Space Imaging, the world's leader in providing Earth imagery and related services to commercial and government markets, has announced that through its reseller, Spatial Innovision (New Kingston, Jamaica), it has signed an agreement with the government of Jamaica to take 1-meter, high resolution satellite images of the entire country. The satellite imagery would be used by all of Jamaica's land-related and mapping agencies. The project, which is worth more than a million dollars, will be the first time an entire country has been commercially imaged with 1-meter satellite imagery.

This one-meter resolution satellite image is the first ever taken of Montego Bay, Jamaica and was collected by Space Imaging's Ikonos satellite on Feb. 10. Photo: spaceimaging.com

According to the Jamaican government, the last color aerial images assembled for the entire 4,411 square-mile island, which is slightly smaller than Connecticut, was in 1991. The last comprehensive maps were made 20 years ago. Now, by using current satellite imagery, government agencies will join together to assemble information for many applications such as urban and cadastral mapping, environment, transmission systems design, telecommunications, farming, housing, mining, real estate, public safety, emergency response and population/demographic assessment. The project includes the delivery of 1-meter resolution precision pan-sharpened as well as 4-meter multi-spectral imagery for the entire country.

Hon. Seymour Mullings, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land and Environment, said "Our government has been concerned for some time that the country lacked the necessary techniques capable of delivering such vital data in the required format and in a timely manner. We feel confident that the digital technologies of Ikonos can assist Jamaica to prepare our much-needed maps with a shorter turnaround time than the aerial mapping systems wešve used in the past." The Cabinet of Jamaica gave its approval to the project in December 2000.

For Jacqueline daCosta, Director General in the Ministry of Land and Environment and Chairman of the Land Information Council of Jamaica, the project represents a major strategic success for both the Ministry and the Council. "This acquisition was only possible through the determined and collaborative efforts of member agencies of the council partnering together to share the value of the latest base mapping information in order to enhance their various business functions and operations," said daCosta.

"We are in an ideal position to help government agencies gain access to the digital Earth information market," said Brian Soliday, Space Imaging's vice president of Global Products and Services. "The ability to acquire diverse geospatial content from a single source is invaluable. It's through early adopters, such as the Jamaican government that we will continue to grow the commercial remote sensing market."

"We are pleased to offer Jamaica a more economical approach to updating their base map information from a single provider of high-quality satellite imagery," said Silburn Clarke, president of Spatial Innovision. "In addition to the Jamaican government, we've received very positive feedback from several of the island's spatial scientists and business representatives regarding the possibilities of using such state-of-the-art technology."

The Ikonos satellite was designed to collect about 600 images per day. Since Ikonos started operation it has been averaging 800-1000 images per day. To date, the Ikonos satellite has collected more than 74 million square kilometers of imagery, a 50 million increase since its one-year anniversary in September 2000.