1 2004 
  
0THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT DIGITAL ORTHOPHOTOS CAN SUPPLY IN URBAN 
PLANNING 
H. Akdeniz 
General Command of Mapping, Department of Photogrammetry, Ankara, Turkey - hakdeniz@hgk.mil.tr 
PS WG VII/A Human Settlement and Impact Analysis 
KEY WORDS: Orthoimage, Urban, Planning, GIS, Image, Aerial, Photography 
ABSTRACT: 
The development level of the society and structural characteristics can be seen in urban structure and urbanization. Administration 
try to keep social justice and welfare by urban, regional and national plans. Now, urban planning tries to reach its economical, 
social and political goals by forming the structure. Because the storage and presentation of economical, social and geographic data 
and information which are necessary for planning, take too much time by traditional methods, urban settlement leaves behind 
planning and it becomes more expensive to take infrastructure to this kind of places. 
Although the development in computer and communication technologies supply speed and productivity in data processing, 
sustainability of information systems depends on completeness and up to dateness of data. Photogrammetric methods, especially 
orthophotos are in such a form that they can meet the needs when there is a necessity for fast decisions. 
With collecting the geographical information by means of digital orthophotos which can combine with geographical information 
systems, fast decisions will be able to be made because of the time shortage in data collection, on the other hand, there will be a 
passing from long-timed, traditional urban planning approach to process planning approach which brings solutions in short time. 
1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONCEPTUAL FRAME 
The development level of the society directly effects the Planning is the designation of methods and the style to reach 
economic, political, social and cultural structure and also the the targets in the time that determined before. (Bozkurt, 
urban areas. On the other hand, the economic, technologic and Ergun, 1998). The act of planning can be accepted as a 
cultural developments effect the speed and the structure of rotation that includes the process of preparation, application, 
urbanization. As a result of the increasing urban population, following and evaluation. 
both the total number of the cities increases, and the existing 
metropolises enlarge to bigger extend. It is only possible by Urban planning is described as a connection to plan, suited to 
means of planning to minimize the expenses of the the region, environment and national plans, not only by means 
urbanization and to form desired urban structure. of the use of land, but also by means of the economic, social 
; ,! Lib uri and population factors (Keles, 1998). Urban planning, which 
The nations, which don't let their future to coincidences but begins with the national plans and goes on with the regional 
+ . . . E S e E 
demand to give a shape to it, use planning as a device. and environmental plans and becomes practicable with the 
Planning can be described as a continuing process, In Which development plans, is a rotation that achieves the continuity of 
required data is collected and given to the administration units, the process with the help of feedback 
and the administration decisions are applied to the areas. In 
this process, collection and the demonstration of the spatial 
data or the information about planning is made with the digital 
or hardcopy maps. 
In traditional method, planning and the application procedures 
are carried on with the use of hardcopy maps. Mapping with 
the traditional method is a long term study that includes field 
measurements and computations. Shortness of the process and 
the delivery time of the geographic data are the most important 
advantages of the orthophotos, which is a specific application 
of mapping with photogrammetric method. 
Orthophoto image or photomap is a specific scaled 
photographic image produced from perspective images in 
which distortion errors originating from the attitude differences 
and the tilt of image are eliminated. 
Planning process requires up to data geographical information 
and documentation in 1\1000 scaled base maps for 
development plans and 1\250.000 or 1\500.000 scaled maps for 
regional plans. Unfortunately, most of these products are not 
updated at present in Turkey. Updated spatial data and 
information can be collected and demonstrated in any periods 
from aerial photographs and satellité images. These orthophoto 
products could be used necessarily in the planning and the 
application phases. 
Orthophoto map is an orthophoto that has cartographic 
information on it (legend, grids, contours, labels, etc.). It is 
named photomosaic if two or more orthophotos joined each 
other on one base. 
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