A consortium of Local Authorities in Nottinghamshire, UK, has again chosen GeoPerspectives aerial photography to aid decision-making, support delivery of essential council services and improve communication with residents. The full colour aerial imagery, purchased from aerial survey specialist Bluesky, covers the whole of the county.
At an impressive 10 cm resolution it is detailed enough to view individual property boundaries, specific land uses and even street markings. This is the second time Bluesky has supplied the Nottinghamshire based consortium with high resolution aerial imagery from the GeoPerspectives archive. Organisations that are gaining benefit from the GeoPerspectives aerial photography include Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, six out of the seven Nottinghamshire district councils and Nottinghamshire Police.
Nottinghamshire County Council is making the GeoPerspectives aerial photography available to every desktop in the organisation via an intranet based geographical information system (GIS). Potentially available to more than 4,000 users, the imagery complements previous aerial survey data supplied by Bluesky, historic mapping dating back to the 1880’s and up-to-date geographical information from the Ordnance Survey product range.
“The GeoPerspectives aerial photography is a natural addition to our existing map bases,” said
Julian Walters, Project Leader at Nottinghamshire County Council. “It provides an up-to-date, highly detailed view of the county for applications as diverse as archaeological investigations, monitoring of mineral extraction and waste disposal sites, and accident analysis by the communities department.” He continued, “Users throughout the organisation can investigate specific sites without leaving the office, which in turn delivers significant cost and resource savings”.
The GeoPerspectives imagery is a valuable corporate resource for other members of the consortium including Newark and Sherwood Forest District Council where it supports the Council’s planning service in development control applications. “The aerial photography is set to become an essential information resource,” said Lee Robinson, Planning IS Manager. “There are a number of day-to-day applications that will benefit, in addition to the potential value of the photography to the Council’s Emergency Planning team for management of incidents, such as the recent flooding.”
Alys Dillon, GIS Manager at Nottinghamshire Police commented, “The GeoPerspectives imagery supplied by BlueSky is being used to inform the delivery of policing services in Nottinghamshire”. She continued, “It supports effective decision-making and communication in relation to planned and reactive policing operations that are location specific”.