Interview: Michael T. Jones Chief Technology Advocate, Google | P. 44 Y o u r
G e o s p a t i a l
SPECIAL FOCUS: HEALTH CARE Healthy, Wealthy & GIS | P. 52 I n d u s t r y
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Inside...
November 2013 • Vol 4 • Issue 4 Special Focus: Health Care
Cover Story: Cartography
52 Healthy, wealthy and GIS
22 Changing maps to map changes
Mushahid M. Khan
Prof Arup Dasgupta
31 How three-dimensional is 3D cartography?
Case Studies 60 Google Search to locate and map flu
Prof Manfred F. Buchroithner
61 GIS revolutionises health service delivery
34 The Atlas of experience Dr Corné P.J.M. van Elzakker
62 Layered maps, real-time data to fight blindness
41 Cartography in the age of location D.R. Fraser Taylor
48 User-centred approach is the key
64 Live by the sea, reap more health benefits
Dr Georg Gartner
65 Alberta rides on CAD & mobile for health care
Interview 44 Michael T. Jones,
Interview
Chief Technology Advocate, Google
68 Scott Ramage, CEO & Chairman, AAM Group 07 Editorial 08 News 16 ProductWatch 72 Picture This 73 Events
Advisory Board
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.
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Publications Team Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss Editor — Agriculture Mark Noort Editor — Latin America (Honorary) Tania Maria Sausen Editor — Geospatial World Weekly (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Executive Editor Bhanu Rekha Deputy Executive Editor Anusuya Datta Product Manager Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Sr Asst Editor Mushahid M Khan Sub-Editor Ridhima Kumar Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Amit Shahi
Tourism services on Bhuvan
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EditorSpeak
Cartography & GIS: When the twain met Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net
I
s GIS killing cartography? GIS simulates mapmaking; provides a dynamic, user-centric view of the world; provides perspectives from the ground, 3D and even 4D; works on new display devices, and is stimulated by digital technology. GIS has everything to do with digital and geography. So is it time to write the epitaph of cartography? Not yet! Cartography has rebounded with vigour using the same technologies that GIS uses and more. GIS needs cartography and visualisation to present its analysed results in a meaningful manner. GIS needs inputs from various data sources like sensors, survey instruments, imagery and GPS, and these have to be cartographically registered to the system of latitudes and longitudes which had been developed by Ptolemy in the 2nd Century and revised from time to time. On the other hand, cartography has gained from the democratisation of GIS and has become accessible to the lay person. Thus GIS and cartography are in a symbiotic relationship; one cannot survive without the other. Cartography was always about communicating vast geographical facts and figures through graphical representation. The earliest cartographic representations were stone carvings; parchment and paper were used later. Modern technology replaced static elements with computer graphics, which is ephemeral but enables viewer interaction. When the viewers are satisfied with the results they can publish the same on paper or the Internet to make it permanent and enable sharing with others.
Neo-geographers and the VGI community have become important players. While the quality of the data they produce is under scrutiny by traditional cartographers, their importance as a source of data is no longer in question. It is therefore necessary that cartography should start exploring how this fertile but inchoate resource can be channelised into a significant contributor to cartography. A beginning has been made through research in to the cognitive aspects of cartography. What do people look for in a map? How can the art of visualisation turn the data into something that is easily recognised? Thus cartography has to make the leap from scientific art to popular and interactive scientific art. For example, how can cartography help health services? In 1854, John Snow experimented with the use of maps in epidemiological studies. Today GIS and cartographic visualisation is being used to map and understand underlying causes for the spread of diseases like SARS, dengue and measles. The location of healthcare assets, their accessibility during epidemics and disasters and the routing of emergency services requires GIS and location-based services to create contextual maps. In brief, cartography born in the 2nd Century is alive and well, and has entered the 21st Century in style.
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Americas news Business
US shutdown hits geospatial industry
Hexagon acquires Airborne Hydrography AB
With no agreement from Congress on a government funding Bill, the shutdown in the US from October 1-16, 2013, not only affected federal employees but also contractors that work for government. The shutdown impacted almost all federal agencies, including those with strong ties to the geospatial community such as the Bureau of Land Management, the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Other major departments and agencies that contract work with the geospatial profession include the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Agriculture, Corps of Engineers and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. In addition, websites for the USGS and the NOAA, among other agencies, had gone offline. The US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) even had to postpone their annual GeoInt symposium. The symposium is now rescheduled for April 2014.
Hexagon AB has entered into an agreement to acquire Airborne Hydrography AB (AHAB), a provider of airborne laser survey systems for hydrographic and topographic surveys. “Highly accurate hydrographic surveys are of particular importance when it comes to monitoring and managing the effects of changing sealevels, flooding, or coastal damage due to natural disasters,” said Hexagon AB President and CEO Ola Rollén. The AHAB portfolio of products will enable Hexagon to expand into the growing deep and shallow water bathymetry and coastal topography markets — which are indispensable when it comes to the safety of those that live in coastal regions and the expedited recovery in these areas in the face of the disaster.
DoD awards contract for intelligence surveillance sys The United States Department of Defense has awarded a three-year, $85-million contract to PAR Government Systems Corporation to provide advanced full motion video, geospatial information systems and intelligence surveilcontract awarded to PAR Govt Sys lance and reconnaissance related software and hardware technologies for collecting battlefield intelligence and analysis. The contract is aimed at developing a rapid response capability for the technolo-
$85 mn
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Geospatial World | November 2013
gies required in operation for both US armed forces and its allies.
Miscellaneous Predicting real-time travel path via smartphones The United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded patent to a team of researchers from the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida for ‘System and Method for Real-time Travel Path Prediction and Automated Incident Alerts’. The patent covers a path prediction method that uses a commuter’s travel patterns to predict their route and destination, and transmit road advisories via a GPS-enabled device. Once the user’s location data is transmitted via a GPS-enable device, it is then catalogued
and stored in a GIS database. The user’s current travel path is then compared to their path history and statistics and a destination is determined based on related spatial and time properties. A warning is then automatically delivered to the user if there is an accident along their predicted path, without requiring any request of input from the user.
DigitalGlobe foundation to boost geospatial education DigitalGlobe has launched the DigitalGlobe Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on fostering the growth of the next generation of geospatial technology professionals. “The DigitalGlobe Foundation is uniquely positioned to help prepare the geospatial leaders of tomorrow,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, President and Chief Executive Officer of DigitalGlobe.
Americas news “We believe that providing the best possible high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to advance research and education will equip students and institutions help realise our purpose of Seeing a Better World.”
US Air Force delays launch of GPS 2F-5 The launch of the fifth in the current generation of positioning, navigation and timing satellites for the US Air Force, scheduled for late October, has been postponed for unspecified reasons. The GPS 2F-5 satellite originally was slated to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The GPS 2F satellites provide better accuracy and more resistance to jamming than the previous generation of GPS satellites, most of which are still in operation.
City of New York releases 200 new datasets The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) of the City of New York has released 200 new datasets on the NYC Open Data Portal. The department plans to unlock all public data by 2018. The NYC Open Data portal was launched in 2011. Since then, the City of New York has opened up more than 1,100 datasets from over 60 agencies. The latest release covers a wide-range of data, from datasets available for free property and construction, to health and environmental data. “This release goes above and beyond what
the law requires, providing the Open Data Portal with first class data feeds and data tools,” said Chief Analytics and Open Platform Officer Mike Flowers.
UN to undertake real-time aircraft tracking The United Nations (UN) Department of Field Support (DFS) is planning to undertake real-time tracking of all UN aircrafts operating worldwide. For this purpose, the UN will deploy real-time Aircraft Global Satellite Tracking Service Solution (AGSTSS) for all UN Air Assets, approximately 200 aircraft operating worldwide. The solution will facilitate in monitoring and tracking the aircraft status over a single-screen interface dashboard with multiple views, which depicts the aircraft flight path and its position/event reports over approved aeronautical and satellite maps with airport depiction and weather representation of significant weather on the departure, in-route, and arrival with alerts and alarms.
AEL Sistemas has unveiled Brazil’s first microsatellite for military applications. According to AEL, the MMM-1 will be used for communication and remote sensing of earth along with other operational functions. “We want the state to be a pillar of spatial and technological modernisation for the defence segment. This type of project strengthens national sovereignty,” said Melo Sebastião, the governor general.
Haiti Geoportal for spatial and environmental data
Brazil First military microsatellite unveiled
1,100+
MMM-1 model
Screenshot of Haiti geoportal
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has launched the Haiti GeoPortal. According to CIESIN, the Haiti Geoportal is a platform for spatial and environmental data and resources from ongoing research in Haiti as part of the broader Haiti Research and Policy Program at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Geoportal has been designed to let communities and partners download maps that provide benchmarks for core integrated development indicators, household socio-economic variables and environmental features. Geospatial World | November 2013
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Europe news Germany DLR to be first user of earth sensing platform on ISS Teledyne Brown Engineering, subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have signed an agreement to develop an instrument for the Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), which will be mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). “Aerospace has no greater task than to observe earth and its ecosystems. It is effective to use existing platforms, such as the ISS, as carriers of earth observation instruments,” explained Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the DLR Executive Board. “We are delighted at the formation of this partnership between science and industry, which through its very existence will be a catalyst in the ongoing development of new earth observation systems,” he added.
Esri joins European Location Framework Esri has joined the European Location Framework (ELF) project to assist in harmonising and sharing geospatial data across Europe. ELF is funded under the European Commission’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). It brings together 30 organisations, including 14 European National Mapping Authorities, to harmonise and share authoritative national mapping and cadastral data across Europe. Esri has agreed to a grant offer with EuroGeographics to help its 59 members implement ELF and INSPIRE compliant services. Under the grant, Esri will be providing the ArcGIS platform, including ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS for INSPIRE software; support and training; and entrance to the Esri International User Conference.
Italy Satellite imagery confirms Venice sinking Using two sets of satellite data, a team of scientists have calculated how quickly Venice is sinking and how much of it can be blamed on nature, and how much on humans. The scientists used radar imagery data collected by four different satellites and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry technique to make a much higher resolution calculation of the sinking than was previously possible. They used the longer dataset to find the average rate of sinking, which can be attributed to the natural sinking of Venice relative to sea level. This is caused by a combination of factors including deformation of tectonic plate beneath Venice and compaction of the sediments under the city. They then looked at the higher-resolution short-term data set and subtracted the average natural sinking. They conclude that the average background The portion of sinking in Venice from 2008-2011 sinking is around 1 mm per year. 10
Geospatial World | November 2013
UK Ministry of Justice to adopt mapping technology The UK Ministry of Justice is planning to adopt sophisticated mapping and monitoring services for its new electronic monitoring programme. It has selected Astrium as a preferred bidder for the contract. The critical location intelligence is aimed at more effective and sophisticated monitoring, cost reductions in the programme and ultimately reducing re-offending rates as required by the Ministry of Justice. Astrium will provide the mapping and monitoring expertise to enable the movements of offenders released under licence to be monitored.
Finland Finland to update land parcel identification system The Finnish Agency for Rural Affairs is planning to update its Land Parcel Identification System in 2014-2016. In Finland, farmers are given support payments financed by the European Union. It requires the member states to ensure a reliable identification of land parcels. The Finnish Land Parcel Identification register is meant to ensure that the support payments are paid by correct acreage. The register also compares acreages to help the administration in checking the land sizes reported by the farmers. The registration was started in 2000.
Nokia HERE brings real-time maps to Mitsubishi Motors HERE, a Nokia business, announced that Mitsubishi Motors North America,
Europe news has launched HERE Traffic, including real-time information on traffic and weather, and is the first to offer updates on fuel prices delivered by HD Radio(TM) technology for drivers in the US. HERE will provide a smarter, safer and more enjoyable driving experience every day through always up-to-date real-time data, whether the driver is looking to avoid traffic jams and unsafe driving conditions due to weather or just looking for a gas station offering the best fuel prices. The system also provides weather updates every 30 seconds.
France Ukraine-EU agreement on navigation satellite system The European Parliament has validated an agreement on cooperation in a civil global navigation satellite system between Ukraine and the European Union. The agreement envisages the creation of ground-based infrastructure — three ranging and integrity monitoring stations in Ukraine under the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) project, which is the ground component of the Galileo European Global Navigation Satellite Systems. It is expected that the coverage of Ukraine with the EGNOS system will increase the accuracy of positioning and air navigation systems, which will help increase the safety of flights and airport operations.
Switzerland Strategy for sustainable housing, land management The 74th Session of the UN-Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE)’s
A constellation in making – SPOT 6 & SPOT 7 The SPOT 7 satellite is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2014. Just a month after the first anniversary of SPOT 6 launch, Astrium organised a one-day programme in Toulouse to give an update on the SPOT satellite project. The SPOT 6 and 7 satellites are a continuation of the SPOT series, which has collected an archive of more than 30 million images since 1986. SPOT 6 and 7 are twin satellites. With both the satellites running together, the collection capacities are going to increase, bringing down the time for coverage. The new SPOT missions are designed to achieve collection of both large coverage and indiSPOT 7 in integration at Astrium centre vidual targets, which is made possible by the extreme agility of the satellite. Recently, Astrium has released the first WorldDEM sample data sets for evaluation purposes, enabling potential customers to begin testing data for varied applications including line-of-sight analysis, 3D visualisation or orthorectfication of satellite imagery.
Committee on Housing and Land Management, held in Geneva, adopted a Strategy for Sustainable Housing and Land Management containing specific targets to be reached by Member States by 2020. The strategy envisions green, inclusive, compact, resilient and climate-neutral cities by 2020 in countries in the ECE region. It proposes to encourage investments in the housing sector by developing transparent and efficient land use, property registration and a sound financial system. In line with the strategy, several countries in the ECE region are working towards developing policies and regulatory frameworks to develop building codes, focusing on energy-efficient buildings, developing universal designs for buildings that are affordable and conducive to live even for disadvantaged groups of people.
Belgium EuroGeographics extends membership to entire Europe Two new authorities have joined EuroGeographics with the association’s membership now covering the whole of Europe. Applications for full membership from the State Authority for Geospatial Information, Albania and the State Committee on Property, the Republic of Belarus were approved at the General Assembly held in Warsaw. EuroGeographics now represents 59 organisations from 46 countries. The annual gathering of leaders from Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities discussed future trends in geoinformation; the progress of the European Location Framework. Geospatial World | November 2013
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Asia news India SoI unveils 1:10,000 scale Delhi State Map
map. “India is a very important market for us. In a fast-growing country like India, a community mapping approach along with inputs from our own experts will help HERE keep pace with the ever-evolving landscape,” HERE Executive Vice-President Michael Halbherr said.
WoNoBo 360-degree-view platform to boost tourism Genesys International Corporation has announced the launch of new Unveiling of Delhi map
Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, unveiled the English and Hindi versions of Delhi State Map prepared by the Survey of India (SoI). Surveyor General of India, Dr Swarna Subba Rao, who was also present at the event, stated that SoI has taken initiative for generation of maps on 1:10,000 scale for the entire country and this will be part of the National GIS project and the basis for National GIS Version-2.0. SoI was primarily addressing the basic mapping needs of the country using topographical maps largely up to 1:50,000 and partially up to 1:25,000.
HERE launches community mapping project in India Nokia’s mapping services division HERE has launched its first community mapping pilot programme in India, where it partners with local experts to improve its navigation services in the country. As a part of the initiative, the regional team of HERE will work with students, allowing them to add missing streets, bridges, points of interests (POIs) and other information to the 12
Geospatial World | November 2013
start-up WoNoBo.com. It is a mapping platform that offers a 3D view of cities, similar to Google StreetView, and has been incubated with a $35 million investment over the last few years by Genesys. The key difference between Google StreetView and WoNoBo is the extensive amount of mark-up that WoNoBo has — there are placeholders to point towards businesses and different types of businesses (theatres, eateries, houses, chemist etc), as well as city guides, stories and walking tours. Users will be able to search, explore and share ‘points of interest’ across the length and breadth of the country. At launch, the service is available for 12 major Indian cities and will soon be expanded to 54 cities.
India plans ‘Geotechnical Characterisation’ of 30 cities The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) of India has planned ‘Geotechnical Characterisation’ of 30 cities in the country. The ministry has planned to take up Seismic Hazard Microzonation (SHM) of urban agglomeration of 30 targeted cities spread over the county on 1:25,000/50,000 scale during the 12th Five Year Plan period. SHM is to be performed based on a hierarchical model for seismic microzonation with emphasis on ‘Geological Condition’ and ‘Ground Condition Mapping’ as cardinal components in evaluation of accentuated seismic hazard on ‘Site Amplification’. The exercise will involve generating multithematic maps like soil classification map, value maps for different depth zones, liquefaction susceptibility maps, Vs30 map, etc. It will also cover generation of sub-surface lithological distribution, different lithological cross section in cities etc. in grid pattern on 1:25,000/1:50,000 scale.
Japan New traffic rules soon to make way for UAVs Japan plans to introduce new air traffic control rules to prepare for the introduction of unmanned aircrafts (UAV). The current aviation law does not cover rules for UAVs. The defence ministry plans to introduce UAVs for surveillance activities. It wants to deploy the Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (used by the US military) to deal with territorial issues, including a prolonged row with China over the Japan-controlled
Asia news Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Therefore, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism have been asked to study air traffic norms in other countries. Japan plans to introduce the new rules in April 2014.
will create a multi-purpose information system to provide national integrated accounting and assessment of natural and economic potential of the country.
Indonesia
International conference on ‘Earth from Space’
Agreement with university to enhance geospatial skills The Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) has signed an agreement with Lambung Mangkurat University (LMU), as part of the geospatial information agency’s ongoing efforts to increase the quality and quantity of human resources specialising in GIS technology in South Kalimantan. “One of the important things needed to promote geospatial information is to reduce public ignorance about it. The deal seeks to promote the potential uses of geospatial information from day-to-day decision making to critical socioeconomic development planning,” the agency said.
Uzbekistan National GIS for effective governance Uzbekistan is planning to implement its national geographic information system. The NGIS is a part of the egovernment project, aimed at developing satellite geodetic network, unified computerised system of the state cadastre and property registration. President Islam Karimov signed a resolution for implementation of the project titled ‘Establishment of the National Geographic Information System’. The period of implementation of the project will last for four years (2013-2017). The project
Russia
The 6th International Conference on ‘Earth from Space - the Most Effective Solution’” was held in Moscow recently. The event was attended by 419 representatives from 22 countries across the globe. At the conference, participants reviewed the possibilities of using space technology for environmental protection, monitoring forests and efficient agricultural management. Discussions were also held on the possibilities of using space technology to explore, control and protect the Arctic region and offshore areas, to improve the scientific and educational process in schools and colleges, to enable real-time monitoring of natural and man-made disasters, to improve the efficiency of land use, hy-
dro-meteorological services operations, etc. All speakers at the event agreed that the existing legislation in the field of earth remote sensing data application needs adoption of a new federal law.
Hong Kong Hong Kong launches 3D Spatial Data The Lands Department has launched the 3D Spatial Data of Hong Kong that contains 3D model data representing the shape, appearance, and position of more than 300,000 major ground features — including all buildings, infrastructure, and terrain surfaces. “We have made sure that the 3D Spatial Data produced is up-to-date, accurate and convenient for use in most off-the-shelf application software packages,” said Bernadette Linn, Director of Lands. “The launch of 3D Spatial Data ties in with one of the visions of 2014 Digital 21 Strategy — Smarter Hong Kong, Smarter Living — which is on transforming and integrating public services”.
Brunei ASEAN to share satellite data for haze monitoring The 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have formally agreed to adopt the haze monitoring system and share satellite data to help locate fires. The $100,000 Singapore-developed monitoring system will be implemented in the five members of a sub-regional committee for haze — Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand. It compares high resolution satellite images with digitised land use and concession maps of fire-prone areas to locate fires and determine the culprits. Geospatial World | November 2013
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Australia/Oceania news
Courtesy: CSIRO
New prototype vehicle to improve EO satellites’ accuracy
Outback Rover can operate autonomously in remote locations
A prototype autonomous vehicle, or rover, developed by CSIRO is helping scientists improve the accuracy of earth observation satellites that provide valuable data to mining and agricultural industries. Outback Rover is helping to calibrate satellites that provide clues to soil condition, mineralogy and vegetation. Accompanied by researchers from Japan, China, Israel and France, CSIRO scientists recently took the rover prototype on a mission to Lake Lefroy — a huge salt lake in remote Western Australia — to see if they can automate the satellite calibration process. This is where they match the information gathered by satellites against measurements taken on-ground and compared them for accuracy. This process is called vicarious calibration and is undertaken by ground crews who walk in grids or transects, taking measurements with hand-held devices known as spectrometers, as satellites travel overhead.
South Australia embraces open data The South Australian government has joined the ranks of the federal government and other state governments after Premier Jay Weatherill mandated a new requirement for all government agencies to house their public data in a central portal to ensure that it is accessible to the community at large. Following in step with other Australian governments that have joined the Open Data movement, South Australia will become the latest government to create an ‘open data’ access point to enable the public to search for, 14
Geospatial World | November 2013
slice and ice relevant information or statistics. The government claims that the Open Data Action Plan will ensure that these agencies “maintain the highest standards or privacy, security and integrity”.
Free flood maps may ease insurance premiums Flood affected councils and residents in Queensland are hoping that a landmark deal brokered by the Newman Government to give insurers access to free flood map data will place heavy downward pressure on insurance premiums that skyrocketed after suc-
cessive floods. In 2011 the Local Government Association of Queensland slammed claims from insurers that councils were withholding flood maps from insurers in an effort to deflect blame for the insensitive treatment of flood victims. Now Queensland’s State Government is clearly hoping that an opening of the flood data gates will prompt insurers to revisit and recalibrate steep premiums applied to those who really are left high and dry.
Australia’s foundations revealed in a new atlas
Hemi60 vibroseis trucks carrying out a seismic transect
Resource explorers, mining companies, researchers and the public will have improved opportunities to more closely investigate what geological structures lie beneath Australia with the release of an atlas of Australia’s deep seismic reflection profiles. In a joint venture between Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University, images of seismic reflection data that were collected over more than 30 years have been compiled into a single publication. The data have been obtained in six Australian States and the Northern Territory using explosives and Vibroseis vibrator trucks. Equipment on these vehicles transmits sound waves into the Earth, some of which are reflected back to the surface from deep structures or major rock boundaries.
Rwanda
Tanzania
Students learn mapping skills with smartphones
Land use planning begins at village level
Scientists from the Rochester Institute Technology (RIT) are conducting a two-year community mapping project in Rwanda. Their $473,000 project is funded by the UK Department for International Development in support of the Innovation for Education. RIT professors Brian Tomaszewski and Anthony Vodacek are implementing high school science curriculum centred on GIS technology. The curriculum will train 225 high school students in the Huye and Gisagara districts in southwestern Rwanda to map the natural resources in their communities using tablet computers and smartphones. The students will learn to use the GIS technology embedded within the electronic devices to collect and synthesise data from their surroundings. The assignments will teach them the spatial-thinking skills needed to navigate and make maps.
An important step in sustainable land and forest management has been taken in Mtawatawa and Litou villages in Liwale in Tanzania. The village assembly has approved the proposal and can now study their current land use from digitised maps. These maps will help in curbing illegal burning of agricultural land and slow down deforestation. Satellite imagery was utilised in preparing such maps.
South Africa Work begins on EO-Sat 1, to be launched in 2017 South African aerospace and defence manufacturer Denel has launched Spaceteq as a newly-formed space engineering business unit. Its first project is to develop a multispectral, high-
Courtesy: Department of Science and Technology
Africa news
Artist’s impression of South Africa’s second low-orbit satellite
resolution, earth-observation satellite called EO-Sat1 for operation by 2017, says Sunteq GM Berthold Alheit. The satellite, which will be operated by the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), will be used in areas such as food security, urban planning and development, safety and security and support for disaster management. EOSat 1 will procure country-competitive information such as farming data, human settlement movements and water management.
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Product Watch
FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D X 330 for detailed measurement
FARO Technologies has released the new FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D X 330. With a range almost three times greater than previous models, the Focus3D X 330 can scan objects up to 330 metre away and in direct sunlight. With its integrated GPS receiver, the laser scanner is able to correlate individual scans in post-processing, making it ideal for surveying-based applications. Key features: • Integrated sensor features include compass, altimeter and dual axis compensator • Ultraportable design allows for operation without external devices. • With a size of only 24 x 20 x 10 cubic cm, the Focus3D is the smallest 3D scanner ever built • Photorealistic 3D color scans due to an integrated colour camera featuring an automatic 70 megapixels parallax-free colour overlay
Archer 2 promises improved response
and ruggedness
Juniper Systems has unveiled its new rugged handheld the Archer 2. With radical improvements over the first generation Archer, the Archer 2 promises better overall performance with an astonishingly bright display, an extra-long battery life, enhanced GPS capabilities, and rugged IP68 construction. Key features: • Featuring a new IllumiView high-visibility display, the Archer 2 remains extraordinarily bright under even the most glaring sunlight • Archer 2’s custom Overtime Technology battery will last 20 hours and up on one charge • It also includes a glovefriendly numeric keypad for rapid data entry
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Geospatial World | November 2013
Ladybug 5 camera for Lynx Mobile Mapper
Optech has announced that its Lynx MG1 and Lynx SG1 Mobile Mapper product lines now support the use of the Point Grey Ladybug 5 spherical imaging system. The Ladybug 5, which boasts of six highsensitivity 5-Megapixel imagers that cover 90% of a full sphere, offers Optech users more options in assembling a mobile surveying solution optimised to meet their specific application requirements.
Product Watch Trimble AX60 for aerial imaging Trimble has launched a new airborne LiDAR system Trimble AX60. It is a versatile system that can be operated at up to 15,500 feet above ground level (AGL), which meets the requirements for aerial survey projects such as wide area mapping, corridor mapping and remote sensing. The Trimble AX60 can be installed on either fixed wing or rotary aircraft.
IS-310 system increases BIM productivity
Topcon Positioning Group has released the IS-310 imaging layout station – an advanced imaging and
Key features: • It has a 400 kHz laser pulse repetition rate (PRR) with a single channel downward-looking laser • 80 Megapixel camera is integrated into the sensor head package and harmonised with the laser system so that it does not need re-calibration each time the solution is fitted to an aircraft • Rotating polygon mirror technology for beam deflection that can allow survey missions to be completed faster • Trimble AX60 can allow operators to lower the complexity of airborne LiDAR surveys while increasing the quality of the output
UltraCam Hawk offers affordable mapping solutions
Microsoft has unveiled the UltraCam Hawk, a new base model UltraCam digital aerial system that leverages the third generation UltraCam architecture. It features similar specs and a price point to the UltraCamLp – making it ideal for smaller mapping firms or even larger firms flying smaller projects. Key features: • A 92-mega-pixel (11,704 x 7,920 PAN) image footprint with a 70mm focal length lens • A system sensor head that integrates the sensor, computing sub-systems, solid-state devices (storage -sub-system), and the optional UltraNav direct georeferencing and flight management system • Advanced electronics for excellent frame rate and the 72 dB signal-to-noise ratio achieves high image dynamic • Filters with curved characteristics to flatten out vignetting for operation of lens system at optimal Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) performance for maximum sharpness and contrast
measurement system designed to increase building information modelling (BIM) productivity in the construction layout and as-built phases of any building project. Key features: • The IS-310 has a 360 degree Photo Fieldbook programme that records each point, providing the operator an easy-to-recall ‘as-built’ panoramic image of the entire scene at any time in the future • It includes live video control so an operator can aim the instrument at high structural points by simply touching the display on a Topcon Tesla field controller • With the added ability to track a prism in robotic mode, the IS-310 is a one-operator solution for all site work Geospatial World | November 2013
17
HEXAGON
SHAPING SMART CHANGE WITH GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Our planet is changing at an exponential rate. The population is growing, ageing and on the move, putting pressure on the world’s infrastructure, resources and ability to manage change. There will be close to
9.5
billion people on Earth by 2050
Global infrastructure needs could accumulate to
400
US $
trillion in 25 years
Oil is predicted to run out in
46.2 years
Population growth is pushing the limits of our global food supplies and energy resources
In these extraordinary times, technology is imperative to solve problems affecting industries that are essential to our world. Hexagon is at the forefront, providing access to and helping manage vital information needed to act with greater intelligence, guide the present and shape the future.
DATA IS THE NEW NATURAL RESOURCE
The amount of data in our world is astronomical, and analysing large data sets, or “big data,” has created tremendous challenges for companies and organisations needing to process massive amounts of information in real time. Leaders in every sector must grapple with the implications of big data. Its complexity and overabundance make important things harder to find and impede good decision-making. Efficiency suffers as organisations struggle to capture, manage and leverage the information they need to perform, and accuracy and timeliness of information are often compromised. Maintaining and improving key business functions depends on the collection of data from various sources to enable intelligent insights and real-time collaboration.
BUILDING THE SMART ENTERPRISE
It’s been said that problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have already known. The Smart Enterprise disrupts nearly every major sector of the global economy and dramatically improves productivity including decision-making processes central to how major industries conduct business and create value – processes that have been complicated by the vast growth of data. Access to complex, constantly changing data and information is a powerful decision-making tool when the data is integrated and presented in an intuitive and purposeful format. Hexagon enables the Smart Enterprise to do just that – provide the means to create, manage, understand and act upon a constant flow of information. With the help Hexagon technologies, the Smart Enterprise untangles disparate data and confronts difficult challenges to help organisations process and leverage actionable information.
THE HEXAGON ADVANTAGE
To build the Smart Enterprise, you need a foundation – our foundation is the Hexagon Advantage, a fusion of the real world and digital world. Through sensors that capture the world as-is or as-built and software that interprets the captured data, our customers are able to better manage real conditions and take action through the use of accurate and up-to-date digital depictions.
Enabling the Smart Enterprise through the Hexagon Advantage SENSOR
REAL World Events
A constant flow of information
fuses the Real World (as-is/as-built) with the Digital World (as planned/as designed)
DIGITAL World Models
SOFTWARE
SHAPING SMART CHANGE THROUGH SMART SOLUTIONS
At the core of the Hexagon Advantage is our smart solutions strategy. Hexagon Smart Solutions fuse both worlds, transforming how critical industries tackle increasingly difficult challenges. Built from custom combinations of our geospatial and industrial foundational technologies, Hexagon Smart Solutions are focused on four key areas – safety, infrastructure, resources and manufacturing. These solutions deliver the ability to derive insight, ask relevant questions and manage information flow in some of the world’s most important industries – from agriculture, energy and transportation to public safety, security and defence. With decades of experience in the geospatial industry, Hexagon offers a comprehensive geospatial portfolio that gives customers control of important decision-making processes. With sensors and software from Intergraph® and Leica Geosystems, our geospatial suite captures the constant, real-time changes of our dynamic earth and growing world through satellite imagery, terrestrial and aerial photography, remote sensing, CAD and GIS.
MODERNIZING THE GEOSPATIAL EXPERIENCE
The ability to create a live geospatial blueprint brings a new era in socialising geography beyond the traditional geospatial genres of surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS and CAD to a new genre of geospatial users in areas such as government agencies, public safety and defence organisations and the agriculture industry. Our solutions transform data into actionable intelligence from anywhere – the desktop, web, mobile applications and the cloud, giving users full control of the geospatial workflow. With the world’s richest geospatial portfolio, Hexagon brands have the key ingredients to capture and fuse dynamic geospatial data into relevant information that can be shared and delivered to the right people at the right time.
It All Starts Here CAPTURE
Hexagon’s sensor technologies include airborne imaging solutions and LiDAR sensors from Leica Geosystems that capture terabytes of imagery and point cloud data used to create intelligent geographic information and realistic 3D models. For as-built, topographic detail and engineering surveys, Hexagon offers high-definition surveying (HDS) systems from Leica Geosystems. When combined, Hexagon’s geospatial solutions capture and detect real-world changes and information about our dynamic earth.
FUSE
While capturing raw data is a key to Hexagon’s geospatial formula, it isn’t useful until it is fused with digital models comprised of what was or what is planned. With Hexagon’s dynamic software technologies from Intergraph and Leica Geosystems, raw data from the real-world is easily fused with digital plans and 3D models to enable a live geospatial blueprint. This blueprint remains active 24/7 through the extraction of intelligence from satellite and airborne imagery, terrain and point cloud data for image processing, photogrammetry and LiDAR workflows and can be visualised in 2D or 3D, analysed and manipulated as needed.
ACT
Hexagon equips organisations with sensors and big data solutions that drive efficiency improvements utilising geospatial data. The fusion of real- and digital-world data enables communities, cities and governments to harness the global forces of change. They can implement dynamic life cycle workflows, monitor assets such as power supplies and utility plots, create and manage cadastres and land parcels or determine the safest points to land emergency vehicles and enhance emergency dispatch systems. Through smarter, more informed decision-making, they can better protect our growing world.
DISCOVER HEXAGON GEOSPATIAL SOLUTIONS
Our success is possible because of the strength of our global brand network, which has become a force for change, developing geospatial solutions that make a difference in the way people everywhere work and live. hexagon.com/geospatial twitter.com/HexGeospatial
© Copyright 2013 Hexagon. All rights reserved. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Hexagon believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. Such information is subject to change without notice.
HX1500-AD-1511
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Geospatial World | May 2013
Cover Story | Cartography
Changing to
Changes
As mapping becomes ubiquitous, cartography as a craft needs to take into account the vast amounts of constantly updated information. While this presents an entirely new set of challenges for the cartographer, it also provides new opportunities for visualising the world around us, explains Managing Editor Prof Arup Dasgupta
H
ans-Peter Brondmo, Vice-President and head of new product innovation for Nokia HERE, spoke at this year’s GigaOM Mobilize conference about making sense of the real world through mapping. He said a map is really just a way to guide one through his or her life; so Nokia is interested in creating maps that would model the real world, one that can actually show where one is in an accurate 3D representation. The evolution of cartography and visualisation from its beginning to this day is exemplified by this statement. Early map makers, who charted
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the known world through adventurous voyages, through explorers’ accounts or even by the ‘lifting’ of maps prepared by others, would paint unknown areas in dark shades with the warning “Here be monsters”, a colourful way of visualising the statement “I know no more of this region”. When and where did cartography begin? That is a difficult question to answer. However, the foundations of modern cartography were laid by the Greeks. Aristotle visualised a spherical earth and it is known that the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes determined the diameter of the
earth and divided it into meridians of latitude and longitude to enable placement of map features on a globe. Ptolemy brought in the concept of celestial measurements to locate features accurately on the globe. His eight volume atlas, Geographia, was another first with place names, north orientation, scale, legends and symbology. These were the fundamental elements of visualisation that continue to be used till this day. From these beginnings cartography and visualisation have progressed, drawing on technologies as they evolved. The humble chain and vernier theodolite have given way to total stations, DGPS and remote sensing systems. Log tables and slide rules have been replaced by computers. Scribing tools, mylars and four-colour printing presses have been replaced by high-speed large-format digital colour printers and paper maps have been superseded by Internet publishing. The goal however, remains the same: to be able to communicate to the user a relevant view of the world. This view has today become interactive with the end user deciding what they want to see, how and where. Science & technology or art? On one hand, there are aesthetic maps which convey nothing as a map, while on the other there are very informative maps presented crudely in clashing colours, unnecessarily bold fonts and clumsy patterns. Eminent cartographer Erwin Josephus Raisz had stated years back that the good cartographer was both a scientist and an artist. But with digitisation and automation taking over cartography, how much of it holds true today? Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google, agrees with Raisz but also feels that the balance now is towards the artist, as much of the science or at least application of appropriate algorithms to manipulate information is carried out by software. “Now the cartographer more than ever must use his or her judgment to choose the appropriate techniques to communicate their intended purpose. Of course today, designing for the dynamic medium of a display screen, the range of techniques has hugely expanded,” he adds. Prof Menno Kraak of the University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, agrees: “The technology to make maps gets better and better, but the result are often many maps of the same kind. The art of design plays a key role in the appreciation and usability of the map”. Dr Georg Gartner, President of the International Cartographic Association (ICA), feels that Raisz’s statement still holds true. “However, automation and digital cartography have brought up new players, thus cartography primarily is done by those who are good in automation,” he says, adding that it is necessary to emphasise the triangle of science-technology-art/design in education,
find opportunities to bring proponents of these different areas together through conferences, workshops, and webinars, and finally establish instruments like awards, competitions to highlight good examples of the application of this triangle concept. Prof Milan Konecny, chair of the ICA Commission on Cartography on Early Warning and Crises Management, believes that the statement is perhaps more valid than before, “because combination of new scientific approaches based on IT in cartography provide many possibilities for map creation and inclusion of art not only make maps attractive but also enables new and imaginative forms in which maps could be shown and naturally understood”. This idea of the synergy between art, science and technology is brought out graphically in the conceptual diagram of the visualisation cube developed by MacEachren (Fig 1). The traditional conventions of cartography are useful in producing maps for decision support. However, geospatial technologies allow greater flexibility and customisation through geovisualisation, which develops and extends old concepts in new and innovative ways. The exploration of data for its relevance to the theme and its presentation of the theme in an intelligible and user-friendly manner are the core concept of conventional cartographic visualisation. Representing geospatial data Maps are two dimensional representations of geospatial data frozen in time. They represent the situation when the data was gathered. Though useful in its way, it is limited in its scope of applications unless the features it represents are persistent over time. The third dimension of height is included through artifices like contours or shading or through derivatives like slope and aspect. If we add the fourth dimension of time, the conventional system of feature representation again resorts to artifices like time series and overlays using different colours for time slices. Fast-changing data streaming from sensors defeats these conventional techniques; for example rainfall, tides, seismic events and crowd behaviour. These limitations can be overcome through techniques
Geospatial technologies allow greater flexibility and customisation through geovisualisation, which develops and extends old cartography concepts in new and innovative ways Geospatial World | November 2013
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Cover Story | Cartography
Publi
that are made possible models. But a better way is to through the medium of comuse a technology for creatputer graphics. Animation is ing photorealistic true 3D one of the best examples of representations which can the integration of time with be manipulated in 3D space, spatial data. 3D visualisation merged with other graphic using wireframes and renderelements and is amenable to ing of textures on the wireprecise measurement of sizes frame is another useful techand distances. A terrestrial lanique. Over and above this ser scanner along with a highN we can also add elements of resolution CCD camera is a I n fo T I O L ow C T interactivity like fly-through, solution. This creates photoresha AS A r ing K ER T immersive visualisation alistic 3D objects that can be IN K no h w g through virtual reality sysmanipulated and merged with c on le Hi s tr u d g e c ti o tems, hyper-linking to other other data. An apt example is n datasets and visualisation of the boat and raft in the movie MacEachren’s visualisation cube. From Geographical Information dynamic object behaviour Life of Pi, in which the tiger Systems and Science, Paul A. Longley et. al. John Wiley and Sons like cyclones and flooding. and Pi are seen together in the Geovisualisation allows us boat. Such true 3D rendering to explore a model of the real world much more effectively is increasingly being used in areas like heritage mapping, crime than we have ever had the ability to do in the past, says David scene mapping, forest mapping, surveying, and piping mapping Watkins, Cartography Product Manager, ESRI. etc. However, unlike GIS, CAD and BIM, there are no standards In his article on Art and Cartographic Communication, for such photorealistic data representation. (Cartography and Art, Springer, 2009), former ICA President William Cartwright discusses that data is not just confined to Integration with computational environment what can be seen, imaged or drawn but extends to other senThe integration of so many types of data into the computational sory stimuli like word-scapes, sound-scapes, paintings, events environment poses serious challenges. While data like GIS, and even olfactory and haptic data. CAD, BIM and GPS are very well structured and amenable for However, a problem with conventional cartographic repinclusion into systems like DBMS; data like the ones described resentations as well as its modern computerised version is the above are not structured and therefore not easily amenable to absence of standards for the representation of 3D objects on the constraints of structured data handling systems. Streamthe terrain; for example buildings and plantations. The teching data also has similar problems and this has given rise to nology of geodesign does attempt to bring together GIS, CAD the technology of Big Data Analytics. Integration of geospatial and BIM for the construction sector, but it lacks photorealism systems with Big Data is still a “work in progress’. The issue is and the output is static. Photorealism can be achieved by using not so much the computational power but the way to use the photographs, which can be added as texture to the 3D CAD power on large volumes of data and visualise the results of the computation to make it easily assimilated. Examples of this are the weather models and the specific models for cyclogenesis and subsequent track determination and landfall prediction. One of the key factors in this is the ability to discern patterns and relationships in geospatial data through visualisation. This requires the integration of visual and computational tools for human machine collaboration for knowledge construction. At the engineering end it requires the integration of diverse systems, each with their own standards, data structures and interfaces. The real problem is to integrate databases with visualisation such that the functionalities are available at the visual interaction level itself. In fact, the problem is similar A tactile map of the City of Basel to the Big Data problem of being able to handle streaming,
S
Spec
U S ER
c
Courtesy: William Cartwright
ialists
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Photorealistic 3D representation
Courtesy: Faro Technologies
A terrestrial laser scanner along with a high resolution CCD camera can be used for creating photorealistic 3D objects that can be manipulated and merged with other data. Such true 3D rending was used in the movie Life of Pi in which the tiger and Pi were seen together in the boat. This kind of rendering is used in heritage mapping, crime scene mapping, forest mapping, surveying, and piping mapping etc.
unstructured data to extract knowledge in real time. Kraak points out that “part of the cartographic community, such as ICA’s Commission on Geovisualisation and the Commission on Cognitive Cartography, are active in the geo-visual analytics domain”. He adds that Big Data requires an even better integration of human perception via visual interfaces like maps and geo-computation in terms of both shape and visual analytics. Gartner is of the opinion that “visual analysis is an area where visual tools are used to understand complex datasets or to derive meaning out of complex datasets, detect patterns or trends etc.” However, he points out that often visual analysis tools are rather complex themselves, so there is a big demand to establish those tools in a way, that they are not restricted to expert users only, but allow access to any interested user. “As this involves knowledge and skills of ‘efficient communication’ this is clearly a cartographer’s task.” Unfortunately, cartography had become a second class citizen throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, with GIS becoming much of the focus of traditional cartography programme. As analysis became the priority, the cartographic aspects of presenting the results got a little lost along the way. “But people have begun to realise how the results are presented is as important as the analysis itself. The map is how we communicate and visualise geography. This communication is even more critical when you consider the general public who may know very little about reading a map,” says Watkins, who believes that cartography as a discipline is making a strong comeback.
According to Gartner, the main challenge lies in context modelling and personalisation. “Cartography has missed some developments and time, as it was not ready to react on the big technological developments. But this has changed since some years now. Cartography has become attractive due to its relevance,” he adds. Modern cartographers are scientists, technology-savvy and designers, and contribute to the developments directly either in national mapping organisations, in the volunteer geographic information (VGI) arena, in the industry or academia. “We can witness most successful new education programmes like the International Master on Cartography, growing numbers of excellent maps and map services being produced on the Web and on mobile platforms, and the growing interest, for instance, in the International Cartographic Association with all its instruments,” says Gartner. The proliferation of online maps has created a consumer market that demands intuitive and usable interfaces and almost instant feedback, points out Watkins, adding, “This has helped push the development efforts of everyone in the mapping software industry and has resulted in continuous improvements.” According to Konecny, many of the scalability issues in geovisualisation tools could be solved by addressing two issues: how to deal with huge amounts of data and how to tune cartographical tools for various groups of users with different skills and knowledge. But there are still problems like how to ensure quality of data, for instance in the case of so-called VGI. There is also the question of comparability of Geospatial World | November 2013
25
The Cartography & Geovisualization Group at Oregon State University.
Cover Story | Cartography
Rendering terrain in digital 3D maps
Developing projections for rendering terrain in digital 3D maps is another popular technique. The experimental projections above have been created with prototype software showing (from left to right) curved projecting rays for a panoramic view along the shores of a lake; plan oblique rendering; and plan oblique rendering with viewing angle varying along the direction of view.
amount and quality of data from different places. Some towns are mapped more than others and their cartographic visualisation is different, for instance in the cases of OpenStreet maps. In fact the scalability in 3D maps and questions of the potential representation on a scale of 1:1 remains open. Users, user interfaces The World Wide Web has provided an enormous opportunity for interactive mapping. Opportunities provided by online mapping services like Google and Bing maps, where people can produce their own personalised products and share with others, are endless. But in the absence of any standards, these outputs may not always be visually aesthetic. Gartner, however, feels that the “quality” of a map is not only to be measured by its design but by its “fitness-to-use”, and in this sense Google Maps and similar cartographic information systems are very good. Parsons also completely rejects the notion that Google Maps and VGI has filled the world with ‘ugly’ maps. “A great deal of care goes into the cartography of Google Maps and their widespread use, a billion users per month, would not have been possible if they were ugly!” He goes on to add that while the fact that now any individual using the Web can produce a map, publish it and potentially reach an audience of billions is truly groundbreaking, too often there are maps which either don’t communicate clearly the information intended or of more concern are misleading. At a basic level, cartographic knowledge of the relative merits of projections, the need to 26
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normalise area-based statistics and colour theory may all be required to design a map, says Parsons, as he flags off the issue of education or more user friendly tools. Konecny feels the widely accepted classical cartographical methods are now enhanced through the capability of combination of maps with pictures, other models, zooming etc, giving a new dimension to map use. They allow ‘neo-cartographers’ to explore new techniques of personalised map creation thus learning how to design, use and understand maps. All these processes create new added-value for cartography and open it out to many new users. Thus, there is a growing interest among these users about rules, methods and individual steps on how to create good, true, nice and attractive maps. “Yes, still many maps are poorly designed, but we can see that the situation is improving,” he adds. “New developments always come with a little backlash in quality,” points out Kraak. “This was the case with the introduction of scribing materials in the beginning of the 20th century and again with the introduction of the computer plotters in the 1980s and even with the introduction of GIS. We are now witnessing a similar trend.” Aesthetics apart, the cartographic community is gung ho about the ‘interactivity’ aspect of maps and believes it is an integral part of a good map. “Whenever in the past we had cartographic tools being so ubiquitously available and easy-touse, that literally everybody can get them in her or his hands they have used it to express their perspectives, feelings, emotions, issues, etc. VGI, Grassroot Mapping and the availability of maps on mobile devices are a change of paradigm when it comes to the role of cartography for society,” says Gartner. Parsons believes interactive maps will be a key to the development of cartography in the next decade and it needs to be refined to take into account the new world of multimedia and sensory computing. “In many cases, the map of the future will not
be a map. Already today we accept that navigation is often best visualised as abstract instructions such as left arrow, forward arrow, etc, rather than a traditional overview map, or perhaps not visualised in the first place. Spoken or haptic ‘touch’ based interfaces may be more appropriate for some applications,” he says. He, however, adds that cartographers still have not really come to terms with the true potential of multimedia-based communications, using animation, sound and personalisation to communicate geographic information in different ways. So are cartographers becoming redundant? According to Kraak, “cartographers have the skills to make ‘correct’ well designed maps. They will still play a significant role in the professional world of the map. When it comes to the mass market, their skills might be incorporated in mashup tools”. Gartner feels the relevance (of professional cartographers) is high if the big players want to start to make a difference. In that respect, the ‘best product’ in terms of design, efficiency in communicating geoinformation, allowing to use the map for querying, exploring, finding, ordering, positioning, and entertaining will become the selling points. As Konecny rightly points out, specialists still invite cartographers when they want to present information to end users in an attractive way. This is because digital cartography enables many new features like context awareness, adaptive environment, sensor integration etc, which if not used correctly may result in misleading maps. “It is necessary to use basic cartographic rules, logical systems of map legends and symbols, methods of cartographic generalisation etc because maps should model reality and deliver quality information for solving problems,” he emphasises. Another task for cartographers is how to control and measure the quality of maps; from such understanding
Digital cartography enables many new features like context awareness, adaptive environment, sensor integration etc, which if not used correctly may result in errors they can select and develop appropriate approaches for map presentation meeting the needs of the public. Ubiquitous mapping The term ‘ubiquitous mapping’ is not homogeneously used globally, says Gartner. It is a term primarily used in East Asia and also partly in Europe. The term might be best to describe the ubiquitous availability and accessibility of maps and mapping services, and its development seems to be continuing. Cartographers are contributing to conferences and research under terms like location-based services, mobile cartography etc as well. However, the attribute ‘ubiquitous’ as such is one of the five main attributes of modern cartography, the others being real-time, media-adequate, personalised and well-designed. Parsons is of the opinion that it is hard to argue that maps are not ubiquitous now, but maps are possibly being used when their use is not actually useful. “If there is no geographic pattern to an activity or phenomena, and it does happen sometimes, you don’t need a map!” The term ‘ubiquitous mapping’ comes from the idea of pervasive computing and pervasive maps, which is more oriented
An image derived from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model Version 1 (ASTER GDEM V1) globe map datasets. ASTER GDEM, jointly released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2009, was generated by using stereo-pair images collected by the ASTER instrument onboard Terra. In October 2011, the two bodies released ASTER GDEM V2.
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Cover Story | Cartography
for mapping supported by sensors. Cartographers recognised that nowadays intelligent access to databases and interactive user support can be used not only for the location of suitable maps on the Internet, but also for map creation (art) and modification according to specific and individual requirements of users. Instead of just using maps created by someone else in advance, these new research technologies allow individuals to use cartography interactively, on the basis of individual user’s requirement, to study and present spatial information. According to Konecny, ubiquitous mapping “is one of the biggest challenges of contemporary cartography and geoinformatics and arose because of the perceived advantages of an ‘information society’. Mapping should be done by everybody, anytime, everywhere with all possible technological tools.” Konecny also refers to adaptive cartography as the automatic creation of correct geodata visualisation with regard to situation, purpose and the user. Adaptive maps are maps in the conventional sense -- they are correct and well-readable medium for transfer of spatial information. The user controls map modifications indirectly via modification of context. The term context refers to the following set of characteristics: • Who is the map reader: information on abilities of the users to read maps, their visual preferences, level of knowledge and/or education. This information forms the user profile. • What is the purpose of the map: information on solved problems, spatial extent of the problem and information on hierarchy of content items depending on the given problem. • Where is the map to be used: information on place, time, orientation and natural conditions influencing map perception e.g. light conditions. • What is the device displaying the map: set of information
s Interactive mapmore interactive. Peo-
ng Maps are becomi how and they want to see, ple decide what raphic og Ge l na tio Na , ce aker where. For instan pM Ma gh ou maps thr offers interactive mes such the se oo ch n ca Interactive. One Systems. ms and Human as Physical Syste stems Sy an ts for ‘Hum In case a user op decide en ev n ca he , re’ ltu Population & Cu ls tai de hic ap cartogr whether he wants igions and rel jor ma , ity ns of population de or not. ity in that region language divers
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related to parameters of the display, transmission capacity and software characteristics of client application. Cognitive aspects The main objective of visualisation is to be able to present the salient features of a spatial context in a manner that is easily and quickly assimilated by a human being. The problem lies in the volume of information and the consequential information overload leading to the user, missing vital aspects of the analysis. In a dynamic situation, the problem is compounded by the real-time stream of data that has to be rapidly surveyed for patterns and anomalies. The task of the cartographer is to select and visualise the analysis results in a manner that holds the users attention and effectively highlights the findings. The visualisation designer has to take into account aspects of human cognition and decide on the quality and quantity of the interactivity allowed to a user such that he or she is not overwhelmed. Gartner points out that cartography can be understood as “communicating spatial information”. Thus the communication paradigm — sender codes information, transmits it, receiver decodes information — is still applied in cartography. This has three dimensions. The syntactical dimension in which we define the code in terms of symbols, sizes, colours, etc. Cartographers are very good in this. The semantic dimension is one in which we try to incorporate the meaning of the information using either self-explaining codes or a legend. Cartographers are very good in this as well but, could do better in the arena of dynamic visualisation and multimedia. Finally, we have the pragmatic dimension which ensures that the communicated information is relevant to the receiver through context-modelling and personalisation.
Konecny states during a project on dynamic geovisualisation for creating adaptive and context-based map concepts, his team discovered and confirmed cognitive style of users with different skills, abilities, education and cultural background and different ages. “We found and confirmed the importance of the idea of cognitive style.” Cognitive style or ‘thinking style’ is a term used in cognitive psychology to describe the way individuals think, perceive and remember information, or their preferred approach to using such information to solve problems. Two main streams of cognitive style are holistic or Grassroot Mapping analytic ones and could give practical inputs The availability of easy-to-use cartographic tools has motivated communities to cartographers. Some find use of maps betto participate in Grassroot Mapping. The ter, others prefer orthoimages. This can play technique combines modern cartograan important role especially in disaster situphy with participatory methods. Public ations. But research is in the early stages and Laboratory for Open Technology and Science is a group of activists, educators, needs more deep analysis, cooperation with technologists, and community organisers more disciplines at an international level. who came together to organise the ‘Gulf Oil Mapping Project’ during the Gulf of Mexico crisis in 2010. Since then, the group has been working to get Gulf Coast residents out on boats and along beaches to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the spill’s effects. The group helps citizens in using balloons, kites, and other simple and inexpensive tools to produce their own aerial imagery of the oil spill.
Education and research As geospatial systems become ubiquitous, there is a clear need for the education and research field to gear up to meet the challenges. According to Kraak, geographic education at school levels gets less space and introducing new technology has a price attached. However, at universities it is in the process of getting integrated with the curriculum. Gartner points out that there are several steps taken by the ICA, such as liaising with organisations like IGU; an Education Commission, which develops new instruments; an Open Source Commission, which has helped to establish various Labs under the term ‘ICA-OSGeo Labs’ which offer webinars and free education programmes; outreach programmes and capacity building programmes to name a few. Konecny mentions the TEMAP project — Technology for Discovering of Map Collections -- which aims primarily to focus on laymen to help them catalogue old maps and to design tools enabling them to use geographic information contained in scanned raster files. One of the very popular results for wide publicity is crowd pilot which aims at georeferencing of old maps available at www.staremapy.cz. In terms of research areas Kraak identifies the understanding how maps work in highly interactive environments as important. Gartner identifies developing human-centred cartographic theory and practice; the use of cartographic displays for spatio-temporal inference and decision-making; construction and use of cognitively adequate and perceptually salient visual displays of geographic information; empirical geovisualisation design research on 2 and 3D, static, animated and interac-
tive, virtual and immersive and mobile displays; the application of cognitive theories and methods to understanding usage of visio-spatial displays and tools for inference and decision-making which includes mental maps, space-time behaviour, navigation, etc; the application of visio-spatial displays and tools to understanding spatial cognition — spatial reasoning, inference and decision making with visio-spatial displays and tools and cognitive principles supporting human-visualisation interaction research. “There are also other areas of cartographic research like perception of graphic variables, improvement of understanding of space, the role of short-term memory, understanding of the uncertainties of cartographic communication, and the adaptation to the use of maps,” adds Konecny. Privacy issues Interactive maps are now being widely used not only by the academia but also by common people through a range of media and technologies in a variety of disciplines and application scenarios across the globe. But interactivity is always in direct conflict with privacy. So how can these issues be addressed? Some like Gartner feel when we are interested in personalisation, context-modelling or simply see cartography as a process of communication between sender and receiver we get into the question of privacy. “However, the privacy question is an issue of society. We need to make society aware and eventually offer opinions, but the decisions need to be taken by all of us.” Geospatial World | November 2013
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alisation. However, Gartner feels that cartography is already in to social media. There are numerous applications being developed out of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook or any other social media platform that offers APIs. He anticipates that this is the start of a massive development. Data mining, collaborative filtering, personalised recommendations or simply context-dependent personalised maps will be most common in years to come.
Google Glass is an example of immersive visualisation, and is a new way of visualising cartographic information
Parsons feels that customised or personal maps now often delivered to mobile devices require some guidelines or ‘best practices’ to be followed. There is widespread recognition that sharing a user’s location with a service provider is sensitive and must only be done with the users’ explicit consent and control. By sharing location numerous benefits are then of course available, and if the user is also willing to share other personal information with the service provider, applications that for example can automatically re-route a traveller based on current traffic or transit status and their calendar become possible. Business opportunities The largest business opportunities lie in disruptive technologies, according to Mak Poh Fatt of Faro Singapore. For example in 3D imaging technologies, the concerns are affordability, complexity of use, integration of technology and insufficient information about the technology and its applications. He feels that the solution lies in innovation to provide low-cost, simple mobile solutions with a degree of automation. The Cloud is one of the ways forward as it offers minimal set up and maintenance effort, best possible security level, scalable infrastructure, persistent measurements and annotations and support for mobile devices. Social media is a huge platform for user interactions. Therefore, is there a social media context in geovisualisation? Parsons feels that though social interactions often have a geographical context to them there is nothing really profound by way of visu-
Future developments in cartography will continue in the areas of automation, visualisation, and display of real-time information 30
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Future directions The future developments in cartography will continue in the areas of automation, visualisation, and display of real-time information, feels Watkins. Automation has driven the proliferation of maps throughout the world, and created efficiencies in map and data production, making it possible to provide more current maps. Visualisation improvements will continue to take place, giving us better ways to graphically display map information. There will be continued progress in photo-realistic 3D, for instance. Hardware and processing speeds will continue to improve, creating possibilities for new ways to consume and interact with maps. The Google Glass, for example, provides a new way of visualising cartographic information while at the same time allowing the user to see the surrounding environment. Also, flexible, foldable, materials are being developed for electronic display that will make large format, portable interactive maps possible in the future. More and more sensor data is becoming available in real time. Huge amounts of streaming data must be quickly consumed, summarised and displayed in understandable ways. Future developments in cartography will need to take into account these vast amounts of constantly updated information. This not only presents an entirely new set of challenges for the cartographer, but also provides new opportunities for visualising the world around us. Geospatial technology has made it possible for maps to go beyond the descriptive to the predictive. As more and more data is available, it can be used to visualise trends, increasingly in real time, and this can be used to make better predictions. The idea of Geodesign follows this premise. Geodesign involves planning future development using predictive models, taking into account many factors to make suitability predictions, thus allowing us to make better decisions. Cartographic communication is essential in understanding and interpreting the results of this predictive analysis, making it possible for decision makers to act as effectively as possible as they tackle the challenges we face today. Prof Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net
Courtesy: Buchroithner et al. 2004
The scope of 3D representations in cartography is expanding rapidly. Truly 3D auto stereoscopic displays are replacing pseudo 3D depictions. New techniques are here to ensure that 3D is no longer limited to the representation of landform characteristics
Principle of perception of true-3D/flip lenticular display
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pace and spatial are considered to be an inherent, even axiomatic feature of both subject and function of cartography (Koch 2002). This includes ‘thematic spatial models’ (Bollmann 1985) like the ones derived from 3D terrain models in the early 1970s by Spiess (Spiess 1974). Also, the ‘data relief’, of theoretical or mathematical constructed surfaces in particular, can in most instances be spatially perceived in a significantly better way than with conventional two-dimensional or pseudo-three-dimensional cartographic depictions, especially if there are relatively small elevation differences (Koch 2002; Rase 2003). Untrained map users have great difficulties in deriving a 3D mental geo-relief model and a “value landscape” (cf. Buchroithner & Knust 2013) of any type of thematic data out of a 2D depiction (Buchroithner 2007; Bröhmer et al. 2013). Until recently, the separation of the stereo-partners corresponding to the left and right eye has frequently been realised by means of anaglyph glasses, polarisation glasses or shutterglasses. The use of these glasses — over longer periods — finds only little acceptance among map users. The lenticular foil automatically separates the images so that no viewing aids have to be used. Planar autostereopsis Planar true-3D visualisations can be parallax-3D or full3D. There exist both glasses-based and glasses-free true3D visualisation techniques. Glasses or other visual aids are needed to separate the stereo partners, i.e. one image for the left eye and one image for the right eye. This separation is either timebased or filter-based. One well known glasses-based method with temporal image separation is the visualisation in combination with active shutter glasses. Most of the present-day 3D visualisation devices work with this method. They show the left and the right half-image alternately and in high frequency (normally 120 Hz) and the shutter glasses synchronously shut and open the left and the right glass. Due to the high frequency the eyes do not notice that the glasses are shut alternately. Each eye perceives only the images which are allotted to it, because Geospatial World | November 2013
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the glass is only transparent in the moments the correct halfimages are shown on the display and it is opaque when the halfimages for the other eye are shown. The filter-based image separation uses anaglyphs (e.g. red and cyan filters) or displays that use passive polarisation glasses. The half-images that have been especially pre-processed for this method are simultaneously visualised for the left and the right eye and filtered by the glasses which have different optical characteristics (different colour or polarisation direction). Other auto-stereoscopic visualisation methods are normally based on two or more stereo-mates, but they can also consist of a single image or model. The two methods often used are the lenticular foil technique and the parallax barrier technique. The lenticular foil technique uses vertically arranged half-cylindrical lenticules to geometrically deflect the half-images to the left and the right eye. The parallax barrier technique uses a strip mask which makes each one half-image visible to the eye and hides the other one. Both the techniques make only one of the stereo-mates visible to each eye. Digital lenticular foil or parallax barrier displays are available with or without tracking unit which helps the stereo-mates to adapt to the viewer’s position. Cameras detect the viewer’s eyes and thus detect the motion of the user. The visualised 3D content can be adapted by changing the image or the display according to the changed viewing position. A possibility which compensates motion in XY-direction and also in Z-direction was investigated by Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, Interactive Media-Human Factors Berlin, Germany. Björn Schmidt investigated the lenticular foil technique for use in printed maps (Dickmann and Schmidt 2011; Schmidt 2012). He also developed, with VLR method, a new algorithm for interlacing the stereo mates to enhance the quality of a printed lenticular display.
Rapid Prototyping at the Institute of Geometry, TU Dresden, Germany
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Volumetric autostereopsis The most realistic true-3D visualisation can be created with volumetric imaging techniques. Volumetric visualisations include solid landscape models, subsurface engravings and globes. There can also be non-solid visualisations like the holograms. Both solid and non-solid visualisations have parallaxes in all directions of the XY-plane, making them full-3D. Solid landscape models or city models can be created manually or by machine. Rapid prototyping methods like 3D-printing or milling are perfect examples of machinegenerated models. Another possibility is the transformation method where a planar thermoplastic foil is transformed by heat and pressure into a form which corresponds to the 3D relief model (Rase 2012). Solid terrain models experienced a sort of renaissance over the last decade. “Producing a solid landscape relief is comparable to composing music: the finest details and nuances can only be produced by men and not by machines. My slogan is: Do not give away the most creative work to machines – to create a landscape. I want to do it myself,” says Toni Mair, the renowned relief artist. His statement describes best why handmade relief models are still produced today. But this method is very time-consuming. A recent approach at TU Dresden tries to combine automated DTM-based milling and high-level artistic handicraft. Solid globes also allow volumetric visualisation. These can be traditional globes made of brass or wood covered with paper or thermoplastic material. Another type is the tactile hyperglobes which are volumetric and tactile. They combine the benefits of a solid globe with those of a digital globe image. The cartographic image is visualised digitally with the help of several projectors onto the acrylic glass. Riedl (2010, 2012) distinguishes further between the hologlobe (volumetric and digital) and the digital hyperglobe (pseudo-3D). There can be more potential spherical displays (Hruby 2011). Holograms are another method for autostereoscopic volumetric imaging. They are available as hardcopy (‘traditional’ holography) and also as softcopy (digital holography). The requirement of very high calculating resources to create a digital hologram is still a major problem. Real Technologies Inc. in Dresden, Germany has introduced some promising innovations to reduce these resources to a minimum with the help of sub-holograms. The company is convinced that this will lead to “commercial real-time holographic 3D imaging in the near future”. The so-called Holographic Relief Maps made by a mapping unit in Ankara, Turkey is a good example of printed cartographic holograms. It is a combination of topographic and thematic map data with a DEM and aerial photographs.
A computer generated image of the largest autostereoscopic true-3D display of geodata worldwide with a height of almost 3 metres and a width of close to 7 metres showing the mighty Dachstein Southface in the Austrian Alps
Motion parallax adds value An important prerequisite for 3D vision is the understanding of different speeds at which two objects at different depths are viewed by an observer. Objects closer to the observer move relatively faster sideward than the objects that are further away (if the observer moves laterally). The images on the observer’s retina behave accordingly. This effect is simulated by the lenticular technique. The viewer can use it to ‘shift’ objects on a static map by moving his head in order to see which object is located above the other. Thus it is possible to overlay map symbols, cartographic labeling and even map inserts in different spaces. Empirical studies carried out by TU Dresden and Bochum University in Germany demonstrated that the use of the motion parallax achieves a higher information transfer. Initial findings of the study prove that the changeable central perspective caused by the lenticular autostereoscopic threedimensionality allows the observer to discern superimposed (vertically staggered) map symbols in the horizontal direction. The advantage towards 2D maps is the possibility to perceive map symbols laying on the map basis behind diagrams or other map symbols needing big space requirements. However currently, it is important to comply with comparatively big minimum dimensions for map symbols. Recent developments Today, digital autostereoscopic three-dimensionality is available on devices such as autostereoscopic TV sets, digital picture frames, smartphones, portable game consoles, tablet computers, and notebooks. They use the same technique as 3D monitors. Offering detachable masks with such devices is the latest trend. The user can simply remove a mask from the device and go back to watching 2D content. A lot more is in store but the ‘classical’ cartographic 3D methods will continue to be used. Both the classical planar 3D visualisation methods
as well as advanced autostereoscopic developments will have their special fields of application. Prof Manfred F. Buchroithner, Director, Institute for Cartography, TU Dresden, Germany manfred.buchroithner@tu-dresden.de References: Bollmann, J. (1985): Theoretische Grundlagen zur Modellierung thematischer Karten. Habilitationsschrift (Professoral Dissertation; unpublished), FU Berlin. Buchroithner, M. F. (2007): Echtdreidimensionalität in der Kartographie: Gestern, heute und morgen. Kartographische Nachrichten, 57/5, pp. 239–248. Buchroithner, M. F. & Knust, C. (2013): The Third Dimension in Cartography: Recent and Future Developments Die dritte Dimension in der Kartographie: rezente und zukünftige Entwicklungen. Kartographische Nachrichten, 2013, 127 – 132. Dickmann, F. & Schmidt, B. (2011): Der Einsatz von Schrift in lentikularen Print-Karten. In: Kartographische Nachrichten (4/2011): pp. 204–208. Knust, C. & Buchroithner, M. F. (2013): Principles and Terminology of True-3D Geovisualisation. The Cartographic Journal, Vol. 50, No. ? (in print). Koch, W. G. (2002): Raumverständnis und Raumkonzepte in der theoretischen Kartographie. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der TU Dresden, 51, 4–5, pp. 41–48. Rase, W.-D. (2012): Creating Physical 3D Maps Using Rrapid Prototyping Techniques. In: Buchroithner, M.F. (Ed.): True-3D in Cartography – Autosteroscopic and Solid Visualisation of Geodata. Springer Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, pp. 119–134. Riedl, A. (2012): State-of-the-art of tactile hyperglobes. In: M. F. Buchroithner (Ed.): True-3D in Cartography – Autosteroscopic and Solid Visualisation of Geodata. Springer Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, pp. 215–226. Schmidt, B. (2012): Möglichkeiten der Lentikulartechnik als themakartographisches Visualisierungsverfahren. PhD Dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faculty of Social Science. Spiess, E. (1974): Weiterbildungskurs „Thematische Kartographie“. Unveröff. Manuskript, Schweiz. Gesellschaft für Kartographie, Zürich.
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The Atlas of
experience Traditionally, cartographers have had a limited scope of doing actual user research. But the growing interest that the domain has experienced in the recent times calls for increased attention to use, user and usability research in cartography and geoinformation processing
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aps appeal to many people. Therefore, maps have often been used for decoration purposes and imaginary cartography projects like The Atlas of Experience (van Swaaij & Klare, 2000) became very popular. Throughout history maps have been made “for fun” by people who are just excited about maps. These days maps are made for fun even by non-professionals because it is relatively easy to produce your own maps with tools like Google Maps. Many people are making neogeography maps which are meant for their personal use only. However, most maps, or tools to generate maps, are made to be used by others as well. This is because maps are effective and efficient tools to communicate geospatial information. The most important function of map displays is to create generalised overviews to scale of the visible and invisible
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world in which people move and act. Static paper maps have always provided answers to the ‘where and what’ questions, and today’s interactive and mobile maps are giving answers to even the ‘when’ question too. Growing interest in use, user and usability research About 60 years ago, we saw the birth of scientific map-use research, which investigated whether maps provided such answers in an effective, efficient and satisfying way. Those efforts led to better maps and made geospatial tools more popular than before. However, in the second half of the past century, user research suffered from a number of problems. First, there were not enough academic cartographers around. The ones who were there had to focus on the rapid technological developments such as transition from paper
maps to computer-generated dynamic map displays. Secondly, until the turn of the century, (re-)production of a new map display in the professional cartographic domain was relatively expensive and time-consuming despite the introduction of computer-assisted cartography. Therefore, the results of usability research could not be implemented immediately in an improved map product. Also, professional cartographers did not have enough resources to do sensible user research. However, with the technological revolution slowing down a bit in the last decade or so, and interactive and dynamic maps becoming commonplace, the interest in use, user and usability research in cartography has grown enormously. This growing interest has ensured that the results of research can be implemented rather easily and quickly with fewer expenses than ever before. The technological revolution has also introduced new techniques for this kind of research. User research challenges User research in cartography could be classified into two categories: research that looks into the cognitive aspects (dealing with questions such as how maps work and how human beings derive meaning from map displays?) and more functional and holistic user research that deals with the questions ‘Does it (the map) work?’ (van Elzakker & Griffin, 2013). This distinction is reflected by the existence of two separate commissions in the International Cartographic Association: the Commission on Cognitive Visualisation (www.geo.uzh.ch/ microsite/icacogvis/ ) and the Commission on Use and User Issues (www.univie.ac.at/icacomuse/ ). Since its establishment in 2007, the members of the Commission on Use and User Issues realised that the focus should not anymore be solely on investigating the usability of map products through common research techniques like questionnaires and interviews (which even today happens to be a common conception of cartographic user research for many professionals and students in the geospatial domain). The members shifted focus to more current and relevant cartographic user research issues like the full implementation of user-centred design; the need for more attention to requirement analysis; the implementation of new research techniques; the need for broadening of research scope and for doing research in the proper context; and the developments in the fields of neogeography and neocartography. In the past, many cartographers pleaded for standardisation of map designing and suggested introduction of more mapreading courses in education. However, cartographic standardisation could not be achieved easily (except in, for instance, hydrographic and aeronautical charting) and there was hardly any room for map-use education in the school curricula. While
cartographers, as the geoinformation communication specialists did take into account the intended uses and users of the maps they had to design, they did not do that in a systematic way. Besides, they also did not do systematic usability research themselves or could not implement the results of such research immediately. Nowadays, there are more and more pleas for following systematic user-centred design approaches. In such approaches, sometimes referred to as usability engineering, the usability of a map product is still investigated but prototype improvements can also be implemented rather easily and iteratively because technology allows this. Even more importantly, it is pertinent to pay much more systematic attention to the first stage of user-centred design — the ‘requirement analysis’ stage, which is perhaps even more important than usability testing. In this regard, cartographers can learn a lot from the general industrial product and software designers who are more familiar with so-called requirements engineering. Cartographers should also interact with specialists in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), just like they did at a workshop on GeoHCI in Paris in April 2013 (http:// geohci2013.grouplens.org/ ). A more intensive exchange of knowledge would help because HCI-researchers too have indicated that they want to increase their geospatial understanding as location-based services, navigation systems and applications like Google Maps have become more popular. In cartographic and geospatial domains, there has been limited application of specific user research methods and techniques. The tendency was, and very often still is, to ask the opinions of representative users through surveys and interviews. This tendency is also brought about by the idea that research must always be quantitative and that many test persons must be involved. However, from other design disciplines we may learn that the implementation of alternative as well as qualitative user research methods and techniques has and can lead to results which are more useful, particularly in the earlier stages of the user-centred design process. For instance, Delikostidis (2011) applied a combination of user research techniques based on the ‘think aloud method’. In the requirement analysis stage
In cartographic and geospatial domains, there has been limited application of specific user research methods and techniques. The tendency is to ask the opinions of representative users through surveys and interviews. Geospatial World | November 2013
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for the design of a prototype of a new pedestrian navigation system, he asked representative test persons to execute a number of navigation tasks. While they were executing these tasks, Delikostidis observed their actions, and the surrounding environment with video recording and mobile screen logging. He asked them to speak out loud what they were thinking during the task execution. This test was preceded by a questionnaire and concluded by an interview. This combination of research techniques was also used to test the first version of his prototype and revealed many useful insights. Indeed, the mixed methods approach appears to be very useful as each method focuses on a different use aspect. A new user research method which arouses lot of interest in geospatial domain is ‘eye-tracking’. It is clear that this technique also makes sense only in a mixed methods setting because we need to know why and when users look at something in particular. User research techniques like eye-tracking and thinking aloud were already known outside the geospatial domain. The main issue is how to implement these methods and techniques in the geospatial domain which presents a very specific use and user environment. After all, when users use map tools, they link the surrounding geographical environment with what they already know about that environment (their ‘mental maps’) and the representation of that environment (through e.g. a map display). This is what happens, for instance, when human beings use navigation systems. Such systems also establish the fact that when doing user research in cartography, a focus on map-use alone will be too limited. After all, in navigation systems as well as many other modern cartographic dissemination tools, the dynamic and interactive map displays are embedded in specific hardware and software environments with specific interfaces. They are the windows of specifically User research in the designed databases filled field for designing with specific geographic a pedestrian data. The requirements, navigation system uses, users and usability of 36
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these databases, interfaces, hardware and software tools have to be investigated in conjunction with the map displays themselves to better help the users who are in need of geoinformation. In short: a ‘broadening of scope’ is required in cartographic user research. Another user research issue is that the investigations have to be executed in ‘proper use context’. This does not only mean that navigation systems have to be tested in the field, but, by preference, also by test persons who are in need of geospatial information. The test persons should be really engaged and eager to find an answer to their ‘where, when and what’ questions. The recent trend of neogeography Nowadays, people voluntarily collect geographic data, generate maps and share their maps with others. This trend has led to initiatives like the OpenStreetMap. Investigating the usability of OpenStreetMap, its uses and its users (who are also the data generators) is one of the most challenging research issues. We should not only look at the resulting volunteered geographic information (VGI) and map displays, but also at the hardware and software tools that are used for collecting and uploading the geographic data. The results of such research could really help to further stimulate the application of VGI for solving geographic problems of our world. In view of the relatively short tradition of use, user and usability research in the geospatial domain, much work remains to be done. Dr Corné P.J.M. van Elzakker, Assistant Professor, University of Twente, The Netherlands; Chair, ICA Commission on Use and User Issues c.vanelzakker@utwente.nl References: Delikostidis, I. (2011), Improving the usability of pedestrian navigation systems. Enschede, University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information and Earth Observation (ITC), 2011. ITC Dissertation 181. Moseme, M.T. & C.P.J.M. van Elzakker (2012), Neogeography Map Users and Uses. In: Proceedings of AutoCarto 2012 : the international symposium on Automated Cartography, Columbus, Ohio, USA, September 16-18, 2012. Van Elzakker, C.P.J.M. & K. Wealands (2007), Use and users of multimedia cartography. In: Multimedia cartography. / ed. by W. Cartwright, M. Peterson and G. Gartner. Second edition. Berlin : Springer, 2007. Van Elzakker, C.P.J.M. & A.L. Griffin (2013), Focus on geoinformation users : cognitive and use / user issues in contemporary cartography. In: GIM International, 27 (2013)8 pp. 20-23. Van Swaaij, L. & J. Klare (2000), The Atlas of Experience. Translated by D. Winner. Bloomsbury USA; Har/Map edition.
A New Image for Surveying Software A field image is displayed in Trimble Business Center. Photos can be linked to measured points for documentation and detail.
As imaging technology expands in the field, office software is evolving as well. Modern desktop software integrates traditional survey data with ground and aerial images to produce new flexibility and cost savings. By Chris Gibson
We’re experiencing a technological growth spurt. Again. Imaging has always been an important part of surveying. Sketches, diagrams and photographs have long been part of surveyors’ records. Today, the use of imaging technology rapidly is changing the way surveyors work in the field. With the emergence of digital cameras, surveyors routinely collect images at low cost, using digital photos to collect and manage reference information and details.
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It’s common to find survey crews equipped with some form of digital camera. It may be a separate device, a smartphone or—increasingly common— integrated into a rugged field computer or handheld controller. Imaging technology is making its way into field instruments as well. Spatial stations, 3D scanners and a growing number of total stations are equipped with integrated video systems. The change is affecting not only surveyors; broad arrays of geospatial disciplines are seeing rapid growth in visual information. GIS data collection, mapping, monitoring and stakeout use photos to supplement written and digital data. Given the nearly ubiquitous presence of digital cameras, it’s no surprise that we are seeing more photos from survey sites. But while having a camera in a surveying instrument is important, it’s only part
of the job. The bigger news has come from the office, where desktop software is quickly bringing the power of imaging technology into mainstream survey processes. To understand the value that imaging brings to the complete survey process, we need to see how imaging data can be managed and utilized to enhance the surveyor’s services and deliverables. For example, it’s common to take photos of markers, job sites and features needed to document a project. Field crews use cameras in their instruments or field controllers to capture and store the images. In many cases, these images are downloaded—along with other job information—with the image files linked or referenced as an attribute to given points in the project. Modern desktop systems handle the file management automatically, storing images in job directories and ensuring that the appropriate images are attached to a given point. This automation helps manage large datasets, but doesn’t take full advantage of the large amount of information that is inherent in each photo. While the images can be viewed and shared, they have the potential to be an even more effective part of the office workflow. Filling this gap requires some new approaches to desktop software. Geospatial World | November 2013
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Trimble VISION provides real-time video display on field controller. Images can be stored for use in the office.
Using imaging for surveying requires field images to be correctly aligned with measured survey points. Accurate alignment enables office technicians to create the same view that the survey crew had in the field. Calibrated cameras and georeferencing ensures that survey data such as points and observed vectors can be accurately overlaid on the images. The office technician can then review the field work to confirm that the required features and measurements were collected. Gaps or blunders can be quickly identified and—as we’ll see soon— corrected in the office. Some field instruments can automatically turn horizontally and vertically to capture multiple images to produce a panoramic view of a project. Because the camera is in a different position for each image it captures, the office software must resolve and correctly align the individual images into a single panorama. This calls for the office software to have a deep “understanding” of the field imaging systems. As one example, Trimble® Business Center (TBC) software used in conjunction with instruments equipped with Trimble VISION™ technology makes it possible to efficiently develop realistic panoramic images. The software automatically corrects for data parallax and can balance exposures to provide more even lighting and focus. The resulting panoramic view is an excellent tool for helping clients and stakeholders visualize a site or structure. The panorama provides a good overview of the project as well as detailed visual data on features and conditions. 38
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Field imaging also provides the raw data needed for basic photogrammetry. This is done by utilizing an instrument’s calibrated, georeferenced camera. Let’s say we need to measure an object that is difficult to access even using direct reflex measurement. To take the measurements, the field crew simply needs to use Trimble VISION to capture images of the object from two or more different perspectives. In the office, the technician can view the images in TBC and select the object as it appears in each of the images. The software’s virtual telescope lets the technician select specific pixels in each image. The software then computes the 3D coordinates from the photogrammetric observations. This process is fast and simple. Office technicians can use photogrammetry to select and compute any number of discrete points. Each new point can be assigned a point identifier, feature code and attributes. With this technique, the surveyor can achieve the long-sought goal of the “survey in the office.” It gets even better. Surveyors can collect field-measured points to provide control or ground truth for the photogrammetry computations. As a result, surveyors will have good confidence in understanding the precision and accuracy of the office-measured points. The photogrammetric approach is an ideal solution for complex or difficult objects. For example, instead of trying to measure all the fixtures on a cellular tower,
the field crew needs only to capture a few images and measurements to obvious features on the tower. With this data in hand, the bulk of the measuring can be done at the desktop. There are many more applications for terrestrial photogrammetry, including surveys of transportation structures, building facades, earthwork volumes, and oil and gas facilities. At NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, GIS Analyst Jason Hall used a Trimble VX™ spatial station to capture images of a building on the research campus. “We’re getting into using photogrammetry with the VX,” Hall said. “We took some photos that we used for door locations. It’s a big help to just set up and shoot a few images.” Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer significant savings in time and cost for survey data collection. While the small aircraft provide speed and flexibility in field operations, the productivity of the overall process relies on the ability to quickly compile the images to produce actionable information. Traditionally, the work to process dozens or hundreds of aerial images would be handled by powerful workstations and specialized technical staff, which can add time and cost to the deliverables. According to TBC marketing manager Carl Thompson, processing terrestrial images differs from airborne images. “Terrestrial images come from a series of station views with a common point origin,” he said. “These can be quickly tied together to produce georeferenced orthophotos.” In contrast, airborne imagery consists of linked images along the flight path. These multi-station images have different perspectives and require much more processing power. Today, even the high-end photogrammetric processing required for UAS imagery can be handled using desktop computers and software. The TBC photogrammetry module incorporates sophisticated processing functionality based on Trimble Inpho® software to provide mass data management and modeling. Surveyors can collect ground control using GNSS or total stations and then process and adjust the terrestrial data using traditional methods. The photogrammetry module can directly access the ground data for use in registering the images to produce orthophotos, 3D point clouds and surface models. Thanks to the growth of imaging, surveyors can enhance the variety and value of their services and products. At California-based consulting firm Psomas, imaging has become a common tool. Jeremy Evans, technical director for land surveying and mapping, said that it is common to combine individual points
Trimble Business Center software integrates traditional survey data with ground and aerial images to produce new flexibility and cost savings.
Overhead views from Trimble UAS can provide measurements of buildings and ground conditions.
Survey data overlaid on image taken with integrated camera shows measured points. Direct reflex measurement provides survey precision to inaccessible points.
Coupled with GNSS or total station positioning, the Trimble V10 imaging rover captures high-resolution georeferenced photos. The panoramic images can be used in surveying, GIS, inventories and other applications. Geospatial World | November 2013
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Trimble VISION enables operators to see what the total station sees, and to capture images for processing and analysis. The real-time video and direct reflex measurement make it easy to capture inaccessible features.
with images and scanning data. The company performs a lot of street and intersection surveys, and the imaging capabilities help keep crews out of the streets. “We can use scanning in the Trimble VX to collect 500 to 600 points per hour, even in busy intersections,” Evans said. “The points are combined with photos, and we can then extract information as needed by the engineers.” According to Thompson, the imaging and photogrammetry capabilities provided by modern desktop software enable the surveyor to add five new types of deliverables to their services. These include:
• Orthographic images compiled from multiple photos taken using terrestrial or airborne cameras.
• Coordinate points and attributes determined using discrete measurements within the orthophotos.
• Surface models of large or small areas developed using aerial images and photogrammetry.
• 3D point clouds based on aerial imagery and controlled with terrestrial GNSS or optical systems.
• New metadata, which consist of information such
as condition, color and the presence or absence of specific features. This new class of data provides vision-based information to augment conventional position and attribute data. To understand the value of the deliverables, consider applications in mining and landfill management. A landfill may request the surveyor to provide orthophotos and computations on volumes and changes, while a mine will ask for point clouds, 3D surface models and orthophotos to conduct its own volume computations, planning and design. The photos are also useful for jobsite monitoring and tracking portable assets. A series of orthophotos, taken 40
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over time, provides strong documentation on the activities and progress on a landfill, mine or construction site. The surveyor’s value comes not only from the new, photogrammetry-based deliverables. The surveyor can also provide value through services and expertise in utilizing the information. For example, because many clients can’t use point clouds or models derived from imagery, a surveyor can provide additional services in extracting, analyzing and formatting specialized information for delivery to downstream users and software. These services, along with strong tools for presentation and visualization, help the surveyor or geospatial professional develop a solid relationship and deeper insight with the clients and their needs. Evans’ colleague at Psomas, Sean Logal, takes advantage of the combined technologies when working for different clients in performing work as varied as ALTA surveys and pavement deformation studies. “Each client has different skill sets,” he said. “You encounter different types of software depending on whether you’re working with an A&E firm or an architect.” Logal said that output for his A&E clients is typically based around CAD deliverables and surface models, while architects may be able to take the Psomas data directly into BIM. Logal knows that the ability to utilize imagery, field measurements and design data in a single software package provides a competitive advantage. “After I’ve applied all these new technologies and software, at the end of the day I’ve got a quantifiable and measurable savings,” he said. “It gives me a better way to manage my data flow back and forth from the field and in the office. Those are big things to me.” Christopher W. Gibson is vice president for Trimble’s survey, geospatial, GIS, imaging, infrastructure, rail, land administration and environmental solutions businesses.
Cybercartography
Cartography in the age of location Cybercartography, or the application of geographic information processing to analyse topics of interest for the society and display of such results in easily understandable cartographic forms, is the way forward
The centrality of location to everyday life In an earlier issue of Geospatial World, Stephen Lawler of Microsoft Bing Maps argued that “The ‘where’ dimension is one of the most natural, powerful, insightful and intuitive ways to explore the rapidly growing world of data and services.” (Lawler 2013) The advent of GPS has led not only to ubiquitous mapping from companies such as Google and Microsoft but also to an increasing number of location-based services. As the location strategy of the United Kingdom observes “everything happens somewhere” (Lawrence 2013). More people became aware of, and used, Google maps within a matter of weeks than had used GIS since its in-
ception several decades ago and location-based products and, more importantly, location-based services continue to grow exponentially. A recent market survey by the Boston Consulting Group (2012) has shown that the impact of geospatial services in the US economy is 15 to 20 times that of the dedicated geospatial industry. In 2011 the geospatial industry generated $73 billion in revenues and employed over 500,000 people. Geospatial services generated $1.6 trillion in revenue and employed 5.3 million workers or over 4% of the US workforce. A second survey conducted in 2012 by Oxera Consulting Ltd (2013) at the global level showed that geoinformation added $113 billion to the world economy in 2012, which made up to 0.2% of the world’s Gross National Product of $70 trillion. Both studies also estimated that the economic impact of location and location-based services was growing at the rate of 30% per year.
Left: The Frontline Health Atlas is an initiative of the Canadian Public Health Association to enable exploration of projects that address the social determinants of health in Canada. Right: Views from the North atlas is a collaborative project undertaken by the Inuit training programme Nunavut Sivuniksavut and Carleton University with contributions from the Library and Archives of Canada
Courtesy: Carleton University
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aps and the process of mapping are central to societies all over the world. It has been suggested that the mapping instinct is inherent in the DNA of humans and Kate Harmon (2004) has gone as far as to suggest that “I map therefore I am”. Maps are much more than wayfinding devices and the process of mapping can take many forms only one of which is the traditional paper map. There are at least three functions which maps serve: • The map as a material artefact which is how most people think of maps • The map as a cognitive construct indicative of how people perceive the space in which they live and their place in that space • The map as a social construct including issues such as the power of maps in society as outlined by Brian Harley (Harley 1989) and others
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Cybercartography
There is no simple ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to many questions. To understand these complexities, different ontologies or narratives should be presented in ways that people can easily understand. Cybercartographic atlases do this
From left: Inuit siku (sea ice) Atlas; the Cybercartographic Atlases of Antarctica; and the first map in the Cybercartographic Atlas of the Lake Huron Treaty Relationship Process
Added to this is the increasing social impact in terms of social networking and related activities as most cell phones and mobile devices have a location identifier built in. We are truly entering the ‘Age of Location’, where location permeates almost every aspect of daily life. Maps & mapping in the age of location The centrality of the more traditional map, albeit in interactive and online form, is evident in the use of the Ordnance Survey’s OS MasterMap in the United Kingdom. The Ordnance Survey website is replete with examples of cost savings in a whole variety of application fields underpinned by OS MasterMap. OS MasterMap consists of over 450 million geographical objects at a high level of detail and is updated every day, where an average over 10,000 changes are made (Lawrence 2013). It consists of a number of detailed layers: a topography layer; an integrated transport network layer; an address layer; an imaging layer; a sites layer; and in 2014, a fully operational networks-water layer will be added. OS MasterMap is used by governments, often in cooperation with the private sector, to underpin a wide range of applications to analyse and visualise data. One of the more recent examples is that of Blackpool Council, which is using OS MasterMap for highways and footway maintenance and estimates savings of over £100 million over 25 years. OS MasterMap is an interesting example of the utility of mapping in the Age of Location but for the full impact of maps and mapping to
be realised, we must extend the dimensions of cartography both in technical and, in particular, conceptual terms and create new multidimensional maps and new mapping applications. Maps must become even more central to all aspects of society. Tim Berners-Lee (2006-2009) has identified two major challenges for the future of the Web: The need to link datasets on disparate topic into a coherent whole; and the need to display the information in innovative new ways. New forms of cartography, and in particular, cybercartography, has the potential to meet both challenges. Cybercartography Cybercartography can be simply defined as the application of geographic information processing to the analysis of topics of interest to society and the display of the results in new cartographic forms that people can readily understand. It is multimedia, multisensory and interactive and is not a stand alone product like the traditional map but part of an information/analytical package including both qualitative and quantitative information. Cybercartography is underpinned by six central ideas: • People use all of their senses in learning. Consequently, cybercartography creates representations which allow them to do this through cybercartographic atlases. • People learn in different ways and prefer teaching and learning materials in different
Courtesy: Carleton University
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formats. Cybercartographic atlases provide people with a choice of learning styles or combinations of learning styles. The same information is presented in multiple formats. • Effective teaching and learning takes place best when individuals are actively involved and engaged. The multimedia and interactive approaches used in cybercartographic atlases facilitate this. • People need the power to create their own narratives, i.e. the social computing revolution. The Cybercartographic Atlas Framework provides a mechanism for doing this, which gives some structure and metadata indicating the quality and nature of the narratives that people create. The Framework is also open source and does not require special knowledge in order to create a narrative. • Many topics of interest to society are very complex. There is no simple ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to many questions such as global warming and climate change. To understand these complexities, different ontologies or narratives on the same topic should be presented in ways that people can easily understand without privileging one over the other. Cybercartographic atlases do this. Of particular importance is giving voices to local people. They can speak for themselves rather than having others speak for them. • There has been a shift from ‘map user’ to ‘map creator’, which establishes new forms of democratised teaching and learning. The Cybercartographic Atlas Framework helps to democratise mapping in new ways and provides a framework for Volunteered Geographic Information. Cybercartographic atlases The cybercartographic atlas is the main product of cybercartography. Cybercartography uses the map as an organising principle but tries to capture a wide range of information in a variety of formats only one of which is the map. A cybercartographic atlas is a metaphor for all kinds of quantitative and qualitative information linked by location. Cybercarto-
graphic atlases have been produced on a wide variety of topics from the Inuit use of sea ice to Canada’s trade with the United States. Conclusion Cybercartography combines the three functions which maps serve as outlined earlier — the map as a material artefact, the map as a cognitive construct, and the map as a social construct — and does so in new ways. It helps make maps central to the Age of Location. A fuller description of the issues discussed in this short article appears in Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography: Applications and Indigenous Mapping to be published by Elsevier in 2014. D.R. Fraser Taylor Distinguished Research Professor & Director, Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada fraser.taylor@carleton.ca
References Berners-Lee, T., (2006 last updated 2009). Notes on Design Issues and Linked Data. Http://www. w3.org/designissues/linked data.html (accessed October 10 , 2013). Boston Consulting Group (2012). Putting the US Geospatial Services Industry on the Map. Report prepared for Google, Boston: Boston Consulting Group. Harley, J.B. (1989). Deconstructing the Map. Cartographica 26 (2): 1-20. Harmon, K. (2004). You are Here: Personal Geographies and Maps of the Imagination, New York: Princeton Academic Press. Lawler, S. (2013). Where is the Future? The Future is “where”, Geospatial World, 06: 92-94. Lawrence, V. (2013). The Ordnance survey MasterMap®. Keynote address to the International Conference on Geography and Environment, Mexico City, October. Oxera Consulting Ltd. (2013). What is the Economic Impact of Geo Services? Prepared for Google, Oxford and Brussels: Oxera Consulting, 32 pages. Taylor, D. R. Fraser (ed) and Lauriault, T.P. (associate ed) (2013 in press). Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography: Applications and Indigenous Mapping, Amsterdam: Elsevier.
There has been a shift from ‘map user’ to ‘map creator’, which establishes new forms of democratised teaching and learning. The Cybercartographic Atlas Framework helps democratise mapping
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Cartography | Interview
‘It’s the people,
not the cartographer, drawing the maps today’
The wisdom of the entire society is helping us make a better map of the world, believes Michael T. Jones, Chief Technology Advocate, Google. The man who conceived Google Earth, then Keyhole Inc, sees maps becoming ubiquitous and as implicit as time in the near future How has the concept of mapping evolved in the past few years? It has evolved in two ways. There is a direct connection of mapping now in the lives of more than a billion people who use Google Maps and Google Earth every day. And it’s not just Google; the presence of maps in people’s daily lives has increased tremendously in the last 5-10 years. The second thing is maps have become a personal thing — they are not only about geography but also about restaurants or shops people want to visit. Today, it’s the people, and not the cartographer, asking the questions. Maps are interactive now, and users are also creators of maps. Like most things in technology, the new thing isn’t a new idea. It’s an old desire made possible by other new technologies. In this case, maps were popularised and consumerised through mobile devices. The concept of maps over the years has changed. There used to be just some sketches 20 years back; now there’s satellite imagery, Google Maps, Google Earth, aerial view etc. Do you think the term cartography will completely vanish in the times to come? The new never replaces the old, it just adds to the old. The two aspects of mapping that are really important are precision and selectivity. What defines a map is what you leave out of it. So a bicycle map of Delhi won’t have all the highways on it. If there’s a map needed for children in school, it won’t have names of business companies. The art is to take things out of the map so that the information is more precise. You have likened Google Maps to Dr Johnson’s dictionary. What is your vision of the new literature that could emerge
from the mapping dictionary that’s now being built? I did compare Google Maps to a dictionary and Google Earth to an encyclopedia. The key character of dictionaries and encyclopedias is that there is a single objective truth. They have a proper definition of a word or comprehensive description of a place; you can always make it better by making it more precise but there are no major disagreements. What is happening with mapping is really exciting. Each smartphone user is participating in making the world’s real-time traffic map. So you can imagine a future where phones have sensors and if someone is carrying explosives in a train, the phones can sniff that. This is just an example. But in the future each person will become a sensor because they have sensors in their phone and they are moving around and detecting things and covering the whole world. So the future is ubiquitous mapping where the user and the map become one? That’s probably where the future is headed. Another way of thinking about it is where the map is a conversation. You don’t just show users a map and they don’t just look at it; but they also ask questions about the map and the result comes back as a dialogue. The idea of having people as the eyes and ears of the mapmaker seems fantastic. Will we ever see an automatic map updating itself without human intervention, say, using artificial intelligence? You can’t know about certain things without human intervention. For instance, how do you know which is the backdoor and which is main
door of this building unless somebody tells you? While the physical truth can come from many sources, the meaning of things needs to come from people. It is important to improve all these city maps but that can only happen when people point out the mistakes. That can’t be done by artificial intelligence. The wisdom of the entire society is helping you make a better map. How can this consumer interest in mapping be monetised? At Google, we have a way of monetising highvolume Websites with advertisements. We don’t really have an advice for the world on other ways. Newspapers are charging people for online papers, so that could be one way. Another idea could be things like clubs or user groups. For instance, you join a hiking club and the membership gives you access to maps of hiking trails. People are ready to pay as long as you give them what they need. That money could be used to reward the people gathering this data and a little bit for the company doing the work. That seems scalable. I see a future where every business would want to be on a map. So a business owner will pick his office space and look at the mapmaker — Apple, Google or Microsoft — to tell how people can find his office. It’s becoming common, and 20 years down the line this will become a practice. You can imagine a world where businesses will become active partners in publishing information. So, are we looking at something like customised maps? If you look at a map in Google Maps now, you will see a city with major roads in bold colours and other roads in lighter colours and thinner
Google Maps of Paris showing the Streetview option
Presence of maps in our daily lives has increased in the last 5-10 years. Maps are a personal thing now — they are not only about geography but also about restaurants or shops people want to visit
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Cartography | Interview
Just like time is an invisible part of our lives, so is ‘geospatial’. It’s always there for guidance and it’s being delivered to you in ways that feel natural
Left: Google Maps outside India shows the disputed borders in Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh in dotted lines. Right: Google Maps India however complies with the Indian government’s version of the nation’s boundaries and the lines are not broken
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lines. When you search for a route, all the roads that are not on your route except for the major streets diminish on the map. It’s a lot of effort, because we are giving every user the kind of map he needs. It’s tailored like a custom-made suit just made for you! It will be a social change to expect customised maps. Within the geospatial industry, there is an interesting trend — the term ‘geo’ is no more confined to ‘spatial’. The spatial term is working separately — now it is even in virtual space as well as underwater. Does ‘geo-spatial’ as a term have a future or will we be using only ‘spatial’ after some years? It’s a funny way of putting that. I don’t have a direct answer. But I have a thought. Time is part of everything but people don’t really talk about time… they don’t say that the car is at this place at this time. Time is implicit. Looking ahead, I think what could happen is the technology becomes so pervasive that it becomes a part of you — it’s built in your glasses, on your phone and in your ears. Maybe the map itself becomes less important, but the location and the information would be just as important. For example, if you think of a map with driving directions on it, you have Google Glasses. But do you want to look up and see the glasses or the map or the little arrow? When you are looking for directions you don’t want to keep looking at the map and walk around; you want to look at the world. So if you need to go left you get one vibration on your device, two vibrations for, say, right. This way you can keep the phone in your pocket and walk around and not get lost. Just like time
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is an invisible part of our lives, so is ‘geospatial’. It’s always there for guidance and it’s being delivered to you in ways that feel natural. You can imagine a world where you have great guidance and no devices. What are your views on indoor location? No player has been able to solve this puzzle yet. It’s important to have the right kind of information to get to one building from another. It’s possible in the US. But it may not be that easy in Japan or India because the buildings are poorly numbered. Also, indoor location is a two-way thing. We need the building owners as partners in this to help us understand what to do. Indoor location is going to ride on mobiles and sensors. People talk about BIM technology, but BIM models don’t capture the changing use of a building because the characters of big buildings last a long time. For example, you may have a restaurant in this place, but after some years, there could be two different restaurants. The changing things may not be caught in the original model. It’s people in the building or the company who have to decide which part is what. To date, most of Google’s indoor mapping is with data where the people we gather data about are part of the project. What have been the political ramifications of commoditisation of maps? Google faces censure from governments across the world… There are about 250 places on earth where nations argue about the borders or ownership. Before Google Maps or Google Earth, maps were drawn from the point of view of particular
countries or communities. For instance, if you are a map company working in, say, Sweden, you will make maps for the Swedish people. You won’t really worry if it’s not the same as the next country. So everybody can pretend that the world is their way but no one is really arguing if it’s the right way. When Google came up with its maps, we had a choice — to do things differently for each country or do the same thing. So we came to a solution – mark disputed borders. Take Kashmir for instance. Keeping the Indo-Pak border dispute in mind, we showed the area as disputed. And we thought the countries will respect us for that; but it turned out that we made enemies of them because even though we didn’t take sides, we acknowledged that there was a dispute. So out of 205 countries with border disputes, I would say 10 have issues. In countries like the United States or UK, if there’s a dispute, their ambassadors take it to the UN to argue about it. But in some countries, it’s illegal to even talk about the fact. And those are on my list of suspicious countries. I think it’s very misleading for the citizens. So we have been very resistant in making changes about that. In China, this has caused some serious difficulty for us. It’s such a major legal issue that we weren’t able to show a map of China with borders. So if you go to the Chinese version of Google Maps, you will see that China has absolutely no borders. There are lines coming in from India and Mongolia and they kind of just stop near China. So that was the only way we could not violate their laws and yet not be forced to violate the truth. Google has faced problems with internal mapping in several countries too. Do you think the governments’ concern about ‘security’ has become some kind of a shackle? The inventor can only invent things, while it’s up to the society to decide what they want to do with it. My argument is that the people can find out about the disputes by reading. Hiding facts from citizens is not in the spirit of a democracy like in India. Often people complain about Google Earth showing things like military bases. And we
tell them that we don’t own the satellites; we just buy the images from a satellite company. So that means all the other customers of that company, say DigitalGlobe, have that picture of the military base. However, after having talked to a number of national leaders, I think their concerns are reasonable — this information could be used by harmful elements. But, take for instance the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 2008. It’s not as if we could make the Taj Mahal Hotel disappear from the maps! The attack would have happened no matter what. At the same time, I believe things like a BIM model that shows escape passage from the President’s House shouldn’t be on the Web. So it’s totally fine by us if some data is public and some is not. But I think things that we can see from the street should be made public. Not every city in the world has Google Streetview. It’s the choice of the people of a particular place. But there will be a time when people will resent the absence of technology; we get complaints from the people in Indonesia and Israel about why maps at some places are blurry. Do you think this consumerisation of maps is making better citizens of us? I would put it this way: Google Earth and Google Maps have made things easy for us. They have made people more aware of geography, environment etc. But as for this data being a mode of change, I am not sure. I would like to think that now that we are more informed, we will be better citizens and make the world a better place. But I don’t think the world is being more involved in solving the problems. I don’t think the emotional step happens with maps, but at least the intellectual step is happening. Having maps doesn’t change the people’s engagement in their society but people who want to be engaged at least have their information..
Google Maps show a city with major roads in bold colours and other roads in lighter colours and thinner lines. When you search for a route, all the roads that are not on your route except for the major streets diminish on the map
It will be a social change to expect customised maps. The art is to take things out of the map so that the information is more precise. The idea of having people as the eyes and ears of the mapmaker seems fantastic
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Cartography | Tool for Communication
User-centred approach is the key Courtesy: OpenStreetMap and Contributors, CC-BY-SA, map style from CloudMade
Maps are the perfect interface between a user and the data generated. They enable users to answer location-related questions, to support spatial behaviour, to enable spatial problem solving or simply to be able to become aware of space
The AffectRoute (green, 801 metres) and the shortest route (grey, 778 metres) of a given origin and destination. The AffectRoute is computed by considering people’s affective responses towards environment
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odern cartography is key to mankind. Without maps we would be “spatially blind”. Knowledge about spatial relations and location of objects are most important for enabling economic development, managing and administering land, handling disasters and crisis situations or simply to be able to make decision on a personal scale on where and how to go to a particular place. Currently, more spatial data than ever is produced in the geospatial domain. Sensors of all kinds are available, measuring values, storing them in databases which are linked to other databases being embedded in whole spatial data infrastructures, following standards and accepted rules. There 48
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is also no shortage of modern technologies for spatial data handling, including data acquisition (e.g. UAVs), data modelling (service-oriented architectures, cloud computing), data visualisation and dissemination (location-based services, augmented-reality). So, where are we now with all these brave new developments? Obviously we are not short of data; it is rather the opposite. But the real problem often is this abundance of data. We need to make more and more efforts, to deal with all the available data in an efficient manner, mine the relevant information and link and select the appropriate information for a particular scenario — a phenomenon described as ‘Big Data’. Often
Today maps can be created and used by any individual stocked with modest computing skills from virtually any location on the earth and for almost any purpose. Users are often present at the location of interest and produce maps that address instantaneous needs
Courtesy: Salzburg Research; map data: OpenStreetMap and Contributors, CC-BY-SA
application development starts there. Because we have access to data, we make something with them. We link them, we analyse them, and we produce applications out of them. I call this a data-driven approach. New technologies are also generated as we employ the full potential of a particular data acquisition, modelling or dissemination process. These need to be evaluated, addressed and applied; and often application development starts there. Because we have a new technology available, we make something with it. I call this a technology-driven approach. However, the particular need, demand, question or problem of a human user is often taken into account only when the data-driven or technology-driven application, product or system has been built. Often, this causes problems or leads to products, systems and applications which are not accepted, not efficient or simply not usable. By starting from the question what the demands, questions, problems or needs of human users are in respect to location, we could eventually apply data and technology in a sense that they serve such user-centred approaches rather than determine the use. But how can we unleash the potential of geoinformation using an interdisciplinary approach? How can we make sure that spatial data is really applicable for governments, for decision makers, for planners, for citizens through applications, products, systems which are not forcing them to adapt to the system but are easy-to-use and efficiently support the human user? Maps and cartography play a crucial role here. Maps are most efficient in enabling human users to understand complex situations. Maps can be understood as tools to order information by their spatial context. Maps can be seen as the perfect interface between a user and Big Data and thus enable users to answer location-related questions, to support spatial behaviour, to enable spatial problem solving or simply to be able to become aware of space.
Map-based navigation interface, with an egocentric view, distinction between the past and future paths, zooming and panning functions, etc
Revolution in map making Today maps can be created and used by any individual stocked with modest computing skills from virtually any location on the earth and for almost any purpose. In this new map-making paradigm, users are often present at the location of interest and produce maps that address instantaneous needs. Cartographic data may be digitally and/or wirelessly delivered in finalised form to the device in the hands of the user or he may derive the requested visualisation from downloaded data in situ. Rapid advances in technologies have enabled this revolution in map-making by millions of users. One such prominent advances includes the possibility to derive maps very quickly immediately after the data has been acquired by accessing and disseminating geoinformation through the Internet. Real-time data handling and visualisation are other significant developments as well as locationbased services, mobile cartography, augmented reality. While the above advances have enabled significant progress in the design and implementation of new ways of map producGeospatial World | November 2013
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tion in the past decade, many cartographic principles remain unchanged; the most important one being that maps are an abstraction of reality. Visualisation of selected information means that some features present in reality are depicted more prominently than others while many features might not even be depicted. Abstracting reality makes a map powerful, as it helps to understand and interpret complex situations efficiently. Abstraction is essential. Disaster management can be used as an example to illustrate the importance and power of abstract cartographic depictions. In the recovery phase, quick production of imagery of the affected area is required using depictions which allow the emergency teams to understand the situation on ground. Important on-going developments supporting the rescue work in the recovery phase are map derivation technologies, crowdsourcing and neo-cartography techniques and location-based services. The role of cartography in the protection phase of the disaster management cycle has always been crucial. In this phase risk maps are produced which enable governors, decision makers, experts and the general public alike to understand the kind and levels of risk present in the near and distant surroundings. Modern cartography enables the general public to participate in the modelling and visualising of the risks their neighbourhood may suffer from on a voluntary basis.
Courtesy: Salzburg Research
Cartography | Tool for Communication
AR-based navigation interface, with a camera view, route overlay, street names and relevant landmarks
is a key selector for which and how information is provided. Cartographic services will thus be widespread and of daily-use in a truly ubiquitous manner. People would feel spatially blind without using their map-based services, which enable them to see who or what is near them, get supported and do searches based on the current location, collect data on site accurately Cartography is relevant and timely. Modern cartography applications are already demCartography is also most contemporary, as new and innovaonstrating their huge potential and changing how we work, tive technologies have an important impact into what cartoghow we live and how we interact. raphers are doing. Maps can be derived automatically from The successful development of modern cartography regeodata acquisition methods such as laser scanning, remote quires integrated interdisciplinary approaches from such dosensing or sensor-networks. Smart models of geodata can be mains as computer science, communication science, humanbuilt allowing in-depth analysis of structures and patterns. A computer interaction, telecommunication sciences, cognitive whole range of presentation forms are available nowadays, sciences, law, economics, geospatial information managefrom maps on mobile phones all the way to geoinformation ment and cartography. It is those interdisciplinary approaches presented as augmented reality presentations. which make sure that we work towards human-centred application developments by applying innovative engineering Where are we heading? methods and tools in a highly volatile technological frameWhat we can expect in the near future is availability of infor- work. A number of important technology-driven trends have mation anytime and anywhere. In its provision and delivery, it a major impact on what and how we create, access and use is tailored to the user’s context and needs. In this, the context maps, creating previously unimaginable amounts of locationreferenced information and thus put cartographic services in the centre of the focus of research and development. In this situation, it is of high importance that those who are interested in maps, mapping and cartography work together on a global level.
Cartography is also most contemporary, as new and innovative technologies have an important impact into what cartographers are doing 50
Geospatial World | November 2013
Dr Georg Gartner, President, International Cartographic Association georg.gartner@tuwien.ac.at
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Geospatial World | May 2013
Special Focus | Health Care
Healthy wealthy and
GIS
Healthcare professionals across geographies use geospatial technology as a weapon in their fight against dreaded diseases. Where are the new wars being fought and how is the geospatial arsenal helping humankind win them?
T
he recent partial government shutdown in the US threw the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into a tizzy as it interrupted the publishing of the weekly influenza outbreak maps. “I am losing sleep now because I do not know if we will be able to find and stop things that might kill people,” said CDC Director Dr Thomas Frieden in an interview with CBS News early October. “What’s happening with flu? Where is it spreading? What types of flu are spreading? Is it in nursing homes or elsewhere? This really interferes with our ability to protect people.” And that is not all. CDC also has to worry about other outbreaks, including hepatitis A, salmonella, and measles. It may be just one of the latest examples but the relation between diseases and locations is a lot older. Since the ancient times, the importance of location in outbreak and treatment of diseases has been paramount. While in the times of Hippocrates, physicians found out that people living near waterways would be more prone to malaria than those in drier areas. The efforts of one Dr John Snow in plotting the distribution of deaths during the infamous London cholera outbreak in 1854 laid the first groundwork for modern scientific epidemiology. How geospatial technology helps The use of location or geographical information in modern health care finds its roots in
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Geospatial World | November 2013
public health information or PHI, which means the application of information science and technology to public health practice and research. Better public health information leads to improved health geomatics where location is central, thus making Geographic Information System or GIS relevant and useful in health care. Primarily, it is applied in the areas of epidemiology, public health and medical geography. Spatial data is used to establish the correlation, or the lack of it, between location and health, and layers of useful information are added to show a relationship with local factors using a GIS. “Infectious diseases that were formerly confined to remote areas now have the ability to expand their geographic range, jump species, become resistant to antimicrobial agents, and have become more virulent and frequent,” says Eddie Oldfield, Member, OGC. “The combination of geospatial data from earth observing systems and public health surveillance can be used to improve public health decision-making, policy-relevant analysis, and disease control,” he adds. Today, mapping and field surveys are the most commonly used techniques, simply translating the patients’ addresses into longitudes and latitudes to pinpoint their location on earth. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) generates maps to help healthcare agencies in understanding dengue and malaria incidence across the globe. “Early detection is crucial when people are being exposed to potentially fatal diseases, and geospatial technology enables us to detect and respond to diseases in time. Disease maps help the local officials in their fight against infectious diseases,” says Dr Atul Agarwal, who headed the polio programme in northern India under the aegis of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP). Researchers are also increasingly relying on remote sensing techniques to capture the signature characteristics of parasites and predict the spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria. These efforts are based on the fact that the spatial distribution of vectors is dependent on environmental conditions like temperature and humidity. The technique is coupled with ground surveys to determine and confirm the presence of parasites. Similarly, satellite imagery helps in finding out land-cover types and landscape elements such as larvae habitat, bloodmeal sources, breeding and resting sites of parasites. A review of the project ‘Enhancing USAID Famine and Malaria Early Warning with NASA Earth Science Results Project’ in Africa has estimated that around 10% of Botswana’s success in combating malaria could be attributed to the programme. Internet search trends also play an important role in locating the presence of a particular disease, points out Google’s Chief Technology Advocate Michael Jones. For instance, if Google finds thousands of people searching for symptoms or treatment for a particular disease in a particular location
within a span of few days, it informs the local healthcare authorities about a possible disease outbreak in that area. This is how Google provides WHO with a one-week early notice about flu all around the world. Google also offers online tools such as the Dengue Trends and Flu Trends. WHO leads from the front Today, frequent air travelling has given wings to communicable diseases. Since 1973, over 30 previously unknown diseases have emerged, including Legionnaire’s disease, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and H5N1 Influenza A or avian flu. The situation demands integrated efforts from multilateral agencies like the WHO and local governments. The Global Health Observatory (GHO) of the WHO, which works as a global hub for mapping of diseases, has developed a map gallery on health topics ranging from influenza, dengue, cholera to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). These maps not only talk about the current situation of disease spread but also define risk areas for the future. The WHO’s Global Health Atlas offers an online interface that allows users to select geographic areas and create maps of diseases, the location of health facilities, schools, roads, geographic features. GHO also doubles as a source to develop health profile of
First ever disease map
In 1854, London suffered a severe cholera outbreak. No one knew how it spread from one person to the other. Some physicians believed that cholera spread through miasmas, bad air and bad smells but Dr John Snow thought otherwise. He plotted the distribution of deaths in London on a map and found that water well on Broad Street was apparently responsible for hundreds of cholera attacks in a ten-day period. Dr Snow asked the local authorities to remove the water pump’s handle. As soon as this was done, the number of cholera deaths was dramatically reduced. Dr Snow’s work stands out as the first case where geography and maps were utilised to understand the spread of a disease.
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Courtesy: malariahotspots.co.uk
Special Focus | Health Care
have been using some form of maps or other geoinformation systems. “We use geospatial technology to map the existing healthcare facilities, huge urban areas and remote settlements,” says Dr Jeevan Kumar Makam, Medical Officer, WHO, Abuja, Nigeria. “We also use GIS for guiding implementation of public health programmes like polio, measles and disease surveillance activities,” he adds. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) too plays an important role in advancing the cause of geospatial technology in health care. For instance, it supported the Department of Health in the Philippines to initiate the Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Programme. The initiative went on to create the National Health Atlas with an aim at developing an integrated GIS database of Map showing the spread of malaria across the globe health facilities, locations of which were recorded through a ground survey using hand-held GPS devices. The Philippines each country which talks about the disease spread and carries also developed the Maternal Health Modelling as a GIS-based information about intervention policies and strategies, governapplication system and a model to gauge the effect of materials, ment and external financing for disease control programmes, supplies and services provided by different health facilities. coverage and impact of diseases. While WHO is helping counThe UNICEF-GIS project is an interesting initiative, which tries develop their national health maps, it has also been successfully using satellite imagery to predict outbreaks of epidem- relies on crowdsourcing to provide location-based information on diseases. Young individuals are trained to collect data ics. For instance, the Rift Valley Fever (RVF) outbreaks in Africa, about their neighbourhoods; UNICEF verifies the informaSaudi Arabia and Yemen were found to be associated with tion and shares it through social and civic media channels to above-average rainfall. The response of vegetation to increased levels of rainfall was monitored with the help of satellite imagery. generate action for more child-friendly communities. These youngsters also help a city to find out the governmental and For years, WHO’s vaccination campaigns across the world NGOs offering services related to health care.
Malaise of malaria
3.3 bn people at risk of malaria. This amounts to 50% of global population 219 mn cases of malaria in 2010 660,000 estimated number of deaths 90% deaths in African region 26% fall in global mortality rate during 2000-2010
33% fall in mortality rate in Africa 1.1 mn deaths averted during 2000-2010 54
Geospatial World | November 2013
How developed countries have benefitted Most developed countries are able to use geospatial technology for better understanding of disease spread and hence take preventive measures, thanks largely to their well-developed infrastructure of information gathering. The US has a National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) managed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which uses the Atlas for United States Mortality to monitor health factors such as spatial distribution of people to places with the best and worst air quality. As mentioned earlier, CDC is also involved in publishing weekly online reports with interactive maps. NASA has for long played an important role in predicting and controlling diseases. According to John Haynes, Public Health Programme Manager for the NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences Program, “NASA satellite remote sensing technology has been an important tool in the last few years to not only provide scientists with the data needed to respond to epidemic threats quickly, but to also help predict the future of infectious diseases in areas where diseases were never a main concern.” In the UK, the National Health Services (NHS) organisations are covered by the Ordnance Survey Public Service Mapping Agreement, which aims to provide an agreement for
the relationship between environthe public sector, allowing state Night-time satellite mental changes and their impact organisations to use free and imagery to track measles on human health. The €6-million, consistent geodata. The ‘NHS Researchers at the Princeton University in New 40-month project was started in JanuAtlas of Variation in Healthcare’ Jersey, US used night-time satellite images ary 2010 and countries like Uganda includes atlases of variation of three cities in Niger in Africa to establish and South Africa have been roped in health care for people with the relationship between seasonal growth in in to understand the implications of respiratory disorders, diabetes, population density and measles outbreak. They climate change for the emergence of kidney diseases etc. The Right compared night-time satellite images with the infectious diseases. Care programme coordinates measles cases rewith the London School of Ecocorded and found What’s up with the rest? nomics to evaluate the impact of that the disease Though on the uptake, developing these atlases in benchmarking was most prevaand underdeveloped countries have local healthcare practices. lent when a city only started to use location informaAustralia is another example, was brightest. The tion in public health care. Even as and the efforts here are spearresearchers used emerging nations such as China, India headed by the south-eastern 3D rendering to or Russia have robust EO systems in state of Victoria. Victoria’s Deshow that the height of each spike represented place, their actual implementation in partment of Health first turned to total brightness in that area. The three tallest the health sector has been far from geospatial technology in 2001 in spikes represented Niamey, Niger’s capital and satisfactory, owing majorly to awareits fight against the Legionnaires’ largest city; Maradi; and Zinder. ness and planning issues. Disease. As soon as contamiChina had its first major brush nated water cooling towers were with geospatial technology in healthfound to be the source of the care services as recently as 2002 when it was hit by Severe Acute outbreak, the state partnered with Esri Australia to develop a Respiratory Syndrome or SARS. Thankfully, the local medical GIS solution for an accurate view of the disease. Project team community quickly understood that locating a communicable leader Stuart Adcock says the GIS layers showed patient and disease was the first step towards containing it. A SARS mapping disease data over a map of information about the state’s water cooling towers. “Thanks to GIS, we are able to visualise patterns website was built to collect information on the spread of disease in Hong Kong, China, and the rest of the world. Daily datasets and relationships between seemingly unrelated factors, such were geocoded and presented as online maps that could be as the proximity of a patient’s home to a contaminated water analysed. Updates were used to geocode case information cooling tower,” he adds. Today, Australia leverages the benefits against the street and building databases. People could know of geotech for its national healthcare directory and HealthDiwhich buildings had, or were suspected as having, infected rect Australia, an organisation focused on managing e-health cases and which had been cleared. Over the entire duration of services. In addition, it is mapping things like obesity among the crisis, the site produced more than 250,000 maps. Since then children and mental health ‘hot-spots’. “By using GIS to identify China’s march has been steady in this field. where people are suffering from mental health problems, we In India, although maps and satellite data have been used in can investigate why this is occurring and take required actions,” government vaccination campaigns for some time now, these says Damien Cassin, Esri Australia’s GIS specialist in Health. efforts have been stray and far from coordinated, with the XII The European Union’s Malereo project, which aims at global Five Year Plan (2013-17) only now emphasising on the use of eradication of malaria, relies on high-resolution EO data for geoinformation in healthcare management. Even as there is no generating maps on image bases, water bodies, vegetation consolidated programme on the ground so far, states such as indices and population density. Data of 0.5-1 metre is used for preparing household maps, vital for the success of Indoor Resid- Jharkhand have started taking initiatives to track healthcare professionals, ambulances and equipment. The state of Kerala has ual Spraying campaigns. These fill the gap when GPS-collected developed the ‘Geospatial Kerala Health Information System’, terrain data is not available. Malereo is developing a semi-automatic approach to extract household maps from satellite scenes. which not only maps healthcare resources such as public and private hospitals but also pinpoints the locations (catchment The European Commission has also co-funded the EOareas) of ambulances. The system further tells locations of all 2HEAVEN (Earth Observation and Environment Modelling for healthcare facilities with cardiology department or healthcare the Mitigation of Health Risks) research project to understand Geospatial World | November 2013
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Special Focus | Health Care
Courtesy: arthritismap.com.au
facilities with more than 25 beds or more than 15 doctors. Digital Mapping Laboratory under the Vector Control Research Centre in Pondicherry is using GPS to demarcate areas affected by dengue or malaria. “The laboratory does visual interpretation of the multi-spectral and multi-temporal satellite sensors data for mapping the mosquito breeding habitats. This not only helps in understanding the severity of the disease spread but also in evaluating the pressure on healthcare facilities and resources in the area,” says M. Palaniyandi of the Digital Mapping Laboratory. In addition, the WHO has also come up with a dengue map for the country which not only talks about the number of cases but also predicts the disease spread. Location and mapping is playing a vital role in polio vaccination programmes across the globe. For example, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the WHO, Rotary International, US CDC and UNICEF, is aggressively using geotechnology to gauge the effectiveness of the Short Interval Additional Dose approach in vaccination drives. Independent monitors collect near-real time data and analyse it through mobile phones and software to monitor the progress. For example, five vaccination teams in Karu ward, AMAC Local Government Area in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nigeria were equipped with GPS to track their movements during the day. Kathmandu in Nepal witnessed an initiative when scientists combined the DNA sequencing technology and GPS signaling data to map the spread of typhoid and trace its source. Similarly, the University of the Philippines in Manila has used remote sensing technique to identify the environmental determinants of malaria and schistosomiasis, and develop prevalence maps. The country is also working on a national health map and malaria GIS maps. In Brazil, WHO is collaborating with the government for continuous updation of the country’s health map. Researchers at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) will soon start a project to map the geographic distribution of genetic auto
inflammatory diseases in Sao Paulo. “The project will help in controlling the spread of auto inflammatory diseases,” says Dr Maria Teresa Terreri, Associate Professor, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Pediatrics UNIFESP. However, other Latin America and Caribbean countries are way behind. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) provides technical cooperation to the LAC countries to update the epidemiological information available for mapping and modelling of the neglected tropical diseases. WHO has created a Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and formulated the ‘Global plan to combat NTDs 2008–2015’, which emphasises on identifying gaps in epidemiological information and the priority geographic areas for intervention at sub-national levels. This helped reduce domestic transmission of Chagas disease. The future of G-power Determining location of health facilities, providing facilities at each location depending on local endemic health problems, and emergency routing during disasters are some other areas where geospatial technology is proving to be critical. These techniques are also helpful in developing the Spatial Decision Support System which, in turns leads to policy decisions. Realising the potential return on investment from location information-enhanced business intelligence, the private healthcare sector has also started experimenting with use of geoinformation. »Business intelligence: With location becoming an integral part of business intelligence required to provide customer service, healthcare majors too have started using this technology to pinpoint the location of assets like ambulances and human resources, which helps in better emergency response and also saves costs. The technology is also helping healthcare groups to map where their patients are coming from and know more about prevalent diseases in different areas. For instance, Epworth Healthcare, a private healthcare group in Australia, used geospatial analytics to find the most underserviced area. The results prompted it to decide on a $447-million new facility next
People with arthritis rate per 100 Statistics: 2007-08
Map showing number of people with arthritis in Victoria, Australia 56
Geospatial World | November 2013
15.5 to 17.4 (records = 25) 14.7 to 15.4 (records = 27) 10.9 to 14.6 (records = 27) Total = 79
to Deakin University in the Melbourne satellite city of Geelong. »Emergency response: Healthcare resources (such as therapy providers and pharmacies) in proximity to patients can be quickly located in case of emergency. Recently, the Stanford University Medical Center at Stanford in California used GIS to analyse the nurse population density of various geographic areas. The study helped in locating the nurses who were nearest to the patients, thus proving improved emergency response time and better healthcare services. »Patient safety: GPS location tracker for patients with dementia or memory problems is an established norm now, with Alzheimer’s associations in nearly all countries advocating its use to ensure patient safety. Aged care homes and hospitals have also started using GPS devices for keeping tabs on patients. »Mobile GIS: Geospatial technology is riding on mobile GIS too. For instance, the ArcGIS platform (which extends to iOS, Android and other mobile devices) can track assets, community workers and even patients. It is also capable of visualising real-time data on population movements captured by cellular and GPS networks. Similarly, HealthMap is an initiative by a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts. It relies on data sources like online news aggregators, eyewitnesses, expert discussions and official reports for outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats. Apart from this, online tools such as ‘Malaria Hotspots’ in the UK are not only mapping the spread of malaria, but are also uploading interviews of people who have recently visited the worst-hit countries. Challenges to overcome The promises are unending, but geospatial technology has to overcome a few crucial challenges to realise its full potential in the healthcare sector. The lack of awareness about the applicability of the technology in health care is a huge challenge. It impedes the process of seamless integration of geoinformation and technology in the healthcare sector. “The high cost of implementing geospatial technology in healthcare
and the lack of knowledge are the most critical bottlenecks and challenges,” emphasises Dr Makam. “The industry should focus on organising or sponsoring seminars, workshops and awareness activities. They should also rope in big universities and academic institutes to provide courses in GIS technology,” he adds. Recording the exact location of a disease is another crucial problem. Most developing countries either do not have enough resources for data collection or the patients do not report their ailments at all due to remoteness of their location or affordability factor. “During 20032009, we did not get accurate reports on polio cases in several remote villages of northern India. False reporting of vaccination drives was another major issue. Later, satellite maps provided by the National Polio Surveillance Project helped us in understanding the real scenario and eradicating polio from the country,” said Dr Atul Agarwal. Sometimes diseases are not properly diagnosed. For example, dengue and viral fever in northern India are often mistaken for each other. In certain countries, doctor-patient confidentiality laws can cause hindrance in proper reporting of a disease. Further, various countries and organisations produce various kinds of data and the key challenge often is the integration of this diverse and distributed geospatial data. “Interoperable geospatial solutions could enable communication and decision-making between agencies such as WHO, public health authorities, research institutes etc to address inequities in access to health care,” says OGC’s Oldfield. Currently, it is either multilateral agencies like the WHO or government departments which are using geospatial technology in healthcare services. In some countries, local healthcare agencies are not even aware of such advancements or possibilities. What is required is a multi-pronged approach by multilateral agencies, governments and the healthcare industry to first understand the potential of geospatial technology and then incorporate that in their basic planning stages for a safer, healthier human race.
Dread of dengue
9 The number of countries
with severe dengue epidemics by 1970
100 The number of
countries where dengue is now an endemic
2.5 bn People at risk
from dengue
50-100 mn
dengue infections worldwide every year
2.5% of those affected usually die
500,000 dengue
affected people require hospitalisation each year
Realising the potential return on investment from location information,the private healthcare sector has started experimenting with use of geoinformation
Mushahid M. Khan, Sr. Assistant Editor mushahid@geospatialmedia.net Geospatial World | November 2013
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Health Care | Case Study
Google Search to locate and map flu
Intense High Moderate Low Minimal
Flu Trends uses aggregated Google Search data to estimate current flu location and activity around the world in near real-time
E
ach week, millions of users around the world search for health information online. Google has found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Google Flu Trends compared its query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when and where the flu season is on. By counting the frequency of these search queries, one can estimate how much flu is circulating in which country and regions around the world.
The up-to-date influenza estimates could enable public health officials and health professionals to better respond to seasonal epidemics and pandemics 60
Google’s flu trend map
regions of the United States. If a region experiences an early, sharp increase in ILI physician visits, it may be possible to focus additional resources on that region to identify the etiology of the outbreak, providing extra vaccine capacity or raising local media awareness as necessary.
How accurate and up-to-date is this? Most health agencies focus on a single country or region and only update their estimates once per week. However, on Google Flu Trends, estimates for the current week are updated daily as new search query data is collected. The graphs show historical query-based flu estimates for different countries and regions compared against official influenza surveillance data and are found to be mostly in line with traditional surveillance data collected by health agencies. For countries with experimental Flu Trends, Google found aggregated flu-related How the location matters? queries which produced a seasonal curve that Google Flu Trends uses IP address informasuggested actual flu activity. Generally, these tion from the server logs to make a best guess estimates have not been compared with official about where the location of the queries as per country, region and states. For epidemiologists, influenza surveillance data. The experimental estimates are available for download from each this is an exciting development, because early detection of a disease outbreak can reduce the Experimental Flu Trends country page. Since Google Flu Trends models are validatnumber of people affected. The up-to-date influenza estimates could enable public health ed using historic flu surveillance data, in case of a pandemic, when a new flu virus causes officials and health professionals to better rethe same symptoms as seasonal flu, the graphs spond to seasonal epidemics and pandemics. should detect if overall flu rates are significantly Google Flu Trends compares the estimates increasing. In the event that a pandemic-causbased on search data against a historic baseline level of flu activity for that area. Depending ing strain of influenza emerges, accurate and early detection of ILI percentages may enable on whether the current estimate is higher or lower than the baseline, the system reports the public health officials to mount a more effective early response. Currently, Google provides esgeneral activity level as Minimal, Low, Modertimates for more than 25 countries and anyone ate, High, or Intense. connected to the Internet can access this. Google Web search queries can be used to accurately estimate influenza-like illness (ILI) Courtesy: Google percentages in each of the nine public health
Geospatial World | November 2013
Health Care | Case Study
GIS revolutionises health service delivery
I
ncepted in 1982, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is one of the leading civic bodies in the state of Maharashtra, India. The organisation manages more than 115 wards across nearly 130 sq km, with a population density of more than 14,000/sq km. Business situation Thane city has been one of the frontrunners in using geospatial technology to empower governance. TMC’s earlier collaboration with CyberTech, an India-based provider of geospatial, networking and enterprise IT solutions, to geo-enable some of its critical municipal functions had been already exhibiting significant cost and efficiency benefits. This led the organisation to seek a similar integrated and effective tool to help design effective health policies and provide quality citizen services.
erage to health-specific layers. These included hospitals, government health posts, medical centers, blood banks, ambulance services, maternity homes, clinics, chemist outlets etc. The solution provided with a complete health decision support engine comprising seamless information access and powerful geoanalytics with automated reporting capabilities. The benefits included extensive health mapping covering the whole city allowing efficient health services, planning and administration. Select application highlights included: • Independent registrations, log-ins and application access controls for hospitals, health posts and TMC functions; • In-built forms for tracking and data review; • Multiple pre-defined reports with graphical representations; • Advanced thematic maps for spatial disease, epidemic and other health mapping; • Heat maps to map disease intensities; • Advanced search for nearest health facilities with route analysis; • Online citizen portal incorporating citizen feedback and complaint redressal.
The Solution To make prompt health decisions and ensure their effective execution, a holistic view of all health processes and functions was necessary. This called for integrated, geo-enabled Courtesy: CyberTech health information management across TMC, government health posts and other public and private health service entities in the city. The key challenges included manual data collection processes with most of the information lacking geographic intelligence; poor health mapping with inadequate coverage across citizens, hospitals and medical centres; limited understanding of citizen health needs; inability to provide timely, consolidated service information; limited functional integration; and undue wastage of time, costs and effort. Having already built a comprehensive geodatabase model earlier with numerous layers of city infrastructure, CyberTech conducted a specific survey to extend the information cov-
By leveraging the benefits of GIS, a municipal corporation of an Indian state was able to design effective health policies and provide quality citizen service
Screenshot of the Thane Municipal Corporation’s health management system
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Health | Case Study
Layered maps, real-time data to fight blindness Researchers combine Android and GIS software to visually assess the prevalence of trachoma in remote regions of Africa and to pinpoint gaps in prevention and treatment services
T
rachoma is a bacterial infection which produces a characteristic roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids, and is the leading cause of infectious blindness in the world. The disease affects the poorest of the poor — mostly women and children — especially in regions that have limited success to sanitation and water. More people suffer from trachoma in Africa than in any other continent. And because this bacterial disease is transmitted via close personal contact, it tends to occur in clusters — often affecting entire families and communities.
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The problem Approximately 110 million people globally live in endemic areas and require treatment, with 210 million more living where trachoma is suspected of being endemic, according to the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI). “Affected people are said to be living beyond the end of the road,” says Dr Danny Haddad, Director of the ITI. “In some instances, you need to walk half a day to get to some of these villages.” Until recently, a better ability to identify enclaves of so-called neglected tropical diseases — such as leprosy, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis (elephentiasis), African sleeping sickness, and trachoma — has proved elusive. Fortunately, researchers combining Android and Esri software have figured out a quick way to visually assess the prevalence of trachoma in remote regions and to pinpoint gaps in prevention and treatment services. The solution A study of the data collection on trachoma infection, transfer, and visual display process was launched in mid-October 2012 in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. It is part of a global survey founded by the UK government and led by the international non-governmental organisation Sightsavers, which aims to examine a sample of 4 million people across more than 30 countries by March 2015 to identify where people are at the risk of contracting trachoma. In Ethiopia, several layers of smartphone and GIS technology enabled the immediate transfer of vast amounts of collected data to distant hardware and software platforms for display, analysis and sharing. ArcGIS maps are not only useful as visual tools but also offer real-time transfer of data and automated updates that provide much needed efficiencies, says epidemiologist Alex Pavluck, a senior manager of research information technology at International Trachoma Initiative. “We wanted the ability to produce layered maps. These are really the key here — to show prevalence overlaid with areas currently receiving treatments such as donated drugs.” The goal was to help realise an ambitious
MoH classification Suspected endemic Suspected non-endemic
plan endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for mapping endemic countries with organised national trachoma control programmes, called the Global Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020, or GET2020. How it works According to Haddad, the technology enhanced system was built on one already developed for a variety of neglected tropical diseases, including trachoma. A robust reporting back and allowed data to be sent via cellular network or Wi-Fi to a Web-based system at Task Force headquarters. It didn’t take long for this approach to achieve surprising results, transmitting data on lymphatic filariasis from 18 countries. “Before we used the Android tools, we had piles of paper that had to be manually entered after a survey,” recalls Haddad. Initial success encouraged public health workers in endemic countries to realise that a system such as this was needed to reach WHO’s GET2020. Global Atlas of Trachoma, developed in 2011 by the International Trachoma Initiative with the support of partners such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Carter Center, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, provided up-to-date regional maps of trachoma’s geographic distribution. Nevertheless, researchers discovered that the database supporting the atlas identified more than 1,200 health districts that still lacked the data needed interventions. “We still didn’t have the entire picture,” says Rebecca Mann, geographic information systems data manager at International Trachoma Initiative. The latest Esri-enhanced system is designed to correct that. Field workers collect data on smartphones and tablets. The devices quickly transfer data to a website on a server housed in Decatur where it is summarised, checked for errors, and mapped. Using a 3G connection, the data can be transmitted to the server in real time. Next, the data moves to a central MySQL server linked to an ArcGIS mapping server. A Python script automatically converts tabular
data into feature points that link to ArcGIS map templates embedded in a project Prevalence of TF (%) website < 50 on arcgis. 5.0-9.9 com. These 10.0-29.9 points ac> = 30.0 cumulate on the Web No Data maps as data is collected, illustrating the distribution of surveyed clusters and ensuring that selected samples spatially represent the entire survey area. The server makes the data accessible worldwide so researchers and managers can review the accumulating information in real time, and then approve it for wider dissemination such as within the trachoma atlas. The server pushes the data onto more detailed maps that show the entire survey area, providing visual displays that aid health workers in more quickly identifying areas and people needing treatment. “Because the system is so simple, it isn’t necessary to train a specialised team,” adds Mann. When the field workers in Ethiopia started collecting data, Mann and her colleagues in Decatur could actually see it flow from the phones to their server. “Python script converted the data into feature points, which I personally added to the first mapping template,” she says. As more data came in, the system automatically updated the website. The researchers plan to add features if the system runs smoothly. “As we get into the rhythm of things, I am sure we will want to tweak our system,” adds Mann. “But right now we are trying to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.” Courtesy: Esri News For Health and Human Services
Non-endemic country
A map showing Trachoma’s spread in districts of Ethiopia
Health workers could now reach more people with preventive hygiene; corrective surgery; and azithromycin donated by Pfizer
Geospatial World | November 2013
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Health Care | Case Study
Live by the sea, reap more health benefits A group of researchers in the UK decided to use geospatial technology to plot the distribution and determinants of ‘good health’ and wellbeing Census 2001 - ‘good’ health variation across Engaland Lower-layer Super Output Areas Quintiles of directly age/sex standardise ‘good’ general health (%) 1 ( 46.6-62.7%) (least healthy) 2 (62.7-67.5%) 3 (67.5-71.1%) 4 (71.1-74.5%) 5 (74.5-86.3%) (most healthy)
T
raditionally, geospatial technology has been used to track, map, predict and control diseases. Undoubtedly, the technology has played a key role in understanding and managing several disease outbreaks across the globe and has thus saved thousands of precious lives too. However, health cannot be defined as merely the absence of disease. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-
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being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Could geospatial technology be used to understand the distribution and determinants of ‘good’ health? Researchers at the University of Exeter in South West England, UK took up the task to leverage geospatial technology to find the answer. The coast factor The coast has long been used as an environment for convalescence, holidays and physical activity. The team of researchers used data from the UK’s national census to examine how health varied across the country and found that people are more likely to have good health the closer they live to the sea. As part of the Blue Gym programme of research around aquatic environments (or Blue Space) and health and wellbeing, they examined the relationships between proximity to the coast and self-reported health. They also found that, consistent with similar analysis of greenspace accessibility, the positive effects of coastal proximity may be greater amongst more socioeconomically deprived communities. The initial hypothesis was that these effects may be due to opportunities for stress reduction and increased physical activity. The 2001 Census asked every person to rate their general health status in the previous 12 months as ‘Good’, ‘Fairly Good’ or ‘Not Good’. Researchers calculated the proportion of the population rating their health as ‘Good’ for Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) across England. There are 32,482 LSOAs in England, and these areas are used to produce small area statistics on a wide variety of issues including health and socioeconomic status. They then used a geographic information system to calculate each LSOA’s proximity to the coast. Continued on Page 66
Health Care | Case Study
Alberta rides on CAD & mobile for health care Canadian province consolidates regional public health service organisations and integrates delivery of health care and emergency medical services
W
hile a strong geospatial foundation is essential, visualisation is not enough to solve the complex problems facing public safety agencies today. Data must be operational, as part of the workflows tied to specific challenges. In 2009, the Canadian province of Alberta consolidated nine regional public health service organisations into one, called the Alberta Health Services (AHS). At the same time, management of emergency medical services (EMS), which previously had been the responsibility of 35 different municipalities, was transferred to the provincial level to integrate the delivery of healthcare and EMS to Alberta’s 3.7 million residents. “To do that, I needed a good common platform,” says Jim Garland, executive director of Alberta Health Services. “And we went with Intergraph for that.” One system, many uses AHS replaced 35 EMS authorities with three regional EMS dispatch centres and used
Intergraph’s I/CAD and mobile technologies to provide a common operating picture to dispatchers in all three regions. The platform enables AHS dispatchers to better locate callers more quickly and dispatch the closest ambulance. “Intergraph allows us to use a variety of information — street addresses, latitude and longitude and other data — to verify the caller’s location to an exact pin on the map,” adds Garland. “We are able to more accurately locate callers than before.” The new system prevents blind spots that could happen in the previous system, where a call might come into one dispatch centre, but from a location that is more easily reached by another region’s EMS crew. The system also increases efficiency of inter-facility transfers, when a patient must be moved from one medical facility to another. It used to take dozens of radio transmissions to accomplish these transfers, but with the installation of mobile data terminals that access the Geospatial World | November 2013
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Screenshot of Alberta’s EMS website
Alberta has reduced the time for resource analysis tasks from hours to just minutes. This will lead to better response time and less costs
This study is consistent with findings from similar studies, which indicate that the health and wellbeing effects of living near to the coast warrant further investigation 66
GIS data in ambulances, the information is exchanged more quickly and easily. AHS also implemented Intergraph’s Business Intelligence software to integrate critical analysis and performance monitoring into its workflow. The software enables AHS to track response times to calls overall, as well as at regional, municipal and individual levels. Faster access to information Data is stored in a common provincial repository, which is optimised for reporting historical and near real-time operational information. Dashboards are easy for users at all levels to configure and manage, providing
Continued from Page 64 The researchers applied regression models to investigate the association between ‘good’ health rates and coastal proximity. Their analysis accounted for other factors including age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation and green space, and was carried out separately for urban and rural areas. The result Proximity to the coast was positively associated with good health, with a small, but significant increase in the percentage of people reporting good health among populations residing closer to the sea. They also found that, consistent with the similar analysis of green space accessibility, the positive effects of coastal proximity may be greater amongst more socio-economically deprived communities. While this type of study design cannot
Geospatial World | November 2013
immediate access to information about response times, resource usage and factors that impact performance. Web intelligence supports mobile access and self-serve reporting for managers across the province. Using the Business Intelligence software, AHS has reduced the time for various resource analysis tasks from hours to just minutes. This ultimately will lead to better response time and reduced costs. The solution also helps maintain accurate records for government reporting requirements. This allows AHS to more easily justify expenditures and maintain citizen support. With costs in excess of C$1 million to operate a single 24-hour ambulance, efficient use of resources is critical. AHS anticipates that business intelligence will help avoid or defer millions of dollars in expenditures. As a public entity, AHS has to uphold high transparency and accountability standards and Garland says business intelligence is helping the authority increase confidence by assessing and communicating performance. Courtesy: Intergraph
prove cause and effect, it is consistent with findings from similar studies. Their findings indicate that the health and wellbeing effects of living near to, and spending time at, the coast warrant further investigation. Dr Benedict W. Wheeler, who was a part of the research team, feels that health promoting characteristics of coastal environments could be made more accessible, or transferred to other settings (e.g. through virtual environments). However, any policy initiatives designed to reap public health and wellbeing benefits from the coasts would need to balance these benefits against threats from extreme events, climate change impacts, and inappropriate coastal development. Courtesy: Blue Gym programme European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School
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.
30-day free trial: esri.com/gswagol 7
Geospatial World | May 2013 Copyright Š 2012 Esri. All rights reserved.
Interview
‘The focus is on solution-centric approach & Web services’
Having established a strong presence in Asia and South Africa, AAM is now looking at Africa as the next big destination. Scott Ramage, CEO & Chairman, gives some glimpses into the company’s future strategy and evolving technologies
AAM serves a diverse range of industries, from resources to infrastructure to finance. What are the key focus areas of your business and services? AAM’s key focus area is mining. Even though expansion in the mining sector is slowing down, it still remains our largest area of operation in terms of mines maintenance and management. In fact we get more geospatial requirement in the operation phases of a mine as opposed to its expansion. Second on the list is the construction sector — both land survey and airborne survey — for managing major infrastructure projects. This applies to our operations in Australia and Africa. However, in Asia we are much more about infrastructure and infrastructure management. Right now we are focusing on construction, asset management and infrastructure development, which we see as a natural shift, particularly in Australia. Construction in Asia is booming. Also, there is a strong 68
Geospatial World | November 2013
demand for analysis work in major infrastructure jobs such as roads and railways. We have been doing a lot of work in relation to slopes and landslides in Malaysia, which is quite topical since there have been quite a few failures of late. So, we have surveyed hundreds of kilometres of roads to enable authorities to manage those more effectively and put in remedial measures in risk-prone areas. AAM currently operates in Australasia, Asia Pacific and African markets; any plans for geographical expansion? We don’t plan to go too far beyond the regions that we have carved out for ourselves. We started in Australia and are based in Australia. We know that the Northern hemisphere — Europe and America — is already served well by Geospatial/GIS companies. We don’t see any great value in trying to move into those markets all by ourselves. However, the markets in Southern hemisphere and Asia are
much less developed. The needs in Africa, more specifically in the mining sector, are very much the same as in Australia. So it is very easy to translate the capabilities that we developed in Australia into the African context. We are planning to invest more in the less developed markets. Since Australia is a very mature market, so there will be a continuous geospatial need. But in terms of expansion, Africa and Asia offer greater opportunities. At the moment we are putting quite a lot of our energy in Africa since it is a very difficult region to cover; it takes a fair bit of effort to get your business known across so many countries. Most certainly, we are seeing some big projects coming out of Africa. AAM announced its merger with Vekta, another strong Australian geospatial company with almost similar line of services. What was the strategy behind this? For a long time AAM and Vekta worked together on projects that neither of the companies could fulfil on its own. From the outside both companies look pretty much the same -we both do aerial survey and land survey. But we also complement each other quite nicely. AAM is much stronger in airborne survey while Vekta has deeper land survey capabilities. In terms of land survey too, while AAM is strong in industrial survey and mine survey, Vekta has a strong niche in construction and high-rise development. So we have that nice synergy to balance our portfolios in terms of capability. Strategically, we wanted to take a leap forward in terms of the size and breadth of our capabilities. As I said, we need to develop ways where we can actually capture and deliver data more quickly and efficiently. To do that, you need a stronger and better resourced enterprise. Both our companies were at a point where we were trying to do this separately. It was much better to do this together. You announced that the merged entityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s combined revenue is exceeding A$75 million. What is your revenue forecast
going forward? Any further acquisitions in the offing? We have set ourselves a target of over A$100 million in the next two to three years. We are not planning any more acquisitions at this time but will maintain an eye on strategic opportunities. The focus is more on organic growth and developing further on the platform that we have already built. In Australia, AAM and Vekta are substantial in size. We intend to bring these two companies together and operate as one entity. The integration of the two businesses is well underway. Our core has been geospatial content through airborne image and LiDAR capture and land survey. Geospatial content is ever increasing in demand as communities and businesses are realising the value of up-todate location information. Having said this, AAM is focusing on expanding the utility of the data we supply through cloud based delivery and advanced analysis and viewing tools. Another aspect we are focusing on is to provide our data efficiently across mobile devices and distribute it effectively across our customer enterprises. A trend we can see out of these acquisition/convergence trends is that technology companies are now moving towards solution-centric approach. How do you see this trend affecting the dynamics of the ecosystem? It impacts our business in one sense. Companies that we purchase our systems from are now providing services as well. However, in a business environment where customers are looking for very rich datasets, the demand is growing. So, while there is competition from more players than ever before, the market too has grown greatly. It is larger geospatial businesses with global resources such as AAM that will have the capacity to satisfy this growing demand. The system manufacturers are obviously very good at providing the systems and have moved into bundling solutions for non-geospatial users such as the agriculture sector. Our strong suit is providing complex solutions and undertaking large surveys for major projects.
We are planning to invest more in the less developed markets. Since Australia is a very mature market, so there will be a continuous geospatial need. But in terms of expansion, Africa and Asia offer greater opportunities
Interview Interview
A 3D city model of Sydney by AAM
There is so much more that can be achieved to develop the presentation of data on mobile devices and in a rich 3D form. The merging of the actual built environment and augmented visualisation will explode in the years ahead
Who is your biggest competitor in terms of the services and geographies you serve? It’s a pretty easy answer. Fugro is our strongest competitor, both in Australia and in Africa. It’s not quite clear who is our strongest competitor in the Asian market because there are a number of small players. Interoperability is a popular term these days in our industry. Being a system integrator, how important is interoperability for you? Interoperability is becoming increasingly important as customers are expecting to be able to stack-in our data along with data from other providers; so we need to make our data work with many other data sources. Therefore, interoperability is paramount. AAM is building its own library of GIS-ready digital content. Will this be one of your business focuses in the future? Absolutely. We have been developing datasets that we provide on-sale for around 10 years and we will continue to do this. We don’t tend to go out and capture very large areas completely on speculation. We develop targetted datasets which we know have a strong market demand. Over the years we have warehoused large datasets covering multiple epochs. They are valuable in the community and we will continue to maintain and add to them. What is changing is the accessibility of these datasets through the Web. AAM is known for its technology
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innovations. How do you see mapping technologies evolving in the next 10 years? I have always said our sector is much more about evolution as opposed to foreseeing radical changes. Having said this, the pace of evolution accelerates. For AAM, it’s going to be about the richness of the datasets, all in a 3D environment and Web enabled, with more sophisticated applications to view and manage this data. There is much more that can be achieved to develop the presentation of data on mobile devices and in a rich 3D form. The merging of the actual built environment and augmented visualisation will explode in the years ahead. The 3D visualisation of the external environment is becoming widely available in urban areas but this will be fused with public internal spaces to allow the user explore and analyse seamlessly inside and out. Another evolution that is occurring and will expand greatly in the next five years is airborne capture from unmanned vehicles. Whilst the process has started, it will take a while because the regulatory environment needs to be developed. This will allow more cost-effective capture of very detailed information, in confined areas. So AAM is moving towards UAV as well? Yes. The system will augment capture from our larger manned platforms. We see that multiple unmanned devices, probably even different types will be deployed by AAM as the regulator allows.
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© 2013, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble, the Globe & Triangle logo are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. TMX-2050 is a trademark of Trimble Navigation Limited. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Geospatial World | May 2013
Picture This
Just for Laughs!
E
veryone thinks they are best at something. Putting this claim to test, an online comic site, Dog House Diaries, has released a map which will surely tickle your funny bone. From making babies to being struck by lightning, the map has revealed some surprising and hilarious things that countries are best at. The map shows America has plenty of smart people earning the status of Nobel Laureate, but also plenty of not-so-smart people getting killed by runaway lawnmowers. Russia is a lead producer of nuclear warheads (agreed!) and raspberries (really?). With its booming film industry, India is undoubtedly the world leader in movies and its not-so-friendly neighbour, Pakistan in Field Hockey (?!). While Peru might evoke images of Inca monuments and panpipes, according to the map, the country leads the world in sandboarding. Unsurprisingly Brazil is the best at FIFA World Cup titles but Chile has been crowned with the unusual title of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Best at staying marriedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The map is based on statistics gathered from across the Internet from sources including the World Bank and Guinness Book of World Records.
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Events
December
Mark Your Calender December 2-5
December 2-6
December 3-5
December 3-6
ION time interval meeting
OGC Technical Committee Meeting
Workshop on Cartography in
Asia-Pacific Regional Space
Washington, USA
IIT Bombay, India
Crisis Management
Agency Forum
www.ion.org/ptti
www.opengeospatial.org/
China
Hanoi, Vietnam
event/1312tc
http://sres.whu.edu.cn/ICA-Work-
http://goo.gl/928uwb
shop/Home.aspx
December 9-10
December 16-19
December 20-21
Oman Geospatial Expo 2013
AGSE 2013 International Conference
Innovative learning tools
Oman
Ahmedabad, India
workshop
www.omangeospatialexpo.org/2013/
www.agse2013-cept.in
Ahmedabad, India
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
index.htm
http://isprs2013-cept.in/
January 21-23
January 28-29
January 29-30
Defence Geospatial Intelligence
Geo Utilities Conference 2013
Geodesign Summit
London, UK
London, UK
California, USA
www.wbresearch.com/dgieurope/
www.geospatialutilities.com/
www.geodesignsummit.com
February 5-7
February 11-12
February 17-19
February 25-26
India Geospatial Forum
UK â&#x20AC;&#x201C; GeoInsurance
International LiDAR Mapping Forum
Ghana Geospatial Forum 2014
Hyderabad, India
London, UK
Colorado, US
Accra, Ghana
www.indiageospatialforum.org/
www.geospatialinsurance.com
www.lidarmap.org/international
www.ghgeospatialforum.org/
home.aspx
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Geospatial World | May 2013
Discover Bentley Utilities Designer
Streamlined Utility Network Design and Management Bentley Utilities Designer is a comprehensive design and GIS-based management application for electric, gas, water, and wastewater utility networks that enables utility owner-operators to increase productivity, accelerate projects, and reduce software costs. The software combines GIS-agnostic engineering-grade design, on-the-fly cost estimation, design management, and a utility-specific GIS into a single product.
www.bentley.com/bud Š 2013 Systems,World Incorporated. Geospatial | MayBentley, 2013 the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bâ&#x20AC;? Bentley logo, and Bentley Utilities Designer are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, 7 Bentley Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
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Geospatial World | May 2013