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Satnews Daily
April 14th, 2016

Continent Mapping Initiative For PSMA Australia Completed By DigitalGlobe


(NYSE: DGI) has completed the first phase of a continent-scale mapping initiative that will enable Geoscape, a new information product from PSMA Australia, to support Australia’s digital economy.

Under the second phase, DigitalGlobe will leverage a range of geospatial technologies to map the locations and characterize the physical attributes of more than 15 million structures spread across the entire continent of Australia. This will allow Geoscape users to make critical decisions with confidence, knowing they are receiving the most accurate infrastructure information available.

PSMA Australia offers national geospatial datasets derived from authoritative sources to support a range of public and private business solutions. Through this initiative, PSMA Australia will leverage building and land cover information generated by DigitalGlobe for Geoscape, which will capture Australia’s natural and built environment, allowing a range of industries to gain a comprehensive view of assets around the country. When completed, Geoscape will provide a comprehensive view into the location, distribution, and characteristics of structures around the entire continent with unprecedented fidelity. These insights can be applied broadly for applications such as insurance risk modelling, urban planning and services delivery, emergency planning and management, business intelligence, policy development, and many research activities.

For this offering DigitalGlobe is creating a massive amount of geospatial content and location information derived from more than 7.6 million square kilometers of high resolution satellite imagery. Leveraging its Geospatial Big Data platform, proprietary technologies, and crowdsourcing, DigitalGlobe and its ecosystem partners are generating Geoscape product features such as building footprints and heights, rooftop materials, solar panels, and swimming pools. DigitalGlobe has delivered the first phase of the initiative to PSMA Australia, covering a large area of South Australia that includes Adelaide.

Geoscape incorporates DigitalGlobe’s derived geospatial datasets with PSMA’s Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF), land parcel data, digital elevation models, transportation network information, and other data to bring Geoscape to market. This product will be enhanced through these linkages to PSMA datasets that extend the depth and power of the dataset.

Don Paul, the CEO of PSMA, stated that providing the essential infrastructure for Australia's digital economy is quite the significant innovation, as many different attributes and data types are linked together. This provides for a great understanding of what actually exists a an address, from buildings to features to land cover, for every address in Australia.