Digital Aerial Orthobase for Cadastral Mapping

Abstract

Large scale aerial photographs were acquired for one entire district of Andhra Pradesh in the southern India encompassing approx. 10,000 sq.kms. The voluminous data was processed using digital photogrammetry techniques to generate seamless digital orthoimages as a base map for cadastral mapping applications. Historically the cadastral mapping was carried out with traditional surveying methods such as ETS, theodolites not at regular intervals. With the advent of modern surveying & remote sensing techniques, generation of Digital Cadastral Database for Land Information System (LIS) is possible. The trends of cadastral mapping started with individual plan of survey of parcels with local datum and arbitrary map projections. This study essentially required an accurate and standard spatial reference for seamless cadastral mapping over the entire Area of Interest (AOI) in single datum and projection. Towards this a spatial reference in World Geodetic System (WGS 84) datum with Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection was established. The terrain in the study area is moderately undulating and the relief due to manmade features was not so significant. The aerial orthobase was found suitable for delineating and measuring the individual parcels information. A good GCP configuration, triangulation accuracy and reliable and consistent Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was ensured the generation of Digital aerial orthobases with an accuracy of better than 25cm over a distance of 1000m. The orthobase was used for identification, delineation of the cadastre parcels and most importantly to validate the aerial orthobase with the field measurements.