Gim international september 2017

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

INTERNATIONAL

ISSUE 9 • VOLUME 31 • SEPTEMBER 2017

UAV-based Mobile Mapping: Potential, Challenges and Outlook

A Cost-effective Alternative to Airborne and Terrestrial Modalities

AUTOMATED MODELLING OF TUNNELS..

FIT-FOR-PURPOSE LAND ADMINISTRATION SOLUTIONS..

OVERCOMING THE BOTTLENECKS OF TODAY’S DENSE POINT CLOUDS..

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CONTENTS

GIM PERSPECTIVES

INTERVIEW PAGE 14

PAGE 12

The ‘Where’ is the Disruption

Overcoming the Bottlenecks of Today’s Dense Point Clouds

How the Evolution of Spatiotemporal Synchronicity Culminates in Effective Land Reform

FEATURE

GIM International interviews Murat Arikan, NUBIGON

PAGE 27

Precisely Flexible Positioning Pay-as-you-go Software-defined GNSS

YOUNG GEO

PAGE 35

Scanning a WWII German Bunker Complex

FEATURE PAGE 19

Automated Modelling of Tunnels

Ocean Technology Student Survey Project

From Point Clouds to Cross-sectional Dimensions

News & Opinion

FEATURE PAGE 22

Implementing Land Administration Solutions in Ethiopia Consultation with Stakeholders and Fit-for-purpose Thinking

FEATURE PAGE 31

UAV-based Mobile Mapping: Potential, Challenges and Outlook A Cost-effective Alternative to Airborne and Terrestrial Modalities

Editorial Insider’s View News

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Organisations FIG GSDI IAG ICA ISPRS

38 38 39 40 40

Other Advertisers index Agenda

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Depicted on the front cover of this issue: High-density (30 points per metre) elevation data of Chicago, IL, USA, collected using Harris Corporation’s proprietary Geiger-mode Lidar sensor. Geiger-mode and single-photon Lidar are very suitable for large-scale surveying jobs as these technologies enable the survey of extensive areas at lower costs. (Courtesy: Harris Corporation)

ADVERTISERS INDEX CHC, www.chcnav.com ComNav Technology, www.comnavtech.com Diversified Communications, www.divcom.com FOIF, www.foif.com Gintech, www.gintec.cn Hi-Target Surveying, en.hi-target.com.cn Kolida, www.kolidainstrument.com RIEGL, www.riegl.com

2 30 26 34 10 7, 9, 11 10 44

Ruide, www.ruideinstrument.com Siteco, www.sitecoinf.it South Surveying, www.southsurveying.com Spectra Precision, www.spectraprecision.com Teledyne Optech, www.teledyneoptech.com Texcel, www.texcelinstrument.com TI Asahi, www.pentaxsurveying.com TI Linertec, www.tilinertec.com

41 8 4 43 24 17 18 42

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EDITORIAL DURK HAARSMA, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

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.

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Copyright © 2017, Geomares Publishing, The Netherlands All rights reserved. ISSN 1566-9076

Mature initiative For the last seven years, there’s been even more of a buzz in steaming-hot New York in the midst of summer. Okay, that’s perhaps a bit over the top, but nevertheless…every summer, several hundred policymakers, directors of cadastres and national mapping agencies, ministers and secretaries of state, permanent representatives and other delegates from Member States plus a large contingent of observers from the private sector and non-governmental organisations come together there. As the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), they shape the future implementation of geospatial information at the very heart of government decision-making right around the globe. Why, one could ask?

Well, because good information forms the basis for better decision-making – whether by governments, society or citizens. And, these days, almost all good information must contain a ‘geo’ component. Therefore geoinformation needs to be at the core of the decisionmaking process. UN-GGIM has become an increasingly mature initiative over the past seven years, gaining more and more traction among decision-makers.

Last year the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution acknowledging the fundamental

Photography: Arie Bruinsma

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, Martin Kodde MSc, Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk, Frédérique Coumans, Ir. Sabine de Milliano CONTENT MANAGER Wim van Wegen COPY-EDITOR Lynn Radford, Englishproof.nl KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER Sybout Wijma ACCOUNT MANAGER Sharon Robson, Myrthe van der Schuit CIRCULATION MANAGER Adrian Holland DESIGN ZeeDesign, Witmarsum, www.zeedesign.nl

role that geospatial information plays in global sustainability and development. In the meantime the United Nations has also set the Sustainable Development Goals, including an immediate set of goals to work towards. During this year’s UN-GGIM meeting the focus was once again on shaping the work programme, with interaction on topics like the Global Geodetic Reference Frame, the fundamental geospatial themes, legal and policy frameworks and issues related to authoritative data and geospatial information for sustainable development as well as land administration and management. We will provide an extensive report on the work done during the 7th Session of UN-GGIM in an upcoming edition of GIM International.

It is certainly worth mentioning that the 7th Session of UN-GGIM welcomed and applauded the establishment of a Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information, as proposed by the USA’s NOAA and supported by the International Hydrographic Organization. It was subtly mentioned that two-thirds of the globe is covered by water, and such a large area of the world certainly deserves a group of experts devoted to it. The new Working Group will work on linking geospatial information in the very important coastal areas where land and sea meet and where the majority of the world’s citizens are living.

On behalf of GIM International, I would like to once again take this opportunity to congratulate Dorine Burmanje, CEO of the Dutch Cadastre, who was elected co-chair of UN-GGIM. Ms Burmanje was instrumental in heading up the session in a cheerful but effective way! She was nominated by UN-GGIM Europe and took her place amongst her colleagues Tim Trainor of the US Census Bureau for UN-GGIM Americas and Mr Li Pengde of the Chinese National Mapping Agency for UN-GGIM Asia-Pacific. The UN-GGIM Committee of Experts, delegates, co-chairs, secretariat and observers are really taking this initiative forward in a determined, mature way for the betterment of the world, its citizens and – let’s not forget – the geospatial business as a whole.

Durk Haarsma, publishing director.

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ba

NEWS

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 Coordinator, GEOSUR Programme PROF STIG ENEMARK Honorary President, FIG, Denmark DR AYMAN HABIB, PENG Professor, Purdue University, United States DR GÁBOR REMETEY-FÜLÖPP Past 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 PROF DAVID RHIND ret. Vice-Chancellor, The City University, UK MR KEES DE ZEEUW Director, Kadaster International, The Netherlands 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

INSIDER’S VIEW BY GÁBOR REMETEY-FÜLÖPP, HUNGARIAN MEMBER OF GSDI

The Challenge of Raising Stakeholder Awareness at All Levels The UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) two years ago as part of the 2030 Agenda. There are 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Experience from the previous UN Millennium Development Goals programme placed special emphasis on data, monitoring and reporting. The SDG indicator framework elaborated by the UN Inter-Agency Expert Group for Sustainable Development Goals (IAEG-SDGs) provides the basis for the yearly SDG progress report of the UN SecretaryGeneral, as mandated by the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. The recent second SDG progress report emphasises the importance of data and monitoring statistics.

This poses a challenge for both the stakeholders and a statistical system that needs to expand from local to global, while accounting for these SDG indicators being collected and aggregated from different territorial levels.

This is where location and, consequently, the spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) come into play. The motto of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association is “Advancing a location-enabled world”. GSDI, via the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), provides a contribution in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda including at national and regional levels, as well as thematic areas such as the UN-GGIM Academic Network. To facilitate awarenessraising, stakeholder engagement and capacity building, a variety of GSDI actions are in place in the form of webinars/workshops, sharing of best practices, open data/open source, the Small Grants Program and others related to SDI4SDGs, Marine SDI, INSPIRE and the Global NSDI Index Project.

The joint use of Earth observation (EO) and geospatial infrastructures provides synergy and supports SDG advances serving citizens, national policies and the UN 2030 Agenda issues. These are demonstrated by GEO, GGIM, GSDI, IAEG-SDG and EO4SDGS experts in the recently published special issue of the open-access journal Geo-spatial

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Information Science guest-edited by Prof John van Genderen.

Awareness-raising in Hungary Volunteers of the Hungarian Society on Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (MFTTT), namely the former and recent national INSPIRE delegates (Prof Szabolcs Mihály and Tamás Palya) and the Hungarian member of GSDI, launched an awarenessraising campaign this year to engage stakeholders. They did this by using a series of presentations emphasising both the challenge and the opportunities to the surveying and geomatics communities addressing support for the SDGs at the national level. The target audiences of the first five domestic and crossborder conferences include service and solution providers as well as decision-makers from government, industry and academia. The awareness-raising events were as follows (with number of participants shown in brackets): - Day of the European Surveyors and Geoinformatics, Budapest (180) - GIS Open 2017, Székesfehérvár (150) - 18th Meeting of Surveyors of the Hungarian Technical Scientific Society of Transylvania (EMT) B ile Tu nad, Romania (140) - 8th Geoinformatics Conference and Exhibition, Debrecen (120) - 31st MFTTT Conference, Szekszárd (170) - Mini-conference devoted to the 70th Anniversary of Prof Béla Márkus, Székesfehérvár (45) Recent actions include promoting the opensource 2017 WorldWind Europa Challenge in Helsinki – an annual competition for students and SMEs to create open-source solutions serving sustainability and urban management and to facilitate collaborative advancement of these solutions on a global scale. Another promising link was just established with the Sustainable Development and Resources Research Center at the Public Service University in Budapest. To effectively realise the SDGs, we need an interdisciplinary vision, strong stakeholder engagement, multi-agency partnerships, interoperable geospatial data infrastructure and a collective effort for capacity building.

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NEWS

Trimble Introduces New Android Application for Field Surveying Trimble has launched Trimble Penmap for Android, a cloudconnected application for field surveying and high-accuracy geographic information system (GIS) data collection that works on mobile handhelds, smartphones and tablets. The solution focuses on core survey and mapping tasks such as cadastral and Trimble Penmap for boundary surveys, estabAndroid. lishing local control, stakeouts, quality checks and asset management for utilities. The application provides both professional surveyors and field workers with an intuitive, easy-to-use map-based interface to manage features and attributes for high-accuracy GIS and complete survey documentation. For example, the application is suited for use in the energy distribution industry for locating infrastructure and recording critical information on encroachments, clearways and existing monuments.

The application runs on a variety of Android devices, including the rugged Trimble TDC100 handheld, and supports full-featured Trimble global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers such as the Trimble R10, R8s and R2 receivers. http://bit.ly/2w5EWAA

Members of Eastern Africa Land Administration Network (EALAN) Gather in Nairobi The Eastern Africa Land Administration Network (EALAN) held its 9th Annual General Meeting and Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, from 24-27 July 2017. The event was hosted by the University of Nairobi’s Department of Geospatial and Space Technology at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. The theme of the conference was ‘Promoting Land Administration and Governance for Sustainable Development in Eastern Africa’. Over a hundred participants attended the conference, which featured more than 16 presentations including keynotes.

The network mainly comprises academic institutions with land administration programmes. The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) based in Nairobi is also a member. One of the key discussion items was the development of a more purpose-oriented land administration approach. http://bit.ly/2vzsU0O

V90 Plus Participants at the EALAN 2017 Conference.

Digital Asset Management for Geospatial Data Launched LizardTech and Extensis have announced the availability of Extensis Portfolio 2017, a digital asset management (DAM) solution optimised for geospatial data. Portfolio 2017 enables users to easily organise, access and share geospatial datasets – including compressed MrSID files – along with associated graphics and documents. Divisions of Celartem, LizardTech and Extensis collaborated in Extensis Portfolio 2017. adding geospatial data management capabilities to Portfolio, a DAM solution developed by Extensis. For more than 15 years, thousands of government agencies, businesses, universities, libraries and museums have been relying on Portfolio to centralise and manage digital assets. The DAM solution indexes and catalogues photographs, videos, maps, audio files, Adobe Creative Cloud applications and Microsoft Office documents. http://bit.ly/2uXwxu9

High-end RTK receiver with multi technology integrated BD970 GNSS engine

Support GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALLILEO Tilt sensor and electronic bubble integrated NFC and WiFi functionality

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NEWS

Morocco to Host Digital Earth Summit 2018 The 7th Digital Earth Summit (DES-2018) on Digital Earth for Sustainable Development in Africa will be held at the Faculty of Science of Chouaib Douakkali University in El Jadida, Morocco, from 17-19 April 2018. This conference will be one of the major events in the international community of Earth observation and geospatial information science in 2018. The conference will be organised by International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) and the Chouaib Douakkali University (UCD) in partnership with the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) and the Moroccan Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (MARSE). The main objective of DES-2018 is to bring together scientists and professionals from the international and African communities to present the latest achievements, discuss challenges and share experiences. The conference programme will feature keynote speeches delivered by leading experts, technical sessions presenting reports of the latest research outcomes, discussion sessions on operational topics such as capacity building, spatial data infrastructure (SDI), big data, space policy, programmes and projects, as well as a commercial exhibition showing the latest products and services related to digital Earth and geospatial information technologies.

Plowman Craven Launches High-precision UAV Rail Survey System Plowman Craven, one of the UK’s leading survey and measurement companies, has launched a system that deploys UAVs to enable the comprehensive surveying of rail infrastructure to a sub-5mm accuracy. Able to cover the busiest and most inaccessible areas of the rail network from a working height of 25m, the Vogel R3D system can capture track condition and measurement data from a position of safety even during traffic hours. This removes the need for possessions and line blocks and drastically reduces the exposure of workers to risk. The result is a shortening of programme times and significant cost savings. Chris Preston, senior engineer at Network Rail, commented that the application of the Vogel R3D system is a real gamechanger for Network Rail and helps to satisfy many survey requirements in a safe manner without the cost implications or potential programme delays associated with multiple possessions. http://bit.ly/2vXpfuP The Vogel R3D system in action.

The most compact and cost -ef fective l a s e r m a p p i n g s y s t e m p o w e r e d b y FA R O http://bit.ly/2uEWd3a

SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE

Com pl ete an d rel i abl e sol u ti on s

www.sitecoinf.it info@sitecoinf.it 8|

INTERGEO 2017 Hall 2.1 Stand A2.038

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Bentley Announces Finalists in 2017 Be Inspired Awards Programme Bentley Systems, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure, Marina Sands Bay, Singapore. has announced the finalists in the 2017 Be Inspired Awards programme. The annual awards honour the extraordinary work of Bentley users advancing infrastructure design, construction and operations throughout the world. Ten independent jury panels comprising distinguished industry experts selected the 51 finalists from more than 400 nominations submitted by organisations in more than 50 countries. The finalists will present their innovative projects to their peers, the jurors, industry thought leaders and more than 120 members of the media as part of related infrastructure forums at The Year in Infrastructure 2017 Conference which is being held from 10-12 October at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. This gathering of leading professionals in the world of infrastructure design, construction and operations will feature thought-provoking keynotes by Bentley senior executives and prominent industry thought leaders, live technology presentations from Bentley’s alliance partners – Microsoft, Siemens, Bureau Veritas and Topcon – and opportunities for attendees to meet and have one-on-one discussions with awards finalists. In addition, informative industry forums and panel discussions will feature speakers from Microsoft, Siemens, Bureau Veritas, Australia Road Research Board, Applied Research & Associates, Building and Construction Authority of Singapore and more. The highlights will include the Be Inspired Awards finalists’ presentations on 10 and 11 October, and the evening ceremony and gala featuring announcement of the Be Inspired Awards winners on 12 October. http://bit.ly/2uJMqoM

3D Robotics Joins Forces with DJI and Launches UAV Data Solution 3D Robotics (3DR) has announced two important milestones for Site Scan, a solution for capturing and analysing aerial data aimed at transforming how customers use UAVs in their day-to-day work. The company is integrating the Site Scan software platform to make it compatible with DJI’s drones.

This step marks a significant expansion of the Site Scan platform, giving users another option for their workflow: it allows them to use the UAV that best suits their needs. With this integration, geospatial professionals can combine DJI’s drones and 3DR’s software for managing and analysing the data that these UAVs collect. For Site Scan customers, flying a DJI drone has the exact same workflow as they were used to: they can use the mobile app, Site Scan Field. DJI drones will work seamlessly with Site Scan, including its autonomous flight modes, multi-engine cloud processing and suite of tools designed for construction, such as performing topographic surveys, calculating cut and fill volumes, measuring stockpiles, exporting native Autodesk file formats and much more. http://bit.ly/2i1r4RT

Surveying with 3D Robotics Site Scan.

Intelligent USV with brilliant mobility 0.15m 300m

International UAV Sector to Demonstrate Potential at Interaerial Solutions From 26 to 28 September 2017, the international UAV sector will be demonstrating its potential at Interaerial Solutions (IASEXPO) in Berlin, Germany. The drone show will form part of Intergeo, the world’s leading trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management. IASEXPO has the clear aspiration of becoming established as the number-one industry gathering for commercial and civil drone applications in Europe. Advance tickets can now be purchased online. In the heart of the impressive Summer Garden at Messe Berlin, the IASEXPO Flight Zone will host 12 to 15 multicopter flights each day and spectacular live demonstrations with fixed-wing aircraft and hybrid drones. Besides showcasing the impressively wide range of UAV applications, the focus will be on presenting and evaluating the data gathered in-flight. All of the flights will be accompanied and filmed by a separate camera drone. Not only will spectators be offered spectacular close-up views of the drones in action, but the Flight Zone is also the largest outdoor flight display for civil drone uses anywhere in Europe. http://bit.ly/2w9l9Q7

Professional sounding module guarantees sounding range 0.15~300m Ducted propellers avoid being twined by aquatic plants Auto-return while low battery or dropped signal Manual or autopilot , switchover by one step

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Improving Agricultural Efficiency with Satellite Data Humans started to cultivate land around 10,000 years ago, so we must be pretty good at it by now. However, environmental concerns, sustainability, quotas, subsidies and paperwork make farming more challenging than ever.

Satellites offer a solution to many of these problems, but how does the ordinary farmer tap into their potential?

Satellites such as Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel missions and ESA’s SMOS and the upcoming Florescence Explorer (FLEX) provide a wealth of information about growing conditions and crop health that can be used to improve agricultural efficiency. But satellite data is just the starting point – they have to be turned into easy-to-use applications to be of any real value to farmers. Ger Nieuwpoort, director of the Netherlands Space Office, said there is clearly huge potential for Earth observation to be exploited much more than it is today. For example, there is a gap between organisations that develop extremely sophisticated satellites and people in the field dealing with farming subsidies. Ironically, in the world of agriculture, the gap between raw data and possible end users is a largely ‘uncultivated’ area, Nieuwpoort added. http://bit.ly/2w62mpC

MicroSurvey CAD 2017 Brings New Possibilities MicroSurvey Software has released MicroSurvey CAD 2017. This updated solution for land MicroSurvey CAD 2017. surveying and civil engineering professionals worldwide contains several powerful new and enhanced capabilities, streamlined workflows and important bug fixes. MicroSurvey CAD provides users with an intuitive interface on a complete survey drafting toolkit, including COGO, DTM, traversing, adjustments, volumes, contouring and more. MicroSurvey CAD is perpetually licensed and is powered

by IntelliCAD which is compatible with AutoCAD drawing files. With five available feature levels – Basic, Standard, Premium, Ultimate and Studio – MicroSurvey CAD gives users the choice between several tiers of features to ensure they are getting precisely the tool they need. Notable improvements in MicroSurvey CAD 2017 include Draw Smart Polylines which automatically update when the points they connect are edited or deleted, and can be created or labelled with the same standard methods as Smart Lines and Arcs.

In another addition, Draw Smart Point Blocks combine the point node and text labels into one object. Labels can be repositioned with automatic leaders connecting from the labels back to the point node. http://bit.ly/2w66iXc

Integrated high-accuracy mobile mapping system

ESA’s upcoming Florescence Explorer, FLEX.

High-density, high-accuracy point cloud

Esri and Smart Dubai Sign Enterprise Agreement

Fully matched point cloud and panorama images

Esri has announced that Smart Dubai, the government agency leading Dubai’s smart city transformation, has signed an enterprise agreement (EA) providing ArcGIS technology to 44 entities across the government. The EA will be used by Smart Dubai for its smart city platform, called ‘Dubai Pulse’, to integrate and map data for better decisionmaking. The shift toward smart technologies in recording and processing data is the foundation for success in the era of big data. Dubai Pulse will use Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology – clubbed with data accumulated by the Dubai Data Establishment – to offer smart and secure services and tools including dashboards, mobile apps and analytics capabilities. The platform compiles all government data in one place, where the right information can be provided to the right people whenever they should need it. Dubai Pulse is aimed at empowering the government of Dubai to identify issues such as traffic-accident hotspots, increase citizen engagement in planning projects through the sharing of realistic 3D models, and assist with sustainability initiatives including solar energy generation. http://bit.ly/2hQakNo

Fully integrated solution

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The ‘Where’ is the Disruption How the Evolution of Spatiotemporal Synchronicity Culminates in Effective Land Reform Few people think about how time relates to location and spatial awareness. Tools for measuring time and space form the foundation of geography and are critical to connecting people to the land they use. Consider the documentation of land tenure, which is a necessary precondition of a successful economy. I venture the opinion that geographic information system technology (GIS) can begin reviving economies, starting right now with the tools we already have and that are easy to configure. Understanding how we got to this point requires us to dive into the history of precision as it relates to time and space.

TIME A thousand years ago, the only way we could tell the time was by using the sun and a sundial. Not everyone had one, so the primitive clocks were included on the facades of public buildings and churches so that everyone could know what time it was.

This simple device effectively synchronised society – during the day, at least. Then came the pendulum clock. This worked 24 hours a day and was a multimedia device, with a swinging visual centrepiece and chimes that signalled the passage of full, half and quarter-hours. Interestingly, China rejected it as a gimmick but the Western world, whose labour output equalled China’s at that time, adopted the clock to more precisely measure, organise and improve productivity. But there

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was a problem for the West: pendulum clocks didn’t work on ships due to the swell of the sea. Between the 15th and 17th centuries hundreds of European ships crashed along the east coast of the Americas, all because of the inability to calculate longitude. (As you probably know as a reader of GIM International, determining longitude requires the measurement of time between two points on the Earth’s spheroid, which comes down to minutes and seconds.)

The development of the spring-powered clock came next and changed the world, not just in terms of navigation to calculate longitude, but also in manufacturing, transportation and virtually every other area. It was a true disruptor. Because it was designed to be portable, it brought innumerable efficiencies in measuring and synchronisation. In the 1970s, it became digital. Timekeeping chips that were even more accurate than Rolexes became cheap enough to put in everything from wristwatches to microwaves. Another disruption took place with GPS: the ‘Casio watch’ of positioning.

SPACE We organise, synchronise and measure space in parallel with time, so a similar evolution took place with how we measure on Earth. Take surveying instruments, for instance. When President Clinton turned off selective availability (the intentional

degradation of GPS signals) in May 2000, few people understood the profound effect it would have. Before that moment, accuracies were up to 100 metres for an autonomous position; this was immediately halved.

Later, augmentation services took it to under 10 metres. Today, just like the digital clock, single-centimetre positioning using correction services has become affordable and ubiquitous – largely thanks to GPS manufacturers that rapidly responded with all kinds of solutions and devices. At some point, we’ll have GPS and other location devices on all our important assets and be able to know where everything is. Once it becomes digital, it can be produced smaller, faster and more cheaply.

The challenge now is the next wave of disruption – not the data we collect, nor its accuracy, but what we do with it and the technologies we use. We have the necessary tools to organise, analyse, visualise and deeply understand problems and meet economic challenges. Open standards and formats now allow us to collect data, store it in the cloud and share it openly and globally in free data libraries such as Esri’s Living Atlas. The Living Atlas is one of the best sources of no-cost data because it includes transportation, streets, imagery, boundaries, topography and everything else needed to enact initiatives and coordinate large-scale projects. It not only provides the base map

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BY BRENT JONES, ESRI GLOBAL MANAGER, LAND RECORDS AND CADASTRE

GIM PERSPECTIVES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR data but also real-time services for traffic, weather and much more.

smartphones, the cloud and modern GIS tools.

APPLICATION: LAND REFORM

We don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel; we can take advantage of the standards and interoperable tools that make projects easier to deploy. All the benefits of precision can be realised using GIS. The ‘where’ is the disruption.

If you’re a regular reader of GIM International, you’ll know that at least a billion people live on just USD2 per day, and there is a lack of documentation on land tenure for more than 70% of the world. You’ll also be aware of the value of good land administration in alleviating poverty and developing land markets. The economic proof is shown in post-war cadastral systems in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

Those three national economies were a shambles until economist Wolf Ladejinski helped reform their registries and connect people to land. That act of remediation effectively unlocked the capital tied up in their real estate and turned those struggling nations around in a short space of time.

MORE INFORMATION: Esri’s Living Atlas of the World: http://arcg.is/2qjyS3A Land Reform, Wolf’s Way, Esri Insider http://arcg.is/2qh70ui

Brent A. Jones is Esri’s global manager of cadastre/land records. Based in Washington D.C., USA, Brent Jones oversees Esri’s worldwide strategic planning, business development and marketing activities for land records, cadastral, surveying and land administration. As a recognised technology innovator, Jones specialises in modernising existing land administration systems and designing new GIS-based cadastral management platforms for small and large governments around the globe. He is a member of the URISA board of directors, past president of the Geospatial Information and Technology Association and a current member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), sitting on the Expert Group on Land Administration and Management.

We’re now in the position to use GIS to accelerate land reform in the same way timekeeping chips and GPS boosted the evolution of precision. Because of the way GIS technology is built today, data and services that land agencies typically consume are available anywhere and can be used on any device. That ability makes GIS the perfect platform to help repair and build developing nations’ systems of record and enfranchise citizens. All the tools exist to interconnect current disruptive technologies like high-accuracy GPS, inexpensive Android

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GIM INTERNATIONAL INTERVIEWS MURAT ARIKAN, NUBIGON

Overcoming the Bottlenecks of Today’s Dense Point Clouds NUBIGON is a start-up company with offices in Turkey and Austria that has developed powerful reality capture software. The company’s solution visualises Lidar and photogrammetric point clouds in real time and in full HD, while retaining the accurate precision that is needed by many professionals who are working with point clouds. GIM International decided to interview Murat Arikan, the company’s ambitious founder and lead software developer, to find out more.

NUBIGON specialises in software to visualise 3D point clouds acquired by Lidar or photogrammetry. What are the main bottlenecks in the visualisation of today’s dense point clouds?

The most prominent bottleneck in the visualisation of today’s dense point clouds is data size. Today, just one scan position generated by a decent 3D laser scanner is almost 1GB. In contemporary projects, scanned environments generally have huge dimensions (airport terminals, factories, etc.) and acquiring these spaces properly can require tens or even hundreds of scan positions so that almost always results in ‘big data’. Most of the 3D point cloud software currently on the market cannot handle that amount of data. The second most important bottleneck is the quality of the visualisation, which is directly connected to the data size issue. In the era of high-quality rendering in games and movies, the visualisation quality of point clouds is not sufficient. Last but not least, another bottleneck is the interaction with 3D point clouds. Most of the time, users want to work in CAD software environments, but point cloud software generally offers limited integration with them. Although there are plug-ins for CAD software for easier integration, users still face a clash of different file types and hard-to-manage workflows. We overcome these bottlenecks with state-ofthe-art algorithms and tools.

In which application domains is your software mainly used at present, and what further potential uses does it have?

At present, our focus is on archaeology and 14 |

architecture. Our motto is “NUBIGON is the

research efforts were focused on that for

software that makes life easier for architects”.

Most current methods for architects are outdated (tape measures, rangefinders, orthophotos and so on) and offer room for improvement. Our users take measurements, create floor plans and make architectural 3D CAD drawings directly on the point cloud and export the results to the CAD software of their choice. Hence, they don’t waste time converting 3D point clouds to other formats

years. Now that we’ve achieved that goal, we have launched two new R&D projects this year. One of them is about searching for shapes in point clouds so that walls, doors and roofs can be recognised automatically.

Our other R&D project is almost coming to an end; it is about streaming NUBIGON to many different types of devices including smartphones, tablets and Apple computers.

In terms of the NUBIGON application for

THE MOST PROMINENT BOTTLENECK IN THE VISUALISATION OF TODAY’S DENSE POINT CLOUDS IS DATA SIZE (e.g. mesh, orthophoto). But this doesn’t mean that our software is not capable of working with meshes or cannot export orthophotos. We offer our customers a new and streamlined workflow to capture reality.

NUBIGON’s tools are made by designers, for designers. We always put the user experience first.

The density of point clouds is steadily increasing. Meanwhile, researchers are working hard on creating smart points clouds in which semantic information is attached to each and every point. How do you plan to ensure your software keeps pace with these rapid developments?

Actually, we’re very happy that researchers are constantly enriching points clouds. Our first goal was to turn point clouds into a usable and visually appealing medium; all our

mobile devices, we’re not talking about a simple mobile app here. Right now we are in the prototype stage and NUBIGON is capable of streaming its full functionality to any device. Besides that, we’re enabling users to work concurrently on the same scene in NUBIGON.

What are the basic components of your business model?

We are following the lean start-up model and we’ve built our business model entirely around that idea. NUBIGON offers a fixed-price software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. We created our business to solve our customers’ problems, not to overwhelm them with complex licensing models. We think that the idea of not wasting anyone’s time shouldn’t only apply for our investors or business partners but also for our customers;

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BY MATHIAS LEMMENS AND WIM VAN WEGEN, GIM INTERNATIONAL

INTERVIEW

when we talk about “making life easier”, we mean it!

NUBIGON is a spin-off from your PhD research activities at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. Why did you decide to expand your knowledge by establishing a company?

My long-time friend Can Turgay helped me to realise that the research I conducted could be exploited commercially with the right approach. In my past career as a researcher, I wondered whether my research would produce usable results in the real world or only patents gathering dust on the shelf.

Thanks to my friend’s support, the idea of applying my research to real-world problems influenced me and I decided to pursue this commercial idea with him in late 2014.

Like Racurs, a photogrammetric company based in Moscow, Russia, NUBIGON was established by four people. Do you think four could be a magic number for future success?

I don’t think that there is a magic number for future success. A team of hard-working, like-minded and skilled people is the real key to success. Our team consists of individuals

Murat Arikan

technoparks are great places to meet like-minded entrepreneurs, and networking within a technopark especially helps you to solve lots of common problems. It has been really beneficial to be in touch with companies that have followed a similar path to ours, as some of the problems we were facing during the development of our

A TEAM OF HARD-WORKING, LIKE-MINDED AND SKILLED PEOPLE IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS who are experts in their own profession, and every member of the team brings something different to the table. It’s the combination of our skills that advances our business.

enterprise were common among start-ups.

Also, the technopark management’s support for the commercialisation of our ideas proved a unique benefit.

NUBIGON is based on a ‘technopark’ in Istanbul. What are the advantages of exploring a technology-driven business under the wings of a technopark?

What are your ambitions, and where do you want NUBIGON to be in five years’ time?

Yes, one of our offices is located on a technopark in Istanbul. In general,

Right now we are operating in two countries, but our customers are all over the world. To reach them properly, we need to expand into different continents. This autumn, we’ll

conduct a feasibility study for expanding into the US market. Personally, I want to see that my research helps people in their daily lives.

If we, as a company, can have a little impact on shaping a world in which industry professionals use point clouds to enhance their capabilities, I’ll say “job well done”. In five years from now, I hope NUBIGON will be a point-cloud software pioneer.

ABOUT MURAT ARIKAN

Murat Arikan gained his MSc in mathematics from TU Wien in Vienna, Austria, in 2008. He is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms of TU Wien. Throughout his doctoral research, he participated in numerous research projects and has co-authored five papers on the topic of reconstruction and visualisation. Thereafter, he formed a team that developed the point-cloud processing software NUBIGON, which provides commercial reality-capturing solutions in the fields of architecture, archaeology, engineering and construction. He is the company’s lead software developer and resides in Austria.

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INTERVIEW

Do you have any advice for young researchers who want to set up a business of their own?

First and foremost, the most important issue is that they need to understand that they cannot do everything on their own. No matter how well-equipped they are, a successful business needs a great team. They need partners they can trust, and to use their talents and time effectively. Research, development, sales, management and marketing are all areas that require a very different perception and ability. For a company to succeed, all these aspects must be successfully managed. It’s not possible for just one person to have so many talents.

Another recommendation for young researchers is that they need to set goals which can translate into a business. Only research that can be applied in practice creates good scenarios for start-ups. Their aim should always be to create a minimum viable product.

Textured point cloud of a heritage site at Efes, Turkey, one of the best-preserved ancient cities in the world.

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FEATURE

FROM POINT CLOUDS TO CROSS-SECTIONAL DIMENSIONS

Automated Modelling of Tunnels Tunnels must be regularly monitored to meet safety requirements and to prevent excessive deformation or displacement. Tunnels are currently monitored by measuring a few benchmarks using total stations or other surveying instruments. These techniques are effective and precise, but also slow and expensive. In the case of rail tunnels, for example, the regular train schedule is disrupted whenever land surveyors have to operate inside the tunnel. This article presents a novel automated method for the geometric modelling of tunnels from mobile Lidar point clouds with sub-millimetre precision. The models can be employed for maintenance, project management and enhancement of future designs.

Safety of transportation corridors including roads and train tunnels is of great concern.

Due to the weight load of the terrain above, tunnels start experiencing deformation and displacement as soon as they have been constructed. Therefore, they must be regularly monitored to meet the safety requirements. In the present context, monitoring is described as the detection of deviations from the designed geometric shapes. Accurate measurements obtained from modelling of tunnels allows for quantifying deformation and displacement,

which may trigger immediate or longerterm maintenance efforts. Deformation and displacement can be identified by comparing

is a necessity for project managers. The construction progress can be monitored by comparing the as-built model of a tunnel under

DEFORMATION CAN BE IDENTIFIED BY COMPARING THE GEOMETRIC MODELS FROM TWO OR MORE EPOCHS the geometric models of a tunnel from two or more epochs. Modelling also helps to monitor progress in the construction phase which

Figure 1, Cross section showing the top elliptic-shaped part and the bottom part of a transportation tunnel.

construction with the as-designed model.

Furthermore, as-built models can be employed for detecting imperfections or even flaws in

Figure 2, Flowchart of the method.

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Figure 3, Lidar point cloud of subway tunnel.

Figure 6, Front and oblique views of the as-built model.

the design of a tunnel which provides input for improving future designs.

LIDAR

Figure 4, Extracted main axis of the tunnel (shown in white).

Figure 5, Extracted cross sections at one-metre intervals (top) and ten-metre intervals.

The conventional methods, based on traditional land surveying, are timeconsuming and hence expensive. In contrast, mobile laser scanning (MLS) or Lidar allows the fast collection of precise, highly redundant measurements which are crucial for monitoring of tunnels. A one-kilometre length of tunnel can be captured within a minute and the acquired data contains millions of three-dimensional (3D) data points. Furthermore, as an active sensing technology, Lidar does not suffer from the poor lighting conditions in tunnels either.

However, Lidar point clouds are typically large, which makes the manual processing time-consuming and costly. Thus, the key to fully exploiting the potentials of MLS point clouds is to automate the data processing.

Integrating the beneficial properties of MLS with automated data processing significantly decreases the time and costs involved in monitoring of tunnels. As a result, deformation and displacement analysis can be performed more frequently, which in turn results in early detection of sagging tunnel segments, detaching construction materials and other deteriorations. This enhances underground transportation safety.

GEOMETRIC MODELLING

Statistics Semi-major axis Semi-minor axis Area Eccentricity (unit-less)

Mean 785.08cm 775.09cm 95.5838m2 0.17606

SD 0.2mm 0.1mm 3cm2 0.00002

Table 1, Statistics of the extracted cross sections.

20 |

Transportation tunnels have a standard tubular shape, often with a circular or ellipticshaped cross section. A circle is a specific form of an ellipse with equal semi-major and semi-minor axes. Hence, for a wide range of tunnels, the cross sections can be modelled as ellipses. Cross sections can be divided into the top part and the bottom part comprising the transportation infrastructure (Figure 1).

Even though both parts are under terrain weight load, the top part is subject to greater deformation since the bottom part acts more rigidly due to its larger dimensions. Therefore, only the top elliptic-shaped part is considered when modelling the tunnel.

WORKFLOW The method is composed of four steps which all are executed automatically (Figure 2). The first step identifies the main axis of the tunnel. In the second step, points belonging to cross sections are extracted.

The preliminary as-built model is created in the third step. Residual analysis and Baarda’s data snooping method are then applied for the detection and elimination of outliers in a sequential procedure. Once outliers are eliminated, the final model is created from the outlier-free data in the fourth step. The use of least squares adjustment enables the quality of the generated model to be assessed as the standard deviations of the semi-major axis, semi-minor axis, area and eccentricity of the cross sections.

TEST A Velodyne HDL 32E scanner mounted on a rail car scanned 155 metres of a one-way underground rail tunnel while the train was moving at a speed of 65km/h. The capturing of the point cloud, containing over six million points, took about ten seconds. The tunnel has an arbitrary horizontal orientation with an approximately 7° vertical slope. Although the point cloud contains geometric and intensity information, only geometric information was used for data processing. Figure 3 shows an oblique view of the dataset. By applying the method to the point cloud, the tunnel’s main axis was calculated (Figure 4). Furthermore, 1,551 cross sections were extracted at 10cm intervals. For visualisation purposes, the extracted cross sections are depicted at 1m and 10m intervals in Figure 5. The 3D coordinates of centre and 3D orientation direction (normal vector) of all cross sections were also computed.

AS-BUILT MODEL Figure 6 shows the constructed as-built model. As a result of the modelling, the area, eccentricity, semi-major and semi-minor axes of all cross sections and their standard deviations were calculated. Table 1 displays the means and standard deviations of the

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FEATURE

dimensional parameters of cross sections, i.e. semi-major axis, semi-minor axis, area and eccentricity. The eccentricity is a function of semi-major axis and semi-minor axis and has no unit. The dimensions of the cross sections were computed with a standard deviation equal to or less than 0.2mm and

CONCLUDING REMARKS The automation level of this method is notably higher than that of other methods, which all apply non-linear mathematical models with ten unknowns, requiring further complicated constraints. By using a linear model with two unknowns, this method is

different cross-sectional shapes, ellipse and circle are two of the most common ones. The approach is applicable to any type of tunnel or underground transportation corridor with a circular or elliptic-shaped cross section.

FURTHER READING

THE APPROACH IS APPLICABLE TO ANY TYPE OF TUNNEL WITH A CIRCULAR OR ELLIPTIC-SHAPED CROSS SECTION their areas were calculated with a standard deviation of 3cm2. Calculation of the standard deviations of both axes is crucial for detecting deformations along only one axis, since such deformations are not reflected by other parameters like eccentricity or area.

Additionally, the average normal distance of data points from the generated model (average absolute error) was 1.2cm.

Arastounia, M. Automated As-Built Model Generation of Subway Tunnels from Mobile LiDAR Data. Sensors, 16(9), 1486; DOI: 10.3390/s16091486.

able to achieve a reliable estimate of the modelling parameters in a single run, which improves the computational efficiency.

Moreover, the method is applicable to tunnels with any horizontal orientation and degree of curvature as it makes no assumptions, nor does it use any a priori knowledge about the horizontal direction or curvature of tunnels.

Although transportation tunnels may have

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr Mostafa Arastounia holds a PhD in geomatics from University of Calgary and conducts research into automated recognition and modelling of urban infrastructure and industrial sites from Lidar data. marastou@ucalgary.ca

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CONSULTATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND FIT-FOR-PURPOSE THINKING

Implementing Land Administration Solutions in Ethiopia The government of Ethiopia has demonstrated clear political will to advance the urban land rights agendas, but has struggled to sustain successful pilots. In a recent Technical Assistance project, a World Bank team including consultants from Land Equity International worked closely with the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing to evaluate the urban cadastral context.

The recent Technical Assistance project to evaluate the urban cadastral context in Ethiopia closely mirrored the approach set out by the UN-Habitat and Global Land Tool Network publication called Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration – Guiding Principles for

Country Implementation. Fundamentally, the fit-for-purpose land administration concept seeks to apply spatial, legal and institutional methodologies that meet the purpose of providing secure tenure for all, whilst recognising current political and

institutional constraints. The fit-for-purpose mindset is one that actively focuses on purpose, seeks flexibility and plans for incremental improvement over time. As the authors’ second publication on fit-for-purpose land administration, this guiding principles

Figure 1, Tony Burns reviewing the existing file management system.

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BY KATE FAIRLIE, TONY BURNS AND SOLOMON KEBEDE

FEATURE

document is not prescriptive, but provides seven steps – or categories – that provide a pathway to implementing fit-for-purpose land administration. These steps offer a framework for discussion of the project.

COUNTRY CONTEXT The first step is analysis of the country context. Two schematics were developed depicting the current status of the country context and spatial/legal/institutional frameworks of Ethiopia, and the likely improvement that could be obtained with the preliminary interventions identified. Whilst these schematics could be improved for more universal application and could more closely mirror the fit-for-purpose framework, they do provide a summary and depiction of interventions likely to generate the greatest progress in a first iteration of activities.

Significant political willingness for land administration reform exists in Ethiopia. Past land reform and registration pilots have, however, largely failed. One reason for a lack of progress is the decentralisation of land administration functions: cities, rather than the national-level Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MoUDH), are largely responsible for the actual implementation (and funding) of land regularisation and registration, making it difficult to fund, sustain and standardise efforts. A further complicating factor is the separation of rights-creation and registration activities, which are managed by separate institutions. And finally, there is no existing National Land Policy – although the Urban Land Development and Management Policy and Strategy forms a strong basis for such a document as well as potential to provide clarity around key aspects of the legal reform to support local implementation.

There is promise, however; whilst the rural and urban land sectors are separated in Ethiopia, the success in implementing fit-forpurpose principles of the rural registration projects to date provides lessons and impetus for the urban sector.

FRAMEWORKS The second step is the analysis of existing spatial/legal/institutional frameworks. In contrast to typical discussions around fit-forpurpose land administration, the urban case of Ethiopia is less focused around the use of systematic registration, visual boundaries from imagery and participatory land adjudication. These practices have largely been adopted, with some level of standard

Figure 2, Land Registry Office in Mekele. Service provision is a key opportunity for improvement.

piloting still required, and hence are not the main limiting factor. Instead, the core benefit of fit-for-purpose thinking lies in institutional reform with pragmatic decision-making relating to staffing, office setup and process standardisation.

Whilst there is presently significant overlap and conflict between institutional roles at sub-city through to national levels, pragmatically there is limited room for reform in the short term due to stakeholder pushback and the many historical causal factors. Greater rewards in terms of progress are likely to be seen in the computerisation of records, service provision interventions and implementation of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) policy. Some steps have already been taken towards these, with a land information system (the Cadastre and Real Property Registration System – CRPRS) currently being developed, but greater stakeholder engagement was highlighted as an immediate need to ensure alignment between this system and the existing legal and institutional structures.

The devolved nature of land governance and responsibilities can instead be addressed by the development of a set of standard operating procedures and clear project management. Weak project management to date was identified as perhaps the most significant limiting factor to immediate and sustained progress in reform.

COUNTRY-SPECIFIC STRATEGY The third step is development of a countryspecific fit-for-purpose strategy for land

administration. There is a lack of an existing, comprehensive legal cadastre for urban land in Ethiopia, coupled with rapid urbanisation and high levels of informal housing. This particularly limits local government’s capacity to implement urban plans, enforce regulations and identify underutilised land that could contribute to alleviating the formal housing shortage. The lack of a comprehensive and accessible urban legal cadastre also hinders collateralised lending for development and equitable and efficient property tax assessment and collection that could contribute to municipal revenue and fund improved service delivery (see Figure 2).

A country-specific fit-for-purpose strategy for land administration must hence address the above drivers, as well as align with existing urban policies and plans, such as Ethiopia’s second Growth and Transformation Plan.

As a result of the World Bank Technical Assistance work, a draft project design has now been developed in close cooperation with stakeholders. The overarching programme objective of the draft project design is to establish a legal cadastre to secure tenure for all in a system that focuses on good governance, the facilitation of investment and the operation of the realestate market.

DESIGNING COUNTRY-SPECIFIC FRAMEWORKS As a fourth step the country-specific fit-forpurpose spatial/legal/institutional frameworks are designed. Clearly the objective above is an ambitious one, the realisation of which would take a decade or more. A phased project approach was therefore designed, SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 7 |

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FEATURE

along fit-for-purpose principles, which built on the existing initiatives within government.

The first project will develop and test the systems, processes and procedures, make the essential changes to the policy and legal frameworks and implement the legal cadastre in Addis Ababa and 23 major cities in the regions. The government already has in place the core components for this; what the project design adds is improved guidance on the project structure and management, capacity development, service provision and development of standardisation procedures.

The second and any subsequent projects will build on the results of the first project and extend the legal cadastre to all other urban centres throughout Ethiopia, ultimately achieving national coverage.

The following components were designed for the first project: - strengthening and expanding the legal cadastre in Addis Ababa City Administration, including resolving the backlog, strengthening the involved Complaints Office and implementing an improved systematic adjudication and registration (SAR) process - improving the capacity to implement SAR in the 23 cities, including strengthening the rights-creating institutions, undertaking file management (see Figure 1) and preparing a plan for regularisation - strengthening the quality and services from the urban legal cadastre generally, including raising public awareness - managing the project and establishing and implementing a monitoring and evaluation system.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT Step number five is capacity development.

As can be expected, substantial capacity development is needed to achieve the aims of the first project. However, the authors suggest that previously undertaken needs assessments have grossly overstated the human resource needs, particularly with the ambitious plans to digitise and computerise records and implement a sophisticated information and communications technology (ICT) system to provide efficient service delivery. Ethiopia continues to promote technical and vocational education and training in the land sector, which underpins future capacity. It is estimated that a maximum of just a thousand members of staff will be necessary to provide legal cadastre services in the 23 cities and Addis Ababa.

COUNTRY-SPECIFIC MANUALS Step number six is about countryspecific instruction manuals. With project management being a core limiting factor, and with the potential for significant gains in the computerisation of the records (Figure 5) and service provision, the development of instruction manuals (including the standard operating procedures mentioned above) form a core part of the proposed first project. These should be accompanied by end-user training, the adoption of a service charter and clear mechanisms for monitoring (and, where possible, incentivising) efficiency. It is estimated that staffing can likely be halved if computerisation and standard procedures can be effectively implemented.

ECONOMIC BENEFIT ANALYSIS In the final step, the Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services (CoFLAS) tool –developed in conjunction with UN-Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network – has been used to estimate the potential annual operating costs and possible revenues based on staffing and resource estimates. It is suggested that the legal cadastre should be able to operate under a self-financing arrangement if fees for transfer are set at around 0.5-1% of the property value. Naturally this figure assumes that the costs of regularisation and first registration are separately covered, and it requires a strong and sustained public awareness campaign to ensure continued uptake of land services. Nevertheless, this shows a strong basis – and incentive – for implementing a fit-for-purpose approach to land administration.

Figure 3, Reviewing implementation of the computerised system.

FURTHER READING Fairlie, K., Burns, T., Zhang, Y., Adlington, G., Tamrat, I., Shibeshi, G., McDowell, A., Kebede, S., Zelul, A. (2017) Establishing a Legal Cadastre for Good Governance in Ethiopia: Identifying Bottlenecks and Steps Towards Scale-up, Conference Paper, Annual World Bank Land and Poverty Conference 2017, Washington D.C., USA GLTN/UN-HABITAT (2015): Costing and Financing of Land Administration Services (CoFLAS) in Developing Countries. Nairobi. http://gltn.net/index.php/land-tools/ gltn-land-tools/costing-and-financing-of-landadministration-services-coflas GLTN/UN-HABITAT (2016) Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration – Guiding Principles for Country Implementation. UN-HABITAT/GLTN, Nairobi, Kenya.

Available at: http://www.gltn.net/index.php/ publications/publications/publications-list/download/2gltn-documents/2332-fit-for-purpose-landadministration-guiding-principles-for-countryimplementation

CONCLUDING REMARKS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

There is a complex institutional environment for land administration in Ethiopia. Separate institutions and systems exist for urban and rural land administration, coinciding with a federal system where urban land services are provided at city level by regional governments under the oversight and guidance of federal authorities. Significant effort has been undertaken to develop the policy and legislative framework for urban land administration, but these initiatives have yet to evolve into efficient, cost-effective processes and systems that can be scaled up. Through close consultation with stakeholders and fit-for-purpose thinking, a strategy has been developed to address this.

Kate Fairlie is a land administration specialist with Land Equity International. She has ten years of experience implementing land projects internationally and is the former chair of the FIG Young Surveyors Network.

Tony Burns is the managing director of Land Equity International. He is a recognised leader in the land administration domain with over 30 years of experience designing and implementing large-scale, long-term, multi-disciplinary projects.

Solomon Kebede is the director general of the Federal Urban Real Property Registration and Information Agency.

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FEATURE

PAY-AS-YOU-GO SOFTWARE-DEFINED GNSS

Precisely Flexible Positioning As users push for more capabilities, today’s location apps for smartphones and tablets are running up against frustrating limitations. Higher accuracy can increase the performance of location-aware applications, but the costs and complexity have presented barriers to entry for many potential developers and their customers. Now, the Trimble Catalyst software-defined GNSS receiver is shifting the emphasis from hardware to software and cloud-based services, and is set to bring new users to the GNSS arena.

GPS first appeared on mobile phones in the mid-1990s, but the concept of locationbased services using a device’s built-in GPS receiver did not really take hold until the advent of Apple’s iPhone 3G. Nowadays, the current location apps for smartphones and tablets are running into some frustrating limitations as users push for more capabilities. One of the biggest concerns is the accuracy and reliability of GPS positions.

Smartphones need connection to cellular networks to achieve their stated GPS accuracy. Even in good conditions, achieving an accuracy of better than one or two metres is beyond the capability of consumer-style phones or tablets. Higher accuracy can

increase the performance – and value – of location-aware applications, but the costs and complexity of high-accuracy GNSS solutions have presented barriers to entry for many potential developers and their customers.

POSITIONING-AS-A-SERVICE In late 2016, Trimble introduced Trimble Catalyst, a software-defined GNSS receiver that works with selected Android mobile handhelds, smartphones and tablets. The solution includes software running on the handheld, a small digital antenna and a subscription to the Catalyst service. With Catalyst, users can obtain positions in real

Figure 1, Catalyst’s precise GNSS positioning in action.

time with accuracy ranging from metre level down to two centimetres.

Software-defined GNSS receivers were first envisioned over a decade ago, but they have only recently been made practical by advances in the processing power of small devices, highly efficient computing algorithms and the development of cloud- or satellitebased correction services. To use Catalyst, the user connects the small, separately purchased DA1 antenna to the smartphone or tablet using a USB cable. The DA1 is powered by the phone and contains a patch antenna and analogue-to-digital converter.

It has a standard threaded connection for

Figure 2, Augview: augmented reality solution with a Trimble DA1 antenna.

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mounting on a pole or other mount. The antenna delivers raw GNSS observations to the smartphone, where they are combined with correction data from the Catalyst subscription service. Users can choose from different levels and price points of precision.

Monthly subscriptions are available at metre, sub-metre, decimetre and two-centimetre accuracies. Catalyst automatically selects the optimal signals, either via wireless internet or satellite delivery.

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Location-aware applications can obtain positions from Trimble Catalyst via Android’s location service framework. However, if a software provider wants to have better control over the integration, such as outputting the position in local coordinate systems or faster

position updates, they need to integrate Catalyst into their application. To facilitate this, application developers can use Trimble’s Precision software development kit (SDK) to access Catalyst functionality.

In addition to managing the software-defined GNSS receiver, the SDK enables applications to use positioning metadata such as accuracy estimates and satellite information. Because the SDK can link to any application running on the smartphone or tablet, developers can incorporate accurate positions into existing user interfaces. Trimble provides the SDK to developers at no charge.

NEW USERS, NEW DIRECTIONS Trimble is actively supporting third-party developers working to adopt the Catalyst

approach. One example is in the UK, where Trimble distributor Korec develops and sells its own GIS applications. The solutions run on bring-your-own-device (BYOD) platforms including smartphones and tablets and often rely on the device’s built-in GPS receiver for basic positioning. In order to provide increased accuracy, the software can connect to external GPS or GNSS receivers or use the Catalyst approach.

Catalyst also supports Trimble TerraFlex software: a cloud-based mapping and GIS field solution that operates on a variety of Android devices. Companies that use TerraFlex will be able to achieve high-accuracy positions when needed by switching on a monthly subscription for high-accuracy corrections. For other operations, they can operate at lower precision – and lower cost – while using their existing forms and work flows.

An example of where such an application could be used is in asset management, where knowing an asset’s location to within a decimetre can save time and money in maintenance, repairs and lifecycle management. However, the additional cost and more complex workflow of a highprecision external receiver can be a drawback – especially when the users are not skilled in geospatial techniques. The cost concerns can grow when businesses employ many field technicians who only occasionally need decimetre or centimetre precision.

Accuracy is also important in augmented reality. Solutions from manufacturers such as New Zealand-based Augview can load the as-constructed data from a utility or municipal GIS database to a tablet or smartphone. Using position and orientation from onboard sensors, the software can superimpose the location of underground utilities onto a georeferenced view of an area as seen by the device’s built-in camera. The solution enables field workers to visualise otherwise invisible objects.

Figure 3, Trimble TerraFlex on a ‘bring-your-own-device’ solution with Catalyst.

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Because augmented reality places digital objects into the view of the physical world, users can quickly spot any errors or inconsistencies in the positioning of objects.

If these occur too often, users can lose confidence in the solution. Ironically, many users are unwilling or unable to pay for higher precision. But locating buried objects as well as producing the augmented views requires positioning accuracy beyond the capability of most BYOD solutions. As-constructed data is

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FEATURE

often collected by survey teams and may be more precise that the capability of handheld devices used by utility field technicians. For many clients, factors such as the cost, size and weight of an external GNSS receiver often outweigh the benefits of more accurate positioning. For these users, the softwaredefined GNSS receiver is an attractive alternative to using high-accuracy GNSS positions.

DO THE NUMBERS WORK? For years, professional-grade GNSS hardware has come at a price point that has limited access to high-accuracy positioning. But with Catalyst, cost is no longer a barrier to entry to those wanting to add GNSS to their workflows. By shifting the emphasis from hardware to software and cloud-based services, Catalyst is positioned to bring new users to the GNSS arena.

In spite of Catalyst’s potential, existing GNSS hardware isn’t going away. Engineers and surveyors need high-performance systems and will continue to use specialised GNSS

solutions. The subscription approach used by Catalyst is in line with the licence structure used by many software vendors in the geospatial and engineering segments, with software products often available on a subscription basis. Larger organisations might purchase the solutions as long-term capital expenditures, but smaller organisations and many subcontractors prefer to allocate costs to specific projects and can let subscriptions lapse during slow periods. Depending on usage, both groups could benefit from the Catalyst approach of software-defined receivers and subscription-based positioning services.

As Catalyst moves into the market, the combination of low cost and open access to third-party developers will play a key role in the growth of the system. Trimble is working closely with developers and distribution partners to bring their applications to life.

The experiences and feedback of users and developers will reveal new – and perhaps unexpected – applications and markets for precise positioning.

Figure 4, TerraGo on Android where several levels of accuracy from Catalyst can be selected.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Stenmark is a writer and consultant working in the geospatial, AEC and associated industries. A professional surveyor, he has more than 25 years of experience in applying advanced technology to surveying and related disciplines. john@stenmark.us

Mapping the world Stay informed with GIM International - anytime, anywhere GIM International, the independent and high-quality information source for the geomatics industry, focuses on worldwide issues to bring you the latest insights and developments in both technology and management.

Sign up for a free subscription to the weekly newsletter which brings you: • News and developments • Product innovations • Job vacancies • Congresses and trade shows www.gim-international.com/newsletter

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BY DR AYMAN F. HABIB, PROFESSOR AT THE LYLES SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING , USA

FEATURE

A COST-EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO AIRBORNE AND TERRESTRIAL MODALITIES

UAV-based Mobile Mapping: Potential, Challenges and Outlook Accurate representation and 3D reconstruction of the environment using both active and passive remote sensing systems has become essential for non-traditional mapping applications. Due to the excessive cost as well as the required level of technical expertise, the needs of these applications cannot be satisfied by traditional mapping, which is based on dedicated data acquisition systems designed for mapping purposes (e.g. manned airborne and terrestrial mobile mapping systems). Recent advances in hardware and software development have made it possible to conduct accurate 3D mapping without using costly and high-end data acquisition systems. Low-cost digital cameras, laser scanners and navigation systems can provide accurate mapping if they are properly integrated at the hardware and software levels.

In conjunction with recent developments in sensor technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as a mobile mapping platform that can provide additional economical and practical advantages.

The ability of UAVs to fly at lower elevation and slower speed than manned systems allows them to capture data with higher resolution. Moreover, these systems can be economically stored and deployed, which could lead to affordable repeated coverage. In addition, UAVs fill an important gap – in terms of resolution, coverage and repeatability – between manned airborne and terrestrial mobile mapping systems.

These characteristics make UAVs an optimal

platform for affordable rapid-response mapping applications. The realisation of the UAV’s potential as a mobile mapping platform is the main reason behind the current and expected future growth in UAV production and applications. Today’s UAV market is estimated at USD13.22 billion (2016), and is projected to reach USD28.

27 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.51% during the forecast period*.

CHALLENGES In spite of its proven potential, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed for widespread adoption of UAVs

as an operational mobile mapping platform, including: 1. Flight logistics: The research and professional communities are still facing challenges in terms of securing permissions to operate UAVs equipped with navigation and passive/active imaging sensors. Those challenges are amplified when attempting to fly UAVs in restricted airspace (e.g. in the vicinity of commercial/military airports).

2. Qualified pilots: UAV-based mobile mapping represents a paradigm shift in terms of the sensor-to-platform relative cost. For manned airborne mobile mapping systems, the platform is usually

Figure 1, Multi-rotor UAV systems equipped with directly georeferenced RGB, Lidar and SWIR remote sensing systems.

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more expensive than the implemented mapping sensors/system. For terrestrial mobile mapping systems, the cost of the sensors could be more expensive when compared to the platform, including for UAV-based platforms. However, it is quite feasible for the UAV sensorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s payload to

be over 30 times more expensive than the platform. This, together with the greater reliability risk of UAVs when compared to other platforms (i.e. manned airborne and terrestrial platforms), increases the demand for professional pilots who can safely and reliably operate the system.

Figure 2, RGB orthophoto mosaic over an agricultural field.

Figure 3, Corresponding image-based digital surface model.

Figure 4, Corresponding Lidar-based digital surface model.

3. Limited endurance: For micro/mini UAVs (i.e. those limited to 100m aboveground flight height), the flight duration is still quite limited. The typical average battery life for such UAVs is 30 to 45 minutes. This limited endurance imposes constraints on the extent of the area that can be covered, especially when seeking high-resolution data which requires lower flying altitudes.

4. Limited payload: For micro/mini UAVs, the payload capabilities are quite limited (especially when dealing with fixed-wing platforms). Multi-rotor UAV systems have higher payload capabilities, up to several kilograms. However, such an increase in the payload will negatively affect the expected endurance of flights.

5. Consumer-grade nature of the utilised sensors: Cost and payload constraints mandate the reliance on consumer-grade sensors (e.g. position and orientation navigation systems as well as passive and active imaging systems). These types of sensors require more attention in terms of the system calibration (e.g. the intrinsic as well as the mounting parameters for the different sensors on board the UAV).

6. Required system integration expertise: Due to the wide range of the potential applications, it is impossible to have a single UAV-based mobile mapping system configuration that can satisfy all needs.

Therefore, depending on the application in mind, the hardware specifications and configuration should be carefully considered during system development.

This in turn would impose an additional requirement for professionals with expertise in both the application area and sensor integration (e.g. synchronisation and communication among the different sensors).

7. Required data processing expertise: Tightly coupled with the system integration expertise, high-level data-processing expertise is required while being cognisant of the demands of the different applications. Most importantly, the professional community has a substantial need for the development of reliable guidelines for the quality control of the different stages of data processing up to the final product that meets the demands of the intended application.

OUTLOOK Figure 5, Corresponding shortwave infrared (SWIR) orthophoto mosaic.

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Realising its huge potential, the research and professional communities have been actively

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addressing challenges pertaining to system development and manipulation of acquired data by passive and active digital imaging systems on board micro/mini UAVs. Some of the promising developments in this area include: 1. Position and orientation systems (POS): The continuous hardware and software developments in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and inertial navigation systems (INS) have led to the availability of lightweight (i.e. less than 100g) POS units that are capable of providing position and attitude accuracy in the range of 2 to 5cm and 0.025° to 0.08°, respectively. Such developments are having tremendous impact on reducing the required ground control for passive imaging systems as well as the derivation of more reliable products from Lidar units on board UAVs. 2. Low-cost digital cameras with GNSS/ INS synchronisation capabilities: It is now feasible to equip UAVs with off-the-shelf digital cameras that have more than 40 megapixels while providing capabilities for precise time tagging of the acquired images. Such capabilities are having huge impact on reducing the ground control requirements for the production of accurate orthophoto mosaics and digital surface models.

3. Low-cost Lidar units: Recent developments in the laser-ranging and scanning technologies have made it possible to have reasonably priced (i.e. less than USD10,000) Lidar units that weigh less than one kilogram while providing more than a quarter of a million pulses per second with range accuracy at the centimetre level. Such moderate weight and cost characteristics make it possible to augment the system with a digital camera without excessively increasing the overall payload cost/weight.

4. Lightweight multispectral and hyperspectral imaging systems: Advances in digital imaging technologies have led to the availability of lightweight multispectral and hyperspectral cameras. Such cameras allow current UAV-based mapping systems to provide solutions to applications that require higher spectral resolution and wider spectral range than is offered by RGB digital cameras.

5. Commercially available image-based data processing software: Thanks to recent advances in integrating photogrammetric and computer vision tools, the mapping community has access to several

commercial packages that are capable of processing hundreds and even thousands of images to produce accurate orthophoto mosaics and dense digital surface models.

Such packages have made it possible to process acquired data using a wide range of digital imaging systems in a short time while providing products that meet the needs of several applications.

be necessary to establish standardised pre-acquisition best practices as well as post-acquisition guidelines. This will ensure the validity of the collected data in meeting the needs of the intended applications while reducing the required level of technical expertise. While UAV-based mobile mapping systems are unlikely to replace manned airborne and terrestrial modalities, there

RECENT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES ENABLE UAV-BASED MOBILE MAPPING SYSTEMS TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF A WIDE RANGE OF APPLICATIONS 6. Innovative system calibration capabilities: The research community has been successful in providing tools for accurate system calibration to simultaneously provide the intrinsic parameters of passive/active imaging sensors and the mounting parameters relating to such sensors to the onboard position and orientation unit (e.g. GNSS/INS). These advances are also coupled with strategies for quantitative evaluation of the stability of the calibration parameters.

7. Innovative approaches for multi-sensor/ multi-platform data integration: The research community has been developing solutions for the integration of active and passive sensors operating in a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g.

RGB, multispectral and hyperspectral sensory data together with Lidar-based point clouds).

is no doubt that the former will play an important role in a wide range of applications that cannot be cost-effectively addressed by the latter. Moreover, it is expected that imagery and Lidar data from UAVs could be integrated with acquired geospatial data using traditional mapping platforms to offer more cost-effective solutions (e.g. providing local control to improve the positional accuracy of the latter). * Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market,

by Application, Class (Mini, Micro, Nano, Tactical, MALE, HALE, UCAV), SubSystem (GCS, Data Link, Software), Energy Source, Material Type, Payload and Region – Global Forecast to 2022. By: marketsandmarkets. com; publication date: November 2016; report code: AS 2802.

SUMMARY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Recent technological advances coupled with developments in data processing activities are allowing UAV-based mobile mapping systems to address the needs of a wide range of applications. Surveying, infrastructure monitoring and agricultural management are starting to implement UAVs equipped with GNSS/INS-assisted passive/active digital imaging systems operating in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. In illustration, Figures 1 to 5 provide examples of multi-rotor UAV platforms that are equipped with directly georeferenced RGB/ Lidar/shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging systems together with generated orthophoto mosaics and digital surface models from such modalities.

Dr Ayman F. Habib is a professor at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University in the USA, co-director of the Civil Engineering Center for Applications of UAS for a Sustainable Environment (CE-CAUSE), and associate director of the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). His research interests span the fields of terrestrial and aerial mobile mapping systems, modelling the perspective geometry of non-traditional imaging scanners, automatic matching and change detection, automatic calibration of low-cost digital cameras, object recognition in imagery and point cloud data, Lidar mapping, and integrating photogrammetric data with other sensors/datasets (e.g. GNSS/INS, GIS databases, multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, and Lidar). Dr Habib has authored more than 350 publications and has served as an editorial board member for several national and international journals in the field of geomatics and civil engineering.

For wider adoption and acceptance within the professional community, it will

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BY RAOUL MICHELS, MARITIME INSTITUTE WILLEM BARENTSZ (MIWB), THE NETHERLANDS

YOUNG GEO

OCEAN TECHNOLOGY STUDENT SURVEY PROJECT

Scanning a WWII German

Bunker Complex

Every June, the first and second-year students of ocean technology (hydrography) at the Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz (MIWB) do a two-week field project around the institute’s campus, located on the coast of the Dutch Wadden island of Terschelling. The project is usually a bathymetric survey of nearby lakes, the harbour or surrounding waters. This year, one of the groups was offered an unusual challenge: to map the bunkers at the ‘Tiger’ bunker complex. The geodetic survey, uncommon for hydrography students, was met with enthusiasm and dedication by the survey team.

The survey objective was to scan (part of) the Tigerstellung bunker complex just outside the town of West-Terschelling. During the Second World War, this outlying fortress guarded the northern aerial routes into and out of the Third Reich, covering much of the southern North Sea. It was used in the assault on England known as the Englandspiel. Buried in dirt in the fifties, the entire complex – comprised of bunkers and anti-aircraft guns in defence of the radar installations and listening posts that were highly advanced for their time – is now being excavated to broaden public awareness of its historical importance. Over the last few years, islanders and student volunteers have worked hard to uncover many bunkers and restore them to how they would have looked some 70 years ago.

This setup allowed the first-year students to learn from the second-year students whilst allowing the second-year students to gain more project management and leadership skills. Before the measuring work could start, four base points had to be determined near each bunker. This required the group to obtain the true three-dimensional coordinates in the searing 39°C heat with an inexperienced crew, no GNSS reception and only two known base stations within ten kilometres. It took several attempts to get it right. Just next to the bunker complex there was a mast continuously

emitting radio signals, which interfered greatly with the reception of GNSS data.

There were two alternatives to finding the precise location in the 2D plane: either to use both polygon and eccentric measurements from two nearby control points, or to use the steeples of the churches on the mainland in Seisbierrum and Harlingen (about 24 kilometres away). The students tried both methods, but it was quickly determined that the steeple measurements were far too inaccurate to precisely determine the position of the bunkers

As the MIWB does not own a laser scanner, the expertise and equipment had to come from the mainland. The students were aided by Mr Jos Westra from Coenradie BV who brought along a state-of-the-art Leica P40 laser scanner and arranged temporary licences to 3DReshaper from Technodigit for data processing. In view of the time constraints, it was agreed to completely map two bunkers (outside and inside): the command bunker (20 by 20 metres, two floors and about 15 rooms), and an anti-air bunker or ‘FLAK bunker’ (8 by 12 metres, one floor, six rooms).

FIELDWORK The party consisted of 13 members: six second-year and seven first-year students.

Figure 1, Reflectors near the FLAK bunker (left) and Command bunker (right). All full-colour scans have been overlaid to create this picture.

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within a two-day period. The outsides of both bunkers, as well as the officers’ mess in the command bunker, were mapped in full colour.

The lack of light inside the bunkers meant that most chambers could not be measured in full colour, so simple 3D scanning was performed on these rooms.

DATA PROCESSING

Figure 2, The Tigerstellung command bunker – visual (above) and full-colour point cloud (down).

in the 2D plane. Around the project locations of West-Terschelling two control points are accurately measured in the Dutch National Grid: the Brandaris lighthouse and the Dutch Ordnance Datum benchmark near the tidal station in the harbour. All other geodetic points are benchmarks with solely a height assigned to them. Both control points are roughly one kilometre away from the bunker complex. Due to the hills and dunes surrounding the bunkers, several eccentric and polygon measurements with a total station were required. Height was determined by levelling between one of the

many benchmarks to the chosen base points around the bunkers. Geodetic calculations resulted in a total vertical precision of three millimetres and a total horizontal precision of about 15 to 20 centimetres. The horizontal precision was not great, but it was deemed good enough for the visualisation.

The reflectors – fifteen in total – were distributed on and around the bunkers (Figure 1) to ensure that every-angle scans always included at least two reflectors. All the scanning was done and the raw data obtained

After the data had been collected, it was first analysed by Mr Westra using the Leica Cyclone software. This allowed the aggregation of different scans into a single file. During the next week, the students processed the Cyclone file into a single coherent image, using 3DReshaper and AutoCAD. What made the processing especially difficult was the amount of grass on top of the command bunker. Although great for camouflage, it hindered the processing of the laser-scanned point cloud. The fullcolour scans were processed into high-detail pictures of both bunkers. The simple point clouds inside were transformed into a threedimensional mesh using 3DReshaper.

CONCLUSION Three days of preparation, two days of measurements and five days of processing culminated in the presentation of the survey results to the other students and several of the volunteers working at the bunker complex, during which the students presented the map and 3D images of the bunkers. The presentation included an ochre 3D mesh of the FLAK bunker and a point cloud of the interior of the command bunker, among other things. For the students, it was an exciting and challenging project. With their theoretical knowledge of geodetic basics and a limited amount of field practice, they concluded that this opportunity to do an entire project themselves was well worth the time spent on dry land instead of doing the usual bathymetric survey.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to Coenradie BV and Technodigit for supporting this survey with equipment and time. Also many thanks to my fellow students for collecting and processing the data shown here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Raoul Michels has just completed his second year of studying ocean technology at the Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz and led this bunker project.

Figure 3, 3D mesh of the FLAK bunker and interior point cloud of the Command bunker.

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Seventh UN-GGIM Session in New York

The Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS) has changed its name to the UN-GGIM Geospatial Societies Board. A meeting was organised for the attending presidents of the member societies.

The Seventh Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) was held from 31 July to 4 August 2017 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA. FIG President Prof Chryssy Potsiou and FIG Vice President Mr Mikael Lilje represented the FIG. About 400 participants from more than 90 countries joined the event together with more than 70 observers.

Good locational data is of growing importance in today’s world. UN-GGIM coordinates the use and application of such data for sustainable development, disaster management, peace missions, climate mitigation, environment, water and so on. The Seventh Session was opened by Mr Liu, under-secretary-general from the United

Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The agenda included, amongst other things, reports on the global geodetic reference frame, determination of global fundamental geospatial data themes, trends in national institutional arrangements in global geospatial information management, legal and policy frameworks, including issues related to authoritative data, implementation and adoption of standards for the global geospatial information community and integration of geospatial, statistical and other related information.

The Committee of Experts noted and supported the 2017-2021 Strategic Framework and indicated that its implementation should be supported by regional committees. The Committee endorsed the formal establishment of the Subcommittee on Geodesy and agreed with the terms of reference. Membership from developing countries is encouraged. The report on ‘fundamental data themes’ received many comments and observations, mainly related to data quality and actuality with less focus on coverage. ‘Determination of global fundamental geospatial data themes’ is generally accepted – this can be compared with the European INSPIRE initiative. The Committee endorsed the establishment of the Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information. The integration of statistical and geospatial information was further discussed.

The Committee encouraged the continued refinement and implementation of the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework, including:

formulating standardised data and metadata interoperability; paying attention to Big Data; developing technical tools and processes that are able to address regional and subregional integration challenges, and in this context considering specific examples of institutional agreements and practices. The Work Plan 2017/2018 for Land Administration and Management was endorsed after applying some textual refinements to the document.

There were contributions on relevant land indicators of the global indicator framework in support of efforts to improve and accelerate the proportion of the global population that has access to secure tenure of land.

A number of interesting side events were organised, among them the Academic Network Forum Event, in close collaboration with and the support of UN-Expert Group on Land Administration and Management, UN-GGIM Private Sector Network, and UN-GGIM Geospatial Societies. The Forum focused on the theme of ‘Secure Land Rights and Smart Cities – Making It Work for Sustainable Development’ and included a presentation by the president of FIG. Ms Dorine Burmanje from Netherlands Kadaster was elected as co-chair of UN-GGIM, and Cameroon is to take over the role of rapporteur from Burkina Faso.

By Chryssy Potsiou and Kees de Zeeuw

More information www.fig.net

Update on the GSDI CapacityBuilding Programme An important element of the GSDI Association’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 focuses on capacity building. This has various aspects, including workshops, webinars, a knowledge bank of online resources, funded GSDI Strategic Projects, and participation in various conferences and meetings, to promote spatial data infrastructure (SDI).

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Beginning in November 2016, a series of webinars focusing on marine/coastal SDI issues was initiated, running to the end of 2017. The topics include an introductory webinar on the GSDI Marine SDI (MSDI) Best Practice Project; focus on MSDI in Malaysia, Brazil and Denmark/Baltic states; focus on coastal SDI issues; three webinars focused on the role of SDI in marine cadastre and an

overview of the latest marine data standards work of IHO and OGC. Beginning in September 2017, a series of four webinars will cover SDI Data Policy, Governance and eGovernment; Licensing and IPR; Standards for NSDI & Metadata Profiling; and NSDI Organisational Issues.

GSDI webinars are open to all at no cost;

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ORGANISATIONS

places are limited to the first 100 registrations received.

Another key activity has been the longrunning GSDI Small Grants Program that began in 2003. It has now sponsored 114 grants for a range of projects around the globe meeting the primary criteria of helping those organisations that are contributing to and/or building SDIs at organisational, national or regional levels. Seven new grants were made in 2017.

A half-day workshop on ‘Marine SDI, INSPIRE and the EU Marine Directives’ is being delivered at the INSPIRE 2017 Conference in Kehl, Germany, on 4 September. The workshop introduces the reporting requirements of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the EU Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD),

specifically regarding marine information components of national SDIs and INSPIREcompliant data in the coastal and marine information sectors. A further workshop addressing spatial data at the land-sea interface will be conducted later this year in cooperation with EuroSDR, which is co-funding the Marine SDI Best Practice project. This workshop addresses the issues of how different government agencies need to cooperate in order to best manage the complex physical region found at the coast.

All capacity-building resources can be found on the GSDI Association’s website, including workshop results, SDI-related videos, SDI cookbooks, numerous books relating to SDI research and implementation, plus reports and links to national SDI portals, related associations and more.

More information www.gsdiassociation.org www.opengeospatial.org/pub/ArcticSDP/ index.html https://arctic-sdi.org http://gsdiassociation.org/index.php/ publications.html

EUREF Symposium The 2017 EUREF Symposium was held in Wrocław, Poland, from 17-19 May. The local organiser was the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics from Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. The scope of the symposium covered different aspects of the definition, realisation and maintenance of the European Reference Frame, with sessions

on: Systems (ETRS89, EVRS), Networks (EPN, UELN), Techniques (GNSS, Levelling, Combination) and Applications (Earth Sciences, Geoinformation, National Reports.

One of the major themes of the symposium was ‘The Future of Reference Frames’. A questionnaire was sent to all European

countries in March 2017, with the main objective of surveying opinions on the new ETRS89 realisation in Europe, ETRF2014. The main outcome was that there are different needs in different countries, different practices and a lot of variable opinions. Furthermore, there are practical restrictions to the adoption of a new reference frame in the near future.

Another future reference frame-related item was the ‘dynamic’ reference frame and its impact on European reference frames. New reference frame concepts will remain topical in the coming years and will be the subject of future EUREF symposia. Discussion on crustal deformation and deformation models, methods and applications led to the establishment of a new working group on dense velocity fields.

Additionally, the development and performance of the EUREF Permanent GNSS Network (EPN) was presented, as well as relations to EPOS (European Plate Observing System), gravity-related heights and environmental effects of GNSS signals.

More information www.ggos.org The 2017 EUREF Symposium was held in Wrocław, Poland.

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International Cartography

The 28th International Cartographic Conference (ICC) was held in the capital city of the USA, Washington DC, during a hot and humid week at the beginning of July 2017.

The biennial ICC had been preceded by Rio de Janeiro (in 2015) and will next convene in Tokyo in 2019. Washington DC proved to be an admirable choice by ICA – combining an efficient and stimulating host city, with excellent conference organisation by the American Cartography and GI Society (CaGIS), and participation from eminent cartographers, innovative researchers and keen students from across the globe. Final figures revealed a total of over 900 registered attendees, about half of whom had already participated in one of the dozen ‘pre-conference workshops’ in and around the city, anticipated in previous ICA articles in these pages. In addition, an Extraordinary

General Meeting was held on Sunday 2 July, addressing governance and other issues of interest to member nations of ICA. The conference was opened in fine style on the Monday after with welcoming speeches and a performance of typical gospel music from the Howard University Gospel Choir, which included the official ICA anthem, composed for Rio in 2015. Additional plenary addresses and greetings were conveyed by the ICA president, the chair of CaGIS, representatives of the main organising committee, and director of the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC), the mapping organisation of the USGS, Kari Craun. Throughout the week, fascinating daily keynote lectures were given

by Tom Patterson, US National Park Service, on mapping the Grand Canyon; Robert Cardillo, director of the United States National Geospatial Intelligence Agency; Lee Schwartz, geographer at the U.S. Department of State, on maps for foreign policy; and Mikel Maron of Mapbox on VGI mapping.

The main scientific programme was developed through an extensive committee under the chair of Professor Cindy Brewer (Penn State University). Her task was to manage a total of 496 peer-reviewed oral presentations and 205 posters, and form a coherent schedule over the five days available. Parallel sessions were, of course, required and ten streams were offered to

incorporate all the oral presentations. There were many occasions when one wished to be in three or four sessions simultaneously.

Hundreds of presenters came from 59 different countries, emphasising the international reach of ICA and the success of its mission to embrace the world, cartographically.

At least 20% of the delegates found time in the packed schedule to attend local technical visits to agencies including USGS, the Map Room of the Library of Congress, NOAA, National Geographic and others. Large numbers also engaged with the social events, including 23 for a memorable orienteering event (held in storm conditions), and hundreds at the Texas-style barbecue.

The impressive venue for the conference, the Marriott-Wardman (Washington’s largest hotel), offered an excellent array of plenary and meeting rooms, and also floor space for the impressive exhibitions – the International Map Exhibition, the Technical Trade Exhibition and the Children’s Map Competition. These will be reported on in more detail in the next ICA column in GIM International.

More information www.icaci.org

The ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2017

Presentation of TIF travel grants during the workshop (from left to right): Uwe Stilla, DGPF president, with three of the grantees – Danang Budi Susetyo (Indonesia), Guoming Gao (China) and Abdul Rahaman S (India) – and Christian Heipke, ISPRS president. Absent are Fredrick Onyango (Kenya) and Luka Jurjevic (Croatia).

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The ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2017 took place from 6-9 June 2017 in Germany. It was hosted by IPI, Leibniz Universität Hannover with four workshops under its roof: High Resolution Earth Imaging for Geospatial Information (HRIGI17), City Models, Roads and Traffic (CMRT17), Image Sequence Analysis (ISA17) and European Calibration and Orientation Workshop (EuroCOW17). HRIGI and EuroCOW deal with more geometric topics, while CMRT and ISA have a legacy in automatic scene understanding, object reconstruction and trajectory computation.

The event was sponsored by Leica Geosysystems (Gold Sponsor), Geonumerics, IGI, Luxcarta, Pix4D and Vexcel.

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57 full papers and 121 abstracts were submitted to the meeting. After rigorous review, 30 full papers and 110 abstracts were accepted for publication for the ISPRS Annals and Archives, respectively. Presentations were organised in ten single-track technical and four poster sessions, attended by 209 participants from 31 countries. The proceedings of the ISPRS Hannover Workshop are available on the ISPRS website.

The programme included four keynote talks reflecting the different topics of the workshops by Mubarak Shah (University of Central Florida) on the wide-area surveillance and camera networks; by Kohei Cho (Tokai University) on the monitoring of tsunamidamaged areas; by Christoph Stiller (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) on the blessing and curse of maps for automated driving, and by Raul Queiroz Feitosa (Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro) on multi-temporal probabilistic models in crop recognition. On Thursday afternoon, a masterclass and a session dedicated to industry were held by Leica Geosystems,

Discussions during the poster session Vexcel, IGI, Pix4D and Luxcarta.

The ISPRS Hannover Workshop has been a good collection of high-level presentations on very specific topics, traditionally presented at different events. In this regard, the idea to combine different workshops was very successful. It provided interesting opportunities for scientists and companies to discuss their new developments and solutions. Once again, the audience gained confirmation that research solutions to real-world problems can be found more efficiently by sharing ideas from different

perspectives and expertise. All these considerations could provide strong motivation to repeat this joint workshop formula in 2019.

By Franceso Nex, University of Twente, The Netherlands

More information www.isprs.org www.acrs2017.org

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AGENDA

2017 SEPTEMBER UAV-G 2017 Bonn, Germany from 4-7 September For more information: uavg17.ipb.uni-bonn.de

CMRT17 - CITY MODELS, ROADS AND TRAFFIC Hannover, Germany from 6-9 september For more information: www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/hrigi17

ISPRS GEOSPATIAL WEEK Wuhan, China from 18-22 September For more information: zhuanti.3snews.net/2016/ISPRS

2ND GEOINT AND OPEN SOURCE ANALYTICS SUMMIT Alexandria, Virginia, USA from 19-20 September For more information: geoint.dsigroup.org

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INTERGEO Berlin, Germany from 26-28 September For more information: www.intergeo.de

I3S 2017 - 5TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SENSOR SCIENCE Barcelona, Spain from 27-29 September For more information: sciforum.net/conference/ i3s2017Barcelona

ESRI EASTERN AFRICA USER CONFERENCE

INTERNATIONAL LAND USE SYMPOSIUM (ILUS) 2017

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 4-6 October For more information: www.esriea.co.ke/userconference-2017

Dresden, Germany from 30 October-3 November For more information: ilus2017.ioer.info

THE YEAR IN INFRASTRUCTURE CONFERENCE Singapore from 10-12 October For more information: www.bentley.com/en/yii/home

OCTOBER GEOMATIC AND GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY ASIA 2017

RACURS CONFERENCE - FROM IMAGERY TO DIGITAL REALITY

Johor Bahru, Malaysia from 4-5 October For more information: www.geoinfo.utm.my/ggt2017

Hadera, Israel from 16-19 October For more information: conf.racurs.ru/conf2017/eng

CALENDAR NOTICES Please send notices at least 3 months before the event date to: Myrthe van der Schuit, account manager, email: myrthe.van.der.schuit@ geomares.nl For extended information on the shows mentioned on this page, see our website: www.gim-international.com.

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