LUCAS
In addition to the KiwImage project the Ministry for the Environment is coordinating a concurrent satellite imagery acquisition project known as LUCAS.
LUCAS SPOT5 satellite imagery is available to Local Government agencies.
The Ministry for the Environment has negotiated an all-of-government
purchase agreement for SPOT 5 satellite imagery. Under the purchase agreement
the SPOT imagery is available to all government departments, Crown Entities and Local Authorities.
Over the past 2006/2007 summer, 60 per cent of New Zealand has been covered in
cloud-free imagery (see attached) link to SPOT5 coverage Oct2007.jpg. Over the
coming summer SPOT 5 imagery of the remainder of New Zealand will be acquired.
This imagery will be used to map land use at the start of the first commitment
period of the Kyoto Protocol. The SPOT 5 imagery covers 60 x 60 km and has a spatial resolution of 10 m.
At the moment, the Ministry for the Environment will distribute all images and the End-User License agreement on DVDs (at no cost to you). The imagery will be in a raw (unrectified) form and will not be aligned to the NZTM map grid, until the project begins processing the data in mid-2008.
Agencies wanting to use the imagery must agree to the conditions of the End-User License agreement. The agreement stipulates the permitted uses of the imagery and that it can only be used for business related purposes, and not for commercial gain.