Site allows viewers to zoom in anywhere in Indiana

A recently completed interactive Web-based map built from digital aerial photographs will enable users to zoom in on any area of land within Indiana, said Rick Hill assistant director for technical services with the Indiana \nGeological Survey. \nThe Indiana Geographic Information Council contracted IU's University Information Technology Services and the Indiana Geological Survey to create the IndianaMap. The project was funded with federal money as part of the 2004 Indiana State and Local Homeland Security Grant was set aside to fund this project -- the 2005 Indiana Orthophotography Program. \nThe IndianaMap makes Indiana the first state to have aerial photographs recording images of the entire state, Hill said. Users can zoom in on any area of any of Indiana's 92 counties using the map.\n"This map is the first of its kind," he said. \nThe completion of the IndianaMap shows significant coordination between multiple levels of government, even during the transition from former Gov. Frank O'Bannon's term to current Gov. Mitch Daniels, said Anna Radue database and geographic information systems specialist in UITS. \nEach pixel of the online map is equivalent to one square foot of land. In 13 counties, the resolution has been increased so that each pixel is equivalent to six inches of land, Radue said. All images were taken with the Leica ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor, a high-performance digital camera. \nThe map is a composite of full-color orthophotographs -- aerial photographs of the land taken from a plane, Hill said. Photographic distortions have been removed so that the photographs have been corrected to compensate for the curvature of the earth and blurred photograph edges. \nThe orthophotographs were compiled into an interactive map for use by the government, businesses, researchers and all interested Hoosiers. Although it was only recently unveiled, the IndianaMap has already begun to show its usefulness. \nThe IndianaMap will be used by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to map the state's wetlands and the White River Watershed Alliance to view the state's watershed. \nThe site for the newly-planned Honda plant in Decatur County was found in part by use of the map, Radue said. In addition, Hill said, Bloomington has begun to use the map to inventory trees. IU researchers in geography or geology could also find benefits in using the map, Radue said.\nThe IndianaMap orthophotography data set totals six terabytes - the equivalent of 6,000 gigabytes, Radue said. UITS has archived the large data set by use of IU's massive storage system. \n"The high-perfomance networking at IU will allow the general public to access the map by either downloading it or viewing it online," Radue said. \nEach county within the state owns their own orthophotography, although the images are used at all levels of government, said Radue. All counties are sending the information to Google, Microsoft and the U.S. Geological Survey so it may be included in new maps of the state. \nRadue and UITS were recognized in April by the Indiana Geographic Information Council Board for their efforts in setting up the host Web site. The Indiana Geological Survey was also recognized for their effort to post the orthophotography on their server. \nThe IndianaMap can be found on the Web site www.in.gov/igic/projects/indianamap/index.html.