Mapping of state gets off the ground

Mark Meyers at the podium addresses a crowd gathered to witness the beginning of a statewide mapping initiative against the background of the jets used to digitally map portions of the state. (Rob Stapleton, Alaska Newspapers)

Noting that it's a big job and a long time in the making, officials from the state and federal government last week celebrated the beginning of a much-needed $55 million statewide mapping initiative.

"There are some huge deficiencies in the state's topographic mapping," said Marc Luiken, deputy commissioner of aviation for the State of Alaska Department of Transportation.

It has been 50 years since any mapping has been accomplished and what the state has does not meet the National Map Accuracy Standards (NMAS).

Called the State Digital Mapping Initiative (SDMI), the three-year project involving two jet aircraft and three companies, Intermap Technologies, Fugro EarthData and Dewberry Engineering -- all Outside companies -- have a solid start.

Flying at 40,000 feet beaming radar below, the aircraft digital mappers have finished the first definitive new mapping effort to be completed since 1947.

Using high resolution IFSAR, synthetic aperture radar that can see through clouds, the companies have recorded data from a checkerboard of areas from the Yukon River to Southcentral Alaska.

This initial effort -- 60,786 square miles of data -- represents only 15 percent of Alaska's 586,412 square miles of land mass at a cost of $5.6 million. The state's portion of the first phase is $1.8 million with the federal government paying $3.8 million, according to officials with DOT.

A separate, earlier IFSAR mapping effort of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska will be included in this data set, according to state officials.

Luiken addressed a gathering of state and private industry officials that will benefit from the aerial mapping effort, at the FedEx Hangar at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The luncheon event that included speeches and a ribbon cutting attracted more than 100 people.

The economic value of the investment into this mapping of Alaska initiative is priceless according to one business that relies on digital mapping data for its customers.

"Most people just don't realize how far behind the curve we are," said Frank McQueary, CFO of E-Terra an Alaska based company that builds GIS databases for terrain applications. "The economic value of the data from this project is unfathomable. There are a myriad of things, hundreds, everything has a foundation that can use this information."

Luiken ticked off the benefits of the data uses; transportation and infrastructure improvements, aerial photography and satellite imagery, boundaries, hydrography, demographics, elevation topography, biodiversity, and vegetation and land cover.

State officials explained the data useful to DNR, Homeland Security, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Resource Conservation Service and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was paid for by the consortium.

"(Defining) land ownership is another area of importance that will highly benefit private sector and Alaska Native corporation lands," said Luiken.

But economic gain is not the only reason for obtaining the data.

"(Evaluating) global warming, erosion of shoreline, earthquakes and flooding emergencies, thawing of permafrost are all areas that will benefit from having accurate information," said Mark Myers, gas pipeline coordinator for the state Department of National Resources. "Having this information will save lives, time and money later."

The former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission put a more human face on the need for the mapping data.

"Today we are using the same maps that I used as a Boy Scout that were done in the 1940's," said Mead Treadwell, now a senior fellow at the Institute of the North. "And much of the information is missing—I've lost 13 of my close friends in (aircraft) accidents that were caused because they didn't know where they were—they were lost."

As incredible as it may seem, not even the U.S. Department of Defense had paid for a complete mapping of the state, which has the poorest elevation data in the U.S. and North America.

The legacy mapping effort, a "one inch equals one mile survey," is not sophisticated or accurate enough to base satellite data, which requires non-cloudy days for measurement comparisons to be used for graphical depictions for flight simulators, or construction.

"This data will become the standard that will be used by pilots in aircraft that are Capstone equipped," said Luiken.

"Pilots have long complained of discrepancies between GPS, maps and aviation sectional charts that had mountains as far as three miles in the wrong location," said Lars Gleitsmann, an aviation consultant with E-Terra.

Work only started after a four-year debate over the contractor after a memorandum of agreement was signed by the governor's office in 2006 and the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the University of Alaska stressing the need for more sophisticated mapping data.

"It's been a long time coming and the beauty of this initiative is not just that its getting done but that it's a partnership with all of the stakeholders, both the state and federal agencies," said Nicholas Mastrodicasa, SDMI project manager for state DOT.

Mastrodicasa said that Canada, Mexico and some planets in our solar system have better mapping data than Alaska.

"The planet Venus which has 98 percent of its surface mapped by the Magellan space craft that cost $431 million, has better detail than Alaska," said Mastrodicasa. "The next step is getting the funding together for the upcoming phases to obtain the data for the rest of the state."

The state SDMI program director believes that the state and federal relationship will continue but that he is not ruling out additional funding from Congress if necessary.

Mastrodicasa explained that the initial data, in the form of GeoSAR and IFSAR digital data over 28 one degree by one degree cells, has been gathered by the two aircraft and will be processed in the coming months before it's available for use by the public on a University of Alaska website.