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Michigan Aerial Imagery Partnership

State of Michigan to acquire statewide aerial imagery in Summer 2005

The Michigan Aerial Imagery Partnership (MAIP) — a partnership of seven state agencies and the MSU Land Policy Program and Remote Sensing & GIS Research and Outreach Services - was recently established to acquire critical statewide aerial imagery for the first updating of statewide land cover/land use data since 1978. As a result of MSU Land Policy Program and Remote Sensing and GIS Research and Outreach Services leadership and extensive cooperation among state agencies, local and state planners and decision makers will soon have access to current statewide aerial imagery for the first time in nearly a decade. Responding to urgent needs from across the state, the MSU Land Policy Program successfully brokered a $1.2 million deal on behalf of the Partnership with the U.S. Farm Service Agency's National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). The deal for acquisition of statewide imagery is funded by $800,000 in federal contributions from U.S. Farm Service Agency, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, and U.S. Forest Service and $400,000 from six state agencies and MSU.

Aerial imagery is essential for state and local land use planners responsible for managing wildlife habitat, land-based industries, man-made infrastructure, and the visual landscape. Additionally, this imagery provides a critical underpinning of the MSU Picture Michigan Tomorrow (PMT) initiative, funded in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation PAL grant. Picture Michigan Tomorrow will combine data on historical land use changes and identified drivers of land use change with land use and land cover data.

Obtaining current, high-quality imagery for the entire state addresses a key Michigan Land Use Leadership Council (MLULC) recommendation in 2003: "The state should...update its 1978 Michigan Resource Information System (MIRIS) current use inventory by completing a new round of aerial photography and land classification. This data will be an invaluable tool for local planning as well as understanding the changes in land use over time and the effects of those changes on Michigan's land resource-based industries and the environment."