The last decade, the threshold to the new millennium, was a time of large scale projects and work as a main contractor for Hansa Luftbild, a completely new area of operations.

The most outstanding project was the survey and monumentation of the borderline between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman. The project claimed four years and the services of more than 200 personnel, in Germany and overseas. The entire length of the border, 657 kilometres, was marked with 341 concrete monuments. The project was a touchstone for Hansa Luftbild’s capabilities, particular with reference to being the main contractor in the co-ordination of these wide-ranging, substantial tasks.

New technology widened the scope for the commercially viable capture of elevation data. Hansa Luftbild has worked closely with the firm TopScan since the beginning of 1995 on the implementation and evaluation of Airborne Laser Scanning Systems (ALSS). Through this working relationship TopScan’s capacity and know-how in ALSS have been made available to Hansa Luftbild. The process allows remote capture of the attributes of the earth’s surface with high precision and works by emitting and measuring the reflection of laser beams.

ALSS is now an established technique for many customer requirements including digital terrain modelling, digital city modelling for mobile telecommunication network planning, flood plain surveys.