Spatial Networks has been working for some time to map Afghanistan with local GIS and geospatial technology experts along with the national mapping agency. The project scope is ambitious, with plans to completely map the entire country (650,000+ sq km) at 1:25,000 and all the provincial capitals and urban centers at 1:5,000. To date, 120,000 sq km of area has been mapped at 1:25,000, and nearly a dozen cities at 1:5000. The work is ongoing, with teams also focused on Points of Interest (POIs) in the urban areas.
The team is headquartered in Kabul, with a significant field verification regimen for features (points, lines & polygons) that are undetermined from imagery sources. For example, if a point is digitized, yet the specialist cannot determine with high-confidence, whether that point represents a cave, mine shaft, water well, water tank, or other feature, it is deemed “unknown” and queued for the appropriate field team to visit and confirm.
Read more about their effort on the company blog.
