Intermap Technologies announced it has won a $20 million contract to map the Island of Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2024 (the ?Contract?). The Contract is the first phase of the Indonesian national topographic basemap program to create a national digital basemap as part of the One Map program backed by Presidential Decree. Under the One Map program?s approved technical specifications, the government will collect airborne IFSAR-derived elevation data and cloud-free radar imagery for the entire country at resolutions suitable for 1:5,000 scale mapping.

The first phase awarded today represents 10% of the country?s land area and 10% of the One Map program. Work on the remaining 90% is expected over the subsequent four years. Indonesia?s national geospatial agency, Badan Informasi Geospasial (BIG), has been mandated to create a national digital basemap.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, strategically positioned on the major trade route through the South China Sea. Basemaps play a critical role in policy formation, decision-making and implementation of activities such as natural resource management, disaster response and spatial planning. Creating basemaps to the 1:5,000 scale specification requires high-resolution remote sensing data, including imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs), to extract details like buildings, roads, land cover and terrain features.

Indonesia is home to the?world?s largest tropical peatlands and mangrove forests as well as the third largest tropical rainforest. These natural resources are vital in capturing carbon, helping mitigate climate change impacts, and are key resources for supporting Indonesia?s long-term development. Basemaps are essential for developing spatial plans, emergency response and natural disaster rehabilitation.

The Contract procurement to achieve this objective included a competitive process, which evaluated multiple commercial airborne and satellite technologies and sensors. Today?s award represents one of the largest single-source topographic mapping programs ever and demonstrates that national mapping agencies value Intermap?s unique airborne, native-3D Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) collection, high-quality elevation data and rapid processing technology. Intermap and its partners will utilize Intermap?s IFSAR to map the entire Island of Sulawesi, an area of more than 180,000 square kilometers.

No other company can meet Indonesia?s technical requirements within the budget and timeframe allotted by the Contract. Intermap has an exclusive partnership with the subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise, PT Pratama Persada Airborne (PPA), which leverages the strengths of both parties. The partnership combines Intermap?s cutting-edge, patented IFSAR collection technology and data processing expertise with PPA?s extensive local knowledge, resources and government support.

Together, the companies provide an unparalleled mapping solution for this first phase of the Indonesian national mapping program and future work under the One Map program. Today?s Contract is expected to be the first phase of the One Map program to map approximately 17,000 islands, spanning Indonesia?s entire territory, covering equatorial Southeast Asia. The follow-on contract is expected to take four years and will complete the foundation basemap, with additional agreements to support the maintenance of the basemap.

Indonesia is located in the cloud belt, often blanketed with persistent cloud cover, and mostly composed of rural areas and dense tropical rainforests. IFSAR technology is the only mapping solution that offers cloud-penetrating and foliage-penetrating capabilities at the resolutions required to achieve 1:5,000 scale mapping. Intermap?s IFSAR is approved by the Indonesian government as a preferred technology, capable of achieving the required basemap standards.

This award demonstrates the high degree of confidence Indonesia has for the collection and processing capabilities of Intermap and its partners. Indonesia plans to commercialize the data and Intermap is uniquely positioned to contribute its extensive experience and capabilities to create exploitation tools for applications such as flood mapping, navigation, resource management and infrastructure monitoring.