Prohibition on Automated Processing of Aerial Imagery Services
The users of our Discover imagery and basemap services, opens in a new tab play a vital role in keeping Utah’s geospatial infrastructure fast, reliable, and accessible. To ensure these services remain financially sustainable and available to all public partners, we need your help addressing a growing challenge regarding automated data processing.
The rapid growth of AI tools has made it easier than ever to perform complex analysis and automated processing of high-resolution aerial imagery. However, running these automated workflows directly against live Discover streaming endpoints (WMTS/WMS) creates large, unpredictable, and costly spikes in data transfer and cloud egress that are not budgeted for. As a result, it puts the services at-risk for everyone. A few recent instances of sudden, high-volume processing has prompted us to update our terms of service.
New Guidelines to Ensure Longevity and Stability
Automated, large-scale processing of imagery from the WMTS and WMS services is prohibited. This includes:
- Python scripting
- Computer vision or AI model training
- Any inference against the live service endpoints
We can provide a local copy of the data if it is needed for these purposes. UGRC reserves the right to cut off any users that are abusing the Discover service with exceedingly high-volume usage or failure to comply with usage guidelines.
Additional Guidelines
- Please don’t share your Discover quad-words outside of your organization.
- Only use the licensed Discover services for work associated with your organization (personal projects do not meet licensing requirements).
- Be mindful that the service is intended for desktop and web-based GIS usage.
For more details on the licensing agreement for Discover, check out the latest version, opens in a new tab of the terms of service.
If you have any questions or would like to reach out about a bulk data transfer, please contact our team at ugrc-discover-admins@utah.gov.