Italian Military Geographic Institute, Italy

Italian Military Geographic Institute Increases Efficiencies and Protects Troops with Help from Geospatial Technology

Customized solution creates a single digital workflow to produce print and digital maps from one database

Whether the Italian Army needs maps for peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo or Italian citizens need maps to plan their holidays in the Alps, the Italian Military Geographic Institute (IGM) serves the cartographic needs of the technological, scientific, social, and political development of the state. IGM provides mapping products used by the Italian military for operations inside and outside the country. Most of these military maps are customized according to end-user requirements and generated in either paper or digital formats. Other government agencies, including local cities and regions and civilian organizations, routinely purchase standard print and softcopy maps for a multitude of applications.

In addition to supplying finalized maps and geospatial data sets, IGM collects geometry, feature, and attribute data from numerous sources. IGM maintains field crews to conduct topographic and geodesic surveys on site with GPS equipment.

It also operates a complete data production facility in Florence, where photogrammetric techniques are applied to aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and existing maps for feature capture and extraction.

Providing a wide variety of maps has presented a problem common to many mapping organizations. IGM has traditionally maintained multiple raster, vector, elevation, and topologic databases to store cartographic elements at different map scales – posing expensive challenges. The extraction of geometry and features from source materials must be carried out numerous times to fulfill the needs of various scales, and the cost of maintaining separate databases can quickly become excessive. In addition, IGM operated several digital workflows to output maps at different scales.

Seeking to implement a geospatial data management solution to create a single digital workflow to produce print and digital maps from one database, IGM selected Intergraph technology.

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