New York State Orthoimagery Program
The purpose of the Statewide Digital Orthoimagery Program (DOP) is to produce high-resolution digital orthoimagery for the State of New York on an ongoing annual basis. It is anticipated that the entire state will be covered every 4-5 years. The DOP will include data collection, data processing, and quality assurance/quality control.
Challenge
GIS had been identified as a strategic technology for many New York State agencies for such things as emergency response planning, business development, real property tax administration and analysis, transportation planning and analysis, wildlife and natural resource analysis, health care (disease studies), and school district (school aid distribution) and political boundary mapping. Many local governments were already using GIS for similar tasks, as well as for criminal investigations, 911 administration, tax mapping, analysis of census data, development planning and engineering.
Each of these applications required large scale base maps that could be maintained up to date on a predictable and regular cycle. The State of New York needed not only a map, but a mapping process that could be repeated over and over and that produced consistent quality for all intended users and uses in the State. High quality orthoimagery was a key technological choice, however the DOP program had to start with the right foot to set a foundation upon which to build with subsequent updates in future years.
Solution
Infotech led a multi-participant team to create 1 and 2 foot pixel resolution digital orthoimagery for the State. Collection of new aerial imagery to support the program began in spring of 2001 in the lower Hudson Valley. The Infotech team for New York includes Triathlon Ltd, BC, Canada; 3001, Inc., New Orleans, LA; North West Group, Alberta, Canada; and Atlantic Technologies, LLC, Huntsville, AL. To win this work, Infotech decided to contract with Lucerne to develop quality assurance processes and serve as their quality assurance manager.
Lucerne played a critical role in first, designing a quality assurance process, and then coordinating its completion, working with Infotech but reporting results directly to the NY QA project team. A QA matrix was developed that reviewed each specification and designed specific checks for all interim deliverables including datums used, coordinate projections, survey control and network, aerotriangulation (by block), elevations, orthorectification, mosaicking and color balancing, metadata and format for all deliverables. A unique aspect of the design was to QA consistency between the various vendors. Lucerne worked closely with New York’s Department of Transportation, the agency providing the State an independent QA.
Client
The New York State Office for Technology (OFT) began in 1996 as the Governor’s Task Force on Information Resource Management. In 1997, the Task Force officially became the New York State Office for Technology.
OFT's mission is to provide centralized technology services, shape technology policy, and coordinate statewide technology-related initiatives that improve efficiency for New York State government.
Infotech (formerly VARGIS) is an industry leader in managing the acquisition, quality assurance and delivery of digital orthoimagery to government and commercial clients. Since 1995, Infotech has contracted for the production of digital hundreds of thousands of square miles of orthoimages nationwide.
Results
The Digital Orthoimagery Program (DOP) successfully graduated from its initial phase and provides complete statewide orthoimagery coverage. Imagery is updated on annual cycles, with each cycle covering approximately 25% of the State. The program progress up to date can be seen in the New York State GIS Clearinghouse.
Services
