Esri World Imagery and Wayback
World Imagery Wayback preserves previous published versions of Esri's World Imagery basemap. It is useful when a previous basemap image shows a landscape before development, a slip, vegetation clearance or another change.
Esri describes World Imagery as one-metre-or-better aerial/satellite imagery for much of the world's landmass with lower-resolution coverage globally. Wayback stores each published basemap release as a dated version. The archive extends back to February 2014.
Important date distinction
The Wayback release date is not necessarily the image acquisition date. A basemap published in 2024 can contain imagery captured earlier. Inspect item/source metadata before using a release date as a change date.
Useful workflow
- open Wayback and navigate to the area
- turn on only versions where imagery actually changed
- use swipe/compare tools to identify candidate dates
- open the relevant imagery item metadata where available
- corroborate important change with LINZ survey imagery, council imagery or another dated source
Good uses
- quickly finding a previous view of an urban/rural landscape
- discovering that a feature existed before/after a broad time period
- locating a likely change to investigate with stronger dated imagery
Limitations
Wayback is an archive of a basemap product, not a complete chronological archive of every image collected for a location. For New Zealand historical aerial research, LINZ historical imagery is usually the stronger primary source.
Current Esri reference: Create more with World Imagery Wayback (July 2026).
Last reviewed: 26 August 2026