G Ashtech G Mobile Augmented RealityG Cadastres and Climate Change G Geomarketing Magaz i ne f or Sur veyi ng, Mappi ng & GI S Pr of es s i onal s March 2010 Volume 13 2 “Putting NovAtel’s GNSS receiver in our siveslleeiee gave us a huge advantage.” Success has a secret ingredient. Our precise positioning technology helps some of the world’s leading companies stay in the lead. To join them, visit novatel.com or call you know who. Integrate success into your . Fdfsdf sjdfsdfjkd DESIGN LEAD, LOCKHEED AEROSPACE While You Were Out When not sitting in front of my desktop pc, I try not to be occupied too much with gadgets other than my mobile Phone or iPod. Although I’m interested in gadgets, I’m not the type of person who wants to have this week’s new revolutionary and life-changing device that can do even more than the one that came out the week before last. More interesting for me, is how a device is used and by whom (and for how long). I’m amazed by the sort of informa- tion people share on the internet. It may not surprise you that there is a search machine that tells you which people are not at home the moment you perform a search. The site is called ‘Please Rob Me’. The idea behind the site is quite simple: it combines public Twitter accounts that also use Foursquare, a location based web service for leisure purposes. Once you check in online, in a bar for instance, and publish this information on your public Twitter account, it follows you’re not at home at the moment. Combine this in a search engine and you have the perfect ‘burglar tool’ (I think it should be mentioned here that it was not the intention of the makers to make a ‘burglar tool’, but to show people what can be done with information they share with thousands of other people). That is not all. Municipalities are also discovering the power of individuals with mobile devices. The recent initiative called NYC BigApps deserves succession: it is ‘a software appli- cation challenge in keeping with New York City’s drive to become more transparent, accessi- ble and accountable’. One of the winning applications is called Taxi Hack, which allows you to review and share your live comment on NYC taxis. Users are encouraged to review the ride and everything that comes with it, in combination with the medallion number or driv- er’s license number. I’d like to point out that not only bad reviews are submitted, but also a great deal of compliments on good drivers as well. But what surprised me most about this particular application was that taxi drivers themselves use it to comment on clients who may have done something wrong. In this issue of GeoInformatics, you will find more on this app challenge: Florian Fischer takes a look at what’s happening right now in the world of augmented reality and what’s to come. And the news keeps on coming: just as I finish this editorial, I read on a travel blog that Google Goggles (an application on mobile phones that makes use of the Android oper- ating system) can be used for translating purposes. According to the blogger, who is a fer- vent traveler, this is ideal for translating menus in foreign restaurants. What mobile devices cannot do for you is order the meal. But they do make life much easier for you in the end. Enjoy your reading! Eric van Rees
[email protected] March 2010 3 GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and commentary with respect to the international surveying, mapping and GIS industry. Publisher Ruud Groothuis
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[email protected] Corporate Member Sustaining Member Florian Fischer Luigi Colombo Barbara Marana David J. Coleman Yola Georgliadou Job van Haaften 1Spatial and High Quality Geospatial Data 1Spatial is an innovator in the field of knowledge engineering. This term covers geospatial data integration, harmonization and quality control. With this, the company is putting high quality geospatial data at the centre of its universe. GeoInformatics asked 1Spatial’s Business Development Director Steven Ramage about its current activities in the geospatial business and how new technologies and concepts influence the way people think about geospatial data. C o n t e n t March 2010 Articles Fusing with Other Intelligent Data The Power of Full Motion Video 6 Ever-growing Global Risks Political Risk Map 2010 10 Taking Spatial ETL Technology to New Heights FME 2010 18 For Avon Fire & Rescue Service Making Firefighting Safer with GIS 20 Trimble’ Mobile Mapping Technology Belgian Road Sign Inventory Project 30 ’Multi-purpose’ Land Administration Systems Cadastres and Climate Change 34 The Buzzword Explained Geomarketing 40 New Experiences, Remarks and Prospects Building Reconstruction and Texturing 44 Mobile Augmented Reality at a Glance The Digital Sixth Sense 48 Why and What Do Individuals Contribute? Volunteered Geographic Information 50 Educating Remote Sensing Techniques Eduspace 54 Interviews Professional Grade GNSS Technology The Rebirth of Ashtech 14 Definiens’ eCognition Server Software Object-based Image Analysis 22 Innovating Knowledge Engineering 1Spatial and High Quality Geospatial Data 26 Column About Maps: Theory and Practice By Menno-Jan Kraak 53 Page 26 Object-based Image Analysis Definiens is a company active in image analysis. Not restricted to the geospatial market only, the company offers solutions for all kinds of imagery used in life sciences and the medical world. GeoInformatics interviewed Ralph D. Humberg, Vice President of Definiens Earth Sciences division. Mr. Humberg joined Definiens in 2002 and is responsible for Definiens' global Earth Sciences business. He talks about eCognition, Definiens’ image analysis software used for Earth Sciences. The latest release of the software is eCognition version 8, issued in November last year, along with a new internet portal. 4 Page 22 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 5 March 2010 On the Cover: Details of a point textured model of the exteriors (the main façades) of St Maria Maggiore (Italy). See article on page 44. The Digital Sixth Sense In these early days of 2010 Augmented Reality resounds throughout the land. Smartphones eventually seem capable enough to provide a super- imposed view of virtual and real worlds through the camera’s view. This vision awakes expectations of the big business. In the future show-own- ers might stick virtual coupons on their shop-windows to be picked-up by “AR-flaneurs” and thus attract new customers. This article will give a short overview about current mobile Augmented Reality applications and the expected development in the coming years. FME 2010 With the release of FME 2010 in January, Safe Software is emphasizing its stated commitment to improve spatial data access for organizations across the globe. In fact, the technology has been enhanced in ways that make spatial data more accessible – and potentially more useful – than ever before. Page 18 Calendar 58 Advertisers Index 58 Page 48 Page 44 Fusing with Other Intelligent Data The Power of Full Motion Video Intergraph’s Defense and Intelligence Industry Manager Leah Wood discusses the Motion Video Exploitation solution, which was shown at the US GeoINT conference in 2009 and the EU DGI 2010 conference in London. This new solution fuses multiple motion video data streams with other intelligence data in one high-powered analytical environment. Also, the use of visually displayed telemetry information allows Intergraph’s technology to blend motion video into existing architectures and geo-fuse with a vast amount of intelligence data that resides in other systems. by Leah Wood As today’s military and intelligence organi- zations support foreign military operations and border security efforts, it is increasingly impor- tant that they expand their data collection and analytical capabilities beyond traditional systems and methods. To this end, there is increased interest in incorporating video data sources, such as those from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) into existing analytical envi- ronments. Intergraph has met the challenges of military and intelligence agencies with proven solu- tions since 1969, and continues its role as a worldwide geospatial solutions provider with innovative technology and products. They have increased focus on expanding their rich set of geospatial exploitation solutions with applications that provide improved analysis of motion video, integration with other forms of intelligence and geospatial information, and robust management and dissemination of imagery and video data collections. These new applications exploit the power of georefer- enced video sources to create profound improvements in analytical and decision-mak- ing ability, and can be directly applied to the emerging disciplines of wide-area persistent surveillance and motion imagery intelligence. In keeping with its commitment to the military and intelligence community, Intergraph launched its Motion Video Exploitation solu- tion, which was shown at the US GeoINT con- ference in 2009 and the EU DGI 2010 confer- ence in London. This new solution fuses mul- tiple motion video data streams with other intelligence data in one high-powered analyti- cal environment, where analysts can place clip marks and annotations, and generate reports and static GeoTiff images for broad dissemi- nation. The company also relies on MISB com- pliant KLV (key, length and value) data to pro- vide the customer with accurate telemetry information which can be visualized as a num- ber of different geospatial features: aircraft trackline, camera angle, video path trackline, video path polygon, etc. The use of visually displayed tele -metry information allows Intergraph’s technology to blend motion video 6 Ar t i cl e March 2010 UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle) into existing architectures and geo-fuse with a vast amount of intelligence data that resides in other systems. Not Just for the Military Anymore Global Positioning Satellites and the Internet are two important examples of technologies initially developed for military applications, but that then transcended to the civilian space. These two technology sets have dramatically transformed government, business, and per- sonal lives. UAV technology is also expected to have a substantial impact in non-military sectors and will experience rapid growth in the coming years. According to a May 2008 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the number of UASs being built for civilian uses is expected to increase from 40 to 160 by 2017. This includes widespread applications for law enforcement, firefighting, and numerous envi- ronmental and scientific purposes. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is current- ly working to establish airspace safety regula- tions that would allow the systems to achieve wider-spread usage. Police in the UK are plan- ning to use UAVs for policing of major events, including the 2010 Olympic Games. High-level Workflow A typical high-level workflow consists of four key areas that must function in harmony to properly support the end-to-end requirements of the mission: • Automated and manual capture of geospatial information, including imagery, video, and other sensor data • Management of enterprise geospatial content, including traditional vector data sets (layers, features), imagery, video, and terrain models • Integration and analysis of multiple overlap- ping sets of geospatial and non-geospatial information • Visualization and dissemination through a variety of interfaces It is important to note that Intergraph embraces open standards for data storage as well as for open dissemination of geospatial information, such as through Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web services. The Power of Geospatial Fusion Video-based data sources provide the most recent view of the battlefield and can augment other forms of geospatial intelligence to pro- vide a richer, more detailed view of the area of interest. To effectively use video as a source of intelligence, however, the analyst needs to seamlessly fuse the video with these other types of intelligence, such as map features and annotations. This is highly beneficial, as these other sources can help orient the analyst’s Forensic Video Analysis and Real- time Quality Enhancement In some cases, even with proper content man- agement tools and powerful data integration and visualization tools, poor-quality video can hamper the analytical process. In some cases, the original captured video is of poor quality or is unusable due to flight path, altitude, tilt- ing and buffeting of aircraft, and other factors. Therefore, it is important to provide technology that can work in a modular fashion to perform real-time enhancements and corrections on the video, such as removing atmospheric distortion, correcting for shadows that affect brightness and contrast, and stabilizing jittery video. Intergraph provides state-of-the-art patented technology for performing these types of enhancements, increasing the usefulness of UAV video in a real-time and forensic capacity. Furthermore, Intergraph has a strong history of deployment of its forensic video technology in the public safety and law enforcement sectors through its Video Analyst product, which has traditionally been used to enhance and analyze video from closed circuit video systems and dashboard cameras in police and other emer- gency vehicles. Intergraph enhanced this post- collection-based technology to function in real- time mode to bring these capabilities to operational environments. Generation of Georeferenced Imagery from Video A key step towards achieving the fusion of a video data source with other forms of intelli- gence is generating a georeferenced image as the result of stitching together or “mosaicking” hundreds or thousands of individual video frames. Intergraph’s software automatically gen- erates this georeferenced image, which can then be seamlessly integrated with other forms of static data, such as aerial photos, satellite imagery, or geospatial layers and features. This process can dramatically improve the clarity and accuracy of the video, enabling accurate analy- sis on the video. This video mosaic capability provides a mechanism to glean additional details from the entire collection sequence that could not be obtained from individual frames. point-of-view and improve understanding of video content by eliminating the “tunnel vision” effect caused by viewing the video in a dedi- cated video window. Intergraph developed a solution that supports this direct fusion and provides a rich decision-support environment. Geospatial Content Management Another important factor in using video for ana- lytical purposes is the ability to easily query vast archives of video for specific clips that meet an analyst’s search criteria, and to rapidly deliver the results to the analyst’s exploitation environment. Intergraph provides technology to automate the management of large amounts of satellite imagery, motion video, aerial photos, elevation data, and other digital files that are essential to the geospatial intelligence exploita- tion workflow. Intergraph’s TerraShare, a com- mercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product for enter- prise image and elevation management, can provide multiple users with transparent access to large amounts of common imagery. This can greatly reduce the time from collection to exploitation, while improving efficiency, collab- oration, and quality. Automated Geospatial Content Ingest Although image management systems such as TerraShare provide a robust solution for the storage and distribution of data, many organi- zations still need methods and technologies that ease the administrative burden of finding, preparing, and uploading the data into these archives. These processes can consume a sig- nificant amount of the operators’ and analysts’ time. As larger volumes of high-resolution data are being collected, and as the turnaround time for results is being compressed, it is essential that the image ingest part of the overall work- flow be automated to the greatest extent pos- sible. Today’s fast-paced, dynamic environment also demands around-the-clock monitoring and processing of new data. It is clear the only way to ease this burden and realize the full value of these expensive and complex collection assets is to implement a mechanism for automating the ingest, organization, and pre- processing of new imagery as it becomes avail- able. Intergraph’s TerraShare Automatic Data Ingest technology provides these capabilities. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 7 March 2010 With the continued evolution in technology, such as service-oriented architectures, advanced geospatial applications, mobile technology, and speed and method of transmission, now is the time to provide powerful and intuitive geospatial intelligence solutions that can help military and intelligence agencies be more effective and cost-efficient. In cases where satellite imagery or aerial pho- tos are not recent enough, this process provides a more current representation of an area, which can then be compared to previous images to form a foundation for change detection from video sources. This also reduces the workload for analysts, since they can view the finished product more quickly and completely than by viewing the video in sequence. Since the result- ing image is made up of multiple frames that overlap to some degree, the mosaic can provide a clearer representation of the area of coverage, which is essential for exploitation. 3D Visualization and Motion Video To achieve successful results, it is important to work diligently towards simplifying the user experience. To achieve this, Intergraph has partnered with Skyline Software to incorporate its 3D visualization and fly-through technolo- gy into its motion video solution. They chose this partnership specifically due to Skyline’s ability to seamlessly incorporate georefer- enced, real-time video into the 3D environ- ment, along with satellite imagery draped over terrain models, 3D models, and the dynamic location of moving vehicles on the ground and in the air. This reduces the overall number of applications required to visualize and analyze the wide variety of static and dynamic data sources. The integrated suite of products provides a rich and intuitive experience, and at the same time, is built on an architecture that provides support for direct connections to OGC Web ser- vices, Oracle spatial databases, and image libraries. These connections persist during fly- throughs of the scenes, providing the most up-to-date representation possible. Conclusion As defense and intelligence organizations work to expand the use of motion video sources for more widespread purposes, it is important to appreciate that many civilian organizations are also incorporating video data sources into their existing processes and systems. Many civilian organizations, as well as national and regional governments, are establishing offices and pro- grams to address unmanned aerial systems. As these systems become more reliable and eco- nomical, and as policies are implemented, a vast new array of new and innovative applica- tions will emerge. To make the most effective use of aerial video collection in a civilian and military context, it will be extremely important for these organiza- tions to implement the types of technologies that provide reliable enterprise data manage- ment, fusion with other forms of geospatial information, cleanup of distorted or jittery video, and superior analytical abilities. The combination of these components is the key to providing the right information at the right time to solve his problem, achieving improved analytical quality, performance, and superior decision-making. Intergraph works with its partners and customers to provide these types of essential capabilities. Military and intelligence agencies are faced with the need to adapt to wider-reaching demands and quicker response times than they have in the past. Furthermore, they are assimilating and analyzing more available data than ever before, such as high-resolution imagery, real-time video, and GPS-tracked objects. Never before has there been a greater focus worldwide on secu- rity and emergency preparedness. Today’s mili- tary and intelligence agencies must also meet the expectations of people and organizations who are dealing with natural disasters, an unsettled economy, and devastating global events. Therefore, they need to quickly and effectively collect and analyze relevant information that helps make sense of current situations and reduce conflict around the world. With the con- tinued evolution in technology, such as service- oriented architectures, advanced geospatial applications, mobile technology, and speed and method of transmission, now is the time to pro- vide powerful and intuitive geospatial intelli- gence solutions that can help military and intel- ligence agencies be more effective and cost-efficient. Leah Wood, Defense and Intelligence Industry Manager at Intergraph. 8 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Screenshot of the Motion Video Application (MVA) © 2010 Spectra Precision. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Simply Powerful www.spectraprecision.com/FOCUS30 FEATURING WORLD CLASS SPECTRA PRECISION SURVEY PRO SOFTWARE 30 ROBOTIC StepDrive™ motion technology LockNGo™ tracking technology Spectra Precision Survey Pro™ field software GeoLock™ GPS assist technology 2”, 3” and 5” Windows CE Touchscreen 2.4 GHz interference-free radio Spectra Precision Ranger 500X data collector Contact your Spectra Precision dealer today. www.spectraprecision.com/dealers F I R S T C H O IC E O F S U R V E Y O R S + Ever-growing Global Risks Political Risk Map 2010 Political and financial instability remain a feature of the business landscape as a result of the recession, according to Aon Risk Services, the global risk management and insurance brokerage business of Aon Corporation. The company recently launched its 17th annual Political Risk Map. By Remco Takken Aon ranked the political risk of 209 coun- tries and territories, measuring risk of curren- cy inconvertibility and transfer; strikes, riots and civil commotion; war; terrorism; sovereign non-payment; political interference; supply chain interruption; legal and regulatory risk. The risk in each country was ranked Low, Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High, High or Very High. A country with an “elevated” risk is defined as any country with a risk ranked Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High, High or Very High. The results of the analysis are detailed on the 2010 Political Risk Map produced by Aon Risk Services in partnership with Oxford Analytica, an international consulting firm. Oxford Analytica draws its analysis from a global net- work of more than a thousand experts, includ- ing senior faculty members at Oxford University and at major research institutions worldwide, to make independent judgments about geopolitical risk. More Red and Orange Zones While the subsequent risk maps are not meant to provide comparisons over time, Professor Erwin Muller, CEO of Aon-owned COT, asserts that this year’s map does indeed show more red and orange zones than those of previous years: “Through the years, you can see the sit- 10 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Political Risk Map 2010 Key to Symbols uation decline.” Marc van Nuland, Board Member of Aon Risk Services, states, “The red zone exemplifies a situation where it is very hard or even impossible to insure trade risks.” When asked for the cartographic conse- quences, Muller suggested that the introduc- tion of yet another theme map by Aon is always a possibility. Indeed, this has hap- pened before, with Aon’s Terrorist Threat Map emerging out of the Political Risk Map. This separate map for terrorism threats was produced in 2006, 2007 and 2009, while gen- eral economic threats were recently eliminat- ed from both maps. The one symbol on the Political Risk Map still associated with terror- ism looks like an exploding bomb. It is labelled “Strike, Riot, Civil Commotion, Terrorism”. Every year, a separate theme is lift- ed out of the map’s legend. Last year, a “Commodity Crunch Exposure Matrix” was pre- sented, while 2008’s “Supply Chain Disruption Risks” theme is now permanently featured on the Political Risk Map. Food & Water Insecurity The 2010 map introduces new indices look- ing at food, agricultural commodities and water supplies. Van Nuland: “This is where we see most applications for insurances, which means that most of the trade, and most investments take place there.” There are two new icons on the 2010 map: Food and Water Insecurity. They have been applied to the thirty most ‘high risk’ countries - that is those countries potentially facing the most severe food and water insecurity in the medi- um to long term. These are all developing countries, mostly in Africa, which is in keep- ing with the conventional wisdom that the impacts of climate change will rebound hard- est on the countries least responsible for global warming. Also, Israel now boasts a symbol for Water Insecurity. Its ongoing water issues are extremely well known, but the situation is supposedly not severe enough to appear in the Top 20. Van Nuland picks out the country of Mauretania to make his point about the Top 10 vulnerable countries when it comes to food and water risks. “There has been a consider- able amount of food help, and the country is already buying a lot of food from abroad. Furthermore, this country is vulnerable to the warming of the earth.” Not Meant to be Alarmist The Food and Water Insecurity Indices are not meant to be alarmist, though, according to Roger Schwartz, senior vice-president of Aon Trade Credit. “They are forward-looking assessments designed to be an early warning. While the Global Agricultural Commodity Supply The Agricultural Commodity Supply Risk Index offers a supply-side view, identifying the inter- nationally-traded agricultural commodities at greatest risk of a supply shock, and thus a sudden global price spike. Many of the world’s most productive agricul- tural regions are expected to see a decline in productivity if temperatures rise. “Cocoa tops the 2010 Agricultural Commodity Supply Risk Index by some margin, as more than 75 percent of global production is con- centrated in four countries at significant risk of supply disruption,” said Wilkin. “These threats to cocoa supplies include political increasing supply-side pressures of global warm- ing are more of a long-term issue, there are more immediate concerns. “We are already seeing instances of countries that can’t produce enough of certain foods and in these financially difficult times cannot afford to import these food supplies. This places localized pressures on a country’s social balance and can lead to the sort of geopolitical events we saw in 2007 and 2008. “With the prospect of real economic recovery over the next year or so, we are likely to see increased demand for food and water global- ly. With the current supply-side issues being experienced in some areas, this will only add to the existing pressures.” Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 11 March 2010 Ar t i cl e Political Map in detail instability, natural disasters, and water sup- ply insecurity.” For the first time in twenty years, India has had to import rice for its own population now the country’s rice production has declined by 16 percent. That explains why India is men- tioned (with other rice-producing countries) in the Top 3. Movements on the 2010 Map Eight countries or territories have been upgraded to a lower risk level - Albania, Myanmar/Burma, Colombia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Vanuatu, Vietnam and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong saw its political stability rise in recent times. Colombia has proved to be a safer country than before, with better supply chain quality. Sri Lanka has (at least for now) won the war against the rebellious Tamil Tigers. Albania has made successful steps in their fight against crime and corruption, acquiring better cards to play for EU member- ship at the same time. Vietnam is an upcom- ing country for its cheap labor, and it has a good regulatory system which tries to attract investors from abroad. Myanmar has profited from high prices for natural gas, which in effect paid off its national debt. Eighteen countries have seen conditions wors- en, leading to a downgrade: Algeria, Argen - tina, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen. Van Nuland: “Beginning last year, the first signs of the financial crisis could be seen, beginning in Latvia. It turned into an econom- ic crisis and an increase in non-payment by countries and private companies. The credit risk is apparent, and it should now be seen as a combination of political and economic risk.” Very High Risk Countries Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen have been added to the Very High category. Muller asserts, “They are joining Afghanistan, Congo DRC, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia and Zimbabwe.” Yemen has been added to the Very High cat- egory because recently it became painfully apparent that its government system is about to collapse. There’s a risk of civil war while at the same time Al-Qaeda-like terrorist groups have emerged. In a fair number of instances, the High and Very High risk countries have been allocated seven or more symbols on the map. New on the list is Eritrea, while others have seen an increase in significant risks. Muller points out that this is not only the case with countries which have to deal with a lot of threats. “Ghana, for instance, currently has only three symbols to its name, but they are all new for this year. This is in line with the general trend that Africa is a continent of growing risks.” Good News for Insurance Companies Muller sees a trend where there are more High Risk countries, and more countries residing in the Medium-High category. Indeed, looking at the new map, one has to deal with consider- ably more risk than in previous years. Van Nuland: “Companies should continue to do their business with flair, but they should also ask themselves whether higher risks should be covered in these insecure times.” Of course, this is good news for the insurance companies Aon works for. This intermingling within the mapmaker’s organization, however, shows a possible weak spot in the scientifi- cally sound presentation of the data. Van Nuland: “With this map, we want to establish a growing awareness of higher risks during the financial crisis. Smaller enterprises in particular should ask themselves: can we afford the risk of something going wrong?” The combination of higher risk and financial instability is worrying Van Nuland the most: “We see it in real life: an increasing number of claims.” Remco Takken is editor of GeoInformatics. For more information, have a look at www.aon.com/2010politicalmap 12 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Food and Water Insecurity S e r i o u s t o o l s f o r s e r i o u s m a p p i n g . U l t r a C a m t e c h n o l o g y c r e a t e s t h e m o s t a d v a n c e d a e r i a l m a p p i n g p r o d u c t s f o r s o m e o f t h e w o r l d ’s m o s t s o p h i s t i c a t e d p r o j e c t s , a s w e l l a s s m a l l , s i n g l e - c r a f t o p e r a t i o n s . E a c h U l t r a C a m i s c o m p a t i b l e w i t h t h e U l t r a M a p s L a L e - o í - L h e a r L w o r k í o w s o í L w a r e t h a t a l l o w s y o u t o f o c u s o n e n t i r e p r o j e c t s r a t h e r t h a n j u s t s i n g l e i m a g e s o r s t e r e o p a i r s . I f y o u a r e l o o k i n g f o r a c o s t - e f f e c t i v e o p t i o n t o u p g r a d e o r e x p a n d y o u r c u r r e n t h a r d w a r e , v i s i t m i c r o s o f t . c o m / u l t r a c a m / g i f . M a p t h e s a m e f o o t p r i n t s a t l o w e r a l t i t u d e s w i t h a n e w w i d e - a n g l e l e n s . U l t r a C a m X p W i d e A n g l e L a r g e s t i m a g e f o o t p r i n t i n t h e i n d u s L r y , í e w e r í i g h L l i n e s r e q u i r e d . U l t r a C a m X p L a r g e s t f o o t p r i n t f r o m a n y m e d i u m - f o r m a t m a p p i n g c a m e r a , i d e a l f o r s m a l l e r c r a f t . U l t r a C a m L p T h e d a t a y o u d e l i v e r i s o n l y a s g o o d a s t h e t e c h n o l o g y b e h i n d i t . T a k e B l g h t w l t h a d v a n c e d U l t r a C a m t e c h n o l o g y . Professional Grade GNSS Technology In January, Magellan Professional announced that its brand name has been changed to Ashtech. Joc Triglav asked François Erceau, Ashtech Vice-President and General Manager, to explain why this happened and what are the company’s plans for the new year in terms of products and market strategies. By Joc Triglav 14 I nt er vi ew Question: You decided to hit the GNSS market target with the old newly reborn brand name and a totally new logo. Please explain the reasons for these changes and their main goals. François Erceau: Magellan Professional was the brand we used within Magellan, our former corporation and a well known GPS company with a big presence in the consumer market. With the sale of the Magellan Consumer division to the MiTAC Corporation in early 2009, rights to and ownership of the brand name changed. Magellan Professional would only be able to continue using the Magellan name until, end of 2011. We thought, “Why wait?” We felt it was better to immediately clarify and strengthen our commitment to the professional business by moving more quickly to re-identify ourselves with our own brand in the professional market. The equity we had in the Ashtech brand was so incred- ible that it would have been a waste not to lever- age it. The renaming benefits us because of Ashtech’s early and deeply rooted presence in the high-precision GPS — and later GPS/GLONASS — application markets such as surveying, GIS and OEM boards. We see it as the rebirth of Ashtech. The Ashtech brand has long stood for technology, preci- sion and innovation. This is exactly what we offer our customers and what we want to convey with our new logo. It sports a trendy new look that upgrades the renowned Ashtech brand bringing it firmly into the 21st century. Q: Please, define the main global target high- performance applications markets and commer- cial positioning for Ashtech’s products. FE: High-performance applications exist today across a broad array of markets in land, air and sea applications. We under- stand high-performance to encompass automation, RTK posi- François Erceau The Rebirth of Ashtech tioning and centimetre-level accuracy. It also means fast and robust signal processing. Harsh environments also demand specific high-technology fea- tures, such as strong multi-path mitigation, multi-constellation tracking, and redundancy of the solution. Heading and relative positioning are also outputs expected from these high-end applications. As a leading GNSS manufacturer, we deliver high-performance positioning solutions to OEMs, integrators, value-added resellers, distributors and end-users. Obviously, from a pure GNSS technology perspective, perfor- mance has always been linked to the accuracy, the reliability of the data, and the speed of the processing solution. However, the performance can- not be defined solely in terms of a product’s GNSS performance. Design, connectivity, ease-of use, inter-operability, are integral components of the definition of high-performance. That’s our belief and our commercial posi- tioning for each of the solution we offer to the market. Q: How is Ashtech segmenting its GPS and GNSS product line, especially regarding quality and performance, to cover the needs of these application markets? Which are your flagship products in individual application market segments? FE: Professional grade GNSS technology is the core of every Ashtech solu- tion and our range segmentation is based on the customer expectations, which is expressed in our motto “Right feature, Right time, Right price”. Our portfolio starts with entry-level budget solutions mostly based on sin- gle frequency technology up to fully featured multi-frequency multi con- stellation offerings. Whatever the level of investment made by the cus- tomer in his Ashtech product, quality is never at risk. We segment our GNSS portfolio, into three categories: Surveying , GIS and OEM boards. Depending on the application, positioning accuracy varies from the meter level, down to the centimetre level in real time, with or without advanced RTK features such as heading, relative positioning, and the ability to work in harsh environments. Our portfolio of technolo- gy and solutions complies with those requirements. The accuracy, the real-time capability, the connectivity features and the number of GNSS sig- nals are key elements that differentiate the products within our range. In Surveying our flagship products are the ProMark 500 GNSS RTK system mostly used on Land as well as our ProFlex series which are very popular for a variety of marine survey and remote sensing applications but are also more and more adopted by Machine guidance integrators. In GIS applications the MobileMapper 6 handheld GPS is showing great market success thanks to its sub-meter post-processing capability, a unique offering at that price point. In OEM boards, the GG12W is very successful in aerospace, while our newly released GPS/GLONASS board, the MB500, has shown promising results with various integrators in Navigation, Marine , and others… DG14 remains very solid as an outstanding SBAS-enabled L1 board offering RTK capability. Q: Ashtech probably plans a number of product launches and initiatives this year to provide new and compelling offerings to GNSS professionals. Please, outline the main items shortly to our readers. FE: The 2010 roadmap is very ambitious for Ashtech. We are planning several major upgrades to enhance our latest generation of products, Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 15 March 2010 I nt er vi ew as well as the introduction of several completely new products. The upgrades will impact our GNSS board offerings as well as our GIS and Surveying product lines. This January, we released ProMark 500 V4, the newest version of our renowned RTK GNSS system. We are also launching two entirely new rugged RTK sensors, the ProFlex Lite and ProFlex Lite Duo. Last but not least, we have just released in February the newest generation of our mobile mapping software, MobileMapper Field, which is available on our best-seller MobileMapper 6 handheld GPS for GIS and mapping. We intend to keep this fast pace of new technology and prod- uct introductions all year long. Q: The global process of transition from “old-style” national coordinate reference systems to new ITRS-based national coordinate reference systems is in various phases in a large number of countries. In your opinion, which are the crucial con- siderations and possible dangers in this process of transition, especially regarding the use of GNSS technologies and solu- tions? FE: Coordinates provided by GNSS technologies and solutions are ITRS-based coordinates. They can be easily expressed in any new ITRS-based national coordinate reference systems without any loss of accuracy. The main issue is the transformation of existing coordinates expressed in "old-style" national coordinate reference systems, as this transformation is always specific and approximat- ed. What will be key during the transition is to pro- vide as many details as possible on the reference system in which any coordinates are expressed, including the reference date of the coordinate system, as ITRS-based systems are time depen- dent, in order to avoid tremendous loss in accuracy and so preserve complete trust in GNSS solutions. Considering the accuracy we achieve today, telling where a point is on a map means telling where this point was at the time the map was elaborated. No matter that the point may have moved since that time, together with Earth's crust on the area since GPS, and now GNSS, use appropriate coordinates transformation. It has for long been a key area of activity for Ashtech. This being said, Ashtech has dedicated specific resources to ease this transition for the benefit of the end-user. Once the transition is completed, all coordi- nates will be better harmonized whatever the reference systems used. Q: This year a wealth of new developments in the GNSS satellite launches and operations is scheduled and announced, such as the first launch of the GPS IIF satel- lite with new L5 signal, launch of two Galileo IOV satel- lites, first launch of a GLONASS-K satellite with new CDMA signals, as well as additional launches of Chinese Compass satellites and first launches of Japanese QZSS and Indian GAGAN, etc.. How is Ashtech strategically, technologically and operationally adapting to these actual novelties and changes in the GNSS business? FE: As a leader, Ashtech is on top of GNSS technology development. The growing number and evolving nature of satellites systems is a fan- tastic opportunity of growth for us. We were the first with a GLONASS GNSS Board (GG12), and we are the first, with BLADE technology, to trully blend L1/L2 GPS and GLONASS and SBAS signals togeth- er. As many customers are telling us, “BLADE deliv- ers the best PVT computation, as of today “. Moreover BLADE is already tuned to accommodate all new upcoming signals. Ashtech direction is to keep customers thrilled with what our GNSS tech- nology delivers as real user benefits, and make sure it is constantly up to date, according to the evolu- tions. Q: Several nations, at least six today, are already operating or initiating their own above mentioned global or regional satellite navigation systems. Even more such systems are expected to develop and operate in the next ten years. Are we entering the golden era of GNSS? How will this abundance of satellite PNT services influence global society? How will our daily life and business change? FE: Survey and GIS data creation will continue to grow with more layers of information from geo- graphical to demographic data. More and more peo- ple in the field will collect and update data on larg- er territories. Many additional workers will deploy GIS mobile technologies in their everyday work life, in many applications from utilities, homeland secu- rity to agriculture, natural resources management, and oil & gas markets. The addition of more satel- lites expands the operating domain for RTK with longer ranges and efficient positioning at more challenging sites where complementary techniques were needed in the past. Precise positioning will bring more and more an everyday increase of productivity for many applications, in dredg- ing, construction, road building, mining, forestry, in any type of asset management, machine guidance, or fleet tracking. In every of those fields, Ashtech is a leader and will continue to bring innovation as expected by the customers. Q: At the end, I definitely haven’t asked you everything you wanted to say to our readers. So, please, take this opportunity to address our readers with your closing word. FE: Ashtech rebirth is good news for the Professional GNSS industry. Our roots are in Silicon Valley but we are also taking many benefits from our belonging to Magellan, especially a great know-how in design of lightweight handheld units for the Survey and GIS applications. With all its assets Ashtech is well positioned to innovate in the market. Ashtech will be part of the move to GNSS modernization in the next 10 years. Beyond this Ashtech will be offering new alternatives to cus- tomers within an open market where interoperability and standardiza- tion are becoming the rule. Times when you would “capture” the cus- tomer for long with one product or one technology are over. Ashtech is a venture for the 21st century within a new open market. Joc Triglav is editor of GeoInformatics. www.ashtech.com 16 I nt er vi ew March 2010 Rover Operator Web Mapping APIs Use Fast, Intuitive Web Maps to Share Your Geographic Knowledge You can easily access and leverage your GIS with clients built on Flex ™ | Silverlight ™ | JavaScript ™ Copyright © 2009 ESRI. All rights reserved. ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcGIS, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners. With ArcGIS ® Web Mapping APIs, you can create and deploy GIS applications that are best suited for your environment. To save time and resources while learning how to use these APIs, ESRI offers live samples, training seminars, sample applications, and free maps and GIS tasks such as geocoding and routing. 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Czech Republic www.arcdata.cz Denmark www.informi.dk Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania www.hnit-baltic.lt Finland www.esri-fnland.com France www.esrifrance.fr F.Y.R.O.M. www.gisdata.hr Germany www.esri-germany.de Georgia www.geographic.ge Greece and Cyprus www.marathondata.gr Austria www.synergis.co.at Belgium and Luxembourg www.esribelux.com Bosnia and Herzegovina www.gisdata.hr Bulgaria www.esribulgaria.com Croatia www.gisdata.hr Hungary www.esrihu.hu Iceland www.samsyn.is Israel www.systematics.co.il Italy www.esriitalia.it Malta www.geosys.com.mt Moldova www.trimetrica.com The Netherlands www.esrinl.com Norway www.geodata.no Poland www.esripolska.com.pl Portugal www.esri-portugal.pt Romania www.esriro.ro Russia www.dataplus.ru Slovak Republic www.arcgeo.sk Slovenia www.gisdata.hr Spain www.esri-es.com Sweden www.esri-sgroup.se Switzerland www.esri-suisse.ch Turkey www.esriturkey.com.tr Ukraine www.ecomm.kiev.ua UK/Ireland www.esriuk.com Taking Spatial ETL Technology to New Heights With the release of FME 2010 in January, Safe Software is emphasizing its stated commitment to improve spatial data access for organizations across the globe. In fact, the technology has been enhanced in ways that make spatial data more accessible – and potentially more useful – than ever before. According to Safe, usability enhancements in FME 2010 bring greater productivity for existing users, speed the learning curve for people that are new to the product, and enable faster adoption, broader deployment and creative new applications of FME technology throughout an organization. By the editors Greater Data Access and Sharing Safe Software has reported that nearly 1,000 of the improvements introduced in FME 2010 are a direct result of customer feedback. Users iden- tified specific changes in FME that could help them to improve spatial data access and address their data interoperability challenges. As with previous releases, FME 2010 continues to expand its support for various data formats and coordinate systems to provide what Safe calls “unparalleled data accessibility” – and facil- itate greater sharing. This includes not only adding support for a wide variety of new for- mats and coordinate systems, but also enhanc- ing the way the software handles current popu- lar formats, including 3D. For instance, based on customer feedback it became clear to the Safe Software team that GIS professionals are facing increasing demands to share their spatial data with non-GIS users and decision makers. To better facilitate this shar- ing, many FME users turn to familiar output for- mats, such as Google Earth (KML) and Adobe Acrobat (PDF), and FME 2010 is designed to make the creation and output of these formats much faster and easier. According to Safe, FME 2010 now supports more than 250 different data formats overall, further empowering GIS professionals to share information with new user communities. This includes new support for common statistics for- mats including IBM PASW (SPSS), R Statistical Data and SAS (Statistical Analysis System). The company highlights that this statistical format support opens up a whole new category of business applications for use with FME, ideally allowing improved GIS planning, analysis and decision making. 18 Ar t i cl e March 2010 With FME 2010, users can integrate a variety of data types to create a realistic, integrated 3D model. FME 2010 As has been highlighted many times in the pages of GeoInformatics, there is a growing market interest in 3D data access and model- ing. To address this need, FME 2010 has been enhanced to deliver expanded support for these 3D formats, including vastly enhanced 3D object texture handling. By enabling users to create realistic multi-dimensional models that integrate data from a wide variety of data types, FME 2010 should facilitate both better data visualization and improved communication. Among the changes: FME 2010 now includes support for Autodesk Civil 3D and 3ds, COLLA- DA, Google Sketchup and Presagis OpenFlight. The new release also introduces support for 1,850 additional coordinate systems, bringing the complete total to more than 5,300. So whatever coordinate systems end-users require, they can quickly get usable data. Dynamic Workflow, Faster Workspace Design According to Safe, FME 2010’s new dynamic workflows will provide users with greater flexi- bility and convenience, saving time and improv- ing efficiency under a wide variety of scenarios. These workflows (called workspaces in FME) allow GIS professionals to use either the origi- nal source schema or a separate schema tem- plate at runtime, creating workspaces that are entirely schema-independent. Users can thus design workspaces and perform translations on any dataset at any time, and can even create a single workspace to perform quick translations, and even transformations, on multiple source datasets whose schema is unpredictable. Conversely, users can build a template workspace to quickly repeat the same transla- tion or transformation task. In all of these scenarios, building a dynamic workflow should save design and maintenance time, while minimizing the number of workspaces that need to be created. Ulf Månsson of SWECO, a Safe Software reseller in Sweden that’s been testing the new approach has already found dynamic workflows to be a huge benefit. SWECO has been using FME 2010 with the City of Göteborg to perform coordinate system conversions to meet new national requirements. “Our clients can now focus on the tasks that are interesting, not schema map- ping,” said Månsson. Dynamic workflows also improve the efficiency of SWECO’s teams. “As consultants, this makes us more efficient as we can give our clients their results and feedback immediately. We work on projects with thousands of datasets, and dynamic workflows are now saving us tremen- dous amounts of time. For example, we can strengthened the security options to match. These changes should allow both greater flexi- bility and improved control at an enterprise or organizational level. For example, new security capabilities provide granular data access controls so that GIS pro- fessionals can ensure that despite broad deploy- ment, they are sharing spatial data only with authorized users and preventing unauthorized access. FME Server 2010’s flexible security frame- work should simplify and somewhat automate this process by allowing tighter integration with- in an existing environment, supporting common directory services such as LDAP-based Microsoft Active Directory integration, and delivering SSL encryption for web access. FME has long been known for its desktop and server configurations, and for 2010 the compa- ny has added support for deployment “in the cloud”. This should provide considerably greater IT flexibility, for instance by allowing organiza- tions to take advantage of the cloud’s resource support during peak periods of FME use. FME 2010 also provides for greater interoper- ability and fewer cross-platform restrictions, ensuring that organizations can deploy the soft- ware on their preferred system (Windows, Linux or Solaris). And FME 2010 offers a technology preview of Windows 64-bit, for those organiza- tions interested in added horsepower on the Microsoft platform. Safe Software and Spatial ETL Thanks to its broad deployment and years of proven reliability, FME represents the gold stan- dard in spatial ETL for many in the industry. Safe Software appears to have taken this responsibility to heart with FME 2010, provid- ing nearly unlimited flexibility in data model transformation and distribution, and delivering the industry’s most extensive format support for data translation and integration. In March, Safe Software co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz, along with other Safe team mem- bers, will kick off 2010: AN FME ODDYSSEY, a 10-city tour across North America geared toward helping users to solve common data access challenges. According to the company, atten- dees will learn all about the latest enhance- ments in FME 2010, and better still from our perspective, have the opportunity to discover how peers are navigating the vast universe of spatial data challenges. The company will also participate in FME User meetings in March and April across Europe, including the UK, Germany and France. Internet: www.safe.com now easily replicate huge datasets, not only files but even entire spatial databases with a single workspace,” explained Månsson. On a related note, new usability enhancements help users more rapidly design and maintain these workspaces from the start. Layout enhancements in the product’s graphical user interface, FME Workbench, improve efficiency by putting a broad spectrum of tools at your fingertips, including automated transformer help. With FME 2010’s Quick Add Transformers, a user can type directly in a workspace canvas to add transformers, eliminating the need to search, click and drag. With the new Workspace Search feature, users can quickly find any object in a workspace from attribute names and trans- formers, to bookmarks, comments, and more. Additional improvements to FME’s data trans- formers both strengthen existing options, and create new transformers that should add flexi- bility and speed to a user’s workspace design experience. For example, FME users working with KML output datasets will benefit from the latest refinements to the KMLStyler, which has been simplified to make output settings more easily understandable. New KML transformers such as the KMLTour - Builder and the KMLViewSetter also make it easy to create a guided end user experience through an output dataset, and the new KMLTimeSetter helps users create timeline play- backs for data which is time sensitive, such as analysis for a tsunami or tornado event. In another response to customer feedback, FME 2010 speeds creation of transformation work- flows by offering a new tester family, filter fam- ily, styling family, and much more. The rede - signed transformer dialogs that are grouped into similar tasks, help users more easily set parameters. Tapping into fmepedia, an online encyclopedia of FME technical information and examples, through FME Workbench, users also have instant access to useful resources like a user-submitted custom transformer. And in keeping with Safe Software’s historical emphasis on steady performance improvements for greater usability, FME 2010 is faster and more responsive throughout, with key areas seeing speed increases of more than 20 per- cent according to company representatives. Broader Deployment Options, Powerful Security Deployment and security were two key areas of focus in the new release, according to Safe. Considerable customer feedback led the com- pany to add a SaaS-based “cloud computing” option for deploying to the existing desktop and server configurations for FME. Safe has also Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 19 March 2010 For Avon Fire & Rescue Service Making Firefighting Safer with GIS Fire and rescue services need to be armed with accurate risk information if they’re to respond to emergencies effectively. Simon Cottingham, Public Safety Strategist at ESRI (UK), looks at how the innovative use of geographic information systems (GIS), is helping one of the UK’s Fire & Rescue Services become better informed and therefore safer when responding to incidents. By Simon Cottingham Entering a burning building without knowing what’s on the other side of the door is one of the dangers that firefighters face every day. Traditional systems used to capture risk infor- mation about a building’s lay-out, usage or con- struction provide a degree of protection but are largely paper-based, with limitations in terms of accuracy, currency and distribution of infor- mation. In addressing this challenge, one pio- neering fire service has adopted a GIS solution from ESRI (UK), which helps record all neces- sary risk data relating to a building but also greatly improves how information is accessed and shared with every fire station in the area. Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) watches over almost 1,500km2 and a million people in south west Britain, covering the areas of Bath, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. With headquarters in Bristol city centre, the service has 23 fire stations, almost 900 firefighters and last year attended over 13,000 incidents. While firefighting remains at the forefront of its work, the service is also focused on protection and prevention. Gathering Risk Information Along with all other UK Fire & Rescue Services, one of Avon’s responsibilities is to provide risk assessments of large or significant buildings within their area, in accordance with UK legis- lation. Involving routine inspections, these pro- vide vital information about a specific building and potential hazards within its immediate area, to reduce the risks if a crew ever has to respond to an incident at that location. The majority of fire services store this informa- tion in a paper-based system which makes it time consuming to update and difficult to share. Each of Avon’s 23 fire stations had a folder, for example, containing written information and pictures relating to premises in the area and these were updated by annual inspections. Steve Cornish, Station Manager and Project Manager for AF&RS, explains: “Manually updat- ing the information would involve crews inspecting buildings, subsequently passing the information to another team member back at base to input all the data. When responding to an incident, the folder would be consulted but if more than one station was involved in a major incident, they would not have access to this information until they arrived at the scene.” 20 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Avon Fire and Rescue Service Vehicle Avon began looking for a different method of managing its risk information to make respond- ing to incidents safer for its crews. After evalu- ating available solutions, AF&RS felt that ESRI (UK) could provide the most suitable option. “ESRI (UK) was the only firm that could provide what we wanted – namely a system which could make us more efficient at gathering information and improve our ability to share that data quick- ly and easily,” commented Cornish. Pioneering Fire and Rescue Service ESRI (UK)’s DragonMap solution, which uses the ESRI ArcGIS platform, went live in October 2009 following a short pilot phase. It is believed that AF&RS is currently the UK’s first service to use GIS in this way. Now each fire station uses a ruggedised laptop to conduct risk inspections, inputting all the necessary data using drag-and-drop icons onto maps and building plans, stored in an ESRI ArcGIS server. The information is then upload- ed to a central database on return to the sta- tion, removing the need for re-keying or tran- scribing of notes. When any station sub sequently connects its laptop to the system, it simultaneously receives all updates available for the entire Avon area. “We wanted to ensure we could provide the latest risk information to crews about individu- al buildings, so they could look at it on the way to an incident,” said Cornish. “Our 23 fire sta- tions now have access to a single view of all the current risk data across our whole area, enabling better preparation and decision-mak- ing, especially when attending an area they’re not familiar with.” DragonMap provides a simple but accurate method of capturing risk data on to building plans and maps – any information which might help a crew respond in the safest possible way. Originally developed to help the military cap- ture intelligence in the field, the software was designed for non-GIS specialists, where the gathering of location-based information had to be as simple as possible and not require a user to learn a complex piece of software. The user interface was created to be clear and intuitive with a simple drag-and-drop system (hence the name Drag-on-Map), using pre-deter- mined icons to represent hazards, objects or what-ever is required. DragonMap lets the user place the icons at the correct spot on a map of a building layout or its surroundings, then eas- ily add notes, web links and even digital pho- tos. For a fire and rescue service, this provides a very simple, quick and accurate way to record all potential risks at a site in a consistent way. a major incident at Bristol’s BOC (British Oxygen Company) bottling depot. A fire caused by a gas explosion involving a number of acetylene cylin- ders saw AF&RS attend the scene for eight days using multiple stations. “We used DragonMap to locate the best sources of water, using the hydrant data layer,” explained Cornish. “A sig- nificant volume of cooling water was required and as several stations from the area were involved, all engines needed to find it easily. Normally crews know where hydrants are but if you’re coming in from the surrounding area, being able to see them on a map with their exact location makes it a lot quicker.” Protecting Firefighters and the Public With the majority of risk assessment at UK fire services still underpinned by paper-based sys- tems, AF&RS is showing how the smart use of new technology can be applied to help create a greater, shared, situational understanding and reduce risk in what is already a dangerous pro- fession. For fire and rescue services the world over, AF&RS serves as a great example of how GIS can be implemented in day-to-day opera- tions to improve safety. Future plans include expanding the system to give a more in-depth understanding of the area’s infrastructure, by incorporating more data layers such as utilities, drainage or open water supplies. This can be a challenge as such data is often held in many different file formats. However, with ESRI’s ArcGIS able to read over 70 different spatial data formats, AF&RS should find itself in a good position when it is ready to take this step. “DragonMap helps us protect the public and our firefighters,” concluded Cornish. “Improving access to risk data helps increase both the safety of people in a building, as fire- fighters can respond more effectively, but also the safety of fire crews as they’re a lot better informed.” Simon Cottingham
[email protected], Public Safety Strategist at ESRI (UK) For more information on DragonMap please visit: www.esriuk.com/dragonmap ESRI (UK) would like to thank the team at AF&RS for their assistance in the production of this article. More Efficient Data Capture Crews have taken well to the new method of data collection, as Cornish highlights: “Data capture has become a lot easier with DragonMap. The new system gives ownership of the whole process to fire crews, which they’ve responded well to. After some training, all per- sonnel feel at home taking the laptops out for inspections and when attending incidents.” In total, Avon has 37 laptops across 23 stations, one for each of its front-line response vehicles. Every laptop has been configured so that only the designated operators at each respective sta- tion can update the map information. When data is uploaded to the central database host- ed at the headquarters in Bristol, all informa- tion is double-checked to ensure consistency. “The risk assessment process begins with each station identifying the buildings they want to inspect. And because they know their station areas, they’re familiar with which premises might cause potential problems. Over a 12 month period, a rolling programme will then see several premises inspected every month,” said Cornish. On a first inspection, crews use DragonMap to identify the outline of the premises it needs to inspect. Once saved onto the system, firefight- ers start applying the icons. AF&RS use sym- bols to represent a wide range of information, including building usage, number or expected occupants day or night, construction methods, location of hazardous materials, plus other details such as access routes or hydrant loca- tions. Notes might be added, such as ‘storage of 10,000 litres of diesel fuel’ or ‘Asbestos roof tiles’ etc. All information is added as ‘layers’ on the map, which can be switched on or off. Seeing the Bigger Picture In addition to icons at the plan level, DragonMap also enables different layers of data to be displayed along with maps of different scales. When responding to an incident, crews can use the GIS to zoom out and see a build- ing in the context of its surroundings and locate the best access route, water hydrants and neighbouring properties. “Having DragonMap in the cab on the way to an incident gives crews an overall picture of the situation but also the finer details. Being able to access risk data quickly helps reduce potential harm to firefight- ers and the public but also limit any damage to property and disruption. The more we know about what we’re facing the better,” Cornish continued. In early January 2010, only a few weeks after the system went live, DragonMap was used in Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 21 March 2010 Definiens’ eCognition Server Software Object-based Image Analysis Definiens is a company active in image analysis. Not restricted to the geospatial market only, the company offers solutions for all kinds of imagery used in life sciences and the medical world. GeoInformatics interviewed Ralph D. Humberg, Vice President of Definiens Earth Sciences division. Mr. Humberg joined Definiens in 2002 and is responsible for Definiens' global Earth Sciences business. He talks about eCognition, Definiens’ image analysis software used for Earth Sciences. The latest release of the software is eCognition version 8, issued in November last year, along with a new internet portal. By Eric van Rees Question: With version 8 you re-re-named your software back to eCognition. What was the reason for that “back- to-the-roots” naming? Ralph Humberg: Definiens introduced object-based image analysis to the geo-sciences industry in 2001 with the release of our eCognition desktop software, see text box 1. We utilized the eCognition brand name for the first four versions of our desktop software. As imaging data sets grew in complexity and size, Definiens pioneered client-serv- er capabilities beginning with eCognition version 5. With a broadened suite of products associated with our client-server offerings, we intro- duced additional brand names. Our server has always been known as “eCognition” and the brand name possesses a great deal of cachet in the industry. We believe the majority of the geo-sciences community is now moving toward client-server processing and with the introduction of eCognition version 8, we now refer to the complete product suite under the “eCognition” brand. Q: Many people are convinced of the power of the software, but they find it very complicated to use or to understand the principles behind it. Have you done any technical developments to make the “world of OBIA (object-based image analysis, see text box 2)” more understandable for the non-experts? RH: As the leading provider of OBIA for the geo-sciences, we have a large user community, with an installed base of 3000 licensees in more than 80 countries. These users encompass a myriad of disciplines, from remote sensing to geology, hydrology, forestry and urban planning - all of which require image analysis technology. Traditionally, geo-spatial image analysis software has been structured around remote sensing domain expertise. Simplifying that expertise so that it is accessible by increasingly wider audiences of non-experts across diverse industries is something we take very seriously. In the last few years we have noticed a distinction between our advanced 22 I nt er vi ew March 2010 eCognition 8 comes with full 3D image analysis capabilities. Within the eCognition Labs section of our community, this functionality, which is still in its infancy for LiDAR analysis, is provided to our scientific user base. and our more casual users, and this has informed our product develop- ment. In eCognition 8, a new “QuickMap” start-up mode enables our casual users to readily complete a number of common image analysis tasks. A simplified graphical interface, comprising ”click-and-classify” type tools, allows users to perform image analysis using important segmenta- tion algorithms and classification standards. This built-in workflow was developed using findings from training sessions with customers and remote sensing students and is designed to be intuitive. Exploring some of the more complex functionality requires an investment of time, but our advanced users know this investment is justified, as eCognition enables them to extract features and detect changes like no other software. We have also invested heavily in the development of an online communi- ty to facilitate knowledge sharing and building. A broad range of pre-devel- oped rule-sets and applications are available online, along with self-learn- ing materials. Q: With version 8 you have introduced many new features to eCognition. Can you outline these and briefly explain the most important ones? RH: eCognition 8 represents the first of a new generation of image analy- sis technologies that takes OBIA into entirely new dimensions. Our rapid advancement stems in part from Definiens' significant investment in med- ical imaging research and development. By leveraging technology devel- oped for 3D MRI and CT image analysis, we have been able to tackle new and exciting applications in the area of geo-data analysis. For example, eCognition 8 can load and rasterize native LiDAR (.las) files, fuse them with stacks of other data, such as high resolution images, and conduct object-based image analysis in three dimensions. Future versions of eCognition will significantly expand 3D functionality. The new “QuickMap” mode is another important feature because it not only provides a simple interface for new users, but is also the first of what we believe will be many standardized applications designed for eCognition. Performance was another important aspect to this release. The “maps and regions” function allows users to save processing time by analyzing differ- ent geographical features via tailored segmentation approaches. While other software packages employ the same analysis approach to an entire image, eCognition segments objects of interest, such as forests or rivers, using feature-specific approaches within the same image, processing the remainder of a scene in lower resolution. The result is a more accurate analysis of data with less processing time. Finally, a strong focus on production workflows has resulted in a number of new features designed for building powerful semi-automatic processing and editing environments – including image object generalization which produces GIS-ready output. Q: With the introduction of version 8 of – now again – eCognition you also launched a new internet user portal. Is this portal meant for support purposes only or is there something more behind it? RH: While product support is certainly an important element, our eCognition community web portal provides users with a host of opportu- nities; we designed the portal as a center for knowledge sharing and user collaboration. In the last few years we have noticed that local eCognition communities were sprouting up in many countries, organizing their own conferences or engaging in informal collaboration. We decided to provide our user com- munity with a centralized online location to enable more streamlined inter- action and collaboration, launching the eCognition online community in July 2009. The response has been very encouraging and in just six months our online community has grown to almost 1900 members. The eCognition community is equipped with infrastructure for rule-set and application exchange. So, for example, a forestry professional in Australia can easily upload a rule-set for a project that can be downloaded and used by a colleague in the United Kingdom. The community also provides collaborative learning and teaching space, with user demonstrations, blogs, message boards and video and image file sharing capabilities. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com I nt er vi ew 23 March 2010 The Principles of Object-based Image Analysis In conventional automated image analysis, “objects of interest” are identified using a series of pixel-based filters. These filters, such as intensity thresholds and gradients, compare pixels to their neighbors. The goal is to transform the original image so that the areas of inter- est can be extracted by simple threshold measures. In developing Definiens Cognition Network Technology, our company founder Gerd Binnig and his team made a radical departure from this pixel-based approach. Definiens Cognition Network Technology is object-based: It does not simply identify the “objects of interest” but all of the intermediate objects together with their interrelationships (context). In effect, a model is built which is represented by Definiens’ unique Cognition Network. This stores all of the objects, sub-objects and their semantic relation- ships in a clear hierarchy. The difference in approach is profound. It is the contextual information contained in the Cognition Network that enables the automated extrac- tion of information – in exactly the same way as a human being makes sense of the image. eCognition Definiens eCognition is image analysis software for fast, accurate geo- spatial information extraction from any kind of remote sensing imagery. It has been used by data providers, value adders and remote sensing professionals for nearly a decade. Definiens eCognition offers a comprehensive range of tools to create powerful image analysis applications that can handle all common data sources, such as medium to high resolution satellite data, very high res- olution aerial photography, LiDAR, radar and even hyperspectral data. The eCognition product suite comprises three different components which can be used independently or in combination to solve the most challenging image analysis tasks: • eCognition Developer is the development environment for object- based image analysis. It is used to develop rule sets (or applications for eCognition Architect) for the automatic analysis of remote sensing data. • eCognition Architect enables non-technical professionals such as veg- etation mapping experts, urban planners or foresters to leverage Definiens technology. Users can easily configure, calibrate and exe- cute image analysis workflows created in eCognition Developer. • eCognition Server provides a processing environment for the batch execution of image analysis jobs. Text box 1. Text box 2. In terms of product support, the community hosts a range of self-learning materials, with open discussion forums, a frequently updated FAQ section and a knowledge wiki utilized by Definiens consultants, trainers and users alike. Over time, we envisage the eCognition community as an environment for creating, downloading and sharing image analysis applications. The com- munity is a vital component of the Definiens user experience. Q: Can you imagine that there will some day be a kind of “eCognition solutions market” where the users themselves are in business? RH: Absolutely, and that day is not far away! A central part of our strate- gy is to create such an online applications marketplace. OBIA has become an instrumental tool for many disciplines and these disparate and diverse projects require a range of applications. While Definiens will continue to develop applications for users, we also want the whole community engaged in this process. We anticipate eCognition will host an open appli- cation marketplace, so that all users can share in the monetization of application development. Q: Can you briefly explain how eCognition can be coupled with other types of Geo-Software in order to gain and process geo-information from images? RH: On a file level, eCognition has always been well integrated into the Geo processing workflow. The software supports a large number of raster formats, vector and now also point cloud data. There are three main areas in which eCognition can be coupled with other geo-spatial software. First, the software can be utilized with GIS repositories, such as ArcGIS from ESRI or GE’s Smallworld. Second, the software can be used in conjunc- tion with traditional pre-processing remote-sensing software, such as those provided by PCI, Erdas and ENVI. Finally, eCognition can be used with geo-databases and representations of data, such as Oracle’s databases or InfoSERVER from ESRI, a feature that is becoming increasingly important. The most common workflow involves data being exported from the remote- sensing software and imported into eCognition, but there are instances in which back-loops are established. For example, Definiens eCognition can import GIS layers, analyze them and export them to GIS software. For customers who require more specific workflow integration, the soft- ware’s development kit allows system integration on all levels. Q: Your technology is also used in other application fields – mainly in medical imaging and life sciences. Can you tell us something about the mutual influences of the different application fields on the development of the software products (e.g. 3D imaging)? RH: The synergies between healthcare and geo-spatial industries may not always be immediately obvious. In the geo-sciences we tend to look at images of large sections of the earth’s surface, while healthcare images are scrutinized down to the cellular level. Nonetheless, the principles of object-based image analysis inherent to Definiens’ technology can be applied across industries. For example, the broad adoption of OBIA driven by our Earth Sciences practice led to the development of client-server capabilities to handle large data sets. From our Medical Imaging practice area, new approaches for object-based 3D and 4D image analysis were developed and transferred to our Earth Sciences business, where they are now being utilized with LiDAR data in eCognition 8. From our Life Sciences business, the struc- tured workflows required for cell-based image analysis led to the devel- opment of our eCognition Architect for solutions development. Eric van Rees is editor in chief of GeoInformatics. Many thanks to Peter Hoffman. For more information on Definiens, have a look at http://earth.definiens.com. 24 I nt er vi ew March 2010 Screen capture of the eCognition Developer 8 user interface Screen capture of a LiDAR application in the eCognition Architect 8 user interface The eCognition community is the number one resource for everything related to eCognition - for experienced as well as novice users. www.topcon.eu Capture geo-referenced 360 degree images and point clouds with any car in your fleet SURVEY AT SPEED g r a f i t - w e r b e a g e n t u r . d e Innovating Knowledge Engineering 1Spatial and High Quality Geospatial Data 1Spatial is an innovator in the field of knowledge engineering. This term covers geospatial data integration, harmonization and quality control. With this, the company is putting high quality geospatial data at the centre of its universe. GeoInformatics asked 1Spatial’s Business Development Director Steven Ramage about its current activities in the geospatial business and how new technologies and concepts influence the way people think about geospatial data. By Eric van Rees Question: 1Spatial’s focus is on geospatial data integration, harmonization and quality control. One of the services 1Spatial offers is online data quality validation. Could you describe exactly how this process works and what other important solutions 1Spatial offers in its key activities today (Radius Studio product for example)? Steven Ramage: 1Spatial has always placed high qual- ity geospatial data at the centre of our universe. In the last five years, advances in service oriented archi- tectures, digital bandwidth and the advent of grid and cloud computing have meant that we can now con- sider providing online services more easily. This means we can enable a much wider range of users to access our technology, reducing their investment in both equipment and expertise required to main- tain it. A good example of our capabilities in this area would be from our participation in the Tele Atlas and Oracle Innovation Center for Geospatial and Location Based Services. Our contribution to the Innovation Center is in the form of geospatial data quality checking as an online service. The target audience is anyone creating, man- aging or integrating geospatial data with other geospatial data or non-spatial data. The online geospatial data quality validation service uses Radius Studio as a rules-based data integration and quality control platform to measure data quality in terms of logical and semantic consistency. Radius Studio is a web-based, middle tier application for transforming, analyzing, processing and modeling the often complex relationships between different features in the landscape. It works by uploading a customer dataset into the Radius Studio object data cache and then applying spatial and non-spatial rules to determine whether the data conforms to defined levels of quality. This is a critical activity that must be undertaken prior to any centralization and/or harmonization of data to repurpose and reuse the dataset. Radius Studio is hosted on an appli- cation server such as Oracle Fusion Middleware and can import data from a wide variety of relational databases and GIS data formats. As an example, the service can be used to perform change detection for road network data from two different versions of the Tele Atlas MultiNet database. As part of the Innovation Center we demonstrated the use case for clas- sifying change detection for two different versions of the Tele Atlas Multinet Road Network Dataset, using the topological structuring capa- bilities of Radius Studio. Once structured, the rules engine detected places where changes in geometry have occurred in the data. These changes were then classified in terms of split and merged features, par- tially changed, trimmed or extended, new or deleted features. The results of the change detection use case were then viewed through Oracle MapViewer (see Fig 1). As a multi-user, web-based application, Radius Studio is ideally suited to implementation in a Software as a Service business model. 26 I nt er vi ew March 2010 Figure 1 View areas where data has changed using Radius Studio rules-based approach 1Spatial was also involved in what Antti Jakobsson, the ESDIN Programme Manager from EuroGeographics, described as a ‘World first’ with a quali- ty evaluation web service as part of ESDIN Work Package 8 – Metadata and quality guidelines. These online data quality validation services rep- resent just one activity within our mission to aid economic development by unlocking geospatial data and empowering business. Everything we do is designed to achieve increased automation within the geospatial data supply chain. Our view is that this is key to increasing operational efficiency and ensuring that our customers can focus their resources on analyzing and utilizing their data, and not be burdened with collecting and managing it. We group geospatial data integration, harmonization and quality control together under the term Knowledge Engineering; this is a key objective when automating processes across the geospatial data supply chain as represented by Figure 2. The management of knowledge is very much enhanced by using location effectively. Our skills in geospatial data processing therefore provide a very effective platform for knowledge engineering. The ultimate aim for us is Knowledge Access, which is where the real economic benefit is derived as organizations can share and reuse knowledge. We provide a range of tools and systems that optimize the query of multiple knowl- edge bases by using spatial indexes and by organizing information based on its location. At the start of the supply chain are the data providers, who collect and organize the raw geospatial data and then turn it into information prod- ucts. We provide them with Enterprise Information Architectures based on mainstream IT workflows for orchestrating service-oriented compo- nents. These geospatial data management and information processing solutions support: • maintenance of accurate, consistent and up-to-date production databases • generation of real-world, change-driven products • automated map generalization to create more products using the same resources • increased delivery frequency of products while benefiting from higher quality • reduced long-term costs through automation and reduced manual inter- vention Last year at the prestigious CC The Exchange conference in the UK we presented on 'Generalization: from research to reality.' This was to high- light that 1Spatial is actively and successfully collaborating with industry colleagues in this complex area of geospatial data management and help- ing them to deliver business benefit. We held a workshop which addressed the business aspects of generalization. It explained how generalization needs to be considered as part of any geospatial data investment or data management strategy. There was also a short demonstration of general- ization in action and a presentation from one of our European generaliza- tion customers in Germany (Sabine Urbanke from Landesvermessungsamt Baden-Württemberg). As organizations strive to achieve greater operational efficiency and do more with less, we know generalization offers a solu- tion. Q: In a recent article*, you wrote about what is happening to spatial data in the EU, in terms of INSPIRE, data quality and SDIs. Here the topic of funding is addressed: in normal circumstances additional funding would be made available for facilitating labor-intensive work matching classes and attributes in the source schema against the target schema of metadata, ensuring data quality. Given that the current economic times are not normal, did this influence the quality of current INSPIRE datasets or is this something that could be a problem in the future? If so, what can be done to counter it so that data quality can be assured? (* www.directionsmag.com/printer.php?article_id=3380) SR: It depends on your definition of current INSPIRE datasets, but cer- tainly there will be issues with the base reference mapping or master reference data that is being used to deliver INSPIRE compliant datasets. No geospatial dataset is perfect, at least not in perpetuity. Data is con- stantly changing and there are increasingly large volumes, so captur- ing, managing and integrating the change in these master reference datasets will introduce the same issues that any other non-INSPIRE geospatial datasets will have to address; now and in the future. I recently presented a paper on ‘SDIs and regional competitiveness’ and also transcribed that presentation into an article for another online publication. The basic tenet was that the overriding goals of many SDIs or regional SDIs like INSPIRE are tackling environmental awareness, emergency preparedness, disaster response and the like. However, eco- nomic benefits are also accrued and can potentially be used to main- tain current levels of funding or obtain more funding by proving the value of GI to the wider economy. So funding can be part of the pic- ture if the geospatial data are perceived to be adding value. For the data to be adding value they obviously need to be trusted. One of the main problems with INSPIRE is the number of data providers covering the different data themes. Data may be coming in from a num- ber of organizations that have all collected the data in different ways and for different purposes. A decision also has to be made regarding the master data set at a sub-national and national level in order to comply with INSPIRE Directive and provide the most suitable, up-to- date and accurate datasets. The data then have to be repurposed so they are fit for the purpose of INSPIRE reporting; this includes aspects like schema transformation from the source data schema to the target INSPIRE schema, which is currently a manual process. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com I nt er vi ew 27 March 2010 Steven Ramage We are involved in two important projects that are working to docu- ment best practice in geospatial data management and create the tech- nical guidance for using Network Services to transform data to INSPIRE schemas. ESDIN is the former, where we are working closely with EuroGeographics and a number of their member organizations, as well as others from the geospatial community. The other exercise is being funded by the JRC as part of a contract with the European Commission. Investigations undertaken to date suggest that data quality needs to be viewed as an iterative process that ensures that data conforms to a set of quality rules at different stages of the supply chain. We expect that over the period of INSPIRE implementation, these quality rules will be codified according to ISO quality principles so that quality assur- ance will become an accepted part of the geospatial data supply chain. All data can then be shared, queried and trusted. Q: In addition to the last question, how do you value crowd sourcing or user-generated data as opposed to ‘traditionally’- generated data sources? Will the high quality data sources from authoritative organizations that have strong metadata be found to be more trustworthy because of this in the future? SR: Again it depends on the purpose or end use for those data – qual- ity can only be described and measured according to fitness for a par- ticular purpose. There is a great paper dedicated to this topic (Coote and Rackham, AGI 2008), which states: “Quality is a relative, there are no absolutes. Saying something is of high or low quality is meaningless unless it is expressed as a measure against a production specification or a user requirement.” So I think it is fair to say that traditional data sources have well-estab- lished and more rigorous production specifications and quality con- trolled procedures than newer, user-generated data. However, by the introduction of robust processes and technologies that enable efficient checking of large amounts of data against the defined levels of quality, then there is no reason why crowd sourced data can’t be used to sup- plement and enrich the traditional data sources. Our technology sup- ports this kind of data integration; enabling users to cherry pick the data they need, irrespective of the data source. Over time it will be the business model that will ultimately drive and support the value of the data. Metadata is an issue for all data sets; it is still a fairly manual and labour intensive (maybe even boring) task. If we can convince all orga- nizations to maintain extensive, complete, standards-based metadata, irrespective of their method of data capture, then maybe those data will be trustworthy and become the gold standard data. Q: In the same article as mentioned above, you state that the future direction of SDIs in Europe will change as a result of data transformation activities that are needed to achieve INSPIRE interoperability and effective data reuse. “Essentially the data will be in the form of common object models, which in turn will lead to a new generation of applications and solution providers in Europe”. What kind of applications and solution providers are you addressing here? Also, do you see a role for web services and consumer-type applications, so that people can easily access data sets and combine them? SR: The new generation of applications and solution providers will be those who have the capability and flexibility to work directly with the object models emerging from INSPIRE, as well as data arising from gov- ernment initiatives to enable PSI (public sector information) reuse. If you look at the Cadastral Parcels data theme for INSPIRE, then this refers typically to data linked to land registration activities in EU Member States. There are companies emerging all the time who are finding unique ways to take location data that is being made freely available and reuse it to create new business models around the land registra- tion area, for example in Norway where Statens kartverk made a recent announcement in this area regarding freely available data. A number of activities are already underway to provide greater access to data sets across Europe. For example, the British Government has engaged Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to promote and support an initiative called data.gov.uk. This is a govern- ment website being used to drive free access to public sector data for reuse, this also includes geospatial data. In a TED conference almost one year ago Sir Tim chose OpenStreetMap (OSM) to get his point across about the benefits of sharing data and used OSM to highlight the power and prevalence of geospatial data, since geospatial data is a large ele- ment of public sector data. Berners-Lee is actively promoting the concept of linked data, which is linked to the Semantic Web and relates to how the Internet can be used to expose, share and connect data. On 10th March Ordnance Survey Great Britain is hosting a free seminar on this topic – it is called Terra future 2010. It will highlight the important role geographic information has to play in the development of linked data over the Web. 1Spatial is sup- porting this event. Once more work is done to free up the data (and also ensure its quality) then users will be able to create a wide range of applications and com- bine or aggregate them from multiple different sources, as well as share them across the Web. This is also an area where standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium will be important, but that’s another long discus- sion topic in its own right! Q: In January 2010, 1Spatial presented a co-authored paper at Map India 2010, entitled ‘SDI Considerations: A European Perspective’, in which parallels are drawn between the activities in Europe and India. Could you explain which parallels you were referring to and what lessons learned could be of use to India? SR: Most countries have national, regional and local electronic map- ping data collected over many years. While historically acceptable to produce paper maps, the usability of these data is being tested by a new generation of web and enterprise-based, location-specific services that require this spatial data to be current, precise and interoperable - internally and with data from other organizations. This is the founda- tion of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) today – providing improved access and sharing spatial data across the Web. Based on our collec- tive experience in Europe, we (1Spatial and RMSI) decided to co-author a paper (Karandikar, Ramage and Van Linden, Map India 2009). There are several aspects that are common across most SDIs and those are institutional, operational and technical challenges. Fundamental challenges that still remain include the willingness to share data and the capability for sharing geospatial data with all stakeholders. This exchange of data can be referred to as part of the geospatial data sup- ply chain, i.e. from those organizations involved in the data capture and data maintenance stages through to data sharing, subsequent use 28 I nt er vi ew March 2010 and feedback on currency and quality. The basis of sharing is gold standard data and India is no stranger to these frameworks having been intimately involved in one of the greatest surveys ever conducted, the Great Arc: “The Survey has played an invaluable role in the saga of India's nation building. In spite of sophisticated technology now becoming available, the accuracy of its measurements remains undisputed.” As one of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, in 2003 Goldman Sachs predicted that India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in current prices would over- take France and Italy by 2020, Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia by 2025 and Japan by 2035. By 2035, India is projected to be the third largest economy of the world, behind the US and China. With such growth predicted it makes sense for India to observe good pra ctice from other parts of the World where the economies are already well developed. With 28 States and a number of international borders, India could be compared to Europe from that perspective, since there are 27 EU Member States and even more borders. With regions of India the same size or larger than some European countries, there are obvious similarities between the NSDI of India and INSPIRE, i.e. both are trying to share valuable geospatial information across a wide, dispersed geo- graphical area. From this perspective an understanding of the European Spatial Data Infrastructure Network (ESDIN) project can highlight industry good prac- tice around INSPIRE and associated data management challenges. As a result of a successfully delivered project by 1Spatial and RMSI, there are also lessons to learn about the effective management of land registra- tion in Europe. Our award-winning solution at Property Registration Authority Ireland also provides ideas for good practice around spatial infrastructure management and how to take control of data for real eco- nomic development. Q: In November 2009, 1Spatial celebrated its 40th anniver- sary. Looking to the future, how do you see the year ahead for 1Spatial in 2010, and what are your predictions for data integration, quality and harmonization in general? SR: 2010 is going to be an exciting year for 1Spatial. It will see the deliv- ery of five key projects into production environments that will clearly demonstrate our unique object-oriented and rules-based technologies for geospatial data processing to help control data and achieve new levels of operational efficiency. All of these projects are based on our open enterprise architecture approach and will prove the benefits of our solu- tions at each stage of the supply chain. At Ordnance Survey Great Britain (OSGB), the Geospatial Data Management System will enter into production this year. 1Spatial designed and implemented the data management environment, the transaction management environment, the data maintenance environment and the data lifecycle management environment. We are delivering a series of components, orchestrated by Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) that will enable OSGB to respond to real-world changes as effi- ciently as possible, while maintaining their traditional quality measures. In Malaysia, two key flowlines will go into production. These have introduced our rules-based data quality improvement and automated generalization technolo- gies into the Department of Survey and Mapping (JUPEM). These flowlines will underpin JUPEM’s revolutionary approach to provide digital mapping on demand. In Australia, we will further our partner- ship with PSMA to automate the supply chain activities that integrate state level datasets into nationwide digital data products. PSMA Australia won the APSEA Innovation & Commercialisation Award for their joint project with 1Spatial for technical advances in processing conti- nental datasets. This project, utilizing 1Spatial’s data integration and qual- ity assurance platform Radius Studio, was deemed groundbreaking for both the international and domestic spatial communities. In Scotland, 1Spatial working with IDOX, will complete the delivery of the third in a series of projects to provide an ePlanning Infrastructure. The Online Development Planning system (OLDP) will introduce a groundbreak- ing approach to knowledge access, enabling plans to be designed interac- tively, linking user-specified map features to documents and legislation. Finally, as mentioned previously, 1Spatial will deliver the key technical guidance document for the Transformation Network Service, a key compo- nent in the INSPIRE programme. A prototype will be built that will vali- date this technical guidance. This contract will be a major contribution to the European geospatial community, effectively delivering the necessary technical guidance to help institutions in European Member States put into operation transformation services that are consistent with the INSPIRE Implementing Rules. The consortium is being led by RSW Geomatics in conjunction with 1Spatial and Rob Walker Consultancy, all based in Cambridge, UK. The contract was awarded by the Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. 1Spatial is an innovator in the field of knowledge engineering. We believe that 2010 will be the year when our efforts, energy and leadership in this area will come to fruition. We predict that by the end of 2010, rules engines, object processing and object relational mapping will be seen as the key enablers in making geospatial data truly operational and adding value across a wide range of organizations. Eric van Rees is editor in chief of GeoInformatics. For more information, have a look at www.1spatial.com. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com I nt er vi ew 29 March 2010 Fig. 2. Knowledge engineering across the supply chain Trimble’s Mobile Mapping Technology Belgian Road Sign Inventory Project Flemish Region - Department of Mobility and Public Works (MOW) recently initiated a sizeable road sign inventory project. Goal of the project is improving service and maintenance of speed limit, directional, informational, and priority signs in order to achieve high levels of public safety while also watching costs. Seeking innovative solutions, the Department accepted a proposal to use mobile mapping technologies. The vehicle-based mobile mapping system from Trimble is streamlining the project. By Rebecca Muhlenkort The country of Belgium has a rich history characterized by diverse cultures and a strong sense of community that can be organized around three population groups and languages: Dutch, French and German. Specifically, the Flemish Region of Belgium is the territorial entity that comprises the Dutch speaking areas of the country. Within that territo- ry, Flemish Region - Department of Mobility and Public Works (in Dutch: Vlaamse Overheid - Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken or MOW) focuses on all issues related to transportation and infrastructure. MOW recently initiated a sizeable road sign inventory project with the goal of improving service and maintenance of speed limit, directional, informational, and priority signs in order to achieve high levels of pub- lic safety while also watching costs. The massive project area spans five provinces and a distance of 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles). Mobile Mapping Technologies Seeking innovative solutions, MOW accepted GeoInvent’s proposal to use mobile mapping technologies. GeoInvent is a European mobile mapping services company and data producer that provides multifunctional and multipurpose solutions for the creation of high accuracy spatial invento- ries. Carl Deroanne, Sales Manager at GeoInvent, and his team recom- mended a road sign detection and recognition solution that includes a vehicle-based asset inventory system from the Trimble GeoSpatial Division. Given the scale and high accuracy requirements of the inventory project, more traditional manual based survey methods that solely utilize Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology and Geographic Information System (GIS) software were dismissed. According to C. Deroanne, these methodologies are often plagued with high traffic man- agement costs, lengthy timelines, as well as increased safety risks for road crews and field surveyors on the highways. The Trimble Mobile Data Capture System utilizes advanced photogram- metric techniques and integrated sensors to achieve georeferenced data capture, extraction, and analysis. Sensors include high resolution digital cameras, laser scanners, and positioning systems comprised of GNSS, inertial, and Distance Measurement Indicator (DMI) systems. The position- ing systems combine to ensure accurate determination of the vehicle loca- tion and orientation at all times. Survey images and data are then trans- 30 Ar t i cl e March 2010 GeoInvent Systeme dAcquisition Mobile (SAM), Mobile Mapping System. ferred to the Trimble Trident-3D Analyst software package where analysts can extract and analyze asset inventory information for further measure- ment, analysis and export. In order to survey the major roads located in Flemish region of Belgium, two vans were outfitted with this equipment. The survey process was managed by approximately 50 people ranging from data acquisition software operators and drivers to data extraction analysts, road sign designers, programmers and field surveyors. Methodology The mobile mapping methodology applied to this project was organized around several phases: 1. Itinerary Planning At the initial phase of the project, GeoInvent’s team compiled a list of the sections of roads to be surveyed, spanning five provinces and 23 districts across Belgium. Divided up by kilometer markers, this data was then transferred on to a map to be used in the vehicle by field survey teams. 2. Mobile Mapping Survey Mobile mapping survey operations consisted of the collection of inte- grated imagery, laser scanning data, and positioning information, using the Trimble Mobile Data Capture Systems. These systems underwent a series of calibrations in order to guarantee precision and accuracy of the data collected. Two vans, each having a driver and an operator, were able to collect the necessary inventory data by surveying approxi- mately 50 to 100 kilometers (31 to 62 miles) a day while traveling at traffic speeds. During data collection, the Trimble Trident-3D Capture software triggered the image and laser scanner capture process and attached synchronized georeferenced locations from the positioning system at either fixed distance or time intervals. The operator was responsible for starting and stopping data capture, verifying the navi- gation data, adjusting the image quality, providing directions, and per- forming data backups as needed. 3. Detection using Laser Scanning Automation During the mobile mapping survey, data was collected from laser scan- ners that emitted beams that were reflected back to the laser scan- ner once they came into contact with objects such as road signs. Back in the office, Trimble Trident-3D Analyst detects the road signs found in the laser scanner point cloud using a batch process that works with the reflectivity of the road sign’s reflective film and customizable software filters. From this, the software is able to calculate the 3D coordinates of the signs, as well as measure all of the objects in three dimensions; calculating height, width, surface area, perimeter and any other measurement that can be performed on the asset. These mea- surements are then transferred to the appropriate attribute field, based on the previously built database (ex. directional sign, speed sign, etc.). 4. Photogrammetric Extraction Due to MOW’s extensive project requirements, GeoInvent also verified the road sign data using the georeferenced imagery collected during the mobile mapping survey. During this process, any assets that were missed by the laser scanners, either because their location was imped- ed by trees, debris or because signs were missing reflective film, were added to the database by a team of analysts using the photogram- metric capabilities in Trimble Trident-3D Analyst. In total, 350,000 road signs are in the process of being inventoried using the mobile map- ping system. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 31 March 2010 Roadway map with attributes 5. Field Survey Using field survey techniques, GeoInvent also continues to gather spe- cific manufacturer data from road signs, including information stored on a coded sticker on the back of the signs. By combining the ele- ments collected with the Trimble Mobile Data Capture System and the field survey, the team will be able to produce a complete inventory of its mapping area including: road sign XY coordinates, quantity of signs per section, orientation, dimensions, code, reflective film type, manu- facturer data and date, as well as the sign’s height above ground, the shape and size of the support used, digital photos and videos, the roadside condition, and the road name. 6. Road Sign Design After the mobile mapping and field surveys are complete and the data is processed, each road sign can be redesigned as needed using CAD software. Designers utilize the photos collected from the mobile map- ping system as well as the supporting images taken by field surveyors to more efficiently and effectively develop new signage. 7. Linear Referencing and Printing The team then uses GIS software to calculate the linear coordinates of all signs, display, and produce linework (or place geographic symbols for the road signage on the maps). Finally, once a detailed list is com- piled, the maps can be printed. Using these advanced asset inventory methodologies in combination with the Trimble Mobile Data Capture System, 350,000 road signs are being successfully inventoried. Highly accurate inventory information that is being produced is absolutely critical in the effective manage- ment of the region’s transportation networks. In addition, precise asset data is one of the most effective tools for accelerating the repair and replacement of signs in the event of an accident - a top priority for all infrastructure departments. Saving Time This project is the first large-scale semi-automated road sign inventory plan in Europe. In fact, using the automated sign detection function within Trimble Trident-3D Analyst software there was a 95 percent detec- tion of signs and less than 5 percent false detection. GeoInvent believes that the flexibility of sensors (GNSS/inertial/DMI, cameras, and laser scanners) that are integrated in the Trimble system guarantees higher levels of data compliance with a diverse range of client projects and information systems. In addition, because road asset inventory data that has been collected is reliable, accurate and detailed, including graphic representation and descriptive attributes, it can be used for future infrastructure projects as well. It is believed this advantage will continue to drive the adop- tion of mobile mapping technologies because it means that asset inven- tory data can be repackaged and repurposed for multiple projects. It is asserted that this benefit greatly extends the value of using geotech- nologies and applying photogrammetric techniques in asset manage- ment projects because it has the potential to save time and money over the lifespan of infrastructure investments, lowering the total cost of ownership of inventory data and helping clients manage project costs and budgets more effectively. Rebecca Muhlenkort, freelance writer. For more information, have a look at www.trimble.com/geospatial 32 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Roadway map with sign locations Probably the most full-featured tablet PC in the world: 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor • 2 GB DDR2 RAM • 64 GB SSD • Windows 7 Professional • 2-megapixel camera with LED light • MaxView™ technology display • 7-inch touchscreen • Dual Li-Polymer Battery Pack, 2600 mAh each • GSM/UMTS/EVDO communication • GPS, antennas integrated • 802.11b/g • Bluetooth • Gobi™ 2000 ready • Waterproof USB 2.0 and RS232 ports • 1.1 kg and 140x230x40 mm • Full MIL-STD-810G • -23 °C to 60 °C • IP65-rated • ALGIZ 7 Super-rugged, ultra-mobile www.handheldgroup.com ‘Multi-purpose’ Land Administration Systems This paper explores the role of land registers and cadastre in supporting measures that aim at adapting to and mitigating climate change. To that end, the paper provides a brief introduction to climate change in general and then continues by analyzing the role of housing, land use, land-use change and forestry with respect to carbon storage and emission reduction. To promote carbon sequestration and emission reduction, land policy and associated land instruments such as market regulation, land use planning, land taxation and land reform should include climate-proof goals. By Paul van der Molen Introduction As climate change affects the livelihoods of peo- ple on earth, it is most likely that land and houses will play a role in adapting to and miti- gating climate change. This paper first aims to use desk research to identify the role of land and houses. Then, the elements of such adap- tation and mitigation are explored, to identify the role of land owners, land users and land managers (using policy reports and scientific lit- erature). Finally, based on the author’s earlier papers (see www.oicrf.org), some explorative research is pursued to identify the role of land registers and cadastres in adapting to and mit- igating climate change. As far as the author is aware, this area still represents a wide gap in our knowledge. Climate Change in General The regular Synthesis Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide observations and analyses con- cerning (a) changes in climate regardless of their causes, (b) an assessment of such caus- es and (c) a projection of future climate change. The latest report (2007) states that the fact that the climate system is warming is ‘unequivocal: as is now evident from observations of increas- es in global average air and ocean tempera- tures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and the rising of the global average sea level’. As a rough estimate, this could result in more pre- cipitation in the north, more droughts in the south, fewer cold days, more hot days, heat waves and higher sea levels. As a secondary effect, the IPCC expects many natural systems to be affected, such as glacial lakes, early spring events, bird migration, and shifts in plant and 34 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Land registers and cadastres have a role to play in supporting governments and citizens in their efforts at mitigating climate change and trying to adapt to its impact. animal species towards the polar regions, salin- ity and earlier greening of vegetation. Various scenarios show the impact on human systems such as crop productivity, coastal zones, flood plains, health, industry and settlements prone to extreme weather events and drought. More specifically, Africa is expected to be exposed to increased water stress, reduced rain-fed agriculture, affected low-lying coastal areas and diminished access to food. Asia is expected to suffer from decreased availability of fresh water, higher risk for delta areas and pressure on natural resources. Europe is expect- ed to be faced with floods and erosion, glacier retreat, reduced availability of water, worse weather conditions in the south, and increased health risks because of heat waves and wild- fires. The Americas are expected to be prone to gradual replacement of tropical forests by savannah, loss of biodiversity, decreased live- stock and crop production, less precipitation, heat waves in the north and increased rain-fed agriculture. Cereal productivity is expected to increase at mid and high latitudes and to decrease in lower latitudes, which has a nega- tive impact on food security and the livelihoods of small farmers and fisheries. The drivers for climate change appear to be both natural and anthropogenic. One example of a natural driver is solar radiation. Anthropogenic drivers include greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. The IPCC reports that the global increase of carbon diox- ide (CO2) is due to fossil fuel use and changes in land use. Global increases in methane levels (CH4) are very likely due to agriculture and fos- sil fuel combustion. The increase in nitrous oxide (N2O) is primarily due to agriculture. A special report published by the IPCC (2000) discusses how different land use and forestry activities affect carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon is retained in live biomass, in organic matter and in the soil. When human interventions lead to changes in live biomass, land use and forestry, the carbon stock also changes, which in turn influences the global carbon cycle. For example, the report reveals that substantial amounts of carbon have been released when forests were cleared. Greenhouse gas emissions occur as a result of restoration of wetlands, biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion, intensive tillage, fertil- ization of lands and forests, rice cultivation and enteric fermentation. Kyoto Protocol In Article 3.1 of the Kyoto Protocol, parties agreed to limit and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012. Further - elaborates the relation between the two, revealing that accelerating expansion of bio- ethanol and bio-diesel production might offer opportunities for small-scale farmers by revi- talizing land use in rural areas and increasing both yields and incomes. However, both would depend on land tenure security. Large-scale biofuel production also might provide employ- ment, skills development and secondary indus- try, creating potential for long-term poverty reduction. To achieve such results, the IIED advises establishing land policy frameworks that give clearer definitions of concepts of idle, under-utilized, barren, unproductive, degraded, abandoned and marginal lands, in order to avoid land allocation to large-scale biofuel industries to the disadvantage of local liveli- hoods. Existing land tenure patterns should be recognized and implemented within a broader circumstance of taxation, subsidies, markets and trade. Research (e.g. Rothamsted, 2005) demon- strates that sound land management results in lower greenhouse gas emissions from all links in the food chain, provides carbon sequestration in soil and vegetation, and replaces fossil fuels with renewable bio-ener- gy crops. Pfister et al. (2004) discuss the rela- tions between climate change, land-use change and run-off predictions in the Rhine and Meuse river basins. The research concerns the influence that changes in land use had on the hydrological subsystem, which interacts with the climate system. They found that ‘in general field drainage, wetland loss and urbanization result in more rapid downstream transmission of flood waves and less flood- more, countries that signed the Protocol can use afforestation, reforestation and deforesta- tion as potential contributors to the reduction of emissions (Article 3.3). The same counts explicitly for measures regarding land use, land- use change and forestry (Article 3.7). This aspect is where we find the link to discuss the role of cadastres in climate change, as manag- ing lands and forests requires an active land policy, instruments to implement such policy, and land tools to facilitate government inter- vention in private and public rights to land and housing. Role of Land Use, Land-use Change and Land Management The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states in its publication ‘Climate Change and Food Production’ (2008) that sustainable agricultural production plays a role in adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change, because (a) agriculture is an important emitter of greenhouse gases, (b) has the highest potential for reducing emissions through car- bon stocks and (c) is the sector that is most affected by climate change. FAO is well aware that expanding biofuel production is likely to lead to greater competition for access to land. This requires sound land tenure policies and land-use planning; otherwise, the livelihood of farmers, pastoralists, fishermen and forest dwellers without formal land tenure rights will be at risk. Greater land tenure security is con- ditional to applying various mitigation and adaptation measures. A study by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED, 2008) Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 35 March 2010 Europe is expected to be faced with floods and erosion, glacier retreat, reduced availability of water, worse weather conditions in the south, and increased health risks because of heat waves and wildfires. plain storage’. There was no evidence that land-use changes affected flood frequency and flood magnitude. Whether changes in the hydrology of the Rhine and Meuse were more strongly influenced by climate change than by land-use change appeared to be difficult to say. Similarly, Juckem et al. (2008) investigate the effect of land-use change in the ‘driftless area’ in Wisconsin. Although increased precipitation was significantly higher than in other water- shed areas, they argue that the changes were likely linked to changes in the soil properties as a result of agricultural land management practices. Research by Eve et al. (2002) explains the background behind removing CO2 from the cli- mate by growing plants which are able to store organic carbon in the soil. The paper shows that ‘under the US Conservation Reserve Program about 13 million hectares of highly erodable croplands were taken out of agricul- tural production by converting them, by plant- ing it back to grass or trees. Because then the soil is not disturbed and biomass is not removed: the soils have shown an increase in carbon storage. Also, adopting reduced tillage resulted in increased soil carbon storage because the soil is less disturbed, even more for no-till-at-all land use’. Fertilization by using organic manure also enhances carbon storage in the soil, because of both the carbon content of the manure and the increase in biomass production. Eve’s paper concludes that ‘there is a net effect of land use and management changes on agricultural lands resulting in an increase of soil carbon storage’. Cowie et al. (2007) sees potential synergies between existing multilateral environmental agreements and the implementation of land- use change and land management to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The basic idea is that land-use change and land management can be used to increase the terrestrial carbon pool, which at the same time contributes to the Biodiversity Convention (CBD) and the Desertification Convention (UNCCD). Measures taken into account in this study include ‘con- version from conventional cropping to reduced tillage, manure, rotation, irrigation, biocrops, plantation, new forests, which appear to impact on both less emissions of greenhouse gases, biodiversity and desertification and reforestation.’ The paper concludes that ‘good land management is necessary, in order to manage forests, cropping and grazing systems, biofuel production and that –when land man- agers continue to respond to current market demands– the environmental externalities are not acknowledged.’ The land tenure problem regarding carbon sequestration becomes manifest in Unruh (2008/9). This research shows that ‘the possi- bility of sequestering large quantities of atmo- spheric carbon through woody biomass incre- ment via tree planting projects in the tropics…has impressive potential’. However, afforestation and reforestation projects have to be initiated by governments that have often lit- tle to say in areas outside the urban sphere, because the Western notion of property rights and land law are often limited to those partic- ular parts of the country. In remote and rural areas, customary land management prevails and is overruled by statutory land tenure arrangements. Unruh argues that there are five main obstacles for such projects, namely ‘(1) the land tenure disconnect between customary and statutory land rights, (2) legal pluralism, (3) tree planting as land claim, (4) the function- ing of treed area expansion in smallholder land- use systems and (5) the abandoned land prob- lem.’ Tree planting projects require ‘improved governance, which assumes single land law for the entire population’, through which the land rights of customary land holders can be guar- anteed. Literature reveals that this is hardly a realistic way forward, as governments often neglect the land rights of customary peoples and the poor often ‘need to be protected against the government…’ Furthermore, tree planting in Africa often ‘signifies a land claim’, so that tree planting projects are perceived by local communities as unfair and unjustified land claims by the government, which are perceived to be conflicting with their own land rights. Unruh asks, ‘given the land tenure obstacles to the afforestation and reforestation approach, will it be possible to realize sequestration goals within the time whereby the impact will be meaningful?’ Harper et al. (2007) investigates the potential 36 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Land registers and cadastres have to extend their function beyond the conventional use for land markets and land taxation. of greenhouse sinks to underwrite improved land management in Western Australia. The problem is that Australia is faced with ‘saliniza- tion of land and water resources, recurrent wind and water erosion of both cultivated agricultur- al lands and rangeland, and the prospect of continued climate change due to increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.’ There might be ‘opportunities for the land management sector arising from green- house gas abatement and in particular the development of carbon sinks as a result of land use change.’ The carbon storage can be used to fulfill the Kyoto obligations and opens oppor- tunities for trading in emission reductions. The research investigates the possibilities of ‘car- bon farming’ by planting trees and shrubs on (private) farmland and de-stocking rangeland. Carbon farming requires a title, which is made possible under the Australian Carbon Right (Pulselli et al, 2009). Regarding the effects of climate change on the built environment (Roberts, 2008) clarifies that buildings play an important role in both adaptation and mit- igation. Modern building design includes low carbon running costs while ‘maintaining com- fort’. Super insulation, high performance win- dows, heat recovery systems, thermal storage are to be included in climate proof design principles. (Hamza et al, 2009) reports about the role of building regulations in the UK, which originally were introduced to safeguard public health and safety, but now -after revi- sion- are seen as a tool for ‘limiting the envi- ronmental impact of the built environment on natural resources’. Regarding adaptation to the effects of climate change, the construc- tion buildings that are resistant to weather extremes like flooding and storms, require not only new construction methods, but also a land use planning that allocates building con- struction at the right location (Roberts, 2008). Recognizing the role of various sectors in soci- ety for finding solutions for climate change, like the transportation sector, housing sector, agricultural sector, the coordinating mecha- nism still is the spatial planning especially at local level (Biesbroek et al, 2008). That explains the role of local governments (or ‘sub-national governments’), as they have control over ‘areas that crucially affect green- house emissions, such as transportation, energy use, land use regulation and environ- mental education’ (Puppim, 2008). The role of spatial planning is even more important as the reduction of transport related emissions has a direct relationship with the higher den- sity of land use, resulting in less transport activity both for passengers and freight (Grazi et al, 2008). In order to monitor the energy use, several countries introduced environmen- tal rating of buildings. As more than 80% of energy used in households is dedicated to space heating, large savings are expected to be gained in the housing stock. Sweden inves- tigates an external and an internal factor (Malmqvist et al, 2009), while Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany publish so called energy labels, in order to create aware- ness amongst the populace concerning ener- gy use of houses and potential savings. That energy labeling is not a immediate success, reveals an investigation in Denmark, where no significant energy saving where found despite this was the main goal of the Danish Energy Labelling Scheme (Kjǽrby, 2008) and an inves- tigation by a national real estate agent asso- ciation (VBO) in the Netherlands, that revealed that only 38% of house buyers paid attention as whether an energy label was available for the property they were interested in (Dutch News, 30 January 2009). 2003 legislation, establishing a ‘title for the carbon in a sink, separate from that of the land, which provides a legal base for owner- ship and trading.’ These carbon credit titles are treated like property titles, so they also need to be registered. Measures to material- ize the potential of carbon sinks include ‘refor- estation, grazing land management, cropland management, and re-vegetation.’ Role of Houses and Spatial Planning According to (IPCC 2007) the largest growth in greenhouse gases emissions between 1970 and 2004 has come from energy supply, trans- port and industry. In addition to the ‘land sec- tor’ (section 4), the urban environment there- fore also needs attention. ‘About 30-40% of the total energy consumption in western countries is assigned to building. About 50% of these refer to the energy consumption for indoor air conditioning (heating and cooling)’ Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 37 March 2010 Mitigation of and Adaptation to Climate Change The Kyoto Protocol requires societies to respond to climate change by reducing green- house gas emissions (‘mitigation’) and coping with the changes (‘adaptation’). The IPCC report specifically summarizes various options. Regarding mitigation measures related to land and housing, the report suggests e.g. increased production and use of biofuels, reduction of transport needs by means of climate-proof land- use planning, energy-efficient houses and com- mercial buildings by the establishment of ener- gy labeling and building codes, land ma na gement to increase soil carbon storage, restoration of degraded lands, application of cultivation methods that improve carbon sequestration (such as more rice cultivation, livestock and manure management), better for- est management and better land-use manage- ment. Regarding adaptation measures, the report suggests e.g. expanded rainwater har- vesting, water storage, crop variety, improved land management to achieve erosion control and soil protection, the construction of seawalls and storm barriers, dune reinforcement, land acquisition and creation of marshlands and wet- lands as a buffer against sea level rise and flooding. Concerning the underlying policy framework, the report refers to institutional reform, land tenure and land reform, capacity building, inte- grated land-use planning, building codes, and national water policies. Carbon Credits Market Articles 3.3 and 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol pro- vide for the use of greenhouse sinks (carbon sequestration in soils and vegetation) to be used by countries to fulfill their obligation to reduce greenhouse gases. Articles 6, 12 and 17 establish a market for trading assigned emis- sion credits. This is known as the ‘compliance market’, structured to facilitate the trade in emission rights, based on cooperation with developing countries in carbon sequestration projects (‘Clean Development Mechanism’). Article 17 allows countries that have ‘assigned emission units’ to spare to sell their surplus credits to countries that are over their targets. Since carbon dioxide is the principal green- house gas, people speak simply of ‘trading car- bon’ (UFCCC website, accessed 30-9-2008). The Dutch government, for example, under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol and the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), has a portfolio of 28 projects in 11 different countries, consisting of various energy technologies such as wind power pro- duction, methane gas recovery and biofuel pro- duction; the total contracted volume is 17.4 mil- lion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (SenterNovem website, accessed 7-11-2008). The government even created a supervisory authority for emissions trading: the Dutch Emissions Authority (NEA). Apart from the compliance market, a ‘retail off- set market has also emerged, with a focus on voluntary participation by parties not bound by specific caps or regulations. Greenhouse gas emissions can be offset by investing in projects that provide emission reductions elsewhere; critically, the voluntary market is still unregulat- ed in that it has no market standard’ (Harris, 2007). Here we observe the creation of a new com- modity, in line with the research on land mar- kets (Wallace et al., 2006a, 2006b), where she describes that land markets increasingly include more complex commodities. In the carbon cred- it case, this concerns a ‘new commodity in the form of emission reductions or removals’. This leads to opportunities for such measures as carbon farming (Harper et al., 2007), to gen- erate tradable carbon credits through –in the Australian case– reduction of livestock density, removal of wild grazing animals such as goats and rabbits, conversion from cropping to graz- ing, conversion from conventional to no-till cropping, re-vegetation (trees, fodder shrubs) and forestry development. In this situation, mar- keting carbon credits requires a title for a car- bon sink, which is separate from the property title for the land (‘unbundling of property right- s’), which also might require registration. To date, it is recognized that transactions in vol- untary carbon credits such as occur in Australia, Europe and North America are not formally recorded. As cited earlier, Harris (2007) consid- ers the voluntary retail market to be unregulat- ed; in order to increase ‘market integrity and to avoid that emission rights are sold more than once, formal registration should be implement- ed; aside from the credibility gained, this regis- tration could make the market more fungible’. It is remarkable that Harris refers to existing registers such as Triodos Bank’s Climate Clearinghouse register, the Greenhouse Gases Register of the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), and a register managed by the Bank of New York, while existing land administration system could so easily adopt such carbon cred- it rights in their registers. Role of Land Policy, Land Instruments and Land Tools Adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, by their very nature, challenge professionals in the fields of land use, land management, land reform, land tenure and land administration to incorporate climate change issues into their land policies, land policy instruments and facil- itating land tools. This is similarly applicable to water and coastal zone professionals. It is clear that land registers and cadastres in themselves cannot induce mitigation and adaptation of cli- mate change. However, they must serve as a sound information base for the implementation of land management policies. This means that in addition to appropriate reg- istration of land tenure and cadastral geome- try, additional information is requires about environmental rating of buildings, energy use, current and potential land use related to car- bon stock potential and greenhouse gases emissions, clearer definitions of various land types related to the application of various legal regimes (like what is exactly ‘idle’ land), flood and storm prone areas, salinization rates and 38 Ar t i cl e March 2010 An examle of flooding. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 39 March 2010 transport indicators. This information might not necessarily be recorded in the land registration and cadastre system itself, but at least con- nected with it, so that a strong link with pri- vate and public rights to land remains in exis- tence. In the case of ‘unbundled’ property rights, with the separation of carbon credit titles, these registers and cadastres should be able to reg- ister such rights (registration) and to attach appropriate geometric attributes (see section 10) and to make those titles accessible for trade in the carbon credit market. Land regis- ters and cadastres also have to fulfill their most vital purpose, namely to provide land tenure security to right holders, with a focus on the poor, the vulnerable and indigenous peoples, in order to safeguard their land rights in case of e.g. demands for land for purposes of large-scale biofuel production or afforesta- tion for carbon sequestration and to provide information about tenure, value and use of land when governments want to encourage changes in livestock, crop production, conver- sion from arable land to grazing land, from tillage to no-tillage cropping, reforestation and combating degradation of soils though sound land-use planning and management. When governments want to apply taxation as a measure to achieve such objectives, land registers and cadastres are supposed to pro- vide relevant information about taxable objects, taxable values and taxable persons, including earlier mentioned indicators regard- ing energy use etc. When governments need lands to realize cer- tain land use (water storage, carbon sinks), land registers and cadastres should provide information about right holders to be com- pensated in the land acquisition process, in such a way that people’s land rights are respected and the risk of eviction is avoided. When land reform is at stake, land registers and cadastres provide information about the existing land tenure pattern and provide an operational process to change from old to new situations. In summary, land registers and cadastres have a role to play in supporting governments and citizens in their efforts at mitigating climate change and trying to adapt to its impact. The Case of the Dutch Kadaster As one of the signatory parties to the Kyoto Protocol, the Netherlands’ government recog- nizes the urgency and scale of the global cli- mate challenge: its goal is a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, rela- tive to the benchmark year of 1990, prefer- ably as part of a European effort. In view of removals by sinks from applicable land use, land use change and forestry activities’. Although different approaches are possible, in many cases land surface areas, above-ground and below-ground volumes of biomass, canopy surveys, and geoinformation play a role. The Greenhouse Office of the Australian Department of Environment publishes its Full Carbon Accounting Model on the web (Full CAM, assessed 13-11-2008) and also provides what is known as a ‘National Carbon Accounting Toolbox and Data Viewer’ to allow land man- agers to ensure that their projects or regional emissions accounts are determined on a simi- lar basis to Australia’s official recording of emis- sions from the land sector. The methods used for calculating carbon cred- its demonstrate a remarkable similarity to the work of quantity surveyors, whose profession it is to survey land areas and volumes to esti- mate building and construction costs. To date, the author is unaware of any publications which explore the possible extension of the surveying profession towards the quantification and qual- ification of carbon credits and emission reduc- tion rights. Conclusions Land registers and cadastres have to extend their function beyond the conventional use for land markets and land taxation. The data com- prised in the land information systems are also useful to facilitate government policy on adapt- ing to and mitigating climate change. Registering new rights in the form of carbon credit titles would be feasible. With all these aspects in mind, the idealistic concept of regis- ters and cadastres as ‘multi-purpose’ land administration systems becomes a real possi- bility. Paul van der Molen
[email protected] is currently director of Kadaster International, holds a chair in land administration and cadastre at the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation ITC in Enschede (NL). He is a former chairman of FIG Commission 7 and former FIG Vice President. This paper has been prepared and presented at the FIG Working Week in Eilat, Israel, 3-8 May 2009. Thanks to Markku Villikka. the fact that 50% of the land area in the Netherlands is located below sea level, it is no surprise that coping with the rising aver- age seawater level, the higher run-off and dis- charge predictions for the major rivers and extreme precipitation forecasts is a priority. However, the government realizes that mea- sures to cope with water management should be coupled to measures on land use, nature conservation, urbanization, transport and recre- ation. Therefore, the National Adaptation Policy is based on the concept of integrated land-use planning, which combines objectives of sustain- able coastal defense measures, supplemented by robust river water systems, sustainable cities, climate-proof buildings and climate-proof agriculture. Since January 1, 2008, legislation has entered into effect that requires an energy label to be available at the time of transactions related to the construction, sale or letting of houses. The energy label issued for a specific house pro- vides information about the energy consumed during its standardized use. These energy labels form a new category in the land registers. To date, the Netherlands’ Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, known as Kadaster, has registered about 50,000 labels. The energy labels are open for public inspection, as is all cadastral data. Kadaster supports the government in providing not only all information about land tenure, value and use of land and houses, but also about public properties and environmental lim- itations regarding use, noise, soil pollution, nui- sance. It also supports land acquisition by the government in order to implement anti-flood- ing measures. The land consolidation expertise available at Kadaster is put into practice when the govern- ment aims at realizing better climate-proof agri- cultural business structures as well as sub- catchments for river water. As a consequence of sea level rise, seawater will also penetrate further into the estuaries of the Rhine and Meuse, causing salt intrusion leading to high salt concentrations. In this area as well, Kadaster provides relevant land information to support land-based anti-salinization spatial planning. Job Opportunities for Land Surveyors? A study by the IPPC (2000) reveals widespread demand for a well-designed carbon accounting system that provides for the ‘transparent, con- sistent, comparable, complete, accurate, verifi- able and efficient recording and reporting of changes in carbon stocks and/or changes in greenhouse gas emissions by resources and Ar t i cl e Geomarketing Space and location are important factors in the study of production, distribution and consumption of wealth. The adoption of Geo-ICT in economics however, has been slow and patchy. But things are changing rapidly: not only is economic science picking up on the possibilities of Geo-ICT for economic research, recent education programs in the Netherlands show how it can be used to analyze and forecast consumer behavior in time, showing the continuing integration of the ‘Geo-factor’ in marketing. By Jasper Dekkers Introduction The field of economics has developed tremen- dously since its start in the late eighteenth century. Although this social science studies the economic aspects of human behaviour in its broadest sense, at first it did not address these social processes in a spatially-explicit way. More than a century would pass, with the exception of Johann Heinrich von Thünen (1826), before economists started to recog- nize the importance of space and location in the study of the production, distribution and consumption of wealth. The adoption of Geo-ICT in economics has been slow and patchy, the main application being GIS software for mapping economic data. Geo-ICT is also used for other purposes than mapping, mainly for data exploration, spatial analysis and modeling in the fields of spatial economics and marketing. Over the past few years, we have seen that the increase in data availability in economics and in marketing has caused a gradual shift from exploratory research and mapping towards explanatory research and modeling. This trend is expected to persevere and it might be fuelled further by an increasing awareness among scientists that Geo-ICT has the poten- tial to unite the otherwise opposing scientific nomothetic and idiographic approaches. Whilst the former approach focuses on defi- nite truths and generalizations, the latter tries to identify and record unique properties of 40 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Fig.1. Two heat maps of customer movement on a Saturday and on a Tuesday for the ECI book shop in Utrecht T h e B u z z w o r d E x p l a i n e d places. Using GIS, these two foci can be com- bined in a place-based or local analysis approach, with the goal to identify properties that distinguish places within the context of a general framework. The role of Geo-ICT as a bridge between opposing scientific approaches becomes apparent when we con- sider a GIS as consisting of two parts: the database part (idiographic in nature), and the part representing functions, algorithms, meth- ods and models (nomothetic in nature). What is Geomarketing? The word ‘geomarketing’ has a high attention value nowadays, it is a buzzword. As a lot of business activities suddenly seem to be or somehow should be related to geomarketing, the concept of geomarketing still lacks a clear and unambiguous definition. The term ‘geo- marketing’ is used more as a collective term for various spatial aspects in marketing. That leads to another question, namely what is marketing exactly? Definitions that are used focus on different aspects of marketing. For example, marketing can be defined as: • A business function (Marketing depart- ment); • A set of activities (Marketing mix, market research); • A culture or attitude (Market orientation or market focus).In this article we choose to define marketing as ‘the activity, set of insti- tutions, and processes for creating, commu- nicating, delivering, and exchanging offer- ings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large’. Geomarketing then becomes ‘marketing activities and processes in which the spa- tial (buying) behavior of consumers and businesses is explicitly taken into account’. Marketing can be put into effect on different levels within organizations: operational (design- ing a brochure), tactical (price policy) or strate- gical (changing mission, target group). At the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, the Marketing Department focuses on marketing at a strate- gic level, addressing topics such as market seg- mentation, the adoption of innovations, brand- ing, loyalty / Customer Relationship Management (CRM), distribution channels, etc. So this is also our focus when we discuss geo- marketing here. Typical Geomarketing questions have to do with: • Location choice, e.g., - Where are competitors located and what locations are suitable for a new outlet, and are they still available? - How does the internet as a communica- tions/contact/selling channel influence the market and where does this influence the network of outlets? Where Products Are Sold Two examples of geomarketing analyses are presented here. The first example involves a paper from Marketing Science written by Garber et al. (2004) and focuses on innova- tion adoption. It states that successful prod- ucts are driven by word-of-mouth effects. A fundamental assumption here is that word-of- mouth drives innovation and depends on proximity. The analysis describes the introduc- tion of a successful product and a not-suc- cessful product and shows that in the former case people adopting the new product over time form a clustering spatial pattern. The conclusion can be that where new products are sold can yield interesting additional infor- mation in an early stage of the introduction of a new product next to how many products are sold. Interesting questions are whether word-of-mouth as such still is a spatial phe- nomenon in the internet era and whether the word-of-mouth effect differs per product cate- gory. The second example is also a nice one. The scientific paper that was awarded the Paul Green Award in 2008, the best paper award granted by one of the top marketing journals (the Journal of Marketing Research, JMR) got this honor for being innovative (Bronnenberg et al, 2007). It took a well-established mar- keting concept, the modeling of variance in sales over time, and proved that time has very little influence compared with the influence of sales variance over space. The research showed among others that there are large dis- parities between national and local market share (or performance) and that local market • Where do (prospective) customers live, e.g. - Distance, radius, service area - What do the geodemographic attributes of a customer’s zip code tell me - How to best reach target groups: Direct Marketing, Billboarding, Outlets • What is the interaction between (prospec tive) customers and locations, e.g., - What is the influence of geodemographics and distance on customer loyalty? The field of geomarketing can be arranged in various ways, but we like to discern the fol- lowing three main areas of study, ranging from rather old to very new. First, the oldest research field with geomarketing is location planning. This is still a topic very much of interest, also on a strategic level, but the advent of Geo-ICT in marketing has shifted research in this field. Previously, location planning was mainly concerned with a priori research on market areas, e.g. what are the range and the threshold of a shop or an office and is it economically viable? Now, the research is more post hoc in nature and investigates the effect of location, e.g. what is the effect of the presence/location of a shop or office on innovation-adoption, per- formance, loyalty, etc. More recently, we have seen the rise of geodemographics, i.e. the use of detailed demographic data together with location information. The latest devel- opment is the focus on spatial aspects of marketing concepts in general, for instance the spatial dimensions of consumer behav- ior. Much of the development in the field is driven by new technology (software, hard- ware). Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 41 March 2010 Fig. 2.Mean range in travel time of tickets sold per week Utrecht structures can be very different from national level structures (e.g., dominance versus duopoly). The interesting conclusion of the paper was that the well-established concept of national brands was to be adapted. The authors found that national brands are those that lead in multiple (local) markets, but they also found numerous cases of local brands securing leadership in spite of their small scale. As potential explanations for these results, they name consumer differences (e.g., regional taste), retailer/distribution differences and manufacturer differences (e.g., turf divi- sion or historic order of entry). It is quite strik- ing to see that a best paper award in 2008 can still be won by merely stating ‘we need to take the spatial factor more into account in our discipline’. Geomarketing in Education In 2007, two researchers at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (prof. dr. Jaap Boter from the Marketing Department and dr. Jasper Dekkers from the Spatial Economics Department / Spatial Information Laboratory (SPINlab)) started a course Geomarketing within the Master of Marketing. The birth of this course fitted in a trend at the university where the use of Geo-ICT started to transcend the borders of the traditional ‘Geo-faculties’. Nowadays, Geo-ICT components are taught in very different disciplines at numerous facul- ties: health geography, archaeology, land use modeling, crime analysis, geomarketing and, most recent, geologistics. The Geomarketing course also fitted well in the SPINlab educa- tional strategy. This strategy implies finding lecturers, specialists in their own disciplines, who are enthusiastic about Geo-ICT, and cou- pling them with Geo-ICT specialists to set up a course together. In this way, both the knowl- edge of the respective discipline and of the use of Geo-ICT is guaranteed. Geomarketing started as an optional course that goes on for six weeks and takes students up to 20 hours per week. The course consists of 50 percent lectures and 50 percent tutori- als. Students were very enthusiastic about the course, which led to a large increase in the number of students taking the course in the second year (from 9 students in 2007-2008 to 37 students in 2008-2009, which is about 33 percent of all marketing students at the VU). It was interesting to hear the first excla- mations of ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ during the stu- dents’ first introduction to GIS software and they could not believe that they were not introduced to the possibilities of Geo-ICT sooner in their studies. Quite a few of them wrote their master’s thesis in geomarketing and are planning to seek a job in this direc- tion as well. Now that this course for regular students is well in place, plans are to introduce a geo- marketing course for professionals through the part-time distance-learning Master in GIS of UNIGIS (www.unigis.nl) this fall. Geomarketing Knowledge Centre It seems like the time is right and the market is ready to accept and implement the use of Geo-ICT in Business on a broader scale. However, it remains to be seen if this will hap- pen, since there is a clear lack of successful business cases that demonstrate and prove the added value of the use of Geo-ICT in mar- keting. In its desire to fill this gap and deliv- er a proof-of-concept, the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam and Geo-ICT consultancy firm Geodan set up a Geomarketing Knowledge Centre (GKC, www.feweb.vu.nl/geomarketing) in 2009. Within this knowledge centre, the Vrije Universiteit will focus on research pro- jects for marketing master students and on research projects that can yield interesting sci- entific publications. Geodan delivers technol- ogy and data support, pursues R&D together with the researchers from the VU and will try to transfer interesting research outcomes and models into products and services that can be used in practice. The further integration of Geo-ICT into Business Intelligence software is one way to proceed in this respect. Meanwhile, the first successful business cases have been carried out by the GKC. The first case started as a master’s thesis project, supervised by the VU and supported by Geodan. A student wanted to investigate shopping behavior for customers of ECI, a large book reseller and book club in the Netherlands. ECI has 14 book stores and the one in Utrecht was chosen as a test site. Customers and personnel were given a key cord with an RFID-tag inside (RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and can be described as a sort of micro-GPS receiv- er/transmitter chip that communicates through radio waves and is thus also operational indoors). Using this technology, which sends a location signal approximately every second to a computer that stores this information, movements of people through the shop were 42 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Fig.3a. Total range of tickets sold monitored. In this way, heat maps of the shop could be generated, showing interesting pat- terns of what parts of the shop were very crowded, which books and shelves were most attractive to customers, how customers move through the shop and were the interaction between customers and personnel takes place. An interesting observation is that the shelves with CDs are hardly visited by customers at all. Also, customers disregard the shelves with discount books when they enter the shop, the first thing they go to is the area where the lit- erary fiction is displayed, with books from popular Dutch authors like Joost Zwagerman and Heleen van Rooyen. Another interesting observation is that the space in the book store is used differently on different days of the week. For example, on Saturdays the lounge area where you can sit down to read something is not used that much (see Figure 1). This differ- ence is most likely influenced by consumer differences: on a Saturday a different type of consumer frequents the shop than on a typi- was still several weeks away (see Figure 2). This means that the market area for this show actually is not static but dynamic. A conse- quence for marketing activities is that, for example, when the theatre wants to do a direct mailing campaign two weeks before the show, they need to target a much smaller area than when the show is still eight weeks away (see Figures 3a and 3b). The phenomenon of dynamic market areas may very well apply to other events, products and services. As the Geomarketing Knowledge Centre’s first year came to a close, it organized a confer- ence on geomarketing on March 3, 2010. In addition to other presentations by various companies that are using geomarketing in their business operations, the ECI case men- tioned above was presented here. The GKC is now entering its second year and we have several new and interesting business cases to research, with some 30 new and very enthu- siastic Geomarketing students, several mar- keting students starting their thesis projects in a few weeks time, and even the first PhD proposal being composed. All these activities reaffirm our conviction that the future is look- ing bright with regard to the further develop- ment of geomarketing and the continuing integration of the ‘Geo-factor’ in marketing. Jasper E.C. Dekkers
[email protected] Jasper Dekkers (1977) graduated with an award- winning thesis in both Spatial Economics and Business Economics at the VU University in 2001. In 2005 he completed a postgraduate study in GIS. He has been working at the SPINlab at the Department of Spatial Economics since 2000 as researcher and recently as assistant professor in Spatial Economics and Geographical Information Science (GIS). His research focuses on spatial- economic modeling of land use (change) and on modeling business and consumer behavior. He is coordinator of the UNIGIS Master of Science in GIS and one of the founders of the Geomarketing Knowledge Centre. www.feweb.vu.nl/geomarketing cal Tuesday. On the basis of the analysis, an alternative floor plan was developed in which the expensive floor space is expected to be used more efficiently. The idea now is to implement this alternative floor plan and to test the effect on turnover. By measuring turnover we are actually able to quantify the added value of the use of Geo-ICT in this anal- ysis in monetary terms. This case really demonstrates the strength of science (VU, methods and analyses) and business (Geodan, technology and data support) team- ing up with each other. Another interesting master’s thesis project that has recently been finished is the case of Theaters Tilburg. This case actually proves that the static way market areas are currently defined in practice (set location of a shop, buffer with travel time/distance X around the shop is the market area) might not be the way to go about it. By examining box office data for tickets sold for a particular show in the eight weeks prior to the show, it was discov- ered that in the last weeks before the show, the mean range (travel time) of people buy- ing tickets was smaller than when the show Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 43 March 2010 Fig. 3b. Range of tickets sold in the week prior to the show New Experiences, Remarks and Prospects Building Reconstruction and Texturing A 3D building model represents a useful instrument to guarantee well detailed documentations, about shape, size, material status, colour, deformations and decay, either under construction or during the life cycle. These years, points or surface 3D models, mainly if photo-textured, have increased their diffusion as a valid add-on to classic vector plotting, rectified photography, orthophotos and photo-mosaics. Besides, the recent developments of spatial geo-visualization services, for instance Google Earth and Bing Maps (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth), together with GIS instruments, prospect further immersive ways for land knowledge and representation. Through some experiences on survey of historic buildings, the paper provides remarks on model collection, reconstruction, photo-texturing and specifications for different levels of detail and precision. By Luigi Colombo and Barbara Marana From Laser Scanning to Imaging Thanks to automated and non-contact procedures, generally based on laser and imaging sensors and on 3D processing software, it is nowa- days possible to carry out measurable virtual-reality models. These models consist of point sequences or meshes; their description capability is more effective when the reconstructed geometry is complet- ed with surface photo-rendering. Sampling point density (spatial resolution), object morphology, request- ed level of detail (scale) and accuracy are linked parameters in the pro- cess for model reconstruction. Useful detail levels for building 2D-3D representation are historically: 1:50, 1:100 and 1:200; the correspondent accuracy σ (standard deviation) can be supposed equal to ± 10 mm, ± 20 mm and ± 40 mm, respectively. It is possible to assume (Barber et. al., 2003; English Heritage Specifications, 2006) that the minimum detectable feature size d of the reconstructed model is nearly 3 times the sampling step s of the scan- ning survey (with an expected likelihood at 60%). The English specifications also state that only a sampling grid with the same step s in both scanning directions and correlated to the represen- tation accuracy (s ≤ σ) can provide a suitable object description; at the 44 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Fig. 1 - On-line (left) and off-line (right) photo-texture collection. same time, the beam footprint size b over the scanned surfaces should fulfil the condition b≤ 2s. Obviously, the sampling step strictly depends on the distance D, between sensor and object, and on the instrument angular attitude, with respect to the interested object surfaces. A nearly constant value of the step s can be reached through lines of scanning as much as possible orthogonal to the walls and by chang- ing the angular acquisition step δ according to the distance D. In photo-realistic modelling, laser scanning carries out the task to record surfaces through point sequences with assigned origin and common reference, while photogrammetry adds a good description of feature edges, colours, materials and decay (Debevec et al., 2001). A suitable scan planning is very impor- tant: all survey positions must provide the widest visibility towards the interested areas. It is also advisable to employ panoramic scan- ners and a multi-scanning approach, in order to reduce point-cloud number, sight occlusions and shadow effects (Petsa et al., 2007). Visibility-occlusion problems usually represent the first cause of data voids and information loss during scanning: therefore, on-line visual- ization is very important in order to evaluate at-once errors and further needs. Cloud management is very heavy: for this rea- son, a work of simplification over points, meshes and textures is always requested. In particular, a level of detail (LoD) procedure allows to decrease mesh number and texture resolution: the level of detail is calculated each time, according to surfaces complexity, visual- ization distance and observation angle (multi- resolution approach). Building Photo-texturing In photo-realistic modelling, image-taking is a very important step which needs a correct design: the image pixel (pimage) should not exceed a maximum dimension connected to the expected detail level. The image radiometry is also an important item: in exteriors surveys, sun light can create over-expositions and unwanted shadow- effects, while, in interiors survey, windows and glass surfaces cause dangerous reflections, shadows etc. A possible solution is to avoid these effects by working day-time, without direct sun-rays, or at night with diffuse artifi- cial light. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 45 March 2010 Fig. 2 - Quality of image reprojection: over point models at standard density (a), at high-density (b) or over mesh (c). Fig. 3 - Textured model of Grazie’s church: views of interiors from different observation points. [a] [b] [c] The acquisition of images for texturing can be made according to on- line or off-line ways. On-line or direct collection, while scanning, is possible whether the laser instrument is equipped with an internal photo-camera or a joint external one; this kind of approach guarantees the a-priori knowledge of inner and external orientation parameters but involves a lot of con- straints, like: • on-line photos are influenced by possible environmental effects, • photographic taking distance cannot be changed in respect to the scanning one, • single constructive elements may appear in more on-line photos; this fact requires linking interventions and radiometric post-process- ing (fig. 1). On the other hand, one could record images at different times (off-line acquisition): the photographic coverage has to be realized with taking locations very close to the scanning ones and with the same orienta- tion, so as to avoid detail splitting and perspective inconsistencies. These geometric constraints, between photo-camera and scanner atti- tudes, can be disregarded only if the processing software allows to work as follows: photos and original scans are collected from free inde- pendent locations, but new ad hoc scans (named virtual scans), are subsequently calculated with respect to photo-taking positions by applying a spatial transformation to the original scanned points. Image reprojection requires to know the photo-camera inner orienta- tion and the external orientation estimate. With calibrated photo-cameras, built inside or strictly joined to the scan- ning device, the external orientation is known a-priori and so one speaks of automatic reprojection. On the other hand, with independent photo-taking (photo-camera locat- ed on a proper position), the external orientation is unknown and must be analytically estimated: well distributed and visible 3D points are used for its determination (manual reprojection). Automatic mapping is a theoretically favourable, but not always responding, process: indeed, an internal photo-camera usually records images at reduced resolution, while joint-external photo-cameras may acquire at not suitable light condition. On the contrary, manual reprojection needs, on the contrary, a relevant 46 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Figs. 4 - 5 - Textured model of St Maria Maggiore cathedral: details of exteriors (a-b, above) and interiors (below). [4a] [4b] Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 47 March 2010 number of tie points, overall in case of complex object morphology; the search of tie points over model and images can be only partially supported by an auto- matic least squares digital matching. The mapping resolution depends on the so-called reprojection factor, a parameter which measures the ratio between an image area and the corresponding one over the model. When photos have a higher resolution than point cloud sampling (quite possi- ble in high detailed models) the image better quality is preserved only over a mesh model; indeed, when photos are back-projected over point clouds, just the point density sets photo-tex- turing re sults. Some Experiences Photo-textured models have been realized lately by GeoLab (University of Bergamo) to document architectural buildings in Bergamo, a historical city close to Milan (Northern Italy): for instance, the ancient Cathedral of St Maria Maggiore (interiors and exteriors description), located on the hill (upper town), and the Grazie’s Church (interiors) in the heart of the so- called lower town (Colombo et al., 2005, 2007, 2009). The morphology acquisition for 3D modelling has been carried out at a detail level of 1:100 (accuracy σ = ± 20 mm) by a panoramic laser sen- sor, through a dense sampling. The sampling step s (s ≤ σ ) has been fixed equal to 10 mm: inside the maximum survey range (around 50 m) the laser spot has a diameter b not greater than 13 mm and agrees to the advised relation b≤ 2s. This detail level enables to recognize elements of about 2-3 cm. The experiences developed have pointed out that direct (automated) photo-texturing offers really meaningful advantages only in favourable environmental work-conditions; otherwise, with bad light or adverse envi- ronment, manual process seems to be more versatile and effective. Nevertheless, manual texturing requires the selection of many tie points. Just to optimize the process of photo-rendering (see tab.1), some compar- ative tests have been carried out to evaluate the quality of image projec- tion over point clouds, at different density, and over mesh. Figure 2 provides examples of image-texturing over a point model at stan- dard density (a), over a point model at high density (b) and over mesh (c): it is plain the different radiometric quality of mapping. However, dur- ing the projects, because of the large dataset and the big object dimen- sions, it was decided to proceed with photo-texturing only over a high density point-model (coloured nurbs). To reduce computing, a sub-sampling factor has been applied to the point model; this factor allows to filter data in order to speed up processing, according to the system memory resource and visualization capability. Figure 3 shows the photo-model for the Grazie’s church interiors, through a sequence of views from different observation points. It can be highlight- ed the best photo-rendering results over the walls with highest density and nearly constant sampling step: for instance, either the ones closest to the scanner position or most orthogonal to the scanning direction. Figures 4 and 5 deal with details of the point textured model respectively for the interiors (the dome intrados) and the exteriors (the main façades) of St Maria Maggiore. Assigned spatial tolerance values (3σ) for the object reconstruction have been: T50 = ± 30 mm for 1:50 detail level and likewise T100 = ± 60 mm for 1:100. Point acquisition has been carried out at a maximum sampling (step s = 10 ÷ 20 mm), with respect to the building morphology and the level of detail. The workflow related to photo-textured modelling, by laser scanning and imaging, has pointed out that the acquisition phase has a time incidence not greater than 10% of the whole working cycle and that the other processing steps share the remaining time fraction, according to the percentages listed in table 1. Final Remarks and Prospects A reduced copy of the reconstructed textured model for St Maria Maggiore is going to be developed for representation inside Geospatial Web environments, namely the popular geo-browsers such as Google Earth and Virtual Earth. These three-dimensional platforms provide a new exciting way to view the world and give a quick, efficient and easy-to-use interface to link imagery, maps, 3D building models and other geo-spatial information. The Cathedral model has been simplified in geometry, meshed, export- ed with texture and imported into the CAD tool Google Sketchup. This package provides a 3D textured and georeferenced model (World Geodetic System 1984) according to KML or KMZ (compressed) file for- mats, the standards for all geo-browsers. All this can enable a new exciting and immersive way to view urban landscape and 3D buildings, worldwide. Luigi Colombo
[email protected] is a full professor of Surveying & Geomatics and Building monitoring geo-techniques at the faculty of Engineering - University of Bergamo (Italy); Barbara Marana
[email protected] works as researcher at the same faculty. Thanks to all the team, senior students and apprentices at Geo-technology Laboratory (GeoLab) of the University of Bergamo, Faculty of Engineering (Dalmine - BG - Italy). Tab. 1 - Workflow of the laser-scanning process, with time consuming analysis. Augmented Reality – Close to the Real World Notes are stuck on houses but not everyone can see them. Road signs tell everybody the exact way to get to their individual destinations. Monsters appear on walls, or you can simply see through buildings. Whoever can do this is not hallucinating, but just might be using the right mobile application. Augmented Reality (AR) is the term for this technical extension of our senses. The concept is straightforward. A real-world view on the mobile’s camera screen has additional information and graphics superimposed on it. In the past a GPS module for localization, a power- ful computer in the backpack for heavy matrix calculations, and some kind of cyber goggles were necessary to do Augmented Reality. Today more and more smartphones can do it – and even more. Every mobile has a built-in camera. Nokia immediately became the market leader in digital cameras when it started to integrate cam- eras into its mobiles. Today’s popular smart- phones all have integrated GPS modules, large screens and enough computing power to do Augmented Reality. As well, fast mobile broad- band internet allows these smartphones to con- nect to major geo-referenced information databases such as Bing Maps, Google, Qype and all geo-tagged articles in Wikipedia. Consequently real and virtual worlds can be linked and dis- played on the mobile screen to augment reality. In 1994 researcher Paul Milgram introduced the reality-virtuality continuum that portrays the link between the real and virtual worlds and allows better classification of what Augmented Reality is. The real world is at one end of the continu- um and virtual reality, the computer-generated world, is at the other end. Augmented Reality is closer to the real-world end. The closer a system is to the virtual reality end, the fewer real ele- ments. If the real world can be augmented with virtual objects, it is logical to expect that the vir- tual world can be augmented with real scenes. Such an environment is called augmented virtu- ality. In the early days of 2010 the term Augmented Reality began to exert a tremendous omnipres- ence. Augmented Reality is considered the hottest topic of the year and it really seems that AR lurks in every corner of our everyday lives. Most AR applications are designed for the iPhone 3GS or Google Android phones initiating with G1. The possibilities are manifold. In addition to over- laying information on the visible, indicating the invisible opens up opportunities for many appli- cations. Augmented Skiing and Hiking A range of skiing and hiking applications make use of Augmented Reality as, in the mountains, real signage is rare and objects of interest such as mountain tops and panoramic views are sometimes unreachable. REALSKI (www.rtp.com) is dedicated to skiers and snowboarders and their iPhone 3GS. Users can navigate trails and see on-mountain features at selected North American ski resorts. It allows riders to view their surroundings while the app overlays digital graphics showing nearby lifts, runs and resort facilities in real time. Hence users can find the location of these facilities and points of interest such as named runs, lift names with loading and unloading areas, lodges, and special areas such as terrain parks. REALSKI layers information on top of the visuals picked up by the camera using the current location and elevation detected by the GPS, the compass heading and the device accelerometer. Similarly the application Peak.AR is your best mobile mate if you have ever wondered about the name of a prominent peak. It lets you find the answer simply by taking a look through the camera of your iPhone. Salzburg Research devel- oped this Augmented Reality application to demonstrate a platform that can be used to visu- alize any kind of geo-referenced data. Using Peak.AR the most prominent peaks within the 48 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Wikitude Drive - real-time navigation with mobile augmented reality. (Source: Mobilizy GmbH, www.mobilizy.com/de/pressinformation In these early days of 2010 Augmented Reality resounds throughout the land. Smartphones eventually seem capable enough to provide a superimposed view of virtual and real worlds through the camera’s view. This vision awakes expectations of the big business. In the future show-owners might stick virtual coupons on their shop-windows to be picked-up by “AR-flaneurs” and thus attract new customers. This article will give a short overview about current mobile Augmented Reality applications and the expected development in the coming years. By Florian Fischer Mobile Augmented Reality at a Glance chosen range are automatically selected in order to produce a clean and uncluttered image. It comes with a data base of over 100,000 peaks world wide. The data, extract- ed from OpenStreetMap, is held in its own database. In the future online access to OpenStreetMap will be provided. The Mobile Phone becomes a HUD An old hand in Augmented Reality is start-up Mobilizy (www.mobilizy.com). Their application Wikitude-AR, also known as Wikitude World Browser, first appeared on the G1 Google Android in October 2008 in the UK. It is an Augmented Reality browser for geo-referenced articles in Wikipedia, the geo-coded and multi- lingual database of the local search provider Qype (Qype.com), and all data of the photo ser- vice Panoramio. Thus Wikitude offers approxi- mately 350,000 articles world-wide. All articles can be visualized in a map view, a satellite map, simply as a list or in the camera view. In August 2009 the research and development group Mobilizy reached the next step and revealed a preview of an augmented reality navigation sys- tem. Wikitude Drive combines real-time naviga- tion with mobile augmented reality by overlay- ing point-to-point directions on a camera view, without the need for maps. It will be launched for Android, iPhone and Symbian phones. The navigational data is accessed in real time from the internet. Wikitude Drive is similar to the head- up displays (HUD) for cars that are sometimes integrated into today's high-end models. But this light- weight navigational system is appropriate for pedestrian navigation as well. This “last mile”, as engineers call it, often contains the most dif- ficult visual obstacles. Metro stations, for exam- ple, elude surface visibility. Wayfinder (www.wayfindermobile.com) locates the nearest New York City subway and PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) stations via the Android phone. It also gives walking directions and a view of the walking directions on a map. This aug- mented reality application won the New York City BigApps competition. New York City aims to pro- vide information and transparency to its citizens. A similar purpose underlies a new update of the applications London Tube and Métro Paris from the independent French development studio Presselite (www.presselite.com). It enables iPhone 3GS users to see the nearest stations and POI in Augmented Reality views of London and Paris. Supplementary places of interest, shops and snack bars are also shown. Local search seems to be a noteworthy field for Augmented Reality. Augmented Local Search Layar (layar.com) shows apartments to rent, the shortest way to where you left your car and doc- tors associated with your health insurance com- pany. This “Mobile Augmented Reality Browser“, as it is called, utilizes a layer concept for addi- tional information instead of connecting to Wikipedia like Wikitude does. The user can choose the additional layers to display. The appli- cation then overlays the camera display with data, references and advertisements. Yelp (www.yelp.com) published a similar tool called Monocle in 2009. It takes Yelp information and overlays it into the real world. The feature hangs up little icons for Yelp-reviewed establishments letting you know exactly where and how far away they are. Meanwhile the application Junaio (www.junaio.com) focuses on social networking to generate content. The application was pub- lished by Metaio (www.metaio.com), a company that specializes in Augmented Reality solutions in a multitude of technological domains. Junaio is an iPhone client that combines mobile Augmented Reality with social networks. Users can geo-code information and publish this con- tent within their network of friends. Graphics and text can be geo-coded as well as twitter feeds. At the moment Metaio accumulates AR tags to establish a content database. This process cur- rently works without any moderation or censor- ship, though this might soon be changed to enable more strategic content development. Everybody is in the Starting Block The digital sixth sense appears to be within tan- gible reach. Developers all around the world are working on computer-aided extensions of our sense of reality. The big players are no excep- tion. Microsoft's Bing Map is strolling down the Augmented Reality track as shown in some demo videos at the TED conference in February 2010 (www.ted.com). Bing Maps' Blaise Aguera y Arcas explained, "We see this space, three-dimension- al environment, as being a canvas on which all sorts of applications can play out". The new iPad holds out the possibility of being an Augmented Reality device, but unfortunately Apple forgot to give it a camera. However, a close look into the iPad reveals space reserved for a camera. Google’s Goggles hit the front page in January 2010. It is an application for visual search on Android smartphones that compares elemen- tary parts of the camera view with Google’s database of pictures. If there is a match all information linked to the picture is shown. Goggles evoked another big debate about pri- vacy issues as now even pictures of people’s faces might be searched and linked to Facebook user profiles. I would not call it augmented reality yet because there is no positional link for the superimposition of data. But it is definitely on the verge of happening and might be a solution to mitigate the problem of inaccurate GPS local- ization. We Need More Computing Power The GPS on a mobile phone only gives your posi- tion within around 20 meters. Using the iPhone’s compass for orientation is accurate only to around 20 degrees. This can lead to problems in localizing content for the camera’s view. Real and augmented objects may also be poorly aligned with each other. Hence virtual objects can end up floating in the view rather than being solidly anchored to real objects. This becomes a big problem if, for example, two restaurants with dif- ferent review ratings sit side by side. The cre- ation of a signature from a photograph of a build- ing or other landscape object that is then linked to the object’s coordinates might help decrease these problems of inaccuracy. Metaio as well as the U.S. chip producer Qualcomm identified this kind of “environment detection” to be the long- term solution for problems with accuracy. It will take some time before we can get skiing directions on ski goggles and immediately send a Facebook message to that unknown girl we met on the slopes. Until then computing power becomes another challenge along with the prob- lem of inaccuracy. If you saw the way AR appli- cations are presented you might feel disappoint- ed, as they still appear as very simple dots on a camera view. Expectations are somehow driven by the way Hollywood’s special effects fool us. Chip producers need to comply with the need for computing power in smartphones. Qualcomm, for example, is working on chips specialized for AR applications as announced in Qmag in November 2009 (www.qualcomm.com). I expect the first big steps in mobile AR to be taken in 2011. So, if 2010 has been heralded as the year of mobile AR, 2012 might be the year of its even- tual breakthrough. Florian Fischer, GIS Editor and Research Assistant at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for GIScience in Salzburg, Austria. Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 49 March 2010 Presselite’s London Tube AR application. (Source: Presselite, www.presselite.com Why And What Do Individuals Contribute? Volunteered Geographic Information Whether you think of Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, TomTom, the US Government, or many other sites, the increased presence of volunteer contributors (or 'produsers') is beginning to relocate and redistribute GI production activities from professional mapping agencies to wider networks of actors. In this article, the authors introduce the types of people who volunteer geospatial information, sort though the nature of their contributions, and identify early lessons to be drawn from this research. By David J. Coleman and Yola Georgiadou Background Numerous articles and examples over the past 30 months have introduced us to the terms "neogeography", "produsers"; and "volunteered geo- graphic information" or VGI. Collaborative Web-based efforts like Open Street Map, Tagzania, Wayfaring.com, People’s Map, and Platial all enable amateur enthusiasts to create and share georeferenced point- and line- based data. Citizen inputs from personal GPS receivers and cellphones now strengthen emergency response efforts. Commercially, firms like Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ and TomTom use Web-based customer input to locate and qualify mapping errors and/or feature updates required in their road network databases. Google Map Maker now provides to citizens in over 170 jurisdictions the ability to help popu- late and update Google Maps graphical and attribute data (Google, 2009, see Figure 1). In October 2009, Google announced it was even foregoing relationships with a traditional supplier for its U.S. data coverage as it increasingly relies on its own capabilities and volunteer base. What motivates people to voluntarily contribute such information? Can we assume that VGI contributors will be motivated by the same factors as those of contributors to the Open Source software and Wikipedia com- munities? VGI updates may represent a real opportunity to keep map- ping data up to date. If the private sector is already using this, what's holding back budget-strapped public sector mapping programs? These questions form the basis of a research program underway at the University of New Brunswick. They are discussed in depth along with a more extensive list of references in Coleman et al (2009a). In this article, the authors introduce the types of people who volunteer geospatial infor- mation, the nature of their contributions, and early lessons to be drawn from this research. Contributors and Their Motivators Empirical research has classified volunteer contributions in both the Wikipedia and the Free or Open-Source Software (or "F/OSS") communities. Closer to our own field, early lessons may be drawn from VGI research now underway by research groups in North America, the United Kingdom, and western Europe. An excellent collection of early research papers on the subject may be found in GeoJournal (2008). Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia’s founders suggested “2% of the users do 75% of the work” on that site. In-depth analyses of Wikipedia contributions confirm that even small- er percentages of committed, registered contributors -- called “zealots”, “insiders”, or “elite regulars” -- undertake the vast majority of the individual edits. While occasional "Good Samaritan" content providers may actually make very few unique contributions, they are still very important in terms of contributing new content. There are parallels with VGI here. For example, two major road network providers claim that many of their individual contributors may be satis- fied to provide only one or two contributions – often concerning new roads or updates in their own immediate neighbourhood. An early analy- sis of OpenStreetMap contributors suggests that a very small number of individuals contribute the majority of content to that database. Why Contribute? To better understand why individuals contribute geographic information, lessons may again be drawn from experiences in the Wikipedia, F/OSS, and commercial User Contribution Systems communities. Consolidating and summarizing these findings yields the following list of motivators to make constructive contributions: (1) Altruism; (2) Professional or Personal Interest; (3) Intellectual Stimulation; (4) Protection or enhancement of a personal investment; (5) Social Reward; (6) Enhanced Personal Reputation; (7) Provides an Outlet for creative & independent self-expression; and (8) Pride of Place. Pride of Place plays a major role in encouraging individuals to make updates to road centreline and point-of-interest data in Google Earth, OpenStreetMap and Tele Atlas or NAVTEQ datasets covering their home town. Altruism, Professional or Personal Interest, and possibly Social Reward are strong motivators for citizens engaged in reporting specific 50 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Figure 1. Countries in which Individuals Collect and Edit Their Own Data using Google Map Maker (Google, 2009) instances or extents of natural or man-made disasters. Social Reward, Professional or Personal Interest, Pride of Place, and possibly Intellectual Stimulation can motivate persons to participate in OpenStreetMap "map- ping parties", Google's volunteer-based mapping in emerging nations, and early USGS National Map Corps operations. Protection or Enhancement of a Personal Investment motivates individuals to use TomTom's MapShare service to update data on their TomTom personal navigation unit. Not all contributors may be interested in providing objective or reliable information. There are negative motivators to consider as well. Such motivations are easy to identify: (1) Mischief: Mischievous persons or “vandals” hoping to generate skep- ticism or confusion by replacing legitimate entries with nonsensical or overtly offensive content. (2) Social, Economic or Political Agenda: Independent individuals or repre- sentatives motivated by beliefs in a given community, organization or cause; and (3) Malice and/or Criminal Intent: Individuals possessing malicious (and possibly criminal) intent in hopes of personal gain. As one progresses from (1) to (3), it is more difficult to develop automat- ed approaches to monitoring, identification, editing and overall QA. While far from tamper-proof, there are tools now being developed that can help identify the location of the computer from which a contribution is being made. For example, WikiScanner consists of a publicly searchable database that links millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to the organi- zations where those edits apparently originated, and then maps the cor- responding geographic location(s) associated with those respective IP addresses. Characterizing the Contributions Drawing from the work of authors mentioned above, voluntary contribu- tions to Wikipedia may be termed either “Constructive” or “Damaging” and fall into one of ten categories. Specifically: Constructive • Legitimate new content; • Constructive amendments, clarifications and additions; • Validation and repair of existing entries; and • Minor Edits and Format Changes. Damaging • Mass Deletes – Removal of all or nearly all of an article’s content; • Nonsense – Text that is meaningless to the reader and/or irrelevant to the context of the article; • Spam – Advertisements or non-useful links incorporated into the arti- cle; • Partial deletes – Removal of some of an article’s content, from a few sentences to many paragraphs; • Offensive content – Inclusion of (e.g.) obscenities, hate speech, unwar- ranted attacks on public figures, unexpected links to pornography; • Misinformation – Clearly false information, such as changed dates, sub- tle insertions or removal of certain words which change the meaning of a passage. There are corresponding geographical examples of all four types of Constructive Contributions. In terms of damaging contributions, the pos- sibility of a Partial Delete to a map database could have serious conse- quences. While they may occur, the likelihood of not easily detecting and correcting Mass Deletes or Nonsense contributions (e.g. GPS Art) to a map database would be low. "Misinformation" may fall into two categories. Unintentional misinformation may be provided where someone genuinely believes they are providing reliable new information or updates but, due to procedural errors, innocent misinterpretations, or reliance on false sec- ond-hand information, incorrect information is provided. As mentioned earlier, contributions of deliberate or intentional misinfor- mation are usually driven by a conscious agenda. For example, a group of concerned citizens and organizations may wish to see digital map and attribute data amended to re-route traffic around older village centers, residential neighborhoods and school zones. Again, WikiScanner-type tracking technologies may be useful in identifying logical linkages between the nature & location of contributors and their respective contributions. Early Lessons Learned What early lessons may be drawn from these findings? First, VGI need not necessarily be new graphical information. In many instances, it may be updated attributes (a dirt road now paved) or even additional information (the official name and/or purpose of a given building). For example, most data submitted by TomTom MapShare customers are updated attributes. Second, volunteer contributors want some recognition of their contribu- tion. Such recognition may range from early acknowledgement of a contri- bution via an automatic return e-mail message (a practice adopted by NAVTEQ's MapReporter site, for example) to more formal recognition on a website's "List of Contributors" or even in metadata. Third, contributors want to see their contribution used -- and quickly. Bearden pointed out volunteer discouragement when the US Geological Survey was unable to quickly incorporate map updates by USGS National Map Corps members. Fourth, there are ways to assess contributor credibility and validate the corresponding contributions. There are definite spatial considerations that make VGI contributions unique. Similarly, the date and time at which a volunteered contribution is made may have a bearing on its credibility --- especially when trying to assess the reliability of two or more competing or contradictory contributions. Finally, in an environment where many people have access to inexpensive means of "production" – a cellphone camera, digital camcorder, or GPS in a PDA – the emphasis of both consumers and professionals under- Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 51 March 2010 An Example of Volunteered Geographical Information in New York. standably shifts away from production and towards filtering. In future, there may even be a mix of responsibilities when it comes to determining who actually performs such filtering or quality control – trained profes- sionals or a network of informed consumers. Going Forward Research in this field is moving ahead quickly. Reports of empirical qual- ity testing are now emerging that better qualify the strengths and weak- nesses of volunteered contributions of graphical and attribute data — and where those contributions are most likely to occur. Going forward, the cultural and process changes involved in shifting the planning and production focus from a "coverage-based" to a "feature- based" orientation cannot be underestimated. Road network firms like TomTom, NAVTEQ, and TeleAtlas have already made this shift and realized quicker turnaround times of updates (TomTom, 2008), but many govern- ment mapping organizations have not. How three such organizations have dealt with such change is discussed in Coleman et al. (2009b). Finally, if a mapping organization wishes to capitalize on a distributed net- work of volunteer geospatial data produsers, then it must start refocusing attention across what happens both inside that organization and also in the new social network of geo-information production. New rules and stan- dards will be required to take into account the values of these volunteers — equity, security, community building, privacy — in evaluating the per- formance of this new production system. Depending on the type of infor- mation being collected, there may in future even be a mix of responsibili- ties when it comes to determining who actually performs such filtering or quality control – trained professionals or a network of informed consumers. Much will depend upon program design and acceptance criteria. If the variety of examples already on the Web is any indication, the situation will likely be different from organization to organization. Dr. David Coleman
[email protected] is Dean of Engineering and a Professor of Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. Prior to obtaining his PhD, he spent 15 years in the Canadian geomatics industry as a project engineer, executive, and independent consultant. Yola Georgiadou
[email protected] is Professor in Geo-information for Governance at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University Twente, The Netherlands. Her research interests include the use of geo-information in public governance and the governance of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). Acknowledgements The senior author would like to recognize the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the GEOIDE Network of Centres of Excellence for their financial support of this research. 52 Ar t i cl e March 2010 ESRI International User Conference July 12–16, 2010 | San Diego, CA One week. One place. Everything GIS. The registration deadline is May 21, 2010. www.esri.com/uc Copyright © 2009 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI, ESRI globe www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or servi in the United States, the European Community, or certain othe Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 53 March 2010 Just before our students start their thesis period, our MSc Geoinfor mation Science and Earth Observation program offers a set of optional topics. So far the students have been confronted with a lot of theoretical sub- jects. Of course these principles have been illustrated by many practical examples and exercises. One optional topic is ‘Geo-information processes for United Nations peacekeeping missions’. One of its objectives is to understand the problems involved in working in a ‘data-poor’ environ- ment: data poor because the operational areas of UN peacekeeping mis- sions tend to be in virtually non-charted locations. And even if maps are available, they are often outdated. This puts all kinds of constraints on data gathering, processing and use. From an academic perspective, this results in interesting data-integration problems. This topic is taught with the assistance of the United Nations. Staff members of the UN Department of Field Support, Cartographic Unit visit Enschede to explain in detail how their organization works. An additional benefit for the students is that they are meeting one of their potential employers. Of the two hundred staff members spread over the New York headquarters, the GIS Centre in Brindisi and the GIS units with the missions, about twenty percent are ITC alumni. No Time to Reflect Within the UN Department of Field Support, the Cartographic Unit is respon- sible for providing peacekeeping missions around the world with correct geographic information. This includes up-to-date topographic and relevant thematic maps. Geographic information systems are used as a peacekeep- ing decision-support system to analyze and interpret terrain features, weather, demographics, situations and environment. The most beneficial aspect of the use of GIS is its capability to integrate information from var- ious sources. Much of the preparatory work is done at the GIS Centre at the UN’s logistics base in Brindisi, Italy. The Cartographic Unit also offers services related to the work of the Secretariat including the Security Council. These could be simple maps explaining where UN troops are deployed, or maps clarifying specific situ- ations at international boundaries. After the UN staff has explained their mode of operation, the students have to execute tasks that are supposed to mimic practice. The idea is that the students combine all the knowledge they have recently gained to arrive at solutions. These tasks can be related to planning (where to estab- lish a mission headquarters), data collection (how to find available maps; how to deal with fieldwork data such as annotated GPS data), organiza- tion of an information system (how to deal with datasets of different spa- tial and temporal scales; what are the consequences of working with data of poor quality), dissemination (how to create maps for multiple audiences such as the UN Security Council and field officers). The results of the stu- dents’ work is presented in New York via video conference. The interest of the Cartographic Unit in this work is related to the fact that they live day to day and have to act depending on the current situation. This leaves virtually no time to reflect. The students might present new ideas and solutions in relation to their problems which could be incorporated into daily operations. Here theory meets practice. Time Constraints This idea has expanded our relations and we offer our skills to brief their staff so they can strengthen their background knowledge in topographic and thematic mapping. To make sure the course content fits their needs, we recently visited Brindisi’s GIS Centre and training facilities. We traveled there in the week following the Haiti earthquake. Maybe not the most suit- able moment to discuss strategic training, but it was the best time to see them in action. We were able to witness how they work and how difficult a seemingly simple job such as creating a ‘real-time damage map’ of Port- au-Prince actually is. But even more impressive, under what kinds of time constraints they have to operate. And for a moment, you doubt the impor- tance of lecturing about the use of color in a map. Who cares? These maps have to be ready! The next moment you realize just how important it is. The maps have to be understandable. A scientist doesn’t work from nine to five, but I do know what, where and when I’ll be teaching in October 2010. Staff at the UN have to be prepared to work 24/7 because they never know what is going to happen when or where. They have no clue what will be keeping them busy in October 2010. It will be an interesting didactical challenge to introduce theory into such a pragmatic organization. But one thing was confirmed during this trip: practice needs theory and theory needs practice. Column About Maps: Theory and Practice Menno-Jan Kraak
[email protected] is head of ITC’s Geo-Information Processing Department. He is a member of the editorial board of several international journals in the field of Cartography and GIS. In the school geography lesson many features and processes of the nat- ural and human influenced environment can be documented, observed and analysed by means of satellite images. The syllabuses of different school types for 14 to 18 year olds recommend the use of aerial pho- tographs and satellite images, and many school textbooks and atlases include satellite representations and visualisations. Nevertheless all these illustrations are no more than analogue images of a quasi reality. Knowledge, infrastructure (hardware and software) and suitable images are required in order to bring forth the hidden information from multi- spectral images. The Eduspace Website for secondary schools is designed to provide stu- dents and teachers with a new learning and teaching tool. Eduspace com- bines teaching and learning material with background material and work- sheets to put the student in the centre of the learning process. It aims at inspiring teachers to incorporate Earth observation in their curricula and provides for in-service training. It encourages teachers to use Earth obser- vation data by providing ready-made projects and furthermore stimulates the curiosity of students with attractive spaceborne images and further resources and tools such as the educational image processing soft- ware LEOWorks (Lichtenegger et al. 2002 & 2007). The Eduspace initiative consists of a number of different parts: - The Eduspace Website itself with general information about remote sensing, different case studies (including data and additional informa- tion), LEOWorks software, etc. - LEOWorks is an image processing tool made available for data analy- sis and image interpretation to both students/pupils and experienced teachers. It has been developed by the Eduspace team to display, anal- yse, enhance and interpret images from Earth observation satellites. It is available free of charge for registered school classes and can be downloaded via the Eduspace website. 54 Ar t i cl e March 2010 Educating Remote Sensing Techniques Eduspace Ever since Google Earth and World Wind have made their entrance in children’s rooms and the classroom, aerial photographs and satellite images have become more and more popular. In print, TV media and even in schools, the general public, teachers and pupils have become increasingly aware of the possibilities remote sensing brings for obtaining a glimpse of hidden parts of our Earth and space. But remote sensing can provide more than simply presenting beautiful 3 dimensional images of our environment as seen from above. An example of this is the Eduspace initiative for secondary schools. By Wolfgang Sulzer Example of scholars work with Eduspace/Leoworks Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com Ar t i cl e 55 March 2010 - The Eduspace Image Catalogue software allows the user to perform multi-mission inventory searches on the main ESA-supported missions. Images of almost the whole of Europe can be viewed and download- ed in different bands (blue, green, infrared …) and processed with LEOWorks. - The ESA School Atlas, produced by GEOSPACE in cooperation with ESA, is based on satellite maps, using data from a great number of Earth observation satellites. A detailed handbook provides suggestions for teachers on how to make use of the atlas during lessons, explaining the motivation and contents of the maps and providing numerous ideas for exercises with this new teaching material. The maps and – in most cases – the original Earth observation data used in the creation of the maps are supplied in digital form on two DVDs accompanying the atlas. This allows students/pupils to actively modify the maps and to apply simple data evaluation procedures. Work with the digital data is supported by the integration of the atlas into the Eduspace website (Beckel et al. 2006). At the Institute for Geography and Regional Science (University of Graz, Austria/ www.uni-graz.at/geowww) these Eduspace tools have been used for teacher education for the past 6 years. The lessons are embedded in the subject “Geo-Spatial Technologies” and give an applied introduction into using GIS and remote sensing techniques in secondary school teach- ing. Big Brother GIS The teaching material “Remote Sensing Image” is very suitable for use in geography classes - and possibly more so than its big brother GIS, as an old proverb says: “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Analogue images have been used in school lessons for many years; the implementation of image processing as a part of geo-spatial technologies has failed so far due to limiting education possibilities within teacher training curricula. The acceptance of geo-spatial technologies is increasing in teacher train- ing courses, but the acceptance level is still too low for its implementa- tion in lessons on a regular basis. An intensified presence in school events (open days, seminars …), closer contact to the teachers involved and coop- eration with educational authorities can contribute to increased usage of remote sensing in schools. The infrastructure and software issues appear to have been solved, train- ing in remote sensing techniques can be supported by adapting curricula or intensifying internet use. In addition to the Eduspace data sets, local data and case studies can also be generated through a cooperation between local/regional governments, universities and schools. The designing of an appropriate basic lesson in teacher training, which includes both GIS and remote sensing techniques is an idea that makes a lot of sense in this context. Experience in Graz has demonstrated that valuable results can be achieved using basic knowledge and applied image processing with LEOWorks even when only 24 hours (6 ECTS) are avail- able for this in a geography teacher curriculum. Dr. Wolfgang Sulzer is Ass. Professor at the Institute for Geography and Regional Science (University of Graz/Austria). Further information about the author and activities can be found under: www.uni-graz.at/geowww. www.eduspace.esa.int Eduspace homepage www.eduspace.esa.int Additional textbooks Opportunities for Emerging Geospatial Technologies 2010 Annual Conference www.asprs.org/SanDiego2010 April 26–30 Town and Country Hotel San Diego, California It’s time to register for the year’s most important industry event… the ASPRS 2010 Annual Conference. The program will include sessions on evolution and future geospatial data collection, processing and analysis, and information derivation in ways that are useful in making local, national and global decisions. Nobel laureate Jonathan Overpeck, together with a panel of experts, will discuss Predicted Consequences of Global Climate Change on Land Surface Processes and the Role of Remote Sensing for Detection and Adaptation in the Opening General Session. Incoming ASPRS President Carolyn Merry will deliver her Presidential Address at the Thursday General Session. In addition, Mike Renslow, Renslow Mapping, will give a state-of-the-industry address on “The Impact of Technology Development, Innovation, and Nontraditional Mapping Applications.” An expansive Exhibit Hall will showcase the latest products and services. Industry “Hot Topics” will be discussed and the program includes numerous opportunities for networking and career enhancements, plus an evening on the USS Midway. All of this and San Diego too……. 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[email protected] Internet: www.isprs-newcastle2010.org 23-25 June INSPIRE Conference 2010 Krakow, Poland Internet: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ events/conferences/inspire_2010 28-30 June ISVD 2010 Quebec City, Canada E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: http://isvd2010.scg.ulaval.ca 29 June-02 July GEOBIA 2010 Ghent, Belgium Internet: http://geobia.ugent.be July 02-04 July ISPRS TC VII Symposium '100 Years ISPRS-Advancing Remote Sensing Science' Vienna, Austria Internet: www.isprs100vienna.org 03-04 July InterCarto - InterGIS 16 Cartography and Geoinformation for Sustainable Development Rostov (Don), Russia Internet: http://intercarto16.net March 16-17 March 9. Internationales 3D-Forum Lindau Lindau, Germany Tel: +49 (8382) 704293 Fax: +49 (8382) 704 5 293 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.3dforum.net 19-24 March SmartGeometry 2010 Workshop and Conference Barcelona, Spain Internet: www.smartgeometry.com 22-25 March 2010 ESRI Developer Summit Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A. Tel: +1 909-793-2853, ext. 3743 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.esri.com/devsummit 22-25 March CARIS 2010 Stronger Together – People, Products, Infrastructure March 22-25, 2010, Miami, FL., U.S.A. Internet: www.caris.com/caris2010 24-25 March GEO-10 The complete GEO Event Ricoh Arena, Coventry, U.K. Internet: www.worldofgeomatics.com 30 March-02 April Geoform+ 2010 Moscow, Russia Tel: +7 (495) 995 0594 Fax: +7 (495) 995 0594 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.geoexpo.ru/defaulteng.stm April 11-14 April Geospatial Intelligence Middle East 2010 Manama, Bahrain, UAE E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.geospatialdefence.com 11-16 April XXIV FIG International Congress 2010 ‘Facing the Challenges - Building Capacity’ Sydney, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australia Tel: +61 (02) 2 9265 070 Fax: +61 (02) 2 9267 5443 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.fig2010.com 12-16 April SPIE Photonics Europe Brussels, Belgium Internet: www.spie.org 14-16 April IV International Conference "Remote Sensing - the Synergy of High Technologies" Moscow, Atlas Park Hotel, Russia Tel.: +7 (495) 988 7511 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.sovzondconference.ru/eng 14-18 April AAG Annual Meeting 2010 Washington, DC, U.S.A. E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.aag.org/annualmeetings/ 2010/index.htm 19-23 April BAE Systems GXP International User Conference and Professional Exchange! San Diego, CA, Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, U.S.A. Internet: www.gxpuserconference.com 25-29 April GITA 2010 Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A. Phone: +1 (303) 337-0513 Fax: +1 (303) 337-1001 E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: www.gita.org/gis 26-30 April 2010 ASPRS Annual Conference San Diego, CA, Town and Country Hotel, U.S.A. Internet: www.asprs.org/SanDiego2010/ index.html Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to:
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