News item | 08-12-2023 | 14:47
On Thursday we flew over St. Eustatius for the first time to take high-quality aerial photographs of the island.
Several flights are carried out in December and January to take aerial photographs and height measurements of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire. The Public Entities and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations took the initiative for this, with the aim of improving the registration of addresses and buildings on the islands. Together they are working towards one central register for each island, in which addresses and buildings are registered.
One central register for addresses and buildings
A central register uses aerial photographs to determine the precise location of an address or building on a map. By registering all address and building data in the system only once, the data becomes more reliable. It leaves less doubt about, for example, the correct registration of the location, the house number or the spelling of an address. In the future, governments will take a first step to improve the quality of the data in the registrations with a central register.
Elevation maps
In addition to aerial photographs, elevation maps of the islands are also made. This provides the islands with a lot of extra information. For example, the Public Entity in St. Eustatius takes into account that elevation maps reveal historical buildings and objects that cannot easily be seen with the naked eye in areas with a lot of vegetation and shrubs.
More benefits
Aerial photographs are an important source of information for the islands for even more reasons. Cables and pipes or entire nature reserves can be made visible on maps, allowing governments, for example, to better decide whether to issue a permit for a location. And also where houses or roads are built and constructed on the islands. It also provides opportunities for entrepreneurs and researchers, for example to conduct market research and study nature reserves.
Image material Netherlands
With one-off financing from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the aerial photos are made by the Visual Material Netherlands partnership. This partnership is considering how aerial photographs of the islands can be taken more often in the future.