The King County GIS Center was honored to be awarded the 2024 URISA Exemplary Systems in Government: Single Process Distinguished System award for our new Aerial Imagery Program interactive web application. The GIS Center has been acquiring high-resolution aerial imagery since 1998 and administers a cost-sharing program to make imagery available to local jurisdictions, reducing the costs for everyone in the process.

Before the launch of this new application, managing each imagery order required manual coordination including multiple email chains, pdf documents, shapefiles, and spreadsheets. It was easy for things to get lost or steps to get missed, and jurisdictions were in the dark about the status of their orders. Now, the application provides a landing page with information about the program, the status of each biennial imagery acquisition, and cost-estimates that allow each jurisdiction to budget ahead. Read more.