Tennessee County Investing in New Aerial Photos

Hamilton County, Tenn., is preparing to take a series of aerial photos to update its maps after tornado damage altered several neighborhoods.

Geographic Information Systems manager Greg Butler told The Chattanooga Times Free Press that the county’s website is used daily by real estate agents, surveyors, engineers and others, so it’s important to keep it up to date.

The project costs nearly $160,000, and it takes several months to piece the photos together to get within 2.5-foot accuracy of the land layout.

The county and Chattanooga each are contributing $50,000. Several other municipalities and local utilities are picking up the remainder.

The most recent aerial photos were taken in 2010.

Butler said he expects new maps for Chattanooga by July 1 and for the county by sometime in September.