NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Airborne Imagery

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council gave a presentation on new developments in airborne imagery and LiDAR. They focused on new technologies and how state GIS Coordinators can take advantage of those technologies. They also listed factors that should be considered in creating RFPs for new imagery.

Craig Molander, from Surdex, spoke about large-format digital cameras. These collect a wide, rectangular image and collect digital data from several sensors at once.

Bob William, from Sanborn, spoke about small-format cameras often used to collect oblique imagery, which has a variety of uses and is growing in popularity.

Dave White, from Fugro EarthData, spoke about the "push-broom" camera, which looks forward, down and back as it moves along. This can help reduce building-lean. It can also make it easier to create elevation data without LiDAR.

Jay Arnold, from 3001, spoke about LiDAR as an adjunct to, or sometimes a temporary replacement for, orthoimagery. He spoke about both topographic and bathymetric LiDAR systems.

Most of the speakers recommended now requesting 4-band imagery, as opposed to just black and white, color, or infrared imagery. This is because most sensors now collect all at once. And there was general agreement that the industry is constantly, and sometimes rapidly, changing.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.