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FEBRUARY 2015 » VOLUME 05» ISSUE 07 | ISSN 2277–3134

R.N.I No - UPENG/2010/34153; Registration no: UP/GBD-136/2014-16

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

Y O U R

Readers’ Survey 2014

GIS is #1 tech; GNSS, RS follow 650+ Readers

UAV yet to take-off; blame the policy

Cost is Important

3D BIM

Sensor proliferation boosts data availability

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Contents February 2015 Volume 5 Issue 7

CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan Publisher

SURVEY 10. Readers’ Survey 2014

Sanjay Kumar Publications Team

Theme: Location 29. ‘Location’ is the next ‘Search’ Dipanshu Sharma, Founder & CEO, xAd

Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss

34. Indoor LBS holds promise

Jouni Kämäräinen, Director, Nokia; Board Chair, In-Location Alliance

Theme: Remote Sensing

Editor — Agriculture Mark Noort Editor — Mining (Hon)

42. GlobeLand30: A reliable dataset for

sustainable development

Prof Chen Jun President, National Geomatics Center of China & President, ISPRS

Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Editor — Latin America Dr Tania Maria Sausen

44. Geo-tagging homes ensures transparency

Executive Editor

Perspective

Product Manager Harsha Vardhan Madiraju

36. Geospatial and BIM: Facilitating Intelligent Decisions, Intelligent Infra

Dr Anne Kemp, Director and Fellow, Atkins; Vice-Chair of BuildingSmart, UK; Chair of ICE BIM Action Group, Chair of BIM4Infrastructure UK

09 Editorial 18 News 23 Vertical Focus 40 Product Watch 48 Event Disclaimer Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

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

Bhanu Rekha

Geospatial World Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd. (formerly GIS Development Pvt. Ltd.) A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India Tel + 91-120-4612500 Fax +91-120-4612555 / 666 Price: INR 150/US$ 15

Assistant Editor Supreeth Sudhakaran Senior Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Ashish Batra Executive — Posting Vijay Kumar Singh

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 5

Advisory Board

2015-16

International

GEOSPATIAL MEDIA

T

Ahmad Fauzi Bin Nordin Sr

Director General of Survey and Mapping (JUPEM), Malaysia

Aida Opoku-Mensah

Barbara Ryan

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

Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations

Derek Clarke

Christopher W Gibson

Dorine Burmanje

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

Vice President & Executive Committee Member, Trimble

Ed Parsons

Geospatial Technologist, Google

6 / Geospatial World / February 2015

hey are eminent geospatial experts. They are leaders from government, private industry, academia and multilateral organisations from around the world. With a firm belief in their collective wisdom and broader geospatial outlook, Geospatial Media & Communications welcomes members of the International AdvisoryBoard for 2015–16.

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

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems

Prof.

Josef Strobl

Jay Freeland

Kamal K Singh Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group

Chair, Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

President & CEO, FARO

Kumar Navulur

Mark Reichardt

Director, Next Generation Products, DigitalGlobe

President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

Mohd Al Rajhi

Mladen Stojic

Sandeep Singhal

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

President, Hexagon Geospatial

Stephen Lawler

Vice-President, Direct Traffic, Amazon

General Manager, Bing Maps and Geospatial, Microsoft

Vanessa Lawrence

Secretary General, Ordnance Survey International, UK

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 7

GEOBUIZ.COM All the BUZZ about Geospatial BIZ

From the Editor’s Desk

Readers decode tech matrix, GIS leads the pack!

Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

A

variety of geospatial software and technologies is available today for use not only by professionals but by the common person. Geospatial World carried out a survey to find out the usage of these tools and their place in the scheme of things. Not surprisingly, GIS led the pack. However, UAVs are down below, just above ground penetrating radar, which is also surprising considering the amount of publicity that the UAVs have received. This is understandable because regulatory issues have prevented the UAVs from ‘taking off’ in the Americas and Europe and are possibly not even considered in APAC, Middle East and Africa.

Regionally, aerial surveys overtake satellite imagery in the Americas and Europe while APAC, Middle East and Africa depend more on satellite imagery than aerial surveys.

Again it is the regulatory issues that impact aerial surveys and in such cases it is better to use satellite imagery because of their easier supply and the relaxation of restrictions on the resolution of data. While APAC is satisfied with the availability and usability of data, surprisingly, Europe appears to be dissatisfied on both counts. Is this an area of opportunity? The Middle East provides an interesting situation where they are unhappy with the data availability but satisfied with what they have got.

Interoperability is seen as the most important requirement for software while for hardware it is the ease of availability. On challenges, technology development, adoption and data infrastructure share the honours though infrastructure is a shade more important than the others. Surprisingly, regulatory issues do not feature at all except by inference.

Convergence and integration are also not addressed except indirectly through the stress on interoperability. This is worrisome because it shows that the users are still grappling with technology and infrastructure issues. This indicates that the widespread usage and integration of geospatial systems with other systems to provide solutions is still some way off.

But the picture is not quite so bleak.

Location and surveying are driving GNSS usage. BIM and 3D are integrating with geospatial in a big way. Another technology, indoor location is also coming up fast. Simple mobile applications, as illustrated by the NRSC APSHC’s attempt to geo-tag houses, need to proliferate. The end requirement may be a service or a product in a real life situation. Technology must be adopted and adapted to serve this need. Maybe a similar survey next year will reflect these changes.

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 9

GEOSPATIAL WORLD

GIS is the master tech!

GIS is the most used technology globally with GNSS and satellite remote sensing closely following in 2nd and 3rd positions. Availability of geospatial data, which has been a concern until recently, is no longer an issue world over, thanks to the proliferation of sensors. Middle East and Europe lead globally with higher satisfaction levels in the usability of available data!

Here’s an insight into the complete results of Geospatial World Annual Readers’ Survey 2014.

GIS

1

#

TECHNOLOGY

Geospatial World readers identify technologies they frequently use — from traditional technologies like GIS, GNSS, Remote Sensing and Aerial Photography and modern technologies like BIM, 3D, LiDAR, Indoor Positioning, Ground Penetrating Radar and UAVs.

Global trends of geospatial tech usage GIS GNSS Satellite remote sensing Aerial photography 3D Data Total Stations Laser scanning, LiDAR BIM Indoor Positioning UAVs / UAS Ground Penetrating Radar

Never Ocassionally QUICK TAKE

0

20 In %

10 / Geospatial World / February 2015

40 Frequently

60

80

Occasionally

100 Never

120

Frequently

• GIS is #1 technology, followed by GNSS, Remote Sensing and Aerial Photography globally.

• LiDAR has large penetration followed by BIM. • Location and surveying driving GNSS usage.

• BIM and 3D are integrating with geospatial in a big way.

• Indoor location is picking up • Pending regulatory norms in place, UAVs are yet to take-off.

2014 Africa - Technology Usage Trends GIS GNSS Satellite remote sensing Aerial photography Total Stations 3D Data Indoor Positioning BIM UAVs / UAS Laser scanning, LiDAR Ground Penetrating Radar

Never Ocassionally Frequently QUICK TAKE

0

20 In %

40

60

Frequently

80 Occasionally

100

120

Never

• Africa is heavily dependent on remote sensing as a source of data.

• When it comes to overall usage, aerial data is leading the pack.

• The frequent usage of UAVs is above other technologies like LiDAR and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

• While LiDAR is not widely used, 3D data is found to be occasionally used

Americas - Technology Usage Trends GIS Aerial photography GNSS 3D Data Laser scanning, LiDAR Satellite remote sensing Total Stations BIM Indoor Positioning UAVs / UAS Ground Penetrating Radar

Never Ocassionally Frequently

In %

Frequently Occasionally

0

20

40

60

80

100

Never 120

QUICK TAKE • In Americas, aerial data is evidently flying higher than satellite remote sensing data!

• An interesting fact is that number of people who have never used satellite data is more than the number of people who have never used aerial data!

• While UAVs, Indoor Positioning and BIM have equal penetration in terms of frequent usage, BIM takes the lead in the ‘occasionally used’ upcoming technology.

• 3D and LiDAR data are the most used upcoming technologies.

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 11

Asia Pacific - Technology Usage Trends GIS Satellite remote sensing GNSS 3D Data Aerial photography Total Stations Laser scanning, LiDAR BIM Indoor Positioning UAVs / UAS Ground Penetrating Radar

QUICK TAKE • In Asia Pacific, GIS leads the pack followed by satellite based remote sensing and GNSS. • Aerial photography is not taking-off yet, and this could be attributed to the stringent policies guiding aerial photography in the region.

• Location and surveying are driving GNSS usage.

• LiDAR and BIM take a lead. Indicates integration of BIM & geospatial.

• GPR is more occasionally used than UAVs.

0

20

40 In %

60 Frequently

80 Occasionally

Europe - Technology Usage Trends GIS GNSS Aerial photography 3D Data Satellite remote sensing Total Stations Laser scanning, LiDAR BIM UAVs / UAS Indoor Positioning Ground Penetrating Radar

Never Ocassionally Frequently

QUICK TAKE

0

20 In %

40 Frequently

60

80 Occasionally

100 Never

120

• Aerial photography overtakes satellite imagery • LiDAR and BIM take lead.

• BIM is less frequently used in Europe than developing regions

100 Never

Middle East - Technology Usage Trends GIS GNSS Aerial photography 3D Data Satellite remote sensing Total Stations Laser scanning, LiDAR BIM UAVs / UAS Indoor Positioning Ground Penetrating Radar

Never Ocassionally QUICK TAKE

Frequently

• Aerial photography is more frequently used than remote sensing data.

• 3D data is widely used.

• The uptake of LiDAR and BIM is less frequent.

0

20 In %

2

#

40 Frequently

60

80

Occasionally

100

120

Never

Data is at the core of geospatial technology. For several years, the lower awareness levels of geospatial technology and lower uptake have been attributed to the lack of data. Not any longer!

DATA

Data Availability Asia Pacific APAC

AfricaAfrica

16 Satisfied

18

65

27

Satisfied Nor 54 Neither Dissatisfied Dissatisfied

EuropeEurope 18

Americas Satisfied

Satisfied Nor 57 Neither Dissatisfied Dissatisfied

19

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

33

QUICK TAKE

23

• Asia Pacific is most satisfied with the data available.

• Africa and Middle East are most dissatisfied with data availability.

• Europe is more neutral on data availability than other regions.

Middle Americas East 31 23

46 Neither Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied 46

49

19

23 31

Satisfied Neither Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied Dissatisfied

In %

Satisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Dissatisfied

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 13

Asia Pacific

Usability of Available Data

Europe

9

Africa 16

23 19

72

57

54

27

23 QUICK TAKE • Europe is most dissatisfied with the available data • Middle East is unhappy with the data availability but satisfied with what they have got.

• Asia Pacific has the most usable data

Americas

Middle East

13

15 26

In %

70

15

61

Satisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Dissatisfied

#

3

SOFTWARE

Software is key to turn data into actionable information for better decision making. What are the parameters that greatly affect an organisation’s decision in choosing a software? Here is what our readers say:

Important

Moderately Important

Unimportant

Cost

72%

22%

7%

Choice

69%

24%

6%

Ease of Availability

75%

18%

7%

Tech Support

79%

15%

6%

Interoperability

84%

13%

3%

14 / Geospatial World / February 2015

QUICK TAKE • Interoperability is the #1 factor affecting software decision.

• Technology support provided by the vendors and ease of availability of the software are equally important • Cost is an important factor in price-sensitive regions.

#

4

HARDWARE

Software and hardware market dynamics are quite different though neither can be realistically used without the other. Here’s what affects the users in choosing hardware:

QUICK TAKE • Ease of availability is primary driver for hardware buying.

• Cost of the hardware matters most to users in certain regions.

• High taxation is also an important factor.

#

5

Important

Moderately Important

Unimportant

High taxation

53%

20%

26%

Choice

71%

22%

7%

Cost

73%

18%

9%

78%

16%

6%

Ease of availability

CHALLENGES

Important

Moderately Important

Technology Development

74%

26%

Technology Adoption

78%

22%

Data Infrastructure

82%

18%

Infographics: Debjyoti Mukherjee

Challenges abound in geospatial industry affecting the greater use and versatility of application. When asked about the critical factors that require immediate attention in their countries, almost 80% of the readers felt that geospatial data infrastructures require highest attention. Adoption of latest technologies is the next important factor.

Survey Sample & Methodology

Over 650 readers of Geospatial World participated in an online global survey which was conducted over a period of four months — starting from November 2014 to January 2015. The survey was conducted to get a broad understanding of geospatial technology usage; spatial data availability and usability; software and hardware dynamics and challenges of the users across the world.

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 15

Americas News Business Google pulls the plug on Maps Coordinate Google is about to call it quits on its Maps Coordinate service, a tool for managing mobile workforces with the help of mobile apps and a web-based dashboard. According to the email sent by the tech giant to the users of the service, Google will shut down the service on January 21, 2016. According to the press

statement issued by the company, Google is shifting away from selling any non-Maps API products. In July, Google had announced that users of Maps Engine Pro product — a bundle of mapping tools that’s now called Maps for Work — would also gain access to Maps Coordinate.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that Maps Engine is also inching towards a dead-end as Google plans to focus on its mapping APIs in the Google Maps for Work programme.

Exelis bags NASA climate change research contract Aerospace, defence and information solutions provider, Exelis, has won a $3.5 million NASA contract to

16 / Geospatial World / February 2015

support research to improve contract value understanding of climate change by tracking how weather systems transport carbon dioxide, methane and other gases in the atmosphere. As part of the Atmospheric Carbon and TransportAmerica project, Exelis will modify its multi-functional fibre laser LiDAR for integration into a NASA aircraft and provide support to five flight campaigns to collect regional carbon dioxide measurements. The research goal is to improve identification and predictions of carbon dioxide and methane sources and sinks using spaceborne, airborne and groundbased data over the eastern half of the United States. Exelis will work with Penn State University and NASA Langley Research Center scientists and engineers on the project.

$3.5 mn

PCI Geomatics, MDA sign RADARSAT-2 agreement PCI Geomatics, a developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, has entered into a strategic partnership with McDonald, Dettwiler and Associate (MDA). The partnership will streamline access to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery for Geomatica 2014 users.

The solution provides access to RADARSAT-2 order handling services through both the PCI Geomatics website and the Geomatica desktop software package for processing earth observation data that allows users to load and analyse satellite and aerial imagery.

DigitalGlobe appoints Gary Ferrera as new CFO DigitalGlobe has appointed Gary W. Ferrera as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer.

He would assume the role by March 9, 2015. Fred Graffam, who has been serving as the interim chief financial officer since September 2014, will remain in that role through that time. Graffam will resume full-time responsibility for DigitalGlobe’s Financial Planning & Analysis function when Ferrera joins the company.

UrtheCast forms advisory board of industry experts UrtheCast has created an advisory board comprising of industry leaders which will counsel the company’s senior management team on strategy, planning, performance, and stakeholder relations. The newly formed advisory board encompasses Peter Marino, former president and COO, Lockheed Electronics; Michele Weslander Quaid, chief innovation evangelist and CTO (public sector), Google; Jeffrey Manber, managing director, NanoRacks; and Sunil Sharma, managing partner, Extreme Venture Partners.

Miscellaneous OGC, W3C to collaborate on spatial data standards The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) have announced a new collaboration to improve interoperability and integration of spatial data on the Web. The W3C is an international

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Americas News consortium that develops Web standards and guidelines to ensure long-term growth for the Web. The collaboration will enable publishers of spatial data, providers of services that consume the data, and application developers alike to establish common practices and reduce the cost of integrating spatial data on the Web. Through the collaboration, the geospatial and Web communities will document use cases and requirements, develop best practices for publishing spatial data on the Web, and advance some existing technologies to W3C Recommendations and OGC standards. The two organisations have each launched a Spatial Data on the Web Working which will coordinate closely and publish deliverables jointly.

Tool to study surface water hydrologic data launched The US Geological Survey (USGS) has released a new mapping tool for analysing groundwater and surfacewater hydrologic data. Called the Groundwater (GW) Toolbox, the GIS-driven graphical and mapping interface is useful for estimating base flow (the groundwater-discharge component of streamflow), surface runoff and groundwater recharge from streamflow data. The GW Toolbox brings together several analysis methods previously developed by the USGS and Bureau of Reclamation. Each of the methods use daily streamflow data automatically retrieved from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) for more than 26,000

CATS sensors installed aboard ISS Robotic flight controllers have installed NASA’s Cloud Aerosol Transport System (CATS) aboard the International Space Station. CATS is a LiDAR-based remote-sensing instrument designed to last from six months to three years. CATS will collect data about clouds, volcanic ash plumes and tiny airborne particles that can help improve our understanding of aerosol and cloud interactions, and improve the accuracy of climate change models. The Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System, a robotic arm controlled by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), installed the instrument on the ISS’ Japanese Experiment Module, making CATS the first NASA-developed payload to fly on the Japanese module. CATS is currently sending health and status data back to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the instrument’s data would be analysed.

It is specifically intended to demonstrate a low-cost, streamlined approach to developing science payloads on the space station.

18 / Geospatial World / February 2015

streamgage sites across the nation.

In addition to streamflow data, the GW Toolbox also facilitates the retrieval of groundwater-level and precipitation time-series data from the NWIS database.

Esri adds geodemographic info for 57 countries Esri has added geodemographic information for 57 additional countries to its ready-to-use ArcGIS apps including Esri Business Analyst Online (BAO) and Esri Community Analyst. The newly added countries include those in Latin America and Africa, bringing the total number of countries to 137. In addition, Canadian data has been updated to include 2014 updates, and Australia, France, Germany, and India now have advanced datasets and new reports including household, population, and summary data.

PPP model to boost EO technologies adoption TechNavio, a US based market research firm, has forecast the satellite-based earth observation services market globally to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% in its latest report.

The report titled — Global Satellitebased Earth Observation Services Market by Government Users 20152019 — also predicted the US market to grow at a CAGR of 7.65% over the period 2015-2019. The report states while the market is challenged by the budgetary constraints from the governments, emergence of Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a key model for various earth observation programmes will provide the required boost to the market.

Europe News UK OS to be a govt-owned company Matthew Hancock, the Minister of State for Business, Enterprise and Energy, recently announced the government’s intention to change Ordnance Survey from a trading fund to a government company at the Matthew Hancock, Minister of State for Business, end of the financial year.

Enterprise and Energy, UK Ordnance Survey will remain under 100% public ownership and the data will continue to be a Crown property, the company stated on its official blog. The ultimate accountability for the organisation will rest with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. At the same time, the market is abuzz with speculations that a move to privatise the company is in the offing. Speculation about privatisation also surfaced in 2008, when the government revealed it was ‘considering the agency’s underlying business model’ and in 1999 when it became a government trading fund.

The Netherlands TomTom buys Fleetlogic TomTom’s telematics business recently acquired Fleetlogic, one of the leading fleet management service providers in the Netherlands.

The acquisition strengthens TomTom Telematics’ position as the market leader in the Netherlands and in Europe. This acquisition includes the companies TripXs and Inalise and adds 27,000 subscriptions to the TomTom Telematics’ customer base.

Separately, TomTom also announced the appointment of Peter Overmann as the new vice president of technology strategy. Notably, Peter helped create the WolframAlpha computational knowledge engine, which powers natural language

searches in Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Bing, among others.

Finland Nokia HERE posts strong Q4 earnings Nokia has reported strong sales growth in the final quarter of 2014.

Nokia HERE achieved 15% yearon-year growth in net sales, up from €255 million in Q4 2013 to €292 million in Q4 2014, primarily due to HERE’s market position and positive trends in the automotive market. In Q4 2014, HERE sold map data licenses for the embedded navigation systems of 3.9 million new vehicles, compared to 3.2 million vehicles in Q4 2013. “Looking ahead, while 2014 was a year of reinvention,

we see 2015 as a year of execution.

We are already moving fast, with HERE sharpening its strategic focus, Nokia Technologies accelerating its licensing and innovation activities, and Nokia Networks increasing its momentum in growth areas including virtualisation and telco cloud,” said Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, Nokia.

Switzerland Garmin snaps bike safety startup company iKubu Navigation equipment manufacturer, Garmin, has bought a startup that makes technology for bicycle safety. iKubu specialises in computer vision and radar systems. The South African company went through the Grindstone accelerator programme operated by JSE-listed African Dawn Capital before being bought by Garmin. iKubu’s solution utilises short-range radar technology that is integrated with a low-power system that identifies potential hazards that are approaching cyclists from behind. The device can detect cars approaching from behind at a distance of 140 metres (about 450 feet). Garmin will give iKubu the resources to develop, bring to market, and showcase its products.

Romania Teamnet International grabs NACLR contract Teamnet International, an IT & GIS solutions provider, has won a RON 43.03 million ($11.08 million) contract to update IT system of National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration,

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 19

Europe News Romania (NACLR). This is an extension Contract project to an value already existing project that was implemented by IBM Romania and ESRI Romania during 2007-2012.

$11.08 mn

France Airbus, TerraNIS and ARTAL join forces Airbus Defence and Space has signed a partnership agreement with TerraNIS, a geo-information services company working in the fields of agriculture, environment and land management, and ARTAL Technologies, a company specialising in software development. This agreement aims to boost the use of services based on satellite imagery by private and public players, both in France and internationally.

Johann-Dietrich Woerner is new ESA Director General

2015. Woerner is currently Chairman of the Executive Board of DLR, the German Aerospace Center.

Germany EUSI, TotalView support Greek LPIS 2014 project European Space Imaging (EUSI) and TotalView recently announced that they have supported the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) 2014 project in Greece by providing satellite imagery. The project “Digital Services in the Single Application Renewed Land Parcel Identification System” was announced by the Greek Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aid (OPEKEPE) and required the provision of 39,600 sqkm of Greece. The project was awarded to Eratosthenes, Greece, one of the largest consultancies in Greece in the fields of engineering, planning and GIS applications with the support of TotalView, Greece. TotalView worked closely together with EUSI, DG, Eratoshenes and Opekepe to find the complying products, organise the digital delivery to help fast-track the schedule and finally deliver the physical media to end customer.

Belgium Existing drone regulations adequate: EU The Council of the European Space Agency has appointed Johann-Dietrich Woerner as the next Director General of ESA, for a period of four years starting on 1 July 2015.

He will succeed Jean-Jacques Dordain, whose term of office ends on 30 June

20 / Geospatial World / February 2015

The European Commission has published a comprehensive report evaluating the privacy impact of drones (referred to in the report as RPAS or remotely piloted aircraft systems). The Commission found that the current European and Member State regulatory framework was

“adequate to address the privacy, data protection and ethical impacts” of drones because those rules are technology neutral. The commission was of the opinion that rights to privacy and data protection frameworks in Europe included provisions for addressing various risks. The report noted that while the regulatory structure in Europe is adequate, that the biggest problems associated with drones may be educating the industry about their obligations, and enforcing the regulatory mechanisms that are already in place. The committee also suggested that drones should “include privacy-by-design features in all data collection and processing activities”.

European Commission launches survey on EO The European Commission has launched a public online consultation (EU Survey) on earth observation in a global context, GEO & GEOSS. With this consultation, the EC aims at collecting opinions from a wide range of European stakeholders (including public authorities, research organizations, the relevant business sector including SMEs, non-governmental organisations, interest groups, socio-economic partners and civil society).

Asia News India Kiran Kumar to head ISRO

Distinguished space scientist Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar has been appointed as secretary of the department of space and chairman of the Space Commission and the state-run ISRO. He succeeded K. Radhakrishnan who retired from the post on December 21, 2014 on superannuation. Prior to his appointment to the top post, Kumar was director of the ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Stesalit, SkyMap ink partnership agreement Stesalit Systems and SkyMap Global have signed a five-year global strategic partnership agreement to distribute a full range of value added products and services. The partnership with SkyMap will add advanced imagery products and 3D imaging tools of Skymap to Stesalit’s field computing devices and enterprise GIS offerings. SkyMap will benefit by extending its reach in the South East Asian, US and European markets.

China BeiDou gets IMO’s nod for operations at sea China’s independently developed

BeiDou navigation satellite system has taken a huge step towards going global as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved its use in operations at sea. The IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee reviewed and passed a key document known as a commitment letter for the BeiDou system during its 94th session in London which was held from November 17 to 21, 2014. This means the system has been formally included in the worldwide radio navigation system.

BeiDou is the third system to gain such acceptance after the United States’ GPS and Russia’s GLONASS.

received from civilian domestic and foreign satellites are no longer considered state secrets and will be open to public access in line with the Russian legislation,” the government said in a statement. In this regard, the government had also published a draft of the regulation in August 2014. The move is aimed at providing an impetus to growth prospects of the Russian geospatial intelligence services’ market.

HERE to provide overseas map data to Baidu users

Vietnam and China have signed a joint statement expanding the partnership between Japan’s the Vietnam Contribution Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The partnership has opened the door to new longterm cooperative efforts in outer space technology between the two countries. For this, a new centre of operations will be established in Vietnam by 2020. The centre will observe the entire territory of Vietnam through the use of modern radar technology, and facilitate analysis of satellite photo data used for monitoring and detecting natural disasters. The project will be funded using an investment of 54 billion JPY (over $452 million) primarily sourced from the official development assistance (ODA) of the Japanese government.

With an eye on international businesses through mobile services, Chinese search engine company, Baidu, recently signed an agreement with Nokia HERE, according to which the latter will provide map services to Chinese users of Baidu travelling outside China. Baidu currently offers map services in China; however, it does not have good map data outside China and many users would argue its map data even inside China is poor. The new service will be first launched in Taiwan, and will gradually cover other countries and regions.

Russia Russia declassifies satellite earth-sensing data The Russian government recently provided public access to previously classified earth-sensing data received from domestic and foreign satellites. “The earth-sensing data

Japan Vietnam, Japan partner for aerospace technology

$452 mn

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 21

Africa News Ghana GHANA SAT 1 project timeline announced MENASAT has formed a joint-venture, GHANA SAT, with the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) to develop a high resolution earth observation SAR satellite GHANA SAT 1 that will be launched by 2020.

The project would cost Ghana $250 million. The five-year programme will be implemented in three phases: establishing a data centre for the processing and analysis of earth observation SAR and optical satellite imagery; building a direct receiving ground station; and building and launching the GHANA SAT 1 satellite. Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) and Ghana Atomic Commission (GAEC) have also outlined a roadmap for the launch. The data centre would be established in 2015, and it will start receiving, processing Project Cost and analysing RADAR data from COSMO-SkyMed sat of Italian Space Agency.

$250 mn

South Africa Draft drone regulations published South Africa Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has told media that it would have suitable drone regulations in place by the end of March 2015.

In December 2014, SACAA published draft regulations (as

22 / Geospatial World / February 2015

a proposed amendment of the Civil Aviation Regulations, 2011).

According to the draft regulations, operators of UAS will need a specialist remote pilot licence, rather than a commercial pilot licence; UAS will be classified by kinetic energy, as well as height and weight; and special permission would have to be obtained from the SACAA for night operations and operations in the vicinity of people.

In addition, flights beyond the visual line of sight might be allowed to operate on a case by case basis.

Ethiopia Forest cover to be assessed using GIS The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is set to assess the country’s overall forest coverage

with the help of GIS and remote sensing technologies. To take the task further ahead, Geospatial Analytical Services (GeoSAS), a local consulting firm, partnering with the German-based BlackBridge, specialising on geospatial services and products across the globe, is cementing a deal to provide a new imagery and mapping technology known as RapidEye 24.

BlackBridge together with the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GIZ) and with Remote Sensing Solutions (RSS) are collaborating to capacitate and sell high resolution imagery and mapping tools to Ethiopia.

BlackBridge is also providing a training to around 20 local forest experts, officials and other individuals from neighbouring countries.

Egypt Egypt, China to cooperate on space-tech The National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) has signed a cooperation deal with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on sustainable development projects and space technology industry. The two sides agreed on the necessity to establish a joint committee for science and technology as well as boost cooperation between the Egyptian and Chinese universities, labs and research centres. They also agreed to develop the bilateral cooperation in the fields of space, communication and remote sensing. The agreement will bolster cooperation in satellite manufacturing, construction of ground stations, data processing and improving the infrastructure that could serve the sustainable development projects.

Vertical Focus

AGRI IoT could be key to farming The Internet of Things (IoT) could be key to the farming industry, increasing food production by 70% to feed the 9.6 billion global population expected by 2050, according to a recent report by market research firm Beecham Research titled Towards Smart Farming. Smart farming will allow farmers to improve productivity and reduce waste, according to a research report on how machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies and IoT can transform agriculture. further, the reports stated that while the use of M2M technology in farming is still in its infancy, the notion of a “connected farm� is coming closer, connecting real-time farming processes with historical data, such as weather events, climate, economics, product information and machine settings.

Yemen mulls over launching digital agricultural maps in 2015 President of the Agricultural Research Corporation of Yemen, Dr. Mansour Mohammed has announced plans to launch agricultural, soil and water maps of the Republic of Yemen in 2015. These digital maps will provide information on soil and plants, nature and the climate of the Yemeni territory, and will serve as an effective tool for

investors, as well as government and local authorities to obtain digital information about an area and make more informed decisions. He made this announcement at a concluding session at the training program on geographic information systems (GIS) and GPS organised by the National Centre for Agricultural Training supported by the World Bank.

BlackBridge signs agreement to support Agrian with 5m imagery BlackBridge has signed a partnership agreement with precision agriculture solution provider Agrian. According to the agreement, under its monitoring programmes for agriculture, BlackBridge will provide newly collected and archived RapidEye satellite imagery captured in 5m resolution across all major North American agricultural areas and other regions of the world multiple times throughout the growing season. The new partnership allows Agrian to provide agricultural retailers, crop consultants, growers, and agronomists with high-resolution, multispectral RapidEye imagery, as well as soil data, crop and weather history, and crop performance data.

ENERGY

Bluesky launches Eagle energy website

Aerial photography company, Bluesky International has launched a prototype website, Eagle, which allows people to assess if a building is suitable for solar-powered energy using high resolution geographic data. The information is combined with energy tariffs, expected consumption, cost of installation and available subsidies to calculate the potential return on investment for solar renewable energy systems.

Smart grid data analytics market to grow The Global Smart Grid Data Analytics Market will grow at 20% CAGR over the period 2014-2019, a recently released report

by ResearchandMarkets claims. According to the report, one

of the major drivers of the market is the growth in the deployment of smart grid. The report found that Expected the major concern for the power CAGR utilities is the management of data generated by smart grid applications.

The report found that power utilities worldwide are investing to change the way data are transmitted to and collected from consumers through various communication networks.

AMI-enabled meters are being deployed to facilitate two-way communication between utilities and consumers. Further, the report states that one of the key challenges in this market is the lack of industry standards. Regulatory authorities worldwide need to follow a common set of standards to bring in more consistency and steadiness within the Global Smart Grid Data Analytics market, as the absence of such standards would create issues during the interoperability of metering systems.

20%

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 23

Vertical Focus

INFRA Schneider Electric and Autodesk join hands Schneider Electric and Autodesk have signed an MoU to collaborate and enhance current practices for building lifecycle management based on building information modelling (BIM). As part of the collaboration, the two companies would explore ways to complement each other’s strengths to make buildings more energy efficient from the design and construction through operation and end-of-life phases. The joint effort aims to combine Schneider Electric’s expertise in electrical distribution, energy and building management solutions with Autodesk’s portfolio of BIM-based design and construction software such as Autodesk Revit and Autodesk BIM 360. The collaboration may include development of new solutions and services in the areas of energy management, building automation and control, and workspace management.

Komatsu to use drones for ‘smart construction’ at Japan’s Olympic site Komatsu, the largest Japanese manufacturer of construction equipment, has unveiled a plan to automate groundworks by leasing and operating a fleet of 200

drones from the US that will be digitally linked to its unmanned excavators and bulldozers. The company said that the plan is a response to Japan’s ageing workforce and skills shortage, and that A prototype of the drone Komatsu plans to use its long-term goal of automated construction has been made possible by advances in drone technology.

The company plans to use drones that can capture 3D point clouds — with similar accuracy to conventional LiDAR scanning — to create a 3D model of the construction site.

The scan data will then be analysed using software from Autodesk, Google and Esri. Komatsu expects to integrate engineering plans, data on underground objects and plans for the excavation, into the drones’ 3D models, and then load that data into unmanned bulldozers and excavators.

Operated using an intelligent machine control system, the bulldozers would also use onboard sensors to record how the layout is changing as the work progresses.

LAND South Africa’s e-cadastre hits a roadblock The South African government is contemplating to switch back to old paper-based land registration system after its digital land registration system collapsed. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) recently recommended the North Gauteng High Court to declare the contract invalid and set it aside. This was after the investigating body found evidence suggesting there had been irregularities in the tender process. In 2010, Gijima was awarded a contract to convert 500 million pages of deeds records in the department’s offices across the country into microfilms. This was to ensure the government had electronic copies. Since the contract was awarded, the e-cadastre system remains non-functional despite the department paying out money to Gijima and its subcontractors. The investigating unit will also look to recover money paid over to the company since it was awarded the contract in 2010. The department said it was planning to re-advertise the tender by April.

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Philippines’ senate speaker urges upper chamber to pass the land use bill Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte recently urged the upper chamber to act on the National Land Use and Management Act, which was approved by the House of Representatives back in June 2014. However, the Senate is yet to make progress on the bill, which is still pending before the chamber’s committee on environment and natural resources. The Bill seeks to allot and delimit the purpose of the country’s lands into the four categories: protected lands, production/agricultural lands, housing and institutional lands, and areas for economic infrastructures. It also sets particular criteria for classifying lands, a mandate given to a new National Land Use Policy Council to be housed by the National Economic and Development Authority. Under the bill, those involved in illegal land conversions will be jailed and fined.

HEXAGON GEOSPATIAL A Simpler Way to See Your World

Hexagon Geospatial helps you make sense of the dynamically changing world. Their products, solutions and services synchronise all the geospatial needs of the user and transform multi-source content into actionable information.

G

rowing population, expanding urban spaces, shrinking arable land, increasing food demands, water scarcity, climatic changes and unstable geopolitical scenario — the world around us is changing at a rapid pace, leaving humans with the inevitable need to sense and monitor the dynamics of change.

Information technology, especially geospatial technology, plays a critical role in continuously sensing, monitoring, measuring and modelling the earth and its dynamics, as well as in enabling governments to plan for and manage the pressing challenges in sustainable and highly efficient ways, simultaneously generating economic prosperity and social well-being.

Working directly with customers and channel partners, Hexagon Geospatial supports communities, cities and governments across the world to harness these forces of change — globally and locally.

Advertorial

Why Hexagon Geospatial?

Hexagon Geospatial is part of Hexagon AB and plays a key role in the company’s multi-industry focus, leveraging the entire portfolio. Hexagon’s geospatial technologies enable governments make smarter and more informed decisions. With decades of experience in the geospatial industry, Hexagon’s dynamic geospatial portfolio gives decision makers complete confidence in and total control of the entire workflows.

Hexagon’s geospatial suite has a wide range of hardware, sensors, and software that capture the

changes of our planet in real time through satellite imagery, terrestrial and aerial photography, remote sensing, CAD and GIS, transforming raw geospatial data into actionable information.

From the sensor offerings of Leica Geosystems, to the software solutions of Hexagon Geospatial and Intergraph SG&I, the Hexagon’s offerings are state-of-the art.

In an era where customers don’t just want standalone systems but look for integrated solutions and services, Hexagon Geospatial serves its customers with the latest and robust geospatial solutions to suit their needs.

Power PortfolioTM

Hexagon Geospatial’s product offerings of remote sensing and GIS, photogrammetry, data management and compression, Web GIS and mobile cover the entire geospatial lifecycle.

Mladen Stojic

President, Hexagon Geospatial

End-users are more interested in solutions that deliver actionable information Geospatial World / February 2015 / 25

In mid-2014, the company announced the launch of the Power PortfolioTM comprising of product suites that organised all products into distinct packages based on their functionality and the requisite geospatial workflow. This comes at an appropriate time, when the industry has begun to embrace the concept of geospatial workflows, giving the first advantage to Hexagon Geospatial.

Clearly, this is the proof of the organisation’s pioneering spirit in taking the industry forward.

A significant announcement came in December 2014 about the launch of Power Portfolio 2015.

“Users today are less focused on data and maps and more interested in the dynamic experience of information that can be delivered to a host of forms, dashboards and web/mobile devices,” says Mladen Stojic, President, Hexagon Geospatial.

He adds, “They are more interested in solutions that deliver actionable information, providing powerful insight into the area of their interest. Our three suites of Power Portfolio allow this to happen — generating powerful information about a world experiencing tremendous change.”

Power PortfolioTM 2015

Power Portfolio 2015 organises Hexagon Geospatial’s product offerings into representative categories describing the broader geospatial functions.

With creative and intuitive interfaces, smart workflows, and automated technologies, Power Portfolio enables users transform multi-source content into actionable information. It can: ■ Harness data production and perform big data management ■ Customise and easily interpret geospatial analytics ■ Deliver context- and industry-specific information through the Cloud to online, digital, and mobile.

Power to Author

ERDAS IMAGINE® IMAGINE PHOTOGRAMMETRY GEOMEDIA® IMAGESTATION

Producer Suite

Provider to Manage

Provider Suite

Platform to Build

Collect, process, analyse and understand raw geospatial data, and deliver usable information with the PRODUCER SUITE. Organise all your geospatial and business data into one centralised library, and deliver it to others easily with the PROVIDER SUITE

Platform Suite

Create your own unique application on top of a solid foundation of powerful geospatial functionality with the PLATFORM SUITE

26 / Geospatial World / February 2015

ERDAS APOLLO ECW GEOMEDIA® SMART CLIENT GEOMEDIA® WEBMAP GEOSPATIAL SDI GEOSPATIAL PORTAL MOBILE MAPWORKS MOBILE ALERT

Industry Specific Smart Solutions — The Need Demand for increased efficiency and measurable return on investments from every project has necessitated that software solutions be intuitive and integrate seamlessly with industry workflows.

Today, organisations are transforming themselves to become smart and sustainable; firms are striving to better manage their physical assets and infrastructure; authorities are optimising their resources and investments; and government agencies are striving to mitigate and manage disasters effectively. Hexagon Geospatial is truly the right choice for all these organisations.

The products under the Power Portfolio 2015 are in fact suitable for the entire geospatial lifecycle — data creation, storage, management, retrieval and more importantly, integration with various industry workflows.

Solving the Smart City Puzzle

A city cannot truly become smart, unless an interplay of technologies provides a ‘smart solution’.

Right from the sensors that collect data, to systems that store and manage data, to solutions that help in making decisions in the digital world and to transform them into the physical world — the need is for a right mix of products.

According to Kaushik Chakraborty, Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Global Business Development at Hexagon Geospatial, “Aerial technology, especially airborne LiDAR coupled with high resolution aerial imaging, helps in creating accurate 3D base maps for multiple application projects. This is quite relevant in the scenario of smart cities, where integrated and updated base maps are needed.”

Innovations from Hexagon Geospatial enable this process in the context of a smart city. A specific product worth mentioning here is the GeoMedia® WebMap that helps in creation of 3D cities in seconds by easily extruding and simulating 3D building shapes. One can perform shadow analysis measurements of the 3D objects and view urban plans in 3D with automated navigation and visualisation of shadowing and atmospheric effects.

Enhancing Property Taxation

Increasing urbanisation, especially in the developing world, is making city authorities traverse a tightrope in catering to the development needs vis-a-vis financial and environmental sustainability. Owing to the inherent challenges in the existing workflows, local governments are unable to monitor and manage the dynamic changes happening on the urban land — be it buying-selling of open plots, improvements to the existing buildings and/or the new and upcoming layouts.

Though technology has evolved from manual measurement of properties to the use of sophisticated lasers, local authorities are yet to embrace the latest technology. The management of disparate datasets — be it satellite or aerial imagery, property sketches or ancillary datasets related to the field checks - in a single platform is a task.

Local governments are looking for effective ways to detect property changes, manage field data and eliminate redundancy, and efficiently manage and distribute geospatial datasets.

To tackle this challenge, Hexagon Geospatial teamed up with APEX Software and Leica Geosystems’ measurement hardware to revolutionise property appraisal and taxation workflows!

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 27

Hexagon Geospatial’s Producer Suite, supported

by ERDAS IMAGINE® and GeoMedia® for imagery analysis and GIS data creation along with Provider Suite aided by ERDAS APOLLO for managing and distributing the data, will enormously benefit the property appraisers’ community.

Effective Asset Management

Advertorial

To achieve the expected return on investment, organisations must inventory and maintain their assets. Geospatial Asset Management workflows provide users tools to capture property conditions that drive maintenance and management actions.

However, the existing business processes and workflows are outdated, leading to inefficiencies.

The antiquated systems generally prevent adherence to data collection requirements which is central for a good GIS system. Moreover, centralised processes are needed for inspecting the assets in the field that are also equipped with real-time editing and updating on the mobile even by non-GIS professionals.

Hexagon Geospatial Asset Management workflows powered by GeoMedia® Smart Client, Mobile MapWorks provide the necessary tools to capture property inventory conditions and undertake necessary audits that drive maintenance and management actions.

They efficiently manage inspections and inventory of critical above- and under- the surface assets such as roads, sewers, hydrants, signs, sidewalks, and buildings. They capitalise on the mobile workforce, expanding data creation and web editing capabilities to non-GIS users in both the office and the field.

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Mitigating and Managing Disasters

The word ‘disaster’ brings visions of nightmares for citizens and authorities alike. With the increased frequency and intensity of disasters across the globe, governments are putting mitigating measures in place rather than focusing only on managing the disasters.

Geospatial solutions for planning and recovery tremendously aid in the mitigation and management efforts worldwide. But there is a lot to learn, improve and implement when it comes to technology.

Especially, data deluge from voluntary sources, is a common phenomenon during disasters. While this data is a key source of providing emergency services to citizens, it also raises several challenges for authorities with respect to the effective management and use of this information.

Hexagon Geospatial’s Provider Suite addresses these challenges and helps in storing, cataloguing and distributing all the geospatial and business data for easy discovery and timely delivery.

The powerful features provided by the suite of products from Hexagon Geospatial to process and integrate data from various sensors including UAV data and video data in real time and integrate with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud can have multi-fold benefits in these situations, where data is safe from disasters, enabling the authorities to quickly deploy apps anywhere for mission critical analysis of the situation to citizens.

For more information on Hexagon Geospatial, visit www.hexagongeospatial.com, or write to us at in-sales@hexagongeospatial.com.

Interview

‘Location’ is the next ‘Search’ The first global location marketplace, xAd specialises in serving media specific to a mobile user’s location. In a tete-e-tete with Geospatial World, Dipanshu Sharma, Founder & CEO says location is one of the biggest drivers of intent and xAd is next only to Google and Facebook in location-based advertising

W

hat was the idea behind xAd? In the mobile environment, where you are, where you have been and where you are going, is a strong indicator of your intent. When you type a keyword in Google, your intent is explicit, it is typed by you. On Facebook, you click to like something and choose to express your intent. But in the mobile environment, location is the biggest driver of your intent. You went to a retailer; you went to a car dealer, and the signals you leave wherever you went is what xAd is all about. We capture two terabytes of data a day, about hundred million signals a day. We store them, analyse and make intelligent decisions.

How is that achieved? Tell us about xAd’s ‘location verification technology’.

Every location is not the same. In our world, location can be derived through many signals, GPS being primary.

A GPS chip on your phone will give your location up to accuracy of three metres when you are outdoors. But if you are in a building, a combination of data signals, such as Wi-Fi, IP address, and GPS, can produce accurate location index. If you don’t have Wi-Fi, and we have your information on where you live or where you usually go, registration data, your zip code etc., we can use the context of

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 29

Interview additional data sources to derive your location. So, when we get a signal from a user saying “here is where I am”, xAd can verify it and the degree of accuracy that signal has. We pick up high accuracy signals from about three hundred billion signals a month. We capture tens of millions of location visits in a given day, which equates to over two terabytes of data that we capture and store on a daily basis. It is from this dataset that we analyse actual real time and historical location behaviours that are then used to make intelligent targeting and advertising decisions.

On an average, we are able to verify about 40% of the inventory as having precise location data — or the near exact coordinates of where a user is, while the other 60% is determined to only be as accurate as a zip code, city or state-wide area. We source this information through mobile phones. We have APIs within the phones and we are integrated with over 30,000 mobile applications, so every application is sending us signals. For example, let’s say, you have Accuweather app on your phone. Every time you open it and check the weather, we know exactly where you are, and where you have been — allowing us to derive who you are from this data.

From this precise pool of inventory, we see on average 300 million unique devices in a given month. It is important to note that we do not receive nor we store a user’s actual identity or personally identifiable information (or PII). What we do see is a unique device advertising ID or Ad ID which represents a unique device or user in our platform. These ad ID’s are like cookies as they are not persistent and can be turned off or reset by a user at any given time through privacy settings on the mobile device. Where these Ad ID’s become useful to advertisers, is like cookies, the ad ID allows us to track discreet location visits back to a specific ID — allowing platforms like xAd to gain a more accurate understanding of a user’s needs, likes and interests. Over time, this data is aggregated into audience profiles that can then be used to target large groups of people based on their shared interests or past visitation behaviours. In this scenario, it is less about where a consumer currently is and more about where they have been in the past.

Depending upon the location of the user, we change

the advertisements doled out. For example, if a customer is parked outside Macy’s, we may give him a Nordstrom’s advertisement highlighting the offers at Nordstrom. This is called broader targeting. But if he/she has already entered Macy’s, he/she will be given an advert for a product within the store, say Calvin Klein has 40% off or DKNY has 30% discount. So, the advert will change based on the exact location of the mobile phone user. This is called on-premise targeting.

If a hundred people visit Macy’s everyday on an average and it has started advertising, we can actually measure the increase or decrease in the number of customers and the impact of that advertisement; thereby, measuring the RoI on the ad spend. This measurement piece is the most advanced part of our technology.

Another example is KFC. Let’s say the average spend per person at KFC is $7. That’s called the bucket size. If by advertising, KFC got another 112 thousand people, multiply that by $7, less the cost of advertising, would give you the exact returns on the advert spend. This measurement technology is why xAd is successful, because we are not just able to target audiences, we are also able to tell what we did for the RoI, how much new business we got. We can also perform competitive conquesting, where — for example, we are doing a campaign for Macy’s, and we fence all the Nordstrom stores and we start showing Macy’s advert in every store. Then we can effectively show a drop of traffic in Nordstrom. We can also measure the increase in traffic at Macy’s and the decrease in traffic at Nordstrom. That’s when the advertisers really get excited.

Apart from location, what other parameters are taken in to consideration to study the behaviour of a mobile user?

We call this signal strength and ‘search’ is the strongest signal. You can do a lot of targeting, but you can’t beat explicit intent people express in the search box. That’s why Google makes half of the world’s advertising revenue.

Location is the second best in terms of driving actual return.

After location, there is context — finding which website or app you are on. Demographics like age and gender are

In advertising, anything that is tied to RoI works. One can easily do that on search because one can tie a keyword to buy-behaviour. That can be achieved with location but not on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else 30 / Geospatial World / February 2015

important. Time of the day is very important. When we do targeted advertisement for restaurant chains, advertising at specific times makes sense. 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. is the most effective time for targeting such advertisements because people haven’t made the decision on where they would have lunch. But if we start advertising lunch at 2 p.m., it is a waste.

Weather is actually interesting, because in the US, weather changes very frequently. We have done a lot of campaigns where if a storm is predicted, we start a campaign for a home goods store for generators or safety lights or to store more stuff in your house. So everything matters. Search is the biggest and location is the second biggest variable. The other variables are not as impactful, but are useful.

Search and location come together very strongly. While search indicates what you are looking for, it neither indicates you will actually go somewhere nor do that. Location expresses intent explicitly and shows where you went, which is lot more important. We combine these two.

What about the privacy concerns?

Everything we do is with the explicit consent of the user as given to the application provider upon initial download or first use of the application. When you download an app, you have to opt-in to share your location. In addition, we also provide our own opt-out right on the ad itself through the

use of the AdChoices icon. However, despite these controls, majority of the consumers continue to share their location data. Some of the most recent studies point to the fact that consumers are ok with sharing their location, as long as they are receiving some value or benefit from it. In our case, this comes in the result of more relevant offers, advertising messages and information that the consumer can actually use.

As a result, our conversion rates and click-through rates are very high, because these ads are looked at as content, and not as advertising. Relevance is the key in making advertising useful. Every ad we serve is contextually relevant to your location, either where you are now or where you’ve been.

Of late, in-store shoppers are moving to online shopping. How is xAd making this experience relevant for such users?

Although online shopping is growing, offline shopping still accounts for over 90% of retail commerce in the US. That trend holds true around the world: offline shopping has a far greater share of commerce activity than online shopping. Overall, we do not see online shopping replacing offline shopping or vice versa. Instead, what we do see is an evolving shopping process where consumers shop when and where they want. As a result they want to move seamlessly between online and offline channels to fit their needs. In

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 31

Interview

xAd is successful because of its measurement technology. We are not just able to target people, we are also able to tell what we did for the RoI, how much new business we got for a customer fact, many retailers are seeing a resurgence in in-store sales based on the ability to buy online and pick-up from the store. To a consumer, the definition of a ‘store’ includes both online store and physical store. What mobile has enabled is a bridge between these two worlds. Now it is up to the advertiser to effectively take advantage of this new opportunity.

You have recently said that location has the potential to be the next multi-billion dollar business. Can you elaborate on that?

In advertising, anything that can be tied to a positive RoI works. One can easily do that on search because one can tie an online keyword to buy-behaviour that is completed online. The part that most publishers and marketers are still trying to solve for is the offline impact of these digital behaviours. For the vast majority of transactions that do not begin and complete online, this is where mobile-location comes in. Location, though, changes everything because now it’s not about the site or publisher. It’s about the user. Knowing the context of where they are and where they have been allows us to provide more relevant ad that measureable. It is our prediction that search advertisers will start migrating to location advertising because, like search, location allows you to clearly measure the impact of a targeted ad on consumer shopping behaviour. It’s better for users and better for advertisers.

Are you looking at providing more services that are based on location?

Location is the foundation of intent and we use that intent to do several things. One big opportunity is the ability to use this location data to better inform when and where to place other forms of advertising like Out of Home billboards, and even television ads. It is still early days on these opportunities but the potential is definitely there.

Location based advertising — has been in vogue for a while with several biggies like Google and Facebook.

How is xAd creating a place of its own and also giving competition to the big players?

It is all about signal strength. Google search has the strongest

32 / Geospatial World / February 2015

intent signal. But I would argue we have the second strongest signal — location, which is much stronger than Facebook’s social intent. A lot of advertising on Facebook is actually promoting app downloads. Our advertising is all about the trillions that get spent each year in actual brick and mortar locations. Imagine the possibilities.

You said ‘search’ is Google’s USP and ‘location’ is yours. Do you see these as complementing aspects and is there a scope of working together?

Definitely. xAd has a search business as well. In fact, we are the second largest search provider in the United States after Google. We power some of the largest local search applications like Whitepages and Yellowpages (Avantar) and we can see they are powerful together. However, location is very powerful as a standalone for all the reasons we have already discussed. That’s the reason we get excited.

With regard to working together, my thesis is that nobody has been successful with partnerships. If you look at Alibaba, Google, Facebook — they have built their business independently. Being independent creates more value for the economy because it drives competition; it drives better value for everybody. We are planning an independent drive.

Location has the potential to be truly disruptive.

You have recently raised $50 million from the market.

What are your plans?

We basically raised $50 million to have the necessary capital for technology acquisitions or international expansion. If there is a technology relevant to what we are doing and allows us to have more intellectual property, we will carefully look at those acquisitions. We are live in seven countries — US, Canada, Germany, UK, France, China and India. By the end of this year we plan to expand further into Asia and launch in a few countries in Latin America. China is one example where we considered buying one or two companies to accelerate growth but we have been able to launch in China ourselves in a very short period of time. We are looking at Japan, and it seems we will be able to launch in Japan in the next three months. As we continue to accelerate our growth around the world, we are certain it will be used to help us expand faster.

Perspective

Indoor

LBS

holds promise

The success of indoor LBS will only occur with the innovation and discovery of new applications of the technology, either on its own or in combination with others such as wearables and social media, writes Jouni K채m채r채inen, Board Chair, In-Location Alliance

C

urrent mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and upcoming wearable devices like augmented reality glasses and smart watches, are designed to enable rich multimedia services including location-based services.

Originally conceived and developed for the outdoors and based on the widespread availability of GPS technologies, location-based services (LBS) are now finding their way

34 / Geospatial World / February 2015

indoors by exploiting the several radio technologies that supply wireless connectivity, strong processing power and high capacity batteries.

Mobile application stores already contain a good number of indoor positioning applications that can be downloaded for a small fee or for free. With one of them, it is rather quick and easy to upload a building map and, after a site survey, upload the fingerprints of the radio and magnetic fields locally available. This step can sometimes be refined through crowdsourcing techniques allowing the model to become more robust over time.

These apps can offer nice entry-level solutions, and may be just enough in simple venues where accurate and informative maps suitable for small displays are not necessary and where navigation is the only need. Accuracy, which is often very low, cannot be ensured. Instead, good quality indoor LBS needs a careful design and arrangement, functional to the business of the venue owner and to the architectural peculiarities of the buildings, that is, a typical shopping mall is quite different from a hospital or a railway station and the implied services and deployments that the venue owners will engage will be quite different.

Shopping malls and retailers, for instance, are actively experimenting with achieving deeper customer engagement by helping them find the precise location of products and staff, or to get personalised product promotions based on their position in the store and other information such as previous purchase history. Using mobile indoor LBS is very natural when you consider that already 85% of customers search for information with their mobile phone when shopping [NinthDecimal/JiWire Mobile Audience Insights Report, Q3 2012].

This type of investment in the venue enables a number

of further benefits to the venue owner such as increased security in emergency situations and/or increased efficiency in the logistic and workforce management processes.

Real time indoor location data are also increasingly enabling new social networking services, allowing people to become aware of nearby social opportunities — for example finding business colleagues at the airport, family members in shopping malls or students on the university campus.

A recent survey made within the In-Location Alliance (ILA), identified 17 different industries where members are actively deploying solutions, from retail to transportation, from health care to private emergency services.

Criteria for success

Over the years, customers have become acquainted with the typical user interfaces of outdoor LBS. To achieve similar levels of confidence, indoor LBS will need to provide consumers’ access to indoor LBS through possibly the same interface and ensure seamless transitions from indoors to outdoors and vice versa. The availability of the venue maps will require extensive modelling work and the approach for the venue coverage must be globally uniform.

Advances in wireless technologies are enabling indoor positioning solutions that meet consumers and business expectations of accuracy and reliability. The availability of accurate venue models, also known as indoor or venue maps, play an especially important role in most use cases and have a number of criteria to ensure adoption. These are: • The venue models must be accurate enough to support the required services.

• The map data content must be easily manageable from back end systems or custom interfaces to ensure easy management and update.

• Map usability, ensured by functions for zoom -in and -out, rotations in 3D and floor data, must be intuitive and support visually and logically people’s navigation while moving in the venue.

Business ecosystems

Who is running the location services? The business models are evolving but quite naturally, the key stakeholders are property owners, business or service operators in the locations, application providers and positioning solution providers.

Behind a seamless user view, the business players here are quite different from those leading the outdoor LBS ecosystem.

Indoor positioning solutions are quite variegated with regard to requirements and complexity. This involves the contribution of a number of different players who have to cooperate in the development of a common view. As an example, the mobile handset based positioning solutions include products

or sub-components from several vendors, including chip set manufacturers, device vendors, application developers, service provider and hardware vendors. The deployment, management and operation of such solutions require system integrators, service and network operators and local installation companies.

The open innovation approach and the ILA

When implementing these solutions there are several options available that are based on fully or partially proprietary technologies. The availability of standard products and a consolidated approach is expected to consistently reduce the upfront investments necessary for the development of indoor positioning solutions. Also the total cost of ownership is expected to decrease; thus, consistently improving the cost / quality ratio and ultimately the ROI of the venue owners and service providers.

The role of the ILA is to be the open industry forum where market players can reach a common technical understanding of the key components, interfaces and standards needed for end-to-end solutions. A standards based solution shall also stimulate innovation, enhance service delivery, and allow companies playing different roles in the ecosystem to share use cases, experiences and results from pilots and trials.

The ILA was founded in 2012 with these objectives and has now over 70 members. The ILA actively collaborates with relevant SDOs by contributing technical requirements rather than creating new standards. Earlier this year, the ILA published a System Architecture white paper which defines a technology neutral architecture for indoor positioning solutions.

Conclusions

People spend 90% of their time indoors. The indoor positioning market is currently translating the successful use cases of “outdoor” GPS-based positioning indoors, and has the potential to deliver significant benefits to both application users and application providers. But true success will only occur with innovation and the discovery of new applications of the technology either on its own or in combination with others such as wearables and social media.

The ILA is helping to drive the market towards the maturity needed to stimulate such innovation not only by providing much of the technology that will help indoor positioning infrastructure to become as ubiquitous as GPS is outdoors, but also by providing a standards-based solution that will drive interoperability and a platform for innovation.

Jouni Kämäräinen Director, Nokia, and Board Chair, In-Location Alliance With contributions from In-Location Alliance Use Case Working Group Chair, Fabio Malabocchia of Telecom Italia

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 35

Perspective

Geospatial and BIM Facilitating Intelligent Decisions,

Intelligent Infra

A

t the Institution of Civil Engineers, we define Building Information Modelling (BIM) as the purposeful management of information through the whole lifecycle of an infrastructure project.

The key principles are to start with the end in mind and consider the project in context, as part of the overall system within which it will operate. The drivers therefore become the desired business outcomes, rather than simply time and budget, and the opportunity to achieve an integration of the different infrastructure sectors.

I suggest six key principles, starting with whole life business outcomes, which should help guide convergence of BIM, geospatial and other disciplines which could contribute to better management of information, as illustrated in Figure 1. BIM is proving to be a catalyst in bringing about change in the mindset of infrastructure industry – to think about data, not documents; about assets, not projects; and about portfolio integration, not individual assets.

But as one speaker said at a recent BSi conference, “BIM isn’t the competitive advantage…. Delivering better projects is!” And was it not forever thus with the application of geospatial technologies and GIS? There are lessons in the trials and tribulations of rolling out GIS, which must surely help in the roll-out of BIM. And convergence of

36 / Geospatial World / February 2015

various methodologies and technologies for managing data, taking the best of each, and boldly ditching the worst or superfluous of the rest, must surely be for the common good of developing and managing a better planet. So, let’s put paid to the hang-ups of what is and is not GIS and BIM, and discover what really deserves our focus.

Whole life business outcomes: Start with the end in mind

Unintended Consequences

Data, not documents or 3D models

Garbage in Garbage out

Who is making the decisionhuman or computer?

Think assets, not projects

Information is NOT understanding

Figure 1: Six key principles guiding the convergence of BIM, geospatial and other disciplines

BIM is proving to be a catalyst in bringing about change in the mindset of infrastructure industry — to think about data, not documents; about assets, not projects; and about portfolio integration, not individual assets. And together, BIM and geospatial are providing a competitive advantage to improving project delivery

It’s all about information

If you think of the tangle of data we used to have on multidisciplinary projects before we introduced the concepts of a single portal of truth and SDI, you get a sense of what the infrastructure industry is trying to accomplish with BIM. But with the methodologies encompassed within the UK-approach to BIM (as specified by the 1192 Family), there is a greater rigour in how the different disciplines take ownership and responsibility for the authoring and updating of ‘their’ data, through a common process and common standards. This is both the trick and the challenge of the BIM

movement — to retain responsibility and accountability for planning, design, construction and operational decisions — while moving to a more transparent, open, dynamic and collaborative approach. The key outcomes I believe we should be driving for when looking to successfully implement the principles of BIM are presented in Table 1.

Data, not documents or just 3D models

Infrastructure industry, however, is still wedded to documents, locking the lowest common denominator — the data – into a mesh of other thought processes, assump-

Table 1: Contributions of Geospatial/BIM CLARITY

Clarity of delivery

TECHNICAL JUDGEMENT

Converging information production with sound engineering judgement and design

ACCESS

Wider, faster access to comprehensible and integrated information

LATERAL THINKING

Enabling reflective, adaptive thinking to incorporate whole life and integrated systems approach within the wider geographic context

INNOVATION

Harnessing innovative technologies and harvesting intelligence from big data

DECISIONS

Fostering instinctive but rigorous collaboration and better decision making

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 37

Perspective tions and opinions, which can build up into information, knowledge and hopefully, wisdom. But the advantage of moving to digital data is that it can be used, many times, for different purposes, and in different contexts – which is not the case if it is locked away in a document, or even if constrained within a relational database. There is much that both GIS and BIM can take from www and linked data. FME helps greatly in converting between formats – but what if we can develop an open architecture, and open standards as envisaged by OGC, and discover how we can lift IFCs into a new technological space?

Think assets not projects

Garbage in, garbage out

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“We live in a world saturated with information. ….. We have come to confuse information with understanding.”(“Blink” Gladwell 2007:264). And how often do we forget, or are scared to trust, our common sense and intuition? We do need to think about how to enhance our understanding. As IBM (2013) points out, for big data, but holds for this thesis as well: “… the challenge lies in an organisation’s ability to capture the big data that is applicable to its needs, effectively manage it, and extract new and relevant insights in order to achieve breakthrough business outcomes…”

However, a continuum in our approach to data handling is needed which addresses how our understanding can be developed and supported, and how GIS and BIM technologies can specifically serve these needs. A case in point is the development of PAS 128 which aims to enhance

Data Analysis

Visualisation

Leadership

Management Spline

Whether we are considering what the data is, how it should be used, or how it is presented, the industry will become increasingly dependent on those with expertise in data handling and analysis, to ensure that the appropriate data is made available in a way that can aid rather than manipulate or abate decision making. There is a need for robust but usable standards. There is a need for an engagement with rigorous processes. But there is also a need to adhere to a code of ethics which helps the industry to continually adapt and develop methods to address challenges of privacy, distortion, and manipulation. If the future data scientist or information engineer will be responsible for identifying that

Information is not understanding

Data

The vision many have around the globe is of integrating infrastructure across cities and across countries. In some ways, this is where the convergence of BIM with geospatial offerings and mapping inheritance reaps the greatest rewards. BIM really gets exciting when it extends beyond individual projects, and is set within the context of existing infrastructure, and its on-going usage.

The 3D model becomes far less important than the data associated with it – the art and the science developing this representation of reality casts back to the roots of cartography. The step beyond that, is how the infrastructure is used – the ‘in-use’ data which reflects not only the physical infrastructure but how it is actually serving the needs of people, and the patterns of behaviour of people interfacing and/or using the infrastructure. These are the concepts which are being taken seriously in considering the longer term business outcomes for Crossrail and HS2.

This is where the impact of big data, and the information which can be gathered about how people are interacting, using and adapting to the infrastructure around them leads us beyond the notion of ‘smart’ cities, and into the realms of how our virtual and physical worlds will start to merge.

critical sub-set of information upon which decisions will be made, this is a considerable and evolving responsibility, which needs to be thought through carefully.

Operations

Figure 2

Decisions, Accessibility, Interpretation, Intuition, Appropriateness

understanding of the level of reliability of data about buried utilities. It may help to consider how the same spline of data can be analysed and presented across different types of thinking and engagement, as shown in Figure 2.

Technical or adaptive challenge?

The following observation made me sit back and think – not least of the skills which could be brought to the fore, in the dynamic virtual world, which in the past have been used in the cartographic and mapping setting: We can and do make split-second decisions on the most minute sets of data. Sometimes our bias in those moments can steer us astray, but when managed correctly, those “instant” decisions are not just as good, they can be better than those made in full conscious analysis of all available data.

The message is clear. If you can distil your decision making to just the right subset of the data and you prime yourself correctly, you can make better decisions with less information http://blog.joeandrieu.com/2007/09/22/leaving-the-information-age/ It is interesting that in the field of big data, McKinsey (2011:18) identified two ways to help organisations and individuals to process, visualise, and synthesise meaning: • More sophisticated visualisation techniques and algorithms, including automated algorithm – that enable people to see patterns in large amounts of data and help them unearth the most pertinent insights • Advancing collaboration technology – that allows a large number of individuals, each of whom may possess understanding of a special area of information, to come together in order to create a whole picture to tackle interdisciplinary problems.

There seems here a natural progression analogous to the development and transformation from 2D paper maps to the wealth of interactive navigation tools now available. In advancing into the future, the convergence of GIS and BIM must logically evolve to embrace the demands of big data and the internet of things. Methodologies from Formula One, and predictive analytics, in particular driven by the dimension of time, are being explored on major infrastructure projects in the UK, through a collaboration of Quantum Black, Atkins and Arup, to determine optimum distribution of sensors, future behaviours, and potential responses. The anticipation is that these combined technologies will allow for a system which can respond appropriately to differing situations and differing desired outcomes.

But when it comes to the issue of who makes the decision — the computer or the human — there are some challenges and opportunities around this for the geospatial industry. If it is true that what we are asking our future data

The challenge lies in an organisation’s ability to capture the big data that is applicable to its needs, effectively manage it, and extract new and relevant insights analysts or information engineers (whether human or computer) to do, is to deliver that crucial subset of information which supports the right people making the right decisions, at the right time, and in the right way, then that is quite a responsibility. I do believe that there is real value in translating our heritage of creating, analysing and visualising our interpretation of the physical world in the form of maps …… to avoid misinterpretation, misrepresentation, or distortion (…ethics, privacy) to the virtual world. But we will need to work to translate these requirements, ethics and skills to the virtual environment.

Unintended consequences

There are very real consequences in enhancing and conveying information virtually to people as they move around their ‘real’ world. Susan Greenfield, in her seminal book Mind Change of 2014, equates the potential ramifications of our brains adapting to a world which increasingly blends the virtual with the real, as being as critical to our future as climate change. I found a report of the first internet addition disorder (IAD) involving Google Glasses on October 14, 2014. How many of us are already there with our smartphones and tablets?

But by bringing this to our attention, Susan challenges that it allows us to do something about it — to plan and to deliver this virtual world in a way which complements and brings out the best in what it is to be human. This then, of understanding the essence of being human, and being more than simply intellect, is another and totally fascinating facet in how our industry should help in improving our discovery and visualisation of the world around us. And supporting and enhancing leadership, relationships, trust, and diversity of thinking.

Dr Anne Kemp, Director and Fellow, Atkins, Vice-Chair of BuildingSmart, UK, Chair of ICE BIM Action Group, Chair of BIM4Infrastructure UK

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 39

Product Watch

Simplifying Layout for Building Contractors Trimble recently launched Trimble Rapid Positioning System that includes the Trimble RPT600 Layout Station to layout points and capture as-built measurements, and the Trimble Field Link 2D software running on a performance tablet to control the layout station. The solution enables contractors to record and find positions for layout points including foundation layout, anchor bolts, walls, ceilings and hangers on the construction jobsite.

• Easy single-button set-up workflow: Trimble’s Auto-stationing feature enables the system to self-locate and automatically determine its position relative to the jobsite • Remote access and view: Running on a tablet, Trimble Field Link 2D software enables contractors to view their 2D design files and layout points via Trimble VISION technology that allows users to remotely see and measure through a live video feed from the instrument on their data controller.

• Cloud connect: Up-to-date files can be easily downloaded and uploaded through Trimble Connect enabling collaboration throughout the project.

Intuitive device for AEC industry FARO’s Freestyle3D is an easy, intuitive device for use in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), law enforcement, and other industries. The Freestyle3D is equipped with a Microsoft Surface tablet and offers real-time visualisation by allowing the user to view point cloud data as it is captured. The Freestyle3D scans to a distance of up to three metres and captures up to 88K points per second with accuracy better than 1.5mm. The patent-pending optical system also allows users to start scanning immediately with no warm-up time required.

The Freestyle3D can be employed as a standalone device to scan areas of interest, or used in concert with FARO’s Focus X130 and Focus 330 Scanner. Point cloud data from all of these devices can be seamlessly integrated and shared with all of FARO’s software visualisation tools including FARO SCENE, WebShare Cloud, and FARO CAD Zone packages.

Key Features: • Up to 8 cubic metres indoor scanning volume • Seamless integration with FARO’s Focus3D X 130 / X 330 scan data • Range: 0.5 – 3m • Resolution at 0.5m: Lateral: 0.2mm - 1mm / Depth: 0.2mm • 3D point accuracy: less than 1.5mm • Single image point density: Up to 45,000 points/sqm in 0.5m distance and up to 10,500 points/sqm in 1m distance

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FARO

TRIMBLE

Key Features:

Leica Geosystems has released the Leica DISTO E7500 laser distance meter, a tool for precise measurement outdoors. Its advanced digital Pointfinder and 4x zoom enables users to take measurements with high accuracy, upto a 500-foot range in all light conditions.

The housing and keypad are sealed against water and dust, and the product is certified with an IP65 rating, which means that the product can be used under adverse weather conditions. It can also be cleaned under running water. Other capabilities include automatic calculation of volumes or areas, two programmable ‘favourite’ keys, timer delay, a 30-position memory, an offset function, and 15 options for units of measure. The Leica DISTO E7500 is also certified to ISO Standard 16331-1 for precision and performance in everyday use on the job site.

Key Features: • Pointfinder with 4x zoom • Large colour display screen • IP65 water jet protection and dust-tight

GNSS receivers for smartphones and tablets Eos Positioning Systems has launched a new, innovative product line of high-accuracy GNSS receivers for iOS, Android, and Windows based smartphones and tablets, including both sub-metre and RTK performance. The series includes three models: Arrow Lite, Arrow 100 and Arrow 200. Arrow Lite is the entry-level model, while the second in the product line, the Arrow 100, is Eos’s advanced real-time, sub-metre GNSS receiver that utilises both GPS and GLONASS signals, and is expandable to Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS. In addition to supporting SBAS in North/Central America, Europe, Northern Africa, Japan, India and Russia, the Arrow 100 supports OmniSTAR’s real-time sub-metre service.

The Arrow 200 is a dual frequency, multi-constellation RTK GNSS receiver capable of 1cm accuracy in real-time. Eos claims that it is the first iOS-compatible RTK and OmniSTAR receiver in the world that works with all models of iPads and iPhones via wireless Bluetooth connection.

Key Features:

• Supports GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou/QZSS • Android, iOS and Windows compatible.

• 60cm real-time accuracy using free SBAS • Supports Esri and other mobile GIS software • Supports OmniSTAR • 1km universal Bluetooth connectivity • Designed to meet IP-67 specifications

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 41

EOS POSITIONING SYSTEMS

LEICA GEOSYSTEMS

Simpler Outdoor Distance Measurement

Remote Sensing / Interview GlobeLand30, the world’s first global land cover dataset at 30m resolution for the years 2000 and 2010, was recently released and donated by China to the United Nations. Organised into ten major land cover classes, this dataset will prove to be critical for climate change studies, environment monitoring, and several other areas of benefit, says Prof Chen Jun, President, National Geomatics Center of China & President, ISPRS

GlobeLand30 is a reliable dataset for

Sustainable Development these reasons, China has decided to develop a high resolution global land cover map.

C

hina recently launched GlobeLand30 — the global land cover map in 30m resolution.

What prompted this project?

Humans are facing unprecedented challenges, for which tracking and monitoring of global environmental changes are very important. While discussing about climate change or sustainable development, we realise that we do not have reliable and relevant information like maps and/or spatial distribution and change of land cover. Land cover, like topography, is an important fundamental data. So far, countries have been producing land cover data of their own territories. There are very few initiatives around the world to create land cover data at global scale, and the accuracy of this data is not good.

Further, these datasets were created by different organisations from different countries, so consistency of data isn’t good for global change analysis, environment change studies, etc. For

42 / Geospatial World / February 2015

Is this solely a Chinese project? Which agencies and companies participated in this project?

GlobeLand30 is a Chinese project spearheaded by the National Geomatics Center of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASG).

The datasets are organised into ten major land cover classes and provide essential high resolution land cover and change information for climate change studies, environment monitoring, resource management, sustainable development, and many other societal benefit areas.

About 18 institutions/ universities were involved in this project but this project has been largely supported by international community. For instance, in the beginning of the project, we got support from ISPRS, GEO, and many other organisations. The University of Maryland gave us processed images at 30m resolution, and our primary data was from Landsat of USGS. When we finished, European scientists from Sweden, Greece and Italy validated a lot of data for us. It’s a team work, not only by the Chinese

scientists but by several international colleagues. In addition, a few private companies in China helped us with this project.

What are the unique aspects you had to consider while preparing and delivering this map?

I think, classification was the most difficult part of this project, and it is also something that we have not solved with automation.

The traditional computer assisted classification does not work well while dealing with global scale mapping because the earth is quite complex, so one cannot derive the land cover classes only from spectral or textual responses. One has to think both about pixel-based and object-based classification approach, integrate them with existing knowledge and also with existing ancillary data. We also developed a Web-based system to publicise and integrate our ancillary data with the final and intermediate results.

What are the potential uses of this map data?

Over 80 countries have so far downloaded our data and are using it. For instance, several units of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) are using this data for biodiversity studies, hotspot monitoring, etc. They are using the data to derive the changes between the years 2000 and 2010. The United Nations Statistics Division and Sustainable Development Division are few other organisations that are using this data. The United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his address endorsed our data as reliable information. I am quite confident that the number of users will progressively increase.

What are the unique applications/services that have been provided in the portal of Global Land Cover Map? Currently, people can use it for processing and viewing on the website. One can view typical landscapes like the longest river in the world, largest built up area in the world and can also get to see lakes which have largest changes.

We have facilitated free downloading of datasets for research and public use. In future, we would also provide for cross-hosting and geo-tracking. We would also be releasing online statistical analysis on the data. We might also provide online update or facilitate users to use our geo processing service and take imagery’s auxiliary data from the Web and do their own update.

How is the data validated?

We have organised the validation of data by local, third party organisers. They have taken a sample of 150,000 data points covering the whole globe. They have got a result accuracy of 83%, which is quite good. We are now keen on organising more comprehensive validation with GEO and UN-GGIM

this year. We have invited people from the United Nations members and from the scientific community to join us in this validation. From India, a team from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) will help us in the validation.

What further improvements are being planned for the Global Land Cover Map portal?

We have a long way to go in the next few years. First, we have been asked to develop and provide a service supporting platform for planning, monitoring and management tasks by UN because it is devoted to the Post 2015 Agenda. So, that’s the first priority for us. In this case, we need to integrate datasets and services from all around the world. For instance, we are in discussion with NRSC to link GlobeLand30 with India’s 1:50,000 data. By this, the UN and its members can have global and local information, all available on one platform. We need to continue updating the datasets. We need also to refine datasets because now we have only one level class — whereas there are ten classes so, we might add a second level. In the future we will have to work with the scientists from the user communities to develop some more value-added applications and services. For instance for environmental change studies, for biodiversity studies and for sustainable development monitoring.

GlobeLand30 is free for download for government users and NGOs. Is there a revenue model envisaged for the use of this data by private players? How will this sustain as a long term project?

We have to develop business models for the private sector.

First, this should be a collaborative service by all the countries. Countries like China, India, and European Union should mobilise all possible resources. We also need to invite United Nation members to join in. We can work with them to provide geo-processing, updating of datasets and also build capacities. We would soon be organising training sessions along with United Nations to build capacities and help people know and use this platform. We plan to engage regional and national institutions to bring people together for this purpose.

What are your plans to increase the outreach?

We would like to publicise this initiative and the services through various channels — including media, by participating in conferences and by talking to scientists and users and through UN channels. We are planning to work with high school teachers to help children better understand the globe, to help them identify the locations of forests, water bodies, wetlands etc. We would also be working with professors from universities to encourage the usage and ensure good outreach.

Geospatial World / February 2015 / 43

Case Study

Geo-tagging homes

Ensures Transparency The Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation’s programme to geo-tag houses built under the state government’s Weaker Sections Housing Programme has been progressing at a remarkable pace

A

ndhra Pradesh is hailed as one of the first states in India to establish an exclusive organisation to formulate, promote and execute housing schemes for the benefit of people in general and particularly for the weaker sections living in rural and urban areas.

Since 1983-84, the Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation (APSHCL) has been implementing the state government’s Weaker Sections Housing Programme in the state. Under this programme, various schemes such as Normal Housing, Indira Awaas Yojana, GRIHINI and the special schemes like Beedi Workers, Weavers, Fishermen Housing, Dukan-O-Makan, etc. have been implemented in the rural areas. In urban areas, houses are being constructed under the EWS Housing, VAMBAY, Rajiv Gruha Kalpa, and other schemes.

To redress complaints received from various quarters, and to build an open inventory and bring more transparency and accountability into the project, APSHCL recently decided to geo-tag over 4.7 million houses built under these schemes in all the 13 districts of the state. The government also set February 2015 as the deadline to complete the task.

Consequently, in November 2014, the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) was tasked with the responsibility to geo-tag all the houses built between 2004 and 2014 using a custom-made mobile application. The deadline offered less than three months for NRSC and APSHCL to deliver. The two organisations, however, took up the challenge and decided to create a mobile app that could utilise the functionality and capabilities of NRSC’s Bhuvan geo-portal.

The Bhuvan geo-portal, which was released in 2009, and which initially focused on image and map visualisation services, over the years has diversified its scope of operation to support various central and state government schemes.

As a result, the geo-portal receives around 20,000 unique visitors every month, and has facilitated about 260,000 product downloads so far.

Based on the brief, NRSC developed a robust Android app with features like geo-coordinates (with precision of eight digits decimal), date and time stamps, beneficiary identification number, compass reading, etc. The app could capture various stages of construction of the house, along

A screen-shot of the Bhuvan geo-portal showing the status of geo-tagged homes across 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh.

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Screen-shot of Bhuvan portal showing number of homes that have been geo-tagged and moderated.

with the type, position and direction of the face of the house, as well as the details of the beneficiaries.

Checks in place

To carry out this gigantic task of data capturing within the set deadline, APSHCL deployed its officials of the rank of assistant, deputy and executive engineers on the task. These engineers underwent two capacity building sessions carried out by NRSC’s Bhuvan team at NRSC Hyderabad. Today, 13 project directors, 42 executive engineers and over 1000 other engineers are ensuring smooth data collection.

Earlier, it was mandatory for the field officer to carry a laptop with internet connectivity to view all the records related to implementation of the programme such as the beneficiary register, individual sanction letters to the beneficiaries, colony-wise works-in-progress. However, difficulty in accessing the Internet in remote places due lack of signals, and capturing the images of the construction in a camera and then uploading it to the application made the workflow cumbersome.

Considering this, the app was built in with an offline feature to capture details on the mobile device and facilitate uploading of the data on to the Bhuvan server once the field agent is in an area where internet connectivity is available. The officials designated for the validation carry out online moderation on Bhuvan portal to ensure accuracy. The peak moderation count also reached as high as 67,000 locations per day.

To make the system fail-safe and transparent, log of the validation process by each officer is also maintained. The system generates daily monitoring reports to track the progress of geo-tagging work and also measures performance of each user with regards to targets set for them and achieved

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by them. The application also generates analysis reports on a daily basis to follow up on poor performers for improving their inputs from fields.

The move to monitor the performance of field official resulted in the increase number of locations surveyed. The number of points geo-tagged per day has surged from the initial mark of 20,000 points to over 87,000 points per day.

This means that over 100 houses are geo-tagged per minute!

Till January 30, 2015 over 2.38 million homes had been geo-tagged.

More than four million photographs and the field information received on Bhuvan have been very effectively managed to sustain the system with high performance. The Bhuvan systems have been tuned optimally to handle the surges of incoming data and concurrent moderations by multiple teams.

The Bhuvan application provided role based access to the officials to accomplish their assigned duties within the territory of mandal / sub-division / division/ district etc for effective geo-tagging and monitoring. The effort is to build a complete closed loop system, which is a typical example of geospatial governance at ground level using the web technology.

Conclusion

Prima facie, when the state government announced that it plans to geo-tag over 4.7 million homes spread over the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh, it seemed like a near-to-impossible task. The NRSC’s Bhuvan based geo-tagging system with mobile app proved that the task was achievable, and at the same time brought in a high level of accountability and transparency into the system that was once plagued with the complaints of irregularity.

Events

BOOK YOUR CALENDER February

Locate 15

Joint Urban Remote Sensing

European BIM Summit

March 10-12, 2015 Brisbane, Australia

March 30 March - April 1, 2015 Lausanne, Switzerland

europeanbimsummit.com

FOSSGIS 2015

April

International LiDAR Mapping Forum

March 11-13, 2015 M端nster, Germany

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015

February 12-13, 2015 Barcelona, Spain

February 23-25, 2015 Colorado, US www.lidarmap.org

ME Geospatial Forum 2015 February 16-17, 2015 Dubai www.megf.org

March Ghana Geospatial Forum 2015 March 3-4, 2015 Accra, Ghana

ghgeospatialforum.org

48 / Geospatial World / February 2015

www.locateconference.com

www.fossgis.de/konferenz

3rd International Conference on Remote Sensing

jurse2015.org

April 12-17, 2015 Vienna, Austria

www.egu2015.eu

March, 16-19, 2015 Paphos, Cyprus

GIS-Forum Russia

Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty

sovzondconference.ru

www.cyprusremotesensing.com

March 23-27, 2015 Washington, DC, USA

www.worldbank.org

April 15-17, 2015 Moscow, Russia

AASHTO GIS for transportation Symposium April 19-22, 2015 Des Moines, Iowa, US www.gis-t.org

25 – 29 MAY 2015, LISBON CONGRESS CENTRE, PORTUGAL

A Collaboration that

CONNECTS, ENABLES & DRIVES

the way forward…

Early Bird Online Registration Valid Till 10th March, 2015

www.geospatialworldforum.org | inspire.ec.europa.eu