Closed, Illegal and Abandoned (CIA) Disposal Sites

Historical Aerial Photos

Aerial photographs may be used for the manual interpretation of land use and land cover characteristics for comparison with other photographs, plans, maps or drawings of the site. They can also be of help when performing a preliminary waste area and volume estimate prior to a field investigation or topographic survey of the site. When preparing a Phase I Investigation, aerial photography resources are varied, but online resources can be advantageous when a common computer system with internet access is available. Some of these sites include:

• Digital Globe
• EROS Data Center
• I.K. Curtis Aerial Photography
• JPL Imaging Radar Home Page
• Land Survey Information System
• Mapquest
• MSR Maps
• NASA Aerial Photography
• National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP)
• Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives
• UCLA/Spense Collection
• U.C. Berkeley Historical Topographic Quadrangles
• U.C. Santa Barbara Map and Imagery Laboratory
• U.S.D.A. FSA Aerial Photography
• U.S. Geological Survey Aerial Photography
• Whittier Fairchild Air Photo Collection

The MSR Maps (formerly Microsoft TerraServer website) is one of the world's largest online databases, providing free public access to a vast data store of maps and aerial photographs of the United States. TerraServer is designed to work with commonly available computer systems and Web browsers over slow speed communications links. For more information on this resource, visit Using Microsoft TerraServer.

Google Earth Software Tools to Support CIA Site Investigations (Adobe PDF, 1.7 MB): A presentation developed by CalRecycle staff that provides an overview of Google Earth software tools that contain the capabilities to develop data such as site maps that depict disposal site features. The developed data regarding CIA disposal sites can be used for a variety of purposes like historical information and site investigation. A specific presentation on “Using Google Earth for Historical Aerial Photo Analysis” (Adobe PDF, 2.7 MB) provides detailed information and instructions on using the Google Earth “Overlay Tool” to import and analyze historical aerial photographs for the purpose of investigating the areal or horizontal extent of a disposal site.