The Regional Aerial Photo Consortium enables the joint purchase of digital aerial orthophotography by local governments and nonprofit groups in greater Portland. Consortium purchase reduces each member's cost of obtaining orthoimagery and lidar through cost sharing. The digital imagery available includes the urban areas of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties. In some years, the coverage is expanded to include rural areas, lidar and lidar derivatives. The intent of the consortium is to provide for a cost-effective means to acquire digital orthophotography on an annual basis.
The urban area covers 656 square miles. The urban/rural coverage covers 973 square miles. There are a number of different overlapping projects taking place in 2024, with varying areas of interests (AOI). Here is a link to the map on ArcGIS online with the final areas of interest for this project year.
Late winter 2024 leaf-off aerial photo flight
- Vendor: GeoTerra, Inc.
- Deliverable: 6-inch true color orthophotos, 6-inch near infrared false color orthophotos, 1-, 2-, 4-, 10-, and 20-foot resamples
- Area of interest: 916 square miles
- Flight acquisition window spans from March 1 - April 30.
| Milestone description |
Estimated date complete |
Date complete |
| Imagery acquired |
Mar. 1 - Apr. 30 |
Mar. 14-17 |
| Pilot tile delivery |
May 6 |
Apr. 23 |
| Preliminary imagery delivery |
May 16 |
May 16 |
| Full resolution data delivered for QA/QC |
Jun. 25 |
Jun. 21 |
| QA/QC feedback submitted |
Jul. 17 |
Jul. 18 |
| Final delivery and acceptance of high resolution photos |
Aug. 14 |
Aug. 22 |
| Delivery to consortium members |
Aug. 31 |
Oct. 11 |
Last updated: October 29, 2024
Summer 2024 aerial photo flight
- Vendor: GeoTerra, Inc.
- Deliverable: 6-inch true color orthophotos, 6-inch near infrared false color orthophotos, 1-, 2-, 4-, 10-, and 20-foot resamples
- Area of interest: ~1660 square miles
- Additional deliverables as specified in the written contract with GeoTerra.
| Milestone description |
Estimated date complete |
Date complete |
| Imagery acquired |
Jun. 7 |
Jun. 7 |
| Pilot tile delivery |
Aug. 9 |
Aug 13. |
| Preliminary imagery delivery |
Aug. 16 |
Aug. 21 |
| Full resolution data delivered for QA/QC |
Nov. 23 |
|
| QA/QC feedback submitted |
Nov. 29 |
|
| Final delivery and acceptance of high resolution photos |
Jan. 3 |
|
| Delivery to consortium members |
Jan. 14 |
|
Last updated: August 22, 2024
Summer 2024 lidar acquisition
The consortium's area of interest will be collected and coordinated by the USGS. The agreement was finalized in late April 2024, which outlines the consortium's partnership with the USGS 3DEP program. The partnership provides significant cost savings for consortium members and prioritizes delivering the highest quality data. The minimum specification of the data will be USGS QL1, collected in mostly leaf-on conditions June through end of September 2024. Preliminary data will be available to consortium members in spring 2025.
Lidar for the full extent of the Consortium's AOI has been acquired as of August 2024. More project information and deliverable timelines will be available in early fall 2024.
Last updated: August 22, 2024
Consortium strategic plan
The 2024-30 strategic plan represents an overview and goals for the consortium that will keep the imagery program on track and responsive to current and future needs through 2030.
Regional Aerial Photo Strategic Framework 2024-30