State of Indiana partners with Woolpert for advanced Lidar and imagery
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State of Indiana partners with Woolpert for advanced Lidar and imagery

The Indiana Geographic Information Office (IGIO) has partnered with Woolpert to collect of high-end aerial orthoimagery and Lidar data and advance the state’s geospatial capabilities. These efforts, part of IGIO’s Imagery and Elevation Programs, aim to drive economic growth, enhance infrastructure planning, protect natural resources, and strengthen emergency response systems across Indiana.

Spanning a three-year timeline from 2025 to 2027, Woolpert will cover over 95,000km2 of Indiana’s landscape, capturing four-band digital orthoimagery at 15cm resolution alongside Quality Level 1 (QL1) Lidar. Additionally, the project extends to Indiana’s Lake Michigan coastline, where approximately 310km2 of high-resolution 7.5cm imagery and QL1 Lidar will be collected annually up until the end of 2028. These coastal data acquisitions support the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Lake Michigan Coastal Program, delivering Lidar at an impressive density of 25 points per square metre.

This initiative underscores Indiana’s commitment to leveraging state-of-the-art geospatial solutions for a more sustainable and resilient future.

Basemap for multitude of applications

The data will be available at no cost for the public to download or stream through the IGIO website and IndianaMap. State and local government agencies can obtain additional services and products, including enhanced digital orthoimagery, Lidar and derivative datasets, through the state’s collective buy-up programme.

Woolpert project manager Matt Worthy said that local governments rely on geospatial data for countless processes. The data serves as a basemap for a range of applications, including planning, assessment, modelling and research. “The usefulness of the state’s orthoimagery and Lidar data is virtually endless. In addition to the classic use cases of the base imagery and elevation data, we’ve already begun receiving requests for derivative products such as building footprints, impervious surfaces, elevation-derived hydrography, and the list goes on.”

Worthy continued: "The excitement surrounding the programme is palpable, from the metropolitan government coalitions down to the smallest rural counties and municipalities. It’s rewarding to explain Woolpert’s solution to others and watch their wheels start turning as they connect our data to projects that they’ve wanted to undertake but maybe haven’t due to previous technological or cost considerations.”

Woolpert programme director Brian Stevens noted the growth and sophistication of Indiana’s statewide imagery and Lidar programmes: “When I first started my career at Woolpert and working with several Indiana counties, we primarily collected and processed black-and-white aerial imagery to produce orthoimagery and manually derived derivative products,” he stated. “Now, with the technology being implemented today by the state, including high point-density Lidar and co-collected aerial imagery, Indiana is leading the way and serves as a model for the rest of the country.”

Aerial Lidar imagery captured by Woolpert. (Image courtesy: Woolpert/U.S. Geological Survey)
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