Intermap secures major contract for mapping project in Indonesia

Intermap has won a US$20 million contract to map the Indonesian island of Sulawesi this year. The contract is the first phase of the Indonesian national topographic basemap programme to create a national digital basemap as part of the One Map programme, backed by Presidential Decree. Under the One Map programme’s approved technical specifications, the Indonesian government will collect airborne IFSAR-derived elevation data and cloud-free radar imagery for the entire country at resolutions suitable for 1:5,000 scale mapping. This first phase now awarded to Intermap, a global leader in 3D geospatial products and intelligence solutions, represents 10% of the country’s land area and 10% of the One Map programme. Work on the remaining 90% is expected to be carried out in the subsequent four years. 

Indonesia’s national geospatial agency, Badan Informasi Geospasial (BIG), has been mandated to create a national digital basemap. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, strategically positioned on the major trade route through the South China Sea. The country is also home to the world’s largest tropical peatlands and mangrove forests as well as the third largest tropical rainforest. These natural resources are vital in capturing carbon, helping mitigate climate change impacts, and are key resources for supporting Indonesia’s long-term development. 

Developing spatial plans 

Basemaps play a critical role in policy formation, decision-making and implementation of activities such as natural resource management, emergency response and natural disaster rehabilitation, and spatial planning. Creating basemaps to the 1:5,000 scale specification requires high-resolution remote sensing data, including imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs), to extract details like buildings, roads, land cover and terrain features. 

The contract procurement to achieve this objective included a competitive process, which evaluated multiple commercial airborne and satellite technologies and sensors. Intermap and its partners will utilize Intermap’s airborne, native-3D Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) collection to map the entire Island of Sulawesi, an area of more than 180,000km2, in line with Indonesia’s technical requirements, the budget and the allotted timeframe. 

Mapping 17,000 islands 

Intermap has an exclusive partnership with the subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise, PT Pratama Persada Airborne (PPA), which leverages the strengths of both parties. The partnership combines Intermap’s patented IFSAR collection technology and data processing expertise with PPA’s extensive local knowledge, resources and government support. 

The contract is expected to be the first phase of the One Map programme to map approximately 17,000 islands, spanning Indonesia’s entire territory, covering equatorial Southeast Asia. The follow-on contract is expected to take four years and will complete the foundation basemap, with additional agreements to support the maintenance of the basemap. 

“This major contract in Indonesia highlights the value of our decades of experience, commercialization expertise and technological development,” said Patrick A. Blott, Intermap chairman and CEO. “We have had a presence in Indonesia since the 1990s and have received numerous contracts over the past two decades. The progression of our technology, our exploitation of relevant data to drive valuable commercial use cases and the expansion of our operations in Indonesia are a testament to our ability to respond to challenging client requirements – in this case, in-country processing, stringent data specifications and ability to work closely with the local surveying, mapping, government and business communities.” 

Cloud and foliage penetration 

Indonesia is located in the cloud belt, often blanketed with persistent cloud cover, and mostly composed of rural areas and dense tropical rainforests. IFSAR technology is the only mapping solution that offers cloud-penetrating and foliage-penetrating capabilities at the resolutions required to achieve 1:5,000 scale mapping. Intermap’s IFSAR is approved by the Indonesian government as a preferred technology, capable of achieving the required basemap standards. The company’s sensors capture detailed imagery at 25cm resolution, producing digital surface models and digital terrain models at 0.50m and 1m resolutions respectively. Additionally, feature products such as triple canopy foliage penetration are included for basemaps.  

Indonesia plans to commercialize the data and Intermap is well-positioned to contribute its extensive experience and capabilities to create exploitation tools for applications such as flood mapping, navigation, resource management and infrastructure monitoring.