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."

8 of 26 comments (clear)

  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. 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!

  5. 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.