Vexcel’s geospatial information-as-a-service supports government agencies with free access to post-disaster imagery within hours after an event
Boulder, CO – July 11, 2019 – Vexcel Imaging, a leading provider of aerial imagery and related geospatial data products, announced today the availability of the Vexcel Disaster Response Program for Government Agencies. This program provides government agencies with access to post-event aerial imagery within hours of a disaster at no cost or obligation. The imagery is provided as an Esri ArcGIS Image Service or through other open standards, making it very easy to add this data to a county or state’s current GIS maps and software.
“This initiative is made possible through our partnership with the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) Geospatial Intelligence Consortium (GIC) and demonstrates the benefits of this public-private relationship.” said Richard Butgrereit, GIC director of disaster response. “The GIC and its insurance industry members look for ways to support communities in their time of need through increased situational awareness gathered from GIC post-disaster imagery.”
Since the GIC was founded, it has responded to more than 20 events including hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, floods, hail storms and floods through its Gray Sky program. By leveraging Vexcel Imaging’s aerial imagery software and hardware and the large community of Vexcel UltraCam equipped aircraft, GIC is able to collect and deliver imagery of very large impacted areas within hours of an event.
“GIC collects entire impacted areas not just along the shoreline. For example, we collected an 85,000 km2 area of interest spanning four states after Hurricane Michael. Over just three days, this data was published online to help insurers and first responders better assess damage without need to place staff in harm’s way.” stated Ryan Bank, managing director for GIC.
Vexcel Imaging will demonstrate its aerial image solution on July 9 – 11 at the Esri User Conference Expo, booth number 119, San Diego Convention Center. To learn more, visit www.vexcel-imaging.com.
Government agencies can sign up to join the Vexcel Disaster Response by contacting Vexcel via phone (720) 460-1645 or at dataprogram@vexcel-imaging.com
About Vexcel Imaging
Founded in 1992, Vexcel Imaging boasts over twenty years of photogrammetric and remote sensing expertise. Its highly successful line of UltraCam systems was launched with the first UltraCam in 2003. In 2006, Vexcel Imaging was acquired by Microsoft Corporation and contributed as a subsidiary to the success of Microsoft’s Bing program by pushing the envelope of photogrammetric hardware and software technology with innovations that underpinned the Bing Maps web service and mapping platform. As a direct result of these advancements, our UltraMap photogrammetric workflow software solution was born and today offers customers with an extremely rapid and efficient solution for generating aerial imagery and downstream data products such as high density point clouds, digital surface models and orthophotos. Ten years later, Vexcel Imaging is again a private company and continuing our story of success with renewed and greater flexibility and agility. Learn more about Vexcel Imaging at http://www.vexcel-imaging.com/.
