BTAA-GIN Collection Stories

 By Jaime Martindale. In recent years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has made improving access to LiDAR and aerial imagery a priority in the B1G Geoportal. Building on the popularity of the historic 1937-1941 aerial photos of Wisconsin , (one of the most popular resources in the B1G Geoportal for several years running) our current focus has been on enhancing discovery to more current aerial imagery and LiDAR elevation data currently housed within the WisconsinView repository. WisconsinView.org (part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center) serves as the repository for remotely sensed data in Wisconsin -- from LiDAR and satellite imagery, to digital orthophotography, tornado and flood data. In partnership with WisconsinView, the UW Robinson Map Library and WI State Cartographer’s Office are working to write metadata and facilitate access to these collections via the B1G Geoportal. This work results in greater exposure to the data and ima...

By Cecilia Smith Featured Item: Aerial Imagery: Cook County, Illinois, 2003 What is the item? This is black and white aerial imagery captured in 2003 for Cook County, Illinois at 6 inch pixel resolution. The imagery was taken with panchromatic film, which is film sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light and capable of high spatial resolution. The Cook County imagery dating from 1998 is discoverable in the geoportal. Cook County Government makes the data available through the Cook Central Open Data Portal as a web service and as a downloadable data set. What BTAA Library submitted the item? University of Chicago Full extent of the 2003 Cook County imagery Interesting tidbits: The 2000s in Chicago saw investments in green and public spaces and changes to zoning and land uses that are apparent when comparing the 2003 imagery to later years. A series of public spaces opened in Chicago beginning in 2004. The 2003 imagery shows the construction of Millennium Park , a highly celebra...