About – What's New

Ny skyfallsanalys och en ännu bättre marktäckekarta

Jun 1, 2023

Spännande nytt i SCALGO Live! 🤩 Vi har utvecklat en helt ny skyfallskarta som tar hänsyn til infiltration för olika jordarter samt avdrag för ledningsnät. Dessutom har vi lanserat en ny högupplöst marktäckekarta med ännu fler klasser.

Se en kort introduktion

Webinar om den nya releasen

Den 20 juni, kl 14 genomgick Hampus Åkerblom, marknadschef i Sverige, hur den nya skyfallsanalysen och marktäckekartan är utvecklad och hur du kan arbeta med dessa i SCALGO Live.

Se inspelningen här.

Läs mera om denna lansering i bloggen

Blogginlägg om marktäckekartan: Ny marktäckekarta med ännu flera klasser

Blogginlägg om skyfallsanalysen: Skyfallskarta med infiltration och avdrag för ledningsnät

New land cover map for Finland

Apr 26, 2023

We are happy to announce that SCALGO Live in Finland has been updated with a new land cover map covering the entire country. The land cover map is produced using a machine learning model developed by SCALGO, in close collaboration with SYKE (The Finnish Environment Institute).

Figure 1. The new land cover map divides Finland into 10 land cover classes.

The new map is based on a powerful machine learning model that allows us to classify each pixel into the following categories: impervious, shallow vegetation, dense vegetation and bare land. These four land cover classes are supplemented with auxiliary data from DigiRoad and Maastotietokanta, to create a map with 10 unique classes.

The map is fully integrated into SCALGO Live and is, for instance, used to show aggregate land cover information for watershed queries. For more information please read the accompanying blog post.

Depths in the depression map

Apr 16, 2023

Now you can work with depths in the depression map.

Recently, we added a new feature to the Depression map based on requests from users. This latest update is, for example, useful when designing ponds and wetlands with focus on biodiversity.

Using the depth style you can tweak what depths show in what color on the map to quickly screen for deep depressions.

Read the blog to see how to get more out of the depression map in your projects.

New Danish land cover map with more classes

Mar 15, 2023

We have released a major upgrade to our nationwide Danish land cover map. The previous map was based on a machine learning model that could distinguish between pervious and impervious areas, on top of this we added data from GeoDanmark to enrich the map with forest, building and surface water (lakes) classes.

The new map is based on a much more powerful machine learning model that allows us to classify each pixel into the following categories: impervious, shallow vegetation, dense vegetation and bare land. On top of this we have added an expanded set of GeoDanmark classes to mark buildings, agricultural fields, surface water (now also from streams) as well as paved and unpaved roads. The result is a high-resolution national land cover map with 9 classes, as summarised in the below graphic.

A snippet of the new land cover map showing the new classes.

We have also upgraded the Flash Flood Map to use the new classes, and in particular we are excited about the dense vegetation class that replaces the forest polygons, providing a much better mapping of those high-infiltration areas.

For more information please read the accompanying blog post (in Danish).

National Swedish High-Resolution Impervious Surface Mapping

Sep 21, 2022

Today we announce the availability of a nationwide high-resolution mapping of impervious surfaces for SCALGO Live in Sweden. The map, produced by SCALGO, is based on machine learning techniques and has a resolution of 25cm.

It is available as a standalone layer in the Imperviousness category in the library.

A snapshot of the new map from Sweden, along with a watershed query. Pervious areas are green, buildings are red, other impervious areas are orange and water is shown in blue.

The new imperviousness map is fully integrated into the watershed query tool, allowing you to easily get the total area of impervious surfaces in the watershed and is included, and editable, in newly created workspaces.

For more information, please see the complete release announcement.


Watershed tool updated with even better descriptions of catchment characteristics

Jul 7, 2022

The Watershed tool now supports an expanded set of catchment characteristics that enable you to gain an even deeper understanding of your watershed. When you query a point with the Watershed tool you can now choose to see the longest upstream flow path to that point including both the flow path length and the average slope along the flow path.
If the longest flow path is not enough, we give you the Length/area histogram. This histogram describes how the area of the watershed is distributed across flow path lengths. Why is this useful? Because all watersheds are unique and have very different shapes (even if they have the same longest flow path length), and this ultimately affects runoff behaviour.

You can read more about this updated version of the Watershed Tool in our blog.

National Flash Flood Map with Infiltration and Drainage for Denmark

Jun 21, 2022

We have just released a new variant of the Flash Flood Map for our users in Denmark. This variant accounts for infiltration and drainage to sewer systems. This is a big step towards providing more realistic run-off and flood extents in SCALGO Live especially for small rain events.

You can read more about the new variant of the Flash Flood Map in our blog post (in Danish).

Not in Denmark? Do not despair! We are working hard to bring this powerful, yet simple, version of the Flash Flood Map to other countries.

Add your own WMS layers to SCALGO Live

Feb 11, 2022

Do you have some externally hosted data you would like to see in SCALGO Live? It's now possible for you to add WMS layers - an open standard for sharing maps on the internet - through the account dashboard. You can read more about how this works in the documentation.

WMS Layers show up in the "Personal Layers" category in the dock. Not seeing it? Look in the library and see if you can find it there. If your WMS layer has a legend, this legend is also shown inside SCALGO Live. You can also include these layers in the maps you export from inside SCALGO Live.

WMS Layers show up in the "Personal Layers" category in the dock, here we're seeing a test layer (a mapping of avalanche risk in Norway) and its legend.

Want to share your favorite WMS layer with a colleague? You can easily do this through your account dashboard as well:

Hit the share button next to the user you want to share the layer with, or add them by e-mail elsewhere on the same page.

Interested in going the other way? Remember that you can easily integrate your SCALGO Live layers into GIS, or other software that supports the so-called WMTS standard, by creating a ticket and using our WMTS service.

If you have any questions or issues with WMS layers, don't hesitate to contact us.

Easier access to source layers

We've assembled many of the elevation models and orthophotos in SCALGO Live from a variety of different spatial data sources with different resolution, source and acquisition time. For many of these we generate a sources layer that allows you to explore this information. Previously, this source data was available in a layer you had to find in the Library, which was not very discoverable. You can now find source information, for the layers that support it, on the gear-menu for the layer in question. This will make it easier to find and access source information in the future.

Source information, in this case for the Swedish Orthophotos, is now available in the gear menu for relevant layer. Here we are choosing colors based on the acquisition date of the photo. Using the point query tool we can learn that the dark red regions are from 2021 and the orange ones from 2020. The remaining colors correspond to data from before 2021.

Enriched building data in Denmark

Jan 19, 2022

We have enriched our Danish building layer from GeoDanmark with information from the BBR (Bygnings- og Boligregistret, the Danish Building and Housing Registry) database. When you use the point query tool on a building you now also see information from BBR, including:

  • Whether the building has a basement, and how big the basement is.
  • The usage class of the building.
  • The construction year.
  • The postal address.
  • a link to the building's. BBR page.
  • links to the national property value assessment system.

This information is also available if you download building-specific flooding information from the Flash Flood Map, allowing you to further qualify the damage assessments for affected buildings.

We also have used this new information to enrich the way the building layer is rendered. By default, buildings are now rendered by usage. Blue is commercial, green residential, yellow industrial, purple infrastructure, red health care, orange education and light blue is cultural:

If you are interested in whether a building has a basement or not, there's a rendering mode just for you. Buildings in red have a basements, the rest do not:

And finally, if you want to gauge the age of the buildings in the area, you can render by construction year:

If a GeoDanmark building does not have an associated BBR entry, it it rendered as an outline only in these modes.

National hydrological corrections and Land Cover for Poland

Nov 30, 2021

We frequently update the Polish model as new input data (e.g. elevation data) become available. However, today we are releasing a particularly exciting new update of our Polish setup. We have produced a national set of so-called hydrological corrections for all of Poland, and we have also added a national land cover map - both based on GuGiK BDOT10k data.

Hydrological corrections

Hydrological corrections make it possible to model water that flows under objects like bridges that otherwise appear as barriers in the elevation model. For instance, when a stream crosses a road under a bridge, the elevation model could make it look like there is a blockade since the space under the bridge is not represented. Our hydrological corrections should result in improved flow routing in many places in the country, particularly where bridges and underpasses intersect flow paths.

Corrections (redline segments) and flow accumulation in an area south of Gdańsk. Without the corrections, water would not be able to flow freely in this area due to the bridges acting as dams.

If you want to learn more about how the corrections were generated, please consult the corresponding section in the documentation. The hydrological corrections are used in our analyses and are automatically included in newly created workspaces where they can be altered if need be.

National land cover data

We have built a national land cover layer from BDOT10k. This means you will now get information about the land cover composition of any watershed you select using the watershed tool. Additionally, you can easily add infiltration to Flash Flood Maps in your workspaces by picking different runoff functions for the various land use categories. Not happy with our land cover map? You can edit it freely using our powerful edit tools in workspaces.

For more information about adding infiltration to your Flash Flood Map, and about editing land cover data, please consult our recent release notes on the subject.

Screenshot from SCALGO Live Poland showing a watershed query in Warsaw and the distribution of land cover in the watershed.