Aerial photography has been used for centuries to capture images of the Earth from a bird's eye view. It has been employed for a variety of purposes, from archaeological research to environmental monitoring. In this article, we will explore the two major uses of aerial photography: land use and land cover studies, and archaeological reconnaissance. Before World War II, the use of aerial photography as a geographical tool was still largely experimental.
However, in the post-war world its use became commonplace. Planners responsible for the reconstruction of devastated cities in Europe and Japan were among the first to widely utilize aerial photography as a tool. The prehistoric agricultural systems of areas such as Mexico and the Pacific Islands consist of low terraces and mounds and earthen embankments that were easily mapped from aerial photographs, saving countless hours of field studies and cartography. The archaeologist OGS Crawford was a pioneer in the use of aerial photography for archaeological purposes, as he saw its potential to study the English landscape.
Land cover can be directly estimated by small-scale aerial photographs and by means of large-scale satellite images. Aerial reconnaissance is not as useful for geologists due to the relative cost and difficulty of interpretation compared to archaeological applications, but it has uses and benefits, and the historical record of changes in the natural landscape is vital to understanding how the landscape may change in the future. The pricing policy of the United States also began to favor satellite images, especially since LiDAR also challenged aerial photography as a common data source for digital terrain modeling. One advantage of aerial photography is that it is often flown at relatively low altitudes, thus capturing fine details, such as buildings, masses of trees, roads, bodies of water, etc. The first commercial aerial photography company in the United Kingdom was Aerofilms Ltd, founded by World War I veterans Francis Wills and Claude Graham White in 1919. Another successful pioneer of the commercial use of aerial photography was the American Sherman Fairchild, who created his own aeronautical company Fairchild Aircraft to develop and build specialized aircraft for high-altitude aerial reconnaissance missions. These levels of spatial resolution are close to the resolution obtained by standard aerial photography.
Aerial photography predates satellite images, making it a valuable source of data on historic landscapes. There are many elements in an aerial study that must be taken into account to ensure that the data are useful enough to extrapolate what is being investigated. Aerial photography has been used for centuries to capture images from a bird's eye view. In this article, we will explore two major uses: land use and land cover studies, and archaeological reconnaissance. Before World War II, using aerial photography as a geographical tool was still largely experimental. However, after the war its use became commonplace.
Planners responsible for rebuilding devastated cities in Europe and Japan were among the first to widely utilize it as a tool. The prehistoric agricultural systems of areas such as Mexico and the Pacific Islands consist of low terraces and mounds and earthen embankments that could be easily mapped from aerial photographs, saving countless hours of field studies and cartography. The archaeologist OGS Crawford was a pioneer in using aerial photography for archaeological purposes; he saw its potential to study the English landscape. Land cover can be directly estimated by small-scale aerial photographs or large-scale satellite images. Aerial reconnaissance is not as useful for geologists due to its relative cost and difficulty of interpretation compared to archaeological applications; however, it has uses and benefits, and its historical record of changes in the natural landscape is vital to understanding how it may change in the future. The pricing policy of the United States also began favoring satellite images, especially since LiDAR also challenged aerial photography as a common data source for digital terrain modeling.
One advantage of aerial photography is that it is often flown at relatively low altitudes, thus capturing fine details such as buildings, masses of trees, roads, bodies of water etc. The first commercial aerial photography company in the United Kingdom was Aerofilms Ltd., founded by World War I veterans Francis Wills and Claude Graham White in 1919. Another successful pioneer in commercializing aerial photography was American Sherman Fairchild; he created his own aeronautical company Fairchild Aircraft to develop and build specialized aircraft for high-altitude reconnaissance missions. These levels of spatial resolution are close to those obtained by standard aerial photography. Aerial photography predates satellite images; thus making it a valuable source of data on historic landscapes. There are many elements in an aerial study that must be taken into account to ensure that its data are useful enough to extrapolate what is being investigated.
