10101607SnowTruthSurveyClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe UK Wintersports industry, centred on Scotland's mountains, is worth £20-million/year and is vital to these rural communities. However, in recent years the industry has become overwhelmingly dependent on artificial snow production (80-90% of pistes) to unconditionally maintain a minimum 40-50cm depth to avoid snowpack failure and remain operational, as global warming disproportionately impacts mountain regions. Artificial snow production is highly energy and water-intensive, accounting for up to 50% of resort operating costs and generating 3,500kg CO2-equivalent emissions per km of piste secured by artificial snow production. Accurate requirement assessment and planning is therefore critical to reduce costs and environmental impact of over-production, which currently reaches 40% wastage due to worst-case scenario planning. SkiBro has developed EcoSki, the world's first hyper-accurate, 3-dimensional snow topology mapping and production-planning system, based on satellite and crowd-sourced terrain altitude data for instantaneous, just-in-time operational decision-making. This project will demonstrate accuracy against LIDAR derived ground truth surveys supporting commercialisation of EcoSki.