Position issue 100 April-May 2019

April/May 2019 – No. 100

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

100th EDITION SPECIAL

NEXT GEN

GIS

From web to the Cloud to UX

Official publication of

inside Virtual Reef Diver Informed intervention via spatial modelling

Absolute precision Cutting edge GNSS for road autonomy

Centennial reflection Looking back at an industry in flux

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contents

April/May 2019 No.100

18

30

44

features 14 Q&A with Erin Peterson

44 Filling in the gaps

We speak with Erin Peterson, lead of the Virtual Reef Diver project, which maps coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef with unprecedented spatial cover and temporal accuracy.

18 Fit for purpose

Mapping Australia’s marine estate with the formidable hydrographic surveying capability of the Marine National Facility’s deep water research vessels.

48 Locate19 program

Volker Janssen of NSW Spatial Services takes us under the bonnet of the GDA94-GDA2020 transformation grids.

24 State of play Jon Fairall on some of the new technologies and models that may redefine geospatial business models in 2019 and beyond.

30 Looking back on a century In celebration of the 100th issue of Position, we reflect on significant industry developments.

38 Q&A with Rod Bryant

What’s on and when at the biggest event on the geospatial calendar for 2019.

regulars 4 7 8 50 52

Upfront, calendar Editorial News New products SSSI

A look at the bleeding edge of absolute positioning for autonomous road vehicles with Rod Bryant of u-blox. www.spatialsource.com.au 3

upfront

Upcoming Events 8-10 April: Locate Conference 2019, Melbourne, Victoria www.locateconference.com 8-10 April: Commercial UAV Expo Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands www.expouav.com/europe 25-26 April: EnerGis conference, New York, USA https://energis.us 8 May: FME World Tour 2019, Sydney, NSW https://1spatial.com/au/event/fmeworld-tour-2019-sydney

Mistaken identity

F

ew Australian mammals have bamboozled scientists, conservations and politicians alike as much as the dingo.

Confounded by limited descriptions penned by arriving Europeans in 1788 and subsequent interbreeding with introduced domestic dogs, the debate over whether to treat dingoes as native animals within the scientific community had been a vexed one – until now.

A group of 20 leading researchers has found, unequivocally, that the dingo is a native Australian species, wholly distinct from all other canids.

The finding has significant implications.

Scientific indecision has contributed to inconsistent, typically harsh policy that affords none of the protections afforded to other native animals. Dingoes are currently classified as vertebrate pest animals, nonnative wild dogs in NSW, Victoria Western Australia and Queensland, where there is a bounty on dingo scalps. Victoria’s bounty was overturned by the Daniels government in 2018.

The classification of dingoes as a pest animal – explicitly grouped with feral and wild dogs, cats and foxes – incentivises killing dingoes by shooting, trapping or the recommended control measure: consignment to a slow, hideous death by way of 1080 poison.

Lead author of the paper recently published in Zootaxa, Dr. Bradley Smith from Central Queensland University, said that his team has presented scientifically valid arguments to support the ongoing recognition of the dingo as a distinct species, Canis dingo, as was originally proposed by German naturalist Friederich Meyer in 1793.

“The dingo has been geographically isolated from all other canids, and genetic mixing driven mainly by human interventions has only been occurring recently,” Dr. Smith said.

4 position April/May 2019

9 May: FME World Tour 2019, Brisbane, Qld https://1spatial.com/au/ event/fme-world-tour-2019-brisbane

Dr. Smith said that there is no historical evidence of domestication once the dingo arrived in Australia, and that the degree of domestication prior to arrival is uncertain and likely to be low, certainly compared to modern domestic dogs.

“We show that dingoes have survived in Australia for thousands of years, subject to the rigours of natural selection, thriving in all terrestrial habitats, and largely in the absence of human intervention or aid,” he said.

Late last year, the West Australian government amended its Biodiversity Conservation Act with an exemption to not only continue the dingo’s legal classification as a wild dog, but further strip it of its categorisation as a native animal, allowing weapons such as crossbows and explosives to be used to kill dingoes – actions that carry a$50,000 fine for animals classified as native fauna.

Study co-author Dr. Corey Bradshaw said that governments have a responsibility to develop and implement management strategies for species considered native fauna, and that the classification of dingoes has serious consequences for the fragile ecosystems they inhabit.

“In fact, dingoes play a vital ecological role in Australia by outcompeting and displacing noxious introduced predators like feral cats and foxes. When dingoes are left alone, there are fewer feral predators eating native marsupials, birds and lizards,” he said.

“Dingoes can also increase profits for cattle graziers, because they target and eat kangaroos that otherwise compete with cattle for grass in semi-arid pasture lands.”

The new research establishes that the dingo is genetically, phenotypically, ecologically, and behaviourally distinct from all other canids – on the same branch of the evolutionary tree as a wolf.

“The dingo is without doubt a native Australian species,” said Dr. Bradshaw. ■

13 May: FME World Tour 2019, Melbourne, Victoria https://1spatial.com/au/event/fme-worldtour-2019-melbourne 21-22 May: GEO Business 2019, London, United Kingdom www.GeoBusinessShow.com 21 May: ESRI UK Annual Conference 2019, London, United Kingdom www.esriuk.com/en-gb/about/events/ac/ overview 11-14 June: HxGN Live 2019, Las Vegas, USA https://hxgnlive.com/2019 16-18 July: Global Mapper and LiDAR Module Training, Perth, WA www.bluemarblegeo.com/training/perth.php 23-25 July: Global Mapper and LiDAR Module Training, Sydney, NSW www.bluemarblegeo.com/training/ sydney.php 14 August: AIMS national conference, Sydney, NSW www.aimsconference.com.au 15 August: 15th Southeast Asia Survey Congress, Darwin, NT https://seasc2019darwin.com.au 17 September: Roads and Traffic Expo, Melbourne, Victoria www.terrapinn.com/roadsandtrafficexpo 28-30 October: Commercial UAV Expo Americas, Las Vegas, USA www.expouav.com

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The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

Publisher Simon Cooper Editor Daniel Bishton dbishton@intermedia.com.au National Advertising Manager Jon Tkach jon@intermedia.com.au Graphic Designer Alyssa Coundouris Prepress Tony Willson Circulation/Subscriptions Chris Blacklock Production Jacqui Cooper Subscribe Position is available via subscription only.

A 12 month subscription (6 issues) is AUD$76.00. To subscribe visit www.intermedia.com.au, phone 1 800 651 422 or email: subscriptions@intermedia.com.au.

Website www.spatialsource.com.au Position is published six times a year, in February, April, June, August, October and December by Interpoint Events Pty Ltd. ABN: 9810 451 2469 Address: 41 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 Ph: +61 2 9660 2113 Fax: +61 2 9660 4419 Editorial inquiries should be sent to: dbishton@intermedia.com.au Advertising inquiries should be sent to: jon@intermedia.com.au Ph: +61 2 8586 6128 Reprints from Position are permitted only with the permission of the publisher. In all cases, reprints must be acknowledged as follows: ‘Reprinted with permission from Position Magazine’, and must include the author’s byline.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher.

Supported by

Centennial reflection

T

his issue marks the 100th since the first Position magazine rolled off the presses in 2002. That first edition was the amalgamation of two publications, Measure and Map and GIS User, assembled by founding editor, Jon Fairall.

The process of reviewing prior published material, and getting intimate with the genesis and history of the voluminous tools and techniques that we cover in this magazine has been a revealing, fascinating and exhausting undertaking. It’s humbling to comprehend earlier rigours of surveying practice, spatial analysis, aerial capture, the creation of bespoke, legacy GIS systems; marvellous to chart their historical, ongoing transformations. It’s been quaint and amusing to witness the results of Moore’s Law and other engineering advancements in miniaturisation retrospectively.

But speaking with Jon, hearing from other seasoned experts and ploughing through thousands of pages of Position back issues has revealed a number of constants. Despite the flux wrought by technology’s unrelenting drive, the teeming hype of new revenue streams and emergent business models, there are recurrent themes and debates.

Discussions about reaching out to convey full extent of spatial data’s transformative power to other industries date back to the beginning of this magazine’s run, and continue today – despite the number of sectors now crunching location data day-to-day.

Vital discussions on diversity and the future of surveying, spatial and STEM disciplines as a whole are ever-present, with dynamic current initiatives charting a strong future.

And while some of our number 0are more allergic to change than others, the industry y 2 19 pril/Ma has been uniformly steered tion Aby leaders with an almost clairvoyant business sense, si o p 30 technological nous and steadfast integrity. This tradition also remains intact. Geospatial practice in 2019 remains simultaneously agile and surefooted in all the sound and fury, able to respond to dramatic transformation and switchbacking trends with opportune, measured pivots that always seem to transcend the whiplash and vertigo that afflicts so many in other tech-adjacent fields.

Underpinning this all is a spirit of unity and genuine community that has bred a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration and cooperation across sectors that is unique. Be proud of our regional community and its innumerable achievements, and enjoy this milestone issue of Position.

Daniel Bishton EDITOR

June/July 2019 – Issue 101 • Open standards – why the big players are embracing openness • UAV, AUV & UGV – the increasing ubiquity of unmanned systems in professional applications • Datums & dynamics – adapting for precision

NEXT ISSUE

Ad booking deadline: 17/05/2019 Ad material deadline: 22/05/2019 Publication date: 6/6/2019

www.spatialsource.com.au 7

news

Data61 launches Robotics Innovation Centre in Queensland CSIRO-owned entity Data61 has opened a purpose-built research facility for robotics and autonomous systems.

The 600 square metre facility contains an open air UAV flying area, a 13 x 5-metre pool for testing AUVs, and the largest motion capture system in the Southern Hemisphere, used to validate data collected by robotics systems.

According to Fred Pauling, leader of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems group at Data61, the centre represents a major expansion of research infrastructure for a market that is projected to be worth $23 billion by 2025.

Young Australians value STEM, but gender inequality persists A survey of over 2,000 Australians aged between 12 and 25 has found that most view STEM skills as important and valuable, but key disparities between genders remain.

A survey of 2,092 students in December 2018 and January 2019 has found that most have positive attitudes towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines.

Eighty percent of survey participants agreed that ‘scientists make a positive impact on the world’, and a strong perception among respondents that possessing knowledge and skills in these subjects is important for future employment opportunities.

Nominations open for Year In Infrastructure 2019

Winners of the 2018 Year in Infrastructure awards.

8 position April/May 2019

Bentley Systems has called for nominations for its annual Year In Infrastructure awards program, open until April 30.

A key event on the BIM calendar, Bentley’s Year In Infrastructure (YII) awards are a core component of its annual conference of the same name, with the 2019 event taking place in Singapore from October 21 through 24.

The awards are open to users of Bentley software, aimed at recognising ‘infrastructure projects for digital innovations that improve project delivery and/or asset performance.’

Nominations are called for across 17 infrastructure categories, as well as three special recognition categories.

SEASC returns to Australia, early bird closes 20th May It has been 20 years, but the South-East Asia Survey Congress heads back to Australia with a four-day event slated for Darwin this August.

Organisers are calling SEASC19 a “must-attend event”, with a detailed program built around the inclusive theme of ‘Collaboration,

Communication and Capacity Building’.

Hosted by SSSI and the ASEAN Flag Surveying nations, the 15th SEASC is to be held at the Darwin Convention Centre 15-18 August, drawing an expected 500 surveying and geospatial professionals from all over Australasia.

“SEASC 2019 Darwin is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our survey and geospatial professionals to hear the important influences and trends in the surveying industry, across four great days,” said conference convenor and Surveyor General for Northern Territory, Rob Sarib.

Sarib says the ultimate outcome for the congress would be the ratification of a declaration or resolution.

“This statement could identify and prioritise the challenges, and the necessary actions that will be required to ensure the sustainability of our profession, our relevance and value to the community, said Sarib. “In other words, it would set the foundations for our future.”

He adds that the timing of the event will also give delegates a great opportunity to get a taste of the culture of the Top End. SEASC19 takes place at the same time as the annual Darwin Festival, which fills the city with cabaret, theatre, dance, visual arts and outdoor concerts under the stars .

Early bird registration will save delegates $300 and closes 20th May.

www.spatialsource.com.au 9

news Aerobotics closes $US4m funding round

Aerobotics Co-founders James Paterson and Benji Meltzer.

Artificial intelligence-driven imagery analytics startup Aerobotics has closed a series A funding round worth $US 4 million.

In an announcement indicative of the burgeoning growth in the agricultural analytics space, the startup announced the closing of the round at the opening of its new offices in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aerobotics is built on a proprietary AI product that processes UAV- and satellitederived imagery to analyse health, pests, volume and other calculations down to the individual tree or vine level on agricultural plots.

Mitsui invests in Position Partners Mitsui & Co. has acquired a 20 percent holding in Position Partners in an effort to drive digital transformation in the construction and resource extraction sectors.

Position Partners said in a statement that Mitsui’s investment opens the door to collaboration opportunities within the Mitsui network.

Martin Nix, Position

Partners CEO, said it would allow them to offer greater value to their customers.

“Mitsui’s reach and vision into global business optimisation is considerable and the company’s investment in Position Partners will assist us to identify and leverage technology that is evolving both within and beyond our core industries,” he said.

Smart helmet startup off to a flying star Sydney startup Forcite has closed a recent $1 million funding round as they prepare to trial their smart, sensor-laden motorcycle helmet on Australian roads.

Alfred Boyadgis, founder & CEO of tech startup Forcite, very nearly didn’t live long enough to see this day.

Coming off his motorcycle five years ago, his helmet

split in two, causing the attached action camera to come within a hair’s breadth of penetrating his skull.

“Our innovative smart helmets feature the Forcite AI system that serves as a complete platform for the riding ecosystem, connecting motorcyclists to roads, communities and cities,” he said.

One of Fleet’s Proxima nanosatellites.

Kennards Hire announces IoT asset tracking initiative One of Australia’s largest equipment hire companies has kicked off a project to track its assets, in partnership with IoT company Fleet.

Kennards Hire announced the partnership yesterday afternoon and will be one of the first to be connected to Fleet’s constellation of Centauri satellites.

Telemetry data from rental equipment that is connected to Fleet’s satellite-enabled LoRaWAN network will allow movements to be tracked anywhere at anytime.

Fleet recently announced plans to expand its coverage after booking out its initial service offering in 24 hours, and plans to launch another 10 nanosatellites by 2020.

10 position April/May 2019

Space agency signs MOU with ACT The Australian Space Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ACT government to cooperate closely on developing Australian spacereliant industries.

The agreement will see the Adelaide-based agency and ACT government seeking to cooperate on quantum communications, deep space communications, design, test and qualification of

space hardware, space situational awareness, and space law.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA said the signing demonstrated his government’s commitment to supporting space industries, including critical infrastructure.

“We want to ensure that the ACT’s own space industry can continue to grow with the support of the agency,” he said.

Image: NASA/JPL.

Situational awareness in space Western Sydney University’s International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) has built a mobile event-based camera system that can deliver unprecedented temporal resolution when capturing objects in space.

Director of ICNS Professor André van Schaik described the unit as a mobile space situational awareness (SSA) module.

The camera system developed by ICNS uses biologically-inspired eventbased cameras to overcome traditional limitations of exposure and saturation, allowing the AstroSite system to capture high-speed space phenomena during the day, from the ground.

Such capabilities have obvious defence applications, with the AstroSite project’s development supported by the RAAF’s Project Jericho.

Event based Neuromorphic Space imaging mobile facility takes shape.

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www.spatialsource.com.au 11

news Artist’s impression of the future Square Kilometre Array in Western Australia.

Square Kilometre Array founders sign Intergovernmental treaty Australia joined six other nations in signing on to an international treaty to form the organisation that will oversee the delivery of the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.

The Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, will be the largest science facility on the planet, with infrastructure spread across three continents on both hemispheres. Its two networks of hundreds of dishes and thousands of antennas will be distributed over hundreds of kilometres in Australia and South Africa, with the headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Australia, China, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and the United Kingdom signed the treaty in a ceremony in Rome, establishing the Square Kilometre Array Observatory.

Karen Andrews, Australia’s Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, said the Convention will lead to decades of scientific and industrial outcomes.

The organisation says more than $1.1 billion in contracts should start being awarded in 2020 as SKA comes to life.

Testing to ready drones for lunar cave mapping LiDAR equipped drones may soon be mapping caves on the moon and Mars, according to the SETI Institute and Astrobotics Technology, a space robotics startup.

Testing a terrestrial drone and LiDAR system at the Lofthellir ice tube cave in Iceland, SETI Institute planetary scientist Pascal Lee said that caves in the lunar or martian environments could give shelter from inhospitable conditions on the surface: radiation, wide temperature swings and micrometeorite bombardment.

“We went to Iceland to study a lava tube with massive amounts of ice inside it to understand better both the potential hazards and opportunities presented by the many lava caves we hope to explore on the Moon and Mars,” he said.

Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave, Iceland. Courtesy SETI Institute.

POSITION’S NEWS ORIGINATES FROM Australia and New Zealand’s only site for surveying and spatial news.

Subscribe now for your FREE weekly newsletter at www.spatialsource.com.au 12 position April/May 2019

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q&a

Q&A with Erin Peterson Making a splash last year was a groundbreaking citizen science project. As the ABC’s feature project during Science Week, the app allows amateur marine biologists to assist conservation efforts by classifying imagery from their mobile phone, and uploading their own. But behind this innovative approach to categorising data lies a highly sophisticated predictive mapping engine that is creating an extremely powerful spatial tool to aid management efforts on the Great Barrier Reef. We sat down with project lead, Dr. Erin Peterson, to find out more.

Position: Erin, welcome. Could you describe the motivation and intended outcome for this engaging, crowdsourced approach to data categorisation?

EP: We were interested in looking at innovative ways to monitor the Great Barrier Reef. The challenge is that it's just massive. It's 2, 300 kilometres long and contains something like 25,000 square kilometres of coral reefs. So it's just physically and financially impossible to go out and monitor coral on the ground comprehensively. In a lot of cases and environments you can monitor with high resolution, remotely sensed products, but because coral reefs are underwater, once you get a certain depth you can't you can't see them anymore, so you don't have that option of using remote sensing. So we were looking for a creative way to increase the spatial and temporal coverage of data on the Great Barrier Reef, so that the managers have better information to make more informed decisions.

14 position April/May 2019

Position: My assumption is that this classified imagery will be to help train a machine learning algorithm. Could you tell some specifics about how the inputs from users of Virtual Reef Diver will be used?

EP: Well, we’re not using machine learning, but you could. What you see online is the ‘citizen science’ face of it, but Virtual Reef Diver is really an innovative step in the way that we monitor and model the marine environment. With all the new technologies coming online, there are these high volumes of data coming in. So we've built a software platform that ingests data from multiple sources, and those sources might be from professional teams like the Australian Institute of Marine Science or university researchers, or these images that citizens can contribute and classify. Behind the scenes, that data is being manipulated and modelled automatically and then we predict the maps of coral cover, with estimates of uncertainty. So the idea is to create this automated platform, so that as data comes in, it can be modelled and used to make predictions based on the most up-to-date information possible. With hundreds of thousands of images coming in, humans are

the bottleneck in that workflow. So that's the real spatial science innovation here in terms of environmental monitoring.

Position: In my opinion, it’s a stroke of genius to invite public involvement in this way. Where has the imagery been sourced from, and what processes are in place to validate users’ input?

EP: The citizen science data is just another data source, and so each of our data sources have different characteristics, whether they come from professional teams or citizens. The images have different extents, different quantities of points being classified, for example. When it comes to the citizen data, the quality of the classification is different. We know that people at home aren't always going to get the answer right, so we weight the data to account for the fact that it is collected using different methods and varying quality.

Then we use a spatial statistical model to make predictions at a 500-metre spatial resolution, with estimates of uncertainty.

This model is quite exciting because you know, as spatial scientists we know

that when you collect data in a certain place, it's most likely going to give you some idea of what's happening nearby, even if they’re places where you didn't go and sample. So we know that things that are related in space, and we can quantify that in a spatial statistical model that allows us to make better predictions in areas where we didn't sample.

Position: How will the outputs of this model, within the larger project contribute to more comprehensive maps of the Great Barrier Reef?

EP: Right now we’ve made predictions from 2002 to 2015, but the system is designed to make updated maps as new data come in. So, the key issue we are trying to solve is that there are no publicly available coral cover maps of the GBR. Furthermore, some of the other models used to predict coral cover didn’t use all the available information. For example, a lot of the existing maps are generated based on the Australian Institute of Marine Science Long-term Monitoring Program or the Marine Monitoring Program, which revisit the same 135 sites every other year.

So our map is currently the most comprehensive map of coral cover, the

only publicly available one and we make predictions at 500 square metre scale.

So if you are monitoring and reporting, now you can summarise cover at different spatial scales – so at a reef, at a region or the whole of the GBR – and based on the most up-to-date information possible. You can really see how you’re doing with coral cover as a reef health indicator.

Position: What will the primary use of these maps be, and how will they contribute to management and conservation efforts for the Great Barrier Reef?

EP: So, the monitoring that goes on now is specifically designed to look at trends at a few representative sites but it doesn't give us the big picture – the spatial heterogeneity that's going on and how it's changing on the reef.

This information is really important when it comes to reef interventions, such as genetically modified coral. We can’t plant coral larvae everywhere, but we can seed reefs that are strongly connected to other reefs through ocean circulation. With

traditional resources, we don’t have a good idea of overall coral cover, which you need to carry out genetic connectivity modelling, monitor disease outbreak, crown of thorns starfish outbreaks and other types of analysis for this kind of intervention.

The other key advantage of this new map is that it’s open – being publicly available, it means that people can use it in their own scientific projects or management problems that they're working on.

Position: Fantastic, many thanks for your time Erin.

Erin Peterson will present a plenary at Locate19 at 10:25 am on Tuesday, April 9. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 15

sponsored feature

Next Gen GIS The emergence of Web GIS, moving to the Cloud and understanding the importance of user-centric design

O

nce relegated to “we might look at that in the future”, GIS capability has quickly become “we need this now – how soon can you do it?”. Companies across the country are continually undergoing company-wide deployment, sharing an understanding that successful integration of a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be an incredibly powerful asset in a digital transformation strategy. Just as we learn to employ world-class geographic insights across all areas of business, GIS is growing at a faster rate than ever before, requiring organisations to act quickly.

Starting from the ground up, the transition from traditional GIS to web-based GIS is driving the need for infrastructure that is flexible and usable by both GIS experts and non-GIS users. The emergence of Web GIS is complemented with new infrastructure to accommodate advanced, new capabilities through full Cloud deployment. This process not only opens opportunities to focus on User Experience (UX) for internal and external communication but implements it as a vital asset for app and digital development.

The emergence of Web GIS Traditionally, GIS users worldwide have compiled and built geographic data layers about topics critical to their work and for their particular areas of interest on a caseby-case basis. The desire to streamline this process using computers led to the early development of GIS and from this, the rise of Web GIS has grown in popularity across the globe. Bringing in the added capability of additional layers and different datasets relevant to a chosen geographic field,

16 position April/May 2019

Web GIS provides organisations access to configurable, fit-for-purpose, easy-to-use apps with the ability to produce maps, edit data, work in the field, search datasets, and perform analysis.

With this simpler approach to GIS content, anyone in the organisation (with minimal or no GIS-centred training) can now perform tasks previously only possible by a specialist, meaning that the GIS specialists can get back to what they do best – GIS. This also creates new patterns for GIS users to easily disseminate knowledge, providing the ability for non-GIS users to integrate and leverage information through user-friendly methods – a key change from traditional GIS.

Moving to the Cloud The implementation of Web GIS is only possible with the appropriate underlying infrastructure positioned to face the challenges that may lie ahead. With tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft leading the way, Cloud deployment supports organisations to streamline their geospatial resources into one solution. When looking at what it takes for a successful deployment of Cloud GIS, the process can be identified by four key pillars.

1. Scalability: The capability most commonly associated with Cloud GIS – the scope to add or remove resources to meet changing organisational needs.

For example, the ability to scale the environment up during high customer demand periods, or, to accommodate changing numbers of users if you have a provisional workforce. This scalability helps create a lean, wastefree model that fits an organisation's need at any given time.

2. Flexibility: This includes the capacity for fast deployment. Organisations need to have an agile environment to which they can add new technology, easily turn production or non-production environments on or off as work scales up or down, or to change their infrastructure requirements as their business evolves.

3. Cost: This is defined by the fact that in the Cloud, organisations can deploy for what they need, eliminating unnecessary technology and improving overall ROI. Considering the overall cost of an in-house or enterprise set up, the value of having a set budget, combined with lower IT costs, usually works out as a more fiscally responsible option. Total cost of ownership of a project, from start to finish, needs to be a key consideration when looking into Cloud deployment.

4. Risk minimisation: Understanding whether your organisation needs high availability for improved business continuity or what might provide backup for failover and redundancy of internal infrastructure, are questions that impact the type of Cloud architecture that will best suit your organisation.

Whether government or commercial, the path is often the same with businesses looking at implementing Cloud GIS capability tending to move an entire system – a complete IT infrastructure.

For commercial organisations, the value of Cloud is most often driven by transformational, organisation-wide change. These organisations often need to drive cost savings to meet a transformation in the products or services they’re offering, and subsequently cast

Even though the journeys and the timeframes may differ, commercial and government clients alike end up with the same benefits and outcomes: a costeffective, scalable and flexible Cloud GIS. a wider net for Cloud implementation – along with aggressive deadlines.

Government clients, on the other hand, take a more incremental approach to Cloud transformation. This makes sense when you consider the driving imperatives of any government department: stability of service and community confidence.

Government agencies tend to start with a very specific application that will be used as a test case to ensure that stakeholders – and the community – are comfortable with the outcome, and that the risk level is acceptable and viable.

Once that level of confidence is achieved, government agencies can expand their Cloud footprint, backed by the data from the initial rollout.

Even though the journeys and the timeframes may differ, commercial and government clients alike end up with the same benefits and outcomes: a costeffective, scalable and flexible Cloud GIS.

Understanding usercentred design Appealing to both GIS experts and non-GIS users is now a key focus for organisations wanting to gain traction

Source: Esri Australia

and succeed in a crowded, competitive market. With geospatial apps designed for widespread use, the importance of considering user experience is essential.

At its core, user-centred design is an approach to problem-solving that puts the people you’re designing for at the heart of the process, considering their needs before building a solution. UX is what connects the business to the user – and good UX will deliver an experience where users’ needs and expectations are met, without frustration, ensuring customer satisfaction and a stronger brand reputation.

Though it may often seem quicker, easier and cheaper to make assumptions about the needs of your users, projects developed with a user-centred approach typically cost less in the long run, deliver more value and provide end-users with solutions that exceed expectations. If an online product or service is difficult or confusing to use and in turn creates a frustrating user-experience, it can quickly become user-less (and in turn useless).

The smallest change in how you present or represent spatial information could have a dramatic effect on user uptake.

Before you start creating apps or products, you need to know who your users are and what they need. User experience research applies investigative techniques that evaluate user behaviours, needs and motivations in order to define requirements for a product or service.

This often leads to ‘a-ha!’ moments, when insights blow assumptions out of the water.

When upgrading or improving an existing application, the questions you ask might be “how many people clicked on this?” or “how many uses are accessing this tool on mobile?”. This quantitative research can be measured numerically, and is valuable in identifying what is currently happening on a map or app.

In order to understand the reasons, opinions, and motivations of the user, an explorative approach is needed – often in the form of interviews or conversations.

We answer questions such as “Why does this data matter to the user?” “What task do we need to complete?” “Why does the user need to access this information in the field?”. This qualitative research provides insights into problems or helps to develop ideas and hypotheses to explore further.

Looking deeper into people’s behaviour and needs, we can find meaningful solutions and harness technology in a usable way. Whether organisations continue with traditional GIS or employ the advanced capabilities of Web GIS, with the right infrastructure and consideration of both internal and external users, the options available mean that the unique problem-solving capability of GIS is now available to more organisations than ever before.

Hear more on full GIS deployment including Cloud services, UX and digital transformation at Locate19 Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. For more information visit https://esriaustralia.com.au/ea-services.

Information provided by Esri Australia.■ www.spatialsource.com.au 17

feature

Fit for purpose:

GDA94-GDA2020 transformation grids fit for NSW NICHOLAS GOWANS AND VOLKER JANSSEN

T

he Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 (GDA2020) is now the official national datum of Australia, but how should surveyors bring their existing datasets from GDA94 to GDA2020?

The Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) recommends transformation grids, which can be easily obtained online and used with existing software, as a simple and nationally consistent method for transforming between Australian datums.

Consequently, two grids have been produced to cater for different realisations of GDA94.

With a focus on NSW, this article explains the composition and purpose of each GDA94-GDA2020 transformation grid. It identifies accuracy and data origin as the two key factors determining their appropriate use.

Performance analysis results indicate that both grids are fit for purpose in NSW when used in the appropriate circumstances. Prior to transformation, users must know if their existing GDA94 dataset is affected by known GDA94 distortions (present in the Survey Control Information Management System, SCIMS), or if those distortions have already been removed by other methods.

Background In October 2017, GDA2020 was gazetted as Australia’s new, improved national datum.

When spatial information users wish to adopt the new datum, they may consider transforming their legacy datasets from the now superseded GDA94 to GDA2020.

The following recommendations apply whether transforming data permanently to GDA2020, or instead using a transformation on-the-fly to combine data from multiple datums at the time of application.

In recent years, spatial data utilisation has soared, aided by open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and government efforts to deliver open spatial data. As a consequence, the important role datum plays in meaningfully aligning data from a variety of sources is highlighted.

Failure to correctly manage datum across multiple datasets could compromise any analysis. Further, decimetre-accurate or better real-time

18 position April/May 2019

positioning (e.g. RTK, DGNSS or SBASbased positioning) now means tagging datasets with appropriate metadata, such as datum and even date observed, has become critical. The user must know their data, know their date and know their datum.

In Australia’s previous datum modernisation efforts, transformation grids were utilised as a simple and efficient method for transforming datasets to the new national standard.

This strategy is now continued to aid uptake of GDA2020 from GDA94 with the development of two transformation grids and a number of tools, plug-ins and services.

for 3D data and requires coordinates to be expressed in an earth-centred Cartesian (XYZ) system.

The transformation can be computed using just seven parameters. However, the formula can appear daunting to users without a background in geodesy and cannot be applied to 2D data.

Furthermore, conformal transformations cannot compensate for localised survey network distortion because this method only accounts for simple mathematical differences, and tectonic plate motion, between the frames.

GDA94-GDA2020 transformation: The harder way

A grid transformation is a twodimensional method of transforming between reference frames and is ICSM’s preferred method of transforming between Australian datums. When creating the grid, transformation components (i.e. a series of latitude and longitude shifts across all of Australia) are initially computed across a grid at a set interval.

Given a transformation grid, various interpolation methods can then be applied at the user end to compute shifts at an exact user-determined location (Figure 1).

Bi-linear interpolation is adopted by most GIS packages, but other interpolation strategies are possible.

A conformal (often called a similarity) transformation can be used to transform between reference frames. This transformation owes its name to its characteristic of preserving angle and shape throughout the process.

The 3-dimensional conformal transformation between GDA94 and GDA2020 is described in the GDA2020 technical manual and accounts for the difference in scale, rotation and translation between reference frames.

This transformation method is suitable

GDA94-GDA2020 transformation: The easier way

Figure 1: Grid interpolation principle (courtesy of Phil Collier).

Just like the similarity transformation, a grid transformation is considered ‘reversible’, i.e. each transformation can be undone by applying the grid parameters in the opposite direction. It is also ‘traceable’ and ‘reproducible’ by all users.

Transformation grids in exactly the same format were produced to aid users in the transition from the Australian Geodetic Datum (e.g. AGD66, AGD84) to GDA94. As such, the new GDA94GDA2020 transformation grids are backward compatible with any existing software that can accept a user-input grid.

Two GDA94-GDA2020 transformation grids have been developed: ‘conformal only’ and ‘conformal and distortion’.

Transformation grids For some time, DFSI Spatial Services has been simultaneously providing two realisations of GDA94 for use in NSW. The first, based on the original GDA94 adjustment, termed GDA94(1997) in NSW, is available via SCIMS and suffers from adjustment deficiencies in the original GDA94 definition, and the subsequent accumulation of distortion in further adjustments.

The second realisation, based on the most recent national realisation of GDA94, termed GDA94(2010) in NSW, is available via more modern positioning technologies such as AUSPOS and CORSnet-NSW, and is effectively distortion-free. Because of this difference, the NSW Surveyor General’s directions recommend performing site localisations to align CORSnet-NSW-based surveys (distortion-free) to SCIMS (with inherent GDA94 distortion).

Consequently, two transformation pathways from GDA94 to GDA2020 were required: one which assumes distortionfree input data, i.e. GDA94(2010), and one which compensates for the localised distortions embodied in SCIMS, i.e.

GDA94(1997).

Regarding ‘site localisation’ versus ‘site transformation’ terminology: In previous articles, DFSI Spatial Services used the term ‘site transformation’ to describe the process of matching GDA94(2010) to GDA94(1997), e.g. from CORSnet-NSW to SCIMS. This article uses the term ‘site localisation’ to avoid any potential confusion regarding transforming between reference frames compared to transforming a site to match local survey control.

Conformal only transformation grid The conformal only transformation grid, often denoted ‘con’, is simply a grid representation of the similarity transformation. It contains the latitude

and longitude shifts between GDA94 and GDA2020 for each grid node, based solely on the seven-parameter similarity transformation parameters.

Conformal and distortion transformation grid The conformal and distortion grid, often denoted ‘cpd’ for conformal plus distortion, is designed to compensate for any known localised distortions present in the control survey networks of each state and territory in Australia. In NSW, DFSI Spatial Services has contributed approximately 26,000 marks, which are common between the GDA94 and GDA2020 networks, in order to compute the localised distortion across NSW (Figure 2).

The distortion component at each grid node has been computed based on the surrounding input data falling within a search radius of 45.5 kilometres. If there are no input data points within this critical distance, the computation reverts to a conformal only solution and no distortion will be apparent.

Grid composition and extent Both national transformation grids are divided into five non-overlapping sub-grids, with grid nodes every 54 arc seconds (about 1.5 kilometres). Currently, the transformation grids cover mainland Australia and Tasmania.

NTv2 format The National Transformation version 2 (NTv2) format was developed by the Canadian Geodetic Survey of National Resources Canada. It has been adopted for datum transformations by many international survey organisations and is supported in most GIS software packages.

Figure 2: GDA94(1997) to GDA94(2010) distortion vectors across NSW in metres.

The NTv2 format provides a simple, efficient and comprehensive file structure for storing latitude and longitude shift parameters for each grid node. It is compatible with sub-grids, which can be used to alter the overall coverage area or densify areas with high rates of change.

NTv2 also provides space to report on the known or estimated accuracy of these shifts. In the GDA94-GDA2020 conformal and distortion transformation grid, this is a measure of the consistency (i.e. reliability) of the distortion surrounding the grid node rather than an absolute accuracy statement.

Furthermore, reliability figures can only be computed where distortion is modelled.

It should be noted that the GDA94GDA2020 transformation grids are supplied as binary grid shift (.gsb) files and are not human readable unless converted to text.

EAST sub-grid (conformal and distortion) behaviour NSW users will primarily be concerned with the performance of the EAST subgrid, which covers the whole of NSW, ACT and Victoria, as well as some of Queensland and South Australia. The performance of the conformal only grid is uniform and does not require further review.

The performance of the conformal and distortion transformation grid, however, varies with location. This variation is mapped in Figure 4 and provides a useful indication of the magnitude of distortion across NSW and Victoria.

In addition, reliability figures have also been mapped (Figure 5), which indicate the consistency of distortion within each grid node computation. www.spatialsource.com.au 19

LEFT: Figure 4: Distortion component across the EAST subgrid in metres.

RIGHT: Figure 5: Reliability component across the EAST subgrid in metres.

How to access and apply the grids A suite of transformation products and tools has been published online by ICSM (http://www.icsm.gov.au/datum/gdatransformation-products-and-tools). Users are guided towards the grid (.gsb) files, an online transformation service that can be operated with simple ‘drag-and-drop’ functionality, as well as software and plug-ins.

How to decide which grid to use The accuracy and the origin (i.e. provenance) of the dataset both need to be considered when applying a transformation grid from GDA94 to GDA2020. The difference between GDA94 and GDA2020 horizontal positons in NSW is about 1.5 metres. Therefore, any dataset referenced to GDA94 with an accuracy of worse than a few metres is already GDA2020 compatible and does not require transformation.

However, users may still choose to transform this data to avoid introducing an extra 1.5 metres of known error. In addition, as with all decisions regarding dataset transformation, it is important to consider the topological relationship between your datasets, e.g. if your GIS has established coincident locations between different datasets. Regardless of their accuracy, it is best to transform all related datasets using the same transformation parameters.

In NSW, the largest known horizontal distortions are in the order of about 0.3 metres. The conformal only transformation grid is sufficient for any GDA94 data with an accuracy of 0.5 metres (but either grid could be applied at these accuracy levels).

For data more accurate than 0.5 metres, the origin of the data must be considered. If the data is derived from local (SCIMS) survey control, then the conformal and distortion transformation grid is appropriate.

20 position April/May 2019

If the data is derived directly in GDA94(2010), e.g. from CORSnet-NSW (without a site localisation) or from AUSPOS, then distortions in local survey control are already eliminated and the conformal only transformation grid is appropriate. Figure 6 provides a decisionmaking flow chart to guide NSW users in this regard.

If the origin of a GDA94 dataset is unknown, then it is not possible to transform to GDA2020 and retain a nominal accuracy better than the known local distortions. For this reason, metadata is critical and has been affectionately described as a “love note to the future”.

Where the original survey measurements (with connections to GDA2020 stations) are available, a new least squares network adjustment based on GDA2020 control will provide the most accurate and rigorous solution. However, this can be far more time consuming and is not applicable to point-based datasets.

GDA94 dataset horizontal accuracy

Evaluation of the conformal only transformation grid The conformal only transformation grid was evaluated by transforming the 250,000 marks across Australia comprising the GDA2020 national adjustment from GDA2020 to GDA94 using the sevenparameter conformal transformation, and then back to GDA2020 with the conformal only transformation grid. The resulting coordinates were compared against the original GDA2020 coordinates.

The results show that the conformal grid will introduce a negligible amount of computational error when compared to the 7-parameter conformal transformation: a maximum difference in Easting and Northing of ±0.001 metres, with standard deviations of 0.0003 metres.

The conformal only transformation grid is considered fit for purpose for use in NSW. It may be simpler to use than the alternative seven-parameter conformal transformation method.

> 3 metres

The dataset is already GDA2020 compatible

0.5 – 3 metres < 0.5 metres

CORSnetNSW or AUSPOS (no site localisation applied)

SCIMS

Figure 6: Decision-making flow chart for selecting a GDA94-GDA2020 transformation grid in NSW.

Conformal only The conformal only transformation grid is recommended, although either grid is suitable as distortions are generally below this level.

(e.g. 4th order or better in NSW)

Dataset origin

Transformation not required

(or CORSnetNSW with a site localisation applied)

Conformal only The conformal only transformation grid should be applied because these positioning methods do not propagate the localised distortion in SCIMS.

Conformal and distortion The conformal and distortion transformation grid should be applied to compensate for the localised distortions present in the SCIMS.

feature Evaluation of the conformal and distortion transformation grid Two tests were conducted to evaluate the conformal and distortion grid across NSW, based on 26,000 common points as well as independent (terrestrial) data.

Test 1: Common stations between SCIMS and GDA2020

The conformal and distortion transformation grid was first evaluated by transforming the coordinates of approximately 26,000 SCIMS marks from GDA94 to GDA2020, and comparing against the adjusted GDA2020 coordinates. The chosen marks were part of the GDA2020 national adjustment and required SCIMS coordinates with horizontal Order 4 or better and GDA2020 coordinates with horizontal Positional Uncertainty (PU) of 0.1 metres or better (1 sigma).

We found that 86.3%, 96.4% and 99.6% of SCIMS-to-GDA2020 transformed coordinates are within 0.01 metres, 0.02 metres and 0.05 metres, respectively, of the expected GDA2020 adjusted coordinates.

There are no notable differences between Easting and Northing components.

Differences of up to 0.27 metres are evident at a very small number of the marks analysed (i.e. < 0.1%). These rare outliers occur where SCIMS behaves inconsistently, e.g. where a remote trigonometrical station was re-surveyed and its position improved, but its eccentric marks were not updated in SCIMS, altering the relationship between trigonometrical station and eccentric marks.

Test 2: Independent data

CORSnet-NSW started delivering services in both GDA94 and GDA2020 in February 2019, while DFSI Spatial Services is preparing to enable (make available) GDA2020 in SCIMS later this year. Some early proof-of-concept studies were carried out to assess the value in transforming versus readjusting our terrestrial ‘street corner’ traversing networks in SCIMS, which currently are not in the GDA2020 national adjustment.

Terrestrial survey networks in six NSW towns containing a total of 1,881 direction sets, 4,337 distances and 2,635 height differences at 2,759 stations were examined in this evaluation.

Each network was readjusted based on constraints from the national GDA2020 adjustment. The results of the adjustments were compared with the results of simply transforming the SCIMS coordinates via the conformal and distortion transformation grid.

On average, the difference in horizontal position between the two methods was 0.006 metres, with the largest being 0.04 metres. This analysis provides a high level of assurance that transforming SCIMS control will deliver a result close to the more rigorous (and far more time-consuming) method of readjusting.

The conformal and distortion transformation grid is considered fit for purpose for use in NSW. Again, it may be simpler to use than the alternative sevenparameter conformal transformation method, which has the additional disadvantage that it cannot compensate for local distortions.

Nicholas Gowans and Dr Volker Janssen work at Spatial Services, a unit of the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI). ■

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These past years, having seen our customers changing the way they work, we have pro-actively prepared our company to accompany them in this transformation. As our clients base their decisions on larger sets of data that is available, it is our duty to make data easily accessible and to help make sense out of it, which means providing easy tools to analyze data and extract the information they are looking for, such as change detection and temporal analysis, statistics, or object detection. We have also observed a growing demand for an open environment where entrepreneurs and companies can play with different geospatial components to build or complement their own services, may they be geo and non geo experts.To answer such market expectations, we are developing new services, new ways of doing business and new routes of going to market in order to deliver the actionable intelligence required by our customers. The OneAtlas Platform can be seen as the main hub of our digital offer.

22 position April/May 2019

Question: OneAtlas seems to be the entry point to access many of your products and services, could you tell us more concretely what is behind The OneAtlas Platform?

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accuracy; Verde, a brand new API service that delivers fine crop analytics with easyto-use vegetation maps. More Thematic Services are in development and will be added to The OneAtlas Platform soon.

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www.spatialsource.com.au 23

feature

State of Play JON FAIRALL

S

ince the spatial industry’s initial development in the 1970s, its primary driver has been the same: users’ demand for a better understanding of the world. Especially in the early years, most of those users were bureaucrats in government, who saw in the technology the seeds of better decision-making.

However, the technology was always limited by practitioners’ ability to turn the raw material of nature into images, graphs, maps and other useful media.

There were limitations of hardware: hard drives were not big enough to hold the required databases; processors were not fast enough; screens were inadequate.

There were limitations of software: proper spatial indexing was problematic; user interfaces were rudimentary. There were limitations in the data: it didn’t exist; if it did, it was in the wrong format; it wasn’t comprehensive; generating and collecting it was expensive.

Many such limitations of hardware and software no longer exist. In fact, the processing capability that is now available is really quite extraordinary. Database technology has developed to the extent that peta- and exabyte-sized databases are, if not routine, at least no longer remarkable and quite adequate for all spatial information functions.

24 position April/May 2019

In a recent interview, Duncan Guthrie, the director of UK-based application developer 1Spatial, talked about current work with the British land information authority, Ordnance Survey (OS). OS has a nationwide database which is ‘product ready’. This means, he says, that at any given point in time, the data that is extracted from the database to form products for customers will include the latest edits to the database. There are 650 people working as editors, updating 313,000 features a day between them.

This involves parsing 36 million features.

All these changes are available overnight having been edited and validated according to OS rules.

Or consider one response to Hurricane Harvey. Harvey vies with Katrina as the most costly storm on record. It meandered around the Carribbean before it came ashore on the US’ Gulf of Mexico coast in late August 2017, inflicting $125 billion in damage, mostly due to flooding.

Some 30,000 people were displaced.

In the wake of the wind, a consortium of insurance companies, the Geospatial Information Center (GIC), used a fleet of 13 aircraft to provide oblique and nadir images of the affected region. Ryan Bank, who leads the centre, says they flew for two and a half days during which time they produced 60 petabytes of data. This extraordinary effort was of enormous

benefit to insurance companies, who were able to verify damage reports even, in many cases, before claims arrived. Not only were claims settled very much faster than was previously the case, the cost of processing each claim was much reduced.

At the very least, it was possible to divide properties into those that were destroyed, those that suffered marginal damage and those that were unharmed.

The GIC has a new, Australia-specific offering launching at the Locate19 conference in Melbourne. The local chapter will be similarly owned by local insurers – will provide data that will cover 85 to 90 per cent of the population of Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking to Position ahead of the conference, managing director Ryan Bank said his new offering would provide a paradigm shift for the industry – redefining both the insurance industry and the relationship between data suppliers and the government. At first blush it is difficult to see how this can be feasible – there are already numerous satellite and airborne remote sensing products that provide more or less consistent coverage on a national scale.

But he points to an unusual business model. The GIC provides data to its owners, who share costs on a per capita basis, but it also provides data to relevant emergency organisations free of charge.

“The mobile telephone handset is now a central business tool. The projected number of connected devices is staggering: in 2020 we can expect this number to increase to over 20 billion.

We need to configure our products and offerings accordingly.”

ABOVE: Glenn Cockerton, co-chair of the 2026Agenda.

RIGHT: Ryan Bank leads the Geospatial Intelligence Center in the US, soon to launch in Australia.

The organisation provides a base image which can be compared with post-catastrophe imagery to provide damage assessments. This is obviously valuable to the insurance companies, dramatically reducing the cost of processing claims. Bank conceded that the system does not completely replace on-the-ground assessors, but it does reduce the number dramatically.

Bank says that giving the data to emergency managers is a sound business decision. To the extent that first responders make a difference, they lessen insurers’ liabilities. In the Australian context, this could potentially completely alter the way state civil emergency services function. Bank says they have been having discussions with executives of the Emergency Management Spatial Information Network as well as other players in the emergency management community.

The GIC offering may be an exemplar project, illustrating how businesses whoa re not traditional GIS users may access the fruits of spatial information by intelligently applied new models.

But new technologies still have the ability to re-define the industry.

Augmented reality hardware such as Microsoft’s Hololens promises to be truly disruptive in some industry sectors. So does surveying by drone. But still, the contemporary focus is not so much on the technology as the disconnect between the technology and its users. Full–scale GIS is too onerous for some emerging

opportunities – the search is on for better and more intuitive ways of presenting data to users, business models that are a better fit with customers’ businesses and deeper, more accessible analytics.

The new trend takes many different forms. At one level, it is a matter of ergonomics: making the user-interface more readily available and more understandable. “Putting GIS tools into browsers is a key ability,” said Max

Ainscough, a GIS process analyst with Pitney Bowes. “Users should not need advanced GIS skills in order to extract meaningful data from a GIS.” This is a key understanding that will be central to the development of citizen involvement in Smart Cities during the next decade, which presupposes an informed citizenry.

It is not only a question of matching the output of GIS with the expectations of consumers. It is also increasingly important in managing the employeremployee relationship. Ainscough argues that many people now entering the workforce have grown up with instant, slick, digital connectivity in all aspects of their lives. Their tolerance for clumsy interfaces or inadequate access to information at work is minimal.

Pitney Bowes managing director Nigel Lester echoes the sentiment: “The mobile telephone handset is now a central business

www.spatialsource.com.au 25

feature The latest in rapid response manned aerial photography.

A Diamond DA-42 Geostar aircraft, equipped with a Vexcel camera and Riegl laser measurement system.

tool. The projected number of connected devices is staggering: in 2020 we can expect this number to increase to over 20 billion.

We need to configure our products and offerings accordingly,” he said.

At another level, the central problem for spatial industry practitioners is to develop a closer match between the data and the knowledge required by workers.

Jan Schoderer, the Asia-Pacific sales director at Vexcel Imaging says the ability to do relevant analytics on imagery is the driving force behind the industry’s demand for images, and thus his cameras.

‘An image on its own has a certain value perhaps, but to realise its potential, it needs to be embedded in a business process. The key is analytics.’ One could make the same argument about most of the fundamental databases that have been developed, with so much effort, by the industry over the last few decades.

The bureaucratic view of this is perhaps best expressed in the 2026Agenda, a decadal work plan put together by some of the most significant bodies in spatial information. According to publicity put out by the leadership group, a key purpose of the 2026Agenda

26 position April/May 2019

“This year we are seeking for industry to capitalise on the national spatial infrastructure investments of the last two years to do new things.” is to ‘accelerate the provision of coordinated, open access, nation-wide, public spatial information and analytic tools that are easy to use, and facilitate data mining and interpretation for the benefit of all users’.

Writing in the foreword to its 2017 plan, Angus Taylor, the (then) federal assistant minister for cities and digital transformation says the 2026Agenda: ‘provides the vision and direction to enable the spatial industry to deliver national and global services that will support the National Innovation and Science Agenda.’

NISA is a federal government plan to transform government processes by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the IT industry.

Glenn Cockerton, who co-chairs the 2026Agenda, said that the flipside of all this is the overhead of the continusly high

rate of technical changes that demands constant management and adaptation.

Even more significant, at least for some, is the explosion in sources of data and the fact that these data need to be made meaningful for users.

Cockerton hopes that the number and diversity of organisations and individuals willing to drive change will accelerate in 2019. “This year we are seeking for industry to capitalise on the national spatial infrastructure investments of the last two years to do new things,” he said. “Also important will be the drive to connect to the emerging Australian space sector, and to enter new markets.”

If this becomes the real focus of the industry over the next few years, it has the ability to change things profoundly.

For companies in the industry, one of the take home messages of the 2026Agenda, says Glenn Cockerton, is that they need to stop thinking of themselves as GIS companies. “They need to be more entrepreneurial. We need to deliver services and solutions that society and government need,” he said.

Jon Fairall is the founding editor of Position. ■

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100th edition

100th EDITION SPECIAL

A lot has changed since 2002. On Positionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 100th edition, in light of seemingly limitless innovations, gifted interventions and relentless evolution, we reflect on a handful of key technologies and developments that spurred reverberating change for surveying and geospatial practice.

100th edition LEFT: The market for UAV-ready laser scanners is booming. Pictured: Riegl’s VUX-240 and RiCopter.

BELOW: Cyra Technologies’ Cyrax 2500 laser scanner, released in 2000.

BOTTOM: Terrestrial laser scanners have become incredibly powerful, and considerably smaller. Leica’s BLK360.

Laser scanning F

irst cab off the rank in transformative technologies is laser scanning, a technology that has matured rapidly throughout Position’s history, permanently altering the landscape of surveying.

Since the technique’s inception in the 1960s, laser scanners for engineering and surveying applications began to proliferate in the mid 1990s. One of the trailblazing systems produced for our industry was by Cyra Technologies, which was bought by Leica Geosytems in 2001 and continue to be a leader in the space.

Craig Roberts, senior lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW, recalls faculty’s acquisition of this cutting edge technology.

“We purchased a Cyra laser scanner in 1999, one of the first in Australia I think – and it was about the size of a small dishwashing machine,” he said.

Roberts said that beyond the rapid improvements in miniaturisation, resolution and speed throughout the 2000s, the integration with other tools transformed the devices into a staple of surveying kit.

“One of the major advances was including a tilt sensor into the measurements. Prior to that, if the instrument was not level then corrections needed to be made post-processed.

Even now I don’t believe every single measurement is corrected for tilt, as would be the case for a total station, but there are a range of techniques which automate this process at various levels of sophistication,” he said.

32 position April/May 2019

“Laser scanning has then been combined with IMUs, GNSS, odometers and tilt sensors to produce mobile mapping solutions which are hugely beneficial in long road and rail projects due their huge data volumes and reduced hazards for surveyors capturing the data.”

Handheld scanners are now proliferate, compromising fidelity for access to challenging environments, and a range of units now sit between these and survey-grade equipment, propelled

by BIM applications. Position reported on the use of handheld scanners by investigators in the aftermath of the Bali bombings in 2002, and has covered the development and application of this catalysing technology closely since.

Garry MacPhail, geospatial executive manager, Position Partners “Particular technologies stand out as fundamentally changing the surveyor’s toolkit. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, we saw a dramatic change from point-based surveying to string and line surveying, with a design laid out on a data collector.

‘One-man surveying’ emerged in the early 2000s with the refinement of robotic total stations, and by 2005, the standard toolkit we know today of a robotic, GPS base and rover and data collector was established.

The first Bluetooth GPS unit, Topcon’s HiPer Lite, made the technology significantly less cumbersome. Alongside technology evolution, the role of the surveyor has shifted. On a road project, the surveyor has become the data manager across the site. Twenty years ago, when we first controlled a grader with a total station, the ‘pegless jobsite’ was defined as a new goal. Now we can see that reality.

Our business has had a long-standing partnership with Position magazine since its inception. Other industries have a fragmented trade press, but Position magazine has managed to cut-through within our profession to be the industry standard nationally.”

Artist’s rendering of a GALILEO satellite.

Multi GNSS and CORS I

n the time since Position launched, satellite-based positioning has evolved from a futuristic, exclusive concept facilitated by bulky, boxy hardware to a consumer essential used mny times a day. In the intervening transformation, it has revolutionised the geospatial industry.

In issue 2 of Position, authors quaintly theorised that GPS units to help track loved ones (children, specifically), may soon be ‘close to matchbox size’.

Car-based GPS units were a rare and prestigious device.

The expansion of state-aligned constellations of positioning satellites have contributed to this ubiquity – GALILEO coming online in 2006, Russia’s GLONASS system reaching full capacity in 2011, and the rapid development of China’s Beidou system are significant iterations in the expansion of satellite-based positioning services.

But the real story is the developments in and ground-based infrastructure that have enabled the positioning precision that we currently enjoy. Craig Roberts of UNSW said that the development of ground infrastructure, along with the tireless work of the International GNSS Service in establishing standards and quality have enabled these services.

“The ground infrastructure, coupled with the range of constellations has enabled a number of services providing centimetre-level positioning globally, anywhere on Earth – that’s pretty astounding,” he said.

“The services provided by the IGS enable many of these government based services such as AUSPOS, NRCan PPP and SNAP-NZ, along with the commercial services like CentrepointRTX, Veripos, Atlas, Starfire and Omnistar.”

Garry MacPhail, geospatial executive manager at Sydney institution Position Partners, reflects on the product he’s seen mature.

“Our AllDayRTK CORS network began in the mid-2000s and now covers vast areas of the country to enable high accuracy positioning,” he said.

“Its usage is becoming increasingly widespread from farming, to transport and logistics, automated cars, Internet of Things and even the smartphones we all carry,” he said.

We’ve enjoyed charting the ebb and flow of this critical technology over the years, and will continue to relay the news on the exciting developments that should flow from the government’s nearly $225 million commitment to positioning infrastructure in the 2018 budget.

Craig Roberts, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW “Position magazine bridges the gap between academic journals and marketing brochures. It is an accessible place where surveyors can learn about the new work of their colleagues and be introduced to the world of geospatial and vice versa for the geospatial professional. It relies on the contributions of its readers, who likewise benefit from sharing their stories.

To me the most significant developments during Position’s run are the astounding satellite geodesy missions that have been launched since 2003. They have elevated geodesy from a quirky extension of surveying to a fundamental framework of earth science supporting the IPCC reports on climate change. Who decides from where the sea level rises globally? What is the reference surface? Ask a modern geodesist. The gravity missions from Champ, GOCE, Grace and Grace-Follow on, have improved our understanding of the geoid, which is fundamental for heighting used by surveyors. But these missions now enable the sensing of mass movements in the Earth. However, it is hard to decipher these sensed changes in gravity and attribute these to the movement of groundwater (for instance - an important application) or some other effect. That’s still in the realms of geodetic science.”

www.spatialsource.com.au 33

100th edition

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems D

rones, UAVs, RPAs, RPAS – whatever you’d like to call them, small aircraft have brought a step change in capability to the spatial industry.

Whether it’s as a scanning tool, an untrammelled new source of imagery, or a means to maintain infrastructure assets that’s brought those golden tenders within reach – the benefits they promise and access to aerial competency they have delivered is difficult to understate.

Back in Position issue 7, we featured an article on how the demand for aerial imaging for ‘tactical farming’ applications was not adequately met by satellite or manned aircraft sources. The article details DIY photogrammetry setups – one composed of a $200 model plane kit

and a point-and-shoot camera affixed to the fuselage with rubber bands. Despite that the resulting imagery served a key use case for agricultural imagery, the technology employed seems shockingly crude in light of the advanced aircraft now in the marketplace, bristling with an array of sophisticated sensor payloads.

However, it pays to remember that large format digital cameras for manned aerial capture were first entering the Australian market in this era.

Whilst initial forecasts held that these disruptive aircraft were a storm to damage the aerial imaging market irreparably, the record shows that the market thrived.

The appetite for aerial imagery was whet by this newly lowered barrier to access,

Robert Kennedy, Director, CR Kennedy “Position Magazine has been instrumental in delivering news on the latest technological developments in the industry.

Only 10 year ago, LiDAR scanners and drones were seen as cutting-edge technology. Now they’re seen as standard pieces of kit. Position Magazine has been an excellent source for demystifying these new technologies to the industry.

The biggest change in the industry that I’ve seen is the digitisation of spatial data. No longer are single points recorded by hand in a notebook. Now, millions of points per second are recorded with LiDAR scanners. Digitisation has also allowed photogrammetry to move from a highly specialised, time consuming and expensive practise, to standard practise for spatial professionals at a much lower cost whilst achieving higher accuracies. We now see spatial professionals as not only being experts in data acquisition, but also in data management and in the interpretation of large data sets.

With the digitisation of data, spatial data is now more accessible to more people than ever before. At the same time, demand for accurate spatial data has never been higher and will only continue to grow. The work of highly skilled spatial professionals is in more demand, across more industries, than ever before. There’s never been a better time to be a surveyor!”

34 position April/May 2019

giving many their first taste of what could be achieved. The burgeoning market for Australian aerial services has boomed with these new small craft in the fray, led by providers like AEROmetrex, Eagleview (formerly Spookfish) and Nearmap, whose core offerings have built on the parameters and dependability of full scale aerial surveying.

Yet the unmanned craft have opened a whole new world of possibility. Multicopters can zip around treacherous sites where full size helis wouldn’t dare to hover, into the joints of overpasses, inside pressure vessels and inside and out of high-rise construction sites. The boom in imagery from UAVs has spurred new imaging markets and business models with cloud and AI-driven platforms for photogrammetry, feature and point cloud extraction, and powerful LiDAR scanners, optical, infrared and multispectral sensors are now available as potent payloads for the ubiquitous aircraft. RPAS are here to stay.

ABOVE LEFT: DJI M600 Pro with Airsight Australia’s NextCore LiDAR sensor payload.

BELOW: The early days of unmanned photogrammetry.

LEFT: A screenshot from Envision’s ‘Greening the Greyfields’ application, a CRCSI funded project, showing areas that may be suitable for redevelopment.

BELOW LEFT: Eva Rodriguez and Phil Delaney of FrontierSI. BELOW RIGHT: Cows wear highprecision GPS tags at the launch of the SBAS testbed.

Graeme Kernich, CEO, FrontierSI

The CRC for Spatial Information I n late 2002, an announcement was made that would prove to be pivotal for the Australian geospatial industry.

The federal cooperative research centre committee had approved the creation of a CRC for Spatial Information, slated for an initial $13 million of government funding, with commitments of partners worth $46 million ‘in kind’ along with a further $12.3 million in startup capital.

After electing chair Peter Woodgate in May 2003, the CRCSI formally launched in July of that year. A key early project was the ‘43pl’, a mechanism for engaging SMEs in collaborations, established with 39 participating entities in the year of the CRC’s launch.

Successfully raising another $15 million to sustain itself in 2007, the CRCSI-1 wound down in 2009 to continue its work at the nexus of research and industry afresh with CRCSI-2 from January 1, 2010.

It was with this new era that the CRCSI delivered its formidable impact, punching out a total $1.07 billion in research impact since 2010, a benefit

of $3.13 for every invested dollar. In terms of research areas, $499 million of this investment was focused on feature extraction and rapid spatial analytics, $327 million on spatial infrastructures, and $111 million on positioning.

The proof is really in the pudding.

Flagship projects like the Australian Urban DEM Project, contribution in deforestation monitoring for the international Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiative, the SBAS industry testbed and Government Information Licensing Framework helped to build upon and cement a lasting legacy that proved the versatility and ubiquitous transformative power of spatial information and analysis in at the highest levels of government and industry. This record of achievement was further validated and rewarded with the transition into its current form of FrontierSI, Digital Earth Australia’s full funding, the formation of the Australian Space Agency and the landmark commitment to developing positioning infrastructure for Australia.

“The CRCSI set out in 2003 with daring ambition, one that would transform the spatial industry. This ambition was not ours alone. It was set and owned by the leading spatial thinkers from government, industry and academia and due to their mutual efforts and passion we were able to succeed. It has been continually energising to be a part of the spatial transformation of industry sectors.

Conveying the value of spatial remains a constant challenge for us, but we are now seeing the impact that integrating spatial data in real time has for business and community, which makes this message an easier proposition.

Position magazine has been a part of the spatial journey for a long time and its balanced reporting of our industry’s progress is a credit to its team. There are now large data infrastructure initiatives on the agenda across Australia and New Zealand, which will improve data acquisition, dissemination and use. The task before us all is to be bold in bringing these datasets together in a way that collectively transforms our verticals and capitalises on future opportunities.

We will do this by continuing to embrace the strength of our connections and relationships. I am proud that our sector has, for the past 15 years, built a reputation for coming together to work on shared solutions for shared problems.”

www.spatialsource.com.au 35

100th edition

Web services T

hough it’s difficult to recall, there was a time before the internet. Maps used to be paper resources, with decadal update cycles, not real-time dynamics.

Way back in those dark ages, the digitalisation of maps was a painstaking and time-consuming procedure in itself, one for which a small ecosystem of specialised service providers formed an Australian market for this technical, niche process. In building geographic information systems (GIS), they also required businesses, councils and government departments to build enormous, costly databases to handle this massive amount of data, legacy systems that needed to be designed and built at great cost, fed storage capacity and maintained and upgraded over time.

The advent of web services in the early 2000s changed the management of digital maps and the power of spatial data forever – even if the impact wasn’t fully felt yet, the rise of web services would sound the death knell for legacy systems. Evolving from the remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism in the distributed computing environment (DCE) throughout the 1990s, the technique really took off with the extensible markup language (XML)-based system, XML-RPC, which utilised the open hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to transfer requests for data between servers – meaning that text-based data could be exchanged, inspected, and transformed via readily available, open free tools.

The launch of Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET in 2002, which embedded these

PSMA Australia’s Gescape database has a range of live attributes accessible in machine readable form via its Buildings API – an evolution of web services.

ABOVE: Typical .NET GIS applications circa 2003.

techniques in a booming object-oriented software development environment, helped accelerate this into the mainstream and supercharged the development of business-critical web applications.

This shift to client-server architecture this caused meant that ‘organisations that use the data no longer had to worry about the infrastructure to store it,’ as reported in Position 5, 2003. This development ultimately facilitated the move to hosted, horsepower-on-tap services like AWS, and the rise of web-based GIS services, the now-proliferant architecture for so many users of GIS and spatial services – which can now facilitate access to massive, 3D models and realtime access to incredibly rich databases via APIs.

Dan Paull, CEO, PSMA Australia “Position magazine is a stalwart of the geospatial industry.

Interestingly, it’s about the same age as PSMA. We’ve provided analytics-ready geospatial datasets for about 20 years and Position has reported geospatial trends and the industry’s response to them for about the same time.

The technology change we’ve seen over this same period has been rapid. Some technologies are revolutionary, because the magnitude of the change they drive impacts the entire world economy. The digital age has fundamentally altered our industry and its future role.

We have big data. And lots of it - 90% of the world’s data was created in the last 12 months! Autonomous sensor platforms, sensor networks and a rapidly expanding Internet of Things increase the speed of capture and richness of location content.

We have cloud capability. Incredible computing power, vast storage and whole software stacks are now available on-demand, pay-as-you-go – providing access to capability that few could afford a decade ago. We have AI – machine vision and deep

36 position April/May 2019

learning are dramatically changing image recognition and feature extraction, while multi-use launch vehicles, or rockets (love rockets), slashed the cost of putting satellites into space and capturing imagery.

We want to know more, to be better informed, but it’s a paradox – one can be trapped under the weight of increasingly more data. PSMA has tried to combat this by leveraging the technologies above, bring structure and confidence to location data with our GNAF and Geoscape products.

Mainstreaming geospatial data requires innovation and a focus on customer experience. But regardless of who you are, you’ll never have all the necessary ‘smarts’ within your organisation.

Collaboration is essential if you want to innovate, because you need diverse views. It’s collaboration that Position has helped build in the geospatial industry in Australia over its 100 issues.”

The Australian Space Agency I

n 2008, a report titled ‘Lost in Space – Setting a new direction for Australia’s space science and industry sector’ was published by the Senate Standing Committee on Economics.

As the only OECD country without a space agency, the report carried significant weight and pulled no punches in detailing the loss of economic opportunity represented by this departmental vacuum, with no institution to advocate for and negotiate Australian society and industry’s extraterrestrial needs on international launches and space infrastructure.

Being second class citizens in space meant that we were far from leveraging the immense, versatile utility of satellites in a country of massive spatial distribution. The establishment of the Space Policy Unit and three-year Australian Space Research Program

The Australian Space Agency has a mandate to help facilitate more frequent Australian payloads on international missions before local launch infrastructure is operational.

helped kick-start Australia’s ‘new space’ sector, and helped incubate space-adjacent startups and R&D initiatives, the brightest stars of which are based in South Australia – which of the states, led the fiercest lobbying campaign for the agency.

As the chorus of voices calling for a national agency became deafening, the announcement was made at the International Astronautical Congress 2017 in Adelaide, where the agency is now based.

Formed as of July 1 2018 with an initial spend of $41 million, the Australian Space Agency has been recognised in the US House of Representatives, busy finding homes for Aussie payloads on international missions, kicking off state partnerships and advancing the aims of space-reliant businesses and aspiring launch facilities in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

ABOVE: New Zealand’s Rocket Lab has been successfully deploying satellites to orbit from local launch facilities.

Jon Fairall, founding editor, Position “We produced the first issue of Position in November 2002.

The first article concerned itself with the state of the GIS industry – things weren’t going too well, apparently. You might think that nothing has changed – but it has.

In 2002, aerial surveying was still largely a film-based enterprise. Leica and Intergraph were competing with firstgeneration digital cameras but the industry would remain unimpressed for another five years. GNSS positioning was in its infancy. Selective Availability of GPS – the intentional degradation of the signal -- was only turned off in May 2000. Coverage was still not ubiquitous, GLONASS satellites were falling out of the sky, and Beidou was still just an idea in the minds of ambitious Chinese electrical engineers.

Mobile phones were ubiquitous in 2002, but they really were just phones.

We had to wait until 2007 for the release of the iPhone and the possibility of using such devices to take GIS into the field.

Even then, it took software engineers quite a while to shoehorn their products into such small format devices.

In 2002, the main elements of the Spatial Data Infrastructure were beginning to emerge. The first iteration of G-NAF was released in May 2003.

Later that year, the Spatial Business Association applied for funds to build the first interoperability demonstrator.

Many surveyors were worried that the new technology would change the nature of their profession – and it did.

Some things really haven’t changed.”

www.spatialsource.com.au 37

q&a

Q&A with Rod Bryant In developing our feature on the state of play for autonomous vehicles in Australia for Position 99, we became intrigued by the bleeding edge of absolute positioning technology, and it’s application in the autonomous road transport environment.

We sat down with Rod Bryant, Senior Director of Technology in the Positioning Product Centre at u-blox, to get an insider’s perspective on the complexities of highly accurate positioning systems for the road.

38 position April/May 2019

Position: Hi Rod, thanks for being with us.

Let’s start at the top: what are the key applications for high precision GNSS and IMS positioning in increasingly automated road transport?

RB: GNSS is a potentially critical sensor for use in autonomous road transport because it’s the only sensor available offering absolute position. All other sensors used in vehicle automation offer relative position only. Radar and ultrasonics may be used to provide distance to adjacent vehicles and obstacles, LiDAR and vision offer means to identify and estimate distance to landmarks – but only GNSS can place the vehicle directly on the map.

On multi-lane roads in urban areas, though not deep in the ‘urban canyons’,

accuracy of decimetres typically, and 1-metre (95 percent of the time) is achieved by u-blox’s lane accurate positioning solution, which involves dual band high precision GNSS coupled with a 6-degree-of-freedom Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and wheel sensors. This is accurate enough for GNSS to be used in conjunction with other sensors for lane keeping.

GNSS is far more critical for identifying the road segment that the vehicle is on. For example, it can be used to distinguish between a road and an adjacent slipway or ramp, or between two roads stacked vertically. For this

application, other sensors are far less useful and hence the GNSS position is required to be highly reliable. For this application, the receiver must report not just its location but also an upper limit on the error known as a Protection Level.

Another area in which GNSS is critical is for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communications, being introduced using a special version of WiFi (according to the IEEE802.11P standard) and using cellular communications. The primary uses of V2V and V2I (vehicle to infrastructure) communications are to provide warnings for oncoming vehicles, of braking ahead and so on. Many of these use cases are being enabled or enhanced by exchanging vehicle location and speed, thereby allowing closing distance and rate of closing to be calculated within the vehicle to anticipate potential collisions.

Position: Could you describe the main challenges related to integrating these technologies into a safe, fit-forpurpose system, in terms of technical shortcomings and integration with landmark-based positioning systems?

RB: GNSS in urban areas is heavily affected by obscuration caused by buildings, overpasses, trees and so on.

This leads to restricted view of the sky which results in poor geometry (not enough angular spread amongst the satellites for good accuracy). GNSS is even more subject to the effects of reflections (multipath) from buildings, trees, overhead signs, tunnel entrances and so on. As a result, standard precision (codephase based) GNSS is typically limited in accuracy to between five and 10 metres, even when used in conjunction with wheel sensors and inertial sensors. High precision (i.e carrier phase based) GNSS is capable of centimetre accuracy under good conditions but, more importantly, it is far more immune to multipath effects.

However, carrier phase based positioning is difficult and, in the past, has been prohibitively expensive for mass market applications such as automotive applications. Mass market GNSS receiver manufacturers like u-blox have the potential to adapt the designs of GNSS chips that are produced in high volume in order to bridge the gap. For u-blox, this has required a major investment in specialised engineering resources and inhouse development in order to be able to offer a complete solution. For others, the approach appears to be partnering with existing high precision GNSS players.

Furthermore, for carrier phase based positioning to be useful in the urban environment, it must cope with very frequent obscuration of signals. This

GNSS is far more critical for identifying the road segment that the vehicle is on. For example, it can be used to distinguish between a road and an adjacent slipway or ramp, or between two roads stacked vertically. means that the convergence time must be very short. Without going into details, this demands dual band operation and the use of Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) corrections rather than just precise point positioning (PPP) corrections as are typically associated with dual band GNSS receivers.

The conventional way of supplying RTK corrections is far too cumbersome for mass market applications, as it requires twoway communication between the receiver and the server. A broadcast scheme such as SSR-RTK is needed instead, and such services are being pioneered largely driven by this application.

As mentioned above, for some use cases, a high integrity receiver is required (i.e. one that provides protection levels).

A protection level is an upper limit on the positioning error that must be provided for each of the across-track, along-track and vertical directions. The probability that the error will exceed the protection limit must be lower than a specified value called the integrity risk. Typically, this value is somewhere in the range from 1 in 1,000 per hour down to 1 in 10,000,000 per hour. Not surprisingly, this is only feasible because the alert limits, or thresholds on the protection limits applied by the system are several metres rather than, say, one metre.

Aviation GNSS receivers have been subject to such requirements for many years. However, the automotive use case is vastly more complex for the following reasons: 1. In aviation, the receiver operates in a benign environment with the only sources of multipath being the aircraft body itself. Hence the primary sources of large measurement errors are malfunctions in the satellites themselves, which are inherently very rare and can be assumed not to occur simultaneously.

In the automotive environment, multipath is the primary source of large and frequent measurement errors.

2. In order to eliminate the potential for small bias errors in the measurements to build up into large position errors, aviation receivers typically compute position using what is known as a single epoch least squares solution.

The previous position is ignored. In the automotive application, the required accuracy demands a filtered solution and, typically, a Kalman filter is employed. Hence, the probability of small measurement biases can't be ignored.

3. Aviation solutions use code-based positioning whereas the automotive application demands a carrier-phase based solution. This introduces another source of error that is particularly difficult to handle when computing the protection limit and that is ambiguity error. Carrier phase measurements are inherently ambiguous. We know the carrier phase but not, initially, the number of carrier wavelengths between the receiver and the satellite. Luckily, techniques for solving such problems were devised many years ago. However, such solutions can be subject to failure and the protection limit calculation must take account of the probabilities associated with ambiguity errors. www.spatialsource.com.auâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 39

q&a 4. In addition to the ambiguity errors, high precision GNSS makes use of RTK or SSR-RTK correction services to correct the systematic errors from the satellites and the atmosphere. These are subject to integrity risk which must also be taken into account.

5. Aviation receivers also do not make use of additional sensors whereas, for the automotive application, the use of an IMU and wheel ticks is required. This brings in further error sources that must be accounted for.

6. Finally, points 1 and 3 above involve highly non-Gaussian error distributions which are far more difficult to analyse than the Gaussian errors that dominate the aviation GNSS application.

The solution for the above six points and more is still being evolved, but inevitably involves the large scale

This is another example of where GNSS is proving essential, as I understand that GNSS-based positioning is typically used for sensor calibration in these systems.

Position: In your view, will highly automated vehicles rely on a mix of absolute- and landmark-based positioning technologies, or is there foreseeable scope for one category to usurp the other?

RB: In order to distribute risk I see a combination of GNSS-based and landmark-based positioning being used together for the foreseeable future.

Position: Are there any specific challenges (or milestones) associated with the Australian environment that are notable in your view?

characterisation of errors and the development of adaptive error models.

Another problem to be overcome is the inadequacy of road mapping.

Autonomous driving will require featurerich maps with decimetre level accuracy.

Such maps are being developed, but at enormous cost. It seems clear that the maintenance of such maps will not be possible at the required update rate and some sort of crowdsourcing approach may be needed. Again GNSS-based absolute positioning will be at the core of such a scheme.

At this stage in the evolution of autonomous automotive systems, the OEMs are, for the most part, keeping the sensor fusion to themselves. The primary reason is that they want to use multiple sensor systems as cross-checks against each other which allows them to distribute their risks amongst the sensors. If the sensors were more closely integrated it would be far more difficult

40â&#x20AC;&#x192; positionâ&#x20AC;&#x192; April/May 2019

Position: Are you aware of key challenges associated with landmark-based positioning, vehicle mounted sensors?

RB: Like all jurisdictions, the pace of regulatory change is lagging technology development in this area and will likely set the pace.

I see the sheer size of the Australian land mass as something of a problem for our relatively small population. Luckily, most of our population is concentrated in a small number of major cities. I see such centres as being provided with accurate commercial GNSS correction services, while the regions may not be well enough served to facilitate lane accurate GNSS-based positioning. That said, the government has committed to a world leading multi-GNSS SBAS service that will serve the entire continent via GNSScompatible signals. That is a step in the right direction, but what is really needed is a true SSR-RTK correction service which I believe is under consideration.

RB: One of the key challenges is the need to calibrate these sensors for mounting errors and issues with the sensors themselves.

Position: Many thanks for your time and insights, Rod. â&#x2013;

to assign risk to individual sensors. The penalty for this independence is reduced performance and therefore, we should expect an evolution towards tighter integration eventually. Two examples of how this could lead to improved performance include: 1. By allowing the GNSS to work closely with the landmark-based positioning solutions, it should be possible to calibrate out the slowly varying biases in the map registration that commonly afflicts road mapping.

2. Visual odometry (i.e. motion sensing) could be used in conjunction with GNSS and inertials to reduce the effects of inertial drifts.

sponsored feature

In depth with SEASC19’s Convenor Disaster risk management and the impacts of climate change for the surveying industry; analyses of emerging technology; even a dedicated workshop on drone photogrammetry – this year’s South East Asia Survey Congress (SEASC) is as diverse as it is invaluable. Rob Sarib, Surveyor General in Darwin and convenor of the 15th SEASC – which takes place in Darwin on 15-18 August – gives us the low down.

Question: The South East Asia Survey Congress is coming to Australia this August. What can we look forward to at SEASC 2019?

Rob: SEASC 2019 Darwin is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our survey and geospatial professionals to hear the important influences and trends in the surveying industry, across four great days. In today’s environment of rapid change, SEASC 2019 gives attendees the opportunity to engage in discussion with colleagues and to recognise and prioritise the challenges that are confronting our industry. Industry leaders will share best practices and share experiences, in a Congress that will bring together people from different backgrounds, and cultures, including those who have made significant contributions to their chosen areas. Of course, there will also be ample opportunity to meet, socialise and get to know one another, which will lead to new friendships and connections and enable the industry to move forward on national and regional issues.

Q: As the Surveyor-General in Darwin, what are you most excited to share with delegates from across Australia, South East Asia and globally?

Rob: What better starting point than experiencing the relaxed friendly welcome from fellow Territorians, and the tropical lifestyle of our unique dry season. It truly is a remarkable destination and we can’t wait to give people a taste of the Top End. As the Congress occurs during the “Darwin Festival” ( darwinfestival.org.au/ ), delegates will also be able to enjoy a genuine cultural experience including cabaret, theatre, dance, visual arts, and outdoor concerts under the stars.

From a conference perspective, I am excited to showcase the Territory survey and geospatial industry, demonstrating its resilience and the leaders within our community, and how we can achieve results through innovative means, a “can do” attitude, and being less risk adverse.

Q: SEASC 2019 is hosted by SSSI and the ASEAN Flag Surveying nations. What is their aim in bringing it to Australia?

Rob: There are several objectives for hosting SEASC in Australia. The main one is to

42 position April/May 2019

provide a forum for Asia Pacific professionals to enhance their technical knowledge and networks by providing an environment where delegates can meet, communicate and learn from their peers.

Another is for our industry to understand that the survey and geospatial issues being faced in one country are often the same in another, and that a unified and collaborative approach to tackling the challenges is the key.

Our ultimate aim and desired outcome from SEASC 2019 Darwin would be for the SSSI, ASEAN FLAG and attending delegates to ratify a Congress declaration or resolution. This statement could identify and prioritise the challenges, and the necessary actions that will be required to ensure the sustainability of our profession, our relevance and value to the community. In other words, it would set the foundations for our future.

The 15th South East Asia Survey Congress will be held at the Darwin Convention Centre from 15 to 18 August 2019 and welcomes all Surveying and Geospatial Professionals in Asia and the Pacific Region to attend.

Registration is now open. Save up to $300 with early bird registration.

Promo code: POSITION Q: Who from the surveying and geospatial industry should participate in SEASC 2019 and what will they gain from attending the Congress?

Rob: All surveying and geospatial professionals would benefit greatly from attending. This includes graduates to senior professionals or decision makers who influence the direction of our industry.

The organisers strongly emphasise the importance for our young professionals (YP) to actively participate as they are the future of our organisations. SEASC 2019 will be supporting a Careers, Asia Pacific Collaboration and Mentoring Day and will assign the YPs the important role of Chairing our technical sessions.

In addition to enhancing technical knowledge and expanding networks, we hope SEASC 2019 attendees will also see the significance of advocating our relevance to the broader community; be inspired to contribute to national or regional initiatives that will increase our industry profile; and learn to be agile to manage change.

Q: The theme for SEASC 2019 is ‘Collaboration, Communication and Capacity-Building’. What are the key topics and streams inspired by this years’ theme?

Rob: Our objective is to have papers and presentations that address and evoke discussion on the technical trends, issues and challenges of today, as well as the solutions proposed. In total we have secured almost 60 presentations. These presentations are aligned with the Congress theme and 6 main streams, which are – • Cadastre, Land Administration and Management • Capacity Building for the Future • Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change • Emerging Technologies, Platforms and Sensors • Integrated Digital Delivery of the Built and Natural Environment, and • Positioning Infrastructure, Systems and Applications Also to support the technical sessions we are finalising several complimentary workshops that will be focusing on • Modernising cadastral land administration; • Positioning, GNSS CORS infrastructure, applications, GDA2020, height systems; • The role of surveyors and geospatial professionals in building information modelling; • Professional development; and • Drone photogrammetry technology.

Information provided by Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute. ■

15-18 August 2019

SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Darwin Convention Centre

SURVEY CONGRESS

COLLABORATION COMMUNICATION CAPACITY-BUILDING

FEATURED PROGRAM SPEAKERS

ANDY BARNICOAT

ANTHONY MURFETT

Chief of the Positioning & Community Safety Division, Geoscience Australia

Deputy Head, Australian Space Agency

NARELLE UNDERWOOD NSW Surveyor General & Director Survey Operations

CAROLINE MORGAN Chief Executive and Secretary General, International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO)

FULL PROGRAM COMING SOON, VISIT THE CONGRESS WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

SAVE UP TO $300 WITH EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION RATES INCREASE IN MAY 2019

Congress Hosts:

FOLLOW SSSI ON SOCIAL WWW.SEASC2019DARWIN.COM.AU

Figure 1 - The Australian EEZ and the current coverage of survey data (Geoscience Australia 50m Grid 2018).

Filling in the gaps The CSIRO Marine National Facility plays a crucial role in mapping the Australian marine estate STUART EDWARDS AND MATT BOYD

T

he Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is one of the largest in the world, considerably larger than the Australian mainland with an area of some 10 million square kilometres. Despite many years of mapping efforts by various agencies in Australia, only a small percentage of this vast area has been mapped.

Australia has sovereign rights to the natural resources which occur within the water column, seabed and subsoil within the EEZ – and understanding these resources increases our ability to manage and better understand our national resource.

The CSIRO Marine National Facility (MNF) has been contributing to this national mapping effort since 2003, when a Kongsberg EM300 multibeam echoSounder (MBES) was fitted to the RV Southern Surveyor. The Southern Surveyor was a 66-metre vessel, originally built as a trawler in the UK, then converted for marine research and undertook oceanographic, geoscience and biological research for the MNF. After 26 years of service, she was replaced by the purpose built RV Investigator in 2014.

The RV Investigator, a multidisciplinary blue water research vessel, is 93.9 metres long, 18.5 metres wide and powered by diesel-electric proplusion. ‘Multidisciplinary’ in this context means that Investigator can undertake oceanographic, biological, atmospheric and geoscientific research, often all on the same voyage. It has the capacity to house 60 science staff, support staff and crew for a maximum endurance of 60 days. Investigator has been running for 180 days of the year for the last four years.

However 2019 sees the commencement of 300 days of research with all involved excited to see the ship working to its full capacity.

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Figure 2 - Marine National Facility Research Vessel RV Southern Surveyor

Figure 3 - Marine National Facility Research Vessel RV Investigator

feature Old vs New While the MBES technology fitted to the Southern Surveyor was revolutionary for its time, the EM300 (a 30 khz system) was able to map down to approximately 5,000 metres and able to collect a swathe of data up to 5 kilometres wide, the system had an angular coverage of 150 degrees and comprised 135 beams with a 2°x 2° beam footprint. The new MBES technology fitted to RV Investigator has been a step change for collecting bathymetric data within Australia. Permanently fitted with two different MBES systems, RV Investigator can collect bathymetric data in all water depths. These new systems, also supplied by Kongsberg Maritime, comprise an EM122 and EM710-MK2 MBES, capable of mapping the seafloor to full ocean depth with greater resolution than the systems fitted to Southern Surveyor. There is also the capability to fit a portable high resolution EM2040c MBES to the drop keel of RV Investigator, allowing even greater resolution in shallower water.

These three systems operate on different discrete frequencies, enabling bathymetric data to be collected across the range of depths encountered anywhere within the Australian marine estate, from the shallow coasts to full ocean depth. The EM122 uses the lowest frequency of 12kHz and is able to map the ocean floor from 20 to 11,000 metres, utilising a 1°x1° beam footprint. Up to 432 beams can map a swathe approximately six times the water depth, with widths of up to 30 kilometres possible. The EM710-MK2 operates at frequencies in the 40-100 kHz range and is capable of mapping down to approximately 2,500 metres using a 0.5°x1° beam footprint.

The EM2040c operates between 200-400 kHz with a 1°x1° beam footprint, this system has the flexibility to be used with either one or two transducers. In a dual transducer configuration, the sonar heads are tilted approximately 35-40° either side of the vessel greatly increasing the swath width increasing efficiency of surveying in shallow waters.

For any multibeam system to function correctly, a number of ancillary sensors are required: positioning systems, motion reference units and sound velocity sensors. Southern Surveyor utilised a differential global positioning system, utilising single-frequency Virtual Base Station (VBS) Marinestar corrections supplied by Fugro.

RV Investigator operates redundant dual-frequency GNSS positioning systems utilising G2/G4+ corrections, capable of tracking multiple GNSS constellations.

This Precise Point Positioning (PPP)

solution allows achievable horizontal and vertical accuracies at the 2-3 centimetre and 10 centimetre level respectively.

Current MBES systems allow for centimetre-level range accuracies in shallow water, these modern systems also employ smaller beam footprints, which require a horizontal positioning system whose uncertainty is less or equal to the footprint size of the MBES system for high resolution surveys.

Advances in the accuracy of these positioning systems also allow for vertical variations of the surrounding water level

Oceanmaster Inertial Navigation System.

The POSMV offers a tightly coupled solution, which offers an increase in the accuracy and stability of measurements during poor weather or in heavy seas.

The POSMV supplies attitude data to the MBES in three axes, with pitch, roll and heading accurate to ±0.02° and heave measurements to the larger of ±5cm or 5 percent of the measured displacement.

Fundamentally, a sonar measures two-way travel time and conversion to a range requires knowledge of the speed of sound through seawater. Typically,

Figure 4 - MultiBeam EchoSounder (MBES) technology fitted to RV Investigator includes an EM2040c, EM710 & EM122 (Image courtesy of Kongsberg Maritime)

The three systems operate on different discrete frequencies, enabling bathymetric data to be collected across the range of depths encountered anywhere within the Australian marine estate, from the shallow coasts to full ocean depth. to be measured, most notably variations due to the tidal cycle. Measurement of tide is obviously important for the reduction of depths and while tide gauges still offer the greatest accuracy for coastal surveys, measuring the tide in offshore locations has always been a thorny problem for the hydrographic surveyor.

Using GNSS technology to augment these traditional methods offers many benefits including greater accuracy, cost savings and efficiency.

Measurement of the dynamic condition of RV Investigator is achieved through an Applanix POSMV

sound velocity profiles are taken at regular intervals during a survey and RV Investigator utilises the latest technology in the form of a Teledyne Oceanscience rapidCAST unit, allowing regular observations to be taken. Profiles to full ocean depth can be obtained from lowering a Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) sensor on the vessel’s hydrographic winch, which has over 7,000 metres of cable.

The abundance of technology on board any research vessel creates complexities around interfacing, data collection, data storage, data management and converting that data into meaningful information. RV Southern Surveyor had support teams that provided personnel for management and maintenance of the information technology infrastructure and also electronics support for all the instrumentation. It was largely up to the scientists to use the tools available to them, analyse the data and create their own decision support systems to maximise the outcomes within their finite allocated vessel time.

In contrast, a less technological step change on Investigator sees the addition of a new team. The Geophysical Survey and Mapping team have taken on the www.spatialsource.com.au 45

feature Figure 5 – Full density point data for all voyages on Investigator to date.

Data collected with EM2040c, EM710 & EM122.

suite of mapping technology on board and work to create efficient workflows, transforming myriad data streams into actionable information that is used to enable efficient voyage planning and near real time decision support, improving the efficiency of the ship time. Made up of geophysicists, hydrographic surveyors, marine scientists and data managers, the team has a broad range of skills used collectively to overcome problems and maintain quality-assured acoustic data collection. These outcomes are crtitical for both voyage-specific outcomes and the MNF’s substantial contributions to the aggregated national datasets used to manage and understand our national ocean resources and the changing environment within our EEZ.

LEFT: Figure 7 – The SS Mucumba in her final resting place, discovered by the RV Investigator on a transit from Sydney to Broome.

Discoveries?

Investigator is a scientific research vessel first and foremost. In its first four years, it has completed 26 dedicated scientific voyages. These voyages span the whole of Australia and range from studies on coral reef systems being catalysts for cloud formation, Antarctic krill’s role in biogeochemical recycling in the southern ocean and the geological makeup around Heard and McDonald Islands – to name just a few. The diversity of locations for scientific voyages means the vessel travels around Australia and Antarctica with underway sensors running continuously.

The multibeam echosounders are prime examples of these underway sensors.

With only 12 percent of the seafloor in our EEZ fully mapped, Investigator has had plenty of opportunities for some interesting discoveries, especially in the deeper waters where typically vessels don’t have the capability to map to full ocean depth.

The SS Macumba was sunk on the 6th August 1943 by two Japanese

BELOW: Figure 8 – A chain of volcanoes discovered off the coast of New South Wales whilst undertaking a voyage studying the physics and biology of small cyclonic eddies.

aircraft. The location of the attack was known however the battleship’s final resting place was not discovered until the 4th October, 2017. In a collaborative effort between the Northern Territory government and the CSIRO Marine National Facility, Investigator was able to dedicate some time to searching an area off the coast of Arnhem Land, while the vessel was in transit to Broome for another voyage. After searching for approximately 10 hours, the ship was on the cusp of needing to continue on to Broome when the pockmarks surrounding the wreck were noticed by the online surveyor.

The vessel was instructed to make a wide turn outside of the survey area to investigate these unusual features, during which the wreck was discovered in the outer beams – with much excitement.

A few passes over the wreck were made within the small window of time left following the discovery.

During a voyage looking at small cyclonic eddies (<100 kilometres in diameter), the vessel by chance ran over a small chain of volcanoes off the coast of New South Wales slightly south of Newcastle. The water depth at the base of

Figure 6 - SS Macumba sinking after being attacked by a Japanese plane in 1943 (Image courtesy of NT Maritime Heritage Branch).

the volcanoes was roughly 4,900 metres, while at it’s shoalest was around 4,000 metres. The area was 22 kilometres in length and the biggest caldera was roughly 1.6 kilometres in diameter. The discovery put into perspective how little is known about the seafloor in the deep water surrounding Australia.

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Hydrographic Capability Traditionally, the primary role of a hydrographer was to collect physical data within the marine environment to aid and facilitate the safe navigation of international and coastal shipping.

While the bathymetric data collected from RV Investigator gets used for multidisciplinary research, the data from many voyages gets passed to the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) where it is used to update nautical charts.

For the past several year, RV Investigator has also undertaken a number of user funded voyages for organisations and agencies within Australia, including the AHO. These surveys have concentrated on surveying primary shipping routes within the Bass Strait to modern standards.

The AUSSeabed platform also shows where efforts are being focused within the Australian Marine Estate. The priorities map shows areas of priority for various government agencies in addition to an overall agreed set of national priorities where bathymetric data is required, these areas are generally where more data is required to support the safe navigation of shipping, supporting environmental assessments or supporting government policy decisions.

Stuart Edwards and Matt Boyd are hydrographic surveyors with the CSIRO geophysical survey and mapping team.

They undertook their survey training at Newcastle, Plymouth and Melbourne universities in both the UK and Australia and prior to working for CSIRO, both worked in industry. ■

Figure 9 - Hydrographic Surveys conducted by RV Investigator within Bass Strait for the Australian Hydrographic Office.

These modern systems also employ smaller beam footprints, which require a horizontal positioning system whose uncertainty is less or equal to the footprint size of the MBES system for high resolution surveys.

Coordinating Resources GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) is the organisation that aims to provide the most authoritative publicly available bathymetry data sets for the world’s oceans. Their Seabed 2030 project aims to produce a definitive map of the world ocean floor by the year 2030. While this is an extremely challenging project, what is clear is that resources must be coordinated on a global scale if we are to make this dream a reality.

Within Australia, the AUSSeabed initiative has been created to serve the Australian community with the aim to improve the quality, discoverability and collaboration of seabed mapping data in the Australian region. This initiative led

by Geoscience Australia, and with over 30 collaborators currently, the initiative is open to all interested parties.

Figure 10 - AUSSeabed National Priorities Map.

www.spatialsource.com.au 47

Locate19 8-10 April 2019 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) WHERE TO NEXT? LOCATION, HOW WE DRIVE OUR DIGITAL FUTURE Your Survival Guide to Locate19 As Australia’s largest annual spatial event, Locate19 can seem intimidating at first glance. Taking place over 3 days, it features more than 140 speakers, 140 sessions, 14 different subject streams, tours, workshops, an awards night and multiple networking functions. It’s safe to say you won’t be able to experience everything at Locate19, but you can at least learn something new, discover something new and meet many new and familiar industry peers.

Here’s your simplified guide to making the most of Locate19.

Brought to you by

#Locate19

Sponsors

Must do’s

Your conference checklist

ATTEND THE PLENARIES

LEARN SOMETHING NEW It’s highly unlikely you’re familiarised with each of the streams on offer, so why not learn about Geospatial Intelligence, the Start-Up Revolution or Sustainability Resilience?

There are more than ever this year, and just as many not to be missed.

The plenaries take place on the morning of Tuesday 9 April as well as the afternoon of the Wednesday 10 April.

CONSULT WITH AN EXPERT (FOR FREE)

FIND OUT HOW REAL REALITY MODELLING IS

Many exhibitors and delegates are specialist consultants or academics that could be very expensive to speak to otherwise. Take the opportunity to make a valuable connection and learn from these industry leaders. Market Day on Monday 8 April is open to all.

EXPERIENCE THE LATEST IN VR VXLab is a multi-disciplinary virtual laboratory connecting visualisation and automation facilities in RMIT and industry. There’s not one but two VXLab tours taking place at Locate19. Make sure you’re registered to attend - Users explore collaborative experimental design, operation and testing of global cyber-physical systems.

ENJOY CANAPÉS & BEVERAGES OVER A LAUGH

Speak to the likes ofAWS, Eagleview, Mangoes Mapping, Vexcel Imaging, Bentley, DELWP, Sphere Drones, Airbus & Anditi to discover the amazing things being done with spatial data.

NEW FEATURE! There is a great opportunity to harness the energy of Locate to establish and promote the value of geospatial services across a variety of sectors. The Hub, supported by ThinkPlace, will offer an opportunity for delegates, exhibitors, industry bodies, government, academia and nonspatial experts to engage and collaborate.

Georabble will be taking place in The Hub during the Welcome Reception – who doesn’t love free canapés & beverages?!

Make sure you’re there!

USE THE APP Plan ahead, choose which presentations will interest you and share your discoveries on social media.

KEEP TABS ON UP-ANDCOMERS Attend the APSEA awards dinner on 9 April to mingle with the best in the business and see who you will be hearing a lot more about over the coming years.

Geospatial Meetup group GeoRabble will be hosting their free event during the free Locate Market Day on Monday 8 April. Georabble involves sharing short, sharp, commercial free stories from a range of presenters, as well as quizzes, prizes and networking opportunities.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF There will be all types of people at Locate and just as many opportunities. Speak up and you might find your next client, employee or just make a new friend.

www.locateconference.com/2019 Sponsors

Media Partners

new products

Waymo’s Laser Bear Honeycomb LiDAR.

Waymo to sell LiDAR sensors Google’s sister company Waymo has announced that it is making available its powerful LiDAR sensors for use other than self-driving vehicles. The new sensor, which Waymo is calling the Laser Bear Honeycomb, is typically found on the bumpers of its autonomous vehicles, but select partners will now be able to purchase them to explore other uses.

Waymo’s LiDAR unit has a vertical field of view (FOV) of 95 degrees – significantly wider than the standard lidar's 30-degree FOV – and a 360-degree horizontal view.

Waymo claims it has the same vision capabilities of three lesser 3D sensors stacked on top of one another.

First commercially available autonomous aerial robot for underground mine mapping Exyn Technologies, Inc. has announced the commercial availability of its Autonomy Aerial Robots (“A3Rs”), what the company calls the first and most advanced fully autonomous aerial system for data collection in GPSdenied environments.

Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), a publicly traded Canadian-based international mining company, selected Exyn as its technology partner to advance its initiative for digitisation

and automation of its underground gold mining operations.

“The Exyn A3Rs allow frequent and hi-resolution mapping of underground environments while reducing risks to personnel. We are very excited at the results of the maps we are seeing,” says Theophile Yameogo, Vice President Digital Innovation, DPM. Exyn's A3Rs are driven by proprietary software that enables full autonomy for aerial robots.

Maptek releases cold weather stability monitoring station Maptek has launched a cold climate variant of its Sentry stability monitoring system for mining operations.

The Sentry product is an autonomous, mobile unit that provides constant measurement of ground movement through high resolution laser scanning, offering real time analysis and reporting.

The new model features an XR3 cold climate laser scanner, which allows this version of the Sentry system to operate continuously in a temperature range of -20 to +50 degrees Celsius, and limited intervals of operation below -20 degrees.

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MicaSense, senseFly team up Fixed-wing drone maker senseFly and MicaSense, a leading producer of drone sensors, have announced the senseFly eBee X with MicaSense RedEdge-MX, which the companies are calling a new dual solution for efficient, in-depth crop analysis.

According to the companies, the new solution enables farming, agricultural science, forestry and environmental protection professionals to gain valuable multispectral crop insights more

efficiently than with slower, smallercoverage multirotor drones.

“This seamless, integrated professional drone offering represents an obvious upgrade path for many agricultural professionals. Customers who already use MicaSense’s RedEdge-MX, for example, now have a quicker, more efficient way to analyse the health of their crops, without having to compromise on data quality,” said Eric Waters, general manager of MicaSense.

Honeywell, Airmap developing UAV air traffic control

HoloLens 2 powers next generation of BIM tools Microsoft’s next-generation mixed reality headset dropped with major fanfare earlier this year at MWC Barcelona, formerly the Mobile World Congress.

There’s a lot riding on Microsoft’s new mixed reality device. Aimed at enterprise, the next-generation wearable headset comprises a suite of evolutionary improvements over the debut model, which appears to be far better-placed to deliver upon the augmented reality promise.

The HoloLens 2 doubles the fieldof-view of the original unit whilst maintaining the same pixel density of 47 pixels per degree, and whilst not a whole lot lighter, the headset’s centre of gravity has now been shifted to behind the wearer’s ears.

Showcasing the new customisation suite and partnership program, Trimble and Bentley concurrently announced new mixed reality tools based on the Hololens 2.

Yuneec’s H520 hexacopter.

Honeywell have partnered with UAV airspace management company AirMap to develop a cost-effective drone tracking solution to provide airspace safety authorities with situational awareness of manned and unmanned aircraft operations within an airspace system.

Together, the companies will develop a cost-effective hardware device to allow for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, to maintain consistent communication with a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system.

The tracker device is currently available as a proof of concept for testing. Image: Courtesy of Airmap.

FARO rolls out Zone 3D 2019

FARO Zone 3D 2019.

Yuneec International, Mobilicom offer new UAS solutions UAV and aircraft maker Yuneec International has partnered with Mobilicom to offer the enterprise and government markets new advanced solutions for their unmanned aerial needs.

The cooperation focuses on the development of two commercial and government drone solutions, based on Yuneec´s commercially proven H520 hexacopter, well-known for its high reliability, safety and precision, and

Mobilicom´s innovative SkyHopper and LTE technology.

Both UAS solutions, which will be called H520 SkyHopper and H520 SkyHopper LTE, will incorporate high-end cyber security and encryption, dedicated frequencies and interference-avoidance capabilities, and will be offered as customizable, flexible and scalable end-to-end solutions.

FARO has released a new version of its Zone 3D software platform.

The FARO Zone 3D 2019 is specifically designed to enable investigators and security professionals to enhance the quality of site and evidence capture, documentation, reconstruction and analysis for crime, crash, fire and security applications.

FARO Zone 3D 2018 was the first VR-enabled software solution for law enforcement and forensics professionals that provides a comprehensive platform for documenting, analysing, and reconstructing scenes that includes powerful forensic analysis, 3D diagramming and animation tools.

FARO says the 2019 release builds on functionality of its predecessor and offers immersive and dramatic new ways to interact with and present forensic scenes.

Image courtesy of FARO.

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sssi

News and views from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute

SSSI Board – 2019 President – Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President-Elect – Paul Digney NSW Director – Wayne Patterson NT Director – Rob Sarib QLD Director – Lee Hellen SA Director – Franco Rea TAS Director – Paul Digney VIC Director – Richard Syme WA Director – Kerry Smyth ACT Director – Vacant Hydrography Commission Director – Richard Cullen YP representative (Observer) – Roshni Sharma Company Secretary – Jonathan Saxon, Peter Olah

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SSSI CEO Peter Olah

CEO’s report

W

ithin the next three months, a federal election will take place.

You’ll hear the usual promises from all sides, and the solemn commentariat telling us how this is “the most important election in a generation”.

This hyperbole is rarely true and probably will not be this time either.

What is true is that big change is afoot.

If the trend of published polling is to be believed, then we will have a new Shorten ALP government with a large majority in the lower house, and strong Senate numbers. Their announced policies to date – especially some of their fiscal and financial services changes – will be far reaching.

On the other hand, if the Coalition manage to defy the odds and win another term in government, it will be very different to the last seven years with nearly half the frontbench departing from politics. Either way, the government of the next three years will stand apart from what we have seen for many years.

This matters to us at SSSI, because every one of our members – every professional in surveying and spatial – is impacted every day by government as a legislator, regulator, policy maker, licensor, purchaser and employer. In our fragmented industry, government has more power to shape our world than any individual or company.

A big part of our job as the national voice of surveying and spatial professionals is to inform, advise, convince and shape government decisions and directions in ways which make the professional lives of our members better, smoother, and more productive and effective – for them, and for Australia.

This takes good, consistent advocacy, and it takes good policy.

This is why we have been working hard for the last six months on drafting our first national public policy document.

This will be the document that answers several big questions: • What does SSSI stand for?

• What do Australia’s surveying and spatial professionals need governments to do to improve and free the industry to achieve its full potential?

• What does that “full potential” look like?

Since October last year, workshops have been run within the SSSI Board and with every Regional Committee and Commission to seek input to the document. We have also consulted in a number of other forums to maximise the breadth of input.

As I write this, we are in the final stages of drafting the document which will be completed in April. I look forward to presenting it as a comprehensive plan across all sides of politics, on behalf of all SSSI members and the broader surveying and spatial community.

SSSI sustaining partners

President’s report

Commission Chairs Engineering & Mining Surveying Chair Andrew Edwards chair.emsc@sssi.org.au

I

wish to take the opportunity to highlight some of the work taking place at SSSI relating to our young professionals. There is a constant discussion in our industry about skills shortages, succession planning, training pathways, the need to increase the profile of our profession to students and their parents etc., and SSSI is actively working to help address a number of these issues.

Hydrography Commission Chair Richard Cullen chair.hc@sssi.org.au Land Surveying Commission Chair Lindsay Perry chair.lsc@sssi.org.au Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Commission Chair Petra Helmholz chair.rspc@sssi.org.au

South East Asia Survey Congress (SEASC) 2019 Poster Competition Young professionals (or young-at-heart professionals!) are invited to submit a poster on the theme: “My story: how I came to be here”, highlighting their journey to the spatial profession. Posters will be on display at SEASC, with preliminary judging by the local primary school, high school and University students as well as conference attendees, and final judging by a panel of young professionals from the SSSI National Young Professionals Committee.

Submissions close on 9 August 2019.

SSSI National Young Professional Mentoring Program After great success in 2018, expressions of interest are now open for the 2019 National YP Mentoring Program, an ideal opportunity for students to gain personal access to experienced and engaged professionals in the surveying and spatial science arena.

Geospatial Information Competition I am so very pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Geospatial Information Competition – Lizzie & Micah from Nowra Christian College!

This competition, open to students from years 7-10 across Australia, helped demonstrate the importance of geospatial science in an increasingly complex world.

The winning team receive $1,000 and will be visiting the upcoming Locate19 Conference and Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards in Melbourne.

UNGGIM-Arab States Meeting & Geosmart India I had the opportunity to participate in the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Meeting of the Arab States in Jeddah and the Geosmart

Spatial Information & Cartography Commission Chair Kerry Smyth chair.sicc@sssi.org.au

Regional Committee Chairs

SSSI President Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse

India Conference in New Delhi as part of my work. I noted the leaders of both events are emphasising a need for certification of professions or licensing of geospatial and surveying Professionals in respective regions. Governments and the private sector want to procure suitable and qualified professionals who have undergone an assessment that they can confidently trust.

International Women’s Day Celebration SSSI National and Regional groups proudly hosted or participated in the International Women’s Day celebrations across the country. SSSI firmly supports gender balance in the profession and its operations. The inclusion and diversity actions remain at the centre of our SSSI values. SSSI Board and leaders are committed to having gender equality at our boards, regional committees and operations going forward. At Locate19, convenors Katherine Williams and Glen Cockerton along with the organising team have developed a plenary speakers programme with 50% of lead female speakers. I would like to congratulate the Locate19 team on this achievement.

As always, feel free to contact me or any of the SSSI staff if you have any queries, feedback or suggestions.

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President SSSI

ACT Regional Chair Noel Ward chair.act@sssi.org.au NSW Regional Chair Gaby van Wyk (Interim Chair) chair.nsw@sssi.org.au NT Regional Chair Rob Sarib chair.nt@sssi.org.au QLD Regional Chair Paul Reed chair.qld@sssi.org.au SA Regional Chair Franco Rea chair.sa@sssi.org.au TAS Regional Chair Paul Digney chair.tas@sssi.org.au VIC Regional Chair Lindsay Perry chair.vic@sssi.org.au WA Regional Chair Lesley Arnold chair.wa@sssi.org.au SSSI National Office 27-29 Napier Cl, Deakin, ACT 2600 (PO Box 307) Phone: +61 2 6282 2282 Email: support@sssi.org.au

www.spatialsource.com.au 53

sssi

Hydrography Commission report

AHSCP Scheme - International Reaccreditation The new guidelines and associated documentation required to bring the AHSCP’s internationally recognised hydrographic certification scheme up to the new S5A and S5B standard has been delivered to the International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers (IBSC) for renewal. The IBSC has required a member of the AHSCP attend their meeting and present the package formally on the 25th of March in order that they may freely ask questions. Once the updated scheme documentation has been approved, there will be a transition period from the current process to the new as many would have begun their experience log preparation as far back as 4 years ago and mapping has been conducted to the old S5 syllabus version 11.

There are significant changes to the syllabus, updating knowledge and practice to current technologies and methods in use but yes, still retaining core principles, maths and traditional techniques. While mapping in the experience log for Level 1 will be primarily from the S5A, S5B will still be a major consideration as it reflects the practical application which is a consolidating activity to demonstrate competence. Level 2 will be assessed under S5B.

The Hydrography Commission and AHSCP are continuing to assess the “sea time” component of modern hydrographic surveying due to the use of remote survey equipment but need to temper this with finding the median between too much shore based remote activity and having the individual in the maritime environment gaining appreciation of climatic and physical variations of a survey area and other marine interactions.

Further consideration of this element will be conducted at the next joint Face-toFace meeting in April.

Hydrographic Survey Education As many have been commenting for years, education for Hydrographic Surveying has been neglected in Australia and yet Australia relies on sea transportation.

You may recall that the Chair of the Hydrography Commission had been working directly with Government consultants in assembling a Hydrographic Surveyor training package. Given that the Commission and Australasian Hydrographic Society have been attempting to have packages introduced

by Universities and Recognised Training Organisations (RTOs) in Australia for well over 10 years, the new training package has been a relatively rapid resolution to the education shortfall.

Updates on the progress may be found at Australian Industry Standards where you will see that the final endorsements of the National Water Training Package occurred on 02 January 2019.

Please don’t get caught up in where the training sits, it’s a means to an end and a great win for the industry. The package modules are based upon the S5B syllabus but only deal with the hydrographic

Image credit: CSIRO

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components of the syllabus. Any general surveying techniques and principles already available within the diploma of surveying or a degree in surveying are not covered and are pre-requisite for issue of the full diploma. Therefore, if you hold either of these already, and successfully conduct the training modules, then you can receive the diploma in water industry operations – hydrographic survey. If you conduct the training package before a degree or diploma in surveying, you would receive a statement of attainment toward the diploma and would then need to complete either of those courses for issue of the diploma in water industry operations. The electives required to be undertaken in the diploma are identified as group c: specialist elective – hydrographic survey.

Now, we need training organisations to pick up the packages and begin training. This is where your industry pressure can assist. Many training organisations shy away from the training as they don’t have the skilled staff, equipment or, don’t know how financially viable it would be. Well now it’s up to you all out there to help show them that it is a necessary training requirement.

So, can you help the commission help you more? Yes you can. By volunteering to do some of the hard yards we can get these packages up and running by assisting the Universities and RTOs with those skilled individuals and with the equipment. Already several hydrographic survey companies are on board, but we also need individual volunteers to put together the sales pitch and promote the push. Is this you? If it is, drop the commission a hydrophone.

Richard Cullen Chair – Hydrography Commission

SSSI sustaining partners

Land Surveying Commission report

I

n the recent Australia Day honours, Dr. Ray Holmes, Hon Fellow SSSI was awarded Member of Order of Australia.

Ray commenced his career in 1945 at the Department of Crown Lands and Surveys and then transferred to the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC).

At the SRWSC Ray gained his cadastral licence and worked on engineering and cadastral surveys associated with water supply, irrigation and dam development throughout northern Victoria. Ray held a number of senior management roles in SRWSC becoming Superintending Surveyor for North Central Victoria and was appointed Chief Surveyor in 1972.

In 1979 Ray was appointed Surveyor General of Victoria and served in that position until his retirement in 1988.

In 1994 he was awarded a Doctorate of Surveying Honaris Causa for his services to the surveying profession in Victoria by the University of Melbourne.

During 1970 and 1971 Ray was seconded to the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) on the Awash Valley Hydrological Project in Ethiopia and during his ‘retirement’, Ray continued working as a consultant to both the World Bank and the UNFAO as an expert adviser on land administration.

Ray was an active participant in the Institution of Surveyors Australia for a number of years, serving and convening a number of sub committees and as president of the Victorian Division in 1975. Ray served from 1985-1986 as the 28th federal president of the Institution of Surveyors Australia, a forerunner body of SSSI. During his time as federal president, Ray drew attention to the need of the profession to develop its profile in international and overseas activities and warned against the risk of becoming elitist in attitude, with being primarily concerned with the narrowing field of cadastral surveying and ignoring some of the other related disciplines, which might perceive surveyors with cadastral surveying as being their sole area of expertise.. He stated that it is in all our interests to continue to foster and strengthen our relationship with related bodies Ray also raised the matter of our involvement in the international arena in particular the Southern Asia Pacific Region. A major step was ISA sponsoring

the first South East Asian Conference in Singapore in 1979 and it was Ray’s suggestion that it was timely to achieve the formation of a regional association under the auspices of an existing international body such as FIG. As part of our maturing roles and responsibilities in the international scene, Ray played an instrumental role in our successful bid for the XX FIG Congress held in Melbourne in 1994, the first time it was ever awarded to a country in the southern hemisphere. He was also the congress director for this highly successful event.

In recent correspondence to the Victoria region Ray stated that I have always been proud to be a member and a strong advocate of an institute representing the full range of our profession.

When one considers that later this year we are hosting the South East Asian Conference in Darwin and are taking a leadership role through Rob Sarib in the development of a FIG Asia Regional Capacity Network, it is as a result of the visionary groundwork of people such as Ray Holmes that today we can implement such initiatives with our regional neighbours The recognition bestowed on Dr. Ray Holmes as a Member to the Order of Australia is richly deserved.

Young Professionals Commission report SSSI National Young Professionals Mentoring Program 2019 - What Can It Do For You?

I

n 2018, the SSSI National Young Professionals launched the SSSI Mentoring Program with great success.

Over 80 people came together across the nation, including students from 13 Universities as mentees and a wide and varied range of industry leaders as mentors. The 2018 mentoring program ran for four months, from July through to October, with mentor and mentee pairs meeting fortnightly to discuss career development and the transition from studying to working in the industry.

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” – Steven Spielberg For many students who are close to finishing their degrees, whether they come from high school or from a background working in another industry, getting a foot in the door to start their spatial or surveying career can be a challenge. Knowing what to expect can be difficult, and navigating through the first year or two of being a professional in the industry can sometimes be confusing. Our industry is often very technical, and maintaining a clear focus on career goals and direction can sometimes fall to the wayside, especially for young professionals. Being involved in a mentoring program helps mentees meet and network with established

industry professionals and peers in similar positions, learn about the skills needed to succeed as a professional and the perspectives that will help with this, improve communication and interpersonal skills, and gain insights into what the real world is like in their line of work.

“If I have seen further it is by s tanding on the shoulders of giants.”

– Isaac Newton

For many established professionals (or ‘young-at-heart professionals’), capitalising on the chance to share some of their learnings and the wisdoms accumulated along their career path can be a very rewarding experience. Mentors can realise that they know much more than they thought they did, and many www.spatialsource.com.au 57

sssi find the opportunity to give back can be extremely rewarding and provide two-way learnings, as they pick up more about what’s new in the technologies used in the industry or cutting edge research being done in our field. Mentors gain many things from participating in a mentoring program, including leadership skills, the chance to reflect more acutely on their own journey and where it will lead in the future, and a chance to influence the people who will change the future.

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

The 2019 SSSI National Young Professionals mentoring program will be run from July to October, and will open up to provide recent graduates an opportunity to be a mentee as well as students close to finishing their degrees.

If you’d like to register your interest for the 2019 mentoring program, please fill in our Expression of Interest form here (https://goo.gl/forms/ Ed1UAtlVJt5bKwFD2) or by emailing your name and interest in the program to chair. yp@sssi.org.au, and we will get back to you shortly with a link to the application form and the full details of the program.

When was the last time you thought about Career Development?

As we slog along through the months and years of our careers, how many of us stop to think about where we’re going, how we could make our work lives happier and more fulfilling, and what really works for us at work? In the geospatial and surveying industry, we can often get wrapped up in the need to technically advance ourselves and the softer side of things, career development, can be put into the ‘too hard’ basket.

“You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream.

You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

– Diana Ross

In 2018, the SSSI Young Professionals launched a monthly webinar series to help us tackle just this. With one short hour a month, whether it is during the allocated webinar timeslot or at a later time with the recording of the webinar that’s sent to all registered attendees, you can be prompted to think more consciously about your career and how it’s going in easy to digest, bite-sized pieces on a range of topics.

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“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we reach it.”

– Michaelangelo

We kicked off with our first webinar presented by Mark Hodgson. He gave a brilliant presentation about moving beyond being technically proficient, by building your reputation and influence.

Mark gave some great pointers for building your confidence, and changing your mindset. He gave a background on why in today’s day and age, it’s not only what you know but who you know, and further explained that we all have a personal brand and influence people around us whether we know it or not, whether we think about it consciously or not. His excellent presentation gave a swathe of tips and tricks for thinking about who you want to notice you and what messages you want to send out to your networks. His insightful talk explained clearly and succinctly why thinking about how you have influence on the world around you can be vital to boosting your career. To find out more about Mark Hodgson and Influence, visit his website: http://markhodgson.com.au.

“The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.”

– Kenneth H. Blanchard

Following closely on this theme was our second webinar by Julia Palmer, who gave some very valuable insights into the three stages to building profitable business relationships and how to make the most of a simple tool - conversation - to build a strategic and fruitful professional network.

Julia improved our understanding of the three stages to building profitable business relationships. She explained how to have charismatic conversations, uncovered the difference between simple and strategic networks, and gave some great pointers on how to get make yourself visible and increase your influence. If you’d like to find out more, have a look at her website at www.juliapalmer.com.

“Instead of better glasses, your network gives you better eyes.”

– Ronald Burt

We have also heard from Dr. Karen Joyce and Professor Stuart Phinn, who have spoken with us about diversity and inclusion and how we can promote these within our organisations for the success of the industry at large. It was an interactive webinar and raised a lot of interested and important questions about the differences

between equality, equity and diversity, and how opportunities are available to different people in different ways. It gave a framework for thinking about what changes could be made and why they are important in workplaces, in personal lives and in society, and has prompted some conversations with your colleagues, family and friends about this important area for many of those who attended. If you’re interested in finding out more, please email chair.yp@sssi.org.au or get in contact with Stuart (s.phinn@uq.edu.au) or Karen (karen.joyce@jcu.edu.au) directly.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kim Seeling-Smith from Ignite Global has talked with us about about why many people spend more time planning their next vacation than their short- and medium-term career goals, and how to recognise and consciously utilise your strengths to help you work for your highest and best purpose effectively. Kim kicked off with the rather confronting realisation that most young professionals (and young-at-heart professionals) tend to put more time, effort and money into planning their vacations than their nearterm careers (3-5 years from present).

She then walked through some tools on how to start thinking about what matters to you in your career, and how your career fits into the broader context of your life. She gave participants two free gifts to help them plan their career goals and work out what’s important to them in their jobs, and then dug deeper into the real heart of the webinar - strengths.

Using the strengths profile to provide context, she explained how strengths are not only things that you are good at but which provide you with energy and which use often.

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

– Pablo Picasso

To keep up to date with the latest SSSI Young Professionals Career Development webinars, or if you’d like to present at one of these webinars, please send an email to chair.yp@sssi.org.au. All of our webinars are listed on the SSSI events page, and are free for students.

Roshni Sharma, Chair, SSSI National Young Professionals

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