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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9034</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-71-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Transforming National Air Photo Archives into Analysis-Ready Geospatial Products</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shahbazi</surname>
<given-names>Mozhdeh</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7371-5635</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bousias Alexakis</surname>
<given-names>Evangelos</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sokolov</surname>
<given-names>Mikhail</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mahoro</surname>
<given-names>Ella</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gravel</surname>
<given-names>Pierre</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>22</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XLIX-B2-2026</volume>
<fpage>71</fpage>
<lpage>78</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Mozhdeh Shahbazi et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/71/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-71-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/71/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-71-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/71/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-71-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/71/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-71-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Historical images provide invaluable time series for long‑term environmental monitoring and change analysis, particularly in the context of climate‑change research. Consequently, growing interest in accessing and exploiting archival airborne imagery has been observed worldwide in recent years. In Canada, the federal government manages the National Air Photo Library, which preserves an extensive collection of historical aerial imagery spanning more than a century. Although this archive is highly valuable, historical photographs in their raw form, whether printed or digitally scanned, are not directly suitable for modern data‑driven analytics. Recent advances in computer vision, photogrammetry, and artificial intelligence have created new opportunities to consolidate disparate historical imagery into high‑quality digital map products suitable for large‑scale automated observations and spatio‑temporal analyses. This paper presents solutions applied at Natural Resources Canada for generating analysis‑ready mapping products from the National Air Photo Library, focusing on two main workflows: 1) The photogrammetric processing of historical photos with an emphasis on the more challenging automated georeferencing component; 2) Enhancing interpretability through generative artificial intelligence models for super-resolution and deep colorization.</p>
</abstract>
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