Residents of Gloucester County may notice low-flying, slow planes canvassing the county in the next few weeks. Gloucester County spokesperson Christi Lewis said a company specializing in high-resolution aerial photography and topography mapping began capturing images in Gloucester County on Dec. 15.

The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors voted to fund the Pictometry tool, which was estimated to cost $70,000, at its Oct. 18 meeting under the advisement of the county’s then-assessor Rod Compton. Compton resigned in November after two months on the job.

"When the work is completed, the county will have valuable information to be used for numerous applications including geographic information system mapping, emergency response, real estate assessment, flood protection, disaster damage assessment and other areas," Lewis said.

She explained that two aircraft will conduct flyovers using state-of-the-art digital photography and technology to take oblique images from a 30- to 40-degree angle. Photos are taken of each targeted geographic area from 12 to 20 different views, creating 3-D images of high quality resolution. "While the concept is similar to the internet’s Google Earth, photographs are much sharper and more useful," Lewis said.

The planes will be photographing in Gloucester County for several weeks with an anticipated completion date of Jan. 15, 2012.

The data will then be incorporated into the county’s Geographic Information System that provides various geographic data services to county departments, Lewis said. Eventually, the data will be made available to the public through the Gloucester County website.

For more information, call the GIS office at 693-1109.