2. EXISTING REMOTE SENSING AND
PHOTOGRAMMETRY RESOURCES
The 1988 inventory of existing resources in the
field of remote sensing and photogrammetry,
performed by the GDTA (France), revealed two
categories of information resources.
= computerised multidisciplinary and
specific thematic databases produced
by major database suppliers available
through online information retrieval
systems
= documentary | resources on remote
sensing and/or photogrammetry existing
at various organisations and
laboratories
2.1 Computerised multidisciplinary databases
This category covers large multidisciplinary
bibliographic reference databases, such as:
NASA (USA) basically aerospace oriented,
containing some references on
remote sensing and photogrammetry
NTIS (USA) containing earth sciences
references
COMPENDEX (UK) dealing with engineering,
including remote sensing records
oriented towards electronics
including remote sensing records
INSPEC (UK)
PASCAL (France)including records in the
field of remote sensing and
photogrammetry
GEOBASE (UK) covering in its part G, the
remote sensing, photogrammetry
and cartography records
2.2 Computerised Specific or Thematic Databases
This category covers specific databases oriented
towards the earth and/or water resources, such
as:
CAB (UK) and dedicated to agriculture
AGRIS (FAO)
oriented towards water
and marine issues
Selected Water
Resources (USA)
and ASFA (FAO)
GEOLINE (DE) covering geosciences,
including surveying and
mapping with remote sensing
GEOREF (USA) dedicated to geology and
earth sciences
research progress dedicated
to developing countries
IBISCUS (France)
RESORS concentrating on remote
(Canada) sensing, surveying and
mapping as related
to remote sensing
2.3 Other documentary resources
This category covers mainly remote sensing
and/or photogrammetry centres and organisations
located in Europe, such as:
ITC International Institute for Aerospace
Survey and Earth Sciences
(Netherlands) having significant
dedicated resources in particular
theses and technical reports
GDTA Groupement pour le Développement de la
Télédétection Aérospatiale (France)
having resources such as papers of the
various symposia it organises,
unpublished documents such as DESS
students' study reports and technical
reports
IGN Institut Géographique National
(France) possessing its own
computerised database containing
records of theses and technical
reports in the field of photogrammetry
GSTS Groupement Scientifique de
Télédétection de Strasbourg (France)
having semi-computerised records of
publications such as congress
proceedings, theses and study reports
ORSTSOM | now Laboratoire d'Informatique
Appliquée (France) producing an
internal database of journals
articles, conference proceedings,
monographs and unpublished documents
UCL Université Catholique de Louvain,
Laboratoire de Télédétection (Belgium)
having computerised records of journal
articles, theses etc..
In his Kyoto 1988 paper "Information Retrieval
for Literature and Factual Data in
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing",
Prof. J. Hotmer also mentioned the following
non-computerised systems:
= Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen (DE).
Publishing literature references in
the field of remote sensing and
photogrammetry
= The Chinese Society of Geodesy
Photogrammetry and Cartography.
Publishing an abstract journal
= The VINITI (former USSR).
Publishing the abstract journal
Geodesia y Aerofotosjemka covering
geodesy, photogrammetry and remote
sensing
= The AIDOS database (DE).
Covering surveying, mapping and remote
sensing (this database is not
available online)
3. | ANALYSIS AND STATUS OF EXISTING
RESOURCES
Various surveys analysing the major databases
dealing with remote sensing performed by
J. H. Ten Haken in 1982 and updated by the same
author in his 1988 paper "Data Bases in the
Field of Aerospace and Related Fields" indicated
that scientists in the field of photogrammetry
and remote sensing have a variety of databases
at their disposal for online searching and that
none of them offers a very comprehensive
coverage. Further analysis of this paper
evidenced then that the majority of these
databases were available through the European
Space Agency/Information Retrieval Service