Patent ID: 8218827

Claim:
A method for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities, the method comprising: A) electronically receiving a digital aerial image of a geographic area including the dig area, at least a portion of the received digital aerial image being displayed on a display device; B) in advance of the excavation activities and at the first user location remote from the dig area, sketching virtual white lines to delimit the dig area on the displayed digital aerial image, via a user input device and a drawing application associated with the display device, so as to generate a marked-up digital image including a delimited dig area the marked up digital image including the virtual white lines to precisely identify boundaries of the dig area, wherein B) is performed without acquiring geographic coordinates to delimit the dig area; and C) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area.