Geoinformatics 2008 Vol02

www.geoinformatics.
com
G Sensor Web Enablement GDGI Europe 2008 GGIS & Google Earth
GFugro Geospatial Services Interview GArcGIS Explorer Review
Magaz i ne f or Sur veyi ng, Mappi ng & GI S Pr of es s i onal s
March 2008
Volume 11
2
2008 SOKKIA CO., LTD.
Exhausted?
When I was writing this editorial, the winner of the 2007 World Press Photo award became
known. This award, which for professional photographers is the most prestigious, reflects
the major news items of 2007. As a result most of the photographs depict war, misery and
the like. This years 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 to
all the misery and violence in this world. You cannot switch on your television or read a
newspaper without being confronted with yet another disaster or war. But is the effect of
these 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 the
next disaster or war will hit this world. For those interested in such things, the new Political
and Economic Risk Map of the world may provide some answers. Just as the World Press
Photo tells us what happened last year, the Risk Map tells us where possible turmoil may
spring 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 preventing
them. DGI Europe 2008, held in London, displayed a vast number of cases that addressed
the use of geospatial information in scenarios such as international conflicts, humanitarian
disasters, crime, security and global climate change.
Not all things are sad, however, and on the brighter side another digital globe has been
presented 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 the
influence 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 Lekkerkerk
Editor-in-chief
March 2008
3
GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and
commentary with respect to the international surveying,
mapping and GIS industry.
Publisher
Ruud Groothuis
rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com
Editor-in-chief
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com
Editorial Manager
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
Editors
Frank Arts
fartes@geoinformatics.com
Florian Fischer
ffischer@geoinformatics.com
Job van Haaften
jvanhaaften@geoinformatics.com
Remco Takken
rtakken@geoinformatics.com
Joc Triglav
jtriglav@geoinformatics.com
Columnists
Giedre Beconyte
Stig Enemark
Thierry Gregorius
Armin Gruen
Chris Holcroft
Menno-Jan Kraak
Contributing Writers
Philip Cheng
zgr Ertac
Florian Fischer
Christine Flingelli
Francisca Gmez
Thierry Gregorius
Stefan Kienberger
Account Manager
Wilfred Westerhof
wwesterhof@geoinformatics.com
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svanderkolk@geoinformatics.com
ISSN 13870858
Copyright 2008. GeoInformatics: no material may
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Chrissy Potsiou
Joc Triglav
John Trinder
Han Wammes
Geoff Zeiss
Sander Oude Elberink
Sonja van Poortvliet
Eric van Rees
Remco Takken
Dirk Tiede
Michaela Weber
Richard Zambuni
ArcGIS Explorer Review: Is This Yet
Another 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: Sensor
Web 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
4
March 2008
Articles
GIS & Google Earth: an Academic View 10
Influences of Earth Viewers and
Geo-browsers on GIS
Education Within the Google Earth Case
Political and Economic Risk Map of 2008 14
25 of 50 Largest Global Economies
Face Elevated Risks
Standards In Practice 22
Part 6: SWE - Sensor Web Enablement
Collaborative Mapping 28
How Wikinomics is Manifest in
the Geo-information Economy
Reusing Laser Scanner Data 32
Research Shows Large Potential for
Reusing 3D Geo-information
Integrating Spatial Information at 48
the Greater Toronto Airport Authority
Bentley and Oracle Software Combined
for Resource Engineering
Correcting the Data 52
Mapping of IKONOS Images Using
Minimum Ground Controls
Review
ArcGIS Explorer Review 42
Is This Yet Another Virtual Globe?
Column
After the Hype, the Future? 59
By Thierry Gregorius
Conferences & Meetings
Enlightened Underground: a Festival of 6
Underground Space
How to Organize Space Effectively
Page 42
Page 22
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
5
March 2008
DGI Europe 2008 24
Challenges, Discussions, Overviews and Case
Studies on The Fourth Annual Geospatial
Intelligence Conference in London
Interview
The Lifecycle As One Ongoing Geospatial Process 18
Bentleys Advancing GIS for infrastructure
Providing Geospatial Services on a Global Basis 36
Fugros 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 Fugros Surveying Services doing positioning work.
Bentleys Advancing GIS for
Infrastructure: the Lifecycle as One
Ongoing Geospatial Process
With the recent release of Bentley Map and Bentley Geospatial Server, its
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
Fugros Geospatial Services
In 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 underground
development as an urban strategy that rede-
fines all the conventional assumptions of pub-
lic and private space underlying big cities in
the 21st century. About the project he says:
Parking killed cities like Toronto. We need to
bear in mind the competitiveness with other
major cities in the world. Therefore it is impor-
tant to look not only at legislative bound-
aries.
The New Cross London Rail Link
United Kingdom
In October 2007 the UK government secured
a 16bn funding deal for Crossrail, giving the
go-ahead to secure the construction of the
project running between Paddington and
Liverpool Street mainline stations. The route,
agreed in principle in summer 2004, would
take it through the center of the city, with
trains capable of carrying up to 1,100 people
every two and a half minutes.
Crossrail's brief is to provide the transport
capability to cope with London's forecast pop-
6
Event
March 2008
The Enlightened Underground congress in the
Netherlands, from January 27-29, was organized
by the Netherlands Centre for Underground
Space and Underground Construction (COB). It
revolved around the theme of Underground
Space Challenges in Urban Development. Not
very surprisingly, since the United Nations HABI-
TAT program expects that by 2008 over half the
worlds population will live in large cities. This
mega-urbanization entails new challenges and
requires different spatial solutions. Under ground
space will become a crucial dimension.
Underground Projects
GeoInformatics was not present at the
Enlightened Underground Festival but is very
proud to provide an overview of some of the
most outstanding underground projects that
were discussed. All of these provide answers to
one or more specific issues. The Deep City
Project in Switzerland is an example of sustain-
able urban development. Tunnelling in Urban
Developments is another challenge met by the
Amsterdam NoordZuidlijn in the Netherlands
and the New Cross London Rail Link in the
United Kingdom.
The SMART Tunnel concept from Kuala Lumpur
shows how the underground can contribute to
making our habitat more fit for the rapidly
changing climate. And finally there were some
visionary concepts from the United States and
the Netherlands on underground cable and
pipe bundling, a solution which provides more
security in delivery, simple maintenance and
more spatial quality. Most of these projects
can be found in English at www.thinkdeep.nl.
Deep City Project - Canada
Beneath the surface of the streets of Toronto
lies a labyrinth that serves over 100,000 peo-
ple every day and countless tourists and vis-
itors. Toronto's underground is the largest
underground shopping complex in the world
according to the Guinness Book of World
Records, with more than 30 km of shopping
tunnels and retail nodes. Since the 1970s, this
underground system has grown and multi-
plied beneath the surface of the city with rel-
atively little intervention from city planners.
Pierre Blanger, director of the Centre for
Landscape Research, University of Toronto,
shares the following thoughts: The develop-
ulation and economic growth. With Crossrail
services taking over from many of those rout-
ed into the termini, capacity will be freed at
existing termini such as Liverpool Street and
Paddington.The heart of the project is the
construction of a new 16km (10 mile) tun-
nelled route across London, including the
branch at the eastern end to Shenfield and
Abbey Wood. Crossrail will, for the first time,
allow existing suburban east-west rail services
to run through London.
Crossrail will be a major engineering exercise
needing a wide range of multi-disciplinary
location of existing deep building foundations
have determined the route alignment, which
was safeguarded 12 years ago.
The signalling and communications strategy of
Crossrail is still in the early stages of develop-
ment. Signalling will need compatibility with
the traffic on lines being integrated into the
scheme. The deep tunnel section will call for
a high level of security and security, with the
access and for evacuation of large numbers.
Hosting an Olympic Games was previously
seen as impetus for Crossrail's earlier devel-
opment. However, London's winning bid for
the 2012 Olympic Games did not include
Crossrail as part of the transport provisions.
Becoming Europe's largest civil engineering
project, major works are due to begin in 2010,
with the first service trains expected to run in
2017.Douglas Oakervee, Executive Chairman
Crossrail, says: The concept will be totally
different from the ultimate result. It is a sign
of great flexibility during the total project.
Multi Purpose Deep Tunnel
Indonesia
In Jakarta, Indonesia, a Multi Purpose Deep
Tunnel (MPDT) System will be implemented.
This is an integrated technology system com-
prised of flood mitigation, provision of raw
water for drinking water, wastewater manage-
skills. Substantial pre-planning and design
work has been carried out to demonstrate
that the scheme is technically feasible, and
can be built on time and on budget. Most of
the spoil (earth removed from the tunnels) will
be removed from four portal sites, keeping
local disruption to a minimum.
Tunnelling for the twin 6m bores will be with
tunnel-boring machines designed for the
ground conditions and ensuring that ground
movement is minimized. Construction will
incorporate the latest elements of proven best
practice in order to minimize ground-borne
noise and vibration.
The extensive underground infrastructure and
Event
7
March 2008
of Underground Space
Public Space as Underground Access: street level view of a proposed urban open space 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 the
urban area. It is also part of the sustainable
effort to conserve groundwater in the Jakarta
Megapolitan City which basically would not
require land acquisition. It was proposed by the
Jakarta 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 used
for the installation of utility shafts, such as the
gas pipe and electricity networks, and fiber
optic and telephone cables.
A.L. Lanti, Chairman of the Jakarta Water Supply
Regulatory Body, explains that as it is integrat-
through a Public Private Partnership scheme
such as that implemented at the SMART Project
in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) has potential that
needs 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 organic
sludge produced by the MPDT system could be
further processed to produce biogas (CH4) as
a source for electricity generation and biosolids
in the form of organic fertilizer. This could be
used to cope with the scarcity of manufactured
chemical fertilizer. MPDT is basically part of the
integrated solution to flood risk, traffic conges-
tion, and urban water resources management
in 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
9
March 2008
Hybridized Network: a low-altitude aerial view of the skywalk passing over the
regional 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. Matthus 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 zgr Ertac
Facts and Definitions
Earth viewers and geo-browsers are typical
web-mapping systems, which allow everyone
access to location information throughout the
world. These systems and the geographical
data contained generally in basic versions -
are available free of charge. The geographical
data presented as background maps in earth
viewers are satellite and aerial photographs
available 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 real
estate management (e.g. locations of real
estate) and in insurance (e.g. consequences
of hurricanes, risk assessment). Some appli-
cations on the market are Google Maps and
Google Earth from Google, Virtual Earth from
Microsoft, Yahoos Yahoo!Maps, NASAs World
Wind, ArcGIS Explorer and ArcWeb Explorer
from key GIS vendor ESRI, and Leicas Titan
Network.
Impacts on the GIS Market
The entry into the market of internet giants
such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo triggered
a movement in the GIS market. As a result of
these gigantic investments, enormous market
potential is produced. This movement can be
classified as follows:
new business ideas
new products and services
new customers
new standards
Companies invest a lot to integrate external
data sources with simple and user-friendly
interfaces. They simply aim to provide more
interesting content for users. In this context,
regular GIS users can integrate their data into
10
Ar t i cl e
March 2008
Technical University of Munich
Downtown Campus
Google Earth more quickly with Keyhole
Markup Language (KML). And, of course, inter-
operability between Web GIS and earth view-
ers is guaranteed by the Open Geospatial
Consortium (OGC). In this regard an RT-GIS
project integrates external data in a case
study concerning the Munich traffic informa-
tion system (see: Case Study: Dynamic Traffic
Information for Earth Viewers).
Closely related to the enhancements in web-
mapping, there are now new investments
worth 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-friendly
availability of geo-information).
Visualization of data and figures (in par-
ticular 3D visualization).
Three different market segments appeared in
the 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 demand
now, so regular GIS providers are losing
on 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 many
users, and Above all, in addition to com-
mercial and scientific purposes, who uses the
product privately? Such questions are close-
ly coupled, in the view of the Chair of GIS at
TUM, with the following functionalities of
Google Earth:
Google Earth makes worldwide high-reso-
lution and up-to-date geo-data accessible
free of charge via the internet. If an indi-
vidual GIS user had decided to acquire
usage rights for the data available over
Google Earth even for a very limited geo-
graphical area costs would have been
astronomical.
It is intuitively operable by those who have
no GIS knowledge. This is of course appli-
e.V. which are supported by Google and
Microsoft 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 those
who need to consult on earth viewers. To
reach this position Prof. Schilcher and Dr.
Donaubauer stated the following objectives:
Investigation of interoperability between
Google Earth (WMS Client) and the OGC
test platform WMS servers from GIS man-
ufacturers.
Pointing out and evaluating the possibili-
ties for the integration of WMS in earth
viewers.
Innovative examples of usage based on
the OGC test platform by the Runder Tisch
GIS e.V. through advancement of the plat-
form.
Promoting young researchers: participa tory
study approach in the development of
prototypes.
Case Study: Dynamic Traffic
Information for Earth Viewers
A real-time traffic model of the Chair of Traffic
Engineering was coupled by GIS and
pu blished via an OGC WMS at the Chair of GIS
at 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 available
in 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 standard
versions, users are always able to visual-
ize their own data on geo-browsers. The
data published this way will always be
kept confidential.
Google Earth offers the same quick
response time as the standard internet
applications, approaching the performance
of search engines, for instance.
Earth Viewers and GIS Education
The next generation is our future! says Prof.
Schilcher. In schools and universities, in the
relevant courses of studies, the new genera-
tion is highly motivated by Google. On the
one hand, its nice to see the younger gener-
ations curiosity in improvements in the mar-
ket; on the other hand, its a dangerous trend
if their impression is that GIS is not much
more than earth viewers and geo-browsers.
This misinterpretation is a key challenge for
geo-information science education to over-
come. The Chair of GIS at TUM and RT-GIS try
to handle this issue with a series of interac-
tive education initiatives. Current offerings by
TUM-GIS and RT-GIS are as follows:
Training courses on Google Earth and
Microsoft Virtual Earth by Runder Tisch GIS
Ar t i cl e
11
March 2008
within the Google Earth Case
System Architecture of the case study: Dynamic Traffic Information RT-GIS
9.2 and ORACLE 10g). Its called Dynamic traf-
fic information by using OGC Web service for
Earth Viewers, mobile devices and Desktop
GIS. 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 is
simply serving as a user interface, about the
traffic conditions in the city (so-called level of
service information). Beside it was merged the
parkinfo.com system in Google Earth, made
available by the General German Automobile
Association (ADAC) and BMW over a SOAP
Web service. In addition to the real-time traf-
fic information, parking lot availability can be
called up.
Innovation:
There was no traffic information available
in Google Earth for Munich. Systems such
as Bayerninfo www.bayerninfo.de/verkehr/
h_verkeh.htm. TMC provides information
for highways but not for roads in the city
center.
Integration of a WMS, which accesses a
database coupled with a real-time traffic
model, makes possible the usage of cur-
rent city traffic information in Google Earth.
Besides Google Earth, this service is also
available for other similar products on the
market. WMS capabilities make the service
available by means of Desktop GIS (e.g.
ESRIs ArcGIS, Intergraphs GeoMedia) as
well as over the mobile WMS client on
mobile devices.
Conclusion
Developers of earth viewers and geo-browsers
deserve credit for raising public awareness of
GIS 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 the
availability of location-based information with
high-resolution images. Earth viewers allow cre-
ative integrations of location-based data and
functions which are not the service and data
providers main interest. Its clear that earth
viewers and geo-browsers are becoming more
geospatially oriented through the increasing
involvement of geo-processing tools. On the
other hand, they do not support some of the
advanced spatial analysis required by many
projects. Since developers have no direct
responsibility for data quality, we may mention
here in the conclusion the data and service
providers as another key pillar. It is up to them
to create and maintain content and ensure that
any data they provide is of high quality and
serves each user well. In this sense, GIS schools
from all around the world now educate more
professionals 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. Matthus 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.
Hes 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:
zgr Ertac oezguer.ertac@bv.tu-muenchen.de is
a Research Assistant at the Technical University
of Munich, Germany.
Ar t i cl e
13
March 2008
Dynamic Traffic Information via Google Earth RT-GIS
25 of the 50 Largest Global Economies Face Elevated Risks
Political and Economic Risk Map
of 2008
A brief glance at the new Political & Economic Risk Map shows a lot of possible turmoil in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Aons 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 risk
management services, insurance and reinsur-
ance brokerage, human capital and manage-
ment consulting, and specialty insurance
underwriting. Their global resources, techni-
cal expertise and industry knowledge are
delivered locally through more than 500
offices in more than 120 countries.
Aons annual Political & Economic Risk Maps
and Terrorism Threat Maps are used by cor-
porations in disparate fields like oil, gas &
power, aviation, telecommunications, mining
and trades. The maps are highly regarded
sources for commercial organizations,
economists and thematic map makers alike.
Last January, the 15th Political & Economic
Risk Map for 2008 was presented.
Risk Ranking
Aon ranked the political and economic risk of
209 countries and territories, measuring risk
of currency inconvertibility and transfer;
strikes, riots and civil commotion; war; terror-
ism; sovereign non-payment; political inter-
ference; supply chain interruption; legal and
regulatory risk. The risk in each country was
ranked as Low, Medium-Low, Medium,
Medium-High or High. A country with an ele-
vated risk is defined as any country with a
risk ranked Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-
High or High.
The results of the analysis are detailed on the
map, 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 than
1,000 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 High
Risk Countries
In 25 of the 50 largest global economies,
multinational organizations face elevated
political and economic risks, including busi-
ness interruption caused by war, terror attacks
and political interference, according to Aon.
With twelve upgrades, countries where the
risk is rated as less than last year, and only
three downgrades, countries worse than last
year, the overall scheme of things looks bright
14
Ar t i cl e
March 2008
The 2008 edition of Aons Political and Economic Risk Map 2008.
at first glance. Louise Green, director Crisis
Management with Aon, adds some nuances:
In the last four years, the world indeed looks
like a better place, but the high-risk countries
are not improving.
Key Risks
Among the key risks of 2008, Aon foresees
more government interference and more polit-
ical violence. Green: There are lots of things
happening that will make 2008 a difficult year.
Upcoming countries such as China and India
have growing demands for natural resources
like oil and gold. The common Nigerian man
might think, why am I not getting a share of
this? So yeah, political violence is on the
increase. Next to this, the number of high-
risk countries has increased, theres an
international financial turmoil. Sources for the
data include the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, the Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-WB
External Debt Hub, the CIA World Fact book,
and eStandards Forum.
The Index is based on six indicators of vul-
nerability, which, for instance, reflect
economic or debt vulnerability. The six indi-
cators are current account deficit, government
budget deficit, reliance on oil imports, private
foreign borrowing, debt payments due in one
year and overheated credit growth.
The fact that offshore financial centres like
Bermuda and the Cayman Islands and devel-
oped countries (Western Europe, North
America, and Japan) are excluded from the
analysis, pose a lot of questions for journal-
ists working in the economic field. Why isnt
America in there, with its current credit crisis
and ongoing devaluation of the dollar? Louise
Green says: The whole world is looking at
the US right now, but we tend to forget that
it 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 emerging
markets with a big risk of falling over.
increase in resources for nationalism fuelled
by rising commodity prices, and countries that
have imported investment capital in recent
years are now most at risk from a credit
crunch.
Snapshot in Time
Political, economic and social environments
can shift fairly quickly, disrupting business
operations for anyone involved in internation-
al commerce. Companies can be subjected to
the discriminatory action, or inaction, of for-
eign governments and third parties, potential-
ly leading to forced shutdowns, relocations
and other unforeseen expenses.
A good example of a last-minute change in
the 2008 risk map was the downgrade of
Kenya. Green: The map is only a snapshot
in time. In November- December 2007, we saw
the risks grow in Kenya and we panicked: we
decided at the last moment to include the
growth in risk.
Credit Crunch Risk Index
The 2008 Global Credit Crunch Risk Index
assesses emerging markets exposure to
Ar t i cl e
15
March 2008
Developed countries (W
estern Europe, North Am
erica, and Japan) are excluded 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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making. Use Server GIS from ESRI to
help others benefit from your work.
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Austria
www.synergis.co.at
Belgium and Luxembourg
www.esribelux.com
Bosnia and Herzegovina
www.gisdata.hr
Bulgaria
www.esribulgaria.com
Croatia
www.gisdata.hr
Czech Republic
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Denmark
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Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
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Finland
www.esri-nland.com
France
www.esrifrance.fr
F.Y.R.O.M.
www.gisdata.hr
Germany
www.esri-germany.de
Georgia
www.geographic.ge
Greece and Cyprus
www.marathondata.gr
Hungary
www.esrihu.hu
Iceland
www.samsyn.is
Israel
www.systematics.co.il
Italy
www.esriitalia.it
Malta
www.geosys.com.mt
Moldova
www.trimetrica.com
The Netherlands
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Norway
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Poland
www.esripolska.com.pl
Portugal
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Romania
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Russia
www.dataplus.ru
Slovak Republic
www.arcgeo.sk
Slovenia
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Spain
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Sweden
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While the likelihood of terror attacks, crippling
regulatory changes or strikes and civil unrest
is relatively low in most of the worlds wealth-
iest nations, such risks are very real in the
nations whose economies are among the
fastest growing. For example, companies
doing business in Russia face increased state
control in the natural resources sector.
Slovenia and all three of the Baltic States. The
absence of Afghanistan is due to the fact that
all studied risks are calculated from known
data. As there is momentarily no currency, no
government and no upheaval (but an outright
war), it is impossible to scale Afghanistan on
the Political and Economic Risk Map. Of
course that does not mean that it is safe to
invest there.
Remco Takken rtakken@geoinformatics.com 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 Countries
Its interesting to look at the Top Four of
emerging countries in the Credit Crunch Index.
They all have aspirations to become members
of the European Union: Turkey, Hungary,
Romania and the Czech Republic. Other vul-
nerable countries include Benin, Burkina Faso,
Costa Rica, Cote dIvoire, Lebanon, Jordan,
Ar t i cl e
17
March 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
I nt er vi ew
Bentleys Advancing GIS for Infrastructure
The Lifecycle as One Ongoing Geosp
With the recent release of Bentley Map and Bentley Geospatial Server, its
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, Bentleys VP of Civil and
Geospatial Global Operations, explains the
idea of lifecycle as seen by Bentley: Its all
about design, build, operate, maintain, up to
the point of decommissioning an infrastruc-
ture asset. Our goal is to cover the entire
design lifecycle by sharing data across every
stage of this lifecycle.
Its a new idea in the geospatial world, but
the Bentley people will be the first to admit
that they didnt really invent the lifecycle con-
cept. Carey Mann, Bentleys VP Solutions says:
In a way, the utilities and construction indus-
tries are resolving problems that have already
been solved by others. We are following the
more integrated approach we see in the plant
market. This integrated lifecycle approach is
common ground in the process & plant
world, where the risks are higher, and where
fines for health and safety breaches and acci-
dents are potentially huge. Plant operators
want to know exactly how the plant is con-
figured and who last made changes to any
part of the infrastructure when an accident
occurs. The plant industry started thinking like
this over twenty years ago. Their processes
have been refined and institutionalized, but
not yet in the utilities and construction
world.
Only now are the construction and utilities
industries starting to think in terms of an inte-
grated lifecycle. The change going on is more
evolutionary than revolutionary. When it
comes to infrastructure, you can see that rail
is further ahead than road is, when thinking
about lifecycle for instance.
every day! We have been about this since the
beginning. Its not about the map, its about
spatially-enabled engineering.
Lamboo recognizes the raised geo-awareness
among 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-given
truth which really isnt logical at all: why stop
at the footprint of a house? From now on, we
dont accept these limitations from a vendor,
because everybody knows what the possibili-
ties of the software are nowadays.
Mann: Its important to understand that
things belong in a certain space, and that they
have relationships with each other. To Bentley,
its critical to know where things are, and their
relationships with each other. By convention
we are used to not referencing an object spa-
tially, in designing a house for example. This
explains the old difference between CAD and
GIS.
Uniting Different Types of Data
A new product that Bentley has just launched
is Bentley Geospatial Server. It provides a spa-
tially-enabled version of ProjectWise, a
ProjectWise Connector for Oracle Spatial, serv-
er-based printing and plotting and connections
to other spatial databases. Lamboo summa-
rizes: Its not about how many data formats
you can handle, or who supports whose file
formats. The point is how to manage data in
a multi-vendor environment where, for
instance, you might be using data from a sub-
contractor.
Mann adds: With Bentley Geospatial Server
we want to federate different data types: we
enable the customer to use many types of
data, and to use each according to its own
strength. Bentley believes in an open environ-
ment. We dont try to harmonize, because thats
a utopian idea. It is more practical to keep the
existing information in its native form than to
homogenize it and force it into a single
database. By that I dont mean that we dont
believe in databases. Its just in our DNA to
make things work. Thats where our focus is.
The more integrated the better seems to be
the goal these days. Mann explains integration:
This means that CAD data, with its powerful
graphics stored in graphics files, will be con-
nected to business documents or old legacy
documents which might be either scanned or
database information. Were not into patch-
works of products and data, but rather into
creating an integrated whole.
Eric van Rees evanrees@geoinformatics.com is
Editorial Manager at GeoInformatics.
Remco Takken rtakken@geoinformatics.com is editor
at GeoInformatics. Have a look at www.bentley.com
Advancing GIS for Infrastructure
Bentley has just launched Bentley Map and
some say its Bentleys first full-blown GIS
product. According to Mann: Our global
strategy now is to execute on Advancing GIS
for infrastructure - this is what Bentley
Geospatial is all about. Were rolling out a
completely new generation of GIS technology
right now which includes Bentley Map for
desktop GIS functions, Bentley Geospatial
Server for server-side GIS functionality,
Bentley Cadastre for advanced parcel man-
agement workflows and our latest generation
of Bentley Geo Web Publisher for publishing
maps and geospatial information for access
through Web browsers.
In short: you can use core spatial capabilities
like a co-ordinate projection system right in
MicroStation. This doesnt mean that Bentley
is suddenly posing as a mapping vendor. On
the contrary, Mann explains: Its not our job
to make maps. A map really is the first layer
of geometry, not necessarily the bottom layer,
or the only layer, but it certainly is not our
forte. We just focus on including all types of
infrastructure: underground, above ground,
urban planning, around infrastructure, indeed,
all objects that are attached to the lifecycle
of infrastructure and, of course, how they are
related. 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 an
applied view of GIS technology we apply it
to the engineering of complex infrastructure
across its lifecycle. Its an engineering thing,
and Bentley is very good at that. In all four
verticals of Bentley we have an infrastructure
lifecycle, so we know what has to be main-
tained, what has been edited in the past and
so on.
Object Oriented
The main breakthrough in Bentley Map lies in
the seamless integration of CAD and GIS tech-
nology which allows engineers, architects, civil
engineers and surveyors to work in an object-
oriented way. Mann says: They are all par-
ticipating in the lifecycle of infrastructure.
Whether its designing, digging up, repairing
or rebuilding a road, these are not isolated
activities.
CAD-GIS Integration
Much has been said about the apparent non-
compatibility of design data (CAD) and
geospatial systems (GIS). How can you get
these disparate systems to work together?
Mann feels its only logical that Bentley is
involved in OWS-4, an Open Geospatial
Consortium workgroup about CAD-GIS inte-
gration. Bentley does CAD-GIS integration
I nt er vi ew
19
March 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 white
paper on SWE. The white paper defines the
goal of SWE as enabling all types of Web
and/or Internet-accessible sensors, instru-
ments, and imaging devices to be accessible
and, where applicable, controllable via the
Web. Usually a potential user of sensor data
will be looking for a sensor in a specific loca-
tion (or region) where the specific type of data
that the user is interested in is available. Since
geographic location is an important aspect of
an SWE, OGC has harmonized SWE specifica-
tions with other OGC standards such as GML
and the geo-services. It also references other
relevant sensor and alerting standards such
as the IEEE 1451 "smart transducer" family of
standards and the OASIS Common Alerting
Protocol (CAP), Web Services Notification (WSN)
and Asynchronous Service Access Protocol
(ASAP) specifications.
How It Works
When the network connection of the sensor
is layered with Internet and Web protocols,
XML schemas can be used to publish formal
descriptions of the sensor's capabilities, loca-
tion, and interfaces. As a result, the discovery
of the sensors can be automated. Information
in the XML schema about a sensor's control
interface enables automated communication
with the sensor system for various purposes:
to determine, for example, its state and loca-
tion; to issue commands to the sensor or its
platform; and, to access its stored or real-time
data. The SWE itself is not a single standard
but 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 & Measurements
Schema
Standard data model and GML schema for the
definition of the actual observations and mea-
surements from a sensor (either stored or real
time). The models are based upon the ISO
19109 standard for geographic data models and
have the ability to package large amounts of
data as ASCII or binary blocks.
Sensor Model Language
SensorML defines a model and schema for
describing all information needed for the
discovery of sensors and the description
of the capabilities of the sensor. SensorML
General concept of Sensor Web Enablement (www.opengeospatial.org)
22
Ar t i cl e
March 2008
provides a functional model of the sensor
system rather than a detailed description of
its hardware. In SensorML all processes,
including sensors and sensor systems, have
input, output, parameters, and methods that
can be utilized by applications for exploit-
ing observations from any sensor system. In
addition, SensorML provides additional
metadata 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 Service
Standard web service interface for requesting
user-driven acquisitions and observations. This
is the intermediary between a client and a sen-
sor collection management environment
designed and developed to enable an interop-
erable service by which a client can determine
collection feasibility for a desired set of collec-
tion requests for one or more sen-
sors/platforms, or submit collection requests
directly to these sensors/platforms.
Sensor Alert Service
Standard web service interface for publishing
and subscribing to alerts from sensors. The
standard defines an alert as a special kind of
notification indicating that an event has
occurred at an object of interest, which results
in a condition of heightened watchfulness or
preparation for action. All actual messaging is
performed by a messaging server.
Web Notification Services
Standard web service interface for asyn-
chronous delivery of messages or alerts from
SAS and SPS web services and other elements
of service workflows. The Web Notification
Service Model includes two different kinds of
notifications that can be received from a Sensor
Planning Service or Sensor Alert Service. The
first, one-way-communication, provides the
user with information without expecting a
response. The second, two-way-communica-
tion, provides the user with information and
expects some kind of asynchronous response.
Legal
The Sensor Web Enablement framework is a
voluntary set of standards. The framework itself
was published in 2006 but at the moment some
standards from the framework are still in draft
status while others have only been published
recently. As a result there are currently few sen-
sors that are SWE compliant and the framework
and its underlying standards are not part of any
law. SWE is mentioned in the INSPIRE docu-
mentation but the status thereof is more a mat-
ter of signalling to the user community that
INSPIRE is aware of SWE and not a matter of
implying its use in the short term. If, however,
enough sensors adhere to the SWE, its poten-
tial in the community of observation users is
quite significant.
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is project manager
at IDsW and a freelance trainer and writer.
For more information: OGC: www.opengeospatial.org.
ing taskable properties, interfaces, and
physical properties.
Transducer Markup Language
In 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 conceptual
model for streaming real-time clusters of time-
tagged and sensor-referenced observations
from a sensor system. SensorML, on the other
hand, describes the system models that allow
a client to interpret, geo-locate, and process the
streaming observations.
Sensor Observations Service
Standard web service interface for requesting,
filtering, and retrieving observations and sen-
sor system information. It is comparable in use
to the WFS services as described in the previ-
ous document. An important difference with
Ar t i cl e
23
March 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 Enablement
What it is for: Discovery, control and use of
web-based sensor data
Relevant standards:
OGC SWE specifications
Technical 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 of
DGI took place in the Queen Elizabeth II
Conference Centre in London. At the biggest
geo-event in Europe, end-users from different
governmental 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 sharing
knowledge among users, challenges for the
future were discussed so that the different
organizations can collaborate better with each
other and can make use of each others ser-
vices and data in the future. No fewer than
52 case studies were presented during the
conference. Much attention was paid to the
use of GIS during military operations in such
areas as Afghanistan and Iraq, but also to
public safety (with the focus on the Olympic
Games, to be held in London in 2012) and
ecological disasters such as oil spills in
oceans.
The main conference took place on January
22 and 23. After the morning program with
plenary sessions, the afternoon program with
three parallel sessions followed. Visitors were
able to join sessions on government agency
case studies, international military operations
and national case studies. There were many
opportunities to meet other visitors and
speakers in between sessions at the business
market. Aside from the two main conference
days, there was also a technology innova-
tion focus day and an interoperability and
collaboration focus day.
Main Conference Day One
One of the highlights of the first main confer-
ence day was the presentation from Richard
Bryan of the Metropolitan Police UK. In this pre-
sentation entitled How Will Geospatial
Intelligence Support the Security Operation of
the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games? he explained how remote sensing is
being used by securing the locations where the
Olympic Games will take place. No fewer than
73 partners are working together to make this
happen, and also provide security for all the
other events that will take place during that
whole summer in London. With the aid of one
central database, digital photography and 3D
geometries derived from LIDAR-techniques, the
Metropolitan Police are building a digital envi-
ronment from which presentations, maps, mod-
els and workflow can be developed for the
police corps.
Bryan is convinced of the power of geoinforma-
tion techniques for security operations such as
these concerning the Olympic Games: laser
data, for instance, is used for the creation of
virtual models of sport complexes. By rotating
images in these models, vulnerable spots can
be visualized in a better way than used to be
done with the aid of aerial photography. Apart
from a planning tool, GIS can also be used
24
Event
March 2008
Chairman Jill Smith, President & CEO,
DigitalGlobe.
as a predictability
tool, for instance by creating potential
crime maps of London. On the basis of differ-
ent measurements in time, predictions can be
made about where in London more than aver-
age or less than average crime is occurring. The
use of real-time streaming video gives the
Metropolitan Police a jump on the press who,
in the case of a disaster, used to be the first
on the spot with a camera crew. Apart from
advantages from the use of geo-data, there are
still some fundamental challenges in this field
for the Metropolitan Police, such as inconsis-
tencies in the data itself and double entries in
databases.
Ordnance Survey
Vanessa Lawrence from Ordnance Survey Great
Britain held an inspired presentation on the
importance of geoinformation underpinning
spatial decision-making. The Ordnance Survey
is Great Britains national mapping agency.
Although its activities are only 27% profitable
for Great Britain as a whole, the total area of
the nation is being covered in its surveying
activities. The importance to others of Ordnance
Survey data is very great and the investments
in Ordnance Survey are returned immediately
through adequate policymaking. Lawrence
Meeting the needs of all these aid organizations
is not an easy job. The people who work for
MapAction are not just GIS people: they are
selected also because of their ability to endure
the 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 them
among other aid organizations.
The Future of GIS
In addition to end users of geo-data, a number
of manufacturers in the industry discussed the
challenges of the future of GIS. Speakers from
ESRI, Intergraph and Lockheed Martin all
stressed the importance of further integrating
different techniques so that end users can work
more easily with the products of these manu-
facturers. Because of the lack of new informa-
tion on new techniques and products, these
presentations were less interesting than the end
user case studies. This technical information
was probably discussed on the first and last
conference days.
The first main conference day concluded with
an overview of the new generation of public
and 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, evacuation
planning could be done for the inhabitants of
this area. The Metropolitan Police mentioned
above also make use of Ordnance Survey data
when planning security for the Olympic Games
in 2012. The closing message from Lawrence
was that access to data is more important than
who collects and manages the data.
Mapping in Disaster Areas
Providing adequate maps in disaster areas
under stressful circumstances was the subject
of David Spackmans presentation. Spackman
is Chief Executive of MapAction, a charity that
produces maps that can be used for helping to
coordinate the evacuation of victims, medical
help and the supply of foods and medicines in
disaster areas. MapAction volunteers use
basemap data, remote sensed data and situa-
tion data to produce these maps. Spackman
made clear what chaotic and stressful circum-
stances these people work under and how dif-
ficult it is to meet the needs of the end users
of these maps in time with the most recent
data. 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
25
March 2008
Fourth Annual Geospatial Intelligence Conference in London
ESRI UK exhibition space.
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the resolution of the data, the cost-benefit ratio
of the data and the question of to whom the
data will be available. Jill Smith, president and
CEO of DigitalGlobe, talked about Worldview II
which will be launched this year; as for GeoEye,
it will launch GeoEye 1 and 2 in the future.
Main Conference Day Two
Main conference day two was introduced by
Jack A. Pellici of Intergraph, who stressed once
again the on-going collaboration between dif-
ferent agencies that share and make use of spa-
tial data, and the development of new spatial
data management technologies to make this
easier in the future. Speaking of the newest
killer application in GIS, he said to expect
much from robot automated vehicles that make
use of streaming video.
Steve Erskine, Technical Architect National
Provider Network for Home Office UK, explained
control other countries in keeping
their promises about their nuclear
activities (both producing and
trading). This is possible because
of the ever-growing capacities
concerning data quality so that
countries have a better view of
whats going on at nuclear sites
abroad. Some of the countries
that possess and maintain their
own main spacecraft make use of
multi-spectral and hyper-spectral
sensors. Still, the information that
is yielded with current techniques
is not accurate enough to control
other countries nuclear activities:
on-site control needs to be done
to check whats really going on,
and to monitor international
diplomatic contact.
To conclude this event review, visitors of DGI
Europe 2008 can look back at a very well orga-
nized conference with interesting case studies
and many opportunities to meet other people
in the business. Those who visited the case
study sessions will now have a good overview
of how geoinformation is used in different orga-
nizations and how it can be improved in the
future. Its the end users view that makes this
event a success. In the end, geoinformation is
about 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 deliver
Home Office objectives in offender manage-
ment, crime reduction and immigration.
Although geoinformation is applied in many
ways in this organization, for instance for the
production of overview maps on the number of
burglaries in cities, its full potential has not yet
been realized. Referring to the previous days
presentation by Richard Bryan from
Metropolitan Police UK, he saw many opportu-
nities for Home Office UK to work together on
better use of geoinformation, the way
Metropolitan Police UK does. A perfect example
of the use of an event such as DGI.
Another interesting story on main day two came
from Visiting Professor of War Studies
Bhupendra Jasani of Kings College London. He
spoke about the use of geospatial imagery to
manage the global nuclear war threat and to
monitor arms control treaties. More and more
countries use remote sensing techniques to
Event
27
March 2008
David Spackman, Chief
Executive 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 Economy
Maps are more widely used than ever. But the
production of geographic information rests
mainly in the hands of national mapping agen-
cies and the GI industry. The basic supply of
geographic information is a cost-intensive busi-
ness. Governments spend billions to create
large-scale geographic data to fulfil their civil
and military responsibilities. Frequent updates
are necessary due to the ever-changing nature
of Earths surface. Geographical completeness,
i.e. coverage, is another indispensable require-
ment for spatial datasets that increases costs
and therefore is another driver for the natural
selection of geographic information collected
by national mapping agencies. Michael
Goodchild states that with some exceptions,
only a very small fraction of human knowledge
of the planet makes its way through the vari-
ous processes used to acquire, assemble, and
disseminate geographic information.
The development of a consistent geo-informa-
tion economy resounds throughout Europe but
the 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 chains
of many national mapping agencies due to their
datasets being of high complexity much high-
er that in the United States. The complexity is
justified as the main data users are public
authorities who require such complex data for
their duties and responsibilities. Beyond the
public sector there are just a few consumers of
high-quality data, like electric utilities, in the
business sector. For many other business ratio-
nales, the complexity of spatial datasets is too
extreme or not appropriate and therefore new
value-added chains have to be built up to
adjust the data. That is, the value-added chains
within the geo-information economy are partial-
ly ineffective. Hence there is a broad consen-
sus for the demand to reorganize or think about
other sources and modes to create basic spa-
tial data as a starting point for more effective
added value chains.
Wikinomics
In the era of Web 2.0 the GIS- and geo-infor-
mation markets are in flux. Next to the open
source software movement and Software as a
Service (SaaS), Web 2.0 is characterized by new
business models serving niche markets (Long
Tail) 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 internet
in a more cooperative way by turning the com-
municative scheme from one-to-many into
many-to-many. All participating users are situat-
ed in networked communities, sharing media
and information and collaboratively creating
content. Geo-information and digital maps will
be very popular in Web 2.0 applications.
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Figure 1: Modes of collaborative mapping
Collaborative platforms are among the signifi-
cant characteristics of the ongoing network rev-
olution as described in Don Tapscotts and
Anthony D. Williams renowned book
Wikinomics. By means of collaborative plat-
forms, people are no longer committed to one
single role in media usage. As prosumers they
can 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 exchanging
interesting information, maintaining social con-
tacts, the mediation of a corporate feeling or
simply to have fun. The news platform Digg
(www.digg.com), for instance, rewards pro-
sumers for collecting the latest news on the
web and thereby turns news reading into a
social pastime.
The concept of Wikinomics holds promise for
the ways in which we obtain, use and share
geographic 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 making
is possible through mobile devices which
increasingly become location-aware and turn
everyone into a mapmaker. Thus they enable a
broad citizenship to collaboratively provide
complementary and alternative geographic
information from the products created by
national mapping agencies.
Neogeography
When Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth
shook up the GIS market with their platforms,
they added a free mapping component to the
users tool box. Since then various mash-ups
emerged, combining the capabilities of the
mapping platforms with hitherto unavailable
spatial web services. A famous example is the
website housingmaps (www.housingmaps.com)
from Paul Rademacher, a mash-up of Craigs List
and Google Maps. The combined use of GPS
and those new earth explorers promises the
advent of a new era for civil society as Jon Udell
expounded in his blog: In the very near future,
billions of people will be roaming the planet
with GPS devices. Clouds of network connec-
tivity are forming over our major cities and will
inevitably coalesce. The geoaware Web isnt a
product we buy; its 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, with
their own data, for their friends, family, and
business associates. Google Maps isnt just a
service, its a service factory.
Indeed, I tend to agree with this euphoria
because the radical openness of todays 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 wrong
for sure.
Thanks to the free editing rules, completeness
can never be reached. Everyone has total free-
dom to edit and upload whatever they feel nec-
essary, whether it be a telephone cell, a litter
can or a tree. OpenStreetMap is in a permanent
beta-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, the
status of flux is therefore harmless. Sites such
as OpenStreetMap often provide the cheapest
source of geographic information, and some-
times the only source, particularly in areas
where access to geographic information is
regarded as an issue of national security.
The infrastructure of OpenStreetMap is based
on Geoserver (based on GeoTools) and many
pieces of free software that have been devel-
oped by OSM enthusiasts. An OSM Wiki serves
as a portal where beginners get information and
the user communities organize and coordinate
their activities. Every member has their own
space for a personal portrait. Collaborators
sometimes establish regional portals to improve
the collection of spatial data within their
regions.
Five Steps to the Free Map,
Edit Wars and Vandalism
OpenStreetMap names five steps to making a
map:
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 movement
through space and subsequently uploads the
created .gpx-files to the OpenStreetMap Server.
Alternatively the users own material, i.e. aerial
pictures or notes, are appropriate sources for
the generation or editing of OSM data.
According to German law (and this is probably
the case for all of Europe) the data is owned
by the originator but underlies a Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
That is, by uploading data the originator allows
free dissemination.
The OSM community offers different editors that
can be used to process data, e.g. the Java Open
Street Map Editor (JOSM) or the online editor
potlatch. 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 to
edit but it is exactly this freedom that some-
times generates problems: Edit Wars. In
promise. However, the GeoWeb is still young
and therefore are well advised to see the facts
first.
A recent survey by Novak and Voigt on mash-
up culture has proven that mapping applica-
tions are the largest application class among
all mash-up applications. They are all based on
the idea of collaborative mapping but apply it
in 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, and
the collaborative tracking of locations. The
applications can also be distinguished by the
mode of information collection. Typically con-
tent is acquired either automatically from exist-
ing online sources or solely by manual user
input.
All these new geographically relevant activities
are subsumed in the notion of neogeography.
Neogeography can thus be considered as the
democratization of geographic information.
Moreover, many types of geographic informa-
tion are not visible or cannot be extracted by
the institutional system of national mapping
agencies. They include names and meanings
humans attach to features and cultural and
location-based experiences.
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (OSM) was founded as a free
mapping project in Great Britain more than
three years ago. The reason was simply to cre-
ate a geographic data set that is free, open and
current. In the meantime the project acquired
20,000 registered users with the typical Web
2.0 share of activists, 10 percent. Currently, the
number of users is rising exponentially.
Specialists argue that where level of detail and
up-to-dateness is concerned, Open StreetMap is
superior to Google Maps. The examples of
Ar t i cl e
29
March 2008
Figure 2: Comparison of coverage between
OpenStreetMap and Google Maps in Salzburg,
Austria
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31
March 2008
Wikipedia they are on the agenda every day,
and in OpenStreetMap their numbers increase
with the number of registered members. The
first arena of an Edit War in OpenStreetMap was
the island of Cyprus which is split into two
parts, 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 rewound
simply in OpenStreetMap as is practicable for
an entry in Wikipedia. Due to the topological
connections the whole planet should be recov-
ered which is in practice - almost impossible.
Similarly many collaborative mapping platforms
have another problem: editing is open indeed
but not open to changing the positioning of
geotags. As a matter of fact, geotags are most-
ly owned by the originator and cannot be
moved by others. Principally, this hinders dis-
course on geographic information as it is nec-
essary for a constructivist process of objective
knowledge 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 as
stated previously, OpenStreetMap is totally
open for editing and therefore stands above
most of these problems.
OSM Helps Realize Everything
You Want
After uploading, generating and editing data
one can render a map. The OpenStreetMap pro-
ject has two different rendering tools, namely
Osmarender which creates data for Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) and Mapnik which cre-
ates bitmaps. The data uploaded to the OSM
server can be accessed by an application pro-
gramming interface (API), called OSM-Protocol.
It controls technical communication between
the OSM server and a client. Finally the OSM
Project allows many applications to be realized
without any cost for data or copyright concerns.
One example is the Cambridge Cycling
Campaign that provides maps for cyclists based
on OSM data. In the future, even routing soft-
ware for cyclists might be created using "cus-
tom routing". Normal navigation devices are
limited by the rules for car traffic and therefore
cannot be applied to others. The speculative
applications are manifold and reach realistic
expectations as activity on the OSM platform
continues to increase.
Treinvizier
OpenStreetMap is definitely the most represen-
tative and famous project to be named in con-
nection with collaborative mapping. But in fact
the OSM project is only the tip of the iceberg.
For a demonstration on what can be found
under the surface of the water I want to add a
few lines on the Treinvizier.nl project by Arjen
Kruithof. Treinveizer.nl shows train stations and
the current position of all passenger trains in
the Netherlands. This real-time application
makes it possible to see the whereabouts of all
trains and even check if a train is late. Treinvizier
connects to the database Somda.nl and the
Dutch national railway company (Nationale
Spoorwegen). 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 various
tracks in the country. Its members collaborate
in feeding all spotted trains, timetables and
train logistics into a database in near real-time.
The added value of this mash-up is obvious. It
helps people to find out about delays and
simultaneously feeds enthusiasm for trains.
Future plans include, amongst others, a mes-
saging service about delays by SMS personal-
ized by train connection and weekly
delay statistics.
Witnessing the Last Gasp for
National Mapping Agencies?
When observing the dynamics of col-
laborative mapping initiatives, one
might feel that the days of national
mapping agencies are numbered. The
power of mass collaboration seems
to creep inexorably into mapping.
Although these initiatives sometimes
serve the users better than private
and national mapping agencies do,
and sometimes as seen in the
example of OSM - even compete with
them, I would argue rather for a com-
plementary role for both. On the spec-
trum of useful spatial data there is
one end clearly reserved for national
mapping agencies, such as land reg-
ister maps and cadastre. Contrariwise the other
end, namely the long tail, is reserved for col-
laborative mapping initiatives. The fight will
take place in the middle where different mod-
els might appear. Buying navigation data from
TeleAtlas or NavTeq is costly but comprehen-
sive and reliable in terms of coverage. Getting
the free version from OpenStreetMap is cheap
and useful and there is still the option to use
the API from Google Maps for routing. Therefore
I conclude that many combined versions of col-
laborative mapping and institutionalized map-
ping will appear in the future an early exam-
ple is TomToms MapShare technology.
Florian Fischer ffischer@geoinformatics.com 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 Udells Blog - Annotating the planet with Google
Maps: www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/04/
10OPstrategic_1.html
Novaks & Voigts 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 Data
Once 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
Introduction
Several years ago, geo-information depart-
ments started building up experience with
laser scanner data, to acquire DTMs better
and faster or to support the updating of topo-
graphic maps. In many organizations laser
data and its derived products like 3D city
models are, for other departments, relatively
new data sources. Little is known about the
reusability 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 of
users like tax departments. The focus is on
the reuse of laser scanner data and its derived
products. Reusing data is of interest not only
to end-users but especially to data owners
who can better justify the costs for acquisi-
tion and maintenance of the data.
For researchers as well as commercial data
providers it is important to explore optimal
methods to build, store and analyze 3D data.
Intuitively, acquisition of 3D data starts with
a description of user requirements. Once the
data has been acquired, organizations store
their source data and process it into derived
3D information for their applications. Once 3D
information is in house and has been used
for the initial applications, it is likely that the
original source data or its derived products
can be reused. Users can access the original
laser data set to perform their task, or they
can use the already derived 3D models: see
Figure 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 visibility
studies (bottom left) or geometric measurements (bottom right).
Research groups at Delft University of
Technology and ITC Enschede work on the
efficient modeling and acquisition of 3D topo-
graphic models. To ensure that in future their
methods will be adopted in practice, an inven-
tory was made of user requirements for these
models and acquisition techniques. This arti-
cle is based on information from this inven-
tory; it therefore reflects a side-event rather
than the core research topic of the project 3D
Topography.
We analyzed four cases at four major geo-
information organizations in the Netherlands.
In interview sessions, we collected and dis-
cussed user experiences concerning quality
requirements, applications, storage and acqui-
sition of 3D topographic data. During the
analysis, we noticed the data-driven appear-
ance of the requirements. This indicates that
the data comes before the requirements. So
what happened to the ideal picture that 3D
data acquisition starts with user require-
ments? In this article, we show that for each
application the starting point is somewhere
in an iterative circle. This iterative circle is
a function of data acquisition, data storage,
the user, and the application. The article
presented here is based on a more exten-
sive paper published at the 3D Geo-Info
workshop in Delft 2007.
User Requirements for
3D Topography
Interview sessions were organized between
researchers and owners/users of 3D geo-
information. We selected four cases in which
users had already gained some experience
with the acquisition, storage and analysis of
laser 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
Cadastre
During the interviews, we collected infor-
they were initiated after
the or ga ni zations cap-
tured their data for the
original applications. The
total number of applica-
tions mentioned in the
interviews is 29, whereas
the number originally
planned was 12.
Users mentioned the data-
driven character of the
new applications. These
applications are in the
explorative phase, which implies that the
users first look at what can be done with the
3D data they have. This can be seen by the
fact that the user requirements are character-
ized by the specifications of the available
data. With the maturation of these applica-
tions, the requirements will become more
application-driven, resulting in a more
detailed description of what the specifications
of 3D data should be.
In this section we want to look in further
detail at the growing number of applications
reusing laser data at these four organizations.
Municipality of Den Bosch
The engineering department reused the parts
of laser data classified as hard terrain. They
fused it with their existing topographic map
and road database to better analyze the
drainage 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 data
instead of the existing 2D data. Limitations
of (analyzing) 2D data are important for justi-
fying the need for 3D data. The major pur-
pose of the interviews was to specify user
requirements for 3D topography. User require-
ments should cover topics like specific wish-
es concerning data quality, distribution and
analysis. Before we describe the reusability of
the data, we first show these user require-
ments. A summary of user requirements for
all four cases can be found in Figure 2.
During the interviews, users mentioned the
increasing number of applications using laser
scanner data or its derived products.
Reusing Data
All four organizations reused their laser data
and its derived products more than expected.
Figure 3 shows the extended list of 3D topog-
raphy applications. Applications shown in
bold and italics represent new applications:
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March 2008
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 urban
tree volumes for various reasons. Therefore,
research was done to detect individual trees
and calculate urban tree crown volume in the
city of Den Bosch, using their existing laser
data. An intermediate result can be the extrac-
tion of laser data on trees. Figure 5 shows
two additional applications that are useful for
municipalities, namely the detection of dorm-
ers and change detection.
Survey Department of Rijkswaterstaat
Rijkswaterstaat can perform various river man-
agement applications with one high point den-
sity dataset. Some of the time-consuming ter-
restrial measurements, visual inspections and
mapping from imagery can be replaced by
laser altimetry. In the case of extremely low
water levels, laser altimetry enables RWS to
acquire detailed morphologic information for
the groyne fields, which usually cannot be
measured. In combination with multi-beam
echo-sounder data acquired at high water lev-
els, the behavior of the riverbed and groyne
fields can be analyzed simultaneously.
AHN data has been used intensively by archae-
ologists. Large-scale morphological structures,
possibly indicating historical objects or activi-
ties, which cannot be seen from the ground
may be clearly visible in the DTM. Besides this,
slopes can indicate where to look using the
knowledge that historical objects tend to slide
to lower parts in the terrain.
Water Board HDSR
Information about the topography can be com-
bined with subterranean information to better
analyze the strength of a dike. The use of laser
scanner data is essential to correctly fuse
topographic features with the (also 3D) sub-
terranean information. Change detection is a
hot topic in the maintenance of dikes. Already
existing data sets are as important as future
laser data sets when looking at the differences
between them.
Topographic Service
The Topographic Service seeks methods for fast
and reliable change detection. Laser data can
be used to automatically detect changes in the
2D map. However, changes between laser data
and map data should be handled with care.
Changes can be caused by misinterpretations
of the aerial photographs or laser data, or by
differences in generalization of the map.
Factors Increasing Reusability
In the interviews, users mentioned various fac-
tors that have had a positive influence on the
reuse of the laser data.
to allow efficient processing of a DTM. Filter
algorithms help the user to reduce laser data
in an early stage of the process, making the
huge datasets much more flexible.
2D or 3D
The reason for the increasing use of 3D data
over 2D data is that 3D better represents the
as-is situation. It is from this situation that
many users perform their activities. For
example, city planners can add features to
the as-is situation, civil engineers are able
to calculate volumes and strengths at given
situations, etc. While 3D information started
in geo-information departments as a faster
way to detect 2D objects automatically and
as adding value to the existing 2D informa-
tion, for many other departments it is the
first contact with geo-information. For a num-
ber of applications, representing in 2D is still
the most convenient way to reach their goal.
Examples can be found in route descriptions
and assessing parcel information.
Although airborne laser data is a good
method to quickly acquire detailed informa-
tion, it cannot replace all terrestrial measure-
ments for purposes like measuring and mon-
itoring point objects.
User requirements for 3D objects and
databases are still under development. One
of the reasons is that the number of appli-
cations and users is still growing. At the
same time, the technical possibilities of air-
borne imagery and laser altimetry are
increasing in terms of geometric and radio-
metric resolution. With more detailed infor-
mation offered, user requirements get more
specific and the demand for more detailed
information grows. Scientific projects in data
acquisition, data fusion and storage are
essential for users to show the reusability of
their data.
Conclusions
In our study, we analyzed user requirements
for 3D geo-information in four major organi-
zations. The user requirements were based
on the original applications. We recognized
the flexibility of organizations to explore
what can be done with the data that they
have. Therefore, the most important insight
was the great potential for reusing existing
3D geo-information. Once a 3D data set had
been acquired, many new users recog-
nized the benefit of 3D data for their
application.
When the number of users grows, the
number of requirements also grows. A good
example is the desired point density of the
national height model AHN, increasing from
1 point per 16 m2 in 1996 to 10 points per
m2 in 2006.
Availability and Distribution
GIS-based intranet applications make it pos-
sible to show geo-data to the organization.
Google Earth already showed the success of
simple visualizing, navigating and zooming of
2D geo-data. When visualizing the as-is situ-
ation in 3D, it generates an alternative per-
spective for new user groups including tax
departments and citizens who want to walk
through their streets in the model. Opening
your eyes is the first and most important step
in using a new kind of data for existing or
even new applications.
Data Fusion
Combining data sources not only delivers
information on the similarities and differences
between the two datasets, but it can use the
complementary aspects to create new or bet-
ter products. Examples can be found in the
fusion of map and laser data, where map
data delivers thematic and topologic infor-
mation and laser data adds geometric infor-
mation.
Generalization and Filtering
Although several authors use the terms gen-
eralization and filtering as representing the
same activity, we distinguish between gen-
eralizing 3D data, focusing on the represen-
tation of the output (reducing derived 3D
data), and filtering laser scanner data, focus-
ing on data reduction of the input (reducing
raw data). Generalization allows organiza-
tions to use 3D geo-data multiple times at
multiple scales, thus reducing the costs of
acquiring 3D data. For water boards a spe-
cial kind of generalization is important,
because objects close to dikes have to be
represented in more detail than objects
located further away. Although high point
density laser data is useful for reliable clas-
sification of buildings, vegetation and other
objects and for the extraction of breaklines
in the terrain, it is clear that for large parts
of the terrain the point density is too high
34
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Figure 4: Iterative circle connecting data and users.
March 2008
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35
March 2008
Even information analyses can be reused for different purposes. The origi-
nal purpose of analyzing the interview information was to specify user
requirements, whereas the reused version showed the advantages of
reusing the geo-information and the data-driven character of many user
requirements.
Sander Oude Elberink oudeelberink@itc.nl is working on his PhD research
at the ITC Enschede. His topic is the acquisition of
3D topography using laser altimetry data.
More information can be found on
www.itc.nl/personal/oudeelberink and
www.rgi-otb.nl/3dtopo.
Acknowledgement
This research is partially funded by the Dutch BSIK research program
Space for Geo-Information, project 3D Topography. The author would like
to thank Bram Verbruggen of the municipality of Den Bosch for providing
additional information on the reuse of data, and the other persons who
cooperated in this part of the research: Friso Penninga,
Paul van Asperen, Job Nijman,
Nico Bakker and Stefan Flos.
Figure 5: Map and laser data (top),
detected dormers (middle) and
change detection (bottom).
Fugros Geospatial Services Chief Operating Officer Owen Goodman
Providing Geospatial Services on a
Terrestrial mapping services, aerial sensing and mapping, GNSS augmentation
and geospatial information services are the business lines that make up the
core of Fugros newly-formed geospatial services business. Although still
relatively small compared to its offshore survey activities, Fugros geospatial
services activities have recently experienced rapid growth, helped by the
acquisition of companies such as EarthData, Horizon and MAPS Geosolutions.
In this interview Owen Goodman, Chief Operating Officer Geospatial Services,
explains why he thinks geospatial services are a huge opportunity for Fugro,
and how the company is responding to the changes in the geospatial market.
By Eric van Rees
With over 275 offices and a staff of
close to 12,000 working worldwide,
Fugro collects, processes and interprets
data to characterize the earths surface
and subsurface composition. As an
extension to these activities, Fugro
provides supplementary services such
as precise positioning, materials test-
ing and data management services.
Fugros operations are organized into
three divisions: Geotechnical, Survey
and Geoscience. The Survey Division
comprises two main business lines:
offshore survey and geospatial
services. Goodman sums up the key
characteristics of Fugro:
The majority of our activities involve
collecting data, analysing the data and
generating reports for our clients. Very often,
the end product that we deliver to our
customers consists of reports, maps, charts
and datasets. In addition we provide a range
of supporting services. Offshore, for exam-
ple, we provide services to support the
construction of pipelines and platforms, i.e.
surveying the sea bed before the pipelines
are laid, ensuring the lines are placed in the
correct location and thereafter monitoring
the pipelines over their lifetime to check for
damage or corrosion.
Fugro develops and applies technology
(software and hardware) to facilitate and
differentiate the services we provide, to
operate in a more efficient manner and to
push our operating boundaries, for exam-
ple, to be able to work in deeper water. This
has been one of the key characteristics of
Fugro since the beginning.
Many of the people who work in Fugro
come from a technical background and often
Fugros managers are surveyors or engineers
who worked their way up from the bottom,
through field engineering, to operations
management and general management, to
running their own companies. The same is
true of Fugros holding company. Its a very
down-to-earth, practical company. We are
very keen to develop new technologies and
new capabilities. We dont typically sell the
technology as a product in itself but we use
the technology to give our services a
competitive advantage.
36
I nt er vi ew
March 2008
For terrestrial survey
services, our aim is to
focus increasingly on the
more specialised type of
services, such as
dimensional control,
geo-monitoring,
subsurface infrastructure
mapping.
In the early 1990s Fugro launched its
Survey Division, and today offshore
survey and geospatial services together
account for about 50% of turnover world-
wide. In survey services, Geospatial
Services is now being restated to com-
bine onshore and satellite positioning.
Geospatial Services is relatively small com-
pared to offshore surveying. However,
between 2006 and 2007 it has seen rapid
growth, part of which was organic, but the
bulk of the growth came through the acquisi-
tion of companies like EarthData, Horizons
and MAPS Geosystems.
Fugros geospatial services business
covers four main activities: terrestrial
survey services, GNSS augmentation,
aerial sensing and mapping, and
geospatial information services.
Terrestrial survey services include
typical land survey activities mainly
focused on the oil and gas, mining
and civil engineering sectors. Fugro
operates a global network of GNSS
reference stations and satellite broad-
cast channels, monitored by two con-
trol centres (manned 24/7) to improve
the accuracy of GPS and Glonass
(GNSS augmentation) for customers
requiring real-time position accuracies
at the sub-decimeter level, on a world-
wide basis. One of the main applica-
tions for this service is machine con-
trol. Aerial sensing and mapping
encompasses activities such as LiDAR
mapping, aerial photography, photo -
grammetry and GeoSAR radar map-
ping. For the future, Goodman thinks
that geospatial information services
represent a huge potential market.
For terrestrial survey services, our aim is to
focus increasingly on the more specialized type
of services such as dimensional control, geo-
monitoring and subsurface infrastructure map-
ping. Fugros global office network facilitates a
global project capability to enable us to sup-
port our clients anywhere in the world on engi-
neering projects that require specialist survey
services.
Building on its existing well-established GNSS
augmentation business, Fugro is now exploring
tional land survey market is going to contract.
Why? Because almost anybody can be trained
to collect data points or set-out engineer-
ing projects using a GNSS receiver and this
will reduce the role of the traditional land sur-
veyor. There will be fewer competitors, and
those that remain will become more special-
ized. The more progressive companies already
specialize in areas such as dimensional con-
trol, terrestrial LiDAR mapping and so forth.
Airborne sensing and mapping is also an
area which is likely to see major changes. The
consumerization of geospatial information
thanks to Google, Microsoft and others means
that the demand for aerial imagery and map-
ping products is growing quickly. The rapid
convergence of mapping technologies, GNSS,
mobile communications and computer infor-
mation systems is another key factor driving
the demand for geospatial information. As a
result, new customers are emerging and new
applications for ortho-imagery and mapping
products appear almost every day. The cur-
rent Nintendo generation who play their
games in 3D will not accept anything less
than three dimensions when they view and
manipulate their mapping, engineering and
location information. So we can expect the
demand for up-to-date 3D virtual reality mod-
els to grow. At the same time, I expect to see
further consolidation in the data acquisition
synergies between its global GNSS augmenta-
tion capability and other services within the
geospatial field. Fugro is currently the leading
independent provider of GNSS augmentation
services on a global basis. We want to build on
that position. When Galileo eventually becomes
available, we intend to augment the Galileo sig-
nals as an integral part of our GNSS service
offering. We see potential to use GNSS to make
our other geospatial services more effective.
Commercial GNSS augmentation is a relatively
small business sector but an interesting one for
Fugro, particularly as accurate real-time posi-
tioning is an important component of many of
the services Fugro provides.
Fugros aim is to become one of the worlds
leading data acquisition and aerial mapping
companies, with operations worldwide. We will
achieve this in part through organic growth, but
acquisitions such as EarthData, Horizons and
MAPS Geosystems are essential to achieving
our aims.
Goodman expects some big changes
to take place in the land surveying
and airborne sensing and mapping
markets in the coming years:
In todays land surveying sector there are still
many small companies who operate on a local
or, at best, regional basis. I think the tradi-
I nt er vi ew
37
March 2008
speaks
Global Basis
I think the traditional land survey
market is going to contract.
2008 SOKKIA CO., LTD. www.sokkia.net
sector, and while new players will emerge,
there will probably be a smaller number of
larger aerial mapping companies in a few
years.
Geospatial information services cover a mul-
titude of things from GIS-type services to data
hosting and so on. It is obvious that the
potential market here is huge, and as such
will attract the interest of many mainstream
IT service companies. Companies like Fugro
need to specialize in the areas where we can
add the most value and where there are
fewer competitors. Our primary focus will not
be the consumer sector or commodity mar-
kets but specialized niches of the geospatial
information services business where we can
leverage our know-how to provide value-
added services to our clients. And part of our
role may be to take on the management of
geospatial data for our clients. I dont see us
getting into the geospatial software business,
since we are primarily a service company.
Recently, Fugro acquired EarthData,
Horizons and MAPS Geosystems, three
aerial mapping and surveying compa-
nies. One of the reasons for acquiring
EarthData was GeoSAR, a dual-band
radar mapping system. Goodman
explains the strategy behind these
acquisitions:
We needed to take advantage of the rapid
changes in the marketplace. We couldnt do
this by growing organically. With the excep-
tion of our FLI-MAP business, we had no aeri-
and Africa -- fitted well with our strategy to
grow our aerial mapping business worldwide.
When asked about the focus of Fugro
for the future, whether it be on
wor king on short-term projects or
long-term relationships, Goodman is
very clear:
The key to the service business is to estab-
lish and maintain long-term relationships with
your clients and be ready to respond cre-
atively in coming up with cost-effective solu-
tions. For me, its logical: if you want to serve
your clients well, you need to be able to
adjust and develop your service capability as
their needs change. It is also important to
diversify your client base so as not to be too
dependent on one particular market sector,
because every sector has its ups and downs.
Eric van Rees evanrees@geoinformatics.com is
editorial manager for GeoInformatics.
Have a look at www.fugro.com
al mapping capabilities in the important US
market so we needed to make an acquisition.
It so happened that the owner of EarthData
was considering selling his business, and we
decided it would be a very good fit for Fugro
in the same way the acquisition of John
Chance & Associates was an excellent acqui-
sition when we first established our offshore
surveying business. EarthData was a pivotal
acquisition to establish in one move a strong
presence in the US market. It also brought us
technology such as the GeoSAR radar map-
ping system, their LiDAR processing technol-
ogy and so on. It has a wide client base
including government clients ranging from the
federal level to local governments, so it
helped us to enter into new market sectors.
It was a very strategic acquisition.
GeoSAR is a unique mapping system based
on dual-band (X and P-band) radar transmit-
ters mounted in an aircraft. What is interest-
ing about it is that you can map through the
clouds, at night and through vegetation. The
X-band is reflected by the vegetation and the
P-band by the ground, so it is a unique map-
ping tool.
The Middle East is an important geographi-
cal sector for Fugro which has grown over the
past couple of years because of increased rev-
enues from oil and gas. As you can imagine,
there are a lot of construction and surveying
opportunities in a rapidly developing place
like Dubai.
From our point of view, MAPS Geosystems
a well-established aerial mapping company
with a very good reputation in the Middle East
I nt er vi ew
39
March 2008
The GeoSAR dual-band Radar mapping system.
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42
Revi ew
March 2008
One year after the release of Google Earth ESRI announced an alternative virtual globe. The current version of ArcGIS
Explorer will be evaluated 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 alternative virtual globes if necessary.
By Stefan Kienberger and Dirk Tiede
Virtual Globe Concept and User
Interface
ArcGIS Explorer from ESRI is a virtual globe
software, which is part of the ArcGIS
software suite, but can also be downloaded
for free (www.esri.com/software/arcgis/
explorer/index.html). The first version (Build
350) was published at the beginning of
2007. After several improvements and bug-
fixes the actual version is Build 440, pub-
lished on December 19, 2007. ArcGIS
Explorer can be used as standalone software
on a Windows OS, but it unfolds its full
potential if used as a lightweight client to
the (non-free) ArcGIS Server.
At first glance ArcGIS Explorer has a similar
look and feel to other virtual globes. A main
window shows the globe, and on the left side
different horizontal bars and panels are avail-
able that form its control center or console
(see Figure 1). Different options can be set to
start-up the globe (open the last saved
map, open ESRIs default map, open a
map which is saved locally). Appealing are
Figure 1: Graphical User Interface (GUI) of ArcGIS Explorer
Is This Yet Another Virtual Globe?
ArcGIS Explorer Review
different effects such as the atmospheric halo
and the simulation of stars in the background.
Additional options can be set, for instance the
enabling of sun lighting and the integration
of current cloud cover by connecting to spe-
cific web services. The vertical exaggeration
can be adjusted accordingly and additional
atmospheric effects, such as fog density, can
be simulated.
At the bottom left of the display a transpa -
rent status area provides information about
the current position next to specifications
regarding the altitude of the observation
point. On the right side of the status area,
copyright statements for each visible layer are
provided as well.
Navigation within ArcGIS Explorer is intuitive,
using different mouse button and scrolling
combinations to tilt and rotate the globe.
Navigation devices from 3D Connexion
(www.3dconnexion.com) are supported. The
navigator, located in the lower left corner, pro-
vides various ways to move around the map
and control the viewing position. It indicates
the orientation of the map and the degree to
which it has been tilted (tilt disc). The navi-
gator has two modes. It first appears on the
display in its Indicator mode which shows the
orientation of the map and the degree to
which the map has been tilted. Moving over
the navigator with the mouse accesses more
control panels such as zooming and tilting
controls and various reset buttons (tilt to
initial setting, set north at the top of the map,
display the full extent of the map).
The console with its different application win-
dows is located along the left side of the
ArcGIS Explorer window. Main applications are
the task center, the choice of different tasks
itself, results and the content window.
The task windows and the results are a spe-
cific feature of ArcGIS Explorer. The availabili-
ty of the tasks depends on the selected base
map and can be adjusted in the tools menu.
Examples of such tasks are the options to find
places, names or addresses, to measure fea-
tures, create notes or get driving directions.
A noteworthy feature of ArcGIS Explorer is the
ability to integrate specifically designed tasks
or geo-processing services in connection with
an ArcGIS Server (see chapters below).
Each task has its corresponding task center
window which opens automatically and car-
ries out actions on the map. Results of the
various tasks are shown in the respective win-
dow. Next to the result's name, a check box
is provided which will hide or show the result
on the display when toggled.
The content window provides an overview of
the different data layers. Interesting to note
is that a categorization in out-of-view-data
MrSID (.sid), USGS ASCII DEM (.dem), PCI
Geomatics Database File (.pix) and many more
(see Figure 2). Data integration is supported
through a wizard which, for example, helps to
define the scale range and symbologies for vec-
tor layers. If an elevation data set is loaded, the
user is automatically asked how the data should
be integrated (as elevation source or as draped
layer). By choosing the elevation source option,
the layer is seamlessly integrated into the globe
surface, which makes it easy to refine the basic
elevation data (streamed by ESRI over the web)
with more detailed data from other sources
where needed,
Surprisingly, Keyhole Markup Language
(KML/KMZ) files which are mainly used in
Google Earth and Google Maps are also
supported by default. At the moment the
supported KML versions are 2.0 and 2.1, but
tests in ArcGIS Explorer showed that not all
KML
elements are really supported (e.g. no time
stamp support), and complex KML files are only
visualized in a downscaled version. It will be
interesting to keep an eye on KML file support
in the future, especially as KML has candidate
status for becoming a new Open Geospatial
Consortium (OGC) standard for earth browsers
(www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/45).
Textual data (.txt., .csv) with associated coor-
dinates (e.g. addresses, GPS tracks) can be
imported using a wizard, allowing a comfort-
able selection of the appropriate fields defi -
ning the x, y and z coordinates.
Additionally, ArcGIS Explorer has its own (.nmf)
file format, which is basically an XML document
and in-range-data is provided. Data layers can
be turned off and on and manipulated accord-
ingly. Additionally, by right clicking, functio -
nalities of transparency, a swipe tool and a
legend are given. Opened data sets such as
shapefiles can be visualized with different out-
line and filling colors, but classification and
visualization based on different attribute
values are currently not available.
These windows can be arranged according to
user needs and can be turned off and on
individually.
With the task Creating Notes the user is able
to draw point, line and polygon features.
Symbols for point features can be chosen
from an extended symbol library but individ-
ually designed symbols can also be imported
(.png, .jpg and .bmp format). A pop-up win-
dow allows the feature to be described which
can be adapted through the application of
HTML code according to user needs. Thus
hyperlinks can be integrated which open in a
new browser window.
An additional function is the easy integration
of display overlays (such as logos) in the main
globe window.
Data Integration
ArcGIS Explorer supports various file formats and
web server connections. Proprietary ESRI file for-
mats like the new file-geodatabase or shape-
files are also supported (personal geodatabase
format is unsupported) as are a lot of different
non-ESRI formats such as Erdas Imagine image
(.img), JPEG (.jpg), Tagged Image File Format
(.tif ), ARC/INFO and Space Imaging BIL (.bil),
Figure 2: Data integration in ArcGIS Explorer (here: satellite imagery, street maps, 3D kmz files and DEM data)
and the use of tasks (here: route finding). Note: The swipe tool and transparency can be useful to compare
superimposed layers
Revi ew
43
March 2008
that contains information about connected lay-
ers and properties, but simple geometries can
be stored as well.
Data integration in ArcGIS Explorer (here: satel-
lite imagery, street maps, 3D KMZ files and DEM
data) and the use of tasks (here: route finding).
Note: The swipe tool and transparency can be
useful to compare superimposed layers]
Web service integration possibilities encom-
pass three different types: ArcIMS, WMS and
ArcGIS Server connections. The ArcGIS Server
connection in particular allows connecting not
only to map services but also to what are
called globe services. They can be created in
ArcGlobe (ESRIs 3D Analyst Extension) and
published via ArcGIS Server. The idea behind
these globe services is that not only map lay-
ers can be provided via the web, but entire
globe coverages (see also the next chapter).
Users can then, for example, select a certain
Globe Service as their home server and
receive data views tailored to their needs.
It has to be pointed out that ArcGIS Explorer,
in contrast to Google Earth or NASA World
Wind, supports what is called projection on
the fly. As in ArcGIS, data with known coordi-
nate systems are automatically integrated. The
routine works quite well, but the user cannot
select a specific transformation method.
Therefore the integration of data - which needs
an adapted transformation method for projec-
tion on the fly can sometimes lead to an
offset due to the use of standard transforma-
tion methods only.
Integration of Base Maps and Additional Tasks
ArcGIS Explorer allows - besides the available
content - the integration of additional data
layers through its ArcGIS Explorer Resource
Center website (http://resources.esri.com/
arcgisexplorer/). By default, information on
boundaries and places, transportation and
imagery is provided. The imagery shows
satellite and aerial data at a 15m minimum re -
solution worldwide, and 1m resolution for the
U.S.
At the resource website, additional content can
be included such as supplementary maps, lay-
ers, tasks and results. New base maps, such
as imagery, streets, shaded relief and physical
features can be integrated and will then replace
the current map (see Figure 3). Layers provide
additional information and will be displayed
over the currently shown map. At the moment,
layers of transportation, physical
features, political names, and his-
torical maps, to name a view, are
available. During the fierce bush-
fires in California in 2007, ESRI pro-
vided an additional layer integrat-
ing different disaster-relevant data
(such as current extent of fire, evac-
uation zones etc.) to the rescue
community.
Besides maps and layers, cus-
tomized tasks such as a spatial
Wikipedia Search, Weather Finder
or Business Reports can be inte-
grated. Results are also available
for download (e.g. US state high
points or US National Parks with a
description of the parks and links
to different websites). For each of
these additional contents a brief
description is provided.
A general shortcoming of the host-
ed data sets is long loading time
compared to other virtual globes
such as Google Earth. A negative
aspect is the rastering of vector fea-
tures (KML files are not affected).
However, it follows an algorithm
similar to that integrated in ESRIs
ArcGlobe environment (3D Analyst
extension).
User Guidance and Help
As already mentioned, additional content can
be downloaded from the ArcGIS Explorer
Resource Center. The website also provides
showcases and case studies of exciting projects
of ArcGIS Explorer users. Case studies can be
submitted online and - if appropriate - will be
added to the website. A useful implementation
is the blog which constantly provides informa-
tion about updates and other useful develop-
ments. A link to the forum section within the
ESRI support center allows users to discuss
problems and general issues related to the soft-
ware. Additionally, a link to the ArcScripts web-
site is given, where specifically designed scripts
can be downloaded for use within ArcGIS
Explorer.
Help itself can be accessed online and provides
an in-depth discussion of ArcGIS Explorer. Next
to the textual description, excellent quality
graphics are available. The help menu is struc-
tured in different sections but includes an index
and search functionality (see Figure 4).
Geo-processing Services in
Connection with ArcGIS Server
As mentioned above, ArcGIS Explorer can
be used as a standalone virtual globe / GIS
viewer, but its full potential is only avail-
44
Revi ew
March 2008
Figure 3: Example for a base map from ESRIs resource centre (here: A historical map from the David Rumsey Map Collection).
able if it is used as a client to the ArcGIS
Server. Besides data integration and data
streaming capabilities via map and globe
services, the most outstanding capability of
the client is the use of geo-processing ser-
vices. These services are provided by the
ArcGIS Server installation and can - theo-
retically - encompass most of ESRIs ArcGIS
geo-processing functionality. ArcGIS Model
Builder (a graphical tool to combine differ-
ent geo-processing tools in an easy drag-
and-drop mode) can be used to develop
even complex models, which are simply
published to ArcGIS Server and integrated
into the ArcGIS Explorer software as a cus-
tomized task.
Figure 5 shows an example of a calculation
of contours based on a DEM (digital eleva-
tion model). The (client-) user can interact
with the task and define certain para meters
which are sent to the ArcGIS Server machine
where the calculation is done. The user is
kept infor med about calculation time, cal-
culation success and potential errors. At the
end, only the resulting contour data is sent
back to the client over the web.
Software Developer Kit (SDK)
ArcGIS Explorer comes with an additional
Software Developer Kit (SDK) containing sam-
ples and documentation on how to connect to
ArcGIS Explorer API classes. The SDK is mainly
suited for programmatic customization, but it
is limited to creating new (customized) tasks.
Integration of ArcGIS Explorer functionality into
other applications is not possible. Programming
has to be done in Visual Studio Express 2005
(VB.NET or C#) and the .NET framework is
required. Figure 6 shows an example of a cus-
Conclusion
With ArcGIS Explorer, ESRI provides a sophis-
ticated new virtual globe. A lot of free virtual
globes and similar applications in recent years
have been called Google Earth killer (cf.
Butler, 2006), but none of them is. There
should be enough space for more than one
application in this field. If we consider, for
instance, the Microsoft Virtual Earth solution
tomized task, exporting place results in ArcGIS
Explorer to a Google Earth KML file. Other use-
ful customizations would be to connect and
query remote databases, retrieve data from the
internet or interact with applications/services
on the internet. Customized tasks are compiled
as Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files and can be
easily integrated using the Task Manager in
ArcGIS Explorer.
Revi ew
45
March 2008
Figure 4: ArcGIS Explorer online help (left) and ArcGIS Explorer Resource Centre (right)
Figure 5: Geoprocessing functionality in ArcGIS Explorer using an ArcGIS Server connection. Right: Geoprocessing
model for contour calculation is published as customized task. Left: Calculation progress is reported in the
Results window; the calculation result is sent back to the ArcGIS Explorer client and integrated as new result
layer (red contour lines).
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and Google Earth, it is obvious that both
would not have developed that dynamically
without direct competition.
Therefore, ArcGIS Explorer is not replacing an
existing solution it is occupying a niche that
is not filled adequately by other software
solutions. Concerning available base data and
performance, ArcGIS Explorer cannot cope
with Google Earth, but it brings GIS capabili-
ties and - in connection with ArcGIS Server -
even GIS analysis capabilities to a free virtual
globe client.
from a GIS perspective advanced and valu-
able opportunities.
Stefan Kienberger stefan.kienberger@sbg.ac.a is
presently working as a researcher and PhD candidate
at the Centre for GeoInformatics (Z_GIS), Salzburg
University (Austria). His research interests lie in
vulnerability science, disaster risk reduction and
spatial modelling. Within his PhD research he is
assessing the vulnerability to hazards on the district
and community level in rural Mozambique.
Dirk Tiede dirk.tiede@sbg.ac.at is research associate
at the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at Salzburg
University, Austria. Involved in a range of EU funded
research projects in the field of GMES (GMOSS,
LIMES), he is specialised in GIS application
development and GIS modelling as well as image
analysis using VHSR / LIDAR data and object-based
methodologies. His PhD research is focused on the
field of bridging remote sensing and GIS from
information extraction to 3D GIS-Visualisation.
He is lecturing distance learning modules within the
UNIGIS network and university courses in
object-based image analysis, 3D Visualization,
GIS-Analysis and GIS-Application development.
The specific strength of ArcGIS Explorer is the
integration of geo-processing facilities and the
support of various datasets. This fits the need
of GIS professionals who want to communi-
cate their models or different data within an
appealing virtual globe environment to a
wider audience. An obvious shortcoming is
insufficient support of ESRIs proprietary vec-
tor file formats concerning visualization and
classification of attribute values. Nevertheless,
ArcGIS Explorer is not just another virtual
globe, but enriches the globe family with
Ar t i cl e
47
March 2008
The ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) is the largest conference
dedicated to geographic information systems (GIS). This one-of-a-kind
event brings together users from more than 120 countries to delve into the
power of place using GIS. Attendees gain knowledge, develop skills, and
experience a strong sense of community. Youre invited this summer to be
part of this enlightening and inspiring forum.
Hear about the future of GIS.
Explore the latest geospatial technology.
Learn from your peers about recent applications and best practices.
Bring your questions to the technology experts.
Kick-start your project.
Get energizing ideas from new solutions, programs, and services.

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.
Join more than 14,000 ESRI users at the
28th Annual ESRI International User Conference
for a week of insight, opportunities, and community.
ESRI International User Conference
August 48, 2008
San Diego, California, USA

Visit www.esri.com/uc for more
information or to register.
Enlightening. Inspiring. Influential.
Figure 6: Customized tasks in ArcGIS Explorer. Here: Export of place results as kml file (left) and visualization
in Google Earth (right).
Bentley and Oracle Software Combined for Resource Engineering
Integrating Spatial Information at the
The GTAA Technical Data Centre team is responsible for data creation and the
maintenance of building and site information of the Toronto Pearson
International Airport. One of the project objectives of the GTAA was to use
Bentley GIS systems in concert with Oracle Spatial to support engineering
workflows. Bentleys ProjectWise, spatially enabled with Bentley Geospatial
Management, is being utilized as well as the ProjectWise Connector for Oracle
to complete the data editing and data maintenance workflows.
By Richard Zambuni
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
is a not-for-profit corporation with a mandate
to provide the Greater Toronto Area with a
regional system of airports that meets current
and future demands for air services. Torontos
Pearson International Airport is Canadas busi-
est airport, handling 31 million passengers in
2006. Established in 1939, Pearson Airport cur-
rently handles more than 1,200 arrivals and
departures every day - or more than 418,000
aircraft movements last year. By the year 2020,
the number of travelers passing through the air-
ports gates is expected to reach 50 million.
Toronto Pearson International Airport was the
first airport in North America to receive certifi-
cation to the ISO 14001 international environ-
mental standard. Among their many recent
undertakings is the design and construction of
Terminal Ones new Pier F and a revitalized and
expanded Terminal 3. When the GTAA took over
responsibility for the operation of Toronto
Pearson from Transport Canada in 1996, it took
on major challenges. To maximize efficiency and
to minimize cost, a bold plan was developed
to phase the construction of a revitalized air-
port the size of a small city.
Efficient Management
The construction component of the plan is now
essentially complete a remarkable logistical
feat considering that the new structure was built
on top of the existing facility. Clearly, the IT com-
ponent of this ongoing effort is critical. Efficient
management of a massive amount of diverse
types of information is required for design and
construction and for the ongoing operation and
maintenance of the facility.
The GTAA Technical data centre (TDC) is respon-
sible for the creation and maintenance of buil -
ding, site and utility information. The team in
the TDC works closely with other GTAA func-
tional groups including Project Services, Airside
Engineering, Planning and Professional
Services, providing facility and site engineering
staff and external contractors with information
that is accurate, up-to-date and accessible. The
TDC has recently chosen Oracle Spatial as their
primary spatial data store. They also utilize
Bentleys ProjectWise, spatially enabled with
Bentley Geospatial Management, and the
ProjectWise Connector for Oracle to complete
the data editing and data maintenance work-
flows. By leveraging the disconnected editing
workflow made possible by the ProjectWise
Connector for Oracle, the TDC staff will be able
to quickly enable field editing by engineering
staff responsible for creating and maintaining
the building space and site infrastructure data,
thus reducing errors and streamlining work pro-
cesses.
As-built Information
In the TDC, team members typically perform
data maintenance using as-built data coming
from outside contractors. Often this data is in
non-standard format and uses different specifi-
cations, making integration with core data sets
cumbersome and time consuming. As a new
source of information, the TDC will be able to
outfit GTAA field data editors with the ability
to capture information on different assets locat-
ed inside buildings or outside on the site using
tablet PCs loaded with a MicroStation-based
GIS application built with Bentleys XML Feature
Modeling (XFM) capabilities. Future workflows
will see contractors provided with direct access
to data relevant to their construction site. Upon
completion, final as-built information will be
incorporated into drawings extracted from the
base data in Oracle Spatial. The very detailed
design drawings of the building and site spaces
48
Ar t i cl e
March 2008
New workflows based on Oracle Spatial and Bentley geospatial solutions.
will remain in DGN, DWG, TIF or PDF form securely managed by
ProjectWise, while the core feature data will be finalized and qual-
ity-controlled using Bentley GIS applications and posted using the
ProjectWise Connector for Oracle as updates to the enterprise
Oracle Spatial database. This database will store most of the as-
built information for the site and building spaces. The Oracle
Spatial database can be used to perform a wide variety of spatial
and non-spatial analyses and reporting. It can be updated secure-
ly through the extract, modify, post paradigm supported by the
Oracle Connector which relies on Oracle Spatials versioning capa-
bilities to manage a multi-user editing environment.
Rapid Rollover
The TDC envisions allowing
external contractors access
to the ProjectWise data
source to enable tighter col-
laboration with contractors
and thereby enforce stricter
standards in the future.
Mike Robertson, Manager,
Technical Data Centre, Facilities
Engineering explains, GTAA is
a long-time user of Bentley
products and as the central
data custodians and maintain-
ers, TDC staff conti nually inves-
tigate new advances that could
make GTAA spatial data stores
more readily available to end
users with richer content.
Bentleys introduction of the
ProjectWise Connector for Oracle, combined with XFM tech-
nology, enables the TDC for the first time to migrate core
GTAA data sets to a truly enterprise-wide GIS with only
superficial changes to the maintenance environment. This
helps avoid large training exercises or retooling of existing
workflows, and it facilitates rapid rollover to the new envi-
ronment.
Further, adds Robertson, Bentleys XFM technology com-
bined with Oracle Spatial enable a fully collaborative envi-
ronment supporting virtually unlimited edit sessions for
users both connected to and disconnected from the
database. The Technical Data Centre eagerly awaits the
release of Bentley Map that we believe will provide an intu-
itive desktop GIS that will expand the usefulness of GTAA
spatial data along with facilitating a self-service option to
GTAA users becoming more familiar with GIS tools. As a
near de facto standard for GIS content, Oracle Spatial will
allow GTAA users to find and use tools specific to their
needs while not recreating data already managed in the
TDC.
Ar t i cl e
49
March 2008
Greater Toronto Airport Authority
Above: Thematic plan depicting various space classifications in
Terminal 1.
Left: Thematic plan depicting various space classifications in
Terminal 3.
XFM-ized GTAA utility data demonstrate the ability for connected or disconnected data editing.
Snowplowing
Integrating the spatial information in the enter-
prise Oracle Spatial database allows the GTAA
to perform many types of spatial and non-spa-
tial analyses on the airport site and building
space that would not otherwise be possible.
The information in Oracle Spatial represents a
seamless view of the airport against which vir-
tually any query or analysis scenario can be
applied. Some examples include airport statis-
tics per type of feature, detailed reporting on
leases, grass coverage, floor covering areas,
aviation surfaces and snowplowing areas. The
information in Oracle Spatial can be used with
Bentleys GIS applications to produce useful
thematic maps and perform overlay operations
such as showing which manholes, pipes, or
other facilities are in particular planning areas,
or depicting functional space breakdowns of
spaces within a facility.
The Oracle Spatial repository is also the
perfect source for publishing information via
the intranet site to staff that need quick access
to critical infrastructure information.
Richard Zambuni, is Global Marketing Director at
Bentley Geospatial. Have a look at www.bentley.com
Ar t i cl e
51
March 2008
The market for accurate 3D models of buildings and vegetation is continually growing. INPHO is meeting the demand with the
new generation MATCH-T DSM. In addition to its well-proven terrain extraction, MATCH-T DSM offers a photogrammetric means
to acquire surface models with highly dense point clouds that till now have only been achievable by LIDAR. The economic
benefit is clear. MATCH-T DSM takes aerial imagery based 3D modeling to the next level with continued INPHO quality.
Image Capture Aerial Triangulation Data Capture Terrain Modeling Orthophoto Processing
www.inpho.de
See the world with
different eyes.
MATCH-T DSM
The new generation of
surface extraction.
The latest update of the TDCs map and data publishing portal dubbed WINGS utilizes Bentley Geo Web
Publisher to provide on-line mapping services from CAD, Oracle Spatial and imagery data stores.
Correcting the Data
Mapping of IKONOS Images Using
This article illustrates the steps required to correct a large block of IKONOS data. When Space Imaging (now called
Geoeye) successfully launched the IKONOS satellite in 1999, it made history with the worlds first one-meter
commercial remote sensing satellite. To date, IKONOS has collected more than 275 million square kilometers
of imagery that is readily available in digital archive.
By Philip Cheng, Francisca Gmez, Michaela Weber and Christine Flingelli
When Space Imaging (now called
Geoeye) successfully launched the
IKONOS satellite in 1999, it made histo-
ry with the worlds first one-meter com-
mercial remote sensing satellite. To date,
IKONOS has collected more than 275
million square kilometers of imagery that
is readily available in digital archive.
Moving over the ground at approximate-
ly seven kilometers per second, IKONOS
collects black-and-white and multispec-
tral data at a rate of over 2,000 square
kilometers per minute. IKONOS satellite imagery provides access to any
location on the Earths surface. Through the nearly 15, 98-minute journeys
it makes around the globe each day, IKONOS collects vital statistics about
the Earths ever-changing featuresfrom fluctuations in land and water
resources to the build-out of new urban areas. Applications range from
national security and disaster assessment to urban planning and agricul-
tural monitoring.
In order to leverage the IKONOS images for applications such as GIS, it is
necessary to correct the images geometrically. Two methods can be used:
the rigorous method and the rational polynomial coefficient (RPC) method.
Over the past few years, the RPC method of correcting high resolution
images has become more popular as it requires only a small number of
ground control points (GCPs), and in some cases, no GCPs at all. For small
areas with a few accurate GCPs or large areas with many accurate GCPs, it
is possible to achieve high geometric correction accuracy within 1 to 2 pix-
els. In practice this is usually not the case where the number of accurate
GCPs may be very limited. The collection of GCPs could be prohibitively
expensive and sometimes impossible to collect for areas inaccessible by
road. The question in such cases is how to correct a large block of IKONOS
data accurately when only a limited number of accurate GCPs are avai lable.
This article will explore answers to this question by examining a large block
of IKONOS data using a different number and distribution of GCPs.
RPC Method and Software
The RPC method uses an empiri-
cal/statistical model developed by GeoEye,
which approximates the 3D physical sen-
sor model of IKONOS. Occasionally used
during the 1980s, this method received a
great deal of renewed attention with the
launch of Space Imagings IKONOS satel-
lite, as IKONOSs sensor and orbit param-
eters are not included in the image meta-
data. The RPC method could be a useful
one for avoiding the development of 3D
52
Ar t i cl e
March 2008
Figure 1a: Multispectral
image at 4m resolution.
Figure 1c: Pan-sharpened image at 1m resolution
Figure 1b: Panchromatic image at 1m resolution
physical models because it enables users having little familiarity with the
IKONOS sensor to perform a geometric correction without GCPs; only a
digital elevation model (DEM) is required. Since biases or errors still exist
after computing the RPCs, the results can be post-processed with a trans-
lation and several precise GCPs; alternatively, the original RPC parameters
can be refined with linear equations and precise GCPs. Several recent arti-
cles and papers addressing IKONOS data showed good results for small
areas by using RPCs together with a few GCPs to apply a complementary
first order polynomial adjustment to the data. More details about the RPC
method can be found in the paper by Grodecki and Dial, Block Adjustment
of High-Resolution Satellite Images Described by Rational Functions,
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, January 2003.
Usually the initial RPCs provided with the image data do not have very
high accuracy due to the limitation of the onboard system accuracy of the
satellite. The accuracy improves after several refine-
ments are applied by the
satellite data vendors.
This is true for IKONOS
imagesthe accuracy of
their RPC data has signifi-
cantly improved recently
due to refinements in the
geometric calibration of the
sensor. For example, the
horizontal positional accura-
cy is 15m CE90 for the Geo-
Ortho Kit product, and better
than 2.0m CE90 for the
PrecisionPlus product.
The latest version of PCI
Geomatics OrthoEngine soft-
ware was used for this testing.
This software supports reading
of the data, manual or automatic
GCP/tie point (TP) collection, geo-
metric modeling of different satel-
lites using Toutins rigorous model
or the RPC method, automatic DEM
generation and editing, orthorectifi-
cation, and either manual or auto-
matic mosaicking. OrthoEngines RPC
method is based on the block adjustment method developed by Grodecki
and Dial and was certified by Space Imaging (www.pcigeomatics.com/
support_center/tech_papers/rpc_pci_cert.pdf). The method computes the
polynomial adjustment math model for each image.
Ar t i cl e
53
March 2008
Minimum Ground Controls
P = A
0
+ A
S
Sample + A
L
Line + A
SL
Sample Line +
R = B
0
+ B
S
Sample + B
L
Line + B
SL
Sample Line +
Figure 2a: Multispectral image
at 4m resolution
Figure 2b: Panchromatic image at 1m
resolution
Figure 2c: Pan-sharpened image
at 1m resolution
Where A
0
, A
S
, A
L
, A
SL
and B
0
, B
S
, B
L
, B
SL
are the image adjustment param-
eters, Line and Sample are the line and sample coordinates of an image,
and P and R are the adjustable functions expressing the differences
between the measured and the nominal line and sample coordinates. For
IKONOS images a zero order polynomial adjustment (A
0
and B
0
) is suffi-
cient to achieve the best results for image length within 100km. The
OrthoEngine software supports zero, first and second order RPC polyno-
mial adjustments.
The first order adjustment is useful for QUICKBIRD data and the second
order adjustment is beneficial for IRS AWiFS data with RPC.
Although the RPC method only requires a small number of GCPs and TPs,
high accuracy may not be achieved if the GCPs are not well distributed
within the block. To improve the relative accuracy, a DEM can be used if it
is available. During each bundle adjustment iteration, the computed ele-
vation of each tie point can be replaced by the elevation at the computed
TP X and Y coordinates from the DEM, similar to the results of changing
the planimetric TPs into altimetric points. This method helps to improve
the relative accuracies between the ortho images, which helps to mini-
mize differences during the mosaicking process. This option is available
within the OrthoEngine software.
Test Data
A total of twelve IKONOS Geo-Ortho Kit scenes of Madrid, Spain were pro-
vided by European Space Imaging. Each scene consists of panchromatic
and multispectral 11-bit images resampled at 1m and 4m, respectively. The
acquisition dates were between August 2004 and September 2005 with a
total coverage of approximately 50km in width and 88km in length. The
area has an elevation range of approximately 500m to 1400m mainly con-
sisting of urban areas and some vegetation. 1:10000 DGN vectors and 3
arc-seconds DEM were provided by Madrid Regional Government. The
authors would like to thank European Space Imaging and Madrid Regional
Government for providing the data.
Pan-sharpening
The availability of a 1m panchromatic band, in conjunction with 4m multi-
spectral bands, provides the opportunity to create a 1m multispectral pan-
sharpened image by fusing these images. The concept of fusion for multi-
spectral images is not new. Landsat MSS data (bands 4, 6 and 7) have
been spatially enhanced (from 240m to 80m resolution) by using weight-
ed high-frequency information from band 5 at 80m resolution. Previous
techniques used different weighting coefficients for the panchromatic band
and multispectral bands. The RGB-IHS transformation is another common
approach, where the high-resolution panchromatic band replaces the inten-
sity channel derived from the lower resolution multispectral channels.
Although these alternate techniques yield enhanced imagery that appear
to be sharper, they destroy the spectral characteristics of the data.
Since most earth resource satellites, such as SPOT, IRS, Landsat 7, IKONOS,
and QuickBird, provide both multispectral images at a lower spatial reso
54
March 2008
Figure 3: Orthorectified image overlaid with 1:10000 vector.
Figure 4: mosaic of 12 pan-sharpened images.
lution and panchromatic images at a high spatial resolution, it is possible
to perform pan-sharpening for both of these images. However, most of
the existing techniques, which perform suitably well with medium-resolu-
tion images, can hardly satisfy the pan-sharpening of multispectral and
panchromatic high resolution images.
Based on the thorough study and analysis of existing pan-sharpening
algorithms and their fusion effects, a new automatic pan-sharpening
algorithm has been developed by Dr. Yun Zhang at the University of New
Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. This new technique
solved the two major problems in pan-sharpening color distortion and
operator dependency. A method based on least squares was employed
for a best approximation of the grey level value relationship between
the original multispectral, panchromatic, and the pan-sharpened image
bands for a best color representation. A statistical approached was
applied to the pan-sharpening process for standardizing and automat-
ing the pan-sharpening process. The new algorithm is available within
the PCI Geomatics software.
Usually the panchromatic and multispectral images have to be processed
separately to ensure both data are aligned with each other before pan-
sharpening. These steps include reading of data, collection of ground
controls (GCPs), and orthorectification with a DEM. Since the GCPs are
collected separately and the images are orthorectified separately, it may
cause a slight misalignment between the orthorectified panchromatic
and multispectral images due to the GCP location and distribution. One
advantage of the IKONOS Geo-Ortho Kit product is that the panchromat-
ic and multispectral images are resampled exactly on top of each other.
In general, it is possible to perform pan-sharpening of the data first for
gentle terrain before further processing. Thus, the user would only need
to perform GCP collection and orthorectification once to the pan-sharp-
ened image. To test this method, pan-sharpening was first applied to
the Geo-Ortho Kit data. Figure 1a shows the urban area example of the
multispectral data at 4m resolution, Figure 1b shows the corresponding
panchromatic image at 1m resolution, and Figure 1c shows the pan-sharp-
ened image. Figures 2a, 2b and 2c show similar examples for a semi-
urban area. Both pan-sharpened results did not show any problems and
verified that it is possible to pan-sharpen the Geo-Ortho Kit data first.
Test Results
A total of 79 GCPs and 40 tie points were collected using the 1:10000
vectors provided. According to the United States National Map
Accuracy Standards, the accuracy of 1:10000 vector is approximately
8.5m CE90 (approximately 4m RMS). Ideally, the accuracy of GCPs
should be within sub-meter accuracy. The elevations for the GCPs were
extracted from the DEM provided. Additionally, as previously men-
tioned, the DEM was also used by the tie points to change the points
from planimetric to altimetric points during the bundle adjustment to
improve accuracy.
Several cases were used to test the accuracy and distribution of GCPs.
First all GCPs were changed to independent check points (ICPs). Then
the following cases were tested by changing some of the ICPs into
GCPs: (1) no GCPs, (2) one GCP per image, (3) two GCPs per image,
(4) three GCPs per image, (5) 1 GCP per corner image of the block,
(6) two GCPs per corner image of the block, (7) one GCP per bottom
corner image of the block, and (8) two GCPs per bottom corner image
of the block. Table 1 shows a summary of the results.
.
The table illustrates how the accuracy is affected by the number and
distribution of GCPs. In general, it is better to collect at least one or
two GCPs per image. Collecting more GCPs per image did not improve
the result significantly. An alternative is to collect at least one GCP
per corner image of the block when the number of GCPs is limited.
Both cases would produce results within 4m RMS, i.e. within the accu-
racy of the GCPs. Collecting GCPs on just one side of the block is not
recommended for high accuracy.
Ar t i cl e
55
March 2008
Figure 5: Full resolution of mosaic file with cutline in red color.
SuperPad
Mobile GS Software
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Orthorectification
A geometric correction process called orthorectification was performed
for each image. A DEM is required for orthorectification. Generating each
orthorectified pan-sharpened 4-band image with a file size of approxi-
mately 5 gigabytes took approximately 25 minutes on a Pentium IV 3.0
GHz machine running Windows XP. Figure 3 shows an example of the
orthorectified image overlaid with the vectors in green.
Automatic Mosaicking
After generating the orthorectified images, it is necessary to mosaic the
images together with color balance. This is usually a very time-consum-
ing process, especially if it is being done manually. The user has to find
the best cutlines between images with the minimum differences. If the
images were not acquired near the same period, a good color balancing
method is required. An automated mosaicking and color balance pro-
gram was developed inside PCI Geomatics OrthoEngine
software. The software performs automatic cutline search-
ing, mosaicking and color balance. No human intervention
is required during the process. To mosaic twelve images
automatically with color balance and a file size of about
40 gigabytes took approximately 9 hours on a Pentium IV
3.0 GHz machine running Windows XP. Figure 4 shows the
mosaic image and Figure 5 shows a small sample of a full
resolution image with a cutline in the color red.
For The Best Results...
It is possible to pan-sharpen the panchromatic and multi-
spectral Geo-Ortho Kit data first for gentle terrain before further processing.
The RPC method can be used as the geometric model to correct the IKONOS
data. For best results it is preferable to collect at least one GCP per image.
If only limited numbers of GCPs are available, at least one GCP per corner
image of the block should be collected. Tie points with elevation should
be used to improve the accuracy of the bundle adjustment. Automatic
mosaicking and a color balance process can be used to save operating
costs.
Dr. Philip Cheng cheng@pcigeomatics.com is a senior scientist at PCI Geomatics.
Francisca Gmez franciscagomez@grupotecopy.es is the head of the remote sensing
department at COTESA. Michaela Weber mweber@euspaceimaging.com is the direc-
tor of sales and marketing at European Space Imaging. Christine Flingelli
tflingelli@euspaceimag.com is the product order manager at
European Space Imaging.
Ar t i cl e
57
March 2008
Table 1: Comparison of RMS results in meter for different number of GCPs and ICPs.
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Our technical domain is increasingly getting swamped with new buzzwords. Just check out the blogosphere*
and be amazed: there is a paradigm shift happening in the location space, fuelled by a neo-geography
revolution that is democratizing geospatial information with open and mainstream mash-ups
underpinning agile web 2.0 and actionable mobile applications.
Er, what?
I think what I just wrote roughly translates into: There are more and more
people and organizations who create spatial data, and then share it via
the web for everyday uses.
So what will the future look like?
Yesterday five cars had to be rescued from the sea near Dover. The drivers
claimed that their SatNav showed a road going to France. It was later con-
firmed that a bug in the software had automatically connected two equal-
ly numbered A-roads between France and England. The Telegraph, 1 April
2009.
A farmer has landed in court after ploughing two hectares of parkland
adjoining his field. He blames it on a malfunction of his GPS robotractor.
His neighbour claims foul play, citing a previous boundary dispute. The
case continues. The Sunday Times, 13 July 2014.
Madagascar has sued GoogleSoft about its disappearance from the Earth
Viewer. The government claims that the temporary
outage has cost their national economy $500m as
businesses and tourists worldwide were no longer
able to locate the island. Financial Times, 20 March
2018.
Sergio Vabene, the Italian Health Minister, recently
expressed concern over people always knowing their
exact location. According to medical research it is
causing many people to get depressed, as the human
mind is not designed to live in absolute certainty. We
need to get lost more, to switch off and relax, Mr Vabene was quoted as
saying. The EU telecoms and defence ministers have called his comments
irresponsible. Il Manifesto, 16 August 2026.
A mother has been arrested for allegedly trying to change the location
chip on her babys birth certificate. It is thought that she wanted to illegal-
ly secure permission for her child to grow up at higher latitude and alti-
tude. Nederlands Dagblad, 24 October 2035.
Nigeria has transformed an old offshore oil platform into a tourist island
and moved it to 0-0 degrees, the centre of the world in Earth Viewer. It is
claimed that tourists will be able to confuse systems through this loca-
tion, so they can relax undetected. The first customer is a certain Mr Vabene
from Italy. Le Monde, 16 January 2038.
The investigation into the mysterious shift of the international date line
continues. Meanwhile all air and space travel is still suspended. A terrorist
group has claimed responsibility for the attack, demanding more personal
freedom and mobility. The unknown group, called Last of the Geodesists,
will move more meridians and hack into the earths gravity model if their
demands are not met. CNN News, 25 March 2049.
After six months of research, the mystery surrounding the discovery of an
ancient clock has remained unsolved. The researchers who found it at an
archaeological site could not establish the purpose of the instrument,
which displays 360 units. Strangely the dial seems to
keep pointing to the coffee machine in the lab.
Evening Chronicle, 5 June 2061.
A team of scientists is being assembled to plan a
dangerous expedition into the outdoors. They will
study new eco-habitats that are believed to have
formed ever since the virtual world became the real
world. However, nobody has so far been able to find
a reliable map of the real world in the virtual world,
as the audit trail only goes back to 2049. National
Geographic, 23 May 2073.
* See e.g. www.veryspatial.com, www.spatiallyadjusted.com,
www.edparsons.com, www.slashgeo.org and www.directionsmag.com.
There are more and more
people and organizations
who create spatial data,
and then share it via the
web of everyday uses
Column
After the Hype,
the Future?
Thierry Gregorius Thierry.Gregorius@shell.comis Head of Data Management
and Geomatics for Shells global exploration directorate,
based in the Netherlands.
The views in this column are entirely personal.
59
March 2008
2008 POINT, Inc. The Bluetooth word mark and logos are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any used of such marks by SOKKIA is
under license. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners.
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GPS + GLONASS
TatukGIS Releases GIS SDK Edition for Compact Framework
TatukGIS announces the release of the .NET Compact
Framework edition of the TatukGIS Developer Kernel
toolkit product for the development of custom GIS
applications for Pocket PC type applications for
Windows CE/Mobile operating systems. The DK-
Compact Framework (DK-CF) product supports
Windows Compact Framework 2.0 development with
Visual Studio 2005 and Compact Framework 2.0 and
3.5 development with Visual Studio 2008.
The DK-CF has been tested with a number of com-
mercial handheld devices running Pocket PC 2003,
Windows Mobile 5 and 6, Windows CE.NET 4.2, and
Windows CE 5 and 6. A running DK-CF application
has a reasonably small memory footprint. The data
size is not limited because the product can read data
from external storage such as a removable SD card.
Testing was typically performed with 1 GB-sized SHP
files, with the R-Tree spatial indexing enabled.
Because the DK-CF is based on pure .NET code, it
is processor independent. This means a DK-CF appli-
cation can run on any processor supported by
Compact Framework, without the need for recompi-
lation. Furthermore, because the DK-CF has exactly
the same interface (API) as the .NET WinForms edi-
tion of the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (DK.NET) for
GIS desktop development, porting a DK.NET based
desktop application to the DK-CF is just a matter of
copying the code.
Internet: www.tatukgis.com
Maptitude 5.0 is Now Shipping
Caliper Corporation is now shipping the latest ver-
sion of Maptitude. Maptitude is used to display and
analyze location-based information and has appli-
cations in sectors including sales and marketing,
banking and financial services, real estate and
appraisal, community development, insurance,
emergency services, and public health. Maptitude is
a geographic information system (GIS) for all types
of spatial data.
Maptitude 5 features unparalleled capabilities for
site evaluation, pin mapping, demographic analy-
sis, and myriad GIS applications in business, gov-
ernment, and education. This new version incorpo-
rates new tools that locate and analyze data to
produce high quality maps. In only a few clicks
Maptitude produces visualizations of corporate data
that show the patterns and trends and how they
are influenced by a wealth of economic, demo-
graphic and geographic data.
Maptitude 5 has new travel-based tools that allow
the creation of bands based on distance, time, or
other costs along street lines, plus the ability to
assign roads to zones or districts based on proxim-
ity to point locations such as stores.
GIS enhancements include the mapping wizard, with
start-to-finish assistance for locating, thematically
displaying, geographically analyzing, and mapping
data. Other new features include undo and redo for
geographic and tabular editing, a map display man-
ager, more flexible legends, improved thematic map-
ping, and native support for ESRI personal geo-
databases, MS Access, Excel 2007, and Google
Earth.
Maptitude 5 expands the amount of included data.
The software now ships with 2007 Streets, October
2007 ZIP Code points and areas, MCDs and SMCDs,
world landmarks, updated world places, updated
telephone exchanges, and July 2006 tract, county,
and state level population estimates.
Maptitude is .NET enabled, allowing scripting in any
.NET capable language. Maptitudes GISDK language
now supports object-oriented programming, mak-
ing it easier to program Maptitude extensions and
add-ins with re-usable GISDK classes. The maps in
Maptitude 5 provide presentation quality and user-
friendly graphics right from the start, with enhanced
default styles, map overview windows, and new line
styles. Maptitude 5 is available for Microsoft
Windows 2000, XP and Vista, and is compatible with
a wide range of other GIS and database software.
Internet: www.caliper.com
Leica Geosystems Geospatial
Imaging Incorporates Imagine
Subpixel Classifier into Erdas
Imagine 9.2
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announces
that Imagine Subpixel Classifier will be licensed and
available to all ERDAS IMAGINE Professional cus-
tomers with the upcoming release of Erdas Imagine
9.2. Previously sold separately, Imagine Subpixel
Classifier is the worlds leading image classification
tool for advanced spectral analysis and interpreta-
tion. Subpixel Classifier provides dynamic search-
ing and quantifying tools, enabling users to quick-
ly extract the most comprehensive information from
spectral imagery. Erdas Imagine 9.2 is expected to
begin shipping in March 2008, with Professional
customers also receiving Imagine Subpixel Classifier
at this time.
Internet: www.gi.leica-geosystems.com
Pr oduct News
61
March 2008
Cadcorp Announces OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 Manager
Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer
Cadcorp has announced that its Cadcorp SIS Spatial Information System product
suite now includes a dedicated manager application for Ordnance Survey (OS)
MasterMap Address Layer 2.
Delivered with Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller at no extra cost, the Cadcorp SIS OS
MasterMap Address Layer 2 Manager is a standalone wizard-driven application that
takes OS Address Layer 2 gzip and/or gml files and loads the Address Layer fea-
tures into either an industry-standard database (spatial or non-spatial), or a Cadcorp
data format. Support is provided for Oracle, PostGIS, Microsoft SQL Server and
Microsoft Access. The capability complements support already provided by Cadcorp
for the OS MasterMap Topography and Integrated Transport Network(ITN) Layers.
The new Cadcorp SIS OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 Manager extends our sup-
port for the OS MasterMap product range so that users of the data, irrespective of
the scale of their GIS implementation, can cost-effectively import, manage and
make available OS MasterMap data within desktop, intranet/ Internet and mobile
GIS environments,
and ease the integra-
tion of OS MasterMap
into existing back
office systems, said
Martin Daly, technical
director, Cadcorp.
Managing OS Mas -
ter Map Address Layer
2 data within Cadcorp
SIS is now as easy as
managing any of the other 160 plus geographic and CAD data sources that Cadcorp
SIS supports, he added.
Internet: www.cadcorp.com
62
Pr oduct News
March 2008
Geosoft 2008 Software Release Delivers Productivity Gains with ESRI Integration
Geosoft announced the availability of its 2008 software release, which includes
Oasis montaj and Target 7.0. This release marks a new generation of Geosoft
earth mapping software with ESRIs ArcEngine technology built-in.
Designed to improve the connection between the geosciences and GIS for pro-
fessional earth explorers, Geosoft software now offers superior usability and inte-
gration with ESRI, the worlds leading GIS. Customers will be able to work
between their Geosoft and ESRI environments with fewer steps and better results.
Geosoft will begin shipping Oasis montaj and Target 7.0 the week of February 11,
2008.
With version 7.0, Geosoft has embedded ESRIs ArcEngine into Oasis montaj and
Target, enabling geoscientists to use ESRI tools to natively display Arc .mxd and
.lyr files, without leaving the Geosoft environment. ArcGIS and Geosoft users can
share their files seamlessly and spend more time collaborating in an increasingly
integrated environment.
To make it easier for geoscientists to access more of the data available to them,
Geosoft has expanded the range of internal and public data servers to include:
Geosofts DAP, ESRIs ArcIMS, WMS and Tile servers.
In addition, 7.0 offers various new ways to display subsurface geology, such as:
fence diagrams, 3D geology voxels, and the automatic creation of 3D geological
surfaces.
Internet: www.geosoft.com
Blue Marble Geographic Calculator 7.0.1 USB Dongle Key Licenses Now Available
With the release of Geographic Calculator 7.0.1, Blue
Marble Geographics announces the addition of USB
Dongle keys to the suite of available licensing
options. These USB keys allow users to leverage the
power of the Geographic Calculator anywhere in the
world, at any time. By inserting the hardware key
into the USB port of a desktop or laptop worksta-
tion, and the software can be used immediately.
Users are able to move their license at will, without
the need for a network server or technical licensing
support. Blue Marbles coordinate conversion tech-
nology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS ana-
lysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas
companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology,
enterprise GIS groups, government and military orga-
nizations.
Other enhancements to Geographic Calculator 7.0.1
include Irish Grid polynomial datum shift support to
match OSi Inspire parameters, direct velocity file sup-
port by way of the Geographic Calculators Map File
Conversion tab, allowing users with large files con-
taining thousands of records to convert them in just
minutes. Updated printing and reporting features for
the interactive tab now show the datum shift that
was used in the conversion.
Internet: www.bluemarblegeo.com
UNI__GIS
Educating GIS Professionals Worldwide www.unigis.org/uk
Study for a postgraduate qualification in GIS
by distance learning
With over 16 years of experience presenting distance learning courses
to professional standards, UNIGIS offers you access to the premier
international network of Universities in GIS education.
Our courses meet the learning needs of busy professionals, or those
seeking to enter the GIS industry. We support you with personal
tutors, on-line help and optional residential workshops. Our courses
are assessed by coursework - there are no examinations.
Find out why the UNIGIS postgraduate courses are so successful:
call +44 161 247 1581, fax. +44 161 247 6344, email unigis@mmu.ac.uk,
or visit our web site at http://www.unigis.org/uk
WE ALSO OFFER:
Flexible entry requirements
Specialist pathways in GIS, GI Science, GIS &
Management and GIS & Environment
Course modules supported by key textbooks,
software and on-line resources
Flexible study options - full distance learning
or distance learning plus residential workshops
No examinations - full continuous assessment,
plus credit for prior learning or experience
Networking with an international community
of GIS professionals
Tiltan to Unveil Revolutionary LiDAR System at ILMF
Tiltan Systems Engineering announced that it will
be unveiling the latest version of its 2D and 3D
LiDAR processing tool, TLiD, at the International
LIDAR Mapping Forum 08. ILMF will be held from
February 21-22 at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver.
Tiltan leverages its experience in the 3D simulator
world to create an intuitive design featuring 2D and
3D images running side-by-side, with the ability to
automatically select a point on one image and be
transferred to the same spot on the other image.
This enables better understanding and QA of cloud-
point and automatically derived vectors. The TLiD software package allows for
rapid importability of large files and automatic, quick processing
driven by a small number of customizable parameters, increasing accuracy and
reducing training requirements. The QA screens enable full-color customization of
individual features, allowing for easy differentiation.
TLiD input is a standard geo-referenced LAS or TXT point cloud. Outputs are
DEM, DSM vectors in multiple user-selectable coordinate systems and data
formats. Tiltans QA team focused on accuracy testing to assure ASPRS Class 1
topographic elevation accuracy, given a suitable point cloud.
Internet: www.tiltan-se.co.il
OGC(R) Approves Observations & Measurements Encoding Standard
The members of the Open Geospatial
Consortium, (OGC) have approved ver-
sion 1.0 of the OpenGIS Observations
& Measurements (O&M) Encoding
Standard.
The O&M standard defines an abstract
model and an XML schema encoding
for observations and measurements.
This framework is required for use by
other OGC Sensor Web Enablement
(SWE) standards as well as for gener-
al support for OGC compliant systems
dealing in technical measurements in
science and engineering. As a new
international consensus standard in an
era of increasing scientific cooperation,
O&M promises to play an important
role in Web-based publishing of real-
time and archived scientific data
across research disciplines and appli-
cation domains. The aim of O&M is to
define terms used for measurements
and the relationships between them, mainly to
improve the ability of software systems to discover
and use live and archived digital data produced by
measuring systems. When scientists and engineers
encode data in O&M, they can easily publish the
data (or live data feeds) in catalogs and registries
so others can efficiently discover, access and use
the data, using relatively simple software. The scope
of the specification covers observations and mea-
surements whose results may be quantities, cate-
gories, temporal and geometry values, coverages,
and composites and arrays of any of these.
Internet: www.opengeospatial.org
SARscape 4.0 Release
CREASO introduces SARscape 4.0 software for SAR
data processing to the Remote Sensing community.
By supporting TerraSAR-X-1 and simulated RADARSAT-
2 data as well as through the release of the Persistent
Scatterers module and the continuous improvement
of existing algorithms, the team around SARscape
makes its promise come true to offer a future orient-
ed and advanced technology to the worldwide SAR
market. SARscape now added to its comprehensive
list of supported spaceborne data also the support
of TerraSAR-X-1 and simulated RADARSAT-2 data. It is
anticipated that immediately after the official release
of COSMO-SkyMed 1-4 and RISAT-1 data, SARscape
will be upgraded accordingly. The new Persistent
Scatterers Module enables to derive mm-scale dis-
placements of objects like buildings, bridges, dams,
etc. using ERS and ENVISAT data time-series. In order
to introduce non-experienced Remote Sensers the
easiest way into the SAR domain, a SAR-Guidebook
created by SAR experts is now available under
www.creaso.com/sarscape.htm. The SAR-Guidebook
will give you an interesting overview about how to
generate SAR products and their use for different
fields of interest. Since last year CREASO GmbH dis-
tributes the software solution SARscape for ENVI and
ArcView with the help of its cooperation partner ITT
VIS (except for India), while sarmap ensures the high
quality of all current and upcoming functionalities and
the support of forthcoming sensors.
Internet: www.sarmap.ch
www.creaso.com
Pr oduct News
63
March 2008
LizardTech GeoExpress 7 Launch Offers Integration for Geospatial
Imaging Workflows
LizardTech, a division of Celartem, and a provider of
software solutions for managing and distributing digital
content, announced the launch of GeoExpress 7, the
premier application for compressing and manipulating
complex geospatial imagery. Equipped with new fea-
tures, this latest version enables all of the LizardTech
Express Suite applications to interoperate with one
another.
Now GeoExpress streamlines workflows more by allow-
ing encoding and publishing of imagery directly to
LizardTech Express Server in one operation. Users can
view their imagery in WMS applications or ArcIMS, or
make their imagery available in Web applications all
without having to learn any command line applications
or edit XML documents. This results in increased pro-
ductivity by reducing the effort and time it takes to dis-
tribute imagery to decision makers.
The latest addition to the growing list of tools for image
manipulation in GeoExpress 7 is the new despeckling
tool. Despeckling enables users to clean up edge arti-
facts making their images look better. Additionally, the
floating license capability from GeoExpress 6 has been
updated to offer commuter functionality, which
increases productivity by allowing users to continue
working when they are on the road and disconnected
from the network. IT administrators have the freedom
to use one common licensing standard on their net-
work, simplifying their administration tasks, while giv-
ing end users access to the image tools they need, no
matter where in the world they are located. GeoExpress
7 also allows users greater workflow flexibility through
new tools for metadata editing and image exporting.
Users no longer need to use command line applications
to add custom tags to their images; instead GeoExpress
7's metadata editor makes it easy to add custom infor-
mation to geospatial imagery and use that information
to build powerful Web applications with Express Server.
And with GeoExpress 7's new export tools, users can
quickly demosaic or "tile out" their imagery to GeoTIFF
directly from GeoExpress' graphical interface.With the
LizardTech Express Suite, users can manipulate and
compress their imagery with GeoExpress, store their
images in an Oracle Spatial database with Spatial
Express, and distribute their imagery over the Internet
using Express Server. Also, they can configure all of
these workflows using GeoExpress.
Internet: www.lizardtech.com.
2008 ESRI Business GIS Summit
The 2008 ESRI Business GIS Summit will be held
April 2730 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.
This forum brings industry leaders and business
professionals together to share best practices,
ideas, and tools for helping commercial organiza-
tions and related industries increase revenue and
operational efficiency as well as enhance communi-
cation and knowledge sharing.
The goal of the summit is to expand and foster the
use of business-focused geographic information sys-
tem (GIS) solutions to help businesses be more com-
petitive, drive business innovation, and increase
their return on investment. Attendees include peo-
ple who are new to GIS as well as experienced users
who are looking for innovative ways to develop
existing GIS projects. Offering three full days of
inspiring sessions, workshops, and networking
opportunities, the ESRI Business GIS Summit gives
attendees direct access to the latest software, data,
and services developed specifically for the commer-
cial user community.
From customer analytics and site selection to logis-
tics and business continuity planning, attendees will
discover how GIS offers enhanced understanding of
the marketplace; collaboration throughout the orga-
nization; improved workflows; and new ways to
visualize, analyze, and incorporate vital information
into decision-making processes. See firsthand how
businesses worldwide are gaining the geographic
advantage, using GIS to
Analyze merchandising, customer buying
behaviors, and market trends.
Gain a new understanding of underserved
markets and identify market potential.
Apply marketing dollars to the most profitable
geographic areas.
Retain existing customers and find new ones just
like them.
Develop strategies for risk assessment, facilities
management, and business continuity.
Internet: www.esri.com/bizsummit
Bentley Acquires LEAP Software, Inc., Expanding
Portfolio of Software for Analysis and Design of
Concrete Bridges
Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced that it has
acquired LEAP Software, a provider of analysis and
design products for concrete bridges. The LEAP
bridge solutions are the industry standard across
North America, used by 37 U.S. state departments
of transportation, the U.S. Federal Highway
Administration, a large number of city and county
agencies, and top bridge engineering consultants.
The flagship product, LEAP Bridge, is an analysis,
design, and load-rating application that integrates
all bridge design components into one application
with a single user interface. The LEAP products
complement and strengthen Bentleys end-to-end
bridge design and management solution, which
includes RM for cable-stayed, suspension, and seg-
mental bridges; Bentley BridgeModeler and Bentley
LARS for bridge load-rating calculation, analysis, and
analytical modeling; GEOPAK Bridge; InRoads
Bridge; Bentley Rebar; Bentley PowerRebar; and
many other products.
Said Bhupinder Singh, senior vice president, Bentley
Software, The need for a more comprehensive and
systematic approach to bridge planning, design, con-
struction, operations, and maintenance has never
been more critical. Our world faces the incredible
challenge of repairing aging infrastructure in devel-
oped transportation networks and meeting the
extraordinary demand for new transportation net-
works in developing economies.
By adding the LEAP analysis and design software
to our rapidly growing portfolio of integrated bridge
products, Bentley advances its commitment to help-
ing users create new bridges and maintain and
upgrade existing bridges more efficiently and cost-
effectively. On behalf of all Bentley colleagues, I wel-
come LEAP Software users around the world to the
Bentley user community and LEAP Software col-
leagues to the Bentley team.
Internet: www.bentley.com/LEAPsoft.
Founding of Fugro Aerial Mapping B.V.
After being part of Fugro-Inpark B.V. for more than
8 years, the Aerial Acquisition division (better known
as the FLI-MAP division) will continue as a separate
company called Fugro Aerial Mapping B.V. as of
January 1st 2008. This new company will be headed
by Huug Haasnoot MSc and concentrate their ser-
vices on LiDAR and photogrammetry activities other
airborne methodologies.
Fugro Aerial Mapping B.V. will become part of an
European group of airborne Fugro companies which
will strongly work together on research and devel-
opment, optimal planning of resources and execu-
tion of projects.
Internet: www.fli-map.nl
Fujitsu acquires Quebec-based Intlec
Gomatique
Fujitsu Consulting, the North American consulting
and services arm of Fujitsu Limited, today
announced that its Quebec-based division, DMR, has
acquired Intlec Gomatique, a provider of IT,
telecommunications and geomatics solutions and
consulting services. This acquisition is aligned to
Fujitsu Consultings long-term strategy to increase
its presence in emerging markets and industry sec-
tors. This will enable Fujitsu Consulting to signifi-
cantly expand its geomatics capabilities and to con-
solidate its leadership position in this market. Terms
of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The acquisition of Intlec Gomatique will enhance
the services Fujitsu Consulting provides in the areas
of geomatics and land management, and in particu-
lar, cadastral management, land rights registration
and municipal management. These services will be
now backed by Fujitsu Consultings system integra-
tion and application management services, said
Andr Pouliot, president of DMR in Quebec. This
acquisition will also allow us to expand our pres-
ence in a key North American market segment.
Founded in 1992, Intlec Gomatique has estab-
lished itself in providing geographic information sys-
tem development services. The company conducts
projects for public and private sector organizations
in Canada and abroad in a number of industry sec-
tors including power and gas transmissions,
telecommunications, land management, environ-
ment and natural resources (forestry, mines) and
government departments and agencies.
DMR and Intlec Gomatique have been working
together on a number of geomatics and land man-
agement projects for several years now in Quebec
and elsewhere in Canada. The two organizations
partnered to implement GOcit, the first municipal
infrastructure management software designed by
and for cities and marketed by DMR. DMR and
Intlec Gomatique are also collaborating through
GoQubec to export Quebec land management
know-how to other markets which has resulted in
geomatics projects having been carried out in
Morocco, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
Internet: www.fujitsu.com
www.Intelec.ca
Intermap And Magellan Team to Enhance Off-
Road Experience For Magellan GPS Users With
AccuTerra Map Content
Magellan announced the market availability of
AccuTerra outdoor map content from Intermap
Technologies this weekend at the Shooting, Hunting,
Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) in Las Vegas.
Beginning in April, Magellan customers can down-
load the most comprehensive recreational content
including clear markings for public and private prop-
erty -- for the new line of Magellan Triton GPS
devices as well as its eXplorist line of handheld GPS
devices. Triton and eXplorist customers can acquire
digital terrain data, off-road and recreation-related
roads, trails, and points-of-interest for most recre-
ation areas in the United States. AccuTerra provides
map content for the lower 48 states plus Hawaii and
will be available for purchase directly from the
Magellan web site.
Intermap is creating consumer mapping products
using Magellans Solution Developer Kit (MSDKTM)
MapCreatorTM software. MSDK is a 3rd party devel-
opment toolkit that enables licensees to develop
64
I ndust r y News
March 2008
world class mapping products and software
enhancement to enhance Magellans GPS product
line offerings. MSDK-derived content products are
compatible with both GPS devices and
VantagePointTM desktop software.
AccuTerra data includes elevation information, clear-
ly identified and classified trails, paths and roads,
outdoor-specific points of interest such as camp-
grounds, service facilities, and landmarks; and a
land-use display that depicts the location of public
and private property.
Internet: www.Intermap.com
www.magellangps.com
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Takes
Strategic Membership in the OGC
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced
that Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging has
increased its level of membership in the OGC to
become a Strategic Member. Strategic Membership
is the highest level of membership in the OGC.
Strategic Members provide significant resources to
support OGC objectives in the form of funding for
program initiatives and staff resources inserted into
the OGC process.
Leica Geosystems strong commitment to OGC
reflects the company's understanding of their
diverse clients' needs for standards-based geospa-
tial data management solutions. Standards based
interoperability is a key requirement in solving com-
plex problems that involve sharing spatial data and
processing resources and managing the lifecycle of
enterprise data. Leica Geosystems brings image pro-
cessing, GIS, exploitation and sensor expertise to
the larger industry community, collaborating with
many partners to provide customers with compre-
hensive, multi-vendor, fully interoperable enterprise
solutions.
As a strategic member, Leica Geosystems will now
be contributing to the OGC process at a level that
exceeds the sum of the prior contributions. Leica
Geosystems shares the OGC Consortiums goal: the
realization of the full societal, economic and scien-
tific benefits of integrating electronic location
resources into commercial and institutional process-
es worldwide.
Internet: www.opengeospatial.org
www.gi.leica-geosystems.com
TatukGIS Supporting ESRI ArcSDE and Personal
Geodatabase Files
TatukGIS is pleased to announce support for vector
data created by the ESRI ArcSDE and Personal
Geodatabase.
The following TatukGIS products now support ArcSDE
and Personal Geodatabase layers:
GIS Editor (desktop application)
GIS Internet Server (ASP.NET GIS server)
GIS Developer Kernel .NET (.NET WinForms SDK)
GIS Developer Kernel ActiveX (OCX based SDK)
GIS Developer Kernel VCL (Delphi/C++ VCL SDK)
The ArcSDE SQL support includes:
Direct connection to ArcSDE SQL layers for map
display, independent of any middleware
Utilization of ArcSDE spatial indexes for fast spa-
tial queries
Editing of ArcSDE attribute values and structure
Geometric object deletion
Export from ArcSDE layers to other supported file
formats
ArcSDE layers running on MSSQL Server, Oracle,
or other server database compatible with the
ArcSDE standard
Compatibility with ArcSDE 9.2 and earlier ver-
sions
The Personal Geodatabase (MDB) support includes:
Direct connection to PGDB layers, independent
of any middleware
Editing and creation of map geometry
Editing of attribute values and structure
Export/import data between PGDB files and other
supported formats
Creation of new PGDB layers
Internet: www.tatukgis.com
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Signs
Agreement with MAPA
Leica Geosystems Geo -
spatial Imaging today
announced that Merrick
Advanced
Photogrammetry of the
Americas S. de R.L. de
C.V. (MAPA) is now the
master distributor of
Leica Geosystems solu-
tions to customers in
Mexico. Based in
Guadalajara and Mexico
City, Mexico, MAPA is a
leading provider of pho-
togrammetry, LIDAR,
satellite imagery and
mapping products and services.
Providing services throughout the Mexican geospa-
tial market for the past five years, MAPA delivers
photogrammetry and mapping solutions, meeting a
wide range of information needs, said Christopher
Tucker, Senior Vice President, Americas and National
Programs, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. By
partnering with MAPA, Leica Geosystems is posi-
tioned to more strategically distribute our portfolio
of solutions to this growing geospatial community.
Committed to providing the best geospatial prod-
ucts and services, we are delighted to add a num-
ber of Leica Geosystems solutions to our offering,
said Juan Carlos Sanchez, Vice President, MAPA.
These products will enable our customers to col-
lect, exploit, manage and distribute vector, raster
and image databases more efficiently.
MAPA will provide local sales and support, includ-
ing technical support, individual training, software
customization and project consulting for a broad
range of Leica Geosystems remote sensing, pho-
togrammetry, LIDAR enterprise and visualization
solutions.
We are excited to have MAPA as our master dis-
tributor in Mexico, said Jairo Linares, Latin America
Regional Sales Manager, Leica Geosystems
Geospatial Imaging. MAPA is equipped to provide
the most comprehensive support to our customers
in this part of Latin America.
Internet: www.gi.leica-geosystems.com
I ndust r y News
65
March 2008
Calendar 2008
Advertiser Page
1Spatial www.1spatial.com 50
ASPRS www.asprs.org 21
Autodesk www.autodesk.com 68
Cardinal Systems www.cardinalsystems.net 65
DAT/EM www.datem.com 35
ESRI www.esri.com 16, 47
Geo-Evenement www.geo-evenement.org 57
Geokosmos www.geokosmos.com 30
INPHO www.inpho.de 51
ISPRS www.isprs2008-beijing.org 41
ITC www.itc.nl 20
Leica Geosystems www.leica-geosystems.com 46
Magellan www.pro.magellanGPS.com 67
NavCom www.navcomtech.com 26
Optech www.optechusa.com 12
PCI Geomatics www.pcigeomatics.com 27
SAFE Software www.safe.com 8
Sokkia www.sokkia.net 2, 38, 60
STAR-APIC www.star-apic.com 17
SuperGeo www.supergeo.com 56
Topcon Europe www.topconeurope.com 58
UNIGIS www.unigis.org 62
World of Geomatics www.worldofgeomatics.com 40
Insert: NavCom
Advertisers Index
16-20 March SPIE Defense & Security
Symposium 2008
Orlanda, FL, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (360) 685 5407
Fax: +1 (360) 647 1445
E-mail: PeterB@SPIE.org
Internet: www.SPIE.org
17-19 March American Water Resources
Association GIS Specialty Conference
San Mateo, CA, U.S.A.
Tel: 916 978 5271
Fax: 916 296 0751
E-mail: lpeltzlewis@mp.usbr.gov
Internet: www.awra.org/meetings/
San_Mateo2008/index.html
26-28 March UNIGIS Symposium: GIS
Education in Latin America
Quito, Universidad San Francisco de Quito,
Ecuador
Info: Richard Resl or Leo Zurita
Tel: +593 2 2971743
E-mail: unigis.admin@usfq.edu.ec
Internet: www.unigis.net
April
02-04 April GISRUK 2008
Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan
University, United Kingdom
Info: Ms. Tracy McKenna
Tel: +44 (0) 161 247 6199
E-mail: GISRUK2008@mmu.ac.uk
Internet: www.geo.ed.ac.uk/gisruk/
gisruk.html
07-11 April 2008 BAE Systems GXP
International User Conference
San Diego, CA, Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines,
U.S.A
Tel: +1 (858) 675 2850
Fax: +1 (858) 592 5309
E-mail: rachel.snyder@baesystems.com
Internet: www.baesystems.com/gxp
07-11 April WRC 08: United States of
Europe?
Mozet, Belgium
Tel: + 32 16 326424
Fax: + 32 16 322980
E-mail: wrc2008@gmail.com
Internet: www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc08
08-10 April Map Middle East 2008
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 (4) 204 5350/204 5351
Fax: +971 (4) 204 5352
E-mail: info@mapmiddleeast.org
Internet: www.mapmiddleeast.org
08-10 April Go-vnement 2008
Paris, France
Tel: +33 (1) 4523 0816
Fax: +33 (1) 4824 0181
E-mail: n.duquenne@ortech.fr
Internet: www.ortech.fr/geo-evenement
09-10 April GEO-8, GIS Innovations and
World of Geomatics
Ricoh Arena, Conventry, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 438 352617
Fax: +44 438 351989
E-mail: sharon@pvpubs.demon.co.uk
Internet: www.pvpubs.com
16-18 April 2nd International Conference
Remote Sensing-the Synergy of High
Technologies
Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7 (495) 514 8339
Fax: +7 (495) 623 3013
E-mail: conference@sovzond.ru
Internet: www.sovzondconference.ru/eng
16-18 April Disaster Management 2008
Exhibition & Conference
Pragati Maidan, India
Tel: +91 (11) 4505 5562
Fax: +91 (11) 2577 8876
E-mail: rnaresh@servintonline.com
Internet: www.dmindiaexpo.com
18-22 April XI Eastern Regional Congress
2008
Sinaia, Romania
E-mail: erc2008@gmail.com
Internet: www.egea.eu/congresses/erc08/
index.php
22-25 April NeoGeography XXI-2008
Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7 (495) 332 3595
Fax: +7 (495) 331 0511
E-mail: arena@vt21.ru
Internet: www.vt21.ru
22-28 April GEO-SIBERIA 2008
Novosibirsk, Russia
Tel: +7 (383) 2106290 2255151
E-mail: strutz@sibfair
Internet: www.sibfair.ru
27 April-02 May ASPRS 2008 Annual
Conference: Bridging the Horizons - New
Frontiers in Geospatial Collaboration
Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (301) 493 0290 106
E-mail: akinerney@asprs.org
Internet: www.asprs.org/portland08
29 April-01 May 1Spatial 2008 Conference,
1 Source of Truth
Radisson SAS Hotel, Stansted Airport,
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 420414
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 420044
E-mail: chloe.rooney@1spatial.com
Internet: www.1spatial.com
May
05-08 May 11th AGILE 2008 Conference on
GI Science
Girona, Spain
Tel: +34 972 418 039
Fax: +34 972 418 230
E-mail: agile2008@sigte.udg.edu
Internet: www.agile.es
12-15 May 13th FIG Symposium on
Deformation Measurements and Analysis
Lisbon, Portugal
Tel: +351 (218) 443 483
Fax: +351 (218) 443 014
E-mail: measuringchanges@Inec.pt
Internet: http://measuringchanges.Inec.pt
19-21 May REALCORP 008
Vienna, Vienna International Airport WTC,
Austria
Tel: +43 1 892 85 02
Fax: +43 1 892 85 02-15
E-mail: office@corp.at
Internet: www.corp.at
21-23 May MapWorld 2008
Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A
Internet: www.mapinfo.com/promo/
mapworld2008/
28-30 May BE Conference
Baltimore, MA, Baltimore Convention
Center, U.S.A.
Internet: www.be.org
June
02-05 June 28th EARSeL Symposium
Remote Sensing for a Changing Europe
Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +49 (511) 762 2482
Fax: +49 (511) 762 2483
E-mail: secretariat@earsel.org
Internet: www.earsel28.itu.edu.tr
02-06 June Intergraph 2008 - Intl Users
Conference
Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (256) 730 1000
E-mail: intergraph2008@intergraph.com
Internet: www.intergraph2008.com
04-07 June 4th Workshop of the EARSeL
Special Interest Group Integrating GIS
and Remote Sensing in a Dynamic World
Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +49 (511) 762 2482
Fax: +49 (511) 762 2483
Internet: www.earsel-dc.uni-hannover.de
10-12 June GIS/SIT 2008 - Swiss GI Forum:
Added value by Geoinformation
Zrich, Switzerland
Tel: 004161 686 77 11
Fax: 0041 61 686 77 88
E-mail: info@sogi.ch
Internet: www.akm.ch/gis_sit2008
March
03-05 March GEO 2008
Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain
Tel: +973 (17) 550 033
Fax: +973 (17) 553 288
E-mail: fawzi@aeminfo.com.bh
Internet: www.geobahrain.org
03-05 March SPAR 2008
Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 978 774 1102
E-mail: conference@sparlic.com
Internet: www.sparllc.rsvp1.com
04-06 March FSM 2008
Houston, TX, InterContinental Hotel, U.S.A.
Internet: www.iafsm.com/fsm2008.htm
04-08 March 2008 ACSM/LSAW Conference
Spokane, WA, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 240-632-9716
Fax: +1 240-632-1321
E-mail: colleencampbell@mindspring.com
Internet: www.acsm.net
05-07 March EARSeL Joint Workshop,
Remote Sensing: New Challenges of High
Resolution
Bochum, Germany
Tel: +49 (511) 762 2482
Fax: +49 (511) 762 2483
Internet: www.sig-urs-2008.de
05-09 March EGEA North & Baltic Regional
Congress 2008 Sustainability - Key to the
future
Kriku, Estonia
Info: Kerli Mrisepp
Tel: +372 53441155
Fax +372 7 37 58 25
E-mail: Info@egea.ee
Internet: www.egea.ee/nrc08
07-08 March Safe Software FME
International User Conference
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tel: +1 (604) 501 9985
E-mail: Ashley.moore@safe.com
Internet: www.safe.com/company/
fmeuc2008/index.php
09-12 March GITAs Geospatial
Infrastructure Solutions Conference
Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (303) 337 0513
Fax: +1 (303) 337 1001
E-mail: info@gita.org
Internet: www.gita.org
10-11 March RSPSoc Annual Student
Meeting 2008
Foxlease, New Forest, United Kingdom
E-mail: ASM08@mkthomson.net
Internet: www.mkthomson.net/activities/
ASM08-intro.html
11-12 March 7th Internationales 3D-Forum
Lindau
Lindau, Germany
Tel: +49 8382 704 293
Fax: +49 8382 704 5 293
Internet: www.satdtwerke-lindau.de
E-mail: a.lindenmueller@sw-lindau.de
11-13 March Oceanology International (OI)
Technology, Sustainability and the Ocean
Environment
London, United Kingdom
Internet: www.oceanologyinternational.com
11-14 March GeoForm+ 2008
Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7 (495) 105 34 86
Fax; +7 (495) 268 99 04
E-mail: kls@mvk.ru
Internet: www.geoexpo.ru
11-15 March CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2008
Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (414) 298 4141
Internet: www.conexpoconagg.com/
index.asp
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to:calendar@geoinformatics.com
66
March 2008
Map anything. Anywhere.
In any way.
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CX
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One device. Many appplications. Introducing the new Magellan
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CX,
the ultimate professional mapping solution. Highly flexible, its compatible with any
standard Windows CE-based GIS solution or GPS navigation application, supports
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies, and has DGPS networking capabilities.
Exceptionally precise, it provides real-time sub-meter and even sub-foot accuracy in
post-processing. And remarkably rugged, it delivers uncompromised performance
even in the most extreme outdoor conditions.
For more information on the affordable, easy-to-use MobileMapper
CX, visit
www.pro.magellanGPS.com.
2007 Magellan Navigation, Inc. All rights reserved. Magellan, the Magellan logo, and MobileMapper are trademarks of Magellan
Navigation, Inc. CNES 2002 - Distribution Spot Image.
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For more information:
France (HQ) +33 2 28 09 38 00
Russia +7 495 980 5400
Netherlands +31 78 61 57 988
professionalsales@magellanGPS.com
www.pro.magellanGPS.com
autodesk.com/utilities
Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to
alter product oerings and specications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
JOAN THARP, INGENUITY COMMUNICATIONS
Autodesk: Leveraging Design
to Improve Asset Information
Utility Industry Challenges
Utilities face relentless pressure to do more with less and maintain
high reliability and customer service, all the while coping with aging
assets, capital constraints, a rising demand for energy, and addressing
sustainability.
Infrastructure: The power supply cycle in Europe is now typied by
scarcity with some cities facing energy shortages. For example even
if the many European power plants built in the 1950s had been well
maintained, there would still not be enough of them to meet the
growing demand for commercial electricity especially in Eastern Europe.
This issue of aging infrastructure is reoccurring across the globe, and
in Europe it is estimated to cost 6 trillion over the next 25 years to
refurbish power, water and transportation infrastructure.
Efciency: There is rising consumer interest and participation in energy
e ciency measures and distributed energy resources, which adds to the
complexity of grid design and optimisation.
Knowledge Transfer: Utilities will have to cope with the retirement
of experienced sta over the next decade workers with valuable
knowledge that will be di cult to replace.
However, even under such tough circumstances, utilities
still can increase productivity and cost
e ciencies by improving asset
information. If asset information
is accurate, timely, and
available to all who need
it when they need it, a
utility can operate more
eectively.
Asset Information
Challenges
Unfortunately, for most utilities,
it is not easy to access or share
asset information across the design, build,
operate and maintain infrastructure lifecycle. Often, the
information resides in proprietary formats or in data silos throughout the
organisation. When design information is shared, it is often exchanged
via paper format and is manually entered into an as-built system.
Making design data available to those managing as-builts, responding
to maintenance issues, or answering customer service requests usually
requires either manually reconciling the data or converting it to the
proprietary formats. Autodesk utility solutions improve business process
and data quality by leveraging engineering design information across
processes to build, operate and maintain asset lifecycle.
So, what if utilities could get accurate and consistent information
quickly enough so they can maximise operational e ciencies, improve
responsiveness, and increase quality of service?
The Autodesk Approach
By leveraging the Autodesk design tools utilities likely already have,
they can build on that strong foundation. Autodesk solutions for
utilities make it easy for all departments to integrate, access and share
design and as-built information in their business processes. This
helps to eliminate waiting for reports or pieces of information from
dierent departments and wondering how accurate and up-to-date the
information is.
ey daia on eve:y enginee:ed assei - w|ai i|ey a:e, w|e:e i|ey a:e,
and |ow i|ey a:e e:o:ming - is available insianily, wii|oui |aving io
compile the information manually or convert it to another format.
Lve:y |ysical assei |as a `single oini o i:ui|' associaied wii| ii.
With Autodesk solutions, utilities can extend the reach and value of
infrastructure asset information, so they can
more easily handle customer requests;
more quickly respond to outages;
and more eectively provide
information for reporting,
planning and analysis.
Autodesk utility
solutions can improve
e ciency and data
quality by building
intelligence into the
design process and then
leveraging that data across
the entire asset lifecycle.
With this, utilities:
See the big picture: Manage infrastructure safely
and e ciently with greater access to information
supporting decision analysis
Do more with less. Turn out quality work quickly so they can:
Luild sianda:disaiion inio i|e enginee:ing :ocess
Lliminaie wasieul daia :ec:eaiion :ocesses
emove i|e silos and io c:eaie a single oini o i:ui|
Get the right information to the right people at the right time.
With Autodesk, utilities can leverage design to improve business process
and data quality.
Autodesk solutions for utilities make it easy for all
departments to integrate, access and share design and
as-built information--in their business processes.
A D V E R T O R I A L

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