eTOD – Electronic Terrain and Obstacle Data

eTOD – Electronic Terrain and Obstacle Data is KPGeo's production service for the terrain and obstacle datasets that ICAO Annex 15 requires for aviation. It delivers two linked datasets: an obstacle database of point, line and polygon obstacles (buildings, trees, power lines and narrow objects such as antennas and poles), and a terrain dataset representing bare earth as a regular elevation grid.

KPGeo extracts the data with photogrammetric methods from high-resolution satellite or fixed-wing aerial imagery. Imagery is adjusted to the ground with surveyed Ground Control Points; terrain models start from automatically correlated elevation points, then are manually checked and edited, and the data undergoes independent quality tests. For eTOD Area 1 (the entire territory of a State), KPGeo developed an algorithm that calculates obstacle heights from mono satellite imagery, which it states is approximately 7–10 times cheaper than LiDAR or stereo imagery.

Production covers all four ICAO Annex 15 areas and follows ICAO Annex 4 Type A, ICAO Annex 14 Type B, RTCA DO-276/EUROCAE ED-98, RTCA DO-291/EUROCAE ED-119 and Eurocontrol ADQ. Data is delivered in AIXM, ESRI Geodatabase/Shapefile, KML/KMZ, GeoTiff, DTED and ASCII; electronic Type A and B obstacle charts and an ICAO Precision Terrain Chart are also offered. It serves Aeronautical Information Management, Electronic Flight Bags, simulation, flight procedure design and Performance-Based Navigation.

KPGeo reports eTODs for more than 60 airports, including seven airports of Mexican operator ASUR (among them Cancún), delivered as subcontractor to The FANS Group. Its quality management system is ISO 9001:2015 and AQAP 2110 certified.