing, and delivery to acquire four-band NADIR digital aerial photography, develop high-resolution three-inch pixel natural color digital orthoimagery, and perform aerial triangulation to extend ground control for 1"=50' scale mapping accuracy.

Key professional requirements include an ASPRS-recognized Certified Photogrammetrist and a Professional Land Surveyor licensed in Indiana on the project team. All deliverables must comply with ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for 1:600 scale mapping, use NAD83(2011) Indiana State Plane Coordinates East Zone and NAVD88 vertical datum, and be delivered on USB external hard drives or flash drives.

The project area encompasses approximately 402.11 square miles of Hamilton County plus a buffer totaling 484.694 square miles and 8,648 ortho tiles of 1,250' × 1,250' each. Hamilton County has established over 200 horizontal and vertical ground control points documented in the attached control points specification. Preliminary unrectified georeferenced images in uncompressed GeoTIFF format must be delivered within two weeks of acquisition.

Aerial data acquisition occurs February through April 2027 under leaf-off conditions, with phased deliveries from May 1, 2027 through December 30, 2027. The contractor must provide cost proposals using the Fee Proposal Form covering seven work phases including web-based QA/QC tools, survey ground control, aerial imagery acquisition and processing, preliminary imagery delivery, digital orthoimagery processing and delivery, compressed imagery formats, and technical support data. Questions are due September 15, 2026; optional oral presentations occur October 30, 2026; contractor selection is anticipated November 23, 2026; and project kickoff is January 15, 2027. Hamilton County reserves the right to divide work between multiple contractors and will perform independent QA/QC testing using ASPRS and NSSDA standards, with potential third-party assistance. All products and services produced become the sole property of Hamilton County.