Gim international february 2015

THE GLOBAL MAGAZINE FOR GEOMATICS WWW.GIM-INTERNATIONAL.COM

INTERNATIONAL

ISSUE 2 • VOLUME 29 • FEBRUARY 2015

Bringing Colour to Point Clouds Developments in Multispectral Lidar Are Changing the Way We See Point Clouds

ALLAN CARSWELL GIM International Interview.

OPERATION ICEBRIDGE Largest-ever Airborne Survey of Earth’s Polar Regions.

BUILDING A UAV FROM SCRATCH Young Geo in Focus.

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No 2715

Š2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, UltraMap and UltraCam Osprey, Eagle, Falcon and Hawk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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CONTENTS

FEATURE

PAGE 18

Mapping Flood Vulnerability Deriving Risk Indicators from Open Data

INTERVIEW PAGE 14

YOUNG GEO IN FOCUS

PAGE 36

From the Depths of the Ocean to the Surface of Mars

Building a UAV from Scratch

GIM International Interviews Allan Carswell

COMPANY’S VIEW

DŠGS FlyEye in the Sky

PAGE 38

The Future Is in Our Hands e-Capture R&D

FEATURE PAGE 22

News & Opinion

Bringing Colour to Point Clouds Developments in Multispectral Lidar Are Changing the Way We See Point Clouds

page

Editorial Insider’s View News 5 Questions GIM Perspectives Endpoint

5 7 8 9 11 13

International organisations page

FEATURE PAGE 27

FIG GSDI IAG ICA ISPRS

Operation IceBridge Largest-ever Airborne Survey of Earth’s Polar Regions

41 43 45 47 49

Other

page

Advertisers Index Agenda

FEATURE PAGE 33

3 50

Lidar Quality Assurance Open-source Software for Processing Lidar Point Clouds

This month’s front cover of GIM International shows a 3D point cloud of the Roman Temple of Diana in Mérida, Spain, captured using the EyesMap tablet. This new solution is an all-in-one product which generates 3D measurements, points clouds, real-time 3D models, orthophotos and GPS surveys.

ADVERTISERS INDEX ComNav Technology, www.comnavtech.com Effigis, www.effigis.com FOIF, www.foif.com Hi-Target Surveying, www.zhdgps.com KCS TraceMe, www.trace.me Kolida Instrument, www.kolidainstrument.com Leica Geosystems, www.leica-geosystems.com Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/ultracam MicroSurvey, www.microsurvey.com Optech, www.optech.com

24 42 46 51 40 20 6 2 16 12

Pacific Crest, www.pacificcrest.com Racurs, www.racurs.ru RIEGL, www.riegl.com Ruide, www.ruideinstrument.com South Surveying, www.southinstrument.com Supergeo, www.supergeotek.com TI Asahi, www.pentaxsurveying.com/en TI Linertec, www.tilinertec.com Trimble/Ashtech, intech.trimble.com Trimble, www.trimble.com

10 35 30 32 44 28 48 28 26 44

Get your back-issues in the store www.geomares.nl/store

FEBRUARY 201 5 |

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Count On It FOR

NEW 2015

Nikon Quality There are things you can still count on in this world. The sun will rise, taxes will be levied, surveyors will be working, and Nikon total stations will be right there with them day after day. Your customers count on you and surveyors have always relied on Nikon total stations to provide quality results.

Nivo M+ Series

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Nivo M+ Series uses the intuitive Nikon onboard field software and is available in 2”, 3” and 5” models. Point memory size has been increased to 25,000 points and a USB port added for convenient and portable data transfer.

NPL-322+ and DTM-322+ Series offer economical choices with Nikon quality and precision. Available in 2” and 5” models, Bluetooth is now standard and point memory has been increased to 25,000 points.

NPL-322+ DTM-322+

Visit www.nikonpositioning.com to choose the model that is right for you.

Your jobs. Your choice.

Simply Nikon Quality

Visit www.nikonpositioning.com for the latest product information and to locate your nearest distributor.

GIM0215_Content 4

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ASIA-PACIFIC Spectra Precision Division 80 Marine Parade Road #22-06, Parkway Parade Singapore 449269, Singapore +65-6348-2212 Phone

+33 (0)2 28 09 38 00 Phone ©2015, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Nikon is a registered trademark of Nikon Corporation.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (2015/01)

No 2723

Scan the QR code to receive a FREE brochure

28-01-2015 14:18:15

EDITORIAL DURK HAARSMA, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Durk Haarsma FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Meine van der Bijl SENIOR EDITOR Dr Ir. Mathias Lemmens CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dr Ir. Christiaan Lemmen, Dr Rohan Bennett, Mark Pronk BSc, Martin Kodde MSc, Ir. Danbi J. Lee, Dr Ir. Marlies Stoter-de Gunst, Frédérique Coumans EDITORIAL MANAGER Wim van Wegen COPY-EDITOR Lynn Radford, Englishproof.nl EDITORIAL BOARD Dr Ir. Paul van Asperen, Dr Bharat Lohani ACCOUNT MANAGER Sybout Wijma MARKETING ASSISTANT Trea Fledderus CIRCULATION MANAGER Adrian Holland DESIGN Media Supporters BV, Alphen aan den Rijn www.vrhl.nl REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS Ulrich Boes (Bulgaria), Prof. Dr Alper Çabuk (Turkey), Papa Oumar Dieye (Niger), Dr Olajide Kufoniyi (Nigeria), Dr Dmitry Kurtener (Russia), Dr Jonathan Li (Canada), Dr Carlos Lopez (Uruguay), Dr B. Babu Madhavan (Japan), Dr Wilber Ottichilo (Kenya), Dr Carl Reed (USA), Dr Aniruddha Roy (India), Prof. Dr Heinz Rüther (South Africa), Dr Tania Maria Sausen (Brazil) GIM INTERNATIONAL GIM International, the global magazine for geomatics, is published each month by Geomares Publishing. The magazine and related e-newsletter provide topical overviews and accurately presents the latest news in geomatics, all around the world. GIM International is orientated towards a professional and managerial readership, those leading decision making, and has a worldwide circulation.

PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS GIM International is available monthly on a subscription basis.

The annual subscription rate for GIM International is €140 within the European Union, and €200 for non-European countries. Subscription can commence at any time, by arrangement via our website or by contacting Abonnementenland, a Dutch subscription administration company. Subscriptions are automatically renewed upon expiry, unless Abonnementenland receives written notification of cancellation at least 60 days before expiry date.

Prices and conditions may be subject to change. For multi-year subscription rates or information on current paid subscriptions, contact Abonnementenland, Postbus 20, 1910 AA Uitgeest, Netherlands +31 (0)251-257926 (09.00-17.00 hrs, UTC +1) paidsubscription@geomares.nl.

Guarding the Balance In recent decades, developments in geomatics have given us increasingly accurate data; moreover, that accuracy has reached (sub) millimetre level. We now know more than ever before about the Earth, its inhabitants, their locations, its flora and fauna, its built structures, its challenges and dangers as well as its resources benefiting humankind. All this as a result of a successful combination of humans and techniques, and of academia and entrepreneurship. One wonderful example of that combination is the Canadian Lidar company Optech, which originated in 1974 (!) as a spin-off from the founder’s research at York University in Toronto. Today, more than 40 years later, Optech is still at the forefront of the global Lidar community. This issue of GIM International includes an interview with founder and chairman Allan Carswell by our editorial manager Wim van Wegen. Carswell describes the pioneering work in the early years which led to the systems that are now revolutionising fields such as surveying, 3D imaging and remote sensing. You can find the interview on page 14.

ADVERTISEMENTS Information about advertising and deadlines are available in the Media Planner. For more information please contact our account manager: sybout.wijma@geomares.nl.

Photography: Arie Bruinsma

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS All material submitted to Geomares Publishing and relating to GIM International will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication under copyright subject to the editor’s unrestricted right to edit and offer editorial comment. Geomares Publishing assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material or for the accuracy of information thus received. Geomares Publishing assumes, in addition, no obligation to return material if not explicitly requested. Contributions must be sent for the attention of the editorial manager: wim.van.wegen@geomares.nl.

Geomares Publishing P.O. Box 112, 8530 AC Lemmer, The Netherlands T: +31 (0) 514-56 18 54 F: +31 (0) 514-56 38 98 gim-international@geomares.nl www.gim-international.com

While increasing accuracy might be the overarching sentiment of the last few years in measuring and positioning, we should keep an eye on the flipside of that development.

Technology is becoming ubiquitous, but we should not lose sight of the human factor.

We have to make sure that our input meets the requirements for authoritative and highquality output. Right now, it wouldn’t be wise to leave everything to machines and forget about man; relying on technology alone, without questioning the underlying data, would certainly lead to errors. And those errors could be disastrous, since decisions made based on the data and models delivered by the geomatics industry are often big ones which have a prolonged effect. David Rhind, a member of our Editorial Advisory Board, writes in his Insider’s View column on page 7 of this issue about assessing the quality of GI models, based on open data: the wrong input produces the wrong output. In a sense, Professor Alper Çabuk touches on the same subject in his first contribution to GIM Perspectives on page 11.

When working together in balance, the human factor and geomatics technology are in fact a perfect combination, helping us to tackle climate change problems, utilise renewable energy resources more efficiently, decide on the best use of land and minimise the impact of disasters. But when that equilibrium is disturbed, the result can be a lethal cocktail with the power to destroy our world in a heartbeat.

One of our roles at GIM International is to report enthusiastically on all the possibilities offered by advancements in geomatics, but we also have a responsibility to monitor and warn of developments which might blur the focus on the human factor. We are striving to guard the balance.

Durk Haarsma, publishing director

No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of Geomares Publishing.

Copyright © 2015, Geomares Publishing, The Netherlands All rights reserved. ISSN 1566-9076

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Leica Geosystems Geospatial Solutions

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No 2726

www.leica-geosystems.com

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INSIDER’S VIEW PROF DAVID RHIND, THE CITY UNIVERSITY, UNITED KINGDOM

Is GIS Dead?

Three colleagues and I have been wrestling for two years with how we can best deliver a new version of our GIS textbook. The three previous editions have been successful, having sold 80,000 copies and being translated into five languages. The challenge we faced is that everything is changing so rapidly that it would be easy to be out of date or even irrelevant. Advancing technology is at the heart of the problem (and opportunity), but its consequences are manifested in many different ways.

For example, publishers are transitioning to a different publishing model with different staff, using digital versions of books to minimise the second-hand market in printed books.

Obtaining explicit copyright permission for images to avoid legal challenges is mandatory – even if the originator has died! Meanwhile, competitive online materials (of widely differing standards of quality) are available from many sources, including those created to underpin massive open online courses (MOOCs).

We decided that our response should continue to focus on long-lasting scientific principles which underpin the use of GI systems. But beyond that continuity, we have had to take account of many other factors.

That has led us to replace ‘GIS’ in the title with ‘GISS’ – Geographic Information Science and Systems. The systemic characteristics of

David Rhind

GI and the selection of assumptions plugged into our models and software matter ever more. Last year, parts of the UK (and elsewhere) suffered major flooding with catastrophic consequences for families and businesses. The public reaction forced government to change some policies and provide additional funds for flood assessment and protection. Modelling of likely scenarios using GI was an important input. However, a hugely experienced expert has just published a paper claiming that estimates of the economic risk produced using the official model of flood damage are exaggerated by a factor of between four and five. How do we assess the likely quality of such GI-based modelling?

Big data and open data are facts of life which we now have to take directly into account as governments and businesses seek to provide better service at lower cost, minimise fraud and understand what causes what. We in GIS have long been engaged with big data so we can help – but only if we understand the whole ecosystem of science, the tools, the data, the decision-making context and the users’ needs.

For better or worse, the law is increasingly pervasive whether it relates to competition, human rights, information access, intellectual property rights or liability. Beyond that, ethics and morality are becoming significant in the world of GISS. Machines now fly planes, steer cars, recognise images, process speech and translate languages. Much GI-based analysis and many operations in future seem likely to be based on artificial intelligence (AI). How do we implant human decision-making into AI – e.g. in driverless cars faced with the choice of colliding with another vehicle, or mounting a pavement to avoid it and mowing down a child instead?

EAB The Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) of GIM International consists of professionals who, each in their discipline and with an independent view, assist the editorial board by making recommendations on potential authors and specific topics. The EAB is served on a non-committal basis for two years.

PROF ORHAN ALTAN Istanbul Technical University, Turkey PROF DEREN LI Wuhan University, China MR SANTIAGO BORRERO Secretary-general of Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), Mexico PROF STIG ENEMARK Honorary President, FIG, Denmark DR ANDREW U FRANK Head, Institute for Geoinformation, Vienna University of Technology, Austria DR AYMAN HABIB, PENG Professor and Head, Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada DR GABOR REMETEY-FÜLÖPP Secretary General, Hungarian Association for Geo-information (HUNAGI), Hungary PROF PAUL VAN DER MOLEN Twente University, The Netherlands PROF DR IR MARTIEN MOLENAAR Twente University, The Netherlands MR JOSEPH BETIT Senior Land Surveyor, Dewberry, USA PROF SHUNJI MURAI Institute Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Japan PROF DAVID RHIND ret. Vice-Chancellor, The City University, UK PROF DR HEINZ RÜTHER Chairman Financial Commission ISPRS, University of Cape Town, Department of Geomatics, South Africa MR FRANÇOIS SALGÉ Secretary-general, CNIG (National Council for Geographic Information), France PROF DR TONI SCHENK Professor, The Ohio State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, USA PROF JOHN C TRINDER First Vice-President ISPRS, School of Surveying and SIS, The University of New South Wales, Australia MR ROBIN MCLAREN Director, Know Edge Ltd, United Kingdom

GISS is all that GIS used to be – and much more. Our book is now at the printer’s so it’s too late to change anything. We will soon see if the GI world agrees with our judgements…

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NEWS

Commercial UAV Expo Announced for October SPAR Point Group recently announced that it is launching Commercial UAV Expo, to be held from 5-7 October 2015 at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. As organisers of premier 3D technology events in North America, Europe and Asia, SPAR Point Group is well established in the data capture and imaging technology arena. http://bit.ly/158aF1V Website of Commercial UAV Expo.

SkyTech 2015 UAV Conference and Exhibition SkyTech 2015, to be held on 24 April 2015 in Islington, London, UK, is the latest addition to the UAV industry calendar. The event is a one-day conference and exhibition serving as a platform to define, understand and ultimately integrate UAVs into the commercial sector.

SkyTech can be attended at no cost and will bring together 60 exhibitors, 40 speakers and over 1,000 attendees from a range of targeted industries. http://bit.ly/158c4Fy

SkyTraq Introduces GNSS Receiver Module Offering Continuous Positioning SkyTraq, a Taiwan-based GNSS positioning technology company, has introduced the all-in-one S2525DR8 GNSS dead-reckoning module with onboard integration of MEMS sensor and interface logic. The module is especially suitable for road vehicles requiring high accuracy and 100% positioning availability. http://bit.ly/158bS9o

OGC Adopts IndoorGML Standard for Encoding Indoor Navigation Data The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) membership has approved the OGC IndoorGML Encoding Standard. This OGC standard specifies an open abstract data model and XML schema for indoor spatial information. The driving requirement for IndoorGML is navigation. http://bit.ly/158bYxX

ScanEx Becomes Authorised Mapping Partner of Google ScanEx has become an authorised partner of Google in Russia and the CIS countries. The companies will be cooperating on developing integrated mapping solutions based on ScanEx software solutions and Google services. http://bit.ly/158bqrR Leica ALS80-HP.

COWI First European Company to Operate Leica ALS80-HP Scanners COWI, based in Denmark, is the first mapping company in Europe to start operating two new Leica ALS80-HP airborne scanners. The new technology will be used for large-area scanning as well as forest assessment and supporting engineering design services. The scanners will be an essential part of COWI’s workflow that includes a wide range of aircrafts and helicopters as well as data processing facilities. This is likely to strengthen the consultancy group’s leading position in the airborne Lidar service industry. http://bit.ly/158bg3w Google Maps service solution.

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MORE NEWS GIM-INTERNATIONAL.COM

Four Galileo Satellites Now at ESA Test Centre ESA engineers unwrapped a welcome Christmas present at the end of 2014: the latest Galileo satellite. It was transported to Europe’s largest satellite test facility by lorry from its manufacturer in Germany, cocooned within Latest Galileo satellite arrives at ESA. an environmentally controlled container, bringing the total number of satellites at the test centre to four. The latest navigation satellite will now undergo thorough checks to prove its readiness for space. http://bit.ly/1ypQQyU

5 Questions to...

Mohamed Ayari The 9th edition of Geo-Tunis will be held from 1-5 April 2015. Who should attend your event, and why?

Firstly I would like to thank GIM International for its interest in the Geo-Tunis congress.

As an organisation we regard your magazine as a leader in this field and we regularly read your online version since it provides us with the latest discoveries about geomatics, GIS and related technologies.

Geo-Tunis is well known in the Arab world and Africa and also attracts participants from other parts of the world. Researchers, experts, students and employees from institutions working in the field of geomatics and any other people interested in this kind of technology regularly participate in the event. An exhibition is held in parallel with the congress. I would like to mention that I sincerely hope companies and researchers from Europe will find their way to our international event.

Mohamed Ayari is president of the Tunisian Association for the Digital Geographic Information (TADGI) and president of the Euro-Arab Union of Geomatics (EAUG). He serves as president of Geo-Tunis 2015.

Can you give us a brief overview of the congress programme?

A varied congress programme will run throughout the five days and will include: • A study day on GIS and security, organised by the Tunisian Association of Digital Geographic

NEWS

Orbit GT Supports LASzip for LAS 1.2 and LAS 1.4 Orbit GeoSpatial Technologies has announced that full support of LASzip has been completed and integrated in all products.

This means that the company has extended its support for LASzip to both LAS 1.2 and LAS 1.4. The Belgium-based GIS and mapping software developer is committed to offering continued support for international standards and open formats for the growing range of applications that make use of point clouds and regards LASzip as very valuable in these markets. http://bit.ly/158cR9x

Information and the Syndicate of National Internal Security Forces, involving 300 commanders and commissioners from the ministry of interior and civil defence from Tunisia and other representatives from the Libyan, Algerian and Moroccan security sectors.

• ‘The Survey Arab Day’, organised by the Tunisian Association of Digital Geographic Information and the EuroArab Union of Geomatics, for syndicates, associations and institutions as well as survey offices.

• ‘The GIS Libyan Day’, organised by Arjalibya company and the Tunisian Association of Digital Geographic Information, discussing GIS technology and investment in Libya.

• ‘Desertification and Water Resources Day’, organised by the Iraqi Desertification Studies Center, Tunisian Arid Lands Institute and the Tunisian Association of Digital Geographic Information, including 180-250 scientific interventions, 40 scientific sessions and B2B meetings.

Geo-Tunis will include also dozens of oral presentations and around 200 presenters, workshops, roundtables, presentations of the latest GIS and geomatics programmes and tools. It also is an excellent occasion for producers and users of geographic technologies to meet.

Geo-Tunis is one of the main geomatics events in North Africa and the Arab world. Which latest developments in this part of the world will it be highlighting?

Geo-Tunis is considered one of the most important events for GIS in the MENA region since those countries need such technologies for sustainable development and solving problems in the fields of urban and rural planning, agriculture, water management, telecommunication, security and intelligence as well as healthcare, energy and

the environment. Public institutions in MENA countries have already started using GIS technology, often with help from foreign experts.

What can participants expect from the exhibition that is being held alongside the congress?

The exhibition and the congress complement one another. At the exhibition, companies introduce their GIS latest technologies to experts and representatives of Arab and African countries’ governments. Hence, Geo-Tunis gives producers and users of the technology an opportunity to meet and discuss investment opportunities, and many agreements are concluded as a result. Geo-Tunis benefits from the fact that Tunisia is attractive to investors in knowledge.

What will be the main themes of the workshops held in parallel with the congress?

Geo-Tunis has three aspects: academic, commercial, and training. In terms of academic, the workshops will be focusing on a number of research studies, many of which have been published in scientific journals and specialist international magazines such as GIM International.

Other workshops will be covering investment and commercial aspects, related to the exhibition that is organised during the congress. And we address the training aspect by including a number of workshops on various specialisms which require GIS technologies. Just some of the workshop subjects during the congress programme include: water management and desertification, agricultural technologies, the role of geomatics in intelligence, security and civil defence, surveying, urban planning, land management and real estate matters, GIS and remote sensing, aerial photography and geomatics and heritage and archaeological surveying. www.geotunis.org

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NEWS

Australian Alliances for 3D Reality Capture, Scanning and Modelling Solutions South-Australian company Redstack, a provider of service and technology to the engineering and architectural community, has formed alliances with local partners Maptek and Avitus UAV Systems to deliver end-to-end reality capture, 3D scanning and 3D modelling solutions. These new partnerships complement Redstack’s relationships with Autodesk, Apple and Makerbot, enabling Redstack to deliver total solutions for design, engineering and BIM professionals. http://bit.ly/158ceNl

Maptek I-Site in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Geo-matching Adds Ground Penetrating Radar Category Geo-matching.com has recently added Ground Penetrating Radar to its broad spectrum of product categories. US Radar is the ďŹ rst supplier in this category with its 100 Series Geotechnical Systems product.

In addition to general speciďŹ cations, detailed information is given about data loggers, antennae and control modules. http://bit.ly/158aGD9

Supergeo and FOIF Join Forces to Deliver GIS Solution

" ' / ', ! #+ ,, * ," ' . * /#," #&)*(. ,, *0 ! #+ ,, * ," ' . * /#," %# /#,"(-, '0 %(++ #' * '! " #2 * +, * #( %#' #' )*(.# + ('2!-* % )(/ * (* ," " %% '! + (

+-*. 0#'! '! ! ' )* #+ )(+#,#('#'! " ', ! () * , + , ,/ ' ' ,,+ ' ," ', ! ' %#. * -) -) ) ,( , ,,,+ , ,+ -%% -' , ,,#( # ' -+ * #', * (' (," * #(++ +,* &%#' #' #' 2 % ('2!-* ,#(' ' ' ' ,*(- % +"((,#'!

1 ()0*#!", #2 * +, %% *#!",+ * + *. %% (," * ,* & *$+ * ," )*() *,0 ( ," #* * +) ,#. (/' *+

10 |

No 2719

ÂŽ

Supergeo Technologies, a GIS software and solution provider, has announced a cooperation agreement with Suzhou FOIF Co. (FOIF) to provide worldwide surveyors with a high-accuracy turnkey GIS solution. Mobile GIS is the basis for establishing GIS infrastructure with ďŹ eld data, and data accuracy determines the quality and subsequent processing time and cost. http://bit.ly/1ypSKj2

INTERNATIONAL | FEBRUARY 2015

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BY ALPER ÇABUK, ANADOLU UNIVERSITY, TURKEY GIM PERSPECTIVES

Delicate Touches of Geomatics on the Earth

I am very excited to be providing input for this corner of GIM International from now on. As a person who has dedicated his life to disseminating the utilisation of geomatic technologies to create a more liveable and sustainable world, I am looking forward to sharing my opinions and experiences about the importance of geomatic technologies for the future of our planet, starting here with a popular topic: geodesign.

Throughout history, man has always interacted with the environment to create a safe place to live. Exploring ancient settlements often reveals that they were built with respect to natural and environmental characteristics.

This limited the human impact on the environment while also protecting man against the negative forces of nature.

However, over time, rapid population growth, industrialisation, advancements in technology and improperly planned urban environments have increased man’s disregard for the natural and environmental factors which are in fact vital for survival. Hence, many settlement areas have suffered the devastating effects of natural disasters. Biological diversity has been damaged. This situation has inspired people to seek various solutions for making the world a more liveable place.

One such solution is the geodesign approach, which is in fact based on a previously adopted but long forgotten behaviour of man: corresponding with nature.

GIS pioneers have put forward the theory of using GIS as a tool for reapplying geodesign.

Geodesign brings together science, design and technology. It bridges the gaps between planners, citizens and decision-makers, and helps create alternative scenarios for the future based on design and planning solutions. While this is not a new practice, as mentioned above, geodesign is now being seen as a solution to ‘heal the world’ and will probably start a new movement for modern physical planning and design.

My colleague and role model Jack Dangermond underlines that geodesign is made up of the words ‘geo’ and ‘design’. ‘Geo’ refers to the whole spectrum of the world’s life support system, while ‘design’ is the overall creative process of finding proper solutions for problems using the available resources. I believe that the main goal of geodesign is to meet man’s vital needs through a ‘delicate touch’ on Earth. Geodesign helps us to understand the virtual capacity of natural and environmental resources, and thus efficiently utilise the natural systems and functions.

Consequently, the results support people and nature alike. The fundamentals of geodesign theory are based on obtaining geographical information correctly and accurately, and analysing that information efficiently.

Understanding the geography and knowing its characteristics, advantages, shortfalls and risks makes it easier to develop and compare design alternatives. Geodesign provides a precious framework for identifying geographical characteristics of land fully and

accurately to enable development of the most appropriate solutions in accordance with its natural characteristics and functions. As a result, man can correspond with nature and the environment once again. This understanding during the planning and design process is also of great importance for sustainability; in other words, sustainable planning is directly related to geodesign.

Global climate change, natural disasters with increasingly devastating impact, environmental problems…man has to face all this and more. Technology can make a difference; it can change our destiny. A geodesign approach can help us utilise renewable energy resources more efficiently, tackle climate change problems, determine suitable land for various uses and minimise the effects of disasters. Thus, man is not threatened by nature nor is nature threatened by man.

Don’t forget to use delicate touches of geomatics to heal the Earth. Until next time!

Biography Prof Dr Alper Çabuk has a BSc in landscape architecture, two MScs (in environmental management and landscape planning) and a PhD in environmental economics. He has contributed to numerous articles, books and national and international projects on geodesy, geographical information systems and remote sensing technologies. He is currently manager of the Earth and Space Sciences Institute of Anadolu University, Turkey.

Most shared during the last month from www.gim-international.com 1. Navigating the Future of the Geospatial and Geomatics Sectors - http://bit.ly/1BnvcZJ 2. Help! What Should We Do With All These 3D Points? - http://bit.ly/1BnvrDT 3. SPOT 7 Satellite Commercially Launched - http://bit.ly/1Az3UQW 4. UAVs Revolutionise Land Administration - http://bit.ly/1tem2Lo 5. Promising 3D Portable Measuring Instrument Launched - http://bit.ly/1tZqgM3

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Imagine the possibilities...

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No 2727

www.optech.com www optecch com optech

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28-01-2015 14:10:33

ENDPOINT BY MATHIAS LEMMENS, SENIOR EDITOR, GIM INTERNATIONAL

Milena is Disappointed Collaboration on Obstacle Avoidance Technology for UASs Ascending Technologies, Germany, and Intel have signed a collaboration agreement to work together on developing collision avoidance technology and algorithms for unmanned aerial systems (UASs), using Intel RealSense cameras and Ascending Technologies’ AscTec Trinity autopilot system. Intel also became Ascending Technologies’ first external investor and a minority shareholder. http://bit.ly/158ctIn

AscTec Falcon 8.

French Companies Join Forces to Intensify Deployment of Geoinformation Services Airbus Defence and Space has signed a partnership agreement with TerraNIS, a geoinformation services company working in the fields of agriculture, environment and land management, and ARTAL Technologies, a company specialising in software development. This agreement aims to boost the use of services based on satellite imagery by private and public players, both in France and internationally. http://bit.ly/1ypQxnT

In 1994 the European Commission saw the need for a European involvement in global satellite navigation. Twenty years have passed since then; what has Europe achieved? After eight years of scuffling, the EC agreed on the launch of the European civil satellite navigation programme, Galileo.

That was in 2002. Progress was steady: Galileo’s Giove A was put into orbit in late 2005 and Giove B followed in April 2008.

Two initial operational capability (IOC) satellites became operational in October 2011, with the second pair launched one year later.

These four satellites enabled validation of the Galileo concept both in space and on Earth.

There was much disagreement among the EU member states from the start, but the blade of hope that amalgamated the clashing minds was that Galileo would become a commercial success because users would be willing to pay for superior services. Together with GPS, Galileo would enable better coverage and higher reliability, also indoors and in urban canyons, which is key for safety-critical applications. But that hope was in vain. Cooperation is difficult, especially when it concerns a broad spectrum of bureaucratic institutions. The plethora of issues raised can be grouped into two main categories: converging interests and funding. The US was unhappy with a competitor which purely focused on the civilian user. At that time, selective availability had not yet been turned off, Beidou was still on China’s to-do list of upcoming projects while Glonass was in an advanced stage of decomposition. Another GNSS, especially from such a well-developed region as Europe, would threaten the US’s space

hegemony. The European countries with strong trade relations with the US agreed with the claims of Galileo’s superfluity and opposed it strongly.

How should a multibillion-euro project be funded? The panacea discovered in the mid-nineties was public-private partnership (PPP). Banks and multinationals were persuaded to invest two-thirds of the deployment cost, triggered by revenues through charges on high-precision services (low-precision services would be free and open to all citizens). That business model mouldered in 2007 when the US publicised that its military did not mind the rest of the world using GPS for free. The PPP vaporised and the burden of Galileo came to rest on EU taxpayers’ shoulders. By 2010 the project, once marketed as a catalyst for economic growth, was three times over budget without having raised a penny and nearly a decade behind schedule. The system would not be operational before 2020 and would cost EU taxpayers over EUR20 billion. Another issue was the discrepancy in time horizon. Publicsector timelines blow in the political winds gusting through the various EU countries, while political preferences may change over time – a guarantee that projects will take decades. The private sector cannot afford to wait patiently for profit to materialise.

In an attempt to win the sympathies of EU taxpayers, in 2011 the EC organised a drawing contest open to children born in 2000, 2001 and 2002. After all, our future is in the hands of our youth. The Galileo satellites would be named after the 27 winners – one per EU country (Croatia did not become an EU member until 2013). Hence, the four satellites launched in 2011 and 2012 bear the names Thijs, Natalia, David and Sif. The two satellites launched August 2014 – Doresa and Milena – were injected into the wrong orbit. Doresa Demay from Germany can nevertheless be proud since the engineers succeeded in switching on Doresa’s navigation payload once it reached its target orbit. However, Milena Kaznatsejeva from Estonia will remain disappointed; her satellite will continue circling aimlessly. It will be the year 202X before the Galileo signals will finally be operational for positioning and navigation purposes. Some call the project a textbook example of how not to run a largescale infrastructure project.

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GIM2015_News 13

INTERNATIONAL | 13

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GIM INTERNATIONAL INTERVIEWS ALLAN CARSWELL

From the Depths of the Ocean to the Surface of Mars Canadian Lidar company Optech originated in 1974 as a spin-off from Allan Carswell’s research at York University in Toronto, where he had initiated one of the first Lidar research programmes.

GIM International recently took the opportunity to interview the founder and chairman, who can be described as a true Lidar pioneer. Here, he talks about Optech’s 40 years of leadership in transforming Lidar systems from virtual obscurity into systems that are revolutionising diverse fields such as surveying, 3D imaging and active and passive optical remote sensing.

Can you tell our readers about the start of your career and the foundation of your company?

I joined the faculty of York University in 1968, and started an atmospheric Lidar research programme to combine my previous laser experience with York’s strong atmospheric science programme. Ontario Hydro was supporting the use of the York Lidar to map the smoke plume from a new coal-burning power station equipped with the latest

Allan Carswell.

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pollution controls which made the plume invisible to the eye. These studies were so successful that Hydro decided to purchase a Lidar of its own in 1974. Since I was unable to respond via the university, my wife Helen and I decided to set up Optech instead. Our bid was accepted, we hired a couple of former York colleagues, and Optech was on its way.

When the Lidar was delivered, it was probably the first commercial sale of a Lidar ever made.

At the university, I had also developed a Lidar for underwater applications using a pulsed argon ion laser operating in the blue-green spectral region. During shipborne Lidar studies on Lake Erie in 1973, this system had shown very attractive capabilities, including water penetration to depths of 20m. This led Optech to receive the support of the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) to assess the potential of Lidar for airborne bathymetric measurements. Since then, Optech has grown from a small family business into a member of the international Teledyne team, with a staff of over 200 and worldwide recognition as a leader in the development of Lidar and remote optical imaging systems. In May 2014 we celebrated our 40th anniversary with over 500 staff and family members at a weekend Family Conference at Niagara Falls.

How has the company evolved over the years?

In the early years Optech was mainly a contract R&D business, focusing on the development of atmospheric Lidar and the advancement of the technologies needed for airborne Lidar systems, and R&D continues to be an important component of our business to this day. The market for atmospheric Lidar has mainly been for one-of-a-kind systems with unique capabilities, developed for specialised applications such as air quality and meteorological applications. One Lidar used Raman scattering in the ultraviolet spectrum to measure the concentration of methane in natural gas at ranges of up to one kilometre. Several of our atmospheric systems were major ground-based Lidar facilities for studies of the stratosphere, using differential absorption to measure the ozone concentration and Rayleigh scattering to measure temperatures and gravity wave structures to altitudes over 70km. The highlight of our atmospheric Lidar work came when Optech was selected by NASA to provide a Lidar to study the atmosphere of Mars as part of the 2007 Phoenix mission. This Lidar, the first to operate on the surface of Mars, worked for over five months at temperatures down to -100C° and mapped the structure of the Martian atmosphere up to altitudes of

INTERNATIONAL | F E B R U A R Y 2 015

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BY WIM VAN WEGEN, EDITORIAL MANAGER, GIM INTERNATIONAL INTERVIEW

20km. These measurements proved that it snows on Mars – a new and important aspect of the Martian hydrological cycle.

A major step forward in airborne Lidar came in 1977, with Optech’s development of an airborne laser ice profilometer for the ice reconnaissance branch of Environment Canada. This system was used to obtain statistics about the surface roughness of the ice, since experience had shown that this information was of high value in understanding the nature of an arctic ice field. Thus, high-resolution absolute positional information was not mandatory for the Lidar ice profilometer. This situation offered a unique opportunity for us to obtain extensive operational experience with airborne laser surveying almost two decades ahead of the availability of GPS in the 1990s.

Allan Carswell with the first Lidar return from Mars, 28 May 2008.

Optech is specialised in products for use on land, at sea and in the air. How important is hydrography as a pillar of your company?

Since the advent of dependable blue-green lasers in the 1970s, Optech has maintained a special focus on the development of airborne Lidar bathymetry systems and has delivered many systems to an array of international users for measuring the depth and water column characteristics of inland and coastal waters around the world. For example, our first operational airborne Lidar bathymeter, the LARSEN 500, was delivered to the Canadian Hydrographic Service in 1984 and was used to produce Canadian Chart #7750 of Cambridge Bay in the Canadian Arctic, the first hydrographic chart created using airborne Lidar bathymetry. FLASH was delivered to the Swedish Defence Institute (FOA) to detect submerged objects, while ALARMS, a scanning system for the detection of underwater mines, was developed for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) during the first Gulf War in 1988. This was a most unusual airborne system, since it used a copper-vapour laser operating at a temperature of around 1,500C° to produce multi-kHz output at 510nm.

We have many years of collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the development of hydrographic Lidar systems, beginning with development of the 200Hz SHOALS-200. Originally installed in a Bell 212 helicopter, in 1988 this system was upgraded to a SHOALS-400 and outfitted for operation in a Twin Otter fixed-wing aircraft. In 1994 and 1995 Optech delivered

two HAWKEYE systems to the Swedish Hydrographic Department and the Swedish Navy. During the 2000s we continued the development of commercial bathymetry Lidar with delivery of the SHOALS-1000 to the Japan Coast Guard. This system collected 1,000 water-depth soundings per second with IHO Order 1 accuracy at coverage rates of up to 70km2/hour. SHOALS was subsequently upgraded to CHARTS, a system capable of 3,000 depth soundings and 20,000 topographic measurements per second, which was delivered to the US Navy and the Arab Emirates Survey Department.

datasets for final deliverables. We developed CZMIL for the US government under the auspices of USACE, in collaboration with the University of Southern Mississippi (USM).

CZMIL offers enhanced performance in surf zones and turbid waters, producing simultaneous 3D data and imagery of the beach and shallow-water seafloor, including seamless coastal topography, water column characterisation, object detection and bottom classification. It is currently the most validated sensor of its type in the world, and in use by several government agencies.

One of your flagships is Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL). Can you explain this system to our readers?

Moving back onto the mainland now, can you tell the readers of GIM International about how your specialisation in topographic mapping began?

CZMIL is Optech’s current state-of-the-art bathymetry system. It utilises a unique hybrid Lidar configuration and combines Lidar, camera and hyperspectral imagery, as well as the latest advances in 3D data visualisation techniques. The CZMIL HydroFusion software suite handles the data from all three sensors throughout the entire process, from mission planning to fusing the Lidar and imagery

Optech’s contribution to topographic mapping began in the late 1970s, with the development of small optical rangefinders capable of making ranging measurements directly from natural surfaces. Our first unit, the Model 60 Rangefinder, could operate off of low-reflectance rock surfaces at distances of up to 60 metres with a range resolution of 0.2m. ‘Extended range’ systems were

Allan Carswell After studies at the University of Toronto and a post-doctoral year in The Netherlands, Dr Allan Carswell joined RCA Victor in Montreal as director of the Optical and Microwave Physics Laboratory. He began Lidar studies at York University as a professor of physics and, both there and at Optech, he has pioneered the development of Lidar systems and applications. allan.carswell@optech.com

FEBRUARY 20 1 5 |

GIM0215_Interview 15

INTERNATIONAL | 15

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No 2717

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INTERVIEW

soon developed for operation at distances up to 500 metres. One of these systems was used in the late 1980s by colleagues at the University of Stuttgart to produce the first high-precision airborne laser profiling data, incorporating the capability of vegetation removal for surface surveying under a tree canopy.

In 1995, GPS became fully operational, significantly boosting your terrain mapping activities. Can you give us an overview of that development?

Indeed, after a modest start our activities were boosted by access to GPS in the mid-1990s, Optech pioneered the development of a large family of airborne laser terrain mapping (ALTM) systems. Hundreds of ALTMs are now in use worldwide, covering

first US-led mission to return a sample from an asteroid (Bennu) to Earth. Scheduled for launch aboard OSIRIS-REx in 2016, OLA will scan the surface of Bennu to create a highly accurate 3D model of the asteroid’s shape and structural topography.

With its laser scanning systems, Optech has been offering complete solutions for terrestrial surveying since the early 1990s.

Can you share more details of those systems with us?

The tripod-mounted intelligent laser ranging and imaging system (ILRIS) quickly scans and outputs XYZ geospatial data, producing accurate 3D point cloud information of any scene at ranges up to several kilometres.

Such rapidly acquired scanning/imaging data is in increasing demand by surveyors

WE HAVE LEARNED THE HIGH VALUE OF CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY AND GOVERNMENT RESEARCH GROUPS the full range of airborne applications, including wide-area mapping, engineeringgrade surveys and corridor mapping.

Present-day ALTMs incorporate a number of proprietary technologies, including advances in lasers, high-speed data acquisition and processing, and integrated Optechdeveloped cameras. In addition to their high-performance hardware, these systems include software covering the complete workflow encompassing flight management, airborne data processing, real-time in-air data monitoring and automated processing at amazing speeds.

The modern units have a wide range of configurations, sizes and operational capabilities. How would you describe them?

Our leading Pegasus ALTM uses multiple lasers and fixed multi-pulse technology (FMP) to operate at higher altitudes and with higher ground point density than any other airborne laser system. The Orion ALTM is small in size and weight, having originally been designed for UAV installation, and has three different models optimised for high-, mid- or low-altitude corridor applications. Our highlevel expertise in 3D mapping technologies has again been recognised by NASA’s selection of Optech, in partnership with MDA Space Systems, to develop the OSIRIS-REx laser altimeter (OLA). This will be aboard the

for geological surveys, emergency response, civil engineering and mining applications. The dual-axis scanning and motion compensation of the ILRIS allows collection of survey-grade data even on unstable platforms such as boats and off-road vehicles. A very recent Optech collaboration with the German company geo-konzept GmbH combines the ILRIS’s long-range, high-accuracy models of vertical surfaces with the downward-looking images of the small geo-X8000 octocopter UAV and its onboard non-metric camera.

Current studies have shown that this dualview approach greatly speeds up surveys while providing many advantages in terms of the quality of the data.

These high-speed, programmable laser scanners and camera technologies have contributed to our pioneering development of

Optech’s 40th anniversary celebrations at Niagara Falls. the Lynx family of systems for mobile surveying and mapping. Dozens of such systems are now in operation including the Optech Lynx SG1 mobile mapper, with integrated cameras including the Point Grey Ladybug, which is ideal for mobile surveys where accuracy, precision and resolution are critical.

Your company is well known for its interactivity with the market. How do you benefit from this?

Thanks to Optech’s close collaboration with many interested user groups around the world, we have learned the incredible value of working with potential users to clearly establish the solutions they need. In other words, we have learned how to integrate their ‘market pull’ with the ‘technology push’ from our team of ‘techies’. We have likewise learned the high value of close collaboration with worldwide university and government research groups, enabling Optech staff to remain at the cutting edge of the technologies and the science involved with advancing state-of-the-art Lidar. Such activities have been a major reason why Optech has maintained its industry leadership position over the last 40 years. Looking back, I think this has helped us to truly pioneer the advancement of Lidar technologies and applications. Nowadays, we are providing Lidar solutions for an ever-expanding array of applications that, even in our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined at the start.

FURTHER READING - S. Sizgoric, A.I. Carswell, ‘Underwater Probing with Laser Radar’, ASTM STP 573, American Society for Testing and Materials, 398-412, 1975.

- J. D. Houston, S. Sizgoric, A. Ulitsky, and J. Banic, Raman Lidar system for methane gas concentration measurements’, Applied Optics, Vol. 25, Issue 13, pp. 2,115-2,121 (1986) - J. Whiteway, M. Daly, A. Carswell, T. Duck, C. Dickenson, L. Komguem, C. Cook, ‘Lidar on the Phoenix Mission to Mars’, J. Geophys. Res., 113, Planets, Phoenix Special Issue, 2008 - A.I. Carswell, ‘Lidar Imagery – From Simple Snapshots to Mobile 3D Panoramas’, pp. 3-14, Photogrammetry Week ’11, Dieter Fritsch, Ed., Wichmann Verlag, 2011

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DERIVING RISK INDICATORS FROM OPEN DATA

Mapping Flood Vulnerability Floods have a high impact in densely populated areas, especially when strategic infrastructure is affected.

There are various human and territorial factors that influence an area’s vulnerability to flooding. Intensive agricultural activity and large urbanised areas are examples of such human factors, while the soil’s ability to absorb water is a major territorial factor. A quantification of flood vulnerability can be created by combining numerical indicators for the various factors into a single index number that is easy to interpret for decisionmakers. GIS tools can easily be applied to calculate these indicators from various open spatial data sources, offering a low-cost methodology to produce vulnerability maps.

The risk of devastating floods is being increased by heavier and more frequent rainfall due to climate change, as well as by the removal of vegetation and soil that used to absorb water. Flooding can damage infrastructure and buildings, costing human lives and causing considerable economic losses. Decision-makers need to estimate how susceptible various elements are to the impact of flooding. This is called ‘flood

vulnerability’. Maps that show the spatial distribution and quantify the vulnerability of at-risk elements facilitate decision-making.

The challenge is to quantify multiple human and territorial factors and express flood vulnerability as a single index number.

The severity of flood damage depends on how many people live in an area, the economic value of land and the density of buildings,

roads and other infrastructure. These factors are combined to form the human vulnerability index. Furthermore, the extent of the area affected by flooding depends on the ability of the soil to absorb water and on the presence of dams, dykes and other flood-protection infrastructure. If local protection volunteers or early warning systems, such as monitoring stations, are present in an area, the vulnerability will be lower. All of these factors are included in the territorial vulnerability index.

VULNERABILITY INDEX The overall vulnerability index ranks the vulnerability based on four classes: low, medium, medium-high and high. Its calculation combines two main components: the human vulnerability index and the territorial vulnerability index (Table 1).

Commonly available open spatial datasets can be used in GIS to calculate the factors each index comprises.

Figure 1, Spatial distribution of the human vulnerability index over the Musone watershed area (Marche Region, Italy) with high values along the coast and in towns near the Castreccioni dam.

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The human vulnerability index includes three factors: 1. Human system indicator (HSI): the normalised percentage of people younger than 5 years of age and older than 65, multiplied by population density within a given municipal area. This is a combination of statistical data and municipal boundaries.

2. Social system indicator (SSI): the type of

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BY CHIARA TAGNANI, MARCHE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, FRANCESCA SINI, MARCHE REGION, AND MARCO PELLEGRINI, LIF SRL, ITALY

FEATURE

Figure 2, Spatial distribution of the territorial vulnerability index with high values in the mountains of an impermeable rock complex and few monitoring stations or protection corps.

land cover from land-use maps, ranked based on estimated population density as an indicator of economic damage.

3. Infrastructure system indicator (ISI): the summation of the type of road (R) from road maps and number of buildings per square kilometre from topographic maps, assigning the highest value to hospitals (B).

The territorial vulnerability index also takes into account three factors: 1. Monitoring and prevention system indicator (MPSI): the summation of the number of hydro-meteorological monitoring stations and local civil protection volunteer corps per square kilometre within a given municipal area. Meteorological-hydrological monitoring networks can provide these numbers which can be combined with maps showing municipal boundaries.

2. Morphology indicator (MI): the ability of the soil to absorb water. This data is gained from geological maps.

3. Waterway infrastructure indicator (WII): the highest ranking for flooded areas, for

example in case of opening the bottom outlet of a dam. Maps with predicted flooded areas from hydrologic and

THE STRENGTH LIES IN THE SIMPLE CALCULATION METHOD USING STANDARD GIS TOOLS ON COMMONLY AVAILABLE OPEN SPATIAL DATASETS hydraulic models in combination with topographic maps are needed, and these are usually provided by dam owners.

were used as a reference for overlays with the flood vulnerability maps.

GIS PROCESSING AND RESULTS TEST AREA AND MATERIAL The test area was the Musone watershed, located in the Marche Region, which is in the eastern part of central Italy. The basin is mostly mountainous, except for the urbanised coast. The national and regional cartographic and statistical datasets which were used are publicly accessible via web portals [1,2,3] or provided by the relevant organisation for institutional purposes [4]. Table 2 shows

Human vulnerability index HSI SSI 28 – 57 Forest areas 58 – 98 Agricultural land

R Local roads Provincial roads

B 0.7 – 26.3 26.4 – 44.5

99 – 200 Industrial areas

State roads

44.6 – 54.2

>200

Primary roads/ highways

54.3 – 149.1 Hospitals

Residential areas

the open datasets which were employed to calculate each of the vulnerability factors.

1:10,000 orthophoto maps dating from 2006

Road, land use and geological maps were classified as indicated in Table 1. The vulnerability indicators were calculated and their values were assigned to the attribute tables of the associated layer. For each layer, a 10m x 10m vector grid was created to enable spatial comparison of the datasets and addition of the associated vulnerability indicators. The grid divides the vector map into individual grid cells which are polygon

Territorial vulnerability index MPSI MI 0.320- 0.131 Calcareous rock complex 0.130-0.051 Sands complex deposits of major 0.050-0.021 Fluvial streams 0.020-0.010 Impermeable rock complex

Ranking value WII -

1 (Low) 2 (Medium)

-

3 (Medium – High)

Flooded 4 (High) area

Table 1, Ranking values assigned to each indicator of the human and territorial vulnerability indexes.

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No 2675 GIM0215_Feature Sini 20

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FEATURE

FURTHER READING Di Mauro, C., Bouchon, S., Carpignano, A., Golia, E., and Peressin, S. (2006) Definition of multi-risk maps at regional level as management tool: Experience gained by civil protection authorities of Piemonte region, Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Risk Assessment and Management in the Civil and Industrial Settlements, pp. 1-12, Pisa, Italy, http://conference.ing.unipi.it/vgr2006/archivio/ Archivio/2006/Articoli/700196.pdf Figure 3,Spatial distribution of the overall flood vulnerability index.

features and can be attributed and selected.

The 10m x 10m grid size was a compromise between the computation load and the need to distinguish small elements such as roads and buildings. Ranking values from 1 (low) to 4 (high) were assigned to each indicator according to ranges and classes in Table 1.

For each polygon of the vector grid, indicator values related to the human vulnerability index and to the territorial vulnerability index have been summed. Each indicator is assumed to have equal weighting. The index values have again been ranked from low to high using a classification method based on natural breaks in the histogram. This standard method chooses class breaks that best group similar values and maximise the differences between classes. Figures 1 and 2 show the resulting human and territorial vulnerability index maps for the test area. The overall

Dataset Land use map Road map Geological map Municipal boundaries Topographic map Meteorological-hydrological monitoring network Numerical data of population and building density

vulnerability index was obtained by adding together the two indicators (Figure 3). GIS processing was carried out using Esri ArcGIS 9.3 and open-source Quantum GIS software.

CONCLUDING REMARKS The defined set of indicators discriminated different levels of vulnerability to flooding in the test area. The strength lies in the simple calculation method using standard GIS tools on commonly available open spatial datasets, which can be done quickly without expensive field work. The resulting maps can be used as input for decision-makers, enabling them to judge and prevent local risks. Since decision-makers must often deal with several risks at the same time, an interesting area for future research could be to further assess different types of risks caused by different types of hazards based on existing data.

Year of Year of last Raster (grid Input for production revision size) or vector indicator 1984 2007 vector SSI 2005 2011 vector R raster 2004 2010 MI (1m) HSI 2000 2009 vector MPSI WII 2000 2000 vector B 2005

2014

vector

MPSI

-

2011

-

HSI

Table 2, Marche region datasets, scale 1:10,000, their year of production and last revision, type of map and which human or territorial indicators were calculated from them.

More information 1. Italian National Geoportal: www.pcn.minambiente.it/GN/index.php?lan=en 2. Italian National Institute of Statistics: www.istat.it/en 3. Marche Civil protection portal: www.protezionecivile.marche.it 4. Marche Region Cartographic dataset: www.ambiente.marche.it/Territorio.aspx

CHIARA TAGNANI Chiara Tagnani received an MSc degree in environmental sustainability and civil protection from Marche Polytechnic University in 2013. ctagnani@yahoo.it

FRANCESCA SINI Francesca Sini is a hydrologist at Marche Region and contract professor of GIS tools in civil and environmental protection at Marche Polytechnic University in Italy. In 2006 she gained a PhD in methods and technologies for environmental monitoring from the University of Basilicata, Italy. francesca.sini@regione.marche.it

MARCO PELLEGRINI Marco Pellegrini is an ICT engineer at LIF srl and assistant lecturer in physics and telecommunications engineering at Marche Polytechnic University. He holds a PhD in methods and technologies for environmental monitoring from the University of Basilicata, Italy. marcopellegrini75@yahoo.it

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DEVELOPMENTS IN MULTISPECTRAL LIDAR ARE CHANGING THE WAY WE SEE POINT CLOUDS

Bringing Colour to Point Clouds Until now, most commercially available airborne Lidar systems have operated on one single wavelength, reflecting energy from a pulse which is then used for classification or visualisation. New developments have produced the first multispectral Lidar systems, which scan using laser pulses in a number of different wavelengths. Multispectral Lidar data contains valuable information about the objects scanned. The fast-moving advancements in this field are likely to represent the next technological leap in Lidar systems.

Lidar systems have fundamentally changed the world of mapping and surveying. Airborne systems can cover large areas and remote places, while terrestrial systems can be used for local yet detailed scans both outside and inside buildings. The ICESat satellite has even shown that Lidar technology can be used for mapping from space. Since the introduction of the first Lidar system there have been many technological developments such as multiple pulses in air and full waveform recording, and the next major development will most likely be multispectral Lidar.

IMAGES AND LIDAR Multispectral imaging data has been used for decades. Apart from the visible red, green and blue values, these datasets contain reflection data for many other wavelengths in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The technology relies on cameras that are sensitive to a large number of different wavelengths.

Cameras which can pick up between four and 20 wavelengths are called ‘multispectral’, and the term ‘hyperspectral’ is applied to cameras that are capable of recording more than 20 wavelengths. Multispectral imaging data is

used to classify regions or objects by their spectral response, for instance to recognise different plant species. In recent years there has been growing interest in combining such multispectral data with Lidar data. This can be done by gridding the Lidar data in a raster with a cell size similar to the multispectral data.

Alternatively, a look-up method can be applied to find the corresponding value from the multispectral data for each laser point.

Figure 1 shows an example of a point cloud that has been coloured by fusing the points with aerial images.

Figure 1, Single-wavelength Lidar dataset from Milton Keynes, UK, coloured by combining it with an aerial photograph.

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BY SAM FLEMING, IAIN WOODHOUSE AND ANTOINE COTTIN

FEATURE

Figure 2, False-colour image generated using Titan Lidar wavelength combinations (Image courtesy of Laserdata GmbH and Optech).

PASSIVE OR ACTIVE Current multispectral imaging systems work on the principle of passive remote sensing.

They detect the sunlight that is reflected from a surface towards the camera. Hence, the data recorded is highly dependent upon the light conditions, the position of the sun and the way the sunlight is reflected in all directions by the surface material. Conversely, Lidar is an active remote sensing system which detects the reflected laser light emitted by the sensor itself. It is independent of light conditions and can even work in the dark. An active system capable of sensing multispectral data is of great interest to scientists and professionals since it can provide multispectral data that is independent of solar illumination or the reflectivity of a surface material. Active systems can also benefit from multiple returns from a single pulse, thus making it possible to see beneath higher-lying points.

MULTISPECTRAL LIDAR Conventional Lidar systems operate on a single wavelength, usually in the infrared part of the spectrum. To obtain multispectral Lidar, one option is to fly multiple Lidar systems using different wavelengths simultaneously.

This necessitates access to the multiple Lidar systems, and also to an aircraft which can carry multiple systems and provide the associated power supply. This set-up results

(532nm). This is done because the infrared beam is reflected by the sea’s surface and hence enables easy identification of where the water meets the air. The green beam

A MORE ROBUST ALTERNATIVE IS TO OBTAIN THE SPECTRAL INFORMATION DIRECTLY FROM THE LIDAR USING MULTIPLE WAVELENGTHS OF LIGHT SIMULTANEOUSLY essentially in a number of overlapping point clouds. A point in one of the point clouds will not be exactly coincident with points in the other, overlapping point clouds.

A more robust alternative to this is to obtain the spectral information directly from the Lidar using multiple wavelengths of light simultaneously. The concept of using two wavelengths in combination is not particularly new. In fact, the use of multi-wavelength Lidar for bathymetric applications is an old technology, with the principle first laid out in 1965. Traditionally, there are two wavelengths for these systems, one in the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (1,064nm) and one in the green

(532nm) passes through the water’s surface and is used to locate the seabed. However, since these systems were not designed to extract spectral information about the surfaces from which they are reflected, differences in the spectral signature cannot be accurately analysed and put to meaningful use. More recent developments include the use of radiometrically corrected instruments produced by Optech’s CZMIL system, and the previous SHOALS systems.

THREE WAVELENGTHS In December 2014, Optech announced the first commercially available multispectral Lidar system, the Optech Titan. This system combines three separate wavelengths FEBRUARY 20 1 5 |

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Figure 3, Vertical profile showing the amount of spectral variation through the full vertical forest canopy.

along a single optical path. The wavelengths are positioned in the green (532nm) and infrared (1,064nm and 1,550nm) parts of the spectrum. The system is designed to suit a range of applications such as highdensity topographic surveying, shallow water bathymetry, environmental modelling, urban surface mapping and land cover classification. As the three beams do not pass along the exact same path in space, the points recorded for the Titan system do not lie in exactly the same place in 3D space. This means that a user collects three independent point clouds, each relating to a different laser wavelength. These can then be combined through a gridding process, resulting in a raster rather than a point cloud. Figure 2 shows a gridded point cloud from the Titan system, visualised in false colour to represent all wavelengths.

measure, not just the very top surface. This is particularly important when mapping natural surfaces where there is a presence of vegetation. This technology will allow identification of differences between materials at all points where the laser has reached the surface plus it will offer all the advantages of an active system.

APPLICATIONS IN FOREST MAPPING

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

The company Carbomap, which is a spin-off from the University of Edinburgh, processes multispectral Lidar data for forestry applications. Specifically, multispectral Lidar is used in this area to identify the ground layer and the differentiation between leaves and wood. The more accurately information can be derived in this way, the more accurately biomass estimates can be made – and biomass estimations are essential in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) monitoring.

The ultimate multispectral Lidar will provide a point cloud whereby each point is recorded in each of the three wavelengths. To do so, manufacturers will have to make a system where the beams overlap precisely and the returns are measured simultaneously.

Consistent calibration across the different wavelengths must be maintained, and interpreting the signal can be challenging

Another application is the use of multispectral Lidar for creating an understorey forest canopy map. This has been tested in practice

by Carbomap. Three airborne Lidar systems from RIEGL USA with different wavelengths (532nm, 1,064nm and 1,550nm) were flown on the same platform over a forest in Virginia, USA. Carbomap’s processing software was

THE ULTIMATE MULTISPECTRAL LIDAR WILL PROVIDE A POINT CLOUD WHEREBY EACH POINT IS RECORDED IN EACH OF THE THREE WAVELENGTHS because three waveforms have to be processed simultaneously. Once these technical challenges have been overcome, however, the benefits will be enormous.

Spectral information will be available for everything that the Lidar system can

used to tie the closest Lidar points from each wavelength dataset. Subsequently, a threechannel false colour composite was created.

Figure 3 shows the ratio of the energy returned from the different wavelengths. This demonstrates the amount of spectral variation

within the vertical forest canopy, which in turn allows specialists to map the understorey health and species of trees. Applications for this method include fire risk management and mapping of invasive species. The future of Lidar lies in further advancements in multispectral systems. Technological leaps like these, which will pave the way for new uses and applications, make the future of multispectral Lidar very exciting indeed.

SAM FLEMING Sam Fleming is a remote sensing expert with an MSc from University College London and a BSc in Geography from the University of Edinburgh, UK. His expertise lies in utilising Lidar data about forests for extracting structural parameters. He most recently worked for Greenstone as a carbon consultant. s.fleming@carbomap.com

IAIN H. WOODHOUSE Iain H. Woodhouse is lead co-inventor of the multispectral canopy Lidar. He is a professor of applied Earth observation at the University of Edinburgh, UK. In 2008 he co-founded Ecometrica and was a non-executive director from 2008-2012. In 2009 Iain founded REDD Horizon, a capacity-building programme in Malawi. In 2012 Iain was funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise award to help set up Carbomap. i.h.woodhouse@ed.ac.uk

ANTOINE COTTIN Antoine Cottin is an expert in bathymetric Lidar processing. He did his PhD in Quebec, Canada, and then a postdoc working in Mississippi, USA, with Optech and the US Army Corp of Engineers. He has a decade of experience in processing full waveform systems. Antoine has also led teams in successful field campaigns and has experience in the application and processing of terrestrial laser scanners. a.cottin@carbomap.com

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BY MATHIAS LEMMENS, SENIOR EDITOR, GIM INTERNATIONAL

FEATURE

LARGEST-EVER AIRBORNE SURVEY OF EARTH’S POLAR REGIONS

Operation IceBridge Operation IceBridge completed its 2014 Antarctic field campaign, the sixth in a row, at the end of November.

The campaign was aimed at recapturing a part of the Antarctic ice sheet which appears to be in irreversible decline. For six weeks from 16 October 2014, NASA’s DC-8 airborne laboratory collected a wealth of data for the benefit of gaining insight into climate change. The first IceBridge flights were conducted in spring 2009 over Greenland and in autumn 2009 over Antarctica. What is Operation IceBridge, which sensors are used, what can the data be used for and who may use the data? The author provides an overview.

Long-term changes in the extent and thickness of glaciers, ice sheets and snow covers are indicators of temperature changes and thus climate change. Snow reflects 80-90% of the incoming solar energy, while soil, vegetation or rock absorbs 80-90%.

Absorption results in a warming of the Earth’s surface causing yet more snow to melt – a typical feedback loop. Study of the places where water often alternates between a solid and liquid state provides insight into the changes in the extent and thickness of ice and snow and thus in temperature changes.

When ice sheets and glaciers plunge into the sea, the water level rises; however, their subsequent melting does not affect the sea level. Glaciers, which cover 10% of the land and store 75% of the world’s fresh water, change the morphology of the landscape when they plough through bedrock.

Continuous study of these phenomena and their changes over time requires collection of data over many years on snow depth, ice surface elevation, ice thickness and the shape and composition of rock beneath the ice.

surface is stable. For the Arctic region this is from March to May and for the Antarctic region from October to November (Figure 2).

The daily flights each last 8 to 12 hours in which two to three terabytes of data are captured. Compared to a satellite, an aircraft can observe an area of far less extent (Figure 3) and can only collect data for a few weeks.

Conversely, the benefit of using aircraft is that they can carry a suite of dedicated sensors.

SENSORS The suite of sensors installed on the DC-8 laboratory and other aircraft during campaigns includes: - Digital mapping system (DMS)

-

Airborne topographic mapper (ATM) Land, vegetation and ice sensor (LVIS) Gravimeter Magnetometer Four radar sensors.

The four radar sensors will be treated in the next section. The DMS is a nadir-looking camera recording digital images which are stitched into mosaics and used for detecting openings in sea ice and to create detailed maps. The ATM is a scanning Lidar that measures the surface elevation. Changes in elevation of the ice surface over the years and thus volume changes can be determined from a time series. The LVIS

FROM ICESAT TO ICEBRIDGE To collect such data in the Arctic and Antarctic regions NASA launched the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) in 2003. It stopped collecting data by the end of 2009, and ICESat-2 is scheduled for launch in 2017. The time gap in data collection between ICESat and ICESat-2 will be bridged by airborne surveys: IceBridge. Flights with the DC-8 laboratory (Figure 1) began in October 2009, later joined by a P-3 Orion, a King Air B-200, in 2010, the Gulfstream V in 2011 and the Guardian Falcon in 2012.

The campaigns are carried out when the ice

Figure 1, A view of the Forrestal Range in the Pensacola Mountains, flight 14 November 2014 (Courtesy: NASA, Michael Studinger).

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the layers in between. Its data is used to measure recent snow accumulation rates and to calculate sea-ice thickness. The frequencies of the accumulation radar range from 600-900MHz (wavelength range: 33-50cm) which may penetrate snow and ice to a depth of 100m. It shows the layers with strong and continuous reflection, thus providing insight into snow accumulation rates in the past or over longer time spans.

Figure 4 shows an example of a profile generated from such radar data. The data from the accumulation radar, snow radar

Figure 2, West Antarctica: glaciers and mountains in the evening sun of 29 October 2014 (Courtesy: NASA, Michael Studinger). is an additional Lidar sensor optimised for operation at high altitudes, thus enabling the survey of large areas. The gravimeter senses the density of the materials under the ice surface. Water has less density than rock and thus has a lower gravitational pull, enabling rock to be distinguished from water and the shape of water cavities under floating ice shelves to be determined.

Accelerometers measure the force of gravity while gyroscopes keep the pose of the sensor stable. GNSS measurements enable removal of the accelerations caused by the motion of the aircraft. Density combined with magnetometer data gives indications about the type of bedrock material. Shape and composition of bedrock helps to predict how moving ice interacts with bedrock and how warm sea water might flow beneath the ice.

altimeter that operates over the frequency range from 13-17GHz (wavelength ~ 2cm), which is similar to the primary sensor on the CryoSat-2 operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Ku-band penetrates through snow and reflects off the surfaces of ice sheets and the sea. Combining this with ATM data enables the thickness of snow over sea ice to be determined. The snow radar uses the frequency range from 2-8GHz (wavelength range: 4-15cm) to map the characteristics of snow on top of ice sheets with high vertical resolution, thus allowing detection of the snow and ice surfaces and

THE SENSORS ENABLE REMOVAL OF SNOW AND ICE IN VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE MODELS TO UNCOVER BEDROCK and Ku-band radar combined enable a study of the top 100 metres, but it is not possible to build a decent ice-sheet model without good elevation data representing the bed topography. For this purpose a fourth radar has been developed: the MCoRDS, which employs many frequencies to image internal ice layering and bedrock. MCoRDS data enables improvements to computer models aimed at forecasting how ice sheets will respond to climate change.

RADAR Radar allows sub-surface mapping from high altitudes. IceBridge uses four radar sensors integrated in one package: (1) Ku-Band radar altimeter; (2) snow radar; (3) accumulation radar; and (4) multichannel coherent radar depth sounder (MCoRDS).

The sensors operate in the microwave part of the electro-magnetic (EM) spectrum. The high frequencies can see more detail but the depth of penetration is limited, whereas low frequencies can penetrate several kilometres into snow and ice. The frequency bands of the four radars differ. Combined they enable the entire snow/ice sheet to be examined, from the surface to the bedrock or sea surface. The Ku-band radar is a wideband

Figure 3, Flight lines of the missions over the Arctic region, particularly Greenland, since the start of IceBridge in October 2009.

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No 2721

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FEATURE

Figure 4, An example of a profile created from the data returned by the accumulation radar.

data categories are produced from raw data for over 60 data products. These end products result from processing data from single sensors, combining data from several sensors or from applying computer models.

The ATM data, for example, is available in a raw format as distance between the aircraft and the ice sheet. Such raw range data enables users themselves to calculate ice surface elevation, ice slope and roughness, and elevation changes over time. The data can be accessed at the NSIDC website through an interactive map from which individual flight lines and datasets can be selected for downloading. The products stick to the standards of NASA’s 2006 Earth Science Reference Handbook, which eases understanding and use. Its free availability allows anyone to explore the data. Scientists around the world are building maps of the bedrocks of Greenland and Antarctica, and improving seasonal forecasts of Arctic sea-ice coverage and glacial melt rates.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Figure 5, The Jacobshavn bed in Greenland is cloven by a colossal canyon.

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) may enable creation of even more detailed maps of the bedrock. The finer the resolution, the better – and since UASs enable dense flight lines to be followed, they would be well-suited.

IceBridge’s upcoming Arctic campaign is scheduled to begin in March 2015.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS JACOBSHAVN

No 2721

The sensors discussed above enable removal of snow and ice in virtual landscape models created by a computer, thus uncovering bedrock. Removing ice and snow from the land area of Greenland revealed a canyon, the longest on Earth, under the ice sheet: the Jacobshavn bed (Figure 5). Extending over 750km and with a depth of 800m and a width of 10km, the ravine matches the Grand Canyon in scale. Its discovery in August 2013 will bring better insight into how water, snow and ice move over the island.

It may explain why Greenland is not filled with buried lakes, which one would expect given the bowl-shaped basin in the interior caused by the weight of the ice sheet. Water

melting under the interior ice sheet seems to drain into the sea through the northern part of the canyon instead of pooling in the middle. The distinctive V shape and the flat bottom suggests that the canyon was carved by water, rather than ice, but that still does not sufficiently explain the absence of buried lakes. Maybe other canyons, as yet undiscovered, also contribute to water draining into the sea.

OPEN DATA The masses of data have to be processed within six months to enable timely publication on the NSIDC website. The first of the many processing steps is archiving and quality control. Next, four

Thanks are due to George Hale, Science Outreach Coordinator of Operation IceBridge, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, for providing information and commenting on the final draft.

MATHIAS LEMMENS Mathias Lemmens gained a PhD degree from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, where he presently lectures on geodata acquisition technologies and geodata quality. He was editor-in-chief of GIM International for ten years and now contributes as senior editor. m.j.p.m.lemmens@tudelft.nl

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BY JOSÉ CARLOS GARCIA AND RAFAEL TORRÓ, SPAIN, AND DAVID HINE, AUSTRALIA

FEATURE

OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR PROCESSING LIDAR POINT CLOUDS

Lidar Quality Assurance Basic tools for processing Lidar point clouds, which can be extended depending on needs, provide a flexible platform for service providers and users alike. Here, the authors demonstrate how a publicly available opensource application with basic tools for visualising, editing and analysing Lidar point clouds has been extended into a compliant platform that serves diverse applications including mapping of power-line corridors, land uses and riverbeds.

The platform, called DielmoOpenLiDAR and released under the GNU GPL licence, enables management and display of massive Lidar datasets together with vectors, rasters, OGC services such as WMS, WFS, WCS and other geoinformation. For professional users, the key benefits are the simplicity of implementing new algorithms to generate any output and the possibility to launch these algorithms easily in a tile structure, thus allowing processing on different computers to improve speed. The platform is based

on open-source software, primarily gvSIG and SEXTANTE. Open source enables the use of many functionalities for free, which reduces development costs and time, and the extension of services without any licensing costs.

QUALITY ASSURANCE The core of the platform is the quality assurance (QA) part, which enables basic statistics to be derived from the headers of the LAS files, in particular the bounding

boxes of the captured areas and tables (Table 1). Added to this, statistics are determined about the area captured by every flight line, including the shape of the area captured in a flight line together with a table (Table 2). The QA module also computes height accuracy using ground truth and the redundancy in the overlaps between flight lines. A check on completeness is performed by indicating regions with gaps, which usually correspond with water bodies but may also concern areas which have erroneously not been captured.

Furthermore, the software outlines the point density of regions as intervals indicated by the user and thus also highlights the regions that do not comply with the point density requirements (Figure 1). A measure of matching errors is obtained from height differences of points in flat areas within overlaps.

In addition to QA, the platform enables a variety of parameters to be derived from the Lidar point cloud and these parameters to be compared against other (vector) geodatasets.

The latter enables validation of the content of geodatasets and detection of changes over time.

POWER-LINE CORRIDORS

Figure 1, Red indicates areas where the point density is too low.

Corridors of power lines often follow strips where vegetation may grow quickly and become so tall that encroachment with cables and pylons may cause damage and dangerous situations. Mapping of such corridors is among one of the first-ever FEBRUARY 20 1 5 |

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Figure 2, Two examples of visual tools for manual checking of false classifications.

Figure 3, Automatically identified buildings with one height in the cadastral dataset but two heights in reality.

applications of airborne Lidar. To obtain reliable results quickly after flight, automation is key. A total of 35 steps enable vegetation risk analysis reports to be provided within three weeks and ground clearance reports within four weeks. 15 steps focus on QA, 10 steps are carried out fully automatically and 10 steps require manual editing. Cables and pylons are manually digitised from maps and Lidar data and stored as vector layers and these represent the corrected network. Next over 40 types of classification – including buildings, roads, ground, towers, conductors at different voltages and crossing wires – are manually identified and outlined from the

Lidar point cloud. After QA of the corrected network, it is used to cross-check the Lidar classification results. Next any vegetation which may interfere with cables and pylons is manually outlined. To ensure that the polygons do not contain errors, such as points in a pylon classified as vegetation, they are manually checked (Figure 2). Computation and QA is then repeated, resulting in a vegetation encroachment report. Finally, minimum distances to the ground, roads or to other conductors are determined for each conductor. The resulting report shows ground clearances of conductors based on weather conditions at the time of Lidar data capture.

# points

Area [m2]

Z max [m]

Z min [m]

Version

C:\dielmo\5366849.las 0.3674

7,198

19,591.89

289.37

230.07

LAS10F0

The Spanish Cadastre wanted to automatically detect land-use errors in its datasets. To support this aim, Dielmo developed the Catastro Lidar module. Based on vegetation parameters such as height and canopy coverage, different land uses including arable land, vineyards, olives, grapevines, citrus, riparian trees and meadows can be identified in Lidar point clouds based on a maximum likelihood classification. The type of land use is defined in the module but the user is free to add extensions. The module also allows detection of swimming pools, irrigation reservoirs and other constructions which are not represented in the cadastral data.

Changes in building heights (Figure 3) and displacement of buildings can be identified as well as buildings present in the dataset but non-existent in the Lidar point cloud.

C:\dielmo\5376847.las 1.7393

11,586

6,661.29

353.02

325.72

LAS10F0

RIVERBEDS

C:\dielmo\5376848.las 0.039

34,075

873,705.47

360.8

97.23

LAS10F0

C:\dielmo\5376849.las 0.26129

261,274

999,950.00

265.38

82.44

LAS10F0

C:\dielmo\5376850.las 0.37609

131,508

349,672.76

245.91

116.75

LAS10F0

A variety of parameters which can be derived from the Lidar heights can be used to improve hydrological datasets and to support flood modelling. Often the digital elevation models (DEMs) of riverbeds are coarse and inaccurate due to inaccessibility and dense vegetation. These DEMs are often densified

Density [points/m2]

File

Table 1, Example of a QA table containing the file path, approximate point density, total number of points, area covered, height range and LAS format.

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LAND USE

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FEATURE

by interpolation which may introduce artefacts. Dielmo has developed algorithms to improve the DEM in the riverbed. First, the DEM is created from the Lidar data followed by manually drawing the axis of the river and the outlines of the area. Next, profiles with an interval of one metre are extracted from the DEM and the lowest point is determined for each profile. Going downstream the heights of the profiles should decline, and profiles which do not obey this rule are eliminated. The others are used to correct the interpolation by integration with the Lidar data. This procedure can also be used to extend the Lidar DEM with bathymetric profiles measured with GNSS. Using these profiles as reference heights, the Lidar DEM can be completed.

FLine

# Points

Area [m2]

Density [points/m2]

19

8,242,256

1,396,576.19

5.90176

17

840,891

161,861.65

5.19512

35

10,366,201

1,732,498.00

5.98338

36

283,127

72,400.00

3.91059

18

7,951,762

1,409,562.09

5.6413

33

9,321,257

1,414,111.28

6.5916

Table 2, Example of a QA table containing flight line number, total number of points, area and mean point density of the overlaps.

CONCLUDING REMARKS In consultation with foresters, the platform has been extended for estimation of silvicultural parameters such as height, canopy cover fraction, crown diameter and the vertical structure of the forest. The Java-executable code and user documentation can be downloaded[1].

Service providers can customise the software for any client’s needs while users can build new tools on top of the software themselves. Future developments will focus on bathymetric Lidar data. The challenge lies in the classification of the waterbed and the automatic discrimination between noise points and small rocks.

WEBSITE 1. http://bit.ly/1Ccd8ab

JOSÉ CARLOS GARCIA José Carlos Garcia is founder and CEO of Dielmo 3D S.L., a firm founded in 2003. Prior to this he investigated methods to improve the quality and accuracy of DEMs in the LEO remote sensing group at the University of Valencia, Spain. dielmo@dielmo.com

DAVID HINE David Hine is CEO of Land and Water Management Pty Ltd, specialised in information management systems for agriculture and the integration of sensors into automated information systems.

David.Hine@landandwater.com.au

RAFA TORRÓ Rafa Torró holds a BSc in Geography and an MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing. He is international business developer at Dielmo 3D S.L. and has participated in research projects at Regional Cartographic Institutes in Spain. rafa@dielmo.com

No 2729

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DŠGS FLYEYE IN THE SKY

Building a UAV from Scratch The DŠGS FlyEye is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built from scratch as a data-capturing tool and learning exercise by members of the Slovenian Students of Geodesy Association (DŠGS) at the University of Ljubljana. Having started as just an idea over a year ago, today the FlyEye has exceeded all goals and expectations. The process of learning to build and operate a UAV, and collecting and processing the data, has opened our eyes to new possibilities in the world of UAVs and 3D representations. Hopefully, it will continue to inspire generations of geodesy students.

The rise of UAVs in recent years has increased their use in the field of geodesy.

Since the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering did not own its own UAV for spatial data acquisition purposes, we at DŠGS decided to build one for the benefit of the geodetic educational community in Slovenia. Building a UAV was both a challenge and an opportunity for us to prove our ingenuity and expertise in a fun and engaging way. With help from our Faculty and

Figure 1, DŠGS FlyEye quadcopter.

YOUNG GEO IN FOCUS ‘Young Geo in Focus’, published bimonthly, offers recent graduates or postdocs the opportunity to share their experiences with our worldwide audience. If you’ve just completed an innovative project with your first employer or finalised your PhD research with results that are of interest to practitioners feel free to contact the editorial manager at wim.van.wegen@geomares.nl.

36 |

private donors, to whom we are very grateful, we collected the necessary funds to purchase tools, components, a camera and other supplies needed for building a UAV. Since this was our first attempt at building a UAV, we initially spent a lot of time on the Internet researching component combinations that would best suit our technical requirements and financial capabilities. We decided to build a quadcopter as it is the most common and easy-to-build multi-rotor UAV that can be used in more instances than other UAV types, such as plane, fixed-wing or balloon.

The advanced autopilot system Pixhawk with corresponding u-blox GPS+compass module, telemetry radios, open-source firmware (ArduCopter) and software (Mission Planner) for PC or tablet was selected for our project due to its completeness and simplicity (from calibrating and adjusting a UAV to planning and executing a flight). We powered our UAV using an aluminium and glass-fibre quadcopter frame with a diagonal length of 666mm in combination with 490kv brushless motors, 12-inch plastic propellers and a 4-cell lithium polymer battery with 5,000mAh capacity. The digital compact camera Canon IXUS 132 running on open-source CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit) software was the least expensive option for us to collect aerial imagery of sufficient quality.

As the components began to arrive, we started piecing them together and soon the

DŠGS FlyEye was born and flew in the sky for the first time. To tailor the UAV for data capture we had to make a few modifications on the camera mount to stabilise it and remove vibration effects from the acquired photos. The DŠGS FlyEye (Figure 1) has been fully operational since April 2014, five months after the start of the project.

WORKING WITH DŠGS FLYEYE In addition to building the UAV, we also had to learn how to operate it. Piloting skills were first practised using a small quadcopter toy called Hubsan. This turned out to be quite difficult because none of us had previously operated radio-controlled (RC) aerial vehicles; just like when learning to drive a car, we had to get used to the RC transmitter controls and quadcopter responses.

Next we had to learn how to adjust and calibrate the UAV for flying, and plan an autonomous flight with Mission Planner.

Fortunately, Mission Planner is very user friendly, particularly in terms of planning an autonomous flight path for surveying an area of interest (Figure 2). Depending on the required parameters (spatial resolution, overlap, sidelap) and characteristics of the area (size, diversity of terrain), the height and flight speed were set and automatic data capturing positions were programmed.

For our first planned flight, we had to set several ground control points (GCP) in order to produce georeferenced data. These were

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BY JERNEJ NEJC DOUGAN, ALEKSANDER ŠAŠO, URH TRŽAN AND BLAŽ VIDMAR, UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA YOUNG GEO IN FOCUS

Figure 4, 3D model reconstruction of a building.

Figure 2, Mission planning in Mission Planner. clearly visible targets in the area of interest that were positioned with a GNSS receiver (total station). The battery of the DŠGS FlyEye allowed us to fly it for a maximum of 15 minutes. Therefore, we prepared a flight path over the area of interest for about 10 minutes, giving enough time to safely take off, execute autonomous flight and land. During flight, the UAV had to be continuously watched to ensure that the autonomous flight was proceeding as planned.

The acquired photos and GCP positions were then post-processed for a variety of final products. Our options were to collect a point cloud, digital surface or terrain model (DSM/ DTM) and orthophoto or true orthophoto.

For post-processing we used Agisoft Photoscan, but we also had an opportunity to try some others (3Dsurvey, Pix4Dmapper, DroneMapper). All have their pros and cons, but the final results are of high quality in most cases. Other software solutions that we found useful for working with post-processing or presentation were ArcGIS, Global Mapper, FugroViewer, Geomagic, Sketchfab and ExtraZoom.

RESULTS Since the DŠGS FlyEye has been operational, we have managed to finish quite a few test projects and gained diversified results.

For example we produced a point cloud, DSM and true orthophoto of a vineyard in Slovenian Styria obtained from aerial imagery captured by the DŠGS FlyEye (Figure 3).

Other examples can be viewed on our website [1].

Besides capturing images in nadir direction, UAVs also allow data capture at different angles. This motivated a project in which aerial photos of our Faculty building on Hajdrihova Street in Ljubljana were captured with the DŠGS FlyEye camera in nadir

Figure 3, Point cloud, DSM and true orthophoto. direction and from an angle of about 45 degrees. Some photos were also taken from the ground. The result of the data processed with Agisoft Photoscan was a 3D model reconstruction of a building (Figure 4).

We also tested using a digital camera Canon A490 modified to sense infrared (IR) light.

The default RGB filter that blocks IR light was replaced with a filter that allows it to pass through. Out of the imagery gained with the normal camera and imagery gained with the IR-modified camera, we created two orthophotos (RGB and IR) of newly constructed housing estates and a material depot in Ljubljana. With the red and IR band orthophotos, we were able to calculate the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) in ArcMap (Figure 5).

Figure 5, Calculated NDVI presented with colour ramp (dark red: -1, yellow: 0, dark green: 1).

More information 1. www.dsgsflyeye.com

FURTHER READING - Making of an affordable quadcopter for capturing spatial data (CLGE Student Contest 2014) - Construction of Unmanned Vehicle for Spatial Acquisition – A Project of Slovenian Geodetic Student Society FlyEye (ISPRS Student Consortium Newsletter) - Eisenbeiß, H. (2009), UAV photogrammetry, ETH Zürich.

FUTURE PLANS With our time as master’s students soon coming to an end, it is necessary to start considering the future of the DŠGS FlyEye. Our plan is to recruit young enthusiasts such as ourselves and hand over the DŠGS FlyEye to them. Hopefully it will be upgraded and successfully used by future DŠGS generations for many years to come.

The DŠGS FlyEye already represents an important development in our careers; it has completely changed our perspective on the world and has considerably expanded the horizons of our expertise. We are eager to learn and work with the DŠGS FlyEye while we still can – and with passion and hard work, we believe there will still be a place for us in this beautiful world of UAVs and 3D representations.

THE AUTHORS Jernej, Aleksander, Urh and Blaž are master’s students of geodesy and geoinformatics at the University of Ljubljana and members of the Slovenian Students of Geodesy Association (DŠGS) where they built the FlyEye. They all received their Bachelor of 1 Science in Geodesy and Geoinformatics from the University of Ljubljana and share a love of science and fieldwork.

1: Jernej Nejc Dougan 2 nejc.dougan@gmail.com 2: Aleksander Šašo aleksander.saso@gmail.com 3 3: Urh Tržan urh.trzan@gmail.com 4: Blaž Vidmar 4 mr.blazvidmar@gmail.com

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E-CAPTURE R&D

The Future Is in Our Hands e-Capture Research and Development S.L. is a technology-based company located in Mérida (Badajoz), Spain. e-Capture creates image-based products which allow users to perform accurate measurements on portable devices. One of the company’s focal points is to democratise the survey industry and make things easier for non-professionals.

e-Capture is a private company founded in April 2012 by engineer Pedro Ortiz Coder who was inspired by photogrammetry research conducted during his studies. Six out of seven of the other partners within e-Capture are professional surveyors with more than 10 years’ experience in the sector. e-Capture began its research and development work financed only by its own funds, until in the summer of 2013 it received support in the form of public funds from an European tender (FEDER-INNTERCONECTA).

That tender required cooperation with other two companies and the investment of EUR1.5 million in order to receive a non-repayable grant of EUR800,000. In the shareholders’ agreement, the other two companies involved in the project (Solventia and Toponova) both agreed to give e-Capture ownership of the developed technology.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGICAL PROJECTS e-Capture comprises 8 engineers plus other research groups which actively collaborate to create new technology and products in order to recoup their investment. The company is currently working in two projects based on the technology created: EyesMap and EyesCar. The main product, EyesMap, is a tabletbased instrument which performs real-time measurements and is also a 3D dense model generator. EyesMap enables calculation of coordinates, areas and surfaces of all kinds of objects and environments. The instrument is portable and allows the movement, location, modelling and utilisation of augmented reality visualisation in redefinition and alignment in the space of multiple elements.

The measurement instrument takes shape through a powerful tablet with two integrated

3D point cloud of a small lizard. Macro options and 3D modelling of small objects, insects and animals are among the other possibilities.

38 |

cameras as well as a depth sensor, an inertial system, a GPS-GNSS and other devices.

A functional prototype is currently being validated and EyesMap is expected to go on sale to the general public in March/April 2015.

THE INSTRUMENT PERFORMS REAL-TIME MEASUREMENTS AND IS ALSO A 3D DENSE MODEL GENERATOR

The second project, EyesCar, is very closely related to EyesMap as it uses some of the same technology. The aim is to develop the first mobile mapping system based on advanced photogrammetry. Its technology validation has been completed and, as a pilot project, EyesCar has produced impressive results but it now requires investment to complete its development. Private and public funding is currently being raised for the creation of a prototype.

As a small company, e-Capture benefits from the deep involvement of all its engineers and employees in its projects. e-Capture is a modern company which prides itself in taking special care of its members to ensure a productive working atmosphere.

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BY PEDRO ORTIZ CODER, TECHNICAL MANAGER, E-CAPTURE R&D, SPAIN

EyesMap can measure points, distances and coordinates in real time at the touch of a finger.

INTERNATIONAL SCOPE e-Capture already has a strong basis for its international sales activities, since many dealers from all over the world have been in contact with the company to express their interest in EyesMap. For now, the main focus of the sales department is to create a dense network of dealers to promote and sell EyesMap in 2015.

WIDE-RANGING APPLICATIONS However, EyesMap has not only attracted interest from dealers in the geomatics sector; one of the most attractive aspects of the EyesMap concept is that it can be used for many different kinds of applications including security (police/forensics, accident reconstruction), medical (rehabilitation, dermatology), art restoration, forest engineers, biology and many others. Hence, regular use of EyesMap is not only limited to surveyors, architects and archaeologists, which is why

e-Capture has been forced to extend its market to include new dealers and commercial fields.

VIEW OF THE FUTURE A new generation of mobile measurement systems is coming. EyesMap is an open system available for software and hardware developers through the EyesMap store. New algorithms can be trialled, and the system can be improved using new software for multiple potential applications. New capture sensors can be another part of such portable systems. All software can be managed, in this case, from Windows SO using a powerful tablet, and the 3D modelling or measurements can be created and sent immediately to others teams of engineers via 3G/4G or Wi-Fi.

COMPANY’S VIEW

e-Capture has created an attractive user interface, which is easy to use, even for non-professionals.

will be an indispensable part of the future.

Compact and accurate capture devices are embedded in the company’s future vision.

In order for such small devices to be used in big projects, and if all the measurements need to be done in near real time, cloud computing will be essential. For 2015, the R&D department’s main objective is to integrate new sensors and to generate powerful new algorithms to improve the accuracies and capacities of EyesMap. For the company as a whole, the key target in the months ahead is to successfully launch EyesMap and, subsequently, EyesCar, and to establish a high-quality network of dealers and customers.

EyesMap combines communication with measurement, and at e-Capture they believe that these kind of smart devices

More information www.ecapture.es

Every month GIM International invites a company to introduce itself in these pages. The resulting article, entitled Company’s View, is subject to the usual copy editing procedures, but the publisher takes no responsibility for the content and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the magazine.

3D scanning using EyesMap with photogrammetry of a building in Mérida, Spain.

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No 2716 GIM0215_Company View 40

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INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SURVEYORS FIG

New FIG Leadership and FIG Working Week 2015 The new leadership of FIG started its fouryear term (2015-2018) on 1 January 2015.

FIG marked and celebrated this transition on 24 January at a kick-off event in Athens, Greece. In line with the theme of the new leadership for the term, the day was themed ‘Ensuring the Rapid Response to Change, Ensuring the Surveyor of Tomorrow’. National and international participants and speakers contributed to the interpretation of this theme, and their input will be used in the final FIG Council Work Plan which will be presented at the 38th FIG General Assembly on 17 May 2015.

FIG WORKING WEEK Apart from the FIG General Assembly, the FIG Working Week 2015 will comprise a three-day conference with the overall theme of ‘From the Wisdom of the Ages to the Challenges of the Modern World’. The FIG Working Week 2015 will be held from 17-21 May in Sofia, Bulgaria. An ancient country with a wealth of heritage, Bulgaria is located at a strategic crossroads and its capital Sofia has a very rich history dating back many centuries. Lessons from that history may help us in our attempts to make the world a better, more comradely and more friendly place, in parallel with the development and advancement of modern technology.

The programme will be underpinned by invited high-level keynote speakers in three plenary sessions. The three themes will be:

FÉDERATION INTERNATIONALE GÉOMÈTRES INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SURVEYORS INTERNATIONALE VEREINIGUNG DER VERMESSUNGSINGENIEURE

The surveyors’ response to changing the city management; The surveyors’ response to pro-growth land management; and Global and Regional Professional and Institutional reforms. Hereto a technical programme with up to 10 parallel sessions and workshops has already been designed within all the areas of the ten FIG Commissions. The technical programme covers a broad range of surveying areas, including session titles on Innovative Approaches in Teaching and Learning, Training New Generations, GIS, Geospatial Data Processing, Atmospheric Application of GNSS, Datum Definition, GNSS, Deformation Monitoring, Wide-area Engineering Surveys for Monitoring and Features Determination, Fit-for-purpose Land Administration, 3D Cadastre, Crowdsourced Land Administration, Environmental Challenges in Mega Cities, Disasters and Environmental Management, Urban and Rural Land Use Planning, Public Private Partnerships and Land Development, Taxation Assessing and Mass Valuation, Expropriation Appraisal, Current and Emerging Trends in Construction and Cost Management.

Prof Dr Chryssy Potsiou, president of the International Federation of Surveyors 2015-2018

offered aimed at highlighting the role of the profession in Bulgaria and set in the broad context of FIGs Commissions. An excellent programme of social functions/tours has been put together for the conference which promises delegates a tantalising taste of some of the great locations, cuisine and performing arts in Sofia and beyond.

The FIG Working Week will gather together international practitioners and academics from all disciplines within the surveying, geospatial, natural and built environment professions.

Surveys from recent years show that 50% of the participants represent the private sector and 50% the public sector and academia.

In addition, a range of technical tours will be

More information www.fig.net

PRESIDENT Chryssy Potsiou, Greece

COMMISSION 1 Brian Coutts, New Zealand

COMMISSION 5 Volker Schwieger, Germany

COMMISSION 9 Liao Junping (Patrick), China

FIG OFFICE Louise Friis-Hansen, manager

VICE PRESIDENTS Bruno Razza, Italy Diane Dumashie, United Kingdom Pengfei Cheng, China Rudolf Staiger, Germany

COMMISSION 2 E.M.C. (Liza) Groenendijk, The Netherlands

COMMISSION 6 Ivo Milev, Bulgaria

COMMISSION 10 See Lian ONG, Malaysia

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SURVEYORS, FIG, KALVEBOD Brygge 31-33 DK-1780 Copenhagen V Denmark Tel + 45 3886 1081 Fax + 45 3886 0252 Email: fig@fig.net Website: www.fig.net

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF COMMISSION OFFICERS Brian Coutts, New Zealand

COMMISSION 3 Enrico Rispoli, Italy COMMISSION 4 Angela Etuonovbe, Nigeria

COMMISSION 7 Gerda Schennach, Austria COMMISSION 8 Kwame Tenadu, Ghana

FEBRUARY 20 1 5 |

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GSDI

GLOBAL SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE ASSOCIATION

Alberta Data Partnerships: A Public-Private Partnership Approach to SDI A new brand and long-term agreement with the Provincial Government of Alberta, Canada, will provide more opportunities for Spatial Data Warehouse Ltd. (SDW), AltaLIS, Alberta’s geospatial community and all Albertans.

SDW was created in 1996 as a not-forprofit company to take over digital mapping activities – at that time primarily cadastral mapping – that were previously handled by the Government of Alberta. The original board members were the provincial utility companies and the Alberta government. In 1999, a joint venture agreement was signed with AltaLIS, a for-profit private corporation, to provide the day-to-day updating, licensing, sales and distribution of cadastral mapping data, while SDW remained a virtual company focused on governance and strategy.

Today, SDW board membership has broadened its depth to also include organisations that represent the energy and forestry sectors, urban and rural municipalities, and the Alberta Energy Regulator. This board structure has strengthened SDW’s governance and strategic vision, as well as the ability to leverage this group of land users to explore unique mapping business opportunities. The products offered by the joint venture have continued to expand as SDW and AltaLIS have worked together to provide title and public lands disposition mapping, as well as to become as a distributor for imagery, Lidar and utility data.

This business model is extremely successful in delivering important mapping products at low costs to users and significant savings

GSDI

Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR David Coleman, Canada

SECRETARY GENERAL Harlan Onsrud, USA SECRETARY Alan Stevens, USA

PAST PRESIDENT Abbas Rajabifard, Australia

TREASURER Eddie Pickle, USA

PRESIDENT ELECT David Lovell, Belgium & UK

BUSINESS MANAGER Marilyn Gallant, USA

to provincial taxpayers. The introduction of the cadastral mapping product eliminated operational data maintenance and management costs (CAD2.5 million to 3 million annually in 1996) to the Government of Alberta. The filing fee charged to those who submit plans to be integrated into the fabric has not changed during that time, and the licence fee to customers who access the final product has been cut in half.

Economic, regulatory, legislative and technological changes have presented SDW with new opportunities, and the organisation has recently rebranded itself as ‘Alberta Data Partnerships’ (ADP)[1]. ADP’s tagline is ‘Sustainable Spatial Data for Responsible Development’ and a big part of that is its commitment to open data, exploring new business models and stakeholder engagement. ‘Responsible development’ means regulating, building and operating in Alberta as transparently and efficiently as possible to meet the needs of all stakeholders.

Having accurate, affordable and accessible data to support Alberta’s industry, government and the public is important to ensure that Albertans achieve the best possible outcomes from the development of the land base.

On 1 November 2014, ADP signed a new long-term mapping data agreement with the Government of Alberta allowing ADP to undertake greater investment in technology with AltaLIS as part of the joint venture. It will also enable ADP to more fully explore other business opportunities with government and private industry.

Alberta Data Partnerships.

A key deliverable of the agreement was to begin distribution of selected data products at no-cost through AltaLIS – data that will be subject to the Alberta Open Government Licence. This is the first public-private partnership that the Government of Alberta has entered into to distribute open data and is a result of ADP’s ongoing efforts to offer more no-cost data to its stakeholders.

Initial feedback on the new brand, ‘Agreement’, and particularly the availability of open data products has been very positive.

Information sessions held in November 2014 in Edmonton and Calgary have given stakeholders the chance to share their ideas and opportunities as ADP undertakes strategic renewal.

Erik Holmlund, MEng, is executive director of Alberta Data Partnerships.

More information 1. www.abdatapartnerships.ca www.gsdi.org

OPERATIONS & COMMUNICATIONS 1) LEGAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC Roger Longhorn, Belgium & UK Chair: Dr ir Bastiaan van Loenen, Delft University of Technology, RECRUITMENT MANAGER The Netherlands Bruce Westcott, USA Chair: Dr ir Joep Crompvoets, KU Leuven Public Governance NEWS EDITOR Institute, Belgium Kate Lance, USA 2) TECHNICAL GSDI STANDING Chair: Eric van Praag, COMMITTEES Venezuela

3) OUTREACH AND MEMBERSHIP Chair: Denise McKenzie, UK 4) SOCIETAL IMPACTS Chair: Carmelle Terborgh, USA

GSDI OFFICE GSDI Association Attention: Marilyn Gallant, Business Manager

International Geospatial Society 946 Great Plain Avenue, President: Sives Govender, South PMB-194 Needham, Africa MA 02492-3030, USA President-elect: Dav Raj Paudyal, Australia www.gsdi.org

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No 2712 GIM0215_GSDI 44

28-01-2015 14:08:31

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GEODESY IAG

50th Anniversary Celebrations of the First SLR Measurement 31 October 2014 marked the 50 th anniversary of the first successful satellite laser ranging (SLR) measurement, and that was celebrated at the 19th International Workshop on Laser Ranging from 27-31 October in Annapolis, USA. The workshop, which was hosted by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, attracted over 180 people from 23 countries.

The first session included a brief history of SLR through talks by six pioneers. Henry Plotkin, head of the GSFC 1964 SLR team, recalled the events that led to the first successful laser ranging measurement in 1964. Chuck Lundquist presented the early SAO programme that established the international network of Baker-Nunn cameras and laser ranging systems. George Veis discussed the early recognition of the need for an international reference frame and the improved accuracy that SLR could provide. François Barlier reviewed the history of the CNES laser ranging programme and its cooperation with SAO. John Bosworth reported on the contributions of the NASA Crustal Dynamics Project. The session concluded with a presentation on the early lunar laser ranging activities by Jim Faller.

Some further highlights of the meeting were: • Successful two-way optical links to the Mercury Laser Altimeter and optical/radio two-way links that show the promise of interplanetary optical transponders.

• Time transfer by laser link to Jason-2 has demonstrated the way to synchronise laserranging observatories to the nanosecond level.

• The ILRS Analysis Centres have submitted their contributions for the ITRF2014 development.

The mission of the Association is the advancement of geodesy.

IAG implements its mission by: - advancing geodetic theory through research and teaching, - collecting, analysing and modelling observational data,

• SLR remains a key contributor to precise orbit determination and validation of oceanaltimeter missions including ERS-2, GFO, Jason-1 and -2 and Envisat, the newer missions CryoSat-2, SARAL and HY-2a, and the upcoming Jason-3.

• SLR has played an important role in the validation of the GPS-derived orbits for ICESat-1 and would play such a role in future ice-altimeter missions.

• Lunar laser ranging currently provides many of the best tests of gravity that are available.

• A number of initiatives underway will address some of the large geographic gaps and technology voids in the ILRS network.

The NASA Space Geodesy Program is planning up to ten CORE sites.

• Many groups are implementing the new-technology SLR hardware and software, enabling them to enhance data acquisition, pass interleaving, single photon operation and different levels of automation.

• While GRACE is providing an unprecedented insight into the time variations in the Earth’s gravity field, the longest wavelength gravity field components and their time variations are provided by SLR. • New-generation SLR system designs in both Russia and China offer promise of improved signal-to-noise performance and less susceptibility to range biases.

• Several stations have begun to include space debris tracking in their activities.

• A recent SLR tracking campaign demonstrated that some stations were able to track more than 30 GNSS satellites over the course of a week without significantly decreasing coverage of other satellites.

- stimulating technological development, and - providing a consistent representation of the figure, rotation and gravity field of the Earth and planets, and their temporal variations.

Vice-President: Harald Schuh, harald.schuh@ gfz-potsdam.de Secretary General: Hermann Drewes, iag@dgfi.badw.de

IAG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2011 Immediate Past President: - 2015 Michael Sideris, sideris@ucalgary.ca President: Chris Rizos, President of Commission 1 c.rizos@unsw.edu.au Reference Frames: Tonie van Dam, tonie.vandam@uni.lu

Participants at the 19th International Workshop on Laser Ranging (image courtesy: Deborah McCallum, NASA GSFC).

• Many new and creative ideas on satellite retroreflector array development are being explored.

At the Thursday evening banquet, Dr Piers Sellers, GSFC deputy director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate and a NASA astronaut, related some of his humorous experiences from his three Shuttle journeys and six space walks. Furthermore, Pippo Bianco, chair of the ILRS Governing Board, presented the ILRS Pioneer Award to John Degnan and Michael Pearlman, citing their leadership and contributions to the field of SLR.

By Carey Noll (NASA GSFC), Michael Pearlman (SAO), Jan McGarry (NASA GSFC) and Stephen Merkowitz (NASA GSFC).

More information www.iag-aig.org http://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/lw19

President of Commission 2 Gravity Field: Urs Marti, urs.marti@swisstopo.ch

Chair of Global Geodetic Observing Systems (GGOS): Hansjörg Kutterer, hansjoerg.kutterer@bkg.bund.de

Members at large: Claudio Brunini, claudiobrunini@yahoo.com Richard Wonnacott, rwonnacott@gmail.com

President of Commission 3 Rotation & Geodynamics: Richard Gross, richard.gross@jpl.nasa.gov

President of Communication & Outreach Branch (COB): József Ádam, jadam@sci.fgt.bme.hu

President of the ICC on Theory: Nico Sneeuw, sneeuw@gis. uni-stuttgart.de

President of Commission 4 Positioning & Applications: Dorota Brzezinska, dbrzezinska@osu.edu

Representatives of the Services: Assistant Secretary: Riccardo Barzaghi, riccardo.

Helmut Hornik, barzaghi@polimi.it hornik@dgfi.badw.de Tom Herring, tah@mit.edu Ruth Neilan, ruth.e.neilan@jpl.nasa.gov FEBRUARY 201 5 |

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No 2711 GIM0215_IAG 46

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INTERNATIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION ICA

A New ICA Journal The profile of ICA, which was promoted in 2014 by elevation to full ICSU membership, will be further enhanced in 2015 by the establishment of its own scientific journal.

The decision to go ahead with this important step has been based on several years’ analysis of the existing publication landscape of cartographic journals, discussion with the ICA Commissions, assessment of the demands and needs of academia and scientific organisations, and the overall acknowledgement of the importance of a scientific journal for a major international organisation. The journal will be called the International Journal of Cartography, with editors-in-chief William Cartwright and Anne Ruas, and Taylor & Francis will be the professional publication partners. The editorial and publishing teams are working hard to be able to launch the first issue in early 2015.

The overall aims of the journal are to: • offer more options for those who wish to publish their scientific work in an internationally recognised journal and, in this way, respond to an increasing demand within academia worldwide for career promotions • provide a platform for reporting on new findings, insights and developments concerning scientific cartography and GIScience and thus strengthen the foundation and visibility of our domain to cater for the entire ICA community, by publishing work on topics ranging from service-oriented cartography, web mapping, geovisualisation and generalisation, to the history of cartography, cartographic heritage,

EXECUTIVE MEMBERS PRESIDENT Georg Gartner, TU Wien, Austria

maps and society, and art and cartography; • equally address two pillars of the ICA: cartography and GIScience. It is hoped to attract authors doing research in cartography and GIScience to publish in a journal of cartography and GIScience rather than in any journal of whatever domain (and there are many). A scientific domain is very much defined by its main output media, and strengthening these media will help to contribute to enlargement of the discipline and increased visibility.

It can be noted that there are already many respected and well-established cartographic journals around the world. Most of these address their ‘home market’, publishing papers primarily in the national language. Meanwhile, the three prime English-language journals – Cartographica, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, and The Cartographic Journal – have a long-standing and most successful history of being close partners of ICA, for example in producing numerous special issues for recent International Cartographic Conferences. The success of these journals, and the large number of articles on cartographic topics in other journals in neighbouring disciplines, have convinced ICA that cartography needs a further highquality record which will proactively provide a vehicle for new and additional research through publications and relevant outcomes.

The enhancement of the range of advanced academic and research publications will ensure increased acknowledgment of the relevance of cartography, its role in the

Mapping, South Africa Menno-Jan Kraak, ITC, The Netherlands Sukendra Martha, Bakosurtanal, Indonesia Paulo Menezes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Anne Ruas, IFSTTAR, France Tim Trainor, Census Bureau, USA Liu Yaolin, Wuhan University, China

SECRETARY-GENERAL & TREASURER Laszlo Zentai, Eotvos University, Hungary

PAST-PRESIDENT William Cartwright, RMIT University, Australia

VICE-PRESIDENTS Derek Clarke, Surveys and

EDITOR ICA NEWS Igor Drecki, University of

Auckland, New Zealand COMMISSION CHAIRS Cognitive Visualisation sara.fabrikant@geo.uzh.ch Map Design kfield@esri.com Art & Cartography scaquard@gmail.com History of Cartography elri@worldonline.co.za Map Projections mlapaine@geof.hr Theoretical Cartography qydu@whu.edu.cn Data Quality chenxy@ecit.cn Atlases peter.jordan@oeaw.ac.at

The first issue of International Journal of Cartography will be published in early 2015.

geospatial domain, and a raising of esteem of all cartographic journals, including the raising of impact factors. Potential authors and readers are encouraged to visit the new journal’s website [1] to contribute to and support this new vehicle.

More information 1. www.edmgr.com/tica/ www.icaci.org

Mapping from Remote Sensor Imagery xyang@fsu.edu Geospatial Analysis and Modeling bin.jiang@hig.se Geovisualisation gennady.andrienko@iais. fraunhofer.de Maps and the Internet rcammack@mail.unomaha.edu Ubiquitous Cartography arikawa@csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp Digital Technologies in Cartographic Heritage livier@ topo.auth.gr Open Source Geospatial Technologies

suchith.anand@nottingham.ac.uk Generalisation and Multiple Representation dirk.burghardt@tu-dresden.de Planetary Cartography hhargitai@gmail.com Mountain Cartography karel.kriz@univie.ac.at Neocartography s.l.chilton@mdx.ac.uk Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People acoll@utem.cl Maps and Society chris.perkins@manchester.ac.uk Use and User Issues elzakker@itc.nl Cartography and Children

jesus@map.elte.hu Education and Training dave.fairbairn@newcastle.ac.uk GI for Sustainability vstikunov@yandex.ru Map Production and Geobusiness philippe.demaeyer@ugent.be Cartography in Early Warning and Crises Management undatra@yahoo.com Geoinformation Infrastructures and Standards acooper@csir. co.za GIM CORRESPONDENT David Fairbairn, Newcastle University, UK

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Scanning System S-3180V 3D laser measurement system

+ Integrated HDR camera allows combination of brilliant colours with high-resolution scan data + The fastest laser-scanner over 1 million points/second + Eyesafe laser class 1 + IP53 dust & water resistance

TI Asahi Co., Ltd. International Sales Department 4-3-4 Ueno Iwatsuki-Ku, Saitama-Shi Saitama, 339-0073 Japan Tel.: +81-48-793-0118 Fax. +81-48-793-0128 E-mail: International@tiasahi.com

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www.pentaxsurveying.com/en/

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INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING ISPRS

ISPRS Geospatial Week 2015 Information extraction from remotely sensed data, geospatial information management and visualisation, and the development of geospatially based innovative applications and services are all very important topics of research in photogrammetry, remote sensing and geoinformation science. Hence, these topics will be covered at the ISPRS Geospatial Week 2015 which will be held in La Grande Motte (Montpellier), France, from 28 September to 2 October 2015. In order to discuss recent developments and future trends in research in these fields, the ISPRS Geospatial Week proposes a bundle of already established conferences/workshops combined with emerging events, namely: - Silvilaser (Lidar applications for assessing forest ecosystems) - Laserscanning (Point cloud acquisition and processing) - CMRT (Object extraction for 3D city models, road databases and traffic monitoring) - ISA (Image sequence analysis for object and change detection) - ISSDQ (Geospatial data quality) - Gi4DM (Geoinformation for disaster management) - Geo-Hyper (Hyperspectral geospatial imagery and processing) - Geo-VIS (Cognition and decision-making with imagery and abstract maps) - Geo-BigData (Processing and rendering of geospatial big data) - Geo-UAV (UAVs for geospatial data collection) - RSDI (Remote sensing data infrastructures for land applications services) The objective of the ISPRS Geospatial Week is to present a full working week containing a very rich and homogeneous scientific programme related to geoinformation. The mix of methodology-oriented and thematically oriented events will bring communities

Each image symbolises one of the workshops to be organised at the Geospatial Week.

together and encourage the exchange and cross-fertilisation of ideas. This event addresses experts from research, government and private industry. It consists of highquality papers, and provides an international forum for the discussion of leading research and technological developments as well as applications in these fields.

Readers of GIM International are encouraged to contribute to the ISPRS Geospatial Week 2015 by submitting their latest research and development work to one of the conferences

28 Lianhuachixi Road Haidian District, Beijing 100830, PR CHINA Email: chenjun@nsdi.gov.cn

ISPRS COUNCIL 2012 – 2016 CHEN JUN PRESIDENT National Geomatics Centre of China

CHRISTIAN HEIPKE SECRETARY GENERAL Leibniz Universität Hannover Insitut für Photogrammetrie und GeoInformation (IPI) Nienburger Str. 1, 30167 Hannover, GERMANY

Email: isprs-sg@ipi. uni-hannover.de

and workshops by the deadline of 15 April 2015. Accepted papers will be published in the ISPRS Archives and Annals series. Note that the Archives were recently included in the CPCI, the Conference Proceedings Citation Index, and the Annals are bound to follow very soon. More information can be found at [1].

The meeting is organised by IGN and IRSTEA, under the auspices of the French Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

More information 1. www.isprs-geospatialweek2015.org www.isprs.org

MARGUERITE MADDEN 2ND VICE PRESIDENT Center for Geospatial Research (CGR) Department of Geography The University of Georgia Athens, Georgia 30602-2305, USA Email: mmadden@uga.edu

ORHAN ALTAN 1ST VICE PRESIDENT Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Civil Engineering Department of Geomatic Engineering 34469 Ayazaga-Istanbul, TURKEY Email: oaltan@itu.edu.tr LENA HALOUNOVA CONGRESS DIRECTOR

Czech Technical University Faculty of Civil Engineering RS Laboratory Thakurova 7 166 29 Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC Email: Lena.Halounova@fsv.cvut.cz

University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UNITED KINGDOM Email: jon.mills@ncl.ac.uk ISPRS HEADQUARTERS see address of secretary general

JON MILLS TREASURER School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

FEBRUARY 201 5 |

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FUTURE EVENTS FEBRUARY 14. OLDENBURGER 3D TAGE Oldenburg, Germany from 04-05 February For more information: E: christina.mueller@jade-hs.de W: www.jade-hs.de/3dtage

AGENDA

III INTERNATIONAL FORUM ‘INTEGRATED GEOSPATIAL SOLUTIONS – THE FUTURE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES’ Moscow, Russia from 15-17 April For more information: W: http://sovzondconference.ru/2015/

ISRSE 2015 Berlin, Germany from 11-15 May For more information: E: isrse36@dlr.de W: www.isrse36.org

FIG WORKING WEEK 2015 TUSEXPO 2015 The Hague, The Netherlands from 04-06 February For more information: E: a.hagenstein@tusexpo.com W: www.tusexpo.com

MARCH AUVSI’S UNMANNED SYSTEMS EUROPE Brussels, Belgium from 03-04 March For more information: W: www.auvsi.org/ UnmannedSystemsEurope/Home/

GEOSPATIAL ADVANCEMENT CANADA 2015 Ottawa, Canada from 03-05 March For more information: E: neilthompson@wcgroup.ca W: www.geospatialcanada.com

ANNUAL WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY 2015 Washington, DC, USA from 23-27 March For more information: W: www.worldbank.org/ en/events/2014/08/06/ landconference2015

JOINT URBAN REMOTE SENSING EVENT Lausanne, Switzerland from 30 March-01 April For more information: E: contact@jurse2015.org W: http://jurse2015.org/

APRIL GEO-TUNIS 2015 Hammamet, Tunis from 01-05 April For more information: E: atigeo_num@yahoo.fr W: www.geotunis.org

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THE WORLD CADASTRE SUMMIT, CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION Istanbul, Turkey from 20-25 April For more information: E: tahsin@itu.edu.tr W: http://wcadastre.org

INTEREXPO GEO-SIBERIA-2015 Novosibirsk, Russia from 20-22 April For more information: E: argina.novitskaya@gmail.com W: www.expo-geo.ru

Sofia, Bulgaria from 17-21 May For more information: E: fig@fig.net W: www.fig.net/fig2015

London, UK from 27-28 May For more information: E: dsmith@divcom.co.uk W: http://geobusinessshow.com/ conference/

JUNE HXGN LIVE

Chicago, IL, USA from 21-25 April For more information: E: meeting@aag.org W: www.aag.org/annualmeeting

Las Vegas, NV, USA from 01-04 June For more information: E: contactus@hxgnlive.com W: http://hxgnlive.com/las.htm

GISTAM 2015

28. INTERNATIONAL GEODETIC STUDENT MEETING (IGSM)

MAY ASPRS 2015 ANNUAL CONFERENCE Tampa, FL, USA from 04-08 May For more information: W: www.asprs.org/ASPRSConferences.html

MUNDOGEO#CONNECT LATIN AMERICA Sao Paulo, Brazil from 05-07 May For more information: E: connect@mundogeo.com W: http://mundogeoconnect. com/2015/en/

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 23-28 August For more information: E: christina@congrex.com.br W: www.icc2015.org

UAV-G CONFERENCE 2015 Toronto, CA, Canada from 30 August-02 September For more information: W: www.uav-g-2015.ca

GEO BUSINESS 2015

AAG ANNUAL MEETING 2015

Barcelona, Spain from 28-30 April For more information: E: gistam.secretariat@insticc.org W: www.gistam.org/

AUGUST 27TH INTERNATIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC CONFERENCE

Espoo, Finland from 01-06 June For more information: E: felix@igsm.fi W: www.igsm.fi

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS Denver, CO, USA from 09-12 June For more information: W: www.uasconferences.com

SEPTEMBER PHOTOGRAMMETIC WEEK 2015 Stuttgart, Germany from 7-11 September For more information: W: http://www.ifp.uni-stuttgart.de/ phowo/index.en.html

INTERGEO 2015 Stuttgart, Germany from 15 -17 September For more information: W: www.intergeo.de

CONVENTION OF SURVEYING “AGRIMENSURA 2015” La Habana, Cuba from 23-26 September For more information: E: silvia@unaicc.co.cu W: www.agrimensuracuba.com/

OCTOBER INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF DIGITAL EARTH 2015 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada from 06-10 October For more information: E: sponsorship@digitalearth2015.ca W: www.digitalearth2015.ca

JULY ESRI INTERNATIONAL USER CONFERENCE San Diego, CA, USA from 20-24 July For more information: E: uc@esri.com W: www.esri.com/events/user-conference

CALENDAR NOTICES

RIEGL LIDAR 2015

Please send notices at least 3 months before the event date to: Trea Fledderus, marketing assistant, email: trea.fledderus@geomares.nl

Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China from 05-08 May For more information: E: riegllidar2015@riegl.com.

W: www.riegllidar.com

For extended information on the shows mentioned on this page, see our website: www.gim-international.com.

INTERNATIONAL | F E B R U A R Y 2 015

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No 2725

© 2015, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble and the Globe & Triangle logo are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. Access, InSphere, and Terraflex are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. GEO051 (01/15)

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