Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Washington Shoreline Photos

Posted by michael on from the no-sunbathing dept.

molywi writes "Between 1992 and 1997, the Washington State Department of Ecology acquired oblique aerial photography of the state's entire 2,500 miles of marine shoreline. The collection of over 10,000 photographs provides a valuable educational monitoring tool for coastal managers and the public. The true-color photos comprise a continuous series, panning left to right along the shoreline. The photos were taken to optimize sun angle, shoreline orientation, and low tides. Oblique photos are useful for interpreting bluff geology and land-sliding, riparian vegetation, and shoreline modifications such as bulkheads and seawalls."

26 comments

  1. I Spy by ConeFish · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know this is not an amazing feat of technology - to take a pile pf photos - but I really enjoy collections of landscape photographs and hope more areas take on this sort of project. I find these kinds of collections useful for flying - it really helps you get an idea of the landscape as it appears from above before you take off in a plane.

    --
    The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they are when you kill them.
    1. Re:I Spy by Eccles · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know this is not an amazing feat of technology - to take a pile pf photos

      What would be very cool would be if for all the neighboring pictures where it is practical, have some sort of morphing/shifting algorithm to generate a smooth scroll between them.

      What I'd like to see, though, is a flight simulator program with a distributed photographic database. When you fly over a new area, you P2P the image data from the net collection, rather than having to have all the photos on your own machine. Model data could similarly be incorporated, perhaps with the ability for users to design in new bits of scenery (adding their own house, etc.).

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  2. Fun shots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Space Needle!

    Obstruction Island!

    1. Re:Fun shots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Destruction Island Lighthouse! Whidbey Naval Air Station!

    2. Re:Fun shots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Tacoma Narrows Bridge Other end

      Deception Pass

      US-Canada Border at Point Roberts (try viewing the image to the right)

  3. More Fun shots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Downtown Seattle!

    Pre-demolition KingDome!

  4. cool by tps12 · · Score: 2

    Here's the beach where we used to have barbecues in high school during the summer. Ocean breezes, train tracks, view of the prison...what could be nicer?

    If you pan over two to the right, you can even see the store where the Asian guy would get pissed at us for buying charcoal.

    So many memories.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  5. More Fun shots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    he pilot got bored and started doing barrel rolls.

    Bangor Naval Submarine Base with ACTUAL SUBMARINES!

  6. Xyrillian by Psion · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can see my house from here!

    1. Re:Xyrillian by mauryisland · · Score: 1

      Me too! Mine's in this picture , which I posted in my cubicle a couple of years ago. It's a nice conversation starter for those who wonder why I live on an island.

  7. How many miles? by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Don't those Washingtonians (or editors) know that there's no such thing as the length of a coastline? Coastlines are fractal: the closer you look, the longer they get. It's one of the few really fundamental mathematical discoveries of the last century.

    2500 miles, my foot!

    1. Re:How many miles? by Scott+Carnahan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Coastlines are fractal: the closer you look, the longer they get.

      Both the ocean and the continent are made of atoms, so the fractal approximation breaks down when you look too closely, and you end up with a finite path length. For the purposes of aerial photography, you might as well take a minimal cover of the coast using discs of radius ~1km and sum their diameters. Small crinkles are completely irrelevant.

      It's one of the few really fundamental mathematical discoveries of the last century.

      This sounds like a troll, but there is a shred of truth hidden inside. There have been plenty of deep, fundamental mathematical discoveries in the last century, and I doubt you can find many mathematicians who would agree with your sentiments. All of the people appearing on this page have done very impressive work, and you may notice that fractals are not featured at all. Unfortunately, fractal geometry is one of the few recent advances which can be understood even superficially by people lacking a background in mathematics, and this seems to raise the public profile of the field substantially.

      --
      "Your notation sucks!" -- Serge Lang (1927-2005)
  8. Here's mine by Gamasta · · Score: 4, Funny

    So great... mine is right here ;-). From the window in the tower I read and post /.

    --
    reason defies logic
  9. They missed my mother-in-law by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 2

    My mother-in-law used to live on the Washington Shore. She's a vagabond type, and at that point lived in a trailer, but owned a modified giant blue school bus with half-an-airstream welded on top, a 1 ton towing truck, another pickup truck with a huge camper shell, and two other camper trailers.

    I have no friggen idea how she moved this stuff from Northern California to north-western washington all by herself.

    I found the picture which shows her old trailer, but alas, the rest of the junk isn't in the photo. Damn... it would have made quite the photo.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  10. nude bathers by bluelip · · Score: 1

    How many nude bathers did the catch and have to reimage or edit?

    --

    Yep, I never spell check.
    More incorrect spellings can be found he
  11. Nice site design by AnotherSteve · · Score: 1

    I don't know much about shoreline, livin' in the middle the way I do, but I love that interface. Clicking along the shoreline and drilling down to the full size photos is such a tasty user interface.

    --
    Information wants to be $1.98/lb.
  12. Fractals by masterkool · · Score: 2, Informative

    What is a fractal you say? This site has some info on fractals.

    --
    I once shot a man who posted too many, "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these"
  13. where's Gates by ecote · · Score: 1

    Doesnt bill gates live on the washignton shore line?

    1. Re:where's Gates by seligman · · Score: 1

      He lives on the coast of Lake Washington, which this project doesn't cover.

      --
      -- It is too late for the pebbles to vote, the avalanche has already started.
  14. None by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's cold there!

  15. Great way to find a fishin spot! by VisorGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    About a year ago my boss showed this site to me...

    He uses it to check the water level at the shallow areas he likes to fly fish at.

    --
    This user account is inactive account replaced by the PDA
  16. Bangor Trident Sub base by kgp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And curiously a search for Bangor reveals nothing ... no nuclear sub base here. Move along now.

    Bangor/King Spit
    nothing interesting except the large building and parking lot

    same large building

    a loading dock

    Support dock with small patrol boats

    one or two docked subs

    Two docked subs?

    Ordnance loading dock?

    I wonder how long these photos will remain publicly available.

    1. Re:Bangor Trident Sub base by Dolly_Llama · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are two main piers at NSB Bangor. The larger one is called the Delta pier for obvious reasons. The ordnance loading dock? is actually a dry dock. These pictures arent anything the soviets havent seen for many years via satellite, but the dry dock is covered among other reasons because the shape of the propellor is classified. This is why any picture you might have seen of a sub out of water has a nice little propeller cozy on it.

      --

      Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan

  17. California Coastline by tbmaddux · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's not all photographed yet, but you can see what they've got so far.
    --
    Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
  18. similar to the Degree Confluence Project... by the_Upsetter · · Score: 1
    (actually... this one might be a bit more useful than the DCP, but not quite as ambitious)

    For those who haven't had a chance to look at the Degree Confluence Project ... do so now. Don't waste another second.

    Basically, they're trying to take a photograph of the confluence of every latitude/longitude integer degree intersections... Absolutely fascinating.

    --
    the most mysterious thing you'll see today