PHOTO INTERPRETATION AND HUMAN ECOLOGY OF THE CITY
In summary, the results of this research to
date permit the following conclusions with
reference to U. S. cities: (1) photo interpreta-
tion of urban areas provides accurate data on
physical-structural-spatial items such as resi-
dential housing types, numbers and densi-
ties, ecological location and distance, and
land use characteristics; (2) these physical
structural items are systematically related to
many features of the social and demographic
structure of the city; (3) the Guttman scale
analysis technique is an excellent method for
gaining maximum predictive power from the
photo data categories in multiple correlation
with the social data categories; and (4) by
this method, the photo interpretation data
may be translated into information pertain-
ing to urban social structure, including rank-
ings of subareas on population size and den-
sity and on socio-economic status.
All in all, the research program has devel-
oped quite convincing evidence that photo-
graphic interpretation is a profitable ap-
proach to problems in urban social analysis.
In some situations it may be the only source
for certain classes of data. It would seem de-
sirable, in extending this work, to test the de-
velopment on a larger sample of cities, and
particularly to investigate its transferability
to regions outside the United States. In so do-
ing, emphasis should be placed on the adapta-
bility of the techniques and procedures and
not on any notion that specific findings ob-
tained for U. S. cities will necessarily hold for
other areas. The underlying assumption is,
however, that socio-physical relationships
such as those revealed in the present work ex-
ist in varying forms in urban complexes cross-
Microforms and Features**
culturally. For this reason, aerial photogra-
phy may be used to derive social or non-ma-
terial information from the physical form and
material structure of the city.
REFERENCES
Green, Norman E. and Robert B. Monier. ''Re-
liability and Validity of Air Reconnaissance as a
Collection Method for Urban Demographic and
Sociological Information,” Technical Research
Report Number 11, Air University, Human
Resources Research Institute, Maxwell Air
Force Base, Alabama, January 1953.
Monier, Robert B. and Norman E. Green, ''Pre-
liminary Findings on the Development of Cri-
teria for the Identification of Urban Structures
from Aerial Photographs," Annals of the Associa-
tion of American Geographers (Special Volume),
Spring 1953.
Green, Norman, E. ‘““Aerial Photography in the
Analysis of Urban Structures, Ecological and
Social," Ph.D. dissertation (microfilm), Depart-
ment of Sociology and Anthropology, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
June 1955.
Green, Norman E. ''Scale Analysis of Urban
Structures: A Study of Birmingham, Alabama,"
American Sociological Review, XXI (February
1956), pp. 8-13.
Green, Norman E., “Aerial Photographic Analysis
of Residential Neighborhoods: An Evaluation of
Data Accuracy," Social Forces, Volume XXXV
(December 1956), pp. 142-147.
Green, Norman E. 'Aerial Photographic Inter-
pretation and the Social Structure of the City,”
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING, Vol. XXIII,
1, p. 89 (March 1957).
Monier, Robert B. ''Verification of Aerial Photo-
graphic Analysis of Urban Residential Struc-
tures: A Study of Rochester, New York," Air
Force Personnel and Training Research Center
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (Spring 1958).
Monier, Robert B. and Norman E. Green. ''Aerial
Photographic Interpretation and the Human
Geography of the City," The Professional
Geographer, September 1957.
DONALD J. BELCHER,
D. J. Belcher & Associates, Inc.,
Ithaca, New York
(abstract is on next page)
S NATURAL occurrences, geologic micro-
features, like bacteria, have always been
with us. And, as with bacteria, it has taken an
increase in scale and perspective to bring
them to light. Without aerial photography,
these features would have remained unknown
or irrelevant. Even with today’s photography
they pass relatively unnoticed with the cas-
ual appraisal it receives.
The term ‘“micro-features’’ applies to minor
* This paper is a part of the 1960 program of Commission VII (Photographic Interpretation) of the
International Society of Photogrammetry, and is submitted by the Commission's Working Group 3,
"Surface Configuration, Drainage, Soils and Geology.
3?
t For another report by Working Group 3 see PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING, Vol. XXV, (1),
p. 121 (March 1959).
4
