Got a drone? Make your own "google map"

[homegrownbucks]

https://www.mapsmadeeasy.com/

I hope one of you drone owners will try this and report back, looks pretty slick.

Looks to be free for 100acres and under to make your own google map style map, I am sure the detail would be awesome from a drone, it would be nice to get a seasonal or yearly update vs waiting for google maps to update

 

[Big Snow Man]

I think when BigBend gets done spraying with his new drone he will be able to tackle this project for you !

 

[FarmerDan]

I guess that's cool except I'm having a hard time grasping the value. Anybody seriously using drones for anything commercial already has the smarts and technology to georectify aerials. If you are just using a drone to do aerial images of a small area, why do you need to rectify the image? i get what you are saying about Google Earth, but there are many sources of up-to-date aerial imagery one can impose on Google Earth IF its more recent. USDA's NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) does acquisition of you area every other year. I know, two years but not much changes. There are other government agencies and NGO;s collecting imagery. It's rare you can't find annual orthos's every year if you know where to look.

https://gis.apfo.usda.gov/arcgis/rest/services/NAIP

Find your state. Click the link. Look at the bottom of the page for Google Earth. Click it. A KMZ file you can use in Google Earth downloads.

Don't get me wrong, the drone thing looks like fun. I just don't see the attraction after the novelty wears off.

 

[homegrownbucks]

I would use it to keep track of habitat progress/projects and for scouting (winter pics) so a spring, fall and winter yearly map would be of interest to me. I will check your links, thanks I'm always looking for new imagery. The other thing is the detail could be much better, birds eye view comes close on bing but I would like better if possible.

 

[FarmerDan]

I would use it to keep track of habitat progress/projects and for scouting (winter pics) so a spring, fall and winter yearly map would be of interest to me. I will check your links, thanks I'm always looking for new imagery. The other thing is the detail could be much better, birds eye view comes close on bing but I would like better if possible.

I see your point about resolution. I've been reading, but, haven't uncovered much about drone photo resolution. The stuff at the links I offered is 1-meter with a few states at half-meter. Here in Virginia the state does 1-foot in most places.

USGS (United States Geologic Survey) does a terrific job of compiling the most up-to-date high resolution imagery publicly available.

https://nationalmap.gov/ortho.html

Google has some kind of deal working with Digital Globe, a 'for-profit' provider of extremely high resolution, frequently available satellite imagery. Not sure when it might hit the street.