Arcgis® Image Server Increase the Value of Your Imagery

AUGUST 2007 VOL 11 ISSUE 8 The Global Geospatial Magazine

YES! We are Interoperable

AFRICA I AMERICAS I ASIA I AUSTRALIA I EUROPE www.GISdevelopment.net ArcGIS® Image Server Increase the Value of Your Imagery

A New Paradigm for Management, Processing, and Distribution of Imagery

Imagery’s value is often time sensitive. Do you need to distribute imagery immediately to people who rely on current data to make decisions? “When we tested ArcGIS Image Server, we found designers, technicians, and ® ArcGIS Image Server software reduces the latency that results from the digitizers were all very pleased with lengthy and costly image processing required by the processing time—it was twice as conventional systems. It processes imagery on-the-fly and serves it fast, in some cases even faster, than on-demand to GIS/CAD/imaging and Web clients. ArcGIS Image Server previously—and they were impressed also performs advanced image processing such as image enhancement, with the resolution.” orthorectification, pan sharpening, and complex image mosaicking. Cindi Salas GIS Manager Get the most out of your significant investment in imagery by quickly CenterPoint Energy making it available to the people who rely on it.

For more information, visit www.esri.com/is. E-mail: info@ESRICOMs)NTHE5NITED3TATES /UTSIDETHE5NITED3TATES EXT or visit www.esri.com/internationalFORYOURLOCALDISTRIBUTOR

Copyright © 2007 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, ArcGIS, 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. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

G26877_GIS-Development_8-07.indd 1 7/26/07 8:29:02 AM In this issue... COLUMNS

Reader's Column 05

Editorial 07

News 08

ARTICLES

22 NIIT: Sculpting Indian Geospatial Industry

26 The Place of Ethics in the Spatial Information Sciences Jim Connolly

30 Integration of Heterogeneous 46 Resources 68 degree- Compo- Geospatial Data COVER PAGE Cataloguing: Key to nents and Frame- The cover page signifies the intent of Repositories major players in the Geospatial industry to Valuable SDI work for SDI join hands for the interoperable world. S.K. Ghosh and Manoj Paul OGC, which is leading the movement has R. Penneman, F. Houble and Dr. Markus Lupp a long way to go before it untangles the N. Vanraes complex web of interoperability. Internet and instance like GML relay has shown 34 Socio-ethical CONFERENCE REPORT some light in this direction. However, we stand by what the industry torch bearers dimensions of 58 Approach say "We are interoperable!" 71 Geo Intelligence spatial information towards Sharing and 2007 OFFICES technology Using Geospatial India GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. A-145, Sector - 63, Noida (U.P.), INDIA Jefferson Fox, Peter Hershock Data INTERVIEW Tel: +91-120-4260800 to 808 Fax: +91-120-4260823-24 Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori Email: [email protected] 48 Bob Morris, President UAE 41 Open Source Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging GIS Development Branch Dubai Airport Free Zone Area Tools for GIS 62 QuantumGIS: P.O. Box No: 54664, Dubai, UAE David Schell, President, OGC Tel: +971-4-2045350, 2045351 50 Fax: +971-4-2045352 Professionals The easy way Email: [email protected] Salvador Bayarri and 54 Greg Bentley Malaysia Paolo Cavallini, Leonardo Lami Suite - 22.6, Level - 22 Alvaro Anguix CEO, Bentley Systems, Inc. Menara Genesis, 33 Jalan Sultan Ismail Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 50250 Tel: +601-72929756 Fax: +603-21447636 Email: [email protected]

President M P Narayanan Editor in Chief Ravi Gupta Managing Editor Maneesh Prasad Publisher Sanjay Kumar GIS Development is intended for those interested and involved in GIS related activities. It Editorial Team: Honorary Advisor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Associate is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing net- Editor Dr. Satyaprakash Assistant Editor Saurabh Mishra Sr. Sub Editor Harsha Vardhan Sub Editor Ananya Ghosh, work by keeping the community up-to-date on Neha Arora, Gaurav Sharma many activities in this wide and varied field. Your Sales and Marketing: Regional Managers Middle East Swati Grover North America Annu Negi South East Asia Pacific involvement in providing relevant information is Sunil Ahuja Regional Sales Managers Europe Niraj South Asia Prashant Joshi South East Asia Pacific Shivani Lal essential to the success of this endeavour. Dy. Managers Sales Middle East Sharmishtha Seth South Asia Anupam Sah, Vivek Rawat South East Asia Pacific Kavitha Seras GIS Development does not necessarily sub- Marketing Co-ordinator Megha Datta Sales Co-ordinator Uma Shankar Pandey scribe to the views expressed in the publication. Design Team: Sr. Creative Designer Deepak Kumar, Prashant K Sarkar Assistant Graphic Designer Manoj Kumar Singh All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. It is not responsible for any loss to Circulation Team: Arpita Mazumdar, Bhopal Singh, Vijay Kumar Singh anyone due to the information provided.

Software Development Group: Team Leader Kumar Vikram Team Member Viral Pandey GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Printed and Published by Sanjay Kumar. Press Portal Team: Dy. Manager Anshu Garg Team Member Anjali Srivastava Rajhans Enterprises No: 134, 4th Main Road, Industrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore - 560044, India Publication Address P-82, Sector-11, Gautambudh Nagar, Noida, India Editor Ravi Gupta

GIS DEVELOPMENT | AUGUST 2007 Vol. 11 Issue 8 3

Feedback Reader’s Column

June Issue of GIS Development- STL loves to contribute to knowledge. We have invested The Global Geospatial Magazine time and resources in assisting the academic communities both within and outside Nigeria. I was really pleased to see the focus on GIS and the Ireti Ajala, Nigeria Infrastructure that characterized the June issue of GIS Development. New Magellan ProMark 3 RTK Robert M. Samborski, GITA, [email protected] alters the RTK Landscape Remote Sensing Satellites: Present This a welcome news for those of us in Africa. and Future Hope the price will indeed not "empty our pockets" so that we can accelerate the creation of geo-data for develop- I was pleased to read your article in July issue of GIS Devel- ment purposes. opment, but was concerned to see that there was no mention of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satel- Kwame Tenadu, Ghana lites except the mention of the SSTL satellites built for Alge- ria, Nigeria, Turkey, China and UK, which cooperate in the Nokia N95 with Tele Atlas map Disaster Monitoring Constellation in the editorial . data launched

Paul Stephens, DMCii Ltd., [email protected] I am using N-95 GPS in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Detailed map of Pakistan is not defined in this network. If there is any Surveyors ease land title processing detail map of cities in Pakistan please let me know. in Uganda Mohsin Nawaz, Pakistan, [email protected] I am so grateful for the new, affordable and quite effective Timeline: service delivery that has been extended to our country by Photogrammetric Instruments scientists, aimed at redressing land issues. Please keep up, we are behind you. (GIS Development, Volume 11, Issue 5, May 2007)

My question is, what approach have you undertaken to The term 'photogrammetry' was first published in 1867 in spread this ideology especially for ameliorating challenges an unsigned article and published by the journal "Wochen- of rural communities? blatt, herausgegeben von Mitgliedern des Architekten- Vereins zu Berlin; 1(1867)49:471-472". In 1892 the editors of Ronald, Uganda, [email protected] the "Deutsche Bauzeitung", former "Wochenblatt ..."noted that the author of the article "Die Photogrammetrie" from STL releases 20m resolution DEM 1867 has been Albrecht Meydenbauer. and Clutter for 35 Nigerian cities for the Wireless and Telecomunication For details, please see my article "Der Ursprung des Wortes Industry PHOTOGRAMMETRIE" {The Origin of the Term PHO- TOGRAMMETRY};ISPRS-Kongress, Hamburg 1980, Komm. STL has done a good job. Can STL make the imageries avail- VI/2, Band XXIII, Nr. B10, S. 323-330. The term photogram- able to researchers in Nigeria? metry will be 140 years in practice in December 2007! Olaitan Femi Paul, Nigeria Albrecht Grimm, Denmark, [email protected]

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 5

From Editor’s Desk Empty classroom syndrome

hen I was in class 6th, in my middle school, in one of the term exams, I had in my English paper a topic to write a 300 words essay on: “My Classroom”. A Wvalorous feeling arising out of novel thought riding strong on ignorance of Maneesh Prasad consequences made me critique the topic and proceed with my essay saying a class- Managing Editor & Chief Operating Officer room is a concrete structure and lifeless, until you have lively students there. What fol- [email protected] lowed was something, which I at best would like to forget. Almost three decades down the lane, today, I get the similar feeling of describing the geospatial industry in a similar fashion. We are talking about data standards, data Advisory Board interoperability, data ethics, geospatial open source software and RoI associated with Dato’ Dr. Abdul Kadir bin Taib, Deputy Direc- GIS. But where is the data? It is an analogous situation of having an excellent classroom tor General of Survey and Mapping, Malaysia | Aki A. Yamaura, Sr. Vice President, Asuka structure, with table, chairs, fans, blackboard, duster, chalks and pin board which has DBJ Partners, Japan | Amitabha Pande, Secre- the moral stories pinned up, but no lively students. tary, Inter-State Council, Government of India The annual SDI festival of India, the 6th NSDI Conference, which took place last June | Bhupinder Singh, Sr. Vice President, Bentley | in Goa, had most of the NMOs present to discuss the future road map of the much Systems Inc., USA Bob Morris, President, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging,USA | BVR awaited NSDI for India. 67 representatives from about 12 government data producing Mohan Reddy, Chairman and Managing Direc- departments in India had gathered for the sixth time in almost seven years, to deliber- tor, Infotech Enterprises Ltd., India | David ate upon the status of national SDI. Rather than talking about what their organisation Maguire, Director, Products, Solutions and | had done for NSDI, most of the NMOs gave an overview of their activities during the International, ESRI, USA Frank Warmerdam, President, OSGeo, USA | Prof. Ian Dowman, last year. What is alarming is the availability and access of data between the govern- President, ISPRS, UK | Prof. Josef Strobl, Direc- ment departments. For example the soil data required by forest survey has been a long tor, Centre for Geoinformatics, University of story with 'soil survey' failing to interpret whether they are on the right side of the law, Salzburg, Austria | Kamal K Singh, Chairman if they provide the asked datasets to ‘forest survey’. and CEO, Rolta Group of Companies, India | Prof. Karl Harmsen, Director, UNU-INRA How can the availability of spatial data from soil survey department for forest depart- | Marc Tremblay, Vice President, Commercial ment be a concern to 'National Security'? It was suggested that New Mapping Policy has Business Unit, DigitialGlobe, USA | Mark to be understood to further proceed with providing data to another government organ- Reichardt, President and Chief Operating Offi- cer, OGC, USA | Prof. Martien Molenaar, Rec- isation. Why can't we have specific mapping law, at least for the government inter- tor, ITC, The Netherlands | Matthew O’Connell, departmental data exchange? Why do we make the policies which become a subject of CEO, GeoEye, USA | Prof. Michael Blakemore, interpretation? Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of As far as the private sector is concerned they will have to continue with the empty Durham, UK | Dr. Milan Konecny, President, International Cartographic Association, Czech classroom syndrome for some more time to come. Better still, they can take solace from Republic | Er. Mohammed Abdulla Al-Zaffin, RS Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founderof NIIT group: “Ignore impediments, let the time Director, GIS Centre, Dubai Municipality, UAE pass...!”. | Dr. Prithvish Nag, Director, NATMO, India | Maybe it is time for us to graduate our demand from “Data Ownership” to “Data Rajesh C. Mathur, President, ESRI India | Robert M Samborski, Excutive Director, GITA, Access”, as put across by Rajesh Mathur, President, NIIT GIS. USA | Prof. Stig Enemark, President, FIG, Den- For sure, when the new baby called 'Easy Access to Spatial Data', comes into the pic- mark | Prof. V. S Ramamurthy, Chairman, IIT, ture, it will have to do with lot of nanny rules: Data Standards, Interoperability and Delhi, India Ethics. It will miss out the evolution of the geospatial data social framework. “”

GIS DEVELOPMENT | AUGUST 2007 Vol. 11 Issue 8 7 News: APPLICATIONS 1 2 3 4

these maps, based on data borne Synthetic Aperture sensing survey conducted from ESA’s ENVISAT satel- Radar (SAR) instruments by Hamilton Hycroft Ener- lite, will lead to better can deliver soil moisture gy Inc (HHE), four copper weather and extreme-event data of high spatial (one mineralized anomalous Mapping soil forecasting, such as floods km) and temporal (less zones have been identified moisture helps and droughts. Despite its than one week) resolution. on its newly acquired weather monitoring importance for agricultural The project team com- research permits in the South Africa: The first soil planning and weather fore- bines expertise in soil Democratic Republic of moisture maps with a spa- casting, there has been a moisture remote sensing Congo (DRC). For this sur- tial resolution of one km lack of soil moisture infor- from Vienna University of vey, HHE applied the mation in Africa because of Technology with specialists Infrared Imaging Spectrom- the high costs of in-situ in hydro-meteorological eter (IRIS) technology using measurement networks. In applications from Universi- hyperspectral images addition, unlike satellite ty of KwaZulu-Natal in Dur- which can recognize and observations, point-based ban, South Africa. map particular type of veg- measurements are often etation or diagnose miner- not sufficient to provide an als associated with ore overall picture over large deposits. areas that may be effective- Certain zones in the area ly used in models. The ESA- exactly coincide with backed SHARE (Soil Mois- El Nino completes RS known and confirmed cop- ture for Hydrometeorologi- Survey over research per artisanal workings and cal Applications in the permits in DRC other areas confirm the are available online for the Southern African Develop- Canada: El Niño Ventures geological interpretation of entire South African sub- ment Community Region) Inc., an exploration stage the same areas by the com- continent. As soil moisture project, funded through the company, has announced pany. plays an important role in ESA’s Data User Element, that, based on the prelimi- The remote sensing sur- the global water cycle, demonstrates that space- nary report of a remote vey will be followed up by Google Earth helps uncover tax fraud

Argentina: The Country’s tax authorities are using Google Earth to track down fraud. According to Buenos Aires province tax official Santiago Montoya, images of properties from the sky can help square the actual size of properties with that eQuote... declared by taxpayers to make sure the proper amount of taxes is being paid. Existing proper- Google Earth- friend of the tax-man and the ty maps were superimposed in Google Earth to bane of property tax evaders. Google Earth has been used again for a search and catch reveal the changes. The online Google Earth operation this time by Argentinian tax authori- service is also being used to check if taxpayers ties. I remember mentioning earlier that your shelter will draw the tax-man and now the may have expanded their homes in ways that only way to give him the slip may be by would increase their value for taxation. underground activities... where Google Earth cannot reach – at least not yet.

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/ezine/weekly/july3007.htm

8 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 1 2 3 4

Satellite images link urban growth with changing rainfall patterns

The study published in the July (Landsat) Program for more than online issue of the journal Global 30 years. Environmental Change, showed Seto and her colleagues ana- that inclusion in an international lyzed satellite imagery and found environmental agreement did not that urban areas in the Pearl River USA: Satellite images have been significantly improve the health of Delta, China, increased more than used to demonstrate a link a coastal mangrove habitat in a 300 percent from 1988 to 1996. In between rapid city growth and wetland preserve in Vietnam. In the Journal of Climate study, the rainfall patterns, as well as to another study published on May researchers compared this rapid assess compliance with an inter- 15 in the Journal of Climate, the urban growth with monthly tem- national treaty to protect wet- researchers found that rapid perature and precipitation data lands. The results have been pub- urban growth has caused drier from 16 meteorological stations. lished in two studies co-authored winters in the Pearl River Delta of Their analysis revealed a direct by Karen Seto, Assistant Professor China. Both findings are based on correlation between the rapid of geological and environmental an analysis of satellite images of growth of cities and a decrease in sciences and a fellow at the Woods Vietnam and China, which NASA rainfall during the winter dry sea- Institute for the Environment at has been collecting through its sons from 1988 to 1996. Stanford University. Land Remote-Sensing Satellite

an airborne geophysical mapping service, the Com- their workplaces, or their ArcWeb services survey and a ground mission for Environmental schools. They can learn for West Nile prospecting programme Cooperation's map layer about the pollution profile Virus information followed by a drilling cam- plots over 33,000 North of each facility, including management paign of the best copper American industrial facili- which pollutants are gener- USA: The Ada County, Ida- occurrences. ties that reported releases ated and how the facility ho, Weed, Pest, and Mosqui- and transfers of pollutants handles them. to Abatement District is Google Earth in 2004, the most recent Information used in the using ESRI's ArcWeb Ser- layer maps air data available from all mapping tool comes from vices to map the results of pollutants three countries. publicly accessible “pollu- mosquito testing for West Mexico: The environmental tant release and transfer Nile virus (WNV) and deliv- officials of Canada, Mexico registers,” or PRTRs, main- er the information to the and US have collaboratively tained separately by the public. launched initiative on three North American The data is uploaded in tracking air pollution in countries: the National Pol- the surveillance database North America. The three lutant Release Inventory by the district officials and countries have introduced (NPRI) in Canada, the Reg- ESRI takes care of map data an interactive Google Earth istro de Emisiones y Trans- updates and hardware mapping tool, which will ferencias de Contami- maintenance. expand public access to nantes (RETC) in Mexico, ESRI also hosts the dis- information on air pollu- The tool allows viewers and the Toxics Release trict's custom data through tants. to find industrial facilities Inventory (TRI) in the Unit- managed services. Access to Using the Google Earth located near their homes, ed States. the site is through the Mos-

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 9 News: APPLICATIONS 1 2 3 4

quito Tracker link at project is to produce a dis- ty lines across the city in www.adaweb.net. persion model for Guwa- the next three months. And An interactive map hati. The amount of sulphur will incorporate GIS to demonstrates results of dioxide, carbon monoxide, monitor them along with mosquito trap testing at 40 Satellite imagery respirable particulate mat- the recently prepared digi- sites around the county based project to ter, suspended particulate tised map of the city roads, that surrounds Boise city. evaluate ecology matter and nitrogen diox- a network of around 2,800 Online visitors can inter- India: A new project spon- ide would be recorded. kms. actively display an instant sored by the ISRO has The study has produced a The software, to be map overview of areas recently been launched large-scale map based on designed, will also be used where concentrations of with an aim to reveal the satellite imagery of the to keep track of the work mosquitoes occur, whether environmental reality of entire district, which con- carried out on each road trapped mosquitoes carry Kamrup district of Guwa- tains all the important nat- and information.With the WNV, and if appropriate, hati state. In two years, the ural and man-made struc- mapping of utility lines and where mosquito-control mission would attempt to tures. In the next few a GIS in place, the PMC will activities are taking place. use satellite imagery and months a digital elevation have detailed information The map background dis- ground-based observation model of Kamrup would be on the number of utility plays as a satellite image, to arrive at number of con- prepared based on LISS 3 lines on any particular road street map, a combination clusions regarding the data from ISRO. and their exact under- of the two, or a thematic land-use pattern, surface ground location. The PMC is map that incorporates water quality of large water PMC to map utilities starting off by mapping United States census results bodies, and air pollution at India: The Pune Municipal electricity cable network according to ZIP Code select points of the district. Corporation (PMC) has and telephone cable net- boundary. The major aim of the decided to map all the utili- work.

USGS documents Alaska coastal erosion

USA: Using Landsat data and topographic maps compiled from aerial photographs, scientists have found that land loss in the study area north of Teshekpuk Lake in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve more than doubled from 1985 - 2005 as compared to the 30-year span from 1955 - 1985. Analysis of these spatial images found that some areas have undergone as much as 0.9 km of coastal erosion in the past 50 years, which has drained and re-flooded arctic lakes with sea water, and impacted wildlife and human infrastructure. The report, titled "Quantitative Remote Sensing Study USGS images of Alaska's coast during each time incre- Indicates Doubling of Coastal Erosion Rate in Past 50 ment, consolidated to show the net-change in land loss Years along a Segment of the Arctic Coast of Alaska," by and land gain, as well as coastal lake drainage and flood- John Mars and David Houseknecht, can be found on the ing, can be found at the Alaska Coastal Erosion Web site. Geological Society of America Web site.

10 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 1 2 3 4

new, more integrated ways capture system customized of working, which is by ESRI (UK) will be used by Oblique aerial already under way in urban the Centre for Ecology and photography to be areas. Hydrology (CEH) field sur- used in regeneration UK decides to Under the new pro- vey teams across the coun- project launch rural gramme, all primary fea- try to map changes and UK: The oblique aerial pho- mapping tures such as residential, locate fixed vegetation plot tography will be used in programme industrial and transport using real-time GPS. the regeneration of the UK: An improved pro- infrastructure develop- The resulting geodata- 166 sq km region which gramme to update the ments, will continue to be base will integrate with borders the River Thames, most detailed mapping of surveyed within six software from SAS, a as part of the Thames Gate- rural Britain has been months of completion. provider of business intelli- way, a regeneration proj- All areas of Great Britain gence software and servic- ects taking place in West- will be revised in a more es, allowing detailed statis- ern Europe. integrated programme - tical analysis to be carried populated or rapidly chang- out producing a picture of ing rural areas will be how the countryside has revised more frequently changed over the past 30 than earlier, with remote years. areas still being revised at The new GIS is based on least once every ten years. ESRI(UK)'s ArcGIS geodata- Revision intervals may base and integrated with vary according to patterns ArcGIS 9.2 desktop soft- of known change and cus- ware. ESRI (UK) has also tomer need. A varying 2- 10 included a customized year programme of cyclic application of its software By utilising Getmapping’s announced by Ordnance rural revision will maintain specific to the Countryside MultiVision oblique pho- Survey. The key aim of the all secondary features such Survey. tography, Thurrock Thames new programme is to as field boundary changes The information is then Gateway Development improve a process called and small non residential downloaded to the central Corporation (TTGDC) will “cyclic revision” in rural buildings. GIS database at CEH. This is enhance the development areas. This has traditionally linked to CEH's statistical work being carried out in involved systematic aerial Countryside analysis via SAS software to the region and communi- photography “sweeps” at Survey goes produce a representative cate with residents to intervals of either five or digital picture of whole country. improve the quality of life ten years. The scheduling of UK: This year's Countryside This will improve the in Thurrock. sweeps will now move Survey (an environmental quality of data captured by The MultiVision oblique away from a purely cyclic audit of the UK country- reducing the time and photography provided by basis to one led chiefly by side) is expected to provide effort required to process Getmapping Plc, shows aer- intelligence on landscape a complete picture of the information for analy- ial views of Thurrock from change. change to the UK's natural sis and by preserving and four different orientations Physical changes across environment. A new GIS enforcing data quality rules with a 3D perspective. This more than 220,000 square from ESRI (UK) which at the point of capture in added information will km of rural, mountain and enables digital field map- the field. assist the TTGDC in produc- moorland landscapes will ping of landscape change of The results of the survey ing master plans and devel- be collected in line with countryside will be used. will be published in opment guides for key currency levels based on A field-based GIS data autumn 2008. areas and sites.

GIS DEVEL- AUGUST 2007 OPMENT News: PRODUCT 1 2 3 4

ISRO to launch Google Maps Russia. Finally! Israeli spy satellite India: ISRO is planning to “Until very recently, it was es all across the country. as to say full, mature launch an Israeli spy satel- a 'crime' to produce and dis- However, the Russian map Google map treatment. It's lite from Sriharikota. The tribute overly detailed seems to be exclusively in not clear as to why some launch is expected to cost maps of Russia,” acknowl- Cyrillic script. approximately $15 million. edges the Moscow Times. The Russian Experts say that Israel And not to forget the fact government opted for the that Russia was amongst issued a direc- Indian PSLV many countries to discour- tive in May this for two rea- age availability of such geo- year that effec- sons: It dis- graphical details to the tively lifted all plays Israel's public, when Google Earth of the old confidence in was launched in 2005, as it restrictions on the Indian might lead to security access to "pre- rocket over its threat. cise geographi- own Shavit Now one can find them cal data." rocket, which all online with Google's The Russian has run into launch of its Russia Map version of Google Maps several opera- service, showing the loca- was launched on July 5 cities get a proper grid tional prob- tions of and providing with only major cities map with street names, lems. Second- directions to people look- including Moscow get while others get just a ly, the Israeli ing for places or business- building outlines etc., or so satellite image. defence ministry has laid down new SPOT satellite Image company acquired Autodesk introduces orbital imagery the data from the two satel- geospatial solutions requirements coverage of lites: SPOT-2 and SPOT-4, for asset management for TechSar Russia performing continuous USA: Autodesk has launched which Shavit Russia: ScanEx R&D Center imagery of the entire Russ- Autodesk MapGuide Enter- could not pro- has acquired high resolu- ian territory beginning prise 2008 and Autodesk vide. The new requirements tion satellite images of the March 2006 at a resolution Topobase are aimed at giving TechSar entire Russian territory of 17 of 10 m in panchromatic 2008 soft- a wider coverage area. million square km. and 20 m in multispectral ware Once in orbit, the India- ScanEx in asoociation band. products, launched Israeli satellite with the French SPOT The images are acquired two will be controlled by the by the network of universal geospatial Israeli defence ministry. If ground receiving stations software the mission succeeds, it will of ScaEx Center in Moscow, that provide organizations be the second spy satellite Irkutsk and Magadan. Also a platform to share loca- launched by India. colour mosaics were used to tion, design and enterprise The first one was India's create the footprint of information across depart- own Technology Experi- Moscow Region using the ments. Autodesk MapGuide ment Satellite (TES), which IRS 5.8 m resolution Enterprise 2008 builds on was carried by the PSLV in imagery in the New Kos- Autodesk's support for October 2001. mosnimki project. open source software. As

12 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 1 2 3 4

the central component of BAE mapping users to work with data Autodesk geospatial solu- software over secure networks for tion, Autodesk MapGuide integrates with accurate, timely analysis. Enterprise software utilises Google Earth The application also sup- the Internet to deliver up- USA: SOCET GXP v2.3 of BAE ports the National Geospa- to-date asset and infra- Systems’ image analysis tial-Intelligence Agency’s structure information. and mapping software additional tools for detect- Spatially Enabled Exploita- Additionally, Topobase integrates with Google ing changes from one day tion initiative to standard- 2008, includes a new cus- Earth and the ESRI geodata- to the next, analysts can ize image data formats for tomised module for the gas base thus enabling analysts anticipate conditions such optimal information shar- industry, incorporates to evaluate and share intel- as rough terrain or col- ing across global networks. Autodesk MapGuide Enter- ligence data. lapsed bridges and pinpoint The application produces prise and AutoCAD Map 3D SOCET GXP v2.3 interacts operational routes more image graphics using a 2008 software capabilities with Google Earth in real accurately. ground coordinate system to help utilities' planning, time, provides 3D colour It also provides a direct that records latitude, longi- engineering and operation visualization and gives connection to ESRI's geo- tude, and elevation data, personnel make better deci- geospatial context to database, its common data eliminating the need for sions based on a holistic objects of interest, resulting storage and management manual registration. understanding of their in enhanced intelligence framework. Connection SOCET GXP v2.3 is avail- infrastructure assets. for mission planning. With with the database allows able on Microsoft Windows

TerraLook by NASA & USGS

USA: TerraLook is a collection of JPEG simulated natural colour images should images created from Advanced Space- be easy to grasp by a wide range of users. borne Thermal Emission and Reflection It will help serve users to explore the data Radiometer (ASTER) images from the and employ it for useful purposes in a NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active variety of disciplines including conserva- Archive Center, and Tri-Decadal Global tion, development planning, education,

Landsat Orthorectified images from the urban studies, disaster planning and The collection contains images of the Gulf of Fonseca, Rondonia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Iguazu. The image below, document the USGS. response, and others. changes near the confluence of the lguazu and Parana Rivers, which seperate Aragentina, Brazil, and Paraguay The algorithm used to process the Ter- The TerraLook JPEG images are com- LANDSAT MSS LANDSAT TM raLook images permits the creation of a pressed about 12:1, which makes them 23 FEB 1973 19 Apr 1989 visually consistent time series from the quick to download and the user can be earliest Landsat satellite to the currently built with images for Circa 1975, 1990, orbiting ASTER and Landsat sensors. 2000 and the present from Landsat MSS, TerraLook is a collaborative project that Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+ and ASTER provides access to satellite images for satellite sensors respectively. users that lack prior experience with TerraLook Collections for use in the remote sensing or GIS technology. These Viewer can be selected and ordered free LANDSAT ETM+ TERRA ASTER 6 JUL 2000 17 SEP 2003 images are designed for visual interpreta- of cost. These images can be viewed in tion and display, and are of value to any- any program that can open JPEG images one who wants to see the changes to the like a web browers, word processors, and Earth's surface over the last 30 years. The graphic software.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 13 News: PRODUCT 1 2 3 4

AgroWatch's line of products from DigitalGlobe

USA: AgroWatch, a trademark of shows variations across a field or High resolution QuickBird, IKONOS DigitalGlobe, is a line of products region, the extent and severity of or SPOT-5 Satellite Image data can that uses high resolution satellite problems affecting vegetative be collected in support of Agricul- imagery to produce green vegeta- growth, and where to sample. ture Management, developing tion maps to aid in identifying spe- Soil Zone Index map is a quantita- TreeGrading Maps to reveal the cific problem areas to help farmers tive and calibrated map generated location and extent of each tree and growers to make farming deci- each time satellite image data is canopy determined by sions. These maps includes: collected. These maps indicate using a propri- Green Vegetation Index maps are soil's surface moisture, texture, etary spectral the color-coded maps that depict organic matter and other vis- algorithm. the quantity of green vegetation, ible characteristics. It can be variations in vegetation density used in case of optimal soil and general plant health. These sampling strategies, shifting maps, using remote sensing tech- crops to more suitable zones, nology from high resolution satel- determining which production lite images like QuickBird, IKONOS practices are best for the soil and and SPOT-5, are calibrated using visualize surface patterns that crops and special developed spec- affect plant health. tral algorithms are applied to sepa- The TreeGrading product provides rate the reflectance of vegetation an assessment of each individual from variation caused by underly- tree in an orchard to help growers ing soils or water. It quantitatively manage trees for top production.

and UNIX Solaris 8, 9, and pre-defined neighborhood for income, Financial AnySite Financial display 10 operating systems and segments, or clusters, Assets & Wealth data, and analytics solution to per- supports ground space which provide accurate detailed models of purchas- form advanced analysis of graphics for a wide range of descriptions of household ing behaviours derived target customer data and government and commer- financial characteristics from tens of millions of cus- trade areas. cial sources. and behaviours. The clus- tomer accounts from finan- ters contain variables such cial institutions. When Leica TITAN enhanced PB MapInfo introduces as economic status, income, paired with a bank’s exist- with Geospatial Financial PSYTE occupation, and the types ing sales records, campaign Instant Messenger USA: PB MapInfo has of financial products and histories and survey data, USA: Leica TITAN’s Geospa- unveiled its Financial PSYTE services consumers would Financial PSYTE enables tial Instant Messenger is a geodemographic segmen- purchase. users to visually analyze gateway for sharing, pub- tation system designed to PB MapInfo creates its customers based on factors lishing and serving local enhance financial institu- catalog of income, asset such as demographic and geospatial data to Google tions’ target marketing ini- and credit variables from lifestyle attributes, and Earth. Using the Messenger, tiatives, market analysis the latest U.S. Census data, media and consumption images, terrain and feature and branch location stud- combined with proprietary preferences. In addition, data shared in Leica TITAN ies. Financial PSYTE divides data including U.S. Financial PSYTE integrates may also be viewed directly the U.S. population into 14 Estimates & Projections with the PB MapInfo in Google Earth.

14 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 1 2 3 4

USGS to make instructions on how to ArcGIS Online topographic reproduce the featured from ESRI maps available effects on their own maps. USA: ArcGIS Online pro- in GeoPDF In addition to sample map vides a series of 2D map USA: The USGS is using the section with associated services and 3D globe serv- GeoPDF format to make its descriptions of special car- ices that ArcGIS users can primary base series quad- tographic effects, Mapping combine with their local rangle maps available Center visitors will find data to support their GIS Leica TITAN is a solution online. other resources including work. These services can be for discovering, viewing, The initial project, started Blogs and ArcGIS resources. accessed with any ArcGIS sharing and retrieving by the US Army Corps of application, including geospatial and location- Engineers, involved con- Trimble enhances ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS based content in a single, verting more than 60,000 Fieldport Desktop, and ArcGIS Server. secure environment. USA: Trimble has intro- ArcGIS Online basemaps With the base data produced field revision man- and reference layers are vided by Google Earth, agement and GIS redlining cartographically authored users may view and inte- capabilities for its Trimble grate large volumes of Fieldport software. Trimble geospatial data. The Google Fieldport software is a Web- Earth capability can also based, wireless software consume an OGC Web Map- suite for utility field service ping Service (WMS) pub- management and location- lished sharing geospatial USGS Digital Raster Graph- based mobile mapping. data in Leica TITAN. ics to GeoPDF files. With the addition of these Once maps are down- capabilities, workers can Leica releases Radar loaded, users can view, use text and graphics to Mapping Suite for manipulate and update note field conditions that TerraSAR-X images maps via Adobe Reader are different from those USA: Leica Geosystems with or without an Internet indicated on maps in the and support multiple-scale Geospatial Imaging connection or access to GIS. GIS. Comments are imme- display. ArcGIS Online announced the develop- diately available to other basemaps can be used as ment of a TerraSAR-X pro- ESRI launches field crews accessing the background or overlay lay- cessing capability for Mapping Center GIS and the annotations are ers for locally created and ERDAS IMAGINE Radar USA: ESRI has launched submitted electronically to maintained datasets. Mapping Suite 9.1. Mapping Center, a web site those responsible for main- ArcGIS Online currently The new Radar mapping that helps users learn about taining mapping system. includes a collection of 2D suite will allow users to dis- cartographic concepts and The new features also basemaps and 3D globes, play and manipulate practices for mapmaking include advanced workflow such as satellite imagery images captured by the Ter- with ArcGIS. management capabilities. for the world and a histori- raSAR-X satellite which The site is designed to Now work orders can be cal world map from the was launched recently. The provide quick answers to generated automatically to David Rumsey collection. Synthetic Aperture Radar mapmaking problems. Site streamline the process of Under the beta program, (SAR) satellite, transmits X- visitors will find informa- repairing and maintaining users can connect to and band radar images which tion and sample maps dis- field assets. The identity of use all content. Combining also has capability to pene- playing a variety of carto- user submitting change, user content with ArcGIS trate cloud cover requiring graphic techniques and time and other details are Online enables the ArcGIS few ground control points. effects along with tips and also tracked automatically. users to author maps.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 15 News: Business 1 2 3

Orion announces computerised and country- images throughout Ger- Tibaijuka and the Interna- partnership with wide mining cadastre sys- many and rest of Europe. tional Institute for Geo- TOWER Software tem for Nigeria. Complementing their Information Science and Canada: Orion Technology The project aims to suite of services and soft- Earth Observation (ITC) rec- Inc. has announced a part- improve governance in the ware solutions with uni- tor Prof. Martien Molenaar nership with TOWER Soft- mining sector, through the form, high-quality digital signed an agreement relat- ware. TOWER Software will elevation models from ing to cooperation in the utilize Orion’s web-GIS soft- Intermap will enable GAF fields of capacity develop- ware solution OnPoint, to AG to provide even greater ment, training & research. expand their solution capa- value to their customers. “Information as a bilities. resource for faster and TOWER’s TRIM Context Rolta buys Orion smarter decision making solution for enterprise con- Technology but also information for cit- tent management allows India: Rolta India Ltd. has izens and organisations, organizations to respond to announced the signing of and information that business change, making an agreement to acquire informs the processes of informed decisions based establishment of a trans- Orion Technology, a Cana- urban governance in a on documents, records, parent system to grant, dian software and integra- wider sense is sorely need- imaging, and work flows manage and cancel per- tion company specializing ed....” said Prof. Molenaar. within an organization. mits. in enterprise web-GIS Orion’s OnPoint allows The project activities solutions. 1Spatial make organisations to bring include set-up of the new While the deal size was acquisitions in together spatial and non- computerized mining not disclosed, Rolta expects Ireland & spatial data under one win- cadastre in Nigeria, train- to generate around $100 Scotland dow to enable effective ing, database generation million (around Rs 410 UK: 1Spatial has announced decision making. and institutional strength- crore) over the next three to the acquisition of Proteus Thus by using Orion’s ening. five years by integrating Solutions Limited and OnPoint web-GIS solution, A key component is the the acquired technologies. IME UK Limited on the TOWER Software will design and development of As a wholly-owned sub- 6th July 2007 to form enhance their services per- the computerised mineral sidiary of Rolta, Orion will 1Spatial Ireland and taining to spatial data titling system SIGTIM continue its operations 1Spatial Scotland. access and solution integra- which will be especially under the same name from The three companies have tion, for both their existing conceived for the new min- its headquarters in Canada, successfully worked clients, and for new clients ing law in Nigeria. and will be managed and together over a number of in North America. operated by the Manage- years, particularly on the Intermap signs ment team that is currently Property Registration GAF AG distribution in place. Authority of Ireland. contracted to agreement with The acquisition enables 1Spatial believes that the prepare Mining GAF AG Rolta to own technologies merging of expertise will Cadastre for Germany: Intermap Tech- for taking its GIS offerings ensure that as organisa- Nigeria nologies Corp of USA and to the next level. tions look to make more use Germany: GAF AG, an inter- GAF AG, have signed an from their spatial databas- national geo-information agreement to allow GAF AG UN-Habitat es, share data and build technology company in to immediately begin dis- signs agreement common frameworks and Germany, has announced tributing Intermap’s high- with ITC spatial data infrastructures that it has been awarded a resolution 3D digital eleva- The Netherlands: The Direc- (SDI), 1Spatial will posses contract to set-up a new tion data and geometric tor of UN-Habitat Dr. Anna the skills necessary to man-

16 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

News: Business 1 2 3

age repurpose and distribute spatial data. As part of TeleAtlas Taiwan to be formed the acquisition Seamus Gilroy, Managing Director of Proteus will become The Netherlands: TeleAtlas has Meanwhile, the company also Managing Director of 1Spa- announced its joint venture with Sys- announced that it has signed an agree- tial Ireland and Alan Dou- tems and Technology Corporation (S&T) ment with glas, Managing Director of to form Tele Atlas Taiwan Co., Ltd. The BAKOSUR- IME will take on the role of new company will be an independent TANAL, the Managing Director for 1Spa- entity focused on delivering a complete govern- tial Scotland. digital map of the territory for portable, ment insti- Internet, in-car and wireless navigation tution Ball Aerospace systems and applications. Tele Atlas Tai- responsi- to build wan will integrate Tele Atlas’ advanced ble for cre- Operational map updating processes into its opera- ating and Land Imager tions, including data captured from its maintain- USA: Ball Aerospace & newly deployed mobile mapping van. ing large Technologies Corp. has Through its roof-mounted 360 degree scale geo- been awarded a NASA cameras and laser sensors, the van graphical maps in Indonesia. Under Goddard Space Flight Cen- quickly and efficiently captures informa- the agreement Tele Atlas plans to ter contract to build the tion about a road including lane counts, incorporate BAKOSURTANAL's digital Operational Land Imager speed limits, and other data, giving Tele maps within its existing Indonesia (OLI) for the 8th Landsat Atlas, the information it requires to reg- database by September 2007. Data Continuity Mission. ularly update its maps. The Indonesia map is part of a The OLI instrument pro- The van also collects images of streets, Southeast Asia map solution from vides 15 m panchromatic storefronts, road signs, and complex Tele Atlas that includes extensive and 30m multi-spectral intersections that can be incorporated in coverage of Singapore, Malaysia and Earth-imaging spatial-reso- maps to help users more easily find Thailand. lution capability. locations. BAKOSURTANAL, in its database OLI includes a 185km swath allowing the entire globe to be imaged every 16 days. OLI instrument delivery is slated for Sept. 2010, with launch anticipated in 2011. Ball Aerospace is also competing for the Landsat spacecraft bus. The God- dard Rapid Space Develop- As part of the agreement, Tele contains maps featuring 1:25,000 scale ment Office Landsat Space- Atlas Taiwan will also assume all topographic data for the Java and Bali craft Accommodation study mapping assets of S&T, including the areas and will enhance Tele Atlas' currently underway will existing mapping business that pro- digital map with more detailed result in a Ball Aerospace duces navigable maps and the data pro- navigable street network and point of design that will accommo- duction operation for government and interest (POI) content for major cities date the mission-specific other projects. in Indonesia. requirements.

18 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

News: Miscellaneous 1 2

Michael Goodchild, The qualifications consid- ence, the two individual alog Services - Web (CS/W) Don Cooke to enter ered for an individual or an will be formally conferred 2.0.1; Web Map Context GIS Hall of Fame Organisation to enter the to enter the Hall of fame. (WMC) 1.1.0; and GeoRSS USA: Come this August, Hall of Fame are entirely GML To assist programmers Michael Goodchild (Chair of dependent on their record OGC announces in developing solutions, the executive committee of of contribution in making new automated open source reference the NCGIA and Associate difference to the industry. compliance implementations were Director of the Alexandria These will include creative tests adopted for: WMS 1.3.0; thinking and actions, vision USA: OGC membership has CS/W 2.0.1; and WFS 1.1.0. and innovation, inspiring adopted new test suites, leadership, perseverance test scripts and reference David Schell and acute sense of commu- implementations for receives GeoTech nity belonging. So, in nut OpenGIS Specifications. A Award sell those who is considered new TEAM (Test, Evalua- USA: OGC has informed that

Michael Goodchild Don Cooke as he role-models for a year tion, And Measurement) David Schell, it's founder, qualifies to enter the Fame. Engine and Compliance CEO and Chairman, has Digital Library Project) and In 2005, when the concept Test Language has been received GeoTec Media's Don Cooke( the man behind was introduced, Edgar Hor- adopted as the OGC's offi- first Visionary Achievement the DIME and subsequent wood, Ian McHarg, Roger cial new compliance testing A ward. TIGER files) will enter the Tomlinson, Jack Danger- platform. Test suites adopt- The award is given by GIS Hall of Fame. The Urban mond, Nancy Tosta, and the ed for OpenGIS implemen- GeoTec Media acknowledg- and Regional Information Harvard Lab earned Hall of tation specifications ing an individual's dedica- Systems Association Fame. In the following year include: Web Map Service tion to the technical (URISA) constituted the only Gary Hunter was (WMS) 1.3.0; Web Feature advancement & widespread concept of recognising con- inducted into the Hall of Service (WFS) with Filter use of geospatial technolo- tributions made by individ- Fame. Now this year at the Encoding 1.1.0; Geography gy. GeoTec Media announ- uals worldwide in the opening ceremony of Markup Language (GML) ced the winners of its geospatial sphere in 2005. URISA's 45th annual confer- Simple Features SF 1.0; Cat- Geospatial Leadership

Earth observation benefits highlighted to Parliamentarians

Germany: Parliamentarians from concerned with environmental African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) monitoring and climate change. States visited ESA’s Operation Centre, ESA Director of Operations and ESOC, in Germany, and learned how Infrastructure Gaele Winters pre- satellite data could boost their efforts to sented past and current missions protect their continents. The visit under- as well as space applications for lined the increasing use of space applica- Galileo and GMES (Global Moni- tions for environmental monitoring. toring for Environment and Secu- The group mainly comprised of mem- rity), a European programme that bers of the European Parliament, ACP provides autonomous and inde- Members of Parliament and staff from pendent access to information for the European Commission. They were policy-makers, particularly in briefed on ESA's Earth observation (EO) relation to environment and missions and benefits for governments security.

20 GIS DEVELOPMENT : ASIA PACIFIC AUGUST 2007 1 2

systems with enhanced was selected by an inde- capabilities for environ- pendent panel of judges mental, disaster monitor- and the award was present- ing and security applica- ed at an Ernst & Young tions. The award was pre- Entrepreneur Of The Year sented to Moreira at the gala event at the Ritz-Carl- 2007 IEEE International ton in Tysons Corner, Vir- Geoscience and Remote ginia on June 21, 2007. Sensing Symposium After receiving the David Schell (IGARSS 2007) in Barcelona, award, O'Connell said, Spain, on 25 July. “I owe this award to the Awards in May this year, at Moreira is Director of the men and women of GeoEye its annual GeoTec Event in Microwaves and Radar and it’s a tribute to the dra- Dr. P Nag, Director, NATMO Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Institute at the German The new awards pro- Aerospace Center (DLR) gramme was created to in Oberpfaffenhofen, Ger- It was the first time that a identify and recognize indi- many, and Professor of government agency viduals and organizations Microwave Remote Sensing entered the area of provid- for both vision and achieve- at the University of Karl- ing services to the users ment in the geospatial sruhe, Germany. based on web GIS. As a pre- industry. "David's contribu- He has played an impor- liminary step in this directions toward advancing tant role in the field of tion, the Kolkata Golden geospatial technology rank imaging radar technology Map Service was launched right in line with previous and applications, and is (www.natmomap.in). On Methew O’Connell winners, and his continued considered a leader in the this occasion, a book enti- good work is one of the development of new con- tled Geographical Informa- reasons we decided not to cepts in high-resolution matic growth of the com- tion System : Concept and limit the award to his life- radar processing, image for- mercial remote sensing Business Opportunities was time to date" said Matt Ball, mation and interferometric industry as well.” also released by Jack Dan- GeoWorld Editor and Show techniques for 3D mapping germond, President ESRI. It Manager for the GeoTec of the earth’s surface. NATMO recieves is written by him and Dr Event. award at ESRI UC Smita Sengupta & brought Matthew India: Special Achieve- out by Concept Publishing Imaging Radar O'Connell ment Award in GIS was giv- Company, New Delhi. expert Alberto becomes Ernst en to NATMO during the Moreira receives and Young 27th ESRI Users' Conference Interior Ministry IEEE award Entrepreneur of held in San Diego, Califor- wins ESRI award USA: The IEEE has named the Year nia, US from 18-22 June Bahrain: Interior ministry Alberto Moreira as the USA: GeoEye's President & 2007. of Bahrain has won the spe- recipient of its 2007 Kiyo CEO, Matthew O’Connell In its efforts to turn- cial achievement award Tomiyasu Award, for the has received the Ernst & around the mapping insti- from ESRI. Bahrain was cho- development of synthetic Young Entrepreneur of the tutions in the country, on sen by the ESRI in San Diego aperture radar concepts. Year 2007 award for the the occasion of its Golden out of organizations spe- His work has contributed to Communications category. Jubilee, Dr. P. Nag took ini- cializing in GIS from more the design of high- The Ernst & Young award tiative to launch the new than 80 countries at its resolution airborne and recognizes best entrepre- activities. One of which was annual ESRI International spaceborne imaging radar neurs. Matthew O'Connell the Golden Map Service. Conference 2007.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 21 Perspective NIIT: Sculpting Indian Geospatial Industry

training in India some 20 years ago. Pawar, founded NIIT in he contemporary Indian Geospatial industry the early 80's has been evolving at a favourable pace. It is with a vision that being supported by a well-established state of someone had to Tthe art infrastructure for geospatial imagery, data, software, use the comput- services and business growth opportunities. Skilled profession- ers that were als, who are trained at par with global standards, are required in being manufac- large numbers in specialised fields like image processing, photo tured. This led to image interpretation, map making and also for providing end the idea that the to end solutions using geospatial technologies. potential users neede to be trained. This linear thought process changed the way training and education was being The level of awareness about the the industry is spreading conducted in India at that time. through government and private sectors, where new appli- The mission statement 'bringing people and computers cations and solutions are being developed. India, off late, has together', signalled the beginning of the journey and turned become the geospatial outsourcing hub and since the Indian the face of Indian IT industry in the years to come. This GIS companies have a strong IT industry background, was all happening at a time when it was not a norm for any this gives them an edge in terms of developing software private institution to get into the domain of training and products or customization of the products with specific education. applications. These companies are extending their markets In the words of R S Pawar,“the numbers were much bigger from providing products to providing enterprise geospatial than our estimates, but a risk surfaced over a period of time solutions and services for the global market. NIIT GIS which which we were not prepared for initially. Will the society has been a frontrunner in the Indian Geospatial industry has accept profit out of education? But the plan did not change, a long history that is closely linked with the evolution of GIS we had to build talent, people had to be trained and the work in India. had to be done. In our mind, profit was less important."

NIIT: THE GENESIS THE MANTRA OF SUCCESS NIIT is one of the institutions which has produced thousands "For NIIT, rules were non-existent, we laid down the rules" of IT professionals, who cater to the needs of the world's lead- said Pawar. NIIT started a unique initiative and hence, rules ing IT companies. The professionals have been the back bone had to be laid down. It created an industry based on those of the IT revolution in India, which has in turn led to the rules. He recalls, "we wonder if we wouldn't have allowed growth of IT infrastructure. Led by a visionary Rajendra S competition, the industry wouldn't have flourished. Many Pawar, Chairman and Co-founder of NIIT, began computer people got involved in this industry and it got legitimized.

22 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 Also the competition kept everybody Ignore impediments - on their toes, which was very impor- “ tant. Anything which is monopolistic Let the time pass... can become unrealistic and eventually unsustainable." Said R.S.Pawar, when he was asked by Maneesh Prasad of GIS Development, "It is to the credit of NIIT that from day about the impediments being faced by the GIS Industry. ” one we wanted to be current and hence Below are some the time pass. Once there layers of information we were building curriculum and not of the points he made was a time when you requested. responding to it", Pawar said. NIIT also on the evolution of NIIT couldn't run GIS on stand- It is no longer required to and GIS in India. alone system, then it came download the data on the introduced software programming, on desktop, and now it can desktop run application fourth generation languages, Artificial Q. NIIT has created man- be done over the internet. software to obtain a solu- Intelligence etc., which were taught for power for IT. Why isn't Now, we have moved to tion. In other words, it is NIIT - ESRI making a simi- the enterprise level where not necessary to own the first time in the country. Experience lar kind of investment in it does not matter at what the data. was a key issue that had to be education in GIS? level of enterprise you are Policy decides what data addressed. In order to train people, NIIT A. It is not that the thought situated. can be accessed and by whom depending on the created a consulting and software busi- has not crossed our minds. So, we just have to let It is just that the numbers the passage of time for the application. Technology is ness, where the faculty members were required to train are very computer power & cost to present but the clarity on not only engaging themselves in train- small, relative to the IT connectivity to reach a what has to be done with the information layers has ing but also consulting. The software learners. To train a person point where full function- in GIS, the investment is so ality can be implemented to be decided. By having business benefited from education and large that for students it in a seamless way. We only technology and no in turn, talent and education benefited will not be viable. Hence, have already reached to policy you cannot do anything. It just sits in a box. from relevant software business expe- at ESRI India, we train the that level and as the time customer, when they have progresses, the economic riences. purchased the software. & technical issues have to Q: How does it feel to We train them in our class- be resolved. The process of look back NIIT - ESRI: THE VENTURE room environment, for a data acquisition is of con- A: Things look great in specific duration where cern here. However, power retrospect, when we look The relationship of NIIT and ESRI dates basic to advanced func- is coming into our reach at succeeding in our back to 1994 and before. It started with tionalities of GIS are and eventually we will be venture. IDM, which was acquired from HCL by taught in their respective able to solve problems in domain. In this way, we real time. NIIT in 1994. Geomatics was an impor- teach them how to use tant area of interest for NIIT, which softwares as well as how Q. Would you like to they realised when they started work- they can implement them suggest something to the to add value to their day to Indian government on its ing on CAD, CAM and GIS projects, day work. It is basically map data policy? which were thought to be the funda- service oriented training. A. Today you need a pol- Talent creation is done mental technologies for India's devel- icy that allows access to by helping NIIT GIS stu- data not the data. Data is opment. dents to get recruitment in for scientists and IDM was responsible for providing Survey of India for train- researchers not for the ing. It has to be noted that Geomatics products, which had appli- common man. Nowadays the business model for the enterprise solution will cations in areas like pavement design, IT is not the same as GIS. not only give mining design, engineering projects In case of GIS, we have access to the met the demands and cre- like ship building, etc. During 1996- data but ated the need by indirect will also 1997 ESRI discussed not just the future methods. add val- plans but also the directions of the ear- ue to it, Q. What according to you lier plans with NIIT. That was the time in the is the impediment which form when it was decided to restructure the we need to overcome to of ESRI- NIIT relationship and start a full make GIS the future of all fledged company around GIS technolo- applications? Rajendra S Pawar gy. On 13th November 1996, the compa- A. More than the impedi- Chairman and Co-founder ment we have to just let NIIT

AUGUST 2007 “ I wish I were 20 years younger

his is how Rajesh C Mathur of availability of the digital data for any but also on other aspects of GIS. ”The NIIT-ESRI thinks when he looks region was scarce, which continued till idea is to create awareness about GIS Tback at the evolution of Geospa- the mid-90's. In the late 90's, some of and related technologies. We organise tial Industry in India. Below are the pilot projects, if not becoming an an Annual User Conference, where the excerpts from his conversation, with enterprise, got extended. A few nation- users share their work. Here, not only Maneesh Prasad and Dr Satyaprakash. wide projects, like NRIS by the Depart- the ideas are shared but the work ment of Space was launched and some is also presented and issues are Evolution of GIS Industry in India other projects were initiated. discussed. In the formative stages, the emphasis In India, we launched Senior Execu- was more on capacity building and GIS market tive Seminar in 2007 and we are plan- data creation. GIS, in India, started in India is becoming a hub of geospatial ning to launch a Developer's Summit the mid 80's, when the government services outsourcing. For NIIT-ESRI, US too. We have also started targeting organisations and the research institu- is a huge market, although most of the companies involved in tions started doing pilot projects. work is of data conversion. Some proj- data conver- The initial stages saw capacity build- ects in the area of insurance, retail sion, for ing through training and skill develop- warehousing has been initiated. upgrading ments through research projects. Many In India, the government is the their infra- universities and IIT's, setup GIS labs, largest customer and there is a signifi- structure either to train the students in the new cant market for enterprise solutions and for pro- technology or to do research. where end-to-end solutions are provid- viding train- However, the focus of the projects ed, which is called as System Integra- ing and sup- were more on the data creation rather tion (SI). Although very few organisa- port. We cre- than analysis. This was because the tions have done SI, but as we see the ate market, US and Europe are already into SI through their projects in Telecom “Earlier GIS and LBS. Asia Pacific region is getting ready for this to happen and India was used as a will be the most excitin place in tool, but now it is times to come.

moving towards Initiatives to promote GIS in India GIS enabled NIIT-ESRI has taken several application from steps to promote GIS. We have always been involved Rajesh C Mathur GIS centric in imparting training. President The training is designed not NIIT GIS application” only to train on ESRI products

24 GIS DEVELOPMENT awareness about GIS among the ny was founded as a joint venture of decision makers in various govern- NIIT and ESRI. In the initial period, they There was a ment departments. were only providing products. Later on, “ Another initiative is the donation they diversified into customisation and knowledge gap of software and infrastructures to finally started undertaking projects to universities. We are also working provide solutions. on the user towards an initiative where NIIT will train 5 million students in 5 years EARLIER GIS PROJECTS side. This linear time and we will give the ArcGIS - NIIT GIS, earlier the Engineering and thought process ArcView software at $100, per Geomatics division of NIIT (now NIIT license for one year to the students. GIS), has always been involved with changed the NIIT has always believed in cus- the promotion of GIS software through tomer relationship management. the sale of ESRI products as well as pro- way training and We provide software but also the viding training and consultancy to dif- education is solutions and services and train peo- ferent government and private organi- ple as well. This is very important for sations. conducted in a user as it keep them involved with It was somewhere around the late us in the long term. 90's when the utility segment realised India the importance of GIS and that is when GIS and Education our involvement began. Thereafter, Students who want to be good GIS started gaining momentum from the oped are based on standards, making” professionals, need to be good soft- later part of the past decade. them robust, scalable and extensible. ware developers as well. It wasn't But these applications should also be the requirement earlier but now it is TODAY interoperable and integrable. Interop- mandatory. This also is a sign that From the data creation days to the days erability is the key to enterprise GIS and GIS is becoming an integral part of of satellite images on your desktop, GIS its growth. Hence, the requirement the mainstream IT. has come a long way in India. However, today, is the creation of right kind of GIS in India is still confused with the tools which not only have technologi- Data to Data Access Location Based Services. For a common cal depth but are also available across In the early days, GIS was a personal man, GIS was analogous to GPS or platforms. productivity tool and data was need- Google Earth - however, today the The shift in applications types has ed at the user's desktop. Things have awareness has increased. “Earlier GIS also led to a change in the Business moved from desktop to enterprise was used as a tool, but now it is moving Model. Companies have moved from and we have the concept of thick towards GIS enabled application from being simply product centric organiza- servers and thin clients. At present, GIS centric application”. tion to becoming solution providers. the possession of data is not This has led to a shift towards "Busi- NIIT GIS has also moved the same way required. Data and applications can ness GIS" and is being integrated in and is therefore, moving up the value reside at the server and using a web the mainstream IT. GIS and geospatial chain by developing new markets in browser, the user can access the data have moved to the back-end the field of data modeling, i.e., the data, add his own layers and can while, it is the application, which has design of data models for the customer. even prepare the report. This is a dis- taken the center-stage. All this has led Rajesh Mathur, aptly sums up the NIIT tributed geoprocessing environment to the integration of GIS with main- GIS business model - "We have adopted where access to data will be con- stream IT. the consultant model where NIIT GIS trolled, depending upon the user. The application development has also will not only provide the software but The security concerns for the data moved from proprietary language to also train people and help them in should be taken care of by restricting open development platform. Now, the developing project and applications", the access and free availability. applications which are being devel- Rajesh Mathur of NIIT GIS, said.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 25 Ethics The Place of E Spatial Inform

SSI's Professional Certification program. The challenge facing the SSI at the outset was to establish rules to guarantee that all members of the Institute would meet the highest standards of ethical professional behaviour whether they had been professionally certified or not. The SSI met this challenge in a number of ways. Firstly, the SSI embedded a Code of Ethics in its Constitution as a pre-requisite for joining. Secondly, the SSI established a professional certification scheme to recognise the professional standing of members joining from the founding professional associations and to provide a pathway to pro- ic region. The very first action of the SSI fessional certification for all other Over the last four years in back in 2003 was to create a Code of members. Finally, the SSI sought and Australia and for some in Ethics for the observance of all mem- was granted admission to Professions ONew Zealand and the Asia bers. Why, you may ask, was it so Australia as the sole spatial organisa- pacific, there has been a coming together important to do so? tion in this the peak national body for of the spatial information sciences to In answering this question, it is useful Australian professions. But it is the form a single unified body called the Spa- to point out that the SSI is an "associa- Code of Ethics, that is the focus of this tial Sciences Institute - the SSI. While not tion for professionals" rather than a article. all the members of the former profession- "professional association", which The Code of Ethics of the SSI, which al spatial associations have completed means that anyone working in the spa- may be read at http://www.spa- the transition to the SSI, collectively the tial information industry, or any of its tialsciences.org.au/join/, was devel- majority of them have done so, ensuring many communities of practice, may oped by adapting the code of ethics of the growth of new Institute to around join the Institute to receive the benefits the largest of the founding associations 3500 members. of membership. However, to be consid- - the Institution of Surveyors, Australia. ered a "professional" of the Spatial This includes some 200 overseas mem- Sciences Institute, they have to meet Jim Connolly bers - most of them from the Asia Pacif- the stringent requirements of the CEO SSI, ACT, Australia

26 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 to be a professional". The Report also found that the public interest is the key "umbrella" of stakeholders whose interests should be primarily served by the f Ethics in the professionals. The dilemma for all professionals, not just spatial professionals, comes when they have to try to serve the interests of individual clients where those interests may not actually rmation Sciences be in the best public interest. Spatial professionals generally acknowledge the complexity of the concept of "the public interest" and the possibility of So, the Code of Ethics of the SSI is based • Defining professional qualities; ethical conflicts involved. The report on one which has very successfully • Identifying ethical threats and issues; found that the code of ethics/conduct guided the professional behaviour of • Evaluating the causes of ethical and supporting rules are very impor- members of the largest of spatial disci- threats and failures; and tant for all aspects of profession behav- plines - that of surveying. • Examining possible safeguards to iour and rely heavily on sound individ- minimise ethical threats. Late in 2005, the SSI participated in a ual professional judgment. As well, oth- high-level focus group workshop on The report goes on to draw conclu- er professional qualities reported to be professional ethics in Canberra. The sions and make specific recommenda- important by Australian professionals aims of the workshop were to docu- tions on responses to these four areas include: ment the range of codes of ethics / prac- of threat to ethics within the profes- • Courage to do what is right; tice of the members associations and to sions. This article will review these • Maintaining one's own credibility and gather their collective experiences in findings with respect to situations that of the profession; dealing with five specific threats to eth- faced by spatial information profes- • Maintaining confidentiality; ical behaviour which have been identi- sionals. • Autonomy; fied. The specific type of threats, as doc- • Ability to consider broader social and umented by the International Federa- DEFINING PROFESSIOAL sustainability issues; tion of Accountants (IFAC) were: self- QUALITIES: • Exercising due professional care; interest, self-review, advocacy, famil- As with their col- • Maintaining adequate iarity and intimidation. A study of the leagues in other pro- professional standards & compe- outcomes of this and parallel fessions, SSI tence; workshops in other locations has been members will • Objectivity; jointly published by Professions Aus- at times find • Integrity; tralia and Deakin University at themselves in • Respecting http://www.professions.com.au/ethic- situations that the rights of sresource.html in a comprehensive threaten their stakeholders report Identifying the nature and type ability to with informed of ethical issues and ethical risks faced maintain consent; by members of the member associa- the standards • Respect for tions of Professions Australia; Phase 1 of professionalism expected of them. other professions; by Professor Philomena Leung, et al, This ability to maintain standards is • Being an advocate of professional 2006. central to the whole notion of ethics, as ethics; and The report summarises the research the Report states that, "professionalism • Advancing the profession's interest team's findings under the general cate- is considered to be one of the key quali- e.g. quality of the "brand". gories of: ties possessed by individuals aspiring As expected, the wording of the SSI's

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 27 on professional ethics in tertiary cours- CONCLUSIONS AND The dilemma for es of professional preparation. RECOMMENDATIONS “ Among other identified threats, the At its outset, the SSI placed great impor- all professionals, study reported that the shortage of pro- tance on a code of ethics as something not just spatial fessionals in specific fields may also that defines the professional behaviour. professionals, comes pose ethical threats, as standards may The report by Professions Australia is a when they have to be compromised due to lack of strong endorsement of this stance. The try to serve the resources and technical staff. The fact SSI agreed with the study's findings in that the spatial information industry in favour of a long term approach to the interests of individual Australia is facing an unprecedented development and maintenance of pro- clients where those skills shortage heightens the impor- fessional values and ethics. interests may not tance of monitoring and responding to The SSI also supports for a framework actually be in the this particular threat. approach which links the professional best public interest. bodies' systems and education, with an CAUSES OF ETHICAL appropriate for the delivery and con- THREATS AND FAILURES tent of ethics education. The acknowl- The causes identified which may give edgement that strong leadership and Code of Ethics clearly accommodates rise to ethical threats and ethical some regulatory measures were impor- and fosters these professional qualities” failures were: tant to ensure the effectiveness of in all its members. • Cultural differences, resulting in differ- ethics education and training has also ent expectations and practices; found voice within the SSI leadership. ETHICAL THREATS & ISSUES • Opportunities where ethical problems What the study has made abundantly are not reported/discovered or lack of Participants in the Professions Aus- clear for all professions is that the key • Opportunities for rectification due to tralia study reported significant occur- factor which influences ethical behav- lack of resources; rences of self-interest and intimidation iour is to have a clear understanding of • Failure to recognise the ethical dimen- threats which they have experienced, sions of situations; how the public interest aligns with the either individually or within organisa- • Rationalisation of unethical behaviour needs and expectations of primary tions. They reported that other influ- as part of the embedded culture; stakeholders. Along with our fellow encing factors on ethical behaviours • Inability to withstand pressures from members of Professions Australia, the were conduct of peers and the environ- management, peers or outside; SSI endorses the researchers' recom- ment or culture of organisations in • Absence of leadership within organi- mendation that a broad based ethics which they worked. sations; and education framework be developed to For spatial information professionals • Lack of professional education and ensure that: knowledge; these threats and issues can also be rel- • Professional members understand the nature and expectations of a profession, evant and damaging if steps are not including the public interest and other taken to eliminate them or minimise SAFEGUARDS TO MINIMISE professional qualities; their impact. The SSI has found that one ETHICAL THREATS • Appropriate knowledge and skills are of the best ways of dealing with these A number of safeguards employed by learned to equip professional members threats is to openly discuss them with- the SSI align with those discussed within managing ethical threats; in professional development situations in the study. They include: • A system of continuing education and training be set in place to foster ethical so that successful strategies and coping • A strong, visible and enforceable Code of Ethics; judgment and behaviour; mechanisms can be shared by our spa- • Member associations be provided with tial professionals. The SSI's mentoring • Disciplinary procedures including guidelines and procedures; practical recommendations of institu- initiatives and SSI Young Professional tional strategies & structural issues; and • Continuing Professional Development events provide the best opportunities programs including Ethics education; • A joint effort to enhance the promot- in this regard. The SSI also applauds the ing and maintaining ethical behaviour • Mentoring support, especially for be undertaken. inclusion of specific units and modules young professionals; and

28 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 GISdevelopment_ad_v4.ai 6/28/2007 9:38:26 AM

CMY

| IKONOS 1-meter resolution N Charles de Gaulle Airport | Paris, France See the world. With GeoEye, you can.

GeoEye captures map-accurate, 1- and 4-meter satellite imagery worldwide, making it ideal for planning and analyzing complex infrastructures located throughout the world. With our satellites’ frequent revisit times and a robust image archive—over 278 million square kilometers—GeoEye offers a full range of geospatial data designed to meet all your mapping needs.

The upcoming launch of GeoEye-1 offers opportunities for domestic and international resellers. To join our reseller program, please apply at [email protected].

GeoEye Imagery Sources

IKONOS OrbView-2 Aerial GeoEye-1 [DMC®] [2007] www.geoeye.com | +1.703.480.5670

displaying maps, coming simultane- the CORBA specification. The technolo- n increasing number of ously from multiple sources, in stan- gy of Web Services is the most likely institutions are challenged dard image formats such as .svg, .png, connection technology of SOA. Web Awith implementing robust .gif or .jpg. services essentially use XML to create a GIS capabilities for a large number of In this paper we propose a web serv- robust connection. individuals through information sharing ice based approach for the integration and interconnected networks. architecture. The data repositories are Geospatial domain available on the web as services with The open and distributed GI domain In the past, numerous technological some well-defined interface. It is base opens a wide range of possibilities for roadblocks hampered the successful on XML technology and a client can acquiring, processing and analyzing implementation of enterprise-wide GIS access any data repository having data geographic information without the system (E-GIS). With the advent of in any format located on any platform need of GIS expert knowledge. In an high-speed networks; increasingly fast if it only knows how to communicate environment where services are previ- computers; intelligent, spatial-data with service provider. The goal is to ously unknown, a service that is appro- serving technologies; improved data provide unified access to data from het- priate for answering a given question architecture; and advances in GIS soft- erogeneous data providers. Any client from among a large number of avail- ware; the newest challenge involves (user) can submit its query to a geospa- able services has to be discovered first. integration of the various technological tial server. The server, on the other Service discovery, thus, is a crucial task and institutional components, address- hand, will retrieve the data from the that will become even more important ing the interoperability problem multiple sources and return the result with the emerging Semantic Geospa- through OGC (Open Geospatial Consor- to the client. This will help in realizing tial Web. Although the SOA technology tium) standards (OGC, 2007). Enterprise interoperability between the heteroge- using web services is evolving in the geographic information system (E-GIS) neous data repositories. information system domain, where is an organization-wide approach to legacy or already existing systems are GIS implementation, operation, and SERVICE-ORIENTED integrated to form an organization- management. In this paper we have ARCHITECTURE AND wide information system, the applica- followed a service-oriented architec- SPATIAL DATA tion of SOA in comparatively highly ture (SOA) using web services for inte- The emerging Service Oriented Archi- heterogeneous spatial data domain has grating diverse repositories of spatial tecture (SOA) based method using Web not been tried much Keeping in mind data. Two standard web service tech- Services is gaining lots of interest in the the highly heterogeneous spatial data, niques proposed by OGC, namely Web way of seamless integration of infor- the complex query mechanism Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature mation systems spreading across sev- required for processing them, a service- Service (WFS), have been used for eral organizations. based technique could possibly be one enabling a centralized access of spatial Some means of connecting services to of the best solutions for co-operative data of different format. WFS allow a each other is needed. The first service integration of spatial data. client to retrieve geospatial data from oriented architecture for many people multiple Web Feature Services. The in the past was with the use DCOM or S.K. Ghosh, Manoj Paul School of Information Technology OGC WMS is capable of creating and Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India [email protected], [email protected]

30 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 Two major problems that exist in Get Map Get Feature highly heterogeneous geospatial domain are as follows: • Improper or insufficient documenta- Validation Processor tion makes it difficult for outside users Catalog to discover the data sets those are useful for their task. • Datasets in different format often WMS.servlet WFS.servlet requires to be converted in order to be used in other system. This problem is taken care of (as proposed by OGC) by providing the data in a vendor-neutral Data Request Object/GMLEncoder formats like GML (ODC, 2003). OGC WFS provides a set of protocols to provide standardized service interfaces Shape File Data Store GML Data store Oracle Data Store Post GIS Data Store for the geospatial data sources. Through these services distributed geospatial data can be accessed and Shape File GML File Oracle DB Post GIS DB processed across administrative and organizational boundaries. As the data sources are less coupled to integrated Figure: Architecture of the system system, they can be created and managed locally, which leads to increasing quality and efficiency. The integrated acquire data from several spatial data and relational database format (Oracle system can easily be extended to repositories (David, 1998; Peng, 2003; Spatial). With this approach data can be include new services and/or data sets. Peng, 2004). published as maps/images (using the This project is an integrated Java WMS), as actual data (using the WFS). INTEGRATING GEOSPATIAL Enterprise based implementation of The main focus is to ease of use and REPOSITORIES the Web Feature Server (WFS) (OGC support for open standards, in order to The issue of how to capture data from 2002) and Web Map Service (WMS) enable anyone to quickly share their several highly heterogeneous spatial (OGC 2004) specification from the OGC. geospatial information in an interoper- data sources and integrate them for The objective is to enable greater geo- able way. With the recent research on analysis becomes important for the graphic interoperability by reinforcing adopting SOA for integration geospa- web-based GIS application. The devel- OGC standards and other web stan- tial data, the issue of sharing spatial opment of web technologies and Inter- dards and lowering the barriers to data has taken a new dimension. With net provide a way to quickly access var- entry for geographic data providers. web services it becomes possible for ious geo-databases. The internet has Request to the WFS server provides the applications to acquire and integrate become immensely valuable and been feature data in GML format. spatial data from heterogeneous recognized as an important means of On the other hand a WMS request to sources in real time over the web. OGC quickly disseminate information and the WMS server serves the data by web services provide a vendor-neutral graphically ren- interoperable framework for web- dering it i.e. in based discovery, access, integration, map format. The analysis and visualization of multiple work presented online geospatial data sources. Web in this paper can Feature Service (WFS) and Web map integrate data in Service (WMS); the two important web flat file format service standard proposed by OGC, has (Shape format been adopted as main technological

Figure: Service driven access of data from spatial database and GML format) backbone for this project.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 31 • The server address - http://local- client can analyse/discover what dif- host:8080/geoserver/wfs ferent feature data available, what are • The request type - request=getfeature the different operations that can be • The service type - service=wfs performed on the feature data etc • The version - version=1.0.0 through GetCapabilities request. This is • The type name - typename=roads actually the discovery phase of service- based computing. Figure 6 shows the The filter section of the data access output of a GetCapabilities request. request does tha actual querying on a Client can access data by requesting a feature. The output is the feature data Figure: Output of GetMap Request from feature through GetFeature request. in GML2 encoded form. multiple data sources The request can be sent to the server as The requirement of a user can be to GET or POST. The FeatureRequest object select a subset of a feature data with ARCHITECTURE OF THE handles both the methods similarly. some specified parameter value (e.g. SYSTEM When the request comes in, the servlet area with > 50% population density). The overall architecture of the system is container will send the request to the The request for the data combined with shown in figure. At the core of the sys- WfsDispatcher, which is the entry point query can be specified in such a way so tem is a central registry, which holds to the server. The entry point is speci- as to select the required amount of the the information of all the data reposito- fied in web.xml file inside the servlet feature data. The filter section of the ries in the form of metadata that a user container (Tomcat). The FeatureRequest query performs a selection on the fea- can avail data from. Data is provided as object will then head over to the feature ture data. It basically resembles the features. type that was specified in the URL, and XQuery techniques of querying XML The registry is realized with a cata- query the data. data and performs a selection in the logue holding the information of the When a DataStore accepts a query, it feature data. data repository, e.g. type of the data doesn't actually return features, instead The data is displayed to the requester (shape file, gml file), feature name (to it returns a FeatureReader that can in overplayed form with proper posi- identify a feature uniquely and subse- be used to read the feature that the tioning taken care by the bbox and SRS quently accessing the feature data with query selects one-at-a-time. The dele- attributes of the GetMap request shows this name), namespace of data (for gate (i.e. GML2 producer) reads a single data requested from multiple sources semantic access), spatial reference sys- feature, converts it to GML2 and sends and the corresponding output. tem (SRS) etc in a catalogue file. the results off to the output Strategy An entry for a data store in the reg- object. CONCLUSION istry is as follows: GetMap request is handled in the sim- Geographic data is increasingly becom- ring the raw data in GML encoded form, large number of users to share and the data is rendered in a graphical form access the rich databases that currently form of map. However, GIS data is immensely heterogeneous, being available in various QUERYING DATA formats and stored in diverse media Data can also be on standard relation- Data from the repositories is accessed (flat files, relational database). The al database management system like in OGC specified standard query for- problem is not only to integrate these Oracle, PostGIS database. Oracle is the mat. The adapted XML-based query heterogeneous data sources, but also preferred for spatial data storage due to method allows selecting a subset of a the query processing and domain spe- its spatial data storage capability. feature data i.e. querying on features. cific computational capabilities sup- Once data from multiple data storage Different parts of the data access ported by these sources, which makes is maintained in the central registry, a request are: GIS integration a real challenge.

32 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

Ethics

he growth in geospatial technologies has enabled commu- Socio-ethical Tnities to make maps of their lands and resource uses, and to bolster the legitimacy of their customary claims to dimensions of s resources.

Yet, the impacts of widespread adoption of SIT at the local level are not lim- information tec ited to intended objectives. Some schol- ars argue that mapping technologies simultaneously empower and disad- bodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the gies, even for individuals electing not vantage indigenous communities; oth- Philippines, Thailand, and the United to use the tools produced by those tech- ers suggest that GIS technology privi- States. This article summarizes the pro- nologies. Indeed, critical histories of leges 'particular conceptions and forms ject's outcomes. technology suggest that beyond cer- of knowledge, knowing, and language' tain levels of intensity and scales of and engenders unequal access to infor- TOOLS, TECHNOLOGIES deployment, technologies begin gener- mation; still others view GIS as incom- AND IRONIC EFFECTS ating problems of the type that they are patible with indigenous knowledge Critically assessing the impacts of SIT suited to solving, producing distinctive systems and as separating the commu- requires us to clarify the relationship patterns of ironic effects that ramify nity that has knowledge from informa- between tools and technologies. Tools well outside the technology sector. Sec- tion. Tensions thus exist between new are products of technological processes, ond, critical evaluation of a technology patterns of empowerment yielded used by individuals, which are evaluat- must go beyond assessing how well rel- through SIT and broader social, politi- ed on their task-specific utility. In con- evant tools perform, to examining the cal, economic, and ethical ramifications trast, technologies consist of wide- changes that a technology brings about of the technology. spread patterns of material and con- within and among societal systems, This article and the research project ceptual practices that embody and and how they affect the values struc- on which it is based emerged out of deploy particular strategic values and turing the dynamics of such systems. common and yet distinct concerns meanings. among the authors that spatial infor- The system of SIT include: collection GRASSROOTS REALITIES: mation technologies-at least in certain of base data using GPS units; their stor- SIT IN LOCAL CONTEXTS contexts and at certain scales-alter the age in databases; the advertising and complexion and distribution of power marketing of these tools; and a refram- Why map? with respect to land and resources, as ing of the politics of development. As a The motivations for community-based well as the ways in which small-scale technology, SIT transforms discourses mapping include: better planning communities think about power and its about land and resources, the meaning resource management; monitoring relationship to natural systems and of geographic knowledge, the work development projects; and resolving human interests. In order to test and practices of mapping and legal profes- resource conflicts within their own refine our ideas about the socio-ethical sionals, and, ultimately, the very mean- communities. Maps often afford com- implications of SIT and the possibility ing of space itself. munity members greater or more of its ironic effects, we conducted a There are two major implications of detailed knowledge about their year-long project involving representa- the tool/technology distinction. First, resources, improving their ability to tives of non-governmental organiza- while we can refuse to use a tool, there respond to resource use and conserva- tions (NGOs), project staff members, are no clear "exit rights" from the tion problems. In some cases, the open- and university researchers from Cam- effects of heavily deployed technolo- ing of new political spaces (e.g., by

34 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 key roles in influencing which actors benefit from the adoption of SIT through deciding, whether to revitalize traditional customary institutions (adat) and entrust them with control of the maps or to bypass traditional lead- f spatial ers and support a functional committee on forest conservation. The implications of these decisions can be far reaching in the restructuring of power echnology relations & property institutions that govern resource access and utilization.

Impacts on Communities' Values For many indigenous groups in Asia, the use of SIT in participatory mapping is intended to "re-insert" their existence onto maps-to claim rights that had not been acknowledged by the state. When resource rights have not previously been recognized, mapping activities decentralization policies in Indonesia mapping. Significantly, several cau- have greater impact on traditional or the recognition of indigenous rights tioned difficulties arise in relation to ways of governing human/environ- in the Philippines), provide a context in who "owns" the maps and the informa- ment interactions and seeing the which mapping becomes a critical tool tion they contain. If local people do not world, than they do in communities for negotiation with other groups, have control of their maps, mapping where legal rights exist. including neighboring communities may afford little if any advantage and For example, if villagers engage in and the state. may even leave communities worse off mapping to increase the security of Mapping can re-insert user communi- than before mapping occurred. their land claims, they need to follow ties' existences onto "empty" state Even when communities do control through with land titling. But the land maps, strengthening their claims to the maps, mapping can reveal or exac- titling process is controlled by outside lands & other resources. erbate tensions among the multiple authorities, and has significant impli- Case study writers noted that the interests and actors found within com- cations for the villagers' relations to the complexity of the processes by which munities, the processes by which deci- land, their neighbors, and their com- empowerment occurred and who was sions are made within communities, munity. empowered. Mapping enhanced tenure and the political and economic rela- Mapping efforts initiated to recognize security in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambo- tionships between communities and collective rights to land resources can dia and the Philippines, yet it also bene- other social actors. lead to land privatization that is in fited local governments by providing The case study writer from Sarawak practice exclusive rather than inclusive. them with free information. In provided an example in which entrust- Researches from Malaysia, Indonesia Sarawak, a community map was ed community leaders colluded with a and Thailand reported that customary instrumental in the legal victory of an corporation, using community maps to boundaries were traditionally flexible, Iban village against a tree plantation support the corporation's plan to lease responded to changing needs within corporation; but this rights-through- customary lands for an oil palm planta- the community, and extended across mapping legal power was quickly tion. Other writers also noted that administrative boundaries as well as curbed as the 2001 Land Surveyors law NGOs which initiate or sponsor com- the boundaries of neighboring commu- was passed to regulate community munity mapping projects often play nities. Participants observed that

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 35 ated a shortage of technically trained do establish a need to expose, under- people, and that it is difficult to acquire stand, and critically assess the degree to “Unlike in North and keep trained staff. which SIT is not value-neutral and how, America, the There is also a gap in expectations and because of this, it may disproportion- work culture between staff members ately benefit certain users. Fuller under- use of SIT at the trained in SIT sciences and those standing of the social and ethical impli- community level in trained in social sciences that could cations of SIT are needed to insure that lead to the separation of participatory those who chose to employ it to meet Asia has largely been mapping activities from the broader social objectives can do so wisely and limited to producing objective of NGOs. with awareness of unintended conse- one-time maps Recognizing the potential socio-ethi- quences that may accompany its use. cal impacts of SIT, the participants Reflections by practitioners in the agreed that advocates of participatory project case studies identified several boundaries are now less flexible & mapping need a clear protocol to follow ironic effects of mapping that could often cause disputes when overlap” when introducing SIT into a village. undermine the goals of community- with those established by neighbors, This protocol should require outside based management. noting as well that it is hard to tell to actors to communicate clearly with First, it is important to understand as what degree alterations in the sense of each community prior to the mapping well that SIT comes in a variety of place and boundary conceptions are a project. The NGO must clarify the pur- forms, and its conceptual and technical function of mapping activities & how pose/objectives of collecting informa- accessibility to participating communi- much a function of changes in the polit- tion, agree with villagers on what infor- ties could be uneven, with the adopting ical economic context through the mation can be mapped, and explain of technologically complex SIT ironical- expansion of roads, markets, decentral- potential consequences of recording ly serving to marginalize many of the ization policies, land tenure, and so on. the community's spatial information targeted communities. on maps that can then be copied and Secondly, while mapping is useful for SIT and NGOs distributed outside the community. bounding and staking claims to ances- Participants noted the crucial role Most importantly, outside facilitators tral or traditional territories, it also played by non-government organiza- must communicate to villagers that facilitates a shift toward exclusive tions (NGO) in community-based map- they can agree to accept or reject the property rights, providing outsiders a ping, and how external factors were at mapping exercise. legal means to gain access to common least as important as internal ones in Finally, participants felt that unlike in property resources and potentially the decisions of NGOs to adopt SIT as an North America, the use of SIT at the weakening existing common property important component of their activi- community level in Asia has largely management systems. ties. Donors, and how NGOs perceive been limited to producing one-time Finally, mapping generally promotes donors' priorities, have a relatively maps and neglecting the reality that practices that shift attention and con- large influence on many NGOs. Two working with spatial information is a cern away from a fluid human/envi- case study writers described, for exam- process requiring revisions and ronment relationship to a relationship ple, how consultants from internation- changes. Thus far, too little attention with quantifiable limits implied by al organizations proved to be instru- has been given to building local capaci- boundaries. Newly acquired authority mental in how NGOs in Indonesia ty to revise and remap as circum- to define and exert control over the use selected mapping strategies. stances change. of space may thus compromise the cus- Success in using maps as tools for tomary uses and governance systems it negotiating land rights in Indonesia SUMMARY was intended to protect. and Malaysia has led to increased The results of our study do not encour- demand for mapping by neighboring age a general discrediting of the use of Jefferson Fox, Peter Hershock East West Center, Honolulu, USA communities. Case study writers from spatial information technology in com- Krisnawati Suryanata, Albertus Hadi Pramono both countries argued that this has cre- munity-based management. But they Deparmtnet of Geography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

36 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 Advertorial

any organizations these days implement a mix- Top 10 Benefits of FDO at a Glance ture of tools and technology for their Geospatial Mrequirements. It is a common adage that one 1. Easy access to geospatial data should use the "right tool for the job." Also for the fact that different vendors have different strengths and capabilities 2. In situ editing that are driven by the history of the company, the markets they serve, and the demands of their users. 3. Ability to grow with your requirements Until recently, interoperability within the enterprise has meant exchanging data between systems based on a least 4. Rich and consistent data access common denominator file format. This costs time and mon- 5. Security ey, degrades data precision, and introduces data loss and quality issues as the data is translated and copied multiple 6. Instant productivity and return times within the organization. True interoperability enables organizations to use the right 7. Platform and technology neutrality tool for the job while eliminating complicated data transfers and multiple copies of the same data throughout the enter- 8. Extensibility via open source prise.

9. Extensibility via open source FDO

Feature Data Objects (FDO) is an API for manipulating, defin- Ideal for application developers, independent software 10. ing, and analyzing geospatial information regardless of vendors and solution providers where it is stored. FDO uses a provider-based model for supporting a variety of geospatial data sources, where each provider typically supports a particular data format or data and it is possible to add custom commands to a particular store. provider. A provider is a specific implementation of the FDO FDO provides a model for extending its interface to addi- API that provides access to data stored in a particular data tional data source technologies. The generic API is extensible, source technology.

CLIENT APPLICATION FDO API

SDF SHP ARCSDE ORACLE MYSQL ODBC PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER

OGR GDAL WMS WFS CUSTOM PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER PROVIDER

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 37 P R O D U C T

AutoCAD Map 3D AutoCAD Map 3D software is the leading engi- FDO GEOSPATIAL neering GIS platform for creating and managing spatial data. AutoCAD Map 3D software bridges CAD and GIS by providing direct access to data, regardless of how it is stored, and by enabling the use of AutoCAD software tools for maintaining a broad variety of geospatial information.

AutoCAD Raster Design AutoCAD Raster Design, an extension to AutoCAD - based applications such as AutoCAD Map 3D, unlocks the value of scanned engi- Natively access data from m neering drawings and maps by enabling without copying or teams to manage and edit aerial photos, satellite imagery, and digital elevation models. Avoid - conversion data loss

MapGuide Open Source MapGuide Open Source is a web-based platform that enables users to quickly develop and deploy web mapping applications and geospatial web services.

It features an interactive viewer that includes support for feature selection, Parcel data from Utility data from Property Data property inspec- Oracle® databases an SDF file from a MS SQL tion, map tips, ServerTM and operations such as buffer, select within, and measure. MapGuide includes an XML database for storing and managing content, and supports most popular geospatial file formats, databases, and standards. The MapGuide platform can Autodesk India Pvt. Ltd. Autodesk Authorized Distributor in India: be deployed on Linux or Microsoft Windows, GESCO Corporate Centre, Ingram Micro India Limited, supports Apache and IIS web servers, The Great Eastern Centre, 70, Gate #1A, Godrej Soaps Complex, and offers extensive PHP, .NET, Java, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019. Pirojshahnagar, and JavaScript APIs for application Ph: +91-11-66619466 Vikhroli(E), Mumbai development. Fax:+91-11-66619432 Ph: +91-22-55960126 Fax:+91-22-55960102 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

38 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 P R O D U C T

MapGuide Enterprise The next generation of web map- AL DATA ACCESS ping technology, Autodesk MapGuide Enter- prise offers a powerful platform for distributing spatial information quickly, easily, and cost- effectively. Improve productivity, as well as communication among internal teams, mobile filed force, and customers. Based on MapGuide Open Source, Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise offers simple deployment and flexible development options.

MapGuide Studio Autodesk MapGuide Studio manages all aspects of preparing geospatial data for distribution on the Internet. Upload data files, connect to om multiple spatial sources databases, and stylize and pre- view maps using a developer- g or file conversion friendly authoring environment, then publish oss :: data copies :: stale data them using Autodesk MapGuide Enter- prise or MapGuide Open Source.

Autodesk Topobase Autodesk Topobase is an infrastructure design and management solution that extends the power of the Auto- operty Data Zoning data CAD Map 3D ® ® Aerial Photos m a MS SQL ESRI ArcSDE and Autodesk ServerTM MapGuide platforms. Topobase integrates design and asset information in a spatial information database so that departments across an organization can see the big picture and collaborate more efficiently.

Autodesk Authorized Partner in Sri Lanka: Autodesk Authorized Partner in Bangladesh: Open Systems Technologies (Pte) Limited, Win-Win Infosys Limited, 1st Floor, E.H. Cooray Building, 56/1/B, Lake Circus, 411 Galle Road, West Panthapath, www.autodesk.com Colombo - 03, Sri Lanka. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ph: 011 2301734 Fax: 011 5338501 Ph: 880-2-8119703 Fax: 880-2-9142143 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 39 FDO Technology

Autodesk FDO Data Access Technology is by far one of the most successful data interoperability standards that has truly democratized database access globally. All this has been made possible through active participation of the entire GIS community, both commercial users as well as the large & still growing open source community Manideep Saha, Head, Infrastructure Solutions India and SAARC Region

he growing need for openness ture Data Objects (FDO) Data Access zations that adopt proprietary systems and interoperability between Technology. FDO technology supports pay a "toll road" to get to their own data. Ttraditional geographic informa- the creation of data-store-neutral appli- • Leverages the Open Source community for rapid product development and tion system (GIS) applications and cations and facilitates direct informa- evolution. For example, there are new mainstream operational information tion exchange. To make it easier for FDO providers such as the OSGeo technology (IT) systems, as well as inte- developers to extend the capabilities of FDO Provider for OGR. gration with public or private web FDO, Autodesk, in partnership with the • Extends access of an organization's mapping services, calls for seamless Open Source Geospatial Foundation information to other systems. For example, Oracle Spatial provides access from data access in native formats and plat- (OSGeo), has released FDO as an open non-spatial applications. forms. Without it, users face the ineffi- source project. This initiative enables • Reduces training, support, and devel- ciency and inaccuracies of having to developers all over the world to tap into opment costs associated with propri- translate various data sources into the powerful web mapping and geospatial etary systems. format supported by their GIS applica- data access technology and provides Using FDO Providers, organizations tion to provide a collective "single the following benefits: can connect directly to a variety of data view" of the data. • Faster web mapping solutions stores including ESRI ArcSDE and SHP, One of the underlying technologies • More frequent software releases Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and that Autodesk Geospatial uses to break • Lower cost of entry and ownership MySQL, as well as leverage public data down barriers between data is a com- Because this underlying technology is sources via Web Map Services (WMS) mon data access platform called Fea- based on open standards, it eliminates and Web Feature Services (WFS). Since many of the dif- FDO Data Access Technology is avail- ficulties com- able in the open source community, monly encoun- other enterprise applications such as tered when ERP or GIS systems can leverage FDO to working with access the same data without the addi- proprietary sys- tional expense of legacy middleware. tems. FDO Data The result is a seamless experience for Access Technol- accessing and integrating data from ogy: multiple sources, regardless of format • Enables organi- or storage location. By standardizing on zations to use FDO as its data access technology best-of-breed software for spatial data, an organization can because they are easily add support for new storage for- not locked into mats in a consistent fashion across all one vendor's software, data Autodesk Geospatial and other busi- format, or API. In ness applications. contrast, organi-

40 AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT Open Source

America. European initiatives like IDABC are promote the use of OSS as the way to interoperable services in and from the public administrations, and is indeed in public administrations where OSS has had a wider diffusion.

OSS IN GEOSPATIAL APPLICATIONS Building on existing OSS operating systems, database, web services and software development technologies, today we find well-established OSS systems focused on geospatial applications. These systems range from spatially- enabled databases like PostGIS, data analysis environments like GRASS, web server technologies (MapServer, GeoServer, Deegree) and client-building tools (MapBuilder, MapBender) to professional desktop GIS tools like Open Source Tools gvSIG. Due to their emphasis on interoperability, these OSS tools have strong support for OGC standards, including for GIS Professionals web geoservices. Most OSS GIS products rely on both open communities and private companies for development, integration, ute copies of the code to other users. technical support and training. Because Open Source Software (OSS) The main advantages of using OSS, cit- of the openness of the software, small has been maturing over ed by respondents in business reports and medium-size companies can easily Othe last years into robust, are the absence of licensing fees, ven- provide customized solutions and serv- well-supported tools whose code base dor independence, flexibility, access to ices. It is our experience in Europe that grows exponentially. Open Source GIS is source code and better interoperability many SMEs which previously relied on no exception to this trend and it is now through standards-based technology. proprietary technologies are, more and able to address the needs of GIS profes- The UNU-Merit Report on the impact more, using and providing OSS solu- sionals worldwide. of Open Source in the European econo- tions. This process feeds itself in a kind my, funded by the European Commis- of snowball effect, in which successful Open Source Software can be defined sion, concludes that Free and OSS-relat- projects are used as reference and as as software where the authors give a ed services could reach a 32% share of template for new ones. In addition to number of fundamental freedoms to all IT services and a 4% of European the generic advantages mentioned the users via a license agreement, GDP by 2010. According to the same before, some reasons for OSS expansion including the possibility to study how report, Europe is the leading region in in the European geospatial sector are: the programme works, to adapt and terms of globally collaborating FLOSS improve the code according to specific (Free/Libre/OpenSource/Software) Salvador Bayarri, Alvaro Anguix needs, to run it for any purpose on any developers and projects, followed close- IVER Technologies, Valencia, Spain [email protected], [email protected] number of machines and to redistrib- ly by North America, Asia and Latin

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 41 ices, in terms of functionality, reliability and Coverage (raster) web services (see This process feeds and performance. Today, server tech- Fig. 2), as well as Catalogue and “ nologies like MapServer, GeoNetwork Gazetteer search services through dif- itself in a kind of snowball effect, and OSS client toolkits are competing in ferent protocols, but also to proprietary equal terms and being adopted in a ArcIMS services. It can overlay those in which successful huge number of SDI implementations remote data with local information projects are used (estimated 30K-50K for MapServer). But from files or spatial databases like Post- as reference that's not the whole story. GIS and Oracle. In addition, it includes a and as template CAD-like editing environment, vector BEYOND GEOPORTALS: geoprocessing functions and the SEX- for new ones. THE EXAMPLE OF gvSIG TANTE raster analysis tools. This means For many, to use a Spatial Data Infra- that in its current release gvSIG already structure means accessing a geoportal goes beyond what is provided by the • The increase in functionality, quality for searching, displaying and maybe basic license (already expensive) of and support of the OSS GIS tools.” Com- downloading data from remote servic- most proprietary GIS software. We find pared to proprietary software, the open nature of OSS makes easier to fix prob- es. However, in project after project we that GIS users are usually quite sur- lems and reuse libraries and pieces of have found that professional GIS users prised to see that gvSIG is available for code when creating new or integrated want to combine SDI data access with a free without restrictions, via a GPL solutions. work flow that requires a thick client, a license. gvSIG is also a platform on • The wide movement towards OSS migration by public administrations in desktop GIS application. In the future, it which many companies and institu- Europe. This process has been encour- is likely that some analysis processes tions provide education and training, aged and guided by EU-sponsored ini- may be carried out remotely (for and develop targeted applications for tiatives as well as national policies. Many case studies are listed in the instance, using the emerging WPS spec- schools, land, infrastructure, forestry UNU-Merit Report. This migration ification) and vector data editing could and water management, health admin- process frequently involves OSS GIS be implemented more efficiently and istration, geomarketing, etc. Fig. 3 shows development, as we can see in Spain reliably via web services, but today just one example: a coastal manage- and it has been adopted by administrations at all levels. In fact, the regional these tasks and others are better served ment system combining an SDI archi- and local governments are typically the by a local GIS application, especially tecture with a customized gvSIG client. most proactive. when it can be stripped down and cus- • The growing emphasis on interoper- tomized to user needs, and replicated as OSS GIS, FROM EUROPE ability and open standards at the Euro- pean level. Of special importance for many times as needed without license OSS GIS Projects like Deegree, Mapben- the geospatial community is the adop- costs. A good example of how OSS desk- der or gvSIG are mainly developed in tion of the EU INSPIRE (Infrastructure top GIS has advanced in recent years is Europe but, as typical OSS projects, for Spatial Information in Europe) Direc- the development of gvSIG; a modular, have the vocation to be used and to tive, which aims at the creation of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure plug-in-based system which in its cur- receive development contributions (SDI) that delivers integrated spatial rent release can cover most of the GIS from anywhere in the world. European information services linked by open needs for a wide variety of users. international aid programmes are standards (Fig.1). gvSIG integrates easily with SDIs This kind of OSS-based SDI architec- by connecting to standard ture compares well with equivalent Map, Feature proprietary software providing standard web serv-

42 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 Fig. 1: An SDI Fig. 2: gvSIG architecture built OSS desktop GIS on Open Source showing data from Software (taken WMS, WFS and from [13]) WCS web services

Fig. 3: A coastal Fig. 4: Multiple- management sys- stop route planning tem built on an with gvSIG's net- OSS SDI with work analysis gvSIG as client extension

now implicitly, sometimes explicitly, In fact, OSS GIS is already widely used same quality technical support and favouring the use of OSS, given that in developing countries for education training programmes they offer for Open Source GIS has much to offer to and non-profit projects, but other uses proprietary software. OSS GIS is no developing regions: are quickly emerging as local public longer a matter of university projects. It • It provides better sustainability, since and private institutions become aware has definitively become serious busi- there are no maintenance fees and as of the potential. ness, even if it follows a different, more an open system it can be upgraded and modified by anybody. A common question from many users open, model. • It allows for the replication of the tools evaluating the adoption of OSS systems In the end, we believe that in many as much as needed. There is no limit in is about the availability and quality of situations OSS GIS is today a viable the number of users, imposed by training and support. alternative to proprietary systems. It license costs. There has been a huge progress in this can also integrate successfully with • The economic resources liberated by area within the OSS world, as these proprietary software as long as the lat- the non-existence of license cost can be diverted to promote local GIS know- products not only continue to have ter uses open standards, so these are how and to perform capacity building. vibrant user and developer communi- not two mutually excluding worlds. As • It offers a more comprehensive and ties which offer fast and flexible sup- with any software, its features, cost fruitful technology transfer, since local port for free, but there is also a growing benefits and availability of training users and developers can truly make the technology their own and adapt it network of companies that make and support must be weighted when for their needs. their business of providing the making a decision to adopt it.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 43 10.25 inch (H) 15.50 inch(W) Certification Q M S Interoperability

from applications, by means of open but secured Service Oriented Architec- Resources ture (SOA).

CATALOGUE SERVICES One of the key elements of an SOA is Cataloguing: Key the Service Registry : a record and description of all available services. It allows users not only to find and dis- to Valuable SDI cover which services could be useful in providing solutions to their needs but also to integrate them into their business applications. dards will facilitate the discovery, The methodology can thus be access, use and extraction of geospatial described as follows : o satisfy data exchanges information from several different • service providers " set up Web Ser- vices between users, the EC INSPIRE architectures, such as different vendor initiative (INfrastructure for formats, in one common environment. • they then publish these Web Services in the service registry : " publish " TSPatial InfoRmation in Europe), intend to This article aims to focus on the stan- • consumers " then discover these serv- trigger the creation of Spatial Data Infrastruc- dardisation of discovery mechanism. ices by means of queries… " find " ture (SDI) that delivers to the users integrated • … and integrate them into their appli- spatial information services. It also means SERVICE ORIENTED cations " bind " observing ISO TC/211 and OGC standards. ARCHITECTURE A service-oriented architecture is The OpenGIS® Catalogue Service These services should allow the users to essentially a collection of services that Implementation Specification defines a identify and access spatial or geograph- communicate with each other. The common interface that enables diverse ical information from a wide range of communication can involve either sim- but conformant applications to per- sources, from the local level to the glob- ple data passing or it could involve two form discovery, browse and query oper- al level, in an interoperable way for a or more services coordinating some ations against distributed heteroge- variety of uses. To implement SDI, the activity. Some means of connecting neous catalog servers. users will have to face several chal- services to each other is needed. Service Catalogue services support the ability lenges: Oriented Architecture (SOA), imple- to publish and search collections of • Heterogeneous sources of information mented by means of OGC Web Services, descriptive information (metadata) for - Data should be collected once and is particularly useful for setting up SDI data, services, and related information maintained at the level where this can for GIS. It enables to combine seamless- objects. Metadata in catalogues be done most effectively ly spatial information - Construct semantics to allow the from different sources exchange of information through Web Services • Combine seamlessly spatial data from different sources and share it among • Share spatial data between many users & applications, users and applications for many purposes. • Build a discovery mechanism SOA adds strong - which spatial data is available internal consistency to "loosely coupled" con- - evaluate its fitness for purpose figurations. The most - which conditions apply for its use important benefit is The implementation of ISO/OGC stan- the separation of data

46 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 describe resource characteristics that CONCLUSION can be queried and presented for evalu- “Alongside the existing OGC Open ation and further processing by both Standards, specialised Software Tech- humans and software. Catalogue serv- nology for cataloguing resources is ices are required to support the discov- available and offers a pre-configured ery and binding to registered informa- service enabling the automatic regis- tion resources within an information tion, application profiles for different tration of a wide number of resources community. information communities should be such as WFS, WMS and WCS, Contexts This is the essence of the publish-find- specified. (WMC) using metadata. Once a bind model, but transposed to new IT resource has been registered, the auto- architecture that are SOA. As illustrated Catalogue Services based on the matic update procedures mean that the here after, IONIC software is totally in ISO19115/ISO19119 Application information is kept up to date. line with the INSPIRE initiative, the Profile Such product is accompanied by a OGC and ISO standards. This catalogue implementation is “client” who allows the discovery of based an application profile for ISO resources online. Using the client APPLICATION SCHEMAS & 19115/ISO 19119 metadata with support allows the user to discover the different PROFILES FOR CATALOGUE for XML encoding per ISO 19139 and services available and to show their use SERVICES HTTP protocol binding. It relies on in a data visualisation client. Specifications exist for interfaces, bind- requirements coming from ings, and frameworks for defining the CS/CSW 2.0 specification. application profiles required to publish A catalogue implementation and access digital catalogues of meta- that conforms to this appli- data for geospatial data, services, and cation profile can serve OGC related resources. Metadata act as gen- web services and their ISO eralized properties that can be queried MD descriptions. and returned through catalogue services for resource evaluation and, in many Catalogue Services based cases, invocation or retrieval of the ref- on ebRIM Application erenced resource. Catalogue services profile support the use of one of several identi- A catalogue implementation fied query languages to find and return that conforms to this appli- results using well-known content mod- cation profile can serve els (metadata schemas) and encodings. many purposes in a variety The definition of application profiles of domains; it provides facili- according to ISO 19106 (Geographic ties for discovering and advertising Finally, existing Software Technology information - Profiles) has an overall shared resources. The catalogue infor- for Cataloguing resources according goal to improve interoperability mation model is a general and flexible to OGC Open Standards allows users between systems conforming to a spe- one that can be employed to handle to build harmoniously Spatial cific profile. many kinds of resources including but Data Infrastructure (SDI), from local to Experience has shown that need for not limited to: service offers, interface global level, so that users can identify application profiles results from the definitions, dataset descriptions, appli- and access spatial or geographical fact that in practice, there is no single cation schemas, and classification information from a wide range of solution for catalogue services that fits schemes. The service may be used to sources in an interoperable way for a every user's needs. As stated in CS 2.0, a catalogue resources located in both variety of uses.” base profile that provides a basic set of local and remote repositories. Repre- information objects has to be support- sentations of these resources are R. Penneman, F. Houbie, N. Vanraes ed by each catalogue instance; in addi- exchanged using the HTTP protocol. IONIC Software, Liège, Belgium

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 47 Views “Raising Geospatial Imaging Standard” Consolidating recent acquisitions and developing innovative and accurate Geospatial Tools

Bob Morris President ing to our field of experts. We have a respective products to offer a more Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging, USA leading market share in the area of complete solution set to our customers. image processing, exploitation, visuali- While there are certain elements in our Q.: What are the objectives of Leica zation and overall image management. product line that overlap, we recognize Geosystems Geospatial Imaging as a We understand imagery and terrain the complimentary features in our company? completely, from capture to exploita- solutions. With clients around the tion to delivery. Focus is on the efficient world, ER Mapper and our other recent Our objectives at Leica Geosystems are use of imagery and ultimately its deliv- acquisitions further strengthen our not only to provide good financial ery to the user. existing global presence returns to the shareholders but also to We have the credibility and the capac- capitalize on the strengths of people ity to deliver top-quality innovative Acquis who work for us and understand this and comprehensive solutions. In fact, Prior to acquiring Acquis, we collabo- industry so well. Our company has a we are able to provide considerable rated to enable ERDAS IMAGINE to deal broad set of domain expertise, span- interoperability in geospatial solutions with an Oracle database via the Oracle ning almost the entire geospatial spec- to target a whole variety of customer Spatial component. Acquis had the trum. We understand the changes tak- requirements, encompassed by our technology we needed to accomplish ing place in the marketplace and have core technologies of photogrammetry, that the Acquis Data Editor, which developed a number of innovative remote sensing, visualization and allowed us to create a plug-in to the ideas to improve solutions for our cus- enterprise peer-to-peer capabilities. database for the ERDAS IMAGINE View- tomers. One of our key objectives is to Q.: Could you please comment on the er, ultimately enabling us to reside in reach people in parts of the market- an Oracle database or an Oracle Spatial recent acquisitions? place where the technology has not yet environment. Acquis joining Leica been utilized to its fullest. On acquisition of ER Mapper Geosystems supports the merging of Q.: How is Leica Geosystems Geospatial ER Mapper will be fully integrated with our strength in geospatial imagery Leica Geosystems, with their locations with Acquis' data management tech- Imaging different from other geospa- remaining, growing and thriving. The niques-ultimately empowering us to tial imaging providers? ER Mapper employees have already provide relevant information through- In terms of developing geospatial joined Leica Geosystems, adding their out the enterprise. imaging solutions, Leica Geosystems expertise in geospatial imaging, spec- has a rich history. With the recent tral processing and image delivery. If IONIC acquisition of ER Mapper, we have you look at our overall product portfo- In developing our strategy of expand- added another pioneer in remote sens- lio, we are joining the strengths of our ing to larger, enterprise wide, non-tra-

48 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 ditional markets, it became clear that tomers' current requirements and partner with or acquire more GIS soft- we needed a way to employ our anticipating future needs. ware/ solution companies? domain expertise in an environment Q.: Could you share your views on the We plan to continue our strategic part- enabling us to reach this new customer nerships and proactively seek others as product development front? base. IONIC, with their RedSpider plat- appropriate. Our recent acquisitions, form, allows us to accomplish this, giv- Enterprise Solutions: Leica ADE coupled with our continued R&D en its overall capability. IONIC's inter- Leica ADE, a technology acquired from efforts certainly equip us to provide a operable and truly OGC compliant tech- Acquis, is fully equipped with web- broader array of solutions. We will con- nology assists us in developing more based and mobile enterprise applica- tinue to analyze technology and decide tailored solutions and enterprise inte- tions for editing Oracle Spatial data. if it is better to build or to buy. I think gration services. Recently, the Florida Turnpike Enter- the bottom line is that we will continue Q.: How do these acquisitions fit into prise implemented Leica ADE to to grow our business, focused on cus- enhance their asset management solu- tomer solutions. your product portfolio and what are tion, eliminating the need to post- Q.: How do you see the future for Leica the integration plans? process geospatial information. Geosystems and for the geospatial With each of these acquisitions, we recognized the rapidly growing demand Data Sharing: Leica TITAN industry as a whole? for geospatial information, with people Leica TITAN is a dynamic online solu- The strategy and development of not geospatially oriented beginning to tion for sharing geospatial data and future products and services from Leica understand the value geospatial infor- location-based content in a single, Geosystems will be based on market mation brings to their everyday busi- secure environment. Empowered by a opportunities. A major thrust for Leica ness needs. Acquis' technology pro- 3D virtual globe, the Leica TITAN Net- Geosystems is to strengthen the recent vides the ability to create and update work allows users to discover, visualize, acquisitions and fully integrate them spatial and non-spatial information in share and retrieve geospatial data and with our company. We will continue to a connected or disconnected environ- location-based content within a social develop innovative and accurate ment. ER Mapper provides enterprise network. Leica TITAN provides access to geospatial tools for assessing informa- solutions for the rapid delivery of & sharing of content such as images, tion, continuing to expand the procure- imagery over the Internet or intranet terrain, 3D models, vector data, web ment of solutions available on the within an organization, further services, location-based content and desktop and extending our offering to a enhancing our desktop and enterprise metadata. Leica TITAN is culturally rele- much larger user base on the enter- geo-processing capabilities. ER Mapper vant for a broad audience of individuals prise. Our own technological advance- also provides us with technology in and organizations desiring to share ments and acquisitions will equip us to geospatial image processing for prepar- data both internally and externally. provide high performance image deliv- ing, managing, compressing and ery over the Internet. deploying imagery. IONIC provides Terra-SAR Support: ERDAS IMAGINE We are very much an industry in tran- enterprise geospatial technology with We are developing a TerraSAR-X pro- sition right now. With this, it is vital the most advanced service-oriented cessing capability for ERDAS IMAGINE® that we analyze technology and devel- mapping available for web-based and Radar Mapping Suite 9.1. Upon comple- op integrated solutions that address a distributed systems and a seamless tion, this new capability will allow wider range of business problems. I interoperable spatial data infrastruc- users to display and manipulate think awareness in the world, in terms ture to securely catalog and serve images captured by the TerraSAR-X. of geospatial information, and how it geospatial information over the Inter- ERDAS IMAGINE will seamlessly affects businesses has reached an all net. Ultimately, each of these technolo- process images collected by TerraSAR- time high, aided by the entry of corpo- gies will be fully integrated with our X, providing intelligent information. rations like Google and Microsoft. This existing products and research and Q.: To deliver a 'complete' solution to new awareness presents clear opportu- development efforts to deliver the most nities to solve business problems in your customers, are you planning to complete solutions, meeting our cus- much larger, emerging markets.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 49 Standards & Interoperability Gaining acceptance by leadership

members, respectively. In the past year, dards adoption process. we have gained new members in India, The question is always whether there Israel, Japan and Malaysia, as well as is an enlightened group of people in Australia. Also we expect to have some decision making positions who can Chinese members in the next year. The work their local political process to numbers in all these regions are steadi- make progressive decisions. ly growing. The differences between countries, in Also relevant to your question is that terms of their stance toward ICT stan- Asia Pacific countries contribute about dards, is vast. Some political institu- 10 percent of our Web traffic. tions aren't compatible with the kind of In Africa, the SDI-EA effort is moving international scientific and consensus forward, and the SDI-Africa newsletter , process activities that characterise is providing a means for sharing infor- organizations like the OGC. Not all mation about OGC adoption activities. countries are happy to send their Through Web browser searches it can experts to meetings around the world. David Schell be seen that even in most countries Sometimes, the problem is that organi- President Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. that have no OGC members there is zations have to pay for membership, adoption of the standards. which is, unfortunately, necessary to Q. Are there any hurdles in educating keep the process alive. Making an Q. What has been the response in investment in standards brings great the geospatial stakeholders to adopt terms of adopting the standards laid returns, but participation is sometimes standards not just in their profile but down by OGC or becoming members of seen as too expensive. also in their operations/projects in OGC etc. from South Asia, South East Q. What role do you see for regional India? Asia, Middle East and Africa? agencies managing SDI in increasing Over the past year, on our public web- Experience has shown that the first the usage and awareness of data stan- site of products that implement OGC objective in any country is to gain dards in their country or region? Standards there have been registra- acceptance by the leadership. If govern- tions from Australia, Iran, Japan, ment agencies in a country have lead- Regional agencies might manage SDI Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey, in ers with experience in geospatial tech- within a region of a country or a region addition to registrations from countries nologies there will be progress. Mr. Siva of a continent. In either case, regional in other regions. Japan, with three new Kumar is on the OGC Board of Directors, agencies are capable of educating peo- registrations, had the most new prod- and it has been very helpful to have his ple about the return on investment in uct registrations in the regions you support in India. We have found no bar- standards development and adoption. mention. riers to acceptance in India. India They are positioned to bring different In these regions, Japan, India and stands out for its thoroughly modern agencies within a region together in Korea have shown the strongest partic- ability to value technology and innova- coordination activities. These agencies ipation in the OGC, with 11, 6 and 3 tion and work profitably with the stan- can serve as schoolhouses and valida-

50 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 tion agents. They are most successful if because many software vendors have (WMS) and also the 19111 Update on they have global affiliations or knowl- agreed that GML is best for system to Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) as ISO edge that lead them to make the best system communication of geospatial standards. The Geography Markup Lan- use of global standards, in particular content. It can be used as a storage for- guage (GML) version 3.2.1 has just been those of ISO TC/211, OGC, and the Web mat, it can be interpreted and displayed approved as an International Standard. standards organizations. Like large and by non-proprietary software, it works The Web Feature Service (WFS) and Fea- small companies in India have realized, well in the Web context, it can be read ture Encoding (FE) are at various stages standards are actually repositories of a by humans or software, and it has in a process that will result in these huge amount of free intellectual prop- many other advantages. But GML defi- OGC standards becoming ISO stan- erty, and they open doors to huge mar- nitely is not intended to replace all data dards. kets. One benefit for agencies, of course, formats used internally by proprietary Q. Has any country adopted standards is increased interoperability with agen- software. laid down by the OGC, for its geospa- cies in other regions. Another benefit is The old idea of customers being forced that they can purchase products and to use a vendor's proprietary data stan- tial data products through regula- services from a larger set of knowledge- dard is passé, a relic of old market char- tion/legislation? If not, do you see any able vendors. acteristics. There are some traditional likelihood of the same in near future? Q. Even today, many of the leading formats that are still widely used. But that's an artifact of an old way of doing Yes, many have, but most often it is software vendors have their propri- business. simply through "agreement to adopt" etary data formats, which are “closed”. Q. What is the relationship which OGC after thorough discussion among Comment. stakeholders, rather than through regu- shares with ISO? lation or legislation. It makes perfect sense for a geospatial The OGC has had a long and productive In Europe, INSPIRE calls for the use of software vendor to use proprietary, Class A Liaison with ISO Committee 211 OGC standards. The Canadian Geospa- optimized data formats internally in (TC211) Geomatics. ISO is a "de jure" tial Data Infrastructure, a responsibility their software. However, when it standards development organization in and resource shared by multiple agen- comes to participating in client/server which the world's nations are repre- cies, is based on OGC standards interactions with other systems, the sented, and the OGC is a not-for-profit throughout. In Great Britain, the Ord- systems need to implement standards- member-funded standards develop- nance Survey's OS MasterMap supports based interfaces and encodings. The ment organization. The two organiza- distribution as GML. The US Census lists OGC's Geography Markup Language tions have established very effective TigerGML as a future Census Bureau (GML) plays an important role here, ways of sharing their work and harmo- product, the US national data portal nizing their (The National Map) is based on OGC standards in the standards, and OGC standards are writ- areas where ten into the US Federal Enterprise their work pro- Architecture. There is widespread adop- GML is best for system grammes over- tion of OGC standards in Australia. GML “ lap. Among oth- is specified in electronic-Government to system communication er valuable Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) best of geospatial content.But developments, practices in the UK, New Zealand, Den- this cooperation mark and Hong Kong. There are many GML definitely is not has resulted in others, and the list keeps growing. intended to replace data approval of the Q. Geospatial is an enabling technolo- OpenGIS Specifi- gy. It finds usage in many vertical seg- formats used by proprietary cations for Sim- software. ple Features and ments, but there are issues of seamless ” Web Map Server flow of data between different ven- AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 51 operability in opment, they can sell to much larger applications markets, and their products fit into There are no short term that involve solutions more easily. “ both technolo- Users benefit because software returns or benefits for gies. becomes reusable, instead of obsolete. the industry. The industry Having said That is, users can leverage existing needs to move ahead that, I should investments in legacy content and note that not all applications. This is often cited as the towards full adoption of of the problems single greatest benefit from complying open, consensus-derived you mention with standards or helping to establish can be them. Standards help users maximize standards. addressed with the return on their current and future the current stan- technology investments, while reduc- dards. Our existing the time and cost of integration. dors. What measures you propose to ing standards” are sometimes revised to Standards make it easier to adapt to the take in order to have better coordina- meet new requirements, and new stan- rapidly changing information technolo- tion in terms of data flow between dards are in various stages of develop- gy world, policy changes, and new and ment and adoption by the OGC mem- emerging requirements. industry players of vertical segments bers. As always, we invite vendors, The use of standards also provides a and geospatial domain players? agencies and corporate users of geospa- fulcrum to leverage IT investments and The major "horizontal" vendors have tial software to join OGC, get to know create liquidity. Put another way, a crit- all already implemented one or more the players, and become familiar with ical benefit of using standards is rev- OGC standards in open interfaces that those threads of OGC technical activity enue enhancement, in addition to could alleviate many of these problems. that are most relevant to their needs. direct cost savings. Standards provide a Many vertical segment software ven- Q. What has been the benefit of adopt- platform for realizing opportunities dors have built their applications on that would otherwise remain hidden. ing OGC standards for the industry, these horizontal vendors' platforms, On the Web, any resource increases in and they can easily pass this interoper- users and NMOs? Can we expect short value with the number of users who ability capability through to their cus- term returns/benefits through data can use it. tomers. Independent vertical segment standards for the industry? This is a key fact for NMOs to keep in software vendors who have not yet mind. To realize these benefits, agen- implemented OGC standards in their There are many benefits adopting OGC cies around the world are adopting pro- interfaces can do so, and they will if standards, and many are realized curement language that calls for OGC their customers insist. immediately when an open system standards in geospatial software prod- The OGC's role in current efforts to goes online. OGC standards are not data ucts being considered for purchase and integrate Computer Aided Design standards, as data standards are tradi- deployment. (CAD), geospatial technologies and tionally defined. I'll answer the OGC If by data standards you mean vendor Building Information Models (BIM) pro- standards part of your question first, proprietary formats, there are no short vides, perhaps, an example of what you and then I'll address data standards. term returns or benefits for the indus- are talking about. CAD and GIS are I would start by saying that in the try. The industry needs to move ahead quite different technologies. Individual OGC, vendors, integrators and platform towards full adoption of open, consen- vendors offering products in both providers build interoperability inter- sus-derived standards. If by data stan- domains have provided a degree of faces far faster than is possible with tra- dards you mean stakeholder agree- integration between the two, but now, ditional system integration contract- ments regarding data schemas, yes, with coordination between standards ing. And benefits are shared globally. there are short term and long term groups, it is becoming possible for ven- Vendors benefit because they save returns and benefits, in terms of more dors to provide vendor-to-vendor inter- money through shared interface devel- effective data sharing.

52 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

In Conversation with...

our business through four "verticals," in geospatial, where we have a some- enabling research and development what larger business in Europe, the (R&D), marketing, and sales to focus on Middle East, and Asia than we do in “The traditional their respective domains and establish the Americas. I believe strongly that GIS model of closer relationships with our users. the contributions of colleagues from all Given the interests of your readers, around the world provide tremendous recording the let me focus on our geospatial vertical, richness, insight, and balancing per- where our strategy is "advancing GIS spectives. Indeed, a majority of our col- location of assets for infrastructure." This vision means leagues are now employed outside is no longer that we do not compete across all GIS North America. applications, but that we excel in the Our business proposition is to devel- enough. Users area where GIS and infrastructure life- op the most comprehensive and pow- cycle management intersect. erful set of infra- want to improve In general, our business has seen structure gratifying growth (our revenues rose software the performance more than 15 percent from 2005 to in the of their assets 2006), and our geospatial business has world contributed strongly to that growth. and to deliver Q. How is Bentley spread worldwide that and what are its business propositions? through Q. How has Bentley evolved over ”the years? What have been the changing Perhaps the most distinguishing factor our vertical patterns in the company? about our company is the degree to organiza- Bentley Systems, which is now 22 which we are a global concern. tions. Again, years old, has come a long way from Finance, back office, marketing func- your readers the launch of MicroStation for the per- tions, and so on are largely centralized, will natural- sonal computer. Now, with much more but the teams for each of these are dis- powerful PCs, MicroStation provides a tributed. Our development group, robust 3D graphics environment to Bentley Software, has 60 loca- map, design, and visualize infrastruc- tions and only four of them ture assets of any type. It is not only a have more than 50 colleagues. software application. it is also our So Bentley is now truly a desktop software platform. Likewise, worldwide business. ProjectWise is our server platform. On these foundation products we develop applications for use in various fields relating to the diverse classes of infra- Greg Bentley structure. Thanks to the growth in our portfolio of software, we now see our mission as "providing software for the world's CEO, Bentley Systems, Inc. infrastructure." To carry out that mission, we have both developed products ourselves and acquired a number of Our revenues technology companies, especially since reflect that 2000. And to better meet the needs of worldwide our software users, we have organized scope, especially

54 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 ly be most interested in the solutions world as we see it, in delivered by our civil and geospatial photorealistic 3D. verticals. Our civil vertical provides One implication of solutions for road and rail infrastruc- this change is less ture and site development, and our reliance on the sym- geospatial portfolio addresses the bolic representa- telecommunications service providers, tions of maps and electric and gas utilities, water utilities, drawings and the and governmental agencies. In emergence of inno- essence, our geospatial vertical delivers vative ways of pre- solutions for networked assets that senting information. need to be managed in a spatial envi- This year we take ronment. another step forward with our Q. What role does geospatial technology "Athens" release, in play in the infrastructure domain? which any work done in MicroStation, "intra-operability" (where all of These are exciting times for geospatial or in any Bentley application, will be Bentley's products work seamlessly technology. The field is growing "geo-coordinated." This is a good exam- together, given their common desktop strongly around the world, and at the ple of the positive feedback loop from and server platforms) and interoper- same time is changing. the vertical applications that we devel- ability, where Bentley software will The traditional GIS model of record- op back into the platform. work with other applications and file ing the location of assets is no longer These changes leave Bentley's formats. enough. Users want to improve the geospatial vertical well-placed to capi- We have to embrace both the inher- performance of assets, which requires talize on a burgeoning market. As if to ent complexity of infrastructure proj- a synthesis of analysis, design, and echo our strategy of "advancing GIS for ects and the inevitable challenge that asset management. Indian infrastructure," the Geospatial Infor- multiple parties will be involved in big Railways and Survey mation and Technology Association projects, in which not everyone will be of India fall into (GITA) in the United States has recently using the same software. The interop- this category. changed its focus from open-ended GIS erability we support enables these "dis- At the same to infrastructure: Their new slogan is tributed enterprise" participants to pre- time, the "GITA - We Are Infrastructure." serve their technology choice, while Google the project still benefits from informa- Earth™ phe- Q. How do you position the issue of tion re-use. interoperability? nomenon For example, MicroStation inter- reflects an Interoperability is at the heart of Bent- changeably reads and writes AutoCAD intense ley's technology vision and strategic DWG files as well as its DGN format, demand to differentiation. We are uniquely capa- and the Bentley Geospatial Server model the ble and committed to delivering both adeptly handles all the major file types encountered in any geospatial environment. Also, we are increasingly meeting Google Earth phenomenon reflects needs, for infrastructure operations, to interoperate with enterprise applica- “an intense demand to model and see the tions such as SAP. A good example of this is our recent project for the Dutch world in photorealistic 3D. Ministry of Finance, where we implemented groundbreaking integration

AUGUST 2007 ” GIS DEVELOPMENT 55 Q. How are you tial improvement. Our initial priorities investing in the have to do with work packaging and Bentley R&D construction, visualization, and we're organization? already productizing some of this As a privately applied research in our "Athens" held company, release next year. Bentley Systems is uniquely able Q. Bentley has been taking a lot of interest in acquisitions. What factors influ- to maintain our ence your decisions about acquisitions? commitment to reinvestment in Acquisitions of discipline- and asset- research and class specific infrastructure applica- development. As tions are very valuable to our user we have grown organizations and thus to Bentley, to our revenues complete our comprehensive solutions five-fold over portfolio. And, we have the benefit of a between the Bentley Geospatial Server the last 12 years, our 20-percent rein- "target-rich environment," as such and SAP Real Estate. vestment has commensurately applications already cater for our plat- We do not believe that proprietary increased in wherewithal and results. form and the APIs that we support. data formats and databases have a We have invested over $500 million in Integrating them for intra-operability long-term future in the geospatial R&D and acquisitions since 1995, and is straightforward for us, as a result. environment. We believe that over $200 million of that just in the Just as importantly, our many annual software users should own their last two years. acquisitions bring us intensive domain own data in a neutral environment, In 2007, we introduced two new knowledge and successful entrepre- and that this data needs to be shared objectives in our R&D program. First, neurs to strengthen our management with the applications that access it - we recognized that our applications team and grow with Bentley. applications that will probably come portfolio has become so comprehen- Our acquisitions are increasingly from multiple vendors. This means sive as to merit dedicated resources to international, bringing us geographic users have wider choices in file formats target and advance solutions-combina- diversification and "last-mile" solutions and don't have to change their tool tions of our products and services-for coverage. sets. particular infrastructure asset classes Specifically in the geospatial arena, We believe strongly in the federated such as railways, utility and water net- we have recently made key acquisi- information paradigm, where applica- works, and now tions maintain their native data, but bridges. expose it for access by other applica- Secondly, we tions, at the appropriate level of introduced an abstraction. Google has shown the explicit "applied great virtue of this concept for text- research" func- based search, to start with. The Bentley tion, aimed at Geospatial Server similarly relies on adapting inno- indexing and search/find capabilities, vations devel- in this case to link and relate the oped elsewhere, semantics of engineering and planning for infrastruc- information as well. Federation is the ture IT, where future, rather than trying to force-fit we recognized a information of different types and lot of "white scales into a single database model. space" for poten-

56 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 tions to accelerate development. A technically enabling "drag and drop" good example is Cook-Hurlbert, capabilities to incorporate such con- acquired at the end of 2005, for electric tent into and around engineered infra- “We do not utilities. Cook-Hurlbert gave us the structure asset models, and vice versa. technology that you now find in Bent- We expect significant joint endeavors believe that ley Expert Designer XM and the know- and announcements with Google, over how that we have leveraged into the time. proprietary data powerful GIS capabilities of Bentley formats and Electric XM. Then GEF-RIS, acquired in Q. How do you see the position of Bent- ley in the geospatial industry vis-à-vis its Germany in 2006, brought us powerful competitors? databases have multi-utility GIS solutions, with new capabilities for district heating, for We are not trying to compete across a long-term future example. the broad spectrum of "GIS" applica- in the geospatial On the civil side, we just acquired tions. Rather, our solutions revolve TDV of Austria, so we now provide the around the intersection of infrastruc- environment. most capable bridge design software in ture engineering and GIS technology. the world - being applied zealously, for We want to present GIS capabilities instance, in South Korea and China. seamlessly and appropriately across There will be continued acquisitions the entire lifecycle of infrastructure ” of applications across all of Bentley's assets. bilities to facilitate collaboration, and verticals. We have a good pipeline in This focus on advancing GIS for interoperability with enterprise sys- process, and we have a great track infrastructure corresponds to the tems. And Bentley Geo Web Publisher record in assimilating and globalizing priorities for a very large portion of provides a robust environment for acquired products and teams the geospatial universe - in fact, publishing geospatial and AEC content within our ever-more-comprehensive independent market analyst Darate- over the Web in rapidly created map- portfolio. ch's most recent study of market based interfaces. shares ranked us second in geospatial For our comprehensive portfolio of Q. How are you associated with Google software, globally. intra-operating geospatial and civil and Microsoft, and what is your experi- We have been making strong applications, I would direct your read- ence working with them? advances in our geospatial technology ers to www.bentley.com to review our Microsoft is a strong partner of Bent- development, and we are now seeing April 2007 Annual Report, as well as ley. We commonly have Microsoft rep- the fruits of the most recent round of our "Year in Infrastructure" publica- resentatives working with us at our development based on the MicroSta- tion, which features hundreds of proj- headquarters campus here in Exton. tion V8 XM platform. Bentley's updat- ects nominated for BE (Bentley Microsoft products are prerequisites ed geospatial platform packaging will Empowered) Awards of Excellence, for everything we do, including server- be introduced this fall with our including many deserving nominees level ProjectWise, which takes advan- Geospatial Extension superseding and award winners in India. tage of Microsoft SharePoint. We and MicroStation GeoGraphics, and with In short, we foresee great opportuni- our users benefit a great deal from Bentley Map offering new levels of ty and advancement for Bentley and Microsoft's technology initiatives at performance for desktop GIS. for all of us in the geospatial "space" the server level as well as the desktop At the server level, we offer the Bent- over the next several years. level. ley Geospatial Server, which extends I am particularly looking forward to We make sure our users benefit from ProjectWise for geospatial users. The visiting India early in 2008 to share the R&D contributions of Google, also. Bentley Geospatial Server provides the and discuss the very interesting and Google Earth and SketchUp™ can both essential federated environment for gratifying progress we're making add value in geospatial workflows, and querying and accessing geospatial and together there, in advancing GIS for we are have been very proactive in engineering content, workflow capa- infrastructure.

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 57 SDI Approach towards Sharing and using Geospatial Data

he Emirate of Abu Dhabi has embarked on a move to extend the bene- Tfits of using geospatial data in its e- Government services by linking, coordinating, and sharing the spatial data that many of its government agencies already generate and use. LandSat image of Abu Dhabi Emirate. Image courtesy of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi Building on international standards and best practices, the Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure (AD-SDI) is the latest phase of the tiative (AGEDI) to increase access and use of quality environ- government's strategy to stay at the cutting edge of geo- mental data for conservation and sustainable development. graphic information technology and systems and represents • The Departments of Municipal Affairs (DMA) in both Abu Dhabi and Al Ain have defined major programs to update and an important step in the government's efforts to bring the extend detailed urban basemap data at more refined scales. benefits of broad-based electronic access to its service provi- • The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) has sion activities. This program is a continuation of a process developed and continues to maintain land base and water and initiated by the UAE Military Survey Department (MSD), the electrical transmission and distribution facility information for Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) and others in recent the entire Emirate. years to establish an Emirate-wide initiative. Other utilities and government agencies are likewise devel- The development of an AD-SDI is especially timely for Abu oping or considering development of their own GIS capabili- Dhabi Emirate. Many of its agencies are familiar with GIS ties. All these efforts can receive significant benefit from a and several have developed significant internal programs, centrally coordinated and facilitated AD-SDI program. including significant geospatial database development or The idea of coordinating GIS activities across the Emirate is updating and expansion efforts. not new. In 2002, users met under the aegis of the Environ- • The MSD has initiated a major programme to produce mental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (recently basemap data for the entire Emirate and refined mapping for renamed Environment Agency Abu Dhabi) to explore the most developed areas. idea of more formalized data sharing across government. • The EAD is developing a soils map for the Emirate, has acquired various satellite imagery for all of the UAE, is devel- Their response to the idea was positive, and led to drafting of oping a substantive and expanded update to the Coastal Sen- a Government decree which resulted in the formation of Spa- sitivity Atlas, and has initiated an aggressive and proactive tial Data Management Centre establishment committee, by program called the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Ini-

58 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 • To provide government policy makers the Abu Dhabi Executive Council in with improved geographic information, (EAD), the Department of Municipal 2005 to study the feasibility of an AD- spatial analyses, and visual tools, Affairs (DMA) , the Abu Dhabi Water SDI and explore scenarios. The Commit- enabling them to better evaluate alter- and Electricity natives in their deci- tee looked at the options, which includ- sion-making Authority (ADWEA), ed a variety of approaches for data processes. the Department of coordination and sharing. In late 2006, • To foster top-level AD-SDI coordinates Planning and Econo- the Executive Council activated the coordination among “vital data-sharing my (DPE), the Abu partner agencies. Geographic Information Infrastructure activities, leaving Dhabi National Oil Charter (GO-R-026) of the Abu Dhabi • To develop an Company (ADNOC), effective SDI model primary responsibili- Systems and Information Committee that can be emulated Etisalat (Telecommu- (ADSIC) to undertake the refinement by other emirates ty for development nications Company), and implementation process of the AD- and eventually & maintenance of and ADSIC. It is their applied across the SDI, including the establishment of a UAE. framework data with data that will form Spatial Data Coordination Centre custodian agencies the nucleus of the (SDCC) within the e-Government pro- At the center of the AD-SDI's data-shar- gram to facilitate, coordinate and sup- AD-SDI are its partner ing efforts. Other port the first stages of SDI develop- agencies - the agen- stakeholders from ment. cies that generate and use spatial data. government, education and research The goals of the AD-SDI are to In the foundation stage the AD-SDI, a institutions,” civil society and the pri- improve information sharing, reduce few key agencies will participate in the vate sector will be added in the future redundancy, increase efficiency, and initiative. These agencies generate as the SDI is expected to extend into support more effective operations and framework data, the Fundamental Geo- every aspect of Abu Dhabi society as a better informed decision-making in graphic Data Sets (FGDS) that form the building block in a larger information government. The initiative builds on basis of GIS activity. These agencies are infrastructure and e-Services strategy. important work already completed by the Military Survey Department (MSD), A key component of the AD-SDI foun- many government agencies, but under Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi dation stage is the Spatial Data Coordi- its mandate to use a distributed business model, the AD-SDI coordinates vital data-sharing activities while leaving primary responsibility for development and maintenance of framework data with specific custodian agencies. To this end, the ADSIC has tasked a team of international experts with the design and implementation of the first stage of the AD-SDI to establish the foundation of the initiative. During the second half of 2007, the team will work closely with key agencies to achieve the following goals: • To support data sharing and reduce redundancy and costs through geographic data alignment and development among different agencies and authorities. • To ensure that government laws, regu- lations, policies and practices are aligned to support maximum informa- The main features of the Abu Dhabi Old Master Plan. Image courtesy of the Department of tion coordination and exchange. Municipal Affairs - Abu Dhabi

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 59 nation Centre (SDCC) to be established within ADSIC (SDCC) to be established within ADSIC. This unit will guide both initiation and operation stages of AD- SDI development. The SDCC facilitates, coordinates, and supports the AD-SDI initiative and provides geographic analysis and decision support to the Executive Council and partner agencies. These agencies will continue to be the custodians of the framework data needed in common by other agencies. All such framework data will be developed and maintained according to content, format and procedural standards agreed by the AD-SDI community, starting in the foundation stage of the initiative. Encompassing a set of tactical 'quick wins,' this foundation stage of the AD- SDI includes the refinement of a stakeholder situation assessment covering GIS activities in all the key agencies; development of an AD-SDI Strategic Plan that details data, technical and institutional targets for future stages; ongoing and planned major data devel- cies can use the portal specifications to alignment of partner agencies' data opment projects to ensure that the out- help them design their own data repos- development projects; establishment of puts of these efforts are in line with the itories as well. a Geospatial Portal and Data Clearing- objectives of the AD-SDI. The Geospatial Portal will include a house, populated with representative The long-term goal of the AD-SDI is to data clearinghouse. This will provide a data from all the partner agencies; provide a network of seamlessly inter- facility for publishing information on establishment of a representative Tech- operable agency nodes to allow agen- behalf of those agencies that are not yet nical Committee to participate in and cies to share their framework data with prepared to implement and administer guide the AD-SDI development process; one another. An effective tool to their own distributed node. An associ- and design and development of capaci- achieve this goal is a Geospatial Portal. ated geospatial metadata catalog will ty-building programs for partner agen- The portal provides a single point of provide a master inventory of all most cies. It also includes the alignment of access for all the geospatial information commonly needed fundamental data across the entire AD-SDI community, as available in Abu Dhabi. This will be well as the map services to view and developed around International Orga- A key component of use that information. With input from nization for Standardization (ISO) stan- the partner agencies, detailed specifica- dards adapted for use in Abu Dhabi. “the AD-SDI foundation tions for the portal will set user inter- Geospatial information will be kept stage is the Spatial face improvements, graphical and car- current by each of the partner agency Data Coordination tographic refinements, and the estab- data custodians, and the tools for doing Centre to be establishment of direct links between the so will be provided through the Geospa- lished within ADSIC Geospatial Portal and ADSIC eGovern- tial Portal. In the next stage, the ment and other websites. Partner agen- Geospatial Portal will be fully integrat-

GIS DEVELOPMENT ” AUGUST 2007 60 the formation and analysis of pertinent policy matters of a technical nature; The geospatial portal participates in evaluating cross-agency “provides a single point e-Government business processes and of access for all the applications where spatial information geospatial information is concerned; participates in the devel- across the entire opment and promotion of common quality assurance and quality control AD-SDI community, specifications, methods and tools; and as well as the map oversees the activities of topical Work- services to view and ing Groups. use that information. Much of the technical analysis of the AD-SDI collaborative efforts takes place in the Working Groups. Three Working appropriate. This third and final stage Group topics have already been identi- will ensure that the AD-SDI is integrat-” fied including a geographically- ed into and adopted as an essential enabled census data product, a stan- function within the Abu Dhabi Emirate dardized geodetic framework for the government. To an extent, the process Emirate, and coordinated and stan- of institutionalization will be dardized topographic basemapping at addressed at each stage of develop- several scales. The Working Groups pro- ment, but in this final stage all remain- Quickbird image of downtown Abu Dhabi. Image courtesy of the Department of vide detailed recommendations on ing “build” elements will be transi- Municipal Affairs - Abu Dhabi methodology and standards to the tioned to an “operational” status. Technical Committee to assist in coor- Depending on decisions made during dinated data sharing and decision mak- the development of the AD-SDI Strate- ed within a broader e-Government Por- ing. gic Plan, this will include the final tal environment where geographic The Technical Committee and the top- implementation of the chosen business mapping location-aware applications ical Working Groups will make signifi- model, recruitment and training of per- and spatial analysis services will be cant contributions to the drafting of the manent staff, and finalizing of integra- used to spatially enable government AD-SDI Strategic Plan to cover the tion within e-Government and govern- online services. future stages of the initiative. ment restructuring programs. Over As well as being data custodians, the The next stage of the AD-SDI is time, the program will expand incre- partner agencies play a central role in expected to last approximately 12 mentally to work with the full range of AD-SDI development. Coordinators months, and will include the expansion organizations, including other govern- from each agency attend regular meet- and refinement of the AD-SDI infra- ment agencies, educational and ings of the AD-SDI Technical Commit- structure foundations established in research institutions, civil society, and tee, the operational-level interagency the foundation stage, including the the private sector. To facilitate the col- group responsible for facilitating the addition of new data and metadata, laborative approach and incremental coordination of geospatial activities assistance to selected agencies to devel- expansion, ADSIC has launched an AD- between, among, and within agencies op their own Geospatial Portal nodes, SDI website , where and representing the interests of their monitoring of data and capacity build- all interested users of geographic data own agency, as well as the common ing projects, continued provision of can find information, resources, and needs and opportunities of the AD-SDI analyst support to the Executive Coun- support. community. The Technical Committee cil and others partners, and added inte- works closely with the SDCC. It devel- gration and location-aware applica- Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori ops and promotes common standards tions to the e-Government portal and Chairman, Abu Dhabi Systems and and interoperability guidelines and in government agency websites where Information Committee (ADSIC)

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 61 Open Source QuantumGIS: The easy way

projects (www.source- platforms, including Win- loading data can be made forge.net), but has now its dows and MacOSX. faster by pyramidizing the own structure, with a web original rasters. It is also oday there are site (www.qgis.org), where Main functions possible to plot the color his- a number of anybody can know more, The interface (Fig. 2) looks togram (Fig.3). Symbology projects mak- get the program and the rather familiar to most GIS management for vectors is Ting life easier for the user. documentation, news, tips users. QGIS can read rasters extensive: colours and pat- Among these, besides a num- and tricks, interviews, etc. (50+formats) and vectors terns for filling and outlin- ber of minor projects, several QGIS is now an incubating (20+ formats). One impor- ing can be selected, also in are in use, eg uDIG, gvSIG, project in Open Source tant feature is the capability relation to table values; OpenJUMP, and especially Geospatial Foundation of reading and writing geo- labels can be shown, and QuantumGIS. (OSGEO: www.osgeo.org) database (PostGIS) data, attributes can be shown and both local and remote. It can queried from the tabular The good thing is that inter- BASE FEATURES also read Web Services data (with a graphical front- operability among different QGIS has good integration (WMS and WFS, standard end to SQL queries) and pieces of free soft- OGC). This allows the user to from the map; selected ware is very high, bring on common ground a records are highlighted both as it normally hap- variety of different data, in the table and in the map. pens with open thus acting as a powerful Vector editing is possible, source programs. integrator. in various ways: shapefiles It is possible to manipulate can be modified (with some WHY QUAN- RGB colour bands of rasters, limitation), as well as Post- TUMGIS visualizing them in GIS geodatabase layers QuantumGIS (in greyscale or pseudocolor (PostGIS advanced digitizing short QGIS) has its and set a transparency level; is under heavy development base development Fig. 1 : Development of QGIS libraries been developed upon popular KDE Linux desktop with other free GIS soft- environment. ware, in particular GRASS, PostGIS, and UMN MapServ- A SHORT STORY er. Quantum GIS was created in June 2002 by Gary Sherman. Multi-platform After 1.5 years, in which the QGIS has been translated in basis of the structure was several different languages, laid out, the development and more can be added pace increased considerably, with a minimal effort, from early 2004 (Fig 1). The thanks to code openness. It project has been incubated is available for Linux (where in the popular SourceForge it is mainly developed), but Fig. 2: QGIS user interface framework for open source also for all other popular

62 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 prevents errors (self-inter- keeping the desired layout, sections, dangles, etc.) to with minimal effort. creep in your precious Printing is done through a maps. dedicated window, where In QGIS it is possible to you can easily choose paper save projects (essentially, a characteristics and scale, list of vector and raster and inserting texts, legends data, with associated visu- and scale bars (Fig 4). Maps alization options such as can be printed, or saved in colours etc.) for later work; I various formats: encapsulat- find it very handy also the ed postscript (eps) and pdf, “spatial bookmarks”, a sim- in raster format (bitmap, ple system of tagging spe- jpeg, png etc.) and in scala- Fig. 3 Histogram cific portions of the working ble vector graphics (svg). area, to zoom quickly to one Further editing of the map of a series of sub-areas. The can thus be carried out in in this period). For heavy directory structure) and to layout (colours, fills etc. for different image or vector duty digitizing, however, edit vectors with an inter- each layer) can be saved as a editors (among the free the best available option is face similar to that of configuration file (.map) for ones: the GIMP for rasters, the GRASS plugin; this GRASS, though more intu- the powerful free web map- Inkscape for vectors). allows to display the layers itive. With the GRASS plug- ping engine, UMN MapServ- Projections can be handled includes in the various Loca- in, digitalization is fully and er. The same data can thus gracefully; layers in differ- tion and Mapset (the GRASS natively topological, which be published on the web, ent reference systems can PostGIS can also be shown, packages since they are of and shapefiles can be very specialized use. One of imported into the database the most exciting features of The GRASS plugin allows version 0.9, now under not only to display and edit development, is the possibil- GRASS layers, but also to use ity of writing plugins in QGIS as a graphical interface python, a very simple yet for many GRASS commands. powerful interpreted lan- Activating the plugin, a win- guage. New plugins can dow shows the commands, therefore be written and grouped on the basis of the tested with minimal effort. Fig 4. Print layout function, with a graphical descrition. Clicking on one of CONCLUSIONS graphical data (points), pro- the commands, all the rele- QGIS is, right now, a modern be reprojected in the system vided it has an X and Y col- vant informations for the piece of software, easy to umn (plus eventual associ- of choice (over 2,700 are chosen command are use, and comparable to well- ated data. available) on the fly, thus • GPS data (waypoints, shown: one window for the known Closed Source alter- avoiding to duplicate data, routes, and tracks) can also management of the options, natives; being a young proj- be loaded and shown, either converting them in different one for the output messages, ect, bugs are still present (a directly or through a text file systems. ; QGIS uses a specialized and one for the manual complete list on the QGIS program for this: GPSBabel page. If for instance we need web site; you can check A modular structure: the (www.gpsbabel.sf. net), also the intersection between yourself if any of these is free and open source soft- plugins ware; similarly, geographical two polygonal vectors, we critical for your work, and in QGIS has a modular struc- data can be uploaded on just have to select the com- case they are, fixing them is ture (Fig. 5), which allows to the GPS mand “Vector intersection” usually cheap and fast, if add new functionality for • geodatabase layers from from the group “Vector over- you wish to invest in the specific tasks. lay”, choose the name project). Each plugin can of the two vectors to Features are constantly be activated (as be overlayed, plus the increasing, thanks to the usual, just a click name of the resulting open source development on the menu is vector. Then clicking model. As an example, in the necessary) at the on “Run” we obtain development version is now user's choice. the result, which can possible to save as shapefile The simplest thus be displayed on any kind of vector layer that plugins allow the the map. has been loaded into QGIS, user to add to the Another plugin as a whole or a subselection map user-defined allows the georefer- of it, with a left-click on the grids, scale bar, encing raster images layer name. north arrow,copy- (both with linear Ultimately, as an open right labels and methods, without source project, it will be the more. Others image stretching, and response from developers allow the import with Helmert and users to determine the and export of method, based on priorities and the outcomes geographic data polynomials. More of the next steps. from various specialized plugins Paolo Cavallini sources: Fig 5. Modular Structure are available, gener- Co-author: Leonardo Lami • a text file can be ally as separate Faunalia Piazza Garibaldi, Italy loaded as geo-

64 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

Software Open Source GIS Software

GRASS and free of charge) as open source soft- tive workbench for viewing, editing, Geographic Resources Analysis Support ware (binaries and source code) under and processing spatial data, API provid- System, commonly known as GRASS, is the 52°North initiative (GPL license). ing full programmatic access to all an open source, free GIS software with ILWIS comprises a complete package functions, including I/O, feature-based many modules for raster and vector of image processing, spatial analysis datasets, visualization, and all spatial data manipulation, multispectral image and digital mapping. Key features operations. Also the software supports geocoding and processing and attribute include integrated raster and vector major industry standards such as GML management. GRASS is developed in a design, import and export of widely and the OpenGIS Consortium's Spatial UNIX environment and is supported by used data formats, along with a com- Object Model. prehensive set of image processing The JUMP provides APIs for all of its tools, advanced modeling and spatial core classes. This allows spatial func- data analysis, 3D visualization tionality to be easily incorporated in with interactive editing for optimal other standalone Java applications. The view findings. The system also has a set of core APIs includes Feature API rich projection and coordinate system ,I/O API for Reading and Writing of spa- library with modules for Geo-statisiti- tial data formats such as WKT, GML, cal analyses. and ESRI Shapefile, Warping API and www.itc.nl/ilwis the WMS Client API which gives the software, ability to retrieve capabilities Windows, MacOS X, Linux. JUMP GIS of WMS server, formulate map requests The important features of GRASS The JUMP Unified Mapping Platform and retrieve map images. includes Raster analysis, 3D-Raster (JUMP) is a GUI-based application for www.jump-project.org (voxel) analysis, Vector analysis, Point viewing and processing spatial data. It data analysis, DTM-Analysis, SQL-sup- includes many functions common to MapWindow GIS port. Other modules like Erosion model- MapWindow is an open source map- ling, Landscape structure analysis, ping tool, a GIS modeling system, and a Solution transport, Watershed analysis GIS application programming interface arae also integrated with this software. (API) all in one convenient redistrib- www.grass.itc.it utable open source form. MapWindow is more than just a data viewer, and it is ILWIS extensible through custom plug-ins to The Integrated Land and Water Infor- add additional functionalities. mation System (ILWIS) is a PC-based At the core of the MapWindow appli- GIS and Remote Sensing software, cation is developed by ITC up to its last release the Map- (version 3.3) other GIS products for the analysis and WinGIS in 2005. As manipulation of geospatial data. The ActiveX per July 1st, JUMP also provides a highly extensible control. 2007, ILWIS framework for the development and Using this software is execution of custom spatial data pro- control, freely avail- cessing applications. you can able ('as-is' The JUMP offers features like interac- program custom mapping functionali-

66 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 ty. MapWindow includes standard GIS ods, which is achieved by SAGA's API's. data visualization features as well as SAGA's true strength lies in the fast DBF attribute table editing, shapefile growing set of geoscientifc methods, editing, and grid importing and conver- bundled in exchangeable Module sion. Libraries. www.mapwindow.org www.saga-gis.uni-goettingen.de

SAGA GIS uDig SAGA - uDig is both a GeoSpatial application System for and a platform through which develop- Automat- ers can create new, derived applica- ed Geosci- tions. uDig has been designed from the entific start as a general purpose development Analyses- platform that is completely scalable Oracle Spatial formats. Another impor- is a hybrid and customizable and it can handle the tant functionalility is the extensive GIS soft- largest data sets; and can be completely standards support (OGC Filter, OGC ware. SAGA is written in the C++ pro- integrated with standard internet data Spatial Reference System, OGC Styled gramming language and follows an sources such as OGC WMS and WFS. It Layers, etc). object oriented approach. has a coordinate reference system sup- udig.refractions.net The objective of SAGA is to give geo- port for all data sources, and on-the-fly The list mentioned here is subjective and not exhaustive as scientists an effective platform for the coordinate system integration and sup- these are few software that maintains OGC standards and have an active user community. Other software like deegree, implementation of geoscientific meth- ports ESRI Shape files, PostGIS, DB2, QGIS and gvSIG have been mentioned in detail in this issue. Open Source

such as digital terrain and building models in file-based systems and rela- deegree - tional databases. Using different deegree web services, this data can be queried and displayed.

Components DEEJUMP Using deegree components, the Open Source desktop GIS OpenJUMP (Java and Framework Unified Mapping Platform) was enhanced to support WMS and WFS. A number of additional modifications for SDI and extensions was also developed. OVERALL ARCHITECTURE The different deegree components can W, Gazetteer, SOS, WPS and WTS/ be combined with each other or with eegree is a Java-based Open WPVS. Besides, two security services other standard-compliant software. Source / Free Software frame- (WAS/WSS), a printing service (WMPS) iGeoPortal with its different modules dwork for the implementation of and a service monitor (owsWatch) are Spatial Data Infrastructures. It contains available. CityGML A GML application schema for city models the services needed for SDI (deegree Web Catalogue Service - Web. An OGC standard for access to CS-W metadata Services) as well as portal components (dee- DEEGREE IGEOPORTAL Geopraphy Markup Language. An OGC standard for XML- GML gree iGeoPortal), mechanisms for handling iGeoPortal has a modular structure and based encoding of geospatial data.

security and access control issues (deegree is able to display maps, support search- The library or lesser GNU public License. A Free Software GNU LGPL license developed by the Free Software Foundation iGeoSecurity) and storage / visualization of es using geographic identifiers, search (http://www.fsf.org)

3D geodata (deegree iGeo3D). for datasets using metadata, allow for The Open Geospatial Consortium, an international standardi- OGC zation consortium for geospatial applications. controlled access to OGC Web Services deegree is based on the standards of and display of 3D geodata. OWS OGC Web Services

the OGC and ISO / TC 211. Presently it is deegree iGeoPortal itself consists of SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure the most comprehensive implementa- different modules for separate, but Styled Layer Descriptor. An XML grammar for styling informa- SLD tion. In version 1.1.0 SLD is split into Symbology Encoding tion of those standards in one Open combinable, functionalities. The list of and SLD. Source framework. The framework is modules includes: map, download, Sensor Observation Service. A standard of the OGC for SOS component-based to a high degree, gazetteer, catalogue, security and 3D. access to time-dependent sensor data

User Rights, Roles and Resources. A database schema used allowing the flexible creation of solu- U3R by deegree for storing access control information. tions for a wide variety of use cases. It is DEEGREE IGEOSECURITY Web Map Service. A standard of the OGC for data access WCS published under the GNU LGPL. deegree iGeoSecurity can be used to (mainly raster data).

define access mechanisms using Web Feature Service: A standard of the OGC for data access WFS (vector data) COMPONENTS authentication & authorization mecha- Web Feature Service - Gazetteer profile. A WFS specialized WFS-G deegree comprises five groups of com- nisms, secure connections and filtering on placenames and addresses. Web Map Service. A standard of the OGC for data visualiza- WMS ponents that are briefly described in of geodata. A database for managing tion. the following. users, user groups, roles and rights Web Processing standard. A standard of the OGC describ- WPS called deegree U3R is the core compo- ing a service able to process geospatial data. DEEGREE WEB SERVICES nent of the security components. Web Terrain Service. A standard by the OGC describing access to 3D visualizations using pictures. Newer version of These are the base components of any WTS thes specification are sometimes called Web Perspective View SDI. The list of implemented OGC Web DEEGREE IGEO3D Service (WPVS).

Services includes WMS, WFS, WCS, CS- deegree can be used to store 3D geodata A (German) GML application schema XPlanGML for urban and town planning information.

68 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007 PROJECT DESCRIPTION acts as a web-based client to the different Web Services. Alternatively, dee- Vietnam is the destination for the new century and JUMP can be used to access WMS oder Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest city in Vietnam. WFS services. If needed, security man- Because of its fast growth, tourists and explorers will find this website useful. There is a detailed agement can be implemented using map of Ho Chi Minh City with streets, land marks, rivers, buildings, hotels It's possible, if you have an iGeoSecurity. deegree can access differ- account, to bookmark your own points of interest ent data sources, e.g. PostgreSQL /Post- on this map. There is also statistical information about the administrative unit of Ho Chi Minh City GIS or Oracle databases, shapefiles, all including population, area, education and other things. (Text taken from http://www.opengeospa- kinds of relational databases using a tial.org/pressroom/newsletters) deegree-specific spatial extension and different kinds of image formats such as PNG, GIF, JPEG or (Geo)TIFF. What is MIDAS? MIDAS is a 'one-stop shop' for companies and online services needing easy and efficient online APPLICATION AREAS access to weather information. What MIDAS Does deegree technology can be used in all MIDAS provides online access to a rich set of dynamic weather forecast, satellite nowcast and areas that benefit from SDI approaches. marine environmental information for easy real-time The three major application areas for integration into third-party end-user applications and web services. MIDAS provides two simple to deegree in the future will be urban and use IP-based APIs to support the inclusion of its content: (i) a simple HTTP-based OGC-compliant town planning, environmental infor- interface, and (ii) an XML-based interface support- mation systems and natural disaster ing more complex data retrieval requests. management, in more detail described o in the following. ProSiN - The planning portal of Hamburg offers the public RBAN AND TOWN PLANNING U information about planning data - both the current The processes of urban and town plan- legally binding development plans which can be downloaded as PDF files as well as development ning require integration of a variety of plans being still in process. The portal is based on WMS, WFS-G and WMC standards. The citizen di- data sources as well as the distribution can navigate via a gazetteer enabling a search via of planning information to a wide audi- street and house number. The next step is the integration of participation module based on WFS. ence. Integration of data is possible using two methods, one being the usage of raster information that still is ma- the rule, although much information is lost this way. The second method is the cally unproblematic, existing data application of object models for plan- exchange of object-structured informa- often does not satisfy basic require- ning purposes and the coupling of 2D

ed tion that is theoretically superior but in ment like proper georeferencing or data with 3D city models will be major practical projects still the exception. common application of styling rules. themes handled by deegree. s Distribution of the information can While an object-oriented approach cess best be done using the Web, therefore seems much more satisfying and stan- ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION application of geoportals and corre- dards like GML are by now able to scope SYSTEMS ed sponding standards like WMS and WFS with the necessary complexity, the Almost all environmental information za- seem necessary. A number of deegree- practical problems here are still hard to is geospatial information and can best based projects in Germany and the overcome. Using deegree a prototype be analyzed when displayed together b- Netherlands address these issues. implementation of an object-model with other georefenced data. Although Major problems were identified regard- (XPlanGML) based planning informa- environmental information systems of ing the integration of data while apply- tion system was developed under the include additional aspects ,they benefit View ing the approaches described above. name XPlanung Publishing Platform. greatly from an SDI approach. SDI While raster integration seems techni- In the future, the development and allows integration of distributed data

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 69 sources, their analysis and display. dee- taken from deegree, so that transfer of CURRENT STATUS gree-based systems can be coupled project results to other regions with In June 2007 deegree day took place in with tools such as iReport to handle similar disasters will be easy and cost- Bonn Germany. At the same time, the environmental reporting tasks. effective. Transferability and fail-proof 2.1 releases of deegree were published. strategies and dynamic integration of The corresponding demo releases are DISASTER AND RISK MANAGEMENT sensor data linked to cartographic dis- extremely easy to install as they come The application SDI this technology to play will be cornerstones of the project. as WAR-archives and can be deployed disaster management poses several within seconds if a Tomcat Servlet challenges, the two most important PROFESSIONAL SERVICES engine is available. The demo releases being reliability of the overall system deegree is a commercial Open Source include a WMS, a W Fs (with gazetteer), and integration of up-to-date sensor project in the sense that lat/lon bases a WCS, a Catalogue Service-Web (for ISO information. An approach to this is its business model mainly on services metadata), a WTS. All demo releases under development in a joint German- about deegree. Although a number of come with preconfigured data sources Turkish research project called EDIM other institutions are contributing to and detailed documentation. The (Earthquake Disaster Information Sys- the deegree project, the majority of its release 2.1 is a major step forward tem for the Marmara Region, Turkey), development still is done as part of in deegree's development. Visit funded by the German Federal Ministry lat/lon's projects. The services offered http://www.deegree.org for news for Education and Research. The archi- by lat/lon include development of proj- regarding deegree day 2007 and dee- tecture of the system is based on stan- ect solutions, consulting and coaching gree releases. dards developed by the OGC e.g. WMS, for institutions using deegree and sup- WFS and SOS. The software compo- port of businesses who want to develop Dr. Markus Lupp lat/lon, Kupang, Timor, Indonesia, [email protected] nents used in the project will mainly be solutions and products using deegree. Conference Geo Intelligence 2007 Technology helps make difference between good and excellent force: Army Chief

their expertise on C4ISR as an emerging tool for modern army. Dr. Munshi said, though the systems of C4ISR already exists and is in use in India, it is segre- gated, which needs to be integrated. He also talked about a solution on how to modernise the army system and integrate them. Speaking on Terrain Analysis Dr. Tom Lobonc, Director of International Defence, Leica Geosystems delved on the importance of Image techniques Brig M V Bhatt, K K Singh, like image fusion, Object recognition Lt. Gen Deepak Kapoor and Dr. M P Narayanan (Left to Right) techniques etc. The day two of the conference began with the Keynote session on "Data Produc- tion and Survey- ing". wo day conference, During the con- “Geo-Intelligence 2007” cluding session Twith a theme "C4ISR for on "Future Decision Support" was jointly Trends in Geo- organised here by GIS Develop- Intelligence", the ment and Military Survey (GSGS) speakers pre- on July 26-27, 2007 at New Delhi. sented on the The conference was support- latest developed by the leaders of the indus- ments in the try like Rolta India as Platinum Geospatial Sponsor, HP as Gold Sponsor domain like the and Leica Geosystems as Silver Sponsor. difference between a good force and an Ortho Rectification for Multi Sensor Inaugurating the conference, the excellent force. Data Fusion and Standards and Inter- Chief Guest, Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor, The conference had keynote sessions operability for the Geo-Intelligence PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC, Chief of on C4ISR, Terrain Analysis, Data Pro- community. The conference ended Army Staff, said the most important duction & Surveying and Future Trends with a valedictory speech by Maj Gen weapon of any army is the soldier, but along with a Technology show by Rolta. Jasbir Singh, VSM of DG Infantry. the technology can help us make the Speakers during C4ISR session shared

AUGUST 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 71 Geospatial Publications

pe=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72 Google Earth and California State GIS CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=80ABF08FBB124A278A8 A look at the impact of free geobrowsers in the organiza- 7C833E30322B8 tional context of state government in california. http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/californiastate_intv CyberTrackers of the Kalahari 6i7.pdf ... highlights high-tech wildlife trackers that have been used against poachers, in ecotourism, environmental education, research and monitoring. http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&ty Online Publications pe=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72 CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=1A67595BA94F4B0ABC3 GISuser (July 2007) AE735B20028F9 (http://www.gisuser.com) GEO TIMES (July, 2007) Nokia N95 Aerial Photography from PictEarth USA ...insight into the more sophisticated application of the high- http://www.geotimes.org flying Nokia N95 that builds on this technology. X-ray Eyes in the Sky http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/12106/53/ ...highlights the focus of the next generation of low-orbiting City Tours, Photos, Maps, Reviews, and Schmapplets From satellites that they hope will see far past the planet's surface Your Desktop Schmap 2.0 (Beta) and into its interior, to better understand the structure and Schmap 2.0 (Beta) offers up free travel guides/maps that composition of Earth's crust, mantle and core. enable you to easily explore virtually any major destination http://www.geotimes.org/current/article.html?id=feature_x on the planet. ray.html http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/12070/53/ Print Publications Deadly Earthquake hits Japan, Damages Nuclear Power Plant POB Online (June 2007) GIM International (August, 2007) A deadly earthquake shook Japan, killing at least seven (http://www.pobonline.com) (http://www.gim-international.com) people, injuring hundreds more and damaging one of the world's largest nuclear power plants. Web-Exclusive: And The Beat Goes On Camera Laser Scanner http://www.geotimes.org/july07/article.html?id=WebEx- It is an update on the Appalachian Trail recruitment effort for ...gives the account of the testing on the information content tra071607.html future surveyors. and performance of laser scanner system in 3D modelling of http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/Articles/Features/BNP_ St. Maria Maggiore. Climate Kick-started Agriculture GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000124902 http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id963- The new research using microfossil plant data in southern Camera_Laser_Scanner.html Mexico is potentially linking the beginning of agriculture in For Trains, Planes and Automobiles the New World with a change in climate as well. ...shows how an extensive surveying toolbox aids massive Calibrating Survey Instruments http://www.geotimes.org/july07/article.html?id=WebEx- and operational New York transit project. ...states the development of a modern calibration bench tra070207.html http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/Articles/Cover_Story/BN mark for the calibration of survey instruments under interna- P_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000124836 tionally recognised COFRAC accreditation. Fill 'er up…With Sugar? http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id961- Researchers are suggesting that renewable, clean-burning Of Light and Time Calibrating_Survey_Instruments.html sugar derivatives might someday help replace liquid fossil This article provides a window for understanding a few of fuels such as gasoline. the many capabilities for LiDAR in resource management. Leica HDS 3000 in the Lab http://www.geotimes.org/june07/article.html?id=WebEx- http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/Articles/Features/BNP_ Using Leica HDS 3000, the authors developed and tested a tra062007.html GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000128114 new method for verifying the quality of the terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data. Panama: Beyond The Canal ASM (Asian Surveying & Mapping) (July 2007) http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id962- ... explores Panama which is not merely the shortest distance (http://www.asmmag.com) Leica_HDS__in_the_Lab.html between two oceans, but rather a distinct place on its own. http://www.geotimes.org/june07/article.html?id=Trav- Himalayan Floods Waterside Mapping in Italy els0607.html The study is advocating the development of an early warning Mapping waterside areas by generating a complete and system for glacial lake outburst flooding in the Himalayas. accurate digital model of areas both above and below water Snowmelt on the rise in Greenland http://www.asmmag.com/ASM/content/2007/ASM_046/ level was done by integrating 3D Laser Scanning and Side- This study raises concern, which uses satellite observations main_news_8.html scan Sonar. of Greenland's ice sheet, showing that Greenland experi- http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id964- enced more days of melting snow in 2006 than the country Low Level Risk Waterside_Mapping_in_Italy.html had averaged over recent decades This article highlights the first attempt to quantify the global http://www.geotimes.org/june07/article.html?id=WebEx- risk from sea level rise and increased storm activity. Road Safety Analysis tra060707.html http://www.asmmag.com/ASM/content/2007/ASM_046/ The study demonstrates how the Terrestrial Laser Scanning main_news_7.html (TLS) can provide reliable, accurate and timely data for the Geo: International Magazine Magazine documentation of road systems for safety analysis and traf- (July/August 2007) ArcNews (Spring 2007) fic-accident reconstruction studies. (http://www.geoconnexion.com) (http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/arcnews.html) http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id960- Road_Safety_Analysis.html Geospatial Image Formats Shootout-Part one ArcGIS Goes Mobile ...investigates pros and cons of digital formats...... features SDK, ArcGIS Mobile, which allows users to build Capturing Scenes with Lidar http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/geospatial_intv6i7.pdf and deploy mobile GIS applications that can run on a variety This article focuses on precautions required when capturing of mobile devices. scenes using terrestrial Lidar. The Global UNSDI Initiative http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring07articles/arcgi http://www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id949- ...focuses on the United Nations need of global SDI to sup- s-goes-mobile.html Capturing_Scenes_with_Lidar.html port humanitarian aid global SDI to support humanitarian aid, food security, poverty reduction, disaster planning, Designing a Global GIS Strategy GeoWorld (July, 2007) recovery and remediation. ...tells about development of CISS by The Nature Conser- (www.geoplace.com) http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/globalinitiative_intv vancy with the help of ESRI's Professional Services Division, 6i7.pdf to achieve the conservation and science goals of the 2015 Mississippi Leads Cybercrime Fight Goal, with additional plans to incorporate GIS into the busi- This article shows how Mississippi cybercrime investigators One World - One Geology ness systems. are working towards fighting crime. discusses the step towards the creation of a global interop- http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring07articles/desi http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&ty erable geological map dataset with an initiative, known as gning-a-global.html pe=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72 "OneGeology" . CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=FDE94FD56DA04B65808 http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/onegeology_intv6i Mapping the Ayles Ice Shelf Break 90FD0705F7362 7.pdf ...investigate the Ayles Ice Shelf breakup with the help of ArcInfo, through which volume of ice loss was calculated, Computer Predicts Criminal Actions METOP-A Ushers in New Era of Climate Modelling causes of breaks were visualized and unique "microbial mat" Greater Manchester Police is adopting a new computer pro- ...highlights METOP-A, Europe's first operational climate habitat were also analyzed. gramme which 'predicts' where criminals will be, using infor- monitoring satellite, which has taken up the service. http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring07articles/map- mation such as a criminal's address and where they have http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/metopaushers_intv ping-ayles.html committed crimes in the past 6i7.pdf http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&ty

72 GIS DEVELOPMENT AUGUST 2007

74 Planner www.gisdevelopment.net/events Burkina Faso,Africa Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia Urumchi, Xinjiang,China 19 -23September 17-21 September 15-16 September Hong Kong,China 13 -14September 12 -14September 3 -5September 3 -7September September 2007 28 -29August 14 -16August August 2007 Stuttgart, Germany Burkina Faso,Africa Maynooth, Ireland I C A T L 7 G 5 I M Beijing, China GIS DEVELOPMENT n S t 1 o h o f e P s h a f c r n e o t o R i

a p

c c f r P U S n t

e a o m A i h www.ifp.uni-stuttgart.de/phowo/index.en.html

t s r W o

m 2 s e o e e a n i 0 r n t r o p a t

n o

0 A i c a r

u o 2 g a k e 7 n s t n 0 r t

s i a o d a i a 0

h o t S n

t i 7 o 2 n y o

h S p 0 s m a n www.ncg.nuim.ie/geocomputation e p t

0 l

a e 2 G 7 W www.lreis.ac.cn/eng/kfjl/IWGIS/ m t 0 t E r i o 0 a i s O c r

7 l ( S

k www.isprs-wg41.nsdi.gov.cn

I W I C S W n s www.africagis2007.gov.bf www.location.net.in/asia

o h A e f G n o o e r r f p I k c m e S h

o r ' 0 i e a www.mapasia.org f t www.grss-ieee.org 7

n t e G ) i c c o e t e n o u

g r e r a

X p V h I i I c a l Theory Melbourne,Australia Ft. Worth,Texas,USA Stuttgart, Germany Cape Town,SouthAfrica Quebec, Canada 5 -7November2007 November 2007 29 -31October 29 -31October 22 -26October 10 -12October Santander, Spain 8 -10October 2-5 October October 2007 26th September 25 -28September 25 -27September2007 24 -27September Queretaro, Mexico Leipzig, Germany Victoria, Canada The Mirage,LasVegas,USA Stockholm, Sweden Muscat, Oman T E M G 2 C Q E I I F U O N 6 O S S r o I u s a i S N R R t T a e S m e h p

I I E r s S i

G s

n t R E M b 4 A U e www.geociencias.unam.mx/gis_geol_2007.htm G

N u C G G l c G f r e i I o r r

b d S E

S 2

e C www.esri-sweden.com/euc2007/default.htm o i D n S a O d

c 0 o 0 p o

f a n I l 0 l 2

n M 7 e e e 2 o

0 2 7 r D a

0 f www.trimbleevents.com/dimensions07 g E 0 e E 0 e n 0 a y a n N r 0 7

t 7

s e U & c 7 a S t n e s

& M

c O E e e r a

N Mapafrica.gisdevelopment.net a N

r C n S t o o h a

r 2 n

g t 0 S f h e c e 0

m i r A 7 e e n f e www.coastgis07.com www.foss4g2007.org n www.quebec2007.ca r n c i c e c t e www.meauc.com a

www.intergeo.de s S

www.udms.net y www.cosit.info m www.ion.org p o s i u m The CrownePlazaHotel,BahrainManama Delft, TheNetherlands India ExpoCentre,GreaterNoida, Mexico City, Mexico City, Moscow, Russia Westminster, London 10 -12December 4 -6December December 2007 29 -30November 21 -23November 12 -16November 6 -8February February 2008 21 -24January 17 -18January January 2008 29-30 November 17 -19December 12 -14December Tokyo, Japan Trivandrum, India Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia Andhra Pradesh,India Visakhapatnam, a E G X A M D E G b 3 M D a S n - X C e e G G a i R r d g o o d R V I t p I I

e S S

d h S S E

E I

A o

I I 2 l @

2 2 u www.engineer-bh.com/mest2007/message.htm x n f

e i 0 s I 0 0 r h n r

N d A i o E 0 o 0 0 a i f i s a m b C p o 7 a

7 7 P i s i A

a 0 t 2

a t S

2 0 7

c I o S p 2 gis.esri.com/intldist/intlevents_ex.cfm n 0 www.wbr.co.uk/dgieurope/index.html i 0 www.transparentworld.ru/conference p n 0 a f t 0 i 8 a www.tagsasia.org/bgisasia/bgisasia

c 0 e c ( 8 t e M r

7 i U n a E s a l S

e www.macres.gov.my/acrs2007 t T [email protected] T r i e o

) C c

n 2 o h a 0 n n l 0

f o C e 7 www.3d-geoinfo-07.nl l o r o e n www.mapindia.org g n g y c r

www.geosco.org www.geosco.org C e e

s o s n UUT2007 AUGUST f e r e n c Eventse Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Co-Sponsor

Knowledge Partners

Organiser Photogrammetrically DERIVE STEREO PAIRS, TERRAIN and ORTHOS, then EXTRACT features in 3D.

Create a 3D VIRTUAL WORLD and

PUBLISH the scene to the WEB.

Create content-rich 3D scenes and share your world on the web. From raw data to the web, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging provides proven technology solutions Leica Photogrammetry Suite

to maximize your workflow. ERDAS IMAGINE® Build and publish your 3D-rendered scene from LPS Automatic Terrain Extraction the barest of resources: raw imagery and ground control points. Use our seamlessly-integrated LPS Stereo Leica Photogrammetry Suite to create stereo LPS Terrain Editor pairs, extract terrain and create orthorectified imagery. Take these same stereo pairs into IMAGINE Enterprise Loader™ Stereo Analyst for IMAGINE and extract realistic 3D architecture features. Add depth IMAGINE Enterprise Editor™ to your 3D models by texturizing from the scene imagery or from detail-rich libraries. Combine all these geographic products together in Leica Virtual Explorer Architect Stereo Analyst® for ArcGIS and construct your highly-realistic, geographically-accurate 3D reality. Finally, use IMAGINE AutoSync™ Leica Virtual Explorer Server to efficiently stream rich 3D environments and let your clients navigate. IMAGINE Easytrace™

Leica Virtual Explorer Architect From preparation of source material to final product generation, maximize your workflow with tools from Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. Call us at +1 877 463 7327 or Leica Virtual Explorer Server +1 770 776 3400 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

Copyright © 2007 Leica Geosystems. All rights reserved. ERDAS IMAGINE is a registered trademark and exclusive property; Stereo Analyst is a registered mark. IMAGINE Enterprise Loader, IMAGINE Enterprise Editor, IMAGINE Easytrace and IMAGINE AutoSync are trademarks. Geospatial Imaging Chain is a trademark, service mark and property of Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging, LLC.