Remote sensing and land resources survey

Abstract

In 1839, when photography was born, man found a media to record events that he could see. So on he found that resources of the earth which he surveyed and recorded through mapping could be recorded on photographs and preserved. He then started thinking of recording these photographs from vantage points above the earth's surface to get a synoptic and map-like view of the earth objects. Photographic equipment were flown with baloons and the first airborne photograph was recorded over Paris in 1858. With the invention of aeroplane attempts to fly cameras started and in 1909 the first aerial photograph was obtained. A technology of resources survey was born. By World War I cameras were being used in aircraft for reconnaissance work, however the methods were still primitive. The only form of data extraction was photointerpretation of single or stereo pairs of black and white photography based on texture, shape, size and shadow. During World War II, there were advances in photographic techniques and interpretation methods. But it was not until the end of the war, when out-of-work photointerpretors started interpretation as a professional tool for topographic mapping and landuse survey, that the technique became a prominent and important scientific technology. At about this time, many photographic keys were developed for soil and landuse studies. It was during this period, that is in late 1940s and early 1950s, that a number of land resources surveys using aerial photographs covering extensive areas were carried out all over the world.