# Wanuskewin overhead imagery: verified options

Checked 2026-09-26 (America/Vancouver). Area: WGS84 bbox `[-106.610, 52.214, -106.580, 52.233]`. Research only; no account, purchase, message, or Google Maps request made. No SGIC image pixels saved or packaged.

## 1. SGIC: high-resolution live public-background service

The Saskatchewan government ImageServer has a specific published grant: **“For background image services on public websites. No further commercial re-distribution.”** Its supplied copyright/credit is **“Saskatchewan Geospatial Imagery Collaborative (SGIC)”**. This is a narrow public-background grant, not an open-data redistribution licence. [Service licence metadata](https://gis.saskatchewan.ca/imagery/rest/services/SGIC_Public_Orthophotos/ImageServer/info/iteminfo)

The broader FlySask imagery-access terms limit use to their applicable licensing provisions, require copyright notices to be retained and contents not modified, and prohibit exploitation for monetary reward without SRC's prior written consent. The terms do not explicitly discuss WebGL terrain draping or 3D backgrounds. This research therefore does **not** establish permission for a sold 3D product, offline redistribution, rehosting or derived commercial imagery. Direct service display should stay within the specific public-background grant; do not infer broader rights from CORS or technical availability. [FlySask terms](https://www.flysask2.ca/terms/)

### Coverage and acquisition evidence

The ImageServer spatial query intersects 20 catalog records over the bbox. They include 2008 (0.625 m), 2014 (0.5 m), and **2021 (0.30 m)** imagery. The two named 2021 source tiles are:

| Field | South tile | North tile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| OBJECTID | 77683 | 77695 |
| Name | 37_05_3_RGBN_2021 | 38_05_3_RGBN_2021 |
| Source | SGIC-Geodesy | SGIC-Geodesy |
| Project_Area_Name | Block21_103 | Block21_103 |
| Year_of_Data | 2021 | 2021 |
| Resolution | 0.300000012 m | 0.300000012 m |
| Date_of_Data | null | null |

The exact day/month is unavailable in the returned metadata. Six 2021 records include these source tiles and four overviews. Do not describe the service's global pixel-size value (~0.4 m) as this acquisition's source resolution. [Service and query entry point](https://gis.saskatchewan.ca/imagery/rest/services/SGIC_Public_Orthophotos/ImageServer)

### Direct live RGB request

Load from the service in the browser; do not use a previously generated temporary ArcGIS output URL or package an image file. Request parameters:

```text
f=image
bbox=-106.610,52.214,-106.580,52.233
bboxSR=4326
imageSR=4326
size=2048,2048
format=jpg
bandIds=0,1,2
adjustAspectRatio=false
mosaicRule={"mosaicMethod":"esriMosaicAttribute","where":"Year_of_Data = 2021","sortField":"Year_of_Data","sortValue":"2021","ascending":false}
```

[Direct live 2048 × 2048 RGB background](https://gis.saskatchewan.ca/imagery/rest/services/SGIC_Public_Orthophotos/ImageServer/exportImage?f=image&bbox=-106.610%2C52.214%2C-106.580%2C52.233&bboxSR=4326&imageSR=4326&size=2048%2C2048&format=jpg&bandIds=0%2C1%2C2&mosaicRule=%7B%22mosaicMethod%22%3A%22esriMosaicAttribute%22%2C%22where%22%3A%22Year_of_Data%20%3D%202021%22%2C%22sortField%22%3A%22Year_of_Data%22%2C%22sortValue%22%3A%222021%22%2C%22ascending%22%3Afalse%7D&adjustAspectRatio=false)

Verification using one in-memory image request:

- HTTP 200, `image/jpeg`, 453,961 bytes, RGB, 2048 × 2048.
- RGB range 18–237; standard deviation 23.375; zero all-black pixels. These checks establish nonempty imagery, not a visual QA of alignment or color.
- With request header `Origin: http://localhost:8000`, the response supplied `Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://localhost:8000`.
- Same request using `f=json` returned the **exact requested extent**, WGS84, and 2048 × 2048. Keep `adjustAspectRatio=false`; otherwise map-image aspect correction can change registration.
- Use a visible credit such as `Imagery: Saskatchewan Geospatial Imagery Collaborative (SGIC), 2021` linked to the metadata. Do not suggest ownership or endorsement.

The 0.30 m figure describes the source acquisition. A 2048 texture across this roughly 2.1 km area samples around one metre on the ground; a closer crop or larger request is needed to show more source detail.

Operational limitation: FlySask2 announces retirement on **2026-09-30**, with free public access continuing on FlySask3. The notice does not say whether the separate `gis.saskatchewan.ca` ImageServer changes. Preserve the openly licensed fallback below and treat this service as an online dependency. [Transition notice](https://www.flysask2.ca/)

## 2. Sentinel-2: freely reusable fallback, 10 m pixels

Use **S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A**, acquired **2025-06-30T18:19:49.554Z**. Whole-scene reported cloud cover is 0.006264%. [STAC item](https://earth-search.aws.element84.com/v1/collections/sentinel-2-l2a/items/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A)

| Asset | Direct COG |
| --- | --- |
| Ready-made true color, uint8 RGB | [TCI.tif](https://sentinel-cogs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sentinel-s2-l2a-cogs/13/U/CT/2025/6/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A/TCI.tif) |
| Red, B04 | [B04.tif](https://sentinel-cogs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sentinel-s2-l2a-cogs/13/U/CT/2025/6/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A/B04.tif) |
| Green, B03 | [B03.tif](https://sentinel-cogs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sentinel-s2-l2a-cogs/13/U/CT/2025/6/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A/B03.tif) |
| Blue, B02 | [B02.tif](https://sentinel-cogs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sentinel-s2-l2a-cogs/13/U/CT/2025/6/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A/B02.tif) |
| Scene classification, 20 m | [SCL.tif](https://sentinel-cogs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sentinel-s2-l2a-cogs/13/U/CT/2025/6/S2B_13UCT_20250630_0_L2A/SCL.tif) |

Account-free access is documented in the [AWS Open Data registry](https://registry.opendata.aws/sentinel-2-l2a-cogs/). The [Copernicus Sentinel licence](https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/licences/ec-sentinel) permits reproduction, distribution, public communication, adaptation and combination with other data. A processed crop should carry **“Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2025”**.

Rasterio window reads verified the area without downloading full tiles:

- CRS EPSG:32613; projected envelope `(390004.0346, 5786016.7388, 392099.5885, 5788174.9473)`.
- TCI window is approximately 210 × 216 native pixels; all pixels nonzero, RGB range 10–255.
- SCL window: class 4 vegetation = 8,458 pixels; class 5 bare/nonvegetated = 2,054; class 6 water = 797; class 7 unclassified = 31. No cloud, cloud-shadow, snow or nodata classes were present in the tested window. This is a classification check, not independent visual confirmation.
- Raw B04/B03/B02 bands are uint16; STAC supplies scale 0.0001 and offset -0.1. Use those metadata if composing reflectance; `TCI.tif` avoids inventing a stretch.
- Reproject precisely to the terrain's geographic bbox for texture use. A high-resolution output texture cannot add detail beyond these 10 m source pixels.

## 3. Google Map Tiles / Photorealistic 3D Tiles

Google requires a Cloud project with billing enabled, the Map Tiles API enabled, and an API key or OAuth on requests. This is not a no-account imagery source. Quotas can cap requests; a free usage allowance does not remove the billing prerequisite. [Setup](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile/get-api-key), [usage and billing](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile/usage-and-billing)

Photorealistic 3D Tiles uses an OGC 3D Tiles renderer and root URL `https://tile.googleapis.com/v1/3dtiles/root.json?key=YOUR_API_KEY`. Site-specific detailed 3D coverage at Wanuskewin was **not verified**. [Official overview](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile/3d-tiles-overview)

Google policies require logo/data attribution and restrict prefetching, storage and caching except under applicable terms; HTTP Cache-Control must be respected. They prohibit offline usage, image analysis and geodata extraction. Google imagery must therefore not be scraped, screen-captured into a reusable terrain texture, or stored as a bundled model asset. Live 3D integrations must aggregate visible-tile attribution. Own 3D objects may be overlaid if not derived from Google's tiles. [Official policies](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile/policies)

No Google account, billing, API key or coverage test was configured. Do not claim a Google integration works based on this research.