City of Sugar Land Regional Airport, May 15, 2025 – Mr. George Culver, Director of GIS at LJA Engineering (LJA) and the Industry Liaison to the Fort Bend GIS Consortium (FBGISC) presented to members and greater area partners on the leverage of GIS by LJA as the employee-owned company grew from 40 to over 2,000 employees over LJA’s 50+ years of business. Emphasizing LJA’s unofficial motto of Grow or Die, Mr. Culver guided attendees through the adoption and growth of GIS across every department and operation within LJA. Beginning with the all too familiar task of layering parcels over imagery, to the use of automated data processes, to the integration of company-wide communications into project packets complete with land history, parcel data, land development prospects, and existing trails of correspondence, LJA has not only leveraged existing GIS solutions available on the market, but pushed past the boundaries of what is available and supported the development of their own internal geospatial solutions and infrastructure.

Beyond their services, LJA invests into the next generation of engineers through internship opportunities and graduate programs. You can learn more about internship and early career programs here.

So, what did this presentation offer a consortium of public entities? It gave insight and example to how publicly sourced geospatial data is utilized in the private industry, and the potential for cost-savings that being proper data-stewards offers the public. The public investment in geospatial technologies offers similar return-on-investments as it has for LJA. While we, public entities, are not profit motivated, we are charged with leveraging existing and future resources to optimize operations that are critical to the public-at-large. From supporting disaster preparedness and response to simplifying animal-control operations, a small investment in public geospatial technologies can yield returns far beyond the initial cost and improve the lives of our residents.