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In comparison to the previous period (1989-92) remote 
sensing activity has expanded with a shift to a higher 
number of person years reported for the 1992-96 period, 
with one-third more companies reporting increased effort 
expended. This trend concurs with responses to a 
separate question in which 23 respondents (64%) 
indicated that their remote sensing activities had 
expanded during the 1992-96 period whilst 10 (28%) 
noted that activities had remained at a constant level. 
Only three organisations, all from the private sector, 
indicated that their remote sensing activities had in fact 
declined during the time period. 
3.2 Applications 
Respondents were asked to apportion their activities in 
remote sensing to the applications listed in Table 3.2. 
Although some confusion in interpreting the question is 
acknowledged as the categories are not necessarily 
mutually exclusive, types of activity were usually further 
broken down into particular applications. 
TABLE 3.2 Applications and activities of remote sensing 
organisations: 
only five respondents indicating total 100% activity in one 
particular category. Three of these were research 
organisations, but two private companies specified 100% 
activity in Manufacturing, Software and Development 
(Erdas UK Ltd. and Matra Marconi). Of particular activities 
apart from education, research and consultancy, the 
largest number of respondents were involved in 
manufacturing/software development (12) and change 
monitoring (12), followed by hydrology/oceanography (6). 
Interestingly, some categories were not indicated for any 
activity or applications work, namely National Survey and 
defence/police/emergency services - either reflecting a 
poor coverage or response from companies involved in 
this research or the lack of potential near market 
applications of current remote sensing technologies in 
these categories. 
3.3 Techniques 
The number of organisations indicating involvement in the 
following Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 
techniques are listed as follows: 
TABLE 3.3 Techniques: 
  
Main Major Minor 
>50% 10- <10% 
  
50% 
Institution/Profession/Trade matters 1 1 
Education/Training 8 14 2 
Research 11 15 
Consultancy 16 2 
Manufacture/Software development 4 6 2 
Distribution/support/maintenance 1 2 2 
National Survey 
Project Mapping 2 
National Resource Survey 
Project Resource Survey 3 1 
Protection of Environment 3 
Defence/Police/Emergency Services 
Hydrology/Oceanography 6 
Meteorology/Space A 4 
Monitoring Change 7 5 
Other - Geology 1 1 
Other - Ecology 1 
Other - Oil Exploration 1 
Other - Scientific Support 2 
  
The different sectors of the remote sensing community 
showed characteristically different usage patterns with 
educational establishments naturally rating 
Education/Training, Research and Consultancy as their 
predominant activities, generally in that order of 
preference in the respective categories (6, 8, 0 education; 
6, 8, 0 research; 0, 6, 0 consultancy). Some research 
institutions maintained responsibilities in 
Education/Training (1,2,1) but principal activities 
concentrated on research (7,1,0) with less emphasis on 
consultancy (0, 2,1). 
The interesting highlight is the broad range of 
applications in which most institutions were involved with 
91 
Photogrammetry using space imaging 7 
Photogrammetry using aerial photographs 12 
Photogrammetry using video/scanned aerial images 6 
. Architectural photogrammetry 3 
Archaeological photogrammetry 1 
Remote sensing using space imagery 34 
Remote sensing using scanned aerial imagery 22 
Remote sensing using terrestrial imagery 14 
Photogrammetry or remote sensing using with GIS — 25 
Other - Modelling : 1 
Many organisations indicating a primary interest in remote 
sensing indicated an involvement in using 
photogrammetric techniques, principally photogrammetry 
using information derived from space imagery (7), as well 
as more conventional; approaches using aerial 
photographs. The development and change to digital 
photogrammetric systems, improved quality of colour 
scanner and plotters, improved software capabilities to 
automatically generate orthophoto products and digital 
terrain models and the subsequent integration of these 
products with remote sensing and within GIS were seen 
by several organisations as significant changes during 
the study period. 
All organisatons used digital remotely sensed data 
derived from space sensors as the fundamental basis for 
their activities but 65% indicated that airborne digital 
imagery was also used to a significant level, perhaps 
indicative of the increased investment by NERC in 
airborne technologies as well as greater levels of 
awareness and interest among commercial companies. 
3.4 Education 
The growth and awareness of remote sensing at all levels 
in the educational sector has continued. Increasingly, the 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996