General Meeting of the Society is held, Other 
one- and two-day meetings and workshops are also 
organised often by the Special Interest Groups and 
often jointly with other societies. 
The period covered by this report has shown a huge 
increase in the number of remote sensing 
publications. In 1992, the International Journal 
will publish about 220 papers in 18 issues: this 
is to be compared with about 115 papers in 12 
issues in 1987 and 25 papers in four issues in 
1980. Dozens of books enter the market each year 
(0f special note is the Remote Sensing Yearbook) 
both as textbooks and conference proceedings. 
These are far too numerous to list. Many 
organisations now produce their own newsletters 
and bulletins. 
A landmark in this reporting period was the 
formation in October 1989 of the Survey & Mapping 
Alliance (SMA) to reflect the consensus of opinion 
on all aspects of surveying and mapping and to 
organise co-operative ventures. The need has 
long been recognised to bring together the 
traditional disciplines of land and hydrographic 
surveying, remote sensing, photogrammetry and 
cartography, with new technology for collecting 
and managing land information to meet the needs 
of our time. SMA has taken over responsibility 
for organising the fourth UK national Survey and 
Mapping conference in Spring 1993 for the nine 
participating societies and institutions: 
The British Cartographic Society 
The Hydrographic Society 
The Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors 
The Photogrammetric Society 
The Remote Sensing Society 
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors 
The Society of Surveying Technicians 
The Association for Geographic Information 
The Guild of Incorporated Surveyors 
Discussions are actively taking place between the 
Remote Sensing Society and the Photogrammetric 
Society into ways of drawing the two societies 
closer together, initially with 
benefits and mutual publicity. 
reciprocal 
The National Association of Aerial Photographic 
Libraries (NAPLIB) was also formed in 1989 to 
publicise and stimulate the use of existing 
sources of aerial photography and has prepared a 
directory of collections of aerial photography. 
2. PHOTOGRAMMETRY 
Photogrammetry provides scientific interest or 
employment or both for about one person in every 
60,000 of the working population of the United 
Kingdom (28.3 million in 1991). Employment in 
photogrammetry in the private sector and in the 
Ordnance Survey has declined as a result of the 
current economic recession, and increased 
productivity resulting from improved technology. 
Mergers amongst the larger manufacturers and 
distributors of photogrammetric instruments have 
also resulted in some staff rationalisation. Other 
sectors seem to have remained static or even 
expanded slightly. Photogrammetry is reported to 
provide employment for the equivalent of 387 full 
time person years including the proportion of 
people whose time is only partly devoted to 
photogrammetry. As our survey was not 
comprehensive, this must be an underestimate, 
52 
perhaps of around 20%. Few would regard photo- 
grammetry as their primary discipline, being 
trained in land surveying, engineering, 
information technology etc. It is particularly 
difficult to quantify the efforts of people who 
devote only a small proportion of their time to 
photogrammetry; those who cross the traditional 
barriers between surveying, cartography and data 
processing; lecturers who teach some  photo- 
grammetry amongst other surveying subjects; and 
those who apply photogrammetry and other 
techniques for measurement and analysis as expert 
users in medicine, industry, environmental 
sciences and the like. 
2.1 Changing patterns of employment 
There are now only three organisations employing 
more than 25 people in photogrammetry (Ordnance 
Survey, Directorate of Military Surveys, and BKS 
Surveys). Several of the large air survey 
companies, like Hunting Surveys which operated 
world-wide for forty years, have ceased operating 
and been succeeded by numerous small companies. 
As a result the number of private mapping 
companies which are corporate members of the 
Photogrammetric Society has increased from 9 to 
17 between October 1987 and October 1991. More 
than half the total number engaged in photo- 
grammetry work for 13 organisations which employ f 
between 6 and 25 people. 31 organisations employ 
between one and five people. 18 organisations 
(28$ of respondents) reported activity in photo- 
grammetry at less than one person year. There are 
probably many more in this category who were not 
sent questionnaires. 
TABLE 2.1 
Organisations providing employment in photo- 
grammetry with estimates of number of full time 
staff employed: 
Employment Number of Numbers employed 
(person years) Organisations (person years) 
Over 25 3 90 
6 - 25 13 195 
I~ 5 31 93 
Less than 1 18 9 
TOTALS 65 387 
2.2 Types of Organisation 
The private sector accounts for over half the 
organisations engaged in photogrammetry as users; 
manufacturers and system support; providers of 
aerial photography, mapping and close range 
measurement; and consultants. Educational 
establishments represent 25% and government 18%, 
divided between mapping, conservation of heritage 
and environment, and applied research. 
TABLE 2.2 Photogrammetric organisations by type: 
Government Private Non-profit 
Institution 
Number of 12 36 17 
Organisations 
Percentage 18% 56% 26% 
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