The Shelby County Emergency Communications District in Tennessee has implemented Nearmap high-resolution aerial imagery to provide geographical coordinates and plot new addresses and developments into their 911 mapping systems. This will help fire and rescue, emergency medical services, and law enforcement get instant access to updated maps containing GIS data necessary in an emergency.

“With our old aerial imagery provider, there were issues with mosaicking separate images together. Many rural and unincorporated areas were also out of date,” says Timothy Zimmer, GIS Administrator for the Shelby County Emergency Communications District.

Shelby County’s previous aerial image process required a contracted flight to photograph the areas. Due to high costs, the county only purchased images once every two years. Now, the combined impact of data services, base maps, Nearmap imagery, and third-party data are improving all aspects of public safety. The benefits of Nearmap aerial imagery include:

  • Delivery of images through the cloud as a subscription service, making data accessible to all team members via mobile and desktop.
  • Images are taken at least twice a year, both leaf-on and leaf-off to provide different views in different seasons.
  • Aerial captures integrate directly into ArcMap, ArcPro and ArcGIS Online applications, so GIS information can overlay directly onto the high-resolution imagery.

“There’s a certain context and currency you can get from Nearmap imagery that you simply can’t get from any other imagery products,” Zimmer says. “Other agencies, such as the County Clerk and the Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Company, are using our addressing data because Nearmap has helped enable us to be much more current.”