Bournemouth best mapped place on the planet

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Bournemouth best mapped place on the planet !

Bournemouth has been recreated in incredible three-dimentional detail by the Ordnance Survey using extremely accurate lasers.

Those in the know believe the technology could fundamentally change the future of personal navigation , tourism and the planning process and in addition could aid architects, the security services and emergency services.

The Bournemouth map was created after three years of painstaking work, with every square metre of the town captured using a combination of land-based and aerial survey together with high-accuracy lasers.

In excess of 700 million laser beams were sent out from Ordnance Survey vehicles and aircraft scanning the town. The beams bounced back off hills, buildings and streets to provide precise geographical data of the terrain.

All this information was combined with existing 2D maps of Bournemouth to create the new data.

The Ordnance Survey's head of research said that 3D maps aren't new but what they have achieved in Bournemouth is a level of accuracy and detail that's never been done before.

He went on to say that given the level of detail that has been achieved they can confidently state that Bournemouth is the best mapped place on the planet.

Ordnance Survey claim that their 3D maps are far more accurate than anything available online such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth, moreover that they will revolutionise the way it charts the UK.

The 3D mapping will not be rolled out for the rest of the UK for at least five years whilst the new methods are perfected.