PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
April 2019
245
Y E A R B O O K
ASPRS
P
residential
A
ddress
Dr. Tommy Jordan
Based on remarks made at the 2019 ASPRS/ILMF Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado
I am humbled and honored to be inducted as the 85
th
president of the American
Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. While attending the 2019 Annual
Conference, I wondered how many of my fellow attendees were here for the very first
time. My first time attending an ASPRS Annual Conference was 40 years ago. Can
you imagine the changes in the world and technology in 40 years? We drew maps with
pen and ink and the computers were so big that they filled entire rooms. Since then we
have seen technological changes from analog to analytical to digital and changes in the
way we look at and analyze images and data - first using our eyes and optical instru-
ments. Now using artificial intelligence and computer vision methods. We embrace
close range and aerial photogrammetry, satellite remote sensing, GIS, lidar, and now
we have drones. Most of these technologies weren’t even dreamed of 40 years ago. At
every point in the course of these developments, ASPRS has been the guiding force that
created the standards our colleagues use for guidance in the work they produce.
I want to use this time today to talk about what we do, its importance, and specifi-
cally, the value of this organization to the advancement of our profession.
People in this industry are some of the most quietly influential people on the planet
with a hand in almost every facet of human life. We keep people moving safely
by surveying roads and bridges using aerial photographs and lidar. We participate
in keeping people fed and housed by performing inventories and analyses of crops
and forests to help improve yields and sustainability. We develop and maintain the
maps and underlying technology that people use to navigate their cars to the gro-
cery store, to a national park, or to guide a first responder directly to the front door
of the house where someone needs help. We can measure and monitor the retreat of
glaciers to estimate the potential impact on sea level rise and on the water supplies
of people who depend on meltwater for their lives and livelihoods.
