SMALL FORMAT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE KAMPONG IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME 
P. Hofstee, M. Juppenlatz, E.J. Lohman, R.W. Lorenz 
International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) 
THE NETHERLANDS 
INTRODUCTION 
Small format photography (SFP) as an appropriate technology will play an important role in the near 
future and further on, as ít is a cheap, quick and suffiently accurate method to produce up-to-date 
aerial potography for the first investigation and even for the production of simple maps for projecting 
activities within very short time. Updating of existing older maps by means of SFP is a useful and fast 
method to get the relevant situation on the base map. 
The development of this appropriate technology is an activity of the department Urban Studies in 
cooperation with the departments Aerial Photography and Cartography. 
Short courses respectively workshops are prepared and run in areas where it is urgently needed, 
as e.g. in Indonesia. 
In Australia, in the Netherlands and in other countries of Europe SFP is already applied in disease 
detection in forestry, recreation, detection of water pollution, road construction and other fields. 
Cities in developing countries face the most serious difficulties in untertaking the survey and 
preparatory work to meet the immense increase in population and settlement. The systematic surveying, 
and monitoring, of these urban changes, and the survey techniques appropriate to the needs, are far 
in arrears. 
The United Nations estimate the present (1980) world population at 4.4 billion. Urban population is 
estimated to be at 1.8 billion or approximately 40% of the total. 1.0 billion are centres in the 
developing countries. By the year 2000 the total estimated urban population might be 3.4 billion or 
55% of the total. 2.2 billion of which will be urban centres in the developing countries. 
The urban population will at least double within the next 20 years. The above figures illustrate the 
need for a simple, cheap and reasonable accurate survey system for recording, collecting and interpreting 
urban data. These data are essential if the governments in the developing countries are to cope with 
the backlog of infrastructural requirements, housing programme, squatter upgrading projects, etc. 
Because of slum improvement and squatter upgrading projects form the most important problems both 
in terms of amount of land occupied and urgancy for urban reneval, the main focus of urban data collection 
needs to be directed toward these subjects. Rapid changes within these areas and the uncontrolled 
growth of the urban fringes will require a system of data collection and map-making which gives easy 
access to all relevant data, urgently needed by decision-makers, for preparing the necessary conceptual, 
comprehensive and detailed plans for the various areas under investigation. 
Both quantitative and qualitative data are often incomplete, outdated or non-existant, caused primarily 
by shortages of financial resources and trained personnel. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to 
acquire the needed data because of the physical complexity of the area under study, or a negative 
attitude of its inhabitants. The time element can also be an important restriction. In fast-growing 
areas, any survey of long duration is outdated before the final results are available. 
It is in this context, that aerial photography - when used by skilled interpreter - has become a 
valuable and efficient survey tool. For example, aerial photography immediately indicate the spatial 
element, i.e. the dimensions and layout of urban areas, in the form of road patterns, the sizes, 
patterns, densities and types of dwelling units, open spaces, the topography of the land, accessibility 
to the various plots, surrounding land uses, etc. Moreover, use of consecutive aerial photography 
permits obeservation of the actual processes of physical change. 
As common aerial survey photography nowadays is produced with the format 23*23 cm? and as it is produced 
with mapping cameras of high accuracy and high cost and as due to its weight larger type of aircraft 
is required and as the flying cost get continuously increasing and are already high and as normal aerial 
survey photography producing activity depends in the first instance on the weather conditions, the 
execution of an aerial photography producing mission may take a long time until it is completed. 
The production of maps with highly sophisticated systems leads to accurate maps, there is no doubt about 
that, but on the other side, it takes a long time to have then the very accurate and very detailed 
map available. An appropriate technology is then at its place when the above mentioned problems are 
to be solved in a short time. 
The SMALL FORMAT PHOTOGRAPHY is the first part - the acquistion of primary data - of such.a technology 
which is cheap, quick, simple and suffiently accurate: the second part is the interpretation and the 
production of the town base maps. 
The purpose of this presentation is to expose the potential user and the photogrammetric expert to-this 
problem and to create interest amongst both; in the first instance the photogrammetrist (or generally 
the surveyor) should accept this appropriate technology as an activity even though it is not leading to 
the highest accuracy. SFP is not meant as a replacement of the existing and well established and very 
accurate mapping method. SFP should be seen as cheap, fast and simple method to gain in a very short 
time very valuable and very up-to-date data of local areas of interest. 
It has been proven how fast this method is: In a developing country, Indonesia, photography has been 
flown with a light aircraft in the morning, the exposed negative film (35 mm wide, photos taken with 
an ordinary amateur camera) has been brought to a local photo shop (which was well established) and a 
set of colour prints could be picked up in the evening of that same day. Enlargements (also in colour) 
could have been ready one or two days later. These photographic prints can then be used for the first 
investigations in the field the next day already. One may ask why could that not been done with a normal 
format camera (NFC) i,e.a camera with a 240 mm wide film; It could have been done but with extreme higher 
cost.(for such a small project). 
The following pages inform about the exhibit presented at this symposium (and at the lst Congress of 
Surveying and Cartography) on: SMALL FORMAT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
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