[ISP Commission VII, Invited Paper] 1 
Urban Survey with Aerial Photography: a time for Practice 
C A. de Bruijn, W.G.L. de Haas, P. Hofstee, A.B.M. Hijl and V.F.L. Pollé 
1 Introduction 
It is a remarkable fact that the systematic use of aerial photography, and 
in particular of photo-interpretation, in urban survey is of quite recent date. 
One of the first subjects of the airborne camera, the city of Paris, was pictured 
in 1858 by Nadar (after he had portrayed many of its inhabitants as a profes- 
sional photographer) and every other city has been photographed since then, 
at one time or another. A methodical application has, however, been delayed 
for various reasons, which are indicated briefly here. 
The first point is that aerial photography has proven extremely effective 
as a reconnaissance technique. Apart from military usage, the aerial photograph 
permitted the survey of vast, remote, hardly accessible and rather unknown 
areas, which would otherwise not have been mapped for a long time. Cities, on 
the other hand, have been relatively small and of easy access for many centu- 
ries; they could be mapped in traditional ways without great inconvenience. 
Secondly, the application of aerial photography has been actively stimulated 
by economic interests; this explains the early development of photo-geology 
and the use of photography in natural resource surveys in general. Urban 
surveys, however, did not offer such benefits. 
In the third place, the city shows by definition a dense concentration of 
cultural features and human activities within a limited area, which requires a 
highly detailed survey and large scale photography; hence, city surveys hardly 
fit into a multi-purpose scheme. 
Also, institutional factors are an important consideration here. Topo- 
graphic and natural resource surveys are as a rule the concern of centralised, 
well established governmental agencies: a favourable situation which does not 
apply to urban surveys at local government level. The urban application of 
aerial photography has thus lagged behind by the absence of a traditional 
professional framework as compared with topographical mapping and natural 
resource surveys. Only gradually has the urban area become a specialised 
field of study and a multi-disciplinary meeting place of town planners, urban 
geographers, urban sociologists and others interested in specific urban 
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