Council maps go 3D

Building on earlier news that council use satelite maps to zoom in on local Sydney residences comes the news that the City of Sydney Council is set to create 3D aerial maps of Sydney

Building on earlier news that council use satellite maps to zoom in on local Sydney residences comes the news that the City of Sydney Council is set to create 3D aerial maps of Sydney.

The maps, build on the councils current mapping program – E View and allow council staff to zoom in on photographs to see the sides of buildings or to estimate the impact of future development enterprises…

“It’s a really sexy, complete model,” said Brian Nicholls of AAMHatch, the company that will develop the system. “So if someone says they want to build a 20-storey building at 50 Pitt Street, you can see how that’s going to look, how the shadows will fall and so on.”

Speaking with the Herald, Jon Fairall, editor of the aerial mapping industry magazine Position, said statutory authorities would increasingly use “3D models in which you can look at artefacts on the ground from any angle, from any distance, much the same as the technology in video games”.

“The privacy implications are huge. I think the answer is that people need to know what other people know about them,” he said. “What people are frightened of is the idea that Big Brother sits up there and God alone knows what he knows.”

E-View is currently used by the councils of Baulkham Hills, Byron Shire, Canterbury, Hornsby, Liverpool, Randwick, Sutherland Shire and several others in NSW.

Source: SMH

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