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Through Accolades, LDG shares news of the awards, rankings, and professional achievements that recognize our people, our hard work, and our exceptional client service.
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PITTSBURGH, PA – Larson Design Group (LDG), an award-winning, employee-owned national architecture, engineering, and consulting firm, is pleased to announce that the firm’s Geo-Environmental team was honored on January 23 with a Diamond Award for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies Pennsylvania (ACEC/PA) for its Non-Intrusive Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP) Verification Method.
These BMPs, carried out by agricultural producers, mitigate nutrient and sediment deposits in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and are critical to its health. However, they have long been overlooked, due in large part to the lack of an efficient, cost-effective way to account for them. To bridge the gap between these BMPs and the valuable data they offer, LDG developed a new methodology in which this data is collected and verified from publicly accessible sources, such as remote sensors, aerial imagery, windshield observation, and more.
When piloted by five Pennsylvania counties, the methodology discovered 1,100 Agricultural BMPs that had been unaccounted for, which helped depict a significant nutrient and sediment reduction to the Bay. It was also found that data collection and accuracy was comparable with traditional inspection reporting, even as it reduced BMP verification time by 75 percent.
“This project was a great collaboration between a number of LDG staff, DEP, EPA, and county conservation districts,” said Ken Stockert, LDG Director of Geo-Environmental. “The end product is an effective way to collect data with substantially less effort and without disrupting private landowners. We are honored to receive this prestigious award from the ACEC/PA.”
The Diamond Awards are an annual recognition of the most successful and innovative projects across a range of engineering disciplines. LDG is proud to be represented among this year’s winners once again.
RELATED: Learn more about LDG’s comprehensive Environmental services
ABOUT LDG
Founded in 1986, LDG is an award-winning, employee-owned architecture, engineering, and consulting firm offering full-service capabilities and a national reach. For more than 30 years, we have been providing an extraordinary breadth and depth of value-driven solutions to our diverse client base and investing in the sustainable business practices and innovative technologies that allow us to pursue our shared vision: creatively shaping our world. For more information, visit About – Larson Design Group.