2. EXISTING REMOTE SENSING AND 
PHOTOGRAMMETRY RESOURCES 
The 1988 inventory of existing resources in the 
field of remote sensing and photogrammetry, 
performed by the GDTA (France), revealed two 
categories of information resources. 
= computerised multidisciplinary and 
specific thematic databases produced 
by major database suppliers available 
through online information retrieval 
systems 
= documentary | resources on remote 
sensing and/or photogrammetry existing 
at various organisations and 
laboratories 
2.1 Computerised multidisciplinary databases 
This category covers large multidisciplinary 
bibliographic reference databases, such as: 
NASA (USA) basically aerospace oriented, 
containing some references on 
remote sensing and photogrammetry 
NTIS (USA) containing earth sciences 
references 
COMPENDEX (UK) dealing with engineering, 
including remote sensing records 
oriented towards electronics 
including remote sensing records 
INSPEC (UK) 
PASCAL (France)including records in the 
field of remote sensing and 
photogrammetry 
GEOBASE (UK) covering in its part G, the 
remote sensing,  photogrammetry 
and cartography records 
2.2 Computerised Specific or Thematic Databases 
This category covers specific databases oriented 
towards the earth and/or water resources, such 
as: 
CAB (UK) and dedicated to agriculture 
AGRIS (FAO) 
oriented towards water 
and marine issues 
Selected Water 
Resources (USA) 
and ASFA (FAO) 
GEOLINE (DE) covering geosciences, 
including surveying and 
mapping with remote sensing 
GEOREF (USA) dedicated to geology and 
earth sciences 
research progress dedicated 
to developing countries 
IBISCUS (France) 
RESORS concentrating on remote 
(Canada) sensing, surveying and 
mapping as related 
to remote sensing 
2.3 Other documentary resources 
This category covers mainly remote sensing 
and/or photogrammetry centres and organisations 
located in Europe, such as: 
ITC International Institute for Aerospace 
Survey and Earth Sciences 
(Netherlands) having significant 
dedicated resources in particular 
theses and technical reports 
GDTA Groupement pour le Développement de la 
Télédétection  Aérospatiale (France) 
having resources such as papers of the 
various symposia it organises, 
unpublished documents such as DESS 
students' study reports and technical 
reports 
IGN Institut Géographique National 
(France) possessing its own 
computerised database containing 
records of theses and technical 
reports in the field of photogrammetry 
GSTS Groupement Scientifique de 
Télédétection de Strasbourg (France) 
having semi-computerised records of 
publications such as congress 
proceedings, theses and study reports 
ORSTSOM | now Laboratoire d'Informatique 
Appliquée (France) producing an 
internal database of journals 
articles, conference proceedings, 
monographs and unpublished documents 
UCL Université Catholique de Louvain, 
Laboratoire de Télédétection (Belgium) 
having computerised records of journal 
articles, theses etc.. 
In his Kyoto 1988 paper "Information Retrieval 
for Literature and Factual Data in 
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing", 
Prof. J. Hotmer also mentioned the following 
non-computerised systems: 
= Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen (DE). 
Publishing literature references in 
the field of remote sensing and 
photogrammetry 
= The Chinese Society of  Geodesy 
Photogrammetry and Cartography. 
Publishing an abstract journal 
= The VINITI (former USSR). 
Publishing the abstract journal 
Geodesia y Aerofotosjemka covering 
geodesy, photogrammetry and remote 
sensing 
= The AIDOS database (DE). 
Covering surveying, mapping and remote 
sensing (this database is not 
available online) 
3. | ANALYSIS AND STATUS OF EXISTING 
RESOURCES 
Various surveys analysing the major databases 
dealing with remote sensing performed by 
J. H. Ten Haken in 1982 and updated by the same 
author in his 1988 paper "Data Bases in the 
Field of Aerospace and Related Fields" indicated 
that scientists in the field of photogrammetry 
and remote sensing have a variety of databases 
at their disposal for online searching and that 
none of them offers a very comprehensive 
coverage. Further analysis of this paper 
evidenced then that the majority of these 
databases were available through the European 
Space Agency/Information Retrieval Service