December 2015 Geospatial World Magazine

I N D U S T R Y

M A G A Z I N E

GEOSPATIAL WORLD

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DECEMBER 2015 » VOLUME 06» ISSUE 5 | ISSN 2277–3134

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RECAP

SURGING

AHEAD

One of the most sophisticated and innovative societies in the world, the Netherlands is riding on open data policies to promote strong geospatial uptake at the national, regional and local levels | P 32

2015

From acquisitions and collaborations to pathbreaking innovations, here’s a lowdown on what made geospatial industry buzz this year see P | 8-31

Price: INR 150 / US$ 15 Subscriber’s copy. Not for Salele

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© 2015, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble, the Globe & Triangle logo and RealWorks are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. GEO-083 (10/15)

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INSIDE

CONTENT VOLUME : 6 ISSUE : 5

5

7 EDITORIAL RECAP 2015 From acquisitions and collaborations to pathbreaking innovations, here’s a lowdown on what made the geospatial industry buzz this year

8 High on M&As 16 Newsmakers 22 Technology Trends 28 Picture This: The Overview Effect SPECIAL FEATURES 42 80,000 km of Peace Borders in Africa, once considered a topic too hot to touch, have left the taboo zone. Countries are openly discussing their border affairs and thousands of kilometres of borders have been demarcated

48 Mapping Nepal: Drones and the Future of Disaster Response A UAV training mission in Nepal teaches students how to use drones and image-processing software to create professional maps and models for a wide range of humanitarian and development purposes

A Country Built

by Innovation P | 32

One of the most sophisticated and innovative societies in the world, the Netherlands is riding on open data policies to promote strong geospatial uptake at the national, regional and local levels

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.

51 Be Inspired Presenting the winners of Bentley Systems’ The Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference. The awards honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users in improving the world’s infrastructure

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 60 pages including cover

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Geospatial World • December• 2015

International

6

Advisory Board Ahmad Fauzi Bin Nordin Sr

Prof. Josef Strobl

Director General of Survey and Mapping (JUPEM), Malaysia

Chair, Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Aida Opoku-Mensah

Kamal K Singh

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

Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group

Kumar Navulur

Director, Next Generation Products, DigitalGlobe

Barbara Ryan

Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations

Mark Reichardt

Christopher W Gibson

President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

Derek Clarke

President, Hexagon Geospatial

Dorine Burmanje

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

Vice President & Executive Committee Member, Trimble

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

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

Ed Parsons

Mladen Stojic

Mohd Al Rajhi

Sandeep Singhal

General Manager, Bing Maps and Geospatial, Microsoft

Geospatial Technologist, Google

Stephen Lawler

Vice-President, Direct Traffic, Amazon

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems

Vanessa Lawrence

Jay Freeland

Secretary General, Ordnance Survey International, UK

President & CEO, FARO

The Team CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan

Editor — Mining (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant

Senior Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee

Publisher Sanjay Kumar

Executive Editor

Sub Editor Sanskriti Shukla

Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta

Deputy Executive Editor

Editor — Defence & Internal Security Lt Gen (Dr) AKS Chandele (Retd)

Product Manager

Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss

Senior Assistant Editor

Geospatial World • December • 2015

Bhanu Rekha

Anusuya Datta

Harsha Vardhan Madiraju

Ishveena Singh

Circulation Manager Ashish Batra Executive — Posting Vijay Kumar Singh

EDITORIAL

7

Imagine a country a third of which is below sea level and with a population density as high as in Taiwan, and still manages to be the fifth most competitive economy in the world!

Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor, arup@geospatialmedia.net

Making a case for open data

L

ast month I was in Mexico City attending the LAGF 2015 as well as the GEO-XII Plenary and Ministerial Summit. Both events were well attended. While LAGF was all about geospatial activities in Latin America, the GEO Plenary was about promoting earth observations for the benefit of mankind. There were many other side events, including a meeting of the GGIM for the Americas. The LAGF was well attended and for me it was a first-time view of the enormous amount of work being done in this region. Geospatial is getting integrated with many of the relevant government bodies, including communications. While INEGI spearheads this effort, there are many other agencies which play a supporting role.

The GEO effort is significant because it addresses the key issues troubling the world; sustainability in the face of climate change and global warming. It is an outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). It is composed of member states, international organisations, the European Commission and many observers who have made a political commitment to move towards the development of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system of systems. As a purely voluntary organisation it supports UN efforts like the GGIM as well as inter-governmental cooperation.

The Geo-XII Plenary and Ministerial Summit was an important meeting as it covered a review of its past work and an endorsement by its members for the activities of the next 10 years. The decadal plan was further endorsed at the Ministerial summit which was attended among others by the Secretary of the Interior, USA, Vice Minister for S&T, China, Minister for S&T,

South Africa and the Commissioner for S&T, European Union. The Plenary and Summit made a strong case for open data such that all countries could benefit from such data for their development plans and particularly for tackling disaster situations.

Open data is also the reason behind the geospatial success story of the Netherlands as illustrated in our cover story. Imagine a country a third of which is below sea level and with a population density as high as in Taiwan, and still manages to be the fifth most competitive economy in the world! In the Netherlands you have wonders like the Maeslantkering, a massive sea gate system which protects the port of Rotterdam from sea surges automatically. It is perhaps the only country which has a 3D cadastre because you can build on top of other buildings since space is at a premium.

Open data is supported by an open SDI, PDOK and the Netherlands also swears by open government allowing access to government documents by the general public.

While the Netherlands provides a glimpse on how geospatial has been brought to bear to support the unique situation of the country, there are many other examples of successful applications in other situations. The mapping of Nepal using UAVs operated by students and the delineation of boundaries in Africa are other examples covered in this issue.

As 2015 draws to an end I take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Very Happy New Year. Let us hope that 2016 will bring many more technologies and applications and enlightened policies which will help geospatial to support humanity.

Geospatial World • December• 2015

RECAP 2015

M&As

8

High on M&As Geospatial industry was high on the business steroid of mergers and acquisitions in 2015. The economic downdraft in Europe failed to dampen the risk appetite of big geospatial companies as the industry moved toward consolidation. The developments were also fuelled by a heightened interest in the small satellite industry and ultra-precise mapping and tracking technology

Trimble rules the roost This year was no different for Trimble when it came to mergers and acquisitions, as the company continued with a growth spree across all segments.

Telog Instruments: The company manufactures a suite of wireless remote monitoring, analytics and data acquisition systems that are used by water management utilities. The acquisition enhanced Trimble’s smart water portfolio.

AGRI-TREND: With the acquisition of the largest network of independent agricultural consultants in North America, Trimble will be able to provide agronomists with a stronger set of brand-agnostic tools they can use to advise growers on how to better manage their operations.

PocketMobile: This European provider of enterprise mobile workforce solutions accelerated Trimble's development in the high-growth field-to-office mobility market.

Vianova Systems: Norwegian company specializing in Building Information Modeling (BIM) software for infrastructure design software solutions across the European region.

Spatial Dimension: The addition of this Canadian company’s FlexiCadastre land management software broadened Trimble's land administration portfolio.

HarvestMark: This food traceability and quality inspection solutions provider enhanced Trimble's

Geospatial World • December • 2015

position in agriculture, transportation and logistics within the food supply chain.

Fifth Element: Finland-based Fifth Element provides integrated, scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to some of the largest global forestry companies.

Linear Project: Its TILOS time and location planning software is ideal for highways, railways, pipelines, tunnels, water engineering, transmission line construction and other linear civil engineering projects.

Cadec Global: PeopleNet, a Trimble company, acquired the assets of Cadec Global to bring innovative technology and service solutions to the foodservice and private fleet industries.

With the continued adoption of embedded GPS, wireless, sensing and SaaS solutions, we see new business models and emerging market needs that allow customers to drive Steven W. Berglund, CEO and economic value.

President, Trimble

NEWS

9

Planet Labs buys BlackBridge's geospatial arsenal This could be easily called the deal of the year. When California-based Planet Labs, one of the pioneers in the small satellites industry, announced that it will acquire German company BlackBridge and its RapidEye suite of core offerings, it took the entire industry by surprise. This was because Planet Labs itself is only a five-year-old startup.

The deal gave the company access to RapidEye’s archive of six years of global imagery that covers 6 billion square kilometers of land at a 5-meter resolution. Moreover, Planet Labs has received rights to ongoing imagery collection from five RapidEye satellites. Having 87 tiny satellites in

The combination of BlackBridge’s downstream knowledge and global reach, combined with Planet Labs’ strategy for agile aerospace, will create a long-term competitive advantage.

Ryan Johnson, former CEO, BlackBridge; Johnson is now on Planet's executive committee

Biggest beneficiaries of this acquisition are our customers – who will be able to receive more data and, with Planet’s automated platform, acquire it with unprecedented Will Marshall, co-founder and speed and ease.

CEO, Planet Labs

orbit makes Planet Labs one of the leading private space companies which combine innovative data analysis with agile aerospace technologies. The company aims to provide universal access to information about the planet through a platform that includes daily imaging data from Planet’s fleet of satellites, along with data from various other sources. Recently, it incorporated Landsat 8 imagery into its dataset. Under Planet Labs, Blackbridge will continue to operate the RapidEye fleet of satellites.

Though the companies didn’t divulge any financial information about the deal, Planet Labs is known to have raised $183 million in funding to date, while BlackBridge has raised $22 million.

UrtheCast doubles capability with Deimos In a $84.2-million deal, Canadian company UrtheCast agreed to buy Spanish utility Elecnor’s satellite units — Deimos-1 and Deimos-2. UrtheCast already has two cameras aboard the International Space Station which transmit pictures of the Earth. With this acquisition, UrtheCast has gained access to a wider variety of imagery sources, which allows the company to accelerate its own strategy. UrtheCast wants to use Deimos' imagery archive on its Web platform, distributing fresh imagery through already established distribution channels, leveraging each company's established relationships and building upon each other's infrastructure.

This is an incredible acquisition that epitomizes technological and operational synergy.

Scott Larson, Co-founder and CEO, UrtheCast

Geospatial World • December• 2015

RECAP 2015

M&As

10

Bentley’s fast and furious buyouts Bentley pursued its expansion plans at a torrid pace this year. Its multiple acquisitions made its infrastructure industry portfolio much stronger.

E-on Software: The software allows architects and engineers to create, simulate and integrate natural 3D environments in their designs. Bentley has acquired e-on to ‘enliven’ reality modeling, or add another level of realism and context to infrastructure design proposals.

Acute3D: This France-based company is known for its Smart3DCapture ‘reality modelling’ software. Acute3D software automates the generation of high-resolution, fully-3D representations from digital photographs taken with any camera. Bentley’s BIM models would make use of the software’s capability of creating a 3D ‘reality mesh’ – in the same geometric idiom as engineering models.

C3global: With the inclusion of this predictive analytics solutions provider in its kitty, Bentley

Systems gained the ability to take data from any source, perform complex analysis, and then provide predictive analytics to spot trends as well as forecast and predict events for industrial assets.

Eadoc: This California-based provider of construction management cloud services is now a part of Bentley’s MANAGEservices. It is helping engineering management firms and infrastructure owner organizations to reduce risk and staff hours, improve information quality, and provide owners with real-time visibility into costs.

Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems

Topcon boosts agriculture portfolio The year saw Topcon scooping up precision agriculture firms in a bid to expand its agriculture portfolio.

Digi-Star: The company is a global supplier of electronic equipment, precision sensors, optical yield and feed management sensors, displays, position verification, and software used by farmers and other equipment operators to precisely measure and analyze valuable data from critical farming processes.

NORAC Systems International: NORAC provides advanced automated boom height control technology for the global agricultural marketplace. Its current product line includes systems to precisely maintain a spray boom height above the top of the crop or the ground to ensure optimum application of needed fertilizers and plant protection products.

Geospatial World • December • 2015

At a time when many companies are decreasing their investment in agricultural markets, we are increasingly optimistic about their growth based upon our strong commitment to developing management systems and solutions that bring the power of IoT to Ray O’Connor, President and every farm.

CEO, Topcon Positioning Group

NEWS

11

Hexagon slows down on M&A spree After edging out its competitors in the number of M&A announcements in the recent few years, Hexagon decided to play it cool this year.

Q-DAS: This international software company in Statistical Process Control (SPC) solutions for industrial manufacturing will enable Hexagon to observe and evaluate the production process in real time more accurately.

EcoSys: The acquisition of EcoSys broadens Intergraph PP&M’s enterprise engineering portfolio to include project controls.

CAMTECH: The addition of Germany-based CAMTECH to the Hexagon portfolio supports the company’s commitment to developing future-oriented manufacturing solutions.

Apple puts money on mapping tech, AI

It’s no secret that Apple wants to take over Google’s dominance in the mapping world and is constantly on a lookout for innovations that would help it achieve that goal.

Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming an important tool for tech companies as they seek to improve their ‘virtual assistant’ services, such as, Apple's Siri and Google Now. Mapsense: The technology giant dished out about $25 million to get its hands on this San Francisco-based startup’s tools that analyze and visualize e location data. Using these tools, users

Adding Q-DAS solutions to the Hexagon family not only provides the opportunity to increase the value of our MMS solution, but also adds growth opportunities for our business.

Ola Rollén CEO & President, Hexagon

can quickly create geographically-optimized visualizations of location-inspired data points, and then embed the data into apps.

Coherent Navigation: This startup focuses on high-precision navigation systems or hyper-accurate GPS. While consumer-grade GPS is typically accurate to within three to five meters, this technology can provide accurate location information to within a few centimeters.

Metaio: This German company’s technology melds real-world imagery and computer-generated elements into moving video presentations. The augmented-reality software is used in applications in retail, industrial and automotive markets.

Perceptio: Its founders specialize in developing image recognition systems through deep learning technology. And the software allows companies to run advanced artificial intelligence systems on smartphones without needing to share much user data VocalIQ: The UK-based company sells its natural language database as a service to app developers, who can use it as the personal assistant in their apps. The platform stores and learns from all communication from app users to provide more intelligent and relevant answers in the future.

Geospatial World • December• 2015

Uber grabs Bing’s mapping technology, 100 employees

Microsoft adds tracking arsenal

In a move to stop relying on mapping service partners, Uber grabbed a chunk of Microsoft Bing’s mapping technology and around 100 Microsoft data collection engineers in 2015. The Silicon Valley engineers, who Uber absorbed as the part of the deal, are the same folks who worked to get image data into Bing. The company also acquired a data center outside of Boulder, Colo., US, as well as cameras, software and a license to Microsoft intellectual property.

Mobile Data Labs: The company is the creator of the popular Android and iOS mileage-tracking app, MileIQ, which uses the sensors present in smartphones to automatically capture, log and calculate business miles, allowing users to confidently claim tax deductions.

Courtesy - Microsoft

RECAP 2015

M&As

12

Courtesy - Facebook

FieldOne: This comprehensive modern field service solution provider enables companies to do things such as adjusting routing on the fly and delivering service arrival estimate times within a smaller window, which is essential for more personal customer engagement.

Autodesk bets on Internet of Things, 3D printing SeeControl: Autodesk wants to incorporate this Internet of Things Cloud service platform’s technology into its design solutions for the manufacturing and building industries. The new solution will help manufacturers and systems integrators connect, analyze, control, and manage remote products, things, and assets and create new service revenue opportunities.

Netfabb: This Germany-based developer Courtesy:bb-elec of software solutions for industrial additive design and manufacturing will be lapped up by Autodesk to help designers and manufacturers worldwide take 3D printing beyond prototyping and plastics. Autodesk plans to use foreign capital for the transaction.

Geospatial World • December • 2015

NEWS

13

Auto consortium drives off with HERE

Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent ride on IoT wave In a $16.6-billion all-stock deal, Nokia and its French rival Alcatel-Lucent are merging forces to empower themselves for the next wave of technological change, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and transition to the Cloud. With more than 40,000 R&D employees and spend of over $5 billion in R&D in 2014, the combined company will be in a position to accelerate development of future technologies, including 5G, IP and software-defined networking, Cloud, analytics as well as sensors and imaging.

The combined company will be called Nokia Corporation, with headquarters in Finland. The merger is yet to complete with the details being ironed out still.

Nokia’s decision to put its mapping unit, HERE, on the market was perhaps one of the most followed stories of 2015. Ride-hailing service Uber and China’s Internet giant Baidu tried their luck, but couldn’t out-bid AUDI, BMW Group and Daimler.

The German consortium of carmakers struck the deal at $3 billion. Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW, has assured skeptics that HERE will play a key role in the digital revolution of mobility by combining high-definition maps and data from vehicles to make travel safer and easier for everyone.

“The new ownership structure of HERE will allow us to accelerate our strategy, further scale our business and fulfill our intent to become the leading location cloud company across industries.

Sean Fernback, President, HERE

Alcatel-Lucent scoops up IoT security player Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent has taken over mobile and Internet of Things security and device management solutions provider, Mformation.

This acquisition will allow the IP networking and Cloud technology specialist to provide a secure, scalable, application-independent IoT security and control platform for use across multiple industries, including automotive, healthcare, utilities, manufacturing and the digital home.

Geospatial World • December• 2015

RECAP 2015

M&As

14

Courtesy - marekfiser

Google beefs up Street View with Digisfera Portugal-based startup Digisfera, Google’s latest acquisition, focuses on panoramic images. The startup has undertaken many panoramic projects over the past five years, including the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Post the acquisition, Digisfera’s employees have been integrated with the Street View team at Google. They will “continue building great experiences using 360-degree photography.”

Qualcomm bags Capsule Technologie Qualcomm’s subsidiary, Qualcomm Life, acquired Capsule Technologie, a provider of medical device integration and clinical data management solutions. This acquisition would allow Qualcomm Life to create a seamless care continuum from hospital to home and all locations in between.

Capsule’s smart networking delivers timely clinical data to various in-hospital decision support systems, alarm and notification systems and asset management tools, which help reduce latency and transcription errors.

Courtesy - SmartWorld

Honeywell acquires satellite components provider Honeywell has signed a $345-million agreement to acquire satellite and space components provider COM DEV International to expand its space product portfolio. Honeywell Aerospace products and services are found on a majority of commercial, defense and space aircraft. COM DEV's equipment business provides Honeywell with a broader offering to customers launching satellite payloads with demand that in total is growing at mid-to-high single digit, and near double-digits with certain customers and businesses, and enables further expansion into emerging low orbit and small satellite constellations.

Geospatial World • December • 2015

COM DEV is a terrific fit for Honeywell, growing our existing space and connectivity businesses and expanding our global reach to new international customers.

Tim Mahoney, President and CEO, Honeywell Aerospace

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NEWSMAKERS RECAP 2015

16

ABC of Google’s Alphabet soup The hottest news of the year came in August when the $345-billion tech giant Google dropped a bomb on the technology world by announcing that it is restructuring into a new company called Alphabet. The move basically reduced the search engine to just an operating unit of a much larger entity.

Google’s co-founder and current CEO, Larry Page, said in a blog post that the creation of Alphabet will allow him and co-founder Sergey Brin to do more on management scale. So, now, Page will be running Alphabet as its CEO, and Brin will become the new company’s president. Eric Schmidt will be Alphabet’s executive chairman. The slimmed-down Google also got a new CEO — India-born Sundar Pichai. Pichai has long served as senior vice Sundar Pichai, Google's new CEO president for products and Page’s right-hand man.

Courtesy:Landsat

USGS produces higher-level Landsat data products Recognizing the need of many users who depend on consistently calibrated radiometric data to conduct broad investigations of historical land surface changes, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has begun producing higher-level (more highly processed) Landsat data products to help advance land surface change studies. One such product is Landsat surface reflectance data. Surface reflectance data products approximate what a sensor held just above the Earth’s surface would measure, if conditions were ideal without any intervening artifacts. The precise removal of atmospheric artifacts increases the consistency and comparability between images of the Earth’s surface taken at different times of the year and different times of the day.

Dutch Ministry, Kadaster partner for worldwide registration of land use, property rights The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kadaster have joined forces to advocate the worldwide registration of land use and property rights in the short term. The cooperation has been officially announced as the Partnership Land Administration for National Development (LAND). The purpose of LAND is to support startups for fast, cheap and reliable land registration in countries that have a need for this. The new approach will focus on the demand for the registration of land and in a later phase on further development and refining. Its main goal will be to offer security on ownership of land and on how citizens can and may use their land.

1,400

Satellites expected to be launched over the next 10 years

Geospatial World • December • 2015

NEWS

17

Planet Labs commits $60 mn in geospatial imagery Planet Labs has committed to release $60 million worth of its satellite imagery for the global community. This philanthropic move has been recognized as the largest investment of geospatial imagery ever. It will be a valuable asset in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, which were recently ratified during the 70th session of the United Nations. Planet Labs plans to make the imagery available through a new initiative called ‘Open Regions,’ and it will be accessible online through their imaging platform.

The imagery will be used to monitor deforestation, measure and combat climate change, and increase food security through increased crop yield, among countless other applications.

Courtesy:Planet Labs

DigitalGlobe fights polio Delta cities at most risk with remote sensing of flooding In August, Somalia celebrated a year free of any polio cases. In July, Nigeria completed a year without a polio infection. And it is remote sensing which helped eradicate polio in these countries.

DigitalGlobe mapped every village and every home in these nations to help immunization programs deliver vaccines. Thanks to remote sensing, health workers knew exactly how many doses a community needed. To find human settlements in isolated areas, DigitalGlobe used advanced algorithms and evaluated terabytes of data. False positives were eliminated with help from volunteers in a public crowdsourcing campaign.

This led to 285,103 settlements being identified in Somalia, that otherwise might not have been reached.

Courtesy:DigitalGlobe

71

A study published in the journal Science said that a rise in sea-level, and gradual sinking of the Earth’s surface, has put delta cities at risk of flooding. The researchers utilized a suite of global datasets to estimate which deltas are at the most risk from floods. The re- Courtesy:Landsat searchers created a series of risk indexes, based on global remote sensing and numerical modelling data. The deltas which are at highest risk are the Krishna and Brahmani in India, and the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. The Mississippi delta in the United States, and the Rhine in the Netherlands, fall under the moderate risk zone. But, considering that these nations have the capacity to invest in protective infrastructure, their vulnerability is lower.

Global Positioning System navigation satellites have been launched till date Geospatial World • December• 2015

NEWSMAKERS RECAP 2015

18

India's Antrix slapped with $672 million fine In 2015, the Indian Space Research Organization faced the worst crisis in its history. An international tribunal asked ISRO to pay damages worth $672 million to Devas Multimedia for "unlawfully" terminating a deal four years ago on grounds of national security. Under a 2005 deal, Antrix was to launch two operating satellites and provide 70 MHz of the limited S-Band wavelength to Devas for its digital multimedia services. In return, Antrix would have received $300 million from Devas over a period of 12 years. However, following a lapse in procedures, the government scrapped this deal. This is when Devas resorted to the course of law.

Earth's tree count reaches 3 trillion By using satellite imagery, a study in Nature magazine has estimated that there are roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth, i.e., 400 trees per person.

Previous estimates had put this number at 400.25 billion. The new study also takes into consideration ground-based measurements of tree density. The study has also found that around 15 billion trees are cut down each year. Since the onset of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, the number of trees worldwide has dropped by 46%. The new data will help to understand where all the endangered species might be able to live and how much carbon dioxide is being absorbed from the atmosphere.

This new data will also help to achieve the target of restoring natural habitats and planting trees.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

40

Courtesy: Devas

UrtheCast to operate first optical 16-satellite constellation UrtheCast has announced that it plans to build, launch and operate the world’s first fully integrated, multispectral optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) commercial constellation of earth observation satellites, to be deployed over multiple launches expected in 2019 and 2020. The constellation is expected to comprise a minimum of 16 satellites (8 optical and 8 SAR). Each pair of satellites will consist of a dual-mode, high-resolution optical satellite (video and pushbroom) and a dual-band high-resolution SAR satellite (X-band and L-band) flying in tandem. The constellation will provide what UrtheCast anticipates to be unmatched space-imaging capabilities, including high collection capacity, optical and SAR data fusion, weather-independent high-resolution imaging using the SAR, target revisit, and imaging latency.

Number of years European Space Agency’s ground station network has completed

Geospatial World • December • 2015

Courtesy: ESA

Sentinel-2A joins Europe's earth observation network European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A satellite was launched in June, adding a high-resolution optical imaging capability to the European Union Copernicus environmental monitoring system. The 1.1 tonne satellite was carried on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Sentinel-2A is the second satellite of a constellation of 20 satellites which will scrutinize Earth for the European Union’s Copernicus program. Moreover, ESA has signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to facilitate Sentinel data exploitation. A total of seven Participating States have now signed the agreement: Greece, Norway, Italy, Finland, Germany, France and the UK. Courtesy: Airbus

Airbus to build 900 sats for OneWeb constellation Airbus Defence and Space has been roped in by OneWeb as an industrial partner for the design and manufacturing of its fleet of microsatellites. The space company will design and build more than 900 satellites for the OneWeb constellation for global Internet connectivity. Each microsatellite will weigh less than 150 kgs. The launch into low Earth orbit will begin in 2018. While the first 10 satellites will be designed and built at Airbus Defence and Space’s facilities in Toulouse, France, full series production will take place at a dedicated plant located in the US.

Intergraph SG&I is now Hexagon Safety and Infra Intergraph security, government and infrastructure has been renamed as Hexagon safety and infrastructure.

Hexagon had acquired Intergraph in 2010. The new name reflects Hexagon’s commitment to governments, utilities and other markets. With the rebranding, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure has unveiled a new creative identity, new website and new social media presence. Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure will continue to use the Intergraph name in product branding. Steven Cost, president, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, said, “In rebranding Intergraph SG&I as Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, we’re externally communicating Hexagon’s commitment to our customers and our markets. We’re building on our past as Intergraph and embracing the future as Hexagon."

15

Years that the International Space Station has been continuously occupied Geospatial World • December• 2015

NEWSMAKERS RECAP 2015

20

UN deal allows satellite tracking of airlines Spurred by the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner last year, the United Nations has struck a deal that opens the way for satellite tracking of airlines. The agreement allows nations to set aside radio frequencies so that airplanes can be tracked by satellites — not just from the ground. Currently, the movement of planes is monitored by land-based systems, leaving around 70% of the world's surface uncovered. Modern planes that can send Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, signals to the ground are now on track to send signals to satellites too — with implementation expected by 2017.

Courtesy: Wikimedia

Google gives freebies to encourage Maps reviews To ramp up the Local Guides features in its Maps, tech titan Google is offering perks to people who write restaurant reviews, upload photos, update information, add new details of locations and answer queries. For each contribution, users will earn points. The more points one has, the bigger will be their bonus. These rewards range from exclusive access to Google contests and events to one terabyte worth of free Google Drive storage.

Courtesy: Google

GE partners with PB for Industrial Internet analytics General Electronics (GE) has joined hands with Pitney Bowes to bring location intelligence and data quality to boost Industrial Internet analytics. GE has announced plans to enter the Cloud services market with Predix Cloud. This industrial data and analytics solution will enable operators to use machine data faster and more efficiently, saving billions of dollars annually. Pitney Bowes and GE are paving the path for more intelligent cities, be it economic development, traffic management or emergency response.

35.74%

Expected CAGR of mobile LBS market between 2014 and 2019

Geospatial World • December • 2015

NEWS

21

Ex-Google map guru joins Uber’s team

India creates Himalayan Glaciers map database

Google’s former head of mapping is joining Uber Technologies, as the mobile car-booking startup ramps up efforts to develop its own technology related to maps, navigation and transport. Brian McClendon will lead Uber’s Advanced Technologies Centre, the San Francisco-based company has said. McClendon will report to Jeff Holden, Uber’s Chief Product Officer. “We’re thrilled that Brian is joining the Uber team. He led the development of Google Earth and Google Maps, truly worldclass products, from the early days,” said Holden. McClendon arrived at Google in 2004, and was given purview over Google’s “Geo” products, which include Maps, Earth and Street View. Off late, he has been workeing on an undisclosed special project unrelated to mapping.

The year saw India taking extensive steps to forecast floods. The country’s Central Water Commission (CWC) used remote sensing and GIS to create a database of Himalayan Glaciers, lakes and water bodies in the Himalayan region. All rivers with water spread area of more than 10 hectares were mapped using satellite imageries. The government set up as many as 176 flood forecasting stations across the country to gauge water levels.

Rainfall-runoff models were also created using meteorological inputs based on remote sensing Courtesy: Wikimedia technology.

Job cuts, negative reports point to gloomy times at DG In October, satellite imagery giant DigitalGlobe reported third-quarter net income of $9.2 million.

Though this was a year-on-year improvement, the revenue earnings of $173.3 million fell short of Wall Street forecasts. What was also noticeable was that diversified commercial revenue declined 6.7% to $62.3 million principally due to revenue from location based services. The company’s shares hit a three-year-low to close at $14.93 on October 31.

DG shares have been under pressure since the beginning of 2015. Earlier this year, JP Morgan had downgraded its stock to neutral from overweight, saying its future growth prospects were "increas-

$7,946.5mn

ingly at risk," and Benchmark Co cut its target for the company's stock to $20. Moreover, the company fired 155 employees in February, and cut back 40 more jobs in October. The space imaging major, however, brushed aside all negative reports saying they were overplayed and ignored the fact that the company provided the highest-quality commercial imagery available. “The reports failed to recognize the unique characteristics of what DigitalGlobe provides for the US government that are so far outside of what any of the emerging constellations are capable of. It's ignoring the details," Walter Scott, Founder and Chief Technical Officer, said.

Likely worth of global BIM market by 2020 Geospatial World • December• 2015

TECH TRENDS RECAP 2015

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NASA puts eyes on satellites with micro camera

Courtesy: NASA

NASA's satellite-inspection robot is now equipped with a micro camera, thanks to a medical technology company in Israel called Medigus. Its micro ScoutCam is just 1.2 millimeters in diameter. It was designed as a part of surgeon’s endoscope. NASA’s Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot, or VIPIR, now has this camera fitted onto the end of a 34-inch deployable video borescope. This borescope’s tip can articulate up to 90 degrees in four opposing directions to probe satellites. The tiny size of the borescope allows it to inspect components deep within a spacecraft. Space assets cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It is essential to have eyes on them.

Boeing patents flying submarine drone Aerospace giant Boeing is turning science-fiction into reality. The company has patented a drone that can turn into a submarine. Basically, the proposed vehicle is adaptable for both flight and water travel. To optimize its hydrodynamic properties, the drone would shed its wings and propellers using explosive bolts and water soluble glue. A set of water-borne propellers and control surfaces would appear in their place. Both air and water versions of the vehicle are supposed to use the same engine, though the company hasn’t specified which one. The vehicle’s payload may include sensors and other instruments, but also “another type of payload depending on the purpose of the flight.”

An illustration from Boeing's patent showing a perspective view of a vehicle which can adapt to both air and water

Near real-time visualization of weather The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Visualization Lab has launched a new Web app called WeatherView. The app shows a near real-time animation of weather patterns around the globe.

It pairs wind patterns with several other metrics, like pressure, temperature and precipitation. You can change the time to see current and future weather conditions around the world. You can also explore a number of other filters to see how the wind and other atmospheric conditions relate to each other.

$605.5mn Value global LiDAR market is expected to reach by 2020 Geospatial World • December • 2015

NEWS

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Courtesy: NASA

Software to help airlines NVIDIA eyes autonomous cars market with Drive save time, reduce fuel processors

NASA has developed a software which could help airlines save time and reduce fuel consumption.

The application, called Traffic Aware Planner, connects directly to the avionics information hub on the aircraft to read the plane’s current position, altitude and the flight route. After combining this information with wind forecasts and weather conditions, the app looks for route or altitude changes that could save fuel or flight time. These solutions are displayed directly to the flight crew.

The software can also connect with the plane's Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receiver and scan the ADS-B signals of nearby air traffic to avoid potential conflicts in any proposed flight path changes. Virgin America and Alaska Airlines will test the software over the next three years.

NVIDIA has released two computers under the Drive brand — Drive PX for auto-pilot capabilities and Drive CX for digital cockpit systems — aimed at the self-driven cars market. The Drive CX product takes advantage of the NVIDIA GPU technology that uses graphics processing architecture to deliver high frame-rate, photorealistic graphics for applications, including in 3D maps, landmarks and next-gen human-machine interfaces. The Drive PX, meanwhile, adapts the company's mobile computing technology for autonomous vehicles.

It sports two of the company’s superchip Tegra X1 processors, the first mobile chip to offer over a teraflop of processing power, giving the Drive PX 2.3 teraflops of total capacity.

Courtesy: NVIDIA

Rockwell Collins to develop GPS backup tech Rockwell Collins has been awarded a contract by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under which it will develop technologies that could serve as backups for the military's GPS system. The contract is part of DARPA’s Spatial, Temporal and Orientation Information in Contested Environments (STOIC) program, which seeks to reduce warfighter dependence on GPS for military operations. The STOIC technology could augment GPS, or it may act as a substitute for GPS in contested environments where GPS is degraded or denied. The time-transfer and ranging capabilities the company is developing seek to enable distributed platforms to cooperatively locate targets, employ jamming in a surgical fashion, and serve as a backup to GPS for relative navigation.

$5.5bn

Expected value of global precision agriculture market by 2020 Geospatial World • December• 2015

TECH TRENDS RECAP 2015

24

3D volcano maps to prepare people for risks A volcanologist with Geological Society of America, Dr Ian Saginor, has used 3D printing to prepare people for volcanic eruptions. Through his Volcano Terrain Project, Saginor has created miniature scale models of regions that are at risk. This initiative is more effective than 2D maps and 3D digital images, because it includes detailed topography of the region. The model also shows the route and flow of ash and lava. Saginor believes that two-dimensional hazard maps can show people where the danger is, but a 3D printed model can show them why. He has printed the models with the Mcor IRIS, a full high-definition-color, paper-based 3D printer that boasts affordability and eco-friendliness, along with superior photorealism.

Courtesy: VTP

Trimble brings Microsoft HoloLens to AEC Courtesy: Trimble

Trimble is working with Microsoft to develop a new generation of tools, integrated with the HoloLens holographic platform on Windows 10. These tools aim to improve quality, collaboration and efficiency in the design, construction and operation of buildings and structures. HoloLens is a head-mounted, holographic computer that provides a mixed-reality experience. When used by architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) professionals, the HoloLens extends interaction with 3D models beyond the confines of a 2D computer screen.

Users can easily visualize, collaborate and manage changes in multi-phase construction projects.

13%

Google provides solar maps of rooftops People who consider using solar panels to power their homes often find themselves riddled with questions. How many panels they would need?

Who would do the installation? And most importantly, how much money would they actually save?

Google noticed that its Search results were unable to help people out with these queries, and created a new tool called Project Sunroof. This tool uses high-resolution satellite imagery of Google Maps to figure out how much sun falls on a particular roof. It takes into consideration factor like how orientation, shade from trees and buildings and weather patterns. It then uses the measurements to figure out how many panels one would need.

Courtesy: Google

Expected CAGR of automotive navigation market till 2022

Geospatial World • December • 2015

NEWS Courtesy: Google

25

Hexagon files patent for Zonal Change Detection technique

Google Eddystone to rival Apple iBeacon Google has launched Eddystone, a new set of technology products that can be used to build apps that provide engaging location-based and contextually relevant experiences. For example, if you are standing in front of an exhibit at the museum, an app would give you background info about the art. The technology is based on electronic beacons, which can be described as low-energy and battery-friendly hardware that use Bluetooth to transmit data. Using beacons to serve up location-based information is not a new development. Apple's two-year-old iBeacon technology has been doing just that. But, iBeacon is a proprietary standard that works only with iDevices.

Hexagon Geospatial has filed a patent for the Image Change Detection technique used in its ERDAS Imagine software package. This new technique automatically compares imagery captured at different times in property change assessment zones.

Users can perform an analysis on a zone-by-zone basis, and find out what changes have occurred in each area. The results are displayed from the highest probability of change to the lowest. This helps the users to easily verify the results and generate a comprehensive report. And even though the tool is aimed at property assessors, the technique can be used in several domains, like natural resource applications, defense and intelligence.

Courtesy: Hexagon

Apple and IBM are collaborating to develop mobile apps for enterprises. The apps will make use of predictive analytics and iBeacons. For example, the Travel Track app, which will work on the iPhone and Apple Watch, gives business travelers their itinerary. The app will provide time and location-based push notifications on items like meeting times and when a flight starts boarding. Another app, called Safe Site, lets people at job sites report unsafe working conditions. The app uses iBeacons to notify workers when they're approaching a reported work site hazard. In total, the partnership has yielded 10 new apps. The companies have not shared customer details yet or said whether the partnership has proved lucrative.

140

Satellites China currently has in orbit with stable operation Geospatial World • December• 2015

Courtesy: IBM

Apple, IBM develop location-based apps

TECH TRENDS RECAP 2015

26

Jefferson Project taps into Big Data, IoT The Internet of Things is turning New York's Lake George into world’s smartest lake. The Jefferson Project is using an army of sensors, Big Data and analytics to understand what is impacting the lake’s water quality. Underwater sonar based sensors, customized software programs and solar energy systems to power off-grid equipment have been tested and refined. The project is now at data capture and discovery stage. This initiative is the result of collaboration between IBM Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The FUND for Lake George.

Courtesy: IBM It involves more than 60 scientists from around the world. The insights from this project will not only help manage and protect one of America’s most famous lakes, but also create a blueprint that could be replicated in water bodies around the world.

AQIC's interactive map Google Plus Codes for shows global air quality locating the unaddressed

Courtesy: AQIC

Beijing-based environmental group Air Quality Index China has released an interactive map that shows world’s air quality with real-time data. Air quality ranges from ‘good’ to ‘hazardous’ in this map. According to the map, Delhi has reached ‘hazardous’ levels of air pollution with smog covering the city almost every day. While most cities in China have reached ‘unhealthy’ zone, cities in the United States come under the ‘good’ zone. Mapping real-time updates can help officials understand how far pollution has spread in a particular city, and put adequate pollution-reducing policies in place before the air reaches ‘hazardous’ levels.

1

Google has made identifying hard-to-find locations across the globe easy. Google Search and Maps were updated with support for Open Location Code or Plus Codes earlier this year. These simple strings are made up of six or seven letters and numbers. They will prove quite handy for Courtesy: Google finding locations that don’t have specific street addresses. Not just that, these codes are also helpful in places which have a high population density, but poor data accuracy.

And, of course, for places that lack a specific addressing system altogether, like in Nepal, Plus Codes will help everyone from business to disaster response organizations.

Satellite Indian Space Research Organization plans to launch every month

Geospatial World • December • 2015

PICTURE THIS RECAP 2015

THE OVERVIEW

28

ARTICLE

The Eixample District in Barcelona, Spain is characterized by its strict grid pattern and apartments with communal courtyards.

This thoughtful and visionary design was the work of Ildefons Cerdà.

His plan features broad streets that widen at octagonal intersections to create greater visibility with increased sunlight, better ventilation, and more space for short-term parking.

Geospatial World •

Nishinoshima is a volcanic island located 940 kilometers south of Tokyo, Japan. Starting in November 2013, the volcano began to erupt and continued to do so until August 2015. This Overview was captured on January 7, 2015.

Over the course of this activity, the island grew in size from .056 square kilometers December • 2015to 2.3 square kilometers.

This Overview shows the aircraft boneyard at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California.

The facility is a massive transitional hub for commercial aircraft and contains more than 150 retired planes.

W EFFECT Khalifa International Stadium is a massive sports complex in Doha, Qatar.

The facility is currently undergoing a massive renovation and expansion in advance of the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted by the Qataris.

More than 1.5 million migrant workers, primarily from Nepal, have come to Qatar because of the construction taking place in advance of the soccer tournament. The blue structure adjacent to the stadium is Aspire Academy, a youth sports school.

Water from the Jinsha River surges through the Xiluodu Dam near Xiluodu, China. Arch dams like this one are designed so that the force of the contained water presses against the arch, compressing and strengthening the structure by pushing it into its foundation. At 937 feet (286 meters), the dam in Xiluodu is the fourth tallest in the world and is primarily used for hydroelectric power generation.

The term Overview Effect refers to the feelingARTICLE astronauts experience 29 when they look down and view the Earth as a whole from space.

The online project Overview , which takes its name and inspiration from this Overview Effect , focuses on the places and moments where human activity has shaped the landscape. The mesmerizing flatness seen from this vantage point, the surprising comfort of systematic organization on a massive scale, or the vibrant colors that are captured are targeted to captivate the audience. However, once they have your attention, Overview plans to take you beyond the aesthetics, make you contemplate on just exactly what it is that you are seeing, and think about what that means for our planet.

Spectacular, terraced rice paddies cover the mountainsides of Yuanyang County, China.

Cultivated by the Hani people for the last 1300 years, the slope of the terraces varies from 15 to 75 degrees with some having as many as 3,000 steps. Approximately 1.5 square miles of paddies are seen here surrounding the small village of Tuguozhai.

Geospatial World • December• 2015

PICTURE THIS

ARTICLE

RECAP 2015

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Residential buildings are seen in Miri, Malaysia. In the decade after the year 2000, the population of the city increased approximately 40% and is currently home to more than 234,000 residents. Miri is located in the Sarawak region, one of the most popular ecotourism destinations in Malaysia and also the birthplace of the country's petroleum industry.

Citrus trees cover the landscape in Isla Cristina, Spain. The climate is ideal for this growth with an average temperature of 64 degrees (18° celsius) and a relative humidity between 60% and 80%.

Geospatial World • December • 2015

ARTICLE

This Overview shows the Sepang Goldcoast Resort in Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. The hotel features over-water bungalows that extend out in a palm-shaped formation into the calm waters of the Malacca Straits.

This Dutch "star fort" was built in 1593 during the Eighty Years’ War when William I of Orange wanted to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen.

Star forts were constructed in the manner you see here so that an attack on any of its five walls could be aggressively counteracted from the two adjacent star points.

31

This Overview Effect captures swirling train cars filled with coal in Norfolk, Virginia. Operated by the Norfolk Southern corporation, Lamberts Point Pier 6 is the largest coal-loading station in the Northern Hemisphere and serves at the temporary depot for the company’s fleet of 23,000 coal cars.

The dry terminal at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is the busiest transshipment facility of its kind in Europe - moving primarily coal and iron ore. The massive vessels that dock here carry up to 380,000 tonnes of these minerals to power plants and blast-furnaces in Germany, France, Belgium, and other European countries.

Courtesy: www.dailyoverview.com and www.instagram.com/dailyoverview Geospatial World • December• 2015

COVER STORY

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One of the most sophisticated and innovative societies in the world, the Netherlands is riding on open data policies to promote strong geospatial uptake at the national, regional and local levels. By Sarah Hisham

A Country Built N

etherlands, literally meaning ‘lower countries’, is characterized by its low land and flat geography. It is also known as the safest delta in the world. As much as 26% of its area and almost half of its population are located below sea level. Most of the below sea level areas are man-made, with nearly 17% reclaimed from the sea and lakes.

Despite its size, the country is one of the most densely populated nations on the planet, after Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Being a low-lying, flood-prone country, the Dutch government has

How does it fare?

Institutions 7

Innovation

6 5

Business sophistication

4 3

Infrastructure Macroeconomic environment

2

Market size

Health and primary education

1

Higher educaton and training

Technological readiness Financial market development

Goods market efficiency Labor market efficiency

Netherlands

Advanced economies

always been innovative in protecting the land against flooding and to secure freshwater supplies. Windmills have been pumping water off the land since the 14th century, and since the late 16th century large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations.

Dutch universities are producing some of the best engineers and managers in the world and exporting their expertise. The government has advised on many high profile water governance projects, including in China, Africa and Australia.

Being a small country with dense population, located to large extent below sea level, geospatial technology is a vital component in planning new developments in a safe way, respecting everybody’s interests, points out Claudio Mingrino, Executive Director EMEA, Hexagon Geospatial Division. “Only when the optimal balance between interests is met, can we achieve maximum potential in economic growth while respecting the environment.”

Riding on innovation

The Dutch society is one of the

Geospatial World • December • 2015

most sophisticated and innovative in the world. Being an exporting nation with an open economy, the country depends largely on trade with other countries making financial stability and growth in Europe very much vital to its economic sustainability. Although it is yet to recover from the bursting of its domestic real estate bubble in 2009, the Dutch GDP has shown growth of 0.7% in 2014, and the European Commission’s winter forecast projects growth of 1.4% in 2015 and 1.7% in 2016. The Netherlands is placed 5th in the most competitive economies in the world in the 20152016 Global Competitive Report by the World Economic Forum, thanks to its strong performance in areas such as education (3rd), infrastructure (3rd) and institutions (10th).

Faced with an ageing population and the need to compete in an open world economy, the Dutch government has created a Digital Agenda 2011-2015 for smarter use of ICT to provide a powerful boost for innovation and economic growth. Apart from promoting the open data program, the agenda also emphasized on the importance

COVER STORY

33

by nnovation of geo-information as a critical production factor in the agrifood sector. The government will make geo-information available as open data to allow applications to be developed for precision agriculture, which could reduce the use of polluting substances and emissions of greenhouse gases, while saving fuel and maintaining healthy yields.

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations has launched a program called Digital Government 2017 to improve government services to the public. It describes how government bodies will extend and improve the information provided on its website in order to enable transparent communications and transactions with citizens. Making information public via the internet increases government transparency which fits in with the Open Government vision and the action plan.

Open government and open geodata

The 2015 Global Open Data Index published by Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) puts the Netherlands in the top 10 for open data policy in the world. Under the

Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur), an administrative body is obliged to supply members of the public with information on administrative matters held on file unless the Act or any other legislation states that the information in question is not suitable for publication.

In October 2013, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations released a 40-page white paper on Netherlands Open Government Action Plan which includes further development and promotion of disclosure and use of open data. The Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment have been making their data accessible to public and have issued a statement declaring that they will pursue a policy based on a ‘presumption of active access’.

The coalition agreement announced 10 public-private ‘breakthrough projects’, one of them entitled ‘Open geodata as a resource for growth and innovation’, focusing on public-private partnerships involving public authorities, businesses and research institutions that bring

together the supply and demand sides of open data.

The 2015 Open Data Trend Report published by Netherlands' Court of Audit in October stated that the majority of the open data published by central government is produced by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. Rijkswaterstaat (the ministry’s Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management) is by far the most important source of open data. It has published 1,110 datasets, predominantly geo-datasets. Last year, the Open State Foundation estimated that 93% of the open datasets published by the Dutch government are geodata.

The Dutch government policies on the use of open data are largely seen as the first step toward recognition and encouragement for the use of GIS and geospatial technologies. “Several years ago the government decided to make several Key indicators 2014 Population (millions) ........................................ 16.9 GDP (US$ billions) ........................................ 866.4 GDP per capita (US$) ................................. 51,373 GDP (PPP) as share (%) of world total ............ 0.74

Geospatial World • December• 2015

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COVER STORY

One up on others Netherlands

60,000 50,000

Advanced economies

40,000 30,000 20,000

GDP (PPP) per capita (int’l $), 1990–2014

10,000 0

1990

1992

1994

1996

nationwide datasets available to the public as open data. This policy has given a huge impulse to the use of data like cadastral datasets and topographic maps,” iterates Arnout van Raaij, GIS Specialist, BAM Infraconsult, the largest construction company in the country.

The Dutch National SDI (PDOK) was created by a collaboration between the Kadaster, the Ministries of Infrastructure and Environment, Economic Affairs, Rijkswaterstaat and Geonovum. It serves as a central facility for sharing of national geodatasets for both the public and private sectors. Most PDOK services are based on open data and are, therefore, available to everyone. The PDOK services meet national and international standards, including the European INSPIRE and the Dutch e-government standards. Today, PDOK hosts 250 Web services and handles over 1 billion requests a

$GDP866.4 of the Netherlands in 2014 (in billions)

1998

2000

2002

2004

year. Some of geodata available include the national road database, national topographic base map, national LiDAR dataset and 3D map of selected regions in the country.

Jan Willem van Eck, Strategic Director at Esri Nederland believes open data is a very important development beyond geography.

Although there is still a long way to go to get to an ‘open data culture’ in which ‘open data’ is the norm and not the exception, the release of national open datasets has been a great start. “An interesting development to follow is the contribution of new, enriched open datasets, like the national zipcodes. This opens up the opportunity to even more innovative use of open data for our society at large,” he adds.

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

The open government and open data policies play pivotal role in the

strong geospatial uptake in Dutch government sector at national, regional and local level.

The Dutch Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, in short Kadaster, has decreased its workforce from 2,600 to 1,600 employees in the last decade. Though at the same time, the information domains the organization is managing has tripled.

Currently, these domains stretch out toward the field of buildings, addresses, cables and pipelines, large scale (1:1,000) and regular topography, cadastral mapping, tax objects, zoning regulations and public law restrictions. “Going digital helps Kadaster to do more with less people,” explains Peter Hoogwerf, Director of Geo-Information Services in Kadaster.

The City of Rotterdam holds several national key registers dealing with large- and small-scale

0.7%

1.4%

Geospatial uptake

Growth in Dutch GDP in 2014

Geospatial World • December • 2015

Growth predicted by European Commission in 2015

COVER STORY

topography and building and address registries. It also adds several yearly-updated key registers at local level, which include remote sensing data, aerial and terrestrial images, boundaries, infrastructure-related height marks and high-resolution laser altimetry data that is collected every two years.

On top of this, the city holds, shares and uses daily, approximately 1,500 layers of application-specific GIS information, some of which is open data. Since 2008, the number of available and project-ready GIS-data sources has doubled, techniques for geospatial data collection have become more widely-known and much easier and cost-effective to access. “Nowadays, almost everybody instinctively knows how to handle ‘maps and apps’. Questions in the field no longer focus on whether a map could be a solution, but on which map will be,” elaborates Joris Goos, GIS Manager, City of Rotterdam.

Van Eck adds that new technologies and increased data availability has allowed the industry to reach out to society at large. “One example is the increased use of geography within the media, from radio stations to TV documentaries. This has definitely helped the Topotijdreis webapp, which demonstrates 200 years of topographic mapping by Kadaster, to go viral: a quarter of a billion hits in just one week.”

2nd

Innovation hub

Innovation and scientific temperament are the two major strengths of the Netherlands, which help it to consistently buck the slowdown.

The increased availability of open data also plays an important role in driving innovation in the country.

The Dutch government has taken various steps toward becoming a central hub for startups, through organizations like StartupDelta, along with the many incubators like YES Delft and UtrechtInc. In the recently published European Digital City Index, Amsterdam is ranked second, after London, as the most digital-entrepreneurs-friendly city in Europe for its support ecosystems for startups. It also introduced a startup visa law starting January 1, 2015, as a recognition from the Dutch government of the value of startup entrepreneurs to the Dutch economy.

Hubs of innovation activities are now being established in many regions. Cities like Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Delft and others are organizing their own innovation hubs, which enable co-operation and co-creation in an open innovation framework. This is supported by large organizations inviting ideas from the community to co-develop innovative products.

The quality of Dutch research institutions and collaboration between universities and industries,

4bn

The rank of Amsterdam in European Investment in 2012-2020 to Digital City Index after London increase the capacity of highways

35

Open data is a very important development beyond geography although there is still a long way to go to get to an ‘open data culture’ in which ‘open data’ is the norm and not the exception Jan Willem van Eck, Strategic Director, Esri Nederland

Kadaster is restructuring its data, making it easily available toward this new digital scheme of environment law. Citizens will become more empowered after this transition is completed in the next five years Peter Hoogwerf, Director, Geo-Information Services, Kadaster

Being a small country with dense population, located to a large extent below sea level, geospatial technology is a vital component in planning new developments Claudio Mingrino, Executive Director EMEA, Hexagon Geospatial Division

5th

Most competitive economy in the world in 2015-2016

Geospatial World • December• 2015

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COVER STORY

At Brabant Water, we use advanced GIS utilities using multi criteria analysis to select mains to be renewed and to plan for future network structures Daan van Os, GIS Adviser, Brabant Water

Agricultural organisations and the geospatial industry talk different languages. Knowledge sharing and understanding of each other’s sectors is the key to a widespread adoption of geotechnnologies Elies Lemkes-Straver, Chief Executive Officer, ZLTO (Dutch farmers’ association)

Although the new generation of specialists coming from bordering fields helps to open up new opportunities in the industry, geospatial domain still needs dedicated geodesists as well Joris Goos, GIS Manager, City of Rotterdam

26%

Of the Netherlands is under sea level

too, has contributed a lot to this strength. Since knowledge institutes have clear non-commercial roles, there are many joint efforts between industry, government and knowledge institutes that facilitate innovation.

Such collaborations help streamline geospatial activities in the country by avoiding redundancy in data collection and increasing usability of data. “We see making geodata multi-usable as a wonderfully rewarding challenge, and rightly so.

This makes us frontrunners on the efficient use of geo-information,” says Goos.

The pillars of economy

Water: 99.9% of Dutch households have access to clean, chlorine-free drinking water and 99% are connected to the sewage system. Water consumption in the country is one of the lowest among developed countries at 128 litres per capita per day and water leakage in the distribution network is one of the lowest in the world at only 6%. Water is collected, filtered and recycled with high levels of quality and service in an integrated cycle. The entire Dutch delta and water technology sector had an accumulated turnover of €15.6 billion in 2011, of which €7.4 billion was exported.

The Dutch invest heavily in innovation and R&D through public-private partnerships that align the interests and resources of

3rd

Rank in export of agricultural produce

Geospatial World • December • 2015

government, business and research partners. These include renowned institutes such as Deltares and Wetsus. Large Dutch private firms are also recognized for their cutting-edge R&D in the treatment of industrial waste water and several consultancies.

Geospatial technology is mainly used to manage water assets. “Since water industry in the Netherlands exists over a hundred years, there are many old mains that need to be replaced. At Brabant Water, we use advanced GIS utilities using multi-criteria analysis to select mains to be renewed and to plan for future network structures,” explains Daan van Os, GIS Adviser at Brabant Water, a company serving 2.4 million people and businesses in North Brabant, the Netherlands.

In a document outlining shared vision of government, private sector and scientific community on the future of the geo-information sector in the Netherlands called ‘Partners in Geo’, published by GeoSamen, recording data of the entire water cycle and making the data interoperable is still a challenge in water industry.

The geospatial community can help to integrate the dynamic data from sensors into valuable information.

Energy: The energy sector contributes substantially to Dutch national income, exports and employment.

Innovation and public-private

5th

Largest port in the world is Rotterdam

COVER STORY

partnerships are key to the Dutch approach. The government, private sector, and academia cooperate on these priority topics: energy savings in industry and the built environment, gas, smart grids, wind at sea, solar energy and bio energy.

To stimulate renewable energy production, the Dutch government has allocated an annual sum of €1.4 billion from 2015, which represents a major step towards achieving the European Renewable Energy Directive target of 14% renewable energy by 2020. By 2050, the country aims to have a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system. The Dutch are investing heavily in Smart Grids. The city of Groningen has the first ‘live’ smart grid community in Europe called PowerMatching City, which connects households with smart appliances that match their energy use in real time, depending on the available (renewable) generation.

The country has also established itself as a pivotal player in the European gas market. The Netherlands is not only a major natural gas producer and the source of advanced gas technology, it is also Europe’s leading gas broker. Almost 30% of the European natural gas reserves are in the Netherlands. The distribution network is the densest in Europe and of very high quality, with a total length of 12,200 kilometres of transmission pipelines and

1.4bn

Allocated in 2015 for achieving 14% renewable energy by 2020

136,400 kilometres of distribution pipelines.‘Partners in Geo’ highlights that facilitating open data of all infrastructure information for efficient asset management and coordinated maintenance between national, provincial and local levels is one of the opportunities for geospatial community to contribute in energy sector.

Agriculture: The Netherlands is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products, after the United States, even though only 4% of the Dutch population works in the agriculture sector. This is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate.

“Dutch farmers started to unify in an association or entrepreneurial organization such as ZLTO in the 1900s. By working together and organizing the agricultural sector as a whole; farmers were able to invest and innovate to increase efficiency,” explains Elies Lemkes-Straver, chief executive officer of ZLTO, a Dutch farmers’ association.

Geospatial technology are being used in various agricultural sub-sectors in the country. About 50-65% of farmers in the Netherlands are using GPS for precise land management, which is about 10% of all farmers in Europe. GPS, in combination with map and sensor-based data, allows farmers to practise agriculture in a sustainable way by less water, seed, fuel and pesticides

30%

Of Europe's natural gas reserves are in the Netherlands

37

usage. In Smart Livestock Farming (SLF), geospatial technologies are used to measure and manage animal welfare, manure logistics, animal logistics and these add up to transparency. These technologies help farmers to understand his own management cycle and also the nutrient cycle within his own business.

When the government needed to reconnect the Natura 2000 European corridor, some farmer-owned parcels were affected. Geospatial technologies were used to support communication between the stakeholders during the parcel-swap procedures to ensure farmers obtain the same parcel size and potential yield.

“Agricultural organizations and the geospatial industry talk in different languages. Therefore, knowledge sharing and mutual understanding of each other’s sectors is required. This is key in a more widespread adoption of geospatial techniques in the agricultural sector,” adds Lemkes-Straver.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commissioned a program called Geospatial for Agriculture and Water (G4AW), executed by Netherlands Space Office (NSO), to help improve food security in developing countries by using satellite data. It already has projects in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, Kenya and more.

Construction: The economic crisis

50%

Farmers are using GPS for precise land management Geospatial World • December• 2015

38

COVER STORY

has led to shrinking construction industry in the Netherlands, mainly due to low levels of investments and falling housing prices. Demands and requirements in terms of sustainability and energy efficiency are higher.

Geospatial technology helps to improve decision making process and to reduce risks in an early stage of the project, says van Raaij. He elaborates that using technologies like point cloud scanners, drones, sensors and virtual reality helps in measuring, visualizing and communicating the conditions of the assets that are constructed and being operated or maintained much better than before. “It also improves the communication with our clients such as the Dutch Railway agency ProRail and the Dutch Highway agency, Rijkswaterstaat,” adds Arnout.

The Dutch Building Information Council (BIR) has executed a program for implementing building information modeling (BIM) to the entire construction sector in the Netherlands. Its goals are to make steps forward on BIM-technology, the involved information processes, the related management and organization, and the accompanied communication and educational needs. In this council, stakeholders of clients, constructors, engineers, architects, installation sector and supply chain are all represented with two members. “This integrated approach,

tested in real projects, is effective to get the BIM flywheel going,” explains Herman Winkels, Program Manager BIM at Rijkswaterstaat.

The currently ongoing largest road construction program in the Netherlands, Schiphol-Amsterdam-Almere (SAA), is fully-implemented with BIM. Rijkswaterstaat invests a total budget of over €4 billion in the period of 2012-2020 to increase the capacity of the highways and to improve the quality of life in this corridor.

Although BIM has been proven to save cost and increase resource-efficiency in construction projects, it is still difficult to get the industry to embrace the new technology. As Jeroen Mennink, Sales Manager at Topcon Nederland, notes, “It is always difficult to change workflows in our industry.

We are at the stage where the first contractors are implementing new technology and drastically change their way of working just to become more intelligent and assert control.”

Understanding the importance of open BIM standards to the successful widespread implementation of BIM within the Dutch building industry, an independent non-profit organization called BIM Loket was established in April this year. Its mission is to be the ‘front desk’ for all BIM inquiries in the Netherlands and promote the use of open BIM

1200

4400

Total number of bridges in Amsterdam

Total number of navigable rivers, canals and lakes in the country

Geospatial World • December • 2015

standards in the industry. Amidst many encouraging initiatives from the government and knowledge community, BIM is not yet mandated in construction projects across the country. “It's a pity Dutch government has not implemented a BIM strategy as UK government. This could really help drive innovation,” believes Jan Blaauboer, Senior Sales Director, Government, EMEA at Bentley Systems.

Smart Cities and 3D the way to go

The Netherlands is finding ways to address its ageing population and the increasing city inhabitants, which consequently depopulate rural areas.

It is focusing on smarter management of its highly urbanized and densely populated areas, which are also most susceptible to flooding.

Geonovum, the Dutch national body for geo-standards and geodata dissemination in public sector, has been commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment to create a 5-year roadmap for the impact of smart city requirements to the geospatial data infrastructure in the Netherlands. Three emerging technologies are of focus in the Netherlands smart city agenda: 3D, linked data and sensors.

However, Blaauboer believes the acceptance of 3D is still slow in the country. At the moment, 3D

1048

Total number of windmills in the Netherlands

COVER STORY

environment, nature and water into one single Environment & Planning Act (Omgevingswet). The aim is to make information more easily available for companies, organizations and the public and to streamline the process of changing an area of a town or city.

“Kadaster will restructure its data, making it easily available towards this new digital scheme of environment law. Questions will be transformed into information requests that will be answered with the information available. Citizens will become more empowered after this transition is completed in the next five years,” explains Hoogwerf.

is not a mandatory data format for the national large scale topography register (BGT). “This slows down innovation in this domain,” he adds.

A partnership of governments, science and industry called ‘Breakthrough 3D’ was established with accompanying manifesto signed by 70 parties. In January, the working group drawn up a plan to realize the mission of 3D Netherlands. Some of the areas identified are soil movement, gaming, buildings, infrastructure, safety, water and urban planning.

Further to this, 3D is also expanded into 5D adding the dimensions of time and scale. “The idea is that we will be able to develop models of cities and rural areas that can be used to make calculation. For example, the Dutch weather institute would use them to tune localized weather reports,” says Hoogwerf.

Blaauboer predicts the capturing of 3D infrastructure asset information via drones, ultra-light, aerial photography and ground pictures to generate 3D models will be disruptive. “This allows the marketplace to inject infrastructure information of existing (and often old) buildings and infrastructure into modern ways of managing the infrastructure assets.”

Meanwhile, the government is restructuring its environmental law by combining dozens of laws and hundreds of regulations for land use, residential areas, infrastructure, the

Hurdles on the way

99%

3%

Households are connected to the sewage system

The main challenge faced by the geospatial industry in the country is keeping up with rapid technological change. From project owner point of view, making the right choice in what to invest, what is the goal and by using which software or hardware is becoming a challenge.

The projects are getting bigger and so do the risks, says Mennink.

Similarly, companies that serve broad arrays of market sectors could find it challenging to decide its focus area. “For a company like Hexagon, it is tempting to pursue all business cases in all sectors; but in order to achieve maximum potential, carefully prioritizing is our major

Of the Netherlands consists of national parks

39

Dutch Building Information Council has executed a program for implementing BIM in construction. This integrated approach is effective to get the BIM flywheel going Herman Winkels, Program Manager BIM, Rijkswaterstaat

It is difficult to change workflows in our industry. We are at a stage where the first contractors are implementing new technology and changing their way of working to become more intelligent Jeroen Mennink, Sales Manager, Topcon Nederland

It's a pity Dutch government has not implemented a BIM strategy as the UK government has done. This could really help drive innovation Jan Blaauboer, Senior Sales Director, Government, EMEA, Bentley Systems

Geospatial technology improves decision making and reduces risks in early stages of projects. They help in visualizing and communicating the conditions of assets that are being constructed Arnout van Raaij, GIS Specialist, BAM Infraconsult

Geospatial World • December• 2015

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COVER STORY

challenge,” says Mingrino. “Engaging with local partners in the market, as we are doing with Imagem, is key.”

Large construction projects are based upon partnerships between several companies, each using their own way of configuring systems, storing data, etc. This creates difficulties when information has to be exchanged and teams have to work closely together. Efforts need to be directed towards a consistent way of storing and sharing data. However, people like van Raaij are hopeful that as geospatial technology becomes cheaper and easier to use for end users as well for the back office ICT, there will be a boost in its usage across industries.

Manpower resources have also been a challenge for the sector.

There is an increased need for skilled geospatial professionals, both in public and private sectors. Many universities are introducing new courses focusing on the application of geospatial technology rather than the technicality behind it.

Although this helps to spread the benefits of geospatial throughout organizations, networks of innovation activities and society at large, pure geospatial profession is becoming extinct. As Goos points out, “Although the new generation of specialists coming from bordering fields such as IT, social geography or civil engineering helps to open up new opportunities in the industry, geospatial domain still needs the unique skills of dedicated geodesists as well.” Commoditization of geospatial data and the constantly innovative nature of geospatial domain, on the other hand, pose con-

Geonovum sets the standards The Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment plays an important role in defining the vision Rob van de Velde, for geospatial infrastructure in the Netherlands Director, Geonovum and in creating a legal framework on spatial data usage in the country. Every government agency — central, regional and local — is legally-bound to use key registers and national data facilities in their operation. This ensures maximum data productivity, where data is collected once, but can be used multiple times.

Therefore, the Ministry has established Geonovum, an organization responsible to develop, educate and validate geospatial standard conformance in the country. “What we do in the Netherlands, and I think is unique in the world, is that we use standards as a strategic instrument,” says Rob van de Velde, Director at Geonovum. Standardization process creates harmonized definitions of data; and with our strong policy on open data, data is distributed in open standards. This allows new companies to step into the market taking advantage of the open standards and open data, he adds. Standardization approach is now adopted in other government domains as well, such as building, environment and energy. tinuous needs for capacity building, especially in the government sector.

Recognizing this problem, Dutch government, industry and educational institution have established a geospatial labor foundation called SAGEO (Stichting Arbeidsmarkt Geo). Its mandate is to address the mismatch between supply and demand in the geospatial labor market in the Netherlands through marketing campaigns, developing innovative educational concepts and facilitating collaborations among geospatial stakeholders.

Strong collaboration between the industry and academia is important to provide the latest technologies to institutions and working together to further develop skills.

“A strong support from the private geospatial information sector on higher education is what got us

Geospatial World • December • 2015

where we are today, and is also the key to further strengthen and develop our capabilities in the future,” underlines Mingrino.

As the uptake increases, there are more questions to be answered.

Many organizations find themselves working in an ecosystem beyond their scope. “We talk about the enormous potential of geo-information every day. Our challenge is to become experts not only from a technical point of view, but from a social one,” says Goos.

As van Eck signs off: Communicating with the outside world has become a lot more complex. We have to make the complex simple to use, especially for the citizens.

Sarah Hisham, Regional Product Manager (Europe), sarah@geospatialmedia.net

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ARTICLE

80,000 km of

Peace Borders in Africa, once considered a topic too hot to touch, have left the taboo zone. Countries are openly discussing their border affairs and thousands of kilometres of borders have been demarcated. By Roman Meyer

I

ndependence left African countries with many a challenge, their international borders being just one of them. Some drawn on predominantly empty maps, some described in treaties where its drafters had never set foot on the terrain.

Colonial rulers had made efforts to describe several boundaries in more detail as time passed, drafting new treaties, maps, and even erecting pillars on the ground.

Nonetheless, demarcation remained sparse, distances of 5 to 50 km between neighboring beacons being the norm rather than the exception. The situation in terms of treaties, maps and demarcation was even worse between neighboring countries formerly under the same colonial rulers. “Why bother with the boundary between Guinea and Senegal,” they seemed to say, “It’s all part of France anyway!”

As imperfect as they were, re-negotiating borders would most likely have resulted in endless debates and possibly even war. Therefore, the African Heads of State, in their first meeting in Cairo in July 1964,

Geospatial World • December • 2015

One of the rare border beacons from colonial times refurbished

decided that borders were to be kept as they were at the time of independence. Pandora’s box remained closed.

Demarcating the borders was, understandably, not a priority among the many tasks faced by the young nations. Given that most lay in sparsely populated hinterland (especially compared to its flourishing capitals) and that even the attempt of clarifying them could lead to disputes with one's neighbors, African borders, for a long time, remained a taboo. That changed in 2007, when the African Union identified unclear national borders as a potential threat to peace and stability on the continent. As a measure of conflict prevention, it launched the AUBP, the African Union Border Program.

Much more than lines on a map

The goal that African Heads of State have set themselves is clear. All international borders are to be re-affirmed. That is a total of 80,000 km of land borders, twice the length of the equator. They roughly divide into 55,000 km of terrestrial, 22,000 km of river

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and 3,000 km of lake boundaries.

In addition, an extra 20,000 km of maritime borders need to be delimited. The deadline, initially set for 2012, is now at 2017.

The ultimate goal of peace and stability on the continent, however, will not be achieved through delimitation and demarcation only.

Borders are much more than simple lines on a map. There needs to be agreement on the movement of people and goods, if and how health services can be accessed on the other side, if small-scale farmers need to pay import taxes, if education systems are compatible, if cars need special insurance, if local people need visa, etc. The promotion of cross-border cooperation, which stretches across all these aspects, is thus the second pillar of the AUBP. The third one is capacity development, which aims at improving knowledge on border related questions. It enables technical trainings, studies of border related topics and has brought forward joint trainings of border patrol police units.  

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In 2007, the African Union identified unclear national borders as a potential threat to peace and stability, and launched the African Union Border Program are contributing on different levels to the AUBP. Germany, through its implementing agency GIZ, is substantially supporting the AUBP in financial and technical terms since 2008. The United Kingdom has allocated funds to the re-affirmation of the Sudan-South Soudan border.

Exchange with the UN Cartographic Section as well as the UN Mine Action Service are taking place in case of need. So far, the AUBP has

focussed on promoting positive border aspects, but prevention of negative aspects such as smuggling, arms and human trafficking, poaching, epidemics and cross-border terrorism are also increasingly being discussed.

Delimitation and demarcation

In theory, delimitation and demarcation is straightforward. Two

Many players on the field

Borders being a question of national sovereignty, the main actors are the concerned countries themselves.

Many have established National Boundary Commissions, manned with representatives of all ministries involved: lands, migration, finance, defence, etc. The AUBP unit established at the African Union coordinates, supports and monitors all efforts. Regional Economic Communities or RECs take an active role in facilitating exchange and easing trade at a regional level. International Partners

Online WebMap overview, part of the AU Border Information System AUBIS

Geospatial World • December• 2015

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The many arms of the river Congo make it difficult to identify its main channel

countries decide to re-affirm their border and set up a Joint Boundary Commission, or JBC. They decide on the exact delimitation, based on existing treaties, maps or the situation on the ground, resolving minor issues along the way. A Joint Technical Commission, comprising surveyors, cartographers and others works on all technical aspects and reports back to the JBC. Once the delimitation is agreed upon, the JTC starts staking out and constructing the boundary beacons.

From surveying to digging, mixing of cement and even painting the beacons, every step is done in a mixed team — not due to mistrust, but to underline the fraternal spirit and the joint nature of the work.

Surveying is done using GPS, usually in the coordinate systems of the two countries as well as a global system, either WGS84 or ITRF2008.

Some countries decide to create topographic maps of the border area to be annexed to a future agreement. A new treaty between the two

Example of a boundary map of 1911 at 1:200’000 scale.

Pillars are far apart and the line in between is curved

countries is drafted and signed by the respective ministers or presidents either before or after field work. Assistance from the AU, UN, or international development partners is requested where necessary.

Challenges, obstacles and success stories

Challenges, of course, are manifold. Existing treaties may be very unspecific, landmarks disappeared over time, making delimitation of the boundary line a protracted procedure. Determination of watershed lines is costly, and so is the DGPS equipment, software, manpower and satellite imagery needed to implement a project of this scale.

Personnel with the necessary qualifications and experience are scarce. Some countries are more experienced and better equipped than their neighbors, which in itself can create tension. It is self-evident that coordination between countries is crucial. Both need the financial resources, teams and equipment deployed to the border at the same

Geospatial World • December • 2015

time, something that is easier said than done, especially when financial years are not synchronous. In case the two parties do not agree on the boundary line, they are advised to seek mediation rather than court rulings, as these are usually both lengthy and costly.

On the more technical side, challenges are also numerous. Rivers change their course seasonally, create and destroy islands, divide into several branches or at times dry out completely. Watershed lines, calculated from DEM, are altered due to roads that act like drainage pipes, or cannot really be determined at all in very flat areas.

Satellite imagery often provides sufficient resolution, but insufficient horizontal accuracy. And border beacons are sometimes vandalized by local community in need of construction material.

Also, the border staked out as per the treaty may misalign with an assumed border which the local communities have gotten used to, leaving the countries with the

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difficult decision to either adjust the treaty or to create tensions at the local level. Without the assistance of SBAS or local CORS, surveying and calculating the precise location of the border beacons is a laborious task.

And non-expert counterparts at ministries or international organizations often don’t understand the procedures of these highly technical surveys.

Despite all this, much progress has been achieved. Thousands of kilometres of borders have been demarcated. Best practices on how to demarcate borders on the continent have evolved and were published by the African Union, so countries can learn from their peers and avoid errors others had made. Documentary films have been produced to raise awareness of decision makers and the larger public.

Existing treaties have been unearthed from colonial archives and other sources, scanned and published in an online database where each treaty is linked to the

Best practices on how to demarcate borders on the continent have evolved and were published by the African Union, so countries can learn from their peers respective border. Coordinates within these treaties have been published on an online map on the AUBP website. And June 7 has been established as Africa Border Day. Of course, some actors are less engaged than others, but the front-runners are really doing a commendable job and the others follow in their wake.

Peaceful and well demarcated future

More, of course, is yet to come.

Countries will be able to upload new agreements directly into the AU Border Information System, or AUBIS. Efforts are underway to establish June 7 as the ‘International Day of Integration across

Ambassador Aguibou Diarrah, Head of AUBP, launching the first set of guidebooks on border delimitation at the African Border Day on July 7, 2013

National Boundaries’ at the UN level. The African Union convention on cross-border cooperation is currently undergoing ratification procedures in the Member States.

However, all efforts for integration and cross-border cooperation remain futile if the boundary is not clearly demarcated. Delimitation and demarcation of African Borders remains a Herculean task, and an official dataset with all borders defined is still a long way to go. But the first steps have been made.

The biggest success of the AUBP, however, is the AUBP itself.

Borders in Africa, once considered a topic too hot to touch, have left the taboo zone. Countries are openly discussing their border affairs.

A call for demarcation by one country is no longer perceived as a land grab attempt by the other, but as a chance to handle a formerly toxic topic. Bit by bit, the motto of the AUBP, which sums its efforts up so poignantly, may become a reality: African borders will change “from barriers to bridges”.

Roman Meyer, GIZ-African Union Office, Support to the African Union Border Programme, Advisor GIS and GNSS, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, roman.meyer@giz.de

Geospatial World • December • 2015

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ARTICLE

Mapping Nepal: Drones and the

Pix4D participated in a UAV training mission in Nepal, teaching students how to use drones and image-processing software to create professional maps and models for a wide range of humanitarian and development purposes Geospatial World • December • 2015

O

n April 25, 2015, a massive earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck Nepal. It killed over 10,000 people, shook the lives millions and left many homeless. On May 12, two more devastating quakes, of 7.3 and 6.3 magnitude struck, further killing and injuring people while disrupting the ongoing rehabilitation operations.

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49

Future of Disaster Response drones and image-processing software to create professional maps and models for a wide range of humanitarian and development purposes.

Although drones and photogrammetric software for mapping applications are already being used in the fields of surveying and geomatics, solutions are quickly developing for other fields, such as emergency response. In the event of an earthquake like the one that struck Nepal, maps and models produced from drone-acquired imagery and image-processing software can help assist search and rescue operations, damage assessment, reconstruction, preparedness planning and cultural preservation.

The project

With millions rendered homeless, roads destroyed and a major part of the tiny Himalayan nation in a mess, once the immediate rescue and rehabilitation was over, Nepal needed urgent restoration work.

In this background, Pix4D participated in a week-long UAV training mission in Nepal in September 2015, teaching engineering students at Kathmandu University how to use

Before the training, Kathmandu University (KU) had already been conducting research with drones but lacked the resources and training needed to expand its expertise. Humanitarian UAV Network founder Patrick Meier spearheaded the drone-mapping training in collaboration with KU’s Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering, Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL), Pix4D and UAV maker DJI, with the intent of building a community of Nepali UAV operators skilled in imagery analysis. By spending time with the leading experts in drone technology, students and young professionals learned best practices, guidelines and regulations regarding

drone operation. They also received hands-on flight instruction from DJI and software training from Pix4D. Trainees created specialized flight plans using Pix4Dmapper Capture app for image acquisition, then input that data into the image-processing software Pix4Dmapper to create precise 3D models and maps for further analysis. In an emergency response scenario, these kind of maps and models provide critical information for disaster relief.

Although satellite imagery has been used in these situations for decades, there has often been accompanying shortcomings. Availability, spatial resolution and restrictive vertical perspective have limited the usability of satellite-generated datasets.

Apart from their low cost, drones combined with image processing software can provide frequent surveys of rapidly changing areas without cloud coverage issues and also offer a much more reliable oblique perspective. All these advantages and the very high resolution output generated by software like Pix4Dmapper have placed UAVs in the spotlight of the disaster response community. During operational training in the field, participants worked alongside DJI, Pix4D, and the Community Disaster Management Committee (CDMC) of Panga — a village that had been badly damaged in the earthquake — to create a complete map of the area. Using Phantom 3 Advanced

Geospatial World • December• 2015

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ARTICLE

quadcopters and Pix4Dmapper, orthomosaics were produced overnight and the local community can now use them for the reconstruction process as well as create preparedness plans for future events. While this training had a humanitarian base, the goal was to further validate how drones and image analysis can be used in disaster situations.

Data collection

When the team arrived on the site, it coordinated with the local Community Disaster Management Committee (CDMC) to see which areas needed to be mapped the most. Permission to fly had already been obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN).

Because the streets were littered with debris, powerlines and people around, the team had to climb on the rooftop of the highest surrounding building to ensure safe flying as well as to keep the drone in our line of sight.

The Pix4Dmapper Capture app

was used to choose a grid mission that is optimal for most mapping.

GPS was used to enable localization on a low resolution satellite map.

Dragging the flight grid selection tool, which can scale to approximately 300x400 meters, depending on height, the team defined the area it wanted to map. Flight altitude, speed, image overlap percentage, and angle of the camera were all adjusted accordingly. The Phantom takes off automatically, acquiring images with a high overlap for a proper reconstruction in Pix4Dmapper. During the flight it was very important to keep eye contact with the drone at all times, so it could be quickly brought back in case of an emergency.

In all, 9 small flights were taken, with a total flight time of 45 minutes, acquiring around 900 images at 3.4 cm resolution. Although a Phantom has up to 20 minutes of flight time, the flights on the field were short because of the high levels of airwave interference. Without this interference, the area covered could be much larger and by fewer flights, although for this project, most of the time expended was from climbing to the top of each building. Depending on the size of a project, different types of fixed wing or copter drones can provide different efficiencies.

The Phantom automatically came back to its starting point after the last image was taken for each flight. As soon as the drone landed, the team wanted to make sure that all pictures were taken properly, while they were still on site. They uploaded the images to the Capture Cloud service that computes a 2D and 3D preview within minutes after the images automatically upload

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on the phone itself, and viewed the orthomosaic on our phone’s browser. For processing, the images were transferred to the desktop.

Processing the data

Using Pix4Dmapper on the laptop, the team selected the 3D Maps template with default (WGS84) coordinate system. The software’s automatic processing comprises 3 main steps: The first step optimizes camera positions and analyzes image information, extracting keypoints and matching them across the images. The second step builds a 3D point cloud and model, and the third step generates the DSM and orthomosaic.

All of the images from different flights were processed together in one project, taking around 70 minutes on a MSI laptop with an i7 quad core and GTX 970M GPU. For projects where this doesn’t work (flights may have very different resolutions for example), flights can be processed separately and merged together by creating manual tie points between the images. The built in tools of Pix4Dmapper, like the raycloud and mosaic editor lent accuracy and quality to the project.

The final results were a 3D point cloud, 3D model, and 2D map (orthomosaic) of the village of Panga.

Instead of vertical or close to nadir imagery with meter resolution as one might get with satellite maps, the team now had data that is at centimeter resolution and provided a more comprehensive perspective with its oblique viewing angle.

Courtesy: Pix4D and DJI

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Be Inspired L

ike every year, Bentley Systems honored the winners of the Be Inspired Awards at its popular The Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference. The awards honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users in improving the world’s infrastructure. The Year in Infrastructure Conference, organized this year in London from November 3 to 5,

is a global gathering of leading executives in the world of infrastructure design, construction, and operations. It features presentations and interactive sessions exploring the intersection of technology and business drivers, and how they are shaping the future of infrastructure delivery and investment returns.

This year, 10 independent panels of jurors,

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comprising distinguished industry experts, selected the 18 Be Inspired Awards winners from 54 project finalists. These finalists had been previously chosen from over 360 submissions by organizations in 66 countries.

Candidates for Bentley’s Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards were selected by the jurors from the top finalist projects as well as other exemplary nominations. This selection was based on the projects’ uniquely innovative and visionary achievements that transcend the narrower focus of the standing Be Inspired Awards categories. The nominees were then reviewed by a panel of Bentley executives, who evaluated them based on the criteria established for each award.

“While our goal at Bentley is advancing infrastructure, we can only accomplish it through the vision, talent, and dedication of the architects, engineers, constructors, and operations professionals who creatively apply our technology in pursuit of effective strategies for achieving new levels of project and/or infrastructure asset performance,” said Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley, while underlining that the year 2015 has been a year of major achievements for the company that includes the introduction of the CONNECT Edition infrastructure engineering software, providing a common environment for comprehensive project delivery.

A total of 18 Be Inspired Awards winners and five Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards winners were acknowledged. In addition, Bentley’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to J.P. (Peter) Blake, Director, Project Delivery Group for Hatch.

Innovation in Asset Performance Management Winner: SA Water – Predictive and Operational Analytics Tools, Adelaide Metro Water Distribution Network – (Adelaide, South Australia) The North South Interconnection System Project was proposed to improve water security for the Adelaide, Australia region by linking the city of Adelaide’s separate northern and southern water zones through a series of new transfer pipelines, new pump stations, and a range of other enhancements to the existing water network. As part of the overall project, AssetWise Amulet provided decision support tools that deliver real-time operational analytics. In the 2013-14 financial year, the solution helped save $2 million in electricity costs alone.

Innovation in Bridges Winner: LCW Consult – The Ceira River Bridge – (Coimbra, Coimbra District, Portugal) The new Ceira River Bridge provides a fast connection between Lisbon and Coimbra, Portugal. Spanning 250 meters and rising 140 meters over the river bed, this $28.6 million structure has a 26.4-meter-wide box girder cross section and a 700-meter curve radius.

LCW Consult used Bentley software to ensure precise geometry during the cantilever construction. RM Bridge was used to study seven different structural solutions and select the most efficient and economical solution, both for construction and during operation. The integration between PowerCivil for Portugal and RM Bridge facilitated communication and reduced the design time by approximately 25%.

Innovation in Building Robin Partington and Partners – One Merchant Square – (London, United Kingdom) Robin Partington and Partners used AECOsim Building Designer, Bentley Navigator, GenerativeComponents, and MicroStation so that all disciplines could contribute in a federated BIM workflow. The geometric form and cladding of the tower were rationalized through GenerativeComponents, and the interiors were modeled in AECOsim Building Designer for ease of coordinated documentation.

AWARDS Innovation in Construction Winner: Vic's Crane & Heavy Haul – Unit 25 Project – (Rosemount, Minn., United States) Flint Hills Resources chose Vic’s Crane & Heavy Haul to transport a 160-foot-long, 750,000-pound process vessel by barge and trailers to its Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minn. The two-year feat involved coordinating the loading and unloading of transport vehicles, permitting the load on highways, coordinating with utilities, and redesigning roads and bridges that were not designed for such a heavy load. Bentley software allowed Vic’s Crane & Heavy Haul to detail every aspect of this $100 million project. Vic’s Crane & Heavy Haul used Bentley products including SUPERLOAD, AECOsim Building Designer, and ConstructSim for planning the equipment transport and installation and designing roads, bridges, and lifting equipment.

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Innovation in Government Winner: Singapore Land Authority – Mapping Singapore in 3D – (Singapore) The Singapore Land Authority led this $5.6 million government initiative to create and maintain a high-resolution 3D map of the country. The project encompassed all of Singapore, an area of more than 700 square kilometers. The project involved capturing large amounts of data, creating 2D/3D datasets in several data formats, and supporting the interoperability of the data. The project employed multiple rapid mapping technologies such as oblique imagery, airborne laser scanning, mobile laser scanning, and terrestrial scanning. Using Bentley Map, the project team created and disseminated 3D information directly from Oracle Spatial and provided multi-user access to the database.

Innovation in Land Development Winner: Tata Consulting Engineers – Detailed Design of Utility Infrastructure – (Dharampur, Gujarat, India) On this $27 million project in Dharampur, India, the SRM Ashram Committee requested that Tata Consulting Engineers provide a detailed design for an economical ashram and surrounding infrastructure that would be sustainable for the next 100 years.

A primary challenge was the site’s sloping terrain and it being hemmed in by valleys. The team also had to plan for considerable pedestrian traffic of up to 8,000 visitors per day. Tata Consulting Engineers used MicroStation, Bentley Map, GEOPAK, InRoads, Bentley MXROAD, PowerCivil, STAAD, and Haestad products to generate concept options, schematic design, and detailed design. The team performed cost-benefit analyses and created 3D presentations for the client, which reduced the project delivery cost.

Innovation in Megaprojects Winner: AECOM – E4 Stockholm Bypass FSK02 Rock Tunnels Design Contract – (Stockholm, Sweden) The E4 Stockholm Bypass is a new motorway linking northern and southern Stockholm, Sweden. To reduce the impact on sensitive natural and cultural environments, 18 kilometers of its 21 kilometers are in tunnels. When the link opens for traffic, it will be one of the longest road tunnels in the world. In this $3.1 billion project – one of the largest civil engineering projects in Sweden – the AECOM and ÅF joint venture provided detailed design and contract preparation for the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket).

A multi-disciplinary project of this size and scale needed extraordinary collaboration among design teams. Adopting BIM methodology and applying a common data environment in the form of Bentley MXROAD, Bentley Navigator, InRoads, MicroStation, and ProjectWise permitted opportunities for more rigorous optioneering during design development and a more streamlined process for collaboration, review, and checking during design.

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Innovation in Mining

Innovation in Offshore

Winner: Tetra Tech Proteus – Kvanefjeld Rare Earth: Uranium Project – (Narsaq, Kujalleq, Greenland)) Greenland Mining and Energy Ltd intends to develop the $1.5 billion Kvanefjeld Rare Earth and Uranium Project in South Greenland. The proposed development features a mine, concentrator, refinery, port, accommodation village, and infrastructure.

Greenland Mining and Energy engaged Tetra Tech Proteus to contribute to a feasibility study, including multi-discipline design, capital cost estimates, and implementation planning assistance.

Tetra Tech Proteus maximized Greenland Mining and Energy’s ROI by designing a plant with the least capital cost, but which satisfies plant production and recovery targets. Modularizing the plant minimized on-site construction time in the Arctic location. Using Bentley software, Tetra Tech Proteus made appropriate modifications to 3D model templates from prior projects to cost-effectively produce the optimized plant layout, reduce civil construction costs, and reduce concrete, steel, piping, and electrical capital costs.

Keystone Engineering – Block Island Wind Farm – (Block Island, Rhode Island, United States) Keystone Engineering adapted deep water jacket-type support structure design from the oil industry for use on five, 6-megawatt wind turbine generators on America’s first offshore wind farm.

The $290 million Block Island Wind Farm project, which will supply power to Rhode Island and the rest of New England, was chosen to kick start offshore wind farms because electricity is expensive in this region. Keystone’s innovative design reduced the amount of steel required, resulting in installed costs savings of 20%. Bentley’s SACS enabled the team to design the structure using parallel-process multiple simulations, and perform multiple iterations in the time it would normally take to do a single pass.

Innovation in Power Generation

Innovation in Process Manufacturing

Winner: MWH Global – Tyseley Resource Recovery Centre – (Birmingham, West Midland, United Kingdom) Generating power through the gasification of waste wood, this $72 million Tyseley plant will be the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. It will be supplied with approximately 67,000 tons of wood waste secured under a long-term sustainable contract with a local supplier. Over its 20-year lifespan, it is expected to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2.1 million tons and save 1.3 million tons of waste wood otherwise destined for landfill.

Under an EPC contract, MWH Global used AECOsim Building Designer, Bentley Navigator, MicroStation, OpenPlant, and ProjectWise, to develop and coordinate the design for Birmingham Bio Power. MWH Global will undertake its construction and commissioning before taking on an operational role running the plant under a five-year operations and maintenance contract.

Winner: Giprotyumenneftegaz – Preliminary Water Removal Unit: North Vankor Field – (Igarka, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia) Located in the Turukhansk District of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Territory, the UPSV-North oil and gas field is operated by Vankorneft, a Rosneft subsidiary. Located in a permafrost soil zone, this highly complex facility requires the separation of an oil-gas-water sludge to exact industry standards.

For this project, Giprotyumenneftegaz designed the preliminary water removal unit which included surveying to create a digital terrain model and soil sampling for weight and pressure calculations. Over 300 complex designs were modeled. PlantSpace, AutoPIPE, Bentley Descartes, Promis.e, and other Bentley software helped with equipment selection, as well as strength calculations, and static and dynamic load analyses for process pipelines.

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AWARDS

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Innovation in Project Delivery

Innovation in Rail and Transit

Winner: AECOM – Global Project Collaboration in a Design-build-finance-operate (DBFO) World – (Global) With nearly 100,000 employees worldwide, AECOM is a global provider of DBFO services to the public and private sectors. This project maximized resource utilization by providing virtual project teams with open access to all resources anywhere, anytime, for any project worldwide. The initiative allows users to work collaboratively across projects, and capture asset information throughout the entire asset lifecycle. AECOM deployed ProjectWise as a global gateway with seven hubs, plus cache servers in offices connected to the nearest hubs. Information flows between the hubs and cache servers using delta file transfer. In the year since deployment, adoption has grown 400% to more than 20,000 users. If the system increases resource utilization by just 2%, AECOM will save hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis.

Winner: London Underground – Bond Street to Baker Street Tunnel Remediation Project – (London, United Kingdom) For this $51 million project, London Underground undertook the safe replacement of the existing elasto plastic concrete lining with a spheroidal graphite iron lining in a 215-meter tunnel segment on the Jubilee Line. The major challenge was to keep the railway running while relining the tunnels. London Underground initiated this project with an ambitious target of 20% cost reduction by improving planning, design, and assurance efficiencies.

Bentley software including AECOsim Building Designer, Bentley Descartes, Bentley Pointools, Bentley Navigator, and ProjectWise enabled collaboration and supported creation of a geospatially accurate, fully coordinated 3D model. The 3D and 4D models contributed to stakeholder and decision-maker understanding, resulting in numerous ROI savings. London Underground realized a 15% reduction in safety planning, risk assessment, and assurance costs.

Innovation in Roads

Innovation in Structures

Winner: Grontmij – A6 to Manchester Relief Road – (Stockport, Manchester and Cheshire, United Kingdom) This $151 million project by Grontmij was dispersed across six offices, 15 disciplines, and 200 team members. It encompassed the detailed design, construction, and defects liability maintenance of 10 kilometers of a dual carriageway in Manchester, United Kingdom, running from A6 at Hazel Grove to the Ringway Road/ Ringway Road West junction, incorporating an existing section of the A555. Using a shared federation process via Bentley Navigator, Bentley MXROAD, i-model Composition Server (formerly i-model Composer), OpenRoads, and ProjectWise, Grontmij produced more cost-effective designs.

Winner: Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates – SkyHouse Apartments – (Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Houston, and Dallas, Texas; US) Novare Group develops $45 to $75 million apartment complexes in cities throughout the United States, including projects completed, in design, or under construction in 17 locations. The prototypical project is a 23-story, 320-unit complex with street-level retail space. Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates modifies the design for each location based on local building ordinances, geology, seismicity, and wind forces. RAM Structural System and RAM Concept allow changes to be made quickly and provide updated designs to the developer, architect, and contractor.

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Innovation in Utilities and Communications

Innovation in Water Network Analysis

Winner: Pacific Gas and Electric Company – Engineering Contractor Collaboration Solution Using ProjectWise and Bentley Substation – (San Ramon, California, United States) The goal of this project by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) was to create a collaborative contractor system to streamline drawing control, manage information security, centralize drawing databases, and reduce document bottlenecks. Substation Engineering Services embarked on this innovative $450,000 project to improve document control, ensure design consistency, and reduce cycle times. PG&E expects to realize efficiency gains and benefits similar to those that it has seen internally for the last several years, which is a $5 million savings per year on contracted projects. Now contractors located throughout the country can work in PG&E’s environment, using the same software, and accessing the same databases in real time.

Winner: Prolagos/Aegea – Water Master Plan for the Região dos Lagos – (Região dos Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Prolagos provides water and sewerage services to five municipalities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 2041 Master Plan aims to expand the water supply system for Região dos Lagos over short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. Key goals of this $50 million project were to reduce energy consumption by 50% and reduce non-revenue water from 45% to 25%. Prolagos used WaterGEMS to leverage network data to help improve efficiency and increase supply from 91% to 98% of residents. In high season, that means increasing service from 400,000 residents to 730,000 residents. More than 50 scenarios were modeled to make collaborative decisions. Given the energy savings and revenue gains, the return on investment for this project was 323%.

Innovation in Water Treatment Plants Winner: Aqua+ – Complex Scheduling and Automatic Water Quality Monitoring of Groundwater – (Khabarovsk, Far East Federal District, Russia) Vodokanal of Khabarovsk Municipal Unitary Enterprise retained Aqua+ to develop an integrated remote monitoring and control system for the $151 million Tunguska water intake facilities.

Aqua+ performed design, construction, installation, and commissioning works for local automation facilities and integrated the works with the existing management system. All project and design documentation was performed using Bentley software.

About 2,000 documents were generated automatically using Bentley’s Promis.e in about half the usual time, which allowed the company to quickly and accurately complete the design work.

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Lifetime Achievement Award Bentley’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to J.P. (Peter) Blake, Director, Project Delivery Group for Hatch Chile.

Blake was recognized for his exceptional vision, numerous career achievements, leadership, Pictured (left to right): Malcolm Walter, COO, Bentley Systems; Peter Blake, Hatch; Susan Blake and effectiveness as a change agent, having tirelessly advocated throughout his career for improving infrastructure workflows through the better application of advanced technologies. Equally important, he was honored as a great friend and mentor to the infrastructure community at large.

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