RNI: DELENG/2005/15153 No: DL(E)-01/5079/20-22 Publication: 15th of every month Licensed to post without pre-payment U(E) 28/2020-22 Posting: 19th/20th of every month at NDPSO Rs.150 ISSN 0973-2136 Volume XVI, Issue 8, August 2020 THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON POSITIONING, NAVIGATION AND BEYOND A Map is a Living Structure with the Recurring Notion of far more Smalls than Larges Decision support system for engineering structure supervision 0.05° 0.02° 1 cm ATTITUDE HEADING POSITION The Smallest Dual Frequency & Dual Antenna INS/GNSS » RTK Centimetric Position NEW ELLIPSE-D » Quad Constellations » Post-processing Software Ellipse-D Ellipse-N OEM RTK Dual Antenna RTK Single Antenna RTK Best-in-class SWaP-C Visit our website: www.sbg-systems.com LaserGIS® for All TruPulse® Laser Rangefinders for High Accuracy GNSS Laser Offset Mapping COLLECT FEATURES SAFELY Built-in measurement routines Integrate with GIS systems and Position yourself to capture allow you to collect more data devices you already own. remote asset data from a than ever before. single location. To Learn More: Go2.LaserTech.com/Coordinates COLOPHON AND CONTENTS In this issue Coordinates Volume 16, Issue 8, August 2020 Articles Impact of COVID-19 on GNSS CHRIS RIZOS 6 A Map Is a Living Structure with the Recurring Notion of Far More Smalls than Larges BIN JIANG AND TERRY SLOCUM 7 Decision support system for engineering structure supervision AICHA DERKAOUI 20 COVID-19: Idled Sarasota Employees Contribute with Fieldwork SARAH ALBAN 26 Columns My Coordinates EDITORIAL 5 Old Coordinates 19 News GIS 28 GNSS 29 TRACKING CROVID 32 UAV 33 LBS 34 IMAGING 35 INDUSTRY 36 Mark your calendar 38 This issue has been made possible by the support and good wishes of the following individuals and companies Aicha Derkaoui, Bin Jiang, Chris Rizos, Sarah Alban and Terry Slocum; Labsat, Laser Technology, SBG System, and many others. Mailing Address Web www.mycoordinates.org [India] Rs.1,800 [Overseas] US$100 A 002, Mansara Apartments Coordinates is an initiative of CMPL that aims to broaden the C 9, Vasundhara Enclave scope of positioning, navigation and related technologies. Printed and published by Sanjay Malaviya on behalf of Delhi 110 096, India. CMPL does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed Coordinates Media Pvt Ltd Phones +91 11 42153861, 98102 33422, 98107 24567 by the authors in this magazine and may not be held liable for Published at A 002 Mansara Apartments, Vasundhara any losses caused directly or indirectly due to the information Enclave, Delhi 110096, India. Email provided herein. © CMPL, 2020. Reprinting with permission is [information] [email protected] encouraged; contact the editor for details. Editor Bal Krishna [editorial] [email protected] Owner Coordinates Media Pvt Ltd (CMPL) [advertising] [email protected] Annual subscription (12 issues) [subscriptions] [email protected] 4 | Coordinates August 2020 MYCOORDINATES The rush Several vaccines for Covid-19 are on the anvil. A few are launched, and some in trial phase. China, Russia, USA, UK, India and so on… There is a need, a dire need. And hence is the rush, More so, when it is to be to be the first To capture the market and the share. There are issues, Issues of credentials and credibility both. Protocols cannot simply be compromised. Though the rush is understandable, It simply cannot be rushed through. Bal Krishna, Editor [email protected] ADVISORS Naser El-Sheimy PEng, CRC Professor, Department of Geomatics Engineering, The University of Calgary Canada, George Cho Professor in GIS and the Law, University of Canberra, Australia, Professor Abbas Rajabifard Director, Centre for SDI and Land Administration, University of Melbourne, Australia, Luiz Paulo Souto Fortes PhD Associate Professor, University of State of Rio Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil, John Hannah Professor, School of Surveying, University of Otago, New Zealand Coordinates August 2020 | 5 GNSS Impact of COVID-19 on GNSS The impact of COVID-19 is most dramatic in the slow down of workforce training, education, and research at universities Chris Rizos Definitely No. Less interest in addressing train (i.e. train to undertake research) Emeritus Professor vulnerabilities of GNSS due to jamming the highly qualified workforce that in the School of Civil or spoofing threats? No. Less investment GNSS industries need for product and Environmental in regional satellite-based augmentation development and service operations. Engineering and a systems? No. The list goes on…. (Of course, Chinese universities co-director of the are still producing large numbers of Satellite Navigation and The conclusions I drew were that there graduates, but there will be a lag of Positioning (SNAP) Lab at would be almost no negative impacts several years before these are recruited UNSW. Chris is president- of COVID-19 on the production to non-Chinese GNSS companies.) elect of the International or deployment of GNSS products Union of Geodesy & and services. That in fact the pre- Furthermore with the cancellation of Geophysics (IUGG) COVID-19 market predictions of many conferences, there are currently no double-digit growth in the value of opportunities for early career researchers GNSS equipment and applications and graduate students to present the over the coming decade are valid (of results of their research before their course assuming that their original peers and obtain valuable feedback. It is assumptions about the growth of GNSS- possible to run conferences in “virtual” supported applications were correct). mode, but there is no substitute for face- to-face meetings over coffee or social t first I was trying to determine Then I realised that the greatest impact events to engage in networking. This Ahow there many be (positive or of COVID-19 would be on the GNSS “networking” is the primary means by negative) impacts of COVID-19 on GNSS workforce. In particular universities are which academics and students discuss their applications. I went down a checklist. teaching using online methods. How does work, identify new research challenges, Would it impact science? No. Would there that impact on the numbers of students find employment, and generally ensure be less construction or surveying? No, being educated in GNSS principles and the education sector remains dynamic. perhaps an emphasis on infrastructure practices? No more “hands-on” labs. Our Even seasoned academics like myself spending to rebuild economies would research (PhD) students are not mixing feel cut off. We are not able to meet increase GNSS use. Would there be less with other students (and getting cross- colleagues to discuss wider issues precision agriculture or automated mining fertilisation of ideas). They are not meeting regarding GNSS, especially the many activities? No. Less personal/mobilephone as often with their thesis supervisors. Most issues related to multi-constellation GNSS, applications? I doubt it. Less R&D into seriously for many western countries, the alternative PNT technologies, national future driverless vehicles? No. Less use number of graduate students from China, and international policy development, in aviation (including drones)? Maybe, India and other countries, coming to latest industry trends, new GNSS/PNT but this is a tiny market. Less maritime their universities to do their PhD studies applications, defence vis-a-vis civilian users? No. Less interest in “smart has dried up! Western universities are GNSS issues, and new space-based PNT weapons” by defence or security agencies? (for the most part) the institutions that concepts (such as high performance clocks, possible use of LEO satellites, new signals and frequencies, and so on). There would be almost no negative impacts of COVID-19 It is impossible to quantify the impacts of such loss of intellectual interaction. on the production or deployment of GNSS products and In short, I believe the impact of COVID-19 services. That in fact the pre-COVID-19 market predictions is most dramatic in the slow down of workforce training, education, and of double-digit growth in the value of GNSS equipment research at universities. There may then be a knock-on impact on GNSS industries and applications over the coming decade are valid and user communities in general. 6 | Coordinates August 2020 MAPPING A Map Is a Living Structure with the Recurring Notion of Far More Smalls than Larges This paper is intended to establish living structure – a physical phenomenon and mathematical concept – as a formal concept or foundation for maps and mapping Bin Jiang [Maps] are no longer merely considered space or geographic features that makes Professor, Faculty as aids…, but as products of scientific maps or mapping possible, i.e., larges to of Engineering research which, being complete in be retained, while smalls to be omitted in a and Sustainable themselves, convey their message by recursive manner (Note: larges and smalls Development, Division means of their own signs and symbols should be understood broadly, in terms of GIScience, University and through these furnish the basis for of not only sizes, but also topological of Gävle, Sweden further geographic deduction. … . [the connectivity and semantic meaning). subjectivity] must not predominate: the Thus, map making is largely an objective Terry Slocum dictates of science will prevent any erratic undertaking governed by the underlying Professor, Department flight of the imagination and impact to the living structure, and maps portray the of Geography and map a fundamentally objective character truth of the living structure. Based on Atmospheric Science, in spite of all subjective impulses. the notion of living structure, a map can University of Kansas, be considered to be an iterative system, Lawrence, USA Max Eckert (1908) which means that the map is the map of the map of the map, and so on endlessly. The word endlessly means continuous Abstract map scales between two discrete ones, just as there are endless real numbers The Earth’s surface or any territory is a between 1 and 2.