Joint workflow delivers high-recency imagery and damage insights that accelerate response coordination and disaster relief funding
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearmap, a leading global property intelligence company delivering verified insight on the built environment, and New Light Technologies, a leading provider of emergency management and disaster response solutions, today announced their enterprise agreement supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) geospatial disaster response operations.
Together, Nearmap and New Light enable FEMA to rapidly capture, integrate, and operationalize post-event aerial imagery to support response, recovery, and coordination efforts following major disasters. The collaboration has supported FEMA's geospatial response office across nine presidential disaster declarations, including hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods. Nearmap imagery provides a consistent visual baseline before and after major natural events, helping FEMA and its partners better understand changing conditions across impacted communities.
As the frequency and severity of natural disasters continue to increase, access to current geospatial data has become critical to effective preparedness, response, and recovery. Emergency management teams rely on timely, reliable information throughout the lifecycle of an incident to assess impacts, coordinate resources, and support recovery planning across agencies and jurisdictions.
"Effective disaster response depends on speed, coordination, and trust in the data," said David Tobias, Chief Product Officer at Nearmap. "By combining Nearmap rapid aerial intelligence with New Light's operational workflows, FEMA teams can move from uncertainty to evidence faster—supporting decisions that directly impact lives and communities."
"In Emergency Management, the difference between data and decisions is execution," said Ghermay Araya, Founder and CEO of New Light Technologies. "Our role is to ensure that high-value imagery moves seamlessly into our customers' operational workflows—so teams on the ground and in coordination centers can act quickly, confidently, and in alignment when every hour matters."
Following major natural events, Nearmap conducts rapid aerial imagery captures across the United States to support emergency response efforts. In 2024 alone, Nearmap flew more than 40 post-event imagery missions, capturing over 57,000 square miles of disaster-affected areas. On average, Nearmap delivers high-resolution, ortho-rectified imagery within 25 hours from aircraft arrival to published imagery, providing FEMA and its partners with timely situational awareness when conditions are changing by the hour.
New Light's coordination, project management, and workflow capabilities ensure this imagery is efficiently accessed, integrated, and applied across FEMA's operational systems. Using Nearmap tools, FEMA brings post-disaster imagery directly into its applications as a common operating picture, enabling response, recovery, and search-and-rescue teams to collaborate around a shared, trusted view of impacted areas.
In collaboration with New Light, Nearmap also supports an improved workflow for accessing and validating damage detection categories, reducing manual processes and accelerating coordination between field teams and decision-makers. A new enterprise agreement between Nearmap, New Light, and FEMA further streamlines this process, allowing FEMA to directly task Nearmap where to fly during active events within a defined coverage area and eliminating delays associated with one-off contracting during emergencies.
FEMA uses Nearmap imagery to validate and catalog damage classifications across affected properties—critical inputs for submitting presidential disaster declarations. By enabling faster, more consistent damage validation, the Nearmap and New Light collaboration helps accelerate the release of disaster relief funding, with funds available in as little as 72 hours after validation.
Visit Nearmap and the New Light team at the Esri Federal User Conference, Feb 10th and 11th to learn more.
About Nearmap
Nearmap is the property intelligence provider customers rely on for consistent, reliable, high-resolution imagery, insights, and answers. Harnessing its own patented camera systems, imagery capture, AI, geospatial tools, and advanced SaaS platforms, Nearmap users receive tailored solutions for complex challenges. Nearmap captures wide-scale urban areas in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand several times each year, making content instantly available in the cloud via web app or API integration. Founded in Australia in 2007, Nearmap stands as the definitive source of truth that shapes the liveable world.
For more information, please visit www.nearmap.com.
About New Light Technologies, Inc. (NLT)
New Light Technologies, Inc. (NLT) is a mission-focused technology and product company with a quarter century of experience supporting emergency management, disaster response, and complex government operations. NLT partners with commercial, federal, state, local, and international organizations to deliver operational solutions that strengthen preparedness, accelerate response, and support long-term recovery.
NLT designs and delivers products that operationalize geospatial intelligence, data integration, and workflow automation for real-world missions. Its product portfolio includes platforms and managed services that enable rapid imagery ingestion, damage assessment workflows, common operating pictures, and secure cloud-based operations—transforming time-sensitive data into actionable insight for decision-makers.
As a trusted partner to commercial and public sector organizations, NLT bridges technology and operational workflows to ensure data moves quickly and reliably from collection to action. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., New Light Technologies is committed to building resilient, scalable solutions that help agencies perform under pressure and serve communities when it matters most.
Media Contacts
Nearmap: [email protected]
New Light: [email protected]
SOURCE Nearmap
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