3D Land Cover Data from Ecopia AI Now Available for Instant Access Across 400 US Cities

May 14, 2025 - Toronto - Ecopia AI (Ecopia), in partnership with Nearmap, announces the off-the-shelf availability of 3D land cover mapping data for the 400 largest cities in the US. This data will provide civil engineering firms, government organizations, and more with a digital twin to power geospatial analytics applications in land use planning, climate resilience, infrastructure development, risk assessment, and similar workflows requiring high-precision data about current conditions in the real world. 

Extracted from Nearmap’s high-resolution aerial imagery by Ecopia’s AI-based mapping systems, the 3D land cover data provides a comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date digital representation of the physical world. The dataset includes 17 standard layers across the 400 most populous US cities, comprising a detailed rendering of the natural and built environments. 

“This collaboration was born out of a shared commitment to solving our customers’ most complex challenges,” said Ray Savona, CRO at Nearmap. “Nearmap is proud to partner with Ecopia and power their next-generation 3D land cover data with our current, consistent, high-resolution imagery and industry-leading location intelligence solution.”

Over the next few months, off-the-shelf access to this dataset will be expanded across Nearmap’s entire coverage area - over 1.5 million square kilometers that covers 87% of the US population.

The data for the initial 400 cities can be explored here. 

Traditional mapping methods involve manually tracing individual features and appending them with related attributes, a resource-intensive and time-consuming process that is not scalable or repeatable. Producing land cover data across just one city often takes 1-2 years of full-time effort, posing challenges for keeping maps current with the real-world conditions needed for critical analytics.

Ecopia’s AI-powered systems extract high-precision mapping data from geospatial imagery in just a fraction of the time it takes to manually digitize land cover. While other AI-based mapping solutions sacrifice data quality to prioritize speed, Ecopia’s systems produce data with >95% geometric accuracy, enabling end users to keep geospatial databases up-to-date with complete and accurate information about the dynamically changing world. 

Since 2013, Ecopia has been leveraging these AI-based systems to efficiently produce high-precision 2D and 3D mapping data in over 100 countries around the world on a mostly project-by-project basis. Organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The World Bank, Jacobs, The City of Los Angeles, and the State of Washington have contracted Ecopia to extract mapping data to support a wide range of geospatial applications related to hazard mitigation, transportation planning, stormwater management, and more.

Today’s launch of off-the-shelf 3D land cover data marks the beginning of instant access to a digital twin of America’s largest population centers. Recent breakthroughs in Ecopia’s AI-based mapping process have enabled the creation of the first 400 cities at an unprecedented scale in the geospatial industry, empowering Ecopia to offer the data off-the-shelf.

“The off-the-shelf availability of 3D land cover data marks a new chapter in the geospatial community,” said Jon Lipinski, President and Co-Founder of Ecopia AI. “Ecopia has been continuously innovating in the AI mapping space for over a decade, and we are thrilled to see our vision come to life with these latest breakthroughs in our process. We look forward to building upon this data to fulfill our mission of creating a digital twin of the world.”

To learn more about purchasing this data, get in touch with Ecopia’s team.

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About Ecopia AI
Ecopia is on a mission to create a digital twin of the Earth. We leverage artificial intelligence to convert high-resolution imagery into high-precision 3D vector map data at scale. This data creates a digital representation of the physical world, forming the foundation of a digital twin for visualization, analytics, and decision-making. Ecopia’s data is leveraged by hundreds of commercial and government organizations across more than 100 countries around the world. 

About Nearmap
Nearmap is the location intelligence provider customers rely on for consistent, reliable, high-resolution imagery, insights, and answers. Harnessing its own patented camera systems, imagery capture, AI, geospatial tools, and advanced SaaS platforms, Nearmap users receive tailored solutions for complex challenges. Nearmap captures wide-scale urban areas in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand several times each year, making content instantly available in the cloud via web app or API integration. Founded in Australia in 2007, Nearmap stands as the definitive source of truth that shapes the livable world. For more information, please visit www.nearmap.com.