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1. What is the difference between a vertical aerial photograph and an orthophoto image? 2. Give one advantage and one disadvantage of an aerial photograph to geographers. 3. What distortions should be removed when an orthophoto is made? 4. List two benefits of using orthophotos.

Ask by Montgomery Ford. in South Africa
Feb 27,2025

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1. A vertical aerial photograph is taken straight down but can be distorted by the land and camera lens. An orthophoto is the same photo but corrected to remove these distortions, making it uniform and precise. 2. Advantages: Provides detailed, realistic views of the landscape. Disadvantages: May have distortions that make measurements hard without correction. 3. Distortions like perspective, relief, lens, and camera tilt issues need to be removed to make the orthophoto accurate. 4. Benefits: Allows for precise measurements and accurate mapping; serves as a detailed, georeferenced base for GIS analysis.

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1. A vertical aerial photograph is taken with the camera pointed straight down (nadir view) but still retains perspective and relief distortions that occur due to terrain variations and lens imperfections. In contrast, an orthophoto image is a geometrically corrected (orthorectified) version of an aerial photograph that has been adjusted to remove these distortions, so it has a uniform scale and can be used for precise measurements. 2. One advantage of an aerial photograph for geographers is that it provides a detailed, realistic view of the landscape, capturing natural and human-made features that are useful for analysis and mapping. One disadvantage is that the image may include distortions (such as perspective and relief distortions) that can make accurate measurements difficult without further processing. 3. When making an orthophoto, distortions such as perspective distortion, relief displacement (variations caused by topography), lens distortion, and any deviations due to camera tilt or sensor irregularities should be removed to ensure that the resulting image has a uniform scale and accurate spatial representation. 4. Two benefits of using orthophotos are:  • They allow for precise measurements and accurate mapping since the image has been corrected to remove distortions.  • They provide a realistic, detailed, and georeferenced base layer that can be easily integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis and decision-making.

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Vertical aerial photographs capture images from directly above the subject, providing a straightforward view but may suffer from distortions due to camera tilt and terrain variations. In contrast, orthophotos are corrected for these factors, representing the Earth's surface as though it were a flat map, allowing for precise measurements and analysis of features without the uneven distortions of regular aerial images. Aerial photographs are like snapshots of the Earth taken from a bird’s-eye view, which can offer rich data for geographers studying land use, urban development, and environmental changes. However, one drawback is that they can become outdated quickly, making it challenging to capture the most current landscapes, which could mislead analysis if not supplemented with up-to-date sources.

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