task was the acquisition of high altitude photography enabling
interpretation of geological structures. Works on geological in
terpretation of thermal photographs were carried out in coopera
tion with geologists. Good agreement has been found between the
documented natural gas deposits and thermal anomalies appearing
on aerial photographs taken in far infrared.
Maps of various components of the invironment of highly urbanized
and industrialized areas are an important aid for regional- plan
ners. These are land utilization maps based on the interpretation
of setellite imagery and other, more specialized products. For
example: land utilization map of Warsaw and its environs has been
elaborated by out specialists during their training in USA; map •
showing the distribution of ground temperature in Warsaw was ela
borated by our staff on the basis of thermal images taken from an
aircraft.
Our team has noted considerable achievements in acquisition of
remotely sensed data on land utilization, including agricultural
land utilization. The results of our research in the field of
agriculture are very promissing; we hope that in the future it
will be possible to replace the conventional census with a more
reliable and quicker method - remote sensing.
Besides the Earth surface, also the lower layers of the atmos
phere can be investigated by means of remote sensing. A survey
of microclimate in the area of planned housing estate is an
example of such application of remote sensing. The staff of our
Institute has elaborated a new method of delimitation of sani
tary zones around industrial plants. The method, based on the in
terpretation of aerial photographs acquired by means of various
techniques, has been successfully applied.
Research on the possibilities of application of remote sensing
in agriculture is carried out, to a large extent, in cooperation
with agricultural research institutes. Research works have been
focused on the identification of genotypes of several cereals
and other cultivated plants. It has been established that envi
ronmental factors, the density of sowing and the density of
fertilization do' not significantly affect the spectral response
of plants. The results of interpretation are very promissing for
the future. The next task is an attempt at crop forecasting.
The water content in the soil is another important factor in
fluencing the yield. Our Centre has also undertaken research on
water content in soil throughout the growing season. Multispec-
tral aerial photography, imagery acquired during manned space
missions launched by the Soviet Union, as well as landsat data
will be utilized in our agricultural program.
The application of remote sensing in the field of forestry has
already brought about substantial achievements. Out works have
been mainly focused on surveying sanitary conditions of forests
under harmful influence of biotic and abiotic factors. The tech
nology of acquisition and elaboration of false-colour photo
graphy, has been mastered and applied in practice. Large
scale inventory on the degree of forest damage caused by insects
has been carried out. The method of delimitation of zones of
different degree of damage to pine species due to industrial