With its three million hectares, state-owned Sveaskog is Sweden's largest forest owner. In order to conduct extensive, sustainable and efficient forestry, large amounts of geodata of various types are required. Sveaskog meets the entire organization's need for updated information in an efficient way with the map service Metria Maps.
Operations include forest management, sales of timber, pulpwood and biofuel, as well as nature conservation, hunting and fishing and the sale of real estate. This means a need for everything from a detailed background map to high-resolution orthophotos.
Mattias Tengbrand is a system manager in the IT department at Sveaskog in Östersund. He is responsible for ensuring that the organization has access to the geographical information (geodata) it needs.
- "Our own data combined with external geodata is a prerequisite for making the decisions required for sustainable and efficient forestry. We manage large areas and it is important to be able to make an accurate assessment in the field. Geodata provides an overview and understanding of what is in and around an area even before we visit the site," Mattias explains.
Metria has been delivering geographic information to Sveaskog for a long time, previously as traditional file deliveries that were ordered. The information was then read into various systems' data warehouses.
- This was of course a cumbersome way of handling the information, especially with increasing volumes. We built our own internal mapping services but realized that Metria could operate those services more efficiently. We see that Metria is at the forefront of both geodata quality and geodata delivery.
The step to a completely web-based system was also not big as the organization already worked in internal web services. An equally important advantage is the constant and rapid access to current data instead of files that are only updated a few times a year.
In Metria Maps there is great flexibility for customization of the information. The background map is an example that is usually fully customized to the customer's wishes. For Sveaskog, it is important, among other things, that it contains road widths and gradients, turning points and road barriers that are important for timber transportation. They also use a customized property map to, for example, identify properties above a certain size.
Sveaskog uses Metria Maps mainly for background data, general background maps, orthophotos and property geometries in both OGC and REST (ESRI) formats.
- The services are mainly used in web-based business systems but also in offline field systems, although we still download some file-stored data from our internal servers, Mattias explains.
Mattias describes the collaboration with Metria as pragmatic and flexible and is very satisfied with the Metria Maps service:
- "There are many suppliers who can deliver expertise and solutions on the client side, but when it comes to storing and delivering geodata, the range is more limited. It feels safe that Metria sees this as its main task.
- I think we sometimes focus a little too much on interfaces and forget how important the quality of geodata and the speed of the actual delivery are. For example, if we don't know about geodata formats and spatial indexes, it's like trying to build a house on quicksand, it won't be very efficient or stable," says Mattias.
Looking ahead, Mattias sees Sveaskog investing even more in map services in various forms, not just background maps but also combinations of different data sources for new insights. He also believes in an increased focus on different APIs for analyzing combinations of own data and external data.
- "A lot of interesting things are happening on the geodata side right now, such as the OGC API replacing WFS and WMS," says Mattias Tengbrand.
Linus Bruce is product manager for Metria Maps at Metria. He sees that more and more organizations are choosing to switch to web services from file delivery:
- As both the need for and the amount of geodata increases, it is becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to maintain an up-to-date geodata supply themselves. The forest industry, where Sveaskog operates, is generally far ahead, but we see how growth is increasing in many other industries, such as telecom, energy and finance and insurance, says Linus.
- A major advantage of Metria Maps is the ability to work offline. Many of our customers work in the field, says Linus.
Sveaskog is owned by the Swedish state and manages forests and sells timber, pulpwood and biofuel. The business also includes nature conservation, hunting and fishing and the sale of real estate.
The organization has over 600 users in the systems that Metria Maps map services provide information. Examples of systems are: GISS (Forestry register and planning system), Rask (production planning), Skogsvårdsportalen, Fakta (properties and leases), ArcGIS, Fieldmaps.
Metria Maps is a fast and stable map service that integrates into business systems and provides access to reliable, updated and quality-assured maps. The maps are based on current geodata from several different suppliers, all in uniform cartography delivered from Metria's own operating environment. The service can be customized according to the needs and wishes of the business.