Fly Dane Event Celebrates Partnership in GIS Mapping of Dane County

November 13, 2001
Diane Danielsen, (608) 266-4942 Sharyn Wisniewski, (608) 267-8823

Dane County and 41 local partners will celebrate their partnership in the Fly Dane project this Wednesday, November 14. The event will be held at the offices of Ayres & Associates, engineers, 2445 Darwin Road (near airport/MATC). Media are invited to attend the event. (However, the event is unable to accommodate the general public.) A tour of the facility and posters will be conducted from 4 to 5 p.m., and from 6 to 7 p.m. During 5 to 6 p.m. there will be a project overview and status report, and official presentations. The Fly Dane project has resulted in detailed, aerial photographs of Dane County. Aerial photos are a core piece of information for today’s geographic and computer aided information systems. They are used in everything from informational graphics and exhibits to 3-D visualization and fly-throughs of the landscape. With the explosion in the use of GIS technology at Dane County and throughout its communities, the photo inventory maintains a current view of the landscape. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said, “Projects like Fly Dane assure that our communities benefit from the funding of the Wisconsin Land Information Program. It is difficult for local communities to dedicate resources to coordinate an effort like this. We were pleased to coordinate this wonderful project that resulted in the product we needed, but also gave communities what they needed, at a price we could all afford. ”The partnership between the county, surrounding communities and various Dane County, state and Madison offices, was critical. Contracting individually for the same products would have cost each of the partners about 50% more, and a much higher grade product was received. * The benefits and uses of Fly Dane 2000 products include: -updated imagery (landscape is constantly changing). -general and land use planning. -public information products. -census geography. -hydrographic modeling. -engineering planning and pre-design. -FEMA floodplain delineation and floodplain mapping. -development of a modernized NRCS soil survey. utility mapping. -more precise wetland identification. -more precise slope determination. -geometric feature representations accurate to /- 2 or 4 feet (depending on image resolution).