Ecopia to Deliver Impervious Surface Data to City of Seattle

April 13, 2023 -- Toronto -- Today, Ecopia AI (Ecopia) announces a new project with the City of Seattle to map natural and impervious surfaces to update and augment data used for  drainage fee calculation and billing. Through this collaboration, Ecopia’s AI-based mapping systems will extract land cover features from the City’s high-resolution aerial imagery, resulting in high-definition vector maps over an area of 125 square miles.

This data can be leveraged to enhance the geospatial analytics supporting drainage fee calculation (also known as stormwater utility fees or SUFs). Like more than 1,800 American municipalities, the City of Seattle collects drainage fees from properties to fund critical infrastructure maintenance and development. Ecopia’s data, which combines extensive natural and impervious surface feature options in one product, will enhance Seattle Public Utilities’ ability to ensure drainage fees are based on each property’s unique land cover and contribution to runoff.

Ecopia’s high-quality geospatial data can aid Seattle Public Utilities in the development of essential stormwater management strategies related to flood response, green infrastructure, and overflow prevention. 

This project includes the following land cover features digitized and classified by Ecopia: 

• Buildings
• Buildings under construction
• Buildings with green roofs
• Paved roads
• Unpaved roads
• Paved driveways
• Unpaved driveways
• Paved parking
• Unpaved parking
• Paved sidewalks
• Unpaved sidewalks
• Pavement
• In-ground swimming pools
• Paved sports fields
• Unpaved sports fields
• Concrete patios
• Non-concrete patios
• Heavily compacted surfaces
• Railways
• Open water
• Tree canopy (deciduous, evergreen, & mixed)
• Shrubs
• Grass
• Planting strips
• Barelands
• Obscured/uncertain

“Ecopia is proud to empower communities with a source of truth for land cover data. The City of Seattle’s commitment to leveraging high-quality geospatial information for stormwater management is a great example of how governments are using AI to build more sustainable communities, and we are thrilled to be part of it,” said Brandon Palin, Senior Director of Public Sector and International Development at Ecopia.

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.