Cantabria’s Digital Twin: Integrating Airborne Data, AI, and Spatial Planning

EAASI Companies: AVT Airborne Sensing, Vexcel, Esri

Project Overview

In northern Spain, the Autonomous Community of Cantabria is demonstrating how regional governments can move beyond traditional cartography toward a fully integrated, living digital twin. Covering approximately 5,300 km² and home to around 588,000 residents, the region has positioned geospatial data as a core instrument for territorial governance, environmental protection, and long-term spatial planning.

Building on Spain’s National Plan for Aerial Orthophotography (PNOA) and PNOA Lidar programmes, Cantabria combines national baseline datasets with regional airborne campaigns and advanced AI workflows. The result is a high-resolution Digital Twin covering approximately 533,000 hectares and incorporating around 48 billion lidar points, forming one of Europe’s most comprehensive regional 3D mapping initiatives.

The project demonstrates how crewed aerial surveying, high‑performance processing, and artificial intelligence can converge to support legally binding spatial planning and environmental protection, providing the detailed, up‑to‑date cartography that public administrations need for regulation, monitoring, and decision‑making.

Technical Solution

Cantabria partnered with AVT Airborne Sensing, selected through a public tender, to acquire high-resolution aerial imagery for full regional coverage.

Key technical components include:

• Crewed Airborne Survey: Deployment of a Beech B200 Super King Air equipped with a Vexcel Ultracam Eagle camera. The aircraft completed full regional coverage in approximately 1.5 days of flight time, mitigating weather constraints typical of northern Spain.

• High-Resolution Imaging: Ground sample distance of approximately 18 cm, with longitudinal overlap of around 80% and transverse overlap ranging between 60% in urban areas and 30–35% in rural zones.

• True Orthophoto Production: Systematic integration of true ortho imagery to eliminate distortions caused by terrain and building geometry, improving spatial accuracy for urban and environmental analysis.

• Lidar Processing and 3D Modelling: Within the Esri ecosystem, the lidar point cloud is colorised using orthophotos and processed using advanced algorithms to optimise web-based visualisation. Solid 3D models of more than 600,000 buildings have been generated, preserving complex architectural elements and enabling realistic territorial representation.

• High-Performance Processing: Advanced computing infrastructure supports dense image matching workflows and rapid generation of digital surface models and true orthophotos under tight production timelines.

• AI-Driven Land Cover and Vegetation Mapping: Deep learning, lidar, and data mining techniques are applied within the Esri environment to produce a highly detailed land-use and land-cover map. This dataset supports territorial functioning models, including conservation status assessment and ecological connectivity analysis.

• Invasive Species Detection: AI models are trained to identify Pampa grass (Cortaderia selloana) across the territory using aerial imagery and derived products. NVIDIA AI hardware, open-source components, and Esri GIS software are combined to automate detection and monitoring.

• Open Web GIS and Public Dissemination: Official layers and applications—including the historical orthophoto archive, thematic dashboards, tourism infrastructure, cultural heritage,

and urban planning datasets—are published as ArcGIS Online services, dashboards, and web applications under the Gobierno de Cantabria account. This ensures interoperability, transparency, and multi-departmental access.

Project Benefits

Cantabria’s Digital Twin functions as a shared spatial backbone for administration, planners, and citizens.

Planners can assess ecological connectivity, identify priority conservation zones, and evaluate infrastructure impacts using consistent, up-to-date spatial information for regulation and decision‑making.

The integration of true orthophotos and lidar enhances reliability for cadastral, mobility, and urban analysis. AI-assisted vehicle detection and historical change mapping provide additional insights into land use dynamics and seasonal pressures, including coastal tourism.

By combining national programmes with regional airborne campaigns, Cantabria ensures both consistency and higher temporal refresh rates. The Digital Twin is not a static dataset but an evolving platform, with new flight campaigns and enhanced oblique imagery integration planned for 2026–2027.

Future Outlook

Cantabria illustrates how crewed aerial surveying and advanced geospatial processing can directly support regulatory frameworks and public policy. The alignment between high-resolution airborne data, AI-driven analytics, and spatial planning instruments establishes a replicable governance model.

As the region advances toward higher-definition updates and expanded 3D capabilities, its approach demonstrates that regional digital twins can move beyond visualisation tools to become operational decision systems.

Cantabria Geo Portal: https://mapas.cantabria.es/

A longer version of this case study can be found in the article From Lidar to AI: Cantabria's Technological Leap in Geospatial Analysis on Geo Week News, published in December 2024.

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This case underscores the strategic role of EAASI members in delivering the airborne data infrastructure that enables data-driven territorial management across Europe.

Learn more about how other EAASI members utilize crewed aerial technology to address global challenges in our Use Cases series, a dedicated section showcasing real-world applications and achievements by EAASI’s diverse members.