What are street view imagery?

Street imagery (street view) consists of ground-level photos along roads and paths, often as 360° panoramas. You see facades, pavements, posts, signs, and small objects as if standing on site — detail orthophotos and oblique imagery do not always provide.

In GIS and public-space work street imagery supports validation (does the BGT match?), inspection, enforcement, and participation. Municipalities and safety regions combine it with map layers to assess locations without an immediate site visit. Historical series show how a street changed over time.

In GeoApps you open street imagery in the Viewer without leaving the app. Google Street View offers global coverage; Cyclomedia Street Smart delivers Dutch street imagery with high resolution and history. Both integrations tie position and viewing direction to the map, alongside oblique and orthophoto layers.

Street imagery is not an orthophoto (no scalable top-down map) or oblique imagery (aerial angle). It mainly covers public space along route networks, not backyards hidden behind hedges unless visible from the road. Essential raster imagery alongside vector data and fieldwork.