Disaster response efforts following Hurricane Michael have showcased high precision drone geospatial data.

SimActive, a world-leading developer of photogrammetry software, partnered with drone service provider Midwest Aerial to perform critical damage assessment of homes and infrastructure after Hurricane Michael struck the Gulf Coast last month.  Hurricane Michael destroyed billions of dollars worth of crops and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.

Mexico Beach, Florida, was one of the hardest hit areas.  Suffering a nine-foot storm surge and 155 mph winds, the town of 1, 190 full time residents was absolutely devastated by the storm. Local newspapers called it an “apocalyptic” event, “wiping out” the town.  With most of the homes and roads requiring major restoration, accurate mapping of the area for insurance and rebuilding teams is absolutely critical to getting the town back on its feet.

SimActive is the developer of Correlator3D™ software, a patented end-to-end photogrammetry solution.  What makes SimActive different from many drone mapping solutions is that SimActive offers a platform originally designed for processing geospatial data from satellite imagery for military and large enterprise customers, processing large data sets with precision and speed.  By expanding that platform to also process drone imagery, SimActive makes the same capabilities available for a much larger market.  “Correlator3D™ performs aerial triangulation (AT) and produces dense digital surface models (DSM), digital terrain models (DTM), point clouds, orthomosaics, 3D models and vectorized 3D features,” says SimActive.

Midwest Aerial collected a large quantity of drone aerial data over Mexico Beach: then Correlator3D^TM was used to process large format imagery.  The joint effort resulted in highly precise geospatial data, including a DSM, an orthomosaic and a 3D model of the town.

“This is a terrible disaster for the people affected and we hope they can benefit from geospatial technologies available”, said Dr Philippe Simard, President of SimActive.