Of the four, Google stands out as the only mapping software that isn’t even close to being up to date for Whistler when it comes to the base maps. Indeed, the Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping software used by our own Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), is Esri. McPhee pointed to the four big players in mapping as being the go-to destinations to cross-reference base maps: Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Esri.Įsri, or Environmental Systems Research Institute, was noted by McPhee as holding “almost every government mapping software contract in North America.” “So all of the big tech companies give us satellite base maps which prioritize high resolution at the expense of being welded together from a random assortment of years-old sources.” Although tech companies do have billions of dollars, they don’t need up-to-date high-resolution imagery in the same way that the Pentagon needs up-to-date high-resolution imagery. The cost of satellite imagery follows a simple formula: update frequency x resolution. “I remember assuming myself that Google satellite base maps were some kind of real-time view of the Earth,” he said in an email to Pique. Still, both far more recent than Whistler’s 20-year-old images.Ĭanadian cartographer Alex McPhee did a little explaining on the ins and outs. has images from September of this year, while Melbourne, Australia was last captured by Google Maps in 2015. The updates are not delivered with consistency.įernie, B.C. And you can see it clearly (depending on where you look), so, some parts of the world were last updated for mappage… yesterday. Various sources online say Google has a rolling update schedule for its satellite base maps. It’s fun to look back in time, but it’s worth asking why-considering Google is one of the largest companies on the planet, with billions of dollars at its disposal, and is the default search engine for almost everyone- it has such a patchy updating schedule for its maps. Taken together, Google Maps gives Whistler users the opportunity to engage in a walk down memory lane. To the south, Whistler Creekside is dominated by construction, and Cheakamus Crossing is a patch of dirt and a shed, with not a trace of the burgeoning Athletes’ Village to be seen, while to the north, the Rainbow subdivision is a whole lot of trees. Using data vaguely attributed as being from “2003-recent,” Google Maps satellite imagery shows a Whistler bereft of an Olympic Plaza, Audain Art Museum, Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, or Whistler Public Library. It comes as a surprise, then, to discover that according to Google Maps and Google Earth, the Resort Municipality of Whistler is stuck somewhere around the mid-’00s. Whether it’s an unwieldy paper map you struggle to fold up again, a digital map in the palm of your hand, or wayfinding resources plonked around town, they give us visual data that help us conceptualize communities, understand distance and amenities nearby, and centre our mental geography. Maps are an important tool for understanding the world around us.
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