Today, the Chief Technology Office’s GIS program announces the release of new high-resolution aerial photography taken on a clear day in early spring just before most trees begin to leaf.

The 2010 aerial photography is orthorectified and is currently being used to update the District of Columbia’s Geographic Information System (DC GIS).  The imagery will allow the District to update features ranging from new streets and buildings, to capturing wheel-chair ramps. These and other base map layers in the DC GIS are used by District agencies and many other government and private organizations to develop the most accurate cartography, engineering, urban planning, and operational analyses.

To date, it is one of the best quality orthophotos collected by DC government – at a resolution of 15 centimeters. The collection consists of 328 separate tiles at a scale of 1 to 1200. Each tile covers approximately 800 by 800 meters of ground and encompasses all 69 square miles of DC.

The imagery is available to the public for previewing and integration on OCTO’s web map and data services library. A corresponding compressed file, created by mosaicking all 328 tiles together using an 80 to 1 ratio, is also available.  Requests for the compressed file in digital format, which requires commercial GIS software to view, can be sent to dcgis@dc.gov.  To obtain a printed map, please complete a map order form and submit to the Office of Planning at planning@dc.gov.

• 2010 Aerial Photography Preview

To learn more about DC Government technology initiatives and resources, visit www.octo.dc.gov.