The HxGN Content Program is proud to have a network of partners to support our data acquisition, processing and selling as well as provide expertise inside the geospatial industry. Each partner brings a unique set of value-added solutions to the market to help customers optimize their data use. The Partner Spotlight Series showcases the great work of our partners.
Fugro is a decades-long partner of Hexagon and supports the HxGN Content Program through both content acquisition and resale efforts. Fugro offers a wide variety of value-added geospatial products for which our content provides the base data. Our collection of stereo-pairs, orthoimagery and digital surface models (DSM) allows Fugro to provide clients participating in the content program with highly accurate photogrammetric data to inventory the built environment, map urban development, monitor assets, and verify compliance for state and local governments.
Fugro’s raster-based analytic services, including change detection, land use land cover mapping, and AI-derived feature extraction routines, can all be developed using our natural color orthoimagery content. From the content-based color-infrared orthoimagery, Fugro produces vegetation health surveys, species identification, and impervious surface mapping. Additionally, Fugro conducts line-of-sight, viewshed, slope, and flood-modeling studies for clients requiring advanced 3D analysis using the DSM from the HxGN Content Program.
Fugro’s Profile
HQ: Global headquarters in the Netherlands and Houston, Texas for the Americas
Year Established: 1962
Areas of Expertise:
- Insurance, emergency response (E911) and appraisal
- Land-use planning and taxation
- Natural resources
- Utility maintenance
- Coastal mapping
- Disaster response
- Floodplain mapping
- Economic development
- National security
Solutions Overview
Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analyzing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis, and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from Geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable, and efficient manner. By deploying a fleet of specialized assets and cutting-edge digital solutions, Fugro delivers vital information to build a safe and livable world.
Fugro delivers critical information to facilitate the safe, cost-effective and sustainable design, construction and management of infrastructure to optimize reliability, utilization, and longevity. As the global leader in asset integrity and site characterization, Fugro offers integrated services anywhere in the world.
What makes Fugro unique?
With offices across the globe and decades of experience in geospatial mapping and the complementary fields of geophysical and geotechnical analysis, Fugro is uniquely positioned to efficiently provide Geo-data. As a multi-disciplined firm, it serves the diverse Geo-data needs of its clients on both land and sea, providing comprehensive mapping and integrated software solutions from crewed and fully autonomous systems. Its professional and technical specialists are committed to helping governments, philanthropic, and private industry clients meet their environmental and commercial objectives.
Hexagon & Fugro’s Partnership
Fugro has worked with Hexagon and Leica Geosystems for nearly three decades. In the mid-90’s, Fugro partnered with Leica to build and test the first high altitude lidar system, a precursor to Leica’s ALS series of lidar sensors. Fugro was also heavily involved in the development and launch of the Leica ADS pushbroom system. In 2003, Fugro teamed with Hexagon to acquire 90,000 square miles of digital imagery over the State of Nebraska as a pilot project for the USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). Nebraska was the first state flown by a large-format digital sensor and opened the door for digital sensors to compete with film cameras for image contracts with NAIP.
Since then, Fugro has teamed with Hexagon to capture and process millions of square miles of imagery across the United States for the HxGN Content Program, including the utilization of the CityMapper sensor for local mapping needs. Following this long-standing partnership, Fugro became an acquisition and resale partner of the HxGN Content Program. The content program workflow, from acquisition to delivery, meets rigorous standards for data quality, ensuring diverse solutions are offered to meet all of its clients’ needs.
What is a major milestone or success achieved through the partnership?
For many years, the State of North Dakota used a combination of 60 cm NAIP imagery and a patchwork of commercial imagery for environmental and agricultural management. Both datasets presented a challenge as the resolution of the NAIP imagery did not meet the requirements for the state’s many uses of the imagery and the commercial imagery presented temporal constraints, having been flown over multiple seasons with varying geographical coverage.
Working within the state’s funding constraints, Fugro proposed using Hexagon’s HxGN Content Program. The program provided 30 cm, 4-band statewide imagery, totaling more than 70,000 square miles. Flown in a single season for a significantly lower cost than a new acquisition, this data provided multiple state and local agencies and community stakeholders in North Dakota with the best available, consistent statewide dataset for use in floodplain mapping, habitat monitoring, wetlands delineation, and asset management. Providing data of this magnitude to North Dakota has paved the way for future projects in the Dakotas and other states that require consistent datasets with funding limitations.
To learn more about Fugro, please visit fugro.com.