How the South Carolina State Ports Authority saves time and costs with a single source of truth

Sep 2026

Precise property intelligence is helping the South Carolina State Ports Authority save tens of thousands of dollars a year in labor costs.

“Traditionally it would take one full week of someone being dedicated to looking up the relevant drawings when a locational asset data request was made. Leveraging solutions including Nearmap, we saved the equivalent of $34,000 in labor costs associated with these data requests in 2025, and $42,000 so far in 2026.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

The challenge

The high cost of inaccurate, hard-to-find data

The South Carolina State Ports Authority needed a single, precise source of imagery its GIS, operations, engineering, and security teams could all build on and trust. Without it, they operated with:

No reliable locational record: Teams relied on old paper maps and manual counts to find a location in the container yard and deploy field crews.
Slow, costly data requests: A single locational asset analysis could take a full week of dedicated staff time — an estimated $2,000 in labor per request.

Now, Nearmap is South Carolina State Ports Authority’s primary locational system of record, from day-to-day operations to long-term GIS infrastructure. It is the default starting point for locating, planning, and protecting its terminals, and a shared reference every team works from.

“This imagery is so precise we can read what things actually look like on the ground. All they have to do is look at exactly where that slot or container row is located, put a pin down in their existing asset management systems and direct their teams to go directly there without any intermediary.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

“Previously, there were no maps showing exactly what the container configuration was in any of the yards. In many cases, when there was an issue out on the yard the team would have to get an old map and count up the individual slots to identify exactly where it occurred. They would then try to mark up a paper map to give to that deployment team so they could locate the relevant slot once on site. Thanks to Nearmap, they no longer have to do that.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

Precise Nearmap imagery shows terminal markings in detail

The solution

A reliable source of truth for more confident decision-making

South Carolina State Ports Authority provides its team with a precise and current base layer of Nearmap property intelligence that its team can confidently base critical infrastructure decisions upon:

High-resolution vertical imagery (captured at up to 1.57-2.95 in / 4-7.5 cm or better ground sampling distance) is sharp enough to read terminal markings, map potential flood zones, and give crews a precise reference to work from in the field
Nearmap MapBrowser enables operations, engineering, and security teams to view, mark up, and share imagery and insights — flagging potential lease spaces, security features, and planned construction — within one application
Seamless integration with ArcGIS enables the team to accurately pin its own utility asset data directly on top of the most current and precise imagery — lining up water valves, fire hydrants, and building footprints — to enable more efficient asset management and maintenance

Utility asset mapping in arcgis

Building footprint data in arcgis

The impact

More precise insights surfaced faster

Time and cost savings

Locational asset lookups that once required a dedicated week of staff time now happen in minutes. Leveraging GIS data including that from Nearmap contributed to saving the equivalent of $34,000 in associated labor costs in 2025, and $42,000 so far in 2026.

More efficient field work

Now relying on a remotely accessible, collaborative, and precise source of truth instead of outdated paper maps, crews are sent to the right location the first time, every time.

Adoption at scale

Deploying a single source of property intelligence across security, engineering, and operations has ensured all teams work from the same operating picture.

“I tell all my contractors that are helping me build the GIS data: if you are drawing it, go in and use Nearmap as your locational system of record. I do not want us to have this stuff off-kilter. Because what the crews are going to look for is a visual reference from Nearmap aerial imagery.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

“You can even see on our building footprints — they're lined up within inches of what we have on the actual image drawings. That's incredibly close, incredibly reliable. The imagery that we get from Nearmap is our source of record.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

“One of the operators asked me, 'I need to be able to identify where on this terminal we actually own something and where we don't. Is there some way you can give me a paper map so I can draw it with some markers?' And I said, 'I can do way better than that’. And after I gave them access to MapBrowser, not only did they draw everything in MapBrowser, but they shared the project out to other team members so that they could collaborate on it.”

Bob Hawks, GIS Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority

About South Carolina State Ports Authority

South Carolina Ports owns and operates public seaport and intermodal facilities in Charleston, Greer and Dillon, handling more than $75 billion in commerce annually.

Home to the Southeast’s deepest port, SC Ports is the industry leader in delivering speed-to-market, seamless processes and flexibility to ensure reliable operations, big ship handling, efficient market reach and environmental responsibility.

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