The China Academy of Urban Planning & Design is using the Apollo System from Erdas to manage and deliver its imagery.

The academy is a research institution based within the State’s Ministry of Construction. To conduct its urban and rural planning research, CAUPD requires a vast collection of images displaying large, continuous areas of urban development. This collection consists of terabytes of both raw and processed ALOS and SPOT data.

The Apollo System will help the academy can understand, manage and access large volumes of this geospatial data more quickly and efficiently.

Automated data and metadata harvesting services and the ability to share information via web services compliant with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards were key factors in the choice of system.

They also showcased Erdas Apollo’s comprehensive security model, which enables organizations to specify data access based on geospatial and scale constraints defined for users and/or roles.

Before the academy began using the system, the researchers could only acquire data from the data centre personnel who had to conduct manual searches, costing time and delaying the development of some research programs.

Dr.Li Ke Lu, director of the Spatial Technology Department, said this is no longer a problem.

“After using Erdas Apollo to manage our data and metadata, we had no problem sharing the thematic data from coastal Eastern China that we use for urban agglomeration research,” he said.

“Using Erdas Apollo, we can work more efficiently and realize the full value of all the images we have.”