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NATIONAL REPORT OF FINLAND FOR 
     
PHOTOGRAMMETRY, REMOTE SENSING, GIS AND DIGITAL MAPPING 
1992-1995 
Jyrki Mononen 
Finnish Society of Photogrammetry 
and Remote Sensing 
ISPRS Commission VI 
KEY WORDS: Finland. National Report. 
ABSTRACT: 
The national report of Finland outlines activities and developments in photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS and digital mapping 
during the period 1992-1995. The sectors included in the report are of government, education, research and of private sector. There 
are also listed addresses and www-URLs of some organizations. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Mapping in Finland is practised by governmental 
organizations, municipal surveying offices and private 
companies. The national organizations concentrate on the 
small-scale mapping covering the whole country. Large-scale 
maps are made by municipal surveying offices and private 
companies. 
Research in the fields of photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS 
and digital mapping is mainly done in the national 
organizations, institutes and universities. 
Education of surveying at the university level is centred at the 
Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) at the department of 
Surveying. Fundamentals of photogrammetry and remote 
sensing are given also at some other universities. Education in 
photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS and digital mapping 
lower than university level is given in the branches of 
surveying in the State Institutes of Technical Education and in 
the municipal Espoo- Vantaa Institute of Technology. 
In the field of surveying, engineer is a new degree in Finland. 
Education in that level is given in the Espoo-Vantaa, Mikkeli, 
Rovaniemi and Vaasa Institute of Technology. The first 
surveying engineers will be graduated in year 1996. 
2. DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY 
During the years 1992-1995 development has been aimed to 
digital photogrammetry, GPS-based flight navigation and GPS- 
based determination of projection centres of aerial images. In 
the field of non-topographic photogrammetry, development has 
occurred concerning real-time photogrammetric systems. They 
have been taken into productive use in different industrial 
applications. 
Because private companies did not give any detailed 
information about their photogrammetric production, any exact 
numbers of taken photos or triangulation points or the mapping 
area are not listed here. Here are pointed out some facts that 
describe the development of photogrammetry, remote sensing, 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996 
GIS and digital mapping here in Finland during the years 
1992-1995. 
Analogue aerial images are commonly used for topographic 
mapping and digital images have been used for aerial 
aerotriangulation in some cases. Black-and-white films are the 
most commonly used in topographic mapping especially 
concerning scales smaller than 1:15000. Colour and colour- 
infra films are used almost as often as black-and-white films 
when the scale is bigger than 1:15000. Colour-infra films are 
the most commonly used for forestal interpretation and 
classification for forest taxation. 
Important is the implementation of DGPS in flight navigation 
and aerotriangulation. Nowadays projection centres of aerial 
images are determined using DGPS almost for all projects. 
That has helped to reduce significantly the number of the 
ground control points. Nearly. all triangulation during this 
period has been done by bundle block adjustment, just in a few 
cases triangulation was done by analogue model triangulation. 
The aim in triangulation is to use digital images and that is 
why there have been investigations how digital aerial image 
production should be arranged and executed. 
Orthoimages have been produced for 1:5000 scale orthoimage 
maps and for some experimental maps. The aim is to make 
orthoimages automatically using digital photos. 
The non-topographic activity has mostly been in the field of 
real-time photogrammetry. Real-time photogrammetric systems 
are used applications such as: robot guidance, road 
maintenance and deformation measurements. 
3. DEVELOPMENT OF REMOTE SENSING 
The remote sensing activities have increased during this 
period. In Finland, the development and applications of remote 
sensing are mostly concentrated on getting information from 
ice fields to use it to help winter shipping, for land-use 
classification, forestry and other environmental tasks. 
One environmental task is to monitor pollution and the 
prevalence of alga in waters. Applications concerning forestry