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Nearmap Expands U.S. Aerial Imagery Coverage 75 Percent

The company, which captures photos of the ground by plane two or three times a year, now offers imagery for about 80 percent of the U.S. population. Government officials use the photos for a variety of purposes.

An aerial image of a Washington state neighborhood.
An aerial image of a Washington state neighborhood.
Nearmap
Nearmap, a company that captures aerial imagery and then sells it to government and other customers, is expanding its coverage to more than 308,000 square miles containing more than 80 percent of the U.S. population.

That’s an increase of nearly 75 percent from the company’s previous coverage of 177,500 square miles. The photos, captured at a 2.2-3 inch resolution using airplanes and updated up to three times a year, cover some 1,700 urban areas.

The expansion comes in response to customer demand, Nearmap’s general manager for North America, Tony Agresta, said in a press release.

“Around 11,300 customers worldwide rely on Nearmap to be their eye in the sky, and to provide them with the truth on the ground,” he said. “We’re seeing strong momentum with new and existing customers in the U.S. This massive boost in coverage reflects the broader investment and focus Nearmap has on the strategically important U.S. market.”

Governments in many places will capture such imagery on their own, but updates to the imagery might be too slow to be useful to officials. Nearmap offers a subscription service that can be augmented with AI object recognition to help highlight relevant areas.

The uses for the technology range from property tax assessment to urban planning to emergency response. The company has begun a program focusing on capturing post-catastrophe aerial imagery in the U.S.

The expansion also comes with a doubling of the number of urban areas where subscribers can access oblique views and 3D images.

Outside the U.S., according to the press release, Nearmap also covers 64 percent of Canada’s population, 90 percent of Australia’s population and 73 percent of New Zealand’s population.