2 CRITTENDEN 



about areas, such as the Mediterranean coastal zones. This technique might well apply for 

 future use on areas which are becoming less readily studied through field observation and 

 normal research methods. 



Second — Experiments are being conducted with what we have sometimes called "photo- 

 geographical" techniques for analyzing and transmitting our understanding of coastal zone pat- 

 terns and problems. It is planned that the achievements of this research be measured, in a 

 considerable degree, by summarizing graphic manuscripts for ready conversion by publication 

 into manual form for use by the Navy. Thus we will today give you a representative sampling 

 of the graphic portrayals of Mediterranean coastal zone patterns which we are now completing 

 while initiating work on coastal zones of a second sea area— the Black Sea. These keys are 

 intended to be of worth to photo interpreters, from trainee to professional, and also of more 

 general value in two ways: (a) to transmit a sound understanding of coastal zone areas to 

 other personnel as background for judgements at various levels of responsibility, (b) to take a 

 sound place, if desired, in developing programs of basic intelligence centered on important sea 

 areas. 



Third— We are consciously attempting to find a way around one of the oldest difficulties 

 in the field of area studies. Some 40 years ago, William Morris Davis said, "There can be 

 little question that the least satisfactory feature of regional description lies in the necessity 

 of presenting in separate, successive paragraphs or pages the many kinds of things that occur 

 together in natural but unsystematic groupings." We wish that we could report as completed 

 a brilliant, new, briefer, and more forceful technique for transmitting an understanding of 

 areas. We still have to consider or present many of the different things in separate successive 

 paragraphs. However, we do feel that our present results with combined photo and graphic 

 portrayals with a minimum of written words warrant continuing hard work and support from 

 the varied scientific, institutional, and Governmental quarters which make such project re- 

 search possible. We feel that our present results are far more than the negative which would 

 be proper to report after fruitless research. Perhaps the best summary can be made by the 

 hope that our developing technique will become even a fraction as forceful and attractive a 

 graphic medium as the ubiquitous and, in some cases, rather sinister "comic books" have be- 

 come for the youth of our land. 



A consideration of other and interesting experimental aspects of tlie work is thought less 

 essential at the present meeting. Let us turn to samples of graphics, especially some from the 

 Mediterranean research. 



Patterns of aerial photography are becoming less strange to many people. Slide 1 (an 

 aerial view of Washington, D. C.)* shows that obliques, even near-vertical obliques, now appear 

 in the newspaper because of their beauty in pattern and designs shown. The vertical view re- 

 mains, however, technically most valuable and most difficult to interpret. 



From the outline and end-plate diagram at hand you can observe that we are forcing our- 

 selves to organize and present in graphic report the result of a large amount of research. In 

 doing this we have found it necessary to adopt, modify, and use in tentative form, several 

 methods and organizational plans which some of you, rightly, may consider subjects of your 

 current research and investigation. In some cases, we have done this inadvertently; in others, 

 we choose and use the plan in advance of your developing conclusions. Much better results 

 should ensue from our closer exchange of ideas in the future. 



*This slide was presented at the conference but is not reproduced here. 



