Vertical Aerial Photography
type: Dataset
description: Vertical aerial photography is an airborne mapping technique, which uses a high-resolution camera mounted vertically underneath the aircraft to capture reflected light in the red, green, blue and for some datasets, near infra-red spectrum. Images of the ground are captured at resolutions between 10cm and 50cm, and ortho-rectified using simultaneous LIDAR and GPS to a high spatial accuracy. The Environment Agency has been capturing vertical aerial photography data regularly since 2006 on a project by project basis each ranging in coverage from a few square kilometers to hundreds of square kilometers. The data is available as a raster dataset in ECW (enhanced compressed wavelet) format as either a true colour (RGB), near infra-red (NIR) or a 4-band (RGBN) raster. Where imagery has been captured under incident response conditions and the lighting conditions may be sub-optimal this is defined by the prefix IR. The data are presented as tiles in British National Grid OSGB 1936 projections. Data is available in 5km download zip files for each year of survey. Within each zip file are ECW files aligned to the Ordinance Survey grid. The size of each tile is dependent upon the spatial resolution of the data. Please refer to the metadata index catalgoues for the survey date captured, type of survey and spatial resolution of the imagery. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2022. All rights reserved.
description: A dataset of vertical aerial photography captured by the Environment Agency across England since 2006, on a project-by-project basis covering areas from a few square kilometres to hundreds of square kilometres. Imagery is captured with a high-resolution camera in red, green, blue and, for some datasets, near-infrared bands, at resolutions between 10cm and 50cm, and ortho-rectified using LIDAR and GPS. Data is provided as ECW raster tiles (true colour, near-infrared, or 4-band RGBN) aligned to the British National Grid (OSGB 1936), packaged in 5km zip files per survey year. Imagery captured under incident response conditions is flagged with an IR prefix.
spatial: GBR
keyword: geospatial
access rights: PUBLIC
distribution: Vertical_Aerial_Photography.gdb.zip
distribution: Metadata Index Catalogues - WMS
distribution: Survey Data - Download
distribution: Vertical_Aerial_Photography.geojson.zip
distribution: Metadata Index Catalogues - WFS
distribution: Vertical_Aerial_Photography.gpkg.zip
distribution: Survey Data FAQs
distribution: Metadata Shapefile Index Catalogues - Download
distribution: Vertical_Aerial_Photography.shp.zip
issued: 2026-06-29T11:20:24.949Z
modified: 2026-08-16T08:05:36.213Z
is part of: catalog

Vertical_Aerial_Photography.gdb.zip
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download
format: ZIP

Metadata Index Catalogues - WMS
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/survey-index-files/wms

Survey Data - Download
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/DefraDataDownload/

Vertical_Aerial_Photography.geojson.zip
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download
format: ZIP

Metadata Index Catalogues - WFS
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/survey-index-files/wfs

Vertical_Aerial_Photography.gpkg.zip
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download
format: ZIP

Survey Data FAQs
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/support/faqs/275879146

Metadata Shapefile Index Catalogues - Download
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/explore/9f0fa3fc-a860-4729-adc9-47fe53f658d0

Vertical_Aerial_Photography.shp.zip
type: Distribution
access URL: https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download
format: ZIP

Environment Agency
type: Organization