Magazine for Surveying, Mapping & GIS Professionals March … · 2008. 5. 8. · aries.” The New...

www.geoinformatics.com

� Sensor Web Enablement � DGI Europe 2008 �GIS & Google Earth

� Fugro Geospatial Services Interview � ArcGIS Explorer Review

M a g a z i n e f o r S u r v e y i n g , M a p p i n g & G I S P r o f e s s i o n a l s March 2008 Volume 11

2

Exhausted?

When I was writing this editorial, the winner of the 2007 World Press Photo award becameknown. This award, which for professional photographers is the most prestigious, reflectsthe major news items of 2007. As a result most of the photographs depict war, misery andthe like. This year’s winning photo shows a US soldier resting in a bunker in Afghanistan.The jury selected the photo because, according to them, "The image shows the exhaustion of a man - and the exhaustion of a nation".

Seeing this photo I wondered how many of us have that same feeling when it comes toall the misery and violence in this world. You cannot switch on your television or read anewspaper without being confronted with yet another disaster or war. But is the effect ofthese disasters as great as it used to be, or are we becoming exhausted, as well? So, with the prospect of yet another year of turmoil, one might be wondering where thenext disaster or war will hit this world. For those interested in such things, the new Politicaland Economic Risk Map of the world may provide some answers. Just as the World PressPhoto tells us what happened last year, the Risk Map tells us where possible turmoil mayspring up over the next year or so.Geo-information, however, does not only provide a tool for displaying the potential location of disasters, it is also an important tool in analyzing, controlling and preventingthem. DGI Europe 2008, held in London, displayed a vast number of cases that addressedthe use of geospatial information in scenarios such as international conflicts, humanitariandisasters, crime, security and global climate change.

Not all things are sad, however, and on the brighter side another digital globe has beenpresented to the world. A few years after the introduction of Google Earth, ESRI has presented its own version. Using Google Earth as a test case, researchers have studied theinfluence of these types of viewers on GIS education.So if you are not yet exhausted with everything that is going on in the world and are interested in the topics mentioned above, do not hesitate to read this magazine.

Enjoy your reading,

Huibert-Jan LekkerkerkEditor-in-chief

March 20083

GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and commentary with respect to the international surveying,mapping and GIS industry.

PublisherRuud Groothuis [email protected]

Editor-in-chiefHuibert-Jan [email protected]

Editorial ManagerEric van Rees [email protected]

EditorsFrank Artés [email protected] Fischer [email protected] van Haaften [email protected] Takken [email protected] Triglav [email protected]

ColumnistsGiedre BeconyteStig EnemarkThierry GregoriusArmin GruenChris HolcroftMenno-Jan Kraak

Contributing WritersPhilip ChengÖzgür ErtacFlorian Fischer Christine FlingelliFrancisca GómezThierry GregoriusStefan Kienberger Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

Account ManagerWilfred Westerhof [email protected]

SubscriptionsGeoInformatics is available against a yearly subscription rate (8 issues) of € 85,00.To subscribe, fill in and return the electronic replycard on our website or contact Janneke Bijleveld [email protected]

Advertising/ReprintsAll enquiries should be submitted to Ruud Groothuis [email protected]

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Graphic DesignSander van der [email protected]

ISSN 13870858

© Copyright 2008. GeoInformatics: no material maybe reproduced without written permission.

GeoInformatics is published by CMedia Productions BVPostal address: Street address:P.O. Box 231 Noordzijde 2-b8300 AE 8302 GL Emmeloord EmmeloordThe Netherlands The NetherlandsTel.: +31 (0) 527 619 000 Fax: +31 (0) 527 620 989 E-mail: [email protected]

Chrissy PotsiouJoc TriglavJohn TrinderHan WammesGeoff Zeiss

Sander Oude ElberinkSonja van PoortvlietEric van ReesRemco TakkenDirk TiedeMichaela WeberRichard Zambuni

ArcGIS Explorer Review: Is This YetAnother Virtual Globe?One year after the release of Google Earth ESRI announced an alterna-

tive virtual globe. The current version of ArcGIS Explorer will be evalua -

ted here. A distinctive focus is given to different aspects such as data

integrity, OGC conformity, GIS analysis capabilities, user interface and

the underlying business model will have a distinctive focus. Only ArcGIS

Explorer is reviewed, but compares capabilities/shortcomings to alterna-

tive virtual globes if necessary.

Standards In Practice Part 6: SensorWeb Enablement (SWE)Our world is full of all kinds of sensors. And whereas the collection of

sensor data has long been a matter of a single organization using its

own data there is a strong tendency to publish this data to the Internet.

Examples are meteorological, water and air pollution data. In order to

simplify the discovery and use of such sensors the Open Geospatial

Consortium (OGC) has developed the Sensor Web Enablement frame-

work (SWE) consisting of a set of standards that define how web enabled

sensors should communicate.

C o n t e n t

4March 2008

ArticlesGIS & Google Earth: an Academic View 10Influences of Earth Viewers and Geo-browsers on GIS Education Within the Google Earth Case

Political and Economic Risk Map of 2008 1425 of 50 Largest Global Economies Face Elevated Risks

Standards In Practice 22Part 6: SWE - Sensor Web Enablement

Collaborative Mapping 28How Wikinomics is Manifest in the Geo-information Economy

Reusing Laser Scanner Data 32Research Shows Large Potential for Reusing 3D Geo-information

Integrating Spatial Information at 48the Greater Toronto Airport AuthorityBentley and Oracle Software Combined for Resource Engineering

Correcting the Data 52Mapping of IKONOS Images Using Minimum Ground Controls

ReviewArcGIS Explorer Review 42Is This Yet Another Virtual Globe?

ColumnAfter the Hype, the Future? 59By Thierry Gregorius

Conferences & MeetingsEnlightened Underground: a Festival of 6Underground SpaceHow to Organize Space Effectively

Page 42

Page 22

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com5

March 2008

DGI Europe 2008 24Challenges, Discussions, Overviews and Case Studies on The Fourth Annual Geospatial Intelligence Conference in London

InterviewThe Lifecycle As One Ongoing Geospatial Process 18Bentley’s Advancing GIS for infrastructure

Providing Geospatial Services on a Global Basis 36Fugro’s Geospatial Services Chief Operating Officer Owen Goodman speaks

Product News 61

Industry News 64

Calendar 66

Advertisers Index 66

On the Cover:

An example of Fugro’s Surveying Services doing positioning work.

Bentley’s Advancing GIS forInfrastructure: the Lifecycle as OneOngoing Geospatial ProcessWith the recent release of Bentley Map and Bentley Geospatial Server, it’s

interesting to learn how the vision came about that these products are

aimed at infrastructure and its lifecycle. Ted Lamboo of Bentley Europe,

and Carey Mann of Bentley Systems tell all.

Page 36

Fugro’s Geospatial ServicesIn this interview, Owen Goodman, Chief Operating Officer Geospatial

Services, explains why he thinks geospatial services is a huge opportunity

for Fugro and how the company is responding to the changes in the

Geospatial market.

Page 36

Page 18

How to Organize Space Effectively

Enlightened Underground: a Festival

Congested cities, flood threats, pollution. These are just some of the reasons for going underground. This requires the use

of innovative technology and an adequate system for underground planning. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, well-known

speakers from the worlds of both urban planning and structural engineering presented their vision.

By Sonja van Poortvliet

ment of underground spaces in cities repre-sents much more than a new form of con-struction, but rather represents undergrounddevelopment as an urban strategy that rede-fines all the conventional assumptions of pub-lic and private space underlying big cities inthe 21st century.” About the project he says:“Parking killed cities like Toronto. We need tobear in mind the competitiveness with othermajor cities in the world. Therefore it is impor-tant to look not only at legislative bound-aries.”

The New Cross London Rail Link –United KingdomIn October 2007 the UK government secureda £16bn funding deal for Crossrail, giving thego-ahead to secure the construction of theproject running between Paddington andLiverpool Street mainline stations. The route,agreed in principle in summer 2004, wouldtake it through the center of the city, withtrains capable of carrying up to 1,100 peopleevery two and a half minutes.Crossrail's brief is to provide the transportcapability to cope with London's forecast pop-

6

Event

March 2008

The Enlightened Underground congress in theNetherlands, from January 27-29, was organizedby the Netherlands Centre for UndergroundSpace and Underground Construction (COB). Itrevolved around the theme of UndergroundSpace Challenges in Urban Development. Notvery surprisingly, since the United Nations HABI-TAT program expects that by 2008 over half theworld’s population will live in large cities. Thismega-urbanization entails new challenges andrequires different spatial solutions. Under groundspace will become a crucial dimension.

Underground ProjectsGeoInformatics was not present at theEnlightened Underground Festival but is veryproud to provide an overview of some of themost outstanding underground projects thatwere discussed. All of these provide answers toone or more specific issues. The Deep CityProject in Switzerland is an example of sustain-able urban development. Tunnelling in UrbanDevelopments is another challenge met by theAmsterdam NoordZuidlijn in the Netherlandsand the New Cross London Rail Link in theUnited Kingdom.

The SMART Tunnel concept from Kuala Lumpurshows how the underground can contribute tomaking our habitat more fit for the rapidlychanging climate. And finally there were somevisionary concepts from the United States andthe Netherlands on underground cable andpipe bundling, a solution which provides moresecurity in delivery, simple maintenance andmore spatial quality. Most of these projectscan be found in English at www.thinkdeep.nl.

Deep City Project - CanadaBeneath the surface of the streets of Torontolies a labyrinth that serves over 100,000 peo-ple every day and countless tourists and vis-itors. Toronto's underground is the largestunderground shopping complex in the worldaccording to the Guinness Book of WorldRecords, with more than 30 km of shoppingtunnels and retail nodes. Since the 1970s, thisunderground system has grown and multi-plied beneath the surface of the city with rel-atively little intervention from city planners.Pierre Bélanger, director of the Centre forLandscape Research, University of Toronto,shares the following thoughts: “The develop-

ulation and economic growth. With Crossrailservices taking over from many of those rout-ed into the termini, capacity will be freed atexisting termini such as Liverpool Street andPaddington.The heart of the project is theconstruction of a new 16km (10 mile) tun-nelled route across London, including thebranch at the eastern end to Shenfield andAbbey Wood. Crossrail will, for the first time,allow existing suburban east-west rail servicesto run through London.

Crossrail will be a major engineering exerciseneeding a wide range of multi-disciplinary

location of existing deep building foundationshave determined the route alignment, whichwas safeguarded 12 years ago.The signalling and communications strategy ofCrossrail is still in the early stages of develop-ment. Signalling will need compatibility withthe traffic on lines being integrated into thescheme. The deep tunnel section will call fora high level of security and security, with theaccess and for evacuation of large numbers.

Hosting an Olympic Games was previouslyseen as impetus for Crossrail's earlier devel-opment. However, London's winning bid forthe 2012 Olympic Games did not includeCrossrail as part of the transport provisions.Becoming Europe's largest civil engineeringproject, major works are due to begin in 2010,with the first service trains expected to run in2017.Douglas Oakervee, Executive ChairmanCrossrail, says: “The concept will be totallydifferent from the ultimate result. It is a signof great flexibility during the total project.”

Multi Purpose Deep Tunnel –IndonesiaIn Jakarta, Indonesia, a Multi Purpose DeepTunnel (MPDT) System will be implemented.This is an integrated technology system com-prised of flood mitigation, provision of rawwater for drinking water, wastewater manage-

skills. Substantial pre-planning and designwork has been carried out to demonstratethat the scheme is technically feasible, andcan be built on time and on budget. Most ofthe spoil (earth removed from the tunnels) willbe removed from four portal sites, keepinglocal disruption to a minimum. Tunnelling for the twin 6m bores will be withtunnel-boring machines designed for theground conditions and ensuring that groundmovement is minimized. Construction willincorporate the latest elements of proven bestpractice in order to minimize ground-bornenoise and vibration.The extensive underground infrastructure and

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com

Event

7March 2008

of Underground Space

Public Space as Underground Access: stree

t level view of a proposed urban open spa

ce where public

functions and public access are combined

with the underground network as public

infrastructure.

Underground parking.

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ment and alleviating traffic congestion in theurban area. It is also part of the sustainableeffort to conserve groundwater in the JakartaMegapolitan City which basically would notrequire land acquisition. It was proposed by theJakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body and sub-mitted to the central government by the provin-cial government of Jakarta. If it is integrated the MPDT could also be usedfor the installation of utility shafts, such as thegas pipe and electricity networks, and fiberoptic and telephone cables.A.L. Lanti, Chairman of the Jakarta Water SupplyRegulatory Body, explains that as it is integrat-

through a Public Private Partnership schemesuch as that implemented at the SMART Projectin Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) has potential thatneeds to be pursued further.

Sonja van Poortvliet www.sonjavanpoortvliet.nl is

a freelance copywriter and translator.

She is based in the Netherlands.

Sources:

Festival of Enlightened Underground:

www.thinkdeep.nl

The New Cross London Rail Link:

www.railway-technology.com/projects/crossrail

ed with the sewerage system, the organicsludge produced by the MPDT system could befurther processed to produce biogas (CH4) asa source for electricity generation and biosolidsin the form of organic fertilizer. This could beused to cope with the scarcity of manufacturedchemical fertilizer. MPDT is basically part of theintegrated solution to flood risk, traffic conges-tion, and urban water resources managementin the mid-term as well as the long-term, par-ticularly in facing future challenges.Since the benefits of MPDT are multi-purpose,and the component of MPDT can generate rev-enues, the involvement of the private sector


Event

9March 2008

Hybridized Network: a low-altitude aerial view of the skywalk passing over theregional train corridor in downtown Toronto, 2004.

Metropolitanism: the senuously designed interior of the Hague underground streetcar line designed by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture.

Underground station.

Influences of Earth Viewers and Geo-browsers on GIS Education

GIS & Google Earth: An Academic View

Google – with Google Maps and Google Earth – entered the GIS market in 2005 together with similar applications from

other companies and institutions such as Microsoft, NASA, Yahoo etc. These key companies have already provided the

impetus for digital globes to become the indisputable “Number 1” topic – far ahead even of Galileo and other recent

innovations. In this context the Chair of GIS at Technical University of Munich (TUM GIS) and the Runder Tisch GIS e.V.

(RT-GIS, “GIS Round Table”) were frequently asked to state their positions on this hot issue. Prof. Matthäus Schilcher,

the head of the Chair, and his team leader, Dr. Andreas Donaubauer, kindly shared their opinions and decided to take a

neutral and mediating position. They mainly emphasized the lack of mediation when they both agreed “…our neutral

approach will help to clarify the current situation in the GIS market and the meaning of Google & Co. in GIS education”.

This article is built on a series of interviews and meetings with these key individuals. It is an important topic indeed,

and it was a great honour to impart this academic – and analytical – point of view in the

contribution of two outstanding GIS specialists.

By Özgür Ertac

Facts and Definitions Earth viewers and geo-browsers are typicalweb-mapping systems, which allow everyoneaccess to location information throughout theworld. These systems and the geographicaldata contained – generally in basic versions -are available free of charge. The geographicaldata presented as background maps in earthviewers are satellite and aerial photographsavailable worldwide. Such browsers are main-ly used and developed by the private sector.At present they find usage among other sec-tors: in tourism (e.g. hotel information, pedes-trian routes), in city marketing (e.g. 3D city

models), in disaster management, in realestate management (e.g. locations of realestate) and in insurance (e.g. consequencesof hurricanes, risk assessment). Some appli-cations on the market are Google Maps andGoogle Earth from Google, Virtual Earth fromMicrosoft, Yahoo’s Yahoo!Maps, NASA’s WorldWind, ArcGIS Explorer and ArcWeb Explorerfrom key GIS vendor ESRI, and Leica’s TitanNetwork.

Impacts on the GIS Market The entry into the market of internet giantssuch as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo triggered

a movement in the GIS market. As a result ofthese gigantic investments, enormous marketpotential is produced. This movement can beclassified as follows:• new business ideas• new products and services • new customers• new standards

Companies invest a lot to integrate externaldata sources with simple and user-friendlyinterfaces. They simply aim to provide moreinteresting content for users. In this context,regular GIS users can integrate their data into

10

Art ic le

March 2008

Technical University of Munich –Downtown Campus

Google Earth more quickly with KeyholeMarkup Language (KML). And, of course, inter-operability between Web GIS and earth view-ers is guaranteed by the Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC). In this regard an RT-GISproject integrates external data in a casestudy concerning the Munich traffic informa-tion system (see: Case Study: Dynamic TrafficInformation for Earth Viewers).

Closely related to the enhancements in web-mapping, there are now new investmentsworth billions for service and data providers,mainly in the following three areas: • Data acquisition (e.g. by Google and with

the participation of users, keyword mash-up).

• Availability and performance (keyword:world-wide server farms for user-friendlyavailability of geo-information).

• Visualization of data and figures (in par-ticular 3D visualization).

Three different market segments appeared inthe GIS market after the rise of earth viewers:• GIS for experts and providers (high end

applications).• Broad or mass consumption; earth view-

ers and geo-browsers meet the demandnow, so regular GIS providers are losingon a daily basis.

• The segment that combines GIS and web-mapping.

What Makes Google & Co. Special? What makes Google special? We will find com-mon answers for similar questions such as“Why is Google Earth attractive to so manyusers”, and “Above all, in addition to com-mercial and scientific purposes, who uses theproduct privately?” Such questions are close-ly coupled, in the view of the Chair of GIS atTUM, with the following functionalities ofGoogle Earth:

• Google Earth makes worldwide high-reso-lution and up-to-date geo-data accessiblefree of charge via the internet. If an indi-vidual GIS user had decided to acquireusage rights for the data available overGoogle Earth – even for a very limited geo-graphical area – costs would have beenastronomical.

• It is intuitively operable by those who haveno GIS knowledge. This is of course appli-

e.V. which are supported by Google andMicrosoft experts.

• Promoting young researchers.• Recruitment of student assistants and

interns for Runder Tisch GIS e.V. • Independent topic proposals for the train-

ing meetings: applied geo-information science II, case studies, geodetic seminars,diploma projects and masters theses.

TUM GIS aims to be the place to go for thosewho need to consult on earth viewers. Toreach this position Prof. Schilcher and Dr.Donaubauer stated the following objectives:• Investigation of interoperability between

Google Earth (WMS Client) and the OGCtest platform WMS servers from GIS man-ufacturers.

• Pointing out and evaluating the possibili-ties for the integration of WMS in earthviewers.

• Innovative examples of usage based onthe OGC test platform by the Runder TischGIS e.V. through advancement of the plat-form.

• Promoting young researchers: participa torystudy approach in the development of prototypes.

Case Study: Dynamic TrafficInformation for Earth ViewersA real-time traffic model of the Chair of TrafficEngineering was coupled by GIS and pu blished via an OGC WMS at the Chair of GISat TUM (ArcGIS Server 9.2 based on ArcSDE

cable to all earth viewers and geo-browsers on the market.

• In the context of the data that is availablein Google Earth, it not only provides dif-ferent functionalities through location-based data but also visualizes them in car-tographic beauty.

• Apart from the data available in standardversions, users are always able to visual-ize their own data on geo-browsers. Thedata published this way will always bekept confidential.

• Google Earth offers the same quickresponse time as the standard internetapplications, approaching the performanceof search engines, for instance.

Earth Viewers and GIS Education “The next generation is our future!” says Prof.Schilcher. In schools and universities, in therelevant courses of studies, the new genera-tion is highly motivated by Google. On theone hand, it’s nice to see the younger gener-ation’s curiosity in improvements in the mar-ket; on the other hand, it’s a dangerous trendif their impression is that “GIS is not muchmore than earth viewers and geo-browsers”.This misinterpretation is a key challenge forgeo-information science education to over-come. The Chair of GIS at TUM and RT-GIS tryto handle this issue with a series of interac-tive education initiatives. Current offerings byTUM-GIS and RT-GIS are as follows:• Training courses on Google Earth and

Microsoft Virtual Earth by Runder Tisch GIS


Art ic le

11March 2008

within the Google Earth Case

System Architecture of the case study: Dynamic Traffic Information RT-GIS

9.2 and ORACLE 10g). It’s called “Dynamic traf-fic information by using OGC Web service forEarth Viewers, mobile devices and DesktopGIS”. Briefly, a WMS is merged in Google Earth(version 4.0.2) so that a user can get infor-mation by means of Google Earth, which issimply serving as a user interface, about thetraffic conditions in the city (so-called level ofservice information). Beside it was merged theparkinfo.com system in Google Earth, madeavailable by the General German AutomobileAssociation (ADAC) and BMW over a SOAPWeb service. In addition to the real-time traf-fic information, parking lot availability can becalled up.

Innovation:• There was no traffic information available

in Google Earth for Munich. Systems suchas Bayerninfo www.bayerninfo.de/verkehr/h_verkeh.htm. TMC provides informationfor highways but not for roads in the citycenter.

• Integration of a WMS, which accesses adatabase coupled with a real-time trafficmodel, makes possible the usage of cur-rent city traffic information in Google Earth.

• Besides Google Earth, this service is alsoavailable for other similar products on themarket. WMS capabilities make the serviceavailable by means of Desktop GIS (e.g.

ESRI’s ArcGIS, Intergraph’s GeoMedia) aswell as over the mobile WMS client onmobile devices.

ConclusionDevelopers of earth viewers and geo-browsersdeserve credit for raising public awareness ofGIS and web mapping. With the help of increas-ing quality in broadband internet and free-of-charge earth viewer applications, users are ask-ing for more user-friendly interfaces and theavailability of location-based information withhigh-resolution images. Earth viewers allow cre-ative integrations of location-based data andfunctions which are not the service and dataproviders’ main interest. It’s clear that earthviewers and geo-browsers are becoming moregeospatially oriented through the increasinginvolvement of geo-processing tools. On theother hand, they do not support some of theadvanced spatial analysis required by manyprojects. Since developers have no directresponsibility for data quality, we may mentionhere in the conclusion the data and serviceproviders as another key pillar. It is up to themto create and maintain content and ensure thatany data they provide is of high quality andserves each user well. In this sense, GIS schoolsfrom all around the world now educate moreprofessionals with web mapping specializations.Of course these specialists may easily develop

more customized and sophisticated geo-browsers by, for instance, creating sophisticat-ed functions (mash-ups) and high quality ser-vices.

Interviewees:

Prof. Matthäus Schilcher is a GIS specialist surveyor

with 30 years experience and the head of the Chair of

GIS at TUM. He is currently a professor in the Faculty

of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, and the Faculty of

Life and Food Sciences at TUM. Prof. Schilcher is also

the chairman of Runder Tisch GIS e.V.

Dr. Andreas Donaubauer is the team leader at

TUM-GIS and the deputy of Prof. Schilcher.

He’s responsible for teaching and coordination in all

level GIS courses in the faculty. His research interests

include interoperability in GIS, GIS-Standards (OGC),

Geo Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA),

Model Driven Architecture (MDA), and Geo-data

Infrastructures (GDI)

Links:

The Chair of GIS, TU Munich: www.gis.bv.tum.de

Runder Tisch GIS e.V. official website :

www.rundertischgis.de

Contact:

Özgür Ertac [email protected] is

a Research Assistant at the Technical University

of Munich, Germany.


Art ic le

13March 2008

Dynamic Traffic Information via Google Earth RT-GIS

25 of the 50 Largest Global Economies Face Elevated Risks

Political and Economic Risk Mapof 2008

A brief glance at the new Political & Economic Risk Map shows a lot of possible turmoil in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.

Aon’s Louise Green says: “There are lots of things happening that will make 2008 a difficult year.”

By Remco Takken

Aon Corporation is a global provider of riskmanagement services, insurance and reinsur-ance brokerage, human capital and manage-ment consulting, and specialty insuranceunderwriting. Their global resources, techni-cal expertise and industry knowledge aredelivered locally through more than 500offices in more than 120 countries.Aon’s annual Political & Economic Risk Mapsand Terrorism Threat Maps are used by cor-porations in disparate fields like oil, gas &power, aviation, telecommunications, miningand trades. The maps are highly regardedsources for commercial organizations,economists and thematic map makers alike.Last January, the 15th Political & EconomicRisk Map for 2008 was presented.

Risk RankingAon ranked the political and economic risk of209 countries and territories, measuring riskof currency inconvertibility and transfer;strikes, riots and civil commotion; war; terror-ism; sovereign non-payment; political inter-ference; supply chain interruption; legal andregulatory risk. The risk in each country wasranked as Low, Medium-Low, Medium,Medium-High or High. A country with an “ele-vated” risk is defined as any country with arisk ranked Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High or High.The results of the analysis are detailed on themap, produced by Aon Trade Credit in part-nership with Oxford Analytica, an internation-al consulting firm. Oxford Analytica draws its

analysis from a global network of more than1,000 experts, including senior faculty mem-bers at Oxford University and at research insti-tutions worldwide, to make independent judg-ments about geo-political risk.

Twelve Upgrades and More HighRisk CountriesIn 25 of the 50 largest global economies,multinational organizations face elevatedpolitical and economic risks, including busi-ness interruption caused by war, terror attacksand political interference, according to Aon.With twelve upgrades, countries where therisk is rated as less than last year, and onlythree downgrades, countries worse than lastyear, the overall scheme of things looks bright

14

Art ic le

March 2008

The 2008 edition of Aon’s Political and Economic Risk Map 2008.

at first glance. Louise Green, director CrisisManagement with Aon, adds some nuances:“In the last four years, the world indeed lookslike a better place, but the high-risk countriesare not improving.”

Key RisksAmong the key risks of 2008, Aon foreseesmore government interference and more polit-ical violence. Green: “There are lots of thingshappening that will make 2008 a difficult year.Upcoming countries such as China and Indiahave growing demands for natural resourceslike oil and gold. The common Nigerian manmight think, ‘why am I not getting a share ofthis?’ So yeah, political violence is on theincrease.” Next to this, the number of high-risk countries has increased, there’s an

international financial turmoil. Sources for thedata include the World Bank, the InternationalMonetary Fund, the Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-WBExternal Debt Hub, the CIA World Fact book,and eStandards Forum.The Index is based on six indicators of vul-nerability, which, for instance, reflecteconomic or debt vulnerability. The six indi-cators are current account deficit, governmentbudget deficit, reliance on oil imports, privateforeign borrowing, debt payments due in oneyear and overheated credit growth.The fact that offshore financial centres likeBermuda and the Cayman Islands and devel-oped countries (Western Europe, NorthAmerica, and Japan) are excluded from theanalysis, pose a lot of questions for journal-ists working in the economic field. Why isn’tAmerica in there, with its current credit crisisand ongoing devaluation of the dollar? LouiseGreen says: “The whole world is looking atthe US right now, but we tend to forget thatit is one of the largest, if not THE largest econ-omy of the world. It will surely survive a reces-sion. What we are looking at are emergingmarkets with a big risk of falling over.”

increase in resources for nationalism fuelledby rising commodity prices, and countries thathave imported investment capital in recentyears are now most at risk from a creditcrunch.

Snapshot in TimePolitical, economic and social environmentscan shift fairly quickly, disrupting businessoperations for anyone involved in internation-al commerce. Companies can be subjected tothe discriminatory action, or inaction, of for-eign governments and third parties, potential-ly leading to forced shutdowns, relocationsand other unforeseen expenses. A good example of a last-minute change inthe 2008 risk map was the downgrade ofKenya. Green: “The map is only a snapshotin time. In November- December 2007, we sawthe risks grow in Kenya and we panicked: wedecided at the last moment to include thegrowth in risk.”

Credit Crunch Risk IndexThe 2008 Global Credit Crunch Risk Indexassesses emerging markets’ exposure to


Art ic le

15March 2008

Developed countr

ies (Western Euro

pe, North America

, and Japan) are e

xcluded from the

analysis of credit

crunch risk.

Copyright © 2008 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

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By making your maps, data, and analyses readily available, you can help others reap the benefits of the GIS work that you do. You already know that spatial analysis and visualization are important parts of daily decision making. Use Server GIS from ESRI to help others benefit from your work.

To learn how organizations are using ESRI server GIS to improve productivity, visit www.esri.com/server.

“The server-based options

provided by ESRI allow the City of

Mesa to deliver more enterprise

GIS applications throughout

our organization without high

installation and training costs.”

Jason Bell IT Services Leader,City of Mesa, Arizona

Austriawww.synergis.co.at

Belgium and Luxembourgwww.esribelux.com

Bosnia and Herzegovinawww.gisdata.hr

Bulgariawww.esribulgaria.com

Croatiawww.gisdata.hr

Czech Republicwww.arcdata.cz

Denmarkwww.informi.dk

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuaniawww.hnit-baltic.lt

Finlandwww.esri-� nland.com

Francewww.esrifrance.fr

F.Y.R.O.M.www.gisdata.hr

Germanywww.esri-germany.de

Georgiawww.geographic.ge

Greece and Cypruswww.marathondata.gr

Hungarywww.esrihu.hu

Icelandwww.samsyn.is

Israelwww.systematics.co.il

Italywww.esriitalia.it

Maltawww.geosys.com.mt

Moldovawww.trimetrica.com

The Netherlandswww.esrinl.com

Norwaywww.geodata.no

Polandwww.esripolska.com.pl

Portugalwww.esri-portugal.pt

Romaniawww.esriro.ro

Russiawww.dataplus.ru

Slovak Republicwww.arcgeo.sk

Sloveniawww.gisdata.hr

Spainwww.esri-es.com

Swedenwww.esri-sgroup.se

Switzerlandwww.esri-suisse.ch

Turkeywww.esriturkey.com.tr

Ukrainewww.ecomm.kiev.ua

UK/Irelandwww.esriuk.com

Please contact your local distributor or call ESRI Europe at +31-10-217-7788 or ESRI headquarters at + @

While the likelihood of terror attacks, cripplingregulatory changes or strikes and civil unrestis relatively low in most of the world’s wealth-iest nations, such risks are very real in thenations whose economies are among thefastest growing. For example, companiesdoing business in Russia face increased statecontrol in the natural resources sector.

Slovenia and all three of the Baltic States. Theabsence of Afghanistan is due to the fact thatall studied risks are calculated from knowndata. As there is momentarily no currency, nogovernment and no upheaval (but an outrightwar), it is impossible to scale Afghanistan onthe Political and Economic Risk Map. Ofcourse that does not mean that it is safe toinvest there.

Remco Takken [email protected] is a

contributing editor of GeoInformatics.

For more information visit www.aon.com.

The 2008 P&E Risk Map can be downloaded

at www.aon.com/politicalrisk.

Vulnerable CountriesIt’s interesting to look at the Top Four ofemerging countries in the Credit Crunch Index.They all have aspirations to become membersof the European Union: Turkey, Hungary,Romania and the Czech Republic. Other vul-nerable countries include Benin, Burkina Faso,Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Lebanon, Jordan,


Art ic le

17March 2008

This map shows events that have caused disruption in global supply chains. The chief components of loss are business interruption and extra expense resulting from relocated production or alternative sourcing.

18

Interv iew

Bentley’s Advancing GIS for Infrastructure

The Lifecycle as One Ongoing Geosp

With the recent release of Bentley Map and Bentley Geospatial Server, it’s

interesting to learn how the vision came about that these products are aimed at infrastructure and its lifecycle.

Ted Lamboo of Bentley Europe and Carey Mann of Bentley Systems tell all.

By: Eric van Rees and Remco Takken

Ted Lamboo, Bentley’s VP of Civil andGeospatial Global Operations, explains theidea of ‘lifecycle’ as seen by Bentley: “It’s allabout design, build, operate, maintain, up tothe point of decommissioning an infrastruc-ture asset. Our goal is to cover the entiredesign lifecycle by sharing data across everystage of this lifecycle.”It’s a new idea in the geospatial world, butthe Bentley people will be the first to admitthat they didn’t really invent the lifecycle con-cept. Carey Mann, Bentley’s VP Solutions says:“In a way, the utilities and construction indus-tries are resolving problems that have alreadybeen solved by others. We are following themore integrated approach we see in the ‘plant’market. This integrated lifecycle approach iscommon ground in the ‘process & plant’world, where the risks are higher, and wherefines for health and safety breaches and acci-dents are potentially huge. Plant operatorswant to know exactly how the plant is con-figured and who last made changes to anypart of the infrastructure when an accidentoccurs. The plant industry started thinking likethis over twenty years ago. Their processeshave been refined and institutionalized, butnot yet in the utilities and constructionworld.”“Only now are the construction and utilitiesindustries starting to think in terms of an inte-grated lifecycle. The change going on is moreevolutionary than revolutionary. When itcomes to infrastructure, you can see that ‘rail’is further ahead than ‘road’ is, when thinkingabout lifecycle for instance.”

every day! We have been about this since thebeginning. It’s not about the map, it’s aboutspatially-enabled engineering.”Lamboo recognizes the raised geo-awarenessamong the masses: “Google Earth and satel-lite navigation systems have been eye-open-ers for the public when talking about geo-ref-erencing buildings. It has been a God-giventruth which really isn’t logical at all: why stopat the footprint of a house? From now on, wedon’t accept these limitations from a vendor,because everybody knows what the possibili-ties of the software are nowadays.”Mann: “It’s important to understand thatthings belong in a certain space, and that theyhave relationships with each other. To Bentley,it’s critical to know where things are, and theirrelationships with each other. By conventionwe are used to not referencing an object spa-tially, in designing a house for example. Thisexplains the old difference between CAD andGIS.”

Uniting Different Types of Data A new product that Bentley has just launchedis Bentley Geospatial Server. It provides a spa-tially-enabled version of ProjectWise, aProjectWise Connector for Oracle Spatial, serv-er-based printing and plotting and connectionsto other spatial databases. Lamboo summa-rizes: “It’s not about how many data formatsyou can handle, or who supports whose fileformats. The point is how to manage data ina multi-vendor environment where, forinstance, you might be using data from a sub-contractor.”Mann adds: “With Bentley Geospatial Serverwe want to federate different data types: weenable the customer to use many types ofdata, and to use each according to its ownstrength. Bentley believes in an open environ-ment. We don’t try to harmonize, because that’sa utopian idea. It is more practical to keep theexisting information in its native form than tohomogenize it and force it into a singledatabase. By that I don’t mean that we don’tbelieve in databases. It’s just in our DNA tomake things work. That’s where our focus is.”The more integrated the better seems to bethe goal these days. Mann explains integration:“This means that CAD data, with its powerfulgraphics stored in graphics files, will be con-nected to business documents or old legacydocuments which might be either scanned ordatabase information. We’re not into patch-works of products and data, but rather intocreating an integrated whole.”

Eric van Rees [email protected] is

Editorial Manager at GeoInformatics.

Remco Takken [email protected] is editor

at GeoInformatics. Have a look at www.bentley.com

Advancing GIS for InfrastructureBentley has just launched Bentley Map andsome say it’s Bentley’s “first full-blown GISproduct”. According to Mann: “Our globalstrategy now is to execute on ‘Advancing GISfor infrastructure’ - this is what BentleyGeospatial is all about. We’re rolling out acompletely new generation of GIS technologyright now which includes Bentley Map fordesktop GIS functions, Bentley GeospatialServer for server-side GIS functionality,Bentley Cadastre for advanced parcel man-agement workflows and our latest generationof Bentley Geo Web Publisher for publishingmaps and geospatial information for accessthrough Web browsers.” In short: you can use core spatial capabilitieslike a co-ordinate projection system right inMicroStation. This doesn’t mean that Bentleyis suddenly posing as a mapping vendor. Onthe contrary, Mann explains: “It’s not our jobto make maps. A map really is the first layerof geometry, not necessarily the bottom layer,or the only layer, but it certainly is not our‘forte’. We just focus on including all types ofinfrastructure: underground, above ground,urban planning, around infrastructure, indeed,all objects that are attached to the lifecycleof infrastructure and, of course, how they arerelated. Our goal is to present GIS technolo-gy seamlessly within engineering workflows.”Lamboo: “For Bentley, GIS is not for academ-ic or demographic analysis. We have anapplied view of GIS technology – we apply itto the engineering of complex infrastructureacross its lifecycle. It’s an engineering thing,and Bentley is very good at that. In all fourverticals of Bentley we have an infrastructurelifecycle, so we know what has to be main-tained, what has been edited in the past andso on.”

Object OrientedThe main breakthrough in Bentley Map lies inthe seamless integration of CAD and GIS tech-nology which allows engineers, architects, civilengineers and surveyors to work in an object-oriented way. Mann says: “They are all par-ticipating in the lifecycle of infrastructure.Whether it’s designing, digging up, repairingor rebuilding a road, these are not isolatedactivities.”

CAD-GIS IntegrationMuch has been said about the apparent non-compatibility of design data (CAD) andgeospatial systems (GIS). How can you getthese disparate systems to work together?Mann feels it’s only logical that Bentley isinvolved in OWS-4, an Open GeospatialConsortium workgroup about CAD-GIS inte-gration. “Bentley does CAD-GIS integration


Interv iew

19March 2008

atial Process

Part 6: SWE - Sensor Web Enablement

Standards in Practice

Our world is full of all kinds of sensors. And while the collection of sensor data has long been a matter of a single

organization using its own data, there is now a strong tendency to publish this data to the Internet: examples are

meteorological, water and air pollution data. In order to simplify the discovery and use of such sensors, the Open

Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has developed the Sensor Web Enablement framework (SWE) consisting of a set of

standards that define how web-enabled sensors should communicate.

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

This article is largely based on the OGC whitepaper on SWE. The white paper defines thegoal of SWE as enabling all types of Weband/or Internet-accessible sensors, instru-ments, and imaging devices to be accessibleand, where applicable, controllable via theWeb. Usually a potential user of sensor datawill be looking for a sensor in a specific loca-tion (or region) where the specific type of datathat the user is interested in is available. Sincegeographic location is an important aspect ofan SWE, OGC has harmonized SWE specifica-tions with other OGC standards such as GMLand the geo-services. It also references otherrelevant sensor and alerting standards suchas the IEEE 1451 "smart transducer" family ofstandards and the OASIS Common AlertingProtocol (CAP), Web Services Notification (WSN)and Asynchronous Service Access Protocol(ASAP) specifications.

How It WorksWhen the network connection of the sensoris layered with Internet and Web protocols,XML schemas can be used to publish formaldescriptions of the sensor's capabilities, loca-tion, and interfaces. As a result, the discoveryof the sensors can be automated. Informationin the XML schema about a sensor's controlinterface enables automated communicationwith the sensor system for various purposes:to determine, for example, its state and loca-tion; to issue commands to the sensor or itsplatform; and, to access its stored or real-timedata. The SWE itself is not a single standardbut rather a framework of standards. These are:• Observations & Measurements Schema• Sensor Model Language (SensorML)• Transducer Markup Language (TML)• Sensor Observations Services (SOS)

• Sensor Planning Service (SPS)• Sensor Alert Service (SAS) -- draft standard• Web Notification Service (WNS) -- draft

standard

Observations & MeasurementsSchemaStandard data model and GML schema for thedefinition of the actual observations and mea-surements from a sensor (either stored or realtime). The models are based upon the ISO19109 standard for geographic data models andhave the ability to package large amounts ofdata as ASCII or binary blocks.

Sensor Model LanguageSensorML defines a model and schema fordescribing all information needed for thediscovery of sensors and the description of the capabilities of the sensor. SensorML

General concept of Sensor Web Enablement (www.opengeospatial.org)

22

Art ic le

March 2008

provides a functional model of the sensorsystem rather than a detailed description ofits hardware. In SensorML all processes,including sensors and sensor systems, haveinput, output, parameters, and methods thatcan be utilized by applications for exploit-ing observations from any sensor system. Inaddition, SensorML provides additionalmetadata that is useful for enabling discov-ery, for identifying system constraints (e.g.security or legal use constraints), for provid-ing contacts and references, and for describ-

WFS is that the scheme to be used for trans-ferring the data is the observations and mea-surements scheme.

Sensor Planning ServiceStandard web service interface for requestinguser-driven acquisitions and observations. Thisis the intermediary between a client and a sen-sor collection management environmentdesigned and developed to enable an interop-erable service by which a client can determinecollection feasibility for a desired set of collec-tion requests for one or more sen-sors/platforms, or submit collection requestsdirectly to these sensors/platforms.

Sensor Alert Service Standard web service interface for publishingand subscribing to alerts from sensors. Thestandard defines an alert as a special kind ofnotification indicating that an event hasoccurred at an object of interest, which resultsin a condition of heightened watchfulness orpreparation for action. All actual messaging isperformed by a messaging server.

Web Notification ServicesStandard web service interface for asyn-chronous delivery of messages or alerts fromSAS and SPS web services and other elementsof service workflows. The Web NotificationService Model includes two different kinds ofnotifications that can be received from a SensorPlanning Service or Sensor Alert Service. Thefirst, “one-way-communication”, provides theuser with information without expecting aresponse. The second, “two-way-communica-tion”, provides the user with information andexpects some kind of asynchronous response.

LegalThe Sensor Web Enablement framework is avoluntary set of standards. The framework itselfwas published in 2006 but at the moment somestandards from the framework are still in draftstatus while others have only been publishedrecently. As a result there are currently few sen-sors that are SWE compliant and the frameworkand its underlying standards are not part of anylaw. SWE is mentioned in the INSPIRE docu-mentation but the status thereof is more a mat-ter of signalling to the user community thatINSPIRE is aware of SWE and not a matter ofimplying its use in the short term. If, however,enough sensors adhere to the SWE, its poten-tial in the community of observation users isquite significant.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

[email protected] is project manager

at IDsW and a freelance trainer and writer.

For more information: OGC: www.opengeospatial.org.

ing taskable properties, interfaces, andphysical properties.

Transducer Markup LanguageIn SWE a transducer is a superset of sensors.TML defines: • a set of models describing the hardware

response characteristics of a transducer; • an efficient method for transporting sensor

data and preparing it for fusion through spa-tial and temporal associations.

TML provides an encoding and a conceptualmodel for streaming real-time “clusters” of time-tagged and sensor-referenced observationsfrom a sensor system. SensorML, on the otherhand, describes the system models that allowa client to interpret, geo-locate, and process thestreaming observations.

Sensor Observations ServiceStandard web service interface for requesting,filtering, and retrieving observations and sen-sor system information. It is comparable in useto the WFS services as described in the previ-ous document. An important difference with


Art ic le

23March 2008

Sensor Observation Service concept (www.opengeospatial.org)

Concept of the operation of a sensor planning service for in-situ measurement of water quality(www.opengeospatial.org)

SWE – Sensor Web EnablementWhat it is for: Discovery, control and use ofweb-based sensor data

Relevant standards: OGC SWE specificationsTechnical implementation:Software / server dependent

Legal basis: None; a number of SWE standards are still in draft status

Challenges, Discussions, Overviews and Case Studies at the

DGI Europe 2008

The Fourth Annual Geospatial Intelligence Conference in London took place from

January 21 to 24. Held in the QE II Conference Centre, Westminster, visitors were

presented with no fewer than 52 case studies on geospatial intelligence in action.

They addressed the use of geospatial information in scenarios such as

international conflicts, humanitarian disasters, crime, security and global

climate change. Because of the stress of the experiences of organizations

operating worldwide that make up end-users of geospatial information, visitors

were able to get a good overview of what goes on “in the field”, and what needs

to be done to make these organizations collaborate more effectively in the future.

By Eric van Rees

From January 21 to 24 the fourth edition ofDGI took place in the Queen Elizabeth IIConference Centre in London. At the biggestgeo-event in Europe, end-users from differentgovernmental and humanitarian aid organiza-tions explained how they make use of differ-ent types of geoinformation and data acqui-sition for their work. In addition to sharingknowledge among users, challenges for thefuture were discussed so that the differentorganizations can collaborate better with eachother and can make use of each other’s ser-vices and data in the future. No fewer than52 case studies were presented during theconference. Much attention was paid to theuse of GIS during military operations in such

areas as Afghanistan and Iraq, but also topublic safety (with the focus on the OlympicGames, to be held in London in 2012) andecological disasters such as oil spills inoceans.

The main conference took place on January22 and 23. After the morning program withplenary sessions, the afternoon program withthree parallel sessions followed. Visitors wereable to join sessions on government agencycase studies, international military operationsand national case studies. There were manyopportunities to meet other visitors andspeakers in between sessions at the businessmarket. Aside from the two main conference

days, there was also a “technology innova-tion focus day” and an “interoperability andcollaboration focus day”.

Main Conference Day OneOne of the highlights of the first main confer-ence day was the presentation from RichardBryan of the Metropolitan Police UK. In this pre-sentation entitled “How Will GeospatialIntelligence Support the Security Operation ofthe London 2012 Olympic and ParalympicGames?” he explained how remote sensing isbeing used by securing the locations where theOlympic Games will take place. No fewer than73 partners are working together to make thishappen, and also provide security for all theother events that will take place during thatwhole summer in London. With the aid of onecentral database, digital photography and 3Dgeometries derived from LIDAR-techniques, theMetropolitan Police are building a digital envi-ronment from which presentations, maps, mod-els and workflow can be developed for thepolice corps. Bryan is convinced of the power of geoinforma-tion techniques for security operations such asthese concerning the Olympic Games: laserdata, for instance, is used for the creation ofvirtual models of sport complexes. By rotatingimages in these models, vulnerable spots canbe visualized in a better way than used to bedone with the aid of aerial photography. Apartfrom a “planning tool”, GIS can also be used

24

Event

March 2008

Chairman Jill Smith, President & CEO,DigitalGlobe.

as a “predictabilitytool”, for instance by creating “potential

crime maps” of London. On the basis of differ-ent measurements in time, predictions can bemade about where in London more than aver-age or less than average crime is occurring. Theuse of real-time streaming video gives theMetropolitan Police a jump on the press who,in the case of a disaster, used to be the firston the spot with a camera crew. Apart fromadvantages from the use of geo-data, there arestill some fundamental challenges in this fieldfor the Metropolitan Police, such as inconsis-tencies in the data itself and double entries indatabases.

Ordnance SurveyVanessa Lawrence from Ordnance Survey GreatBritain held an inspired presentation on theimportance of geoinformation underpinningspatial decision-making. The Ordnance Surveyis Great Britain’s national mapping agency.Although its activities are only 27% profitablefor Great Britain as a whole, the total area ofthe nation is being covered in its surveyingactivities. The importance to others of OrdnanceSurvey data is very great and the investmentsin Ordnance Survey are returned immediatelythrough adequate policymaking. Lawrence

Meeting the needs of all these aid organizationsis not an easy job. The people who work forMapAction are not just GIS people: they areselected also because of their ability to endurethe most stressful circumstances that arise dur-ing their work in disaster areas where they func-tion in teams. At the end of his presentation,Spackman explained how these volunteers cre-ate the maps and how they distribute themamong other aid organizations.

The Future of GISIn addition to end users of geo-data, a numberof manufacturers in the industry discussed thechallenges of the future of GIS. Speakers fromESRI, Intergraph and Lockheed Martin allstressed the importance of further integratingdifferent techniques so that end users can workmore easily with the products of these manu-facturers. Because of the lack of new informa-tion on new techniques and products, thesepresentations were less interesting than the enduser case studies. This technical informationwas probably discussed on the first and lastconference days.

The first main conference day concluded withan overview of the new generation of publicand commercial satellites by four different com-panies: DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, ImageSat e-GEOS.In addition to the characteristics of these satel-lites, these manufacturers discussed in detail

demonstrated this with an example of a flood-ed area in Great Britain where, due to informa-tion from Ordnance Survey data, evacuationplanning could be done for the inhabitants ofthis area. The Metropolitan Police mentionedabove also make use of Ordnance Survey datawhen planning security for the Olympic Gamesin 2012. The closing message from Lawrencewas that access to data is more important thanwho collects and manages the data.

Mapping in Disaster AreasProviding adequate maps in disaster areasunder stressful circumstances was the subjectof David Spackman’s presentation. Spackmanis Chief Executive of MapAction, a charity thatproduces maps that can be used for helping tocoordinate the evacuation of victims, medicalhelp and the supply of foods and medicines indisaster areas. MapAction volunteers usebasemap data, remote sensed data and situa-tion data to produce these maps. Spackmanmade clear what chaotic and stressful circum-stances these people work under and how dif-ficult it is to meet the needs of the end usersof these maps in time with the most recentdata. One of the problems Spackman men-tioned is the fact that many operating organi-zations have their own internal briefing sched-ules but always want the most up-to-date data.


Event

25March 2008

Fourth Annual Geospatial Intelligence Conference in London

ESRI UK exhibition sp

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the resolution of the data, the cost-benefit ratioof the data and the question of to whom thedata will be available. Jill Smith, president andCEO of DigitalGlobe, talked about Worldview IIwhich will be launched this year; as for GeoEye,it will launch GeoEye 1 and 2 in the future.

Main Conference Day TwoMain conference day two was introduced byJack A. Pellici of Intergraph, who stressed onceagain the on-going collaboration between dif-ferent agencies that share and make use of spa-tial data, and the development of new spatialdata management technologies to make thiseasier in the future. Speaking of the newest“killer application” in GIS, he said to expectmuch from robot automated vehicles that makeuse of streaming video.

Steve Erskine, Technical Architect NationalProvider Network for Home Office UK, explained

control other countries in keepingtheir promises about their nuclearactivities (both producing andtrading). This is possible becauseof the ever-growing capacitiesconcerning data quality so thatcountries have a better view ofwhat’s going on at nuclear sitesabroad. Some of the countriesthat possess and maintain theirown main spacecraft make use ofmulti-spectral and hyper-spectralsensors. Still, the information thatis yielded with current techniquesis not accurate enough to controlother countries’ nuclear activities:on-site control needs to be doneto check what’s really going on,and to monitor internationaldiplomatic contact.

To conclude this event review, visitors of DGIEurope 2008 can look back at a very well orga-nized conference with interesting case studiesand many opportunities to meet other peoplein the business. Those who visited the casestudy sessions will now have a good overviewof how geoinformation is used in different orga-nizations and how it can be improved in thefuture. It’s the end user’s view that makes thisevent a success. In the end, geoinformation isabout people.

Eric van Rees is

editorial manager of GeoInformatics.

For more information, have a look at

www.wbresearch.com/dgieurope

how geoinformation is being used to deliverHome Office objectives in offender manage-ment, crime reduction and immigration.Although geoinformation is applied in manyways in this organization, for instance for theproduction of overview maps on the number ofburglaries in cities, its full potential has not yetbeen realized. Referring to the previous day’spresentation by Richard Bryan fromMetropolitan Police UK, he saw many opportu-nities for Home Office UK to work together onbetter use of geoinformation, the wayMetropolitan Police UK does. A perfect exampleof the use of an event such as DGI.Another interesting story on main day two camefrom Visiting Professor of War StudiesBhupendra Jasani of King’s College London. Hespoke about the use of geospatial imagery tomanage the global nuclear war threat and tomonitor arms control treaties. More and morecountries use remote sensing techniques to


Event

27March 2008

David Spackman, ChiefExecutive of MapAction.

How Wikinomics is Manifest in the Geo-information Economy

Collaborative Mapping

The power of mass collaboration entered the geo-information economy some

years ago and slowly raised a storm. This article will explain why added value

within the geo-information sector is hindered in many European countries and

comment on the alternative of collaborative mapping. Exemplary projects

OpenStreetMap and Treinvizier.nl show the added value of collaborative

mapping and give an insight into the transformative power of collaborative

mapping on the traditionally institutionalized structure of mapping.

By Florian Fischer

Added Value Chains in the Geo-information EconomyMaps are more widely used than ever. But theproduction of geographic information restsmainly in the hands of national mapping agen-cies and the GI industry. The basic supply ofgeographic information is a cost-intensive busi-ness. Governments spend billions to createlarge-scale geographic data to fulfil their civiland military responsibilities. Frequent updates

are necessary due to the ever-changing natureof Earth’s surface. Geographical completeness,i.e. coverage, is another indispensable require-ment for spatial datasets that increases costsand therefore is another driver for the naturalselection of geographic information collectedby national mapping agencies. MichaelGoodchild states that “with some exceptions,only a very small fraction of human knowledgeof the planet makes its way through the vari-ous processes used to acquire, assemble, anddisseminate geographic information.”The development of a consistent geo-informa-tion economy resounds throughout Europe butthe high cost of basic spatial data from nation-al mapping agencies is only a superficial argu-ment for hindering the development of the mar-kets. It is rather the long value creation chainsof many national mapping agencies due to theirdatasets being of high complexity – much high-er that in the United States. The complexity isjustified as the main data users are publicauthorities who require such complex data fortheir duties and responsibilities. Beyond thepublic sector there are just a few consumers ofhigh-quality data, like electric utilities, in thebusiness sector. For many other business ratio-nales, the complexity of spatial datasets is tooextreme or not appropriate and therefore newvalue-added chains have to be built up toadjust the data. That is, the value-added chainswithin the geo-information economy are partial-ly ineffective. Hence there is a broad consen-sus for the demand to reorganize or think aboutother sources and modes to create basic spa-tial data as a starting point for more effectiveadded value chains.

WikinomicsIn the era of Web 2.0 the GIS- and geo-infor-mation markets are in flux. Next to the opensource software movement and Software as aService (SaaS), Web 2.0 is characterized by newbusiness models serving niche markets (“LongTail”) and the utilization of “user generated con-tent”. Therefore Web 2.0 is less a new technol-ogy than a new practice of using the internetin a more cooperative way by turning the com-municative scheme from one-to-many intomany-to-many. All participating users are situat-ed in networked communities, sharing mediaand information and collaboratively creatingcontent. Geo-information and digital maps willbe very popular in Web 2.0 applications.

28

Art ic le

March 2008

Figure 1: Modes of collaborative mapping

Collaborative platforms are among the signifi-cant characteristics of the ongoing network rev-olution as described in Don Tapscott’s andAnthony D. Williams’ renowned bookWikinomics. By means of collaborative plat-forms, people are no longer committed to onesingle role in media usage. As prosumers theycan change smoothly between consumption,creation and co-production of media content.The prosumers are arranged in virtual commu-nities and social networks. Their active partici-pation within these networks has various rea-sons, such as sharing and exchanginginteresting information, maintaining social con-tacts, the mediation of a corporate feeling orsimply to have fun. The news platform Digg(www.digg.com), for instance, rewards pro-sumers for collecting the latest news on theweb and thereby turns news reading into asocial pastime. The concept of Wikinomics holds promise forthe ways in which we obtain, use and sharegeographic information in all its forms. The col-lection and dissemination of geographic infor-mation has long been the prerogative of nation-al mapping agencies. Collaborative map makingis possible through mobile devices whichincreasingly become location-aware and turneveryone into a mapmaker. Thus they enable abroad citizenship to collaboratively providecomplementary and alternative geographicinformation from the products created bynational mapping agencies.

NeogeographyWhen Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earthshook up the GIS market with their platforms,they added a free mapping component to theuser’s tool box. Since then various mash-upsemerged, combining the capabilities of themapping platforms with hitherto unavailablespatial web services. A famous example is thewebsite housingmaps (www.housingmaps.com)from Paul Rademacher, a mash-up of Craig’s Listand Google Maps. The combined use of GPSand those new earth explorers promises theadvent of a new era for civil society as Jon Udellexpounded in his blog: “In the very near future,billions of people will be roaming the planetwith GPS devices. Clouds of network connec-tivity are forming over our major cities and willinevitably coalesce. The geoaware Web isn’t aproduct we buy; it’s an environment we colo-nize. There will always be markets for propri-etary data. But the real action will be in empow-ering people to create their own services, withtheir own data, for their friends, family, andbusiness associates. Google Maps isn’t just aservice, it’s a service factory.”Indeed, I tend to agree with this euphoriabecause the radical openness of today’s rela-tions between ICT and society hold great

Salzburg and the Isle of Man (see figures 2 &3) show that this argument is right and wrongfor sure. Thanks to the free editing rules, completenesscan never be reached. Everyone has total free-dom to edit and upload whatever they feel nec-essary, whether it be a telephone cell, a littercan or a tree. OpenStreetMap is in a permanentbeta-phase or, so to speak, an everlasting flux.But when I remember my first courses in car-tography (quite long ago) there was an old say-ing that even the latest map is already out-of-date when it is printed. In my opinion, thestatus of flux is therefore harmless. Sites suchas OpenStreetMap often provide the cheapestsource of geographic information, and some-times the only source, particularly in areaswhere access to geographic information isregarded as an issue of national security.The infrastructure of OpenStreetMap is basedon Geoserver (based on GeoTools) and manypieces of free software that have been devel-oped by OSM enthusiasts. An OSM Wiki servesas a portal where beginners get information andthe user communities organize and coordinatetheir activities. Every member has their ownspace for a personal portrait. Collaboratorssometimes establish regional portals to improvethe collection of spatial data within theirregions.

Five Steps to the Free Map, Edit Wars and VandalismOpenStreetMap names five steps to making amap:• collect data;• upload data;• generate/Edit OSM data; • label data, and add details; • render maps.For the collection of data a GPS device is usu-ally used. The user records his movementthrough space and subsequently uploads thecreated .gpx-files to the OpenStreetMap Server.Alternatively the user’s own material, i.e. aerialpictures or notes, are appropriate sources forthe generation or editing of OSM data.According to German law (and this is probablythe case for all of Europe) the data is ownedby the originator but underlies a CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.That is, by uploading data the originator allowsfree dissemination.The OSM community offers different editors thatcan be used to process data, e.g. the Java OpenStreet Map Editor (JOSM) or the online editorpotlatch. Concerning data quality, the OSM com-munity puts clear emphasis on topological accu-racy over position accuracy. The benefit of pro-jects like OpenStreetMap lies in the freedom toedit but it is exactly this freedom that some-times generates problems: Edit Wars. In

promise. However, the GeoWeb is still youngand therefore are well advised to see the factsfirst.A recent survey by Novak and Voigt on mash-up culture has proven that mapping applica-tions are the largest application class amongall mash-up applications. They are all based onthe idea of collaborative mapping but apply itin various different forms. Three forms are rec-ognized: geotagging, i.e. adding spatial refer-ences to online content, the collaborative cre-ation of geographically relevant content, andthe collaborative tracking of locations. Theapplications can also be distinguished by themode of information collection. Typically con-tent is acquired either automatically from exist-ing online sources or solely by manual userinput.

All these new geographically relevant activitiesare subsumed in the notion of neogeography.Neogeography can thus be considered as thedemocratization of geographic information.Moreover, many types of geographic informa-tion are not visible or cannot be extracted bythe institutional system of national mappingagencies. They include names and meaningshumans attach to features and cultural andlocation-based experiences.

OpenStreetMapOpenStreetMap (OSM) was founded as a freemapping project in Great Britain more thanthree years ago. The reason was simply to cre-ate a geographic data set that is free, open andcurrent. In the meantime the project acquired20,000 registered users with the typical Web2.0 share of activists, 10 percent. Currently, thenumber of users is rising exponentially.Specialists argue that where level of detail andup-to-dateness is concerned, Open StreetMap issuperior to Google Maps. The examples of


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Figure 2: Comparison of coverage betweenOpenStreetMap and Google Maps in Salzburg,

Austria


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Wikipedia they are on the agenda every day,and in OpenStreetMap their numbers increasewith the number of registered members. Thefirst arena of an Edit War in OpenStreetMap wasthe island of Cyprus which is split into twoparts, Turkish and Greek. After virtual vandal-ism in OSM a rewind has to be made manual-ly. A single street or a city cannot be rewoundsimply in OpenStreetMap as is practicable foran entry in Wikipedia. Due to the topologicalconnections the whole planet should be recov-ered which is – in practice - almost impossible.Similarly many collaborative mapping platformshave another problem: editing is open indeedbut not open to changing the positioning ofgeotags. As a matter of fact, geotags are most-ly owned by the originator and cannot bemoved by others. Principally, this hinders dis-course on geographic information as it is nec-essary for a constructivist process of objectiveknowledge generation as in Wikipedia.Practically, it bears problems between tag own-ers and place owners, for instance when a geo-tag has been set on the wrong place. But asstated previously, OpenStreetMap is totallyopen for editing and therefore stands abovemost of these problems.

OSM Helps Realize Everything You WantAfter uploading, generating and editing dataone can render a map. The OpenStreetMap pro-ject has two different rendering tools, namely“Osmarender” which creates data for ScalableVector Graphics (SVG) and “Mapnik” which cre-ates bitmaps. The data uploaded to the OSMserver can be accessed by an application pro-gramming interface (API), called OSM-Protocol.It controls technical communication betweenthe OSM server and a client. Finally the OSM

Project allows many applications to be realizedwithout any cost for data or copyright concerns.One example is the Cambridge CyclingCampaign that provides maps for cyclists basedon OSM data. In the future, even routing soft-ware for cyclists might be created using "cus-tom routing". Normal navigation devices arelimited by the rules for car traffic and thereforecannot be applied to others. The speculativeapplications are manifold and reach realisticexpectations as activity on the OSM platformcontinues to increase.

TreinvizierOpenStreetMap is definitely the most represen-tative and famous project to be named in con-nection with collaborative mapping. But in factthe OSM project is only the tip of the iceberg.For a demonstration on what can be foundunder the surface of the water I want to add afew lines on the Treinvizier.nl project by ArjenKruithof. Treinveizer.nl shows train stations andthe current position of all passenger trains inthe Netherlands. This real-time applicationmakes it possible to see the whereabouts of alltrains and even check if a train is late. Treinvizierconnects to the database Somda.nl and theDutch national railway company (NationaleSpoorwegen). From the national railway com-pany current delays and station communica-tions are acquired. Somda.nl is a Dutch web-site for train fanatics who observe the varioustracks in the country. Its members collaboratein feeding all spotted trains, timetables andtrain logistics into a database in near real-time.The added value of this mash-up is obvious. Ithelps people to find out about delays andsimultaneously feeds enthusiasm for trains.Future plans include, amongst others, a mes-saging service about delays by SMS personal-

ized by train connection and weeklydelay statistics.

Witnessing the Last Gasp forNational Mapping Agencies?When observing the dynamics of col-laborative mapping initiatives, onemight feel that the days of nationalmapping agencies are numbered. Thepower of mass collaboration seemsto creep inexorably into mapping.Although these initiatives sometimesserve the users better than privateand national mapping agencies do,and sometimes – as seen in theexample of OSM - even compete withthem, I would argue rather for a com-plementary role for both. On the spec-trum of “useful” spatial data there isone end clearly reserved for nationalmapping agencies, such as land reg-

ister maps and cadastre. Contrariwise the otherend, namely the long tail, is reserved for col-laborative mapping initiatives. The fight willtake place in the middle where different mod-els might appear. Buying navigation data fromTeleAtlas or NavTeq is costly but comprehen-sive and reliable in terms of coverage. Gettingthe free version from OpenStreetMap is cheapand useful and there is still the option to usethe API from Google Maps for routing. ThereforeI conclude that many combined versions of col-laborative mapping and institutionalized map-ping will appear in the future – an early exam-ple is TomTom’s MapShare technology.

Florian Fischer [email protected] is

Contributing Editor GIS for GeoInformatics.

Links: Cambridge Cycling Campaign

www.camcycle.org.uk/resources/citycentre

www.camcycle.org.uk

Treinvizier: www.treinvizier.nl

OpenStreetMap: www.openstreetmap.org

GeoServer: http://geoserver.org

John Udell’s Blog - Annotating the planet with Google

Maps: www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/04/

10OPstrategic_1.html

Novak’s & Voigt’s survey on mash-ups:

www.ifi.uzh.ch/im/fileadmin/user_upload/personen_

downloads/MCIS06.

MashingUp: Mashups.Study.FullPaper.pdf

Figure 3: Comparison of coverage between OpenStreetMap and Google Maps on the Isle of Man, United Kingdom

Research Shows Great Potential for Reusing 3D Geo-information

Reusing Laser Scanner DataOnce 3D information has been acquired and used for its initial applications, it is likely that the original source data or its

derived products can be reused. The purpose of this article is to show the great potential for reusing 3D geo-information.

The focus is on the reuse of laser scanner data and its derived products at four major geo-organizations

in the Netherlands.

By Sander Oude Elberink

IntroductionSeveral years ago, geo-information depart-ments started building up experience withlaser scanner data, to acquire DTMs betterand faster or to support the updating of topo-graphic maps. In many organizations laserdata and its derived products like 3D citymodels are, for other departments, relativelynew data sources. Little is known about thereusability of 3D geo-information and its con-sequences for user requirements.The purpose of this article is to show the

great potential for reusing 3D geo-informa-tion, for both conventional users like geo-information departments and new groups ofusers like tax departments. The focus is onthe reuse of laser scanner data and its derivedproducts. Reusing data is of interest not onlyto end-users but especially to data ownerswho can better justify the costs for acquisi-tion and maintenance of the data. For researchers as well as commercial dataproviders it is important to explore optimalmethods to build, store and analyze 3D data.

Intuitively, acquisition of 3D data starts witha description of user requirements. Once thedata has been acquired, organizations storetheir source data and process it into derived3D information for their applications. Once 3Dinformation is “in house” and has been usedfor the initial applications, it is likely that theoriginal source data or its derived productscan be reused. Users can access the originallaser data set to perform their task, or theycan use the already derived 3D models: seeFigure 1.

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Figure 1: Original laser data (top left) can be reused to produce DSMs (top middle) or DTMs (top right). 3D model of the Prins Clausplein interchange can be used for visibilitystudies (bottom left) or geometric measurements (bottom right).

Research groups at Delft University ofTechnology and ITC Enschede work on theefficient modeling and acquisition of 3D topo-graphic models. To ensure that in future theirmethods will be adopted in practice, an inven-tory was made of user requirements for thesemodels and acquisition techniques. This arti-cle is based on information from this inven-tory; it therefore reflects a side-event ratherthan the core research topic of the project 3DTopography.We analyzed four cases at four major geo-information organizations in the Netherlands.In interview sessions, we collected and dis-cussed user experiences concerning qualityrequirements, applications, storage and acqui-sition of 3D topographic data. During theanalysis, we noticed the data-driven appear-ance of the requirements. This indicates thatthe data comes before the requirements. Sowhat happened to the ideal picture that 3Ddata acquisition starts with user require-ments? In this article, we show that for eachapplication the starting point is somewherein an iterative circle. This iterative circle isa function of data acquisition, data storage,the user, and the application. The articlepresented here is based on a more exten-sive paper published at the 3D Geo-Infoworkshop in Delft 2007.

User Requirements for 3D TopographyInterview sessions were organized betweenresearchers and owners/users of 3D geo-information. We selected four cases in whichusers had already gained some experiencewith the acquisition, storage and analysis oflaser scanner data and its derived 3D prod-ucts. The four organizations are:• Municipality of Den Bosch• Survey department of Rijkswaterstaat

(RWS) • Water board “Hoogheemraadschap de

Stichtsche Rijnlanden” (HDSR)• Topographic Service of the Dutch

CadastreDuring the interviews, we collected infor-

they were initiated afterthe or ga ni zations cap-tured their data for theoriginal applications. Thetotal number of applica-tions mentioned in theinterviews is 29, whereasthe number originallyplanned was 12.

Users mentioned the data-driven character of thenew applications. Theseapplications are in the

explorative phase, which implies that theusers first look at what can be done with the3D data they have. This can be seen by thefact that the user requirements are character-ized by the specifications of the availabledata. With the maturation of these applica-tions, the requirements will become moreapplication-driven, resulting in a moredetailed description of what the specificationsof 3D data should be.

In this section we want to look in furtherdetail at the growing number of applicationsreusing laser data at these four organizations.

Municipality of Den Bosch The engineering department reused the partsof laser data classified as “hard” terrain. Theyfused it with their existing topographic mapand road database to better analyze thedrainage of rainwater. The tax department ini-tiated a project to detect dormers more quick-ly and more accurately, using laser data and

mation on the necessity of using 3D datainstead of the existing 2D data. Limitationsof (analyzing) 2D data are important for justi-fying the need for 3D data. The major pur-pose of the interviews was to specify userrequirements for 3D topography. User require-ments should cover topics like specific wish-es concerning data quality, distribution andanalysis. Before we describe the reusability ofthe data, we first show these user require-ments. A summary of user requirements forall four cases can be found in Figure 2.

During the interviews, users mentioned theincreasing number of applications using laserscanner data or its derived products.

Reusing DataAll four organizations reused their laser dataand its derived products more than expected.Figure 3 shows the extended list of 3D topog-raphy applications. Applications shown inbold and italics represent “new” applications:


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Figure 2: User requirements based on interviews.

Figure 3: Extended list of 3D applications.

imagery. Municipalities are looking for quanti-tative and fast methods to determine urbantree volumes for various reasons. Therefore,research was done to detect individual treesand calculate urban tree crown volume in thecity of Den Bosch, using their existing laserdata. An intermediate result can be the extrac-tion of laser data on trees. Figure 5 showstwo additional applications that are useful formunicipalities, namely the detection of dorm-ers and cha

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