A map described as the first complete aerial record of Britain is being put on the internet.

The map is being hailed as a "Domesday book for the Millennium", which offers a detailed photographic snapshot of the country at the turn of the century. It enables users to take a "virtual flight" over the country.

They can download digital images up to a scale of 1:2,000 which show minute detail down to cars, trees and animals.
Users can zoom in close enough to make out cricketers on a field, sunbathers on a beach or crowds on a city-centre street.
The map will enable professional users to charter changes such as housing patterns, coastal erosion, loss of natural habitats, and urbanisation.
To everybody else it will offer a record of where, and how, they lived at the end of the millennium.
The map is being created by the Millennium Mapping Company, which has spent six months photographing the country from four aircraft.

It has taken 56,000 individual photographs on 20km of film, which is being scanned, digitised and put online.

So far, the company has photographed 85% of England, with the remainder of England, plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to follow in 2000.

The company plans to repeat the flyover every three years in urban areas and five years in rural areas.
This would record and update every change to the UK landscape.

The photographs taken so far should be available on the website from January 2000, with the rest to follow over the next three years.

No more privacy.
Privacy groups have raised concerns about the availability of such detailed photographic information on the Net.

Liz Parratt, spokeswoman for Liberty, said: "This raises difficult questions about the limits of individual privacy, and how surveillance technology can be effectively regulated.

"People might worry about how access to this kind of information would be useful to burglars, for example, or what they themselves were doing at the moment the photo was taken.

"We would like to see much wider public consultation and debate about this.

Selling off old Technology.

The question needs to be answered if this is considered so open what must the real technology be capable of. Satellites flying through space are taking pictures of just about everything and anyone who is labelled 'a threat'. The technology now allows us to take a picture form space and get close enough to see what you are reading, if you were stood outside of course. But where will it end, how much do governments need to know or is there more to it.

The map which will be going on the Web is a pale comparison to that which the CIA and the Security Services are privy too. Theirs is one which if needed can be live and up to the minute. Given the right time and flypast trajectory your home could be photographed in detail and any information passed to the right department within the hour.

Once upon a time information like this would not have been readily available. During the war maps and road signs were removed, fearing the enemy would use it to their own evil ends. Now we have sent them a copy. I wonder though whether the air bases and military installations have been left on the map.

As to the uniqueness of this map we can say it is not alone. An American company will be selling satellite photographs of Washington DC, a move which seems strange given the Government buildings present in the City.

Here is a News report detailing the sale;

Satellite 'spy pictures' for sale

The first image has been released from a company offering to sell high-resolution satellite pictures of any place on the planet. It shows a Washington DC right down to a resolution of one metre.

When the images go on sale on 1 January 2000, it will be the first time anyone outside the military will have been able to buy such detailed satellite photographs.

The satellite which took the picture is called Ikonos and was launched on 24 September 1999. The company behind the initiative is Space Imaging and they have invested $750 million dollars in the scheme.

John Copple, Space Imaging's CEO, told BBC News Online that any fears over "Big Brother" invasions of privacy are unwarranted: "We don't believe it's a concern because our satellite only passes over a point on the Earth once a day, so it only occurs infrequently.

The Washington Monument's shadow points at the car park (Photo: Space Imaging)

"There are, I believe, over 300,000 video cameras in England and so there are much more cost-effective ways of monitoring than with our satellite."
Although the resolution of military spy satellites is not officially disclosed, it is believed to be slightly higher than that of Ikonos. But Mr Copple thinks it would not be commercially viable to produce images more detailed than one metre resolution.
Ikonos images which have not been processed and enhanced will cost about $30 per square mile. The best quality images will be charged at about $500 per square mile.

Ikonos' camera can capture one-metre resolution images and four-colour images at four-metre resolution, but the two can be combined.

The satellite orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes at a height of 680 kilometres (425 miles). It can store about 100 images in its memory, so it does not need to be in view of a ground receiving station all the time.

Mr Copple said Ikonos is expected to remain in service for about seven years. Compared to photography from aircraft, he admits that: "the upfront investment is significant, but the price per unit is much lower because you can cover much larger areas."

Who will buy the images remains to be seen, but Mr Copple expects orders from everyone from governments planning disaster relief operations to people wanting photos of their town. Other customers could be farmers, oil companies and telecommunications companies.