Planimetric 3D Feature Extraction for better insight and decision making
A planimetric map consists of manmade and natural features represented as lines, closed polygons and points using aerial and satellite images. Digital Planimetric mapping involves the extraction of the earth’s features such as roads, building footprints, river outlines and closed water bodies. These features are provided as vector basemaps for further use in GIS and topographic mapping workflows, as well as specific applications including urban mapping. Planimetric data enables governments and businesses to take better decisions and provide better insights as to where certain features are located on earth.
The term planimetry comes from planimetrics, which is the study of plane measurements. A planimetric survey, for example, is made by angular and linear measurements in the field or by combining topographical work using aerial surveys in order to produce topographic base maps, as they include important digital spatial information used for land and asset management. Planimetric mapping data is also used for providing insights and aiding decision making processes in specific industries. For example, the transportation sector uses planimetric maps for better planning and judgment on the existing road data by providing real-time information such as road features, powerlines, utilities and terrain information.
A planimetric survey results in a basemap that includes geographic objects, natural and cultural physical features, and entities with topographic features such as roads, buildings, and water bodies. All these features can be labeled (named) and categorized further within a GIS. For example, roads can be further divided into different geographical parts, such as the different driving lanes or indicating the location of a centerline of a road. Other important planimetric features include barriers, paved and unpaved areas, vegetation and water structures. All these feature types can be divided into different subsets so that each individual geographic feature can be labeled correctly. This information is essential for spatial analysis, topographic mapping and road inventory management.
A planimetric map consists of manmade and natural features represented as lines, closed polygons and points using aerial and satellite images. Planimetric mapping involves the extraction of earth’s features such as roads, building footprints, river outlines and closed water bodies. A planimetric map is a two-dimensional map that is seen from above and does not include relief data. Another characteristic of a planimetric map is that it shows accurate horizontal distances between features.
The methods used to obtain the information depicted on a planimetric map can be collected from orthorectified aerial digital photography that has been orthorectified, or using data captured through aerial lidar mapping and conventional land surveying techniques. Planimetric mapping follows image processing workflows after aerial imagery has been triangulated and orthorectified, providing vector basemaps to be used for topography mapping and geospatial analysis workflows.
Magnasoft has a rich experience in providing planimetric mapping for counties, municipalities, real estate, forestry, transportation and hydrology. We offer both 2D and 3D planimetric mapping services, where 2D planimetric mapping is independent of elevation and captures feature outlines in a two-dimensional format using orthorectified aerial images, whereas 3D planimetric mapping involves the identification and extraction of horizontal and relief features in a 3D format.
A planimetric map includes geographic objects, natural and cultural physical features, and entities with topographic features such as roads, buildings, and water bodies. All these features can be labeled (named) and categorized further within a GIS. For example, roads can be further divided into different parts, including the different lanes. Other important planimetric features include barriers, paved and unpaved areas, vegetation and water structures. All these feature types can be divided into different subsets so that each individual geographic feature can be labeled correctly. Such information is essential for spatial analysis, topographic mapping and asset inventory management, which has become an important use case for governments worldwide.
Planimetric mapping is used for land administration and management, as it allows for change detection, updating existing topographical maps, improving spatial planning decisions and control for illegal settlements. Planimetric mapping is also used for urban mapping, providing the basis for 3D city models. Such models are a prerequisite for digital twins, which are virtual replicas of cities that are used by city governments to plan, test and monitor their physical, economic and community structures. Magnasoft has a track record of mapping 25 global complex cities like London, New York and Paris, using its 3D City Framework for delivering 3D maps in the required Level of Detail (LoD) using proprietary processing tools and libraries giving our customers a wide range of future scalability.