Which of the following is NOT a function of aerial photographs in planning?

Aerial photographs serve several important functions in planning processes, including assisting in community planning, monitoring vegetation growth, and even helping in determining soil types indirectly through observation of land use and cover. However, creating topographic maps specifically is a more specialized task that typically requires the combination of aerial photography with other surveying techniques or digital elevation models (DEMs) to accurately represent the elevation changes and contours of the land.

Topographic maps incorporate precise elevation data, which cannot be solely deduced from aerial photographs without additional data processing and analysis. Therefore, while aerial photographs can provide visual information that contributes to the understanding of the landscape, they do not comprehensively fulfill the role of creating detailed topographic maps on their own. This distinction clarifies why creating topographic maps is not considered a direct function of aerial photographs in the planning context.