REMOTE SENSING METHODS IN THE STUDY AND MAPPING OF NATURE RESERVES

A Siberian geographer outlines the major aspects of a program to map the climatic and ecological state of ecosystems in the Lake Baykal region of southern East Siberia. A methodology for the classification of micro- and mesoclimates is outlined that is based on the structural characteristics of the underlying terrain surface, the character of air flows into the region, and extensive study of natural conditions in the region. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, Virginia from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 2000, No. 2, pp. 104-112.     

THE PROJECTIVE TRANSFORMATION IN AERIAL SURVEYING

Abstract

4.3. Having found s we may proceed to obtain the coordinates of the air station. This is the vertex of a pyramid, the base edges being of lengths a, b, c and the opposite edges measuring u, v, w respectively. Let h be the distance of the vertex from the plane of the base, and suppose d, e₁ e₂, e₃ are respectively twice the areas of the base and of the oblique faces in order.     

THE TRAINING OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS IN MALAYA

Abstract

The subject of the training of European surveyors has received a great deal of attention in the course of the last two Empire Conferences, but little or no mention has been made of the native surveyor, his education, work, and prospects. The subject is very important, however, and the account of the training of Africans for the N. Rhodesia Survey, which appeared in vol. iii, no. 21 of the Empire Survey Review, was read with considerable interest. It may not be out of place, therefore, to introduce this paper on the means adopted in Malaya to recruit and train an efficient staff of subordinates or “Technical Assistants” as they are termed locally.     

WITH THE FIELD SURVEY UNITS IN FRANCE

Abstract

Colonel MacLeod has already given in this Review (vol. i, 151–6, 207–14, 253–9) an excellent general account of the activities of the Field Survey Units in the Great War, but perhaps the details of some of the problems that presented themselves and the personal experiences of a Field Survey Officer may still be of some interest.     

APPLICATION OF THE CARTOGRAPHIC METHOD IN THE STUDY OF NATURE-SOCIETY INTERACTION IN THE MOLDAVIAN SSR

A Russian geographer describes a methodology whereby data on slopes contained within a geographic information system are employed in the compilation of geomorphological maps. More specifically, the author proposes and tests a technology for the automated compilation of electronic maps of mean slope for the territory of Altay Kray, West Siberia, Russia. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, Virginia from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 2002, No. 2, pp. 142-146.     

SURVEY IN THE GREAT WAR

Abstract

Artillery Survey.—Included in the term “Artillery Survey are two distinct problems, the first that of determining the “line” and “range” at which fire should be opened, and the second that of laying the gun in the required line. To appreciate these problems it. is necessary to know a little about the technique of gunnery, and for the benefit of those who have no acquaintance with the subject the following brief résumé may be given.     

THE YEAR 1931 IN NORTHERN RHODESIA

Abstract

In the survey world of Northern Rhodesia the most notable event in 1931 (apart, of course, from the birth of this Review) has been the completion of the aerial survey contracts undertaken for the Government by the Aircraft Operating Company. The results have justified expectations particularly with regard to the mapping of 63,000 square miles of the Territory on a scale of 1/250,000. Used in conjunction with the information obtained by ground methods by the Mining Companies, who have kindly consented to put their information at our disposal, a really reliable detailed map of a considerable portion of the Territory should be obtained. The mosaics of the six principal townships are also proving of value and contain a wealth of detail which would be difficult to obtain so accurately by ground survey except at great expense. On the other hand it is obvious that it would be a costly business involving a very large amount of ground control to prepare a closely contoured plan such as is required for detail purposes in connection with township lay-outs.     

ON THE ESSENCE OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE MAP

The author continues development of his concept of cartography as the “language of the map,” an earlier paper of this subject appearing in translation in M.S.R.S., 1985, No. 1. Although the term language has been widely used to describe cartographic communication, current theory fails to incorporate aspects of the language which provide for a comprehensive understanding of its structure and function. In particular, the language of the map and its symbolic elements cannot be explained reflexively by methods and rules of symbol and map design, since these elements were developed not before but after the existence of the language. The language of the map thus is proposed as the mechanism which provides for replicability or duplication in the way a system of mapmaking-map use functions (under diverse conditions, purposes, historical periods, and levels of training of users) through its different methods, models, and norms. Translated from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 1985, No. 3, pp. 142-151.     

CORRECTIONS TO THE TENSION IN A SURVEYING TAPE FOR THE EFFECT OF THE TOTAL LOAD BETWEEN THE MEASURING HEAD AND THE STRAINING WEIGHT

Abstract

Consider the case of a surveying tape (or portion of a tape) suspended in a single horizontal catenary, the tension at either or both ends being applied by means of a weight W attached to a cord which passes over a pulley to the end of the tape.     

RELATIONS OF BEACON AND DEED-PLAN IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

MR. C. O. GILBERT'S article on “Beacon versus Deed-plan” (E.S.R., Jan. 1932, pp. 98–99) raises a question of very great importance in those countries which have a system of land registration. In addition to the legal and technical aspects of the question, it raises the very important question of preservation of beacons and replacement of lost beacons. As he mentions the South African practice, the experience of the Transvaal may be of interest to readers, the more so as the case, The African and Buropean Investment Co., Ltd. and Others versus John Warren and Others, which he quotes, concerned farms situated in the Transvaal. I also wish to refer specially to the Transvaal, because there the diagram or deed-plan is of great legal force when there is a conflict between the position of a beacon on the ground and the position accorded it by a confirmed diagram.     

THE NOMENCLATURE OF MAP PROJECTIONS

Abstract

Map Projections.—A matter that should have been mentioned in the original article under this title (E.S.R., vii, 51, 190) is the definition of a map projection. In the list of carefully worded “Definitions of Terms used in Surveying and Mapping” prepared by the American Society of Photogrammetry (Photogrammetrie Engineering, vol. 8,1942, pp. 247–283), a map projection is defined as “a systematic drawing of lines on a plane surface to represent the parallels of latitude and the meridians of longitude of the earth or a section of the earth”, and most other published works in which a definition appears employ a somewhat similar wording. This, however, is an unnecessary limitation of the term. Many projections are (and all projections can be) plotted from rectangular grid co-ordinates, and meridians and parallels need not be drawn at all; but a map is still on a projection even when a graticule is not shown. Objection could be raised also to the limitation to “plane surface”, since we may speak of the projection of the spheroid upon a sphere, or of the sphere upon a hemisphere. Hence, it is suggested that “any systematic method of representing the whole or a part of the curved surface of the Earth upon another (usually plane) surface” is an adequate definition of a map projection.     

IMPLICIT CONDITION EQUATIONS IN THE ADJUSTMENT OF TRIANGULATION FIGURES

Abstract

In adjusting a triangulation network it may happen that certain condition equations, of the existence of which we know a priori (by formulæ or by plotting the network point by point), cannot be established by simple inspection of the figure. This usually happens when some of the observations are missing in the otherwise continuous network. Such equations, not readily identifiable from the diagram, may be called “implicit” condition equations.     

THE TRAINING OF AFRICAN SURVEYORS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Whenever the Government wants to receive new students to be trained as surveyors for the Government Service it is usual for the public to be informed by means of a Gazette Notice outlining the conditions of entry into the Survey School which is attached to the Land and Survey Department. Nowadays students are admitted through the Government Higher College at Yaba by means of the Entrance Examination of that college. It is one of the conditions that before a candidate applies to take this Entrance Examination he must have passed his Cambridge School Certificate Examination, the Matriculation Examination of any British University, or its local equivalent, and must possess also a certificate of character.     

A CENTER FOR IMAGE PROCESSING IN SIBERIAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The authors describe the structure and operations of a special Center for Geographic Information [digital image] Processing, now being established in support of the “Sibir” “program—a comprehensive research project on applications of remote sensing in Siberian resource development undertaken by the Siberian section of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Translations of related papers on technical aspects of image processing, also products of the program's research, will appear in subsequent installments of Mapping Sciences and Remote Sensing. Translated from: Metody kompleksnykh aerokosmicheskikh issledovaniy Sibiri, edited by L. K. Zyat'kova. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1985, pp. 57-60.     

THE MODIFIED MERIDIAN DISTANCE IN THE CONICAL ORTHOMORPHIC PROJECTION

Abstract

Recently the writer of this article became interested in the conical orthomorphic projection and wanted to see a simple proof of the formula for the modified meridian distance for the projection on the sphere. Owing to the exigencies of the war, however, he has been separated from the bulk of his books, and, consequently, has had to evolve a proof for himself. Later, this proof was shown to a friend who told him that he had some memory of a mistake in the sign of the spheroidal term in m⁴given in “Survey Computations”, perhaps the first edition. Curiosity therefore suggested an attempt to verify this sign, which meant extending his work to the spheroid. This has now been done, with the result that the formula given in “Survey Computations”, up to the terms of the fourth order at any rate, is found correct after all.     

MAPS OF USE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE BURYAT REPUBLIC

A team of Russian geographers describes the development of a program for mapping land use/resource development and the condition of the environment in Russia's Buryat Republic. Three ecological maps recently compiled in the Republic, using a single cartographic base and employing standardized methods, are described. The last such map is a map of environmental use that reflects both a resource-development and an environmental-protection perspective. The article includes detailed examples of the legend of the latter map. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 1998, No. 3, pp. 23-29.     

SOVIET GEODESISTS IN THE CENTRAL ARCTIC

The work of a recent Soviet geodetic surveying expedition to the Central Arctic and the Barents Sea off Franz Josef Land is described, with an emphasis on gravimetric surveying and determination of gravimetric control points at the North Pole and at two drifting polar research stations. In addition, glacier fields of Alexander Land (Franz Josef Land) were mapped and keys for their interpretation on space imagery identified. Translated from: Geodeziya i kartografiya, 1988, No. 3, pp. 9-12.     

USE OF REMOTE SENSING IN THE STUDY OF THE CHANGING SHORELINE OF SARYKAMYSH LAKE

The findings of a program monitoring the growth of an enormous man-made lake, created by the flooding of a low-lying area by irrigation water drainage, are described. Black-and-white space images for the period 1973-1985 are used to determine rates of shoreline displacement, map the growth in the lake's water area, and to determine probable areas of future flooding as a basis for prediction of future lake levels and shoreline positions. Translated from: Geodeziya i kartografiya, 1988, No. 7, pp. 44-46.     

INTERPRETATION OF REMOTE SENSING DATA: THE FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

A report by Soviet delegates to the 15th Congress of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing provides a forum for a Soviet assessment of foreign achievements in the practical application of remote sensing in various fields of economic activity, particularly oil and gas exploration, prospecting for metallic minerals, forestry, and oceanography. Special emphasis is given to digital image processing for land-use classification, a field in which Soviet researchers are becoming increasingly involved. The Congress is described as contributing greatly to the development of common data processing methodologies and the exchange of information and opinions on common problems. Translated from: Geodeziya i kartografiya, 1985, No. 4, pp. 53-58.