For many years latest ortophotos were available for mapping in Estonia. This typically helped in figuring out if building, road or some other object exists or not. However 2025 ortophotos have not been uploaded. There has never been such a long delay. I’ve called Ruumiamet couple of times and they’ve said ortophotos will be available, but never given a date. This all may have happened due to defence or some other reasons.
So actual ortophotos are from 2023 and 2024. This means that many buildings that you see in reality do not exist any more. To avoid the later adding of nonexisting objects, I always try not to delete them, but to tag them as demolished:building=yes
This also means that new buildings and roads are shown in ortophotos as being in the middle of fields, forests or parking lots. Unless you have exact local knowledge, please do not remove them.
Alternatives? As of 2026/01 Bing and Mapbox have compared to Ruumiamet older satphotos, Esri sometimes has slightly newer ones. And from streetlevel Mapillary may be of best help.
I feel like we should write to Kati or someone else in the MaRu and ask for an explicit permission and a special link for OSM editing software. This is the way some other companies (including Mapbox and Maxar, up to a certain point) have conducted in the past.
Defense is only the silent reason. Officially someone complained to õiguskantsler that imagery violates their privacy. And unofficially it also contributes that last year MaRu was restructured under new ministry. From technical side, MaRu also got new cameras last year and their lawyers were bit worried if such high quality is allowed. Spoiler: the actual quality in Tallinn is not significantly better than before.
I wrote few posts here and there.. but it doesn’t make any impact.
You can request new imagery with teabenõue, but that can’t be added to editor directly. Maybe getting shared API key for OSM and storing it in Editor Layer index may help.. Mait is probably go-to person for initial discussion of what they can actually organize and then submit request to Kati or others.
Could you add hybrid layers from Maa- ja Ruumiamet wms service? Hybrid map layers contain more up to date info about buildings and roads than old 2024 OF.
As most of you probably already know because it was front-page news on ERR on monday, MaRu+MKM are prepearing a bill that would restrict access to aerial imagery. I finally got around to reading the document. While part restricting access to aerial imagery was somewhat widely published..
Liiga detailsete orto- ja kaldaerofotode avalikustamise probleemile on juhtinud tähelepanu ka õiguskantsler ja palunud Majandus- ja Kommunikatsiooniministeeriumil ning MaRu-l kaaluda võimalusi, kuidas saaks tagada tasakaalu avaliku huvi ja eraelu puutumatuse vahel. (page 9)
Turns out other half of proposal is to turn aerial imaging into paid service for corporate customers.
Ruumiandmed ei ole tänapäeval pelgalt kaardid, vaid digitaalse ühiskonna alustala (p14) /../ Tellimuspõhine aeromõõdistamine võimaldab ettevõtetel saada täpseid andmeid just neile
sobival ajal, ootamata riiklikku üldtsüklit, mis kiirendab suurprojektide elluviimist. (page 15)