Module 2 - Aerial Photography Basics & Visual Interpretation of Aerial Photography

For the first lab assignment in our GIS-4035 Photo Interpretation and Remote Sensing course, we covered the basics of visual interpretation in aerial photography. The basics include understanding and using various recognition elements to interpret aerials.

In the first exercise of our lab, we interpreted both tone and texture in a provided aerial photograph by assessing and drawing polygon features around areas of similar characteristics, and then categorizing them in a scaling system. For tone, the scale ranged from brightness to darkness (very light, light, medium, dark, very dark); and for texture, the scale ranged from smooth to rough (very fine, fine, mottled, coarse, very coarse). My final map product is depicted below.

For the second exercise in our lab, we identified specific features that could be categorized (and recognized) based on 4 main visual attributes: shape and size, shadow, pattern, and association on a provided aerial photograph. Although we categorized these features into 4 main criteria, I found it most interesting that by the end of the exercise, a lot of these features could also fall under 2 or more of the other criterions. I enjoyed this exercise, photo interpretation is very different from other GIS stuff we’ve done in previous classes. My final map product is shown below.