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Called the capital of Google Earth, the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia has used Google Earth and maps to extensively chart its location.

Nanaimo, British Columbia
(Photo Credit: British Columbia)

"With Nanaimo, they have mapped nearly every conceivable thing using Google Earth and Google Maps," Michael Jones, Google Earth's chief technology officer, said last August at a conference in Vancouver. "Their citizens have more information about their city than the people of San Francisco."

On the Google Earth Blog, Frank Taylor writes," Nanaimo has some amazing content available for GE which includes maps, information on city parks, 3D visualization of the buildings, parcel information, and complete business listings."

"Recently Nanaimo announced (PDF) they have a new tool allowing citizens (and the world) to track real-time fire department incident reports on Google Maps (or you can save it to your My Maps and view it in Google Earth as well).

Time Magazine did a recent article on Nanaimo, called "How Google Earth Ate Our Town" which talks about the project and how the city hopes its efforts will be good for tourism.

"The real benefit is on the economic development and economic activity side," said Per Kristensen, Nanaimo's chief technology officer. "The more information people have, the more they see about Nanaimo."

Taylor writes," Visit the City of Nanaimo web site to find out even more about this very geo-progressive town. There are more maps and GIS information available there. All the news about these data and tools, combined with the beautiful summer-time aerial photography of Nanaimo, is sure to improve the tourism."