Position issue 97 October-Nov 2018

October/November 2018 – No. 97

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

THE LANGUAGE OF

DATA

Strategically guiding smarter cities

Official publication of

inside Eye of the storm Sydney’s light rail project grinds to a halt

The newest agency Australia gets serious about space activities

History in 3D A WWI site in a new level of detail

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contents

October/November 2018 No.97

34

30

28

features 14 Q&A with Anthony Murfett

32 Safer worksites with satellites

The deputy head of the Australian Space Agency on the inceptive weeks of the newest national agency.

18 In the eye of the storm Jon Fairall on the beleaguered history of Sydney’s CBD and South East Light Rail project.

A new breed of technologies that harness the power and precision of the latest GNSS technology could transform safety for workers in construction and rail.

34 Sounding the sparkling depths Experiments with echosounders in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty yield great implications for industry and climate research.

24 Scanning the past to inform the future As the hundredth anniversary of WWI's end approaches, some researchers have been busy scanning a significant site to inform a new generation of historians.

28 Growing healthy cities As the infrastructure of Australia’s major urban centres creaks under the strain of massive growth, just how solid is the evidence base supporting planning policy?

30 A new lease on life

Regulars 4 7 10 36 38

Upfront, calendar Editorial News New products SSSI

Digital Earth Australia’s NationalMap receives a suite of new features with a fresh funding injection from the 2018 budget. www.spatialsource.com.au 3

Upcoming Events 23-25 October: The 2018 Multi GNSS Asia Conference, Melbourne, Vic https://2018.mgaconference.com.au 26 October: Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards – South Australia as part of SIDx, Adelaide, SA https:// spatialinformationday.org.au/dinner

upfront

13 November: Ozri 2018 – Sydney, Sydney, NSW https://esriaustralia.com. au/events/event-details/ozri-2018sydney-sed-3242

Seismic time series analysis from space

T

wo minutes after midnight, the quake struck.

Or began to strike, to be more precise. The Kaikōura earthquake that struck New Zealand’s South Island on November 14, 2016, leaving two people dead and causing a seven-metre tsunami has since been characterised as ‘the most complex earthquake ever studied’.

The complex sequence of ruptures lasted around two minutes, covering a distance of over 200 kilometres across the Earth’s surface and originating around 15 kilometres below it.

A new study of the Kaikōura quake conducted by researchers at the Victoria University of Wellington and published in Nature Geoscience in early October has found that predicting future earthquakes based on the past behaviour of individual faults is a flawed method — and an assumption torn apart by the unprecedented seismic activity that night in 2016.

Associate Professor Simon Lamb, who led the study, said that one issue with this method is there are too many faults to make characterising them a feasible task.

“Data about past earthquakes are entered into modelling software and used to predict future earthquakes on each fault. This method assumes that each fault has its own in-built pacemaker or driving mechanism, giving rise to semiregular earthquakes on the fault,” he said.

Associate Professor Lamb said that there is an underlying, greater problem with this technique. He said that the team’s work showed that, in most cases, the earthquakes that happen on faults are triggered by earthquakes on faults elsewhere.

This analysis was carried out by analysing historical satellite mapping data to analyse slow movements of the landscape in the two decades prior to the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, measuring them with extreme precision. This part of the work was carried out in conjunction with Associate Professor Richard Arnold

4 position October/November 2018

15 November: Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards – NSW/ACT, Sydney, NSW www.eventbrite.com.au/e/asiapacific-spatial-excellence-awards-nswtickets-49162927640

of Victoria University of Wellington and Dr. James Moore at the Nanyang Technical University, Singapore.

“The Kaikōura earthquake initiated a complex pattern of fault movement, essentially shattering the landscape, and causing a cascade of earthquakes on 20 or more faults,” Associate Professor Lamb said.

“The data we studied show a strong link between the pattern of shattering and locking of the underlying megathrust prior to the earthquake and the movement during the earthquake itself. The damage caused by the Kaikōura earthquake runs parallel to this locking of the megathrust, but cuts across many of the big surface faults in the area, indicating a strong link to the movement of the megathrust rather than any of the individual faults.”

Associate Professor Lamb said that this method, which relies entirely on GNSS positioning, may have major ramifications for predicting future earthquakes.

“While we may not be able to predict the movement of individual faults, we can track the underlying cause of an earthquake and give an indication of where future shaking might occur by understanding and modelling the megathrust.” ■ Nov 13

16 November: Ozri 2018 – Brisbane, Brisbane, QLD https://esriaustralia.com. au/events/event-details/ozri-2018brisbane-sed-3244 20 November: FOSS4G State of the Map Oceania, Melbourne, Vic https://foss4g-oceania.org/ 21 November: Ozri 2018 – Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic https:// esriaustralia.com.au/events/eventdetails/ozri-2018-melbourne-sed-3245 5 December: Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards – Victoria, Melbourne, Vic www.eventbrite.com. au/e/asia-pacific-spatial-excellenceawards-victoria-tickets-49162632758

(UTC)

Nov 14

-41.50

0.0-3.9

4.0-4.9

5.0-5.9

6.0-6.9

7.0-7.9

-42.00

Kaikoura -42.50

Culverden

-43.00 172.4

173.4

174.4

Map of 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, with epicentres in Culverden and Kaikoura, east cost of New Zealand South island. Visualisation created by user Phoenix7777 on Wikimedia Commons, with data sourced from GeoNet. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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from the editor

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

Publisher Simon Cooper Editor Daniel Bishton dbishton@intermedia.com.au National Advertising Manager Jon Tkach jon@intermedia.com.au Graphic Designer Alyssa Coundouris

Rich tapestry

Prepress Tony Willson

am exposed on a daily basis to the breadth and ubiquity of positioning technology, and spatially-applied techniques of — honestly, just about everything.

In researching, commissioning articles, interviewing sources, writing and curating material for this publication, the sheer volume and ingenuity of applications for these positioning technologies and spatial analysis consistently stuns me.

This issue of Position reflects this diversity. The rich tapestry, the myriad innovations old and new — the broad church of the geospatial industry and its practitioners.

If there’s a unifying theme, it’s the diversity, utility, social advancement and knowledge generated by creatively solving problems to advance the human cause.

First up, we sit down the deputy head of the brand-spanking-new Australian Space Agency, Anthony Murfett, who gives us an exclusive look behind the scenes at the first three months of the agency’s operation — and what lies ahead (page 14).

From orbit, we dive to subterranean depths and through the past to a sombre and significant historical site to look at how the latest scanning technology is bringing a level of detail to historians’ understanding of World War I (page 24).

Founding editor and industry writer Jon Fairall gives us a deep dive into the history and particulars of Sydney’s beleaguered CBD and South East Light Rail project (page 18).

Still on the construction tip, we hear from Elizabeth Latham on the ways in which multi-GNSS tech is bringing new degrees of safety to the worksite (page 32).

We’ll hear about a suite of new features and products planned for Digital Earth Australia’s NationalMap (page 30), hear about research investigating a key concept underlying major planning policies in Sydney and Melbourne (page 28), and a novel set of experiments that could change the game for geoscience in quantifying gas seeps, with major implications for oil and gas exploration as well as climate change research (page 34).

I hope you enjoy issue 97 of Position.

Circulation/Subscriptions Chris Blacklock Production 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 1 800 651 422 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 Editorial inquiries should be sent to: dbishton@intermedia.com.au Advertising inquiries should be sent to: jon@intermedia.com.au Ph: +61 2 8586 6128 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

I

Daniel Bishton EDITOR

December/January 2019 – Issue #98 Features: Spatial data in the field – empowering multi-disciplined teams Computer vision and machine learning – towards true autonomy Research & development – steering industry in the right direction

NEXT ISSUE

Editorial deadline: 16/10/2018 Advertising booking deadline: 9/11/2018 Advertising material deadline: 14/11/2018

www.spatialsource.com.au 7

news An aerial capture of Sydney’s iconic harbour. Image provided by Spookfish.

Spookfish launches in NSW Perth-based aerial acquisitions provider Spookfish has formally launched their operations in New South Wales, signaling the next phase of their national rollout.

Spookfish’s enhanced coverage of NSW covers the Sydney metropolitan area, from Newcastle to

Kiama and from Lithgow to Manly. Expanding regional centres are also included in the capture regime at the same resolution as Sydney’s coverage, including Albury and Wagga Wagga.

Jason Waller, Spookfish CEO, said that the company anticipated great demand for

aerial imagery as the state undergoes rapid development.

“Sydney has the greatest population density in Australia, and continues to grow with new projects commissioned to meet this growing population.

We are very pleased to be able to offer businesses access to high resolution imagery of

1Spatial launches do-it-all rules engine 1Integrate Spatial data automation experts 1Spatial hit the road around Australia with events marking the launch of their in-house 1integrate solution, the company’s new do-it-all rules engine.

1Integrate is essentially a sophisticated business rules engine that facilitates programming of rules by non-technical users, and is also able to intelligently transform and change data based on those rules.

Finally, the tool gives extremely detailed reporting of non-compliant data, meaning that individual records requiring human intervention are clearly flagged.

Duncan Guthrie, 1Spatial's managing director for UK and Ireland, said the

8 position October/November 2018

tool eliminates the need for those rules to be translated via a development team.

"For our customers, the people who understand the data best are the subject matter experts, and often in organisations subject matter experts are not developers," he said.

"They're the ones who understand what needs to happen with the data the best and they can now actually directly utilise a tool to do that data manipulation. So it's putting a very powerful tool in the hands of people who really understand the data."

During the launch events, 1Spatial representatives touted several of 1Integrate’s successful applications,

this unique city, to help drive effective and precise planning of developments and urban areas,” he said.

Spookfish utilises a fleet of specialised planes to capture imagery for its platform, which now offers over 55,000 square kilometres of captured area across Australia.

TM Plan automatically created utilising 1Integrate.

including solving a major data automation process for Google, and automating a gargantuan data submission process for the U.S. Census that allegedly contributed to a projected $5 billion saving for the 2020 Census.

Locate19 comes together with new leadership, partners With planning well underway, 2019 promises to bring big changes for the Locate Conference, which takes place at the Melbourne Convention Centre from 8-10 April 2019.

Organisers say Locate19 will draw some new faces, as it will mark the first time newly re-branded FrontierSI (formerly CRCSI) will run its annual gathering alongside Australia’s premier surveying and geospatial event.

“The inclusion of FrontierSI will bring some of the brightest minds to Locate19,” said co-convener Kate Williams.

“It will also showcase a diverse range of real-world applications across a range of industry sectors,” she said.

New chair Maurits van der Vlugt said the Locate board aim to continue to build on the success of this year’s event

and are implementing an aspirational growth strategy.

"In 2019, Locate will continue to pivot to a compelling and inclusive spatial information festival for everybody in our industry, including surveying, spatial science and related disciplines, as well as their customers,” he said.

The conference theme, ‘Where to next? Location, how we drive our digital future’, is a timely one. Organisers say that means the conference will explore how geospatial science is underpinning the rapid changes that businesses are experiencing in the fourth industrial revolution.

"Locate 19 will showcase the best Spatial Information technologies, products, services, projects, and research from around Australasia and

Locate19 Co-conveners Kate Williams and Glenn Cockerton.

the world, and address key innovation and regulatory policy issues impacting our industry,” added van der Vlugt.

"The event will not only embrace our core industry but increasingly be focused on attracting significant customer participation from this high priority growth sector.”

Co-convener Glenn Cockerton also sees infrastructure and transport playing a large role at Locate19.

“The Victorian Government’s looming State election has seen a wide range of very significant public transport proposals announced,” he said.

“Transport infrastructure appears to be receiving significant investment over the next decade or so. It is fitting that infrastructure and transport are expected to be major themes at Locate 19 here in Melbourne.”

Locate19 is organised by the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute and SIBA|GITA. For registration information or details about the call for papers, visit the conference website at www. locateconference.com/2019.

www.spatialsource.com.au 9

news Victoria Police float use of public surveillance drones The spokesperson for Victoria Police has suggested that UAVs may be used to surveil public events such as football finals and festivals for irregular behaviour.

In announcing Victoria Police’s newly released counter-terrorism strategy for the next three years, Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther made reference to a presentation from a drone provider on police applications of their technology, and emphasised the need to utilise the latest technology when announcing the new strategy.

Mr. Guenther clarified his comments on drone use to ABC Radio Melbourne, citing an example of a concertgoer conspicuously dropping a backpack and leaving the venue.

“If we had a drone in the area using that sort of functionality it would identify an out-of-normal behaviour and send that information back to a command post.

“The intention is to protect the community, it’s not that we’re using that technology 24 hours a day at all our meeting places, for example.”

DroneShield takes down two Industry Innovation awards

DroneShield's DroneGun Tactical rifle-shaped jammer device.

Image provided by DroneShield.

Australian drone countermeasure producer DroneShield has taken out the SME Innovation Grant and

Young Innovator awards at the Industry Innovation Awards during the Land Forces Expo in Adelaide.

The firm was awarded for its DroneGun Tactical product — a rifle-shaped jamming device for UAVs that simultaneously interrupts multiple RF bands (2.4GHz, 5.8GHz, 433 MHz and 915MHz) and GNSS signals (GPS, GLONASS).

The device was used by security services at the recent Winter Olympic Games, and

by Queensland Police at this year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

The company says the product does not damage the drones or surrounding

environment, but that the jamming effect usually triggers one of the UAV's suspension operations — a controlled landing, or returning to its starting point.

Minister for Trade and Industry Niall Blair commended DroneShield.

“It’s fantastic to see a NSW company recognised as the best of the best among the nation’s defence firms, and it is particularly pleasing to see a company based in the Sydney Startup Hub becoming a world leader in new technology and landing significant contracts."

Australia sitting on $315bn digital opportunity: Data61 A report commissioned by CSIRO's Data61 has found that $315 billion in gross economic value could be realised in Australian digital innovation opportunities over the next decade.

The report, by AlphaBeta Advisors for Data61, identifies and highlights strategic opportunities for Australia to develop data-driven industries while improving collaboration between industry and research.

Adrian Turner, CEO at CSIRO’s Data61, said that every sector of the global

10 position October/November 2018

economy has been re-defined as a result of digital science and technology and the extensive use of data.

“This next digital wave to revolutionise existing industries and create entirely new ones is ours to

capture. But the opportunity is perishable if we don’t collectively take action now," he said.

“Progressive data-driven organisations are investing in four core areas to realise value from data; data capture, management, analysis and taking action with it.

Combining this data with domain expertise, in areas like healthcare, agriculture and mining, is where we can create an unfair advantage.”

The Digital Innovations report can be downloaded from Data61's website.

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news SSSI appoints new president, board members The Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute has named a new president and a number of new board directors during its Annual General Meeting in Launceston, Tasmania, Dr. Zaffar Sadiq MohamedGhouse has taken over as the new president of SSSI Australia, stepping into the role held by Gaby van Wyk for the past two years. Paul Digney was chosen by the board as president-elect.

Congratulating members on their new positions, SSSI CEO Peter Olah thanked outgoing president Gaby van Wyk for his service.

“I’d like to thank our immediate past president,

SSSI’s new President, Dr. Zaffar Sadiq MohamedGhouse and CEO, Peter Olah with Victoria's Surveyor General, Craig Sandy.

Gaby van Wyk, for all his hard work over the last two years. His dedication has ensured that SSSI will continue to grow and benefit from his legacy.

“I welcome Zaffar and look forward to working with him to build a stronger, better SSSI. The board subsequently elected Paul Digney as president elect, and I offer

Paul my congratulations and support,” he said.

Richard Syme was appointed as a new director in Victoria, and Lee Hellen was elected by a ballot of Queensland SSSI members as a new board member from the state.

Also, Rob Sarib was elected as a new director to the board from the Northern Territory, and Wayne Patterson elected to fill a casual vacancy in New South Wales.

Unmasking Australia’s cancer burden A new interactive tool uses the latest available data to give a highly detailed breakdown of Australia’s cancer rates, suburb by suburb.

The Australian Cancer Atlas is an interactive tool that displays cancer incidence patterns and survival rates for Australia’s 20 most common cancers.

The atlas project was led by researchers from Cancer Council Queensland, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and FrontierSI, and the project’s creators say that the

tool has the potential to give health agencies and policy makers a better understanding of geographic disparities and

health requirements across the country.

FrontierSI CEO Dr. Graeme Kernich said that

the atlas was successful in bringing together Cancer Council registries, universities, health departments and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to deliver a unique resource.

“There is still a long way to go to understand the reasons for all the geographic disparities, but the atlas is designed to motivate and accelerate the pace of targeted research in areas that need it the most,” said Professor Peter Baade, of Cancer Council Queensland.

POSITION’S NEWS ORIGINATES FROM Australia and New Zealand’s only site for surveying and spatial news.

Subscribe now for your FREE weekly newsletter at www.spatialsource.com.au 12 position October/November 2018

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Images to action: mapping the Santa Rosa fire storms

Firestorms ravaged Northern California in October 2017, burning tens of thousands of acres to ash. lower than normal meant it would take the team four times as long to get the job done and require four times as many photos.

The process was straightforward, though tedious: Crutsinger would manually load a mission to one drone, hand it off to an officer fly and then move to the next mission.

Ultimately, it took about two dozen flights (and as many batteries) to map the Coffey Park neighborhood.

The effort resulted in an unprecedented amount of information (almost 10,000 photos totaling 50GB) with a resolution of roughly a square inch per pixel.

A view from the ashes

W

hen disasters strike, emergency responders look to individuals like Commander Tom Madigan, a 20-year law enforcement veteran in the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office to gather information as quickly as possible to support disaster response and recovery activities.

Madigan oversees the organization’s small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) program. As part of the disaster response, Madigan received an emergency a temporary flight restriction (TFR) Certificate of Authorization (CoA) from the Federal Aviation Administration. The emergency CoA allowed Madigan to gather data with the department’s fleet of drones. Madigan looked for help from professional UAV mapper, Greg Crutsinger of Scholar Farms and his data mapping post-processing solutions.

Mapping the burned area One particularly hard-hit area was the city of Santa Rosa, where over 34,000 acres, much of it residential, burned to the ground. Much of the 1.2 square kilometers of the Coffey Park neighborhood was just gray ash.

Madigan recalls, “We needed a map that would help coordinate first responders and

set perimeters. Our first focus was to ensure that when residents returned to the burn area, there was no chance of injury. As well, the maps would help residents see the extent of damage to their homes and property.”

The team turned to the department’s fleet of DJI Phantom 4 drones equipped with 12-megapixel cameras - all the while staying well away from the many manned aircraft, such as Cal Fire helicopters, working in the area.

Crutsinger says, “The drones were limited to 100 ft flight altitude and we had to land immediately if other aircraft entered the area.

The height restriction meant that we had to run many more drone flights to cover the large area.”

Typically, Crutsinger would map a landscape at around 400 ft. Flying four times

Crutsinger found that post-processing was the biggest challenge due to the sheer quantity of data and the quick turnaround times needed by the authorities and media channels.

He recalls, “I’d never worked with such massive datasets before—but I knew people who had. I called the Pix4D technical assistance in the San Francisco office.”

With help from Pix4D, all images were processed into a single Pix4Dmapper file in just under 46 hours, producing a 3D densified point cloud, a 3D textured mesh and a highresolution 1GB orthomosaic map.

Crutsinger adds, “The power of Pix4Dmapper is its ability to quickly process imagery into a super high-resolution map for better decision-making.”

Easy visualisation Public agencies and residents were able to see each burn in detail before they were allowed back in the neighborhood.

Madigan adds, “Beyond the public safety, the data was also useful for cross-agency coordination and post-scene documentation.

For instance, the data was collected for the Sonoma County emergency managers to better assist with situational awareness and to see firsthand the vast amount of damages to the neighborhoods.” ■ Information provided by Pix4D.

www.spatialsource.com.au 13

q&a

Q&A with Anthony Murfett A very special guest for issue 97 is Anthony Murfett, deputy head of the freshly-minted Australian Space Agency. We had so much to ask him that we’ve extended this Q&A to three pages, and won’t squander words introducing him. Enjoy this exclusive for Position.

P

osition: Anthony, firstly — congratulations on the agency’s establishment and your position within it — I’m sure it’s been a busy few months at your end. My understanding is that the agency’s charter, a significant document in terms of the agency’s operations and interactions with other government agencies and the private sector, is in the process of being finalised. Can you update us on this process — how does the final document differ from the charter proposed by the review, and what are the next steps following its finalisation?

AM: The first nine weeks of the Australian Space Agency’s establishment has most certainly been a fast, exciting and dynamic time. The level of interest and engagement not just from the industry, but the broader Australian and international community have been amazing. In the first nine weeks of the agency’s establishment, we have managed a cumulative audience – those that have heard, read or seen information on the agency – of over 18.7 million.

At this time, the agency charter is in the final stages of development. The government noted the charter developed by the Expert Reference Group (ERG), led by our (now) head of the agency, Dr. Megan Clark AC. It asked the agency

14 position October/November 2018

to finalise the charter within three months of establishment, drawing on the information in the charter prepared by the ERG. We’ve spent our first couple of months engaging across Australia to confirm our role and where we can add the most value, which has been used to inform the development of the charter. I expect that the final charter will reflect our governance arrangements, our purpose and responsibilities, and also a framework for how we will engage with the industry to deliver on our purpose: to transform and grow a globally respected Australian space industry that lifts the broader economy, inspires and improves the lives of Australians – underpinned by strong international and national engagement.

Position: The state and territory consultative forums with industry have now wound up. I’d imagine there was a range of stakeholders with strong views in each region, and that it was a stimulating affair. What are your main take-aways from this process, and has it functionally changed any precepts you’ve had of the agency’s mandate, or initial activities?

AM: In establishing the agency, the government requested we develop an investment plan to identify investment opportunities for Australia. In recognising

this important requirement and an industry that was keenly interested to engage early, the agency set up consultation across all capital cities in the states and territories.

The agency also established a number of priority-area specific roundtables.

Over 750 participants registered for these events. This included representation from the traditional space sector, as well as broader industries like mining, precision agriculture, investment organisations, amateur space enthusiast clubs, consulting and STEM-related organisations.

We had great engagement and a couple of key themes were revealed or reinforced.

Firstly, the agency has a key role in outlining how space technology touches virtually every sector of the Australian economy. For example, Australian farmers use space capabilities to monitor the health of their crops, marine pilots guide cruise liners, emergency workers track the progress of bushfires, and scientists study the effects and impact of droughts.

By highlighting these broader uses we’ll be able to capture a significant part of the global space economy (currently $346B USD and growing).

Secondly, international engagement with counterpart agencies will help identify new opportunities to grow our industry, there is great capability across our great nation; and thirdly, with the

enthusiasm within the space sector, we need to ensure we work closely with the industry so we encourage growth, but at the same time ensure public safety and security. This will mean we’ll be seen as globally responsible and also meet our international obligations (for example under the Outer Space Treaty).

The discussions also highlighted the importance of STEM in driving the economy; the need to grow and nurture start-ups and SMEs; investment in supporting ground infrastructure; setting the strategy and policy for the agency early; and the vital need for a single voice to represent the Australian space industry both domestically and internationally.

The agency also heard stronger commercial interests in launch, an element which did not come through as a significant priority during ERG review.

Position: A large allocation of the agency’s initial funding appears to be dedicated to fast-tracking partnerships and bolstering existing agreements with international space agencies — presumably to assist in getting Australian payloads onto missions launched internationally while Australia’s own launch infrastructure is developed and the agency’s mandate structurally established. What will this look like in practical terms — what can Australian space-reliant businesses expect as concrete outcomes from these activities, and how might they engage with the agency to benefit from these in the immediate term?

AM: The agency is currently engaging with several international space agencies across a number of space related areas.

This includes Canada, the European Space Agency, France (through CNES), the UK and the US, to name but a few.

The agency is very excited that we signed our first Memorandum of Understanding with the French Space Agency (CNES) on the 1st of September when we were in our eighth week.

One of our primary purposes is to help connect space with the ‘broader economy’ and so these arrangements will set the overarching framework for Australian companies and universities in the materials, telecommunications, manufacturing, artificial intelligence

(AI), medicines, sensors and health and biotech sectors to plug into the fantastic opportunities associated with supplying commercial product and services to orbital and planetary missions including human space flight and exploration.

Some tangible examples could include Australian technology (such as AI) on new satellites, businesses being able to provide components for new space infrastructure developed overseas, as well as our researchers working together on new technologies such as laser communications.

While the need for launch infrastructure wasn’t identified as a priority during the ERG review, space actors have increasingly expressed interest in Australia’s launch capabilities since

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© 2018 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

www.spatialsource.com.au 15

q&a LEFT: The Governor General’s rocket design challenge at National Science Week 2018.

BELOW: Anthony with the Macquarie University Orbital team at the Australian Engineering Conference 2018 in Sydney.

first Inmarsat satellite to test an SBAS service at the 10 centimetre accuracy level, with strong immediate benefits evident to a number of industries, particularly those of transport. The Commonwealth has extended its exclusive use of this Inmarsat satellite until 31 January 2024, thereby ensuring, in the short-term, that Australians remain the only users of this kind of technology, until a long term SBAS capability can be procured.

With regard to our interface with Geoscience Australia, the agency has been working closely with Geoscience Australia on its exciting work in the space sector. Importantly, the agency will focus on setting national priorities, strategy and policy in collaboration with organisations like Geoscience Australia.

We will also provide one voice and one door internationally for Australia, so we can support the great work of Geoscience Australia through opening up new opportunities overseas.

we established the agency. It is a matter for industry to determine whether launch capability is a sustainable commercial opportunity in Australia. The agency will review the regulatory requirements for launch facilities as it develops rules under the Space Activities Amendment (Launches and Returns) Act 2018.

Position: You’ll be presenting at the Multi GNSS Asia conference coming up at the end of October. The 2018 budget had a range of exciting allocations for Australian positioning infrastructure, both space- and ground-based. How do you see the role of the agency in terms of interfacing with Geoscience Australia’s positioning initiatives, and the potential of GNSS services for Australia’s economy?

AM: I am looking forward to the MultiGNSS Asia conference and meeting with delegates to outline what we are doing and to hear more about the amazing work in global navigation systems.

Firstly on Geoscience Australia’s investments. As part of the 2018-19 federal budget, the Australian government invested $224.9 million over the next four years to develop and implement a worldleading satellite positioning capability in Australia. This capability will provide near real-time location information that is accurate to 10 centimetres nationally (and across Australia’s maritime borders) and 3 centimetres in areas with mobile phone coverage. This will be exponentially better than what is currently available from GPS location information, which provides an accuracy of five to ten metres.

16 position October/November 2018

This step change in technology will be transformative for Australian society, for businesses and industries, and our international competitiveness: from precision agriculture and agtech, to regional aviation, automation in mining and resources, intelligent transport, and consumer location services and deliveries.

The Positioning Australia Program comprises the provision of a SatelliteBased Augmentation System (SBAS) at an investment of $161 million over four years and the construction of a National Positioning Infrastructure Capability (NPIC) at an investment of $64 million. We expect construction for the NPIC will begin in the next few months. This work is being managed through Geoscience Australia.

The government’s current investment in SBAS follows a pilot study of the technology across Australia and New Zealand, which began in 2017 and is expected to end in February 2019. The pilot, which is testing the technology across ten industry sectors, used a world-

Position: The review strongly recommended that the agency be a whole-of-government agency, yet the government has held off on committing to granting it statutory status. How do you see the agency’s role in working with other departments on investment and procurement priorities before this status is granted? Might this mimic the operation of the with the Business Research and Innovation Initiative for these functions?

AM: The agency is established as a separate non-statutory entity within the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, but has independent branding and governance arrangements. It allows the agency to draw on the department for support, particularly corporate support. The government response also outlined that consideration of a statutory basis will be considered after a review of the agency’s operations that will commence within four years of the establishment of the agency. ■

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Is data the missing piece of the puzzle to building Australia’s smart cities?

Global data analytics expert, Dr Amen Ra Mashariki, shares how embracing data as a key asset in urban planning can add a valuable edge to a smart city’s toolbox.

F

or little over a decade since the term ‘smart city’ was introduced, advanced analytics technologies have underpinned the engineering of urban environments around the world.

However, while technology has been key to capturing and utilising the evergrowing stores of data inherent to smart cities – from connected streetlights to CCTVs to traffic flow and collision information transmitted from smart roads – many cities are still falling short of their digital potential, as they overlook the strategic advantage of using data as both an operational and strategic asset.

So how can decision-makers ensure they more effectively combine data and urban analytics with smart city thinking?

Dr Amen Ra Mashariki – who is the former Chief Analytics Officer for the City of New York and the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA); a fellow at the Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; and currently global Head of Urban Analytics at Esri – shares how building a citywide plan for using data strategically requires time, patience and rigour.

“Learning a new language is an appropriate analogy for how cities learn how to use data as an asset.”

18 position October/November 2018

Using data strategically as an asset When it comes to building a citywide plan for using data strategically as an asset, I have a unique way of viewing this issue, which stems from my experience working closely with government, private and academic institutions around the world.

Some people believe that if you first are able to manage data as an asset, then you can use it for operational purposes such as predictive analytics, operation business intelligence or strong city indicators and metrics. Then there are some who are in the camp of doing analytics projects. They believe the more you do them, over time, the better you will get at managing the data. This is because you will be getting better at executing analytics work.

Instead, I believe that it makes more sense to do both in concert with each other.

The language of data analytics We know it is easier to learn a new language when you are younger as opposed to when you are older and more set in your ways. The same thing can be said for adopting data as a citywide asset strategy. It is exponentially easier to do this when you are in the “young” stage: buying your data management systems for a city from the ground up.

Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury in many cities. In most of our cities, we have legacy systems that do their job methodically and consistently, and may be difficult and costly to retire and replace. In this instance, the challenge is how do we incorporate data as an asset strategy into the existing legacy city data framework? In many instances, these systems were not built and deployed with data sharing, or transparency, in mind.

It is imperative for business leaders to discuss how sharing from multiple citywide and private-sector data sources is vital for executing projects with defined and discrete objectives. This process typically runs into obstacles, and these require both compromise and creative approaches to delivering solutions. The challenges are akin to deploying a full immersion strategy for learning a new language. It is frustrating and seems impossible at first, but give it time and it becomes easier and easier to understand and then speak the language.

When it comes to learning a new language, it’s also important to consider the learning tools, process and syntax. In the world of data analytics, this is directly analogous to understanding the quality of the technology we hope to deploy, as well as how we use this technology and when. The language syntax is similar to understanding and deploying data standards and protocols for security, privacy, storage and sharing.

“Cities must learn to use their data as an asset.”

ABOVE: From New York to Australia, Dr. Mashariki explains the vital role data plays for city planners and decision makers in urban development.

LEFT: Dr. Amen Ra Mashariki, Head of Urban Analytics, Esri inc.

Meet Dr Mashariki Dr Mashariki will be delivering a keynote presentation at the Esri Australia User Conference – Ozri 2018 – in November, in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. In addition to sharing further insights into how Australia can use urban analytics to

make its cities smarter, safer and more liveable, Dr Mashariki will also discuss his experience working for the City of New York to prevent housing discrimination and minimise the outbreak of a legionnaires epidemic.

Register now at esriaustralia.com.au/ozri. Or, to access more materials from Dr Amen Ra Mashariki, visit esriaustralia.com.au/amen.

Developing a proficiency in data It takes time, meetings and countless conversations across the city to get consensus and buy-in for any data project.

And not everyone is fluent in the language of data. I would be remiss if I did not add that learning how to speak a new language differs based on the type of language.

Understanding the origin of that language is key. For instance, the etymology of

the language may shift how you learn that language. I know that I will take on learning Chinese in a much different way than Spanish, based on understanding the culture and etymology of the language.

What I am getting at here, is that understanding the “data etymology” – or base framework of the data a city uses to impact operational capabilities – requires an understanding that most of this data tends to be geospatial in nature.

Building a locationbased framework Building a capability to store this type of data as an asset requires the city to understand this location-based framework. Cities must learn to use their data as an asset. This requires implementation and execution of operational analytics work. It also requires thoughtful data management best practices and tactics. I don’t have an opinion as to which should come first; managing the data or using it in a project. I do, however, know that for a city to be prepared to use data when solving complex problems in a timely fashion with a high level of accuracy and precision, both have to be happening in parallel. And location should be the etymology for this to happen. ■ Dr Amen Ra Mashariki is Head of Urban Analytics at Esri Inc. Information provided by Esri Australia. www.spatialsource.com.au 19

In the eye of the storm

JON FAIRALL

O

ne of the biggest construction projects in Australia, Sydney’s CBD to South East Light Rail (CSELR) project, has turned into a spectacular pile-up. Data released earlier this year show that a four year build cycle has expanded to six, and the billion-dollar budget has more than doubled. Precisely what went wrong, and why, will be before the courts for some time to come, but the speculation in the media is that at least some of the blame will be attributed to a lack of detailed location data pertaining to underground utility assets in the rail corridor.

It’s not a big stretch. The rail corridor runs through some of the oldest built environments in Australia. People have been digging up George Street for two hundred years to install, change or decommission conduits, ducts, pipes and

20 position October/November 2018

cables. It seems highly plausible that this detritus would be problematic. But how?

Our research suggests that in the two decades since the turn of the century, large tracts of the rail corridor have been subjected to an intensive mapping effort that has resulted in a world-class utilities map. It’s not necessary to claim perfection. Experts say that while the data may be neither complete nor 100 percent accurate, it is not so incomplete or so inaccurate that it can account for all of the project’s woes.

A laboured past To start at the beginning: in 1994, the Sydney Light Rail company was formed to operate a 30-year concession from the government for a light railway line that would run from Central Station, and eventually extend to Dulwich Hill in

Sydney’s inner west. The first passengers were carried in August 1997.

In the early 2000s, transport authorities began discussing an extension to the system. In February 2010, Kristina Keneally’s Labor government announced that a light rail link would be constructed from Circular Quay to Haymarket via the new harbour-side Barangaroo precinct, on the north-western edge of the CBD. In March 2011, Barrie O’Farrell’s Liberals proposed a CBD to Barangaroo link with extensions to the University of Sydney and the Rocks tourist precinct. Finally, in December 2012, the government committed to a route from Circular Quay, down George Street across the existing Dulwich Hill line, across Surry Hills, past the University of New South Wales, with termini at Randwick and Kensington.

At that stage, construction was slated to begin in 2014, with completion in ‘five or six years’. The total construction cost was estimated at $1.6 billion. In July 2014, Laing O’Rourke was awarded a contract for preliminary construction work. In October 2014, the government announced that ALTRAC had won the tender for the main construction work.

ALTRAC is a consortium of Alstom, Acciona, Transdev and Capella Capital.

Transdev is the operator of Sydney’s existing light rail system, and Acciona, a Spanish engineering firm, is responsible for construction. Alstom is a French manufacturer of signaling equipment and rolling stock. The project is managed by Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), the state’s transport authority.

Preparing the ground While politicians dithered, engineers were getting ready. It seems that in the early 2000s, engineers in most of the utility companies reached the conclusion that some sort of mass transit system would eventuate along George Street, with obvious implications for their assets.

Engineers at Energy Australia were certainly aware of the need for an extensive database of the organisation’s assets. Energy Australia was the state government’s electrical distribution agency. In 2016, part of the organisation was privatised as Ausgrid. Ausgrid is now responsible for underground infrastructure in the area.

Between August 2004 and December 2007, geospatial engineers undertook a major mapping project called Spatial and Key Data Capture (SKDC). The SKDC project employed 20 people over four years to map three zones: Dalley St and City East; City North and City Central; and City South and Darling Harbour.

Together they covered the central business

feature district and the rail corridor down George Street, past Central Station.

Speaking at a meeting in 2008, Greg Oaten, who was then the head of Energy Australia’s data operations group, said the City North and City East projects involved a 100 percent audit of the pit and duct system. He told the meeting that this part of the project was completed by mid-2007.

Audit work in City South and Darling Harbour was only conducted in areas where GIS data was not already aligned with system diagrams.

Speaking to Position in July 2018, Oaten says that in the years since the SKDC, the currency of the data in the GIS has not been an issue — that it has been maintained and is a central resource for engineering in the organisation.

Sydney Water reports a similar story.

Fernando Ortega, the organisation’s account manager for infrastructure said that staff from Sydney Water and engineering company Arup carried out detailed assessment of every asset under and adjacent to the proposed track during the pre-tender stage of the project in 2014-15. Arup was employed as a consultant to Transport for NSW (TfNSW). Ortega said that as a result of that process, many wastewater, potable water and storm water assets were ‘protected, adjusted, relocated and upsized as per Sydney Water requirements’ prior to the start of construction.

To the extent that there were unanticipated problems with its assets during the actual construction, Ortega said his organisation had ‘facilitated and assisted TfNSW to deliver the project.’

Moreover, he insists that Sydney Water’s Hydro GIS holds a complete record of the organisation’s assets. ‘Hydro data is updated whenever an asset is constructed, modified or adjusted,’ he said in a statement to Position.

Lumbering forwards Construction began on 23 October 2015. At the same time, the government announced that due to changes in the design, the cost had blown out to $2.1 billion. This was sufficiently alarming to trigger a report by Margaret Crawford, the NSW Auditor General. In her November 2016 report, she agreed that a component of the cost increases were caused by changes in project scope that emerged from the tender process.

‘In line with normal practice for major construction projects, TfNSW issued the RFP [request for proposal] based on a reference design and scope of works.

However, bidders were encouraged to innovate and improve on this design,’ she wrote on page 14 of her report.

“In fact, projected economic benefits had fallen to $3 billion, which made the whole project of marginal economic utility. This finding is significant in light of the debate over whether the project was the optimum solution to Sydney’s transport needs.”

Some of the increase seemed fairly easy to justify. New stations were designed.

Some proposed stations were eliminated.

The overhead catenary used to power the train was deemed too unsightly for the city centre, so a 1.6 kilometre section of track down George Street was redesigned to use a proprietary subterranean system provided by Alstom called Alimentation par le sol (APS) — or ‘ground power’.

According to a presentation by Bruno Petin, Alstom’s technical manager in charge of the light rail project, APS uses a central third rail which is divided into 11-metre sections. Eight metres are powered and the following three metres are electrically isolated. Power to the live part of the third rail is turned on by the tram itself as it moves into the section. It is thus suitable for use close to pedestrians and animals.

The downside to APS is that it costs more. A recent report by Gooding Davies consultancy, a Western Sydney transport

consultant firm, suggested that around $15 million extra was required as a result.

Also, considerable excavation is required to install power and control infrastructure in a trench that runs between the two rails.

In total, Crawford could account for $32 million in such changes in the project’s scope. She attributed the rest of the $549 million blow-out to TfNSW internal processes. She found that the government agency did not effectively plan or procure the project to obtain the best value for money.

She also slammed the organisation for misleading the community, writing in November 2016: ‘In January 2015, TfNSW incorrectly responded to community and stakeholder concern about the project’s cost and value for money,’ she wrote. Crawford noted that in the CSELR Submission Report to Project modification, TfNSW stated that the benefits of the project remained at $4 billion, significantly more than the construction cost. In fact, they had fallen to $3 billion, which made the whole project of marginal economic utility.

This finding is significant in light of the debate over whether the project was the optimum solution to Sydney’s transport needs. Recently released documents show that economic analyses of the project as far back as 2012 did not model costs to businesses and residents from construction-related disruption, and that journey times would be similar to bus commutes. Infrastructure NSW had favoured constructing tunnels under the city for buses as an alternative to the entire CSELR project, which may have delivered better outcomes for less cost. www.spatialsource.com.au 21

feature Nevertheless, the project was unstoppable by the time the AuditorGeneral delivered her report. In February 2017, construction began on the section to the east of George Street -- an area not covered by the SKDC project. Once again, it would seem that by this time, mapping of underground utility assets was reasonably comprehensive. This area of the alignment was the subject of an extensive survey program by Patriot Environmental Management. Back in 2015, surveying firms Land Surveys and Utility Mapping had been commissioned to provide surveying and underground utility mapping services in this part of the corridor. Work began on relocating electrical cables in December 2016, several months before construction began.

According to a media release issued by Land Surveys, in this part of the alignment, there were plenty of undocumented services. Such surveys as existed were compiled in different formats, some only on paper, some incomplete and some missing.

Radio detection scanners, CCTV, radio sonds and ground penetrating radar were used to detect the assets and a total station was then used to map their positions in the project grid. As of December 2017, the surveyors had identified over 1400 unknown or undocumented utility services in this part of the rail corridor since their initial engagement.

ABOVE: The route of the CBD to South East Light Rail project currently under construction, and the areas covered by the Spatial Key Data and Capture project.

Grinding to a halt In papers delivered to the NSW Supreme Court in April 2018, Acciona claims TfNSW led it to believe Ausgrid had agreed to a plan to deal with its underground utilities along the route when it had not. It was also revealed that Acciona was suing the government for an extra billion dollars. NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance called the subcontractor's claims ‘ridiculous.’

At this time, ALTRAC announced that it would not complete the line until March 2020.

This prompted a number of retailers with shopfronts along the railway alignment to sue the government because of the length of the delay to the project completion. The class action is being masterminded by Angela Vithoulkas, an independent City of Sydney councilor and the owner of a café on George Street.

Their suit will allege that the construction has adversely affected their businesses.

In October 2018, managing director of Acciona Infrastructure Australia, Bede Noonan, told a state parliamentary inquiry into the project that delivery would be delayed another two months until May 2020 due to overhead wiring on Anzac Parade at Kingsford and Kensington.

22 position October/November 2018

“The utilities risk on this project was vastly misunderstood by the government, and we as contractors were forbidden by process, as well as practicality, from knowing anything except what the government told us,” he told the inquiry.

Noonan said that shortly after the public-private partnership contract was signed in 2015, Ausgrid changed its guidelines for dealing with utilities under the route of the line, causing a delay of 865 days to construction. Noonan blamed the disruption to residents and businesses in the corridor a result of around 60 scope changes to the project, as well as complications related to underground utilities.

“The changes that were delivered by Ausgrid were a complete game-changer for the project. It was debilitating for the project,” he said.

Of course, whether accurate spatial data existed in the corridor is one thing; whether the right people knew about it is another. It seems, who knew what, and when, will be the central issue that will dog the courts in the coming years. The final bill to tax payers will not be known until the proceedings are complete. For the Berejiklian government, it is a perfect storm.

Jon Fairall is the founding editor of Position. Transport for NSW, Acciona, Telstra and Land Surveys were approached for comment during the preparation of this article. An ALTRAC spokesperson said that these parties were unable to respond as the issues raised may be subject to proceedings currently before the courts. Please contact the editor at dbishton@intermedia.com.au if you have any information on this story to contribute. ■

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Scanning the past to inform the future KRISTINE CARBER-WHITE

The hundredth anniversary of the end of World War I is quickly approaching, but some researchers already have been busy preserving the past — in three dimensions.

D

r. Pascal Sirguey had waited two years for this day and he was taking a few final minutes to savour the moment. It was a sunny morning in early 2017, and students, historians and scholars had gathered in Arras, France, to attend the remembrance ceremony of the Battle of Arras in World War I. While this year marks the official end of World War I, the commemoration marked a little-known, yet significant contribution of New Zealand to the war efforts in helping to win the legendary battle. Sirguey’s efforts would document one more chapter in the Great War as its centenary was approaching.

Sirguey is a senior lecturer in the National School of Surveying at the University of Otago. His attendance at the ceremony was the culmination of an ambitious two-year scanning project that captured more than half of the historic underground network of tunnels and quarries in Arras.

24 position October/November 2018

Preserving history During World War I, some 120,000 New Zealanders were sent overseas. Among them were the men of the New Zealand Engineers Tunneling Company (NZETC), a tough, scrappy bunch made up of miners, quarrymen and laborers with a secret mission to help underground warfare and thwart the advances of enemy forces. The tunnellers were the first New Zealanders deployed on the Western Front in March 1916. Working ahead of a major battle planned by the allied forces to break the German front in April 1917, the tunnellers were tasked with connecting a network of abandoned chalk quarries, some dating back to the Middle Ages.

They would create a 2.3-kilometre long subterranean passage where allied soldiers could easily and safely move underground and eventually take the enemy by surprise on the morning of the battle.

The tunnels and quarries were far from simple dirt shafts, however. The goal was to develop these spaces so assault troops could live underground yet secretly access the frontline. The tunnellers spent two months installing electrical wiring and preparing to install cables to bring light. In the end the tunnels were able to accommodate 24,000 men and included a light rail system, fully equipped hospital, electric lights, kitchens, latrines, running water and living quarters.

Tunneling was hazardous work but the workers were fast and determined, digging at three times the rate of German tunnellers. The NZTC worked around the clock in 18-hour shifts, naming the main quarries after towns in their native New Zealand, from Russell in the north down to Bluff in the south.

On April 9, 1917, at 5:30 am, British soldiers came out from their hiding place and charged the German trenches, ambushing German officers and troops having breakfast. The surprise attack was a success and the Germans were forced to withdraw 10 kilometres. The Battle of Arras was the only allied victory of 1917.

After the battle, the tunnellers created more than 200 dugouts, machine gun nests, trench mortar emplacements and observations beneath the trenches.

With the front line stabilised again, the Germans failed to capture Arras.

Paying tribute Sirguey and his colleague Richard Hemi, also from the surveying department at the University of Otago, learned of the network after Hemi attended the opening of a tunnel in Wellington honoring New Zealand’s WWI involvement and the role of the counter-miners. “I am from France and lived half an hour from the site but had never heard of the tunnels,” Sirguey said.

feature While the tunnels were well ventilated by natural air currents, the team was still required to carry gas detectors as part of a strict health and safety plan. The temperature stayed at a consistent 10°C with 100 percent humidity.

There was a technical learning curve as well. Some students were familiar with using earlier generation Trimble scanners, but not the TX8. In addition, there was training on using the scanner with a Nikon D7100, which would capture imagery at 90-degree intervals. A fish eye lens provided overlap between photos to create a single panorama at each scan station. While the scanner can measure in total darkness, researchers needed sufficient lighting for photography, which came from battery-powered spotlights placed under the instrument tripod at each scanning station.

“The pictorial quality was excellent,” Sirguey said. “ We captured everything possible to create photo-realistic renderings. Given the challenging light environment, we never thought we would get such quality.”

The project progresses

Their interest piqued, they devised a project, LiDARRAS, to use LiDAR technology and capture a permanent digital record of the tunnels. It would require surveying and scanning what remained of the network and creating 3D models and a virtual environment of the caverns.

Preparation Sirguey and Hemi envisioned LiDARRAS as a bicultural project, with resources coming from universities in New Zealand and France in a collaborative effort.

The University of Otago was already committed, and Sirguey contacted the École Supérieure des Géomètres et Topographes (School of Geometers and Topographers) in Le Mans, France.

Between the two schools, five students were chosen, with a lead student from each country committed for the long term.

Using the right technology was critical.

Sirguey had used Trimble products in his classes and after talking with a scanning expert he determined the Trimble TX8 3D laser scanner would be ideal for the project.

The TX8 can collect 1 million points per second, producing 3D coordinates with millimeter precision. It has a photographic capability that assigns real color to any point, enabling high-density color data and realistic texturing of a 3D model, even in the dim light of the tunnels.

Safety was a primary consideration.

Some of the network had been reinforced during the Cold War as fallout shelters and were deemed stable, but Sirguey’s team met with archeological experts from the city of Arras for a walk-through to assess the network. They confirmed that out of 2.3 kilometres of tunnels, at least half of the area could be safely accessed.

Students, with supervision from staff from each surveying school, worked eight hours a day and sometimes weekends during two survey campaigns totaling about six full weeks of underground fieldwork. The team alternated between underground and above ground, where they performed survey loops for georeferencing and collected scans of the cityscape to provide context to the underground structure.

They completed up to 63 scans per day and captured panoramic photos to colourise the point clouds. Scanning began in one quarry and progressed day by day to the end of another quarry. Once these scans were captured, the students moved to other areas of the subterranean network. Back at the hotel, they processed each day’s data in Trimble RealWorks to ensure it had been collected properly.

The Wellington quarry is a museum open to the public, so the students sometimes had to work around public tours. The pilot survey started right after the November 13 Paris terrorist attack, however, so most tours in the tunnels were cancelled and scanning in the museum was given priority. The speed of the scanner was phenomenal.

Over the course of the project, the team completed nearly 1,000 scans, collecting about 100 gigapoints (100 billion points), making it one of the largest scanning projects of its kind processed in New Zealand. The final resampled point cloud at 2mm spacing is about 25 gigapoints. www.spatialsource.com.au 25

feature Sirguey said the new scanner’s speed, and the ability to use it with a SLR camera was critical to the team’s progress.

In addition to the scans, 9,768 high-resolution photos were captured and processed into 814 panoramas.

A georeferenced network of 32 control marks, including outside and underground marks, was surveyed with static GNSS and total stations. The control network was established for the tunnel and quarries but extended outside to tie it to the regional grid.

Closed traverses were used to carry control through the tunnels, and the network of observations was adjusted via least squares. Scan data was processed to create a variety of digital data products including raw scans; full scans that were registered, colored and georeferenced; a resampled point cloud at 2 millimetre spacing; and photo panoramas.

Science department at University of Otago. The photos would be used as a case study for emerging research ideas seeking to reconstruct geometry from photos under changing light conditions. The project has been submitted for funding to the National Science Challenge: Science for Technological Innovation.

Enduring contribution

Sharing history Shortly before the project was complete, Sirguey and his team were invited to attend the remembrance ceremony of the Battle of Arras in France and present the findings of the project. Apart from graves and memorials, the quarries are one of the very few physical traces left behind by the New Zealanders on the Western Front.

They shared details of their work and unveiled the latest animation of the underground network dataset. The team also generated a fly-through inside the 3D point cloud, exemplifying the full extent of the completed survey (available at youtu.be/0DkPwl25dC4). The fly-through was later gifted to the museum.

Additional animations and navigable 3D models were created for museum and public use (see www.otago.ac.nz/ lidarras) to increase awareness of the contributions of the New Zealand tunnellers. In addition, a 3D model has been archived as a digital record

26 position October/November 2018

to ensure the many attributes of the structure are protected, including parts at risk of being lost through deteriorating chalk or alteration of tunnels due to urban development.

One unexpected contribution was after Sirguey had given a presentation at the National Commemoration of the War in France. Here he met with architect Andrew Sexton, finalist for the French Memorial with the project Quarry of Memory. Sexton’s project was strongly inspired by the underground network and the LiDARRAS team provided him with accurate contours of the quarry floor taken from their survey data.

The LiDARRAS team was also asked to collect sequences of overlapping photos in parts of the tunnels for the Computer

In summer 2018, a regional agency conducting an inventory of tunnels in northern France approached Sirguey about his work at Arras. The agency had heard about the success of LiDARRAS and asked for assistance in producing a ’light‘ resampled version of the point cloud, as well as a footprint of the area scanned to contribute to its inventory.

“This is precisely the outcome we anticipated,” Sirguey said. “It’s pleasing to see how the project is contributing to other projects already.”

Sirguey and his team are now in discussion with the New Zealand National Library about archiving the results. In addition, the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, an early partner of the project, has invited them to give a lecture in the context of exhibitions of the World War I battles.

“LiDARRAS went beyond what we ever expected,” Sirguey said. “The data and imagery was excellent and we had everything documented and turned over to the city of Arras in time for the anniversary. But beyond its technical and historical merits for the general public, the project offered a unique opportunity for academic collaboration between France and New Zealand to preserve a piece of history, as well as sharing surveying education across generations and cultures.”

Kristine Carber-White is a writer based in Silicon Valley. A former editor for the San Jose Mercury News, White writes extensively on geospatial technology. ■

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Presented by Bentley Institute, the Year in Infrastructure Conference is a global gathering of leading executives in the world of infrastructure design, construction, and operations focused on best practices and technologies for going digital. The Year in Infrastructure Awards, formerly known as the Be Inspired Awards, is an exciting and well-regarded global competition that recognizes the “going digital” advancements in infrastructure.

See presentations from award nominees and join us at the celebratory gala, recognizing the world’s most outstanding infrastructure projects in 2018.

October 15 – 18, 2018 I Hilton London Metropole REGISTER AND LEARN MORE AT

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Growing healthy cities Maintaining liveability in the face of Australia’s urban development

DANIEL BISHTON

I

t’s a popular time to be an urban dweller in Australia. At a rate of one new person every minute and 23 seconds, the national population ticked past 25 million people in August, with most of this growth occurring in the country’s largest cities.

Over the past few years planning departments at all levels of government are realising — with varying degrees of concern — that existing urban infrastructure is creaking under the weight of this rapid growth, and heavy lifting will be required to create and maintain liveable, adequately amenable environments for this swelling number of inhabitants.

A parliamentary report tabled on September 17 called upon the federal government to develop and enact a national settlement plan, noting that for decades there has been no strategy in place for accommodating a growing population, particularly with respect to urban centres. The committee’s 37 recommendations included integrating master plans for states, territories and regions; high speed rail to connect the east coast cities, and the creation of a minister for cities and national settlement with a place in cabinet.

Simultaneously, the influence of the built environment on a population’s health and wellbeing is becoming more widely and better understood in cross-disciplinary research. Public health analyses and projections are more frequently

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incorporating a spatial component, and those concerned with analysing urban behaviours seem to have finally cut through — planning concepts that place access to amenity that promotes more active lifestyles are now broadly accepted as best practice, if not consistently realised at the municipal level.

Liveability indicators have been strongly linked to general population health and environmental sustainability.

A major review of academic and grey literature undertaken by researchers from RMIT and the University of Melbourne found the following as consistent as critical factors in liveability definitions: Residents feeling safe, socially connected and included; environmental sustainability; and access to affordable

Plan Melbourne 2017-2050’s 20 minute city definition: • Be safe, accessible and well connected for pedestrians and cyclists to optimise active transport • Offer high-quality public realm and open space • Provide services and destinations that support local living • Facilitate access to quality public transport that connects people to jobs and higher-order services • Deliver housing/population at densities that make local services and transport viable • Facilitate thriving local economies.

and diverse housing options linked via public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure to employment, education, local shops, public open space and parks, health and community services, leisure and culture. First championed in the federal political arena by Anothony Albanese at the National Press Club in 2014, the concept of having an urban centre with essential services all within a 20 or 30 minute commute has now gained immense traction at state and federal levels, and interpretations of this concept are now being applied in practice as a major liveability-related policy device.

The Greater Sydney Commission has since used the concept to underpin a series of transport initiatives to enact its Metropolis of Three Cities master plan, and Plan Melbourne 2017–2050 (Plan Melbourne) is a Victorian initiative aimed at piloting a series of ‘20 minute neighbourhoods’ across Melbourne — communities in which a series of identified features are accessible to all inhabitants within a 20-minute commute by public transport or bicycle.

So this concept is now integral to key policy platforms and long-term planning initiatives in Australia’s two largest urban centres. But the task of quantifying evidence to suggest exactly how this concept will influence residents’ lifestyles once implemented is somewhat difficult.

According to Dr. Lukar Thornton, a senior lecturer in nutrition and population health at Deakin University, there is not a lot of empirical evidence to

feature support the notion that the proximity of certain services or amenities to residences automatically leads to behaviours that encourage better health outcomes — a circumstance that he and his team are attempting to tackle.

Using a selection of Melbourne suburbs, Dr. Thornton and his team are undertaking research that aims to examine the assumption that ‘20 minute cities’ encourage more localised and healthier lifestyles. He said that while there’s a lot to like about the concept, but there’s much to consider when looking to apply it to a city of over 4.8 million people “So what this concept is trying to do is ensure that people have the opportunities within their local environment to engage in healthy food and physical activity behaviour. So from that point of view, it's a good move,” he said.

“But I think the assumption that alone it will trigger healthy behaviours is a little bit of a misnomer. We‘re looking to plug the individual back in the equation, and work out how for different individuals in particular, how those environmental opportunities are going to have different types of influences on their behaviour.”

Dr. Thornton’s work has identified 11 measurable attributes within existing geospatial datasets, and have mapped Melbourne neighbourhoods within which these attributes can be accessed by foot, so within a 1.5-kilometre radius. After identifying where these neighbourhoods are (which can then be plotted against the government’s pilots), a survey of individual behaviours will take place, to examine how frequently particular activities are being undertaken in these zones, sampling a range of demographics in different regions across the city. Dr. Thornton said there are an array of reasons why somebody might not undertake an activity in their immediate locality.

“People are very time poor. So sometimes it might be more convenient to engage in some of these behaviours near their work, or near their child's school, or some other places that they're visiting more often,” he said.

“If someone's leaving for work at seven in the morning and not getting home until six at night, then their opportunities to engage with some local facilities are almost removed. So if they're only at home in the dark hours of the day then the likelihood that they're going to go and walk to a neighbourhood feature like a park when they get home from work is really low as well,” he said.

Dr. Thornton said that tracking individual behaviours is critical to establishing the relationships between lifestyles and environmental features, citing

the example of the interaction of public transport and access to supermarkets containing fresh food options. Someone commuting home by tram may be more tempted to get off early and walk to a local market, encouraging activity and healthier eating habits — versus car-based transit and the lure of drive through or delivered take-away at home, but these assumptions must all be tested to create evidence to inform appropriate interventions.

“Teasing out those who it’s important for is really crucial to this type of work. We want to understand which individuals are more reliant on their local neighbourhoods, and particularly if we can identify neighbourhoods where those particular demographics cluster together,” he said.

There are still many questions that remain about the implementation of Plan Melbourne’s 20-minute neighbourhoods, which is in its pilot phase. Whilst some of the features or amenities may beyond the scope of the government’s input, such as commercial decisions partially determining access to food options, Dr. Thornton hopes that the research may also identify beneficial neighbourhood features that cut across demographics and socioeconomic bands.

“It might be that we can identify that there's a couple of key environmental attributes that are really the triggers… that there's a particular two or three features that come out as always being important. So rather than trying to make the neighbourhood a catch-all of everything, there might be one or two features that can be focused on.”

Dr. Este Geraghty, chief medical officer and health solutions director at Esri, who will be presenting at Precision Public Health Asia 2018, said that this kind of evidence is essential to targeting initiatives to effect meaningful outcomes.

“It can be daunting to assess gaps in the liveability of a community and then try to mitigate those gaps broadly.

One benefit of a geographic information system is that it can help governments tailor the right intervention and target the right places for deployment of that intervention,” she said.

“I think the whole point of doing a geographic analysis is that those planning aspects will vary by community. One community may need to focus providing sidewalks and green spaces to encourage residents to get more physical activity, whereas another community might prioritise affordable housing projects.”

Dr. Serryn Eagleson, deputy director at the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN), has carried out detailed spatial analysis of pedestrian-vehicle accident patterns using PSMA Australia’s Geoscape dataset. She suggested that in terms of broad-brush interventions that boost liveability, the integration of cycling with other transport modes was a principle yet to be realised at scale in Australian cities.

“The major gap I see is the opportunity for integrated, active travel. In particular including cycling - many cities around the world integrate cycling with travel by trains and buses, however Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have not embraced this,” she said.

Dr. Eagleson said that many seemingly intangible elements also contribute to utility and accessibility of a community, which can have dramatic impacts on the lives of inhabitants and should be factored into planning interventions.

“Key elements that are often overlooked are the sense of community and vibrancy at the street level. We have created wide streets with large buildings that are not permeable by pedestrians.

Therefore it becomes more difficult to access where you need to go,” she said.

Whilst the challenges of ‘retrofitting’ existing urban infrastructure to support a rapidly expanding urban population to a new set of requirements are great, Dr. Eagleson said that opportunities exist. having carried out a study in 2009 titled Transforming Australian Cities, which used a spatial model to identify areas along tram and bus routes that could support higher density living and improved services with existing transport infrastructure.

“We can do more to retrofit unused or undeveloped areas along the transit routes. We can also make greater connections between transport modes, especially cycling. We can increase the frequency of public transport. We can mandate good design with green and open space available,” she said. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 29

NEW LEASE ON LIFE

Geoscience Australia’s Digital Earth Australia is evolving, with satellite imaging tools adding fresh detail and utility to NationalMap. DR. TREVOR DHU

D

igital Earth Australia (DEA), an analysis platform that uses satellite data to detect physical changes across Australia in unprecedented detail, is intriducing new features to ensure its high quality data products are now even more accessible for individuals, industry and government.

By combining historical data from the last 30 years with an ever growing range of information from new satellites, DEA provides regular updates for the entire country via NationalMap. It can be used to identify soil and coastal erosion, crop growth, water quality and changes to cities and regions in greater detail and with more authority than previously.

This wealth of knowledge is invaluable for decision-making, from the government level right down to a single farmer looking for ways to innovate and expand their business.

Four new data products from DEA have now been released on NationalMap, a free access website for map-based access to spatial data from Australian government agencies. These products include Sentinel 2 data processed in nearreal time, Mangrove Canopy Cover, the Surface Reflectance Geometric Median, and Water Observations from Space.

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DEA’s Program Director, Trent Kershaw, said the new releases deliver on government priorities, including measuring agricultural productivity, managing coastlines, monitoring water quality and better targeting environmental programs.

“These new products will improve how we use satellite data to detect physical changes across Australia in exceptional detail,” he said.

“Detecting these changes is really important as it provides Australian governments, industries and individuals with high-quality data and tools to make policy and investment decisions.We’ve already had farmers on the ground say they can use NationalMap to see the history of their land so they can be better prepared for changes in climate and water availability, and government agencies have also been successful in tracking water released for the environment through river systems in the northern Murray–Darling Basin,” he said.

Mr. Kershaw said that Geoscience Australia were now working with FrontierSI to engage Australian businesses and demonstrate how they can use DEA to develop new commercial applications of its free-to-access data.

“Australia has a rapidly growing digital economy and space sector. We want to be able to incubate new ideas, build new products and tools, and see where it can take us,” he said.

Sentinel 2 Surface Reflectance Near-real-time processing capability for data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite constellation is now available in NationalMap, meaning users now have access to higher resolution and more readily-available images.

Mr. Kershaw said the new imagery is prepared for Australian conditions and provides a five-day update of every point in Australia at 10-metre resolution – about the size of an AFL goal square.

“This data is available via the NationalMap portal within thirty six hours of acquisition and meets the requirements of a number of government agencies,” he said.

“It has already been successful in monitoring water flows in the Barwon River, irrigated cropping in the Namoi region, and the Clarence Valley bushfires near Grafton.”

Surface Reflectance corrections are applied to satellite data to account

feature for variations caused by atmospheric properties, sun position and sensor view angle at time of image capture.

These corrections have been applied to all satellite imagery in Geoscience Australia’s Landsat archive since 1987, and Sentinel-2 archive since 2015. This allows comparison of imagery acquired at different times by different sensors, in various seasons and in geographic locations, providing a richer and deeper pool of data for analysis.

Water Observations from Space The Water Observations from Space v2.0 (WOfS) update provides surface water observations derived from satellite imagery for all of Australia from 1986 to present.

Mr. Kershaw said the data have been a key component of the Australian Flood Risk Information Portal developed

by Geoscience Australia, and are now available on NationalMap. “This new release allows users to get a better understanding of where water is normally present in a landscape, where water is seldom observed, and where inundation has occurred occasionally,” Mr. Kershaw said.

“It shows water observed for every Landsat-5, Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 image across Australia (excluding External Territories) for the period of 1986 to 2017.”

WOfS is updated automatically and analysed for the presence of water. This information is added to the product in near real time as a satellite acquires data.

The original purpose of the WOfS product was to help understand where flooding may have occurred in the past, which has a key application in emergency management and risk assessment.

The product also has many other uses, including showing how permanent surface water is in the Australian landscape for water management and mapping. It has also been used for wetland analyses, water connectivity and surface-ground water relationships.

Mangrove Canopy Cover NationalMap users now have access to valuable information about the extent and canopy density of mangroves for each year between 1987 and 2016 for the entire Australian coastline.

It consists of a sequence (one per year) of 25 metre resolution maps that are generated by analysing the Landsat fractional cover product developed by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program, and the Global Mangrove Watch layers developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Mr. Kershaw said the annual maps of mangrove extent and cover for Australia are the first to be generated at a continental scale and on an annual basis.

“In Australia, mangroves are protected under legislation and we know there have been changes to their extent since 1992,” Mr. Kershaw said.

“Mangroves provide a number of services, including carbon storage, coastal protection, nurseries for important fish and prawn species, and also habitat for migratory and endemic bird species.

“These new maps of mangrove extent can be used to see how mangroves respond to disruption events such as severe tropical cyclones, and they can also be used to improve our understanding of the ecological benefits provided by mangroves.”

Surface Reflectance Geomedian The Surface Reflectance Geometric Median (geomedian) update will be primarily used for change detection, and for broad regional image composites, such as national and continental mosaics.

It is a set of pixel composite mosaics of annual time series of Earth observations since 1988 –essentially a national mosaic of the statistical median of all observations for each particular image pixel from a period of time.

Mr. Kershaw said that in the update, the annual geometric medians of surface reflectance measurements are calculated per calendar year, on individual satellite sensors.

Changes in the Roper River estuary and surrounding coast between 1987 and 2010. The first row shows false colour imagery from the month of October in the years of interest as a visual reference point. The second shows the extent of each mangrove class (woodland, open forest, closed forest) for each reference year.

“For example, the 2016 Landsat 8 geomedian image over an area will be the composite of medians of Landsat 8 pixels observed for that area in 2016,” he said.

“In order to create a meaningful geomedian, a median pixel must take all concurrent spectral measurements into account simultaneously as a multidimensional set, rather than measure each independently.”

An advantage of the geomedian over other pixel compositing techniques is that the geomedian is a robust statistical measure, enabling further analyses to be undertaken.

It is a suitable product for principal components analyses, Kauth-Thomas transforms and other linear analyses common to remote sensing investigations.

These four new product releases add to the growing number of products already available via NationalMap, including Landsat Surface Reflectance, and the Intertidal Extents Model (ITEM) and High and Low Tide Composites products, which analyse and visualise Australia’s dynamic coastal zone.

Dr. Trevor Dhu is the acting Branch Head for National Earth and Marine Observations at Geoscience Australia and specialises in bridging the gap between research, policy and industry. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 31

Safety from space ELIZABETH LATHAM

R

esearch into innovative technologies is fast becoming one of the most effective ways to improve safety on worksites across Australia — in particular, specific applications of next-generation, highly precise GNSS technology.

A range of safety proximity products and collision avoidance systems are currently being developed for use in the rail, forestry, civil, construction, transport and mining industries that rely on GNSS and proximity sensors to keep people and machines out of each other’s paths.

SBAS research In 2017, the Australian Government invested $12 million over two years to test the benefits of a satellitebased augmentation system (SBAS) in Australia. The investment was subsequently supported by an additional $2 million from the New Zealand Government to extend the testing into the Australasian region. An Australian SBAS will expand upon current GNSS signals to deliver a satellite positioning capability across Australia and its maritime zones with decimetre accuracy.

Position Partners is collaborating with FrontierSI, Geoscience Australia and other partners on this work, focusing on potential benefits in construction and rail applications.

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Geoscience Australia’s SBAS project manager, Dr. John Dawson says the technology utilises space- and groundbased infrastructure to improve the accuracy, integrity and availability of GNSS signals, such as those currently provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

“Positioning data is crucial for a range of applications and businesses worldwide, from mobile phone communications to cargo transport and everything in between,” Dr. Dawson said.

“We’ve already seen some great results from SBAS test-bed projects in the construction industry. And by 2020, precise positioning technology in the construction sector is estimated to increase output by between $1,430 million and $2,507 million, with further adoption of augmented GNSS-supported applications and expansion of services.

“It allows site surveying to be better integrated with building activities and ensures earth moving equipment is guided precisely to plan. Because of this it was quickly embraced for site surveying, machine guidance, and asset management,” Dr Dawson said.

“Precise positioning makes construction sites safer through continuous tracking of personnel and equipment. Knowing where people and equipment are located, and importantly, where they are in relation to each other, can avoid accidents, save lives, and reduce disruption to the public by construction tasks being undertaken more efficiently.”

Dr Graeme Kernich, CEO of FrontierSI, said that one of the main applications of GNSS in construction and rail is safety and that the sub-metre accuracy promised

by SBAS would have a major impact.

“Position Partners will be using an SBAS-enabled device for collision avoidance systems and tracking,” he said.

“By using the SBAS signal, the devices operate with a higher accuracy than that of standalone GNSS, which has accuracy of around five metres,” Dr. Kernich said.

“This allows for more accurate alerting and the application of the technology to scenarios that were previously unachievable in performance or too costly to implement, like alerting trains that there are workers on the track,” he said.

SBAS-enabled worksites The SBAS for construction project is due to run until 29 December 2018 and will test and validate two new satellite positioning technologies over L5 correction signals in real-world applications within the construction and utilities industries – looking specifically at precision guidance, tracking, remotely piloted aircraft and safety systems.

This project is a partnership between Position Partners, FrontierSI and the University of New South Wales, and seeks to improve safety in the construction industry through intelligent utilisation of the increased precision afforded by the L5 signals.

Phil Collier, research director at FrontierSI, said this project could have a significant impact on safety and productivity by reducing downtime caused by accidents and inefficient use of plant equipment.

“As automation and safety systems in the civil construction sector promise to deliver benefits through a range of commercial applications, the gap in the reliability of standard GNSS is becoming more noticeable,” Dr. Collier said.

“This new research could provide the results we need to ensure that augmented GNSS is reliable enough for new applications that rely on safety awareness. The results from this research could also provide a solution for locations where current high-accuracy services are not suitable because of the limited mobile internet coverage, particularly in remote areas.

“We also hope that efficiency and productivity in the civil construction industry could be greatly improved,

feature by using these proposed systems in congested construction zones that can block standard GPS signals.”

Smarter rail transport FrontierSI, TasRail and the Institute of Rail Technology at Monash University collaborated with Position Partners for the SMART Rail project. This project ran from February 2018 until July 2018 and uncovered improvements for rail transport and train systems using SBAS. The SMART Rail project tested dual frequency multi constellation (DFMC) SBAS positioning technologies and demonstrated the improvements of using SBAS in ‘virtual tunnels’ caused by steep embankments that obstruct standard GPS signals. The benefits of using SBAS included: • Reduction of ‘false alarms’ generated by standard GPS positioning; • Improvement of efficiency for train control and management systems; • Productivity benefits in track health systems providing predictive track maintenance and more targeted maintenance scheduling; and • Improved safety for various aspects of rail operations and maintenance, including rail and road vehicle interactions at level crossings and lone maintenance workers.

Real-time experiments in mining with PPP-RTK Position Partners collaborated with FrontierSI, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), RMIT University and Energy Australia to conduct field trials where RTK, PPP with ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR) and PPPRTK solutions were compared on board a bulldozer performing routine mining operations in the La Trobe valley region of Victoria, Australia.

This research aimed to evaluate the performance of these three distinct PPP real-time solutions and delivery methods, when employed in machine control and guidance applications. The field data was collected through real-time tests using a GNSS antenna mounted on the machine that was split into two different GNSS receivers, a Topcon Hiper M and a Javad Delta-3, the latter equipped with a QZSSLEX decoder.

Luis Elneser, position infrastructure applications manager at Position Partners, worked on this project and said the potential for commercial applications was great.

“The highest real-time accuracy achievable with GNSS — centimetrelevel — relies on dual frequency GNSS chipsets. With the cost, size and power

consumption of these chips coming down, manufacturers will be able to integrate these technologies in devices for tracking and safety applications in construction and other industries,” he said.

“The LEX signal can transmit a PPP-AR (precise point positioning with ambiguity resolution) correction with regional ionospheric estimates which allow for fast convergence and real-time accuracy below 10 centimetres. This type of service can be used in industry for applications that require lower levels of accuracy as a complement to RTK.”

“We hope that efficiency and productivity in the civil construction industry could be greatly improved, by using these proposed systems in congested construction zones that can block standard GPS signals.”

Maintaining momentum James Milner, positioning infrastructure manager, Position Partners, said that motivating the next generation to continue research and innovation needs to be a priority in order to continue safety and productivity improvements.

“Various reports state that construction is less productive than other industries such as manufacturing, and that higher

adoption of technology can be one of the solutions to improve this. As a result, a seed needs to be planted very early that construction can be a cool high-tech career,” Millner said.

Millner said that these ‘seeds’ were becoming apparent in media such as children’s television shows (such as Bob and Belinda the builders flying drones) and movies.

“We’re aware that there are skill shortages in key trades as well as surveyors and spatial scientists. As we go to the next level of technology, new skills will be needed in automation and artificial intelligence. Our industry is possibly competing with big global brands for talent,” Millner said.

International conferences, such as the upcoming 10th Multi-GNSS Asia (MGA) Conference, are also hugely important in capturing the attention of the next generation because of the wealth of information and technology available.

The MGA conference will have leaders in industry, government and research sharing their knowledge. Sessions will examine the growing demand for accurate position, navigation and timing information across agriculture, utilities, emergency services, resources, construction and smart cities. “Position Partners is sponsoring the Young Professional and Student forum at the MGA Conference because it is important to show our younger people that they are welcome at the table and that the opportunity for innovation is waiting for them,” Millner said.

Elizabeth Latham is a representative of Position Partners. ■

www.spatialsource.com.au 33

feature

Sounding the sparkling depths DANIEL BISHTON

I

t’s a calm winter’s evening on the Bay of Plenty, on the New Zealand’s North Island shores. Under the watchful peak of Whakaari/ White Island, the country’s only presently active, emerged marine volcano on the New Zealand continental shelf, a group of international scientists are huddled around a computer monitor visually displaying pings and clicks as they ‘listen’ to sound echoes from a water column below the vessel.

They’re aboard the RV Tangaroa, New Zealand’s deep water research vessel, listening to the returning echo from an array of echosounders, as they fire in the ocean water at their target: air bubbles, produced by a specially-developed machine deposited within the hydrothermal vent field below, around 200 metres beneath the calm surface upon which RV Tangaroa rests.

If this all sounds a bit strange, it is. Echosounders are the primary tool for submarine surveying, using acoustic waves to map at depths that optical technology on the surface, or in the atmosphere or can’t penetrate.

But what about the bubble machine, and why here? The team of 20 scientists, technicians and students, from seven different international institutions, are seeking to capture a chimera of sounding techniques — quantifying the volume of gas emanating from the seafloor — or accurately measuring the size of bubbles escaping from the seafloor.

The team is comprised of experts in marine acoustics, geophysics and spatial analytics from New Zealand (NIWA, University of Auckland), France (Géosciences Rennes, IFREMER), Australia (IMAS), USA (University of New Hampshire) and Germany (GEOMAR) who are combining their expertise and stateof-the art equipment to carry out the objectives of this voyage.

Moving targets From her office in the IMAS headquarters in Hobart, co-voyage leader Dr. Vanessa Lucieer lays out

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some of the diverse applications for the techniques the team is studying that underpin the significance of this voyage.

Her IMAS team is interested in precise quantification of submarine gases and liquid seepage from the sea floor for geoscientific industryrelated applications, for which quantifying these emissions has a huge economic value, and environmental management such as biodiversity mapping.

The New Zealand team led

by Associate Professor Geoffroy Lamarche, is also looking to quantify methane and CO2 emissions for a different purpose.

“The current global models that we have for CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are terrestrial. We don't actually have part of that algorithm to account for CO2 emissions from the ocean,” Dr. Lucieer said.

“They do account for the chemical transformation in the water mass through water chemistry analysis, but not from the seafloor. So how much CO2 is actually being emitted from the seafloor is currently not part of the model because there is no direct and accurate way of measuring flux — the size and rate of the bubbles.”

I allow the implications of these statements to wash over me while Dr. Lucieer describes the team’s technique.

Method in the methane field Building on laboratory-based experiments carried out by French institution IFREMER and at the University of New Hampshire, this voyage aimed to test those results with a plethora of different echosounding configurations.

“So we were extending some of that laboratory-based work and wanted to see how well the models fit to looking at bubbles in natural environments. We looked at optimisation: with which acoustic frequency, at which angle could we best detect bubbles coming out from the seafloor, to calibrate those systems,” she said.

1

2

3

4/ Acoustic equipment and floats securely stored on the stern of R.V. Tangaroa for deployment on the Calypso Hydrothermal Vent Field. The mighty Whakaari – White Island watching over us. Image

by Geoffroy Lamarche.

4

5 1/ Associate Professor Tom Webber and PhD candidate Liz Weidner (Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center, University of New Hampshire) prepare the ‘bubble maker’ for deployment from RV Tangaroa. Image by Erin Heffron.

2/ The bow of R.V. Tangaroa with the mighty Whakaari White Island volcano in the background. The vessel is just above the Calypso hydrothermal vent field.

Image by Geoffroy Lamarche.

3/ Deploying the bubble maker in the early hours of the morning in the Bay of Plenty. Sun rising over the Raukumara Peninsula, NE New Zealand from R.V. Tangaroa.

Image by Erin Heffron.

Using a purpose-built machine that released a one-millimetre diameter bubble every five seconds, the team was able to compare acoustic properties of the artificial bubbles with those being produced by the neighbouring hydrothermal methane vents.

“By counting how fast the bubbles moved through a known space, and since we have a good idea of their size, we can get an idea of flux,” Dr. Lucieer said.

“This is all done coincidently over where the acoustics are run, and then we're taking temperature, salinity, conductivity measurements in those areas too, so you can accurately understand the water mass, which is going to affect how the acoustic sounds look at those bubbles as well.”

The IMAS team built a specially designed grid extension for their towed camera that facilitated visual validation of the bubbles that the sounders were measuring.

A perfect matrix of results Describing the overall outcomes of the voyage, Dr. Lucieer is buoyant over the perfect environmental conditions, and smooth operation of the tests the team was running.

5/ Acoustic curtain showing the gas plumes imaged as acoustic flares rising from the seabed.

Image by Erin Heffron.

“If you've ever been to sea on a survey – you will realise how hard it is for all of the ‘constellations to align’,” she laughs. “The environment will sometimes get in the way of the perfect survey.”

“Having the opportunity to have all those instruments coincidentally collecting data, all looking at the same thing was novel, and then through having the bubble maker we were able to calibrate them all — that was really what this project set out to achieve. Had we have got poor weather, or had some of the systems not worked then we wouldn't have achieved that objective.”

Dr. Lucieer said that the team managed to achieve almost textbook-perfect results in terms of attaining their objectives, and that the results of their experiments bode extremely well for securing future support to extend the scope of the research.

“The exciting news is that we've been able to resolve a really nice matrix of accuracies versus water depth versus feature size, and that we've also been able to detect fluids coming up from the sea floor, and acoustically separate those,” she said.

“Now independently, work's been done on acoustics and bubbles in the past. That's not completely novel. Marine acoustic study has also been done on fluids and freshwater or hot water seepage emanating from the seafloor. But doing that coincidentally, and knowing from having eight different frequencies and systems to be able to determine the best one for a different ranges throughout the water column — that’s completely novel,” Associate Professor Lamarche said.

“We were able to set optimisation parameters for a range of water depths for the detection of targets at one-millimetre resolution, which in 200 metres of water is far from insignificant.”

Funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand was awarded for the two year project, which began with a voyage planning meeting in Rennes France in May 2017, and a University of Tasmania Research Enhancement Program (REP) grant funded the development of the bubble validation methods. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 35

new products Trimble's next-gen R10 touches down Trimble has launched the next generation of its top-of-the-line GNSS receiver, the R10.

The R10 Model 2 builds upon the core technologies of the current model R10: HD-GNSS processing engine, SurePoint tilt compensation, Centerpoint RTK support and Fill RTK backup service.

The R10 Model 2 brings a considerable list of enhancements to the platform.

The newest generation locks down 672 GNSS channels, covering GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, IRNSS and the full range of SBAS. Trimble says that new power management offers 33 percent more operating time, and memory capacity is now 6GB.

Boundless Learning platform launches Boundless has announced the launch of Boundless Learning, a platform where users can browse and search a wide array of both elearning and private instructor-led training courses on Boundless products.

The group says the platform is a one-stop shop for learning to use their array of products, including Boundless Server, Boundless Exchange and Boundless Desktop, as well as open source tools such as PostGIS and OpenLayers.

Skyfish introduces new platform Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology developer Skyfish has introduced a computing platform for commercial drones that fully automates infrastructure inspection and measurement tasks.

Skyfish said its new system provides businesses in drone service, communication infrastructure and energy with improved performance and accuracy. Skyfish supports DJI and PixHawk flight controllers and other popular drone architectures, as well as 3D modelling software from companies such as Bentley Systems Inc. “The proven Skyfish solution is unlike any available commercial drone technology,” said Skyfish CEO Orest Pilskalns.

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Global Mapper v20 rolled out Blue Marble Geographics have launched Global Mapper v20, promising new tools, functional upgrades, and performance improvements across all areas of the application.

Among the enhancements are a new tool for creating a point cloud from a 3D model, a new free-flight mode for navigating the 3D View, expanded support for tablet and touch screen computers, numerous new Map Layout

options, and a new eyedropper tool for selecting a specific color in a raster layer.

"We are very excited about some of the new tools that have been introduced in this release, especially the 3D tools," said Blue Marble's President, Patrick Cunningham.

"Our customers have asked for expanded support for creating and processing 3D models and in version 20, we have delivered."

Parazero UAV safety systems now available in Australia

NSW cadastre as a service goes live New South Wales’ Spatial Services has made live a cloud-based ‘cadastre as a service’ platform, an overhaul to its approach to managing cadastral data.

Representing a major upgrade to the process for maintaining and updating the NSW cadastre, the new API-based system is primarily aimed at reducing duplication of data and effort by becoming the automated backbone of the development application submission process for councils.

Replacing a system whereby hard copy plans were routinely accepted and manually scanned by Spatial Services, the new submission process automatically extracts data and metadata from digital plans, and images are converted to validated LandXML. A spokesperson for DFSI Spatial Services said that councils could update development applications via the new API as the applications progressed, significantly reducing effort for both parties.

Parazero pyrotechnic parachute systems for DJI Matrice 200 and 600 can now be purchased through CR Kennedy under a new partnership.

The SafeAir systems for DJI Matrice 200 and 600s monitor operational parameters while the drone is in flight, cutting power to the rotors and deploying a ballistic parachute system in the event of a critical failure — even featuring an audio buzzer to warn bystanders of the aircraft’s descent.

CR Kennedy’s Robert Kennedy said that they evaluated competing systems and found the Parazero to be the best performing in their tests.

Airsight Australia launches UAV LiDAR system RPAS service provider Airsight Australia has announced NextCore, a UAV LiDAR scanner and processing system that it says offers comparable performance at a considerably lower price point than rivals.

The NextCore scanner is a 2.5-kilogram UAV payload that can acquire 420,000 points per second with a 360-degree field of view and triple returns. Airsight Australia claims it is

easily securable to a DJI Matrice 600, which is good for around 20 minutes of flight time with the NextCore payload.

Nick Smith, CEO of Airsight Australia, said that the decision to develop a unit in house came directly from their own experience with existing offerings as an RPAS operator.

“We built something that would suit both our and our customers’ needs,” he said.

FARO and STORMBEE combine forces for wide-area 3D drone scanning 3D scanning giant FARO have partnered with STORMBEE to offer what the companies call a breakthrough wide-area 3D scanning solution.

The new offering includes one of FARO’s focus laser scanners, and STORMBEE’s S series UAV and BEEFLEX processing software.

FARO explains that the integrated solutions are intended for scanning large sites, buildings, open-pit mines, and road or rail infrastructure.

“This airborne solution,” FARO adds, “further enhances productivity by allowing users to capture complex environments such as factories, chemical plants or other features inaccessible to ground scanning.”

www.spatialsource.com.au 37

sssi

News and views from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute

SSSI Board – 2018 President – Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President-Elect – Paul Digney NSW Director – Wayne Patterson NT Director – Rob Sarib QLD Director – Lee Hellen SA Director – Franco Rea TAS Director – Paul Digney VIC Director – Richard Syme WA Director – Kerry Smyth ACT Director – Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse Hydrography Commission Director – Richard Cullen YP representative (Observer) – Roshni Sharma Company Secretary – Jonathan Saxon

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President’s report SSSI is excited to collaborate and co-host three upcoming major events. I ask our membership to make use of these events for professional development and career advancement: 1. The FOSS4G and OpenStreetMap communities of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands are gathering for four incredible days of exploring open source geospatial tech & open data. The overall event is made up of a full day of workshops, a two day conference, a free Community Day, and social events in the vibrant city of Melbourne during November 20-23, 2018.

2. Locate19: Where To Next? Location, How We Drive Our Digital Future is the theme of the conference. The Locate Conference will explore how New SSSI President geospatial science is underpinning the Dr. Zaffar Sadiq rapid changes we are experiencing Mohamed-Ghouse. now in the fourth industrial revolution. From advanced data deem it a great privilege and honour capture techniques, positioning, data to serve our respected members in my analytics, artificial intelligence to capacity as President of our beloved strategy and policy. The conference and prestigious Surveying & Spatial will be held during 8 – 10 April, 2019 Sciences Institute (SSSI). I’d like to in Melbourne. express my sincere thanks and gratitude 3. The South East Asia Survey Congress to Immediate Past President, Mr Gaby (SEASC 2019) will be held in Darwin Van Wyk, all former Presidents, CEOs from the 15-18 August 2019 at the and General Managers, current and Darwin Convention Centre. This is past board members, region and the first time since Fremantle commission leaders and staff in 1999, that Australia for their dedication and has hosted a joint “We may passion in developing a international congress belong to different strong SSSI to date. with the ASEAN schools of thoughts I firmly believe in Flag Surveying “Unity in Diversity”. nations. The theme and professional bodies in We may belong to of the conference the Surveying and Spatial different schools profession, but we co-exist to is: Collaboration, of thought and Communication serve our members and need And Capacity professional bodies to integrate to serve our in the Surveying and Building In The nation as one voice of Spatial profession, 21st Century. It is but we co-exist to serve anticipated that over the profession.” our members and need to 500 surveyors across Asia integrate to serve our nation as Pacific region will attend one voice of the profession. We have a this international congress and strong Strategic Roadmap to look ahead include surveyors from across South and I am confident that the initiatives in East Asia, The Pacific, Australia and the roadmap will be achieved with the New Zealand. The conference will leadership of our CEO and staff, including focus on how surveying remains inputs from members wherever required. relevant to the needs of society We will make SSSI a professional body of through working collaboratively to choice to retain and attract membership. meet the future technical, social and I look forward to meeting our members environmental challenges in digitally during the upcoming regional conferences connected surroundings. and APSEA regional awards, to listen for any ideas and feedback on how to make a SSSI President strong and vibrant SSSI. Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse

I

SSSI sustaining partners

CEO’s report Strategy becoming reality Over the past few weeks, we have completed our roadshow of strategic presentations to our SSSI Regions, Commissions, Committees and Members. I’d like to thank all the organisers and attendees. It has been an interesting experience to say the least.

The input, ideas and enthusiasm of our Members has allowed us to tweak some aspects of our strategy, whilst reinforcing that we are on the right track with the changes we are building into SSSI. For me, one of the most interesting aspects has been the fact that two months ago, when we started our roadshow, we had a Strategic Roadmap and a 2018-19 Strategic Projects Plan.

Good ideas and strong documents, but just ideas and documents.

It’s fantastic that within those two months, strategy has started to become reality. Each of our 2018-19 Strategic Projects now has an active project team; the Board is receiving monthly progress reports on our strategy; and “the rubber is hitting the road” every day.

With the roadshow completed, SSSI’s 2018-19 Strategic Projects Plan is now available on the SSSI website.

The challenges are becoming real, but so are some of the early results. Watch this space!

Public policy to drive advocacy One of the most enlightening parts of many of our strategic presentations has been a discussion beginning with a simple question: “what does SSSI stand for?”.

Any successful and influential national body, which represents key professions

across the Australian economy, must leverage that influence to garner support and recognition for its Members.

This comes through well structured, productive and consistent communication and advocacy. Most importantly, it comes from knowing very well what you stand for, and consistently communicating and advocating for it.

SSSI recognises that we must do better in this, which is why it is a major focus.

Over the next few months, we will consult widely to deliver a national public policy platform as the basis for all our advocacy efforts. This will be a single, up-to-date publication outlining what our members need, what we stand for, and how surveying and spatial sciences can best serve Australia’s needs.

At the same time, we will devise and deliver a national advocacy program with an ongoing focus on informing and improving the public policy directions of Federal and State Governments, plus Local Government when appropriate.

Our targets here are sky-high. We will become one of the very best member organisations for communications and advocacy outcomes.

Leadership changes for SSSI Of course, all of this relies on steadfast, reliable and strong leadership. That’s why it’s great news that SSSI remains in good hands following our Annual General Meeting held on 14 September 2018 in Launceston.

During the AGM a number of SSSI Board Directors were declared elected: Regular Biennial Elections

• Northern Territory: Rob Sarib • Queensland: Lee Hellen • Victoria: Richard Syme Casual Vacancy

• New South Wales: Wayne Patterson.

I welcome the new and returned Directors and look forward to working with them.

Also during the AGM, Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse was invested as our new SSSI President. I welcome Zaffar and look forward to working with him to build a stronger, better SSSI. The Board subsequently elected Paul Digney as President Elect and I offer Paul my congratulations and support.

I’d like to thank our Immediate Past President, Gaby van Wyk, for all his hard work over the last two years. His dedication has ensured that SSSI will continue to grow and benefit from his legacy.

Commission Chairs Engineering & Mining Surveying Andrew Edwards chair.emsc@sssi.org.au Hydrography Commission Chair Richard Cullen 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 Kerry Smyth chair.sicc@sssi.org.au Regional Committee Chairs ACT Regional Chair Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse chair.act@sssi.org.au NSW Regional Chair Gaby van Wyk (Interim Chair) chair.nsw@sssi.org.au NT Regional Chair Rob Sarib chair.nt@sssi.org.au QLD Regional Chair Roy Somerville chair.qld@sssi.org.au SA Regional Chair Franco Rea chair.sa@sssi.org.au TAS Regional Chair Paul Digney chair.tas@sssi.org.au VIC Regional Chair Thierry Demathieu chair.vic@sssi.org.au WA Regional Chair Lesley Arnold 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

Peter Olah SSSI CEO www.spatialsource.com.au 39

sssi

Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Commission report Australian Space Agency The purpose of the Australian Space Agency, established on 1 July 2018, is to transform and grow a globally respected Australian space industry and the use of space to lift the broader economy – underpinned by strong national and international engagement. The Australian Government has committed $300m to space activities including the areas of GPS via SBAS and the NPIC, and commercialise and export Digital Earth Australia (DEA).

Ongoing funding for the Agency are $41 million over 4 years of which $15 million dedicated to partnering with international space agencies. The Agency was hosting forums across Australia in August and tried to reach out to businesses and organisations in the space industry as well as those in the broader economy. If you have missed your session, please check www.space.gov.au or get in touch with consultations@space.gov.au.

Digital Earth Australia DEA, infrastructure that specifically leverages satellite data to detect physical changes across Australia, has secured AU$36.9 million in the 2018 Budget.

Using two webinars in the middle of

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September, DEA gave a demonstration of how this platform can be used for visualisation, access, services and analytics. DEA uses petabytes of Australian Government’s satellite data archives and combines it with new satellite data to improve decision making in: land planning, construction, agriculture and mineral exploration. The webinar included a demonstration of the DEA Visualisation Tools, DEA Access and the DEA Use of the data cube using Jupyter Notebooks. Further details are available at https://frontiersi.com.au/dea/.

platform and imagery with other information sources for projects that support Agriculture, Environmental and Innovation. The winner in the category Agriculture was MapIzy who used machine learning to automatically differentiate forest, health and species of trees in commercial forests. The winner in the category Environment was Geoimage who developed a machine learning solution to address Australia’s most significant environmental challenges, the Murray-Darling Basin (see image below).

Finally, the winner in the category Innovation was the University of Adelaide who developed a machine learning algorithms to artificially generate accurate high-resolution satellite imagery from lower resolution freely available satellite data. Congratulations to all winners.

DigitalGlobe Challenge

State Conferences with RSP talks

Jupyter Notebooks were also used at the DigitalGlobe Challenge. Started in April, the winners of the Challenge have been announced. In their challenge DigitalGlobe was looking for passionate participants who can leverage their

Last but not least, a number of state conferences are completed or coming up with many Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry sessions. So, please check out the state conferences programs and webpages for further details.

SSSI sustaining partners

Spatial Information & Cartography Commission report

S

pring for SSSI sees a new President Dr. Mohamed Zaffar Sadiq MohamedGhouse (our very busy Vice Chair) congratulations. To Gabriel Van Wyk the out-going President our sincere thanks for his energy and dedication through a time of tremendous change.

The SICC is enthusiastic about its contribution to the Annual Report presented at the AGM and available on the website.

We are pleased and eager to reinforce the highlights for you in this article.

The SI&C Commission National Committee for 2017-19 working on your behalf.

Kerry Smyth (WA) Chair Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse (ACT) Vice Chair Hanno Klahn (NSW) Georgina Cassar (SA) Andrew Bashfield (Vic) Angus Scown (Qld) Robert Driessen (Tas) Nikolas Kostraby (NSW) Vacancies available are: 1 x (SA), 1 x (WA), 1 x (Tas), 1 x (Vic), 1 x (Qld), 1 x (ACT), 2 x (NT), The Spatial Information & Cartography Commission is keen to be effective for our members and runs portfolios to focus team effort, including Communication, Certification, Education and Outreach.

This allows SICC to directly influence the new advisory and standing committees that SSSI has formed. If you are interested in shaping future direction, we have heaps of opportunity, make a start now. We are particularly excited about driving the newly announced SSSI Strategic Road Map 2018-2021.

Highlights and Achievements Whilst the commission’s vision and strategy are developed at the institute level, most events occur locally and member input is highly valued. It is a sign of the times however, that local SI&CC chapters in all regions have diminished in a formal capacity, choosing to consolidate activities with other commissions under the umbrella of their RMC. Often the RMC becomes stretched with not all needs being satisfied. It is for this reason that the national committee plans to strengthen its coordination and collaboration in events.

SI&CC has taken leadership to cement a partnership for SSSI with the inaugural FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2018, to be held at Melbourne University in November 2018. We have also contributed to the SSSI Strategic Road Map 2018-21 through the leadership forum and several rounds of feedback.

The SSSI-URISA Exchange Program continued this year with Gabriel Van Wyk visiting the USA in October 2017 and Tripp Corbin visiting Australia in April 2018 coinciding with Locate18 in Adelaide.

The GISP-AP Certification process is back on track with new Panel Chair Brendon Henry and his team of assessors improving turn-around-times. Looking

forward the SI&CC has nominated Angus Scown to lead a small group researching the future potential and strategic direction for certification.

During 2017-18 SI&CC has:

• Welcomed 162 new members (over 50% being student) • Certified 4 new GISP-APs and renewed 1 existing (currently registered 77) • Contributed to Locate 18 and State Conferences.

• Promoted Spatial Excellence Awards through nominations and judging.

• Collaborated with YP and WIS groups.

Major Events State Conferences were held in all regions and were, as always, well supported by our commission members and volunteers contributing to the diversity and relevance for the wider community.

The Spatial Excellence Awards were also well represented by nominations and winners from SICC being elevated through to the national level APSEA. Our congratulations in particular to SICC member Patricia Burke who received national accolades winning the inaugural Women’s Leadership Award, at the APSEA presentations at Locate18 in Adelaide in April 2018.

SICC held the URISA Master Class Workshop Asset Management: Planning, Strategy and Implementation at the www.spatialsource.com.au 41

sssi Locate18 Adelaide and Sydney in April to coincide with the visit of URISA Exchange candidate Tripp Corbin from USA. Tripp is author of 2 GIS books and conducted the training.

At Locate18 SICC hosted a hospitality lunch for Tripp Corbin the URISA Exchange Delegate and others in the Exchange Alumni including Cy Smith, Penny Baldock, Lesley Arnold and Gaby Van Wyk giving the opportunity for robust discussion and networking. This comradery rolled over to the next day when a general invitation to all SICC member for an informal lunch meeting was well attended.

What to look forward to 2018/2019 During the upcoming year we will focus and revitalise international relationships with particular emphasis on:

• • • •

New Zealand counterparts URISA MoU GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) International Cartographic Association (ICA)

Locate 19 in Melbourne promises to be a top event, so to encourage SICC members we plan to host a lunch-time general meeting of the commission and provide network opportunities for the URISA exchange alumni to share their experiences. Plans are underway for a preconference masterclass to be scheduled.

Partnering with the inaugural Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial and State of the Map Oceania 2018 Conference (FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2018), to be held at Melbourne University in November 2018. This is the combination of two groups of ‘open’ people, the software people (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) and the data people (OpenStreetMap).

An improved suite of SICC lead events in each region targeting our members, unfolding technologies, emerging trends and aimed at engaging the wider community. Designed to form part of the SSSI national event calendar with raised market profile and promotion.

Feedback from Nicholas Flett (MSSSI) recipient of the SSSIWA Travel

Grant, who travelled to the URISA GIS Leadership Academy in Salt Lake City, July 23-27.

Events Upcoming region conferences:

SSSI WA - Location Intelligence Conference and Exhibition19th October 2018 SSSI NSW & ACT - Wollongong 15-16 November 2018 FOSS4G & SotM – Melbourne 20-23 November 2018

Book Mark SICC Web Pages The Spatial Information and Cartography Commission welcomes any feedback, queries or suggestions, whether to do with applying for certification, upcoming events or the promotion and encouragement of the spatial industry. https://sssi.org.au/about-us/committees/ spatial-information-cartography-commission All communications to chair.sicc@sssi.org.au Kerry Smyth National Chair, Spatial Information & Cartography Commission

The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute is the not-for-profit national peak body representing and supporting the largest membership of spatial science and surveying professionals in Australia and New Zealand.

SSSI represents professionals in: Land Surveying, Spatial Information & Cartography, Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry, Hydrographic Surveying, Engineering & Mining Surveying and special interest groups including Women in Spatial and Young Professionals.

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Being a member of SSSI will provide you with the platform and support to maximise your skills, knowledge and experience including: • Professional recognition as a member of the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute; • Over 200+ regular regional and national workshops, seminars and webinars; • Free membership for students, concession rates available for graduates and retired professionals; • Enhance your CPD via access to the internationally recognized certification and SSSI CPD program; • Professional partnership opportunities available.

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42 position October/November 2018

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