EarthData International maps Mississippi flood planes

Published 7 March 2007

Company’s high resolution orthoimagery helps contractors and local planners make rapid decions; mapping program is funded by the Mississippi Development Authority with a HUD grant

Washington, D.C.-based EarthData International, known for having received a $16 million contract by the Australian government to produce the first-ever high-resolution image and terrain maps of Papua New Guinea, is now hard at work in Mississippi. Having already completed digital aerial data collection over a six-county area in southern Mississippi, the company is now fast-tracking delivery on high-resolution orthoimagery to benefit the state’s post-Katrina redevelopment. “The mapping data currently being developed is critically needed for the long-range planning work that is necessary for rebuilding and renewing our Gulf Coast,” said Trudy Fisher, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. “It will enable the public- and private-sector engineering, construction, and economic development people to make wiser and faster decisions.”

The mapping program is being funded by the Mississippi Development Authority with a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. EarthData is participating on the project as a member of Mississippi Geographic Information (MGI). MGI previously has completed a number of projects for the state, including lidar data collection and digital elevation model production of coastal and inland areas for digital flood insurance rate mapping, as well as image acquisition and processing for the Mississippi statewide mapping program.

-read more in this company news release