TT REA 
The interpretation technigue in geological studies of 
folded mountain areas is represented in the case of the Pamiro- 
Alay region. Geomorphological-glaciological and hydrological 
aspects of studies are considered in the case of investigating 
the tectonic structure and landforms of the Southern Baikal 
region, the ancient glacial relief of GDR's nothern part, the 
landforms of the coast of the Okhotsk and Baltic seas, the 
thermokarst relief and river flood-plains topography of Central 
Yakutia, the glaciation of the Pamiro-Alay region, the distribu- 
tion of river flow discharge into lake Baikal. Vegetation studies 
are conducted with the semi-desert and desert vegetation of 
South-eastern Kazakhstan and forest vegetation of the Southern 
Baikal region and Central Yakutia taken as examples. Landscape 
mapping covers the arid landscapes of piedmont areas and inter- 
montane depressions of South-eastern Kazakistan and Central Asia, 
mountain-taiga landscapes of the Northern Baikal region, as well 
as the landscapes of the Central part of GDR. The instances of 
South-eastern Kazakhstan and a portion in the GDR's central part 
show the applicational range of space images for purposes of 
territorial physical-geographical subdivision. Besides the studies 
of natural resources the atlas also presents some trends of 
social-economic studies - the mapping of agricultural land use 
and settlement pattern, and the study of man's impact upon the 
natural environment in the case of mapping contemporary land- 
scapes with their antropogenic modifications. These studies were 
carried out in the Soviet Union's Central Asian areas and in GDR. 
The basic range of tasks solved by the atlas is methodical 
tasks. At present, the technique of interpreting conventional, 
not multiband aerial photographs, is worked out well and is widely 
known. The traditional and very well worked-out technology of 
processing such images is being utilized successfully in practice. 
The atlas presents a complex of techniques to process multiband 
aerial and space images on different levels of technical 
performance - visual, instrumental and automatized, In visual 
interpretation, to deal with colour synthesized images is the 
most universal way. In using series of zonal images, several 
techniques are employed. The simplest technique - the choice of 
optimal spectral band for interpreting concrete phenomena is 
effective only for some objects, for instance, the shore-line of 
shallow water bodies and, therefore, enjoys a comparatively 
limited application. Comparison of a series of zonal images with 
the use of the spectral image of the photographed objects, 
determined approximately with the help of the test scale of 
densities, is feasible when interpreting objects which tend to 
have a specific run of spectral brightness, especially to 
discriminate among the forest-forming species in mapping forest 
vegetation, to identify glacial boundaries and the firn-line 
through the differences in the image of snow with different 
moisture content etc. 
Successive interpretation of a series of zonal images, 
using the effect of the optimal representation of various objects 
in certain special bands, is applied to differentiate tectonic 
fractures of different ranks, successive studies of water bodies 
at different depths and so on. 
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