Magazine for Sur veying, Mapping & GIS Professionals
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Oct./Nov. 2009 Volume 12
G ESRI and Smart Grids G Intergeo 2009 Trend Analysis G Google and Geospatial G Geolocation and Time
GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and commentary with respect to the international surveying, mapping and GIS industry. Publisher Ruud Groothuis rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com Editor-in-chief Eric van Rees evanrees@geoinformatics.com Editors Frank Artés fartes@geoinformatics.com Florian Fischer ffischer@geoinformatics.com Job van Haaften jvanhaaften@geoinformatics.com Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com Remco Takken rtakken@geoinformatics.com Joc Triglav jtriglav@geoinformatics.com Columnists John Trinder Contributing Writers Joc Triglav Gordon Petrie Ozgur Ertac Antonio Cavinato Mirco Pollet Cristiano Bellio Roberto Piol Bill Meehan Remco Takken Rebecca Peck Monique Husslage Lambert-Jan Koops Philip Cheng Jiri Sustera Kenneth Tan Stephan Winter Matt Duckham Michelle Robinson
Separating Facts from Fiction
In the last issue Stig Enemark described changes in the surveying industry. These developments were evident at the recent Intergeo fair: not only is the hardware in the form of surveying instruments changing rapidly, but the whole chain connected to data acquisition is now an inevitable part of the surveying profession. Surveying companies are also discovering mobile mapping services and offering them as part of their product portfolio. But what exactly do we mean by mobile mapping? In the absence of a proper definition, everyone seems to be performing mobile mapping these days. Put a GPS on a bicycle, and you have your own mobile mapping device. The next issue of GeoInformatics will have more on this topic. The same can be said about 3D GIS. In this issue’s Intergeo 2009 trend analysis, you will read that 3D and 3D city models were hot topics. I have already seen articles on ‘truly 3D’ GIS in the press. Again, it’s wise to separate fact from fiction. I am skeptical about any story on 3D GIS because there are still a number of issues to be resolved before it can become reality. One of the things I am skeptical about is the combination of hardware and software in GIS. I have never read in any of these articles about so-called 3D GIS exactly what such a system needs in terms of hardware, and GIS analysis requires quite a lot from the hardware. Could cloud computing be the solution to this problem? I hope to find out soon. For me, Intergeo was a very enlightening experience. I got to know what topics should get more attention in the future and how to go about it. It seems there may not be a perfect way to do something: many roads lead to Rome (or any destination for that matter). There are still different views on surveying and GIS, depending on whether you’re a surveying or a GIS pro, but combining the two can give interesting perspectives. That’s where we can expect a convergence in the coming years. In this issue, you can read all about CAD combined with GIS, and much more. Enjoy your reading,
Account Manager Wilfred Westerhof wwesterhof@geoinformatics.com Subscriptions GeoInformatics is available against a yearly subscription rate (8 issues) of € 89,00. To subscribe, fill in and return the electronic reply card on our website or contact Janneke Bijleveld at services@geoinformatics.com Advertising/Reprints All enquiries should be submitted to Ruud Groothuis rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com World Wide Web GeoInformatics can be found at: www.geoinformatics.com Graphic Design Sander van der Kolk svanderkolk@geoinformatics.com ISSN 13870858 © Copyright 2009. GeoInformatics: no material may be reproduced without written permission. GeoInformatics is published by CMedia Productions BV Postal address: P.O. Box 231 8300 AE Emmeloord The Netherlands Tel.: +31 (0) 527 619 000 Fax: +31 (0) 527 620 989 E-mail: mailbox@geoinformatics.com
Eric van Rees evanrees@geoinformatics.com
Corporate Member
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Articles Geospatial Technology Is Emerging as the Platform to Support Intelligent Electric Networks GIS Makes Smart Grid Smart
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The Re-emergence of Traditional Ideologies Aon Terrorism Threat Map Shows Shift in Sphere of Conflict Bridging the great CAD/GIS Divide Mind the Gap Innovative Uses of GPS and GIS Technology for Invasive Weed Management Winning the War on Weeds Geodan’s Map Portal Geoserver.nl/uk Always the Most Up-to-date Data A Report about the Sector Trends in Intergeo 2009 Intergeo 2009 Trend Analysis A Feat of Engineering Lifting the St Asaph Bridge Streetmapper 360 for Acquiring Topography Geomaat acquires 3D Data Without Traffic Obstruction Using RapidEye Data without Ground Control Automated High-Speed High-Accuracy Orthorectification and Mosaicking
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GIS Makes Smart Grid Smart
We have heard the smart grid buzz. Smart grid will modernize utilities around the world by connecting communication and computer technology to electric networks. With smart grid comes the promise of energy that is cleaner, more reliable, more efficient, and more affordable.
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Processing of Data Downloaded in the First Year of Observation Monumentation of Geodetic Permanent GPS stations 54 Topcon GMS-2 Survey of the Munster An Evolution of the Millennial Pair (Pt.1) Geolocation and Time Combining GPS, Satellite Communications and GIS Knowing The Exact Vessel Location Routing by Landmarks A New Direction
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A Report on the Sector Trends at Intergeo 2009
Intergeo, the world's most important congress trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management was hosted in Karlsruhe, Germany from September 22nd to the 24th this year, and attracted more than 16,000 visitors together with 1,450 congress participants. Among the visitors was a team of academic staff and students from the Technische Universität München, which was commissioned by the Runder Tisch GIS Initiative to perform a survey of the various exhibitors at the show. This article presents the most interesting results of this survey.
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Interviews Google's Ed Parson pleads for 'INSPIRE Plus' Getting Geospatial Data to the Community
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An Interview with Bradley Doorn Agricultural Monitoring Using Spaceborne Imagery
Column Photogrammetric Week celebrates its Centenary in Stuttgart, Germany
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Calendar Advertisers Index
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Bridging the great CAD/GIS Divide
There exists a real cultural divide between CAD and GIS. Not only that: when Autodesk recently held a workshop for local government professionals, over 50% cited the gulf between CAD and GIS as one of the major issues in their working lives. However, there are signs that this situation is improving, leading to faster completion of projects and no more duplication of time, money and effort.
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Geolocation and Time
This year’s 250-th anniversary of the invention of the famous watch H-4 that ultimately resolved the longitude problem and the 400-th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope is also an opportunity to look at geodesy as a science of measuring the Earth’s shape as a function of time. The paper gives an insight in some basic developments and describes
On the Cover: Geospatial technology is emerging as the platform to support intelligent electric networks, argues Bill Meehan. See article on page 6.
the historical development of geodesy by pointing out and demonstrating the relations between the Earth’s shape, geolocation and time measurements from the ancient times to the present time.
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
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October/November 2009
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Geospatial Technology Is Emerging as the Platform to Support Intelligent Electric Networks
Makes Smart Grid Smart
GIS
We have heard the smart grid buzz. Smart grid will modernize utilities around the world by connecting communication and computer technology to electric networks. With smart grid comes the promise of energy that is cleaner, more reliable, more efficient, and more affordable. By Bill Meehan
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We are, of course, excit-
Utilities already depend on ed for smart grid to arrive. GIS to meet common operAnd when it gets here, ational needs including smart grid will need the asset and field force mansturdy foundation of a agement. Enterprise GIS sound enterprise geographallows everyone on staff to ic information system (GIS) view and share up-to-date that provides strong data information on infrastrucmanagement, planning and ture, operations, and activanalysis, field collection, ities. Existing and additionand situational awareness. al GIS capabilities will Utility operators will need a prove crucial once smart GIS-based view of their utilgrid implantation becomes ity in order to make the widespread. best decisions about key The Critical Role of issues such as managing Enterprise GIS in meters and customers, and Smart Grid incorporating renewable An enterprise GIS exhibits energy. Field crews will four strong patterns of depend even more heavily behavior: data manageon GIS for implementing an The electric distribution network ment of assets such as advanced metering infrassensors, poles, conduit, smart meters, trucks, and people; situational tructure (AMI) and keeping current with data collection. In short, enterawareness for visualizing the business spatially in cases such as a small prise GIS will make it possible for utilities to build and operate a smart house with high electric consumption; field collection to provide timely grid.
Situational Awareness application showing the location of crews overlay with a risk model showing areas that are most susceptible to failure due to weather related events.
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October/November 2009
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Article
Mobile application showing the location of field inspections along with the optimize route to minimize drive time.
Geoprocessing model showing the inputs and results of the storm vulnerability model.
and up to date information to determine the optimal placement of fault indicators or locate places in the system most susceptible to lighting strokes.
Data Management
For smart grid to work, utilities will need to know the health of their systems. GIS is widely recognized for its strong role in managing traditional electric transmission and distribution, and telecommunications networks. GIS provides the most comprehensive inventory of the electrical distribution network components and their spatial locations. With smart grid’s sophisticated communication network superimposed on the electric network, data management with GIS becomes utterly critical.
Situational Awareness
When smart grid goes into effect, operators will rely on a real-time view set up within their GIS. Utilities already use GIS to visualize the electric and communications systems and the relationships that exist between them. It goes well beyond the traditional “stare and compare” method commonly used by utilities to a notion of seeing relationships. GIS provides a means to monitor and express the health of the system in an obvious way with commands such as, “show me all the sensors that have failed to report results in the last hour.” GIS can show the realtime view of the grid and note where things are changing. In effect, GIS (as compared with a SCADA system) shows the complete state of the grid, represented by a realistic model in a way that people understand.
must understand physical and spatial relationships among all network components. These relationships will form the basis for some of the advanced decision making the smart grid makes. Smart grid must have a solid understanding of the connectivity of both networks. GIS provides the tools and workflows for network modeling and advanced tracing. GIS is used to determine optimal locations for smart grid components. During the rollout of smart grid, utilities will need significant analysis to determine the right location for sensors, communication marshalling cabinets, and a host of other devices such as fiber optics in conduit and on poles. GIS provides the proper means to perform these design services, since the optimal locations depend so heavily on the existing infrastructure. Existing telecommunications technology is another important piece of smart grid infrastructure. The industry itself already relies heavily on GIS and will readily step up to the smart grid challenge. The use of telecommunications will increase the reliability and efficiency of smart grid; improve security; enable decentralized power generation; and facilitate demand management. GIS can provide a spatial context to the analytics and metrics of smart grid. With GIS, utilities can track the metrics over time and provide a convenient means of visualizing trends. Since smart grid is supposed to be smart, it must be able to provide advanced grid performance analytics, track trends in equipment performance and customer behavior, and record key performance metrics.
Smart Grid Comes Together with GIS Field Collection
GIS helps manage data about the condition of utility assets. After parts of the system go into service, utilities must maintain the system through the collection and maintenance of asset condition data. Some condition data can come from automated systems and others from inspection systems. Utilities are rapidly adopting GIS-based mobile devices for inspection and maintenance. Enterprise GIS, with its desktop, server, and mobile components, allows utilities to gather condition data. GIS will work with smart grid technologies such as advanced sensors, smart meters, telecommunications, energy storage devices, and renewable energy systems. With the platform of GIS, the grid will move from a largely passive and blind system to an interactive, intelligent, and energy efficient system. For the smart grid initiatives to be successful, utilities must make sure their GIS is enterprise ready, integrated with all their back office systems, and kept meticulously up to date.
Bill Meehan, ESRI Director of Utility Solutions. Bill Meehan has more than 30 years of experience in the utility industry. He is currently the Director of Utility Solutions for ESRI. For more information, visit www.esri.com/smartgrid or e-mail bmeehan@esri.com.
Planning and Analysis
Smart grid will require GIS technology to control the state of the grid, get the grid back to normal following an abnormal event, prevent outages, and relieve loads. The power of GIS helps utilities understand the relationship of its assets to each other and to the surrounding environment. Since the smart grid is composed of two networks—electric and communications—utilities
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
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October/November 2009
Article
The Re-emergence of Traditional Ideologies
Aon Terrorism Threat Map Shows Shift in Sphere of Conflict
A shift in Islamist terrorist activity from the Middle East to South Asia is the primary feature of the Aon 2009 Terrorism Threat Map, launched by Aon Crisis Management. The map shows a trend towards fewer terrorist attacks in the Middle East but increased activity in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, with Thailand and Nepal also showing higher levels of activity. By Remco Takken
[a]
[b]
figure 1a (left) A key trend from this year's analysis is the re-emergence of terrorist groups with more traditional ideological leanings. Craig Preston www.ambest.com/bestday/podcast/20080911.mp3, executive director at Aon, explains: "Our analysis shows the re-emergence of groups like the communist Shining Path in Peru and a revolutionary anarchist movement in Greece. In a global recession it is not inconceivable that a new generation of terrorists will emerge from disaffected communities in a re-emergence of class-based politics.” Figure 1b (up) The 2009 Terrorism Threat Map
Aon Corporation is a provider of risk management services, insurance
and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital consulting. The Aon 2009 Terrorism Threat Map, produced in coordination with security consultancy firm Janusian, is derived from data recorded on a new ‘Terrorism Tracker’ database, which tracks global levels of terrorist activity, including attacks, plots, communiques and government countermeasures. It represents a snapshot of terrorist groups' intent and capability and provides an indication of the current threat of attack in each country. Terrorism threat is defined as an assessment of the intent, capability and likelihood of terrorists to stage attacks. The new collaboration (with Janusian) makes it hard to make a comparison between earlier editions of the paper edition map. The latest release is based only on empirical data, and doesn’t include interpretations by analysts like before. Released briefings were allowed though, plus events in the real world, actual measures taken by individual countries, and discovered plans for terrorist attacks.
Terrorism Tracker
The Terrorism Tracker is a risk management tool for security managers, analysts and researchers. At its core is a global database of terrorist
attacks and plots. Each terrorist event is geo-tagged to allow its actual location to be plotted and viewed using the Google Maps interface. Janusian’s team of intelligence specialists monitor open and privileged sources to ensure that the database is always up to date. Furthermore, the database informs Janusian's ratings for the annual Aon Terrorism Threat map and supports a monthly newsletter available to Aon's clients. The Terrorism Tracker project is a collaboration between Aon and Janusian. With it users are able to search or conduct simple and complex searches monitor terrorist activity by location, target type and business sector, date range, tactic, group, lethality and other variables. Analysts can display results in map and list forms ready to be printed out or inserted into reports and briefings. The Monitoring functionality displays terrorist activity around the world, or in a specific country or region, on a full screen electronic map. This solution is designed for an operations room environment and updates every few minutes to ensure that the latest incidents are always on screen. These enhanced dynamics in the ‘electronic version’ also protect the annual map against the risk that it becomes obsolete at the moment a terrorist attack takes place. Ofcourse, the paper map is still fixed on a set date.
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Threat Indicators
A panel of analysts from Janusian has assigned terrorism threat levels by scoring each country according to the following threat indicators for 2009: Evidence of known and active groups or networks operating in a given country. Their aims and stated objectives. Their track record of terrorist activity, including target selection and activity levels. Their operational capabilities to stage attacks. The likely erosion of terrorist capabilities through the current counter-terrorism regime in the given country.
More Settled Outlook
Aon's 2009 Terrorism Threat Map also shows a more settled outlook for North America, Europe and Australia. Craig explains: "Although the prospect of a major terrorist attack in a Western country is ever present, and there are signs of more sophisticated plots, we have noted that in recent years such attacks have not come to pass. While evidence of plots emerges from time to time, there is often a protracted timeframe between them, and we are unlikely to see the frequency of attacks in Western countries that we might have expected a few years ago. We attribute this to better counter-terrorism capability and some shift of focus among terrorist groups towards establishing new fronts in places like Pakistan and Somalia. In general, operating conditions for terrorists have become more difficult in Western countries as well as in some Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia."
Communists and Anarchists
A key trend from this year's analysis is the re-emergence of terrorist groups with more traditional ideological leanings. Craig Preston, executive director at Aon, explains: "Our analysis shows the re-emergence of groups like the communist Shining Path in Peru and a revolutionary anarchist movement in Greece. In a global recession it is not inconceivable that a new generation of terrorists will emerge from disaffected communities in a reemergence of class-based politics. This raises the prospect of new terrorist groups forming in the developed world on the far right and far left of the ideological spectrum. With the election of a more liberal President in the U.S., it is possible we may see an uplift in activity from domestic far right and militia groups." The past year has highlighted the tenacity of leftist/Maoist activity in India and Nepal. Outside India little attention is paid to the activities of the rural conflict in the north east part of the country but Maoist terrorists have become amongst the most prolific in the world. The recent Indian elections led to a significant spike in attacks; in April 2009, 65 terrorist incidents were recorded there.
Informing Businesses
Of course, the Risk Map was not made for its own purpose. Of course, Aon uses it to inform their clients, and subsequently show them insurance possibilities. "Businesses can mitigate a terrorism threat by implementing a proportionate security risk management scheme to identify and reduce the vulnerabilities to personnel and business assets based on an expert risk assessment," Craig adds. "Firms also can transfer their risk through an appropriate insurance policy to reduce the impact of any such attack."
Remco Takken rtakken@geoinformatics.com is editor of GeoInformatics. For more information, have a look at www.aon.com
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061_AZ_GeoInformatics_185x134_4c1 1 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 20.10.2008 12:14:53 October/NovemberUhr 2009
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B r i d g i n g
Mind the Gap
t h e G r e a t C A D / G I S D i v i d e
There exists a real cultural divide between CAD and GIS. Not only that: when Autodesk recently held a workshop for local government professionals, over 50% cited the gulf between CAD and GIS as one of the major issues in their working lives. However, there are signs that this situation is improving, leading to faster completion of projects and no more duplication of time, money and effort.
This article has been written under the authority of Wisse Communications and updated by Henny van der Pol
CAD files, a CAD user has to export CAD data in a DFX-file. In this way, there’s always an agent needed to convert the data for you. By saving the data in a central database (for instance, AutoCAD Map), this agent can be eliminated so that both parties have access to ESRI-data. In today’s harsh business environment, it’s too expensive to manage multiple types of software, convert data, sychronise systems and keep design and operations disconnected. But there’s also a real cultural divide beteen the two. When asked what she would like to see to help her job improve, one GIS officer simply said: “Different departments talking to one another”! However, there are signs that this situation is improving. When pushed, CAD and GIS departments both said they positively hoped for a solution that was joined up and open to all. The need for a totally current– even real-time – information was also high on the wish-list. For several years now Autodesk has recognised that the key to solving these dilemmas is to develop software that bridges CAD and GIS but which doesn’t entail either to give up the tools they have been using for years. GIS and mapping functionality must be brought into the precision data capture, creation and maintenance tools offered by a CAD environment. And GIS must be able to access and work with object-based design information stored in CAD drawing fields such as DGN and DWG without losing precision. AutoCAD Map 3D, for example, brings CAD and GIS together by providing direct access to data, regardless of how it is stored. An extension to AutoCAD and complementing existing GIS implementations, it enables quick access, efficient editing and easy management of a broad variety of large geospatial sets, far beyond what standard AutoCAD could handle.
AutoCAD Map 3D screenshot
Driven by the ever-growing use of the internet and the greater need
for more precise and sophisticated information for better informed planning, everybody it seems, now wants to add a geographic element to their data. However, this need is complicated by two factors. First for geospatial data to provide real value, it needs to be used alongside other information – in particular, CAD data. But unfortunately, these two disciplines have evolved separately and are, traditionally, very difficult to blend. Second is the withdrawal of Land-Line (which has been used by local government and other organisations for over 10 years) by the Ordnance Survey. Its replacement, OS MasterMap Topography Layer, offers many enhanced features and benefits including “themed” information. However, the change brings a number of challenges, especially the accessibility of Topography Layer data from within AutoCAD, the industry standard automated drafting tool.
Cultural Divide
When Autodesk recently held a workshop for local government professionals, over 50% cited the gulf between CAD and GIS as one of the major issues in their working lives. The following two examples explain the situation: when a CAD user wants to dispose GIS data, one has no other choice than referring to a GIS specialist inside the organization or network That GIS user has to create a shapefile. This takes an amount of time, since one has to discuss which attributes this shapefile has to contain, etc. The opposite is also true: if a GIS user wants access to
AutoCAD Map 3D screenshot
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Because AutoCAD Map 3D is based So, what key benefits can be on open data standards, users are achieved from CAD/GIS integration? able to work with virtually any spaArguably the most important is the tial data available, an approach ability to support streamlined workwhich offers more flexibility than the flows. Rather than having to visit minimal options in AutoCAD. multiple departments to obtain inforWhether data is stored in DWG, DGN, mation, CAD engineers can now inteShape file, or other standard geospagrate geospatial technologies tial formats, the software can directquerying and some core analysis ly access and edit the data, removfunctionality - into their standard ing the need for continual translation workflow. They can then carry out of data between systems. core analysis functions before creatAlso, as it works seamlessly with ing and designing an end product Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and ESRI using familiar CAD tools. ArcSDE, users can manage and store Projects can be completed more geospatial data as easily as they can quickly when an engineer can easily AutoCAD Map 3D screenshot create and edit it. This approach pre-populate a new design with curensures data is far more accessible – by CAD users wanting to access rent base map data – such as property lines, curb information and other geospatial data or GIS users needing a view of design data from the engiassociated data – from a central GIS. GIS specialists can use the powerneers. ful precision editor tools from a CAD system to more easily edit and maintain GIS data. It seems this is a far better solution than two isolated disBenefits ciplines working in tandem, duplicating work and wasting time, money Working this way also makes it easier to deal with large scale mapping and effort. It seems the CAD and GIS department might end up speaking data. AutoCAD Map 3D enables users to access the data directly regardto each other after all. less of whether it is held in an Oracle database, a Shape file or ESRI Henny van der Pol henny@vanderpol-consulting.nl, ArcSDE. When the software is connected to a central store of Topography senior consultant and geospecialist. Layer data, accurate mapping is available across an entire enterprise, Many thanks to Serge Beckers. whether its users are CAD or GIS-based or a mixture of the two.
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Innovative Uses of GPS and GIS Technology for Invasive Weed Management
Winning the War on Weeds
In this article, two examples clearly demonstrate the benefits of high-accuracy GPS mapping and navigation in the development of sustainable weed management programs. A key component of both projects was the efficient capture of weed infestation areas over very large areas, made possible through the use of state-of-the-art Trimble GPS solutions as well as ESRI GIS software. These organizations were able to save a significant amount of time and resources, in the tens-of-thousands of dollars-range, by gathering highlyaccurate location-based information about weed infestations with Trimble technology. Furthermore, detailed assessment and ultimately treatment of the affected areas also benefited from GPS and GIS solutions for navigation to the infested areas and high-accuracy delineation and classification. By Rebecca Peck
The control of non-native invasive weeds is
of great concern in current ecosystem management. These invaders are recognized by scientists and land managers as one of the primary causes of biodiversity loss as well as a critical threat to local ecosystem processes and plant community structure and composition. Studies estimate invasive species cost the U.S. economy $138 billion annually and $4 to $6 trillion globally. Invasive species are a principle factor in the listing of about 42 percent of species protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and cause the loss of more biological diversity than any factor other than habitat loss. Increased global trade and travel are significantly increasing the rate at which new species are intentionally and unintentionally introduced around the world. As invasive weeds become established more rapidly in new areas, economic and environmental impacts will increase, and only through the use of innovative techniques can organizations manage this problem. This case study highlights two organizations that have successfully deployed GPS data collection and GIS mapping techniques to identify the presence
and concentration of invasive weeds and to develop plans to combat these thorny foes.
Bonner County, Idaho Public Works Department
This northern Idaho County faces a severe threat from the noxious aquatic weed Eurasian Milfoil. Biologists believe that the weed was introduced to the United States during World War II when milfoil fragments were pumped into the ballast systems of navy ships. Once the ships returned to the U.S., the infected water was inadvertently discharged to make room for new supplies. Since that time, Eurasian Milfoil has rapidly spread across the country from fragments left on boat trailers, moving from infested lakes to other bodies of water. This weed is thought to be particularly dangerous because it rapidly replaces native aquatic vegetation, harming local wildlife and fisheries. The dense weeds can grow up to one foot (30 centimeters) per week on the lake bottom, creating a high-risk environment for boaters and swimmers that impacts recreational usage and tourism. The effects of Eurasian Milfoil encroachment
was being severely felt at Lake Pend Oreille, a lake and river system located in Bonner County. This plant rapidly replaces native aquatic vegetation and the wildlife and fisheries causing severe degradation of water quality and habitat. The dense weed mats choke marinas and swimming beaches keeping tourists away and hurting the recreational economy of the area. Faced with this growing problem, local citizens called for the County to address the situation. Bonner County’s Public Works Department hired aquatic weed control expert Aquatechnex to perform a combination of boat and aerial surveys to get a better idea of the exact extent of the infestations present and then develop a comprehensive treatment plan.
Data Collection
For the initial mapping of Lake Pend Oreille, Aquatechnex collected aerial photography, flying nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers) of shoreline to establish an accurate basemap. The airOctober/November 2009
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craft was equipped with a Trimble GeoXT handheld computer with integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities and a Nikon D70 Camera. The combination of these two systems turns the Nikon into a GPS camera, collecting an aerial image and a GPS location and linking the photograph to that GPS location. Flight protocols were designed and implemented to maximize water penetration and Aquatechnex collected a seamless stream of images with a 30 percent overlap that covered the entire area of interest. The Aquatechnex team opted to use Trimble equipment because of their familiarity with the GeoXT handhelds, which they use for several client weed management projects, as well as its ruggedness and all-day battery life. The team was able to capture the precise flight line of the aircraft by automatically logging GPS data points every five seconds using Trimble TerraSync data collection software. Geospatial Expert’s GPS-Photo Link software
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then linked these GPS data points with the nearly 400 aerial photos collected during the flyover and dropped them into the ArcGIS project file exactly where they were collected along the flight line. These images are then available in ArcGIS as a “hot link” and can be viewed by clicking on an image point of the planes’ flight line. Aquatechnex also used Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office software to process the differential GPS corrections and to export the data to ESRI ArcPad GIS software for use of the resulting basemap in the field. This data gave the field team a more complete picture of the lake area and a comprehensive understanding of the location of the noxious weed. This innovative aerial mapping approach allowed the Aquatechnex team to survey, analyze, and report on nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers) of shoreline in onlyfive days, saving the County tens of thousands of dollars over conventional mapping techniques. “Anytime you’re faced with a weed management
issue and you’re working on the water there are no reference points,” said Terry McNabb, an aquatic biologist and owner of Aquatechnex. “That’s why we had to develop an aerial shoreline analysis model using remote sensing, GPS, and GIS mapping technologies from Trimble and ESRI. It’s really a highly accurate and cost-effective way to map a sizeable weed infestation like this,” said McNabb. “With the GeoXT handhelds, together with digital imagery, we were able to complete a very accurate survey for approximately $6,000, in contrast to conventional aerial mapping and field methods which would have cost up to $60,000.” Through this extensive yet efficient mapping process, Aquatechnex determined that approximately 4,000 acres (1,618 hectares) of the Lake Pend Oreille system was infested with Eurasian Milfoil, and was able to identify more than 100 specific locations of infestation from analyzing the aerial photos. The next step in the project was to validate
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these findings by boat, using GPS to navigate to each of the locations where aquatic plant beds were observed and recorded. ‘The boat team accessed a data dictionary on the Trimble GeoXT handhelds to record and map the precise location of Milfoil beds and to accurately classify the presence of Milfoil at each location as “dense”, “moderate/mixed”, or “sparse.” The team established an ESRI ArcGIS project file for the mission with a Geodatabase set up for weed mapping. Using the mapping software, they created polygons of probable Eurasian Milfoil beds and all aquatic plant communities that were visible in the county's photography as a map layer. The team created 143 polygons that gave an approximate dimension of each aquatic weed bed observed. This project background aerial imagery was moved onto a laptop computer system. With the detailed location information collected, the mapping teams returned to the Aquatechnex offices where they downloaded and processed the location data using the Trimble GPS Analyst extension for ESRI ArcGIS Desktop software. By interpreting the aerial imagery with the field GPS data, the polygons clearly delineated the location and density classification of the weeds.
was instrumental in helping the county save resources and reduce expenses in the initial mapping stage of the project. By applying the innovative mapping technique outlined above, the team was able to survey, analyze, and report on the nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers) of shoreline in only five days, saving tens of thousands of dollars over traditional mapping techniques.
Alaska Association of Conservation Districts
The Alaska Association of Conservation Districts (AACD) is another organization that has implemented a successful and cost-effective weed management program with a combination of Trimble GPS equipment and ESRI GIS software. Located in Wasilla, Alaska, the AACD is an organization that supports twelve statewide Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Funded by the EPA, the AACD is currently in the midst of a large-scale project aimed at mapping and controlling invasive reed canarygrass along the Kenai Peninsula. ‘The Invasive Reed Canarygrass (RCG) Management Project is particularly important because these weeds are encroaching on river beds and wetlands, impacting streamflows, and causing degradation of salmon spawning beds and habitats.’
Treatment Plan
With the detailed assessment of the extent of the weed invasion completed, Bonner County was able to submit a federal grant application and received funding of $1.8 million to execute a comprehensive and sustainable weed management effort. By working with the county, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Idaho Department of Agriculture, Aquatechnex biologists were able to develop a treatment plan to eradicate Eurasian Milfoil by focusing on four different aquatic herbicides that met the requirements of the U.S. Endangered Species Act protecting designated “critical habitat” zones for bull trout. Using boats equipped with GeoXT handhelds, the Aquatechnex team was able to navigate to the exact location of each weed infestation quickly. Biologists then treated up to 1,000 acres (404 hectares) of the Eurasian Milfoil infestations per day, at a total cost of about $430 per acre ($1,062 per hectare). To monitor the effectiveness of the treatment plan, the State of Idaho hired an independent expert from Mississippi State University. A year after the initial weed management plan went into action the university confirmed that the 4,000 acres (1,618 hectares) of herbicide treatment areas experienced “Very Good to Excellent Control.” While the Eurasian Milfoil treatment costs were adequate for this scale of weed management project, McNabb believes Trimble’s technology
ware to process the differential GPS corrections and to export the data to ESRI ArcGIS software. Also the data collected was easily shared as part of the Alaska Exotic Plant Information Clearing House (AKEPIC) Mapping Project, which was served using Excel (http://akweeds.uaa.alaska.edu/). Gino Graziano, Invasive Weeds and Agricultural Pest Coordinator DNR, Division of Agriculture, believes this type of field collection and geographic data sharing effort is an important step in improving collaboration and treatment strategies of invasive weeds across the state. “Other groups that we work with like the Alaska National Parks Service enthusiastically recommended that we use Trimble equipment for our weed management project—it was a no brainer” said Graziano. “With Trimble GeoXT handhelds we were able to survey the area with an extremely high-level of accuracy and we’ve prioritized seven streams that are critical in this effort. As management begins on infestations threatening key habitats, the high accuracy of Trimble GeoXT handhelds will allow for close monitoring and geographic display of progress in reduction of infestations size over time.” The group’s long-term plan is to gather specific location and attribute data across the Kenai Peninsula such as habitat type, size of infestations to quantify risk of infestations with the reed canarygrass. “With this data, we’ll be able to load the information into our GIS and monitor success as a reduction in the number and size of infestations, using risk of infestation of key habitats as a metric that allows us to monitor and quantify the effectiveness of our treatment plan,” said Graziano.
Treatment Plan
Partners of the AACD including the Kenai Watershed Forum have used the data to implement control practices in priority areas on the Kenai Peninsula. The majority of management is being completed using Typar fabric as a weed barrier. The AACD has established plots to monitor effectiveness and cost of various control techniques including use of weed barrier and herbicide application. Whenever control work is performed careful notes are taken on handheld GPS units, and shared amongst partners. With high-accuracy data now recorded, the AACD is working to garner funding for management. The data collected demonstrates the unique opportunity to prevent impacts to key resources, over an area the size of many states, from invasive plant infestations.
Rebecca Peck, Trimble Mapping & GIS. Internet: www.trimble.com/mgis
Data Collection
From the recommendation of team members with the Alaska National Parks Service Exotic Plant Management Team, the AACD opted to use Trimble equipment for this weed survey and management effort. An AACD weed scout used a GPS unit along with GPS Pathfinder Office and TerraSync software to collect highly-accurate data. In all, over 260 incidences of reed canarygrass locations, about 100 acres (40 hectares) were identified and mapped. Working with a very limited budget for this Reed Canarygrass project, the team was ecstatic that over the course of a summer, a single analyst was able to use Trimble GPS equipment to map the infected area. Once the data was collected the analyst used Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office soft-
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October/November 2009
Hurricane Ike Imagery, courtesy of NOAA National Geodetic Survey
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Article
Geodan’s Map Portal Geoserver.nl/uk
Always the Most Up-to-date Data
Geodan’s map portal Geoserver.nl/uk is an example of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). With one subscription, Desktop and WebGIS users receive various map backgrounds, a geocoding service and a routing service. Among the users there are web developers, brokers, real estate agencies, consultancy firms, housing corporations and banks. By Monique Husslage
world. These services are based on Microsoft’s MapPoint. It is also possible to have user-specific map layers or services developed and/or hosted at Geoserver.uk.
Pay Per View
Geoserver.nl/uk is an online service based on a ‘pay-per-view’ model. Users choose the type of subscription that best fits their expected use. The larger the subscription (the number of purchased credits), the cheaper it gets. Credits that have not been used during the year are rolled over to the next year and the amount of credits adjusted once a year. This means that the subscription is extremely flexible. This comes in particularly handy for setting up new web applications, as it is difficult to predict the numbers of visitors beforehand.
One Subscription for the Entire Organisation
Once you have subscribed to Geoserver.nl/uk, you get unlimited access to all services for one or several IP addresses. This way, the entire organisation can take advantage of the subscription, as logging in is required only for viewing statistics. These statistics can be requested by year, month and day. Besides, through authorisations, services can be partly screened off. Since the introduction of Geoserver.nl in 2005, more than 1,000 organisations have registered for Geoserver.nl and Geoserver.nl/uk, and almost one hundred subscriptions have been taken out. The choice of services is constantly being expanded. Thus, the supply of detailed map backgrounds for Europe is constantly increasing. Geodan is also working on additional functionality for Desktop GIS users, such as a geocoding tool for Europe.
Vital Dent’s area of coverage (Source: Vital Dent)
Specialization is efficiency: providing better
products or services at a lower cost. By storing and managing the geographical information of different providers on a sole central location, users no longer have to worry about management, data currency and reliability. This is the principle of Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), which are becoming more and more common in the GIS world. In reply, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has developed standards for GIS webmapping servers. Using this uniform
requesting mode, users can easily combine different types of data from different providers within their application.
Street Maps, Geocoding and Routing
Geoserver.uk, the international ‘sister’ of the popular Geoserver.nl/uk, offers a streetmap service based on Tele Atlas Multinet. Almost all Western European countries are available now, and this service will extend in the near future. Also a European geocoding and a routing service are both available for the entire
Project-based
Consulting firms often work on area-driven projects. This means they have to purchase data for a small area. This is not only a timeconsuming activity; the costs for purchasing datasets of several small areas are relatively high. With one and the same subscription for
October/November 2009
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Article
Geoserver.uk, all available geographical services can be used limitlessly, regardless of whether this is a detailed street map of Berlin, an aerial photo of Amsterdam or the geocoding of a list of customers in Greece.
Desktop and WebGIS users
Geoserver.nl/uk is used by two types of GIS users: Desktop GIS users (ArcGIS/MapInfo Professional) and WebGIS users (web builders and system integrators). Both user groups can use the European geocoding service and streetmaps. WebGIS users can also use a routing service which provides travelling times and distances between address locations or coordinates. They are also able to verify addresses for free. The result of the URL request is an XML file, which follows the GML standards as defined by the OGC.
tion of their clinics and customers. Each clinic has its own exclusivity area within which only they may practise marketing actions. Iberpubli, a Spanish direct publicity distributor uses Geoserver.nl/uk in combination with a postcode map and census-track map to make distribution plans and reports for their customers. And the Branch Advice division of Ahold Real Estate uses the geocoding service and the background maps to map (new) branches.
supporting Open GIS technology can be used in this regard. A free demo is available at www.geoserver.nl/uk/eurostreets.
Open Layers
It is also possible to use an Open Layers client organised by Geodan. Among other things, this contains a map menu and an integrated address finder. The organisation of an Open Layers map application could be contracted out to Geodan, just like management of the map layers.
Google Maps ‘Look & Feel’
The Geoserver.nl/uk maps are – in contrast with WMS - also available as TileMaps. In the case of the WMS map service, a new map image is built with every request. TileMaps on the other hand, have the look and feel of Google Maps: a seamless map image which you can easily and quickly move. This has a major impact on performance. In a TileMap, the maps are predefined, which means that all tiles can be pre-cached, so showing them is about 100 times faster. Users can organise their TileMaps application as they wish. It is therefore possible to combine one’s own branches, and all corresponding information, with a TileMaps street map. Every browser
Geodan & European Datasets
In addition to the online services of Geoserver.nl/uk, Geodan provides a wide range of ‘offline’ European datasets. For example, postcode maps of all European countries, drive time matrices and road maps. Thanks to the strong contacts with European data partners, Geodan is the main Dutch supplier for European GIS data.
Monique Husslage monique.husslage@geodan.nl is a GIS Consultant at Geodan IT. Internet: www.Geoserver.nl/uk
Mapping Dentist Clients
The user group is diverse. Subscribers vary from consulting firms, brokers, banks, distributors and housing corporations to real estate agencies, web developers and system integrators. Geoserver.nl/uk customers use the services for a variety of applications. For example, Vital Dent uses it to map the loca-
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October/November 2009
Article
Intergeo 2009 Trend Analysis
A Report on the Sector Trends
Intergeo, the world's most important congress trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management was hosted in Karlsruhe, Germany from September 22nd to the 24th this year, and attracted more than 16,000 visitors together with 1,450 congress participants. So Intergeo 2009 was once again this year’s largest meeting point for the industry in Europe. Among the visitors was a team of academic staff and students from the Technische Universität München, which was commissioned by the Runder Tisch GIS Initiative to perform a survey of the various exhibitors at the show. This article presents the most interesting results of this survey. By Özgür Ertac and Tatjana Kutzner
The Trend Analysis from Runder Tisch GIS Initiative
Once again a team of academic staff and students from the Technische Universität München was commissioned by the Runder Tisch GIS Initiative to perform a survey of the representatives of various exhibitors at Intergeo. The trend analysis team prepared a questionnaire covering the leading themes of the sector to investigate new developments, and highlight differences and improvements compared to last year, and of course the impact of new technologies in the GI market.
are not only used by themselves but are also combined with other data and applications. In the coupling of 3D city models and environmental modeling for example, 3D city models provide the main input data for simulations used to produce cold air movement calculations. A large amount of geospatial information can also be obtained from 3D city models. For instance pedestrian traffic flow, and vehicle traffic densities and road segments, all of which can be presented in combination with 3D city models to determine spatial distribution patterns. As was widely observed, there are also new developments regarding 3D-viewers in the sector. The market attracted some companies from the video-gaming industry, which provides pioneering possibilities for visualization of 3D city models. It was fascinating to see these examples modeled to the smallest detail and able to run on low-standard PCs. With this gaming experience, it is now much easier to navigate through the inside and around the outside of buildings using 3D city models. CityGML, the interchange format for 3D city models has gained huge acceptance as an OGC standard and is now supported in all observed programs. According to the opinion of those responding to the questionnaire, up to now CityGML is mainly used in Europe, and Germany in particular but is gradually gaining a foothold in the USA as well. Most respondents agreed that CityGML is the most promising standard or model for the description of 3D city models so far developed.
Laser Scanning
Laser scanning and in particular mobile mapping systems, also appeared to be a central theme at Intergeo 2009, which was presented by a large number of service providers. Numerous kinematic measurement vehicles for capturing the urban environment (infrastructure acquisition, 3D city modeling, and so on) were on display in the exhibition halls. The IMU (inertial measurement unit) is state-of-the-art technology in such vehicles and is supported by every manufacturer to increase data accuracy. Thus the scanning operation never stops even when the vehicle is being drive through a tunnel. Actual laser scanner releases are characterized by total station functionalities. A fusion of technologies seems feasible in the medium term. Especially since suppliers have more and more total station improvements for laser scanning in their repertoire. Another objective of the providers is shortening the recording time in the field by capturing more points in less time within a higher accuracy. However, the utilization of laser scanning data is a bit unclear, since there are still no universal software solutions. There is a growing demand in the industry for new software applications designed to generate new implementation areas (e.g. clearance gauge acquisition in railway construction). One implementation area affecting 3D city model production can be seen with aerial data capture in which digital photogrammetry and airborne laser scanning are in competition (espeOctober/November 2009
3D City Models
Wherever you looked, this year’s visitors were totally immersed in the theme of 3D, and 3D city models in particular. Photo-realistic models appeared to be more realistic and impressive than ever before. However, a clear thematic distinction must be made in the field of 3D, between the purely graphical models and semantic models. The purely graphical model is mainly intended for presentation purposes, whereas the semantic model scores points with its analysis functionality. So far graphical models are primarily used in tourism, urban planning and real estate. Actually semantic models have more application areas, but they are not yet totally utilized by most companies and users. So far, semantic model applications include 3D city models for the analysis of noise propagation, and solar energy implementations in which solar energy capacity is computed from the roof forms of 3D city models. Today, 3D city models
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Article
cially when carrying out building height estimation). For the question of “which method is more promising?” there is no clear opinion among those who were interviewed.
The Financial Crisis and the Sector
This hot topic was part of the survey in which our team investigated the effects the current financial conditions have had on the exhibitors. We formulated our questionnaire with the keywords “Financial Crisis”. Referring to the current crisis, our survey showed that the GIS market has remained largely unaffected. While the construction industry (mainly civil engineering) had a significant drop in business capacity, some GIS companies seemed to benefit even more during the crisis. Compared to last year at Intergeo, it was easy to see that some firms had smaller booths. Some companies which had been represented with a stand-alone display in 2008, this year shared the same booth as joint exhibits. It was noticeable that many companies also had fewer visitors from municipalities because of budget constraints in marketing. It is difficult to predict to what extent the financial losses in the public sector will be in the coming years.
Satellite Navigation
In satellite positioning and satellite navigation, Intergeo was the crossing point for the brand new satellite receivers which are now able to access GLONASS and the future Galileo signals in addition to GPS. The positioning accuracy will increase with Galileo (Europe) and Compass (China). These high-tech receivers are able to receive signals from the different navigation systems at the same time, and the requirement for a minimum of four satellites for successful positioning will no doubt improve functionality even in places with high levels of sky obstruction.
tant international meeting point, even in difficult times". Even though there were not too many eyecatchers, trend analysis of the Runder Tisch GIS shows that 3D was the hottest theme of Intergeo this year, sharing the spotlight with laser scanning and Web-based applications. We are looking forward to seeing the impact of this outstanding event in industry this year. Meanwhile 95% of exhibiting companies, government authorities and associations have already announced their intention to take part in this leading world trade fair in 2010. Intergeo 2010 will be held in Cologne, in Germany from the 5th to the 7th of October.
Links: Intergeo: www.intergeo.de Runder Tisch GIS Initiative: www.rtg.bv.tum.de The Chair of GIS, Technische Universität München: www.gis.bv.tum.de Team Members of the Trend Analysis
GMES
Another important theme this year in Intergeo was Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), an initiative for monitoring Europe’s environment and security concerns. The development of GMES was decided some 10 years ago by the European Union as part of the GEOSS program, the global counterpart of GMES. The objective of GMES is to use satellite observations, together with in-situ observations, to allow a validation of the complementary data. The data of the core services are freely available on the Internet. This core service includes the fields of marine, emergency and land which are developed separately.
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
Valuable Reflection
As usual Intergeo was again a valuable reflection of the current state of the industry. The success of the event and the record numbers of exhibitors and visitors (a 22% increase in the proportion of international visitors) prompted Dr. Hartmut Rosengarten, Chairman of the Intergeo Exhibitor Advisory Board, to make the following statement. "Here in Karlsruhe, Intergeo has once again demonstrated very impressively that it is the industry's most impor-
Daniel Banfi, Alexander Bärschmann, Rosina Bleifuß, Anton Groß, Martin Kunert, Daniel Moraru, Paul Sigloch, Stefan Wanasky, Andreas Wagner Contact: Özgür Ertac oezguer.ertac@bv.tum.de and Tatjana Kutzner tatjana.kutzner@bv.tum.de are research assistants at the Chair of GIS in Technische Universität München, in Germany.
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October/November 2009
Article
A Feat of Engineering
Lifting the St Asaph Bridge
In St Asaph in the county of Denbighshire in North-Wales recently, a 42 meter long steel bridge was lifted into place. For this accurate job Topcon’s GPT-9000A Robotic Total Station was used to assure, with millimeter accuracy, that everything fitted. Rhys Thomas of Bangor based Dawnus Construction talks us through this delicate operation. “The tender for the new bridge was awarded in January. Originally the design of the bridge was completely different, but we came up with a steel alternative that ended up being cheaper than the original design.” It did however require a 1000 ton crane, with 360 ton ballast, to lift it all into place. A feat of engineering. By Topcon Europe Positioning BV
Then it was time for the actual lift. The crane arrived here during the night of Wednesday the 19th of September. Actually it was a bit delayed because it was still being used at a site in London for the coming Olympics. But it got here on Wednesday evening. The base sector was driven into place and then a smaller crane of ‘only’ 200 ton was used to help in the assembly of the much larger crane. The larger crane was delivered on eight lorries. Eventually the 1000 ton crane was ready at 10.00am on Thursday the 20th of September.” “The crane was ready, but we still had to wait for all the official representatives of the county to show up. However we eventually decided to start the lift because the weather was starting to change. The wind was picking up and if we had to wait much longer for the county representatives we would miss our slot for the lift. So we attached four straps to the designated places on the bridge and started lifting.” A lot of checks were done before the actual lift. Many checks and re-checks, first with the HiPer and then with the GPT-9000 Total Station had taken place before the bridge was even off the ground. “The bridge had to be put on four abutments. So we also did as built surveys on the structure work. The GPT-9000 Total Station re-checked all the survey work which was originally done with the HiPer.”
“In January 2007 we won the tender for this
bridge. The county of Denbighshire, like other counties in Wales, is broadening and upgrading the many foot and cycle paths to accommodate the tourists visiting the countryside. This bridge is part of the many cycle paths along the North Wales coastline.” “We started on the site in March 2007. The whole bridge was designed and built off site by a specialist company named Nu-Steel. They manufactured the four sections of the entire 41.9 meter long bridge in their factory.”
Swing it into Place
gravel layers that we could build upon. So there was a lot of temporary works involved, just to get the project to go ahead. There is a large amount of pressure on the ground from the crane’s four outriggers, 16 tons per square meter. That is a lot of weight that needs to be distributed evenly.” Many of the designs however had been based on old drawings. A quick survey of the area with Topcon’s HiPer GPS+ RTK system showed that the lay of the land had changed from the original. “First of all we surveyed the area to update our clients records and then established our primary control for the bridge.” Finally it was time to swing the bridge into place. “It had to be lifted up in the first place and then rotated. Before it could rotate however it still needed to pick up some more ballast. The structure weighs 54 tons, so you need some counter weight on the other side. After this it was all a matter of letting it down gently between the two banks and placing it on the holding down bolts. It all fell into position without any problems. There was plenty of tolerance on the bolts but we did not need it at all. The bridge went in straight on.” Rhys Thomas closes: “That is also the advantage of using precision equipment. You can be confident in the accuracy of the instrument and the data you work with. In the end the setting down on all the abutments only took 45 minutes.” And so months of preparation assured a snug fit of the new St. Asaph bridge.
Internet: www.topcon-positioning.eu.
Assembly of the Structure
“First we had to lay down an area for the assembly of the four sections of the bridge when they arrived on site, we also had prepared an area next to this to accommodate the crane that would lift it on to the abutments. To give the 1000 ton crane a good foundation we had to dig away approximately two meters of soil in this area until we came to the sand and
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
1000 Ton Crane
The date of completion for this project was at the end of September. A deadline Dawnus had no problem making. “The actual bridge came up in four pieces and had to be assembled on site. We also had to do small things like painting and touching up the bridge after assembly.
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October/November 2009
Interview
Google's Ed Parson pleads for 'INSPIRE Plus'
Getting Geospatial Data to the Community
Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google. At the GSDI (Global Spatial Data Infrastructures) conference in Rotterdam last June he shared his opinions on INSPIRE, open source GIS and the role that Google can play in getting geospatial data out into the community. 'If you want to get investments into GIS data in the future, you have to prove its value by the citizens seeing that value, because it's the citizens that have the real political voice'.
Question: where does Google stand between the consumer and the GIS professional?
Answer: Our focus is and will always be with the mass market and the consumer. And that's where we think we can have the biggest impact. Our mission is about making information more accessible, more useful, and to try to impact as many people as we possibly can by making information available to them. Of course, some of the things we develop happen within the enterprise, for instance Google Earth Enterprise, which is in fact Google Earth (the system), but working on your own intranet. That's a byproduct, but we see that there is value in the enterprise. We also see an increasing role for national mapping agencies and large public sector lobbies to publish their information using Google's infrastructure as a channel. So, there is a huge benefit for governments to make their information as open as possible, and that has been demonstrated in a number of European countries, and really clearly in the US. If we can help by providing an infrastructure that makes it easy for government organizations to publish their raw data then that's a great thing we can help to do.
Ed Parsons, Google’s Geospatial Technologist
Q: How do you value the message of INSPIRE, if at all?
A: We're supportive of INSPIRE and supportive of building SDI's, because in some ways, it makes our life easier: it's easier to get access to that information. It's also a great opportunity to talk to national mapping agencies and the public sector organizations in Europe and to try and get the message across that sharing information is good. Sharing information by INSPIRE and national geoportals is a great way to share information within the public sector, but don’t forget that actually there's a huge benefit to getting this information out to the community. That's something that INSPIRE not necessarily addresses itself. So, I think it's important for us to say it needs to be ‘INSPIRE Plus’: recognizing the fact the information needs go out to the community. I'm genuinely impressed by what's going on in the Netherlands actually: I think what
Geonovum do, in terms of their outreach and trying to make geospatial information visible to the community, is really significant, and certainly here people seem to have really grabbed INSPIRE as an important thing to work towards. They are almost running ahead of where they actually need to be at this point, which is good. If you compare that to where I come from, I'm embarrassed by how much perhaps the UK has dragged its feet in European matters, particularly in sharing information. I still largely think there could be much more focus on doing things rather than talking about them. In general terms, SDI's are usually created by producers of information, and the terminology used and the direction followed comes from producers. There isn't really the focus on the user: what's the end user going to get from it? It's not very difficult to change your emphasis and to get into that user perspective. But it's really important and needed in this community. Otherwise, you've built a really complex, very expensive infrastructure and nobody will use it. And that's always a concern.
Q: And how do you think this information can best reach the community?
A: There's a range of solutions. One way to do it is by putting a public interface to a national SDI, but it's still relatively difficult and technical to use. Another way of doing it is by making information available to organizations like Google or Microsoft, or Yahoo, and for us to publish it parallel to our infrastructure. We're very happy to do that, and that takes the cost of hosting and distribution away from the public sector organizations. Or, just build a website and you put the raw datasets there for people to download. Our key message is that INSPIRE on its own is not enough. You really have to get the information out to the citizens because ultimately, it's the citizens that have the real political voice. If you want to get investments into GIS data in the future, you have to prove
October/November 2009
Q: How do you value North American data sets and SDI's as opposed to European ones, like INSPIRE?
A: Although I don't think the quality is any higher in the US, I think that there's a different attitude and culture to sharing information: the culture is much more open in the US and more information is shared. I argue that the quality of data in Europe is much higher because the European countries are smaller and there has been more investment on a more centralized level. But certainly the problem in most cases in Europe is that it's much harder to get access to that information.
26
Interview
“Sharing information by INSPIRE and national geoportals is a great way to share information within the public sector, but don’t forget that actually there's a huge benefit to getting this information out to the community."
the value of GIS data and let the citizens see the value. Building a geoportal that is only used by public sector organizations or true geo-rocket scientists is never really going to get that impact. Despite all the openness in terms of data and interfaces, there are still a lot of proprietary systems out there that have not, to a large extent, been impacted by open source. But I think that's going to change. When you are a big enterprise customer, you recognize that a lot of your investment in your GIS system goes into customizing and modifying commercial off the shelve software just to meet what you need to do. So, you buy big expensive toolkits and spend a lot of time building additional functionalities, and tailoring them to meet your own needs. But actually, if you're a utility company or if you're a public sector municipality, a lot of the tools that you end up developing are very similar to the tools which the municipality or utility company next door also needs to develop, or will need to develop in the near future. But at the moment that additional work isn't shared, it's done on a job by job basis by a system integrator, who will then sell that same skill and development to the next utility or the next municipality. If you can make that available as open source then it could potentially save the tax payer huge amounts of money. I think in the geospatial realm, we're missing organizations that can help from the technical point of view, to manage the open source stack. I think that from a business model there's no real difference, but because the speed by which changes can be made is different, that difference does exist. The fact that the community can contribute to change is quite important in the geospatial realm, where, because of the complexity of a lot of things that we do, the software just isn't right and it needs some modification. If you can put that modification back in quickly, then I think there is huge potential here.
Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google. Visit his blog at www.edparsons.com
Q: Let’s discuss open source: is there a relationship between the upcoming consumer-type GIS and open source as opposed to Desktop GIS? How do you value open source in general?
A: I think there is a relationship, if you look at what we talk about today as Web 2.0, which is largely an open source stack: the number of services out there that sit on top of a Linux operating system, connecting to a MySQL database, an Apache webserver and OpenServer or GeoServer. There's a huge amount of open source technology that we use in our day-to-day lives. It's playing a really important role and that role will certainly increase in the geospatial community.
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
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October/November 2009
Interview
An Interview with Bradley Doorn
Agricultural Monitoring Using Spaceborne Imagery
With an ever increasing world population and changing patterns of weather and climate, global food security is now a matter of major importance, presenting a real challenge to national governments as well as international agencies. Bradley Doorn is asked about USDA and NASA activities in the monitoring and assessment of global agricultural production in response to this challenge, including the matter of the future availability of U.S. spaceborne imagery that can be used for this purpose. By Gordon Petrie
Examples of the different agricultural landscapes that may be encountered world-wide. These show the differences in field geometry and size that occur in different parts of the world, as recorded on ASTER images. At top left is the grid field pattern found in Minnesota; at upper middle are the circular fields in Kansas resulting from the use of center-pivot irrigation; while, at top right, the image shows the small size and random pattern of fields found in a part of north-western Germany. On the image at bottom left, are the radial patterns of the fields that have been produced through a planned settlement scheme in the tropical forest area of Bolivia; the lower middle image shows the long thin rice paddy fields fed by canals near Bangkok in Thailand; while the image at lower right shows the large fields and huge farms occurring in parts of southern Brazil.
GP – Touching first on the position that you occupied for such a long period at USDA, please explain to readers why and how the monitoring and assessment of global agricultural production was and is being undertaken by FAS/OGA using spaceborne imagery.
BD – Spaceborne imagery has been used by FAS for nearly three decades. FAS uses space-
borne imagery to establish or verify the national crop production reporting of major world commodities that are critical to global food security and world economies. Spaceborne imagery provides a key piece of evidence (among others) that is provided to those USDA decision makers who establish U.S. agricultural policies and publish agriculture economic indicators. Within this specific context, spaceborne imagery provides indicators such as vegetation
Dr. Bradley Doorn is the Program Manager for Agriculture and Water Applications in the Applied Science Program within NASA’s Earth Science Division and he is also the current President of the American Society of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ASPRS). His academic qualifications include a B.Sc. degree in Geological Engineering and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Digital Photogrammetry. He served as a Topographic Officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and spent some years as a manager in the commercial mapping industry. However most of his career has been spent in U.S. government agencies. For 12 years, he acted as a division director within the Office of Global Analysis (OGA) of the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). His responsibilities included the management of (i) the programme of global monitoring of agriculture that is carried out by FAS using spaceborne remote sensing imagery; and (ii) the U.S. Satellite Imagery Archive, which provides centralised contracting and distribution of spaceborne imagery for multiple USDA agencies in order to reduce its cost and expand its use. In the course of these various activities, Brad Doorn has cooperated extensively with NASA and, this summer, he has transferred and started a new career with its Applied Science Program which, as noted above, forms part of NASA’s Earth Science Division.
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Interview
[a]
[b]
(a) This map shows the route of the crop assessment being carried out on the ground in Ethiopia to assist in the interpretation and analysis that is being c onducted by USDA/FAS using spaceborne imagery. (b) The Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI) is a water-balance model developed by the UN Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) which, in this case, indicates the potential performance of the maize crop for the imaged area in Ethiopia.
health, vegetation type, soil moisture, precipitation and temperature. Spaceborne imagery is often the only “primary” observation integrated into the decision making process that provides objective, transparent and timely assessments of global food supply. Understanding the global food supply is clearly more important today than ever.
response and FEWSNET is working with NASA to continually get better access to observations and models to help improve their response, both in timeliness and accuracy.
GP – Regarding the analyses of the imagery that are being conducted continuously by FAS/OGA, how are the results communicated to organisations such as the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) for Africa and the MesoAmerica Famine Early Warning System (MFEWS) for Latin America? Can this information be supplied in time to have an impact on the availability of food in those countries affected by widespread drought (that develops over a long time period) or through disasters such as large-scale river or coastal flooding (that occur over a much shorter time-scale)?
BD - FEWSNET and FAS work closely together to share both data and analysis. FAS publishes its analysis in collaboration with the World Agriculture Outlook Board (WAOB) and the FAS attachés who are located in U.S. embassies around the world. FAS focuses on global food supply and the factors that drive global supply and demand. FEWSNET (which is funded by USAID) is a key partner that focuses on food deficit countries and has a network of analysts and spaceborne derived products that target these nations and their specific needs. FEWSNET has been a key resource for supporting emergency relief and providing early warning of disasters. Timeliness is always a key issue in disaster
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GP – Given the current and well-documented limitations in the availability and quality of Landsat imagery, presumably considerable use has had to be made by FAS/OGA of non-U.S. medium-resolution space imagery for monitoring purposes. If so, then how has this worked out in practice? Has this imagery been readily available for use on a global scale or has it only been used for those areas that are of concern?
BD – Landsat has been a key tool for FAS for the past three decades. For many of those years, FAS has used SPOT-HRV satellite data to provide observations in support of the Landsat observations. In recent years, FAS has used IRS-P6 (Resourcesat-1) AWiFS imagery to
further support its mission, both to compensate for Landsat limitations and to enhance the frequency of coverage in key agriculture regions. While the global systematic coverage and the long-term archive that the Landsat program provides could not be replaced, key agriculture regions were covered in this way.
GP – Obviously the successful launch of the LDCM (as Landsat-8) and its entry into service in 2012 will be a great step forward in ensuring the continuity of the Landsat archive and in conducting global agricultural monitoring. However looking to the longer term, what about the further continuity of the Landsat programme? Have the decisions been made to ensure this continuity, given the considerable time that will be required to construct, test and launch the required satellites.
BD – LDCM and the Landsat program are recognized as a great asset to the U.S. space program by NASA. Discussions are on-going as to how the moderate resolution imagery that Landsat has provided over the years can be provided in the long-term.
An artist’s impression of the NPP (NPOESS Preparatory Project) satellite – which will test out three of the imaging instruments that will be used later in the fully operational NPOESS satellites. The test instruments will include the Visible–Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) which will cover the wavelength spectrum from 0.4 to 13 micrometres in 22 spectral bands at GSD values ranging from 600 to 1,200 metres.
GP – In many countries, extensive use is being made of the lower-resolution MODIS imagery for monitoring purposes. This imagery is available from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. However these satellites were launched a long time ago – Terra in December 1999 and Aqua in May 2002. So again there is the question among the global remote sensing community about the continuity of this very valuable and widely-used resource. Are these satellites going to be replaced when they come to the end of their operational lives?
October/November 2009
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Interview
An artist’s impression of the NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) which will form the basis of the next generation of low earth orbiting environmental satellites and will act as a replacement for both the U.S. Department of Defense DMSP satellites and the NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) satellite series.
BD – NASA is committed to ensuring that MODIS imagery is available for as long as possible. In fact, NASA continues to make improvements to the MODIS data products and to the public access of those products. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) – which is scheduled for launch in January 2011 – and the operational NPOESS program are in the queue to ensure that these daily, lower resolution observations are available in the long-term.
GP – Turning next to your new position as a program manager within NASA’s Applied Sciences Program, your published responsibilities will once again include agriculture. Presumably this will again involve you in the monitoring and forecasting of both global and domestic agricultural production, but not directly as is being done in USDA/FAS. So which specific aspects of agriculture will you be focussing on in your new role at NASA?
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BD – My new role will allow me to work with NASA earth scientists and other researchers to identify, develop and demonstrate how NASA missions and science can be utilized by agriculture decision makers. There are numerous policy issues surrounding agriculture today such as water resources, climate change and international trade. The challenge is to work with those agencies and programs that need to make critical agriculture decisions and determine how (and if ) NASA missions and science can be used to help them. One key issue is how do we use global agriculture monitoring data and technology to address applications that are often very local or regional in scope.
decade? Will the work on water resources be carried out in-house within NASA or will this be contracted out to be executed by universities, by other federal agencies or by private consultancies?
BD – Global water resources are a key issue for our program. We understand that the water cycle is global in scope, but it clearly has regional impacts and responses that vary across landscapes. NASA has numerous assets both in-orbit and scheduled for the future that focus on the water cycle issues. One example of how NASA is addressing water cycle science is the Soil Moisture Active & Passive (SMAP) mission. SMAP is utilizing passive and active sensors together to measure soil moisture and it has an applications working group that is defining how to use the science data from this mission for applications before the instrument is launched. As with all other NASA applied sciences, help from NASA centers, universities, federal agencies
October/November 2009
GP – Your responsibilities within the Applied Science Program also include water resources. Again does this involve the monitoring of these resources on a global scale using NASA’s satellites? How will this be carried out during the coming
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Interview
[a]
and the private sector is being sought to provide the best applications possible.
GP – As the current president of the ASPRS in the year when the Society celebrates its 75th anniversary, how do you see it developing in the future, given the ever changing and rapidly developing digital imaging and scanning technologies that are being used for data acquisition in both photogrammetry and remote sensing?
BD – In our 75th year, ASPRS members and the science and technology that they represent are more important than ever. My message when I took over as President of ASPRS was that monitoring and measuring change is of highest value when uncertainty in general is also high. For example, as demands on our Earth’s
resources continue to grow and the impact of climate change becomes more visible, while remaining uncertain as to cause or effect, ASPRS members are extremely critical in ensuring that we are accurately and reliably measuring this change. ASPRS members are also key to understanding how and why this change is occurring. Furthermore our collective resultant findings are vital in identifying alternative solutions and in supporting effective monitoring regimes to respond to this critical global challenge.
GP – While the photogrammetric side of ASPRS includes a large number of commercial air survey and mapping companies who are sustaining members of the Society and who supply a substantial part of the membership, it is noticeable that the number of universities in the U.S. that offer higher-level photogrammetry programmes has declined markedly over the last 10 to 15 years. Is the Society planning to try and redress this situation so that the professionals (e.g. technologists and managers) that will be required by the industry in the future will be available when the present generation of experienced staff retire?
(a) The SMAP (Soil Moisture Active-Passive) satellite will use a combined microwave radiometer and high-resolution radar in conjunction with a shared mesh antenna to measurethe soil moisture and freeze-thaw state of the ground. This information will enable improvements to be made in weather, flood and drought forecasts and in predictions of agricultural productivity.. (b) This diagram shows the measurement geometry and ground coverage of the radiometer and radar imaging combination that will be mounted on the SMAP satellite.
[b]
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BD – There are many factors affecting the current situation related to photogrammetry education, and we probably can’t address all of them here. However, ASPRS is most definitely concerned with the decline in the number of large photogrammetry programs in the U.S. Indeed ASPRS staff members have worked with our colleagues at the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) and through the Accreditation Board on Engineering and Technology (ABET) [ACSM is the ABET member society for these curriculum areas] to ensure the continued viability of photogrammetric education in the U.S. We are especially concerned that the U.S. programs awarding advanced degrees in this area are suffering, which leaves the nation with a potentially critical strategic shortage of native-born talent – a situation which has recently caught the attention of some of the largest government agencies involved with this discipline. In addition, we have been called upon to provide advice and consultation to several institutions hosting four-year photogrammetry programs as they work to address related issues. More generally, our highest priorities at ASPRS include our student members, along with the development of a highly trained workforce to meet the global challenges we have just discussed. The growth in the number of student chapters in recent years, our robust awards and scholarships program (funded through the ASPRS Foundation), and the many related student outreach activities have been notable successes due to the efforts of my predecessors and the ASPRS staff. We continue to adapt our certification program to be sure that we are meeting the needs of the industry, and the photogrammetry certifications are by far the largest group. We are also working with 2-year post-secondary programs as well as developing material for the growing number of interdisciplinary programs that integrate photogrammetry and remote sensing into solutions-oriented curricula (e.g. GIS). This will be a big challenge for us as the current generation retires, but I am convinced that ASPRS is ready and accessible, and will continue to meet the needs of our nation’s image-based workforce.
For more information regarding the activities of NASA and USDA in global agricultural monitoring, please see the following Web sites:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ NasaNews/Agriculture2009 www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer http://jointmission.gsfc.nasa.gov http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm www.fews.net Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor of Topographic Science in the Dept. of Geographical & Earth Sciences of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. E-mail - Gordon.Petrie@ges.gla.ac.uk
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October/November 2009
Article
The acquisition of survey data is a time-consuming thing in itself, but it can be even more difficult when the data has to be acquired in a place that has a lot of traffic. Dutch company Geomaat found a solution that not only reduces surveying time, but also is suitable for heavily trafficked areas. By Lambert-Jan Koops
Streetmapper 360 for Acquiring Topography
Geomaat Acquires 3D Data without Traffic Obstruction
Geomaat is an independent surveying company founded in 2002. From its head office in
Groningen, the Netherlands, the company performs a variety of different projects, from measurements on the ground, road and water construction, and profile measurements for water boards to GPS volume definitions and topographic measurements for communities and developers. Geomaat was the first company in the world to buy the Streetmapper 360 system. This is a surveying system that can perform 360-degree laser scans from a moving car. Complete motorways and urban areas can be surveyed at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour. Director Jolle Jelle de Vries explains why the company bought this system: “Right from the start Geomaat has been engaged in innovative solutions, and every year we look for new methods and equipment that can sustain our work. Three years ago we started with surveying 3D data using GPS stations that were mounted on quads, so we already had experience with mobile surveying systems. In 2008 we first came into contact with the supplier of Streetmapper 360, the English company 3D Laser Mapping, and after going through trial trajects in May and June we bought the system in November. Where the former Streetmapper solution made use of four stationary scanners, our system uses two rotating laser scanners. Also, our system offers more options because the resolution is higher than the previous version.”
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Scanners
Streetmapper 360 contains not only two rotating laser scanners, but also a GPS module so that the position of the system can be defined. In addition, the entire system is provided with a delay navigation system. De Vries explains why this is needed: “The scanners are mounted on top of the car and scan the surrounding environment. If the car is on a hill or if the road surface is not bumpy, this can cause large deviations in the surveying data. The scanners can survey objects within a radius of 300 meters, so if the laser beams are wired underneath a small, distorted angle, this causes a discrepancy of a few meters at the fringe of the surveying circle. The delaying navigation system is able to keep track of these deviations so that scan data can be corrected.” Streetmapper 360 can survey 600,000 points per second. The resolution of the surveyed trajects depends, of course, on the speed of the car and varies from 5 millimeters to 5 centimeters. For projects on public roads it is desirable to have another car drive along in the normal traffic flow to avoid causing a nuisance. Surveying can be performed at a speed between 80 and 100 kilometers per hour and with an average point density of around 400 per square meter.
to this problem is to remove the road surface and foundation completely and reconstruct this part of the motorway. The Dutch water board will be starting these activities based on a design supplied by Geomaat. De Vries explains what the company did here: “First we surveyed the traject with Streetmapper. This yielded a file of 50 million points in different categories that we post-processed and categorized in MicroStation. The data was classified into different categories such as soil, art works and high and low vegetation. Also, the captured data was checked because we surveyed the height with the aid of leveling. This yielded a standard deviation of 8 millimeters. When the models were created, they were loaded into AutoCAD Civil 3D where length profiles and cross sections were created. Also, a new road design was created by Geomaat employees. This fits in with Geomaat activities, De Vries explains: “We are not an engineering company that creates a completely new design, but it’s easy for us to convey improvements. This means that we not only removed bumps in the course, but we also had a look at the super-elevation of the entries and exits. Also, we looked for a solution that requires a minimum amount of earth moving, so the activities can be carried out optimally.”
A32
One of the projects that Geomaat has already carried out with the Streetmapper 360 system is surveying an 11 kilometer course on the A32 between Steenwijk and Wolvega. The motorway has bumps on the full width of the track, particularly in the northern direction, with severe rutting. This is caused by a broken foundation that is not supporting the road. The only right solution
Video Imagery
The 3D model created by Geomaat will be used later for driving building machinery. When the work has been finished the Streetmapper 360 will survey the course again, and after that the surveyors will check if the activities have been carried out correctly based on the data. To make the digital activities easier Geomaat has provided video imagery data captured with digital video cameras that are also part of the Streetmapper system. The video images are directly linked to the digital model so every view from the surveying vehicle can be verified on the screen when post-processing. This, however, is only meant as a visual support for the data. De Vries: “It may be clear that the camera images are never meant to be used as a foundation for measurements. The data are more reliably available in the 3D model we provide on the basis of surveying data.”
Internet: www.geomaat.nl
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October/November 2009
Article
Using RapidEye Data without Ground Control
Automated High-Speed High-Accuracy
A fully automated high-speed system to produce high-accuracy multispectral orthos and mosaics for optical data from all over the world is now possible with the availability of RapidEye satellite data and graphic processing unit processor. Time-sensitive applications, such as agricultural or disaster management, can now access high-accuracy orthos as soon as the data is available. By Philip Cheng and Jiri Sustera
RapidEye Satellites
RapidEye is a constellation of five satellites launched simultaneously on August 29, 2008. Each satellite measures less than one cubic meter and weighs 150 kg (bus + payload). On board digital recorders store image data until the satellite passes within range of the ground receiving station located in Svalbard, Norway. The satellites have a global revisit time in 1 day and it can image more than 4 million km2 every day. Each satellite carries a pushbroom multi-spectral sensor, capable of collecting image data in five distinct bands of electromagnetic spectrum at GSD 6.5 meters: Blue, Green, Red, Red-Edge, and Near-Infrared. RapidEye's satellites are the first commercial satellites to include the Red-Edge band, which is sensitive to changes in chlorophyll content. Additional research will be necessary to realize the full potential of the Red-Edge band, however, preliminary studies show that this band can assist in monitoring vegetation health, improve species separation and help in measuring protein and nitrogen content in biomass.
RapidEye Applications
There are many potential applications for RapidEye satellites: (1) Agriculture – Field boundary extraction, crop identification, acreage determination, yield forecasting, management and harvest zone mapping, damage assessment and risk management for agricultural insurances, etc. (2) Forestry – Tree species separation, stem volume estimation, infestation detection, volume estimation, harvest mapping, etc. (3) Security and emergency – Disaster management after tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, floods, landslides, hail, fires, earthquakes, etc. (4) Environment – Change detection for any environmental purpose. (5) Spatial Solutions – Background imagery services, updating road network databases, ortho-image maps, etc. (6) Energy and infrastructure – Pipeline monitoring, land cover classification, clutter mapping, etc. Further information on RapidEye applications can be found at http://www.rapideye.de. When comparing with other optical satellites, the biggest advantage of RapidEye is the speed to provide high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery within 12-48 hours because of the constellation of five satellites. The second advantage, which will be described in this article, is the ability to generate high accuracy orthos and mosaics using no ground control information.
October/November 2009
Figure 1: Overview image of RapidEye Irvine data
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Article
Orthorectification and Mosaicking
Figure 2: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye image of Irvine corrected without GCPs overlaid with USGS 1:24000 vectors
Orthorectification of RapidEye Data
For most applications, the data must be corrected to a map projection before it becomes useful; this correction process is called orthorectification or geometric correction. The process requires the use of a rigorous geometric model, ground control points (GCPs), and a digital elevation model (DEM). The collection of GCPs presents a significant problem for orthorectification. An existing source of GCPs may not be available. It is often too expensive to collect new points, especially for areas
Figure 3: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye image of Irvine corrected without GCPs overlaid with Google Earth
inaccessible by road. In some cases, the collection of GCPs is made almost impossible by local conditions such as floods or earthquake. The RapidEye satellite platforms have been constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). Each satellite uses a star tracker known as the Altair HB. It was developed as an alternative low cost, high accuracy, spacecraft attitude determination and control sensor. The accurate attitude information could potentially help to orthorectify the RapidEye data accurately to any map projection without the need
October/November 2009
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Article
Figure 4: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye Phoenix data corrected without GCPs overlaid with USGS 1:24000 vectors
for GCPs. This would be an immense benefit to numerous applications where accurately-corrected orthos are needed as soon as possible. In this article, we will use different RapidEye data to test and explore orthorectification accuracy without the use of GCPs.
without GCPs. Level 1B data were obtained for the following areas: (1) Irvine, California, USA. (2) Phoenix, Arizona, USA, and (3) Zlin and Koprivnice regions, Czech Republic.
Geometric Correction Method and Software RapidEye Test Data
Each RapidEye 1B data is supplied with 5 bands in NITF format. In addiRapidEye Standard Image Products can be purchased in two product tion, rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) are provided with the data, levels, depending on the task at hand. (1) RapidEye Basic Product which enables the use of RPC model to orthorectify the data. More (level 1B): This data has had radiometric and sensor corrections applied details about the RPC model can be found in the paper written by to it, as well as on-board spacecraft attitude and ephemeris. (2) Grodecki and Dial (Block Adjustment of High-Resolution Satellite Images RapidEye Ortho Product (level Described by Rational Functions 3A): Offers the highest level pro- PE &RS January, 2003). Since cessing available. Radiometric, biases or errors still exist in the sensor and geometric correcRPCs, the results can be posttions have been applied to the processed with a polynomial data. These have been rectified adjustment and several accurate using a DTED level 1 SRTM DEM GCPs. or better, and with appropriate The latest version of PCI GCPs can meet an accuracy of Geomatics’ OrthoEngine soft6m 1-sigma (12.7 CE90). The ware was used for this testing. highest accuracy that can be This software supports reading achieved by these products of the data, manual or automatmeets 1:25,000 NMAS stanic GCP/tie point (TP) collection, dards. geometric modeling of different Most users would prefer to use satellites using Toutin’s rigorous Level 1B data because they can model or the RPC model, autouse their own GCPs and DEMs matic DEM generation and editto generate orthos. In this artiing, orthorectification, and cle we will test the correction Figure 5: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye Phoenix data corrected without GCPs either manual or automatic accuracy of 1B data with and mosaicking. overlaid with Google Earth
October/November 2009
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Article
Figure 6: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye Zlin data corrected without GCPs overlaid with Google Earth
Irvine, California
The data has a coverage of approximately 76 km by 230 km. Figure 1 shows an overview of the image. 14 GCPs were collected from USGS 1:24000 scale maps and 0 order RPC adjustment was used. The root means square (RMS) GCP residuals were about 3.6m in X and 7.0m in Y with a maximum residual of 6.5m in X and 11.5m in Y. The results were similar when using 1st order RPC adjustment. When all the GCPs were changed to independent check points (ICPs), the RMS ICP errors were about 5.7m in X and 7.5m in Y with a maximum error of 11.7m in X and 13.6m in Y. Although the errors are slightly higher when no GCPs were used, the RMS errors are still close to the resolution of the sensor, i.e., 6.5m. The accuracy of the GCPs using 1:24000 scale maps could also contribute the errors in the result. Figure 2 and 3 show examples of the orthorectified image corrected without GCPs overlaid with 1:24000 USGS vectors and Google Earth, respectively.
of approximately 76 km by 162 km. 14 DGPS GCPs with sub-meter accuracy were collected from the data set. The RMS GCP residuals were about 2.3m in X and 2.1m in Y with a maximum residual of 3.3m in X and 4.7m in Y. When all the GCPs were changed as ICPs, the RMS ICP errors were 3.5m in X and 4.2m in Y with a maximum error of 6.3m in X and 6.5m in Y. Hence, RMS errors when no GCPs were used are within the resolution (6.5m) of the sensor in this case. Figure 4 and 5 show examples of the orthorectified image corrected without GCPs overlaid with 1:24000 USGS vectors and Google Earth, respectively.
Czech, Republic
RapidEye 1B data set of Zlin and Koprivnice regions were acquired on June 14, 2009. The size of each scene was around 76 km by 60 km. The GCPs were collected from 0.5m aerial orthophotos and elevations of GCPs were extracted from DEM that was generated using 2m contours originated from 1:10 000 topographic maps. For testing purposes more than 30 GCPs were prepared for each scene. The 1st order of RPC adjustment was used for all scenes. In the case of scene acquired over Zlin region 34 GCPs were collected.
October/November 2009
Phoenix, Arizona
A block of three 1B RapidEye data set with overlaps was tested in this case. Each image has a coverage
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Figure 7: Full resolution orthorectified RapidEye Koprivnice data corrected without GCPs overlaid with Google Earth
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Article
The RMS GCP residuals were about 2.0m in X and 1.9m in Y with a maximum residual of 5.4m in X and 4.4m in Y. When all the GCPs were changed to ICPs, the RMS ICP errors were about 3.7m in X and 4.6 m in Y with a maximum error of 6.6m in X and 9.5m in Y.
mated system. Multiple computers can also be used to speed up the processes. The fully automated process means that it is easy to generate RapidEye orthos/mosaics for many critical applications for quick turnaround. Modern computer hardware such as multi-core In the case of scene processors and graphiacquired over Koprivcal processing units nice region 30 GCPs (GPU) have been found were collected. The to improve the speed Figure 8: Automatic mosaicked RapidEye image of Phoenix RMS GCP residuals of computation-bound were about 2.6m in X and 2.3m in Y with a maximum residual of 5.8m processes. The model for GPU computing is to use a CPU and GPU in X and 5.4m in Y. When all the GCPs were changed to ICPs, the RMS together in a heterogeneous computing model. The sequential part of ICP errors were about 5.1m in X and 3.9m in Y with a maximum error the application runs on the CPU and the computationally-intensive part of 10.5m in X and 8.6m in Y. runs on the GPU. From the user’s perspective, the application simply runs faster because it is using the high-performance of the GPU to boost Hence, both data have RMS error within the resolution of the sensor performance. PCI GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) has taken advantage when no GCPs were used. Figure 6 and 7 show the orthorectified images of this modern computer hardware by integrating the use of GPU comusing no GCPs overlaid with Google Earth. puting to perform intense computation tasks such as pansharpening, orthorectification and automatic mosaicking. It provides speed imAutomatic Mosaicking provements of approximately 6 times for pansharpening, 10 times for The successful generation of high accuracy RapidEye orthos means that orthorectification and 5 times for automatic mosaicking. These improveit is possible to create seamless mosaics of RapidEye data without ments in processing speed will help the user to obtain results much GCPs. However, mosaicking and color balancing are usually extremely faster without any change in accuracy. time consuming processes. The PCI automatic cutline searching, Conclusions mosaicking and color balance tools could be used to perform the entire It is possible to generate high accuracy orthos and mosaics of Rapideye process automatically. No human intervention would be required durdata without ground control points for quick turnaround. The test results ing the process. To test the automatic mosaicking of RapidEye data, show RMS errors consistently around one resolution of the data. The the block of three Phoenix data were used. The mosaic file has a size fact the GCPs are not required for RapidEye geometric correction of approximately 5.6 Gigabytes. Figure 8 shows the overview of the translates to very significant cost and time savings for the user. In mosaic image and figure 9 shows a full resolution of the mosaic image addition, automated batch processing to generate a large quantity of overlaid with the cutline in red color. It can be seen from figure 9 that RapidEye orthos/mosaics is now possible using single or multiple the roads are aligned to each other perfectly at the cutline between computers. The use of GPU computing can improve the speed of the two images. orthorectification to 10 times faster and automatic mosaicking up to Automated Batch Processing using GPU 5 times faster. Since high accuracy RapidEye orthos and mosaics can be generated Dr. Philip Cheng cheng@pcigeomatics.com automatically without GCPs, it is possible to integrate all the processes is a senior scientist at PCI Geomatics. in a fully automated batch system. Mr. Jiri Sustera jiri.sustera@gisat.gz is The batch programs required to perremote sensing expert at GISAT. form all the steps are available inside PCI software. It can be run The authors would like to acknowlthrough python or PCI EASI scripts. edge RapidEye Company and JRC European Commission for The advantages of automated proproviding the test data. cessing are that it will: (1) maximize production, (2) automate repetitive time-consuming tasks to produce consistent results, (3) improve operating efficiencies, (4) reduce labor costs, and (5) shorten throughput time for the delivery cycle. The generation of a large quantity of high accuracy orthos or mosaics, such as a mosaic of an entire country, can Figure 9: Full resolution automatic mosaicked RapidEye image of Phoenix overbe generated easily with the autolaid with cutlines
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October/November 2009
Article
Survey of the Munster
Topcon GMS-2
The Office for Surveying and Registration in Münster is responsible for the municipal mapping of the 302.9 square kilometer city. In order to include detailed features within an accuracy range of less than one meter on the maps, the office decided to use Topcon’s handheld GMS-2 receiver. Using the GMS-2 means that graduate engineer Erich Taube is able to collect precise position information for areas that cannot be covered by existing aerial photography. In the future, this information will be uploaded to the internet. By one of the Editors
of our tasks is the creation of all forms of topographic mapping as well as continuous updating. All services derived from this data, like the production of prints etc., are also within our field of activity. During this process, quick and reliable access to this data is essential. Therefore, we use our own file server on which all geographic information is stored. Citizens are able to chose from different thematic maps such as “Points of Interest” and others.’
Geographical Information
Current mapping of the city is needed not only by the many civic offices and institutions but also by companies and private individuals. ‘The Police Department and Emergency Medical Services have a permanent need for current maps and use our mapping products. These maps are “house-number accurate”.’ A key reason for purchasing the GMS-2 is its ability to connect to the Panasonic CF-19 ToughBook running the HHK GEOgraf software which makes use of SAPOS real-time correction data. The GMS-2 is the most compact single-frequency receiver that is able to process SAPOS correction data and export corrected coordinates as NMEA strings. The option of monitoring real-time measuring accuracy via HDOP, VDOP and PDOP on the display is a great advantage. ‘The use of the GMS-2 in connection with the Panasonic CF-19 has stood the test of time. Additionally, due to the great color display
During a walk through the survey area, Mr
Taube described his work to us. ‘The basic 1:5000 mapping and aerial photography of Münster form the basis for our work. This existing information is completed by carrying out measurements with the GMS-2, and thus creates the basis of the municipal cartography. We can compare a map on the spot with the real world and record details. This, of course, is only possible outdoors!’
Updating the Mapping – An Important Task
‘Extending 21 kilometers from east to west and 22 kilometers from south to north, Münster is the second largest city of Northrhine-Westphalia in terms of area. Currently, the Office for Surveying and Registration employs around 100 people. One
and the software extension eTopPlus for ArcPAD7 (developed by Topcon) it is possible to use the GMS-2 without CF-19 in difficult environments.’
Internet: www.topcon-positioning.eu
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October/November 2009
Article
An Evolution of the Millennial Pair (Pt.1)
Geolocation and Time
By Joc Triglav From Anniversaries into the Future
This year’s 250-th anniversary of the invention of the famous watch H-4 that ultimately resolved the longitude problem and the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope is also an opportunity to look at geodesy as a science of measuring the Earth’s shape as a function of time. The paper gives an insight in some basic developments and describes the historical development of geodesy by pointing out and demonstrating the relations between the Earth’s shape, geolocation and time measurements from the ancient times to the present time. Since the ancient times the flow of time was a natural measure of man’s movements in the physical space and of movements of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and all the other celestial bodies in the vastness of space. Providing the scientific means of how to reference the ‘where’ and ‘when’ through millennia, geodesy enables to put the ‘who’ or ‘what’ in the spatio-temporal space and to present the answers to ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. Astronomy, geodesy, surveying and geography along with cartography, are the sciences that naturally combine the knowledge about space and time providing the natural and social sciences a framework for the development of the constantly growing knowledge of humankind. One of the crucial tasks of geodetic science in the modern era is to provide its unified spatial and temporal reference to geoinformation science and its wide area of application fields. Geodesy in the beginning of 21st century is defined essentially by the development of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which enables the national geodetic organizations a gradual transition from their specific national terrestrial reference systems to the global terrestrial reference system. This way standardised information on geolocation is becoming a ubiquitous global utility, opening new windows of opportunities for geoinformation science and the humankind. ful solution for measuring the longitude, pursuing their astronomic measurements and mapping the movements of the chosen known celestial bodies in the sky. The year 2009 has yet another important anniversary to remember. As a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture and as a promotion of a greater appreciation of the inspirational aspects of astronomy that embody an invaluable shared resource for all nations this year is declared as The International Year of Astronomy 2009 and marks the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope (Figure 2(b)) by Galileo Galilei (Figure 2(a)) and the resulting journey of discovery for humanity. Though the invention of the accurate watch overran astronomers’ scientific efforts and reached the ultimate longitude determinantion goal first 250 years ago, we can see from historic records and from today’s perspective that we need the best of both – time measurements and astronomic measurements – in order to define accurately a global foundation for measuring objects in space and time. In present times, the technology of accurate time measurements has moved from mechanical watches to cesium and rubidium atomic clocks, while in the technology of astronomic measurements the observations of natural celestial bodies retain their fundamental value
1 Introduction
This year we remember 250-th anniversary of the John Harrison’s H-4 (Figure 1, Figure 1(a), 1(b)), the famous watch that ultimately resolved the longitude problem, one of the toughest and most intriguing scientific problems of the larger part of human history. The watch, the perfect “Timekeeper for the Longitude” as the inventor called it, was finished in 1759 and provided with an excellent timekeeping mechanism a purely mechanical solution to the longitude problem. On the other hand, the most brilliant scientific minds from all over Europe were searching for centuries to provide an accurate and use-
Figure 1. Portrait of John Harrison (1693–1776) painted in 1766. He invented the first practical marine chronometer, which enabled navigators to compute accurately their longitude at sea. (Image source: https://history-wiki.wikispaces.com)
Figure 1(a). John Harrison’s marine timekeeper H4, obverse, diameter 132 mm. (Repro ID: D0789_1, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London).
Figure 1(b). Marine timekeeper H4 with open upper plate and visible signature “John Harrison & Son A.D. 1759”. (Repro ID: D789-B, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London).
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2 A Short History of Relations between Geolocation and Time
Common sense tells us that spatial aspects of all existence are fundamental. Before an awareness of time, there is an awareness of relations in space. Space seems to be that aspect of existence to which most other things can be analogized or with which they can be equated. The concept of spatial relatedness is a quality without which it is difficult or impossible for the human mind to apprehend anything. For this reason, a man in the earliest era of development developed a sense of relations between here and there and wanted to communicate these relations to the others. At the same time, a man wanted to acquire them from these others. The easiest way to do it was through maps. Maps constitute a common language used by men of different races and tongues to express the relationship of their society to a geographic environment. Maps have changed and developed through history as much as human mind and knowledge did. The ways used to represent and organize these spatial relationships in a form of map changed and developed as well, from the simplest forms up to present sophisticated digital products. Astronomy, geodesy, surveying and geography along with cartography, are the sciences that enabled this development.
Figure 2(a). Portrait of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), painted in 1636 by J. Sustermans. Galileo has been referred to as the "father of modern astronomy", as the "father of modern physics", and as the "father of science". (Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org).
Figure 2(b). Two of Galileo’s first telescopes; in the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, Florence.
in providing a unified reference of a modern global terrestrial reference system. However, since the middle of the 20th century the natural celestial bodies are not the only objects of observation for astronomers and geodesists any more. With the Russian Sputnik I in the year 1957, we entered into the era of artificial satellites, which has evolved in a few decades to such a level, that the satellite techniques have gained an essential and actually indispensable role in global positioning, navigation and timing. The US Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) system were established as Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GNSS), while the European Galileo and the Chinese BeiDou2-Compass systems are already in their initial operating phases. All these systems are actually based on the same concepts, i.e. on a constellation of Earth orbiting spacecraft emitting signals with precise orbital and time data. Suitable receiver equipment combines the signals from at least four spacecraft yielding the time and the three spatial coordinates. In a certain way, the humanity is in a similar position nowadays as it was two and a half centuries ago, when H-4 was made. Then the long sought solution of the longitude problem was finally found and put into a mechanical pocket watch to serve the sailors and the public. Today, after a long and winding road filled with innumerable new technological inventions, we have reached a point of development, when we are able to put not only longitude, but also latitude, heighth and time solution all together in a small electronic
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device to serve positioning, navigation and timing professionals as well as the widest public across the globe. The article outlines in a few glimpses how the geodetic, surveying, positioning and navigation science have come this far and what steps can and should be done in order to allow the humanity to get the best use of knowing the combined geolocation and time data as accurately as possible. Due to the limited space of the paper, the presented contents are obviously selective and without a presumption or attempt of historical completeness.
2.1 The Shape and the Size of Earth
Through the ancient times, several ideas and opinions regarding the shape of the Earth were prevailing among scholars, from a slab to a drum- or pillar-shaped world and through
Figure 3. Eratosthenes has used the same specific moment in time – the summer solstice – on both ends of the arc to measure the central angle and calculate the circumference of the Earth.
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Figure 4. World map from Claudius Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' published in Ulm, 1482 by Lienhart Holle, engraved by author Johannes Schnitzer (Credits: BPL).
Figure 5. Portrait of Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) painted in 1610. He is the founder of celestial mechanics and was a key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. 2009 is also the 400th anniversary of his publication of “Astronomia Nova” with his discovery of elliptical moving of the planets around the sun and description of the first two laws of planetary motion. (Image courtesy of Sternwarte Kremsmünster)
an idea of a circular form eventually to a spherical form. This spherical concept as a fundamental idea for later progress apparently had its beginnings among the ancient Greek Pythagorean philosophers in the 6th century BC and elaborated through the works of the philosopher Plato and his followers, including Aristotle. By the time of Aristotle (384-322 BC), the spherical form of earth was generally accepted. The ancient Greeks also applied a system of dividing the circle into 360 equal parts, which they inherited from the Babylonian sexagesimal system (base-60) and their astronomers. Temple records from the city of Uruk in the late fourth millennium BC already include evidence of dividing a year into 12 months of 30 days each, i.e. in 360 days. Through observations of the Sun, Moon, stars and the visible planets, they noticed the circular track of the Sun's apparent annual path across the sky and knew that it took about 360 days to complete one year's circuit. Remember, in those times geocentric system was adopted. We have confirmed much later, that actually the Earth is revolving around the Sun and not vice-versa. In order to track each day's passage of the Sun's
whole journey they therefore divided the circular path into 360 degrees. Egyptians made a step further around 1500 BC, dividing the day into 24 hours. Originally, the hours varied with the seasons, but Greek astronomers with their systematic approach made later the hours equal. About 300 to 100 BC, the Babylonians subdivided the hour into base60 fractions: 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. Based on actually the same roots of the Baylonian base-60 number system we have got a natural connection between measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates which with slight modifications lives up to present times. The shape of Earth is thus logically inter-connecting the measurement of geolocation and time for thousands of years. In addition, the first experimental defining of the size of Earth in the third century BC is closely connected with time by an ingenious measurement method of Eratosthenes (276195 BC), the founder of geodesy. In his measurement (Figure 3), Eratosthenes used a known phenomenon at the well in Syene on the river Nile, present Aswan. There the Sun shone directly into its deep
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both ends of the arc to measure the central angle. The principle of meridian arc measurements was used with modifications in geodetic observations up to modern times.
2.2 Latitude, Longitude and Time
Being known at least three centuries BC, the lines of latitude and longitude were by A.D. 150 drawn also in the first world atlas by Ptolemy, the ancient scholar with many scientific interests who’s millennial fame and influence are mostly the result of his two books, one on astronomy and other on geography. In astronomy, he introduced among other things a simple but invaluable concept of subdividing an arc degree in 60 minutes (lat. partes minutae primae) and then further every minute in 60 seconds (lat. partes minutae secundae). Thus, we have minutes and seconds of time and minutes and seconds of arc degrees. In his book Geography Ptolemy defined geography as a “presentation in pictures of the whole known world together with the phenomena which are contained therein”, combining data on geolocation and time. He also defined the task of cartographer, which is “to survey the whole in just proportions” – that is, to draw maps to scale. In his maps (Figure 4), Ptolemy used a grid system of lati- Figure 7.The Triangulation of France, 1792-1799. The meriditude and longitude lines as a reference an arc stretching from Dunkerque in the north to Barcelona to geolocate the known items – such as in the south was measured along the Paris meridian between 1792 and 1799 by French geodesists Delambre and lands, coasts, islands and towns – on a Méchain. Based on these measurements the metric system map. Longitude was expressed in fracwas defined and introduced first in France and then gradutions of hours while latitudes were desally around the globe. (Image courtesy of Ken Alder, The ignated by the number of hours in the Measure of All Things) longest day of the year. Once again, we come across relating a grid of geolocanatural phenomena to fix it down to the body tions on a map to the measures of time. of Earth. Ptolemy in his time has decided to The Equator as the zero-degree parallel of latput its origin at the western edge of the itude was already known then and fixed from known world through the Fortunate (present the laws of nature, i.e. from the observations Canary) islands in the Atlantic Ocean northof the apparent movements of the Sun and west of Africa. Through the centuries, the lonother celestial bodies. The astronomers knew gitude line origin has been moved back and from astronomic observations, that during the forth across the maps almost at the free will year the Sun is crossing the celestial equator of later cartographers, until it finally settled twice a year on its way between the two in Greenwich, UK by an international political extreme lines, where it turned around again agreement. Namely, only in 1884 a conference on its yearly path. The celestial equator is an in Washington of 25 world nations agreed that imaginary line, dividing the celestial sphere Greenwich would be the world's Prime in half, and the Sun’s path intersects this Meridian of longitude, world time and time equator on the beginning of spring and zones. autumn, marking the vernal and autumnal equinox. Two imaginary extreme lines are 2.3 From the Spherical to the known as tropics, positioned at the latitudes Ellipsoidal Earth approximately 23.5 degrees north and south With latitude and longitude the principles of of the equator. On the other hand, the zeromapping the world were organized using a degree longitude meridian line has no such
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Figure 6. Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) painted in 1689. He was a mathematician and physicist, one of the foremost scientific intellects of all time. Newton identified gravitation as the fundamental force controlling the motions of the celestial bodies. In his work Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, known as the Principia, he developed the mathematics of orbital motion round centres of force.
waters at high noon on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice on June 21, while in Alexandria which lied approximately north of Syene, no such event had ever been seen. Instead, in Alexandria the Sun’s rays on the same day formed an angle with the direction of the plumb line. From the length of the shadow of a vertical staff produced in a hemispherical shell, Eratosthenes determined the angle as approximately 1/50 of a complete circle. This angle is equal to the central angle between these two places, as if measured from the centre of a spherical Earth. Eratosthenes applied the then estimated distance of 5000 stadia between Alexandria and Syene to provide the circumference of the Earth as 252000 stadia. Eratosthenes used the stade III = 158.73 m as the unit of length. Calculating in metric units the measurements of Eratosthenes give a result of 40000km for the circumference of the Earth and consequently the result of 6365 km for the radius of the Earth ( = 252000/2 = 40100 stadia = 6365 km). This value is differing minimally from the radius 6371 km of the mean spherical Earth as derived with WGS 84 Ellipsoid, which represents the best global geodetic reference system for the Earth available at this time for practical applications of mapping, charting, geopositioning and navigation. The principle that Eratosthenes has used is the measurement of the meridian arc in which he used the same specific moment in time on
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simple geometric proposition, that the intersection of two lines is a point, i.e. to geolocate a point on the Earth, we need to know the lines of its latitude and longitude. However simple this task may seem in principle at the first thought, its realisation in order to make an accurate map of any terrain presents an enormous effort and demands going into the field and actually measure and survey it. One of the crucial and fundamental goals in this process is to define those reference lines, to establish them physically in the field as a series of base lines from which later surveys can be made. Since the Ptolemy’s times, during the dark middle ages up to the middle of the second millennium the question of the figure of the Earth has stood still. Then the arc measurements, based still on a spherical model of the Earth but benefiting from the advances in instrumentation technology and methodology, were pursued further in several European countries, mainly in France, Holland, Denmark, England and Italy. In that period of scientific renaissance new ideas from astronomy and physics have influenced the development of geodesy and fundamentally changed the view on the Earth and its position in space. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) formulated a scientifically based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) (Figure 5) introduced the eponymous laws of planetary motion, while Galileo Galilei (15641642) opened a new era of astronomic observations with his improvements of the telescope and established the fundamental laws of falling bodies and of pendulum motion. In the second half of 17th century, astronomic observations revealed the flattening of the poles of Jupiter and pendulum time measurements confirmed the effect of increase of gravity from the Earth equator towards the poles. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) (Figure 6) combined these observations and his theoretical work on gravitation and hydrostatics in his famous book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687. In the book, Newton proposed as a model of the Earth a rotational ellipsoid, flattened at its poles by 1/230 because of the Earth’s rotation. Several geodetic arc measurements at various latitudes were performed in the next century to verify and possibly confirm Newton’s theory. The results of geodetic measurements financed by the French Academy of Sciences finally confirmed that the flattening of the Earth exists and is large enough to be measured. Related to these arc measurements, there is a particularly significant year 1799 to remem-
a more stable international prototype of platinum-iridium was realized and sanctioned in 1889 by the 1st General Conference on Weights and Measures. This original international prototype is still kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM - Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) under conditions specified in 1889.
2.4 Transition to the Geoid and the Third Dimension in Geodesy
With the development of geodetic instrumentation and methodology in the early 19th century it was soon realized that in pursuing the measurements of high accuracy level the nature of the Earth is complicated more than an ellipsoidal model of the Earth can handle, therefore scientists attempted to define the figure of the Earth more precisely. In 1832, Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) (Figure 8) strongly promoted the application of the metric system, together with the second defined in astronomy, as a coherent system of units for the physical sciences. Gauss was the first to make absolute measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field in terms of a decimal system based on the three mechanical units millimetre, gram, and second for, respectively, the quantities length, mass, and time. Gauss developed his theory of surfaces and introduced the geoid as the “mathematical figure of the Earth”, defined as a level surface of the gravity field. The geoid deviates from a wellfitting ellipsoid by less than 100 meters. The efforts of geodesists in the 19th and in the early 20th century have concentrated on the measurements of large triangulation chains in order to provide the parameters of ellipsoids, fitting best to the geoid in the areas of measurements. Based on such geodetic measurements, which have often demanded enormous human and scientific efforts of geodesists and their crews, several referential ellipsoids were introduced to support the triangulation of the national geodetic surveys, which provide control points for national geodetic reference systems, mapping, positioning, etc. up to present time (Figure 9). Within these national geodetic surveys, the geodesists observed and evaluated horizontal and vertical control networks separately, because heights were calculated regarding to the mean sea level as a surface close to the geoid, defined by long-term observations at a tide gauge. Further development of the geodetic methodology demanded a common mathematical model for calculations of horizontal and vertical networks. After the first ideas on such three-dimensional concept of geodesy in the
October/November 2009
Figure 8. Portrait of Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) at the age of 63. He was one of history's most influential mathematicians and a scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including geodesy. Gauss developed his theory of surfaces and introduced the geoid as the “mathematical figure of the Earth”, defined as a level surface of the gravity field. 2009 is also the 200th anniversary of the method of least squares, a procedure used in all sciences to this day to minimize the impact of measurement error, and which Gauss was able to prove in 1809.
ber. Namely, 210 years ago the French National Assembly specified, constructed and deposited the platinum metre bar, on 22 June 1799, in the Archives de la République in Paris, as the final standard of length defined as 1 / 10,000,000 of the meridional distance from the North Pole to the Equator. In order to establish the length of the meridian as the universally accepted foundation for the definition of the metre as the natural unit of length, the Bureau des Longitudes commissioned an expedition led by two astronomers and geodesists, Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre Méchain. Between the years 1792 and 1799, they measured the length of the meridian arc through Paris between Dunkerque and Barcelona as the basis for calculating the length of the half meridian, connecting the North Pole with the Equator (Figure 7). With this new definition of the unit of length, France introduced the metric system. The creation of the decimal metric system at the time of the French Revolution and the subsequent deposition of two platinum standards in 1799 representing the metre and the kilogram was the first step in the development of the present International System of Units. Almost one century later, after agreeing upon a definition for the meter at the diplomatic Conference of the Metre and signing the Metre Convention in Paris in 1875,
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Our space experience for your benefit on Earth
Multi-spectral imagers from Jena
Figure 9. Exaggerated differences between common reference ellipsoids and WGS84 (Credits: Wolfram Research, Inc.).
Three decades of aerospace business enable high quality spaceborne and airborne cameras for Earth observation. We have built a bridge from space right into our everyday life. Our surveying camera Jena Airborne Scanner for Remote Sensing and Mapping provides you data with from 4000m altitude
second half of the 19th century, the concept revived after the Second World War, especially with the invention of the electromagnetic distance measurements in the 1950’s and with the first artificial satellite Sputnik I in 1957. Geodetic observations to orbiting satellites started providing data for determination of control point geolocation in three-dimensional system and led to the development of satellite geodesy. Also in the second half of the 20th century, a new essential space geodetic method and technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) was developed for measuring a large selection of quasars, which has lead to the present definition of the celestial reference frame as a realization of a highly accurate and stable inertial reference system. Space geodesy developed its techniques in the last decades of 20th century through several characteristic periods based on measurement method or technique. The periods overlap and begin with the optical period, followed by Doppler, Satellite and Lunar Laser Ranging (SLR, LLR), VLBI, Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), altimetry, SAR, InSAR, gravity and present GNSS period. In the 1980’s, the USA started to establish the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) and since the 1990’s this system became fundamental in the geodetic measurement techniques worldwide. This way, using GPS and other satellite techniques, the geometry of the
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Earth can be determined to a great level independently of the gravitational field and global reference system is established. This development allows geodesy to concentrate on solving practical problems of transformation of the existent horizontal and vertical networks of control points to the global reference system and of establishing high quality relations between the geoid and the global reference ellipsoid (end of Part 1, to be continued in the next issue of GeoInformatics).
Joc Triglav jtriglav@geoinformatics.com is a professional surveyor and editor of GeoInformatics. In the last 20 years, he published more than 300 articles in various professional and technical magazines, mostly in the fields of geoinformatics and geodesy. Geoinformation science and applications determine the entire author’s professional life, while geodesy, cartography and geography since the early childhood never ceased to fuel his enthusiasm and imagination.
chanels to reduce blind spots
Jena-Optronik GmbH jas@jena-optronik.de
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October/November 2009
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Combining GPS, Satellite Communications and GIS
Knowing The Exact Vessel Location
[a]
figure a, b, c, d and e: 3i Vessel Monitoring System (3iVMS) – Powered by MapXtreme: Combining GPS, satellite communications and geographical information systems, 3iVMS allows vessel owners to pinpoint the location(s) of their seacraft at user-definable time intervals and view their routes on a map.
Established March 2004 in Singapore, 3i
Technologies Pte is a provider of Electronics Security and asset monitoring solutions. It also operates a 24x7 command centre that seagoing vessels with a Ship Security Alert System can alert in the event of a security incident. The company’s suite of asset monitoring solutions, which make up about half of its total business, consists of an automated vehicle tracking system and a vessel monitoring sys-
tem. Called 3iVMS, the latter system is the mainstay of 3i Technologies’ asset monitoring business. Combining GPS, satellite communications and geographical information systems, it allows vessel owners to pinpoint the location(s) of their sea craft at user-definable time intervals and view their routes on a map. Owners can also set up geo-fencing zones and receive notifications as their vessels leave or enter these zones. “Besides piracy, pilferage of cargo and fuel is
a problem for vessel owners. With geo-fencing, they can be alerted when their assets are sent off their intended routes, whether by hijackers or by a less than honest crew,” said Kenneth Tan, CEO of 3i Technologies. When a vessel leaves a pre-defined geofenced zone and does not enter another one shortly after, he explained, an alert is sent via email to the vessel owner, who can then turn to 3i Technologies, port authorities or maritime policing agencies for help in recovering
[b]
[c]
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[d]
[e]
it. In piracy incidents, crew members can trigger alerts by pressing covert panic buttons located on-board.
MapXtreme
The first application to be launched by 3i Technologies, 3iVMS was developed using Pitney Bowes Business Insight’s MapXtreme, the software development kit (SDK) for integrating location intelligence into both desktop and Web-based systems. “We did look at one other SDK but found MapXtreme to be superior. MapXtreme also came highly recommended by our hardware partners so the choice was an easy one to make,” said Mr. Tan. MapInfo consultants, whom he described as “very responsive”, were involved in the development of 3iVMS at the initial stage, helping to map the application core with Inmarsat and telco gateways as well as GUI integration. 3i Technologies delivers the 3iVMS application to its customers as a service, with access via the company’s website. Users range from individual tugboat owners to fleet operators whose vessels ply routes connecting Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Implementation is a breeze, Mr. Tan said, with just a few hours needed to install the necessary hardware and make the system operational. “While competing vessel monitoring systems are available in Singapore, these have only generic functions. Thanks to the open architecture of MapXtreme, our 3iVMS application is extremely customizable. This allows us to custom-fit the application to each customer such that all their unique needs are met.” The ease of integrating new technologies into the 3iVMS core has also enabled 3i Technologies to make two major enhancements to the application. The first incorporates flow-meter sensors and allows vessel owners to remotely and accurately check the amount of fuel being used by their vessels. Besides preventing pilferage of fuel, this enables owners to do a better job of provisioning voyages. The second enhancement, draught sensing, makes it possible for government bodies responsible for natural resources to ensure that dredging contractors or concessionaires do not remove from the seabed more material than they are allowed, or dredge outside authorized areas.
Full Steam Ahead
Going forward, 3i Technologies is working on a low-power portable tracking unit that does not have to be hard-installed on vessels or other assets, and on a satellite broadband link that will deliver vessel owners live video of their vessels’ journeys. The company also plans to introduce new applications that can be accessed either via its website or as downloadable applications. “We’re also looking at setting up offices or partnerships in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Whichever local business model we eventually choose, the MapXtreme-based application core is already in place and deployment should be a quick affair,” said Mr. Tan.
Kenneth Tan, CEO, 3i Technologies. www.pbinsight.com
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October/November 2009
Column
Photogrammetric Week celebrates its Centenary in Stuttgart, Germany
Participants of the Photogrammetric Week in 2009
The Photogrammetric Week celebrated its centenary in Stuttgart from 7-11 September 2009. This was the 52rd Photogrammetric Week, organised by Professor Dieter Fritsch, head of the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at Stuttgart University. On this occasion nearly 500 participants attended from 62 countries. Photogrammetric Week is a weeklong event which features details of many of the latest developments in photogrammetry, remote sensing and GIS, but it concentrates on photogrammetry as its name suggests. The format is based on invited lectures each morning on academic research and the latest developments of hardware and software from manufacturers, followed by demonstrations of equipment during the afternoons from Monday to Thursday. Evenings involve typical German hospitality. This year’s topics included a keynote presentation on Cloud Computing, a review of the products available from the various photogrammetric software and hardware providers and then papers on; image based data acquisition; aerial, terrestrial and mobile lidar; and value-added photogrammetry. Most papers covered the very latest developments in these topics, so the event was an excellent conference to bring attendees up-to-date with the status of developments in photogrammetry. The presentations revealed that the number of medium format cameras now available on the market with between 40 and 60Mpixels is growing rapidly. They include Leica RC105, Intergraph RMK D, Vexcel UltraCamL, DiMAC, Applanix DSS, Rollei AIC, and IGI DigiCam. Tests on the new Intergraph RMK D medium format camera with 42Mpixels demonstrate accuracies approaching those achievable by the large format cameras. The applications of the medium format cameras in the future will be interesting to watch. There was a plea by several academics for photogrammetrists to embrace computer vision community to develop more advanced techniques for processing images and to ensure that the photogrammetric community is included in new possibilities of image acquisition and processing, such as crowd sourcing of images. Examples of crowd sourcing of images for later processing
were given. There was a spirited debate on the application of airborne lidar compared with multiple overlapping images for precise elevation determination. Some believe that lidar is an unnecessary technology, while the others recognise the advantages of lidar with its high density point sampling where no texture exists in images and its ability to penetrate the canopy of forest vegetation. Accuracies of current lidars are now better than 5cm on hard surfaces. 3D city models are increasingly being acquired for many cities in Europe; for example, the company Blom will have 200 cities in Europe covered with 3D models by end of 2009 using Pictometry technology. A 3D city model of Berlin encompassing 500,000 buildings is now available. Bing, formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth, aims to collect 3D information on 3000 cities around the world in 5 years and present the information in 3D. The overall cost of acquiring the 3D city models is planned to be reduced by 90%. There were some impressive demonstrations of the completely automatic procedures being used to extract buildings and display them in 3D. In order to facilitate the development of 3D city models a new graphics standard has been developed CityGML. The conference was also an excellent opportunity to view developments in photogrammetry in Europe, which one could say is the birth place of photogrammetry. Along with the centenary of Photogrammetric Week, the Austrian society’s involvement in the field of photogrammetry turned 100 in 2008, the German Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing celebrated its centenary in March 2009 while The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) will celebrate its centenary on 4 July 2010 in Vienna.
John Trinder, Visiting Emeritus Professor at the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems at The University of NSW, Sydney, Australia.
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October/November 2009
Article
Processing of Data Downloaded in the First Year of Observation
Monumentation of Geodetic Permanent GPS stations
The study of deformations and crustal dynamics has found in GPS technology a very valuable and flexible tool that can support and, in many cases, replace the traditional and complex geodetic measurements processed in long and expensive survey campaigns. The European Project Interreg III B ALPS GPS QuakeNet - Alpine Integrated GPS Network has aimed to be at the forefront in using this technology, distributing a network of permanent GPS stations on the Alps targeted at monitoring this highly-active seismic area. The study and processing of the data will permit crustal deformation models of the Alpine area to be confirmed or modified, with particular attention to seismogenetic areas for the prevention of seismic hazards. By Antonio Cavinato, Mirco Pollet, Cristiano Bellio and Roberto Piol
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October/November 2009
Article
Figure 1 – The GPS network – stations already existing (red), stations realized with the project (yellow).
ARPA VENETO, a partner in the project coordinated by the University of
Trieste’s Department of Earth Sciences, installed three GPS stations: two of them along the well-known geophysical profile TRANSALP, among areas characterized by high deformations (the Feltre area and the MontebellunaMontello area), and a third in the Lessini Mountains. These GPS stations provide the database for three processing centers: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble, Regione Lombardia. The study and processing of the data will permit crustal deformation models of the Alpine area to be confirmed or modified, with particular attention to seismogenetic areas for the prevention of seismic hazards.
public site, to have geological stability, to have a power supply available, to have good GSM / GPRS network coverage and last but not least, to have good accessibility. With these selection criteria, the following sites were identified in an early phase: • Monte Avena in Pedavena (BL), within the meteorological ARPAV station (acronym MAVE coordinates GBO 1718811, 5101525) • City of Montebelluna (TV), within a water supply reservoir (acronym MBEL - coordinates GBO 1737062, 5074465) • Bosco Chiesanuova (VR), within a Primary School (acronym BOSC coordinates GBO 1658670, 5051589)
Preliminary Investigations and Plan of the Three Sites Selection Criteria for the Installation of Three ARPAV Stations
The site choices were made in accordance with project objectives. The requirements were to place two of the stations in the southern alpine zone (between the Valsugana fault and the Southern Alpine front – if possible along the geophysical profile TRANSALP), to locate a station in the Verona area, to have an obstruction-free sky, to be located in a The identification of the three sites in the preliminary screening involved the analysis of each site’s geological stability and rock substrate position. This screening was carried out for the Monte Avena (BL) and Bosco Chiesanuova (VR) stations by surface analysis and verification of plans of existing buildings in the areas. The screening for the station located in Montebelluna (TV) involved a geognostic excavation that confirmed the presence of the Montello Conglomerate at 1.50 m from the surface. From
Figure 2 – on the left a planning solution with a surface foundation in the presence of hard substrate in outcrop.
Figure 3 – on the right a planning solution with a drilled deep foundation with micro-pillar in the lack of an outcropping substrate.
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October/November 2009
Article
prepared and then the concrete for the monument was laid. The construction of the concrete monument was followed by the electrical and antenna connections. The completion of the monumentation and the electrical connection allowed the installation and calibration of the GPS receivers. The installed GPS and related accessories were a GPS Leica GRX1200, a Leica AT504 antenna-type choke ring, a Siemens MC75 GSM / GPRS modem, plus UPS and Leica Spider V.1.5 management and data transmission software. The GPS installation and calibration, and the installation of software at the data centre in the ARPAV- Belluno Department were conducted by technical staff of the GPS provider firm. Any malfunction was verified and connection and receiving data from the time of activation were regularly sent to the data centre in Belluno and archived.
Acquisition and Processing of Data
The acquired data includes a complete record of the three stations running from March 2006 until the present, and its availability made it possible to compile a one-year record of the three stations in order to verify behavior, stability and accuracy. The analysis was carried out using Topcon Pinnacle software version 1.0. In addition, RINEX files from May 2006 to October 2007, together with associated navigation files and IGS Final Orbit data, were also used. Three lines and their relative level differences were analyzed: Bosco Chiesanuova - Monte Avena, Montebelluna-Bosco Chiesanuova and Monte Avena-Montebelluna: this first report was to evaluate the functionality and the quality of the installation. The results are reported below: Base Bosco Chiesanuova - Monte Avena (BOSC-MAVE) average distance: 78155.96 m. Average height GPS station Monte Avena: 1466.2421 m. Average height GPS station Bosco Chiesanuova: 910.4202 m. Base Chiesanuova Bosco - Montebelluna (BOSC-MBEL) average distance: 81634.12 m. Average height GPS station Bosco Chiesanuova: 910.4202 m. Average height GPS station Montebelluna: 214.7411 m. Base Monte Avena - Montebelluna (MAVE-MBEL) average distance: 32645.07 m. Average height GPS station Monte Avena: 1466.2421 m. Average height GPS station Montebelluna: 214.7411 m.
Figure 4 – Welding of the framework to the micro pillar.
the geological and geomorphological points of view, these sites appeared suitable for the planned GPS stations. This preliminary investigation showed the suitability of the sites and led to the definitive planning of the stations. After careful verification of the available literature and technical instructions from UNAVCO (www.unavco.org), the basic planning choices were: • a pillar in reinforced concrete, equipped with a surface foundation only in the presence of hard substrate in outcrop • a deep drilled foundation with micro pillar in the absence of an outcropping substrate • an Electric UPS able to guarantee at least 48-72 hours of work without power supply With these considerations, two planning solutions with different foundational typologies were developed as reported below.
Monumentation
The executive phase began with the installation of deep foundations. The micro pillars were drilled 8.0 m deep; a steel pile 60.3 mm in diameter and 4.0 mm thick was immediately inserted into the borehole. After the installation of the framework, the hole was immediately saturated with a gravity injection of liquid concrete to reinforce the concrete pillar. At the Monte Avena site, the presence of a hard and outcropping substrate on the surface allowed the framework to be built directly into the rock. Some holes were made in the substrate in which the framework was inserted and sealed with a special mortar. The framework was welded to the micro pillar and to the support of the GPS antenna to ensure optimal ground connection. After the welding of the antenna base to the framework, the pipe for the antenna wires was
Figure 5 – Detail of a choke-ring GPS antenna
Final Considerations
The distribution of values recorded at these three stations shows a cyclicity with distances lower in winter and increasing in summer. These fluctuations are larger than the instrumental medium error rating, that is 2.0 mm, and sometimes exceeds 4.0 mm. This shows that factors such as thermal expansion and crustal deformation may affect measurements. While the already detected trends indicate clearly a phenomenon of expansion / shortening with thermal seasonal cycling, the crustal deformation related to the dynamics of the study area will be verified only during a longer period (at least 10 years) contributing to the GPS-QuakeNet project goals for the Alpine area.
Dr. Antonio Cavinato, acavinato@arpa.veneto.it, Arch. Mirco Pollet, mpollet@arpa.veneto.it, Dr. Cristiano Bellio cbellio@arpa.veneto.it, Dr. Roberto Piol, rpiol@arpa.veneto.it. ARPAV (Environmental Agency of Veneto Region) - Belluno Department - via Tomea 5, 32100, Belluno (Italy).
Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Karim Aoudia - Department of Earth Sciences University of Trieste, Dr. Rodolfo Bassan - Manager of ARPAV Environmental Systems Department of Belluno and all the Partners involved in the Alps-GPS QuakeNet.
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October/November 2009
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Article
Figure 1: A local landmark, prominently characterizing a street intersection
A New Direction
Routing By Landmarks
A novel landmark identification and selection process enables now to incorporate landmarks in driving directions. This process was implemented in Whereis.com, an Australian webmapping and routing service owned by Sensis. According to Whereis.com commercial manager Fred Curtis, “current trends in technology all point to increased functionality alongside ease of use, so that's the direction we're heading.” By Stephan Winter, Matt Duckham and Michelle Robinson
Why is it easier to follow directions if they
are explained through a series of landmarks instead of street names? Street names are fine when you know the area or if it is adequately signed, but how often do you tell someone to “turn left after the park” or “turn right at the 7 Eleven”? In fact, research has shown that people nearly always refer to landmark. Sensis, the Telstra subsidiary that operates the Whereis.com maps and directions service, now incorporates landmarks in the driving directions it generates. Landmarks are outstanding features in an environment. Landmarks play a central role in human spatial cognition. They are fundamental to the way humans learn an environment and construct mental representations of it. Landmark knowledge is the first level of spatial knowledge a person develops in a new environment: the tourist in Paris will quickly learn about the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre,
but it will take her some time to learn a route from the first to the latter or to use this and other routes for combining a route not traveled before. She will remember the café “close to the Eiffel tower” rather than the exact route to the café. To find the café again, she might first try to reach the Eiffel tower, which now serves as a cognitive anchor point. And so on. Because of their dominance in human mental representations of space, landmarks are widely used in human communication about routes. A reference “left of Montmartre, not far away” is far more likely than a reference “on Rue du Cardinal Dubois, head West for 231m”. By contrast, today's web routing services and car navigation services rarely make reference to landmarks. Why is that? The main reason for this omission is the lack of understanding what a landmark is, and then, of course, a lack of available data about landmarks. We do not have data sets of the landmarks in an environ-
ment (which are different from Points of Interest, see the following discussion). Recent research on identifying landmarks in spatial data sets typically relies on information about the detailed visual or geometric characteristics of the environment, such as 3D city models, cadastral data sets, and/or imagery of building facades. While data about these characteristics is becoming more commonplace (at least in urban areas), all too often such highly detailed information about the spatial environment does not exist, is proprietary, is infrequently updated, or is otherwise unavailable except in restricted spatial locations. Also, the proposed landmark identification procedures are not yet tested in practice, and hence, not readily available.
The Solution
So, how can we address this dilemma? First it is important to acknowledge the difference
October/November 2009
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Article
Figure 2: Landmarks along Spring Street in Melbourne.
between landmarks and points of interest. The prior must be selected based on perceptive and cognitive principles. The latter is rather a list of a recommender service. “Deciding which landmarks are most useful is really based on the uniqueness of the landmark, and this can be determined by three main things; the landmark's meaning, its visual salience and where the landmark is located, relative to the decision point on the route,” said Matt Duckham, senior lecturer in geographic information science at the University of Melbourne. “While computers can work out how far it is to the next interaction, humans find it much easier to use instructions that refer to places with meaning and that we can easily identify.” Matt Duckham and Stephan Winter from the Department of Geomatics at the University of
Melbourne developed for Sensis a model for incorporating landmarks into routing instructions that does not depend on the visual or geometric characteristics of individual buildings and streetscapes. Instead the model relies solely on information about the types of landmarks present in the environment, in addition to the road network and route geometry. The motivation for this approach is primarily practical: these information sources are much more commonly available and easily accessible, for example in the form of a geocoded directory service. This model was applied on Sensis’ Yellow Pages business directory and directories of points of interests from city maps. A set of cognitively motivated rules ranks categories for their typical landmarkness, and then helps to pick up the most salient landmarks along a particular route. The second step considers also the struc-
ture of the route, such that landmarks are chosen at locations where the traveler has to turn, or along long segments for confirmation. While more and more categories are added, and rules are tuned, routing by Whereis.com has already access to 170,000 landmarks nationwide. Let us study an example. Figure 2 shows the ranked landmarks along one street segment that are currently available in Whereis.com to produce routing directions. Figure 3 shows route directions along this street segment. Only two landmark candidates were selected and included in the directions, and both at strategically important locations along the route.
Stephan Winter and Matt Duckham, Department of Geomatics, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Michelle Robinson, Sensis Pty Ltd, Australia
Figure 3: Route directions with selected landmarks along Spring Street.
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October/November 2009
GITA is very pleased to announce that our 2010 Solutions Conference will be co-located with the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and Arizona Professional Land Surveyors’ 2010 Annual Conference and Technology Exhibition!
Calendar 2009/2010
2009
November 10-12 November ESRI Middle East and North Africa User ConferenceManama, The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Bahrain Tel: +973 1726255 E-mail: meauc2009@esri.com Internet: www.esri.com/meauc 12 November NAV09 Conference & Exhibition Southampton, U.K. Internet: www.rin.org.uk/news-events/ events/nav09-conference-exhibition-0 15-21 November 24th ICC2009 Santiago, Chile Internet: www.icc2009.cl/06_activities.html 16-19 November ASPRS/MAPPS 2009 Specialty Conference San Antonio, TX, Texas Crowne Plaza Hotel, U.S.A. Internet: www.asprs.org/sanantonio09/ 19-20 November NAV09 Land & Timing Teddington, Middlesex, U.K. Internet: www.rin.org.uk/news-events/ events/nav09-conference-exhibition 25-27 November 3rd Workshop of the EARSeL Special Interest Group on Land Use and Land Cover Bonn, Germany E-mail: zfl@uni-bonn.de Internet: www.zfl.uni-bonn.de/earsel/ earsel.html
2010
January 18-19 January GIS in Oil & Gas 2010 Abu Dhabi, UAE Internet: www.gisinoilandgas.com/ Event.aspx?id=207824 25-28 January DGI Europe 2010 – 6th Annual European Geospatial Intelligence Conference & Exhibition London, QEII Conference Centre, U.K. E-mail: dgi@wbr.co.uk Internet: www.dgieurope.com 26 January Civil Contingencies Conference London, QEII Conference Centre, U.K. Internet: www.govnet.co.uk/civil
27-29 April GEO-Siberia 2010 Novosibirsk, Russia E-mail: mazurova@sibfair.ru Internet: www.geosiberia.sibfair.ru/eng 27-29 April SIBMINING – 2010 Novosibirsk, Russia E-mail: mazurova@sibfair.ru Internet: www.mining.sibfair.ru and www.petroleum.sibfair.ru 28-29 April CERGAL 2010 Rostock, Germany Internet: www.dgon.de
May 25-29 May 4th International Scientific Conference BALWOIS 2010 Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia E-mail: secretariat@balwois.com Internet: www.balwois.com 06-07 May INTERGEO East Istanbul, Istanbul Convention & Exhibition Centre, Turkey Internet: www.intergeo-east.com 18-20 May POSITIONALE Stuttgart, Germany Internet: www.positionale.de
February 02-04 February Gi4DM 2010 Conference – Geomatics for Crisis Management Torino, Centro Congressi Torino Incontra, Italy E-mail: info@gi4dm-2010.org Internet: www.gi4dm-2010.org 08-10 February SPAR 2010 - 3D Imaging & Positioning for Engineering, Construction, Manufacturing The Woodlands , TX, Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center, U.S.A. Internet: www.sparllc.com/spar2010.php
June 21-22 June 2nd Open Source GIS UK Conference Nottingham, University of Nottingham, U.K. Internet: www.opensourcegis.org.uk 22-24 June Mid-Term Symposium of ISPRS Commission V: Close range image measurement techniques Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle University, U.K. E-mail: j.p.mills@newcastle.ac.uk Internet: www.isprs-newcastle2010.org
March December 01-03 December 4th International Conference "Earth from Space - The Most Effective Solutions" Moscow, Russia Tel: +7 (495) 739 73 85 Fax: +7 (495) 739 73 53 E-mail: conference@scanex.ru Internet: http://conference.transparent world.ru 02-04 December 5th gvSIG Conference "We keep growing" Valencia, Spain E-mail: contacto-jornadas-gvsig@gva.es Internet: http://jornadas.gvsig.org/home/ view?set_language=en 07-08 December Web & Wireless GIS, W2GIS 2009 Maynooth, Ireland Tel: 353 1 402 32 64 E-mail: carswell@dit.ie Internet: www.w2gis.org 16-20 December 4th International Congress Geotunis 2009 Tunis, Tunisia Tel: + 216 71 341 814 Fax: + 216 71 341 814 E-mail: info@geotunis.org Internet: www.geotunis.org 03-05 March 10th International LiDAR Mapping Forum 2010 Denver, CO, Hyatt Regency, U.S.A. Internet: www.lidarmap.org 09-11 March Oi10 - Oceanology International London Excel, U.K. Internet: www.oceanologyinternational.com 24-25 March GEO-10 The complete GEO Event Ricoh Arena, Coventry, U.K. Internet: www.worldofgeomatics.com
July 06-09 July GI_Forum 2010 Salzburg, Austria Internet: www.gi-forum.org
April 11-16 April XXIV FIG International Congress 2010 ‘Facing the Challenges - Building Capacity’ Sydney, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australia Tel: +61 (02) 2 9265 070 Fax: +61 (02) 2 9267 5443 E-mail: fig2010@arinex.com.au Internet: www.fig2010.com 12-16 April SPIE Photonics Europe Brussels, Belgium Internet: www.spie.org 26-30 April 2010 ASPRS Annual Conference San Diego, CA, Town and Country Hotel, U.S.A. Internet: www.asprs.org/SanDiego2010/ index.html October 05-07 October INTERGEO 2010 Cologne, Germany Internet: www.intergeo2010.de
September 22-24 September GEO India 2010 New Delhi Expo XXI, India Internet: www.oesallworld.com
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to:calendar@geoinformatics.com
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Advertiser Applanix Corp. ASPRS Cardinal Systems ESRI FIG 2010 FOIF GeoEye / Telespazio GITA INPHO Jena-Optronik Leica Geosystems www.applanix.com www.asprs.org www.cardinalsystems.net www.esri.com www.fig2010.com www.foif.com.cn www.e-geos.it www.gita.org/gis www.inpho.de www.jena-optronik.com www.leica-geosystems.com Page 19 27 51 30 43 57 10,11 60 13 49 63 Advertiser Magellan Racurs Riegl Sokkia Spectra Precision Stonex SuperGeo Topcon Unigis www.promagellangps.com www.racurs.ru www.riegl.com www.sokkia.net www.spectraprecision.com www.stonexsurveying.com www.supergeotek.com www.topcon.eu www.unigis.org/uk Page 64 15 33 24,41 8 2 61 53 21
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October/November 2009
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