Local governments soar with aerial images and AI
Jun 2021
High-quality aerial imagery and insights from artificial intelligence give local governments streamlined technology solutions.
Jun 2021
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City, county, and state governments have always led the charge when it comes to innovations in GIS and mapping — and the demand for streamlined solutions has never been more prominent.
These government entities represent some of the most advanced users of technologies from companies like Esri, Trimble, Geocortex, and RapidDeploy, whose use cases span far and wide, including:
- Address/geocoding database validation
- Stormwater runoff calculation
- Sea level rise infrastructure planning
- City planning
- Emergency management
- Road maintenance
- Bridge and tunnel construction
- Water conservation
- Vegetation management
Simply put, governments combine data about their jurisdiction with GIS tools, and aerial imagery, to see what others can’t. In years past, satellite imagery limited what was possible from the comfort and safety of your office chair. But advances in high-resolution aerial maps have now taken center stage providing more detail than anyone could imagine. This not only makes your day-to-day operations more efficient, but higher resolution imagery means more information — and more information unlocks stronger applications of the imagery, further reducing on-site visits and increasing your return on investment
This powerful blend of mapping and aerial imagery recently took new flight; it’s grown to include the automation of rich feature extraction, using artificial intelligence (AI). Imagine a County Assessor, who wants to quickly see where new buildings have popped up from one capture to the next; or a City Engineer interested in water runoff when maintaining sewer systems who needs insight into the square footage of roof tops along with hard surfaces. To do this type of work, government GIS professionals need to visualize these attributes along with meta data about the truth of the ground — and the key? It needs to be up-to-date. Deeper insights result in a deeper analysis and this end game is what Nearmap delivers.
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High-resolution aerial imagery from Nearmap within ArcGIS Pro, used to identify building footprints which are shown in crisp, red outlines
The real magic happens when government organizations bring this newfound intelligence into powerful commercial technologies such as Esri ArcGIS Pro or Geocortex Essentials. Once that happens, the analytical capabilities jump to a new level, leading to tremendous gains in productivity. Governments can answer questions like where should we deploy our resources to manage vegetation growth and limit our exposure to power outages? They can better plan for future development, allocate funds with dispatch and support citizen requests on new development. Often working in concert with civil engineering firms and construction companies, governments now have access to one common operating picture. Each member of the ecosystem visualizes the exact same plan — a plan that is current, clear, and in vivid color.
Access one combined perspective, where your eye is drawn to higher concentrations of vegetation, or to lawn grass throughout a landscape, or even identify where concrete and asphalt driveways are longer and wider across a neighborhood. Our powerful stack of AI attributes also include roof type, swimming pools, water bodies, vegetation overhang, solar panels, and more.
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Clear identification of driveway attributes with Nearmap AI
The power of advanced mapping technology, imagery, and AI breathes new life into how city, county, and state planners go about the business of creating smart cities, balancing nature with new construction and making decisions grounded in the richest of data. Most governments and businesses today still use satellite imagery, which certainly has its place in the world of GIS. But, increasingly these organizations are discovering the precision and attribute identification offered through advanced aerial solutions and AI.
Learn more about how Nearmap is helping local governments, counties, and councils work more efficiently.