AERIAL MULTIBAND WETLANDS MAPPING

DESPITE THE SUCCESS WITH WHICH STEREOSCOPY HAS BEEN APPLIED TO CONTOUR MAPPING, NO GENERALLY ACCEPTED EXPRESSION FOR VERTICAL SCALE EXAGGERATION HAS YET BEEN DEVELOPED. MORE THAN 12 EQUATIONS INVOLVING DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF AT LEAST 10 VARIABLES HAVE BEEN PROPOSED. THIS INVESTIGATION RESULTS IN A MORE GENERAL THEORY OF STEREOSCOPY WITH ONLY THREE VARIABLES, AND IT IS SHOWN THAT MOST OF THE PREVIOUS FORMULATIONS ARE SPECIAL CASES OF THIS GENERAL THEORY. FOR A GIVEN STEREO PAIR IT WAS FOUND THE VERTICAL EXAGGERATION OBTAINED WITH A FOCAL-PLANE, LENS STEREOSCOPE WAS INDEPENDENT OF THE STEREOSCOPE TYPE. FOR THREE- DIMENSIONAL MODELS THE ACTUAL HEIGHTS AS REPORTED BY OBSERVERS WERE NOT EQUAL TO THEIR TRUE VALUES BUT ALSO VARIED SYSTEMATICALLY, IN A MANNER SIMILAR TO THAT GIVEN BY THE GENERAL EQUATION. A HYPOTHESIS IS PRESENTED WHICH OFFERS AT LEAST A PARTIAL EXPLANATION FOR THE OBSERVED RESULTS.