2010 News Archive
City updating aerial photographs to enhance maps
Photos give planners up-to-date information for many uses
4/14/2010
To update its inventory of high-quality maps, Johns Creek has hired an Atlanta company to take aerial photographs of the city from end to end.
The City will use the new maps to track changes in the community, such as new subdivisions, streets, buildings and topographical alterations. Currently, the City is using aerial photography from 2006. The project should be finished by mid-year.
An aerial photograph of a given piece of land can immediately give it context, showing what's on the property, where powerlines, light poles and utilities might be, its proximity to streets or streams, and what other development surrounds it.
The Community Development Department uses the detailed photographs to create maps for reports, studies and presentations, such as re-zoning requests.
Public Works officials use the photographs during the concept phase of developing roads, trails or sidewalks. They also check the photographs before going into the field to give them a sense of place and perspective. Combined with GIS technology, the aerial mapping allows officials to precisely measure distances quickly without making time-consuming trips to the site. The photography is used to inventory City assets such as roads, signs and lights.
The flights, conducted by Photo Science from Norcross, were done at an altitude of 4,000 feet in February when trees were bare and land features more visible.
Johns Creek is sharing the cost of the aerial photography with Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton and Dunwoody, which also had their cities mapped at the same time. Johns Creek's share of the project is $35,000.