City uses aerial photography for maps

Updated March 04, 2019
City uses aerial photography for maps
The City uses aerial photography in many different ways to help document physical changes in our landscape. We can see the addition of new roads, residential neighborhoods, corporate developments, all alongside the change brought about by Mother Nature.

Over the next few weeks, you may notice a small plane flying over the City of Roseville in a box pattern, simply flying back and forth. A camera mounted to that plane will be taking pictures of the ground. The purpose is to document the current condition of every square inch of land within our city’s borders.

Specifically, the new imagery is used by City staff to explore the physical status of roads, power lines, measure changes in our creek banks, explore land access for emergency responders, and other physical attributes of our communities, all among other diverse informational needs.

The City layers these aerial images to create interactive maps, all examining Roseville’s growth. These interactive images are all part of Roseville’s Orthophotography Imagery Project. This effort is part of the City’s Center for Geographic Information System (GIS) efforts.

Discover the history of your property

Take a look at these images shot seven decades apart. Enter your Roseville home’s address in the search bar, then slide the bar back and forth to discover what your property looked like when gas cost only 15 cents a gallon.

The first photographic overview of the City was recorded in 1947. Much of our City was farmland at that time. The northern edge of City development barely extended to what is now Junction Boulevard. The western boundary didn’t come close to touching what is now Foothills Blvd.

1947-2017 screenshot Composite

The GIS Open Data Portal provides our community layers of data to explore diverse topics. These purposes include land use, parceling, future development, and many others. All of this data is freely available for you to explore and to aid you in your endeavors.

The 2019 aerial photography flights are scheduled to take place, weather permitting, during the first week of March.

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