AUSTRIA 
NATIONAL REPORT 
Presented by the national delegates 
G. Brandstätter (Universities), E. Höflinger (Private Sector) 
and R. Kilga (Federal Offices) 
PREFACE: 
In Austria, several institutions are working within the ISPRS scope. According to their objectives they may 
be classified into federal offices, administrations of federal provinces, municipal authorities, research 
institutes, universities and private enterprises. In order to give a clear picture of their activities the following 
report is primarily structured with respect to the institutions and, if necessary, subdivided with regard to the 
classification of ISPRS commissions. Of course, federal offices are of major importance because of their 
responsibility for the whole state. Sometimes however, the work of smaller institutions is of more interest 
because they perform typical applications according to their special tasks. Both aims, overall map 
production dedicated to various problems based on photogrammetry and remote sensing, and special 
applications in the various fields of far- to close-range techniques, will be mentioned in the following report. 
A. FEDERAL OFFICES 
Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying 
1 Aerial surveying flight operations (Com. I) 
1.1 Flights with infrared colour positive film 
Each year, some 8,000 to 10,000 aerial images with 
infrared colour material are taken to deal with two 
clearly-defined problems: 
1. Compilation of the digital cadastral map and . 
consolidation of the digital terrain model of Austria. 
The images have an average scale of 1:15,000 and 
were obtained with an end lap of 80 96. The 
individual flight blocks have an area of approx. 600 
km?. The individual flight strips have an average 
length of 30 km. After the flight these are separated 
into two sets, the first being used for photogram- 
metric compilation and the second for the inter- 
pretation of land use and land cover on site. 
2. The Austrian forest inventory status. The 
images have a mean scale of 1:7,000 and are 
obtained with 60 % end lap. They are used for the 
interpretation and mapping of the forest status. 
1.2 Flights with colour positive film 
These images serve mainly for cadastral com- 
pilations at a scale of 1:10,000. The annual pro- 
duction is some 1,000 aerial photos. 
1.3 Flights with PAN film 
Aerial photos with a mean scale of 1:30,000 are 
produced in pin point flight for the updating of the 
1:50,000 topographic map based on 1:25,000 ortho- 
photos. The flight pattern corresponds to the sheet 
line system of the Austrian 1:10,000 aerial photo 
map with a strip spacing of 5 km and a base length 
of 2.5 km. Some 1,600 to 2,000 photos are taken 
annually for this purpose. These aerial photos also 
serve as the basis for the production of ortho- 
photos at a scale of 1:10,000 for the Austrian aerial 
photo map. 
1 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996 
1.4 Equipment 
The office manages two aircrafts equipped for 
surveying flights (Beechcraft Super King Air 200 
and Pilatus Turbo Porter PC6) with a total of three 
aerial camera systems (1 RC30 and 2 RC10 of 
Wild). They may be equipped with lenses of 15 cm, 
21 cm and 30 cm focal lengths. The cameras type 
RC30 or RC10 are installed alternately in the King 
Air 200, while one type RC10 aerial camera is 
installed in the second aircraft. 
Between 1995 and 1996 the King Air 200 was fitted 
with a GPS-supported navigation system coupled 
with the autopilot, as well as the Leica ASCOT flight 
management system. Both systems will be in 
operation in the 1996 flying season. Differential 
GPS methods will be used for the determination of 
the projection centres in aerotriangulation. This 
should ensure a considerable reduction in the 
necessary control points. In addition, GPS-sup- 
ported approaching procedures to the photo area 
should reduce navigation times to a minimum. 
A GPS receiver has been in use in the Pilatus 
Porter surveying aircraft since 1992, thus con- 
siderably increasing the daily flight capacity of this 
aircraft due to the reduced approach times to flight 
lines. : 
2 Data recording and processing (Com. Il/IV) 
2.1 Aerotriangulation and block adjustment 
Annually, some 30 flight blocks with an average of 
200 models at scales ranging from 1:7,000 to 
1:15,000 are aerotriangulated. The preliminary work 
(control point identification, selection of new points) 
is carried out on Wild PUGx point transfer devices. 
The PAT-MR program has been used for block 
adjustment since 1990. From 1996 the PAT-B/GPS 
program will be used in connection with GPS 
measurements of the projection centres.