Taiwan e-map wins Asia geospatial award

2015/10/02

An innovative electronic map of Taiwan combining aerial imagery, geological formations and a street atlas is winner of the 2015 Asia Geospatial Excellence Award.

Announced as part of the GeoSmart Asia forum Sept. 29 in Kuala Lumpur, the honor recognizes the efforts of designer National Land Surveying and Mapping Center under the Ministry of the Interior.

An MOI official said the award is a well-deserved acknowledgement of the center’s success in creating the first government-published web-based map of its kind. “We incorporated the latest technology and practices, even using unmanned aerial vehicles to capture crystal clear images of highly inaccessible terrain.”

Based on geographical information compiled in 2011, e-map boasts comprehensive coverage of Taiwan, including the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu. It allows viewers to zoom in to within 1.25 meters of buildings, sites of interest in residential areas, as well as mountains and rural villages in remote locations.

A special feature of e-map is that it is constantly updating source data and renewing images, enabling the MOI to offer the cutting-edge cartography services to the public.

“The center is committed to maintaining e-map as an open system and developing value-added components such as multilingual navigation, route planning and location-based information,” the official said.

“We are confident e-map will prove popular and increase general awareness of Taiwan with locals and visitors alike.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=237213&ctNode=2194&mp=9)