June 09, 2011 -- Blom subsidiary in France, BlomCGR, has signed a contract with IGN, the French National Geographic Institute, for an airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey and production of flood models in the south of France. This is a huge project for IGN and will cover all areas at risk from flooding. Blom’s data acquisition will start imminently, and the project will be completed within one year.

Blom is proud to have been awarded this contract after a very demanding European tender process. “We are very impressed by IGN’s evaluation of our data” commented Didier Mendel, Managing Director of BlomCGR France: An extract of IGN’s technical evaluation of Blom reports “The quality and the coherence of the data provided by Blom are excellent. Blom brings under control the software and the technology, has relevant quality insurance procedures and foresees quality control for each steps of the production process”.

Flooding is a natural disaster that seems to be increasing in both occurrence and its impact. Each flood can put at risks homes, infrastructure and more importantly lives. Last year areas of France saw devastating floods that were the worst since 1827. It is reassuring that now flooding and the consequences can be monitored and water flow can be predicted. Airborne LiDAR provides altitude data with an accuracy of 10 cm or better on bare soil, providing an effective and low cost method to use when surveys of large geographical areas are required. These factors result in LiDAR being the best technology to use for flood risk mapping.

Producing flood models of areas at risk of flooding is part of an ambitious governmental project for improving the altimetric data base (RGE Alti) of the whole of France during the period 2010-2013.

“This strategic contract award has been achieved thanks to Blom’s unique skills base and a wealth of experience within LiDAR technology, which has given us a leading position in this market”, comments Giovanni Banchini, CEO of Blom CGR.

Blom is able to provide a complete airborne solution, combining laser scanning with aerial imagery. The laser scanner gathers accurate data for terrain modelling while the digital camera provides imagery for quality control of the LiDAR point cloud. The imagery is also used to produce orthophotos over the area, providing IGN with a compelling solution to aide their flood mapping campaign.

For further information please contact:
Didier Mendel, Managing Director France & BeLux
Tel: +33 699 072 167
E-mail: Email Contact

About BLOM
Blom is a leading European service provider within acquisition, processing and modeling of geographic information. Blom maintains unique European databases with collections of map, images and models. With particular focus on online services, Blom provides data and solutions to customers in government, enterprise and consumer markets and enables partners to create applications using Blom’s databases, location based services and navigation solution. Blom has more than 1,000 employees and subsidiaries in 13 countries. The company headquarter is located in Oslo, Norway. Blom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker BLO). For more information, visit www.blomasa.com

About IGN
IGN’s key missions are to produce, maintain and disseminate reference geographic information in France.

Heir to a long line of cartographers, IGN has been involved in all cartography-related operations in France and its territories, since 1940. For more information, visit http://www.ign.fr