An orthophoto is an aerial photograph that has been processed (via a scanning and rectification process) in such a way as to eliminate image displacement due to camera tilt and terrain relief, so that it represents every object as if viewed directly from above, as in a map which is usually in an orthographic projection. An orthophoto combines the visual properties of a photograph with the geometric qualities of a map and offers a realistic visualization of the landscape.
The City's orthophoto coverage includes the City, UBC, and the University Endowment Lands and parts of Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) as well. As such, it exceeds the area defined by the City's facet grid (see
Facet Grid Boundaries).
The 2015 orthophotos are our highest resolution imagery to date (7.5 cm). These were acquired as part of the Pictometry image collection. Their quality, colour, sharpness, and positional accuracy are very high.
The 2015 orthophotos were captured in multiple days (April 9, 10, May 9 and July 17, 2015). This imagery is current as of these dates.