Through a
grant from the Connecticut State Library, the Town of Canton was able to scan
historic aerial photos to be used for our GIS mapping display. New England
Geosystems, who currently operates our online GIS data, collected the preserved
aerials, scanned and digitized them into high resolution TIFF scans, and
projected them onto our online GIS website for the public to access and
view.
The Town of Canton’s collection of
printed historic aerials captures an interesting perspective. Historic aerials
provide significant insight to long-term development as well as general land
use trends through decades of time. The aerials that the Town preserved with
this grant are from two different aerial flights: 1959 and 1984. The flight
from 1959 is particularly important as this is also the year that the Town
adopted Zoning Regulations, so having a visual snapshot in time provides great
benefit to understanding the conditions of the Town at that time.
To check out
this new feature of GIS:
1. Log on to https://canton.mapxpress.net/
2. Type in
an address and click GO
3. Click on
ZOOM TO GIS
4. Click on
BASE MAPS/AIR PHOTOS in upper right of screen
5. Choose
the year you’d like to see
Example: 4 Market Street
1959 Aerial of 4 Market Street
1984 Aerial of 4 Market Street
2019 Aerial of 4 Market Street (most current)