Dear KGIS User Departments:

KGIS currently has over 350 gigabytes of aerial raster imagery (“Orthos”) in our database that is redundant to our needs. Since all the KGIS websites, applications, and many ArcMap Desktop users  are now accessing aerial imagery via ArcGIS Server, and as announced at the last KGIS User Group meeting on October 28^th,  KGIS intends to begin restricting access to imagery stored in the database beginning December 9^th for eventual removal approximately one month later after the first of the year.  The image services simplifies imagery management, greatly reduces the time to get the images out to the users, removes duplicate sets of the same data, and dynamically mosaics different years of images together for a single mosaic. Two good examples would be the 1996_1998_Knox_County and 1998_2001_Knox_County Image services that have 4 different years in each single mosaic (please see attached PDF’s).

We will begin restricting access on the morning of December 9^th and after the first of the year (approximately one month later ) completely remove these raster datasets from the database. All of these raster datasets have been replaced with image services and all ArcMap users have access to those services.  Many of you are already using these image services in your map documents.  Some older .mxd’s may need to have ortho data layers resourced.  Instructions are attached  on how to connect to the image services in Add an Image Service or Ortho Layer Files in ArcMap.pdf. Also included is instructions on how to find and add the KGIS Ortho Layer files to you existing or new ArcMap documents.

Please note that we are not removing anyone’s access to aerial photography hosted by KGIS!  This is simply a housekeeping measure to streamline our delivery of tremendous amounts of raster data and remove duplicate data.

If you have any questions or concerns about the proposed schedule or need help referencing the image services then please email chalcomb@kgis.org or jedwards@kgis.org or call Chris Halcomb at 215-3906 or John Edwards at 215-3130.

The raster images in the KGISSDE database that we want to restrict access to on December 9^th, 2013  are list below:

Knox County Orthos                        Regional Orthos