Product Updates: Annotation Reports, Contours and more

Written by
Kayley Greenland
January 10, 2024

We’ve shipped some great features recently that we’re excited to share with you!

1. Annotation Reports

Plan type: Plus, Growth, Enterprise

With our annotation tools, you can mark points of interest, define areas, and measure distances on your map layers. And with the release of Annotation Reports, you can now export your annotations and their processed layers into a downloadable PDF to share with key stakeholders.

Try Annotation Reports on a 14-day free trial

Popular use cases

  • Site planning: Annotation Reports enable precise construction site layout, zoning compliance, and safety planning, facilitating the strategic placement of structures, utilities, and equipment.
  • Progress reporting: Through Annotation Reports, construction progress can be visually documented, with milestones marked and issues identified. This enhances communication and collaboration among stakeholders while providing a comprehensive overview of a project's advancement.
  • Environmental monitoring: Annotation Reports can be used to identify and classify different types of land cover, such as forests, water bodies, and urban areas, aiding in environmental monitoring and management.
  • Urban planning and development: Annotation Reports can be used to highlight different zones within a city or urban area, along with identifying existing infrastructure and proposed developments.

Read our help article: How to create an Annotation Report

2. Contours

Plan type: Plus, Growth, Enterprise

Contours enable you to assess your location’s elevation and topography (i.e. the forms and features of land surfaces), via graphical lines or contours on a map. Each contour line connects points of equal elevation, providing a bird's-eye view of the terrain's shape and structure. These lines, carefully spaced, depict the rise and fall of the land, offering a clear understanding of slopes, peaks, valleys, and other topographical features. 

And you can now request contours as a processed output and visualize them as a layer in Map View.

Try Contours on a 14-day free trial

Popular use cases

  • Terrain Analysis: Contours are used to analyze and visualize the topography of a landscape, aiding in slope analysis, watershed delineation, and landform classification.
  • Engineering Design: Contour lines assist engineers in designing infrastructure projects, such as roads and embankments, by providing essential elevation information for alignment and grading.
  • Flood Risk Assessment: Contours play a crucial role in assessing flood risk by indicating elevation changes, helping identify low-lying areas susceptible to inundation.
  • Urban Planning: Contour maps are used in urban planning to understand the natural features of a site, influencing decisions on building placement, drainage, and overall development.
  • Environmental Impact Assessment: Contours are used to assess the environmental impact of projects, helping identify areas where development might have significant effects on the landscape.
  • Mining Exploration: In mining, contour maps assist in identifying potential resource deposits and planning extraction operations based on the topography of the area.
  • Landfill Design: Contours are essential in designing landfills, helping engineers determine the most suitable locations and slopes for waste disposal while minimizing environmental impact.

Read our help article: How to visualize Contours

Other features released

  • Processing presets: Choose your terrain type for processing
  • Custom severity labels: Users can create custom severity labels to use with Asset Assessment
  • Default / import & export assessment types: Birdi supports default assessment types while also allowing users to import and export customized assessment templates to suit your reporting criteria.
  • Processing Cost Calculator: The Processing Cost Calculator enables you to estimate processing costs based on your number of images, resolution and plan.
  • Support for international data uploads: We have made some changes to our backend to ensure no matter where you are, you get the best upload experience possible 
  • Duplications: The platform's duplication detection feature helps maintain data integrity by identifying and managing duplicate images
Kayley Greenland
Kayley is Birdi's product manager and is across all the nuts and bolts of our feature releases, product roadmap and platform vision.