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Abstract


Unlocking Oakland County, Michigan's Historic Aerial Photography with ERDAS OrthoBase
Track: State and Local Government
Author(s): Scott Oppmann, Karla H Richey

Oakland County Planning and Economic Development Services (PEDS) Division has an inventory of well over 20,000 historical aerial photos dating back to 1963. Over that 35-year time period, traditional County-wide aerial photography has been collected six different times. To unlock that vast resource, Oakland County is converting its hard-copy photo lab to a fully operational soft-copy (digital) photo lab. Starting with the 1990 flight, the PEDS Division has started to automate and ortho-rectify historical aerial photography. To help in the process they are using the photogrammetric software ERDAS IMAGINE OrthoBASE. With the more than 11,000 images that will be selected for the project the County is estimating this to be a four-year project. Once complete, the images will be provided to each local municipality in Oakland County at no cost. They will also be available to the general public for viewing and printing in Oakland County's "One Stop Shop." This valuable glimpse into the County's past will provide the 61 cities, villages, and townships with a knowledge base of how things were and how far they have come and will provide them the power to make better decisions for their future.

Scott Oppmann
Oakland County GIS Utility
1200 N. Telegraph Rd.
Bldg. 49W
Pontiac, MI 48341
USA

Phone: 248.452.9198
Fax: 248.858.1006
E-mail: oppmanns@co.oakland.mi.us