UPDATING MAPS IN A WELL-MAPPED COUNTRY USING HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGERY

Since the successful launch of IKONOS in 1999, a new source of imagery has been available to the civilian spatial-data user. In many parts of the world high resolution satellite imagery from IKONOS, QuickBird and, more recently, ORBVIEW 3, has proved to be a useful data source for the creation of orthorectified images and associated mapping products. One of the great advantages of satellite imagery is the ease of access to areas which have previously been too remote or too dangerous to reach using conventional aerial photography. However, for areas of the Earth which are not difficult to reach, and which have a tradition of high resolution mapping from aerial photography, this advantage is of rather limited importance. Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, currently makes extensive use of aerial imagery in the collection of large scale geospatial data. In 2003, a project was initiated which would determine whether satellite imagery could replace, or complement, aerial photography in this data collection process; or could be used in other ways within a production environment to make the process more efficient. Interim results of this research are presented in this paper. 1