Geospatial World - February 2014

G e o s p a t i a l

I n d u s t r y

M a g a z i n e

www.geospatialworld.net

R.N.I No - UPENG/2010/34153; Registration no: UP/GBD-136/2014-16

February 2014 » VOLume 04» ISSUE 07 | ISSN 2277–3134

Publication: 10th of every month I Posting: 15th / 20th of every month

GEOSPATIAL WORLD TM

Price: INR 150 / US$ 15 Subscriber’s copy. Not for Sale

Y o u r

OVERNANCE & INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE SDI - Quo Vadis? | P. 24 INSPIRE - Towards a Participatory Digital Earth | P. 32 Back to the Future: US NSDI Shows the Way | P. 42

Shaping smart change through Smart Solutions Hexagon operates on the strength of our foundation – best-in-class technologies that produce solutions to transform how critical industries tackle increasingly difficult challenges.

Built from custom combinations of our geospatial and industrial technologies, Hexagon Smart Solutions support four key areas – safety, infrastructure, resources and manufacturing – helping customers focus on smarter ways to protect and provide for the public, build and maintain industrial facilities, optimise resources and manufacture essentials for everyday life.

With decades of experience in the geospatial industry, Hexagon offers a comprehensive geospatial portfolio that captures the constant, real-time changes of our dynamic earth through satellite imagery, terrestrial and aerial photography, remote sensing, CAD and GIS.

SAFETY

INFRASTRUCTURE

RESOURCES

MANUFACTURING

Modernising the geospatial experience Fusing real-world and digital-world data provides the power of information.

Hexagon is at the forefront of this fusion, offering a comprehensive geospatial portfolio that gives customers control of important decision-making processes.

Strengthened by customer insight, Intergraph, Leica Geosystems and Hexagon Geospatial continue to create dynamic sensory and software solutions that help users transform data into actionable intelligence. Together, we are shaping the future of geospatial technologies through smart change.

Be sure to check out our newest offerings:

LEICA NOVA MS50 MULTISTATION

GEOSPATIAL 2014 • Solves big data problem using analytics through the cloud, delivered to mobile • Create customised solutions once, repeat indefinitely • Real-time updating and reporting from the field

• Advanced measuring technology for unchallenged accuracy and quality • Combines significant measuring technologies in one device • Ease of use for a wide range of applications

leica-geosystems.com

geospatial.intergraph.com

CLICK!

TWEET!

hexagongeospatial.com

follow @HexGeospatial

HX0500-AD-0512

February 2014 • Vol 4 • Issue 7

Inside

THEME: GOVERNANCE AND INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Executive Space 22 Vladimir Gershenzon

Founder & Board Member, ScanEx

Cover Story

Feature: Food Security

24 SDI - Quo Vadis?

Prof Arup Dasgupta

68 A Thought for Food

Case Studies on SDIs

Jim Baumann

32 INSPIRE: Towards a Participatory Digital Earth, Max Craglia

07 Editorial

37 The Three Gears of NGIS in Korea

08 News

Byong Nam Choe & Moo Ik Park

19 ProductWatch

42 Back to the Future: USA

70 The ICA Angle

46 A Clustre of SDIs: Spain

72 Picture This

Antonio F. Rodríguez

74 Events

54 A Collaborative Model to Decentralise Information: Chile

Interview

Articles

56 Sdi Strengthens G-Governance in Abu Dhabi

40 Doe Tae-HO

60 Towards Smarter Services Jim Dobbs

58 A Smart City Indeed: Bogota Jasmith A. Tamayo B

64 Tracking Development via Effective Aid Management Samantha Custer

Advisory Board

Disclaimer Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

Owner, Publisher & Printer Sanjay Kumar Printed at M. P. Printers B - 220, Phase-II, Noida - 201 301, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP) India Publication Address A - 92, Sector - 52, Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, India The edition contains 76 pages including cover

Aida Opoku Mensah

Bryn Fosburgh

Special Advisor, Post 2015 Development Agenda, UN Economic Commisssion for Africa

Sector Vice-President, Executive Committee Member, Trimble Navigation

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

Barbara Ryan Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations Chair-Executive Board, Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), The Netherlands

Geospatial Technologist, Google

Prof. Ian Dowman First Vice President, ISPRS

Chair, Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Mark Reichardt

Vice President, Engineering & Infrastructure, Autodesk

President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

Mohd Al Rajhi

Ramon Pastor

Asst Deputy Minister for Land & Surveying, Ministry of Municipal & Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia

Vice-President and General Manager, Large Format Printing Business, Hewlett-Packard

Director General and Chief Executive, Ordnance Survey, UK

Geospatial World Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd. (formerly GIS Development Pvt. Ltd.) A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India Tel + 91-120-4612500 Fax +91-120-4612555 / 666 Price: INR 150/US$ 15

CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan Dawn J. Wright Chief Scientist, Esri

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems

Prof. Josef Strobl

Lisa Campbell

Vanessa Lawrence

Chief Director, Surveys & Mapping and National Geospatial Information, Department of Rural Development & Land Reforms, South Africa

Ed Parsons

Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group

Kamal K Singh

50 Derek Clarke

Dorine Burmanje

Dr. Hiroshi Murakami Director-General of Planning Department, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan

Deputy Minister, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport, Korea

Stephen Lawler Chief Technology Officer, Bing Maps, Microsoft

Juergen Dold President Hexagon Geosystems

Matthew O’Connell CEO, Adhoc Holdings

Dr Swarna Subba Rao Surveyor General of India

Publisher Sanjay Kumar

Publications Team Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss Editor — Agriculture Mark Noort Editor — Geospatial World Weekly (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Executive Editor Bhanu Rekha Deputy Executive Editor Anusuya Datta Product Manager Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Sub-Editor Ridhima Kumar Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Amit Shahi

Geospatial World February 2014 / 5

Compact Robotic Total Station Designed to be both Versatile and Agile

The DS series can be upgraded with USB Upgrade Kit to add Auto Tracking capability.

• • • • • • •

Auto Tracking Function* Auto Collimation Xpointing Technology MAGNET™ Software On-board Powerful EDM of 1,000m in Reflectorless Mode Exclusive LongLink™ Communications Dust and Water Protection IP65 TSshield™ Advanced Security and Maintenance* *Selective Availability.

DS

Direct Aiming Station

Topcon Positioning Middle East and Africa FZE E-mail : marketing@topcongulf.com Website : www.topconpositioningmea.com

From the Editor’s Desk

Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

W

Democratising SDIs, Empowering Citizens

hile going through the articles on SDI in this issue I was struck by the immense contribution of two entities that have shaped SDI. Max Craglia of the European Commission’s INSPIRE initiative hit it bang on when he termed SDI as the child of the Internet. Indeed, global access to data would not have been possible without it. The second is the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), whose championing of open data systems and adoption of Internet capabilities through its Web Services Standards to enable data discovery, binding and operations has introduced a quiet revolution which helped make SDI a reality.

Both entities share many common traits like openness; both are driven by volunteers; both rely on consensus and both choose to follow a golden mean eschewing controversy as far as possible.

Openness is a virtue that all SDIs should embrace with respect to data. Many have held that data for public good must be free of cost and easily available.

Government-collected data should be available at the cost of media because the cost of collection has already been paid for by the citizens. Derek Clarke of NGI, South Africa, opines that pricing data for achieving financial independence is possibly the worst move an SDI can make as it will indirectly deny access to those who need it but cannot afford it. In a hard hitting article in Sensors and Systems, Bruce Joffe of GIS Consultants has put forward the idea that democracy depends upon access by the public to government geodata. Fair property taxation, consistent zoning and rational property insurance rates are “the types of questions concerned citizens may ask, both in

their own interest, and in the interest of maintaining a responsive and equitable democracy”. Those countries that seek to restrict data access in the name of security need to heed this reasoning because open government that embraces transparency in decision making is the hallmark of democracy.

Involvement of citizens in SDI is not only as seekers of information but also as providers of information.

The use of volunteered geospatial information from neogeographers and others must be encouraged and used as a valid data source for SDIs. There must be more Google Mapathon type of efforts. When it comes to planning development decisions, the views of the stakeholders must be included, and this necessarily comes from the bottom of the pyramid and not the top.

Citizen involvement and transparent government can become more than buzzwords if the SDIs truly begin to serve citizens.

Another buzz acronym is PPP. Governments mouth this as they involve industry in realising SDI, though in reality it is nothing more than the age-old tendering model. Undoubtedly, SDI efforts by governments are lucrative business opportunities for the geospatial industry but the real money is in serving the citizens, the bottom of the pyramid, by creating applications that co-create a personalised experience for each citizen customer. There are thousands of government departments but there are billions of potential citizen-customers. That will be the real Private Public Partnership.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 7

Americas News ‘US is the highest spender on military GPS/GNSS’

DigitalGlobe to enter geospatial big data market

The US government is the highest spender on military GPS/GNSS navigation, and is responsible for 42.9% of the global military GNSS devices market, according to a report published by Reportstack. The report on ‘The Global Military GPS/GNSS Market 2013-2023’ offers a detailed analysis of the global military GPS/ GNSS market over the next 10 years, alongside potential market opportunities to enter the industry, using detailed market size forecasts. Other major spenders in this sector include Russia, the UK, China and India, according to the report. A major factor driving this market is the integration of satellite navigation technology with other navigation systems, such as the inertial navigation system (INS) and gyro as GPS devices are to be used in order to decipher data correctly.

DigitalGlobe is planning to enter the estimated $40-billion geospatial big data market in an effort to expand its business. Company executives told investors at a Denver conference that it is planning to grow beyond being a satellite imagery provider.

“Geospatial big data is at the heart of our transformation from imagery to information,” said Jeffrey Tarr, DigitalGlobe President and CEO.

Apple acquires 3D sensor company PrimeSense Apple has bought Israel-based PrimeSense Ltd, a developer of chips that enable three-dimensional machine vision. The acquisition signals gesture-controlled technologies in new devices from the maker of iPhones and iPads. The Israeli media said Apple paid about $350 million for PrimeSense, whose technology powers the gesture control in Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Kinect gaming system. It was the second acquisition of an Israeli company Paid for

by Apple in less PrimeSense than two years.

Apple bought flash storage chip maker Anobit in January 2012.

$350mn

Raytheon bags miniature GPS receivers contract Raytheon has received a $15.8-million contract for its MAGR 2000-S24 miniaturised airborne GPS receiver.

The order, which includes new production and sustenance of existing systems, is the first under

8 / Geospatial World February 2014

Courtesy: PR Newswire, Raytheon

Business

MAGR 2000-S24 miniaturised airborne GPS receiver

an Indefinite Delivery-Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract awarded to the company in September 2013 by the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The open architecture design of MAGR 2000-S24 allows modernisation and upgrade of GPS functional capabilities through the simple replacement of a single electronics module.

Pitney Bowes, Twitter sign location intelligence deal Pitney Bowes has sealed a deal with Twitter to provide location intelligence solutions for the latter’s mobile platform. The deal has been signed for providing location intelligence solutions to Twitter worldwide. “Twitter will use the company’s location intelligence technology to support location sharing in tweets,” said James Buckley, Senior Vice President and General Manager Location Intelligence, Pitney Bowes.

Apple files patent for more intelligent maps app The US Patent and Trademark Office has published Apple’s patent for an improved maps application.

The ‘Interactive Map’ application is an electronic map which displays several layers of information with highlighted landmarks. Users can overlay certain types of information on the map by selecting more specific categories. These layers would be derived from other mapping services as well as third-party websites.

Users can choose to see highways, retail stores, city parks, airports and even weather and they can then view these separately or all together in a composite view. What really sets this possible patent apart is that it allows users to finetune their views

Americas News to make it easier to separate similar things such as major highways and side streets on different layers.

Miscellaneous SkyBox beams first high-resolution video of the planet

DHS awards contract for geospatial services Ardent Management Consulting has been awarded a five-year blanket purchase agreement to support programmes throughout the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with geospatial and common operating picture (COP) technology requirements. The contract is worth $98 million. Under the agreement, ArdentMC will provide comprehensive geospatial enterprise technical support services, including geospatial programme and project management, techniSize of the cal planning, DHS contract engineering and implementation, analytics and processing, enterprise and technical architecture, data processing and management, and operations and maintenance.

$98mn

Verisk analytics to acquire EagleView Technology Verisk Analytics has signed an agreement to acquire EagleView Technology Corporation (EVT), the parent company of Pictometry International and Eagle View Technologies. The acquisition will accelerate Verisk`s position as a key provider of data, analytics, and decision support solutions based on aerial imagery. The purchase price of $650 million will be paid in cash to stockTo be paid for holders of EVT. EagleView Tech The transaction

$650mn

After releasing the first images from its SkySat-1 satellite, SkyBox Imaging has now shared the world’s first commercial, high-resolution, HD video of earth.

SkySat-1, which was launched in November 2013, captured up to 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second to create high-resolution views of Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Aleppo, Syria.

The footage reveals details down to the metre-scale, such as cars moving on roads and vessels travelling through shipping lanes — all from a satellite positioned 600 km above the planet.

SkySat-1 is 20 times smaller than traditional satellites, weighing just 100 kg. The California-based startup intends to launch 23 more satellites in the years ahead to provide timely access to high-resolution imagery.

Miscellaneous

types of apps soldiers really wanted initially focused on high-resolution map imagery in the palm of their hand,” said Doran Michels, DARPA programme manager.

DARPA’s apps transform battlefield operations

‘NSA tracks 5 bn cellphone location records daily’

DARPA has recently come up with transformative apps programme that provides digital imagery to dismounted troops through secured Android devices. It also aims to build a library of secure military apps that are as simple to access and use as their commercial counterparts, even in the most austere and disconnected tactical environments. “The

The National Security Agency (NSA) of US traces over 5 billion cellphones everyday, mapping the relationship among the various cellphone users based on their location, revealed a report published in The Washington Post. According to the report, the US agency accumulated humongous amount of location data everyday by tapping into cables

is expected to close by July 15, 2014, subject to the completion of customary closing conditions.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 9

Americas News levels in a bid to better understand the greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. In November, NASA plans to launch the Soil Moisture Active Passiva (SMAP) satellite that will measure water levels in the soil. Two other instruments are to be sent to the orbiting International Space Station where they will be installed to take stock of happenings back home.

that join mobile networks around the world. The NSA collects this location and travel habit data to do “target development” — to find unknown associates of targets it already knows about. The NSA used a software programme called COTRAVELLER, which churns through the vast location data of billions of cellphone users and establishes the “patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go”.

“That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance,” the report adds.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Pennsylvania, has announced a new online oil and gas mapping tool on its website. The online mapping tool displays the location of wells across Pennsylvania and allows users to search and view specific types of wells by county, such as conventional gas, unconventional gas, oil or coal bed methane wells. Users are also able to filter search results based on the status of the well by selecting active, plugged or abandoned. After search filters are applied, users will have the ability to view wells via satellite photo view, topographic map view or animated map view.

US Army to install ground based UAV radar The US Army plans to install a new ground-based sense and avoid (GBSAA) network at five installations by 2016 to ensure its UAVs can deconflict with other aircraft in domestic airspace. The five sites are Fort

10 / Geospatial World February 2014

According to a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, there are nearly 6,000 natural gas leaks under the streets of Washington DC. Scientists from Duke University and Boston University say that they have discovered more than 5,893 leaks from aging natural gas pipelines under DC. The team mapped out gas leaks under all 1,500 miles of road within DC using a high-precision Picarro G2301 Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer installed in a car. Tests confirmed that the isotopic chemical signatures of methane and ethane found

Ground-based radars for UAVs

Hood in Texas, Fort Riley in Kansas, Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, and Fort Drum in New York. “The army completed a preliminary design review of the GBSAA network in November. The service is now moving ahead with installing the system at five sites where the army’s largest UAV, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, is flown,” said Viva Austin, product director for the army’s Unmanned Systems Airspace Integration Concepts (USAIC).

NASA’s upcoming missions to focus on Earth This year NASA is turning its eyes back to Earth with five planned space missions to take a look at the home planet. The first mission, the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, is to launch in February. It will study global rain and snowfall. In July, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite will begin measuring carbon dioxide

Courtesy: Duke University

US state unveils an online oil and gas mapping tool

6,000 natural gas leaks in Washington’s aging pipes

Satellite image of the District of Colombia with bar charts showing where natural gas leaks were located.

Americas News in the survey closely matched that of pipeline gas.

Canada Canada to make territorial claim for North Pole Canada plans to make a claim to the North Pole in an effort to assert its sovereignty in the resource-rich Arctic. The federal government plans to send its scientists back into the field for mapping a giant undersea mountain range which could secure the sea floor under the top of the world for the Maple Leaf. “The Lomonosov Ridge wasn’t fully mapped by my department earlier. Therefore, for this extensive mapping project I think it is important to map the entire Arctic, including on the ridge,” said John Baird, Foreign Affairs Minister, Canada.

Brazil Brazilian state to develop registry of rural properties The State Secretariat for the Environment and Water Resources (Semar) of Piaui has launched the Rural Environmental Registry project to integrate environmental information of rural properties. The project aims to create a database which will help in monitoring the environmental and economic planning of rural properties to combat deforestation. “From now on, Piaui will rely on a database of satellite images that will locate, identify and georeference rural properties.

Besides environmental management tool, the Environmental Registry can consolidate itself as the gateway to the largest programme for combating deforestation,” said Macambira Dalton, Secretary of Semar.

Rio de Janeiro airport

Rio airport to adopt air navigation system Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro will start using an air navigation system that will reduce travel time from other airports to Santos Dumont. This system is expected to decrease the noise from takeoff and landing, save fuel and reduce the number of times when the airport is closed due to bad weather. The technology uses the concept of performance-based RNP (Required Navigation Performance) navigation.

It requires the installation of specific devices on the aircraft, crew training and adequacy of control of air navigation to increase the accuracy of descent operations. The system will initially be used in Santos Dumont and will be later expanded to other airports in the country.

Ecuador Second nano-satellite launched Ecuador’s Civilian Space Agency (EXA) has launched the second nano-

satellite into space. The Krysaor satellite was launched aboard a Russian-built Dnepr RS-20B rocket.

The satellite is equipped with a high resolution video camera. It has advanced solar panels, and a highspeed digital broadcasting system that can transmit data a thousand times faster.

Tracasa bags $17.5-mn cartography deal in Ecuador The Navarre public company, Tracasa has been selected to provide cartographic and data processing services for a 120,000 sq km area in Ecuador. The amount of the tender, worth $17.5 million, makes this one of the biggest cartographic projects in 2013. The aim of this project, developed by the Ecuadorian Government with the Inter-American Development Bank, is to implement an efficient cadastre and rural land registration system in the Ecuador.

Tracasa will contribute its knowledge and technology to achieve this modernisation milestone in the Central American country.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 11

Europe News Belgium

Geographical Institute) has signed a contract to implement SiNErGIC (the National System for the Use and Management of Cadastral Information) to register all the urban and rural properties in the country. The SiNErGIC system aims to document the exact delimitations of real estate to unify the existing and new cadastral information and also to allow a uniform management and processing of that information. The system also aims to be compatible with other electronic systems and will be accessible to civil servants as well as to citizens and companies.

The European Parliament has approved funding for the region’s two satellite navigation programmes— Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) — until 2020. The European Union will spend €7 billion ($9.4 billion) to complete the satellite navigation infrastructure and launch the services. “Galileo and EGNOS are an investment for our future.

The opportunities and benefits that these systems will bring to the European economy and citizens are very significant,” said Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice President. The overall economic impact of Galileo and EGNOS is estimated to be around €90 billion over the next 20 years. In addition to the opening up of new business opportunities, everyday users Funding will also be able to enjoy increas- approved by EU

€7 bn

ingly accurate satellite navigation services with every new satellite launch.

Maps for European location framework unveiled Plans to bring together location data from different countries to provide one source of authoritative Maps for Europe have been unveiled to MEPs. The European Location Framework will deliver reliable geoinformation — including cross-border maps — and have a wide range of uses, including emergency response, environmental management and

12 / Geospatial World February 2014

Courtesy: EuroGeographics

EU funding for Galileo, EGNOS projects

Ingrid Vanden Berghe, President of EuroGeographics, (right) presents a topographic atlas of Belgium to Catherine Stihler, MEP (left).

Brussels

economic development. By standardising geoinformation from European countries, the European Location Framework will enable the free movement of interoperable data.

It will also enable cost savings by maximising the reuse of public data and avoiding the development of duplicate services. “Cross-border interoperable maps are very important to Europe and we can already see the contribution Europe’s national mapping and cadastral authorities make to the sound delivery of European policies. Their impact is far reaching,” said Catherine Stihler Member of European Parliament (MEP).

Switzerland has signed a cooperation agreement to participate in the Galileo and EGNOS programme, the pillars of the EU’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Switzerland will now financially participate in the programme, and will retroactively contribute €80 million for the period 2008-2013.

Contribution by The agreeSwitzerland ment, signed in Brussels, also covers cooperation in areas such as security, export control, standards, certification and industrial cooperation. This cooperation will not only help to provide better results for the EU’s satellite navigation services, but also open up a series of business opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises, both from Switzerland and the EU.

Portugal Land registration project for up-to-date cadastre The Directorate-General for Territory (DGT — formerly the Portuguese

Switzerland joins Galileo navigation programme

€80 mn

Europe News France

Ukraine

Ireland

Deal for multi-satellite Direct Receiving Station

Ukraine to develop spatial data infrastructure

$21 mn investment in marine mapping project

Astrium has signed an agreement with GeoNorth for multi-mission Direct Receiving Station (DRS), with highresolution and very high-resolution optical and radar satellite imagery capabilities. The deal gives GeoNorth the unparalleled capability of priority tasking the Astrium Services constellations to capture imagery and downlink data to its processing terminal. It provides for a multi-satellite DRS that will draw on the SPOT (5 and 6), Pléiades (1A and 1B), TerraSAR-X and TanDEMX satellites — with resolutions across optical and radar products ranging from 0.25m to 40m.

Ukraine is gearing up to participate in European projects to develop geospatial data infrastructure in accordance with European guidelines and directives. “This collaboration will help establish relations with both developers and users of geospatial information to promote long-term mutual support,” said Sergey Timchenko, Chairman, Ukraine’s State Agency of Land Resources.

EuroGeographics will also provide advice and methodological assistance to the State Agency of Land Resources of Ukraine in terms of legal regulation of national geospatial data infrastructure.

Ireland’s Minister for Natural Resources, Fergus O’Dowd, has set out details of upcoming projects in the National Marine Mapping Programme (INFOMAR), and pledged government commitment of €15 million ($21 million) for the next five years, for the continuation of valuable resource for marine research and development in Ireland and beyond. Covering some 125,000 sq km of underwater territory, the INFOMAR project is producing new mapping and integrated products covering the Irish maritime space.

It provides seabed surveys which is used for planning offshore renewable energy projects.

Serbia National infrastructure of geospatial data project The Republic Geodetic Authority of Serbia has implemented a project on national infrastructure of geospatial data and the remote sensing centre for Serbia. The project is valued at around €16.24 million and implemented in cooperation with IGN France International consortium and Astrium EADS. Allocated for The project aims to set up a geospatial data project national centre for geospatial data infrastructure and remote sensing in Serbia, in keeping with European standards, through institutional cooperation of government bodies. It was carried out on grounds of the bilateral agreement between Serbia and France.

€16.24 mn

Denmark Enormous aquifer discovered under Greenland ice sheet Buried underneath compacted snow and ice in Greenland lies a large liquid water reservoir that has been mapped by researchers using data from Courtesy: Ludovic Brucker NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne campaign. Glaciologists found the aquifer while drilling in southeast Greenland in 2011 to study snow accumulation. Two of their ice cores were dripping water when the scientists lifted them to the surface, despite air temperatures of minus 4F degree.

The researchers later used NASA’s Operation Icebridge radar data to confine the limits of the water reservoir, which spreads over 69,930 sq km. The water in the aquifer has the potential to raise the global sea level by 0.4 mm.

Water draining from a core extracted 40 feet below the surface of the ice sheet

Geospatial World February 2014 / 13

Asia News Vietnam New geospatial database for Soc Trang province Officials from the Rural Development and the German Society for International Cooperation and the Ministry of Agriculture have recently handed over a geospatial database to the administration of Soc Trang province of Vietnam.

The geospatial database compiles authoritative data from various government agencies in the country.

Additionally, it also contains maps which date back to 1904. The database will provide decision-makers with historical maps that would help them trace back the development of the coastline and to identify suitable and site-specific measures for coastal protection.

Micro satellite PicoDragon sends first signals

spacecraft, together with three other NASA satellites. The satellite was put into orbit and it re-sent signals back to earth stations in Japan.

Pico Dragon is 10x10x11.35 cm and weighs nearly 1 kg. It is assigned to capture images of the earth, collect space environment data and test communication systems.

Philippines Remapping initiative shows forest cover increase The Cordillera region in Philippines has marked an increase in its forest cover from 2003 to 2010, according to the research done by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA).

“NAMRIA found out that Cordillera’s forest cover increased after they conducted a satellite remapping of the country’s forest cover in 2010, compared to the mapping list in 2003,” said Clarence Baguilat, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Regional Executive Director.

Russia

Courtesy: VNSC

Russia launches project to secure GLONASS

PicoDragon satellite

The Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC) has received first signals from its micro-satellite PicoDragon.

The micro-satellite was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) by Japan’s Kounotori-4 (HTV-4) cargo

14 / Geospatial World February 2014

The Russian Ministry of Defence has launched a project to secure GLONASS, the country’s satellite navigation system, against disruptions of signals by enemies. The ministry has handed a $11-million contract to two local entities — the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Physical Technical and Radiotechnical Measurements (VNIIFTRI) and NAVIS navigation systems. The

contractors will work on increasing contract the GLONASS’ to secure immunity to GLONASS electronic warfare. Under the plan, VNIIFTRI and NAVIS will set up a facility to test the system’s resistance by mimicking noise that can jam satellite signals aimed at land- and air-based GLONASS receivers. It aims to teach the system to distinguish noise from signals and bypass it.

$11mn

Singapore Singapore to develop 3D national topographic model The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is leading a nation-level initiative to develop and maintain 3D National Topographic Model to facilitate the efficient exchange and use of topographic information among agencies. SLA will create a 3D topographic database which will keep the data constantly up-to-date.

A key dataset produced from this project will be the National Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Already, SLA has received many requests from Agencies on this for their planning, operational and developmental needs. “When completed, the 3D National Topographic Model and the National DEM will enhance our understanding of our environment so that we can make better use of our limited resources in a sustainable manner. All this will help the government provide better services and solutions to our citizens,” said Ng Siau Yong, Director of the Geospatial Division at SLA.

Asia News Malaysia Student volunteers map city on OpenStreetMap Kota Kinabalu has become the first city in the country to be mapped on OpenStreetMap (OSM). The comprehensive map was the result of a mapping competition between five schools. The purpose of the competition was to introduce the latest community web mapping technology to students and create awareness about the importance of geographic information as well as create a good quality OSM for Kota Kinabalu.

Sri Lanka

Data Infrastructure (NSDI). NSDI aims to provide and integrate geographically referenced data produced by various government agencies and departments and make it easily accessible in a user-friendly online portal.

“Once the policies are in place, we will launch a geoportal so that citizens can easily access authoritative, consistent and updated maps online.

This will enable people to discover, share and use geospatial information and services in ways never before possible,” said P.M.P. Udayakantha, Senior Assistant Secretary and Senior Deputy Surveyor General at the Department of Survey.

China

Survey dept gets nod to build NSDI project The Survey Department of Sri Lanka has recently received a Cabinet approval to build the National Spatial

Beidou navigation system aims for cm-level accuracy China is planning to expand its homegrown Beidou navigation

India NRSC unveils new data offerings at user meet The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) has unveiled new data products and updates to the existing services at the User Interaction Meet 2014 held in Hyderabad recently. Releasing new products and services for its users and providing information on the upcoming services, Dr. V.K. Dadhwal, Director, NRSC said these new products will keep in pace with the demand for applicationspecific products, that can be accessed online and can be NRSC Chief Dr V.K. Dadhwal lights the lamp to inaugurate the User Meet augmented with field data. Dr. V.S. Hegde, CMD of Antrix Corporation talked about the changing scenario of earth observation as users increasingly demand sub-metre data and quick availability and easy access to data. He also said that the future EO satellites would have the capability to supply high-resolution data with improved revisit times.

system by 2020 and make it accurate to within centimetres. The Chinese system has 16 satellites so far serving the Asia-Pacific and Satellites by the number is 2020 expected to grow to 30 by 2020. Currently, the system can reach an error margin as low as 5 metres in trials and can be further improved to within centimetres to compete with the dominant US GPS, officials said.

30

Dubai State-of-the-art 3D city model in Abu Dhabi The Abu Dhabi City Municipality has started the implementation of the 3D Model Project for the Emirate.

The estimated cost of the project is $25 million and implemented in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council and other authoriAllocated for 3D ties. A 3D map city model of Abu Dhabi will be developed to enhance the government’s ability to effectively manage its land plots and buildings.

Indian firm Rolta has been awarded the contract to develop the model.

$25mn

Dubai municipality unveils electronic map app Dubai municipality’s electronic map application ‘Makani’ has been launched and is available for Apple and Android stores. “With Makani application, people can find any location in Dubai within one metre, which is more accurate than other

Geospatial World February 2014 / 15

Asia News Courtesy: EIAST

First images from DubaiSat 2 released The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology’s (EIAST) DubaiSat 2 Earth observation satellite has been successfully deployed in orbit and all systems have been tested and verified. The satellite’s first image, taken of Seer Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, was captured approx 24 hours after launch. The satellite was launched in November2013. EIAST released images from DubaiSat 2 taken from all over the world in 1-meter resolution.

Burj Khalifa as seen by DubaiSat 2

location finders,” said Abdul Hakim Malik, Director of GIS Department at Dubai Municipality. The application uses Dubai Coordinates, a project undertaken by Dubai Municipality to improve location finding in the emirate. “A 10-digit number has been given to each building and

every location, including government organisations, hospitals, parks, commercial buildings, houses, factories, warehouses, etc. The number or GIS coordinates will help in locating places and people more easily as Dubai does not have a traditional addressing system,” added Malik.

Korea Boeing, Kaman to build GPS-guided weapons

Screenshot of Makani app

16 / Geospatial World February 2014

Aerospace companies Boeing and Kaman have been selected to develop GPS-guided weapons for South Korea’s KF-16 and F-15K fighter aircrafts. South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration aims to help the country’s forces respond to threats from enemy with these weapons. Boeing will build

guided wing kits and Kaman will create detonators for the air-to-ground bombs. The GPS-guided bomb will allow the air force to carry out precision attacks day and night, and enhance its joint strike capabilities.

GPS-guided bombs can reach their targets despite weather changes.

Bahrain CIO signs MoU with Indian university The Central Informatics Organisation (CIO), Bahrain has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Amity University, India.

Eng. Khalid A. Hameed Al Hammadi, Acting Director of GIS Directorate at CIO highlighted that the agreement has materialised upon mutual desire to cooperate in general fields such as technical support, training, remote sensing fields and other related projects related to spatial Information and GIS.

Pakistan Centre for land record computerisation unveiled A land record computerisation centre was recently established in the Lahore cantonment. The aim of this centre is to speed up the procedure of getting property and land plots related work done. The system will become fully functional in all districts of the province. The system will eliminate the culture of corruption, bribery and forgery in the matters relating to land. The obsolete and exploitative system of Patwaris and Tehsildars will also be eliminated.

Africa News

Congo

Courtesy: BBC

Drones to monitor border violence The United Nations will start using surveillance drones for the first time in Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor the volatile border with Rwanda and movements by military and armed groups in the region. The UN drone in Congo first two were launched from the eastern city of Goma, which was briefly occupied by M23 rebels. “The drones would be an important tool to assist the mission in fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians,” said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. By March or April, there would be a 24-hour drone surveillance operation in eastern DR Congo.

Ghana Street-naming exercise underway The Head of Geographic Information System (GIS) Unit of Town and Country Planning Department, Chapman Owusu-Sekyere, has urged Ghanaians to get involved in the on-going street-naming exercise in their respective areas to ensure its success. The exercise was not only to name streets but also to develop a database programme that could develop navigation to guide people to their destinations. The objectives of the programme were to support national development through easy identification of places, delivery of

service and better management of human settlements.

Ghana to promote open data in the country The National IT Agency (NITA) has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Library Authority (GLA) and three local developers to help promote the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI). The MoU was signed between the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS), ODEKRO, Cell Afrique and the Ghana Library Authority. GODI is an initiative run

by NITA. The MoU envisions to create and achieve a vibrant open

data community that would be easily accessible to all the citizens.

“Collaboration with the service providers will help promote Ghana’s Open Data Initiative which will help citizens to understand and use data provided on the portal,” said a NITA spokesperson.

Kenya Deal sealed for mapping of minerals The Kenyan and Chinese governments have entered into a partnership that will help the latter do mapping or airborne survey of minerals in all counties in Kenya.

“The Chinese government has equipment that would make this project a success,” said Najib Balala, Cabinet Secretary for Mining. The underground survey would enable authorities to know about mineral deposits and their value.

Nigeria Kano earmarks $4.4 mn for statewide GIS The state government in Kano province in Nigeria will spend N700 million (approx $4.4 million) in 2014 to boost its Geographic Information System (KANGIS). According to Commissioner for Planning and Budget, Alhaji Yusuf Danbatta, all the properties will be re-certified in the state. for KANGIS He urged land

$4.4mn

owners to take advantage of the re-certification process to secure and protect their properties.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 17

Australia/Oceania News GIS-based stock route system for Queensland The Queensland Government has launched a new online stock route management system to help local governments better manage the State’s 2.6 million hectare stock route network. “With this technology in place, councils will now be able to better manage the network in their area, ensure the more heavily used routes are prioritised for maintenance and highlight which Stock route network to be sections of the managed network can be

2.6mn ha

made available for grazing when there is little demand for use by travelling stock.

This system will help strengthen the agriculture pillar of the Queensland economy and delivers on our election commitment to support the industry,” said Andrew Cripps, Minister for Natural Resources and Mines.

Furthermore, the GIS-based system will clearly identify all travelling stock traffic plus identify routes closed due to lack of pasture or water. In addition, councils will also be able to issue travel permits, agistment permits and water agreements online.

GIS-based emergency response system launched The New South Wales State Emergency Services (NSW SES) has launched a new mapping system that allows volunteers on the ground to instantly share real-time information needed by incident management teams to coordinate rescue operations. A pilot trial of the mapping system was used to help first

18 / Geospatial World February 2014

Screenshot of New South Wales State Emergency Services mapping system

responders. Because of its success, it is now ready to be extended to 229 units located throughout the State.

When major floods occur, it presents unique challenges for incident management teams.

Programme to boost GIS capacity The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) of Australia has announced that the SIBA Board has formalised their support of the SSSI GIS Professional Asia Pacific (GISP-AP) certification programme. “We believe that the assessment programme will provide SIBA members a great degree of confidence that the important functions of GIS analysis and cartographic production is being done by competent professionals. ,” said a spokesperson from SIBA.

characteristics of all active subduction zones on earth. They investigated if those subduction segments that have experienced a giant earthquake share commonalities in their physical, geometrical and geological properties.

Through these findings they identified several subduction zone regions capable of generating giant earthquakes, including the Lesser Antilles, MexicoCentral America, Greece, the Makran, Sunda, North Sulawesi and Hikurangi.

New Zealand GPS data revises height of Aoraki/Mt Cook The official height of New Zealand’s tallest peak, Aoraki/Mt Cook, is set to fall by 30 metres, following new measurements by University of Otago researchers. While currently officially listed as 3,754 metres above sea level, Aoraki/Mt Cook

Global map predicts location of giant quakes A team of international researchers, led by Monash University’s Associate Professor Wouter Schellart, have developed a new global map of subduction zones, illustrating which ones are predicted to be capable of generating giant earthquakes and which ones are not. Researchers used earthquake data going back to 1900 and data from subduction zones to map the main

analysis of high accuracy GPS data obtained reveal that it is actually only 3,724m tall at its highest point. The readings confirm new aerial photography-based calculations performed

by Otago National School of Surveying researcher Dr Pascal Sirguey and Masters student Sebastian Vivero with support from GNS Science and New Zealand Aerial Mapping Ltd.

Product Watch

Leica Rugby 600 series for affordability and performance

Leica Geosystems has expanded its portfolio of rotating lasers with the introduction of Leica Rugby 600 Series. All five models of the Rugby 600 Series offer a professional solution with an outstanding price-to-quality-ratio, allowing quick levelling and aligning for general construction and interior applications, thus eliminating costly errors, rework and downtime. There is also a customer care package ‘PROTECT’, which offers a lifetime warranty and a three-year no-cost period.

Key features • Leica Rugby 610 is a one-button laser that works perfectly for simple horizontal alignment tasks.

• Rugby 620 adds a manual slope feature for matching existing grades.

• Rugby 640 is the perfect choice for quick and easy interior and exterior alignment works. The multipurpose rotating laser includes Leica Geosystems’ exclusive ‘Scan 90’ feature, beam-down and power-saving sleep mode.

CaMundo

camera system for innovative mapping CaMundo camera system by Simplex Mapping Solutions is an innovative miniature collection system that uses a unique technology concept. Weighting only 6kg, the system creates a 146 MP large size frame that aggregates 24,400 unique pixels across track. The system can also be installed on any light aircraft, helicopters and even medium-size UAVs. Key features • Nadir and oblique views in one pass.

• Up to 3cm GSD nadir ortho and up to 5cm GSD oblique views.

• 24,400 unique pixels across track. (2.4km swath at 10cm GSD).

• Overlap: 55% forward overlap, 75% side overlap.

• 100 sqkm @10cm GSD covered in 1 hour.

• Up to 1:500 maps scale and 0.5 DSM m.

• Up to 50% reduction in flight hours comparing to other medium frame camera systems.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 19

Product Watch

Aibot X6:

robust, safe, reliable Aibotix has unveiled Aibot X6, an intelligent hexacopter platform. With accurate management of the camera resolution and the control of speed, direction and position, the Aibot X6 captures a cartographic area through reinterpretation of the conventional photogrammetry. Hence 3D-models and orthophotos will be in highest quality.

CGO

for effetive post-processing CHC has released CHC Geomatics Office (CGO), a powerful software solution dedicated to post-processing static and kinematic GNSS raw data. It is comprehensive and easy-to use. CGO supports GPS+GLONASS+Beidou data in various raw data formats and is compatible with major brands allowing a seamless integration with an existing pool of equipment.

Key features •Combination of GPS, GLONASS, BDS data processing.

•Compatible with GNSS raw data of major brands.

•Both Static and PPK data can be processed.

Key features • It carries an additional payload of up to 2.5kg. This is realised by the 6 rotors that are driven by maintenance-free, brushless motors.

• The copter can reach a climb rate of 8 m/ sec and a speed of 60 kmph. Even if one motor would fail, the Aibot X6 has enough power to fly safely.

• The innovative lightweight carbon fiber casing provides protection to the propellers when the UAV is flying close to objects.

• The Aibot X6 can fly programmed flight paths autonomously and independently take pre-defined aerial photos.

V-Mapper: a new mobile mapping system 3D Laser Mapping, in partnership with IGI, has developed V-Mapper, a dynamic, vehicle-mounted, 3D mapping system comprising of a precision navigation system, state-of-the-art laser scanning technology and an integrated spherical imaging system.

Innovative design ensures V-Mapper is highly portable; packing down into two ruggedised cases for transport as checked-in baggage, and easy to assemble; with mounting and calibration onto a new host vehicle, using standard roof bars, in just 20 minutes.

20 / Geospatial World February 2014

Geo 7X

adds remote positioning capability for greater productivity Trimble has unveiled the new Geo 7X, the next generation of its Trimble GeoExplorer data collection solution. The Geo 7X includes an integrated laser rangefinder module, extended GNSS capabilities and improved hardware performance. Together with field and office geox7_inbody1software, the new Trimble Geo 7X handheld can enhance productivity in difficult physical conditions and challenging GNSS environments.

MicroSurvey CAD 2014 for geospatial data

and imagery

MicroSurvey has released MicroSurvey CAD 2014, an upgrade to its survey and design software that features new functionality for geospatial data, imagery, coordinate systems and geodetic tools. MicroSurvey CAD 2014 also includes the Global Mapper v15 SDK that provides support for more than 1,000 different elevation, imagery and vector formats. In addition, the software can connect to online spatial databases and online imagery providers.

Key features • Display web-based spatial data and images.

• Global Mapper SDK built inside.

• User settings migration wizard.

• Hundreds of new coordinate system.

• Geodetic positioning labelling routine.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 21

Executive Space

We want to make the geospatial common language really common A common geospatial language will enable all countries to understand each other — not only in the application aspect of it but also in terms of connecting with each other, believes Vladimir Gershenzon, Founder & Board Member, ScanEx sensing data. We focus on real-time applications as well as historical data available from global archives. Our main client is EMERCOM, or the Ministry of Nature and Catastrophic Phenomena, for whom we developed applications that use remote sensing data in real time. We also have a number of commercial customers like oil companies and others involved in ice monitoring, pollution detection, transportation etc. Our operations are mainly in the CIS countries but we also provide services around the world.

H

ow has ScanEx evolved over the years and what kind of activities is it involved in?

ScanEx is a private company with over 20 years of operations in designing and manufacturing of ground receiving stations and software packages for remote sensing data processing, archiving and licence

22 / Geospatial World February 2014

agreement with leading players in the remote sensing market – whether European, American or other countries. We are engaged in different kinds of activities in the field of data collection.

We deal with a vast range of remote sensing imagery such as optical radar, high resolution or medium resolution; though the concentration is mainly on the operational application of remote

Economic and business activities have significantly increased in Russia. In such a scenario, which are your target areas?

Forestry, agriculture, emergency services and regional and university-level activities are our favourite areas of operation. Also, because they are more close to their field of activity, they are responsible for growing a new generation of specialists. Interestingly, ScanEx is offering technical expertise to some of these universities, not just in Russia but also in Spain and some other countries.

ScanEx is known to have played a major role in developing the cadastre in Russia. Tell us a little more about that project?

The cadastre project aimed to cover the entire country in high resolution —

0.5m resolution, data that is not older than three years. There was an open tender, which we bid for and won.

The project, which was completed in a year, was done in three ways — multi-scale mapping for Web, cadastral data checking and remote sensing data checking. The idea was to make available all three kinds of data to the public.

ScanEx has completed all 17 million sq km (data purchased, processed and delivered), but around 4 million sq km turned out to be covered with clouds and have to be replaced within three years of the guarantee period.

It [a cadastral project] is very challenging for a huge, diverse country like Russia. It is also important that we create a common geospatial language between the Far East and the European territories. The European part is much more densely populated compared to, say, Siberia, which have only pipelines on the north. About two-thirds of the Russian territory is sparsely populated.

Prior to the satellite era, it was impossible to collect quality information from all parts of the country and our cadastral surveys were not so convenient and uniform. Now, new technologies like satellite imageries with precise resolution of just 0.5m permit us to create the initial base. More precise information with navigators and other devices can improve the quality of that data. However, there have been several problems especially with mapping and geospatial activities, despite the availability of government satellite data.

and we have to follow all these rules and copyright policies.

What is the policy environment while dealing with satellite imagery?

Since we procure data from all over the world, we have to obtain corresponding licences. For instance, all meteorological information is open in the US and China. But higher the resolution, more expensive is the data. Each player has its own policy in connection with their respective governmental rules,

ScanEx has been a major player in this domain and been quite active in Russia, CIS states and parts of Europe. What are your future business plans?

Our business plan is to be as open as possible in a wide variety of implementation as well as getting involved in many government projects. We have created several companies to concentrate our

How is the awareness in the government circles in Russia towards the use of remote sensing imagery for various applications?

It is increasing with time. We are also working towards promoting and educating the public. There is a Russian language portal called Yandex which is even more popular than Google here.

And now Yandex is also focussing outside Russia, in countries like Japan and Ukraine. Yandex has a lot of space images, with maps and without maps. It is our close partner at the B2C level.

We also have our own geo-portal, Kosmosnimki, which is more of a remote sensing geoportal based on a ScanEx technology called geomixer.

It can give one a lot of examples of products that have been done through the utilisation of remote sensing technology. There are different types of access to data on Kosmosnimki: some information is freely available for everyone, while some parts of it are available for high-end customers and there are some parts giving subscription-based information.

We are trying to make the technology work faster, easily available and cheaper. This permits us to expand our customer base. Many of our clients ask for more professional data. So we are fully open, having all kinds of access with respect to all kinds of data rules and following them strictly.

“

We are trying to make the technology work faster, easily available and cheaper. This expands our customer base

business in different technologies. One of them, called Sputniks, is connected with designing and manufacturing microsatellites. I hope this will be an addition to the remote sensing technology that already exists. There is going to be demand from universities and governments bodies.

The implementation will, of course, be more effective under the specific regulations because it is understandable for the government to be concerned about terrorist activities in such sensitive spheres. But that doesn’t mean the growth and development of technology needs to be restricted. ScanEx may not have any plans to cover each and every part of the world with its network stations or have partners in every city, but we have an advantage of flexibility and accessibility.

We want to make the geospatial common language really common for different countries to understand each other not only in the application aspect of it but also in terms of connecting with each other.

I hope that geospatial leaders, students and professors have the same vision of future. We are ready to be in a family which has the expertise to organise more global projects for sustainability, understanding each other and to prevent corruption.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 23

DATA ACCESS

SERVICES

APPLICATIONS

PPP

SDI: Quo Vadis?

Illustration Deb

Thus far, SDIs have served the needs of few geospatial experts. But going forward, spatial data infrastructures need to evolve as spatial information infrastructures, providing information products and services to large cross-section of non-expert users from all major economic sectors. By Prof Arup Dasgupta “At the moment, most SDIs are about managing spatial information and thus do not go beyond the established users.

To make a leap, SDIs have to begin to manage information spatially, become an instrument of enablement of many applications like healthcare, homeland security and business processes. Success stories clearly show that the need is to start small but move quickly to implement services and these have to match the requirements. A single monolithic

24 / Geospatial World February 2014

design cannot satisfy all users. The most contentious question is ‘who pays?’ At the moment, it is the governments who are picking up the tab but with the expansion of services, all players can turn contributors... In short we have come a long way in realising the importance of SDIs and the opportunities and pitfalls that await us and we have a longer way to go.”

— Editorial, Geospatial World, November 2010.

A status check

SDI has two components, technical and administrative. Doug Nebert of the FGDC, USA had formulated a concept of the technical component in the late 1990s as shown in Figure 1. The administrative components comprise of distribution mechanisms, access policy and regulation, user interface, training and human and financial resources. An examination of where the world stands on these components and their integration to serve the geospatial community should give a view of the progress. Each community has its own requirement to be met by the SDI. The generators would like to see an efficient management system for their data. The value addition group would like to have a wide choice of data suites customised to their needs and available at an attractive price.

They would also look forward to a market for their products.

The third group requires reliable and cheap information at the time and place where it is most needed. All would have to work within a technical and legal framework, which has to be put in place by the government.

Standards

Today the OGC/ISO data encryption standards are widely used. Prominent among these are GML 3.3 corresponding to ISO 19136:2007 for encoding geospatial data; the others relate to specific data types like urban (City GML) and digital geospatial time varying data (NetCDF), etc. There are several Web Services standards like WMS, WCS, WFS and WCPS to name a few. These open standards have indeed gone a long way in realising interoperable systems and removing the tyranny of vendor lock-in. It is also interesting to note that there is an intermingling of standards. OGC borrows from W3C and OASYS and has a symbiotic relationship with ISO. As technology progresses so do the standards. For example, a new set of Web service standards called the RestAPI are in their first version. Over and above these standards, there are national standards which also look at the content standardisation for different themes.

In 2007, a Canadian Interoperability Pilot was organised to test and demonstrate the feasibility of using open standards based technology to improve the management and dissemination of CGDI data. The National Survey & Cadastre

of Denmark uses OGC Web Map Server Interface Standard to display maps from various databases. The Dutch National Mapping Agency Kadaster uses a GML-based application schema for data sharing. The Dutch Kadaster Topographical Service (http://www.tdn.nl) has demonstrated interoperability involving their TOP 10 GML schemas (also known as TOP10NL) and a number of commercial products.

In Europe, SANY (Sensor Systems Anywhere) — a Programme 6 (FP6) integrated project — is a leading implementation of the OGC Sensor Web standards. Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) runs a satellite-based, near-real-time (30-min maximum delay), oil-spill detection service through the EMSA (European Maritime Security Agency) CleanSeaNet service, whose content is published in The OGC’s Geography Markup Language (GML) 3.1.1 encoding standard.

The German North Rhine Westphalia Sig3D organisation developed CityGML, an emerging and globally important OGC standard for sharing urban models and integrating design drawings with spatial data.

Framework

Each country uses its own framework for the data. This results in a bewildering set of spheroidal models and projections. However, with the availability of GPS, most countries have begun to use the WGS84 model of the earth but the choice of projection systems remains open. There are over 400 projection systems and their use is dictated by the scale and purpose of mapping.

For instance, South Africa is fully covered by the highly accurate National Control Survey System (NCSS) consisting of a network of Trigonometrical stations and Town Survey Marks. From January 1999, the NCSS has been based on the World Geographic System 1984 ellipsoid with the position of the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Telescope as the

Technical Elements of SDI (Figure 1) Application Specific Modules Communication Networks Clearinghouse Metadata Framework

Geodata

Standards Partnership

Geospatial World February 2014 / 25

Nebert et al

S

patial Data Infrastructure (SDI) seems to be a concept, whose realisation is just around the corner — a corner that seems to be just a step away but at every step the corner seems to move ahead another step.

My November 2010 editorial came after I had attended the 12th GSDI Conference in October 2010. Now in 2014, more than three years down the line, it is interesting to see how close we are to that corner.

Cover Story/Governance & Information Infrastructure

Australia

As one of the first movers in this field, Australia has set up an SDI consisting of a wide variety of OGC standards-based enterprise implementations, including Western Australia’s Landgate-developed Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP), which forms the foundation of an information connection service that serves 19 government agencies.

The Foundation Spatial Data Framework provides a common reference for the assembly and maintenance of Australian and New Zealand foundation level spatial data to serve a wide variety of users.

origin of the system. A second network of active GPS base stations is gradually supplementing the older network.

The main mandate for mapping in India lies with Survey of India and they have specified the ground control points for all other agencies to follow, so that all the different thematic maps — be it from Forest Survey of India or Revenue Department or any other agency — can be integrated seamlessly. Primary control points are 300-400 km apart and all mapping has to be done with reference to these control points only. Now these are being densified to 30-40 km apart, using DGPS. Through the Digital National Framework (DNF), now in GML, the Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, has transformed the way it operates in order to realise its new vision. The restructured DNF data greatly enhances the versatility and usability of large scale topographic data, turning it from merely a “representation of a line map” into a GIS-friendly model of the real world.

Using GML for data supply makes it accessible to more software systems, and hence to more users, than would be possible using any other format.

Geodata

Today SDIs are using a variety of data sources from satellite imagery to GPS and Total Stations. In Russia, Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Rostreestr,

Each country uses its own data framework, which results in a bewildering set of spheroidal models and projections 26 / Geospatial World February 2014

makes maps available at 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 for the whole country. Large scale maps are available at 1:10,000 scale for 400 towns. It carries out resurvey and produces digital maps once in three years. The geoportal hosts more than 500,000 open-for-all maps. Rostreestr is currently undertaking the country-wide cadastral mapping project, bringing together all the 5000 different databases containing spatial data and semantic data, developing new systems for the entire Russian Federation, and centralising business processes.

Survey of India produces its Open Map Series on WGS84 with Transverse UTM projection for maps at 1:250,000, 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scales. Its Defence Map Series uses WGS84 and LCC projection. Currently, Survey of India is working on producing maps at 1:10,000 scale for the whole country. It is also spearheading mission mode projects like the Integrated Coastal Zone Mapping. The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Department of Space makes the remote sensing data from Indian and foreign satellites.

NASG is the central authority responsible for the overall supervision and management of surveying, mapping and geoinformation in China. NASG has completed 1:4,000,000 topographic database; 1:1,000,000 topographic database and DEM database; 1:250,000 topographic database, DEM database and geographic name database; 1:10,000 DEM database and ortho-image database of seven major river valleys; 1:50,000 digital raster graphic database, DEM database, geographic name database, land cover database and TM satellite image database. Each province is making efforts to establish 1:10,000 topographic database, DEM database, ortho-image database, digital raster graphic database and etc.

In South Africa, the National Geospatial Information (NGI) unit of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), is working at 1:50,000 scale or that level of detail, which is equivalent to 1:50,000 scale which includes all the topographical information. South Africa, for many years has been producing orthophoto

maps at 1:10,000 scale. As users are now using orthoimagery, all the aerial photos are rectified to orthophoto image. Every third year the orthophoto image will be refreshed through fresh aerial surveys.

Metadata

Generally, metadata standards which are based on a very comprehensive model for generic IT data called the Dublin Core are extremely complicated. India has developed a more functional metadata standard which is based on the OGC Catalogue Service for the Web and promotes it as NSDI Metadata Lite. However, how many data suppliers are using this standard is not clear. Metadata enables data discovery which in turn reduces data duplication. There is a need to promote the value of metadata to show the users how to actually benefit from the metadata; First, what is available and second, to understand the suitability of that information.

South Africa is developing a new system which addresses several of these issues, which will only work if the data collectors are posting their metadata into the system.

So, what NGI is trying to do is to make the system harvest the metadata from all the data collectors into the system, to reduce the burden on the data collectors to post the metadata into the system.

Clearing house

grated geospatial data system, which are further integrated into the National Spatial Data Infrastructure System run by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. Massive geospatial data such as digital topographic maps are provided to citizens and private sector through the National Spatial Information Clearinghouse.

Others, including 3D geospatial data, are also shared through Geospatial Information Open Platform.

Communications

Max Craglia, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission aptly says, “SDIs are children of the Internet, without which they would not exist”. The evolution of the high speed Internet, Cloud architecture and massive storage has provided an excellent network for setting up SDIs. However, the service is patchy. For example, NGI has a geo-portal, but very low bandwidths in South Africa make it impractical to allow very large files to be accessed through the Internet. On the other hand, it is now fairly easy to access high-resolution geospatial data and maps together with other contents on the Internet and websites in Korea have increased their investments in high-quality map services, both for desktop and portable devices.

Applications

Brazil’s INCRA is beginning to forge

United States

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) of the USA is an interagency committee that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis. This nationwide data publishing effort is known as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), a physical, organisational, and virtual network designed to enable the development and sharing of this nation’s digital geographic information resources.

FGDC activities are administered through the FGDC Secretariat, hosted by the US Geological Survey. A growing number of states in the country — Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania among others — are building Web-centric SDIs that rely on OGC standards.

FDGC’s geoportal provides maps from data sources that are available on a national scale of coverage, like this map of USA’s wetlands at a scale of 1:250,000 and greater.

The concept of clearing houses is fuzzy. Is it just a portal to discover and bind to data stores or does it also include commercial and legal information as well? Spain’s IDEE´s architecture is a good example. It is based on the principle of decentralisation and is implemented as a network of geoportals and nodes.

For example, IDEC, the Geoportal of the Catalonia SDI, a project of the government of the autonomous region of Catalonia (Spain), offers several services, including the multilingual Catalogue Server, with more than 18,000 records of metadata available (53,000 in both Spanish and English), describing data available from over 80 providers.

In the Republic of Korea, each local government body has established inte-

Geospatial World February 2014 / 27

Cover Story/Governance & Information Infrastructure

With several national SDIs still grappling with data availability, accessibility and sharing aspects, application development seems a distant dream. partnerships with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, which has developed a management platform that works with agricultural elements such as bovine traceability and animal quality conditions, and this is being connected with land information. Further, it will be possible to join the elements of agricultural management platform with the issue of land ownership information. Also, partnership with the Ministry of Environment will help in the development of the Rural Environmental Registry.

To promote application development, China constituted National Geospatial Information Coordinating Council (NGICC) with 21 ministries as members. This Council coordinates the NSDI development and utilisation through policy guidance and multi-level exchanges, cooperation and training. XU Deming, Director General, National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (NBSM), China avers that China attaches great importance to sustainable development and the rational utilisation of natural resources, and has made sustainable development a national strategy.

The Dutch Geo-Information and ICT Department of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management is responsible for traffic via roads, waterways and railways, and by air, and they are also responsible for clean water in the rivers, lakes and the sea, and the management of water tables.

However, with several national level SDIs still grappling with data availability, accessibility and sharing aspects, application development seems a distant dream. India is a classic case. A decade into the formalisation of NSDI, India is still grappling with regulatory aspects of data accessibility.

Partnerships

Conceptually, SDIs thrive on partnerships. But most often than not, we see partnerships among government agencies in realising the vision of NSDI. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), geodata.gov (also known as Geospatial One-Stop or GOS), and The National Map are three national geospatial initiatives that share the goal of building the US NSDI. FGDC focuses on policy, standards and advocacy; GOS on discovery and access; while The National Map focuses on integrated, certified base mapping content. The National Geospatial Programs Office (NGPO) of the US Geological Survey is the organisational host for these complementary activities.

The German province North Rhine Westphalia established its spatial data infrastructure, GDI NRW, as a joint initiative of state agencies, municipalities, private companies and scientific institutes. About 140 participating institutions are involved, and the benefits of SDI have been demonstrated in several test-beds and joint projects involving many partners. In Spain, working Group for IDEE, is composed of 239 organisations, more than 412 individual members, was set up taking on board all the relevant public bodies, private companies and academia. INSPIRE, the pan-EU initiative, is an exemplary example of collaborative mechanism achieved by 28 different countries in a truly democratic fashion.

However, in the backdrop of constrained government funding, it is prudent that NSDIs partner with private sector. INSPIRE launched smeSpire -- a project to rope in SMEs to enable countries to fulfil the Directive, creating new market opportunities with increased potential for innovation and new jobs.

A new law for NSDI in Russia will soon make a PPP network necessary. Every network needs to be registered with the

Canada

The Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure Interoperability (CGDI) has been developed by the federal government in partnership with the provinces, territories and the private sector. The CGDI is comprised of the technology, standards, access systems and protocols necessary to harmonise all of Canada’s geospatial databases, and make them available on the Internet.

28 / Geospatial World February 2014

The National Air Photo Library of Natural Resources Canada archives over six million aerial photographs covering all of Canada, some of which date back to the 1920s

Brazil

The National Institute of Agrarian Colonization and Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária or INCRA) in Brazil is strictly following the guidelines of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE) developed by the federal government to speed up the integration effort of base information.

The INDE portal allows the user to select the layers they want to display data from a list of WMS services already built into the viewer

government, so that the government can use it and build virtual network. It is modelled on the lines of the telecom network, which also uses PPP model. The Federal Service will operate the NSDI geoportal for all government data while delivery part will be with industry. Territorial information is shared with local governments free of charge and the digital data is fed to other government and private sector organisations like banks and insurance agencies. For satellite mapping, Scanex was awarded a project for multi-scale mapping for Web, cadastral data checking and remote sensing data checking.

In Brazil, the Ministry of Agrarian Development is responsible for rural land planning, and the Ministry of Cities for urban land planning. The goal is to integrate these two efforts. By combining the rural and urban outlook, INCRA hopes to offer an integrated foundation to municipalities and states that can then be a onestop address for these different dimensions.

The Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) is the official producer of national information regarding cartography, geography, agrology, and cadastre, and IGAC works toward building an NSDI to advance economic and social development. Columbia’s National Geospatial Directory offers services to educational, environmental, risk management and land management, geology and hydrocarbons sectors.

Access policy and regulation

Creating a successful National Spatial Data Infrastructure is a highly challenging task, and the most important element lies, not at the technical level, but in establishing effective coordination and infrastructure management in order to realise the full potential of geospatial information and the under-

lying technology, and to make it accessible to and effectively used by a broad range of users. According to the UN-GGIM, the role of the government, as the regulator and programme implementer, is rapidly shifting from being a primary provider of authoritative geospatial information to coordinating and managing geospatial data and facilitating partnerships among the producers and consumers of geospatial information. As a result, many countries are developing national policies and practices that formalise the ways in which their geospatial data can be shared, used, and disseminated. They are also considering legislation and regulatory framework for protecting national security, confidentiality and citizen privacy rights, if they have not already done so.

The National GIS Steering Committee (NGISSC) of Bahrain Spatial Data Infrastructure has successfully accomplished the ‘Data Exchange Policy’ for use by data users and providers and acts as a binding deed for data exchange for parties involved and their agreement regarding exchange procedures and protection of data and data sources.

However, the pace of formulating and implementing policies governing spatial data access and use is quite sluggish in many countries owing partly to the delays inherent in participatory approach of SDIs and partly due to the reluctance to share data among key stakeholders. “There has been progress, but it’s been very slow because people are still trying to understand and come to terms with what SDI really means,” says Derek Clarke, Director, NGI, South Africa.

Screenshot of Romanian INIS GeoPortal — First Published Resources. The GeoPortal is designed to facilitate the discovery and exchange geospatial data resources to a broader community of users

Romania

The Romanian national mapping agency — Agentia Nationala de Cadastru si Publicitate Imobiliara (ANCPI) or the National Agency for Cadastre and Real-Estate Publicity — is actively developing an NSDI, and recently worked with the Dutch Cadastre to design a service oriented NSDI architecture based on OGC standards.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 29

Cover Story/Governance & Information Infrastructure

UK

The UK is comprised of the devolved administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and they all have their own SDIs. Scotland has One Geography, One Scotland and they are working on a cookbook that uses OGC standards. There is also One Wales and GeoHub Northern Ireland, which are using OGC standards.

Britain’s national mapping organisation Ordnance Survey offers accurate and up-to-date geographic information and innovative solutions like this, whereby users can create their own personalised map

“Lot of the SDI work is driven by people who are not at a very senior level and this is hampering progress. Particularly at the senior policy level, when it comes to prioritising work programmes and budgetary provisions, SDI is not used.”

The way forward

The US NSDI initiative, which began with a Presidential order in 1994, has released a document on NSDI Strategic Plan 2014-16 which concludes that “the geospatial technology field is at a remarkable point in its evolution, presenting an opportunity to rethink the deployment and use of these resources across the Federal sector, and to enhance our ability to solve problems using geographic information while ultimately saving time and money. This plan provides a new set of goals, objectives, and actions to advance Federal geospatial programmes in light of the changing state of geospatial technology and capabilities”.

What does this mean? Back in 1994 when SDI emerged as a concept, the technologies available were, by present times, rather limited. The NSDI proponents thus talked of servers and desktops, massive networks and so forth. Beneficiaries were other government departments though some

SDIs must bring top-down official information and bottom-up citizen-provided information together. To enable this, current systems/ institutional processes need to be designed for a dynamic information environment 30 / Geospatial World February 2014

lip service was paid to serving the public. This service it was assumed, though not enunciated, would be delivered by the government agencies to the public, tacitly assuming that the public was a passive entity. Today, the scene has changed; the Cloud has replaced discrete servers, the Internet is now powerful enough to deliver geospatial data and services and, most importantly, the emergence of the public as an active consumer and supplier of geospatial data.

SDIs thus far have largely been top down activities based on existing data of national governments. However, the most valuable data is at urban scales, and the most important thing is to enable multi-directional exchange of data and collaboration across the spectrum of urban development activities including design, construction, management and operations.

SDI should be seen more like Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), except that it is pan-enterprise. Another emerging view is that there is a need to bring together the top-down official information and bottom-up citizen-provided information.

To enable this, the current systems/institutional processes need to be designed for a dynamic information environment.

Though SDIs have woken up to the role private sector can play in managing and developing applications, there is still a long way to go in engaging with the industry for mutual benefit. From acting as back office to government departments, to providing services to developing SDIs on build-own-operate-transfer model, the private sector, especially SMEs, can be engaged in several innovative ways to address the bottom of the pyramid. At present, SDIs serve the needs of few geospatial experts. Going forward, spatial data infrastructures need to evolve into spatial information infrastructures, providing information products and services to large cross section of non-expert users from all major economic sectors.

Prof Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor, arup@geospatialmedia.net Co-authored by Bhanu Rekha, Executive Editor, bhanu@geospatialmedia.net

Tourism services on Bhuvan

RISAT-1 Medium Resolution with VV polarisation

Delhi

National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad www.nrsc.gov.in http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in sales@nrsc.gov.in

Governance & Information Infrastructure/INSPIRE

INSPIRE Towards a Participatory Digital Earth

Courtesy: http://im9.eu/

An infrastructure built on those of 28 different countries in 24 languages by a truly democratic process, INSPIRE is a role model not only in relation to the developments of SDI but more generally to the formulation of public policy at the European level. Find out how INSPIRE is facilitating consensus-based policy and is developing and maintaining a network of stakeholders. By Max Craglia

F

or people who are not so familiar with the concept of an SDI, it is easier to think of it as an extension of a desk-top GIS. Whilst in a ‘normal’ GIS, most of the data we use for analysis is our own, or collected by the agency we work for, an SDI is an Internet-based platform to make it easier for us to search and find data that may be relevant for our work and that may be collected, stored or published by other organisations, and often other countries. For this reason, SDIs are often termed as children of the Internet, without which they would not exist.

SDIs are the response to an increased recognition that the environmental and social phenomena we are called to understand and govern are very complex, and that no single organisation has the know-how and the data to do the job alone. Hence, we

32 / Geospatial World February 2014

need to share knowledge and data across multiple organisations in both public and private sectors, and SDIs support this effort.

INSPIRE: Why and how?

INSPIRE is a legal act (Directive 2007/2/EC) of the Council and the European Parliament setting up an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe based on infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 28 sovereign Member States of the European Union. All the spatial data that is part of INSPIRE comes via the organisations responsible in the Member States and this EU-wide SDI is developed in a decentralised way, building on the SDIs and related activities established and maintained by the Member States.

The prime purpose of INSPIRE is to support environ-

mental policy, and overcome barriers affecting the availability and accessibility of relevant data. These barriers include: inconsistencies in spatial data collection; lack or incomplete documentation of available spatial data; lack of compatibility among spatial datasets that cannot, therefore, be combined with others; incompatible SDI initiatives in the Member States that often function only in isolation; cultural, institutional, financial and legal barriers preventing or delaying the sharing of existing spatial data.

The key elements of the INSPIRE Directive to overcome these barriers include: • Metadata to describe existing information resources so that they can be more easily found and accessed; • Harmonisation of key spatial data themes needed to support environmental policies in the Union; • Agreements on network services and technologies to allow discovery, view, download of information resources, and access to related services; • Policy agreements on sharing and access, including licensing and charging; • Coordination and monitoring mechanisms.

INSPIRE addresses 34 key spatial data themes organised in three groups (or Annexes to the Directive) reflecting different levels of harmonisation expected, and a staged phasing (see Table 1 on Page 34).

Legal framework

The legal framework of INSPIRE has two main levels. At the first, there is the INSPIRE Directive itself, which sets the objectives to be achieved and asks the Member States to pass their own national legislation establishing their SDIs. This mechanism of European as well as a national legislation allows each country to define its own way to achieve the objective agreed taking into account its own institutional characteristics and history of development. As an example, Germany does not have a single SDI but a coordinated framework among 17 SDIs, one for each of its states (Länder), and one at the federal level (which also means that 17 different legal acts had to be passed to implement INSPIRE). The INSPIRE Directive also requires the establishment of an EU geoportal operated by the European Commission to which the infrastructures of the Member States have to connect (http://inspire-geoportal. ec.europa.eu/).

The challenge of having 28 different ‘flavours’ of INSPIRE is that making the system work is undoubtedly more difficult.

For this reason, the Directive envisages a second level of legislation, more stringent because it has to be implemented as is and does not require follow-up national legislation. Therefore, INSPIRE envisages technical implementation of rules in the form of regulations for metadata, harmonisation of spatial

data and services, network services, data and service-sharing policies, and monitoring and reporting indicators to evaluate the extent of the Directive’s implementation and to assess its impact. Each of these regulations needs the approval of the Member States and of the European Parliament. By December 2013, almost all the regulations were approved. The only missing one, expected in spring 2014, refers to the technical specification for the harmonisation of spatial data services.

INSPIRE has some characteristics that make it particularly challenging. The most obvious is that it is an infrastructure built on those of 28 different countries in 24 languages.

The requirements for multi—lingual services and interoperability among very different information systems and professional and cultural practices are, therefore, very demanding.

For example, existing standards have to be tested in real distributed and multi—lingual settings. In the best scenario all works well, but for a European-wide implementation, there is a need to translate the standards and related guidelines into the relevant languages (ISO, OGC and other standards are typically in English only). In other instances, testing has demonstrated that the standards are not mature enough, or leave too much room for different interpretations, and thus require further definition or individual bridges to make different system interoperate. This can be seen with tests on distributed queries in catalogues all using the same specifications (OGC CS-W 2.0) that identified a number of shortcomings, that required the development of an adaptor for each catalogue, which in a Europe-wide system with thousands of catalogues, would obviously not scale. These shortcomings have been put forward to the OGC for consideration. In harder cases still, there are no standards available, and therefore, they have to be created. This applies, for example, to ‘invoke’ services that are needed for service chaining and to the specifications required for the interoperability of spatial datasets and services, which is a central feature of INSPIRE. To understand the context, it is worth reminding that each country in Europe has its own heritage and traditions, which also include different ways and methods for collecting environmental and geographic data, different methods on how to analyse them, and also visualise them, including different coordinate reference systems (sometimes more than one in each

The purpose of INSPIRE is to support environmental policy and ensure easy accessibility of relevant data Geospatial World February 2014 / 33

Governance & Information Infrastructure/INSPIRE Key data themes addressed

by INSPIRE Table 1

Annex I Coordinate reference systems Geographical grid systems Geographical names Administrative units Addresses Cadastral parcels Transport networks Hydrography Protected sites

Annex II Elevation Land cover Ortho-imagery Geology

Annex III Statistical units Buildings Soil Human health & safety Utility & governmental services Environmental monitoring Production & industrial facilities Agricultural & aquaculture Area management/restriction/ regulation zones & reporting Natural risk zones Atmospheric conditions Meteorological geographical features Oceanographic geographical features Sea regions Bio-geographical regions Habitats and biotopes Species distribution Energy Resources Mineral resources

country), projections, and vertical reference systems. These different traditions mean that it is not enough for an SDI in Europe to help users find and access data, it is also necessary to understand the meaning of what we are accessing to make appropriate use of it.

This means, in turn, we need to develop not only translation tools to help overcome the “natural� language barriers, but also agreed reference frameworks, classification systems and ontologies, data models, and schemas for each of the data themes shown in Table 1, against which the national data can be transformed or mapped. This is necessary because it is not possible to ask the Member States and their national and local organisations to re-engineer all their databases. Thus, the approach adopted is to develop agreed European models and systems of transformation (on-the-fly or batch) so that the level of interoperability necessary for key European applications can be achieved. The approach sounds simple but putting it into practice is very complex, as it required already three years of work to develop an agreed methodology (the Generic Conceptual Model) and tools, mobilise hundreds of experts in different domains, and deliver and test the specifications for all the data themes shown in Table 1.

Organisational model

The organisational model put in place to develop INSPIRE is one of its interesting features, drawing significant attention from outside Europe. It is a huge exercise in public participation, the like of which is most unusual in policy making, at least in Europe. From the outset, it was recognised that for INSPIRE to overcome barriers to data access and be successful, it was necessary for the legislators, implementers, and practitioners in the Member States to come together and agree on a shared understanding of the problem, and of possible solutions. Therefore, an expert group with official representatives of all the Member States was established at the beginning of the process in 2001, together with working groups of experts in the fields of environmental policy and geographic information to formulate options and forge consensus. The INSPIRE

proposal was subject to an extended impact assessment to identify potential costs and benefits, before opening for public consultation. The revised proposal was then debated by the Council and European Parliament over a three-year period before final adoption in 2007. This process in itself is a good example in democracy, but the more interesting aspect is the way in which interested stakeholders are continuing to participate in all the ongoing activities required to develop the INSPIRE Implementing Rules (i.e. the follow-up legal acts and detailed technical guidance documents).

To organise this process, two mechanisms have been put in place: the first is to engage the organisations at the European national and sub-national level that already have a formal legal mandate for the coordination, production or use of geographic and environmental information (the so called Legally Mandated Organisations or LMOs). The second mechanism aims to facilitate the self-organisation of stakeholders, including spatial data providers and users from both the public and private sectors, in spatial data interest communities (SDICs) by region, societal sector, and thematic issue. These SDICs identify and describe user requirements, provide expertise to INSPIRE Drafting Teams, participate in the review process of the draft implementing rules, develop, operate and evaluate the implementation pilots, and develop initiatives for guidance, awareness raising, and training in relation to the INSPIRE implementation.

There was an open call in March 11, 2005 for the registration of interest by SDICs and LMOs, who were also asked to put forward expert and reference material to support the preparation of the Implementing Rules. There was a second call in 2009 to support the development of Annex II and III specifications, and an Internet Forum has also been set up to help Member States share experiences and tools. As a result, hundreds of organisations and experts throughout Europe have participated in the development and testing of the technical specifications of INSPIRE which makes the specifications more robust from a technical point of view and more acceptable from an organisational/political point of view.

INSPIRE geoportal highlighting the riverside areas in west UK. The INSPIRE geoportal provides access to geographic information provided

by Europe’s governments, commercial and non-commercial organisations.

The drafting teams have a challenging task in collecting and summarising reference material, seeking common denominators and reference models, and developing recommendations which satisfy user requirements without imposing an undue burden on those organisations that have day-to-day responsibility for data collection and management across Europe. Their recommendations are then submitted for review to all the registered SDICs and LMOs and to the representatives of the Member States. After revision and checking, the draft implementing rule goes thorough the final round of the democratic process before becoming a new legal act. This involves qualified majority voting by the representatives of the Member States and the scrutiny of the European Parliament.

The complexity of this participatory approach is certainly innovative, not only in relation to the developments of SDIs but also more generally to the formulation of public policy at the European level. The outcome produces both consensus-based policy and the development, and maintenance of a network of stakeholders that make it possible to implement more effectively this distributed European SDI.

The challenges

Although a great deal of work has taken place with the support of many stakeholders, there are several organisational and technical challenges (and opportunities) that need to be addressed.

Organisational: The most crucial challenge was to maintain the momentum and the high level of commitment of all the stakeholders and the experts contributing to the development of the Implementing Rules. This requires a notable amount of resources (time, money, expertise, commitment) to ensure that stakeholders feel ownership of the process, which then becomes a prerequisite for more effective implementation.

Another facet is the organisational challenges in the Member States to implement INSPIRE. INSPIRE Directive asks

Member States to establish and maintain their SDIs, nominate an organisation as a contact point with the Commission, and set up appropriate coordinating mechanisms. In many countries, SDIs already exist at national or sub-national levels. So the effort is more focused on agreeing division of responsibility than in setting up new structures. In other countries, INSPIRE offers an opportunity for organisations that have been leading SDI developments for years to get their just recognition, and acquire new status and legitimacy. In others still, the opportunities for some organisations are perceived as threats by others.

INSPIRE, like anything changing the status quo, has therefore become the spark for settling scores among stakeholders.

The current difficult financial climate makes it more challenging to invest in new infrastructures and ways of working.

Hence, one of the challenges in most countries is to leverage resources available from different sources (European, national, international), and/or ensure strong synergy between the investment required by INSPIRE and those committed in related projects, for example in the framework of e-government.

Underpinning this organisational challenge, there are the key issue of awareness, education and training. Although the Joint Research Commission of the European Commission has involved thousands of people in the development of INSPIRE, and most national-level organisations in the Member States are aware of this initiative, few people belonging to these organisations are actively participating, and the level of awareness of INSPIRE and its future impacts may be lost to other parts of the same organisation. Moreover, many public sector administrations at the sub-national level still have limited or no knowledge of INSPIRE. Last but not the least, the complexity of the technical documentation being produced at the present time is posing to be a limiting factor as very few people can understand or use, requiring education and training. However, there is not enough staff, nor

Geospatial World February 2014 / 35

Governance & Information Infrastructure/INSPIRE training material designed and translated across Europe so that everybody implements exactly the same specs.

Technical: The main challenge here is to develop and maintain an infrastructure that works, and that delivers added value. As indicated earlier, the suite of international standards and specifications available is sometimes not mature enough to deliver, or subject to different interpretations, changes, and inconsistencies. INSPIRE took the view that it was not feasible for it to include all the detailed specifications down to rules for encoding into a legal act, as any change in standards, technologies, or good practice would then require lengthy procedures to amend the legislation. As a result, the INSPIRE Implementing Rules are short and only say what functionalities are required, leaving the detailed implementation to non-binding Guidelines documents. This of course has its drawbacks as one cannot guarantee that everyone will use the Guidelines and that interoperability will be achieved immediately.

A second challenge is to facilitate the transition from an SDI perspective that only addresses relatively few technical experts towards a spatial information infrastructure, which is a service providing information products and analyses that are of wider use to non-experts. This requires turning many of the functionalities and analytical processes encoded in GIS software and usable by few trained geospatial professionals, into geo-processing services that can operate in established workflows over the datasets available on the Web, and provide an answer to questions posed by the many who are not experts.

The research issues include eliciting and formalising processes and models, turning them into geo-processes which can be understood and used across disciplines (which includes explanation of the theoretical underpinning of models so that they can be used appropriately), ways of selecting the appropriate service to go with the appropriate data to contribute to addressing a question in ways that are methodologically robust.

jor technological developments that have made it possible to bring the experience of digital earth to hundreds of millions of people. It also reviewed many public sector-led initiatives aimed at organising geographic information (e.g. INSPIRE, GEOSS), and private sector developments aimed at organising the world information geographically (e.g. Google Earth and Virtual Earth), which have made it possible for citizens to contribute and share geographic information easily and interact with each other in what is labelled as Web 2.0.

On this basis, the expert meeting articulated a revised vision of digital earth that recognises the need to integrate scientific, public and private sector data to help understand the complex interactions between natural, man-made, and social environments, over time and across space. To support this vision, the meeting identified key research topics to focus on, including improved methods for the spatial-temporal modelling of heterogeneous and dynamic data (citizen-provided, sensors, official); the visualisation of abstract concepts in space (e.g. risk, vulnerability, perceived quality of life); and ways to assess and model reliability and trust in information coming from many different sources. Since then, the International Society for Digital Earth has mobilised the broader community of science to articulate further the vision for Digital Earth for 2020, publishing the outcomes in 2013.

One could argue that with all the work still underway to develop and implement INSPIRE, it is not the time to look for new organisational and technical challenges and research topics. Yet, it is important never to lose sight of the reasons for building these infrastructures, and investing significant public resources to do so. They are not an end in itself but a means to improve Europe’s understanding and stewardship of the environment, and develop knowledge-based society. Without a clear view of where one wants to go and what is needed to get there, one will not be able to guide the process effectively, and address the grand challenges of today and tomorrow.

Towards a next-generation digital earth

Max Craglia, European Commission Joint Research Centre Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit massimo.craglia@jrc.ec.europa.eu

The Vespucci Initiative (www.vespucci.org) brought together in 2008 a number of environmental and geographic information scientists to consider the changes that have taken place since the 1998 digital earth speech by US Vice President Al Gore. The meeting was an opportunity to consider the ma-

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are of the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent those of the Joint Research Centre or of the European Commission

The European Commission’s Directorate-General Environment is inviting comments on the implementation of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive (2007/2/EC). Views are sought from stakeholders including INSPIRE national contact points, regional and local public authorities who produce or use spatial data and services, the academic sector, the private sector and European citizens. Stakeholders can submit their views till Feb 24, 2014. The views are sought to assess whether the actions underway to establish an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community according to the INSPIRE directive are on course to meet the objectives pursued. http://goo.gl/LkJ6Xm

36 / Geospatial World February 2014

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Korea

The Three Gears of NGIS

Sharing System, Application, Industrialisation An advanced national SDI is enabling the government and industry in South Korea, and convergence between GI and other fields is important by identifying new opportunities.

By Byong Nam Choe & Moo Ik Park

A

s rapid industrialisation enabled South Korea to achieve dramatic economic growth in the seventies and eighties, the country faced several side effects too. Unorganised territorial development, overburdened infrastructure and a number of accidents led to weak national competitiveness and overall productivity. Then, in the late 1980s, a few local governments and public organisations in the country understood the benefits of geospatial data and created repositories on individual basis to manage facilities. While the organisations gained at individual levels, there was no data sharing between them, leading to continuous duplication of the same geographic data. These were a huge drain on the budgets, and confusion due to data mismatch was another serious problem.

With the awareness about the benefits of spatial data and geospatial technologies growing, the Korean government initiated its first national geographic information system (NGIS) project in 1995 to enable government organisations, encourage data sharing and minimise data duplicacy issues. The NGIS is based on a master plan that is renewed every five years, and the fourth NGIS project should have been implemented until 2015. However, it was completed before time and the fifth project was prepared, which will be launched in 2014.

While each master plan had different focus, they consisted of the same three gears — geospatial information (GI) sharing system, GI application and GI industrialisation. GI sharing system was necessary to avoid duplicating data, preventing budget waste and data invalidity. GI application managed unorganised land development and natural disasters to reduce sectoral inefficiency, enhancing overall pro-

ductivity. GI industrialisation was to promote businesses to meet demands from GI development and application.

Previously completed NGIS masterplans were fundamental to establishing the GI sharing system for facilitating GI application and industrialisation, and ultimately boosting national competitiveness.

The first NGIS master plan (1995-2000) used most of its budget to establish geospatial data. During 2001-06, the budget for GI application exceeded that for data. In 2007 and onward, as the graphs show (Page 37), there was again a change in the spending pattern. This is because the pre-2000 digital maps needed updates and there was also the newly created 3D geospatial data. Geospatial policy in Korea chronologically developed through various stages — that of data establishment, application development and provision of integrated services.

GI sharing system

NGIS master plan initiated the conversion of analogue maps, including topographic maps, cadastral maps, land-use maps, and underground facility maps into digital ones. The entire nation, except the mountainous areas, was subject to digital topographic map in 1:5,000 scale. Digital topographic map for the mountainous areas was created in 1:25,000 scale, and an additional one for urban areas in 1:1,000 scale.

Cadastral maps were also digitised with total 37.2 million parcels, information that was integral to land management including ownership, transaction, evaluation, and use.

The parcel data were highly used in government administrations, citizen information services, and private business activities. Approximately 300 types of land-use zoning

Geospatial World February 2014 / 37

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Korea maps were also digitised and it was just a click away for users to check land-use regulation set for each parcel.

Geospatial data for facilities in urban areas were also created from water, sewage, electricity, and communication to gas. The data for underground facilities were especially important to avoid disaster due to damage. These datasets were now co-used by different organisations.

Additionally, other geospatial data, including forest type maps, geological maps, land-coverage maps, and soil maps were created by the NGIS projects. From 2010, 3D geospatial data was created with the help of satellite imagery and high-resolution aerial photographs.

All the geospatial data are currently shared through various channels. Each local government body has established geospatial data integration system, applying it to different administrative works. These systems from local governments are further integrated into the National Spatial Data Infrastructure System run by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. Geospatial data, such as digital topographic maps, are provided to citizens and private sector through the National Spatial Information Clearinghouse. Others, including 3D geospatial data, are also shared through Geospatial Information Open Platform.

GI application

Various application systems were developed for administrative works based on GIS technology. Land Management Information Systems (LMIS) was a good example of such

application systems. Developed from 1998, LMIS was initially used to manage, transact, appraise (officially assesses land price) and use land. LMIS was integrated with the Parcel-based Land Information Systems (PBLIS) which manages parcel data and ownership information. These two systems were further combined and transformed into the Korean Land Information Systems (KLIS) in 2004. Land and cadastral information was important for local governments as a basis of their administrative tasks, thus shared in other GI application systems.

Underground facility management information system was also developed to manage water, sewage, gas, electricity, and communication. The importance of these facilities in the NGIS project was raised after a gas explosion accident at an underground subway construction site in 1995 that caused huge losses. Information system for water and sewage was managed by local governments and the respective public or private organisations handling gas, electricity and communication services.

The Korean Planning Support Systems (KOPSS), under development from 2006 based on spatial analysis method of GIS, aimed to effectively support urban planning and management, which required more expertise than other administrative agenda. KOPSS presented necessary information during the urban planning process with subjective and scientific bases.

Connection between the geospatial data-based information system and non-geospatial data-based information system was one of the recent trends in Korea. For example, architectural

Total Integrated System of NGIS

It is an integrated system for sharing geospatial information and new concept service.

Korea Land Information System Supports 14 works Serves 48 Public services

MOLIT Private Enterprise

Research Institutions

Municipalities

National Spatial Data Integration Centre

Central Government

Underground Facilities Mgmt System Integrates 7 kinds of facilities of 124 organisations, spread over 300,000 km Open Platform Service 49 national information served 8 layer 3D maps 19 kinds of 2D maps 22 kinds of attribute information

76 Systems, 25 organisations are integrated 38 / Geospatial World February 2014

250,00

($1= 1067.24 KRW)

Sum 250,00

Data establishment Application system

250,00

Trend

250,00

250,00

1995

1997

1999

2001

2002

2004

2006

2007

2011

Budget for geospatial data establishment and application system (in million KRW) administration information system was successfully used for relevant works such as licensing and managing the buildings ever since its development in 1998. The system was later interconnected with KLIS to supplement its shortcomings of limited information use on building location and land information.

NGIS projects contributed to e-government based on geospatial data, improving administrative productivity as well as citizen information service. Instead of visiting a city hall for information, people could now access land-use plan details and relevant documents for each parcel through the Internet. In 2103, approximately 240,000 land-use planning certificates were provided to citizens per day. Legally possible land-use attributes for each parcel are also easily accessible online and has become highly popular with an average of 37,000 accesses per day. Tourist map, navigation, and public transport information services are also being provided based on geospatial data.

GI industrialisation

The NGIS project indeed affected the private sector businesses by creating a public geospatial market with data availability and application development, and facilitating private content business development. Of late, private sector is offering more hybrid geospatial information services.

The automobile navigation market is an exemplary case, with most vehicles in Korea now equipped with navigation systems. Another interesting example is the case of a few thousands of screen golf fields which connected golf and geospatial data for entertainment and leisure.

It is now fairly easy to access high-resolution geospatial data and maps together with other contents on the Internet, and websites in Korea have increased their investments in high-quality map services, both for desktop and portable de-

vices. Geospatial information service on mobile Internet connection is considered important for competitive advantage. This is already showing fierce growth with the market size expected to touch multi-trillion KRW in the coming years.

GI-based business offers environment for people to use myriads of services whenever and wherever. Internet portals and mobile communications provide different information such as simple location, restaurant, real-time traffic, oil price, safety, weather, real-estate etc. Location-based services by private sector incorporates more diverse contents.

All the information for everyday lives will be accessible anytime and anywhere with any kind of device based on this location-based service.

Future issues

The Korean geospatial policy has shown some noticeable shifts through its implementation phases. The government supply-basis has changed into a user demand-basis. GI application is now expanded to private sector, which was originally triggered by the public sector. Cross-cutting application has considered inevitable from single-topic application.

GI is also utilised to support decision making, rather than to simply manage materials such as land-use and facilities.

Above all, GI value creation mechanism has evolved from agency-level value chain to national-level value network.

It is thus inevitable for Korea to develop demand-based spatial data infrastructure. At present, the biggest issue in the country is the quality of geospatial data. The strategy of digitising the pre-existing paper maps owing to budget and time crunch, however, has proved to be not a wise one over time. While they lack fine quality due to data mismatch and errors during the digitisation process, the current geospatial data maintenance based on periodic update gives another difficulty in providing the latest and the most accurate GI database. Limited openness and inconvenient distribution channels are also fundamental hindrances to facilitate effective use and application of the data. It is therefore important to continue the improvement of Na-

The NGIS project affected the private sector by creating a public geospatial market and facilitating private content business development Geospatial World February 2014 / 39

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Korea tional SDI through task-based update, active openness, and improved distribution system of geospatial data.

Promotion of geospatial convergence is also on the agenda. There should be focus on creating new industry based on the convergence between the GI and non-GI sectors. Industries such as urban planning, gaming, travel, logistics, and automobiles will interconnect geospatial data to create new, high value-added fields and to provide new jobs, thus expanding geospatial market.

GI application will be developed further into diverse areas, with the emphasis on geospatial Big Data in particular. GI application will also accommodate diverse interests in areas including public health, welfare, medical service and entertainment.

Korea’s geospatial policy aims to achieve national policy agenda of the ‘Creative Economy and Government 3.0’. An advanced national SDI is necessary for this goal, and convergence between GI and other fields is therefore important to suggest new opportunities to the market.

GI users and the demands from the users evolve according to different stages of national development. National SDI system should be equipped with equally evolved mechanism which consists of comprehensive relationships among different variables. Entangled interests among different organisations or people could hinder opening and sharing of information, even more than what could be experienced from technological issues.

Re Byong Nam Choe, Senior Research Fellow, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements bnchoe@krihs.re.kr Moo Ik Park, Director General of Spatial Information Policy Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport, South Korea mipark@korea.kr

40 / Geospatial World February 2014

‘Geospatial technology has become pervasive in our lives’

An early adopter of geospatial technology, Korea has excelled in its use. The NSDI project is in its final leg and is benefitting a variety of sectors, says Doe Tae-HO, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport

H

ow and when did the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) initiative begin in South Korea?

The NSDI initiative started in the mid-nineties after a couple of explosions in the underground LNG pipelines. The framework was formulated in 1995. Interestingly, South Korea started mapping all its underground assets before moving to land information system in 1998 and parcel-based land information system in 1999. The latter two combined to make up the Korea Land Information System (KLIS) in 2004.

In the first phase, we concentrated on establishing a framework for geospatial data. Several ministries benefitted from this common database. The core of the second phase comprised of building the application base, whereby each ministry developed its own database. The third phase focused on developing new technology and the fourth concentrates on renovation, which is transforming the previous application into something new. The private industry voluntarily participated in the data sharing process as did many Internet companies.

We have recently established an open platform for geospatial information, for which huge amount of spatial data was collected from different organisations. The open platform is designed to integrate and utilise over 800 types of spatial information collected by more than 200 municipalities, 76 systems and 23 ministerial organisations.

What is the level of use and adoption of geospatial technology in Korea?

By law, only the urban planning sector under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport (MOLIT) is mandated to use spatial data.

But the technology has become pervasive in our lives as both public and private sector are using it for productivity gains while policymakers are using it for monitoring and decision making.

The government has spent lot of time and money to develop new technologies. And this

is one of the reasons Korea is leading in terms of 3D technology. We have worked on developing an international standard of 3D data for OGC, and countries all over the world have participated in this.

If you ask about the status of spatial data infrastructure in Korea, I would say we are just below the top of the world, and much ahead of the developing countries.

How did Korea deal with national security problems and concerns when it came to spatial data sharing and making it open?

The Korean government had two solutions to deal with the security issues. One is based on the national security law, whereby sensitive national data has been excluded from the open data platform. Second, there are two levels to data accessibility on the Internet — while the first is open to all, the second level is open only to the user industries. At the second level, users have to mention why they want to access that particular data and where it will be used. It is only after obtaining their proposal and reasons, the data is delivered to them.

The Korea Land Information System (KLIS) was one of the first projects of NSDI. Can you tell us more on the Korean cadastre project?

The cadastre work in Korea is very systematic. Around 3,700 cadastral surveyors work every day at the district level and there are immediate updates. Any Korean citizen can get details about the authenticity of their land parcel online.

The Underground Facility Management System is also under our ministry. It facilitates management of seven underground facilities (water supply, sewer, electricity, gas, telecommunication, oils pipeline, heat). After the underground gas leak explosions in 1990s every underground facility has been accurately mapped at a scale of 1:100 and the project was completed in 2012.

While Korea has laws for 2D cadastre, there are still no laws and taxation norms for 3D cadastre.

What is the progress on the plans for switching to a 3D cadastre?

We are exploring the possibilities of using 3D data and introduced a pilot project in 2012. Data collection with the help of GNSS and other technologies will go on till 2020, following which a new cadastre system will be developed. Also, we need to resolve regulation, institution and ownership issues to complete the cadastre system. At the moment, there are laws for 2D cadastre, but there are no laws and taxation norms for using the third dimension. We need to address that too.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 41

Governance & Information Infrastructure/United States

Back to the

A screenshot of FGDC’s new website. The NSDI vision plan focusses on Web-based platform that provides access to a suite of geospatial data, services, applications and tools

Future

T

he technology landscape has seen tremendous change since the US NSDI was initially conceptualised in the early 1990s. In the years leading up to the 1990s, advances in mapping and geospatial technology were largely driven by the public sector — with Federal agencies playing a major role in the development and coordination of data, products, and services. The origins for many of the current geospatial innovations and operational successes have their roots in past government investment in research and implementation of computing and communication technology, geospatial data standards, NSDI framework data development, the Internet, remote sensors, and the GPS.

42 / Geospatial World February 2014

With the growing value of geospatial data and technology, FGDC has devised a futuristic Strategic Plan for NSDI which can leverage investments in technology and people

In the recent years, remarkable advances in computing power, the emergence of open standards and open systems, and the Internet have reshaped the technology landscape. The availability and usage of geospatial information and products have dramatically expanded as the software industry has matured and high-quality data is available through newly implemented State and Federal clearinghouses and private sector offerings.

Keeping this in mind, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has developed an updated Strategic Plan for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) of the United States. The NSDI Strategic Plan, which covers 2014-2016, was approved by the FGDC Steering Committee in December

2013. The plan describes a broad national vision for the NSDI, and includes goals and objectives for the Federal government’s role in continued sustainable development of the NSDI. These define areas of critical importance to the continued development of the NSDI and provide a framework for the Federal geospatial community’s responsibilities over the next three years.

include objectives and actions that describe how the goals will be accomplished. While the first strategic goal is to develop capabilities for national shared services, the second goal is to ensure accountability and effective development and management of federal geospatial resources; and the last goal is to convene leadership of the national geospatial community.

What necessitated the Strategic Plan?

» Develop Capabilities for National Shared Services: Developing shared services is a vital strategy for delivering geospatial solutions faster, for less money, and with fewer resources. These enterprise approaches take advantage of evolving technologies and methodologies to reduce potential duplication, create innovative tools and technology, and leverage agency budgets and expertise to accomplish agency mission and support functions more efficiently, while also improving quality.

The Geospatial Platform initiative is a critical component for the development of the NSDI. It is a Web-based, first-generation service environment that provides access to a suite of well-managed, highly available, and trusted geospatial data, services, applications, and tools for use by Federal agencies and their State, Tribal, regional, and local partners. In addition, the FGDC community and its partners will utilise the common cloud computing and enterprise acquisition approaches to leverage technology, close productivity gaps, and combine buying power across agencies.

The new NSDI plan is important and timely for several reasons. First, while the FGDC community has engaged in a series of strategic initiatives over the past several years, including the Geospatial Line of Business and Geospatial Platform initiatives, the current NSDI strategic plan has not been revised for a number of years. Second, geospatial technologies, industries, and applications have witnessed tremendous growth and change over the past several years, and the strategies need to be modernised to align with and leverage these changes.

According to the NSDI Vision Statement, “The NSDI leverages investments in people, technology, data, and procedures to create and provide the geospatial knowledge required to understand, protect, and promote our national and global interests.”

Accordingly, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure extends far beyond data, encompassing the policies, organisational responsibilities, data, information, technologies, standards, services, and financial and human resources necessary to achieve this vision. The NSDI has become a critical vehicle for facilitating seamless data development, information sharing, and collaborative decision-making across multiple sectors of the economy.

The future state

The vision of the NSDI for the future is to provide government, businesses, and citizens with a way to visualise and explore data to derive information and knowledge; to create a network of resources and services for the seamless integration of location-based information into broader information assets; to serve as an enabling resource for discovery, access, integration, and application of location information for a growing body of users and to leverage shared and open standards-based services; and focus on applied information for improved decision making.

The vision also entails use of real-time data feeds and sensor webs for improved monitoring, control, situational awareness, and decision making; to facilitate access to and use of multi-temporal information linked to place; to integrate and use advanced technologies and their associated standards and best practices; and to facilitate use of community-driven open standards with multiple implementations.

The NSDI Plan includes a set of three strategic goals. They

» Ensure accountability and effective development and management of Federal geospatial resources: Effective management of geospatial investments will enable Federal agencies and their partners to meet mission responsibilities, control costs, streamline services, make decisions on eliminating duplication, save taxpayer’s money, and drive efficiency across the Federal Government. This approach will

The NSDI goes beyond data, encompassing policies, organisation responsibilities, data, information, technologies, standards, services, and financial and human resources necessary to achieve this vision Geospatial World February 2014 / 43

Governance & Information Infrastructure/United States

Geospatial platform timeline 2010 Feb: President’s call for action June: Launch of oil spill response Web map Oct: Draft road map issued for review Oct-Dec: Stakeholder engagement

2011 March: Geoplatform.gov redesigned April: Roadmap completed Aug: Geoplatform updates introduced at Esri IUC 2011 Oct: Value proposition completed Nov: Geoplatform.gov beta version launched

allow identification of data themes and datasets most critical for meeting government and stakeholder needs. FGDC agencies will also apply the framework of the administration’s Open Data Policy to manage information as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness.

This strategic goal describes the actions the Federal geospatial community will take to implement portfolio management for more effectively planning geospatial data collection efforts, assessing the status of NGDAs, and minimise duplicative investments. » Convene leadership of the national geospatial community: The Federal Government is in a unique position to provide a leadership and facilitation role in the national geospatial community. This role includes providing institutional leadership for the development and coordination of national and international geospatial standards and policies, integrating geospatial technology into information technology (IT) management processes, contributing to the development of a legal and policy framework that supports the objectives of the NSDI, and fostering collaboration across sectors. The Federal geospatial community can play an important role in communicating the value of geospatial information and tools to enable informed analysis and decision-making. Stakeholders have identified this strategic goal as a critical responsibility that can be accomplished most effectively by the Federal Government.

A shared vision for the NSDI

2012 Feb: Draft business plan issued for review June: Business plan completed 2013 & onwards: Ongoing implementation

The Strategic Plan was developed through consultation with Federal agencies, the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, and with partners and stakeholders across the geospatial community. The FGDC Executive Committee will have the lead responsibility for overseeing and monitoring the implementation of the plan.

A designated Federal official, appointed from the FGDC Executive Committee, will serve as the champion for each strategic goal. The champions will report to the FGDC Executive Committee and Steering Committee.

The federal agencies that produce, collect,

44 / Geospatial World February 2014

maintain, or use spatial data will be mandated to either directly or indirectly recognise and manage their data as capital assets; facilitate non-Federal participation in the development of the NSDI; and work together through the FGDC to provide for effective and economical use and management of geospatial data in the digital environment for the benefit of the nation. The agencies also need to ensure that spatial data from multiple sources (Federal, State, Tribal, regional and local governments; academia and the private sector) are available and easily integrated to enhance understanding of the physical, natural, and cultural world.

The future

A number of external factors are driving trends in technology, communications, workforce, and legal/policy issues of importance to a future NSDI, signalling a need to align the national geospatial strategy with both mainstream and emerging IT practices and related trends. Geospatial technologies provide attractive integrative approaches for meeting current requirements to do more with less. New approaches are demanded, supported, and must be implemented quickly for technology, collaboration, workforce development, funding, and other resources. This will include raising awareness of the unique aspects of geolocation from a privacy standpoint.

With the expanded use of geospatial data and services, new challenges are arising for the Federal geospatial community. It has been difficult to express the value and benefit of Federal investments in providing geospatial data and services when the public can readily access a great deal of such information from both public and private sectors through Web-based applications and hand-held devices. In addition, technology adoption and policy development

by Federal agencies often cannot keep up with the speed of the innovative changing technology. The role of the Federal sector is evolving and the Federal geospatial community will have to be agile and flexible to accommodate to these changing roles.

Source: FGDC’s National Spatial Data Infrastructure Strategic Plan 2014-16

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Spain

A Clustre of SDIs

Supported by a Community An SDI of SDIs, the IDEE connects the three levels of government as well as the academia and the private sector. ByAntonio F. RodrĂ­guez

T

he Spanish spatial data infrastructure or Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de EspaĂąa (IDEE) has evolved from a bottoms-up approach. It embraces nodes from the three levels of government (national, regional and local) to form an SDI of SDIs, with a healthy and collaborative community sharing resources, good practices and experiences.

IDEE was established in April 2002 along with the INSPIRE initiative. In that year the Working Group for IDEE was also set up. Stakeholders from various public bodies, private companies and academia were included in the Working Group Board. An existing umbrella body, National Geographic High Council (NGHC) which coordinated the

Geosalut showing chemists within 1 km radius of a given point.

46 / Geospatial World February 2014

cartographic activities being carried out by the Spanish government at national, regional and local levels, included the Working Group for IDEE in its structure.

At present, the working group for the IDEE comprises of 239 organisations and over 412 individual members. It organises an annual workshop and various forums. In 2010, the annual workshop was opened to the Portuguese and Andorran SDI communities under the title of JIIDE (Iberic Conference on SDI).

The Spanish NSDI Geoportal was launched in 2004 and presented in the 10th EC-GI&GIS Workshop in Warsaw. Currently, it is implementing fourteen main standards (WMS, WMTS, WMS-C, CSW, Gaz, WFS, Atom, WCS,

The IDEE geoportal interface

tal allowing users to know which petrol station sells gas WMC, WCTS, SLD, KML, FTP and WPS), some of them in cheaper; INSPIRE compliant style. The IDEE Geoportal is multilingual, available in seven different languages, and gives access • And Anthos, an inventory of thousands of vegetal species showing their geographical distribution on WMS; to a big bunch of 2,448 Web services. (see table 1).

A good point to guarantee coordination in this ecosysClient applications have been prepared for giving default access to official WMS, WFS and Gaz. A Web directory of tem of resources, bodies, initiatives, developments and reservice URLs is also provided. The IDEE catalogue is syn- sponsibilities is the role played by the NSDI´s Management chronised via metadata harvesting and XML files interchange Board established by the Law 14/2010, on geographic infrastructures and services in Spain. To carry out this task, with the rest of available standard catalogues in Spain.

From an organisational point of view, a technical coor- NSDI´s Management Board is assisted by the National Centre of Geographic Information (CNIG), dination structure of the project has Available Web Services an autonomous organisation under the been set up and it consists of a set umbrella of IGN Spain that is the Naof reference SDI nodes: one nationService Number tional Contact Point for INSPIRE, the al node and 17 regional nodes, one WMS 1,898 body responsible for the secretariat of per region. Each reference node has WMS-C, WMTS 64 the Spanish Standardisation National the responsibility of giving visibility Visualization 1,962 Technical Committee (AEN/CTN 148) to all the SDI resources in its scope. in the field of geographic information.

Some interesting applications have WFS & WCS 302 As a result, coordination among the key been implemented from the beginDatasets download 119 organisations in SDI implementation is ning of the project taking advantage (FTP & others) guaranteed. of IDEE Web services.

Download 421 • Goolzoom, a mash-up exploitCSW 47 ing available WMS in real estate Capacity building Discovery 47 applications; Continuous effort is been made towards Others (WPS, WCTS, • Wikiloc, showing routes for openawareness, promotion and outreach in18 SOAP) air activities on a cartographic teroperability and SDI advantages by Total 2,448 background that uses WMS; means of courses, seminars, conferencTable 1 • Geoportalgasolineras, a geopores, articles, blogs and e-newsletter, and

Geospatial World February 2014 / 47

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Spain

Historic SDI of Madrid. An old bullfighting arena can be seen where nowadays there is the Sports Palace of Madrid

a big number of face-to-face meetings. The CNIG team devoted to SDI also advises and offers support to any organisation in Spain and abroad involved in SDI and/or INSPIRE implementation and the same role is played by the bodies in charge of the regional SDIs. Another factor that has significantly contributed to create an atmosphere of reliability is the decentralised collaborative cartography projects led by IGN Spain in cooperation with other institutions. These include the Aerial Ortophoto National Plan (PNOA), covering the entire nation every three years with orthophoto of resolution 50 cm and 25 cm; CartoCiudad, a road and street digital map for the whole country; and the Spanish Land Cover and Use Information System (SIOSE) and Territory Observation National Plan (PNOT) that make possible to share satellite imagery among governmental bodies.

There is great collaboration and open atmosphere among the Spanish SDI community. Regional and local governments, universities and companies are aware of the benefits of sharing resources and ideas with an excellent spirit of cooperation and synergy.

This was possible because IDEE is based on two basic ideas. On one hand, the SDI were convinced that digital geographic information is a development engine for the society and a very basic and essential resource than need to be expanded to progress in a globalised world. On the other hand, the SDI also thinks that open data and information sharing is a very good idea. IGN Spain and regional mapping agencies and departments are changing from being merely data producers to become services providers.

48 / Geospatial World February 2014

And the SDI community is also evolving from some kind of ‘Ancien Régime’ that can be symbolised in the old saying ‘Information is power’ (Bacon, XVI century) to a ‘Modern paradigm’ based on the theory ‘If you share, you always gain more’ (Rovira & Trías de Bes, 2004).

IDEE spreading its wings

The IDEE envisions following for its future: • Implementation of Web services publishing LiDAR data; • VGI using platforms based on SDI resources; • Integration of geographic datasets in open data portals; • Data re-engineering for INSPIRE-conformance; • Reuse of PSI following new RISP European directive; and • Geolinked data and standard compliance verification and certification.

The Spanish NSDI is also involved in some international activities. It has collaboration with its neighbouring countries — Portugal, Andorra and France — connecting viewers and application, and buildings technical bridges to have some kind of horizontal interoperability. Some interesting transnational projects have also been developed, like OTALEX, SNIGII and SDIGER. CNIG is currently working for a pan-European project called European Location Framework (ELF) to generate a pan European Cloud platform and Web services to build on the existing work of the INSPIRE Directive and enable access to harmonised data in cross border applications.

Antonio F. Rodríguez, Head, SDI Department, CNIG (IGN Spain) afrodriguez@fomento.es

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Interview

Very few senior managers understand the benefits of SDI, feels Derek Clarke, Chief Director, Surveys & Mapping and National Geospatial Information Department of Rural Development & Land Reforms, South Africa.

This hampers the progress, particularly with respect to prioritising programmes and budgetary provisions, he argues

窶連 successful NSDI can come with

Y

ou have been a champion of spatial data infrastructure in South Africa as well as in the region. How has been the progress?

There has been progress, but it has been very slow because people are still trying to understand and come to terms with what spatial data infrastructure, or SDI, really means. I think it is still at a low level. Very few senior or top managers are engaging or getting involved with us as they do not seem to fully appreciate the power of geospatial tech-

50 / Geospatial World February 2014

nology. A large amount of the SDI work is driven by people who are not at a very senior level and this is hampering the progress, particularly when it comes to prioritising work and budgetary provisions.

What is happening on the data sharing front? Have all data providers agreed to share data?

The idea of data sharing is not so much an issue, particularly with public institutions. The problem is that organisations

themselves do not know what kind of data is available.

But we are working on that. We have a geo-portal or an electronic metadata catalogue, but that is not functioning as well as it should be and it will soon be replaced with a new system.

We hope to address several current issues. But the system will only work if the data collectors are posting their metadata into the system. We are trying to develop the system so that it harvests the metadata from the data collectors, thus reducing their burden. But we still need to educate the users about the value of metadata — on what is available and the suitability of that information.

We expect the revised geoportal to be operational by early 2014, following which we will get the metadata populated into the electronic catalogue. Then the big job is to market this to the people so that they start using it. We will organise workshops with the user community to demonstrate the system, its usability and benefits.

You said that organisations are not yet convinced about the importance of data sharing. Are you working towards bringing some policy changes to make this mandatory?

A committee on spatial information is in the advanced stages of implementing two policies. The first is a policy on pricing, which will be applicable for all public organisations, where we are trying to standardise how different entities will charge for data.

Primarily, we believe the cost accrued by a data supplier [for procuring that data] should be charged for, while the information itself should come free of cost. However, the supplier can charge for adding value to a product, but that should be based on a rational costing model. There is an exemption provision, but one has to apply to the ministry and explain the reasons for availing that.

Another policy is to define and elaborate on the responsibilities of custodians of fundamental datasets. We will identify and appoint different data custodians for base datasets and there is a set of responsibilities attached to it.

Very closely related to this policy is the issue of data duplication. The legislation is very strong on the principle of data sharing and bars unnecessary duplication. Base dataset custodians will need to register a data capture project to let others know what kind of data they are collecting and organisations which are not custodians of base datasets will be prohibited from collecting data unless they have been given clearance for it by the committee for spatial information.

This will minimise duplication. The pricing policy is now ready to be presented to the minister for his final approval, following which it will become a law.

Are the provincial or municipal level organisations also a part of this infrastructure?

Provincial or municipal organisations can be part of this, but it is important to identify the base dataset first. There could be a situation where provincial governments only collect data for their area of jurisdiction. They could then contribute to the national dataset. In terms of the governance structure, there could be more than one custodian in some area. In such cases, we have created a system where there will be a coordinating custodian, which will then be guiding the component data custodians.

Does this also facilitate private sector participation?

At present, the law is not applicable for the private sector and is binding for public organisations only. We cannot prevent a private company from collecting information because they are doing that on their own cost. But a private company working on contract for the government is bound by the law as then they are acting as an extension of the state organ. However, we are looking at amending the Spatial Data Information Act which will extend to include the private sector as well.

What mechanisms are being adopted by NGI to make the data easily accessible to users?

All our data is supplied only at the cost of the paper on which the map is printed. This can be accessed through the Web as well. We do have a geoportal, but owing to the low bandwidth in South Africa, accessing very large files on the Internet is difficult. However, this will change with the launch of the redeveloped portal. We are using OGC standards for WFS and WMS services, which will be available through that. We also want to provide a Web cartography service, where the users will be able access the information online instead of downloading.

All our data is supplied only at the cost of the paper on which the map is printed.

This can be accessed through the Web as well.

We also want to provide Web cartography service Geospatial World February 2014 / 51

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Interview

NGI has the largest and most extensive archive of aerial photography and imagery dating back to 1926. Currently, images are captured in RGB and CIR as can be seen from this Cape Town image captured in 2008

How does the SDI contribute to the economic development of South Africa?

There are three pillars to what we have been talking about — availability, accessibility and usability. As a national mapping organisation and an SDI agency, NGI needs to make sure we are looking at those three aspects. I don’t think we can have a successful NSDI if these three things are not working properly and are not working together.

Availability means availability of relevant and up-to-date information. Accessibility includes the knowledge of the availability of the information and the issue of affordability.

If the data is too expensive, it becomes inaccessible. There are issues of semantics as well. That is the connection between the user and the data collector — are we talking in a language the user can understand? Then there are issues of data privacy, data sharing and principles of creating once and using many times.

I think the one neglected the most is the issue of usability.

We have this information available, we can make it accessible, but can the user use it? Do they know how to use it? Do they know how to benefit? Can they answer the questions they want to answer with this information? We need to take care of these issues.

There is a trend among countries to have all geospatial related agencies under one department. For instance,

52 / Geospatial World February 2014

Indonesia recently did so for better coordination and greater relevance and contribution. Are there any such initiatives in South Africa?

No, not at this stage, but I think this is one area that needs serious attention. I believe in having a single logical data model but physically you can have distributed databases.

Therefore, different organisations can have defined responsibilities as long as their roles and responsibilities are clear.

For example, the agriculture department may have some data, say about soil, which they can share with the soil data custodian, but there has to be a central organisation that oversees and coordinates this. I see this as an issue and some institutional rearrangement is required for such activity.

Personally, I don’t think the NSDI should be administered by a line function department. It should be with an agency that is more cross-cutting through the government. For example, the Planning Commission is an organisation that has involvement or participation in almost every sphere throughout the country and I think NSDI should be with it. Also, we need to bring statistics and the NSDI together or within the same organisation, because statistics and geoinformation are the most fundamental of datasets that the government needs for planning, policy formulation and development. If there is a correct institutional arrangement for this, we can do a far better job than what we are doing currently. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in that area.

REGISTER NOW FREE FOR U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MILITARY & GOVERNMENT

The Largest Intelligence Event of the Year

APRIL 14-17, 2014 TAMPA CONVENTION CENTER

•

TAMPA, FLORIDA

*Due to the October 2013 government shutdown, the GEOINT Symposium was postponed to April.

We’ll avoid wasteful spending by adhering asterisks instead of reprinting all our great signage. Embrace the asterisk!

RECONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE The Honorable James R. Clapper Director of National Intelligence (DNI)

LTG Michael T. Flynn, U.S. Army

Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

Ms. Letitia A. Long

Director, National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA)

ADM William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Ms. Betty J. Sapp Director, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

LTG Joseph Votel, U.S. Army

Commander, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)

Mr. Shel Israel

Co-Author of Age of Context; and CEO of SI Associates

Joint Presentation Robert Scoble

Co-Author of Age of Context; and Startup Liaison for Rackspace

• Hear from leading government and military speakers • Network and share best practices with other geospatial technology & remote sensing professionals • Discover hands-on the latest technology, solutions, and services in 200,000 square feet of exhibit space with 200+ exhibitors

Brought to you by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation

GEOINTSYMPOSIUM.COM

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Chile

A Collaborative Model to Decentralise Information

T

he national spatial data infrastructure has been undertaken by the Chilean government to improve the generation, access and availability of geospatial information to support development of public policies and decision making in various fields. The Chilean SDI was conceived as a network of public institutions which manage spatial information, whether as creators or users and targets availability of information to all users.

The history of SDI Chile dates back to the mid-’90s when the use of GIS had begun to grow. However, this led to a series of problems related to the generation and use of geospatial information. In addition to ignorance about the usefulness of such data and technologies, there was internal discord between institutions on data sharing, accuracy of existing information, data duplicacy and incompatibility, among others.

Finally, the National Territorial Information Coordination System, or SNIT, was formed in 2006 under the Ministry of National Assets, which established its functions and organisational structure and the duties of public bodies in relation to information management. Today, SDI Chile is in a consolidation phase; work is currently focused on establishing the institutional and technological conditions that will generate better geospatial information and promote its effective use.

Organisational model SDI Chile has an organisational model based on a solid structure of coordination, which proposes that each of the 20 ministries and 15 regional institutions, that is part of it, be responsible for generating, maintaining and publishing geospatial information relating to its institutional mission.

They have to conform to the standards, specifications and techniques of the SDI Chile’s Executive Secretariat to form an interconnected network of Web information services.

Furthermore, the development of skills for handling information at various stages (generation, analysis, integration and publication) is crucial. That is why the Executive Secretariat is also mandated to organise training workshops on software use

54 / Geospatial World February 2014

SDI Chile has brought ministries and regional authorities on one platform to enable effective management, delivery and sharing of geospatial information, thus unifying many systems and standardising the data formats.

By Matías Fortuño Soto & Alvaro Monett Hernández

for editing and use of standards, among others.

From the point of view of inter-agency coordination with ministries and utilities, bilateral working relationships were established to support the implementation of sectoral SDIs and collaborative tasks were shared by several institutions.

In this context, clusters and thematic forces have been generated for different purposes, with the goal of empowering the national SDI. An example of this is illustrated in the conformation of the thematic areas of the SDI (affinity group of institutions in the content of the information generated), aimed at defining priorities and technical specifications of the priority data for the country’s basic information, infrastructure, land-use planning, natural resources, social development and equity. Other national needs have led to the creation of working groups, for instance, to develop national standards for interoperability between geoportals of political and administrative divisions of the country.

In addition to observing a model of distributed organisation, the SDI operates in a decentralised way. Each of the 15 regional governments are, in close coordination with the Executive Secretariat, leading the implementation of its SDI, often incorporating players who are not part of government services. Significantly, 14 of the 15 regions already have their own SDI and geospatial information portal operational.

The results are for all to see Chile SDI Viewer, one of the most important products, from

A screenshot of the Visor system

the Ministry of National Assets, was built by the same institution that aims to make land information available and provide background for decision making. Called Visor, the system currently displays information generated by 15 ministries and 20 public services. The information is arranged in layers and is freely available to all users at www.ide.cl. Online updation of information is allowed for institutions using WMS protocols. Visor has been received with enthusiasm by stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors.

The objective of the SDI was to have an organised framework with human and technological resource to provide geospatial information to institutional management, and also to share it with other organisations. In some cases, large institutions with many directions and dependent utilities (such as the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture) have managed to unify systems by working with databases of unique and standardised data, and deploy information from corporate geoportals. Many other ministries have implemented their geospatial data infrastructure in the areas of environment, mining, energy, urban planning, development and social justice.

For the regions, the challenge remains the integration of geospatial information generated at different territorial levels, which requires close coordination. Some regions have had outstanding results, such as Los Ríos in south Chile, where the regional government (institution in charge of the regional coordination of geospatial information) developed a management model at the municipality levels.

The model of collaborative organisation pervades the process of developing a new institutional structure, in particular for the formulation of a national policy for geospatial information, which will define over the coming years the strategic direction for the management of public institutions.

The objectives and strategic guidelines are structured around four areas — generation of geospatial information, access and use, interoperability and institutional framework. Many public institutions and authorities participated in formulating this proposal.

International participation In the international sphere, Chile is an active participant in the Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) initiative led by the United Nations, which is embodied in the operation of an expert committee that addresses issues such as geospatial information for managing natural hazards, global map for sustainable development, integration of statistical and geographical information and others.

At the continental level, the Executive Secretariat of SDI Chile is Vice President of the initiative called ‘UN-GGIM Americas’, which is the regional expression of UN-GGIM. This organisation is focused on supporting the member countries in their national SDI processes, through the dissemination of good practices, training opportunities and experiences of policies and institutional framework implementation.

Interestingly, the Ministry of National Assets has a bilateral partnership with South Korea in the field of land management, geomatics and cadastre for exchange of experiences, knowledge and building capacity.

Challenges ahead Despite the progresses made so far, there are some challenges to address in the short and medium term. They include: • Maintaining the local information generated by the 345 municipalities, particularly for digitisation and building private land registers.

• Engaging citizens in the generation of geospatial information by generating necessary validation mechanisms.

• Pushing for implementation of the WFS standard in order to enable download of online information while maintaining intellectual property of the data.

• Propagating the usefulness of geospatial information in all areas of problem solving and decision making.

Matías Fortuño Soto, Executive Secretary, SNIT IDE Chile, Ministry of National Assets, mfortuno@mbienes.cl Alvaro Monett Hernández, Executive Secretariat, SNIT IDE Chile, Ministry of National Assets, amoneth@mbienes.cl

Geospatial World February 2014 / 55

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Abu Dhabi

SDI Strengthens g-Governance The Abu Dhabi SDI is empowering the government and society with convenient, open access to high-quality and up-to-date geographic information and spatially enabled e-government services.

A

bu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf. Today, Abu Dhabi houses key initiatives on sustainable energy, economic, and environmental leveraging advanced technologies. As such, the timely collection, preservation, and distribution of relevant geospatial data are critical to maintain its spatial data infrastructure and ensure the smooth running of the emirate’s many governmental and commercial activities.

The Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure (AD-SDI) is an initiative administered within the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC) to facilitate the sharing of geospatial data among government agencies and other stakeholders.

As part of Abu Dhabi’s ambitious e-government programme, AD-SDI is empowering the government and society with convenient, open access to high-quality and up-to-date geographic information and spatially enabled e-government services.

In Abu Dhabi, government entities have invested heavily in GIS technology and geospatial data to meet their own organisational needs. The emirate is now in an excellent position to leverage that investment by establishing the necessary institutional capabilities that are needed to support more effective sharing and utilisation of geospatial information.

AD-SDI was conceived to provide that framework.

Establishing the AD-SDI initiative In June 2007, ADSIC launched the AD-SDI initiative to provide a framework of standards, policies, data, procedures, technology, and capable staff to facilitate and support the effective use and sharing of geospatial information in Abu Dhabi. Incorporated into AD-SDI are a data clearinghouse, geospatial portal, and website, as well as an extensive programme for community engagement, organisation, coordination, and establishment of formal agreements for data provision and sharing.

The operations team at the Spatial Data Centre (SDC) is utilising the ArcGIS suite of software for data processing, data review and assessment, publication of map services, and GIS analysis and cartography for special projects. Esri technology has also been used in developing the AD-SDI clearinghouse and associated metadata catalogue and the supporting services based on ArcGIS Server technology and the REST and SOAP interfaces, in addition to mobile GIS applications based on the ArcGIS Mobile solution. Other map viewers were built using Flex and Java APIs. A dedicated AD-SDI staff is in place to facilitate, promote, coordinate, and support the AD-SDI initiative with various member entities. Venues for such cooperation and collaboration with entities include facilitating the AD-SDI Technical Committee meetings and discussions; developing and implementing agreed-upon standards for geospatial data maintenance and update; and mobilising working groups and special interest groups in key areas of common interest, such as environment, utilities, and public safety and security.

Now in the third stage of a three-stage process, the initiative has almost 40 government and quasi-government entities involved, with more expected to join this year. As part of the community development, ADSIC is in the process of developing service-level agreements and licensing arrangements with each entity that spell out what data will be provided, the timing of periodic updates, and access and use restrictions for the data each is providing. In addition, a geo-legal policy has been mobilised to work on strengthening aspects of the legal framework to address issues that have special relevance to geospatial matters, such as security, privacy, and intellectual property rights.

Value of standardisation Standards, including the appropriate data, technology, and pro-

Highlights • The operations team uses GIS for data processing, data review and assessment, and publication of map.

• ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Mobile solutions aid in developing the AD-SDI clearinghouse and associated metadata catalogue.

• The AD-SDI geoportal provides access to the data clearinghouse from which more than 300 map layers are being made available to the community.

56 / Geospatial World February 2014

Geoportal is the key The ultimate goal of the AD-SDI initiative is to create a seamless network of interoperable nodes — geospatial portals — that will provide easy access to all geospatial information in the emirate. Currently, both government and publicly accessible geoportals have been set up, and the information available is being expanded and updated on an ongoing basis.

The AD-SDI geoportal provides access to the data clearinghouse from which more than 300 map layers are being made available to the community. Data is now being kept current, as the custodian entities periodically submit updates to the ADSIC team, which runs the data through procedures to ensure that the new information is consistent with the agreed-upon standards. The geoportal is being used as a common reference for viewing existing data, and a few users are now employing thick-client access to map services.

Many organisations in the AD-SDI community have implemented or are planning to implement their own geoportal nodes. The Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi has been operating its node for over two years, and other entities, such as the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, Department of Municipal Affairs, and Urban Planning Council, have

Courtesy: Esri

cedures, are essential to ensure interoperability across the ADSDI community. Integrating existing GIS data and procedures across the AD-SDI community is a matter of proactive stakeholder engagement and consultation to avoid redundant and often inconsistent spatial datasets. Today, the Emirate’s fundamental geospatial datasets (FGDS), such as cadastral data, orthoimagery, elevation data, transportation, land use, soils, and utility networks, are maintained by relevant government organisations. The entities are streamlining their workflow to update the spatial data they are responsible for by recording changes on the ground as they occur as part of their business processes. This approach of transaction-based data maintenance ensures that spatial data is updated and delivered to the AD-SDI community in a timely manner.

A geospatial metadata catalogue is another significant factor in maintaining standardisation in AD-SDI, as it provides a master inventory of the fundamental data and geospatial services available. All the layers in the data clearinghouse have some level of metadata that is accessible through the geoportal.

The metadata catalogue was originally compiled by the ADSIC team, but responsibility of maintaining of this information is being transferred to the custodian agencies as a condition within the service-level agreements. Organisations using Esri products can maintain their data through the ArcGIS Desktop.

Others can update their information through the geoportal, once authorised to do so, or through any ISO standards-based metadata maintenance tool.

Courtesy: Department of Municipal Affairs, Abu Dhabi Municipality

Abu Dhabi large-scale basemap

either instituted or are planning to institute their own Webbased mapping services for internal and public use.

Potential savings The essential value of AD-SDI is widely recognised across the community, and huge cost savings are already being realised in several ways: • All spatial data maintained by organisations for their own business purposes is now standardised according to the broader needs of the community, leading to improved and newer usages of the data, thereby leveraging the value of the data investment many times over.

• Previously, spatial data projects could be launched by individual government entities. Now, the AD-SDI Technical Committee is included in the procedure, which leads to better alignment of the projects for the common needs of the community and avoids costly and redundant data acquisition.

• The top leadership is now being provided with access to accurate and up-to-date information in a reliable and timely manner, empowering it to make informed decisions.

The implementation of these portals will lead to a greater sharing and utilisation of spatial data in Abu Dhabi. The participating organisations are now routinely adding new users as more people become aware of what is available and how it can be used in their work.

Courtesy: ESRI

Geospatial World February 2014 / 57

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Bogota

A Smart City Indeed!

Bogota’s IDECA has become a role model in the whole of Latin America in producing, managing and sharing geographic information for development projects. By Jasmith A. Tamayo B

A screenshot of Maps of Bogota

B

ogotá DC is among one of the 10 most competitive cities in Latin America, according to the local magazine Dinero. Major development projects implemented in the recent years have made the Colombian capital a pioneer in many areas of application of cutting-edge technology.

Bogotá DC was not immune to the changes wrought by the introduction of geotechnologies in public administration and business management. For these reasons, it became necessary to create effective mechanisms to permit timely availability of quality geospatial information to support the range of sectoral, local and regional projects that are deployed in and from the national capital district. The Infrastructure of Spatial Data for the Capital District (or IDECA) is responsible for promoting collaborative strategies to manage geographic information based on official policies and standards, using technological tools that enable information management and facilitate the development of institutional strategies for best practices related to the data lifecycle. IDECA is a government initiative of City Hall, which has been consolidated since 2004.

Headed by the Special Administrative Unit of the Cadastral Office, Bogotá has been developing several projects that

58 / Geospatial World February 2014

focus on integrating all the official geographical information of the Capital District to position itself as a smart city. This involves making available data and services that respond to specific needs for decision-making about planning and development by administrative authorities and citizens alike.

IDECA has become a role model not only in the city of Bogota but also in the whole of Colombia and even entire Latin America in producing, managing and giving access to geographic information.

Geographic information services

Web services offered and managed in conjunction with the district community allow a better flow of information, ensuring the availability of reliable and timely data.

Tu Bogotá: Tu Bogotá is a new application that can identify, through an interactive map, variables to make decisions about housing or investment in the capital within a search radius of 0.5 to 2 km. It can also be shared on social networks.

The application gives the per-sq-km value of a land, location of nearby parks, tourism and entertainment destinations and rates user experience according to 13 variables taken from official city information. The tool also allows users to report the real estate offers and civic needs for different

sectors of the city (health, education, culture, trade, tourism, social security, risk, mobility, environment, public space). In addition, users can upload a related image, a description of the need and a contact email.

Reference Map: As a main strategy to consolidate a single source of geo-referenced information on the city, the Reference Map provides an organised set of common spatial data required by most institutions of Bogotá. The Reference Map consists of 29 layers of information as open data and it is updated on a quarterly basis by each custodial institution and available to the community through the portal www.ideca.gov.co.

Bogotá’s Maps Portal: It is a new tool based on the information and communications technologies applied to the management of geographic information in the Capital District. The portal meets ‘spatialised information’ from various public institutions on issues of security, mobility and social services, which are some of the topics for daily and frequent consultation. This tool is intended for all types of users — ordinary citizens, enterprises, official agencies, private organisations, curators, notaries, town planners, investors, researchers, tourists etc — and is a clear example of ICT as a tool for good governance.

Registration System of Geographic items: A Web tool developed for the creation, approval, publication and maintenance of geographical items, its main objective is to allow concerted allocation of identifiers and unique meanings that contribute to the definition of a useful common language for the development of new information systems in the Capital District, thereby ensuring reliability and interoperability.

Additionally, this system plays an important role in controlling and monitoring the production of geographic information, by allowing the storage of descriptions of official information produced and identifying their respective custodian.

Management System of Geographic Metadata: One of the policies that led to the creation of IDECA is related to geographic metadata, which aims to document the geographic information of the Capital District through standardised and technically advanced metadata management processes to facilitate their availability, access, use and exchange.

This system is a Web application developed to allow different users to discover, access and use information and/or geographic services generated or obtained by IDECA members, such as documents, maps, images, studies, etc. Additionally, it allows the creation, validation, publication and maintenance of metadata. The main users of this system are entities and public sector institutions, private, academia and general citizens interested in accessing and using geographic data and services of Bogotá D.C.

A screenshot of the IDECA portal giving geodesic applications.

Achievements & challenges

IDECA has been behind the launch and execution of a number of major projects such as the Integral Road Network, Infrastructure of Network and Public Services or IRSP (constituted with a cadastre of networks of Bogota’s public services), setting up of the SDI in Cundinamarca (a major city in Columbia), and the establishing a geospatial platform for putting on cloud the data, services and applications related to Bogota.

The regulation and implementation of nine geographic information policies (production, metadata, custody, disposition, access and use, among others) in the district helps in legitimising the task of IDECA and facilitates the dialogue with authorities, companies and citizens, besides providing attention to their own concerns and initiatives. A very encouraging result of IDECA has been the consolidation of the district community on issues related to management of geographic information. Local administrative officials could now be made aware about the importance of access and use of geographic information in decision-making and community services.

Bogota, with its Infrastructure in place, is ready to take a giant leap further by relying on information, or more specifically geographic information, the key input in the planning and development of the city. The authorities must recognise the importance of involving and promoting collaborative work between its members as a mechanism to improve the quality and relevance of the services. Work is on the disciplinary research paradigm of SDIs, which is expected to contribute in the medium term for the construction of new knowledge that useful for the development of a smart city like Bogota, fast advancing on the information highway towards being called spatially enabled.

Jasmith A. Tamayo B. Manager, Spatial Data Infrastructure Bogota jtamayo@catastrobogota.gov.co

Geospatial World February 2014 / 59

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Smart City

Spatial information is the basis for a city’s core operational systems. A strong geospatial foundation is therefore fundamental for providing accessible, reliable and responsive services to citizens. By Jim Dobbs

U

rban theorist Jane Jacobs called cities “problems in organised complexity”. Consider Jacobs’s example of a public park. A park’s use depends on its design.

Design depends on potential use. Potential use, in turn, depends on access and other factors. And so on. These conditions impact the park independently, while also working collectively to define it. The relationships are complex and interconnected; a change to one affects all.

Cities are, essentially, a system of systems, and these are under increasing pressure globally. In 2011, the world population reached 7 billion. Much of that growth has been and will continue to be in cities. The United Nations projects that 70% of the world population will live in cities by 2050. This massive influx will strain public services and city infrastructure.

While completely replacing old infrastructure is unrealistic, better management and maintenance through technology — such as the effort to transform cities into technology-led smart cities — may be the best solution.

“The goal is to get information in real time and to use it in order to increase the quality of life, reduce environmental impact and increase the efficiency of city services,” says Pilar Conesa, director of the Smart Cities World Congress, and former Chief Information Officer for Barcelona.

The first step in the process — to convert the city into a

60 / Geospatial World February 2014

system of systems from an IT perspective — is to establish a firm foundation. For municipalities, that foundation starts with geospatial data since an efficient geospatial platform places all other data in a real-world in physical and visual context. “Geospatial information is the key because all the other information we are collecting — on the roads, public transportation routes, sewer systems, smart meters, etc — has to be shown on the map,” adds Conesa.

The geospatial foundation

Spatial information is the basis for a city’s core operational systems and, ultimately, for the services they provide. A strong geospatial foundation helps cities better manage their assets and the thousands of incidents that occur each day. It is the platform on which solutions are built.

Cities are building this system of systems in stages and in ways that fit their circumstances. One good example is the City of Edmonton in Canada, one of the first cities to convert all its data to digital format, making that transformation in the 1970s.

To obtain fast and reliable access to asset and infrastructure information, Edmonton developed a central repository for GIS data — the Spatial Land Inventory Management (SLIM) application. The SLIM application manages a vast amount of location-based information, including registered parcels of proper-

ty, zoning boundaries, roads, transit lines, utility infrastructure and the conditions of parks, sidewalks and cemeteries.

With this foundation in place, the city has geospatially enabled its departments to perform tasks in a faster and smarter way using map-based data. In doing so, the data becomes operational, as part of workflows tied to specific challenges such as infrastructure planning and public safety.

Better planning, safer roads

Spatial analysis is central to Edmonton’s efforts to improve traffic safety. The city, which experiences 25,000 traffic collisions each year on an average costing it more than $500 million annually, created an Office of Traffic Safety in 2006. The goal of the office, the first such municipal traffic safety office in North America, is to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries.

It processes, analyses and reports traffic safety data, such as collisions, traffic volume, road geometry and more, to identify spatial patterns and target locations best suited for safety improvement. Leveraging the SLIM application, the office enters police collision reports into a database and geocodes the information using street names to create unique reference points. “With a solid geo-coding structure, it becomes easy to create maps based on collision frequency,” says Brandt Denham, GIS analyst. “It gives us a quick and easy way to understand where the worst areas are.”

By understanding collision frequency, the city can then perform advanced statistical and spatial analysis, integrating traffic volume, road characteristics, speed data and collision locations.

The result is a performance index, which tells how a specific location is performing compared to others. Locations are then ranked and mapped based on their potential for improvement.

For instance, the office determined that a section of a street was experiencing 55% more collisions than expected. Analysis revealed that peak shopping periods at a local shopping mall created high traffic volume. When combined with multiple parking lot entrances, this situation resulted in collisions based on drivers following others too closely.

The traffic safety office also manages photo radar and intersection safety sensors as part of automated traffic safety enforcement. Vehicles equipped with photo radar are parked at regular, spatially locatable sites, while sensors are installed at fixed locations at intersections throughout the city.

Based on this data, the office can map high-risk locations and even identify unsafe drivers. These approaches help the city and “allocate limited resources to where they will make the biggest impact,” according to Denham.

In addition to improving safety, reduction in collision also affects the city’s bottom line by saving money at multiple levels. Since 2006, the office’s efforts to reduce collisions have resulted in more than $780 million in savings.

Quicker emergency response

The geospatial foundation and connectivity between systems also aids in the safety of the public and city infrastructure.

Edmonton uses a ‘one city’ approach — where municipal public safety organisations share spatial data and a common map.

For instance, the Edmonton Fire Rescue Services (EFRS) provides fire suppression and rescue, as well as hazardous material cleanup. Because immediate response is critical to protecting lives and property, the demand for accurate, reliable and faster routing and dispatch is high.

The agency’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, the core of public safety operations, is integrated with the SLIM database. This allows municipal GIS datasets to be configured into the CAD system to improve dispatch and routing to incident locations. Responders can use a common map view to quickly and easily share information about emergency events.

“As a city, we are expanding in all four directions at the same time, and that puts a lot of strain on service,” says Graeme Hubbick, Deputy Fire Chief, Edmonton. “Getting that geospatial information out to our crews is vital.”

The Fire department’s CAD system also automatically shares dispatch notifications with Alberta Health Services, which is responsible for delivering health care and EMS in the city and province. The fire dispatch system notifies Alberta Health Services when a fire event requires emergency medical support, while the EMS dispatch system notifies the fire agency when a medical event requires fire rescue assistance.

According to Jim Garland, Executive Director of Alberta Health Services, this system-to-system communication is critically important: “One of our concerns was seamless dispatch of emergency services — the ambulances, and then the fire and police when required. This technology allowed seamless real-time dispatching of resources at the same time.”

Possessing accurate map data and improving emergency routing ensures the continued success of Edmonton Fire

A screenshot of the map service on the official Egmonton city government site.

Geospatial World February 2014 / 61

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Smart City

An ETS dispatcher monitors a map-based safety and security system

Rescue’s Quick Accept system. The CAD system enables creation of a “Quick Accept” for emergency calls, which dispatches units while the emergency call-taker is still on the phone taking information and feeding data to the field units using mobile technology. Dispatch teams can share pre-incident planning information, such as road closures and outof-service hydrants. This information is placed in the CAD common map, so response teams can arrive on the scene faster and receive and update emergency events at the scene in their vehicles. The CAD system, integrated with current municipal GIS data, is bringing the agency closer to its goal of being onscene within four minutes of a fire truck leaving the station.

“The Quick Accept process alone has already shortened EFRS response times by at least 30 seconds,” points out Hubbick.

More efficient public transportation

This efficiency extends to the city’s public transit system, which is under increasing demands for additional services.

The Edmonton Transit System consists of more than 900 buses, 74 light rail trains and 21 km of track. It uses a similar CAD system for response — integrated with the SLIM database — as the city’s fire, police and emergency medical organisations. Because the transit agency has additional responsibility for transit security, its CAD system is linked to a network of security cameras, alarms and public emergency telephones. Edmonton’s system was Canada’s first integrated transportation security system.

The agency combines geospatial data with incident reports to detect patterns. It can, for example, see when incidents increase near a particular bus stop or light rail terminal, and thus deploy more security officers in that area. The division is even starting to apply predictive analysis.“We use geospatial referencing to deploy our resources in the most effective fashion,” says Ron Gabruck, Director (Safety & Security), Edmonton Transit. Every safety and security incident is catalogued, including time and location. This information is put into an algorithm to produce a ‘hot spot’ map.

“Instead of random patrols, we know that we are likely to be busy at a certain time and at a certain location. Why not go there from the beginning and fend off [potential in-

62 / Geospatial World February 2014

cidents] in a more proactive fashion?” he adds. In addition to public safety, the system also ensures the safety of transit personnel by tracking their location. By integrating with automatic vehicle location technologies, it knows when they are dispatched, when they arrive and where they are located.

Beyond safety and security, the CAD system is also central to core transportation system operations. Edmonton Transit uses it to ensure reliability of service, including bus fleet dispatching and maintenance. “If a bus breaks down, we now have a means of tracking that and identifying the problem,” says Gabruck. “Lesser number of bus breakdowns means more reliability in service and happier customers.”

The management and analysis of this spatial and temporal incident data helps Edmonton Transit make its operations more cost effective, points out Gabruck. “Time of dispatch, time of arrival, time on scene… All this helps me when I am making business decisions to bring on extra resourcing.

I have a business case based on actual data that I can use.”

Further innovation

Improved services and lower costs enabled by common geospatial data and improved workflow management is only the beginning. Building on that foundation, Edmonton delivers additional solutions across its municipal agencies, incorporating enterprise data management, data visualisation, 3D analyses, cloud computing, business intelligence and more.

And with the explosion of mobile devices — where everyone can become a data-collecting sensor — officials are extending operational systems into the field by putting more capabilities into the hands of employees, literally.

One of Edmonton’s projects is a smart planning effort that allows city workers and officials to track the condition of assets at more than 460 parks. Using a rugged tablet computer coupled with GIS software, the Parks Branch personnel can capture, report, analyse and share data on benches, children’s playground equipment, picnic areas and other assets in real time. With this information, the department can prioritise and improve maintenance in the largest expanse of urban parkland in North America.

Building from a strong geospatial foundation, cities like Edmonton can empower various municipal departments to better connect with residents through more dynamic capabilities. The result for citizens is more accessible, reliable and responsive services.

As Jane Jacobs noted, cities are complex, but not disorganised. By using data more effectively — to see, understand and act — cities are becoming smarter every day.

Jim Dobbs, Executive Manager (Global Communications), Intergraph SG&I (a part of Hexagon)

Governance & Information Infrastructure/Monitoring Funds Flow

Tracking

Development Aid Management

Publicly accessible geo-coded database of development projects helps underdeveloped countries to track where and how aid is flowing in, plan projects and monitor progress, thus improving the effectiveness of aid and donor coordination. By Samantha Custer

Source: aiddata.org

via effective

In one interactive interface, policymakers, practitioners and citizens can compare data on $40 trillion in remittances, foreign direct investment and aid from 90 donor agencies on aiddata.org. A state-of-the-art GIS interface allows users to upload their own data, as well as create, save and share maps.

“Technology doesn’t come after you deal with poverty, but is a tool you use to alleviate poverty.”

— James Wolfensohn, former World Bank President

E

ach year, billions of dollars are spent by an increasingly diverse set of countries, international institutions and private foundations with the goal of improving the lives and livelihoods of citizens in developing countries. Is development assistance capable of achieving these aspirations? The answer largely hinges upon tracking how decisions are made, with what information and who is involved in the process.

AidData, a research and innovation lab tracking over $40 trillion in development finance is a partnership with the College of Development Gateway, an independent not-for-profit organisation, the William & Mary and Brigham Young University. The partnership was born out of the need to increase aid effectiveness by providing products and services promoting dissemination, analysis, and understanding of development finance information. “This innovative partnership came about [when we saw that] our three institutions were taking complementary approaches to the same problem. Big development challenges can’t be solved without a high degree of

64 / Geospatial World February 2014

cooperation,” explains AidData Co-Executive Director Nancy McGuire Choi.

Spatial information is vitally important to the basic approach of AidData. As Choi explains, “Shedding light on the geographic dimension of aid can have a powerful and catalytic effect on the impact of development”. Since 2009, AidData has contributed to improving donor coordination and the effectiveness of aid through creating a publicly accessible geo-coded database of development activities with extensive project-level detail. In addition to providing this global public good, AidData designs customised data solutions for myriad government, bilateral and multilateral institutional clients.

AidData’s unique contribution is as an infomediary. “Governments and international organisations have a responsibility to their taxpayers, member states, and intended beneficiaries to disclose information about what they are doing and where they are doing it, but this information is often released in formats that are difficult to aggregate, visualise, and analyse. AidData fills this gap by serving as an infomediary between the suppliers of raw data and the end users who need to make sense of the data for research, advocacy, or decision-making purposes,” explains Brad Parks, AidData’s other Co-Executive Director.

To date, AidData has geocoded development portfolios of the World Bank (143 countries) and the African Development Bank (53 countries), as well as partnering with the governments of Nepal, Malawi, Uganda, Senegal, Haiti, Timor-Leste to geocode all donors within their aid management platforms — an aid information management system supported by Development Gateway.

This geocoded investment data is the building block for creating maps and dashboards that anyone can use to easily visualise project activities and finance flows. While mapping sub-national financial flows is interesting, it is even more revealing to mash up different spatial layers to compare the distribution of aid in different sectors against relevant socio-economic indicators. “One of the benefits [of geocoding] is that it makes the distribution of aid visible by using maps and it can help decision-makers and other stakeholders to support areas where there is less official development assistance… all from the study of maps,” says an official from the Ministry of Finance in Tanzania, requesting anonymity.

The need for granular aid information

Information on development inputs (who is spending what and where) and outputs (the results of those investments on the ground) should be a powerful asset in delivering better governance and more effective aid for developing countries.

However, more often than not, donors and governments find themselves inundated with information buried in copious documents or frustrated by data silos between organisations or departments. For instance, in Honduras, the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation, had all information in a spreadsheet and as it kept introducing new fields, the data became too big to handle after a while. The Ministry of Finance in Malawi faced a similar problem: aid information was captured in excel and it was difficult to track where the money was going. The government was looking for an easy tool to track development finance and it approached AidData partner Development Gateway.

An important facet of AidData’s geocoding approach is that it is demand-driven. As Choi explains, “We don’t do one-off data collection exercise but work with governments based on long-standing partnerships with ministries of finance to embed geocoding into their processes”.

While AidData is willing to work in both middle- and low- income countries, thus far it has had the greatest traction in countries where aid is a large proportion of their GDP. As Brad Parks describes, “We have seen the highest levels of demand for high-resolution, geospatial aid data among countries that face major aid management challenges.” These are usually underdeveloped countries, and targeting, coordination or evaluation of this aid money is most difficult in some of these places. The opportunity to work with AidData and develop

better systems to make sense of all this aid information, “creates a strong incentive for [countries to take the transparency pledge] and go public with their aid information management systems”, underlines Parks.

Building capacity

There are several components to be addressed in strengthening the supply of relevant, and thereby, useful aid information.

Beyond aggregate financial information and country-level strategies, publicly accessible documentation on specific development activities at the project level is needed. Second, donors should report on the locations where development interventions are taking place and tag communities that should be benefiting. Dynamic mapping enable users to track where aid funds are going compared with local political and socio-economic indicators such as corruption, literacy and poverty rates.

Finally, building buy-in and capacity among donors, government officials, and citizens is critical if geospatial development data is to be produced, maintained and used in the long-term.

In 2012, AidData joined forces with USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network to develop a center of excellence focused on creating geospatial data, tools and research for better targeting, coordination and evaluation of development assistance. In its first year of operation, the AidData Center for Development Policy worked with local governments, donors and civil society representatives in five countries (Nepal, Uganda, Senegal, Haiti, Timor-Leste) to develop and mainstream geocoded development finance data in advocacy, decision-making and research. In each of these countries, AidData partnered with the government and USAID country mission to produce a comprehensive set of geocoded data on aid project locations across multiple donors that will be publicly available via aiddata.org — an online data portal capturing development finance activities form 90 funding agencies worldwide. Aid Management Fellows embedded within ministries of finance built political will and local capacity to not only use the data and tools, but also to curate and maintain them.

In Nepal, for example, AidData partnered with the national government, AusAid and USAID to pinpoint over 21,500 geographic locations representing all donor-funded aid projects in the country. This information is now accessible via aiddata. org and Nepal’s Aid Management Platform following public release in June 2013. Over 400 government and donor officials were trained on using and maintaining the geocoded aid data.

AidData cultivates demand among civil society, universities and others through an initial scoping trip to identify key actors and gauge their interest and commitment to applying geocoded data for research, impact evaluation, and evidence-based advocacy. Through its Summer Fellows Programme, AidData deploys student researchers to provide training in geocoding

Geospatial World February 2014 / 65

Source: portal.mof.gov.np

This screenshot from Nepal’s public Aid Management Platform compares subnational aid investments in education versus literacy levels in Nepal.

and GIS for selected institutions to effectively visualise and analyse the geocoded data most relevant to their work.

In 2013, 11 student researchers embedded with local universities, civil society organisations and research institutes in five countries to build awareness of the value of geocoded data and tools. Nisha Krishnan, based in Dili, Timor-Leste, worked with the USAID to assess how geospatial analysis could be used to support their ‘Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment’. In Uganda, Emily Mahoney trained stakeholders in the ‘Scaling up Nutrition’ movement to geocode nutrition projects and integrate this methodology into the ‘Renewed Effort against Child Hunger’ mapping initiative.

Mike Hathaway assisted Transparency International-Nepal to incorporate geocoded data into their foreign aid report, while Lindsay Read and Cherie Saulter trained students and faculty in geocoding and GIS at Makerere University.

Can aid information improve governance?

The ultimate value of geocoding doesn’t exclusively lie in the location information itself. Data visualisations simplify complex data points, convey information with greater ease and enable people to draw conclusions about patterns they observe. Yet, the potential end users of geocoded data may lack awareness of its value or have limited capacity to seamlessly integrate this data within their activities. Given the relative newness of these initiatives, it is difficult to say with certainty if geocoded data does indeed change the way that donors, governments and citizens consume information and make decisions. But the first signs are nevertheless encouraging.

Tilak Bhandari, an official with Nepal’s Ministry of Finance, provides one poignant example: In generating several maps for its 2012 Development Cooperation Report, the ministry discovered that too many donors were focusing in the same geographic areas and sectors, while one of the poorest regions of the country was experiencing a shortfall in assistance.

“We didn’t know about [aid] fragmentation before, [but] now we have evidence,” says Bhandari. The Nepal government was able to use this information to identify gaps and engage in con-

66 / Geospatial World February 2014

structive dialogue with international donors to bolster aid to its Far Western Development Region and adhere to a set of minimum project thresholds. USAID Nepal has also integrated this geocoded development finance data into the preparation of its Country Development Cooperation Strategy.

In Malawi, officials from the Ministry of Finance have also begun to realise the benefits of the geocoded aid data in their work as they now have real-time information on aid flow.

The government mainly uses the information to do budgeting, resource management and future projections. The government has also seen substantial interest among its citizens on monitoring the aid flow. Similarly, Honduras is looking forward to the completion of its geocoding project so that such data can be made public and the government can plan on how and where to go ahead with its development work.

A growing number of donors and governments are publishing open aid information and geocoding their development portfolios. Simultaneously, improvements in Internet penetration and the proliferation of mobile phones are enabling a broader set of development actors, including local civil society groups, universities and citizens, to access this spatial data and create their own maps to analyse the funding flow. There is growing recognition of the potential of open data to, in the words of USAID Administrator Raj Shah, “dramatically accelerate progress in development”.

But there is still much to be done. Too many donors still do not publish detailed information on development projects that include geographic locations to the most local level possible. Development mapping initiatives have not yet systematically integrated hyper-local data from citizens. As private foundations and emerging donors are contributing an ever-growing share of development assistance, it will be of greater importance to integrate these new financial flows when considering the total resources available to countries for planning their development. In the coming years, the development community will need to tackle each one of these challenges related to spatial information.

In the meantime, AidData is attempting a few small steps forward. It has developed improved functionalities on aiddata.org that will enable any user to directly upload and tag information on aid projects and locations. It has assembled the world’s most comprehensive database on Chinese development assistance to Africa (china.aiddata.org) and will begin geocoding these projects later this year.

Finally, AidData will continue to build the capacity of donors, governments and civil society organizations to systematically incorporate geocoding within their work.

Samantha Custer, Director of Communications & Policy Outreach, AidData, scuster@aiddata.org

This 2014 Reach your

Target Audience Through

Geospatial World Publications

ADVERTISE The Pulse of Geospatial Industry

For more than 15 years, we have been engaging with geospatial industry and are the preferred media choice worldwide

#1 Media

Print | Web | Email | Social Media

40,000 readers

Readership for magazine

100,000+

Unique visitors online

79,500

Subscriber base for newsletters

Download the Media kit Online

Âť http://geospatialworld.net/Magazine/media-kit.aspx

Feature/Food Security

A Thought for Food The UN World Food Programme uses GIS to analyse a wide variety of geographical factors for disaster mitigation and fighting food insecurity around the world. By Jim Baumann

W

hen the Operation Department of Emergency Preparedness (ODEP) of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) wanted to understand the higher vulnerabilities among populations living in areas prone to natural disasters as part of its work to mitigate disasters and coordinate response operations, it chose Esri ArcGIS software.

Today, the ODEP actively supports emergency relief efforts around the world with GIS analysis. This analysis considers factors such as environmental degradation, food insecurity, malnutrition, and the historical occurrences of natural disasters. Satellite images are analysed to identify

poor growing seasons and years of low crop productions.

The analyses help the WFP quickly develop intervention strategies when disaster strikes.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food assistance branch of the United Nations. Formally established in 1963, the WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation fighting hunger worldwide. Its primary mission is providing food to those who are unable to obtain it for themselves. On an average, the WFP delivers food to more than 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children.

In addition to food security, the WFP works to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease.

In addition to data acquired from the host country and the data it collects, the WFP obtains regular updates regarding seasonal food insecurity conditions throughout the world from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network. USAID analyses the data it receives from US agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to produce its reports and forecasts, which it then provides to the WFP and other relief agencies.

Managing the Disaster Cycle

Frequency of rural emergency classification 2007-12 in Somalia.

The World Food Programme obtains regular updates regarding seasonal food insecurity conditions throughout the world from the US Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

68 / Geospatial World February 2014

The four recurrent steps in the disaster cycle are prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Because it is cyclic, there is no actual beginning or end; however, GIS plays a strategic role throughout the entire cycle.

“GIS is used extensively in the prevention step of the disaster cycle,” says Andrea Amparore, GIS analyst, ODEP. “Prevention includes the evaluation of man-made features, such as dams and levees, to make sure they can withstand rising floodwater, as well as determining the structural integrity of buildings, the reseeding of hillsides after deforestation to reduce mudslides, the evaluation of building codes and land-use zones to make sure they meet current safety standards, instigating community awareness campaigns to help residents better prepare themselves in the event

Vegetation growth deviations for 2011 season and livelihood zones of Mauritania and Mali in Africa

of a disaster, and so on. Using GIS throughout this step provides management tools for project planning, review, and implementation.”

Preparedness includes risk identification and assessment; the development and maintenance of emergency communication services; stockpiling essential food supplies, water, and medicine; and the establishment of evacuation routes. “GIS is used here in the evaluation and categorisation of potential risks, as well as determining the optimum locations for emergency food stockpiles, the development of evacuation plans, and determining the optimum routes for refugees if it becomes necessary for them to evacuate,” adds Amparore.

Response requires real-time monitoring for disaster relief efforts such as resource allocation, the status of transportation routes, and the relocation of civilian populations.

GIS is used for forecasting the impact of imminent natural disasters, tracking human and livestock migration, monitoring the effectiveness of relief operations, and allocating resources.

The recovery step includes the provision of temporary relief, such as food and shelter for disaster victims, as well as damage assessment, repair, and reconstruction. “GIS is ideal for logistics management and is used to determine where resources are needed so that recovery efforts can be prioritised,” says Amparore. It is also used to specify where distribution stations should be positioned; evaluate the condition of existing humanitarian corridors; and establish the

location of refugee camps, emergency supply depots, and relief worker staging areas.

The Future of GIS at the WFP

Because GIS is used throughout the WFP, the organisation decided to implement an enterprise system based on ArcGIS for server technology to better organise and manage its expanding geospatial databases. This has stimulated new projects in the agency and an evaluation by the WFP of how GIS can be better used by its departments and partners.

For example, the WFP’s Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping unit recently created the Spatial Information Environment in an effort to increase access to original and derived spatial information within the WFP and its partners. In addition, it is working with FAO to develop an ISO-standard metadata clearinghouse to enable greater compatibility and promote the sharing of spatial data between agencies.

“Standardisation is the key to the continued growth of GIS at the WFP,” concludes Amparore. “This will allow us to expand our analytical capabilities and adopt an even greater scientific approach to data analysis. I also think the involvement of local universities, when possible, would help facilitate our work and provide the host country with a greater sense of involvement in our relief efforts.”

Jim Baumann, Writer, Esri jbaumann@esri.com

Geospatial World February 2014 / 69

The ICA

ngle

Cartography and the technological revolution Rapid advances in technologies have opened a new chapter in map-making as millions have taken to this age-old craft. By Georg Gartner

A

ny individual with modest computing skills located anywhere on earth can create maps today and use it for almost any purpose. In this new map-making paradigm, users are often present at the location of interest and produce maps that address instantaneous needs. Cartographic data may be digitally and wirelessly delivered in finalised form to the device in the user’s hands or he may derive the requested visualisation from downloaded data in situ. Rapid advances in technologies have enabled this revolution in map-making by the millions. One such prominent advance includes the possibility of deriving maps very quickly, almost immediately

The launch of Google Maps and Earth brought cartography to the common man

70 / Geospatial World February 2014

after the data has been acquired through the Internet.

Real-time data handling and visualisation are other significant developments in addition to location-based services and mobile cartography augmented reality.

While the above advances have enabled significant progress on the design and implementation of new ways of map production over the past decade, many cartographic principles remain unchanged; the most important one being that maps are an abstraction of reality. Visualisation of selected information means that some features present in reality are depicted more prominently than the others while many features might not even be depicted at all. Abstract reality makes a map powerful as it helps to understand and interpret very complex situations.

Abstraction is essential in all stages of geospatial information dissemination. Cartographic depictions allow us to understand situations on the earth, even if they are very complex. Cartographic technologies, including innovative map derivation, crowdsourcing and neocartography techniques and location-based services, are available in a ubiquitous manner to everybody now. Maps are produced to enable decision-makers, experts and the general public alike to understand the kind and levels of a particular spatial situation or spatial topic. Modern cartography enables the general public to participate in modelling and visualising their neighbourhood on a voluntary basis.

Modern cartography also helps to quickly disseminate spatial information, even if it is crucial, for example in case of disaster management.

Cartography is most relevant in this sense. Without

Modern cartography enables the general public to participate in visualising and modelling their neighbourhood on a voluntary basis.

For instance, National Geographic offers interactive maps through MapMaker Interactive

maps we would be ‘spatially blind’. Knowledge about spatial relations and location of objects are most important for handling disasters and crisis situations or simply to be able to make good decisions. Cartography is also most contemporary, as new and innovative technologies have an important impact into what cartographers are doing.

Maps can be derived automatically from geodata acquisition methods such as laser scanning, remote sensing or sensor networks. Smart models of geodata can be built allowing in-depth analysis of structures and patterns.

A whole range of presentation forms are available nowadays, from maps on mobile phones to geoinformation presented as augmented reality.

In such a situation, it is of high importance that those interested

in maps, mapping and cartography are working together on an international level. This is exactly the role of the International Cartographic Association (ICA). It is the world’s authoritative body for cartography and GI Science comprising of national and affiliate members. The association encourages every nation in the world to join the big family of cartography and GI science.

Companies, universities and other bodies involved in cartography and GI Sciences join ICA as affiliate members, and the numbers are growing.

I am happy to announce, that we will use the opportunity of this quarterly column in Geospatial World to inform you about the ongoing activities in the domain of modern cartography.

Knowledge about spatial relations and location of objects are most important for handling disasters and crisis situations or to be able to make good decisions

Georg Gartner, President, International Cartographic Association, georg.gartner@tuwien.ac.at

Geospatial World February 2014 / 71

Picture This

Hell hath no fury like Nature scorned!

A NASA image shows the polar vortex blanketing the US Midwest, gripping parts of the country in a deep freeze. More than half of the population of the United States were under a weather alert as some of the coldest temperatures in decades swept the country in mid-January. An aerial picture (inset) shows a frozen Chicago as temperatures dropped to a 30-year low.

Aerial picture of icy cold Chicago, USA.

72 / Geospatial World February 2014

geoSMART Planet resources + infrastructure & You

Theme

geoSMART Planet

resources + infrastructure

! u o &Y

05-09 MAY 2014 Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG), Geneva, Switzerland

Last Chance to

SAVE € 400!

Early Bird Discount Ends 15th Feb,2014 Register Online Today! www.geospatialworldforum.org

Events

March

February

Mark Your Calender 2014 February 19-21

February 20-21

February 25-26

February 26

Cloud Computing for DoD and Govt

USGIF Commercial SAR Workshop

Ghana Geospatial Forum 2014

Australia – GeoNext

Washington DC, USA

Stuttgart, Germany

Accra, Ghana

Sydney, Australia

www.cloudcomputingevent.com/

www.csarwg.org/index.html

www.ghgeospatialforum.org/

www.geonext.com.au/

March 4-8

March 5-6

March 9-13

March 16-20

CONEXPO-CON/AGG

Linking Geospatial Data

Esri International Developer Summit

Geospatial Conference

Las Vegas, USA

UK

California

in Tunis

www.conexpoconagg.com/

http://www.w3.org/2014/03/lgd/

www.goo.gl/MB3bkL

Tunisia www.gct-tunisia.com/

March 17-20

March 11-12

March 29 - April 2

Asia Mining Congress

Malaysia Geospatial Forum

17th Annual AAAE GIS Conference

Singapore

Malaysia

California

www.terrapinn.com/2014/

www.malaysiageospatialforum.org/

www.events.aaae.org/sites/140305/

April

asia-mining-congress/index.stm

index.cfm

April 7 -9

April 13-17

April 14-17

April 15 -17

Australia - Locate14 Conference

GEOINT 2014

SPAR International

Annual European Navigation

Canberra, Australia

Florida, USA

USA

Conference 2014

www.goo.gl/i2fgMN

www.goo.gl/CW3hRU

www.sparpointgroup.com/interna-

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

tional/

www.enc-gnss2014.com/

April 16 - 18

April 21-23

April 22-25

April 27– May 2

Interexpo GEO-Siberia-2014

Instituion of Geospatial and

Esri Petroleum GIS Conference

European Geosciences Union

Novosibirsk, Russia

Remote Sensing Malaysia Conference

USA

General Assembly 2014

www.expo-geo.ru/event/27_Interex-

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

www.goo.gl/fsa7kc

Vienna, Austria

po-GEO-Siberia-2013

www.igrsm.com/igrsm2014/

May 5 -8

May 5 -9

May 12 -14

May 12 -15

GIS for Transportation Symposium

Geospatial World Forum

Washington GIS Conference

AUVSI Unmanned

Vermont

Switzerland

Washington, USA

Systems 2014

www.gis-t.org/

www.geospatialworldforum.org/

www.goo.gl/BmEl6W

Florida, USA

www.egu2014.eu/

June

May

www.auvsishow.org/auvsi2014/ public/enter.aspx May 15 -17

May 28 -29

EUROGEO 2014

Geo Business 2014

Malta

London, UK

www.eurogeo.nl/malta2014/

www.geobusinessshow.com/

June 2 - 5

June 12 -13

June 14 -21

June 16 -21

HxGN LIVE Conference 2014

GeoIntelligenceIndia 2014

International Conference on Cartog-

XXV FIG International

Las Vegas, USA

New Delhi, India

raphy & GIS

Congress 2014

www.hxgnlive.com/

www.geointelligenceindia.org/

Bulgaria

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

www.iccgis2014.cartography-gis.

www.fig.net/fig2014/

com/Home.html

74 / Geospatial World February 2014

The Magnificent The all-new, world-class SOKKIA total stations!

Exclusive

technology built-in

Robotic TSshield

TSshield

TSshield

Topcon Positioning Middle East and Africa FZE E-mail : marketing@topcongulf.com Website : www.topconpositioningmea.com