GIS Aerial Maps - Discover The Many Uses

Aug 29
19:53

2008

Louis ZW Zhang

Louis ZW Zhang

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

A guide to aerial maps online. Free, government and private sites that provide satellite images for individual and corporate use.

mediaimage

Geographic Information System or GIS is technology that offers a radically different way to produce and use the maps required to manage our communities and industries. GIS helps create intelligent super maps through which sophisticated planning and analysis can be performed at the mere touch of a button.GIS aerial maps can greatly enhance a GIS mapping project. Aerial imagery is a powerful visual aid and serves as a source of derivative information such as land cover,GIS Aerial Maps - Discover The Many Uses Articles terrain, change detection, or vegetation.

Today there are perhaps thousands of geospatial applications in use. Organizations, agencies and companies throughout the world use the technology to transform manually produced maps and associated descriptive records into digital databases. Once a tool that was affordable only to the largest organizations, geospatial systems and GIS aerial maps have become a cost effective option for even the smallest organizations.

Geographic information system technology is widely used for scientific investigations, natural resource management such as forestry, agriculture, mining, oil and gas exploration, environmental impact assessment, and urban planning.

GIS and GIS Aerial Maps can be used in a wide range of activities, such as: GIS base mapping, corridor mapping, land cover classification, urban development, pre and post 2D/3D seismic surveys, Environmental Impact Studies (EIS), environmental monitoring, coastal erosion studies, property and tax mapping, and flood analysis. You likely can even think of other uses for GIS not listed here, although it sounds cliche; the possibilities truly are almost endless.

Some GIS projects are hindered by coordinate problems of different image and vector data layers, which are caused by one or a combination of the following: Improper orthorectification of satellite or aerial image mosaics. Poor quality GPS derived ground control points (GCPs). Improper rectification of digital source raster maps. Importation of vector data or shape files for source data with incorrect coordinates. Improper use of units or unit convergence factors for source data. Utilization of source data from a corrupt coordinate database.

The key advantage to GIS is the ability to share maps, such as GIS aerial mapping. State and federal agencies, along with utility companies, which typically create their own respective maps, can share maps with each other. This not only saves money, but provides the ability to create hundreds of new maps, many of which may have never existed before, for minimal cost. With such widely available and easy to use tools available to make GIS aerial maps, there really is no reason you should not be using this technology with your aerial photographs. Source: Liveaerialmaps dot com, Louis Zhang