Sidwell Selected for Orthophotography Services and Change Detection Analysis

ST. CHARLES, Ill. - March 7, 2017 - PRLog -- Sidwell, a leading GIS land records management company, will partner with several counties across the midwest to provide orthophotography services and implement change detection analysis:

• Butler County, Iowa, Orthophotography Services
• DeWitt County, Illinois, Orthophotography Services
• Franklin County, Iowa, Orthophotography Service
• Jasper County, Iowa, Orthophotography Services
• Marion County, Illinois, Change Detection Services and Orthophotography Services
• Wayne County, Illinois, Change Detection Services

Sidwell's change detection analysis services support jurisdictions in staying out ahead of the ever-changing property landscapes, while significantly reducing field visits and increasing tax revenue!  Sidwell's solution maximizes staff resources by using sophisticated algorithms to analyze the pixels in aerial imagery to identify likely changes such as additions, decks, garages, land cover, and more.  This enables efficient planning and prioritizing of field visits, thus allowing focus on parcels with the most change, saving time and money.

Sidwell Account Manager Mel Obbink explained, "Quality orthophotography is essential to county governance because it keeps parcel data accurate and measurable. Using inaccurate aerial photography when building a GIS database can cause numerous issues, such as parcel lines not matching aerial imagery and incorrect soil delineation."

Sidwell's digital orthophotography services provides a variable scale base to support and enhance a range of mapping applications. A digital orthophotography is a computer-processed aerial photo. Because digital maps can be superimposed over orthophotography on screen, additional features can be viewed in the geographic context of the maps. Digital orthophotography images can be viewed individually, or in groups "mosaiced" together, and can be output to hard copy for use in the field.

Sidwell has helped numerous jurisdictions implement orthophotography services and change detection analysis across the US.

Mark Miller, Marion County Assessor, stated, "Marion County will benefit in many ways from an updated flyover, the most important of which is assisting in discovering changes to parcel use.  Not only does it allow the county to locate new construction which can be added to the tax rolls, but for the property owners, also allows us to notify an owner if we find a structure has been removed which the owner may have forgotten to report to us and which will reduce the assessment on that parcel.  Typically the flyover will result in an increase in Equalized Assessed Valuation, thereby decreasing taxes for property owners if taxing bodies do not increase spending or if spending does increase, the increase in property taxes will be lower than it would if we had not discovered the changes in property use.  The flyover is the most accurate method to map the county and is a valuable resource not only for the county, but also for 911, surveyors, title companies, appraisers, real estate companies and the general public, as this information is available to everyone. Unlike many of the costs the county incurs, the expense of this project is typically recovered by the addition of property value and the subsequent increase of EAV for the county."

Sidwell Account Manager Brian Baker added "With Sidwell's new digital orthophotography and  change detection services, Marion County will be able to delineate which properties need to be visited, saving travel and assessment cost. This will also help Township Assessors pinpoint where they need to assess properties in a timely fashion. When the digital orthophotography is completed, the images will be loaded on to the Supervisor of Assessments website for the public and private sector to utilize."

Sandy Schlosser, the Dewitt County Supervisor of Assessment also expressed excitement for their new project, stating  "DeWitt County is looking forward to the re-flight because it has been over 10 years since the last flight.  This will assist DeWitt County in finding omitted buildings, show the occupation in the new sub-divisions with the newly constructed buildings and create an up to date flight for users on the internet."

Learn more: http://www.sidwellco.com/sidwell-selected-orthophotograph...