INNOVATION July-August 2012

fea t ure s

Resurrection of the Provincial Air Photo Collection Dr Michael Church PGeo Kevin Gillard Doug VanDine PEng/PGeo FEC

Industry professionals, researchers, students and community members will be able to borrow air photos for one-week periods. A fee will be charged to cover the expense of curating the collection and for search and dispatch; however, academic users in provincial educational institutions will be able to access the collection free of charge, as will the general public for personal, non-commercial use at the GIC. Permission for reproduction must be obtained from the Crown Registry. Photos taken after 2008 will remain in digital format. The GIC currently offers a search service to locate air photos for specified sites in the province and it loans the photos for one-week periods. There are approximately 2,000 loans each year, mainly to engineering and environmental consulting companies, with greatest demand for sites around metropolitan Vancouver. It is expected that photos of northern regions of the province will become increasingly in demand as this area of our province develops. The Geographic Information Centre at UBC is seeking support of $400,000 to realize this expansion project, which will house and provide access to the air photo collection. UBC is reaching out to industry and community to help fund this project. If you would like to learn more about how you can become involved, please contact Lisa Fratpietro, Associate Director, Development and Alumni Engagement, UBC Faculty of Arts at lisa.fratpietro@ubc.ca or (604) 822-9213. v

Air photos are an indispensable part of site and regional investigations for many engineering and resource development projects. Taken from an aircraft or elevated position, air photos are essential tools for the stereoscopic interpretation of land surface features, particularly for engineers, geoscientists, foresters, biologists and planners in the field. Since the Provincial Air Photo Warehouse closed in April 2010, the collection of approximately two million high-resolution air photos has been moved into storage. Over the past two years digital copies, which are not industry standard, have been available for purchase, but at a relatively high cost and with a significant wait time. During this time the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC has actively advocated for renewed public access to this vital resource. With the assistance of APEGBC, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Province of British Columbia have reached an agreement to transfer the Provincial Air Photo Collection to the Geographic Information Centre (GIC) at UBC. The GIC intends to merge the province’s collection with the University’s air photo collection, which consists of 366,000 images including some of the earliest air photos of British Columbia. Together, this resource will provide professionals, researchers and students with access to the largest and most comprehensive hard copy collection of air photos in the province. The Provincial Air Photo Collection

In British Columbia, the provincially commissioned air photo program began in 1936. During the past several decades, most areas of the province have been photographed several times and areas of principal settlement, including the Lower Mainland and the Strait of Georgia region, have been documented dozens of times. This record of repeated air photography provides a unique historical geographic representation of the province and a vital resource for researching the history of geomorphic processes and land use. New Geographic Information Centre at UBC The proposed renovated and expanded GIC at UBC will house the premiere collection of air photographs— approximately 2.3 million images— for engineering, geoscience and environmental management investigations in the province. Alongside this impressive collection, the new GIC will continue to house maps specializing in BC and Canada, atlases, books, video recordings and course reserves on geographical topics.

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