BLOM ASA Contract for Italian Environment Ministry

16 December 2008, 2:23pm

Blom ASA, Europe's largest company within the collection and processing of mapping data, has been awarded a 4 million euro contract by the Italian Ministry of Environment for the creation of a terrain and surface model in Italy. The high resolution images, due to be completed in the first half of 2010, will enable the Ministry to make more accurate environmental forecasts, such as predicting the risk of flooding

The new project includes capturing an area of 30,000 sq. km. in Italy with Blom's LiDAR technology to establish a terrain and surface model, before being implemented into a data management system. The terrain models will be used to estimate and predict hydro-geological risk, such as flooding risk. The pan-Italian database will be utilised by the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Defence and several local government authorities.

Further confirmation that focus on the environmental sector is paying off

Blom has focused on the development of products and services for the environmental sector across Europe, which it considers an important vertical market. Blom has this year announced several major contracts for environmental purposes: in February 2008, it was awarded a similar contract from the Italian Ministry of Environment, and in August 2008, it was also awarded a similar contract from the Andalucian Water Agency in Spain.

"We are extremely pleased to again be working with the Italian Ministry of Environment. This new contract represents confirmation that our focus on the environmental industry is starting to pay off," states Blom CEO, Hakon Jacobsen.

The new project, as with the previous one with the Ministry of Environment, is consistent with the standards of the EU directive INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe), whose aim is to stimulate the availability of environmental information in Europe.

www.blomasa.com

Geo: International