ISPRS-Annals ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ISPRS-Annals ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. 2194-9050 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/isprs-annals-XII-4-W1-2026-105-2026 The Way Forwards for 3D Mapping at National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies Ellul Claire https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9791-0259 1 Jetlund Knut 2 Metcalfe Jack 1 Stoter Jantien 3 Cavazzi Stefano https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3575-0365 4 Streilein Andre 5 Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK Norwegian Mapping Authority, Norway Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft, Netherlands Ordnance Survey Great Britain, UK Federal Office of Topography Swisstopo, Wabern, Switzerland 28 09 2026 XII-4/W1-2026 105 112 Copyright: © 2026 Claire Ellul et al. 2026 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XII-4-W1-2026/105/2026/isprs-annals-XII-4-W1-2026-105-2026.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XII-4-W1-2026/105/2026/isprs-annals-XII-4-W1-2026-105-2026.pdf

Three dimensional (3D) geospatial data has been gaining increasing traction in recent years, with research identifying existing and potential applications that range from archaeology and architecture to work that underpins government level policies on housing, climate change and improved quality of life. Standards such as CityGML and CityJSON have helped to increase uptake. However, while there has been extensive focus on issues such as feature extraction from data, and various applications of 3D city models, there has been less focus on the challenges faced by those charged with producing such data at national scale in order to meet policy demand - i.e. the National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs). This paper explores NMCA understanding of the users and applications of 3D data in comparison to those identified in literature and reviews the challenges NMCAs face in meeting current and future demand, tracking these over time to help identify major long-term blockers to national 3D rollout.