An Example of Orthophotography

Digital orthophotography is digital aerial photography that is planimetrically correct: the images show objects on the ground in their true geographic positions. Measurements of distances, angles and areas can be taken directly from the orthophotos. Digital orthophotography is important reference and base data used with Geographic Information System (GIS) software (what is GIS?).

MRCOG also provides these files to New Mexico Resource Geographic Information System (RGIS) Program so that other GIS professionals can access this valuable data. RGIS is a cooperative program between the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Information Technology Commission and serves as a digital data clearinghouse for geographic information for New Mexico.

2010 Regional Digital Orthophotography

New 2010 digital orthophotography is available upon written request from MRCOG. MRCOG managed the cooperatively funded project of 16 Federal, State, local, and tribal governments for the acquisition and production of 6" GSD natural color digital orthophotography for 2610 square miles in central New Mexico. The project includes the following cooperating entities: City of Albuquerque, Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA), Bernalillo County, Kirtland Air Force Base, Village of Los Lunas, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD), New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), City of Rio Rancho, Sandia Pueblo, Sandia National Laboratories, Santa Ana Pueblo, Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority (SSCAFCA), US Geological Survey, and Valencia County.

Imagery was acquired March-May 2010. Bohannan Huston, Inc. (BHI) was the contractor for this project.

•  Click here  for a map showing coverage extent for the 2010 digital orthoimagery.
• Click here for link to MRCOG 2010 digital orthophotography for download.

USGS/USACE/MRCOG 2010 Regional LiDAR

The USGS/USACE/MRCOG 2010 Regional LiDAR Project is a cooperatively funded project of the US Geological Survey (USGS), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Albuquerque District, and the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) to acquire and process high resolution LiDAR data for an area of approximately 1233 square miles in Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia Counties, New Mexico. The Project focuses on acquisition in Spring 2010 of 2-foot contour equivalent elevation data suitable for input into the National Elevation Dataset (NED) at 1/9 arc second resolution. Secondly, an area approximating the 500-year floodplain of the Rio Grande is identified for acquisition and processing for 1-foot contour equivalent terrain data. The data will support a variety of applications including land use planning, infrastructure development, environmental resource assessment, alternative energy suitability analyses, flood hazard analyses, floodplain mapping, hydrologic/hydraulic modeling, and geomorphic or vegetation studies.

Please contact Carol Earp (cearp@mrcog-nm.gov) at 505-724-3606 for additional information on acquiring this data.

2008 Regional Digital Orthophotography Project
(1/2 Foot Resolution Data)

In the Spring of 2008 MRCOG acquired over 2200 square miles of natural color, high resolution (1/2 foot GSD) digital orthoimagery in portions of 5 counties (Sandoval, Bernalillo, Santa Fe , Torrance and Valencia). This was a cooperative project with 17 local, State and Federal agencies participating.

Project cooperators included: City of Albuquerque, Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo and Flood Control Authority, Town of Belen, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, Bernalillo County, Town of Edgewood, Isleta Pueblo, Kirtland Air Force Base, Village of Los Lunas, Mid-Region Council of Governments, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, City of Rio Rancho, Sandia Pueblo, Sandia National Laboratory, Santa Ana Pueblo, Santa Fe County, and US Geological Survey.

Imagery was acquired in late March and early April 2008. Bohannan Huston, Inc. (BHI) was the contractor for this project.

Click here for a map showing coverage extent for the 2008 digital orthoimagery.

The 2008 imagery in compressed imagery format files (.ecw) is available for download from RGIS.

2006 Regional Digital Orthophotography Project
1/2 Foot Resolution Data

In the Spring of 2006 MRCOG acquired over 1800 square miles of natural color, high resolution (1/2 foot GSD) digital orthoimagery in portions of 4 counties: Sandoval, Bernalillo, Valencia, and Socorro. This was a cooperative project with 18 local, state and federal agencies participating. Imagery was acquired in early April and July, 2006. Bohannan Huston, Inc. (BHI) was the contractor for this project.  

• NEW- Easy access to imagery - served up from RGIS! If you would like conveniently access the MRCOG 6 inch imagery for the MRCOG area, the full New Mexico 2005 aerial imagery (1 meter), and Color Infrared imagery along the Rio Grande Corridor (1 meter), try RGIS's new web-based image service. This allows you to use all of this imagery in one layer without downloading separate files. Zoom extent determines what imagery dataset is available to view, and you can toggle different imagery datasets on/off in your ArcGIS table of contents.  Click here for detailed instructions.
•  Map showing coverage extent for the 2006 digital orthoimagery 299.83 Kb
• MRCOG 2006 digital orthophotography index of files by USGS 1:24000 quad sheet
• MRCOG 2006 digital orthophotography ¼ section tiles for download

Contact:  Carol Earp (cearp@mrcog-nm.gov)