OBJEQIVES AND METHODS OF PHOTO INTERPRETATION RESEARCH 

 ON THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN 



Charles V. Crittenden 

 Virginia Geographical Institute 



Contract N7onr- 37203 

 TaskNR 089-031 



Since the early nineteen forties, more than twelve years of the middle portion— the most 

 mature— of the careers of numerous American scientists have been associated more or less 

 directly with problems of the United States Government under emergency and near emergency 

 conditions. This experience has led, irregularly and during less hectic moments, to some com- 

 parisons of notes and ideas on such matters. Some of these scientists on both the Governmental 

 and scientific sides have wondered if worthwhile basic parts of such work could not be planned 

 and developed, with mutual advantages, in advance of more acute emergencies. Each of us here 

 today probably finds numerous persons present with whom we have had such exchange of ideas; 

 and this appears to be one of the reasons for the present symposium. 



Problems involving the character of areas repeatedly trouble the minds of men, especially 

 during emergencies. Plans have to be formulated and decisions made on policy activities and 

 operations ranging from individual to major strategy, and including diplomatic and military as- 

 pects. Intelligence has to be expanded and new hands quickly trained in its work which com- 

 monly involves questions of places and area relationships. Our war-time and post-war expe- 

 rience, as geographers and related scientists drawn in to aid with such problems, led us to 

 depend upon or develop new materials like maps, map intelligence, and written area reports 

 when beset by requests for aid in matters of policy and action of men in areas. 



During and after the war, I became more and more struck with the idea that the growing 

 files of aerial photographs offered a little-used but potentially valuable source of basic area 

 knowledge for those who could develop an understanding of the patterns. Techniques for use 

 of such photographs were advancing rapidly in several specialized fields, but little of this was 

 done in area studies. The Navy, the Air Force, and civilian agencies began to experiment with 

 "photo-geographies" and interpretation keys of one or two elements (i.e., "Pacific Landforms 

 and Vegetation") or of striking pattern portrayals within large areas ("Photo Interpretations of 

 Arctic Territories"). Neither of these types of outstanding work or manual went very far in 

 telling where the considered patterns or features were distributed or how they were inter- 

 mingled with other features of such large areas. 



Scientific and technical experiment with aerial photographs developed rapidly but irregu- 

 larly on both sides of the Atlantic. We found that German scientists had gone farther in the 

 direction of area studies in their " For schungstaff el"— particularly in their analogous area 

 studies, some of which were focused upon coastal margins. Many agencies in this and other 

 countries became interested in keys for the interpretation of aerial photographs. Few of these 

 keys, however, were pointed toward being area keys; and yet, aerial photographs portray, better 

 than maps or written accounts, the contextual character of things together which is the reality 

 of areas in which men must live and operate. 



Several experimental aspects of area study and the transmittal of such knowledge are 

 combined in our investigative project. 



First — We are experimenting with methods for the use by scientific personnel of files of 

 air photographs as a main source, along with documents and maps, of contextual information 



