The Challenge

The Commonwealth of Kentucky faced the challenge of acquiring comprehensive, high-resolution oblique imagery across its entire state. Previously, imagery was collected on a county-by-county basis, which led to inconsistencies in quality, coverage, and accessibility. The piecemeal approach hindered effective planning, public safety, and infrastructure development, especially in rural areas. Kentucky’s need was to democratize access to high-quality imagery and incorporate it into a wide array of government and private sector workflows, benefiting all communities, regardless of size or resources.

The Outcome

The KyFromAbove initiative successfully completed the acquisition of statewide 3” resolution lidar data through a multi-vendor contract. Sanborn was responsible for approximately 12,000 square miles, about a third of the state (40,408 square miles), covering the majority of Eastern Kentucky. This landmark project marked the first time a U.S. state acquired statewide oblique imagery. Sanborn’s sole-source deployment of Sanborn Oblique Analyst^®, branded as KyFromAbove Explorer, provides open and free access to this imagery for all government entities, private sector organizations, and citizens of Kentucky. KyFromAbove allows users to measure elevation, calculate distances, export images, and share locations. The software’s service-oriented architecture ensures that it can serve and consume data as needed, offering flexibility and scalability. 

A significant aspect of the project was the support from the AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program, which enabled the storage and distribution of the vast amount of data generated by the project. The imagery, now incorporated into Kentucky’s authoritative aerial basemap, is publicly accessible through a cloud-based storage system.