Geospatial World Nov- 2014

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NOVEMBER 2014 » VOLUME 05» ISSUE 04 | ISSN 2277–3134

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SMART POWER SPATIAL POWER

A disruptive change is transforming the electricity industry. And one of the important changes involves the role that geospatial data and technology play in all this. In the past, geospatial has been a tactical tool for utilities; now it is poised to become a foundation technology for the smart grid P | 24

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SPECIAL FOCUS: ENVIRONMENT

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November 2014 • Vol 5 • Issue 4

Inside

THEME: Energy

44 Energising the Utility Data Paradigm

Special Focus: Environment

Interviews

54 Monitoring Weather and Climate from Space, EUMETSAT

31 John McDonald

57 Monitoring and Preserving

Jeffrey Pires and G. Ben Binger

Chairman, Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP)

46 Wolfgang Eyrich

Managing Director, Entegra

Cover Story

Case Studies

24 Smart Power, Spatial Power

43 For Uninterrupted Transmission

Geoff Zeiss

Remi Myers and Josh McCurry

34 Infographic: Powered up

48 Integrating GIS

Articles

ERP and SCADA at Alliander

36 A Fast Changing Landscape

Corner Office 20 Bernhard Brenner

Loek Bakker and Jan van Gelder

Peter Batty

Advisory Board

40 Cloning the Negawatt Model Reji Pillai and C. Amritha

Head of GeoIntelligence Airbus Defence & Space

Disclaimer Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

Owner, Publisher & Printer Sanjay Kumar Printed at M. P. Printers B - 220, Phase-II, Noida - 201 301, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP) India Publication Address A - 92, Sector - 52, Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, India The edition contains 68 pages including cover

Aida Opoku Mensah Special Advisor: Post 2015 Development Agenda, UN Economic Commission for Africa

Derek Clarke Chief Director-Survey and Mapping & National Geospatial Information, Rural Development & Land Reform, South Africa

Barbara Ryan Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations

Sector Vice-President, Executive Committee Member, Trimble Navigation

Chair-Executive Board, Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), The Netherlands

Geospatial Technologist, Google

62 Jouni Kamarainen, Chairman, In-Location Alliance (ILA)

07 Editorial 08 News 14 Vertical Focus 18 Product Watch 64 OGC Column Cover photo courtesy: Siemens AG, Munich/Berlin

Geospatial World Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd. (formerly GIS Development Pvt. Ltd.) A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India Tel + 91-120-4612500 Fax +91-120-4612555 / 666 Price: INR 150/US$ 15 CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan Dawn J. Wright Chief Scientist, Esri

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems

Prof. Josef Strobl Prof. Ian Dowman First Vice President, ISPRS

Chair, Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Mark Reichardt

Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group

President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

Mohd Al Rajhi

Ramon Pastor

Asst Deputy Minister for Land & Surveying, Ministry of Municipal & Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia

Vice-President and General Manager, Large Format Printing Business, Hewlett-Packard

Secretary General, Ordnance Survey International, UK

Executive Space

Ed Parsons

Vice President, Engineering & Infrastructure, Autodesk

Vanessa Lawrence

60 Aurelie C. Shapiro, Remote

Sensing Specialist, WWF

Dorine Burmanje

Lisa Campbell

Kamal K Singh

Interview

Bryn Fosburgh

Dr. Hiroshi Murakami Director-General of Planning Department, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan

Mexico’s Biodiversity, Rainer Ressl

Stephen Lawler Chief Technology Officer, Bing Maps, Microsoft

Juergen Dold President Hexagon Geosystems

Matthew O’Connell CEO, Adhoc Holdings

Dr Swarna Subba Rao Surveyor General of India

Publisher Sanjay Kumar

PUBLICATIONS TEAM Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss Editor — Agriculture Mark Noort Editor — Mining (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Editor — Latin America Dr Tania Maria Sausen Executive Editor Bhanu Rekha Deputy Executive Editor Anusuya Datta Product Manager Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Assistant Editors Ridhima Kumar Supreeth Sudhakaran Senior Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Ashish Batra Executive - Posting Vijay Kumar Singh

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 5

WorldDEMTM

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From the Editor’s Desk

Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

O

Location is Key to Smart, Power-ful, and Sustainable Growth

n December 23, 1924 an international cartel of incandescent light bulb manufacturers named Phoebus was formed in Geneva. One of the significant moves by the cartel was to build in obsolescence in to the light bulb such that it would last for only 1,000 hours. Luckily for us, the cartel expired in 1930 due to the World War. Today we have LED lamps guaranteeing us life of 50,000 hours. Consumers have always looked for more and more options to be able to reduce their power costs. A new trend is the move to opt for captive power sources in their control which entails a capital outlay but reduces their dependence on power companies, which raise tariffs from time to time, as the cost of power generation and distribution increases. In fact, stories abound about residences and communities which have ‘gone off the grid’ to the extent that they at times actually feed power to the grid. In the US, the Public Utility Regulatory Act actually dictates that electric utilities on a traditional power grid must purchase excess electricity that renewable energy systems generate.

Over a period of a century, the power industry, which is really a ‘managed’ monopoly, in which the consumer pays and the industry collects, has made only incremental changes to meet these customer requirements.

Now, technologies like smart grid have evolved to meet the challenge effectively by putting the consumers in the centre and allows them a degree of choice in terms of their use of power and includes features like dynamic pricing, prepayment, line loss analysis that help improve bill accuracy, grid reliability and therefore customer relationships. Grids become smart when they employ ICT to automate and manage their operations. Crucial to this is location and therefore geospatial

systems. As Geoff Zeiss mentions in his cover article, the role of geospatial systems has been tactical but is now becoming more foundational.

The electric power industry has another challenge to face and that is environmental conservation. For long the industry has been running off non-renewable resources. Quite apart from the fact that, at present rate of usage, these resources are likely to run out by the next century, they also contribute significantly to the carbon loading in the atmosphere and therefore global warming. While it is a fact that economically coal is the cheapest source of energy, it is also true that it contributes to environmental degradation through opencast mining, land degradation through the creation of unsightly dumps, forest degradation, loss of habitat for wildlife and loss of livelihood for tribal communities.

Renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydro power are better options but do carry their own environmental risks. Non-conventional sources like tidal and geothermal are still in their infancy and their impact when upscaled to commercial level is as yet unknown.

What is known is that all these efforts will require considerable data and much of that data will be location based. Hence, whether it is distribution planning and management, forest conservation, location of wind farms or trade-off analysis between conventional and non-conventional sources of energy, geospatial technologies and systems will have to play a major role. This role will not be independent but will be in conjunction with other ICT systems and under an overarching sustainable socioeconomic model of growth and development.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 7

Americas News BUSINESS

3D Robotics, Intel partner for more drone power

Qualcomm buys GPS chip-maker CSR

to develop innovative features that will enable its use in detecting forest disturbances. The results of this project could improve the Canadian Forest Service’s current practices for disturbance mapping, providing added value to their activities, such as maintaining a national-scale carbon budget.

3D Robotics has teamed up with Intel in developing a new microcomputer Edison, adding more power to drone operations. Edison is a new microcomputer that basically packs PC power in postage stamp size, at an almost universally affordable price. The integration of Edison into company’s next-generation autopilot will result in incredible leaps forward in on-board image processing, sense and avoid, new classes of sensors, and artificial intelligence. With the additional computing power from Edison, the company’s 3PV Follow Me technology can now track people and objects with vision instead of relying on a GPS signal.

Juniper, Effigis to offer sub-metre GPS accuracy

Autodesk appoints Scott Herren as new CFO & Sr. VP

Juniper Systems and Effigis have teamed up to offer inexpensive but powerful sub-metre GPS accuracy.

Effigis’ OnPOZ Precision Positioning Software suite leverages the superior GNSS performance Juniper Systems’ Archer 2 rugged handheld to gather high-accuracy GPS data. Jim Benson, Utilities & Public Services Market Manager at Juniper Systems said, “The OnPOZ suite is powerful, yet comes at a price people are comfortable with, and it takes care of all the post-processing for you.The Archer 2 handheld really finishes off the whole package. The Archer 2 handheld really finishes off the whole package. Its GNSS receiver is outstanding, performing reliably even under trees, and the handheld is so well designed, you can count on it to work well in any environment.”

Autodesk has appointed R. Scott Herren as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective November 1, 2014. Herren, who is currently serving as Senior Vice President of finance at Citrix, will bring 30 years of financial, strategic and operational experience to Autodesk.

Herren has spent the past 14 years at Citrix, a leader in mobile workspaces, virtualisation, networking and cloud services.

In a bid to strengthen its efforts in Internet of Things (IoT) and connected cars market, Qualcomm has agreed to buy chip company CSR. Cambridge-based CSR develops wireless communications, audio and GPS chips for the automotive and consumer products markets. It also makes chips for indoor location services. In order to become an important player in the two aforementioned fields, Qualcomm has offered CSR a value of £9.00 per share.

The acquisition of the entire issued and to be Deal issued ordinary value share capital of CSR is valued at approximately £1.6 billion ($2.5 billion). The deal is expected to close by the end of the summer of 2015.

$2.5 bn

MDA grabs three CSA R&D contracts The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded three research and development contracts to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA). Under the first project, MDA will evaluate how radar and optical images can be combined to detect and track ships more rapidly. Under the second project, MDA aims to improve the solution to monitor geohazards in pipeline corridors.

For the third project, MDA intends to demonstrate the added value of RADARSAT-2 in the monitoring of forest areas by providing information on forest clear or partial cut, and

8 / Geospatial World / November 2014

Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 for monitoring Canadian wetlands

PrecisionHawk raises $10 mn in financing PrecisionHawk, imagery and data service providing company that uses a small, lightweight UAV and cloudbased software to collect, process and analyse aerial data, has closed a Series B financing round of approximately $10 million. The funding will enable the company to further invest

Americas News in product development, engineering and expand its sales and marketing activities. PrecisionHawk also announced its plan to nearly double its employee base and increase hardware production on its UAV platform and integrated plug and play sensor suite, which includes Funding over 15 data colreceived lection sensors. In

on the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument will monitor ocean winds for climate research as well as weather predictions and hurricane monitoring.ISS-RapidScat instrument was launched aboard the SpaceX CRS-4 mission September 21.

Two additional NASA earth science instruments are also scheduled to be launched in 2016.

partnership with Texas A&M University, the company will also open a new office in Texas that will focus on the needs of the insurance industry as well as emergency response applications.

NIST’s new LiDAR system to map surfaces remotely

$10 mn

Dr. Stephen Volz to head NESDIS Dr. Stephen Volz, a top NASA official, has been appointed to lead NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS). Volz replaces Mary E. Kicza, who retired earlier this year as the NESDIS assistant administrator.

His new role will be effective from November 2. As assistant administrator, Volz will lead NOAA’s programmes to build and launch the next generation environmental satellites: the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R), and other missions, including the Deep Space Climate Observatory, known as DSCOVR.

Miscellaneous NASA activates first EO instrument on the ISS NASA has installed and activated its first earth-observing instrument ISSRapidScat (ISS Rapid Scatterometer)

The research team of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated a laser-based imaging system that produces highdefinition 3D maps of surfaces from as far away as 10.5 meters. The new mapping method can be used for forensics, precision machining and assembly.

Operating with laser power of just 9 milliwatts, the 3D mapping system can scan a target object point-by-point

across a grid. It uses the distance data to make a 3D image of about 1 million pixels in under 8.5 minutes at the current scanning rate.

Venezuela, China sign EO satellite agreement Venezuela has signed an agreement with state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation to build and deliver the country’s third satellite.

The agreement, which was inked in the presence of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, was signed between the Venezuelan government and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), China’s sole commercial satellite launch service provider. The satellite, Sucre, has been named after the independence hero Antonio Jose de Sucre. Venezuela launched its other two remote sensing satellites, Simón Bolivar and Francisco de Miranda, in 2008 and in 2012, respectively.

US to collaborate on Earth, Mars missions with India The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently signed two documents to launch a joint satellite mission to observe earth and set up a pathway for joint missions to explore Mars. The two agencies also inked Charles Bolden (left) and a deal to work together on the NASA-ISRO K. Radhakrishnan Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2020. NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different L and S band radar frequencies to calculate changes in earth’s surface less than a centimetre across, and will help in observing a wide range of changes from the dynamics of earthquakes and volcanoes to the flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets. The joint mission will also make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes. Potential areas of joint research include ice sheet collapse, ecosystem disturbances and natural hazards.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 9

Europe News

Germany Intergeo 2014: Geospatial industry is ready for a networked world

delivering radar scans for an array of operational services and scientific research, and will be monitored, operated and controlled from ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

UK Regulations at EU level for civil use of drones

The Intergeo 2014 was held in Berlin amid much fanfare from October 7–9.

The mega event clearly confirmed that the geo industry is ready for a digital, networked world, and that geoinformation has evolved from a niche to become a part of mainstream IT. This year’s figures show an increase of around 10% in overall visitor attendance (over 17,000 in 2014) and in the number of visitors from outside Germany (around 35% of the total). Prof Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW) in his keynote address said that activating market potential for geoinformation was a top priority. The co-located INSPIRE Germany conference also attracted 1,400 delegates globally. The key topics of the conference were shaped by current trends that are influencing society, with presentations and discussions focusing on subjects such as mobility, energy, and land and urban development. As an up-and-coming technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was a particular point of interest. The UAV Flightzone at Intergeo provided UAS manufacturers a chance to showcase their flying surveying devices whose main purpose is to supply current aerial imagery and video information to assist the decision-making process. The 21st Intergeo will be held in Stuttgart from September 15 to 17, 2015.

First Copernicus satellite starts operating ESA has handed over the charge of Sentinel-1A from its project management to mission management team. This marks the beginning of the satellite’s operational life, delivering radar coverage for an array of applications in the areas of oceans, ice, changing land and emergency response. Launched on 3 April, Sentinel-1A completed commissioning on 23 September. It will now begin

10 / Geospatial World / November 2014

The House of Lords, EU Committee recently held its first evidence session for investigating the need for regulations at EU level for the civil use of drones. The Committee noted that while basic national safety rules apply to the use of drones, rules differ across the EU and a number of key safeguards are not addressed in a coherent way. During the session, government officials from the Department of Transport, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, gave evidence and answered questions on safety, EU regulation, economic benefit and national security. The witnesses of the session included Paul Cremin, Head of UK Aviation Safety, SAFA & Permits Branch, Department for Transport; Adam Simmons, Deputy Director, International Aviation Safety and Environment, Department for Transport; and Andrew Horton, Senior Technical Policy Advisor, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

World’s first private eye for satellite imagery launched Satellite imaging specialist Raymond Harris and space lawyer Raymond Purdy have launched world’s first space detective agency, Air & Space Ev-

Europe News idence. The firm was incepted to provide the public with an opportunity to use space imagery as an evidence tool in legal disputes. The company’s target market would encompass legal practitioners, insurance investigators, police forces, governmental and statutory enforcement agencies, etc. Although, the company did not clearly mention the names of satellite imagery suppliers from whom it would procure the imagery, experts believe Planet Labs, Skybox Imaging, DigitalGlobe, and few aerial imagery providers would be the likely candidates.

France Emerging markets to drive investments in EO data According to Euroconsult’s newly published report, Satellite-Based Earth Observation: Market Prospects to 2023, 353 earth observation (EO) satellites are expected to be launched over the next decade compared to 162 over 2004-2013. The report claims that this will result in $36 billion

in manufacturing revenues over the period, an 85% increase over the previous decade.

The report also notes that with EO data market several startby 2023 ups entering the EO market, investment in EO and meteorology programmes reached a high in 2013 at $8.7 billion, a 13% increase over 2012, the report states. Supply of EO solutions continues to expand and diversify despite an overall slowing of commercial data demand. In 2023 the market for commercial EO data is expected to reach $3.6 billion (8% CAGR over 2014-2023). Regionally, Asia, Latin America and Africa markets are expected to have strong growth profiles with expected growth at over 10% CAGR to 2023.

$3.6 bn

Belgium Airbus applies for civil certification of UAV Airbus Defence and Space has

submitted a formal application for civil certification of its unmanned aerial vehicle, Atlante, to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the body responsible for certifying all aircraft in Europe. It can take on a variety of commercial roles, including surveillance of oil pipelines, power lines, railways, natural disasters, forest fires or sporting events. Airbus and EASA will now work together to develop a certification process to set the standards for UAV certification in Europe.

Finland Eric Sivel elected as new chairman of JARUS Eric Sivel was formally chosen as the new chairman of Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS) — a global group of national aviation authorities developing and proposing regulations for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

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Asia Pacific News India India, China to work together on RS satellites

invest RMB84 million ($14 million) in Shenzhen-based GPS mapping technology firm Careland Information System. Careland is a provider of GPS maps, navigation software and car networking services. Careland will use the proceeds to further develop its GPS technology and strengthen its mobile platform services. Xiaomi’s investment in Careland follows the footsteps of Chinese Internet services giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group.

AutoNavi puts O2O business on hold During the State Visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India, China and India signed an MoU to jointly develop remote sensing satellites. The MoU was signed by K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Zhang Jianhua, vice administrator of China National Space Administration, in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Later, ISRO Chief told media that a joint team will begin work in the coming weeks and the road map of action will be ready

by April 2015.

China Xiomi invest in mapping company Careland Beijing-based Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has agreed to

$14 mn Investment in Careland

12 / Geospatial World / November 2014

Chinese digital map provider AutoNavi is putting on hold its plan to develop O2O (online to offline) model for mobile maps and will continue to focus on location-based solutions (LBS).

The shift in plans is believed to have happened after the company was acquired by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group earlier this year. AutoNavi had proposed the development of its O2O business in 2013. It, however, could not attain enough traction from the market by combining its mapping and O2O business.

Russia Roscosmos for lifting ban on sub-metre imagery Russian’s space agency Roscosmos is actively pursuing a new drive to lift embargo on sub-metre resolution imagery. The agency recently held a meeting with President V. Putin and presented a draft resolution that permits public use of less than 1-metre imagery. The Russian ministries of Defence and Economic Development have also strongly

advocated resolution restrictions should be monitored by lighter rules.

The Defence ministry is also mulling the use of satellite imagery from commercial and satellites and those in overseas.

Australia Cube Globe to be unveiled at G20 Leaders Summit The world-first interactive and cinematic display of spatial data visualisations — Cube Globe platform — will be unveiled during the G20 Leaders Summit on November 15-16.

The Cube Globe is a WebGL and HTML5 application which combines a 3D geobrowser with 2D HTML. The user interface displays HD video, interactive 3D models and dynamic charts, as well as traditional multimedia. An in-house GeoServer is used to publish government and third party datasets with speed.

Online mapping service SLIP launched Western Australia Lands Minister Terry Redman has launched an online mapping service Shared Location Information Platform (SLIP), which harnesses the power of Google Maps Engine technology. SLIP is an extensive collection of locationbased data and maps maintained by Western Australian public agencies and their partners across the private and research sector. Based on the Google Maps Engine, SLIP enables the public or a registered customer to download the data and use it in GIS. The initiative is part of the state government’s $23 million Location Information Strategy.

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VERTICAL FOCUS

LAND S Korea, Uzbekistan to cooperate on land management During the recently held Smart Geospatial Expo-2014 Forum in Tashkent, a Memorandum on mutual Understanding was signed between Goskomzemgeodezkadastr (State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Land Resources, Geodesy, Cartography and State Cadastre) and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korea on cooperation in the field of spatial information and land management. The two countries will exchange experiences, and South Korea will familiarise Uzbekistan with the best practices in the field of geographic information systems and the latest technology in the field. The delegation of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Land Resources, Geodesy, Cartography and State Cadastre had visited the Expo at the invitation of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea.

Ghana LIS to cut down registration time The Ghana Lands Commission is developing a comprehensive land information system to automate most of its land registration processes as well as online services. Dr Wilfred Odame, Executive Secretary, has informed media that the government has integrated various concerned divisions to reduce turnaround time and cost of registration. Dr Odame said the re-engineering processes and the business integration, when fully operational, would reduce the seven months of registration to three while land deeds process would reduce from three months to one month. Phase one of the operations of the client service and access units would be piloted in five regions-Western, Greater Accra, Upper East, Northern and Eastern regions in March next year. Phase two would involve instant searches of information on a particular land through internet and other software all aimed at improving efficiency.

Macedonia to help Nicaragua on land reforms Recently, the Agency for Real Estate Cadastre (REC) in Macedonia was visited by representatives from the World Bank and a delegation from the Republic of Nicaragua within the Program South-South Knowledge Exchange (SSKE). During the visit, the Cadastre of Nicaragua, in col-

14 / Geospatial World / November 2014

laboration with the World Bank, signed a knowledge-sharing agreement with the REC. Under the contract, REC will organise training for Nicaragua’s cadastre agency employees who are responsible for the implementation of the Second Land Administration Project (PRODEP).

Ogun to automate land registry operations The Ogun State Government, Nigeria, is planning to automate operations of Bureau of Lands and Survey departments through complete computerisation of its registry documents.

The government is working on establishing a geographic information system to capture, store, analyse, share, manage and display all types of geographical data in the bureau and other ministries, departments and agencies. It added that the bureau would implement a functional cadastral and base map, comprehensive land information system and carry out various geospatial data analyses, 3D visualisation and terrain analysis of the state’s lands. The scope of the project includes implementation of an enterprise process and workflow automation system, a system for the automation of the Deeds Registry, and a functional revenue administration system.

State wide GIS points parcel layers in Wisconsin report Wisconsin has released the final report of the LinkWISCONSIN Address Point and Parcel Mapping Project. The report documents the processes used to create digital state-wide GIS address point and parcel layers for Wisconsin, using county and municipal datasets provided by local data custodians.

The final address point layer contains 2.7 million features and the final parcel layer 3.7 million features. The project was the result of collaboration between the State Cartographer’s Office (SCO) and the Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP) at the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA).

The Public Service ComMap depicting mission of Wisconsin WiFi coverage area Wisconsin (PSCW) approved the project in 2013 and provided $168,000 in federal grant funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

VERTICAL FOCUS

INFRA Singapore to develop GNSS electronic road pricing system

of built environment projects, ranging from small and medium to large and complex projects.

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) is developing a next generation electronic road pricing (electronic toll collection)system based on GNSS technology. The LTA has shortlisted three consortia to participate in the upcoming tender to develop the next generation road pricing system.

They are NCS, MHI Engine System Asia, ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems), and Watchdata Technologies and Beijing Watchdata System. According to LTA, this new system will overcome the constraints of physical gantries, which are costly and take up land space. Distance-based pricing as opposed to the current gantry-based system, is supposed to be more equitable as motorists will be charged proportionate to the distance travelled on these congested roads.

BIM involvement to gain traction in UK, US: McGraw Hill report According to a recently released McGraw Hill Construction SmartMarket Report, 40% of US owners and 38% of UK owners expect that more than 75% of their projects will involve BIM in just two years. The report estimates that the growth in the UK is being driven by the approaching implementation of a central government mandate requiring use of BIM on all national public US projects projects by 2016, with over two thirds to use BIM (67%) of UK owners reporting that the mandate has a high impact on their use of BIM. The study suggested that the influence of the mandate in the UK is driving a much higher general level of involvement with BIM by owners than in the US.

75%

RICS guidance note on BIM released Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has released a guidance note on building information modelling (BIM).

The note provides information on how to implement and use BIM in the design, construction and operation of building projects, including facets of procurement management and asset management. The first edition of the International BIM Implementation Guide, which has a restricted access to members of RICS, highlights international high-level principles designed for all types

Michael Baker win statewide GIS Strategic Plan contract Michael Baker International has won the Statewide GIS Strategic Plan contract from the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA). Michael Baker will assist VITA in charting a path towards an interoperable geospatial environment using effective coordination, collaboration, communication, and creative services. The company will work directly with stakeholders across the state of Virginia to define the strategic direction of GIS goals and initiatives in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This strategic plan will help formulate the vision, strategy and recommendations for key initiatives such as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911). The plan will aid the Commonwealth in developing and maintaining geospatial standards, facilitating geospatial educational opportunities, providing framework basemap data layers, and identifying and developing innovative technical solutions in areas such as public safety, emergency management, transportation, natural and historic resources, environmental protection, health care, land use, and economic development.

Teesside University academic to draft BIM policy of Brazil The Brazilian government has asked Dr Mohamad Dr Mohamad Kassem, an engineering Kassem lecturer from Teesside University, to help it overhaul the country’s construction industry by adopting BIM. He was recently appointed as the EU BIM consultant to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MPOG). Dr Kassem’s research is being carried out alongside a Brazilian consultant, Professor Sergio Leusin, who looked at how BIM is currently being implemented in Brazil. The two academics are now working on a joint report to present to Brazilian policy makers with conclusions and recommendations for BIM implementation in Brazil.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 15

VERTICAL FOCUS

AGRI Drones to generate $350mn in revenues in 2025

The global market for commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will grow to $1.7 billion in 2025, driven by a broad range of applications led by agriculture, according to a market research report published by Lux Research.

Agricultural drones will generate $350 million in revenues in 2025, led by their use in precision farming. The report noted that drones are still in the early stages of growth and business models are in a flux. Dronesas-a-service (DaaS) is reportedly going to emerge as a preferred model for developers, particularly in agriculin revenues ture, where farmers seek to use the from drones technology without having to invest in expensive systems, the report stated.

$350 mn

Federation, American Seed Trade Association, Agricultural Retailers Association, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, CropLife America, Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, The Fertilizer Institute, National Agricultural Aviation Association and PrecisionAg Institute.

AgEagle RAPID UAS launched AgEagle RAPID UAS

Salford Group buys BBI US based Salford Group, a manufacturer of tillage, seeding and fertiliser application equipment, acquired BBI Spreaders, a manufacturer of precision dry material applicators for the agriculture and construction industries. The two companies equipment lines are complementary to each other and allow each business to reach new markets. In addition to the larger product offering, both companies gain access to new sales territories and will strengthen their network of hundreds of farm equipment dealerships across the United States, Canada and overseas. Their engineering departments will collaborate on new product development initiatives to leverage each business’ unique strengths and manufacturing capabilities.

Coalition formed for advancement of precision agriculture The Coalition for the Advancement of Precision Agriculture (CAPA) announced its official launch and Precision Ag Forum in Washington DC. Comprised of trade associations and organisations representing a diverse range of sectors within the agriculture industry of US, CAPA will serve as a voice for the benefits of precision agriculture technology.

CAPA will be led by its co-chairs Daren Coppock, president and CEO, Agricultural Retailers Association; Dale Moore, executive director of public policy, American Farm Bureau Federation; and Jay Vroom, president and CEO, CropLife America. The full roster of founding member organisations includes: AgGateway, American Farm Bureau

16 / Geospatial World / November 2014

AgEagle has launched a new unmanned aerial system (UAS) AgEagle RAPID developed for professional agronomists and crop consultants. Within a few minutes after the flight, RAPID automatically processes aerial images, thus allowing the agronomists to rapidly create a prescription map while in the field. Ground truthing can also be done by use of the iPad or similar GPS enabled device. While displaying the aerial image on the iPad the user can see his or hers location on the display allowing the areas of concern to be quickly and accurately ground truthed.

Precision farming market to be grow at 12.2% CAGR till 2020 According to a new market research report published by MarketsandMarkets, the total value of precision farming market is expected to reach $4.55 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 12.2% from 2014 to 2020. The report noted that APAC is the leading region in terms of the growth rate, due to conducive government policies, increasing demand for food due to CAGR from growing population, and the devel2014-2020 oping economies. North America is expected to exhibit a significant growth in coming years due to revised government policies and the push to adopt the variable rate technology in precision farming.

12.2%

VERTICAL FOCUS

ENERGY Nigeria attracts $212-million investment in power sector A consortium of American companies has indicated interest in investing over $212 million in renewable energy in Abuja and Kano State. According to the proposal submitted by the US consortium led by James C. Nicholas, executive partner of Global Business Resources to the ministry of power, besides putting together a framework for the construction of two 50-megawatt solar-powered plants, the consortium is prepared to undertake GIS mapping for renewable energy to facilitate rural electrification projects on a PPP basis. The consortium includes the following four US companies: Global Business Resources, FlatBush Solar, Global Resources Network and Charbourne & Parke.

accounting for $8.8bn in investment. The region will also invest $2.5bn in distribution automation, or advanced monitoring and control of the distribution network with sensors and communications. Other smart grid segments will account for an additional $2.2bn in investment

DLR to create solar atlas of Pakistan The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been commissioned by the World Bank to investigate Pakistan’s potential for the

IRENA estimates Africa’s CSP potential The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have examined the potential for renewable power generation based on resource availability all over Africa. Using a digital map, the joint working paper discussed a practical methodology for translating physical resource potential into power generation potential expressed in gigawatts (GW) and gigawatt-hours (GWh). The approach, based on GIS data, can be fine-tuned to cover any country, region or other geographical area. GIS-based map reveals the maximum technical potential for solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind power and bioenergy output in all continental African countries. The project is intended to help policy makers develop effective policies and incentives, as well as enable energy planners to adequately reflect renewables in their master plans.

SE Asia to invest $13.6bn in smart grids Southeast Asian countries will invest $13.6bn in smart grid infrastructure between 2014 and 2024. This investment will include smart metering and the modernisation of electricity transmission and distribution networks with sensors, communications and software. By 2024, the largest markets will be Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. These are the findings of a a new study published by Northeast Group. The report claims that Southin distribution east Asian countries will deploy 37.3m automation smart meters between 2014 and 2024,

$2.5 bn

A researcher mapping solar energy potential

exploitation of solar energy. DLR researchers will use satellite data and ground measurements to generate a radiation map showing the best regions for solar power generation in Pakistan. On October 18th 2014, the first solar measurement station under this project was installed at QA Solar Park near Bahawalpur, Punjab Province. The project is part of World Bank’s global initiative on Renewable Energy Resource Mapping, and funded by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).

Study highlights major shifts in power-flow patterns The transmission unit of South African electricity utility Eskom has completed a strategic grid study for the period to 2040. The study signals major shifts in future generation and demand patterns that will have implications for the domestic network and future investment decisions. 2040 Transmission Network Study’ has drawn on various scenarios to determine the grid’s development requirements, as well as to identify critical power corridors and network constraints. The 2010 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) provides the base case, but the draft IRP Update, together with scenarios that envisage higher levels of renewable energy (a ‘green’ scenario) and regional imports, have also been interrogated.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 17

Product WATCH

RIEGL RiCOPTER

UAV equipped with survey-grade LiDAR sensor RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems has stepped into the UAV market with the launch of RiCOPTER — a high-performance UAV equipped with the RIEGL VUX-1 survey-grade LiDAR sensor. The UAV has a sturdier design compared to other rotocopter. The main frame has been built using carbon fibre and features a shock-absorbing undercarriage.

The RiCOPTER also includes a coaxial array of propellers, meaning that each of the four propellers on top is paired with a propeller at the bottom. Other technical highlights of the RiCOPTER include foldable arms, which can reduce the size of the copter’s wingspan from almost 6 feet (approximately 2 meters) to a paltry 2 feet (about half a meter). The RIEGL VUX-1 is lightweight and compact laser scanner which offers 10 mm survey-grade accuracy, scan speed up to 200 scans/second and measurement rate up to 500,000 meas./sec.

Routescene LidarPod A turnkey 3D mobile mapping solution

Routescene has launched a new 3D mobile mapping solution, the Routescene LidarPod, that uses Velodyne LiDAR technology to provide rapid 3D data collection and automated processing. Although, LidarPod has been developed specifically for use on UAV, it can also be fit onto any mobile platform such as a car or a boat. This flexibility would be beneficial for many sectors and situations where accurate mapping is essential but difficult to achieve.

The solution includes LidarViewer, a software that enable users to convert, analyse and filter huge volumes of point cloud data. Powerful filters enables users to extract relevant data for use in third party software, such as GIS and CAD packages, which are unable to cope with such large data volumes.

18 / Geospatial World / November 2014

Nikon Nivo M+ Series

Compact, Bluetooth-enabled mechanical total stations Nikon-Trimble, a joint venture between Nikon Corporation and Trimble, has launched a new series of total stations. The Nivo M+ series is a new range of compact, high-precision, bluetooth-enabled mechanical total stations.

It offers a distance measurement accuracy of up to ± 2 mm and provides a long-distance reflectorless measurement range of 500 metres (1,640 ft.). In addition, the Nikon Nivo M+ series includes a coaxial laser pointer, and an optional laser plummet plus onboard storage for 25,000 points. The Nivo M+ series is available in 2, 3 and 5 inch models to meet specific accuracy needs.

Key features: • High quality Nikon optics • Fast, accurate EDM • Prism and reflectorless measurements • Compact, rugged, and lightweight • Cable-free bluetooth • Optional laser plummet • 25,000 point onboard storage

Topcon NET-G5 receiver Complete system connectivity solution

Topcon Positioning Group has released the next generation of its geodetic GNSS reference receiver, NET-G5 receiver. Using Vanguard and Universal Tracking technologies, the NET-G5 receiver incorporates 452 channels capable of tracking the full GNSS signal spectrum, including modernised GPS and SBAS signals.

It is designed to work as a complete system connectivity solution, with built-in bluetooth and Wi-Fi, for flexible wireless communications or via standard ethernet, serial and USB connections. Other features include: High-precision code and carrier phase measurements up to 100 Hz; Power over Ethernet (PoE) and the new Topcon receiver Web interface.

Spectra Precision FOCUS 35

Robotic total station FOCUS 35 is a new range of motorised total stations providing accurate measurement. Its robotic instrument moves the power of the observer from the instrument to the range pole, improving efficiency. The speed of observation and precise positioning of the FOCUS 35 Robotic Total Station is provided by patented StepDrive motion technology, which controls the horizontal and vertical motion of the motors, eliminating the need for traditional motion locks.

The FOCUS 35 has a built-in tracking sensor that uses LockNGo FastTrack tracking technology, enabling the instrument to constantly lock onto the prism. It is available in different models offering accuracy from 1 to 5 inches, and is controlled by the Spectra Precision Survey Pro field software using an onboard Windows CE touchscreen interface.

Corner Office

‘We are creative

and technology

agnostic’

As one of the three divisions of the Airbus Group, Airbus Defence and Space is among the top 10 defence intelligence companies worldwide. Bernhard Brenner, Head of Geo-Intelligence activities, provides an insight on the business direction of the re-branded company, the challenges and the evolving market

A

strium was re-branded as Airbus Defence and Space. How will the name change affect the company’s position and branding in the market?

It is a much deeper process than a mere rebranding. We want to extract maximum synergies out of the previously independent companies — Airbus Military, Cassidian and Astrium. From being a business division of Astrium Services, formerly known as Geo-Information Services, we have now become a programme line of Airbus Defence and Space, part of the business line of Communications, Intelligence and Security (CIS). This is an important change because it brings together activities from Cassidian with the existing capabilities from Astrium Services. There are not too many changes within our organisation, but a lot of deeper opportunities open up in CIS and — on a larger scale — for Airbus Defence and Space. Rebranding was a very positive move as we want to grow and explore these new opportunities.

SPOT 6 satellite image of Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar

20 / Geospatial World / November 2014

Did it facilitate certain kind of optimisation of resources within the group?

When you are using the term ‘geoint’ what is the scope? Is the focus going to be on defence and intelligence community?

The new organisation will indeed allow us to be more competitive within the defence and intelligence community as the reorganisation brings us closer to Cassidian, the former defence and security division of our Group. In 2013, for instance, we received a contract for border control

in Saudi Arabia, part of a large Cassidian project. We even called this project Cassie, after Cassidian. We aim to tap such similar opportunities in a more systematic manner.

We have added the term ‘intelligence’ for two reasons: Intelligence is linked with all kinds of business intelligence, not just military intelligence. The word ‘intelligence’ in the name was important because we are of a part of communications, intelligence and security. But we are not focusing on the defence sector. For example, we have a new customer, RS Metrics, which provides intelligence solutions for hedge funds on Wall Street, as well as our other core businesses in mature vertical markets such as oil and gas.

Governments have started making access to high resolution imagery free. What kind of niche does that create for companies like Airbus Defence and Space?

It is pretty clear that the industry will move towards higher resolutions, but this business is not all about resolution and accuracy. It is mainly about activities — in what timeframe can you provide the images and how flexible are you with your services. Imagery may be available for free — but is it up-to-date and of the required resolution? We have two satellites that are pretty new —Pléiades1A and1B — and they still have a long life. Most customers like the kind of images we are selling and appreciate our responsiveness.

We also have location-based services after we reached an agreement with Google last year. There are many others in the market who could be interested in our business.

We also have traditional customers in the civil institutional market. The way forward is to go more into solutions-based approach, but we will continue to work with our resellers and address some verticals directly.

Airbus recently announced a partnership with Esri to make its imageries available to ArcGIS Online users.

Can you share more details about this partnership and how it is going to benefit Airbus as you open up your data for free?

Our 20+ years partnership with Esri has continued to strengthen, especially over the last couple of years. The most recent examples of this are the inclusion of our SPOTMaps and Pléiades imagery products into Esri’s World Imagery basemap and the launch of our new Premium Imagery Services in the ArcGIS Marketplace. Data included in the World Imagery basemap that Esri purchased is indeed open to all ArcGIS Online users free of charge, and this is used as a foundation imagery layer for many projects. Our new services provided through Esri’s ArcGIS Marketplace enable users to easily purchase fresh, premium Airbus Defence and Space imagery

products and services to use on top of or in addition to this foundation basemap.

We see great benefits in providPlé iad es ing both options. Within the World ImageSat elli ry basemap, our SPOTMaps 2.5 mosaic provides te I ma ge users with seamless coverage over most of the world.

-D uba This data is enhanced by fresh 50 cm Pléiades imagery prodi ucts, giving ArcGIS Online users very good global coverage and updated information over major cities worldwide. Users can then build on this by utilising our Premium Imagery Services to purchase themed imagery layers. Imagery purchased through these services is quickly delivered directly into the user’s ArcGIS Online account. This enables users to order and begin working with the imagery in less than an hour in many cases. Through this partnership, Esri users can now easily access fresh, high-quality imagery products faster than ever before, and we are broadening our industry reach by expanding our customer base from mainly remote sensing experts to all levels of GIS users.

We are technology agnostic when it comes to partnering with companies. The more we are able to feed data to different systems, the better for us. Another area that needs attention is ‘analytics’ — interpreting the data, driving the conclusion out of the data and combining it with other sensors — which I think is very crucial.

We are fairly confident that we will be a billion dollar revenue company; we already have a market cap that is around a billion dollars. Whether that will take 5 years is hard to say

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 21

Corner Office

Pléiades satellite image of Mont Ontake, Japan

Airbus Defence and Space has been pretty aggressive in the market over the past couple of years. Are you doing it to capture the market or develop it? What would your ratio of defence versus civilian imagery be?

I think we must be creative because we do not have one main customer. We have many customers worldwide and we aim to offer the ideal solution to each of them.

The ratio of defence versus civilian imagery is well balanced. There is an open market and there is a fight for every customer allied to the need to develop the market beyond the defence community. This industry is still developing and there are different business models. Many low-cost companies are coming up with low-cost approaches. The question is: what is the next business model and what is the way forward. I think there is a lot of change ahead.

With the launch of Pléiades satellites, we now offer new products for different market segments that we were unable to address before — namely the VHR training — and we try to make the best out of this opportunity. In the imagery segment, we have the imagery product and related solutions, and about half of the solutions can be customised to match the customer requirements. We have an internal strength for solution business and that makes us unique compared to the other players. First is the uniqueness of optical and radar, and the second is the good balance between solutions and data.

In terms of turnover, I think we have to catch up a little bit. Last year we did 10% of growth of turnover and this year we are targeting a 15% spurt in growth.

We treat our resellers as partners and have always

22 / Geospatial World / November 2014

felt that they add value to our products. We want to grow directly in the vertical segments and create solutions.

Last year, we held successful channel partner conferences in the US, Europe and Asia, and this year we are doing the same.

We are leading in the DRS business too. Today, we have about 40 DRS in the world. So the telemetry part of the DRS is becoming important for us. We recently delivered the first multi-mission DRS in Alaska, equipped to receive data from all our sensors. Such long-term relationships will help us bring more stability in our business and better forecast in our figures.

What are your prime markets in the world at the moment?

Europe is definitely a strong market for us, along with the Middle East and Africa. We are already quite strong in Asia, and the US was a country customer with us for the first time with a deal from NGA. We have over a thousand active customers.

Several national governments have invested into building the capacity of remote sensing. Some of them have built their own ground stations and some of them have built their laboratories or satellites. These governments, in a way, are expanding the market. As a group, I think this is fantastic as we do not just tell them that we have the best satellite at the best prices; we give them real-time experiences in terms of services. We are talking about not just selling hardware but also selling software and expertise, and hence creating win-win situations.

Cover Story / Energy

Powering the Globe Primary

energy demand,

United States Europe

Graphics: Debjyoti Mukherjee

480

1030

440

Japan

1000 Southeast Asia

India

Africa

Eurasia OECD

Total Energy Consumption, 1990-2040 Projections History

4%

8%

1,000

8% 10%

1050 1540

share of global growth

Middle East

1060

800

65%

600

Non-OECD Asia

Non-OECD

400 200

0

smart

power spatial power 24 / Geospatial World / November 2014

OECD

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

A disruptive change is transforming the electricity industry. And one of the important changes involves the role geospatial data and technology play in all this. In the past, geospatial has been a tactical tool for utilities; now it is poised to become a foundation technology for the smart grid. By Geoff Zeiss

(in quadrillion Btu)

Source: International Energy Outlook 2013

Brazil

Africa

1370

1710

Middle East

5%

(Mtoe*)

Eurasia

2240

Latin America

2035

* Million tonne of oil equivalent

The International Energy Outlook 2013 projects that world energy consumption will grow 56% between 2010 and 2040 while the global net electricity generation is set to increase 93%.

F

or the first time in a hundred years, the electric renewable resources, to name just a few. However, with the power utility industry is undergoing a momentous changes that the industry is undergoing now, geospatial is change. Distributed renewable power generation, poised to become a foundation technology for the smart grid.

Two key areas where technical advances are happening especially solar photovoltaics (PV), is introducing competition into an industry that has been managed as regu- are sub-surface utility engineering (SUE) and energy-perforlated monopolies. Consumers with solar PV panels on their mance optimisation of new and existing buildings, which are roofs (and in not-too-distant future with Tesla batteries in largely resulting from the convergence of geospatial and oththe basement) and companies like Solar City (co-founded by er technologies, and government mandates and incentives or Tesla co-founder Elon Musk) are fundamentally changing very favourable and documented return on investment (RoI) the traditional utility business model. A recent report from creating significant new opportunities. the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) report refers to disruptive challenges that threaten to force electric power utilities to State-of-the-world energy industry change or adapt the business model that has been in place The International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO 2013) projects since the first half of the 20th century. that global energy consumption will grow 56% between These disruptive challenges have arisen due to a number 2010 and 2040. Energy use in non-OECD countries is proof factors, including the falling costs of distributed gener- jected to increase 90%; compared to an increase of 17% in ation such as solar PV, demand-side management technol- OECD countries. The primary contribution to increasing enogies (DSM), government programmes to incentivise solar ergy consumption comes from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, PV and other technologies; and the very low price of natural India, China, and South Africa). Climate change has been gas. The financial risks for utilities created by these disrup- recognised as a global problem by the major energy consumtive challenges go to the very core of how the electric power ing countries, all of which have adopted policies designed to grid is financed and include declining utility revenues, in- reduce total emissions (United States, the European Union creasing costs, and lower profitability. and Japan) or energy intensity (China and India).

Naturally, US regulators are very concerned about this The major drivers for the fundamental transformation in trend. According to Jon Wellinghoff, outgoing chairman of the electric power industry, which is often referred to as Grid Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), “...we are 2.0, are increasing demand, universal access, decarbonising seeing advances in technology and the desire at the consumer electric power, reducing revenue losses, and grid reliability level to have control and the ability to know that they can en- and resilience. Some of the technologies contributing to this sure the reliability of their system within their home, business, transformation are intelligent devices integrated with a commumicrogrid or their community. People are gonications network, distributed renewable power ing to continue to drive towards having these generation, net-zero energy buildings, microgkinds of technologies available to them. And rids, and the new remote sensing technologies of once that happens through the technologies sub-surface utility engineering. and the entrepreneurial spirit we are seeing At the Second Annual Summit on Data Expected rise in global with these companies coming in, I just don’t Analytics for Utilities in Toronto, Brad Wilenergy consumption see how we can continue with the same model between 2010 and 2040 liams, Vice President of Utilities Industry Stratwe have had for the last 100 or 150 years.” egy at Oracle, made the case for spatial anaAs a result, the electric power industry is lytics becoming a key technology because changing every aspect of the utility industry. everything a utility deals with (customers, One of these changes involves the role that assets, and operations) involves location. geospatial data and technology play in the Williams outlined a number of specific arelectricity industry. In the past, geospatial Expected rise in energy use eas where spatial analytics is being applied, in non-OECD countries has been a tactical tool — it was (and still is) including reducing non-technical losses, used in a variety of applications — in outage targeting demand response, distribution management, asset management, mobile workoperations planning, transformer load manageforce management, energy density modelling, ment, data quality, voltage correlation (linking vegetation management, demand modelling, meters to transformers), energy modelling, volttransmission line siting, substation siting and age deviation monitoring, geographical outage design, energy performance modelling of Expected rise in energy frequency analysis, and predictive analytics for buildings, disaster management, and mapping use in OECD countries electric vehicle adoption to name just a few.

56%

90% 17%

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 25

Cover Story / Energy

1,600 bn

are now being adopted in other areas of On the software side, the convergence utilities infrastructure work, such as for of geospatial and model-based design the retrofit of brownfield substations usis transforming how we plan, design, ing hybrid designs of intelligent 3D obbuild, operate and maintain electric jects for new equipment and point clouds power networks, including generation, Amount invested for energy modelling for existing equipment. transmission, substations, distribution production in 2013 and home and office networks. For instance, Wolfgang Eyrich, creator of the Utility GIS market to grow substation design software primtech at A recent report from Navigant Research Entegra, points out that because substaestimates that the market for smart grid tion design is a highly iterative design technologies will reach $73 billion in process, it is a core requirement to link annual revenue by the end of 2020. The Investment required each all the available information including increasing penetration of GIS into smart year over 2035 geospatial and make it available to the grid workflow applications, such as design team. Primtech delivers a commobile workforce management (MWFM), prehensive integrated product model, which includes complete distribution management system (DMS), energy management data for everything, from a digital terrain model to the equip- systems (EMS), outage management system (OMS), customer ment that is maintained throughout the lifecycle of the substa- information systems (CIS), and analytics will be the primary tion. In the graphical (CAD) environment, primtech, which is driver for electric utility GIS software and services growth. It based on AutoCAD, can integrate with other design applica- is forecasted that the utility GIS market will grow at CAGR of tions like Civil3D, which incorporates geospatial data and tech- 12.8%, increasing from $1.8 billion in 2011 to $3.7 billion in nology. Linking to Civil3D enables the geographic dimension 2017. This is supported by an analysis by Research and Markets for site design and preparation based on a digital terrain model entitled Global GIS market in the Utility industry 2012–2016, and for critical 3D visualisation that is essential for home owner which projects a CAGR of 10.37% over the period 2012–2016. acceptance and regulatory approval.

Research and Markets sees one of the key factors driving this Furthermore, “related technologies that had their origin growth is the increasing need for knowledge infrastructure. in the utilities GIS world are also serving to further establish GIS has been widely used by utilities for years for autogeospatial as a foundational technology,” says Cindy Smith, mated mapping/facilities management, back office records Senior Director, Applications Advantage, Bentley Systems. management, asset management, transmission line siting, and One example is the use of point-cloud data for reality mod- more recently for design and construction, energy conservaelling. Initially used significantly in the utilities industry in tion, vegetation management, mobile workforce management applications such as transmission corridor planning, trans- (MWFM), and outage management (OMS). Now, utilities are mission design, and vegetation management, point clouds integrating GIS with automated meter infrastructure (AMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. InOffshore wind farms, telligent design has crossed over from the office to the field in Planned transmission lines planned and operating, with utilities, also enabled by the capabilities of GIS, says Smith. for Germany subsea HVDC cables Geospatial-related analytics (spatial analytics) is seen as one of the key aspects of success for electric utility operCorridor A ations in the smart grid era. Looking for patterns and correlations between different land, weather, terrain, assets, Corridor C Corridor D Berlin and other types of geodata will be increasingly important for utilities. Power-related analytics with geospatial comStutgart ponents include network fault tracing, load flow analysis, AC Lines Volt/VAR analysis, real-time disaster situational awareness, condition-based maintenance, and vegetation management.

Munich

$

$

2,000 bn

Foundation for the smart grid Closed nuclear reactor

26 / Geospatial World / November 2014

Open nuclear reactor

The smart grid is all about situation awareness and effective anticipation of and response to events that might disrupt the

Pictometry utilities

$500 $450 $400 $350 $300 $250 $200 $150 $100 $50 0

$63 $70

Smart Grid Regional Forecast 2013-’20 CAGAR 8.4% $40

$36

$48

$44

$61

$57

$53

$60 $50 $40 $30 $20 $10

2013

Latin America

’14

Europe

’15

’16

North America

’17

’18

Asia Pacific/ China

’19

Matt Zimmerman of Telvent/Schneider Electric also foresees geospatial technology playing an even greater role as the smart grid develops. One of Schneider Electric’s key technologies is “graphic work design” which is integrated geospatial and engineering design (CAD or BIM). Schneider Electric’s geospatial division focuses on developing integrated, location-aware enterprise solutions; for example, integrating enterprise systems such as outage management (OMS), customer information (CIS), GIS, and an external weather reporting and forecasting service to help plan crew deployment during a storm. Right now, utilities are seeing the biggest benefit from location-aware work management, asset management and mobile solutions, which provide access to asset and work information to field staff and management using both ruggedised and Apple/Android tablets,” maintains Zimmerman.

A whole new world of predictive analysis

The volume of data generated by smart grid networks is estimated to be 10,000 times greater than that of our existing electrical networks. The exploding number and variety of smart devices and sensors is generating exponentially increasing volumes of real-time data, most of which includes location that requires real-time Big Data analytics to turn the data deluge into actionable information. Geographic location is a foundational technology for Grid 2.0 because location is a fundamental index for organising this data — things that are geographically proximal to each other tend to affect each other.

Geospatial data and technology, including spatial analytics, visualisation and simulation, have become critical for the modern data-driven smart utility. Predictive analytics, analysing structured and unstructured data sources to uncover patterns in the data that can be used to identify issues before they occur is a growing area but this will require high performance computing to enable it to be applied to its full potential.

Zimmerman foresees location-aware predictive analytics for electric networks to come up as one of the major

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 27

’20

$0

Annual Spending (Billion)

Cumulative Spending (Billion)

performance of the power grid. Since spatial data underlies everything an electric utility does, GIS is the only foundational view that can potentially link every operational activity of an electric utility, including design and construction, asset management, workforce management, and outage management as well as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distribution management systems (DMSs), renewables, and strategy planning.

In Smith’s opinion, geospatial technology is already a foundational component of electric power utilities’ IT/OT systems. “Smart grid simply brings more focus to the role it can play by virtue of the visibility of smart grid projects and processes in a utility and their need to exploit the vast amounts of data produced by the smart grid,” she adds. Since much of the data is inherently geospatial/location-based in nature, increased awareness and need for geospatial technology has motivated utilities to ensure IT organisations can readily embrace the technologies. As GIS moved from being a “specialty” system into mainstream IT, many electric utilities have chosen to move away from older, proprietary, or vendor-specific data stores to open spatial databases such as Oracle Spatial and Microsoft SQL Server Spatial.

John McDonald, Chair of the Governing Board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), has been a firm believer for long that geospatial information is part of the foundational platform for smart grid. GE’s Grid IQ Insight, which is a software platform of the future for smart grid, includes geospatial technology. “We have been developing analytics on that platform and we found that geospatial information is a key component of utility analytics,” adds McDonald, who is also a director at GE. SGIP recently signed an MoU with the Open Geospatial Consortium which is expected to provide inputs to SGIP’s domain expert work groups, priority action plans (PAPs) and the committees for architecture, cyber-security, implementation methods, certification etc. to see where geospatial information could be incorporated and utilised.

Cover Story / Energy

Courtesy: Bentley

Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) involves building intelligent 3D feature-based models of buried construction zones

development areas for utilities in the future, where an integrated location aware system will be able to estimate threat potential and forecast where and what type of outages are expected during a storm.

Geolocating underground utilities

(EMI). GPR can offer you the depth to a target, in other words, 3D. Another major advantage of GPR is that it can find non-metallic utilities. EMI is another technology that uses a device which induces an electromagnetic current in metallic objects. The conductive objects retain this induced current briefly and then show up on the detector as “bright” areas. A major advantage of GPR and EMI technologies is that they can find underground utilities that are not recorded on as-builts, a very frequent occurrence.

Cities around the world are beginning to realise the value of knowing reliably where underground utilities are located.

One example is the City of Las Vegas which is putting in place policies and technologies to develop an accurate 3D model of all of its above ground and below ground utility infrastructure. Lombardy, the region around Milan has mandated underground remote-sensing mapping of all underground infrastructure in its region.

It has been difficult to quantify the cost and benefit of improving the location and other information about underground utilities, but in the last few years research has begun to put a dollar figure on the benefits of accurate location data for underground utilities. For example, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) commissioned the Pennsylvania State University to study the savings on 10 randomly selected Penn DOT projects. The study found a return on investment of $21.00 saved for every $1.00 spent on improving the quality level of subsurface utility information. A pilot conducted by the region of Lombardy reported an ROI of €16 for every euro invested.

According to national statistics, in the United States an underground utility line is hit on average every 60 seconds. The total cost to the national economy is estimated to be in the billions of dollars per year. In most municipalities in North America, 2D as-builts of underground infrastructure are notoriously unreliable. The result is that in most municipalities the location of underground utilities is very poorly known.

New “remote-sensing” technologies are being developed that are helping municipalities and utilities create accurate 3D models of underground infrastructure. Steve Dibenedetto, Energy-efficient buildings Senior Geoscientist and Technology Manager, Underground The adoption of BIM processes and technologies is a major Imaging Technologies (UIT), part of Caterpillar, points out trend that has been gathering steam over the last decade that subsurface utility engineering (SUE) requires a com- motivated by the need for better outcomes. According bination of different technologies, what UIT calls a mul- to McGraw-Hill Construction, overall adoption of BIM ti-technology approach. The best results are not going to be by architects, engineers and contractors in the US has obtained by using only one technology. increased from 17% in 2007 to 71% in If, for example, you are only interested 2012, a growth of 45% over the previin 2D mapping you will do fairly well ous three years, or 400% growth over using standard radiofrequency (RF) lothe last five years. cators or wand type instruments. But At this year’s Royal Institution investment in energy supply RF locators have limitations. Most im- required to meet demand growth of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) BIM by 2035, says IEA portantly, the objects you are looking National Conference 2014, Christopher for have to be metallic and you need to Gray of the Mollenhauer Group, Los Anknow they are there, for example, from geles, gave an overview of Mollenhauer’s as-builts. That is why UIT compleapproach to modelling existing buildings ments RF locators with newer technolin BIM. Mollenhauer has been an earogies such as ground penetrating radar Smart grid technologies market ly adopter of laser-scanning for what is (GPR) and electromagnetic induction known in the UK as “measured building in annual revenue by 2020

$

40 trn

$

28 / Geospatial World / November 2014

73 bn

21

buildings, laser scanning (“scan to BIM”) is survey”. It uses FARO and Leica laser scanincreasingly being used by companies such ners together with total stations in these suras Mollenhauer to create a BIM model. The veys. The deliverable is a Revit BIM model.

For example, Mollenhauer scanned Savings on every $1 spent BIM model provides the key elements that a mall called the Beverly Center in on improving subsurface are required for an energy performance analysis, including simplified walls and floors, Los Angeles with laser scanners and total utility info quality room bounding elements, complete volumes, stations to create a BIM model for the enin Pennsylvania window frames and curtain walls. tire structure as a basis for the redesign. A Together with the geographical location total of 750 separate scans resulted in about of the building, surrounding structures and a terabyte of point cloud data. They manualthe local historical environmental condily generated a Revit BIM model for the entire tions, an energy performance analysis can structure. In this case, the BIM model was the RoI on every euro reduce annual energy consumption and starting point for the redesign of the mall, but invested in locating power bills by upto 40%. The energy perto quote architect Carl Elefante “the greenest underground utility in formance analysis typically includes daybuilding is the building that already exists”.

Lombardy, Italy lighting and airflow simulations as well as Christopher Gray sees the major future busithermal modelling — solar heating, energy ness opportunity in energy performance modelling for existing buildings the first step of which will be consumption, thermal comfort, CO2 emissions, renewable “scan to BIM”. energy integration, and electric power load.

An energy performance analysis allows architects to estiCurrently, the primary motivation for energy performance mate how much energy a building will consume in a year and modelling is the aggressive building codes that push energy to assess alternative types of insulation and glazing, and oth- efficiency, for example, the 2013 California Green Building er aspects of building design to optimise energy usage. The Standards Code (Title 24). Other motivations are customer-drivstarting point for an energy performance analysis is a BIM en certification such as LEED and other “green” certification model of the building. For new buildings, the architect’s BIM (LEED v4 incorporates up to 18 credits for demand response) model provides the information that is required. For existing and financial incentives from local governments and power

$

16

€

Solar Irradiation Map

of

Europe

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 29

Cover Story / Energy

Courtesy: primtech

In the substation design process, wires and wire-connections are important components

bled by the capabilities of GIS. Mobile GIS apps are used by field crews in support of installation, repair, inspection, and emergency restoration. Field Service Management or Workforce Management systems take advantage of geospatial information to most efficiently dispatch and route field crews. Web-based GIS is also being used to collaborate among government agencies, utilities, and the public to ensure awareness of planned work.

Geospatial and BIM are also enablers for energy performance modelling which is a fundamental instrument for reducing the energy consumption and improving the energy performance of new and existing buildings. Cities are beginning to develop 3D models of underground infrastrucutilities to reduce energy consumption, peak load or both.

Measures aimed at improving the efficiency of buildings ture motivated by new underground remote-sensing technolhave been introduced in Europe, the US and Japan. Zero ogies and by RoIs of up to of $21 saved for every $1 spent on energy buildings (ZEB) are loosely defined as buildings improving the quality level of subsurface utility information.

One of the biggest challenges that utilities are experiencthat generate as much energy as they consume. A major area of focus in the EU is “nearly zero energy” buildings. ing is increasing volumes of structures and unstructured data The European Commission has mandated 2020/2021 as the that is overwhelming traditional enterprise systems, points deadline when all new buildings will have to be designed out Zimmerman. The structured data comes from smart meto be “nearly zero energy”. For public buildings, the dead- ters, intelligent electronic devices, and the unstructured data line is even sooner, by 2018/2019. The Government of from social networks including Twitter, Google, Facebook Japan put forward its “zero emissions buildings” target in and other social applications. He foresees that consumerisaApril, 2009. The announced objective mandates that all new tion of geospatial technology (all GPS-enabled sensors) will public buildings will be “zero emissions” by 2030. The US enable crowdsourcing of all sorts of information about elecEnergy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) tric power networks most of which involves location.

The major challenge is “siloed” GIS. It is said that GIS requires that by 2030 all new Federal facilities must be “zero net energy” (ZNE) buildings. In 2007, the California usage in smart grid applications will demand a high degree Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted aggres- of accuracy and timely, synchronised updates, which will be sive targets for ZNE. All new residential construction in difficult to orchestrate in a federated environment. UltimateCalifornia to be zero net energy by 2020, all new commer- ly, utilities will have to implement a GIS repository of record cial construction to be zero net energy by 2030, and 50% of that supports smart grid requirements. This means that the existing commercial buildings to be retrofit to ZNE by 2030. stage is set for a transformation in how utilities use GIS that will make it a foundation for managing the According to a report from Navigant smart grid and for fully realising the benefits Research, global zero energy buildings of smart grid technology. revenue is expected to grow from $629.3 As Smith of Bentley points out, “The million in 2014 to $1.4 trillion by 2035. challenge would appear to lie not in Together with the geographic location Possible reduction in convincing the industry to adopt geospatial of the building and surrounding strucannual energy consumption technologies, but rather in how quickly tures, plus local historical insolation and and power bills with energy these technologies can adapt to the evolving weather information, a building energy performance analysis plethora of operating systems involved in performance analysis and simulation smart grid and the standards and interfaces can be performed to compute current they require.” Capitalising on open spatial energy requirements and assess alternative databases, technologies, and languages is also ways of reducing the building’s energy usage. key to success.

40%

Summing up

Intelligent design has crossed over from the office to the field in utilities, also ena-

$

1.4 trn

Expected global ZEB revenue in 2035, from $629.3 mn in 2014

Geoff Zeiss, Editor — Building and Energy geoff@geospatialmedia.net

Energy / Interview

‘Global Agenda

for Smart Grid is

the Need of the Hour’ Smart Grids are critical to the future of energy. John McDonald, Chairman, Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) reveals various initiatives taken by SGIP to help countries transform their electricity infrastructure. McDonald is also the director of technical strategy and policy development at GE’s Digital Energy business.

W

hat kind of work does SGIP do?

Which countries are involved with your organisation?

The roots of SGIP begin with the ‘Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,’ which made the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST — a branch of the USA Commerce Department), the overall coordinator for Smart Grid standards. As a response to the mandate, in 2009, NIST received $12 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to be able to execute on that mandate, and the ‘Smart Grid Interoperability Panel’ (SGIP) came into existence. I have been chairing the board since 2010.

In late 2010, the Korea Smart Grid Association approached us and we did joint workshops. After an SGIP meeting in Texas recently, we did a workshop on smart grid standards where there were around 15 subject matter experts from Korea. Later, the Japan Smart Community Alliance, a group of over 700 companies, reached out to us and we

Most countries have realised that maintaining different national standards is a trade barrier

signed an agreement. We have a great working relationship with them.

The EC formed a Smart Grid Coordination Group (SG-CG) and we have an agreement to collaborate on a harmonised conceptual model, cyber security testing and conformance and international standardisation. We also have an agreement with Ecuador, where we focus on the same areas of collaboration as the EU and discuss regulatory issues to help promote smart grid efforts. Same goes for Colombia and Brazil. Latin American countries that are most progressive in the smart grid area are Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.

Have smart grid standards evolved? Do you think they are going to be national standards?

A handful of SGIP people, including myself, have been invited to speak at European Union (EU) Commission SG-CG meeting in Brussels. Three areas of interest between SGIP and the EU are architecture, cyber security and testing and certification. Our conceptual reference model for smart grid that we published in 2010 has seven domains: customers, markets, service providers, operations, bulk generation, distribution, and transmission. We published graphics that showed the smart grid elements of each of the different domains. At that time, it was revolutionary because no one had defined the different smart grid domains before. EU has added an eighth domain which is distributed energy resources.

We did not see the need to list it separately as our list had distributed energy resources including transmission, distribution and customer domains.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 31

Energy / Interview There are differences between different countries, but I honestly believe that most countries have realised that maintaining different national standards is a trade barrier. For instance, you are in Malaysia and you have developed a product that you want to sell in another country. If it is based on your own proprietary standards, then chances are that no one is going to be interested in the product. The Trade Development Association in Washington, DC has helped us focus on interoperability as a key initiative. There is a broad international consensus that we all need to work together and harmonise standards.

Within the US Department of Commerce, there is a group that focuses on smart grid standards. They travel to other countries and host smart grid events in those countries to bring them together with the United States for faster cooperation. Ecuador was the first country to have a country-wide strategic plan for smart grid.

Do vendors like GE, the big manufacturers of electric power equipment, see a big business opportunity if there are some standards as supposed to everybody having their own proprietary world?

They do view it as a big business opportunity and the reason is that from a business perspective, smart grid has added another dimension to what we did before. But that does not mean we have discarded what we did in the past, selling intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) or systems like GIS, OMS or DMS. The bottom line from a vendor’s point of view is that when we put a holistic solution together, there is a good chance that we will be integrating our technology components with the other vendor’s components and we may also have a third party that plays the role of a partner to fill the technology gap. The only way that is going to work is if you have internationally recognised standards. The components in the control centre, substations and feeders have to be interoperable. So the vendors have to embrace standards if they want to be successful.

Some vendors are fearful that if they standardise their devices it may prevent them from being innovative. This is not true. A good example is the IEC 61850 international standard for substation automation. So GE and our competitors would model a regulator using the 61850 standard object model, so the core capabilities across vendors is going to be pretty much the same and we can all work together to model the same capabilities as vendors.

But then we individually model the distinguishing characteristics of our products which differentiate them from other vendors. The 61850 has truly been embraced by every country including China. America is lagging behind

32 / Geospatial World / November 2014

other countries in adopting 61850, because most utilities in the US have not adopted the turnkey project approach which is widely used in Europe.

What is your take on the importance of location when we are talking about smart grid?

I have been a firm believer for a long time that geospatial information is part of the foundational platform for smart grid. GE’s Grid IQ Insight, which is a software platform of the future for smart grid, includes geospatial technology. We have been developing analytics on that platform and we found that geospatial information is a key component of utility analytics.

What I would really like to gain through our MoU with the OGC is their inputs with respect to our domain expert work groups, some of our priority action plans and the committees we have for architecture, cyber-security, implementation methods, certification etc. to see where we should be including geospatial information.

Geospatial technology has been hel are several factors that play a decisi experts from developed and develop

Country Focus/India

Powered Up

Top priorities for electric utilities

How Much

• Distribution firms are making investments in process automation and controlling losses through GIS and smart grid tech. Generation firms are concentrating on increasing the share of renewable energy.

• Smart grid will drive the market growth in distribution business. Use of geospatial technology for resource potential estimation is also gaining momentum with solar, wind, biomass and geothermal as the major areas of action.

9% 9% 35% 12% 11%

Automation Adding Renewables Network Loss Reduction Capacity Augumentation Grid Expansion Others

24%

GIS Integration with the Exis GIS is most used for...

• Drawing business intelligence, asset management and aiding Distribution Management System through GIS technologies are the most common usages.

• With the kind and amount of data that is being collected and processed, distribution companies are now in a better place to understand the consumer requirements and respond to them more appropriately.

• Geospatial technology provides an insight into demand patterns, consumer behaviour and market intelligence.

• GIS mapping is a vital component for targeted marketing programmes like demand response schemes, energy conservation initiatives. Data-driven business analytics is most likely to be one of the major areas of focus for distribution utilities and GIS would emerge as critical component.

• Among other things, it points to the hu collaboration for the geospatial indust • Any investment in building a GIS platfo integration with the rest of the process firms that are content with using GIS ju their network are missing out on great • Solution providers can proactively capi working together with ERP vendors an

Excellent Average Poor

18%

Graphic: Debjyoti Mukherjee

88% 30%

64% 35%

Asset management

DMS

Analytics

25%

Strategical Planing

Survey conducted and analysed Geospatial Media & Communications 34 / Geospatial World / by September 2014

18%

AMI

14%

Targeted Marketing

52%

lping the electricity sector by making the processes simple, transparent and efficient. There ive role in framing the direction of this sector. This survey of a cross-section of industry ping world seeks to understand the usage of geospatial technology and the issues at hand What’s driving GIS adoption?

7%

• While governments in some cases have mandated the implementation of geospatial technology, it is not the biggest factor for adoption of these technologies.

• Majority respondents say GIS implementation in their organisation was prompted by strategic priorities and for tangible benefits.

• This means utilities are now better aware about the promises these technologies and their potential in transforming the business of electricity.

9%

16%

Strategic priorities Tangible benefits Work complexity Data management Regulatory requirement Competitive edge

37%

10%

21%

Return on Investment • Utilities that have implemented GIS are enjoying the benefits of latest technological advancements. Most distribution utilities are of the view that GIS has helped them greatly in asset management, cost efficiency, decision making and customer service.

• Majority of the utilities agree that GIS has greatly improved their productivity and enhanced their decision making.

• The respondents broadly found consensus on a usual payback period of four to five years for GIS implementation.

77%

83% 70%

67%

60%

43%

20%

sting ERP System

uge scope for business and try with the electricity firms. orm without proper ses fails to justify itself. The ust for tactical operations in t opportunities. italise on this potential by nd system integrators.

%

Improved Improved operational customer efficiency service

Improved decision making

Better Reduced Improved networking operational transperency management cost

Survey Sample

Organisational challenges

Countries with varied electricity sector dynamics covered under the survey.

Responses from advanced and mature electricity market structure as well as those from the developing ones constitute the spread.

• Lack of geospatial expertise with the user organisations is the biggest organisational challenge. 41% of the respondents identified this factor as their most pressing concern.

• Lack of a clear long-term strategy for geospatial technologies is also a big problem as it results into under-utilisation or resources and cost overruns over time.

• Proper interoperability with the existing platforms and frequently changing project requirements pose as big hurdles with a share of 19% and 7%, respectively.

83 total responses received 2 4 from developed countries 59 from developing countries 63 public/private electric utilities, 6 solutions/product suppliers 4 market regulators and 3 Federal

11% 7% Lack of geospatial expertise No clear strategy for GIS Interoperability with existing GIS enterprise Ambiguous/changing project requirement Others

Enhanced safety

41% 19% 22%

energy ministries participated Geographical break-up 10 Asian countries 6 West-European countries 2 African countries 2 North American countries

Geospatial World / September 2014 / 35

Energy/Disruptive Technologies

A Fast Changing Landscape The major growth in Web and mobile applications is starting to have significant impact in the utility sector. But, will this disruption in the technological environment help the utility sector in simplifying their solutions? By Peter Batty

T

he geospatial industry is currently going through substantial changes, and these are starting to have a significant impact in the utility sector, as well as other industries. Clayton Christensen talks about the idea of “disruptive technologies” in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. He describes examples from many industries of how technologies which were initially regarded as too “low end” for mainstream users improve in functionality and performance over time, to the point where they can meet the needs of users in the mainstream market, and can start to displace the previous generation of more complex solutions, typically with a simpler and lower cost approach. Google Maps is a prime example of a disruptive technology in the enterprise geospatial market: it was initially focused on the simpler consumer market, but it, and other similar systems, have grown in capability and now have many applications in the enterprise.

Another way of looking at changes happening in the IT market is the idea of consumer-led IT. It used to be the case that technology innovations would happen first in enterprise systems and then later these would flow to the consumer.

But the consumer technology market is now so large that innovations tend to happen first there. Google Maps is one example, as just mentioned. Another is the huge growth in smartphones and tablets which was driven by the consumer market, and while adoption in the enterprise is growing, it still lags significantly behind.

The Web mapping revolution

▶ Google Maps: Launched in 2005, Google Maps dominated the consumer web mapping space due its ease of use and performance, together with an easy mechanism to incorporate it into third party websites. A common complaint I have heard from utility GIS users is “why isn’t our expensive GIS as fast and easy to use as Google Maps?” In recent years we have started

36 / Geospatial World / November 2014

to see more use of Google Maps, and other similar modern Web mapping technologies, in utility environments. This is typically in addition to a traditional GIS: the Web application makes that data available to a much larger number of users.

The ease of use and familiarity of a Google Maps style solution is extremely important in being able to roll out this type of solution to many users in an enterprise, who typically are not familiar with GIS. A key aim should be that users can use at least basic features of the system without any training.

A danger is that “GIS experts” sometimes have a tendency to add too many features and too much complexity to web applications, which can overwhelm the typical user. ▶ Open source software: There are various alternatives to Google Maps that provide a similar style of simple Web map, including Bing Maps and MapQuest. There are also multiple open source software solutions, including the Leaflet and OpenLayers JavaScript libraries, which are very widely used

by Web developers. In general, there are lot of geospatial open source software components available now that have the capabilities and robustness to be used in serious enterprise applications — widely used server side components include GeoServer and the PostGIS spatial relational database.

In some cases, utilities are directly implementing solutions based on these components, in others third party software vendors are building utility focused solutions on top of them. ▶ Enterprise mashups: Web applications commonly make use of lightweight integration techniques to pull data from multiple websites, an approach that is often known as a “mashup”. Similar techniques can be used in the enterprise to visualise many different datasets on the same map. Examples in utilities include jobs, outages, crew locations, customer information and more. Location provides a link between these different datasets that can provide insights that would not otherwise be apparent. For example, an electric

Example of electric network data overlaid on Google Map backdrop, and integrated with Google Street View

utility might look at how its recent tree-related outages relate to vegetation management operations over the past year.

In general, it is much simpler to share data between different geospatial systems than it used to be, which makes it much easier for enterprises to implement solutions from multiple geospatial vendors. In many cases the large established GIS vendors may not have a strong incentive to embrace disruptive lower cost web solutions from Google and others — this is part of the classic “innovator’s dilemma” that Clayton Christensen wrote about. ▶ The mobile revolution: Mobile geospatial applications in utilities are currently undergoing substantial change. Widely available wireless network communications enable real-time communication to and from field workers, which opens up many possibilities for significantly improving business processes. When combined with the growth in smart network-connected devices on utility networks (smart meters, intelligent switches and sensors, etc), everyone in a utility, either in the office or in the field can have a near real time view of the current state of the enterprise. Many of the established field mapping solutions at utilities pre-date Google Maps and modern wireless networks, and are geared to downloading data periodically and working offline, rather than working with real time data. Of course, the ability to work offline when needed is a key requirement, but newer systems are designed to work either online or offline as needed. Managing large amounts of offline geospatial data remains something of a challenge — there is just inherently quite a lot of administration needed to keep hundreds or thousands of offline copies of a large geospatial database in sync.

A new technology that shows promise for offline working is HTML5, the latest Web technology which is supported across all modern browsers. This provides the ability to store a moderate amount of data offline in the browser — not enough for large portions of a typical utility’s territory, but enough to store data for a small number of electric circuits say, or a typical day’s worth of jobs. HTML5 offline capabilities are still somewhat immature and differ across browsers, but over the next few years as this technology develops and wireless network coverage continues to improve, it is likely that the role of HTML5 offline storage will grow, relative to the traditional download and sync of large data volumes.

One thing worth noting is that Google terms of service specifically prohibit use of either its data or code offline, which limits its applicability for utility field applications.

The open source libraries Leaflet or OpenLayers are alternatives that can be used offline, and for basemap data, OpenStreetMap provides a good alternative.

Familiarity and ease of use of a Google Maps style solution is important in rolling out solutions for users who typically are not familiar with GIS Geospatial World / November 2014 / 37

Energy/Disruptive Technologies

Utility mapping application running on an iPad

Another key trend in mobile applications is the use of tablets and smartphones, rather than laptops or quite limited PDAs or GPS devices used in older generation field applications. With high-quality touch screens and built in wireless communications, GPS and cameras, modern tablets are excellent devices for field applications. A challenge here is that the mobile market is quite fragmented in terms of operating systems, with Android, Apple’s iOS and Microsoft all having a reasonable presence in the enterprise market. No clear winner has yet emerged in this space, and there is also a trend towards “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD), where employees can use their personal phones or tablets for business applications.

All of these factors combine to make a cross-platform mobile strategy, with applications that can run across all these operating systems, a desirable approach. Web-based applications work in this regard of course. Handling offline work in a cross platform way is a little more effort. There are some cross platform development tools such as PhoneGap, or its open source equivalent Apache Cordova, which enable applications to be compiled from HTML and JavaScript into native applications on all of these platforms. Phonegap also provides a means to have greater access to the mobile device, including local storage, than is available via a web application. ▶ Crowdsourcing: Another interesting development that has grown primarily in the consumer space, but increasingly has application in the enterprise, is the use of crowdsourcing for creation and maintenance of geospatial data. The best known example is OpenStreetMap, a map of the world that is free to use and can be edited by anyone. In many parts of the world its quality is as good as or better than commercial equivalents.

One impact of OpenStreetMap is simply in its potential for

38 / Geospatial World / November 2014

use as a basemap layer in enterprise applications, especially offline where alternatives like Google Maps cannot be used.

But it is also significant in that it has shown that good quality map products can be created by non-specialist users without any special training. The lesson for enterprises here is that it makes sense to enable more users of the data, especially users in the field, participate in contributing corrections to data if they find errors. In the past it has generally been assumed that most field workers did not have the skills to do these sort of updates, but OpenStreetMap has shown that this is not the case, especially where users have a vested interest in seeing the data improved, which utility field workers do.

Another good example of crowdsourcing is for damage assessment, after a storm or other incident. All smartphones now have the ability to take geotagged photos, that have a GPS coordinate stored with them indicating where they were taken. It is easy to load and display such pictures on a map, either by asking people to email them, upload them to a website, or by pulling photos from social media sites like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. This can provide a very rich source of data for quickly evaluating the extent of damage.

Summing up

Currently, the most active area of change in the utility geospatial market is in web and mobile applications, leveraging the major technology changes that have been seen in these areas in recent years. Major benefits can be achieved with a relatively small incremental investment, by expanding use of geospatial data to many more users and many more business processes. Technology originating in the consumer market, both software and hardware, is having a major influence.

There is not major change in backend traditional GIS platforms — in general these are well entrenched, with a lot of customisation and integration with other systems. There is little obvious benefit to changing, and a lot of cost to do so.

As smart grid technologies roll out over the coming years, there may be more change in backend systems, as there is more pressure to handle real time data. Currently network applications are handled by a mix of GIS, OMS (Outage Management Systems), DMS (Distribution Management Systems), EMS (Energy Management Systems), SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion), and MDMS (Meter Data Management Systems), with varying degrees of integration between them. It seems as though there should be opportunity to rationalise the number of systems involved, but this is a complex challenge both technically and in terms of organisation and process issues.

Peter Batty, Co-founder and CTO of the geospatial division, Ubisense, peter@ebatty.com

Energy / Case Study

Cloning the Negawatt Model A paradigm shift from the traditional to ‘smart’ grids has brought several transformational changes to the electrical utility industry, including integrated utility networks’ digital assets. Reji Pillai & C. Amritha, assess how a good GIS can be utilised beyond a single domain in the Indian scenario

A

fter a century of incremental improvements, finally the electricity sector is undergoing fundamental transformation. The traditional model of electricity generated at large power plants and transported to the consumers through transmission and distribution lines is fast changing.

With proliferation of distributed generation sources spread all across, the new grid has millions of points of power injection and millions of points of consumption — a paradigm shift from the traditional grid with limited points of power injection.

The Indian power sector is also at the threshold of transformational changes. Today, India operates world’s largest synchronous grid covering an area of 3.28 million sqkm and installed capacity of 238 GW with a customer base of about 200 million. The share of renewable energy in the generation mix is presently 12%, and this is set to exceed 20% by end of this decade.

The power system is expected to grow at the rate of 8–10% per annum for next several decades. The estimat-

40 / Geospatial World / November 2014

ed demand by 2032 is to be nearly 900 GW, a need that is almost quadruple the existing capacity!

While developed nations with reliable electric grids are investing in smart metering, data communications and advanced IT systems and analytics, tools for forecasting, scheduling and dispatching to further their smart grid journey, developing countries like India need to invest in both strengthening the electrical network as well as adding communications, IT and automation systems to build a strong and smart grid.

A smart grid intersects the electrical grid with automation, communication and IT systems that can monitor power flows from points of generation to points of consumption (even down to the appliance level) and control the power flow or curtail the load to match generation in real time.

Increased visibility, predictability, and even control of both generation and demand allow utilities to better manage variability, integrate intermittent renewable generation and also reduce costs of peak power.

The existing grid system in India needs to be expanded to connect another 79 million households, which are not currently connected to the grid. The Government of India has initiated several programmes to address this. The Ministry of Heavy Industries recently announced the National Electric Mobility Mission with a target of 6 million EVs (electron volts) by 2020.

plan to use IT and automation systems to instrument and integrate all infrastructure and services to optimise the assets as well as use analytical tools to predict usage, behaviour, maintenance, emergencies and other incidents.

In the Indian context where cities do not have a single owner for all the services, it would be a herculean task to integrate all infrastructure and services on a common platform. However, a beginning can be made by extending the available digital platform of one domain (say power) to offer services in other domains (say water, gas, internet, security etc.). The smart cities in India can be in two categories — existing cities that should be made smarter by integrating all services on digital platforms; and new cities that would be built as smart cities with integrated communication, IT and automation architecture.

While building new cities and new neighbourhoods, it is possible to build all these in an integrated fashion, it is a tougher task to integrate the same in existing cities with different owners for different domains. The silver lining is that there are hardly any existing IT and automation systems in most infrastructure domains in India which eliminates the risk of legacy systems with proprietary databases and protocols that cannot readily be integrated with one another.

The R-APDRP programme Last year in September, the Ministry of Power announced its Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India that envisages transformation of the entire power system to smart grids by 2027. The ministry has even shortlisted 14 smart grid pilot projects across the country in which the vision will be implemented by state-owned distribution utilities. A National Smart Grid Mission is also expected to be set up soon. The cost of these projects would be shared equally by the state utilities and MoP. The present status of these projects can be viewed at: www.indiasmartgrid.org.

Smart grids to smart cities

The definition of cities has grown over millennia, evolving into places where the entirety of human activities and services concentrate. As cities evolved with more and more facilities and services, they became more and more attractive to people from rural areas leading to even faster urbanisation.

In order to efficiently administer the needs of these growing cities, providers of infrastructure services (utilities) and governments are increasingly using IT solutions which has coined the term ‘smart cities’.

In most cities in the developed world, the municipalities or city councils are responsible for providing all infrastructure services and there is single ownership. City authorities

The on-going Restructured – Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (R-APDRP) is one of the largest IT initiatives by electric utilities anywhere in the world — in one integrated project, all state-owned distribution utilities in India are building IT infrastructure, IT applications and automation systems.

Smart grids are but the next step in achieving energy security, and the base created by the R-APDRP programme is tremendous, and leveraging it is key to a successful nation-wide implementation. Some of the digital assets created under this programme, can be leveraged to build smarter cities at lower marginal costs.

Under the proposed National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM), it is envisaged to build about 50 smart cities in the country leveraging the R-APDRP infrastructure and new systems that

Smart grids are but the next step in achieving energy security, and the base created by the R-APDRP programme is tremendous Geospatial World / November 2014 / 41

Energy Smart grids for /smart cities • Building digital map (GIS map) data of all infrastructure and services in an integrated fashion by one designated agency (with rules for sharing, security, etc.)

• Smart electricity grids that ensure 24x7 stable electricity to all citizens • High levels of renewable energy mix that is integrated with the power grid • Electric vehicle charging infrastructure and ability to operate large fleet of grid-connected EVs as virtual power plants • Efficient water distribution network with leakage detection systems and safe gas distribution networks • Integrated billing systems for a variety of services (electricity, water, gas, internet, house tax etc); common consumer care centres and user friendly payment platforms • Intelligent transportation systems — coordinated operation of traffic lights, alerts on congested routes in advance, common cards for toll payments etc which also extends to improved public transportation.

• Digital security systems integrated with emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, municipality etc) • Electrification of mobility, with fleet operations being the low hanging fruit, permit creation of virtual power plants • Intelligent buildings with rooftop PV and EV charging facilities integrated with automation systems of the electric utility participating in the demand response market • Demand response programmes that would strengthen “negawatt” market and IT infrastructure that would permit its aggregation for meaningful dispatch • Energy independence in long term and “intelligent energy harvesting” that would recycle incoming energy flows

would essentially be implemented for first building smart grids and later extended to other infrastructure domains.

The projects are at various stages of progress in different states and several success stories have emerged. The programme is being implemented in three parts — Part A, Part B and Part C. Scope under Part-A of R-APDRP ($2 billion) covers consumer indexing and asset mapping (entire distribution network — HT and LT lines, transformers, poles, meters) on GIS maps; automatic meter reading (AMR) for all distribution transformers and feeders; IT applications for meter reading, billing and collection, MIS, redressal of consumer grievances, establishment of IT enabled consumer service centres; energy accounting and auditing. The programme also includes setting up SCADA/DMS system (only in the project area having more than 400,00 population and annual input energy of the order of 350 million units), and feeder segregation/ring fencing.

Under Part-B ($10 billion) of the programme, discoms are undertaking electrical network strengthening and upgrading them. While, Part-C of R-APDRP entails capacity building and training programmes being undertaken for discoms.

Cloning R-APDRP GIS for other sectors

The R-APDRP programme has helped to bring much needed structural reform to the electricity distribution business as well as created digital assets that can be leveraged to build smarter cities at very low marginal costs. APDRP, R-APDRP and other programmes have brought down the network losses at distribution level from more than 36% in 2002 to less than 25% at the end of 2013.

The programme set out to create baseline data in the form of consumer indexing, GIS mapping and asset mapping. Out of 1401 towns, satellite imageries have been supplied to 1319 towns. A dedicated IT Cell in each utility has been setup and training of discom staff is being taken up to enable them to operate and maintain this complex system.

There are 20 major attributes that are surveyed, verified, mapped and stored in the GIS database which are periodically synchronised or updated. A satellite image is used as the base map onto which all electrical assets (33kV, 11kV and low voltage lines and substations) and consumers are mapped. Discoms are updating this system on a regular basis to capture changes/addition to the electrical network as well as new consumers/buildings.

This digital map can be effectively used by other infrastructure services providers for planning as well as operation and maintenance of their systems. This will be very useful for planning the layout of water supply and sewerage lines, telecom cables, gas pipe lines etc. It can also be used for planning of road network. As the simplest example of how a good GIS system can help beyond a single domain — if one knows the routing of underground power cables, the same can be synergised to other utilities that would need to dig up roads (like water, sewage, telecom etc. — thus one should, in the future, never interrupt other services for adding new connections/lines/pipes). This can in turn help avoid large amounts of money being given away as compensation for wrong digging and damage. A single billing system can also be developed that becomes the single window clearance for payment of electricity, water, gas bills etc. Thus ensuring that the customer only uses one payment system for all his services — saves time and effort!

This is but a starting point. The digital assets built under the R-APDRP programme can be used to plan entire cities and can well be the stepping stones towards making smart cities a reality.

Reji Pillai, President, and C. Amritha, Business Analyst, India Smart Grid Forum

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For uninterrupted transmission

Alabama Power implemented GIS solutions to achieve customer satisfaction and improve profitability

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labama Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company, has over 125,000 km of power lines serving 1.4 million customers in the state of Alabama, USA. Each and every employee in the company has three primary obligations; to work safely, to ensure high reliability standards, and to reduce the cost for customers. For the benefit of its customers, the Southern Company is developing a broad range of portfolio of energy resources. Such information solutions will facilitate knowledge transfer and maximise efficiencies for operations, construction and maintenance. Currently, the company utilises GIS across its transmission as a method to improve the asset inventory, to assist in preventive maintenance programmes, to improve reliability through new construction, and to reduce engineering costs by better utilisation of information during the planning and routing process.

Shedding a new light

Because of the extensive footprint of transmission assets of Alabama Power (over 16,000 km of corridors), the initial transition of the facility management records from a table-based system to GIS was a significant challenge. During mid 90’s, an aerial survey was conducted to collect geometrically adjusted images (orthophotos), oblique photos and structure locations. GIS specialists were called to tally the information collected by the aerial survey with the asset management inventory. For the first time, the engineers, and linemen were able to see geographic representations of the company’s wire, structures, switches and substations. With basic query skills, GIS technicians were able to perform analytics on structure types, materials and kilometres of line.

Soon, the Southern Company developed a mobile transmission inspection system for asset inventory and reliability management. The Transmission Line Inspection System (TLIS), was completed and implemented just in time for a series of hurricane events in 2004-2005 culminating with Hurricane Katrina. Crews were equipped with ruggedised tablets with internal GPS units for both ground and aerial evaluations, and learned to utilise navigation tools to avoid washed out roads and downed trees. As a result, Storm Center Managers were able to gain a clear view of the impact

of the storm events, to better plan for restoration work and give the public an improved understanding of the crisis.

The outbreak of hurricanes pushed forward the enhancement of Southern Company’s first transmission web-based viewer, Transview, which was utilised to view transmission assets across Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.

While Transview was originally designed to provide a light viewer for transmission assets across the system, over time the functionally has been greatly enhanced. Some improvements include mobile substation tracking, Nexrad weather display, real time outages and integration with damage assessment solutions. The development of Web solutions allowed the transmission organisation to migrate from an enterprise level approach to an agile development environment capable of taking immediate advantage of business needs, software upgrades and enhancements.

Assessing tornado damage

In April 2011, over 60 tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Southeastern region. Alabama Power experienced outages covering over 30% of its transmission service territory. The Transmission Storm Response team quickly customised the reporting and analytics based upon executive and operational requirements as needed.

Just as Hurricane Katrina caused a paradigm shift in the way transmission utilised GIS, the massive tornado event exposed the analytical capability of GIS for the managers and executives at Alabama Power. Geoprocessing solutions were developed to integrate with BI solutions, creating a GEOBI element of the dashboard products. Initial efforts were simple viewers that provided a geospatial display to identify key customers and facilities, than more complex models were built to provide outage information and workplan management. The ability to embed geoprocessing services and tools has given the GIS team the ability to extend data access to the customer base.

Remi Myers, Supervisor of GIS & Mapping, rmyers@southernco.com; Josh McCurry, Survey Support Specialist, jmccurry@southernco.com, Alabama Power Company

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 43

For uninterrupted transmission

Alabama Power implemented GIS solutions to achieve customer satisfaction and improve profitability

A

labama Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company, has over 125,000 km of power lines serving 1.4 million customers in the state of Alabama, USA. Each and every employee in the company has three primary obligations; to work safely, to ensure high reliability standards, and to reduce the cost for customers. For the benefit of its customers, the Southern Company is developing a broad range of portfolio of energy resources. Such information solutions will facilitate knowledge transfer and maximise efficiencies for operations, construction and maintenance. Currently, the company utilises GIS across its transmission as a method to improve the asset inventory, to assist in preventive maintenance programmes, to improve reliability through new construction, and to reduce engineering costs by better utilisation of information during the planning and routing process.

Shedding a new light

Because of the extensive footprint of transmission assets of Alabama Power (over 16,000 km of corridors), the initial transition of the facility management records from a table-based system to GIS was a significant challenge. During mid 90’s, an aerial survey was conducted to collect geometrically adjusted images (orthophotos), oblique photos and structure locations. GIS specialists were called to tally the information collected by the aerial survey with the asset management inventory. For the first time, the engineers, and linemen were able to see geographic representations of the company’s wire, structures, switches and substations. With basic query skills, GIS technicians were able to perform analytics on structure types, materials and kilometres of line.

Soon, the Southern Company developed a mobile transmission inspection system for asset inventory and reliability management. The Transmission Line Inspection System (TLIS), was completed and implemented just in time for a series of hurricane events in 2004-2005 culminating with Hurricane Katrina. Crews were equipped with ruggedised tablets with internal GPS units for both ground and aerial evaluations, and learned to utilise navigation tools to avoid washed out roads and downed trees. As a result, Storm Center Managers were able to gain a clear view of the impact

of the storm events, to better plan for restoration work and give the public an improved understanding of the crisis.

The outbreak of hurricanes pushed forward the enhancement of Southern Company’s first transmission web-based viewer, Transview, which was utilised to view transmission assets across Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.

While Transview was originally designed to provide a light viewer for transmission assets across the system, over time the functionally has been greatly enhanced. Some improvements include mobile substation tracking, Nexrad weather display, real time outages and integration with damage assessment solutions. The development of Web solutions allowed the transmission organisation to migrate from an enterprise level approach to an agile development environment capable of taking immediate advantage of business needs, software upgrades and enhancements.

Assessing tornado damage

In April 2011, over 60 tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Southeastern region. Alabama Power experienced outages covering over 30% of its transmission service territory. The Transmission Storm Response team quickly customised the reporting and analytics based upon executive and operational requirements as needed.

Just as Hurricane Katrina caused a paradigm shift in the way transmission utilised GIS, the massive tornado event exposed the analytical capability of GIS for the managers and executives at Alabama Power. Geoprocessing solutions were developed to integrate with BI solutions, creating a GEOBI element of the dashboard products. Initial efforts were simple viewers that provided a geospatial display to identify key customers and facilities, than more complex models were built to provide outage information and workplan management. The ability to embed geoprocessing services and tools has given the GIS team the ability to extend data access to the customer base.

Remi Myers, Supervisor of GIS & Mapping, rmyers@southernco.com; Josh McCurry, Survey Support Specialist, jmccurry@southernco.com, Alabama Power Company

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 43

Energy/Data Management

Energising the Utility

Data Paradigm As electric utilities continue to evolve into increasingly data-driven organisations, GIS is fast emerging as the backbone for data management platforms.

By Jeffrey Pires and G. Ben Binger

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transformation is underway at electric utilities.

The very foundations of electricity distribution that have supported our way of life for decades — the systems, processes, assets, information — all are poised for a major overhaul.

A variety of catalysts have instigated this transformation.

Green technology such as renewable energy and electric vehicles are placing new dynamics and demands on the distribution network. Increasingly advanced monitors and devices continue to redefine the electric distribution system, producing more detailed network information faster than ever before. Progressive technology schemes are now able to self-analyse conditions and automatically reconfigure power flow, quickly and safely minimising the extent of outages. Consumers of today expect more control and real-time information about their energy use, on the device of their choice. Yet, as climate change threatens our world with more intense weather patterns, our ageing energy infrastructure stands at ever greater risk.

At the core of this transformation lies data; and they are all over the place. But while the concept of GIS as a backbone for complete data management and data sharing platform has been talked about for some time now, it is yet to take off fully. For instance, in complex urban areas where infrastructure is underground, paper maps from decades ago are often still preferred over digital records. And most surprisingly, a power company is usually unaware of a residential power outage until customers call in to report it!

Information — lifeblood of an electric utility

Every project proposed, every asset installed, every crew member dispatched — all begin with data from the systems.

When decisions are made using incomplete or incorrect

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Old hand-drawn electric distribution map, and the same neighbourhood in Electric Distribution GIS

information, there is always a chance of missing out on a more optimal or cost-effective alternative.

Modern electric utility information architecture is a complex landscape of software solutions and databases.

Due to the geographic distribution of electrical system assets, GIS is often the primary repository for asset information. This also makes GIS the natural source for maps in system operations, as well as the model for electrical connectivity. Other core enterprise systems are integrated with the GIS to manage various business functions: a Customer Information System (CIS) manages billing and account information; the Work Management System (WMS) handles work order scheduling and progression of construction jobs; and Outage Management System (OMS) models the flow of electricity by interpreting the GIS electrical connectivity (network) model. Combined with real-time customer calls from CIS, the OMS is able to infer the location and extent of power outages.

Understandably, it can be difficult for engineers and analysts to navigate this complex landscape of systems. However, a strong data governance programme can mitigate these challenges. A comprehensive data governance programme for an electric utility is comprised of six components. ▶A single authoritative source: Every piece of data must have a single and identified source among all systems. It is common, particularly in large organisations, to have similar or duplicate data stored in different locations, different formats, and managed separately by different people. Even something

as fundamental to an electric utility as pole locations can be difficult to have clarity on because of disparate data sets.

Ideally, a change in the pole asset base would be recorded in all systems in the same way, but organisational, business process, and communications issues can prevent a systematic update from happening. A data governance programme should identify where the record will be maintained and ensure that authoritative source is used to populate and maintain the other data repositories. ▶Standardisation: Multiple systems are a necessary reality in most utilities today. In order to support authoritative sourcing of data, an organisation needs to have data standards in place. Standards allow systems to easily share data and enables users to efficiently collect, integrate, and aggregate information from otherwise disparate systems. If adopting a standard requires modification to a system data model or to an application, then it may be prohibitively expensive or disruptive to the business. A case can be made, however, to address some of the more fundamental data elements. An electric utility, for instance, may implement a systematic circuit naming convention, as circuit-based reporting is common across many functions in the business. ▶Data quality: Poor business processes, inadequate training, lack of awareness, and systems or tools that are difficult to use are all major contributors to data quality degradation.

GIS can present a special type of issue since the spatial component, the topological dependencies, and electrical connectivity models can be difficult for someone to understand.

Data presented in a mapped view on a computer screen may look visually fine, yet have hidden problems. A strong data governance programme should measure the quality of data, identify causes of problems, and prioritise those problems that need to be addressed first. ▶Interoperability: Data infrastructure must promote communication, exchange, and re-use of information across diverse system platforms. Interoperability is supported by the implementation of data standards, but standards are not absolutely necessary. As described previously, it is not always possible for a system to adopt standards. Establishing communication between systems that do not subscribe to the same standard requires more complex solutions, and can be more vulnerable to system-specific changes. Since a standard is not in play, nuances of more custom system interfaces can be overlooked. Interoperability across systems, however, means data can be more readily available to a larger audience in a consistent way. ▶Availability: Data must be readily discoverable and available. Tools for accessing information from mobile devices and the Internet are evolving rapidly. Data consumers are all empowered to access and use much more information

than has ever been available. The challenge for the utility is ensuring the information is accurate and that it conveys the truth. Objectives of a data governance programme should include consistency, transparency, reproducibility, and meaningfulness in data that is presented to any audience. ▶Accountability: Tracking mechanisms must monitor any modification of data in authoritative source systems. Data stewards and data owners must be part of a successful data governance programme. They provide overview, develop an understanding of how the organisation can continually improve data, and drive best practices.

Implementation of a comprehensive data governance programme is never a simple task. Support from company leadership is mandatory, as data governance requires participation at all levels, and impacts just about any business processes that manages or consumes information. Data governance often requires that long-standing practices receive an overhaul. Modifications will need to be coded into systems and ETL processes.

Due to the significant changes required to adopt a full data governance framework, many organisations get by with only partial or limited components. The resulting challenges of redundant, unavailable, or incorrect information are considered acceptable inconveniences. However, as electric utilities continue to evolve into increasingly data-driven organisations, the penalty for ignoring data governance will soon outweigh the difficulties of embracing it.

To sum it up

GIS was once regarded by many in the electric industry as just a simple mapping tool; old paper construction sketches and drawings had been manually digitised, and GIS was the programme to explore and print maps. Some then began to leverage GIS as the source for asset records. More innovative utilities eventually adopted GIS as a design tool, digitising work plans and issuing maps to the field for construction.

Through the years, GIS has continued this trend of broader use, weaving its way into the fabric of enterprise architecture and business processes. With the adoption of open standards and Web 2.0 in the past decade, however, the role of utility GIS is now evolving into something different, something more. Based in the universal language of geography, GIS has the adaptability and flexibility to become a means of integration. Web-GIS is emerging as this common platform, empowering our analysts, engineers, managers, and executives with the information they need to make better, faster decisions.

Jeffrey Pires, GISP, Lead Analyst, National Grid jeff.pires@nationalgrid.com G. Ben Binger, Lead Analyst, National Grid g.ben.binger@gmail.com

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 45

Energy / Interview

‘Primtech 3D Gives a New

Perspective to People’ Entegra’s primtech 3D is designed to help substation designers conceive and deliver designs based on the principles of integrated product modelling. Wolfgang Eyrich, Managing Director, shares how primtech provides a geographical context to substation designing

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ntegra’s primtech has been a pioneer in 3D model-based design solutions for substations. What do your customers see as the most important benefits of an integrated solution such as primtech 3D? From the very beginning, primtech 3D adopted an engineering-to-order (ETO) process-based approach, due to unsatisfactory experience with other 3D software, which supported 3D modelling and calculations but not the engineering design. To reuse the same information model from tender through the construction of the physical substation was the challenge. That is why we talk about the ‘next generation of substation design solutions’. The process way of thinking is something like a fourth dimension or the missing link between engineer-to-order design and 3D modelling.

Our development team has a passion for optimising the design process. We are not concerned about other segments of utility design market. We have concentrated exclusively on the needs of our substation customers. In primtech 3D, we have incorporated many tools for accentuating “graphical” power in a way that no other tool supported them before.

Are gas insulated substations (GIS) becoming more prevalent? What are the challenges?

Yes, in fact I have held several discussions within the utility industry regarding this. A gas insulation substation is a leading edge high-tech product. Standards for interoperating parts from

46 / Geospatial World / November 2014

different manufacturers have not yet been developed, so gas insulated substations require that all parts come from one manufacturer. An important motivation for investing in gas insulated substations is NIMBY. People, especially in cities, do not want substations in their neighbourhoods because they are considered to be eyesores. In such a situation, a gas insulated station is a perfect solution. They are low on maintenance, much smaller in size, require less land, and have much less visual impact. You can even build a gas insulation substation in a basement, and nobody will be aware that it is there. Also, it does not need any major maintenance for 15 to 20 years. And it is secure due to no sound pollution or electromagnetic field emission. However, they are expensive, costing three to four times what a regular substation costs. For high-populated urban areas GIS substation is the best solution, though in low populated areas a normal substation is competitive and more flexible for less money.

We have support gas-insulated substations from the very beginning — but the new tool includes technology for deep design support like module configuration, automatic solution solving, and gas-compartment design. However, we still see the traditional substation design market as our core business.

Some see important benefits from 3D model-based design not only during the design phase, but also during construction and during the operations and maintenance phase. Are your customers starting to see benefits from a whole lifecycle approach based on 3D models?

I think it is not restricted to just 3D model. Our substation information model — hosted in a database — is based on cross linked highly specialised high voltage (HV)-substation entities. The database brings all the information together in a smart (BIM) model which is very close to reality. In primtech, users are using this model for all kinds of calculations and simulations to optimise the design. Our

customers report that this intelligent model brings down costs during the construction phase, for example, payback can be achieved in less than four months. They also find that the model can be used throughout the lifecycle of a substation.

Some of our customers are also using primtech for redesigning old substation. It allows them to recalculate their design parameters based on the latest algorithms and standards. Another example is a research project we delivered in cooperation with a customer which used the primtech -model for generating project specific manuals for use both during construction and later for maintenance.

Substation design involves several different teams with different skills, for example, electric network design, protection, communications, mechanical, and sitting.

Does 3D model-based design help these different teams work together more productively?

Because it is a highly iterative design process, it is a core requirement to link all the available information together and make it available to the design team. That is what we call the “integrated product model”. primtech delivers an integrated product model which includes geometry and an integrated database. We like to say that if you have a primtech model, you have complete data for everything from concrete to nuts and bolts that is needed throughout the lifecycle of the substation.

Most people first design in 2D or in a mechanical 3D system. However, that approach runs the risk of not updating all the drawings whenever a change is made in the 2D design.

Primtech provides standard templates where designers start the work. All of the information is stored in the database as well as in drawing files, but the database controls the drawing file. One can also query, for example, for geographic or ERP (enterprise resource planning) information at the database level. The database avoids the limitations of CAD files.

In the graphical (CAD) environment, we use AutoCAD which can integrate with other AutoCAD applications like AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Civil3D, and other AutoCAD applications at the highest integration level C for example, linking to Civil3D enables the geographic dimension for site design and preparation based on a digital terrain model.

When people design a substation using primtech do they use the database and model as a maintenance database?

Yes, they do. By just one click you can export the model on a detailed Excel sheet. So, they can get all the required information about the objects. As a result, many utilities are asking the designers and contractors for the model because they intend to use it for maintenance. While the as-built documentation is still on paper or PDF, they also keep the primtech model for maintenance.

With primtech can you do all of the steps, mechanical, electric analysis, protection and other subsystem designs?

That is a point where we are different from other products.

We focus on the 3D physical design of the substation and implement the best available technology. This includes electromechanical design, civil design, high-voltage calculations, lightening protection calculation, but for ERP or secondary design we support interfaces to other products.

There are around 200 companies providing specialised tools for low-voltage electrical design in this market. Starting with basic tools like AutoCAD Electrical going up to specialised solution for SCADA design. Our philosophy is to enable primtech to interoperate with the best of class products from other vendors for different types of design, depending upon the customers’ requirements.

Does primtech integrate with geospatial/GIS products to enable your customers to visualize 3D substation designs in their geospatial context?

It is important to our customers and we do integrate geographical data in primtech — from the beginning, the visualisation features were heavily used by our customers. It is important to remember that we are situated in Germany.

In a very densely populated environment NIMBY is a very significant problem. Explaining the advantages and disadvantages of complex projects to ordinary, non-technical people becomes one of the biggest challenges in each project. Therefore, a modern and professional communication strategy is essential. The objective of this strategy is to use realistically rendered pictures, movies and interactive media to help people understand what a new substation is going to look like and to encourage them to participate in designing the substation and site.

One of the ways to do this is to use Autodesk Navisworks.

For our customers, Navisworks is a standard tool that allows designs to be visualised photorealistically together with geographic information such as terrain models. Recently, we have also tried a new product BIM 360 Glue, where we put the substation model on the Cloud and the customer can see it in a geographic context on an iPad. For example, two months ago, at the headquarters of ABB, we showed a substation design in a terrain model, and they were very impressed.

One of the most important reasons for primtech’s success is that it enables the people to see how the substation would look in a real environment. You can sit by people who have no idea what a substation is and show it to them in its geographic context on an iPad and let them swipe through the model and experience it.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 47

Energy / Case Study

Integrating GIS, ERP and SCADA at Alliander It is crucial for Alliander, the Dutch utility company, to intregrate the GIS, ERP and SCADA systems for a correct picture of its assets. By Loek Bakker & Jan van Gelder

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lliander is the largest regional energy grid company in the Netherlands. With electricity network size of 87,848 km cables and 42,637 km gas pipes, the Alliander energy infrastructure distributes electricity for 3,063,000 connections and gas to 2,649,000 customers every day.

As customers and businesses increasingly deliver self-generated energy (for instance through photovoltaic cells or wind turbines) to Alliander energy networks, it is the company’s task to match the supply and demand of energy and distribute it as efficiently as possible.

For this, it is crucial for Alliander to have an overall picture of its asset data, which is currently located in its ERP, GIS and SCADA systems.

Traditionally, these systems have a somewhat stovepipe-like architecture, containing (asset) data optimised for the system only, and having little integration with the other systems.

The map shows which area’s specific assets should be replaced first

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Integration of systems: why it is necessary?

The utilities’ domain is changing rapidly. The three trends that drive Alliander to re-engineer parts of the IT architecture concerning asset management and service provision are: • The transition towards smart grids: decentralised production of sustainable power adds a ‘bottom-up’ dynamic in the load-balancing of our networks that requires improved real-time analytics; • The increasing need to operate cost-efficiently means there is a need to improve the ability to assess and forecast the asset health from a holistic perspective. Information from all types of data-stores needs to be included into an overall capability to engage in condition-based maintenance.

• The pace of innovation in IT is speeding up, so do expectations of the workforce and customers. With the lifecycle of software applications continuing to drop, the workforce and external stakeholders both expect Alliander to be able to cope with the increased rate of innovation.

Pace-layered application strategy

When integrating ERP, GIS and SCADA, Alliander faces the common problem — on one hand it has to deliver solid and robust systems which should last for years and ensure high data integrity and quality, while on the other hand, it has to quickly respond to business needs and support innovative applications.

The map shows the cathode protection of gas pipes and supports the inspection process.

The map shows the schematic view o electricity network. This view is typic service mechanics.

To address this challenge, the utility decided to use Gartner’s pace-layered application strategy as the starting point to architect and design its integrated ERP-GIS-SCADA environment.

A pace-layered application strategy segments applications based on the degree of commoditisation of the functionality and the rate at which they need to change. The three pace layers identified are: • Systems of record: Applications that make up an organisation’s systems of record typically support administrative and transaction processing activities. Often this is also referred to as the single source of truth for certain elements of data. The rate of change of these applications is low (ERP systems older than 20 years are not uncommon) because the processes are well-established and common to most organisations, and often are subject to regulatory requirements.

• Systems of differentiation: Applications that enable unique company processes or industry-specific capabilities. They have a medium lifecycle (one to three years), but need to be re-configured frequently to accommodate changing business practices or customer requirements.

• Systems of innovation: Applications built to support new, innovative business activities and are constructed quickly to enable enterprises to take advantage of these new ideas and opportunities.

The concept of pace-layered architecture also distinguishes connective tissue. This is another name for technology that allows applications in different pace layers and within layers to work together as a whole, much the way integration of applications allows applications from different vendors to work together. As it is difficult to innovate on an unstable foundation, Alliander decided to make this distinction in its architecture, first focusing on the systems of record, to be able to facilitate innovation in the near future.

The application of the pace-layered strategy concept at Alliander started with the definition of the components. The asset data is recorded by the GIS, which excels in specific functionality that is specific for documenting the data: the ‘system of record’.

On top of this is the ‘system of engagement’ containing functionality to exploit the (geo) data. Here we find functionality for (geo) analysis, functionality to share the results of an analysis, or functionality to just share the plain data.

Between the ‘system of record’ and the ‘system of engagement’, data is stored and combined of a piece of Alliander’s cally used by engineers and in specific data marts and organised in themes.

Examples of themes are assets and asset condition,

assets and energy disruptions and assets and financial value.

System of records

The most important benefit of pace-layered architecture is to drop the typical application stovepipe thinking. Start thinking in ‘information’ and ‘data’, and use application functionality in the way best suited. For the GIS recording, this means that a lot of data, which is now stored in the GIS, can probably more easily be stored in the ERP. Splitting and spreading the recording of asset data over multiple systems of record also means that it has to be made sure that all data can be brought together again in the enterprise data warehouse. This means that defining the correct primary keys becomes really important. Making the wrong choices regarding keys will result in an inability to combine data in the EDW. During the design of the asset data registry, the static data was further divided into ‘functional locations’ and ‘equipment’, concepts typical of SAP. The ‘functional location’ identifies an asset that executes a specific (distribution) function in the network. The term ‘functional location’ is independent of a physical location as is common within the GIS world.

These relatively simple rules make it possible to choose the best fitting application for documenting the data. This results in functional locations been recorded in GIS and synchronised to the ERP, on which the equipment is placed.

Maintenance and all other types of notifications and work assignments, are the domain of the transactional ERP. And finally the real-time data is documented using a machine-tomachine interface and stored in real-time databases.

Systems of engagement

As discussed earlier, all documented data is brought together in the enterprise data warehouse so that it is ready to become information supporting all kind of processes. Because a lot of information products can be generated, it is a good idea to collect the information products in a few clusters. At Alliander, these views have been organised around the asset, e.g. ‘asset and condition’ or ‘asset and finance’. A total of nine asset-centric themes have been oraganised.

Alliander believes in ‘self service business intelligence’ for its end-users. Traditionally, business intelligence was all about reports, but slowly it is becoming more and more mapbased. The data is already available in the themes, so end-users can easily access the data and create maps. As more data becomes available from inside and outside Alliander, more (geospatial) analysis will be possible.

Loek Bakker & Jan van Gelder, Information Management Assets and Operations, Alliander jan.van.gelder@alliander.com

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3D Documentation

Complex Work, Simple Flow After taking the market by storm with its FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D range — the world’s smallest 3D scanners — FARO is all set to democratise the concept of 3D documentation with FARO SCENE WebShare and FARO SCENE WebShare Cloud

FARO Advertorial

T

here is a need to democratise the ability to capture and document the world in 3D. This was the mission statement at FARO’s 3D Documentation Conference this year. Jay W. Freeland, President and CEO, FARO Technologies, Inc. had said FARO aimed to make the technology and process of 3D documentation simple enough so that anyone can do it and do it well.

3D documentation covers the entire geospatial world and more and “that is where we’re taking the technology and trying to lead the charge in transforming the traditional geospatial world to adopt, leverage and utilise 3D technology going forward,” Freeland had added.

And why not! With the global 3D Scanning market estimated to grow from $2.06 billion in

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2013 to $4.08 billion by 2018, at an estimated CAGR of 14.6% from 2013 to 2018, the laser scanning market is set to penetrate verticals like aerospace and defence, entertainment and media, medical and health care, architecture and engineering, oil and gas, energy and power, automotive and transportation, manufacturing, and others, a clear reminder of Freeland’s democratic vision. After all, as Freeland mentioned at the conference, the “3D revolution is well underway” and that the spread of the technology is inevitable. “No one wants to go back to 2D once that door is open.”

Moreover, FARO is a known leader in the 3D scanning market space. After taking the 3D scanning industry by storm, with the introduction of the world’s smallest 3D scanner, FARO now aims to

bring 3D documentation to the masses. Its products and solutions which are easy to use, portable and affordable provide a significant advantage to the company and make them stand out in terms of competition. But FARO wants to make their scanners even more affordable. Freeland has laid out a future where their scanners are inexpensive enough that can be purchased with a corporate card, or even a handful of cash. This would democratise scanning even further.

World’s smallest laser scanners With its Focus 3D laser scanners, FARO added an altogether new dimension to the 3D market. Measuring just 24X20X10 cm3 and weighing only 5.2 kg — FARO’s Focus3D range comprises of the smallest and lightest scanners available in the world. Its compact design and touchscreen display makes it as easy to operate as a digital camera, while offering extra long-range (up to 330 m) integrated GPS and the capability to perform scanning even under bright sunlight. The most advanced product in the FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D range, Focus 3D X 330 is equipped with increased range of 330 m, accuracy of ± 2mm and scan speed of up to 976,000 points per second. With these, it can considerably reduce the efforts involved in measuring and post-processing during construction stages.

Remote scanning as well as almost limitless scan data sharing via FARO SCENE WebShare Cloud makes the solution truly mobile.

FARO SCENE makes it simpler To simplify and speed up the workflow further, FARO’s scan processing software SCENE comes

3D revolution is well underway... No one wants to go back to 2D once that door is open Jay W. Freeland, President and CEO, FARO Technologies

to the rescue. It processes and manages scanned data easily and efficiently by using automatic object recognition as well as scan registration and positioning. The SCENE makes complex surveying tasks easier and allows for the reproduction of the scanning results in greater detail. This is made possible by new functions and performance improvements, which are naturally customised for the Focus 3D X 330 scanner with its tremendous range of up to 330 metres.

FARO SCENE WebShare Cloud But nothing can demonstrate better FARO’s vision of real democratisation — the SCENE WebShare Cloud, which enables scan projects to be published on a Web server with simply touch of a button and reach out to millions in the process.

There is no longer a necessity to install software on your own computer. SCENE WebShare Cloud guarantees the utmost quality and security and the system supports mobile devices with an optimally adopted user interface. The service allows users to store 3D documentation data directly on the ‘cloud’.

With SCENE WebShare Cloud, FARO offers a comprehensive service to provide users with simple access to 3D documentation. Neither technical training nor specialist skills in 3D laser scanning are necessary to work with the intuitive user interface. Digital data, such as 3D documentation, often has to be available to many different project partners. Previously, users having their own Internet server could use SCENE WebShare to present their laser scan projects to clients and project partners.

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importance in developing new models. As Rolf Berlin, Technical Manager, ATS AB says, “We need to solve the problems to re-build the upcoming car models and products and that can be done if we look one or two years ahead. This needs to be done by the manufacturing plant while the real plant is producing.”

According to Prof Rikard Soderberg, Head of Department Production and Development, Chalmers University, “The benefit is of course that now we are able to see the digital models of the whole plant. So we can do all the planning for rebuilding in the digital world. We don’t have to disturb the production.”

Why WebShare Cloud?

How it all works in sync With SCENE WebShare, FARO has developed a unique application programme for 3D scanning tasks.

First of all the FARO Focus 3D range of scanners is used. The 3D laser scanner is especially designed for precise and detailed measurement of large spaces such as properties or buildings, both indoors and outdoors. With the SCENE WebShare Cloud, FARO provides an online platform for the generated scanned data, enabling its users to access 3D documentation quickly and easily.

One of the many possible applications in which 3D documentation and SCENE WebShare could be utilised is virtual manufacturing. Virtual manufacturing covers the entire virtual and representation of potential facilities and processes before they actually exist. Especially among vehicle manufacturers, this method is increasingly gaining

FARO SCENE WebShare enables customers to edit and share data quickly, easily and more cost effectively like never before 52 / Geospatial World / November 2014

FARO SCENE WebShare is a fantastic tool to spread this kind of information and knowledge between people. Online accessed, the SCENE WebShare Cloud enables the recorded scanned projects to be reviewed and analysed. In addition to an overview map and photorealistic panoramic views, the users also have various tools for distance and area measurements at their disposal. One important step in the introduction of product lines is the reconfiguration or the re-arrangement of the existing production environment. This task can be

carried out directly within the point cloud. “What is fantastic with this technology is that we can work so fast. We can actually live in point cloud. We can work and simulate things in point cloud,” adds Soderberg.

In addition to adapting the existing environment, new elements can also be integrated into the point cloud. For example, a new vehicle can pass along the existing production line in virtual mode in the CAD model. Soderberg says, “If you want to use the old line for the new product you cannot allow the product to collide. So you need to know all the constraints and what the factory can do. Then you plan for the new product that goes into the old factory. That is of course very cost efficient to be able to use the old plan or the old line for just a minor adjustment instead of throwing it out and investing on a new line.”

When creating new production processes, machines and robots alike have to be adjusted and adapted into their process regimes. Thanks to SCENE

WebShare, the programmers don’t have to be on the site for robotic applications. The programming can be carried offline, new movement sequences can be checked and updated from outside. With the help of Web user interface, FARO SCENE WebShare offers a large number of uses easily accessed to 3D documentation. The expense of an in-house server is avoided as the data is made available anywhere and on any device by FARO via the cloud. “This workflow supports simulations in all the interfaces of all the projects while it is still easy and cost efficient to do modification of the product or the client,” says Berlin.

SCENE WebShare Cloud enables customers to edit and share data more quickly, easily and more cost effectively like never before. The WebShare Cloud solution eliminates the cost of having your own server. Furthermore, the data and measurements remain available long-term and independent of the computer. When using SCENE WebShare Cloud, the correct server capacity is always available no matter the amount of accessed users or data stored. It adapts to respective requirements in terms of processing power and storage. All other services offered by the previous solution are maintained.

Distances and areas can be analysed precisely, directly on-screen, using well-known measurement tools.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 53

FARO Advertorial

FARO WebShare Cloud provides online platform for the generated scanned data enabling users to access 3D documentation quickly

Environment/Climate Change

At a time when average global air temperatures are on the rise, ice and snow cover is disappearing fast and sea levels are rising, space-based solutions are needed to combat this change

C

limate change is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. To better understand this challenge and to be able to anticipate its future evolution requires reliable long-term information which only space-based observations by satellite can provide. This has been recognised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary bodies.

An improved understanding of the earth system — of its weather, climate, oceans, land, natural resources, ecosystems, and natural and human-induced hazards — is essential to better predict and mitigate the expected global changes and their impacts on our civilisation.

EUMETSAT, Europe’s meteorological satellite organisation, contributes to the global effort to meet the climate challenge. Its fleet of satellites already provides a wealth of environmental and climate data and products generated by EUMETSAT as well as its network of Satellite Application Facilities (SAFs) that are distributed rapidly to the global user community, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

And equally importantly, the organisation possesses and reanalyses a unique archive of relevant long-term satellite data dating back to 1981, the year the second Meteosat weather satellite was launched. With this the organisation is in a position to generate Climate Data Records (CDR) covering more than 30 years of measurements.

EUMETSAT’s potential contribution to global climate monitoring was already recognised by its Member States in 2000, when they amended the organisation’s convention to affirm that its mandate is also “to contribute to the opera-

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tional monitoring of the climate and the detection of global climatic changes.”

EUMETSAT does not pursue its goals in isolation but rather — together with other partners in the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) space programme — is also spearheading the joint effort to define a comprehensive global design of a space-based climate monitoring system and resulting products.

Responding to global climate change

Two complementary approaches are being followed to respond to the challenges of climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation focuses on the reduction of greenhouse gases in order to reduce the rate magnitude of climate change. Adaptation, on the other hand, focuses on lessening the impact of climate change through appropriate planning measures, such as the introduction of coastal

defences, general infrastructure and habitation planning. To support their respective decision processes, both the mitigation and adaptation approaches require access to reliable climate information that, in turn, relies heavily on the availability of sustained, homogeneous and high-quality earth observation data records. Earth observation data from space therefore play a crucial role in understanding the current state of the climate and how it may evolve.

The EUMETSAT contribution

EUMETSAT’s special capabilities in the area of long-term planning for future satellite programmes and their supporting ground structure provide a major contribution to future climate monitoring needs.

Given the immense nature of the global climate challenge, monitoring efforts will have to be increased in response.

EUMETSAT is responsible for the planning, development and operation of operational European meteorological satellite systems. Taking into account the climate-specific requirements within these planning processes for future satellite programmes as well as their supporting ground structure — including the current and future activities of the SAF network — is indeed a unique responsibility of EUMETSAT. These tasks are a major contribution of EUMETSAT in support of climate monitoring as already reflected in the definition of the organisations’ forthcoming Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and second generation EPS programmes.

Another major climate requirement concerns satellite sensors, where there is a need to ensure continuity of climate data records with similar, e.g., Meteosat imagery and advanced instruments such as the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)/ Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU)-A and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) combination that continues the traditional Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS). Of high importance are the calibration of the sensors and a rigorous uncertainty characterisation including temporal stability of the measurements.

EUMETSAT activities related to climate monitoring, in particular, the generation of Climate Data Records (CDR) have evolved since 2010 in the context of an overall implementation plan that included the implementation of the second Continuous Development and Operations Phase

(CDOP-2) of the SAF network. EUMETSAT and its SAF network have delivered several high quality CDRs at radiance and geophysical level that are used as input for weather prediction model-based reanalysis and climate analysis including climate model evaluation. In the near future these CDRs will also be delivered to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The implementation plan foresees a sustainment of the activities which includes the preparation for an optimal use of MTG and EPS second generation data.

EUMETSAT has also established close collaboration with European research institutions and universities in the field of climate research through participation in several EU-funded projects that for instance innovate the generation of CDRs, e.g., through new ways of uncertainty characterisation.

A further phase of implementation is expected to start after 2017, when the operational phase of new EUMETSAT mandatory programmes (MTG and second generation EPS) as well as the third CDOP of the SAF network begins. At this time, the objective is to have a portfolio of sustained climate-related activities in EUMETSAT with their corresponding funding arrangements.

An important component of EUMETSAT’s response to the global challenge of climate change will be to reinforce and further extend the dialogue with the end users of climate data. Recently, the 2014 Climate Symposium jointly organised by EUMETSAT and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) discussed how space-based observations could contribute to meet the requirements of the WCRP research Grand Challenges. This symposium also outlined observation requirements for the future development of an efficient and sustained international space-based Earth observing system, in line with the Global Architecture for Climate Monitoring from Space, developed under the auspices of CEOS, CGMS and WMO.

Existing EUMETSAT infrastructure

Meteosat satellites have been delivering climate-relevant measurements such as sea surface temperatures and surface albedo since 1981. EUMETSAT currently operates geostationary satellites of the Meteosat first and second generation.

The second generation Meteosat satellites over the equator have much higher capabilities with temporal repeat cycles of 15 minutes and twelve spectral bands, compared to a 30 minute repeat cycle and only three spectral bands for the first

An artist’s impressions of EUMETSAT Polar System ‘Metop’ satellites

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 55

Environment/Climate Change

Left: A trio of storms captured by EUMETSAT satellites.

Below: Icelandic fissures

generation Meteosat-satellites with the last one covering the Indian Ocean area.

The newly designed instruments on board EUMETSAT’s Metop polar-orbiting satellites support climate monitoring and research activities through the continuation of observation series started in the late 1970s. Metop satellite-based measurements already provide a significant contribution to climate monitoring activities as they are used in the context of earlier research missions, e.g. the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) continues earlier ERS Scatterometer (ESCAT) measurements and the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2) continues GOME and Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) measurements that have started in the 1990s.

The Jason-2 Ocean Surface Topography Mission, launched in 2008, provides continuity in monitoring sea-level, a critical parameter of global climate change. Jason-2 and its follow-on satellites, starting with Jason-3, will continue the measurement of rising sea levels carried out by Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon over the last 15 years.

Activities are already underway to ensure the future of climate-relevant satellite observations with Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and the second generation EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). EUMETSAT’s Application Ground Segment, which includes the organisation’s Central Application Facilities in Darmstadt and its network of Satellite Application Facilities (centres of expertise located in its Member States), continuously generates, on an operational basis, data and products of climate-relevant parameters which are stored by EUMETSAT’s Data Centre, dating back to 1981.

Global solutions though networks

The nature of climate change is such that no individual organisation or country has the capability and resources to fully respond to its challenges independently.

Monitoring global climate change is a priority on the

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political agenda and the issue is formally addressed through the UNFCCC, which in turn has placed responsibility for defining and specifying the requirements for observations relevant to climate change with GCOS. GCOS was set up to ensure the availability of global climate observations for monitoring the climate system. It has identified a list of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) that are feasible for implementation on a global scale and which are also highly relevant for the goals of the UNFCCC. GCOS has also published a plan that clearly defines the related satellite requirements as the need for global information on key indicators of climate change. This in turn implies that steps have to be taken to zharmonise and integrate the various observing systems in order to be able to provide the consistent information required.

In order to optimise its efforts within a global context, EUMETSAT coordinates its climate activities through the framework of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS), whose climate-related activities generally focus on fulfilling the satellite requirements of GCOS. In addition, EUMETSAT participates in a number of global and European initiatives to improve the generation of, and access to, timely and high-quality climate information: WMO’s Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) and Sustained Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) initiative.

The overall objective of SCOPE-CM is the continuous and sustained provision of high-quality ECV CDRs on a global scale with GSICS providing the methodology to ensure that measurements from different satellite systems are inter-calibrated so that all the resulting products are comparable both at a global level and over the long time periods.

Courtesy: EUMETSAT

Environment/Case Study

Monitoring and Preserving

Mexico’s Biodiversity The National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity is utilising geospatial technologies to preserve and monitor the biodiversity, ecosystem and marine life of Mexico. By Rainer Ressl

B

iodiversity — for many this would not be the primary application field for geomatics. Nevertheless, geospatial information is becoming increasingly important for monitoring, reporting and decision making in biodiversity. A prominent example can be seen in Mexico, one of the mega biodiverse countries of the world.

Mexico forms part of a small group of nations that possess the largest number and diversity of animals and plants, an estimated 70% of the global species diversity.

The National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) was formed in 1992 to obtain, manage, analyse and distribute information on the biological diversity of México. For this purpose, the National System for Biodiversity for Mexico (SNIB), the backbone of CONABIO, was created and is being developed continuously.

CONABIO started using geomatics in late 90s, when the term geomatics was not very common in the market, and geospatial applications were basically referred to as GIS and

remote sensing analysis. In the beginning, CONABIO used geomatics mainly for visualisation, geographical characterisation and geo-referencing of species data of biological collections. Gradually, over the years, geospatial technologies have found their way in a wide spectrum of biodiversity applications in CONABIO and have contributed significantly to the compilation of the SNIB.

Satellite-based monitoring of forest fires

In 1998, Mexico was affected by one of the worst forest fires in the country´s history. The ministry of environment asked CONABIO for an evaluation of burnt areas and a spatial analysis of the principal causes and drivers. This study gave birth to the first operational satellite-based fire monitoring system for Mexico. Within this frame, CONABIO acquired its first Satellite Direct Readout station in 1999 to receive AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) satellite data of the NOAA-NPOESS satellite series to set up a

Screenshot of CONABIO’s fire alert system

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Environment/Case Study near-real-time fire observation platform. Relevant forest fire information was distributed up to eight times on the same day, including the characterisation of fires concerning location, accessibility, and landuse/cover type. In 2002, the system capacities were enhanced to receive additional satellite data of the Terra/Aqua-MODIS sensor (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), which enhanced the reliability of detected fires, due to a much higher radiometric sensitivity of the sensor in comparison to AVHRR (Ressl et al., 2009).

The higher certainty of detected fires led to an enhanced automation of the programme, as visual quality control could be reduced to a minimum. Further investment in hardware resulted in a reduced response time, enabling a publication of the “hot spots” and forest fire related information within 3060 minutes, including satellite reception and processing time.

As the reception circle of the CONABIO station covers all Central American countries up to Panama, the same information was generated daily for all countries in the region free of charge starting in the year 2003. Information and products are customised for registered users of each country in order to provide only the necessary information requested.

This fast response time and the national coverage of information have made CONABIO´s system the primary data source for several Mexican governmental entities in charge of forest fire reporting and combating, such as the Ministry of Environment (SEMARNAT), the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and in particular the National Center of Forest Fire Control of the National Forest Commission (CONAFOR).

The months of April-May are the peak season of forest fires and prioritisation of fires, numbering thousands, becomes increasingly important to organise and manage limited firefighting resources. Therefore, the actual development and enhancements of the system are focusing in providing additional information for each fire for decision making, such as fire propagation risk, dryness of vegetation and in future information on fuel, fire radiative energy and associated estimated CO2 emissions.

Monitoring Mexican mangroves

Coastal wetlands, in particular mangroves, provide a variety of environmental services and represent a highly productive and biologically rich ecosystem. Mangroves are nesting and breeding spots for a multitude of bird species and form principal habitat for a diversity of marine fauna, such as mollusks and crustacean as well as for numerous endemic species. Besides, they control flooding, form a natural border to protect the coastline against hurricanes and erosion, provide organic material and nutrients for other ecosystems such as sea grass or coral reefs. More recently mangroves are also recognised as princi-

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MODIS DB station provides data for continuous fire monitoring

pal wetland ecosystems with importance to capture greenhouse gases, in particular CO2. Despite their importance, the global mangrove coverage has decreased significantly. It is estimated that in the last decades 35% of the world´s mangroves have been destroyed (Valiela et al. , 2001).

Mexico unfortunately is no exception and the main drivers of change result from anthropogenic activities, mainly tourism and construction, agriculture, livestock breeding and shrimp farming. Mexico is among the countries with the largest mangrove extensions globally. Nevertheless until the year 2005, official reports on mangrove coverage in México

The fast response time and the national coverage of information have made CONABIO´s system the primary data source for many departments reporting and combating forest fires

showed large discrepancies ranging from approximately 440,000 ha to 890,000 ha (2000). These inconsistencies, together with missing detailed cartographic information on a national scale, made it practically impossible for decision makers to get a clear and complete picture of the situation of this ecosystem in México.

Therefore, in 2005, CONABIO decided to set up a monitoring programme based on satellite and in-situ information to provide baseline information for decision makers for the environmental protection of this ecosystem. Country-wide, high resolution SPOT-5 satellite data was classified to derive the first mangrove maps at a scale 1:50.000 for the entire country. The classification results were validated by independent helicopter flights, resulting in more than 100,000 air photos distributed over more than 10,000 km flight line. The overall accuracy of the mapping exercise was 90%. Within the framework of the project, a network of mangrove experts of the country was established to define critical zones on basis of this cartography. In total, 81 priority sites with restoration needs could be delineated. In order to evaluate long-term changes and trends, during a second phase of the project, SPOT-5 satellite data of the year 2010 as well as more than 2000 historical panchromatic air-photos taken between 1970s-80s were classified, providing an overall observation period of more than 35 years. Additionally, for 2005 and 2010, satellite data at 5km buffer around mangrove areas was classified to determine the major agents and drivers of change. To complete the picture, over 600 in-situ plot sites have been established in parallel to monitor local data on hydrology and biophysical parameters. All information is entering the Mangrove Monitoring System of Mexico (SMMM) of CONABIO, which makes this ecosystem meanwhile one of the best studies ecosystems in Mexico on a national scale. CONABIO´s mangrove cartography was finally used as one of the primary data sources of the Mexican ministry of environment to enhance the protection status of this ecosystem to the status of an endangered species/ecosystem (NOM59) in the year 2008. Additionally, the National Environmental Prosecution (PROFEPA) is using the multi-annual cartography as reference information for the detection and surveillance of illicit anthropogenic activities within this ecosystem.

Marine monitoring

Since 2009, CONABIO has implemented the Satellite based Ocean Monitoring System (SATMO), which provides data on ocean water properties, such as sea-surface temperature and ocean color (chlorophyll-a concentration) among others in near–real-time (Ressl&Cerdeira, 2012). The data is used to study long-term changes of these geo-biophysical

Satellite derived products such as Sea Surface Temperature (SST) provide crucial information for coastal ecosystem monitoring

parameters and their potential effects on biodiversity, such as species abundance and migration patterns. Additionally, the satellite data provides useful information for monitoring marine and coastal ecosystems. In this context, CONABIO is monitoring the thermal stress on the Mesoamerican Coral Reef System, the second largest coral reef system of the world. The main goal is to develop thermal stress indicators based on water temperature anomalies and on water quality properties. This will finally lead to an early-alert system for coral bleaching events and help to monitor the health and degradation processes of these ecosystems. The satellite-based alert system is complemented by buoy observations in the region and by a network of thermometers measuring the temperature directly on the corals.

Furthermore, the combined system is used to monitor the presence and development of algae blooms, phenomena frequently observed in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean due to upwelling processes, which provide nutrient rich waters to the Yucatan platform. These processes, commonly known as “red tide” may be harmful to fish stocks and even to humans and sometimes have significant economic effects slowing down fisheries and tourism. Currently, these events are monitored visually, which is time consuming and costly and usually does not allow quantifying exactly the problem with respect to location, extension and distribution.

CONABIO therefore works closely together with regional institutions and health ministries in the development of an early-alert system for algae blooming events, in order to provide timely information to decision makers.

Rainer Ressl, General Director of Geoinformatics, CONABIO, Mexico, rainer.ressl@xolo.conabio.gob.mx

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Environment / Interview

‘We aim to create a world

where humans and nature

are at harmony’

As the sole remote sensing crusader of WWF, Aurelie C. Shapiro believes that remote sensing and GIS technologies can go a long way in the fight for conservation

H

ow does WWF use remotely sensed data to support its mission?

There are two parts of our mission: to use our resources efficiently and create a world where humans and nature live in harmony. I am the only full-time remote sensing person in the whole network so I support a lot of projects worldwide. We do a lot of landuse planning, demarcate land for protected areas, plan out areas where corridors can be built for the species to move freely. We also work with agriculture departments in various countries trying to plan out sustainable agriculture and detect sustainable commodities like certified palm oil, low-impact tree harvesting etc. I am also working on reduction of human and wildlife conflict in Southern Africa. I am looking at the movement patterns of animals and then demarcate the places where they move. Additionally, we are taking many initiatives to curb poaching. In fact, Google recently gave WWF a $5-million grant to combat poaching with geospatial technology and remote sensing in African and Asian regions.

We also use remote sensing technology to combat deforestation. The data is helpful in identifying protected areas and see if the forests are being cleared in these areas. We have a fire alert system to monitor forest fires, which sounds alert to authorities in case of a fire in a protected area or in tiger habitat. In South America, for example, there are several protected areas where

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one can see exactly where the boundaries of protected areas are, as deforestation is taking place only outside that area, not inside.

We use a lot of satellite imagery for these purposes. We use Landsat and MODIS data. We also buy a lot of high-resolution images from DigitalGlobe, and are working with Astrium as well. We use free data as much as possible, like Landsat and MODIS. We are also working on a partnership with new nanoconstellations like PlanetLabs.

We have done some aerial LiDAR collection in Congo. In fact, WWF is running a mission in Congo to collect over half a million hectares of airborne LiDAR data. After collecting these satellite images and data we analyse and interpret them to assess carbon stocks. We also have partnership with a company named SarVision, based in the Netherlands, which does some complex processing work for us. We also have partnerships with many universities for this. After processing the data we deliver it to the WWF network, ministries and governments and help them in making efficient decisions.

We are planning to open a Centre for Excellence for Conservation and Remote Sensing, to support staff in our network, to build capacity and have relationships with space agencies, universities and others.

How difficult is it for you to convince governments and ministries to use this technology?

People are skeptical initially, but when they see a satellite image or a map and understand what they can do with it, that makes a major difference. If you take a look at coral reef mapping then you will realise that the maps are much cheaper than people diving inside to survey and assess the situation. Also when people see a particular image they can better visualise the impacts. For example, I have mapped a scenario of Mekong which depicts

how the Mekong forests will look like if deforestation continues till, say, 2050. One can visualise the declining levels of forests, how it will look like, how isolated fragments will become etc.

This scenario actually speaks to people and kind of scares them and reveals how high is the deforestation rate.

Can you give us some examples of projects where you have been able to bring impact with remote sensing data?

The biggest project on which I am working is the Congo forest carbon mapping. For this project we are using airborne LiDAR field data and satellite imagery to create a carbon map. We are using radar data, MODIS data and DigitalGlobe imagery to prepare a comprehensive map. The project aims to give Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world, a physical geospatial map of forest carbon that they can use for forest planning, REDD+ etc.

We are also working on a global monitoring system called GLOBIL (Global Observation and Biodiversity Information Portal). This can help inform governments and organisations about our work, where we invest etc.

How are you funding these projects?

It depends. For example, the Congo project is being entirely funded by the German Ministry of Environment and Nuclear Safety and the German Development Bank. They have an International Climate Initiative and they support pilot projects around the world. And then GLOBIL is internally funded by WWF, by several different offices. Basically a lot of our money is from the donors which include governments and other organisations.

Satellite imagery is also being used to estimate biomass, carbon storage and carbon emissions within REDD+.

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation or the REDD+ initiative is a way to try to bring economic benefits to countries and communities who reduce their carbon emissions. So if they protect their forests, the initiative is a mechanism to give them money. It’s a way for them to benefit from their natural resources in an additional way. This

initiative is being adopted by many countries. Forests provide ecosystem services such as food, wood, habitat and a lot of other things for reducing emissions but they often don’t provide money or development. This is the only initiative which provides compensation.

Remote sensing and geotechnologies play a major role in REDD+ initiative. The technology helps in identifying the carbon stocks and the forest area. So in Congo, for example, forest carbon can be mapped to know how much carbon is there per hectare. This will further help in estimating carbon sequestering. In this way countries can develop an accounting system to know how much carbon they are reducing because they have specific targets in tonnes of carbon dioxide so they need to know how much there is in the forest and how much they have burned or lost or cut down.

Are you using drones or UAVs for conservation efforts?

Drones are much cheaper than satellites. However, in places like Congo it is really hard to deploy a drone as there are a lot of restrictions on its usage. However, drones are being used in few areas for mapping carbon. Google is supporting this drone technology and they will set up a whole new communication and monitoring system which augment the drones with information from sensors deployed on certain animals like rhinos, and on the ground. This project combines surveillance, communication and other technologies to help rangers, park managers monitor parks and wildlife habitat day and night.

What are the future application areas for the use of geospatial technology in wildlife preservation and management?

Satellite technology is advancing rapidly, with increasing spatial and temporal resolution that was never available before. We are monitoring animals with the help of high resolution satellite imagery. In southern Africa we have been able to identify buffaloes and elephants in Worldview-02 imagery. With the help of tracking devices, we can see exactly where the animals go and why, and this means we can know where to target conservation efforts.

Courtesy: Crawford Allan / WWF

Drones could be lifesavers for hundreds of animals in danger

What is your message to the geospatial industry?

It is extremely important to make satellite imagery affordable and accessible to organisations like WWF. We are always eager to explore pilot projects, design new monitoring systems or test what we can really see and not, this is not possible when imagery is really expensive. We need to keep the data access open for innovative research and new tools to help stop the degradation of our planet’s natural resources, and prevent biodiversity from disappearing.

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Executive Space

Indoor positioning benefits will span all the industries, from health care to manufacturing, tourism to rescue services. Jouni Kamarainen, Chairman, In-Location Alliance (ILA) — an ecosystem of industry players to stimulate innovation in indoor location space and accelerate market adoption — believes the potential market is huge

‘Indoor Location will be a Ubiquitous Enabler for Next-Gen Applications’

W

hat are the major trends that you see in the indoor mapping and navigation market?

In a few years the ability to locate people and objects indoor will be a ubiquitous enabler for a new generation of context-based applications. Consumers will be able to navigate seamlessly indoors and outdoors. They will come to expect hyper local content and will enjoy the benefits across all aspects of their life from the simplification of tracking their personal belongings, to truly global navigation, to personalised services.

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Indoor positioning benefits will span all the industries, from health care to manufacturing, tourism to rescue services. Facility owners and local service providers will gain the ability to establish more effective relations with their visitors.

Shopping malls, for example, will increase the knowledge of their customers. Companies will be able to track assets and monitor workflow more effectively.

What were the critical reasons for establishing In-Location Alliance (ILA)?

We founded the In-Location Alliance (ILA) to accelerate the adoption of indoor positioning solutions that will open up new opportunities for consumers and venue owners. Our focus is both to promote open interfaces and standards-based approach, will ensure interoperability, and to work with member companies to pilot the most promising services and use cases from a business and solution point of view.

The ILA has four different work groups established, can you briefly share the role of each and which members would be part of each working committee?

The work of the ILA is driven mainly by the participation of member companies in the work groups. The system architecture is developing an open, technology-agnostic architecture for accurate mobile location for different types of venues. This architecture has been described in the recent white paper. The Pilot group works with member companies to drive pilots to verify the technical and commercial aspects of indoor positioning solutions. Promotion is responsible for the external ILA relations and offers member opportunities to expand marketing reach. The Use Case group is identifying indoor positioning use cases via member contributions and using these to drive requirements to the system architecture and to analyse their business impacts. Any member company can join the working groups, but only charter and contributor members may vote.

Although indoor location mapping and navigation is still at a nascent stage, several leading companies are trying to master it and gain a first mover advantage.

Which are few of the recent developments in this field that has caught your attention?

I believe that only by cooperation across OS vendors, application vendors and infrastructure vendors can we ensure that the indoor positioning market will succeed. We have members across all parties of the value chain and welcome all companies who want to collaborate to build the indoor positioning market.

In March this year, ILA announced that it will work with standard development organisations (SDOs) to develop standards and work towards interoperable solutions. What has been the progress so far?

The ILA has just recently announced the publication of the group’s System Architecture White Paper version 1.0, which is our first external release. The white paper defines a technology-independent architecture for indoor positioning that ensures support for use cases identified as critical for commercial success and lays the foundation for interoperability among vendor contributions. We will use

Cooperation among OS vendors, application vendors and infrastructure vendors can ensure the success of indoor positioning market this architecture as a basis for the collaboration with SDOs to create open interface specifications for the remaining interfaces.

The market is flooded with technologies which claim to have gained an “edge in accuracy”. What is your take on the proprietary versus open source solutions? Or are we still searching for the right “hybrid” solution?

We believe that open standards are the basis for a truly successful ecosystem and that many different technologies will have a role in supporting the broad range of use cases.

Open standards can still form the basis for successful proprietary solutions, and also successful proprietary technologies often drive future standardisation. Hybrid solutions in particular will depend on interoperability. Our System Architecture White Paper describes a technology independent architecture that supports a wide range of use cases.

Micro-level accuracy and orientation of the user (the direction he is facing) is still to be perfected. What have been the challenges in correcting this?

The accuracy of the solutions is dependent on the underlying technology rather than the system architecture and is therefore not something we can influence strongly.

Improvements to the accuracy are therefore in the hands of the companies implementing the technology, and we know from our members that this continues to be an area that they are focussing on. We expect that delivering the best end user experience is one of the areas for differentiation between different implementation that companies will compete on.

What are the major challenges that you foresee with several players fighting for the same market?

I think the potential market for indoor positioning is large enough to accommodate all players and would encourage all companies to work with us to deliver the interoperability that will underpin success. The ILA is supporting a broad ecosystem of companies to help grow the market for everyone.

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 63

Beat

Open Standards

Essential for Sustainable Development Spatially enabling the nation

Spatially enabled IT infrastructure

(Multiple thematic communities eg.

Environment, transport, cover)

Value Improved performance and efficiencies

S

Share maps over Web

Geospatial information sharing partnerships (Single thematic information community eg. transportation)

(Single agency spatial map publication)

Single enterprise

Scale

Scale of initiative, number of stakeholders, governance and management arrangements

ustainable development, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs�, balances social, economic, and environmental issues that often times ignore political borders. Globally, sustainable development relies on geospatial data sharing because practitioners need to easily access and combine diverse sets of data to support decisions. People tasked with data sharing have differing levels of expertise and experience with standards and technology.

Open standards are important for effective sharing of data; however, countries globally are at widely different points in the capability/maturity continuum. Providing reliable geospatial information to support sustainable development requires a framework of open, international environmental data encoding and software interface standards as well as clear policy support from governments. Significant global efforts are underway to educate policy makers on the importance of geospatial information and standards in sustainable development initiatives.

Sustainability challenges

Geography provides the necessary context for understanding the social, economic, and environmental issues that af-

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The future - Towards spatially enabling the Web of data: Delivering geospatial information into the Web of data, and bridging between SDI and a broader ecosystem of information systems.

Each Tier shown in the Figure is associated with a set of SDI standards

Multiple information communities

fect sustainable development. Geography also provides the integration framework for global collaboration and consensus decision making, ranging from collecting and analysing satellite imagery to developing geopolitical policy.

During the last 10 years, there has been significant change in how the world applies geospatial information to address sustainable development. A decade ago, the vast majority of spatial data infrastructure activity focused on digital thematic maps of individual nations displayed on Web portals. The Web portals gave users one-stop access to data in diverse formats provided by one or two of their national agencies. There was minimal ability to readily integrate geospatial data sources because of limited use of standards, insufficient collaboration, and inadequate technologies.

Now, a decade later, there are numerous regional and international activities based on standards architectures, policy frameworks, and technologies that make it possible to design, build, and deploy much more useful geospatially enabled IT infrastructures. Geography can now be an integrative framework for sustainable development applications, decision support, and policy development.

Future Standards

Such a framework can support initiatives to: • Monitor environmental change • Manage natural resources • Develop energy • Manage land information • Plan for and respond to natural disasters • Understand demographics and human health

Tier 3 Standards Tier 2 Standards Tier 1 Standards The Companion Document on Standards Recommendations by Tier gives the guidelines and best practices to assist Member States in implementing and adopting the recommended standards

Sustainability challenges require global cooperation

Progress in sustainable development requires attention and action from local entities up through global organisations.

At the global level, the United Nations’ Initiative on Global Geographic Information Management (UN-GGIM) plays a leading role in setting the agenda for the development of global geospatial information and promotes its use to address key global challenges. The UN-GGIM provides a forum for U.N. Member States and international organisations to interact and coordinate.

To continue the UN’s progress to build support for sustainable development worldwide, the Fourth Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on UN-GGIM was convened from August 6-8, 2014 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The group reaffirmed the critical role of geospatial information management as well as the need for stronger collaboration and linked initiatives to advance the development and use of geospatial data and tools.

Delegates were asked to reach out to policymakers in their countries to highlight the importance of geospatial data sharing in sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.

UN-GGIM delegates also discussed how standards development and standards maintenance require participation by domain experts in areas such as health, environment, and disaster planning. To enable communication, stakeholders, including environmental researchers, government agencies and businesses, need to reach consensus on carefully expressed requirements for sharing and integrating data.

Another documented outcome of the August UN-GGIM session strongly encourages the integration of geospatial and statistical sciences, “… to improve the availability of and access to data and statistics disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics.” The group asserts that, “There is a need to take urgent steps to improve the quality, coverage and availability of disaggregated data to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Standards-plus policy

The UN-GGIM reaffirmed the need for full involvement of its

Member States in the development and also the maintenance of standards. Governments also should implement and adopt international standards within national and legal policy frameworks. The group recognised that countries need support from the standards bodies to fully embrace the UN initiatives. This is particularly the case for developing countries.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 211), the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), and other international organisations coordinate in the development of consistent and precise technical geospatial standards. These three organisations jointly prepared the Guide to the Role of Standards in Geospatial Information Management and the Companion Document on Standards Recommendations by Tier as the guidelines and best practices to assist Member States in implementing and adopting the recommended standards.

Also needed is strong governance, but governance that does not hinder the use of new technologies or consideration of new ideas and approaches. A sound standards effort also incorporates generally accepted content models. Progress requires strong commitment to best use of standards, including best practice guidance and the ability to easily integrate new sources of geospatial data and services into the infrastructure.

Summing up

Progress in sustainable development around the world requires improved sharing of geospatial data. The UN-GGIM plays an important role in educating policymakers about the importance of open geospatial standards. These standards maximise the ability of the geospatial industry to support countries as they strive to reach sustainable development goals.

Denise McKenzie, Executive Director, Communications and Outreach Program, denise@denise-mckenzie.com and Ron Exler, Senior Consultant, OGC, ron.exler@gmail.com

Geospatial World / November 2014 / 65

Precision engineered

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Trimble Inpho® Software is designed to precisely transform aerial and satellite images to consistent and accurate point clouds and surface models, orthophoto mosaic’s and digitized 3D features using state-of-the-art photogrammetry techniques.

These processes standardize and enhance geospatial data for national mapping, forestry, urban development, utility and energy workflows. Using a modular approach, Inpho software can be deployed as a complete, perfectly tuned system, or as individual components that integrate into geospatial information production work flows.

Find out more: www.trimble.com/inpho

transforming the way the world works

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