February/March 2020 – No. 105
The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information
FUELLING THE INNOVATION RACE Interactive technology sets young minds racing
Augmented Reality Scan to view in app
Official publication of
inside OneMap BP’s approach to unifying company data
Frame games Upgrades to the AGRS
Sounding the alarm Revising spatial comms for a critical use case
contents
February/March 2020 No.105
22
26
18 features
Regulars
14 Q&A with Nadine Alameh
4 7 10 16 35 38
“We live in exciting times,” says Dr. Nadine Alameh, the recently appointed CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium and Locate20 keynote speaker.
18 Meeting fire with passion
Upfront, calendar Editorial News Partner feature New products SSSI
Bushfire communication needs to consider space, time, and user experience to raise the efficacy of disaster response to the scale of the threats we now face.
22 Scanning a new landscape The new tool unlocking facial clues to rare diseases with spatial techniques, automating diagnosis quickly and accurately.
26 The R&D dilemma Curtailing R&D will not only damage the industry but may have flow-on social impacts that are hard to quantify.
30 Upgrades to the frame Nicholas Brown takes us through upgrades to the Australian Geospatial Reference System.
32 OneMap for all Lessons in bringing company-wide data together onto one platform with a new approach to tackle digital mapping.
Apr/May 2020 - Issue #106
NEXT ISSUE
The Locate20 super-issue The new space race – investigating Australia’s extra-terrestrial investment The fourth industrial revolution – IoT, Industry 4.0 and what it means for you UAV & AUV & UGV – the increasing ubiquity of unmanned systems in professional applications Published: 07/04/2020 Advertising booking deadline: 20/03/2020 Advertising material deadline: 25/03/2020
www.spatialsource.com.au 3
upfront Upcoming Events
Looking past the cave's shadows
A
ccording to a June 2019 UNSW study, one in two people in NSW’s coastal community don’t think sea level rise will impact them directly. Coastal residents from SE Queensland to southern NSW have just experienced another torrential rain event, so it is worth revisiting this study. The report – released on the anniversary of the 2016 east coast low ‘superstorm’ that saw widespread damage along Australia’s east coast, including the collapse of a Collaroy swimming pool – describes what the NSW community understands about coastal erosion and inundation, as well as the driving forces behind these hazards: sea level rise and severe coastal storms. “Our coastline is changing. Many locations along the NSW coast are seeing amenity loss and infrastructure damage associated with erosion and inundation – that is, the flooding of normally dry land by sea water, often caused by storms surges or king tides,” said Professor Rob Brander from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who is also colloquially known as ‘Dr. Rip’. “These storm events will continue in the future. Combined with anticipated sea level rise, they’ll only enhance the extent and cost of coastal erosion damage and lead to greater inundation of coastal zones throughout NSW in the future, particularly in low-lying estuarine areas,” he said. The research team found that people’s understanding and perception of storms and sea level rise, and their associated impacts of erosion and inundation, can significantly influence how and whether they engage in coastal adaptation actions – directly influencing the success or failure of those actions. The My Coast NSW Study took place in 2017 and 2018, surveying more than 1000 people from all over the NSW coast, across three main groups: coastal management professionals,
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27 February: International Conference on Cartography, Geoinformation and Geovisualization, Sydney, NSW https://waset.org/cartographygeoinformation-and-geovisualizationconference-in-february-2020-in-sydney
A yacht casualty of Cyclone Joy near Abel Point Marina, Queensland, Australia. Image: Gillian Everett via Flickr.
general coastal users and coastal accommodation businesses. The study found a clear disconnect between what coastal management professionals think the public should know about coastal hazards, and what the public flagged as wanting to know more about. “General coastal users told us that would like to know more about how climate change will impact their immediate coast, what the possible solutions are and who the ‘key players’ of coastal management are,” said Ms. Attard. “But coastal professionals said that coastal communities need more information about direct personal and public risks associated with coastal hazards, general information about coastal hazards and processes, and their impacts on the greater NSW community – that’s very different from what the general users said their information needs are. “Community engagement needs to be a two-way process to address that disconnect.” The researchers say the resulting report provides an evidence-based information platform to help local governments and coastal management professionals in the future development of effective educational strategies and programs. Lack of community knowledge about the direct impact of sea level rise is one of the key aspects of the report – which the authors say is concerning, given that sea level rise is a key factor driving coastal erosion and inundation. “We found that only about 50 percent of general coastal users think that sea level rise will impact them directly – that’s a worry, given that estimates suggest that by 2100, sea level rise could increase by a metre or more if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchanged,” Ms. Attard said. “Even more worryingly, 25 percent of coastal accommodation businesses don’t know or are unsure if sea levels are even rising at all.” n
6 March: SSSI-ISV International Women's Day Breakfast Seminar, Melbourne, VIC https://sssi.org.au/ events-awards/events/sssi-isv-iwdbreakfast-seminar-6-mar-2020 17-18 March: 10th IGRSM International Conference and Exhibition on Geospatial & Remote Sensing (IGRSM 2020), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://igrsm.org/igrsm2020 23-25 March: International Lidar Mapping Forum, Washington, DC, USA www.lidarmap.org 23-24 March: Future of Mining Australia 2020, Sydney, NSW https://australia.future-of-mining.com 1 April: Smarter Data, Smarter World 2020, Sydney, NSW https://1spatial.com/au/event/smarterdata-smarter-world-2020 7-9 April: Geospatial World Forum 2020, Amsterdam, NL https://geospatialworldforum.org 28-30 April: Locate 2020, Brisbane, QLD www.locateconference.com/2020 20-21 May: Geo Business 2020, London, UK www.geobusinessshow.com 15-22 August: 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Sydney, NSW www.cospar2020.org/index.php 21 August: Spatial Information Day, Adelaide, SA https:// spatialinformationday.org.au 15-17 September: Commercial UAV Expo Americas, Las Vegas, USA www.expouav.com 1-3 December: Commercial UAV Expo Europe, Amsterdam, NL www.expouav.com/europe
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from the editor
The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information
A volunteer firefighter works to put out fires at the edge of the North Black Range bushfire near Braidwood on December 5. Photo: Dion Georgopoulos for The Canberra Times
Publisher Simon Cooper Editor Daniel Bishton dbishton@intermedia.com.au National Advertising Manager Jon Tkach jon@intermedia.com.au Graphic Designer Alyssa Coundouris Prepress Tony Willson Production Manager Jacqui Cooper Subscribe Position is available via subscription only. A 12 month subscription (6 issues) is AUD$76.00. To subscribe visit www.intermedia.com.au, phone: 1800 651 422 or email: subscriptions@intermedia.com.au website: www.spatialsource.com.au Position is published six times a year, in February, April, June, August, October and December by Interpoint Events Pty Ltd. ABN: 9810 451 2469 Address: 41 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 Ph: +61 2 9660 2113 Fax: +61 2 9660 4419 Reprints from Position are permitted only with the permission of the publisher. In all cases, reprints must be acknowledged as follows: ‘Reprinted with permission from Position Magazine’, and must include the author’s byline. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Supported by
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Trial by fire T
he last few months have been exceptionally challenging for Australians the world over. The wholesale incineration of beloved country, property, lives of humans and countless fauna in a forewarned but unmitigated disaster has cast a pall of mourning over this continent – and evoked both pity and contempt from international observers. Watching the hubris and ineptitude of a Prime Minister so out of touch that they cannot even falsify an appropriate human response to the tragedy has been revealing and bizarre. Europeans in Australia have typically been terrified of fire, having little understanding of its historical role in precisely shaping the landscape they found in 1788, and being unable to control it when pre-existing care regimes ceased with the dispossession of its original custodians. So, while the Morrison government’s cartoonishly incompetent response – to both the pleas of fire chiefs to prepare and the crisis itself – has been a shocking failure of leadership and abdication of its duty of care, this process is consistent with a longerterm colonial trend. There is a strong record of being underprepared for fire events through inadequate resource management, driven by a narrow understanding of Australia’s unique environmental conditions. Relative to many, I had only the lightest brush with the impacts of these most recent fire events. In early December, recovering from serious injuries I sustained in an accident a month prior, I remained glued to the Fires Near Me app as the polygon representing the nearby North Black Range Palerang fire mushroomed from 20 hectares, to 600, to 19,000. As the blackened leaves and ash rained down and the smoke became unbearable, my family and I evacuated the farm at Reidsdale, which seemed prudent given the information we had. The last update suggested that the fire had crossed the Shoalhaven river, which risked cutting off access to the nearest evacuation centre of Braidwood. Being immobile and highly medicated while my brave, frightened girlfriend drove us towards an entire ridge ablaze against a black and orange sky is not an experience I’ll ever forget. Things might have been a little different with more accurate data. Had we known that the fire had jumped the river north of the town, not south, we would have known that the fire did not immediately threaten our path to safety at that time. Fires would go on to encircle that property over the next four weeks. Martin Tomko, Sisi Zlatanova, Maurits van der Vlugt and Lew Ash address this critical issue of precise communication capacity in spatial tools for crisis response (page 18), the first in a number of articles that will examine the preparation and response to these unprecedented fires in Position this year. Jon Fairall examines the outsized impact that proposed changes to the tax offset for research and development will have on SMEs on page 26, and we hear from BP’s global geospatial information lead Brian Boulmay on the firm’s OneMap initiative on page 32. We sit down with the Open Geospatial Consortium’s new CEO Dr. Nadine Alameh (page 14), Petra Hemholz of Curtin University gives us the inside line on the new tool that’s changing the diagnosis of rare disease with scanning technology (page 22), and Nicholas Brown briefs us on updates to the Australian Geospatial Reference System (page 30). I hope everybody has remained safe in this difficult time. It’s a pleasure to be back on board for Position 105. n www.spatialsource.com.au 7
news NASA releases 3D view of Australia’s bushfire smoke NASA has released an interactive map that provides a 3D view of Australia’s extreme smoke plumes from the ravaging bushfires that continue to devastate communities, providing a never-before-seen view to members of the public. The map, which was created using Esri’s militarygrade technology, shows imagery captured from a NASA Terra Satellite’s flight over the eastern
coast of Australia on 16 December, 2019. Using NASA’s new Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument to detect the height of smoke above the Earth’s surface by viewing it from various angles of space, the resulting satellite imagery provides what is said to be the first-ever interactive 3D visualisation of MISR fire plume-height data. The Bureau of Meteorology
(BOM) is already using the map to investigate improving air quality forecasts for the fires, whilst the NASA Disasters Program is studying short and long-term impacts and risks
from the fires associated with air quality, aviation, wildlife and ecosystems, and climate dynamics. The map can be accessed at bit.ly/NASAsmokemap
World’s oldest surveyor retires at 102
John Maxwell/Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
If you are worried that the government may push official retirement age back to 70, save a thought for 102-year-old surveyor Bob Vollmer of the United States, who is only now putting his feet up after nearly six decades at Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources. NPR’s Weekend Edition describes the centenarian land surveyor as the oldest state employee in the history of the US state of Indiana.
According to the US public broadcaster, Mr Vollmer has never been one for a desk job, first serving in the Navy during World War II, then studying to be an engineer. It wasn’t until he turned 45 that he took up surveying for Indiana in the early 1960s at the then Department of Conservation. Mr Vollmer says after his planned retirement in February, he’s got “some projects” he’s preparing to build for the little ones,
which he won’t reveal because “they’re going to be a surprise.” And, he told NPR, he might just build something for himself as well. “Might build me a new swimming pool or something like that,” he says. Mr Vollmer points to genetics as a source for his longevity. He says his mother lived to the age of 108, and that she wasn’t the only person to make it past 100 on that side of his family.
Coronavirus: disinfecting with drones Chinese agricultural UAV specialist XAG has established a five-million yuan fund for a drone disinfection operation to fight the outbreak. Concerned that the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has spread through more than 20 countries and become a global health emergency, XAG announced on Friday
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that it would set up a 5-million yuan (AUD 1m) special fund on a coronavirus response, calling for voluntary drone disinfection operations in China, the country hardest hit by the epidemic. XAG is pitching in to combat the contagious coronavirus with innovative technologies, as well as
assisting local governments on public health safety. The 5m-yuan fund is dedicated to providing XAG’s agricultural drone users with technical support to properly carry out aerial disinfection sprays to help curb the spread of the virus, especially in rural villages with weaker health systems and poorer sanitation conditions.
These operations will target the densely populated outdoor public places and those communities that have confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus. Another focus of the operation is the intensive cleaning and disinfecting of medical and epidemic-prevention vehicles moving between affected and unaffected areas.
New dates announced for Singapore’s Geo Connect Asia Following the cancellation of Geo Connect Asia 2020 due to concerns over the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, organisers Montgomery Asia have announced that the inaugural geospatial event will now kick off in Singapore on 24th & 25th March in 2021. Geo Connect Asia 2020 had garnered a positive reception from businesses and stakeholders in the ASEAN geospatial space and received strong support from industry trade associations and various media partners. The event was set to bring together over 50 regional and international exhibitors and poised to attract 2,500 attendees from across the region with a high-level thought leadership focused conference. These numbers are expected to grow in 2021. “We remain committed to successfully delivering Southeast Asia’s inaugural globally focused geospatial exhibition and conference in
Singapore by satellite. Image courtesy of Airbus Defence and Space.
2021,” said Event Director Rupert Owen. “With this in view, I would like to thank all our partners, sponsors, exhibitors, delegates, media partners, venue operators and contractors for their unwavering support.
“The geospatial space in Southeast Asia remains a hugely exciting one, and we will return with a bigger and even more exciting programme next March, the preferred month for the global industry events calendar,” he said.
The inaugural event originally scheduled for 18-19 March this year had attracted an impressive array of regional and international industry powerhouses as sponsors and exhibitors, including Airbus, Hexagon, Trimble and Orbital Insight. “Given the seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak, not only in Asia but around the world, we fully understand and concur with the organiser’s decision to relaunch Geo Connect Asia at a later date,” said John Whitehead, Trimble APAC Director of Sales and Distribution. “As a Platinum Sponsor, we continue to support Geo Connect Asia, and we are confident that the 2021 edition will be a great success.” Organisers say they are already getting a lot of interest for the rescheduled Geo Connect Asia 2021, to be held 24th & 25th March at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre in Singapore.
Map tracks coronavirus outbreak in near-real time A team at the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering has built a map that shows the spread of the coronavirus in near-real time. The map is regularly updated with data from the WHO, CDC, and other sources, and illustrates how the virus is spreading in China and beyond Lauren Gardner, a civil engineering professor and CSSE’s co-director, spearheaded the effort to launch the mapping website on Wednesday. The site displays statistics about deaths and confirmed cases of coronavirus, or 2019nCoV, across a worldwide map that was built on Esri’s ArcGIS technology. It also allows visitors to download the data for free. “We built this dashboard because we think it is important for the public to have an understanding of the outbreak situation as it unfolds with transparent data sources,” Ms Gardner said. “For the research community, this data will become more valuable as we continue to collect it over time.”
NASA to trial in-space manufacturing NASA has awarded a $142 million contract to Maxar Technologies to robotically assemble a communications antenna and manufacture a spacecraft beam in orbit. The technology demonstration is slated to take place on NASA’s Restore-L spacecraft, designed to service and refuel a satellite in low-Earth orbit. The Restore-L spacecraft will be modified to accommodate a payload called Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot (SPIDER). The payload includes a
The demonstration is slated to take place on NASA’s Restore-L spacecraft. Credit: Maxar Technologies.
lightweight five-metre robotic arm. Previously known as Dragonfly during
the ground demonstration phase of the NASA Tipping Point partnership, SPIDER will assemble seven elements to form a functional three-metre communications antenna. The robotically assembled antenna will demonstrate Ka-band transmission with a ground station. “This technology demonstration will open up a new world of in-space robotic capabilities,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. www.spatialsource.com.au 9
news Patent awarded for indoor map generation IoT-based indoor location intelligence platform for smart buildings InnerSpace has been awarded a patent by the US Patent Office for its approach to generating maps for indoor navigation. The patent (#10458798B2) titled “Method for Sensing Interior Spaces to AutoGenerate a Navigational Map” protects the company’s unique approach leveraging LiDAR to create maps of indoor spaces. “The Indoor location market is poised for dramatic growth as public and private sectors recognise its value to operations, safety and revenue,” said InnerSpace CEO James Wu. “We have systematically eliminated the barriers to implementation and scale to ensure indoor location can reach its potential. One of the ways
Image courtesy of Innerspace
we have done this is to tackle the need for on-demand floor plan creation to keep maps up to date as building interiors change.” InnerSpace claims to be the most accurate indoor
location platform available on the market today. It uses WiFi networks and/or its proprietary sensors to measure how people and things behave within an indoor space. The company says it
enables clients in food & beverage, retail, public safety and security, workplace experience, and real estate operations to turn any building into a smart building.
ESA, Airbus join forces on the International Space Station ESA and Airbus have signed a contract for the Bartolomeo platform on the International Space Station. The Bartolomeo platform from Airbus opens new opportunities for research on the International Space Station (ISS). The European Space Agency ESA has now booked a payload slot for a
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Norwegian instrument to monitor plasma density in the Earth’s atmosphere. The Bartolomeo platform - named after Christopher Columbus’ younger brother is currently in the final stage of launch preparation at Airbus in Bremen, Germany, and is scheduled for launch to the ISS in March 2020.
Bartolomeo is developed on a commercial basis by Airbus using its own investment funds and will be operated in cooperation with ESA. The platform can accommodate up to 12 different experiment modules, supplying them with power and providing data transmission to Earth. Bartolomeo is suitable
for many different experiments. Due to the unique position of the platform with a direct view of Earth from 400 kilometres, Earth observation including trace gas measurements or CO2 monitoring of the atmosphere are possible, with data useful for climate protection or for use by private data service providers.
Locate20 program features industry heavyweights Organisers have released the Locate 2020 program with more than 50 speakers representing a lineup that is being touted as the best yet, with industry heavyweights from across Australia and around the world. This year’s conference will explore the themes of ‘Convergence, Collaboration and Community – towards a strong economy’ through the lens of four key sub-themes that take a deep dive into
the big issues the world is facing and how the industry is shifting the needle to make a difference on those. More than 50 speakers in streams including Surveying, Land administration, GIS, Digital Twin, SDG, Open Source Data and more. The Hub interactive series is also back, along with a Students@Locate day, a Young Professional Symposium, and workshops on Digital Twin Readiness, Positioning
Australia, The Open Data Cube to name a few. LOCATE20 welcomes key sponsors
Organisers have announced that Maxar, Esri Australia, Vexcel Imaging, Riegl Australia, GHD Digital and Bentley Systems are joining as major sponsors for the event. “We are excited to be at Locate20 showcasing our Reality Modelling offerings
that are making cityscale digital twins broadly accessible and enabling every city government in Australia to go digital,” said product consultant for digital cities at Bentley Glen Burke. The event, to be held 28-30 April at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, will draw up to forty additional sponsors and exhibitors, including big names such as 1Spatial and Here Technologies.
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news NSW celebrates 10,000 open data sets The NSW Government’s open data repository has hit a major milestone, with more than 10,000 data sets now available to the public. Launched in 2009 and claimed to be the first state-level open data catalogue in the world, the NSW Open Data Portal provides businesses and individuals access to data sets from all government departments and agencies in NSW. Executive director of Data, Insights & Transformation Simon Herbert said the data for applications like Fuel Check,
Fires Near Me and the NSW Education School Finder is published by agencies and is easily accessible via Data.NSW. “The Fires Near Me app is helping many families across the state right now, while the popular Fuel Check app helps customers find the cheapest petrol available,” Mr Herbert said. “Releasing non-personalised data is good for everyone in NSW including the government, as the data can be used in a number of different ways to help make life easier.”
The Dish to receive power-up CSIRO’s iconic Parkes radio telescope – fondly known as ‘The Dish’ – will get a new receiver that will significantly increase the amount of sky it can see at any one time, enabling new science and supporting local innovation in the space sector. Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grants have been awarded for the development of a new receiver for the Parkes radio telescope and a major upgrade for the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri in NSW. Both telescopes are owned and operated by the CSIRO for use by astronomers in Australia and around the world. A $1.15M LIEF grant will support a $3M project to build a sensitive receiver called a ‘cryoPAF’ for the Parkes radio telescope. Once complete, the new cryoPAF will sit high above the Parkes telescope’s dish surface and receive radio signals reflected up from the dish. Its detectors will convert radio signals into electrical ones, which can be combined in different ways so that the telescope ‘looks’ in several different directions at once.
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q&a
Q&A with Locate20 keynote Dr. Nadine Alameh Locate20 Organising Committee member Roshni Sharma catches up with Dr. Nadine Alameh, the recently appointed CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Through her career spanning aviation, earth observation and defence, Dr. Alameh has been dedicated to interoperability and innovation. She brings that message to Australia in April when she delivers a keynote at Locate20.
ABOVE: Locate20 keynote speaker and OGC CEO Dr. Nadine Alameh.
“There has never been this much potential for the need to integrate location data, to analyse it and to value its impact. Also, there has never been more of a need (…) to make location, what we call, ‘FAIR’ – findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable” 14 position February/March 2020
Roshni Sharma: Spatial technologies are becoming mainstream and more and more it is the case that our friends and family understand what we do. Can you tell me about how you think our capacity to really impact other industries and to influence global technological development has changed because of that movement toward being in the mainstream?
Nadine Alameh: We live in exciting times. When we talk about changes and movement, it’s fascinating to see how many things are changing or feel like they’re changing at the same time. Think about the explosiveness of data that’s available out there. Data is now more available than ever to everybody. It’s not just provided by government organisations, but by commercial players and by start-ups. So, you see this amazing range and then you overlay on top of that the computing power and the cloud, and more recently, the maturity of artificial intelligence and data analytics. You can start to see this potential for integration of data that includes location in every aspect of it and how we’re influencing by adding value and by adding this unique perspective that we’ve always known as the geospatial industry, but now everybody is. So, I am seeing that location is becoming a differentiator in data analytics offerings and in how you visualise your data and your organisation and your business. So again,
I think we’re on the cusp of some amazing transformations and how we do things and how we present them. And at the heart of it is location being accessible. Like you said, it’s not this bubble, I call it a bubble. The title of my talk at Locate 2020 is “Breaking Out of the Bubble”. So, we’re not special anymore - we’re out of the bubble. We’re finally being appreciated as an industry because of our impact these days. RS: Nadine, you’re a recognised leader in our field and have recently been appointed as CEO of OGC, the Open Geospatial Consortium. Would you mind telling us a bit about why you feel that interoperability and innovation are crucial to the success of our industry’s future?
NA: So, I have to start by saying how excited I am and honoured to be the new CEO of OGC. This is my dream job. So, it’s great to be here. OGC is 25 years old, and we’re here to define the next 25 years. So, it’s very, very exciting. And obviously, we’ve been talking about how times are changing. So, it’s really about redefining our role and creating value. Now, value in this context, like you mentioned in the question, it’s coming from interoperability and it’s coming from innovation and how these things play together. We have discussed the explosion of data availability, the processing power, the cloud, the A.I., the visualisation. You begin to appreciate that the problem of
integrating this data from various sources is becoming more complex. I love to say the problem of interoperability is now more visible to people. They get it because there’s so much out there. I keep saying this. We can’t keep doing things the same old, same old. These are new problems. Our environment is changing, and sometimes you can’t just evolve what you have. You have to think outside the box. You have to innovate. This is the time to reinvent some things. And this is why you see innovation popping up all over the place, because there’s a need for it. There’s hunger for it. There is a way to do things more efficiently, but also there’s opportunities to do brand new things. And that’s what we’re doing here. So, it’s innovation with all this data, with all these new technologies, and you’ve got to have some back end of interoperability. So, it ties them all together at the same time. RS: You’ve had the pleasure of working in a number of STEM industries, from architecture to engineering to aviation, and with NASA’s applied science program. Through studying and working across several continents, you’ve gained an understanding of STEM industries on a global level. I’m curious what parallels do you see between some of the challenges that the Australian geospatial industry is facing with what other geographies and technical fields are facing?
NA: Oh, I see so many parallels, honestly, and challenges worldwide and across industries. I can name a few. One of my favourites is we look at how the business models are evolving, and this is not specific to any industry. Think about as an example, satellite imagery acquisition. How has this changed in the last few years? Because now we have all these small sets out there. So that’s the challenge of how do you deal with new business models? How do you evolve with them? Another challenge is our problems. Again, they’re not a country or continent specific, but they’re getting more complex, especially the ones that involve more than just us. I go back to the climate change example because again, it’s an obvious example where one entity cannot have all the data or understand or analyse or propose to solve the issue. That’s the same sort of complex problems changing business models. And we were just talking about innovation. It’s everywhere. Everyone is also trying to figure it out. How do you incorporate all these new things, technologies or business model into our
operational systems? Innovating is great, but how do you take innovation into operations as a challenge? I see everywhere. I have to add one last, and maybe it’s a theme: shortage of diversity. I also see it everywhere. It’s bringing in the new generation; it’s encouraging. We are talking about more women in STEM. We should keep supporting this message because it’s a win win for everybody. So, if there is a silver lining for the challenges that we’re facing it is that we need more hands on deck, and we need diversity of perspectives and backgrounds and experiences and educational backgrounds to pitch in and take us to the next level. RS: Looking ahead to Locate20, what excites you most about the event? Who are you excited to meet and what are you looking forward to learning?
NA: I’m excited about too many things about Locate 2020. Oh, ok, I’ll pick two. So, I’m very excited because it is my first trip to Australia. So, this is my first opportunity to meet with our OGC members, and we have some very longstanding members there and to meet them on their soil and in their environment, I can’t wait. We’re really trying to show our commitment for the global nature OGC and of the mission of interoperability and innovation and collaboration. So, it’s also a very timely visit from this perspective. So, I’m very thankful for the Locate organisers for inviting me over. My second reason that I’m excited is the theme of the conference, convergence, collaboration and community, because it is so aligned with the vision and mission of OGC and for our plan for the next year and really the next twenty-five years. This is about connecting of the people, the community, the technology and the policy driven by our values of collaboration and innovation. They are so aligned with the
conference that it makes me really look forward to hearing what others have to say, to learning from them and getting on board. I think this is part of this global movement of convergence. So, it’s very exciting. RS: I’m so pleased that you’re coming to the conference, Nadine. Beyond Locate, what’s on the horizon for you and what legacy do you want to leave for future generations?
NA: So I know I’ve said it so many times, I think in this interview, because I truly believe that I’m very fortunate to be at OGC in these times of ubiquity of location and the value of location in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. There has never been this much potential for the need to integrate location data, to analyse it and to value its impact. Also, there has never been more of a need to have this convening power to bring this global expertise together to make location, what we call, ‘FAIR’ - findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable. So, you know, when you ask me about legacy, I strongly believe that we want OGC to be the consortium of members and communities that fulfil these needs for integration and community building. I would love to have OGC be a champion for interoperability, collaboration and innovation. Again, you can see the parallel with the conference theme. That’s amazing. At the same time, I see OGC as the authority on all location related technical standards. So, my vision is of this global connected, diverse community, with all of us focussed on value and impact to create this better and sustainable future for us, for our kids and for future generations. That's a lot, but that’s not just my legacy. This would be all our legacy because it only happens with collaboration. n For more of Roshni’s conversations with Locate speakers and participants, search “Locate Podcast” wherever you get your podcasts.
Year 7 students Elizabeth Peabody and Micah Edwards earned a trip to Locate19 after winning first place in last year’s Geospatial Information Competition.
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Fuelling the Innovation Race
Getting young minds racing in Taylors VR Simulation
Taylors returns to the Australian Grand Prix to set young minds racing with interactive technology
T
he Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix will roar back into Melbourne this March, bigger and better than ever with the newly updated Innovation and Tech Hub open for the whole week to delight and intrigue race-goers of all ages. In 2020, Taylors will return to the Hub with the intent to set young minds racing, challenging the next generation of ‘STEMies’. Students will explore land, built, and natural environments, encouraging them to interact with a world beyond the physical through virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D scanning, photogrammetry and 3D printing. The Grand Prix Innovation and Tech Hub is a unique chance to demonstrate the exciting applications of geospatial science, land and environmental engineering, and surveying to students in an interactive way. Students are given the chance to find out how digital technology and modelling are used to capture real world data to produce digital facsimiles. In doing so, they learn about drones, GPS, robotic total stations, laser scanning, modelling and photogrammetry and how the surveyor’s array of tech equipment can be used in STEM fields that help shape our cities. As an industry leader in the cuttingedge Digital Twin and Smart Cities field, Taylors have been working with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation since 2011 to deliver reality models of the Grand Prix circuit, and helping the organisation make quick decisions around event layout based on the models that are created.
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At this year’s event, Taylors will again be focusing on teaching and development by providing a great platform for primary and secondary school students in attendance to gain some insight into laser scanning technology, VR, AR, 3D printing and photogrammetry, and engaging their interest in STEM. The Taylors Geospatial and Engineering Technology exhibit seeks to demonstrate how advanced geospatial engineering technologies and techniques are increasingly being utilised within the core operations of the business. This is built on the belief that showing the link between skills development and the realworld application of new technology is an important part in building pathways from schools into the industry. “We are aiming to make a connection with interested students and school groups who may wish to take on the Taylors innovative STEM experience
Creating your Digital Twin – point cloud of STEM students
as part of their school curriculum and further education. Hopefully, engaging and inspiring these students will get them to consider this as a potential career path in the future,” said Taylors Managing Director Richard Cirillo. One of the key ways Taylors will be engaging students and other attendees will be through their new Taylors Augmented Reality App, which is a cloud-based augmented reality platform, accessible via your smartphone or tablet. From March 12th to March 15th, the more than 325,000 visitors to the Australian Formula 1® Grand Prix can use the app to witness the innovations made possible by creative minds like theirs. Perhaps it will even spark their own ideas to help fuel the next big change. Taylors’ app will allow STEM students and racegoers to walk around and experience innovations from the past and present as we move into the future. “At Taylors we knew that our access to world-leading geospatial and engineering technology could evolve to be shared with the broader community. We want to bring lasting, memorable AR experiences to life for all to see,” said Mr Cirillo. “We’re proud that our innovative AR Applications will connect curious minds with creative learning endeavours, that need not be exclusive to just our industry and clients,” he added. Student engineer Wayne Goh said he valued the chance to communicate and network with people of different backgrounds and age groups when he was on the Taylors team at last year’s event.
“It provided a great way to engage the kids’ interest in STEM and help them to discover innovative technologies and the latest trends,” Goh said. “I really enjoyed demonstrating our reality capture and 3D modelling technologies to such a diverse audience of industry professionals, corporate employees, tourists, teenagers and children.” “Although kids are familiar with virtual gaming platforms and VR glasses, they were amazed by the laser scanning and real world modelling,” said Taylors Geospatial, 3D and Technology Manager Alastair MacColl. “The idea of being able to scan pretty much anything and transform it into physical models was an impressive idea made simple for them.” “Staying innovative and competitive is a big focus for Taylors and the advances we continue to make in spatial data capture and visualisation technology are extremely beneficial. The partnership with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has been the perfect opportunity for these innovations to shine,” said Taylors MD Richard Cirillo. In recent years, Taylors developed a Digital Twin of the site, which assisted overall event planning and management and allowed the corporation to view potential changes in real-time which ultimately led to improved outcomes and increased efficiency. Among its many uses, the Digital Twin has been used to produce a range of immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences for attendees of all ages. “We hope that by showcasing our Digital Twin, Reality Modelling, AR, VR and other technological innovations we will inspire the next generation to a career in the spatial sciences,” said Mr. Cirillo. In 2019, over 60,000 students from Melbourne schools experienced the Innovation Hub during the first two days of the racing program, and no one walked away disappointed. Students had the opportunity to learn about drones, GPS, robotic total stations and photogrammetry – and how the equipment can be used in construction, architecture and town planning. This year, A Life Without Limits and Get Kids Into Survey will join a diverse team of Taylors representatives in the exhibit. Taylors will also collaborate with local schools to obtain some student provided examples for display. “That experience was amazing, I loved it so much,” exclaimed Ben, one of last year’s primary school students. “I would love to do something like this in the future.” “Getting surveying out there is extremely important as many students have no idea what it is,” said Taylors MD Richard Cirillo. “The Taylors Geospatial
Bringing models to life – 3D printing display
Creating your Digital Twin – demonstrating laser scanning
Taylors VR Simulation gets kids involved in the action
“At Taylors we want to bring lasting, memorable AR experiences to life for all to see. We’re proud that our innovative AR Applications will connect curious minds with creative learning endeavours” – Taylors Managing Director, Richard Cirillo.
and Engineering Technology Exhibit is the perfect initiative for getting the word out there about geospatial science and technology in a fun and interactive way.” “It was fun watching the reaction of young people experiencing VR and AR for the first time. It was such a great opportunity to talk to the general public about what Taylors is doing in the new technology space,” said Mr MacColl. In addition to the experiences that engage the kids, Taylors will again be demonstrating their expertise at the Grand Prix by producing 3D models of various Victorian landmarks, offering 3D scanning services to racegoers, and displaying eye opening immersive VR and AR experiences.
But even if you can’t experience the roar of the Grand Prix for yourself, you can still experience this industry changing technology today from home. Taylors technology brings the thrill of Formula One to the front cover of this magazine with Augmented Reality. Simply search for the Taylors Augmented Reality App from your app store or scan the QR Code to download the app and see this powerful technology in action. n Information provided by Taylors. www.spatialsource.com.au 17
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BUSHFIRE COMMUNICATION needs to consider space, time, and user experience MARTIN TOMKO, MAURITS VAN DER VLUGT, LEW SHORT, SISI ZLATANOVA
Frequent, devastating emergencies As a consequence of the rapidly changing climate, devastating emergencies unfold more frequently, their consequences last longer and reach deeper. The Australian bushfire season 2019-2020 led to the largest non-war, domestic defense force deployment and evacuation in Australian history. The recurrent nature of emergencies stresses the traditional transitions from prevention and preparedness, through response to recovery. In this article, we discuss the experience of affected users when trying to access and interpret the spatial information about the disasters, and the how we, as spatial professionals, should re-think spatial communication for situational awareness.
Emergency communication landscape While Australian bushfires are still burning and directly or indirectly putting the environment, properties, and health at risk, the north and east of the country floods, Melbourne is covered in giant-sized hail, and a novel coronavirus spreads. Such rapid serial co-occurrence of hazards putting different populations at risk strains traditional emergency management and communication. Past inter-agency emergency management reviews have targeted data integration and response coordination, with geospatial professions and technologies acknowledged as key. This led to improvements in Australian emergency management at state levels. For instance, Victorian emergency communications coordination has consolidated by the establishment of the coordination body ESTA (ESTA Act 2004) and subsequent operational refinements following the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Bodies such as EMSINA
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further facilitate coordination between states. Yet, while this integration facilitates the work of emergency professionals, it is not always evident to the affected communities. In this article, we discuss the experience of affected users when trying to access and interpret the spatial information about the disasters, and the how we, as spatial professionals, should re-think spatial communication for situational awareness.
Spatial information for situational awareness The communication of the spatial extent of emergencies and their expected spread is a critical piece of situational awareness. Affected people need accurate, up-to-date information on which to base their emergency response, and their families and friends need the ability to assess their situation. This year, the emergency communication about the Australian bushfires has triggered major criticism, particularly due to frustrations with the spatial information being shared. Let’s consider a sample of early notes we have collected during this year’s crisis, centered around a number of recurrent themes illustrated by Figure 1: content, presentation, and user interface. Together, these form the cornerstones of user experience (Ux). Our data collection still continues. (1) Finding reliable sources of information: While direct emergency communication has integrated well, the end-user channels are unclear and hard to find. Each state has their own emergency warnings site. Their names and web addresses are not standardised, the systems are not integrated, or even provide mutual links to each other. Tourists or people that do not live in hazard-prone areas may not be aware of these channels and how to navigate between them. In a country still poorly covered
Affected people need accurate, up-to-date information on which to base their emergency response, and their families and friends need the ability to assess their situation.
by mobile internet access in rural areas, the reliance on low-bandwidth mobile signal and Google search burdens emergency decision-making. Predictable information source findability is key for decision making. (2) Non-standardised content: the spatial content presented by the above services is unhomogenous in content, and therefore hard to integrate technically and cognitively. For example, the extent and status of the same fire at the border of two states may be labeled and their extent generalised differently. Descriptions of warning levels follow different conventions between state agencies. Note the sparser information about bushfires across the Victoria/NSW border in Figure 1, or the complete lack of any spatial information across the SA/Vic border on the SA emergency site. This was experienced as a significant hurdle by tourists evacuating from Mallacoota (Vic) this summer, lacking understanding of the situation across the near NSW border. Users are further confused by inconsistent background maps, providing context for decision-making. Victoria uses Vicmap data (although not credited on the mobile version of the website), NSW uses Google maps data (again, not credited on the 02/01/2020 version of the website, but since added), while SA only states “Government for South Australia”. These emergency apps are used to support decision making by affected users, who may need to plan evacuation routes. Unfamiliar map keys, and inconsistent, possibly outdated background data add to their confusion, e.g., when locating dirt tracks. (3) Non-standardised content presentation and user interfaces: the noted inconsistent status levels and fire extents are further exacerbated by the use of inconsistent symbology and colour codes of warnings across agencies, imposing cognitive barriers to emergency information interpretation. In addition, Victoria and NSW delineate burned and currently affected areas differently. EMSINA has been promoting a consistent set of symbols for years, yet the adoption across state agencies has thus far not eventuated. As geospatial professionals, we also know that there is no space without time: Victoria notes the timestamp of the presented information explicitly, while the NSW app only notes how long it has been since last user interface update. Function naming varies widely (“Locate me” vs “Use my location”), and so does map functionality (Filter vs Layers). The user experience appears informed by developers of (professional) geoportals, rather than informed by end-user needs.
Distributed channels for emergency information dissemination
ABOVE – Figure 1: Mobile phone website screenshots (Android) of the fire situation as shown at the border of Victoria and NSW, at the same time (02/01/2020 at 7.25pm). Middle: NSW Fires Near Me; Right: Emergency Victoria Incidents and Warnings. Right: for completeness, a screenshot of the SA emergency warnings site from 31/01/2020.
The rapidly changing public communication landscape affects emergency communication, a distinctive feature of all emergencies in recent years. Authorities no longer have full control over channels and information used by people to gain situational awareness. The community expects the ability to maintain situational awareness through fast, accurate, updated, and tailored information provided through their habitual information channels, not purpose-made emergency information apps. Communities also rely on self-help, for instance to fill-in information lacking from authorities. Social media now facilitate a substantial part of emergency communication (see Hughes and Palen, 2009, Vieweg et al., 2010 and consecutive publications from the project EPIC, http://epic.cs.colorado. edu/), addressing the traditional top-down communication from agencies. Centralised channels are rigid, and cannot www.spatialsource.com.au 19
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ABOVE – Figure 2: Examples of Self-help by Facebook groups (Mallacoota Community Page). Conditions and restrictions change fast, and self-help groups with members on the ground are an important source of trusted information.
accommodate all expectations from the community, by design. A large amount of highly helpful information is spread through informal channels such as Twitter and Facebook (Figure 2). We acknowledge the efforts by the agencies, increasingly catering to populations using social media feeds (Figure 3). Consider the examples below: ForestFireManagement and VicEmergency spread a consistent message, at the same time, with a consistent hashtag. This is an important part of good practice — users start following a set of hashtags that establish themselves in a specific emergency, and need the assurance that they will not miss on vital information. Yet, are social media communications as well coordinated as the internal agency response? While in the case of Victorian bushfires emergency agencies fed the immediate warnings well, additional information required for decision making was lacking. Vicroads, intuitively the main source of information on traffic, did not tweet since October. Social media monitoring and information management is arguable the next frontier for spatio-temporal emergency information. Moderating of out-dated, misleading or even deliberately false information through fact-checking becomes a mandatory activity during emergencies. (https://factcheck.afp.com/ these-maps-do-not-show-individualbushfires-australia-january-2020). The monitoring of relevant communication channels is another: for instance, domestic Chinese-speaking users and tourists are more likely to use WeChat than Twitter.
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Aggregators and dashboards Users’ frustration leads to the emergence of mash-ups and aggregators, integrating and supplementing information from authorities and the public with additional decision-support information, such as wind direction. A dominant software platform became Ushahidi, following the earthquake in Haiti and since deployed in emergencies worldwide. Bushfireconnect.org (now defunct), addressing the aftermath of Black Saturday 2009, was an early and prominent implementation in Australia. While technical standardisation of data feeds improved, mash-ups still directly suffer from the content and presentation inconsistencies (see https://bushfire.io/). The single-disaster focus on many aggregator deployments leads to disappearance of an information channel after the transition from the response to the recovery phase, affecting findability. A new, equivalent site is often deployed at the next disaster, re-living the product BELOW – Figure 4: Metadata notification about retirement of an ESRI ArcGIS Online page with Australian Bushfire information. Right: a non-responsive website layout for the EMSINA dashboard impedes user experience on mobile, the primary access channel to emergency information.
ABOVE – Figure 3: Two Victorian agencies issuing the same Tweet alert, at the same time, with a consistent message and hashtags (31/01/2020). A separate entity (IncidentAlert) feeds a message with additional place names, and missing hashtag. Yet, a Victorian user would not find information about evacuation roads Vicroads does not tweet (last tweet found on 31/01/2020 shown). Users of WeChat discuss Australian bushfires in Chinese, with distinct hashtags.
lifecycle and impacting on the user experience. The retirement of systems is a particular pain point (see Figure 4, below).
Lessons for the future Social media and alternative information channels have been an increasing force of our information landscape for over a decade. It is no longer a question of fighting and perceiving such channels with suspicion - they have provided real value during the ongoing bushfire crisis. Emergency response authorities and spatial professionals need to take a user experience (UX) approach to the re-thinking and re-design of emergency information communication, working together with the affected communities to understand what information is needed at all stages of the emergency cycle. They need to research and implement means to present emergency information unambiguously and consistently across information channels, and be ready to use the power of self-organised communities pro-actively during future emergencies. There is no doubt these will be here sooner than we wish for. n
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Scanning a new landscape The new tool unlocking facial clues to rare diseases with spatial techniques AUTHOR: DR. PETRA HELMHOLZ CO-AUTHORS: PROF GARETH BAYNAM, DR. RICHARD PALMER, PAULA FIEVEZ, DR. LYN SCHOFIELD, DYLAN GRATION, DR. CATHRYN POULTON, YARLALU THOMAS
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A
rare disease is defined as such when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people. With over 7,000 known rare diseases, while individually rare, cumulatively they are common. Worldwide, an estimated 6-8 percent of people suffer with some form of rare disease. In Australia, 1.5 million live with a rare disease, as do 30 million people in Europe, and 25-30 million in the US. Thirty to fifty percent of these individuals experience their first symptoms during childhood. Rare diseases are complex, chronic, and often multisystem involving disability, suffering, and death. Thirty-five percent of babies die before their first birthday and 30 percent of children before their fifth. Thirty percent of rare disease patients are referred to an average of six different specialists. Some wait up to 30 years before receiving an accurate diagnosis, and nearly half of all initial diagnoses are incorrect. The need to quickly and accurately diagnose rare diseases is thus a global health priority. Undertaking a diagnosis usually involves first analysing a patient’s phenotype – how they appear, how they behave, how their physical and cognitive abilities compare to their peers, etc. Approximately one third of genetic and rare diseases manifest as atypical facial traits. However, recognising salient aspects of the facial phenotype requires expert knowledge about how distinct versus subtle facial characteristics appear, and the ability to identify overlapping facial traits of clinical significance. To assist in describing and understanding these facial traits (and the human phenotype more generally), the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) (https://hpo.jax.org/app/) was created. This is a
Right: An image of a 3D face (top left), with detected landmarks (top right), showing the underlying 3D mesh (bottom left) and visualising asymmetry (bottom right).
In some cases, identifying the presence of atypical phenotypic traits is based less on the precise measurement of features and their comparison with known facial norms, and more on the clinician’s personal knowledge and experience. This element of subjectivity introduces a not-insignificant source of bias into the diagnostic process. structured set of well-defined terms to describe phenotypic abnormalities and a tool for annotating and analysing human disease. The HPO database is comprised of 11,000 terms (as of 2015) which are used in 250,000 disease annotations for over 10,000 rare and common diseases. HPO terms are widely used in the rare disease community for developing computational tools for clinical differential diagnostics and for phenotype-driven analysis of genetic data. By agreeing upon such a library of terms, clinicians are better able to share their findings among their professional networks in a precise and unambiguous manner – leveraging each other’s knowledge and enhancing the ability of each clinician to deliver accurate and timely diagnoses.
When undertaking diagnostic inference, Australian clinicians are faced with several challenges during the collection and analysis of patient information. Such challenges include: 1. The need to precisely measure many different aspects of the face; 2. A paucity of documentation about facial anatomy and measurements; 3. Understanding the nature of atypical measurements for ethnicities other than Caucasians. Currently, facial phenotyping for clinical diagnosis is performed by manually taking anthropometric measurements using simple instruments such as plastic rulers, tape measures, or callipers. However, manually taking facial measurements can be imprecise and sometimes traumatic for young children especially. In addition, www.spatialsource.com.au 23
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Right: Australian clinicians must measure facial traits with extreme precision to identify atypical facial traits that may identify presence of rare and genetic diseases.
in some cases, identifying the presence of atypical phenotypic traits is based less on the precise measurement of features and their comparison with known facial norms, and more on the clinician’s personal knowledge and experience. This element of subjectivity introduces a not-insignificant source of bias into the diagnostic process. Due to the length of time needed to take many facial measurements, clinicians also often concentrate on taking measurements of features that already appear somewhat unusual – a kind of confirmation bias. If subsequent measurements are needed, the patient must be brought back into clinic so that the additional measurements can be made. By taking standard photographs of a patient’s face, further measurements can be made without needing the patient to be returned to clinic, but lighting and issues with pose together with the lack of precise information about the geometry and form of the facial surface limits the clinical utility of 2D images. Cliniface is a platform for the visualisation and analysis of 3D facial images and enables the objective detection of standardised phenotypic descriptors (HPO terms) to support clinicians in providing timely and accurate diagnoses. It utilises well established spatial methods and approaches for this work. Cliniface uses 3D facial data captured by specialist camera systems (e.g., the Vectra H1 camera). In general, such systems can generate 3D surface scans with submillimetre accuracy (depending on the capture technology) providing a detailed representation of the facial surface as a triangulated texture mapped mesh (≈200,000 data points). Image capture itself often takes only as long as needed to take a regular 2D photograph. The cost of such specialist camera systems is decreasing and the technology itself is being miniaturised so that in the next few years, it should be possible to acquire highly detailed and accurate 3D scans from commodity hardware such as might be found in future generations of smartphones. Cliniface is agnostic to how a 3D image is captured and can import images stored in a variety of widely used file formats. Cliniface annotates the 3D surface with standard anatomical facial landmarks which are used to automatically extract measurements of potential clinical significance (typically straight line distances between pairs of landmarks). The landmarks are detected semi-automatically and their precise placement can be adjusted by the user without involving the patient further. After providing simple demographic information (sex, date of birth, ethnicity), Cliniface analyses the measurements against its database of matching norms and flags those that are atypical for the patient as well as the HPO terms they are associated with. The analysis can be exported to file as human readable structured text (XML or JSON formats) for processing as part of other third-party analysis tools.
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As well as an objective analysis, Cliniface can accentuate aspects of the 3D facial surface via selectable visualisations to help the clinician more easily appreciate curvature and (a)symmetry through the medial plane which can offer further clues and assist in arriving at a provisional diagnosis - subsequently refined through clinical consensus and corroborated by genetic testing. Based on the definitive diagnosis, a treatment plan can be developed. The long-term goals of Cliniface are to support clinicians with: 1. Developing new objective measurements and norms; 2. Developing models of normal face variation for specific cohorts (e.g., for ethnicities other than Caucasian); 3. Assessing facial change over time for treatment monitoring; 4. U ndertaking more sophisticated forms of analysis by incorporating data and algorithms from other research entities. Cliniface’s main user group is clinicians who use the software for disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, Cliniface’s extensibility (realised by its plugin architecture) means it can be used to conduct research in the area of facial anthropometrics and to explore the utility of new state-of-the-art 3D image processing and analysis algorithms. Thus, Cliniface offers computer vision and image processing researchers a low effort path to putting their work directly into the hands of medical practitioners – those who are best placed and most eager to benefit from applied advances in the field of 3D facial image processing and analysis. The team has been able to establish international partnerships with China, Japan, USA, India, Czech Republic, Belgium, and the UK. Cliniface is installed (without needing elevated user privileges) as a standalone application and all analysis is performed locally; no images or patient data are uploaded elsewhere. This means that a user’s local ethical and organisational/jurisdictional conditions about data sharing are automatically respected helping to facilitate strong and transparent collaborations between the Cliniface team and its users. Cliniface is also free and open source, and further information is available on our webpage www.cliniface.org . Dr. Petra Helmholz, Senior Lecturer Photogrammetry in Spatial Sciences at Curtin University where her work includes teaching and research. Current research interests focus on application driving research of Photogrammetry in the areas of health, agriculture, heritage mapping and engineering as well as underwater photogrammetry and terrestrial and airborne Photogrammetry. She is the national chair of the SSSI Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Commission, Associate Editor of the journal Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS), cochair ISPRS Working Group I.10 and the course coordinator of the Bachelor of Surveying (BSurv) Degree at Curtin University. n
#Locate20 #Locate20
28 2020 28 –– 30 30 April April 2020 Brisbane and Exhibition Exhibition Centre Centre Brisbane Convention Convention and Convergence, towardsaastronger strongereconomy economy Convergence,Collaboration Collaboration and and Community Community -- towards More Land administration, administration,GIS, GIS,Digital DigitalTwin, Twin, Morethan than50 50speakers speakerswith withstreams streams including including Surveying, Surveying, Land SDGs, The Hub Hub interactive interactiveseries seriesisisback, back,along alongwith witha a SDGs,Open OpenSource SourceData Dataand andmuch much much much more. more. The Students@Locate day, a Young Professional Symposium and workshops on Digital Twin Readiness, Students@Locate day, a Young Professional Symposium and workshops on Digital Twin Readiness, Positioning Data Cube Cube to toname nameaafew! few! PositioningAustralia, Australia, The The Open Open Data
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Linda Peters Linda Peters Global Head of Official Global Head of Esri Official Statistics, Statistics, Esri
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Gillian Sparkes Bruce Thompson Chair of Bruce Thompson Chair of Gillianfor Sparkes Commissioner Environmental ANZLIC. Executive Director Spatial Commissioner for Environmental ANZLIC. Executive Director Spatial Sustainability in Victoria Services, NSW Government Sustainability in Victoria Services, NSW Government
www.locateconference.com/2020 www.locateconference.com/2020 media affiliates media affiliates
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The R&D dilemma JON FAIRALL
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large part of the Australasian spatial industry is made up of SMEs with annual turnover less than $20 million per year. By the very nature of the work, these are entities that indulge in more than their fair share of research and development, so the way the government views R&D is vitally important to them, and hence the health of the industry as a whole. Since the economic reforms of the 1980s, governments of both persuasions have offered tax incentives to increase the amount of money firms spend on R&D. Usually, these incentives come in the form of a tax rebate or offset. Now, under changes currently being considered by the parliament, (Treasury Laws Amendment (Research and Development Tax Incentive) Bill 2019) this offset will be reduced. Most of the reduction will be borne by small companies.
The impact on the spatial industry of the proposed changes is likely to be negative, experts say. The industry relies on R&D to develop new ways to exploit spatial data. Curtailing the rate at which such products get to market will not only damage the industry, but potentially cause significant damage to wider society. The story starts in the 1980s, when a generation of economic reform led to the view that innovation was the key to Australia’s economic future. By the 2019-20 financial year, the Australian government's total support for R&D had grown to almost $10 billion. This is a lot of money, even if you deduct almost half a billion dollars syphoned off by the Medical Research Future Fund and the $860 million that goes to CSIRO. One might suppose that, with this
much money involved and 40 years’ of experience in administering the program, there would be a clear view of its costs and benefits. In fact the effectiveness of R&D tax offsets remain highly controversial. Some say that firms spend money on R&D because they have a business case for doing so, and taxation is largely irrelevant in determining whether it will occur. Others argue that in many cases, firms need encouragement to invest, and favourable taxation rules are vital. In order to get a better handle on this, in December 2015 the government announced its National Innovation and Science Agenda and the formation of Innovation and Science Australia (ISA), an independent statutory body with the remit to provide whole-of-government advice on all science, research and innovation matters. The ISA board is also tasked with the oversight of a number of innovation support programs, including the research and development tax incentive.
ISA was initially charged with developing a strategic plan for improving and enhancing Australia’s innovation, science and research. It delivered its report in 2016. Although he did not make specific proposals to government, Bill Ferris, the chair of the board, says its findings make one thing very clear: ‘We need to significantly lift our game if we want to be a top tier innovation nation.’ Australia performs near the bottom of the OECD on most measures of R&D intensity. In 2016, the most recent year in which comparative statistics are available, the World Bank calculated that the average global expenditure was 2.3 percent of GDP. Australia sat at 1.92 per cent, a long way behind Israel, at 4.58 or Korea, 4.55 and well below the OECD average of 2.57 percent.
R&D makes a difference There are at least three facts that cannot really be argued. One is that the R&D offset costs the government a lot. A second is that some industries – the spatial industry is one – depend on innovation to thrive. The third is that investment in the spatial industries – including investment in spatial R&D, has an enormous multiplier effect in terms of its effect on the wider society. The recent bushfires in Australia are a case in point. They were the most ferocious in history yet, for all the devastation to trees and animals, the destruction of property and loss of human life was much less than might have been predicted. The most lethal bushfire was Ash Wednesday in 2009, which burnt out 400,000 ha and killed 173 people. The
fires this summer have, at this writing, killed 33. But their scale has been without precedent. The fires have burnt out 18.6 million hectares of bushland. Much has been written about the magnificent effort of firefighters. It does not distract from that to observe that without geospatial intelligence to organise their efforts, the outcome could have been very different. It provides the maps and charts. It lies behind the fire models that predict what the fires will do. It underlies the logistics system that allow organisers to put trucks, crews, and water together at the right place and the right time. But we don’t need to build an argument from the high drama of the bushfires to underscore the importance of R&D for the industry. Several large scale projects have transformed the industry and were totally dependent on R&D implemented by dozens of small companies. The creation of the National Positioning Infrastructure had input from researchers all over the country over many years. It yields 25mm 3D positioning in real time from any of the six GNSS constellations that are visible over Australia. The technology to do this could not have been imported. Research in this field is on-going. The National Urban Digital Elevation Model is another case in point. The NUDEM was built for the Department of Environment by researchers at the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information and 200 other organisations. It is now administered by Geoscience Australia. To be sure, it used imported laser technology, but turning that laser information into meaningful height data was a complex and difficult job undertaken in many small enterprises. www.spatialsource.com.au 27
feature On the face of it, government’s decision to slant the tax incentive towards bigger companies is puzzling. One of the key findings of the ISA review is that innovation in small companies is a significant driver of jobs and growth in the Australian economy.
Moreover, this ignores dozens of products developed in individual companies in the belief that they could be sold for a profit. The R&D offset is unlikely to have been the biggest reason for undertaking these projects, but it must have entered into people’s calculations.
Changing the R&D rules The government seems to understand this. Its position seems to be that it will continue to support the scheme, but it wants more bang for its buck. Introducing the bill to parliament, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg acknowledged the important of the tax offset regime which “enables Australian businesses to create more and better paying jobs whilst remaining globally competitive. He proposed the bill to “better target the R&D Tax Incentive and ensure its ongoing sustainability.” The exact details are complex, but the import of the changes is clear enough. Treasury wants to target tax relief at companies that are generating a high percentage of their total operating costs on R&D – in tax parlance, that is companies that exhibit high levels of ‘R&D intensity’. They are also trying to focus on medium rather than small enterprises. One pleasing consequence of this might be if it encourages large multinational companies to do more of their research in Australia. The downside is that firms with turnover less than $20 million get to claim a smaller percentage than bigger firms. Treasury’s belief is that this sharper focus will bring more bang for less buck.
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On the face of it, government’s decision to slant the tax incentive towards bigger companies is puzzling. One of the key findings of the ISA review is that innovation in small companies is a significant driver of jobs and growth in the Australian economy. The $20 million limit is also important, because most firms in the spatial industry are smaller than that. The way these changes affect such companies is instructive. According to an explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft bill, almost two thirds of firms in this bracket have intensities of 4 percent or lower. This rate of expenditure puts them in a bracket where their benefit drops from the current 8.5 percent to 4.5 percent; i.e. it cuts the benefit in half. So, if a $20 million firm was spending $800,000 on R&D, it would have received $68,000 in tax relief. Now it will receive $36,000. Daniel Ronai from the Australian Manufacturing Forum says: “Many of these applicants will not apply, due to the time and effort involved. Focusing on other activities would give a better return.” Glenn Cockerton, a co-chair of the leadership group that is driving the 2026Agenda says it's almost as if innovation is a dirty word. The 2026Agenda is a plan to realise the potential of the industry as a part of the digital economy. Its success will be largely dependent on R&D efforts. “Many people are concerned by the proposed changes to the R&D Tax Incentive Program. This bill seeks to
reduce the cost of the R&D program to the detriment of companies actively trying to innovate in Australia,” he said. “The current bill has been almost universally criticised and rejected by all areas of industry, as well as the tertiary and research sectors. In addition, the key recommendations of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee have not been considered in the current bill.” The Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council says the characterisation of the incentive as a cost to government, in terms of potential taxation foregone, reveals a problematic mindset within government. ‘Empirical research shows that countries investing significantly in R&D see better economic outcomes, particularly among SMEs’, according to a media release from the organisation. The AAMC also called for a greater focus on stability. “Continually cutting and changing the incentive sends an unfortunate signal to companies both here and overseas that the R&D concession is always at risk,” it said in a statement. Researchers at universities are concerned by the new legislation, which they believe sends entirely the wrong signal to business. At the University of New South Wales, Sisi Zlatanova says the comparative lack of commercial R&D capacity in Australia complicates the process of building industry partnerships focused on product development. She is a newly appointed Professor in the School of Built Environment at UNSW with lengthy European experience. She said that many meetings and discussions around large projects aimed at developing geospatial products in collaboration with even high powered industry partners have ended unhappily. “Every time, we get to the same point in the conversation, where they say releasing funds for research is very difficult because we don’t have a research unit here in Australia,” she said. Jon Fairall is the founding editor of Position. n
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Upgrading the Australian Geospatial Reference System NICHOLAS BROWN
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he Australian Government has committed $224.9m to Geoscience Australia’s Positioning Australia program to provide accurate (10cm or better) and reliable positioning to anyone, anytime, anywhere in Australia. The program will accelerate the adoption and development of positioning technology and applications in Australia, and enable innovative technologies across a range of industries (e.g. agriculture, aviation, construction, consumer, resources, road, rail, maritime, mining and water utilities).
In anticipation of the growing use and reliance on high accuracy positioning for new and emerging users groups, for more than a decade the geodesists of Australia been working on the mathematics and software required to upgrade elements of the Australian Geospatial Reference System. The Australian Geospatial Reference System is a collective term used to describe the reference frames, models, infrastructure and standards needed for accurate and reliable 4D positioning. Last year, I ran a four-part webinar series to help explain why the upgrades to the Australian Geospatial Reference System were happening, what was being upgraded and how to prepare for the change. Links to replays of the webinars, the PowerPoint presentations and answers to the questions asked throughout the webinars can be found here (https://www.icsm.gov.au/webinarseries-australian-geospatial-reference-system).
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Part 1: Upgrading the Australian Geospatial Reference System The first webinar explained why Australia has gone to the effort of upgrading the Australian Geospatial Reference System. In brief, the upgrade is to ensure our reference system is more accurate than our data to enable Australian’s to maximise the benefits of precise positioning. Geodesy is no longer an esoteric science; it is a foundation for good decision making. In recent times, we have undergone a fundamental change in the way people observe, transfer, access and make decisions using spatial data. The users of spatial data are no longer only the specialists from traditional surveying, remote sensing and GIS sectors, but anyone with a mobile phone. The user base also doesn’t want access to coordinates; they just want to know where things have been, where they are or where they are going. The first webinar briefly described the elements of the Australian Geospatial Reference System being upgraded including: • static datum (from GDA94 to GDA2020) • introduction of a time dependent reference frame (Australian Terrestrial Reference Frame 2014) • introduction of a new reference surface for heights (Australian Vertical Working Surface) • improved geodetic infrastructure, and • development of standards to improve access and efficiency of geodetic data.
The APPM allows for coordinates to be propagated back and forth through time to enable an easy transition from GDA2020 to ATRF2014 and vice versa.
Part 4: Heightened Awareness
Part 2: Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 Webinar two looked at the need to upgrade Australia’s static datum from the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94) to the Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 (GDA2020). A ‘static’ datum means that the positions of features – such as roads, buildings and property boundaries – do not change over time despite the ongoing changes in the Earth’s surface, such as plate tectonic motion. The use of static datums is beneficial for many applications where it is easier if the coordinates of features do not change, like a major road development project. In contrast, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) coordinates are based on a framework that is fixed to the centre of the Earth around which satellites are orbiting. These frameworks are called ‘time-dependent reference frames’ in which the positions of features change with time due to plate tectonic motion. Positions from GNSS (including GPS) are provided in a time-dependent reference frame and those people / applications aligning their GNSS position with data stored in GDA94 will find it is out of alignment by approximately 1.8m. This is primarily due to the Australian plate tectonic motion of approximately 7cm/yr NNE. Transitioning to GDA2020 enables much closer alignment with GNSS. For those who are interested in watching a replay, webinar two described: why GDA94 was no longer fit for purpose for some users, how GDA2020 was developed and the tools and products available to implement GDA2020.
Geodesy is no longer an esoteric science; it is a foundation for good decision making. Terrestrial Reference Frame 2014 (ITRF2014). Like ITRF2014, the positions of features in ATRF2014 will change with time due to plate tectonic motion. Australian and international research shows that there are rapidly growing user communities of Location Based Services (LBS) and Intelligent Transport Services (ITS) that need real-time, high-precision positioning solutions aligned to a global, time-dependent reference frame in which GNSS operate. Recognising user needs for both static and time-dependent reference frames, Australia has adopted a ‘two-frame’ approach, enabling users to choose to use either GDA2020 or ATRF2014. Webinar three also described the link between GDA2020 and ATRF2014, i.e. the Australian Plate Motion Model (APPM).
For all the benefits of GDA2020 and ATRF2014, these upgrades only provide GNSS users with the ability to compute their position and align spatial data accurately with respect to the ellipsoid – a simplified mathematical representation of the Earth’s surface that is discussed in the fourth and final webinar. However, many height applications require ‘physical heights’, that is, height referenced to a surface of ‘equal gravity potential’ (i.e. the geoid) where fluids will always flow from higher heights to lower heights. This is not always the case with ellipsoidal heights. The difference between the ellipsoid and geoid is between -30m and +80m across Australia. For this reason we have a physical datum, known as the Australian Height Datum (AHD), which is closely aligned to the geoid, and a model to convert ellipsoidal heights to AHD heights known as AUSGeoid. Nonetheless, AHD has a number of biases and distortions which mean GNSS users are only capable of deriving AHD heights with accuracy of 6-13cm across Australia. Uncertainty of this magnitude makes AHD inappropriate for some applications. For this reason, Geoscience Australia has developed the Australian Vertical Working Surface (AVWS); a new reference surface for heights in Australia free of the bias and distortion in AHD and AUSGeoid. AVWS heights can be computed directly from GNSS with accuracy of 4-8cm. AVWS is available now from Geoscience Australia. Nicholas Brown is Director of National Geodesy at Geoscience Australia. n
Part 3: Australian Terrestrial Reference Frame Webinar three provided an overview of the Australian Terrestrial Reference Frame 2014 (ATRF2014); a time-dependent reference frame aligned to the International www.spatialsource.com.au 31
BP’s Brian Boulmay headed up the OneMap project.
OneMap for all Lessons in bringing company-wide data together onto one platform BRIAN BOULMAY
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s BP’s Global Geospatial Information Lead, Brian Boulmay has spent the past eight years building a sustainable organisational capability for geospatial data and analytics in BP Upstream, with a focus on people, process and technology. The result is OneMap, which brings companywide geographical information together onto one platform. In this article, Brian describes how OneMap came into being. When I started in 2011 in BP’s onshore US business, it was a relatively dispersed organisation. We had assets in Oklahoma and Colorado, and Wyoming, and Texas, etc. At that time, each of the business units, and even different business functions within each of the business units, were all trying to tackle digital mapping differently. A lot of it was already Esri technology, but we had a few other technologies. Also, even within the Esri stack, we had multiple versions. Therefore, it was really
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hard to share data just within this one business entity. I came in as the first person ever hired to be a business-facing GIS lead. The mandate I was given was to look at where we were, suggest where we should be, and then put together a plan to get there. And so, I spent my first month effectively interviewing and talking to the whole organisation, trying to get a feel for the organisation, the people in play and the data sets in play.
I want to see At the end of the day, as a business we must be able to see all our assets. We should be able to see all our wells. We should be able to see all our people. We mapped where we were. At that time, we had six different systems that were doing digital mapping - we should just have one. The focus wasn’t necessarily centralisation, it was more integration; I should be able to see across all my systems. As we got into it,
we realised that most of the tech was the same vendor already. Most of the workflows that we needed were supported by that core tech. Why not just go ahead and standardise tech? I realised very quickly that even if I tied this tool and that tool to the same central version, I would still have two people following different processes. They’d be learning from different user manuals, learning different ways of doing it, because the tools were different. Whereas if I got them onto the same tool, all of a sudden, this worker and that worker, who are doing the same process, I can actually give them a single way to do it to help them. By doing that, the rest became a lot easier, because now when trying to teach this exploration team and that exploration team and that exploration team, instead of writing three manuals, I would write one, and each of them could do their piece of work.
feature This was again onshore US, just that one business of BP, which at the time was one of 15 different regions. We did that for two years, with a very small team. It was so successful that one of the global managers said, “Hey, we want this everywhere else”.
was accessible to more people. They could publish it as a service, which meant they could share a web map instead of a PDF or a PowerPoint.
Power to the citizens
The platform is the foundation We established a core platform, which back then was ArcGIS desktop. There were a few tools like SDE, RTS server and a portal, and that was the platform. Then there were a few other tools like FME and some other tools that plug into that, extensions, etc. Since then, it’s grown to over 200 tools. Every tool we bring in has to play with the core. We’re very clear about having the integration conversation upfront. However, something that we did differently to others was that we did not mandate the data. We did not mandate the data models. We did not mandate data governance. All we mandated was the structure of the instances in Oracle, and then we let the businesses do whatever scheme they wanted. They had full freedom to make any scheme, and store and manage their data any way they wanted. The premise behind this was that people were already using data. They were already making business decisions. It might be the right data, it might be the wrong data, it may be less efficient or more efficient, but they’re already doing it. If I come in and try to tackle that on day one, we’ll never even get off the ground. But if I give them a platform that
“OneMap was designed as a citizen platform from the beginning: it was a platform onto which anyone could build apps as they needed them.” they could put their data onto and start to use some of the tools, maybe that candy approach will pull them along: the carrot instead of the stick. And it worked effectively. People who’ve been working in desktop on their C: drives or network drives found those very slow and couldn’t find their data. We now gave them a home where they could put data into a database, which meant it was faster, it was backed up, it
OneMap was designed as a citizen platform from the beginning: it was a platform onto which anyone could build apps as they needed them. The heavy users, the ‘front runners’ were pushing the envelope. If they didn’t like exactly what was available, they built their own web apps, they built their own FME jobs, they built their own database tables. They could, literally, do whatever they wanted. They just couldn’t change the core platform: they had to play within the core platform. Furthermore, we have been able to upgrade seven times now with the users not even knowing. That’s because we were not writing code, it’s all low-code configuration. Those apps that we built are still working now - if I had to give it a percentage of apps that are out there, 95% go forward every time we upgrade without even the slightest problem. And, typically, the 5% that don’t, they just get thrown away and someone makes something new on the new platform - they are citizen developer apps. It was game-changing, because it allowed us to put simple mapping in the hands of 70,000 people, and modules to make advanced tools for the people who needed it. So from one platform I could serve all those use cases: in a big oil company, especially in the GIS teams, we all think everybody needs a full-fledged
BP Retail Australia’s Fire Monitor and Alert System (built on OneMap).
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Real-time video feed enables OneMap logistics users to spot available boat deck space.
GIS with all the complexities. The reality is, we have more users who just need a picture of a map. They don’t actually need scale, they don’t need location, they don’t care about any of the finer details, they just want a picture. That’s great, but I also needed to deal with the people who needed engineeringlevel information. The portal let me do both on the one platform. So, if the person just needs a picture, then they use the picture, but if they want to throw on leases and pipelines and wells, then they would just lay them on and it would work. And that, I think, helped us, because those people who only needed a picture won’t install ArcView. They’re not going to learn ArcView. They’re sure not going to figure out how to get the first base map into ArcView. But in a portal, they don’t have to install anything. They didn’t have to take any training in the first place, as the base maps were already there. The engineering-type information, the high-level information sits on the same base map, the picture users just don’t see it. How does it work? If you go into one of our portals and search for a pipeline for instance, you’re going to get two sets of results. You’ll see some pipelines that come from vendor data, where the accuracy level is very basic, it may just show a line across the country. And if all you need is to show a pipe crossing the country, you might use this one because it loads really fast. If you actually need the engineered pipe, there’ll be a PP pipeline layer, which is that same pipe at centimetre accuracy. And if this other view of the pipe loads just as fast and it’s accurate, then you’ll actually start using the better data. Historically in GIS, you didn’t use the better data because it was too slow, too many features, too many vertices. But in a web environment, all that heavy lifting is happening on the background, so that
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the accurate pipe is actually almost as fast as the vendor pipe now. Now people will start to use the real data instead of the vendor data. And that’s exciting because now we’re putting the right and most accurate information in front of users.
Three degrees of separation When we did our design early on, we wanted it to be as simple as any online map to use. We wanted the portal to be at least that easy, and preferably easier, because in ours the data layers that users need are already there, which aren’t in online maps. With 15,000-plus active users, we had to make sure that important data is never compromised, so we created three layers, or classes, of data: project, authoritative or corporate, and control. Project data is a result of projects that are still in development. It can be new projects, it could be intermediate data, and analysis data sets. It could be somebody trying to do something and making some changes. Then we have data that’s called authoritative data, that is data that’s been checked and is managed but may or may not have spatial accuracy or attribute accuracy. It is an up-to-date version of that data that’s available, for example, vendor data. The third layer is the controlled data, and it’s tagged and shows up that way. That’s data that’s been through very rigorous checks and balances and is deemed best available. The way to look at it is this: in the portal, you can trust control data without question. With authoritative data, you should check how you’re going to use it to make certain it makes sense for your use case. And for other data, you use it at your risk. Sometimes this other data is actually good data, as long as you know what it was built for, what the limitations are. So, I still want people to find this data, but
most often users pull from authoritative or control data. In terms of quality control, we don’t drive standard models or standard templates. Everybody gets their own scheme up, so it’s actually impossible for somebody to mess up data that’s already there. The worst thing that can happen is they create a duplicate data set that may or may not be as good as one that’s already there, but they can’t actually hurt data that’s there. That’s protection layer number one. Protection layer number two, if data sets come in and they’re going to be part of that control dataset, we have a lot of processes, both personal as well as automated ones that get data from project to authoritative to controlled. But that only happens on those items that end up in the controlled space, which is a very small subset of data. In the authoritative space, there are fewer checks and balances, but we still have some: you’ve got to have basic metadata and you’ve got to have documented load and some detail around freshness, things like that. We have data managers typically working on those. And on the project side we don’t control anything, on purpose. We want people to feel safe to come in and do good or bad things. The entire premise of our approach is based on monitoring behind the scenes. It’s passive monitoring that we act on if needed. What we have found in the big company, if we put any even perceived hurdles in place, yes, people always go back to what they used to do, and the candy model won’t work. So, you can use your data without permission. You can do dumb things without permission. You can do great things without permission. If we find something that doesn’t feel right or look right, we have a chat with you. And if we find something that looks wonderful and needs to be promoted, we also have a chat with you and, this being a citizen dev model, you’re free to put in your data for anybody to use. It even becomes a little self-healing, because people put a little more effort into it. Not only that, people feel empowered because while they can still own their data set in this published world, now there are five people or five teams using it. They have just become more valuable to the company by sharing their data, not by hiding it. So those people are publishing even more data and sharing more things because they see that while hiding may have made them important to a few people, publishing made them important to the whole organisation. Brian Boulmay is BP’s Global Geospatial Information Lead n
new products Correlator3D gets speed boost SimActive has accelerated Correlator3D processing with the new version 8.4. SimActive Inc. has released Correlator3D version 8.4, claiming significant acceleration. The new version promises speeds that are multiple times faster compared to previous releases. SimActive has been supplying photogrammetry software since 2003. The company introduced the first GPUpowered AT (Aerial Triangulation) and DSM (Digital Surface Model) generation engines in the industry, enabling multiple fold processing speed increases. Correlator3D 8.4 allows a dynamic allocation of hardware resources, reducing potential bottlenecks from PC components. For example, solid states drives (SSD) are used more efficiently by the software, as well as additional CPU cores and extra RAM.
Hexagon Unveils M.App X 2020 Hexagon’s Geospatial division has launched M.App X 2020, the latest version of its cloud-deployable enterprise solution for imagery intelligence. The latest version now includes the group’s LuciadRIA, a highperformance browser solution, as its mapping engine to improve hardware performance and support 2D and 3D displays of the same map. “For defense and intelligence organizations, the ability to quickly and easily exploit imagery and create imagery-based products is critical to mission success,” said Mladen Stojic, president of Hexagon’s Geospatial division. “With the addition of LuciadRIA, M.App X users can better support mission planning and operations through accelerated imagery visualization and analysis, including in 3D.”
Image courtesy of Juniper Systems.
Juniper’s Mesa tablet gets upgrade Juniper Systems has released the Mesa 3 rugged tablet, which the company says offers major performance increases across the board over its predecessor, the Mesa 2. “The Mesa 2 was a new form factor for us, as well as our first full Windows 10 device,” said Jeff Delatore, Mesa product manager. “The Mesa 3 continues with that same form factor. It’s what is inside the Mesa 3 that counts.” According to Juniper, the Mesa 3 sees the addition of a new quad-core Intel Pentium processor that offers the speed and flexibility specialists running processor-intensive applications need in the field. Juniper has also double the system memory (RAM) in the Mesa 3, which now features 8 GB. The Mesa 3 is now available and shipping worldwide.
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new products
Descartes Labs Platform launches
US-based Descartes Labs has announced the availability of the Descartes Labs Platform, which the company is calling the industry’s first-ever cloud-based geospatial analytics platform. The new offering provides enterprises with a real-time geospatial data catalog and flexible modeling environment – all in one complete package. By handling nearly all geospatial modeling functions through one secure solution in the cloud, Descartes says organisations are able to quickly evaluate the output of models, speed development and proof-of-concept creation in order to improve their decision-making. “The Descartes Labs Platform enables teams to rapidly innovate on petabyte-scale data sets and leverage exquisite geospatial data in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks”, said Phil Fraher, CEO of Descartes Labs.
RealityEngines.AI launches new cloud AI service US-based RealityEngines.AI is launching what it is calling the world’s first completely autonomous cloud AI service to address common enterprise use-cases. The firm says the new cloud AI service automatically creates, deploys and maintains deep learning systems in production. The engine handles setting up data pipelines, scheduled retraining of models from new data, provisioning high availability online model serving from raw data using a feature store service, and providing explanations for the model’s predictions. RealityEngines.AI says the service is the first of its kind and helps organisations with little to no machine learning expertise plug and play state-of-the-art AI into their existing applications and business processes effortlessly.
Tiny, low-cost Velabit lidar sensor Velodyne Lidar, Inc. has announced its smallest sensor that it hopes will democratise the industry, as it aims for a target price of as little as $100 USD. Velodyne says its new Velabit sensor delivers the same technology and performance found on the company’s full suite of state-of-the-art sensors and will be the catalyst for creating new applications in a variety of industries. The company says the Velabit, which is smaller than a deck of cards, can be embedded almost anywhere within vehicles, robots, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), infrastructure and more. “The Velabit democratises lidar with its ultrasmall form factor and its sensor pricing targeted at $100 (USD) in high-volume production, making 3D lidar available for all safety-critical applications,” said Anand Gopalan, Chief Executive Officer, Velodyne Lidar.
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Flowfinity now includes GIS mapping capabilities Flowfinity Wireless Inc. has released a software update the company says allows users to manage data records and workflows geographically by rendering physical locations onto maps in reporting dashboards, leveraging data visualisation to improve operations. Flowfinity is currently used by organizations in a variety of industries including environmental services, engineering, construction, and field services to capture field data and streamline custom workflows for daily operations and unique projects. The update allows for location data to now be tied directly to digital workflows and tracked in popular GIS and mapping solutions, including Esri, MapBox, and MapTiler, within Flowfinity without the need to set up external integrations.
“We’re very excited to bring mapping functionality to market, some of our most successful deployments have featured GIS mapping integrations and now those capabilities are included within the Flowfinity solution,” said Flowfinity’s marketing manager Alex Puttonen.
Jibestream mapping platform gets an update
Quantum calls new sensor an all-in-one solution US-based Quantum Spatial, Inc. has rolled out a new sensor platform that the company calls an “all-in-one” solution for high-resolution imagery and LiDAR in a single low altitude pass. The new Comprehensive Low-Altitude Sensor Solution (CLASS) combines dual-look lidar, RGB and NIR nadir imagery and forward-looking oblique imagery into one platform that can be affixed to a rotary wing platform. Quantum says the new sensor is designed to improve the efficiency of data collection, while delivering high-density, high-resolution and highly accurate results. “Quantum Spatial developed the CLASS platform because there was no commercial sensor package on the market that met our clients’ need for efficient, multi-sensor data acquisition in a single aircraft deployment,” said Russ Faux, senior vice president at Quantum Spatial.
Indoor data company Inpixon announced the release of its latest mapping platform, Jibestream 4.12, which the company says delivers a number of new and enhanced features to streamline the creation, management and delivery of indoor maps. The release also includes support for point labels and new capabilities for integrating outdoor and indoor maps into a single application. “As we continue to innovate and develop our indoor intelligence platform, this latest release offers advancements that we believe both partners and customers will enjoy,” said Adam Benson, Inpixon CTO. “Developers can continue to be able to take advantage of our sophisticated and welldocumented SDKs, RESTful architecture principles, and scalable, reliable platform. The addition of best-in-class point labels, Google Maps integration for indoor/outdoor customer experience, and our user friendly wizards will give our customers and development partners even greater flexibility with our platform,” Benson said.
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sssi
News and views from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute
President’s report
Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute
SSSI Board – 2020 President – Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President-Elect – Paul Digney NSW Director – Wayne Patterson NT Director – Rob Sarib QLD Director – Lee Hellen SA Director – Michael Grear TAS Director – Paul Digney VIC Director – Richard Syme WA Director – Lesley Arnold ACT Director – Nicholas Brown Hydrography Commission Director – Neil Hewitt YP representative (Observer) – Roshni Sharma Company Secretary – Jonathan Saxon
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L
ike the rest of Australia and the world, I was overwhelmed by the devastation caused by the recent bushfires. Our nations comradery was demonstrated by firefighters, aid organizations and thousands of volunteers coming together to help those in immediate need. It is now the surveying and spatial science communities’ opportunity to support communities as they recover from these fires. The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) has formed the SSSI Bushfire Recovery Committee led by Dr. Lesley Arnold, SSSI Board Member. The aim of this group is to coordinate and support the National Bushfire Crisis by bringing together SSSI Members, allied professional bodies, private sector, academia and the general community to engage in mapping activities that will help government, volunteer groups and
charitable organisations deliver services where they are urgently needed. SSSI is working closely with the recently formed National Bushfire Recovery Agency (NBRA) established by the government, and volunteers from allied professional bodies, private sector, and academia to provide priority geospatial information to help rebuild communities. SSSI has a number of initiatives in the pipeline, which I look forward to sharing details on in the future. We are also developing a longer-term plan of action to maintain and coordinate surveying and mapping volunteering efforts into the future. Our first initiative was the SSSI National Bushfire Recovery Map-athon which was held in early February across Australia. This enabled geospatial professionals and the general community to support bushfire recovery efforts through the collection of data, use of maps and surveying expertise. Our focus was collecting data on buildings and utilities. We are planning additional map-a-thons during the year, so check out www.sssi. org.au for more information. We are very proud to have organizations such as NGIS Australia, GHD as well as many of our Corporate Partners and SSSI members support our work. A SSSI leadership meeting comprising of Board Members, Operations, Commission and Regional Chairs met on 29th January to review the strategic roadmap as well as discuss our vision for next 10 years. The outcome of the meeting will be summarized in the next edition. On behalf of SSSI, I wish all members a productive and prosperous 2020! Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse FRGS FSSSI President
South Australia's new planning and development system
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outh Australia is currently undergoing the biggest modernisation of its planning system in 20 years. The renewed planning system is underpinned by the new Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (PDI Act) and introduces a centralised, spatially enabled 24/7 digital ePlanning system that will allow South Australians quick and easy access. The ePlanning system will provide full end-to-end assessment of applications and simplify how the community, developers, decision makers and others interact with
the planning system. The system will replace more than 2,500 zone combinations spread across 23,000 pages of policy, maps and tables in 72 development plans into one Planning and Design Code (Code).
SSSI sustaining partner
Commission Chairs Engineering & Mining Surveying Chair Andrew Edwards chair.emsc@sssi.org.au Hydrography Commission Chair Neil Hewitt chair.hc@sssi.org.au Land Surveying Commission Chair Lindsay Perry chair.lsc@sssi.org.au Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Commission Chair Petra Helmholz chair.rspc@sssi.org.au Spatial Information & Cartography Commission Chair Angus Scown chair.sicc@sssi.org.au
The Code is being implemented over three consecutive phases 1. Phase One (Outback) - July 2019: Code introduced to the outback (land not within a council area) 2. Phase Two (Rural) - April 2020: Code introduced to rural councils with small towns and settlements 3. Phase Three (Urban) - July 2020: Code introduced to urban councils and councils with regional towns and cities On 1 July 2019, the new planning system became operational in outback areas, including implementation of the South Australian Property and Planning Atlas (SAPPA). SAPPA is a free, map-based application which is used to view land administration boundaries and obtain information about the ownership of land and Code zones and overlays. The PDI Act will shape the future of South Australia by focusing on good design outcomes and engagement, and fundamentally change the way planning and development decisions are made, and who can make them. An important part of the new PDI Act enables the Minister for Planning to establish an Accredited Professionals Scheme for planners, building certifiers, land surveyors and other industry professionals involved in making development decisions (the Scheme). The objective of the Scheme is to improve confidence in these decisions, as well as the professionalism of decision-making more generally. To become an accredited professional, you must be accredited by the Accreditation Authority, which is the Chief Executive of the Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI). The Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute - South Australia (SSSI-
SA) Land Surveying Committee as a representative body of Licensed Surveyors in South Australia has been actively involved in the planning reform process to ensure Licensed Surveyors are recognised under the Scheme, and granted decision-making authority to assess land division applications. Licensed Surveyors have proven expertise in spatial and legal aspects of land ownership and facilitate the most workable solution through the planning system. Licensed Surveyors assess the intentions of the proposed development against the relevant Development Plan, legislative requirements and physical/ economical constraints to provide advice on what is feasible and compliant. The new planning system defines different assessment pathways to categorise developments with the general principle that, as the impact of a development increases, so will the category and corresponding level of assessment. For a development involving the division of land an Accredited Professional-Surveyor may act as the Relevant Authority for planning consent for Deemed to Satisfy land divisions. The SSSI - SA is supporting implementation of the ePlanning system through consultation with DPTI and development industry associations on relevant legislation, policies and the Code. The successful implementation of South Australia’s new ePlanning system will make use of spatially empowered government and services ensuring the planning process is quicker, simpler and more equitable for all. Content sourced from the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, the Government of South Australia, Sourced 1 December 2019, www.saplanningportal.sa.gov.au
Regional Committee Chairs ACT Regional Chair Noel Ward chair.act@sssi.org.au NSW Regional Co-Chairs Mary-Ellen Feeney & Elizabeth Fulton chair.nsw@sssi.org.au NT Regional Chair Rob Sarib chair.nt@sssi.org.au QLD Regional Chair Paul Reed chair.qld@sssi.org.au SA Regional Chair Graham Walker chair.sa@sssi.org.au TAS Regional Chair Paul Digney chair.tas@sssi.org.au VIC Regional Chair Andrej Mocicka chair.vic@sssi.org.au WA Regional Chair Darren Mottolini chair.wa@sssi.org.au SSSI National Office 27-29 Napier Cl, Deakin, ACT 2600 (PO Box 307) Phone: +61 2 6282 2282 Email: support@sssi.org.au
www.spatialsource.com.au  39
sssi SSSI’s 10 Year Anniversary: Celebrating Unity, Legacy and Heritage
T
he Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019. The rich history of SSSI lays on a heritage of unity and the creation of one voice to reach further, and to have the strength to better serve its national member base. As we now look forward to what the next 10 years will bring, it’s an opportune moment to look back and see how far we’ve come and build on our strengths.
Historical Roots SSSI was born in 2009 out of a movement for greater unity among a number of similar bodies, namely the Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI) and the Institute of Surveyors Australia (ISA). SSI was a not-for-profit which represented the interests of the spatial information community within the Asia-Pacific region, and itself was the result of a merge of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (AURISA) and Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Association of Australia (RSPAA) amalgamated in 2003.The Institute of Surveyors Australia (ISA, which represented six states and a more than 70-year effort towards greater unity in the surveying profession). What sets SSSI apart is it’s unique national reach, which enables a number of significant strengths: stronger and broader advocacy, the ability to break down geographic silos and build stronger technical excellence, the ability to offer a plethora of events that allow a broad and diverse network of professionals with strengths in many areas the ability to network and collaborate, certification to strengthen the core of the Australian surveying and geospatial industry for a future where it is even more strongly positioned in an international context, the ability to provide professional development opportunities with a broader reach and scale, migration skills assessment to provide another pillar of support for the future of our profession, and many more.
Key Achievements SSSI has been diligently working towards the goal of unity, representation, advocacy and celebration of our industry since before its inception in 2009. In the past then years, SSSI has shifted the needle on some noteworthy challenges as well as made a real difference for the Australian surveying and spatial community in many ways, including:
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• Initially, transforming the representation of the industry by bringing together SSI and ISA, uniting Australia’s custodians of the quality creation and management of location data • International collaborations and signing of MoUs (Memorandum of Understandings) with key partnerships – the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the Pacific Geospatial & Surveying Council (PGSC), the Association of South-East Asian Nations Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics (ASEAN FLAG), the Australian Hydrographic Society (AHS), the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), the Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea (ASPNG), the Australian Institute of Mine Surveyors (AIMS), the Spatial Industry Business Association (SIBA), Surveying & Spatial NZ (SSNZ, formerly the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors) and the Institute of Surveyors Australia South Australian Division • Co-hosting the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards alongside SIBA, celebrating the successes and milestones of hundreds of individuals and businesses in the spatial community across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands • Conferral of 93 Fellows and 45 Hon Fellows to formally recognise the wealth of excellence, experience and accomplishments of leaders in our industry • Annual Locate conferences, bring together the Australian surveying and spatial community by offering professional and business development workshops, addressing policy issues for government across multiple industry sectors and amplifying networking opportunities. The first Locate conference in Canberra in 2014 allowed for a consolidation of quality, breaking down of silos and broader and deeper collaboration and learning opportunities for delegates from across the nation. SSSI and SIBA are the two shareholders of Locate Conferences. • Playing an integral role in Australia hosting key international conferences over the past decade – XXIV FIG International Congress in Sydney and XXIInd ISPRS Congress 2012 in Melbourne. Positioned immediately after the Global Financial Crisis, a risky time, they both performed outstandingly and helped raise Australia’s profile
in the international surveying and spatial community. In 2016, SSSI successfully bid the 10th International Symposium of Digital Earth and hosted it successfully as a joint Locate 2017 & ISDE 10 at Sydney in 2017 • A suite of professional development opportunities through engaging events at regional and national level, including new delivery platforms such as webinars that break down geographic barriers and allow members and non-members to participate from locations all over Australia. The recent free four-part webinar series, ‘Upgrades to Australian Geospatial Reference System’, attracted over 1,000 participants from Australia and overseas • A sustainable model engaging young professionals through a matured mentoring program successfully rolled out nationally for a number of years in the SSSI Mentoring Program, one of a number of initiatives led by the SSSI Young Professionals • Providing the platforms for certifications that is globally recognised, enabling certified professionals to be recognised for the highest standards of professionalism, specialisation of skills and knowledge, currency of expertise and leadership • Supporting the diversity and inclusion agenda with Women in Spatial • The Journal of Spatial Science, a peerreviewed academic journal published bi-annually that brings industry together and publishes original research and review papers relating to cartography, geographic information science, hydrography, photogrammetry, remote sensing and surveying. • Providing Australia’s surveying and spatial Migratory Skills Assessment as the authorised assessing authority to assess qualifications and skills for the purpose of migration to Australia. • Providing an agile platform for volunteers to bring exceptional ideas and transform into successful SSSI events. Thousands of SSSI Volunteers have contributed their valuable time, passionately contributed intellectual ideas in building a strong and vibrant SSSI.
Challenges Internationally, virtually all memberbased organisations have been experiencing challenges with attracting and retaining members over the
SSSI sustaining partner
past 20 years. In large part, this is due to the changes in the way that professional development is managed in the workplace, paired with declining volunteerism as a result of increased pace of life and demands on our individual time and attention. SSSI and its predecessors are no exception to this trend, however as an organisation, there are many initiatives in the works and already in play to keep the services offered to members relevant, value for money and diverse enough to reach existing and emerging audiences effectively. In recent years, SSSI has sought to listen more effectively to understand the needs of members and non-members to better serve the Australian geospatial and surveying community as a whole, as it evolves in these changing times. Over coming months and years, these will come into play, revitalising the way that we create value nationally and internationally. Already there are significant updates and improvements being made in the background to the way that certification
is done, significant discussions about membership structure and many conversations about how to continue to bring value to strengthen the Australian geospatial and surveying community in the face of the fourth industrial revolution as the skills that are valued in the workplace evolve and emerging technologies change the way that we work.
The Way Forward As our industry and other STEM industries struggle with attracting next generation workforce, managing diversity , breaking down silos to facilitate innovation, and embracing new ways of thinking to be able to better adapt to emerging technologies, SSSI is positioned to be able to provide guidance and leadership, empowering all of Australia’s geospatial and surveying community. Offering support, development and advocacy to our members in all regions and technical specialities across Australia, we are also strengthening reputation globally as a strong and effective and industry body
that is focussed on creating opportunities and making a real difference for the spatial community. Looking to the near future, SSSI will play a key role to support bringing spatial and the space industry together to create opportunities and insights for our members. SSSI is also providing guidance, information and facilitating collaboration in the role that spatial and surveying are playing in the growing infrastructure boom with the modernisation of the cadastre, spatially-enabled digital twins, AIML (artificial intelligence and machine learning), smart cities, location privacy and data protection, digital ethics in the profession, next generation spatial infrastructure and analytics, and more. SSSI strongly believes the next decade is about achieving technical excellence through smart collaboration in building a positive and enduring impact on the world! Ms Roshni Sharma, Chair National Young Professionals SSSI & Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, President SSSI
Championing industry certification
A
key component of the SSSI Strategic Roadmap is Certification. Certification essentially recognises that a person has demonstrated that he or she has the necessary knowledge and experience to competently work in their area of expertise. Certification is a well-debated issue amongst many technical industries. In essence, certification is a means of giving a ‘seal of quality’ to continued professional development. Just as a degree is a ‘seal of quality’ for tertiary education, establishing to employers and their clients that the graduate has the required technical knowledge and capabilities to perform in their role, certification provides this assurance as they move through their careers. Certification is beneficial for employers and businesses, helping them to provide clients with assurance that the work they carry out will be to industry standards, cementing their role as trusted advisors. Certification is also very valuable for individuals as they move through their early, mid and late career stages, keeping
them up to date with current technologies and the directions of the industry, demonstrating a clear competitive edge, securing new opportunities to take individuals further in their career journey, and helping to find new opportunities with greater ease. Over the next 12 months SSSI will be increasing awareness and value of certification and its necessity to ensure we have a qualified and capable profession. The Engineering & Mining Surveying Commission (EMSC) is leading the way by undertaking a full review of the Engineering Surveying Profession (Australasia Pacific) (ESP-AP) Certification process. ESP-AP is the specialist certification in Engineering Surveying that is recognised by SSSI. The EMSC is proposing to increase awareness of this certification program by undertaking a two-stage process:
Phase 1 – Review of ESPAP certification application form and process In this initial phase, the EMSC Committee will review the existing ESPAP application form and process. The EMSC is concerned that the existing application form may be perceived as cumbersome and may preclude people from undertaking the application process. The Commission Committee will
consult with ESP-AP Panel members and those who have recently completed the certification process to identify areas that need clarification or be simplified.
Phase 2a – Championing the increased uptake of ESP-AP to industry This will be a marketing push to champion the uptake of ESP-AP certification within industry. There is a clear need to articulate the value to industry of achieving ESP-AP certification.
Phase 2b – Championing the introduction of ESP-AP certified professionals within Government specifications A case must be presented to State and Federal Government - why it is in their best interests to include hiring ESP-AP certified professionals within Government specifications and to identify the right people within Government to advocate to and facilitate change to specifications. The EMSC welcomes feedback from anyone who has either completed or commenced the ESP-AP certification process or would like to be part of this project. Let’s work together towards a qualified profession. Andrew Edwards, Chair Engineering and Mining Surveying E: chair.emsc@sssi.org.au www.spatialsource.com.au 41
sssi Homeward Bound after Antarctica – call for applications
S
SSI is proud that five of our members have participated in the ten year Homeward Bound (HB) program since 2018 - Mary-Ellen Feeney (HB3), Rebecca Handcock, Charity Mundava and Raelene Forbes (HB4) and Roshni Sharma (HB5). Here they reflect on their journey and explain why it’s important for other women in the spatial and surveying industry to apply for the program.
The Antarctic experience Our landing that day was a mandated “silent cruise”. An opportunity for us to recharge and reflect on what had already been an inspiring and challenging program, surrounded by the majesty of the Antarctic landscape. Switching the engine off, silence fell like a blanket. And yet, not silent. For in those quiet moments we could hear penguins calling, glaciers creaking, icebergs ‘breathing’ and the almost imperceptible pops of millions of tiny air bubbles escaping the melting brash ice. In those moments, our relationship to that icy landscape was cemented. “In Antarctica we learned to hear what was present in the silence …. as well as to see and hear each other as fellow STEMM professionals able to support and leverage each other through the Homeward Bound program” Mary-Ellen reflects. Experiences like these are peppered throughout the Homeward Bound program. Twelve months of learning focusing on leadership, visibility and strategy culminates in an intense 3-weeks in Antarctica. Threaded throughout is a science component with a focus on climate change, environmental stewardship, science policy and decision making. People often ask “Why Antarctica?”. It’s something the group discussed onboard with three key reasons standing out from a long list. Remoteness - Antarctica offers a real opportunity to unplug and completely focus, free from life’s distractions. Governance - Antarctica is not sovereign to any one nation; instead it’s governed by the Antarctic Treaty and is a place dedicated to peace and science. Sensitivity - Antarctica represents the relative fragility of the natural world, and is an environment that can provide us with a lot of information about what is happening on a global scale.
Reflections from Charity Homeward Bound was a life-transforming experience for me. It epitomises the
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supportive and inclusive than any I’ve experienced. Women like this WILL change the world!
Reflections from Rebecca
Recent Homeward Bound participants Rebecca Handcock, Charity Mundava and Raelene Forbes
The Antarctic experience was incredible, such as travelling in a zodiac between icebergs landing on a black sand beach with Gentoo penguins and elephant seals. The 111 other women in STEMM in the largest all-female expedition to Antarctica were the real discovery. We learned from each other about leadership in different fields, and we joined a network of supportive individuals working together to positively impact the planet. The Homeward Bound program itself was a chance for deep exploration into leading from one’s values, and being ‘off the grid’ for 3 weeks with like-minded individuals and time to reflect.
Reflections from Roshni
proverb, “if you want to run fast run alone, if you want to run far run together”. Connecting with other women STEMM professionals from across the world helped me realise the interconnectedness of our various disciplines and that we are stronger together. These professional networks are life-long and will shape my career for a long time to come. The year-long leadership training led me to discover the leader that I already am and will continue to become. It challenged me to see my career from many different perspectives.
Reflections from Raelene The experience was so multifaceted that no simple concise statement seems adequate. Antarctica as a place did not disappoint. You can sense the weight of geological time there. I was humbled in its presence. The program was challenging but very well executed. At times I was emotional, confronted, but also thoroughly engaged and inspired. The women were all exceptional, bound by a shared desire to do more for the world. Between us we created an environment that continues to be more embracing,
The world is changing and banding together to make that change happen, in an effective, respectful and compassionate way is imperative. I applied for Homeward Bound to learn to engage with this change and lift others up as well. I have started building relationships with a worldwide network of 80 women who will share the Homeward Bound 5 journey with me and have never felt so accepted, so inspired by the stories and journeys, and awestruck by the seemingly limitless possibilities of what can be done to make a better future, and this is just the beginning!
Call for applications Homeward Bound aims to equip a 1000-strong collaboration of women with a background in STEMM with the skills and support to lead, influence and contribute to decision-making for the future of our planet. Increasing the participation of women is key to ensuring that our Surveying & Spatial industry will continue to grow in numbers and thrive in diversity of thinking. Mary-Ellen, Charity, Raelene, Rebecca and Roshni strongly encourage any eligible women to apply. “At some point, every single woman on our boat thought they weren’t good enough to be there, and yet every single one was inspiring to someone else,” says Raelene. “Don’t let imposter syndrome stop you from throwing your hat into the ring.” Applications for Homeward Bound #6 open in March 2020. www.homewardboundprojects.com.au #takeyourplace
The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information 0 – No. 104 anuary 202
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