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Is a world without Google possible? The head of IGN responds
6/10TL;DR
IGN is positioning itself as a pillar of French digital sovereignty by producing authoritative open geographic data, partnering with commons such as OpenStreetMap, and building public tools from Cartes.gouv.fr to a national digital twin.
KEY POINTS
A public mapmaker with strategic reach
IGN remains the public institute responsible for mapping all French territory, from mainland France and Corsica to overseas territories including Guadeloupe and Wallis and Futuna. Its role extends far beyond consumer maps: the data supports defense, land planning, ecology, agriculture and emergency response. The institute presents itself as the guarantor of an authoritative national view of the territory.
Continuous imaging of France
The institute maintains its own aerial imaging capability, using aircraft to photograph the country on a three-year update cycle. The imagery reaches a resolution of 20 centimeters per pixel, giving detailed coverage of roads, buildings, farmland and forests. That material is then processed by trained technicians, increasingly assisted by automation and artificial intelligence.
Open data as the default rule
Most of IGN data is now published as open data under a permissive license that allows copying, modification and commercial reuse, provided the source is credited. That framework, enabled by France’s digital republic reforms, marks a major shift from a closed administrative model to one designed for wide reuse by public bodies, companies and citizens. Sensitive custom work for the military remains separate.
Agriculture, forests and urban change
Mapping is central to the management of a territory where roughly 50 to 60 percent is agricultural land and about 30 percent is forest. Data helps verify declared farm plots for European subsidies, monitor land use, and track urban expansion. On forests, the stakes are ecological and economic, with the wood sector accounting for about 400,000 jobs in France.
Laser scanning and the rise of 3D territory data
IGN is close to completing a nationwide LiDAR survey, using airborne laser scanning to produce 3D point clouds at roughly 20 points per square meter. This creates highly detailed terrain and vegetation data, though some private forest owners have expressed concern that very precise public data could indirectly aid timber theft. The institute’s current doctrine nevertheless remains broad publication.
Authority data versus collaborative data
IGN draws a distinction between public “authority data” and collaborative information. The former covers core layers such as topography, roads, buildings, addresses and administrative boundaries, with a service guarantee needed by firefighters, ministries and local authorities. For many local details, however, collaborative mapping can outperform the state.
A pragmatic alliance with OpenStreetMap
The institute works with OpenStreetMap, described as a map equivalent of Wikipedia, and recognizes the strength of its community of up to 10,000 contributors in France. In the Carte IGN mobile app, points of interest such as cash machines, public toilets, shops and bus stops rely on OpenStreetMap data because it is updated faster and more extensively. The relationship is not framed as competition but as complementarity between public infrastructure and digital commons.
Panoramax as an open alternative to Street View
Alongside the OpenStreetMap ecosystem, IGN launched Panoramax, a participatory image bank designed as an open alternative to proprietary street-level imagery. In a little over two years, the service has accumulated 120 million photos covering 1.1 million kilometers of roads, more than the total French road network because many routes are captured multiple times. The goal is to create reusable visual data for mapping, algorithms and public services without dependence on a closed platform.
A national digital twin for climate adaptation
IGN is also developing Jumeau Numérique National, or JUNE, with partners including Inria and Cerema, backed by France 2030. The project aims to deliver open-source building blocks from next year for simulations tied to climate adaptation, infrastructure and land management. One target use is forestry, where tree mortality has risen by 2.5 times over the past decade compared with the previous one, increasing demand for predictive models on species choice, carbon storage and fire risk.
Sovereignty through openness, not autarky
The broader argument is that digital sovereignty does not require every tool to be built entirely within national borders. Instead, it requires control over essential data, trusted governance, portability, open standards and shared infrastructure that align with European values. In that vision, France and Europe should move beyond merely regulating large platforms and invest in alternatives built on commons, interoperability and open-source models, including in artificial intelligence.
CONCLUSION
The strategy emerging around IGN links cartography, climate adaptation and digital policy into a broader sovereignty agenda. Its central wager is that public authority can be strengthened not by closing data, but by combining trusted state infrastructure with open standards and shared commons.
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