The idea Crowdsourced Surface Elevation Mapping Through Gamification was the Netherlands Regional winner of the European Satellite Navigation Competition ( ESNC ). In order to properly assess flood risks, an accurate surface elevation map is needed. Unfortunately, this is not available in most countries, as sending surveyors to measure an entire country is too expensive and satellite measurements are not accurate enough.
The idea is to create an app that uses the mass availability of GNSS sensors in smartphones to improve the surface elevation datasets currently available. By creating a game that stimulates users to go out and send measurements, it will generate large sets of GNSS measurements. These measurements will be combined with current datasets and satellite measurements to provide a digital elevation model with more accurate surface elevation mapping. This improved elevation mapping will allow governments and other interested parties (research agencies, utility companies, etc.) to mitigate risks and perhaps even save lives. It will also save governments money by enabling them to outsource the updating and maintenance of elevation maps. The idea was submitted by Jeroen Derriks and Ingrid van Namen.
As winner of the ESNC NL the team received next to 1.000 EURO cash, 3 months of office space at SBIC Noordwijk, business support and technical support with a value of around 15.000 EURO.
The ESNC is the biggest satellite navigation competition in the world and in 2016, the ESNC once again recorded a remarkable result with 413 innovations submitted by entrepreneurs from more than 40 countries. This adds to the success story of the competition and brings its totals to 305 winners awarded, 3,756 ideas submitted, and more than 10,000 participants over the past 13 years.
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