The Chief Directorate: Surveys and Mapping of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) is easing access to its products and services with the conversion of 800 000 archived aerial photographs into low-resolution digital images for reference purposes.
The digitisation project, which was carried out by business document management specialist Metrofile, scanned archived aerial photographic images spanning the past six decades in one of the largest digital scanning projects undertaken in the DLA.
The image scanning project was piloted by Metrofile in 2003 with the digitisation of 100 000 images. This makes the images available via the Internet and e-mail for public access. After the success of the pilot phase, Metrofile was awarded the tender for the scanning of 700 000 photographs - nearly half the images in the Chief Directorate`s photographic archive.
Preparatory work began in February 2004, preparing and orientating the photographs for scanning. Two Kodak i260 high-volume document scanners were used simultaneously, each capable of capturing 5 000 digital images a day. Seven Metrofile staff members worked on-site until the project was completed at the end of September.
"The age and fragility of many of the photographs was the major challenge of the project," says Brett Harris, operations manager at Metrofile Cape. "Over the years the photographs have been handled, dog-eared and drawn on using wax crayon by users for reference and mapping demarcation purposes. The photographs needed to be carefully cleaned and prepared for scanning, and in some cases redeveloped if the image was not salvageable."
Once the photographs were prepared, they were carefully sorted into accurate flight sequence and placed at a specific angle to ensure each image was north-facing. Once scanned, the electronic image was indexed against the flight details of the photograph, specifying the flight path the plane followed to indicate geographic area and topographic grid position.
The scanned images were then placed in a photographic repository for future use with the Chief Directorate`s Map Manager software, which provides the public with access to maps and related information via the Internet on the input of specific referencing criteria, such as area, grid location and date.
"The advantages of having our photographic library in digital format are considerable," says Tertius Geldenhuys, chief industrial technician at Surveys and Mapping. "Apart from the obvious benefits of time- and cost-savings, convenience, visual quality and rapid access to archived photographs, we`re now able to e-mail images directly to clients. Previously, if a client requested an image in digital format we first had to physically source the photograph, then scan and e-mail it. Now within minutes we can simply call up the indexed image and e-mail it immediately."
Geldenhuys says the digitisation of the remaining one million aerial photographs in the Chief Directorate`s archive will be conducted in 2005 as a separate tender, as will the ongoing updating of records and scanning of new photographs on an ongoing basis.
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Metrofile, a broad-based empowerment company, is the South African market leader in the management of business documents, and is committed to help customers reduce costs and improve productivity in processes that are centred on documents and corporate records.
All companies have a combination of paper and electronic documents, and are forced by law and customer requirements to secure the availability of the documents for the duration of their lifecycle. For most organisations, the volume of documents is growing at an exponential rate, and is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Metrofile is uniquely positioned to provide consulting and implementation of full lifecycle paper and electronic records management solutions from storage and conversion through to destruction.
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