Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative

Program overview

The Alaska Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative’s primary goal is acquire new and better maps statewide for Alaska and to make existing map products more easily available.

Alaska does not have an adequate digital base map. The SDMI seeks to remedy this situation. The SDMI program will ultimately provide an accurate, current, seamless, statewide base map, made available over the internet, through open standards, free of charge to all. The target basemap is a statewide ortho-image, controlled by an appropriately scaled elevation model and ground control as required.

The SDMI’s activities include: planning, public access, data acquisition and stakeholder relations.

Participating State agencies

The SDMI is a cooperative state program endorsed by the Governor and implemented by the University of Alaska (UA) and State of Alaska Departments of Natural Resources (DNR); Military and Veteran’s Affairs (DMVA); Public Transportation and Public Facility (DOTPF); Environmental Conservation (DEC); Fish and Game (DFG); and Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED).

Partners

The SDMI works in partnership with Federal, local, industry and non-profit partners. To date, that partnership has come primarily in the form of the contribution of imagery and elevation data for Alaska valued at more than $10 million. Please see the list of data contributors for a more detailed look at our generous partners.

Stakeholder Engagement

The SDMI has engaged stakeholders extensively. A comprehensive user survey was executed in 200X with very broad community participation. Two, multi-day workshops were attended by a diverse and representative group of stakeholders. More details can be found at these event and documents pages:

• User Survey (180+ respondents)
• Alaska DEM Workshop (100+ attendees)
• Alaska Ortho-Imagery Workshop (60+ attendees)

SDMI Planning Activities

The SDMI hired a consulting team from HDR Alaska, Inc and I-cubed to perform planning activities to inform Alaska statewide mapping. Their analysis resulted in publication of the following reports:

• User Survey Report
• Ground Control Report
• Existing High-Resolution Imagery and DEM data for Alaska Report
• Final Summary Recommendations Report