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INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING 
Commission VI 
Symposium held in Mainz, FR Germany, 22-25 September 1982 
STANDARDS OF COMPETENCE 
Comments on Outline 01.82 and on the Questionnaire (01-9011) 
change his field of employment, research or teaching, simply because he lacks 
a stamped and certified piece of paper allowing him to apply his general expertise 
in photogrammetry or remote sensing to, for example, forestry. 
The non-productivity of such exercises is well illustrated by the very Hydrographic 
example quoted as a reference. The International Hydrographic Organisation, operating 
in the rarefield atmosphere of Monaco, has set standards of competence for Hydro- 
graphic Surveyors which demand not only unnecessarily advanced academic study 
but also extensive sea time and hydrographic experience. The present reality is 
that the demand for hydrographic surveyors far exceeds the supply of persons with 
such training. We find that, in private industry, this demand is being met by 
recruiting people from all kinds of surveying backgrounds. Most of these have 
undergone a basic training in Land Surveying, ranging from degree courses at Uni- 
versities to Technical College Certificates and in-house courses (e.g. those pro- 
vided by the British Ordnance Survey), and have gained their hydrographic ex- 
perience from on-the-job training by their employer. Some of us have been as- 
sociated with Hydrographic Surveyors produced in this way and have been impressed 
by their competence and professionalism. The point we are making is that, in our 
opinion, the I.H.O. has attempted to elevate a particular group of simple basic 
surveying techniques, which can be easily mastered by any competent Land Surveyor, 
and which are in any case highly automated and becoming more so, to some mystic 
art to be practised by only the initiated few. 
We oppose whole heartedly any attempts to develop a similar mystic around photo- 
grammetry and remote sensing, which are also comparatively simple procedures that 
are becoming increasingly automated with the growth in availability and use of 
analytical stereoplotters, digitised terrain modelling, computer-aided interpre- 
tation and so on. We believe that a graduate of any recognised tertiary course 
in Land Surveying, Cartography, Photogrammetry, Geography, or whatever, which 
offers a sound basec grounding in the scientific and mathematical principles 
of photogrammetry and remote sensing, should be free to equip himself, in any 
way he or his employer feels is appropriate, to apply his knowledge to any or 
all of the special categories of use mentioned. It should be their choice whether 
this is done by means of self-education, extension courses, postgraduate study, 
in-house training by the employer, or by some other procedure. 
  
  
From : Prof. J.E. Colcord; University of Washington, Seattle 98195; USA 
A profession should have some statements concerning minium standards of competence 
within "grades", that photogrammetry geodesy, surveying engineering... consti- 
tute a reasonable single professional group with specialties, and that a standard- 
ized "curricular" may cause a sterile profession but that there is a true 
science/practice core. With that, I do not read that P5 in 01.82 establishes com- 
petence of geographers etc... only that there is an area of "photogrammetry" where 
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