TECHNOLOGY : Federal Funds Help Mapmakers Locate Opportunities Overseas

Cartographers and map-making firms are enjoying a growing demand for their work as developing countries and the World Bank look to install computer systems to help oversee and analyze large projects such as dams and land records.

Several Orange County firms have been given federal funds to help win World Bank contracts for such work, known as Geographic Information Systems.

The Costa Mesa office of Psomas & Associates is the latest to benefit from the public-sector largess. Based in Santa Monica, the consulting group last month announced it had won a pair of grants worth $627,000 from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency to map projects for the Turkish government.

The firm--and the U.S. State Department--hope the small databases and maps that Psomas will design will give it a leg up in competition for a pair of World Bank contracts that could be worth $60 million altogether.

“If we get either one, it would a big deal for us,” said Fred Henstridge, a Psomas vice president overseeing the work.

Last year, the trade-promotions agency gave a similar award for $610,000 to Infotec Development Inc. in Costa Mesa to help it compete for an $80-million World Bank project to record land records in the Russian Federation.

In Turkey, Psomas will develop two projects. In the largest, the company will develop a computer database of information to help planners who are working on an enormous dam and land planning project in the southeastern region of the country, near its borders with Iran and Iraq.

In addition, Psomas engineers will build a sample database for the city of Bursa’s water systems, including sewage and waste-water disposal facilities.

Henstridge said several projects Psomas is working on for the city of Los Angeles’ water agencies will help win the Bursa work.