Geospatial World May 2013 by Geospatial World

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Inside... May 2013 • Vol 3 • Issue 10 UAS Case Studies

Geospatial Ecosystem

Maritime Security

Fire fighting

Disaster management

Million dollar baby Beating the heat

Real-time videos for emergency relief

Geospatial Workflow: Redefining Industry Ecosystem

Police investigation

Agriculture

On the information highway The great enabler

Sanjay Kumar Geoff Zeiss

Prof. Arup Dasgupta

CHAIRMAN PUBLISHER

M P Narayanan Sanjay Kumar

PUBLICATIONS TEAM Managing Editor Editor — Building & Energy Editor — Latin America (Honorary) Editor — Geospatial World Weekly Executive Editor Deputy Executive Editor Product Manager Sub-Editor Graphic Designer Circulation Manager

Prof. Arup Dasgupta Geoff Zeiss Tania Maria Sausen Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Bhanu Rekha Anusuya Datta Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Ridhima Kumar Debjyoti Mukherjee Amit Shahi

Assisting the cops

Plantation

Mine survey

Antarctica

Wildlife Monitoring

Monitoring crops Mapping mines, safely and quickly At the extreme edge

Protecting endangered species

Helping businesses sow new seeds

Article

Geospatial users’ survey

44 Voice of business

Data collection with UAS

Flying into civil space Dr Peter Cosyn

enterprises

Corner Office

Ramon Pastor Vice President & General Manager, HP

Printers are evolving to be information management tools 07 Editorial

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 76 pages including cover

12 News 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

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Taking mapping to new heights. Fly high with the Eagle f210. The UltraCam Eagle now features an exchangeable 210mm lens system that allows you to fly high-altitude missions and still capture the same high-resolution, geometrically accurate PAN imagery you’ve come to expect from UltraCam technology. No need to be concerned about the increased atmosphere: the superb signal-to-noise ratio of the UltraCam Eagle f 210 allows for an exceptionally high image dynamic that allows for correction of color shifts caused by atmosphere, haze, hotspots, and other artifacts using the UltraMap workflow software. Meanwhile, the small field of view of this new lens minimizes lean for tall buildings while still allowing full utilization of the Eagle 20,010 pixel swath width for ortho image production. Occlusions are minimal even for narrow streets or alleys! Create Orthos, Digital Surface Models & Point Clouds with UltraMap 3.0. The superb geometry and best-in-class radiometry of the UltraCam Eagle f210 naturally also benefit the downstream data processing in UltraMap. AT results are outstanding and through Dense Matcher and OrthoPipeline modules new to v3.0, UltraCam data from any height can be leveraged to rapidly and automatically create high-density point clouds, digital surface models, and DSM/DTM-based orthomosaics.

Visit www.UltraCamEagle.com for details.

©2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, UltraCam, UltraMap and UltraCam Eagle are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

EditorSpeak

The whole must be bigger than the sum of its parts Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

s you read this, the Geospatial World Forum 2013 is underway in Rotterdam on the theme ‘Monetising Geospatial Value and Practices’. As a technology dedicated to scientific and unbiased information gathering, geospatial systems are valued for providing information for planning, execution, and monitoring of any activity that affects the land, water and air. Monetising this value is a difficult task as the true value is realised from applications of the information in domains other than geospatial technology. On the other hand, the cost of establishing and operating this technology is expensive. It requires investments in hardware, software, expert human resources and sustained digital data acquisition. Therefore, we have a situation where the investments are in one area, whereas the benefits flow from other areas. Realising this, most governments have committed to establishing an infrastructure to share the cost over many applications, thus maximising the return on investment or benefit-to-cost ratio. While this is admirable, it also results in a bias which tends to exclude NGOs and industry. Governments tend to look at SDIs as a means of discovering and binding to data. This view is then further regulated by data access policies, resulting in the data becoming a highly controlled commodity. In such a scenario, data sharing becomes the cornerstone on which the structure stands. Data sharing between government departments is not easy and sharing this with non-

government entities is a far cry. Yet, a view is also gaining ground that geospatial data should be free and freely available. However, the need is to move away from this data-centric approach and stress on applications which are innovative and result in the realisation of ‘more for less’. Such innovation is not necessarily realised only by the government departments, but also by NGOs, industry and even enlightened public. Applications arise from needs, and are realised through goal setting and strategies for the creation of value-added services which can be accessed by end users directly. Sharing must extend to these areas as well. New technologies are also evolving like UAVs which can provide near real-time focussed data for monitoring events. SDIs rarely consider Big Data as a source but it is very important for industry to fine tune their offerings. In fact, even governments also can make good use of Big Data in areas such as weather prediction, homeland security and better management of essential services. The geospatial ecosystem has moved beyond building blocks like GIS, GPS, image processing and imagery. The key is an integrated approach that addresses the needs of domains which will ensure their growth and puts together whatever is necessary to realise these needs. To realise the full potential of geospatial technology, the whole needs to be much bigger than the sum of its parts.

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Revolutionising Airborne Data Collection eica Geosystems and Z/I Imaging, the leading brands to reckon with in the airborne mapping space, are taking the legacy of innovation a notch higher. Under the umbrella of Hexagon Geosystems’ Geospatial Solutions Division, both brands have been leveraging the strengths of ninety years of leadership respectively resulting in an impressive sensor portfolio of airborne sensors and total geospatial solutions. Hexagon Geosystems is the largest supplier of airborne sensors and geospatial solutions in the world today. Applications include amongst others topographic surveys, cadastral and urban mapping, forestry and disaster risk management. State-of-the-art technology, highest standards and reliability have made Hexagon Geosystems’ sensors and solutions the choice of professional customers around the globe. With a plethora of new exciting products and solutions being released throughout 2013, the portfolio will continue to provide excellent value for those who seek higher efﬁciency, ease of operation and ﬂexibility.

Leica ADS100 – Leading airborne evolution The just-released Leica ADS100 has several unique features and is designed to provide the highest acquisition efﬁciency, at reduced costs: [ Full multispectral colour swath width of 20000 pixels for all colours (RGBN) [ Selectable TDI stages for improved sensitivity and expanded operational envelope [ Improved cycle time to acquire smaller GSDs at faster speed [ Full colour RGBN in forward, nadir and backward for more ﬂexible stereo interpretation [ Improved Leica PAV100 gyro-stabilised mount with adaptive control for improved image quality

Embedded Novatel SPAN GNSS/IMU with tightly coupled processing to reduce flying time [ All aircraft installation components such as camera controller, operator displays and flight control software are shared with the Leica RCD30 medium format camera, thus creating a common platform concept and reducing the cost of ownership. [ Full radiometric and geometric calibration. Leica XPro: Ground processing of sensor data provided by the Leica ADS100 is fast and straightforward with the new easy-to-use Leica XPro 6.0. It offers the fastest workflow from data download to image [

The Estonian Land Board has been using Leica ADS40 since 2005 and Leica ALS50 second generation since 2008. They are very reliable, fast and hassle-free, helping us in creating orthophotos, national height models and surveying of open mines Peep Kirismae, Estonian Land Board 8

generation. Working in tandem and using state-of-the-art radiometric and geometric processing tools, the Leica ADS100 and Leica XPro create a high standard in the processing of large datasets. Building synergies: “This is the beginning of a multitude of benefits we are going to provide to our customers including unified and allencompassing aircraft installation, simplified operation, reduction in training costs, lower investment threshold and more flexibility,” explains Ruedi Wagner, Vice President and General Manager Solutions, Geospatial Solutions Division.

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Leica RCD30 Oblique – Life from a different angle The Leica RCD30 Oblique camera system is based on the Leica RCD30, the world’s ﬁrst 60MP multispectral medium format camera. The Leica RCD30 Oblique is best suited for 3D urban mapping and 3D corridor mapping applications The superior image quality, accuracy and ﬂexibility this camera offers puts it above the rest. The Leica RCD30 Oblique offers a number of distinct advantages including: [ A choice of CH61 RGB-only and CH62 multispectral RGBN camera heads [ 60MP camera heads upgradeable to 80MP [ Ruggedised design for photogrammetric applications and high geometric accuracy

[

Compact, flexible and protected installation inside Leica PAV80 Leica PAV100 gyro-stabilised mount Single camera controller CC32 with integrated GNSS/IMU system Fully integrated workflow from mission planning to post processing Flexible Trio and Penta head configuration for corridor mapping and urban mapping applications

[

Direct interface from raw data and GNSS/IMU processing to Tridicon 3D mapping workﬂow including oblique viewer and automated building extraction.

We use two Leica RCD105 medium format cameras with LiDAR data to make orthomosaics, DSMs, DTMs and colour point clouds. We have also been using Leica software, which is good and easy-to-use along with Leica hardware, providing a complete solution for all our mapping needs Mika Linjas, Finmap

Z/I DMC II 250 – Innovation to the fore [

[

Performance indicators include: Four multispectral cameras, each with a 42MP CCD for red, green, blue (RGB) and nearinfrared (NIR) data acquisition Each camera head uses a unique piezo-driven customised airborne shutter with self-calibration and precise synchronisation A frame interval of 1.8 seconds in compressed mode to maintain high airspeed for high forward overlap and high resolution PAN/colour ratio of 1:3.2; base-to-height ratio of 0.28 Wide range of IMU sensors, including Leica IPAS 20.

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The Z/I DMC II 250 camera design is an evolution of the proven DMC camera technology and includes a new customised lens design by Carl Zeiss, Germany, to produce an unmatched level of image quality. The Z/I DMC II 250, part of the DMC II family of cameras, no longer requires image stitching, thus offering a geometric accuracy and image quality not offered by any large format frame camera available today. By eliminating potential sources of errors for geometric accuracy and radiometric quality, this new approach delivers images that exceed your requirements for all mapping and remote sensing tasks.

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Leica ALS 70 – Versatile par imagination The Leica ALS70 is a single family of systems that offers a great level of flexibility and productivity, without compromising on quality and accuracy. Three models, Leica ALS70-CM, Leica ALS70-HP and Leica ALS70-HA, share a common platform of a high-performance laser, scanner, range counting electronics and position/attitude measurement subsystem to create a range of laser scanners designed to meet the varied needs of the airborne survey market. The flight planning, user interface and flight execution software follow the ‘common platform’ theme with all

other Leica and Z/I instruments, providing a consistent ‘look and feel’ across the entire product portfolio and simplifying operations with both LiDAR and imaging systems. The Leica ALS70-CM is designed for city and corridor mapping applications from lower ﬂ ying heights. Ultra-high-density can be achieved by ﬂ ying in small aircraft or mounted in helicopter pods. For general purpose mapping, the Leica ALS70-HP is most suitable. The third member of this family, the Leica ALS70-HA is a high-altitude variant and is best

suited for mapping at a state or national level. In short, the Leica ALS70 is a complete package and comes with peripheral products and software that provide a seamless workﬂow from mission planning through point cloud generation.

TruStories Angkor civilisation, Cambodia Ankor Wat in Cambodia is the largest ancient temple in the world. Designated as a UNESCO world heritage site, this temple was built during Angkorian civilisation in the 12th century. Previously archaeologists used radar and remote sensing data to understand the site. However, the remote areas in the hills are hampered by jungles and are laden with landmines from the Khmer Rouge era. Other areas were built up and cultivated over generations making ancient feature identiﬁcation from the ground impossible. Identifying subtle topographic features in the lowland areas under forest canopy was virtually impossible with optical sensors and so

LiDAR was proposed for the best DTM. LiDAR was also identiﬁed as the technology that can help identify additional temples in the area. Once the technology was decided, PT McElhanney, the company which undertook the project, mounted a Leica ALS60 LiDAR scanner and Leica medium format digital aerial camera on Helistar Cambodia’s Ecureuil AS350 helicopter in Phnom Penh. The project had three main areas of interest around Siem Reap, covering an area of 270 sq km. In the forested areas, acquisition was done

using a cross-hatched pattern of ﬂight lines to maximise opportunity for LiDAR penetration to the forest ﬂoor. Full waveform LiDAR was collected to ensure the best DTM would be available in the heavy grasses and vegetation present in some of the sites. Digital aerial photographs were simultaneously collected. This high resolution imagery is quite valuable for LiDAR modelling. The data is expected to provide a new insight into the Angkor civilisation and revolutionise the history of Khmer empire. The project bagged the Asia Geospatial Award of Excellence in 2012.

Challenge • To map Angkorwat and other ancient structures in Cambodia to a degree never done by Cambodian archaeologists

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Creating smart solutions The world needs smart technology to solve the problems we will face over the decades ahead. Hexagon is at the forefront of developing such solutions for its geospatial customer base. Access to vast quantities of disparate and constantly changing data is a powerful decision-making tool if presented in an intuitive and meaningful manner. Hexagon’s design, measurement and visualisation technologies do just that. They provide the means to create, manage, understand and act upon a constant ﬂow of information in an interactive environment that drives smarter decisions and

decisive action. Unlike traditional geographic information systems, Hexagon’s approach is “Dynamic GIS’. This means superior data accuracies and frequent updates, leading to fresher data for actionable intelligence. This continuous ﬂow of new information is made possible by fusing the real and digital world’s together, providing customers with accurate digital depictions (3D models, scans, photos, maps) of reality. Turning data into actionable intelligence is an absolute necessity to keep up with the pace of change and meet the challenges of a growing world.

Solution

to reconstruction activities and also prepare for future events. The Imagery Collection and Exploitation (ICE) Team from within the Squadron was dispatched with a Leica ADS40 airborne digital sensor to image the affected areas. The ICE team ﬂew in challenging weather conditions capturing digital imagery and producing digital surface models of the targeted areas. The rapid processing of Leica XPro software ensured timely delivery to the concerned authorities. In a ﬁrst-of-its kind initiative, citizens were

• Leica ALS60 LiDAR scanner and Leica medium format digital aerial camera

Result • High accuracy LiDAR DTM, laser models of ancient structures.

Queensland Floods, Australia

Hexagon's solutions fuse the real world ("as-is/as-built") with the digital world ("as-planned/as-designed").

Example: Smart (Precision) Agriculture

given free access to these maps on an interactive website.

Challenge • Imaging ﬂood-hit Queensland and capturing the ﬂood lines

Solution • Leica ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor with the rapid processing capabilities of Leica XPro Software

Result • Timely generation of Digital Surface Models (DSM) of affected areas helping the reconstruction activities.

For more details, visit http://di.leica-geosystems.com www.ziimaging.com

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Advertorial

A series of floods affected Queensland in Australia beginning December 2010, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Three quarters of Queensland were declared a disaster zone. The Australian Army’s 1st Topographical Survey Squadron wanted to capture the flood lines of more than hundred of Queensland’s hardest hit communities to provide situational awareness

The Hexagon Advantage

5/8/2013 10:58:28 AM

Americas NEWS BUSINESS

the first four GPS III satellites.

Apple acquires indoor location company WiﬁSLAM

BAE Systems bags $20-mn contract from US Navy

Apple has acquired indoor GPS company WifiSLAM, a sign that the war over indoor mobile location services is heating up. Apple paid around $20 million for the Silicon Valley-based company, according to some media reports. The acquisition could allow the company to offer maps within buildings with an accuracy of 8ft (2.5m). An Apple paid to WiﬁSLAM spokesperson by Apple confi rmed the deal saying, “Apple invests in smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not comment on our purpose or plans.” Meanwhile, rival Google has stepped up its efforts to add indoor locations to its already huge Street View portfolio.

The US Navy has awarded BAE Systems a $20-million contract to develop a prototype light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system to locate mines in near-shore waters. Part of a wider development known as the Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) programme, the airborne system will provide round-the-clock protection of Navy personnel as they

to provide more accurate insight and analysis to our customers faster,” the company stated.

LAW & POLICY

Lockheed Martin bags $120-mn GPS contract The US Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin Space Systems two contracts, worth $120-million, to build the next four GPS satellites in the new GPS III programme. All assembly, integration and testing of the four satellites will be done at Lockheed Martin’s Jefferson County facility. The two new fixed-price contracts will continue the US Air Force’s process for replacing its aging GPS satellites with more accurate and advanced locating services. Lockheed Martin is currently in production with

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Courtesy: BAE Systems

$20 mn

Laser minesweeping

move from ship to shore and back again. The prototype LiDAR system incorporates a fast-scanning laser, 3D imaging camera, and target recognition algorithms to locate and classify surface and underwater threats.

DigitalGlobe acquires crowdsourcing company DigitalGlobe has acquired crowdsourcing company Tomnod for an undisclosed sum. The five-person Tomnod team will now be incorporated into DigitalGlobe’s Longmont headquarters. DigitalGlobe will continue to offer Tomnod’s rapid information capture and validation services directly to customers. Also, DigitalGlobe’s inhouse analytics team will increasingly use information gathered by Tomnod as a key data source, “enabling them

GPS Bill against spying re-introduced Days after a new legislative reform on e-mail privacy was re-introduced in US Congress, another privacy Bill was brought back from years past. Three members of the House (two Republicans and a Democrat) and two bipartisan senators introduced the GPS Bill, in March, which would require law enforcement to obtain a probable cause-driven warrant before accessing a suspect’s geolocation information. The new GPS Bill, as it stands, contains exceptions for emergencies, including “national security” under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but otherwise requires a warrant for covert government-issued tracking devices.

APPLICATION Google develops real-time map of all forests on Earth Google, in partnership with the University of Maryland and the UN Environment Programme, has developed a tool to help prevent deforestation. Global Forest Watch 2.0, which will be launched later this year, is an interactive, real-time, forest monitoring system. It uses satellite technology, data sharing and human networks around the world to provide information to better managing forests. Google Earth Engine’s team provides access to cloud computing-based forest cover

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Americas NEWS information. A high-speed Internet connectivity enables sending data and forest maps processed in North America, Europe or Singapore to laptops and mobile phones in Jakarta, Kinshasa, Lima, Vladivostok and around the globe. Also, smartphones can be used by anyone in the field to download maps and satellite images, as well as upload GPS coordinates and photographs from the ground.

MISCELLANEOUS Google hit by $7-million Street View ﬁne

WB conference calls for transparent land governance Around 960 participants congregated at the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, held in Washington DC, to discuss the mechanisms countries can adopt to move towards transparent land governance with evidence-based next steps. In his keynote address, Festus Mogae, former executive director of IMF, explained how lack of transparency in land management reduces accountability of government authorities and facilitates cheating due to lack of procedural clarity of affairs of land. “At the operational level, transparent land governance requires registry systems producing real time data to monitor and control potential overconcentration of land in a few hands. The universal acceptance of democracy and rule of law forms the basis for governance in any country. These should form the basic principles of inclusion into transparent land governance in different countries,” Mogae added. The four-day conference discussed the latest developments in land administration, presented successful implementations from around the world, debated on the several challenges involved and came up with actionable recommendations.

US Navy to get SAR imagery in near-real time The University of Miami's (UM) Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) has been awarded a contract by the Office of Naval Research to continue collecting, processing and disseminating data from global Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite systems. The goal of the project is to provide SAR

Courtesy: Th e World Bank

Google has agreed to pay a $7-million fine for collecting people’s personal data without authorisation as part of its Street View service. In a settlement with 38 US states, the Internet giant agreed to destroy emails, passwords, and Web histories. The data was harvested from home wireless networks as Street View cars photographed neighbourhoods between 2008 and 2010. “We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue,” the company said Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist, World Bank, and Festus Mogae, former President of Bostwana and Former Executive Director, IMF, at the Annual World Bank Conference

imagery collected in near-real time to aid in US Navy operations around the world. The first phase of the grant will allow CSTARS scientists to procure processing terminals that will assist in the development of hardware and software for next generation of commercial imagery. CSTARS will continue to develop its numerous algorithms of image analysis using new

imaging modes and insights.

NASA’s Aquarius monitors sea surface salinity NASA’s Aquarius satellite, built to study the salt content of ocean surface waters, has revealed changes in ocean salinity patterns. The animated version of Aquarius’ first year of data has

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Americas NEWS Courtesy: NASA

Aquarius has been orbiting the Earth for a year, measuring changes in salinity.

Apple may develop its own ‘Street View’ A new patent from Apple shows that it’s looking to take on Google’s Street View. Posted to the US Patent and Trademark Office website, Apple's filing describes a ‘3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Imagery Navigation’ to view a lifelike map of the world around you via smartphone or tablet. According to the patent, instead of clicking to move in any which direction, as you would on Street View, Apple’s version would simply require you to tilt your device in the desired direction and it will respond. The system will also offer an option to not just walk up and down streets, past buildings, but to actually virtually enter buildings.

settlers. The project is slated to end in February 2014.

JAMAICA

NICARAGUA

$121 mn for cadastral mapping project

World Bank gives $40 million for land registration

The government has allocated around $121 million to boost activities under the cadastral mapping and land registration project. The programme seeks to assist people, particularly rural residents currently occupying lands but not in possession of titles for those properties, to formalise their holdings by providing them with those documents. Also under the project, digital cadastral maps and hard copies for all parcels surveyed will be supplied and training programmes will be undertaken for approximately 50 poor

Over 90,000 Nicaraguan families in the northern departments of Jinotega and Nueva Segovia will benefit from a $40million World Bank project to regulate property rights and modernise government institutions charged with issuing property titles. The project will fund the second phase of the government’s Property Regularization Program, which started in 2002. When the project began, only 8% of land in Nicaragua had been registered. Phase II of the project aims to increase the amount of registered land to 25%.

3D position tracking for panoramic imagery navigation

Courtesy: Patently Apple

unveiled a world of varying salinity patterns. The Arabian Sea, nestled up against the dry Middle East, appears much saltier than the neighboring Bay of Bengal, which gets showered by intense monsoon rains and receives freshwater discharges from the Ganges and other large rivers. Another mighty river, the Amazon, releases a large freshwater plume that heads east toward Africa or bends up north to the Caribbean, depending on the prevailing seasonal currents.

ARGENTINA Tracking imports via satellite

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Argentina will implement a new tracking system to monitor its imports, according to a new resolution published by the Federal Administration of Public Revenue. The Security Initiative Customs Transit says that the new control device will be mandatory for goods that arrive to the customs territory by water, land or air. The agency has put in place an electronic monitoring precinct customs system which will enable customs authorities to determine and meet - in real time the route diversions, detention, news, contingencies or alarms established in the course of operations in order to take the necessary measures for safeguarding the goods.

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Europe NEWS

First location ﬁx from Galileo

Courtesy: ESA

Horizontal position fi xes

Europe’s new age of satellite navigation has passed a historic milestone, the very first determination of a ground location using the four Galileo satellites currently in orbit together with their ground facilities. This fundamental step confirms the Galileo system works as planned. This first position fix of longitude, latitude and altitude took place at the Navigation Laboratory at ESA’s technical heart ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, with an accuracy between 10 and 15 metres.

‘Govt expenditures for space facing short-term decline’ Global government expenditures on space is expected to decrease due to fiscal policies exerting continuous pressure on public finances; improvement is not expected before 2015, according to Euroconsult’s new report. Steve Bochinger, COO at Euroconsult said, “This year should mark for the first time in 12 years a global decrease in government funding for space programmes.” The report further states that government space programmes should be affected in the short term by

an overall flat spending environment and decrease in global funding. The situation is expected to recover in the second part of the decade driven by a cleaner public finance environment. By 2022 global government funding for space activities are anticipated to pass the $77 billion mark.

Mobile LBA market to grow at 65% annually, says report The total value of the global real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing (LBA) market will grow from €526 million in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 65% to €6.5 billion in 2017, according to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight. This will then correspond to 32.8% of all mobile advertising and marketing. This means that locationbased advertising and marketing will represent around 5%of digital advertising, or more than 1% of the total global ad spend for all media. SMS, mobile search and coupons are today important high-volume LBA formats.

(DARD) said the glitch had been fixed. Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill said farmers who received an incorrect map would get an extension to the application process.

BELGIUM Pan-European open data now available online Data compiled from national mapping supplied by 45 European countries and territories can now be downloaded for free from EuroGeographics website. The 1:1 million scale topographic dataset, EuroGlobalMap, will now be available for any use under a new open data licence. It is produced using authoritative geoinformation provided by members of Euro Geographics, the Association for European Mapping, Cadastre and Land Registry Authorities. EuroGlobalMap can be used for cross-border planning, monitoring and network analysis as well as presenting environmental policies.

IRELAND Farmers ‘lose’ ﬁelds in mapping error Thousands of farmers in Northern Ireland found they had “lost” fields after an error in the government maps used to process an EU subsidy. Maps are sent to farmers applying for the single farm payment. However, there were more than 3,000 errors in maps sent to farmers applying for the 2013 subsidy, with many omitting fields. In a statement, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

Courtesy: Euro Geographics

FRANCE

EuroGlobalMap

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Europe NEWS

Microsoft patent seeks to block Google Maps Microsoft and Google are currently involved in a patent lawsuit in Germany that could, according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller and a number of reports, lead to an outright ban of Google Maps in the country. If Microsoft wins the injunction it is asking for, Google could have to shut down its mapping service in Germany, both on the Web and on mobile phones (or at least on all of its own Motorola phones). Microsoft’s complaint was originally against Motorola Mobility’s use of Google Maps in its Android devices, but it engaged Google as a defendant last October after Motorola executives denied knowledge of how Google’s Map servers operate.

UK GPS-equipped javelins dropped in Antarctica

Courtesy: BBC

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has built advanced surveying equipment into javelin-like projectiles that they in-

The javelin's tail sticks out of the snow, ensuring good communications

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tend to drop at some of the most inaccessible parts of Antarctica in order to accurately measure the continent. The BAS has assembled 25 pieces of the equipment in order to track the progress of the Pine Island Glacier (PIG), one of the largest and fastest-moving ice streams on Antarctica. The javelins contain advanced GPS equipment that will allow the BAS to monitor the speed and nature of the ice movement.

pact of emissions on climate change. A group from the Leicester University is leading the work on satellite-based remote sensing of greenhouse gases and will deploy a new multi-gas sensor in the UK in conjunction with more traditional sensors.

SCOTLAND LiDAR technology reveals hidden archaeological site

$4.6-mn grant for 3D digital utilities mapping

A new website has been launched to help people explore an ancient landscape hidden beneath fields and website offersCaithness. virtual woodlandThine north-west tours of archaeological sites A Window on Caithness’ Past gives The website offers virtual tours of details on hundreds of sites, more archaeological sites than 300 of them previously unrecorded. The remains of 5,000-yearold burial cairns and 3,000-year-old homes were identified using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) laser scanning. In Caithness, LiDAR revealed fields where medieval and later rig and furrow systems overlie much earlier agricultural use as well as the remains of 3,000-year-old lowwalled, thatched roofed houses called hut circles.

London has been given a £3 million ($4.6 million) grant to carry out a number of high-tech initiatives, including creating 3D maps of its utilities infrastructure and an automated inquiry system on road work projects, to help reduce congestion and air pollution in the city. The funding has come from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and as part of its Future Cities Demonstrator funding programme, which saw Glasgow given £24 million for a number of tech-related projects across the city.

Sensor project to map greenhouse gas emissions British researchers are taking to the air and sea as part of a new project to improve data on UK greenhouse gas emissions. A team led by the Edinburgh University will combine satellite data with information gathered from across the UK in a research aircraft equipped with sensors to measure carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the air. Tracking the movement of the gases will help researchers improve their understanding of the im-

Courtesy: BBC

GERMANY

The website offers virtual tours of archaeological sites

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Asia NEWS RUSSIA

NEPAL

Deal signed to cooperate on satellite navigation

Real-time forest ﬁre alert system unveiled

JAPAN Japan to build ﬂeet of navigation satellites

navigation signals for users in the AsiaPacific region. Japan announced the expansion of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System on March 29, approving a $526 million contract with Mitsubishi Electric

for the construction of three satellites for launch before the end of 2017. Two of the spacecraft will be placed in inclined orbits, and one satellite will operate in geostationary orbit over the equator.

Courtesy: BBC

The Japanese government has ordered three navigation satellites from Mitsubishi Electric Corp., expanding the country's programme to augment GPS

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), in close collaboration with the Department of Forests of Nepal, has developed a forest fire detection and monitoring system for Nepal based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The work was supported by the United States Agency for International Development and NASA under the SERVIR-Himalaya initiative. MODIS sensors on board NASA Terra and Aqua satellites are already used extensively in detecting and monitoring forest fires across the globe. The system carries out automated data acquisition, processing, reporting, and feedback on fire location. It provides location information at 1x1 km resolution on active fires present during the satellite’s twice-daily overpasses. Courtesy: ICIMOD

Belarusian network operator SKB Kamerton and Russia’s non-profit partnership agency for development and use of navigation technology, NP GLONASS, have signed a cooperation agreement in the field of satellite navigation and the use of GLONASS technologies in Belarus and Russia. The agreement envisages the use of emergency response system on the territory of Belarus. The two countries plan to develop compatible navigation and information systems using GLONASS satellite navigation solutions.

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Asia NEWS INDIA CBI may probe Google’s Mapathon contest

customer service, adding that the systems are used across many industries in China and world-wide. The company also insists that it is in full compliance with regulations, and noted that it is cooperating with the Yunnan government to resolve the matter.

Integrated mapping system by 2020

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) may take over an investigation by the Delhi police, which is probing whether Google violated rules in holding a competition that asked users to add information about their local areas for its online mapping services. Google, which ran the “Mapathon” in India in February and March, said its aim was to make more local information accessible to all and that it did not break any laws. The investigation against Google is based on a complaint filed by Survey of India which said the contest was illegal and may threaten national security.

CHINA Coca-Cola under scanner for illegal mapping The Coca-Cola Company is in hot water with the Chinese authorities over allegedly using handheld GPS devices to map parts of southwestern Yunnan province. The case is one of 21 related to illegal surveying in the region. Coke claims no wrongdoing, saying it used standard e-map and location-based customer logistics systems to increase its fuel efficiency and provide better

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China will develop an integrated mapping system to cover the ground, underground, sea, air and outer space by 2020. The system, when completed, will facilitate the country's economic development, national defence and government decision-making. It will also provide spatial position information conducive for the government to cope with emergencies and for people to live with greater convenience.

IRAN ‘Islamic Google Earth’ on the anvil The Iranian authorities have long accused Google Earth of being a tool for western spy agencies, but now they have taken their attacks on the 3D mapping service one step further, by planning the launch of an Islamic competitor. Iran's minister for information and communications technology, Mohammad Hassan Nami, said his country was developing what he described as an ‘Islamic Google Earth’ to be called Basir which will be ready for use within the next four months. Our values in Iran are the values of God and this would be the difference between Basir and the Google Earth, which belongs to the ominous triangle

of the US, England and the Zionists [a reference to Israel], the Minister added.

THAILAND First overseas client of Beidou network Thailand has become the first overseas client of Beidou, China's home-made satellite navigation network, which could challenge the dominance of the American GPS system in Southeast Asia. A 2-billion yuan ($319 million) agreement to promote the use of Beidou in Thailand's public sector, including disaster relief, power distribution and transport, was signed by the two countries in Bangkok. "If Thailand can embrace Beidou, deal with China other countries may follow and the Americans' political, economic and military power in the region will be reduced," a Beidou expert said.

$319 mn

$50-million space technology deal Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand and the Chinese Wuhan Information Technology Outsourcing Service and Research Centre (WITOSRC) have signed an agreement on collaborative investment valued at $50 million on space technology development. GISTDA and WITOSRC will collaborate on promoting trade and investment cooperation on remote sensing and survey. China would install a remote sensing system for disaster management.

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Australia/Oceania NEWS AUSTRALIA Satellites key to country’s ﬁrst space policy The country has released its first ever space policy - Australia's Satellite Utilisation Policy - providing certainty and strategic direction for Australian users of satellite technology. Launching the policy, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation Senator Kate Lundy said on-going, cost effective access to satellite capabilities was essential to Australia's future. "This space policy will ensure that we can continue to access the satellite capacity we need through partnerships with other countries and commercial suppliers," she added.

Key aspects • Giving priority to earth observation and navigation.

• Contributing to international 'rules of the road' for space.

• Building and retaining space expertise.

• Developing a plan to meet projected growth in Australia's satellite information needs.

searching through burning buildings to consumers wandering through shopping malls, without requiring any special wireless signals. Ashod Donikian, Navisens’s founder and CEO says the company’s technology will power a wearable gadget that can track first responders in emergencies. He hopes to start testing it shortly with firefighters in the United States. He also plans to offer his technology later this year to developers who want to add indoor positioning capabilities to smartphone apps or enhance existing navigation capabilities. Courtesy: stuff.co.nz

Spatial data uploaded on Google Earth The Government of Queensland has launched a new online tool called ‘Queensland Globe’, allowing users to explore the government’s vault of spatial data using Google Earth. Initiated by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Globe lets users apply state government data, including the best available imagery, topographical maps, property addresses, and road and rail networks, to Google Earth satellite images. The government’s spatial data will add to Google Earth’s information and interface, giving users a much wider and more informative view of Queensland.

NEW ZEALAND Map of New Zealand’s road accidents developed Startup focuses on indoor navigation Australian startup Navisens is planning to track everyone from firefighters

An interactive map painting a grim picture of our country's crash toll has been launched. The Blackspots project maps the latest road crash data involv-

ing motor vehicles, cyclists, motorcycles and pedestrians from January, 2010, to December, 2012. It will be updated regularly. Data released by the NZ Transport Agency has revealed nearly 6000 serious injury or fatal crashes on roads in the past three years, more than a third of them were caused when a driver lost control on the road.

SDI to assist in Canterbury’s recovery from quake Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) has secured funding in work towards a specific spatial data infrastructure (SDI) to assist Canterbury’s recovery from the effects of earthquakes. The project will run in parallel with the nationwide SDI, which is still at the planning stage. The work will not result in a fully implemented SDI for Canterbury, “but, rather, focuses on specific SDI-related projects that contribute to the Canterbury recovery and also inform the national SDI,” says Anita Balakrishnan, manager of geospatial and open data at LINZ.

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GHANA

Agricultural spatial data platform launched

National land surveying, mapping policy initiated

The first ever interactive online platform providing open access to all agricultural spatial data and information in Ghana has been launched. The website jointly created by the USAID/ADVANCE and the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS) of the University of Ghana, Legon, aims to provide agricultural related Map of Ghana showing advance demonstration sites 2012 spatial data set in a user-friendly mode to stakeholders of the sector. The platform also aims at improving spatial management and dissemination in Ghana; providing online tools for extracting and sharing data and information on agriculture; and creating opportunities for enhancing quality of data and dissemination.

Stakeholders in the land sector have met to develop national land surveying and mapping policy for the country. The policy is expected to especially give the survey and mapping division of the Lands Commission the mandate to regulate unqualified persons in the sector. The policy will address the issue of standards in the production of maps and also help regulate the proliferation of land maps which are produced without any control.

Ghana university to launch its ﬁrst satellite

Courtesy: CLES-FACIL/INSA-LYON

The All Nations University College in Koforidua, Ghana, has announced its plans to launch its first satellite. “CANSAT,” built by the Intelligent Space System Laboratory of the university, is expected to sensitise prospective students who wish to pursue a career in the Space Science and Satellite Technology programme the university started offering last year. The Intelligent Space System Laboratory was set up as an educational project to foster the integration and collabora-

Example of a CANSAT

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tion among engineering and science careers, as well as to encourage teamwork. To accomplish these goals, the students worked on the CANSAT project, a small satellite with all typical components such as sensors, actuators, and GPS, housed inside a 350-ml can. The university is also planning to design, build and launch a 3-kg CubeSat into orbit by 2016.

The project has been launched under the collaboration between Africa and the EU on the implementation of satellite navigation technologies that could make a major impact on economic development. Under this project three events have already been organised. The events were aimed at promoting the capabilities of GNSS and its applications.

Africa, EU implement GNSS technologies

NIGERIA

The GSA (the European GNSS Agency) has launched the project ‘Awareness in Africa’ (AiA) with the aim of organising workshops to bring together relevant stakeholders from public institutions and the private sector and highlight the benefits of GNSS in African countries.

Courtesy: www.gis4ghagric.net

Africa NEWS

Satellite mapping contract approved The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N51.4 billion (approx $322.35 million) contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 13 roads across Nigeria, Minister of Works, Mike

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Africa NEWS

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Onolememen said. He said the contracts also included preparing a satellite imagery map of Nigeria. The minister said FEC also ratified the contracts approved award of contract for the acquisition of multi-users and multi-spectral image map of Nigeria. The satellite imagery map will serve as a useful tool for both civil and military applications.

‘Digital mapping boosts infrastructure development’ Infrastructure development of Abuja has been boosted by the use of digital surveying and mapping, said Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide. The adoption of digital surveying and mapping had made planning and development in FCT less cumbersome, noted Akinjide. Digital surveying and mapping mechanism in the FCT has resulted in improved satellite imagery and aerial photography. Surveying and mapping is a service that is fundamental to physical and socio-economic development of any nation.

Courtesy: Wageningen University and Research Centre

New soil property maps of Africa A new type of soil property maps for Africa has been launched by ISRIC — World Soil Information in Wageningen, The Netherlands. The maps contain predictions of seven soil properties at six standard depths at 1 km resolution. ISRIC has also made the software available to institutions that want to generate their own soil property maps. Knowledge of soil properSoil properties in Africa ties such as organic carbon content, clay content and pH is vital for agriculture and climate change analysis in Africa. ISRIC has made the first version of digital soil property maps, drawing on 12,000 geo-referenced soil profile records from 37 countries.

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Corner Office | Ramon Pastor

Printers are evolving to be information management tools With large format printers becoming information hubs, the need for large scale printing is growing. Ramon Pastor, Vice President & General Manager, Large-Format Printing Business, Hewlett-Packard, explains how workflows are becoming more efficient through large format printing innovations How do you envisage the printing industry to be an integral part of the geospatial ecosystem? The ability to see details of a big picture is important in more than one way. Prints allow geospatial professionals to combine geographic and numeric information; defi ne and understand patterns and trends and facilitate decision making. There are a number of ways large format printers contribute to geospatial industry. Professionals print the data captured from space, air or ground to inform, discuss and/or fi nally share or sell to the world. For instance, take the oil and gas sector. They use geospatial data for prospecting and

Geospatial industry deals with huge and complex files and there is an underlying need for contextual environment. Large format printers help in this aspect

we contribute by printing the maps/aerial imagery/satellite imagery at the highest image quality. People in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry use ground data to assist on design facilities and plans. Industrial designers create devices that are later used by geospatial industry; for example, measurement instruments are designed by manufacturing companies. They use HP printers during the entire process to produce the instruments. On the other hand, the ability to produce the output as close as possible to the field of work is important. And this is where our Web-enabled printers become relevant because a lot of this information can be centrally generated and distributed in PDF formats. These allow one to have easy and reliable printing whenever and wherever required. Users of geospatial industry manage huge and complex files. So, there is an underlying need for contextual environment. When you look at Google Maps or Google Earth, there

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is context in every little thing. Large format printers help in this aspect. HP invests in bringing innovation to printing technology (media, ink, printers) to satisfy different customer needs, including time reduction for decision making, approach refinement to work flows, reinforcing customer commitment to use technology in an environment friendly way. The HP large format printer portfolio has products to satisfy every need of geospatial customers. When digital technology started to evolve, we analysed the growth trends. We found that our customers consistently preferred using large format prints for representations and discussions. Only for a smaller project, one might want to use prints in A3 size, but any discussion on any big construction project is based around a large paper print. Therefore, we see the printer business growing and the feedback from our customers in this regard has been very consistent. With people working in varied locations, much work has moved to the cloud, especially in the geospatial domain, and data is coming from multiple sources. With these changing dynamics, how is HP aligning its strategies to protect, or even grow, its market share? Our large format printers are not only printing devices; they are also a tool to manage information. For instance, the printers at construction or infrastructure sites, process content in the cloud too. This content is organised in different repositories. One can actually access this from the front panel of the printer. One can navigate through the content repository on the screen, select and download the ones that one wants to print. We can simplify work flows. As an example, construction or infrastruc-

ture sites usually have a set of maps. The design process changes rapidly, making the maps obsolete very fast. Therefore, we ensure that from the printer panel, one can view, download and print the latest designs. If there are changes in a plan which needs to be sent, one can scan, copy and print it on our integrated MultiFunction Printers (MFPs) and send the changed version to the information keeper. Making latest information available to more people can help save targets and make the workflows intelligent than before. This is how we are changing the printing paradigm and turning printers into information hubs. What are your views about the current market trends that are shaping your business strategy? Before talking about trends, we need to put these trends in the macroeconomic context. We are all aware of the worldwide economic slowdown. On one side, this is significantly downsizing the construction companies. This has turned more designers into freelancers, more people are working from home and design studios are getting smaller. All of which means the space for [traditional] printing is shrinking. Today, there is greater competition. Also, companies have changed the bidding processes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they take twice the number of companies they used to take ear-

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Corner Office | Ramon Pastor

The importance and relevance of prints are growing since they are the most effective way to manage large, complex information when making decisions. But the printing industry needs to adapt to the changing ecosystem lier. Our customers — the AEC companies — need faster turnarounds and more efficient workflows to be able to compete effectively. From the macro perspective, we see an important trend in mobility. Our customers are spending more and more time on the roads, bridges, construction sites, in vehicles, airports or at sites. This means that the need to access information, the files or drawings, from places other than the design studios, is more important. There is also the need to access information on different devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops. Finally, we are seeing a trend towards cloud computing, server to server service, and more collaboration. Structurally, the architectural work is done through collaboration — between owner, t ee tthee o e, structural engineer, contractor and sub-contractor. Today, ay, collaboration is happening not only among on ng different players of the sa same ame city but among different states and countries. This is also because architects are looking at growing their businesses and a are willing to acceptt projects p in more remote locations. In essence, the importance and relevance of prints an and nd hard copies are growing wiing since that is the most effective ctiive way to manage

large, complex information when making decisions. But the printing industry needs to adapt to the changing ecosystem. We take these trends very seriously and shape our portfolio accordingly. In the past few years, we have introduced a brand new portfolio that meets these changes and are Web connected. The printer can connect to information repositories that are on the cloud and print efficiently. Also, these professional printers are cost effective with small footprints; they perfectly fit into the new requirement of small workspaces, consolidating the small format printer and large format printer in a single device. What are the major trends in the geospatial industry that you see as relevant to your business? From a geospatial point of view, I see high access to the content and software as the two major trends. There is high access to products in terms of price too. In the past, only governments had the mandate to create and distribute certain geographical data, but now there are other players making that information available for many more people. Therefore, our printers are finding more takers. Wee want prea t to make ake tthee information o at o p e cise, perfect and readily available. The HP

HP’s T2300 is a web-connected medium format printer that allows remote printing

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a d t

Designjet T120 and Designjet T520 multiformat printers are really cheap and easy to use while our high-end sophisticated range, such as the HP Designjet T2300 eMFP combines printing and scanning, delivers up to 44in width size, has a high-level processor, 32-gigabyte memory and remote access. We can play to all the different trends we see in the geospatial industry.

geospatial software are compatible with our printing technology. We also work through resellers who are very well known system integrators (HP workstations, HP large format printers and software). Today, HP is the only end-to end work flow solution vendor in the market. The high power technology of our workstations and large format printers ensure the best in class end-to-end solutions.

Which major application areas are growing in the AEC and geospatial markets? In terms of industry segments, we believe there is further scope for penetration in the AEC segment. In construction too, we believe companies are not making optimum use of large format printing as people at the construction sites are not very skilled in handling such state-of-the-art devices. So, ease of use, mobility, and affordability of printing solutions are important. For example, we are working with a company that puts together technology-enabled trailers for construction sites. They have Wi-Fi, servers, copiers, computers, and a large format multi-function printer. The company rents those trailers to big construction sites. That is the trend we are moving towards. HP Designjet has 25 years of experience in the AEC segment and we enjoy a leadership position wherein we can safely say 90% of architectural projects have had an interaction with our products. We are focusing on innovation to continue this leadership. Our R&D investments are based on the intimate knowledge of customer and industry trends.

You are addressing a billion-dollar market, which is growing at 2% globally. Which are your growth geographies? From a geographical perspective, there are different dynamics — developed markets versus emerging markets. Another dimension is the type of markets and applications. In terms of applications, besides the AEC industry, we see an important trend in the education sector. We will see more and more of large

The geospatial industry is seeing a double digit growth. It is also a complex technology-intensive industry. And you are producing a solution which is enabling that industry to communicate. What is your communication strategy to capture this market? HP Designjet grows its engagement with geospatial industry through partners such as Autodesk and Esri. This is to ensure the leading

The construction sector is not making optimum use of large format printing since people at the construction sites are not very skilled in handling such devices. So, ease of use, mobility, and affordability of printing solutions are important format printers to communicate and accelerate the learning process — whether they are children in secondary schools or universities. The other one is the retail sector — retailers becoming more effective in communicating their discounts, promotions, decoration at points of sales. In terms of geographies, Southeast Asia is growing a lot, especially Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact their growth rates have outgrown China in recent times. Then, there are other emerging markets as well — Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Russia. We always look for big investments in infrastructure, which impacts everything — construction definitely, but also utilities, telecom etc. As a result, there is a lot of demand for GIS and printing.

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Cover Story | The Geospatial Ecosystem

Courtesy: www.jeff reywooden.org

Geospatial WorkďŹ&#x201A;ows Redefining Industry Ecosystem From being a highly compartmentalised industry, geospatial technology has evolved with convergence, collaboration, and integration of constituent technologies as its cornerstone. This facilitated end-to-end geo-enabled workflows across several vertical industries, triggering a series of acquisitions within geospatial industry, leading to its reorganisation. This cover story takes a peek into the dynamics of leading geospatial players in enabling productisation of solutions. Read on to know more..

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eospatial industry, which has several specialised technologies under its umbrella, has evolved through a collaborative process over the past two decades. It has been built on scientific disciplines like geodesy, earth observation, photogrammetry, cartography, positioning and surveying. The industrialisation process in the above disciplines has enabled the application of this technology in almost every human activity; empowered every business process; enhanced productivity, efficiency, cost effectiveness, and value proposition of resources. I may seem to have gone overboard, but not, if one views this industry holistically and defines its ecosystem appropriately. Any ecosystem needs constant re-definition as it evolves along with its stakeholders. And this is more often true about young industries like ‘geospatial’, which has expanded by converging/integrating with several established industries in the last decade. A fragmented view of the geospatial industry by the so-called stakeholders initially made it a non-saleable story. Compartmentalisation of the industry made it difficult to project the economic value of geospatial technology to businesses in particular and to the society at large. Further, soft adoption of the term ‘geospatial’ by many of its constituents without putting together the jigsaw, increased the communication gap amongst high-level decision makers associated with political, administrative and business spheres. While advocating for a policy reform, I was asked by a senior policymaker, “What do you expect me to do for geospatial industry, which is just $3 billion globally?” In fact he went on to ask if there was a geospatial industry at all? He was referring to a market research report which pegged geospatial industry at $3 billion. Actually, the report had projections for just one constituent of the industry, which made him feel that geospatial isn’t something that needed his attention. So, my first job was to educate the policymaker about the geospatial ecosystem and project a holistic view of our $100-billion

industry and highlight that it was one amongst few industries with a global annual growth rate of 10-15%. More than the $100 billion, the growth rate caught his attention. This is not just the case with policy makers; several leaders representing important stakeholder groups of geospatial industry do not have the holistic picture or understanding of the entire geospatial ecosystem. During my interactions with industry executives in the last two years, I have come across a high degree of compartmentalising outlook and it has been a daunting task to educate the leadership about the convergence, enablement, collaboration and integration of the constituent technologies which lead to end-to-end geo-enabled workflows across several industries. Having talked about integration, I do recognise the business value in developing the niche markets, which facilitate innovation, customisation and appropriate utilisation of geospatial technology for specific markets. What is probably required is representation of the geospatial ecosystem and positioning of the whole along with its constituents to ensure better demonstration of its value proposition. Before attempting to (re)define geospatial industry ecosystem, it is important to have a quick look at the emerging trends and directions. Stated simply, ‘geospatial encompasses in itself anything and everything that is geo-referenced and spatial in its characteristic and content’ and ‘geospatial industry constitutes everyone and everything associated with the science, technology and application of geospatial data’.

Trends and directions

» Convergence and integration: Convergence and integration can be considered the key drivers, expanding the horizons and extending the utility of geospatial technology across different industries. Economic reforms and end of the Cold War added new dimensions to the business of technology, making them open, connected, collaborative and integrated. An open society with a level-playing field

“

Geospatial industry will eventually move from being a horizontal industry to a vertical one focused on certain industry applications

Ola Rollen, CEO, Hexagon Group

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Eventually, every piece of data and enterprise solution for any industry is going to involve geospatial components, enabling transformation of business processes of these enterprises Steven Berglund, President & CEO, Trimble Navigation

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Cover story _sk_may.indd 28

Total stations, surveying equipment

GNSS equipment

High-precision positioning equipment

Photogrammetry/Image processing

GIS software providers

Data providers GNSS systems

Satellite-based sensors

GNSS solution providers

Aerial sensors (optical)

LiDAR sensors

The Geospatial Ecosystem

Solution providers

Spatial data software companies

Plotters

Work Stations

Cover Story | The Geospatial Ecosystem

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enabled entrepreneurs to experiment and create innovative, multi-disciplinary products. Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor of Geospatial World Magazine argues, “We need to move away from compartmentalisation and consider all these technologies as part of geospatial ecosystem which need to be used in an integral manner to create solutions.” Advancements not only allowed convergence within the geospatial family, but also facilitated its integration with technologies like the Internet, telecommunications, engineering, machine control and enterprise resource planning. K.K. Singh, Chairman of Rolta Group, says, “Increasing integration of geospatial technology with enterprise information and communication technologies will see the advent of ‘geospatial web’ in the coming years”. » Solution-centric approach: Convergence and integration paved the way for solutioncentric approach, allowing technology companies to work in close collaboration with end-users, directly or through solution partners. This made businesses look at geospatial technology as an enabling tool, laying the road for greater collaboration between technology developers and users. This further facilitated feedback from users in product development. Says Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems, “Geospatial technology is not an end in itself, but the means to an end. The end here is to improve our planet and the quality of life for billions of people around the world.” Voicing similar sentiments, Bryn Fosburgh, Vice President, Trimble says, “Geospatial is not a market in itself but is a capability empowering solutions in different markets.” » Vertical industry approach: The solutioncentric approach caught geospatial industry unawares. It was imperative to invest in domain knowledge and business processes of the user industries. Driven by scalability and profitability parameters, geospatial industry found new allies in the vertical segments. Evolving strategies specific to industry domains earned geospatial industry an oppor-

tunity to engage with the important verticals. Ola Rollen, CEO, Hexagon Group, is of the opinion that “geospatial industry will eventually move from being a horizontal industry, to a vertical one focused on certain industry applications.” Furthermore, it will open up a new era of verticalisation and soon, geospatial products would be customised and bundled for specific vertical industry segments. » Open standards and interoperable platforms: Integrated solutions and industry-oriented business strategies brought in another challenge with regard to merging geospatial datasets with information sets of particular industry domain. This has mandated the development of open standards and interoperable platforms. Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President of Information Modeling, Autodesk, believes “in a new world, it is extremely important that users are able to use whatever data they need and we have to make it completely transparent to users through disoriented architecture and open standards.” Kudos to the timely creation of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) in 1995, geospatial industry was blessed with the institutional mechanism to enable stakeholders move forward with open, interoperable, and industryoriented business strategy. Stressing the role of OGC, President and CEO Mark Reichardt, says, “Almost all providers of GIS, earth imaging systems and spatial database systems implement OGC standards which enable users to query each others’ systems for data and services.” Quoting a recent German DIN Standards Study which indicates $17-billion economic benefits from standards in Germany alone, Reichardt argues that open standards-based systems save time, reduce costs and save lives. » Enterprise resource management: Enterprise resource management with spatial competency at its core is another significant direction for the geospatial industry. With increasing acceptance of its value for asset monitoring, maintenance and delivery of products and services, geospatial is getting

“

Small businesses are seeds of information; they often are places where new ideas can be birthed and tried out. They are also often close to end-users and are best able to respond to their needs Jack Dangermond, President, Esri

“

Geospatial technology is not an end in itself, but the means to an end. The end here is to improve our planet and the quality of life for billions of people around the world who are not aware of this technology Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems

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Cover Story | The Geospatial Ecosystem

“

Increasing integration of geospatial technology with enterprise information and communication technologies will see the advent of ‘geospatial web’ in the coming years K.K. Singh, Chairman, Rolta Group

“

It is extremely important that users are able to use whatever data they need and we have to make it completely transparent through things like disoriented architecture and open standards Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, Information Modeling, Autodesk

embedded in enterprise resource planning and customer relations management solutions, helping industries to spatially enable their business processes and workflows. Steven Berglund, President and CEO, Trimble Navigation, believes geospatial technology applies to a number of industries and there is a strong geospatial-centric database at the core of enterprise market. “Eventually, every piece of data and enterprise solution for any industry is going to involve geospatial components, enabling transformation of business processes of these enterprises,” he adds.

Microsoft says, “The current decade is poised to do the same for the ‘where’ dimension across devices, data and services. Just as the ‘who’ dimension increased relevancy of our digital world, the ‘where’ dimension will do the same as our digital connectivity reaches out to touch the entire physical world and reasons with volumes of user-generated data and real-time sensor information.” Such an engagement of the common people with maps and spatial characteristics will give a boost to geospatial industry, both on the professional and consumer front.

» Cloud-based solutions: Cloud-based solutions offer multiplicity to geospatial offerings and allow one to collect, collate, process, analyse and use datasets from different sites on a common platform without the need to migrate or transfer the same. Cloud platforms offer near real-time and live data collected through sensors on several aspects of ongoing activities around society and businesses. Steven Hagan, Senior Vice President, Server Technologies at Oracle Corporation, argues, “The use of Cloud computing is particularly relevant to public sector organisations managing large volumes of geospatial information. Mounted with budget pressures, governments can reduce data storage costs, consolidate operations, and help minimise the overall cost.”

Changing business scenario and re-defining the geospatial ecosystem

» Commoditisation: Commoditisation of geospatial information is the most significant trend of the last decade, which added a whole new dimension to the business of each constituent stakeholder. Applications like Google Earth, Open Street Map, and Microsoft Virtual Earth connected geospatial with the common man, enabling spatial thinking en-masse. Emerging spatial functionality in social networking solutions is opening up the next level of commoditisation of geospatial information, through location-enabled apps and games, improving spatial orientation and capabilities of people. Advocating the ‘where’ element, Stephen Lawler, CTO of Bing Maps,

Broadly speaking, geospatial industry could be arranged in the following five categories: • Data acquisition via surveying, positioning, space, aerial and ground-based sensing . • Data processing through image processing, photogrammetry and laser processing. • Data modeling through DEMs, 3D models. • Data analysis, Data visualisation and decision support systems. • Data publishing and printing. In addition, several technology developments in the World Wide Web, telecommunications, engineering and Cloud have been playing a role in enhancing and expanding the utility and relevance of geospatial industry. Solution companies like Rolta, Infotech, Intermap, AAM, PASCO, Critigen, DataWorld and Geodan have been an integral part of the geospatial ecosystem. Small and medium enterprises, engaged with delivering services, reselling and trading of geospatial products, forms the largest and a critical component of this ecosystem, contributing more than half of the entire geospatial turnover. Acknowledging their contribution, Jack Dangermond, President, Esri says, “Small businesses are seeds of information; they often are places where new ideas can be birthed and tried out. They are also often close to end-users and are best able to respond to their needs.”

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Acquisitions for Complete Geospatial Workﬂow Data Acquisitions

Hexagon

Data Processing

Data Modelling+3D

Data Analysis + DSS

Industry Solutions

Localisation

Leica Geosystems

Erdas

New River Kinematics (NRK)

Intergraph

a/m/t software service ag

MANFRA

Novatel

Intergraph

GTA Geoinformatik GmbH

Erdas

Listech

Navgeocom

MicroSurvey

Geosystems Kazakhstan

Denali

Elcome Technologies

Z/I Imaging

myVR

Augusta Systems

Technodigit

Listech

Mycrona GmbH

GeoMax

Mahr Multisensor GmbH

SISGRAPH

Penmap Software

Plancal

ALK Technologies

Mesta Software

TMW Systems

AceCad Software

Logicway

OmniSTAR

Refraction Technology

Deﬁniens

Gatewing

Vico Software, Inc. (Vico)

SketchUp

Ashtech

Trimble

Loyola Enterprises

Dynamic Survey Solutions

GEOTrac INPHO

WinEstimator

Yamei Electronics Technology

LET Systems Accubid ThingMagic

Tekla Corporation

Spime

Cengea

PeopleNet

MyTopo GeoIQ

Procedural

Esri

Geoloqi SpotOn Maptel

Pointools Ltd

gINT

FormSys

EuResearch

Char*Pointer Tecnologia

SpecWave Ivara

Bentley

elcoSystem Software SACS Enterprise Informatics eB Insight Exor Corporation

Autodesk

PI-VR

Allpoint Systems LLC

HSMWorks Aps

Firehole Technologies

Naiad ﬂuid simulation technology

Qontext Vela Systems

Socialcam

Instructables

Micro Application Packages Limited

GRIP Entertainment Technology

Pixlr

With advancements in the Web and Cloud technologies as the medium of storing and publishing geospatial data, content companies took the lead in shaping the business direction of the ecosystem. Recognising the potential and challenges of the Web commu-

nity, Dangermond says “one of the challenges is to reach the Web community that is less interested in details of GIS technology and more interested in having simple mapping APIs that can be embedded and used to build their applications.”

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Cover Story | The Geospatial Ecosystem

“

Almost all providers of GIS, earth imaging systems and spatial database systems implement OGC standards that enable their users to query each others’ systems for data and services Mark Reichardt, President & CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

“

Just as the ‘who’ dimension filtered and increased relevancy of our digital world, the ‘where’ dimension will do the same as our digital connectivity reaches out to the physical world Stephen Lawler, CTO, Bing Maps, Microsoft

Acquisitions for solutions The emerging trends of the solution-centric approach and enterprise orientation triggered a change in the existing business practices and policies of geospatial companies. The entire ecosystem of geospatial industry, which was working with well-defined boundaries of its constituents, went through a rigorous scrutiny both by players within and outside the industry. The industry realised that the required degree of integration/convergence for developing a solution-centric workflow environment wasn’t an option to sail through by mere partnership and collaboration. It requires acquisition of technologies, integration of processes, and embedding of workflows, which was possible with a structural re-organisation of the existing ecosystem. The process began in early 2002-03 when Leica Geosystems (a GPS and surveying company) acquired the well-established and leading image processing company Erdas, subsequently launching the Leica Photogrammetry Suite. This marked the beginning of an integrated approach towards offering photogrammetry and image processing, along with the well-established data acquisition technologies like surveying, positioning and aerial sensors. The story didn’t stop at this stage, and very soon, Leica Geosystems itself was acquired by Hexagon, a much smaller company than the size of Leica. Hexagon, initially seen as an investment company, began consolidating its position in geospatial market and continued to pursue its objective of completing the geospatial workflow either through in-house development or technology acquisitions. Having developed sufficient capabilities in the field of data acquisition and data processing, Hexagon began to experiment with the development of visualisation and analysis tools through its Erdas team sometime in 2006, entering into a well-defined GIS market, which further caused breaking of long-standing collaborative relationship of Erdas and Leica Geosystems with Esri — the largest GIS player of all time. This opened up the doors for many more companies to associate and partner with Esri to fill the gap, and soon BAE Systems (photogrammetry) and

Excelis (Image Processing) got into strategic alliance with Esri. By this time, Google launched its revolutionary product ‘Google Earth’, creating a global awareness about geospatial information and tools. Overnight, it changed the course of geospatial business and opened up the market, attracting attention and investments from large companies. Microsoft followed soon and launched ‘Virtual Earth’. An important point to be noted here is that both Google and Microsoft acquired geospatial companies, Keyhole and Vexcel, respectively, adding a new dimension to the ongoing process of re-organisation of the geospatial ecosystem. IBM and Oracle, who until then participated in this game more as partners or associates of major GIS companies, also began to have larger and independent positions for their respective spatial database products. Getting back to the core geospatial industry, we must acknowledge that another major geospatial player, Trimble, made a soft entry in this game with the acquisition of Spectra Precision around 2000. Considered to be a market consolidation step originally, this acquisition soon proved to be a step to expand Trimble’s technology portfolio, offering value to the customer base of both the companies.

Acquisitions for competitive advantage Post 2007, a series of acquisitions and mergers took place in geospatial industry, led primarily by Trimble and Hexagon. In the meantime, the industry also witnessed two major acquisitions of geospatial content companies in high-value transactions. TomTom acquired TeleAtlas for $4.3 billion and Nokia followed with acquisition of Navteq at $8.1 billion. Additionally, we also witnessed the acquisition of SmallWorld and MapInfo by GE and Pitney Bowes, respectively. These acquisitions, mainly done to add a competitive advantage to their respective businesses, were also the harbingers of hope and opportunities. However, unaffected by the increasing threats of prospective hostile acquisitions from outside, leading geospatial players like Trimble, Hexagon, Bentley, Esri

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continued increasing their technology portfolio through regular purchase of small and medium companies, primarily in the field of imaging and modeling software, strengthening geospatial workflows to serve the developing markets of plants, buildings, design, engineering, mining and exploration industries. The economic slowdown put a break on high-value transactions by large business houses, but the trend of acquisitions and mergers continued (with a limited period pause in 2008-09), probably because of the sheer survival instinct of geospatial industry. The acquisition of Intergraph by Hexagon could be considered as the most triggering and important one in this series. This acquisition took the geospatial industry by storm. It definitely displayed the marketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s failure to anticipate and understand the future business direction of Hexagon. Many had apprehensions and many continue to have apprehensions about the value and utility of this acquisition, but looking at the current market trends it seems to be most strategic acquisition which empowered Hexagon with end-to-end solution capabilities, covering every part of the geospatial workflow.

Business value of geospatial industry The past decade has brought significant value to several vertical industries, making geospatial one of the fastest emerging technology sectors. In addition to market trends which forced the geospatial industry to innovate, converge and integrate with business processes of promising industries like manufacturing, plant design and buildings, it was the visionary leadership of Trimble, Hexagon, Topcon, Bentley and Esri that initiated the process of evolving geospatial workflows and solutioncentric approach that proved to be instrumental not only in expanding the size of geospatial business but also brought forward its unique economic value propositions to the forefront, opening avenues for further development. We at Geospatial Media, have not done any scientific study to measure the market size of geospatial industry. However, based on our formal and informal interactions

Acquisitions for Competitive Advantage & Industry Solutions Companies

Forte

Merger Outcome

CSR

Wireless

SiRF

GPS chips

LBS+indoor navigation

TomTom

PND

Tele Atlas

Geo data

Pitney Bowes

Mailing

MapInfo

GIS software

Nokia

Telecom

NAVTEQ

Spatial data

Thomson Reuters

Tax & accounting

ILS

Land management

Amazon

IT company

UpNext

3D mapping

LBS+navigation

BI+mail tracking

LBS+navigation

Navigation on kindle fire

Apple

WifiSLAM

Tech Giant

Indoor navigation

Facebook

Social networking

Gowalla+Instagram

Social+location

Indoor navigation in iPhone

Motorola

Tech giant

Aloqua

LBS software developer

Nokia

Telecom

MetaCarta

Location

LBS

Daily Mail

Newspaper and television group

RMS

Software company

Electric company

Smallworld

Geospatial company

Google

Search engine

Keyhole

mapping company

Microsoft

Software company

Vexcel Corp

Mapping company

with the key stakeholders and analysis of existing reports, we strongly believe that the size of global geospatial industry is very close to $100 billion and it is growing at an annual growth rate of 10-15%. The total revenue of top 10 geospatial technology companies is estimated to be about $10 billion. Additionally, the next level of technology companies contributes almost similar revenue of $10 billion. Since most of the technology companies trade their software and hardware products through distributors/resellers and partners, this segment accounts for about 20- 25% additional business

Real estate+property Taxation

Location-based news Utility Services+geospatial Google Earth

MSN Virtual Earth Acquirer Acquired company

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Cover Story | The Geospatial Ecosystem Million $

s 2009-10 s 2010-11 s 2011-12 s 2012-13

Million $

3500 Revenue of Technology Companies

Revenue of Solution Companies

3000 500

2500

400

2000

300

1500

200

1000

100 NA

500 0

Hexagon

Trimble Autodesk Bentley Topcon

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

The use of cloud computing is relevant to public sector companies managing large volumes of geospatial data. Mounted with budget pressures, governments could reduce data storage costs, consolidate operations, and help minimise overall cost Steven Hagan, Senior Vice President, Server Technologies, Oracle Corporation

Digital Globe

GeoEye

FARO Nokia Location & Commerce

Esri

Rolta

Infotech

Pasco

opportunity for the market, pitching the ket to be between $150 billion and $270 billion. total technology business at around $25 bilIn all probability, this phase of re-organlion. These technology companies leverage isation of the geospatial ecosystem is over, a much larger volume of business through at least for a few years. Leading geospatial their solutions and service providers. For players have demonstrated their business urge instance, Esriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2012 revenue through softand willingness to continue with technolware sales is estimated to be $1.4 billion. ogy acquisition, enabling productisation of Dangermond says Esri software leverages solutions. One can very well see the alignment somewhere between and re-alignment of $16 and $19 billion in companies featuring Geospatial software revenues sales of data, hardware in different categories of select companies and services. Followof geo-system with difCompany 2012 ing the above, on a very ferent emerging groups Esri 1.4 conservative estimate, and alliances. Intergraph SG&I 0.5 technology companies The next phase of Bentley 0.3 put together leverage re-organisation will about $60-75 billion, began with the beginAutodesk 0.3 making the total closer ning of the revival of MapInfo 0.2 to the $100-billion mark. the world economy *Others 0.5 While adding to the and we could expect In billion $ actual market size, one the entry of very large *Include companies like GE Smallworld, Supergeo, SuperMap etc needs to take into acbusiness houses, not count the revenues of nanecessarily with the tional mapping, cadastre and space agencies. purpose of capturing existing geospatial According to an estimate from the Chinese business, but to utilise and harness the true government, the total business of the geospavalue of geospatial ability in industrial protial market in that country is $31 billion. In cesses and economic activity. fact, several progressive governments, includDisclaimer: The author has collected the information presented in this article over a period of time through formal and informal channels ing Japan, South Korea, Canada, US, UK, and does not hold any responsibility towards its authenticity. Germany, India, Brazil and China, have been investing heavily in geospatial technologies. Providing another dimension to the geospatial Sanjay Kumar, CEO market size, a recent Google-commissioned Geospatial Media & Communications study estimated the global geo-services marsanjay@geospatialmedia.net

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Adding Value to Businesses

On the

Information Highway Geospatial services are playing an increasingly important role in sectors such as construction, transportation, utilities and municipal infrastructure to help the global infrastructure keep pace with a growing population and the projected GDP growth

bout a decade ago Dave Sonnen, Global Analyst for Spatial Information at IDC, projected that the locationaware market for geospatial services would exceed the traditional GIS market in 2005/2006. The release of Google Earth in June 2005 transformed the geospatial services ecosystem. Today, location-aware technologies have blown past the traditional GIS space in terms of number of users and number of deployed apps. In sectors such as construction, transportation, utilities and municipal

infrastructure, geospatial services are playing an increasingly important role even though it is often not obvious. At a recent Distributech conference, the largest electric power distribution conference in North America, of the 400-plus presentations, only a handful mentioned GIS or geospatial in their title or abstract. But of the 18 companies that we interacted with, only two said they were not using geospatial technology in the organisation. Even those that said they weren't using GIS, were in all probability using Google Maps for market analysis,

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Courtesy: photoeverywhere.co.uk recruitment or other applications. To put this in context, the annual global construction spend is estimated to be $7 trillion, about 10% of world GDP. Of this, transportation construction accounts for $1 trillion, utilities $2 trillion, and buildings $2.5 trillion. It has been estimated that between 2013 and 2030, $57 trillion in infrastructure investment will be required simply to keep up with projected global GDP growth. This includes investment required for transport (road, rail, ports, airports), power, water, and telecommunications. This is nearly 60% more than the

$36 trillion spent globally on infrastructure over the past 18 years. Increasing private sector funding in infra In the last 200 years, urbanisation has occurred at an unprecedented rate. This is spurring massive investment in cities. For example, Indian cities are estimated to require capital expenditure of $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, for affordable housing, mass transit, urban roads, storm and sanitary sewers and drinking water. However, governments are devoting less of their limited funds

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Adding Value to Businesses

to capital infrastructure projects and are looking to the private sector to fill the funding gap. McKinsey singled out poor construction productivity as an important factor in eroding returns on infrastructure and making infrastructure less attractive for private investment. The stage is thus set for a radical transformation of construction, and geospatial technology is expected to play an important role in this transformation.

Power Facts

70% expected rise in power demand by 2035

50% of this will come from India,China

$37trn investment needed for global energy supply

1.8% energy savings seen from efficiency measures like smart buildings

60% of global power used by residential & commercial buildings

$690 bn investment seen in near-zero energy buildings by 2020

Environmental challenges Buildings use about 40% of global energy, 25% of global water, 40% of global resources, and they emit approximately one-third of global GHG emissions. Faced with rising environmental issues, many governments are mandating energy conservation measures, especially targeting near-zero energy buildings, an industry that is projected to grow by 43% per year to reach $690 billion by 2020. Building information modeling (BIM) and geospatial technology have central roles to play in improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Several years ago, in an awardwinning paper at a conference organised by Britain’s Association for Geographic Information (AGI), Ann Kemp, then head of GIS at Atkins Global, the design and engineering firm, asked the question ‘BIM isn’t geospatial — or is it?’ and then argued that integration of geospatial and BIM was essential to address the challenges of the 21st century. Kemp wasn’t the first one to speak on this. The need to integrate geospatial and BIM has been gaining traction for some time now and governmentmandated energy efficiency for buildings is a major driver of BIM/geospatial convergence. Growing investment in technology These trends are driving investments in technology. In construction, the adoption of BIM has accelerated in the last decade. Buildings, energy, transportation and utilities are realising a significant return on investment by integrating geospatial technology with new engineering designs. The integration of geospatial not only addresses specific vertical

industry problems, but also enables a more holistic approach to the major challenges of increased urbanisation. Transforming construction with BIM, geospatial and 3D In the construction world, 3D modeling, which integrates BIM, GIS and survey, and laserscanning (LiDAR) in a 3D visualisation environment, are increasingly being used to reduce the risk of budget and schedule overruns. Parsons-Brinckerhoff, part of the large global construction firm Balfour Beatty, has been a leader in applying 3D modeling for design validation, clash detection, parameteric modelling, and design visualisation during design and 4D modeling (time+3D), 5D (cost+time+3D) for construction scheduling during construction. Laser scanning (LiDAR) has become an integral part of the 3D construction process. For example, construction monitoring involves capturing construction progress as well as being able to automate the process of checking for divergence from design. One of the most important advantages of combined engineering and geospatial datasets is improved communication and coordination between all project stakeholders, and especially with non-technical decision makers. Being able to see photorealistic visualisations of what the project is going to look like in its geographic setting is much more effective in communicating with politicians and the public. For example, on highway projects, Parsons-Brinckerhoff uses gaming technology so that the public can drive the highway in a virtual environment before construction begins. Transforming transportation construction The annual global spend on transportation construction, including roads, rail, air and port infrastructure, is around $1 trillion. Of this, 65% is for roads, bridges, and tunnels. By the end of 2012, four US states had passed laws permitting driverless cars — Nevada, Florida, Texas and California. By August 2012, Google announced over 500,000 km autonomous-driving accident-free with

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its experimental driverless technology. An emerging objective for the world's departments and ministries transportation is intelligent highways that will support autonomous and partially autonomous vehicles. Geospatial is a key enabler for digital highways. In the opinion of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) , the current way of designing and building highways, is reaching the end of its lifetime and a transformation to a new paradigm is required. Fundamentally, it means replacing the current 2D as-builts with intelligent 3D models and a process that leverages existing engineering data captured in 3D models. The new paradigm is data centric and real time. From data requirement perspective, geospatial will play a central role. A key requirement is a low distortion geospatial coordinate system that will provide the foundation for geolocating all infrastructure including utilities. It will require interoperability using industry standards for data exchange. Geospatially enabled asset management provides a framework for developing and maintaining engineering and geospatial data, including 3D engineered models as well as scanned data for existing structures for the entire life cycle of a highway. When a new project is initiated, 80-90% of the necessary information will already be available in a geospatially enabled as-built database making a complete resurvey unnecessary. Âť Utah Department of Transportation: Integrated design and geospatial data The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is responsible for about $30 billion in assets, including pavement, bridges, signs, culverts and signals with about 10,000 centreline km of highways. UDOT has just finished inventorying all its assets and is in the process of developing an integrated geospatially enabled asset management system. UDOT is developing applications to provide a common interface for about a dozen UDOT groups that provide a variety of services. One of the most important features of

Courtesy Parsons Brinckerhoff

the integrated asset management solution that UDOT is developing is that geospatial location represents a fundamental way of indexing and integrating disparate data sources. For example, it makes it possible to see critical maintenance issues in different layers such as culverts, pavement, and bridges on a common landbase map, so that repairs can be coordinated for all of these assets at the same time. Perhaps the most important aspect of this project is the sharing of a common dataset among all the departments of the UDOT. Managing critical infrastructure at airports Airports are like cities. They have all the infrastructure that cities have, in addition to some more. One of the major hazards of all construction activity is inadvertently hitting underground infrastructure. The challenge is made more difficult because it is an environment where even a minor accident carries the risk of serious consequences.

5D for construction scheduling

3D image of station design Courtesy Parsons Brinckerhoff

Âť Heathrow: High quality location info on underground infrastructure Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe with an average 181,000 passengers passing through it each day. Heathrow has 13 different types of infrastructure, some of which are unique to the airport environment. Because safety is Heathrow's first concern, data quality is a top priority. In addition, providing reliable information about the location of existing infrastructure to the thousand-

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Adding Value to Businesses

plus contractors working at Heathrow at any given time is critical to avoid incidents where critical underground facilities are hit. Most of the underground facilities are mapped to within half a meter. Heathrow's Map Live system provides a single, simple Web-based tool based on an Oracle Spatial database that allows everyone within the business to query, including geospatial query, retrieve and view information including location about Heathrow's infrastructure. As a result Heathrow's statistics show that the proportion of events where underground facilities have been hit during excavation as a result of inaccurate location information decreased by a factor of 6x from 2002 to 2011.

Virtual reality imaging of underground infrastructure in 3D in Las Vegas

Âť Denver International Airport: Geolocated BIM models At Denver, the International Airport (DIA) had similar problems. 2D as-builts were unreliable or not existent, which means that DIA really didn't know reliably where their assets were. There was a lot of redundant data because of silos of information in different departments using different applications. The most important impact of all of this was subjective decision making during the budget planning process, characterised by the so-called HiPPO (highest paid person's opinion) problem. Their ultimate goal was data-driven processes that supported predictive maintenance Courtesy VTN Consulting

and objective metrics for decision making, especially in prioritising projects during the budgeting process. The way this was addressed was by a combination of data normalisation and business process rationalisation. DIA switched to an integrated BIM design and construction process that produced FM/OM ready BIMs (both horizontal and vertical) and associated relational data structures. An important aspect of their solution was that all data, including BIM models was geolocated, which made it possible to load all the data into a GIS linked to Maximo. This enabled coordinated maintenance work on different types of infrastructure concurrently. Electric power According to the World Energy Outlook 2012 from the International Energy Association, global energy demand will increase by over one-third between now and 2035. Global demand for electricity is expected to grow by over 70% by 2035, over 50% of the increase coming from China and India. The IEA estimates that a massive investment of around $37 trillion in the world's energy supply system is needed during 2012-2035. Residential, commercial, and public buildings account for one-third of the globe's total fi nal energy consumption. As a result, improving the energy efficiency of buildings, both existing and new structures, has become a global priority for governments and power utilities. In North America, IDC Energy Insights identified smart buildings as one of the top 10 priorities for electric power utilities in 2012. Geospatial technology is playing an important role in helping utilities and their consumers reduce both electric power consumption as well as peak load. Âť Tantalus Systems: Geospatial analytics for smart grid Tantalus provides utilities with an intelligent communications infrastructure supporting smart grid. Tantalus's network solutions rely on wired, wireless, or a combination for bi-

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directional communications and geospatial technology is used by customers to identify problems or misalignment of resources in the radio frequency network. According to Dave Kauffman, Senior Product Manager at Tantalus, “GIS brings an entirely new dimension to problem solving for utilities. Earlier, our customers had to try to understand the source of problems by looking at tables and reports, but they found that with the geospatial view, the source of the problem, typically obstructions, became much easier to identify and correct." Tantalus customers also use geospatial analytics to look for patterns in outages by overlaying historical outage events on the distribution network and maps showing soil types, weather patterns, and traffic density patterns. This type of analytical approach can identify patterns that make it possible to identify equipment that is susceptible to failure and correct the problem before it actually fails. One of the new areas where GIS is just beginning to be applied is voltage maps, a new application Kauffman is very excited about. When a utility is implementing Volt/VAR at a substation to reduce load, voltages reported by smart meters can be mapped geographically in real time across the entire distribution network in the form of isovolt maps. This makes it possible to identify areas of low voltage in real time, which is critical. » Horizon Utilities: Energy density analysis for energy conservation Horizon Utilities is required by the regulator to reduce peak demand in their service area by 5.6% and consumption by 4.9%. Horizon partnered with public organisations that provided it with detailed building, property, and demographic data, which were integrated using a GIS to perform energy density mapping. This enabled Horizon to successfully target its marketing on the buildings with the highest energy footprints. » 3D Energy: Improving energy efficiency of new buildings Motivated by programmes such as LEED

certification, 3D Energy applies energy performance analysis to help architects optimise the energy usage of new buildings. Starting with a simplified BIM model, the geographical location of the building and surrounding natural and man-made structures and the local environmental conditions, an energy performance analysis of the building uses thermal, lighting and airflow simulations to test different design options (insulation, glazing, natural daylight, wind simulation, and ventilation) to identify the best passive solutions, compare lowcarbon technologies, and draw conclusions on energy use, CO2 emissions, occupant comfort, light levels, airflow, and LEED certification level. 3D Energy has found that it is often possible to reduce annual energy consumption and power bills by 40%. » Alabama Power: Disaster management Alabama Power installed over a million smart meters and supporting AMI in its operating area to help differentiate between network and customer-induced outages, thereby significantly reducing the number of truck rolls. But it found even greater benefits when tornadoes hit the area in April 2011, destroying two substations, flattening transmission pylons, breaking 7,500 poles, and leaving 400,000 customers without power. Using Google Maps to display which smart meters could not be read after the tornadoes, Alabama Power put together a detailed picture of where power was lost. The application also provided emergency response officials with information about whether the power was on or off in specific buildings. » AGSI: Smart grid management system for operations and analytics Managing large volumes of real-time data from sensors is simplified by integration with geospatial technology that allows real-time monitoring and decision making. Burlington Hydro's real-time, geospatially enabled smart grid operations and management system, developed by AGSI, integrates with its existing enterprise systems and uses

Building our World $7trn Annual global construction spend

10% Percentage of world GDP which goes into construction

$57trn infrastructure investment required by 2030 to keep up with global GDP growth

$1trn Transportation construction

$2trn Utilities

$2.5trn Buildings

ÎPower & energy demand changing construction industry direction ÎCurrent infrastructure inadequate for growing urbanisation, population growth and changing demographics ÎSuccess depends on procurement and supply-chain management ÎCost inflation across sectors remains a big issue ÎIT requires innovation and new solutions

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Adding Value to Businesses

Courtesy Horizon Utilities

Energy density modelling

Smart grid transformer load monitoring

location to provide a common point of access to all their operational data. For example, BHI's transformer status monitoring dashboard not only shows a map of its service area with transformer loading in real time in the form of a heat map, but also reports historical loading and estimates, based on the history of overloading on a specific transformer, how much the lifetime of the transformer had been shortened as a result of the overloading. Modeling urban environments Over half of the world's 7-billion population lives in cities and this is expected to increase as we move toward 9 billion by 2050. In the future, it is projected that there will be many more and larger mega cities like Tokyo, Mumbai, Mexico City, and Moscow. Cities around the world are beginning to realise that the power that lights up their homes and offices comes from the convergence of modern information technology, including BIM, geospatial/GIS, intelligent (connected) network models for electric power, telecommunications, water and wastewater, transportation, and other infrastructure, real-time data management systems, and 3D visualisation.

Courtesy Burlington Hydro and AGSI

Âť Las Vegas: City infrastructure model In the United States an underground utility line is hit on average every 60 seconds. The total cost to the national economy is estimated to be in billions of dollars. To address this issue two years

ago, the Las Vegas city initiated an intelligent 3D project to model one and half miles of Main Street in the older part of the city. The project was intended to model below and above ground facilities, including roadways, utilities and telecommunications, as well as buildings in 3D. To ensure engineering accuracy, the project also specified implementation of a new low-distortion geospatial coordinate system to make it possible to support engineering grade accuracy for geolocating infrastructure. VTN Consulting, which won the project, used a variety of techniques for reality capture of underground utilities and other infrastructure, including GIS, survey, design records, test holes, and ground penetrating radar. Above-ground utilities were captured by combining GIS data with mobile laser scanning. The deliverable was a set of georeferenced 3D models of all the underground and above ground infrastructure and buildings including BIM models for the one-and-ahalf mile corridor of Main Street in old Las Vegas. Engineering design and other data was combined with the city's geoimagery, digital terrain models and other GIS data. In addition, a mobile augmented reality application was developed for the iPad that allowed staff in the field to view underground facilities virtually under the actual roadway. A major benefit that Las Vegas experienced as a result of developing the intelligent 3D city infrastructure model is increased safety because of the reduced risk of unexpectedly hitting underground utilities. Other benefits include automated clash detection to identify potential problems when planning, designing and constructing new undergound infrastructure. Operating costs have been also reduced because of reduced truck rolls for cable/pipe locate operations. The city is expanding the 3D modeling project to an area six times larger than the original project. The Las Vegas infrastructure model represents a classic example of the benefits of convergence, the integration of engineering design data, including BIM, geospatial data such as digital terrain models, high resolution

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Courtesy VTN Consulting

photogrammetry, and point clouds derived from laser scanning, together with 3D visualisation technology. At the present time, Las Vegas' 3D city infrastructure model is believed to be unique in North America. Âť Sydney: Urban model for emergency planning The remarkable Sydney Down Under building and infrastructure project, begun about seven years ago by the Emergency Information Coordination Unit (EICU) of the Land and Property Information Department of the Government of New South Wales, brings together into a single database, models of utility infrastructure, including water, waste water, telecommunications, electric power, rail and subways, and roads and highways, together with building information models (above and below ground) including interior spaces. Even more remarkably, the geometric models are linked to the ownership registry making it possible to link interior spaces to owners. The objective of the project was to provide a basis for emergency planning and disaster management. Compiling the database involved collecting data from some 200 organisations, including local and state governments, utilities and the telecommunications company. Âť Belo Horizonte: Urban model for sustainability and municipal planning Two years ago, Sheyla Santana and her colleagues at the Federal University of Minas Gerais initiated a project to create a model of Belo Horizonte, a city of about two and a half million in Brazil. The immediate objective of the project is sustainability, to enable visualisation and energy performance analysis. But the longer term vision is to enable data-driven urban planning through quantification of the city planning process. For instance, to be able to assess densification options from a serviceability perspective. All of the facilities are georeferenced. Street lights, trees and the transportation network are also captured in 3D. Water and sewer, electric power, telecommunications, and other public infrastructure are captured in

2D. For new buildings, the BIM models come from architects and designers. For existing buildings, the buildings are laser scanned and BIM models created from the point clouds. The model includes links to a land ownership database maintained by the city government. The model is currently a university research project, but both the city government and the Federal Ministry of Cities are interested in it.

Above and underground infrastructure in 3D in Las Vegas

Conclusion Construction, power, transportation and municipal infrastructure are important sectors of the world economy. Over the next two decades these will see a massive infusion of investment, motivated by economic development and environmental concerns. In addition, as governments find they have less and less money for capital infrastructure projects, a greater proportion of the investment in infrastructure will come from the private sector, which will drive an increased focus on productivity to improve returns on investment. That in turn is driving a transformation of the construction industry which is reflected in accelerating adoption of integrated BIM, geospatial, and 3D visualisation, geospatially enabled data management, and vertical applications based on these technologies. The real-world examples show that this is not star wars. Geoff Zeiss, Editor-Buildings & Energy geoff@geospatialmedia.net Geospatial World | May 2013

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Geospatial Usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Survey

Voice of

Business

Enterprises Worldwide businesses are adopting geospatial technology as part of their workflow for cost-effective and improved solutions. A Geospatial World survey across user industries found that this state-of-the-art technology is rapidly gaining traction in sectors such as transportation, utilities and engineering.

How is the integration of geospatial technology in your domain?

What has been your investment into the geospatial division in past three years?

Excellent

Good 30

Fair Negligible

45%

Has there been any measureable improvement with adoption of geospatial technology? Customer Service

Efficiency

Labour Cost

Productivity

Savings

Safety

45%

10%

Do you believe that measuring RoI (tangible or intangible) of projects is useful?

75% Yes 25% No 24%

23%

14%

18% 10% 12%

Geospatial G eospatial W World rld | Ma May 2013 013

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Does your organisation have formal RoI measurements in place for technology projects?

Has geospatial technology proved to be a major driver for your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business?

67% Yes

22% % Yes

78% No

33% No

How are geospatial implementations supporting your business processes?

12%

19%

Better decision making Improved communication Better recordkeeping Cost savings

What do you see as the biggest challenge to measuring RoI of geospatial projects?

27% 30% 35% 5%

Linking activities to returns Estimating tangible benefits Measuring intangible benefits Linking with the delivery road map

18%

18% 17%

16%

Managing Geographically Improved transparency

What are your criteria for software selection?

10% 16% 13% 14% 14% 11% 13% 9%

Cost Functionality Reliability Interoperability Usability Vendor support System compatibility Standards compliance

Do you believe data can always credibly be converted to monetary value?

65% No 35% Yes

Source: Geospatial World Survey

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Economic Value of Geospatial Data

The great

enabler

Geospatial technology, information, and services are addressing some of the major priorities of our nations, adding value to productivity, reducing costs and enabling GDP growth in the process

ross domestic product (GDP) is an economic parameter that puts a value on the goods and services a country produces in a given period of time and is used to measure the economic strength of the country. However, data and its derivatives, information and knowledge, are neither commodities nor services. In fact as famous economist G.J. Stigler said, “information occupies a slum dwelling in the town of economics”! Therefore, the problem is to compute the monetary value of information. Data, information, knowledge, wisdom are terms used often in the context of decision making. According to Stigler, to arrive at a value for information, there is a need to “recognise that the economic system is activated by decisions which link information flows to objectives”. Russell Ackoff, a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science defined data as symbols, information as data that are processed to be useful and provides answers to ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘when’.

Knowledge applies data and information to answer ‘how’ questions; while intelligence is appreciation of ‘why’. Finally, the evaluated intelligence becomes wisdom.

Value of data as a commodity In the geospatial world, data can be treated as a commodity in the limited sense of acquisition and sale. For example, remotely sensed data is collected and processed through satellites, earth stations and computers and is purchasable as a product. Taking the example of satellite imagery, we can assume that the marginal cost of production is independent of the quantity produced, i.e. the data cost remains constant. Therefore, the supply curve is a straight line parallel to the quantity axis (see Fig. 1 ). The demand of a government buyer is unit elastic as the buyer operates on a fi xed budget, i.e. if the product cost goes up, the quantity bought is reduced or if the budget faces a cut and the price remains unchanged, the quantity is reduced. A classic example

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account use of spatial information that was increasingly being used in most sectors where it is having a direct impact on productivity. Value of information The ranges of activities where geospatial technology can be applied to enhance the economic return from these activities are many. They range from government schemes and plans to commercial ventures to disaster management. The economic impacts of these applications are best understood through case studies, which also reflects upon the maturity of the technology, applications and the absorption capability of the nations. Riding on these are issues like regulations, inadequate capacity, lack of data, ineffective spatial data infrastructure and inadequate public private partnerships. The methodologies for evaluating the value of information range from return-oninvestment studies to cost-benefit analysis, to evaluating the impact on the productivity, and therefore, on macro-economic indicators like GDP. However, in all of these, some of the real social benefits remain intangible. Some have attempted to place a monetary value but these are guesstimates which contribute to a feel good factor. National perspectives Âť Australia: A study (Economic Benefits of High Resolution Positioning Services, November, 2008) by The Allen Consulting Group for the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Australia shows that setting up a permanent real-time network of continuously operating GNSS reference stations for precision location can bring significant benefits to agriculture, mining and construction. In 2008, these sectors benefitted by A$8291,486 million ($847-1,519 million) per annum. This represents a contribution

Geospatial technology has proved to enhance economic returns across various areas ranging from government schemes and plans to commercial ventures to disaster management

Data as a commodity Unit elastic demand (PxQ=Constant) Inelastic Demand

Price/Unit

of this is the recent reduction of the volume of data ordered by the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA) from Digital Globe and GeoEye due to funds shortage; an action which accelerated the merger of the two satellite imagery companies. A study conducted by Prof U. Sankar of Madras University (The Economics of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Space Programme: An Exploratory Analysis, Oxford University Press, 2007), of the Indian remote sensing programme, which is one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lowest cost space programme, is revealing. The Indian remote sensing programme spent Rs 21,290 million ($395 million) from 1976 to 2001. As against this, the data sales and access fees resulted in an income of Rs 2,200 million ($40 million) only. Even if the opportunity cost of not getting similar data from foreign satellites is taken into account, it only contributes Rs 5,000 million ($93 million). Taken together with data sales, it adds up to half of the direct mission cost and barely one-third of the total programme outlay. The picture improves if we look at the next level of the data-wisdom chain, i.e. information generated from data. The study notes that if the income from value addition to the data, i.e. extraction of thematic information from the data, is taken into account, then the picture improves by Rs 12,000 million ($223.5 million) and another Rs 11,000 million ($204 million) of cost saving is achieved by using remote sensing data for mapping in the place of conventional field surveys. Taking this into account, the return on investment seems to break even. However, just breaking even cannot justify such a large investment in the first place nor will this add significantly to the GDP. The ACIL Tasman report on The Value of Spatial Information for the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC-SI) conservatively estimates that industry revenue in 2006-07 in Australia could have been of the order of $1.37 billion annually and industry gross value added around $682 million. However, this did not take into

Supply S1 Cost Saving

Supply S2

Surplus Demand

Quantity Consumed Figure 1

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Economic Value of Geospatial Data

Fact Check $155-210 mn benefits for agriculture in Australia

$482 mn gain from horticulture development in wastelands in India

50% Larger area handled by forest managers in Australia with g-tech

$220 mn cost saving in India from improved mapping for forest work plans

4% productivity gain in fisheries in Australia

to GDP of between 0.08% and 0.14%. These benefits can be extrapolated to A$6,675-12,336 million ($6,827-12,617 million) by 2030. This equates to an increase in contribution to GDP by 1.1-2.1%, which compares favourably with other IT applications like e-commerce and Internet retailing. The ACIL Tasman report on The Value of Spatial Information for the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information has looked into the benefits of spatial technologies in various application areas in the public and private sectors from the point of view of increased productivity and estimated that this resulted in a GDP gain of 0.6% to 1.2% in 2006-07. » New Zealand: According to the ACIL Tasman report on Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy in 2008, the use and re-use of spatial information is estimated to have added $1.2 billion in productivity-related benefits to the New Zealand economy. Th is value is the result of increasing adoption of modern spatial information technologies over 1995-2008, and is equivalent to slightly more than 0.6% of GDP in 2008. » USA: The Boston Consulting Group examined the benefits of geospatial applications in areas such as agriculture, construction, and geospatial service industry in the USA. In 2012 the industry size was about $75 billion, which in turn created revenue of $1,600 billion and a cost saving of $1,400 billion. These figures are expected to rise in the next five years to a size of $100 billion and $2,600 billion in revenue. » United Kingdom: A report produced by ConsultingWhere Limited and ACIL Tasman on behalf of the Local Government Association on local public service delivery in England and Wales estimates that GDP was approximately £320 million ($498 million) higher in 2008-09 in England and Wales owing to adoption of geospatial information by local public services providers. The study goes on to state that “under a business as usual scenario, this would be expected to rise to an estimated £560 million ($872 million)

in 2014-15, but with more rapid introduction of government policies to free up data access and copyright and with improved awareness of the value of geospatial information at senior management level, this could be improved to an estimated £600 million ($934 million) by 2014-15... Furthermore, construction, transport and business services sectors are positively impacted, and greenhouse gas emission intensity is lower”. » Canada: Natural Resources Canada’s Mapping Information Branch in collaboration with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and the Surveyor General Branch, has announced that a contract has been awarded to Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation (HAL) to carry out a major study on the state of geomatics in Canada. HAL's partners in the project include ACIL Tasman, Fujitsu Canada and ConsultingWhere. The primary focus for the study is to understand the current situation and emerging trends in Canadian geospatial activities and their overall direct and indirect economic value and contribution to the Canadian economy. The study, managed by the GeoConnections Program of NRCan’s Mapping Information Branch is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2014. » Europe: The Report of International Workshop on Spatial Data Infrastructures’ cost-benefit/return on investment conducted by INSPIRE in 2006 indicated that against a cost of €93-138 million ($122-182 million) per annum on INSPIRE, the possible benefits are €770-1,150 million ($1,013-1,514 million) per annum. The report cites a few case studies. One such study is by the Centre of Land Policy and Valuations of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya on the socio-economic impact of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of Catalonia. The total direct cost of establishing and operating the Catalan SDI, IDEC over a five-year period (2002-06) was of €1.5 million ($1.98 million). This included the setting up of the infrastructure, operations and human resources costs. The main benefits of the IDEC accrue at the level of local public

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Benefits Across across the the world World UK US $1.4k bn Cost savings to agriculture, construction and geospatial services industry in 2011

$1.6k bn Revenue created by geospatial applications

$2.6 bn

$498 mn Boost to GDP in England & Wales from geospatial information by public services providers in ´08-09

Europe $1,013-1,514 mn

$872-934 mn

Benefits to EU, nations and regional organisations in 2006 against an annual cost of $122-182 mn on INSPIRE

India $40-45 bn

Boost to GDP in England & Wales by 2014-15 with data access & copyright, and improved awareness

Boost in revenue to businesses from geo services in 2011

$70-75 bn

Expected revenue creation by geospatial applications in next five years

$37 bn Annual value of geospatial services as per US consumers

Cost savings accrued by industries

Australia $6.4-12.6 bn Contribution to GDP in 2006-07

New Zealand

0.08-0.14%

$1.2 bn

Percentage contribution to GDP in 2008

Productivity-related benefits to NZ economy in 2008

administration through internal efficiency benefits and effectiveness benefits through savings in time of the IDEC staff as well as the public and private users. The savings exceed €2.6 million ($3.42 million) per year. » India: The Indian case studies are by U. Sankar (The Economics of India’s Space Programme: An Exploratory Analysis, Oxford University Press, 2007) and by Y.S. Rajan, S. Chandrashekhar and Gopal Raj (An Evaluation of the Benefits of the Indian Remote Sensing Programme). The study by U. Sankar computed a benefit of Rs 71,350-107,700 million ($1.3-2 billion) against an expenditure of Rs 15,620 million ($289 million). The second study computed a benefit of Rs 31,550.6 to 61,572.5 million ($585 million to $1 billion) in 1997-98 against an expenditure of Rs 2,000 million ($37 million). This does not include benefits arising from location-based services, better surveys and applications in g-governance and in industry. In addition, the study estimates a further benefit in excess of Rs 120,000 million ($2 billion) from intangibles

like improved land cover estimation and avoidance of crop under-reporting which can have impact on the GDP but is not included in the above estimates. The applications areas

» Agriculture: This sector is a major beneficiary of the impact of geospatial technology. The Australian studies show that using GNSS and GIS, it is possible to optimise agricultural yield through controlled traffic farming and inter row sowing. The Allen study estimates a benefit of A$152-206 million ($155210 million) for agriculture, which can rise to A$1,005-1,357 million ($1-1.3 billion) by 2030 if a nationwide GNSS network is established. The ACIL Tasman study estimates that in the case of broad-acre agriculture, the impact on the GDP is currently about 1% and can jump to 1.25% through the additional usage for pests and disease management, improved climate forecasting, improved asset management and farm planning, natural resources management, and increase in yield.

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Economic Value of Geospatial Data

The Indian case studies have broken down agriculture-related benefits in great detail. Sankar estimates the benefits from horticultural development in wastelands to be Rs 13,000 million ($241-482 million. The Rajan team estimate the benefits for commercial crops like cotton and sugarcane to be Rs 334.8 ($6 million) and 18,944.8 million ($352 million), respectively. » Forestry: Inventory management, remote assessment of forest yield estimation, canopy health mapping and operations management are being used by both government and private industry. In Australia, this has resulted in forest managers being able to handle 50% larger area. In India, benefits such as cost savings in range management, stock mapping, and improving afforestation schemes could yield Rs 221.1 million ($4 million). Sankar estimates the cost saving due to improved mapping for Forest Working Plans alone to be Rs 11,860 million ($220 million). » Water Resources and irrigation: Sankar estimated the potential returns on the use of hydrogeological maps prepared from remotely sensed data for groundwater prospecting in India to be Rs 5,000-8,000 million ($93-149 million) due to cost savings arising from a better success rate in drilling. The Rajan team examined the use of geospatial data in irrigation in India and delineated the benefits as improved reclamation of salt-affected and water-logged areas, improved management, leading to less disparity between head and tail-end portions of irrigation commands and improved collection of water cess resulting in a benefit of Rs 5,260-18,060 million ($98-335 million). » Micro-watershed management: Use of geospatial technology in micro-watershed management in India for improvements in area under agriculture, increased area under agro-forestry, horticulture and increases in milk yield could earn benefits of over Rs 20,000 million ($371 million). Land reclamation provides a benefit of Rs 24,690 million ($458 million) through productivity increase. » Fisheries: In Australia, recording fishing tracks, fisheries management and habitat mapping resulted in a 4% productivity rise which can rise to 5.14% by 2030 as more improved techniques are adopted. In India use of remotely sensed data from Oceansat for determining potential fishing zones for pelagic fisheries has resulted in a benefit of Rs 16,350 million ($303.5 million) due to savings in fuel and higher fish catch.

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» Mining: The Allen Group study considered the use of GNSS network for accurate selective mining and autonomous haul trucks. Applications of precision GNSS in open cut mining are estimated to be delivering benefits between A$371 million ($379 million) and A$744 million ($761 million) annually. By 2030 this could rise to A$4,614-9,347 million ($4,724-9,570 million). The ACIL Tasman report for Australia estimates that in the coal industry, spatially enabled robotic mining was delivering around 37% improvements in productivity at around a 9% adoption rate in 2006-07. Use of the spatial information application ‘Millmapper’ in precious metals mining is estimated to have improved milling operations and generated costs savings of around 2.4% with an adoption rate of around 11%. Oil, gas and mineral production has increased by 3%, 5% and 7%, respectively, using spatial technologies. » Asset mapping: Precision GNSS technology can be used to accurately locate and map infrastructure assets such as pipelines, storm-water drains and underground cables. This is particularly useful for local government councils and utility companies that manage large networks of infrastructure assets. It can result in cost savings in undertaking the mapping task and also improve the efficiency of asset maintenance. According to the Allen report, “application of precision GNSS to asset mapping by utilities and local government Australia-wide is estimated to result in operating cost savings of A$435 million ($445 million) to A$870 million ($890 million) per annum and capital cost savings of up to A$2.3 billion ($2.4 billion) per annum”. The ACIL Tasman study estimates a productivity impact of 0.73% rising to 1.25% by 2030. » Construction and engineering: The two main applications of GNSS networks is site survey and machine guidance of earth moving equipment. The Allen report says “a more productive construction sector can also produce more physical capital or infrastructure than would otherwise be the case and this helps the industry deliver significant economic benefits across the economy”. These

benefits are estimated to be A$306-535 million ($313-547 million) and are mainly contributed by precision surveys that eliminate re-work and by automating machinery such as bulldozers, excavators and graders such that they conform to the site plan. Economy in the construction sector has a downstream benefit in other sectors dependent on it. By 2030 this could grow up to A$1,057-1,897 million ($1-1.9 billion). According to the ACIL Tasman report, modern surveying techniques have contributed 0.5% to the GDP. » Transportation and storage: Spatial technologies have helped improvements in logistics, route selection and itinerary planning, transport planning, vehicle tracking, traffic and congestion management, transport operations in rail and air and intelligent transport systems. In Australia, the productivity ranges from 1.4% now to 1.58% by 2030. » Communications: Spatial technologies for network planning and management and for postal routing has contributed 0.98% productivity gain in Australia. This can rise to 1.32% by 2030 with improved GNSS as well as better telecommunications systems marketing. » G-governance: Government activities cover a variety of areas like geosciences, natural resources and environmental management, defence and security, land administration, development approvals etc. In Australia, land information has shown nine times benefit. Even a 50% adoption rate can improve productivity by 0.34% and this can rise to 1.05% productivity improvement based on observed improvements in asset management, service delivery, infrastructure planning, defence, emergency services, risk management, biosecurity, compliance and regulation. » Geo-services : An Oxera study computed the revenues from providers of satellite imagery, digital maps, satellite positioning signals and navigation devices to be $150-270 billion globally. These services add value of about $100 billion per year. The added value comes from reduction in travel time through better navigation, saving of gasoline, competitive pricing of infrequently bought goods and services,

Figure Watch

$379-744mn Benefits from precision GNSS in open cut mining in Australia

2.4% Cost savings in precious metals mining in Australia

$458 mn land reclamation benefit in India

$93-149 mn potential returns on use of hydrogeological maps in India

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Geospatial Ecosystem | Economic Value of Geospatial Data

better irrigation of agricultural areas, faster emergency response and better emoluments to students trained in geo-services. » Disasters: A NASA study on Volcanic Cloud Data for Aviation Hazards focused on developing ash data in near real time for distribution by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to decision support systems that, in turn, provide the data to operational aviation agencies to manage flight operations and ensure safe flights. As an example, information on the ash cloud from the eruption at Eyjafjallajökul was used by the US VAAC to minimise revenue losses by $72 million. Had the London VAAC used the data, a further loss of $132 million could have been avoided. On a global scenario such information could help reduce losses by as much as $10 million a year.

Facts Fly

$72 mn cut in reveue losses by US aviation agencies from info on ash cloud from Eyjafjallajokul volcano

$20 mn potential revenue gain per annum from use of such info on a global scale

$132 mn potential revenue saved if the London aviation authorities had used this data

Negative factors The ACIL Tasman report lays importance on the availability of data. Data constraints are estimated to have reduced the direct productivity impacts in certain sectors by 5% to 15%. The areas of concern include availability of fundamental data, adequacy of spatial data infrastructure, access to data and pricing for access. An online survey on the use of spatial data to produce environmental reports conducted by the European Commission Joint Research Centre in 2009 investigated how easy it was to obtain the spatial data they needed to carry out environmental impact assessments and/or strategic environmental assessments. The main outcome of the survey is that practitioners still face problems in using spatial data for the preparation of environmental reports. Issues mainly relate to fi nding and accessing data of the quality needed for the purpose. As a consequence, there is a 15% increase in cost and time to produce such reports. A solution to the data problems could result in a saving in excess of €150 million ($197.5 million) per annum. Role of SDI A note generated by the US National Geospa-

tial Advisory Committee as late as December 2012 on ‘Toward a National Geospatial Strategy’ believes geospatial technology, information, and services can help address some of the major priorities of the nation. "The recommendations presented in this paper, including developing a nation geospatial policy, fully implementing the geospatial platform and portfolio management, and encouraging coordinated intergovernmental data initiatives, will lead toward a robust and forward-looking strategy to accelerate the development of the geospatial infrastructure," it notes. Governments are spending considerable effort and time on establishing SDIs. The expectation is that SDIs will contribute to efficient data collection, supply and usage by the public and private sectors. The findings of various studies do not bear out this expectation. The Tasman ACIL Australia study notes that “in summary, the first generation of spatial data infrastructure development in Australia has tended to be product based." While there have been attempts to break down silos and implement whole-of-government approaches, success has been at best partial. Hence, the Australian experience in developing a virtual spatial information infrastructure has meant that, rather than spatial data infrastructures being mechanisms for enhancing innovation and efficiencies in the supply chain, they have progressed only as far as being points at which spatial data that is discoverable can be accessed and retrieved. What is not ‘shared’ or communicated are needs, strategies, goals, value-added services and innovation, processes and operational objectives that are the context for the use of the spatial information. Solving these problems will result in a much better footprint of geospatial systems on the national GDPs. Prof. Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net (Th e author would like to acknowledge with thanks the inputs provided by Prof U. Sankar of Madras University and Gopal Raj of Th e Hindu.)

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Introducing the UltraCam Osprey oblique digital aerial sensor system. The UltraCam Osprey brings UltraCam performance and quality to your oblique aerial data acquisitions. This new UltraCam sensor system collects oblique imagery along with nadir PAN, RGB and NIR data all in a single pass and at image footprints of 13,450 (oblique) and 11,674 (PAN nadir) pixels across the flight strip. In doing so, the UltraCam Osprey provides you with a highly efficient and ideal system for a wide range of projects ranging from 3D urban mapping to classification to photogrammetric applications requiring high-geometric accuracy and superior radiometry. The UltraCam Osprey is fully supported in the UltraMap 3.0 workflow software to perform aerotriangulation (AT) and to generate high accuracy point clouds, DSM, DTM, and DSM/DTMorthos. Get details and see UltraCam Osprey image samples at www.UltraCamOsprey.com.

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UAS | Data Collection

Flying into civil space Civil authorities are increasingly taking to UAS-based mapping owing to flexibility in operation, lower costs and ease of use

AVs (Unmanned Aircraft/Aerial Vehicles), or as most civil aviation authorities now call them, UASs (Unmanned Aircraft Systems), are attracting a lot of attention lately from geospatial professionals. The common questions being: "What applications can I use it in? What benefits can it provide to my organisation or my clients (or data users)? And, how do I implement such a system in my organisation?" High-level system description & capabilities Typical UASs available today are equipped with wide-angle RGB cameras that fly about

100m above the ground. More options are being offered, including near-infrared photography. The typical system runs on electrical power and flights are between 30 and 60 minutes in length. Depending on the endurance and speed of the aircraft, typical coverage is around 1-1.5 sq km (100-150 hectare) at 5 cm GSD. UAS image processing is usually done using close-range photogrammetric techniques adapted to exposures taken in fl ight. Th is technique allows accurate construction of photogrammetric models which approach, and often surpass, the quality achievable with

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much more sophisticated manned aircraft systems fl ying at much higher altitudes. With these technologies, photomosaics, orthophotographs, digital terrain models (DTMs), digital surface models (DSMs) and point clouds can be established. Without ground control, the models have high, centimetrelevel internal consistency in X, Y and Z. With sparser ground control than is typically required for conventional photogrammetry, good-quality models registered to the ground control can be rapidly generated at much lower costs than most other methods of achieving similar results. UAS are not a panacea for all mapping issues. Satellites, high-altitude photogrammetry and LiDAR, and ground-based techniques all have their place. But geospatial data managers will be surprised to see how nagging problems — as well as some they didn’t recognise as problems — can be solved with UAS-based mapping. Benefits A big benefit of UASs is that it can be used on land and water, or on environmentally compromised sites. Low mobilisation and processing time means not having to wait until the ideal time for conventional photogrammetry. Because of much lower operating and data processing costs, UAS can be used to do updates where it was previously cost-prohibitive with other technologies. »Disaster management: Updates on flood maps and other types of baseline maps, when changes become apparent at ground level, can be quickly mapped with UAS. Further, there could be spot-checking of areas known to be of interest and updating in near realtime, short period visitation to get updates on progress of fire, flood or to monitor evacuation routes for traffic management. In addition, UASs are useful as a baseline for emergency response services. Better information, often obtained under conditions that would be impossible for other technologies, can improve quality of life of those affected and reduce negative economic impact of the

disaster. Emergency management benefits from near on-demand mapping updates. » Natural resource management: UASs help in broader and deeper assessment of yield potential before making lease or purchase investments in addition to giving a better outlook for accurate ROI determination for businesses. For governments, early and more complete information means better planning. » Flora and fauna: UASs can help in studying migration, territorial studies of fauna and flora ecosystems, monitoring endangered species, bird nest monitoring, environmental assessment, and detecting habitat stress. Forests are a major natural resource in many countries and regions. UASbased mapping that is project- or incidentfocused has a real place in safeguarding inventory. It helps in easy determination of the location(s) of where the pest or disease problem exists, often without actually visiting the infected location. For example, personnel can be directed to cut down trees using GPS locators, without having experts along to make a final evaluation. Once a “prescription” has been carried out, success can be monitored by closely spaced flights at little additional expense. » Mining: From multi-temporal monitoring and mapping of headwalls, to tailings and other areas disposed to subsidence or collapse, Left: orthophoto and DEM of a golf course; right: orthophoto and DEM of an open pit mine

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UAS | Data Collection

APPLICATION AREAS Archeological assessment surveys, detail mapping Government departments, academic and non-profit research organisations.

Mapping fauna & flora habitats, cataloging, inventorying species

Baseline mapping of natural and cultural features Land development, floodplain mapping, planning organisations, flood simulation and prevention.

Environmental scientists, biologists, zoologists, botanists, animal conservation groups, government departments for wildlife and habitat protection, private and public wildlife management organisations.

Crop monitoring Detect crop health, readiness for harvest, evaluate damage from various sources/ effects such as drought, flooding, pests etc.

Natural resource exploration, assessment and inventory.

Businesses involved in exploitation of natural resources; government agencies involved in preservation or leasing/sale of lands.

GIS, planimetric and topographic mapping Tax assessment, agriculture, soil types, land use,transportation, infrastructure inventory.

Forest inventory Encroachment mapping, unlawful logging and other land use of private or public resources; also useful for siting, planning and design of facilities.

Surveillance mapping of ports, airports and sensitive areas Transportation hub owners; agencies such as the customs, those monitoring drugs and firearms smuggling, immigration; security services

and slope and wall failures, UASs can be used extensively in the mining sector. Th is can help with prediction of hazardous events to prevent failures or to avoid exposing personnel to danger. Mining monitoring can be on a closely spaced schedule that far outperforms other technologies. » Construction: The development of large sites and engineering projects necessitates expensive ground-based surveys or aerial photogrammetry. With UAS-based mapping at regular intervals, managers can have a true picture of the site. Change detection software can be used to monitor changes on a regular schedule, with outputs to various types of reporting systems to monitor costs vs progress; cost vs quality, etc. Conclusion UAS-based mapping provides flexibility unsurpassed by other technologies. Portable equipment that can function in a wider variety of adverse weather means

Surface mining exploration, assessment and inventory Mining and gravel companies, dredging companies, safety and environmental monitoring agencies

Surveys for quality assurance of construction projects such as roads and railroads. Project owners; consulting engineers, architects and surveyors; construction companies and their sub-contractors; government agencies.

Topographic mapping; construction progress, land development mapping Consultants, owners, government agencies involved in monitoring, construction companies and their sub-contractors.

Post-disaster mapping of focus areas for assistance Utilities, roads and transportation agencies, emergency food, water and shelter distribution, route planning for ingress and egress, hazard and debris removal planning etc.

that mapping can be done closer to the time of need. Because mobilisation and flight cycles are short, flights can be done hourly or more frequently in urgent situations such as floodwater or fire tracking. Cloud cover is rarely a problem as the UAS flies under the clouds. In fact, in some parts of the world, it is considered the only mapping tool for aerial mapping as the weather, availability of aircraft, other equipment and trained personnel rarely coincide to allow opportunities for conventional aerial mapping. When focused areas need to be mapped with timely generation of data products under conditions — weather, hazard limitations, or closely spaced visitations — that test the capabilities of other tools, the selection and successful use of UAS in such situations is only limited by the solution-provider’s creativity. Dr Peter Cosyn, Site Manager and Director (R&D), Gatewing, a Trimble Company. info@gatewing.com

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Creating your own map from maps published by other users is just one of many ways to take advantage of the rich collection of data and resources ArcGIS Online makes available to you. SM

Welcome to the new frontier in geographic information systems.

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Case Study | UAS for Maritime Security

Million dollar baby Universities in UK, France and the Netherlands are working together with government agencies and market players on a multi-million dollar project developing a remotely piloted aircraft system for special tasks at sea

t is important to monitor movements and activities of vessels in maritime areas, especially in the Channel and Southern North-Sea. So far, police, port authorities and environmental organisations have used manned aircraft, radar systems and automatic buoys to collect these data. A new way of collecting data is the use of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS). The low-cost and easily deployable RPAS can respond rapidly to collect (geospatial) data on an expected or unexpected event. State organisations recognised the feasibility of being able to operate more efficiently with unmanned aircraft, but did not know in advance which precise type of RPAS would be suitable for which application. The €3.7-million 3i project provides them with insight into the possibilities of RPAS for their business operations. What is 3i? 3i stands for ‘Integrated’ Coastal Zone Management via ‘Increased’ Situational Awareness through ‘Innovations’ on Unmanned Aircraft

Example of collected data; aerial overview with sectors

Systems. In other words: increasing maritime safety by deploying specially equipped RPAS. Four universities in England, France and the Netherlands — University of Technology Delft, University of Southampton, Telecom Bretagne and Enstra Bretagne — are working together with government agencies and market players on the 3i project, which is also looking at the joint development of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) suitable for special tasks at sea. UK’s Kent Police and France’s Technopôle Brest-Iroise and Deev Interaction SAS are among those involved in the project. There are a number of players from The Netherlands — REWIN West-Brabant, ROC West-Brabant/Aircraft Maintenance and Training school, Digital and Media Solutions, Politie Rotterdam Rijnmond, Havenbedrijf Rotterdam and Geo Infra. European grant project Interreg 2Seas has contributed almost 2 million euros to the project that runs until September 2014. The other part of the budget is contributed by the partners. The goal of the project is to gain practical knowledge on RPAS operations for end users and to develop RPAS business opportunities for European SMEs. It also looks to create an open platform for research and communication in the use of RPAS for in maritime data collection. Application scenarios The 3i project looks to develop application scenarios for use at sea. As Paul de Kruijf, innovation broker of Police Rotterdam-Rijnmond region, explains, it is very important for the department to monitor the berths of vessels as well as super-

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The prototype on display at the Interreg annual event 2Seas

vise the coastal lines. To survey anchorages or check dumping, the department needs to determine if an aircraft is able to fly for half an hour or for four hours or if it is capable of flying 2 km or 20 km off the coast. These needs resulted in a set of functional requirements regarding frame, fuel volume, engine, geospatial data communication and camera/sensor. The four universities which are part of the project translate all the functional demands into a technical design. Prototype Owing to lack of clarity on which existing aircraft system satisfied the requirements, the project partners started developing their own aircraft. The two-engine prototype, produced by 3D-printing technology, was first displayed at the Annual Interreg Event in March, where it attracted much attention. The collaboration partners are now preparing for demonstrations. The Port of Rotterdam Authorities and Politie Rotterdam are working on the details for a demonstration on the coast by the Dutch Tweede Maasvlakte area. Demonstrations will follow in France and England. Geo-Airflight “In August 2012, we completed our ‘Geo-Airflight’ pilot commissioned by PUMA (the joint venture of two contractors to expand the port of Rotterdam),” says Walter Broeders of Dutch civil engineering company Geo Infra, one of the associated partners of the 3i. RPAS collected data on elevation models. These were compared with the existing progress elevations models of PUMA. The final results (3 Digital Elevation Models) were extensively reviewed and tested by PUMA. Partly due to the huge amount of baseline monitoring, various models were made, which gave insight

into the accuracy of the elevation models. “The pilot project has been completed. Nowadays, the Geo-Airflight is used regularly to map areas that can not be measured in the usual way. We are very glad we can use our knowledge and experience in this 3i project,” adds Broeders. Expansion The project partners see the collaboration as a mini version of the Airbus. “Developers generally use an existing aircraft. We turned this round and started with the client requirements. What data do you need? How do we meet the functional requirement? How can we translate this into a technical design so that the development is ‘fit for purpose’?” explains Bart Remes, from MAVLAB TU Delft. And the fact that four universities are collaborating on one objective is also quite unique. The 3i project is also incorporating many new technologies, such as touch-table operation and open-source operating-system software. Remes urges businesses to participate in the seminars for knowledge sharing. Suppliers of software, cameras, sensors or other parts are also encouraged to apply since this is an open innovation project and not bound to a product or a manufacturer. Communicating the results of the 3i project is important. According to Remes, the RPAS sector has a collective assignment — to gain public acceptance as well as market development of this new technology for collection data. Stefan van Seters, Business Developer, REWIN West-Brabant, Breda, The Netherlands, s.vanseters@rewin.nl Jarno de Jong, Technical Business Manager & Civil 3D Specialist, Geo Infra, Oud-Gastel, The Netherlands

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Case Study | UAS in Plantations

Monitoring crops A low-cost UAS-based Visible-Near Infrared imaging system helps detect latent stages of deadly fungal infection in Malaysian plantations

alaysia produces up to 18 million tonnes of palm oil annually, with plantations covering more than 4 million hectares of land. Basal stem rot (BSR) or Ganoderma fungal infection is a catastrophic disease in oil palm plantations. Th is disease could reduce up to 80% oil palm productivity every year. The infection disrupts distribution of water and nutrients in the trees, resulting in appearance of specific foliar symptoms such as yellowing and necrosis leaves, unopened spears, small canopy and skirt-like shape of crown. The only effective way to prevent the spread of this disease is by removing the infected trees. Nowadays, Ganoderma detection in oil palm plantations is well defi ned by visually detecting lesions and fungus fruiting bodies (mushrooms) on the infected trunks. However,

Visible image showing the affected oil palm at severity level of G2 and G3

visual monitoring in the field is time consuming and expensive at early stages. The need for rapid, accurate and non-destructive method for detection of BSR is becoming crucial. UAVs to the rescue Quantitative remote sensing application requires a combination of high spatial and temporal resolution satellite sensors, which are very costly and most available combinations do not fit the ideal requirement. Alternatives based on manned airborne platforms could provide high spatial resolution and short revisit time, but their use is also limited by their high operational costs. Remote sensing sensors placed on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) as they are more popularly known as, could provide low-cost approach to meet the critical requirements of spatial and temporal resolutions. A low-cost UAV-based Visible-Near Infrared (VIS-NIR) imaging system was developed to detect Ganoderma at latent stages of the disease, before it can be visibly detected. Methodology Rotary six wing UAV (Hexacopter) and CropCam fi xed wing UAV were chosen to fly over the Universiti Putra Malaysia and Sime Darby oil palm plantations located in Banting, Selangor. The UAVs were mounted with Canon PowerShot SD 780 IS digital camera (visible sensor) and Tetracam ADC (Near Infrared sensor). The flight altitude was selected depending on the study area to cover a camera field of view (FOV), and the desired spatial resolution. The average flight height was 100 m yielding 10-cm ground resolution imagery. The raw images were stored on individual

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compact flash cards installed in the camera. Image triggering was activated from the ground control station when the UAV reached the desired study site. Photogrammetric techniques were required to register the framebased imagery to map coordinates. Each digital frame comes with position, altitude and timing information allowing for the generation of large mosaics. The main limitations encountered for these platforms were the endurance (15-30 min) and the low flight speed (30-60 km/h), limiting the productivity to 70 - 250 hectares per flight. On top of that, foliar samples from healthy (G0), slightly damaged (G1), moderately damaged (G2) and heavily damaged (G3) oil palm trees (15-year-old) were collected for field and laboratory spectral measurements using hyperspectral handheld portable ASD field spectroradiometer (FieldSpec HandHeld).

Field specification of Rotary six-wing UAV (Hexacopter)

Field specification of CropCam fixed wing UAV

• Flight duration: 15 minutes

• Flight duration: 30 minutes

• Coverage : 70 ha per flight

• Coverage : 250 hectares per flight

• Available payload: 800 g

• Available payload: 600 g

• Altitude: 10-500m above ground

• Altitude: 100 – 700 m

• Windspeed : Below 15 knots

• Windspeed :Below 25 knots

CropCam

Result Results from the samples’ spectral reflectance showed that the severities of level G2 and G3 were easily distinguished compared to level G1. Th is is also proven by the image captured by UAV-based VIS-NIR imaging. Special vegetation indices were calculated using the three bands of the multispectral camera and generally agreed, yielding a promising RMSE. As for the detection of level G1, thermal sensor will be used in the next campaign. Conclusions and future work UAV system enables data collection in small and inaccessible area, especially for crop monitoring. From the foregoing, it is proven that several sensors can be successfully flown aboard small-scale UAV platform. Application of UAV-based VIS-NIR imaging technique along with development of robust statistical models of discrimination has been proven to provide more efficient and timely management of BSR in oil palm plantation. Future work will include developing thermal infrared imaging capability and hyperspectral remote sensing missions.

Hexacopter

Shattri Mansor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia shattri@eng.upm.edu.my (The author would like to thank Siti Hajar and Normahani of Sime Darby Research Sdn Bhd for the in-situ measurements. Field spectroradiometer measurements were assisted by Kay of TSKay Technology Sdn Bhd. Wong (Jurupro Sdn Bhd), Zailani, Hermi and Azmi are acknowledged for the technical support in operating the UAVs for the airborne campaigns.)

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Case Study | UAS in Fire Fighting

Beating the heat A government-funded research project in Germany looks into the possible use of miniature UAVs by public authorities such as the police, fire and emergency services

ir Shield was a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the field of ‘civilian safety research’ which relates to the protection of sensitive infrastructures and general population from manmade threats and natural disasters. The project, taken up over 2001-11, proposed the use of autonomous flying robots for reconnaissance purpose and aiding in the forecasting and prevention of emergency situations. The mobile MUAV (miniature unmanned aerial vehicles) equipped with lightweight sensors were to collect relevant data/information from the incident scene, which would be processed into tangible and actionable information. Siegen-based VTOL UAV manufacturer microdrones was a partner in the project. The idea was to relay this information, represented as the visual and/or spatial landscape of the incident scene, to the relevant authority, which was expected to enhance their mission management capabilities and decision process. Ground situation One of the emerging challenges in managing situations such as fire or gas leakages is the combating and containment of the disaster event. This can be achieved efficiently if the disaster managers are provided with timely and detailed information of the situation not only at ground level but also

at greater heights. The project was mandated to provide critical data by means of aerial surveillance with the use of UAVs (or UAS)of the disaster area and deliver important information which would then be analysed to devise and implement effective and appropriate action plans. Fire brigade personnel in Germany are currently provided with special handheld devices that can only measure the concentration of different pollutants at ground level but are unable to survey and quantify the level of contamination carried in the atmosphere by winds and/or ascending columns of smoke. Such a measurement is critical to the safety of outlying communities that could be affected by these aerial pollutants. A consortium under the aegis of AirShield comprising three industrial partners, five research institutions and one end-user was formed. The Communication Networks Institute at TU Dortmund was coordinator for the project. Aims & objectives The essential challenges can be summarised: • MUAV platform: High load, long hours of operation, stability in bad weather situations • Lightweight sensors: Minimum weight-high measurement accuracy despite miniaturisation of the measurement instruments • Communication and operation: High reliability of the communication system, small delay for the

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transfer of control information, high data rate for the transfer of information in real time • Geoinformation and decision support: Clear representation of the propagation forecast, inclusion of geographic data and weather forecasts Solution & project results A three-staged solution approach was chosen for the realisation of the AirShield project. The first stage contained the “flying units” consisting of flying robots and gas measurement devices. These flying units moved on predefined routes along the concentration gradient of the aerosol and sent the acquired measurement data to the ground station at regular time intervals. The second stage was the invocation of the geo-decision support system located on ground inside the mission control centre. Here, the data received from the drones were evaluated, linked to topological and geographical information and fi nally presented to the user in a tangible descriptive form. The connection between the first two stages was characterised by a highly reliable communication system. On one hand this consisted of the so-called ‘inter MUAV links’ between the individual flying robots of a swarm, while on the other hand there were ‘MUAV to ground station links’, which guaranteed the communication of the swarm with the mission control centre. For sustaining both kinds of communication, stateof-the-art procedures and processes were used. Practical test The validation of the AirShield system under conditions similar to a real-life mission was the goal of an elaborate test. A delegation of the AirShield team travelled to the Rotterdam International Safety Center, a training ground located on the far edges of the Rotterdam harbour. Because of the remote location of the site it was possible to light up even large fi res with significant smoke emissions without bothering or endangering residents. For the fi rst time the opportunity arose to emulate major incidents and to evaluate the gaseous pollution sensors and the performance of MUAVs under influence of intense smoke and heat.

One aspect of the test was to check the real-time transmission of measurement data coming from the individual sensors to the embedded PC system in the air, down to the communication server on the ground and fi nally reaching the user interface. Another key aspect was to assess the specific effects of heat stress on the electronic components of the fl ight platform. For these tests, a total of three bins with surface areas of one, five and nine square metres were fi lled with a liquid combustible and lit up. The burning time of each test was between two and five minutes. Two of the four vehicles that usually constitute the AirShield swarm were used for test fl ights, one of which had a special suction pump to ingest sample gas from atop of the rotor blade plane. Results The test proved that the AirShield system is in large parts capable of accomplishing the tasks

of the NBC-Scout directly alongside the smoke cloud. In proximity to the cloud, substantially heightened concentrations of CO and H2S were measured as well as a significant decrease of the oxygen level. The results could be seen in realtime on the system’s graphic user interface. Microdrones’s sb4-1200 was found to be the only VTOL MUAV in its class to have officially passed a fire test and was declared reliable VTOL MUAV for the use of public authorities. Products and services used for the project were a GfG Microtector II G460, custom-built ARM microcomputer with mission control, Gumstix microcomputer with mesh network communication control and AirShield ground system. Courtesy: AirShield Project

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Case Study | UAS in Mine Survey

Mapping mines

safely & quickly A New Caledonia mine uses UAS as a safer, faster and less expensive alternative to traditional surveying and mapping

or 140 years, nickel mining has played a critical role in the economy of New Caledonia, an archipelago nation in the South Pacific Ocean. With nearly one-quarter of the world’s known nickel resources, New Caledonia relies on the mining of nickel ore and ferronickel to account for 95% of its exports. In modern times, surveying has become an important — although expensive, time-consuming and sometimes dangerous — part of mining activities on the island. Throughout the year, operators periodically need timely and accurate surveys to optimise their extraction tasks. As the mining operations advance lower on the mountains and closer to delicate farm lands and coastal harbours, the New Caledonia government agency that regulates mining (DIMENC) asks for regular delivery of updated maps to closely monitor the impact on Grande Terre’s other natural resources. In 2012, AB Concept, a technical consulting firm, teamed up with SYPOS, a surveying solutions distributor in the region, to introduce Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to the local mining industry as a safer, faster and less expensive alternative to

3D model of the pit mine developed from images taken by the UAS. The work was completed faster and at lower cost than with conventional airborne techniques

traditional surveying and mapping. The Gatewing X100 UAS used in the first project met or exceeded all expectations. The appeal of UAS AB Concept delivers a full line of mapping capabilities to the entire life cycle of a mining operation from initial exploration and excavation to environmental remediation. For topographic survey projects, its crews use traditional GPS/GNSS equipment. Time-consuming by nature, these field surveys take even longer in an active pit mine due to safety considerations when crews work on the notably steep slopes. Some survey and mapping companies have access to aircraft from which both imagery and LiDAR data are collected, ultimately generating planimetrics, orthophotography, digital elevation models and volumetric calculations. Mine operators typically request for 1:1,000 or 1:2,000 scale orthophotos for planning purposes. Due to the rapidly changing topographic conditions in the mines, surveying and mapping companies face the constant challenge of collecting their raw data, processing it and delivering end products to mine operators and government regulators before the information is out of date. SYPOS’s Gatewing X100 UAS includes the aircraft (called the ‘Wing’), launcher, remote controller, image processing software, and camera. Operating at a lower altitude than an airplane, the digital camera offers horizontal and vertical photogrammetric accuracies of 5 cm and 10 cm, respectively. And the software is capable of generating multiple mapping products, including

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orthophotos, digital surface models, digital terrain models and planimetric maps. Compared to ground surveys, AB Concept saw crew safety as an immediate benefit since the UAS would fly over the notoriously steep cliffs in the pit mines. Speed was the other anticipated advantage. In good weather, flights could be completed in a day with the image data downloaded for processing immediately after landing. Mapping with Gatewing SYPOS and AB Concept worked closely on the first commercial mapping project in New Caledonia at an open pit operation where a valuable nickel ore called garnierite is mined. AB Concept was contracted to map a garnierite mine operation covering 200 hectares, putting it in the category of a medium-sized excavation site. Prior to the flight, personnel from the two companies visited the mine to select take-off and landing points and note vertical flight obstacles. They also sketched out a flight pattern for the UAS to follow in covering the complete site. Field crews then marked and surveyed 11 ground control points throughout the operation. Flight planning software was used to create the pattern flown by the UAS. Since the total mine area would be covered in several flights, the software calculated the best pattern of flight lines for each one. Less than a week after receiving the purchase order for the project, the team was onsite at the garnierite mine for the first commercial collection. After being launched from a sling-shot-like device on the ground, the Wing automatically manoeuvres to its correct altitude, 150 meters in this case, and to the start point for its flight plan. From there, the Wing became autonomous, flying the programmed pattern and collecting highresolution imagery as planned. The Gatewing craft covered about 100 hectares per flight and completed up to four flights in a day. A total of three flights were needed to map the entire mine site. The Wing returned to its designated landing point after each flight. Data was downloaded from the onboard camera to the image processing software called Stretchout. Shortly after the flights, AB Concept delivered a high-resolution

AB Concept personnel prepare the Gatewing system. The autonomous aircraft followed programmed instructions to collect images for photogrammetry and digital mapping of the mine

orthophoto of the entire site at +/- 5 cm resolution, DSM, DTM and planimetric vector map. The vectors pinpointed locations of roads, water features, and the tops and bottoms of main slopes in the mine. The cost of the DEMs was one quarter compared to what it would have been for a survey crew and airplane. More importantly, the GNSSequipped team would have surveyed only 5 hectares per day compared to 400 hectares for the UAS. The spatial resolution and accuracy of the orthophotos exceeded that of imagery captured with a regular airplane. The garnierite mine operator has already asked AB Concept to bring the Gatewing X100 UAS back for the next surveying and mapping project at the site. In addition, the companies are now gearing up to bid for other open pit mine mapping projects in the region. Jean-Marc Colette, Director of Sypos SARL , New Caledonia. jcolette@sypos.nc JosĂŠ Bouvier, Co-Director, AB Concept, New Caledonia. abconcept@canl.nc

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Case Study | UAS in Disaster Management

Real-time videos for emergency relief Taking disaster management to the next level, a Taiwanese company embedded GIS layers into real-time UAV videos for improved analysis

n the recent years, the world has seen many natural disasters due to climate change, making applications of disaster mitigation and relief increasingly important. UAS applications have always been based on monitoring and mapping. Today, installing cameras on UAS to get live videos is considered insufficient. Users now demand more applications, such as real-time integration with geo-data and location maps, or integration of UAS full motion live video with 3D GIS server. These new applications will enable authorities to compare the situation on site, prior and post disaster. These features are becoming essential for disaster prevention and rescue systems. One of the most impor-

How it works

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tant components of modern UAS is how to let real-time video become one of GIS layers and let the system provide query and analysis applications. First step Th ree years ago, Water Resources Agency in Taiwan looked for a GIS company to integrate UAS and PilotGaea Universe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a Web 3D GIS software â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to develop real-time rendering of UAS full motion video on 3D GIS platform with fl ight position and orientation system. At the beginning, the system provides visual comparison by split- display of UAV real-time video and 3D GIS simulated landscape. Th is was the fi rst step application in disaster prevention. A year later, at the request of the academia Sonica in Taiwan to allow users to freely operate the viewport on the web 3D GIS system, UAS fl ight simulation system began coverage of synchronised video image displayed on the system. Th rough the integration of UAV full motion video images and the features of 3D GIS, users were able to watch different viewports to observe sync images. By incorporating PilotGaea GISDK 3D, the system allows real-time rendering of UAV full motion video on 3D GIS platform with fl ight position and orientation. Th is is not only UAV fl ight simulations, but also a flexible fl ight information display system, allowing the overlaying of UAS video with GIS simulated landscape and GIS data and in turn making it possible to perform instant object attribute query, spatial analysis, and strategic decisions during emergency situations.

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Multi-view to observe real-time UAS video and tracing of location and direction of UAS

Benefits to the people In this case study, PilotGaea Technologies used the characteristics of GIS layers overlay, rendering UAS camera and terrain in the scene. Besides marking the image location, it can also be used to do real-time query, analysis and observing certain area of interest. For instance, when disaster occurs, the system will observe and mark the location where people need to be saved. Rescue team will go to the marked location on the map for the rescue operations. Th is is the fi rst system to provide query feature and disaster assessment and is the best decision-support system with UAS. It also attracted the attention of the authorities of the Central Academy of Military Studies. Last year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences sophisticated the system further and invited PilotGaea and several related manufacturers to form a coalition. Benefits to the government The most effective outcome of integrating UAS and 3D GIS platform is when the system overlays vector geo-data with attributes and the live video images become one of the layers. The system instantly becomes the most immediate disaster decision analysis support system

Overlaying GIS vector data (e.g. networks, landmarks) on UAS video and make queries

Synchronous images displayed with 3D GIS platform

because these layers and attributes can be used to do both, the query and the analysis. Future prospects Although Taiwan does not frequently need UAV instant images for disaster relief, this emergency operations system gained high degree of recognition by the government. It shall be a powerful system for disaster relief, especially against typhoons which strike Taiwan every year. Tony Li, Sales Director, PilotGaea Technologies, Taiwan tony.li@pilotgaea.com.tw

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Article | Name

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Case Study | UAS in Antarctica

At the Extreme Edge Battling sub-zero temperature and fierce wind speed, an unmanned aircraft system helps meteorological research in the harshest environs of Antarctica An Aerosonde aircraft flying at low altitude during its 2012 Antarctic deployment

nmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are well suited for both military and non-military applications deemed too “dull, dirty or dangerous” for manned assets. But how do UAS perform in some of the harshest conditions ? Where no man dares AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, has sent its Aerosonde Small UAS and crew members into the frigid climate of Antarctica twice to support meteorological research by the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. The University of Colorado team is studying Antarctic polynyas, areas of open water surrounded by sea ice. The most recent deployment took place in late 2012. Each Aerosonde aircraft was equipped to measure pressure, temperature, relative humidity, winds, net radiation, surface temperature and ice thickness. The crew directed the aircraft through low-level flights around 300 feet above the water’s surface to measure wind speed, temperature and moisture in an area called Terra Nova Bay. This site was chosen because of the particularly strong coastal katabatic winds present there, as well as its wide expanse of polynyas. Launching from an ice runway, the aircraft conducted beyond-line-of-site operations of up to 18 hours, more than 310 miles or 500 km from the launch site, in temperatures as low as minus 37 degrees Celsius and winds up to 81 miles per hour. Altogether, the aircraft logged 168 flight

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hours in these unfavorable conditions. In 2009, a six-week exploration of the katabatic winds present on the coast of Antarctica allowed researchers to generate detailed, 3-D maps to help study their relationship to sea ice formation. Apart from meteorological instruments to measure pressure, temperature, relative humidity, winds, net radiation, surface temperature and ice thickness, AAI also integrated satellite communications equipment onto the Aerosonde aircraft to enable beyond-line-of-sight aircraft control. Flying with the hurricane As part of its previous work with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an Aerosonde aircraft flew within Hurricane Noel in November 2007, the first unmanned aircraft to explore a hurricane’s eye and eye wall. The 17-hour, 27-minute flight duration was a record for unmanned aircraft hurricane missions, and the aircraft gathered data from as low as 300 feet above the ocean’s surface during the weather event. An earlier Aerosonde configuration was the first unmanned aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1998. The aircraft successfully completed a 2,000-mile, 26-hour flight, landing in a grass field in Scotland after taking off from Bell Island, Newfoundland. In addition to being the first trans-Atlantic flight by an unmanned airplane, the 29-pound aircraft became the smallest aircraft of any kind to cross the Atlantic. David Phillips, Vice President, AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Geospatial World | May 2013

5/6/2013 9:26:14 PM

Case Study | UAS in Police Investigations

Assisting the cops Canadian Mounted Police use unmanned aircraft systems to conduct aerial photography for reconstruction of crime and accident scenes

olice accident reconstructionists are required to conduct a thorough investigation in case of serious motor vehicle accidents, covering all aspects of the incidents to determine the cause and effect. This requires that the investigator documents the entire scene, including obtaining measurements and specific placement/ location of vehicles, victims and objects involved. It is also best if a record of any skid marks and road conditions can be recorded. The more detail is obtained, the more complete and accurate the analysis of the event will be. It is crucial that all interested parties are provided with an accurate analysis of the actual sequence of events. Often detailed documentation of such scenes take in excess of 6 hours to complete the site and involve several investigators and support personnel. To provide the best analysis of these types of accidents, Doug Green, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police “F” Division Forensic Collision Reconstructionist, utilised a remote-controlled helicopter equipped with a digital still camera to conduct aerial photography of the scene. When utilised with other technologies, Green was able to obtain accurate measurements from the photographs, and conduct a more in-depth analysis of the scene. This allowed him to present a complete visual representation of events. Traditionally, most investigations of this nature are conducted solely at ground level. But utilising UAS such as the Draganflyer X6 remote controlled helicopter system, Green has been able to investigate various types of scenes obtaining aerial perspectives and overall views. Previously, the resources required to obtain these views were too costly or not readily available to him. In 2012, Greene logged 99 missions with a total accumulated flight time of 11 hours. These included 13 traffic collision scenes, six crime scenes, two

A Draganflyer X6 remote controlled helicopter flies over an accident scene

search scenes, and one emergency response team tactical scene with the X6. With the portability and versatility of the Draganfl yer X6, photographs were easily obtained of almost any scene. In addition, live video allowed the investigator to see the kind and quality of photographs being taken to ensure requirements were met. The ability to obtain aerial photographs reduced the time spent documenting the crime/accident scene. The high quality of the imagining allowed for continued and further analysis of the scene without risk of the scene being altered. There are certain limitations associated with the use of remote controlled aerial systems. These include the capabilities of the aircraft and pilots, weather conditions and regulations involving the use of airspace. Most countries consider the operation of any type of unmanned aircraft for this type of application to be “commercial use” and require the agency and pilot to conform to strict regulations and licensing protocols. Kevin Lauscher, Rtd. Staff Sergeant, Draganfly Innovations, Sales &Training

Geospatial World | May 2013

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5/6/2013 9:47:16 PM

Case Study | UAS for Wildlife Monitoring

Protecting endangered species Authorities in India look to using UAS for protecting wildlife population in reserve forests Checking on the UAV before test flights

pplication of modern tools and techniques have long been integral part of wildlife research and management, the most popular being the wireless communication used by the forest officials on regular basis and telemetry technology. Given that wildlife populations move beyond the protected boundaries especially the large animals such as tiger, elephant and rhino and that many of these animals are target of poachers, advanced sophisticated technological solutions are required. In this context, aerial vehicles (both manned and unmanned) have been used in the Western countries for surveillance, population monitoring and crisis management. In India, manned aerial vehicles have been used occasionally for animal count and forest mapping. However, these tools are yet to be fully integrated in the forest management as a part of regular strategies, although they potentially offer effective solutions. Recently, deployment of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) was found successful and effective in monitoring rhinos in Namibia. This reinforced the dialogue to further explore the possibility of deploying UAS in India. Saving tiger population in India Subsequently, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), with the support of the World Wide

Fund-International (WWF), undertook a test flight of a UAS in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve to monitor wildlife movement and prevent poaching. It was a small aircraft with 1.2m long and 1.8m wingspan with total weight of 3kg. It was powered by rechargeable battery that could support flying for one hour at a rate of 30km/hour. It carried still and video camera with autopilot and live video option. It was a basic miniature version and a fully sophisticated model would be tested later upon the approval of Ministry of Defence as there are certain regulations to be followed. Results The test flight was successful and the Institute is now working towards enabling this as an important tool in the hand of forest managers and wildlife biologists in the country. The Institute is also simultaneously working with other technologists to integrate various technological options in the UAS. Use of this technology in forest and wildlife management will herald a remarkable change in the country, offering enhanced effectiveness in dealing with variety of management and conservation issues in the country. Dr K. Ramesh, Scientist & Coordinator of UAV Programme, Wildlife Institute of India ramesh@wii.gov.in

Geospatial World | May 2013

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5/7/2013 11:29:30 AM

Case Study | UAS in Agriculture

Helping businesses sow new seeds Small UAS can provide low-cost, real-time

anada-based Isis Geomatics, geospatial aerial imagery provider,, needed a solution that could operate reliably in challenging wind and weather conditions, was easy-to-use, and would be suitable for a broad range of applications and industries, such as agriculture, oil and gas, GIS and infrastructure inspection. After exploring several possibilities, Isis Geomatics zeroed in on the Aeryon Scout. Designed to be flown anywhere, anytime, the Aeryon Scout can be used without extensive training in a wide variety of scenarios. The Aeryon Scout can provide precision agriculture services for high value crops, pipeline inspection and topographical mapping. Since its purchase of Aeryon Scout in June 2012, Isis Geomatics has logged more than 500km (310.7 miles) and 40+ hours of fl ight time. The Problem Perry Produce needed timely, high-resolution remote sensing data to aid in its potato production. To date, traditional aerial and satellite imagery were the only options to collect the data, but neither could provide the spatial and temporal resolution needed by the customer. This provided an opportunity for them to be part of a pilot project with Isis Geomatics to assess and develop a process for collecting high resolution data using a small UAV. Experimental design • Sensor selection: The required data was to be presented as a Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Isis Geomatics determined that red and near-infrared bands were needed to create the NDVI. The solution that they ultimately selected would need to include a standard RGB sensor and a near-infrared sensor to capture the data for the project. • Image capture: After extensive research,

Geospatial World | May 2013

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aerial imagery and surveys with a focus on agriculture and oil & gas sectors Isis purchased an Aeryon Scout small UAS to acquire aerial imagery. The platform is very reliable, stable and intuitive for mission planning, which was a “must have” for this research and development project. Results Using the Scout small UAS with the Aeryon Photo3S high resolution colour camera and Aeryon Photo3S-NIR near-infrared camera, Isis was able to collect weekly imagery over a variable rate irrigation potato field near Lethbridge, Alberta. Sampling was also done, on the ground during the imaging process, using scientific instruments which measure chlorophyll, leaf area, and per cent cover of the potato plants. These in-situ measurements were critical in relating the information from the imagery to the actual physical and chemical processes in the plants on the ground. Using this information Isis was able to provide the end users (grower, agronomist, irrigation OEM) with ultra-high resolution NDVI maps of the potato fields on a weekly basis. The net effect was an increase in average yield by 20% and a cost reduction of inputs by 20% netting the grower a 40% total gain. “The Aeryon Scout is our business,” says Owen Brown, founder, Isis Geomatics. “It offers us a reliable, easy-to-use method of acquiring data and imagery and providing that data back to our clients in a useable, valuable format.” “The Scout allows us to focus on our business rather than the platform. Other platforms were not as reliable, functional or easy-to-use,” notes Stephen Myshak, co-founder, Isis Geomatics. Aeryon Labs

Variable rate potato field imagery at 15cm/pixel

Red and yellow areas on the map need attention, while blue and purple areas are healthy and productive

Geospatial World | May 2013

5/7/2013 11:31:46 AM

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