الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The revolutionary and sustainable development in the international economic and social conditions has led to significant changes in the global demographics and terrains. Such inevitable continual alterations have recently burdened the map makers who are always concerned with updating the old maps or producing new ones. Despite the importance of such maps as an indispensable source of the geographical and demographical data, the United Nations, along with the concerned research centers always highlight the fact that there is a severe shortage in the maps that cover certain areas of our planet, especially in the developing countries. One reason for such shortage is the use of costly, exhausting, and time-consuming traditional methods, like the ground survey and aerial images, in producing and updating maps. Believing in the urgent need for a more convenient method, the concerned international organizations have recently adopted the Satellites imagery as a perfect method for making and updating maps, especially when the modern technology could successfully get rid of the potential distortion that might appear in satellites images. The developing countries are neither technologically advanced nor rich enough to get the accurate satellite images necessary for the continual producing and upgrading maps; that’s why they had to look for a reliable and cheap , or even free, source for the remote sensing images. Google Earth was their perfect destination, where they can easily get free accurate images taken by reliable international satellites, like QuickBird, Ikons and others. Such an important site continuously upgrades its accurate images every (1 to 3 years) which lets the concerned countries be able to produce their own free maps and upgrade them whenever necessary. This research aims to define the best techniques used for the geometric correction of Google Earth imagery in order to reach the highest possible planemetric accuracy in a relatively short time and as cheaply as possible. The research is also directed to determine the effect of the number and distribution of the ground control points on the accuracy of Google Earth images taken at the height of 400m, and to verify the effect of the different degrees of both Rational Function Model and Polynomial Function Model on planemetric accuracy. The research introduces two case studies performed in Egypt. The first case study has been conducted on the eastern part of Alexandria, Egypt (covering an area of 3.48 km2)using ERDAS 2011 software to derive the different available ground control techniques used for the correction of images of 1:5000 scaled maps. Having derived the available techniques, the researcher verified their validity using the different degrees of both Rational Function Model and polynomial Function Model. The second case study has been focused on the location of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University (covering the area of 82250 m2) using PCI Geomatica 2013 software to determine the effects of the number and distribution of the ground control points derived from the AutoCAD File of the target area. Analyzing the findings of the first case study, the researcher could conclude that using the ground control points technique gives better results than the other techniques, and the use of lines and areas as a ground control feature gives about the same results of using points as a ground control feature. Studying the results of the second case study, the researcher could reach the possibility of using Google Earth images, of Alexandria area, taken at less than 3 km height to produce and update 1:10000 scaled maps. The researcher could also create a guiding model for the relation between the number and distribution of the ground control points against the degree of Rational Function Model (RFM) in order to be used by the concerned engineers in the future.