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The net
result is further constraint on the replacement of specialist
staff on retirement or of equipment except by a small
number of institutions. Apart from City University and
UCL, the number of photogrammetric teaching staff in
each department is 1-2. Nevertheless all educationalists
except two report a modest expansion of
photogrammetric activities in the four year period, linked
in all cases to the introduction of digital photogrammetric
systems, most commonly lower-cost systems suitable for
educational instruction.
Except in specialist university departments of
photogrammetry and surveying, such as UCL, Newcastle
University, City University and the University (formerly
Polytechnic) of East London, timetable pressure ensures
that photogrammetry is increasingly taught as an integral
component of spatial data handling. For example, in the
MSc in Topographic Science course at Glasgow
University, photogrammetry is now taught within the
cartography and geoinformation technology stream. This
trend has been accentuated by the increased prominence
of GIS and facilitated by the advent of digital
photogrammetric systems.
The four-month certificate course in Air Survey
Photography introduced by UCL in 1991 has
subsequently run in 1992, 1994 and 1996. The perceived
demand for a photogrammetric operators' training course
is not currently being met in the UK.
To assist in the promulgation of photogrammetry in the
UK to the science community generally and to occasional
users, the Photogrammetric Society is initiating a number
of simple promotional and educational measures.
2.5 Facilities and projects
Facilities in the United Kingdom for government and
private commercial companies remain adequate. While
the number of air survey aircraft for metric photography
has remained constant (5), an increasing number of
aircraft are used with small format film and digital
cameras for aerial reconnaissance activities, often for
promotional oblique photography. FMC has become the
industry standard on metric air survey cameras, and
second-hand cameras fitted with FMC are being
purchased by smaller organisations. Air survey and
terrestrial cameras for contract or internal use are
common.
The Ordnance Survey has purchased 3 analytical plotters
for rural revision work and more recently 12 monoplotting
workstations have been introduced for scanner and
orthorectification procedures, also for rural revision work.
The number of digital photogrammetric systems has
increased sharply but in two contrasting ways: the low
cost DMS unit has been introduced in significant numbers
by educational establishments and in one case by a
private company as an additional work unit; higher quality
digital workstations have been introduced by a few private
companies and by specialist educational establishments.
The overhaul of rural revision mapping started by the
Ordnance Survey in the 1950s has finally been
89
completed, and the subsequent rolling revision of the
Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 scale map data for rural areas
is generating work for private companies. Surveys for
major motorway design are expected to decrease but are
still providing a main source of work. The Channel Tunnel
rail link and associated infrastructure has required
extensive route surveys and mapping.
Major close range projects have included the architectural
and archaeological recording at Windsor Castle after the
disastrous fire in the State Apartments in November
1992; and the archaeological and topographic recording
at Stonehenge, both projects by English Heritage. A
programme of architectural recording of all Royal Palaces
and other major buildings is in operation. The British
Antarctic Survey continues its programme of mapping in
Antarctica using small format aerial photography, GPS
and satellite imagery.
2.6 Research and development
Instrument manufacture and software development in the
UK continues to be in the hands of a very small number
of organisations. Cartographic Engineering, apart from its
very successful scanning stereoscopes and AP190
analytical plotter, introduced the CP2 analytical plotter
and associated software in 1993 and the HS 1, the first of
a planned new range of mirror stereoscopes with digital
height readout, in 1995. Ross Instruments produced a
new analytical plotter AP2000 in 1996.
UCL has developed a remote digital measurement
system for work in hazardous (radioactive) environments
using CCD based cameras. Other areas of current
research at UCL include automated digital
photogrammetry and machine vision; as-built surveying of
industrial plant; topographic mapping from satellite
imagery; and medical photogrammetry for reconstructive
surgery. Newcastle University is testing a Photo CD for
converting images into digital form, and City University is
researching into automated 3-D measurement using
multiple CCD camera views, as well architectural and
engineering plant modelling.
2.7 Significant changes in the period 1992-1996
While photogrammetry in the UK has the attributes of a
mature enabling science, continued developments in
related technologies have consolidated photogrammetry's
position within spatial data management. Although
economic factors have increasingly dominated policies
and schedules in governmental, private and educational
organisations, and act as a major constraint, nevertheless
developments and initiatives are apparent.
e Analytical plotters have effectively replaced analogue
plotters for production processes, for example in the
Ordnance Survey, Photarc Surveys and Atkins AMC,
although many analogue plotters, often with digital
encoders, remain in educational establishments.
e Analytical plotters have provided an impetus to close-
range photogrammetry, for architectural and industrial
plant operations.
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996
