Intermap Technologies, Corp. announced that its commercial initiative to create a uniform high accuracy 3-D map of all of Western Europe called NEXTMap(r) Europe can enable geospatial professionals to meet mandates spelled-out in Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament. The EU Directive mandates the establishment, within the next several years, of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) in an effort to provide a higher level of environmental protection that takes into account the diverse regions within the community.
Intermap was unaware of Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament when the NEXTMap Europe program began in 2006. Now, 15 months after its inception, the program has passed the 50% completion mark for data collection. When complete, the Company’s mapping program will provide interested parties with affordable and uniform countrywide 3D digital elevation data and orthorectified radar images across Western Europe.
Directive 2007/2/EC emphasizes the importance of organizational coordination and the sharing of spatial data between public agencies across municipal, regional, and national borders within the EU. It further states the importance "that the infrastructures for spatial information created by the Member States are compatible and usable in a Community and trans-boundary context."
Intermap’s countrywide digital elevation models and geometric images are characterized by a level of accuracy and uniformity currently non-existent within the EU. The integrity of NEXTMap Europe(r) data has been validated by eleven independent agencies, including the University of Stuttgart, the Environment Agency of England & Wales, University College London, USGS, and NASA. The entire data set will be collected for most of the EU Member States by early 2008 and all of the data will be processed by the end of 2008. When complete, the data set will cover over 17 countries and include more than 80 billion elevation measurements and 1.3 trillion image pixels.
"The astounding achievement of NEXTMap Europe is encompassed in the realization that every feature of the landscape – be it a tree, rock, bush, stream or man made object, now has a GPS address that is known to an accuracy of 2 meters horizontally and 1 meter vertically," said Brian Bullock, Intermap Technologies’ president and chief executive officer. "As an organization, we are extremely proud of the fact that our NEXTMap(r) Europe program is a market-leading commercial venture that will enable the EU to meet the requirements of the Directive, while providing a superior product that will ultimately support a wide range of geospatial applications throughout each country."
Source: Intermap