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Conclusions.
Globally, one may affirm that the applied method
and techniques have allowed to approach the problem of generali-
zation:at the scale of 1:250.000 from a new point of view. They
have yielded good results that can be used in the redaction of
small scale maps.
However, three remarks have to be made.
This proceeding, as all cartographic techniques,
entails the checking of the results by referring to the maps or
photographs. :
On the other hand, owing to the variable climatic
conditions, the towns do not appear with the same density level
even though they have a similar structure, and, a same town can
have different density levels on two different photographs. But
this is true for every magnetic or photographic recording.
As far as cartographic techniques are concerned,
the symbols utilized for the redaction of a 1:250.000 map invol-
ve the exageration of some conventional signs such as the roads,
which implies the removal of flat tints representing the built-
up areas situated along the axes of communication. Consequently
in most cases the results on film cannot be used as such.
We may however conclude that, considering the nu-
merous difficulties encountered in conventional and classic ge-
neralization, the use of LANDSAT photographs represents an ap-
preciable new source of information. The method and the techni-
ques yield results that have an interesting normative. value
after been adapted to the proceeding of cartographic redaction.
Moreover they are an interesting source of useful references
because of the diversity of the base documents generally used
(photographs and maps at different scales dating from differents
periods).
But we must point out that the use of photographs
has its limits, whatever methods are applied, for they represent
a considerable loss of information in comparison whith the ori-
ginal magnetic tapes. The use of these tapes would enable us to
solve much more rigorously the problem of the delimitation of
ground occupations and this the more efficiently as the resolu-
tion increases in the future. Nevertheless, the RBV photographs
of the satellite LANDSAT 3 that give a resolution of 40 m will
probably enable us to produce by densitometry, documents of
greater accuracy.