The 3D Special Interest Group of EuroSDR launched a project to identify “the economic value of 3D data for National Mapping Agencies (NMAs)”. The project is unique because it is funded through “crowdfunding”: eleven National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) and EuroSDR (represented by Jantien Stoter) as 12th partner each contribute financially. The results of the project will give the participating NMAs understanding in the business case of 3D data: in what applications does 3D give added value?; what are the required 3D data for these applications”; and, what are the costs and benefits to collect and maintain these 3D data nationwide?

The participating NMAs visited the Kadaster in Amsterdam on 7 and 8 December 2015 to agree on the precise objectives of the project so that these can be given to the company or research institute that will carry out the study (not known yet). After several presentations from the participating NMAS, the group came to a first selection of the most relevant use cases where 3D has added value. Each country then gave his or her top five 3D theme, including traffic and mobility, natural environment, agriculture, buildings, security. The project will start early 2016 and is expected to run for one year.