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The paper describes time, modes and techniques of realization in 1908 of a photomosaic, from balloon, of a section of the course of the Tiber river. The photomosaic was carried out by the Brigata Mista Specialisti of Genio Militare headed by Captain Cesare Tardivo, on order of the Genio Civile, as part of a navigation project of the Tiber river from the sea to Orte. The pioneering photomosaic, regarding the 50 km section from Ponte del Grillo to Stimigliano, is kept at the photographic archive of the Aerofototeca Nazionale - ICCD, and it is the first application of the new tecnique called topophotograpy in the civil field: presented as the "true portrait of the terrain" at the main international conferences of the time, earned Italy an undisputed leading place in the field of aerial photography and photogrammetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-scales over which significant environmental changes take place can vary from a few hours on highly mobile coastal sediments to tens or even hundreds of years on exposed stone surfaces. Studies of rapidly changing features can be carried out using traditional field monitoring techniques, perhaps aided by airborne or satellite imagery if the scale of change is sufficiently large. Less dynamic surfaces do not lend themselves to such methods since, over the time-scale of traditional research projects, the amount of change will be less than the known errors in the measurement techniques.This paper describes the use of historical aerial photographs to study changes in an inter-tidal environment, around Langstone Harbour and Chichester Harbour (U.K.), and discusses the advantages and limitations of this data source.