Large-scale mapping of Sofia city for flood risk maps with photogrammetry

Geospatial firm Geographica was commissioned by the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water and the World Bank Group to develop the flood risk map of Sofia, the capital.  

The mission involved mapping a large area over people in the city center and flying near Sofia International Airport with the eBee X fixed-wing drone and its S.O.D.A. 3D camera.

Geographica works with all types of drones but chose the eBee X for this project. The reasons were its ease of use, large area coverage, safety and flight permissions. Weighing less than 2 kg, the eBee X eases the authorizations for operations over people in urban areas in Europe and the U.S.

Results:

• Large-scale mapping of Sofia city.
• Safe flights over people and near airports with the eBee X drone.
• Creation of the city’s twin model
• Use of the data by the municipality to create flood risk management plans.
• Automated landings in the city thanks to eMotion flight planning software.
• Geographica established trust and landed other city mapping projects.

Interested in Geographica’s projects? Check out this webinar in which they shared another project they did in Sofia to estimate solar energy potential on rooftops and calculate the green areas of the city: https://ageagle.com/webinars/multi-drone-customer-stories/

*Please note that, due to the large scale of the project, the below dataset contains only a fraction of the entire data.