Ecopia AI Provides High-Precision Statewide Land Cover Data to North Carolina

March 5, 2026 – Toronto – Today, Ecopia AI (Ecopia) announces its collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide the State of North Carolina with high-resolution land cover data to support various climate resilience and conservation efforts. 

Part of Ecopia’s ongoing work with NOAA, this project provides an unprecedented level of detail for North Carolina agencies and municipalities seeking to understand the relationship between land use and the environment. To achieve this, Ecopia’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-based mapping systems extracted land cover data from up-to-date aerial imagery across North Carolina’s entire 54,000+ square mile area. 

Among the many state agencies and departments set to leverage this data are the Division of Marine Fisheries, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, State Energy Office,  Division of Coastal Management, and other groups associated with the Department of Environmental Quality. Additionally, municipalities and urban planning departments will have access to this data to inform more resilient stormwater management practices.

Environmental conservation efforts are a primary driver for the creation of this unique dataset.  For example, the data will be used to advance the state’s Coastal Habitat Protection Plan. Another major focus for this project is wetland conservation, specifically using Ecopia’s high-precision land cover data to inform carbon sequestration analysis and similar workflows related to wetland protection. 

Building upon this foundational land cover data from Ecopia, NOAA will produce supplemental wetland data, including eight distinct palustrine and estuarine layers.

“States are increasingly empowering their agencies and municipalities with comprehensive geospatial data to inform critical climate resilience decision-making,” said Thomas Peck, Senior Public Sector Associate at Ecopia AI. “We are proud to work with North Carolina as they provide this unprecedentedly detailed dataset to stakeholders across the state.”

To learn more about Ecopia’s data extraction capabilities, get in touch with our team. 

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About NOAA's Office for Coastal Management
“Coastal management” is the term used by communities and organizations working to keep the nation’s coasts safe from storms, rich in natural resources, and economically strong. The national lead for these efforts is NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, an organization devoted to partnerships, science, and good policy. This agency, housed within NOAA’s National Ocean Service, oversees major initiatives that include the National Coastal Zone Management Program, the Coral Reef Conservation Program, the Digital Coast, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. Learn more at coast.noaa.gov

About Ecopia AI
Ecopia is on a mission to create a digital twin of the Earth. We leverage artificial intelligence to convert high-resolution imagery into high-precision 3D vector map data at scale. This data creates a digital representation of the physical world, forming the foundation of a digital twin for visualization, analytics, and decision-making. Ecopia’s data is leveraged by hundreds of commercial and government organizations across more than 100 countries around the world.