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JULY 2011 VOL 01 ISSUE 12

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Geospatial World I July 2011

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PUBLICATIONS TEAMManaging Editor Prof. Arup DasguptaEditor - Europe Prof. Ian DowmanEditor - Latin America (Honorary) Tania Maria SausenSr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh SamantExecutive Editor Bhanu RekhaProduct Manager Shivani LalAssistant Editors Deepali Roy, Aditi Bhan, Vaibhav AroraSub-Editor Anand Kashyap

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07 Editorial 08 News 53 Events 54 Picture This

TECH LEAD

GIS - The Road Ahead

Prof Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor, Geospatial World

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems Inc.

CASE STUDIES

IGI Airport, India

Masdar City, UAE

PS20 Solar Plant, Spain

Tianjin International Cruise Terminal, China

Gautrain, South Africa

Adelaide Desalination Plant, Australia

CONFERENCE REPORTS

GeoIntelligence 2011

Hybrid solutions vital for effective geoint

Hexagon 2011

The quest to build a smarter world

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Advisory Board

Abbas Rajabifard President,GSDI Association

Jack DangermondPresident, Esri

Shailesh Nayak SecretaryMinistry of Earth SciencesGovernment of India

Mark ReichardtPresident and CEOOpen Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

Aida Opoku Mensah Director - ICT DivisionUN Economic Commission for Africa

Josef Strobl Director, Centre for Geoinformatics,University of Salzburg, Austria

Vanessa Lawrence CBDirector General and CEO,Ordnance Survey, UK

Matthew M O'ConnellPresident and CEO GeoEye

Bryn FosburghVice PresidentExecutive Committee Member, Trimble

Juergen DoldPresident, Hexagon Geosystems

Preetha PulusaniChairman and CEO DeepTarget Inc.

Derek Clarke Chief Director-Survey and Mapping & National Geospatial InformationDepartment of Rural Development & Land Reform, South Africa

Kamal K SinghChairman and CEORolta Group

Cover Story -

Sustainable Infrastructure:

Geospatial tech in

the forefront

Prof Ian DowmanEditor-Europe, Geospatial World

For more information visithttp://di.leica-geosystems.com

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n the film WALL-E, in a world devastated by rampant consumerism, a robot dedicated toclearing up trash to make it habitable once again, discovers a seedling growing in an oldshoe. This seedling signals the resurgence of life in the life-less robotic world. The symbol-

ism of a single green leaf as a promise of life going on, of continuity and of hope is perhaps an indi-cation of the perception of the dangers we face due to rapid growth and development. However, theworld cannot regress into a Luddite shell to stop the destruction of our environment. How can wehave growth in harmony with the environment? In other words can growth be made sustainable?

One of the concepts that has taken root is that of 'green'everything. We see 'green' buildings, 'green' appliances andeven 'green' paint. The word 'green' has become synony-mous with sustainability. The 'greenness' of any object orsystem is only a measure of its contribution to the reductionof its carbon footprint. It is not a measure of sustainability. Acase in point is that of an automobile factory set up recentlyin India. It was 70 Km from a wetland which has been notifiedas a bird sanctuary and therefore was not considered as athreat to the habitat. However, the site of the factory led to abuilding boom as land prices rose and builders moved in.Today, effluents from luxury apartments and the golf coursehave begun to affect the quality of the wetland.

Sustainable infrastructure will have to take into account such'unintended' consequences of development. There is a needfor a holistic approach that not only looks at the direct conse-quences but also possible desirable and undesirable scenar-ios. Such analysis requires a wealth of data and versatiletools of spatial analysis which can take into account variousfactors, some connected and some seemingly unconnected,to do a what-if analysis and provide decision support to thegovernment, industry and even to the public. While this is accepted in the domain of naturalresources, it is not so well understood in other domains, particularly by decision makers who hold the purse strings. Ian Dowman, Editor-Europe covers the need for an SDI to meet theserequirements and highlights case studies of best practices.

Greg Bentley, in his interview, enunciates that all infrastructures are interconnected and thereforeinterdependent. The geospatial challenge is to design infrastructure keeping in mind the boundaryconditions set by the requirements of sustainability and to be able to transfer these designs intoimplementation plans and workflows such that the factors related to sustainability are not lost inthe process of transfer.

The question is: we have the data, we have the tools, do we have the will? Our actions in the coming decades will decide whether we will use our ingenuity to build WALL-Es or build-in sustainability for our future generations.

EditorSpeak

7Geospatial World I July 2011

Sustaining future generations

I

Prof. Arup Dasgupta

Managing [email protected]

RWANDA

Trade atlas to woo

investors

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, inpartnership with German Develop-ment Cooperation, launched the firstever GIS-based Rwandan economicand trade atlas. According to GilbertRubangisa, a public sector develop-ment advisor, the atlas provides eco-nomic and trade related informationillustrated in the form of 77 mapsand 58 charts. It is aimed at show-casing the potential of trade andeconomy of the country to local andinternational investors.

NIGERIA

NigeriaSat-1 saves

millions of dollars

Nigeriasat-1, the first earth observa-tion satellite of the country, savedapproximately USD 300 million inland use mapping, according to the

Minister of Science and Technology,Prof. Mohammed Abubakar. This wasthe first time that land mapping inthe country was carried out using thecountry's satellite system. Prof.Abubakar also informed that theNational Space Research and Devel-opment Agency (NASRDA) is ready tolaunch two satellites in July 2011,Nigeriasat-X and Nigeriasat- 2.

GHANA

40 mn Euro for urban

management

The parliament approved a loanagreement between the Ghana Gov-ernment and Agence Francaise deDevelopment of France for anamount of EUR 40 million to supportthe Ghana Urban Management PilotProject (GUMPP). According to JamesKlutse, Chairman of the FinanceCommittee, activities to be carriedout under the facility include intro-duction of GIS and digital mapping ofthe selected cities.

NEWS

EGYPT

Satellite finds

lost pyramids

A new satellite survey in Egyptunearthed seventeen lost pyra-mids. Infra-red images, whichshow up underground buildings

have also revealed more than1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancientsettlements. The work was pio-neered at the University ofAlabama in Birmingham by USEgyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.Her team analysed imagesfrom satellites orbiting 700kmabove the earth. The Egyptianauthorities plan to use thetechnology to help - amongother things - protect the coun-try's antiquities in the future.

SOUTH AFRICA

Forum calls for capacity

building

Geospatial technologies are instrumental inbuilding vibrant and sustainable rural com-munities. Hence, there is a need for capacitybuilding, said Thembelani Nxesi, DeputyMinister, Rural Development & LandReform during 1st South Africa GeospatialForum in Johannesburg. The forum was organised by GIS Development inassociation with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. Inhis special address, Brig Gen L C Nobanda, General Officer Commanding,South African Army Engineer Formation acknowledged the importance ofgeospatial technologies in the safety and security of the nation.


Thembelani Nxesi

Centre for disaster

forecast to be set up

A real-time data centre, capable ofissuing warnings ahead of naturaldisasters, will be set up at the NorthEastern Space Applications Centre ofIndia in Umiam near Shillong. It willbe inaugurated by K. Radhakrishnan,Chairman, ISRO, in the second week of July, The Telegraph report-ed. The centre will collect data aboutfloods, cyclones, earthquakes, land-slides and other related phenome-non to which the region is highlyprone to and issue advance warnings

whenever a disaster is about tooccur.

Spatial data of Delhi

from August

Starting August 1, 2011, all statedepartments and civic agencies inDelhi, will have to mandatorilyaccess, use and share informationfrom Delhi State Spatial Databasethrough secured communication net-works under the Delhi GeographicalSpatial Data Infrastructure (Manage-ment, Control, Administration, Secu-rity and Safety), Act 2011. The Data-

base is an interconnected 3D globalinformation system. It provides aground-based actual informationsystem that details infrastructureand utilities above ground, on theground and below the ground up to12 feet with maps. It spans 1500 sqkm of Delhi.

New location

accuracy mandate

The Cellular Operators Associationof India (COAI), a body representingprimarily incumbent GSM operatorsin the country, said that a new sim-plified Equipment Security Agree-ment requires operators to maintainlocation information up to an accura-cy level of 50 meters. The requiredinfrastructure for such an accuracywill cost telecom operators approxi-mately USD 5 billion. For customers,specified by security agencies, it willbe implemented by June 1, 2012 andfor all customers by June 2014.

Atlas for wetland

conservation

The Space Applications Centre of theIndian Space Research Organisation(ISRO), Ahmedabad, has prepared aNational Wetland Atlas. The Atlas isbased on satellite imagery and aimsto help prepare a wetland conserva-tion strategy. It includes maps at1:50,000 scale resolution and cate-gorises wetlands into 19 differentclasses with Puducherry and TamilNadu being named as wetland-richStates as they have 12.88 percent and6.92 percent of geographic areaunder wetlands respectively. Man-made water bodies comprise morethan 35 percent of wetlands cover inTamil Nadu.

Geospatial World I July 2011 9

INDIA

Govt adopts RS data policy 2011

The Government of India (GOI) adopted the Remote Sensing Data Policy(RSDP) 2011. Under this policy, data up to 1 m resolution shall be distrib-uted on non-discriminatory basis.With a view to protect national secu-rity interests, all data better than 1m resolution shall be screened andcleared by the appropriate agencyprior to distribution. The Departmentof Space (DOS) shall be the nodalagency for all actions under this pol-icy. For acquisition and distributionof RS data, license and permissionfrom the nodal agency shall be nec-essary. To address developmentalneeds of the country, the NationalRemote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of theIndian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been vested with theauthority to acquire and disseminate all remote sensing data in India,both from Indian and foreign satellites.

Surat, as seen by Resourcesat 2

MALAYSIA

MoA for landslide

hazard zoning

PLUS Expressways Berhad, thelargest expressways operator in Asia, signed a memorandum ofagreement (MoA) with MalaysiaRemote Sensing Agency for a 2 yearslandslide hazard zoning project. Theproject will integrate GIS and remotesensing data with slope inventoriesand slope condition assessment datato identify the high risk landslidehazard area along the expresswaysin Malaysia.

The project aims to establish astandard methodology for landslide

hazard zoning using remote sensingand GIS techniques.

IRAN

Ahmadinejad aims

high

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadannounced that the country willlaunch several satellites in the cur-rent and the next year as it aims tobecome the exporter of spatialknowledge by the end of the 5thdevelopment plan. The statementcame at the launch of an earth-observation micro-satellite, Rasad. Itis the first indigenous Iranian earth-

observation satellite in which allstages of design, fabrication, inte-gration, testing and launch readinesswere indigenously developed. Thesatellite's subsystems include digitaldata managing capabilities, solarpanels, control and optical systemsand GPS.

TAIWAN

Novel way of

landscape monitoring

Researchers at the National CentralUniversity, Jhongli, developed aninnovative technique of identifyingaltered features of urban areas bycomparing existing building modelswith new LiDAR data points and aeri-al images. To compare images takenat different times, researchers firstregistered the LiDAR data, aerialimages and building models to thesame scale and determined alter-

ations by examining spectral information from aerial images,height differences between theLiDAR points and the building models as well as linear features ofthe aerial images.

10 Geospatial World I July 2011

BAHRAIN

CIO, EIAST sign MOU

The Emirates Institution forAdvanced Science and Technology(EIAST) signed a memorandum ofunderstanding (MOU) with the Cen-tral Informatics Organisation (CIO) towork together in the field of appliedresearch and industrial innovation.Salem Al Marri, Head of Space Pro-gramme Department at EIAST said, "EIAST seeks to establish regionaland international cooperative relations and joint ventures with leadinginstitutions to provide solutions that further enable human advancement."

Bahrain e-Atlas launched

The Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) launched the 'Bahrain e-Atlas'. Dr. Khalid Abdulrahman Al-Haidan, Director, GIS Directorate, CIO,said that the users can browse the pages of the eAtlas with ease throughsimple tools that are available on the official website of the CIO, Bahrainlocator and Bahrain Spatial Data Infrastructure. The eAtlas is based-onthe latest satellite images and contains spatial information related toaddresses, roads area names and blocks.

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FINLAND

Nokia's 3D Maps now

for CNN

CNN, a media company, announced a multi-level international collabora-tion with Nokia. Under this collabora-tion, Nokia's 3D Maps will enableCNN to expand outreach of its loca-tion based services and harnessglobal news-gathering capacity. Inreturn, CNN App will allow Nokiausers to share CNN's news via theirown social channels and participatein the reporting process with directaccess to CNN's participatory newscommunity, iReport.

RUSSIA

GLONASS to offer

global coverage

GLONASS navigation satellite systemwill gain full global coverage capacitywith six more navigation satellites inthe constellation by this year end,according to Anatoly Shilov,

spokesman for Russia's NationalSpace Agency. While GLONASS currently operates 23 satellites, itneeds between 25 and 30 aloft toprovide global coverage. It will beable to pinpoint users' locations withless than a three-metre margin oferror, which would make it roughlytwice as accurate as the US' GPSsystem, Shilov informed.

SPAIN

Software for forest

mapping

Polytechnic University of Valenciadeveloped a software that can generate maps of forest areas withinformation on timber volume, biomass or height of the trees. Itintegrates the entire LiDAR datatreatment process from the genera-tion of digital terrain models andmodel estimation of forest variablesto obtain the maps. "From airborneLiDAR data and software application,we generate maps that can improveknowledge about the evolution of aforest as well as its potential toabsorb CO2 and its wood volume,"said Luis Ángel Ruiz, researcher atthe UPV.

AUSTRIA

Univ launches geo-media project

Paris Lodron University of Salzburg unveiled the digital-earth.eu project in collaboration with a wide range of organisations from acrossEurope. The project involves experts in the use of geographical media ineducation, including specialists in teacher training and education. The goalis to connect these experts through a European Centre of Excellence inorder to share innovative practices. A network of accredited national and regional experts, endorsed by Europeanassociations, will act as multipliers, working with teachers and educators in their own countries.

Satellite detects

natural oil source

The Black Sea oil pollution monitoring programme detectednatural oil sources in the south-eastern part, offshore Poti, Georgia. The sources weredetected when scientists of the

Shirshov Institute of Oceanologyworking with specialists at theScanEx R&D Center analysedmulti-temporal radar satelliteimages. The GeoMixer Web-map-ping application defined the loca-tion of the source. The eruptiontakes place once in 0.3-5 hoursand the estimated volume of oilseepage, according to radar data,may reach 7,000 tons per year.

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Garmin buys

European rival

GPS device company Garmin boughtits European competitor Navigon AG.Financial terms of the deal were notdisclosed but the company wasreportedly acquired for roughly USD72 million. Navigon will operate as asubsidiary of Garmin, for which thisacquisition means an increasedcommitment to the European mar-ket, bringing on board around 370new European associates. It is also a

way for Garmin to move forward inthe automotive industry.

SWITZERLAND

IUCN maps

freshwater species

The International Union for Conser-vation of Nature (IUCN) Red List ofThreatened Species released anonline interactive map, which covers7,079 river and lake sub-catchments

across mainland Africa. It providesinformation on the distribution, con-servation and ecological needs of4,989 freshwater species, of which21 percent are already threatened.The work is part of a larger collabo-rative initiative between IUCN's Glob-al Species Programme, ConservationInternational and NatureServe toassess the status of the World'sFreshwater Biodiversity.

FRANCE

Space tech gets

personalised

Astrium, in cooperation with CNES,developed "YourSpaceAvenue" website (http://www.yourspaceav-enue. com). It offers personalisedaccess to space technologies in themicrosatellite product range up to130 kg. Jean Dauphin, AstriumFrance's Director of Earth Observa-tion and Science said, "YourSpaceAv-enue offers space solutions to thosewho thought space was inaccessible.By using existing technology,enabling customers to tailor services

to their needs and giving them con-trol of their own operations withoutthem having to master the complexaspects of space technology, we willopen doors to new customers fromthe scientific community."

GERMANY

DLR Exec Board Chair gets second term

The Senate of the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR)appointed Professor Johan-Dietrich Wörner as Chairmanof the Executive Board for a second term (next five years).The Senate also designated Professor Hansjörg Dittus asthe new Executive Board Member for Space. In addition tohis activities at DLR, Professor Wörner is a member of other scientificorganisations and academies and has led the mediation process for theexpansion of Frankfurt airport since 2000.

UK

BARSC elects Chair

British Association of Remote Sensing Companies (BARSC) has selectedChetan Pradhan as the Chair for the next two years. He will replaceDave Hodgson. Pradhan has earlier served on the BARSC ExecutiveCommittee for five years, the last two as Vice-Chairman. Pradhan said,"The next two years promise substantial opportunities for our sector asthe awareness and demand grows for remote sensing services to meettoday's environmental, climate-related and commercial challenges."The role of Vice-Chairman will be filled by Gareth Crisford of ITT VisualInformation Solutions.

APPOINTMENTS

Prof. Wörner

Application

GPS sensors for

quake prediction

Once the Pacific Northwest GeodeticArray's (PANGA) "real-time" function

is fully operational, it will be able topinpoint some earthquakes morequickly than traditional seismome-ters, claimed Tim Melbourne, Direc-tor of the PANGA. Scientists areusing GPS data to calculate thebuild-up of strain on faults and iden-tify the vulnerable places.

Today, 450 GPS units span theregion, spitting out readings everysecond. PANGA can track groundmotions as tiny as one-tenth of a mil-limetre. Tim added that the systemcan issue warnings before quakes ortsunamis hit cities.

Satellite to measure

ocean salinity

NASA launched the Earth-science

satellite SAC-D/Aquarius. The workof Argentina's CONAE, the SAC-Dhas the Aquarius instrument onboard that will look for salt withinEarth's oceans.

According to NASA's press state-ment, "Aquarius will measure salinityby sensing thermal microwave emis-sions from the water's surface withthree microwave instruments calledradiometers. It will map the globalopen ocean once every seven dayswith a resolution of 93 miles.

The maps will show how oceansurface salinity changes each month, season and year." The US and Argentina are the prime countries involved with the mission,along with Brazil, Canada, France,and Italy.

NEW ZEALAND

LINZ's strategic

direction for 2011-14

Land Information New Zealand(LINZ) revealed its strategic direction for 2011- 14. The depart-ment will implement a new rent sys-tem for pastoral leases in the South Island High Country toensure that the lessees can continueto productively farm their land. LINZ will also contribute to thecross-government drive to negotiatethe historic Treaty of Waitangi settlements by 2014. Another priority is to lead the charge to seegeospatial information change theway various agencies plan and deliver their services.


Satellite detects predator-prey interaction

By linking ecological theory with Google Earth, footprints of marine animals’ behavioural interactions between predators and prey can beobserved remotely, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports. A Google Earth image survey of the lagoon habitat at Heron Island withinthe Great Barrier Reef revealed halo patterns within algal beds. Groundtruth surveys confirmed that algal canopy height increases with distancefrom reef edges while a grazing assay demonstrated that herbivore graz-ing was responsible for this pattern. The findings demonstrate that herbi-vores' anti-predator behavioural patterns can shape vegetation .


Education

Smart grid awareness

lacking

The numbers might be different, buttwo smart grid consumer surveysagreed on the bottom line: most con-

sumers know least about smart grid. An Itron-sponsored surveydeveloped by Zpryme said 41 percentof its participants were aware of thesmart grid to varying degrees, while aConsumer Electronics Associationsurvey found that only 27 percentwere aware of it.

However, the Zpryme survey forutility enterprise and purpose-builtsystems had some good news as itpredicted US market value to growfrom USD 4.2 billion in 2010 to USD6.5 billion by 2015.

'Farming needs GIS-

trained workforce'

In the last five years, introduction of GIS in farming changed the way of work, according to Chris Voigt, Executive Director, Washington State Potato Commission.

Hence, farmers are struggling tofind workers with the right techno-logical skills. To address the prob-lem, the Commission is forming acommittee to help ensure a well-

trained workforce, Voigt said.Although at first he thought 10 would be the right number of people to complete the committee,since he sent out an email asking for participants, the response "hasbeen incredible.

Business

NGA asks for better

3D imaging

The National Geospatial-IntelligenceAgency (NGA) asked companies tocreate better keyboard-tethered 3Dimaging platforms. It also asked tobring analysts into the 3D worldthrough kinesthetic interaction withimagery taken from above areas ofinterest.

The goal is to improve digital signal processing to make 3-D coordinate-under-cursor capabilitiessuch as overlapping images into one image. In addition, the agency

wants the ability to create one complete image using informationreceived from several platformsregardless of sensor location andpreferably with video and still picturecapabilities.

Policy

LightSquared plans to

avoid GPS

Amid mounting protest against Light-Squared's 4G implementation, thecompany proposed an alternativenetwork plan that would use differentfrequencies to prevent interferencewith GPS. The company recentlysigned an agreement with Inmarsatto use its spectrum closest to GPSfrequencies. Meanwhile, an economicstudy pointed out that LightSquared'splanned deployment of 40,000 groundstations threatens economic costs ofup to USD 96 billion, which is equiva-lent of 0.7% of the US economy. The

'NASA Ear'NASA Ear th science budget increasing'th science budget increasing'

Euroconsult, a marketresearch firm, along with theconsulting firm Omnis fore-sees a significant shift inNASA's spending toward earthscience and R&D programmesand away from legacy space-flight activities. The Eurocon-sult/Omnis report analyseshow NASA's shift from cost-plus contracting to fixed-pricecontracts will impact various programmes throughout the agency.According to their report "NASA Spending Outlook: Trends to 2016,"NASA's budget for R&D will account for about 50 percent of all spending.

figure is the total of up to USD 87.2billion in costs to GPS users and USD8.8 billion in costs to GPS manufac-turers.

Products

Scientists develop

AgroAtlas

Russian scientists, in associationwith the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural ResearchService, developed the AgroAtlas, aninteractive Russian/English website

(www.agroatlas.ru). It shows the geo-graphic distributions of 100 crops;640 species of crop diseases, pests

and weeds and 560 wild crop rela-tives growing in Russia and neigh-bouring countries. It also includes200 maps that illustrate the environmental variables that affectcrop production.

Bentley augments

geoenvironmental

portfolio

During Be Together: The BentleyUser Conference, the companyreleased the GeoStructural Analysisand Advanced GeoStructural Analysissoftware. Through these offerings,Bentley brought a new category ofsoftware tools to surface and subsur-face project work. The new productspave the way for inclusion of geot-echnical and geoenvironmental con-siderations in integrated projectworkflows and decision making. Inaddition, the company announcedenhancements to its gINT softwarefor subsurface projects that offersgINT users the "V8i advantage,"including geospatial context for geotechnical data management within ProjectWise.

Appointment

OGC appoints new

board members

The Open Geospatial Consortium(OGC) elected 19 board membersduring its biennial election of direc-tors. The new board members includeSanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Developmentand Prof Jacqueline McGlade, Execu-tive Director, European EnvironmentAgency. 17 members were re-elected.They include Dr. John Curlander,Philippe Delclaux, Ben Eazzetta,Steve Hagan, Jefferey Harris, Dr. MikeJackson, Michael Jones, Dr. VanessaLawrence, Stefano Morisi, John Ole-sak, Jack Pellicci, Jeffery Peters,Kevin Pomfret, François Robida, VeluSinha, Dr. Christopher Tucker andRob van de Velde.


'Public to pay for GIS data'

The California Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled that state agenciescan charge licensing fees from the public for access to GIS data. Thecourt found that the exemption's legislative history made it clear thatthe purpose of the exemption is to allow public agencies to recoup thecosts of developing and maintaining computer mapping systems.Although the exemption does notdefine "computer mappingsystem," the court found thatthe database contained withinthe system was inseparableand, thus, could be leased,licensed or sold along withthe system.

VENEZUELA

Chinese tech for

RS satellite

Venezuela signed a manufactur-ing contract with China for thedevelopment of its remote sens-ing (RS) satellite. The satellitelaunch is scheduled for October2012. It will cost USD 1.4 billionand its life span will be of sixyears. "This remote sensingsatellite will be for monitoring ofnatural phenomena, such asearthquakes, floods and heavyrains," said Menendez, the minis-ter for Science, Technology andIntermediate Industries.

Courtesy: AgroAtlas


TECH LEAD I Prof Arup DasguptaTECH LEAD I Prof Arup Dasgupta

The evolution of GIS is the story of the co-cre-ative growth of information and communica-tion technologies (ICT) and their application

to geographical studies. Beginning with the use ofcomputer graphics for automated cartography inthe early 70's, GIS has benefitted from every newdevelopment in the field of ICT. In fact, it has alsocontributed to these technologies through theevolution of unique instruments, systems andapplications. The basic building blocks of a GISremain the same but there is a sea change in their characteristics influenced by emerging

technologies and new ways of addressing different aspects of the individual building blocks.

DATA

GIS data sources have expanded along with tech-nology. We have seen the automation of conven-tional survey instruments and the emergence ofdata logging systems. GPS systems which wereoriginally developed for satellite tracking havebecome important survey instruments. Aerialphotography has advanced to aerial and satelliteimaging sensors that go beyond the conventional

GIS -

The Road

Ahead

GIS -

The Road

Ahead

GIS has undergone and is undergoing metamorphosis that matchesthe evolution of the technologies thaat feed into it. Here is a take onthe current trends in GIS and the future course it is likely to taake

A Web map showing points of interest in San Diego, California overlaid on Bing Maps hybrid of the same area. Courtesy: ArcGIS.com

visible and infraredbands into themicrowave regions.The next step is GIS-ready imagery.

GIS-ready ImageryRemote sensing hasbecome an importantsource of data but itrequires processinglike geo-referencingand ortho-rectifica-tion before they can

be integrated into a GIS database. Prof Dr -Ing Christian Heipke of the Institute of Pho-togrammetry and Geoinformation, Han-nover concurs and points out that suchpre-processing is largely done automati-cally today, the only exception being thegeneration of true ortho imagery. Accord-ing to Heipke, the characteristics of GIS-ready imagery are up-to-date acquisition,rectified to the projection used in the GISso that there are no geometric errors andtrue ortho imagery in the case of urbanareas. Such data, which typically provides aninety percent circle of error (CE 90%) of4.8 m, does not come cheap and may costanywhere up to USD 90 per sq km. Howev-

er, Heipke opines that such imagery finds a ready mar-ket. Paul Ramsey of Open Geo however feels that 'GISready' is a prejudicial term used by vendors to insist thatcertain levels of image processing are a hard minimum.In fact the required quality is determined by the end usecase and user requirements.

This is borne out in a novel approach to GIS-readyimagery provided by TerraLook, a joint project of the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Labora-tory (JPL). Terralook provides satellite images that can beused to see changes in the earth's surface over time.Each TerraLook product is a user-specified collection ofsatellite images selected from imagery archived at theUSGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)Center. Images are bundled with standards-compliantmetadata, a world file, and an outline of each image'sground footprint, enabling their use in geographic infor-

mation systems (GIS), image processing software andWeb mapping applications. Heipke avers that it wouldmake sense to have critical features pre-extracted liketransportation and drainage since it is only based on suchfeatures that one can query a GIS. But he adds thatwhether or not line mapping, which is what "pre-extrac-tion of critical features" was called in the past, is possibleis a question of money and time. At the moment imageclassification, change detection and feature recognitionare possible through image processing tools.

Of late, there have been very large imagery contractsplaced with the leading satellite and aerial imageryproviders. According to Heipke, in many cases theseinclude GIS-ready imagery. However, Ramsey feels thatbig imagery contracts will be less and less the norm as

consumer sensors become capable of gathering 'accept-able for use' imagery. Why fly a plane when you canlaunch a balloon? Or stand on a building? In a new twistto the concept of GIS-ready imagery, Ramsey states thata cellphone with a good AGPS unit and gyroscope andcompass can gather imagery which can be made GIS-ready using the right software and base imagery to matchwith. He cites the examples of Google Street view andMicrosoft Photosynth.

Sensor NetworksSensor networks are increasingly becoming important assource of live data. According to Heipke, this depends onwhat we define as a sensor network. A GPS network, forexample, has existed for a long time; and so have othernetworks, like data collection platforms (DCP) which con-


It makes sense to have

critical features like

transportation and

drainage pre-extracted

since it is only based on

such features that one

can query a GIS

Christian Heipke

INI, Hannover

GIS-ready imagery of nuclear reactor at Bushehr, IranCourtesy: GeoEye

sist of a number of connected sensorsdelivering data to a central processingunit. The interesting part of sensor net-work is decentralised processing ofself organising ad hoc networks whichmake the network scalable. Traffic isjust one example in which such set-upscan be of major help.

Ramsey states that we are a sensornetwork. A billion people are walkingaround with sensors in their pockets.Right now they are capturing locationand time and pictures and sometimesaudio. As time goes on, they will capture even more infor-mation. The unique application is real time demograph-ics. You don't need to run a decennial census when youknow where everyone is right now. Indeed, data from cell-phones are being used to study traffic flows and spotareas of potential congestion. There are the issues ofstandardisation which, according to Ramsey, relate tostandardisation of time scales and location frames. Afterthat, most interoperability issues can be handled withclever (or not-so-clever) computer code. However, thereare privacy issues. Ramsey opines that they are notuniquely geo; they are part of the larger gestalt of onlinesharing that are being promoted by social networkingsites like FaceBook.

Crowd-sourcingCrowd-sourcing is now a legitimate source of data, butissues like standards, validation and privacy remain. Onthe emerging standards for crowd-sourced data, Ramseyhas to say that the most prominent standard has been the'no standard' standard pushed by OpenStreetMap. Little structure, and categorisation defined by the crowditself. The drawbacks of this approach are evident in the OpenStreetMap data, but the community continues its work, the next round will likely be something similar to the 'grammar bots' of Wikipedia. Map bots will cruisethe OpenStreetMap corpus, finding and fixing inconsis-tencies automatically. Systems akin to page-ranking are also being proposed for establishing the quality ofsuch data.

The report of the 1st EuroSDR Workshop on CrowdSourcing for the Updating of National Databases, held atthe Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo), Wabern,Switzerland on 20-21 August 2009 tried to classify the

'crowd' into groups based on theireffort and utility of the data they pro-duce. As Figure 1 shows, they rangefrom low value casual users to highvalue experts and open mappers. Aninteresting group are the passive map-pers who really are the sensors of thesensor networks discussed earlier. Wesee a blending of crowd-sourcing andsensors networks. According to Ram-sey, when the sensor network is madeof people carrying devices, the networkis the crowd and vice versa. The ques-

tion is what incentive people have to give up their privacy,their time, or both. So far, the incentive of seeing theirlocal area well mapped has moved things along.

The other interesting conclusion from the workshopwas the issues of data quality and reliability. Figure 2shows a way to merge the quality requirements of nation-al mapping agencies (NMAs) with the modest capabilitiesof the crowd. There is also a suggestion to maintain dualdatabases, one comprising of crowd sourced data and theother of the official data and to merge these two as theconfidence in the former approaches the latter.

While Google Mapmaker is a very visible face of publiccrowd sourcing, Ramsey points out that the 'success' ofMapMaker is derived from the ubiquity of Google itself.There are many agencies like Bing Maps, Wikimapia,Waze and Open Aerial Maps which have adopted crowdsourcing as a primary data source.


A billion people are

walking around with

sensors in their pockets,

capturing location, time

and pictures. The unique

application of this is real

time demographics.

- Paul Ramsey, OpenGeo

Figure 1: Classification of 'crowd' into groups based on their effort andutility of the data they produce Courtesy: EuroSDR

TOOLS

GIS stands apart from simple CAD or automated carto-graphic systems because of the analytical tools whichprovide the means to analyse and model systems and sit-uations and provide decision alternatives. These toolshave evolved over time and have adopted many of thedevelopments in the ICT world. Ramsey feels that theadoption of advanced computational tools into GIS is 5 to10 years behind the IT world but it is catching up fast.

Databases and Data MiningGIS data has moved into the RDBMS world thereby lever-aging the power of SQL. Spatial extensions of SQL cannow manage graphical data efficiently and raise the pow-er of querying maps to a new level. With the explosion ofdata in terms of high resolution imagery as well as datafrom sensor networks and crowd-sourcing, there are anew set of issues. While there are no issues relating todata volumes there are challenges in areas like data min-ing. Heipke concurs and points out new classificationmethods like support vector machines, graphical models(Markov and Conditional Random Fields) to name only afew new developments. Ramsey adds that the same toolsthat are being used to analyse Web data like 'map-reduce'technologies for massive data crunching and 'sharednothing' storage solutions, apply to geographic data.

The satellite image mosaics published by Microsoftand Google are a direct example of these new techniquesbeing put into practice: imagery for the whole world,mosaiced and processed in massive quantities. As the

tools of mass computation are commoditised throughservices like Amazon and AppEngine, we will see moreuse of them by mainstream GIS professionals. One suchexample is Oracle Exadata which can perform spatialoperations on up to 2 Terabytes of Database System Glob-al Area memory.

On the issues of archival, retrieval and maintenance,Heipke says that in particular retrieval is difficult, as itamounts to interpreting data with a particular semanticbackground. Turning images into GIS features is just oneexample, exploiting point cloud data to generate urbanstructures is another, integrating different data sets andthus exploiting their synergy is yet another. When visualinterpretation and overlap look simple automating, thesesteps require a very detailed understanding of both, theemployed algorithmic framework (including for example,machine learning approaches) and the applicationdomain.

Open SourceOpen source systems have established their relevance inthe geospatial world. Yet, there is a sense of competitionwith proprietary systems. If industry could cooperate inevolving open geospatial standards, why is there a lack ofsuch cooperation when it comes to open source solu-tions? Ramsey feels that proprietary vendors have a vest-ed interest in a binary on/off view of the problem, becauseit keeps their existing customers more firmly on theranch, paying support. There is no technical reason cus-tomers cannot build hybrid systems, particularly sinceopen source software places a premium on interoperabil-ity with existing systems.

Proprietary systems are promoting cloud based offer-ings in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) to reducecost of ownership and upgradation. Do these initiativespose any problem for open source? Is there a strategy tomeet this challenge? Ramsey says that open source is notan entity; so doesn’t have a 'strategy'. Open source is like-ly to end up inside those SaaS entities, doing all the heavywork. Unless you already own the proprietary code build-ing a SaaS on top of proprietary software is not economi-cal. Horizontally scaling services can only be built on soft-ware infrastructure that doesn't have a large capital costof deployment: open source software fits that bill. Indeedwe do see situations where open source provide muchbetter solutions as network servers, map servers andinternet servers for intranets and internet map services.


Figure 2: Ways to merge the quality requirements of NMAs with capabilities of the crowd Courtesy: EuroSDR


PhotogrammetryPhotogrammetry has moved from huge complexmechanical instruments using aerial photographs to ele-gant and complex software using digital imagery fordetermining 3D measurements from 2D stereo data.Optical imagery has been further complemented withinterferometric SAR which overcomes the problems ofcloud cover. LiDAR imaging also provides such 3D meas-urements. So what will dominate the digital photogram-metric world? Will the ubiquitous stereo pair disappear?Heipke feels Images similar to what we humans perceivewill always play a major role, because humans can easilyinterpret such representations - this is not the case e. g.for radar images. Also, images have a higher resolutionthan LiDAR data, both in the geometric but also in thespectral dimension (colour instead of a monochromaticchannel only). In particular for 3D structures (urbanareas, forests), automatic interpretation of images andpoint clouds yield complementary results and shouldtherefore be done in an integrated way. Satellite imageswith an ever more detailed ground resolution have anincreasing importance, but there are also more and moreapplications for images with about 5 cm pixel size. Thus,aerial images remain necessary, also because acquisitionis more flexible and in a number of cases more economic.

CONVERGENCE

One of the key developments in GIS has been its integra-tion with other information systems. We know that GISgrew out of the convergence of CAD, automated cartogra-phy, DBMS and later remote sensing. Now we are observ-ing another kind of convergence where GIS is adding spa-tial value to other systems like design and engineering,business and enterprise management.

Design and EngineeringThere is an artificial disconnect between GIS and CADapplications for an engineering project. While a GIS data-base shows the project site in its true geospatial location, the CAD drawings of the project elements show thedetails of the elements but not in their geospatial context. Taken further, a GIS may show objects like build-ings as extrusions in the correct geographic locations butfail to show the inner details of the buildings. On the oth-er hand, the CAD drawings bring out the inner details.Thus by bringing GIS and CAD together, we can achievethe best of both worlds. Some have begun to call this

Geodesign. Geodesign results in a very detailed databasewhich can be used for multiple purposes from routing ofutility lines to marking out emergency escape routes. Itdoes form an important information source for designingsustainable infrastructures.

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Since large enterprises have geographically distributedassets, suppliers and clients, it was a matter of timebefore GIS was brought in to support ERP activities. Thisis one area where integration is happening at a rapid paceand has achieved a level of maturity.

The key issues are the ability of ERP and GIS to accesseach others' databases. The most obvious solution hasbeen to provide connectors at both ends but then themost obvious is not always the best. The trend is to designa database that can be accessed by both ERP and GIS.The main issue is the nature of the databases. GIS data-bases are large but relatively static while ERP databasesare lighter but dynamic as they cater to transactions inreal time. Roger Langsdon of Logica (Figure 4) suggestsan integrated model which uses a Distribution Manage-ment System as a common element between the differentsystems to balance out the disparate requirements.

Business IntelligenceBusiness Intelligence has many overlaps with ERP. In factthat part of the ERP which is client driven can be consid-ered to constitute BI. The issues are similar to the ERP

22

Figure 4: Integrating different systems using a Distribution ManagementSystem (DMS) Courtesy: www.gita.org


and the solutions so far are basically through data con-nectors. There is a large disconnect between BI users andGIS users because BI users think that GIS is too compli-cated solution for their tasks while the GIS users think BIis just about making maps and charts. The answer lies inbetween and that is the place to be explored.

BI depends on data warehousing and mining, onlineanalytical processing, OLAP which can be made spatiallyoriented, reporting tools and a dashboard which offers agraphical picture of the various reports and processes.Extract, transform and load (ETL) is the key to any BI sys-tem. Integration can be attempted by making the ETL,data warehouse and OLAP spatially enabled.

DEPLOYMENT

GIS deployment has also undergone change from theubiquitous desktop to the Web and now the Cloud. Main-frames gave way to servers and now to large distributedsystems like the GRID and now the Cloud. Access is nowpossible from various platforms like tablets and mobiles.

CloudGIS on the cloud has been described indetail in May 2011 edition of GeospatialWorld. One of the applications pickingup is Data as a Service, DaaS. JohnOeschle, Executive Vice President -Strategy and Product, DigitalGlobe,mentions that their cloud servicesplatform helps give customers fast andeasy online access to existing andnewly collected imagery so that theyhave the visual information needed tomake critical decisions. It is also a crit-ical part of the evolving technologyinfrastructure that is helping Digital-Globe close the gap between the time thatan image is collected and processed and the time that agovernment or business can use it to make moreinformed decisions.

At the same time, since DigitalGlobe cloud is primari-ly distribution oriented, there is no computing or process-ing on behalf of customers. Therefore their cloud isunusual in that it doesn't contain any information thatcustomers would directly upload or consider proprietary.However, efforts like ArcGIS.com, a SaaS realisation,where users can upload and analyse data are picking up

interest and it will be interesting to observe the develop-ments. Cloud is also a great opportunity for open source,particularly for PaaS and as back-end engines for SaaS).

MobilePortable devices like tablets and mobile phones havebecome multi-functional and are used for several spatialapplications like navigation, finding points of interest, fielddata collection, field operations. Mobile devices, whenused with Cloud can give extremely powerful solutions for

field use. Most devices are now power-ful enough to handle imagery andmerged with SaaS can be configuredfor on-site image analysis for, say cropmonitoring.

IN CLOSING

GIS has undergone and is undergoing ametamorphosis that matches the evo-lution of the technologies that feed intoit. There are many areas like naturallanguage spatial relations and interac-tion by sketching for example whichhave been proposed by Mike Goodchildmany years ago but which have yet to

become mainstream. The sixth sense technology demon-strated by Pranav Mistry of MIT Media Labs is a wearabletechnology which, when integrated with GIS, can revolu-tionise person-data interaction and bring new applica-tions to the fore. GIS as a system may metamorphose intoa component in a larger system and applications willbecome more holistic.

Prof. Arup DasguptaManaging Editor, Geospatial [email protected]

Cloud services platform

helps give customers fast

and easy online access to

existing and new imagery

so that they have the visual

information needed to

make critical decisions

- John Oeschle

DigitalGlobe

Figure 5: Geospatial Business Intelligence Courtesy: http://geosoa.scg.ulaval.ca


EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW I Greg Bentley

26

What has been the evolving visionof Bentley Systems over the last twodecades?

All through the history of our compa-ny, we have focussed on the samemission, although we have not alwaysarticulated it in the same way - whatwe call sustaining infrastructure. Byinfrastructure, we refer to every wayin which people improve the world,things that are built and contribute toour economies, while also improvingour environment. It is possible fortoday's engineers, architects andgeospatial professionals to do thesethings together, with the help of tech-nology providers like us. It is all aboutsustaining infrastructure.

What are the essential ingredientsfor building sustainable and intelli-gent infrastructure?

To build sustainable infrastructure,

the most essential ingredients areinvestment and return for the owner.Without the promise of return, thereis no investment and without invest-ment, there is no infrastructure. For-tunately, infrastructure is a veryattractive investment in the world atlarge now, especially in developingcountries. It is a more compellinginvestment than alternatives thatmight have looked attractive beforethe financial bubble, but were not asintrinsically and fundamentallyimportant for our economies and ourenvironment as infrastructure. It is abetter return than ever, thanks toinformation modelling and its appli-cation to integrated projects thatinvolve information movement andcontribute in every aspect of design,construction, operations and mainte-nance. In the lifecycle of intelligentinfrastructure, our contribution is

what we can do with informationmodelling to improve integrated proj-ects, yield more intelligent infrastruc-tures, and improve the return forowners.

Infrastructures are interdependent.It is essential for these interdepen-dent infrastructures to function reli-ably for the ROI you mentioned. Canyou elaborate on how geospatialtechnology in generral and Bentleyproducts in particular can ensurethese interdependencies?

An obvious interdependence amongststructures and infrastructures is thatthey are connected by way of net-works of transportation, utilities,communications and so forth. A dis-cussion on interdependencies makesme think of an aspect of sustainabilitythat is worth mentioning at this pointin time, especially in the face of natu-

Sustaining

intrinsically 3D

infrastructure

INFRASTRUCTURE IS REAPING BETTER RETURNS THAN EVER, THANKS TO INFORMATION

MODELLING AND ITS APPLICATION IN EVERY ASPECT OF INFRASTRUCTURE LIFECYCLE. IN

THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, GREG BENTLEY, CEO,BENTLEY SYSTEMS INC., SHARES HIS

VISION AND BENTLEY'S COMMITMENT IN BUILDING SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURES

ral disasters. When we think ofresilience or sustainability, it can be interms of withstanding natural disas-ters to simulate and improveresilience, strengthen our infrastruc-ture on the one hand and mitigate theimpact of disasters on the other hand,be it earthquakes, floods, hurricanes,and then recover. Let us consider thesituation of Japan, a country that hadbeen relatively well prepared. Giventhe scale of the disaster that affectedthe country, a number of interdepen-dencies come to mind. There werenuclear problems, transportationproblems, electrical grid problems,and so forth. To put all this in context,and to be able to simulate and respondbetter, is a huge challenge. An oppor-tunity in this situation, however, is inROI to infrastructure engineers and


TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE

INFRASTRUCTURE, THE

MOST ESSENTIAL

INGREDIENTS ARE

INVESTMENT AND RETURN

FOR THE OWNER. WITHOUT

THE PROMISE OF RETURN,

THERE IS NO INVESTMENT

AND WITHOUT

INVESTMENT, THERE IS

NO INFRASTRUCTURE.

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems Inc.

geospatial professionals in address-ing not only the human cost but theeconomic cost of such disasters.

Bentley has strengthened its com-mitment towards infrastructure byreleasing 'Infrastructure 500 ToopOwners' and by constituting theinfrastructure ambassadors' council.Can you elaborate on these?

The Bentley Infrastructure 500 TopOwners are the organisations weresearched based on their cumulativeinvestment measured by their nettangible fixed assets, and they are thelargest owner operators of infrastruc-ture in the world. Interestingly, morethan 12 percent of top owners are inBrazil, Russia, India, and China alone.These 500 top owners have invest-ments of over USD 13 trillion at netasset value in infrastructure. Helpingthem leverage IT through integratedprojects and more intelligent infra-structure is a huge opportunity for allof us. Everyone can win by helping. Inparticular, we consider these topowners as an opportunity for us totarget our AssetWise initiative per-taining to their operations and the

maintenance of their infrastructure. Our Infrastructure Ambassadors

Council comprises recently retired,experienced infrastructure leaders tohelp bring attention to the cause andmerit of infrastructure professionalsin the world.

You have observed that about 12 %of the 500 top companies are fromBRIC countries. More than 75 perr-cent of the population lives in thedeveloping world, while the invest-ment on infrastructure is 10-15 %implying that infrastructure chal-lenges of these economies are muchmore complex. What is your strategyto capture this market?

There are lot of exciting opportunitieswith all the technologies comingtogether now. For instance, 3D citiesare elegantly feasible now. In coun-tries where the number of large citiesis growing quickly, for instance Indiaand China, there is a need to be smartabout how to build and operate infra-structure that is so essential at thatscale. What has us really intrigued isthe opportunity for geospatial initia-tives on behalf of 3D cities in develop-

ing countries - to start with the notionof being intelligent and intrinsically3D, and not to be held back by theinstitutional barriers of separateinformation environments that havecharacterised the history of geospa-tial industries. Our recently launchededitions of Bentley Map are intrinsi-cally 3D and can help accelerate andslingshot the progress for return oninvestment on infrastructure in devel-oping countries and specifically citiesin these countries.

What according to you are the criti-cal challenges facing sustainableinfrastructure?

A challenge in general in this area,


World's 500 top infrastructurecompanies have investmentsof over USD 13 trillion at netasset value. Helping themleverage IT through integratedprojects and more intelligentinfrastructure is a hugeopportunity for all of us

especially in developing countries, isthat the adoption of IT hasn't been asadvanced as in other countries. Inmany infrastructure projects, forexample, traditionally a set of paperdrawings have been handed off fromthe design team to the constructionteam, and the intelligence that mayhave been in the 3D design model hasbeen lost. Now with design/build andprivate investments, the best practiceis to start with a 3D model, fromwhich one can derive the plan set.And with our hypermodel innovation,these can be amalgamated, by way of3D models in which drawings areembedded in their appropriate context, providing users the advan-tages of both. So where there mayhave been a slow adoption of technologies, we can catch up, especially with so much investment in the world at large in terms ofdevices, computing and databasetechnologies. We are nowhere nearthe point of diminishing returns inapplying to infrastructure productivitythe breakthroughs that continue to be yielded by investments in consumer technologies and mobiledevices. But a particular challengefor those of us on the technology side is to accordingly inflect infrastructure's relatively slow adoption to date.

In the past, computing may havebeen a bottleneck. At one point intime, one could not incarnate in thesame computer memory an engi-neering-precision model that was ofthe scale of the earth. Now, of course,that is more than feasible. In fact,projects and assets can rely upon,and abstract from as needed, preciseengineering models that are compre-hensive in every dimension, includingbelow the ground, to work smarter in

addressing the challenges of infrastructure.

How do you see Bentley solutionsworking towards integrating withother technology segments likeimaaging, positioning and locationintelligence as well as engineeringworkflows?

Our users apply geospatial technolo-gy as a means to an end. For Bentleyusers, that end is better realising andoperating infrastructures, by whichwe mean everything that's built.Therefore, having an environment inwhich the intrinsic 3D nature of theworld, and all its other aspects, cannaturally be federated to supportsimulation, design, construction andoperations in the same environmentis what occurs naturally to us atBentley. I think this is where we dis-tinguish ourselves. For instance, inour recently launched Bentley MapV8i (SELECTseries 2), we are takingadvantage of Oracle Spatial 3D so that3D geometry is stored natively in Ora-cle Spatial. To use another example,this year we will be rolling out a ter-rain model as a fundamental datatype in MicroStation, because a scala-ble terrain model is applicable inevery geospatial context. Where3D surveying is concerned,point clouds are fully support-ed now. Where images areconcerned, in addition to 3Dimages and texturing sup-ported in the new BentleyMap, we are working on3D panoramas that can beconveniently created withstandard digital cameras,another breakthroughstemming from the con-sumer space. The focus inwhat we do is on infrastruc-

ture owners. What serves them is notany particular aspect of technologiesbut the information modelling tobring it all together, to federate it andto focus on interoperability and open-ness to make that possible.

How do you see the role of interop-erability, not only within the varioustechnology segments of the geospa-tial industrybut alsowithin thegeospa-tial


What serves infrastructureowners is not any particularaspect of technologies but theinformation modelling to bringit all together, to federate itand to focus on interoperabili-ty and openness too make thatpossible.

29

datasets as well as architecturedatasets?

We need to take the standpoint ofinfrastructure asset owners. Theyhave water systems, utility systems,nuclear campuses, etc. Their work ischaracterised by project after projectthat are all at engineering scale, withcontent that improves and refines it,but always set in a geospatial context.When they make decisions, say abouttheir drainage, at the same time asroadways, transportation and com-munications, it is all in a 3D environ-

ment for both engineer-ing and planning cycles.There is physical model-ling, but there is alsoschematic modelling. Wetalk about "the smartgrid," but the grid inwhich the world hasinvested trillions of dol-lars is our existing utilitydistribution network.Bentley Substation prod-uct addresses that realityand helps make it smart.It is a great example ofbringing together theschematic and the physi-cal in one informationmodelling environment.

We can now have Asset-Wise, which supports the oper-ation and maintenancepart of the infrastructurelifecycle, share serviceswith ProjectWise, whichsupports the design/buildpart of the lifecycle. All ofthe data is maintained inits native efficient formatand referenced andqueried on demand with-

in the federated environment. That is theworld we work in, when we talk about engineering. Of increasingimportance is design/build delivery,for better return on increasingly private infrastructure investment.Public-private partnerships willalways require continuity of informa-tion flow to yield their economicpromise - from design into construc-tion, to optimize performance underservice level agreements that dependon traffic flow, and so on. These

projects will fully apply informationmodelling for maximum safety aswell, because all-in economicsdemand it, including the benefits ofas-built models for operations andmaintenance.

Let's take an example of bridgesin a transportation project. Bridgesmade of segmental concrete are veryimportant in India, because the trans-portation challenges in the cities ofIndia require building flyovers andoverpasses, which are all bridges andin concrete. There are issues of thematerials and fabrications to be deliv-ered just-in-time to the site, minimis-ing the risk in downtime, and so forth.Then there are issues of moving largeloads. For instance, to safely deliver atransformer or turbine to a nuclearplant entails simulating the actualstresses on the bearing members ofthe actual bridge in real time. Thenthere are the dimensions for rampsand clearances. All of this is neither a2D problem nor a 3D problem; it is aninformation modelling problem. Everyrelease of ours makes stridestowards addressing this.

Infrastructure is definitely thelargest and the most important busi-ness driver of the geospatial indus-try. What else do you think is drivingthe geospatial industry today?

Our focus, of course, is infrastruc-ture. Our interest is better returns forinfrastructure owners.

Every database with things or peo-ple in it needs to intrinsically includetheir geo-references. Things and peo-ple in real time will be connected bythe intelligent devices they carry andsensors around us. There will bereal-time information about thingsand people. These are going to bringterrific economic benefits and lever-



age smarter and more versatileinformation models and informationmodelling processes that can relate,and which have an accurate, preciseand complete incarnation of theinfrastructure content that is soimportant to every application in theeconomy.

In the process, work on information modelling for infrastructure will be more complete, more natural, more interoperable, easier to use, lessinstitutionalised and separated, forinstance, between GIS technologiesand engineering technologies. Byrights, we shouldn't be able to tellthe difference as projects are alwaysthere, assets are always there,design is always there, planning isalways there, linked by realisation.The best mission for us to apply our-selves to is having users not worryabout those institutional distinc-tions, in particular if they are infra-structure owners, who will pro-foundly benefit from investments insmarter devices and better databasetechnologies. For instance, beyondhistorical "GIS" distinctions, we benefit through inclusion of pointcloud and images, the use of Oracle Spatial 3D, CityGML andinteroperability to relate togetherdata types that are naturally relatedby what we do in the world, but havebeen unnaturally separated by insti-tutional history. Most of all, it isintrinsically a 3D world. As develop-ing countries begin their 3D citiesinitiatives, they will be able to takeadvantage of an intrinsic 3D environ-ment such as Bentley Map. It canhelp them use information model-ling by way of integrated projects formore intelligent, safer and sustain-able infrastructure.

You have a vision of acquiring tech-

nologies that come from the applica-

tion user domain, and you have suc-

cessfully done this in the last five

years. What are your plans to expand

your technology offerings?

When I look at what's new over thepast year and our 2011 priorities,much of it has geospatial aspects. Ihave mentioned geo-coordination.All Bentley products put projectsand content in a geo-coordinatedcontext that's intrinsic everywhere.The scalable terrain model I men-tioned earlier ought to have beenpart of GIS all along, but never hasbeen until now. We have integratedvisualization and animation,CityGML, and for instance the notionof gravity as it relates to water mod-elling, drainage, and geotechnicalstructures. The geospatial essenceof these things is such that you can'tdemarcate where geospatial leavesoff and engineering begins. That'sthe principal insight, for our work.

3D cities and 3D city modellingare considered new and novel,although they are one of our fastestgrowth areas, especially in develop-ing countries and cities. I think it willbecome an accepted and mandatorystrategy for high return on invest-ment and improvement in humanlife. We focused on what our usersare doing, what they are investing in,and how we are helping them to getbetter investment, interoperability,openness, inclusion and federation.Contribution to increasingly valuablegeospatial datastores is somethingthat all of us as vendors are con-tributing to.

What are your views about therecent acquisition of Intergraph byHexagon?

The acquisition of Intergraph byHexagon is interesting. The relatedeffect of the acquisition on BentleySystems is that Intergraph, which had invested in Bentley Systems 24 years ago, is no longer astockholder, as we repurchased itsshares earlier this year. Our familyand Bentley Systems colleaguesnow own 85 percent of Bentley'sequity.

Hexagon is primarily a hardwarecompany and Intergraph was prima-rily a software and services compa-ny. There have been instances in thepast where the vertical integrationbetween hardware and software hasnot worked out well for users.Unless there is a commitment toopenness on both the sides, onewinds up with a stack that is intra-operable but not interoperable. Ithink both of these merged compa-nies in the past have had that ten-dency, and we will have to seewhether that turns out to be thecase in the present combination ornot. I think Hexagon sees some ofthe same opportunities as we do inthe connected and intelligent worldand I commend their thinking anddetermination in increasing theirinvestment.

There have been instances inthe past where the verticalintegration between hardwareand software hhas not workedout well for users. Unless thereis a commitment to opennesson both the sides, one windsup with a stack that is intra-operable but not interoperable.


SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE II Prof Ian Dowman

In this age of climate change and global warming, sus-taining our environment for the future generations is apriority for the humanity. Those involved in geospatial

technologies know well that they can contribute to this;indeed, they can make a vital contribution to protect theenvironment and to allow sustainable development. Howdo we do this?

We have at our disposal the means to collect datawhich is indispensible for this purpose and we also havetools for processing and analysing the data. These toolsare recognised by decision makers and are being usedextensively in areas like agriculture, for monitoringchanges in the natural environment and for managingdisaster response. In other areas however, the benefits ofgeospatial technology are less well understood, and attimes not appreciated by decision makers who controlthe purse strings.

One component which is very important is a spatialdata infrastructure (SDI), necessary to allow data andinformation to be available to many organisations. Thisarticle is designed to bring together information onissues and good practices, and to present a comprehen-sive picture of the role of geospatial information in thedevelopment and management of infrastructure, particu-larly in the built environment.

Data issues

There is much discussion atpresent on building asmarter planet to deal withthe many challenges whichface us. These includeincreasing population,migration of people to citiesand increasing purchasingcapacity resulting in increas-ing consumption. This is verymuch related to the politicalsituation: developed Vs emerg-ing Vs developing economies; thenorth south divide; climate change;depleting resources etc.

Information on location is clearlythe primary service which the geospatialinformation (GI) industry can provide. It canprovide answers to many pressing issues ofdeveloping world - site selection of facilities likepower plants, waste disposal plants and healthcarefacilities - areas where GI tools can facilitate optimumsolutions to the planners. Going beyond, geospatial tech-nology can be used in the entire life-cycle of infrastruc-

SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE FULFILLS THE PRESENT SOCIETAL NEEDS

WHILE REDUCING THE IMPACTS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS BY INTEGRATING

MATERIALS AND METHODS THAT PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY,

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY, ECONOMIC VITALITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THROUGH

ITS DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION. THIS ARTICLE BRINGS OUT

THE USE OF GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY IN INFRASTRUCTURE LIFE-CYCLE

AND THE CHALLENGES INVOLVED


COVER STORYture, including planning, building, operations and mainte-nance. Besides being able to provide location, geospatialprofessionals contribute an understanding of handlingdatasets, merging datasets and in particular, of accuracy.An infrastructure is frequently developed in a piecemealfashion by different organisations using data from manysources; managing this as a whole requires detailed infor-mation at scales ranging from regional to neighbourhoodlevel.

A key component in establishing and main-taining a sustainable infrastructure is good

records. This is necessary for managingthe infrastructure. As an example, con-

sider the infrastructure for a city whichmight include details of buildings,inside and out, transport, and under-ground services: the data wouldhave been compiled from manysources such as traditional survey-ing, photogrammetry, laser scan-ning and existing digital or hardcopy records. It is important tounderstand the legacy of the datato assess its quality before the datais used for modelling to help plan-ning efficient use of energy, under-

stand and reduce air pollution, noisepollution etc.

Another issue is the role of govern-ment and national mapping organisa-

tions (NMOs). Governments may mandateauthorities to manage 'green facilities' for

the benefit of the society. In the United King-dom, several directives require local authorities

to take note of the green infrastructure concept inmaking their plans and decisions. NMOs can supply

basic data for management of urban and rural infra-structure, but do not generally get directly involved.

Geospatial industry involvement

At the recent Hexagon user conference, the main theme

Definitions

w Infrastructure is defined by Wikipedia as the basicphysical and organisational structures needed for theoperation of a society or enterprise, or the services andfacilities necessary for an economy to function.

w A Sustainable Infrastructure is considered to beone in which maintaining, repairing and upgrading theinfrastructure sustains our quality of life.

w Green Infrastructure is a strategically planned anddelivered network comprising the broadest range of high-quality green spaces and other environmental features.

w Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a frameworkof spatial data, metadata, users and tools that are interac-tively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficientand flexible way.

33

revolved around building a smarter planet focusing ongreen infrastructure and green energy, demonstratingthat a geospatial company has linked up these globalissues with its business focus. Other companies such asESRI, Autodesk and other GIS software companies arecomplementing positioning technology companies likeTrimble, Topcon, and Leica which are strongly pursuinginfrastructure as a major business segment.

Bentley has developed software for managing 3DCities and emphasises on 3D modelling, quality control,management, 3D analysis and design as the essentialcomponents. Quality of course is a primary element ofgeospatial data for this type of application, as well asinteroperability. Bentley recognises the terrain, buildings,transportation network, bodies of water, city furniture,electric/power lines, and vegetation objects as the com-ponents of an urban infrastructure.

Esri provides software for managing geospatial dataand this has been used for such diverse applications andmanaging cities facilities. For example, Esri software hasprovided optimum location for building materials andvisualisation software to communicate the status ofenergy and water usage to the residents of Masdar city inUAE.

Merrick & Co, through its products, demonstrateshow geospatial techniques can contribute to every stagein the life-cycle of a power line project , demonstratingefficiencies at each stage, and particularly in the ongoingoperations and maintenance stage essential for sustain-able energy supply.

Spatial data infrastructure

A prime example of a spatial data infra structure isINSPIRE in Europe. INSPIRE will enable the sharing of

environmental spatial information among public sectororganisations and facilitates better public access to spa-tial information across Europe. It will assist in policy-making across boundaries. The spatial information con-sidered under the INSPIRE directive is extensive andincludes a great variety of topical and technical themes.INSPIRE is linked to GMES (Global Monitoring of Environ-ment and Security). INSPIRE and GMES share manycommonalities such as their focus on environmental pol-icy support, their system of systems nature, their use ofgeomatic and geographic information, their Europe, orworldwide, dimension, their reliance on internationalstandards and the advanced spatial data infrastructuresthat are needed for their implementation.

An example of a service provided by GMES is 'TheSpatial Planning Service' which provides harmonised andhighly accurate earth observation based informationproducts and tools to describe, explain and forecasturban land use changes supporting spatial planning fromregional to European scale. The Spatial Planning Serviceof GMES builds upon the applicability of core landcover/land use mapping data from the continental GMESLand Monitoring Core Service, which depict the extent,development and density of urban areas and their sur-rounding landscapes. Subsequently, the maps are inte-grated with ancillary geospatial and statistical data intogeographical information procedures, toolsets and mod-els. These derived information products open the way foranalysing demographic developments and for analysis ofchanging land use and its impact on the environment. Akey benefit is seen as support of spatial planning author-ities with consistent and comparable EO based informa-tion products and tools to describe, explain and forecasturban land use changes and this indicates how the use ofgeospatial data is moving from observing and monitoring


Figure 1. The life cycle of a power line project

GI industry can provide answers to

many pressing issues of developing

world - site selection of facilities like

power plants, waste disposal plants and

healthcare facilities - areas where GI

tools caan facilitate optimum solutions to

the planners


to the evaluation of policy options.Another example is in Indonesia where the SDI serves

many central and local government departments and theprivate sector. This is emphasised by the example of theIndonesian SDI which will serve not only BAKOSUR-TANAL (the national mapping agency) and the NationalLand Registry, but also the National Aeronautics andAerospace Institute, government ministries includingforestry, public works, transportation, agriculture,marine and fisheries and also the private sector and localgovernments which has more has 500 nodes participat-ing. This was discussed further in the article on NationalMapping Agencies in May 2011 of Geospatial World.

It might be argued that progress in Africa is hinderedby the lack of a spatial data infrastructure, although thisdeficiency is recognised and being remedied by projectssuch as the African Reference Framework (AfREF) proj-ect which is designed to set up a continent wide referencesystem, making it easier for data to be exchangedbetween organisations in different countries.

Sustainable cities

A key theme in current development practice is the sus-tainable city and more specifically, the eco city. The ideais to make cities cleaner, greener and more energy effi-cient, and the role of geospatial information is central tothis. The city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, self proclaimed asthe 'world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city' is aprime example. In Masdar, it is recognised that GIS has akey role to play and a GIS team is responsible for manag-ing the overall spatial information needs of the project.This includes the provision of basic geospatial informa-tion tools such as a base map and visualisation tools toenable all stakeholders to understand the environment.

Planners use GIS to determine the siting of key facili-ties like Masdar's water treatment and sewage plants,material recycling centre, solar power plant, geothermaltest site, solar panel test field and concrete batchingplant - all amenities which need to be situated inside thecity's boundaries. GIS is seen to operate as a decision-making tool; informing the practitioners who work on theMasdar project. GIS is also being used to model some ofMasdar's key infrastructural features directly. Its involve-ment in simulating the city-wide Personal Rapid Trans-port System (PRTS) is one such example. (More informa-tion on Masdar on Page No. 40)

Another example comes from the USA. The City of

Philadelphia has a plan to invest USD 2 billion over thenext 25 years on green infrastructure to clean up thecity's water. According to the information available atPWD's website , GIS is already playing a major role in thisambitious initiative. The Department is using GIS toanalyse and visualise information about its watersheds.GIS software enabled users to view individual or multiplephysical features as a series of stacked, two-dimensional'layers' that form accurate maps and diagrams. Thecapability of this software encompasses many other dataanalysis functions; for example, GIS can be used to tracesewer routes, find how much of a watershed area ismade up of certain types of land uses, or determinewhich land parcels are located adjacent to creeks.

There are many well known examples of the use ofgeospatial information to improve the quality of the envi-ronment, and to make activities more efficient. Other

Figure 3. Major Philadelphia watersheds

Figure 2. Proposed Masterplan of Masdar City


examples include the use of 3D city models (air and noisepollution) and emergency services (GNSS for efficientrouting, location of vehicles and facilities and use of facil-ities). A less well known example is the mapping anddescription of trees which can be done by combininginformation from imagery and from laser scanning,together with contextual information.

While showing where trees are, an assessment canbe made on the overall impact which they might have onthe immediate area in the form of roots affecting adjacentbuildings; the impact of water run-off and the effect onlighting, all requiring information on the species, canopyextent and height. Insurance companies also find thisinformation useful in assessing the risk to buildings andservices. The location of smart energy meters in domes-tic properties can provide information of how energy isbeing used and help plan more efficient delivery.

Transport

Transport is another area where geospatial information isimportant. Using GNSS for routing is a long establishedtechnique which makes journeys shorter and saves fuel,but the application can be more sophisticated than this.Ola Rollen of Hexagon gives the example of using GI forthe siting of bus stops, where the slope of the road is tak-en into account: more fuel is needed if a bus has to starton an upward slope, so it is more fuel efficient to site busstops on downward slopes.

Many countries are building high speed rail networks

and geomatics techniques are being used in the plan-ning, construction and management of these networks.An important element of a railway system is safety andalthough GNSS can provide position, this has to be 100%reliable if used for signalling. For example, Figure 5shows the track of a GPS receiver plotted on an aerialimage as the number of satellites used for positioningchanges. Current research is determining how completereliability can be achieved by using available GNSS sys-tems to overcome this problem.

Another interesting example comes from Portugal .Ferbritas SA is a consulting engineering company spe-cialising in transport. They use GIS within their projectlife-cycle and stress that "The requirements of the asso-ciated interventions are very technical in nature andinvolve multiple specialties and technologies, and thefinal result is only guaranteed if the various componentsof this interwoven puzzle are compatible and properlyjoined together." GIS is an important tool in this process;they have also developed a Cadastre Information System"designed to meet the needs of the rail sector andbeyond. It also is applicable to the activities of entities ororganisations to which it is important to ensure thedynamic control of cadastral and real estate property."

GI measuring techniques are used to measure thethickness of tarmac on road surfaces, ensuring that onlythe optimum amount of material is used. Similar tech-niques are used on the Monaco Formula 1 grand prix cir-cuit to accurately define the exact topography of thetrack.

Figure 4. IKONOS image with LiDAR point cloud showing position of trees.

Figure 5. The track of a GPS receiver plotted on an aerial image as thenumber of satellites used for positioning changes .


Another example from the USA is illustrated in theTransportation for the Nation (TFTN) strategic plan inwhich it has been recognised that redundancy in datasetscost taxpayers millions of dollars. The generation of con-sistent, current, high quality road centre line data for theentire country would bring about significant efficiencies.As well as using existing datasets, the identifiedapproach also envisions capitalising on the emergence ofvolunteered geographic information (crowd sourcing) tomaintain quality and provide a user feedback mecha-nism. A completed comprehensive dataset will communi-cate knowledge of the US road network, thereby promot-ing innovation, commerce, informed public discourse,basic research and sharing within open communities ofinterest. Some pervasive applications include: on-boardvehicle navigation, emergency vehicle dispatching androuting, census enumeration, postal and delivery servic-es, disaster response and relief efforts, tax collection,mapping accidents, asset inventories, map directions onsmartphones, and other location-based systems. In addi-tion to the general uses of road centre lines outlinedabove, transportation professionals utilise road centrelines extensively for explicit transportation planning andmanagement activities. These activities include highwaysafety involving issues like road geometry and guardrailplacement, intelligent transportation system planning,congestion management and environmental issues suchas wetlands and air quality along rights-of-way, andhighway performance issues to gauge the health andusability of the transportation system.

Challenges

On the face of it, the examples above seem to provide awin-win situation: the use of GI allows infrastructureprojects to be more efficient and save money. The GI soft-ware companies and the instrument providers recognisethis and target infrastructure managers with their prod-ucts. Key issues are whether such large and diversedatasets can be managed and shared by different depart-ments, in other words: can spatial data infrastructurescope with the demand put upon them. Potential issuesarising from this include interoperability between soft-ware packages and standards to ensure smooth datatransfer. It should be the geospatial community whichensures that their data can be used efficiently on the sys-tems used by local authorities and government. CanNMOs and commercial mapping companies provide the

data which can be used in complex systems? Can thedata providers and software providers also act as systemanalysts and ensure that data and software are compati-ble across the board? Is this an opportunity for GI profes-sionals to extend their expertise, and their influencebeyond providing data?

The other side of the coin is that decision makersmust be convinced that geospatial information is fit forpurpose, and that money spent in developing compre-hensive infrastructure management will pay off. May be itcan in a new development such as Masdar, but can sucha system be imposed on existing, multi-sector organisa-tions? Another important tool to help decision makersand the public to understand information is to use visual-isation tools developed by geospatial industry, but this toomust go with intelligent presentation.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that geospatial information is essentialto the development and management of infrastructure. Awell planned and well managed system can be sustain-able but there are necessary preconditions: all potentialusers should be aware of what is involved and what thebenefits could be. The development of a wide selection ofcase studies to demonstrate the benefits in efficiency andcost effectiveness brought about by geospatial informa-tion would be beneficial. Many straight forward examplesexist, ranging from the simple provision of a static posi-tion, through positioning for routing and the emergencyservices, to geospatial analysis of data for siting facilities.But it has been demonstrated that GI can provide morethan this, involving the full life-cycle of a project, particu-larly in the maintenance of a facility. Knowledge of accu-racy requirements and accuracy attained is vital, as is thepresentation of information to decision makers and thepublic on the performance of a system.

Prof Ian Dowman, Editor - Europe, Geospatial [email protected]

A well planned and well managed

system can be sustainable but there are

necessary preconditions: alll potential

users should be aware of what is

involved and what the benefits could be.

GeoEye “Commercial /StadiumAd” PUB: Geospatial World TRIM: 7.75 x 10.25 Live: 6.95 + 9.45” Bleed: 8.15” x10.65” PDF/X1a

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Raising the bar

on sustainability

At a time when nations around the world are makingfrantic efforts over trying to cut their carbon foot-print and find out effective ways and means of

tackling universal problems like climate change andglobal warming, the need of the hour is to create sustain-able infrastructure that not only offers an opulent lifestyle

for its inhabitants but also takes good care of the environment. A leading example of an infrastructure project that has amalgamated the twin aspects of sustainability and comfort is the ongoing Masdar Cityproject in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The city isbeing billed as the first zero carbon and zero waste city onthe planet.

Objective

Besides being the world's first zero carbon city, MasdarCity also has the distinction of being built without the useof carbon energy. Sprawled over an area of around 6square kilometres, the sustainability model of the city willallow it to become a car-free, zero waste and zero carbonarea. The guiding force behind this upcoming project isthe ten sustainability principles of One Planet Living, assuggested by the World Wildlife Fund and BioregionalDevelopment. These principles are based on the theorythat everyone should live within their share of the Earth'sresources.

Lay-out of the city

Masdar City's lay-out and design have been createdkeeping in mind the extreme climatic conditions in theEmirate of Abu Dhabi. The narrow streets and shadedwalkways of the city are meant to offer an ideal pedestri-an friendly setting. Besides, the expansion plans alsoinclude energy farms, research fields and plantations toallow the city to become completely self-sufficient. A partof the first phase of the project is already up and runningand the results are impressive to say the least.

While a temporary photovoltaic plant at the site willhelp generate zero carbon energy for the constructionprocess, an innovative strategy has also been evolved toproduce energy from the city's waste. It will be done withthe help of recycling facilities for municipal solid wasteand also for converting organic waste into gas, which inturn will power an engine to produce electricity.

Masdar City, UAE

A prime example of sustainable

development, Masdar is the world's

first zero carbon, zero waste city

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Masdar Institute building in Masdar City

41

Transportation

Another important step towards achieving Masdar's zero-carbon objective is to keep the city completely car free.Several car parks will be constructed to allow commutersto park their cars before entering the city. A PersonalisedRapid Transport (PRT) system with driver less cabs thatconnect various parts of the city will complete the internaltransport system. Besides, a Light Rail Transit (LRT) sys-tem has also been planned to con-nect the city with Abu Dhabi.

GIS at work

To successfully implement a proj-ect of such massive scale requiresa lot of spatial information and GISis the tool that the city's plannersare banking upon to give them anedge in carrying out this mammothtask on hand. Masdar City is anexcellent example that shows thepower of GIS in helping to designthe future.

Signifying the importance ofusing GIS during various phases ofthis project, Derek Gliddon, GISmanager, Masdar, says: "GIS isimperative in managing the overallspatial information necessary fordesigning, building, and operatingMasdar City."

ArcGIS was chosen as the solution by the planners ofthe city to help manage and evaluate the huge pool ofinformation right through the lifecycle of Masdar city. Tobegin with, various crucial factors such as the sun angle,wind pattern, widths of various streets as well as buildingdensity were taken into account.

To ensure the uniformity of all variables as well aseffective communication throughout the project, thedevelopers used a geodatabase that makes use of a singlecoordinate system for the entire project. Apart from that,a common basemap was created for activities like plan-ning, design and construction. Various data layers in thegeodatabase contain comprehensive information on vege-tation, transportation, drainage, buildings, biodiversity,utilities etc.

Besides, it also contains layers for terrain elevation,remotely sensed imagery and bathymetric data. Differenttypes of information are integrated into the map layers

as well as georeferenced photographs and GPS coordinates.

All information related to construction is joinedtogether by location to make it more accurate. The information is available to various organisations involvedin developing the city so that there is no problem of data duplication or several data versions. GIS played animportant part in ensuring that the zero-carbon

mission of the city was translated from concept to design. It even helped the planners decide on where toplace material during the construction phase so that the transport related carbon emission could be minimised.

Looking forward

While other cities of a similar size can create as much as1.1 million tonnes of CO2 per year, Masdar City is on tracktowards achieving its goal of zero carbon emissions. After the construction is complete, ArcGIS will be integrated with a computerised maintenance manage-ment system that will contain the location of the gas pipes, water networks, transportation network aswell as other infrastructure assets. The use of GIS will make maintenance more convenient and will alsoenable easier tracking of the use and reuse of variousresources.


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A view of the knowledge centre in Masdar Institute


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PS20 Solar Plant, Spain

A20-megawatt power plant near Seville, Spain, setthe record for the largest commercial solar powertower in the world when it was inaugurated by the

King and Queen of Spain in September 2009. Owned byAbengoa Solar, a leader in solar technology, the PS20concentrating solar power (CSP) plant is twice the size ofits predecessor (PS10) and is just one of the four solarplants operating on the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar laMayor, Seville.

Three more solar plants are under construction. TheSolucar Platform will eventually generate 300 megawattsfrom four types of solar energy technologies includingtower, trough, photovoltaic and dish. Upon completion in2013, the 1.2 billion euro platform will produce enoughenergy for 153,000 households and prevent the emission

of 185,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, according toAbengoa Solar.

The four operating plants are already delivering power to the grid under the existing feed-tariff system,helping to meet Spain's renewable energy plan target.With the commissioning of each new plant, AbengoaSolar improves the technology and reduces generatingcosts, making CSP a more than ever attractive alternativeenergy source. Abengoa's commercial test of CSP tech-nology began with the 11-megawatt PS10 plant, whichwas commissioned in 2007.

The 80 million euro PS20 plant demonstrated that thetechnology could be ramped up to to double the generat-ing capacity. The 531-foot tall PS20 tower captures sun-light reflected from 1,255 mirrored heliostats lined up like

PS20 solar plant has helped Spain meet its renewable energy target

Harnessing the sun for

sustainable energy


soldiers on a 235-acre solar field. Each heliostat has a1,291-square foot surface area to track the sun andreflect solar radiation onto a receiver placed on top of thetower. The concentrated rays from the solar field producesteam, which is further converted into electricity by a tur-bine.

The CSP technology was designed by Abengoa Solar,one of the five Abengoa business units that apply innova-tive solutions for sustainable development in the infra-structure, environment and energy sectors. PS20improved upon the technology with a more efficientreceiver in the tower as well as improved operational con-trols and better thermal energy storage. The plant wasbuilt by Abener-Abengoa's engineering, procurement andconstruction business unit with front-end engineeringdesign by Energoprojekt Gliwice (EPG).

EPG's scope of work for PS20 included technicalspecifications for basic engineering equipment; detailedengineering for piping, civil, structural, mechanical, elec-trical and instrumentation; and engineering supervisiontogether with Abener and Abengoa.

Engineering a power tower of this magnitude requiredmany modifications to the PS10 design. EPG brought afresh perspective, as PS20 was its first solar tower. "Wehad to improve many aspects of PS10, based on lessonslearned by Abener. We had much longer steam accumula-tors, bigger pipe and equipment sizes as well as biggerdisplacements, relative to the thermal expansion," saidAndrzej Kuropka, EPG CAD specialist.

EPG's designers also had to take into account that thedisplacement cycle occurs twice a day with the plant'speriodic operating schedule controlled by the sun's day-night cycle. Such atypical equipment requirementscaused frequent design modifications. Using 3D designtools and a multidiscipline workspace called ENERGO,EPG was able to deliver high-quality documentationbased on an up-to-date 3D model, despite the number ofchanges.

EPG used PlantSpace P&ID, PlantSpace Piping andPlantSpace Equipment to perform basic and detail designin a multidiscipline 3D modelling environment. Becausethe PS10 plant had been designed in a 2D environment,EPG had to create 3D models from scratch using pipingspecifications and data sheets from the PS10 equipmentand instrumentation.

The models were used by all design disciplines. Draw-ings or models delivered by subcontractors and vendorswere implemented in the 3D environment to check for and

eliminate collisions, verify maintenance access andanalyse construction processes. The interoperability ofBentley's software also allowed EPG to import data in dif-ferent formats. For example, structural and civil designsdeveloped on the AutoCAD platform were easily integrat-ed into the 3D model for clash detection and layout draw-ing generation.

The ENERGO workspace enabled designers to work inparallel with access to up-to-date files and the latest ver-sions of models stored on the network server. MicroSta-tion VBA macros were developed for model maintenancefunctions such as attaching reference files according tothe ENERGY workspace rules, updating the last version ofa file on the server, controlling user rights for file updat-ing, locking files to prevent further updates and creatingan audit trail for each file. Macros were also used to auto-

mate the sizing of dimensions and annotations in accor-dance with drawing scale; and interpret dimensions andannotations in accordance with rules contained in codesand standards.

The application of this multidiscipline workspace tothe 3D design environment improved the engineeringdesign process.

EPG has applied the experience gained on the PS20solar power tower to next generation solar energy proj-ects. "The experience was used for developing and build-ing the first high-temperature power tower, Eureka,"Kuropka said. Joining PS10 and PS20 on the SolucarPlatform, this experimental tower takes Spain-and theworld-another step closer to the widespread use of sus-tainable energy from sunlight. C

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Located 170 kmsouth-east of Bei-jing, Tianjin Port is

the largest man-madeport in China. One of themost important ports inthe country, Tianjintrades with more than400 ports in over 180

countries.As part of its expansion

plans, it was proposed tobuild an ultra-moderninternational cruise termi-nal at the Dongjiang PortZone that will offer refu-elling and maintenancefacilities for some of theworld's largest cruise lin-ers and would be a majorstride forward for the

growth of cruising in China.

The task of carryingout this mammoth projectwas handed over to ChinaConstruction Design Inter-national (CCDI), the com-pany that had successfullydelivered in the past by

providing architectural,engineering and construc-tion solutions to huge proj-ects such as the BeijingNational Aquatics Centrefor the 2008 SummerOlympics.

In the first phase of theproject, the company wasfaced with the challengingtask of designing two largescale international cruise

berths and also a passen-ger terminal with a capaci-ty of 50,000 passengersper year. Once complete,the facility will haveenough space to accom-modate the port adminis-tration, shipping agencies,insurance firms, hotels

and restau-rants. Futureconstructionplans at thesite include aluxury five-star hotel,exhibition cen-tres and othercommercialfacilities.

Thebuilders ofthis 700,000square-metrecolossal proj-ect had toovercome sev-

eral challenges such as anextremely complex and dif-ficult to model structurethat included a designintended to imitate thesurging movement of silkfabrics swirling in theocean breeze. The planalso included a wave-shaped roof, glass curtainwalls and structural steelmembers with several

inclination angles. Thechallenge was magnifiedby the huge size andaggressive constructionschedule.

While carrying out theproject using 2D designtechniques would haveconsumed a lot of time,CCDI was able to completethe initial modelling in justnine days with the help ofAutodesk Revit-basedsoftware.

Autodesk BIM (buildinginformation modelling)was used throughout theproject for a variety oftasks including design,sunlight studies collisiondetection as well as quan-tity takeoffs.

GIS was used extensively during theTianjin international cruise terminal project,right from conceptualisa-tion, planning and designing to the implementation phase.

The terminal that iscapable of receiving eventhe largest of currentlyoperating cruisers, startedoperations in the summerof 2010 and is consideredas one of the country'sfinest architectural marvels.


Tianjin International Cruise Terminal, China

Accomplishing the

improbable

Accomplishing the

improbable

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Together, ERDAS and Intergraph

leverage joint strengths

to drive geospatial innovation

www.intergraph.com www.erdas.com

The Gautrain is astate-of-the-art 80-kilometre mass

rapid transit rail networkin the Gauteng provinceof South Africa. The twolinks of this upcomingrail system will connectPretoria with Johannes-burg and the OR TamboInternational Airport withSandton. This contempo-rary form of transportaims to reduce the trafficcongestion on the busyJohannesburg-Pretoriacorridor and offer thepeople of the country aninternational means ofpublic transport with ahigh degree of reliability,comfort and safety whilemaintaining the utmostenvironment-friendlystandards.

At full throttle, thetrain will travel at speedsof 160 to 180 kilometresper hour and will cover thedistance between Johan-nesburg and Pretoria inless than 40 minutes. Theservices will also includebuses to move commutersbetween various stationsand prominent places inthe city.

Phase 1 of the project,which includes the servic-

es between Sandton sta-tion and the OR TamboInternational Airport aswell as a commuter serv-ice between Sandton andRhodesfield, was openedfor commercial service inJune 2010.

Gautrain and GIS

GIS has been an indispen-sable component in thedevelopment of the Gau-train, right from planningto the construction phase.During the planning stage,GIS was used to classifythe land parcels thatwould be affected by theproposed route of the trainso that the required landcould be acquired effec-tively.

GIS was also used inseveral other areas of theproject such as to assist inthe environmental impactassessment of the projectto chalk out a possibleroute for the train. Oncethe process of assess-ing a tentative routewas completed, ithad to be com-municated tothe people sothat the peo-ple couldknow if their

land would be affected. Awebsite was developed forthe same that made use ofGIS technology. The entireprocess had to be com-pleted before the train'sroute could be finalisedand the tenders awardedto various companies forbuilding the train.

Having played a vitalrole in the determinationand communication of theGautrain route, GIS wasalso extensively used dur-ing the construction phas-es. To effectively manageroad closures and diver-sions during construction,a website was developedthat offered people theoption of inputting the origin and destinationaddresses and getting thedirections sent to themthrough SMS.The

Gautrain call centre per-sonnel were also providedwith a similar system sothat they could assist peo-ple in finding out an alter-native route to reach theirdestinations in case ofdiversions.

Another, highly impor-tant service was also car-ried out with the help ofGIS during the initialstages. GIS was used tochalk out the routes ofhundreds of feeder busesintended to take passen-gers from various parts ofthe city to the nearby Gau-train stations.

GIS has been anextremely vital componentin the development of theGautrain rapid transit railnetwork and will continueto be used extensively invarious other projects

being built around theGautrain.

46

Gautrain, South Africa

An effective solution

to Gauteng's traffic woes

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GIS

Go to www.iFlyUltraCam.com to learn more.

UltraCam Eagle. Covering ground like never before.

UltraCam Eagle

In a 2009 interview with TheGuardian, David Winderlich, aSouth Australian Member of

Parliament, spelled out the crisisfacing the people of Adelaide andareas that rely on water from thecountry's biggest river, the Murray.

"Another dry year will depleteour reservoirs and the water in theMurray will become too saline todrink. We are talking about 1.3 mil-lion people, who are not far offbecoming reliant on bottled water.We are talking a national emer-gency," he said.

Salinity levels in some parts ofthe river had exceeded the WorldHealth Organisation's (WHO) rec-ommendations for safe drinkingwater. Not only was that critical forlocal residents, but hospitals, clin-ics and other healthcare facilitieswere starting to take delivery ofbottled water for their patients.

Due to the prolonged drought,Adelaide had been operating underpermanent water restrictions.South Australia Water commis-sioned a 100 gigalitre desalinationplant to deliver what amounts toabout half of Adelaide's water sup-ply. The plant would help ease thepressure on existing rain watercatchment systems and allow waterlevels to regenerate.

The Hatch SMEC joint venturewas established to support the

AdelaideAqua consortium, whichcomprises of ACCIONA Agua, Unit-ed Utilities, McConnell Dowell andAbigroup Contractors, in its bid todesign, build, operate, and maintainthe AUD 1.4 billion plant. The con-sortium designed and built-andnow operates and maintains-thedesalination plant located at PortStanvac, south of Adelaide. TheHatch/SMEC Joint Venture teamforms the design group for the Ade-laideAqua consortia. Its scope ofwork included all architectural, civ-il, electrical, mechanical and struc-tural design associated with:

• The seawater intake/outfall struc-tures, tunnels and pipelines

• The intake pumping station

• All site structures including processbuildings, chemical storage buildings,treated water storage and waste han-dling facilities

• All site civil works

• The provision and reticulation of allsite services

• The energy recovery system

The integrated team employedBentley's 3D modelling applicationsto create an optimal and highlyaccurate plant layout and materialtake-off and to visualise the plantimpact on the environment andlocal communities. The team usedthe latest front-end engineeringand design applications to deliver adesign, technical and commercial

cost estimate in just 12 weeks, atimeline made all the more criticalby the situation facing the area.

Using Bentley's PlantWise, theteam generated a 3D model of thereverse osmosis process building,intake pump station, outfall energyrecovery shaft and other utilitybuildings within the allocatedschedule. The material take-offsmodelled in excess of 300 pieces ofequipment and 550 major pipingprocess lines. The estimatingprocess took 40 percent less timethan anticipated. To counter theimpacts of the energy-intensivereverse osmosis process, energyrecovery devices were included inthe process building and outfallshaft while solar energy panelswere installed on the process build-ing roof. The energy recoverydevices use energy stored in thebrine to boost the output of the highpressure pumps feeding the reverseosmosis units. In the outfall shaft,energy recovery turbines produceelectricity and return power to thegrid for use by the process plant.The solar panels will power streetlighting on the site.

The desalination plant deliveredits first water in December 2010and has offered Adelaide reprievefrom water restrictions while oper-ating within a conservative energyfootprint.


Adelaide Desalination Plant, Australia

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Technology

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Technology

tackles potable

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Hybrid solutions vital for

effective geoint

CONFERENCE REPORT I GeoIntelligence 2011

he fifth edition of the annualGeoIntelligence Asia confer-ence-cum-exhibition held in

New Delhi, India during June 14-15,2011, turned out to be a huge suc-cess with dignitaries from around theglobe in attendance. The theme ofthis year's event was 'GIS: Empower-ing the Warfighter of Tomorrow'.

Presenting the inaugural address,Chief of Army Staff Gen VK Singhsaid, "We are endeavouring toachieve capabilities for full spectrumdominance in any conflict scenario.The need is to understand and appre-ciate the impact of geospatial tech-nologies on information operations."Highlighting the importance of infor-mation, he said, "Indian Army looksat information systems that can beused by all the three services."

Stressing on the importance of struc-turing the available information, GenSingh opined that unless operationalintelligence, geointelligence andhuman intelligence are fused togeth-er in a format and symbology under-stood by a common warfighter, infor-mation would not be of much utility.Talking about place-based memo,Christopher Tucker, Member UnitedStates GeoIntelligence Foundation,said that we need to focus on 'when'to understand the problem and comeup with solutions. He said, "Geoint isnot a stovepipe and cylinder of excel-

lence but a foundation on which allother info systems can leverage on."

Fusion: Patrick Warfle, Director ofMilitary Support, NGA, US, observedthat users have become contributorsand elaborated the new and emerg-ing platform of geoint like social net-working websites, crowd sourcingand human assensors whichprovide crucialinformation.Talking abouta new emerg-ing practice ofhuman terrainanalysis, hesaid that itcomplementsthe agency'sexisting geointcapability.

Dr R Ramchandran, Centre Director,National Technical Research Organisation, India, observed thatfusion strategy is crucial for suchcapabilities. Col Sunil Mishra, Director, Battlefield ManagementSystem, DGIS, Indian Army, observedthat geoint enables users to gobeyond traditional thinking. Forinstance, search for Osama BinLaden was not only confined to theKabul border but also reached quite far from the border to Abbottabad.

Col John Kedar, Chief of Staff, Head-quarters Engineer-in-Chief (Army),UK MoD observed, "We talk aboutevery soldier being a sensor. But thequestion is how do we bring sensorand soldier together?" Talking aboutfuture character of conflict, ColKedar said, "The need is to shiftemphasis from platform and C2

nodes towards better understand-ing." He added, "We need to under-stand the people we are dealing with,there is a need to have informationon human geography."

Policy: Discussing national mappingpolicies, stalwarts proposed thatthere should be an agency in India tobring together all spatial data likecensus maps, wetland maps, geolog-ical maps etc. Dr. Prithvish Nag,Director, National Atlas and Themat-ic Mapping Organisation (NATMO),

T

India, supported this proposal andadded that it is important to deal withemerging threats like terrorism.

Common Symbology: Symbology is ahighly debatable issue in an agewhere every force aspires to achievenet-centricity. Thus, it was one of thetopics of heated discussion at theconference. Lt Col Rohit Gupta surprised everyone by saying that"symbology generation tool should be independent of GIS or its area ofoperation. There isn't much related toGIS except location." Col Alan Mosher (US Army - retd), Director -Strategy, DRS Tactical Systems,stressed on the need to have a common warfighting symbology under one MoD standard. Raising animportant point, he said, "We havesymbols in different colours but what

if the person viewing those symbols iscolour blind." He argued, "Graphicsshould support battlefield planningand management."

Asymmetric Warfare: "The objectiveof asymmetric warfare is to force usto spread our resources so that webecome vulnerable to their attacks,"said Sanjay Sahay, IPS, InspectorGeneral of Police, Police ComputerWing Bangalore, India. He observed,"Intelligence can go wrong butgeospatial intelligence cannot gowrong. If we get an imagery of 20cmor less resolution, we can solvealmost 90 percent of law and orderproblems in the world."

Situational awareness is essential forsuccessful military operations in alltype of warfares including asymmetricwarfare. One of the ways is to uselarge scale digital maps, especiallykeeping in mind the requirements ofwarfighters in battleground, saidManosi Lahiri, Managing Director, MLInfoMap. Some of the key benefits oflarge scale digital maps include highresolution satellite images displayingcurrent scenario, the ability to changescales without loss of data and theoption of geo-tagging of photos andvideos.

Predictive Analysis: Predictive analy-sis is emerging as an effective meansfor meeting most of the security chal-lenges. GeoEye Analytics division pro-vided 99 percent accurate predictionsof criminal activities to the New YorkPolice, claimed Andy Stephenson,Senior Director Asia Pacific, GeoEye,US.

Target Recognition: Group Capt K PGowd, Director, Indian Air Force, pro-

posed a constellation of LEO geo-sta-tionary satellites, an aero space-based platform for target recognitionin near real time.

According to Capt Gowd, the proposedconstellation will have a mixture ofoptical, SAR and IR payload to achieve24X7 surveillance capability in allweather conditions. These satelliteswill have on board capability to identify and recognise the target. This will be attained by configuringthe satellite to have an onboard/ground based data processing capability. Lt. Col. (Retd) Offir Dor, Elbit Systems, Israel, demon-strated how effective geointelligence solutions can be when live video (captured by UAVs) is embedded withgeospatial data.

Hyperspectral Imagery: Maj. Gen TM Mhaisale, VSM, Cdr HQ TechnicalGroup EME, Indian Army, explainedhow hyperspectral imagery covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum.According to him, the best character-istic of the imagery is its ability todetect objects' chemical properties. Itenables creation of 3D images andcan detect low contrast targets. Healso talked about 'Virtual Fence'which is a combination of multiplesensors and provides comprehensivecoverage of land, shoreline and air-space.

Conclusion: Geoint 2011 not onlyrealised the need of a single modulefrom where information can be fil-tered to different departments as pertheir requirements. It explored howlatest technologies can be effective indifferent situations like target recog-nition, situational awareness, predic-tive analysis, etc.


Col John Kedar

General V K Singh

Christopher Tucker

Host

DVW e.V. Gesellschaft für Geodäsie,

Geoinformation und Landmanagement

www.dvw.de

Conference organiser

DVW GmbH

Egbertstraße 46, 40489 Düsseldorf

DGfK e.V. Deutsche Gesellschaft für

Kartographie | www.dgfk.net

Trade fair organiser

HINTE Messe- und Ausstellungs-GmbH

Bannwaldallee 60, 76185 Karlsruhe

Fon: +49 721 93133-0

[email protected]

with 59th German

Cartographic Conference

September 27 – 29, 2011

Knowledge and Action

for Planet Earth

Nuremberg, September 27th to 29th, 2011

www.intergeo.de

196 9_260_gis develop_e.indd 1196-9 260 gis-ddevelop e indd 11 dddd 111119 dddddddd66196 dd 1 06.2011 12:00:2506 2011 12:00:259.09 02929 00229.29.0


rganised in Orlan-do, Florida, USAfrom June 6-9,

2011, the Hexagon 2011International Conferencelived up to its reputationwith more than 2,500 par-ticipants from 65 countriesattending keynotes, ses-sions and training work-shops. The conferencebrought together latesttechnologies and usercommunities from LeicaGeosystems, Z/I Imaging,

Intergraph, ERDAS as wellas the Hexagon trio ofHexagon Engineering,Hexagon Polymers andHexagon Metrology on acommon platform. Inaccord with its theme of"Building a SmarterWorld," the conferencestressed on the approachthat Hexagon works withto empower organisationsin helping to build asmarter world throughindustry-specific technolo-

gies that aim at makingprocesses and infrastruc-tures better. The confer-ence kicked-off on June 6with a welcome receptionwhere the attendees got achance to explore the lat-est technologies and inter-act with industry experts.The next morning, OlaRollen, President andCEO, Hexagon ABaddressed the gatheringas he discussed theimportance of Hexagon

technologies inunderstanding theface of the future.A series of ses-sions were alsoheld during theconference in theGeosystems;IntergraphProcess, Power &

Marine; Intergraph Securi-ty, Government & Infra-structure and Metrologytracks.

GeosystemsThe highlights of this ses-sion were the LeicaGeosystems solutions thatprovide clients withenhanced spatial andrelated information in abetter, timely and costeffective way, representedby three sub-tracks: High-

Definition Surveying (HDS),3D Laser Scanning;Geospatial Solutions; andTrends in Mapping & Posi-tioning for Governmentand Industry.

Intergraph Process,Power & Marine(PP&M)Intergraph PP&M offeredan array of riveting ses-sions led by experts in thedesign, construction andoperation of plants, shipsand offshore facilities. Itwas an opportunity tolearn how one can lever-age Intergraph's Smart-Plant® and SmartMarine®

Enterprise engineeringsolutions to boost produc-tivity.

Intergraph Security,Government & Infra-structure (SG&I)Intergraph SG&I sessionoffered the attendees achance to listen togeospatial informationexperts and discuss vari-ous challenges facing theindustry in the sub tracksof Defence & Intelligence;Geospatial and ImagingTechnologies; Government& Transportation; PublicSafety & Security; Utilities& Communications.

MetrologyThe session showcasedlatest trends in themetrology industry.Dimensional Measure-ment: Applications andTrends demonstrated theapplication of metrologysystems and software toreal-world manufacturingchallenges while the PC-DMIS Power User sub-track taught usershow to apply the solution'sadvanced functionalitytools. The conference con-cluded with an interestingpanel discussion onemerging markets withthe heads of HexagonSouth America, India andChina as panelists.

52

The quest to build a

smarter world

The quest to build a

smarter world

CONFERENCE REPORT I Hexagon 2011

o


JULY 2011

July 11 - 15Esri International User

Conference

San Diego, US http://www.esri.com/uc

July 15 - 17State 0f The Map Europe

2011

Vienna, Austriahttp://sotm-eu.org/

July 16 - 1914th Annual SCGIS

Conference

California, UShttp://goo.gl/2D0dm

July 18 - 22European Survey Research

Association Conference

Basel Area, Switzerlandhttp://goo.gl/VmdLh

July 21GIS in Housing

Associations

Manchester, UKhttp://goo.gl/gF1pJ

July 24 - 29IGARSS 2011

Vancouver, Canadahttp://www.igarss11.org/

July 28 - 30Remote Sensing, Natural

Hazards, and Environmen-

tal Change Conference

Singaporehttp://goo.gl/au4rM

July 29 - 30International Conference

on Health GIS

New Delhi, Indiahttp://www.e-geoinfo.net/git4ndm2010/

AUGUST 2011

August 1 - 72011 National

Conference on

Geographic Education

Portland, UShttp://www.ncge.org/

August 5 - 7International Conference

on Health GIS

New Delhi, Indiahttp://goo.gl/fj0JO

August 10 - 125th Annual HAZUS

Conference

Seattle, UShttp://hazus.net/

August 15 - 20AGSE 2011

Nairobi, Kenyahttp://applied-geoinformatics.org/

August 15 - 18URISA/NENA Addressing

Conference

Louisiana, UShttp://goo.gl/dzbaM

August 17 - 19Latin American

Geospatial Forum

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil http://www.lagf.org/

August 17 - 19ISPRS York 2011

York, UKhttp://isprsyork2011.webplus.net/

August 23 - 257th International

Symposium on

Digital Earth

Perth, Australiahttp://www.isde7.net/

August 30 - 31Nordic Remote Sensing

Days

Akershus, Norwayhttp://www.nordicrsdays2011.no

August 30-31Esri's Brazilian User's

Conference

Sao Paulo, Brazilhttp://www.euesri.com.br

August 31 -1 SeptemberGIS in the Rockies

Colorado, UShttp://goo.gl/xdtqJ

SEPTEMBER 2011

September 5 - 8CoastGIS 2011

Oostende, Belgiumhttp://www.coastgis.info/

September 5 - 953rd Photogrammetric

Week

Stuttgart, Germanyhttp://www.ifp.uni-stuttgart.de/phowo/

September 6 - 8Africa Geospatial Forum

2011

Nairobi, Kenyahttp://www.africageospatialforum.org/

September 7 - 9Esri Health GIS Conference

Virginia, UShttp://www.esri.com/healthgis

September 9 - 11State of the Map 2011

Colorado, UShttp://www.stateofthemap.org

September 12 - 14Indoor Location Symposium

Washington, DC, UShttp://goo.gl/4uzJn

September 12 – 16World Satellite Business

Conference

Paris, Francehttp://www.satellite-business.com/

September 13 - 14Geospatial Summit 2011

Virginia, UShttp://goo.gl/94HYC

September 13 - 15Middle East Geospatial

Summit

Doha, Qatarhttp://goo.gl/TCj3U

September 13 - 15GIS in Public

Transportation Conference

Florida, UShttp://www.urisa.org/gis_transit

September 19 - 22SPIE Remote Sensing

Prague, Czech Republichttp://spie.org/x6262.xml

September 29 - 30The Ohio GIS Conference

Ohio, UShttp://ogrip.oit.ohio.gov/Events/OhioGISConference.aspx

OCTOBER 2011

October 9 - 11Android Open Conference

San Francisco, UShttp://androidopen.com/android2011

October 10 - 15The World GIS Summit

Istanbul, Turkeyhttp://www.gissummit.org

October 12 - 13Geomatics 2011

Hilton Montreal, Canadahttp://www.geomatics2011.com/

October 16 - 20GEOINT 2011

San Antonio, Texashttp://www.usgif.org

October 17 - 19Asia Geospatial Forum

Jakarta, Indonesiahttp://www.asiageospatialforum.org

October 24 - 27Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference

Texas, UShttp://www.asiageospatialforum.org

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