Named “Project of the Year,” the company’s landmark effort to automate seagrass habitat mapping along the U.S. Gulf Coast pioneered a new semi-automated process for image classification; a task that formerly required time-intensive manual photointerpretation methods.

Fugro EarthData’s approach to the Texas Benthic Mapping Project combined high resolution digital airborne imagery with object-oriented feature extraction software and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Applicable to land-based or shallow-water mapping, the innovative methodology streamlines production, eliminates bias and inconsistency, and provides quantitative accuracy assessment.

“By all accounts, the Texas Benthic Mapping Project is a fine example of how the private and public sectors can work together toward the common goals of improved data accuracy and increased production efficiencies,” said Fugro EarthData President Edward Saade. “We are thrilled to have won this award and share its honor with our team members, The Alta Vista Company and Avineon, Inc., as well as with our client, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Services Center and their project partners, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas A&M University Center for Coastal Studies.”

The September issue of POB magazine will include a feature about the MAPPS excellence awards; the current issue of Earth Imaging Journal details the Texas Benthic Mapping Project in its cover article.

About MAPPS: Formed in 1982, MAPPS (www.mapps.org) is the only national association of firms in the surveying, spatial data, and geographic information systems field in the United States. Member firms are engaged in surveying, photogrammetry, satellite and airborne remote sensing, aerial photography, hydrography, aerial and satellite image processing, and GPS and GIS data collection and conversion services.