"Check Out the Changed Seoul: Over 18,000 Aerial Photos Released"

Request for Unauthorized Building Inspections Peaks; Includes 5,859 Private Photos
1973 Analog Photos Re-released After Location Accuracy Correction

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 20th that it will publicly release 18,275 aerial photographs, including current images of Seoul and accurately georeferenced past analog photos.

Starting from the 23rd, these photos will be available through the 'Seoul Aerial Photo Service (http://aerogis.seoul.go.kr)'. They showcase changes such as the transformed Seoul Botanic Park, which opened last year, the large-scale development in the Sinjeong 1 Redevelopment Promotion Zone, and the reconstruction complex of Godeok Jugong Apartments, among other areas.

According to Seoul City, compared to photos of the same areas provided by private portal sites, their service offers more recent images promptly.

Among the previously released aerial photos, some that were set as national security zones and thus not disclosed will now be made public after partial security processing. Priority security processing will be applied to 5,859 photos from nine years, including 1989, a year closely related to citizens' property rights. Photos previously undisclosed from areas such as Hangangno-dong in Yongsan-gu and Naebalsan-dong in Gangseo-gu will also be released.

The aerial photos currently available from before 2009 were created by scanning film from analog cameras. Due to differences in shooting methods, there is a discrepancy in positional accuracy when overlaying analog photos with digital images. To resolve this issue, Seoul City is undertaking a project to improve the positional accuracy of analog photos.

This year, 7,588 film photos taken in 1973 underwent individual positional correction and were released, enhancing the service to allow easy viewing of changes at the same locations by year.

Choi Young-chang, Seoul City's Spatial Information Officer, stated, "We plan to promptly share the most up-to-date and accurate aerial photo service with citizens and actively support the creation of latent demand in various fields by utilizing aerial photos."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.