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R.N.I No - UPENG/2010/34153 Registration no: UP/GBD-136/2011-13 YOUR GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
www.geospatialworld.net MAY 2012 VOL 02 ISSUE 10 ISSN 2277 - 3134
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Inside...
Advisory Board Abbas Rajabifard President, GSDI Association
Aida Opoku Mensah Director - ICT Division UN Economic Commission for Africa
Bryn Fosburgh Vice President Trimble Derek Clarke Chief Director-Survey and Mapping & National Geospatial Information Department of Rural Development & Land Reform, South Africa Greg Bentley CEO, Benltey Systems
MARITIME TRANSPORT
Shipping undergoes sea change
20
Vaibhav Arora
Jack Dangermond President, Esri
ARTICLES 26
Josef Strobl Director, Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria
Air Traffic: Tech for the skies Deepali Roy
45 Juergen Dold President, Hexagon Geosystems
Railway management: Fast track to efficiency Ron Bisio
CASE STUDIES
Kamal K Singh Chairman and CEO Rolta Group
32 Singapore Land Transport Authority 34 Taipei City Department of Transportation, Taiwan
Mark Reichardt President and CEO Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
36 City of Brisbane, Australia 38 Indian Railways
Matthew M O'Connell President and CEO GeoEye
Preetha Pulusani Chief Strategy Officer, Rolta Group
Shailesh Nayak Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India Vanessa Lawrence CB Director General and CEO, Ordnance Survey, UK
39 Kwazulu-Natal Department of Transport, South Africa 40 Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, UAE
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TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS CONFERENCE REPORT Geospatial World Forum 2012 G-tech: The game changer in the world economy 07 Editorial
CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan PUBLISHER Sanjay Kumar PUBLICATIONS TEAM Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor - Europe Prof. Ian Dowman Editor - Latin America (Honorary) Tania Maria Sausen Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Executive Editor Bhanu Rekha Product Manager Shivani Lal Assistant Editors Deepali Roy, Aditi Bhan, Vaibhav Arora, Anand Kashyap DESIGN TEAM Sr. Creative Designer Deepak Kumar Graphic Designer Manoj Kumar Singh CIRCULATION TEAM Circulation Manager Vijay Kumar Singh
8 News
49 Events
54 Picture this
D ISCLAIMER 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.
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EditorSpeak
Transportation - route to prosperity and, water and air - these three elements form the basis of human life and human activities. One of these activities is transportation of people, goods and material for industry, commerce and recreation. Transportation is about movement from one place to another and, therefore, is a fertile ground for geospatial technology and applications, which can range from route planning to position location, navigation, asset management and surveillance.
L
The story of human progress has a huge chapter on exploration and commerce. The hunger for new land led to the 'discovery' of the Americas. The search for an alternative to the risky land route to India for spices and silk led to the search and discovery of a route from Europe via the aptly named Cape of Good Hope. While land travellers were guided by way points, sailors depended on the stars and the sun. The sextant provided a measure of the latitude but it required a determined and somewhat eccentric clock maker named Harrison to devise a means to determine the longitude. The ability to navigate also helped conquest and colonisation. The need to optimise transportation routes for the efficient movement of goods and men saw the development of engineering marvels like the Panama and Suez Canals; the evolution of the railroad, road networks, aircraft and ocean liners and ports, railway stations and airports. As traffic grew, port cities became transportation hubs and the cause for competition, congestion and chaos. The need for regulation and control required planning and foresight. That essential tool of navigation, the map took on a different role - as a means of planning. Routing of roads, canals, railways and the charting of air corridors, the location of facilities like airports, stations, goods yards, and protection of Prof. Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor the environment from the ill effects of these activities, safety and arup@geospatialmedia.net control, all required a map base. Thus geospatial technology was, is and will continue to be an integral part of this human endeavour. Technologies like the Global Navigation Satellite Systems are now essential for navigation. As the world battles with global warming and economic crisis, the need for optimising transportation to reduce costs and reduce emissions becomes essential. While technology is doing its bit by evolving fuel efficient transportation, geospatial technology is providing for efficient route planning and management of assets and facilities and their sustainable development. The Geospatial World Forum 2012 was held in Amsterdam in the third week of April. This small country, the Netherlands, hosts two important travel hubs, the port of Rotterdam and Amsterdam airport, an important gateway to Europe. Amsterdam city itself is well served by train, road, tramway, canals and metro, and is an illustration of excellent transportation planning and management, blending the traditional with the modern. The Dutch Kadaster, which co-hosted the conference, provides a very comprehensive spatial information base on which such planning is done. This exemplifies the importance of geospatial technology for transportation.
Geospatial World I May 2012
7
NEWS KE NYA
'Africa full of underground water reserves' SU DAN
FAO provides land cover atlas Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation released land cover atlas of Sudan, based on an updated database of high-resolution satellite imagery. It shows that less than 13 percent of land is used for agriculture. More than 50 percent is desert, 10 percent is covered by trees and a tiny 0.7 percent is covered by water. The atlas is produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) SIFSIA (Sudan Integrated Food Security Information for Action) programme, which is funded by the European Commission. The atlas can help identify available agricultural land and pastures and to monitor water sources, land degradation and climate change.
B U R KI NA FASO
'Africa is ready to embrace NSDI' The regional seminar, National Spatial Data Infrastructures: which benefits for emerging countries?, observed that Africa is fully prepared to implement NSDI procedures. While no unique spatial data infrastructure model exists, the participants agreed that the African model will be inspired from European model. The seminar was organised by IGN France International and the French IGN, in collaboration with the Geo-
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Many African countries, which are currently designated as 'water scarce', have substantial groundwater reserves, observed researchers at the British Geological Survey and University College London. For the first time, they mapped aquifers, or groundwater, across the African continent. They estimated that reserves of groundwater across the continent are 100 times the amount found on its surface, or 0.66 million cubic kilometres. The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan.
graphic Institute of Burkina (IGB), the United Nation's Economic Commission for Africa (CEA) and Esri.
N IG E R IA
Agency gets image processing capability The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) claimed that its laboratory has got the capacity to download and process images from its satellites. The agency refuted the media report which claimed that UK's Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd will
process the data from NigeriaSat-1, NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X. An agency spokesperson explained that the ground station for the satellites in the UK serves as a back-up station for the Abuja ground station for the testing period.
‘Nigeria using 1973 map’ "Nigeria is still using a topographic map prepared in 1973. Now, mapping on large scale is required for the country," stated Surveyor General Peter C. Nwilo, in conversation with allAfrica. Nwilo explained that the updated new maps will help the government in reducing unnecessary expenditures and would improve the land reform system. He added that an updated topographic map of a particular area can help people in building environment friendly structures. He urged people to consult surveyors before building a structure.
Geospatial World I May 2012
I N DIA
weather capability to take images of the earth could also be used to keep an eye on the country's borders round-the-clock and to help in antiterrorist and anti-infiltration operations.
First indigenous radar Asian glaciers 'putting on mass' sat launched The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the first indigenous radar satellite, RISAT-1. Earlier, in 2009, ISRO had launched 300 kg
RISAT-2 but it was procured from Israel. According to ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, the 1850 kg RISAT-1 is a boon for regions perennially under cloud cover. Besides use in the agriculture sector, the satellite's all
A French team from the National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Grenoble used satellite data to show that glaciers in part of the Karakoram range, to the west of the Himalayan region, are putting on mass. It is an unusual finding as glaciers in other parts of the Himalayas are losing mass - which is also the global trend. The French scientists compared two models of land surface elevation derived from satellite observations, for 1999 and 2008.
Atlas shows shrinking wasteland A national wasteland atlas noted that India's wasteland declined more than 5 lakh hectares during 2005-2008.
CH I NA
Haiyang-2 sat data accessible to all The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) announced open access to data from the oceanic surveying satellite Haiyang-2. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation developed this satellite and launched it in August 2011. The satellite provides data for oceanic disaster prevention and relief, resources exploitation, environmental protection, oceanic research as well as safeguarding oceanic rights.
Geospatial World I May 2012
The atlas is based-on a collaborative survey by the Rural Development Ministry and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). The NRSC had mapped land use in 2005 and repeated the exercise in 2008 to know the changes. The report further stated that wasteland during 2005-08 declined by 3.2 million hectare while increase in wasteland was to the tune of 2.7 million hectares. The atlas also indicated that more than 13,769 hectares of wasteland has been used for industrial purpose and 1.3 million hectares of wasteland has been used for agricultural activities.
INSAT-3C to track trains Using INSAT-3C satellite data, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), along with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), developed a solution to provide exact location of moving trains. It provides an accuracy of 10 metres and latency of 2 minutes on a real-time basis. The solution also uses GPS data. CRIS integrated GPS devices with Google maps, which will enable passengers to see real-time locations of their trains. A pilot project has already been rolled out. CRIS plans to allocate around INR 70 crore to the project.
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Influx of investment in transportation
Scientists trace tsunami debris
Efkon India, a subsidiary of European construction company Strabag, will invest more than INR 100 crore in the domestic urban transportation and highways tolling business over the next four to five years, announced Pushkar Kulkarni, CEO of Efkon. Kulkarni stated that while toll system equipment and services make up the bulk of the company's revenues, logistics management, GIS mapping and vehicle tracking system contribute 10-15 percent.
Scientists at the University of Hawaii's International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) developed SCUD (Surface Currents from Diagnostic) model. It predicts ocean currents to estimate the path of debris from the devastating Tohoku Tsunami that struck the northeast coast of Japan in March 2011. The researchers used actual satellite data on sea surface height and on ocean surface winds to help build their animated model, as well as data from scientific drifting buoy networks and reports of debris sightings.
NCFC to provide crop forecasts Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, inaugurated National Crop Forecast Centre (NCFC) in New Delhi. Using geospatial technologies, the centre will provide in-season forecasts for selected 11 major crops such as rice, wheat, sugarcane and maize. It will also assess drought situation in the country through latest technologies. The centre, in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will also work towards preparing sub-district level drought assessment in the entire country.
JAPAN
Quake scale estimation faster now The Geospatial Information Authority, in association with Tohoku University, developed a GPS-based quake scale estimation system. It will be fully operational in 2013. It can estimate
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Under the agreement, Japan will get UK assistance for its NovaSAR programme. On the other hand, the agreement will help UK achieve its target of growing its share of the world space market to 10 per cent by 2030.
HONG KONG the scale of crustal movement within minutes. Current systems take more than five hours to do so. Under traditional methods, analysing only seismic data, quake scales can be underestimated just after earthquakes, GSI officials claimed.
Collaboration to spur space research
Asia gets wind data analysis centre Scotland-based renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, set up the Offshore Risk Quantification Analysis (ORQA) platform on behalf of Hong
UK Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, signed an agreement with the Japanese Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa for collaboration on space research and technology, while also identifying potential commercial opportunities.
Geospatial World I May 2012
Kong Electric Company (HEC). This is Asia's first ORQA platform. It features the latest technology in data monitoring equipment specifically designed to capture meteorological, environmental, wave and tidal data, including SgurrEnergy's Galion LiDAR, a second generation laser-based device. The measurement campaign, located near Lamma Island, Hong Kong, will run for one year and the data captured will be used to inform the planning and construction phases for the proposed offshore wind farm, the first one for Hong Kong. The technology will be part of Hong Kong's first offshore wind farm.
N E PAL
ICIMOD gets fire monitoring system The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), in collaboration with Nepal's Forest Department, developed a forest fire detection and monitoring system. The system reprocesses data from
to subscribers. Alerts are sent out twice daily, two hours after each satellite passes over the region.
transponders, allowing computers to track vessels.
UAE I RAN
Govt continues tweaking g-tech Sometime back, Iran had drawn attention of geospatial fraternity by using GPS spoofing technique to guide a US drone (RQ-170 Sentinel) to an intact landing inside hostile territory. Now, it has disabled tracking system aboard its oil tanker fleet, making it difficult to assess how much crude oil the country is exporting as it seeks to counter Western sanctions aimed at cutting its oil revenues, Reuters reported. A Reuters' survey of the Iranian fleet via the ship tracking system AIS (Automatic Identification System) Live observed that only seven of its 25 very large crude carriers are still operating on-board
G-tech to monitor flora and fauna The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) rolled out a project to establish a baseline for long-term monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity and habitat in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. There are 10,000 survey grids across the emirate to perform the study. The project will include environmental data collection, base mapping, grid design etc. It aims to develop an environmental data model and geo-database terrestrial baseline survey and to provide detailed understanding of the environment including land cover, water resources and animals. It will help authorities in implementing policies and regulations and assessing their success.
VI ETNAM
GNSS to track radioactivity
Fire Management System
Maryland-based Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), whereas the FIRMS uses Terra and Aqua satellite data. It shows location of fire, altitude and slope of the site, and land cover type. Updates are sent by SMS and email
Geospatial World I May 2012
In a bid to ensure nuclear security, South Korea, Vietnam and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have proposed the introduction of Radiation Source Location Tracking (RADLOT) system in Vietnam. The RADLOT, developed by the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, is capable of tracking radioactive sources in real time through GPS satellite signals and mobile telecommunication networks.
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FRANCE
'InSAR data can monitor volcanoes' Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data can be used to monitor volcanoes, according to the article, 'Monitoring Volcanoes', published in Science magazine. The article explained that tiny changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal and lead to rainbow-coloured interference patterns in the combined image, known as a 'SAR interferogram'. Movement of magma underground may cause
deformation of the surface above, thus InSAR can be used to monitor volcanoes. Referring to this article, the European Space Agency (ESA) claimed that earth-observing satellites, such as Envisat, can detect unrest in currently unmonitored volcanoes.
ESA loses contact with Envisat After 10 years of service, Envisat stopped sending data to earth. However, the European Space Agency's (ESA) mission control is working to re-establish contact with the satellite. A contingency agreement with the Canadian Space Agency on Radarsat will be activated in order to continue to serve some of the user requirements if the problem with Envisat persists. The Envisat has been in orbit for twice as long as it was designed for, but the ESA hopes to keep the satellite in service until the launch of its successor, Sentinel missions.
GNSS information portal launched European Space Agency (ESA) introduced its own wiki-based information source, Navipedia. It is the first ever ESA technical wiki, opened to the public. There are more than 400 articles on the site till date, covering the fundamental principles of satellite navigation, how receivers operate, various systems in current or future operation around the globe and GNSS-related services and applications. The website can also be edited by outside contributors.
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UK
OGP standardises 'polygons' for maps The European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) released a series of standard map 'shapes', or 'polygons'. Roger Lott, Chairman of OGP's Geodesy Subcommittee explained that the
polygon data will be used through the mapping capability of GIS applications and websites offering a map front end for searching the EPSG Dataset. The polygon data has been captured at point densities suitable for small scale mapping. It is being distributed in both GML and Shape file formats. The data is available for download from the OGP Geomatics Committee website at http://info.ogp. org.uk/geomatics/polygons.
Airport promotes geography education According to a new survey by the Heathrow, one in 10 British children cannot find the UK on a map. The study of 1,000 children between the
Geospatial World I May 2012
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'IT companies yet to tap mapping power' Nearly three-fourths of IT decision makers worldwide are not effectively using mapping technology and are not even tapping the full potential of location-based services (LBS), observed Sanjay Patel, head of enterprise GEO at Google. In an interview with Techworld, Patel said, "IT decision makers should start thinking about using location-based business intelligence in order to process and analyse 'Big Data'. If you can't put data onto a map and understand it, then you're in the wrong line of business." He said that adding geographical context to 'Big Data' can help organisations visualise their data, in orderto get a better grasp of customer behaviour.
ages of six and ten also revealed that 41 percent of them did not know that the UK is in Europe. To address this issue, the airport has installed giant globes in its terminals to help children locate their destination. Also, 20,000 maps will be handed to young travellers, adding to their excitement about the destinations ahead and helping them to understand more about different geographical locations across the world.
earth observation satellite data. This service will enable the monitoring and trading of carbon credits and similar commercial tools for tackling climate change. In addition, the funds will be used to support UK NovaSAR Synthetic Aperture Radar mission. All these projects will be led by Astrium Ltd, DMC International Imaging Ltd and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
GBP 6 mn boost for space projects
TH E N ETH E R LAN DS
As part of the National Space Technology Programme, the UK Government announced a GBP 6 million grant to co-fund new research projects. The projects include developing a system and service for measuring land carbon stocks and fluxes from
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TomTom launches geocoding service TomTom launched Global Geocoder, a high volume batch geocoding web service. The Geocoder converts addresses into geographic coordinates to allow location analysis. By
combining geographic knowledge with business information, businesses can make smarter decisions that will lead to better products, as well as cost savings and process improvements. For example, insurance companies are relying on geocoding techniques to help set premiums and make underwriting decisions based on the physical locations of the insurance projects.
GeoEye, Rolta team up GeoEye signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rolta in Amsterdam. With this new partnership, Rolta gained access to GeoEye's high-resolution satellite imagery, services and expertise to develop innovative geospatial products and services. According to Rolta's press statement, 90 percent of the fastestgrowing metropolitan economies are located outside North America and Western Europe and in regions such as Southern Asia. The company intends to offer these high-growth global markets with financially accessible 3D model solutions developed from GeoEye satellite imagery.
R USSIA
USD 10 bn approved for Glonass Russia approved RUB 300 billion (USD 10.1 billion) for developing the Glonass satellite navigation system, to the year 2020. Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov made this announcement at the sixth annual Satellite Navigation Forum in Moscow. President-elect Vladimir
Geospatial World I May 2012
Spatial data available online
Putin has said he hopes Glonass will ensure "satellite navigation sovereignty" for Russia and help promote the creation of domestic consumer devices. Russia estimates that the navigation market in the country was worth RUB 12 billion last year.
City of Melbourne became the first Australian council to make its spatial data freely available online, as part of the 'Community Maps Program'. The
B E LG I U M
EU funds 'i-GOing' project The European Union (EU) funded 'iGOing' project under the 7th Research Framework Programme. The project aims to design, develop and demonstrate a precise indoor navigation service based on Galileo and advanced 'pseudolite' technologies. Pseudolites are small transceivers that are used to create a local, ground-based GNSS alternative. Researchers hope to provide better than one meter accuracy to indoor applications, using 'pseudolite' technologies.
Geospatial World I May 2012
programme aims to develop the world's most accurate online map using Esri's ArcGIS Online service. With this, Melbourne joined major cities including New York and Los Angeles as one of the first in the world to contribute to a
new World Topographical Map, which is expected to become the most authoritative online global map ever developed.
'Need for unified spatial data network' Australia needs to provide a comprehensive, detailed and nationwide network of spatial data, observed the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA). Such a network is essential in handling natural disasters, adjudicating between militant farmers' groups and coal seam gas extraction projects. The association is using a review of the New South Wales (NSW) planning system to outline the importance of bringing public sector activities in all states and territories within a spatial guidance framework. SIBA noted that the objective of the NSW planning legislation should be to ensure that all land-based activities are brought together into a single spatial framework.
Geospatial education gets a boost Australian government's National VET E-Learning Strategy supported a pilot project to boost entrants into the spatial information industry. The project aims to raise the skill level of technicians through greater use of elearning in vocational education and training. Project director George Havakis said, "Surveying and geospatial technologies and services have been identified as the key to Australia's future productivity. However, there is a serious skills shortage in all sectors of the industry. Developing an e-learning program has the potential to deliver training anywhere, any time." The project is being supported by a consortium of peak industry bodies, spatial organisations and companies.
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B USI N ESS
Microsoft, Facebook boost market presence Monday (April 9, 2012) was the day of megadeals. At the one end, Facebook
gram, which has an easy-to-use geotag feature in its photo-sharing process that lets users tell everyone exactly where they were when they captured the photos. The deal, Facebook's largest to date, is worth around USD 1 billion in cash and shares. At the other end, AOL sold 800 patents for USD 1.1 billion to Microsoft. The patents are related to mapping, advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, multimedia/streaming and security, among other things.
P OLICY
Call to ease satellite export controls "Limited national security benefits" are provided by a 1998 law that applies more stringent controls on satellites, a report by the Pentagon and State Department found. The report urges the US
USD 200 mn for 'big data' initiative
announced that it will acquire the mobile photo-sharing firm Insta-
Responding to the large amount of data collected by geospatial intelligence and other systems, the US government announced a 'big data' research and development initiative. Under this initiative, six federal agencies announced more
Trimble strengthens surveying and 3D portfolio Last month, Trimble inked two mega deals. It acquired Gatewing, a provider of lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), for photogrammetry and rapid terrain mapping applications. And, by the end of month, it acquired Google's 3D modelling platform 'SketchUp' for an undisclosed sum, which is Google's first disinvestment ever. TechCrunch reported that Trimble couldn't have paid more that USD 90 million for it. About Gatewing, Trimble claimed that the acquisition will enhance its surveying solutions portfolio. "The combination of UAVs and low-altitude photogrammetry as an image collection platform opens up new opportunities for surveyors to use aerial imagery for the rapid acquisition of high-density geospatial data," said Anders Rhodin, Director of Trimble's Survey Business.
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Congress to relax satellite export controls so that US companies can better compete globally for sales of communications and remote-sensing equipments. The report recommends removing license requirements for communication satellites that do not contain classified components and remote-sensing satellites that fall short of certain performance parameters as well as subsystems, parts and components for those systems.
than USD 200 million in new commitments, aimed at improving the tools and techniques needed to access, organise and glean discoveries from huge volumes of digital data. NASA's Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will also gain from the programme. NASA has joined forces with the US Environmental
Geospatial World I May 2012
company had estimated that it would cost USD 1.5 billion to develop, build and test the first two GPS III satellites. However, US Air Force spokeswoman Vicki Stein informed that the cost had risen to USD 1.62 billion. Lockheed Martin's fee is 5 percent of the target cost, which includes onetime engineering tasks, test equipment and satellite assembly. Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), other agencies and nations to integrate satellite and ground-based monitoring and modelling systems to evaluate environmental conditions.
'Lockheed Martin to lose USD 70 mn' Lockheed Martin will lose its entire fee of about USD 70 million to defray an 18 percent cost overrun on the newly designed GPS satellites, according to the US Air Force. The
M ISCE LLAN EOUS
DARPA seeks sensors for navigation Many US Military systems rely on GPS to provide accurate position, orientation and time information while in flight. When GPS is inaccessible, information critical for navigation must be gathered using the missile's on-board sensors. To overcome this challenge, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA)
Chip-Scale Combinatorial Atomic Navigator (C-SCAN) seeks an atomic inertial sensor to measure orientation in GPS-denied environments. Such a sensor would integrate small size, low power consumption, high resolution of motion detection and a fast start up time into a single package.
China accused of stealing space tech China is stealing US military and civilian space technology and is disrupting US' access to intelligence, navigation and communications satellites, noted a report by the US State and Defense Departments. Speaking to Bloomberg, US intelligence officials said that while the Chinese military was not preparing to fight a major land war, its goal was to deny military access to the other four arenas in which a war might be fought--the seas around China; the
GIS market in utility segment set to climb According to the latest report by Pike Research, utility spending on GIS services, software and tools will increase steadily over the next five years, reaching USD 3.7 billion in 2017. Bob Gohn, Vice President of research at Pike Research explained, "The smart grid has energised electric utilities to think creatively about how to improve the delivery of electrical power and the business and workflow processes that enable it. As the deployment of intelligent field equipment, particularly advanced metering infrastructure, has surged, the applications leveraging this infrastructure are increasingly dependent on GISbased data for critical real-time performance."
airspace surrounding the country; space; and cyberspace. Last year, a congressional commission report had observed that computer hackers, possibly from the Chinese military, interfered with two US satellites in 2007 and 2008.
Industry supports AAG resolution AOL, Nokia and Sprint Nextel showed support for funding geography education in the USA. They endorsed a resolution, developed by the Association of American Geographers (AAG), which calls on the Congress to
"include authorisations and appropriations for geography education consistent with other core academic subjects for K-12, as part of a re-authorised Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)." It also supports geography programmes such as the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act, and urges the Obama administration to include geography as part of its proposals for improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.
Esri launches Titanic 'story map' On the occasion of 100th anniversary of Titanic disaster, Esri released an interactive story map that gives a class-based view of the survivability of the Titanic shipwreck. The map story looks at the geography, class and fate of the passengers on the ship. The online mapping application geocoded the hometowns of all passengers on board the Titanic (Titan-
18
ic's crew was not included) and identified them by the type of class they were travelling on (first, second or third class). The map highlighted that passengers in first class had a higher survival rate than those in second class.
LiDAR-powered drones to hunt pirates The US Navy scheduled first test of LiDAR-powered Fire Scouts drones with seven small boats off the California coast this summer. The Navy aims to use these drones to automatically recognise small pirate boats. With in-built automatic target recognition feature, these drones will ease the workload strain for Navy sailors, who eyeball the data coming from the Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker (MMSS) — a sensor mix of high-definition cameras, mid-wave infrared sensors and the 3D LiDAR technology.
TECH NOLOGY
NROL-25 to enhance GEOINT The US launched a new classified radar imaging satellite that can see at night and through bad weather. With precise GEOINT, it will allow American intelligence agencies to spy on
Geospatial World I May 2012
WorldView-3 satellite features announced
countries of interest. This successful launch is the first of four spy satellite missions to be launched for the National Reconnaissance Office this year. Other satellites will be launched within the span of five months.
JAXA provides radar tech to NASA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) handed off the new satellite instrument, Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), to NASA. The DPR has been designed and built by JAXA and Japan's National Institute
DigitalGlobe unveiled unique capabilities of its WorldView-3 satellite, slated for launch in mid-2014. The satellite will offer 0.31 meter resolution panchromatic and eight-band multispectral imagery. In addition, it has been licensed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to collect eight-band short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery. This will make DigitalGlobe the only company with multi-band SWIR capabilities. The satellite is currently being constructed by Ball Aerospace. The imaging instruments, including the SWIR sensor and optics, were engineered and are being built by ITT Exelis.
of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The instrument is the first space-borne radar to use two bands in the microwave range of frequencies, Ku and Ka, to study precipitation. It obtains three-dimensional information about precipitation particles. It will aid forecasts of
CANADA
Open government data plan unveiled The President of the Treasury Board, Tony Clement, announced Canada's membership in the international Open Government Partnership. Clement presented Canada's Open Government Action Plan and endorsed the partnership's declaration of principles as Canada's final steps towards membership in the partnership. According to Geoff Zeiss, Director Utility Industry Program, Autodesk, Inc., the fundamental principle is the issuing of a government-wide directive that will make government information and data available to the public by default. The pilot Open Data Portal now has a total of over 272,000 data sets including geospatial data from 20 organisations.
Geospatial World I May 2012
hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.
M EXICO
Law for real-time surveillance The Mexican legislature unanimously passed a surveillance legislation. It will grant the police warrantless access to user location data in real time, without their consent. The bill has been sent to Mexican President for final approval. However, many internet privacy experts criticised this new law. They characterised it as being against the human rights. Speaking to EFF, Mexican human rights lawyer Luis Fernando Garcia said, "Mexican policy makers must understand that the adoption of broad surveillance powers without adequate safeguards undermines the privacy and security of citizens, and is therefore incompatible with their human rights obligations."
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MARITIME TRANSPORT
Shipping undergoes sea change
From navigation to loading and unloading of cargo at the port, modern technology has permeated mostt aspects of maritime transport. Here's a look at some of the technologies that have played a signifiicant role in changing the face of the world shipping industry
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Importance of marine transport Marine transportation is an extremely vital yet often the least publicly visible part of the world economy. The sea route is one of the major channels through which goods are moved across the world. According to Government of India statistics, about 95 percent of the country's trade by volume is transported through the marine route. For a developed economy like United States of America, too, maritime transport is equally crucial. Figures published in the book Geospatial Information Infrastructure for Transportation Organizations: Toward a Foundation for Improved Decision Making, reveal that the ports are particularly critical to the US economy with 95 percent of all foreign trade passing through them. Besides, the marine transportation system supports nearly 13 million jobs in the country.
Geospatial World I May 2012
Courtesy: Esri
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aritime transport or the shipment of people and goods by sea is one of the most ancient and widely used forms of transport known to man. From the times of legendary explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama who sailed the mighty seas on their archaic ships armed with just a compass and some other basic equipment, both shipping vessels and shipping as a means of transport have undergone a sea change. According to the International Chamber of Shipping, international shipping today transports about 90 percent of total world trade by volume. With increase in the number of vessels sailing at a time, there is growing need for constant innovation in the field of maritime surveillance. Shipping companies these days have begun to deploy modern technologies to ensure enhanced monitoring, efficiency and security of their fleet.
Geospatial tech in marine transport Owing to the rapid increase in global shipping traffic during recent years (Fig 1 shows the location of every vessel - over 20 meters long - in the world at one point in time), the vessel location and navigation systems have become the primary focus of the world. Vessel navigation systems are mobile information platforms, which integrate GPS, GIS and wireless communication to offer extensive data such as location, speed and status of a ship in real time mode. This data is processed and the location and moving track of the ship can be shown on digital maps. GNSS or Global Navigation Satellite Systems have been used in the maritime environment since the late 1960's as the TRANSIT system, which was used mainly by the US Navy. In 1996, the US offered GPS to the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) as an input to the World-Wide Radionavigation System (WWRNS). Following IMO's recognition, GPS became the primary radio-based mechanism for navigation in the maritime sector. With the advent of GPS, new applications came to the fore including the provision of accurate information to assist in the docking of large vessels. GPS info is used to aid the pilots and captains of vessels to determine how the vessel is moving when it is getting close to a jetty. Describing how the use of GPS has revolutionised vessel navigation, Capt. Charanjit Singh, Master Pilot, Mumbai Port Trust says, "In the high seas, there are no landmarks and the ship's crew had to depend only on the position of sun and stars to find out the course. GPS system gives you accurate positions and it has now become easier to find out if the vessel is deviating from its course. Thus, it helps you save time, save distance and save fuel."
International seaborne trade, selected years (millions of tons loaded)
E-Navigation One of the most important initiatives in the field of marine transportation, which is set to revolutionise the way world shipping industry functions is E-Navigation. Led by the IMO, the initiative aims to bring improved safety and security in shipping through better organisation and exchange of data between ships and the shore. One of the primary aims of the E-Navigation initiative is to integrate existing and new navigational tools such as Automatic Identification System (AIS), Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), radio navigation, Vessel Traffic Management Services (VTMS) and the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) in an all-encompassing system that will result in increased navigational safety while at the same time reducing the burden on the navigator.
Automatic Identification System (AIS)
Courtesy: Esri
For a ship navigating at sea, the course of other ships in the surrounding area becomes extremely critical to make prompt decisions to avoid collision. The AIS is an automatic tracking mechanism deployed on ships for locating other nearby vessels by electronically exchanging data with them. AIS functions by integrating a standard VHF transceiver with a GPS receiver and other electronic navigation sensors. Vessels fitted with AIS can be tracked by AIS base stations and satellites fitted with special AIS receivers. "AIS is basically used as a tool for collision avoidance. But, it has also got other Fig 1 The figure shows the location of every vessel in the world at one point in time
Geospatial World I May 2012
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Telecommunications Satellite
Navigation Satellite Galileo GPS
Functioning of an AIS
(Courtesy: maritimejournal.com)
roles. It can be used to make a good surveillance network because you can track the movement of all vessels. Thus, it can be used to beef up the security of the coast," says PP Sinha, Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships, Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.
Vessel Traffic Management Service (VTMS) Similar to air traffic control systems, a VTMS is a marine traffic monitoring system established by port authorities to ensure smooth operation of vessels. A standard VTMS deploys a combination of radar, close circuit television cameras and AIS to track vessel movements and ensure navigational safety in a particular geographical area. The system presents real-time navigational data overlaid on an electronic chart system display. "For the purpose of vessel traffic management, GIS is used for shore-based management of vessel traffic flow. For example, the monitoring of keeping an allocated tidal window of a ship is realised by means of supporting display functions integrated into the GIS," explains Dr Michael Baldauf from World Maritime University. At present, VTMS can only present a two dimensional picture of vessels moving within a designated area on an electronic chart, which has several limitations. The performance of radar systems is prone to adverse impact by weather conditions. Apart from that, the radar blips can merge when vessels are close together. To overcome these limitations, a 3D VTS system has The introduction of GIS changed the industry in many ways. While enhancements to the operational efficiency are very important, the most crucial benefits are to maritime safety. It is in this area that a reduction in number of incidents translates to lives saved Dr Rafal Goralski, Director of Technology, GeoVS Limited
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been developed recently, which draws on information from existing radar systems and supplements this with inputs from tidal gauges, meteorological stations and radio based automatic identification systems to present a three dimensional image and also gives realistic representations of all the vessels, the waterway, port installations and navigational marks such as buoys. "VTS is essential for maintenance of maritime safety in port waters. These are used by harbour masters and their operational staff to efficiently manage traffic, guide mariners and prevent any dangerous situations from happening," says Dr. Rafal Goralski from GeoVS Limited, the company which developed the 3D VTS system.
ECDIS and ENC An ECDIS is a computerised navigation information system that has up to a large extent replaced the traditional paper nautical charts. An ECDIS system combines information from Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) with positional information from the GPS, radar and AIS to provide continuous navigational safety and position information. Modern ECDIS systems are capable of generating alarms when the vessel is in proximity to hazards. "Numerous functions are integrated into ECDIS which support safe and efficient navigation. These include warning and alarming functions to announce the approach of a waypoint, or depth alarm, in case a certain water depth is violated. ECDIS may also provide automatic calculation of the ship's speed needed for in-time arrival at the next port of call," says Dr. Michael Baldauf. Some of the areas where geospatial technology has been used in marine transportation include:
Vessel monitoring GPS-based tracking for individual and a fleet of vehicles was originally conceived for the shipping industry. Vessel tracking systems are generally deployed for reasons such as safety and security, compliance with international rules and regulations and better traffic management. A tracking system consists of a GPS device, which is installed in each vessel to track its precise location via satellite. The device can also track and monitor other information related to the vessel such as its speed, route and deviation from planned course. The information is then transmitted to a remote user where it can be used to access available reports on vessel status via the internet.
Geospatial World I May 2012
Collision avoidance The recent incidents of oil spill across the world have highlighted the devastating impact that marine accidents have on the environment. Such accidents, which are majorly a result of ship collisions, cost huge loss of life and property and threaten the environment. A majority of these accidents can be attributed to human error. Combined together, AIS systems and radar technology can effectively contribute to warn the crew members of an approaching obstruction (such as icebergs) and thus help avoid a collision. While aerial surveillance is the primary method used to locate icebergs, satellite-based radar observations are being used increasingly to improve the accuracy and efficiency of these systems. Satellite images can effectively point out icebergs and also track their movements to help prepare a chart of threatening icebergs in a particular region. "Shore-based traffic coordination and support for avoidance of collisions with other ships or objects and even display of dynamical changing banks in fairways make use of georeferenced information," explains Dr. Michael Baldauf.
E-Navigation is addressing all three aspects of maritime transportation - processes onboard and ashore as well as the communication aspects between ships, ship and shore and shore-based institutions. It also includes addressing human factor related aspects Dr. Michael Baldauf, Associate Professor, WMU
the sea. You can lay down the best possible, most economical, shortest and most fuel efficient route," says a source.
Ocean currents Knowledge of ocean currents has been extremely important for seafarers since the sail-ship era. Today, such knowledge plays a vital role in reducing fuel costs. Although satellite sensors available these days are not capable of measuring ocean currents directly, remotely sensed data can be used to measure current. The most commonly employed method uses ocean vector winds and satellite altimetry to estimate currents.
Port operations management Ship lane mapping
"From the perspective of both the maritime shipper and A ship lane can de defined as a regularly used route by the port managers, it is port throughput and efficiency ocean going vessels. Commercial ships and large boats which counts at the end of the day. And here GIS is being usually move through internationally designated shipping used in a number of ways to better manage port traffic lanes from one port city to the and vessel loading and unloadother. The shipping lanes ing," says Terry Bills. ensure navigational safety by The Port of Sines in Portugal regulating maritime traffic. uses GIS for vessel traffic manBesides, sticking to pre-deteragement. The system functions mined route makes sure that by integrating berth and support the ship does not venture into scheduling with real time vessel unsafe waters and also saves tracking to optimise berth allovaluable time and fuel. A GIScation and generate timely based electronic navigational billing by integrating the system chart is capable of guiding a with billing systems. Technology has also found ship's crew to follow a particuuse in vessel loading and lar path. Vessel Navigation System "If you want to go from one unloading. When combined with port to another, then the software offers the capability of real time truck arrival systems, these mechanisms can laying the route. You can mark the waypoints from one significantly reduce vessel turnaround time and, in turn, point to another. Once the waypoints have been marked, goods throughput. the system selects the latest available navigational chart Specially designed geographic information systems from its database and displays on the screen so you can that use GPS technology can be used to monitor containplan the route, avoiding dangerous locations/activities in ers and signal alerts when a container deviates from its
Geospatial World I May 2012
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Larger vessels almost all have ECDIS systems. Among ports, the growth has been largely in the last two to three years, but we are seeing very rapid adoption among major ports. Most major ports have VTMS, although many still rely on ground based radar Terry Bills, Transportation Industry Manager, Esri
proposed path. A well established GIS can help in container security as they travel through the sea. On entering the port, the container can be tracked as it moves through the truck or rail route to its final destination. A GIS can integrate port security information and display results on a map or satellite image to provide real time update. The system can be used to merge vessel tracking applications with output from live television cameras to obtain a comprehensive security view.
Vessel security According to a report by the IMO, 489 actual or attempted acts of marine piracy occurred in 2010, which is 20.4 percent more than 2009. According to Bloomberg, piracy cost the international economy USD 12 billion in 2010. G-tech is being used to track the movement of pirates and create piracy hotspot maps, which can be used to warn ships. Geospatial technology is used for other applications such as oil spill management and maritime security response tool. Geographic Information systems offer useful information in a graphical and timely fashion, which helps decision makers to deal with emergency situations. Weather reporting: One of the major problems faced by seafarers till a few years ago was access to weather updates. Thus, ships had to either take a passage detour or were caught in stormy weather. However, technology has ensured that the oceans are now constantly being monitored by satellites. The satellites send updated weather information to
In the GIS arena, the use of GNSS for the positioning of LIDAR-carrying survey aircraft has revolutionised shallow water surveying. Ocean free float buoys can be tracked by GNSS to give very accurate measurement of ocean currents Colin Beatty, President, Royal Institute of Navigation
ship based marine receivers, which helps to predict the movement of storms and to provide adequate warning to the seafarers. Communication: Satellites have revolutionised the way communication was done between the ship and the shore. Not only can instant connection be made between two or more vessels or the ship and the shore, but the communication can also be recorded for future reference. Search and Rescue: The entire SAR operations these days are controlled and coordinated with the help of satellite technology. The distress messages are sent to regional control centres located at faraway places using satellites. Homing beacons (EPIRB) are fitted on life boats, which directly pass the distress message and vessel position and thus help the approaching SAR aircraft in homing and locating. The satellites can also undertake surveillance of the SAR area and monitor progress.
Challenge Today, navigators onboard ships are using electronic position fixing systems. These sensors are more or less the major position sensors for onboard navigation, route monitoring, collision avoidance, shore-based vessel tracking, traffic management etc. Inaccurate position data or use of outdated chart data may lead to serious accidents. Even the best and high sophisticated presentation of the ship's position in a 3D display of an ECDIS is of no use when the source of data is not reliable. Approaches to tackle the problem of integrity in terms of accuracy and up-to-dateness include cross-checking and fusion of data from different sensors. "The main challenge today regarding GIS and geospatial technology is the provision of exact/accurate and reliable data for integration into online navigation systems," says Dr. Michael Baldauf. Vaibhav Arora Assistant Editor vaibhav@geosptialmedia.net
Ship collision off Mumbai coast in 2010 resulted in oil-spill
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Geospatial World I May 2012
Xiang Yu, Peace Map Co., Ltd.
Visit iFlyUltraCam.com to see the PMC video. Or scan tag and watch on your mobile phone. Download the free tag reader app at http://gettag.mobi.
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AIR TRANSPORT
With growing air traffic volumes, there is a lot of demand on air traffic management to manage the congestion on the runways and in the skies. Geospatial technology can help address mand this dem
Tech for the skies uman ambition to fly is the stuff mythologies are made of. In modern times, ever since the Wright brothers took to the skies, there has been no looking back in advancements in aviation technology. Air travel is no longer confined to being the privilege of the elite that it once was. According to industry estimates, air traffic has doubled every 15 years since 1970. Having recovered from the economic recession, the aviation industry is bullish going ahead,
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fuelled by dynamic growth in emerging markets, increasing urbanisation driving wealth and traffic growth, strong continued growth in North American and European markets and expanding global middle class globally. Aerospace company Boeing's forecast for 2011 anticipates delivery of 33,500 new airplanes (including passenger and freighter) over the next 20 years, while Embraer projects that world air transport demand will grow by 5.2% per year during this period.
Geospatial World I May 2012
Clearly, there is a lot of demand on air traffic management to manage the congestion on the runways and in the skies.
Geospatial technology in air traffic management Given the inherent spatial nature of the aeronautical data, geospatial technology can play an integral role in ensuring smooth and safe flight movements amidst growing traffic. Geospatial technology is one of the key enabling technologies being used in overall planning, deployment, delivery, maintenance, and management of the aviation infrastructure, says SV Satish, General Manager â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Air Traffic Management, Airports Authority of India. It is changing the way the cockpit resource management and flight management are taking place in the modern aircraft fleet. Electronic flight bags are replacing paper charts and maps. Electronic route bulletins, aerodrome information, electronic aeronautical information publications, electronic terrain obstacle data are all the outcomes of geospatial technology. Let's take a detailed look at the role of various geospatial technologies in air traffic management.
The civil aviation administrations of a number of countries are migrating to GIS technology to manage and update the aeronautical charts that are used by the pilots and air traffic control staff. Terry says that the major shift for many of these agencies is away from CAD produced maps to a data base driven and intelligent maps, which are increasingly replacing the paper charts that pilots used to carry. GIS is also helping aviation authorities tackle old woes. One such woe is bird strikes. Aircrafts have battled bird strikes for decades. Airports are turning to technology to prevent the collisions between birds and planes. An instance can be seen in Australia where Adelaide airport is integrating GIS into its wildlife hazard management programme. The GIS brings together more than 20 years of bird census and bird strike data to generate interactive, real-time maps of bird congregation over the airport site. Adelaide Airport Limited (AAL) Environment Officer Renae Eden says once the authority enters the data in the GIS, it can produce real-time maps, which make it
Aviation managers have critical requirements for reliable data and cost-effective workflows. Adding a spatial component to their data, GIS can help them model and track flight paths and analyse data for concerns such as noise levels and height clearances. Terry Bills, Transportation Industry Manager, Esri elaborates that commercial airlines and air traffic control regulators use GIS for airspace planning and routing applicaObstacle identification surface geoprocessing tools can help analyse and manage obstacle data tions as well as for facilities management applications. In addition, by managing data once easier to model trending and examine where bird populaand producing multiple products from aeronautical infortions have moved over subsequent seasons. The bird mation management (AIM) system, aeronautical offices mapping tool enables AAL to mitigate hazards before can realise an operational advantage. The database-drivthey can create an incident. en geographic information system approach means that GNSS changes are reflected on all related products automatiGlobal navigation satellite system (GNSS), that provides cally through one-touch editing. This enables the organiaccurate locations for cars, boats and aircrafts, has a lot sations to create high quality data and charts in less time of potential in air traffic management. The primary use of and with less money, informs Terry.
Geospatial World I May 2012
Image Courtesy: Esri
GIS
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Satellite-based augmentation system GNSS alone is not always sufficient or reliable to meet the stringent requirements of accuracy, integrity, avail-
"RNAV (area navigation) approach with precise lateral guidance has been made possible due to the widespread availability of GNSS on all categories of aircraft." Richard Farnworth Navigation Specialist, DSR/CMN/Navigation and CNS Research, Eurocontrol
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Image Courtesy: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
GNSS is for computing the aircraft position in order to navigate the aircraft, informs Richard Farnworth, Navigation Specialist, DSR/CMN/Navigation and CNS Research, Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation. GNSS is also being used for surveillance applications where the position computed on the aircraft is sent to the air traffic control centre via data link, thus providing an alternative or a back-up to radar surveillance. GNSS is being used for instrument guidance during approaches to airports, adds Farnworth. RNAV (area navigation), a method of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigating directly to and from the beacons, makes use of the flight management computer to allow navigation between any two waypoints, independent of the location of navigation aids. In 1998, basic RNAV became mandatory in European airspace and the only way for many aircraft operators to become RNAV capable was to be equipped with a GPS receiver. Farnworth says that the RNAV approach with precise lateral guidance has been made possible due to the widespread availability of GNSS on all categories of aircraft. This approach has been introduced in place of non-precision approach (NPA) as a means of improving pilot situational awareness and therefore safety. They can also be used in low visibility conditions over conventional NPA, allowing better access to airports in poor weather.
ability and continuity for aviation safety of life applications, observes Satish who adds that the inherent limitations of standalone core constellations can be overcome by augmenting the core constellation signal in space. Farnworth informs that vertical navigation capability is enabled by either the integration of barometric vertical data by the flight management computer or through the use of a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS). In the case of SBAS procedures, the minima can be as low as 200 ft which is equivalent to that achieved using a precision Instrument Landing system (ILS) Category I. The most significant benefits of SBAS are in the approach phase of flight, giving performance as good as Cat-1 ILS without having to install any navigation infrastructure on the airfield, says Farnworth. This allows for high performance instrument approach procedures to be implemented at smaller aerodromes where it was previously uneconomical to install instrument landing systems. While SBAS provides an improved navigation capability for some aviation users such as the general aviation community and those not equipped with modern avionics, Albert Tjoeng, Assistant Director, Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific, International Air Traffic Association (IATA), opines that the aircraft fleets of most commercial airlines have on-board avionics that already allow for accurate tracking without the use of ground based navigation aids. In addition, most of today's commercial aircraft fly to airports where ILS are installed. Albert cautions against the cost factor of SBAS. Albert says that SBAS offers no additional capacity over what airlines are currently able to do but has potential for a significant
Geospatial World I May 2012
increase in costs to an already overburdened airline industry.
Remote sensing Remote sensing can contribute in a number of ways in air traffic management. One significant application is addressing flight delays. Flight delays are a financial burden for airlines and a major inconvenience for the passengers. Even though there can be several reasons for flight delays, one of the reasons is congestion - too many aircrafts in too small an area, in the same time. Remote sensing can come to the rescue in such a situation. Stereo remote sensing can allow aircraft flight controllers to minimise such delays. Dejan Damjanovic, Director, Air & Marine Solutions, GeoEye explains that aircraft congestion problem can be segregated into in-flight delays that involve flying from airport to airport, and ground delays that involve taxiing to and from the runway. Since an aircraft cannot be in the same 3D place at the same time as other aircraft, traffic congestion is a 4D problem. One of the new methods of air navigation that has evolved with technology advancements in navigation is known as required navigation performance (RNP,) which attempts to segregate airplanes by their ability to navigate in 4D airspace and allows airplanes that can support greater navigational accuracy to fly in smaller containment regions. If an aircraft can fly in a smaller 4D containment, it is possible to get more planes into and out of any given airport. To use optimised RNP routes in and out of airplanes requires 3D surveys of all obstacles that might be in the path of the new routes. This requires stereo
Geospatial World I May 2012
"Stereo remote sensing can allow aircraft flight controllers to mininise delays caused due to presence of too many aircrafts in too small an area, at the same time." Dejan Damjanovic Director, Air & Marine Solutions, GeoEye
remote sensing to support 3D feature extraction of the following: airport runways, taxiways, ramps and buildings to accurately map the airport and optimise taxiing routes; obstacles that may be tall enough to pose a hazard to aircraft taking off and landing on the new irregular RNPbased routes; terrain and other natural features like tree lines that may be tall enough to pose a hazard to aircraft taking off and landing on the new irregular RNP-based routes. Satellite technology can also address weather-related issues. Moderate to severe weather formations often affect flight movements. Flights are normally equipped with weather radars and can request deviations away from weather. Similarly ground radars (primary radars) help in providing air traffic controller information on weather. But normally this information is restricted to 60 miles around major aerodromes, informs Satish. The advent of computer networking, coupled with geospatial technology and satellite weather forecasting helps in advance planning and control of air traffic. With the development of technology, specific weather patterns can be provided to aircraft on board for pilot to plan and manage routes that will have lesser impacts due to weather.
Current status of application Airport traffic control systems often have numerous security and safety concerns to
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address in case of embarking on major changes, therefore technology adoptions usually take time. But changes can be seen in recent times. Bills says that in terms of the actual application of such systems, it has been rapidly adopted over the last five years. Nearly all of the North American and European international airports have implemented GIS and it is now spreading to Asia and the Middle East, as well as down to regional airports.
Looking ahead As air traffic volume increases and aviation assumes importance in the global economy, airports are gearing up to handle the volume and improve efficiencies through next generation air traffic control systems that call for greater use of geospatial information and technology. For instance, one of the world's biggest and busiest aviation hubs, the United States has embarked on The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), the Federal Aviation Administration's on-going transformation of the national airspace system. NextGen supplants the radar and voice communications used today with satellitebased technologies and digital communications, according to FAA. Also, With the publication of Advisory Circular
"With the advent of computer networking, coupled with geospatial technology, specific weather patterns can be provided to aircraft on board for pilot to plan and manage routes that will have lesser impacts due to weather" SV Satish General Manager - Air Traffic Management Airports Authority of India
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150/5300-18B, the FAA has established a comprehensive digital data standard and roadmap forming the basis of what is called the FAA Airport Surveying - GIS Program (Airports GIS). Airports GIS will enable the FAA to establish more agile communication and coordination with airports as well as to facilitate better decision making using consistent and accurate data that has been verified through a rigorous quality assurance process, the agency informs. NextGen requires airports to submit a range of GIS information to the FAA. Terry Bills elaborates that as the world's civil aviation administrations move to the next generation air traffic control (NextGen in the US, Single European Sky ATM Research - SESAR in Europe), very accurate on-ground GIS inputs will be required to help ensure the safety of these GPS-based air traffic control systems. Countries in the fast growing regions for air traffic volume like Asia too are sprucing up their technology to handle the traffic. India for example, is in the process of establishing centralised Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFM) systems and will implement the central flow management systems by the year end. The ATFM shall rely on the geospatial data obtained dynamically through various subsystems such as aircraft flight profiles, weather, user preferred trajectories, special use airspace, surveillance data inputs from radars, automatic dependent surveillance systems and multi-lateration, informs Satish. While technology is poised to be a key enabler for the more busier airports to manage their traffic, it has an equal significance for airports at the other end of spectrum too. As the world's less busy airports seek to attract more airline crowd, they will need to ensure quality services, improved safety and security in supporting air traffic growth. These airports also often have a large number of aeronautical data sources but are not always able to put them together meaningfully to be a decision support system. Geospatial technology can aid them in these efforts. Deepali Roy Senior Assistant Editor, deepali@geosptialmedia.net
Geospatial World I May 2012
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SINGAPORE LAND TRANSPORT AUTHORITY
INFORMATION TO THE PEOPLE Tiny Singapore is strengthening public transport with GIS to meet the travel demands of increasing population
he city-nation of Singapore faces increasing population and travel demand, against a backdrop of limited land space. The logical way for the nation to accommodate the diverse travel needs of the people is to invest heavily in public transport since it is the most space-efficient means of carrying large number of people.
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Case Study
Over the years, Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has been working on multipronged approach aimed at putting more information into the hands of the commuters so that they can plan ahead to decide the mode of transport to use and travel conveniently by avoiding traffic jams. One of its strategies is to unleash the value of LTA's GIS data by proactively making this information easily available to the public for informed decision making while getting around in Singapore. In line with LTA's key strategic thrust in making public transport a choice mode, LTA's public transport
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portal - PublicTransport@SG was rolled out in 2008 to provide commuters with the convenience of accessing public transport information from a single website. One of the main features of PublicTransport@SG includes an interactive GIS map to help commuters to move around Singapore with public transport information such as bus service information, key bus services maps, MRT and LRT system maps, the public transport guide and premium bus services. Real time information on bus arrival time is also available for select bus stops. The website also features the latest public transport related news and information on public transport promotion campaigns and initiatives. Citizens can freely access LTA's GIS data at the One.Motoring portal too. Motorists can be informed of road accidents and travel speeds of the routes they are planning to take, before they embark on their journeys. They may even query regarding
the availability of car parking spaces at their destinations, so that they can make alternative arrangements to avoid long waits. Commuters can locate nearest bus stops using mobiles equipped with locationbased services and even find out when the next bus will arrive. LTA has collaborated with Google to give commuters transport options at their fingertips. The result is a service that allows commuters to plan their journeys based on current traffic status. The partnership is one of the first few instances where a country is working with Google to provide transport options as part of its global online map platform. LTA's mobile service, MyTransport.SG makes it easier for commuters to access land transport information on a single platform. The service allows them to access a comprehensive range of transit and traffic information - including locations of bus stops and MRT stations from any GPRSenabled mobile device.
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â&#x20AC;˘ Taxi stand location: Commuters can search for taxi stands near their location. Each taxi stand has a location code that they can use as reference point for the cab driver to pick them up when they make a booking. â&#x20AC;˘ Cycling town and bicycle parking: Cyclists can use the network of cycling paths with park connectors to access key public transport nodes and neighbourhood amenities. The portal also provides GIS information on bicycle parking facilities at most MRT stations.
CATCHMENT AREAS LTA also applies GIS for studying the behavior and characteristics of consumers living in various bus and rail catchment areas. It allows the organisation to analyse the sensitivity of the consumers to
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different parameters. Each bus stop and rapid transit station (RTS) along the corridor is mapped using GIS. By modifying the radius of the catchment area, GIS shows the patterns, relationships and trends that help LTA understand the attributes and underlying factors within the catchment areas, so that they can choose the best modal option for the population living in the catchment area and plan for changes in the transportation network design.
ROAD SAFETY In the area of road safety, LTA leverages on GIS technology to significantly reduce the number of traffic accidents, fatal or otherwise, at accident-prone areas. GIS makes the visualisation of collision incidence distributions and patterns more intuitive than statistics, charts and tabular data. Through collaboration with Singapore Traffic Police, traffic accident locations and collision patterns can be easily visualised and analysed geographically in a process known as "Black Spot Analysis." Trouble spots can be pin-pointed for road safety engineers to implement traffic improvement schemes. This has yielded a significant reduction in
accidents over a two-year period.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Rosina Howe, LTA's Group Director (Innovation & InfoComm Group) and Chief Innovation Officer, says "LTA has established partnerships with private technology providers to provide real-time traffic information, dynamic routing and navigation solutions, to further exploit its enterprise geospatial data to benefit end users. These collaborations have brought about an array of innovative services that directly benefit the public and transform the way Singaporeans use land transport systems."
BENEFITS LTA's multi-pronged approach has yielded significant returns as LTA is able to concentrate on providing efficient traffic and transport solutions while leveraging on the resources of the private sector to offer highimpact commuter applications without incurring significant costs to the government. Commuters can make use of these information services to plan their journey in advance for efficient routes to their destination and even make changes to their routes on the move when exigencies arise.
Case Study
Following the launch of MyTransport.SG (mobile), LTA launched the portal MyTransportSG portal to cater to all land transport users. The portal can be customised to suit the needs of the people based on their profile as commuters, students, cyclists or commuter with mobility needs etc, all under one roof. New features include GIS information on:
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TAIPEI CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, TAIWAN
An advanced traveller information system
aipei City, the capital of Taiwan, is one of the most heavily populated cities with 2.6 million people residing on 271.7997 square kilometres. The megacity has 1,080,000 motorbikes and 710,000 cars running within the city. On the other hand, with the growing demand for better tourism service, traffic has become a significant challenge and the priority for the local government.
sions, taking appropriate actions to relieve traffic congestion and improving the quality of the traffic network. Through accessing the ATIS platform, it can assist travelers and drivers to obtain real-time traffic information and then plan their trips before travelling and making route decisions to minimise travel time and improve travel safety.
After maturing the transportation system, Taipei City Department of Transportation decided to establish an information platform named ATIS, the Advanced Traveler Information System, to support traffic management administrators in making deci-
With the development of technology, information has become easier to obtain over the internet; however, the long waiting time and insufficient availability of information make it difficult for users to search and receive required data quickly.
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CHALLENGES OF THE PROJECT
In order to increase the accessibility of online transportation services to the public, Taipei City Department of Transportation utilises server GIS technology to integrate different transportation information resources into a single platform which can offer accurate traffic data to the public. This biggest challenge of this project is how to integrate the massive amount of data such as traffic event reporting system, closed circuit TV (CCTV), monitoring system and changeable message signals (CMS) from different governmental units and make real-time traffic information more available to users through the internet and mobiles.
INNOVATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICE Using server GIS technology, ATIS is able to integrate a wide range of transport information seamlessly, enhancing the traffic data distribution and security and helping reach a minimum maintenance cost for the management. The SuperGIS Server, incorporated by Taipei City Department of Transportation is capable of creating, managing, integrating and distributing a variety of geospatial resources such as maps, globes, geodatabases, tools, etc., over the internet to
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OTHER IMPLEMENTATIONS The solutions provided by the Server GIS comprise three sections, frontend demonstration, mobile/PDA web and back-end management system. Front-end demonstration: This includes map manipulation, static
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information query and dynamic information query. Users can query real-time dynamic information online, such as bus information, realtime traffic images of road conditions, road events, changeable message signals (CMS), travel time on national highways, average vehicle speed and weather information. Mobile/PDA web: When applying the app, Easy Travel in Taipei, to the mobile devices, users can enjoy the transport information service anywhere and anytime. Moreover, the subscribers of Taipei City ATIS Web can further receive road incident reports via email or SMS on mobiles. To satisfy the government requirements, the ATIS has been developed to accomplish the goal of compiling all kinds of traffic data from units under other city or county governments and distributing realtime traffic information successfully.
BENEFITS TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY Through accessing the Server GIS service, the citizens and visitors can easily retrieve the traffic information through the browser without installing any plug-in programs and use other traffic related services such as bus routes planning and itinerary planning. Moreover, the wellestablished cycleways offer people another transport option to make a difference to the city. "YouBike" is the public
commuter bicycle rental system designed for people who can query the nearest bike rental stations around them.
BENEFITS TO THE CITY By accessing ATIS, citizens can receive the information through the browser without installing any plugin programme and avail traffic related services such as bus routes planning and train schedule. ATIS also plays the important role of connecting a variety of traffic information databases that exist within different governmental units. In order to ensure the stability and mobility of the data, this server will keep track of the receiving status of upstream information and report exception events, while serving as the streaming server.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS Experts suggest that travelling by public transport is better for reducing carbon footprint and carbon management than driving cars. Recently, city governors across the world have been engaged in stimulating low carbon ideas. With the advantages, both citizens and visitors are willing to utilise public transit. Climate change can be mitigated when people decrease the use of electronic vehicles.
Case Study
extensively support desktop, mobile, and web applications. Taking advantages of the highly scalable GIS server platform and cloud infrastructure, SuperGIS Server allows the managerial staff to customise an appropriate server environment in which spatial resources and data can be shared among system administrators, the enterprise management and the public. Due to an explosive increase in the number of smart phone users, the Taipei City government has extended its application over a network. As a consequence, the app, Easy Travel in Taipei, was introduced to the smart phone users. In the data distribution phase of ATIS, several interfaces including web and mobile subscription are provided for users to retrieve realtime traffic information and daily weather report provided by the ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) according to the device location.
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CITY OF BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Road to recovery The city of Brisbane used GIS to communicate status of road networks to the public during floods hen floods, tropical cyclone Yasi and severe storms wreaked havoc across the state of Queensland during 2011, the disasters destroyed billions of dollars of property and infrastructure - and rendered parts of the state's road network unusable.
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Brisbane City Council (BCC) and Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) turned to technology to communicate important traffic information to members of the public. GIS was used to generate user-friendly online mapping websites that share updates on the current status of roads and highways with members of the community - giving drivers the latest information on road closures
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and current travel conditions. During the height of the 2011 flood disaster, BCC partnered with Esri Australia to develop a flood map that provided citizens with an understanding of which roads were accessible and safe. The system compiled flood data from across disaster-struck Brisbane such as flood peaks, road closures and evacuation centres - onto a map to provide a comprehensive, realtime picture of the flood. More than three million members of the public accessed the map at the height of the crisis, to view the scope of damage and access important updates on the road networks. Brisbane City Council's Jeff Sangster said the map was relied upon by many as providing the most current, up-to-
date view of the road network. To provide citizens with a comprehensive, up-to-date view of the state of the road network - as well as insight into how other elements of the reconstruction process was unfolding - QRA also developed an interactive, online map. Updated daily with data collated from various sources on the ground - such as the transport department with road condition updates - the site displays the current status and condition of infrastructure across Queensland. With a click of a mouse, viewers could select affected communities and view disaster imagery of impacted infrastructure and assets - including schools, rail, homes, roads and bridges.
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INDIAN RAILWAYS
Realising the potential Indian Railways is on track with g-tech ail transportation inherently requires tight control. Unlike road or air traffic, train traffic needs to be controlled from a central control room throughout the journey of each train. This is because there is no scope for local discretion for train paths. Two trains cannot travel on the same path; train movements therefore need to be closely man-
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aged by the train control office. Since rail network is geographically dispersed and consists of linear assets such as tracks and electrical power lines, the role of geospatial technology for railways cannot be undermined. Apart from the obvious use in mapping of railway assets, there are more subtle uses for geospatial
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databases and GISs in the field of rail transportation. Foremost is the possibility of controlling train movements based on their position, speed, etc. Compared to the traditional "string charts" or "control charts" used by train controllers to visualise train movements, GIS maps promise to provide a much more accurate view of train movements. Depicting the train movements on a
GIS map can assist the train controllers immensely. Coupled with GPS devices on trains sending their current position to a central location via satellite communication, GIS maps can help to reduce train headways and increase section capacities significantly. Another way in which train controllers can use the GIS is for plan-
ning maintenance "blocks" or maintenance-related service interruptions. Blocks required for maintenance of different assets such as track, overhead electrification equipment, signals, etc. can be planned to be taken up together by correlating their locations using geospatial data. Fallout of the above is that the GIS system can be used for longterm planning as well. Likely constraints of line capacity, maintenance facilities, crew availability and loading and unloading facilities are much easier to visualise when observed through a GIS map. The concerned information systems today run separately and each department makes its plans on its own. Correlating the geospatial data to understand the overall plan for a section of the track is a mammoth exercise today, requiring the interpretation of different types of data. With a GIS, a simple interface with the various departmental systems is enough to be able to get a comprehensive view of the overall plan for any section. It is with the above use in mind that the Indian Railways has decided to implement geospatial technology to manage train movements and develop a GIS map covering all its assets and applications, progressively over a period of a few years. It is expected that the GIS system will make railway operations more efficient and better planned..
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KWAZULU-NATAL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT, SOUTH AFRICA
At the last count KwaZulu-Natal Dept. of Transport is using g-tech for short term traffic counting
he volume and category of vehicles on the various sections of a road network is a key factor in network planning, determining levels of service, public transport planning and for pavement design. Traffic volumes are usually determined by using a combination of permanent continuous counts and short duration counts. Continuous counts are carried out using counting loops with sophisticated equipment housed in permanent stations at key locations within the road network. They help road agencies understand time- of-day, day-of-week and seasonal variations in traffic volumes. Because continuous counts are expensive, most road agencies would have a few permanent stations but use short term duration counts as the main method of determining traffic volumes. There are many methods that can be used to carry out short duration counts. The methods can be broadly classified as electronic or manual. Because of the need to classify traffic for public transport planning, the Department of Transport uses manual traffic counting as the predominant method of carrying out short duration counts.
Challenges in manual counting The department faces a number of challenges when using external service providers to carry out manual traffic counting.Most notable chal-
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lenges include enumerators counting wrong intersections; enumerators allocating counts to the wrong intersection legs even if they are at the correct intersection; enumerators arriving at intersections before/after time and guessing counts for missing periods.
Dealing with challenges Over the years, the department experimented with various measures to limit the magnitude of errors arising from the above practices, with limited success. This situation persisted until the department started monitoring the enumerators using an internet-based tracking system. Monitoring involves assigning a GPSenabled mobile phone to each enumerator. The mobile phones have software installed to send GPS location signals to a central tracking server. The counting supervisors can monitor each enumerator to ensure
they are at the correct intersection and are counting the correct intersection leg. If for any reason any enumerator arrives late or leaves early, the exact time of arrival or departure is known. This ensures data integrity since guessed counts can be removed from the captured data. Using mobile phones presents an added advantage since the counting supervisor can guide lost enumerators to the correct intersections. Manual counting presents a cheaper and viable alternative for carrying out short term traffic counting. In cases where differentiation is required between passenger minibuses and cars, and between buses and trucks, it could be the only alternative. The use of GIS technology by the Department of Transport has ensured that manual counts can be done with a reasonable level of accuracy.
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ABU DHABI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT, UAE
Information @ fingertips Department of Transport portal offers traffic information to the public he Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is one of the most modern and fastest-growing cities in the world.
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Case Study
The Department of Transport (DOT) is the organisation responsible for delivering an effective transportation system that contributes to the economic growth, quality of life and environmental sustainability of the city. As part of Abu Dhabi 2030 vision, DOT needed to acquire, build and implement the best GIS technology possible. It realised that a robust GIS system was required to support the planning and daily operational and business needs of building, managing and maintaining a state-of-theart transportation network. A project was conceived, which aimed to build a transportation data model, infrastructure and database for the GIS within DOT; use GIS data for planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance processes; build a public internet portal (DARB) to deliver various services such
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Bus and taxi application: It offers as driving directions and bus route information as well as build GeoTrich information about existing bus RANS, an enterprise-level intranet routes and bus stops as well as taxi portal that would provide accurate facilities. It allows users to analyse and reliable geospatial information and manage data with respect to and services to various DOT sectors other activities in DOT and reflect the such as surface, aviation and marsame on the public portal. itime transportation. Since its launch, the portal has been supporting and enhancing DOT's daily business in terms of planning, network operation and public awareness of road works projects. The project is an excellent example of fasttrack implementation of a successful enterprise GIS for transportation in a GeoTRANS displays different parking types within Abu Dhabi city place with the highest demands in terms of functionality DARB : While GeoTRANS provided and workflows due to the rapidly growing infrastructure. Some of the advanced tools and functionalities for DOT's internal end users to services provided by the GeoTRANS access maps, tools and reports, the portal include: public portal DARB is the main gateSafety application: The application way to share maps and services with citizens in the UAE, using a fast and contains road safety data, includsimple, map-based interface. Sering information about vices launched for the public include accident hot spots. This is Car Travel, which helps users find used to support engidriving directions and parking areas; neers in visual analysis Bus Travel, which helps users find of the accident data. Parking application: bus routes; DARBI, which allows users to record incidents pertaining This application proto road asset, parking, bus shelter, vides users with inforstreet lighting and road conditions. mation about parking Users can click on a map and choose locations and assets, both the type of incident to be reported, on and off-street, includenter the required information and ing the DOT-managed even upload photos. parking facilities.
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Tech Innovations
TRANSPORTATION IN TRANSITION Today, across the world, governments are investing billions of dollars in transportation infrastru u cture, but it is innovation which can make it better and sustainable. And, here comes geospatial tecc hnology, including augmented reality (AR), Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) a vigation Satellite technology, Global Na System (GNSS), Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, et al. These technologies pave way for more futuristic, comfortable and safer transportation systems. Here is a glimpse of what the future might have in store.
AR for smarter vision Science fiction stories and movies have been predicting virtual or augmented reality for several years - just think of films like Terminator and Mission Impossible and hitech glasses that have out-of-the-world features. The recently introduced AR eyeglasses by NASA, Google and Japanese engineers have raised optimism in people who are crazy about such glasses. NASA's AR glasses weigh less than a quarter of a pound (113g) and incorporate a lens that fits over one eye, providing the pilot with a variety of information, as well as a virtual view of the surroundings. It is even
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designed to track head movements. If the pilot turns his head, the glasses can react in real-time to ensure that the virtual representations always stay in the same place as their real-world counterparts. Some pilots have even rated NASA's headset higher than cockpit technology, which provides them with similar information. Similarly, engineers at the University of Electro-Communications' Nakajima Laboratory in Japan have developed GPS-based prototype specs, known as the 'Wearable Personal Navigation System'. It incorporates a battery, a microcomputer, a magnetic directional sensor and a number of LED lights. To put the glasses to work on getting users to their destination, users will be required to enter their destination using a computer. The glasses have integrated LEDs positioned in a circular fashion around the frame. The LEDs, which are visible in a user's peripheral field of vision, will then change their colour and placement in order to show which direction users should be walking. Engineers claimed that current GPS devices - such as smartphones - require users to look down at a display while moving, instead of watching where they are going. With these glasses, users would be able to look ahead instead of looking down. Unlike NASA and Japanese engineers, Google brings together motion-sensing capability, 3G or 4G wireless connections, GPS-based services, a phone and a camera, in its eyeglass. The glasses map out the route and then put up the directions discreetly into the left corner and announce them into the user's ear. Thus, they make transportation safer and better. Moreover, in future, experts expect that the technology may overlay the map onto the actual street. So, users could see the arrows on the ground as they walk.
Driverless cars We are about to drive on the road to the future where we will jump into our cars, enter a destination and watch the car drive on its own. The future of roads, full of driverless cars, would be enhanced by the development and deployment of a wireless communication system that will let cars moving on the road talk to each other. Such a system would let cars know if another car is in front of it or planning to turn, as well as provide points of traffic congestion that alert robot drivers to alternate routes. Undoubtedly, a world with such vehicles as Google's LiDAR powered car, Ford's car with its automatic braking intersection collision avoidance system and Fendt's trac-
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LiDAR A rotating sensor on the roof scans more than 200 feet in all directions to generate a precise 3D map ofthe carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surroundings.
POSITION ESTIMATOR A sensor mounted on the left rear wheel measures small movements made by the car and helps to accurately locate its position on the map.
VIDEO CAMERA A camera mounted near the rear-view mirror detects traffic lights and helps the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s onboard computers recognize moving obstacles like pedestrains and bicyclists RADAR Four standard automotive radar sensors, three in front and one in the rear, help determine the positions of distant objects
tor with GuideConnect system - all talking to each other - would be much safer. Google's car uses a rotating laser on its roof called 'LiDAR', worth USD 75,000, that gives a 360-degree or 3D understanding of the car's surroundings that is accurate to two centimetres. A computer, in-built in the car, compares this information with known maps. As a result, the car not only knows every road and traffic light but can also react to other cars and pedestrians, in any weather conditions and at any time of the day. The car has been specially designed for those with mobility issues. Google engineers claim that the car would be able to tackle congested roads, ensure parking facilities, etc. Ford went a step ahead and prepared itself for the worst situation and developed an automatic braking intersection collision avoidance system for its car to ensure safer transportation. Current technology, based on radar and cameras can only find objects in front of and behind the vehicle. Ford's new radio-based wireless system provides a 360-degree view and uses advanced engineering algorithms to validate any threats and react accordingly in real-time. The system uses wireless and GPS technologies so automobiles can literally speak to each other and mitigate accidents. On the other hand, Fendt, a tractor manufacturer, with its GuideConnect system, ensured that even farmers experience technological advancements. Fendt's GuideConnect system can connect two tractors by satellite navigation and radio communication, to operate as one unit. The system enables two unmanned vehicles to perform the same working procedure as the manned vehicle. About safety features, Fendt explained in its press statement that it is equipped with a multi-level safety concept. The encoded wireless connection ensures that
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only the two defined tractors can communicate with each other. In addition, an emergency stop feature immediately gets activated when satellite positioning is no longer possible or the wireless connection is interrupted or the distance between the tractors is too large or small. At a later stage, the guided tractor will get more capabilities; for example, it will be equipped with an environment sensor system.
No tension flight According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, during the last 10 years, 112 small planes have been involved in mid-air collisions and thousands more have reported close calls. The report highlights the need for enhanced safety measure in air. Hence, to ensure a safer flight, FAA mandated that by 2020, all commercial aircraft and small aircraft flying near most airports must be equipped with a new tracking system that broadcasts GPS data, providing more accurate location information than ground-based radar. Much of the work on the new algorithm involves optimising the tradeoff between error tolerance and false alarms. For instance, if two planes are headed in the same direction, their moderate-alert hockey pucks (which are hypothetical spaces based-on GPS data) are relatively small; but if they're headed towards each other, their hockey pucks are larger, since they'll have much less time to react to an impending collision. If an extrapolation from two planes' recent trajectories suggests that either set of hockey pucks will intersect, the system issues the corresponding alert.
Integrated LiDAR sensor suite
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In addition, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) provided coordination assistance to the FAA. It aims to enable the dissemination of Special Activity Airspace (SAA) definitions and reservation schedules via OGC Web Services and using the Aeronautical Information Exchange Model AIXM 5.1. Determining when airspace is safely available for civilian use can be difficult, but providing such information on demand to those who need to know is necessary to help reduce air traffic congestion. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, designed three LiDAR sensors that together can provide all the necessary data for achieving safe autonomous precision landing. The first is a three dimensional active imaging device, referred to as flash LiDAR, for detecting hazardous terrain features and identifying safe landing sites. The second is a doppler LiDAR instrument for measuring vehicle velocity and altitude to facilitate precise landing at the chosen site. The third is a high-altitude laser altimeter providing data prior to final approach for correcting the flight trajectory towards the designated landing area. In conjunction with laser/ LiDAR sensor development at Langley, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing algorithms or mathematical procedures for analysing the acquired three-dimensional LiDAR maps and determining the most suitable landing site. On the other hand, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany also developed an innovative system to spot debris on a runway. It can prevent disasters like the 2000 crash of the Concorde in France that killed 113. The system consists of infrared cameras, optical 2D and 3D cameras and networked radar sensors. Devices installed all along the runway continuously scan the surface. They can detect even the smallest of items, such as screws, but the system will only issue a warning if an object remains on the runway for a longer period of time. A windblown plastic bag or a bird resting briefly will not set off the alarm.
Eyes on sea There is no doubt that marine transport is considered one of the main economic pillars in any country. Most of the world's trade is moved through the sea. Recently, an experiment hosted by European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus module started testing the viability of monitoring global traffic from the International 44
ISS detecting Mediterranean vessels
Space Station (ISS). The ship-detection system under test is based around the Automatic Identification System (AIS). Integrating AIS information with other satellite data, such as remote-sensing satellites, should significantly improve maritime surveillance and boost safety and security at sea. ESA is planning a dedicated initiative in this area as part of its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. Apart from the experimental Columbus module, ESA has also developed 'Cont-Track' to track shipping containers via satellite. The Cont-Trak solution consists of a satellite terminal on the outer hull of the container, with two distinct elements. The first is the GPS and satcom terminal that provides location information as well as the link to the satellites. The second element is the new container tracking interface module (CTIM). This communicates with the satellite terminal, container sensors and other containers that do not have a line-of-sight to a telecom satellite, via a UHF wireless inter-container link. The data are collected and transmitted via an L-band satellite to the ContTrak server. For trial, an Inmarsat I-3 satellite was used over Europe and the Mobile Services Venture MSAT-01 over North America. On another front, the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute developed a special traffic processor for the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X satellite constellation, which does not require a road database or any other prior knowledge to detect off-road vehicles and ships. The traffic processor combines the data recorded by TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X at different times. To achieve best performance, the distance between the two satellites is required to be 20 kilometres. Compiled by: Anand Kashyap, Assistant Editor anand@geospatialmedia.net
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Image courtesy: Trimble
RAILWAY MANAGEMENT
Fast track to efficiency Railway operators manage far-flung fleets of highly mobile assets running on thousands of kilometres of maintenance-intensive infrastructure. Geospatial systems are helping them reduce costs and increase utilisation of tracks and facilities
n the post-recession economy, most businesses operate under parameters they cannot control. The transportation segment feels the external pressures more than most. To understand why, we need only to look at the macro forces that are affecting the railway industry. Commodity prices are rising, affecting both supply and demand for goods that travel by rail. Fuel prices are fluctuating along a relentlessly upward trend and railway networks are under pres-
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sure from increased freight usage and passengers. Demand for environmental protection is increasing, as are requirements for social responsibility. Some regions are experiencing a high rate of retirement of experienced railway workers. On the other hand, because of their inherent advantage in fuel efficiency per ton-kilometre, railways could see more cargo move from trucks onto trains. Increased use of high-speed passenger rail can reduce congestion
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THE GEOSPATIAL IMPACT Most railway operators are compelled to better utilise existing assets, primarily the thousands of kilometres of track. Geospatial technology can gather large amounts of data on the railway assets and analyse the data to produce actionable information
at airports and on highways. For the railways serving the port cities, the growing ocean traffic presents an opportunity to upgrade their infrastructure to handle the flood of cargo and containers. But the broader use of trains presents new challenges. The railway infrastructure is already busy and more capacity will be needed. For most railway operators, these are compelling forces to better utilise existing assets, primarily the thousands of kilometres of track. Trackage is a finite resource and railway companies need to run larger trains at more frequent intervals. Where possible, they want the trains to move at higher speeds. This introduces a paradox in railway maintenance operations-more traffic on a line results in increased need for maintenance. At the same time, the available maintenance windows (downtime available to perform the maintenance) are shrinking because of the traffic load. It's a familiar problem: do more in less time. One of the most effective approaches is to improve the speed and productivity of inspections and the resulting maintenance and repairs. Geospatial technology contributes to this effort in two ways. First, it can gather large amounts of data on the railway assets and then analyse the data to produce actionable information. Second, it can help speed up maintenance and repair activities to ensure more efficient use of labour and materials.
A high-rail vehicle conducts track inspection. The vehicle veh h icle carries GNSS and inertial positioning sensors as well as a s LiDAR and opticall imagers. Image courtesy: Herzog
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To see how the various geospatial technologies can be used in railway development and operation, we can break a railway project into four phases: pre-design; design; construction operations, maintenance and safety. While a new railway will go through all four phases, we can also apply the last three to existing networks. Pre-design and decision phase New rail lines are emerging in many regions. Developing nations use railways to provide basic transport for people and goods whereas economic growth in developed regions often calls for new or expanded service. To provide the capacity, railways can enlarge existing lines or develop new routes. Both approaches call for extensive planning. In the pre-design phase, planners conduct feasibility and other analyses to determine the physical, financial and socio-economic impacts. Geospatial technology delivers much of the data needed for these studies, including aerial imagery, cadastral information and environmental data. The results include large-scale maps and terrain models. Mapping and GIS systems can provide good vehicles for preliminary route selection, but detailed feasibility studies must go much deeper as routing options are narrowed down. As part of the process, geospatial alignment planning software uses the multi-source data to develop optimal routes. For example, consider a project to build a new rail line from a new mine to an ocean port. Alignment planning software considers construction and operating costs, environmental impact, land acquisition and other factors. A tunnel might cost more to construct, but it will result in a shorter route that reduces transit time and fuel costs. The software develops and tests multiple route alternatives and makes recommendations based on optimising the interrelated variables. Design When the project moves to the design phase, the volume and detail of geospatial data increase. The objective is to collect and manage accurate information on the physical and cadastral conditions over the project area. In addition to aerial imagery, the engineering and design work requires ground-based measurements to produce the needed precision and detail.
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Topographic information and existing circumstances, including ownership, crossing roads, utilities and infrastructure, all play key roles in the design phase. Surveygrade optical and GNSS equipment are common tools at this stage and ground or airborne LiDAR is used as well. Environmental impact data can be gathered using GIS data collection equipment. During this stage, one of the most important activities for railway operators is to plan and implement their infrastructure for measurement and positioning. The reference framework for 3D optical and GNSS positioning is essential for accurate design, and for the construction and life-cycle phases yet to come. Networks of GNSS reference stations are becoming common around the world. Often established as part of a construction plan, a GNSS network can provide positioning for the railway as well as a wide array of government and commercial applications and users. Reference monuments for optical work can be installed during the design phases as well. As construction progresses, new monuments can be placed where needed to ensure good accessibility for as-built surveys and during the maintenance and operations stages of the projects. Construction The role of geospatial technology during railway construction is similar to that of any large engineering project. Functions such as earthwork and grading utilise survey-grade GNSS and optical systems for layout, automated machine control, inspections and quality control. Geospatial technology is especially important in projects such as tunnels and complex earthworks. Precise surveys provide control and alignment verification, quality inspections and data for volume calculations. Throughout construction, the geospatial systems collect as-built data on the final location of the track and new facilities. The data become part of the railway database which serves as the basis for maintenance and life-cycle projects. During construction, GNSS and optical sensorsincluding 3D scanners-can be used to monitor deformation and subsidence around large excavations, in slide areas and in and above tunnels. In addition to laying track, railway construction often includes new stations, maintenance facilities and other buildings. These projects use geospatial technology in the same way as other building construction. Large, complex
Geospatial World I May 2012
The role of geospatial technology during railway construction is similar to that of any ering project. Functions such large enginee as earthwork and grading utilise surveygrade GNSS and optical systems for layout, automated machine control, inspections and quality control.
rail stations (the new La Sagrera station in Barcelona covers more than 295,000 m2) benefit from the use of BIM (building information models) to manage the three- and four-dimensional information about the building. BIM information includes structural components, mechanical systems, utilities and other aspects. Geospatial systems provide layout and quality control during construction and gather as-built information that the BIM uses for operations and maintenance. Operations, maintenance and safety While geospatial systems deliver enormous benefits during the feasibility, design and construction phases, they can play an even bigger role during the operational phase of a railway. This is because the operational phase is the largest and most costly part of the railway life cycle (Figure 1). And in a business that is based on moving objects from one place to another, the value of geospatial technology springs from its core ability to do its work while in motion. For obvious safety reasons, most maintenance of way (MOW) work requires train traffic to be stopped. Operators must plan their work to limit MOW stoppages to periods of low activity. We can break the safety and maintenance (or operational) phase into three components: fixed and mobile
Figure 1: Typical distribution of costs of railway facilities in the life cycle. The time frame is 30 to 50 years. Source: Service Track Management, Balfour Beatty Rail, 2010
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asset management, inspection and documentation and deformation monitoring. Each of these areas can benefit from geospatial technology. It all begins with georeferenced spatial information. Visits to railway companies often reveal ongoing efforts to digitise old, paper track charts and get them georeferenced and moved into a GIS. From there, companies can use airborne systems to scan or photograph their lines and extract the various features into GIS or BIM applications to manage the fixed assets. The next level of fixed asset management provides more precise information on existing tracks. To collect this data, surveyors can use a small trolley that is simply pushed along the tracks by a single operator. GNSS or optical systems measure the trolley's position and other sensors on the trolley capture the cant and gauge of the track. Over the longer term, we can expect customised mobile mapping equipment and software to handle the bulk of the inspection and documentation load. Even something that seems as simple as weed control can benefit from geospatial technology. In Europe, a national railway authority uses weed-spraying systems that automatically sense weeds and deliver the spray. The system utilises GNSS to capture the locations of the spraying and avoid environmentally sensitive areas. Even more complex than managing fixed assets is managing a railway's rolling stock that involves tracking the position and status of complex, highly mobile equipment. Finally, deformation monitoring is an important part of safety and maintenance operations. As in the construction phase, precise sensors can detect motion in structures and landforms. Control software analyses the data from the various sensors and issues alerts when movements exceed specified levels. The monitoring systems can be tuned to detect movement ranging from slow motion over long periods to abrupt, rapid motion that might indicate a structural problem. Monitoring systems
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can be set up using combinations of total stations, GNSS and geotGuided by GNSS, a echnical sensors. bulldozer brings a It is difficult to overstate the a ilbed to grade. Realra railbed time GNSS networks importance of the spatial referprovide control forr ence framework for railway manconstruction and agement. Because every feature in maintenance activities. Image courtesy: courtesyy : the railway's geographic database Balfour Beatty Rail is tied to spatial data, the positioning information must be completely reliable. The ideal positioning infrastructure blends an active real-time GNSS network with fixed stations and reference points for optical measurements. The planning, installation and maintenance of the positioning framework should receive the same care and attention as the rail beds, bridges and other critical structures.
GATHERING STEAM For the railway operators looking forward, the contribution of geospatial technologies will grow. Large-area remote sensing and mapping will aid in feasibility and planning. Positioning networks will support the spatial activities for the railways and surrounding communities, including design, construction and monitoring. Mobile mapping, imaging, feature extraction and geospatial data management will become key parts of maintenance and operations. The common element among these solutions is the ability to collect, fuse and utilise the information from the growing array of geospatial sensors. We should expect to see specialised data acquisition platforms ranging from handheld computers to customised railcars and unmanned aerial vehicles. Data management will ensure the flow of information between systems for GIS, design and maintenance. Enterprise management can improve by tying spatial components into the decision and transaction processes. The essential geospatial element is the positioning technology, which is the fundamental tool for a railway to address shrinking maintenance windows. By ensuring that the proper positioning infrastructure is in place, railway operators can achieve increased performance and efficiency over the immediate and long-term time frames. Ron Bisio Railway Business Area Director, Trimble ron_bisio@trimble.com
Geospatial World I May 2012
22 - 23 May
23 - 24 May
29 May
29 - 31 May
Location Intelligence Conference/Oracle Spatial 2012
e-GEOS International Conference
Advanced Surveys for Rail Infrastructure
MundoGEO Connect 2012
Rome, Italy
Birmingham, UK
http://goo.gl/pn7l
Washington DC, US http://goo.gl/tnY9o
http://www.e-geos.it/news/ meeting12/index.html
http://www.fugroaperio.com/events/railseminar.html
04 - 07 June
05 - 06 June
08 June
05 - 06 June
Hexagon 2012 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Esri Canada User Conference
HERMES de Suisse 2012
South Africa Geospatial Forum
http://goo.gl/iI6gv
Victoria, Canada
http://www.eco-hermes.ch
Bern, Switzerland
http://goo.gl/1KnDL
Sao Paulo, Brazil
MAY
Mark your calendar
Johannesburg, South Africa
09 - 11 June
11 June
11 - 14 June
12 June
EORSA 2012
3Dcamp
Expedition 2012
Shanghai, China
University of Limerick, Ireland
33rd Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing
Ontario, Canada http://www.csrs-sct2012.ca
http://www.dmtispatial.com/e n/expedition.aspx
13 June
13 - 14 June
13 - 15 June
4th Annual GeoEd Conference
Geo Maritime
PBS: Insights 2012 User conference
Kentucky, USA
http://www.wbresearch.com/g eomar
http://www.ul.ie/news-centre/events/3d-camp
London, UK
http://geoed12.eventbrite.com
01 - 03 July
03 - 06 July
04 - 06 July
COM.Geo 2012
GI_Forum 2012
AGIT 2012
Virginia, USA
Salzburg, Austria
http://www.com-geo.org/conferences/2012/index.htm
http://www.gi-forum.org
Universit채t Salzburg, Austria
16 - 20 July AGSE 2012
Johor Bahru, Malaysia http://applied-geoinformatics.org
Geospatial World I May 2012
Ontario, Canada
Los Angeles, USA http://www.insights2012.com
http://www.agit.at
21-24 July
23 - 27 July
23 July
Esri Homeland Security Summit
ESRI User Conference
Data Mapping for Beginners
San Diego, US
http://www.esri.com/events/u ser
http://goo.gl/1MiH9
Sandiego, C.A, USA
JULY
http://www.eorsa2012.org
JUNE
http://www.sageospatialforum.org
Berkeley, USA http://journalism.berkeley.ed u/events/details/746/
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CONFERENCE REPORT | GEOSPATIAL WORLD FORUM
G-tech: The game changer i
entred on the theme of "Geospatial Industry and World Economy", Geospatial World Forum crossed Indian shores for the first time and was successfully held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands during April 23-27, 2012. Bringing together more than 1000 experts from 78 countries, the Forum analysed and deliberated upon the utility, relevance and contribution of the geospatial industry to several key industries contributing to the global economy.
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Opening session With rapid technological developments in the last 55 years, geospatial technology is going to be a game changer, particularly in the development of rural and remote places of the world, observed Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India, in his
keynote address. Dr Kalam deliberated upon the applications of geospatial technology for sustainable development of 3 billion people living in rural areas of the world. "World's water resources are facing potential threats, both man-made and natural. Global climate change has changed the dynamics of living. The quality of water is degrading and geospatial tech provides a means to measure, monitor and manage these resources well. With so many satellites, and ground sensors, so much of data is being generated. With this information, knowledge and wisdom, what can we give to the rural community to improve their quality of life? We need to explore how geospatial technology can help the bottom of the pyramid. Creating a sustainable development model for the 3 billion rural people involves linking data, information exchange and proper dissemination." "About 38 out of every 100 workers in the world are into agriculture. In least developed nations, this ratio goes up to 68 percent. How can we enhance the capabilities of this workforce? How can we improve the agriculture productivity? The need is to map water content as well as pest and weed management and post harvest management. Can geospatial tech bring all these benefits to the farmer in their language and deliver the info on their mobile phone? Another reality and challenge of 21st century is providing urban quality amenities to the rural population." To address all these challenges, he proposed the 'World Geospatial Knowledge Platform', which is a joint venture to develop the products and systems of geospatial technology using the core competencies of multiple nations. Melanie Schultz van Haegen-Maas Geesteranus, Minister of Infrastructure & Environment, the Netherlands, underscored the power of geospatial technology. "Opportunities are tremendous and it is time for a geospatial revolution, but we all face challenges, we need to work together on standardisation and harmonisation on sharing data. That is how we can create a geospatial revolution," she said. "Digital information has become part of our daily lives and public expects the government to use and share geoinformation. We succeed in launching a number of initiatives and achieved great success in standardi-
50
Geospatial World I May 2012
r in the world economy sation and data access. We also contributed to European geoinfomation initiatives like INSPIRE. Netherlands will continue its path-breaking work in the future." Dorine Burmanje, President, Board of Governors of Dutch Kadaster, the Netherlands, opined, "Developments in the field of mapping, cadastre and land administration occurred rapidly in the last few years. Geospatial information in all forms is essential to the broader society including business persons, citizens and everyone else. European Union is showing growing interest in location information. The directive of GMES is enabling capacities to be developed across Europe." Datuk Amar Haji Awant Tengah Ali Hasan, Minister, Resource planning and environment, public utilities, industrial development, Ministry of Public Utilities Sarawak, Malaysia, pointed out that geospatial information is already part of our everyday life. Geospatial technology heightened the awareness of understanding the people and places, decision making process. He described various initiatives of the government and highlighted major projects underway in Malaysia that extensively use geospatial technology.
of it. The convergence of various stakeholders including users, technology providers and the industry will enable to meet the needs of the future."
Empowering 'billion + people' Steven Berglund, president and CEO, Trimble Navigation, said, "Geospatial information is becoming more and more central to many capabilities". He added, "The nature of geospatial is a combination of three different technologies - sensors that capture data, software that turns data into information and the wireless communication that enables that information to be used everywhere in relatively seamless manner." He discussed how geospatial technology is enabling improved productivity, efficiencies and a range of capabilities that did not exist previously in various verticals like agriculture, infrastructure, transportation and business enterprise. "Exhorting that geospatial information will be the next frontier of evolution, KK Singh, CMD, Rolta opined that the innovations in geospatial technology will go a long way in addressing the issues and challenges of humanity. "Today, we live in a world that is dramatically transformed with technological advances. The immediate opportunity is to integrate the data residing in disparate places and create value out
Geospatial World I May 2012
The first plenary got together geospatial industry stalwarts deliberating upon the ways and means to empower 'billion + people' in the world. Jack Dangermond, Founder and President, Esri Inc., said "Our world is changing rapidly and it is creating challenges for organisations and individuals." He added that the work done by geospatial professionals, whether it is in software, application or hardware area, is all about understanding the challenges and building the right knowledge, to work on those challenges. Today, this kind of knowledge is being shared on the web and organisations are rapidly adopting cloud GIS platform. Taking the analogy of the music industry, Ola Rollen, President and CEO, Hexagon traced the evolution of music industry starting from the invention of phonogram to MP3 players, YouTube
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and several online tools that allow individuals to listen, share and even create music on their devices. He observed that digitalising the music industry has helped spread music amongst billions of people. Turning to geospatial industry, Rollen said technology genres like cartography, remote sensing, GIS and GPS are growing individually but they need to come together to create geospatial music. The preconditions to empower the billion + people according to him include breaking down the department walls, creating dynamic geospatial ecosystem, socialising geography with a fusion of web, mobile, tablet and crowd sourcing, synthesis of sensors and software to create solutions for dynamically modelling and understanding the real world. Paul Cheung - Director, United Nations Statistics Division and GGIM Secretariat, USA, discussed the objectives of UN GGIM and how it is achieving the same through its activities. According to Cheung, the four critical tasks before the geospatial community are - evolving a shared vision for the future in management of geospatial info nationally and globally; evolving an inclusive platform for improving, sharing and disseminating national and global g data; evolving a global statement of ethics and supporting code of conduct to enhance public trust; evolving a mutually beneficial relationship between the govt and non-govt entities.
Solar energy for sustenance Wobbo Joannes Ockles, Professor of Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands observed "We are at the end of industrial revolution. Our oil resources are getting exhausted. Greenhouse gas concentration is leading to heating up of the earth. These are indicators that humanity is leading itself to catastrophe," he said and added that humanity should learn to play win-win game with nature if it wants to sustain the species on earth. The first Dutch
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astronaut exhorted humans to turn to sun, which gives light, heat and wind and plenty of energy for everyone, much more than an individual requires. He predicted that in 10-15 years, humans would be producing more solar energy than the energy produced by all the power plants on earth put together. It is more important to look for avenues to tap solar energy for living and be energy neutral.
Enabling spatial culture The plenary panel "Convergence: Enabling spatial culture" saw Steve Hagan, Vice President - Server Technologies, Oracle Inc. talking on big data, cloud computing and spatial databases. He said global digital data is growing by leaps and bounds at an average rate of 40+ percent year over year. In 2009, human beings have generated 0.8 zeta bytes. Going by this rate, by 2020, we would be producing 35 zeta bytes of data. He then discussed the concepts of structured and unstructured data and the proliferation of the same because of advances in sensor technology and pervasiveness of social media. Alain de Taeye, Board Member at Tom Tom BV traced the history of the art and science of map making right from Mercator in 16th century. In 20th century, much advanced tools have been used for map making and navigation. Discussing the changing map making environment, he said hybrid map making approach is the way to go forward and that includes field survey, GPS measurements, community input, mobile mapping and data from authoritative sources. Ben Semmes, Group operating officer, PB Software enumerated how changing priorities are enabling a mature geospatial world. After Haiti earthquake in 2010, the combination of Twitter and open maps has complemented authoritative data, he said. There was a time when interoperability was thought to be impossible as everyone looked at world with a different per-
Geospatial World I May 2012
spective. When Galileo invented the telescope and Gutenberg invented the typewriter, people had an entirely different perspective of things, according to David Schell, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, OGC. Geosciences and geodesy are important pillars of this technology that enable us to understand and to tackle the major challenges of the future. He opined that investments are going into developing trivial applications rather than pursuing solemn objectives. Air chief marshal Stuart Peach, Royal Air Force, UK described ways to enable geospatial culture. To realise the vision technology promises, to blend all our thoughts and experiences, training is essential, he opined. "We need to fuse across traditional boundaries, inculcate the culture of sharing and enable the databases to become interoperable. It is also about the interoperability of the mind,â&#x20AC;? he concluded. The exchange forum "Evolving Industry-Institution Network for Capacity Development' witnessed exchange of ideas between industry and institutions, leading to relevance and marketability of the trained human resources. The forum saw a confluence of industry and academia stalwarts bringing their rich experience and insight to the floor. Karl Donert, President, European Association of Geographers pointed out that citizens are powered by geodata, most of them without even realising it. The industry needs to market itself better. It is not the technology, innovation, creativity, but it is the geospatial awareness or the lack of it in political circles that actually limits us, he said.
Symposia and seminars Geospatial World Forum 2012 also hosted a range of symposia and seminars where eminent speakers from across the globe shared the latest in various applications, policies and technologies with the audience. The themes for the symposia included defence & intelligence; water; business enterprise; construction and infrastructure; mining and exploration; and energy. The seminars were on real time geoinformatics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; live geography; European Digital Agenda; 5D modelling; GIS-ready information from Imageries; Next Gen Standards and Interoperability; and Environmental Management. The sessions were on themes including governance & planning; cartography; 3D Modelling & Web GIS; cloud computing, surveying & mapping; and photogrammetry and image processing. Technology companies including Hexagon, Trimble, Esri, Autodesk and TomTom showcased their Geospatial World I May 2012
Geospatial World Excellence Awards - Winners 2012 Leadership Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
David Schell, Chairman, OGC, USA
The Geospatial Ambassador
Jack Dangermond, Founder and President, Esri, USA
Geospatial Entrepreneurship
Kamal K Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Rolta India
Making a Difference
Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director, ICTs & S&T Division (ISTD), UN Economic Commission for Africa, Ethopia
The Geospatial Personality of the Year
Ola Rollen, CEO, President and Director, Hexagon AB, Sweden
Corporate Leadership
Steven W Berglund, President and CEO, Trimble Navigation, USA
Premier National Mapping Organization
SWISSTOPO
Popularizing Geospatial Content as a Public Utility TOMTOM Fundamental Research and Capacity Development Wuhan University in Geospatial Sciences
Geospatial World Excellence Awards (for application of geospatial technology) CATEGORY
WINNER
Urban Planning
Gothenburg City, Sweden & AGENCY 9 AB, Sweden
Land Administration
Sarawak Information Technology Resource Council, Malaysia and Sarawak Information Systems Sendirian Berhad (SAINS), Malaysia
Health Services
Division of Spatial Information Science, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Virtual Reality
VALE, Brazil
Mining
Coal India Ltd.
Municipal Services
Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company, UAE
Utility Services (Power)
Alabama Power, USA
Oil & Gas Production
Qatar Petroleum
Mass Media
VPRO Broadcasting Corporation, The Netherlands
Public Safety
British Transport Police
Facilities Information System
Solidere s.a.l , Lebanon and Khatib & Alami CEC, Lebanon
Transportation Management
Crossrail Ltd, United Kingdom
Geospatial World Policy Awards Excellence in Geospatial Policy Implementation for 'Bilateral Cooperation'
International Joint Commission - Canada & USA
Exemplary Implementation of Geospatial Policies and Programmes
PSMA Australia Ltd.
Exemplary Implementation of Geospatial Policies and Programs
European Commission eContentplus Programme, and EuroGeographics, Belgium
Excellence in Geospatial Standards Implementation
The 'OneGeology' Project
Geospatial World Innovation Awards Technology Innovation Award for 3D Visualisation and Modeling
SOFTOPIA Japan
Technology Innovation Award for Mobile Mapping
Avenza Systems Inc., Canada
Technology Innovation Award for LiDAR Data Processing
LASSO, Germany
Technology Innovation Award for Photogrammetry
Optech, Canada
latest offerings in the Technology Tracks. The pre-conference agenda for the event included exchange forums on Land Administration for Economic Development, and Earth Observation Systems and Nation Building.
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Almost 20 years ago, the architect of modern China, Deng Xiaoping, had stated, "There is oil in the Middle East but there is rare-earth in China." Undoubtedly, China identified significance of the elements and today holds 96 percent of total rare earth element market share, but at the cost of seven-mile lake of toxic waste. It has been captured by NASA's Terra satellite. Two pictures, captured five years apart, show huge growth of mine facility in the Nei Mongol Autonomous Region. Vegetation appears red, grassland is light brown, rocks are black, and water surfaces are green. If mining at this pace continues, the repercussion may turn the blessings (in form of rare-earth) into curse.
acquired on July 2, 2001
Courtesy: NASA
acquired on June 30, 2006 54
GeospatialWorld I May 2012
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Data courtesy City of Quebec
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