Rhode Island’s Imagery Library

A StoryMap presenting a collection of aerial imagery from 1939 to the present available through the Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS) consortium. Direct links to few of these imagery datasets are available below.

Zoom in and out or pan to view different parts of the state at a variety of scales.

Spring 2022 Digital Aerial Photographs

The most recent statewide digital true color georeferenced aerial photographs of Rhode Island taken during leaf-off ground conditions. In areas where there is a deciduous tree canopy, the lack of foliage makes it possible to see additional ground-level detail.

Spring 2020-21 Digital Aerial Photographs

Digital true color georeferenced aerial photographs of Rhode Island taken during leaf-off ground conditions.

2008 Digital Aerial Photography

This is the first high-resolution imagery set that was acquired for RI. It provides a high quality comparative quality/resolution base layer to observe changes to forests and surrounding areas between 2008 and the dates of the most recent imagery. 

1939 Aerial Imagery

The oldest available statewide set of historical aerial images, collected in May 1939. These are black-and-white non-orthocorrected, non-georeferenced, aerial photographs of Rhode Island scanned from hard copy photo positive prints from the collection of photographs held by the Rhode Island Department of Administration Statewide Planning Program.

2015-18 Spongy Moth (formerly Gypsy Moth) Defoliation

This series of satellite images from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the extent of forest defoliation in Rhode Island over a period of significant caterpillar infestation in successive years that caused extensive tree mortality in parts of the state.