R.N.I No - UPENG/2010/34153; Registration no: UP/GBD-136/2011-13 Publication: 10th of every month I Posting: 15th / 20th of every month Christian Carle, CEO, PoleChristian Carle,CEO, Star Intervi GGE www.geospatialworld.net W Y o ur G ur ew EO eosp O OS atial I | P. 66 SP R PA Oct s ndu o LD ber 2013 ber depleting waterresources,countingand saving everydropistheonlyoptionleft. AT Drop the demandforwatersupply. Withfast Saving Global populationisontherise,so » tr D VOLume 04 VOLume TI y Ma Every G-tech showstheway... » G-Tech shedsnewlighton ISS IA water management|P.26 Every dropmatters|P.20Every groundwater info|P.30 03 | ISSN 2277–3134 03|ISSN UE Spatial enablementof AL gazin L

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74 Geospatial World | July 2013 Interview We Got the point. You Will too.

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© 2013, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble and the Globe & Triangle logo are trademarks Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of 74 Geospatial World | July 2013 their respective owners. GEO-007

13_XX_TrimbleMX2_AD_customer_MX2_EN_Geospatial World).indd 1 26.09.13 12:30 Inside... October 2013 • Vol 4 • Issue 3

Special Focus: Public Safety The Big Story: Water 42 Value of geoinformation for disaster 20 Every drop matters management, Robert Backhaus Ridhima Kumar

26 G-tech sheds new light on water 46 Managing resources for effective management, Dr Stephen A McElroy disaster response, Joyce Tam

Case Studies Case Studies 50 Early warning system to mitigate 30 Spatial enablement of groundwater tsunami fury info management 52 Geo-referenced maps for earthquake 34 Managing water across borders damage assessment in Japan 36 Real-time monitoring of inland water 54 Reliable crowdsourcing in the times quality of disasters 40 GIS helps Manila Water come out of 56 London gets an effective policing tool deep water 58 Fighting crime and enhancing Interview security Interview 66 Christian Carle, CEO and Co-founder,

Pole Star 60 Intelligent mapping to combat 38 Malcolm Walter, COO and emergencies Senior Vice President, Bentley 07 Editorial 62 Satellite-based monitoring of emergencies 08 News 64 GIS aiding public safety in Indian city 18 ProductWatch 69 Events

70 UNEP awards feature 16 Asia Geospatial Forum 2013 report 73 Picture This

Disclaimer Owner, Publisher & Printer Sanjay Kumar Geospatial World Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the Printed at M. P. Printers B - 220, Phase-II, Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd. views expressed in the publication. All views expressed Noida - 201 301, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP) India (formerly GIS Development Pvt. Ltd.) in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial Publication Address A - 92, Sector - 52, A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, India Tel + 91-120-4612500 Fax +91-120-4612555 / 666 the information provided. The edition contains 76 pages including cover Price: INR 150/US$ 15

CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan Aida Opoku Mensah Bryn Fosburgh Special Advisor, Post 2015 Sector Vice-President, Publisher Development Agenda, UN Barbara Ryan Executive Committee Dawn J. Wright Sanjay Kumar Economic Commisssion Secretariat Director, Group Member, Chief Scientist, for Africa on Earth Observations Trimble Navigation Esri Publications Team Managing Editor Derek Clarke Dorine Burmanje Dr. Hiroshi Murakami Prof. Arup Dasgupta Chief Director-Survey and Chair-Executive Board, Director-General of Editor — Building & Energy Mapping & National Geospatial Cadastre, Land Registry and Planning Department, Information, Rural Development Mapping Agency (Kadaster), Greg Bentley Geospatial Information Geoff Zeiss & Land Reform, South Africa The Netherlands CEO, Bentley Systems Authority of Japan Editor — Agriculture Prof. Josef Strobl Mark Noort Chair, Department of Editor — Latin America (Honorary)

Advisory Board Prof. Ian Dowman Geoinformatics, Juergen Dold Kamal K Singh Tania Maria Sausen First Vice President, University of Salzburg, President Chairman and CEO, ISPRS Austria Hexagon Geosystems Rolta Group Editor — Geospatial World Weekly (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Mohd Al Rajhi Executive Editor Lisa Campbell Mark Reichardt Asst Deputy Minister for Bhanu Rekha Vice President, President and CEO, Land & Surveying, Engineering & Open Geospatial Matthew O’Connell Ministry of Municipal & Deputy Executive Editor Infrastructure, Autodesk Consortium CEO, Adhoc Holdings Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia Anusuya Datta Product Manager Ramon Pastor Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Vice-President and Vanessa Lawrence General Manager, Large Stephen Lawler Director General and Sr Asst Editor Format Printing Business, Chief Technology Officer, Dr Swarna Subba Rao Chief Executive, Mushahid M Khan Hewlett-Packard Bing Maps, Microsoft Surveyor General of India Ordnance Survey, UK Sub-Editor Ridhima Kumar 5 Geospatial World | October 2013 Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Amit Shahi NEW RIEGL LMS-Q1560 Ultra high performance, fully integrated and calibrated dual channel airborne mapping system for all challenging airborne surveying missions October 08-10, 2013 Meet us at Essen, Germany Hall 3 / Booth D3.030

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72.indd 74 10/1/2013 11:31:49 AM EditorSpeak

Saving our Blue Planet Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor [email protected]

hen Apollo 11 astronauts looked precious resource, control its wastage and max- back at the earth from the moon they imise its reuse. Thankfully, the last task is made W saw a beautiful blue marble; 70% easier because water is a renewable resource. water and only 30% land, that they called their The task of using g-tech to manage water supply, home. A scientist on Mars, suffering from acute distribution and reuse is the lead story of this water shortage, might draw a conclusion that as issue. The applications range from discovery of this world was composed of 70% water, this must groundwater through remote sensing, managing be Elysium. May be the Martian military would surface water, managing and optimising water use this information to launch an expedition to distribution networks, managing waste water colonise Earth and use its ‘overabundant’ re- and finally groundwater recharging. Perhaps source of water which is so much in short supply the most dramatic example is the use of NASA’s on Mars. GRACE satellite to show the depletion of ground- In the H G Wells classic War of the Worlds; the water due to over pumping for irrigation in the Martians were defeated by microbes. Had Wells plains of Punjab, India. written this story in the 21st Century, he would In this issue, we have also covered the use of have probably had the Martians be defeated by g-tech in other disaster situations, from man- water scarcity. made disasters to natural calamities like tsuna- In fact the world is in the midst of Water Wars. mis, cyclones and floods when water turns from In the past half a century there have been over a life giver to a life taker. An aspect of manmade 1,800 disputes between countries, of which 21 disasters is the acts of terrorism and the use of led to military violence, Darfur being a prime g-tech to interdict such events is also growing example. This situation is likely to be exacerbat- and proving to be very effective. ed because only 0.0076% of the 2.5% fresh water The applications covered in this issue bring sources like lakes, rivers and streams are actually to the fore a simple fact that g-tech is playing an available for human use. This is further com- increasingly critical role in the well being of the pounded by the skewed distribution of water third rock from the sun. resources; Asia which carries 60% of the world’s population has access to only 30% of the global water resources. The implication of these statis- tics is clear; we have to optimise the use of this

Geospatial World | October 2013 7 Americas news

Business for a large share of revenues. The APAC faster and easier during survey and region will soon contribute more to the construction missions, and reduce the Google to receive satellite growth of the market. exposure of soldiers to hostile condi- imagery from Astrium tions. Under the contract, Trimble will US Army awards IDIQ supply its GPS base station receivers, contract to Trimble grade lasers, grade control systems Bora-Bora taken by Pléiades in 2012. and construction design software for The US Marine Corps and Army have the Marine Corps’ and Army’s dozers, awarded a five-year IDIQ (Indefinite motorgraders as well as the Army’s Delivery Indefinite Quantity) contract DEUCE (Deployable Universal Combat to Trimble for providing construction Earthmover) and scraper equipment. grade control and survey systems. The contract is expected to generate Satellite to study climate approximately $63 million in rev- change by monitoring forests enue over its term for Trimble. If the cost increases, Trimble will be paid NASA scientists are developing ‘Orbit- Courtesy: astrium.eads.net a maximum amount of $99 million. ing Carbon Observatory’ or OCO-2 as Astrium has entered into an agreement Trimble’s earthmoving grade control the world’s first satellite dedicated to with Google Inc, to provide updated systems are currently used on heavy studying carbon dioxide levels. The satellite imagery from its Pléiades and construction equipment owned by the satellite will focus on tracking the en- SPOT satellites. The new imagery will Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. vironmental impact of global warm- be used for Google Earth, Google Maps The new equipment purchase will ing. It will observe forests and oceans and other Google products and servic- help the US military to collect, man- to find how they are reacting to higher es. This agreement will help Google Inc age and analyse complex information levels of carbon dioxide. OCO-2 is meet the increased demand of high- resolution satellite imagery.Astrium Microsoft-Nokia deal focused on geospatial data services will offer updated imagery products at resolutions up to 50cm. The exact value In a significant deal, Microsoft bought out Nokia’s devices and services business for of the deal has not been disclosed. EUR 5.44 billion ($7.17 billion) last month. Microsoft’s “strategic Global GIS market to grow rationale” highlights the impor- at CAGR 9.6% tance of geospatial services. The document talks about the need of The global GIS market is expected to an effective alternative to Google grow at 9.60% CAGR during 2012- Maps. Nokia’s HERE services will 2016, according to a recent Research help the company fight off Google and Markets report. One of the major with “more than one ‘digital map drivers in the market is the increasing of the world’”. The agreement says demand of GIS from government sec- Microsoft will become a strategic Stephen Elop, former CEO of Nokia and tors. The market also generates a large licensee of Nokia’s HERE platform, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft portion of its revenue from hardware and will separately pay Nokia for and software products. However, the a four-year licence, making it the third-largest HERE customer. Microsoft will grant increased number of government Nokia reciprocal rights to use Microsoft patents in its HERE services. Nokia will regulations and guidelines could pose continue to improve HERE mapping apps for other platforms. Microsoft can combine a challenge for the market. North Nokia mapping data with data from other sources. The company can syndicate America, followed by Europe, accounts Nokia’s data to customers using Windows Azure for additional fees.

8 Geospatial World | October 2013 Americas news

based on the original OCO mission Application tested in the city of Vitoria. Domestic that failed due to a launch vehicle violence is a big problem in Brazil. anomaly in February 2009. Engineers Hedge funds use satellite The country ranks seventh out of 84 are currently testing OCO-2 at a high- imagery to predict revenue countries in number of murdered tech facility in Gilbert, Arizona. OCO- women. The city of Vitoria plans to 2 will operate from 400 miles above Analysts at hedge funds are using hand out GPS-based Panic Buttons to the planet’s surface. Combined with analysis of satellite imagery to learn the victims who have obtained court- data from other satellites, OCO-2 will more about business and predict reve- issued restraining orders against their also help scientists track crop produc- nues. They are including their findings abusers. The GPS-device will send an tion, water resources and vegetation in the quarterly and annual reports alert to the police as soon as a woman health. NASA plans to launch OCO-2 also. Recently, UBS Investment presses the button. “The worst aggres- in July 2014. Research issued its earnings preview sion happens behind closed doors. for Wal-Mart’s second quarter, which Panic Buttons will keep the abus- Exelis delivers latest publicly revealed that UBS used ers away,” said Welington da Costa technology for WorldView-3 satellite imagery to gather data about Ribeiro, Vitoria Municipal Secretary the parking lots at Wal-Mart stores. of Urban Security. Neil Currie, the UBS analyst who studied the satellite data, concluded G-tech to improve airspace that there was enough correlation efficiency in Brazil between the images of the parking lot and Wal-Mart’s quarterly earnings. Brazil is planning to use geospatial Currie purchased the analysis from technology to improve air traffic man- a Chicago-based firm called Remote agement and airspace usage as part of Sensing Metrics LLC, which had its Green Skies of Brazil programme.

Courtesy: DigitalGlobe Courtesy: sourced the satellite imagery of more The programme will benefit 10 airports than a hundred Wal-Mart stores. in the Southeast Brazil. GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric and a Satellite image of a parking lot near leading aircraft engine supplier, has ben WalMart store. roped in to take the project forward. GE Aviation has developed a GPS-based Exelis has delivered an integrated, su- tracking system called Required Naviga- per-spectral payload to DigitalGlobe. tion Performance (RNP) which uses The payload includes a telescope, satellite data to track aircrafts with an sensor and shortwave infrared (SWIR) accuracy of 32 feet. An RNP-equipped system for the WorldView-3 satel- aircraft will save approximately 7.5 lite. WorldView-3 is the first multi- minutes per flight which will translate payload, commercial satellite to carry into low fuel consumption. According such capabilities. The SWIR bands to an estimate, the new system could will enable WorldView-3 to penetrate Brazil potentially save an average of 22 track through haze, fog, smog, dust, smoke, miles, 7.5 minutes, 77 gallons of fuel, mist and cirrus clouds. It will allow GPS-based ‘Panic Button’ to and avoid 1,628 lbs of carbon dioxide clearer identification of materials not curb domestic violence per approach compared to the conven- visible to the human eye. It will be tional landing techniques. This means very useful in applications for oil, gas GPS-enabled ‘Panic Buttons’ will be that an RNP-equipped aircraft could and vegetation and for a number of used for controlling domestic vio- save more than $24 million in opera- other uses. lence in Brazil. The concept is being tional savings over five years.

Geospatial World | October 2013 9 Europe news

france remain robust due to regional econom- ic growth. Location-based services sec- TAS asks France to ease satellite imagery norms tor will further foster growth through the thriving demand of data to assist Thales Alenia Space (TAS) has pe- Internet and hand-held devices. titioned to the French government to ease restrictions on the com- French Railway Society plans mercial sale of imagery. CEO Jean- to map rail network Loic Galle made the revelation at the World Satellite Business Week The National French Railway Society in Paris. An informal agreement (SNCF) is planning to use mobile map- between France and the United ping solution to map its rail network. States sets a 50-cm resolution as The project is aimed at geo-referencing the threshold between what can of railway infrastructure, detecting be sold openly on the commercial natural obstacles and determining market and what is subject to spe- infrastructural limits for special load cial procedures reserved for allies. transportation. SNCF will use a 3D da- Recently, DigitalGlobe had asked ta-processing software solution which the US government to relax the regulations. Galle said he has had “discussions is a fully integrated and high speed with all the relevant ministries in France. They understand clearly that customer mobile laser scanning system, includ- requirements are changing quickly — which is good news for TAS.” ing a lifting frame for crane installation. The scanning platform can either be in- stalled onto a mounting rack in the rear Emerging markets to an 88% increase over the previous of a wagon or right into the engine cart. drive EO industry decade. Organisations from more The system allows a surveying train to in the next decade than 42 countries are expected to have pass between two regularly scheduled launched at least a first-generation EO trains without causing delays. It is According to a latest research report satellite by 2022. In total over 2013- capable of doing track and base terrain released by Euroconsult, the number 2022, 69% of EO satellites will cost less inspection, as well as supervision and of Earth Observation (EO) satellite that $100 million (compared to 56% in registration of changes in train station launches is expected to more than the last decade). These satellites may structures, such as thresholds between double over the next decade to 360 not have higher precision systems platform and wagon due to renova- satellites. The report says that the but they will assist in advancement of tion works in train stations. SNCF has emerging markets will be the major a local space industry in the emerg- chosen RIEGL VMX-450-RAIL mobile contributors to this growth. ing space nations. The percentage of mapping solution with technet-rail’s The report titled ‘Satellite-Based high-cost ($200 million plus) satellite SiRailScan specialised software for this Earth Observation: Market Prospects missions is expected to remain stable project. to 2022’says that the EO satellites at 10% to 11%. The report says that launched by civil government and the EO commercial data market is EO subcommittee to support commercial entities will translate expected to reach $3.5 billion by 2022. oil and gas exploration into $35.8 billion in manufacturing The market in emerging regions like revenues Latin America, Russia & CIS, Asia, and The International Association of Oil over 2013 the Middle East will witness steady and Gas Producers (OGP) has de- to 2022. $3.5bn growth. Defence will remain the first cided to set up the Earth Observation This would commercial EO data application area. Growth in natural Subcommittee within its Geomatics mean market by 2020 resources monitoring and energy will Committee. This is aimed at making oil

10 Geospatial World | October 2013 Europe news

exploration more efficient. Satellite Division at CSIRO. Dr Roberts added Courtesy: CSIRO and aerial imagery are the key tools to that scanning the leaning tower was a improve emergency response and also ‘Pisa cake’. to make exploration and production more efficient. The subcommittee has Spain been set up with the goal of increas- ing the industry’s use of Earth and ESA to analyse cyber aerial imagery. The subcommittee will security of missions focus on monitoring sea ice. It will be involved in environmental baseline The European Space Agency (ESA) has mapping and monitoring as well as chosen GVM, a Spain-based privately improving the mapping and modelling owned technological business group, of meteorological and oceanographic to analyse cyber security of its space parametres. The subcommittee will dee, a new handheld 3D laser scanner, missions. GVM will have to develop which sways around on a spring as its a policy to establish control recom- operator walks through a structure to mendations for ESA’s missions. With be mapped. It is the first time that the this project ESA aims to enable the historic building has been mapped space mission managers to pinpoint from the inside. “This new technique the risks and raising awareness of the would have wide applications from cyber threats. The project will involve mapping mining tunnels and police surveying the members of organisa- crime scenes to preserving build- tions linked with the space missions to Aerial view of an oil exploration site. ings like the Leaning Tower of Pisa,” find out their views of the main threats, said Dr Jonathan Roberts, Director vulnerabilities and control measures also support the Oil Spill Response of the Computational Informatics present in space missions. Joint Industry Project (OSR JIP) led by the International Petroleum Industry Finland Environmental Conservation Associa- tion (IPIECA) and OGP. It will work in Nokia, Mercedes-Benz to develop 3D maps for cars close contact with the European Space Agency (ESA) and with European Asso- Nokia and Daimler AG’s ciation of Remote Sensing Companies Mercedes-Benz have joined (EARSC). hands to develop 3D smart maps for self-driving cars. Italy Nokia HERE will initially provide 3D maps from the 3D map of Leaning Mannheim to Pforzheim Tower of Pisa route in Germany. These maps will be used for cars Researchers at the Computational connected to a computing Informatics Division of the Com- cloud. Nokia said at the Courtesy: Nokia monwealth Scientific and Industrial Frankfurt Auto Show that Research Organisation (CSIRO) have connecting cars to the cloud is “one of the biggest opportunities for the automotive created a first interior 3D map of industry today.” The two companies have not talked about a time frame for HERE- Italy’s famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. enabled self-driving cars. A number of automobile companies are in the process of The team or researchers used Zebe- developing computer-controlled features for cars.

Geospatial World | October 2013 11 Asia news

China Concerted efforts to improve geospatial education in India

Chinese GIS industry to The Planning Commission has presented reach $42 billion by year end the report of the ‘National Task Force on Geospatial Education’ to Union Human The GIS industry in China is esti- Resource Development Minister Dr M.M. mated to reach CNY260 billion ($42 Pallam Raju. This is the first time such a billion) by the end of 2013, according concerted effort has been made at the to a Ministry of Land and Resources national level on geospatial education statement. This clearly means that the in India. Dr Raju has acknowledged that this “report will lay strong foundation for industry growth is up by 30% from geospatial education in India”. The report was presented by Dr K Kasturirangan, last year. The statement cites data Member Planning Commission who headed the National Task Force. It suggests from the National Administration of a four-pronged strategy which includes School Geospatial Education Project Surveying, Mapping and Geoinforma- (SGEP) led by the Department of School Education, MHRD; Geospatial University tion. It forecasts that the industry will Networking Project (GUNP) led by the Department of Higher education, MHRD; grow at a 20% rate for the next couple Geospatial Training and Outreach Project (GTOP) led by Department of Science of years. The total annual output is & Technology (DST); and National Institute of Geospatial Knowledge, Engineer- likely to reach CNY500 billion ($81 ing and Management (NGKEM) led by MHRD and DST. A high-level manage- billion) by 2015 and CNY1 trillion ment council is recommended for guiding and supervising the implementation of ($163 billion) by 2020. The statement recommendations. Geospatial Media has been involved in this effort right from the informs that China’s GIS industry in- constitution of the Task Force in 2010, and has contributed significantly to the sub- volves more than 23,000 organisations committees on Indian Institute of Geospatial Technology and Geospatial Education and 400,000 employees. These figures at School Level, respectively. were also mentioned by Luo Fuhe, the Vice President of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference prospects in the coming years. The (CPPCC) at the recently held “Geo- report also includes a discussion of the graphic Information Industry Confer- key vendors operating in this market. ence 2013” in Weifang, Shandong. UAE India Dubai decides to go for GIS market in India to aerial surveys grow at 8.19% The Geographic Information Systems The GIS market in India is expected to Department at Dubai Municipal- An aerial view of Dubai grow at 8.19% CAGR over the period ity is planning to update its existing 2012-2016, according to a TechNavio database of maps and raster data. The The data collected from this project report. The analysts have mentioned in department has therefore decided to will be used to accurately reflect recent the report that one of the major drivers go for aerial surveys of the city. The changes in the city’s critical infrastruc- in the market is the increasing demand project will be carried out by Space ture, and will provide current and from the government sector. However, Imaging Middle East (SIME). SIME has reliable foundation from which to plan the need for high initial investment announced that the aerial surveys will any future expansion and develop- could pose a challenge to the growth of commence in October 2013. They will ment. Dubai Municipality will provide this market. The report covers the GIS cover an area of 3000 sq km and cap- these up-to-date aerial images to its market in India landscape and growth ture imagery at the resolution of 35cm. strategic partners.

12 Geospatial World | October 2013 Asia news

Courtesy: EPA Photo GIS to monitor construction agencies. The Ministry of Lands and projects in Sharjah Land Development in Sri Lanka has found that the geospatial information The Sharjah GIS Centre (SGC) has gathered by various agencies cannot launched its Project Tracking System be shared due to the lack of coordina- (PTS) to track the progress of con- tion. Now, the Ministry of Lands and struction projects. The SGC acts as the Land Development has proposed to primary source for the collection and set up a national programme through exchange of geographic information a separate unit. This unit will be and services between government established in the ministry’s Survey departments and other institutions is a lot of overlap with concessions Department. The Cabinet has given in the Emirate of Sharjah. The PTS is the government has given to palm approval to the programme. It has also being used by the Sharjah Munici- oil and pulp and paper companies. appointed a monitoring committee. pality and the Department of Public About 70% of forests in Indonesia Works. It shows existing, delayed are located in areas with overlapping Japan or terminated projects according to permits. AMAN aims all such forests their geographical location along by 2020. Joint mission to monitor with the name of project executing Chernobyl and Fukushima agency. The system also shows related Indonesia upgrades details about each project. The user system to process high-res can control and monitor the progress satellite imagery of construction of roads, buildings and services and display them on a The National Institute of Aeronautics map along with aerial photos. The and Space (Lapan) of Indonesia has proposed construction projects can upgraded its system to receive and pro- also be displayed on the map , which cess high-resolution satellite imagery. will help the decision-makers to take The agency is responsible for providing appropriate decision by approving or raw and processed satellite images to rejecting the project based on the state both central and local governments. of other projects. The erstwhile system could only Japan and Ukraine have agreed to receive and process low and medium launch a joint satellite project to Indonesia resolution data. Now, the system has monitor regions around Chernobyl been upgraded in accordance with the and Fukushima nuclear plants. It will ‘Indigenous people’ to map new norms on the supply, use, quality be a joint project of Tokyo University Indonesian forests control, processing and distribution of and the Ukrainian state space agency. high resolution satellite remote sens- Eight miniature satellites will be put The Indigenous Peoples Alliance of ing data. into orbit by 2014. Ukrainian car- the Archipelago (AMAN) in Indonesia rier rockets will be used to launch will develop maps of the country’s Sri Lanka Japanese-developed satellites. These ‘customary forests’. A recent ruling by satellites will gather information on the Constitutional Court has acknowl- SL plans programme on the effects of radioactive elements in edged that indigenous communities geoinformation the surrounding areas of the nuclear — and not the state — have rights over plants. They will also receive signals some 40 million hectares of custom- Sri Lanka is planning to set up a from sensors installed on the ground. ary forests. Since the customary for- national agency for coordinating These signals will provide information ests have never been mapped, there geospatial data acquired by different about radiation levels from the area..

Geospatial World | October 2013 13 Africa news

Kenya other things, aimed at understanding tool deployed assists policy-makers more about water supply manage- and donor agencies in utilising the in- Scientists find huge aquifer ment. After visiting the headquarters of formation more effectively, by filtering in Kenya’s desert GWCL in Accra, the Nigerian officials and associating it with other variables decided to adopt a similar GIS-based to identify on trends in aid flows, areas system for improving the supply of interests, allowing them to make system in their state. The GWCL has more informed decisions. Co-funded an arrangement with the International by the European Commission’s DG Water Association to upgrade its train- CONNECT under the Seventh Frame- ing school. The Nigerian staff will be work Programme (FP7), iMENTORS trained at GWCL training facilities. is designed to enhance the coherence

Courtesy: ITV News and effectiveness of international Scientists have used geospatial technol- SenegaL actors involved in e-infrastructures ogy to find a huge aquifer in the arid re- development projects and initiatives gion of Turkana in Kenya. According to Senegal to develop in Sub-Saharan Africa. iMENTORS an initial estimate, the aquifer is capa- GIS database launched in April 2012 by Stockholm ble of providing water supply to Kenya University and Gov2u is a Web-based for 70 years. The project is a joint effort The Government of Senegal is planning platform serving as a knowledge by researchers from a French-American to develop a GIS database for the entire repository for sharing and aggregat- firm Radar Technologies International, country. Senegal has received a grant ing data on e-infrastructure projects Kenyan government and UNESCO. from the Nordic Development Fund to throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists overlaid satellite, radar and co-finance the Storm Water Manage- geological maps on top of each other, ment and Climate Change Adaptation Satellite imagery to keep an and then applied seismic techniques Project (PROGEP) in Dakar. The govern- eye on Africa conflict which are used in oil exploration. ment will spend part of proceeds of this grant on developing a GIS database. DigitalGlobe has started developing Nigeria comprehensive country-by-country MISCELLANEOUS datasets which could be used to pre- Nigerian state to adopt dict extremist activity all across Africa. GIS for better water supply iMENTORS mapping ICT The datasets seek out connections management across Sub-Saharan Africa among extremist groups, and identify high risk areas to mitigate threats. They The Taraba state of Nigeria has de- iMENTORS, the data warehouse on all allow foreseeing where major events cided to adopt geospatial technology e-infrastructure development projects are most likely to occur in specific to streamline its water supply system. of Sub-Saharan Africa now allows us- areas. For example, narrowing an area Experts from Ghana Water Company ers to register and create their profile concerned with criminal activity from Limited (GWCL) will help the Nigerian on the platform and start sharing their 1,000 square feet to 100 square feet is state in learning, adopting and imple- knowledge and data directly on the useful for military, law enforcement, or menting a GIS-based supply system. map. By identifying and mapping the companies concerned about security Recently, a 12-member Nigerian majority of e-infrastructure projects to inform where they apply limited delegation led by Engineer Musa Buba in Sub-Saharan Africa, the project security resources and help protect Siam, General Manager for Water provides valuable knowledge of what lives. Earlier, DigitalGlobe’s imagery Supply Agency in Taraba state visited is currently on the ground. This offers has been used by advocacy groups Uganda and Ghana as part of a study more informed future choices and to spread information about human tour funded by the African Develop- decision making on e-infrastructures atrocities in the border region between ment Bank (AfDB). The tour, among deployment. Additionally, the software Sudan and South Sudan.

14 Geospatial World | October 2013 Australia/Oceania news

Space & Spatial Innovation enable satellites to monitor changes in Partnership in Australia phytoplankton populations, which has never been noticed so far. The research- Australia has announced the new ers worked on more than 1000 seawater Space and Spatial Innovation Part- samples which were collected as part of nership to create opportunities for a long-term monitoring programme. geospatial companies in Australia. Minister Assisting for Innovation and Victoria makes 550 Industry Kate Lundy announced this geospatial datasets public partnership under the Courtesy: AP The Victorian Government, as part of its 2.2% Australian studying them to understand climate Information and Communication Tech- global market share Government’s change models. University of Tasma- nology (ICT) Strategy, has made 1,000 Australia is eyeing at Industry nia Institute for Marine and Antarctic datasets, including 550 geospatial data- Innovation Studies PhD student Robert Johnson sets, available to the public online. The Partnerships Program. Lundy empha- led a team from the Australian Antarc- online publishing of datasets is in sync sised that Australia aims at carving out tic Division, UTAS and the Antarctic with the DataVic Access Policy, which a 2.2% share in the global space and Climate and Ecosystems CRC to access enables the sharing of government data spatial technologies market. data from sea water samples, collected at no, or minimal, cost to users. These The Cooperative Research Center for since 2003. They compared past satellite datasets identify the geographic loca- Spatial Information (CRCSI) through chlorophyll readings with phytoplank- tion of the features and boundaries of its SME consortium “43pl”; EOS Space ton content of seawater samples to Victoria; both natural and constructed. Systems and the Australian National calibrate the satellite images, which will They will help in understanding the University will be the core partners improve the accuracy of future satellite flood plains, water catchment areas, in this programme. “The Partnership imagery. Now, this re-calibration would airports and state boundaries. aims to help Australia carve out a 2.2% share of the global space and spatial Researchers demonstrate precise positioning with QZSS technologies market -- growing rev- enue by up to $12.5 billion annually by Researchers at the Cooperative Research 2023 -- and creating more than 10,000 Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) in new jobs in the sector,” said Lundy. Australia have successfully demonstrated the The venture will be headquartered in performance of the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Canberra and will have nodal centres Satellite System (QZSS) LEX signal for precise across Australia. positioning. Recently, CRCSI researchers had connected GPS systems with the Chinese Navi- Satellite data helps in gation Satellite System Beidou for better loca- phytoplankton measurement tion search. This latest effort from the CSCRI re- searchers shows that QZSS LEX could be used

Tasmanian scientists have used satellite to augment GPS and GNSS in providing high Quasi-Zenith satellite orbit imagery to find the first ever accurate accuracy positioning, anywhere and anytime measurement of the Southern Ocean’s in Australia. LEX is a viable option for precise positioning and navigation in remote phytoplankton population. Phyto- regions where GNSS CORS infrastructure is not available or is costly to establish. LEX plankton, the microscopic plant-like signal has a high data transmission rate which allows GNSS correction data to be sent organisms, are the base of the marine directly to the user’s receiver, providing centimetre-level point positioning accuracy food chain. They produce about half the in real-time. The demonstration was presented at GNSS Symposium in partnership world’s oxygen. Researchers have been with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Geospatial World | October 2013 15 Conference Report | Asia Geospatial Forum 2013 Enhancing Collaboration The Asia Geospatial Forum 2013 brought together stakeholders of the geospatial industry to discuss and debate on APAC’s most pressing issues

onvergence, integration and return cooperation on sharing of geoinformation and on investment were the underlying use of technology is needed,” he said. Keynote C theme at the Asia Geospatial Forum speaker Dr Do Tae-Ho, Deputy Minister for 2013 held recently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Housing & Land, Ministry of Land Infrastruc- With its theme ‘Regional Response to Global ture & Transport, South Korea said geospatial Challenges and Opportunities’, the forum technology was an integral part of government witnessed high-level discussions, debates and planning today and there was a high level of presentations from experts on the region’s awareness about the technology’s effectiveness most pressing issues. A prominent trend visible in his country. at the conference was geospatial technology At the plenary session, Lt. Kol. Ir. Hj. Abidin, turning more and more solution centric with a Director of Planning, Coordination and Moni- clear vertical orientation. The hi-tech exhibi- toring Division, Water Supply Dept, Malaysia, From left to right: Y.B. Dato Dr. James tion organised during the event was a big draw spoke on the benefits of geospatial technology Dawos Mamit, Deputy Minister of for the visitors. in water supply and management. Gerundio Natural Resources and Environment, Y.B. Dato Dr. James Dawos Mamit, Deputy C. Madueno, Undersecretary, Policy, Planning Malaysia; Dr Do Tae-Ho, Deputy Minister for Housing & Land, Ministry Minister of Natural Resources and Environ- and External Affairs Office, Department of of Land Infrastructure & Transport, ment, Malaysia, inaugurated the event. Deliver- Agrarian Reform, Philippines, said data from South Korea; Chris Gibson, Vice ing the inaugural address, he gave the example National Mapping & Resource Information Au- President, Trimble; Matthew Smith, of the haze problem in Malaysia as a typical thority (NAMRIA) was helping his department President, Hexagon Geosystems, APAC and Dr Mamit strikes the gong to inau- case where sharing of geospatial information in accomplishing reforms in agriculture. gurate the conference between various countries could solve prob- Trimble Vice President Chris Gibson identi- lems faster. “With climate change and natural fied construction as the biggest market in Asia. disasters as two of the primary concerns of Stating that geospatial technology helped us governments across the countries, global to solve some of the biggest challenges of the

16 Geospatial World | October 2013 humanity, Gibson said if implemented prop- Another interesting discussion revolved erly, it could offer economic breakthroughs, around the estimated value of the global geo- reduce environmental impact and ensure spatial industry. According to various experts, quality, safety, compliance. Sensor integration, the industry is estimated to have crossed $100 real-time processing, extra storage from Big billion. Dr Do Tae-Ho pegged the estimated Data, connectivity via cloud computing and 3D figure at $125 billion by 2015 growing at 11% modelling, and visualisation and integration per year from $74 in 2010. Graeme Kernich, were some of the advanced technology trends, Deputy CEO Cooperative Research Centre for he added. Spatial Information, Australia, estimated the Pointing out that the Asia Pacific region growth rate at 16% per annum with a growth hosts about half the world’s population and value addition of $113 million per year. yet comprises about 30% of total land mass, Sessions on relevant topics such as National

Matthew Smith, President, Hexagon Geosys- GIS Policy on SDI, Agro-Informatics and Preci- From left to right: Gunjan tems, APAC, Gibson said population pressure, sion Agriculture encouraged the participants Sahni, Graphics Solutions Business PPS APJ, Hewlett urbanisation, growing energy demand and to talk about novel applications of geospatial Packard Asia Pacific; Joseph natural disasters were creating unprecedented technology. Arezone, Senior Vice-President opportunity for geospatial players in this region. The session on Enterprise GIS reflected & Managing Director, Asia Smart technology can help the region mitigate that GIS has to get integrated into enterprise Pacific, FARO Technologies; Brian Nicholls, Executive its problems and ensure growth. information systems rather than trying to exist Director, AAM and demonstra- Gunjan Sahni, Graphics Solutions Business on its own. tion of a drone at the exhibition PPS APJ, Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific, said cus- The event was supported by the Department tomers want effective ways of communication. of Survey and Mapping, Vitenam, Geoinformat- Joseph Arezone, Senior Vice-President ics & Space Technology Development Agency & Managing Director, Asia Pacific, FARO (GISTDA), National Mapping and Resource Technologies, said the company wasn’t into Information Authority (NAMRIA) and Singa- geospatial till a few years back. Then three pore Land Authority. The three-day event saw years ago, it launched a small, light and a total of 607 participants from 26 countries, cheap laser scanner and changed the entire including the government, academia, users and 3D laser scanning market. “The demand for a number of geospatial players. Government 3D has gone beyond the engineering com- agencies like Ministry of Energy, Green technol- munity and is creating new 3D communities ogy and Water (KeTTHA), Ministry of Federal while reshaping existing ones,” he said. Brian Territories; Ministry of Science, Technology and Nicholls, Executive Director, AAM, also spoke Innovations (MOSTI), Ministry of Plantation on transforming global challenges into geo- Industries and Commodities (MPIC) and the spatial opportunities and called for expansion Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of geospatial information content. (NRE) partnered the event.

Geospatial World | October 2013 17 Product Watch

Void Scanner Mk3 for 3D laser scans of underground mines Measurement Devices Limited (MDL) has introduced Void Scanner Mk3, a ruggedised, robotic, underground mine laser scanner. The VS150 is a field instrument designed to produce fast, efficient 3D laser scans of underground voids where access is limited, dangerous or prohibited, whilst enhancing the safety of mine operators.

Key features: • Real-time acquisition software allows operators to measure, visualise, and compare 360° field of UAS for agriculture, for- view scans of slopes or voids in less BRAMOR gEO mkIV than 7 minutes from start to finish estry & land management tasks • The instrument may be deployed conventionally using survey tripods C-ASTRAL has launched a new integrated software/hardware solution for agriculture, forestry or by remote control and land management in partnership with the GIS software solutions provider SINERGISE. • The laser employs the ‘time of Based on the new electric powered 9lbs MTOW BRAMOR gEO mkIV unmanned system, flight’ measurement technique to capable of 2hr endurance with dual, visible light (25Mp) and multi-spectral (3.2Mp) sensors on measure ranges to rock faces and board and a seamless acquisition and processing chain, the integrated system offers a unique other objects without the need to remote sensing and surveying capability that is applicable to agricultural, forestry, classical place reflectors on the target surveying and land management tasks. • The system is also supplied with the Wi-Fi capability. Key features: • The system is capable of acquisition of data and extraction of NDVI, SAVI, canopy segmentation and -NIR/Green ratios, formatted for all major commercial image registration • The hardware package consists of a 25Mp sensor with a 19mm or 30mm lens and a 3.2Mp CMOS sensor in red, green and near infrared bands • The complete system consists of a Ground Control Station including a guidance system • The airborne system is completely in-flight reprogrammable and offers an advanced fail-safe architecture and options such as an integrated ADS-B transponder and situational awareness video feeds

16 Geospatial World | September 2013 Product Watch

Geoverse for real time 3D data visualisation

Euclideon Unlimited has launched Geoverse, a 3D point cloud visualisation software that allows geospatial professionals to visualise unlimited quantities of point cloud data from LiDAR, photogrammetry or any other data source. Geoverse is based on Euclideon’s revolutionary Unlimited Detail (UD) technology – which can be produced at rates of up to two million points per second – in a way previously unimaginable on normal computers.

Key features: • Loads any size model in less than a second, direct from the hard drive using a standard laptop • Reduces the file size to 5-20% of the original, making it much easier to store and manage • Stores data centrally and streams it simultaneously to multiple users • Takes measurements at the precision of the dataset and displays data on base maps

LT400HS GNSS receiver for survey, construction professionals

CHC has unveiled the LT400HS, a rugged 120-channel GPS+GLONASS handheld receiver designed to achieve sub-metre SBAS positioning to centimetre accuracy in RTK networks. The LT400HS is the a cost-effective TS-100 and powerful GNSS Solution for survey, construction and GIS professionals. Reflectorless Key features: total station • T-Professional 120-channel GNSS Engine - L1/L2 GPS + GLONASS unveiled supporting RTCM network RTK Futtura has unveiled its new TS-100 corrections and industry standard Reflectorless Total Station for survey NMEA output and construction applications. • Built-in GSM/GPRS phone with data transmission, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Key features: connectivity • 200m reflectorless operation • Built-in 5 megapixel autofocus camera • 2000m range to a single prism to capture assets information • 2-inch angular accuracy • 23-hour battery life • IP54 environmental rating • 24,000 point memory capacity • Full 24-key alphanumeric keypadFW

Geospatial World | October 2013 19 The Big Story | Water Utility

Global population and urbanisation is on the rise, so is the demand for water supply. With fast depleting water resources, counting and saving every drop is the only option left. Geospatial World explores how GIS is enabling water utilities across the world in plugging the leaks and quenching the thirst of global population

“A shortage of water resources could spell increased started way back in the 1980s, perhaps even before it be- conflicts in the future. Population growth will make the came a regular application. Denver Water first applied GIS to problem worse. So will climate change. As the global support network management. Since then, with advances in economy grows, so will its thirst.” spatial data search and analysis, mapping and integrated GIS — Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, tools have become indispensable for water distribution and World Economic Forum, 2008 transmission companies.

an Ki Moon is absolutely right in predicting conflicts Down the drain over water in the future as water is fast becoming The reasons are not difficult to guess. Utility companies are B the most stressed resources despite the fact that the essentially about assets — assets spread over hundreds of planet is endowed with abundant water. A report by the US kilometres over ground and underground. While accurate ge- intelligence agencies even warns that beyond 2022, the use of olocation of underground assets remains a challenge world- water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become wide, infrastructure leaks and ageing underground networks more likely, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and are further increasing the water woes. North Africa. Access to clean drinking water is a critical issue Most underground water mains around the world are one that affects development and businesses around the world. hundred to several hundred years old. In US alone, about 40% In fact 22% of global GDP, or $9.4 trillion, was at risk owing to of all water valves and 10% of hydrant valves are inoperable water stress by 2010, finds a study from Veolia Water. By 2050, and 9% distribution valves are wrongly placed. “Globally, 30% this would swell to 45%. The growing focus on social responsi- of the water is lost before it gets to consumers,” points out bility and environment, regulatory pressures, aging workforce Malcolm S. Walter, Chief Operating Officer, Bentley Systems. and failing infrastructure are all forcing water companies to The Report Card on American Infrastructure 2013 has reassess the impact of water management. in fact assigned a ‘D’ grade to America’s drinking water and Use of geographic information by water supply companies wastewater infrastructure. Nearly 60% of the operating costs

Million people in Trillion gallons of Water lines burst 43 countries drinking water is each year 700 suffer from 2.6 lost through leaking 310k in the US alone water scarcity pipes every year

20 Geospatial World | October 2013 relate to replacement of underground networks which have faults and restoring services, precise location is an imperative been out of sight and out of mind for decades, suggests the US as faulty digging runs into huge losses besides ruining over- Environmental Protection Agency. It is estimated that $277 ground infrastructure. In the US alone, an underground utility billion is required to fix water infrastructure in US. is mistakenly hit every 60 seconds on an average. And this is only the US. Globally, at least $17.7 trillion will For precise mapping of underground assets, utilities are tak- be needed for water/wastewater infrastructure over the next ing to various technologies like GPS and sensors. For instance 25-30 years, according to OECD (Organization for Economic EPCOR, based in Edmonton in Canada, has integrated digital Cooperation and Development). “All this is happening at a elevation models into its hydraulic network models. “GPS time when local sources of revenues or state loan funds are sensors are used to survey asset locations and this is integrated near empty,” says Terry Bennett, Senior Industry Manager, with our data recording applications, where the data is used Civil Engineering and Construction, Autodesk. in accurate placement of facilities,” says Susan Ancel, P. Eng, Director of Water Distribution and Transmission, EPCOR. Water, the new oil DJB in coordination with the National Informatics centre The lifecycle of infrastructure is being compressed due to took almost five years to prepare an accurate GIS map of its economic reality. Owners are concerned about the operations underground assets involving a process of aerial as well as and maintenance (O&M) costs, and are looking at innova- manual surveys. “These maps are updated every time any new tive approaches. “Over the lifetime of an infrastructure, these work is done,” adds Singh. costs tend to comprise 90% of the total ownership costs. This RMSI, an India-based solution provider, used satellite im- is driving the need to look at opportunities afforded by spatial ages to create a digital terrain model at a contour of 0.2-metre data and process integration,” explains Bennett. intervals for the asset mapping project for a major city in North A typical water utility distribution cycle includes infra- India. “Legacy maps with asset details and administrative structure planning, engineering, construction, O&M, and boundaries were brought into a GIS environment. The details customer management. While technologies like GPS and were further updated by field verifications as well by gather- surveying help accurate mapping of assets, a dynamic GIS ing information from the staff through their experience,” says platform allows utilities to store, manage and map spatial in- Sridhar Devineni, Head - Utilities Business Unit, RMSI. formation, which can be accessed anywhere, any time, on any Trimble has been helping its clients to accurately map new device. “This means that enterprise systems and information and existing facilities at decimetre-level. In addition, cus- can be connected and leveraged in real-time, increasing col- tomers using its software can have field workers performing laboration and efficiency,” says Lori Armstrong, Global Water work orders on a combination of rugged handhelds, tablets, and Wastewater Industry Manager, Esri. iPads and smartphones. “The same software can be used on » Asset mapping: Location of utility assets is essential for all as- handheld devices to precisely locate a buried water valve dur- pects of operations, from planning and design to construction, ing an emergency shutdown, while new constructions can be O&M to customer service and emergency response. Managing directly mapped into GIS,” adds Chris Stern, Director, Strategy facilities and widely distributed assets (pumps, pipes, culverts, and Portfolio Development, Water Division, Trimble. valves, manholes, hydrants and meters) are mission-critical » Powered by GIS: Besides assets, the spatial database con- for water utilities. “Unless we have the precise location of our tains — information about topography, height, soil types, zip pipes and underground network, we cannot optimise our work codes, addresses, political boundaries, supply zones etc — force,” says Vikram Singh, Superintending Engineer (Mapping), that have to be maintained and kept up- to- date. Integration Delhi Jal Board (DJB), a water utility based in India. on a GIS platform cuts across traditional municipal delivery Mapping of pipelines makes it easier for the crew to locate areas, to include infrastructure design and operations, land- it and dig at the right spot. In addition to quickly correcting use planning, public education and participation, emergency

Urban population in the developing Global population 30% Water is lost before 27% world does not 47% will be living in it gets to the have access to areas of high water consumers piped water stress by 2030

Geospatial World | October 2013 21 The Big Story | Water Utility

planning and response, pollution prevention, a tab on our staff and their activities,” he adds. and habitat and shoreline restoration. Integrating GIS in customer care and billing “GIS plays a critical role and adds value at system has helped Manila Water in improving each step of the distribution cycle. It provides a its customer relationship. “We integrated our common platform for asset management, ana- network with GIS through business intelligence lytics, decision making and future planning,” and identified customer location by using underlines Devineni. GPS coordinates. This helped us in addressing The core functions of North East Water, customer complaints,” says Baltazar P. de Guz- which provides water and wastewater ser- man, Head of Asset Management Department, 45% vices in Victoria, Australia, revolves around Manila Water Company. the continuous operation of its underground Such integration has also enabled a greater infrastructure and the need to minimise ser- understanding of use of water based on differ- Global GDP at vice disruption. Michael Hardman, Geospatial ent demographics, including age of the cus- risk by 2050 due and Business Data Manager, explains that the tomers and their residence, household income to water stress network trace functionality informs field crews levels, and owner versus renter occupancy. For in advance which valves or other infrastructure instance, EPCOR claims to have been able to are involved in the outage and the number of discern differences in low-rise versus high-rise customers affected. Also, address and map- properties. “We have conducted a detailed $14 building features enable quick outage informa- analysis on the ranges and volumes of water bn/yr tion for customers. used in different business types,” claims Ancel. Deploying GIS and mobile solutions, and This information has been used to target water Total cost of water moving to a cloud architecture for automated conservation programmes and provide more wastage through pipe leaks processes could enable a utility in achiev- information to customers on how their usage ing 25% productivity gain. The benefits also compares with their peer groups. include reduced water loss and environmental Alaska-based Anchorage Water and Waste- damage, and better management of aging in- water Utility recognised that data integration frastructure, explains Stern. On the other hand, is needed to go beyond connecting software $17.7 the cost of implementing GIS is just about 10% platforms into developing “information value trn of the annual costs of preventive maintenance. chains”, so the best value information could be » Not just GIS: With new technology and ap- available at the lowest cost with highest accu- Needed to fix plications, GIS is becoming an integral part of racy. “The result is that processes rely on integra- global water infrastructure all hardware, software and mobile applications. tion of analytics with various software platforms as of now “Although GIS has more engineering and IT is for each level of planning,” explains Armstrong. more to do with the services part, put together » Automated solutions: An operational view they can only complete the network,” empha- of water, right from the primary source through sises Atif Ahmed Karrani, Managing Director, the storage and distribution to consumption 25 IT Department, Sharjah Electricity & Water links utilities at multiple levels. Automated Authority (SEWA), which has GIS-based maps solutions help water companies to optimise la- allowing for remote and instantaneous moni- bour (cut down on regular mapping personnel,

Million m3 increase in quantity toring of water quality in the network. engineers, field crews and monitor their work); of commercial water if Delhi Jal Board relies heavily on integration improve processes by eliminating duplication; NRW is cut by 2% a year of GIS and IT. Its unique revenue management and improve utilisation of assets by integrat- system monitors the revenues and billing in a ing accurate and timely asset information with spatial context. “We have digitised all the infor- mission-critical information systems. mation about our customers and mapped them In Dubuque, Iowa, IBM provided a pilot on a GIS platform so that we can identify the solution to more than 150 households that defaulters,” says Singh. This method is useful in gave citizens and officials an integrated view of identifying the deficit areas too. “The system has water consumption, improved water utilisation increased our revenues and also helps us to keep by 6.6% and encouraged long-term behaviour

22 Geospatial World | October 2013 Courtesy: VTN Consulting VTN Courtesy:

changes. The pilot programme found eight times more leaks among pilot users than the city’s average rate of leak discovery. Almost 90,000 gallons of water were saved. IBM’s “rain-to-drain” operational view of water, from sources through storage and distribution to consumption and discharge provided a one-stop solution to utilities. EPCOR has built automated tools to assign a replacement Data point cloud combined with 3D model of underground infrastructure priority value to each pipe segment between valve stretches. including water and sewer lines in Las Vegas “Pipes that meet a certain threshold are scheduled for replace- ment,” says Ancel. Netherlands-based Brabant Water too has put in place a system which can identify which old pipes are due sure through the actual pipes and measure its performance,” for change and how soon. “This helps utilities and municipal explains Walter from Bentley. authorities save on unnecessary expenses and problems related to digging,” says Daan vas Os, Advisor, Network Development, Rough waters ahead Brabant Water. Worldwide utilities are plagued by a number of challenges, » BIM & GIS: As with all things related to construction, BIM is the primary being their high-maintenance assets. Also, lack opening up a whole new world for water utilities too. “Although of awareness about the technology and trained personnel are primarily known for large, complex facilities and plant design, making the whole process slow and tardy. BIM has become more prevalent in all aspects of both architec- » Funding: Water utility sector is chronically underfunded. tural and engineering design, including applicability for design- Part of the problem is that water tends to be a local govern- ing water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure,” says Stern. ment responsibility, and not seen as a source of net revenue. BIM enables planning and design professionals to use a varie- The burden to finance the upgrades rests mainly on the local ty of data, including social, political, economic, and environmen- authorities, who do not have the requisite financial muscle. tal, to create 3D models that help explore and analyse various According to a paper by American Water on ‘Challenges in project proposals and make infrastructure a safe investment. “A the Water Industry’, local governments in the US spent $93 complete and accurate water infrastructure model, including not billion in 2008 on water and wastewater systems. Despite only geospatial information but also treatment, pumping, and that, there is an annual gap of $19 billion. network facility models created using BIM, can be used to im- Public-private partnerships (PPP) have been touted as prove asset decisions, maintenance and customer communica- a panacea, whereby private sector water companies as- tions,” explains Bennett. Additionally, the geospatially accurate sist in designing, rebuilding and operating publicly owned and complete BIM model of water utility facilities — whether systems. Experts say PPPs will play an increasingly critical underground pipes, treatment facilities or pumping plants — can role in overcoming water infrastructure challenges. EPCOR be used to drive better asset management decisions. has delivered a number of positive results using PPP models, Dewberry, a privately held engineering, architectural, and turning in major construction projects within the budget and management consulting firm, installed a 5-mile-long reclaimed time. Similarly, Manila Water is a globally acclaimed exam- water pipeline in Fairfax County, Virginia using BIM. Advanced 3D visualisation and design software helped Dewberry increase 25% design and construction efficiency, and communicate design Productivity gain and intent to non-technical stakeholders. And, all this without im- The G Power cost reduction for utilities pacting any existing utility infrastructure on the stretch. In fact, maintenance and management of existing under- ground water pipelines by municipal agencies is slowly becom- ing a mainstream activity. Local authorities are looking for 25% Annual savings in operating accurate ‘as built’ digital documents that can be used for future cost for utilities O&M activities for asset efficiency, public safety and predictive replacement models. Also analysis software provides solution about how a certain 10% network should perform by simulating some sort of pressure Cost of implementing GIS as against through the pipes. “We can then run that exact amount of pres- annual costs of maintenance

Geospatial World | October 2013 23 The Big Story | Water Utility Courtesy: Dewberry faces is natural calamities like storms, floods and droughts. “These result in major disruptions in our services,” says Baltazar P. de Guzman, Head of Asset Management Department, Strategic Asset Management Group, Manila Water Company. GIS comes in handy in locating valves to quickly cut off the flow to reduce flooding, damages, and wastage. In 2011, floods washed away key pipe- line infrastructure and cut- off supplies of Queensland Urban Utilities. “With the help of up-to-date maps and accurate location Advanced 3D visualisation of five mile long reclaimed water pipeline in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA of pipes, repair and replacement work was done in time,” reveals Robin Lewis, Chief Courtesy: Dewberry Operating Officer, Queensland Urban ple of successful PPP and is recognised as among the world’s Utilities. best in terms of water efficiency. Canada-based EPCOR experiences extreme cold peri- » Water management: Non-revenue water (NRW) or water ods resulting in frozen hydrants, valves and water service that has been produced but cannot be billed owing not only lines. “GIS has been used to identify areas with a higher risk to leakage, but also due to overflowing, theft, inaccurate of freezing and hence requiring additional inspections. GIS billing or free use, amounts to 25-30% of the world’s water is also used by our field crews during the response to main production. “More than water crisis, we are faced with water breaks which occur more frequently during severe weather management crisis,” says Rotem Shemesh, Marketing Man- events,” says Ancel. ager, TaKadu, an Israel-based solutions provider. Geo-information and technology are also used to examine Yarra Valley Water, a retail water company owned by the current climate variability and extremes, assess risks, inves- Victoria government in Australia, utilised TaKadu’s solu- tigate options, and project impacts of climate and sea-level tions to reduce its water losses. “Yarra Valley witnessed a 50% change. “This allows evaluation of options for managing and increase in early awareness to water loss events as leaks are developing reliable, adequate and sustainable water sup- detected 14 days earlier,” adds Shemesh. plies,” says Armstrong. The Vietnam Water Supply Association estimates that re- ducing NRW level by 2- 2.5% each year will increase quantity of commercial water by 25 million cubic metre a year. This is equivalent to the construction of a new water supply system with 100,000-cubic-metre-a-day capacity. VidaGIS, a Vietnam-based GIS solution provider, devel- oped a GIS-based Decision Support System to store, interpret and analyse data from the distribution systems and do net- work hydraulic modeling. With its help, the state of Seramban in Malaysia was able to reduce its NRW level from 39% to 24% within a year with the return on investment within two years from the saved NRW. Similarly, Manila Water was able to reduce its NRW from 63% to 11% in 2012 by deploying GIS. Places like Singapore, which literally count every drop, operates a water supply system that is tightly managed — with Renewing and an average of just one leak per day. Its Public Utility Board installing new uses sensors in key parts of the network to detect issues im- pipes in areas that mediately, so that the source can be shut down straight away. are near critical » Climate conditions: A major challenge that Manila Water infrastructure Courtesy: EPCOR Courtesy:

24 Geospatial World | October 2013 Courtesy: Trimble 30% of pipes are between 40 and 80 years old globally

700 Handheld device for water leakage detection water main breaks occur every day The future of clean water Angeles and San Francisco. CitySourced in the US Evolving technologies like infinite com- allows citizens to identify civic issues like puting, cloud-based analysis, crowd- water mains breaks and report them for sourcing, social networking are opening quick resolution. whole new opportunities for the industry. “Future conditions and design models Now is the time to act can be viewed during construction and Why does water management continue 2,700 cloud-based computing can run multiple to be such an acute problem? The answer gallons of water analyses of different scenarios,” under- lies in the callous attitude of both utilities wasted per year lines Bennett. and consumers. Since water is a widely globally by a Armstrong sees an increase in the available commodity and utilities don’t use of mobile technology (smartphones/ have to manufacture or produce what faucet that drips tablets). “Utilities are moving into a real- they sell, they do not pay much attention once per second time data collection; field crews are now to managing it. Similarly, thanks to ri- able to access, change and create data diculously low taxes and tariffs, consum- without returning to the office.” ers find no reason to turn off their taps. Stern from Trimble points to the trend Perhaps water utilities need to take a $335 bn of consumer interest in mapping picking cue from their peers in the power sector, estimated cost to fix IBM Source: up. “Companies are continuosly evolv- and explore more tariff innovation, such US water systems ing to support this demand for highly as differential pricing and smart meters. over 20 years accurate, up-to-date maps and geospatial This is again where geotechnology could data,” adds Stern. play a significant role. Customers can now load the models Also, it takes thousands of miles of and orient them over a city street in a vir- pipes, hours of labour, new-age tech- tual or augmented reality interface. “With nology, and significant investment to cloud-based computing and project ac- produce a glass of clean drinking water. cess, it is true 3D, rather than guesstimat- Stern claims the uptake of latest technol- ing with a metal detector,” says Bennett. ogy and improved business processes “It will be like X-raying into the ground as can help utilities save upto 25% annu- to where the pipes are installed, indicat- ally on their operating cost. For all this, ing critical components like age, mainte- now is the time to act. Because, to quote nance history, condition and dependen- National Geographic, “All the water that cies with other infrastructure.” will ever be is, right now!” An interesting trend is CitySourced, a real-time mobile civic engagement plat- Ridhima Kumar, Sub-Editor form, which has been embraced by Los [email protected]

Geospatial World | October 2013 25 Article | Water Resources

G-tech sheds new light on water resource management With fast depleting water sources and a growing population, our planet is threatened by serious water crisis in the near future. Adoption of new-age tools and technologies help reduce the current water stress and tap alternative sources

bout 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered Developments in geospatial technologies — by water, but only 2.5% of it is fresh or including mapping, remote sensing, satellite im- A potable. Alterations in the hydrologic agery, GPS, and unmanned aerial vehicles — can regime due to global climatic, demographic and and do provide important tools to water resource economic changes have put considerable pres- managers across the globe. New developments sure on this resource. can affect how easily communities and govern- According to the World Health Organization ments use geospatial technology to monitor and (WHO), water scarcity affects one-third of the control water use. For example, the so-called people on the planet and almost one-fifth of the Internet of Things, in which devices of all kinds world’s population live in areas where water is are connected online, could mean water metres physically scarce. Even areas which have abundant and valve controls with wireless remote sensing supply of rain and fresh water may face shortages capabilities, adding to the amount of information in future due to poor water management. Also, that a system can consider in decision making. by 2030, the WHO predicts 6 in 10 people to live Improvements in visual analysis and image in cities, up from about 50% in 2010. The ongoing processing mean getting more useful information urbanisation and a growing middle class is further out of a collection of photos to supplement map- exhausting the already limited resource of water. ping and other data. Social networks can let man-

The Three Gorges Dam in China. The country is depending on large dams to reshape its water management policy

26 Geospatial World | October 2013 agers collect anecdotal data married to a geo- elevation models. NASA has used the technol- graphic location as alerts to potential problems ogy to better measure major mountain water- or to treat like a giant focus group, identifying sheds in Colorado and California. Snowmelt topics and questions that they might be well off provides three-quarters of the freshwater sup- to explore. Even combinations of technology ply. Having more accurate earth measurements like social networks and business models like means a more complete grasp of the amount of crowdsourcing can augment the available data snowpack volume and, therefore, the potential and the way in which officials can undertake amount of water available. their duties. NASA’s Twin Otter plane equipped with an Here are some real-world examples of how imaging spectrometer integrated with a scanning new uses of geospatial technologies are making LiDAR system from Optech flies at 22,000 feet a difference in water management, whether above sea level to measure snowpack volume through identifying potential hazards to water and the amount that will melt and run off. Such sources, improving water use in citrus crops, or information has been largely unavailable any- taking measures of snow masses that are vital where in the world, which means runoff models sources for regional water consumption. are challenged. Approximately 1.5 billion people globally relying on snowmelt for water, which is a LiDAR technology dangerous amount of uncertainty. Water management begins with knowing where Poland has also used LiDAR in water man- water is and where it will come from. Rainfall, agement, creating a floodplain map as part of ground water supplies and surface water such a prediction system for extreme weather. An as rivers and lakes all contribute to the supply area of more than 22,000 sq km was surveyed to side of the water equation. Another important create a digital terrain and surface model using source of freshwater is snow accumulation, as airborne laser scanning technology. The system mountains act like cold-weather reservoirs. acts as an integrated information and warning LiDAR is rapidly becoming an important system for government authorities and the public geospatial tool for water management because for extraordinary risks, i.e. the effects of extreme of its ability to effectively eliminate vegetative weather events. Supply prediction means taking or artificial cover to achieve more accurate into account all sources at specific locations and bare earth measurements and improved digital then modelling how they combine as a total wa-

Courtesy: www.dailymail.co.uk/Getty

Geospatial World | October 2013 27 Article | Water Resources

ter source at any given place. As water becomes Remote sensing via UAVs Fact File an ever more critical resource, accurate meas- To monitor water, it is vital to be able to see urements are a vital tool in management. resources and uses above ground. Researchers at Utah State University have done extensive 97.5% Using GIS to protect water supplies work in using unmanned aerial vehicles of Earth is salt water In the Middle East, water is a particularly chal- (UAVs) in water management. The state of lenging problem as increased desertification Utah is similar in many ways to the Middle in countries like Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran East, as it incorporates extensive desert areas 2.5% reduces arable land. According to The Water and must direct 85% of its water resources to is fresh water Project, the heavy use of irrigation, which agriculture. consumes an estimated 85% of the area’s Satellite imagery and aerial photography water, makes water management even more of course have their place in providing visual 4 bn unstable. Jordan, for example, has about the information that is important to help water people to face water same area as Portugal but its per-capita annual managers avoid shortages and more accu- scarcity by 2025 freshwater withdrawal (the amount used for rately target where to apply resources. Utah any purpose) is less than 17% as much. Envi- State created the AggieAir Flying Circus, a 2 bn m3 ronmental hazards that spill over into water service that uses Styrofoam UAVs that can be fresh water deficit by 2050 supplies can be devastating. launched from almost anywhere and provide An NGO called Friends of the Earth Middle multispectral imagery at higher resolution East that operates in Israel, Jordan, and the and lower cost than satellite or manned 50% Palestinian territories worked with Israeli IT aircraft. increase in water consultant Taldor to build a GIS system, as UAVs can be put into service almost withdrawals in developing part of its Protecting Groundwater project, anywhere. Researchers see a number of countries by 2050 to track environmental hazards. Rather than potential uses, including wetland mapping, creating a replicated set of applications requir- hydraulic modelling of rivers, and monitor- ing duplicate funding, the system runs off a ing soil moisture in agriculture to better 2 cloud-based delivery model. Taldor created a pinpoint where irrigation is most needed. people moving to tool called Map Expert for Municipal & Water, UAV use in agriculture is already underway in urban areas every second which provides “management, planning, op- Florida orange groves, where farmers employ eration and maintenance tools” for local water regulated deficit irrigation (RDI), in which 6 authorities. Another Israeli firm, Ecology En- they restrict water at particular times to better out of 10 people to live gineering, added a groundwater vulnerability regulate the growth of oranges and promote in cities by 2030 layer to the mapping. Ultimately, information characteristics that bring a higher price in about potential environmental hazards will be the market. Normally, RDI is difficult and available to the public via a Web interface. expensive to implement because it requires extensive physical monitoring of trees. Researchers have found they can use UAVs equipped with thermal imaging technology to examine heat levels throughout an orchard. Software stitches the images together, providing a visual map that shows precisely what levels of stress trees are receiving to better target exactly where more water needs to be deliv- ered. As the technique makes more efficient use of water, it effectively False-colour image of the Grand Omar Elmokhtar Reservoir Project. Vegetation releases water resources, which might (red); bare ground (beige); and water not be needed, for other uses. (dark blue).

28 Geospatial World | October 2013 Remaking water topologies Sometimes regions and countries move be- Global per capita water availability (2025) yond measurement and monitoring and reach for true massive change of geography, literally reforming water topologies through such pro- jects as river linking, which connects multiple rivers through canals and brings surface water to land without river access, and dams. India’s National River-Linking Project (NRLP)is a large-scale, long-term attempt to mitigate water resource fluctuations resulting from over dependence on seasonal monsoons. Irrigation has been a key factor in greatly increasing food production, but irrigation only

goes so far. So the country is linking major Coca Cola Comapany Conference, The Initiative, Gef International Water Source:Global Water rivers to extend water access to vast regions, better control seasonal flooding that would otherwise take place in regions with significant Extreme Adequate 1700-4000 Scarcity <500 surface water presence, and to reduce the loss Scarcity 500-1000 Abundant 4000-10,000 of water that would flow to the sea without No Data diversion. The NRLP is also an attempt to Stress 1000-1700 Surplus >10,000 remediate pollution and overuse of rivers in base aids research, engineering management, north India with water from the south. operation, and strategic planning. GIS and remote sensing provide important information for the research, modeling, simu- Conclusion lation, and engineering of such a major project. Water availability and quality continues to Given the scale of the work, officials must have be a growing issue for our crowded planet. a relative certainty of the effects river-linking Geospatial technologies offer a broad variety NASA’s Twin Otter aircraft captures images of Mt. Dana would make to avoid the potential irony of of tools to help communities and countries and Dana Plateau in the making a problem worse through attempts to make wiser decisions. We have put in place Tuolumne River Basin solve it. India is not the only region looking to some systems and sensors, but reforming its water topology. Libya created its much more needs to be done Great Man-Made River, using pipes to channel to integrate these findings for 6.5 million cubic meters of water daily from the a more holistic understanding Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System to coastal and to assess the current status cities. Any such large-scale construction pro- and trends. Incentives offered ject requires GIS technology to help manage by governments for the use of the construction and maintenance. geospatial technologies and ap- China depends on dam projects, like the plications, the development of massive Three Gorges Dam, to reshape how water apps, and open data plat- it manages water. The National Committee forms to share groundwater data on Large Dams has made extensive use of are some other areas that need database technology and Java-based Web GIS to be examined . Finally, people systems to manage information about 4,681 must learn to become effective dams over 30 metres in height. The geospatial stewards of water resources. data uses references of 25°N and 47°N latitude, with a central meridian of 105°E. Data includes Dr Stephen A. McElroy, territorial boundaries, coastline, associated GIS Program Chair, governments, and type of water body. The data- American Sentinel University

Geospatial World | October 2013 29 Water | Case Study

Spatial enablement of groundwater info management Groundwater levels are decreasing due to years of overuse and poor management. Australia has invested in spatial enablement of groundwater management programme for efficient water accounting

roundwater is an important ability within the data models so that informa- natural resource, underpinning tion is exchanged between the projects. G several national goals. In the last few decades, dependency on ground- National groundwater info systems water has increased rapidly to support The Groundwater Data Infrastructure (GDI) is food production, drinking water for a designed to store and analyse point sources and growing population and rapid urbanisa- spatially enable groundwater data in line with tion. However, groundwater has not been the draft National Policy Guidelines on Database managed in the past and this has resulted and Information System. The development of the in overuse and falling groundwater levels. GDI involved consultation with state and federal Establishing a groundwater manage- jurisdictions on the structure of groundwater data ment regime is the prerequisite for ensur- across the country, how it can be organised and ing sustainable supply of groundwater the functionality required by each jurisdiction in the future. Such a regime will have to with respect to groundwater aquifer layers. The understand the distribution of the re- GDI is built to support an open and transparent source and the dynamics of recharge and environment to manage groundwater data. discharge. Mapping aquifers, predicting The variation in storage formats of prelimi- future patterns of use and the associated nary data (bore information, well information, groundwater response, and instituting drillers log, lithology log and existing stratig- sound management regimes are key ac- raphy) like paper and digital format (text and tions that need to be undertaken. spread sheet); poor data quality (for eg, posi- In recent years, Australia has invested tional accuracy (location of borewells vary using Aquifer Layers with bore wells in spatial enablement of groundwater due to different projection), attribute accuracy); management programmes for ef- development of an aquifer framework; the need ficient water accounting and decision for a platform to visualise all preliminary data making. The government and indus- at one instance for interpreting stratigraphy; try have come together to conceptual- the need to extract the interpreted stratigraphy ise and deliver the following projects: (non-spatial data) to create and analyse hydro- National Groundwater Information logical surfaces (spatial data) are the key factors Systems, National Aquifer Framework in developing an integrated data model. and National Atlas of Groundwater The design and development of the GDI and Dependent Ecosystems. the discovery of the input data are divided into This article discusses the constitu- following sub-tasks: Data Model Design, Data ents and experiences in developing Model Review, Data Model Documentation, the above three projects. The projects RDBMS Installation and Setup, Data Model Im- had different timelines but Sinclair plementation, Database Test and Refine, Source Knight Merz (SKM) built interoper- Surface Geology, and Source Terrain Model.

30 Geospatial World | October 2013 Concept of National aquifer framework

National Aquifer Framework is intrinsic to the groundwater management. In a recent aquifer mapping exercise in Aus- The GUs, HGUs and HGCs were developed in tralia, it was realised that the first step is to workshops including groundwater regulators define the aquifers to be mapped. An agreed and consultants. In the aquifer mapping exer- understanding of the mapping units and their cises, HGUs were assigned to the interpreted constituent sub-units was critical in creating bore logs (ie, a number of HGUs assigned 3D aquifer layers. In most cases, the units to down the vertical sequence). The relationship be mapped were heterogeneous and consisted between the HGUs and the HGCs has been a number of sub-units lumped together in used to map the tops and bases of the each of a mappable unit of similar hydrogeological the HGCs by interpolating between boreholes. characteristics. If more detail is required in local areas, it had Logs of bore-holes provided raw lithologi- the capacity to map the tops of the HGUs. cal information. Interpreted lithological logs provided information on the stratigraphic National Atlas of Groundwater units intersected. What was needed is a link Dependent Ecosystems Mapping aquifers, between the lithological logs, the interpreted Australia’s mining boom has a significant predicting future stratigraphic logs and the mappable units. An impact on groundwater resources which in aquifer framework provided this link. turn affect the ecosystems dependent on it. patterns of use The Australian National Aquifer Frame- Australia has developed an online atlas of its and the associated work is a three- tiered system of: groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) • Geological Units (GU) — the smallest using GIS and remote sensing techniques. The groundwater mappable unit consisting of thousands of primary aim of the GDE Atlas was to create response, and mapped surface units plus non-outcrop- a consistent, nation-wide inventory of GDEs instituting sound ping sub-surface units which brings all relevant information on to • Hydrogeological Units (HGU) — a number one Web-based location, collating new and management of geological units lumped into units of existing information on the hydrogeology, regimes are key similar hydrogeological characteristics ecology and features of GDEs across Australia. • Hydrogeological Complexes (HGC) — one The development of the GDE Atlas in- actions for a good or more HGUs lumped into units which are volved the collation of existing GDE data in groundwater logical to map on a regional scale. These are Australia and significant stakeholder engage- usually regional aquifers or aquitards. ment across all jurisdictions in Australia. management The GDI has a component to develop a con- Where there had been no previous work and regime sistent vocabulary across the country which existing data was not obtainable, an inflow

Geospatial World | October 2013 31 Water | Case Study

dependency map derived from remote sens- system’s landscape setting, climate, geology, The primary aim of ing supports further understanding about the hydrology, ecology and hydrogeology. the GDE Atlas is to ecosystem as it provides seamless continental The design of the GDE Atlas allows updates coverage. The inflow dependency map there- as more information becomes available create a consistent, fore overcomes the limitations of sporadic through the backend (Spatial Database). Users nation-wide coverage of existing vector data sets. can interactively interrogate the data through The GDE layers in the Atlas include GDEs an online portal, however the limitations are inventory of identified in previous studies, and potential the inability to update, modify or revise the groundwater GDEs derived through new spatial analysis data directly through the Web interface. dependent using existing feature layers and products While the GDE Atlas provides information developed from analysis of remotely sensed available to a broad range of end users, the pri- ecosystems which data. The primary outputs of the Atlas are mary users of the Atlas are water planners and brings all relevant spatial layers representing: environmental managers, and that the Atlas is • GDEs that rely on the sub-surface presence used in the early stages of planning process to information on of groundwater (eg. vegetation), which flag the location and characteristics of GDEs. to one Web-based includes both known (previously mapped) The Atlas enables end users to view the loca- location and derived (potential) GDEs tion and extents, and to retrieve information • GDEs that rely on the surface expression of for various types of GDEs: sub-surface GDEs, groundwater (eg. rivers, wetlands, springs), surface GDEs, subterranean GDEs, and IDEs. which includes both known (previously Currently, the GDE Atlas allows only viewing mapped) and derived (potential) GDEs and querying of spatial data related to the eco- • Subterranean GDEs (caves and aquifers), systems. If introduced, collaborative GIS will which include known (previously mapped) allow expert users to modify the GDE features, GDEs; these were mapped only where ex- attributes, add new features and update the isting mapping of caves was available, and Atlas with more accurate or detailed data sets. only in Tasmania – as such, more informa- tion on subterranean GDEs exists but has Interoperability of groundwater projects not been collated for the GDE Atlas. In order to achieve benefit over the invest- The GDE Atlas also contains contextual ments done on the above programmes, it was information that informs an understanding of important to ensure interoperability between the possible groundwater use for each poten- them. Whilst designing the data model of tial GDE. This information describes the eco- the GDE Atlas, the design consideration was to make the model interoperable with the Atlas of Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems interim groundwater geofabric product which in turn is interoperable with the National Groundwater Information System which in turn is also interoperable with the National Aquifer Framework. The interoperability among them enables the end users unlock the value of digital data. The products are now considered part of the National Foundation Spatial Data Framework and will be made available to end use for free via a Web portal by the Office of Spatial Policy (Australian Gov- ernment Agency) in the near future. High potential for groundwater interaction Moderate potential for groundwater interaction Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, Executive Consultant – GIS, Sinclair Knight Low potential for groundwater interaction Merz, Australia, [email protected]

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AG-180-CSD_TMX-2050_Print_Ad_Ad_7.75x10.25inch_0913.indd 1 26/09/2013 12:37:08 p.m. Water Resources | Case Study

data. The joint efforts of a consortium of inter- Managing water national SMEs and universities have resulted in a unique operational monitoring system that is capable of providing weekly quantified information at field scale. across borders To obtain this information, the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) The EU-Africa GMES Earth Observation model is used, which is developed and owned project combines EO and in situ data to by WaterWatch BV from Wageningen, The Netherlands. This model has been applied provide real-time quantified information on and evaluated in more than 30 countries, water need and consumption at the Incomati including many African countries. The energy balance describes how solar River Basin energy is distributed. Part of the solar energy is reflected of or absorbed by the surface, and quitable and ef- part is used for plant growth. Most the com- ficient water man- ponents of the energy balance can be quanti- E agement and al- fied from satellite data. The SEBAL model location, especially across then uses the energy balance to quantify international borders, an important component of the water cycle need accurate information — evapotranspiration (ET). Subsequently, on the use and avail- biomass production, the actual and poten- ability of water resources tial water consumption, and water deficit is in space and time. Since derived on a pixel-by-pixel basis. the Incomati River Basin Another important parameter within the is shared between South WatPLAN project is rainfall. This is derived by Africa, Mozambique and combining microwave data from the FEWS- Swaziland, transparency NET sensor with in situ rainfall data measured is paramount in water using low-cost meteorology stations installed allocation to ensure that as part of the project. These data provide valu- international obligations able insight in various aspects of the water are met. An operational balance important for water management. Courtesy: UNESCO monitoring system that For example, combining rainfall and crop covers the entire basin water use provides insight into the distribu- The Incomati Basin can fulfil this need by providing quantified tion of renewable water resources across the information on water use. Incomati Basin. Crop yield can be derived The Spatial Earth Observation Monitoring from the biomass production estimates. for Planning and Water Allocation in the Inter- Dividing crop yield by crop water use gives national Incomati Basin project, or WatPLAN, us water productivity, which defines how operates such a system. This joint project by much water is used per kg harvestable crop the European Union and Africa Global Moni- (crop per drop). These data products have the toring for Environment and Security (GMES) potential to assist different users, including combines earth observation and in situ data the Tripartite Permanent Technical Commit- to provide real-time quantified information at tee (TPTC), the Inkomati Catchment Man- field scale on (agricultural) water need. agement Agency (ICMA), irrigation boards and farmers in objective and sound water Progress beyond state-of-the-art resources management. The novelty of the WatPLAN project extends The data products provided can also be beyond the technical use of remote sensing used as the basic inputs for water accounting,

34 Geospatial World | October 2013 The energy balance describes how solar energy is distributed Solar Energy which is a relatively new framework designed Energy Reflected to provide explicit spatial information on wa- Transpiration Back to Atmosphere ter depletion and net withdrawal processes in complex river basins. Water accounting con- tributes to better water allocation, verification of water use and sustainable utilisation of scarce water resources. Other more process- Evaporation oriented products can also be generated Soil Temperature such as water productivity or sustainability Changes indicators. The data products are disseminated us- Air ing an Internet-based portal where data can Temperature be viewed per sub basin, as well as for the Changes various land use classes (forest plantations, natural vegetation, sugarcane and other ir- rigated crops). datasets, including the WatPLAN data and is a frontrunner in integrating earth observation The results data and models to support operational river The success of WatPLAN is measured by ways management in the region. in which the data products are integrated into the stakeholders’ water management systems, The future and used for water management from field Equitable and efficient water allocation to level or catchment scale. meet international obligations is measured by The WatPLAN portal currently has over 70 and achieved through objective and regular unique registered stakeholders who fre- monitoring across basins. (Agricultural) water quently visit the data portal. Since Septem- management across the world can greatly ber 2011, weekly data has been provided benefit from satellite-based operational for the entire basin of 46,469 sq km with monitoring systems like WatPLAN, providing information for every 30x30 metre pixel. Data accurate quantified information at frequent is freely available on www.watplan.com and intervals and across a large area, with field training material can be viewed online at scale details. The way forward www.watplan.eu. The way forward is the progression from is the progression WatPLAN contributed to the expansion Web-based information portals to water from Web-based of the in situ rainfall monitoring system management applications available for smart- by installing 15 remotely accessible phones and tablets that can be used globally information meteorological stations to be used for ef- at regional and field scale. The foundation for portals to water fective calibration of the earth observation such applications in Southern Africa has been derived rainfall data product. laid down by WatPLAN and careful first steps management An encouraging trend is the integration toward integrated water management ‘apps’ applications of the WatPLAN information into the water in ‘appstores’ are taken. management framework of the Incomati Further integration of data into the available for Catchment Management Agency (ICMA), stakeholders’ operational water manage- smartphones and one of the main end-users in South Africa. ment systems and methods will improve tablets that can be The ICMA was established to assist the South water management at various scales. The African Department of Water Affairs in imple- project will be completed in 2013, whilst a used globally at menting effective Integrated Water Resources business continuation plan is currently being regional and Management (IWRM) within the Incomati formulated. Water Management Area. The ICMA frame- field scale work integrates different water resources Courtesy: eLeaf

Geospatial World | October 2013 35 Water | Case Study

Mekong delta, Vietnam processed with MIP-EWS system

matter and phytoplankton, as well as particulate and dissolved coloured organic matter. With sufficient knowl- edge of these characteristics it is pos- sible to use the data measured by the satellite sensors in order to quantita- tively estimate the concentrations of the water constituencies. A unique algorith algorithm workflow, MIP (Modular Inversion Program), has been developed, which includes all relevant processing steps to guarantee a reliable, standardised and automatic processing of water quality parameters from satellite data. Real time monitoring Small lakes water quality monitoring Regular monitoring of the ecological of inland water quality status of freshwaters larger than 1 ha is obligatory for European Member states, as per the Water Frame Direc- Near-real time space based solutions for monitoring tive (WFD) of the European Commission. inland water quality are aiding government Europe contains over 500,000 natural lakes, agencies in taking effective decisions larger than 1 ha, as well as large number of rivers. Authorities are not capable of monitor- ing these water bodies with adequate tempo- ater quality is affected by in- ral resolution. To solve this, EOMAP provided creasing pressures from land use the Environmental Agency of the state of W change, agri- and aquaculture, Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany with regu- and water-related recreational activities. lar monitoring of all lakes greater than 1ha Monitoring the temporal and spatial dynam- using satellite derived water quality products. ics of inland water quality is essential for the To establish this service and, more important- improved understanding of aquatic ecosys- ly, to deploy satellite-based high-resolution tems. However, this can be a challenging task water quality monitoring on a transnational due to the highly variable nature of water level, EOMAP is currently leading a project quality environments as well as the large funded by the EU, called FRESHMON (High spatial scales involved. resolution freshwater monitoring). Satellite-based earth observation offers Due to different spatial and spectral reso- an efficient and cost-effective mechanism lutions, not all satellites are capable of meas- to rapidly assess a variety of physical and uring the same set of parameters. However, biological parameters in aquatic ecosystems with suitable processing technologies, the over large areas. various data sources deliver standardised and Water bodies have specific reflectance objective in-water measures of spectral scat- characteristics (spectra) based on the scatter- tering and absorption of water constituents. ing and absorbing properties of the optically For example, sensors with a spatial resolution active constituencies in the water. Optically of more than 100m are currently not capable active water constituents include suspended of deriving chlorophyll independent from the

36 Geospatial World | October 2013 load of dissolved organic materials. However, Satellite-derived and quantitatively meas- Indicator map of three small lakes a range of maximum chlorophyll concen- ured turbidity, with related TSM and Organic in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, trations can be retrieved on combining the Absorption estimates can overcome both the processed with MIP-EWS system dependencies of phytoplankton to scattering challenge of consistently acquiring standard- using Landsat 7 satellite data of particles, and absorption to pigment-ab- ised, comparable measurements through space sorption of phytoplankton. and time, as well as the limitations of access to Established through the collaboration historical data. with German authorities, the maximum Within the framework of the WISDOM pro- chlorophyll indicator gives a standardised, ject (Water Information System for the Mekong), large-scale overview of the ecological status of a processing infrastructure for the automatic relatively small lakes. and standardised processing of water quality In combination with the knowledge of the parameters was established. Water quality maps individual characteristics of the water bodies, for more than 5,000 satellite scenes of the Me- the state authorities are able to insert the new kong delta were delivered. This equates to more measurements into their water quality moni- than 900 million sq km in total surface area toring sampling routine, thereby improving mapped. Based on sensor-independent process- both the monitoring time interval and the area ing chain, different satellite data with different covered. Exceedance of critical concentration spatial resolutions could be seamlessly inte- limits can be reported in near real time. grated. This capability enables the mapping of both small and large rivers, as well as extended Mekong river water quality monitoring maritime areas. The Mekong River system has a wide range of The results are of significant interest, il- stakeholders and the delta is one of the most lustrating dramatic changes in the nutrient and productive food regions in the world. The en- suspended matter status of the Mekong and tire Mekong is under significant pressure from other rivers within the last two decades. various sources, e.g. an increasing number of upstream dams are causing a significant Conclusion EOMAP delivered reduction of the downstream nutrient-rich Earth observation-derived water quality pa- sedimentation. There is, therefore, an ongoing rameters are a uniquely powerful way to have a water quality maps need to monitor the environmental status of window into past water quality environments. for more than 5,000 the entire Mekong river system. Alternative sources for spatial and sufficiently satellite scenes of To this end, two significant environmental standardised in-situ measurements are typically variables that can be routinely measured are scarce or non-existent. Furthermore, EO allows the Mekong delta. turbidity and related total suspended matter for extended areas of lakes, rivers and oceans to This equates to more concentrations in the river. Directly linked be contiguously monitored on a regular basis. to water quality, these variables provide Finally, it allows for a standardised approach than 900 mn sq km quantitative information on sediment and which guarantees comparable measurements in total surface area related nutrient transports, and allow for the across political boundaries. monitoring of the effects of environmental mapped and physical changes along the river system. Courtesy: EOMAP

Geospatial World | October 2013 37 Water | Interview

‘GIS maintains a single source of truth for utilities’ The entire infrastructure lifecycle of water utilities deploys GIS, says Malcolm Walter, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Bentley, as he explains how the technology ultimately ensures long-term system sustainibility by decreasing not only pipe breaks, but also lost revenues

How fundamental is geospatial technology to water utility workflows? Utility networks are inherently geospatial. When we talk about assets that are spread over thousands of kilometres, above or under the earth, geospatial information becomes fundamental to such networks. Geo- enabled software helps designers and engineers deliver potable water by providing solutions for the entire infrastructure lifecycle — from planning, designing, and construction, to operation and maintenance of water and wastewater systems. Some of these solutions can address the entire water lifecycle: from water treatment plants and network systems to distribute that water to consumers, to a network to collect sewerage and wastewater treatment plants. They also perform hydraulic analysis, which enables engineers to know how many pumps they need, what is the right size of the pipes, and whether there is enough capacity, and also help the users identify leaks in the system. Geospatial tools can also improve the quality of asset planning, and identify what piping assets need attention based on pipe breakage, capac- ity, or criticality. This technology ultimately ensures long-term system reliability by decreasing not only pipe breaks and leakage, but also lost revenues and outages. As much as 30% of water in the global distribution systems is lost before it gets to consumers because of network breaks caused by age and deterioration. In some cases, pipes might break due to water transients, and in others, the water loss might be due to illegal connections. GIS can maintain a ‘single source of truth’ for utilities. It is typically used, from an engineering point of view, in the planning and operation stages of the water and wastewater infrastructure lifecycle. For example, when an asset is rehabilitated or replaced, or when new pipes in a newly developed area extend the existing network, the GIS information is updated. When an analysis is performed to see how to optimise the pump operations in that new area, the hydraulic model is synchronised to the GIS. This allows the simulated results to reflect what would actually happen in the network. Interoperability among geospatial and water and wastewater products is crucial for improving and sustaining water infrastructure.

Bentley is a leading geospatial player in the water utility segment. What sets you apart from your competitors? Our innovative technology for water utilities has become a key component

38 Geospatial World | October 2013 for the design, operation, and maintenance ment but also the utility of the water infrastructure lifecycle. Bentley infrastructure. These 3D is not just focused on innovation in features infrastructure informa- and capabilities, but also in assembling the tion models are used most complete solution in the market for in ‘call-before-you-dig’ water and wastewater utility owner-opera- workflows as well as in tors. This solution covers GIS, hydraulic and infrastructure design hydrology, asset performance management, and maintenance. engineering content management and team collaboration, mobile apps, and more. Do you think integra- What differentiates Bentley from our tion of BIM and GIS is the future for water Bentley’s Pond Pack user competitors is that we offer an integrated utilities? interface streamlines network layout, data solution. Bentley’s fully integrated water and Yes, indeed, BIM is utilised for the mainte- entry and output viewing wastewater solution addresses the needs of nance of water pipes. The information model owner-operators and engineers who con- contains pipe attributes such as pipe mate- tribute to the water infrastructure lifecycle. rial and roughness coefficient, which can Its powerful capabilities enhance mapping be used in criticality analysis, for example, and data management, information sharing using WaterCAD or WaterGEMS. This type of and collaboration, hydraulic simulation and analysis helps identify critical mains, defined analysis, design and construction documen- as pipes that would interrupt service for a large tation, field engineering and inspection, and number of customers if shutdowns occur. This operations and maintenance. information can then be taken into account We also provide support to the entire wa- by WaterGEMS’ Pipe Renewal Planner tool, ter lifecycle. The Bentley solution meets the in the form of a criticality score, which, when needs of water infrastructure professionals by combined with a fire flow capacity score, pipe covering the entire design, build, and oper- break data, year installed, material, neighbour- ate lifecycle, and provides a comprehensive hood, etc. will prioritise pipes for renewal. mapping, modeling, and engineering design environment. Which according to you are the future areas of application of geospatial technology in GIS had entered the utility enterprise the water utility sector? simply as a system for automating map Hydraulic models for the analysis and Bentley is not production, but has now evolved into a design of water and wastewater systems are core-enabling technology. Why is CAD-GIS typically used by the engineering depart- just focused on integration important in a utilities project? ment. In the past few years, hydraulic innovation in Seamless integration of GIS and CAD gives models have used operational data as input our users the best of both the worlds. It (for calibration purposes, for example), so features and enables integration of geospatial technology the information moved from the operations capabilities, but into engineering workflows, to support the department to the engineering department. also in assembling design, construction, and operation of sus- Now, we are seeing the information go the tainable infrastructure. For example, Bentley other way, putting the power of hydraulic the most complete Map leverages the powerful 3D capabilities analysis and results in the hands of op- solution in the of MicroStation, so that users can create and erators. This breakthrough improves the edit 3D objects with ease. This is how Bentley information mobility between departments market for Map has been used by many city govern- and, consequently, will greatly improve the water and ments to create 3D city models. 3D City GIS overall productivity of utility professionals. It wastewater utility means providing an integrated, above ground also means better operational and emer- and below ground, information model of a gency response time, as well as improved owner-operators city, comprising not just the built environ- decision making capabilities.

Geospatial World | October 2013 39 Water | Case Study

GIS helps Manila Water come out of deep water

Water utility company catering to the Metropolitan Manila region in the Philippines takes the PPP route and incorporates GIS-based solutions

n 1997, Manila Water found itself in a bad led to a landslide change in the scenario. In shape. The non-revenue water (NRW) 2006, 24-hour water supply increased to 99%, I had reached 63% of the total supply, while cutting 50% of the system losses and doubling 75% of the east-zone of Metro Manila did not the number of sewerage connections. In 2012, have a 24-hour supply and only about 8% had NRW dropped to 11%. With service coverage sewerage connection. With the main inten- area of about 1,400 sq km, Manila Water now tion of expanding service coverage, improv- serves an estimated population of 6 million of ing service delivery and increasing operating the 23 cities and municipalities. efficiency, Manila Water Company became the East Concessionaire of Metropolitan Water- Data integration and sharing works and Sewerage System (MWSS) through a Manila Water always produced huge amounts Public-Private-Partnership on August 1, 1997. of spatial and non-spatial data. With an initial The PPP took three major steps to handle the set-up of eight business areas with individual situation. First of all, an enterprise GIS was datasets, eight engineers working with three developed to ensure one-stop shop for all CAD operators, the problem of data integration geographic information needs. Secondly, all and sharing within the network was a major water meters were mapped and information bottleneck. With the focus on consolidating about all service pipes was captured digitally. all the data, the Manila Water Web-GIS was Thirdly, a single topographic map was devel- conceived. It brought about a range of positive Manila Water increased the water oped to align all existing assets. These efforts changes: supply to their customer • It offered a geospatial visualisation and analysis platform with complementing In million litres per day applications running on PCs, tablets and smartphones • The system became a flexible model to adapt to future client needs and functionali- ties. It accommodated the functionalities of water and waste water utility management system. • Data captured by field-staff could be easily flagged in the application for evaluation. • Network information, along with the ap- plication’s drawing capability, allowed users to supplement their project proposals and reporting needs. • It ensured Valve Isolation Feature (VIF) which enabled technical support staff to

40 Geospatial World | October 2013 Mapping of customer meters Reduction of water losses through the years easily identify affected valves within a net- achieved as CRM enabled immediate availabil- work outage. ity of customer information on a single screen. • Modellers could focus on hydraulic analysis Now, a well-developed CRM system is able to and not merely on database build-up. The provide a 360-degree view of customer infor- quality of information can now be screened mation and enable Manila Water to respond in by GIS specialists before publishing. a timely manner. • Manila Water Web-GIS also interfaced with District Metering Area (DMA) Management Fully functional asset information mgmt to link NRW and pressure at DMA level At the onset of the move towards enterprise- hence eliminating duplicated tasks between GIS, as-built data from contractors was en- separate platforms. coded in a centralised database. GPS data from the field was also integrated in the system to How metre mapping helped Manila augment existing position and elevation data. Quick and precise evaluation of complaints by While GPS position accuracy was maintained call centre agents with access to the Customer at an accuracy of 30-cm and even better, old Relationship Management (CRM) resulted in map positional errors amounted to about 15 m. systematic and effective complaints manage- This gave rise to the need for acquiring a single Manila Water ment. Integrating CRM with GIS allowed Ma- topographic map to align all existing assets. today has one of nila Water to accurately identify the customer High-resolution imagery served as base map location by using GPS coordinates. However, in the extraction of vital GIS layers such as road the most accurate it was a big challenge for the company to networks, building footprints etc. The imple- and updated maps accurately plot all 791,000 water service con- mentation of the topographic mapping project nection metres. There was no single updated ensured seamless integration of GPS data of in the Philippines. base map to serve as reference. Western part existing assets and network information with The topographic of the service coverage area was based on a that of as-built plans. Assets encoded in the old mapping project 1989 national mapping data while the eastern base map are now aligned with the help of an part was based on a 2004 DigitalGlobe image accurate road network. Manila Water today has has created a wide with 60-cm resolution. one of the most accurate and updated maps range of maps To resolve such setbacks, dual-frequency in the Philippines. The topographic mapping GNSS receivers were used to conduct a real- project has created a wide range of maps used used regularly for time kinematic survey of metres. The water regularly for network efficiency management network efficiency metre mapping and service pipe digitisation and decision making. project resulted in accurately locating a total of management 791,000 customer accounts. Service quality was Courtesy: Manila Water

Geospatial World | October 2013 41 Value of geoinformation for disaster and risk management “Building a culture of prevention is not easy. While the costs of prevention have to be paid in the present, their benefits lie in a distant future.” — Kofi Annan, former Secretary General, United Nations A study by JB GIS and UNOOSA gives isasters cause massive disruption to cumulative world output. A gradual but clear evidence of economic, societies and overburden economic upward trend can be observed, which is likely D systems. Thousands of people are to continue into the future due to the impacts operational and killed, many thousands lose their livelihoods of climate change and population growth strategic benefits and tens of thousands more displaced from in areas exposed to natural hazards (World which can be their homes every year by naturally trig- Bank/ United Nations, 2010). realised by applying gered storms, floods, volcanic eruptions and These effects could be minimised and geoinformation to earthquakes. Vital resources are destroyed, considerable losses to life and property could infrastructure is damaged, and transport be avoided through improved risk assess- tackle the increasing and communications are jeopardised. Since ment, early warning and disaster monitoring. challenges of natural 1970, the damages caused by all the hazards Risk assessment provides information about and man-made worldwide accumulate to over $ 2,300 billion the combined effects of hazard and vulner- disasters and risks (@ 2008 value), equivalent to 0.23% of the ability, allowing improved risk reduction and

42 Geospatial World | October 2013 mitigation. The outcome of early warning is information on operational and strategic issues addressed. The results also the onset of potential disasters, which can improve prepared- clearly show the emphasis given by the participating user com- ness in the affected area. However, these technologies are munity to the application of geoinformation, not just to support still not fully exploited for disaster and risk management. The emergency response but also to map and monitor risks, with successful implementation of geospatial technologies requires beneficial effects such as reducing public losses and support- a solid base of political support, laws and regulations, institu- ing risk reduction strategies. The study results show clearly the tional responsibility, and trained staff. indispensable value of user knowledge when it comes to valuat- While many studies highlight the economic benefits of dis- ing geoinformation for disaster and risk management. aster prevention and preparedness as compared to post-dis- aster response efforts, the actual demand for disaster-related Operational benefits geoinformation, especially earth observation satellite data, is Operational benefits take effect in the immediate context of mostly biased towards support of disaster response. emergency response, but also in support of disaster prepar- This issue is even aggravated by the fact that many informa- edness following an early warning or in the course of a slow- tion products specifically dedicated to prevention and mitiga- onset disaster. Humanitarian aid, e.g. logistical assistance in tion support, such as risk assessment maps and early warning deploying supply goods, or assisting refugees, is a paramount systems, are more complex and hence costly in comparison requirement in emergency response. Here, the benefit of all with, for instance, a local damage assessment map. This is due items was appraised as high by more than 50% of the end- to the cost-driving factors like GIS-based modelling, extended users, with emphasis on earthquake damage assessment (over spatial and temporal coverage, and system development, 90%). Even fire risk mapping as a more prevention-related implementation and operation. A critical observer might sum item scored more than 50 %. up this situation by stating that in support of disaster and risk Health care, e.g. emergency medical assistance or disaster management, geoinformation is preferably applied where it is preparedness in hospitals, is a highly crucial and time-critical cheap and less efficient. issue in humanitarian support. In the end-users’ appraisal, Therefore, knowledge transfer is needed from geoscience most items were evaluated as highly beneficial by more than experts and international bodies to professionals and decision 50%, except for landslide hazard assessment, fire risk map- makers in the field of disaster and risk management. Many ping, flood risk monitoring and flood risk mapping. Emphasis international organisations are tackling this issue, among them are the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies Technical profiles of 10 reference geoinformation items to be (JB GIS), and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs valued with respect to: (Table 1) Criticality of (UNOOSA) which is carrying out the United Nations Platform Operational issues Strategic issues features for Space-based information for Disaster Management and Efficiency of plans Humanitarian aid Thematic content Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER). and policies Public acceptance of plans Health care Access The VALID project and policies JB GIS and UNOOSA studied the impact and potential finan- Support of superregional Critical infrastructure Scale cial benefits under the framework of an interdisciplinary pro- consistency and cooperation ject named VALID (The Value of Geoinformation for Disaster Reducing losses in Security Accuracy and Risk Management). It is partially based on a global stake- public economy holder survey which was facilitated by the UNSPIDER contact Support of preventive Aerial coverage database, including the network of National Focal Points. Of strategies the total 70 responders, 51 are end users and 19 are non-end Spatial resolution users (research organisations, for example). This article presents the summary of results of the study Timelines and the survey. It gives evidence of economic, operational and strategic benefits which can be realised by applying geoinfor- Update frequency mation in tackling the increasing challenges of natural and man-made disasters and risks. Data format A vast majority of end-users ascribed a high to medium benefit to all shortlisted geoinformation items (Table 1) for all Appraisal Key: High, Medium, Low

Geospatial World | October 2013 43 Public Safety | Value of Geoinformation

(Figure 1): Benefit for health care 70% of the end-users evaluated all items except drought Land hazard assessment vulnerability mapping as highly beneficial (Figure 2). Although drought vulnerability is a critical issue regard- Fire detection and monitoring Fire risk map ing food production, apparently the major concern Drought vulnerability map was about technical infrastructure which is not directly Earthquake damage assessment map affected by drought. Scores of over 90% were reached for quake damage assessment mapping, urban classification Urban classification for earthquake risk analysis for earthquake risk analysis and flood risk mapping. Inundation map Security means, for examples, control over vul- Flood damage assessment map nerable structures in emergency situations as well Flood risk monitoring system as preparedness of the population and resilience of Flood risk map infrastructure in the pre-disaster phase was an im- portant aspect. In the end-users’ appraisal, all items 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% High Medium, Low, but drought vulnerability mapping scored over 50% (Figure 2): Benefit for critical infrastructure for highly beneficial, with scores over 60% going for Land hazard assessment earthquake damage assessment mapping and urban Fire detection and monitoring classification for earthquake risk analysis (Figure 3). Fire risk map Drought vulnerability map Strategic benefits Earthquake damage assessment map Strategic benefits are expected mostly on the level of Urban classification for earthquake risk analysis pre-disaster planning for risk reduction, and also in the Inundation map aftermath of a disaster when it comes to coping with Flood damage assessment map economical losses and reconstruction. Flood risk monitoring system Efficiency of plans and policies in disaster and Flood risk map risk management may benefit from integrating the geospatial dimension into the information base for 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% strategic decision support, which is complementary to

High Medium, Low, merely statistical data. Except for fire risk mapping, all (Figure 3): Benefit for security geoinformation items were evaluated by over 50% of Land hazard assessment the end-users group as highly beneficial, with the high- Fire detection and monitoring est scores for urban earthquake risk analysis (75%) and Fire risk map flood risk mapping (>70%) (Figure 4). Drought vulnerability map Public acceptance of plans and policies may be Earthquake damage assessment map increased especially by the visual representation of Urban classification for earthquake risk analysis damage, vulnerabilities and risks, as provided by Inundation map suitable geoinformation products. Under this aspect, Flood damage assessment map however, the overall evaluation as highly beneficial Flood risk monitoring system was lower by end-users, with just flood damage as- Flood risk map sessment mapping scoring well above 50%. In general, the responders assessed the benefits of geoinforma- 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% tion as moderate when aiming to increase public was given to earthquake damage assessment (75%) and fire acceptance of plans and policies. detection and monitoring (over 75%) (Figure 1). Apparently, Support of super-regional consistency and coop- emphasis is given to the needs of immediate medical aid in eration, for instance by sharing uniform geospatial emergency situations, resulting in distinctly higher benefit reference information, is a critical strategic issue in all scores of disaster detection and damage assessment versus risk cases where a spatially extended trans-boundary hazard and hazard mapping. has to be coped with, where a global strategy shall be Critical infrastructure encompasses transportation, energy implemented, or where disaster and risk management supply, communication links and food production. More than is carried out in a federal administrative system. Here,

44 Geospatial World | October 2013 more than 50% highly beneficial appraisals from end-users (Figure 4): Benefit for efficiency of plans and policies were given to fire detection and monitoring, earthquake dam- age assessment mapping (over 55%), urban earthquake risk Land hazard assessment analysis (55%), and flood damage assessment mapping. Fire detection and monitoring For reducing losses in the public economy, e.g. by risk Fire risk map reduction or more efficient emergency response, over 60% Drought vulnerability map of the end-users group evaluated most items as highly Earthquake damage assessment map beneficial, with only minor differences, and with drought Urban classification for earthquake risk analysis vulnerability mapping and flood risk monitoring (both Inundation map more than 55 %) coming just short of this score. Flood damage assessment map Support of preventive strategies has been proven as a Flood risk monitoring system highly efficient approach to disaster management and may Flood risk map benefit from geoinformation e.g. in the way of identifying, 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% assessing and locating disaster risks. Accordingly, more than High Medium, Low, 60% of end-users evaluated all items as highly beneficial except flood damage assessment (55%) (Figure 5). (Figure 5): Benefit for support of preventive strategies Land hazard assessment Cost aspect Fire detection and monitoring It would be tempting to juxtapose benefit appraisal results Fire risk map and cost estimates for the 10 reference geoinformation Drought vulnerability map items, thus mimicking a classical cost-benefit-analysis, as Earthquake damage assessment map has been demonstrated for a set of well-defined satellite Urban classification for earthquake risk analysis data products (Backhaus and Beule 2005). In the case of the Inundation map VALID reference items, this approach would have meant Flood damage assessment map Flood risk monitoring system facing three major challenges: Flood risk map • The different cost categories that are relevant for prod- 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% ucts or systems, e.g. regarding the amount of ‘input’ that is readily available at minimal cost in terms of suitable data these preventive approaches as such are generally acknowl- and mature soft- and hardware; edged as the option of choice to obtain higher efficiency in • Variations in costs charged by different providers; and disaster and risk management, the specific impact of geoinfor- • Variation in costs due to where and when and under which mation is more difficult to quantify. At present, any research programmatic conditions a given system is developed, on this point has to involve the explicit and tacit knowledge of implemented and operated. stakeholders, practitioners and experts. Furthermore, the 10 reference products relate to very dif- ferent disaster types and different phases of disaster manage- References ment. The cost-benefits-relation of products related more Altan, O., Backhaus, R., Boccardo, P., Zlatanova, S. (ed.) 2010: Geo- specifically to the emergency preparedness and response information for Disaster and Risk Management - Examples and Best phases can be more easily modelled, because there is plenty of Practices. Copenhagen. empirical data on the actual losses caused by various disaster Altan, O., Backhaus, R., Boccardo, P., Tonolo, F.G., Trinder, J., van types in different parts of the world. Manen, N., Zlatanova, S. (ed.) 2013: The Value of Geoinformation for Other products such as damage assessment maps con- Disaster and Risk Management – Benefit Analysis and Stakeholder As- tribute to recovery and reconstruction because they help to sessment. Copenhagen estimate the damages and needs or to monitor the financial Backhaus, R., and Beule, B., 2005: Efficiency Evaluation of Satellite performance of recovery activities, in both ways optimising Data Products in Environmental Policy. Space Policy 21, 173-183 the efficiency of recovery spending. World Bank/ United Nations. 2010. Natural Hazards, UnNatural Dis- asters: The Economics of Effective Prevention. Washington Conclusion Geospatial information on risk and vulnerability will support Robert Backhaus, Senior Advisor, German Remote Sensing effective policies of mitigation and risk reduction. Whereas Data Centre, [email protected]

Geospatial World | October 2013 45 Public Safety | Workforce Management Managing resources for effective disaster response Gone are the days when companies utilised workforce management solutions just to monitor their day-to-day operations. Now the technology is playing a major role in mission-critical events such as damage assessment and cleanup

hen a public works truck Assessing damage, the ‘mobile’ way breaks down in a blizzard Various agencies and organisations have been W during snow removal in turning to these innovative technologies to im- Brookline, Massachusetts, dispatchers prove disaster response. Red Cross workers, for know exactly where to find the vehicle. instance, use handheld devices to assess dam- That’s because Brookline’s public works age in the aftermath of natural disasters. While department uses fleet management in the past, the Red Cross staff would rush to the system with telematics that tracks the scene with clipboards in hand to do their assess- progress of its fleet and crew in the field. ments, now they use rugged Nomad handhelds Telematics, GIS mapping, GPS and to upload information immediately accessible cellular communications are playing an to analysts at Red Cross headquarters. In 2008, increasing role in guiding teams, tracking the organisation did 28,000 damage assessments progress and assigning workers in the after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike which struck aftermath of blizzards, thunderstorms, less than three weeks apart. floods, heat waves and events where The handhelds make the process easier and the safety of citizens is a major concern. more efficient, says Edward Fitzgerald, Project These technologies already are being Manager for Global Relief Technologies, the Ports- used extensively in organisations with mouth, New Hampshire. The company helped the large fleets and field service organisa- Red Cross deploy the devices. “It’s a substantially GeoManager provides real-time tions to run day-to-day operations. Now more efficient and a more accurate process than visibility of field status, which companies can utilise to optimise they are also playing a role in storm dam- the previous paper-based system,” he adds. their mobile worker performance age assessment and cleanup. In Japan, handhelds have also been used for data collection in the aftermath of earthquakes, helping officials to create maps, reports and detailed analysis of damage so they can quickly generate damage certificates to residents and business owners. In Monroe County, New York, authorities use a ‘GIS Technology Vehicle’ to respond to emergencies. Equipped with three workstations, ruggedised laptops, a 36-inch plotter, printers, a SmartBoard, big-screen monitor, radios and wireless communications equipment, the vehi- cle provides communication and information as situations unfold. GIS maps and colour air photos can be printed onboard and circulated

46 Geospatial World | October 2013 Article | Public Safety

Brookline’s public works department uses fleet management system to track the progress of their fleet during blizzards among officers responding to an emergency. patchers and managers full visibility into work As organisations take advantage of telem- in the field so they can better plan and track atics, GIS mapping or GPS systems, or a com- the work. Centralised consoles and dynamic bination of them, the technology is becoming GIS maps give dispatchers real-time vis- more sophisticated, offering new ways to be ibility on crew locations. A dispatcher knows efficient and responsive. Tieng these tech- exactly when crews arrive at a job, how much nologies together is workforce management, time they spend there, and when they leave. which is becoming popular at field services So when a crew finishes an assignment, the organisations with large vehicle fleets. And dispatcher can send him to the next task in a as it becomes so, organisations that respond smarter, more efficient way. to mission-critical events such as floods and The municipal utility in Anderson, Indiana, blizzards are bound to start adopting it has adopted Trimble Field Management, a as well. GPS-based field services management tech- nology. “When there were storms, the board Technology for the unexpected looked like a chess game. Now, we know ex- Extreme weather events have become com- actly where each vehicle is and can schedule mon around the globe. Sometimes the dam- repairs by a truck’s proximity to the outage,” age is limited to a few downed power lines, says Jason Tuck, GIS consultant and former but in some cases there is widespread dam- GIS Manager for Anderson Municipal Power GIS mapping and age, with flooded basements, broken gas lines, & Light Division. “We can see our trucks real impassable roads and interruptions in cable time on a map and make faster and more GPS are playing and phone services. While first responders get confident decisions because we know their an increasing a lot of attention for rushing to emergencies in locations are more accurate.” the aftermath of a hurricane or storm, there is Like Anderson Power & Light, any organi- role in guiding a flurry of activity by highway workers, utility sation that gets involved in disaster response, teams, tracking crews and repair and maintenance teams to including pest control, building maintenance, restore normalcy and protect public safety. telephone and cable, plumbing, heating and progress and That includes restoring power, repairing electrical contractors, water supply, home assigning workers downed telephone lines or gas, heating and health care, construction and various state and in the aftermath cable connections. Road-clearing crews and federal agencies, can improve their response utility workers for instance, get dispatched as by leveraging field services technology. of blizzards, soon as the situation permits to restore power. thunderstorms, There is a lot of pressure on agencies that Dynamic response respond to these disasters. Workforce management solutions deliver floods, etc. Workforce management solutions give dis- lots of data that can be used in real time for

Geospatial World | October 2013 47 Public Safety | Workforce Management

on-the-spot decisions and for later review. Future planning In Japan, handhelds In real-time situations, managers receive Beyond field situations, workforce have been used information on how much progress field management delivers analytics about the teams have made, which assignments need performance and responsiveness of each for data collection coverage, and which workers are available for worker and team. Organisations compile in the aftermath upcoming tasks. Dynamic scheduling tools the data into reports for review to spot deliver visibility into work plans while intel- trends and the need for improvements. For of earthquakes, ligent assignment tools match skills to tasks. instance, if crews took too long to arrive, helping officials Next-generation workforce management managers can better plan standby crews for to create maps, solutions collect data on the experience and future situations. preferences of workers. If a field worker is Use of analytical data helps improve reports and detailed more familiar than others with a certain area productivity of organisations, making it analysis of the of town, it makes sense to send that worker possible to complete more jobs per day, on assignments there because the worker and helps control costs. For field service damage so the already knows the roads, shortcuts and the organisations, squeezing more jobs into one authorities can general lay of the land. In addition, next- day in the aftermath of a disaster accelerates quickly generate generation workforce management solutions the resumption of operations, which helps to feature self-learning tools that “learn” work- minimise lost revenue and bring employees certificates to ers’ preferences on geography and types of back to work more quickly. It also creates residents and tasks, which helps fine-tune the assignment goodwill among customers, who often of workers to needed tasks. It also helps to get frustrated when service restoration business owners reduce overtime costs, travel time and missed takes too long, especially after a storm or assignments. strong winds. At White Mountain Oil & Propane, North “We can give customers a window and Conway, New Hampshire, fleet management the driver will call half an hour before getting technology has yielded some valuable results. there so the customer is always updated on “Managers can receive off-hours service or their service status,” says Jeff Bowlby, opera- emergency calls (when dispatch is closed), log tions supervisor for New Jersey American in, and in a minute know exactly where the Water, which provides water and wastewater problem is and send help,” says Todd Miller, service in six counties. the company’s manager of administration. This can be life saving when power outages from an Joyce Tam, Director, Product Marketing, ice storm or blizzard leave people stranded. Trimble Field Service Management

GEM, a 24-hr emergency service provider utilises fleet and workforce management solutions to optimise resources 72.indd 74 10/1/2013 11:29:47 AM Public Safety | Case Study

Early warning system to mitigate tsunami fury With the help of early warning system, India can issue tsunami alerts within minutes of a major earthquake in Indian Ocean region

efore the 2004 tsunami, the Indian Ocean to issue a warning in just few minutes after a did not have a system to alert residents quake. The system monitors large magnitude Bof coastal areas when a tsunami was im- earthquakes which are ‘tsunamigenic’. minent. Therefore, the catastrophe of 2004, which In addition to seismic observation system, left several people dead, triggered the Indian sea-level observation system is also a criti- Government to establish Indian Tsunami Early cal. Due to the complexity and uncertainty in Warning System at the Indian National Centre for forecasting whether an undersea earthquake Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). The system has the potential to generate a tsunami, the was developed keeping in view two major objec- observation of sea level changes is important. tives: real-time acquisition of data from multiple The use of actual sea level observations helps sensors through various communication channels in reducing the risk of issuing false tsunami and dissemination of tsunami advisories to the warnings. The EWS’s sea-level system includes stakeholders at the earliest possible time. a network of tide gauge stations along the coastline of the country and a network of bot- Design of early warning system tom pressure recorders. In addition, EWS also The underlying principle of the Early Warning includes a number of coastal sea level stations System (EWS) is to monitor earthquakes in real- that can report sea level variations in real time. Tsunamigenic zones in the time. The seismic system is a core component for In order to integrate these heterogeneous Indian Ocean near-source regions where the EWS is expected datasets from multiple sensors, a state-of-art computational facility is installed at INCOIS.

Simulation system To assess the real time scenario and make tsunami forecast, simulation of the event is im- portant. The EWS hypothesises that a certain magnitude of earthquake can cause tsunami is generated using numerical simulation. For this, the simulation system takes earthquake parameters as input and uses numerical models for generating high accuracy wave propagation information in open oceans. This is then extrapolated to the coastline in estimat- ing the maximum wave height and arrival time Legend of destructive waves. Currently, EWS uses the Tsunami genic zones TUNAMI-N2 model to simulate tsunami wave Earthquakes caused tsunamis propagation to estimate travel time and run-up Historical earthquake height for a particular earthquake. Plate boundary Since the model cannot be run at the time

50 Geospatial World | October 2013 of an event, due to large computing time as well as due to non-availability of required fault parameters in real-time, a database of pre-run scenarios is essential. The result of the simulation is a huge database of ap- proximately 8 terabytes, consisting of spatial maps depicting the water level in the Indian Ocean region. The application software developed based on geospatial technologies has an interface to store, retrieve, analyse and display the spatial maps from the data- analyse the situation, whom to issue the notification, Directivity and travel-time base. The spatial layers currently being han- threat assessment and cancellation. maps for the 11 April 2012 dled by this application include fault lines, fault quake revealing the threat segments for different earthquake magnitudes, Role of geospatial technologies levels due to the tsunami travel time maps, directivity maps, simulation The advent of GIS has made it possible to connect the results for about 1800 coastal forecast points, simulation results of threat assessment (wave heights graphs of model and observed tsunami wave and arrival times) at open-ocean to each individual profiles at each coastal forecast point. administrative blocks in the country. In its most visible As the event progresses, the hypothesis is form, geospatial technologies help in disseminating the either confirmed or cancelled based on the real threat spatially. The geographical user interfaces devel- time sea-level observations. In case of confir- oped using GIS help the decision makers to handle the mation of tsunami, the EWS upgrades/down- tasks easily by visualising the actual scenario. grades the threat status at all the administrative regions along the Indian Coastline. Performance of the EWS Since its inception in October 2007, the centre has moni- Standard operating procedure tored 364 quakes of M > 6.5, out of which 64 were in the The Decision Support Systems (DSS) can be Indian Ocean region. Only on five occasions, warning/ thought of as a codified version of standard alert/watch were issued. The best example for perfor- operating procedures (SOP) during an event. mance of warning centre is great EQ of Mw 8.6 on April An EWS functions with a set of operating 11, 2012 that occurred off west coast of northern Sumatra standards and code of conduct, known as wherein only three areas were under warning. Also, a standard operating procedures (SOP). The comparison of earthquake parameters estimated by Indian SOP suits both, near-source as well as warning centre has been made with other international far-source earthquake events. For example, if agencies, like the US Geological Society. an earthquake strikes the Sunda subduction zone, coastal areas in Andaman & Nicobar Future plans Islands with tsunami travel times of < 60 min The EWS has been scaled up to meet the tsunami early are categorised as near-source and for those warning requirements of other countries in the In- areas where water level exceeds > 2 m, warning dian Ocean. INCOIS has been identified as one of the is issued. However, the areas in mainland are Regional Tsunami Watch Providers in the Indian Ocean. categorised as far-source and will be under Plans are afoot to achieve tsunami warning capability for alert/watch based on estimated water levels earthquake events happening outside the Indian Ocean until confirmation from sea level observations. region. As the world moves towards a multi-hazard ap- These decisions are coded into the applica- proach, EWS has been designed to handle other disaster tion software that enables generation and early warning systems. dissemination of location specific advisories in both map and text formats. These guide the Dr T Srinivasa Kumar, Scientist - F & In-charge, Nation- scientist-operators at the tsunami warning al Tsunami Early Warning Centre, Earth System Science center on when to initiate the bulletin, how to Organisation, INCOIS, [email protected]

Geospatial World | October 2013 51 Public Safety | Case Study

Geo-referenced maps for quake damage assessment Japanese authorities used GeoPDF maps for on-the-ground inspection of property damage in areas affected by earthquake and tsunami, including the Fukushima nuclear evacuation zone

Pre-(left) and post-(right) earthquake images n March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude Nuclear Plant complex as radiation leaks earthquake struck northeastern contaminated the surrounding area. O Japan and the ensuing tsunami In such a situation, even as the immedi- unleashed waves up to 128 feet high, reach- ate search and rescue challenges were on, ing 6 miles inland. Together, the earthquake recovery and damage assessment required and tsunami took more than 15,000 lives, urgent attention. Federal, prefectural and left nearly 8,000 people missing, displaced local governments needed a way to rapidly 450,000 more and damaged properties worth disseminate, update and share information over $300 billion. Adding to the unprecedent- to determine which buildings and homes ed scope of these natural disasters was the were damaged, so that property owners compromise of the multi-reactor Fukushima could receive government-issued disaster

52 Geospatial World | October 2013 victim certificates. Owners could then be Geo PDF Map Atlas compensated and reconstruction could be- gin. Complicating matters was the inability to physically enter the nuclear evacuation zone to conduct on-the-ground inspection of property damage.

Assessing the damage Because the earthquake so radically altered and submerged the coastline, geospatially referenced maps and imagery were the obvi- ous choice for visualising and exchanging information. In addition, because no one could enter or fly over the evacuation zone near the Fukushima nuclear plant due to ra- Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 diation exposure issues, satellite imagery was the only way to safely assess damage. Quick response Hitachi Solutions, distributor of TerraGO GeoPDF maps enabled users to assess affect- in Japan and East Asia, proposed that by ed areas by comparing the different layers utilising pre- and post-March 11 maps and and utilise geographical coordinates when satellite imagery combined with property adding information and images to each boundary information, damage assessment location. Certification of property damage, could be accomplished much more quickly, which previously required on-site confirma- thus simplifying the clerical work of issuing tion, was carried out quickly through the disaster damage certificates. comparison of residential maps containing The maps would need to cover over 600 homeowners’ names and post-disaster satel- square miles land affected by the disaster in lite images. Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. Hitachi also provided Nikon-Trimble ‘GPS Due to the urgency, the maps also needed to Pathfinder SB’ handheld devices with TerraGo be produced rapidly and be easily distrib- Mobile software to write data on the GeoPDF uted and updated. maps, permitting on-site uploading of current Using TerraGo Publisher and Composer, georegistered data and images to the GeoPDF Hitachi created 38,501 GeoPDF maps and map atlas. combined them into 42 mapbooks. The The use of GPS and geographical coordi- GeoPDF maps are comprised of three layers: nates in the atlas expedited the inspection The GeoPDF atlas residential cadastre maps from before the process. The GeoPDF maps and satellite incorporates earthquake, post-disaster SAR (Synthetic images also enabled area-by-area damage Aperture Radar) flood estimate data and assessment for use in planning reconstruc- residential map satellite imagery. The GeoPDF atlas incor- tion schedules. data from ‘Zmap- porates residential map data from ‘Zmap- By the end of May 2011, approximately TOWN II’ by Zenrin Co, flood estimate 150,000 of the 180,000 applications for dis- TOWN II’ by data by Pasco Corp and satellite images by aster victim certificates had been processed. Zenrin Co, flood DigitalGlobe. In the Fukushima nuclear evacuation zone, After deciding the specification, the map where on-the-ground inspections were not estimate data by atlas was produced in two days. Hitachi then possible, 183 property owners received the Pasco Corp and donated it to the Japanese Cabinet office Risai Shomeisho disaster victim certificates satellite images by which in turn distributed discrete maps from exclusively on the basis of these GeoPDFs. the atlas on DVDs and USBs to the respective DigitalGlobe prefectural and local governments. Courtesy: TerraGo

Geospatial World | October 2013 53 Public Safety | Case study

Reliable crowdsourcing in the times of disasters

A collage of photos from the ASIGN server A smartphone app supporting crowdsourcing PICTURES, AnsuR, a Norwegian technology developer for visual situational awareness, col- and geo-referenced images helps in improving laborated with the United Nations (UNOSAT), disaster assessment and suggested a smartphone app for crowd- sourcing reliably time- and geo-referenced uring the 2011 Thailand floods, the in-situ images for the purpose of improving world’s fourth costliest disaster, over disaster assessment from earth observation D800 people died and 77 provinces (EO)images. were declared as disaster zones. When the flood approached larger cities, and specifi- The results cally Bangkok, a larger disaster was imminent. For years, AnsuR has worked with efficient Frequent and accurate flood observations mission-critical communications of geo- were needed as much more was at stake. tagged pictures, including using profes- sional cameras and a specialised smartphone The problem application as a tool for communicating Periodically updated flood maps based on ra- photos quickly and reliably. In May 2011, a dar satellite images were provided by UNOSAT few months before the Thai floods, AnsuR re- every few days. However, while the importance leased a crowdsourcing version of the ASIGN of up-to-date monitoring of the flooding in application for UNOSAT. However, following the city areas increased, the quality of radar the floods, AnsuR opened this application for observations reduced (due to increased back- public use in Thailand, in order to provide in- scatter/noise from objects and infrastructure), put to the validation of satellite images as well sometimes leaving it to satellite images alone as to allow other use of the input images. to determine if areas were flooded or whether Over the following months, close to 1,000 they were reflections from flat wet surfaces. geo-referenced photos from the greater Bang- Leading the FP7 SPACE Project GEO- kok area came in to the AnsuR server, and

54 Geospatial World | October 2013 Map from the UNOSAT GIS server where was shared with UNOSAT, who were able to is in general received seconds after capture, so the red area represents flooded parts provide better flood maps, that in turn helped it is available fast. There is no need to worry authorities in managing the disaster better. about remembering where to send it. The Thai government, the Asian Disaster As a compressed photo is sent initially, Prevention Center and Google used them in ASIGN protocols allow analysts to automati- disaster management. GEO-PICTURES/ASIGN cally request a full resolution region of interest has even won the 2012 GMES masters competi- from the sender. In this way, communications tion in the ESA App Challenge Category. are optimised at all three levels: technical — by using efficient compression, content — by al- The technology lowing focus on what is interesting, and impact The ASIGN app sends geo-referenced im- — by prioritising resources on what is relevant ages quickly and reliably from the field to an for the operations. The photos are available via ASIGN server at CERN over even unreliable a Web interface from anywhere in the world. networks. ASIGN offers image analysts access Observations can be allocated to a GeoRSS feed to full photographic details, to focus on image or integrated with maps. The maps can also be with relevant content that can have impact on updated with latest images. the operations. The system supports using any In addition to photos, ASIGN provides satellite or mobile communications. support for geo-tagged free text and structured The full ASIGN system is a client-server assessment templates, that can be created concept, with field SW for PC, linux comput- dynamically at the ASIGN server via a Web ers and smartphone. The professional app is browser. Also time- and geo-tagged video clips, available for Android, while the crowdsourc- voice captions and text messages are possible. ing version is available for iPhone, Android UNOSAT also has the QR code for the app and Windows 8 phones, and is based on on its website, but now all the Apps for Apple, professional disaster assessment tools. It Android and Windows 8 are found in their ASIGN provides makes use of satellite navigation systems and respective application stores. smart protocols for minimising bandwidth The ASIGN technology is still used with support for requirements and transfer time, while maxim- professional in situ validation photos, sent geo-tagged free ising robustness towards unreliable links and via smartphones, PCs, satellite or 3G or preserving access to full image quality. other means. In this context, the use of small text and structured The unique features of ASIGN include relia- unmanned aerial vehicles is interesting, and assessment templates ble and consistent information. It gets accurate AnsuR recently demonstrated ASIGN in UAVs satellite time- and geo-tagging, and only allows at a workshop organised by the UN and EU in that can be created photos to be taken via the app itself, effectively Geneva. In this context, crowdsourcing can dynamically at the eliminating chances of editing or importing also complement aerial observations. ASIGN server via a data when it is received seconds after capture. In order to contribute, users have to register, Dr Harald Skinnemoen, Founder and CEO, Web browser and provide name and number. Information AnsuR Technologies, [email protected]

Geospatial World | October 2013 55 Public Safety | Case Study

Olympics 2012 and after: London gets an effective policing tool The London Metropolitan Police’s geo-enabled system for safe and secure conduct of 2012 Olympics will continue to be an effective policing tool in the delivery of public safety and security in the city

he London 2012 Olympics and Para- The Olympic portal was delivered by lympics left an admirable legacy for Astrium and the MPS’s GIS team in less than T London and UK — a fantastic stadium 10 months after the contract was signed. The and park, improved transportation and local majority of the functionality was delivered in recreation. For the Metropolitan Police Ser- time for the London 2012 Olympics and the vices (MPS) London, one of the far-reaching MPS GI Programme is now nearing comple- gains was a new generation of public safety tion to provide full MetMaP solution (corporate and emergency system powered by geospatial Web Mapping Portal, applets and GI services). technology. The MPS GI Programme delivered: With a vision to host an inspirational, safe • Spatial Data Infrastructure with ETL tools and inclusive Games, MPS embarked on • Web Services (SOA, WMS, WFS, Routing, developing a new generation system in 2008. Gazetteer, Rest, Transformation, API, Live The MPS and the Home Office jointly funded Feed Business Data, etc.) and commissioned a new GI Programme in • MetMaP - Geospatial Platform 2010 to deliver the state-of-the-art technology • Web Mapping Portal for public safety and emergency services. • Applets for customising functions required MetMap served The objectives of the GI /Mapping pro- for operational policing ject, under the Olympic Safety and Security MetMaP is a secure Web browser-based as a single point Programme, was to deliver the toolsets which mapping portal, together with a coherent set of access to mitigate the threats from terrorism; public of geographical information, available across information about disorder and serious crime together with the both the MPS network and the wider UK Police delivery of a Common Operating Picture that network connection. It served as a single point any Olympic or was required to meet the requirements of the of access to information about any Olympic Paralympics venue Games’ stakeholders and UK security forces. or Paralympics venue or event, delivering The biggest challenges for the delivery of the transparency and common mapping standards or event, delivering project were an immovable deadline, a limited across a large number of police forces. transparency and budget and maintaining quality. MetMaP offers a variety of toolsets which common mapping are used to display, analyse and manipulate G-tech to the rescue geographic data layers collected by the gov- standards across In May 2011, the MPS Contract Board award- ernment led Olympic Data Production Group. a large number of ed a 4-year contract to Astrium/Infoterra for The portal was successfully utilised across the the implementation, hosting and manage- London 2012 Olympic stakeholders for opera- police forces ment of the MPS and Olympic geospatial ser- tional planning, location awareness, briefing / vices / technology through the GI Programme. debriefing and post event analysis.

56 Geospatial World | October 2013 The portal also provides a collaborative ture was also a challenge as it was environment that allows users to share situ- required to support interoperability ational awareness in real time. The user is within MPS business functions and able to invite team members within different multi-agency environments. locations to share a live portal session during Meeting the non-functional re- an operation. An instant messaging service quirements was a challenging task, as allows users to converse during a session. it is required to support a huge user All geospatial datasets held within the por- base (currently around 5,000) and to tal are governed by the MPS GI team to ensure meet the user’s expectations in per- high standards of data quality, serving as a sin- formance, reliability and availability. gle source of verified geographic information across Olympic and MPS business functions. Operational benefits The collaborative GI / Mapping The Olympic data collection portal allows police officers access A screen shot of London fire Geographic information for the MPS GI Pro- to geospatial information from an integrated venue operational plan gramme was collected by various government and consolidated single source. This will agencies together with MPS business func- reduce the time spent on repetitive processes tions and was shared with all other stakehold- of data geocoding and on searching through ers. The Ordinance Survey (UK), Ministry of disparate (silo) information sets. The business Defence (UK), National Geographic Intelli- data can now be visualised on a map. gence Agency (NGA –USA), London Organ- This serves as a ‘single stop-shop’ for the ising Committee of the Olympic and Para- current view of a borough, or any specific lympic Games (LOCOG), Olympic Delivery command unit. In the future, the new applets Authority (ODA), Transport for London, and will enable sharing of information amongst all other government agencies played a vital role boroughs and different MPS functions in real in collecting data. The interoperable character time and will support the common operating of MetMaP assisted in reducing resource cost picture together with situational awareness. for data capture. After ensuring safe and secure conduct of the Olympic Games in 2012, MetMaP platform, Key technical challenges with new geospatial applets, will soon become The most critical part of building the MPS a major policing tool in the delivery of public platform was to establish a technology vision safety and security on a daily basis. (Target Reference Architecture) which could support all business requirements, now and Vesna Milinkovic, Senior Project Manager, in the future, with specific security require- Metropolitan Police Services, London ments. The Information System Architec- [email protected]

Geospatial World | October 2013 57 Public Safety | Case Study

Fighting crime and enhancing security The Amsterdam Lelylaan Railway Station utilises geospatial solutions to maintain a safe and secure environment for the public

ublic safety and crime prevention are their contact information (e-mail address and high priorities of Amsterdam and many phone number), was made. In the end, nearly P other large Dutch cities. In order to 400 different objects were identified in the area make the city secure, Amsterdam signed a pub- adjacent to the railway station, such as bicycle lic safety agreement with various stakeholders racks, billboards, entrance gates, etc. such as the Netherlands Railways, Amsterdam This information was then uploaded to Police Department and Amsterdam’s Munici- a digital product to maintain public spaces, pal Public Transport. The agreement aims to ATRIUM, and was combined with a specially ensure safety of citizens in public transport. created module, called BORA. Acronym for The stakeholders planned to conduct a Beheer Openbare Ruimte Applicatie (trans- pilot study at the Amsterdam Lelylaan railway lated as maintaining public space application). station in order to come up with new and The high value GIS-based product clearly innovative ways, using geospatial technology, depicts every object within the station area. to maintain public security. They approached With the help of the module, authorities at ARCADIS for this project. the Lelylaan Railway station, were easily able to The station needed a system which could add notifications to an object. On clicking the be utilised by all the security personnel and object, one can add descriptions like, the prob- railway staff. Also, since there are many actors lem, a photo, or the time at which the problem involved in maintaining safety at a public occurred. For instance, if an object is broken space (from the Dutch national railways to due to vandalism, one can add this data to the local authorities, the local water company, object via the module. After the data is added, the Amsterdam public transport company), it the notification can be sent to the responsible was necessary to create an overview of all the organisation or person who maintains the Overview of all objects in the actors and objects present at the station. object. This can be done from a normal desk- Lelylaan area Therefore, Google Maps were used to get top computer as well as by a smartphone. The a clear picture of the concerned person will then receive an e-mail premises. Research- with the data and is able to resolve the issue. ers also conducted a The system can be regularly updated when site visit to mark GPS objects are removed or added to the area. The coordinates of all the data can also be exported to an MS Excel data different objects at the sheet to review basic statistics like, when and station. They then cre- where vandalism incident occurred. This will ated a digital model of help in improving policing tasks. the area and overlaid Also, the module made all the staff and all the objects in it. policing personnel aware about the respon- An inventory of all sibilities and duties of other people, thereby actors involved in the making the station more safe and secure. maintenance of safety at the station, with Courtesy: ARCADIS

58 Geospatial World | October 2013 Agriculture | Case Study The Essential Mobile Mapping Tool

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©2013, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. MobileMapper and Spectra Precision are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States Patent and Trademark of ce 52 Geospatial World | September 2013 and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Public Safety | Case Study

Intelligent mapping helps to combat emergencies Lincoln city’s police, fire, emergency medical services and emergency management operations are powered with GIS analytics to effectively prepare for and respond to incidents

olice Department of the City of Lin- The Omega Group are at the core of Lincoln coln, Nebraska was an early adopter Police Department’s Crime Analysis Unit. P of GIS. Since mid-1990s, it has been Crime analysts work with incident and crime using geospatial analysis and visualisation to data; police dispatches; and arrest and acci- fight crime. “GIS has essentially replaced the dent reports; as well as with data on parolees, paper map. And mobile GIS takes information sex offenders, people with wants and war- with the officer and fire fighter wherever they rants, and gang members. All these different go,” says Tom K. Casady, director of public datasets are then compiled and analysed to safety, Lincoln city. generate bulletins and reports used by front- Now Lincoln’s police—its fire, emergency line officers and management staff and to medical services (EMS), and emergency man- feed interactive Web mapping applications for agement operations—are empowered with both police employees and the public. GIS analytics to effectively prepare for and The law enforcement agency also uses GIS respond to incidents. The city has extended to propel crime prevention strategy. For in- its GIS benefits to the field using applica- stance, 25% of Lincoln’s residential burglaries tions that run on smartphones and tablets. It occur through garage doors—many of which also enables two-way information exchange are left open or unlocked. GIS analysis revealed between managers in the office and person- when and where these burglaries were most nel on the street. likely to occur. Armed with this information, at- risk areas were identified and targeted to find Lincoln police & fire services open garage doors and to alert residents. “We took advantage of GIS for three primary “This strategy has been immensely success- purposes: improving situational awareness, ful in preventing the specific type of burglary, discovering and analysing crime trends and and this in turn has driven an overall reduction patterns, and deploying resources more ef- of residential burglary in Lincoln,” says Casady. fectively”, says Casady. GIS solutions have been extended to Lincoln Today, following a focused hunt for the Fire and Rescue Service. The agency makes ex- perfect solution, ArcGIS and the CrimeView tensive use of GIS for analysing fire and medical suite of solutions from Esri Gold Tier Partner calls for service, planning resource deployment, and navigation to an incident. Fire fighters also use GIS to access building pre-plans and stage Lincoln Fire and Rescue Service uses GIS for operations for major incidents. analysing fire and medical calls for service, For example, Lincoln Fire and Rescue planning resource deployment, and navigation deployed GIS to carry out a station relocation study for its 14 fire stations. In response to to an incident population growth, annexations, and increased calls for service, the agency needed to ensure

60 Geospatial World | October 2013 that travel time to incidents would stay under arrests, crimes, warrants, citations, parolees, The city of Lincoln, Nebraska’s four minutes, the mandated national bench- probationers, gang members, and sex offend- dashboard provides a comprehensive view of mark standard. Using ArcGIS and Network An- ers. They can identify recent criminal activity, information alyst, the agency looked at a variety of potential persons of interest, field interviews, and other changes to fire station locations and the impact information at or around a specific location. these moves would have on response times. Instead of coming back to the vehicle or GIS-based maps helped visualise information report room, officers can quickly look up and make it actionable. information from wherever they are located. In addition, maps created for both fire They can view a specific location’s 911 call and law enforcement are used in the depart- history or an individual’s crime history. For ment’s emergency communications centre and example, a patrol officer can look at vehicle integrated with the 911 telephone system for theft or home burglary in a neighbourhood instant map display of calls. when responding to an individual incident to see if there is a possible crime trend that war- GIS where and when you need it rants more immediate attention. The emergence of broadband capabilities has The mobile GIS capability improves tacti- made cloud GIS practical on mobile devices. cal crime prevention, response, and suppres- Lincoln police officers and fire fighters have sion. It also helps protect officers on the street access to various applications not only on mo- by giving them detailed, accurate, and timely bile computers docked in their vehicles but information. A similar technology is under on several types of handheld devices, includ- development for Lincoln’s fire fighters and ing iPads, iPhones, Android smartphones, and paramedics. The Fire and Rescue Department Android tablets. has created a GIS viewer linked to the depart- At the police department, officers use an ment’s computer-aided dispatch records innovative location-based services application, that allows a user to click an address from a Proactive Police Patrol Information (P3i), which dispatch record and immediately be launched presents officers with a GPS-enabled map of into the GIS viewer. The user is automatically points of interest in their immediate vicinity zoomed to the address of the dispatch and as they go about their work. Information that presented with a variety of critical informa- was previously accessible via desktop com- tion: basemap, aerial photos, ownership puter or mobile data terminal is now available information, fire hydrant locations, and even on mobile devices in a mapping application detailed floor plans for high-risk facilities. that moves with the officer. Officers can view and access records related to calls for service, Courtesy: Esri

Geospatial World | October 2013 61 Public Safety | Case Study

Center for Crisis Management (NCCM) and Satellite-based the results can be directly used for decision making in real time.

Daily monitoring for disaster response monitoring of The main objective of SEMS is daily monitor- ing of the country and performing emergency optical and all-weather radar imaging of areas emergencies of interest with spacecrafts of medium, high and very-high resolution for disaster forecast- The phenomenon of satellite-based ing and response. Small size ‘UniScan’ ground station with emergency monitoring is catching up fast as the antenna diametre of 2.4 m, capable of it covers wide areas, hard-to-reach territories, receiving data from more than 10 satellites in and provides real time data X-band manufactured by ScanEx RDC, was installed at the EMERCOM centres in Mos- cow, Vologda, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok. pace monitoring of natural and Geographically distributed network of receiv- human-induced emergencies and ing stations of SEMS were able to provide S disasters has become an important and wide coverage of Russia and neighbouring indispensable tool for national emergency countries. response services. For Russia, with its vast and The main advantage of SEMS is its ability remote territories, the real time application to work in real time with satellite images as of space-based information is particularly the source of unbiased and up-to-date data. A relevant. Keeping this in mind, an advanced centralised management system is introduced satellite-based emergency monitoring system in the network so that satellite data reception (SEMS) was created at the Russian Ministry for all stations is coordinated just from one of Emergencies (EMERCOM) based on the centre in Moscow. ScanEx RDC’s technology. The data from this The user-friendly and simple visualisation system can be integrated into the works of format helps users, who have no knowledge the operational department of the National in satellite imagery processing, to analyse the received information. The results of this system can be used in the daily operations of Hotspots display on the geoportal of the Russian EMERCOM the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Geoportal technology expedites the oper- ability in handling the information received from space and providing access to satel- lite data for geographically remote users. A dedicated ‘Kosmoplan’ geoportal is installed in the server of the National Center for Crisis Management, created specifically for the Rus- sian Emergencies Ministry. Satellite imagery data is loaded on this Web service with mini- mum delay, which contributes to the con- tinuous monitoring of emergency situation, rescue operations planning, monitoring of response time, which is very important for in situ decision makers. The geoportal displays all the information in a processed format

62 Geospatial World | October 2013 The main advantage of satellite-based emergency monitoring system is its ability to work in real time with satellite images as the source of unbiased and up-to-date data Network of receiving stations of Russian EMERCOM directly in the browser window. The users do affected areas, was able to assess the dam- not have to download files or use specialised age caused by floods, and plan remedial software to see the image of an area of inter- activities to prevent further flooding. est. • It’s also worth mentioning the experi- Following are some examples from recent ence of space data application in January applications of the described system by the 2013, when the derailment of 22 cars of Russian Ministry of Emergencies: freight train carrying coal occurred on the • One of the most urgent trends in the use Trans-Siberian Route of the East-Siberian of SEMS in Russia is monitoring of the fire Railways in the Irkutsk Region, which situation, especially in summers. In July led to a clash with a passing by locomo- Left: Satellite image of Ussuriysk 2013 with the help of regular incoming tive. As a result, two people were killed, micro-district, Khabarovsk, received data from the Terra and Aqua satellites and four overhead power lines and 100 m of before the floods. Right: Inundated imagery from SPOT 5/6 , UK-DMC2, EROS railroad were damaged, hampering the territory on the EROS B image, B satellites, the largest number of fires were traffic in the area. To acquired on August 21, 2013 detected in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), ensure prompt arrival Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Khanty-Man- of the rescue teams to si autonomous area. As a result, the EMER- the crash scene, the COM officials declared a state of emergency EMERCOM employ- in these areas and sent rescue teams who ees used the EROS were able to douse the fire quickly and pre- B and RADARSAT- 2 vented its spread to the residential areas. satellites images ob- • SEMS provided critical information during tained through SEMS the floods in the Amur region in August- system for rapid map- September 2013. Real-time monitoring data ping, thus revealing acquired from EROS B, SPOT 5 and RADAR- the optimal path route SAT-2 satellites provided information about to the crash site. the real extent of flooding to the Far Eastern Regional Emergency Center. With the help Irina Ivanova, of detailed analysis, the Centre was able to Project Manager, evacuate more than 2000 inhabitants of the SCANEX R&D Center

Geospatial World | October 2013 63 Public Safety | Case Study

automatically sees the caller’s phone number and window for recording the incident pops up. Once the caller’s location is entered, it is immediately pin- pointed on a detailed map display. The dispatch centre also has a giant display, identifying all current incidents and units in the field. In this way, dispatch- ers can locate the closest officers to the scene and execute a faster response. Once the responding officers are identi- GIS aiding public fied, the dispatcher can easily direct them to the scene of the incident via the fastest route possible. The system displays landmarks, aerial safety in Indian city and satellite imagery, structural photos and other geo-based items necessary to dispatch a The Northeastern city of Guwahati has deployed successful response. digital mapping system to improve its response In addition, dispatchers have access to all previous incidents reported from a particular time for an incident phone number. This is particularly important for alerting officers to potentially dangerous uwahati, the capital of Assam in situations they may encounter upon arrival, Northeastern India, has experienced helping to better prepare them for any cir- G unprecedented spatial expansion cumstance. For example, if there have been and a steep rise in population. This expan- recently reported incidents of violent persons sion placed additional pressure on the city’s in the household, the officer being dispatched police department. Also, recent insurgency has to will have this information up front to pre- heightened the need for improving methods of pare accordingly. dispatching law enforcement personnel. With All calls are automatically recorded and this goal in mind, the Guwahati Police Depart- tagged for easy retrieval. Officers can also ment partnered with InterAct Public Safety store full reports and maintain archives of Systems to develop a computer-aided dispatch, each incident. Having a full understanding of automatic vehicle locator and GIS solutions in- how a situation unfolded is beneficial for the The computer- crease the efficiency of the call centre, officers police department, helping to identify ways to aided dispatch response time and enhance public safety. improve the response process and resulting app, automatic public safety. Improving response time vehicle locator A new state-of-the art Voice Over IP (VoIP) Preparing Guwahati for the future and GIS solutions phone system was installed at the Guwahati The technology is also preparing Guwahati to Police Department’s dispatch centre, tripling take advantage of emerging communication increased the its call capacity. The department also de- infrastructure. For example, the dispatch efficiency of the ployed an intuitive computer-aided dispatch centre is now poised to enable location- call centre, officers (CAD) application that vastly improves officer based identification tied to the caller’s safety. Officers with very little up-front train- phone number. This way the dispatcher response time and ing were able to use the user-friendly system. will automatically know where the caller is enhanced public They were able to execute actions using a vari- located — a particularly helpful piece of data ety of methods – graphical, hot key, command for emergency situations. safety line, or drag- and-drop. As soon as a call comes in, the dispatcher Courtesy: Interact911

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publication ad _71.indd 1 8/30/2013 4:44:37 PM Interview Indoor location is not a dream anymore

The integration of additional data coming from new sensors will be part of the next evolution and innovation in indoor location technology, says Christian Carle, CEO and co-founder of Pole Star

In 2002, when Pole Star indoor environment where the signals was launched, indoor loca- are at least weak and sometimes simply tion technology was just a not unavailable. It also appeared very concept and products in clearly that mobile devices were going this field were non-exist- to become essential in our daily life. The ent. At that time, could you PND market was just beginning to grow foresee such a fast growth and Microsoft and Nokia had already for the segment? gauged the potential of the cellphone Jean Chenebault (as market. It was a tough decision but our co-founder) and I came vision was good. I remember the reac- from the space industry. I tion of several people when we pre- belonged to THALES group sented our project (in 2001): “An indoor (former ALCATEL SPACE) GPS? It is useless!” where I was in-charge of the GNSS programmes and in Your first launch came in 2008 with particular the GALILEO pro- NAO Campus. How did the company gramme. In the course of the sustain itself in the initial years? preliminary studies made We did a lot of R&D. We had the concept with the European authori- but we didn’t have the solution. We ties, it appeared to me very clearly that benchmarked a lot of technologies and GPS and GALILEO will not be able to solutions before designing our own offer continuity of the location ser- solution. We worked a lot on the regula- vice between “open sky environment” tion issues related to the GALILEO (where GNSS systems work perfectly) programme for the European authori- and the dense urban areas and the ties as well as for some big international companies. We helped them design We knew that GPS and GALILEO will not be able their systems related to GNSS activity. to offer continuity of location service between How do you see the demand shaping “open sky environment” and the dense urban up after the NAO Campus launch? We were the pioneers. It was an opportu- areas and the indoor environment nity but also a risk. We spent a lot of time and effort to find the first customers (ear-

66 Geospatial World | October 2013 ly adopters). The risk was to work for the future our technology in more than 20 countries. We Indoor location is not competitors. But we were the first to offer a will target more than 3,700 venues by 2014, validated viable solution for Windows mobile 10,000 by 2015 and more than 18,000 by 2016. in 2008 and then Nokia in 2009, Android in a dream anymore 2010 and iOS in 2012. We opened the doors to You have said Indoor location apps are now a new market. We signed big contracts. As a mainstream for iPhone and Android devic- result, a lot of companies decided to enter into es, covering about 80% of the smartphone this market. Now, there are newcomers arriv- market already. But these services are not ing in the market every month. We also see available in the developing countries. What a lot of start-ups disappearing every month. are your plans for emerging markets? Our unique and large portfolio of customers We follow the market trends and expectations. demonstrates that our technology works well Portability of our solution is not an issue. In and that indoor location is not a dream any- the course of our compatibility programme, more. The only limit is the imagination. NAO we are working closely with OS providers, Campus is as simple as GPS to use. device vendors and analysts to follow the market trends. Our customers will decide Which are the geographies where NAO what and when! We delivered our Bluetooth Campus is available? What are your expan- Low Energy- based (BLE) solution for Android sion plans? devices long before the release of Android with Our business model is based on a setup fee BLE open API. We were the first to achieve that and an annual licence fee. Our customers are and it was a market driven decision. the venue owners or managers. Thanks to the maturity and the scalability of our solution, What are your other big products? we are able to offer a new model based on We have recently announced the Blind the ILAAS (Indoor Location as a Service). We Crowdsourcing technology: a disruptive in- plan to offer this solution across the globe. To novation that automates the implementation achieve this objective, we have designed and and the maintenance of indoor location ser- implemented a set of tools and features such vices, lowers costs, and drastically accelerates as the NAO Cloud platform and the Blind the worldwide expansion of the service area. Crowdsourcing technology. We have more The beta release was demonstrated privately than 150 venues which have been covered by to some key partners and customers in early June. The full operational implementation will be completed by the end of the year. We have recently How does indoor location technology announced the Blind improve efficiency and security in Crowdsourcing organisations? People-tracking is a key for big events and technology: public gatherings. Our solution was selected a disruptive for a big international exhibition in Paris last June: The Paris Airshow. NAO campus was innovation that used to ensure the security of the officials automates the and delegations coming from all over the world. Our solution helped the show organ- implementation and isers manage and locate private security staff the maintenance inside and outside buildings. It also opti- of indoor location mised emergency response time by alerting and guiding the nearest security agent to the services emergency scene.

Geospatial World | October 2013 67 Interview

How can indoor location help real-time (API). We have simplified the way we integrate retailers score on the onslaught of NAO Campus into a mobile app. We joined e-commerce? recently the In-location Alliance to share our In a digital world, where ‘showrooming’ vision and experience with the entire business becomes the norm – with shoppers coming ecosystem. into a store to look for a product, then check- ing the price online and eventually buying ABI Research predicts that the indoor it from a website – retailers are struggling to location technology market will reach $5 find ways to compete with e-commerce sites. billion in revenue by 2017, representing E-commerce sites have been able to precisely over 200,000 installations of infrastruc- target customers by using advanced behav- ture equipment, including Wi-Fi hotspots, iour marketing analysis and targeted messag- Bluetooth antennae and so on, and over ing. However, indoor location has disrupted 800 million branded app downloads. Your the status quo, giving the brick-and-mortar comments? retailers an upper hand over digital com- We expand our coverage almost every day and merce. With indoor location technologies, we receive new requests every day. Indoor it is now possible to know when a customer location is not just a nice feature to have any- is inside a building, just like an e-commerce more. It is a “must have” for most of the mobile website knows when an Internet user is on applications dedicated to indoor environ- its homepage. Store owners are now able to ments. The trend is clear. But the blue spot on offer unique incentives to shoppers, bringing a map is not the end of the story. Indoor loca- a strong value added component to their tion technology is an enabler to create value. digital and CRM strategies, which enable more efficient location-based marketing, Which are the other potential areas of ap- sending consumers the right message, at the plications for indoor location technology? right place, at the right time. Pedestrian navigation, mobile digital guide for museums, mobile commerce, mobile Screenshot of the NAO Campus How do you think Pole Star stacks up against marketing, mobile advertising, indoor location the competition? Even a lot of big ticket analytics, lone worker protection, people/child companies like Nokia and Microsoft have tracking, healthcare, emergency services, peo- not been able to solve the indoor puzzle yet. ple security, visitors/passengers management A proprietary solution dedicated to only one and also home automation, are some example type of devices does not answer the question. where indoor location can play a vital role. The core location technology is just one part of our solution. The way we fuse technologies to- What innovations do you foresee in the in- gether is unique. It has given us the capacity to door location market over the next 10 years? expand and deliver a seamless QoS worldwide. The integration of additional data coming from Most of the companies in the market are look- new sensors will be part of the next evolution/ ing for venue owners for a proof of concept. innovation. The next phase of innovation will They want to test and validate their prototype. reduce the dependence of any kind of infra- They don’t have “real customers”. They don’t structure whether it is Wi-Fi or BLE. We will know what it means to deliver a solution and to keep focusing on R&D. We plan to surprise the guarantee the compatibility, the scalability, the market with our solutions. The smartphone level of performances, and the maintenance. will not just remain a mobile device. It will be- We have a unique experience and we focus come a hub to connect a lot of equipment. The our efforts to deliver exactly what the mar- future generation of cameras and processors is ket is looking for. Our strategy is to share our going to transform the smartphone into a third experience with our partners and customers. eye. All this will open large rooms for innova- We have standardised our offer and interfaces tion in the indoor location technology field.

68 Geospatial World | October 2013 4 - 7 FEBRUARY, 2014 Hyderabad International Convention Centre Hyderabad, India

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Advt. IGF.indd 1 9/30/2013 5:31:07 PM Feature | UN Awards

Long life to the planet!

Whether it’s about monitoring deforestation in the great Amazon or about designing a wildlife corridor in the Sonoran Desert, the geospatial fraternity has always put its best foot forward to support environmental conservation and development. UNEP’s list of 2013 Champion of the Earth Awardees reflects that the world has finally started recognising these efforts in a big way

ow many awards ceremonies happens to be the UNEP Goodwill Ambas- would witness both super models sador, added an extra sparkle to the evening. H and techies sharing the stage? How A chirpy “We are back!” from her got the ball about a function where techies and politi- rolling. The gathering could really sense the cians would be nominated for the same sincerity of the entire programme when the award? Not many, we suppose. In late Sep- names of the awardees were announced. The tember though, the United Nation’s Cham- list included stalwarts from different walks pions of the Earth 2013 award ceremony of life. Esri’s co-founder and President Jack — jam-packed with techies, models, social Dangermond and Google Earth’s founder and activists and politicians — broke all silos Vice President Brian McClendon received to underline the cause of environmental the UN’s highest environmental accolade for conservation and development. The awards their ‘Entrepreneurial Vision’. underlined and recognised the contribution Dangermond, widely recognised as the of geospatial fraternity in environmental father of GIS, was honoured for pioneering conservation and development as four of geospatial technology for conservation and the seven awardees were the ones who have development of environment. Esri, which been using and promoting geospatial tech- started as Environmental Systems Research nology to make our earth a better Institute, focuses on providing scientists and place to live. environmental managers with tools to study Every year, the United Nations and model how the environment is respond- Environment Programme (UNEP) brings to ing to natural and man-made factors. He the world’s attention a number of environ- enlightened the gathering with his short and mental crusaders by recognising their efforts crisp speech about how science and best and felicitating them with the ‘Champions of technology could design a better future for a the Earth’ award. This year too, the ceremo- more sustainable earth. ny held at the American Museum of Natural McClendon received the award for pro- History in New York was full and colourful. viding a powerful tool to monitor the state Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director of the environment, allowing researchers and Under-Secretary General of the United to detect deforestation, classify land cover Nations, welcomed the august gathering to a and estimate forest biomass and carbon and night of honouring leaders from across thus demonstrate the scale of problems and the globe. illustrate solutions. McClendon mentioned Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who also that Google would also want to do a lot to

70 Geospatial World | October 2013 Long life to the planet!

change how we think about the environment “To be a Champion of the Earth is an honour, From left to right: • Jack Dangermond, President, Esri and how we see it. but also a responsibility. Just one year ago, • Brian McClendon, Dr Veerbhadran Ramanathan, a dis- the global community was discussing how Vice President, Google Earth tinguished professor of Atmospheric and to achieve the ambitious goals of Rio+20, • Dr Veerbhadran Ramanathan, Climate Sciences at the Scripps Institution of and now we are already seeing some of these Distinguished Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Oceanography, University of California, San goals becoming a reality,” she said. University of California Diego, was another geospatial technology Janez Potocnik, the European • Izabella Teixeira, Environment enthusiast to be felicitated at the ceremony. Commissioner for the Environment was Minister, Brazil His research in Climate and Atmospheric awarded for ‘Policy Leadership’. Martha Isa- Science, and achievements in developing bel Ruiz Corzo, Director of Grupo Ecologico unmanned aircraft platforms for tracking Sierra Gorda and Carlo Petrini, Founder of brown cloud pollution worldwide have Slow Food movement received the awards already earned him accolades across the for ‘Inspiration and Action’. Speaking at the globe. “I am very honoured to accept this ceremony, the UN Under-Secretary Gen- prestigious award, which recognises the crit- eral and UNEP Executive Director, Achim ical role of science and research in address- Steiner, said, “Leadership and vision will be ing the major environmental challenges of the hallmarks of a transition to an inclusive our time,” said Dr Ramanathan. Green Economy in developed and develop- Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella ing countries alike. That transition is under- Teixeira, whose emphasis on the use of way and has been given fresh impetus by the satellites to track changes in forest cover has outcomes of last year’s Rio+20 Summit.” always been appreciated in the geospatial The event, by recognising the efforts fraternity, was awarded for her key role in of geospatial technology enthusiasts and reversing deforestation in the great Amazon professionals, has created an environment forest. She has not only been central in imple- which could take the cause of environmental menting land use policies in Brazil that have conservation a long way from where we aided the control and prevention of defor- stand today. It could really offer, in Martha estation but she has also contributed to high- Isabel Ruiz Corzo’s words, a long “life to level UN panels on sustainable development. the planet”.

Geospatial World | October 2013 71 Picture This

2010 US Census Data 1 Dot = 1 Person White Black Asian Hispanic Other Rraces Dotting races in the USA

nough has been said and written on the dynamics of races throughout history. Till date, the debate rages on whether race and ethnicity should be mapped, or even mentioned. In today’s culturally-diverse society, several people believe E that mapping race and ethnicity could help in better amenities and healthcare services. There’s another lot that just goes wild with the mention of skin colour. Whatever the verdict be, the fact remains that several cultures still look at race and ethnic- ity as differentiators. Did Dustin Cable, a demographic researcher at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, had similar thoughts while developing “The racial dot map: One dot per person for the entire United States”? No! As a researcher, his only objective was to create an accessible visualisation of the geographic distribution, population density, and racial diversity of the American people in every neighbourhood in the entire country. Based on 2010 US Census, Dustin’s map turns out to be the first comprehensive map of racial distribution in the USA. Each dot on the map represents one person, colour-coded by race and ethnicity.

72 Geospatial World | October 2013 Events

Mark Your Calender

October 20-24 October 22-25 October 28-31 October 30 Asian Conference on Remote Symposium on GNSS 2013 The year in infrastructure 2013 Blue Marble Sensing Istanbul, Turkey 2013 conference User Conference Bali, Indonesia http://www.isgnss2013.org/ London, UK US www.acrs2013.com/index.php/en/ http://goo.gl/U9FUPY http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/ October bmuc/index.php November 4-8 November 5-7 November 18-22 GSDI World Conference 2013 Geo-Services International Pacific Islands GIS/RS User Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Conference Conference www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi14/ Quebec, Canada Suva, Fiji Islands www.geoservices2013.com/en www.picgisrs.appspot.com/ November

December 2-5 December 9-10 December 16-19 December 20-21 ION time interval meeting Oman Geospatial Expo 2013 AGSE 2013 International Con- Innovative learning tools Washington, USA Oman ference workshop www.ion.org/ptti www.omangeospatialexpo.org/2013/ Ahmedabad, India Ahmedabad, India index.htm www.agse2013-cept.in www.isprs2013-cept.in/org/2013/

December index.htm January 21-23 January 28-29 January 28-29 Defence Geospatial Intelligence Geo Utilities Conference 2013 Geodesign Summit London, UK London, UK California, USA www.wbresearch.com/dgieurope/ www.geospatialutilities.com/ www.geodesignsummit.com home.aspx Jan 2014

AfricaGIS 2013 / GSDI World Conference (GSDI14) 4-8 November 2013 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

AfricaGIS is the largest regularly occurring GIS conference in Africa with participants from the entirety of the continent. The GSDI World Conference has built a reputation for excellence in content and moves across the globe to offer geospatial specialists in all parts of the world opportunities to better exchange ideas and learn from global peers in building spatial data infrastructure. The joint AfricaGIS 2013 and GSDI World Conference (GSDI 14) theme is Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction. More information at: http://www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi14

Main sponsor Hosts Lead collaborators Collaborators Endorser

Geospatial World | May 2013 73 Australian National State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, China The Abu Dhabi Water Khatib & Alami CEC, Lebanon VALE, Brazil Indonesia Sewerage Services Commission, Solidere s.a.l, Lebanon Geospatial Company, UAE Australia University of Tsukuba, Japan Information Mitr Phol

Green Belt Movement, Kenya Anglo Platinum Limited, ISRO, India Agency, Sugar Corp. South Africa Al Ain Municipality, UAE Indonesia Ltd, Thailand Taranaki Regional Council, New Zealand Rasdaman GmbH, Germany Coordinating Agency for Federal Geographical

FelicitatingRIEGL LMS Gmbh, Information, Switzerland Coal India Crossrail Ltd, Ltd., India United Kingdom Excellence Thames Water, in Application, Technology & Policy Equarater (Penang) Kadaster Bharti Airtel Limited, India AGIV, Sdn. Bhd., The Netherlands Aalto University, Finland Belgium Malaysia Visual Intelligence LLP., USA International Joint Qatar Austria VPRO Broadcasting Commission, Canada & USA Petroleum, Corporation, The Netherlands National Aeronautics and

UAE UK Avenza Systems Inc., Canada Space Administration, USA General Motors, India

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF Last date for submission of nomination: 30th October, 2013 NOMINATION CATEGORIES

APPLICATION EXCELLENCE

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION 05-09 MAY 2014 POLICY IMPLEMENTATION Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) Geneva, Switzerland http://awards.geospatialmedia.net/gwf/

GWF AD for September issue.indd 1 9/27/2013 6:20:11 PM Data courtesy City of Quebec

10248_Ad_Bentley_Map_7.75x10.25-EN_0713.indd 1 7/29/2013 11:11:36 AM