HighSens - Highly Versatile, New Satellite Sensor Applications for the Austrian Market and International Development

The objective of HighSens was to develop a software tool to generate highly accurate 3D information based on the Pléiades system for the production of multi-parameter information solutions needed in urban and forest mapping applications.

Short Description

In an era of climate change and economic crisis, governments, international organisations and industry alike make great efforts to improve efficiency by investing in state-of-the-art information and communication technologies.

The availability of agile Earth observation sensor data, such as from the Pléiades system, meets a range of high level requirements. Current land cover mapping projects, the roll-out of LISA and a permanent Austrian land monitoring capacity highly depend on savings in image data acquisition and the consecutive availability of up-to-date, nationwide very high resolution (VHR) image data coverage.

The current technological level of aerial imagery in combination with airborne laser scanning for land cover mapping applications were raised to a stand-alone satellite-based monitoring capacity.

Objectives of HighSens

HighSens, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency under ASAP 8 and supported by the governments of Salzburg and Tyrol, responds to the user requirements for cost-effective and readily available geo-information with the capacities of Pléiades, resulting in an innovative Pléiades 3D Processing Suite. The software enables the generation of digital surface and elevation models (DSM/DEM/nDSM) from Pléiades tri-stereo data, vastly improving horizontal accuracy.

In combination with post-orthorectified multi-spectral tri-stereo imagery of the same date, such accurate elevation data allows fully automated analyses and provides a crucial new capacity for VHR land cover monitoring worldwide. HighSens service applications were demonstrated for disaster management (e.g. forestry storm assessment) and rapid infrastructure assessments.

Compared to traditional, multi-source information gathering, the new single source solution enables production of highly accurate geo- information products at reduced time and cost, serving many applications of public interest.

Project Partners

Coordinator

GeoVille Information Systems GmbH - Wolfgang Stemberger

Partner

JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, DIGITAL - Institute for Information and Communication Technologies (JR-DIG) - Johannes Raggam

Contact Address

GeoVille Information Systems GmbH
Wolfgang Stemberger
Sparkassenplatz 2
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel.: +43 (512) 56 20 21
E-mail: stemberger@geoville.com
Web: www.geoville.com