MARCH 2009 VOL 13 ISSUE 3 RNI 68561/18/6/98/ISSN 0971-9377 UP/BR-343/2009-2011 Price: INR 150 / US$ 15 Subscriber’s copy. Not for Sale The Global Geospatial Magazine
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Copyright © 2009 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, ArcPad, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. In this issue... Advisory Board
REGULAR FEATURES industries are poised for dramatic, positive Dato’ Dr. Abdul Kadir bin Taib change. To keep up with overwhelming Deputy Director General of Survey and demand for new infrastructure in the face of Mapping, Malaysia Editorial 07 a limited workforce, construction firms are tasked with making major changes.... Bhupinder Singh News 08 Craig R. Dylan Sr. Vice President Bentley Systems Inc., USA Publications 52 Prof. Ian Dowman 46 Microstation V8i - President Events 66 Up close and personal ISPRS, UK It is important to speak with users, go to Prof. Josef Strobl user conferences, interact with users online ARTICLES Director, and meet with prospective users before Centre for Geoinformatics deciding what to include in a release, partic- University of Salzburg, Austria 26 Convergence is still the ularly a release as comprehensive as V8i. Bentley surveys the competition, talks to key - Implementation leads Kamal K Singh programmers and comes up with a matrix... Chairman and CEO the way! Rolta Group of Companies, India Keith Bentley This month's article is a continuation of my earlier article 'D&E - convergence is the key' Mark Reichardt (http://www.gisdevelopment.net/maga- VIEWPOINT President and Chief Operating Officer OGC, USA zine/global/2009/January/44.htm), which talked about... 49 The view from over here Matthew O’Connell Gaurav Sharma - India and NSDI CEO, GeoEye, USA
Prof AR Dasgupta Dr. Prithvish Nag 32 3D has designs on urban Director modelling INTERVIEW NATMO, India The world is facing serious challenges 50 Lawrie E Jordon III Prof. V. S Ramamurthy including climate change, aging infrastruc- Chairman ture, shrinking workforce and lagging pro- Director of Imagery Enterprise IIT, Delhi, India ductivity... Solutions, ESRI Inc., USA KCM Kumar Geoff Zeiss Chairman & Managing Director CONFERENCE REPORT Speck Systems Limited 36 Integration - key to 56 Map World Forum: Brian Nicholls optimisation General Manager A mega confluence of global AAMHatch We are entering increasingly difficult experts times - a depressed economy worldwide Shailesh Nayak and the certainty of higher costs for materi- Secretary GIS Development is intended for those interested and involved als and energy as our natural resources are in GIS related activities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster Ministry of Earth Sciences, India depleted.... a growing network by keeping the community up-to-date on many activities in this wide and varied field. Your involvement in Louis Hecht providing relevant information is essential to the success of this Prof William Cartwright endeavour. President GIS Development does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue International Cartographic Association are those of the contributors. It is not responsible for any loss to 42 Future belongs to total anyone due to the information provided. Dr Derek. G. Clarke solution GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Printed and Published by Sanjay Kumar. Press M. P. Printers B-220, Phase-II, Noida, Gautambudh Chief Director: Surveys and Mapping Nagar (UP) INDIA Publication Address P-82, Sector-11, South Africa The survey engineering and construction Gautambudh Nagar, Noida, India Editor Ravi Gupta Bradley C Skelton Chief Technology Officer Chairman M P Narayanan Editor in Chief Ravi Gupta Honorary Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta ERDAS Director Maneesh Prasad Publisher Sanjay Kumar Editorial Team: Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Associate Editor Bhanu Rekha Sr. Assistant Editor Saurabh Mishra GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Portal Team: Product Manager Shivani Lal Sub Editor Simmi Sinha A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India Design Team: Sr. Creative Designer Deepak Kumar Graphic Designer Manoj Kumar Singh Circulation: Vijay Kr Singh Tel + 91 - 120 - 4612500 Fax + 91 - 120 - 4612555 - 666
GIS DEVELOPMENT | MARCH 2009 Vol. 13 Issue 3 5 The true measure of commitment
Our commitment to bring about a transformation in Land Management Systems is evident in every inch of the land we survey. In fact, over 6400 sqkms to be precise. A perfect synergy of skill, competence and insight has enabled us to deliver a basketful of innovative products and solutions that have been India's first and done us proud.
There are miles to go and we are well on our way...
Services Aerial photography Cadastral survey using hybrid technology LIDAR data acquisition & processing Satellite images based mapping Photogrammetry Data conversion GIS application development
Solutions
Integrated Land Information Management
Urban Planning & Management
Agriculture & Natural Resource Management
Enterprise wide geospatial solutions for Utilities From Editor’s Desk
Technology should Prof. Arup Dasgupta be people-centric Honorary Managing Editor [email protected]
However, later discussions again brought to the fore the ambiguity of easy availability of data versus security. I enjoyed two lectures on the opening day of Map This contentious issue continues to defy resolution and World Forum a couple of weeks back. The first was the India NSDI continues to languish as a result. Howev- by Dame Dr Jane Goodall and the second by man- er, SDIs in general continue to go slow globally for Iagement guru Prof C K Prahalad. Both speakers were not various reasons. from the geospatial world, yet their lectures made a profound impact, which the geospatial professionals In this context, perhaps it is time to relook and rethink need to ponder upon. Dr Goodall made the point that the strategy in terms of what Dr Goodall and Dr Prahalad development should be inclusive to ensure sustainability talked about. Can we put the individual in the centre and and GIS and allied technologies can be used to attain this build an SDI in a collaborative way which can chart out goal. She gave examples of how GIS is being used to new roads to innovation and wealth creation that can be protect the chimpanzee habitat in Gombe without used by government, industry and the public at large to depriving the villagers of their share of resources. co-create personalised experiences? Geospatial editors Dr Prahalad challenged the professionals to look at also debated the issue of focus on individuals and geospatial technology as a means to provide an all-inclu- concluded that media needs to play an enabling role and sive service to the common man like the Indian farmer. present analyses which cuts through jargon and shows He suggested that instead of looking at piecemeal, com- the public how geospatial technology is useful to them. petitive efforts by different agencies, it might be useful At the same time, media cannot forget its main audience to set up a network of services, which would also employ - the geospatial professionals. many different service providers working in a coopera- tive mode. Keeping this in mind, we present how geospatial technologies are being used in design and engineering Both these lectures placed the individual, not the tech- industry in this issue. The challenge is to provide sustain- nology, at the centre of the core issues to be addressed in able and green infrastructure using all the technologies sustainability of planet earth - the theme of the confer- at our disposal. Thus we see a convergence of architec- ence. This people-centric thinking was also evident in the ture, engineering and geospatial technologies. Side inaugural speeches by Honourable Vice-President of by side standards are also being developed to ensure India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Union Minister of interoperability. These are the building blocks of SDI. Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal. “”
GIS DEVELOPMENT | MARCH 2009 Vol. 13 Issue 3 7 News
Organisation (ISRO) is now which will create maps for getting ready for a twin individual properties in the launch - a Radar Imaging city. Satellite (RISAT) and ANUSAT, a 35-kg micro- Kampsax is now COWI KENYA CHINA satellite designed by Chen- Kampsax India Private Lim- nai-based Anna University. ited (KIL), which has been a Atlas on nation’s 3rd ocean survey ISRO is targeting a March fully owned subsidiary of environment satellite in 2010 last week date for launch- COWI A/S since August released China will launch a third ing them on board the 2007, changed name to United ocean survey satellite in indigenously built Polar COWI India Private Limited. Nations has 2010 to upgrade its capacity Satellite Launch Vehicle In the past year and a half, released an for maritime weather fore- from the Sriharikota space- KIL has developed engi- atlas contain- casting and disaster relief. port. The 1,780-kg RISAT is neering capabilities, servic- ing satellite The satellite, Haiyang-2A, capable of taking pictures ing both the COWI Group images of dif- an ocean dynamic environ- during night as well and and external clients. ferent regions mental satellite, will be even in cloud-covered con- The company believes of Kenya. The used to monitor ocean ditions, an expertise Indian that the COWI brand better atlas pin- wind fields, sea levels and remote sensing satellites reflects the mix of compe- points shrink- temperatures. did not have previously. tencies within KIL as well ing tea-grow- as the strategic importance ing areas, dis- Beijing Space Eye is Bhubaneswar to of the company within the appearing lakes, rising loss PCI Geomatics’ assess properties COWI Group. of tree cover and increased distributor using GIS mosquito breeding PCI Geomatics has appoint- Bhubaneshwar city will use Data World to grounds. ed Beijing Space Eye Inno- a GIS-based technique that set base in It highlights the necessi- vation Technology Co. Ltd. wil ascertain if the propety Noida ty of making investments (BSEI) as its exclusive desk- holding has been assessed Data World will launch its in ‘green’ development to top software distributor for correctly or not. Though new software unit in Noi- escape poverty. "Kenya: the People’s Republic of Bhubaneswar has devel- da, UP, in March. The com- Atlas of Our Changing Envi- China. BSEI is a high-resolu- oped rapidly in the last few pany specialises in enter- ronment," launched in tion satellite imagery years, the number of hold- prise geospatial solutions, Nairobi, provider as well as a sales ings has not matched pace. bespoke software develop- is the first of its kind to and consultancy firm. BSEI It can be attributed to old ment and spatial data serv- document environmental will be the exclusive methods of assessing the ices. Data World was estab- changes in a single country reseller of PCI Geomatics’ holdings physically lished in 1994 in Durban, using satellite images from flagship software Geomati- through inspectors. Keep- South Africa. the past 30 years. It high- ca in China. ing the growth in mind, lights some success stories Bhubaneswar Municipal HCL empowers of environmental manage- Corporation (BMC) has Delhi Police with ment around the country, INDIA joined hands with Survey GPS, GIS but it also puts the spot- of India (SoI). While the HCL Infosystems recently light on major environ- ISRO to launch joint survey with SoI will revamped the infrastruc- mental challenges includ- RISAT, ANUSAT give BMC advantage of ture of Delhi Police with ICT ing deforestation, soil ero- After the successful Chan- more holding units, it has tools to help them cope sion and coastal degrada- drayaan-I moon mission, also embarked on putting with increasing number of tion. Indian Space Research in place a GIS-based system calls and track mobility of
8 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 PCR vans. The GPS-based Map is built of individual solution will facilitate rout- geo-tagged video segments. ing of emergency calls VidTeq plans to render IITK develops nanosatellite directly to PCR vehicle net- their service both through work operators for the sce- portal as well as cell India: IIT-Kanpur, with its nanos- narios that include traffic phones. Initially the service atellite, `Jugnu', is ready to scale congestion, medical assis- will be offered only for Ban- new highs in space research. A tance and fire, as well as galore city. The Web service team of students of the institue crime-in-progress situa- starts in February, followed are working under the guidance of tions. by the cell based service. faculty members and scientists of Nanosatellite czCube (Czech amateur cubesat) Indian Space Research Organisa- MapmyIndia raises tion (ISRO) on developing India's venture funds from first nanosatellite. Weighing less than three kg and with most Qualcomm functionalities of a normal satellite on a small platform, the MapmyIndia announced payload of satellite will include an indigenously designed that Qualcomm Ventures camera for near remote sensing and a GPS receiver. `Jugnu' has made a strategic invest- will transmit blinking signal, at all times-all over the earth. ment in the company with Most of the performance tests for the subsystems of satellite participation from existing will be carried out in the institute itself, using existing infra- With GPS technology, investors Kleiner Perkins structure. However, launch critical tests will be carried out whenever a person dials Caufield Byers, Sherpalo at ISRO centres. Designed life span of the satellite is pro- 100, the police command Ventures and Nexus India posed to be one year. center will get to know Capital. The investment from where the call is origi- will leverage Qualcomm’s nating, and an instant wireless technologies and and from earth while orbit- gation API for easy develop- automatic dispatch will MapmyIndia’s digital ing the planet 15 times a ment of Java ME navigation happen. The solution maps, location-based serv- day. The satellite is also and location based mobile includes, among others, a ices and GPS navigation, to equipped with remote applications. Atlas Naviga- GIS system for location empower the entire tele- sensing, satellite telemetry tion API offers tools for guidance. com, automotive and inter- and GIS technology, as well adding full turn-by-turn net ecosystems. as remote and ground sta- GPS navigation capability Now, video map based tion data processing. After to any mobile application road navigation orbiting for one to three on a wide range of mobile VidTeq (India) Private Lim- IRAN months, Omid will return devices requiring no GIS ited has announced a navi- to earth with data that will skills. The API is compatible gation concept based on First indigenous help Iranian experts send with Java ME (J2ME) mobile Video Maps. Video Map is a satellite put in orbit an operational satellite into phones and smartphones feature rich navigable map Iran has sent its first home- space. on 2G-3.5G. built on a traditional digital built satellite into orbit. map. Video Map is a video Named Omid (meaning clip of the complete route hope), the lightweight ISRAEL MONGOLIA between source and desti- satellite was sent into space nation with features like by the Iranian satellite car- New navigation Government adopts business logos, background rier Safir 2. Equipped with API from AtlasCT Universal Address music, turn-by-turn audio two frequency bands and AtlasCT announced the System overlay, road names etc. eight antennae, Omid will release of its new Naviga- Government of Mongolia embedded into it. Video transmit information to tion API, an advanced navi- has passed a resolution to
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 9 News
Google, Yahoo announce merger tary hardware and trans- tent of the kosmosnimki.ru port with Russian-made geoportal. The author and of services in Korea satellite navigation gadgets copyright holder of the car- “in order to raise the tographic data is the “Geo- Google (www.google.co.kr) and defence potential and secu- center-Consulting” compa- Yahoo (www.yahoo.co.kr) have- rity of Russia and to ny. joined hands in Web maps and upgrade transportation local search services as they can ill-afford to allow their Korean rivals to management and security extend their virtual duopoly into the new market. Google Korea and Yahoo! of passenger and cargo traf- SINGAPORE Korea announced plans to merge their key Web services over the platforms fic.” The government will of their digital maps and other location-based services, hoping that the supervise the use of the NIIT wins SLA enriched applications would drive up traffic on both sites. GLONASS cluster, and a fed- contract Under the agreement, Google sprinkles video clips from YouTube eral GLONASS operator will The Singapore Land (kr.youtube.com) on Yahoo's map (map.yahoo.co.kr), while Yahoo intercon- be formed. Individuals are Authority (SLA), the nation- nects its local search service, Gugi (kr.gugi.yahoo.com), with Google's permitted to use GLONASS al mapping agency, has map (maps.google.co.kr). The content sharing will be extended to the services throughout the awarded the tender for international version of Yahoo's Gugi services (global.gugi.yahoo.co.kr). national territory with the design, development and Korea has been one of the few rare markets where Google and Yahoo exception of restricted maintenance of a govern- have struggled to stay relevant, with Naver controlling around 75 percent areas. According to the law ment-wide intelligent map of the search market and Daum gobbling up the biggest of table scraps. GLONASS services will be system, to NIIT Technolo- given to individuals for free gies. NIIT will use technolo- and without limits. gy proposed by ESRI India adopt the Universal Addr- stant throughout Russia. in partnership with ESRI ess System for all location “As of January 30, the Geoportal updated Singapore. The system will related services and prod- GLONASS network has had with 1:10K scale maps be based on ESRI’s ArcGIS ucts in Mongolia. The tech- 20 satellites, including 18 Specialists of ScanEx RDC Server 9.3 and Microsoft's nology, known as NAC operative, one connecting have updated cartographic Dot Net technology. The (Natural Area Code), is to the system and one coverage on the kos- project is expected to be being provided by Geo- under maintenance,” a mosnimki.ru geoportal by completed in 9 months. It graphic Products Inc. Uni- source at the Central designing and rendering will be launched in early versal Address not only Machine Building Research the millionth-scale map of 2010. possess all the functionali- Institute said. Eighteen Russia and maps of ties of traditional address- operative satellites are nec- Moscow and Saint Peter es, but are unified represen- essary for GLONASS cover- burg cities to the THAILAND tations of all locations and age of entire Russia, and 24 1:10,000scale. areas in the world that can for coverage of the whole The online service that Tele Atlas’ be used conveniently by world. Earlier, the State has already been using mobile mapping both consumers and profes- Duma passed a GLONASS web-cartographic platform van deployed sionals. law. and image mosaics of Tele Atlas announced that “This is the first Russian ScanEx RDC, acted as a the company’s mobile map- law on satellite navigation, requestor for design and ping technology will be RUSSIA which defines main rendering of the millionth- deployed in Thailand. The notions, rights and duties of scale map of Russia and van in Thailand will focus GLONASS navigation network users,” State Duma detailed maps of the on collecting data to ensure signal constant Speaker Boris Gryzlov said. Moscow and Leningrad that changes in the map are The GLONASS satellite nav- The law suggests equip- Regions. It was used as the accurately reflected. It will igation signal are now con- ment of armaments, mili- basis for updating the con- help generate advanced
10 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 or more stereoscopic cam- India-based company, perspective of buildings era pairs, differential GPS which was contracted by and the surrounding areas. hardware, an inertial meas- the Municipality, drew this DiaDiem adds a main fea- urement unit and comput- map. ture that helps find out a ers to capture detailed The map also has a geo- user’s current location imagery of the entire road graphical information data- using both non-GPS phones network and its surround- base and would soon be and GPS phones. This helps ings. used in the implementa- tion of the GIS in RAK, said map features such as 3D municipal officials. landmarks, city blocks with UAE textures and junction views to help generate maps that Digital map of VIETNAM accurately reflect the urban RAKcompleted landscape for a superior, A digital map of Ras DiaDiem launches Screen shot of www.diadiem.com safer navigation experi- Al Khaimah (RAK) showing 3-D Web map ence. Tele Atlas currently all key areas including Diadiem.com is providing in locating the point of has nearly 50 mobile map- roads, features and address- the Vietnamese consumer interest closest to the user ping vans driving around es of commercial and with 3D mapping technolo- and they get directions to the world. Tele Atlas mobile residential premises, has gy on the Web and iPhone. other locations without mapping vans are outfitted been handed over to the The 3D map enables users entering their current loca- with cameras including one RAK Municipality. An to understand the size and tion. News
RapidEye ready for available to all graphics Enterprise mashup for commercial operations users. Users can order maps location intelligence RapidEye announced that in PDF, EPS, JPEG, TIF or Pho- released its constellation system has toshop formats. Alternative Monitor Analytics and successfully completed all format maps will offer the Clearway Technology Part- CANADA post-launch testing and cal- identical appearance as the ners Inc. announced the ibration activities, and is original Illustrator map. release of Monitor Analyt- Geosoft to now ready for commercial Depending on the format ics GeoAnalyzer, a new resell ArcView to operations. The satellite they choose, users will have Enterprise mashup for loca- mining firms constellation was launched varied ability to customise tion intelligence built with Geosoft Inc. will resell in August 2008. Since then, their maps. Vector map for- Silverlight and Microsoft ArcView to the Canadian RapidEye's prime contrac- mats, such as PDF and EPS, Virtual Earth. Monitor Ana- junior mining market tor, MDA (MacDonald, Det- will allow resizing and font lytics GeoAnalyzer is under a value-added twiler and Associates Ltd.) quality text. Photoshop for- claimed to allow organisa- reseller agreement reached has been conducting the mat maps will include tions leverage the invest- with ESRI Canada. commissioning on both the editable map layers. Users ments already made in col- This agreement applies space and ground segment can choose from digital lecting and managing vast to junior mining companies in which system perform- world maps, country maps, amounts of corporate data who purchase Geosoft’s ance and product quality USA maps, city maps and and Microsoft technology. Target for ArcGIS product - were thoroughly measured, county maps. Custom maps It is available as a Microsoft a surface and drillhole analysed and verified. can also be delivered in SharePoint Web part and its extension for ESRI's A worldwide network of alternate formats. key features include an ArcView software, for sim- distributors is being estab- ability to connect to plifying compilation, map- lished by RapidEye to facili- Cox Comm rolls Microsoft SQL Server Analy- ping and analysis of tate easy access to Rapid- out internet GIS sis Services OLAP cubes and geospatial data. Eye's products by cus- Cox Communications, a SQL Server Relational Data- tomers in their own lan- cable provider throughout base as data sources to map DestinoGPS guage and region. An e- the United States, has com- on Microsoft Virtual Earth. signs agreement commerce platform is also menced roll out of Tensing GeoAnalyzer is built with with NAVTEQ currently under construc- Web GIS as their internet Silverlight technology giv- NAVTEQ has signed an tion that will be available GIS tool. Tensing is a ing enhanced visualisation. agreement to supply from RapidEye's website. provider of geographic NAVTEQ map data of The company also plans to information and mobile 3D Paris on Google Mexico directly to Des- unveil 'The RapidEye Kiosk' solutions for telecommuni- Earth tinoGPS, a navigation within the next few cations and utilities indus- CyberCity 3D has con- device retailer and exclu- months. tries. With Tensing Web tributed a massive 3D City sive distributor of Mio GIS, Cox employees can Model of Paris, France to brand PNDs in Mexico. Mio Now, get a map access their asset data Google Earth. The CyberCity PNDs, sold by DestinoGPS, in the format using Internet Explorer. The 3D Model features over utilise the latest release you want application is stored cen- 75,000 structures in archi- of NAVTEQ map data of Designers can now get any trally and not on individual tectural detail. With the Mexico. Map Resources digital map desktops, making rollout Paris model, CyberCity 3D NAVTEQ map data of file in the format they pre- easier. Additionally, Tens- has added a total of 21 gray Mexico includes 2,454 cities, fer to use. Claimed to be the ing Web GIS reads corpo- and/or textured city models over 450,000 km of roads first ever initiative, Map rate GIS data natively with to Google Earth. Plans are and covers the entire popu- Resources' collection of no translation or extraction underway to enhance the lation. Adobe Illustrator maps is necessary. gray building content on
12 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 the Paris model to include Build, publish advertising and trip plan- TRIMBLE NEWS 3D environment ning information. with VN Studio 3 Surveying software released 3D Nature has made avail- Free mass able its updated Visual Trimble Access software, a transit proximity Nature Studio 3 (VNS 3) new field and office solution API with Scene Express includ- for surveyors claimed to Urban Mapping, Inc (UMI), ing support for new fea- expedite data collection, provider of location content tures in Google Earth 5. VNS processing, analysis, and for interactive applications, 3 with Scene Express can project information delivery announced the availability build realistic and accurate through improv-ed work- of a Free Mass Transit Prox- 3D environments and pub- flows, collaboration and con- imity API that permits lish them to Google Earth 5. trol, has been released. access to the company’s VNS 3 includes a substan- database of mass transit The complete solution is tial library of trees and veg- systems. The free version said to speed up both typical and specialised survey- etation that can be used in offers API access for devel- ing tasks and enables easy, fast and secure two-way Google. VNS can also be opers to build location- information sharing between the field survey crew used to make still images based applications that can and the office. Surveys can be completed faster with and animations of land- leverage Urban Mapping’s less time spent travelling back and forth to the office. scapes with a visual quality URBANWARE Mass Transit Management and field crews can closely collaborate exceeding what Google database. With the API, by viewing the same information in near real-time. Earth is capable of. developers and publishers The four components of Trimble Access solution can enhance the value of Beta version of include: Trimble Access services, base software for local content by associating MAPONICS spatial typical survey applications, specialised application information about nearby API released modules and the Trimble Connected Community. transit stops and routes or Maponics LLC, provider of lines serving those stops. neighbourhood boundary The announcement follows Track your assets with VRS data, released the beta ver- on the heels of UMI’s recent iScope service sion of the MAPONICS SPA- release of enhancements to Trimble VRS iScope serv- TIAL API - Neighborhood the Graphserver open- ice has been launched in Data to selected existing source transportation rout- Europe. The add-on serv- customers. With this move, ing engine. The Mass Tran- ice offers Trimble VRS Maponics is claimed to be sit Proximity API enables Now subscribers the abil- the first data development interactive local search, ity to track and manage company to deliver its mobile search, social net- their assets in real-time, entire neighbourhood as well as view their ses- Schematic representation of Trimble VRS working, real estate, yellow Now dataset via an API, includ- pages and other location- sion history and rover ing all neighbourhood based applications to pro- information. The Trimble boundaries. This database vide end users with VRS Now service supplies fast, easy to use and covers 60,000 (and grow- localised transit informa- accurate Global Navigation Satellite System ing) neighborhoods in over tion for subway, commuter (GNSS) correction data for a variety of applications. 2,300 U.S. and Canadian rail or bus stations. Other Utilising Google Maps, Trimble VRS-iScope can sim- cities. Maponics expects to potential uses include data plify project scheduling and asset management by announce full API availabil- mining, economic develop- giving a visual component to surveying, mapping and ity for all of its datasets in ment and direct marketing. construction projects. March 2009.
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 13 News
GOOGLE NEWS probes orbiting the Red Planet. View- ers can learn about new discoveries and explore indexes of available Mars GE’s aquatic extension imagery. The new Mars mode also Google has unveiled an aquatic com- allows users to add their own 3D con- ponent of Google Earth, Google Ocean, tent to the Mars map to share with that the company said "aims to turn the world. NASA Ames, along with its everyone into Jacques Cousteau partners at Google, Carnegie Mellon (French naval officer and sea explor- University, SETI, and other institu- er).'' The new feature combined satel- tions, helped produce the data to lite imagery, underwater photo- Screen shot of www.google.com/mars make this possible. graphs, video and scientific data to allow users to see 3-D images of the release of a new Mars mode in Google Latitude is new feature ocean floor, along with key features Earth that brings to everyone's desk- on Maps such as the location of ship wrecks top a high-resolution, three-dimen- Google Maps and coral reefs. sional view of the Red Planet. Besides has added to Google assembled the new soft- providing a rich, immersive 3D view itself a new ware after meeting with many of the of Mars that will aid public under- feature called world's top marine scientists. The standing of Mars science, the new Latitude. final product, an automatic download mode, Google Mars 3D, also gives Google Maps with latest version of Google Earth researchers a platform for sharing Latitude is an 5.0, also includes 20 massive datasets data similar to what Google Earth pro- opt-in service which will allow users including photos and video of marine vides for Earth scientists. The mode to find out the approximate location animals, the boundaries of the world's enables users to fly virtually through of their friends or family members, marine protected areas, dead zones, enormous canyons and scale huge provided that they have opted to daily sea surface temperature mountains on Mars that are much share their location with the user. changes and arctic sea ice. The pri- larger than any found on Earth. Users Google Maps Latitude is a totallymo- mary information to create the also can explore the Red Planet bile application which works with the images came from the U.S. Navy and through the eyes of the Mars rovers following devices: the National Oceanic and Atmospher- and other Mars missions, providing a • Android-powered devices with Maps v3.0 and above ic Administration (NOAA). unique perspective of the entire plan- et. Users can see some of the latest • Most colour BlackBerry devices Explore Mars on Earth satellite imagery from NASA's Mars • Most Windows Mobile 5.0 and above devices NASA and Google announced the Reconnaissance Orbiter and other • Most Symbian S60 devices.
sation that manages large ESRI's Tapestry Segmenta- optional Tele Atlas Address ESRI's new geocoding U.S. address lists can use tion codes. The Address Points database. This data- software new Address Coder to seg- Coder's step-by-step process base maps street addresses With the release of Address ment and target addresses enables users to geocode to a physical location so that Coder 9.3, ESRI claims to with latitude-longitudes, addresses without training. each address is an exact, make geocoding much sim- Federal Information Process- For even more precision, fixed point instead of an pler. Marketers, direct-mail ing Standards (FIPS) codes, addresses can be geocoded interpolation from an managers, and any organi- demographic data, and at the rooftop level with the address range.
14 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 ArcLogistics Navigator help users answer impor- the exclusive partner of released tant questions related to GeoEye in the Oceania ESRI’s new release, ArcLo- where to go in cases of an region and has been sup- gistics Navigator, is an in- emergency, where a new plying 0.8m satellite vehicle navigation solution road might be routed, imagery from the IKONOS specifically designed for where are the best places satellite for several years. trucking, fleet, and logistics for different activities and applications. The new solu- recreation. USGS, Airborne 1 to tion creates a complete share LiDAR extents solution for organisations GeoEye-1 starts U.S. Geological Survey looking to plan optimum commercial (USGS) CLICK (Center for routes and schedules on the operations LiDAR Information Coordi- desktop and see them fol- GeoEye, Inc. announced the nation and Knowledge) and lowed in the field. ArcLogis- start of commercial opera- Airborne 1 Corporation tics Navigator includes tions for its new GeoEye-1 have entered into a collabo- NOAA-19 launch (courtesy: United Launch Alliance/NOAA) NAVTEQ map data for the Earth-imaging satellite. The ration to share extents of United States, Canada and company is also submitting what is claimed to be the NOAA-18 and one European Europe. The NAVTEQ imagery from the satellite largest compilation of high- environmental satellite dataset for ArcLogistics to the National Geospatial- resolution LiDAR point already in polar orbit. Navigator includes latest Intelligence Agency (NGA) cloud data in the world. NOAA-19 carries seven street geometry with navi- for their certification under This data will reside sepa- instruments, including two gational attributes that the terms of the NextView rately on the CLICK site search and rescue instru- facilitate turn-by-turn contract. GeoEye-1 imagery (http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov) ments and a data recording directions and enable in- products and solutions are and lidardata.com. This col- system. Unique with this dash vehicle and portable now commercially avail- laboration will provide an satellite is a new data col- navigation devices, route able in half-, one-, two- and informational link between lection system that will planning and map display. four-metre ground resolu- the two, showing users relay meteorological, ocea- tions. Imagery products are where both free, publicly- nographic data, even track Data available in colour and available LiDAR data exist migration patterns of clearinghouse black & white. on CLICK, as well as com- wildlife, to help researchers Website launched Colour imagery compris- mercial, pre-flown resale improve their study of A new Website (http:// es four bands: blue, green, data exist on lidardata.com. Earth. atlas.ca.gov) to help Cali- red and near-infrared. fornian government agen- There are several ways NOAA launches Autodesk’s new cies coordinate their commercial customers can polar-orbiting infrastructure geospatial efforts and allow purchase GeoEye-1 image- satellite modelling software public access to geospatial ry. Service Experts are avail- NOAA-19, a new NOAA Autodesk, Inc. announced data has been launched. able to assist with the pur- polar-orbiting environmen- new Infrastructure Model- Named Cal-Atlas Geospa- chasing of GeoEye's tal satellite, was launched ing software products that tial Clearinghouse, it will imagery products and val- from Vandenberg Air Force help users of utilities and allow the general public to ue-added solutions. Base and is now circling the telecom organisations and access maps, data and AAMHatch takes care of globe every 102 minutes government agencies information. The new Web- Oceania taking images and meas- improve the design and site will centralise a variety AAMHatch started the urements to support management of their infra- of data and information. commercial operations of NOAA’s efforts to forecast structure. The new portfolio The maps and information GeoEye-1 satellite in Ocea- and monitor the environ- of products includes updat- available on Cal-Atlas will nia region. AAMHatch is ment. NOAA-19 joins ed versions of AutoCAD
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 15 News
APPOINTMENTS OGC elects directors The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) recently held its biennial election of direc- Rafay Khan is Sr. VP, int’nal sales at tors. Of the 21 elected members of the consortium's 2009-2010 Board of Directors, DigitalGlobe 16 serving members returned to OGC board and four new members were seated. DigitalGlobe has appointed Rafay Khan as senior vice presi- The new OGC board members are Jeffery Peters, Kevin Pomfret, François Robida dent of international sales. Khan brings sales and manage- and Rob van de Velde. Jeffery Peters currently serves as Director of Federal Pro- ment experience in the location-based services sector to grammes for ESRI, Inc. Kevin Pomfret is a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia with DigitalGlobe’s executive team. In his new role, Khan will be expertise in the legal issues associated with spatial data and spatial technology responsible for expanding DigitalGlobe’s international sales operations as the including intellectual property rights, licensing, liability, privacy and national company seeks to capitalise on the growing worldwide demand for high-resolution security. François Robida is Deputy Head of Information Systems and Technologies satellite and aerial imagery. Most recently, Khan was the Asia Pacific vice-presi- Division at BRGM, France's leading public institution involved in the earth science dent of business development and sales for NAVTEQ. field for sustainable management of natural resources and surface and subsurface risks. Rob van de Velde is Director of Geonovum, the Dutch National SDI Executive Robert Moses elected as Chair of OGC’s GAC Committee. Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO of PCI Geomatics, a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors Blom appoints Gary Hodkinson as Business Dev of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), has been elected Manager by the Board to chair the consortium’s recently chartered Blom Aerofilms, provider of aerial surveying and online imagery solutions, Global Advisory Council (GAC). The GAC is a formal commit- announced the appointment of Gary Hodkinson as Business Development Manager tee of the OGC board. It is intended to be a forum for development of authentic out- for BlomURBEX, the online platform that delivers high-resolution oblique and ver- reach and participation strategies to ensure the continued growth and develop- tical images of towns, cities, and urban areas, for architects, urban planners con- ment of the consortium process and to support critical Global Spatial Data Infra- sulting engineers and property developers.Gary will be responsible for developing structure (GSDI) initiatives around the world. and supporting Blom’s partner network for BlomURBEX across new markets, as well as customer and market development for all Blom datasets. Houser is GeoDecisions’ Director of apps development Armin Fendrich joins deCarta as VP of Sales Debra Houser was appointed as Director of application devel- of EMEA opment of GeoDecisions. Based at the firm’s corporate head- deCarta has appointed Armin Fendrich as Vice President (VP) of Sales of Europe, quarters in Harrisburg, Houser is responsible for leading the Middle East & Africa (EMEA). Fendrich will head up deCarta's operations through- firm’s technology development staff and directing enhance- out the EMEA region with an emphasis on increasing sales for LBS applications ments to existing projects and applications. including personal navigation, mobile and fleet-tracking/MRM. Fendrich joins deCarta from Nokia gate5 GmbH.
Map 3D 2010, AutoCAD intuitive GeoWeb, anno- allow FortiusOne's cus- developed ‘MarineMap’, a Raster Design 2010, unced their integration tomers to design and Web 2.0 mapping and deci- Autodesk MapGuide Enter- with CloudMade, a provider import custom tiles as sion support system to prise 2010, and Autodesk of cartographic tools built basemaps in GeoCommons. identify protected marine Topobase 2010. around OpenStreetMap areas. MarineMap com- data. MarineMap from bines an extensive cata- FortiusOne CloudMade's HTTP Tile Farallon logue of GIS data, sophisti- integrates with API will be integrated into Geographics cated spatial analysis, and CloudMade the GeoCommons platform Farallon Geographics, an intuitive user interface FortiusOne, provider of to enable greater flexibility working with the Marine to enable members of the location intelligence solu- when building rich map Science Institute at UC San- public to participate in the tion that bridges the analy- visualisations. CloudMade's ta Barbara, The Nature Con- selection of marine envi- sis of GIS with the open and customisable tiles will servancy, and Ecotrust, has ronments that should be
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designated for conserva- PB MapInfo, Group 1 Software now entities of PB tion, recreational, and com- Business Insight mercial uses. MarineMap Pitney Bowes (PB) Software Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc., allows participants to iden- announced Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI), a new business unit composed of PB tify and design marine pro- MapInfo and Group 1 Software. As one organisation, PBBI will provide all the integral tected areas (MPAs) interac- location and communication intelligence to clients from major industries—from restau- tively, and to share pro- rants and insurance agencies to financial services organisations, government agencies posed MPA areas among and telecom providers, who rely on location intelligence, predictive analytics, opera- stakeholders. tional intelligence and communications management solutions. Pitney Bowes, dealing in mailstream technology acquired Group 1 Software in 2004 and MapInfo in 2007. East View provides GIS data for FAO project What lies in Middle East for PBBI? GIS Development took The Food and Agriculture comments from Chris Clarke, Director Business Development Organisation (FAO) of the – Middle East, PBBI United Nations has chosen East View Cartographic (EVC) as the key map provider for its Desert Q. What are the growth prospects of PBBI in Middle East? Which sectors are the target clients? Locust early warning sys- We believe that there are substantial opportunities for PBBI in the Middle East, even within the context of the current global economic slow- down. There are two sectors in particular which are showing continued growth: the public sector and telecommunications. As governments tem. The system, with its within the region started responding to the downturn in trade and investment, many have announced substantial national public sector invest- geographic focus on north- ment programmes. We are already working with a number of municipalities and government ministries and think that we will have increased ern Africa, the Near East scope for further cooperation in this area. In the telecommunications industry, there are several licenses being granted to new providers. Many of these providers are global or regional players who are already our customers so we are in a good position to create further opportunities and Asia, tracks environ- within these relationships. We are also looking to target industry verticals such as banking, insurance, retail and natural resources where we mental conditions and have proven experience and expertise. There are a number of emerging business challenges common to these sectors where PBBI’s location and communication intelligence solutions are best placed to meet. locust infestations so that Q. Are there specific solutions being offered to various business sectors of the region? early actions can be taken to prevent plagues from We offer a number of specific solutions to businesses within the region. Most revolve around our location intelligence solutions, taking the spa- tial assets that already exist in the databases of a company or government entity and putting them to work to solve everyday business deci- developing. EVC was able to sions, drive strategy and achieve operational efficiencies. An example of a specific solution would be eDig, an application used by municipalities provide expansive source which allows all utilities to cooperate when they are digging roads to ensure that just one hole is dug and is used by water, electricity and telecommunications services at the same time. This results in less disruption and maximises the efficient use of plant and equipment. We also data, in-house GIS produc- have a new solution developed for police and emergency services called MapInfo Crime Profiler. tion services and critical Q. Are there map data restrictions that pose challenge? georeferenced area cover- Data is certainly not as readily available within the Middle East (ME) as it is in Western Europe or in the United States. Demographic, census age and metadata. and customer preference data are lacking in many countries so this can be a challenge for organisations who are looking to develop accurate spatial applications. However, the street data within the region is improving all the time and its recent availability has given us the opportunity to provide many more sophisticated applications to our customers. Indeed, we now have datasets such as StreetPro Saudi Arabia and StreetPro DigitalGlobe’s imagery UAE available for customers. on Nokia mobiles Q. How challenging is the ME market as compared to other markets? Any specific sales strategy adopted to meet these challenges? DigitalGlobe and Nokia The Middle East is certainly a challenging marketplace. However I'm experienced in working in markets as diverse as Russia, Poland, Egypt, have agreed to bring the Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and South Africa (to name but a few) so I'm used to a challenge! The individual countries within the Middle East each have real-world perspective of their own culture and unique business practices so it is important to understand the different nuances to ensure our approach is tailored and relevant. To achieve this, we always try to work with local partners who understand the local landscape. To deliver a solution that will make a high-resolution satellite real difference to each enterprise, we feel it is important to thoroughly understand each business on an individual level and the market they and aerial imagery to Nokia operate in. To this end, we also have Arabic speaking salespeople and technicians on our team. Maps, both on mobile How does the merger with Group 1 Software offer additional benefits to your GIS clients? Q. devices and on Ovi, improv- Under the PBBI umbrella our customers will have access to additional solutions to help them achieve their business goals whilst taking advan- ing the global driving, hik- tage of the growing portfolio of location intelligence solutions. MapInfo customers will have an even wider range of options to leverage their location intelligence capabilities, including new opportunities in such areas as: customer data integration, sharing and retrieval; customer data ing and walking navigation quality management; enterprise address management; enterprise address management; print and electronic document management; customer capabilities for consumers communication management across multiple channels.
18 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 street and city-to-city navi- process. Governments, util- Pictometry International gation views. ities and corporations that Corp., which allows Sidwell modify their existing to significantly expand ESEA introduces datasets to ensure accuracy their offerings to include MapMerger Detective will benefit from Map- Pictometry Intelligent who use these applications. ESEA, the company in map Merger Detective’s ability Images. Users can have quick, easy conflation software for the to automatically compare These images are cap- and seamless access to a ArcGIS platform, intro- and synchronise their exist- tured using a proprietary wide range of global high- duced MapMerger Detec- ing datasets with new data process and are utilised in a resolution imagery from tive, a tool developed to updates received from their digital format. Both Pictom- DigitalGlobe’s ImageLi- enable organisations to map supplier. The solution etry and Sidwell provide brary sourced from its high- manage the process of inte- will find and identify map map-based technology to resolution satellite constel- grating data updates into elements that have local governments, and a lation and aerial network. their existing GIS database. changed their geometry or large segment is in the par- Made available on com- The tool detects, highlights, attribution. cel mapping and assess- patible Nokia devices and and allows the user to ment market. online through Ovi, the resolve differences Sidwell and enhanced navigation fea- between their existing data Pictometry to GIS software for tures will enable con- and the map update in a offer oblique BlackBerry sumers to find and explore logical, simple, and auto- imagery TDC Group, Inc. announc-ed world destinations with mated manner that stream- Sidewell has signed a part- a new Basic Edition of its turn-by-turn, street-by- lines the data maintenance nership agreement with Freeance Mobile software News
for BlackBerry. Freeance received a 15 million kroner 123map GmbH & Co. KG, a CityGRID 2009, the 3D man- Mobile - Basic Edition (2.56 million USD) grant supplier of geographical agement software, claimed allows users to use live GIS from the Danish Agency for services, have entered into to improve model perform- maps and custom GPS data Science, Technology and a patent licensing agree- ance and increase the abili- collection forms on their Innovation to create a digi- ment that will enhance ty to share of 3D city mod- BlackBerry smartphones. It tal atlas of Denmark, track- 123map's ability to bring els. System enhancements allows live access to ArcGIS ing data from the 1600s. digital point-of-interest enable users to find infor- Server and custom GPS The joint project, which (POI) mapping technology mation faster and easier forms with digital photos includes the archives, the to its customers. 123map than ever before, with captured with a BlackBerry National Survey and Cadas- delivers mapping services improvements to CityGRID smartphone. The software tre, and the University of across multiple devices, Manager, Administrator, is expected to find applica- Copenhagen, will map his- including mobile phones Reader/Writer and Modeler. tion in organisations want- torical Danish data to pro- that allow for optimal data Latest features include: ing to realise the time and vide a detailed tool for compression without com- • Improved model surfacing cost savings of mobilising researchers. promising the quality of • Extended data schema for GIS maps; they may deploy The three-year project the data. The intellectual terrains and buildings it for simple map lookup, will create an Internet- property (IP) licensing • Improved database con- nectivity of Reader/Writer field inspections or asset based GIS map that will agreement with Microsoft logging. include a database of cul- will enable 123map to use tural, historical and ge0gra- Microsoft's patented inno- phical information. vation to overlay informa- SWITZERLAND tion on a map image corre- sponding to a POI, enrich- New ultra high- GERMANY ing the geographical infor- speed scanner DENMARK mation on the maps. Leica Geosystems has 123map, MS enter announced Leica HDS6100, National Archive to patent licensing CityGRID 2009 an improved, ultra-high build digital atlas agreement released speed laser scanner for The National Archive has Microsoft (MS) Corp. and Met GeoInfo has released many as-built survey appli- cations. The Leica HDS6100 is claimed to feature several Mapping wind... 3TIER expands FirstLook tool key enhancements over its predecessor, the Leica 3TIER has expanded its FirstLook Prospecting tool, pro- HDS6000 phase-based viding free access to average wind speed ranges any- scanner. Compared to its where in the world, through a dynamic 5 km resolution predecessor the new Leica map. FirstLook provides a Web-based assessment tool to globally prospect for viable wind energy generation loca- HDS6100 scanner features: tions. "We developed this map as part of REmapping the • 37% increase in the oper- World, a renewable energy resource mapping initiative we ating temperature range (now -10ºC to +45ºC) launched in March 2008 to address the biggest barrier to global renewable energy adoption - the lack of informa- • 67% increase in battery Screen shot of http://firstlook.3tier.com tion," says Kenneth Westrick, CEO and founder of 3TIER. life of the internal, remov- able battery (now 2.5 hours) As renewable energy developers identify promising wind resources, they can augment FirstLook's initial wind assessment by purchasing FirstLook assessment reports that pro- • New, integrated wireless vide an in-depth estimate of wind resources in specific locations. LAN (WLAN) scanner con- trol option 3TIER ran its model through a 10-year simulation across the world's landmass at a 5 km resolution. The results then were calibrated and validated with observational data to cre- • Reduced range noise at ate the final dataset and, ultimately, the world wind map. longer ranges (e.g. 25m & 50m)
20 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009
News
forms, are projected to grow from about 17 million in 2008 to 34 mil- lion in 2014. “The latest wave of innovative smartphones has stimu- lated consumer interest in advanced mobile applications, which are increasingly location-enabled”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “Mobile operators are now responding by investing in network- based location technologies and new services. Particularly A-GPS will LBS platforms, middleware become very important as the installed base of GPS-enabled hand- market will grow: Berg Insight sets in Europe is projected to reach 270 million devices in 2014.” Established LBS industry players According to a new report from the telecom analyst will however face competition from new market firm Berg Insight, the market for LBS platforms and entrants such as handset manufacturers and Internet middleware in Europe will return to growth path in the players such as Google whose primary interest is to coming years, with demand driven by E112 require- attract users for new services. In response, the tradi- ments and increasing adoption of A-GPS. tional LBS vendors will be compelled to deliver superior Annual revenues in Europe for mobile location plat- performance in close cooperation with mobile forms, including A-GPS servers and middleware plat- network operators.
Leveraging the phase- range of geographic infor- range of mapping products, Citizens remap based engine’s inherent mation to central govern- as: Birmingham ultra-high scan speed (up to ment for the next four years Birmingham has become • From OS: OS MasterMap 508,000 pts/sec) and full have been awarded to Ord- the first English city to be Topography Layer, 1:10 000 field-of-view (360º x 310º) nance Survey (OS) and its Scale Raster, 1:25 000 completely remapped by its design, advances in the business partner, Land- Scale Colour Raster, 1:50 own citizens. Maps of the Leica HDS6100 let users take mark. 000 Scale Colour Raster, city are freely editable and Meridian 2; 1:250 000 advantage of the benefits of The Pan Government Scale Colour Raster, available at Open- ultra-high speed High-Defi- Agreement (PGA), managed MiniScale, Strategi, OS StreetMap (OSM). The nition Surveying (HDS) in by the Department for MasterMap Integrated OpenStreetMap project, run Transport Network (ITN) more conditions and loca- Communities and Local Layer Roads theme, OS by the OpenStreetMap tions with less hassles. Government, provides MasterMap Integrated Foundation, is an open almost 100 national bodies Transport Network (ITN) source project that is build- Layer Road Routing Infor- with access to core geo- mation (RRI) theme, Bound- ing free online maps, not UK graphic information at ary-Line, OS MasterMap based on any copyright or an affordable price and Address Layer 2, 1:50 000 licensed map data. Scale Gazetteer. OS, Landmark bag Pan under consistent licensing The data being used by Government terms. OS and Landmark in OSM has been obtained • From Landmark and Agreement conjunction with Dotted Dotted Eyes: MarkerMap; from 100 volunteers who Contracts for supplying a Eyes will supply a wide Dotted Eyes InterestMap. collected GPS data while
22 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 cycling, walking, riding navigation and location busses and trains and one based services to mobile volunteer even used a canal users. The Intel Atom boat. processor is claimed to They mapped some deliver high performance at 15,000 residential roads, lower power. MIDs are 6,000 footpaths and 9,000 expected to support other roads in Birmingham always-on connectivity, (and over 700 bus stops, high-resolution displays 300 pubs, 200 traffic lights and touch-screen inter- and 300 postboxes). faces, which make them ideally suited for advanced ViewRanger’s search, mapping and navi- topo maps on gation solutions. Nokia 5800 ViewRanger, the personal World mines outdoor GPS navigation monitored software for mobile phones, remotely is now available for Nokia The safety of mines around 5800 and other Symbian the world can now be mon- S60 touch screen mobile itored from a Global Opera- phones. tions Centre in Notting- The ViewRanger applica- ham, UK. tion, which is popular with The innovation by 3D outdoor activity enthusi- Laser Mapping uses the asts across Europe, takes web and laser mapping full advantage of the touch technology to remotely screen to put detailed topo- monitor mining operations graphic maps at user’s fin- from as far as Africa, Aus- gertips and offer a simpli- tralia and South America. fied navigation and out- Data is already being con- door exploration experi- tinuously streamed from ence. gold, platinum and dia- mond mines in Africa that Telmap’s mobile use 3D Laser Mapping's navigation SiteMonitor mine monitor- service ing system. Telmap announced that it SiteMonitor combines is delivering an advanced laser scanning technology navigation and location with software to capture based service for Mobile and continuously analyse Internet Devices (MIDs) accurate measurements of based on the Intel Atom pit walls and mined materi- processor and Linux-based al. It is used to improve Moblin platform. safety and optimise produc- Telmap is embracing the tion at mines around the MID category to bring rich world.
MARCH 2009
Geospatial@D&E Convergence is still th Implementation lead
proposition) of this integrated technology is that it is directly associated with the economics of the construction industry, his month's article is a continuation of my as it is cost/time-effective right from the time of design, earlier article 'D&E - convergence is the through build and even post construction management as it key' (http://www.gisdevelopment.net/maga- integrates all the disciplines in its core and optimises the Tzine/global/2009/January/44.htm), which talked about solutions for best results. the latest trends in the use of geospatial technologies for design and engineering and concluded with the need for CURRENT TRENDS convergence of AEC and geospatial technologies for The best way to utilise the different establishing an effective design-build solution. databases from AEC and geospa- tial is to integrate it in a single IT'S ALL HAPPENING interactive model supporting Though economic recession is the most talked about topic 3D visualisation so that one these days and construction and real estate being one of the can visualise and analyse worst affected industries, one can expect little or no invest- all aspects of the infra- ment in newer technologies or research along with reducing structure effectively. compensation and job cuts. Fortunately, amidst all the con- BIM (Building Infor- fusion and chaos of the economics, research is an ongoing mation Modelling) with process that's en route development. plug-in support is one As a research topic, objectives of BIM, CAD and GIS integra- such tool. It is well tion was to develop a framework of interoperability across beyond the early the lifecycle of building and infrastructure investment research phase, and is involving planning, architecture, engineering, construction, being used by major archi- operations and maintenance and decommissioning. As indi- tectural and consultation vidual technologies, these have been successfully imple- firms around the world. As mented in design-build and management of buildings, high- explained by Andrew Press- ways and roads, network infrastructure such as telecommu- man, FAIA in Architectural nications, power, water, wastewater and gas networks. Also, Record, May 2007: "This is an excit- these disciplines have been isolated from the other and each ing time to practice architecture. Archi- has maintained its own database and profiles for a while tects and engineers seem to be able to now. design and construct almost anything they can Convergence of AEC (Architecture/Engineering/Construc- imagine and the data they use enables these buildings to tion) and geospatial is one of the well researched topics and be well managed by their owners. Architects, consultants is now a substantially developed technology in itself. It is and owners are also working together more closely than now in a difficult yet exciting time. The USP (unique selling ever. Integrated practice (IP) is the term that is being
26 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 drawings to 3- dimensional building information models (BIM). Advanced design, communication and simulation tools give us an opportunity to change the way we work in he key the industry, including open collaboration between stake- holders, design for increased energy efficiency, flexibility, constructability, comfort, etc." (http://www.inpro-project.eu/summary.asp) One of the important trends is WebGIS for "land-based" ds the way! infrastructure projects: transportation, telecommunications and the construction industry at large. Although GIS is tradi- tionally confined to the planning stage, geographical infor- mation is actually required in all phases of the infrastructure assigned to this collaborative process. IP is a meaningful life cycle. An essential element of WebGIS for infrastructure response to the ongoing marketplace mandate for buildings projects is engineering information management: a project- that are faster to design and construct, at lower cost, as well control structure that gets the right information to the right as more sustainable and of higher quality than those built in person at the right time. the past. Building information modelling (BIM) is G-enabling or geospatial enabling is another important enabling - some say forcing - this information- trend that has emerged in the past few years across the IT sharing, integrated- practice culture to sector and many other verticals, as almost every thing we do emerge." (http://archrecord. construc- is associated with location now. Even the advertisement we tion.com/practice/projDeliv- see on our monitors are location specific! ery/0705proj-1.asp) A European Commission INDUSTRY CHALLENGES funded project, the Open Construction industry is one of the last to jump on the tech- Information Environment nology bandwagon but the construction boom came as a for Knowledge-Based Col- boon for the industry as it upgraded its survey from plane laborative Processes table to total/laser stations and paper drawings to CAD and throughout the Lifecycle now GIS in some cases. But still, there are some bigger chal- of a Building (InPro) pro- lenges that it faces. One being, global climate change, as gramme, is one of buildings account for a substantial share in the total energy Europe's largest collabo- consumption and carbondioxide emissions across the globe. rative projects in con- And these need to be adapted to achieve zero net carbon struction-related emissions and minimise environmental impact while at the research and develop- same time yield a respectable financial return on invest- ment. The project is lead ment. by five large European con- Some of the other challenges include aging infrastructure struction contractors in close that requires refurbishing or replacement. There is also a cooperation with other stake- need for capacity building, to upgrade the workforce with holders of the construction and IT newer technologies. In many infrastructure projects, design industries, plus renowned research and engineering continue while construction is underway, organisations and specialised consult- responding to conditions in the field. It is also important to ants. The InPro website states, "The main identify the design errors early. It is estimated by the US objective of InPro is to "develop and establish a Department of Defense that the cost of correcting a mistake model-based and collaborative way of working in the in the design phase increases by three orders of magnitude-a early design phase, considering the whole life-cycle of a factor of 1000-if the error is detected late in the construction building." And, "The construction industry is standing before phase as opposed to early in the design phase. Another prob- a major technology shift - from the traditional 2-dimensional lem that arises is as a result of having different teams
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 27 Aging Infrastructure - The entire span of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis
responsible for engineering design and maintaining or their GIS counterparts to develop formats or provide plat- records, i.e. there is a distinct classification amongst the engi- form for seamless integration of datasets over various plat- neering design and GIS professionals and their different forms. Though GIS is associated as the data management ways of delivering final products and the method of updat- system, both spatial and non spatial data, through a map ing their database. interface, it has now evolved to efficiently manage the visu- Many project managers understand that underlying alisation of the 3D data and is also capable of simulations. requirement is a robust system that will assist in providing The coordinate system that is used in defining the architec- the right information to the right person at the right time. tural, engineering and geo data is the sole distinguishing fac- And this is where the convergence of AEC and geospatial tor to implement whether the data a spatial or not. Most technologies plays a vital role in implementing a compre- CAD applications are now capable of supporting real world hensive, sophisticated, geospatially enabled, engineering, coordinate systems and based on the Industry Foundation information management system. Classes developed and maintained by the IAI are also being geospatially enabled as a result of an alliance formed TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES between IAIand OGC. But as a wise saying goes, it is best to Geospatial technologies, on its own, have excelled to a posi- integrate the better of all worlds, i.e. the database manage- tion where a GIS system is capable of the entire life-cycle ment capability of GIS, 2D visualisation of CAD or 3D visuali- management of the construction project. Most survey sation of BIM. instrument manufacturing companies have tied up with The major requirement of this convergence is seamless integration at the 'standard' level. Though a lot of work has been done, the prospect of having a new and improved visu- alisation, database, drawing or any other data format is always around the corner. The OGC develops and promotes standards for distributed geo-processing, with a particular focus on Web services. Many of the software companies that serve both AEC and geospatial customers are providing interoperability between their own AEC and geospatial products. The OGC's standards development process, which relies heavily on fast paced, results-oriented test beds, has already started work in the AEC and geospatial technology convergence. The different AEC and geospatial technology have different vocabularies, geometries, computing paradigms, data for- mats, data schemas, scales and fundamental world-views.
CAD/GIS/BIM interoperability challenge They also have different requirements for accuracy,
28 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009
CONCLUSION The challenges of the construction industry on the surveying front are a result of the existing instrumentation and their limitations. As and when companies introduce compact or heavy duty but more importantly accurate instruments, industry will adopt them and evolve along with them. It will also, as a necessity, invest in the training of personnel for the operation of these instruments. It is already on many major survey instruments companies to make the survey data Typical survey instrument assembly available in a format that is interoperable with software it will be used in. On the software and engineering aspect, it can be noted "verisimilitude" (realism), and animation performance. Dif- that technologies like GIS/CAD/BIM have been developing ferent organisations have different business processes for customised solutions for the construction industry at various which they have developed their own paper and digital levels, say designing, process management, or post construc- forms and procedures. tion management. But this has led to repeated data collec- The CAD-GIS Interoperability Working Group in the Open tion or using it in different software for desired results and Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC(R)) is working towards increasing labour cost. This has also given rise to common AEC/CAD/Geospatial integration. OGC members are working integrated solutions, but the capability of it being a total on projects such as: Integrating international standards for solution is still questionable. Building Information Models with the OpenGIS(R) Geogra- The convergence of technologies is also a principal factor phy Markup Language Encoding Specification (GML), the responsible for the construction industry to move towards main international industry standard XML encoding lan- the green and sustainable development. It helps in manag- guage for geospatial information. XML makes it possible to ing energy costs and materials costs. It also helps in design describe and encode many kinds of data such that software and modelling of infrastructure that follow the local green can intelligently integrate and re-organise the data for development guidelines. Thus, there is high value in technol- diverse purposes. ogy-assisted AEC - geospatial business process innovations It should also be noted here that geospatial technologies is that reduce the percentage of wasted materials and energy not only GIS but includes surveying, remote sensing, pho- and that help architects design for local climate and materi- togrammetry, etc. as well. The inherent challenges faced by als. these individual technologies does effect their efficient use in It is one thing to know that the technology exists and a dif- the field of design and engineering. The technology in this ferent ball game when it comes to the implementation of the regard will have to improve in terms of their quantitative same in an organisation. Some of the issues that arise could and qualitative capabilities be high capital investment (for the software license), habit and its interoperable (comfort of using existing technology), etc. It is hence impor- industry stan- tant that a cost and risk analysis for its implementation is dards. carried out and ROI calculated. 'The only constant is change - Heraclitus'. We have to understand that it is inevitable that the change (read advancement of technology) will eventually catch up with our existing business practices and the transition will have to be made. Until next time, adapt and evolve!
GAURAV SHARMA Practice Manager - Design & Engineering GIS Development [email protected]
30 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009
Technology
3D has designs on urban modelling
approach to design that results in an intelligent representa- tion of a building, bridge or any other structure. In architec- tural design, this is referred to as building information mod- he world is facing serious challenges elling or BIM. Many people in the industry are convinced including climate change, aging infra- that BIM not only reduces the cost of design and construc- structure, shrinking workforce and lag- tion for new structures, but can also significantly reduce the Tging productivity. downstream costs associated with operation and mainte- nance. In industrialised countries, the challenge is crumbling infra- Another important trend in IT in the last five years is structure and replacing unsustainable structures and the geospatial enabling, which simply means making applica- impact of economic downturn. This needs to be checked by tions location aware. For example, all the major search speeding up and increasing infrastructure spending at vari- engines like Google and Yahoo now incorporate location so ous levels of government. In emerging economies, develop- that searches almost always result in an option to view a ment of new and sustainable infrastructure poses the chal- map using Google Earth, Google Maps or Yahoo Maps. All lenge. major relational database management systems including Oracle, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server now support spatial NEW DESIGN TECHNOLOGIES data types. Architectural and engineering design applica- To address these challenges, architects, designers and engi- tions are now able to support real world coordinate systems. neers are adopting new technologies. The business drivers The important drivers for integrating geospatial with engi- for these transformative technology advances are productiv- neering and architectural design are local government regu- ity and efficiency in the entire lifecycle from design, build, lation, for example, right to light, noise abatement and view through operate and manage. protection, sustainability objectives like maximising green Most of the world’s buildings and infrastructure like roads space, reducing impervious cover, eliminating heat islands, and highways, power, water and waste water, telecommu- maximising natural lighting and reducing energy use and nications and oil and gas pipeline networks were traditional- emissions. ly designed using CAD desktop applications. The objective of Once the preserve of gamers, 3D simulation technology is this CAD approach to design is a paper drawing, but increas- now an important tool used by architects and engineers to ingly architects and engineers are adopting a model-driven experience a building or other structure during the design
32 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 phase itself. 3D simulation relies on many of the same 3D URBAN MODELLING visualisation and simulation technologies underlying com- But these new technologies are not only changing how we puter games and allows architects and engineers to convey design, build, operate and manage buildings and infrastruc- their designs more effectively, reduces the risk of major mod- ture, but are enabling the intelligent 3D precision simulation ifications to built structures and enables optimisation of of entire urban environments. buildings and infrastructure for their full life-cycle including The data required for a seamless view of an urban environ- operations and maintenance. ment already exists in precision digital form, in the form of The integration of these key technologies including model CAD drawing files, BIM models, utility and telecommunica- driven design, geospatial enabling and 3D simulation pro- tion network infrastructure databases, LIDAR and traditional vides high quality visual environment and analytical frame- GIS data. Integrating precision engineering data to deliver a work that enables seamless access to architectural and engi- precise synthetic environment that can be used to simulate neering design, traditional GIS, new data sources such as the inside (utilities, HVAC systems, furniture, elevators, laser scanning and high resolution photogrammetry and walls, doors, windows and structural details), outside (aerial transportation, utility and telecommunications network utilities, full city blocks of 3D detail, road access) and under data inside, outside and under a facility. (underground water, wastewater, gas, power, and telecom- munications systems) of an urban environment creates an intelligent model that can be used for visualisation, analysis and simulation. For example, urban simulation can be used to analyse the load impact of a new building on a utility net- “An important trend in IT in the work, how the building will shade the surrounding area at last five years is geospatial enabling, different times of the day and year, how much daylight will which simply means making be available in interior spaces at different times of the day applications location aware. All the and of the year, how noise from a nearby sports stadium will major search engines like Google and impact residents of the building and how the building will Yahoo now incorporate location so that affect traffic patterns. searches almost always result in an A 3D simulation of an urban development before it is con- option to view a map using Google structed enables citizens to experience and understand how Earth, Google Maps or Yahoo Maps the development will impact them in a much more intuitive
MARCH 2009 ” GIS DEVELOPMENT 33 Drape raster Building footprints
way than is now possible. Cities trying to attract new busi- tal model and use it to do analyses and create images and ness are finding that a 3D model is able to demonstrate in an animations using a desktop digital city modelling applica- intuitive manner the advantages of a particular location in tion called LandXplorer. terms of proximity to services such as transportation net- The first step in creating a digital city is typically to begin works and hubs, recreation and educational facilities. In the with a digital terrain model. Land Xplorer allows you to past twenty years, many of the world’s largest cities like the import terrain models in a variety of formats, for example, City of Vancouver and engineering firms like Parsons Brinck- grid formats including Arc/Info Grid, Nasa SRTM, GeoTIFF, erhoff have developed 3D models using applications like 3ds Erdas Imagine and USGS DEM. To give the terrain a more Max. Developing these models required sophisticated mod- realistic look, raster images can be added as terrain textures elling techniques and skills that are not accessible to smaller from aerial photography, satellite imagery and scanned municipalities. maps in a variety of formats including GeoTIFF, ECW, MrSid, Technical advances are now making 3D urban modelling JPEG2000, and PNG. Terrain textures can be blended to pro- available to a much broader market including medium to vide more information. Level of Detail 1 (LoD1) building mod- small municipalities. New software applications for inte- els can be created by extruding simple building footprints grating engineering design data, utility, transportation and prepared in AutoCAD, ArcGIS, Microstation or MapInfo using communications networks, traditional GIS data and data building heights stored in an attribute table. captured using high resolution photogrammetry and laser To make building blocks more realistic, individual build- scanning are making it possible for a much broader range of ings can be accessed and the properties of each building edit- users to create and deploy 3D urban models to the desktop ed, for example, by choosing different generic roof types. and across the Web. Existing 3d vector files can be imported to create LoD2 build- As an example, let’s walk through the process to create a ings with discrete roof, wall and floor entities using data digital city from existing data, add visual effects to the digi- from ESRI 2D and 3D Shape, GML and CityGML files. LoD3 georeferenced buildings can be imported from 3ds Max, X3D, and Collada which contain realistic details and building New software applications for integrat- facades generated from digital photographs. ing design data, utility, transportation Non-georeferenced 3D models of bridges and other struc- “ tures can be added and positioned on the surface by drag- and communications networks, traditional GIS data and data captured ging and dropping. Point data such as the location of busstops or vegetation can be imported and symbolised using high resolution photogrammetry using images or 3D models. and laser scanning are making it The second step is to make the digital model more visually possible for a broader range of users to compelling adding generic building facades to the building create and deploy 3D urban models to blocks. The textures of individual buildings can be edited, for the desktop and across the Web ” example, to change the depth of the texture to better fit the 34 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 Extrude building Add water effects
building. Terrain texture can be draped on the roofs of build- ings. Dynamic skies including cloud movement, cloud densi- ty, sun elevation and light intensity can be added and adjust- ed to simulate different lighting conditions. Water shading information can be added from CityGML files to give the impression of a dynamic body of water including reflections of structures and clouds in water bod- ies. The digital model can be packaged and made available for visualisation as well as analysis and simulation. Information generated during the planning process can be imported from existing data sources, for example, a planned development footprint. Rules-based actions can be used to thematically analyse the building models, for example, to find and colour Import utility networks all the residential buildings in the project area. Utility infrastructure data can be imported, scanned devel- opment plans can be dropped onto the terrain for better ing environment. Finally, static digital images and video ani- understanding of the planned simulation and proposed mations can be created for presentations using a variety of building models can be added by extruding building foot- techniques including trackball, free flight, typical paedestri- prints from engineering or architectural drawings. Distances an navigation, 3D-panning, directed flight using visual book- to neighbouring structures can be measured to help under- marks and camera paths. More images of 3D digital cities cre- stand the impact development would have on the surround- ated using these techniques can be found at http://www.landxplorer. com/ showroom.aspx. In summary, 3D modelling is no longer just for ‘big cities’. Technical advances have made this technology available to a Static digital images and video much broader market including small to medium-sized “animations can be created for municipalities who may have felt that in the past that 3D presentations using a variety of urban modelling was out of their reach. techniques including trackball, free flight, typical paedestrian navigation, 3D-panning, directed flight using visual bookmarks and camera paths GEOFF ZEISS Director, Autodesk Geospatial Technology
MARCH 2009 ” GIS DEVELOPMENT 35 AEC & Geospatial
e are entering increasingly difficult times - a depressed economy world- Wwide and the certainty of higher costs for materials and energy as our natural resources are depleted.
This comes even as energy and climate issues demand effi- ciency renovations on a massive scale and investments in new buildings and infrastructure that are green in their design, construction and operation. In a broader urban, regional and global context, changes in climate are already effecting agriculture productivity, water availability and the frequency and severity of weather events that result in mas- sive human and property losses. Our previous indifference to the ‘externalities’ of our consumption patterns is worsening the quality of life to such a degree that we can no longer afford to be indifferent. In order to begin to address these and other issues that impact our lives and prosperity, there is an increasing demand to visualise, model and analyse our activity from local to global levels. With about 40% of our natural resources dedicated to the built environment, we must find better ways to design, engineer and operate buildings and infrastructure with sensitivity to the impacts of the overall ‘system’. The convergence of geospatial and AEC (Architectural, Engineering and Construction) information is helping us to better understand the impacts of our activity at the local, regional and global levels. The ability to construct 3D and 4D urban models will help us as a society move to a greener footprint by creating efficiencies in energy use for buildings, transportation and logistics. Models help us reduce waste in construction and operation. Quality of life issues can be bet- ter addressed - from noise abatement, to safe paedestrian Integration - transit, to site placement of social and retail services, to max- imised use of solar energy. A key to unleashing the power of information technology is a comprehensive standards framework that allows these key to disciplines to combine to provide a knowledge environment that is greater than its parts.
BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS (BIM) optimisation Building Information Models (BIM) involve a complex set of technology convergences that include urban 3D visualisa- tion; in-building location (floors and rooms) and geospatial location; GIS, earth imaging and non-vertical optical meas-
36 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 urement; analysis and modelling; virtual design and con- struction; sensors, video and others. Urban planners, urban ‘pipes and wires’ managers, civil engineers and others use geospatial technologies, and their documents need to be accessible in BIMs that also provide access to architectural drawings. But geospatial information also plays a role as buildings are designed for the climate and each site’s ‘solar aperture’. Sensors, sophisticated controls, automated equipment power turndown and other technolo- gies and techniques can be employed in buildings and capi- tal projects to meet hourly, daily and yearly fluctuations in energy demand. This is possible now with available automated metering Figure 1: In the fourth OGC Web Services Testbed (OWS-4) demonstration's hypothetical scenario, a bomb containing highly toxic radioactive material explodes at a wharf in the systems, and it will become easier and more effective as New York City area. Building information models (BIM) made it possible to quickly find a building suitable for an emergency field hospital and to rapidly modify it for use. building automation and ‘smart grid’ standards increase interoperability in these markets. Standards will be essential if we are to have a robust market in products and services for dous potential for efficiency across buildings’ lifecycles. monitor and control of all energy sources, such as rooftop Important industry players recognise that information shar- solar and all electrical loads, including HVAC (heating, venti- ing based on open standards reduces costs in design, con- lation, air conditioning) systems. Smart grid will increase the struction and management and minimises real-world risks attractiveness of local “microgrids,” real-time electricity mar- for public safety and disaster management. For years, play- kets, and programmed “power-down” of appliances and ers in the global multi-trillion dollar AEC market have grap- HVAC systems when electricity is most expensive. Building pled with the problem of developing and introducing inter- automation and smart grid involve convergence of many operability standards to ensure vendor adoption of market- technologies -- sensors, Supervisory Control And Data Acqui- driven information standards that promote sharing and effi- sition (SCADA), Web portals, facilities management and util- ciency. There has been some progress. Over the past 12 years, ity GIS and analog electrical control systems. The AECOO the global AEC community has established industry founda- domain (which the OGC is involved in) and the related smart tion class standards (IFCs) for building elements and proper- building domain (which the OGC is not yet involved in) are ties that promoted a market moving approach from 2D CAD just two market domains in which technology convergence to 3D objects. This work has enabled the industry to cut out requires the cooperation of multiple standards organisa- some of the wasteful processes for building design, engineer- tions. ing, construction and operation. But much work remains. Integrating standards from AEC STANDARDISATION IN GEOSPATIAL AND and geospatial worlds provides an important avenue to pro- AEC DISCIPLINES viding a standards foundation that will enable industry to Studies of the construction industry in the US and Europe meet the AEC market’s requirements for interoperability. have shown that better use of information offers tremen- Complementing this work is OGC’s work with other organ- isations. The OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards, for example, complement the IEEE 1451 smart sensor standards Building automation and smart and our work with other standards development organisa- “ grid involve convergence of many tions like ISO and the US Federal Geographic Data Committee technologies -- sensors, Supervisory (FGDC) provide part of the framework necessary for efficient Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA), building design, engineering, construction and operation. Web portals, facilities management COOPERATIVE TESTBEDS AND PILOTS and utility GIS and analog electrical The OGC has been successful in applying rapid prototyping control systems ” technology development concepts in “Interoperability initia- MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 37 Web Services Interface Standards CITYGML One of the OGC standards that has advanced through such • OWS Common Specification initiatives is CityGML, an open data model framework and • Catalog - CSW ISO 19115/19119 Application Profile XML-based encoding standard for the storage and exchange • Web Map Service of virtual 3D urban models. CityGML is an application • Web Feature Service schema of the OGC’s Geography Markup Language 3 (GML3) • Filter Encoding Standard (http://www.opengeospatial.org/stan- • Web Coverage Service • Web Map Context dards/gml ), an international standard for spatial data • Location Service Core Interface Standards exchange and encoding approved by the OGC and ISO. • Sensor Web Enablement Standards “CityGML will play an important role in the creation of vir- - Sensor Planning Service tual cities to improve interoperability among the informa- - Sensor Observation Service tion systems used in many domains of activity that involve Encoding Standards design, construction, ownership and operation of infrastruc- ture," explains Carsten Rönsdorf, Principal Data Consultant, • Geography Markup Language - GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery Encoding Specification Ordnance Survey and Chair of the CityGML specification - GML Simple Features Profile working group at the OGC. • Style Layer Descriptors CityGML provides schemas for topographic objects in 3D • Symbology Encoding city and landscape models with respect to their geometry, • Sensor Web Enablement Standards - SensorML topology, appearance and semantics. CityGML represents buildings (including interiors), digital terrain models, water Figure 2.: Core OGC standards bodies, vegetation, transportation, and city furniture objects in five levels of detail and allows connections to data held in tives” -- pilots, testbeds and interoperability experiments -- cadastres and Building Information Models (BIM). Observ- that engage diverse industry and user communities in fast- able properties of feature surfaces such as infrared radiation paced efforts that yield workable standards that improve and noise emission can also be exchanged. A complete IFC information sharing. model can be exported into CityGML, which provides the One example is the Delhi Transportation/Routing Interop- important ability to leverage the relevant components of erability (DTRIP) Pilot Initiative http://www.opengeospa- BIM to construct realistic urban models for a range of plan- tial.org/projects/initiatives/delhipilot, which the OGC is ning and operational applications. organising in cooperation with GIS Development. DTRIP will CityGML is part of an integrated set of OGC standards that show how the OGC's open framework for geospatial data enable broad access, sharing, integration and application of and systems interoperability and sharing can be applied in geodata for a range of problem solving tasks. The core stan- the context of transportation circulation for the 2010 Com- dards are listed in Figure 2. CityGML plays a key role in bridg- monwealth Games in Delhi, India. The project will demon- ing the gaps between AEC systems and geospatial and sen- strate best practices and standards enabling interoperability sor systems. among diverse information resources used for transporta- tion routing. The routing problems will focus on India's national capital region (NCR) and will involve interacting networks that dif- CityGML represents buildings (including fer in scale (nation, state, region, local), built environment “interiors), digital terrain models, water (urban, suburban, rural) and purpose (passenger, freight). The main difficulty in providing operational capabilities like bodies, vegetation, transportation, this is getting diverse legacy systems and data collections -- and city furniture objects in five levels and their owners -- to work together. The owners of the sys- of detail and allows connections to tems and data must deploy standards-based servers and data held in cadastres and Building clients, and they must also agree on service sharing and data Information Models (BIM) sharing arrangements. ” 38 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 FITTING A BIG WORLD ON A SMALL CAMERA
The UltraCamL. Because the data you deliver is only as good as the technology behind it.
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> Collect high-resolution PAN, true color RGB and NIR in parallel
> PAN channel matching and stereo capabilities
> Reproduce a high level of detail with no blur due to FMC by TDI
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/HDUQPRUHDERXWWKHVHWRROVWKDWFXWFRVWVVWUHDPOLQH\RXUZRUNDQGPDNH \RXUFRPSDQ\PRUHHIÀFLHQW9LVLWZZZPLFURVRIWFRPXOWUDFDPJLVGHYWRVHHWKH 8OWUD&DP;SDQGWKHQHZO\DQQRXQFHG8OWUD&DP/
Serious tools for serious mapping.
0LFURVRIW&RUS$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG0LFURVRIW9H[FHO,PDJLQJ*PE+8OWUD&DP;SDQG8OWUD&DP/DUHHLWKHU UHJLVWHUHGWUDGHPDUNVRUWUDGHPDUNVRI0LFURVRIW&RUSRUDWLRQLQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHVDQGRURWKHUFRXQWULHV KEY GOAL: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT The underlying standards framework is an essential element of the ICT indus- try’s success and as the standards framework grows, it provides a foun- dation for new companies offering new products and services that no one could have imagined a decade ago. Communication means “transmitting or exchanging through a common system of sym- bols, signs or behaviour.” Figure 3: OGC Sensor Web Enablement Standards enable flexible access to a “World Wide Web of Web-resident sensors and Standardisation means sensor systems” that can be accessed singly or in groups, by location or other attributes. ‘agreeing on a common system’. WORKING The Internet, the World Wide Web, e-commerce and the COLLABORATIVELY: THE AECOO TESTBED emerging wireless revolution have produced great wealth To advance open standards in the architecture, engineering, because of “network effects”: That is, a node on the network construction, building owner, building operator (AECOO) (a product or service, for example) increases in value with the domain, in February 2008, OGC and buildingSMART alliance size of the network (the number of potential users of a prod- organised an AECOO Testbed with BuildingSMART Interna- uct or service, for example). Open standards make networks tional as a partner. possible, and they’re a tremendous bargain: cheap to pro- The AECOO sponsors include major architecture firms, gen- duce and free to use. eral contractors, government agencies and trade associa- OGC’s core geospatial technology standards have ‘crossed tions, including the US buildingSMART alliance, the Ameri- the chasm’ of early market adoption, and they are rapidly can Institute of Architects, and the Large Firm Roundtable. becoming mainstream. But there is still much standards Eighteen technology provider organisations are participat- work to do in the geospatial domain. ing to advance specific interoperability objectives in the As the set of geospatial applications expands and as stan- areas of decision support and general communications (con- dards advance to enable new technology convergences, OGC necting building models with business processes); energy members find that they are constantly tapping into new analysis during design; and quantity take-off during early areas of expertise and opportunity, such as they are finding design. with the AEC industry. The AEC/geospatial convergence is The goal of the testbed is to provide a structure in which poised to move to a new level as standards are put in place to AEC and geospatial standards organisations can jointly pro- realise its potential. mote rapid standards development, testing and adoption in commercial software. The AECOO testbed exemplifies the way that standards from several domains can be brought together to bring different kinds of data and different tech- nologies together to integrate information. A demonstration LOUIS HECHT Director, Business Development of results will be held March 25-27. Planning for a second Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. phase of the AECOO Testbed has commenced.
40 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009
AEC Industry Future belongs to total solution
he survey engineering and construction industries are Tpoised for dramatic, positive change. To keep up with overwhelm- ing demand for new infrastructure in the face of a limited workforce, con- struction firms are tasked with making major changes. To do so, the industry is turning to new technologies and bene- fitting from exponential productivity gain, minimised rework and the elimi- nation of waste. In the midst of this change, many surveyors are mastering the new technologies and becoming more central to infrastructure develop- ment. This revolution is occurring through Connected Siite modell rapid innovation in three broad tech- nological categories: strong potential for tight integration required. Global Navigation Satellite • Positioning technology-readily avail- among their components. In many cas- Systems (GNSS) developments are able real-time correction networks, also known as RTN (Real Time Networks) or es, these technologies are seeing main- enhancing terrestrial positioning. And Virtual Reference Station networks stream adoption or focussed develop- VRS systems are increasing globally, (VRS is a technology and term that ment by other industries. The real chal- making centimeter-level Real Time originated with and is trademarked by Trimble), and Spatial Imaging, can swift- lenge for the architecture, engineering Kinematic (RTK) positioning available ly acquire large amounts of high quality, and construction (AEC) industry is to to all. geolocated spatial data. integrate these advances into a total Non-satellite-based positioning is • Wireless communication-for example, solution, capturing synergies that can also advancing quickly. Traditional cellular telephony-can move that data transform project work. total station distance and angle meas- to all project stakeholders. urement is becoming faster, more con- • Information management-such as visualisation technologies and network- POSITIONING venient and more accurate. In addition, based project management-keeps the TECHNOLOGY with the increase in functionality and spatial data accurate, accessible and Positioning technology breakthroughs focus on ease-of-use, 3D scanning is useful over long project life cycles. are occurring in all areas and wherever becoming essential technology for These overlapping categories hold metre or millimetre precision is acquiring spatial data. 3D scanners
42 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 V3 set up a Trimble GX adjacent to the boat while scanning beams, piers and caps
An aeriiall photo (from Liive Maps) of the parkiing deck
A collapsed portion of the parking deck near mid-deck at the center aisle.
now enable surveyors and designers to make VRS correction delivery easy. complexities of spatial data mainte- utilise full 3D images in new ways and nance. improve the collection of discrete INFORMATION points with x,y,z coordinates. Scanners MANAGEMENT INTEGRATING EMERGING are also making digitisation in the field Powerful processors, low-cost memo- TECHNOLOGIES an everyday tool, closing the gap ry and fast, widespread Internet avail- The construction industry has tradi- between office and field. ability are enabling the development of tionally made productivity gains by information management solutions relying on bigger and faster equip- WIRELESS unthinkable a few years ago. One ment-not by re-engineering basic COMMUNICATION example is Spatial Imaging, which is processes. However, focussing on the Wireless communication capabilities becoming the new standard for design integration of innovative technologies are exploding. In the last decade, sever- work. Scanning and digital imaging into daily project workflows is the best al alternatives for data transfer have expedite model creation, which can way to serve the five key participants emerged-cellular standards like GPRS, replace 2D and 3D CAD drawings, mak- in infrastructure development: owners, robust point-to-point radio solutions, ing models accessible to all project government agencies, surveyors, AEC bluetooth and satellite communica- stakeholders early in the project lifecy- firms and contractors. Each group par- tions. cle. Together with the accurate geoloca- ticipates in a continuum of interrelated These solutions range from simple tion that VRS enables, models are processes and works with a large num- and convenient-such as bluetooth- becoming the basis of 3D Geographic ber of providers. And each can benefit enabled survey instruments that elimi- Information Systems (GIS); they will from integrated technological nate problematic cables-to highly sig- require expert management by survey- advances that connect participants nificant-like the cellular standards that ors and others who understand the more tightly.
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 43 Arnolld measures a backsiight wiith PoiintScape and a llaptop computer iin a mobiille offiice boat suspended from a beam..
Trimble has been working on the As part of Trimble's commitment to AEC firms and government agencies to integration of these technologies-the building the Connected Site model for facilitate the delivery of information Connected Site™-for more than a its customers, the company has estab- throughout the entire plan, build and decade. By employing technology lished partnerships and alliances with operate lifecycle. advances to tie hardware to hardware, industry firms to work on the concepts hardware to software, hardware and it believes are critical to the Connected TRANSFORMING THE software to networks, and to tie all of Site approach. FUTURE NOW these to project stakeholders, the Con- For example, in 2006 Trimble added Traditional industry boundaries are nected Site concept is poised to posi- the capabilities of visualisation tech- blurring. Field and office are overlap- tively revolutionise work processes. nology pioneer XYZ Solutions, Inc., and ping as data processing and engineer- others to its portfolio. XYZ enables ing expertise are moving closer to proj- users to take fuller advantage of ects. Surveyors are adding data man- With the increase in 3D models and the rich datasets they agement abilities to their skills portfo- “ functionality and are built on, eventually enabling field lio. Engineering and spatial data are focus on ease-of- digitisation. Effective, rapid visualisa- being tracked with project timeline and tion is essential to a model-based work- accounting data. use, 3D scanning is flow. Survey instruments are combining becoming essential Trimble has also added the capabili- GPS/GNSS, optical and imaging capa- technology for ties of Meridian Systems to bring the bilities. And grading machinery is acquiring spatial business and lifecycle management being integrated with GPS to enable 3D data software component to the Connected machine control that puts design sur- Site initiative, helping building owners, faces, grades and alignments in the
44 GIS DEVELOPMENT ” MARCH 2009 cab, allowing automatic, accurate real- Poiint clloud miirror iimage time blade positioning. Put simply, everything is coming together, inte- grating…connecting. Trimble's Con- nected Site fosters a beneficial revolu- tion in an industry that has a lot to gain.
CONNECTED SITE ON A SMALL SCALE Built in the mid-1960s, the Riverside Drive Parking Deck in Elgin, Illinois, is quite large. Approximately 1,000-feet long by 60-feet wide-and nearly all of it over the Fox River-the deck is built on hundreds of 'piles', large concrete cylinders pushed down into the muddy towing a rowboat, a Trimble GX™ 3D Setting a scanner up in a river bed is river bottom. Pre-cast elements in the Scanner, laptops and heavy-duty certainly unusual, but V3 Companies piles used high-tensile steel wire for marine batteries. may apply the lessons learned to other reinforcement, and that steel is now Arnold knew that setups in the river projects. "After all," Van Bortel points rusting. In 2003, a trailer-sized piece of (on an extra-long-legged tripod mashed out, "there's a lot of surveying opportu- deck fell into the river. into river mud) could not be revisited, nities involving aging infrastructure." Elgin officials wanted the deck to be so he used the Trimble GX Scanner's Using all Trimble equipment also analysed to see what could be reused in survey workflow features to get on allowed V3 to take advantage of Trim- ongoing waterfront renewal. That basis by means of resections. ble's Connected Site solution, especially meant V3 Companies, Ltd., needed to do This meant he didn't have to register since a Trimble VRS™ network was some innovative survey work…under scan setups. "Basically, the scanner available: V3 used the local Precision the deck, and in the Fox River. worked like a total station for us," he Midwest VRS Network. State plane In the summer, the Fox River is shal- says. ground coordinates were used, so con- low enough for a man wearing chest A slightly wider window was needed trol could be extended from an adjacent waders to get around. V3 Survey Tech- to scan the targets through all the piers: roadway project. A Trimble VX™ Spatial nology Manager Grant Van Bortel and "the GX can't thread a needle like a total Station was used to scan features on V3 Crew Chief Steve Arnold would station since it's a scan, not a single top of the deck and for conventional travel to the site each morning straight line shot," Arnold says, but it measurements. gathers more data, quicker and easier. Measurement technology has The crew used the rowboat as a desk advanced rapidly in the last decade, by tying it to beams and piles. Normal- and a project like the Riverside Parking ly, they use Trimble's PocketScape soft- Deck shows just how far it has come. ware on the Trimble TSC2® Controller, With mostly one-person crews, V3 but by bringing a ruggedized field lap- Companies was able to use multiple top with an outdoor-viewable monitor scanners, a variety of total stations, into the boat, they could use Trimble's GPS/GNSS receivers and a Trimble VRS PointScape software. With more infor- network, implementing each tool mation displayed and more tools avail- where it was most efficient, and main- able, PointScape helped further verify taining one consistent data stream in a good results before leaving a point for- single coordinate system. V3 Companies' Survey Technology Manager Grant Van Bortel lashes the boat to the pier while Crew Chief Steven Arnold begins ever. to set up the tripod for scanning. Craig R. Dylan, [email protected]
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 45 Microstation V8i
UpUp closeclose andand personalpersonal Dynamic vews
going to be the edge of a surface, MicroStation V8i highlights t is important to speak with users, go to user the direction that the surface is going to emanate from that conferences, interact with users online and curve. If it is wrong, you click on a curve and the arrow points Imeet with prospective users before deciding the other way. The second issue with surfacing in MicroSta- what to include in a release, particularly a release tion pre-V8i was that the surfaces created from these tools as comprehensive as V8i. Bentley surveys the com- were not necessarily complete enough to become the edge of petition, talks to programmers and comes up with the next surface to be created. However, with V8i, one can a matrix for the project. take two surfaces and just push them together and the edges join automatically. The commonality among them is picked up -- and that is MicroStation has solids modelling tools: a features solids what makes a theme. This is how top themes to describe var- toolset and smart solids. But they were too complicated for ious feature sets in MicroStation V8i have been decided, the average user. The workflow wherein use of products like which fully leverage Bentley’s overall V8i interoperability Google SketchUp and Rhino to do conceptual design, trying platform. to take that from those other products, import it into Micro- Station, and then use it on the rest of the project is subopti- INTUITIVE DESIGN MODELLING mal. So in MicroStation V8i, a few very simple concepts An information model is one component of a 3D model. called push-pull modeling were added. The idea is that one MicroStation V8i has techniques for creating 3D models in starts with simple forms like a slab and merely take faces or MicroStation. The first technique is surface modelling. With edges of the slab and push on them. This is very similar to surface modelling, one can draw curves, connect the curves SketchUp. One can create solid models that are in DGN for- with surfaces and then combine surfaces and extrude sur- mat in MicroStation V8i and easily coordinate the work of faces to create solids. That is the typical workflow. someone who did not have much knowledge of MicroSta- In MicroStation, the surfacing tools were not particularly tion V8i with everything else that is going on in the project. cohesive. The techniques that one needs to create a surface from a series of curves involve picking the curves in a certain INTERACTIVE DYNAMIC VIEWS order. Now when one picks a curve and decides that it is The dynamic views concept is a programming technique
46 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 that can be used in many ways. when one wants to but model in 3D in Dynamic views addresses the issue of most other cases. 2D versus 3D. It combines the best of 2D “ and 3D. What is 2D? It is merely a plane. INTRINSIC One can create solid If one throws a plane against a 3D mod- GEO-COORDINATION models that are in el, planes do some simple things. They When it comes to geo-coordination, DGN format in divide the world into three parts – the there is a similar problem of 2D versus MicroStation V8i and left of the plane, the right of the plane 3D. In this case, it is the 2D coordinate easily coordinate the and the stuff that intersects the plane. systems that Bentley uses for maps and work of someone If what’s on the right of the plane can the 3D spherical coordinate system of who did not have be drawn one way, the left of the plane the earth. In the beginning days of car- much knowledge of can be drawn a different way, and tography, people used paper maps. MicroStation V8i with what intersects the plane can be drawn The paper now may be a 3D design file everything else that a third way, that is what we mean by or have an orientation somewhere is going on in the dynamic views. in a state coordinate system, but the project For a 2D user, that view looks a lot like coordinates transformed from the real a drawing spun inside a model. One can world -- latitude and longitude -- to have more than one plane and there- the Cartesian coordinate system is fore can construct drawings that are complicated. like cut-away drawings. It makes the There is no way one can look at a Everyone likes to design their build- process of creating the 3D model and drawing that is using one projection ings with their coordinate system” understanding the 3D model much system and a file that is using a differ- aligned with the front of the building simpler. ent projection system on the same and the origin of the building. But This concept is implemented in Micro- view because there are different coordi- when one attaches it as a reference Station V8i in a couple of ways. When nate systems. MicroStation V8i onto a map, someone has to know one describes it in a building applica- addresses this problem. where to put that in the world. Well, by tion, typically one is showing where the section plane intersects the build- ing according to some pre-defined Design modelling angles. But the way one manipulates the section plane when one is looking at the 3D model is to merely pick up a section marker that moves the whole thing. The other aspect of dynamic views is that these planes can actually cut 2D geometry too. Dynamic views would not be quite as impressive if it were only a tool that one could use while in MicroStation V8i. What one draws using dynamic views has to also correlate with and get created in the output. When a PDF file is created from a series of dynamic views, all of the section markers have links to the other views that are exported to PDF. Take a step back and think about the workflows -- now one can use 2D
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 47 Geo-coordination
simply taking a few steps using a tool nated and geo-referenced together. photorealistic output, but the work- like Google Earth, one can get the long- flows that involved exporting from lat coordinates of the site and put that INTEGRATED PRINT MicroStation to some other pure ren- into the design file. Or by using a GPS ORGANISER dering application added some ineffi- receiver, one can input the information Plotting from an application like Micro- ciency. So far, workflow also segregat- so that the building model has all the Station is not the same as plotting from ed the world into those who can render geo-coordinated information in it. A Microsoft Word. One does not just do a and those who cannot render. The typical example of that is sending File-Print. Instead, one creates print MicroStation user became a second- something up to Google Earth and sets and those sets have to be refer- class citizen even though he or she had allowing someone else to use your enced together. When changes are a product capable of doing that. To design in Google Earth, all geo-coordi- made to project, one needs to reissue address this problem, Bentley licensed the entire set as a single concept. a rendering engine from Luxology for MicroStation pre-V8i had some tools to embedding in MicroStation V8i. Now it do that -- called batch plot – but they is as easy to create an impressive, pho- MicroStation have been entirely replaced with Print torealistic image as pointing and click- “user became a Organiser. ing a digital camera. second-class citizen With Print Organiser, one can drag- The speed is also impressive. Luxolo- though he/she had a product capable of and-drop the drawings that are going gy can work on multiple cores and it doing that. To address to be part of print set with a GUI inter- has tools to export to formats like PSD this problem, Bentley face using a file that is called a print-set files. This apart, the important aspect is licensed a file and MicroStation V8i will automat- that Bentley has not changed the file rendering engine ically create the references and attach- format or added features that forces from Luxology for ments to show that. Then, by just using retraining of operators. So on the gain- embedding in the MicroStation V8i print-set com- versus-pain scale, MicroStation V8i is MicroStation V8i. Now mand, a full print set of the entire proj- heavily weighted toward gain. it is as easy to create ect can be generated. an impressive, photorealistic image as pointing and click- ITERATIVE LUXOLOGY ing a digital camera Keith Bentley RENDERING CTO, Bentley Systems Inc. ” MicroStation has had tools to create 48 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 Viewpoint The view from over here - India
Prof AR Dasgupta and NSDI Managing Editor (Honorory) GIS Development [email protected]
f late several issues have been Data Authority (NGRA) be the solution? This brings me to the real problems, which raised at various fora about India are not addressed, in the cacophony about Oand NSDI by experts and media It is important to note that Indians are 'policy' and 'authority'. Even if we do get outside the country. Many of these are nothing if not highly innovative so if they the NSDI, who will man it? There is a valid but then a view from over 'there' can are thwarted in one direction they look for dearth of trained personnel. Geography miss the reality over 'here'. India's NSDI is alternate routes - NGDA or no NGDA. education in India is in a parlous state. The lack of maps and the fact that geography caught between a rock and a hard place. Therefore, Google is not 'persona non gra- ta' among the Indian public. There may be is treated as a social science results in the Everybody agrees that spatial data, which the odd Public Interest Litigation asking technology and applications being driven includes maps, are essential for planning for Google Maps to be 'banned' as terror- by the IT professionals. Geography educa- and monitoring in a country where devel- ists have used it to zero in on Mumbai but tors needs to realise that it is a hard-core opment is the key word and speed is the a scan of the public contributions by way science and the knowledge of geography, essence. On the other hand, we are con- of user defined places in Google Maps mathematics and IT is the combination cerned that our enemies can use the and Wikimapia, to name two sites, shows needed to take the applications further. same data for destruction and mayhem. their actual popularity. Remote sensing Issues like standards and interoperability Unfortunately, the most acceptable solu- has made the map hunger more intense cannot be appreciated in their totality tion to this ambiguity is yet to be found. It and Google grasped this opportunity to unless the professionals have a strong is not a bureaucracy versus technology democratise the technology. Crowd sourc- background in physical geography and IT. issue. India has used technology, especial- ing is doing what no amount of 'policies' It is this lack of geographical education ly space technology to 'leap-frog' to mod- and 'authorities' will do. It is creating data that gives rise to ludicrous actions like a PIL against Google Maps. The litigant nei- ern systems at least twice. The first was which people want. Yes, there are errors but then errors can be corrected. ther understood technology nor found when it used satellite broadcasting to anyone to advise him properly on the finer expand the TV network from four stations Ron Lake's comment that most SDIs are aspects of legal liabilities vis-à-vis geospa- to all India coverage in a few years; the focussed nationally and that this is upside tial data. The aspect of digital rights, legal second was when India chose remote down thinking rings true in this context. liabilities and other such non-technical sensing to get a better look at its Today, there are many SDIs in India. If you issues are not being addressed adequate- resources. Herein lie the roots of the map look at the grassroots, you can see that a ly. Only the security issue is prominently policy imbroglio. number of databases have been created discussed in the most primitive terms - Indians are terribly map starved. Maps still by professionals as they began to experi- what to ban and what not to ban - rather remain 'official documents' and unavail- ment with and master the technologies of than in a more sophisticated manner by able to the public, a hangover from the remote sensing and GIS. What is needed considering an approach of calibrated days of the Raj. It is therefore not surpris- is to bring these efforts together in a access. ing that the bureaucracy is not comfort- loosely coupled network that can work at able with the call to free maps. This call the professional level like Google Map Industry is taking a limited view of the came with the easy availability of satellite works at the public level. opportunities. They are looking for oppor- based remotely sensed data from Landsat tunities to sell software, digitise maps or in 1976 and subsequently from our own That is what the regulatory authority needs fly aerial surveys. There is more to be done IRS. The call became intensified when GIS to work on. It is not just about technology in terms of planning, monitoring and exe- came into use and digital maps were and data, it is about wanting to share data cution of projects. Convergence with needed. Beginning with an attempt to - a desire that is not quite so apparent at mainstream IT for CRM, business process 'regulate' indiscriminate digitisation, the the professional level, be it government, re-engineering, back office operations are map policy now seems to be morphing industry or even the non-government a few that spring to my mind. I doubt if the into a regulatory body. Indians have been agencies. Sharing will need attention to NGDA is considering these opportunities, looking forward to a solution that will sat- details like standards and interoperability as it seems to be biased heavily towards isfy all parties. Will the National Geospatial at data, systems and application levels. governmental applications.
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 49 Interview GIS can address the intangible 'change'
Q. Tell us about your beginning has been that association with ESRI imagery is a core component of GIS and is not a peripheral. Jack Dangermond and I are In the past, there was imagery friends for 30 years. Both of - raster, pixel, image process- us went to the same school - ing versus GIS - topology, Harvard University, where GIS ArcInfo. They were two sepa- technology was actually born. rate worlds. I feel both of them For about 20 years, we go together and GIS is incom- worked on many strategic plete without imagery. They business partnerships when I are like two sides of a coin, was with my previous compa- where GIS informs imagery ny. We were very successful and imagery informs GIS. This together providing imagery is what I would like to focus and GIS solutions. In 2001, upon at ESRI. I am happy to we merged our company with see there are a good number Leica Geosystems and I of people at ESRI having stayed on for a couple of strong imagery background. years by agreement and then We have tremendous amount took an early retirement to of expertise in imagery and we spend time with family. After a have made great progress in while, I was missing GIS and adding image capabilities to imagery and getting bored. I the mainstream product, started as a consultant then. ArcGIS. It is very imagery After two-three years, Jack friendly already and we have asked me to join ESRI full planned new expansions in time and I am grateful to him our imagery suite including for asking me to come on imagery server extension. board at a higher level. I am happy that I got re-engaged Q. Is this focus on imaging with exciting projects and taking ESRI in a new meeting old friends. direction?
What strengths do you This is not a new direction. It Q. bring to ESRI imaging is continuation and expansion division? of our vision all along that GIS is a unified technology that My background and first love brings all geo-information is imagery and remote sens- together. So imagery is a nat- ing. This is the area I have ural subset of our whole direc- been involved for 30 years tion and emphasis. Our cus- and my strong belief from the tomers are keen to see more image integration into ArcGIS. Lawrie E Jordon III So we are delivering additional capabilities to expand GIS. I Director of Imagery Enterprise Solutions wouldn't say it's a new direc- ESRI Inc., USA tion but acceleration.
50 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 Q. Is ESRI planning to agement, catalogue manage- make its own image pro- ment, serving imagery Together imagery and GIS can provide not cessing modules? throughout the enterprise, only visualisation of what is happening in doing some functions actually “terms of climate change, biodiversity and There are two things; in the in near-real time on the fly like past, ESRI had a strategic mosaicing and orthorectifica- impacts on every aspect of the society, it relationship with ERDAS and tion. It's like magic in the can also analyse that change and provide that stayed as a successful pipeline. We will not reinvent solutions to address the problem business partnership for many anybody else's work. We years. Along with that, there encourage customers to look are many other companies carefully at the solutions in the with whom ESRI has part- market and I think customers way you need it without cor- time. It is about the ability to nered successfully. We, at are quite capable of making rupting and disturbing the visualise how changes happen ESRI, rather than focussing on their own decisions. The over- source data. in 3D over time and this” is an competition with other compa- arching scene for us is that area where imagery con- imagery is part of GIS, tied nies, work towards fulfilling You said GIS is tributes significantly because together with geodatabase. In Q. the user needs and ensuring addressing the intangi- it is temporal and provides other words, it is the geodata- success of the user. ESRI has bles. Can you elaborate? fresh new views. many common clients with all base centric model and this is other companies out there, different from image process- One of the greatest intangi- As far as spatial resolution including ERDAS, and the pri- ing package. bles is the uncertainty brought goes, I would like to cite a mary focus is to deliver the about by change in environ- point that was published in best to them. We have core What are the changes Q. ment over time. The challenge one of the papers and I think capabilities in imagery that we you foresee in data col- is the sustainability of our we all would agree upon that. are expanding. It is important lection technology? environment and what we are It says that there is strong to point out that we also have doing to take care of this and argument to be made that you very strong strategic partner- Data collection is dramatically what GIS can do. We see GIS come out ahead and better if ships with other companies increasing. This could be cor- as an enabling technology to you have multiple sources of that provide imaging solutions related to Moore's law. You support sustainability because imagery of different resolu- to us that we don't need to have an exponential increase together imagery and GIS can tions - spatial and spectral as reinvent. For example, ITT in the volume, quantity, speed provide not only visualisation opposed to one super high ENVI has outstanding image and performance and at the of what is happening in terms resolution imagery focus on processing capabilities that same time a significant reduc- of climate change, biodiversity one thing. You actually have are easy to use with an inter- tion in the cost of some of and impacts on every aspect more information content from face called IDL. We are also these technologies. We see, of society, it can also analyse lower resolution data sources working with other software especially in imagery, dramatic that change and provide solu- when you have a variety of providers like BAE System increase in the quality and the tions to address the problem. I sources that you can look at (SOCET SET solution) and quantity in the timelines of the think GIS is changing the way and work upon. You can actu- ICube. imagery and this is what peo- we think, act and make deci- ally gain more information by ple want - something easy to sions. More and more we see having less spatial resolution. Q. So will ArcGIS contain get and easy to use. There is a that people, not just GIS spe- The ability of an information photogrammetry tools? huge increase in the data cialists, around the world are system to combine different sources of imagery. About 50 actively involved in using GIS resolution datasets brings We look to our partners to optical satellites have been together with imagery to strength to the table. I would provide specific solutions and scheduled for this year. This understand the changes always argue in favour of provide other core solutions explosion is good for the around and are trying to min- more information in as many ourselves. Working with recog- industry. On the technology imise the impact on the planet. different ways and at the nised leaders in verticals is front, we see a trend of mov- same time I want smart infor- ing the information tools clos- always our preferred What do you expect mation tools that can near er to the sensors so that when Q. approach. It is important that from the technologies down the data to meaningful the information comes to the there are image servers and the way they are coming up interpretation quickly. This is user, it is already in the form image extensions natively that with better resolution - spatial what I would like to refer to as they need. This is where the provide strong image process- as well as spectral? 'allusion of simplicity'. It takes ing capabilities as well. So we image server and SOA (serv- a lot of science to take a com- now have imagery friendly ice oriented architecture) can There are two aspects of this - plex set of data as multispec- package where users do not play a key role. With a set of one is the temporal aspect. tral, hyperspectral, LiDAR etc. have to go outside his/her raw pixels, you define a serv- The fundamental strength that and turn them into useful working environment to do ice definition and when the good GIS tools bring to this products. It is not much about many other imagery related fresh imagery comes in, it is topic is the 4th dimension - ground resolution. things like image data man- automatically delivered in the
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 51 know how it goes. The client calls antenna will do. Those of us of a American Surveyor and the immediate response is certain age will remember using a (February 2009) "Sure, we can get started on coat hanger as an emergency Thursday." All along, the surveyor replacement for a broken AM-car- www.amerisurv.com knows he is backed up two to radio antenna. The Caves of three weeks, and it'll be at least a Naica week before research can even be Geo: International started. He just wants to secure Since it began the job. (February 2009) operation in the late 1800s, the A Visit to Altus Positioning www.geoconnexion.com/geo.php Naica Mine in Systems Chihuahua, Intelligent pipeline For Olympians "Citius, Altius, For- Mexico has proven to be one of the integrity management tius" is Latin for "faster, higher, richest silver deposits in the world. stronger." For surveyors, Altus The requirements on In 1910, at a depth of 120 meters, Positioning Systems draws its Geographic Information a small cave was discovered. name from the Latin word meaning Systems (GIS) have Named the Cueva de las Espadas high and deep. High (in terms of originally been focused (Cave of the Swords), this cave their GNSS satellite-related equip- on data capturing and mapping was completely covered with gyp- ment) and deep (from the heavy- functionalities. Current analyses sum crystals, some reaching up to weight lineup of industry veterans state clearly, that 80% of all tech- 2 meters in length. The cave was who make up the company), their nical business processes are relat- quickly stripped of a large part of missionwww.gim-international.com is straightforward--to ed to geospatial questions. That's its treasures, and many are exhibit- design a first-class positioning sys- why an intelligentPipeline Integrity ed today in mineralogical museums tem to meet all the needs of Management System (PIMS) is around the world. today's surveyors. It sounds simple, more than reasonable for pipeline Descending to the Challenge but it's not. operators. This article shall intro- duce a GIS and geodata-based In one sense, it was an exception- GPS World (February’09) PIMS making use of already exist- ally straightforward job: all that Illi- ing GIS and expert data.
PRINT AND ONLINE nois' V3 Companies was being www.gpsworld.com asked to do was survey a mostly OpenGIS and Geography Markup straight, 1,600-foot long, limestone Wireless Language (GML) quarry tunnel. Miners call it the Delivery This article introduces several decline, and it drops 350 feet to aspects of OpenGIS® and its "the bench," a vast mined space Wireless com- characteristics. OpenGIS® is the with a 65-foot tall ceiling support- munications Open Geodata Interoperability ed by pillars of stone with 25-foot employed in a Specification being developed by by 50-foot footprints. network real- time kinematic OGC, to support interoperability of Training Recruiters: A New "TwiST" (NRTK) GNSS system to deliver GIS systems in a heterogeneous network corrections to roving computing environment. OGC is a A question often asked of survey- users play a vital role in achieving global group composed of nearly ors is "Are we doing all we can to good positioning performance. The 370 software vendors, academics, get the word out to the next gener- communication link must ensure government agencies, consultants ation of potential surveyors?" As a high flexibility and availability to and software integrators, dedicat- professor of geomatics at Oregon satisfy the requirement of centi- ed to open systems geoprocess- Institute of Technology (OIT), I am metric positioning accuracy and ing. also responsible for establishing a mobility that NRTK can offer. Since Photo-textured building models recruiting program for the Depart- the advent of General Packet ment. I taught a course on plane Radio Service (GPRS) communi- Documentation of ancient build- surveying to high school students cation technology, it has been used ings is more and more frequently one term, and the teacher was very as the best option to deliver the performed nowadays through virtu- excited about learning more so NRTK corrections to users and al modelling and spatial relation- that he could continue with GPS therefore it directly impacts the ship with web geo-visualization and GIS and quadrangle maps and availability and general perform- systems, like Google Maps, hand compasses. That got me to ance of the NRTK service. Microsoft Live Maps, and Yahoo thinking. Maps. Parallax: Acts of Notice Innovation: GNSS Antennas Years ago, making the transition GeoConnexion from strictly construction surveying The antenna is a critical compo- (February - March 2009) to land surveying, I took employ- nent of a GNSS receiver setup. An ment with a tactless, rude and antenna's job is to capture some of crusty old surveyor that really had a the power in the electromagnetic massive heart of gold. This fellow waves it receives and to convert it Getting into an electrical current that can Beyond the Geospatial Publications suffered from an affliction that I have unfortunately witnessed far be processed by the receiver. With Silos too many times in our profession: very strong signals at lower fre- Niall Carter optimistic procrastination. We all quencies, almost any kind of and Bruce Git-
52 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 Online Publications
Directions Magazine (February) Vector1 Magazine (February) community and comments on Sea- www.directionsmag.com www.vector1media.com Zone's continuing focus to pro- mote, develop, deliver and support Tough Talk on Selling in a Down Economy increasing demand for off the shelf Despite today's economic uncertainty, one thing is Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drinkter marine geographic information sure: We all need more deals. We have to be vigilant in Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink ahead of the company's 5th birth- how we spend our time going after business opportu- Pour a glass of water out of a kitchen tap throughout day later this year. nities. So any sales activities or initiatives that don't the Canterbury region of New Zealand and chances ultimately add value to your customers' bottom line are you'll be staring at what many consider the finest are a waste of your time (and theirs), which should be drinking water in the world. Cool, clear and untouched, Point of Beginning spent driving new revenue. A smart and cost effective it's originated in the mountains of the Southern Alps, go-to-market strategy ensures that your current busi- travelled across the Canterbury Plains in the large (February 2009) ness partnerships are providing what I call "high per- braided river systems and then filtered slowly through www.pobonline.com formance and high impact" to your customers, part- the alluvial shingles before settling in large natural ners and to you. aquifers. Connecting the Dots A View from Over There - India and NSDI Spicycles - Sustainable Policies For Cities On Cycling Conferences billed as events for the "world" are often When the Spicycles project was launched in 2006, Creating a populated by bureaucrats who enjoy the sound of their cycling was not the 'hot' mode of transport that it has compelling own voices, but offer little substance. You see the so- become today. As project partners, we wanted to case for invest- called leaders of worldly professional bodies with gather experience related to specific areas of cycling ing in new wonderful PowerPoints, but little power to their points. policy. We were keen to explore how key elements technology can feel much like a For five days last week I listened intently to speakers such as communication and awareness raising, and game of dot-to-dot. at the Map World Forum (MWF) in Hyderabad, India to the building of local partnerships, might increase the The crusader starts at point one-- see if the event would herald a step forward for GIS or modal share of cycling. We had big expectations at the the demystifying dot--and slowly a missed opportunity for the advancement of global beginning of the project regarding cycling planning, moves from one dot of persuasion cooperation. but could not have predicted the explosion in the pop- to the next, waiting for each ularity of public bicycle systems that has taken place stakeholder to experience his or during Spicycles. Go iLawn: Geospatial SaaS for Lawn & Landscape her "aha" moment, until all Companies the business-case dots are finally Software as a Service. High resolution images. A Bridge Over Troubled Geospatial Data - and best connected, the new business Geospatial technology. Future successful geospatial practice for INSPIRE picture is complete and the big box applications may depend on one or more of these, or The ESDIN project, co-funded by the European Com- with the new technology arrives at other trends. But there's already one player out ahead mission (EC) sets out to tackle practical elements of last. of the rest: Go iLawn. Directions Magazine interviewed the INSPIRE directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Infor- Grant Gibson of GIS Dynamics about the service. mation in Europe). It will address the INSPIRE chal- Bridging the Geomatic Divide lenges by testing the theory of integrating National On December 3 and 4, 2008, geo- Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) to provide Digital Pen and Paper Accelerate GIS Projects matics manufacturers and the Europe with a framework of geographic reference Field data collection is vital to the work of the engi- National Geodetic Survey (NGS) information or in other words a European Spatial Data neering and construction industries, driving significant broke new ground for collaboration Infrastructure. When presenting at the project kick-off decisions that ultimately affect the bottom line. Many at the NGS-Geomatics Vendor meeting in Paris in September 2008, Krister Olson of the current methods and technologies are incon- Summit in Corbin, Va., when they from the European Commission stated that ESDIN venient, error-prone and time-consuming. For exam- merged two initiatives. ple, in many situations field staff collect data on paper had received high marks in the EU scoring system forms or maps and those data are re-keyed in, adding because of the broad coverage and accessibility of The first was the NGS's new Ten- not only more time & cost, but the possibility of errors. the expected results. Year Plan, which presents the mis- sion and vision of NGS supported by strategies to achieve the stated objectives. tings from the University of does it all mean, who does it affect can bring to more fundamental Edinburgh describe a middleware and how will it alter the way problems such as perceived high Smart Mapping solution to the problem of deliver- they work and collect data? cost, availability of data and tech- In the wake of several natural and ing integrated geographic informa- nological limitations. Nearly four years down the line, man-made disasters in the past tion to an end user drawn and with the Act being implement- Until recently the specialist skills, few years, businesses and govern- from diverse information providers. ed from 1st April 2008, we have a understanding and toolsets ments are demanding information The solution makes use of web better idea of how the affected required to deploy GIS has result- that will allow them to mitigate services technology utilising the agencies have tackled this new ed in it often been seen as an their financial risks, respond faster Keyhole Markup Language. legislation. addendum to a business. and more efficiently to disasters, and prepare more effectively for GIS beyond barriers Data is exported to the GIS, the future. analysed and reported on by a Just for the record….capturing Traditionally the Geographic geography expert and returned in An organization's ability to provide data for the TMA 2004 Information System (GIS) industry the form of a map, report or data, actionable information depends On July 22nd 2004, Parliament has faced numerous barriers to ready to be reloaded. on its geographic information passed the Traffic Management realising the full potential that system (GIS)-the primary mapping Act 2004, setting in motion big organisations can achieve from the Land & Sea - Talking with SeaZone and analysis instrument for use of GIS. land assessment, land survey changes for Local Authorities, Util- Dr Mike Osborne talks to us about research, land planning and devel- ity Companies and Utility contrac- These barriers range from a lack of the challenges facing the marine opment. tors across the country. But what awareness of the benefits that GIS environment and coastal zone
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 53
Conference Report AA MEGA MEGA CONFLUENCE CONFLUENCE
ap World Forum 2009, envisioned as a platform intended to raise the profile and expand the horizons of Mgeospatial industry, turned out to be a phenomenal success. With the theme, "Geospatial Technology for Sustainable Planet Earth", the conference witnessed dynamic participation of over 1700 members of GIS community from over 40 countries.
The four day-long geospatial extravaganza was well represented by professionals from different user seg- ments belonging to a wide spectrum of geospatial appli- cations including town planning, utilities, land adminis- tration, defence, petroleum and mining, design and engineering, rural and social infrastructure, e-gover- nance to name a few. The participants included the stakeholders in geospatial industry around the world comprising of scientists, trainers, technology develop- ers, application and solution providers, users and profes- sionals and media agencies and above all, students and the academia. The event, held at the Hyderabad International Con- vention Centre, India, from 10-13 February 2009, was inaugurated by honourable Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and offered a unique in-depth learning environment on different aspects of geospatial technol- ogy. During the inaugural ceremony, Dr. M P Narayanan, Chairperson, GIS Development, welcomed GIS Development Geospatial Excellence Awards the gathering to have a ringside view of latest happen- The GIS Development Geospatial Excellence Awards are India's premier private awards that commemorate excellence in the field ings in the geospatial arena. of geospatial technology applications. It has been conceived to Giving the inaugural address, Hamid Ansari noted that honour the best of geospatial applications across the globe to the instruments for accessing geospatial information encourage the adoption and furthering of geospatial science and technologies by organisations all over the world. At a glitter- have become much simpler. "Let me acknowledge that I ing ceremony, twenty four winners of Geospatial Excellence was impressed with the vision of the Forum which aims Awards received their trophies. All the award winners and their beyond speeches and discussions to find practical ways work were presented during the conference.
56 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 OFOF GLOBAL GLOBAL EXPERTS EXPERTS
SPONSORS
The sponsors of Map World Forum, who contributed to making the event an unparalleled success, were Rolta India (Principal Industry Partner); Ministry of Science & Technology & Earth Sci- ences, Government of India (Principal Government Partner); Indian Space Research Organisation (Supporting Organisation); DigitalGlobe, Erdas, ESRI India, Speck Systems (Corporate Part- ners); Infotech Enterprises (Associate Partner); Vexcel Imaging, CH2MHill, Trimble, HP, GeoEye (Co-Sponsors); ESRI India (Conference Bag Sponsor); Genesys (Lanyard Sponsor); Data- World (Pen & Notepad Sponsor); ERDAS (SDI Seminar); Speck Systems (Land Administration Seminar); DigitalGlobe (Third Dimension to National Mapping Seminar); Infotech (Utilities Seminar); Genesys (Urban Development Seminar)
The sponsors of Location Summit 2.0 were Navteq (Platinum Sponsor); SiRF Technology (Industry Partner); MapMyIndia (Co-Sponsor); SatNav Technologies (Associate Sponsor).
to improve people's lives," he said. Technology is only an enabler. The uses that technology could be put to be guided by the political, social and economic context of the time, he felt and added that today, everyone can access them through freely available and user-friendly services of Google, Microsoft and other companies. He however cautioned that such technology may have an implication for the national security. The patron of the conference, Union Minister for Sci- ence & Technology and Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal said that the government would soon launch a service in 3-D format in six metros in the country beginning with the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Stating that I am impressed with the vision of the the economic meltdown has not affected the geospatial “ industry, the minister said there are several applications Forum which aims beyond speeches for the geospatial data in the public service domain, and discussions to find practical ways from land administration to police. He exhorted the GIS community in India to utilise the already established IT to improve people's lives and telecom infrastructures. In his guest address K K Singh, CMD, Rolta India, reiter- - Mohammad Hamid Ansari ated the industry's commitment to further the cause of Vice-President of India geospatial technologies. He expressed hope that geospa- ” MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 57 tial technologies will continue to bring important solutions to ordinary citizens in the form of a range of services which are relevant to the society, from disaster management to health services. Minister for Major Industries, Andhra Pradesh Government, Geetha Reddy, was also present on the occasion. The highlight of the inaugural session was the awards of excellence conferred on seven dignitaries for their outstand- ing contribution towards development of geographic infor- mation tools, products, applications that in turn helped in making geographic information a public commodity. The awards were conferred on: The Exhibition, which ran parallel to the sessions of the Conference, was inaugurated by Vice-President Ansari after the inaugural session. Guest Speakers Environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall and renowned manage- ment expert Prof. C K Prahalad shared their ideas and vision for the industry/technology as guest speakers. Dr. Goodall, world's foremost primatologist and a tireless campaigner for both world peace and environmental protec- tion devoted her presentation to the relationship between her conservation work and information technology, especial- ly spatial technology. Chimpanzee being the closest living >> DR JANE GOODALL, primate to Homo sapiens, her work is based on the premise founder of Jane Goodall that an understanding of chimps would lead to improved Institute and UN Mes- sanger of Peace and understanding of mankind itself. The relationship with geog- PROF. C K PRAHALAD, raphy began some 14 years ago, when Dr. Goodall began to Paul & Ruth McCracken Distinguised University Professor of realise the threat posed by deforestation of the regions Strategy Stephen M. Ross School of Business at University of Michigan for their personal achievements around Gombé forest to the lives of chimps. Lilian Pintea, who directs the conservation science programme at Jane >> KAMAL K SINGH, CMD, Rolta, with Lifetime Achievement Award Goodall Institute, says GIS is a natural fit to the needs of a for his vision, professional experience and leadership that enabled Rolta to become a leader in delivering geospatial conservation group, although he noted that it is important sevices, solutions and technologies worldwide. for GIS people to understand problems from the conserva- tionists' point of view. >> MICROSOFT VIRTUAL EARTH for its outstanding service/contri- Nevertheless, Dr. Jane believes that there are reasons for bution towards Popularising Geospatial Content to Common Man Worldwide hope because nature is quite resilient, youth are changing positively towards nature and the indomitable human spirit >> INSTITUTE OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY, University of Hannover, for to tackle large projects and that does not give up. its outstanding service/contribution towards Building Geospa- tial Capacities and Knowledge Network Prof. C K Prahalad spoke at length about technology and how it is viewed by common people. He said, "during the last >> OPEN GEOSPATIAL CONSORTIUM in the category of Professional decade, the arcane field of geospatial mapping technology Societies for its outstanding services/contribution to geospatial community worldwide has become accessible to ordinary people. Google Map and Microsoft Virtual Earth have changed the way we look at the >> LAND INFORMATION NEW ZEALAND in the category of National world today." He cited the example of Mumbai terrorist Mapping Agency attack where Indian commando units and the people at large Awards of Excellence Awards
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To learn more, visit www.intergraph2009.com or call 1.800.730.4647. watching CNN or Google news had access to instant geo- expressed his belief that one day a Web service will be used graphical analysis of the problem. Visual techniques were an to query and analyse for change detection in a region using integral part of the total episode. He explored how managers not only a time-series of remotely-sensed imagery but can utilise mapping technology to dramatically improve the advanced classification algorithms to automatically map quality of their operations. and highlight the affected areas. "The greatest opportunity is Prof. Prahalad had some words of wisdom for the geospa- to enable a true model using all of the available sensors," said tial industry to redeem itself in the times of recession. He Moses. "The democratisation of data will herald a plethora of elaborated that the live and let live principle needs to be information to support the status of Gaia," he said. Rajesh C adhered to now more than any other time. The grab-gobble Mathur, President, ESRI India, stressed on the fact that foster- up strategies will result in 'zero sum gain' for the geospatial ing the growth of national and global food supplies is neces- industry, he opined. sary for eliminating hunger and reducing poverty. In future, agricultural growth must come primarily from rising biolog- ical yields rather than from expanding cultivated areas or Plenary Sessions intensifying agriculture through irrigation, because fertile The conference had four plenary sessions - Geospatial land and water are becoming increasingly scarce. Technologies and Sustainable Development, Geospatial The second day of the conference started with the plenary Technology - Development and Trends, Geospatial for Public session "Geospatial Technology - Development and Trends." Sector and Geospatial for Sustainable Infrastructure Devel- Mark Steele, Chief Operating Officer, TeleAtlas Asia Pacific, opment. talked about Tele Atlas' data collection capability and vision. During the first plenary, Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Min- The only way user demand for data currency and accuracy istry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India, called for an integrated can possibly be met is by getting the users themselves to and multi-disciplinary approach to tackle the problems aris- update the maps. The current state-of-the-art, according to ing out of climate change. The changes in atmospheric con- Steele, is the Map Share program operated by Tele Atlas' par- centration of green house gases and aerosols, in solar radia- ent company, Tom Tom. He declared that the final dimension tion and land surface properties have altered the energy bal- of map data is personalisation. ance of the climate system of the earth. During the last thirty Preetha Pulusani, Director of Rolta India, wondered why years, host of satellites have provided useful data on many of geospatial technology is still considered expensive and the parameters responsible for the change. It is necessary to answered the same stating that it is because the value evolve a measurement strategy to improve accuracy and sci- proposition is not always clear to decision makers. To get entific content for future satellites, he felt. beyond this perception, geospatial must become more of a Jill Smith, CEO, DigitalGlobe, offered insights into how she strategic part of operations, and Pulusani felt that the route will conduct her company in the near future. She wants her is through geospatial fusion. company to proactively collect imagery of regions of the Martin Nix, Senior Vice President of Mining and Agriculture world where climate change or other problems might be of at Leica Geosystems, spoke about increase in efficiency of interest to the global geospatial community. Smith described mining that reduces the inputs of fuel, fertiliser and water her vision as a "sustainable lens" and, providing a punned on for less of footprints on our planet. The application of geospa- her company's name to infer a broader meaning, a "digital tial technology towards sustainability goals becomes quite globe" of information that utilises a constellation of satellites practical in the resource extraction sector. Positioning tech- with "appropriate and re-usable data". nology, coupled with communications, is moving towards Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO, PCI Geomatics, machine control and location-aware machinery that dramat-
60 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 ically increases safety and improve efficiency. "Geographic tial for sustainable infrastructure development. Vice presi- Information System technology is now entering into a new dent of Trimble Navigation, Bryn Fosburgh, told the confer- and rapidly expanding era of increased accessibility, applica- ence that the case for including these technologies in new bility, transparency, and meaningfulness" said Lawrie E Jor- projects in the construction industry is so compelling that 30 dan, Director - Imaging Division of ESRI. "This evolution is per cent of new sites now insist on their use. However, transformational and global in scope, with broad implica- machine guidance is of little value unless the position of the tions for the social, economic, and environmental fabrics machine can be mapped against other significant objects. It which connect us." The new GIS computing environment is a is also of little value unless the information can be trans- services-oriented, open architecture that delivers global ferred, in real time, to people or business processes for which "Geography-on-Demand" in near real time. Efficiency and that position is important. Stanley Trim, Vice President of return on investment (ROI) are significantly enhanced by CH2M Hill, said that the integration of machine guidance "task-at hand" workflows and industry-specific project tem- into processing systems was driving efficiency in mines all plates. The foundation and overarching strength of this new over the world, and was having a major impact on the cost of approach is a GIS-centric core data model. farming. 'It is no longer a technology - it's a tool for the board- Geospatial for Public Sector was the theme of the third ple- room,' he said. V K Yadava, Executive Director (ATM), Airports nary session. Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice President & Head, Authority of India, talked on the No Objection Certificate Government Industry Solutions Unit (ISU), Tata Consultancy Application System (NOCAS), a Web based application Services Limited, India, talked about hybrid technologies for implemented by Airports Authority of India in order to auto- sustaining planet earth. Citing an example of tsunami early mate the steps involved in obtaining a No Objection Certifi- warning system that is implemented using the best out of cate (NOC) for height clearance. embedded, IT and geospatial technologies for raising alerts against tsunami and coastal hazards, he stressed on the fact Panel Discussion - Public Private that hybrid technology solutions have a valuable potential to Partnership: Challenges and help government deliver good governance to their con- Opportunities stituents. Similar s-governance systems with converged The last session on the second day was a panel discussion on ideas from different technology areas will help sustain the Public Private Partnership: Challenges and Opportunities life and environment and hence sustaining planet earth. which saw the participation of eminent leaders of the Prof Martien Molenaar, Rector, International Institute for geospatial community. The panel was moderated by Pallava Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Bagla, Science Editor, NDTV, India. The panelists for the ses- Netherlands, talked on why cross border education for capac- sion were Dr Vanessa Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer, Ord- ity building is important. Prof Arup Dasgupta, Distinguished nance Survey, UK, through a pre-recorded video address; K R Professor of Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director, Antrix Corporation, and Geoinformatics and Honorary Managing Editor of GIS India; Dr. Prithvish Nag, Director NATMO, India, Mark Development presented a case study of the Gujarat govern- Reichardt, President and CEO, OGC, USA and Ravi Gupta, Edi- ment has successfully utilised geospatial technology to aid tor-in-Chief, GIS Development. Some of the key issues delib- decision making process and address the issues of conflicting erated upon by the panel were how PPP is a two way process demands at different levels and by different players and and both the private and public sector need to make equal struck a balance for arriving at judicious decisions, achieving contributions and investments for better results. Lack of sup- overall development of the state. portive policy environment was one of the major deterrents The last plenary session of the conference talked on geospa- to the industry reaching its true growth potential, making
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 61 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
from the Project Management Consultants for Yamuna Action Plan II highlighted how technologies can be effective- ly utilised to provide better citizen service through Citizen Facilitation Centres that provide all citizen services through single window approach and strengthening the urban local bodies. Khalid A Hameed Al Hammadi, Chief - GIS Division at Central Informatics Organization (UAE) explained the salient features of a Web GIS application developed for the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Rajashekhar from Sur- vey of India explained the Nirmala Nagara, a municipal e- governance project, initiated by the Urban Development them over-cautious for active participation. One trend that Department of Government of Karnataka. was noted was that, though many PPP initiatives have taken place in the past as pilot projects, many of them have not yet GEOSPATIAL IN PETROLEUM & MINING been completed. The discussions proved to be stimulating for The Oil & Mining industry has been influenced by Geospatial both government and industry representatives. Three day- technology in one form or other. Be it surveying at the time long symposia, six seminars, four fora, one summit, and of geological exploration or remote sensing at the time of site three industry tracks were conducted in parallel on the next selection and pipeline routing or GIS for efficient distribution two days of the conference. and emergency response, the geospatial technology is rapid- ly gaining prominence in the sector. Keeping this in view, Symposia symposium on Petroleum & Mining was conducted in part- nership with Geospatial Information and Technology Associ- GEOSPATIAL FOR e-GOVERNANCE ation (GITA) on the usage of geospatial technologies and With an aim to bring forth the development of GIS within applications in the different sections of Petroleum and Min- the government processes and the gap areas that are needed ing industry. The symposium was chaired by Robert M Sam- to be taken into account, the symposium targeted to put borski, Executive Director, GITA. In the welcome address, forth identified GIS-enabled best practices from different Samborski discussed about interdependencies and depend- regions of the world. The symposium, organized in partner- encies of gas & oil companies for identifying and classifying ship with National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), critical infrastructure, developing response plans and was chaired by J Satyanarayan, Former CEO, NISG. In his wel- addressing issues of security and protection. He also dis- come address, he stressed on the fact that spatial informa- cussed how infrastructures are geospatially interdependent tion in e-governance plan needs to be given the status of and how a local environmental event can create state mission mode project which will result in efficient resource changes in all of them. allocation and recognition by all. Akala, Former Chairman, CMPDI, Coal India, in his guest Ashis Sanyal, Scientist 'G'-HOD, Department of IT, talked address discussed about the usage and advantage of GIS about integrating GIS into e-governance outcomes. Sharon applications in mining and petroleum industry, the current Cottrell (General Manager, Land Information New Zealand), status of the industry and various applications. A very inter- Dr Muhammad R Bualhamam (Deputy Director General, Ras esting issue discussed by V.D. Rajagopal, Director, Depart- Al Khaimah Municipality, UAE), K Dakshina Murthy (Project ment of Mines and Geology, was pertaining to the compen- Manager, Centre for Good Governance) and Hemant Kumar sation to resource bearing states related to petroleum and (Fellow, Karnataka State Council for Science & Technology) natural gas. He suggested oil producing companies to share presented the initiatives of good governance by Land Infor- profits (in terms of gas) to resource state for the upliftment of mation New Zealand, Ras Al Khaimah, Andhra Pradesh Gov- society like standard schooling, women employment and ernment and Karnataka Government respectively. technical education. The other keynote speeches were from Dr. Robert Barr, OBE, Chairman of Manchester Geomatics, ONGC and GAIL India. Further there were three technical ses- explored the issues of data infrastructure from commercial, sions focusing on exploration & production, distribution and academic and local government perspectives. D Vasudevan rehabilitation & resettlement. There were 10 technical
62 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
papers from petroleum & mining industry which gave an insight of the various applications based case studies to the audience.
GEOSPATIAL FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT The key point of 'people-centric technology' that emerged out of the deliberations during the first two days of the forum continued to figure at the symposium on Geospatial for Rural Development. The symposium delved into how GIS can aid in improving the lives of those at the grass roots. The affiliate partner of the symposium was National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD). The chairperson of the sympo- is important to educate and inform both the uninitiated and sium, B K Sinha, Director General, National Institute of Rural the newly initiated about the technology/industry. And that Development, India, emphasised that rural development is only possible by proactive participation of the media. tops the agenda of the Indian government. He informed that Jon Fairall, Managing Editor, ASM, Australia, opined that if Rs 76,000 crore is the budget allocated to the sector. He high- a publication builds a business model to cater to the people lighted the issue of land administration and informed that a enlightened by Google Earth, it will be out of business in no Government of India's committee on land records has recom- time. Voicing similar sentiments, Joe Francica, Editor-in- mended usage of geospatial technologies for all the land sur- Chief, Directions Magazine, said his portal will continue to veys to be carried out. educate the professional community and leave the rest to The second speaker, Dr V S Hegde from ISRO, made presen- popular press. tation on Village Resources Centres (VRCs), an innovative Matt Ball, Editor-America/Asia Pacific, Vector 1 Media, felt geospatial-technology based programme that to a large that the geospatial media is not presenting analyses and extent has empowered rural societies. Dr Hegde, while men- added that we need to cut through the technology and show tioning that rural India constitutes about 10% of the global the public minus technical jargon as to how they can use the population, strongly put across the idea of 'social inclusion'. technology. Durk Haarsma, Publisher, GIM International, An interesting presentation on the usage of remote sensing opined that media should play an enabling role. for crop yield estimation forecasting was made by Dr. Dalip Analysing the dominance of online publications over print Singh (Ministry of Agriculture) and Dr. M Chakraborty, Space publications, Nitin K Tripathi, International Journal of Geoin- Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. The programme known as formatics, said though there are several advantages of online FASAL (Forecasting if Agricultural output using Space, publications over print publications, print holds an eternal Agrometeorology, and Land based observations), has suc- charm and convenience of reading. A lively panel discussion ceeded in addressing the key concerns of the rural occupa- with active participation of the audience which followed tion i.e. agriculture. raised several relevant questions and issues. In the final The issue of participatory GIS came up at the forum when a analysis, it was felt that there's clear gap in the expectations presentation on 'Mapping the Neighbourhood' project of GIS of users, technology providers and decision makers vis-à-vis Development was made by Suman Arya. It showed how geospatial media and it is time publications lived up and maps created by local rural community helped themselves catered to the needs of specific communities. as well as the policy makers to understand the problems of The Developer's Forum provided the audience with a good water, sewage and deforestation. understanding of the different geospatial development envi- ronments and developer support from Autodesk, ESRI, FORUMS ERDAS, Oracle and Microsoft. Editors Forum, with the theme - The Role of Media in Build- In order to address the complex, multidisciplinary milieu it ing Public Geospatial Knowledge Network, was chaired by was necessary that professionals from contributing disci- Prof Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor (honorary), GIS Devel- plines come together on to a common platform to discuss opment. In his opening remarks, Prof Dasgupta pointed out issues and share their experiences. Keeping this in view, that the scope of the industry is increasing by the day and it Geospatial Science Forum was organised. Dr. Ing. Karsten
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 63 Jacobsen, Academic Director, Institute of Photogrammetry the employability of the students should be increased with and Geoinformations talked about the potential of large for- time. mat digital aerial cameras and how a very high resolution satellite images poses competition to aerial images. Christ- Seminars ian Heipke, Vice President and Research EUROSDR from Leib- The seminars on utilities, land administration, third dimen- niz Universitat described his organisation, modus of opera- sion to national mapping, coastal zone mapping for disaster tion, and presented the list of currently running activities to management, spatial data infrastructure, urban develop- illustrate its impact on the European Geoinformatics com- ment were held in parallel. munity. The other speakers at the forum were from Universi- ty of Minnesota, Microsoft Research India, National Remote Location Summit 2.0 Sensing Centre, Hewlett-Packard, University of Costa Rica The market of location is moving forward in top gear and and FZI Research Center for Information Technologies. users are finding value in location enabled services. The The Education Forum conducted in association with the theme "Towards Collaborative Models" brought together pio- University of Salzburg, Austria, and Digital Learning dis- neers, industry leaders and developers who are setting the cussed the current geospatial education status, curriculum direction for the future of location technologies and markets, and the employability of the students. Dr PLN Raju from IIRS, guiding the development of new applications and shaping Dehradun, presented the activities being carried out by IIRS the way to meet the challenge of making location enabled in promoting geospatial training through different means, services ubiquitous. including the EduSat programme. Dr Nitin Tripathi touched The summit had a vision session, two keynote sessions and upon the status of the geospatial education in Thailand and three tracks. At the vision session, Debashish Chatterjee, the courses being offered by AIT. Prof IV Muralikrishna, JNTU, CEO, Netxcell talked on the mobile marketing through LBS. Hyderabad, described the need of the requirement of more Prakash Iyer of Trimble offered the numbers for the Field Ser- trained geospatial manpower and what the educational vices Management (FSM) market based on an Aberdeen institutes should be doing to provide more trained manpow- Research report. FSM is predicted to be $1.7 bn by 2012 with er. Brig Khanzode from Symbiosis Institute, Pune, besides market drivers being better service, constant cost pressure, presenting the offering at Symbiosis and the geospatial mar- increased productivity, vehicle and driver safety. Presenta- ket, emphasised on the students involvement with the socie- tions from MapmyIndia and Nokia talked about the activi- ty to integrate the geospatial with the common man. ties carried on by their companies vision in the near future. After the presentations by individual speakers, Dr Munshi The two keynote session highlighted varied applications of presented his views on the growing geospatial market and location at enterprise and consumer level. The keynote what changes should be incorporated in the education sys- speakers were Anush Gopalan, CEO, Heterogenous Inc.; S S tem so as to increase the employability of students in the Sirohi, Deputy Director General - VAS, BSNL India, Dr Srikant ever changing and growing geospatial market. Besides the Mathripragada, Chief Technical Officer, Albireo Telematics; speakers and the chair, Prof Anjana Vyas and Dr Shahnawaz Brennon Martin from DigitalGlobe; Ashutosh Pande, Corpo- also participated in the discussion and presented their views. rate Vice President and Managing Director, SiRF All the speakers and the panelists were unanimous in sug- Technology; Arnout Desmet, Managing Director-South and gesting that the curricula of geospatial courses should be cur- Southeast Asia, Tele Atlas Asia Pacific and Gurpreet S Pall, rent and the courses should be designed in such a way that General Manager, Live Search and MSN Technologies, India. besides providing the fundamentals of the geospatial field, Presentation by Brennon Martin from DigitalGlobe illustrat-
64 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
ed how organisations can leverage the functionality by Technical and adding high-resolution imagery as a base layer to map-based Poster Sessions applications via their Web client user interfaces. Anush Over 90 technical papers Gopalan stressed on the fact that the market is now aware were presented by several and demanding for solutions that will allow asset owners academicians and experts and managers to 'Sense, Locate, Communicate, and Control' from the industry. The remotely. Arnout Desmet examined the key factors and themes included Environ- emerging technologies that will drive the success for loca- mental Management, Remote tion-based services and applications. He discussed the Sensing, Disaster Manage- emerging technologies that contribute to the network of reli- ment, Open Source and Web able sources helping to keep pace and anticipate changes in GIS, Urban Development, India's road systems. S S Sirohi talked on the strategies to Natural Resource Manage- increase revenue from location based services. ment, Emerging Applications Tracks on Navigation, Location Based Services and Fleet and Technology Trends, Sur- Management had speakers from Motorola Enterprise Mobili- veying and Mapping, Infra- ty, Persistent Systems, SiRF Technology, EI Labs, Bridgewater structure and Utilities, Enter- State College, Ghoom Solutions, Qualcomm, Vidteq, Nuance prise GIS, image processing and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C- and business GIS. The award DAC). Ramesh Sunderaman from Motorola Enterprise Mobil- for the best three presenta- ity discussed the benefits that mobility can have on the field tions went to: operations as well as the criteria involved in implementing The best poster presentation "location-aware" mobile field applications and technical con- award was given to Shahzia siderations in evaluating such solutions. Krishna Nargese and R Santhya Shen- Vaidyanathan, CEO, EI Labs provided insight on GIS-GPS- bagam, students from Anna RFID enabled integrated workforce and fleet management University. solution. Vinit Kapoor from Persistants System addressed the Industry tracks were con- technical and business study of Point of Interest location ducted by Rolta, GeoEye and based service from view point of Indian market. Uma Shar- ESRI at the conference. An ma from Bridgewater State College presented the applica- exhibition spreading in an tions of emerging web mapping of real-time transit and area of 3000 sqm was organ- paratransit vehicles by Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google ised parallel to the confer- Maps, a world wide application of transit trip planning by ence. 64 renowned compa- Google Transit, integration of real-time transit AVL and trip nies took part in the exhibi- planning using a Google Mapplet, and a real-time transit tion. The exhibition was a learning experience for those who vehicle location web service for the blind and individuals attended it and was highly successful. There was a great with visual impairments using reverse geocoding and web degree of enthusiasm among the exhibitors and almost all readers with voice capability. Arunima Nundy from SiRF companies were represented by their senior executives. The Technology elaborated on SiRFecosystem innovations that best exhibitor award was bagged by Sokkia, Navayuga and address solutions which drive possible use-cases for location Speck Systems. Since its inception, MWF had been appreciat- in India. ed as one of its kind event that facilitated the coming togeth- Manjunath Bhajantri from Nuance talked about the value er of various stakeholders of geospatial sector across the of speech technologies in navigation offerings. Sajeevan G world. The second edition of the conference has only hiked from C-DAC presented a case on indigenous multilingual the expectations raised by the maiden event. The very fact navigation software - SAARATHY - with various modules for that the conference was inaugurated by the Vice-President routing, tracking, warning, rescue, etc. Anand Virani from of India, eminent personalities like Dr Jane Goodall and Dr C Qualcomm talked on how connectivity and integration can K Prahalad graced the occasion speaks volumes about the expand possibilities for navigation. esteem this event has garnered in the geospatial world.
MARCH 2009 GIS DEVELOPMENT 65 Planner
26 - 28 April 9 - 13 June Defence Geospatial Intelligence , Dubai , INTEROP United Arab Emirates Tokyo Dubai, United Arab Emirates www.interop.jp/english/index.html www.geospatialdefence.com 15 - 19 June 27 - 29 April 2009 GSDI-11 Conference ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Rotterdam, Netherlands Conference www.gsdi.org/gsdi11 Hyatt Regency Riverfront, Redlands, CA, USA www.esri.com/serug 29 June - 2 July Fourth International Workshop on "Geo- graphical Analysis, Urban Modeling, Spatial May 2009 Statistics" Kyung Hee University-Global Campus , Yon- March 2009 3 - 8 May gin , Korea 15 - 18 March FIG Working Week 2009 www.lisut.org/workshop/GEOG-AN-MOD09 12th Annual AAAE GIS Conference & Eilat, Israel, 24 - 26 June Exhibition www.fig.net/fig2009 Innovative Lidar Solutions Conference Hotel Allegro, Chicago , Illinois, USA 4 - 6 May Toronto, Canada www.AirportGISconference.com ESRI Business GIS Summit secure.inorbital.com/Optech/email.html 20 - 21 March Denver, CO, U.S.A iGEOMAP 2009 www.esri.com/bizsummit JN TataAuditorium, IISc, Bangalore 8 - 11 May July 2009 www.igeomap.org Remote Sensing Arabia 7 - 10 July 22 - 27 March Riyadh, Saudi Arabia GI_Forum 2009 Association of American Geographers 2009 www.remotesensingarabia.com Salzburg University, Austria www.gi-forum.org Annual Meeting 11 - 14 May The Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas , Nevada BE Conference 2009 www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2009/index.htm Charlotte, NC, U.S.A. 7 - 9 July 28 March - 1 April www.bentley.com Geospatial Africa 2009 Africa Petro GIS 20 - 22 May Bahrain www.b2bsolutions.co.za/b2b/index.php?opt 2009 Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event [email protected] Shanghai , China 31 March - 1 April www.urban-remote-sensing-2009.org.cn 13 - 17 July Offshore Survey 09 ESRI International User Conference San Diego, CA, U.S.A. National Oceanography Centre, 26 - 28 May Southampton ,UK www.esri.com/uc International Conference on Marine Ecosys- www.offshoresurvey.co.uk tem (INCOMES 2009) Awana Porto Malai , Langkawi Island , 21- 23 July April 2009 Kedah, Malaysia GEO Summit - Latin America www.ekomar.ukm.my/incomes2009 Sao Paulo, Brasil 1 - 2 April www.geobr.com.br GEO-9 The complete GEO Event Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK June 2009 www.pvpubs.com GIS DEVELOPMENT EVENTS 1 - 3 April 1 - 4 June The 17th annual GIS Research UK (GISRUK) GeoTec Event 2009 26 - 28 April, 2009 Durham, UK Vancouver Convention Centre , Vancouver , Map Middle East www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/gisruk2009 British Columbia , Canada Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center, www.geoplace.com/geotec event Abu Dhabi, UAE. 15 - 17 April www.mapmiddleeast.org III International conference 9 - 11 June “Remote Sensing – the Synergy of The International Emergency 22 - 23 April, 2009 High Technologies Management Society (TIEMS)- Map Malaysia Moscow, Russia TIEMS 16th Annual Conference Penang, Malaysia www.sovzond.ru/en Istanbul , Turkey www.MapMalaysia.org www.tiems2009.org
66 GIS DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2009 Enabling Rogers Communications to increase subscriber base and customer retention.
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada’s largest communication companies. Given the ever dynamic competitive scenario, Rogers Communications wanted to enhance the effectiveness of its marketing activities to increase subscriber base and customer retention. The company needed a management information system that could provide information across departments for marketing and sales decision support and customer relationship management. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) developed a centralized spatial database and a web mapping application for business intelligence activities in marketing. As one of the world’s fastest growing technology and business solutions providers, TCS leveraged its expertise in Geospatial Technology & Business Intelligence Solutions to leverage available enterprise data effectively through web mapping capabilities. As the information could be accessed over the intranet, TCS enabled access to infromation across departments. Empowering the marketing team to take more informed decisions. Leading to an increase in subscriber base and customer retention. And ofcourse, enabling Rogers Communications to experience certainty.
To know how Geospatial Technology Solutions can help your organization experience certainty, log on to www.tcs.com/eis or email us at [email protected] Find out more by visiting www.erdas.com or contacting us directly at [email protected] or +91 124 4633000