Now you can get aerial shots of Prince William County online.
According to a release, Prince William County’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department gathers aerial photography of the county every two years, and is now making those images available to the public.
“The photos are then used in conjunction with overlays, or layers, that show parcel boundaries, street addresses, and past and present building locations, among other things,” stated a release.
Prior to 1998, the only way residents could see the imagery was in hard copy prints, stated a release. Now that GIS has moved to digital storage of the shots, they decided to move forward with digitizing the older photographs.
“…the aging prints were showing significant wear and tear. The corners of the photographs were rolling, and the photographs showed creasing, cracking and bending,” stated a release.
According to a release, older aerial photos were only available for viewing during GIS office hours.
“Access to the digital imagery allows people to find out where things used to be, help answer zoning ordinance questions, determine changes in land use and research the history of the county, Watt said.
Digitizing the prints and stitching them together makes it easier to pinpoint a location. It is hard to find a particular spot in a group of individual photographic prints,” stated a release.
More about the aerial photography, from a release:
“Traditionally, people have had to come in and leaf through all of the images to try and find what they’re looking for, and now they can search online. They don’t have to look through a stack of images for different years. Now they can just click through the different layers, and they’ll appear once they found the area of interest,” Watt said.
Digitally capturing the old print data so that it can be seen online anytime on the GIS website will prevent further degradation and allow the public to easily access the information. “To provide better access to the citizens and to the county employees, we wanted to make them available digitally and incorporate them into the existing web applications. It’s convenient. They can now do this at home or at their desks,” Watt said.
Except for photographs gathered in 1937, image collection prior to 1954 was sporadic and will not be included in the project, Watt said. In coming months the GIS office will add layers from 1990, 1991 and 1995. The most recent years to be digitized were 1954, 1979 and 1987. Images from between 1956 and 1997 will be added as the project continues.
To access the photos, click here.
