Aerial Imaging Market to Reach $3.3B by 2023

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According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research entitled "Aerial Imaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023," the global aerial Imaging market was valued at US$1.07 bn in 2014 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2015 to 2023, reaching US$3.3 bn by the end of the forecast period.

The global aerial imaging market is driven by the demand for imagery data and related geospatial information. Emergence of new applications, popularity of existing applications, and demand from location-based services are some of the factors affecting market growth. This trend has been further supported by technological developments taking place across imaging systems and aerial platforms. Aerial imaging has conventionally been related with applications such as construction and development, cartography, defense and security, disaster risk estimation, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), journalism, and tourism. A large number of key players in the market have stepped-up efforts to create unmanned aerial mapping systems that can obtain results similar to aircraft photography at reduced costs. Owing to the reduction in cost, affordability has increased and thereby augmented consumer adoption across several small and large applications. This trend is expected to continue during the coming years as well.

The global aerial imaging market has been segmented on the basis of end-use industry into the government, commercial enterprises, civil engineering industry, military, forestry and agriculture, energy sectors, and insurance, with government sector accounting for 28% revenue share in 2014. Commercial enterprises sector was the second largest segment accounting for 20% of the market share in 2014. Going forward, government sector is predicted to lead all the end-use industry segments owing to greater use of remote sensing technology and GIS for maximizing security programs.

In terms of applications, the defense and intelligence segment accounted for highest market share in 2014 i.e. 21.1% of the global revenue followed by geospatial technology. The high demand in defense and intelligence segment is attributed to the increasing adoption by government for military, infrastructure and other applications. A significant market growth is expected to be seen in the field of construction and development and natural resources management over the forecast period. This is owing to the growing cases of deforestation and increasing infrastructural activities.

Geographically, North America headed the global Aerial Imaging market in 2014 and accounted for almost 42% of the market revenue. The region is expected to continue to be the largest market throughout the forecast period. This is majorly supported by the growing applications of aerial imaging in agriculture and forestry area. The market demand is further complimented by increasing developments by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in the field of map-based and imagery intelligence solutions for the U.S. national defense. The aerial imagery market in Europe is mainly driven by the growing usage of aerial imagery for archaeological purposes. The market demand is also picking up pace with the growing number of earthquakes in the Asia Pacific region. In MEA, the market demand is rising due to growing national conflicts in the region. In Latin America, the growth is mainly supported by governments that are keenly encouraging foreign investment in the region, boosting the growth of geospatial industry. Moreover, a significant contribution in boosting awareness about GIS-based information systems comes from the open map policy, and right to information plays a major role in fueling the market demand in Latin America.