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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B2. Istanbul 2004 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
MAP VECTOR / ORTHOPHOTO IDEAL 
SCALE MAP TYPE PHOTO 
SCALE 
1/500 Vector plan/chart 1/3.000 
| 1/500 Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/4.000 
1/1.000 Vector plan/chart/city map 1/4.000 
1/1.000 Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/5.000 
1/2.000 Vector route map 1/8.000 
1/2.000 Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/10.000 
1/2.500 Vector route map 1/10.000 
1/2.500 Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/10.000 
1/5.000 Stand.topog.(ST) vector map 1/16.000 
1/5.000 Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/18.000 
1/10.000 Vector map 1/20.000 
1/10.000 | Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/25.000 
1/25.000 Topog.vector map production 1/25-30.000 
1/25.000 Topog.vector map revision 1/35-40.000 
1/25.000 | Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/40.000 
1/50.000 Topog.vector map production 1/50.000 
1/50.000 Topog.vector map revision 1/60-70.000 
1/50.000 | Orthophoto / orthophoto map 1/70.000 
  
  
  
Table 1. Appropriate photograph scales for the production of 
vector and orthophoto maps in different scales 
  
  
  
Figure 1. An example of colour aerial photographs 
22 Satellite Images 
After the artificial satellites put into place to the orbits in the 
space around the world, a new era has started in the scientific 
research field. The first artificial satellite named Sputnik was 
launched to the space on the 4" October 1957 by the S.S.C.B. 
By now, many satellite systems have been developed for 
different purposes by many countries and the satellite images 
having different resolutions have been started to use 
successfully in various disciplines (Orüklü, 1988). 
Images are classified by three different groups in connection 
with the kinds of sensors used. These are the data collected by 
the photographic systems, scanners and radar systems. The 
basic and common property of the satellite images is to contain 
much spatial data belonging to wide terrestrial areas. For the 
production of topographic maps from the satellite images, three 
kinds of quality expectations should be provided for the users. 
These are the planimetric (horizontal) accuracy, height 
(vertical) accuracy and feature detectability (feature 
interpretation and recognition) (Wiley, 1986). 
593 
Because the satellite orbits are too high, the satellite images are 
not the products of the central projection and, they can be 
considered as the vertical projection products. In the other 
words, in the satellite images, the geometrical perturbations 
occurred from the height differences existed in the field surface 
are too small and can be neglected. In spite of this, the other 
geometric perturbations and defects occurred due to the earth 
curvature and other factors are so much effective and should be 
taken into account. But, all these errors can be corrected by 
using various computerized techniques and software, and 
finally, the existing errors can be nearly reduced to only one 
pixel size (Wiley, 1986). 
Recently, due to the small pixel sizes of satellite images, their 
spatial resolutions have increased very much and thanks to this 
development, the man-made features and details having 5 meter 
or smaller size on the ground can be detected from them. In the 
last years, the most important development occurred in the 
satellite images is that the spatial resolution has diminished 
below 1 meter (between 0.6-1 m) in black/white (B/W) images, 
approximately 2 meter in colour images. These resolution rates 
correspond to the sufficient planimetric and height accuracies 
necessary for the production of 1/25.000 scale topographic 
maps. It is also assumed that the high resolution (one meter or 
better) satellite images would have the sufficient spatial 
resolutions for the production of 1/10.000 scale vector maps. 
The main disadvantage of high resolution satellite images is that 
one image covers a small area such as maximum a 15 km x 15 
km area, minimum a 10 km x 10 km area in the field. Another 
important development occurred in the satellite images is to 
gain the possibility of getting stereo pairs at the same time at 
very short time intervals such as 5-10 seconds over the same 
satellite orbit (Onder, 1997). 
Today, the earth observation satellites are being mostly used in 
the mapping technology, forestry and agricultural areas. In the 
next years, it is expected that the high resolution satellite images 
will be able to be used in the city planning, traffic planning and 
the public area arrangements. By the help of stereo imaging 
capabilities of new satellite images, it could be possible to use 
them for the production of precise Digital Elevation Model 
(DEM) data. 
The efficiency of the satellite images in the creation of a new 
GDB and GIS has gradually increased. The kinds and resolution 
levels of the satellite images and ideal/optimum vector map 
scales to be produced from the satellite images which are widely 
used in today’s and expected to be used in the near future are 
shown in Table-2. The vector map scales given in Table-2 
reflect the opinions of the writer. 
The most important developments occurred in the high 
resolution satellite images (I meter resolution or more precise 
images) are the decrease of the production cost, increase of 
launching capacity of the satellite, obtaining of stereo images 
under the same orbit and observation conditions, the use of 
instantaneous exposure technique, the availability of good 
quality products, getting of digital data which can be easily 
combined with GIS, obtaining of satellite images having under | 
meter (0.6-1 m) resolution in Panchromatic (P) mode and 
approximately 2 meter resolution in color/multispectral (MSS) 
mode, reaching at the command possibility to the satellite for 
the countries which have the satellite ground stations, the 
decrease of archiving costs and finally, taking of the images 
belonging to the same area in a short time interval for example 
in | or 2 days (Clauss, 1995).