Swift Geospatial and Planet: A Partnership for Transforming Geospatial Data into Knowledge

Professionals and decision-makers tasked with analyzing the rapid changes occurring on our planet face an overwhelming abundance of data. Transforming this data into actionable insights to support their choices can be daunting. Swift Geospatial, a GIS and remote sensing company, alleviates this burden by leveraging near-daily Planet imagery to create proprietary dashboards that enable swift and sustainable solutions.

“It’s [Swift’s] mission to bridge the gap between the raw satellite data that comes down, turning that data into information for our clients,” commented Michael Breetzke, Co-Founder and Director at Swift Geospatial. “Having the ability to always see what’s happening on the ground at a large scale provides us with the raw information needed to provide our clients with decision support.”

With the support of Planet, Swift Geospatial provides business intelligence to help organizations in agriculture, mining, forestry, and sustainability monitoring to make informed decisions based on analyzed geospatial data. The combination of GIS and remote sensing empowers decision-makers by providing timely and accurate spatial insights.

Swift Geospatial and Planet Unlock Potential of Spatial Data for Commercial Forestry Customers

Timber companies worldwide need to manage their forest assets, including monitoring their in-field operations. Harvesting is often planned months, sometimes years, in advance and executed year-round. Timely, accurate imagery is needed  post-harvest to audit the harvest and update forest inventories. Additionally, newly planted compartments need to be monitored for die-off, pests, and diseases while mitigating actions can still be taken.

Swift Geospatial has monitored commercial forests in South Africa of around 12,000 sq km per week for the past seven years. They track the plantations for tree health, harvesting progress, encroachment, and post-fire analysis to aid in decision support. “We’ve got this wealth of data that they’ve been using week in and week out to inform decisions within the organization,” said Breetzke. “Continuous monitoring with Planet is taking that data down to the statistical analysis and now understanding what trees to plant where.”

Combined with PlanetScope data, Swift’s advanced GIS and Precision Forest technology runs analyses across broad areas to provide a feasible and cost-effective method of monitoring the health of their plantations and changing the game for tree conservation. Monitoring contractors’ progress, timber transportation, and sapling planting and growth during the critical initial phases allows for significant gains and logistical operational efficiencies, along with the preservation of lush, indigenous landscapes.

A Collaborative and Forward-Looking Partnership

Swift Geospatial has found Planet’s combination of high-cadence coverage and medium-resolution imagery over broad areas to be the optimal solution. Our partnership has helped Swift grow over the past seven years to provide customers with the data, knowledge, and decision support they need. “For us, technology and satellites are one thing that Planet provides, and they continue to innovate,” Breetzke commented on the partnership. “But what we see as more important is the networking and support that we receive from Planet.”

Looking towards the future, Swift Geospatial is focused on providing proactive change detection and earth monitoring GIS solutions for risk assessment and European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance. Swift’s advocacy for open and unrestricted access to geospatial data, ensures that farmers, operators, and traders have access to actionable information required for enhancing cultivation practices and ensuring compliance with the new regulations. 

Watch the accompanying video to hear more from Michael Breetzke on how this partnership is improving efficiency and accuracy in forestry, mining, agriculture, and sustainability monitoring: