Gw mar 2015

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

GEOSPATIAL WORLD

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

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

TM

MARCH 2015 » VOLUME 05» ISSUE 08 | ISSN 2277–3134

MILLIONS BILLIONS The Google Geo Business Mantra

Google is retiring its geo-products — Google Earth Enterprise, Google Maps Engine and Google Maps Coordinate. But why did Google make this move? Who will be affected?

What are the options available for its customers? | P.18

www.geospatialworld.net

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

Y O U R

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COMPREHENSIVE PROPERTY RIGHTS REGISTRATION AND RECORD MANAGEMENT

LANDFOLIO PROVIDES GOVERNMENTS WITH THE TOOLS NEEDED TO SECURE THE LAND RIGHTS OF THEIR CITIZENS Many factors can affect an individual’s land rights, so a comprehensive solution to equitably and securely manage all land records is essential to protect these rights. Trimble has developed, landfolio®, a complete land administration solution that automates and manages the core elements of land records management and rights registration/recordation. landfolio provides governments with the tools needed to secure land rights of their citizens. It improves customer service with secure, efficient, and accurate transactions. landfolio automates the internal procedures of cadastre and land registry offices to enhance and streamline processes and minimize errors. Because landfolio offers both an integrated information database and workflows, governments are able to share data between departments, make decisions from a standardized data set and improve business processes and potential revenue generation. It is essential that important public records are protected—with landfolio, files are stored digitally, eliminating paper records which are easily compromised by natural disasters, misfiling, and loss.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT LANDFOLIO CAN DO FOR YOU, EMAIL LANDFOLIO_INFO@TRIMBLE.COM OR VISIT WWW.TRIMBLE-LANDFOLIO.COM

transforming the way the world works © 2015, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble, the Globe & Triangle logo and landfolio are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. GEO-053 (02/15)

A unified suite of ApplicAtions for mAnAging criticAl utility Assets And field operAtions Focusing on workflow and business process improvement with the added benefit of better information for decision making and regulatory compliance. Trimble Unity offers a unified cloud-based, GIS-centric and mobile collaboration suite of applications for water, wastewater and stormwater asset and network management.

Integrating GIS and field operations, sensors and wireless communications, mobile workers and office professionals, field and back office enterprise systems, and utilities with their service providers, Trimble Unity provides the water industry with a comprehensive solution for regulatory reporting, improving operations, reducing cost and enhancing customer service.

Through a Trimble Unity software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription, organizations can provide a single solution for the office and the field, choosing any combination of Trimble and non-Trimble mobile devices, including iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Windows 7/8 tablets and laptops Find out more at www.trimblewater.com

transforming the way the world works Š 2015, Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. Trimble and the Globe & Triangle logo are trademarks of Trimble Navigation Limited, registered in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. GEO-057

March 2015 • Vol 5 • Issue 8

Inside

Google’s next disruptive move?

Perspective

32 INSPIRE: As Relevant As Ever 38 Industry Upbeat on low-cost Small Satellites 24 All for a Win-Win Relationship

Cover Story

18 Millions VS Billions: The Google Geo Mantra Harsha Vardhan, Product Manager Publications, Geospatial Media

Land Administration

22 Land administration is all about

‘People, Profit and the Planet’

Donald Peele, Head-International Government Business, Tax & Accounting Division, Thomson Reuters

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 52 pages including cover

Derek Clarke

Director General of Survey and Mapping (JUPEM), Malaysia

Chief Director-Survey & Mapping & National Geospatial Information, Dept of Rural Development & Land Reform, South Africa

Aida Opoku-Mensah

Dorine Burmanje

Special Advisor: Post 2015 Development Agenda, UN Economic Commission for Africa

40 India Geospatial Forum 2015 46 GRASF and Middle East Geospatial Forum 2015 Regular Features 7 Editorial 10 News 14 Vertical News 44 Product Watch 50 Events

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.

Advisory Board

28 Formalisation of Land Rights Key to Better Future

30 Readers’ Survey: HR Capacities

Kees De Zeeuw, Director, Kadaster International

Datuk Sr Ahmad Fauzi Bin Nordin

Megha Datta, Industry Manager, Geospatial Media

Event Reports

Chair-Executive Board, Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), The Netherlands

Prof. Josef Strobl Chair, Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Kamal K Singh

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

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

Sandeep Singhal

Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group

General Manager, Bing Maps and Geospatial, Microsoft

Ed Parsons

Kumar Navulur

Stephen Lawler

Geospatial Technologist, Google

Director, Next Generation Products, DigitalGlobe

Vice-President, Direct Traffic, Amazon

Dr Anne Kemp Director and Fellow, Atkins, Vice-Chair of BuildingSmart, UK, Chair of ICE BIM Action Group, Chair of BIM4Infrastructure UK

Mark Reichardt

Barbara Ryan Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations

CEO, Bentley Systems

President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium

Jay Freeland

Mladen Stojic

Greg Bentley

Christopher W Gibson Vice President & Executive Committee Member,Trimble

President & CEO, FARO

President, Hexagon Geospatial

Vanessa Lawrence President Secretary General, Ordnance Survey International, UK

CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan Publisher Sanjay Kumar Publications Team Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor — Building & Energy Geoff Zeiss Editor — Agriculture Mark Noort Editor — Mining (Hon) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Editor ­— Policy Kevin Pomfret Editor — Latin America Dr Tania Maria Sausen Executive Editor Bhanu Rekha Product Manager Harsha Vardhan Madiraju Assistant Editor Supreeth Sudhakaran Senior Graphic Designer Debjyoti Mukherjee Circulation Manager Ashish Batra Executive — Posting Vijay Kumar Singh

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 5

From the Editor’s Desk

Is Google on its next disruptive move?

Prof Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

S

o, Google chalk is all set to share a common platform with the Esri cheese. It all began very innocuously with an announcement that Google Earth Pro was becoming ‘free’.

Pigeonholing this tidbit in my mind, I quite forgot all about it till I was asked if I knew that Google was exiting their enterprise solutions. That shook me. A closer look brought out some interesting facts. For one, Google is deprecating Google Maps Engine (GME). Esri has been quick to seize the opportunity and offer ArcGIS solutions to enterprise users of Google Earth Pro. This represents a coming together of Google’s rich content with Esri’s analytical and modelling strength of ArcGIS. As various blogs suggest many users were already mashing up these two strengths in the enterprise applications. So, is there another angle?

Google has always used technology to disrupt geospatial applications. In 2005, Google Earth exploded on to the scene putting high resolution satellite imagery on the web and an access tool that was simplicity itself. It changed the way people interacted with the ‘high technology’ of remote sensing, cracking the ivory tower assiduously built by scientists and breaching the citadel of ‘security’ built equally assiduously by closed-minded law makers. So was GME a similar disruptive technology? It was, to the extent that it allowed a range of GIS functionalities on the web and was free, but technologically it was treading a path which many had trod before. Something that Google never does.

Perhaps the clue lies in something that SpatialIQ talks about. More than a year ago, Google bought

a company called Nest for a whopping $3.4 billion whose main product was thermostats. The Nest Thermostat is perhaps one of the earliest Internet of Things (IoT) devices and Google’s acquisition perhaps points to its next disruptive move. It is clear that IoT has to have GIS in its core, but that GIS has to work with ‘Things’. While IoT is evolving quite well in the area of system automation, the area of applications for individuals is still wide open. This is the area that Google is likely to step into with its rich geospatial content and location applications develop spatial oriented, sensor-based systems for tomorrow’s smart device based homes and individuals.

Esri is being clever in leveraging Google’s geospatial content with its own analytical prowess.

The importance of dependable spatial data is becoming more and more apparent as can be seen in INSPIRE’s review of its efforts in Europe.

Availability of core data will stimulate applications, which will increasingly work directly with smart devices. This is a virgin area for developers and with Google in the fray, there is scope for many more Apps. In the developing world, IoT could become a game changer provided core data sets like land records become available. Creation of such data is another opportunity for the geospatial industry because reliable and regularly updated land records is a huge problem in most developing countries.

The geospatial industry needs to keep its eyes open for many such emerging opportunities as major players shuffle their products and services to meet the challenges of an increasingly interconnected world.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 7

Scalability, Sustainability and Security – The Three Keys to Deploying an Effective Land Information System Government entities charged with deploying an effective and efficient “fit for purpose” land information system (LIS) require real-time access to accurate information. Whether the system supports land registry, land resource management, cadastre, valuation, or property tax administration or a combination thereof, it enhances the ability to make sound decisions and operate within budget while streamlining cash flow.

SAFEGUARDING LAND RIGHTS Restoring confidence among citizens and investors From a numbers perspective, the reform has vastly improved Cross River’s land management record.

20,724 files delivered*

Benchmarks exist for government decision-makers to use in the design, implementation and maintenance of an LIS, but many current efforts risk failure. That’s because they do not sufficiently capture the full complexity of all the technology decisions that underpin a land administration system as well as the entire range of potential citizen services that need to be provided.

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA

NGN 1.6M

in fees for title searches and registration

!

• •

A DV E RTOR IAL

•

•

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA

NGN 471K

in fees collected the first three months

More NGN was collected in the first few months of 2013 than the total amount recouped between 2006 and 2010.

The Cross River Revival Once crippled by land management disarray, the Nigeria state of Cross River is bouncing back with a cutting edge plan to restore trust and transparency. The new system is restoring confidence in the security of Cross River land rights, among citizens and potential investors.

SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES

•

5,000

files nearly done

Cross River, Nigeria

Taken as a whole, they serve as a framework to guide discussions on solution decisions and deployment:

Can the system streamline processes for meeting the expected long-term demand for government services?

Has the project design planned for continual system investment so that the system does not become static and dated?

Does the operation’s business model include funding from increased revenue generation?

Does the solution provider that deploys the solution have the capacity and infrastructure to maintain and support the system over time?

Is the solution the same system used by the larger user community that the government agency interacts with in order to drive improvements in features and functionality?

Is training available to ensure long-term capacity development and skill transfer for staff?

files delivered

* from the Ministry of Lands and Housing to the CRGIA center for electronic record archiving. As of summer 2013

As an answer to this challenge, Thomson Reuters recommends that governments apply the 3-S decision framework. The framework provides a set of attributes against which the strength of an LIS solution design can be assessed—Sustainability, Scalability, Security. Each quality considerably impacts the effectiveness and the total cost of ownership of the LIS system, which in turn determines the long-term success of a deployment.

•

12,375

tax.thomsonreuters.com/aumentum/crossriver

SCALABILITY ATTRIBUTES • • • • • • • •

Can the system adapt to new technologies such as mobile, GPS, maps and imagery?

Does the solution have the ability to take advantage of new technology platforms over time?

Is the solution capable of managing increasing data volumes and users—both internal and external?

Does the solution enable extended functionality such as e-conveyances?

Can it support a living registry (inventory vs. transactions)?

Will the solution extend to zoning or land-use planning, including health and industrial planning?

Does the solution integrate with other government bodies, such as the courts and the treasury?

Do the technology and the tools facilitate the implementation of new laws and regulations?

SECURITY ATTRIBUTES • • • • • • • •

Are protections in place to thwart hackers and viruses?

Will the solution alert the public to property inquiries?

Does it include a code of conduct and ethics for the staff to follow?

Can the system transfer data easily with other systems and government agencies?

Can public archives be physically protected, either in paper or digital format?

Is information access both secure and private?

Are there protocols for redacting private information?

Can locked-down administrative rights be applied?

can be assured they are deploying an LIS system based on market best practices. Because the core features are provisioned via the SaaS model, the solution capabilities remain relevant based on current industry needs.

•

User-centered interface: Applying a user-centered design to LIS solutions ensures the interface aligns exactly to users’ needs and desires while also considering their limitations. The usability-improvement process is essentially driven by end users and modern usability principles, such as where items should appear within each form, which helps maximize user productivity.

•

Security and disaster recover: System transaction logging and traceability help identify and prevent threats from infiltrating LIS solutions. In addition, internal security settings and tracking ensure the integrity of office staff and their work. Leveraging the SaaS model also inherently builds a user community over which Thomson Reuters has complete visibility into malicious activity and usage spikes. This enhances the ability to make sure each customer system remains secure and also enables offsite backups so that the LIS solution is not susceptible to an onsite disaster.

•

Mobile readiness: Using LIS solutions in the field is critical. The ability to physically visit a land parcel, record the findings and then automatically upload the data to the back office system greatly improves field-personnel productivity.

•

Geospatial integration: This capability makes it easy for personnel to move geospatial mapping and coordinate systems into the LIS transaction component. Because information flows faster and transactions occur sooner, tasks are completed more quickly. Integration also eliminates the need to re-key information from one system to another, which means fewer input errors. In addition, the system integration capabilities enabled by Aumentum allow data to be exchanged internally and with other government bodies to facilitate the overall revenue management lifecycle.

By presenting a comprehensive set of questions to ask when collaborating internally and with a solution provider, the 3-S decision framework helps uncover a majority of the answers that governments need in order to deploy an effective LIS solution. They can also ensure they are choosing a modern system that not only meets their needs today, but also supports their land management efforts well into the future.

THOMSON REUTERS AUMENTUM: THE FUTURE LAND INFORMATION SYSTEM IS NEAR Thomson Reuters provides the premier proprietary land information system: Aumentum. The solution’s features reflect the 3-S framework by relying on our customer feedback to drive the key areas on which software development should focus.

Here’s a quick rundown on several key capabilities that the Thomson Reuters Aumentum solution features: •

•

Browser-based application and hosting: The Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) model—where users gain access from any Internet browser—allows deployments and software upgrades to be rolled out faster compared to on-premise solutions. The SaaS model also facilitates performance monitoring and the application of any necessary fixes in real time as well as scheduled releases that allow for formalized release-readiness activities such as client BETA testing, release notes and featurespecific training. Governments can also tap into end-user metrics to evaluate how much the software improves end-user efficiency.

A core set of features based on customers’ best practices: The single-line-of-code approach streamlines the development and updating of the core features that government agencies rely on most. These core features are based on customer experiences, so governments

For more information on how your government organization can leverage the 3-S decision framework to drive your land information system deployment, please visit tax.thomsonreuters.com/aumentum.

Americas News Business

Miscellaneous

card on the US National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The report highlights the poor condition of the nation’s information infrastructure — which includes surveyed, mapped and remotely-sensed information — at a time when the National Governors Association Chair, Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado, is calling on states to lead the way in ‘delivering results’ on government promises. This information is critical to achieving the NGA Chair’s initiative. The report card is the first of a series of periodic report cards by COGO. It, however, does not include cost estimates for completing the NSDI or bringing it to a specified level.

FAA unveils ‘proposed’ small UAV regulation

QuickBird satellite mission comes to an end

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed new safety rules for small unmanned aerial vehicles weighing less than 55 pounds. Drone flights would only be permitted during the day and within the line of sight of the operator, and would have a speed limit of 100mph, according to the FAA. The drones would also have to avoid airspace with manned aircraft, and flights would be limited to 500 feet of altitude only. The rules, however, have a few dampeners. FAA has not shown a green flag to drone delivery concepts like the one hatched by Amazon.

After 13 years of operation, QuickBird satellite (owned by DigitalGlobe) recently approached its end of mission smoothly and re-entered the earth's atmosphere. The European Space Imaging, however, has informed media that it will continue to provide Quickbird imagery from their archive as well as take new collection orders from the sibling satellites in the DigitalGlobe constellation.

Harris Corp acquires Exelis Harris Corporation and Exelis have signed a definitive agreement, under which Harris will acquire Exelis in a cash and stock transaction Deal value valued at $23.75 per share, or an approximately $4.75 billion enterprise value. On a pro forma basis for the last 12 months ending December 31, 2014, the combined company would have had more than $8 billion in revenue.

$4.75 bn

Bentley acquires Acute3D Bentley Systems has acquired France-based Acute3D, provider of Smart3DCapture software for reality modelling. Acute3D software automates the generation of high-resolution, fully-3D representations from digital photographs taken with any camera, whether highly specialised or embedded in a smartphone. It is worth mentioning that in China, Acute3D is working with Internet giant Tencent to do large-scale 3D city modelling for several mega-cities, using both aerial and street-view photography.

Former NGA Director joins UrtheCast Board Letitia Long, former Director of the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has joined the Board of UrtheCast Corporation, effective February 23, 2015. During her tenure at NGA, she has led efforts to establish the agency’s first ‘Map of the World’, for intelligence users. Under her guid-

10 / Geospatial World / March 2015

ance, NGA has become the first U.S. agency to adopt open-source software development to deliver its software to first responders for collaboration, during and after natural disasters.

COGO releases report card on US-NSDI The Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) has announced the release of its report

Carl Reed retires from OGC The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has announced that Carl Reed has retired from his position of CTO and Executive Director, Standards Programme at the OGC on January 31. Scott Simmons has already assumed the role of Executive Director, Standards Program while George Percivall, OGC Chief Engineer, has assumed the role of CTO.

Europe News UK OS revenue from paper maps improves Britain’s official mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, has reported an improvement in its revenue from paper maps. In 2014, Britain’s mapping agency has reported 3% positive growth in sales. The revenue figures have increased by 7% compared to last fiscal. In the past decade, OS paper maps' sales have fallen, in line with the rest of the publishing industry. OS also told media that it is exploring plans to bring new and old maps to life through augmented reality and continue to work towards developing maps for the colour blind.

Hungary Agreement signed to become ESA member

ratification instrument is deposited with the Government of France, Hungary will become officially the 22nd ESA Member State.

of the German subsidiary GAF, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Italian company Ithaca and the French partners Sirs and Sertit.

France

Finland

Sagem, HAL sign technology transfer deal

HERE adds 3D venue maps

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) will manufacture and maintain Sagem’s navigation systems in India under a recently signed technology transfer agreement. According to the terms of the agreement, HAL will be manufacture SIGMA 95 units for the Indian Air Force, and also provide front line maintenance service.

Sigma 95N is an autonomous, hybrid laser gyro inertial/GPS-Glonass navigation system that can provide navigation even in areas without GPS signal availability. Currently, Sagem's laser gyro navigation systems are produced in the company's Montluçon plant in the Auvergne region of south-central France.

Italy e-GEOS wins EC Rapid Mapping contract Hungary has signed the Accession Agreement at the ESA Convention on February 24, 2015. For Hungary, the agreement was signed by Ákos Kara, Minister of State for Infocommunication and Consumer Protection, Ministry of National Development. Following the conclusion of the ratification process by the Hungarian Government and once the

e-GEOS has won a European Commission contract worth €12 million, under which the former would provide satellite maps for emergency management to EU. The contract, identified as Copernicus Emergency Management Service Rapid Mapping, will be active for the period 2015‑19.

It is operated by a consortium Contract value led by e-GEOS and composed

€12 mn

Nokia has added new smart features — such as 3D maps and a route planner — to its HERE mapping app for mobile devices running on Google’s Android operating system.

The new app now has interactive 3D maps of shopping centres and airports in 70 countries. It features a route planner that displays driving, public transit and walking routes on one screen. The app also allows a user to download maps in the background, and voices to the SD (memory) card of the mobile devices.

The Netherlands Agreement for UN-GGIM: Europe secretariat signed EuroGeographics has signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with The Netherlands’ Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster) for setting up a secretariat for UN-GGIM: Europe. The Netherlands would be responsible for providing a secretariat to UN-GGIM: Europe. This work will be carried out by EuroGeographics, the association for the European national mapping, land registry and cadastral authorities. In addition, geospatial stalwart Carol Agius has been appointed as the administrator for the recently elected European regional committee of the UN-GGIM.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 11

Asia Pacific News Singapore SAARC countries favour concerted efforts At the recently concluded South Asia Geospatial Forum in India, representatives from various SAARC countries unanimously agreed to create a working group for regional collaboration in geospatial technology. The working group is now tasked to create a draft paper focusing on areas of collaboration including agriculture, disaster mitigation, terrorism and crime, among others. Once established, the first session of the SAARC Working Group will be hosted by India.

India

Philippines

Industry stalwarts join Geospatial Media’s Board

$11 million fund set aside for creating disaster maps

L-R: Ola Rollen, Bryn Fosburgh & Dipanshu Sharma

Geospatial Media has expanded its Board by inviting industry leaders as independent directors to shape its mandate. Ola Rollen, President and CEO, Hexagon AB; Bryn Fosburgh, Vice President, Trimble; and Dipanshu Sharma, Founder and CEO, xAd have joined as independent members on the Board of Directors at Geospatial Media and Communications. Their appointment will be effective from April 1, 2015.

12 / Geospatial World / March 2015

The Philippines government has proposed that it will spend PHP 488.5 million ($11 million) to produce maps that will help the nation to prepare for natural disasters well in advance. National Mapping and Resource Information Authority has been allocated $8.9 million to plan and create land-use maps. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau has been allocated $2 million to update its data and assess how vulnerable communities are to natural disasters. About $34,000 has been allocated to the Department of Science and Technology to create 3D maps of the country.

Budget allocated An additional $383,000 has been set aside to upgrade earthquake warning systems.

$11 mn

Cooperation deal signed for CBERS data with China China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA) and the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) have signed a cooperation agreement in the field of space and satellite technology.

The partnership agreement was inked on the sidelines of the Global Space and Technology Convention 2015, held in Singapore. Under the agreement, CRISP will be appointed as the main station in South-east Asia to directly receive and distribute data from the China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellites.

Russia GLONASS Union mulls over $100 mn JV in India Russia's GLONASS Union and India’s Eirene Systems may set up a joint venture to develop and produce satellite navigation receivers for the ERA GLONASS emergency response system. The JV would see Russia investing about $100 million, the union’s President Alexander Gurko told media. The venture can be established if India would implement the ERA GLONASS emergency response system.

This means that the new entity (once formed) may develop GLONASS/GPS/ IRNSS receivers for markets of Russia, India and other countries. GLONASS Union expects to receive $200 million-$300 million of revenue from the joint venture within three to four years, Gurko said.

Africa News Ghana Working Group to develop Lands Bill formed Nii Osah Mills, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has set-up a 17-member special working group to oversee and guide the development of a Lands Bill and associated legislative instruments. The working group forms part of the Land Administration Project which focuses on facilitating access to land, ensuring security of title to land and enhancing institutional capacity for efficient and effective land administration.

Professor Samuel K.B. Asante, Chief of Asokore Mampong Traditional Area has been appointed as the Chairman of the working group.

Congo Satellite sentinels tracks ivory poachers

Map studying poaching pattern in Congo

DigitalGlobe and Enough Project (a not-for-profit organisation) has released a new report detailing how satellite imagery and predictive analytics was used to track ivory poachers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This new report shows that innovative use of technology fused with data from the ground can help close the net on armed poach-

ers and transnational ivory trafficking networks. In addition to the report, the two organisations have also launched an interactive microsite on elephant poaching in Garamba. The report found that 131 elephants were killed from April to December 2014.

Kenya Online mining cadastre portal launched Kenya has officially launched its Online Transactional Mining Cadastre Portal (OTMCP). The OTMCP has been developed in partnership with UK Aid through the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The OTMCP will be used to process applications for mining rights and deal with pending applications. It is a transparent tool that includes a public interactive map of all mining licenses indicating exact location, ownership, status and tenure.

MESA to expand service to North Africa Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA), Africa-wide satellite data provider run by the African Union (AU), plans to expand its service coverage to the countries of North Africa. The service was originally designed for sub-Saharan Africa and excluded northern Africa.

The announcement was made during the recently held fourth technical experts meeting of MESA in Nairobi.

MESA assists 48 African countries with earth-observation data to enable an improved management of the environment and security at the continental, regional and national levels in Africa.

The programme is financially supported by the European Union, which has provided $37 million for the scheme for Cost to the period from Exchequer 2013 to 2017.

$7.4 mn

Satellites to track snail disease risk

Ethiopia

Scientists are tracking snails from space in a bid to combat the spread of parasitic disease in Africa. The satellite information is being used to predict where infections are likely to occur; enabling health agencies to better organise their resources. In Kenya, scientists are making satellite maps of all the water courses where these snail carriers are likely to reside, and are plotting their movement across the landscape. This information is then compared with satellite data available on landscape. Uriel Kitron from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, conducted the schistosomiasis work in Kenya.

Plans afoot for next census data collection The Ethiopian government is planning to spend 1.5 billion Br ($7.4 mn) for the upcoming population census data collection process. The Central Statistics Agency (CSA) has prepared a proposal that includes costs and various work plans to fully carry out the 201617 population and housing census in Ethiopia. The cartographic work, which is used to sub-divide regions into enumeration areas to avoid omission or repetition, will be carried out using GIS; that would cut the processing cost by half, Safi Gemedi, Public Relations Director of CSA told media.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 13

Vertical Focus

AGRI Topcon partners with Toro for GPS-guided turf sprayer Topcon Positioning Group has partnered with The Toro Company, an American manufacturer of precision agriculture equipment, , to develop a new GPS-guided sprayer. Under the agreement, Toro would be tasked to market the new equipment to the commercial equipment marketplace by the summer of 2015. Called the GeoLink, the system ensures accurate and consistent coverage, which translates into improved results and reduced chemical costs.

Initially, the GeoLink system will be made available for Toro Multi Pro 5800. Topcon, however, plans to offer it for a broader range of Toro sprayers in the near future.

AGCO, Raven form strategic partnership The new agreement between AGCO and Raven builds upon their long-standing relationship by focusing on new product development and tighter integration of technology into machines to provide a better, more connected experience

for the grower and agriculture retailers. The first example will be AGCO’s RoGator and TerraGator application equipment offering the Raven Viper 4 as standard equipment later this year. The new terminal features a customisable interface controlling rate, section control, boom height and guidance through a single terminal.

Farmers Edge acquires GranDuke Geomatics Farmers Edge Inc., a precision agriculture and independent data-management company, has acquired GranDuke Geomatics, a geospatial solutions and software development company. Farmers Edge said its goal is to increase growers’ profitability, maintaining an environmentally sustainable approach by leveraging advanced precision tools and big data analytic solutions.

In its precision solutions package, Farmers Edge offers variable rate technology, field centric weather monitoring, high-resolution satellite imagery, and in-field telematics solutions. It also offers real boots on the ground.

INFRA White Paper discusses smart cities spatial information framework The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has released a White Paper on smart cities spatial information framework.

The paper provides critical guidance on how to plan and implement open standard spatial architectures that guide deployment of interoperable information system components. It discusses open standards for mobile location communication, 3D urban models, BIM, indoor navigation, augmented reality, and sensor webs.

In the paper, OGC has discussed the primary steps for developing a spatial information framework for urban spatial intelligence based on open standards such as OGC CityGML, indoorGML, moving features, and augmented reality markup language 2.0 (ARML 2.0).

Bengaluru to get 150-layer GIS Bengaluru city in India is developing a geographic information system (GIS) with 150 layers of information on transport, health, safety and utilities. The map lay-

14 / Geospatial World / March 2015

ers would also depict the conditions of roads, level of greenery, hospitals in region, drainages, lakes, bus stops, manholes, and fire and police stations. The government will spend INR 4.3 million (US$69,040) on the system and is in the process of collecting and mapping information from different departments.

Catalonia and Barcelona to set up BIM Working Group Government of Catalonia and Barcelona City Council have announced plans to set up a BIM Working Group to help implement the culture, values, work methods and digital and electronic technologies needed to train industry, government, research centres, professional groups and academia. A manifesto in this concern was unveiled at the BIM European Summit, held between February 12 and 13, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. By 2018, the government plans to make BIM usage mandatory for constructing public facilities and infrastructure. For this, it has set aside a fund of €2 million.

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Vertical Focus

ENERGY London infrastructure undergoes energy efficiency scrutiny An ongoing study in UK is exploring possible connections between property, land use types and heat loss in order to identify specific types of buildings that are most in need of energy efficiency improvements. The thermal map data thus collected is helping the London Borough of Redbridge to assess how different types of buildings are performing in terms of heat loss. The data for the study is provided by aerial and LiDAR survey service provider Bluesky. Initial results show that Barkingside, Newbury and Hainault have the highest percentages of properties with ‘high’ heat loss.

VC funding in smart grid totals $383mn in 2014: Mercom Capital Group report The global Venture Capital (VC) funding into smart grid technology companies saw $383mn being pumped through 73 deals in 2014, compared to $410mn in 64 deals in 2013, claims a recent report published by Mercom Capital Group, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm. The report also states that there were 32 Smart Grid M&A transactions (12 disclosed) in 2014 totalling $3.9

billion. The top disclosed transaction in 2014 was Google’s acquisition of Nest Labs for $3.2 billion, followed by the $200mn acquisition of SmartThings by Samsung Electronics and the $150mn acquisition of Aclara Technologies by Sun Capital Partners. Bel Fuse acquired Power-One’s Power Solutions business for $117mn and Sierra Wireless acquired Wireless Maingate for $90 mn.

Smart grid to make Vijayawada energy efficient The state government of Andhra Pradesh in India is planning to establish a smart grid near Vijayawada for real time monitoring of the supply and consumption of energy with the ultimate objective of bringing down aggregate technical and commercial losses. In this concern, the government recently signed an MoU with Fuji Electric. For the project, an initial investment of Rs 30 crore is expected to flow in through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). As part of the smart grid system, a GIS — which would cost more than Rs 100 crore — will be set up and sensors will be installed on buildings for forecasting the energy requirement and assessing the consumption patterns.

LAND Indian state to update property rights maps The state government of Maharashtra in India will update its map of property boundaries for the first time in about 100 years, at a cost of INR 16 billion ($256 million). The state will survey 280,000 square kilometres over the next five to ten years to create digital cadastral maps that would show property boundaries and rights. Satellite images and GPS would be used to survey the land. In places where there is obstruction like tree cover, the government plans to use total stations. According to media reports, the last time land rights boundaries were measured was between 1880 and 1930.

World Bank report on land administration and management released The World Bank recently released a new report titled, Land Administration and Management in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, that identifies key challenges to the effective functioning of

16 / Geospatial World / March 2015

urban land markets in the city. The report found that the city foregoes substantial revenues that could be derived from private investment in land. It further suggested that initial steps could include standardising the practice of public land auctions for non-residential use and reconsidering the valuation scheme for existing fees and taxes on land and property.

MapAction, EuroGeographics to partner up Humanitarian mapping charity, MapAction, has signed an agreement with EuroGeographics to gain commercial licence for using EuroBoundaryMap and EuroRegionalMap for one year. EuroBoundaryMap is a geo-database at the scale 1:100000 covering 41 countries. It contains geometry, names and codes of administrative and statistical units updated by EuroGeographics members. EuroRegionalMap contains topo-geographic information at 1:250 000 scale of 33 European states, including 26 EU member states.

Cover Story

MILLIONS

BILLIONS

The Google Geo Mantra Google is retiring its geo-products — Google Earth Enterprise, Google Maps Engine and Google Maps Coordinate. But why did Google make this move? Who will be affected and what are the options available for its customers?

Geospatial World explores...

O

n February 8, 2015, Google Maps turned 10!

On that day, it promised to “navigate uncharted territory, together with its users, in the next 10 years in pursuit of the perfect map”. Only a few days before, enterprise users who anticipated some wonderful product updates on this occasion, realised that they had to actually chart out unanticipated courses moving forward.

From its launch in 2005, to the acquisition of Skybox Imaging in August 2014, to its more recent content update with 45-degree imagery of about 120 cities across the world — it looked as though Google with its map products was on the perfect road of product improvisation until an email announcing its deprecation in January 2016 landed in the mail boxes of its users.

The Maps Business Unit of Google, which was providing consumers and businesses focussed mapping services,

FACT FILES

10

years of Google Maps

18 / Geospatial World / March 2015

is moving forward with a focused approach with respect to enterprise users. As part of this, for reasons clearly unknown to the public, Google is retiring its geo-products — Google Earth Enterprise, Google Maps Engine and Google Maps Coordinate. Table 1 gives the list of geo products from Google that are set for execution.

Why did Google make this move?

Industry analysts opine there could be multiple reasons for the move. According to a Google employee (who did not want to be quoted), one of the challenges was related to the sales and project turn-around times of products like Google Earth Enterprise. According to the official, quarterly revenues matter to Google, as they do for any listed company, and it does not find significant business returns from licence sales vis-a-vis the significant ground staff required for marketing and business development efforts worldwide.

So, Google is happy serving enterprises which are interested in using Google Maps technology through a pay-as-you-go API based Cloud model. Google’s email to its customers also confirms this point.

Google sees more sense in scaling up its geo business on API-based business model. The numbers from Google provide clear evidence to this, whose more than one million active sites and apps reach one billion unique visitors every week — nearly half the unique visitors on the entire Internet. In fact, according to Programmable Web, Google Maps API continues to be #1 mapping API with respect to factors such as popularity, potential, documentation, ease of use and functionality.

1mn

active sites and apps

Though the situation might be puzzling for the users at this juncture, the options available and the proactive approach of geospatial product companies is good news Another reason why Google is consolidating its resources could be its focus on technologies such as Semantic Web and Knowledge Graph. According to Parse.ly, Google is a leader in search with 35% of referral traffic during 2013-14.

But during 2014, Parse.ly saw a 10% rise in the traffic of social networks as compared to 2013. So, to strengthen its search products over the Web, Google is now integrating the concepts of Semantic Web not only into search but also in to Google Maps, which now have Knowledge Graph results. A senior Google employee confirmed this as the official line of innovation for Google Maps. With more websites enabling schemas, Google Maps and other Google products would be able to understand users’ queries and the context with respect to the information that’s on the Web better, and intelligently connect the two.

Who would be affected?

This move by Google would have important repercussions for users who strongly integrated their workflows with the geospatial data hosted on products like Google Earth Enterprise (GEE) and Google Maps Engine (GME). They Product

Supported till

Google Earth Enterprise

December 12, 2015

Google Earth API

December 12, 2015

Google Maps Engine

January 29, 2016

Google Maps Coordinate Product & API

January 21, 2016

Table 1: Google products which have deprecated

250mn

now have to re-think over their product and application road maps, migration strategies, re-align their systems and workflows. That could indeed be a nightmare for the users until they explore, implement and get accustomed to the new ammunition of technology and tools available in the market.

The biggest challenge before the users at this point, however, is the lack of clarity from Google and its partners in terms of future support and handholding.

Tony McEvoy from Australia says, “The only information we have at this point is an email from Google which advised that their GEE support will continue until July 30, 2015, after which there will be no further GEE extensions. To our surprise, the Google partner/reseller also has no definitive answers.”

What are the alternate options available?

With no definitive announcements from Google, there is an air of speculation based on its recent actions. Though the situation might be puzzling for the users at this juncture, the options available and the proactive approach of geospatial product companies is good news. While Google has not communicated about any preferred alternatives to its clients, Esri’s official page says that it is working ‘in coordination’ with Google to help ‘customers and partners looking to transition to Esri software’.

It is worth noting that companies like Oracle and Hexagon Geospatial too are ready to support Google customers choosing to migrate to their products. Others like CartoDB are educating the world about the available options.

Open Source is another important option. SAFE Software, an expert in migration technologies, is also proactively educating the market on how FME technology could help in migrating and transforming data to alternate platforms.

active users on mobile devices

1bn

unique visitors every week

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 19

Cover Story

Desktop

Google Earth

Web

Device

CLIENTS

and the consumer space. Esri’s technology also offers a good visualisation platform. The ArcGIS Pro App can integrate 2D, 3D, works on the Web, helps in visualisation through globe-type allocations, publish them and make the content available on any device. On the architecture front, ArcGIS Server will now serve all the data to Google clients and other front-end clients through APIs. These aspects will evolve over the next few months, and it is very exciting to have this relationship.”

Google’s own product suite ONLINE CONTENT AND SERVICES Google Server

ArcGIS for Server

Figure 1: Architecture similarities between Google & Esri

Esri ArcGIS Online

Considering that Google gave a tough competition to Esri in the past few years, this development is music to Esri’s ears.

For Google customers looking for an alternate, Esri prepared a special offer to ensure a successful transition based on a simple architecture (Figure 1). Esri would provide no-cost software during the first year to replace Google Earth Enterprise or Google Maps Engine technology and they would be eligible for the Esri no-cost training programme.

With this development, Esri is all set to reach out to the non-traditional enterprises served by Google’s geo products and gain more insights into their perception of geospatial technology. Commenting on the development, Dean Angelides, Director, International Operations at Esri says, “Google is known for its strong visualisation platform. Google Earth Enterprise and Google Maps Engine are two technologies that have been used in large enterprises. It turns out that Google is now deciding to spend its efforts into things that scale to the billions – they have always been quite good at that.

We are offering these enterprise customers, where they need on-premises software and we will actually replace some of that on-premises technology as Google moves more into the Cloud

Esri will replace some of Google’s on-premises technology as the latter moves more into the cloud and the consumer space 20 / Geospatial World / March 2015

Google wouldn’t want to leave its customers in a lurch and sources say that Google is willing to support its customers choose a way forward. It is suggesting some alternatives to host the data on Google Cloud Platform and create online maps using Google Maps. The key product for business is ‘Google Maps for Work’ that provides developers access to a full range of Google Maps APIs in the Cloud.

Following are the options one still has (while compromising on the Google Earth interface): • Create a map using Google My Maps • Build spatial applications with Google Cloud SQL and Google Maps API • Serve raster layers on Google Cloud Platform • Build a store locator with Google Maps API and Cloud SQL

CartoDB as an Alternative

CartoDB is a Cloud-based mapping, analysis and visualisation engine that lets users build spatial applications for both mobile and the Web. The advantage this product can provide is its unlimited map views, and its minimal pricing pattern. The product comparison between CartoDB and Google Maps Engine is shown in Figure 2. Sharing his views on the development, Sergio Álvarez Leiva, the Chief Product Officer says, “CartoDB and GME are very similar products, so educating

Figure 2: Comparison between CartoDB and Google Maps Engine

While Google tries to implement the Cloud + API route to expand map usage to billions of users, it would be prudent for the geospatial industry to start looking at such opportunities as well developers is easy. CartoDB, in fact, provides additional functionality in terms of visualisation and analysis. We see an opportunity to get people exposed to further functionality and do more with their data. In particular, we have worked on the documentation for the existing GME customers. We have seen migrations, changing, the code, etc., in less than a day.

CartoDB has a simpler pricing model and is more predictable, with no map views and less limits in general.”

Is Google out of maps business?

Definitely not! Rather Google is trying to synergise its energies in product development and sends clear signals that it would like to build similar systems for consumers and businesses. According to Harvard Business Review, APIs allow firms to expand into markets they may never have previously considered. So, customers who already have their product and application strategies aligned on these lines would have a comfortable journey.

That brings us to the question if traditional users from government and utilities could match up to this change.

Google has provided an indirect answer to this with its showcase on applications such as emergency management and public health in case of governments, and outage management and risk assessment for utilities. But the moot point again is that data still needs to reside somewhere (on the Cloud) and connect to Google Maps via an API route.

What is the impact on geospatial industry?

This is positive business news for geospatial product and solution companies like Esri, Oracle and Hexagon Geospatial. They would find willing customers approaching them for alternate solutions, and the industry would have an opportunity to closely work with large enterprise customers and gain insights into new application areas and workflows.

At this juncture, it is interesting to note that mapping APIs stand #4 in terms of availability and usage worldwide,

Ready for the opportunity?

Geospatial World sought to understand the initial reaction of Google and Esri partners/resellers. Harris Othman, Corporate Director, GeoInfo Services, an Esri partner from Malaysia, commented that Esri has updated them on this opportunity, but they are yet to explore it. He opined that being an Esri technology partner, integration would not be a challenge for them. However, this partner is yet to interact with any Google customer as on date, and feels it is too early to understand the market impact.

RD Ranjan, General Manager & COO, MicroCenter, Bahrain, who is also an Esri partner, informed that there are not many Google customers or known partners in the country, and it does not affect their business. However, they are ready to work on any new opportunities coming in, in this regard.

Felix Audirac, Director of CartoData, a Google for Work geo-partner from Mexico, backs Google’s strategy to deprecate its GME products in order to provide a deeper set of tools and functions on the Google Maps API. CartoData is migrating its GME customer base to eCarto which runs on Google Cloud Platform and Google Maps API for Work.

“Our customers experience a full Web solution and users continue to experience a simple Web-based administration and visualisation with the same performance of Google’s Cloud. Existing GME users have the opportunity to have a more flexible Web geographic information distribution strategy with 3rd party solutions such as eCarto,” he argues.

according to Programmable Web (web mapping APIs availablility rose from 79 in 2009 to 369 in 2013). So, while Google tries to implement the Cloud + API route to expand map usage to billions of users, it would be prudent for the geospatial industry to start looking at such opportunities as well. For all we know, Google came with a disruption way back with its maps, and it may be working its way to another disruption with this model. Unless geospatial industry plays catch up, it would be another missed opportunity and this time, it could have much bigger impact.

Harsha Vardhan, Product Manager Publications, Geospatial Media and Communications, harsha@geospatialmedia.net

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 21

Interview

Land administration is all about

‘People, Profit

and the Planet’ Up-close with Kees De Zeeuw, Director, Kadaster International, we find out what makes the Dutch Kadaster a trendsetter in the game

T

ell us about the work Kadaster does in the Netherlands.

In Netherlands, land administration includes cadastral mapping, land registry, apart from an array of other registrations. Kadaster has evolved to become the national centre for geoinformation, on the lines of a national spatial data infrastructure. Every square metre in the Netherlands is known, is mapped and is clear in terms of ownership; we have 100% coverage of the country.

What is the mandate of Kadaster International? What is the nature of its work?

Kadaster International helps governments in defining their starting point of building sound land administration systems – on the technical side, IT side and/or on the institutional side. We give advisory services to government organisations and very rarely to businesses. We work closely with about 20 countries on an average every year and have worked with countries like Bangladesh, Greece and Colombia. Every country has its unique needs and/or specific ways of handling things. That is the reason we never advise these countries to have the same cadastre as ours, but promote a fit-for-purpose approach.

Do these countries understand the purpose and suitability of a specific land administration system? Do you also help them define the purpose as well?

Yes, we may even help countries in defining their vision,

22 / Geospatial World / March 2015

strategy and purpose. Often, we run into a country where the professionals — the surveyors — who have learned to measure the country to centimetre precision­­­— already know their purpose. Often, there is a lot of discussion in the beginning phase, if that is really the way one needs to start. But this really depends on the country.

In terms of technological advancement, which country gets your vote?

Lithuania gets my vote because I think the country is now very advanced in cadastre. We have worked with the Lithuanian government, who had the advantage of not dealing with the inherited old fashioned systems, so they could start afresh.

In some aspects, they have a much better cadastre than ours.

Another good example is Rwanda. It is the only country in the world that has managed to map more than 10 million parcels within a decade. Because it is a young country, they saw the political need to have these parcels done.

They adopted a methodology that facilitated them to do 10 million parcels in 10 years. Rwanda is a good example of the fit-for-purpose approach.

What is the motive behind Kadaster going international with its advisories?

There are three important reasons to do so. First, we consider it to be our social corporate responsibility. We believe Kadaster has extensive knowledge and skills with respect

to cadastral systems, land registration and consolidation that could be very valuable to the rest of the world. We call it, to ‘bring’ our knowledge. The second reason is that by doing this work, we also ‘get’ new knowledge. The third reason is to participate and influence. For example, by being part of UN-GGIM or INSPIRE or EULIS, we also contribute to international standards and ideas. Doing so, we benefit our country. So, we thrive on these three components — bringing, getting and influencing knowledge.

In your experience of working nationally in the Netherlands and internationally, how do you think land administration adds value to the society, either economic or social?

I would say it’s the people, profit and the planet. Economic value is the easiest one to gauge, as it can be expressed in terms of money. Profit is obvious, but it is also about people and the planet. It is about social security, and the access to finance — if one has property, one gets easy access to finance.

Talking about sustainability of the planet — it is happening more often that countries use land in other countries to produce food, bio-fuels etc., because they lack space in their own countries. By doing so, they may not be the best people to maintain that land, because their interests lie in the produce, and when the minerals are out, they are out of that land as well. That is a bad practice and the user of the land should also ensure to maintain the minerals in the soil, support the people living on the land etc. So, it is not only about economic value, but also about the sustainability of land.

Is Kadaster able to measure the economic value its products and services offer to the Netherlands?

In the beginning, it was not very difficult; but now we opened our data, facilitating big companies to use our data more. There are small entrepreneurs as well in Amsterdam who are building apps using our data. We are convinced that with open data, the economic impact is much bigger than when the data was closed.

The University of Wageningen is assessing this aspect by inquiring with the users about the type of products they are producing with our data. In the past, they had to pay for the data, so they had a fair understanding of the costs involved

Kadaster has extensive knowledge and skills with respect to cadastral systems, land registration that could be valuable to the world

and the benefits accrued from the data products. Now the costs are much lower, but the benefits are lower as well.

What kind of paid services does Kadaster provide?

The main work of Kadaster, until 10 years ago, was to provide data. Now, we provide data services, but do not always own the data. For example, we provide the service of collecting from all municipalities in the Netherlands— data on addresses and buildings and provide it as one central database. In the past, it was very difficult for a tax company to gather data from over 400 municipalities and put this together. We changed our business model from providing data as a service to providing service on the data.

How is Kadaster contributing to land administration domain internationally?

We are a small organisation, but we are a networked organisation. By being at the centre of the network, we have access to a larger network, like other national mapping agencies, private companies and universities. We work with several other organisations and try to be the linking pin between the different worlds. So, for example while working on the Land Administration Domain Model, we worked with 80 experts from 60 countries talking about what should be a good standard for land administration and by bringing them together in one ISO standard, we are able to mobilise the knowledge of many people. We not only contribute to projects in G2G space, but also contribute to projects like GLTN and UN-GGIM where people share ideas and try to come up with new ideas to better products and processes.

How do you see land administration workflows evolving over the years?

Technology is advancing at a fast pace. Take the example of LiDAR. Apple will probably have LiDAR in iPhone 7, so why use the products of any traditional vendor? Processes get influenced by the technology itself. At the same time, some things are stationary. When one wants to delineate properties, one will always need two neighbours to agree on something, irrespective of the level of technology sophistication. Whether one does it with a tape, an iPhone or a sophisticated instrument, the process remains the same and needs to be in place. We will never have a satellite decide for us on our property.

How are the different stakeholders of land administration evolving?

Professional world is focusing mainly on the technology, but I feel they should also focus on the social aspects. In future, people will not distinguish anymore between information and geospatial information.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 23

Land Administration/Private Participation

All for a

Win-Win Relationship A strong opportunity for public and private organisations to work together exists in the land sector that can ensure project success and sustainability.

Geospatial World finds that making technology work is a symbiotic enterprise where every stakeholder is an equal partner.

T

he relevance and significance of land to humans cannot be over-emphasised. There is, in fact, a consensus that for a country to attract foreign investment, develop its infrastructure and compete in the increasingly globalised economy, it needs a modern land administration system. Understanding this need for organising land, most

nations in the world are modernising their cadastre and registration systems, streamlining land rights and dealing with issues like land consolidation and reclamation.

Developing an efficient land administration system is a long drawn process that is both technology and resource intensive. However, what can aid faster and efficient modernisation of land administration is the rapidly advancing technologies that include geospatial technology as it can be used in developing fit-for-purpose solutions and workable public-private partnerships. A gamut of geospatial technologies is available for the entire workflow of land administration, starting from cadastral mapping, securing property rights to purposes like land valuation and taxation or even linking improved land administration practices for sectors such as agriculture and forestry, infrastructure development and utilities planning.

Private Sector — Key Role to Play

Courtesy: www.netcad.com

24 / Geospatial World / March 2015

While the onus and decision lies with the government land agencies in defining the scope, developing the policies, creating the framework and facilitating the infrastructure for developing a workable land administration system in the country, the private geospatial industry plays an instrumental role in developing these imperative infrastructures. At present, the private industry is engaged with the stakeholders of land domain in the following ways: • Developing and modernising cadastral systems using GNSS, electronic total stations, aerial survey techniques including UAVs, high resolution satellite imagery and LiDAR or laser scanning • Providing data storage, maintenance and report generating GIS-based platforms • Offering integrated and complete range of field-to-office solutions for land registry, cadastre and property tax systems • Analysing policy reforms and legislative reviews

• Advising on long-term institutional issues and implementing modernised processes and workflows • Creating and implementing operational and financial models for the governments While being involved in these activities, the geospatial industry is pro-actively looking at creating fit-for-purpose solutions that are quick and scalable at lower costs. Referring to the software solutions, Brent Jones, Global Manager, Cadastre/Land Records at Esri says, “We have new opportunities in the use COTS software, like collecting field data on an android device and connecting to ArcGIS Online to manage data in a secure cloud environment. I think, the big shift here is not thinking about building a system using a lot of servers and desktops, but leveraging the use of mobile devices and cloud infrastructure. We can build systems with limited in-country infrastructure and manage data on the cloud. I think, culturally, that’s a big shift in the thinking.

When we look at the developing world, we can leapfrog the traditional large computing infrastructure investment with an online secure mapping environment that has all of the capabilities ready-to-go. This new environment is not just quick to implement; it’s low-cost, easy, and sustainable too.”

User Expectations & Technology Deliverables

With support from private industry, international funding and consulting agencies and land agencies are focusing on evolving their land administration systems. In doing so, they are laden with a number of challenges — the most critical being budget constraints, lack of trained manpower, legal/political issues, cost of technology, inadequate infrastructure, data unavailability, data inoperability, and the lack of technology awareness.

Geospatial Media undertook an extensive exercise of speaking with senior representatives of various land mapping and registry agencies from over 50 countries to understand the key issues, needs and expectations of land agencies vis-a-vis private geospatial industry. These agencies are from developing nations, most of whom are still developing accurate and current cadastral maps at higher resolution that can support property delineation and planning.

They are more-or-less positive about working with the geospatial industry and are indeed experiencing benefits of investing in technology, seeing a high return-on-investment on application of modern geospatial technologies that has helped them improve decision making and planning, enhance data management, improve time efficiency and accuracy, and increase transparency.

Not wanting to spend decades and millions of dollars on realising the end result of efficient land administration system, these land agencies are expecting the geospatial industry to be more pro-active in understanding their needs, be willing to ed-

The big shift culturally is the willingness to leverage mobile devices and cloud infrastructure.

In the developing world, we can leapfrog the traditional large computing infrastructure investment with an online secure mapping environment that has all of the capabilities ready-to-go. This new environment is not just quick to implement; it’s low cost, easy, and sustainable - Brent Jones, Global Manager, Cadastre/Land Records, Esri ucate them about various possibilities and think out-of-the-box for developing solutions. Innovations on the use of technology, providing end-to-end solutions rather than piecemeal hardware or software sales in a cost efficient, timely and consistent manner with reasonable data fall in the line of expectations.

The land agencies often complain that the service providers are eager to commit to new business without carefully and completely understanding the client requirements, underestimating the quantum and quality of work required. As a result, the cost of operations increases during the project execution phase. Land administrators are expecting the private industry to get more accountable for what they commit and follow high service standards. Another significant issue that requires attention and improvement according to them is the timeliness and accuracy in project delivery, which compromises work output.

Users from the land sector are a little hesitant to venture into public-private-partnership module with geospatial industry, and the reasons are varied. One of the prime reasons for this is the fact that frequently the roles and the responsibilities between public and private agencies are not very clearly outlined or are ambiguous leading to diffusion of responsibilities on each party’s part. Land agencies also feel vulnerable while working with the private sector, as the information they work with is sometimes confidential and they fear disclosure of sensitive/confidential information. Some professionals also claimed that geospatial industry, at times, claims extra or wrongful credit for work not done by them in order to gain further business. Such unprofessional approach is not appreciated by colleagues from land agencies.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 25

Land Administration/Private Participation What Land Agencies Say

What Private Industry Says

Private Industry should be more proactive in understanding client needs

Working with legacy land systems and fragmented offices is time and energy consuming

Be willing to educate clients Think out-of-the-box for developing innovative, end-to-end solutions Be cost-efficient

Strong political will needed for overall success of land administration systems Less prescription and more flexibility needed to apply innovation Regular dialogue needed to understand problem areas

Stick to timelines

Difficult to work with limited funds and poor infrastructure

Don’t over commit — it compromises project quality, time and cost

Clients need to get more aware and educated to draft appropriate RFPs Evolving knowledge of clients also mean evolving expectations that leads to increased cost, time and scope of work Resistance-to-change a big obstacle for project success

Be more accountable for what is committed Follow high service delivery standards Need for clearly defined roles and responsibilities between public and private agencies for successful PPP A very critical challenge for land administration is the dearth of trained and available human resources. To begin with, there are not enough trained professionals in the field and even those that get trained on the job leave the government employment to join the private industry for lucrative career options. This affects successful and sustainable implementation of technological solutions. Christopher Barlow, Director, Strategic Relations & Communications at Thomson Reuters explains, “Governments often challenge attracting good talent. So, I think the world will change as public-private-partnership deepens and new models emerge. So we often cross fertilise talent that we train when we work in countries and share their knowledge and expertise with other countries and governments.”

Limited User Awareness and Openness

While the land administrators are expecting private industry

In the past few years, governments are realising the need for having an integrated workflow rather than just sharing data. Land agencies are re-evaluating their business processes and are adopting a more customer-service driven approach.

As a result, we are seeing a lot more cooperation within government entities that really bring a unified solution forward - Jill Urban Karr, Executive Director, Consulting Services at Trimble Navigation 26 / Geospatial World / March 2015

to be upfront about their service cost and timelines, comprehensively understand user needs and not over-commit during tender process, the private industry is expecting land agencies to become more aware and educated about their needs and be open to different possible solutions. Working for modernisation of land administration systems against legacy systems is time and energy consuming and the industry opines that strong political will will enable effective delivery of the services and innovative solutions. Instead of too much prescription, the industry wants a bit of freedom in applying innovation, and flexibility in offering solutions to deliver better results. Private industry is pushing to have a regular dialogue with the land agencies to understand their problem areas, which might lead to innovative, improved and more appropriate solution delivery.

According to Brent Jones, for building sustainable systems, too much customisation and homebuilt systems are not helpful. “They are often difficult and costly to maintain and almost always fail and/or need to be replaced,” he suggests adding that land agencies are not making proper investments in terms of technology and training. Many attempts to build very low-cost systems have delivered poor results. “Land administration and cadastre systems are like banking systems for our land resources and investments, and deserve the investment to make them successful,” he explains.

The main challenge faced by private industry is limited funds with land agencies vis-a-vis cost of operation for executing a successful programme. They often find that clients are not clear about the project scope and specifications, thereby creating an insufficient and/or inappropriate Request for Proposal (RFP). This lack of awareness on part of land agencies is hindering the entire project cycle, as many important details for service delivery are left out in initial RFP and its associated costs are also not accounted for in the tender. Further, as the agencies themselves are evolving, their

Conclusion

Though development and implementation of land administration systems are fraught with several challenges, countries in the developing world are focused on achieving success.

The private industry believes it can greatly contribute in establishing healthy, viable and sustainable land administration systems, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution. And every country has to build its own system from its unique socio-cultural and historic standpoint. There is a need for collaboration, communication and openness to change. As Brent Jones explains, “The simple solution is interaction.

Cadastral systems are more similar than most realise. They all share the same mapping, data management, and data sharing needs. They have to perform the same functions. So dialogue with land agencies is the key to know their common requirements so that we can weave that functionality into the core technology, and everybody benefits.”

Private industry acknowledges they need to incorporate a demand driven approach, rather than pushing down the administration their own solutions, to ensure the systems are consistently and sustainably used. Land agencies realise they need to work on their knowledge and awareness to better express their expectations. Further, work will help in developing complete solutions rather than piecemeal software or hardware. Both parties need to work hand-inglove to promulgate and implement policies. Making technology work is a symbiotic game where everyone is an equal partner.

Megha Datta, Industry Manager - National Geospatial Information Organisations (NGIOs) megha@geospatialmedia.net

Courtsey: Pablo López Luz

own knowledge and understanding of project implementation is changing with time, as do the specifications they are providing the industry service providers. This is causing a lot of lost man-hours and unnecessary expenses.

The private industry is also finding it difficult working with the fragmented offices related to the land sector, but that involves political level decision on institutional reframing. In an attempt to address this issue, private industry is developing systems that aid easy data and services integration between separate offices. According to Jill Urban Karr, Executive Director, Consulting Services at Trimble Navigation Ltd, “Historically, you had kingdoms of activity managed by different organisations within a jurisdiction, everything was very segmented and non-integrated, but in the past few years, governments are realising the need for having integrated workflow rather than just share data. Land related agencies are re-evaluating their business processes and adopting a more customer-service driven approach. As a result, we are seeing a lot more cooperation within government entities to drive customer service that really bring that unified solution forward.”

Apart from this, resistance to change is a big issue in the land sector. With technology, transparency and speed of work increases, processes become automated and need for human intervention is reduced, hence professionals from land agencies fear becoming obsolete. Clearly, this is a serious concern for the larger geospatial industry and more attention is required to address this issue. It is obvious that with the advent of technology, parts of workflow become automated requiring fewer human resources, but it is also true that technology advancements leads to newer job creation with innovative use of data.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 27

Interview

Formalisation of land rights key to better future There is a need to acknowledge land and property information systems as critical infrastructure, says Donald Peele, Head-International Government Business, Tax & Accounting Division, Thomson Reuters, as he throws light on the key factors that make land administration a foundation for a well-functioning society

W

hat is the relation between land administration and economy with respect to agriculture, infrastructure development, disaster management, etc?

The connection between mapping and land administration, i.e. identifying land use and rights, dates back to our earliest recorded history. Refer to the picture below for better understanding — it is a 3,500 year-old clay tablet from the ancient Egypt. In that, you can see mapped irrigation canals and interior parcels. It clearly denotes the ownership status of the parcels.

For eons, our civilisations have worked to create an organised view of the world so as to transcribe and denote ownership rights; to count populations; to estimate crop yields; to plan development — similar to those irrigation canals in ancient Egypt, and to tax people and property — generating revenue to support these development plans.

Land administration is a foundation for a well-functioning society. Having well-delineated and legally affirmed land rights give people the security to invest in improving land, so that they may improve the output from their land — as with the irrigation canal example. Real estate markets rely heavily on

A cuneiform tablet showing plan of fields from Nippur (Ancient Egypt), as displayed at the University of Philadelphia Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

28 / Geospatial World / March 2015

land administration information, especially when it comes to providing financing for individuals or other interests to invest in land and property.

Take Nigeria as an example. This past fall, Thomson Reuters and the Atlantic Council co-hosted an event with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian Finance Minister. In her speech, the minister addressed the critical need to provide more security of land rights to stimulate economic growth. She said that Nigeria must address demand for an additional 17 million household units to be constructed. A major impediment is the ‘need’ to legally register peoples’ land rights. She emphasised that this is particularly important for farmers as they may use the land as collateral to improve the productive capacity of their lands by, for example, obtaining a loan to invest in improved irrigation. We need to start thinking of land and property information systems as critical infrastructure, especially for smart cities to generate revenue from property taxes.

How does Thomson Reuters provide successful solutions?

Thomson Reuters is concentrating on improving the technical foundation for land administration. We are doing this by devoting our resources and our expertise to enhance the security, sustainability, and the scalability of land information systems, which is the pathway to success.

Technical systems must be secure from hacking and fraud.

Systems must be sustainable, meaning they need to offer users the opportunity to learn from a peer network so as to share experiences, and to collectively improve the systems and processes. This way, the underlining technology continues to mature and develop through use by a global community of practitioners with common needs and requirements. And systems need to be scalable, so as to grow and expand with the organisation; to accommodate more robust functionality, such as supporting secondary land transactions, or to accommodate scaling operations from local to national level. Scalability also includes incorporating new technologies, such as mobile, cloud or drone technologies.

How do you measure economic or social benefits of your solutions for a particular project?

We look at benefits on two levels. The first is, of course, the operational unit level, for which we implement and configure our software. So, this could be for land registry, land management, cadastre, valuation, or property tax office. For this level, we examine the gains in accuracy, efficiency gains or even the revenue. Let’s take the city of Cape Town for instance. The city improved its general property valuation by using of our technology. Since 2000, the gains have included a 76% decrease in costs to perform general valuations; a 43% increase in the number of properties on the tax role; and a 230% increase in the taxable value on the property tax role. Taxable value is in large part a function of the real estate market, but having technology to reduce the time it takes to value properties means the property tax rates more closely match true market value, rather than the values from several years back.

Gains for land registry offices are also impressive. In Cross River State, Nigeria, government revenue from registration fees jumped by $11 million in a single year of operation of the Aumentum Registry solution. The software license fees were essentially paid for in a single week of operation.

The second level is societal. Let’s review Cross River State again as an example — the revenues increased dramatically as there was an incredible pent-up demand by citizens to register their land rights. Revenue is collected through fees to register lands and also fees to search land and property. People around the world intrinsically understand how important land rights are, especially so when acknowledged under law. Much of the individual wealth in the world is tied to land and property.

The OECD estimates that 2.12% of GDP in developed countries is generated from property taxes, compared to 0.6% in emerging countries.

A large reason for this income gap disparity is land administration. Simply stated — it is difficult to tax land and property if you do not know who owns what lands, or where those lands are located.

The OECD estimates that 2.12% of GDP in developed countries is generated from property taxes, compared to 0.6% in emerging countries How in your opinion is land administration workflow evolving over the years?

The big trend is integration. In the United States, where we work in 38 states, budgets are tight and there is much attention and focus by governments on doing more with fewer resources.

In 2008, U.S. counties were not only hit with an economic recession which reduced the tax base for local governments, but also reduced the financial resources to maintain staffing levels in their offices. Technology helped fill this resource gap.

One way technology helped was through integrating the workflows of government departments. Formerly, the operations and data of the land registry (recording), valuation, planning (cadastre), and tax (treasurers) offices were very distinct and distant. Integration is allowing these offices to be connected through workflow integration, so that information can be pushed in real time from one office to another for processing. This has eliminated redundancies in data capture efforts.

How are stakeholders evolving with respect to land administration and use of ICT and g-tech for achieving better results?

I think we are only now unlocking this potential, especially the formalisation of the land rights. We are investing in research and development of resources in improving functional connections between surveyors and land offices; notaries and land offices; mortgage companies and land offices; and citizens and land offices. This includes not only improving the use of systems and software, but also importantly through unlocking information sources so that they are more easily accessible.

The future is exciting, and we aim to make a real difference for governments, people, and also stakeholders.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 29

GEOSPATIAL WORLD

HR CAPACITIES Americas on top of the world

Americas lead the world in all aspects of human resources — ease of availability, skill level, training facilities and career prospects, followed closely by Europe. In the second part of Readers’ Survey 2014, Geospatial World takes stock of the human resource scenario around the world. Here are the highlights...

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Ease of Availability of Resources

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Poor Fair

80

Very Good

60 40

QUICK TAKE

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#

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Africa

Americas

APAC

Europe Middle East

• Americas lead the world with good availability of resources; followed

by Europe • Asia Pacific fares poorly over the rest of the regions in resource availability • Middle East has a fairly good availability of resources vis-a-vis other regions • Surprisingly, Africa seems to be quite satisfied with the availability of resources

Skill Levels Poor Fair

80

Very Good

60 40

QUICK TAKE

20 0

Africa

Americas

30 / Geospatial World / March 2015

APAC

Europe Middle East

• Americas lead with 52% respondents ‘very happy’ with the skill level of the resources available • Skill levels match the least of requisite expectations in Africa • Asia Pacific and Middle East have large resources with ‘poor’ skill levels

3

#

120

2014 Availability of Training Facilities

100

4

Poor

80

Fair

60

Very Good

40

#

100

20

Career Prospects Fair

80

0

Africa

Americas

APAC

Europe Middle East

Poor Very Good

60 40

QUICK TAKE

20

• Middle East leads in the overall availability of training facilities • Americas have a high share of ‘very good’ training facilities; followed by Middle East • Africa leads with ‘poor’ training facilities with 30% of respondent votes; followed by Asia Pacific

100

5

APAC

Europe Middle East

QUICK TAKE • Americas lead with ‘very good’ career prospects • The overall career prospects across all regions is quite good, with just average 3.8% respondents unhappy with the career prospects offered by geospatial industry • Asia Pacific lags with 9% of respondents being unhappy

Poor Fair Very Good

60 40 20 Africa

Americas

Good Educational Institutions

80

0

Africa

Americas

APAC

QUICK TAKE • Americas lead in the overall availability of educational institutions. An overwhelming 60% of respondents feel educational institutions in the Americas are ‘very good’ • Asia Pacific stands second in the ‘very good’ availability of education • Europe and Africa have the same share of respondents who are fairly happy with the availability of good educational institutions

Europe Middle East

Survey Sample & Methodology

Over 650 readers of Geospatial World participated in an online global survey which was conducted over a period of three months — starting from November 2014 to January 2015. The survey was conducted to get a broad understanding of the HR capacities and challenges within the geospatial industry in Africa, Americas, APAC, Europe and Middle East.

Infographics: Debjyoti Mukherjee

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INSPIRE

INSPIRE

As relevant as ever

S

ix years into its implementation, the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE), the spatial data infrastructure for Europe, has gone into self-evaluation mode as per Article 23 of the INSPIRE Directive, to understand the progress of its implementation. While the evaluation was based on multiple sources of information and methodologies including the triennial reports prepared by the Member States and an independent study of the extent of implementation in the Member States, INSPIRE also chose to go for public consultation, to understand the opinion, experience and the benefits accrued to a range of stakeholders.

Of the total respondents (698) from 30 countries, most respondents are from the public sector (68%) with a noticeable 12% and 13% constituting private sector organisations and private citizens, respectively. About 40% of respondents obviously knew about INSPIRE enough to want to complete the questionnaire, but had no direct involvement so far in implementing any of its measures. On the other hand, 60% had been involved, and among those, 44% had actively contributed to the development of the Implementation Rules (IRs).

32 / Geospatial World / March 2015

A public consultation to evaluate the implementation of INSPIRE — one of the ambitious projects in the spatial data infrastructure space — is unanimous that the objectives of INSPIRE are as pertinent as ever

Key messages

INSPIRE started working and addressing the key barriers identified at the outset of the initiative that prevented the sharing and using of the spatial information needed to support environmental policies and those policies affecting the environment. The results were categorised under various heads including user experience, data producer experience, INSPIRE geoportal, data sharing, INSPIRE coordination and implementation and general opinions. Here are the excerpts of the public consultation results.

User experience

The vast majority of respondents (88%) are users of data in one of the three Annexes (groups of data themes) of the Directive. For each of the data themes, the questionnaire asked a number of questions related to the extent to which, in the experience of the users, the data that comes from public authorities, is documented, can be discovered, viewed, and downloaded, and whether data policy is perceived as an obstacle to access and usage. a. Annex I: For Annex I, the most popular data theme used was Administrative Units (68%). Only about two-thirds of the data in Annex I are documented with metadata and are discoverable through web services. This indicates that INSPIRE is clearly starting to work and address the lack of documentation and discoverability of spatial data which were two key barriers identified at the outset of INSPIRE. On the other hand, one-third of the data themes are still not documented and made discoverable, indicating delays in INSPIRE implementation for these

measures, which should already be in place.

The most ‘open’ theme of Annex-I is protected areas, while the theme that is more controlled by data producers is cadastral parcels. Though the variations are not very strong, overall 40-50% of users still experience data policy obstacles in accessing and using INSPIRE data themes in Annex I, even though measures to remove such obstacles at the point of use should have been put in place by the Member States since 2009.

User Experience Data policy is no obstacle for use Comes from a public authority Can be downloaded through web-based services Can be viewed through web-based services Can be discovered through web-based services Is documented (has metadata)

b. Annex II Among Annex II themes, the most used are ortho-images, and the least are geological data.

Ortho-images are also more widely documented INSPIRE Public Consultation 2014: User Perspectives on Annex I Themes.

(74%), and served via discovery (75%), and view services (82%). By reference, elevation is the theme User Experience that did least well with respect to documentation (62%), discovery (58%) and view services (57%).

Data policy is no Download services are less well developed across obstacle for use all themes, and range between 38% for elevation to Comes from a 43% for ortho-images and geology. public authority With respect to data policy, less than half of Can be downloaded through the respondents agreed that data policy is not an web-based services obstacle to data access and use, while for the other Can be viewed through half, it is still an obstacle to varying degrees. web-based services

No Partially Yes

Can be discovered through

No c. Annex III web-based services Partially Among Annex III data themes, the most widely Is documented (has Yes used is land use (45%), followed by buildings metadata) (37%) and statistical units (27%). The deadline for the Member States to complete their metadata and put in place discovery services for these Figure 2: INSPIRE Public Consultation 2014: User Perspectives on Annex II Themes. themes was December 2013, just before the public consultation was launched. Only about 40% of User Experience (Average Values) data themes reported no obstacles for data access and use. The best themes are bio-geographical Data policy is no regions and habitats, while agriculture and obstacle for use aquaculture facilities are the ones with a higher Comes from a degree of obstacle to access and use. As indicated public authority for other Annexes, the level of implementation in Can be downloaded through the Member States of the measures necessary to web-based services remove these obstacles at the point of use, is a Can be viewed through matter of concern, which will be reflected in the web-based services INSPIRE mid-term evaluation.

INSPIRE geoportal

The INSPIRE Directive mandates the Commission to establish and operate an INSPIRE geoportal at community level to which

Can be discovered through web-based services Is documented (has metadata)

No Partially Yes

Figure 2: INSPIRE Public Consultation 2014: User Perspectives on Annex III Themes.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 33

INSPIRE I have used INSPIRE geoportal and was able to

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

No Opinion

Agree

Strongly Agree

Figure 4: INSPIRE Public Consultation 2014: Feedback on the use of the INSPIRE geoportal.

Member States must link their network services. The Member States can also provide access to those services through their own geoportals. The INSPIRE geoportal operates an online register where Member States can register the service endpoints of their national or regional INSPIRE discovery services.

Since November 2010, the Commission has been operating a pilot version of the INSPIRE geoportal, while pursuing the development of the operational version in parallel. As of March 2014, 22 Member States had registered their national or regional INSPIRE discovery services to the INSPIRE geoportal, while six had not yet done so.

The public consultation indicates that relatively few respondents (31%) used the INSPIRE geoportal, while national and regional geoportals were much more popular (77%). This is expected as most users look primarily for data about their own country. As more harmonised datasets

By far, the largest benefits derive from better data discovery and access, which is not surprising as metadata and discovery services were the first components of INSPIRE, while the data harmonisation is yet to make its effects felt 34 / Geospatial World / March 2015

become available through the implementation of INSPIRE supporting cross-border applications, it is likely that the use of the INSPIRE geoportal will also increase.

The question concerning what type of services are being used and are accessible through the INSPIRE geoportal shows a picture that is largely in line with the INSPIRE roadmap, with a larger positive result for the use and accessibility of discovery and view services than for the download services (Figure 4). However, an important part of the responses (around 25%) indicate that the spatial data needed can neither be found nor viewed through the INSPIRE geoportal.

The INSPIRE geoportal should offer the advantage of easier cross-border searches and visualisations compared with regional or national geoportals. The feedback from the public consultation is almost evenly split on this point, with just over half of the respondents agreeing that the EU geoportal makes it easier to find data in cross-border areas.

Data sharing

The public consultation also looked into the data sharing aspects. Respondents from data producing organisations

My organisation has a data policy which allows public authority organisations in my country to access and use its spatial data and services without restrictions likely to create practical obstacles for their use

28

53 19

Yes Partially No

Figure 5: INSPIRE Public Consultation 2014: Data producer responses on existence of data sharing policy in their organisation towards other public administrations.

indicated that just about half (53%) of their organisations had policies in place to support the data sharing requirements of INSPIRE (Figure 5). This confirms the perceptions of the users reported in the earlier sections and summarised in Table 1.

Two-thirds of data providers indicated that their organisation did not discriminate against public administrations from other countries and applied the same conditions as done for public administrations in their own country. This is of course positive, but does not alleviate the fact that about half of the organisations had not put in place the measures to remove obstacles yet. Considering that five

INSPIRE Table 1: User Responses to INSPIRE public consultation by perceived obstacles to data use Average Obstacles exist

Obstacles exist partially

No obstacles

Annex I

21%

30%

50%

Annex II

22%

33%

45%

Annex III

19%

40%

41%

All annexes

20%

37%

years have already elapsed since these sharing measures were supposed to be in place, this outcome is not satisfactory and may need remedial action.

INSPIRE coordination and implementation

Being the regional spatial data infrastructure, coordination among the stakeholders is the key to the success of INSPIRE. The public consultation asked three questions on the perceived degree of coordination at European, trans-border and national level. The majority of respondents (50-60%) were not able to respond on the quality of coordination at EU and trans-border areas. More definitive views were instead expressed on the coordination at national level.

Figure 6 shows that there is some variation in the perception among national-level public sector organisations, local public sector ones, and the private sector on the extent to which the implementation of INSPIRE is well-coordinated in their country. The level of agreement and strong agreement to the question declines from 70% for public sector national organisations, to 44% for both local

The implementation of INSPIRE is well-coordinated in my country

Private sec

Benefits and challenges

The most frequently cited obstacles for INSPIRE implementation are 44% about the technical complexity of the specifications; coordination issues with top-down approach involving only national authorities, and almost equal issues of communication, awareness and capacity building, and issues of the wide scope of data harmonisation. Fewer than 30% of the replies indicate technical complexity as a problem, while almost 20% indicate data interoperability/harmonisation as a main benefit of INSPIRE. Therefore, even if technical complexity is the most cited problem, it should be put into context, both with respect to the total number of replies provided, and to balance obstacles versus benefits. This interpretation is supported by the low percentage of replies (less than 12%) that indicate ‘simplification’ as the second most cited change proposed. In essence, there are some issues that need to be addressed in the maintenance programme of INSPIRE, but no insurmountable problems according to this public consultation.

On the benefits side, by far the largest benefits derive from better data discovery and access, which is not surprising as metadata and discovery services were the first components of INSPIRE, while the data harmonisation is yet to make its effects felt. Greater interoperability through the use of international standards are important benefits, and so is the improvements in internal data management processes, which is important because it gives something back to those who pay the highest price.

Conclusion

Local public orgs Int/national public orgs No Opinion

public sector and private sector.

This suggests that there is clearly room for improvement in engaging both local level and private sector in INSPIRE implementation.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Figure 6: Responses to question on national coordination in 2014 INSPIRE public consultation by type of organisation

36 / Geospatial World / March 2015

The public consultation is unanimous that the objectives of INSPIRE of making spatial data and services more easily shared and used are as pertinent as ever. However, there are areas of great uncertainty including the value of INSPIRE for cross-border applications (37% no opinion) and benefits being more than costs (38% no opinion). Moving forward, INSPIRE could well be a success story of spatial data infrastructure across the world, provided it works on improving communication and coordination; reducing the complexity of technical specifications; and minimising the time delays.

Access the complete report at http://goo.gl/fQuLQa

Opinion\Earth Observation

Industry upbeat on low-cost small satellites Small satellites may act as catalysts in advancing the earth observation industry, feels Scott Soenen, CTO, Blackbridge. Read on to know his views

O

f late, a lot of excitement is running in the industry over the potential of low-cost, small satellite constellations and agile aerospace. These ideas have the potential to advance the earth observation industry by increasing the number of satellites in orbit. This means increased and frequent observations of any location on earth and much larger temporal data sets to derive information about the changing world. We have all seen examples of what persistent monitoring can achieve­— the monitoring of ships entering and leaving ports, or counting the number of cars in a supermarket parking lot. These are interesting capability demonstrations, but the true societal value of constellations of small satellites lies in monitoring changes over broad areas. This includes applications for two of the most important challenges of our time — food security and climate change.

The RapidEye constellation of satellites, owned and operated by BlackBridge, was the first commercial, small-satellite constellation with sufficient imaging capacity that allowed regular monitoring of crops and vegetation across the globe. In fact, the RapidEye constellation has been gathering 5-metre resolution imagery, with five spectral bands over forests and crop land since February 2009. To date, there are over six billion square kilometres of imagery in the BlackBridge archive, with many areas of the world (like Brazil and other US agriculture area) imaged more than 50 times.

The data collected so far, as well as data collected in the future, are consistent, calibrated, and have a high level of positional accuracy.These features make RapidEye imagery the best multi-temporal data source for monitoring global land change at high resolution. Recently, BlackBridge also completed an independent assessment of the expected lifetime of the constellation and concluded that it will continue normal operations well beyond 2020. BlackBridge

38 / Geospatial World / March 2015

has effectively become the first company to truly demonstrate the long-term value of low-cost, small satellites for earth observation.

The importance of calibration

Since its launch, the company has learned a great deal about the challenges of operating small-satellite constellations and about the expectations of the application experts.

The biggest challenge for small-satellite operators lies in providing consistent and accurate imagery. With a low-cost satellite platform, there is limited capability for collecting and processing information about positioning and imaging conditions during image acquisition, so the operator must correct the imagery after it has been downloaded from the satellite. This can involve a significant amount of resources.

BlackBridge has invested substantial time and resources to processes for improving image quality, including vicarious absolute calibration campaigns and sourcing the most accurate global ground control data. This allows BlackBridge to maintain the same, or better its quality and positional accuracy. Other new small-satellite operators also need to invest significant time and resources to meet the expectations of their end users, particularly if their small-satellite platforms have varying imaging conditions across their constellation, for instance different imaging times, orbit altitudes.

The role of the cloud

Once the data are calibrated and consistent, the next challenge is in making the vast quantities of imagery downloaded from a high-capacity constellation, like RapidEye that is accessible and easy-to-use. A typical consumer of satellite imagery does not want to download and man-

BlackBridge has become the first company to truly demonstrate the long-term value of low-cost, small satellites for earth observation

age thousands of files or spend hundreds of hours on data pre-processing. They want to focus where they see the maximum return on their investment of time - deriving useful information from the images. To support this, small-satellite operators must also invest in cloud computing and focus on developing web applications and services for end users to manage and process images. They must also invest in making imagery easily accessible as web services, following well-defined Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards or widely accepted protocols like those from Esri.

End users should be able to quickly find or task relevant imagery for their application, purchase the imagery, derive an information product like a vegetation index, and stream that imagery into their application as a web coverage service for further analysis, all in a matter of minutes. BlackBridge has developed these capabilities into its platform and forthcoming EyeFind+ application, and has made significant investments in specialised infrastructure for cloud computing of large raster data sets.

Where to stand in the value chain

With an effective platform to exploit the large quantities of imagery collected by small-satellite constellations, it is logical to expect new business models and services to emerge. Emerging operators focus on directly addressing downstream applications that is very similar to the centralised services business model originally run by RapidEye. This business model was not successful for RapidEye and will certainly be challenging for the new operators. It is important to acknowledge that the local relationships with land stewards and specific knowledge of local applications are critical components of the earth-observation value chain.

As such, new business models and services should focus on

supporting local and industry experts, rather than providing products to end users. For example, the BlackBridge Monitoring Programs for Agriculture support agriculture service providers by granting access to all imagery collected over an area of interest during the growing season and delivered through services and an application programming interface (API). Using the API, imagery can be integrated directly into new agriculture applications, developed by downstream service providers or processed into derived products like crop biomass maps. Small-satellite constellations offering repetitive, wide area imaging programs will also increase the number of available change monitoring services, similar to the RapidEye Persistent Change Monitoring (PCM) service BlackBridge has developed with MDA. While BlackBridge has demonstrated the significant value of small-satellite constellations, it is imperative to note that small earth-observation satellites can come with some limitations like swath width, resolution, or number of spectral bands of the onboard instruments. Most new small-satellite constellations are only being developed with true-colour (blue, green, and red) or panchromatic (grey scale) bands, and with limited swaths. Market trends indicate that imagery users are interested in moving to higher resolutions with large swath and deriving information from bands in the red-edge, near infrared, and short wave infrared. To provide these capabilities in BlackBridge’s next constellation of satellites, RapidEye+, the company will move to a larger satellite platform while maintaining the approach of a small-satellite mission, and will incorporate the lessons learned over the first five years of operation. BlackBridge believes that this is the optimal approach to providing earth-observation end users with consistent, high-value imagery for monitoring our changing world.

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 39

Report | India Geospatial Forum 2015

IGF 2015

R E VO L UT I O N

A

fter three days of engrossing discussions, several product launches and announcements, India Geospatial Forum 2015, which was held from February 10-12 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, concluded on a high note with over 2,100 visitors, and close to 55 exhibitors participating in the event. Need for forward-looking integrated, coordinated geospatial policy and capacity was clearly the core message that came out of the three days of discussions.

“These are aspiring times for India. We will soon reap the benefits of demographic dividends of being the youngest nation in the world,” said N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief

Need for forward-looking, integrated, and coordinated geospatial policy was clearly the core message that came out of the three days of deliberations

Minister of Andhra Pradesh in his inaugural address on day one of India Geospatial Forum 2015.

In his 20 minutes of interaction with the delegates, he acknowledged the role of information technology in the developmental initiatives of both the state and the central government. He also emphasised that geospatial tools play an imperative role in government’s social initiatives as it ensures transparency and efficiency. Further elaborating on how geospatial tools have been empowering government programmes, he spoke about the MoU signed by Andhra Pradesh government with the US govenment for developing smart cities in the state. He also touched upon the Andhra

“Commonality in policy among SAARC nations can create a conducive environment.”

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Pradesh State Housing Commissions’ programme to geo-tag homes to ensure transparency in various housing schemes of the state.

Speaking at a session on how geospatial technology empowers government initiatives, J Satyanarayana, IT Advisor, Government of Andhra Pradesh revealed that the geospatial policy of the state of Andhra Pradesh was in the final drafting stage and would be soon opened for comments from public.

Supporting his views, Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, reiterated the importance of capacity building and skill development for long-term growth of the industry, and added that high performance computing will provide a boost to the spatial data analysis solutions market.

In his keynote, K Venkataramanan, CEO and MD, Larsen & Toubro, said that the time is ‘now’ for geospatial revolution. “The predicted growth of geospatial technology is galloping. I believe if the technology is governed but not restricted, it will grow at a faster rate,” he said. Further, he explained that for the growth of geospatial technology in India, conducive policy environment and faster approvals are critical. He also advised the industry to ‘shun the mindset of data secrecy’.

Time is Now

Speaking at the inaugural, RS Pawar, Chairman and Managing Director, NIIT Technologies said, “All of us have been doing a lot of work, but the time to take the leap is now. The silos of information that we generate have reached a point that they will render a tsunami of data if we interconnect them.”

Kick-starting the first plenary discussions, Bhupinder Singh, Senior Vice President, Bentley Systems, stressed on the importance of making geospatial technology cost

J Satyanarayana, IT Advisor, Government of Andhra Pradesh: Geospatial policy of Andhra Pradesh is in the final drafting stage.

effective. He also revealed that Bentley has recently acquired Acute3D for advance reality modelling.

While Singh presented case studies based on geospatial technology for infrastructure, RS Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, deliberated on the various components of the Digital India campaign. Using the digitisation of land registry and cadastre system as a case in point, he said that lack of standards and a non-interoperable structure of spatial data, collected under various programmes of the government, have posed as a major hurdle in the growth story of India. “The Indian government initiated the e-cadastre programme two decades back. However, different states are still in different phases.

What we need now is an integrated approach,” he added.

Drawing a tangent from Sharma’s views, chairing a session on the need to develop common standards for geospatial technology at the concurrently held South Asia Geospatial Forum 2015, Mark E Reichardt, President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium said that global changes are creating complex problems.

Stressing on the importance of developing standards that would lead to the creation of a fertile ground for interoperable systems, he added, “With the sensor webs and higher adoption of mobile devices, the number of sources of geo-data has increased geometrically. Today, there is a myriad of geospatial data sources and producers. We need to understand how to use this ‘high-velocity’ data in a way that is based on interoperability standards and which is not platform-centric.”

Need for a SAARC geospatial policy

K Venkataramanan, CEO and MD, Larsen & Toubro: If technology is governed and not restricted, it will grow at a faster rate.

One of the noteworthy achievements from the discussions at the conference was the unanimous decision taken by the group of delegates representing SAARC countries to establish a working group for regional collaboration in geospatial technology. They also agreed that mere exchange of ideas would not be enough, and that it was important to pool in

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 41

Report | India Geospatial Forum 2015

Bhupinder Singh, Senior Vice President, Bentley Systems: Make technology ‘cost effective’.

both economic and human resources to solve the issues plaguing the SAARC region.

As per S Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India India has not yet exploited the full potential of geospatial technology. He said that geoinformation is now moving beyond just sharing of data. Speaking on the need for SAARC countries to collaborate with each other, he added, “We give more prominence to the administrative boundaries than the natural boundaries. A minimum commonality in the geoinformation policy among the SAARC nations can create a conducive environment. For this, we need to envision core capabilities and fill gaps in the existing geoinformation policy of our countries.”

Major General (Retd) Dr R Siva Kumar, Pro Vice Chancellor (R&D), GITAM University, Andra Pradesh suggested that policy makers should think about smart villages instead of smart cities since a majority of the Indian population still lives in villages. “A well structured geographical decision support system (Geo-DSS) is the answer to many of the problems we face today,” he suggested. Not drifting away from the core theme of the discussions, he also advocated the creation of a SAARC SDI and SAARC GIS.

Emerging technologies steal the limelight

In addition to the keynotes and panel discussions, several, thematic and technical sessions were also held during the conference. At one such thematic session on emerging applications and trends, Wing Commander PK Mishra, Indian Air Force said, the aeronautical data currently available is published in tabular form as HTML or PDF documents making it difficult to interpret and visualise the information. “There are two shortcomings of the currently available database: interoperability and updatability,” he said. He explained how a team of GIS professionals, have taken over the task to prepare indigenous aeronautical database and charts using the COTS tools and software.

Another emerging technology which drew a lot of attention was MapCode, a short-code consisting of numbers and

42 / Geospatial World / March 2015

alphabets separated by a dot. Explaining why it was conceived, Kewal Shienmar, Managing Director, MapCode Foundation said, “Less than 50% of the dwellings on earth has an address, and even those which have an address are not based on a standard pattern.” MapCode uses an open source algorithm based on a grid system to divide the world into latitudes and longitudes and assigns a shortcode that pinpoints a region with an accuracy of 5 metres.

In addition to the thematic and technical sessions, concurrent symposiums such as the GeoBuild Smart Infrastructure 2015, National Spatial Data Infrastructure 2015, and The Youth Forum saw experts confabulating on the emerging trends.

While at the GeoBuild Smart Infrastructure 2015 conclave, experts from various parts of the country discussed how cities can be made “smarter” using technology, a closed door discussion held between 11 mayors from various parts of the country and the geospatial industry stakeholders saw exchange of ideas on incorporating geospatial tools right from the planning to asset management stage of a city.

At the concurrent session on NSDI, PS Acharya, Scientist G and CEO, NSDI, Department of Science and Technology provided an overview of the present status on NSDI. This was followed by an engaging presentation by RN Nanda and Pankaj Mishra of NSDI/Survey of India who apprised the delegates about the status of provision of GIS data assets of SoI. “Till now, web map services have been created for 27 states and seven union territories. The two states which are falling behind are Rajasthan and J&K. Web features service creation for seven out of these 27 states have been completed,” said Mishra.

The conference concluded with the felicitation of the top projects and papers presented by students at The Youth Forum. The Forum had representations from the leading universities of the country like BIT Mesra, IIT Roorkee, Anna University, St Xavier’s college Mumbai, IIRS, Dehradun among others.

Mark E Reichardt, President and CEO, OGC: With sensor webs and adoption of mobile devices, the number of sources of geo-data has increased geometrically.

1

THE

AWARD GOES TO India Geospatial Leadership Awards 1. Lifetime Achievement Award Dr Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman and Co-founder, NIIT Technologies Ltd

2. Making a Difference

Dr Prithvish Nag, Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth

3. Capacity Development St Xavier’s College

4. Business Leadership

2

3

4

5

6

7

Rajesh Alla, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, IIC Technologies

5. The Premier Geospatial State The State of Odisha

India Geospatial Excellence Awards 6. Public Safety Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority & Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) for developing Bharuch Chemical Industry Disaster Management application.

7. Application of Geospatial Tech in Utility Services

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited for Integration of Geographical Information System for Smarter Grid.

8. Effectively Implementing Policies

Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology & Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for establishing a citizen-centric Karnataka State Spatial Data Infrastructure portal.

9. Application of Geospatial Technology in Mineral Exploration

Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation & Scanpoint Geomatics for their project titled: Manganese, Bauxite and Limestone Reserves Estimation.

10. Environment Protection Monitoring and Management

OMCAR Foundation & NRDMS, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for their project titled: Participatory GIS mapping of Mangroves and Land-use Pattern in Coastal Villages of Thanjavur District, 8 Tamil Nadu.

9

Geospatial World / March 2015 / 43

10

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BE A PART OF THE MOST EXCITING GEOSPATIAL COLLABORATION OF 2015

25 – 29 MAY 2015, LISBON CONGRESS CENTRE, PORTUGAL

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Vladimir Sucha Director General Joint Research Centre, Italy

Josef Aschbacher* Director of Copernicus Space Office European Space Agency, Italy

Hermann Mayer President ERTICO, Belgium

Vanessa Lawrence Co-Chair, UN Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), United Kingdom

Michael Howell Deputy Program Manager Information Sharing Environment United States

Olla Rollen President, Chief Executive Officer Hexagon, United States

Dorine Burmanje Chair of Executive Board Dutch Kadaster, Netherlands

Steven Hagan Vice President Development Oracle Corporation, United States

Abe Usher Chief Technology Officer HumanGeo, United States

Anthony Whelan Director Electronic Communications Networks & Services DG CONNECT, European Commission, Belgium

Raymond O’ Connor President, Chief Executive Officer, Topcon Positioning Systems United States

Steven W. Berglund President, Chief Executive Officer Trimble, United States Karl Falkenberg Director General of European Commission DG Environment, Belgium Damian Spangrud Director of Solutions Esri, United States

Joseph Arezone Sr. VP & Managing Director EMEA & APAC FARO Technologies, Singapore

*Tentative

MODERATORS Hugo de Groof DG Environment – Governance, Information & Reporting Unit, European Commission, Belgium

4

Plenaries

10

Sanjay Kumar Chief Executive Officer Geospatial Media and Communications India

Ministerial Delegations

35

Alessandro Annoni Head of the Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit Joint Research Centre Italy

Thematic Sessions

Register online at www.geospatialworldforum.org

Barbara Ryan Secretariat Director GEO Switzerland

40

500

Workshops

Rolando Ocampo Vice President, National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) Mexico

Total Presentations CO-HOST

2000

Expected Delegates ORGANISERS

Report | MEGF & GRASF 2015

‘GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY KEY TO

Middle East’s growth’ Over 800 delegates and visitors from more than 30 countries around the world participated in the GRASF and Middle East Geospatial Forum 2015. Read on to know more.

Abdulhakim Abdulkarim Malik, Director GIS, Dubai Municipality

T

he Dubai Municipality’s GIS & Remote Sensing Annual Scientific Forum (GRASF) and Middle East Geospatial Forum 2015, organised by Geospatial Media and Communications, kickedoff with a pre-conference training programme on February 15 in Dubai. The training programme, titled ‘All About Geospatial’ was aimed at training students and non-GIS professionals about these technologies and their applicability in our everyday lives. Over 150 participants ranging from university students to industry and government employees attended the programme.

On the inaugural day of the conference, H.E. Eng Abdulla Rafia, Assistant Director General, Dubai Municipality, talked about how cities across the Middle East region have been making rapid progress in terms of cresting new infrastructure. In his presentation, he emphasised that geospatial technology has been instrumental in

46 / Geospatial World / March 2015

their efforts to create smart and sustainable infrastructure.

Eng. Abdulhakim Abdulkarim Malik, GIS Director, Dubai Municipality gave a presentation on the use of geospatial technology for sustainable development and creation of smart cities. In another session, he shared his vision on how Dubai Municipality is using modern technologies to solve complex issues related to rapid growth in Dubai related to infrastructure and utility management. He shared the reasons for the success of project Makani, where more than 1,00,000 buildings were mapped digitally with accurate GPS coordinates.

A presentation on spatial data infrastructures (SDI) and interaction paradigms by Prof. Josef Strobl from University of Salzburg, Austria heralded the MEGF plenary sessions.

In his presentation, he explained the concepts of SDI and GSDI (Global Spatial Data Infrastructure). He also explained and compared how actual and digital data and infrastructure are related by comparing real world with virtual world, earth and model, convergence and overlap, etc.

In her presentation, Anne Kemp from Atkins, UK spoke on building information modelling. She explained briefly how a BIM model is successfully used by the UK government for

smart city planning and how it has been made mandatory for all urban planning projects. According to her, the core principle is data and not just document and model, and integrating technologies like BIM, GIS and CAD. Richard Budden, Business Development Manager at ESRI Middle East spoke on real life challenges for data collection, ever increasing population and migration to big cities and how to tackle these issues by smart and sustainable city development. He shared his views on the alternative energy sources to meet the demand and the role of GIS using smart grid, routing and logistics with a real life example of Madsar city in Abu Dhabi.

GRASF

The first presentation during the session on LiDAR and remote sensing was given by Richard Flemings of Proteus. He highlighted the use of satellite imagery and change detection technique to study the Abu Dhabi marine life and environmental hazard assessment and solutions using the geospatial technology.

Dr. Prashant Marpu from Madsar Institute spoke about object based fusion of high resolution optical images for classification of urban areas. He cited the need for hyperspectral imaging and object based image analysis for raster image classification.

Dr. Hussein Harahsheh, General Manager, Global Scan Technolo-

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Report | MEGF & GRASF 2015 gies, talked about hyperspectral and thermal mapping application in arid areas. He covered topics like advantages of hyperspectral imaging, processing and analysis, image enhancements and mapping methods. He explained these methods by presenting case studies of CASI Chile data on vegetation application by using hyperspectral imaging, thermal imaging and 3D laser scanning.

The presentation by Prof. Martin Breunig titled 3D Geoinformation Science: State-of-the-art and perspective for the gulf region, emphasised the use of 3D modelling for building smart and sustainable cities in the Middle East.

In another presentation, Prof.

Christian Heipke, Secretary General for International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), Germany, spoke on the research trends in photogrammetry, remote sensing and geospatial intelligence science and the role of ISPRS in shaping and promoting this technology and obtaining reliable data about the earth and environment.

The topic of 3D indoor navigation was touched upon by Dr. Sisi Zlatanova from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. She threw light on other topics such as the conversion between IFC and CityGML, indoor positioning for localisation, 3D web visualisation, 3D data integration of objects above and

48 / Geospatial World / March 2015

below ground, voxels representations, 3D management and visualisation of line objects (pipelines). .

In his presentation, Dr. Arpad Barsi, Head of Department of Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary explained how to effectively handle ill-conditioned photogrammetric equation systems resulted by imperfect image capturing constellations.

Technical sessions

Presenting at the GI-Science programme, Dr. M. M. Yagoub, Associate Professor of Remote Sensing and GIS, UAE University gave a presentation on the topic ‘perception of the public to volunteer geographic information’ using the case study of UAE region. In another session, Maitha Alnuaimi, GIS Engineer

from Abu Dhabi City Municipality spoke on improving government services through Custom GIS applications. She also explained some of the tools that the Abu Dhabi government is already using effectively to serve the community better with much faster results. Speaking at the GeoInfra programme, Vivek Kale, Solutions Director, Bentley Systems spoke on 3D city GIS for sustaining city infrastructure. He also cited a few examples on how Bentley Software has been used for environment friendly and sustainable infrastructure development.

During the session on spatial governments programme, Andy Wilson from Ordnance Survey, said that the best policy decisions come from spatially connected governments. He emphasised the fact that an informed decision can be made by the planning department and decision makers with the help of geospatial technology.

Prashant Marpu from the Madsar Institute emphasised on how spatialised algorithms are required to classify hyperspectral and thermal images to increase the accuracy in data extraction and advance image analysis.

The three-day conference and exhibition concluded on a successful note with a participation of over 800 delegates and visitors from more than 30 countries. The exhibition saw more than 23 vendors displaying the latest developments in the field of geospatial technology.

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T O K YO · S A N F R A N C I S C O · M OS COW · ROT T E RDA M · BRI S BA NE

Events

BOOK YOUR CALENDER March

Joint Urban Remote Sensing

Locate 15

March 30 March - April 1, 2015 Lausanne, Switzerland

March 10-12, 2015 Brisbane, Australia

jurse2015.org

www.locateconference.com

April

FOSSGIS 2015

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015

March 11-13, 2015 Münster, Germany

www.fossgis.de/konferenz

3rd International Conference on Remote Sensing March, 16-19, 2015 Paphos, Cyprus

www.cyprusremotesensing.com

Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty March 23-27, 2015 Washington, DC,USA

www.worldbank.org

50 / Geospatial World / March 2015

April 12-17, 2015 Vienna, Austria

www.egu2015.eu

GIS-Forum Russia April 15-17, 2015 Moscow, Russia sovzondconference.ru AASHTO GIS for transportation Symposium April 19-22, 2015 Des Moines, Iowa, US www.gis-t.org

The World Cadastre Summit, Congress and Exhibition April 20 – 25, 2015 Halic Congress Center, Istanbul wcadastre.org

May RIEGL LiDAR 2015 May 5-8, 2015 Guangzhou, China

www.riegllidar.com

INSPIRE-Geospatial World Forum 2015 May 25 – 29, 2015 Lisbon

www.geospatialworldforum.org

June HxGN LIVE 2015 - Las Vegas June 1 – 4, 2015 Las Vegas, US

hxgnlive.com/las.htm

Unraveling the geospatial ‘opportUnitY’ in varioUs economic segments ch ar se re et rk ma

www.geospatialmedia.net