Development of aerial photography in Lithuania

Abstract

For the first time aerial photography was mentioned in Lithuanian literature sources in 1928, however, first rudiments of the practical application of aerial photo methods appeared only in 1940. First mosaic photo plans at the scale of 1:10 000 were made while using aerial photographs made by Soviet war aviators during the years of 1945-1948. In 1950 the flight for the whole Lithuanian territory was performed and since then new flights for the whole cartographic territory were performed every 10 years as well as cadastral and land use maps at the scale of 1:10 000 were produced. The further leap in the development of photogrammetry was the application of new technologies and systems of aerial photo methods already after the restitution of Lithuanian Independence. Large-scale cadastral cartographic works of Lithuanian territory were started in 1995 while performing the united project of Sweden and Lithuania implemented with the forces of Swedish company 'Swedesurvey' under the financing of the Swedish government. In the course of several years digital orthophotoplans (encompassing almost the whole territory) at the scale of 1:10 000 were created according to this project as well as the sheets of orthophotoplans at the scale of 1:50 000 for the urbanized areas were created. In 2005 a new flight for the whole Lithuanian territory was performed as well as multi-spectrum orthographical maps for the whole Lithuanian territory were produced in 2007, therefore, a new possibility to digitally compare the data of two different flights as well as to fix and analyse economical alterations has appeared. At present a possibility of the practical application of LIDAR technology in Lithuania is being analysed.