Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility

UW-Madison
LICGF/SIAC
GIS Training Workshops

Creating and Using Orthophotography for GIS Applications

Digital orthophotos are becoming an essential component of GIS applications. Learn what digital orthophotos are and how they are used. Hands-on exercises will use ArcView and extensions for displaying and digitizing features from orthophotos. Learn the basics of creating your own orthophotos from any existing aerial photography and digital elevation models (DEM) using new inexpensive software developed at UW Madison's Environmental & Remote Sensing Center.

This class will also help prepare students in planning aerial photograph acquisition by looking at flight paths, ground control, elevation models, film types etc.

Topics Covered

• Planning for aerial photo acquisition (flight paths, ground control, elevation models etc.)
• Creating and updating Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN)
• Photo Control, targets, GPS control
• Scanning photography
• Interior and exterior orientation of photos; ortho-rectification
• Relief displacement (why my buildings, trees, bridges etc. lean)
• Feature extraction (on screen digitizing using orthophotos as a reference)
• Change detection (compare features from different dates)
• Draping orthophotos on terrain models for 3D viewing
• Compressing images: JPEG, Mr. Sid, ER Mapper