Access Aotearoa's Cloud Hosted Imagery in ArcGIS Pro

Create a cloud connection in ArcGIS Pro to access New Zealand's Imagery directly from the cloud.

Eagle Technology

October 5, 2023

Background

In September 2023, Toitū Te Whenua (LINZ) announced that 20TB of their imagery has been made available in a cloud-optimised format using Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is exciting news, as it allows users to add imagery and create mosaic datasets directly from the cloud.

In 2024 also the elevation data (dem and dsm) has been made available using AWS S3 open data.

Major data release showcases Aotearoa from the air

Toitū Te Whenua has made almost 20TB of aerial imagery available for free for the first time in a cloud-optimized format, making it easier and faster to access these large datasets over the internet.

https://www.linz.govt.nz

This StoryMap is part of a collection explaining how this imagery can be used in ArcGIS including how to access the data from ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise, and how to create image services, mosaic datasets, and basemaps without having to download or locally host the imagery.

This StoryMap will detail how to access the data in ArcGIS Pro using the 'New Cloud Storage Connection' tool, which creates a cloud connection (.acs) allowing you to access the imagery directly from the catalog pane.

Creating the Cloud Connection

In ArcGIS Pro, you can connect to a variety of cloud stores to access raster data in the cloud, including LINZ's raster data in Amazon S3. To access this tool, click on the 'Insert' ribbon, then select Connections > Cloud Store > New Cloud Storage Connection.

Accessing the 'New Cloud Storage Connection' tool

Tool Parameters

Parameters for the Create Cloud Storage Connection tool

Connection file name: This is the name of the .acs cloud connection, this can be named whatever you want, for example New Zealand Imagery.

Service Provider: As the imagery is being hosted through an AWS S3 Bucket, this will be Amazon.

Bucket (Container) Name: For Imagery: nz-imagery For Elevation: nz-elevation

Folder (optional): the path to a folder in the bucket

Region (Environment): The bucket is hosted in ap-southeast-2, which is Asia Pacific (Sydney). The Service Endpoint will be autocompleted upon entering the region.

Provider Options: ARC_DEEP_CRAWL will be set to No by default to enable faster browsing of cloud paths with many files and folders.

IMPORTANT: As this is a public bucket, add AWS_NO_SIGN_REQUEST from the dropdown and set the value to Yes - this means you won't need to provide an Access Key ID or Secret Access Key.

Once you have entered the required parameters, click OK. The Cloud Storage Connection will appear in your catalog pane under Cloud Stores, where you can explore the files.

Mosaic Datasets

You can add each image tile directly to your map. When you want to view all images in a folder or if you want to combine images from multiple folders, you can create a Mosaic Dataset.

Check out this StoryMap to see how you can create a mosaic dataset from the cloud imagery.

If you're interested in accessing this imagery from your ArcGIS Enterprise portal, check out this StoryMap .