High-Res Aerial Imagery Delivering “Awesome Power” to GIS Pros
Like the cartographers of centuries ago, today’s GIS professionals need to analyze and make critical decisions based on real facts on the ground.
Back more than 500 years ago, without the benefits of aerial perspective, mapmakers like Henricus Martellus created proximate renditions of the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. That suddenly opened the New World to Europe, via western routes of exploration that were once thought impossible. (Columbus may have used Martellus’ World Map to persuade Ferdinand and Isabel to back his voyages to the Indies.)
How much more powerful the tools are today, thanks to high-resolution aerial imagery and GIS, which can create exact renderings where each pixel on the map represents 2.8 inches on the earth. This kind of accuracy and easy access enables millions of pivotal decisions by businesses and governments to help develop new communities and enhance the quality of life.
It has certainly made a difference in rapidly growing regions of the U.S. like Apex, North Carolina, just outside Raleigh and the Research Triangle. In order to file for reimbursements from the state, the city once had to rely on satellite images to show officials all the roads it had built, improved, and maintained, but those photos were blurry and often out of date — and that necessitated teams going out into the field with measuring wheels.
All that changed with the introduction of up-to-date, high-resolution imagery integrated with a GIS platform. This enabled the city to measure large areas of Apex in a short time and with accuracy of measurements guaranteed to be within six inches of the distance on the ground (more precise than most lasers and, in many cases, than a technician onsite) — all from their office desktops. As a result, Apex banked more than $1 million of taxpayer money from the state of North Carolina and changed the way it conducted business.
