Iunctus Resolution 2009

An Iunctus ground station revamps Canadian imaging

Wetlands Watch Plug ’n’ Play

P

pe Me LU o et S co ple so ! nt at me ro th ls e

B.C. Benefits

The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) Mosaic is an exclusive, off-the-shelf imagery product offered only by Iunctus Geomatics, covering the oil and gas producing areas of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. No other imagery dataset can compare to its combination of up-to-date, high resolution imagery and wide geographic coverage.

Available as a complete dataset, or by custom area order, the imagery is quickly delivered in a simple loadand-go format, which means it can be seamlessly

integrated with existing geospatial data, perfect for GIS and CAD applications.

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info@terraengine.com

EDITOR’S NOTE 4

The View From Above M Y BUSINESS partner, Brett Michelson, goes red in the face when he’s really mad. Once, five years ago, the two of us had an argument that had him pretty flushed. It was the kind of thing that nearly had us asking if we shouldn’t just cut our losses and move on.

At the time, we knew we were onto something. The satellite imagery our company could provide to other organizations was top notch and no RYAN JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO other imaging company could IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP. provide better pictures over a greater land mass than we could, at Iunctus Geomatics Corp. Geomatics is the technology and service of acquiring, storing, analyzing, managing and circulating mainly digital information about global surface features. People use geomatics information for a variety of purposes, including surveying, oil and gas exploration, forestry, navigation and conservation. Basically, anytime you need the bird’s eye view, geomatics is in play.

But – the fight. Brett had just got back to our Lethbridge office from doing the rounds in Calgary, slogging through sales calls at oil companies, environment offices, government – you name it. He had little to show for his efforts.

“I can’t sell this information the way it’s structured right now,” he told me, clearly exasperated.

“You’re not trying hard enough,” I snapped. (My advice: don’t say this to a tired salesperson. Ever.)

The “conversation” continued for a while. Eventually, things cooled down and we started thinking of ways to turn our sales model on its head. We’d been trying to sell swaths of spatial imaging data to people who were interested in just a bit of it. The images were of 3,600-square-kilometre chunks, taken 12 degrees from north. And maybe an oil and gas company just needed to view the seismic lines and access roads on a single lease. It was like telling a mom she

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had to buy the jumbo 42-image package of class pictures for every kid in the school, when all she wanted was a dozen wallet-sized shots of her own kid. We clearly needed to develop better ways to serve our customers.

I think the big, defining moment came when we realized that we didn’t have a true handle on who our customers were. We were approaching remote sensing experts in various organizations. They were smart people who had an intuitive grasp and professional interest in our business, but they weren’t our end users. That was our eureka moment, when Brett and I realized, after our heated exchange, that the remote sensing expert was not the decision maker, but worked with the subject matter expert. We needed to make our spatial imagery useful to the field biologists or the seismic crews and their bosses. And we needed to package it in such a way that they could use it, with date stamps and an auditable trail and regular updates. That night our business took off.

We partnered with France-based company SPOT Image for the rights to buy its images of Canada from three of its satellites. That way we could strip map the data, selling it on an as-needed basis. Some might want just one image, others might want seasonal images of one location over time. Now, we can customize and provide this information.

We can store it for them and adjust it as necessary. Every year we map about 85 per cent of Alberta. We can image large areas at high resolution or offer pinpoint services.

We can provide images instantly in many cases or in a matter of hours in other cases. We’re becoming part of the process for many companies as they develop project management plans.

But it wasn’t easy moving forward from that eureka moment. Fortunately, we have enjoyed great support from investors in Lethbridge and other parts of Alberta, and from the University of Lethbridge, as well as our partners, Telus and SPOT Image. Iunctus has become a leading-edge company, one that lives up to our three strategic imperatives: to build capacity and infrastructure, to manage data and to provide data-based solutions for our customers.

And, for the record, I’ve rarely seen Brett red of face and collar before or since that night. But we needed the shakeup and, looking back, I wouldn’t change it if I could.

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2009

Contents PUBLISHED FOR:

Iunctus Geomatics Corp. #401 - 817 4th Avenue South Lethbridge, AB, T1J 0P3 Toll-free 1-877-604-2800 Phone 403-381-2800 Fax 403-381-2804 www.terraengine.com

PUBLISHED BY:

Venture Publishing Inc. 10259 – 105 Street Edmonton, AB, T5J 1E3 Toll-free 1-866-227-4276 Tel 780-990-0839 Fax 780-425-4921 www.venturepublishing.ca

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

4 The View From Above A message from Ryan Johnson PUBLISHER

Ruth Kelly ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Daska Davis IUNCTUS EDITOR

Ryan Johnson EDITOR

Mifi Purvis ART DIRECTOR

Charles Burke DESIGNER

Rodrigo López Orozco PRODUCTION MANAGER

Betty Smith CONTRIBUTING WRITERS / ILLUSTRATORS/ PHOTOGRAPHERS

Anh Chu, Caitlin Crawshaw, Phoebe Dey, David DiCenzo, David Moore, Sarah Novak, Lisa Ostrowski, Stephanie Sparks Contents © 2009 by Venture Publishing Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission.

Additional copies available from Iunctus Geomatics Corp.

Non-deliverable mail should be directed to: 10259 – 105 Street, Edmonton, AB, T5J 1E3.

6 In Detail The Red River floods, before and after; Can you spy on your neighbour? Update on the National Imagery Project; PLUS! Move a satellite with your telephone

8 The Time is Now

Land use framework and integrated resource management

10 Sky’s the Limit

Iunctus Geomatics Corp. is as much about attitude and people as it is about cuttingedge technology

14 Dishing About Infrastructure

Iunctus previews its Inuvik data centre and 11 massive satellite dishes

18 Spatial Insight

A picture paints a thousand words. See for yourself

Printed in Canada.

FEATURES

22 The Service Solution Iunctus’s Sam Lieff introduces customer solutions

24 It’s Good to Work Together

Summit brings liability management solutions to oil and gas customers

26 Plug and Play

geoLOGIC offers a great platform for its clients

28 Minding Industry

TERA Environmental facilitates and monitors energy sector commitments

30 B.C. Benefits

Pacific Geomatics trains pilots, maps islands and monitors the pine beetle

32 Freshwater Mapping

Ducks Unlimited Canada maps and monitors conservation areas

34 Plus! Investment Fund Find out more about the latest investment opportunity from Iunctus

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sale Agreement #40020055

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IN DETAIL

SEEING CANADA Iunctus Geomatics Corp. is at work on a multiyear project in conjunction with Natural Resources Canada and the Centre for Topographical Information Sherbrook (CTIS). Entitled the National Imagery Project, the ambitious undertaking will provide project partners with access to unprecedented satellite pictures of Canada. “Basically, we are covering Canada with new satellite imagery taken between 2005 and 2010,” says Brett Michelson, vice-president of sales and business development. “Our goal is to provide cloud-free coverage for land surfaces of Canada.” While this kind of coverage is aimed at surface features, some underwater coastline features, such as kelp beds, for example, are visible.

Michelson estimates that work on the National Imagery Project is more than 70 per cent complete.

The imagery will be made available to all partners on the project, which include such organizations as Environment Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs, Agriculture Canada, Parks Canada, Department of National Defence and selected provinces and territories. There will be freeto-use images for a variety of purposes, including map-

RED RIVER RISING This spring, Manitoba’s Red River did what it’s famous for: flooding its banks. The flood was one of the worst in history. Iunctus downloaded these images of the event.

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Nearly 2,000 southern Manitobans were forced to leave home temporarily because of flooding.

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Approximately 800 square kilometres of the Red River Valley were submerged.

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Hundreds of properties were damaged.

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More than 40 people in communities north of Winnipeg had to be rescued by boat.

Huge blocks of floating ice damaged houses, knocking some off their foundations.

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A 48-kilometre floodway protects the city of Winnipeg; a control gate can be lifted in a flood, blocking the flow of the Red River and diverting it to an engineered channel around Winnipeg. Between 1968 and 1999, the floodway saved Winnipeg 20 times.

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The 2009 floods are thought to be the second worst the Red River has experienced.

In 1997, the river crested at more than seven metres, making it the worst year.

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Nearly 1,000 people registered as volunteer sandbaggers in the City of Winnipeg.

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BEFORE AND AFTER: The Red River at normal levels and overflowing its banks during the spring run off

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© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

Highway 75, the main thoroughfare connecting Winnipeg to the United States, spent time under several metres of water, more lake than border crossing.

GEOMATICS GROWS

ping, land claims and environmental monitoring, for example. Within the projects, Iunctus is mapping at 10metre resolution pan-chromatic (black and white) imagery and 20-metre resolution multispectral. “At that scale, you could see some structures, but it’s really about topographical surface features,” Michelson says.

The word “geomatics” entered the Canadian lexicon a couple of decades ago, when the Canadian Association of Aerial Surveyors expanded its scope to better represent its membership and include other organizations that dealt with geographically referenced information.

Now called Geomatics Industry Association of Canada (GIAC), the organization describes geomatics as “the acquisition, storage, modelling, analysis and management of geographically referenced data, i.e., data identified according to their location.” It includes the processing of data from different sources into common information systems.

Satellite imagery is an increasingly important part of the toolbox. Since the word entered common parlance, geomatics technologies and services have increased their profiles across a variety of different sectors.

Geomatics professionals always get asked questions about what they can actually see on satellite imagery, how finely an image can be resolved. A look at Google Earth will tell you that, sure, you can see houses. But unless you have your own military-grade spy satellite, you can’t spy on your neighbour. And anyway, once he’s inside his house, a satellite image isn’t going to tell you what he’s up to.

But different resolutions do offer different kinds of information.

And it’s the kind of information an organization is interested in that will govern the image it pursues. Often high resolution isn’t what they’re after. For example, higher resolution won’t provide better information about the type of crops grown in central Alberta, but it will give better information about seismic lines on an oil and gas lease in northern Alberta.

MOVE A SATELLITE BY PHONE

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© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

If you need an image of the surface of the Earth, Iunctus can help. As a matter of fact, getting it to train a satellite on a particular corner of the country is as easy as making a phone call. Depending on the nature of a client’s request, this process can take as little as a few hours or a few days. Here’s how it works: 1. Call or email the Iunctus Canadian Order Desk at 403-381-2800, ext. 1, or info@terraengine.com.

2. Tell the order desk the specifics of the image you’re looking for.

If Iunctus doesn’t already have the image you need, the order desk will arrange to have it captured.

3. Iunctus liaises with partner SPOT Image in Toulouse, France with the specifics of your image.

4. SPOT Image uploads the information to the appropriate satellite.

5. The satellite takes the picture and downloads the data to the Lethbridge ground station for storage and processing.

6. Iunctus staff verify that the files are correct before delivering them to clients.

7. Access your image electronically.

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The Time is Now

Initiatives improve Alberta’s land use and develop the geospatial imaging talent pool, adding value along the way

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ATELY, THE NEED FOR BETTER ACCESS TO SATELLITE imaging of Alberta’s surface features has taken on new importance. The information that imaging provides is rich and varied. It’s needed by an equally varied swath of organizations that include industry, conservation and government groups. There are a couple of provincial initiatives currently underway that are building momentum in the drive to improve the automated production and use of satellite imagery in the province. One is the Centre of Excellence for Integrated Resource Management and the other is Alberta’s Land Use Framework.

The Centre of Excellence for Integrated Resource Management Known more broadly as the IRM Centre, this project builds on Alberta’s expertise and leadership in geomatics research and development. Its ultimate aim is to generate entrepreneurial opportunities to address urgent resource management issues impacting the Albertan and Canadian economies. It provides immediate benefits to the province and country, both private and public sectors, and domestic and international trade partners. The IRM Centre will help position Alberta as a world leader in integrated resource management solutions, adding value to a number of industries. Its ambitious mission is to see Alberta support around $5 billion of economic activity by developing geomatics and related products, sciences and services.

The IRM Centre enjoys significant investment from the Federal Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program, industry and other government partners. The centre brings together more than 30 top researchers and builds on the strength of the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge. A world first, the IRM Centre will focus geomatics, remote sensing and other related technologies in an integrated fashion, targeting largescale resource and environmental management.

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The benefits of the IRM Centre will be many. The Alberta market for geomatics products and services is already in excess of $1 billion and growing. Alberta currently accounts for more than one third of the total Canadian market. By 2017, Alberta could generate more than $5 billion in new economic activity through the development and deployment of geomatics and related products and services.

The IRM Centre is focused on the joint development, application and commercialization of geomatics and related technologies by 2017, as well as building the incumbent skills and knowledge set. The IRM Centre is poised to play a pivotal role in the establishment of a network of researchers, practitioners, institutions and programs to address the strategic needs and priorities of the Land Use Framework, including monitoring and management of land and resources.

The Aims of IRM The IRM Centre will work closely with industry, provincial government partners and other national organizations. Among its goals: Provide leading researchers the opportunity to collaborate on land, water and natural resources management solutions.

Undertake projects that translate such solutions into commercially viable products and services that are aligned with strategies to increase provincial and national wealth.

Train future generations of Canadians who will sustain the centre, grow the ranks of industry and build capacity in areas of strategic interest.

Provide pre-commercialization support that allows such products and services a successful go-to-market entry and commercialization, ensuring a sustained return on government and industry investment through the establishment and improvement of companies, increasing job creation and decreasing brain-drain.

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© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

“It’s one thing to collect information and another to be able to use it effectively.

We realized we needed to do a better job.”

Morris Seiferling, assistant deputy minister, Sustainable Resources Development.

The main activities of the IRM Centre will be education and training; applied research and development; pre-commercialization and partnering with/providing services to industry. The centre will ensure real potential for commercialization by taking a collaborative approach with industry and clearing paths toward deployment.

The centre will embrace a series of innovative projects with promise to deliver solutions over a more immediate horizon. The IRM Centre is focused on inception and proof-of-concept development.

The IRM’s technology commercialization strategy will play a critical role in helping the centre realize its expected outcomes: new knowledge, tools, products and processes that can be commercialized and marketed by the centre’s partners both locally and internationally. The IRM Centre will have several investigative and commercialization thrusts. Among them: multi-scale Earth observation; historical and real-time monitoring; data integration, analysis and modelling; and intelligent land and resource management systems.

Alberta’s Land Use Framework The other provincial initiative that is bringing the need for better geospatial imaging and data management in Alberta into sharp relief is Alberta’s Land Use Framework. The impetus for the framework comes from the need for accurate, timely and accessible information when it comes to making decisions about land use.

“Government collects information,” says Morris Seiferling, assistant deputy minister, Land Use Secretariat.

“It’s one thing to collect it and another to be able to use it effectively. We realized we needed to do a better job.”

In an effort to ensure that Alberta’s planners and decision-makers have timely access to relevant information, the Government of Alberta plans to create an improved integrated information management system that moni-

tors land use in the province. Architects plan to build on existing information-sharing initiatives to facilitate access to information. They also hope to improve protocols for information sharing and incorporate scientific and traditional ecological knowledge to inform land and natural resource planning and decision-making.

“It’s important,” Seiferling says, “that we agree on intended outcomes and what we need to monitor to achieve these outcomes, agree on standards and information to support this monitoring, and develop the partnerships needed to coordinate collection, sharing and analysing of this information.” In the framework, the government also committed to creating a monitoring and evaluation system.

Any such monitoring program would require access to standardized data collection and analysis and standardized metrics so consistent and current information could be applied across regions.

To learn more about the Land Use Framework visit www.landuse.alberta.ca

Watching the Land

Any monitoring program Alberta adopted would surely require some geospatial imaging and delivery technology. This system will be guided by several principles. It must be: Comprehensive, monitoring economic, environmental and social outcomes.

Practical: results from monitoring must support decisionmaking.

Understandable by government and the public.

Forward-looking and report on outcomes that are relevant now and in the future.

Adaptive, with a framework that can adapt to new knowledge and issues.

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Sky’s the Limit

BY CAITLIN CRAWSHAW

People at Iunctus Geomatics Corp. embody that unique blend of industry experience with a great southern Alberta can-do attitude. And Iunctus is as much about its attitude and its people as it is about its cutting-edge technology. At Lethbridge HQ, folks are keeping one eye on the sky, but their feet are firmly on the ground.

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a mountain, for instance, you have to correct for elevation.

Much of this process is automated.

However, when it comes to blending images or colours, for instance, or maintaining quality control in general, people are critical. So, there are some aspects that can’t be automated.

Can you tell me about a few of Iunctus’s large projects?

Probably one of the biggest contracts we’ve got now, in terms of geographic area, is a five-year project to collect satellite imagery from across the country for Natural Resources Canada. We have to collect data for approximately 11 million square kilometres. That’s probably in the neighbourhood of 10,000 images. We’re about 70 per cent finished on this project.

We also have contracts with the Alberta government to update the entire province annually with satellite imagery.

We’ve been doing this for four consecutive years.

Why is this needed?

Alberta’s a really big place and it’s tough to know what’s happening on your land surface all of the time. From our imagery, you’re able to monitor land use and change, including where the cut lines are, the new access roads for oil and gas, where transmission corridors are, where pipelines are, timber harvesting and so on.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH NOVAK

UPWARDLY MOBILE Iunctus Geomatics Corp. sets the benchmark in terms of the imagery, data services and solutions it can provide its many and varied clients. Brett Michelson, vice-president business development, explains what puts the company ahead of the competition.

How would you describe the philosophies that guide Iunctus?

I think we’re really customer-focused. We try to ensure that we get customers what they want and that we do it very efficiently. We also use technology to our best advantage.

We spend a lot of time and money creating and using technology that works for us and we’ve been very successful at it. We’ve automated many of our business processes, too.

What parts of your business are automated?

A major part of our business is around spatial data and services. So, part of our business involves getting data directly from a satellite and processing that data. We have that system almost completely automated.

Basically, the imagery is taken by several satellites in the SPOT constellation that were originally developed by the French space agency, but are now operated by French company SPOT Image. Satellites send raw data to our receiving station in Lethbridge, which turns it into an image map.

Because you’ve got a flat image, when you have a photo of

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Brett Michelson VP Business Development

Kristin Grant Canadian Order Desk

Many services need up-to-date information and old data can even be dangerous. If you’re fighting a forest fire and, say, the fire changes direction you have to know where the access corridors are. You need to get your firefighters out of there, you have to know where the cut lines are and how to access them.

Why is satellite imaging superior over other kinds of aerial imaging?

We’re able to collect data for very large areas in a hurry, since the satellite is always in orbit. Satellite imaging is also more economical than taking photos from planes or helicopters, which require expensive fuel. That’s one reason we do a lot of work in the Arctic, because to get a plane out there is very expensive.

GROUND LEVEL Iunctus calls on cutting-edge technology to pull images of the Earth’s surface from orbiting satellites. It’s pretty cool stuff. But in the end, old-fashioned customer service is the heart of the company. The ability of Iunctus staff to put the products in the hands of folks who need the images in to do their work – that’s what counts.

Together, the staff of 12 functions as a well-oiled machine – or perhaps a well-calibrated satellite dish – but they say it’s the mix of individual success and collaboration that defines the workplace culture.

“We each have our specific jobs, but everyone’s is interconnected,” says Kristin Grant, who runs the Canadian Order Desk. She says Iunctus tends to attract detail-oriented, focused people “who can work well on their own and in a group.”

This is critical, as the company is always balancing shortand long-term deadlines, and meeting the needs of clients as varied as the federal government, farmers, oil and gas companies and the occasional unusual request.

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“I once got a call from a hunter looking for a picture to help him find where moose were hiding,” laughs Grant.

She was unable to help, but, she says, “in terms of our usual projects, there’s nothing out of the blue.”

Staffers also share a commitment to giving back to the community. Each year, the team participates in the Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research, and each Christmas they collect on behalf of the Food Bank.

Recently, staff members also participated in a golf tournament to raise money for an association that makes horseback riding accessible to people with disabilities.

This camaraderie enhances the culture of the office, says Grant, and may explain why a company of only 12 employees has secured such large-scale contracts. “It’s work that others might think takes a lot more people to do.”

COMMUNICATING BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY Len Simpson, receiving station operator at Iunctus, plays middleman between satellites called SPOT 2, 4 and 5 and the Lethbridge receiving station where the digital mountains of data they produce are stored. It’s no easy task, but Simpson and the crew have ensured that part of the work does itself.

Why is the satellite receiving station located in Lethbridge?

To supply clients with great service, Iunctus negotiated with the owner of the SPOT satellites to build a receiving station in Alberta. Since we’ve had the station, we’ve been able to provide a much faster turnaround time to our clients.

Having the receiving station at the University of Lethbridge – which communicates with servers in Iunctus’s office in downtown Lethbridge – allows for a lot more efficiency on our end. We’re able to produce a better product for the client. Also, having the satellite at the university ensures the area around the station isn’t blocked by tall

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Matt Heffernan Chairman of the Board of Directors

Len Simpson Satellite Receiving Station Operator

buildings, and that data can flow freely.

How many people work at the receiving station?

We’ve managed to automate a lot of the systems. When we first built the station, France said we needed five or six people running the system 24 hours a day, but we’ve managed to automate a lot of it. Right now, it’s just myself and a back-up person working at the receiving station.

What does the satellite receiving station do?

Basically, we download information from three SPOT satellites – SPOT 2, 4 and 5. Each day, our salespeople talk to clients to find out what their needs are. They submit these requests to France – the main place where the satellite passes for each receiving station are planned. Each morning, I receive pass files (the daily schedule of the satellite orbits), which tell the dish where to move and what position to be in order to track the satellites and collect the data clients are seeking. After the data is recorded, it’s downloaded to the receiving station.

How important is sustainability to Iunctus?

Since we built the station in 2004, we’ve received hundreds of terrabytes of data. This is data we store for clients, and the amount of energy we need to do this is quite large.

Recently, we signed an agreement with BullFrog Power, a green energy provider, to provide power to both the receiving station and office. Because the energy is entirely produced from wind, it’s 100 per cent emission-free. Now, we’ll save 117 tonnes of emissions each year. For such a small company, I think that’s a very significant improvement.

LEADING THE WAY Matt Heffernan is no stranger to information technology or executive management. The current president and CEO of production operations management firm Zedi Inc. has held leadership roles in companies such as Exocom Systems Corporation, Outrider Technologies Inc. and Telus.

In fact, he first became acquainted with Iunctus a few years ago when Telus became the Canadian dealer for Iunctus products. Ultimately, Heffernan ended up on Iunctus’s board of directors as a representative for Telus, and when Iunctus decided to go ahead without funds from Telus, Heffernan was asked to stay on as chairman of the board. It was an easy decision, he says, as Iunctus is advancing rapidly.

“I think there’s significant growth potential in a number of key areas. First, the ability to capture data and get data from several satellites – I’d say Iunctus is the best in the world for doing that. And once the data is received, how it’s managed is an area of growth for the company,” he says.

Iunctus is unusual in that it houses client data in perpetuity.

“This allows customers to focus on their own business, coming to us when they need it.”

Heffernan says he’s one of many experienced industry players on the board of directors, whose backgrounds include everything from real estate to technology. This knowledge base is helping to steer Iunctus in the right direction, and make the most of its unique situation in the market. Unlike so many other information technology companies, Iunctus is virtually recession-proof, says Heffernan.

“At the 100-foot level, they’re a niche-market, best-inthe-world company located in Lethbridge, Alberta.” But certain trends are likely to boost the company further. As climate change continues to alter the face of the Arctic, the government’s need for up-to-date images of the land and sea ice will only increase, as it keeps close tabs on new waterways opening up as ice recedes. The need for current data is also likely to grow as a result of government agencies and companies working with limited budgets.

Heffernan is certain Iunctus will expand its government and industry contracts in the near future as a result of these trends. “Iunctus fits dead centre.”

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Dishing About

Infrastructure

BY DAVID DICENZO

Iunctus is reinventing the business with the construction of its Inuvik ground station and, eventually, 11 massive satellite dishes

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH NOVAK

R

RYAN JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

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YAN JOHNSON’S GOAL IS TO MAKE IUNCTUS Geomatics Corp. a global entity. The president of the optical satellite imagery provider is taking that task literally. Over the course of the past three years, Johnson has travelled the world in search of potential partnerships, seeking out companies that have the same innovative vision as those people who have made Iunctus a remote sensing industry leader in Canada.

Johnson’s international excursions have taken him to China, Sweden, Germany, Chile, Thailand and France, among other stops. “It’s a lot of Air Miles,” the Iunctus boss says with a laugh.

All the travel allows Johnson to build global relationships with organizations that want to use the Iunctus infrastructure. It also lets him contract with other organizations that may have data resources that Iunctus can call on.

“All of those trips, it’s been about finding those champions who want to work with us,” Johnson says, “and who share the same vision of how important that base infrastructure is.”

The expansion of infrastructure has been key to the success of the 10-year-old company. Iunctus provides two main types of products: individual satellite images, which it can collect in any area of Canada, and large area satellite mosaics, essentially a collection of images over a particular area, the biggest offering being the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Mosaic covering British Columbia,

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVID MOORE

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Clients in the oil and gas, forestry and agriculture fields, both private and government-based, utilize the unique pictures Iunctus can produce.

With the additions to infrastructure, Iunctus has been able to change the way it provides its data. Five years ago, the company invested heavily to build the first ever commercial ground station in Canada. Located on the University of Lethbridge campus, the station pulls down data from SPOT 2, 4 and 5 satellites, owned by Toulouse, Francebased SPOT (for Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre).

The ground station is a small, domed structure that has helped Iunctus accomplish in hours what used to take days or weeks. And the success of the ground station has spawned an interest in expanding that potential.

Iunctus is now working on a second ground station project in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, where it will partner with international and national organizations. One of the partners to the project is the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) of Natural Resources Canada. CCRS is

currently operating two federal receiving stations in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and Cantley, Québec, and is also looking to develop ground segment capacity in Canada’s Arctic through a new business model.

With the federal responsibility for the operations and development of the remote sensing ground segment as well as public data access and archival capacity, CCRS is a pivotal organization for partnering and aligning more than 20 other government stakeholders for the Inuvik project. A station in Inuvik puts Canada at a comparative advantage, providing access to the expected increased number of polar orbiting satellites. The station will meet Canada’s public needs in areas such as security and sovereignty, environmental monitoring, economic and northern development, and will allow more frequent access to data than southern stations can.

“We’re offering the capacity to pull information from a whole variety of satellites from different organizations around the world,” says Scott Soenen, Iunctus’s research and development manager.

When the Inuvik station opens in September, it will house an automated data centre and – eventually – 11 massive satellite dishes, each of which is 13 metres in diametre.

“It’s going to be an enormous volume of data coming through that station,” says Soenen.

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has been done in a good spirit, all the way through.”

The data that Iunctus is bringing down and capturing at Inuvik will need to be managed and processed. The Inuvik ground stations will become a hub over the next few years.

Johnson says that the presence of the company will bring a lot of value to the North, in terms of how people there manage their region. “They picked up on that right away, says Johnson. “Out of any group we’ve met, northerners are more tied to the importance of the land than most of us in the southern part of the country.”

And northerners are eager to learn more. “We’re very happy to see that kind of technology in Inuvik,” Brown says. “We would like to do what we can to grow the technical components that are necessary to sustain it and support the project.”

Infrastructure expansion has been critical to the Iunctus business plan, but so has the management of data and the methods in which the company processes that information.

From the outset, the company has been heavily involved in research and development, particularly in terms of how raw imagery is managed and processed. With assistance from the Alberta government Precain Inc. and Western Economic Development, Iunctus was involved in a joint

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVID MOORE

One of the partners in the Inuvik project is the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). When representatives from Iunctus and the SSC met, a mutual trust was formed. “It is a company with the right background, competence and business approach for the type of partner we were looking for in Canada,” says Mikael Stern, SSC’s general manager, Satellite Operations Division. “The main opportunity is to create a facility in Northern Canada that can support operators from all over the world when they need to contract their polar orbiting satellites.

While Iunctus will be able to leverage that network globally, one of the more satisfying aspects of the project has been the obvious boost to Northern Canada. Inuvik-based groups, and the Town of Inuvik itself, have been very receptive to the idea of hosting the ground station, which is good news to Johnson.

“Once we all had the same vision, it was pretty amazing to see groups come together,” Johnson says. “That’s what has surprised me more than anything: the speed with which things can get done once there’s a will and people share a vision of what can be built.”

“It’s been a good experience,” agrees Sara Brown, senior administrative officer for the Town of Inuvik. “Everything

“When the Inuvik station

project to build a system that could take all the opens in September, there’s raw imagery stored on site and generate largegoing to be an enormous scale image mosaics. volume of data coming “That project allows us to make the best use of through it.” our enormous archive of satellite imagery,” says Soenen. “We can process an area the size of Scott Soenen Research and development manager Alberta and we can generate an image mosaic that covers the province in a week. Doing that manually typically takes three or four months.”

On the Ground at Lethbridge Iunctus is also completing another project, funded through Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program, that offers a method of imagAs Iunctus has become more engaged with big players around the ery management and distribution that essentially makes these largeglobe, the company has come to understand the problems these scale mosaics available over the Internet in a way similar to what you giants face. would see with Google Maps.

“Access to data is a big one,” says Iunctus president and CEO “Management of imagery has become a pretty big issue lately,” Ryan Johnson. “These big global players, they operate across says Soenen. “This distribution method allows us to stream our imaggeographies and political boundaries that don’t influence their ery through a URL into basically any geographic information system business. They need ubiquitous services on a global basis. So if we software that might be used by our clients, as well as to provide a step back and look at how to create solutions for them, infrastrucfront-end, web-based interface for our clients to view their imagery ture becomes a big part of that.” and manage it.”

To date, the Iunctus ground station located on the University The focus of Iunctus is to expand infrastructure and working hard on of Lethbridge campus has been one of the most influential infraresearch and development has provided a solid foundation that is allowstructure additions for the remote sensing company. While small ing the company to grow. But it’s far from done in terms of establishing in comparison to the current ground station being built in Inuvik, that global presence. Soenen says that one of the interesting aspects of the Lethbridge station, home to a satellite dish that’s five metres in doing business in Alberta is the interaction with major resource managediametre, is no less important. ment groups in Calgary.

Built in 2004, the station collects data from three SPOT satel“Their interests aren’t all within Alberta,” says Soenen. “Their interest lites, to whose imagery Iunctus owns the Canadian rights. Imagery is all over the world. We’re looking at taking that one extra step up the is acquired over Canada from the U.S. border to just below the food chain where we would have our own constellation of satellites that North Pole. we could task anywhere in the world and be able to provide the infor“It’s quite a large area, probably one of the biggest aside from mation globally rather than just focusing on Canada.”

Russia that is mapped with SPOT images,” says receiving station That likely means more Air Miles in Johnson’s future. While talent is operator Len Simpson. “We are probably one of the busiest coma key component of success, ambition is what puts the greats over the mercial ground stations for SPOT imagery in the world.” top in any field. Johnson and his staff have thrived with a pioneer’s spirit Simpson says that the importance of the station is that it is able and, in turn, have revolutionized the industry. to download imagery from a greater number of satellites than ever Johnson and his team were able to capitalize on new infrastructure by before. The station collects images in various resolutions – Level 0, shaking up an old business model. “The way we look at the business is for example, is a raw image, while Level 3 is more enhanced. dramatically different than the traditional way people have looked at Here’s how it can work: A salesperson speaks with a client who remote sensing,” the president explains. “In the past, most of the people wants a particular area shot at specific dates and times. The direcwho used the data were technical experts in remote sensing.” tions are uploaded to the satellite(s), which capture the images Now, end users such as surveyors, biologists, land management peoand download them to the ground station for storage and processple, oil and gas field workers and so on are the target consumers of data, ing. Simpson makes sure those files are correct before delivering rather than remote sensing experts who aren’t in the field with them.

“We took on a lot of the work at our end,” Johnson says, “to create them to clients. products that are more effective and easier to use.”

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Spatial

Insight It’s trite but true that a picture paints a thousand words. Organizations are relying on satellite imagery more than ever

LOCATION: 79°20’N, 104°28’W

© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

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S

ATELLITE IMAGE RESOLUTION IS IMPACTED BY four different elements: spatial resolution, spectral resolution, temporal resolution and radiometric resolution. These have to do with the ability to distinguish between closely spaced objects on an image, the frequency at which the satellite captures images, the ability of the satellite to render high and low contrast, and the subtlety of variations in colour. These aspects of image resolution, gathered for Iunctus by SPOT satellites 2, 4 and 5, reveal many things about the surface features they are capturing.

Here are a few examples.

THE BIG MELT: Climate change is altering the face of the Arctic. Sea ice, which at one time was always present in Canada’s Arctic, is beginning to disappear. This change is drastically altering sensitive environmental ecosystems, a bellwether for the rest of the planet. It’s also creating questions about national defence and new opportunities for northern shipping routes. This 10-metre resolution image was acquired by the SPOT 5 satellite.

HEALTHY CROPLAND: Remote sensing is used in a wide variety of industries, including agriculture. This 10-metre resolution multispectral image, acquired by the SPOT 5 satellite, shows potato crops on Prince Edward Island. The image shows a pseudo-colour configuration with infrared reflectivity shaded red. Vegetation is highly reflective when captured in infrared wavelengths, so agriculture experts often look at crops in this manner. Through careful analysis of the image, scientists are then able to determine vegetation type, health and yield.

LOCATION: 46°22’N, 63°22W

© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

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OIL AND GAS FROM ABOVE: Satellite imagery is an integral part of mapping and planning in Canada’s oil and gas industry. Having an up-to-date view of a project area can be critical for making timely and informed decisions. With new developments occurring all the time, the landscape is rapidly changing. To provide a vast archive of current image data, the SPOT 5 satellite is always acquiring new images, such as this 2.5-metre resolution black and white image, over the oil and gas producing areas of Western Canada.

LOCATION: 53°47’N, 117°04’W

© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

PROSPECTING IN CANADA’S NORTH: The North is abundant in natural resources. In Canada, both government and industry invest significant time and money to discover deposits of precious metals and minerals. Satellite imagery helps prospectors stake claims, helps biologists plan field work and helps scientists study the Earth’s surface for geologically significant areas. This SPOT 5, 2.5-metre resolution color image shows an area of Baffin Island that geologists think may be rich in minerals.

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LOCATION: 66°38’N, 62°44’W

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© 2009 CNES - IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

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The Service

Solution

BY SAM LIEFF

Organizations have specialized uses for satellite imagery. Iunctus creates pinpoint solutions, as individual as each client is.

Look at how some are using Iunctus products

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH NOVAK

I

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‘M IN MY FIFTH YEAR IN SALES AND BUSINESS development at Iunctus Geomatics Corp. In that short time I have seen our field revolutionize, and I’m proud to say that Iunctus has been a leader.

Historically, geospatial imaging companies have had rather rigid business models. I think what allows Iunctus to provide better, timelier solutions for our customers is the fact that the company dissected that stale business model and started fresh.

We revisited agreements with our partners, Telus and France-based SPOT Image. They have been great, and they have given us the flexibility we were looking for to create specialized products for a variety of sectors, offering clients different image types, processed in different ways, based on what they need. At the same time, the ground station in Lethbridge has allowed us to amass and maintain data sets that make up a very comprehensive image library of the surface of Canada.

That means that a client can approach us with a very specific request. What once took weeks or months is now nearly instantaneous. We are sometimes able to consult existing images online, in conjunction with a client, right away. Other times it might take a few hours. It’s a huge leap of efficiency that not only sets Iunctus apart, but also sets our clients apart, some of whom have been able to adjust their business models and best practices to keep pace with the technology we offer.

For example, historically a forestry biologist might have

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SAM LIEFF, SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, IUNCTUS GEOMATICS CORP.

needed to consult several archives to find an image, which might be sorely out of date and take months to secure.

Now, in consultation with Iunctus, that same biologist can have near-instant access to an image that was acquired today. Further, the biologist can now order custom data sets, asking Iunctus to monitor a particular area over multiple seasons and even years. It adds up to our clients being able to take their work to a whole new level, increasing the value of our imagery services to our customers.

That’s what sets Iunctus apart: its currency, its coverage and the speed at which it can supply state-of-the-art satellite imagery. We are expanding our data sources to other satellites and airborne imagery sources to improve services and expand product offerings to our clients.

The way people can now visualize the planet is fundamentally changing our approach to exploration, conservation, agriculture, land management, forestry – you name it.

There isn’t a field that is not currently or will not soon be impacted by geospatial imaging. It’s how we choose to leverage this new way of looking at the world that will define us and govern what we do as we move forward.

In the following pages, you’ll meet some of Iunctus’s clients. They are doing novel work in a variety of settings.

What unites them is their forward-thinking and their ability to leverage strength from cutting-edge Canadian technology.

Read their stories and discover what they are using Iunctus solutions for.

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Case

Studies 24 It’s Good to Work Together

Summit Liability’s integrated liability management solutions gives oil and gas clients peace of mind

26 Plug and Play geoLOGIC Systems Ltd.’s software analyzes high activity oil and gas areas

28 Minding Industry TERA Environmental facilitates and monitors energy sector commitments

30 B.C. Benefits Pacific Geomatics Inc. trains pilots, maps islands and monitors the pine beetle

32 Freshwater Mapping

Ducks Unlimited Canada maps and monitors conservation areas

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It’s Good to

Work Together

BY STEPHANIE SPARKS

A Calgary company helps its clients manage their liabilities and reduce the negative environmental impacts of doing business

I

N TIMES OF ECONOMIC CONFUSION, two companies are working together to remain strong in their markets, delivering better service than ever for their clients. And they are laying the groundwork to ramp up to new business once the recession is over. Turns out, the partnership has deep roots.

“There’s been a friendship between Ryan and myself for years,” says Jason Pecht, vice-president of operations for Summit Liability Solutions Inc. He’s talking about Ryan Johnson, the president of Iunctus Geomatics Corp., who he’s known since junior high. “So I kind of knew what he was up to and recognized that our line of business and Iunctus’s technologies could have benefits for both companies.” A circuitous route led the two companies to build each other’s skill sets and business offerings.

Summit evolved out of its partners’ 65 years of combined experience. “Jason and I, and the other partners, have been in the business for a number of years,” explains Summit’s president, Russel Orcutt. When Orcutt’s employer at the time closed down his division in 2005, he decided to strike out with long-time friend Mike Bowie. His colleagues Jeff Carratt, Robin Weseen and Pecht were eager to be a part of the new endeavour and are now partners in Summit.

“We all got together and never looked back,” Orcutt says.

Summit focuses on bringing integrated liability manage-

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AHEAD OF THE PACK: Summit Liability Solutions works with Iunctus technology to reduce customers’ liabilities

ment solutions to oil and gas companies.

Under this umbrella, it provides services in reclamation and remediation, spill cleanup, pre-drilling environmental assessments, drilling waste management and pre-acquisition, and divestiture evaluations.

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PROFILE: Summit Liability Solutions Inc. Year established: 2005 Number of Canadian employees: About 100 Goals: Summit aims to reduce the number of non-compliant oil and gas activities in the environment; reduce operating costs and the liabilities associated with the activities of customers; improve efficiencies for Summit’s field staff; improve relationships with regulators, landowners and customers; provide staff with leading-edge technology; grow Summit’s market share

“We’ll do environmental assessments on properties that Company A may be buying from Company B,” says Orcutt, “so they know where they’re at from an environmental liability perspective before closing that deal.”

He adds that the company is distancing itself from its environmental name. “We felt that every company was hanging out a sign on their window that said, ‘We’re an environmental company,’ and we do more than that. We manage our customers’ liabilities and try to reduce them in the environmental aspects of their business.”

Headquartered in Calgary, Summit has staff working remotely across western Canada. “There isn’t a corner of these four provinces we can’t service,” says Orcutt of Summit’s Western Canadian reach. He has staff as far away as Manitoba and northern British Columbia.

Because of so much remote activity, Summit’s goal is to improve the efficiency of its long-distance communications to better serve its clients. That’s what got Jason Pecht thinking about his old pal Ryan Johnson’s satellite imagery and services company, Iunctus. Pecht talked to Orcutt and the others about working with Iunctus.

“One of the main drivers behind getting together with Iunctus was to develop some remote reporting software,” says Orcutt. “We have staff working all over Western

How Iunctus helps: “We believe, with [Iunctus’s] technology and the software that we’ve built together, that we’re far ahead of our competition.” – Russel Orcutt, Summit president More information: www.summitls.ca Canada, so we wanted a web-based system that would make for efficient transfer of information and easy access.”

The group at Summit sought to discover if Iunctus would be keen to develop software that would tie their existing services into Summit’s business. There was definitely interest, and Iunctus’s in-house software engineers were charged with the project.

The project involves implementation of updated satellite imagery into Summit’s current reporting software. It ensures none of the images used by Summit is older than 12 months. “The fact that it’s Internet-based allows us to communicate very quickly and efficiently,” says Orcutt.

He adds, “Our goals are to reduce our operating costs through these efficiencies and gain some market share by demonstrating to our customers that we can lower their expenses as well. We want to maintain throughout the slow time and be ready to ramp up with an efficient system when things turn around. We believe with Iunctus’s technology and the software that we’ve built together that we’re far ahead of our competition.”

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Plug and Play

BY PHOEBE DEY

High-resolution imagery from Iunctus plugs into geoLOGIC’s software to provide and analyze details about high activity oil and gas areas

I

N 1983, WHEN JOE HARRIS STARTED GEOLOGIC Systems Ltd. as a tool to help look for oil and gas, he knew he wanted to offer his customers cutting-edge technology. At the time, the personal computer was just starting to make its way into people’s homes and offices and Harris, an experienced exploration geologist who had spent much time in North and South America, spent years perfecting his innovative software before taking it to the marketplace. geoLOGIC’s philosophy isn’t much different today.

Although the Calgary-based company’s proprietary software has turned data into actionable information for two decades, geoLOGIC continues to push the technology envelope. By partnering with Lethbridge-based Iunctus Geomatics Inc., a satellite imagery company that offers the most up-to-date and detailed images, geoLOGIC continues to have an edge on its competitors. Before Iunctus, the industry had to rely on out-of-date aerial photography which could not keep up with Alberta’s ever-changing nonrenewable resources landscape.

“We saw Iunctus’s comprehensive coverage as a gamechanger in the marketplace,” says David Hood, president of geoLOGIC Systems Ltd. “The industry needed a quick and up-to-date way of being out in the field, without actually having to send people out to survey it, and that’s one of the things this satellite imagery provides. It changes the way our customers do business.” geoSCOUT is the company’s flagship technology and

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LUCAS SOUTZO, GEOLOGIC’S SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER

was the first Windows-based software of its kind, designed to store and manage interpretive geological data. But the company didn’t stop there. It has spent much effort looking at how to enhance its products while priding itself on being able to make rapid changes to keep up with client demands. For instance, geoSCOUT is regularly and frequently updated and, 15 years after its inception, is on version 7.5.

SPOT high-resolution imagery from Iunctus can plug into geoSCOUT software to provide specific details and analytical capability about high activity oil and gas areas in Western Canada. For instance, the images can supply a real view of a well site and can show existing pipelines, tell you where a valley crosses a stream or if a farmhouse exists on a specific section of land. This technological combination packs a strong arsenal of information that allows companies to make well-informed decisions and plan for the future.

“Having the ability to see exactly what is out there saves hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients because when they get to the well, there are no surprises,” says Lucas Soutzo, senior account manager with geoLOGIC. “We can tell the entire story from production rates to the reserves to existing infrastructure – anything you want to know, we can tell you what’s there and our clients appreciate that when it comes to making business decisions.”

That is the goal of Iunctus. The company spends a lot of time developing services and infrastructure to make it easy

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to plug into applications such as geoSCOUT to widen the net of information already being provided, says Sam Lieff, sales and business development with Iunctus.

“When we work with geoLOGIC, our goal is to provide end users with everything they need to make a sound business decision or analysis,” says Lieff. “For clients of geoLOGIC, the benefit is that rather than send people out to the field, they can do the exact same thing from a computer.”

By pointing and clicking online, it is as close as you can get to being there, says Hood.

“The resolution Iunctus provides fits our application very well,” he says. “We don’t want to be able to read licence plates or see facial expressions but we want to see the topography and that’s what it can do.”

Financial companies use the combined technology to help determine the value of an oil and gas company while government or regulatory agencies use it as a verification tool. Instead of sending surveyors out to physically map the land, the government can use the images to check company reports and activities as well as boundaries. geoLOGIC has also donated a total of $16.5 million to universities for research and to train students on their software.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH NOVAK

TRAINING ROOM: geoSCOUT can read SPOT imagery from Iunctus

“When you work in this industry, you have to keep up with change or you fall behind,” says Hood. “And that’s one of the reasons we have a good relationship with Iunctus. They are of the same mindset about listening to what customers want and it really is something to be able to offer the availability of that level of imagery so quickly and so simply. It’s impressive.”

PROFILE: geoLOGIC Systems Ltd. Year established: 1983 Number of Canadian employees: More than 100 people How Iunctus helps: It makes sense.“Having the ability to see exactly what is out there saves hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients,” says Lucas Soutzo of geo-LOGIC. More than 80 per cent of assets traded in the Canadian oil and gas market were geoLOGIC clients. “Iunctus Geomatics’s land cover product is second-to-none – it’s the benchmark.”

More information: www.geologic.com

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Minding Industry

BY LISA OSTROWSKI

TERA Environmental Consultants uses Iunctus solutions to facilitate workflow and better monitor its energy sector commitments

F

IELD BIOLOGIST KRISTEN FOREMAN WAS RECENTly looking to locate a particular plant kind of rare sand verbena, in Southern Alberta. Using information from the Alberta Natural Heritage Information Centre (ANHIC), she found accounts of previously observed occurrences of the plant somewhere in the Taber area. So she consulted some SPOT 5 satellite imagery from Iunctus that showed exactly where the sand dunes could be found. The information from ANHIC, in conjunction with the imagery, let her locate the sand verbena easily without having to spend days in the field.

Iunctus Geomatics Corp. has pioneered the use of a novel satellite imaging technology that has completely changed the way Alberta-based TERA Environmental Consultants goes about its environmental assessments and consulting. TERA was established more than two decades ago, and it has been involved in many energy sector projects around Alberta, focusing on the environmental aspects of the energy industry.

Harnessing the power of Iunctus technology, TERA has had the opportunity to work alongside many hundreds of energy companies that assess potential environmental problems which could occur on new projects and postproduction reclamation and restoration projects. TERA also advises clients about how to lessen the potential negative environmental consequences. Using the most up-todate information available from Iunctus’s satellite imaging, TERA has become a major force for consultations and assessments in the Alberta energy sector.

SPOT 5 satellites are continuously taking new pictures,

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and are able to provide end users with an updated image every one to five days. Iunctus is able to train its SPOT satellites on particular areas to customize its products to suit TERA’s needs. Involved in many projects (most of which are confidential) that require detailed information about land use, TERA benefits from Iunctus’s services, from initial site reviews to producing the necessary maps to continue with the assessment process. Iunctus is able to provide employees at TERA with an accurate depiction of what a site will look like before they get there. It’s a valuable tool that enables workers to increase productivity once they arrive on site.

“We use Iunctus SPOT 5 as a basis for our mapping.

It has a good resolution and great value. When you compare the cost with the quality of the product itself, it really is a valuable tool for us,” says Andrew Povey, a senior environmental planner at TERA. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of Iunctus’s services is the up-to-date images it provides clients.

Iunctus is able to provide detailed images of much of Western Canada that are current, a particularly valuable tool for companies such as TERA, whose site assessments depend on the currency of images. In the past, TERA might have used topographical maps and aerial photography to begin the site assessment process.

Kristen Foreman, a biologist with TERA’s vegetation team, is responsible for seeking out environmental effects on rare plants. She explains that Iunctus products help with her work because of the comprehensive nature of the maps, but also because of the convenience they offer her.

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PROFILE: TERA Environmental Consultants Year established: 1983 Number of Canadian employees: More than 150 How Iunctus helps: TERA Environmental Consultants uses Iunctus products to help it assess environmental impacts for its growing client base, many of which are found in Alberta’s energy sector. TERA is a growing industry leader for involvement in energy-related environmental projects.

Goal: TERA Environmental Consultants is an industry leader committed to its clients energy-related environmental projects.

More information: www.teraenv.com

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF KRISTEN FOREMAN

The up-to-date details of Iunctus images are central to carrying out the field biology that Foreman undertakes. Given that much of a field biologist’s time is spent visiting different sites, it’s important that she be able to find her way around without difficulty. Iunctus can help. Imagery is available in great detail, with resolutions ranging from 2.5 metres to 20 metres, which enables biologists like Foreman to have a more precise idea of site conditions.

“Before heading into the field, I’m able to plan potential rare-plant hot spots by interpreting the imagery. I often make notes directly on the imagery maps, and this proves extremely useful for when I’m compiling the data and writing the report for my clients,” she notes, adding that the Iunctus maps are also beneficial when compared to the competition because of ease of use. She adds, “I love having the imagery. Before I worked with TERA I used topographical maps that were nowhere near as current or detailed or easy to interpret.”

The innovative imagery provided by Iunctus benefits TERA Environmental Consultants, allowing the company to streamline its workflow and facilitating some of the most current and accurate project assessments in the environmental energy sector. Given the importance of this sector to the economy of Alberta, it’s likely that TERA will continue to grow, building on its own expertise using imaging products from Iunctus.

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British Columbia

Benefits

BY ANH CHU

A company in B.C. uses spatial imagery from Iunctus to train pilots, map the islands and monitor the march of the pine beetle

T

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH NOVAK

HE BOEING AIRPLANE IN THE SKY above us; the mountain pines that sprout from the land at our feet; the minerals and gems below us: these are all connected by something literally out of this world. We might not be wholly aware of how satellites have permeated our daily lives, but spatial imaging and remote sensing are tools that have become necessary to gathering and synthesizing information about the Earth and our place in it.

“We specialize in providing ready-to-use satellite imagery to a wide range of clients,” begins Dr. Geoff Tomlins, president of the British Columbia-based Pacific Geomatics Ltd. The company delivers custom data to its clients worldwide in three major areas: visual simulation for pilot training, mining and exploration, and forestry and environmental land management. Tomlins credits Iunctus Geomatics – the exclusive Canadian distributor of data from satellites of the Francebased company SPOT Image – for enabling his company to access and develop markets for medium-resolution satellite imagery in Canada.

“Iunctus brought a new business model to North America and developed new markets for SPOT data,” he explains. SPOT satellite data, especially from the 2002 SPOT 5 satellite, provides high resolution (2.5-metre, fivemetre, 10-metre) data over large geographical areas from any location in the world.

Iunctus demonstrated to land regulators and the oil and gas industry the value of a western Canadian geographic database. “The database is maintained with new imagery so

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it has become a repository for both current and historical imagery that has unparalleled value for monitoring and change detection,” says Tomlins.

Iunctus, with support from the federal government, is building a Canadian national SPOT mosaic, which Tomlins explains “now assists in the update of national mapping.”

These large databases were made possible by the construction of the company’s satellite receiving station in Lethbridge, Alberta, enabling Iunctus to dramatically increase the volume of SPOT imagery collected in Canada.

Prior to Iunctus, access to SPOT data was time-consuming and rigid, explains Tomlins. SPOT orders were processed through SPOT’s base in Toulouse, France, and a data order could often take a month or more to be fulfilled. “It may sound trite, but before Iunctus, it was very difficult to market SPOT imagery in North America,” he says. “It was very expensive and a ‘take it or leave it’ product.” That has changed. Iunctus now supplies Pacific Geomatics with imagery of countries all over the world for use in mineral exploration, and in Canadian-made flight simulators. “Imagery of Canada is easy to purchase,” Tomlins says, “because it’s available by the square kilometre rather than by the scene.”

He’s no longer forced to buy data he doesn’t need, which increases both his and his clients’ bottom lines.

When Iunctus first arrived on the scene, Tomlins approached its president, Ryan Johnson, and proposed an arrangement where Iunctus would provide scenes of raw data of the entire B.C. coastline, and Pacific Geomatics would process the data to remove cloud, create a seamless and accurate mosaic, and find a market for the product.

The results were fruitful as Pacific Geomatics was able to build, from scratch, markets within the forest sector throughout B.C. A major B.C. forest company benefited from images acquired from Iunctus in its battle against the mountain pine beetle. Pacific Geomatics used the data to help its client clearly identify areas of outbreak. When fused with same-

date multispectral imagery, the satellite’s 2.5-metre resolution provided enough detail to identify small clusters of newlykilled trees.

In another example, Pacific Geomatics provided the B.C. Ministry of Environment SPOT 5 mosaics of the 32,000square-kilomtre area of Vancouver Island for each of the years 2004, 2006 and 2007. The multi-date imagery allowed ministry scientists to map and classify landslides as part of the development of a landslide risk model.

Pacific Geomatics also creates “textures” for flight simulators that are used for pilot training on commercial airlines.

“It’s quite challenging, but also very satisfying work,” Tomlins says, describing the process that combines imagery from three different satellites to create an accurate flight landscape for the pilot. The different resolutions of each satellite image are used to simulate various elevations, using higher resolution ones to simulate takeoffs and landings.

“We’ve had a great relationship with Iunctus from the outset,” Tomlins says. “We use data from many different satellites but we’re very happy Iunctus is there.”

“Iunctus’s SPOT satellite images allow us to remotely sense and measure the canopy of forests or agricultural areas, and can be used to detect changes over time,” explains Tomlins. “Spatial imaging provides an absolutely vital tool for understanding what’s happening to the landscape – it cannot be done any other way.”

PROFILE: Pacific Geomatics Year established: 1988 Number of Canadian employees: five Goal: Provides ready-to-use satellite imagery to world-class clients in the flight simulation, mining and environmental sectors.

How Iunctus helps: Imagery was used to find clusters of trees damaged by the mountain pine beetle in British Columbia’s pine forests. “We could not put together a five-metre mosaic of the entire B.C, coastline until Iunctus came along. Iunctus has been critical to our work.”

More information: www.pacgeo.com

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Freshwater

Mapping

BY ANH CHU

A cornerstone of conservation is being able to map and measure an area. Ducks Unlimited Canada is using Iunctus imagery to help

T

HE PRAIRIE SUN IS SHINING AND THE LAND IS covered with rough fescue grass. A half dozen northern pintail glide smoothly across a small marsh. It’s a scene right off a postcard of western Canada. But, for Lyle Boychuk, the value of the nation’s wetlands is deeper than a photo opportunity.

“Wetlands filter our water – they’re the kidneys of the watershed. Everything we drink at some point would have cycled through wetlands,” begins Boychuk. These swamps, bogs, fens and ponds provide other benefits. They moderate climate change by sequestering carbon, contribute to biodiversity and provide habitat for wildlife and mitigate flood damage, acting like giant sponges.

In the settled areas of Canada, as much as 70 per cent of wetlands have disappeared. Boychuk’s job at Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), a non-profit organization with a mission to conserve wetland habitats, is crucial as are the tools used to aid DUC’s conservation efforts.

Boychuk is manager of Geographic Information Systems and Inventory Programs for DUC’s Western Region.

Among his responsibilities are to gather scientific data for conservation; work with individual, industry and government stakeholders; and to advocate for wetland and agricultural policies. “We can’t address anything until data is quantified and known,” says Boychuk, explaining the necessity of gathering information from satellite images.

Use of technology must supersede land development so that conservation efforts can keep pace. “Remote sensing is critical to conservation.”

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Since using imagery provided by Iunctus Geomatics, Boychuk has seen a significant increase in work-flow efficiencies. The quick, comprehensive, digital format means that DUC can immediately evaluate the potential for conservation of a land base by pulling up the digital images prior to heading to the field.

“The big benefit is having a current snapshot of the entire agricultural portion of Saskatchewan in one swoop,” he continues. “The imagery is a source for baseline information that’s readily accessible to our field people across the province.”

Prior to engaging the services of Iunctus five years ago, the process for acquiring photography was onerous. Photos were culled from a variety of sources. Without a single source of current photography in the province, DUC staff often found themselves searching for these materials internally as well as across agencies. With Iunctus’s products, the organization saves time and, ultimately, money. It has proven essential for an organization with staff scattered across the provice.

Iunctus’s Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Mosaic panchromatic imagery is an alternative to aerial photography in that it provides high-resolution images. It allows DUC to assess an area, usually after the landowner contacts the organization to inquire about DUC programs.

(The benefit to the landowner might include access to funding or technical assistance for enrolling his lands.)

DUC can refer to widely available imagery during, or shortly after, discussions with landowners.

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“Our project plan starts from this base imagery,” Boychuk says. “Habitat areas defined with the imagery are a starting point for further consultation with the land owner – it’s critical to what we do operationally.” Later, the imagery can be used to check landowners’ compliance to conservation agreements.

For landscape classification over large areas, DUC employs the SPOT 5 satellite multi-spectral images provided by Iunctus. The moderate-resolution images are used to map tough-to-classify upland vegetation to capture the distribution of small habitat patches.

Prairie wetlands pose an even greater challenge as they tend to be small features with characteristics that change seasonally and annually. Boychuk’s team has been experimenting with incorporating traditional wetland mapping from aerial photography with SPOT multispectral imagery.

The process shows potential for future applications.

“We’re measuring small upland features like trees and grasslands with higher confidence and fidelity, while accounting for the majority of wetlands,” he says.

DUC recently developed an 18-month comprehensive biophysical inventory for the Lower Souris River watershed, an area that encompasses much of southeast Saskatchewan. The data DUC generated is critical to understanding the economic benefits of conservation and will be used to refine conservation programs for the watershed region.

DUC had Iunctus collect three seasons of imagery in an attempt to use seasonal differences as potential classifiers

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DUCKS UNLIMITED CANADA

POPULOUS PROVINCE: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba account for 60 per cent of all waterfowl produced in North America

of grassland communities.

Boychuk credits the images’ fine resolution, combined with the flexibility of Iunctus in allowing DUC to use unconventional programming, for the project’s success.

“Conserving wetlands just makes good public sense,” Boychuk says. “Every time a wetland gets drained, degraded or cultivated, society loses the benefits.”

Fortunately, DUC, using solutions and imagery provided by Iunctus Geomatics, is doing what it can to clear the air and water for Canadians. A beautiful snapshot, indeed.

PROFILE: Ducks Unlimited Canada Year established: 1938 Number of Canadian employees: Approximately 400 Goal: “Conserving wetlands is critical to human health and sustaining wildlife populations.”

How Iunctus helps: Evaluates site potential before initiating field work; checks compliance on conservation agreements; creates comprehensive habitat inventory.

More information: www.ducks.ca

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Remotely Close Satellite technology zooms in on resource management and conservation

S

ATELLITE IMAGING HAS MADE natural resource management more effective and efficient – in many cases saving time and money. The uses and timeliness of this technology are changing the way people approach fieldwork. While climate change is altering the landscape, remote sensing is transforming conservation efforts, in too many ways to list at length.

Here are a few ways satellite imagery is making a difference: Detects changes over time.

Changes in habitats can be analyzed over months, years, even decades. The

abundance of vegetation affects wildlife populations. Industrialization can affect watersheds and water resources. Glacier and ice shelf cracking could hold clues to climate change.

Reduces the need for field work.

Quantitative data from satellite images can be used to monitor progress and compliance on conservation efforts. And it reduces the footprint of traditional surveying techniques in environmentally sensitive areas.

Improves field efficiency.

Field personnel have a better idea of what

they are facing before they get to the field, so they can use their time there more effectively.

Covers large geographic areas.

In Canada, Iunctus is working on the National Imagery Project to image all of Canada (in conjunction with Natural Resources Canada and the Centre for Topographical Information Sherbrook).

In Europe, there’s a project underway called The Global Land Cover 2000 Project, initiated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, to map vegetation for a global database.

A New Investment Fund Iunctus Geomatics Corp. has developed specific knowledge and skills in the area of geomatics, and has used its expertise to create and execute a number of industry-specific investment opportunities since its inception.

The Iunctus executive is investigating the creation of a dedicated Geomatics Industry Investment Fund, to expand the company’s investment capacity and capitalize on the numerous opportunities for profitable growth available to Iunctus.

The creation of a dedicated Geomatics Industry Investment Fund – coupled with Iunctus’s proven track record, industry expertise, contacts and experienced management team – would allow

investors to access major geomatics related opportunities typically restricted to large institutions.

The Investment Fund would be sponsored by Iunctus, and invest in areas of strategic importance to the long-term growth and profitability of the company. The Investment Fund would target opportunities in remote sensing and integrated resource management areas of geomatics, with specific emphasis on opportunities surrounding the acquisition, reception, storage, analysis, production, management and distribution of geomatics data, including satellite imagery. The Geomatics Industry Investment Fund has an anticipated minimum investment of $3-million, per investor.

PLEASE CONTACT CRAIG ECKART, CFA,

AT

craig.eckart@fusion-capital.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION.

This information is for reference purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sales of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

At Iunctus Geomatics Corp. we are changing the way our clients look at the world and how they do business. Contact us to find out how you can get involved.

FIND OUT MORE Iunctus Geomatics Corp. #401 - 817 4th Avenue South Lethbridge, Alberta, T1J 0P3 PHONE 1-877-604-2800 www.terraengine.com

FOR CLIENTS Brett Michelson, vice-president, Business Development and Sales PHONE 780-493-4114 FAX 403-381-2804 EMAIL Brett.Michelson@terraengine.com

ORDER IMAGES Imagery Order Desk PHONE 403-381-2800 (ext. 1) FAX 403-381-2804 EMAIL Imagery Order Desk info@terraengine.com

FOR INVESTORS Craig Eckart, president Fusion Capital Corporation PHONE 403-836-2958 FAX 403-974-3251 EMAIL craig.eckart@fusion-capital.ca