Company History
The company was originally established in 1979 to provide aerial photography and mapping under the name of Air Logistics and was re-branded in 2003 as GeoSmart Ltd. This better represented the wider range of geospatial services that had been in development for several years including the first car navigation drivable map dataset.
Over the period 2000-2007 the business grew its digital and spatial mapping operations under the brand SmartMaps incorporating cartography, car navigation, web mapping services and fleet management services. Having achieved leadership in these markets the company sold the SmartMaps division to the New Zealand Automobile Association in 2007 and remained focused on the SmartPhotos and SmartForests operations forming the company today.
Aerial Surveys in now clearly focused on expanding it’s business of aerial surveys and mapping solutions both locally and overseas. It already has a well established national and international client base which has has evolved over the last 12 years covering local authorities, regional councils, government departments, utility companies and specialist areas such as transport, forestry, horticulture, water, pollution and civil defence. The company continues to invest in providing world leading surveying technology to New Zealand.
Our Vision
Our vision is provide high quality airborne data capture and mapping services through technological excellence and a client centric and solution based ethos.
We aim to be innovative with technology as it advances to deliver additional value and enhanced decision making.
Innovation and Leadership
| Year | Achievement |
| 1993 | The first commercial company in Australasia to commit to digital 3D photogrammetry and lead the market in higher performance digital production with the Intergraph ImageStations |
| 1994 | The first company to launch in New Zealand a Forward Motion Compensating (FMC) camera for higher quality aerial photography |
| 2001 | Developed the Automatic Tree Counting process from an airborne platform – a world first technology – patented |
| 2001 | Developed the Tree Attribute Profiler (TAP) technology for precisely measuring stem profiles of standing trees for forest inventory by using 3D laser technology – patented |
| 2003 | First Airborne Hyperspectral programme to be undertaken in New Zealand to demonstrate the viability of the technology to monitor plant disease, pests for bio-security and predict horticultural yields |
| 2003 to 2007 | Development of a highly accurate drivable map set and launch of car navigation mapping in New Zealand |
| 2004 | Launch of a new web mapping service and routing engine for fleet management |
| 2009 | Implementation of the new Vexcel UltraCamLp digital mapping camera |
| 2009 | First urban thermal mapping program undertaken for the identification and assessment of urban housing energy emissions and insulation efficiency |
| 2010 | First commercial use of multi-ray photogrammetry to produce ‘true ortho’ imagery over the Auckland CBD |
| 2011 | Implementation of an Optech ALTM3100EA LiDAR system |
| 2012 | First capture of Google 3D imagery over major cities in New Zealand and Australia |
| 2014 | Implementation of an Optech Orion H300 LiDAR system |
| 2014 | Implementation of a second Vexcel UltraCam Eagle digital camera |
| 2014 | Implementation of hyperspectral surveys in NZ in partnership with Massey University using the AisaFENIX |
| 2017 | First deployment of Intergraph dense matching software for change mapping of Kaikoura region pre- and post-earthquake |
| 2017/8 | Panel member of NZ Imagery and LiDAR national standards specification development |
| 2019 | Launch of the first Optech Galaxy Prime airborne LiDAR sensor in Australasia |
