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Corner Office P06

Autonomy Revolution is the Way Ahead

Xavier Orr

CEO and Co-founder

Advanced Navigation

Colonel

Dr.

Mathias Jonas Secretary General International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)

Deanne

Amen Ra Mashariki Director of AI and Data Strategies at the

Editor-in-Chief

Sanjay Kumar

Managing Editor

Prof. Arup Dasgupta

Contributing Editors

Global Defense and Security

Keith J. Masback

North America

Myrna James

Deputy Executive Editor

Aditya Chaturvedi

Sr. Assistant Editor

Nibedita Mohanta

Sr. Sub Editors

Sachin Awana

Jeffy Jacob

Chief Designer

Subhash Kumar

Visualizers

Pradeep Chauhan

Saurabh Srivastava

Circulation

Shweta Singh

Vijay Singh

Facing the Abyss

arup@geospatialworld.net

As we near the completion of the first quarter of the 21st century, the world is witnessing crisis after crisis. Climate Change is becoming a reality as the weather patterns are changing – the frequency of violent weather episodes is increasing, leading to extreme flooding, forest fires, cyclones, and other natural disasters.

Compounding these natural calamities are the two major wars that were supposed to end in weeks but are extending to months and years. The damage to life and property is humongous, while the geopolitical scenario is teetering at the abyss of an Armageddon.

However, there is still a flicker of hope that the world will recover its balance. Geospatial systems and applications will play a very large role in this redemption. A fleet of EO satellites, both government sponsored and privately owned, are at the command of nations to observe every centimeter of the lithosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.

A vast suite of analytical tools which now include AI are available to extract information from the vast amount of data, past and present, for further planning and decision-making. Administrators are recognizing the value of such information and are integrating systems into their policy, planning, and execution.

Agencies all over the world are depending on Earth Observation systems and analytics to recover from disasters and manage relief and rehabilitation. analytics is now aided by Big Data, AI, and Deep Learning to model the future impacts of climate change and arrive at mitigatory and precautionary measures.

While geospatial systems are an integral part of the war machines of all nations, they are also useful for relief and rehabilitation of the civilian population. In future, when the hostilities end geospatial systems will be needed to rebuild the destroyed assets: power stations, airports, railways, roads, institutions and homes. Maybe some good may emerge as there could be better and more rational planning of these assets. But it should also be noted that construction activity also adds to climate change.

Indeed, debris is not only on the ground. It affects the atmosphere and the local weather and climate. Another debris that is becoming a problem is space debris which is growing as nations compete to have their own systems for EO, communications and PNT, not to mention the ever present threat of weaponization of space. Tracking, reducing and perhaps later recovering space debris promises to be a major space activity in the future.

We are very familiar with the tool and technologies of these systems. Professionals have learnt to grapple with all the acronyms from GIS, GNSS, SAR to GeoINT, CIVILINT, DT, AI ML, DL, QC and what have you. In this maze of technologies and acronyms a question must be asked: what is all this for?

This question has only one answer: ‘For all humankind’, and yet this element is totally missing from all discussions on applications of geospatial systems.

If geospatial is to become an essential part of governance it must take into account the human element, nay, the human element should be the center of all planning.

Prof. Arup Dasgupta

AI-DRIVEN PRECISION

Autonomy Revolution is the Way Ahead

In an exclusive interview with Geospatial World, Xavier Orr, CEO and co-founder at Advanced Navigation, dives deep into the company’s mission of being a catalyst in the autonomy revolution.

Advanced Navigation has opened a robotic manufacturing facility for autonomous systems with the aim of scaling up AI navigation systems for GPS-denied environments. Could you please shed more light on this facility and its future?

The high-tech robotics facility will scale up the manufacturing of Advanced Navigation’s world-first AI navigation systems for GPS-denied environments, including its digital fibre-optic gyroscope (DFOG) technology, Boreas.

In the last two years, there has been a widespread occurrence of GPS signal interferences. Spoofing incidents have quadrupled across commercial airlines, resulting in unplanned landings and elevated risk of an international crisis.

In commercial maritime, there have been increasing attempts to spoof vessels, taking them off course and into territorial waters. There have also been reports of businesses leveraging fake coordinates to engage in murky and even illegal activities.

The problem will continue to exacerbate in the age of electronic warfare in conflict zones around the world, as well as dramatic reductions in the cost and complexity needed to conduct spoofing.

A reliable counterpart to GPS-based navigation is APNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing), which refers to the technologies, techniques and strategies that enable accurate targeting, secure communication and synchronised operations in situations where GPS signals may be weak or disrupted.

A prime example is high-performance inertial navigation systems (INS). By assessing comprehensive data collected from multiple sensors, the system is able to identify spoofing and ignore it, ensuring the completeness, reliability and accuracy of data at any given time.

Advanced Navigation is one of only four companies in the world to manufacture strategic-grade FOG INS components, and the

only in the world to develop a completely digital FOG.

Autonomous transportation has been gaining momentum, promising to break free from the barriers of traditional transportation and make the industry more efficient and faster. How is Advanced Navigation enabling autonomous transportation? Fulfilling the company's mission to be the catalyst of the autonomy revolution, Advanced Navigation’s AI-based navigation systems are empowering reliable autonomous transportation.

Singapore-based company

MooVita is using Advanced Navigation for its fleet of autonomous buses to address public transportation concerns arising from an ageing population and a labour shortage of bus drivers.

MooVita selected Advanced Navigation’s Certus Evo INS for its capability to provide extremely accurate position, velocity, acceleration, and orientation. As a supporting system to the vehicle’s primary sensor array,

Certus Evo ensures MooVita’s buses maintain reliable positioning even in the most demanding conditions, including urban areas with tall buildings, heavy rainfall, and roads with unique and complex features.

This is a critical capability for maintaining MooVita systems’ overall reliability and greatly bolsters their efforts to revolutionise public transportation.

Your company has been awarded a grant by the Australian Department of Defence to advance manufacturing for photonic chips. What new developments can we expect to see?

Currently, Australia does not have large-scale commercial manufacturing capability for photonic chips.

Advanced Navigation is a pioneer in producing this technology in Australia, recently opening a hightech robotics manufacturing site with the capacity to produce 45,000 photonic chips per year.

Advanced Navigation uses photonic chips in its FOG INS. These

systems are recognised by global defence forces as a critical capability for APNT across navy, army and airforce to enable autonomous capability, accurate positioning and high value asset tracking.

Specifically, Advanced Navigation’s patented DFOG technology combines closed-loop FOG with digital modulation techniques and a revolutionary photonic chip to offer higher performance, delivering a 40 per cent reduction in size, weight, power and cost over comparable products.

The technological breakthroughs enabled by photonic chips offer new opportunities for commercial and defence applications requiring always available, ultra-high accuracy, orientation and navigation, including subsea, marine, robotics, aerospace and space.

What is the future roadmap for Advanced Navigation?

Advanced Navigation will continue to expedite the development and commercialisation of high-impact innovations.

This includes a laser-based sensor named LUNA, which stands for Laser measurement Unit for Navigational Aid. Its primary objective is to enhance the safety and reliability of autonomous landing manoeuvres on the lunar surface.

It will be demonstrated onboard Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander during the final descent en route to the Moon in 2025, as part of NASA’s ongoing Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Following this demonstration, LUNA will be commercially available for integration into landers from 2025-26.

Additionally, Advanced Navigation is developing an indoor positioning technology to support members of the visually impaired community in safely navigating inside underground train stations.

All of these innovations support the company's mission to catalyse the autonomy revolution.

Interviewed by Sachin Awana

GENERATION ARTEMIS

TO MOON AND BEYOND

NASA Administrator

Bill Nelson shares crucial insights on Indo-US cooperation, AI, space wars, new age of planetary exploration, and more.

From the days of the Apache sounding rockets in 1963, to NISAR, the world's biggest SAR satellite, Indo-US space cooperation has come a long way. What do you think is the future of this partnership?

Space shows us time and again that diplomacy is good for discovery, and discovery is good for diplomacy.

Our flagship mission with India, NISAR, will bring revolutionary data about the evolution and state of Earth's crust, help scientists better understand our planet's processes and changing climate, and aid future resource and hazard management.

Our international partners – including India – are making remarkable discoveries on the Moon. It was just last year that India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed on the lunar surface, becoming the first nation to land at the South Pole of the Moon.

This mission inspired countless people in India and worldwide, providing key scientific data on the lunar South Pole, which is where the future NASA Artemis missions will land.

We are looking forward to continuing to work with India from Earth to the Moon and, eventually, on Mars, and we are excited about welcoming an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

Artemis Accord reiterates the peaceful use of outer space as humanity's common province and aims to rekindle the spark of the Apollo spirit to go back to the moon. How can it serve as a symbol of hope and progress for countries that are newcomers to space?

The Artemis Accords define how we can remain true to, and implement our obligations under the Outer Space Treaty. They reflect a shared commitment to safe, responsible, and transparent behavior in space, to preserve and protect the outer space environment, and ensure a sustainable future in space for all.

India’s leadership in discussions of how to implement the Accords principles will be critical to success. It is also important for new-comers to space to join these discussions. India can help them understand the value of their participation.

I hope that China will join the U.S. in dissuading Russia from putting a nuclear weapon in space, which would put all of our astronauts at risk, including Russian Cosmonauts.

Working together in space helps to bridge generations and nations. It builds a better future for all humanity. This new generation – the Artemis Generation – will see humanity return to the Moon, where we will learn to live and work as we prepare for the first human missions to Mars.

Along with both new and existing partners will add new energy and capabilities to ensure the entire world can benefit from our journey of exploration and discovery. These achievements will benefit the Artemis Generation all around the globe.

While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by more than 100 countries, explicitly prohibits deployment of weapons into outer space, the risk of a space conflict still looms. Do we need to amend the treaty or introduce new clauses to it as space weaponization is a looming threat?

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty already prohibits the establishment of military bases, installations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military maneuvers on celestial bodies, including the Moon. It is very clear about the use outer space only for peaceful purposes.

But this is also why the Artemis Accords are so important – to establish a common set of principles for the civil exploration and use of outer space.

Space monitoring and solutions are critical for sustainability on Earth. Yet sustainability in space is equally crucial, and both are interlinked. How to emphasize this to drive concerted action and build meaningful, valuebased alliances?

For decades, NASA has served as a proactive leader for responsible and sustainable space operations.

The circumstances today are vastly different than those in the 1960s. This time our goal is not just to go to the Moon, but to reach the Moon to learn so that we can go farther to Mars and beyond. NASA and the United States use space and science as a unifying force.

As outlined in our new Space Sustainability Strategy released earlier this year, NASA is working on measuring and assessing space sustainability in Earth orbit.

We are identifying cost-effective ways to meet sustainability targets, incentivizing the adoption of sustainable practices through technology and policy development, and increasing efforts to share and receive information with the rest of the global space community.

From GPS, which is the backbone of the digital economy, to high-resolution agricultural and supply chain monitoring, and disaster and emergency risk mapping, the contribution of space to the world is invaluable. What do you think would be its role in the era of Generative AI and Industry 4.0?

We are living through a golden age of exploration – all of us. And that’s not just in terms of returning to the Moon and going to Mars.

NASA has over two dozen Earth-observing satellites and data from over 60 years of how our planet is changing.

It’s an exciting time, and I am looking forward to how NASA’s unique vantage point from space will help inform Generative AI and Industry 4.0.

Do you think we are at the crossroads of a New Space Race? And how different the current scenario is from the Cold War era?

The circumstances today are vastly different than those in the 1960s. This time our goal is not just to go to the Moon, but to reach the Moon to learn so that we can go farther to Mars and beyond. NASA and the United States use space and science as a unifying force.

This time, we are going to the South Pole because we know there's ice there in the crevices of the rocks in the constant shadow or darkness.

And where there’s ice, you have water, which can be used to create rocket fuel. But there are limited areas that you can land on the South Pole.

So yes, we want to get there with the international community, for scientific research. NASA welcomes partnership between nations around the world, especially those who share the same values of transparency, peaceful exploration, the release of scientific data, and planning for the safe disposal of orbital debris.

On a related note, I hope that China will join the U.S. in dissuading Russia from putting a nuclear weapon in space, which would put all of our astronauts at risk, including Russian Cosmonauts.

As a Congressman, you trained with NASA and travelled to outer space in 1986. What is it that has always elicited your deep interest in space throughout your long illustrious career? I often talk about President Kennedy’s speech at Rice University in 1962 where he quoted British explorer George Mallory, specifically his answer for why he dared to climb Mount Everest. Mallory’s response was: “Because it’s there.”

Humans are explorers by nature, it is in our DNA. And space is the final frontier. When I was orbiting the Earth, looking back at the planet from the unique vantage point of space, I did not see racial division. I did not see religious division. And I did not see political division.

I saw that we are all in this together, as citizens of Planet Earth. We go to space to improve life here on Earth, and the way to do it is together with international partners.

Interviewed

by Aditya Chaturvedi

The New Age of Earth Observation

Satellites have for long contributed in monitoring Earth from space. The implications of this technology have been so grave that it has cemented itself as a critical tool for most nations around the world. But there is still a lot to be desired. By Dr. Motoyuki Arai, Founder & CEO, Synspective Inc.

Since the first Earth observation prototypes using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) were developed, our ability to capture imagery and subsequently, our access to data and information about disaster-struck areas, conflict zones, and more, has been revolutionized.

But what is perhaps most exciting is the possibility that can be achieved with SAR.

Despite representing a modest portion of the global space economy, the Earth observation (EO) sector has experienced exponential growth and according to Morgan Stanley Research, is estimated to skyrocket from a value of $4.4 billion to a staggering $25.273 billion by 2040

This rampant growth, alongside the development of AI and machine learning technologies, and a commitment to collaborate and share information, is creating

a fertile ground for pushing the boundaries of what SAR-powered EO is capable of.

Mission So Far

In recent years, facilitated by advancements in satellite imaging, remote sensing, and data analytics, SAR has revolutionised our ability to understand and monitor the dynamics of our planet.

The increasing demand for accurate and timely environmental data coupled with the rise of commercial space ventures is empowering faster delivery of data to tackle global challenges such as climate change, natural resource management, and disaster response.

SAR satellites, unhindered by low visibility at night or adverse weather, offer a clear and comprehensive perspective of Earth’s surface and movements. SAR data contains information that contributes to the understanding of the shape and physical properties of

the terrain and structures.

Furthermore, SAR enables monitoring of various objects, from urban vehicles to disaster-prone buildings and maritime vessels at major ports. This capability makes SAR satellites suited to time-series analysis, facilitating continuous monitoring across a number of applications on land and at sea.

Advancements in design, computing and reduced launch costs have made small satellites more widely available. These compact alternatives, being more cost-effective and lighter, have made the deployment of multiple SAR satellites on a single payload possible, expanding the accessibility of space exploration.

This availability of small SAR satellite constellations enables near real-time global observations with unprecedented detail and high-resolution image clarity.

Towards Common Goal

The enhancement of EO technology is not merely a scientific endeavour: it’s a critical tool for informed decision-making across various sectors and applications.

From monitoring environmental health and biodiversity to supporting national security initiatives, urban planning efforts, and disaster response operations, EO data provides invaluable insights that drive evidence-based decisions across the entire value chain.

Yet collaboration between government agencies, research institutions, industry stakeholders, and international organisations must be leveraged to accelerate technological innovation, data sharing, and capacity building efforts.

A data-driven approach and collective learning are of paramount importance for the creation of a better world for future generations. Shared knowledge will result in standardized processes and abilities, unlocking a generation of innovative applications and use cases through open data. We have already seen the value of opensource SAR imagery to help track conflicts and disasters.

Collective learning, drawing from diverse backgrounds and experiences also plays a critical role in the achievement of system-

atic innovation. To this end, a data-driven approach is also imperative, along with the integration of academia with international entities like the United Nations and the World Bank to ensure a linear global progression in knowledge accumulation.

International stakeholders can establish analytical platforms to facilitate learning, while companies can contribute through APIs and insights, fostering collaboration.

Synspective relies on the development of close partnerships with experts in construction, engineering consultancies, and insurance companies. We provide the analytic datasets, but our solutions are developed through discussions with these experts.

New Tech Landscape

There are unavoidable questions about the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play in society. For EO at least, AI-powered algorithms and Machine Learning (ML) techniques enable automated analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling, unlocking new possibilities for extracting actionable insights at scale.

The combination of SAR satellite constellation with AI-driven analytics platform can unlock the path toward a continuously learning world, enabling customers

By harnessing the synergy between EO and AI, societies can better understand, monitor, and manage the Earth's dynamic systems, promoting sustainable development in an increasingly interconnected world.

across industries to make databacked timely decisions.

AI's capacity to predict, analyse, and interpret vast amounts of data in real-time is poised to revolutionise the field. Despite the wealth of EO data available from satellites and ground-based sensors, the challenge lies in deciphering complex patterns, identifying relevant trends, and extracting intelligence in a timely manner.

AI algorithms offer powerful tools for detecting anomalies and generating predictive analytics. By leveraging AI capabilities, EO practitioners can enhance data processing efficiency, improve decision-making accuracy, and unlock new applications across diverse sectors.

EO data serves as the backbone for geospatial analytics, enabling the creation of actionable insights. Generative AI, a cutting-edge technology, has the potential to revolutionise the geospatial industry with its capabilities to streamline processes, such as land cover mapping and 3D modelling, while also empowering predictive analytics for future scenarios.

Japan's Highest Resolution 25cm SAR image

Within the next few years, we anticipate being able to predict damages from a disaster and have enough information to proactively prepare and minimise the impacts, while leveraging relevant data for the planning and construction of robust infrastructures, all thanks to AI capabilities.

The impact of improved SAR data processing has already been witnessed and can give us a preview of what might be achieved with AI. In 2011, during the Tōhoku earthquake in Japan, there wasn’t a sufficient amount of satellite data to provide immediate information for risk assessment and recovery activities.

The Noto Peninsula earthquake of 2024 highlighted SAR satellites as a crucial tool in effective natural disaster management.

Other than the obvious path to enhance our capabilities by increasing the number of satellites providing data, and applying AI capabilities to reduce processing times, the solution lies in sharing live URLs of satellite data to help with disaster management efforts in the event of earthquakes, floods, or forest fires.

Managing Disasters

Within the next few years, we anticipate being able to predict damages from a disaster and have enough information to proactively prepare and minimise the impacts, while leveraging relevant data for the planning and construction of robust infrastructures, all thanks to AI capabilities.

By harnessing historical disaster data and real-time satellite imagery, AI-powered algorithms can generate predictive models that forecast potential hazards, assess vulnerability, and prioritize resource allocation.

Through ML techniques, AI systems can analyse satellite images to identify the damage, help establish disaster-resilient infrastructures, and support decision-making in crisis situations.

For example, accurate landslide risk assessments can be provided, highlighting potential risk areas. By integrating AI-driven solutions into disaster management workflows, stakeholders can mitigate risks, reduce response times, and enhance community resilience.

With four satellites combining SAR data with advanced machine learning currently in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Synspective delivers data and analytical services across several industries. Its proprietary Land Displacement Monitoring (LDM) solution uses interferometric SAR (InSAR) analysis to monitor ground risks, particularly beneficial for reclaimed lands and mining sites.

Continuous monitoring with LDM can help track historical changes and find patterns using a cloud-based data platform. Notably, LDM’s subsidence detection utilizes a unique algorithm, providing early alerts for potential ground deformations, crucial in the prevention of disasters in facilities such as tailing dams.

A Better Future

Continued advancements in EO technologies are indispensable for addressing complex global challenges, including climate change research, natural resource management, and disaster risk reduction.

The integration of AI capabilities catalyses sectoral development, enabling rapid generation of actionable insights and datadriven decision-making.

By harnessing the synergy between EO and AI, societies can better understand, monitor, and manage the Earth's dynamic systems, promoting sustainable development in an increasingly interconnected world.

Dr. Motoyuki Arai

Founder & CEO Synspective Inc.

GEOINT in an Uncertain World Order

Persistent surveillance and reconnaissance are the pinnacle in GEOINT and involve continuous monitoring of areas of interest, providing a steady stream of real-time data that enhances situational awareness and operational effectiveness. By

Itay Bar-Lev

Ah, GEOINT. The mysterious acronym that's been buzzing around like a swarm of GPS-equipped bees. But what exactly is Geospatial Intelligence, you ask? Simply put, it's the art of combining geographic data with other information to create a detailed picture of our world.

Think of it as a high-tech version of connect-the-dots, except instead of revealing a cute bunny, you might uncover a hidden military base or a secret stash of resources.

In today's unpredictable geopolitical landscape, GEOINT has become the ultimate tool for defense and civilian applications alike, helping decision-makers navigate the twists and turns of

global events with the finesse of a satellite-guided ballerina. Here are my key trends shaping the future of GEOINT, with an emphasis on recent technological advancements and their practical applications.

Who knows, by the end of this article, you might just be inspired to start your own GEOINT startup and take over the world (or at least your neighborhood)!

Multi-Domain Integration

Multi-domain integration in GEOINT refers to the seamless fusion of data and capabilities across various operational domains—land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

This integration allows for a comprehensive and cohesive

operational picture that enhances decision-making and operational effectiveness.

One of the best examples of multi-domain integration can be seen in modern military operations, where advanced geospatial technologies and intelligence are leveraged to create a unified view of the battlefield.

During the Ukraine conflict, the integration of commercial satellite imagery, open-source intelligence, and real-time data from social media and traffic apps (e.g., Google Traffic) provided early warnings of Russian troop movements.

This multi-domain approach allowed for rapid response and strategic planning.

Space-based Persistent Surveillance and Reconnaissance

Persistent surveillance and reconnaissance are the pinnacle in GEOINT and involve continuous monitoring of areas of interest, providing a steady stream of realtime data that enhances situational awareness and operational effectiveness.

This capability is crucial for detecting changes, identifying patterns, and delivering timely intelligence for strategic and tactical decisions.

One prime example of spacebased GEOINT is the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. Unlike optical satellites, SAR satellites can capture high-resolution images under

The rapid advancement of Large Language Models such as GPT-4, Claude, and others has opened new possibilities for advanced analytics in Geospatial Intelligence.

any weather condition and during nighttime. This capability was notably utilized during the Ukraine conflict to monitor troop movements and changes in infrastructure, even through cloud cover and darkness.

Space-based Disaster Response and Management

Another significant application of space-based GEOINT is in disaster response and management. After natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods, satellites equipped with optical and radar sensors can quickly assess damage and monitor recovery efforts.

This real-time information allows governments and humanitarian organizations to efficiently deploy resources and coordinate relief operations.

For instance, satellite imagery played a crucial role in assessing the damage and planning emergency responses following the 2020 Beirut explosion.

May 2024 devastating floods in Brazil, caused widespread destruction and displacement. Spacebased GEOINT was instrumental in managing the crisis.

Satellites provided real-time imagery and data that tracked the progression of the floods, identified the most affected areas, and assessed the damage to infrastructure.

This information was crucial for disaster response teams to allocate resources effectively, plan evacuations, and deliver aid to those in need. The integration of SAR satellites allowed for continuous monitoring despite heavy cloud cover, ensuring that response efforts were well-informed and timely.

The growing significance of space as a contested domain has accelerated advancements in space-based GEOINT capabilities. Satellites equipped with high-resolution imaging sensors, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and various remote sensing technologies deliver vital intelligence for both strategic and tactical purposes.

Space-based GEOINT is crucial for tracking missile launches, monitoring space assets, and maintaining comprehensive space domain awareness.

Advanced Geospatial Analytics

The rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Claude, and others has opened new possibilities for advanced analytics in GEOINT.

These powerful AI models can process and interpret vast amounts of unstructured data, including text, images, and even geospatial information, providing valuable insights and intelligence.

The meteoric progress in technology, including AI, big data, 5G, and spacebased capabilities,are driving innovation in GEOINT and shaping its future.

One of the key applications of LLMs in GEOINT is in the automated analysis of text-based data sources, such as intelligence reports, news articles, and social media posts.

By leveraging their natural language understanding capabilities, LLMs can quickly identify and extract relevant information, such as locations, events, and entities, from these sources. This automation significantly reduces the time and effort required for manual data analysis, allowing analysts to focus on higher-level tasks and decision-making.

LLMs can also be used to generate human-like text based on input prompts, which has potential applications in generating geospatial intelligence reports. By training these models on a large corpus of existing GEOINT reports, they can learn to produce clear, concise, and informative summaries of geospatial data and insights.

This can help streamline the report writing process and ensure consistency in the format and content of intelligence products.

Another promising application of LLMs in GEOINT is in the integration of multi-modal data sources. Advanced models like GPT-4 can process and understand data from different modal-

ities, such as text, images, and even geospatial data formats. This capability enables the fusion of information from multiple sources, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the operating environment.

For example, an LLM could analyze satellite imagery alongside text-based intelligence reports to identify and characterize activities of interest in each area.

The use of LLMs in GEOINT is not without challenges, however. Ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive geospatial data is a key concern, as is the need for robust data governance and ethical frameworks to guide the development and deployment of these technologies.

Nonetheless, the potential benefits of LLMs in advancing geospatial analytics and intelligence are significant, and their adoption is likely to continue to grow in the coming years.

Digital Twins and Smart Cities

Digital twin technology is transforming urban planning and utility management by creating virtual replicas of physical assets, enabling cities to monitor and manage infrastructure more effectively.

This innovative technology is particularly valuable for predictive

maintenance, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing public safety. Smart cities leverage digital twins to improve transportation systems, energy distribution, and emergency response, making urban environments more efficient and resilient.

Cities including New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Chicago are at the forefront of adopting digital twin technology in the United States. Those Cities are implementing a comprehensive digital twin system that encompasses various aspects of urban management.

By integrating data from sensors and IoT devices allowing for real-time monitoring of infrastructure, including bridges, roads, and public buildings energy consumption. This system helps the city predict and address maintenance needs before they become critical issues, ensuring smoother operations and improved public safety.

CIVINT (Civil Engineering Intelligence)

Civil Engineering Intelligence (CIVINT) is an emerging field that integrates Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) principles, deep under-

standing in Civil Engineering and SUE (Subsurface Utilities Engineering) and techniques such as Non-Intrusive Multi Sensing mapping to support the management and the design of underground utilities.

By leveraging geospatial data, State of the Art AI algorithms and domain expertise, CIVINT provides a comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date understanding of the subsurface environment, enabling informed decision-making and optimized operations.

Utility Infrastructure Monitoring

Through the integration of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging, CIVINT can detect anomalies in utility networks, such as water leaks, electrical faults, and pipeline corrosion. This proactive approach to infrastructure monitoring helps prevents costly repairs and service disruptions, ensuring the reliability of critical utilities.

Geological and Geographical Assessments

CIVINT uses Satellite images and geospatial data to assess geological features and geographical changes. This information is crucial for identifying potential natural hazards, such as landslides, earthquakes, and soil erosion. Engineers and geologists can use these insights to design safer structures and develop mitigation strategies for at-risk areas.

Conclusion: The Future of GEOINT - To Infinity and Beyond!

The rapid advancements in technology, including AI, big

data, 5G, and space-based capabilities, are driving innovation in GEOINT and shaping its future. As demonstrated in this article, the integration of these technologies is transforming the way we monitor, analyze, and manage our world, with far-reaching implications for both defense and civilian applications.

From multi-domain integration in military operations to space-based disaster response and management, advanced geospatial analytics using LLMs, digital twins and smart cities, and the emerging field of CIVINT, the potential applications of GEOINT are vast and diverse.

These advancements are enabling more efficient, effective, and data-driven decision-making across a wide range of industries and sectors.

Looking ahead, we can expect even greater collaboration between government and commercial sectors, as well as

continued investment in research and development, to further push the boundaries of what is possible with GEOINT.

However, as we embrace these new technologies and capabilities, it is crucial to prioritize data security, privacy, and the development of ethical frameworks to ensure responsible and sustainable growth.

The future of GEOINT is undoubtedly exciting, with the potential to transform the way we understand, interact with, and manage our world.

By harnessing the power of space-based technologies, AI, and advanced analytics, we can unlock new insights, drive innovation, and create a more sustainable, resilient, and prosperous future for all.

Itay Bar-Lev

Managing Director

Intel Lab

WAR IN UKRAINE PROVES 'RESILIENCE IS CRUCIAL'

In an exclusive interview with Geospatial World, Colonel Marcin Mazur, Vice President, Polish Space Agency speaks about Poland’s future launches and learnings from RussiaUkraine conflict, and much more.

How is Poland building its Earth Observation capabilities and what kind of impacts are you planning to make in the European EO sector? We are trying to build different type of capabilities both from civilian side, Polish Space Agency as well as the Ministry of Defense (MOD) side. We are building a constellation of microsatellites for civilian use, which will be source of data for defense user as well as additional source of data for military customers.

Last year our government decided to increase our subscription to European Space Agency four times, which is a huge upgrade compared to previous years. We became a six or seven nation with our amount of money subscribed to ESA. We want to have them involved in projects, programs, and to be involved with other nations or other companies which have competencies.

Additionally, we are open for other options internally in Poland to provide services, products, which can help for instance, administration to do their job

quickly. One of the example is National Satellite Information Systems, the platform which provides services and products for administration based on Copernicus data, but also on commercial at this moment. In future the system will be populated by data coming from the EO constellation.

With the Ukraine and Russia conflict in view, what is the POLSA’s plan for the launch of defense satellites? Are you developing any defense capabilities to avoid situations like Ukraine from occurring?

Of course the war in Ukraine showed us that the resilience is crucial, that you can have different type of challenges, risks, which you are not able to predict or you didn't believe that it could be a risk including cyberattacks or electronic welfare.

Developing space resilience, resilient space architecture, the whole process is important, not only the capabilities, the satellites, or the platforms on the orbits. It's the whole system from designing or from when you start thinking about your needs when you identify your customers and you start building the whole process, the capabilities when you decide to procure or to build on your own. This is where the whole issue about resilience starts.

On the other hand there is a little difference between military, governmental and the civilian capabilities. So the commercial space capabilities are extremely important nowadays. They provide different type of additional sources for government, for defense, for military. So that's the actions which we are paying attention to within the operations.

The procurement of Earth observation satellites, which MOD signed two years ago is purely a military contract. I'm not the position to share the information about it. However, the constellation of two extremely high resolution satellites provided by external contractor, the French one and the MOD will be responsible for exploitation of necessary information.

What kind of a market are you targeting and what kind of cooperation are you expecting?

This year we are celebrating our 10th anniversary. So the Polish space sector with Polish entities, the public and the private ones are growing. We are open for different type of corporations, those typically B2B and

Developing space resilience, resilient space architecture, the whole process is important, not only the capabilities, the satellites, or the platforms on the orbits.

those more covered by our agencies, national agencies to help the entities to connect each other.

We are open for really wide area of partnerships because the space is very wild. From one side we have companies which can find counterparts or business partners in India for downstream applications. And on the other side, the upstream, the satellite providers, developers looking for options to be subcontractors, to be some subsystems supporters for national needs for bigger projects in both directions.

So what are the major space activities that POLSA is targeting or planning to work on in the next 2-3 years?

We, as a national agency, our main role is to support the space sector, the private and the public one growing, so we involve them in different projects.

The one which is of our main priorities is the constellation of Earth observation microsatellites. We are also looking for options for GOVSATCOM capability development on the Polish market. We have a company which is able to provide a transponder for international bus providers for instance.

We are growing with the space situational awareness (SSA) environment. Since as an agency we are member European Union Space Strategy for Security and Defence (EUSSSD) partnership, as well as quite strong member of this community since we are providing data from 17 different sensors located around the globe in different continents. So that's definitely our priorities.

Also in first half of next year we are sending our second Polish personnel to International Space

Station and that will also be a challenge and a test for our entities to do some R&D projects and to gather some new knowledge about space and the environment over us, which is also the option for partnerships and for collaboration.

I started my career with geospatial, soon I became an imagery intelligence officer. The GeoInt nowadays is much wider than it used to be.

It is not only the data, the vectors, rosters and provision of the data to customers, but it's the whole architecture of different products and services and the MOD or military customers who require different platforms, vehicles and systems provision of approved data and information, which is actually part of the whole geo ecosystem.

With so many advanced technologies available today like AI/ML and edge computing etc. The new technology helps us to do things quicker, for instance, AI just gives you the chance to have all the big data, extracted from 20 years ago, when there was lack of sources.

Nowadays space is pretty cheap and available for most nations around the world, but we lack of techni-

GeoInt is not only the data, vectors, rosters and its provision to customers, but the whole architecture of different products & services. The MOD/ military customers require different platforms, vehicles and provisions of approved data and information, which is part of the whole geospatial ecosystem.

cians and analysts for data exploitation.

AI gives chances to exploit the big bunch of data to receive the information we are looking for the differences between different images, between different sources and so on.

Interviewed by Nibedita Mohanta

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LITHUANIAN DRONES ON FRONTLINE

Since 2022, Lithuania has been helping Ukraine in its recovery not only by supporting some of the reconstruction projects but also with the latest technology, gadgets, and equipment while the nation is dealing with an ongoing war.

By Nibedita Mohanta

Exactly two and a half years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. The war since then has seen countless deaths, heavy loss of critical proper ties on both sides and Russia's aggressive moves of capturing Ukrainian territories and causing devastations around.

However, Ukraine is fighting a tough fight against Russia to claim its freedom, peace, and security. Many European countries are extending financial, military, and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

Kiel Institute for the World Economy is maintaining a data-

base titled “Ukraine Support Tracker,” which lists and quantifies the support flows by Western governments to Ukraine since February 2022.

According to the database, currently, Lithuania is among the top supporters of Ukraine globally in terms of the share of GDP, with bilateral aid to Ukraine equalling 1.5% of GDP.

Russia's full-scale invasion has forced around 1.6 million Ukrainian schoolchildren out of education. Ukraine has also faced unprecedented damage to critical infrastructures throughout the

country, and yet they do not want to wait till the war ends to start rebuilding. Ukraine is rebuilding itself with the help of aid from partners and other nations.

Since 2022, Lithuania has been helping Ukraine in its recovery not only by supporting some of the reconstruction projects but also with the latest technology, gadgets, and equipment while the nation is dealing with an ongoing war.

Granta Autonomy's Drones on the Battlefield

“The traditional battlefield is evolving, and Western armies require robust, reliable, and flexible solutions. Granta Autonomy is committed to ensuring our systems can be readily manufactured across Europe, reducing reliance on external sources,” said Gediminas Guoba, founder and CEO, Granta Autonomy.

Former military engineer

Gediminas Guoba founded Granta Autonomy in 2014. As a recon-

naissance operator, he said he is in a much better position to understand what is needed for reconnaissance missions, in what environment, what should be chased, what kind of information should be collected, and how to work with the system on the battlefield.

“The Environment is not going to be friendly. Sometimes, it is difficult to navigate, especially at night, but you need to provide information to your team and do your mission. The environment will be harsh, so your system must work, no matter what,” he added.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Vilnius-based Granta Autonomy started supplying its UAVs to the Ukrainian front. Today, the Ukrainian army operates a battery of Granta Autonomy UAVs funded by the Lithuanian and other European defence ministries. The company also

provides its technology to NATO forces across Europe.

“Our team of military drone operators and engineers built their expertise into this design. It offers the industry's best flight time, simple operation, and rugged durability, increasing efficiency, lowering costs, and offering unmatched reliability in complex, multi-faceted missions,” he adds.

“We collaborate directly with soldiers in combat zones, testing our products and software in realworld situations. This ensures our solutions excel in the harshest conditions.”

Gediminas said, “We are developing air defence systems to counter other drones. We are also working on FDV drones and other types of drones.”

With his firsthand experience testing Granta's cutting-edge lightweight surveillance and reconnaissance UAVs, micro gimbals, and digital communications software on the front lines of the Ukraine war, Gediminas believes his team's technology will revolutionize how armed forces conduct complex reconnaissance missions.

He sees Granta's technology as a potential game-changer for bolstering NATO's defences against Russian aggression across Europe.

Usage of Drones in Modern Warfare

Drones have become indispensable assets for gathering intelligence, tracking the movements of vehicles, soldiers, and terrorists, monitoring border areas for aggressions, and staying updated

Real-time intelligence is the need of the hour to plan the next move or take swift measures, and drones are doing just that right.

with the enemy's moves, especially in contested and complex environments.

Real-time intelligence is the need of the hour to plan the next move or take swift measures, and drones are doing just that right.

“As engineers, we started thinking about what we could do to help improve our country's defence. We have already seen that drones make a huge difference on the battlefield. We call them force multipliers, and that's where our drone work started. In the future, we see more and more autonomy for our drones,” added Gediminas.

“Our primary target while working on the front lines with Ukrainian soldiers was to understand what is going on there from a technological perspective and to understand how to improve our technology going forward to improve resilience to enemies' different weapons, like jamming, counter-jamming, and other things.”

Drones have become indispensable assets when it comes to gathering intelligence, tracking movements of vehicles, soldiers, terrorists and monitoring the areas for aggressions especially in the contested and complex environments.

Drones provide real-time updates, and the data they collect can be analysed for post-mission analysis.

The Battlefield Over the Years Gediminas described how the battlefield has changed, particularly during the last two years: “During the beginning of the full invasion of Ukraine, we saw mostly standard weapons like rocket launchers or tanks being used, and we saw the constant movement of vehicles and people. The longest queue from the Russian side was almost 60km.”

“And now just 10 kilometres separates the frontlines on both sides, but there are no vehicles, and no one is moving during the day because anyone who does move gets attacked by

FPV drones. So drones play an important role on the battlefield, becoming far more advanced in destroying vehicles and targeting enemies.”

Granta Autonomy's technology allows frontline soldiers to work in a completely challenged environment from a frequencies and radio-based perspective.

Because GNSS and GPS signals get jammed, spoofed, and manipulated, “we have developed our Data Link technology, which is completely resilient to all kinds of jamming,” added Gediminas

“We have also developed a technology that allows us to fly 40 kilometres away from the

operator for over three hours and collect their information without needing a GPS signal. Still, all the time, we know where we are and what we are looking at; we can provide all the precise coordinates.”

Lessons from the War Going forward, fewer humans will walk the battlefield, and we will see more drones working there. Drones are changing the tactical landscape, and tasks will be done online rather than on the battlefield.

Gediminas suggested that the armed forces must be trained to develop skills and learn how to operate drones in challenging environments.

They must also be equipped with different kinds of drones, like reconnaissance or kamikaze drones, and taught how to service and utilize them.

Opening academies for drone operators will also help the armed forces' teams learn how to use drones because that won't happen in one day, in a week, or in a month: It's a systematic process.

Nibedita Mohanta

Sr. Assistant Editor Geospatial World

EYES IN THE SKY

Satellites Reveal Global Conflict Hotspots

These imagery capture a stark, vivid and an undeniable view of the destruction and displacement caused by the ongoing conflicts.

SYRIAN UNREST

ETHIOPIAN CONFLICT

In the aftermath of the war with Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), Ethiopia is engaged in violent internal conflict involving Amhara and Eritrean militia groups from the regions of Amhara and Oromia launching attacks on Tigrayans.

The ongoing Syrian conflict between the Government of Syria and anti-government rebel groups joining in with international backing like Turkish-backed forces in the northwest and USbacked Syrian Kurdish control in the northeast.

SUDAN CIVIL WAR

The conflict between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) andRapidSupportForces(RSF)apowerfulparamilitarygroupbattlingone anotherforcontrolofthestateanditsresourcesfollowingtheApril2019 couptooverthrowDictatorOmarBashirisseverelyaffectinghumanitarian conditions and diminishing the long-awaited democratic transition.

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

A recent escalation in violence after the Hamas deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 prompting the Israeli Defence Forces to retaliate with aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip.

Pre&PostBombardment,Syria,IdlibProvince

DroneAttackonKhartoumMarket,Sudan

DestructionofAl-ShifaHospital,Gaza

MilitaryTroopsalongEthiopia'sborderwithEritrea

Source: Digital Globe

Source: Maxar

Source: Maxar

Source: Maxar

SYRIAN

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN

SUDANCIVIL

INSTABILITYINAFGHANISTAN

INSTABILITYINAFGHANISTAN

Following the US withdrawal in 2021, the Taliban retook Afghanistan, facing insurgency, economic collapse, and humanitarian crisis. In February 2024, 23.7 million Afghans needed aid, with ISKP attacks further destabilizing the country.

RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 under the auspices of a special military operation and began occupying more of the country with intense fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Territorial disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan with periodic bouts of violence occasionally erupting into outright war is largely centred on Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

MYANMAR CIVIL WAR

Myanmar plunged into civil war after a 2021 military coup. The junta battles ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy forces, displacing over two million civilians, according to the UN.

SYRIANCIVILWAR

RUSSIAUKRAINEWAR

NAGORNO-KARABAKHCONFLICT

MYANMARCIVILWAR

CONFLICT

ETHIOPIANCIVILWAR

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Petrivka,Ukraineafterintenseshelling

DestructionofHamidKarzaiInternationalAirport

DestroyedBridgeinButhidaung,Myanmar

ArmeniansFleeingNKAO

Source: Maxar

Source: Maxar

Source: Maxar

Source: Maxar

TOWARDS A NEW MARITIME CONSENSUS?

The criticality of oceans and nautical boundaries is being echoed globally. As several disputes arise, technology’s role in monitoring mishaps and safeguarding countries becomes paramount. By Sachin

Awana

The profound influence of sea commerce upon the wealth and strength of countries was clearly seen long before the true principles which governed its growth and prosperity were detected – Alfred Thayar Mahan.

Naval power, oceanic adventure, and a dive into the unknown has been the story of venturing into the seas since early 14th century. From the European colonies to modern American fleets, oceans have become increasingly important for civilisations across the globe. With recent burgeoning from China, the emphasis on oceanic integrity, movements, and militarisation was never this immediate.

Taking technology into the picture, the possibilities in oceans become boundless. With Automatic Identification System (AIS), Satellite Imagery, Earth Observation, and Navigation among others, the pool of opportunities become ever so larger.

But with technology comes drawbacks too. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing has become an increasing issue, taking toll on ship identification authorities and systems. Various satellite companies such as Maxar, Spire, Hawkeye 360, and Global Fishing Watch have meticulously charted the illegal ventures of ships from countries around the world.

However, spoofing tracking systems have plagued the domain, making it easier for illegal vessels to leave false footprints behind. A common suspicion has emerged in the form of China, which has been surpassing the lengths of their nautical boundaries to capture exotic fish from Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) – an area where disturbing the natural habitat of fishes have been prohibited to safeguard the species.

This comes with little surprise since the global ocean economy is estimated to be worth some $2.3 trillion per year in goods and services, about the size of the German economy, the world’s 5th largest.

The upgraded defence, Maritime Domain Awareness and geospatial technologies have been the cornerstone to monitor and maintain border integrity of countries worldwide in this vast and entropic industry.

As Vice Admiral Lochan Singh Pathania, Former Chief Hydrographer of India says,“For centuries,

maritime domain awareness and geospatial have been instrumental for safeguarding critical assets. As a Hydrographer, I have first-hand witnessed the transformative potential of geospatial technology in the domain. Geospatial intelligence revolutionises our understanding of sea and land. Sophisticated data and analysis help us produce maps with unprecedented accuracy.”

Sino Sea Surge

A civilian protest in Philippines triggered a showof-strength from Chinese navy, enabling a chain of reaction from the smaller East Asian countries –which are gathering their own naval capabilities to curb Chinese influence. Two days after the protest and Chinese intervention in the Philippines, Japan stepped up to sign the largest maritime security pact with Manila.

The project will enable Japan to fund the construction of 5 large patrol ships that will encircle Philippines and will be operated by their coast guards. The amount equates to $507 million in the form of Official Development Aid loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.

These retaliation efforts from the east and south-east Asian countries is nothing new. China has been building its naval fleet from ground up, and is now extending its arm to the fullest capacity, targeting nations in the South China Sea, as well as, the Indian Ocean.

Satellite Imagery showcasing Chinese warships in Combodia

In April of 2024, two Chinese warships were found to be settled at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, which was expectedly funded by Beijing.

These strategic moves by the Chinese Navy have been seen for almost a decade now, reassuring the strategy of China to build influence and assets in different countries through offering exciting loans and construction aid as a value added service.

Small nations with little to no influence, money, or tactical capability have taken up the amount masqueraded as development. Unable to payback the loan, or demanding more development after re-payment, has

The

global ocean economy is estimated to be worth $2.3 trillion per year in goods and services, about the size of the German economy, the world’s 5th largest.

put China in a win-win situation and a larger scope for more influence.

Pakistan, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and now Cambodia have found a cash-cow partner, whereas, Philippines, India, and Japan are trying to keep the Chinese Yuan out of their country.

The geopolitics at play here suggests in all likelihood, the importance of seas, naval capabilities, and strategic approach in waterways.

With 80% of the world trade exchanges going through seas, it is of great imperative that the routes are monitored to keep away from any threat. Spacebased systems such as Satellites and Automated Information System (AIS) come into play here, tracking the voyage of ships periodically.

As written by Isaac B Kardon, Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the maritime area is the most susceptible to changes in international law given China’s ventures and challenges to almost every

With 80% of the world trade exchanges going through seas, it is of great imperative that the routes are monitored to keep away from any threat. Space-based systems such as Satellites and Automated Information System (AIS) come into play here, tracking the voyage of ships periodically.

aspect of the maritime law as put in place by UNCLOS. Interestingly, Kardon writes “Far from disregarding international law in its maritime disputes, Beijing regards law as essential.” This provides a tunnelthought into the ways of how China is using the International Maritime Law to its complimentary use by bending the laws.

“More than half of the 3 million square kilometers of maritime jurisdiction claimed by China faces overlapping maritime claims and jurisdictional disputes with neighboring countries. Our work to safeguard maritime rights and interests is facing a very complicated and severe situation,” Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, said in a speech to the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau.

Data to Rescue

An up-surging demand in near real-time satellite data has been hailed as a major key for fighting illegal ventures of countries. Various companies are launching satellites to build the capability as satellite data becomes more and more important.

This has even led to some innovations in data processing and analysis part, with several companies announcing satellite on-board processing technology.

This deducts the time it takes for satellite data to translate into meaningful insights by processing the data and images captured in space itself and then sending down to the ground stations for sorting out the little left anomalies in the dataset.

One such company, PierSight is also aiding the satellite imagery cause in the maritime domain. Addressing the problems of oil spill, illegal fishing and other similar activities in the sea, the company plans to launch a constellation of satellites by 2025.

With their current satellites in space, PierSight utilises synthetic aperture radars (SAR) are active sensors, cornering the maritime domain. They can image day and night and even in poor weather conditions.

“Our satellites are purpose-built specifically for maritime applications. We have deterministic targets in ships and other presence of human activity in the sea. This laser-sharp focus helps us optimize our satellites for wide area coverage and increased persistence. We can capture a lot more imagery than a typical SAR satellite in a single orbit. Every 10 minutes, each satellite can image up to 2,30,000 square kilometres of ocean area,” says Vinit Bansal and Gaurav Seth, Co-founders of PierSight.

Collaborative Effort

Although traditionally used on land and airborne, geospatial technology’s versatility makes it vital for our seas. From mapping the ocean bed to navigating in the treacherous and unbound seas, geospatial has offered a direly needed helping hand.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has also charted out the need for navigation under its Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations. In 1983, the organisation adopted a resolution that identified the importance of up-to-date hydrographic information for

The workings of Ship communication and tracking system.

safely navigation. Under these regulations, a challenge of outdated surveys of certain ocean regions were found.

According to the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), “The resolution invited Governments to conduct hydrographic surveys and co-operate with other Governments where necessary. This was followed in 1985 by a resolution urging IMO Member Governments to establish regional hydrographic commissions or charting groups and to support groups already set up by the IHO to prepare accurate charts.”

Sustainable Seas

Our oceans are extremely important when it comes to curbing global warming effects and synthesising our ecosystem.

Marine geospatial data provide crucial insights that help to reduce the carbon impact of shipping and other ocean industries, as well as map, monitor and manage precious marine habitats – including blue carbon sinks – while also mitigating the impact of climate change on coastal communities.

“The United Kingdom Hydrography Office (UKHO) provides geospatial information to support initiatives to combat climate change and its impacts. One prime example it is the ADMIRALTY Marine Innovation Programme, where innovators and start-ups are supported to develop new solutions that keep our oceans safe, secure, and thriving,” explains Thomas Mellor, Head of OEM Technical Support and Digital Standards at UK Hydrographic Office.

Accelerating Sustainable Blue Economy Transformation

y 4 million metric tons/year of presently overharvested global fisheries moved to sustainable use through introduction of sustainable seafood supply chains (via FIPs, certification, etc.) and enhanced fisheries management and governance;

y 11 Large Marine Ecosystems representing 16.41 million sq km of ocean space and 20.81 million mt/year in annual fish yield achieve multicountry, integrated, cross-sectoral, ecosystem-based management through joint strategic planning and implementation;

y 25 SIDS conduct Blue Economy Assessments and prepare and implement Sustainable Blue Economy plans/strategies (incorporating climate action and digital transformation elements);

y 100 countries with improved policies and regulations on plastics management aligned with anticipated legally binding UN instrument to end plastics pollution.

It has become clear that marine geospatial information can help protect our marine environment by securing habitats, supporting humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, and ensuring resilience against the forces of nature.

UKHO has a leading role in the Overseas Territories Seabed Mapping Programme, which helps British Overseas Territories improve maritime safety, and the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme which helps some of the most vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) make the most of their natural maritime assets.

In an example given by Thomas, UKHO partnered with the Caribbean island of Anguilla to develop the Anguilla Data Hub. The Hub is a web-based portal that provides a user interface to an Anguilla MSDI (Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure). This cloud-based portal combines bathymetric data with complementary data sets such as that from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) fitted on most ships.

Some figures about the global maritime industry.

However, sustainability efforts are pushed to backburners with China’s advent of waterway adventures, harrowing the vast South China Sea and claiming numerous independent islands as their own.

According to UNDP estimates, the annual socioeconomic costs due to ocean mismanagement amount to nearly US $1 trillion. The global organisation has also laid out several transformational goals and objectives that would be catalysed in order to protect our oceans. Over the last twenty-five years, UNDP has mobilized upwards of $1 billion for ocean protection and restoration actions in over 100 countries.

Precision Mapping

A challenge from ages, mapping the ocean bed has seemed unattainable for the large part of human time on earth. However, given the immediateness of climate change, a deeper understanding of what lies under our oceans has become paramount.

Seabed 2030 – a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) – aims to map the entire seabed by the end of the decade. Currently, the

consortium has managed to map about 25% of our ocean beds, which has resulted into 5.4 million square kilometre of new data.

The challenges in mapping seafloor comes in multiple ways. Our land area is mapped thanks to Geospatial Information System (GIS) which also plays an active role when it comes to mapping undersea. However, contemporary mapping is carried out via multibeam sonar systems.

“Multibeam systems produce high-resolution data, meaning that there are many data points per area. More data points means you can see more details. Multibeam bathymetric maps are suitable for many applications including safe navigation and studying benthic habitats,” according to NOAA.

The reason why only a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped until now is because of the increased cost of high-resolution data. However, modern bathymetric maps use a combination of high and low resolution data.

Much of this low-resolution data comes from satellite altimeters. Large underwater features, like seamounts larger than 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles), have enough mass to affect the gravitational force in a given area. This change in gravity creates tiny bumps and dips on the sea surface. Satellite altimeters are sensitive enough to detect and measure these changes.

Murky Waters?

The numerous disputes arise on a regular basis, especially after Beijing’s unequitable and unbound growth. The Asia-Pacific region has become a hotbed for maritime contests, shining light on disparities amongst marine dependent communities as well.

Technology through its limitless potential comes as saviour, with satellite imagery and AIS combining to provide a worthwhile image of in-sea movements. But the respite seems meagre, and as nations flock to own up marine equity in the form of small islands, oceanic boundaries, and exclusive economic zones, the question of sustainability remain unanswered.

Sachin Awana Sr. Sub Editor

Seabed Mapping visualised

Bathymetric map of the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

SATELLITES FOR OCEANIC RESILIENCE

In an exclusive conversation Dr. Rick Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere & NOAA Administrator sheds light on the crucial role of partnerships, space systems, and geospatial technologies to fight against climate change.

Pollution, Climate Change, and biodiversity loss have been recognized as triple planetary crises at the Cop28. What is the NOAA outlook to tackle all of these using advanced tech solutions?

First, let me say that tackling these challenges is core to NOAA’s mission. For more than 50 years, NOAA has been on the leading edge in efforts to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems, wildlife and resources, and to conduct critical research on the atmospheric and oceanic processes that drive our climate system. And part of our efforts involves researching and deploying advanced technologies.

For marine biodiversity loss, NOAA is involved in projects related to using passive and active acoustics, remote sensing via satellites and drones to monitor species.

We are also deeply involved in the development and release of the National Aquatic eDNA Strategy, which will advance efforts to better understand aquatic life.

Using these new tools and others, NOAA is providing the observational and monitoring data necessary to track our progress in solving these crises.

For instance, since 2014, NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) on behalf of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) and partner agencies (NASA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Office of Naval Research) - has led interagency and non-federal partnerships to establish and sustain the US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON).

The MBON represents the sort of global, collaborative effect needed to collect and share marine life and biodiversity information necessary to ensure that decision-makers are informed.NOAA is also a core contributor to the White House’s Natural Capital Accounting of Ecosystem Services effort.

This work will help us understand and consistently track changes in the condition and economic value of land, water, air, and other natural assets and build them into a system of accounts that would be presented alongside other national statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product.

Integrating social scientists and other practitioners is an important part of developing and implementing new advanced solutions to the issues of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.

These diverse perspectives help us to better understand the impacts to society of these critical challenges, and how they map back to NOAA services and observations that are already in place.

NOAA has teamed up with NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the World Wildlife Fund to create a research consortium, the Collaborative Network for Valuing Earth Information, or CONVEI.

CONVEI will investigate how our agencies serve society from socioeconomic perspective, strongly considering how we can better support underserved and vulnerable, or frontline, communities.

Technological solutions will also play a pivotal role in tackling these challenges and NOAA will continue to lead a holistic approach from observations and research to tech deployment to working to make sure decision-makers have the information they need.

Modeled after the National Climate Assessment and written by federal, university and other leading scientists, the assessment will take a holistic approach to better understand the role of nature in the lives of people across the country, integrating science with traditional ways of knowing the needs of communities.

Caribbean - CARICOOS - The US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)

Integrating social scientists and other practitioners is an important part of developing and implementing new advanced solutions to the issues of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.

What role can the convergence of geospatial data and AI play in more precise weather monitoring and predictions?

NOAA is investing in AI in a variety of ways. With respect to weather monitoring and predictions, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) recently added AI to its global climate monitoring dataset which improves the accuracy of NCEI’s surface air temperature reconstruction.

For the new version, NCEI scientists created an artificial neural network method that replaces the traditional empirical orthogonal teleconnection approach for the surface air temperatures over land and the Arctic Ocean.

This new method improves the accuracy of surface air temperature reconstruction. Improvements were larger in the Southern Hemisphere—especially Antarctica—and larger before the 1950s, which is directly associated with the availability of observations.

NOAA has recently signed an MoU with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to boost innovation for advancing climate resilience across blue and green economies. What do you think are the key challenges in the path of sustainability and resilience? While there are certainly challenges ahead, I’d like to think of the opportunities. Thanks to the Inflation

Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have historic investments which NOAA has been able to invest to build a climate smart, climate ready, and climate resilient nation.

These funds have allowed us to provide a direct injection of resources into our coastal communities through funding and technical assistance for capacity building, transformational adaptation and resilience planning, conserving and protecting fisheries and other critical resources, creating quality climate-ready jobs, and improving delivery of climate services to communities and businesses, all with a focus on environmental justice.

With so much interest in building resilience, it can be a challenge to know just how much action is ongoing across the federal government. This is why partnerships are vital.

For instance, NOAA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Trademark Office aimed at encouraging innovation that advances NOAA’s goal of creating a climate-ready nation.

A key part of this is patenting new tools and technologies to monitor and track the climate as well as mitigate climate change.

Together we’re finding ways to leverage the expertise across the U.S. government to advance climate resilience.

NOAA has launched its satellite this summer called GOES-U. What can we expect with this launch?

Like our other GOES-R Series satellites, GOES-U will provide advanced detection and monitoring of atmospheric, oceanic, climatic, solar and space data and phenomena that directly affect public safety and our nation’s economic prosperity.

GOES-U will be placed into the GOES East position once it reaches orbit and will monitor weather

systems and environmental hazards affecting most of North America, including the continental United States and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa.

GOES-U will carry the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), which is the primary instrument on all of the GOES-R Series satellites for imaging Earth’s weather, ocean and environment.

It will also carry the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), which was the first operational lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit when NOAA’s GOES-R Series launched.

The satellite will also have something new onboard–the Compact Coronagraph-1 (CCOR-1).

CCOR-1 images the solar corona (outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere) to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections.

CCOR-1 will help space weather forecasters detect and predict hazardous geomagnetic storms, which are the costliest type of space weather events and can cause widespread damage to power grids, satellites, and communication and navigation systems.

Tell me more about how NOAA satellites help save lives around the U.S. as part of a satelliteassisted search and rescue network?

NOAA’s satellites, which are part of a network of U.S. and international satellites called COSPAS-SARSAT,

helped save more than 350 lives in 2023. These satellites carry specialized technology that detects distress signals from emergency beacons.

NOAA SARSAT is an integral part and founding member of the international humanitarian search and rescue system called Cospas-Sarsat, which includes 45 nations and two independent search and rescue organizations.

The NOAA SARSAT system uses GPS technology in medium earth orbit as well as NOAA satellites in low-Earth orbits and NOAA’s GOES satellites in geostationary orbits to detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons from aviators, mariners, and land-based users in distress.

When an emergency beacon is activated, the signal is received by a satellite and relayed to the nearest available ground station.

The ground station forwards the signal to the U.S. Mission Control Center (USMCC) in Suitland, Maryland. The USMCC processes the distress signal and alerts the appropriate search and rescue authorities to who is in distress and, more importantly, where they are located.

As of March 29, SARSAT has already helped rescue 53 people in the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2024.

Interviewed

by Aditya Chaturvedi

SPATIAL APPROACH PARAMOUNT FOR OCEAN MAPPING

“Hydrography has made great strides in the last two decades, in consonance with modern technology. We have sensors that gather data, and senor-mounted autonomous units or drones that allow us to serve oceans effectively,” says Mathias Jonas, Secretary General, International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) in an exclusive interview.

IHO was founded in 1921, mainly for oceanic exploration, sea bed mapping, and to ensure that all the trade and commerce goes uninterrupted. Since then, there have been a lot of technological advancements. What do you think is the role of geospatial and other advanced technologies in hydrography today? Earlier, we were focused on printed maps and that really tells what the substantial changes between this approach and geospatial has brought about today.

Centuries ago people used to believe that the world is flat. However, that is not the case. There is definitely a third dimension. And then there's a fourth dimension which is the change over time and that cannot be equivalently represented by an analog approach.

We need a spatial approach to describe all of the processes which happen in the ocean and which have an effect on navigation. That is our main focus to this day.

How do you utilize satellite, drone, and Lidar data to advance oceanic sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and research & innovation for the future?

The challenge is always free forward. We have the sensor that gathers data, which brings about a need for data management, and then products and services which are customized to the user's needs.

This is how the workflow usually goes and hydrography has made great strides in the last two decades, to realise this concept with modern technology.

If you raise a good number of satellite imagery, it becomes a very mighty tool for waters up to 30 meters depth, otherwise known as shallow waters.

Another new trend is autonomous units or drones that carry sensor technology which allows us to make a quantum leap in serving ocean services efficiently.

Huge data has also become a real subject. So looking a bit back again in history, the global mapping of the ocean was based on 30,000 deaf soundings of contacts if you want, and this is exactly what a modern hydro acoustic multibeam sensor produces in one second.

We talk about mass data and the management of it, even the interpretation needs AI. So in the end we are very much on the same track as land applications are mass data, AI, data security, and interoperability. Those are the drivers for the hydrospatial infrastructure.

Does the IHO have a vision on low economy and supporting coastal communities, especially the marginalized communities that reside and near the ocean belts and depend on them?

Yes we do, but indirectly. We have a well-established capacity building program that addresses the need for ocean survey and mapping in territorial waters. Of course you need technology for this endeavor, but you also need human capacity.

We invest massively, especially in Polynesian Island territories to increase the capability to manage their water territories in a better way as they did in the past. However, this is not limited only for the purpose of surface navigation.

It is likewise very useful to know better for any sort of commercial or economic activity like pipeline cables, energy production in shallow waters.

Fish farming is another very relevant subject, not directly for the IHO, but this sort of industry takes much benefit on the knowledge of the territory.

There's a United Nations convention on the law of sea, on the use of sea that mandates that no one should basically violate the sea, and the sea belongs to all of the nations.

Technology enabled us to come to the point where we are able to feed billions and create wealth and prosperity. Now we are called up to invest to make this world more resilient and sustainable.

We are a technical organization and we can't drive political processes to that extent, but what we can do is help. For example, the law of the sea introduces a framework on how to designate sea borders, and we provide the technical means on how to do it.

A coastline can be much different from country to country. And then you have Aries from big rivers. So it is a technical problem to designate where those territorial waters or the contagious zones, economic areas lie. And that's the provision we make.

So there is a great ambition of the United Nations to designate more sea areas as being protected, but there's no holistic repository of this information and consequently no opportunity to create a presentation of that and then to work on facts.

And that's what we are striving to establish and to maintain for the sake of the global community of blue economy stakeholders and any other interested party.

What do you think would be the impact of artificial intelligence on Hydrography and how would it add value to the blue economy?

Artificial intelligence is smart in working with mass data, which is out of bound for human ability. Modern sensors create tons of data, the processing, quality assurance, and transition into data service products which are reliable becomes paramount. This is where AI comes into play.

So we really hope to have a quantumly indeed quantity, but also in the quality of data processing before bringing it to market and bringing it to consumers.

What can we do to make the world more resilient?

The first is, as humans, we should treat everything more sustainably. We should try to consume less of our natural resources. But in order to make a difference at large scale, we need technology.

Technology enabled us to come to the point where we are able to feed billions and create wealth and prosperity. Now we are called up to invest in technology to make this world more resilient and sustainable.

Interviewed by Aditya Chaturvedi

STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES FOR DISASTER RESPONSE

In a conversation Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, discusses Federal Agency's address of climate change issues through policies and monetary support.

The 2023 Annual FEMA report is titled ‘Navigating the New Normal'. With the record-breaking warming trend in recent years and the increasing occurrence of disasters due to climate change, how is this new normal shaping FEMA’s approach to disaster management? Climate change is the crisis of our generation and we are seeing the toll that increasingly frequent and severe weather events are having on communities nationwide.

While FEMA continues to lean forward to help communities respond to and recover from disasters, we have also provided historic levels of mitigation funding to help communities build resilience, with these investments being greatly increased under President Biden and through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

y In fiscal year 2022 for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) competitive grant funds, 38 states and territories are selected for further review. Of those, 23 states, or 60% of all states, will be first-time recipients for competitive BRIC selections. This is an increase from 19 states in fiscal year 2021 and 10 states in fiscal year 2020.

y Since 2000, research shows that cities and counties with modern building codes have avoided at least $32 billion in losses from natural disasters.

FEMA’s latest project selections totaled nearly $3 billion and we are encouraged to see more and more communities from across the country take advantage of these programs, including economically disadvantaged communities that are better able to access this critical funding.

What is the importance of geospatial and space data in the phases of emergency / disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery?

In the last two years, using geospatial data to assess damages from disasters has become a new tool for FEMA to get funds into the hands of survivors as quickly as possible.

Geospatial data and analysis is important to Recovery operations for many reasons. Understanding the impact to communities from hazard events requires interacting hazard data along with all types of

By leveraging tools and resources like FEMA's Building Codes Strategy and the agency's hazard mitigation grant programs, we are targeting investments that will enable communities to directly address their own threats from climate change.

y With historic levels of mitigation funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress and the White House have made clear that mitigation activities like building codes are a national priority. Capturing the ben-

geospatial data available for given communities including: census demographics, economic data, cadastral data, public and private structure data, major infrastructure data (communication/power/ transportation networks), remote sensing data, and any other datasets that help describe and visualize the status of communities before and after disasters.

Recovery uses many different types of analysis with this data to understand the impact of disaster events to public and private property. This helps to determine the types of Individual and Public Assistance programs to activate and deliver to individual survivors and communities throughout the entire recovery process for any given disaster.

From reservists as first responders to its regional centers, FEMA has a very elaborate on-ground system

efits from the adoption and effective implementation of current building codes requires federal investment and – critically – buy-in from state, local, tribal and territorial governments.

y FEMA will continue to prioritize the adoption and enforcement of modern building codes in the BRIC program and encourage the submission of capability- and capacity-building activities related to building codes to assist states and local communities in being more competitive in accessing funding.

for addressing the complexity of emergency / disaster events. How might AI-based predictive analytics help?

FEMA is facing increasingly more frequent, severe, and complex disasters and often in areas that are not prepared for them. In the past year, FEMA responded to hurricanes in the desert and wildfires on tropical islands.

To meet the mission, FEMA must leverage every possible solution to address complex emergency or disaster events.

Predictive analytics and AI solutions can assist with increasing the accuracy of forecasting disasters, with real-time monitoring during a disaster to directly impact responders, and with communicating more detailed and timely warnings to avoid potential risks.

FEMA already uses flood inundation models before an event and

Every federal

dollar spent on mitigating risks today saves $6 in the future.

satellite radar data of floodwaters immediately postevent to predict the impacts to households. This helped FEMA to pre-position resources and expedite disaster declaration decisions.

Another example is in 2022, when Hurricane Ian’s path took it over a broad swath of Florida, and it became clear that the traditional approach of manually conducting geospatial damage assessments was not going to be possible.

FEMA deployed a computer vision model that narrowed the number of structures needing human review from over a million to just 77,000, shortening the time of completion from weeks to days.

This automation helped identify areas with the worst damage, prioritize operations, and help survivors faster.

As AI develops, FEMA hopes to continue to leverage the capabilities and enhance operational efficiency, increase evidence-based decision-making, and improve disaster response for the survivor.

As per estimates, natural disasters lead to infrastructure losses in the billions of dollars. How can FEMA's expertise be of use in building resilient infrastructure and supporting communities to build back better?

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law takes decisive action, allowing $1.2 trillion to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen the nation’s resilience, including underserved communities that are most vulnerable.

The threat from climate change cannot be overstated and the Act provides $6.8 billion that FEMA will invest in communitywide mitigation to reduce disaster suffering and avoid future disaster costs in the face of more frequent and severe events arising from wildfires and droughts to hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

Additionally, building codes save lives, time, and money. Buildings that are designed and constructed to modern building codes withstand the effects of natural hazard events, including flooding, high winds and earthquakes, better than buildings that are not. This is why FEMA encourages jurisdictions to adopt and remain in line with the current model codes.

The National Institute of Building Science’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2019 Report found that designing buildings to the standards of the 2018 International Building Code (IBC) and International Resident Code (IRC) resulted in a national benefit of $11 saved for every $1 invested when compared to buildings constructed following 1990-era building codes.

Every federal dollar spent on mitigating risks today saves $6 in the future. FEMA’s Building Codes Save study estimated that communities who adopt modern building codes will save the nation approximately $132 billion in damage by the year 2040.

Eight out of ten Americans believe superior building codes protect their homes. Yet only 32% of areas jurisdictions in the U.S. have adopted the latest natural hazard-resistant building codes.

Modern building codes provide a baseline of protection against natural hazards and extreme weather events. Building Codes shift the focus from reactive disaster spending to proactive mitigation investments that create resilient communities.

FEMA’s Building Codes Strategy organizes and prioritizes FEMA activities that advance the adoption and enforcement of hazard-resistant building codes

Damage from hurricane Ian

and standards for agency programs and communities nationwide.

The three goals of the FEMA Building Codes Strategy are to: integrate building codes and standards across FEMA; strengthen nationwide capability for superior building performance and drive public action. These goals advance the vision of a resilient nation with superior building performance in disasters.

The FEMA Public Assistance Program provides funding for hazard mitigation measures as part of the restoration of disaster damaged public infrastructure. FEMA is working to double this investment in mitigation as part of Recovery in coming years.

FEMA also implemented DRRA 1235b with the Consensus-Based Codes, Standards, and Specifications Policy and continues to update that policy with the most relevant up-to-date consensus-based codes and standards available.

This ensures that we build back to the highest standards possible and protect the Federal taxpayer’s investment. For every $1 invested in up-to-date codes and standards on Federal investments, we help to save $11 in future losses, as demonstrated by the NIBS 2019 Report.

As amended by Section 1235(b) of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA), Section 406(e) requires FEMA to fund repair, restoration, reconstruction, or replacement in conformity with “the latest published editions of relevant consensus-based codes, specifications, and standards that incorporate the latest hazard-resistant design and establish minimum acceptable criteria for the design, construction, and maintenance of residen-

The three goals of the FEMA Building Codes Strategy are to integrate building codes and standards across FEMA; strengthen nationwide capability for superior building performance and drive public action.

Application of Consensus-based Codes

Increases Community Resilience

Facilities restored to a code, specification or standard that includes hazard-resistant designs and criteria will be strengthened and experience fewer interruptions and less damage in the future enabling those facilities to continue to function during and after a disaster.

Protects Lives and Property

Use of consensus-based codes, specifications and standards that include hazard-resistant designs and criteria will further FEMA’s core mission to protect lives and property by increasing the safety and resilience of facilities that receive PA funding.

Efficient Use of Federal Dollars

Applicants using consensus-based codes, specifications and standards that incorporate hazard-resistance criteria for federally funded projects will reduce future vulnerability of disaster damaged facilities thereby reducing the need for future Federal disaster recovery funding and other assistance.

tial structures and facilities that may be eligible for assistance under this Act for the purposes of protecting the health, safety, and general welfare of a facility’s users against disasters.”

FEMA’s Consensus-Based Codes, Specifications and Standards for Public Assistance (Policy) defines the framework and requirements for consistent and appropriate implementation of consensus-based design, construction and maintenance codes.

These codes, specifications and standards apply to repair and replacement of disaster damaged elements and facilities impacted by devastating hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, severe storms, tornadoes and other climatic events.

Interviewed by Aditya Chaturvedi

OPEN DATA & AI FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

In an exclusive interview Amen Ra Mashariki, Director of AI and Data Strategies at the Bezos Earth Fund talks about how he works to identify strategies and solutions that will help environmental justice organization to use data to solve complex issue.

Environmental justice in an intriguing term. What do you encapsulate with that term and what are the projects currently deployed to catalyze environmental justice from the Bezos Earth Foundation?

There's a lot of ways to think about environmental justice, but from a funding perspective, it is about making sure that organizations that are focused on the ground implementation of solutions have an impact on communities that have historically been left out.

One can think about environmental justice as a wider group of organizations focused on a clear set of values to make sure that as we transition to new energy infrastructures and frameworks, no community is left out.

At the Bezos Earth Fund, we have implemented a few things; to enable the implementation of environmental justice, the organizations should have access to both local and detailed data.

We have funded the ability for a couple of environmental justice organizations to come together and work to build out what we refer to as the Environmental Impact Data Collaborative.

The organizations are working together to surface important data, but they are also working with academic institutions to build a platform to house that data.

Can you please tell me about your time at the White House and the work you did there? I was a White House fellow

and then a political appointee during the Obama administration. At the time we weren't really doing a good job in the federal government in terms of hiring for innovative tech positions.

During my time, data science was the big buzz and we didn't have a mechanism for identifying and hiring good data scientists into the federal government in order to use data science to solve a lot of public challenges.

My job was essentially to help leadership across the United States federal government to think through the best mechanisms to deploy, to hire top data scientists, top computer scientists, top technologists, into the federal government

You previously mentioned that a good analytics solution is about 80% finding the right data with petabytes of data being generated, be it from satellite or internet. What kind of analytics is required to sit through usable and relevant data and how can AI help in the process? More and more data is being created every second, but more complex data is being brought to the table. What we found is that if you have 10 petabytes of data and you do analysis on it, you're going to get some insight into what's going on.

Talking about environmental justice, doubling the amount of data doesn't provide double the amount of insight. At that point you could triple, quadruple or even 10x the amount of data. Still, you're not going to get that much more insight from it because the analytics itself is limited in what it can find.

But through the power of modern AI, as you double the amount of data and amount of accelerated compute power, the amount of insights and the capabilities that we're able to glean from this data grows linearly.

The more data we have access to by using AI to analyze, understand, and train on and then make inference on that data, we'll be able to find linear levels of insight into it.

In the era of Geofencing, where everything is being driven by personalized data, how can we apply principles to it that is both robust and ethical, especially now with generative AI in the picture?

Open data allows for shared understanding, especially the data and analytics side. We have to make sure that people from the communities that are adversely affected by climate and nature change, should be part of the solutions, not only environmental solutions, but also tech and AI solutions.

The short answer to that is that we've historically been in this space of exposing our data to large organizations which are managing our personal data; whether that's photos that we put online, or content like YouTube videos or blogs posts. Even research work organizations themselves function as these data repositories that store our data and then use it however they want in this new world.

In order to be ethical, fair, and manage that data correctly, we need to start understanding how we as individuals can manage and have oversight over our own data and share with entities as we see fit, as opposed to just giving it to other entities to do what they want with it. So I think there has to be a more granular.

Geofencing in terms of identifying specific not only areas, but even granular spaces. We have to be even more granular in terms of how we're storing and managing data down to the person.

As you've greatly worked at the New York City's data analytics department. From your experience, what were the benefits of solving problems with data and what can be the learnings for cities in the third world countries? What I believe is also the case where it's applied appropriately; where data, analytics, and AI is applied in a systematic manner. Through this, we were able to partner with city agencies to help them think through four key things.

One country or organization is not going to solve this global issue. Having a clear and consistent understanding of what is happening, then partnering upon how to solve them is important, hence everyone has to come to together and solve them.

How can they do their services faster? How can they do this work with scale? Because New York City is a big city and it's really tough to think through.

It's easy to think through how do you do something, implement some sort of service on a block or in the neighborhood, but how do you do that citywide? So speed, scale, and then we had to work with them to be more accurate and precise in their work.

This is important in terms of providing services for residents. So we work with them and use data to help them meet the four criteria; speed, scale, accuracy, and precision. I think data and analysis and AI provide the key role for these criteria.

You've been very vocal about open data and accessible data. Can you please talk more about the benefits of open data and the role of technology development and the society it provides?

Similar to open source, open data does a couple of things. One, it provides a baseline of understanding. It's the same thing we tend to say in social settings is that any argument, any debate has to always start with the same set of facts.

You can't have two sets of facts and then expect to get to some solution with regards to a debate. So what open data essentially says is as a core baseline for solving any problem, we have to all be working from the same understanding. Open data allows for that shared understanding.

But then also, the data and analytics side, to make sure that we have people who are from these communities that are adversely affected by climate and nature change that haven't been engaged historically, that solutions have to come from these communities and not only environmental solutions, but also the tech and AI solutions has to come from these communities that are affected.

The students, researchers, and even schools that exist in these communities have are stepping up to offer solutions. The only way you can do that by having access to the data that everyone has access to.

The top scientists at NASA has access to data that now these high school researchers in this one community has access to, and that's what open data does. It connects those pieces such that you can bring more people to the table to provide solutions.

Quoting the Bezos Fund solving climate change requires more than lowering emissions. Being the director of AI and data strategies, how can data aid towards a holistic climate positive action around the world?

It is a combination of everything that has been mentioned yet. Understanding the problem leads to clearer solutions for solving a problem globally. And we know that these actions have to be taken in partnership with many organizations.

One country, one organization is not going to solve this global issue. All countries and organizations are going to have to solve this , which is why having a clear understanding of what is happening and then partnering up on how to solve that is important. Thus, a shared technology and understanding is key here.

What is the roadmap ahead for the Bezos Earth Fund?

We are planning an AI program at the Bezos Earth Fund, where we have just launched our $100 million grand challenge for climate in nature AI for climate. So we are looking to work with and engage with organizations globally who are thinking through how to use AI to solve climate in nature, and really we're our key focus is on bringing together climate and nature organizations with AI organizations to solve these problems in this decisive decade.

Interviewed by Sachin Awana

Esri Joins Maxar, General Dynamics, BAE Systems, T-Kartor, and Others in Globe Building in St. Louis’ New Innovation District

St. Louis’ Geospatial Ecosystem continues to blossom as Esri has recently moved to The Globe Building. Esri joins MAXAR, T-Kartor, BAE Systems, General Dynamics IT, and Westway Services Group at this key anchor of St. Louis’ newest innovation district, the 18-square block Downtown North Insight District.

Located several blocks from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) new $1.75-billion, 1-million square foot, 100-acre new headquarters employing 3,100 employees, the Downtown North Insight District also includes the largest, ICD-705 compliant, multi-

tenant secure facility outside of the D.C. area.

In an interview with St. Louis Public Radio, Patty Mims, Corporate Director, Global National Government at Esri commented saying, “There is really no place in the US or the world that has the enthusiasm, dedication and interest in developing a Geospatial Community than St. Louis.” She concluded in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview saying, “A lot of synergy is coming together in The Globe Building.”

The Globe Building, along with the other District anchors The Post Building, the T-Rex Incubator, and NGA’s Moon Shot Labs, combine to underscore St. Louis’ aspirations to become a Global GEOINT Hub and to capture its share of this rapidly expanding sector — which Fortune Business Insights projects “to grow from USD $89.81-billion in 2024 to $262.73-billion by 2032.”

Former NGA Director, now Chairman of USGIF Robert Cardillo and Former USGIF CEO, now Principal Consultant at PLUM RUN, LLC, Keith Masback confer on Main Stage session of GEOINT 2023.

Regarding competitive advantages offered by St. Louis, Keith Masback, former CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and now Principal Consultant at Plum Run, LLC, observed:

“There is a ‘secret weapon’ that St. Louis can and must fully bring to bear — a 75,000 SF multi-tenant secure compartmented information facility, or SCIF, located on a full floor of The Globe Building, it is the only facility of its type outside of the Washington, D.C. metro area.”

“The unique multi-tenant SCIF model means that Westway provides the upfront capital and manages ongoing operations of the SCIF, while offering tailored solutions to both large corporations and small firms alike. While it is prohibitively costly in terms of both money and time for most small and medium businesses to build and operate their own SCIFs, the multi-tenant model significantly lowers the barrier to entry

The Globe Building’s Unique Physical Attributes

The Globe Building’s unique physical attributes provides the necessary conditions for attracting and 150,000 SF of growing Data Centers, as well as attracting and growing Geospatial and other tech firms:

 Large, contiguous floor plates of up to 84,000 SF.

 75,000 SF multi-tenant SCIF on a single floor.

 Floor loads of 250 lbs. (113 kg)/SF on floors 1-4, 200 lbs. (90kg)/ SF on floors five to seven, 150 lbs. (68 kg)/ SF on the roof.

 Floor-to-ceiling height ranges from 11.5 ft. to 18.5 ft.

 Four full-height passenger elevators, four freight elevators with capacity to 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kg).

 Secure pads on-site for generators.

 Around-the-clock secured Building access.

 On-site, 24/7, highly secure underground parking garage with over500 spaces.

 Multiple widely-spaced open shafts for running vertical data and telecom infrastructure.

 Extremely wide corridors that accommodate forklifts and pallet jacks for moving heavy data and telecom equipment.

 “The Largest Carrier Hotel in the Region” – The Globe Building begins with 4 diverse points of entry for fiber providers, one at each corner of the building.

 Diverse building conduits and five oversized risers running the height of the building are available to accommodate virtually any and all communication infrastructure.

 The Globe’s redundant fiber entrances and “Meet Me Room” allow for efficient cost-effective inside plant build-outs and cross connections to any carrier or facility in the building.

with its turnkey service…”

“…It’s a huge competitive differentiator for the city and region.”

Full Op Editorial: https://www. globebuilding.com/press/st-louishas-a-secret-weapon

The adaptively-renovated 720,000 SF Globe Building contains a unique array of technology infrastructure advantages, which has made the Globe the “location of choice” for GEOINT firms, Data Centers, and other high-tech enterprises.

Previously serving as one of St. Louis’ two original railroad stations, the Globe Building’s unique technology infrastructure has made it an ideal location for tech firms seeking location downtown.

The owners of The Globe Building have undertaken a remarkable high-tech transformation of this landmark Art Deco property. They describe the newly renovated Globe Building as offering "Big Space, Big Power, and Big Fiber."

ESRI’s Corporate Director, Global National Government, Patty Mims.

“The Globe Building’s roots have made it an attractive location for data centers, geospatial intelligence firms, innovative tech enterprise, as well as a new 75,000 SF multi-tenant SCIF,” stated Geospatial World Magazine.

From the mid-1990s to today, the Globe has become a preferred location for data centers, creative agencies, video production firms, Geospatial Intelligence and other tech firms. They all benefit by connection to a hub that includes data centers with extensive access to redundant power, efficient data transfer, and secure storage.

Complementing these assets, Westway Services recently developed an ICD-705 complaint, 75,000 SF multi-tenant secured facility with The Globe Building. It is the largest of such facilities outside the Washington, D.C. area.

Further highlighting the signif-

icance of this facility to St. Louis, Sanjay Kumar, Editor-in-Chief of Geospatial World Magazine, noted in this publication that the new secure facility “at The Globe Building is the first of its kind outside the National Capital Region and underscores the importance of the emergence of St. Louis as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Hub.”

Robert Cardillo, the former NGA Director, now Chairman of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), underscored the significance of this addition to St. Louis’ GEOINT infrastructure when he called it to the attention of the 4,000+ participants in his Main Stage opening remarks at a recent USGIF Annual GEOINT Symposium.

Moreover, The Globe has joined by the dramatic renovation of the 271,000 SF former St. Louis Post-Dispatch HQ (home of Square/

BLOCK and other tech firms), and the T-Rex Incubator, containing NGA’s Moon Shot Labs.

In addition to these diverse business and governmental assets, the recently-established Taylor Geospatial Initiative (TGI), headed by international GEOINT leader Dr. Nadine Alameh, is the first of its kind 8-university Geospatial Partnership, led by St. Louis University; TGI is designed to fuel research, collaborate and impact.

To learn more about all of these St. Louis’ emerging Global Geospatial Intelligence Hub assets, visit booth #531 at the upcoming USGIF GEOINT 2024 in Orlando, from May 5 to May 8. To set time to meet at GEOINT 2024, or to get more information on St. Louis GEOINT initiatives, e-mail me at: richardcdfleming@gmail.com.

Richard C.D. Fleming CEO, Community Development Ventures, Inc.,

St. Louis, MO

Nadine Alameh, Executive Director, Taylor Geospatial Institute.

Figure Above) The Globe Building, The Post Building, T-Rex, and NGA’s Moon Shot Labs anchor the Downtown North Insight District.