February 23, 2011 -- Getmapping has delivered 2010 aerial imagery to Mid Devon District Council providing an up-to-date and highly detailed backdrop to the Council’s mapping systems. The Council makes extensive use of its imagery across a wide range of departments including, address management, development control and planning enforcement, environmental health, land charges and estates management. 

The new imagery is served across the Council’s network to 175 potential users as a layer along side Ordnance Survey maps, earlier aerial surveys and specific asset data created by the Council. Being able to access imagery captured at different dates and times enables direct comparisons to be made. This can be useful for a range of tasks, from contaminated land assessment to planning enforcement. In address management for example, a service used by all council departments, the imagery helps to ensure that properties are attached to the correct street and that the extents of land associated with properties are properly assessed. The imagery is also used in planning assessments to check the lie of the land prior to a site visit especially in cases where a proposed development might not be visible from the highway.

The Mid Devon survey, part of Getmapping’s continuous UK update programme, was captured using at A3 digital camera providing a ground sampled distance of 12.5cm per image pixel. This means that the imagery can be used to pick out real detail such as field boundaries, vegetation cover, street furniture and recent development. It is particularly useful for site assessment when looking at proposed land allocations for example in preparation for site visits and for Local Plans. It is used as a backdrop for consultations because the public generally find it easier to relate to than traditional maps.

“The latest Getmapping imagery was flown at higher resolution providing us with a definite improvement in clarity when compared with earlier surveys,” said Alan Hooper Senior GMS officer, ICT Services at Mid Devon District Council. “We can zoom in much further, there is less shadow and much better colour consistency across all areas in the latest survey. More importantly there is a good fit with OS MasterMap so that the aerial photography really does inform the map when we are looking for details that maps do not display,” continued Hooper.