Ulsan selected for high-precision digital mapping project 4 years running

Ulsan has been selected for the fourth consecutive year for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's National Geographic Information Institute high-precision digital mapping challenge project, accelerating efforts to upgrade the city's digital maps by combining spatial data on local buildings and road terrain with AI.

With this year's selection, the city will invest a total of 2.8 billion won — 1.4 billion won in national funding and 1.4 billion won in municipal funds — in the high-precision digital mapping project next year.

Since first being selected in 2024, Ulsan has spent 12.9 billion won over three years to update 1:1,000 large-scale numerical topographic maps across 3,203 map zones covering the city's entire area of 800.75 square kilometers, while also upgrading three-dimensional data focused on buildings, roads and terrain for use in digital twin modeling.

The fourth-year project will advance research and demonstration of cutting-edge "Geo-AI change detection technology," which integrates spatial information with AI.

The technology uses AI-based analysis of aerial and drone imagery to detect and analyze in real time changes such as new building construction, extensions and shifts in road terrain. It replaces the painstaking manual inspections previously required and delivers faster, more scientifically rigorous results.

The high-precision digital maps, produced at a 1:1,000 scale, capture detailed urban information directly relevant to residents' daily lives — including sewer lines, streetlights, utility poles, traffic signals and crosswalks — that conventional 1:5,000 topographic maps could not adequately represent.

Four consecutive years of sustained work have given Ulsan a comprehensive, up-to-date high-precision data foundation spanning all areas of city administration, including urban planning, infrastructure design, underground facility safety management and emergency disaster response.

The maps are also linked to a range of location-based services — including map portal services, vehicle navigation and site analysis tools — providing residents with more accurate and detailed geographic information.

The spatial data built through this project will serve as a critical foundation for future urban technologies such as autonomous driving and urban air mobility, and will be widely used as base data for intelligent city services across urban planning, disaster safety and infrastructure management.