•GIS • GPS Nov/Dec2020 Volume 19 Issue7 • CAD • REMOTE SENSING • PHOTOGRAMMETRY • SURVEYING • CARTOGRAPHY • IMAGE PROCESSING • BUSINESS GEOGRAPHICS GeoConnexion International Magazine

CHANGINGTHE LANDSCAPEOF DENGUEFEVER

SURVEYINGTHE CALM AFTERTHE STORM ACOLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM… …THAT’SMAKING AN IMPACT

This monthincorporating November/December 2020

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RIEGL LMS GmbH,Austria | RIEGL USA Inc. | RIEGL Japan Ltd. | RIEGL China Ltd. | RIEGL Australia Pty Ltd. LAND ADMINISTRATION CAN BE Editorial: FATALLY IMPORTANT Rob Buckley, Editor -GeoInternational [email protected]

PeterFitzGibbon, Editor -GeoUK [email protected] IT MAY SOUND UNEXCITING, BUT +44(0) 1992 788249 KNOWING WHO OWNS WHAT LAND CAN Eric van Rees,NewsEditor BE A LIFE AND DEATH ISSUE – AS WELL AS A +34-958281507 SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND PRIDE [email protected] ROBBUCKLEY Columnists: EDITOR GeoInternational [email protected] LouiseFriis-Hansen, FIG DanielKatzer, Hinte Messe Alistair Maclenan, Quarry OneEleven Land administration. It doesn’t sound very neighbouring farmers have been in dispute SimonChester, OGC ‘sexy’,does it? Perhapsit’sthe administration fordecades overwhere exactly theborders of in the title that makes it sound so unexciting. their farms arelocated.Armed conflicts and GeoUK Yetit’salife and death issue formanyaround land-ownership inequityhave leftmillions of Mark Poveda, Modern Surveying theworld and can even lead to wars. parcelsrural land unmappedand withouttitles. TerriFreemantle andTom Jones, Knowing who owns what land and Butaswesee on page 36, ajoint Dutch- Observations being able to proveitisthe cruxofthe issue. Colombian initiative involving giving the Seppe Cassettari, GEO:Innovation Research from the Prindexinitiativehas farmersand their children GNSS receivers shownthatthere aremanycountries where andsmartphones is enabling them to almost50% of people believe it is very likely overcome this land administrationissue – Publisher: that they couldlosethe right to use their and potentiallyend decades of struggle. MaiWard property (orpartofit) in thenext five years. “We’ve shown the government that land +44(0) 1223 279151 Perhaps more concerning is that in some rights can be confirmed through efficient, [email protected] countries,morethan 60%ofpeople saythey affordable,accurate mapping and direct have no formal or informaldocuments to participation,”saysMathilde Molendijk,regional demonstratetheir right to their property. manager forLatin Americafor Kadaster Advertising: In this issue,welookattwo initiatives, International.“What’sevenmoremeaningful is MickiKnight, Sales&MarketingDirector both macroand micro,tohelpwiththis seeing the pride on thepeople’sfaces.For the +44(0) 7801 907666 problem. On page 24,wereportonthe UN’s firsttime,theyfeelseen by their government.” [email protected] adoption of theFramework forEffective Land administration maynot sound Land Administration (FELA)inAugust and exciting, butithas thepowertoinspire,help Mailing Address & September thisyear. This wasamomentous andrewardeveryone –fromgovernments Subscription Enquires: accomplishment forland administration, to children. GeoConnexion Limited, land administration professionals PO Box594,Cambridge, and,most importantly,the maanyny CB10FY,United Kingdom peopleexperiencingland +44(0) 1223 279151 tenureinsecurityglobally. [email protected] ThecoreofFELA is its 5Ps: people,planet, [email protected] prosperity, peace and www.geoconnexion.com partnership. These demandeffectiveland Design: administration,realised Lucy Carnell throughintegrated AT GraphicsLtd geospatial information, www.atgraphicsuk.com forland policies, tenure, value,use and development. It can only be hopedthatFELA achieves its ambition of implementingthe UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. GeoConnexion International Meanwhile,atamuch ISSN:1476-8941 is publishedbyGeoConnexionLimited smallerscale,Colombia has Themagazine is publishedseventimes ayearand is fully protectedbycopyright.Nothinginitmay be reprinted been implementingits ownlandand or reproduced wholly or in anypartwithout thewrtten administration project. ItsIndigenousigenous and permission of the editor.

www.geoconnexion.com 3 CONTENTS

CONTENTS

28. CHANGINGTHE LANDSCAPEOFDENGUE 36. LAND OWNERSHIP, SIMPLIFIED FEVER Mary Jo Wagner reports on aproject that enabled indigenous Dengue fever is now the fastest spreading mosquito-borne Colombians to confirm the boundaries of their properties for the disease in the world. Gina Tsarouchi takes alook at anew first time –using just asmartphone and aGNSS receiver system that combines Earth observation techniques with hydro- meteorological data to forecast outbreaks

30. ACOLLISION AVOIDANCESYSTEMTHAT’S NEWS ANDEVENTS MAKING AN IMPACT In 2002, the Automatic Identification System for vessel tracking 6. EMERGINGTECHNOLOGY and collision avoidance became operational. The data logged 16. ANNOUNCEMENTS is now affecting many industries outside the maritime sector. Bart Adams explains how 17. PRODUCTSHOWCASE 18. ASIANSPOTLIGHT 32. SURVEYING THECALMAFTER THESTORM Hurricanes leave atrail of devastation in their wakes, so how REGULARCOLUMNS best to survey what’s left behind? Brynna King looks at what one university is doing to enable its students to study in the field the natural processes they learn about in classes 3. EDITORIAL 19. ON LOCATION 20. INTERGEO 22. OGCUPDATE 24. FIGUPDATE 26. IMAGEOFTHE YEAR

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER2020–PAGE40 Cover: Dengue feveristhe fastest spreading mosquito-borne disease in the world. Anew system that combines Earth observation techniques with hydro-meteorological data is saving lives (page 28)

4 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine

NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

SENSEFLY DRONES HELP MONITOR LAKE WINNIPEG ICE HAZARDS senseFly fixed-wing drones have been used to track and monitor the formation of lakeice hazards on Lake Winnipeg by NextGenEnvironment Research, aCanadian company based in Winnipeg.The project, conductedaspartofthe Canadian SpaceAgencies Earth Observation Applications Development Program (EODAP), aimed to identify and monitor the levels of lakeice and detectcracks and pressureridges to raise awarenessamong local communities and first responders about the risks of lakeice travel. With studies projecting areduction in lakeice mass overthe coming SCHNEIDER DIGITAL’S 3D PLURAVIEW years,ice safetyisbecomingacritical STEREO MONITOR consideration formanypopulations Thereisanincreasing demand forimproved,high-qualitystereovisualization solutions who use the lakes to travelfor in the growing professional 3D /VRmarket. The3DPluraViewfromSchneider Digital is commercial and leisureactivities. the passive3D-stereo system with the highest user satisfaction and acceptance of all Theonset of melting ice –which 3D displaysystems currently on the market. Launched in 2016, the PluraViewmonitors begins in spring –isacritical time have quickly established themselves as the 3D stereo reference with up to 4K resolution, formonitoring ice,asitcan result 10-bit color and screen diagonals up to 28”.The PluraView3D-stereo monitor is ideal for in pressureridges,leads and cracks all stereo softwareapplications, covering awide range of industries: GIS, mapping, appearing and expose open water. photogrammetry, oil &gas prospecting,molecular research and design, CGI/3Dvideo www.sensefly.com editing,CAD &mechanical engineering,crystallography/biochemistry, laser scanning and industrial measuring,simulation &VRtraining,3Dcitymodel visualization, archaeology, ESRI ACQUIRES NFRAMES but also Computer Tomography(CT)and Magnetic ResonanceImaging forsurgical TO ENHANCE ITS 3D planning and medical training. www.3d-pluraview.com CAPABILITIES Esri, the global provider of location intelligence,announced the acquisition of nFrames,atechnology companythatdevelops SURE, GMV ANNOUNCES THE MERGER OF ITS UK an imageryand lidar 3D surface COMPANY AND NSL reconstruction software. This will GMV Innovating Solutions Limited,the UK enable the fusion of imagery with aerospace companybelonging to the Spanish 3D GIS,allowing nFrames and Esri technology multinational GMV,has signed a users to seamlessly captureand merger agreement with Nottingham Scientific analyse 3D data from aerial,drone, Limited (NSL). GMV trades in the aerospace, and ground-based sensors in an defence,ICT andintelligent-transportation- automated end-to-end process.SURE systems markets while NSL is UK leader in satellite scales 3D data creation to large city navigation and critical applications.After the and countrywide airborne image agreement GMV becomes sole shareholder of datasets and projects while giving NSL and sets up the companyGMV NSL, to be professional photogrammetry integrated seamlessly intoGMV’s set of companies. workflows improved precision, speed, Back in 2013, as partofits international expansion, and simplicityonpremises or in the GMV rolled out abusiness development strategy cloud.Through this acquisition, Esri in the UK.This involved setting up anew company, gains arobust production engine that which came on stream in late2014 to join the suite transforms imageryand lidar data of companies and offices in Spain, USA, Germany, intopoint clouds,photo-textured 3D France,Poland,Portugal,Romania, TheNetherlands, meshes,and true orthos. Malaysia and Colombia. www.gmv.com www.esri.com

6 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

FIRST HIGH-RESOLUTION, HOMOGENEOUS SPACE FLIGHT LABORATORY ANNOUNCES DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL (DSM) FOR LAUNCH OF ATMOSPHERIC MONITORING AND GERMANY EARTH OBSERVATION MICROSATELLITES Hexagon’s Geosystems division announced that it has been Space Flight Laboratory(SFL), adeveloper of 52 distinct awarded acontractbythe German Federal Agencyfor microspace missions,announced the successful launch Cartographyand Geodesy (BKG) to provide ahomogeneous, and deployment of the GHGSat-C1greenhouse gas comprehensivedigital surface model (DSM) forGermany.The monitoring microsatellite and the Slovenian NEMO-HD data is provided via the HxGN Content Program,alicensed, Earth observation microsatellite.SFL developed the small high-qualitygeospatial data service from Hexagon. Theprogram satellites at its facilityinToronto. Both satellites were in contact was launched in 2014 and is currently availableinEurope and with groundcontrol within hours of their launch on September North America. TheBKG has data sets with general height 2, 2020, aboardanArianespace Vega rocket from the Guiana information of the Earth’s surface across its entirefederal Space Center in French Guiana, South America. Thesatellites are territory. However, these can varyfromstatetostatebecause healthyand operating as planned.Established at the University theyare generatedfromdifferent source data. An up-to-date, of Toronto Institutefor AerospaceStudies (UTIAS) in 1998, homogeneous and high-resolution DSM is required by SFL has developed CubeSats,nanosatellites,and microsatellites organizations operating across stateborders,such as the Federal that have achievedmorethan 126 cumulativeyearsofoperation Agencyfor Technical Relief(THW), the German Air TrafficControl, in orbit. These microspace missions have included SFL’s trusted the German Armed Forces Geoinformation Centreand the attitudetude control and, Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance. in someome cases, www.hexagon.com formmation-flying capabilities.pabilities. Otherher core SFL-d-deevveelopedloped componentsmponents includeude modulardular (scalable)alable) powewerrs systems,ystems, onboarboardradios, flighthtc computers,omputers, andd control software. wwwww..utias-sutias-sfl.net.net

PIX4D ANNOUNCES PIX4DMATIC TELEDYNE DALSA RELEASES POWERFUL SUITE OF IMAGE Pix4Dmatic has been created to suit an evolving demand as professionals map bigger PROCESSING AND ARTIFICIAL and bigger areas around the world. Projectsthat would have previously been mapped INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE by aircraftare nowbeing surveyedwith drones.With Pix4Dmatic,these expertprojects Teledyne DALSA, aTeledyne aremade possible and easier.Drone flights beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), Technologies companyand global when permitted by law, areoften considered the next frontier of drone mapping. provider of machine vision, announced Pix4Dmatic nowoffers supportalso forthe large datasets resultingfrommultiple flights SaperaTM Vision SoftwareEdition 2020- by easily processing over 10,000 images without compromising the results’accuracy. 09 is nowavailable.The latest Sapera This softwarewill potentially open the door to anew era of drone mapping. Digital Vision Softwaresuiteincludes Sapera photogrammetry has become an essential part of everymodernsurveyors’toolkit and Processing and the new Astrocyte has inspired hundreds of newdrone mapping businesses around the world. Pix4Dmatic is graphical application forartificial nowunlocking another scale in digital photogrammetrybymaking the processing faster intelligence (AI). Thesoftwaresuite and the experience moreintuitive. www.pix4d.com offers field-proven image processing and artificialintelligence functions to design, develop and deployhigh-performance machine vision applications.This latest version of Sapera Vision Software includes AstrocyteTM1.0, anew AI- based graphical application dedicated to training neural networkson2Dimages forawide range of applications.Through its highly flexible graphical user interface, users can train neural networksto perform classification, objectdetection, segmentation and noise reduction on existing images.Astrocytecan then exportmodels to Sapera Processing for integration intoafinal application. www.teledynedalsa.com

www.geoconnexion.com 7 NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

CREAFORM ANNOUNCES NEW AND COMPLETE R-SERIES SUITE OF AUTOMATED DIMENSIONAL QUALITY CONTROL SOLUTIONS Creaform, aworldwide provider 3D measurement solutions,announced the latest release in itsR-Series lineup, including the new MetraSCAN-R BLACK|Elite as well as the addition of four different models in the CUBE-R 3D scanning measuring machine. Creaform also launched the brand-new VXscan-R digital twin environmentsoftware module,which completes the company’s turnkey automated qualitycontrol solution suite. www.creaform3d.com

CGG GEOSOFTWARE IXBLUE BUILDS CAPACITY FOR SIMULTANEOUS LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE WELL PATH PLANNING OPERATIONS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE TASMAN TECHNOLOGY iXblue announced the awardoftwo significant hydrographic charting projects this CGGGeoSoftwarehas launched month. Theprojects were awarded by the Australian GovernmentDepartmentof WellPath, anew interactive3Dwell Defenceand Land Information NewZealand (LINZ) under their respectiveannual path planning solution foroptimal survey and charting programs.Despitethe challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic well planning in unconventional this year,iXblue will be exercising newin-house capabilities to undertakeboth major and fractured reservoirs and offshore projects simultaneously.The LINZ project, partofiXblue’s programonthe Hydrographic development platforms,aspartof Suppliers Panel, will see nearly 2,000 linear nautical miles of high resolution bathymetry its InsightEarth 3D visualization data collected in coastal waters off the Coromandel Peninsula – a highly trafficked and interpretation softwaresuite. waterway on the east coast of the North Island. To complete this project, iXblue will WellPath shows the complexityofthe employ a 32-metre mothership and the 8-metre DriX – iXblue’s specialist Uncrewed subsurface drilling environment in 3D Surface Vessel (USV). www.ixblue.com so that drillers can quickly plan and QC horizontal wells on high-density, multi-lateral pads or large offshore platforms.Drilling engineers now have the powertoperform interactive directional well path planning while adhering to the constraints of geological targets and engineering design. Drillers can optimizeplans based on fractures, facies,geobodies,and reservoir attributes while avoiding hazards,legacy wells,and recent completions prevalent in certain areas,such as the Permian Basin of west Texas. www.cgg.com

EAST VIEW GEOSPATIAL PARTNERS WITH ALLSOURCE ANALYSIS East View Geospatial (EVG)and AllSourceAnalysis have established anew partnership to bring forwardauthoritativegeospatial intelligence and analytical products.AllSource Analysis is a provider of geospatial intelligence with aworldwide network of expertanalysts and access to the most cutting-edge tools and technologies.This partnership combines EVG’s unparalleled data sourcing and production capabilities with the finished geospatial intelligence expertise of AllSource Analysis,enabling clients to makeinformed decisions with the utmost confidence.With this newpartnership,East View Geospatial is able to offer a full suiteofnew geospatial intelligencesolutions including but not limited to descriptiveand predictive imageryanalysis,GEOINT/IMINT reports,countryorregional-based foundational inventoryof keyassets and locations,and automated validation and support. www.geospatial.com

8 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

EVOLOGICS PRESENTED THE NEW PINGGUIN AUV EvoLogics presented the PingGuin, an autonomous underwater vehicle with low-drag bionic design. Thevehicle was developed as partofthe MUM (“Modifiable Underwater Mothership”) collaborativeR&D projectand was first demonstrated in Kiel, Germany, in June 2020. Outstanding hydrodynamic properties of apenguin’s body became the starting point forthe AUVdesign within the NaviMUM subproject, assigned to EvoLogics. One of the EvoLogics co-founders, Dr.Rudolph Bannasch studied Adélie penguins and the effectiveness of their locomotion since the 80s,undertaking several field trips to the Antarctic and performing numerous wind tunnel and water tank experiments in Berlin. This research demonstrated that spindle-shaped flow bodies,modelled afterpenguins,achieve ultra-lowdrag coefficients in the water. www.evologics.de

VIRTUAL SURVEYOR OFFERS ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY IN FREE VERSION OF DRONE SURVEYING SOFTWARE In release 7.4, Virtual Surveyorhas added newfunctionalityto the free pricing levelofits popular drone surveying software. The“Valley”plan of Virtual Surveyornow allows users to create engineering CADmodels from drone orthophotos and/or LiDAR data sets.Available under three pricing plans,the Virtual Surveyor softwareenables surveyors to derive topographic information from drone data that engineers need forconstruction, mining, and other excavation projects.The softwarehas become popular among surveyors and engineers because its tools allowthem to work effectively with drone data.Virtual Surveyor generates an interactiveonscreen environment wherethe surveyorselects surveypoints and breaklines to createahighly accuratelightweight CAD model forfurther use in engineering designpackages. www.virtual-surveyor.com

www.geoconnexion.com 9 NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

ROADCLOUD TO OFFER PREMIUM ROAD DATA ON THE HERE MARKETPLACE RoadCloud,the connectedvehicle data platformthat provides real-timeinformationfor transportation services and systems,and HERE Technologies,alocation data and technology platform, announced that theyhave teameduptomakeRoadCloud road friction estimates, road condition data and weather data available via the HERE Marketplace. As aglobal location data exchange hub,the HERE Marketplace enables RoadCloudtobenefit from its global reach across industries and ecosystems and help the companytobroaden itstotal addressable marketand revenue opportunities.Byequipping commercial vehicle fleets with high-fidelitysensors,RoadCloud continuously collects high qualitydata on the stateofthe entireroad network,including road pavement quality, black ice and potential aquaplaning scenarios. www.here.com

GLOBALSTAR SATELLITE IOT DEVICE DEPLOYMENTS FOR RELIEF AGENCIES DOUBLE IN 12 MONTHS FOR SPECIALIST RESELLER TRAKSAT Globalstar Europe SatelliteServices Ltd,announces that specialist Value Added Reseller,Traksat, has deployed over 1,200 Globalstar-enabled safety and tracking devices forhumanitarian organisations internationally.Prominent NGO Humanity&Inclusion (HI) is deploying SPOTGen3 satellite messengers and SmartOne Solar IoTtracking devices to protectrelief workers and supportoperations in severalAfrican nations,aswell as in South America. International Rescue Committee,rescue.org, headquartered in NewYork, uses SPOTGen3s in numerous Africancountries to safeguardand track relief workers. ACTED is similarly using SPOTGen3s in Niger.Traksat reportsdramaticuptakeof its NGO-centric solution with Globalstar technology as its backbone.The number of Traksat-provided Globalstar devices being used to support humanitarian efforts has doubled in the last 12 months. www.globalstar.com COVID-19: E-GEOS (TELESPAZIO/ASI) WILL DEVELOP A SOLUTION TO MONITOR THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY e-GEOS, an ASI (20%) /Telespazio (80%) company, has signed acontractwith the European Space Agency(ESA) forthe development of asolution capable of integrating and analysing large amounts of both satelliteand non-satellitedata, to help monitor the economic recovery afterthe COVID-19 outbreak,inparticular in the port,logistics and freighttransport sectors. Theproject,called “COVID-19 economic impactassessment from Space in Italian Portsand Logistic Centres -Enabling IndustryGrowth”, will be funded in the contextofthe permanent ESA call “EO Science forSociety”,aimed at supporting solutions and services using Earth Observation data forthe benefit of citizens.e-GEOS will lead ateam composed of the start-up CherryData, spinoff of the Politecnico di Milano, and the companyExpertLAB,headquarteredinRome. www.e-geos.it

EXACTEARTH ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF THE ESAIL MICROSATELLITE exactEarth, aprovider of Satellite-AIS data services,announces the successful launch of the ESAIL microsatellite. Developed under ESA’s ARTES Partnership Projectfor global ship tracking,the ESAIL satellitewas launched September 3rdonboardthe ArianespaceVega (VV16) flight,fromEurope’s spaceportinKourou,French Guiana. Thesatellitewill undergo commissioning testingoverthe nextfew months and then will be brought intoservice to provide advanced high-performance vesseldetection and tracking capabilityaspartofexactEarth’s global constellation of morethan 70 high performance automatic identification system (AIS) satellites providing real time monitoring of the global shipping fleet. VV16 is Arianespace’s first Vega Small SpacecraftMission Service (SSMS) rideshareflight that injectedatotal of 53 satellites intoorbit. At approximately 52 minutes afterlaunch, ESAIL was released intoasun-synchronous orbit with Local Time at Descending Node (LTDN) of 10:30 am at an altitude of 515 km. www.exactearth.com

10 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

GOLDEN SOFTWARE IMPROVES SURFER FILE NOVARA GEOSOLUTIONS AWARDED THE ESRI HANDLING FOR FASTER MAPPING RELEASE READY SPECIALTY DESIGNATION Golden Software, adeveloper of 2D and 3D scientificmodelling Novara GeoSolutions,amulti-disciplined organization providing packages,has made it faster and easier than ever to createmaps solutions forasset management, compliance,integrity in the latest version of its Surfergridding,contouring,and 3D management, operational improvement and other geospatial surface mappingproduct. Additionally,Surferusers will find it needs announces it has been awarded the Esri Release is simpler to present, shareand displaytheir work with the Ready Specialtystatus. This significant recognition is given softwarepackage.Surferhas been relied upon formorethan 30 to partners that showinnovation with Esritechnology,are years by scientists in numerous disciplines to easily visualizeand committed to developing their wide-ranging expertise and offer interpret complexdatasets. Knownfor its fast and powerful expert technical support foravarietyofEsrisolutions and contouring algorithms that regularly outperform moreexpensive products.Novara’s enterprise-leveltechnology solutions,off-the- packages,Surferenables users to model data sets,apply an array shelf GIS applications,and cloud based platformprovide clients of advanced analytics tools,and graphically communicatethe with the tools to manage their mission critical operations.The results in ways anyone can understand. Release Ready Specialtysupports not only Novara’s mission as an www.goldensoftware.com Esri Gold Partner to supportclients with the newest and most reliable geospatial technology on the market, but it also illustrates its ongoing dedication to deploysolutions on proven platforms that have the flexibilitytointegratewith external hardwareand sensors to enhance the overall results. www.novarageo.com

TELEDYNE CARIS AI SOFTWARE ONBOARD SUCCESSFUL UTAS USV MISSION AIDASH TAPS UP42 EARTH OBSERVATION Teledyne CARIS, aTeledyne Technologies company, was an integral partof PLATFORM TO CREATE VEGETATION the illustrious team involved in the ground-breaking uncrewed offshore MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES survey mission in the Atlantic Ocean. Teledyne CARIS’Mira AI and CARIS AiDash, asatelliteanalytics companybased in Santa Clara, Calif., Onboardsoftware were present on the vessel to enable autonomous has launched apredictivevegetation management productfor surveyand real-time processing operations.The mission’s Uncrewed Surface utilities that leverages the UP42 Earth observation marketplace. Vehicle (USV)built by SEA-KIT mapped over1000 sq kmsofthe ocean floor AiDash’s satellite-powered IntelligentVegetation Management in 22 days,while beingcontinuously monitored via satellitecommunications System (IVMS) has already reduced outages and slashed at its Remote Operations Center in Essex, United Kingdom. Aspecialized vegetation management costs foraFortune 500 electric utility. team comprised of the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team Keeping vegetation trimmednear powerdistribution lines is an operated the surveyequipment andprovidedqualitycontrol of the data expensiveand time-consuming –yet critical –task forelectric from various‘work-from-home locations’around the world. TheSEA-KIT USV utilities.Encroachment by bushes and trees can cause wide- surveyed a predominately unsurveyed area at thesouthwesternedge spread outages and sparkdevastatingwildfires.Energy utilities of the UK Continental shelf.The image displays the initial results following a worldwide spend billions of dollars each year to continuously fully automated processing workflow. www.teledynecaris.com monitor vegetation in their powerline corridors from the ground and the sky, oftenusing manned and unmanned aircraft. OGC AND ODA ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP wwwwww.up42.com.up42.com TheOpenGeospatial Consortium (OGC), the international consortium driving the creation and adoption of open geospatial standards,and Open Design Alliance (ODA), theproviderofCAD and BIM interoperabilitysolutions,announced astrategic partnership to promoteand strengthen theuse of open standards forthe location and geospatial industries.ODA is anot-for-profit technology consortium that builds Software Development Kits (SDKs) forpopular CAD and BIM standards including IFC, .dwg, and Autodesk Revit files.ODA softwareisused by morethan 1000 companies world-wide,and itssolutions arearecognized standardinthe industry. OGC’s leadership in creating open standards formsanatural synergy with ODA’sexpertise in standards implementation. Thepartnership between OGC and ODAis intended to develop and strengthen this synergy to the benefit of both organizations and the broader community. www.ogc.org

www.geoconnexion.com 11 NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

EUROGEOGRAPHICS PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR UN-GGIM FOCUS ON AUTHORITATIVE GEOSPATIAL DATA EuroGeographics has welcomed the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) intention to focus on issues concerning authority, custodianship and legal issues fordata forthe public good.The Association, which represents Europe’s National Mapping,Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities, has pledged to supportthe UN-GGIM Working Group on Legal and PolicyFrameworksinits aim to better understand the definition and importance of authoritativedata. It is also offering access to its extensivenetwork to help gather examples of best practice and to facilitate information sharing. EuroGeographics is an observeronthe Working Group,which was formally renamed at the tenth session of UN-GGIM and is nowknown as the Working Group on Policyand Legal Frameworksfor Geospatial Information Management to alignwith IGIF Strategic Pathway2–Policyand Legal. www.eurogeographics.org

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC RELEASES ARCFM MOBILE 11.2.1 Schneider Electric,aprovider of Geographic Information System (GIS) solutions forutilities and communication providers, announced the latest release of ArcFMMobile XI, the utility- scale mobile GIS solution designed forfield crews. ArcFM Mobile 11.2.1 nowsupports afull digital design-construction workflowinthe ArcFMXIecosystem built for Esri’s Utility Network.ArcFM Mobile 11.2.1 helps minimizethe need for paper construction plans and optimizes as-built data capture with powerful newcapabilities.ArcFM Mobile XI is partofthe SKYWATCH AND PICTERRA JOIN FORCES TO MAKE ArcFMSolution XI Series,anecosystemofapplications that GEOSPATIAL INSIGHTS AVAILABLE TO ALL streamline the designand construction workflow, enabling Picterra announced their partnership and anew unique joint program. utilities to get work donemoreefficiently.ArcFM Editor XI, SkyWatch is building the infrastructurefor the automated distribution ArcFMWeb XI, ArcFMGeodatabase Designer XI and ArcFM of Earth observation (EO)data. SkyWatch EarthCache provides Designer XI fill out the rest of the ecosystem. www.se.com developers with the tools theyneed to cost-effectively add EO data intotheir applications and workflows.PicterraisanML/AI Software- as-a-Serviceplatform enabling businesses to autonomously extract intelligence &analytics from satellite, aerial,and droneimagery. It comes with aready-to-use IT infrastructure: in afew clicks,it’spossible to process terabytes of imagerywith Picterra’s auto-scaling,GPU-enabled infrastructure. www.skywatch.com

BENTLEY SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF OPENGROUND CLOUD BentleySystems announced the availability of OpenGround Cloud, anew cloud service that enables geotechnical professionals to access reliable geotechnical data for better engineering decision support and to improvecollaboration across the entiresupply chain. OpenGround Cloud offers acomplete solution forplanning,data entry, borehole log production, lab data management, reporting,visualization, and more. Thecloud TALLYSMAN INTRODUCES A LINE OF service improves collaboration across multidisciplinaryproject EMBEDDED FULL-BAND AND TRIPLE-BAND teams and significantly increases the value of geotechnical data by VEROSTAR GNSS ANTENNAS making it easily accessible to keyprojectstakeholders.Now,with Tallysman Wireless announced four new OpenGround Cloud,geotechnical engineers can readily access game-changing embedded VeroStar Minnii reliable,high-qualitycurrent and historical geotechnical data for products to itslineofantennas.The ultra-- the modeling,simulation, and analysis of infrastructureprojects’ compactand lightweight embedded ground conditions. www.bentley.com VeroStar Mini models offer the same keyfeatures as the full-sizeVeroStar models butinasmaller,lighter package, with either a90-mm (58 g) or 106-mm (6969 g) integrated ground plane,both32.4 mmm in height. TheVSM6028, VSM6028L, VSM6328, and VSM6328L embedded VeroStar Mini antennas aredesigned and craftedfor high-accuracypositioning.With an exceptionally lowroll-off from zenith to the horizon, VeroStar antennas provide the best- in-class tracking of GNSS and L-band correction signals at low elevation angles.Also,the optimized axial ratio at all elevation angles results in excellent multipath rejection, thus enabling accurateand precise code and phase tracking. www.tallysman.com

12 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

SAPCORDA EXPANDS SAFETY-CRITICAL GNSS UP42 PARTNERS WITH HEXAGON TO OFFER AUGMENTATION SERVICES FOR AUTOMOTIVE HXGN CONTENT PROGRAM AERIAL IMAGERY WITH POWERFUL L-BAND SATELLITE LINKS ON GEOSPATIAL MARKETPLACE Sapcorda Services GmbH announced that testing of its first High-resolution aerial imageryfromthe HxGN Content Program global navigation satellitesystem (GNSS) augmentation services is nowavailable on the UP42 developer platformfor Earth forL-band signal is underwayinNorth America and Europe, observation data and analytics.UP42 customers maynow laying the foundation forits December 1, 2020 launch of the choose from nearly 11 million squarekilometers of 30 cm strongest, most reliable GNSS augmentation signal for safety- orthorectified imagery forNorth America and Europe and over critical navigation in autonomous vehicles and machinery. 500,000 sq km of 15 cm data formajorU.S. cities in theHexagon Available in areas without GSM coverage or mobile internet aerial image library. UP42 givesusers directaccess to extensive signal,the newSapcorda L-band beam solutions from two Earth observation data sets and advanced processing geostationarysatellites provide PPP-RTK data-feed redundancy algorithms –along with cloud computing power–to create in real-timebyswapping to asecond data feed when internet their owngeospatial solutions easily and inexpensively.The connectivityisnot available.This automated swapping platformprovides all the tools UP42 customers need to develop significantly improves reliabilityfor life-critical applications such geospatial workflows, applications,and even commercial as autonomous cars. www.sapcorda.com products. www.up42.com

www.geoconnexion.com 13 NEWS & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

TRIMBLE AND BOSTON ALTEIA ACCELERATES THE DEPLOYMENT OF ITS ENTERPRISE AI DYNAMICS ANNOUNCE SOLUTIONS AND ANNOUNCES GLOBAL ALLIANCES WITH GE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE DIGITAL AND MICROSOFT Trimble and Boston Dynamics Alteia, the provider of Visual Intelligence forEnterprise,lands twomajor partnerships with announced astrategic alliance to GE Digital and Microsoft. TheAlteia platformcombinesthe best of computer vision and integrateavarietyofconstruction data artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.Itprovides developers,data scientists,and business collection technologies with Boston analysts one common and securedatabase forall of their visual data, enabling them to Dynamics’Spot robotplatform. collaborateand rapidlydevelop,deployand improveovertime AI based applications. Thejointly-developed solution will These alliances will allowcustomers to streamline the adoption of AI designed to address combine the Spot robot’s autonomous issues likeinventory, energy management, predictivemaintenance and equipment mobilitywith Trimble’s data collection reliability. With the combined expertise of GE Digital and Alteia’s platform, this alliance is sensors and field control softwareto designed to help fast-track the deliveryofenterprise-scale industryand domain-specific enable automation of repetitive AI applications, shorten the time to value and accelerate the scaling of mission-critical tasks such as sitescans, surveying solutions. www.alteia.com and progress monitoring,while taking advantage of the robot’s unique capabilities to navigatedynamic and potentially unsafeenvironments.The relationship givesTrimble exclusivityto sell and supportthe Spot robot with integrated scanning,total station and GNSS technologies forthe construction market. www.trimble.com

INMARSAT AND COBHAM SATCOM ENABLE MALDIVES FISHERIES SUSTAINABILITY WITH FLEET ONE Inmarsat, the provider of global mobile satellite communications,and Cobham SATCOM, the provider of radio and satellitecommunications solutions,have been awarded anew contract to connect732 fishing vessels activein the Maldives Economic Exclusion Zone to Inmarsat’s Fleet One maritime broadband services.Cobham’s SAILOR Fleet One utilises the existing Inmarsat-4 satelliteconstellation to deliver the most reliable global voice calling and internet connectivityvia acompact, lightweight antenna, and asimple installation process.The technology’s affordabilitymakes it particularly accessible forsmaller boats looking to access maritime satellitecommunications forthe first time. www.inmarsat.com

TDI-BROOKS INTERNATIONAL COMPLETES EBS PROGRAM OFFSHORE IVORY COAST TDI-Brooks International teamed with the French environmental firm Créocéan and Benthic Solutions,has completed an Environmental Baseline Studies (EBS) forTOTAL E&P Côte d’Ivoire, IvoryCoast. TDI- Brooks safely and efficiently deployedthe R/V Proteustoblocks CI-705 and CI-706 to conductseawater sampling and profiling (CTD rosette) as well as planton sampling (bongo net) at 7stations,sediment sampling (Mega BoxCore) at 45 stations and livefeed benthic video sled at 24 transects.The twoblocks coveranareaofapprox. 3,200 sq kms,and presentmulti-target hydrocarbon prospects in water depths ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 meters.The TDI-Brooks vessel earmarked forthis projectwas the R/V Proteus,amulti-use vessel suited fora wide varietyofoceanographic research duties. www.tdi-bi.com

14 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine

PEOPLE AND AWARDS

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE

Satellite Imagery thinkWhere StephenSlessor Specialist 4Earth Appoints Louise becomesCICES Intelligence BarnesasChief president Appoints Commercial Officer Managing Director Stephen Slessor has Scottish technology become the thirty-second 4Earth Intelligence (4EI), an international earth companythinkWherehas appointed Louise President of the CharteredInstitution of Civil observation company, has appointed Mariam Barnes to the position of Chief Commercial Engineering Surveyors (CICES). Stephen is Crichton to the role of Managing Director. Officer.Aspecialist in cloud based technology, currently Regional Directorwithin Scotland Mariam joins the 4EI executiveteam at atime thinkWheretransformsthe waybusinesses for Morrison Construction’s environment when satelliteimageryhas an increasingly viewand sharelocation data. ItsSaaS offering business,partofthe GallifordTry group.Heis important role providing evidence to support connects internal,project and publicly available afirm advocateofthe digital transformation decisions relating to the protection of the data on one platformtohelpclients make of the civil engineering industry. Plans for planet, its population and activities.Mariam moreinformed and future-proofed decisions. his presidential year include introducing an brings with her nearly twenty years of Barnes brings aproventrack record of growth, online knowledge hub to supportmembers in managementexperience in digital,media leadership and client engagement to the their professional development and improve and geoinformation, with aspecific focus on thinkWheremanagementteam having held supportand communications internationally. scaling up innovativetech companies.Mariam commercial roles with organisations including He is keen to keep academic pathways to Crichton is currently the only woman of colour Scottish Water and Wood Mackenzie. civil engineering relevant and engaged with to hold aManaging Directorposition within Louise Barnes is acreativebusiness leader who industry, and recently become avisiting the UK geospatial sector. Mariam has been galvanises people to grow andtransform a professor at RobertGordon Universityin an Advisortothe Boardand aNon-Executive company. Shestarted her career with Deloitte in Aberdeen. www.cices.org DirectoratWired Sussex supporting the London beforejoining the Commercial division digital,media and technology cluster across of Scottish WaterasaMarketing Manager Sussex. www.4earthintelligence.com whereshe developed the brand and go-to PEOPLE marketstrategy forthe first restored recycling facilityinScotland. www.thinkwhere.com European PEOPLE Association of Aerial Surveying KebNiSpecial PEOPLE Industries Advisor To Appoints Secretary- SpearheadMove CreaformNames General Into $5US Billion NewHeadofSales LEOSatellite Market TheEuropean Association of Aerial Surveying Creaform, the provider Industries (EAASI) has appointed Marcos KebNiAB, apublicly traded companyon of portable and Martínez-Fernández as Secretary-General. the Nasdaq FirstNorth Growth Market stock automated 3D measurement An association of companies involved in the exchange in Sweden, focused on becoming solutions,announced the appointment of generation of geographic data from manned aleading supplier of antenna solutions, Marc-Antoine Schneider as Head of Sales. aerial platforms,EAASI has grownrapidly since servicing international government and Based in Grenoble,France,Mr. Schneider will its official launch last year.The appointment commercial markets has announced the lead Creaform’sglobal sales and business of Martínez-Fernández as Secretary-General appointment of Ronald vander Breggen development strategies and tactics forall represents the nextstage in the Association’s as special advisor to the CEO.Inthis role territories and application markets.During futureashewill manage both day-to-day Ronald will help develop KebNi’swinning his tenureatCreaform, Mr.Schneider has and strategic business operations. strategy forthe large opportunitythat the developed and expanded the company’s Marcos Martínez-Fernández has aproven futureLEO satelliteservices represent. Ronald network of distributors across multiple track recordofmorethan fourteen years’of brings over 25 years of telecommunication countries.Beforebeing named Head of Sales, international aerial surveyprojects.He and satelliteexperience,which includes he was Creaform’s EMEA Sales Territory has managed projects in South America, India working forseveral of the most prominent Manager and contributed to opening branches and the Middle East, Europe,West Africa and satelliteoperators,the last fiveyears of which in Italy and Spain. With amaster’s degreein the US, and has worked with organisations has been exclusively forLEO operators,most Business Administration, Mr.Schneider including the WorldBank and the Inter- notably LeoSat, in the areas of strategic and originally joined Creaformin2008 and held American DevelopmentBank as well as commercial planning and sales management. several positions in sales forthe company, national governments and international www.kebni.com including Regional Sales Manager of Europe,the agencies. www.eaasi.eu Middle East, and Africa. www.creaform3d.com

16 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine PRODUCT SHOWCASE GEOCONNEXION LOOKS AT THE LATEST IN GEOMATICS PRODUCTS

SISIMACTMACTIVEIVE DEVDEVELELOPSOPS SEPTENTRIO UNVEILS ASTERX-M3, THE NEXT GENERATION OF NEW WORKFLOW FOR HIGH-PRECISION GNSS RECEIVERS FASTER PROCESSING OF Septentrio,aprovider of high-precision GNSS positioning solutions,announced an LARGE PROJECTS expansion of its GPS/GNSS OEM portfolio with AsteRx-m3 productfamily.AsteRx-m3 receivers target various use cases and offer flexibilityand affordabilitywith no SimActive, adeveloper of compromises of performance.Theyfeaturethe lowest powerconsumption on the photogrammetrysoftware, announced market, allowing longer operation times. Their neweasy-to-integratedesignensures anew workflowtoaccelerate shortset-up times and faster time-to-market. All AsteRx-m3 products represent the next processing of large projects.These can generation of technology in the GNSS OEM market, delivering centimeter-levelaccuracy, comprise several tens of thousands of availabilityand reliabilityinacredit-cardsized board. Thenew productfamily includes 3 images, which can nowbecollected types of GNSS OEM boards. www.septentrio.com very quickly using today’scommercial drones.The newworkflowallows hardwareresources to be managed dynamically,automatically adapting RIEGL PRESENTS NEW PRODUCTS AT INTERGEO 2020 processes to PC specifics.Italso ThegloballyactiveAustrian laser scanner manufacturer showedatthe virtual RIEGL booth and in the handles input/output in away that online forums of INTERGEO 2020 DIGITAL. The RIEGL VUX-120 was presented,anew LiDAR sensor optimizes reading/writing of data. that again sets standards.The sensor,which weighs only 2kg(4.4 lbs) and measures only www.simactive.com 225x120x125 mm, features up to 1.8 MHzPRR (Pulse Repetition Rate)anndd d deliverselivers upup ttoo 400 scan lines and effective1.5 millionmeasurements per second on theheggrroound.und. In addition, the miniVUX-3UAV is an extension of the already provenm miiniVUXniVUX series.Thiscompactand lightweight sensor will nowhave a300 kHzPRRR measuring program in addition to the already existing 100 kHzand 200 kHzmeasuringprograms. With the new VQ-1560II-S RIEGL presents another versionofthe successful dual channel waveform-processing airborne laser scanning systems foracquisition of extremely dense, highly accuratepoint clouds. www.riegl.com

LEICA GEOSYSTEMS CONTINUES HEXAGON UNVEILS HXGN SMART CENSUS AIRBORNE HYBRID ROAD MAP WITH 2020 FOR ENHANCED CITIZEN DATA LATEST MODULAR SENSOR OFFERING COLLECTION Hexagon’s Geospatial Leica Geosystems,partofHexagon, introduced the Leica division has launched TerrainMapper-2, the latest solution in the company’shybrid HxGN SmartCensus sensor road mapthat integrates LiDAR and image capture 2020, asignificant technology in airborne sensors and allows users to collectmore updatetoits end- data per flight. Developed to executecomplex and challenging to-end population regional mapping projects,the TerrainMapper-2 incorporates new and housing census imaging technology and reduces system complexityfor higher management efficiency. Theupgrade of the TerrainMapper-2 to an integrated solution.The latest system controller and storage makes it easy to install in anysurvey release improves aircraftbyeliminating theadditional equipment rack.The system digital enumeration by also offers aseamless upgrade path to the Leica CityMapper-2, the allowing households markets only oblique imaging and LiDAR hybrid sensor. to completecensus questionnaires online or overthe telephone, www.leica-geosystems.com significantly reducing the need forin-person interviews and field- based data collection. HxGN SmartCensus 2020’snew Computer- Assisted Telephone Interviewing and Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing modules complement its existing Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews capabilities,enablingmultimodal electronic data collection by national statistics offices.The telephone-and web-based capabilities will reduce administrativeburden and costs, increase privacyfor households and help government agencies and officials safely conductacensus in the pandemic era. Currently, HxGN SmartCensus 2020’sself-enumeration capabilities arebeing implemented and tested in Europe foranupcoming 2021 census. www.hexagongeospatial.com

www.geoconnexion.com 17 ASIAN SPOTLIGHT THE LATEST NEWS AND PRODUCTS FROM ASIA

RESEARCHERS INNOVATE USING LIDAR AND HYPER-SPECTRAL SCANNERS TO DOCUMENT AND HELP RESTORE BURN AREAS Airborne Research Australia (ARA), underthe scientific leadership of Dr.JorgHacker, is committed to providing the Australian government –aswell as affectedfarmers and firefighters –with a publicly available collection of data from the areas around Adelaide and on Kangaroo Island destroyed by the forest fires of December 2019 and January2020. Thewell-founded scientific data, which arerecorded with a RIEGL LMS-Q680i-S Airborne Laser Scanner and continuously updated by repeatedflights,provideinformation FUGRO’S MAJOR UPGRADE TO LADS about the extent of the destruction. But theyalso showwhereand TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES HYDROGRAPHIC DATA hownatureisrecovering from the catastrophe.This enables those COLLECTION IN AUSTRALIA AND PACIFIC REGION responsible forrestoring habitats and economic zones to make Theenhanced LADS HD+ technology was developed in Fugro’s their decisions moreeasily and on ascientific basis. www.riegl.com laser laboratoryinAdelaide,Australia, and is asophisticated hydrographic mapping system that accurately measures water depth over both the marine and coastal zone environments. Thenew advances to the system have doubled the laser speed and the swathwidth and improved the objectdetection of the system, greatly increasing data collection efficiency fornautical charting. Thesystem builds upon the proven Australian-developed LADS technology and has been designed forsafe, high-speed and cost-effectivesurveys of clean, shallowcoastal areas in depths up to 80 m.ALB can be integrated with traditional hydrographic survey methodsdsu usingsing acoustics,suchuch as multibeammultibeam echosoundersrs (MBES), to supportnauticalauticalcharting and coastal zone management.management. www.fugro.com

CHC NAVIGATION INTRODUCES THE I73 GNSS AND IBASE GNSSSS RECEIVERS CHC Navigation (CHCNAV) announced the immediateavailabilityofthe i73 GNSS, aversatiletile pocket-sized IMU-RTK GNSS rover with an integrated inertial module and the iBase GNSS, arugged base GNSS receiver.i73 GNSSGNSS offers superior GNSS signal tracking enabling surveys beyond the usual constraints.Itfeatures full 624-channel GNSSS technology and connects seamlessly to RTK GNSS networks as well astoUHF GNSS station overits embedded UHFHFm modem.odem. TheGNSS iBase is afully integrated GNSS base station, specifically designed to meet 95% of surveyors’needseds when working in UHF GNSS base and rovermode. Theperformance of the iBase UHF base stationtation compared to aconventional external UHF radio modem is virtually identical.But its uniqueue designeliminates the need foraheavy external battery, bulkycables,anexternal radio,andnda a radio antenna. Its5-wattradio module provides operational GNSS RTKcoverage up to 8kkm. www.chcnav.com

JAPANESE CITY USING GIS ON IPADS FOR FIELD SURVEYY TheCityofTamba inHyogo prefecture, Japan, that areenabled with more features.Unlikeweb performsfield surveyworkusing amobile GIS applications,Mobile Matilda can operateinalocal application designed forApple iPad tablet (off-line) environment because map layers and computers.The application, called Mobile Matilda, data areread from the iPad memory.Users can is developed by OsakabasedGIS solution specialist, updaterecords in the field forlater synchronization Tsukasa Consulting, using the TatukGIS to the desktop or servervia asecureWi-FiorGSM Developer Kernel 11 (for Delphi edition) with connection, when available.TatukGIS development the EmbarcaderoFireMonkey framework. tools enable efficient storage of even huge GIS Themobile application compliments desktop datasets as SQLitedatabase layers on iOSand and web-based versionsofthe Matilda software Android devices. www.tatukgis.com

18 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine ON LOCATION

LIDAR FOR THE MASSES APPLE’S NEW IPHONES ARE GOING TO MAKE LIDAR AN EVERYDAY TECHNOLOGY FOR MILLIONS, SAYS ALISTAIR MACLENAN

By the time youread this article,the laser beams out in all directions,times how Yes. SnapChat has already announced that LiDAR industrywill have gained more long each one takes to returntothe device,and the nextversion of its app will supportthe than 100 million newusers. generates apoint-cloud or arrayofgeolocated newtechnology and provided ademo at the Foraniche industry, that’s miraculous measurements that can provide a3Dimage, launch event. Whilst glowing,multi-coloured growth. But Iguess that’s what happens it does tend to alose acertain something. birds interacting with awoman in her home when one of the world’sbiggest mobile Don’ttell me that the geospatial doesn’t immediately shout ‘industryapplications’, phone companies decides that your industryhas to explainall these technical it did showthat AR is the near-future. tech is just what its users need.Evenif points because theyare selling to a So,millions of iPhone users and around those users have no idea what ‘it’is. different audience –weare still people. 200 million SnapChat users will all become When Apple virtually launched its So,isthis asignificant moment forthe LiDAR-awareovernight. But if those users newiPhone 12 in October,the headline LiDAR industrythat we have come to know don’t really understand the technology,can news was that each of the four models has and love forits dotted images of road networks theyreallybeclassed as ‘LiDAR users’? been built to work with 5G networks. and the insides and outsides of buildings? Yes. They can. Not manycountries have 5G yet, but it’s as Yes. Thereisnodoubt at all about that. Google Maps made ageneration safeabet that theywill get it soon as backing Complicated geospatial technology has comfortable with mapping with no the only horse in athree-mile greyhound race. become free –that is,freeonce youhave explanation of cartography. Smartphones Less widely reportedwas that the Proand bought anew iPhone –and simple to use made GPS central to people’s lives with ProMax models will ship with aLiDAR scanner. It has also been givenafunkyapplication: no explanation of atomic clocks.LiDAR is Apple does marketing extremely well,soit Apple is pushing LiDAR as away of creating set to become an everyday technology for prefers to call it‘depth technology’and explain immersiveaugmented realities(ARs). Point millions –possibly even billions –ofpeople. to futureusers that because the newiPhones your iPhone at asubjectand the ‘depth map’ Ican’t wait to see which geospatial have LiDAR, they“understand the worldaround created enables youtorealistically add a industryplayeristhe firsttotakeadvantage youand build aprecise depth map of the flashing pair of spectacles or dinosaurs to your of this mass-marketopportunity. scene”. They can also “see in the dark”.See how pictureorvideo.The depth map is LiDAR- exciting LiDAR can be when it isn’t explained? accurate, so whatever youadd will be scaled When marketing tells us that the beautyof properly and look likeitshould be there… Alistair Maclenanisfounder of the LiDAR is the speed and accuracywith which it if dinosaurs should be in your kitchen. geospatial B2B marketing agencyQuarry creates a3Drepresentation of an area by firing Butwill anyone really care? OneEleven (www.quarry-one-eleven.com)

www.geoconnexion.com 19 INTERGEO 2020 UPDATE INTERGEO GOES DIGITAL! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 26 YEARS, AND WITH VERY LITTLE TIME TO PREPARE, INTERGEO 2020 WENT ALL-DIGITAL – AND STILL MANAGED TO DELIVER AN IMPRESSIVE PACKAGE

Berlin’s main conference venue laysilent; the in pandemic times”. Optimistic outcome queues were strangely absent; the flags and That sentiment was Exhibitors seemed content that the banners remained in storage; no exhibition echoed by Hansjörg event passed off successfully:“This new booths heavedwith eager visitors.And with Kutterer (pictured format is achallenge forall of us – no bratwurst or foaming tankards on offer, right), president of and we took it!”says Michael Degen, Europe’s premier geospatial expo was,this conference hosts, Partner Business Consultant DACH year,averydifferent affair forobvious reasons. the DVW(German at Autodesk.Headded “Wewould Even so,itmanaged to deliver an Societyfor Geodesy, nowcall our visitors ‘digital consumers’ impressivevirtual programme overthree Geoinformation and as the acceptance and usage of digital days in mid-October,with 228 exhibitors, Land Management): “We content was higher than expectedvs. the nearly 3,000 products presented,morethan can look back on apromising directcontactvia digital tools.Weare looking 400 conference speakers,plus video links to digital premiereofINTERGEO.Pleasing forwardtoadetailed follow-up and the ahost of supporting events.And with ‘live’ visitor numbers and asignificantly stronger possible outcome,being quiteoptimistic”. music,courtesy of Ireland’s Séan TreacyBand international participation in INTERGEO. Thomas Harring,President Hexagon on the second evening,itseemed almost like digital areimpressiveproof of this.Weare Geosystems,concurred: “Itisgreat to see business as usual. delighted with the well-functioning interplay howthe whole team has evolved in this new between speakers,listeners,administration, world. Thefeedback from my team and the Real challenge and technology.Our goals in termsofcontent customers is very positive. They told me that Thetask of creating asecureand functional were morethan achieved.” theyhave had very good conversations and meeting place in the shortest possible time Themain conference sessions,aswell our presentations were frequently visited.” was areal organisational and technical as additional presentations delivered via Ronald Bisio,responsible forGlobal challenge.Yet the final tally of some 330,000 three dedicated technology platforms Surveying and Geospatial Business at Trimble, digital interactions by morethan 12,000 (Geoinnovations,SmartCitySolutions and was pleased with the number of international participants in 153 countries exceeded Interaerial Solutions) attractedanaverage of contacts,old and new. “Myteam told me,that expectations says Christoph Hinteofexpo 370 visits per event, and discussion panels, we had contacts even from NewMexico.They organisers HinteMesse (pictured right). “We talks and presentations were in high demand most probably wouldn’t have had the chance succeeded in establishing throughout. Theplatform-independent to visit us otherwise.And theywerevery astable digital platform alfaviewvideo conferencing solution was happytoparticipate.“ that generated adopted across the conference and trade Nextyear’sINTERGEO is scheduledtobeheld avast volume fair,providing high qualityand stabilityfor in Hannover from 21-23 September,more of interaction. up to 500 participants simultaneously in details of which will soon be available at Together with each virtual room. https://www.intergeo.de/ all partners we ensured that the geo-community with its great thematic relevance can also meet

20 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine As always, exhibitors took the GeoSLAM showcased the latest addition to its ZEB family of han opportunity to showcase new and d-held laser scanners. The entry-level ZEB Go! model, employing Simultaneou improved products and services. Riegl s Localization And Mapping (SLAM) techniques, offers one button operation to announced a quartet of new additions get users up-and-running and capturing data in minutes. Weighing just 85 to its range of airborne laser scanners, 0g and with a 30m range and 360o x 270o FOV, the ZEB Go! scans at including the VQ-1560II-S, claimed to 43,000 points/sec, with automatic registration of be probably the most versatile ALS multiple scans and geo-referencing. Relative currently available. This new version of accuracy is 1 - 3cm. Pointclouds can be the successful dual channel waveform- quickly processed using the GeoSLAM processing ALS, is said to lend itself Hub intelligent point cloud processing to the acquisition of extremely dense, platform, or onboard in real-time using highly accurate point clouds over large the ZEB Go RT upgrade. GeoSLAM data is areas, and is suited to a wide range of compatible with a variety of software that applications - from precise corridor recognises universal file formats such as apping to detailed city mapping. m LAZ, LAS, PLY, TXT, and e57.

Drone and aerial imaging technology leader DJI unveiled its first LiDAR solution for precise Also unveiling a UAV solution based on the aerial inspection and data collection missions. x Horizon sensor was YellowScan, which The Zenmuse L1 payload, configured for t Livo Wireles he itched s condition monitoring specialist Senceive compa unveiled its updated Mapper product. P ny’s flagship Matrice 300 RTK commercial launched FlexiMeasure, a lightweight carbon a price point affordable to a larger base of fibre drone platform, integrates a powerful yet ul at wireless i tra- s a purely nclinometer system that can be deployed lightwei professional users, this latest offering i ght Livox LiDAR module with a 70° FOV, by one person for structural and geotechnical aerial LiDAR solution that is ideally flown at 70m a high-accuracy IMU. The payload also integrates monitoring ap d for general plications. Operating in any orientation, a 20-megapixe above ground level and intende l camera with a 1-inch CMOS it boasts ultra-low power consumption and indefinite se topography projects. The updated Mapper nsor and a mechanical shutter on a three-axis operation, thanks to a small solar panel, ssly integrates with existing YellowScan’s and has stabilised gimbal. This combination can seamle flexib generate Station le, quick-connect segments that can be adjusted true software solutions - LiveStation and Cloud -colour point cloud models in real-time, or on-site to suit requirements. Waterproof to akingiteasytoremotelycheckdatawhile 200 m acquire up to 2 km2 of point cloud data in -m depth; w a elypost- ith an integrated temperature sensor, and single fl thesystemisflying,andcomprehensiv ight. with versatile mounting options, FlexiMeasure process,visualiseandexportsurveydata. has a resolution of 0.0001° (0.0018 mm/m) and repeatability of ±0.0005° (±0.009 mm/m).

Making its debut was Version 6.2 of the ProVI infrastructure planning and design software from ProVI GmbH. This expands its BIM functionality, especially in rail applications for form planning and 3D switches. For the Following the earlier launch of its Android app, plat rgetcelebratedits20thanniversarybyintroducing to the SXblue announced the SXblue ToolB Hi-Ta former, new features include additions ox, the ating a high- iO theiRTK5GNSSreceiver.Aswell as integr oss-profile editor and Revit export while, for S version intended for iOS-compatible SXblue cr ormance IMU to make tilt survey work easier and the model GNSS devices. With this new applicatio perf the latter, switches can be included in n, the logy provides use more practical, the use of Hi-Fill techno collection as attrinate3D components and, thus, r can analyse the position data provided continuous RTK coverage during correction outages put via the ifc interface.Intermsofwider by the SXblue receiver, as well as location out an RTK base station or VRS network. The correction type of metadata. More important for SXblue c from BIMfunctionality,all attributes of one lients, TP network has the source provided by the company’s Hi-R construction can now be transferred to another application can record, save and transfer raw also been extended so that users can work without a ata transfer in the cross-section editor.In data from the GNSS receiver for post-processing via d tation in rural or remote areas of the world. Also ou to purposes. The application also acts a base s addition,anewSHAPEinterfaceallows y s a NTRIP protocol radio c provided with this new receiver is a multi- lude SHAPE files from GIS contexts such as lient, capable of connecting to a NTRIP server inc top-mounted, full omni-directional communications to create for RTK corrections, thereby allowing th and LBP surfaces and Esri data, as well as e receiver and receiving to i antenna that extends the transmitting corresponding SHAPE files from ProVI data. ssue very accurate location information. distance by more than 20%. www.geoconnexion.com 21 OGC UPDATE SIMPLIFYING LOCATION DATA ACCESS AND PROCESSING NEXT YEAR’S OGC’S TESTBED-17 WILL SEE THREE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS PRIORITISED FOR INVESTIGATION. INGO SIMONIS LOOKS AT THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

OGC is best knownfor its free and open OGC IP initiatives promoterapid TESTBED-17:BRINGINGITALL location standards,but it also runs an idea- prototyping,testing and validation of TOGETHER to-marketaccelerator:the OGC innovation location-related specifications and Thetechnical scope of 2021’sTestbed-17 programme (IP). This provides aforumfor OGC architectures.Within an IP initiative, (www.ogc.org/testbed17) was determined members to come together to solveproblems, OGC members use real-worldscenarios, by arequirements collection process led by produce prototypes,develop demonstrations, business cases and applied research topics OGC staff that involved multiple sponsors provide best practice and advance the future to test and validatedraftspecifications from around the globe.Using experience of location standards.OGC IP initiatives range that address sponsors’geospatial gained during recent IP initiatives,insights in sizefromsmall interoperabilityexperiments interoperabilityrequirements.This from the OGC technology trends process, run by asingle OGC working group up to approach not only encourages rapid ideas put forthbytestbed sponsors and our annual multi-million dollar ‘testbeds’with technology development, but also the results of an OGC member-wide hundreds of OGC-member participants. determines the technology maturityof technology surveyconductedinJune, OGC’s 2021 testbed,Testbed-17, is potential solutions and increases the three current trends have been prioritised currently looking forparticipants to help technology adoption in the marketplace. forinvestigation during Testbed-17: address some major challenges concerning OGC IP initiatives help move technologies Theevolution of cloud solutions the widespread adoption of location up through the technology readiness to enable developers to submit data information on the web, including: cloud- levels (TRLs), with initiativetypes available processing apps (see ‘AnApp StoreFor based data processing apps; ‘convenience’ that validateearly ideas (TRL 2-4), while Big Data’inGeoConnexion International’s WebAPIs that combine data access and others takethem through prototyping July/August edition), coupled with a processing; semantic consistencybetween and marketreadiness (TRL 5-8) (see Figures growing appetiteand appreciation for the different datasets behind standardised 1and 2). Testbeds areour most far-reaching holistic ‘convenience APIs’fromapplication APIs; and the exploration of discreteglobal initiatives,interms of the number of developers and data consumers alike grid systems (DGGS) as asimplified reference technologies involved and their range Ashifttowards simplified ‘Web APIs’ system forthe Earth (and other planets). of TRL. in previously specialist domains.These areconvenient forthe webdeveloper but won’tsolveexisting challenges –such as differences between data models –unless they’re shiftedtoahigher semantic levelby applying linked data principles backed by strong semantics and linked ontologies

22 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine OGC UPDATE

Figure1.The OGCTechnology Readiness Scale,adapted from the European Association of Research andTechnology Organisations

Current exploration of newlocation APIs.There is arisk,then, that convenience compareapples to oranges.The challenge definitions based on DGGS that use APIs mayproliferatefaster than SDOs can forTestbed-17 is to look at promising linked simple indices forplace and space and designthe base APIs,best-practices,patterns data principles to see what we can use. thereforeabstractawaythe complexities and designprinciples that should underlie and uncertainties behind addresses and them, leading once again to inconsistencies DGGS to simplify location areas of interest based on coordinate and poor interoperabilitybetween APIs. CRSesare complex and not well understood reference system (CRS)-heavy polygons Testbed-17 will bring these various pieces by manyusers,which can lead to interesting Each of these trends will be together and define convenience APIs based and unexpecteddata integration problems. addressed in Testbed 17. on building blocks that enable single sign-on DGGS offer apossible solution, as they and data-centric securitywhererequired and remove alot of thecomplexitycaused by CLOUDAPPSAND ‘CONVENIENCE’ supportasynchronous interactions (when projectedsystems and use amoreintuitive APIS rawdataneeds time to be processed) and indexing system. Indeed,we’re seeing data This trend is borne from three concurrent complex processing chains with intermediary providers such as what3words,locationkey issues and addressing it will require input and output products.This will build and others use similar grid-based indexing the weaving together of much work on work undertaken during Testbed-16 and schemes to overcome challenges related to undertaken in past OGC IP Initiatives. the OGC Earth observation apps pilot, which addresses and coordinates.However, we need looked at aligning multi-cloud environments an indexing solution that accommodates Issue1 with findable,accessible,interoperable areas and lines,not just points.Testbed-17 Themanydifferent cloud environments and reusable (FAIR) data principles. will exploreDGGS as apotential solution. available fordata storage,publication and Detailed information on the scale, computation each use different interfaces, WebAPIswithsemantic scope and objectives of Testbed-17 will access mechanisms,securitysettings, interoperability become availablewhen OGC issues the data models,processing functions et al. WebAPIs areaconvenient waytointeract Testbed-17 call forparticipation in December. Standards help provide consistency, but with data services,but theydonot address Testbed participants have aunique,funded theyneed to be flexible enough to support data model varietyand inconsistency. opportunitytojoin the collaborativeresearch diverse business cases,communitybest Semantic webtechnologies have promised at OGC, while boosting their ownR&D,making practices and domain requirements. much in the past and oftenworkedwell contactwith major geospatial players,and in laboratories but rarely in the real world. developing futurebusiness opportunities. Issue2 With increasing data availability, we need Data productvolumes grow faster than to ensurethat consumers receivewhat Ingo Simonis is director,OGC Innovation storage infrastructurecan. Therefore, many theyexpectand won’tunintentionally Program&Science(www.ogc.org) organisations storeonly the rawdata in the cloud and process it foruse on-the- fly.This makes processing chains more susceptible to failureasdata processing fails moreoften than simple data access.

Issue3 Apreference towards ‘convenience APIs’ wherethe distinction between ‘data access’and ‘processing instructions’isless clear.For example,auser maywant to use an API to extractfeatures from Landsat, Sentinel-1, -2 and -3, and PeruSat-1 datasets using deep learning and/or artificial intelligence technologies.All that data is deployedondifferent platforms and in different formats,but the user expects just asingle,convenient interface. Standards development organisations (SDOs) face achallenge –theyneed to continue developing base API building blocks forraw dataaccess,but at the same time, Figure2.OGC initiativetypes and their relationship to the TRL scale (OpEx: Operational Exercise; domains expecttheseholistic convenience DesignEx: Design Experiment)

www.geoconnexion.com 23 FIG UPDATE

NINE PATHWAYSTO TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE EVA-MARIAUNGER, ROHAN BENNETTAND KEESDEZEEUW EXPLAINWHY THEUN’S ADOPTION OF THEFRAMEWORK FOREFFECTIVE LAND ADMINISTRATION IS SO IMPORTANT

An important and significant milestone WhyFELA? Another keyrationale forFELA forland administration globally arrived FELA brings together the body of knowledge, is to transformour worldthrough when the United Nations Committee of agreed concepts,approaches and tools collaboration and partnership.Inthis Experts on Global Geospatial Information specific to the land sector, to advocate, regard, it is developed forall countries, Management (UN-GGIM) welcomed and help to understand and communicate both developing and developed,all adopted the Framework forEffective the importance of the 2030 Agenda. The jurisdictions and all stakeholders,and Land Administration (FELA) at its 10th coreofFELA is the integrated natureofthe strivestoachieve asolid global partnership session this year.Thisisamomentous sustainable development goals (SDGs) and by bringing and building together accomplishment forland administration, its 5Ps: people,planet, prosperity, peace and knowledge,skills,capacityand experiences, land administration professionals and,most partnership.The 5Psdemand effectiveland stimulating creativityand innovation. importantly,the manypeople experiencing administration, realised through integrated land tenure insecurityglobally. geospatial information, forland policies, HowdoesFELAwork? Forland administration professionals tenure, value,use and development. FELA puts member states in the driving who maynot have been directly involved in Leaving no one behind is the seat when it comes to establishing, FELA’s preparation and development, it might underpinning principle of the 2030 Agenda – strengthening,co-ordinating and monitoring appear to be just another UN document. andFELA. Research fromthe Prindex initiative their land administration systems nationally But this underplays the opportunities and has shown that thereare manycountries or sub-nationally.Itdirectly aligns with status afully endorsed UN framework offers. wherealmost 50% of people believe it is very the overarching Integrated Geospatial FELA makes explicit the connection likely that theycould lose the right to use Information Framework(IGIF) and between the 2030 Agenda forSustainable their property (orpartofit) in the nextfive implements the IGIF forthe land sector. Development and the domain of land years.Perhaps moreconcerning is that in FELA is astrategic and high-level administration. It harmoniously combines some countries,morethan 60% of people say framework that should enable the professional important previously developed and agreed theyhavenoformal or informal documents domain to communicateits need at all global policies,frameworks, approaches and to demonstratetheir right to their property. levels.Itstarts with adetaileddescription tools that relatetothe land sector, including: To create sustainable and inclusive of the background,and the work already the VoluntaryGuidelines on the Responsible societies,this gap needs to be addressed. done by the professional communityand Governance of TenureofLand,Fisheries Furthermore, the gap emphasises the describes the linking naturetothe IGIF. and Forests in the ContextofNational urgent need to acceleratethe efforts to Underneath the mission and vision of Food Security;the NewUrban Agenda; and document, recordand recognise people- FELA comes the definition of effectiveland UN-Habitat’s Continuum of Land Rights. to-land relationships,inall forms. administration –which is akey change

24 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexionInternational Magazine FIG UPDATE

Figure1. FELAFELA’’ss ninenine pathways in the land administration domain. The GGIM encouraged ExpertGroup on Land education and awareness campaigns definition sets an aspirational target for Administration and Management (EG LAM) areneeded in the sector. FELA needs what effectiveland administration should to formulateanoverarchingpolicyguidance to be translated intolanguages other be and,with the goals and requirements, that could be referenced by all member states. than English. This work is under way. defines howwecan get there. Member states from all regions,together Meanwhile,UN-GGIM and EG LAM This is followedbyadetailed description with the global stakeholder community, remain committed to continuing the work of FELA’s nine strategic pathways (see participated in this process,and EG LAM towards amoreequitable,inclusiveand Figure1), whichprovides the compass for received almost 600 individual comments sustainable land administration. But to actually implementing FELA. Each of the and contributions to the initial FELA drafts. achieve this,supportisneeded from all pathways can be considered by itself or More than 50% were fullyaccepted and actors: global organisations,internationally with others.Nevertheless,implementation the changes incorporated intothe final recognised donor agencies,development will varyfromcountrytocountry, based on draft, while another 45% were considered partners,peak professional bodies,academia, national priorities and context. Thepathways and harmonised with other refinements. NGOs and CSOs and related networks can even be incrementally updated over This high levelofinvolvement and –and most of all,land administration time,asnew knowledge and innovation the inclusiveprocess reveals thatthe practitioners and professionals. enters the land administration domain. global land administration communityis serious and ready forengagement and Eva-Maria Unger is senior land More work to be done consensus-building efforts to achieve the administration advisor,RohanBennett is Theprocess to createFELA was rigorous and 2030 Agenda andtoleave no one behind. senior land administration advisor and involved manyrounds of consultations and But adoption of FELA by the UN is Kees de Zeeuw is directorofKadaster consensus building.InAugust 2018, UN- just the starting point. Communication, International at Kadaster (www.kadaster.nl)

www.geoconnexion.com 25 IMAGEOFTHE YEAR

2020 wasthe year of‘social distancing’. Around the world, people reacteddifferently to COVID-19, even during their summer holidays.Manybeaches continued to attractlarge crowds of socially distantpeople,but others echoed events from earlier in the year,remaining emptyaspeople stayedaway. Satelliteimages ©2020 Maxar Technologies

26 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine VEROSTAR® POLE MOUNT RTKRoverfor Survey, Construction, and Marine Applications VEROSTAR® Your Future-Proof GNSSAntenna VEROSTAR® SURFACEMOUNT Machine Control Precision Agriculture Autonomous Systems

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E: [email protected] T: +1 613 591-3131 EARTHOBSERVATION CHANGING THELANDSCAPEOF DENGUEFEVER DENGUEFEVER IS NOWTHE FASTESTSPREADING MOSQUITO-BORNEDISEASE IN THEWORLD. GINATSAROUCHI TAKESALOOKATANEW SYSTEM THATCOMBINES EARTHOBSERVATION TECHNIQUES WITH HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL DATA TO FORECAST OUTBREAKS

Theprevalence of dengue feverposes a global health issue,with the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) estimating that half the world’spopulation is nowatriskfromthe mosquito-borne viral infection. TheWHO says it has seen an eightfold increase in reportedcases overthe past twodecades, from 505,430 cases in 2000 to morethan 2.4 million in 2010 and 4.2 million in 2019. Thekey to controlling dengue is costly surveillance and control of the mosquitos that spread the disease.Forecasting outbreaks can contributegreatly to the distribution of scarce resources and better forecasting equals better management and –the hope is –fewer cases in the long term.Predicting outbreaks also enables moretargeted support to help communities reduce mosquitos Standing water pr ovides theth per rffecttbbreedingrdidgroundssffo irmosquitos in Hanoi, Vietnam using simple measures such as improving water storage and wastemanagement and from ground stations,which creates a‘big using interactivemaps,charts and tables,and, personal protection such as mosquitocoils. data’repositoryofhydro-meteorological, to makethe results relevant to policymakers Developed by aconsortium led by HR land coverand population variables.These and practitioners,theyare presented as the Wallingford, the Dengue Model forecasting include maximum and minimum temperature, probabilitythat cases will exceed thresholds Satellite-based System (D-MOSS) forecasts precipitation, soil moisture, urban and peri- set by organisations such as the WHO. outbreaks six months in advance and is urban area percentages,and population totals. the first functional system that uses Earth Thesystem uses an information architecture Innovations observation (EO) data, in-situ observations and based around the spatio-temporal structure Harnessing the powerofgeospatial seasonal climateforecasts to issue forecasts of each dataset, calculating data forevery innovation was instrumental in creating on aregular basis.Aprototype D-MOSS Vietnamese province by harmonising the an accurateforecasting system that system is operating in Vietnam and,owing to datasets intoatimeseries set of polygons can be rolled out around the world. the success of the trial there, it is nowbeing taken from the province boundaries, To ensureD-MOSS’s usefulness and implemented in Malaysia and SriLanka, with referred to as aMultiPolygonSeries. long-termusability, acompleteand accurate rollouts planned in four other Asian countries. At the startofthe forecasting process,a pictureneeds to be built and kept up to Based on the latest epidemiological water availabilitymodel is used to generate date. Keytothis is access to high-quality research, hydro-meteorology and informatics, aset of parameters representing the amount satelliteEOdata from sensors such as D-MOSS is designed to overcome the of water present at the Earth’s surface,such MODIS that have up to 1kmresolution, practical challenges of forecasting mosquito- as total run-off and evapotranspiration. areavailable forfree, allowfor automated borne diseases.For instance,ittakes into Afterthis,the relationships between the collection, coverthe whole of Vietnam and account howtemperatureinfluences hydro-meteorological variables and the have arevisit daily.Furtherdata product mosquitos’development, reproduction numbers of cases of dengue feverare developments will only makeD-MOSS even rates,mosquitodistribution, howrainfall created by astatistical superensemble moreaccurateoverthe coming years. creates or destroysbreeding sites,land- generated by Bayesian model averaging. Thesystem also depends on much use,and mosquito-control measures. This process is repeated monthly or weekly improved seasonal meteorological By collecting 20-year histories of satellite- as newdata arrivesfromsatellites and as forecasts and benefits from their continual based EO data from services including newcases of dengue feverare reported. enhancements.Analysis over along period NASA DAAC,Copernicus and NOAA CFSv2, To produce forecasts,D-MOSS of time has revealed consistent biases in D-MOSS can establish the relationship incorporates the UK MetOffice’s GloSea5 different places and at different times of the between these factors and dengue.Gaps in six-month seasonal forecast of hydro- year.Toaccount forthis,D-MOSS incorporates the satellitedata arefilled using interpolation meteorological variables to predictoutbreaks. abias-correction algorithm, which refers to and comparison to in-situ observations Forecasts aredisplayedonaprivatewebsite historical hindcast data from the GloSea5

28 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine EARTH OBSERVATION

Thepotential of D-MOSS is huge.In its current form it could help morethan three billion people,but it could easily be extended to zikaand even to malaria. Perhaps it’s notsurprising,therefore, that the United Nations Development Programme has hailed it as aflagship project. In the shortterm, D-MOSS is helping to reduce the ever-increasing death toll from dengue.However, EO is in its infancy, computing capabilities areonasharp upwards curve,and D-MOSS can adapt to and hone newdata. It’s not inconceivable, therefore, that the landscape of vector- NewEOproducts ar ecchhanginggi thehe facefo of denguefd fevermanagementment borne disease prevention could look very different in the not-too-distant future. model.ElNiño also has aproveneffect Epidemiology,saysD-MOSS is helping to on outbreaks of dengue feveraround the bridge the gap between early warning Dr Gina Tsarouchi is aprincipal worldand,for Vietnam, the D-MOSS team and early action, as well as to reduce the engineer at HR Wallingford statistically confirmed this link and included number of dengue cases and mortalityrate. (www.hrwallingford.com) the El Niño index in the set of variables. Theremay be other factors at play, too–the team is currently investigating possible links between dengue feverand the Indian Ocean Dipole phenomenon, forexample. D-MOSS’s component-based architecture means it can be implemented from local to national scales around the world, and can also be easily extended to incorporate newEOdata when additional satellites arelaunched as well as newlinks with other social and environmental factors.

On-the-ground success Whilst the technical accomplishments of this projectare many, the most important achievement is that D-MOSS works forits users.Authorities in Vietnam are beginning to use the forecasts to make important decisions and testimonyfrom local health officials is coming in thick and fast –some have even linked using the system with alowereddeath rate. Forinstance,DrPham Ngoc Thanh, deputy directorofthe epidemiology department at TayNguyen InstituteofHygiene and TheDe D--MOSSMOSS inti nterfaceerface foforreeccastsasts denguedengue upup toto sixsi monthsnths ini advancead (shown(sho using test data)

Around half the world’spopulation is at risk from mosquito-borne dengue fever

www.geoconnexion.com 29 MARITIME

HOWAMARITIME COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM IS MAKINGANIMPACT

IN 2002,THE AUTOMATICIDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FORVESSELTRACKINGAND COLLISION AVOIDANCE BECAME OPERATIONAL. THEDATA LOGGED IS NOWAFFECTING MANY INDUSTRIES OUTSIDE THEMARITIME SECTOR. BART ADAMS EXPLAINS HOW

We liveinaworld that is becoming moresafely navigatewaters and ports. This is wherethe picturestartedchanging. increasingly moredigital and connected. Thevessels surrounding aship and their We nowhave acontinuous and global view Thelist of assets being tracked continues courses arevisualised on ascreen, possibly of howvessels move about the sevenseas to grow –vehicles,vessels,people.The on topofnautical charts,for the captain and inland waters.Tanker operators can Internet of Things (IoT) is entering industries and crew to obtain situational awareness. nowtrack their fleet worldwide; aterminal ranging from logistics to manufacturing, AIS messages arepicked up by other operator can use global AIS data to predict as well as our own(smart) homes. vessels and receivers at the shoreto when and howmanytankers will arrive One sectorthat has been slowto complement radar video as the source for in the coming days and weeks or form a innovateisnevertheless nowrevolutionising so-called Vessel TrafficServices (VTS). However, competitiveperspective. Tanker operators manyother industries,helping in besides local collision avoidance and vessel can monitor their competition, gaining everything from battling illegal fishing trafficservices,the real value from AIS comes insight intowhereand howtheyoperate. to forecasting the financial markets. with the advent of global satellite-enabled However, thereare challenges in using TheAutomatic Identification System (AIS) systems.Companies such as SpireGlobal use AIS data. Forexample,eventhough turning has been available to the maritime sector nanosats to pick up the AIS messages and off the AIS transponder or logging incorrect since 2002. Initially,itwas developed to assist relaythem to the Earth’s surface wherethe values in the AIS messages is illegal according with collision avoidance and detection using data is collected, cleaned up and stored in to the International Maritime Organization, GPS, together with wireless communication the cloud.APIs arethen provided to query ships do ‘godark’or mess with the content technology,bycommunicating the location and analyse the data foruse by data scientists, of the messages to remain under the radar. and status of avessel to other nearby analysts or softwareproviders to include These “bad data”cases areoften thebasis vessels,enabling captains to better and areal-time andhistorical data source. foranalytics and insight generation in use

30 November/December 2020 | GeoConnexion International Magazine MARITIME

Tankers oftenspend asignificant amount of time waiting to enter terminals.AIS data can be used to monitor wait times and anticipatethis to cruise at alowerspeed and save fuel,cutting costs and greenhouse gas emissions.Financial analysts also use the number of oil tankers,the wait times and other data to predictoil prices

dozenbytes per record, exploiting coherency However, the application of AIS and redundancyinthe data, allowing us to data and insight generation reaches handle billions of location records,without much further than just the maritime the need foranexpensivedistributed industry. Probably,the most significant serverfarmorhigh-end GPU nodes,making futureimpactwill be in other sectors. it cost-effectiveand easy to deploy. Industryleaders in the intelligence When aGPU algorithm needs to visualise domain, such as Kpler,ClipperData and IHS Ships fishing in Alaska. Positional AIS aheat map of vessel traffic, it goes through Markit, use AIS data as one of the sources messages arevisualised on topofsatellite each vessel trajectoryand paints it on topof to analyse commodityinventories,flows imagery. TheAIS data is color-coded the others,accumulatingthe colours leading and freight, with specialisations ranging by activity(green is fishing). As shown to the heatmap –you can comparethis to a from tracking LNG, LPG, crude oil,and from the patternand the colours,some child wanting to count the marbles in abag drybulk such as coal and iron ore. fishing ships do not report the correct of marbles by taking them out and counting Researchers at the International status,maybe to remain undetected. Data each marble one by one.Our algorithm uses MonetaryFund have even shown that AIS from US Coast GuardNavigation Center; adifferent approach; instead of counting data can be used fornowcasting trade background map by Mapbox the marbles one by one,wetakeout just activityinreal-time and quickly detecting one marble,weigh it, weigh the whole bag the turning points in the economic cycle. and then derivethe number of marbles.This It provides afaster waytolook at our cases such as detection of illegal fishing. enables us to scale to all newlevels –and economytosee theeffects of geopolitical However, the factthat data is missing apply AIS data outside the maritime sector. events and better predictrecovery.They or incorrect is usually achallenge that proposenew,moretimely statistics that needs to be considered by analysts Awide reach measuretradeflow to complement existing and softwaretools.When data is bad or We and SpireGlobal have already shown data sources and economic indicators. missing,the importance of visualising that AIS data can be used to analyse the So,who knowswhat insights the data and not blindly relying on its impactofCOVID-19 on large passenger people will be able to glean from correctness,isofkey importance. travel, looking at both global and local trends. AIS data as aresult of our Big Data In all these cases,it’snot just the From the AIS data alone,itisclear that the platform–and in what industries? current location of the vessels that cruise ship industryisseverely affectedin arerequired,but the vast amounts regions ranging from the Port of Cozumel Bart AdamsisCTO andfounder of historical data. With hundreds of in Mexico to the Tasman SeainAustralia. of xyzt.ai(https://xyzt.ai) thousands of vessels around the world, this data is really Big Data –not quite the data that is easily handled by Excel or business intelligence tools. Luckily,thereare several other options,including the platformthat we built at xyzt.ai. We have created aBig Data location analytics SaaS solution that is capable of handling the massive amounts of AIS data needed to investigate large regions and long periods of time. We engineered ourplatformfromthe ground up,focusing on efficient data structures and algorithms forhandling Terminal operators and vesseloperators can use AIS data to monitor activityintheir terminal space-time location records,such as AIS or fleet, as well as those of their competitors.Data from US Coast GuardNavigation Center; data. We compress the data as lowasa background map by Mapbox

www.geoconnexion.com 31 MOBILE GIS SURVEYING THECALM AFTERTHE STORM HURRICANES LEAVE A TRAIL OF DEVASTATION IN THEIR WAKES, SO HOW BEST TO SURVEY WHAT’S LEFT BEHIND? BRYNNA KING LOOKS AT WHAT ONE UNIVERSITY IS DOING TO ENABLE ITS STUDENTS TO STUDY IN THE FIELD THE NATURAL PROCESSES THEY LEARN ABOUT IN CLASSES – EASILY AND SAFELY

Hurricanes that originate in the Atlantic Dr Joseph Long teaches undergraduate island’s habitats include beach, dune, Basin strike the East Coast of the US classes and mentors graduate students at grassland, shrub thicket, salt marsh and about twice a year on average. The most UNCW. He headed up a National Science mud flats, supporting wildlife including destructive hurricanes leave permanent Foundation-funded research project focused the more common foxes, raccoons, and marks on coastal communities and sear on the impacts of Hurricane Florence on native and migratory birds, as well as their names into national memory. North Carolina’s coastal topography, and threatened species such as diamondback But while the large-scale human and his research also includes studies of coastal terrapins and loggerhead sea turtles. property loss of the worst storms are often change processes that happen during Many researchers study the island and well publicised, the ongoing environmental calmer wind and wave conditions. its inhabitants, with projects including impacts of frequent tropical storms, UNCW emphasises applied learning: turtle population surveys, water quality large and small, receive less attention giving students the opportunity to step sampling and meteorological monitoring. – even though they have important outside the classroom, observe the natural The Coastal Hazards Lab has performed implications for both people and wildlife. processes they are learning about, and bi-monthly topographic surveys there Researchers at the University of North collect and analyse data in the field. since 2018 to measure how winds and Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)’s Coastal Long uses the Handheld Group’s Algiz wave energy cause sediment erosion Hazards Lab are doing the important 8X rugged tablet computer, along with an and deposition on different parts of the environmental work of analysing coastal external high-accuracy GNSS receiver, to island, and to assess the island’s ability to change after storm events – most recently, perform topographic surveys at Masonboro naturally repair between major storms. Hurricane Isaias (2020), Hurricane Dorian Island, an uninhabited barrier island near “We conduct topographic surveys of (2019) and Hurricane Florence (2018) – as Wilmington that is part of the National coastal areas and study how beaches, dunes they teach and mentor UNCW students. Estuarine Research Reserve system. The and barrier islands evolve due to winds,

32 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine MOBILE GIS

Researchers at the UniversityofNorth Carolina Wilmington’s Coastal Hazards Lab are doing the important environmental work of analysingcoastal change afterstorm events. Long is using the Algiz 8X rugged tablet computer from Handheld Group along with an external high- wavesand nearshorecurrents,” Long explains. exposed to saltwater,blowing sand accuracyGNSS receiver to perform topographic “Repeat topographic surveys help us to or high temperatures,” Long says. surveys at MasonboroIsland better understand the impacts of storm However, the Algiz 8X is built exactly events and the role that natural recovery has forsuch applications.ItisIP65-rated compactenough to carry,weighing in at in the resiliencyofour nation’s coastline.” and tested to MIL-STD-810G US military about 1kg, and its 8”capacitivetouchscreen standards,offering protection against water, still has plentyofspace forviewing and Notjustawalk alongthe beach small particles of dust and dirt, varying manipulating maps,charts and other visuals. Taking research technology to the temperatures and repeateddrops.Evenifit Thetablet is also designed with features that beach could be arecipe fordisaster: gets coveredinsand or immersed in water, supportoperation in bright sunlight and “Thereispotential forthe devicetobe users can wipe it off and keep working. It’s heavy rain or while wearing gloves, and its

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TheCoastal Hazards Lab has performed bi-monthly topographic surveys since 2018 to measurehow windsand wave energy cause sediment erosion and deposition on differentparts of the island.

field-swappable 5,200mAh batteryenables Flexible,customisable surveying Online platforminreal time; when theyaren’t, totally uninterrupted data collection. Long uses severalprogramstointerface with theAlgiz 8X has128GB of local storage to store Long and his students pair the Algiz 8X the receiver and says the MicrosoftStore and all the data safely,which Long and his colleagues with an EosPositioning Systems ArrowGold theAlgiz 8X’s communication capabilities sync later.VisualGPS data is always stored on the RTK GNSS receiver acquired from Anatum are an added benefit: “I can load whatever device and downloaded via USB back on campus. GeoMobile Solutions.The ArrowGold can softwareIneedtoprogram and deployother Mixing and matching technologies can use GPS, GLONASS, Galileoand BeiDou types of sensors,such as water levelloggers provide better customisation thanstandard GNSS andimplements three frequencies to measurehow far and howlong surge GPS surveying packages that bundle adata (L1, L2 and L5) and satellite-based RTK and wavesinundateportions of the beach receiver,softwareand GPSantenna, Long says: augmentation for1cm horizontal real-time during storms.Wecan also retrieve and plot “The combination of abring-your-own-device accuracy. Thetablet and the receiver sync data and redeploysensors directly in the GPS antenna and the rugged Handheld tablet over Bluetooth and the Algiz 8X’swireless field,and without abulkyrugged laptop.” was cost-effectiveand allows us to use the cellular functionalityenables users to pull in Thelab using Esri’sArcGIS Collectorto surveycollection softwareofourchoosing.” position data from the North Carolina GNSS collect data, as well as freeware GPS data- At UNCW, rugged technology is Real Time Network for greater accuracy. viewing program VisualGPS and proprietary empowering researchers to add to the “The Algiz 8X tablet connects via software specific to its data collection scientific body of knowledge surrounding Bluetooth to the Arrow Gold antenna and is instruments. ArcGIS Collector uses map- coastal habitats – and equipping tomorrow ’s either mounted on a survey pole to measure driven forms to enable users with any level visionaries with the data and tools they need the elevation of individual points or mounted of experience to capture field data, including to preser ve and protect our evolving world. on a backpack for walking surveys where we photos, videos and audio recordings. ‘mow the lawn’up and down the beach to get When cell service or WiFi is available, Brynna King is a freelance writer and a 3D map of the coastal area,”Long explains. ArcGIS uploads data to the cloud-based ArcGIS editor (www.wordjones.com)

34 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine

MOBILEGIS LAND OWNERSHIP, SIMPLIFIED

Adouble rainbowholds asymbol of peace overVista Hermosa, avillage that’s been severely impactedbythe armed conflict

MARY JO WAGNER REPORTSONAPROJECT THATENABLED INDIGENOUS COLOMBIANS TO CONFIRMTHE BOUNDARIES OF THEIRPROPERTIESFOR THEFIRST TIME IN HISTORY –USING JUST ASMARTPHONEAND AGNSSRECEIVER

On awarmmorning in August 2019, Horacio Resolving that lack of clarityisaprimary land-ownership inequityhave leftmillions of Bonilla set out to walk his land as he’s so focus of Kadaster International’s Land in Peace parcels rural land unmapped and without titles. oftendone forfive decades. Afounder and project, aDutch-Colombian joint effortthat With ajoint interest in improving land lifelong residentofColombia’s Santa Teresita uses Bluetooth-enabled GNSS technology, reform,Kadaster partnered with anumber of del Tuparro Indigenous Reserve in Cumaribo, smartphones and amobiledatacollection Colombian institutions,including theNational Chief Bonilla knowsthis terrain likethe app to survey, map,formalise and register Register of Property (SNR), the Land Agency lines and marks on hisweathered hands. rural land in post-conflictregions.Designed (ANT)and theNational CadastralMapping Thewalk on this day, however, served to streamline traditionally time-consuming Agency (IGAC),tolaunchthe Land in Peace aspecificpurpose.With the aid of a and expensivemapping techniques,the (LiP) project.Having completed asmall FFP GNSS receiver,heand his Sikuani peoples project’sefficientfit-for-purpose (FFP) proof of concept in 2015 near Bogotá, the would be able to definitively confirmthe methodology is enabling landowners to Kadaster team knew it neededarobust yet unclear boundaries of asection of their quickly and easily map their land in real time straightforwardtechnological solution to property between themselves and their while also planting the seeds forserious land bring speed and accuracytothe field. neighbours –for the firsttime ever.The administration reform at thehighest levels. Afterfield-testingvarious combinations historic exercise would potentially bring Targetingthree remote regions in of tethered single receivers,Bluetooth- harmonytoaregion whereland rights Colombia, the initiativehas successfully enabled receivers,tablets andsmartphones, between the Indigenous and neighbouring demonstrated that complex, deep-seeded the team choseacompact, Bluetooth- farmers have been in disputefor decades. land-rights issues can be peacefully enabled GNSS receiver from Trimble that “Manypeople have settledhereover resolved with simple yettechnically can deliver centimetre-positioning accuracy theyears andthey’ve continued to alter advanced solutions.And,ithas helped in real time to anymobile device. the limits of our reserve,” says Hernando cultivatestability, dignityand pride for “This projectdepends on thedirect Sanchez, aSikuani leader who’s also hundreds of people who have longed to involvement of the landowners themselves lived on the reserve his whole life. be officially recognised as landowners. so if the technology isn’tsimple it can’t be “Wewerebornand raised here. We participatory,”saysMathilde Molendijk,regional know what land is ours,but being Simplicity rules manager forLatin Americafor Kadaster able to provethe boundaries of Land reform hasbeenacoreissue of conflicts International,the international armofthe our land has been difficult.” in Colombia fordecades.Armed conflictsand Netherlands’official Cadastre, Land Registry

36 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine MOBILE GIS

Argenis Valencia in her kitchen in Vista Hermosa

Junior Efrain Cabrales leans on one of his cacao trees in Apartadó 17-year-old waitress Ingrid Villamil became agrassroots surveyor Landowner Lisandro in one day. In less than Antonio Ramirez three hours,she was measures his taught howtorecord property boundaries and map the fielddata with the Trimble R2 with smartphones GNSS receiver

It’s estimated that 60% of Colombia’s Farmer José Landowner rural land parcels JairoCapera Andrea Bohórquez aren’t titled or have takes arest and agrassroot legal registration in front of surveyorrecordher his house in property boundary Apartadó measurements in and MappingAgency. “The Vista Hermosa villagers.After hearing howaparcel map smartphone screen and verify the parcel geographyisverychallenging, could benefit them, several“grassroot polygon, its features andits calculatedarea. so it has to be mobile and light to surveyors”wereeager to participate. The Theirpartner then photographed them and carry.And reliabilityiskey because we’re team showedthe villagers theexisting parcel their ID cards and recorded their fingerprints, working in really remote locations.Weneeda map and afterconsulting the imagery, they names and dates of birth, along with photos single GNSS plug-and-playsystem that gives planned their mapping strategy.The farmers of their parcels.Iftheyhad documents that us precise measurements no matter wherewe learned howtouse the GNSS receivers and proved ownership or long-termconnection are. We can’t affordtohave equipmentfailures.” young adults were taught howtorecordand to the land,those documents were also map the field data with smartphones –a photographed and stored in the app. Mapping with purpose process that took less than three hours. On average,ittook the team four days LiP initially chose twopilot regions to target: Six teamsoffarmers andyouths set out to measureand map the villages.And four villages in San Jose de Apartadó in to captureeachfarmer’s property limits. allofthe field data was reviewedbya the northwest and twovillages in Vista Carrying the R2 GNSS receiver,theywalked professional surveyorfor qualitycontrol. Hermosa, acityinthe central district along the boundaries of their land,set “The field work is incredibly fast,”says of Meta.Both areas have been severely thereceiver on thepoints and collected Molendijk.“Not needing to set up and impactedbythe armed conflict. decimetre-accurate positions in real time by monitor abase station allows us to simply They consulted with each village’s local connecting to the Trimble FieldPoint RTX turnthe GNSS receiver on, connecttothe CommunityAction Boardtoidentify and map correction service.Using acustomised FFP RTXsatellitesignal and get it to work.For 250 unregistered parcels totalling 574ha in data collection model,the GIS app integrated the villagers,the receiver is abit of magic. Apartadó and 170 parcels totalling 2,100ha in and recorded both the metadatafor each It’s beautiful to watch their faces light up Vista Hermosa. Afterdetermining their area GNSS point and its location coordinates, as theysee themap of their land.Key for of interests,the team acquired anyexisting enabling it to drawthe parcel boundaries in the government is that the 10cm to 30cm parcel boundaries from ANT’s geoportal and real time.Farmers could also captureother positioning accuracies we getare well within overlaid them on an Esriimagerybasemap, identifying information, such as roadsor IGAC’sprecision requirements forthe project.” amulti-satelliteimagerymosaic map of streams,toprovide contextfor the parcel’s All the field data was uploaded into the world. Thesatellite-image-based parcel definition. As each farmer withadjoining aPostgres database.Theyprocessed the map was both printed and uploaded to parcels did the same,the app built the data and finalised the parcel maps using aGIS app installed on smartphones. boundarylines to createblack-lined polygons. SQL functions combined with open source In February2018, the projectteam was QGIS software, and by the nextday,the in the field.Ineach village,the team began Proofpositive team was readytosharethe results. by explaining the project’spurpose andits Once farmers mapped their property’s Foreach village,communities were technological methodology to the affected boundaries,theycould viewthem on the invitedtocome together in apublic forum

www.geoconnexion.com 37 MOBILE GIS

Land in Peace team members assist alandowner in measuring his land limits using the Trimble R2 GNSS receiver

Rural Vista Hermosa. This region was heavily affectedbythe armed conflict; guerrillas leftalarge number of landmines in the area, putting the rural population at high risk

Land in Peace team Landowner Andrea member Laura Becerra Bohórquez captures captures the photo precise measurements IDs of twolandowners of her property in in Vista Hermosa. The Vista Hermosa with photos,along with parcel the Trimble R2 GNSS maps,digital signatures, receiver fingerprints and supporting documentation were provided to ANT forland registering and titling

Edita del Socorro prepares ameal in her kitchen. She farms cacao with her husband Junior Efrain Cabrales in Apartadó to viewthe resultsofthe field rural land of Cumaribo in eastern Colombia, boundaries,drawing their landlimits in surveys.Visualising the maps on aregionwith some of the longest- real time as theymoved.Photos of the alarge screen, theteam movedfromparcel runningland disputes in the country. leaders and farmers,along with anyland- to parcel,asking each landowner and his rights documentation, were also taken; in or her neighbours to examine their plots. Feeling seen one day, all the mapping was complete. If each person neighbouring the particular Covering an area 1.5 times the sizeof Thenextday,for the first time in parcel agreed to the measurements,the the Netherlands,Cumaribo is home history, about 30 people gathered to view black borders changed to green. Each to 34 indigenous reserves scattered their land limits together.Anxiety was landowner then signed adigital document across 3.3 million hectares.Tensions high as therewas deepdistrust between agreeing to the property limits.All of the around the 200,000ha border region of the twosides.But because theyhad parcel maps,digital signatures,fingerprints Santa Teresita Indigenous Reservehave mapped theirland themselves,itenabled and supporting documentation were then been of particular interest forIGAC. them to takeownership of the process provided to ANTinageo-database forthe Populated by 86 communities,most and their measurements.Thatcreated an formalisation process of registering and titling. of the reserve’sborders aredefined by environment of trust rather than animosity. “Watching the boundarylines change rivers andcreeks. But thereisone particular And by the end of that day, the from black to green is special,not only because stretch of about 20kmwherenonatural LiP team hadprovided irrefutable it means thereisnolongerany uncertainty boundaries exist, leaving land limits up claritytodecadesofuncertainty. around land limits, but because it means forinterpretation. That ambiguityhas “We’ve shown the government that land landowners can finally receiveatitle and be createdfierce tensions among theSikuani rights can be confirmed through efficient, recognised by the government as the legal leaders and neighbouring cattle farmers. affordable,accuratemapping and direct owner of their property,” says Molendijk. In August 2019, Kadasterand IGACteam participation,”saysMolendijk.“What’s even more In Apartadó,133 villagers arereceiving members followedthe same process,first meaningful is seeing thepride on the people’s an official land title from ANT. And in Vista bringing together people from both sides of faces.For the first time,theyfeelseen by their Hermosa, the data for160 rural parcels has the‘fence’toacquireconsensus and buy-in to government. And the skills the youth have been collectedand ANTispreparing thetitles. each map of their boundaries.Intotal,eight learned could give themaccess to opportunities Thesuccess of the twopilots elevated 1,000ha parcels needed to be measured. theyotherwise wouldn’t have.That’s what the profile of LiPtothe highest levels of Armed with the GNSS receivers and makes this work incredibly rewarding.” theColombian government. Buoyedby smartphones,each surveyteamnavigated the interest and support,the projectteam by car, motorcycle or foot and used RTX Mary Jo Wagner is afreelance expanded their focus to the indigenous to captureprecise position points of their writer ([email protected])

38 November/December2020|GeoConnexion International Magazine GeoConnexion New Website

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+100 Countries Readership www.geoconnexion.com November/December 2020 Contents VOLUME 18 // ISSUE 6 LOCAL GOVERNMENT GEO:INNOVATION 44. A data and mapping 53. DIY GIS analysis of Local Plans Seppe Cassettari argues that while a bad craftsman will always blame his tools, Connected Places Catapult has been it’s having the nous to use them correctly looking at how best to visualise central that is fundamental to success, not least government data and, in particular, data in GIS relating to Local Plans in England. Nelio Matos and Sebastien Herman summarise the results

AGRICULTURE GUEST COMMENT 47. Agame-changer in soil 54: No place like home mapping Stuart Bonthrone suggests how a Nick Rainsley explains how TerraMap geospatial data-driven approach can is revolutionising the way in which soil revolutionise the way we tackle the nutrient mapping is currently undertaken nation’s housing crisis in the UK – and setting a new standard for accuracy in precision agriculture

MACHINE LEARNING SURVEYING 50. Look, learn and inwardly 56: Pole position digest! With claimed new levels of reliability and productivity, Trimble’s R12i GNSS receiver Ordnance Survey is attempting to is aimed squarely at surveyors looking harness the power of Machine Learning to up their game. With this in mind, by teaching networks to understand GeoConnexion spoke to James Richards aerial imagery across Great Britain. David at Benchmark Surveys to find out how it Jones reports on progress measured-up in field testing

Departments & listing

41. News Extra Events listing can now be found on 58. Observations www.geoconnexion.com 60. AGI News Algorithms rule, OK? Peter Fitzgibbon, Editor Research conducted by the Connected Places mandated to produce stripped back versions Where t = 0 is current year and t = -10 is 10 Catapult and summarised by Nelio Matos and within 30 months as opposed to the current years back. Sebastien Herman on page 44 casts grave doubt average of seven years. They should include ‘an Clear enough? on central government’s ambition to deliver on interactive web-based map of the administrative Needless to say, the White Paper – now open its target of 300,000 new homes a year by 2025. area where data and policies are easily to consultation - has drawn fire from the likes of Stuart Bonthrone of Esri UK has his own take on searchable, with colour-coded maps reflecting the Theresa May who has branded it “ill-conceived the subject on page 53 zoning, key and accompanying text setting out and mechanistic,” and which “does not guarantee Boris Johnson agrees that reform is needed: suitable development uses, as well as limitations a single extra home being built.” With ‘mutant’ “What we have now simply does not work. So on height and/or density as relevant’ algorithms fresh in our memory from this year’s let’s do better. Let’s make the system work for In its top-down, digital-first approach, the all of us. And let’s take big, bold steps so that we White Paper proposes a new formula - an A Level fiasco, and with growing disquiet over the in this country can finally build the homes we algorithm, no less – that will decide where and use of other algorithms – from visa streaming all need and the future we all want to see.” His how much housing will be built. The Ministry of to Covid-19 Track and Trace to facial recognition Forward to the Government’s recently-published Housing, Communities and Local Government software - how much faith would you have in this White Paper on tackling the housing crisis in has helpfully summarised it in the following latest proposal? England sets the tone for an ambitious end-to- expression: 1. ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper. August 2020. 1 end shake-up of the municipal planning system. Adjustment Factor = [( Local affordability factor (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ Local Plans come under particular scrutiny, t = 0 – 4 4) x 0.25) + (Local affordability ratio t = 0 – uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/907647/ with the proposal that local authorities be Local affordability ratio t = 10) x 0.25] +1 MHCLG-Planning-Consultation.pdf)

NEWS EXTRA

thinkWhere Supports GIS Innovation at Scotland’s Rural College thinkWhere has delivered a field-to-desk GIS solution for Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). Working with SRUC’s commercial division, SAC Consulting (SACC), thinkWhere implemented its location data portal, groundMapper, to provide SACC staff with the ability to produce high quality, consistent map outputs which underpin innovative client solutions. groundMapper also provides access to centralised geospatial data including Ordnance Survey mapping, aerial photography and SACC business datasets. The newly implemented groundMapper system enables the production of European Association of Aerial standardised maps from predefined templates giving a consistency of mapping output across the organisation. Maps produced using Surveying Industries Gather groundMapper are used in the submission of Government and Virtually for First AGM other statutory applications including Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS), Croft Registration and Ecological Focus Areas On 02 September 2020, the European Association of Aerial Surveying (EFAs), for example. In addition to groundMapper thinkWhere has Industries, held the First Annual General meeting. After a salutation from the introduced the leading open-source desktop mapping software QGIS, President, Simon Musaeus, he presented the new Secretary General Marcos to address the needs of advanced users. www.thinkwhere.com Martinez Fernandez to Members and Observers. The keynote was given by Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director of EuroGeographics, who gave an overview of the European and Global geospatial data policy under the title “International Geospatial Policy Developments and EuroGeographics’ strategic response.” At the core of the AGM stood the election of the new Board of Directors for the period 2020 – 2021. As per the association statutes, Simon Musäus (Hexagon), André Jadot (Eurosense), and Rachel Tidmarsh (Bluesky) will continue on the Board as President, Vice President, and Treasurer respectively for a further 12 months. The new Board of Directors will meet for the first Board meeting of the period in October 2020 to agree on the final distribution of responsibilities among all Directors. www.eaasi.eu Move to Virtual Environment Ensures EDINA Digimap Meets Demand for its Map Delivery Service Digimap, the online map and data delivery service EDINA chose to upgrade to the latest version of provided by EDINA, based at the University of GeognoSIS. Digimap specialises in the delivery of Edinburgh, has upgraded its geospatial web a number of geographical data collections over services engine to Cadcorp GeognoSIS 9. It is the internet. It serves nearly 150 UK higher and now operating in a virtualised environment further education institutions with networked that improves both scalability and redundancy. access to a library of mapping data. EDINA also Digimap has been powered by Cadcorp GeognoSIS runs Digimap for Schools, an online mapping since 2008. To meet the demand of the ever- service for pupils aged 5 – 16 years old. This is increasing number of map requests and benefit currently used by almost 3,500 British secondary from a significant number of new features, and primary schools. www.cadcorp.com

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 41 NEWS EXTRA

Bluesky Laser Maps Quantock Hills to Reveal Archaeological Past Aerial mapping company Bluesky International is using state of the art, aircraft mounted lasers to create a 3D model of the Quantock Hills in Somerset. As England’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty the Quantock Hills has a distinctive character with exceptional beauty and cultural heritage. Commissioned by the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, the high precision terrain mapping project will improve the understanding how people have lived and worked in the area for thousands of years. A 5 year £2.6 million programme the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme (QLPS) was created to conserve and celebrate the landscape of the area. Significantly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund it is led by the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which is in turn hosted by Somerset County Council. www.bluesky-world.com

MGISS Scores Accreditation Hat-trick for Cloud Software and Workplace Wellbeing Mobile GIS Services (MGISS) has been awarded a place on the UK Government’s procurement platform G-Cloud. Designed to ease the 1Spatial Have Been Named as a Supplier procurement of cloud services by the public sector the G-Cloud 12 framework makes it easier for G-Cloud 12 Digital Marketplace for customers to find, review and contract 1Spatial, a global provider of Location Master Data Management (LMDM) software and MGISS’s advanced geospatial software services solutions have been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) G-Cloud 12 Digital through the online Digital Marketplace. In Marketplace Framework. CCS supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value a parallel achievement MGISS has also been when procuring common goods and services. In 2019/20, CCS helped the public sector to achieve accredited as a supplier of software, hardware commercial benefits worth over £1bn – supporting world-class public services that offer best and support services to the utility sector by the value for taxpayers. G-Cloud 12 is an agreement between government and suppliers of cloud- supplier assurance company Achilles. MGISS has based services, designed to make it faster and easier for organisations to procure the cloud also attained the Workplace Wellbeing Charter. services they need at the best value. 1Spatial’s cloud software and support services are designed Recognising a commitment to improving the to make it simpler and cost effective for organisations to transform, integrate, validate, improve lives of its team members, MGISS received and visualise their geospatial data. 1Spatial’s G-Cloud 12 services make it easier to put location accreditation across a number of facets including or geospatial data to work, in user-centric apps. www.1spatial.com Leadership, Health and Safety, Mental Health and Absence Management. www.mgiss.co.uk British Sugar adopts Rezatec’s Technology Company Yotta Innovative Satellite Analytics to Announces Major Growth Connected asset management software and services provider Optimise the Supply of Sugar Beet Yotta has achieved significant business growth over the past few months, securing 16 new contract wins and increasing British Sugar, the UK’s sole processor of the beet sugar crop, is working with their overall headcount by 10 percent. The projects have been satellite analytics company, Rezatec, to help achieve greater efficiencies in secured across a range of service areas, including highways, their supply chain and processing factories who are providing field-level crop street lighting and waste, featuring customers across the South classification of sugar beet and other crops. British Sugar set out to achieve West, Midlands and Yorkshire. Eleven projects also went live better visibility across catchment areas where farmers are currently planting during the lockdown period as Yotta and its customers were able sugar beet and the acreage that is achieved, as well as visualising which fields to adapt and deliver the new solution and training remotely. are closest to each respective factory using a distance-travelled metric. Following Three of the street works focused projects were working to a the initial work, to meet British Sugar’s requirements, Rezatec is deploying its hard 1st July deadline, as a result of being required to work with Supply Optimisation product, part of the Harvest SAT solution. Using both optical the Department of Transport’s newly launched Street Manager and radar satellite imagery, and applying its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) digital data system. All three customers went live ahead of the approach for crop classification, Rezatec can identify sugar beet and other arable deadline and receiving benefits from Yotta’s SaaS services being crops within catchment areas and measure the acreage organised into five-mile directly linked to the Street Manager API. www.weareyotta.com radial bands from four factory locations around the UK. www.rezatec.com

42 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

A data and mapping analysis of Local Plans Connected Places Catapult has been looking at how best to visualise central government data and, in particular, data relating to Local Plans in England. This looked into the likelihood of people knowing that the data existed and, even if they did, how comprehensible it might be. Nelio Matos and Sebastien Herman summarise the results

Over the past year, the digital planning team & Local Government, i.e. Interestingly, this data manipulation exercise at the Connected Places Catapult utilised the 1. Adoption time of the Local Plan: how long also immediately highlighted further key insights gained from its initial investigation did it take to adopt this Local Plan? (Fig.2) insights: to develop a prototype for an interactive 2. Plan period for adopted Local Plan: how • The number of adopted Local Plans in online map (Fig.1) that would make the long will the adopted Local Plan last for? England is high. As of May 2020, 91% information more accessible. The subsequent (Fig.3) of the local authorities (including cross- positive response led to further development 3. Housing targets per Local Plan: how many boundaries joint authorities) have adopted that visualises a range of Local Plan data homes are planned to be delivered per Local Local Plans. Which is to say that whilst from the Ministry of Housing, Communities Plan? (Fig.4) 306 of the 336 local authorities have

44 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com LOCAL GOVERNMENT

LOCAL PLANS

A Local Plan sets out all local planning policies and decisions for authorities. It identifies how land is used, decides what will be built where, and is used to determine all local planning decisions. Every Local Planning authority is required to update its Local Plan every five years. Local Plans are a rich source of information, but the data used to produce that information isn’t easily Fig.1: Prototype online map developed from the initial investigation was designed to make information more accessible. extracted. For example, a Local Plan might show a map of where housing will be built, but the data that made the map (such as addresses and coordinates) is not available. Local Plans are published in a wide range of formats and aren’t always consistent in what types of information they include, or how they define or represent that information. This makes it difficult to collect, use and compare data across Local Plans and difficult for machines to read the data.

since its ‘adoption’. For example, housing targets frequently change dramatically, as can environmental policies, and so on, and all too often the pace of those changes can outstrip a Local Plan’s ability to document them. Which brings us to: • The time it takes to produce a Local Plan is too long. In some outlier cases, a plan can take as long as five years to be adopted, though data suggest that most of them (82%) take between one to two years. While at first glance this might not seem too long, these figures only capture the time from publication to adoption. Earlier stages such as the launch of the plan, public consultation on issues and options (regulation 18) and public consultation on publication plan period (regulation 19) are not counted in the adoption timeline, which in practical terms means that adoption times for these policy documents Fig.2: Prototype online map developed from the initial investigation was designed to make information more accessible. are much longer than the data might first suggest. During this time, huge political, already adopted a Local Plan, the rest are allowed and are as such one of the most economic, and technological shifts can either making their plan or in the process important policy documents there are occur –just think of all the changes over of adopting it (Fig.5). While this is in itself about a place –it should be noted that the last five months alone! All of which a positive indicator – Local Plans define even an adopted plan may still need regular means that shifting planning priorities where and what kind of developments are updating to reflect changes in priorities renders any targets out of date before plans

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 45 LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Fig.3: The map represents the plan period, the difference between the start date and the Fig.4: The map represents the number of planned homes in England for each Local end date, of the Local Plans. Symbols are proportionally scaled and graduated from the Planning authority according to their Local Plan stage. The quantum of homes is smallest to largest according to the plan period of the Local Plans. In this interactive map, symbolised by the size of the graduated circle symbols. The stage of the plan (emerging, hovering over a circle will display more about the Local Plans. published, submitted, found sound and adopted) is symbolised by the value (colour) of the graduated circle symbols. are even adopted. All of which means: To resolve these issues, we need more • Our Local Plans are painfully behind the “live” information around planning and curve. The data shows that around a third housing delivery to have a clear picture of Local Plans cover planned developments of the ‘true’ state of our nation. Without for 20 years. But given the accelerating continuous, streamlined, decentralised and pace of change in the world around, how simultaneous data gathering and analysis realistic is it to think that we even have around things like population growth, the information to accurately plan our housing need, land supply, housing targets places for the next five years, let alone 20. and housing delivered, we can merely Of those 306 Local Planning authorities speculate as to the true state of our with adopted plans, only 17 (5%) of them industry – and the opportunities that we have plans started less than five years might be missing. ago and nearly a third of them started in Connected Places Catapult is using 2011– nearly a decade ago! Can it really its market-neutral position and domain make sense that how we plan today’s and expertise in digital planning to help tomorrow’s places is based on information accelerate the transition to a more and policies created 10-20 years ago? This designed, digital and data-led planning perhaps explains why: system. How can we reinvent the Local • There is a deficit in the amount of planned Plan? How can we install a system homes. Based on adopted plans covering with more “live” data streams? We are the years from 1993 to 2037, the total already prototyping housing monitoring Fig.5: The prototype system gives access to MHCLG data number of new homes to be built across systems with Govtech1 and have for England’s local authorities that have adopted or are in that 44-year period is 4,108,696 – an just unveiled our Plantech Challenge the process of adopting or making their Local Plan average of 93,379 new homes per year. Programme2 which brings Local Planning However, we also know that central authorities together to combine funds to The interactive version of the mapping illustrated in government wants to increase annual build the digital planning tools we need. this article can be accessed at https://sites.google. construction to 300,000 homes a year by So please let us know what further data com/view/localplans/local-plans-maps 2025 – the disparity between those figures could be added to the maps and data, what Footnotes is punishingly stark, and throws into doubt other features of the planning system you that likelihood of central government’s would like to see changed, and what other 1. https://cp.catapult.org.uk/events/plantech- target ever being delivered – how could it data should be publicly available. Join the housing-monitoring-show-tell/ be if the Local Plans are so far out of line conversation by contacting us by email 2. https://cp.catapult.org.uk/opportunities/ with it? Our initial research highlights at mailto:[email protected], the-plantech-challenge-framework/ that there simply aren’t enough homes on Slack at http://plan-tech.slack.com/, allocated in our Local Plans to meet on Twitter at @nelio_matos, or on ‘at Nelio Matos is Senior Urban Technologist national housing targets or, vice versa, that #plantech at https://www.linkedin.com/ and Sebastien Herman, Junior Urbanist, the government’s targets haven’t taken search/results/all/?keywords=%23plantech both with the Connected Places Catapult into account Local Plans across the country. &origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER. in London (https://cp.catapult.org.uk/)

46 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com AGRICULTURE A game-changer in soil mapping Nick Rainsley explains how TerraMap is revolutionising the way in which soil nutrient mapping is currently undertaken in the UK – and setting a new standard for accuracy in precision agriculture

Today’s precision farming demands ever- matter and CEC, as well as elevation and based on a scaled-down version of airborne greater accuracy, not least in measuring and plant-available water. sensors originally employed in mineral mapping soil properties, but UK growers “With a growing level of interest in soils, prospecting, and since used successfully in have lacked access to a high definition soil the availability of TerraMap comes at the other countries. scanning system – until now. perfect time for farmers looking for that “We had been looking for a new method Launched last year, TerraMap from next level of accuracy in understanding their of mapping soils that delivers more accurate Hutchinsons, one of Britain’s leading crop soils,” says Oliver Wood, Precision Technology and repeatable results, and which can also production specialists, uses gamma-ray Manager at Hutchinsons leverage the multi-layer analysis functions detection technology to deliver resolutions within Omnia, our precision agronomy of over 800 reference points/ha. The result: Scanning technology service offering,” explains Wood. high-definition mapping of all common Manufactured by Canadian company TerraMap is now available from nutrient properties, pH, soil texture, organic SoilOptix, TerraMap’s scanning technology is Hutchinsons in a standard or premium

Oliver Wood

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 47 AGRICULTURE

GIVING IT A GO

In taking readings of gamma rays emitted by the soil, SoilOptix® provides a complex picture of its condition. Physical soil samples are integrated into those readings and proprietary software translates this captured Having heard of the consistent information into high definition digital maps. The resulting data is VRA-ready to maximise seeding and input and reliable results achieved with performance. Image: SoilOptix TerraMap, Andrew Crossley, Estates Manager for Thurlow Estates in East service offer. The standard service measures variable rate plans. Anglia, decided to trial the service. “We nine criteria: P, K, Mg, pH and % of clay, sand, had used another scanning service silt, texture and elevation. The premium Infield data collection back in 2012 and it threw up some service additionally measures calcium, The infield process of collecting the data questionable results, which we put manganese, boron, copper, molybdenum, is carried out in two very simple steps: down to interference to the scanning iron, zinc, sulphur, OM, CEC and plant- scanning, by driving a light weight all-terrain from the chalky soils and changes in soil available water, delivering 21 layers of data vehicle fitted with the sensor over a field, and structure, but nothing was conclusive. for each field. then taking soil samples to allow for each “When introduced to the TerraMap Woods adds that the results from scan to be used to create the individual map system, we felt that it would work well TerraMap are used to create maps within the layers. The entirely passive sensor measures with our soil types, so it was worth Omnia system which can then be overlaid naturally-emitted isotopes, such as Caesium giving it a go. The results have been with additional field information such as and Potassium, that are very stable due to impressive and are more accurate than black-grass, yields and so on, to create the their long half-lives. previous results.” most accurate, consistent and detailed Significantly, this methodology is not

The sensor (left) gathers samples and readings of soil properties (centre) to generate high definition digital maps (examples on right)

48 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com AGRICULTURE affected by soil moisture, compaction, crop cover or cultivation state. “It means that there are very few limitations as to when TerraMap can be used – offering a much wider operating window compared to other soil scanning systems,” says Wood. He goes on to add that the consistency and reliability of the results has been well-proven. “We have taken satellite imagery of fields that showed up areas of soil differences quite clearly, and when we overlaid this with the texture maps created by TerraMap they were identical. This has been confirmed by in-field ground truthing across a number of sites. We have also tested the results between seasons and over different cultivations, and they have remained consistent.”

Answering crop production challenges Earlier this spring, images taken from a drone flown over a field in Alnwick, Northumberland, and where Hutchinsons Using an iPad for TerraMap data collection conducts regional trials, clearly identified an area that was a lighter green than the rest lighter crop, which correlated with the drone TerraMap provided us with a plant available of the field – indicating an area of poorer, images. Over this we added in the sand layer water map, and the results of this directly thinner crop. measurements from the TerraMap scanning, correlated with the soil texture maps, NDVI The company’s digital farming manager, as well as silt and clay maps.” maps and drone images. There was more Lewis McKerrow, explains how he used The results, he says, were fascinating: plant available water in the higher clay TerraMap to investigate what could be “They completely correlated with the NDVI percentage areas of the field, but where sand causing this particular area of poorer biomass map! in the poorer performing areas and silt were predominant, there was lower performing crop. of the field, there were higher levels of sand plant available water. So we were able to “We ran the scanner over the field – and silt and lower amounts of clay in the soil, confirm that the poorer performing areas of already mapped in Omnia - and, in one pass, and vice versa in the greener more productive the field had less plant available water.” had all the information we needed on the part of the field. “ soils - all 21 layers! We then added into Omnia McKerrow knew that soils with a high Next step a satellite biomass (NDVI) map taken on the sand and silt content and low clay content “For this exercise we just looked at the 8 May– there were clear areas of darker and tend to be drier –but could it be proved that textural aspects of the soils and what lighter green, indicating areas of thicker and this was actually affecting crop growth? “Yes! effects these might be the having on crop production,” says McKerrow. But he is keen to take this a step further and investigate the nutritional aspects of the field in more detail. He points out how this approach underlines the importance of being able to use the data that precision technology delivers to improve productivity and, ultimately, profitability. “By identifying why certain areas in fields aren’t performing as well as others, growers and agronomists can make informed decisions about how to manage them going forward.” For the exercise described here, McKerrow suggests two options for improving productivity: “Evening-up the plant populations across the field by using variable rate drilling to increase the seed rate on the poorer area. Or alternatively, accept the variation and change the way the crop is managed, e.g. by redistributing nitrogen – using less on the poorer area and more on the better performing parts of the field.”

The addition of TerraMap to the Omnia Precision Agronomy system reflects Hutchinson’s Nick Rainsley is Head of Marketing at continued investment in its precision farming offering. Since its launch in 2016, Omnia has Hutchinsons (https://www.hlhltd.co.uk/), developed drone imagery mapping, the Connect app for iPad, cost of production and yield one of Britain’s leading national agricultur- mapping, and a brand-new Climate module offering. Omnia now has over 1000 registered al and horticultural input advice and supply users in the UK. To find out more about TerraMap contact the Omnia Services Centre on companies. Headquartered in Wisbech, 01526 831000 or visit https://www.omniaprecision.co.uk/our-services/terra-map/ Cambridgeshire, the business employs more than 440 staff nationwide.

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 49 MACHINELEARNING Look,learn and inwardly digest! OrdnanceSurvey is attempting to harness the power of Machine Learning by teaching networks to understand aerial imagery across Great Britain. David Jones reports on progress

Aerial imagery has been an essential tool for But what if machines could be trained to keeping the national mapping database of identify features from aerial images in the Great Britain up-to-date for years. same way? Every day, production teams cast an If it is possible for a computer to replicate expert eye over data captured in these human understanding of the different pictures, interpreting it for contrasting nuances from images it sees, how much reasons across the country. bigger, quicker and more useful would The number of floors in a block of geospatial data services become? flats, the width of a river, the material of a factory roof which reveals its age - all these Machine learning network characteristics can be ascertained, thanks to Ordnance Survey (OS) wants to know. the human eye and human knowledge. Research scientists Izzy Sargent and Steve This intelligence is then applied to Coupland are working on a project to create a OS research scientists Izzy Sargent and help the likes of emergency services, local machine learning network run on OS’s entire Steve Coupland government, and businesses in real-time. national data set. Key to its success is being able to done well, it has identified all create metrics for machine learning that those components, all those ensures machines can identify features in real objects in the world “generalised terms”. A system that can train with all their characteristics, machines to operate over a multitude of which are meaningful to all different geographies rather than just cities customers who are going to or rural areas. come to us with questions. Izzy said: “We are trying to create this network that reinterprets the landscape in a meaningful way across the board. “It generalises it, so instead of just having an image that we then look at and interpret, the network has been trained to interpret that for us and hopefully, when

50 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com MACHINELEARNING

Three-waycollaboration betweenthe National Physical Laboratory, theScience Technology Facilities Counciland Ordnance Survey is making theresearch possible

Ordnance Survey has harnessed the power of the powerful Scafell Pike supercomputer at STFC’s Hartree Centre (pictured) to test and develop the machine learning techniques described in this article. Image: STFC

“By pre-processing all the data, it should programming the metrics and standards the that would be water, if it was a railway it be much faster for us to put together the machine network needs to meet to become would be rail, ifitwasaroad,itwould be a right information for a customer answer. viable, while The Science and Technology man-made surface, and so on. “There might be one customer who Facilities Council (STFC) is providing its super “Every single building, every single works in insurance and wants to know the computer to give the necessary power for the railway, split into 56 by 56 metres. And risks around the natural environment, and epic task to be computed. then extracted from our data, which is a then contrast that with the Government Steve said: “Luckily NPL happened to be monumental task.” wanting to understand the energy efficiency working towards creating a best practice An advantage OS holds is the existing of the buildings within its housing stock for machine learning. They were developing quality of its detailed OS data sets, such and the different characteristics of their baseline for how you should perform as aerial imagery, height data and OS the buildings involved. machine learning, but they didn’t have the MasterMap. Combining all these together “We are teaching it not by data to check. Whereas we have all the makes it possible to create labels for showing it, but by saying go data that needs checking, but don’t have machines to understand. and find and tell us what you a best practice for machine learning yet. Steve said: “For example we’ve used find and give a name to it. So together we are going to be a powerful a technique for height data, where by “Training neuro networks combination. subtracting our (digital) terrain model away in this way directly doesn’t “OS is supplying the data and the from our (digital) surface model data, we’ve answer customers’ questions, structure of the machine learning network. been left with base heights for everything but it tries to process the data “STFC is taking the data and applying it in the country. We can tell if something is a in such a way that it makes by using its supercomputer to create the new building, a tree, if its ground, and then we it much faster to answer their model, which is a huge undertaking. can combine that with OS Mastermap and all questions later on.” “NPL is taking all our output data that the attribution that OS Mastermap has. “It’s we have created so far and that we will be become a very powerful labelling system.” Innovate UK creating with the new network, and it will The project was triggered by Innovate UK, be testing the quality and which metrics we Complications the UK Government’s innovation agency. need to concentrate on for our specific goals. The scale of the challenge is massive. OS has OS won a bid for its Analysts for There are various things they can test and 1.1 million aerial images from its original topo Innovators (A4I) competition, which meant they want to show us which ones would be model and will use STFC’s supercomputer to OS benefitted by teaming up with two the things to concentrate on to work for our scale this up to around 80 million images. significant partners. purpose, which for us is generalisation.” Then it will be acase of comparing the two to The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is OS has split the country into 56 x 56 see if the new networks can identify them. metre grids to make it work. Instead of Steve explained it was important each just overlaying squares on Britain’s digital image class was balanced to prevent bias map, every small grid is centred upon a skewing results. key feature. Features are divided into He said: “We have to pick and choose six categories and whatever is in the which images make it through to being middle of an image determines what representative of that class. To avoid bias we category it is. need to make sure we have equal numbers Steve said: “If a building is in the of urban areas,rural areas, natural zones and middle, it would be the built environment, coastal. We need to make sure we don’t have if a lake was in the middle or the sea then just houses representing buildings.

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 51 MACHINELEARNING

It has to be houses, schools, industrial areas, all these sorts of things. It’s so if you are showing anetwork ahuge building it doesn’t go ‘I’ve not seen abuilding that big before Iamgoing to assume it’s aroad’.” He added: “We also need to make sure we avoid bias in geography. If you only show the machine England it might not correctly identify the same features in Scotland or Wales due to the diverse architecture and landscapes.” Another setback to overcome has been the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. While there have been unexpected benefits (the fact all three organisations were forced to work from home and hold monthly meetings remotely helped establish effective behaviours and working patterns), the downside has been the inconvenience of transferring physical hard drives and devices Aerial imagerycapturedbyOrdnance Survey is combined with its OS MasterMapand height data to create labels that from one place to another easily. Having to machines canunderstand. Photo: Ordnance Survey work with large datasets on home networks or requiring IT help to turn machines on and Global ambitions other international and domestic parts of the off again has also caused frustration. OS has globalambitions for the project. If the business. But the biggest complexity of all is machine learning proves accurate and begins getting machines to recognise data in a identifying the patterns it needs to from the Further options general way. data to the high standards required, the aim “Otheroptions we can look into include using Izzy explained it is not about simply is for this to be replicated and adapted to the network for automated quality control,” feeding the networks different customer help nations and governments elsewhere in he added. questions one after another and getting the world. “So atool for checking OS Mastermap them to act as agopher to find the answer. Steve said: “There’s quite afew things imagery and how it is up to date, how they She said: “Because we are not trying to this will benefit. We have an international blend together. directly answer acustomer question, it is very presence that is going to be using alot more “There are alot of possibilities we need hard to say how well our network has been machine learning. We can use this network to explore.” trained in terms of customer questions. as abaselinefor quality and, also, we can Ultimately, the aim is for machine “You can’t just do asimpleaccuracy run ashallow train to repurpose the network learning to develop into auseful tool assessment. that we create to work in other conditions that makes life easier for employees and “There are lots of different ways of and other countries. customers. training networks but how on earth do you “There is alot of work around inference It is achange of technology to make compare the outcome of each when you and discovery, relating to how the machine things faster and better. New skills and don’t know ultimately how the network will has learnt what features make abuilding retraining will help staff adapt. be used in future? and using that to find other things it uses Izzy said: “It is very unlikely you would “This project is going to come up with to identify features. Through that you can get an AI that was as versatile as a human at metrics that will allow us to compare derive more data from existing data. interpreting data. different networks, so we can use that to “So we hope to identify solar panels or “But what an AI can do is a very large decide whether one network is likely to be where certain housing estates are, things like scale of interpretation, leaving the more better than another one when it comes to that.” interesting bits to the humans to do. ultimately trying to answer many, many The project may create further “That is why we need to think about different customer questions using it.” opportunities for automation across how we are using humans and make sure OS processes. Steve believed that we are giving people the work that OS had developed a way of most suits them. The interesting labelling a mass amount of stuff, the problems around the data through this process edges, the really hard decisions. which was going to be “Done properly, it will improve very handy for all the the quality of people’s jobs.”

David Jones is Media Executive at Ordnance Survey in Southampton, Hampshire (https://www.ordnance- survey.co.uk/)

52 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com GEO:INNOVATION

DIY GIS Seppe Cassettari says that while a bad craftsman will always blame his tools, it’s having the nous to use them correctly that is fundamental to success, not least in GIS

When my daughter moved into a new house maps, rectifying one to the other, did some So, this is a plea for some starter - one she knowingly bought as a “do’er digitising, created a database and generated solutions for those getting into GIS (and up’er” - I knew that much of the decorating some simple maps. yes, I have seen some of the apps like would fall my way. Little had I realised that The knowledge and experience in the GIS Cloud Map Viewer). Software that is one of the previous owners wasn’t much of a group ranged from a parish councillor with simple to use, with limited functionality, decorator, leaving behind all sorts of ghastly no knowledge of GIS through to a retired limited options and quick to get up-and- botched jobs hidden behind copious layers of university don who had self-taught himself running for the geospatial novice. Lots of poorly-applied paint. Just one example was all this and more. The problem for those with health warnings to be included so the user found in the downstairs cloakroom where a little or no knowledge (the majority of the knows when to upgrade or to seek advice dungeon effect had been created by applying group) was two-fold. from someone with more experience. black paint over artexed walls, the toilet Firstly, they really didn’t have the This mirrors my experience when cistern and the light switch. understanding of the background concepts we launched the Cities Revealed digital Now while I’m no master builder, I do to be able to pick up and start to use a aerial imagery in the mid 1990’s. In order pride myself on having some skills. We’ve GIS. We really are talking about GIS 101 – to make it accessible and usable to the hung new doors, laid floors, rebuilt parts what is the difference between raster and widest possible audience it came wrapped of the staircase. But there are limits to my vector data, grids and projections needed in some very simple imaging software. knowledge and experience. I draw the line explaining and so on. Most of them had a Those with the skills and knowledge at plastering, a skill I’ve never mastered. simple working knowledge of maps from could load the imagery into their GIS or The trick is to know when to call in the local studies or rambling, but in general they image processing software, but by far professionals who can do a better, or maybe had little background in the principles of the majority of users simply viewed the just a quicker, job. geospatial data that would allow them to imagery through the free viewer, at least pick up and start using a GIS effectively. to begin with. Having a go Secondly, they were over-awed (if not Most technologies have their own It strikes me that GIS is currently very much frightened off) by the software. At the time language and seem incredibly complex like this. All the tools are out there so anyone I was using version 3.2.3 of QGIS (Bonn). to the layman. By making geospatial data can have a go, but the success of a project When you first open the software you are more widely available we need to increase depends to a large extent on knowledge and confronted by an array of buttons and drop- accessibility, which in the long-run can experience. The more of both that you have down menus. A total of 60 icons and over only enhance and grow the core industry. the more this improves your chances of a 140 options in the 12 dropdown menus (and Some better beginner GIS solutions would successful outcome. I stopped counting at that point). This is a be helpful. DIY has many parallels to GIS. The tools professional tool for professional users. and raw materials (the data) are becoming Dr. Seppe more readily available, but having the Start at the beginning Cassettari is a background knowledge of the principles, Like the high-end tools and gadgets you can GIS professional, some experience in how they should be get in any DIY store these days, using them with more than 25 applied and when it is best to seek help from effectively can prove difficult. User guides years’ experience the professionals are all key. This seems to and on-line forums are helpful, assuming you in developing be increasingly so with much of the software have the time to wade through them, but and applying on offer. tend to assume certain levels of knowledge geospatial When delivering an introductory course and are not easy for beginners to penetrate. technologies in in GIS to a group of Cambridgeshire folk with And as with DIY, it is easy to make the public, private an interest in local history pre-COVID, I ran mistakes and generate poor results. Possibly and educational sectors. He was most through a simple project in QGIS. We started not even realising what you have done is recently CEO of The Geoinformation with set-up, uploaded some imagery and old incorrect. Group (now Verisk’s Geomni UK business)

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 53 GUEST COMMENT

No place like home Stuart Bonthrone suggests how a geospatial data-driven approach can revolutionise the way we tackle the nation’s housing crisis

Technology has come on leaps and bounds Paper recognised the vast potential of since the Town and Country Planning Act geospatial technology to improve the way was first introduced in 1947 – and most planning is done in the UK, noting that people will agree that the planning system local plans should be “visual and map- hasn’t quite kept pace with the technological based, standardised, based on the latest advancements that have followed, being digital technology and supported by a new largely reliant on 20th century technology standard template”. It also states that and legacy software. planning should move from being “a process It’s also no secret that the UK is currently based on documents to a process driven by in the midst of a housing crisis, with an data”. estimated 345,000 new homes needed in Those of us working in GIS know just England per year to address the backlog and how revolutionary geospatial technology fulfil new need. can be when it comes to bringing together disparate data sets and policies. The Good intentions technology allows us to layer up a number Despite good intentions from those in central of variables, and knit them together with and local government, slow progress has the one thing they all have in common – been made on addressing this crisis. Some of their location. the biggest frustrations for those in planning To my mind, there are three key come from trying to navigate disparate areas where geospatial technology can data sets, as well as a range of policies and revolutionise housing developments in the guidance that are laid out across multiple UK. documents, websites, and statements. With Stuart Bonthrone, Managing Director, Esri UK Assessing supporting services: One of so much data stored in multiple formats the big issues faced by local authorities across archaic systems, it’s no wonder that the Government published its ‘Planning For is the scarcity of suitable land for them much of this data currently fails to be utilised The Future’ White Paper – where it outlined to build on. It’s not only about space but to its full extent during the planning process. radical reforms to digitise the system. about the supporting local infrastructure. However, there are glimmers of hope Which utilities serve the area? What’s local that the planning system will get the digital Data-driven approach transport like? Is there any special wildlife revolution it deserves. Over the summer, As part of these reforms, the White needs to be aware of? How high are the air

54 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com GUEST COMMENT

The Government White Paper recognises the potential of geospatial pollution levels? Nearby noise? There are reports that enable rapid evaluation and property consultancy Knight Frank used so many factors to consider, and by using comparison of proposed schemes without 3D visualisations to determine where new location intelligence, you can visualise costly and time-consuming traditional homes could best be built across London not only space – but what the supporting processes. The technology also makes it Boroughs. In the City of Westminster alone, infrastructure is like. possible to determine the optimal layout the analysis uncovered 13.5 million square Rapid evaluation: Effectively meeting and density for development to meet local feet of unused space. housing demand requires rapid evaluation needs cost-effectively. Where this would It’s clear that addressing the UK’s of potential new schemes and projects to have traditionally taken months, location housing crisis means we have to embrace select the options that will maximise the intelligence technology means it can now data to its full potential – and utilise usage of existing land and deliver the most be done in days or even hours. technology throughout the process. appropriate new developments. Maximising space: 3D visualisations Increasing the use of geospatial technology Geospatial technology brings together can help local authorities to look through a will not only help to speed-up the process, geographic and demographic data with different lens when it comes to assessing it will also enable more informed decisions local planning policies and rules to create housing capacity and identifying new to be made – and ultimately lead to better visualisations, analysis and financial areas for development. For instance, developments being built.

Above left: Knight Frank 3D assessment of site utilisation that observes height restrictions. Above right: Knight Frank analysis of under-developed sites in a London Borough

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 55 SURVEYING Pole Position With claimed new levels of reliability and productivity, Trimble’s R12i GNSS receiver is aimed squarely at surveyors looking to up their game. With this in mind, GeoConnexion spoke to James Richards at Benchmark Surveys to find out how it measured-up in field testing

GEO: Benchmark Surveys has been operating out of Exeter as a family-owned business for the past 25 years. Can you give us an idea of the work you handle for customers?

JAMES RICHARDS (JR): While land and utility surveys are the mainstay of the business, building construction, volumetric and boundary surveys are also important. In addition to stakeout, measurement and levelling tasks, we also undertake 3D laser scanning, point cloud processing and drone surveys for a wide range of public and private sector customers across the UK.

GEO: What do you regard as the principal challenge for established businesses such as yours?

JR: Keeping up with the latest technology is, perhaps, our biggest challenge. We pride ourselves on the quality of our work - one reason why we keep all our services in-house and have only gradually expanded our seven- strong workforce. So within this constraint, any technology that helps us to deliver quality results – reliably and consistently - is a major asset. The pandemic has, of course, James Richards created its own challenge, but in contrast to many businesses, we have never been busier! British Isles. And, of course, we now have the R12i GNSS receiver GEO: Presumably, you have been a user of Trimble instruments for some time? GEO: Ithink you were one of the first in the UK to beta test the R12i. How did this come JR: Yes. We started with a Geodimeter back about? in 1995 and now have an inventory that includes the TX6 3D laser scanner. two S7 JR: We do a lot of investigating before and one S3 robotic Total Stations, an R10 purchasing instruments and post a lot of our GNSS receiver and several TSC3 and TSC7 findings on Instagram. Being aware of this, Controllers – all supplied and maintained by Trimble approached us direct and invited to KOREC, Trimble’s leading distributor in the put the R12i through its paces.

56 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com SURVEYING

The R12i lends itself to a variety of survey tasks, excelling in difficult-to-reach areas and/or challenging conditions

GEO: And your initial impression?

JR: Really impressed! As we already had the R10, we saw the R12 as little more than an upgrade, so we had big expectations of the R12i. To be fair, it takes some getting used to, as its tilt compensation function means you don’t have to constantly level the pole when offsetting – something you would do naturally when handling an instrument of this type. But once you’ve mastered this new way of working, and with virtually instant start-up, it gives you a completely different perspective on how to go out and do a survey.

GEO: Did you test the R12i across a range of projects?

JR: Because we undertake such a range of jobs, we were able to test it quite extensively alongside the TSC7 Controller, both as a base rover and with RTK corrections from Trimble’s VRS Now service. The result: a massive improvement in speed of operation. Accuracy, too, was impressive – to within a couple of centimetres using Trimble’s From its base in Exeter, Benchmark Surveys provides survey services across the UK CenterPoint RTX post processing service, and better than the R10 in terms of sub same applies when spot levelling in windy work being possible on a full charge. centimetre-level accuracy when used as a conditions. Using an instrument like the GNSS rover. R10, it can be really difficult to hold the pole GEO: Can you see the R12i opening-up new within the green bubble for any length of lines of work for the business? GEO: The R12i’s IMU-based tilt compensation time. With the R12i, it’s pretty much instant technology is said to be particularly useful because you only have to watch the pole tip, JR: In gathering and equipping us with data in challenging environments. Is this your not the bubble. we never had previously, the R12i certainly experience? gives us a commercial edge. With a ROI GEO: Trimble claims the R12i delivers more firmly in mind, we are already using this data JR: Absolutely. For example, I went out than 30 percent better performance in such to augment our existing project deliverables yesterday to survey a gravel stockpile and it challenging environments compared to the and also actively exploring its wider uses. was brilliant. I didn’t have to scrabble up and R10-2 receiver. Is this your finding? down the pile to capture points but could GEO: And in terms of value-for-money? do this from the top or from a safe location JR: Iwouldn’t disagree with that for the simply by angling the pole to wherever I simple reason that the R12i gathers more JR: In a nutshell, it pays for itself. It’s one of wanted a point. information in significantly less time and those instruments we were all waiting for, It’s also great for doing boundary with much reduced effort, especially in and expectations were high when it was jobs and where ditches with overhanging the type of areas and in the conditions I launched in September of this year. For us, foliage have traditionally made surveying have mentioned. An extended battery life those expectations have been more than both arduous and time-consuming. The contributes to productivity, with a full day’s fulfilled.

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 57 OBSERVATIONS Enabling analysis- ready EO data Terri Freemantle and Tom Jones reflect on the rapid evolution of Analysis Ready Data and its ramifications for satellite-based Earth Observation

how might I discover what’s available and Terri Freemantle incorporate them within my own use case? is an Earth Observation Specialist, and Tom Jones a This is where the SpatioTemporal Asset Senior Earth Observation Specialist, both with the Catalog (STAC) specification3, comes in. If Satellite Applications Catapult, based at Harwell, COGs open the door for efficient access Didcot, Oxfordshire (www.sa.catapult.org.uk) to image datasets, STAC helps users find the door in the first place. It’s a consistent, flexible and open specification within a disparate and convoluted landscape of geospatial metadata formats. If image providers embracing the concept of ARD consider adding a STAC record to each cloud-optimised dataset, that dataset could become queryable directly from any browser or search engine. You can try this out by doing a google search for “planet disaster data hurricane harvey cc-by-sa-4.0 skysat geotiff” (Fig.1). Together, COGs as a cloud optimised data format and STAC as a burgeoning Within the last five years, the term ‘Analysis openly, develop cloud-optimised data metadata format offer a uniquely simple Ready Data’ (ARD) has become commonplace. formats for use as standard across our solution to that age-old geospatial The associated technologies have matured toolsets. Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFF (COG)2, challenge of improving and expanding technically and conceptually both within one such format, has recently been data access. Such simplicity is key within the downstream Earth Observation (EO) formalised as a GDAL driver. COGs can a decentralised ecosystem of geospatial community, as well as – perhaps more be seen in action at cogeo.org/map/. assets. The barrier of entry to non-traditional importantly – in other broader technology COGs offer a very simple requirement geospatial data providers and users is sectors, facilitating greater uptake and for public and private data providers to unequivocally lowered and the coupling application of Earth Observation data expose datasets for maximum use within of both technologies should lead to more sources for a wide range of use cases. the web-economy: host datasets in a user-centric innovation within a sector While translating the concept of cloud-optimised format, leveraging object that will become, to (mis)quote Aristotle, ARD into practice is creating challenges storage, accessible via a web interface. ‘wholly greater than the sum of its parts’. and opportunities for both providers and Do traditional OGC protocols not users of geospatial image assets, a refined address these requirements? The current understanding of the evolution of the answer is yes, and no. COG functionality topic has become critical for organisations enables client applications to efficiently to offer viable value propositions across request portions of an image – rather than both the public, and private sector. download the entire file client-side. OGC web We can consider ARD as comprising services offer the ability to stream imagery three key components: (1) data formatting in browser compatible formats. However, and hosting, (2) queryable metadata, and these formats typically imply RGB JPEG or (3) scientific quality and provenance. PNGs and services often require dedicated The ambition of organisations embracing server-side resources. Not only do COGs the concept of ARD, as per the Committee neatly align with the shift to serverless on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), is to solutions with minimal data duplication, allow “immediate analysis with a minimum frameworks emerge offering truly serverless of additional user effort and interoperability web-apps – https://geotiffjs.github.io/. both through time and with other datasets”1. Queryable Metadata Data Formatting and Hosting One might ask, there may now be millions Fig.1: Adding a STAC record to each cloud-optimised Regarding formatting and hosting, of datasets becoming easily accessible, dataset enables users to query it direct from a we’ve seen our community quickly, and “streamable” even, via http protocols, but browser or search engine

58 November/December 2020 // www.GEOconnexion.com OBSERVATIONS

COGs and STAC are envisioned as enablers for high- profile remote sensing research

images previously disseminated by USGS and at which the larger share of ESA’s early Sentinel-2 datasets continue to be provided. Increasingly users no longer need make per-scene corrections themselves to undertake robust multi-temporal analyses. This shift is further emphasised with Planet’s recent announcement of scientifically robust daily ‘fusion products’6. Traditional private sector players, such as Maxar, Airbus and Telespazio, are involved in the development of COG and STAC to varying degrees. While the most significant drive comes from the now not-so-new space sector in the form of Fig2: More than 700 academic papers have benefitted from access to ARD over the past decade Planet, newer space companies such as CapellaSpace, ICEYE and Satellogic make As COG is one option for addressing there becomes the need to only make use clear assumptions that these technologies our first ARD component, STAC is just one of a platform where they offer an explicit, will evolve into standards they can readily option for the second. As we’re all aware, quantifiable value-add within a particular adopt as constellations become operational. options for adopting a geospatial metadata use case, whether commercial or non- Whether this will take the form of closer format are numerous and often inflexible. profit, and shifting between alternative collaboration with intermediaries such as The STAC specification differentiates data sources or platforms will be trivial. SkyWatch than has, to-date been the case itself in offering “a common language to Already we see that simply offering data for traditional players, remains to be seen. describe a range of geospatial information, access and use-case agnostic tools is As Chris Holmes, organiser of the Cloud so it can more easily be indexed and insufficient to maintain a viable user-base. Native Geospatial Outreach Day7, poses discovered”. With the goal of “all providers The most significant public-sector the question: “what if geospatial tools and of spatiotemporal assets (Imagery, SAR, commitment in this space is the much- software were actually built from the ground Point Clouds, Data Cubes, Full Motion anticipated publication by USGS of the up for the cloud?” We must envisage an Video, etc) to expose their data as STACs, so Landsat Collection 25 archive onto AWS, ecosystem where it’s ever easier to develop that new code doesn’t need to be written in COG format and with STAC metadata innovative user-centric geospatial solutions whenever a new data set or API is released”. (Fig.3). ESA is also exploring their adoption that incorporate EO datasets just like any Recall that the first massive-scale through private organisations funded by DIAS other web-hosted asset. Further challenges adoption of these first two components of contracts and within its FedEO programme. – and opportunities – ensue for new and ARD was Google Earth Engine (GEE) in 2010. existing public and private sector value Converting openly available geospatial image Scientific Quality and Provenance propositions. Here in the UK these evolutions assets to a proprietary cloud-optimised The importance of public and private will be key to unlocking the estimated 1.2 Bn format and hosting in Google cloud storage geospatial image providers addressing these of value that EO has been estimated to offer has enabled high-profile academic remote first two components of ARD themselves to the public sector and maintaining industry sensing research (think Global Forest Watch) cannot be understated. Making datasets growth in-line with the European 11.5% CAGR8. and more than 700 academic papers4 (Fig.2). more accessible by adopting these tools is 1. http://ceos.org/ard/ We envision COGs and STAC as enablers only worthwhile when their content is of 2. https://www.cogeo.org/ for public and private organisations to realise sound scientific quality and provenance. 3. https://stacspec.org/ these proven benefits alongside GEE and Another reason the Landsat Collection 2 4. https://app.dimensions.ai/analytics/ other geospatial platforms. This is supported is held in high regard is that it comprises publication/overview/timeline?search_ by the recent ability for a user to input and fully-corrected surface reflectance mode=content&search_text=%22google%20 export any COG from GEE. Nevertheless, products, as opposed to top-of-atmosphere earth%20engine%22&search_type=kws&search_ field=text_search&year_from=2000&year_ to=2020 5. https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ nli/landsat/landsat-collection-2 6. https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet- announces-powerful-new-products-at-planet- explore-2020/ 7. https://medium.com/radiant-earth-insights/ cloud-native-geospatial-outreach-day-recap- Fig.3: The USGS is the first recipient of the Committee on Earth Observation 9b873ce3788e Satellites (CEOS) endorsement for Analysis Ready Data for Land (CARD4L)- 8. https://londoneconomics.co.uk/blog/ compliant products for Landsat Collection 2 Level-2. This internationally publication/value-satellite-derived-earth- recognised certification ensures that Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 products will be more interoperable with other Earth observing platforms, such as Europe’s Sentinel-2 observation-capabilities-uk-government-today- satellite, as they too work towards CARD4L-compliant products. Imagery USGS/CEOS 2020-july-2018/

www.GEOconnexion.com // November/December 2020 59 AGI NEWS

GEOCOM20: SUSTAINABLE (R)EVOLUTION

Geospatial and its role in providing a new vision of sustainability at a time of rapid (r)evolution is the focus of GeoCom20, a free-to-attend event, hosted by the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), and taking place online from 17 to 19 November

The agenda for 2020 covers three Changing global perspectives Innovative platform interactive plenary sessions featuring The second plenary session, 18 November, will The conference will be hosted in a virtual speakers from government, industry look at the conference theme from a different conference room, enabling delegates to and business to build on last scale -Changing Global Perspectives. Never not only hear from leading industry figures, year’s conversation on geospatial’s has it been more important to exchange and but also to share their own views and contribution to achieving net zero. understand data at a global level, from support discuss take away messages with their With the adoption of technology for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, peers. This innovative platform will ensure happening at pace, changing the drive for net zero, and managing a global that AGI continues to provide invaluable perceptions about data’s role, pandemic. This session will include the UK’s opportunities to connect and share increasing internationalism, and National Statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond. knowledge. societal calls for change, we’ll be asking “If we thought we were living in a are we at the cusp of a revolution or time of rapid change last year, 2020 has simply continued rapid evolution? Changing experiences thrown disruption into a whole new light,” Finally, day three will look at the Changing says Abigail Page, Head of Innovation & Changing Cityscapes Experiences of Location Data. Around us, Skills at the Geospatial Commission and On Tuesday 17 November, the focus the interest in, and recognition of the value GeoCom Chair. “We’re taking the best of will be on Changing Cityscapes. The of location data is changing, from the GeoCommunity content and channelling it way in which we use our urban space is attitudes of citizens to the applications it can to widen participation and enable as many changing rapidly. Geospatial has a key support. In a session including data science people as possible to tap into this unique role to play in understanding this shift entrepreneur Edwina Dunn OBE, Geospatial opportunity to connect with their peers and and empowering both decision-makers Commissioner and CEO of customer insights with expert speakers via interactive sessions and communities. Speakers in this company Starcount, we’ll look at a changing and networking opportunities.” session include Pooran Desai, OBE, CEO landscape and what our role as professionals AGI GeoCom20 plenaries are being of OnePlanet.com who put together may be to influence this. held on 17,18,19 November from 1200-1500 the first zero carbon village and is Across these plenary discussions, we GMT. AGI is also hosting further side events now building a digital platform for a will address the challenges that impact us during the week, see website for further regenerative economy. Mike Harlow, locally and unite us globally. It’s time for details. Deputy Chief Executive of HM Land geospatial to embrace the Sustainable (R) Registry will be sharing his vision and evolution by providing a provide a new vision To register for this free conference visit: the work of HMLR on this topic. of sustainability. www.agi.org.uk/events

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