Ecopia AI Awarded Contract by State of Washington for Climate Resilience & Sustainability Initiatives

August 14, 2023 -- Toronto -- Today, Ecopia AI (Ecopia) announces the company was selected by the State of Washington to provide high-resolution land cover data for flood modeling, clean energy planning, and other key climate resilience and sustainability applications. 

The State of Washington issued a public request for proposals (RFP) before awarding Ecopia the contract. Leveraging high-resolution aerial imagery and Ecopia’s AI-based mapping technology, this project has provided Washington with comprehensive land cover data across the state’s 71,429 square mile area in just 4 weeks.

This project demonstrates the State of Washington’s commitment to developing next generation solutions to complex climate challenges, a rapidly increasing trend among public sector organizations around the world. Not only will the high-resolution land cover data be available for state agencies to use in their geospatial analysis workflows, but a 1m raster dataset will also be published openly for use by any organization or state seeking accurate and up-to-date climate data. This builds upon Ecopia’s ongoing work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s climate resiliency funding programs, which provides a similar 1m open source raster dataset for coastal mapping and analysis.

“It’s great to see the State of Washington invest in high quality data for critical climate and sustainability initiatives, and empower other organizations with an open source version of that data,” said Brandon Palin, Senior Director of Public Sector & International Development at Ecopia. “Geospatial data holds so much potential for combating climate change and developing a more sustainable future, and we are thrilled to be working with the State of Washington to make this important information readily available to the organizations and states that need it.”

Among the many applications the State plans to use Ecopia’s data for are hydrological modeling, flood mapping, and EV charging station placement optimization. The data will provide an unprecedented level of geospatial insight for both State agencies and third-party organizations developing climate resilience and sustainability solutions. 

Prior to working with Ecopia, the State of Washington experienced challenges sourcing and creating a cost-effective source of truth for land cover data. Having sourced high-resolution aerial imagery, the State sought a solution for extracting vector data efficiently without sacrificing quality. The ability of Ecopia’s AI-based mapping systems to extract vectors from imagery with the accuracy of a trained GIS-professional, all in only 4 weeks, enabled the State to justify further investment of funds. No other solution evaluated could provide the same comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date land cover data as cost-effectively or efficiently as Ecopia.

Vector data layers delivered to the State of Washington include buildings, roads, bridges, railways, driveways, bareland, forest, tree canopy, grass, paved/unpaved sports grounds, parking lots, pavement, sidewalks, swimming pools, and water bodies. Classifications provided for the publicly available 1m raster dataset include impervious surfaces, tree canopy, shrubs, and open water.

For more information on Ecopia, click here. To view our HD map samples, click here.

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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-definition (HD) vector maps. These maps form a digital representation of reality and are embedded into decision-making applications, offering unique insight at scale. Ecopia’s HD vector maps are leveraged for hundreds of commercial and government applications across over 100 countries around the world.