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Leading Edge Geomatics - New Brunswick Flood

Published Date

The Client
Leading Edge Geomatics (LEG) is a privately owned company offering full-range photogrammetric missions, aircraft for special mission flights and GIS consultancy.  The necessity for high resolution geospatial data with a greater accuracy continues to grow within the commercial industry and governmental agencies.  LEG provides this necessary data with unprecedented accuracies, a rapid turn around time and competitive market pricing.


The Challenge
The Canadian Province of New Brunswick and the US State of Maine recently suffered from some of the worst flooding in over 25 years.  Covering thousands of square kilometres, the rising floodwaters affected citizens and infrastructure throughout the entire province.  The Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) of the Government of New Brunswick contacted Leading Edge Geomatics (LEG) with a request for aerial survey support to assist in their flood efforts.  


The Solution
LEG responded quickly to the request, using the Applanix DSS 322, a complete airborne digital imaging system for first responders and geospatial industry professionals who are required to collect and produce orthorectified airborne digital imagery, along with Applanix Post Processing software for airborne imaging sensors, POSPac, as the solution of choice.

Following direct liaison with the EMO, LEG quickly completed mission planning and launched its first aerial survey mission only 18 hours after receiving the initial call from the New Brunswick Government. 

"The instruction, education, and simplified workflows from Applanix enabled us to succeed in this mission," said Sammy Sampson, Director at LEG.  "The equipment itself is rock solid - accurate and reliable.  And in addition the know-how and expertise provided to us by the Applanix customer support team was unbelievable."

The days mission area, totaling more than 1300 square kilometres, was acquired, immediately processed by LEG's technical team and 920 colour orthophotos were ready for delivery to EMO within 24 hours.

Aerial surveying continued for 6 more days, flying various flood affected areas throughout the province as the water reached peak levels and delivering orthophotos shortly afterwards. 


Results
With the DSS 322 and POSPac LEG acquired over 7000 square kilometers, processing more than 5500 orthophotos.  Collected at 50cm resolution, the high-resolution imagery assisted the New Brunswick Government in immediately providing aid to flood affected residents and determining damage to infrastructure and property. 


"LEG played a vital role during the 2008 flood response, providing provincial emergency agencies with near real-time hi-resolution imagery.  LEG's rapid response to our request enabled us to define, with great precision, the maximum extent of flooded areas throughout the St John River Basin. This was a significant achievement, given the size of the area of interest, some 7000 square kilometres. LEG provided us with 30-50 cm orthophotos within a few days and a fully processed continuous database within 2 months," said Ernest MacGillivray, Director of Emergency Measures and Public Safety for the Province of New Brunswick.