Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 9.3
An aerial photograph
representing ownership on an overlay. Often, the local conservation office will
have aerial photos. It can sometimes be difficult to obtain good copies of these
plans, particularly from small town offices that do not have large format reproduc-
tion capabilities.
Aerial photographs can be very useful in that they show physical features exist-
ing at the time the photograph was taken. If, for example, a deed calls for a stone
wall but no wall currently exists, an old aerial photo may show the location of the
wall. There are companies who advertise on the Internet, whose business is pro-
viding historic aerial photos. Sometimes these photos are available for the early
part of the twentieth century.
Other possible sources of information are old atlases, U.S. Geological Survey
maps, old maps in the possession of the local historical society and other old maps
that may be on record in the registry of deeds or the office of the town or city
clerk.
Many municipalities have or are in the process of implementing Geographic
Information Systems (GIS). These systems make use of a database containing
information that is referenced to geographic coordinates. A GIS system can con-
tain many types of information such as the locations of wetlands, property lines,
