Southern Mapping Company

Company profile

Southern Mapping Company, with some 200 man-years dedicated to the power industry, provides airborne and satellite mapping using a variety of technologies to a number of different market sectors, including the energy sector. Typical application areas in this sector are surveys for energy sites (coal, hydro, nuclear, thermal, wind and solar) and substations as well as surveys for both new and existing power lines. Our technologies include airborne Lidar with orthoimagery, airborne hyperspectral mapping, airborne thermal imagery, as well as optical and radar satellite imagery at a variety of resolutions.

These tools allow us to offer the following services:

• Low to medium resolution imagery and low to medium accuracy elevation models for site and corridor selection;
• High resolution imagery and design level elevation models to assist with final site selection, terrace location and design;
• Vegetation species maps, soil chemistry maps, surface mineralisation maps and ground and water pollution maps for environmental baseline and site selection planning and monitoring;
• Power line profiling using Lidar and orthoimagery for final route selection and templating;
• Profiling of existing lines for ampacity and uprating studies to optimise power flow as well as to identify safety violations due to underclearance;
• Regular hyperspectral surveys for vegetation management and clearing contract control, as well as environmental auditing;
• Regular low to medium resolution satellite surveys for property and servitude encroachment monitoring;

In addition, we have a GIS capability that allows us to pull all of the above products together to provide solutions as opposed to data to our clients. Using our own extensive archive data, client data, or data collected for a specific project, we are able to assist with siting optimisation studies, network connectivity and fault mapping and other services.