Job Profile:      Aerial Photograph Interpreter


Perform surveying and mapping duties, usually under the direction of an engineer, surveyor, cartographer, or photogrammetrist, to obtain data used for construction, mapmaking, boundary location, mining, or other purposes. May calculate mapmaking information and create maps from source data, such as surveying notes, aerial photography, satellite data, or other maps to show topographical features, political boundaries, and other features. May verify accuracy and completeness of maps.

17-3031
Job Information
   
   
36,650 60,520 123,300

Select Tasks
Check all layers of maps to ensure accuracy, identifying and marking errors and making corrections. Design or develop information databases that include geographic or topographic data. Monitor mapping work or the updating of maps to ensure accuracy, inclusion of new or changed information, or compliance with rules and regulations.
Produce or update overlay maps to show information boundaries, water locations, or topographic features on various base maps or at different scales. Determine scales, line sizes, or colors to be used for hard copies of computerized maps, using plotters. Compile information necessary to stake projects for construction, using engineering plans.
Identify and compile database information to create requested maps. Operate and manage land-information computer systems, performing tasks such as storing data, making inquiries, and producing plots and reports. Compare survey computations with applicable standards to determine adequacy of data.
Analyze aerial photographs to detect and interpret significant military, industrial, resource, or topographical data. Research and combine existing property information to describe property boundaries in relation to adjacent properties, taking into account parcel splits, combinations, or land boundary adjustments. Calculate latitudes, longitudes, angles, areas, or other information for mapmaking, using survey field notes or reference tables.
Compare topographical features or contour lines with images from aerial photographs, old maps, or other reference materials to verify the accuracy of their identification. Trace contours or topographic details to generate maps that denote specific land or property locations or geographic attributes. Provide assistance in the development of methods and procedures for conducting field surveys.
Trim, align, and join prints to form photographic mosaics, maintaining scaled distances between reference points. Answer questions and provide information to the public or to staff members regarding assessment maps, surveys, boundaries, easements, property ownership, roads, zoning, or similar matters. Complete detailed source and method notes describing the location of routine or complex land parcels.
Adjust and operate surveying instruments such as prisms, theodolites, electronic distance measuring equipment, or electronic data collectors. Collect information needed to carry out new surveys, using source maps, previous survey data, photographs, computer records, or other relevant information. Conduct surveys to ascertain the locations of natural features and man-made structures on the Earth's surface, underground, and underwater, using electronic distance-measuring equipment, such as GPS, and other surveying instruments.
Enter Global Positioning System (GPS) data, legal deeds, field notes, or land survey reports into geographic information system (GIS) workstations so that information can be transformed into graphic land descriptions, such as maps and drawings. Perform calculations to determine earth curvature corrections, atmospheric impacts on measurements, traverse closures or adjustments, azimuths, level runs, or placement of markers. Prepare cost estimates for mapping projects.
Prepare topographic or contour maps of land surveyed, including site features and other relevant information, such as charts, drawings, and survey notes. Record survey measurements or descriptive data, using notes, drawings, sketches, or inked tracings. Search for section corners, property irons, or survey points.
Set out and recover stakes, marks, or other monumentation. Supervise or coordinate activities of workers engaged in surveying, plotting data, drafting maps, or producing blueprints, photostats, or photographs.





Select Abilities
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem. The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem. The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures. The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object. The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you. The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources). The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects. The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects. The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion. The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part. The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears. The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists. The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects. The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object. The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing. The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath. The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs. The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion. The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). The ability to see details at a distance. The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
The ability to see under low light conditions. The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead. The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
The ability to see objects in the presence of glare or bright lighting. The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness. The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated. The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.




Tools Used
Alidades Automatic optical pendulum leveling systems Axes
Barometers Chain saws Clinometers
Community base station global positioning systems GPS Desktop computers Digital cameras
Digitizers Distance meters Drafting compasses
Drafting kits Drafting templates Echosounders
Electronic digital/bar-code leveling systems Electronic distance measuring devices Electrotapes
Engineering scales Extensometers Fathometer sonar equipment
Four wheel drive 4WD vehicles Geodetic leveling rods Geological compasses
Global positioning system GPS receivers Ground vibration sensing equipment Hand levels
Handheld data collectors Hatchets Jackhammers
Laser distance measuring equipment Laser printers Laser scanner coordinate capturing equipment
Leveling bubbles Levels Machetes
Magnetic field pipe locators Mallets Measuring chains
Measuring rods Measuring tapes Metal detectors
Multibeam sonar equipment Notebook computers Optical pendulum levels
Personal computers Plane tables Plotters
Plumb bobs Pocket personal computers PC Portable hydrographic surveying equipment
Pre-programmed coordinate geometry COGO calculators Prism poles Prisms
Programmable calculators Protractors Ranger data collectors
Real-time kinematics RTK global positioning systems GPS Robotic survey measuring instruments Scanners
Side scan sonars Sight targets Survey instrument control units
T-squares Tablet computers Telescoping pole saws
Tellurometers Templates Theodolites
Total stations Transit levels Triangles
Tribrach level bubble adjusting blocks Tribrach optical plummet adjusting cylinders Tripods
Two way radios Vertical/target rods Wheeled measuring devices

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