Aerial Imagery Study, Report to the Legislature, October 2023
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Aerial Imagery Study
Report submitted pursuant to Chapter 261, Laws of 2022
October 2023
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
SERVICES UNIT Report to the Legislature
Director Mike Fong
v3.4
Acknowledgments Research Team
Alice Zillah, Managing Director of Research
Brady Callahan, Geospatial Lead, Oregon Imagery Services and Development, Department of
Commerce
Brenda L. Henson Director, Wyoming Department
of Revenue Elizabeth Saylor, Applications Development
Manager, Department of Commerce
Dustin Walters, Pacific NW District Manager,
Eagleview Jason Henderson, GIS Coordinator, Department of
Commerce
Gayla Mullins, Program Manager, Texas StratMap
Jeremy Walker, Project Lead, Senior Project
Geoffrey Almvig, IT Director, Skagit County, WA
Management Analyst, Research Services and
George Halley, Business Manager, Sanborn Map Development, Department of Commerce
Company, Inc.
Lynda Jensen, Publications and Web Content
Jeff Kenner, Vice President, Miller Creek Associates Editor, Department of Commerce
Jimmy Schulz, Production Management and Michelle Gladstone-Wade, Tribal Liaison,
Partner, Miller Creek Associates Department of Commerce
Josh Greenburg, Hydrography Steward IT Services Anya Schneider, Flight Planning, Sanborn Map
GIS, WA State Department of Ecology Company, Inc.
Kathryn Ruckle, Privacy Officer, WaTech Eric Ingbar, Senior Consultant, AppGeo
Kelly Alfaro Haugen, GIS DBA, Thurston County, WA George Halley, Business Manager, Sanborn Map
Company, Inc.
Kent Anness, GIS Manager, Kentucky Office of
Technology Ian Von Essen, Washington State Subject Matter
Expert and Consultant to AppGeo
Matt Peters, Director, Utah Geospatial Resource
Center Joanne Markert, State Geographic Information
Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer,
Melissa Christie, Senior Account Manager, NV5 WaTech
Geospatial
Kate Hickey, Chief Operating Officer, AppGeo
Mischa Hey, Analytics Practice Lead, NV5
Geospatial Peter Lemack, Senior Project Manager, AppGeo
Noah Oliver, Geographer/Archeologist, Yakama Priya Sankalia, Senior Project Manager, AppGeo
Nation Cultural Resource Program
Srini Dharmapuri, Vice President & Chief Scientist,
Ruth Zipfel, Northern California, Hawaii, Nevada Sanborn Map Company, Inc.,
District Manager, Eagleview
Steven Drew, Thurston County Assessor and Chair
Shaun Scholer, Program Director, Indiana GIS of Washington State County Assessors Association
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 2
2.0
The research team would like to acknowledge and
share our gratitude to the 435 individuals who
participated in the Aerial Imagery Study.
Washington State Department of Commerce
Jeremy Walker
LOCAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
1011 Plum St. SE
P.O. Box 42525
Olympia, WA 98504-2525
www.commerce.wa.gov
For people with disabilities, this report is available on
request in other formats. To submit a request, please
call 360-725-4000 (TTY 360-586-0772)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 3
Table of Contents
Executive summary...................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Findings .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Appendix A. Aerial Imagery Primer............................................................................................................. 41
Appendix B: Aerial imagery study stakeholder workshop ............................................................................ 46
Appendix C: Study methods ....................................................................................................................... 77
Appendix D: Washington aerial imagery technology study stakeholder survey questionnaire ..................... 109
Appendix E: Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. 124
Appendix F: State summaries and comparisons ....................................................................................... 147
Appendix G: Yakama Nation letter ............................................................................................................ 155
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 4
Executive summary
Purpose and background
In 2022 (Chapter 261, Laws of 2022 (HB 1629)), the Legislature requested that the Department of Commerce
(Commerce) in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Information Officer conduct an Aerial Imagery Study
to assess the current uses and needs from state, local, special purpose districts, and tribal governments and
provide recommendations to improve the collection and distribution of aerial imaging data. Specifically, the
Legislature requested that the study include the following:
(a) An assessment of:
(i) The ways in which state agencies, local governments, special purpose districts, and tribal
governments currently use aerial imaging technology;
(ii) The ways in which state agencies, local governments, special purpose districts, and tribal
governments could benefit from having access to aerial imaging technology, as determined by
interviewing a sample of state, local, special purpose district, and tribal government officials to assess
expectations for aerial imaging data;
(iii) The types of imagery currently used or needed; and
(iv) The frequency with which various types of imagery are currently used or needed.
(b) Determine the minimum resolution level of aerial imaging that would best serve the majority of users
statewide;
(c) Estimate the current statewide expenditures by state, local, and tribal governments, and special
purpose districts, for aerial image acquisition and organization;
(d) Estimate the cost of procuring, once per biennium, and administering a high-quality aerial imagery
program on a statewide basis;
(e) Quantify the economies of scale between individual flights procured by individual jurisdictions as
compared to the cost of procuring a single flight to obtain aerial imaging of the entire state;
(f) Determine the best available mechanism for cost sharing between jurisdictions for the acquisition and
management of aerial imagery; and
(g) Make recommendations about current sources that provide imaging data, further steps to improve the
collection of aerial imaging data, and the steps necessary to implement a comprehensive, cost-efficient,
aerial imaging collection and distribution system to serve state, local, special purpose district, and tribal
officials statewide through the state's existing geospatial program.
Commerce developed the Aerial Imagery Study research team, comprised of a mix of government staff and
contracted consultants who operated under the selected vendor AppGeo, Inc. The research team conducted
the study using various methods including:
A survey of 435 subject matter experts from 145 local, special district, state and tribal governments
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 5
Four workshops
Twelve focus groups
Numerous one-on-one interviews
Key findings
The conservative estimated benefit of using aerial imagery is $159 million per year in Washington.
• Aerial imagery is essential to many industries. We use aerial imagery for a wide variety of purposes
from monitoring salmon habitats, land and waterway developments, and condition assessments to
reducing the need for field inspections.
• The efficiencies we gain by using aerial imagery has an aggregate benefit of $159 million per year.
The current statewide aerial imagery program is cost effective but does not meet minimal technical
specifications for the majority of local, special district, state, and tribal government users.
• The current Statewide Imagery Services Program administered by WaTech and contracted with
Hexagon, costs the average county $6,000 per year to acquire 6-inch orthoimagery (ortho). To acquire
the same 6-inch ortho on the open market, a county would have to spend an average of $45,000 per
year.
• The Statewide Imagery Services Program offers only 6-inch ortho and the characteristics of the
imagery, like time of year, are not controlled.
• The majority of survey respondents - 81% - were in favor of an expanded state-run program as long as it
was at an affordable price to their government entity.
There is no readily available off the shelf solution to meet the minimum technical specifications that
addresses the majority of local, special purpose district, state and tribal government aerial imagery
uses.
• While there is useful imagery like the National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP), and some aerial
imagery vendors provide regular urban flight plans, none of these options would achieve 6-inch ortho
and oblique minimum technical specifications.
• Technical specifications for high-quality aerial imagery program are 3-inch and 6-inch ortho (vertical)
and oblique (at an angle) photos collected when the leaves of deciduous trees are off (leaf-off) and
leaves are on (leaf-on). This aerial imagery is also available in 4-band (red, green, blue, near infrared)
ortho and 3-band (red, green, blue) oblique imagery.
Without a state-funded program, tribal, state and local governments would need to spend $48.1 million
every two years to acquire images at the necessary minimal technical specifications.
• In addition to 6-inch ortho, local, special purpose district, state, and tribal governments need 3-inch
ortho with 4-band imagery, 3-inch oblique and 6-inch oblique imagery with 3-band imagery that is flown
in different seasons when the leaves are on (leaf-on) and off (leaf-off). Three-band and 4-band imagery
allow for infrared and near infrared, as well as other spectrums of light to be seen for a variety of
technical needs that cannot be achieved in other ways.
Cost-sharing models have mixed results.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 6
• Cost-sharing models are currently the only way that some smaller governments can acquire aerial
imagery. While $6,000 per county is a good deal for many counties, many municipalities do not have a
budget for aerial imagery. 1
Washington has the economies of scale to get the best cost per square mile of aerial imagery and
control administrative costs.
• AppGeo, Inc. utilized survey data, focus groups and one-on-one interviews to determine a high-quality
aerial imagery program that would meet the minimal technical specifications for the majority of local,
special district, state and tribal government users. Six percent of the high-quality aerial imagery
program would go toward administrative costs, while 73% would go toward aerial imagery acquisition.
The remaining 21% would be spent on spatial and image quality control, infrastructure (storage, hosting
and streaming services) and software to ensure access for local, special purpose districts, state and
tribal governments. The total biennial cost would be $36.6 million.
A high-quality aerial imagery program has a positive return on investment.
• For every $1 invested in aerial imagery, there is a $7.35 return in benefits over 6 years. A simple annual
cost/benefit analysis shows that for every $1 invested in aerial imagery there is bi-annual $8.80 benefit.
To learn more about these calculations please see Appendix C: Study methods.
Recommendations overview
WaTech manages the existing Statewide Imagery Services Program and serves primarily Washington state
agencies and interested counties. To expand the focus of this program so that Washington's tribes and local
governments can receive imagery services is a change in focus that would increase program administration,
implementation, and coordination costs. Commerce recommends that the Legislature enable an expansion of
this program through the following phases:
A one-year startup phase in fiscal year 2025. This includes the planning to control imagery
characteristics, hiring of staff positions essential to the administration of the program (including a tribal
liaison to consult with tribal governments on flight paths and collection), and beginning a new vendor
selection process. Table 3 contains potential startup costs.
In the 2025-27 biennium and each biennium thereafter, begin operating the high-quality aerial imagery
program. This program will provide both oblique and ortho at 3-inch and 6-inch resolution, which meets
the majority of users' needs. This option also allows for all Washington and tribal government entities to
access the imagery they need without concerns over limited budgets. This option also streamlines
administrative costs, saving Washington residents' funds and re-directing government entities'
administrative capacity to other pressing needs. WaTech would house and manage the expanded
program. Table 3 and Table 4 contain potential startup costs and data acquisition estimates.
1 Based on AppGeo Survey data.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 7
Introduction
Background
A single aerial imagery flight can take different types of imagery that crosses multiple jurisdictions and
geographies. Today, state, local and special purpose districts purchase aerial imagery data independently,
often resulting in multiple payments for the same data and flights. This report outlines how Washington can
achieve a high-quality aerial imagery program.
Aerial imagery terms
Orthoimagery (ortho) and oblique imagery are the two most important terms to understand in this report.
Figure 1 shows the same scene as an orthoimage and an oblique image. Different camera systems collect
vertical and oblique photos, so their acquisition costs are different. Oblique imagery is typically more
expensive.
Figure 1: Comparison of an ortho (left) and an oblique image (right)
Source: Washington Department of Ecology Coastal Mapper
Every functional use requires up-to-date imagery, typically no more than 2 years old. Older imagery is used to
determine changes and establish trends (e.g., erosion and sedimentation, and changes in buildings). A
successful program must gather new imagery and make historical imagery available too. Indeed, some
regulatory and professional requirements set standards for the age of useful imagery.
The next most important factor to understand in this report is ground separation distance (GSD). GSDs are
measured in resolutions, which is the dimension of pixels. GSDs range from 1-inch to 1-meter. 1-inch is the
most detailed, while 1-meter is the least detailed. Smaller GSD values reveal more detail but are more
expensive to collect, process, and store. Many governments cannot afford high resolution aerial imagery, so
they opt for lower resolution aerial imagery (including free imagery from sources such as Google Maps and
Microsoft Bing). Figure 2 shows the difference in clarity between a 12-inch ortho and a 3-inch ortho.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 8
Figure 2. 12-Inch and 3-inch ortho imagery
Two Images from MapGeo: https//carsoncitynv.mapgeo.io
There are many additional terms that this report references. Table 1 lists key terms that the reader may
reference.
Table 1: Aerial imagery key terms
Term Description Synonyms
Software that makes aerial imagery useful such
as web-browser maps, GIS software, computer-
aided dispatch (CAD), mass appraisal (CAMA).
Oblique software is often a separate computer
Aerial imagery program because oblique imagery is often stored
software in specific, optimized, formats that require special Software, Oblique software, various product names
(user) code. Oblique software can also allow rotating
three-dimensional views and measurements such
as height, depth, and vertical surface areas.
Oblique software may integrate with other
software.
Colors are balanced and standardized, seam lines
Corrected
removed, vertical relief artifacts are removed to Product names: TrueTouch, True Ortho
orthoimagery
create a purely vertical view everywhere.
Data and products created using aerial imagery.
These include maps of many phenomena
Derived Land cover, land use, impermeable surfaces, infrastructure,
(buildings, vegetation, land cover, infrastructure,
products building footprints, change detection
etc.) and changes detected by comparing different
generations of derived products.
The dimensions of an image pixel on the earth.
Ground Resolution
Typical values are 1m, 0.5m, 12”, 9”, 6”, 3”.
separation
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 9
Term Description Synonyms
distance
(GSD)
Whether the actual ground surface is visible.
Ground Common causes of poor visibility are atmospheric
visibility (clouds, fog, mist, smoke, dust) or surface (water,
snow, objects) and vegetation.
The light wavelengths collected by a camera.
Image bands Typical bands are red, green, blue, and near RGB, IR, Near IR, 4-band, 3-band
infrared.
Online digital services that provide images (ortho
Image or oblique) to some sort of user client software
Cloud-based, streaming, on-line, web service, WMS
services (web-browser map, GIS software, computer-aided
dispatch (CAD), mass appraisal (CAMA)).
Leaf-on is when deciduous and annual vegetation
has leaves; Leaf-off is when deciduous and annual
Leaf-on /
vegetation has dropped its leaves. Leaf-off is Leafless, leaf on, leaf off
Leaf-off
typically late fall to early spring (western
Washington) or mid-spring (eastern Washington).
Lidar stands for “light imaging detection and
ranging”. This technology is often confused with
aerial imagery because collection is often done
from aircraft and the products are frequently used
Lidar
together. Lidar provides a large “cloud” of 3-
dimensional points used to model the surface and
other things on the surface. This study does not
include Lidar collection or use.
Near infrared wavelengths are reflected
Near infrared (illuminate) vegetation and other heat-absorbing IR, Near IR
or heat-reflecting surfaces.
Air photo taken with the camera axis at a 35 to 50
Oblique photo Sideways, 2-way, 4-way
degree angle to the surface of the earth.
Vertical photos seamed together and spatially
Orthoimagery Orthogonal, ortho, orthos, vertical, top-down
corrected to varying degrees of accuracy.
Planimetric Orthoimagery corrected to a known accuracy
Product names: Certified, Controlled
orthoimagery standard using surveyed ground control points.
The digital storage requirements for aerial
Storage imagery. Storage needs are dictated by the
number of bits in each image and by the GSD (see
above). Decreasing the GSD by 50% (e.g., 6” to 3”)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 10
Term Description Synonyms
results in a 200% increase in storage (e.g., 50tb to
200tb).
The angle of the sun to the surface of the earth.
Highest angles occur at daily solar noon and
Sun angle
seasonally at the summer solstice. Low sun
angles produce larger and deeper shadows.
Air photo taken with the camera axis
Vertical photo Top-down
perpendicular to the surface of the earth.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 11
Recommendations
Commerce recommends that the Legislature expand the existing Statewide Imagery Services Program, known
as the high-quality state aerial imagery program. As Table 2 illustrates, the high-quality statewide aerial
imagery program is the only option that meets all criteria that the Legislature, state agencies, local
governments and tribal governments identified. We consulted with the current WaTech aerial imagery program
manager on these recommendations.
Table 2. Aerial imagery options comparison
Meets regulatory
Standardized coverage Low administration cost to Cost per
Option Equal access standards (e.g.
of state users biennium
IAAO)
High-quality
statewide aerial Yes Yes Yes Yes $36M
imagery program
High-quality state
program minus 3-
inch obliques in Yes No Yes Yes $28M
public mountainous
areas
6 inch only, higher
State funded 6-inch Buy-up 3-inch
Yes resolution requires buy- Yes $23M
with 3-inch Buy-Up administrative costs
up
State funded 6-inch
Buy-up 3-inch
minus mountainous Yes No Yes $15M
administrative costs
areas
Statewide 6-inch Buy-up (all obliques and 3-
with 3-inch buy up Yes No inch orthos) and No $3M
(no obliques) administrative costs
Current program
Use under
with full state No No No $1M
license only
funding
Startup phase beginning in fiscal year 2025
The startup phase would focus on the planning to control imagery characteristics, hiring staff that are
essential to the administration of the program and initiating a new vendor selection process. WaTech would
continue to house and manage the expanded program. Table 3 outlines potential estimated startup costs.
Actual FTE costs may vary depending on the specific job classifications to be filled, when those staff are hired,
and the timing of staff onboarding. The high-quality aerial imagery program would have four new staff
positions to administer all of the technical specifications and needs of the program, including community
coordination, and outreach and engagement.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 12
Table 3. Potential project startup costs of high-quality aerial imagery program
Costs Project startup: FY 2025 - supplemental
Ortho & oblique imagery acquisition $0
FTE (4), salary, benefits, and standard agency
$940,000
goods, services, and space and utilities costs
External technical support $100,000
Creation & maintenance of statewide control
$1,325,000
network
Spatial and image quality control $100,000
Infrastructure
$32,400
(Storage, hosting, and streaming services)
Software
(support viewing, distribution)*
Total startup cost $2,497,400
*There are no software costs for the first year since there is no imagery collected in the first year.
Statewide control network
Before any aerial imagery can be collected, there is a one-time cost for the initial setup of a statewide control
network. A control network ensures the spatial accuracy of the imagery is captured and would initiate the
acquisition of aerial imagery viewing software. The staff mentioned earlier would be managing this critical
step.
Recommended staff:
Aerial Imagery Program Manager (1 FTE) manages the solicitation and contract activities of the high-
quality state aerial imagery program and manages the high-quality state aerial imagery program team.
Estimates based on an IT Business Analyst - Senior Manager position ($177,000 salary and benefits plus
agency expenses).
Support Engineer (1 FTE) administers the infrastructure and distribution (storage, data downloads, online
services, web maps) and software needs of aerial imagery to all local, special purpose district, state and
tribal governments support and work with existing DNR staff who also provide technical assistance.
Estimates based on an IT Data Management - Manager position ($177,000 salary and benefits plus agency
expenses).
Tribal Coordinator (1 FTE) will coordinate with federally recognized tribes to ensure the state is meeting
obligations to tribal governments. Specific work can include, but is not limited to creating processes for the
co-administration of aerial imagery with the state as it pertains to the reserved rights of each federally
recognized tribe and coordination with the rest of the program staff to ensure consistent and equitable
treatment of all users of aerial imagery. Estimates based on an IT Data Management - Manager position
($177,000 salary and benefits plus agency expenses).
Community Relations Coordinator (1 FTE) will raise awareness about the high-quality aerial imagery
program and coordinate with program staff to ensure that local and special purpose district staff have
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 13
equitable access to the high-quality state aerial imagery program. Estimates based on a Management
Analyst 5 position ($131,000 salary and benefits plus agency expenses).
It is assumed that onboarding of staff may occur at different times of the fiscal year, and actual job
classifications may vary based on the administering agency's needs. Each factor would have an effect on
these cost estimates.
Beginning in the 2025-27 biennium and each biennium thereafter, WaTech could begin operating the high-
quality aerial imagery program.
Similar to the state of Kentucky's aerial imagery program, the high-quality statewide aerial imagery program
will provide both oblique and ortho at the 3-inch and 6-inch resolution, which meets the majority of Washington
users' needs. This option also allows for all Washington and tribal government entities to access the imagery
they need without concerns over limited budgets. This option also streamlines administrative costs, saving
Washington residents' funds and re-directing government entities' administrative capacity to other pressing
needs.
Table 4 provides an estimate of program administration, implementation and data acquisition costs for
illustrative purposes. It also illustrates that the first flight cycle represents a first biennial budget of $33 million
because the full infrastructure costs would not be incurred until the following biennium. The second flight
cycle is an accurate depiction of the biennial costs for the high-quality aerial imagery program.
Table 4. Potential costs of high-quality aerial imagery program over two biennia
1st flight cycle 2nd flight cycle
Costs
2025-2027 biennium 2027-2029 biennium
Ortho & oblique imagery acquisition $26,479,825 $26,479,825
FTE (4) $2,000,000 $2,000,000
External technical support $200,000 $200,000
Creation and maintenance of statewide control
$26,500 $26,500
network
Spatial and image quality control $1,712,500 $1,712,500
Infrastructure
$1,958,400* $5,875,200
(Storage, hosting, and streaming services)*
Software
$850,000 $340,000
(support viewing, distribution)
Total subsequent biennium cost $33,227,225 $36,634,025
* There are minimal storage, hosting, and streaming costs for the first year.
A custom contract with a national aerial imagery vendor will be needed. National aerial imagery vendors are
listed in alphabetical order and include but are not limited to Eagleview, Sanborn, NearMap, and NV5. At a
minimum, the aerial imagery should be collected on a biennial cycle with fresh aerial imagery data published
every 2 years across the entire state according to Figure 5. The expectation is that the vendor would be the
primary contractor and subcontract out parts of the technical requirements.
Technical requirements include:
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 14
• 6-inch GSD ortho, nominal 6-inch oblique images over 84% of the state 2
• 3-inch GSD ortho, nominal 3-inch oblique images over 16% of the state 3
• 4-band (red, green, blue, near infrared) ortho
• 3-band (red, green, blue) oblique imagery
• Leaf-off imagery
• Spatial and quality control sufficient for planimetric mapping purposes in all populated areas,
appropriate to the GSD of the ortho.
• Spatial and quality control sufficient for general mapping purposes in all other areas.
• Stereo pairs of ortho are provided to the Department of Natural Resources for their photogrammetry
use
• Offers oblique viewing tools or is compatible with oblique viewing tools for measurement, calculations,
etc.
• Compatible with common government software systems: GIS, CAMA, CAD.
The program will cover the entire state at either 3-inch GSD or 6-inch GSD (Figure 5). Urban growth areas and
corridors require higher resolution at 3-inch GSD. All other parts of the state are collected at 6-inch GSD. For
ortho, the 6-inch GSD coverage is the same as the current WaTech Statewide Imagery Program, with the
notable difference that WaTech would have control over imagery characteristics. Providing more detailed 3-
inch imagery in urban areas supports government needs for planimetric mapping of infrastructure,
assessments, planning, and other intensive uses. An entity could optionally purchase the 3-inch GSD imagery
through the buy-up options.
State funding assures equal accessibility for all Washington government entities and tribal governments:
• It does not require subscription and removes accessibility barriers that smaller government entities
currently experience.
• It is distributed through mechanisms that are available to all.
The high-quality state program should also offer buy-up program for derived products or enhanced
imagery.
• Vendor offers additional products commonly of interest to government sectors (e.g., change
detection).
• Government entities can buy more detailed imagery (smaller GSD, higher resolution oblique images) at
reduced rates, so long as the more detailed imagery is shared as part of the program.
Implementation of the high-quality statewide aerial imagery program
1) Decide on which option to pursue.
2) Establish stable funding.
3) Year 0 (Fiscal Year 2025): plan and design the aerial imagery collection technical effort as needed
(depends on alternative selected)
• Spatial control through ground survey network
• Flight planning
2 84% of Washington is suburban or rural and does not require as high of a resolution of ortho and oblique imagery.
3 16% of Washington's land area is in an urban growth area and has high-density structures, which require higher resolution of ortho and
oblique imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 15
4) Year 0 (Fiscal Year 2025): design any solicitation needed for the aerial imagery program
• Establish an industry review process to hone the requirements to be realistic, feasible, biddable
• Release toward the end of Year 0
• Select vendor
5) Year 1 (Fiscal Year 2026): collect first cycle of aerial imagery
• Process and deliver
6) Year 1 (Fiscal Year 2026): promote aerial imagery usage
• Coordination with tribal governments
• Coordination with local governments
• Training and education resources
7) Year 1 (Fiscal Year 2026): solicit buy-up requests
• Coordinate with vendor if part of acquisition process
8) Year 2 (Fiscal Year 2027): vendor buy-up fulfillment
9) Year 2 (Fiscal Year 2027): continue coordinating, training, and education to get maximum value from
imagery
10) Years 3 (Fiscal Years 2027 and 2028) and forward: repeat the Year 1 and 2 collection, buy-up, distribution
cycles on biennial basis
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 16
Methodology
In order to conduct the aerial imagery study, the research team engaged with subject matter experts broadly
and in-depth. The research team organized four virtual workshops, a statewide electronic survey and 12 focus
groups.
Broad engagement occurred across state and local levels of government and across the entire state, including
34 counties, 61 municipalities, 16 special purpose districts, six school districts, and 26 tribal governments.
These numbers reflect the total engagement with each government type across the workshops, survey and
focus groups.
The survey and focus groups allowed for in-depth analysis efforts to better understand the different uses and
needs of aerial imagery by different staff levels within each government sector. AppGeo conducted a survey
with 435 government officials and staff respondents. The total survey respondents included 113 county staff,
83 municipality staff, 16 special purpose district staff, 125 state agency staff, 21 tribal government staff, and
71 other individuals. A question on the survey asked if participants wanted to volunteer to participate in a
focus group.
Each focus group included subject matter experts with similar and relatable experiences to discuss their
specific aerial imagery uses, needs and challenges. We convened the following 12 focus groups:
• 13 GIS Managers
• 3 Planners
• 4 Environment/Natural Resource Managers
• 2 Infrastructure: asset and Engineer Managers
• 5 Transportation subject matter experts
• 4 Public Safety subject matter experts
• 2 Emergency Preparedness staff
• 4 Assessors from the west side of Washington
• 4 Assessors from the east side of Washington
• 2 focus groups for tribal government staff with a total of 6 subject matter experts
• 1 focus group for the existing Statewide Imagery Services Program run by WaTech.
For each focus group, AppGeo sent invitations to an average of 10 individuals whose survey response
indicated interest in joining. For subject matter experts who wanted to attend a scheduled focus group, but
could not make the meeting due to a time conflict, the research team followed up with one-on-one interviews.
For more details about methodology, please refer to Appendix C: Study Methods.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 17
Findings
Current aerial imagery uses and benefits in Washington
Washington and tribal governments use aerial imagery in a wide variety of ways. Table 5 shows some of the
uses and the types of aerial imagery most valuable for each. Between workshops, the survey, focus groups,
and interviews, it was determined that both 3-inch and 6-inch ortho and oblique imagery are considered the
most useful overall. As a reminder, the smaller the inch size, the more detailed the image. Six-inch imagery is
better than 12-inch and would fulfill the need of any user who has a minimum technical resolution that is
higher than 6 inches.
Table 5. Current uses and benefits of aerial imagery
Functional need Government sector Benefits Imagery type
State, local, tribal, special Timely public hazard notification &
Air quality monitoring 1’ to 3’ ortho
purpose district education
Improved assessment equity; More
Assessing property value Local, tribal 3-6” ortho / obliques
efficient inspections; improved safety
Assess damage and focus mitigation
State, local, tribal, special
Disaster recovery efforts, speed conveying resources to 6” - 12” ortho / obliques
purpose district
affected communities and individuals
Improved property targeting matching
State, local, tribal, special
Economic development specific development criteria; Improved 3-6” ortho / obliques
purpose district
property management
Improved hazardous materials and wildfire
State, local, tribal, special risk assessment and preparedness; More
Emergency management 3-6” ortho / obliques
purpose district efficient disaster response; Improved post
disaster assessment and mitigation
Improved timber harvest assessments,
Forestry and forest forest health assessments, & wildfire risk
State, local, tribal 6” - 12” ortho
management assessments; Improved post wildfire
recovery management
Improved crime mapping, public
Law enforcement State, local, tribal notification, emergency services routing, 6” - 12” ortho
911 location verification
State, local, tribal, special Improved comprehensive planning,
Long-term planning 6” - 12” ortho
purpose district economic development, public discourse
State, local, tribal, special
Near-term planning Improved planning and public discourse 6” - 12” ortho / obliques
purpose district
State, local, tribal, special Improved disease mapping; improved
Public health 6” - 12” ortho
purpose district public outreach
Ability to see incident context (safe entry
Public safety (fire and
Local, tribal modes, nearby hazards); Common 6” - 12” ortho / obliques
police actions)
operating picture for incident command
Improved coastal & shoreline erosion,
monitoring & assessment; Improved
State, local, tribal, special coastal development monitoring of
Shoreline management 6-12” ortho / obliques
purpose district unpermitted uses; Improved recreational
use management and recreational facility
management
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 18
Functional need Government sector Benefits Imagery type
State, local, tribal, special
Site selection Improved site prospecting and planning 6-12” ortho / obliques
purpose district
Improved traffic management; Improved
Transportation State, local, tribal, special
infrastructure mapping & facility 3-6” ortho / obliques
infrastructure purpose district
management; improved safety assessment
Time-savings in fieldwork, efficiency in
Utility infrastructure Local, tribal, special purpose
management, safety through reduced field 3-6” ortho / obliques
(power, water, sewer) district
time
Overall, aerial imagery plays a central role in many aspects of contemporary government at the state, tribal,
and local levels. The most common form of large-area imagery has been ortho (vertical imagery). Local,
special purpose district, state, and tribal governments use ortho for many planning and management
purposes. One of the most helpful uses is looking at changes of landscapes over time. Aerial imagery
companies have software that detects changes very quickly, which can save a lot of staff time in monitoring
and managing landscapes.
Oblique imagery is very important for government uses. Oblique imagery is now much more available due to
the use of digital systems. Contemporary oblique aerial imagery collections, used with appropriate software,
allow detailed rotating views (fly-arounds) of a single location, enhanced measurement capabilities, and can
convey more information to the casual user than ortho does. For example, property assessment increasingly
makes use of oblique aerial imagery, which is a practice promoted by the International Association of
Assessing Officers and current Washington regulations. Shoreline management also relies on oblique imagery
because vertical photography does not convey near-shore topography or setting as shown in Figure 1. Local,
special purpose districts, state and tribal governments all rely on aerial imagery for disaster recovery. Aerial
imagery taken prior to a disaster is used to assess damage and focus mitigation efforts to convey resources to
affected communities and individuals. Aerial imagery is also commonly used for economic development,
assessing property values, comprehensive planning and public health, saving staff time and administrative
costs that result from in-person assessments, surveying and planning.
Current sources that provide aerial imagery data
Government sectors in Washington acquire aerial imagery in two principal ways. First, WaTech runs the
Statewide Imagery Services Program. Second, many government agencies independently purchase aerial
imagery. This study also found that some governments acquire imagery directly over small areas using
camera-equipped drones – a useful tool but one that does not scale to a statewide, high-quality aerial imagery
program.
Statewide program
The current WaTech Statewide Imagery Services Program was established in 2017 at the request of the State
E911 Office and the Washington Association of County Officials (WACO). The Statewide Imagery Services
Program is a subscription-based program with Hexagon as the imagery services provider. Government entities
can subscribe to the data for licensed uses on an annual payment basis at a moderate cost. The available
aerial imagery is limited to the 6-inch GSD orthophotos throughout the state. The state program and Hexagon
contract is managed by a single staff person at WaTech who administers many other efforts.
WaTech’s current imagery contract that provides access to Hexagon’s subscription services is through Ascent
GIS, a Hexagon reseller. WaTech’s three-year contract with Ascent GIS guarantees access to Hexagon’s six-
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 19
inch resolution imagery for all of Washington. In addition, the Ascent GIS contract guarantees that Hexagon’s
statewide imagery for Washington will be refreshed twice within each three-year contract cycle. Hexagon
provides access to imagery via online streaming services and WaTech delivers of the imagery to subscribers
on physical media. WaTech provides online streaming services for all Washington agencies and departments.
WaTech imagery is available to tribal governments through the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, rather
than on a per-government subscription basis. For all other governmental entities, Hexagon provides online
streaming services.
The current cost of the program is $307,000 annually. Once Hexagon delivers the 6-inch orthophotos to the
state program, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) does post-processing of many images at no
additional cost to subscribers; this work requires an additional 0.1 FTE annually. Some examples of the type of
post-processing of the Hexagon imagery are customized image compression formats and alignment of
orthophotos to match municipal or county boundaries. Table 6 provides a breakdown of the annual cost of the
current WaTech Statewide Aerial Imagery Program.
Table 6. Annual aerial imagery acquisition costs, WaTech Statewide Aerial Imagery
Program (administrative costs are not included)
Statewide imagery services program member subscriber Annual payment
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission $15,000
Emergency management, Department of the Military (WA NG911 Office) $65,000
State agencies (Ecology, Wildlife, DOT, DNR) $40,000
Others $187,000
Total $307,000
Benefits of the current statewide program
Lowest cost. The current statewide imagery program provides 6-inch ortho at a fraction of the cost
compared to what government entities would pay independently for the same quality of 6-inch ortho. The
average cost to a county for the statewide imagery program is $6,000 per year, compared to an average of
$45,000 per year for independently purchased 6-inch ortho. That is an average savings of $39,000 per year
for each county.
Challenges the current statewide program faces
No control over imagery characteristics. Because WaTech’s contract with Hexagon is for an imagery
subscription service, WaTech has no control over the imagery’s technical characteristics. For example, the
date of the imagery capture determines whether trees have leaf-on or leaf-off. Leaf-on imagery is great for
urban or rural forestry applications, but very poor for tax assessment purposes. Lack of control over the
image characteristics means that the imagery is not as useful as it could be for local governments, special
purpose districts, state agencies or tribal governments.
Aerial imagery provided can be incomplete. Because government entities cannot choose the dates of
when to fly, inclement weather can interfere with the collection of statewide imagery leaving areas of
Washington uncollected. Aerial imagery collected along coastal locations on the Olympic peninsula often
has significant cloud cover and/or fog, which makes it hard to collect imagery during the spring.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 20
Duplicative imagery acquisitions. Because there is no control over image characteristics, government
entities make independent purchases of aerial imagery at the six-inch GSD orthophoto to control for leaf-
on, leaf-off and weather events. This requires additional budget investments by these governments.
Funding instability. Funding the current WaTech Imagery Program comes solely from government
subscriptions. Therefore, if just a few of those governmental partners do not renew their subscription to
the program, the whole imagery program is at risk of termination.
Unequal access to imagery. Most smaller and rural government entities do not have the funds necessary
to participate in the Washington subscription-based Aerial Imagery program.
Complex accounting and administration. There are significant administrative costs associated with the
current WaTech Statewide Imagery Services Program at both state and local levels. Examples include the
generation and payment of invoices, late payment reminders, replacement and recruitment of new
consortium partners, and the need to provide end-user technical support. WaTech technical support also
includes coordinating the post processing of the imagery into various state plan projections and
customized image compression formats. In addition, WaTech technical support includes the clipping of the
post-processed imagery to consortium partners, and finally the storage and hosting of all historical
imagery.
Independent purchasing
For the purpose of this report, we define independent purchasing as aerial image purchases independent of the
state program. Independent purchasing addresses many of the challenges faced by the Statewide Imagery
Services Program. During the study, the research team spoke with many municipal and county staff who were
part of local consortiums. These consortiums bring together funding from multiple local governments and
some special purpose districts to purchase agreed upon aerial imagery. Costs can vary from year to year
based on user requirements and consortium membership. We noted that while consortiums capitalize on
economies of scale, the cost per mile is still much larger compared to a statewide aerial imagery program.
Local, special purpose district and tribal governments still choose to participate in local consortiums because
they offer a better alternative than the current option of purchasing the imagery alone.
Based on the survey data, aggregated individual purchases of aerial imagery total $2,645,000 per year with an
estimated annual direct administrative cost of $625,000. Indirect administrative costs: legal review, purchasing
review and approval, have high variability from one government entity to another and were not included. The
annual aggregated independent purchases of aerial imagery by Washington and tribal government entities are
in Table 7. Not all local governments and tribal governments reported their aerial imagery costs due to
complex budgeting. It was not unusual for multiple survey respondents from the same government to report
conflicting figures. In those instances the research team followed up with the best point of contact who could
speak to costs and if the figure could not be validated it was not included in the annual aggregate. The
parenthesis next to the individual purchasers column lists the number of governments the research team was
able to validate. It is safe to assume that Table 7 totals report a significant undercount in the actual cost of
independently purchased aerial imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 21
Table 7. Annual aggregated reported independent purchase costs from survey, focus
groups, and interviews
Individual purchasers Current reported annual imagery cost
Counties (13) $1,446,440
Municipalities (26) $427,042
State agencies (3) $499,300
School district* (2) $0*
Special purpose district (25) $152,000
Tribal governments (15) $66,070
Other (regional councils) $54,317
Total $2,645,169
*No school districts reported purchasing figures.
While Table 7 shows annual reported aggregates, it does not show a biannual cost. Table 8 compares reported
versus extrapolated annual administrative costs and per cycle aerial imagery acquisition costs. In order to
create a comparative analysis, a baseline of aerial imagery is needed. The research team assumed that on
average local governments and tribal governments want 25% oblique and 75% ortho imagery which was
informed by the survey and focus groups and that acquisition of 3-inch, 6-inch, and some 9-inch were most
typical. Based on these assumptions and the survey responses, individual purchasers collectively spend
$6,540,000 per year. This is still an undercount of the actual aggregate cost of aerial imagery in Washington.
Because the true cost of aerial imagery cannot be determined, an extrapolated estimate was created. The
extrapolated independent purchasers estimate in Table 8 answers the question, what if each county and city
were to purchase imagery independently? Counties and Cities have well-defined borders and can be quickly
analyzed at a per square foot cost using the same mix of 25% oblique and 75% ortho imagery. This
extrapolated cost does not account for state agencies, special purpose districts or tribal governments. The
total amount for a two-year cycle is $47,338,000. The cost is high due to $34.5 million administrative costs
over two years. Each county and city would pursue their own contracts with aerial imagery providers. During
focus groups, participants from different government types were asked how much staff time they spend on
administration as a percent of a FTE. Annually, 172.55 FTEs are needed to perform the administrative duties
associated with aerial imagery acquisition. The salary of a single FTE varies greatly throughout the state.
Focus groups helped inform a $100,000 average FTE salary. The administrative cost assumptions listed in
Appendix C - Study Methods, provide greater detail. It is true that local consortiums exist to acquire aerial
imagery. It is also true that these local consortiums have high rates of variable participation year to year, so no
reliable figures could be acquired. It is important to remember that no state, special district or tribal
governments are included in the extrapolated costs. Therefore the undercount of administrative staffing and
not accounting for local consortium savings have a cancelling effect. Approximately 73% of the total
extrapolated 2-year cost, $47,338,000, are administrative costs.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 22
Table 8. Comparing Reported vs Extrapolated annual and per cycle cost of statewide
aerial imagery under current procurement methods.
Annual imagery Per cycle cost (2
Individual purchasers Annual administrative cost
cost Year)
5.0 FTE
Reported independent purchases
$2,645,000 (aggregate, 50 respondents at 0.1 each) $6,540,000
(25% oblique, 75% ortho)
at $125,000 per FTE =$625,0004
172.55 FTE
Extrapolated independent
$6,414,000 (aggregate 1,822 government entities) $47,338,0006
purchases
At $100,000 = $17,255,0005
Benefits of independent purchasing
Control over image characteristics. The primary benefits of independent imagery purchases are that state
and tribal government entities can have complete control over the specifications of the imagery products
being purchased and tailor them to their specific needs.
Control of imagery resolution. Examples of such imagery specifications include the resolution of the
imagery. Higher resolution imagery, such as 3-inch, allows the end user to efficiently perform many
different tasks directly from their desk. These include visualizing, locating, inspecting, assessing and
measuring a wide range of infrastructure like fire hydrants, building and shoreline setbacks, docks, and
sidewalk ADA-access, which for most urban applications requires 3-inch resolution imagery.
Control over imagery capture time. State and tribal government entities can choose the time of year they
wish to collect imagery. Leaf-off imagery is typical in the late fall when deciduous trees lack leaves,
allowing aerial imagery to see various types of infrastructure more clearly. Leaf-on imagery can also allow
for an infrared band for vegetation-related analysis in urban forestry to determine the health and size of
tree canopies. Leaf-on imagery can also be used to manage urban trees so they can be trimmed and not
interfere with electric transmission lines during high winds. Most government entities that purchase aerial
imagery independently have alternating cycles of leaf-off, leaf-on aerial imagery.
Ability to fiscally plan and cost-share imagery acquisition. State, local and tribal government entities that
have the budget for independent aerial imagery purchases can plan ahead and seek out local consortiums
to cost-share. Many government entities, most often county governments, form imagery consortiums to
help lower their imagery acquisition costs by sharing those costs with other government entities that exist
within, or adjacent to their jurisdiction.
Ability to purchase derived imagery products. Another significant benefit of independent imagery
purchases is that it allows users to purchase ancillary products. One of the most commonly purchased
derived products is “change finder” or “change detection,” where planimetrics (building footprints, roads,
sidewalks) are derived directly from the imagery from two separate imagery capture cycles that have
occurred at different points in time. Change detection has saved countless staff hours by automatically
4 Annual encumbered staff rates for those local and tribal governments who reported staff rates associated with the purchase of
independent imagery were aggregated and averaged resulting in an encumbered staff rate of $125,000 per year. Appendix C, page
eight.
5 For each government sector, AppGeo assigned an administrative full-time equivalent value from 0.1 to 0.05 for staff time spent
managing or administering the purchase of a flight cycle based on local, special purpose district, state agency and tribal government
responses to FTE equivalents. Position pay varied. $100,000 was considered a reasonable estimate across the state. Appendix C, page
eight.
6 $47,338,000 was calculated by determining the average square mile cost of imagery then extrapolated to all entities within each
sector of government. Appendix C, page eight.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 23
finding these changes, especially in the area of parcel assessment. It has added millions of dollars of
assessed value to the property tax rolls of government entities within Washington.
Challenges of independent purchasing
Duplicative imagery acquisitions. Independent imagery purchases by government entities results in the
purchase of duplicative imagery over the same geography. We documented this challenge via the survey,
workshops and in-person interviews. During focus groups, many participants were shocked to learn that
multiple consortiums existed and were purchasing the same aerial imagery.
Unequal access to imagery. Imagery purchases depend on funding, which creates haves and have-nots in
every sector of government. For instance, there are more than 1,822 special purpose districts in
Washington. The majority of them cannot afford imagery because of their limited fiscal resources. This is
also true for numerous state agencies, counties, municipalities and tribal governments who have large
geographic extents coupled with low populations and constrained tax bases.
Licensing restrictions and proprietary software. Independent imagery purchases by government entities
often lead to aerial imagery acquisition that cannot be shared across various levels of government. This is
either due to vendor licensing restrictions (which often provide the governmental organization purchasing
the imagery, a better price) or in the case of oblique imagery, the need for proprietary software in order to
use the oblique imagery to view and measure buildings and structures, and perform other types of
analytical tasks such as parcel assessment. Licensing restrictions and proprietary software make
collaborative and consultative governing very challenging and sometimes nearly impossible.
Funding instability. Funding for imagery for all levels of government that make independent imagery
purchases are always vulnerable because funding can be re-prioritized for other needs. Local aerial
imagery consortiums face the same funding instability if a consortium member drops out.
Duplicative administrative burden. Each independent purchaser faces similar administrative costs: running
a request for proposal (RFP) process, selecting a vendor, negotiating the contract and administering the
program. For example, Skagit County documented how much time staff expended to manage the local
aerial imagery consortium, which included municipalities, special purpose districts and some tribal
governments. On average, internal GIS staff spend 279 hours or (0.13 FTE equivalent) a year performing
various administrative tasks associated with acquiring imagery and maintaining the consortium. During
years when an RFP is required to select a vendor, the time significantly expands to 600 hours. These 600
hours do not include any of the staff time that Skagit County’s legal, purchasing, or treasurer staff spent in
support of these ongoing independent imagery acquisitions.
Benefits to having access to aerial imagery
General professional knowledge about the use of imagery in major business sectors and government
operations was used to create conservative estimates of the cost value benefits of aerial imagery (compared
to a high-quality aerial imagery program) in selected parts of Washington’s economy and government
operations. For government operations, focus group participants from state, tribal, and local government
sectors and in individual follow-up interviews confirmed the accuracy of these general values.
There was general agreement from government sector stakeholders that lower quality imagery yields fewer
benefits. For example, if imagery does not meet legal or professional standards for some uses, such as
property assessment under the International Association of Assessing Officers and state guidelines, then the
value of the imagery is lost.
AppGeo used a conservative assessment approach. First, this study included four important state industries
and four areas of government operations that rely on aerial imagery to meet business needs. Second, while all
costs were included, we used very modest estimates of cost value benefits. We estimated benefits as a
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 24
percentage of the total dollar value of the industry (based on Commerce estimates and state-specific industry
associations) or government operations area (based on focus groups, interviews, and literature reviews). The
eight industries and rationale for the percentage value used are:
Salmon Fishery - tribal government stakeholders and state agency staff stressed the importance of aerial
imagery to managing near-shore and riverine habitats to ensure the long-term health of salmon. The
economic value of aerial imagery for maintaining the fishery was conservatively estimated as 1% of the
total annual value.
Forest products - this industry and the agencies that manage it rely on aerial imagery for inventory,
planning and operations on both private and public lands. Near-term uses are important, but so are long-
term goals of sustainable yield through excellent conservation practices. These long-term practices use
aerial imagery extensively. The economic value was set at 0.1% of the total annual value.
Agriculture - farmers and farm management agencies routinely use aerial imagery for their work. The
economic value was set at 0.1% of the total annual value.
Transportation - Washington is an important transportation nexus with shipping, rail, road, air and
international ports of entry. We use aerial imagery to plan, manage, and design all types of transportation
infrastructure. It is also a common background against which transportation operations are conducted
(e.g., imagery in a navigation system). The economic value was set at 0.1% of the total annual value.
Property taxes - County assessors are primary users of aerial imagery, as discussed throughout this study.
Without aerial imagery, their work would be much more time-consuming and even dangerous, as they
would need to visit more properties in person. Tax collection would be slower and while all taxes would
ultimately be collected, local governments and the state would pay a penalty for lost revenue over time.
The economic value was therefore set at 0.1% of the total annual value of property tax collected.
Emergency planning - Emergency planning depends on current, detailed, aerial imagery for making effective
response plans. Planners use aerial imagery combined with other data to forecast affected areas, pre-
determine relief centers, evacuation sites, and travel corridors, and to plan and execute mitigation
measures in advance of actual events. The activities of emergency planning were estimated to be about $1
billion annually across governmental sectors. The value of aerial imagery was estimated at 1% of the
activity costs.
Disaster/Emergency response - When a disaster or emergency occurs, aerial imagery is an essential tool
used by government, industry, and the public. Statewide, consistent aerial imagery allows for rapid and
accurate assessment of disaster situations, saving lives and property. In recovery from disasters, aerial
imagery is the most commonly used tool by insurers, planners, and support agencies. The value of aerial
imagery was estimated at 1% of an estimated annual economic toll of disaster costs in Washington.
Table 9 shows the eight areas studied, their value, major value arguments, and the net annual benefit. The total
annual benefit of using aerial imagery is more than $159 million.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 25
Table 9. Estimated benefits of using aerial imagery in selected Washington industries
and government operations
Industry / govt. Annual
Est. benefit % Est. benefit $ Key uses
operation economic value
ESSENTIAL to state economy and tribal
governments
Informs critical decisions regarding management,
protection, and resource allocation
Monitoring and protecting salmon habitat against
Salmon fishery $462M* 1.0% $4,620,000 land and waterway development
Change detection in development of impervious
surfaces which impact volume and hydraulics of
the waterways
Monitoring of coastal erosion and shoreline
change
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Identification of stand types and health
Forest products $36B* 0.1% $36,000,000
Improved accuracy of stand delineations
Reduced need for field inspections
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Agriculture $20.4B* 0.1% $20,400,000 Crop identification and delineation
Management practices improvement
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Asset management
Condition assessment
Stormwater management
Transportation $70B* 0.1% $70,000,000 Right-of-Way delineation
Encroachment monitoring
Transportation planning to promote economic
development, resilience, safety, energy
conservation, healthy communities
ESSENTIAL to local and tribal governments
Significant time savings for assessor field staff in
performing inspections
Property tax Improved safety of assessor field staff in
$16B** 0.1% $16,000,000
assessment performing inspections
Improved accuracy of assessment
Scope of time savings will increase over time, as
imagery and inspection standards evolve
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Emergency
$1B 0.2% $2,000,000 Disaster planning prior to critical events
planning
Plan responses using current situation
Common operating picture is essential
Emergency Identify dispatch, staging and deployment points
management and $1B 1% $10,000,000 Post-disaster identification of buildings and critical
response infrastructure
Response and recovery
TOTAL $159,020,000
* Annual economic value as reported by the Washington Department of Commerce;
** Annual tax revenue for Washington in 2021;
***Annual value of goods and services moved by Washington’s transportation infrastructure;
**** ROI Study research included workshops, focus groups, survey responses, and responses to email inquiries.
Intangible benefits
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 26
Aerial imagery has many intangible benefits. Two areas of special importance are the benefits provided to
tribal governments, and the public perception of active, responsive government.
Tribal governments and management of lands
“These ancestral lands are sacred to tribes and they must be provided the tools necessary to
actively and meaningfully engage in the management of them - as they have done since time
immemorial."
Noah Oliver, Geographer/Archeologist - Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
Tribal governments are sovereign nations with whom the Washington consults. Aerial imagery helps tribal
governments' operations just as it does state and local governments. Because tribal governments have a
relationship with the landscape from time immemorial, aerial imagery has cultural and intangible values too.
Governments use aerial imagery to manage lands protected under federal treaties and management of
culturally significant areas. Similar to local, special purpose district and state governments, as outlined in
Table 5, aerial imaging supports tribal governments (sovereign nations) in caring for and protecting their lands
with fewer staff. Ensuring that tribal governments have the tools to co-administer the aerial imagery, and
sufficient information and authority when they are consulted on lands to which they have ancestral ties or
reserved rights7 is critical to strengthening Washington’s commitment to meaningful government-to-
government relationships and consultations.
Collaborative, efficient, and responsive government
“A county emergency manager pointed out that aerial imagery gives his county agencies the ability
to locate places, figure out how to swiftly get appropriate first responders to those in need, and
saves lives.”
Emergency Manager Focus Group
Aerial imagery is a basis for government-to-government coordination, planning and response. When
governments share imagery, government staff can work together in a more collaborative, efficient, and
responsive way.
Oblique imagery is essential for assessors. 8 If oblique imagery is not available, staff must drive to locations for
in-person assessments, which requires more staff, more time, more fuel, and can be more intrusive for
property owners. Aerial imagery is a win-win for residents; it provides benefits of privacy and cost efficiency
and government staff efficiency.
Privacy assessment
Privacy is an important consideration when collecting any digital data. Katy Ruckle, State Chief Privacy Officer
(Office of Privacy and Data Protection) recommended completing a formal privacy threshold analysis on the
recommended high-quality aerial imagery program, which is the standard method used by state agencies to
7 Reserved rights are all rights not addressed by Indian treaty provisions and are presumptively reserved.
8 Western and Eastern Assessor Focus group's more urban county assessors stated that they are dependent on obliques for assessing
property values.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 27
evaluate privacy concerns. The threshold analysis revealed that the high-quality aerial imagery program
contained no personally identifiable information (PII), and thus a more detailed Privacy Impact Analysis was
not necessary.
The analysis determined that a person cannot be identified by software tools such as facial recognition
software using the recommended imagery because the resolution is insufficient. Figure 3 below shows an
orthoimage scene at 3-inch GSD. The oblique image underneath it, taken within a few seconds of the vertical
scene, shows one of the people in that scene. The individual cannot be identified in the oblique image and
license plates cannot be read, because the image quality is too coarse to reveal identifiable features or writing.
Figure 4 shows a detailed image as 1-inch pixels (equivalent to about 1-inch GSD in an orthoimage) and 3-inch
pixels (equivalent to 3-inch GSD). As the example demonstrates, a familiar face is unrecognizable as 3-inch
pixels.
Figure 3. Example 3-inch GSD orthoimage and 3-inch oblique image of the same
scene
Imagery from https://carsoncitynv.mapgeo.io, accessed 3/15/2023.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 28
Figure 4. Three images illustrate how pixel resolution obscures identification of
individuals
Original image from www.whitehouse.gov, official photograph of President Joe Biden, accessed 3/15/2023
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 29
High-quality statewide aerial imagery program
Figure 5. High-quality statewide aerial imagery program flight calendar and GSD ortho
and oblique collection areas and timing
Table 10. High-quality statewide aerial imaging program flight calendar and GSD
ortho and oblique collection areas and timing
Area 3-inch 6-inch Leaf on or off Season
Eastern More populated Less populated Leaf off Spring
Mountain None All Leaf on Late spring to fall
Winter, 3-inch, late spring
Olympic Less populated Leaf on for 6-inch
More populated for 6-inch
Winter, 3-inch, late spring
Western Less populated Leaf on for 6-inch
More populated for 6-inch
Figure 5 shows a proposed flight calendar that the research team created, based on data provided by the
survey and focus groups. Different parts of the state are flown at different times and different GSD values that
require different altitudes and equipment. In order to get optimal imagery for users’ needs, careful planning
should consider the natural challenges of three geographies: mountains, western valleys, and eastern plateaus,
as well as the seasonality of plant growth and sun angles. Tribal consultation will also need to occur prior to
confirming flight paths.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 30
To meet the spatial accuracy needs of the majority of users in Washington and tribal governments, aerial
imagery has to be collected using methods that meet defined mapping standards. Underlying these methods
is a network of ground control points. These are established through carefully designed ground surveys prior
to flights. The high-quality program needs to include the creation and maintenance of these control points and
similar supporting data at a statewide level. An additional benefit of the high-quality statewide program is that
these control points and other data can be shared with others who might use them as ground control for small
area flight programs or other purposes, saving others some costs. Costs for establishing the ground surveys
and control points are included in the estimated total cost of a high-quality aerial imagery program.
Minimal technical specifications and availability needed
The Legislature directed this study to determine the frequency of image collection and the minimum resolution
level of aerial imaging that would best serve the majority of users statewide. The following information is a
summary of expertise collected by the survey, focus groups, and vendor interviews with knowledge of aerial
imagery acquisition in Washington.
At a minimum, the aerial imagery should be collected on a biennial cycle with fresh aerial imagery data
published every two years. This collection would include:
First flight occurs in first year of the biennium and the second flight occurs in the second year of the
biennium to correct for problem areas.
Statewide imagery types and features:
• 6-inch GSD ortho, 6-inch oblique images over 84% of the state 9
• 3-inch GSD ortho, 3-inch oblique images over 16% of the state 10
• 4-band (red, green, blue, near infrared) ortho
• 3-band (red, green, blue) oblique imagery
• Leaf-off imagery
• Spatial and quality control sufficient for planimetric mapping purposes in all populated areas,
appropriate to the GSD of the ortho.
• Spatial and quality control sufficient for general mapping purposes in all other areas.
• Stereo pairs of ortho are provided to the Department of Natural Resources for their photogrammetry
use
• Offers oblique viewing tools or is compatible with oblique viewing tools for measurement, calculations,
etc.
• Compatible with common government software systems: GIS, CAMA, CAD.
Equal accessibility for all Washington and tribal government entities:
• Does not require subscription and removes accessibility barriers that smaller government entities
currently experience.
• Distributed through mechanisms that are available to all.
Optional buy-up program for derived products or enhanced imagery:
9 6-inch aerial imagery meets the needs of 84% of Washington.
10 16% of Washington's land area is in an urban growth area and has high-density structures, which require higher resolution of ortho
and oblique imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 31
• Vendor offers additional products commonly of interest to government sectors (e.g., change
detection).
• Government entities can buy more detailed imagery (smaller GSD, higher resolution oblique images) at
reduced rates, so long as the more detailed imagery is shared as part of the program.
The high-quality aerial imagery program includes both ortho and oblique imagery. Ortho is collected at the
same time as oblique imagery (in most cases). This is different from Washington’s current statewide program
and different from that in many other states. The study found that oblique imagery is very important to many
government uses in Washington. In addition to the uses by assessors discussed already, state agencies will
benefit from measuring trees in timberlands and seeing a different view of undeveloped areas including
shorelines and river corridors; emergency responders can be safer and more effective by seeing under trees
and all around buildings; engineers can do site suitability and permit studies much faster, to name just a few
important uses. Wyoming and Kentucky are already moving to include oblique imagery as part of their
statewide programs; Washington would join this cutting-edge group.
The program covers the entire state at either 3-inch GSD or 6-inch GSD (Figure 5). Urban growth areas and
corridors require higher resolution at 3-inch GSD. All other parts of the state are collected at 6-inch GSD. For
ortho, the 6-inch GSD coverage is the same as the current WaTech Statewide Imagery Program, with the
notable difference that WaTech would have control over imagery characteristics. Providing more detailed 3-
inch imagery in urban areas supports government needs for planimetric mapping of infrastructure,
assessments, planning, and other intensive uses. An entity could optionally purchase the 3-inch GSD imagery
through the buy-up options.
Administration and management
The high-quality state program is efficient and requires administration and management. We suggest that
administration and management be centralized within the state government using four FTEs:
One FTE to manage and create a solicitation for vendors (one year prior to starting imagery acquisition), to
work with the selected vendor(s) throughout their contract, and to coordinate ongoing efforts for quality
control, distribution, and provide technical support for agencies and other government sectors.
One FTE to manage the buy-up program (in which governments can get products not provided through the
standard statewide program), making sure that buy-ups are coordinated and planned to maximize use of
public funds.
One FTE to serve as a liaison to tribal governments to coordinate co-administration of aerial imagery.
One FTE to serve as a liaison and technical resource for local governments, ensuring that the state’s
investment in aerial imagery is used as widely and productively as possible.
Additionally, the program will require:
$100,000 annually for external technical support.
$100,000 annually in hardware and network costs for infrastructure to support sharing the imagery.
There is a substantial savings in administrative effort. Aggregated across all government sectors, freely
available aerial imagery will result in a net savings to taxpayers. The current (and potential future) burdens of
finding localized funds, contracting for aerial imagery, distributing the products, and building funding coalitions
are eliminated.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 32
Cost
An important mandate in Section 2 of the proviso is:
(d) Estimate the cost of procuring, once per biennium, and administering a high-quality aerial imagery program on a
statewide basis;
AppGeo brought aerial imagery program experts with national and international certifications into the study to
devise general flight plans, high-quality program requirements and cost estimates. The aerial photography
experts made budget-level estimates (rather than competitive bid-level estimates) for each area shown in
Figure 5 because they have different seasonal, flight, photography, and post-photography processing
requirements. For example, per square-mile estimates for 6-inch GSD imagery in the Cascades and Olympic
mountain ranges are $550 per square mile, but 6-inch GSD imagery in eastern Washington is $225 per square
mile. These per-square mile values for each flight zone were then multiplied by the size of the zone to give a
total oblique (with ortho included) acquisition cost for the roughly 71,000 square miles in Washington.
We also asked the aerial imagery experts to provide budget-level estimates for creating and maintaining a
statewide spatial control network of surveyed points visible in aerial imagery.
Storing a statewide collection of aerial imagery involves about 1 petabyte of storage space (i.e., 1,000
terabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes). Costs to store, serve, and provide specialized software for oblique imagery
were estimated based on commercial internet cloud rates and typical software licensing costs.
We calculated state personnel costs (four FTE, described above) using a burdened cost of $250,000 per FTE.
Lastly, we allocated $100,000 per year for specialized external technical support that the program might need.
Table 11 shows high-quality aerial imagery program estimated costs for the initial flight cycle and for the
second flight cycle (additional details are given in Appendix C, Step 10). We can easily extrapolate costs for
additional cycles from these figures. In the first year, 2025, program staff will establish the ground control
network, design and issue the program solicitation, and determine a vendor. Aerial imagery is acquired in 2026,
and is available late in that year or early in 2027, triggering the infrastructure costs shown in the table and the
initial software licensing costs. The total cost between 2025 and 2027 (the completion of the first flight cycle)
is approximately $36 million. For the second flight cycle (2028-2029), the cost is similar because while data
storage costs are cumulative, software costs are lower since it is just a continuation of any licensing rather
than new purchases.
The general logic of the high-quality program, its detailed technical specifications, and the cost estimates were
validated in extensive discussions with multiple commercial aerial imagery firms (Appendix C, Step 11). All of
them considered the approximately $36 million per flight cycle figure to be an appropriate budgeting figure for
the high-quality aerial imagery program described above.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 33
Table 11. Estimated costs of a high-quality aerial imagery program
Project startup
1st flight cycle 2025- 2nd flight cycle
Costs FY 2025
2027 biennium 2027-2029 biennium
supplemental
Ortho and oblique imagery acquisition $0 $26,479,825 $26,479,825
FTE (4)* $1,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000
External technical support $100,000 $200,000 $200,000
Creation and maintenance of statewide control
$1,325,000 $26,500 $26,500
network
Spatial and image quality control $100,000 $1,712,500 $1,712,500
Infrastructure
$32,400 $1,958,400* $5,875,200
(Storage, hosting, and streaming services) *
Software
$850,000 $340,000
(support viewing, distribution)
Total cost $2,557,400 $33,227,225 $36,634,025
* This cost reflects minimal storage costs because only one year of data is stored in the 2025-2027 biennium. The 2027-2029 Biennium
Infrastructure costs represent a stable biennium cost.
Economies of scale and cost-sharing
Is an improved statewide aerial imagery program more cost effective than continuing with the current WaTech
program and having each government purchase aerial imagery independently? Section 2 of the proviso
directed this study to:
(e) Quantify the economies of scale between individual flights procured by individual jurisdictions as compared to the
cost of procuring a single flight to obtain aerial imaging of the entire state;
(f) Determine the best available mechanism for cost sharing between jurisdictions for the acquisition and
management of aerial imagery;
For every $1 spent on aerial imagery, there are $8.80 in benefits bi-annually.
For every $1 spent on aerial imagery, there is $7.35 return on investment over 6 years.
Aerial Imagery Study Research Team
The estimated cost of the high-quality aerial imagery program is $36 million per biennium. It provides the
minimum resolution requirements to achieve the majority of uses identified across all local governments,
special purpose districts, state agencies and tribal governments. While it is possible to share costs, the
research team found many risks to implementing cost-sharing:
If government entities or tribal governments do not buy into the state program, it may prevent better
collaboration and management of lands between government entities and tribal governments, especially
when addressing emergencies, natural resource management, and many other government management
needs.
Economies of scale and return on investment decrease when cost-sharing models are implemented due to
higher direct and indirect administrative costs.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 34
• Every government entity and tribal government wishing to buy-in would need to properly budget for
cost-sharing.
• State administrators would likely experience an increase in the administration of invoices and payment
verification, adding a need for more staff beyond the $36 million biannual amount.
Cost-sharing models are inherently unstable because of the subjective nature of what is considered an
affordable price, which is different for every government entity and tribal government.
• 81% of survey respondents were in favor of a state-run program as long as it was at an affordable price
to their government entities and tribal governments. Counties and municipalities currently pay a range
for aerial imagery from $250,000 to as little as $2,500 per year. This wide range makes creating a cost-
sharing model difficult, especially when accounting for the various imagery types.
•
• 19% of survey respondents were not in favor of a state-run program because it was assumed that there
would be a cost-sharing mechanism. The majority of no survey respondents stated that they had no
budget for aerial imagery, and several government entities and tribal governments stated that the state
program should be free to access for any government entity or tribal government.
Calculating cost-sharing is challenging and needs regular intervals of review and negotiation between
parties. Some methods of cost-sharing are:
• A tiered approach that is based on a percent of the annual government entity’s budget.
• A tiered approach based on the square miles of the government entity.
• A combination of government entity’s budget and geographical size.
As cost-sharing models are introduced it creates haves and have-nots across the state based on whether a
government entity or tribal government can pay the price of access. Regardless of the structure, there will
always be government entities that cannot afford the price of access to aerial imagery.
Benefit/Cost ratio calculation and return on investment estimate
The annual benefit of aerial imagery to Washington State is $159 million if the minimal technical specifications
are met across the eight industries and government activities listed in Table 9. In order to meet the minimal
technical specification for all of Washington governments, it would cost on average, $36 million every two
years.
A simplified cost benefit ratio is ($159 million in annual benefits x 2 years) / $36 million in cost over two years.
This is approximately $8.80. For every $1 spent on aerial imagery over two years there are $8.80 in benefits.
A Return on Investment (ROI) calculation provides a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits by
accounting for the accrued benefits of time series aerial imagery. For every $1 spent on aerial imagery, it will
return an aggregated benefit of $7.35 within six years. To learn more about the full ROI methodology please
visit Appendix C: Study methods.
Comparison to other states
Another way to look at the cost of the high-quality aerial imagery program is to compare it to statewide aerial
imagery programs in other states (see Appendix C, Step 9; Appendix F for state information). Table 12 shows
technical characteristics and costs per square mile for six other states and for Washington. It further shows
the extrapolated statewide cost under current procurement modes and the high-quality program.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 35
The costs vary widely, but Washington's needs for oblique imagery make it most similar to Wyoming and
Kentucky. Acquisition costs for a high-quality program for Washington ($372/sq. mile) fall between Wyoming
(which flies only parts of the state and is a much simpler program; $218/sq. mile) and Kentucky (which is
collecting the entire state; $421/sq. mile). Because none of the costs per square mile for other states include
administrative costs, the comparable costs is $372/sq. mile. It is important to note that Oregon only offers 12-
inch orthophotos, which does not meet Washington local, special purpose district, state, or tribal government
user needs. Washington is significantly more mountainous than Kentucky, which is why cost per cycle is
significantly lower for Kentucky compared to Washington. Wyoming's oblique imagery only covers 10% of the
state while Washington's oblique imagery would cover a larger percent of the state due to larger and more
numerous population centers.
Table 12. Statewide aerial imagery program characteristics and costs in six states
compared to extrapolated Washington costs under current acquisition modes and
Washington high-quality aerial imagery program estimated costs.
Washington (current, Washington (hiqh-
Oregon Utah Texas Indiana Wyoming Kentucky
extrapolated) quality program)
6” and 2”
Oblique No No No No 3” 12” to 3” (partial) 6” and 3”
(10%)
6” and 2”
Ortho 12” 6” 6” 6” 3” 6” (partial 3”) 6” and 3”
(10%)
State owns Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
2,000,000
Cost per cycle $2,000,000 $1,000,000 $5,818,000 $2,000,000 (10% of $17,000,000 $47,338,000 $36,000,000
state)
Area (sq.
98,378 84,896 268,596 36,419 97,914 40,407 71,297 71,297
miles)
$505
Per sq. mile $20 $12 $22 $55 $218 $421 $664
$372 (acq. only)
Includes
No No No No No No Yes Yes
admin. cost
Aerial imagery challenges in Washington
Washington's beauty and wide-ranging geographic diversity can make aerial imagery collection challenging
and more costly than programs in other states.
Limited lighting: The state is northerly, so the sun is often at a low angle, creating long, deep shadows,
even during the summer months when the sun is at its highest angle.
Photo distortion: The state has dramatic topography with two abrupt mountain ranges, the Olympics and
Cascades, and many smaller ranges. Vertical relief introduces distortion into aerial photos. Photo
distortion is corrected by taking more photos with greater ground control, and the application of photo
correction techniques after photos are taken.
Difficult to see ground features: Heavy conifer forests, dense patches of fog, low clouds, snow cover, and
dense fire smoke can hide the ground making it difficult to see structures and natural features.
Diverse users of the technology: In addition to the geographical challenges of aerial imagery collection,
different government entities and Tribal governments require imagery at a much faster frequency.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 36
Rapid changes require rapid imagery collection: Washington State Department of Transportation often
requires more frequent aerial imagery to detect traffic changes in northwest Washington.
These cumulative challenges make it difficult to compare Washington's costs per square mile with those of
Kentucky, Indiana, or Texas.
Alternative options to the high-quality statewide aerial imagery
program
Current Statewide Imagery Services Program ~ $210,000 per biennium
The current program offers 6-inch GSD orthophoto imagery, but does not meet any of the other minimum
technical specifications, resulting in the challenges and limitations discussed in this report. Because state
agencies use this program, the estimated cost to the states biennial budget is approximately $210,000 and
assumes the remaining $202,000 would be covered by other government entities through existing cost-sharing
frameworks. A vendor would continue to license this program. This alternative would not reduce the aggregate
cost of $48 million spent on aerial imagery across the state.
There are no off-the-shelf market solutions.
The study found that satellite imagery from major technology firms would not meet government needs for
many of the same reasons the current program does not allow for control over aerial imagery characteristics.
Some national-level aerial imagery vendors (profiled as vendor #1 in Table 13) offer high-quality updated aerial
imagery. However, firms in this profile focus on urban areas, and their business model relies upon repeated
sale of the same product. They additionally have stringent licensing terms.
Many local, special purpose districts, state, and tribal governments use National Agriculture Imagery Program
(NAIP), but it takes orthophoto aerial imagery every three years at a 1-meter resolution, and therefore does not
meet the technical minimum specifications of 3-inch to 6-inch orthophotos. NAIP does not offer any oblique
imagery.
Other national vendors (profiled as vendor #2) work on a contracted basis. Vendors at this level (some of
whom AppGeo interviewed as part of this study) will perform custom collection. Implementing the program
probably involves the sort of national vendors shown as National Vendor #2 in Table 13, but their work is to the
state’s specifications, not to their own.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 37
Table 13. Possible aerial imagery sources for High-Quality Aerial Imagery Program
Access to
Source Statewide Available now 6" ortho 3" ortho Near IR 6" oblique 3" oblique Ownership Frequency
archives
Yes (with State, after next
Current WaTech Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No ongoing paid contract 2 year
imagery (Hexagon) contract) cycle
Per vendor; varies
Google/Bing/ Yes Yes No No No No No No Vendor and could be
Apple/Planet
(Satellite)
monthly
Yes Yes Yes Yes
National vendor #1 Yes (urban
No Yes (urban only) (urban (urban (urban (urban Paid subscriber Vendor Per Vendor
product (e.g., only)
NearMap)
only) only) only) only)
National vendor #2 No (available by Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per
product (e.g., No Per contract Per contract Per contract
contract) contract) contract) contract) contract) contract)
Eagleview, Sanborn,
NV5)
Yes (by design) No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 2 Year
Custom product
There are a number of alternative options to the high-quality statewide aerial imagery program. Each of the alternatives discussed below include
estimated biennium costs for the state.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 38
Current program with full state funding ~ $1 million per biennium
This program provides the same level of service as the current program, but would be fully funded by the state.
The added benefit is that all Washington and tribal government entities can receive the same aerial imagery
and there is no cost-sharing. However, all of the challenges identified in the current program would persist.
This is an average cost of $1 million per biennium. This program would provide a license to government
entities and tribal governments by a vendor. This alternative would not reduce the extrapolated aggregate cost
of $48.1 million spent on aerial imagery across the state.
Statewide 6-inch with 3-inch buy up (no obliques) ~ $3 million per biennium
This program would allow the state to own the 6-inch orthophotos as part of an archived dataset instead of
going through the current vendor license. The 6-inch ortho would be available to all special purpose districts,
tribal, state and local governments. Washington governments could also do a 3-inch ortho buy-up, but there are
no oblique options. This alternative would not reduce the extrapolated aggregate cost of $48.1 million spent
on aerial imagery across the state.
State funded 6-inch minus mountainous areas ~ $15 million per biennium
Mountainous public lands would not have oblique imagery. This lowers the cost of the overall program below
$36 million, but public lands would not have oblique imagery. This program would be state-owned and a
license would not be needed to access it.
State funded 6-inch with 3-inch Buy-Up ~ $23 million per biennium
This program would make the 6-inch ortho and oblique imagery available to all government entities. Three-inch
ortho and oblique imagery is available only through buy-ins. This program structure lowers the cost, but makes
administrating the program more difficult. The 6-inch orthophotos would meet the minimum technical
specifications while the 3-inch might not. This program would be state-owned for 6-inch, and with a vendor
license for 3-inch.
High-quality state program minus 3-inch obliques in public mountainous
areas ~ $28 million per biennium
This program would remove the collection of 3-inch obliques in public mountainous areas of the state. This
option does not provide any oblique imagery through much of the Washington Cascade range and the Olympic
Peninsula, which cross through 15 counties as shown in Figure 6. County Assessors and Emergency
Management (including fire control for forest management) use 6-inch oblique imagery to conduct
government business in the Cascades and Olympics. While it is not the most populated area of the state, there
are still numerous unincorporated communities that are within the area that would be omitted for 6-inch
oblique imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 39
Figure 6. High-quality statewide aerial imagery program minus public mountainous
areas
The alternative options listed do not meet all of the minimal technical specifications and do not provide
access to high-quality oblique imagery; during the aerial imagery study, assessors, planners, natural resource
managers and environmental scientists identified high-quality oblique imagery as essential.
Conclusion of alternative options
The aerial imagery industry validated that all program options provided are considered viable options.
Kentucky recently established an oblique plus ortho program and is the most similar to the recommended
high-quality aerial imagery program. The benefit-cost ratio is high at $8.80 and the return on investment shows
compounded benefits of $7.35 over 6 years. A high-quality statewide program would make aerial imagery
administration more efficient and save Washington residents money by reducing the duplicity of aerial imagery
purchasing at a minimum.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 40
Appendix A. Aerial Imagery Primer
Aerial imagery is collected from aircraft carrying optical camera systems that record photographs digitally.
There are two broadly different categories of aerial photos: vertical and oblique. Vertical photos are taken
“straight down” and oblique photos are taken “sideways” (at an angle of about 45 degrees from vertical).
All camera lenses cause distortion away from the center of the image they capture. In order to make accurate
maps with air photos, the distortion has to be corrected through a process called orthorectification. The
resulting orthoimagery (or orthos) is suitable for planimetric mapping: distances and areas can be measured
relatively accurately. This is the basis of most modern mapmaking. The accuracy of features visible in
orthoimagery can be improved by removing distortions caused by height above ground. This creates corrected
or true orthoimagery in which tall objects don’t appear to sway. Removing distortion from orthoimagery can be
done to different levels of accuracy (see ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data,
Version 1.0, 2014). Certified orthoimagery has had distortion removed to a high accuracy standard. This takes
more time and effort but is needed for some legal and engineering purposes. Oblique imagery has distortion
too, but this is not usually corrected.
Oblique air photos are taken at the same time as vertical air photos; camera systems take a vertical photo and
simultaneous photos forward, backward, and to each side. So, oblique flights collect four times as many
oblique photos. The volume of oblique photos was challenging to manage, search, and use before digital
imagery, mass storage, and powerful software made them more accessible. Oblique photos have always been
useful because they show the world in familiar ways and allow us to look under or into areas. The mathematics
of accurate measurements in oblique photos has been daunting. Through powerful oblique imagery software,
oblique photos can now be used to measure planar (ground) areas and distances and, most importantly,
vertical heights and vertical surface areas. Because of these new capabilities, over the past 15 years, oblique
imagery has become a very important tool in property assessment, emergency response, landscape modeling
and change detection, forestry and agriculture, and engineering.
Photographic resolution is the ability to distinguish detail in an image. Generally, this accords to the real world
size that an image pixel (a cell) covers. For example, a 12-inch pixel is a cell that displays a 12-inch square on
the ground. Since each pixel has a single color, if that 12-inch square contained a 6” object, then it wouldn’t be
visible. Because pixel size varies based on the distance between the lens and the object being photographed,
in aerial photography it is more useful to talk about ground separation distance (GSD) - the ability to
distinguish things on the ground. A 3” GSD can (at best) display objects that are 3” in size, a 12” GSD a foot,
and so on. The GSD, which one could think of as the detail visible, can range anywhere from 1 inch to 10 feet.
Typical GSD values in government use are 1 meter, ½ meter, 1 foot, 9 inch, 6 inch, 3 inch, and 2 inch. Most
municipal and engineering uses currently prefer or even require 3 inch GSD.
Most people are familiar with aerial imagery that looks like any other color photograph, made up of red, green,
and blue wavelengths of visible light. Wavelengths invisible to human eyes are also collected in aerial
photography. Near infrared (NIR or Near IR) wavelengths are often collected as a “fourth band” in aerial
photography since it is particularly good at showing the relative health of vegetation and is therefore very
important to agriculture, timber, conservation, and ecological studies.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 41
Figure B1. Example of a near infrared ortho image (upper image) vs a standard color ortho (lower image).
Images are from Island County’s GIS web-mapping application ICGeoMap
Aerial imagery has to be made available for use. Common ways to do so are to store it on local digital drives
and use it within a network or to stream imagery from an internet-connected server that moves the bytes of
imagery requested by some sort of client software like a web-browser mapping application or a desktop GIS.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 42
Every time one cuts the GSD of imagery by 50% (e.g., 12-inch to 6-inch), the number of images increases by
four times. The costs of storage, computing time, and data transfer can be considerable.
Aerial photography and the compilation of aerial imagery is a complicated undertaking. Some of the factors
that go into an aerial imagery program are:
General Orthoimagery factors to be considered
• Imagery characteristics
• Acquisition related
• Software and data related
• Usage related
• Miscellaneous
Imagery characteristics
• Optimal GSD of the imagery
• Number of bands
• Projection (Anticipated changes in the projection)
• Repeat cycle
• Leaf off/Leaf on
• Perspective (Ortho/Oblique)
• Size of the tiles
• File formats
• Compressed file formats
• Requirement for true orthos
Acquisition related
• Percentage of cloud/cloud shadow
• Smoke
• Haze
• Light streaks
• Snow
• Flooding
• Excessive soil moisture
• Sun angle
• Partial tiles
Software and data related
• Proprietary /Non Proprietary image format
• Licensed/Unlicensed data
• Delivery/Hosting related
• Web Apps/Web services (WMS/WTS), self-served downloads
Usage related
• Frequency of usage of data
• Current use of aerial imagery
• Additional anticipated uses
• Any associated derivative products
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 43
Aerial Imagery Characteristics - Washington State Governmental Sectors
Aerial imagery has many characteristics and for Washington government sectors the following are important
characteristics:
• Vertical air photos
• Orthoimagery
° Corrected orthoimagery
° Color-balanced imagery
° Orthoimagery adjusted to error tolerance with surveyed ground points
• Ground separation distance (GSD)
° Common values: 1m, 0.5m, 1 foot, 9 inch, 6 inch, 3 inch, 1 inch
• Bands collected: black and white; color - red, green, blue; near infrared.
• Cost continuum: black and white air photos to 1” certified orthoimagery 4-band
• Cost range per square mile
• Oblique air photos
• Paired with orthoimagery to locate viewpoints.
• Photo direction (N, S, E, W, custom such as perpendicular to a shoreline)
• Resolution (ability to resolve detail)
° Common values: 1 foot, 9 inch, 6 inch, 3 inch, 1 inch
• Usually requires specialized software.
• At least 4x the data storage size of orthoimagery of same resolution
• Cost factors: positional accuracy, resolution, software
• Cost range per square mile
Derived products are made from aerial imagery using automated and semi-automated methods. Some
common derived products include planimetric maps, building footprints, change detection in landscapes,
identifying changes in building footprints for tax and permitting purposes, vegetation mapping, land use and
land cover mapping. Derived products are systematic, objective, information sources that have become very
important tools for public policy and operations.
Derived products are data that require aerial imagery to be created. Usually, source imagery is processed in
some way, and, for most purposes, the most current imagery is the best source. Some commonly derived
products that are or would be valuable to Washington governments are described below.
Commonly Requested Derived products
• Planimetric maps
• Building footprints
• Change detection in buildings.
• Requires two building footprints products / layers derived from two different imagery flights in order
to detect change over time.
• Impervious surface
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 44
• Vegetation mapping
• Change detection in landscapes.
• Requires two landscapes products / layers derived from two different imagery flights in order to
detect change over time.
• Land use and land cover type
• There is a broad range of landuse and landcover derived products that can be derived from the
source aerial imagery.
• These can include high resolution raster (cell-based data) and vector (lines and polygons) land
cover data which includes such layers as impervious surfaces, building footprints, canopy and open
water among others. This derived information should be updated every 2-4 years based on updated
imagery data.
• More detail on Land use and land cover can be found at the following URLs Land Use Land Cover
Modeling | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov); Acquiring Land-Cover Modeling Data from USGS /
EROS Center | U.S. Geological Survey
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 45
Appendix B: Aerial imagery study stakeholder workshop
(See the following pages for this appendix.)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 46
Aerial Imagery Study
Stakeholder Workshop #2
Tuesday, Sept 27, 2022 - 9:00 - 10:30 am (PDT)
Welcome to the Workshop
Opening Remarks
A Few Workshop Notes
● This workshop will be recorded.
● Please mute when you are not speaking.
● Please make sure your full name and affiliation
displays in the participants list. (Right-click to
change it)
● Your involvement is important! Raise your hand,
enter questions into chat, and participate in the
live questions.
● Mention your name/affiliation when speaking,
so we know who you are.
● Thank you! Your input is critical to the success of
this project.
3
Workshop Facilitators
Kate Hickey Jeremy Walker
APPGEO DEPT. OF COMMERCE
PROJECT LEAD
Eric Ingbar Priya Sankalia Peter Lemack
APPGEO APPGEO APPGEO
Agenda
Today’s Objectives
Aerial Imagery Study Overview - Why, What, How
Your Involvement
Aerial Imagery: Uses and Characteristics
Interactive Q&A
Next Steps
Today’s Objectives
Live Questions #1-4
www.menti.com
code 3442 1610
Aerial Imagery Study
Overview
56
8
Background - Why
There are thousands of Washington government sector entities.
Current Many use aerial imagery from various sources and some pay to
Situation acquire imagery and related software
The Legislature 1. What does aerial imagery cost Washington citizens?
2. Could a single State Imagery acquisition program, perhaps
Wants to creating multiple products, meet many needs and save costs for
Understand Washington c ens?
Resulting These considerations led to the passage of HB 1629-S calling for an
Authorization aerial imagery study
The Legislation: HB 1629-S - What
Defines Prescribes States Desired Outcomes
Stakeholders Assessment Tally current statewide stakeholder
expenditure
Current benefits (uses) from
State Agencies aerial imagery Find minimum imagery
specifications that would serve many
Tribal Governments Specifications of imagery stakeholders
currently used
Local Governments Estimate cost of statewide imagery
Costs of current imagery program that meets specifications
Special Purpose Districts
Potential new benefits and Examine economies of scale and
uses of using aerial imagery cost-benefits between single imagery
program and multiple flights
Specifications of desired
aerial imagery in future Recommend cost sharing
mechanisms
Authorizes the Aerial Imagery Study
Project Overview - How
Engagement & Analysis Consult CIO & Chief Communicate
Outreach Privacy Office Findings
Phase 2 Phase 4 Phase 6 Phase 8
Initiation Close
Phase 3 Phase 5 Phase 7
Information Research Other Recommendations &
Gathering States / Alternatives Tech Specification
Your Involvement
12
12
Why should you participate? How you could benefit?
The Aerial Imagery Study could lead to:
● Cost savings
● Increased technical quality
● Additional imagery solutions
● Expanded use cases
Your voice, insights,
● Statewide efficiencies and participation in
● More benefits from imagery the study is important!
How you can participate in the study
Spread the word
Participate in a Complete the Participate in a
and share the
workshop Online Survey focus group
website
Sept - Oct 2022 Oct - Nov 2022 Oct - Nov 2022
https://washington-state-aerial-imagery-study-wacommerce.hub.arcgis.com/
Agencies that monitor growth and The Department of Natural County assessors use aerial
zoning use imagery to assess Resources uses aerial imagery to imagery as an integral part of their
urban density and to designate monitor forest health, riparian valuation activities
and protect critical areas buffers, and timber harvest
The Nisqually Tribe is using Conservation districts use aerial The Department of Ecology uses
imagery to monitor the rerouting of imagery to plan salmon restoration imagery to monitor changes to the
the Nisqually River / bridge due to projects and to assess fire and Washington coastline
inadequate water passage flood damage
17
The Department of Transportation Emergency management State Parks use aerial imagery to
uses aerial imagery to plan and agencies use aerial imagery to track structures on park land and
manage culverts and other locate damage and plan for land management
highway infrastructure emergency response
Live Questions #5-7
www.menti.com
code 6719 3955
Aerial Imagery
Characteristics
20
Image Angle
Imagery can be taken from vertical or oblique camera (sensor) angles
Orthophoto Corrected
Orthophoto
Vertical Oblique
Image Resolution
Image resolution is how “fine-grained” the image is.
Positional Accuracy
Describes how close phenomena seen on an image are to their
actual position on the earth
https://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/docu
ments/AEGIST_Guidebook.pdf
Update Cycle or Temporal Resolution
Indicates how often an area is recaptured and reprocessed.
A higher update rate allows for more up-to-date imagery and
enables processes such as change detection.
2005 2008 2020 72
Spectral Characteristics and Color Balance
Spectral characteristics are the wavelengths of light captured and shown in
the image. Color balance is the accuracy of the colors shown.
Visible colors Color infrared
Other Sensors - LiDAR
Light Imaging Detection and Ranging - LiDAR creates 3-D points (x, y, z) and is
often collected with aerial imagery.
Spectral Characteristics and Color Balance
Spectral characteristics are the wavelengths of light captured and shown in
the image. Color balance is the accuracy of the colors shown.
Visible colors Color infrared
Need for Derived Products
Imagery data can be used to produce
various base maps
● Planimetrics
● Digital Twin
● Centerline with address
● Land use
● Impervious surfaces
● Delineation of the shoreline
● Topographic data
● Contours
Live Questions #8-9
www.menti.com
code 6719 3955
Let’s Hear From You
Questions / Open Discussion
Next Steps
1. Take the Online Survey
2. Let us know if you would be
interested/willing to participate in a
focus group
3. Monitor the Project Website for status
updates
Thank You For
Your Participation!
Jeremy Walker Kate Hickey
Department of Commerce Applied Geographics, Inc.
jeremy.walker@commerce.wa.gov khickey@appgeo.com
32
Appendix C: Study methods
Appendix C Contents
Appendix C. Methods ................................................................................................................................. 78
Step 1. Initiated the aerial imagery study .............................................................................................................. 78
Step 2. Established aerial imagery study project team ........................................................................................ 78
Step 3. Identified aerial imagery stakeholders ...................................................................................................... 79
Step 4: Conducted stakeholder outreach and engagement ................................................................................. 79
Step 5: Collected information through an online survey....................................................................................... 80
Step 6: Facilitated focus Group Sessions .............................................................................................................. 80
Step 7: Targeted outreach for follow up information ........................................................................................... 81
Step 8: Analyzed the Current State of Aerial Imagery Use in Washington State ................................................ 81
Step 9: Researched Aerial Imagery Programs in Other States (Appendix F) ...................................................... 83
Step 10: Designed the High quality Program Recommendation.......................................................................... 84
Technical Recommendations for High quality Program ............................................................................................. 84
Characteristics of Off-the-Shelf and Custom Products ............................................................................................... 86
High quality Program Coverage Map .............................................................................................................................. 87
High quality Program Coverage Map - with Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) ............................................................... 88
High quality Program Coverage Map - By Landowner ................................................................................................. 89
High quality Program Coverage Map - By Area ............................................................................................................. 90
Estimate future costs for the high quality program ..................................................................................................... 91
Recommended/High quality Program Costs ................................................................................................................ 94
Program Alternatives by benefits (cost per image capture cycle)............................................................................. 96
Detailed Summary of Alternatives ................................................................................................................................... 97
Step 11: Verified High Quality Program Recommendations with Commercial Vendors ................................. 101
Commercial Vendor Contacts and Discussion Topics .............................................................................................. 101
Step 12: Analyzed Cost Benefits and Economies of Scale ................................................................................ 103
Quantitative Benefits ........................................................................................................................................................ 103
Step 13: Prepared Presentations for Stakeholders............................................................................................. 108
Step 14: Prepared Final to Washington State Legislature .................................................................................. 108
Appendix D: Washington aerial imagery technology study stakeholder survey questionnaire ..................... 109
Appendix E: Focus group summaries........................................................................................................ 123
Appendix F: State summaries and comparisons ....................................................................................... 147
Appendix G: Yakama Nation letter ............................................................................................................ 155
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 77
Appendix C. Methods
The State of Washington Department of Commerce Aerial Imagery Study focused on documenting the current
uses of aerial imagery, the unmet business needs, the technical imagery requirements of the state’s aerial
imagery user base, and the current financial investment in aerial imagery across the state.
The objective of this study was to design an imagery program that would meet the existing needs of the state’s
user base, reduce duplicative spending by sectors of government and WaTech on similar imagery products,
and reimagine the state’s existing aerial imagery program into a program that would address all of the state’s
users unmet business needs in the most cost effective and equitable manner, while also delivering high-quality
imagery products to the end users.
Within the context of this appendix, the Aerial Imagery Study defines a “sector of government” a governmental
organization(s), department(s), government agency(s), or government entity(s), etc. For example, King County,
the Department of Transportation, and the Nisqually Tribe can all be described as “sectors of government”.
Engagement, outreach, and information gathering from the state’s aerial imagery user base (stakeholders) was
the primary mechanism implemented by the research team to collect information on the aerial imagery needs
in Washington State. A detailed description of all the steps taken to complete this study is below:
Step 1. Initiated the aerial imagery study
Following the passage of ESHB-1629S, the Department of Commerce issued a competitive solicitation for
vendors to assist the State in conducting the study. Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo), of Boston,
Massachusetts was selected as the vendor for the work. The following steps were conducted with AppGeo’s
assistance.
Step 2. Established aerial imagery study project team
Commerce’s Aerial Imagery Study project research team is made up of two teams, the Washington project
consulting team led by Commerce, and the research team led by AppGeo.
The Washington project consulting team is a group of aerial imagery subject matter experts, local and state
stakeholders, and Commerce staff and managers tasked with managing the study, guiding the direction of the
research team, reviewing, and providing feedback on study findings, deliverables, and program
recommendations, and delivering a formal report to the state legislature.
The members of the Commerce’s Washington project consulting team are as follows:
• Jeremy Walker, Senior Project Management Analyst, Project Manager and WA Project Consulting Team
Lead, Washington Department of Commerce
• Joanne Markert, State Geographic Information Officer at WaTech, Office of the Chief Information
Officer
• Steven Drew, Thurston County Assessor, Thurston County Auditor and Chair of the Washington State
County Assessors Association, Thurston County
• Jason Henderson, GIS Coordinator, Washington Department of Commerce
• Michelle Gladstone-Wade, Tribal Liaison, Washington Department of Commerce
• Elizabeth Saylor, Applications Development Manager, Washington Department of Commerce
• Lynda Jensen, Publications and Web Content Editor, Washington Department of Commerce
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 78
The research team, the primary investigators tasked with facilitating stakeholder engagement, collecting, and
analyzing stakeholder feedback, and designing an high quality, equitable and economically balanced imagery
program, is staffed by consultants from Applied Geographics, Inc.
• Kate Hickey, AppGeo Chief Operating Officer, Project Lead
• Peter Lemack, Senior Project Manager, Co-Project Manager
• Priya Sankalia, Senior Project Manager, Co-Project Manager
• Eric Ingbar, Senior Consultant, Senior Business Analyst
• Ian Von Essen, Consultant to AppGeo, Washington State Subject Matter Expert
• George Halley, Business Manager, Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
• Srini Dharmapuri, Vice President & Chief Scientist, Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
• Anya Schneider, Flight Planning, Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
Step 3. Identified aerial imagery stakeholders
The ESHB-1629S legislation identifies six (6) government sectors whose agencies, departments, and
organizations were identified as users or purchasers of aerial imagery. These groups, categorized by their
sector of government, needed to be included and engaged with during the aerial imagery study. They are as
follows:
• state agencies
• county governments
• tribal governments
• local governments
• special purpose districts
• school districts.
Prior to stakeholder outreach and engagement, the Washington project consulting team compiled a list of the
primary contacts of practitioners who use, administer, purchase, or influence decisions about aerial imagery
for each of the six sectors of government stakeholder groups. The research team supplemented the list of
stakeholders with known imagery users of their own. This stakeholder list formed the basis of the study’s
outreach and engagement activities. This list of experts grew as the study reached later phases of
engagement.
All 29 federally recognized sovereign tribal governments were invited to participate in the aerial imagery study.
Understanding the connection between the land and the digital representation of the land, the importance of
imagery in supporting business needs, and the current technical characteristics of aerial imagery used by tribal
governments was critical to ensure that the study and the resulting imagery recommendations considered
tribal government’s needs and concerns. All tribal governments were invited to meet with the Research team.
Not all elected to participate in the study (Appendix H).
Step 4: Conducted stakeholder outreach and engagement
The outcome of the aerial imagery study and the degree to which the recommended aerial imagery program
would meet the stakeholders’ needs in an equitable and economic manner was dependent on engagement,
participation, and openness from the State’s various stakeholders.
As described in the steps below, the aerial imagery study provided numerous opportunities for stakeholders to
provide information about their use of imagery. To initiate engagement with the study’s stakeholders, the
Research team facilitated four (4) Stakeholder Workshops (Appendix B). These workshops informed aerial
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 79
imagery stakeholders about the project background, approach and timeline, desired outcomes, and
opportunities for engagement. Three of the workshops were open to all invited stakeholder groups. The fourth
workshop was open to all, but reserved specifically for tribal governments
During the workshops, the research team introduced the project website, where stakeholders could track the
progress of the project, sign up for engagement opportunities, and provide feedback on the trajectory of the
project.
At the conclusion of the workshops, the registrants were provided a link to complete an online survey and
share the survey with subject matter experts they knew from other government sectors.
Step 5: Collected information through an online survey
The research team designed and administered an online survey (Appendix E) to collect information from
stakeholders across the state’s 6 stakeholder groups. For each sector of government (i.e., County, Tribal
Government, State Agency, etc.) the survey aimed to collect information on the:
• Background of the aerial imagery users (Sector of Government, Role, Experience).
• Current business use cases met with existing imagery.
• Desired business use cases currently unmet with existing imagery.
• Current and desired imagery requirements and technical specifications.
• Current imagery costs across their sectors of government.
• Current limitations of aerial imagery.
• Willingness to participate in a statewide aerial imagery program (now or in the future).
In total, the research team collected 435 unique responses from the state’s stakeholders. Responses reflected
the current state of imagery in 34 counties, 61 municipalities, 16 tribal governments, 25 special purpose
districts, 6 school districts, and 11 state agencies.
In many cases, multiple respondents from the same sector of government submitted a response. In some of
those cases the responses presented contradicting, or differing views into their perceived use of aerial imagery
within their sector of government. To avoid redundant counting from the same sector of government, the
research team aggregated results and selected the most authoritative information as representative of the
entire sector of government. For instance, if a respondent of a sector of government stated that they did not
use imagery to support their needs, but another member of the same sector of government stated that imagery
was used by them on a daily basis, the research team determined that the sector of government had access to
and used aerial imagery.
Step 6: Facilitated focus Group Sessions
A final component of the online survey presented the opportunity for respondents to volunteer to participate in
facilitated focus group sessions.
The research team facilitated twelve (12) focus group sessions. During these group interviews, the research
team met with aerial imagery users from various agencies, organizations, and tribal governments. The purpose
of these focus groups was to document the imagery needs, benefits, current costs, current or potential
limitations, and administration of aerial imagery to understand how similar or dissimilar the aerial imagery
uses were within different entities of a similar sector of government.
The research team placed the invited stakeholders into twelve (12) focus groups identified by industry, sector
of government, discipline, and or departmental role. In some cases, a group was split to account for
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 80
differences between urban and rural sectors of government, or to provide additional opportunities for larger
groups of participants to meet with the research team. The research team facilitated and documented findings
from the following twelve (12) focus groups (See Appendix F):
• #1: GIS Managers - 11/2/2022
• #2: Planning - 11/3/2022
• #3: Environment / Natural Resources - 11/9/2022
• #4: Infrastructure - 11/9/2022
• #5: Transportation - 11/10/2022
• #6: Public Safety - 11/15/2022
• #7: Emergency Preparedness - 11/16/2022
• #8: Western Assessors - 11/17/2022
• #9: Eastern Assessors - 11/18/2022
• #10: Tribal governments - 11/29/2022
• #11: Tribal governments - 11/30/2022
• #12: WaTech Imagery Program - 12/9/2022
Step 7: Targeted outreach for follow up information
Guided by the findings from the online survey, and the focus groups, the research team reached out to the
following sectors of government for follow up conversations: the Department of Natural Resources,
Department of Ecology, King County, Thurston County and Skagit County. The research team also met with the
following aerial imagery vendors: The Sanborn Mapping Company, EagleView, Miller Creek and Associates, and
NV5.
The research team also made a public information request under the Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW
to WaTech, requesting materials related to the current WaTech statewide aerial imagery program. This
included subscriber lists, the current contract, and related materials. This information was critical to
understanding the current state aerial imagery program.
Step 8: Analyzed the Current State of Aerial Imagery Use in
Washington State
To analyze the current state of aerial imagery use in Washington State, the research team:
• Tallied and evaluated the survey responses using SurveyMonkey tools, Alteryx business intelligence
software, and Microsoft Excel.
• Consolidated the survey responses that came from a single government office (e.g., a county, a
state agency, a municipality) using the most consistent values or those that were verified in focus
groups, targeted interviews, or emails. This avoided overcounting of single government office
responses.
• Public information requests were made on current purchases where there was knowledge that a
purchase occurred, but survey responses were absent or unclear.
• Examined current costs of the WaTech statewide aerial imagery program.
• Costs to the state (contracted services) and administrative costs
• Costs to WaTech imagery coalition participants
• Estimated current costs for independent purchases based on survey responses.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 81
• Calculated cost per year and cost per image acquisition cycle
• For each government unit other than a state agency that reported purchasing imagery, the cost per
square mile was calculated per year and per acquisition cycle, using the area administered by the
government unit.
• For government units within another unit, such as a city within a county, the cost numbers reported
by the city were divided by the city’s area to determine cost per square mile per year and per
acquisition cycle.
Table 1. Annual average independent purchase costs from survey, focus groups, and interviews.
Government Type Annual Expenditure on Aerial Imagery
Counties (13 of 39) $1,446,440
Municipalities (26 of 280) $427,042
State Agencies (3) $499,300
School District (2) $0
Special Purpose District (25) $152,000
Tribal Government (15) $66,070
Other (regional councils) $54,317
Total $2,645,169
• Extrapolated independent aerial imagery purchase cost.
• Chose a conservative cost per square mile for a mix of 3-inch, 6-inch, and 9-inch GSD orthophoto
and oblique acquisition based on reported values.
• Generalized to the entire state as if each county and municipality purchased imagery independently.
° Multiplied each governmental unit’s area in square miles by the selected conservative cost per
square mile.
° To be conservative, state agencies, tribal government, and special purpose districts were not
included in this extrapolation.
• Extrapolated administrative costs associated with the WaTech program.
• Interviewed WaTech Imagery Program administrator and WA State DNR imagery processing
support staff and determined that annually 10% of one WaTech FTE (0.1) and 10% of one DNR FTE
(0.1) were involved in the administration of the WaTech Imagery program on an annual basis. An
encumbered staff rate of $250 per year provided by WaTech was used to calculate annual WaTech
Administrative costs.
• Extrapolated administrative costs for independent imagery purchases.
• Administrative costs are significant if we assume that every government that could use imagery
procured it independently. This includes 39 counties, 29 federally recognized tribes, 279 cities and
towns, and 1465 special purpose districts (of more than 1900) that might use aerial imagery.
• During our study, we came across one county, Skagit County, who over the last 18 years
documented the exact amount of GIS staff time that was put forth in making purchases of
independent imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 82
• Skagit County documented that their internal GIS staff averaged 279 hours (or .13 FTE) per year
over an18 year period (2004-2022) performing the various administrative tasks associated with
acquiring imagery and maintaining a regional imagery consortium.
• This 18-year case study documenting administrative time in the purchase of independent imagery
was used as supporting documentation in our administrative cost calculations.
• For each government sector we then assigned an administrative full-time-equivalent value from 0.1
to 0.05 for staff time spent managing or administering the purchase of a flight cycle (2 years is
assumed).
• Annual encumbered staff rates for those local and tribal governments who reported staff rates
associated with the purchase of independent imagery were aggregated and averaged resulting in
an encumbered staff rate of $125,000 per year.
• For the remaining government sectors (n=1822) that might use imagery a conservative encumbered
staff rate of $100,000 per year was chosen.
• The results were then tallied to determine total extrapolated administrative costs for all government
sectors.
Table 2. Extrapolated annual and per cycle cost of statewide aerial imagery under current procurement methods.
Annual Imagery Cost Annual Administrative Cost Per Cycle Cost Total (2 year)
WaTech Aerial Imagery Program FTE 0.1 (WaTech); DNR 0.1;
$350,000 $800,000 (2-year cycle)
(100% orthophoto) @250k/FTE = $50,000
Reported Independent Purchases 5.0 FTE (aggregate, 50 respondents
$2,645,000 $6,540,000
(25% oblique, 75% orthophoto) @ 0.1 ea) @$125k/FTE = $625,000
Extrapolated* Independent Purchases 172.55 FTE (aggregate 1822 govt.
$6,414,000 $47,338,000
NOTE: 25% oblique, 75% orthophoto entities) @$100k = $17,255,000
Total (WaTech + Extrapolated) $6,764,000 $17,305,000 $48,138,000
The key point is that even if one only paid for acquiring imagery once in a cycle (at about $13M), the
duplication in administrative costs within 1,822 government sector organizations) would bring the total per
cycle cost to over $48M.
Step 9: Researched Aerial Imagery Programs in Other States
(Appendix F)
As part of the research that informed the recommended aerial imagery program, the Aerial Imagery Research
team documented the components of statewide aerial imagery programs for 6 comparable states:
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Oregon
• Texas
• Utah
• Wyoming
States were selected based on the presence of an existing aerial imagery program, state size, geographic
location compared to Washington, topography, and parameters of programs that meet similar stakeholder
needs i.e., statewide oblique and orthophoto collection.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 83
The research into these states documented the description of the approach, the cost, imagery capture
frequency, relevant limitations, distribution details, and cost sharing approaches (See Appendix G). The
Research team interviewed the following contacts to collect information on their respective state’s aerial
imagery programs:
Table 3: List of individuals contacted for state imagery program research.
State Contact Position
Indiana Shaun Scholer GIS Program Director
Kentucky Kent Anness GIS Manager, Kentucky Office of Technology
Oregon Brady Callahan Geospatial Lead, sUAS Coordinator, Oregon Imagery
Texas Gayla Mullins StratMap Program Manager
Utah Matt Peters Director of The Utah Geospatial Resource Center
Wyoming Brenda L. Henson Director of The Wyoming Department of Revenue
Step 10: Designed the High quality Program Recommendation
Designing the high quality (the high-quality statewide aerial imagery program – referred to as high quality here
for brevity) imagery program required first identifying current aerial imagery types, uses and needs across all
government sectors.
This was accomplished through an online survey (described in Appendix Methods section under Step 5),
facilitated focus group sessions (described in Appendix Methods section under Step 6) and targeted outreach
to specific governmental staff and five vendors (described in Appendix Methods section under Step 7).
Analysis of these various sources of information was then carried out (as described in Appendix Methods
section under Step 8).
Based on this analysis the characteristics of an high quality aerial imagery program were determined.
Technical Recommendations for High quality Program
Orthophoto (“top-down”) Oblique imagery
• 6” ground separation distance (GSD; “resolution”) minimum;
• Nominal 6” resolution minimum; 3” in urban areas
3” in urban/growth areas
• Statewide
• 4-band (includes near IR)
• 2-year acquisition cycle
• 2-year acquisition cycle
• Positional accuracy same as orthoimagery
• Control network -> repeatable positional / spatial accuracy
• Leaf-off as much as possible
• High sun angle
• Minimal snow cover (mountains)
• Excellent ground visibility
• Viewer tool with x/y/z measurement features
• Stereo pairs for DNR use
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 84
Orthophoto (“top-down”) Oblique imagery
It was determined based on this analysis that neither the WA State’s current WaTech imagery program nor any
of the off the shelf imagery products available through today’s vendor community met these technical
requirements as detailed in the table below.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 85
Characteristics of Off-the-Shelf and Custom Products
Table 4: Characteristics of Off-the-Shelf and Custom Products
Statewide (off Available Access to
6” ortho 3” ortho Near IR 6” oblique 3” oblique Ownership Frequency
the shelf) now Archive
Yes (with State, after next
Current WaTech
Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No ongoing paid contract 2-year
imagery (Hexagon)
contract) cycle
Google/Bing/ Per vendor,
Apple/Planet Yes Yes No No No No No No Vendor varies and could
(Satellite) be monthly
National Vendor #1
Yes (urban Yes (urban Yes (urban Yes (urban Yes (urban Yes (urban
Product (e.g., No Paid subscriber Vendor Per Vendor
only) only) only) only) only) only)
NearMap)
National Vendor #2
Product (e.g., No (available Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per Yes (per
No Per contract Per contract Per contract
Eagleview, Sanborn, by contract) contract) contract) contract) contract) contract)
NV5)
Custom Product Yes (by design) No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 2-Year
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 86
An high quality program coverage map (below) was then produced based on the technical requirements
needed for an high quality program within Washington State. This high quality program map was then
reviewed and compared to the existing WaTech Imagery program coverage map by the WA State GIS
Coordinator, Joanne Markert (Washington Technology Solutions) and modified to meet current and requested
imagery needs.
High quality Program Coverage Map
% Area Covered: 3” GSD: 16%, 6” GSD: 84%
The high quality Imagery Program Coverage Map was then compared with a map of all Washington State
UGAs and modified to ensure that the majority of the UGA’s were covered by urban 3-inch ortho and oblique
imagery (below).
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 87
High quality Program Coverage Map - with Urban Growth Areas (UGAs)
The High quality Imagery Program Coverage Map by Landowner (below) depicts proposed 6-inch and 3-inch
ortho and oblique capture areas and then compares those to all public and tribal lands across the state of
Washington. It was determined that most 3-inch capture zones proposed occur outside of those areas.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 88
High quality Program Coverage Map - By Landowner
Next a high quality program coverage map was created that further divided the proposed 6-inch and 3-inch
ortho and oblique capture areas into six separate phased capture zones that are delineated by their
recommended capture season (below). The imagery capture seasons are identified on the map above.
Generally, leaf-off urban areas are captured first in the late winter to early spring followed by the mountainous
terrain, Cascades, Olympics, and Rockies, which are the most difficult to fly due to elevation and snow cover.
The capture seasons for the mountainous terrain range from late spring to early fall.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 89
High quality Program Coverage Map - By Area
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 90
Estimate future costs for the high quality program
To determine the future cost of a High Quality Washington State Imagery Program the mandatory
requirements of the imagery program were identified. These are:
1) the acquisition and quality control of the statewide imagery,
2) having the operational and technical support staff to manage the high quality program,
3) having sufficient storage infrastructure for the imagery,
4) having the imagery accessible as data downloads, online services, and as web maps, and finally,
5) having the software to view and use the imagery which is especially critical to use oblique imagery. These
requirements are identified in the table below.
Meeting Mandatory Needs
Acquisition
• Statewide orthophoto and oblique imagery
• Single master contract for acquisition
• May use separate quality assurance and control vendor for
• spatial accuracy and imagery quality
Operational & Technical Support
• Consulting support for technical services
• General IT support
Infrastructure & Distribution
• Storage (~ 1000 TB with oblique imagery)
• Freely available to all government sectors
• Accessible as data downloads, online services, and web maps
Software
• Oblique viewer software
As identified in our needs analysis many government sectors throughout Washington need ancillary products
that are derived from the source imagery. These are identified in the table below.
Meeting Optional Needs
Buy Ups (ancillary products)
• Pre-negotiated pricing for products
• Building footprints
• Change detection
• Certified imagery
• Land cover and land use
• Custom flights
• Digital models
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 91
• Requests occur a year in advance of acquisition.
• If buy up is enhancement of regular product, then
• additional cost but base price subsidized.
• If buy up is not an enhancement, then it is not subsidized
Staffing and management of the High Quality Washington State Imagery Program were identified and are
described in the table below.
Management & Staffing
Collaboration & Consultation
• Involve representatives from all levels of government.
• Provide forum so that priorities and concerns are recognized.
• Ensure the State is meeting obligations to Tribal governments
Staffing
• WaTech Aerial Imagery Program Manager (1 FTE)
• Manages solicitation and contract activities.
• WaTech Support Engineer (1 FTE)
• Supports users and communities.
• Tribal Coordinator (1 FTE)
• Coordination with Tribal governments
• Community Relations Coordinator (1 FTE)
• Works with all sectors of government, outreach, concerns, etc.
High quality imagery program costs were identified based on the mandatory requirements previously listed
above for each of the three major categories shown in the table below.
Imagery acquisition and associated imagery quality control costs were identified through extensive vendor
interviews.
Program staffing needs and associated costs were identified through interviews with the WA State Imagery
project team including WA State encumber staffing rates.
Infrastructure (storage, hosting, & streaming services) and oblique software costs were identified through
extensive vendor interviews. Estimated storage size requirements per flight cycle for statewide imagery for 6
inch and 3-inch ortho and obliques were determined to be 1 petabyte or 1000 terabytes. Storage and web
streaming service costs of 1 petabyte of imagery data were based on the current rates beginning charged by
the major commercial cloud vendors (Google, Amazon Web Services, Azure). Both infrastructure and software
costs vary widely between photogrammetric vendors - some embed all of those costs in their per sq. mile
capture costs others do not.
The staging of the High Quality State Aerial Imagery Program is detailed across the top of the table below and
color coded by start-up and flight capture cycles.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 92
One-time high quality imagery program costs are shown in tan; these are the initial set up of the WA State
imagery control network to ensure the spatial accuracy of the imagery captures and the initial acquisition of
oblique imagery viewing software.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 93
Recommended/High quality Program Costs
Table XX5: High quality Program Costs Breakdown
Project Start-up Flight #1 Flight #2
Cost Category
Year 0 Estimate Year 1-2 Estimate Year 3-4+ Estimate
Ortho & Oblique Imagery Acquisition $26,479,825 $26,479,825
Creation & maintenance of statewide control
Acquisition $1,325,000 $26,500 $26,500
network
Spatial & Image Quality Control $100,000 $1,712,500 $1,712,500
FTE (4) * $1,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Staffing
External technical support $100,000 $200,000 $200,000
Infrastructure (Storage, Hosting, & Streaming
$32,400 $1,958,400 $5,875,200
Services) **
Access
Software (to support viewing, distribution,
$850,000 $340,000
etc.) **
Total Cost $2,557,400.00 $33,227,225.00 $36,634,025.00
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 94
Alternatives to the High quality Program
While developing the High quality Program several alternatives were considered. The High quality Program
has the best return on investment compared to the alternatives presented below. Each of the alternatives lower
the cost of the program compared to the high quality program. Generally, with each subsequent alternative,
fewer benefits come with the lower costs yielding a lower return on investment. Additionally, with lower state
program costs the cost burden is shifted to the end-user governmental sectors which dramatically increases
overhead and/or administrative costs across government sectors.
One thing that remains true for all the alternatives described below is the primary goal of providing equal
access to imagery for all.
1) High quality Program minus Mountainous Areas: In this alternative, all mountainous areas that are public
lands are dropped from the High quality Imagery Program. These areas are identified in tan on the High
quality Imagery Program Coverage Map by the Landowner. Dropping these public lands from the imagery
program saves approximately 8 million dollars per imagery capture cycle. One of the drawbacks with this
option is that Washington State will no longer have a complete standardized imagery coverage for the
state.
2) Statewide 6” with 3” buy up (6” Orthophoto and Oblique Only): In this alternative all 3-inch ortho and
obliques are dropped from the program. Dropping 3-inch orthos and obliques from the High quality
Imagery program saves approximately 14 million dollars per imagery capture cycle. 3-inch orthos and
obliques are then available as a buy-up option for those highly urbanized cities and counties who need
such high-resolution imagery for infrastructure mapping. The benefits to this option are that the state of
Washington still has a standardized statewide orthophoto coverage though at a lower resolution of 6
inches. The disadvantages are that the cost burden is then shifted to the end-user governmental sectors
who need 3-inch orthos and obliques and it dramatically increases overhead and/or administrative costs to
administer a statewide buy-up program.
3) Statewide 6” minus Mountainous Areas (6” Orthophoto and Oblique only): In this alternative besides
dropping all 3-inch ortho and obliques, all mountainous areas are dropped as well. This option saves
approximately 23 million per imagery capture cycle as compared to the High quality Imagery program.
Again, there would be a buy-up option for 3-inch orthophotos and obliques as detailed in the previous
option. There are many disadvantages to this option. Washington State will no longer have a complete
standardized imagery coverage for the state; the cost burden, is shifted to the end-user governmental
sectors who need 3-inch orthos and obliques; and it dramatically increases overhead and/or administrative
costs to administer a statewide buy-up program.
4) New Orthoimagery Program (6” Orthophoto, No Obliques): In this alternative no oblique imagery is
purchased, only a 6-inch statewide orthophotos. This alternative saves approximately 30.7 million per
imagery capture cycle as compared to the High quality Imagery program. The benefits to this option are
that the state of Washington still has a standardized statewide imagery orthophoto coverage at a
resolution of 6 inches with control over the specifications. All oblique imagery, both 3-inch and 6-inch,
must be purchased via a statewide buy-up program. The disadvantages to this option are that the cost
burden is shifted to the end-user governmental sectors, no oblique imagery is provided in this option
except as a buy-up, and it dramatically increases overhead and/or administrative costs.
5) Current Program with Full State Funding (6” Orthophoto Statewide License, no oblique): In this option a 6-
inch statewide ortho subscription is purchased by the State. This option is similar to the existing WaTech
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 95
Imagery Program. The primary difference is the state funds this subscription so that all governments can
have access to this imagery unlike the situation we have today where you only have access if as a
government entity you pay for it. This option saves approximately 33.9 million per imagery capture cycle
as compared to the High quality Imagery Program. The benefits to this option are that the state of
Washington still has a standardized statewide imagery ortho coverage at a resolution of 6 inches and that
all governments have access to the imagery via the subscription imagery license. The disadvantages are
the same as the ones above – the state has no control over the imagery, the cost burden is shifted to the
end-user governmental sectors, it increases overhead and/or administrative costs.
The two tables below summarize the alternatives.
The table below summarizes the alternatives from a benefits perspective and provides the cost per image
cycle. Only the high quality program meets all the benefits.
Program Alternatives by benefits (cost per image capture cycle)
Table 6: Alternative programs summarized by benefits.
BENEFITS
Equal Standardized Low Administration Cost to Meets Regulatory Cost Per
Access Coverage of State Users Standards (e.g. IAAO) Image Cycle
High quality Program ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ $36M
High quality Program
Minus Mountainous ✔ X ✔ ✔ $28M
Areas
6” only, higher
Statewide 6" with 3" Buy-up (3”) administrative
✔ resolution requires ✔ $23M
Buy Up costs
buy-up
6” only, higher
Statewide 6" Minus Buy-up (3”) administrative
✔ resolution requires ✔ $15M
Mountainous Areas costs
buy-up
Buy-up (all obliques and 3”
Statewide 6" with 3"
✔ ✔ orthos) and administrative $3M
Buy Up
costs
Buy-up (all obliques and 3”
Current Program w/Full
✔ ✔ orthos) and administrative $1M
State Funding
costs
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 96
Detailed Summary of Alternatives
Table 7: Detailed summary of program alternatives
High Quality
New Current Program
Program Minus Statewide 6" with 3" Statewide 6" Minus
Current Program High Quality Program Orthoimagery w/Full State
Mountainous Buy Up Mountainous Areas
Program Funding
Areas
Statewide 6"
Statewide 6"
orthoimagery; 3" High quality State fully funded
Statewide orthoimagery and 6” Orthophoto and 6" orthophoto
oblique Program without orthoimagery
orthoimagery every oblique with 3" Oblique Only without Statewide License;
urban/urbanizing Mountainous w/new capture
2 years; no oblique oblique buy up mountainous areas no oblique
areas; 6" oblique all Areas public lands contract
(shared product)
other areas
Aerial Imagery Characteristics
6" Orthoimagery Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
3" Orthoimagery
No Yes Yes Buy Up No No No
(urbanizing areas)
3" Oblique imagery
No Yes Yes Buy Up No No No
(urbanizing areas)
6" Oblique imagery
No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
(rural areas)
6" Oblique imagery
No No (covered in 3") No Yes Yes No No
(urbanizing areas)
6" Mountainous
Areas public lands
No Yes No Yes No No No
oblique (state and
federal)
Availability and administrative burden
Freely available for
use by all No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
government sectors
Freely available for
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
use by public
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 97
High Quality
New Current Program
Program Minus Statewide 6" with 3" Statewide 6" Minus
Current Program High Quality Program Orthoimagery w/Full State
Mountainous Buy Up Mountainous Areas
Program Funding
Areas
No cost to all
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
government sectors
Reduces redundant
No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
imagery acquisition
Minimizes local
government
No Yes Yes Yes (6"), No (3") Yes (6"), No (3") No No
administrative
burden
Minimizes state
government
No Yes* Yes* No** No** Yes* Yes*
administrative
burden
Ownership and costs
Licensed by
Ownership model Licensed by vendor State-owned State-owned State-owned State-owned State-owned
vendor
Cost model for
Subscription Free Free Free (6") Buy up (3") Free (6") Buy up (3") Free Free
imagery users
State can retain
No*** Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No***
archive datasets
Cost per imagery
700K $36M $28M $23M $15M $3M $1M
refresh cycle
* Highly restrictive * State has to * State has to * No oblique * No oblique
access (No imagery coordinate 3" buy-ups coordinate 3" buy-ups imagery imagery
availability to govts
who are not funding * State has to * State has to * Local govt. and * State has no
participants) integrate 3" (buy up integrate 3" (buy up tribes may pursue control over the
* Montane public
products) into products) into redundant timing and quality
lands would not
Drawbacks * vendor lock-in * Cost statewide 6" imagery statewide 6" imagery purchasing to get of subscription
have oblique
base layer base layer oblique imagery based 6" ortho
imagery
* State has no resulting in imagery
control over the * 3" buy ups will * 3" buy ups will duplicative
timing and quality of involve duplicative involve duplicative Imagery * Local govt. and
6" ortho imagery administrative costs administrative costs acquisitions w/ tribes may pursue
at all levels of at all levels of duplicative redundant
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 98
High Quality
New Current Program
Program Minus Statewide 6" with 3" Statewide 6" Minus
Current Program High Quality Program Orthoimagery w/Full State
Mountainous Buy Up Mountainous Areas
Program Funding
Areas
* Local govt. and government government administrative purchasing to get
tribes purchases costs oblique imagery
oblique imagery * State has no control * State has no control resulting in
separately w/high over the acquisition over the acquisition * Unequal duplicative
administrative timing of 3' oblique timing of 3' oblique taxpayer funding Imagery
burden imagery resulting in imagery resulting in of all oblique acquisitions w/
temporal patchwork temporal patchwork imagery duplicative
* Duplicative of statewide 3' of statewide 3' acquisitions administrative
Imagery acquisitions oblique imagery oblique imagery (higher burden on costs
w/ duplicative selected local
administrative costs * Unequal taxpayer * Unequal taxpayer govts and tribes) * Unequal
funding of 3' oblique funding of 3' oblique taxpayer funding
* State has no imagery (higher imagery (higher * State has no of all oblique
access to oblique burden on selected burden on selected access to oblique imagery
imagery purchased local govts) local govts) imagery acquisitions
by local or tribal purchased by local (higher burden on
govts govts or tribes selected local
govts and tribes)
* State has no
access to oblique
imagery
purchased by local
govts or tribes
* Lower cost * Lower cost
* All imagery types
* Lower cost * Lower cost
available to all levels
* All imagery types * Higher quality 6"
of govt * Lowest cost
available to all *Available to all levels *Available to all levels ortho Imagery
levels of govt of govt (6' only - of govt (6' only - because State
* State controls timing * Subscription 6'
obliques/orthos) obliques/orthos) determines
and quality of ortho & ortho imagery
* State controls capture
oblique imagery available to all
timing and quality * State controls * State controls parameters
Benefits * Low cost levels of govt
of ortho & oblique timing and quality of timing and quality of
* High quality oblique
imagery 6"ortho & 6"oblique 6"ortho & 6"oblique * 6" ortho Imagery
Imagery available to * Reduced
imagery imagery available to all
all govts (3'urban, 6' administrative
* High quality levels of govt
rural) costs (add only 1
oblique Imagery * Ability of local govts * Ability of local govts
FTE to WaTech)
available to all and tribes to buy-up and tribes to buy-up * Reduced
* Highly reduced
govts (3'urban, 6' 3" obliques 3" obliques administrative
administrative costs
rural) cost (1 FTE
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 99
High Quality
New Current Program
Program Minus Statewide 6" with 3" Statewide 6" Minus
Current Program High Quality Program Orthoimagery w/Full State
Mountainous Buy Up Mountainous Areas
Program Funding
Areas
technical staff; 1
* Highly reduced FTE tribal
administrative government
costs coordinator)
* State controls
timing and quality
of imagery
* State must still administer the program as a whole
** State must still coordinate 3" buy-ups and integrate with statewide imagery
*** State can retain imagery by continuing future subscription contracts
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 100
Step 11: Verified High Quality Program Recommendations with
Commercial Vendors
The research team contacted and interviewed four commercial vendors. All vendors were selected based on
their extensive experience within Washington State with its unique and challenging combination of topography,
climate and atmospheric conditions, and high latitude sun angles. All vendors have extensive experience in
capturing statewide high-resolution oblique and ortho photo collections and in the quality control / quality
assurance of those imagery collections. The research team interviewed the following contacts and the topics
discussed are listed below.
Commercial Vendor Contacts and Discussion Topics
Vendor: Eagleview
Contact: Dustin Walters, District Manager Pacific NW
• Discussion Topics
• Oblique resolution trends - 9” to 6” to 3”
• Popular derived products: change detection 75% of client counties. Derived products pricing by parcel
• Evolution of Assessor assessment site visit rules; safety benefits of virtual vs onsite parcel inspection
• Embedding oblique imagery in Assessor assessment CAMA systems
• Eagleview Oblique Image viewer licensing
• Eagleview’s viewing and measuring tools
• Eagleview’s oblique imagery integrations w/ 911 CAD systems
• 50/50 client split between software integration & use of Eagleview’s standard oblique viewer.
• Eagleview’s management of streaming and hosting services for clients
• Eagleview’s standard pricing model for all contracted counties includes all software tools, integrations,
etc.
• Challenges w/ acquiring Leaf-off imagery in the Puget Sound requiring winter flights
(January/February)
• Infrared imagery vs oblique Imagery needs.
• Certified imagery & obliques
• Cost differentials between standard vs certified ortho cost
• 30% Eagleview customers need certified products.
• Eagleview customers rarely request 4-band (IR) products.
• Certified product vs non-certified delivery timelines
• Working w/ outside QC vendors & turnaround times
• Aligning the customer expectations with vendor capabilities
• Eagleview’s disaster response contract clauses
• Urban vs Rural control challenges
• Working with local image consortiums
• Worked with tribal governments
• Degrading imagery for public uses (military requirements)
• Shoreline oblique acquisitions & capture challenges
• Accessing existing (historical) Puget Sound oblique Eagleview imagery
• Eagleview’s standard contract (perpetually license for ortho and obliques)
• Eagleview government contract language restricts free distribution to Google, Bing or other “big
imagery” competitors.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 101
• Structuring statewide imagery captures
Vendor: Miller Creek Associates
Contact 1: Jimmy Schultz, Production Management & Partner
Contact 2: Jeff Kenner, Vice President
Discussion Topics – (QA/QC Focused)
• Third party QA/QC vendor for King and Snohomish Counties
• Miller Creek Associates does not do Oblique QC/QA, only Ortho QC/QA
• Pre-flight Review of Flight Plan Design
• Flying with the appropriate coverage overlap
• Determining if sufficient ground control exists to meet the accuracy needs of the project.
• Post-flight Review
• Imagery acquired with appropriate Sun-angles
• Detecting Post flight gaps in coverage
• Final Visual Inspection Review of captured orthophotos based on RFP specs e.g., color matching flight
lines, building lean, tree lean over roads, etc.
Vendor: NV5 Geospatial
Contact: Melissa Christie, Senior Account Manager
Discussion Topics
• RFP Considerations
• Clear technical specs that match use case needs
• Include overlap, edge-match, color-match, cloud, smoke obscuration, etc.
• Involve industry early in specification delineation process.
• QC is essential.
• Stratification of imagery capture
Vendor: Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
Contact 1: George Halley, Business Manager
Contact 2: Srini Dharmapuri, Ph,D., CP, PMP, Vice President & Chief Scientist
Contact 3: Anya Schneider, Flight Planning
Discussion Topics - (QC/QA focused)
• Imagery, streaming, software, storage, and hosting cost estimates
• Cross state comparisons
• Imagery characteristics: control, true orthos, obliques, multi spectral bands, visual (leaf-on/leaf-off, file
size & file formats, compression formats, etc.)
• Imagery Acquisition: WA State acquisition considerations: sun angle, cloud cover, smoke, snow,
flooding, etc.
• Imagery Software & Data: (viewing software, proprietary vs non-proprietary image formats, storage,
streaming, downloads, licensed vs unlicensed imagery data
• Imagery Usage: frequency of use, current uses, anticipated uses, derivative products
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 102
Step 12: Analyzed Cost Benefits and Economies of Scale
• Collaboration between organizations provides orthophoto at a lower cost, higher resolution, and on a
better schedule – all of which improves the availability and usefulness of the data. The economies of
scale of a statewide program reduces the cost per participating organization in both the short and long
term.
• Consistent statewide imagery on a 2-year cycle is essential to nearly all key industries in the State of
Washington
• From an economic perspective, this was a conscientiously conservative approach – i.e., all costs were
included, but only a subset of benefits can be captured and quantified.
• Estimated benefits are forecasted based on the recommended technical specifications (acquisition
cycle, resolution, imagery type). Benefits will be reduced if specifications are not met as many of the
use cases reported by stakeholders depend on currency of imagery for decision making or change
detection, resolution of imagery for viewing necessary detail, and type of imagery (e.g., vertical, oblique)
for conducting assessment.
• Washington State has numerous key industries, but within the bounds of this study it was not feasible
to measure or estimate ALL potential benefits of an enhanced imagery program. This study focuses on
6 key industries as summarized in the table below. As the calculations demonstrate the ROI for this
investment is between XXX and XXX -- even while bounding the capture of benefits. Had it been
feasible to capture ALL benefits, the ROI would have likely been much larger. Thus, even taking a
conservative approach to benefits quantification results in a positive ROI for the State of Washington.
Quantitative Benefits
• The study performed a high-level estimate of the dollar value benefits that aerial imagery provides to
selected parts of the State’s economy. The goal was to create a dollar estimate using reasonable,
conservative, assumptions. A detailed econometric analysis that might have included industry
interviews and desk audits of how aerial imagery is used in each of the areas examined was beyond the
scope of this study. Instead, we used general professional knowledge about the use of imagery in
major business sectors and government operations. For government operations, we confirmed our
understanding with focus group participants from state, tribal, and local government sectors.
• To determine the value of an improved aerial imagery program, the value of aerial imagery is based on
the high quality statewide imagery program described in this report. Depending on the industry or
government area, aerial imagery at a lower standard than the high quality program provides lesser
value. For example, if imagery does not meet legal or professional standards for some use, such as
property assessment under the International Association of Assessing Officers and state guidelines,
then the time, effort, and risks minimized by using imagery (i.e., its value) are lost.
• Washington State has many key industries and important government operations. This study focuses
on 4 key industries and 4 areas of government operations. The table below lists each industry or area
of operations, and its estimated financial value.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 103
Table 8: List of industries and their estimated financial value
Annual
Key Industry/ Est Benefit % Est Benefit $ Est Benefit Est Benefit $
Economic Key Use Cases
Operation (Low) (Low) % (High) (High)
Value
ESSENTIAL to State of WA and Tribal governments
• Informs critical decisions regarding management, protection, and
resource allocation.
Salmon Fishery $462M* 1.0% $4,620,000 2.0% $9,240,000 • Monitoring salmon habitat vs land and waterway development
• Change detection in development of impervious surfaces which impact
volume and hydraulics of the waterways.
• Monitoring of coastal erosion and shoreline change
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Forest • Identification of stand types and health
$36B* 0.1% $36,000,000 0.2% $72,000,000
Products • Improved accuracy of stand delineations
• Reduced need for field inspections
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
Agriculture $20.4B* 0.1% $20,400,000 0.2% $40,800,000 • Crop identification and delineation
• Management practices improvement
ESSENTIAL to local and Tribal governments
• Significant time savings for assessor field staff in performing
inspections.
Property Tax
$16B** 0.1% $16,000,000 0.2% $32,000,000 • Improved safety of assessor field staff in performing inspections
Assessment
• Improved accuracy of assessment
• Scope of time savings will increase over time, as imagery and
inspection standards evolve
Emergency ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
$1B 0.2% $2,000,000 0.5% $5,000,000
Planning • Natural disaster planning prior to critical events
Emergency
• Post-disaster identification of buildings and critical infrastructure
Management $1B 1% $10,000,000 2.5% $25,000,000
• Response and recovery
and Response
ESSENTIAL to all sectors of government
• Asset management
• Condition assessment
• Stormwater management
Transportation $70B* 0.1% $70,000,000 0.2% $140,000,000
• Right-of-Way delineation
• Encroachment monitoring
• Transportation planning to promote economic development,
resilience, safety, energy conservation, healthy communities
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 104
Annual
Key Industry/ Est Benefit % Est Benefit $ Est Benefit Est Benefit $
Economic Key Use Cases
Operation (Low) (Low) % (High) (High)
Value
TOTALS $159,020,000 $298,052,880
* Annual economic value as reported by the WA Department of Commerce
** Annual tax revenue for State of WA in 2021
*** Annual value of goods and services moved by Washington’s Transportation infrastructure
**** ROI Study
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 105
• Estimate future benefits of expanded program.
• See table in main body of report, worksheet below.
• Perform Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Estimated cost: $36M, estimated benefits $159M.
• Return on investment analysis.
The ROI estimation used three flight cycles as the time period to examine. This should be sufficient for the
high quality aerial imagery program to achieve stability in operations. Other factors were drawn from calendar
year 2022 sources. Sources and symbols used for them are:
• (t) Time period: 6 years
• Inflation rate (source: US Treasury): 6.5%
• (c) Opportunity cost of capital (sources: US Treasury and Wall Street Journal): 5.9%
• (r) Discount rate: -0.6% (5 years)
• https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/M-22-13-Discount-Rates.pdf
• (NPV) Net present value calculated using the variables above.
Table XX9 shows the ROI calculations. In each odd number year, imagery is collected (and thus is a cost). For
even number years, a likely inflated value of $2M was assumed, covering State staff, hosting costs, and other
needs in these years. Although the value of the 8 areas examined will probably increase over time, the net
benefits were kept at $149M per year.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 106
Table 9. Return on investment calculations.
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Totals
Benefits (B) $159,000,000 $159,000,000 $159,000,000 $159,000,000 $159,000,000 $159,000,000
Costs (C) $36,000,000 $2,000,000 $36,000,000 $2,000,000 $36,000,000 $2,000,000
Net Benefits (B-C) $113,000,000 $147,000,000 $113,000,000 $147,000,000 $113,000,000 $147,000,000
Discount Factor
1.000 0.994 0.988 0.982 0.976 0.970
(1+r)
NPV (B-C)/(1+r) $113,000,000 $147,887,324 $114,372,470 $149,694,501 $115,778,689 $151,546,392
Discount Cost (DC) $36,000,000 $1,988,000 $35,568,000 $1,964,000 $35,136,000 $1,940,000 $112,596,000
Discount Benefit
$159,000,000 $158,046,000 $157,092,000 $156,138,000 $155,184,000 $154,230,000 $939,690,000
(DB)
Benefit:Cost Ratio 8.35
ROI Calculation
7.35
(DB-DC)/DC
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 107
Step 13: Prepared Presentations for Stakeholders
Throughout the process of and following the final design of the high quality aerial imagery program
recommendations, calculation of the estimated budget, and documentation of the cost benefit of the high
quality program, the Aerial Imagery Research team presented its findings to the various aerial imagery study
stakeholder groups. The presentations were as follows:
1) A draft presentation was made to the Washington Project Consulting Team to review the first
draft of the aerial imagery program recommendation and provide feedback and direction.
2) A presentation was made to the Washington Project Consulting Team to review the final aerial
imagery program recommendations and review the findings from the aerial imagery program
study.
3) An executive presentation was delivered to the Department of Commerce project team outlining
the recommended aerial imagery program and the findings of the study.
4) A presentation was made to all stakeholders of the aerial imagery program. Participants from the
study’s kickoff workshops, online survey respondents, and focus group interviewees were invited
to join the presentation on the recommended program and the final findings of the aerial imagery
program.
5) Per state statute and following the Tribal Government stakeholder engagement approach from the
study, the Aerial Imagery Research team reserved and made a presentation to stakeholders from
Tribal governments, presenting the recommended program, and the final findings of the aerial
imagery program.
Step 14: Prepared Final to Washington State Legislature
Deliver Final Report of Specifications and Recommendations by May 2, 2023
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 108
Appendix D: Washington aerial imagery technology
study stakeholder survey questionnaire
(See the following pages for this appendix.)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 109
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
This survey aims to capture how aerial imagery is, or could be, used in your work. The
Washington Department of Commerce is conducting the survey, as part of a larger study
required by recent state law (HB-1629). Even if your work does not currently use aerial
imagery, but might do so in the future, please take the survey. Your participation is
essential to the success of the project. Further information about this study is available at
the study website.
The survey has 4 sections (Section 1 is about you, the survey respondent; Section 2
focuses on how you use imagery now; Section 3 explores how aerial imagery could be
useful in the future; and the fourth and final section asks for feedback or comments on
this study).
The survey asks some specific questions about how you use aerial imagery, associated
software, technical specifications, and approximate costs. We recognize that you may not
know the answers to some questions right away. Please use this worksheet to collect the
details from others in your government, and THEN complete and submit the online survey.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
About You and Your Sector of Government
* 1. Full Name
* 2. Email
* 3. What government do you work for?
County
Municipality
Special Purpose District
School District
Tribal Government State
Agency
Other (please specify)
County
* 4. Please select the County you work for (select from a drop down in the on-line survey)
Municipality
* 5. Please select the Municipality you work for (select from a drop down in the on-line survey)
Special Purpose District
* 6. Which Special Purpose District do you work for?
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
School District
* 7. Please select the School District you work for (select from a drop down in the on-line survey)
Tribal Government
* 8. Please select the Tribal Government you work for (select from a drop down in the on-line survey)
State Agency
* 9. Which State Agency do you work for?
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
About You & Your Government (continued)
10. What is the name of your department, division, bureau or office within your sector of
government, if applicable?
11. What is your job title?
* 12. Within your sector of government, what is your current role with regard to aerial
imagery sources and aerial imagery technology? Please select all that apply
I decide upon and/or manage acquiring aerial imagery
I advise upon acquiring aerial imagery but do not decide or manage the acquisition of it
I provide information technology support and coordinate resources needed for the use of aerial imagery I work
with aerial imagery as part of my normal work
I occasionally or infrequently use aerial imagery as part of my work
Other (please specify)
None, I have no role with regard to aerial imagery or technology at present
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - State & Federal
13. At present, how important are state aerial imagery sources (the statewide imagery
program) to your sector of government?
Not used
Nice to have
Essential
Don't know
14. At present, how important are federal aerial imagery sources to your sector of
government?
Not used
Nice to have
Essential
Don't know
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Ortho & Oblique
* 15. Excluding the statewide imagery program does your sector of government purchase
orthoimagery and/or oblique imagery? (If you answer No or Don't know skip ahead to Q. 27)
Yes
No
Don't know
Aerial Imagery Today - Ortho & Oblique Costs & Characteristics
Please answer the following questions about the cost and characteristics of the imagery product(s) that
you/your sector of government purchase, excluding the state imagery program.
16. What are the types of imagery purchased? Select all that apply.
Vertical (not corrected, not certified)
Vertical (corrected)
Vertical (certified)
Oblique
17. Your sector of government may purchase several imagery products over the course of several
years - what is the annualized cost of these products?
Orthoimagery
Oblique Imagery
18. Please list the providers from whom the imagery is purchased
Orthoimagery
Oblique Imagery
19. Please specify the extent of the imagery coverage (e.g. entire county or only urban areas)
Orthoimagery
Oblique Imagery
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Ortho & Oblique Costs & Characteristics
20. What is the pixel size(s) of the imagery? Select all that apply.
Orthoimagery Oblique
< 3 inch
3 inch
6 inch
9 inch
1 foot
0.5 meter
3 foot / 1 meter
> 1 meter
Don't know
21. What are the spectral characteristics of the imagery? Select all that apply.
Orthoimagery Oblique
Black & White
Color
Infrared
Multi-spectral
Don't know
Other (please specify)
22. What is the collection cycle of the imagery?
Orthoimagery Oblique
As needed / irregular
4-year
3-year
2-year
Annual
Seasonal
Don't know
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
23. What are the acquisition characteristics of the imagery? Select all that apply.
Orthoimagery Oblique
Leaf off
Leaf on
Snow cover absent
Snow cover present
Flooding absent
Flooding present
Cloud and cloud
shadow mostly
absent
Smoke / haze mostly
absent
High tide
Low tide
Don't know
24. How is the imagery delivered? Select all that apply.
Orthoimagery Oblique
Online / streaming
Physical media (hard
drive, USB, etc.)
Download (ftp,
secured file
download)
Don't know
25. What type of licensing does the imagery have?
Orthoimagery Oblique
Open (freely
available)
Licensed (limited
sharing)
Licensed (no
sharing)
Don't know
26. Please describe any additional characteristics of the imagery.
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Lidar
Many sectors of government are coordinating with the Washington DNR to acquire lidar data as part of a
lidar stakeholder group.
* 27. Do you/your sector of government purchase lidar data either through the stakeholder group
or independently? (If you answer No or Don't know they skip ahead to Q. 33)
Yes
No
Don't know
Aerial Imagery Today - Lidar Costs & Characteristics
28. How do you purchase lidar data?
Through the lidar stakeholder group
Independently
Don't know
29. If you purchase lidar independently, how often do you acquire lidar?
30. What did you spend on your most recent acquisition of lidar (through the stakeholder group or
independently)?
31. Please specify the extent of the lidar coverage (e.g. entire county or only urban areas)
32. What is the quality level of the lidar?
QL0 QL3
QL1 Don't know
QL2
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Current Uses
* 33. How is aerial imagery used in your sector of government? Please check all that apply. (If you
pick "None - do not use aerial imagery" answer the next question Q. 34, otherwise move on to Q. 35)
Water quality, quantity, and aquatic resources Transportation planning and management Public
assessment and management
safety planning and management Emergency
Natural resources management
management planning Emergency response
Growth management and planning
activities
Site search, suitability, and analysis for development
or other uses Scientific inquiry and research
Permitting and permit or similar compliance None - do not use aerial imagery
Property assessment and taxation
Other Uses
Aerial Imagery Today - Barriers Preventing Use
34. What barriers or challenges are preventing you from using aerial imagery?
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Current Uses (continued)
35. Do you use specific software systems (e.g., CAMA, dispatch software) that depend upon aerial
imagery?
Desktop Mapping Tools (Esri, QGIS, etc.)
CAMA Systems
Dispatch Systems
Web-Based Applications (Esri, Carto, Nearmap, etc.) Custom
Applications (data viewers, property viewers, etc.) 511
Applications
Image Processing (ERDAS, ENVI, etc.)
Don't know
Other (please specify)
36. What type(s) of derived products do you/your government use? (derived products are data sets that are
created from aerial imagery e.g. building outlines)
Planimetrics
Digital Twin
Centerline with address Land
use
Impervious surfaces Delineation
of the shoreline Topographic
data
Contours
Don't know
Other (please specify)
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery Today - Benefits & Barriers
37. Overall, how does your sector of government benefit by using imagery? For example, does it save staff
time or speed up workflows?
38. Please describe any barriers or challenges you face in your current use of aerial imagery.
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Aerial Imagery In the Future
39. What additional or improved aerial imagery product(s) would be most beneficial to your sector of
government in the future?
40. What benefits could this additional or improved aerial imagery product(s) bring to your sector of
government (i.e. What could you do that you cannot do now in your work?)
41. If, in the future, a state-run program could provide aerial imagery that met your needs, would you
purchase it?
Yes
No
Why or why not?
Washington state aerial imagery technology study survey
Your Participation in the Study
42. Would you be interested in participating in a 1 hour focus group in support of this project?
Yes
No
43. Do you have other comments or thoughts about this study? Please feel free to provide them below.
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. You can now copy and paste your
responses into the on-line survey.
Your information and thoughts will help to make the study thorough and accurate. If you would
like to learn more about the study or follow its progress, please visit the project website.
Appendix E: Focus group summaries
State of Washington Aerial Imagery Study
Focus Group Summaries
Prepared by:
Applied Geographics, Inc.
12/19/2022
Empowering People with Spatial Solutions
Applied Geographics, Inc.
33 Broad St, 4th Floor | Boston, MA 02109
T. 617-447-2400 | F. 617-259-1688
www.AppGeo.com
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 123
Appendix E: Table of Contents
Appendix E Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 125
Focus Group #1: GIS Managers ................................................................................................................ 125
Focus Group #2: Planning ........................................................................................................................ 127
Focus Group #3: Environment/Natural Resources..................................................................................... 129
Focus Group #4: Infrastructure ................................................................................................................ 131
Focus Group #5: Transportation ............................................................................................................... 132
Focus Group #6: Public Safety ................................................................................................................. 134
Focus Group #7: Emergency Preparedness .............................................................................................. 136
Focus Group #8: Western Assessors ........................................................................................................ 137
Focus Group #9: Eastern Assessors ......................................................................................................... 139
Focus Group #10: Tribal Governments 1................................................................................................... 141
Focus Group #11: Tribal Governments 2................................................................................................... 143
Focus Group #12: WaTech Imagery Program ............................................................................................ 144
Appendix F: State summaries and comparisons ....................................................................................... 147
Appendix G: Yakama Nation letter ............................................................................................................ 155
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 124
Introduction
The State of Washington Aerial Imagery Study aims to identify the business needs and technical requirements
of aerial imagery users across the State’s many stakeholder groups in order to prepare a cost benefit analysis
of aerial imagery, and provide recommendations on how the state could provide aerial imagery in a cost
efficient manner. The study stakeholders include aerial imagery users from state and local governments,
special districts and Tribal governments.
At the beginning of the study, the research team surveyed the stakeholders from many sectors of government
in order to collect information about imagery costs, current and future use cases, and the perceived benefits of
aerial imagery to their sector of government. In the survey, respondents were invited to volunteer to participate
in focus groups. These focus group interviews provided an additional opportunity for the research team to
collect detailed information and follow up on individual participant’s survey responses.
The research team identified 12 stakeholder groups to interview. These stakeholders were grouped by
industry, sector of government, discipline, and departmental role. In some cases a group was split to account
for differences between urban and rural sectors of government. The primary goal of each focus group was to
evaluate imagery needs, current imagery benefits, imagery costs, and current and potential limitations of the
aerial imagery.
The following presents the key findings and research team’s takeaways from each of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group #1: GIS Managers
11/2/2022, 11 – 12 pm PST
Respondents to the online survey identifying as GIS managers, coordinators, and administrators, were invited
to participate in the GIS Managers focus group. The research team selected GIS Managers for one of the 12
focus groups due to their oversight and knowledge of geospatial data, their use of imagery products in their
work as well as their department’s work, and because of they fill the role within their sector of government as
technical experts in geospatial and imagery technologies, specifically when it comes to advising or deciding
upon imagery during purchasing efforts.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X City of Seattle Seattle Information Technology Snr Civil Engineering Specialist
X City of Vancouver IT GIS Manager
X City of Kennewick Community Planning Department GIS Technician II
X Pierce County
X City of Tacoma Information Technology GIS Supervisor
X Snohomish County Information Technology GIS Supervisor
X City of Burien Information Systems Division Information Systems Manager
X Skagit County Geographic Information Services GIS Manager
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 125
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Pend Oreille County ITS GIS Manager
X City of Camas Information Technology GIS Coordinator
X Jefferson County Central Services GIS Coordinator/Administrator
Information & Geographic Services
X Mercer Island GIS Coordinator
Team (IGS)
X City of Lynnwood IT GIS Administrator
X Yakima County GIS GIS Director
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
All participants desired regular / more current imagery capture
Countywide collection with a single delivery of imagery
High resolution / oblique and orthoimagery.
Imagery Needs Leaf off requirements varied - in general leaf off is desired but we also heard some
who needed leaf on (urban forestry uses, for instance).
Oblique imagery was generally a “nice to have” in the opinion of the participants. Some
noted that their assessor might want the obliques though.
Purchasing from 3rd party imagery providers allows for much more rapid imagery
deliveries. Many participants in this focus group are receiving imagery updates 3 times
a year from Nearmap.
Current Imagery Benefits
For participants who are part of larger counties, access to imagery has eliminated the
need for on-site visits, removing costs due to travel time.
Cost Sharing programs within counties are beneficial and in some cases are the only
way that smaller governments (cities and towns) can get the imagery that they need at
an affordable price.
For participants whose governments purchase private sector imagery, all seem to
Costs
have figured out a stable funding path so that imagery doesn’t require an annual “pass
the hat” approach.
IF a state program provided imagery of comparable quality at a lower cost, most
participants in this focus group stated that they would participate.
The Imagery provided by the state program is typically outdated and loses its efficacy
the further from the capture date.
The state program does not always provide complete coverage of aerial imagery
across the full extent of the county. This means that the state needs to run multiple
flights and deliveries of data in order to collect full coverage for a single county. This
means that full extent imagery is not from a single year and parts of the county are
Current Limitations
from different years.
Imagery varies in quality and characteristics from year to year
The image resolution (6 and 12 inch) of the state program’s imagery was not adequate
to meet local govt business needs. But, we did not get unanimity on this point. Tacoma
said they loved the 3” but could get by with 6”.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 126
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
3rd party imagery providers don’t always allow the public to access the imagery. If they
do, it comes at an additional cost to the County.
The majority of the participants identified the imagery parameters of flight frequency,
flight completeness, leaf-on/leaf-off, image resolution, and shadow/obscured features
as current limitations in the state imagery.
Though many counties are governments that are using cost sharing programs to get
Potential Limitations the data they need, administration, coordination and management of the program
poses an undue burden to those running the programs.
Currently the statewide imagery program is supplemental for most groups. However,
if the statewide program could provide the level of or the majority of imagery
characteristics that governments require, the majority would participate in the
program, and in some cases reduce or eliminate their purchase of 3rd party imagery.
The revenue, cost savings, and support of use cases, far exceeds the initial cost of
Key Takeaways
the imagery. Focus group consensus is that the value of imagery is greater than the
upfront cost to purchase imagery.
A state program that can provide full extent imagery coverage to each participating
government in a single flight and delivery is a requirement that many governments
will need met before investing solely in the state imagery program.
Focus Group #2: Planning
11/3/2022, 11 – 12 pm PST
Respondents to the online survey identifying as environmental, community development, forestry planners, etc.
were invited to participate in the Planning focus group. The research team selected Planners for one of the 12
focus groups due to their experience leveraging imagery products in their day to day activities. Because
planners support a wide range of activities including, but not limited to land management, site planning,
development permitting, zoning enforcement, urban forestry, transportation, and community development, this
focus group was able to provide the researchers a global understanding on how imagery is used to answer
different questions, and support varying activities across sectors of government.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Land Survey Division, Facilities and
City of Bellevue Land Survey Division Manager
Asset Management
X City of Burien Community Development Urban Forest Planner
Community and Economic
City of Lacey Planning Manager
Development
City of Mount Vernon Development Services Director
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 127
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
City of Oak Harbor Development Services Senior Planner
City of Roy Planning Commission President of Roy Planning Commission
Clark County Community Planning Department Director
Island County Public Works Transportation Planner
X Kitsap County Dept of Community Development Long Range Planner
Department of Community
X Kitsap County Senior Planner
Development
Thurston Regional Planning
Council, GIS and Modeling GIS and Modeling Division GIS and Modeling Manager
Division
Washington State Dept of Shorelands and Environmental
Regional Floodplain Planner, Northwest Region
Ecology Assistance
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Consistent imagery specifications, frequent/annual delivery of imagery products.
Annual deliveries work, but multiple flights per year would be better.
Leaf-on and leaf-off imagery in the same year, or if the same year is not feasible, Leaf-
on and leaf-off delivered in alternating years to support change detection and canopy
assessments.
Imagery Needs
This group did not require the highest resolution of imagery to complete their work. All
agreed that 3” imagery would be nice, but 6” is what they need to complete their work.
Multi-spectral imagery would be nice for canopy assessments. The group discussed
the use of additional spectral bands from the NAIP imagery.
Imagery is very important for code enforcement - driving in wetlands, building illegally,
etc. Staff issues are such a problem. Many regulations are on private property and
without imagery these groups wouldn't be able to do their jobs.
Current Imagery Benefits
The volume of permits and the workload for staff has increased over the past 20
years. Imagery allows for the virtual assessment of properties and buildings, and limits
the amount of time that staff need to spend in the field. Imagery increases
productivity.
This group did not have the specifics on costs as they are not involved in the
purchasing of imagery.
Costs
Funding for future imagery acquisitions is not always in the budget.
Frequency of imagery deliveries, unpredictability of imagery specifications (e.g. leaf-on
Current Limitations
vs leaf-off).
For entities participating in County programs (i.e. King County / City of Burien), the City
needs to opt into the program on a bi-annual cycle. They don’t always know what they
Potential Limitations are going to receive in imagery from the County. From a City budget standpoint, there
is always uncertainty whether or not they will be able to purchase imagery from King
County.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 128
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
This group specifically desired leaf-on and leaf-off in alternating years so that
change detection, canopy assessments, etc. could be carried out.
The desire for oblique imagery was mixed in this group. Most only required
orthophotos. Oblique imagery is nice to have or not necessary to complete their
work.
Key Takeaways
The availability of imagery allows staff to be more efficient and productive. The
availability of imagery limits the need for on-site visits, and staff can redirect their
time from travel to virtual inspection and permitting.
Predictability and consistency of imagery is important, specifically for the time of
year the flight occurs, delivery schedule, frequency, technical specifications (leaf-on,
etc.), resolution, and budget.
Focus Group #3: Environment/Natural Resources
11/9/2022, 11 – 12 pm PST
Respondents to the online survey identifying as ecologists, hydrography specialists, and conservation GIS
analysts, were invited to participate in the Environment/Natural Resources focus group. The research team
selected Environment/Natural Resources for one of the 12 focus groups due to their significant, and
sometimes differing use of aerial imagery. Unlike the previous focus groups, attendees of this focus group not
only represented local governments, but large State agencies such as the Department of Ecology and Natural
Resources, as well as special interest groups such as the Puget Sound Partnership. This focus group was
selected because it provided additional opportunities for larger sectors of government to participate in the
study and share their organizations needs and current uses of imagery.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Washington State Department of
ITSO - GIS WA State Hydrography Steward
Ecology
X King County DNRP Senior Ecologist
Washington State Department of
Private Lands Private Lands Biologist
Fish and Wildlife
Information Systems and Geospatial
Puget Sound Partnership Adaptive Systems
Manager
Padilla Bay Research Reserve
Ecology GIS Specialist
in SEA Program
Washington State Department of
X Washington Geological Survey Lidar Manager
Natural Resources
Columbia River Gorge
X Columbia River Gorge Commission GIS Manager
Commission
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 129
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Island County Natural
Island County Surface Water Specialist
Resources
Conservation and Natural
X Snohomish County Resources, Surface Water Principal GIS Analyst
Management
Island County DNR Watershed planner
Washington State Dept of Recreation
X Information Technology Chief Information Officer
and Conservation Office
Washington State Dept of Fish &
X
Wildlife
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Imagery users need complete statewide coverage that is flown and delivered within a
single one year.
Need more imagery bands (near-infrared etc.) in their imagery products to support
accurate vegetation mapping.
Imagery Needs
Need leaf-off imagery.
Though imagery streaming is beneficial to serve data to many users, imagery products
need to be stored locally for processing.
Used for compliance grant funding (recreational).
Current Imagery Benefits
Used to review existing infrastructure, fishing piers, water access, trails, etc.
Funding mechanisms for the capture of statewide imagery and LiDAR imagery limit
coordination of capture. LiDAR (project by project is often grant funded). Imagery
funds are collected and rolled over each year so that imagery can be collected in a
Costs single shot.
An urbanized County in Puget Sound’s annual budget is approx 80K so that they can
fly high resolution imagery every other year for 160k
Size of the imagery data set (DNR 6” resolution is 32 terabytes. Spotty coverage and
gaps in statewide imagery coverage (2-3 years) pose significant challenges for
analysis and storage.
Current Limitations WA State still does not have a single complete statewide LiDAR coverage.
Change detection is impacted by gaps in imagery due to full county coverage requiring
multiple years for flights, processing and delivery. The difference in image temporality
introduces a significant amount of work to manage the difference in image year.
Size of imagery data specially when required to be stored on local machines for
processing and analysis is burdensome.
Potential Limitations
Temporal gaps in imagery data due to multiple flights over multiple years limits use.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 130
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
The size of the datasets are significant, and the effort and time required to process the
imagery data is burdensome.
The focus group participants are strong proponents and consumers of aerial
imagery. They buy their own, participate in the state program, collect their own
imagery with drones, and use imagery in all facets of their work. The more imagery
they have access to the better.
King County has their own program, but would also purchase statewide imagery to
round out their resources.
Use of existing statewide imagery is limited because it has both spatial gaps
(missing areas) and temporal gaps (missing years). Statewide analysis limited by
size of imagery.
Key Takeaways There are lots of organizations across the State that are collecting their own data for
specific projects. The group was curious as to if/how that imagery could be made
publicly available to others.
“Where is the link or location to all of that publicly available data?”
There is a ton of imagery being purchased throughout the state - if we could
synthesize how much imagery is being purchased it would be helpful for people to
know where it is and who has it. Coordination in the future would be exciting.
The group agreed that if the state collects imagery that meets their needs, they could
revisit how they spend their imagery funding. The state imagery program is providing
6” in urban, 1ft in rural areas will work for most use cases, however, many
participants have access to 3” resolution.
Focus Group #4: Infrastructure
11/9/2022, 1 – 2 pm PST
Transportation, infrastructure, asset management, utilities, and engineering are related disciplines. Due to the
large number of survey respondents whose sectors of government represent those disciplines, the research
team decided to divide the focus group participants into two groups, one specifically for Transportation (roads,
transit, etc.), and the other for Infrastructure (assets, public works, etc). The research team invited participants
from state, local, and special purpose districts to participate in the Infrastructure focus group because they
could provide information on the benefits, use cases, and requirements for aerial imagery as it pertained to
public works, asset management, utilities, and non-transportation infrastructure.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Washington State of Department of Governor's Advanced Manufacturing Sector
OECD
Commerce Lead
City of Ellensburg Public Works and Utilities City Engineering Services Manager
City of Kent Public Works Public Works GIS Supervisor
City of Mount Vernon Development Services Development Review Engineering Manager
Lakewood Water GIS Department GIS Coordinator
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 131
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X Pullman Public Works, Engineering Engineering Tech
San Juan County Public Works County Surveyor; CGeog CP GISP RPP PLS
Silver Lake Water & Sewer District Technical Services GIS Analyst
X US Navy Asset Management GIS Analyst
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Need 3” resolution for impervious surfaces and collection of data that you can't see at
6”.
Need imagery at a minimum on a three year rotation.
Imagery Needs Need to have our imagery hosted locally.
Need imagery served-up via a web based GIS app behind security.
Participants do not utilize obliques. They are pretty to view, but not required for day to
day business needs.
Current Imagery Benefits Having accurate imagery is a revenue generating item.
For the small city of Pullman their 2018 3” flight w/ 1 foot contours and planimetrics
Costs cost 35K. Pullman currently has 45K budgeted for their next flight, and they want to
include LiDAR collection.
Unable to use current WA State imagery at 6” to get their job done. Pullman requires
3” resolution.
Even with leaf-off it is hard to get accurate corners of surfaces and planimetrics from
existing state imagery.
Need to do leaf-off flights due to the urban forest.
Current Limitations
Currently there are no coordinated imagery flights between the City of Pullman, the
County, and Washington State University. If they can get the quality of data that they
currently have, and there were cost savings, they would be interested, however, past
coordination with the county and university have been tough. All parties need to be in
agreement.
For the Navy, imagery from a statewide program would only be supportive and
secondary for us, unless the imagery could guarantee 3” resolution.
Potential Limitations
In regards to an enhanced WA State imagery program, there is a sense of skepticism
of anything requiring organization between large government entities.
Past coordination efforts locally have been tough; all parties need to be in agreement.
If there was a state imagery program that could provide the level of imagery product
that they currently have (3”) AND could eliminate the administration, coordination
Key Takeaways
costs, and the efforts needed to renew on an annual basis, that go into putting
together a local imagery program, there would be significant interest in switching to a
statewide program.
Focus Group #5: Transportation
11/10/2022, 9:00 – 10:00 am PST
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 132
Because of organization-wide reliance on aerial imagery to collect data, plan and design transportation
projects, and monitor and manage transportation assets at State Departments of Transportation, the
Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is a significant user of Washington State aerial imagery,
and a key stakeholder in the aerial imagery study. Due to the volume of respondents representing multiple
departments within the WSDOT, as well as transportation practitioners at the local level, the research team
selected Transportation for one of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Chelan County Public Works GIS & Road Log Manager
Transportation and
X City of Tumwater GIS Program Coordinator
Engineering
Washington State Dept of WSDOT, Development Division, Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) Support
X
Transportation GeoMetrix Office Manager
Washington State Dept of Project Development and
Transportation Engineer 4 - Design Trainer
Transportation Design
Washington State Dept of Information Technology
X GIS Database Administrator
Transportation Division
Development
Washington State Dept of
Division\GeoMetrix\Survey and GeoMetrix Survey and Mapping Manager
Transportation
Mapping
Washington State Dept of
X Headquarters Design Asset Data Manager
Transportation
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
WSDOT has imagery needs that vary in specifications by department and by project. 3”
to 6” imagery is typically what they need to complete their projects, and collect their
roadway data. In some cases the DOT has access to 2” imagery, but only for small
project extents.
DOT staff in the NW need custom frequent flights for traffic management. Traffic
change detection. Could not wait for Hexagon. All other departments and regions have
Imagery Needs been happy with the state imagery program.
Engineers need the ability to interact with the data locally. Streaming data is not an
option.
Need imagery to be provided more than once a year.
3” Imagery is a core requirement for all participants.
3” resolution imagery allows for Tumwater staff to work remotely, being more
productive by eliminating travel costs. Additionally, access to imagery eliminates
Current Imagery Benefits
roadway safety concerns as staff do not need to work in the roadway to collect the
location of their assets. They can do this offsite with the imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 133
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
For smaller sectors of government like the City of Tumwater, budget is always an
issue. It is their biggest barrier.
The City of Tumwater spends $5000 a year on their Nearmap imagery program (orthos
Costs and obliques). However it costs too much to purchase licenses that will allow the
imagery to be available to the public.
Tumwater was previously paying $2500 a year to participate in the state imagery
program.
For smaller sectors of government on the state program - the 6”, leaf-on, shadowed
imagery wasn’t meeting their needs, the update cycle was also a challenge. With huge
Current Limitations
amounts of growth within urban areas, Tumwater requires more recent data so that
work can be completed in a timely and efficient manner.
Tumwater needs flights every 5 years to support leaf-on imagery collection for urban
canopy. Currently the Nearmap product does not offer that, but will do the urban
canopy analysis for a fee. They want to process the urban canopy data in house to
remove potential for analytical discrepancies.
Potential Limitations
Tumwater currently does not have a relationship with Thurston County. They are not
currently using the county’s Pictometry. Coordination and cost are the barriers to
cooperation with the county.
This focus group provided a great example of the dichotomy between sectors of
government that have the resources that allow them to acquire whatever imagery
products they need to complete their work, compared to smaller entities that need to
be more selective with the limited budgets that they have.
All focus group attendees agreed that 3” imagery would be ideal with more frequent
collection or annual collection with leaf off and shadows removed.
For WSDOT, before the state program the DOT was maintaining a department of
Key Takeaways
resources, paying for storage costs, processing costs, and an internal flight.
Switching to the state program made sense from a cost perspective. WSDOT costs
were happening on a project by project basis, and it is less expensive to do a larger
collect.
Smaller sectors of government struggle to afford the imagery products that they
require. In order to get the most important specifications of imagery that they need
(resolution), they are prepared to sacrifice other imagery specifications (locally
hosted data, accuracy).
Focus Group #6: Public Safety
11/15/2022, 1:00 – 2:00 pm PST
Respondents to the online survey identifying as GIS analysts, coordinators, and administrators for emergency
management, PSAP, and 911 organizations, were invited to participate in the Public Safety focus group. The
research team selected Public Safety for one of the 12 focus groups due to their use and reliance on
geospatial data and aerial imagery to manage and build County and Statewide emergency response
applications, and databases. With GIS being a significant use case for NG911 systems, the public safety focus
group provided an opportunity to understand how aerial imagery in Washington State is consumed to support
911 applications.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 134
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Whatcom County Whatcom County 911 PSAP GIS Systems Analyst
Multi Agency Communications
X Grant County Technical Services Manager
Center (MACC 911)
Multi Agency Communications
X Grant County
Center (MACC 911)
Regional Consolidated 911 South Sound 911 - Technical
X GIS Analyst
Emergency Communications Center Services
Washington Military Department Emergency Management Division 911 GIS Coordinator
Data and Systems Modernization
Washington State Department of
X office in Office of Innovation and GIS Data Analyst
Health
Technology
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Interested in knowing about available Imagery options.
Currently use WA State Imagery and available ESRI Imagery.
Imagery Needs Need the best imagery available to study algae blooms.
PSAPs in rural areas need to be able to follow goat trails, see existing fire hydrants or
other smaller geographical details with the imagery they currently have.
Using imagery as a visual reference for maps.
Used by stormwater teams for verification prior to heading to heading into the field.
WA State Imagery is used by PSAPs for address point placement and updating
building info within CAD 911 systems.
Current Imagery Benefits
PSAPs are able to work with the County in order to make sure the centerline and
address points are consistent between both organizations.
PSAPs also use Google Street Map for address verification.
Obliques and street views are used to confirm sea level data.
WA State Military Dept. Military provides WA State Program imagery free of cost to all
PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Point).
Costs County imagery access is limited unless 911 is willing to pay for it.
Drone imagery acquisition costs - $1,500 for drone, $500 annual software
subscription, plus labor allows for one development to be captured per month.
Imagery is not directly loaded into CAD Systems due to size and its effects on CAD
System performance.
Imagery viewed on a separate monitor from the CAD system monitor.
The state imagery program has no tiled imagery service available which is detrimental
to the use of the imagery.
Having obliques would be good, but often they cannot be integrated into most CAD
Current Limitations
systems.
WA State’s imagery resolution is not consistent across their service area.
Need better image resolution than currently available.
PSAPs cannot follow goat trails, see existing fire hydrants or other smaller
geographical details with the imagery they currently have.
Google often does not accept their street and address changes.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 135
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Drone Imagery is quite large and time consuming to integrate into GIS.
Rural PSAPs have very outdated CAD systems.
911 PSAPs in rural areas currently do not have the basic information and technology in
order to work successfully.
Worried about the WA State Military Depts. continued funding of WA State program
Potential Limitations
imagery provided free to all PSAPs
Resolution of WA State Imagery inconsistent across service areas.
Often dependent on free commercial imagery providers like Google Street View and
Key Takeaways Bing Maps.
Drones used to acquire new imagery when no current imagery is available.
PSAPs currently do not have the image resolution they need especially in rural areas.
Focus Group #7: Emergency Preparedness
11/16/2022, 9:00 – 10:00 am PST
Respondents to the online survey identifying as GIS analysts, operations managers, and administrators for
public schools, emergency and resilience offices, and emergency management divisions, were invited to
participate in the Emergency Preparedness focus group. The research team selected Emergency
Preparedness for one of the 12 focus groups due to their use and reliance on geospatial data and aerial
imagery to prepare for emergency response activities, and leverage imagery in their response to emergency
and disasters.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
Data and Systems Modernization office in
Department of Health GIS Data Analyst
Office of Innovation and Technology
Energy Resilience & Emergency Management
Department of Commerce Operations Manager
Office
PA/FMAG group within the recovery section of
WA MIL Closeout Manager
EMD
X Seattle Public Schools 1 Capital Projects and Planning K-12 Planner
Department of Ecology Water Resources - Dam Safety Office Dam Safety Engineer
X Washington Military Department Emergency Management Division 911 GIS Coordinator
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 136
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Rural counties are heavily dependent on the state imagery program.
Before and after imagery is helpful when assessing damage from wildfires.
6” or better imagery resolution is good enough.
Imagery Needs
Index of historical imagery would be useful to compare the past to the present.
Oblique imagery is helpful especially when determining where a tree sits and on whose
property it resides on. Tree management uses obliques and are currently relying on
BING Maps.
WA will use GIS 911 data for routing. Address points have to sit on buildings. Without
the imagery they cannot accurately and completely place the addresses on the
Current Imagery Benefits
buildings. Also focused on mapping road centerlines, intersections, at grade
roadways.
The State NG911 office works with WaTech and pays for a very large portion of the
Costs imagery program. The goal is to make sure imagery is available to all counties if they
are working on 911 data.
Some potential imagery stakeholders are not aware of the state imagery program, or
Current Limitations
programs within their county.
In rural and forested areas, imagery allows for people to map roadways especially
Potential Limitations when they don’t receive roadway data from timber companies. In some cases
companies will share data or sell it or not share it at all.
Desire for training and communication for people to know how best to use imagery
Key Takeaways
and be aware of other resources.
Focus Group #8: Western Assessors
11/17/2022, 10:00 – 11:00 am PST
Assessors from Washington’s 39 countries, represent a significant stakeholder group in the Aerial Imagery
Study. Not only do Assessors rely on aerial imagery to review properties, assess structures, and provide their
counties a consistent revenue stream, but they are the stakeholder group that identified the need for, and
worked with the state legislature to establish the Aerial Imagery Study. The assessing stakeholder group
embodies the dynamics between urban vs. rural, and populated vs. unpopulated. In order to understand the
needs of county assessors that require significant aerial imagery resources, because of their population size
and the financial ability to acquire that aerial imagery, the research team selected Western Assessors for one
of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X Thurston County IT - GeoData Center GIS Analyst
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 137
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X Clark County Assessing Assessor
X Grays Harbor County Assessing Assessor
X Thurston County Assessing Assessor
Skamania County Assessing Assessor
San Juan County Assessing Assessor
State of Washington Revenue GIS Architect & Lead
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
State imagery doesn’t meet County’s property assessment needs so they currently use
NearMap obliques.
Need to have visual angle imagery in order to assess homes and structures.
Need to have the ability to make accurate measurements of the sides of buildings.
Imagery access was also needed to do property assessment in rural areas.
Need to meet IOO Standards – which allows you to have an oblique and street photo
to replace actual physical onsite inspection.
From an assessment standpoint need 1 flight or 2 flights per year; 3”ortho, 6” oblique.
Change finder every 5 years – Assessors do (property) inspections every 6 years.
Imagery Needs
Spatial accuracy is huge.
Need to provide some available software for counties and entities that don’t have any
GIS capabilities (like EagleView solution) to take advantage of new imagery (if it
becomes available).
Need alternate leaf-on and leaf-off every other flight.
Need 3 flight cycles - intervening flights is really critical in the urban areas.
Counties that are both Urban and Rural switch up resolution based on where they are
3” vs. 6”. They are also not concerned about national forests within the County
boundary.
Additional Assessor staff is not in the budget - so imagery provides a cost effective
solution to get property assessment jobs done.
High resolution imagery eliminates a portion of physical inspections.
IAAO standard for physical inspection and alternate inspection; part of the recent WA
Current Imagery Benefits State legislation - different from physical inspection.
If you have a clear oblique and imagery and if you don’t find any incidents of structures
that are not in your diagram then you are able to complete your inspection via imagery.
This is a huge time savings. Look at section 3.3.5 for alternative inspections
https://www.iaao.org/media/standards/StandardOnMassAppraisal.pdf
Imagery purchasing through the state would be more cost effective.
6” imagery from NearMap costs $45,000 per year.
In 2015 (highly urbanized?) counties they’re spending 3 million dollars on imagery
acquisition.
Flights every 2 years. 70K (annually).
Costs
Snohomish -150K, Thurston, 127K. In the I-5 assessing group all counties have
supplemental imagery.
Pricing is correct but it is 128K only every other year.
64K a year to 205K a year in two equal payments so 102K a year - winter only leaf-off
ortho photo, change detection, plus 100 seats Eagleview connect.
Adding more staff is not an option. Too much development and too much property
assessment work.
Current Limitations
Gated communities - have to set appointments - wreaks havoc with schedules.
Very inefficient - some people do not allow you to get on their property.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 138
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Properties that have unpermitted changes - this is a political issue.
There are unintended costs for some of these things e.g. hardware - if you are using it
Potential Limitations internally. Services are slow and you can’t put imagery into the products you want it in.
Smaller counties might not have the infrastructure or the budgets to get the
infrastructure.
Counties are not getting all county imagery acquisition costs - maybe they could do a
public records request.
Counties need a complete set of data (all the costs) so that there are no holes.
Spokane, Yakima, Benton, I-5 corridor. They need to press the Assessors to get the
imagery cost information they need - they need to get to the right person.
Acquisition of high resolution oblique imagery occurs every two years - but could be
augmented by WA State Imagery Program in off years.
Geospatial accuracy is still an issue - Hexagon has leeway up to 30’ - Parcels don’t
line up with the imagery.
Key Takeaways When the imagery is off from the parcel it makes it more challenging to determine if
someone has actually built on the wrong property line, or if it is just an issue with the
data.
Stability in a statewide program is key.
Street view was not part of the study in the actual legislation. It’s important to add
that in - it is an imagery product. State agencies might be interested too. Could
there be a partnership?
Eagleview Licensing: Counties can cost share to other agencies (they can’t sell to the
state) – Counties can share cost on a per tile price and can sell to the cities. This is
accepted by Eagleview.
Focus Group #9: Eastern Assessors
11/18/2022, 9:00 – 10:00 am PST
Assessors from Washington’s 39 countries, represent a significant stakeholder group in the Aerial Imagery
Study. Not only do Assessors rely on aerial imagery to review properties, assess structures, and provide their
counties a consistent revenue stream, but they are the stakeholder group that identified the need for, and
worked with the state legislature to establish the Aerial Imagery Study. The assessing stakeholder group
embodies the dynamics between urban vs. rural, and populated vs. unpopulated. In order to understand the
needs of county assessors that require significant aerial imagery resources, but struggle due to their
population size and financial capacity to acquire that aerial imagery, the research team selected Eastern
Assessors for one of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X State Dept of Revenue Location Services and GIS Architect Senior Specialist
X Franklin County Assessing Assessor
X Adams County Assessing Assessor
X Spokane County Assessing Assessor
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 139
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
The 6 inch imagery for Franklin County is very important - even for rural areas.
Franklin County “thought” that their contract/agreement with the WA State Imagery
program allowed all cities access to the purchase of state imagery.
(Note: It actually depends on whether or not the county purchased a multi user vs
single user imagery license)
Adams County (Rural) is ok with the WA State Imagery Program’s imagery refresh rate.
Imagery Needs Spokane County (which is highly urbanized) has flown imagery every other year for the
last 12-15 years and the resolution of our imagery is 6” rural and 3” urban. It would be
ideal to have 3” in rural areas but we “make do” with 6”.
Franklin County currently has no requests for oblique imagery among Public Works,
Planning, and Assessing within our County.
Spokane County is dependent on obliques for assessment, and it is absolutely critical
that oblique imagery works with their existing assessor software (CAMA).
Franklin County has users who use both ESRI and QGIS desktop software so having
the ability to stream imagery is beneficial for their workflows.
Current Imagery Benefits The State Imagery program has been very beneficial for Adams County’s metro areas.
They are ok with rural areas being refreshed every 2 years.
They do not have an issue with Adams County getting split over imagery flights.
Franklin County has a small regional interagency imagery consortium with their PUD
and irrigation district with whom the cost of the imagery is shared.
Franklin County can budget annually and the prices from the state are better than what
they can get from a private vendor - they save a lot of money with the state imagery
program.
Spokane County’s private sector utility, Avista, (electric & gas) was a former member
Costs of our imagery consortium and paid ⅓ of our total imagery acquisition costs.
Avista utilities recently asked to be dropped from the County’s imagery program.
The reason they discontinued their partnership was that they needed consistent
imagery coverage across their entire service area. Besides Washington State, the
utility also provides services in selected areas of Idaho and Oregon.
Adams County does not have any cost sharing of imagery with the Cities within the
County.
The Dept of Revenue can’t find much current info on the WA State’s imagery program
on their OCIO website.
Current Limitations Adams County (Rural) currently uses State imagery via a local hard drive. They would
prefer to use the WA State Imagery program’s streaming service; however, their
broadband/internet is too slow.
The inconsistent nature of Imagery consortium members can significantly affect
future imagery funding.
Potential Limitations
The Dept. of Revenue needs portability of imagery and assessment data in remote
areas of Washington where wireless connectivity is poor.
The OCIO website regarding the statewide imagery program has out-of-date
information and needs to be updated.
This is a current topic with the WA State’s Geographic Information Technology
committee.
Franklin County does not provide 911 PSAP with imagery because that is managed
by a different county.
Key Takeaways
For Spokane County it is absolutely critical that oblique imagery works with our
existing assessor software (CAMA).
The unpredictable nature of local/regional Imagery consortium members can
significantly affect future imagery funding.
Counties need better consistency of 6” imagery across the entire state of
Washington. This needs to be a priority.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 140
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Franklin County can budget annually and the prices from the state are better than
what they can get from a private vendor - they save a lot of money with the state
imagery program.
Focus Group #10: Tribal Governments 1
11/29/2022, 9:00 – 10:00 am PST
The 29 Tribal Governments in Washington State represent a significant stakeholder group in the Aerial Imagery
Study. Not only do Tribal Governments rely on aerial imagery to create and manage their own geospatial data,
in many cases consuming aerial imagery through the State’s aerial imagery program, but this stakeholder
group represents sectors of government that rely heavily on both ortho and oblique imagery to support their
ongoing research, environmental protection, and conservation efforts specifically along Washington’s coasts,
rivers and waterways, and salmon breeding areas. Due to the size of this stakeholder group, and the use cases
and requirements of imagery that vary by the geographic location of the Tribal Government, the research team
selected Tribal Governments for two of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Tribal Government Department Title
X Puyallup Tribe GIS Department Director
X Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Natural Resources GIS Specialist
X Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Natural Resources / GIS / Planning GIS Manager
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe needs imagery to manage ongoing changes to river
systems.
Additional thermal bands and spectra would be beneficial for Tribal fisheries and
water resources programs.
Imagery Needs
Getting statewide imagery at 6” resolution vs the current 1 foot in rural areas would
benefit rural Tribal Governments.
Lidar for coastlines and watersheds is expensive and would be helpful to have.
Would like higher resolution imagery than what is currently available.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe uses imagery for everything; property acquisition for
environmental planning, carbon sequestering efforts, to wetland and shoreline
management.
Current Imagery Benefits
Tribal Governments use imagery for land use planning, economic development,
structure assessment, roads, casino site planning.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 141
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Tribal Governments use imagery for burial location mapping and to locate and
illustrate how burial locations were selected thousands of years ago.
Thermal imagery collected over the rivers (unsure the collector) that Northwest
Fisheries acquires is heavily used by the Tribal Governments.
Lidar and aerial imagery is used by Tribal Governments for tree stem density, woody
debris analysis and utilities mapping (hydrants, poles).
Imagery was used by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to understand the effects on the
river basin after the removal of the Elwha hydroelectric dam.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has used WA State DNR’s imagery archive back into the
1930’s, 1950’s, 1970’s, to the present day to show changes to the river over time.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe acquires imagery any way possible; Maxar digital globe
imagery available for free to tribes; also acquires WA State OCIO imagery through the
Northwest Fisheries Commision.
Puyallup Tribe worked with Pierce County (2008) to cost share in image acquisition in
Costs
the past. This has been replaced with a cheaper solution through the Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission at $1,000/year.
The majority of Jamestown SKlaal Tribe’s imagery is funded via existing and new
grant programs.
Free imagery’s resolution is often not very good.
There is no control over the timing of the imagery acquisition; in a perfect world it
would be monthly.
Current Limitations
It is time consuming for the Puyallup Tribe to process imagery for use within its web
maps. Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission sends the tribe 7 TB of imagery.
Ability of Tribal Governments to process large amounts of imagery data is limited.
Potential Limitations Tribal Governments ability to use imagery streaming services varies by Tribal
Government.
Tribal Governments need 1 foot resolution that covers the entire state, the Olympic
peninsula, and all headwaters.
Counties do not collaborate or inform the Tribes of upcoming imagery flights. The
Tribes have had similar experiences with WSDOT when they are capturing imagery of
roads within the tribal borders.
Puyallup Tribe does not currently have a major use for oblique imagery.
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe uses the Dept. of Ecology oblique imagery apps to look at
coastlines.
Imagery based Web maps would mostly be for Tribal Governments not so much the
Key Takeaways
general Washington public.
Tribal Governments would benefit from streaming imagery services that provide
access to imagery data to remove the need for Tribal Governments to publish and
store imagery.
Many Tribal Governments have existing drone programs for project specific imagery
needs.
In regards to imagery collaboration Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe does not collaborate
much with neighboring governments but they do partner with nonprofits.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe needs would be amenable to an enhanced statewide
imagery program.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 142
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
More collaboration and communication about imagery would be beneficial to all
Tribal Governments.
There needs to be an easy way to inform and invite others to join in upcoming
imagery flights.
Focus Group #11: Tribal Governments 2
11/30/2022, 2:00 – 3:00 pm PST
The 29 Tribal Governments in Washington State represent a significant stakeholder group in the Aerial Imagery
Study. Not only do Tribal Governments rely on aerial imagery to create and manage their own geospatial data,
in many cases consuming aerial imagery through the State’s aerial imagery program, but this stakeholder
group represents sectors of government that rely heavily on both ortho and oblique imagery to support their
ongoing research, environmental protection, and conservation efforts specifically along Washington’s coasts,
rivers and waterways, and salmon fisheries and breeding environments. Due to the size of this stakeholder
group, and the use cases and requirements of imagery that vary by the geographic location of the Tribal
Government, the research team selected Tribal Governments for two of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Tribal Government Department Title
Skokomish Department of Natural
X Skokomish Indian Tribe Restoration Biologist
Resources
X Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe Natural Resources Director
X NW Indian Fisheries commission Environmental Protection SSHIAP Program Manager
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Frequent imagery of the coast and salmon areas is hugely important for Tribal
Governments.
Tribal Governments have a strong need for real time imagery. Several Tribal
Governments have fixed wing and chopper drone programs for imagery capture for
specific projects. Some Tribal Governments also have lidar collection capabilities to
meet their project needs.
Imagery is used by Tribal Governments for documenting & management of
Imagery Needs watersheds, salmon producing rivers and changes to channel geometry and forested
areas.
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe needs imagery to manage their very dynamic shorelines.
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe owns many aquatic lands. They need imagery to see
aquatic vegetation and map the presence of certain wildlife and plants especially for
habitat impact assessments.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 143
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe also need high resolution imagery to map low tide vs. high
tide for the management of aquatic vegetation.
Tribal Governments are using imagery for change detection projects.
Tribal Governments are using imagery to monitor urban sprawl and how it impacts the
landscape.
Current Imagery Benefits Tribal Governments are using obliques for shoreline assessments (provided to the
Puget Sound Partnership). This is very important for impacts to the shoreline and
salmon rivers. Obliques allow one to see under the trees.
Leaf-on and lea- off both have benefits especially for riparian projects.
NW Indian Fisheries Commission has a purchase agreement with WA State OCIO to
acquire statewide imagery so that they can provide it to Tribal Governments. One goal
of working with the NW Indian Fisheries Commission was to relieve pressure on the
OCIO office.
Costs NW Indian Fisheries Commission’s cost of imagery does not vary by Tribal
Governments- 32 groups can participate.
Skokomish Indian Tribe gets its imagery from the NW Indian Fisheries Commission.
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe gets affordable imagery from NW Indiana Fisheries
Commission as well.
GIS seems to be a fairly new thing at the Skokomish Indian Tribe.
The lack of GIS software and knowledge is a barrier to adopting GIS and leveraging
imagery.
Pacific County is very remote and it doesn’t get a lot of good imagery, and they do not
get 6” imagery.
Current Limitations Imagery collected along coastal locations on the Olympic peninsula often have
significant cloud cover and/or fog which makes it hard to collect imagery in June, and
the fall is a bad time to fly for the imagery capture based on the imagery needs of the
tribe.
Would need someone to be very focused on picking the right day to fly the area to
prevent weather from impacting the imagery.
There is more potential use for imagery and GIS than what’s currently being used
today at the Skokomish Indian Tribe.
Potential Limitations
It is a challenge to collect good imagery on the Olympic peninsula which is often
obscured by significant cloud cover and/or fog.
Availability of affordable imagery from NW Indiana Fisheries Commission is a great
benefit to Tribal Governments.
Tribal Government’s erosion programs are highly reliant on imagery to monitor
coastal shorelines.
40% of shoreline structures in King County were not permitted and imagery is key to
finding and documenting those structures.
Key Takeaways
“You cannot put a price tag on the value of salmon to Tribal Governments”.
Commerce should have reports on the economic benefits to the State of Washington
and the Tribal Governments.
It is a challenge to collect good imagery on the Olympic peninsula which is often
obscured by significant cloud cover and/or fog.
Focus Group #12: WaTech Imagery Program
12/9/2022, 12:00 – 1:00 pm PST
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 144
Coordinating with imagery resellers, and managing and supporting a partnership of over 50 sectors of
government who participate in the state imagery program, including the Department of Natural Resources,
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, the State 911 office, and others, the State GIS Coordinator at WaTech
administers and oversees the statewide imagery program. In order to understand the current state of the
imagery program, the contract terms and conditions, and the administrative requirements and costs of the
imagery program, the research team selected the WaTech Imagery Program for one of the 12 focus groups.
Focus Group Invitees and Attendees (x)
Attendance Sector of Government Department Title
X WaTech OCIO/ Strategy & Management State GIS Coordinator
Focus Group Summary and Key Takeaways
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
The Hexagon imagery acquisition contract is a 3 year term with fixed prices, with an
option for 4 optional years. The first optional year will start in April May 2023; Ascent
GIS is the reseller for Hexagon. Contract is written to allow only 1 year at a time
Imagery Needs renewals. 2 year SLAs with partners coincide with state partners (state budget timing).
Stereo pairs are an important driver for Hexagon (not all vendors can do this). DNR
Forestry uses these for digital surface models.
No limit on users. License allows for direct access to imagery for contractors on a per-
Current Imagery Benefits project short-term basis. Can make print products. Can put on web applications, but
cannot distribute digital pixels.
It takes roughly 2 weeks of time to administer the program (full-time, but the work is
not full-time).
Hexagon imagery per year = $255K. in the last year of a 3 year contract. Next year will
be $300k (first year of option year).
Costs DNR does a lot of post-processing. A lot of the DNR processes are scripted, but it is a
lot of work to prep the data for all of the partners. They do it for free right now. DNR
gets digital stereo pairs out of this at a discounted rate.
Servers in the WaTech cloud environment are where they host the data for the state
agencies - probably $30,000 per year - everytime they increase the resolution of
imagery they would need to increase the size of the servers.
Statewide imagery is delivered every 2 years, but consistent imagery across the whole
state is lacking. Would need another 1/2 FTE to really administer the program.
In 2023 they are not getting a new flight - just keeping what they currently have
because it was too expensive and they couldnt agree to the contract terms - gaps are
all that they are getting.
Current Limitations
Takes about a year to get updated imagery in the hands of the imagery partners.
Flights, processing, and data delivery takes time.
Currently WaTech pays full price for state imagery regardless if it is statewide or
incomplete. Going forward with future contracts, if they don’t receive a complete
statewide imagery delivery they do not want to pay full price. This is a modification
that WaTech would want to incorporate into any contract moving forward.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 145
Focus Group Focus Group Findings
Topics of Discussion Summarization
The program is fragile because the partner funding fully funds the purchase of the
Potential Limitations
subscription. So if a partner drops it jeopardizes the subscription.
Program funding is partner dependent. If a large partner i.e. a 10K state agency
chooses to leave the program they will not have enough money to keep the program
going. Financially unstable. This scenario has not come up yet, but it could happen.
The imagery contract is with the reseller Ascent GIS. Ascent provides Hexagon
imagery to the state and coordinates directly with Hexagon. The state does not plan
Key Takeaways and administer flights. WaTech has no control on timing, technical parameters (leaf
on or off) outside of resolution. WaTech has limited control over the deliveries and
imagery it is purchasing from Ascent.
WaTech wants to be on a two year cycle to align with the State’s 2 year budget. They
would love it if the state could pay for the baseline imagery product and allow the
partners to opt into additional imagery products.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 146
Appendix F: State summaries and comparisons
As part of our methodology to understand the current landscape of aerial imagery programs across the
country, We contacted 6 states to learn about their aerial imagery programs, documenting information about
their funding sources, their base programs and technical parameters, and information about the overall cost.
We researched 6 states. We selected these states based on size, population, geographic similarities, and
technical and administrative aspects of their programs. Utah and Texas are similar to Washington in that they
license imagery through a vendor. Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky, and Wyoming all own (purchase) imagery
outright. Kentucky and Wyoming gather both orthoimagery and oblique imagery; all other states collect
orthoimagery only. Oregon and Utah fund imagery through a coalition, Indiana, Kentucky and Wyoming pay for
it at the state level,and Texas calculates cost based on end-user usage.
State Table Summaries
For each state a table was created that summarizes the information collected for that state which is shown
below.
State of Oregon Aerial Imagery program
Program Administration:
Oregon Dept of Administrative Services/Oregon Geospatial Point of Contact:
Enterprise Office and Brady Callahan
Oregon Imagery Framework Implementation (FIT) Geospatial Lead, sUAS Coordinator, Oregon Imagery FIT Lead
Funding Sources: The Oregon Statewide Imagery Program (OSIP) is currently funded through a cooperative community based effort.
The resulting partnerships lower costs, reduce duplication of effort, provide greater standardization, and make more data available to
government, private, and commercial users. Funding contributions come from tribes, county government, regional and state
government entities, federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
https://www.oregon.gov/geo/Pages/imagery_participate.aspx
State Geography: Oregon is a Pacific Northwest state with an area of 98,381 square miles, comprising 36 counties and a population
of 4.2 million. Most of the state’s population is clustered around the Portland metropolitan area and along the Interstate 5/ Willamette
Valley corridor. Oregon’s topography is highly varied and consists of mountainous regions, large valleys such as the Willamette and
Rogue, high elevation desert plateau, dense evergreen forests as well as redwood forests along the coast. The highest point in
Oregon is Mount Hood at 11,249 feet. It is a part of the Cascade Mountain Range -- a volcanic range stretching from northern
California into British Columbia.
Program Narrative: Various stakeholders in the state have been considering a statewide program since 2000. There is a recognition
that the demand for data is outpacing what can be provided by the current statewide program. Currently they are operating on a
partnership model which requires a lot of work and goodwill - partners have been generally supportive since 2005, but it is not a
sustainable model. There are plans to request funding for statewide imagery from the state legislature. The current program does not
work for the Assessing community, and so they are also putting a proposal independently before the legislature to get funding. Ideally
the GIO and the OSACA (Oregon State Association for County Assessors) would work together, but there hasn’t been much progress
in that regard.
They did contract directly with NV5 6 years ago, but that was a very expensive project. In 2022 they utilized the federal contract
through NAIP to purchase imagery. The contract requires committing the funds up front which can be a challenge, but it has worked
out for the time being. The imagery is bought out right, and is owned by the state - it is not a licensed product.
The State has put together several surveys to identify the needs of the stakeholders. Currently, the 1ft NAIP imagery is what works for
most stakeholders. While this does not satisfy everyone, given the current funding approach it meets the stakeholders needs.
Data is freely available as image services and data download in standard coordinate systems.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 147
State of Oregon Aerial Imagery program
Governance is volunteer based - the GIS council is a volunteer organization. The State GIO and staff are paid. The imagery program
coordinator is not a paid position, but is being filled by a volunteer. The imagery program team focuses on specifications, QC,
standards, while the state GIO office manages contracting and hosting.
In the future the State would like to stabilize the 1ft statewide collect and bring the Assessors back into the conversation.
Historic Collection:
2017 (eastern OR) & 2018 (western OR) - NV5
2020 and 2022 - NAIP (Hexagon) - not a subscription; owned outright - leaf on summer collect
NV5 is using Amazon Web Services to host their data. The state has contracted with NV5 for hosting.
Additional Note:
The State contract cost for licensed 6 inch imagery with 4-way obliques is $225/mile. A couple of State agencies that buy-in to the
oblique contract to just view off-the-shelf imagery and not acquire any new data.
Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Single season - summer
Resolution 1 ft
Update Cycle Every 2 years
Spectral Bands Tile 4 -Band (R,G,B, NIR) Imagery
Vertical/Oblique Vertical
Characteristics Leaf on
Product(s) 1ft imagery and statewide point cloud/DSM
2 ArcGIS Web services for each of the 11 years of statewide imagery,
one service is a dynamic 4-band service (provides use of the NiR band)
Hosted products
and the other is tiled for performance.
https://www.oregon.gov/geo/Pages/imagery_data.aspx
Cost $2 million; hosting costs $50K/year
State of Utah Aerial Imagery program
Program Administration: Point of Contact:
Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC) Matt Peters, Director of the UGRC
Funding Sources:
A coalition of state, regional, and local government agencies
State Geography:
Utah is a mountain west state of 84,899 square miles, comprises 29 counties and has a population of 3.2 million residents. The
northern and north eastern ⅓ of the state is dominated by the rugged Wasatch Range and Uinta Mountains and the Great Salt Lake.
This is also where the most populous parts of the state are with cities like Brigham and Salt Lake City. Western Utah is mostly arid
desert with a basin and range topography. The southern and southeastern parts of the state make up the Colorado plateau carved out
by the Colorado river and are dominated by national parks, monuments, reservations, and a large mining industry.
Program Narrative:
From the UGRC website:
At the beginning of 2015, a coalition of state, regional, and local government agencies purchased a license to Google’s state-wide,
high-resolution (6-inch pixels) aerial photography. Google regularly updated the urban areas over the next few years, but some rural
areas of the state were left with years-old imagery.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 148
State of Utah Aerial Imagery program
Google announced in 2019 that they would no longer be offering their program, so the state switched to Hexagon Geospatial and their
high-resolution imagery. The first delivery included state-wide 30cm (~12-inch) coverage flown in 2018 (a higher resolution version of
the 2018 NAIP) and 15cm (~6-inch) coverage of the Wasatch Front, Logan, and St. George flown in November 2019. The 2021
delivery will provide 15cm coverage of the entire state.
The Utah Geospatial Resource Center provides access to the licensed imagery free of cost to Utah’s cities, counties, special districts,
state agencies, school districts, colleges/universities, and tribes to use the imagery in web and desktop mapping applications either
from our streaming web service or from locally-stored files. The imagery is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform and delivered as
WMS and WMTS Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) services via UGRC’s Discover (GIZA) basemap and imagery server. Qualified
users can sign up to receive access to the imagery.
From Discussion with Matt Peters:
Geospatial data fund - $250,000 earmarked to purchase imagery. Requested various agencies for the cost of the imagery
Their initial Hexagon contract was for $296k; They had $250k from the legislature (Geospatial Data Fund earmarked to purchase
imagery); requested $40k from UDOT, and others from the coalition were requested to contribute in range of $2k. 911 was an initial
heavy user of imagery and contributed early on but has not been a big contributor lately. Going forward Hexagon will cost more -
approximately $340K/year. Additional costs of about $53K are for Google Cloud storage, maintenance, and delivery system (Giza
$20K) which are covered by UGRC.
This is very affordable for the state but they do not have much control since they are the secondary buyers of the imagery. In
contrast, according to Matt North Carolina pays $3M annually for 50% of the state (they fly every other year).
The current program costs about $1M for over 3 years (about). During each 3 year period there will be at least one statewide
collection flight for 15cm;
Matt said that managing a formal funding coalition would take him (or his office) a lot of time. He also agreed that if one made the
imagery a pay to play program, in which government sectors have to buy in to get access, many of the benefits of a consistent
imagery base would be lost “Let’s not fight over the data, let’s fight over the science.”
Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Single year collection
Resolution 6”
Positional Accuracy 48 inches at 95% confidence
Update Cycle 3 years
Spectral Bands Tile 4 -Band (R,G,B, NIR) Imagery
Vertical/Oblique Vertical
no clouds, cloud shadows, or other ground obscuring conditions
covering more than 5% of any image.
Snow/ice cover less than 3% per 5 km by 5 km block, and less than 5%
per km2 image. Any detail obscured must not be of high significance,
Characteristics
e.g. any urban area and housing or roads in rural
areas. In mountainous areas this may be relaxed to 10% obscured per
5 km by 5 km block,
provided only small amounts of ground detail are affected.
Product(s) GeoTIFF
Cost $1,000,000 over a three year contract. ~$300,000 annually.
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 149
State of Texas Aerial Imagery program
Program Administration: Point of Contact:
Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) Gayla Mullins, StratMap Program Manager
Funding Sources:
Costs for the Service are distributed across state, regional, and local government. State agency cost is based on the amount of data
usage in 'levels'. Regional and local agencies pay a flat rate.
State Geography:
Texas is a large and diverse state covering 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), with more than 30 million residents in 2022. It can
generally be divided into 5 regions - in order from southeast to west, Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and Basin
and Range Province. The Gulf Coastal Plains region with thick piney woods wraps around the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast section
of the state. The Interior Lowlands region consists of gently rolling to hilly forested land and is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest.
The Great Plains are dominated by prairie and steppe and the Basin and Range is the largest and most varied including Sand Hills, the
Stockton Plateau, desert valleys, wooded mountain slopes and desert grasslands. It has 15 major rivers and 5 cities that have a
population close to or over a million with Houston at the top.
Program Narrative:
The goal of the Texas Imagery Service is to serve orthoimagery at full statewide coverage every other year. Flights of 15 urban areas
were purchased in “off” years to consistently provide current imagery in densely populated areas.
AppGeo helped TNRIS to establish Texas’ imagery-as-a-service program in 2015 when Google began licensing its 6 inch imagery
content. In 2019, Google announced the phase-out of their imagery program, and AppGeo facilitated the move to Hexagon’s HxGN
Content Program as the successor to Google Imagery. Instrumental to Texas’ ongoing success with imagery content programs was
AppGeo’s development of Giza, the imagery-streaming appliance that was implemented for TNRIS in 2016. 11 years of imagery can
be viewed by subscribers.
Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Winter-Spring of each Acquisition Year (Jan-Mar)
Resolution 6”
Positional Accuracy 48 inches at 95% confidence
Update Cycle 2 years
Spectral Bands Tile 4 -Band (R,G,B, NIR) Imagery
Vertical/Oblique Vertical
no clouds, cloud shadows, or other ground obscuring conditions
covering more than 5% of any image.
Snow/ice cover less than 3% per 5 km by 5 km block, and less than 5%
per km2 image. Any detail obscured must not be of high significance,
Characteristics
e.g. any urban area and housing or roads in rural
areas. In mountainous areas this may be relaxed to 10% obscured per
5 km by 5 km block,
provided only small amounts of ground detail are affected..
GeoTIFF
Product(s)
Consuming WMTS/WMS streams coming from Hexagon
Total agreement - $5,818,209.54 (Four-year Statewide Program for the
Cost
State of Texas - payable over four years.)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 150
State of Indiana Aerial Imagery program
Program Administrator: Point of Contact:
Indiana Geographic Information Office Shaun Scholer, GIS Program Director
Funding Sources:
The project is singly owned and solely funded (legislated funding) by the Indiana Geographic Information Office in the Indiana Office
of Technology, though the data is shared across all agencies, and with the public. Counties/Cities have the opportunity to purchase
additional imagery through a buy-up program. For the buy-up program, the State will pay for a portion of the cost, equivalent to the
per mile cost of the base imagery. The Counties/Cities will pay the difference.
State Geography:
Indiana is a midwestern state of 36,000 square miles, comprises 92 counties and has a population of 6.8 million residents. The
northern ⅔ of the state is flat agricultural land, with a portion of its north western boundary extending into Lake Michigan. The
southern ⅓ of the state consists of hilly terrain and dense forests. Indiana has several large population centers and cities scattered
across the State, most notably Indianapolis in central Indiana, Fort Wayne in northeast Indiana and Evansville in southwestern
Indiana.
Program Narrative:
Beginning in FY21 and running through FY24 with the option for 4 additional years, the State of Indiana Geographic Information Office
(GIO) contracted the Sanborn Mapping Company (Vendor) to acquire custom statewide aerial imagery. The program aims to fly ⅓ of
the state in a single year on a north/south trajectory. It will take three years to collect 6” orthoimagery for the entire state. The state
acquires and the cities/counties receive a base imagery product from the vendor. Counties/cities have the ability to acquire
additional imagery products from the vendor at an additional cost through a buy-up program. A 4th year is provided to support this
buy-up portion of the program. QC of the imagery is completed by the GIO’s partner, the Indiana Department of Transportation and
their Aerial Surveys Team.
Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Spring of each Acquisition Year
Resolution 6”
Positional Accuracy Accuracy of 2-pixels (12-inches) RMSE, 29-inches at 95% confidence
Update Cycle 4 years - ⅓ of the state flown each year, 4th year for buy-ups
Spectral Bands Tile 4 -Band (R,G,B, NIR) Imagery
Vertical/Oblique Vertical
Snow free, leaf off, no clouds, cloud shadows, or other ground
Characteristics obscuring conditions covering more than 5% of any image. Water
bodies within natural banks.
GeoTIFF Uncompressed
ECW & MrSID compressed
Product(s)
County Mosaic MrSID 3-Band
WMTS
Cost $2,000,000 total for FY21-FY24
Buy-up Product:
Technical Specifications
Higher-resolution orthophotography 3-inch spatial resolution
True orthophotography Orthorectified buildings
Airborne LiDAR Quality Level 2 (2 pts/m²) or Quality Level 1 (8 pts/m²)
4 oblique views (45 degrees) + 1 vertical
Vertical image is 4-band RGB/NIR
Oblique Imagery Available resolutions from 2 inches to 12 inches
2- to 3-pixel accuracy
Licensed product with no restrictions
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 151
State of Indiana Aerial Imagery program
Cost of 3”
Cost dependent on pre-agreed contracts with the state. State
contribution available on a per square mile basis for orthoimagery.
Cost State will contribute $51.39 per square mile. County will cover the
remaining cost.
Independent contract arrangements directly between Sanborn and the
procuring agency.
Buy-up Product:
Derived Products
Derived from lidar or imagery-derived DEM’s
Contours
Created at the desired interval
Planimetric Mapping Vector mapping of visible features
Land cover/land use/impervious surfaces mapping Available on request
3D buildings and infrastructure modeling Available on request
Cost Quote dependent on scope
State of Kentucky Aerial Imagery program
Program Administrator:
Point of Contact:
Commonwealth Office of Technology, Division of
Jim Barnhart, Deputy Chief Information Officer
Geographic Information
Funding Sources:
Biennial Operating Budget ($17 million dispersed over two fiscal years FY23/Y24)
Contributions totalling ~ $4 million dollars from statewide partners for imagery buy-ups.
State Geography:
Kentucky is a midwestern state of 40,408 square miles, comprises 120 counties, and has a population of 4.5 million people. The
state’s northern border runs along the Ohio river, while its western border is bound by the Mississippi River. The state is made up of
varied terrain from high plateaus and a mountainous region in the east at the Appalachian mountains, to hilled, and valleyed terrain
running west from the high plateaus. The northern and central portions of the state are home to the state’s largest cities, Louisville,
Lexington, Frankfort, and Richmond.
Program Narrative:
Kentucky contracted with a vendor to collect statewide 3” orthophoto and 3” oblique imagery in a two year cycle. The state was
divided into four geographic extents, with flights scheduled in the Fall and Spring. One of the extents will be collected in the Fall of
2022, two in the Fall and Spring of 2023, and the remaining extent in the Fall of 2024.
Orthophoto Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Fall (Nov); Spring (End of Jan-April) spanning over 2 years
Resolution Statewide Base Resolution: 3”
Update Cycle 2 year
Spectral Bands 4-Band RGB and NIR
Vertical/Oblique Vertical
Leaf-off, sun angle 30 degrees above the horizon, cloud, shadow,
Characteristics
smoke, snow, foliage, flooding free imagery
Imagery Acquisition Thumbnails or photo centers
Product(s)
3” 4-band ortho rectified tiles in TIF format with mosaics
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 152
State of Kentucky Aerial Imagery program
$17,000,000 ($8,500,000 each year for 2 years) includes Orthophoto
Total Cost
and Oblique imagery
Orthophoto Base Product:
Technical Specifications
Collection Date Fall (Nov); Spring (End of Jan-April) spanning over 2 years
Resolution 3”
Update Cycle 2 years
Spectral Bands 3-Band RGB
Vertical/Oblique Oblique
Characteristics To be determined by the contractor during the flight
Imagery Acquisition Thumbnails or photo centers
Product(s)
3” 3-band oblique imagery in jpeg format and storage
$17,000,000 ($8,500,000 each year for 2 years) includes Orthophoto
Total Cost
and Oblique imagery
State of Wyoming Aerial Imagery program
Point of Contact:
Program Administrator:
Brenda L. Henson
Department of Revenue
Director, Wyoming Department of Revenue
Funding Sources:
State budget
State Geography:
Wyoming covers 97,914 square miles. Almost all of the state is above 5000’ in elevation. Major mountain ranges run north-south in
the northwestern quadrant of the state, with lower ranges throughout the rest of Wyoming.
Program Narrative:
Wyoming Department of Revenue working with all of Wyoming’s county assessors designed an aerial photography program that
captures 3” oblique imagery in densely settled areas and 6” oblique imagery in sparsely settled areas. Unsettled areas are not covered
by the acquisition program and orthoimagery from Microsoft Bing web services is used by the State and counties for these areas.
Approximately 10% of the state is covered by imagery acquisition, collected every two years. The initial 3”/6” program is now (2023)
moving to a 2”/6” collection.
Technical Specifications and Cost
Collection Date Spring, over 2 years
Approximately 10% of state total, mix of 3” (2” beginning in2023) and
Resolution
6”
Update Cycle 2 year
Spectral Bands 4-Band RGB
Vertical/Oblique Vertical and oblique
Leaf-off, above the horizon, cloud, shadow, smoke, snow, foliage,
Characteristics
flooding free imagery
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 153
State of Wyoming Aerial Imagery program
Orthoimagery and oblique imagery served by the vendor under license
Product(s) and integrated with county CAMA systems. Additional derived
products are available for individual purchase by counties or the State.
Total Cost $2,000,000 per acquisition cycle
Statewide Aerial Imagery Programs Summary Table
The following State Summary Table summarizes the information collected in the detailed individual state
summaries above.
Oregon Utah Texas Indiana Wyoming Kentucky
2” and 6” orthos
3” orthos and
Base Product 12” orthos 6” orthos 6” orthos 6” orthos and 10% of state
obliques
obliques
Licensed from Licensed from State owned with
Licensing State owned State owned State owned
Hexagon Hexagon restrictions
Frequency Every 2 years Every 3 years Every 2 years Every 4 years Every 2 years Every 2 years
GeoTIFF
Orthoimagery
GeoTIFF Uncompressed; Orthorectified
WMTS/WMS Web based
Distribution Hosted web WMTS/WMS ECW & MrSID GeoTIFF
streamed oblique viewer
Details services streamed compressed; Web based
through GIZA Integrates with
through GIZA County Mosaic oblique viewer
CAMA
MrSID; WMTS
2” and 6” orthos
3” orthos and
Base Product 12” orthos 6” orthos 6” orthos 6” orthos and 10% of state
obliques
obliques
$1,000,000 Note:
Annual Cost $1,000,000 ~$300,000 $1,450,000 $666,666 10% of state by $8,500,000
area
$2,000,000 over
$2,000,000 over
$1,000,000 over a three-year
a two-year $5,818,209.54 $2,000,000
a three-year period (FY21- $17,000,000 over
Cost Breakdown contract cycle over a four-year (current cycle)
contract FY24). Fourth a two-year period
$50,000 annually contract period
year costs on a
for hosting
buy-up basis
50% funded
through A coalition of Costs distributed State-funded State-funded
State-funded
Cost Sharing cooperative state, regional, across sectors of program program
program (single
Approach community- and local government (legislative (legislative
2-year cycle)
based effort; 50% governments based on usage funding) funding)
federal
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 154
Appendix G: Yakama Nation letter
(See the following pages for this appendix.)
AERIAL IMAGERY STUDY 155
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