Cristopher Adams writes in the New Zealand Herald about the New Zealand-designed software platform which was used to generate the 3D simulations of the Brisbane floods used by news broadcasters.
The simulated maps were generated a week before the floods, and were created using both high-resolution aerial photography, and also airborne laser scanning.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“He said news organisations were quickly on the phone to the company, asking if they could include the flood simulation maps in their bulletins. The models were created using high-resolution aerial photography, and airborne laser scanning, in which a device shoots laser beams at the ground 100,000 times each second.
“”What we can do from that is measure the shape from the ground,” said Nicholls. “Then we mash all that together to make these 3D models and we provide that data to our clients.” The main customers were state and local governments, which used it for town planning. It is also used by mining firms for mine planning and management.”