BlueSky maps BP pipeline network

The aerial photography, which was purchased and integrated by Intelliscan Ltd into BP Exploration's Geographic Information System, provides an easy to use, map accurate record of over 250 km of the land based pipeline network.At ground resolutions of up to 25cm surface detail including property boundaries, access routes and navigational landmarks can be easily located and identified from the comfort of the desktop. The BlueSky aerial photography covers an area from the St Fergus gas terminal north of Peterhead to the BP Hound Point export facility east of the Forth Bridges, via Cruden Bay landfall facility north of Aberdeen and Grangemouth refining and petrochemical complex north east of Falkirk.At ground resolutions of up to 25cm the imagery is part of a nationwide photomap of Scotland that was processed, scanned and orthorectified by BlueSky in support of Ordnance Survey's MasterMap Imagery Layer. "The aerial photography is a valuable resource which adds detail and context to our existing data and mapping," said Ken Smith, Wayleaves Co-Ordinator for BP. "From the desktop we can easily identify distinguishing ground features to assist with a range of applications including land ownership identification, site visits and incident management." Intelliscan, based in Aberdeen, provide a range of GIS management and consulting services to BP, they also develop and deploy custom applications and create software tools for the global energy group.The purchase and integration of the aerial photography within the BP MapInfo GIS is part of a wider data management project by Intelliscan that has also included management and loading of Ordnance Survey MasterMap data."The fact that BlueSky were able to provide aerial photography covering the entire pipeline network from a single source was very important," said Jonathan Shapiro, Managing Director of Intelliscan. "It ensured the imagery was consistent in both accuracy and quality."The aerial photography that was supplied to Intelliscan on behalf of BP was captured and created by BlueSky. The original aerial photography was commissioned by Getmapping as part of a contract with Ordnance Survey to produce 60,000 square kilometres of aerial photography of Scotland.In order to produce data for Ordnance Survey, BlueSky had to ensure their production process complied with Ordnance Survey's Acceptable Quality Levels. These quality levels cover the accuracy and appearance of the imagery and the quality of the edge matching across the complete dataset.

Author: Rachel Eddy / Jonathan Shapiro

Bio.: BlueSky Ltd / Intelliscan Ltd

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www.bluesky-world.com