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SYMPOSIUM PHOTO INTERPRETATION, DELFT 1962 
and other factors are also relevant, either in whole or in part, to this symposium 
since an assessment of accessibility and potential for communications develop 
ment, as well as water and power supply locations, can often be determined 
with the help of aerial survey techniques. 
I would, however, be failing in my duty to this audience if I ignored the 
importance of two of the items enumerated - the markets which must be 
appraised, and the capital investment involved. These require to be assessed 
by staff with adequate qualifications in these fields. Lest you think that I am 
getting away from the purpose of this symposium, I should like to stress my 
own experience on the basis of forest inventory studies carried out in parts of 
North America, Africa and the Near East. The investigations were the usual 
forest inventory operations, mapping forest types and carrying out volume 
assessment by field sampling of the growing stock in these forests, on which to 
base future development plans. The bulk of the work was in the field using 
aerial photographs, and the end product was always a series of maps together 
with a report covering the area investigated. All too often these reports were 
reviewed and then pigeon-holed for lack of capital investment, or for lack of 
constructive interest in forestry or forest industries development. But the im 
pression was that stock-taking, as such, did not provide enough information 
on which to base investment decisions. What was needed was an assessment 
of all the factors mentioned, which one forester or photo interpreter could not 
carry out alone. It is a job for a team of specialists who, welded into a whole 
by an experienced project appraisal man, can formulate plans for develop 
ment based on a sound and practical assessment of the conditions in a project 
area, and the potential for development revealed by this appraisal. 
A study of one aspect alone, e.g. forest resources, is not enough, and it is for 
this reason that there is an increasing trend throughout the world towards 
integrated resource surveys, which has developed in the past decade. Many 
of us working in this field welcome this development, since we have become 
aware that concentration on one or two important aspects may lead to the 
exclusion of other aspects, which may be less important from the economic 
viewpoint, but which are vitally important from social or other considerations. 
An example is an area at present undeveloped in the Middle East, which has 
considerable forest resources and also substantial water resources, both of 
which are at present inefficiently utilised. The country itself imports the bulk 
of its pulp and paper requirements, and it also has an increasing population 
whose literacy rate is rising rapidly. We can, therefore, confidently predict an 
increased demand for pulp and paper products in this country, which could 
be met from its present resources. The establishment of a pulp and paper 
industry requires, in addition to supplies of fibrous raw material, substantial 
quantities of water and electric power, which in this case could be generated 
by hydroelectric schemes whose engineering works could also serve to conserve 
the water required for the manufacturing processes. Also, there are areas of 
land at present subject to seasonal inundation, whose soils are suitable for a 
wide variety of agricultural crops. Engineering works on the catchments could