Position 108 August-September 2020

August/September 2020 – No. 108

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

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contents

August/September 2020 No.108

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34

26

features 13 3D city models The fundamental building block for digital twins

14 Q&A with Prof Mike Coffin We sit down with the leader of a science expedition that could change the understanding of Australia’s continental boundary.

16 Planet’s agile aerospace Imaging the entire Earth every day to make global change visible, accessible and actionable.

18 Beyond the model Digital twins are touted as the business transformation tool of the next decade. Can a BIM model on steroids really do that?

24 Q&A with Steve Amor Euclideon’s business director gives us his take on digital twins.

26 Contributions of spatial sciences to evaluating ecosystem services John Trinder brings us an in-depth case study of evaluating ecosystem service values in Wuhan and western Sydney.

30 Q&A with Jorge Gonzalez Pix4D’s precision agriculture guru gives us the latest on technology for optimising the plot.

32 Surveying the world’s steepest street A detailed report from Toby Stoff on the practice of surveying the steepest steep in the world, and a proposal for a new method of evaluating the claim.

regulars 4 Upfront, calendar 7 Editorial 8 News 38 SSSI

www.spatialsource.com.au 3

upfront Upcoming Events 28 August: SSSI Career Lift Webinar - Making your career work for you: Further education and entrepreneurship https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/career-lift-education 1 September: SSSI Photogrammetry vs SfM vs Lidar https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/webinar-photogrammetry-sfmlidar 2 September: Locate Connect: Q&A with Roshni Sharma, FrontierSI https://www.locateconference. com/2021/qa-with-roshni-sharmafrontiersi/ 2 September: Mobility 2020 Virtual Conference https://its-australia.com.au/events/ mobility2020-sydney-australia/

A saga of submarine meadows

W

hat comes to mind when you read the word ‘seagrass’?

For me it’s dugongs – not carbon dioxide.

But freshly-released research from Edith Cowan University has found an alarming link between the two.

Research conducted by PhD student Cristian Salinas has found that the loss of seagrass meadows around the Australian coastline since the 1950s has caused a rise in the release of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 5 million cars a year.

“Known as ‘Blue Carbon’, seagrass meadows have been estimated to store CO2 in their soils about 30 times faster than most terrestrial forests,” Mr. Salinas said.

“Seagrass meadows have been under constant threat in Australia through coastal development and nutrient run off since the 1960s. On top of that climate change is causing marine heatwaves that are catastrophic to the seagrasses.”

This jarring finding was made possible by new modelling done by marine scientists at the Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research at Edith Cowan University (ECU). The numbers are derived from Mr Salinas’s research into the current carbon stocks of Cockburn Sound, off the West Australian coast.

Cockburn Sound has lost around 23 square kilometres of seagrass between the 1960s and 1990s, the attrition largely driven by increased nutrient flow caused by urban, port and industrial development.

Mr. Salinas calculated that around 161,150 hectares of seagrass have been

4 position August/September 2020

lost from Australian coasts since the 1950s, resulting in a 2 percent increase in annual carbon dioxide emissions from land-use change.

Mr Salinas said the study provided a clear baseline for carbon emissions from seagrass losses in Australia and warned of the need to preserve and restore the meadows. The inclusion of seagrass into the Australian Emission Reduction Fund could contribute to achieve this goal.

“This study serves as a stark reminder of how important these environments are,” he said.

Environmental factors including water depth, hydrodynamic energy, soil accumulation rates and soil grain size were analysed by the research team to find their relationship to changes in soil carbon storage following seagrass loss.

They found that hydrodynamic energy from waves, tides and currents played a key role in reducing carbon storage potential, alongside the loss of seagrass.

“Without seagrass acting as a buffer, the hydrodynamic energy from the ocean releases the carbon by moving the seabed sand around,” Mr Salinas said.

Researchers found hydrodynamic energy from water movement was much higher in the shallow water and associated low levels of carbon were recorded in these bare areas. Additionally, seagrass meadows in shallow waters were found to have significantly more carbon stored compared to those growing in deeper areas.

“This means that nearshore meadows are particularly important to preserve,” Mr Salinas said. n

4 September: SSSI/OGC webinar: The OGC geospatial technology trends guiding the future of location https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/sssi-ogc-webinar-series-part-2 7-18 September: GeoWeek: 2nd Singapore Geospatial Week 2020 https://geoworks.sg/settings/ events&func=view&rid=2 8 September: 12d Live Presentation – Graham Wirth https://www.locateconference. com/2021/12d-live-presentation-grahamwirth/ 8 September: SSSI/CECF webinar: Understand and apply relevant law for cadastral surveyors https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/cecf-law 9 September: SSSI Webinar: Investigations on the geometric quality of cameras for UAV applications https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/webinar-investigations-geometriccameras-9sep 10 September: SSSI/Esri Webinar Data visualisation: Tools, tips and tricks https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/data-visualisation

15 September: SSSI/RSCF webinar: How to establish, measure and adjust horizontal and vertical survey control using GNSS https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/survey-control-gnss 25 September: SSSI Career Lift Webinar: Millennials at work: Bring your career to life with soft skills https://sssi.org.au/events-awards/ events/career-lift-soft-skills

partner feature Photo by Scott Blake on Unsplash

The Surveyors’ Trust recognises Tenure Solutions’ registry project The concept for Tenure Solutions’ registry project started in Papua New Guinea where there are eight million people but only three percent of the land area has any formal land title. The rest is known as customary land (or native title). The challenge is that customary landowners do not have land titles that are recognised by banks and therefore the land can’t be used as security for borrowing.

Bryan McLennan of In recent years Ian Mathieson and Tenure Solutions Bryan McLennan have spoken with the major banks in Papua New Guinea and received assurances from them that a privately-owned land registry that would record ownership and interests not recorded in government registries could be worth developing.

It was then recognised that a nongovernment registry could operate across different jurisdictions and potentially provide titling services anywhere in Ian Mathieson of the world where there is a need. When Tenure Solutions Tenure Solutions was established, the development of a private registry that would record ownership and interests not recorded in government registries was included as a major plank in the business plan.

In Australia there are a lot of interests in land and property that government Land Registries either do not, or inadequately, record such as licenses and native title.

The Tenure Solutions group has been looking at ways to provide opportunities for people to record their interests in a property differently from the normal land titles process. Planning legislation covering rural areas in Australia is generally very restrictive with regard to what can or can’t be subdivided. For example, for land zoned Rural in South East Queensland the minimum size of a subdivision is 100 hectares which doesn’t allow a landowner to sell off a smaller parcel.

Ian and Bryan explain their registry in more detail: “We have been looking at the concept of applying company title over a wider range of situations than is currently the case, such as rural land and urban properties that can’t be strata or community titled. An example of company title in Brisbane is Torbreck, a large unit complex in Highgate Hill. The complex and the land are owned by a company;

unit owners buy shares in the company and gain exclusive use to their apartment. Other examples include the Jetty complex at Noosa and the Starlight Community in Yandina, as well as many apartment and office suite buildings in Brisbane. The concept is also very popular in Sydney around the Harbour.

So our company is looking at different ways that people can have their interests in a property recognised so that a lending institution will allow that interest in the property to be used as security for lending.

And secondly, we are setting up a private registry to record those interests. This registry won’t have the restrictions that a government land registry has. For example, if a company owns the property, you can have greater freedom to make changes within the boundaries.

Much wider datasets can be recorded.

Tenure Solutions is undertaking three stages to build the registry: 1. The first stage involves creating an expandable, multi-layer database and setting up the web tools and pathways with different levels of access. Then populating the database with a variety of datasets covering a small pilot area in South East Queensland; this will include Native Title, Council and Titles Office data.

2. Then we will expand the registry across a larger geographic area, first, South East Queensland and possibly Northern New South Wales, as a scale proving exercise.

3. Then we will commercialise the registry and go out to meet a variety of market needs including national and international expansion. in Australia, this will include agency links to all Titles Offices.

The registry will meet a wide variety of needs. It will be useful to anyone who wants to engage with a financial institution to borrow money while offering the security of their entitlement. They would get solid documentation from the registry.

The registry will allow surveyors to generate a lot more intellectual property both nationally and internationally. It will create an income stream for organisations like The Surveyors’ Trust to reinvest in the spatial industry.

The registry will also create a broader scope of work for surveyors.

Antony Schmidt, Chairman of The Surveyors’ Trust has congratulated Ian and Bryan and the Tenure Solutions Board for their vision to improve how land ownership is recognised and recorded.

“In the future, the Tenure Solutions Register may well reduce ambiguity over land ownership and create commercialisation opportunities for land stakeholders,” he said.

For more information visit www.tenuresolutions.com.au.

Information provided by The Surveyors’ Trust

For more information, please visit www.thesurveyorstrust.org.au

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from the editor 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 Art Director Chris Papaspiros Prepress Tony Willson Production Manager 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: 1800 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 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.

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Resolution and resilience

T

his is my fourth editorial note running that feels as though it is written in unique circumstances. Global institutions are being pressure-tested in methods unimaginable a decade ago, while the Covid-19 pandemic rages to greater heights, seemingly unchecked.

We’re in a vastly privileged position in Australia and New Zealand, relative to literally almost anywhere else – but it’s still a taxing, challenging period. Australia’s public health system, economic resilience and even the strength of its federation are also undergoing a brutal audit, creaking under the strain of a second wave of infections in Victoria that seems resistant to public health measures to contain them that worked so effectively the first time around.

Am I just slow in adjusting to the ‘new normal’? Perhaps. But it’s more a compassionate recognition of great flux and painful transition, the challenges facing so many. In terms of day-to-day, a ‘chin up’ approach is needed. I’m following the health advice, masks at the ready, and you’d better keep your distance in the Bunnings aisle.

Noting the great difficulty that our Victorian cohort are facing and the sacrifices they are making, we need to mask up and buckle down, get on with it.

And that’s the rallying cry of Position 108 – a tribute to the resolution, resilience of our industry to press on and get on with it, demonstrating ingenuity and agility in adaptation. In doing so, we touch on the marvellous breadth and diversity in local spatial practice.

We lead with an exclusive Q&A with Professor Mike Coffin, who earlier this year led a voyage on the RV Investigator that may change the course of history. Its findings will certainly change our understanding of the geological history of our continent and may influence the boundaries of Australia’s marine estate. Learn more on page 14.

On page 18, we lift the lid on digital twins and the attendant claims that they invariably come attached with – here’s your chance to better understand this ‘game changing’ confluence of technology, along with what’s happening in this space locally.

UNSW’s John Trinder brings us an object lesson in the application of geospatial techniques to evaluated ecosystem service values by way of a detailed analysis of urban green space in Wuhan and western Sydney (page 28), with a similarly detailed report on surveying the world’s steepest street from Toby Stoff (page 32). Finally, we salute a giant of Australian surveying, Earl James, with a series of his significant recollections following the release of his memoirs, FIG and Me (page 35).

Stay safe and stay strong, everybody.

Daniel Bishton EDITOR

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news Euclideon launches free streaming 3D service The company has today made its browser-based udStream product for visualising and streaming point clouds and large 3D models available under a ‘Freemium’ subscription model.

The service has no limits on point cloud sizes it can visualise, and enables free data storage, access, use, sharing and viewing of models created with udStream.

Euclideon CEO Daniel Zhang said that udStream can be used a medium for digital twin visualisation, and could help a larger volume of users to manage their work on 3D digital assets.

“Euclideon is providing our new 3D data visualisation solution udStream ‘Free’, because we genuinely believe more businesses’ should be allowed to ‘truly discover their data’ and solve challenging workflow problems,” he said.

“udStream solves the universal problem of massive point-cloud data files being simply ’too big’ to stream, share and visualise. Simply put, udStream effectively unlocks the priceless value in the volumes of data that businesses previously might have left untouched.”

$88m bushfire and disaster research centre announced The federal government has announced $88.1 in funding for a new research centre into bushfires and natural hazards.

The announcement came as the Senate enquiry into the horror 2019/2020 bushfires kicked off last week, which today heard that the Bureau of Meteorology issued over 100 warnings to government ahead of summer.

The funding package will see the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC) transition to a vastly expanded operation, and includes an additional $2 million boost for the current BNHCRC to continue its research in the 2020-21 financial year.

The CSIRO will work with the BNHCRC, the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council and government departments to help establish the new centre.

NSW Survey Mark app gets GDA2020 upgrade Available on Android and iOS, the updated NSW Survey Mark app now supports surveyors working with GDA94 and GDA2020 datums, according to an announcement from NSW Spatial Services.

The app allows users to search for survey mark locations and view them against a range of base maps and imagery from the SIX Maps archive, along with coordinate values and metadata.

Surveyors can report on a mark’s status through the app, attach evidence to support the report and download the

8 position August/September 2020

locality sketch plan for a given mark.

NSW Spatial Services has announced that the new version of the NSW Survey Marks apps has been built on an entirely new platform, and will receive ongoing updates to both Android and iOS incarnations to maintain compatibility with operating system and hardware upgrades.

news Robert Cole appointed chair of Landgate board Mr. Cole is currently the chair of energy provider Synergy, and has 35 years experience as a lawyer in the public and private sectors. He is the former chair of the Southern Ports Authority.

Mr. Cole will take the place of outgoing chair Caroline de Mori as her three year term ends, who has been a member of Landgate’s board since 2015.

Lands minister Ben Wyatt welcomed Mr. Cole and thanked Ms. de Mori.

“Caroline played an important leadership role in pursuing Landgate’s digital transformation strategy and supporting the agency through the partial commercialisation of its automated land titling functions and related asset divestments.

This resulted in a combined $1.6 billion return to the state last year,” he said.

“Rob’s leadership, legal and corporate governance skills will ensure he is able to support Landgate in achieving its statutory and Robert Cole, the new chair of commercial obligations Western Australia’s as WA’s land information land information authority.” authority.

ANZLIC launches metadata guides for AGRS ANZLIC’s technical metadata working group has recently published two new resources on preparing metadata for the Australian Geospatial Reference System (AGRS).

GDA2020: Preparing metadata for the AGRS is the interim solution document for recording metadata, providing a definition and explanation of the AGRS, metadata elements to be used when recording transformations, with provided examples.

A notice circulated by Irina Bastrakova, Chair of the ANZLIC/ICSM Metadata Working Group, indicates that this document should be used to guide such activities while ISO 19115-1 updates are pending.

The working group has also recently published a poster explaining recommended metadata elements in simple English terms, without the complexity of the ISO 19115-1 standards technical details.

news LINZ seeks partners for 3D cadastral program And Information New Zealand (LINZ) is seeking software partners to develop its 3D Cadastral Survey Model and Exchange program.

The trans-Tasman program aims to develop a digital system of cadastral survey lodgement, seeking a widely adopted standard for use for exchanging digital cadastral survey information between industry and government land administration agencies.

The program has been initiated by the Intergovernmental Committee for Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) leading the work in partnership with Australian land information agencies in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, and Victoria.

LINZ has indicated that the project will have two primary objectives: 1. To develop a harmonised data model that will cover all data components across all New Zealand and Australian jurisdictions.

2. In liaison with survey software vendors, to identify options for encoding and exchanging the data in the model.

New Zealand’s Surveyor General Anselm Haanen said several influences have combined to prompt the need for the 3D CSDM. “The 3D CSDM programme is a response to the challenges cadastral surveying is increasingly facing in responding to community demand for improved quality of cadastral information, including in the third dimension,” he said.

LINZ is currently seeking consultants with experience and expertise in data modelling, interpreting cadastral survey information and survey/spatial data transfer and standards.

Rocket Lab launch fails to reach orbit A Rocket Lab Electron rocket carrying seven Earth observation satellites has failed to reach orbit after a secondstage burn failure.

Titled ‘Pics or it didn’t happen’, the mission was Rocket Labs’ 13th with the Electron vehicle, and was carrying imaging five SuperDove Earth observation satellites for Planet, as well as payloads for Canon Electronics and UK space startup In-Space Missions.

According to Rocket Lab, the failure occurred four minutes into the mission, following liftoff, first-stage burn and stage separation.

“We are deeply sorry to our customers Spaceflight Inc., Canon Electronics Inc., Planet, and In-Space Missions for the loss of their payloads. We know many people poured their hearts and souls into those spacecraft. Today’s anomaly is a reminder that space launch can be unforgiving, but we will identify the issue, rectify it, and be safely back on the pad as soon as possible,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. The livestreamed video for the launch shows the feed from the Electron launch vehicle cutting out just under six minutes into its flight.

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Sokkisha 12-inch wye level, circa 1920. Image provided by Position Partners.

Sokkia celebrates 100 years of precision Founded “Sokkisha” in 1920, the firm’s first product was a 12inch wye level, the beginning of a reputation for precision and high-end manufacturing processes.

The 1980s was a significant period of innovation for the firm, according to Gary MacPhail, geospatial manager for Position Partners Sokkia’s main Oceania distributor. Sokkisha launched its ETS (electronic total station), RED electronic distance measuring system (EDM) and SDR electronic field book.

“Sokkia was the theodolite of choice in the 1980s and the company was at the forefront of innovation with both optical instrument and field controllers,” Mr. MacPhail said.

“They also made extremely compatible data formats that you could import into most desktop software programs. Often it was easiest to reprogram data into Sokkia’s SDR format because it would work reliably.”

More recently, Sokkia’s development of the RED-Tech reflectorless EDM was a world first in the use of a digitally modulated beam, and continues to form the basis of the company’s total stations, including robotic instruments.

news Indigenous satellite ground station is online

The first Australian Indigenous-owned satellite ground station has gone live in Alice Springs.

The facility comprises two full-motion antenna systems and associated infrastructure for ViaSat’s Real Time Earth network, built and project-managed by Indigenous corporations on Indigenous-owned land — an Australian first.

The infrastructure was built and managed by the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) and subsidiaries Ekistica Ltd and CfAT Satellite Enterprises, with concrete foundations laid

by Ingerreke Commercial, with funding provided by Indigenous Business Australia (IBA).

CfAT CEO Peter Renehan said that the new ground stations will reduce latency from hours or days to just minutes for accessing high resolution Earth observation imagery.

“There is currently limited supply of suitable Earth observation ground stations in Australia. Here in Alice Springs we are strategically located to take advantage of this fast-growing market — the site is so perfectly located that we will be able to downlink imagery across the whole of Australia’s land and waters,” he said.

“We are very excited about the future of this technology which we know has the potential to benefit many of our communities, like our Indigenous rangers who look after land and sea country and can use high resolution imagery from space to do their jobs,” he said.

CfAT has been awarded the facilities maintenance contract for the facility by Viasat, which will generate on-going Indigenous employment and training opportunities for the local community.

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news Children’s book to celebrate diversity in STEM Pippa and Dronie is authored by Paul Mead, co-founder of She Maps, creators of a range of innovative STEM educational programs based around drones. According to its creators, the book presents strong, real-life Australian female role models using geospatial technology in a way designed to engage children in their formative years.

Education director Dr. Karen Joyce said that the book is also intended to support teachers to bring the spatial industry into their classrooms.

“A diverse spatial workforce of the future starts with educating our children — kids as young as five years old start to build their perceptions around what they can and cannot do. This includes what sort of jobs they see themselves doing later in life,” she said.

“Gender based biases and stereotypes are part of the reason why the spatial industry lacks female role models and has an underrepresentation of women generally.”

For every sale of Pippa and Dronie, She Maps will support children in under-represented communities with a donation to one of their charity partners, Ardoch and Deadly Science.

Maxar Spatial Challenge open for entries The Maxar Spatial Challenge, jointly organised by Maxar, Arlula and Consilium Technology, is now accepting submissions from individuals and organisations interested in using space derived intelligence to leverage and solve unique challenges in Australia.

The deadline for registration is 12:00 pm EST, August 21st, 2020.

Organisers say the competition is aimed at promoting the value of space derived intelligence in addressing key challenges identified by stakeholders within Australia, identifying and supporting key innovators within Australia that can leverage space intelligence and address key challenges, and developing sustainable solutions that can be scaled and applied on a regional or national level.

While all participating teams are welcome to use their preferred GIS platform for this challenge, Maxar has offered to provide access to its own platforms and high-resolution imagery for use in the challenge.

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 August/September 2020

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3D City Models: the fundamental building block for digital twins

FABRICE MARRE, GEOSPATIAL INNOVATION MANAGER, AEROMETREX

D

igital twins are an accurate and up-to-date replica of real entities and are at the heart of smart city initiatives. They are made of interconnected static & dynamic layers of geospatial data and information. These provide a virtual 3D environment to develop, visualise and test scenarios to make informed decisions before realworld implementation.

A 3D city model is a digital representation of an urban area and provides a fundamental building block for digital twins. They can be consumed offline and online using interactive 3D platforms and provide a wide range of analytical and visualisation tools to support smart city operations.

Comparison of a Semantic LOD and 3D Mesh model.

3D mesh and semantic models 3D city models come in two distinct forms with their own characteristics and usage scenarios - semantic and mesh models.

Semantic 3D models are composed of individual 3D objects represented by simple geometry and rich information. In these models, buildings can be modelled at different levels of detail (LOD), from simple block models to ones with more complex geometry, such as roof structure, verandahs, and chimneys. The visual appearance of these buildings can be enhanced by using texture derived from ground or aerial imagery.

3D mesh models are generated using photogrammetry techniques and can be produced with exceptionally realistic visual quality and accuracy. These models usually include all objects present in a scene, but individual objects are not separate entities and are part of a continuous mesh.

Aerometrex has developed an AI-powered solution to automatically segment and classify objects within a 3D mesh and derived point-clouds. A photorealistic, location-accurate 3D mesh with classified individual objects takes this product to the next level by offering rich analytic capabilities. These classified 3D mesh models are now supported by a growing number of 3D platforms including Cesium, Skyline TerraExplorer and soon, ArcGIS Pro. Some cities are adopting a dual 3D model approach, where the same source of imagery is used to produce both a 3D semantic and mesh model. Aerometrex has provided such dual 3D models to clients including the Victorian State Government’s Fisherman’s Bend Digital Twin, where in addition to the 3D mesh,

Example of a classified 3D mesh model with individual building attributes.

LOD2 buildings were digitised and textured using 2cm helicopter imagery.

Seamless multiscale 3D mesh Smart city applications often require 3D data at more than one resolution therefore a multiscale approach is necessary. A multiscale approach is the seamless integration of data captured from different platforms, at different resolutions.

Aerometrex routinely generates multiscale 3D mesh from aerial imagery captured, via fixed wing aircraft, helicopter and at ground level, with resolution ranging from few cm down to a few mm.

Aerometrex recently delivered a multiscale 3D mesh model for the Sunshine Coast Council and the QLD DNRME, including a 750 sq. km model captured at 7.5cm resolution, a 17 sq. km model captured at 2cm and a 2.5 km street-level model. Internationally, Aerometrex has processed a seamless 3D mesh model of the City of Pau in France using a combination of helicopter and street-level capture, a first at that scale in Europe.

Some applications Adopting a smart city approach, with 3D city models as the base, provides huge economic benefits to towns and cities, especially in town planning and urban design. Using interactive 3D platforms, architects and planners can better understand new building design in context, assess their impact and restrictions, anticipate urban developments, and communicate findings to stakeholders in a very intuitive way.

Other applications of 3D models are seen across areas such as event planning, risk management and urban logistics.

3D models can also be realised using game engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity to offer ultra-realistic immersive experiences like never-before.

We live in a dynamic environment and being able to analyse changes to our urban landscapes over time provides decision makers with invaluable information.

Aerometrex captures and generates 3D mesh models on a regular basis and provides change analysis information.

Information provided by Aerometrex. www.spatialsource.com.au  13

q&a

Q&A

with Professor Mike Coffin

DB: Professor Coffin, you led a remarkable scientific voyage to the edge of Australia’s continental shelf earlier this year, with a potentially significant contribution to the boundaries of Australia’s marine estate and our understanding of the continent’s formation. What was the most significant and interesting aspects from your perspective?

MC: Remarkable in a single voyage was

being able to investigate the conjugate William’s Ridge (Kerguelen Plateau) – Broken Ridge margins, which rifted, broke up, and separated approximately 43 million years ago. They are now 2,700 km apart, and are still moving away from each other due to seafloor spreading along the Southeast Indian Ridge. The extraordinary detail of seafloor morphology provided by the multibeam bathymetry data, the excellent quality of the subseafloor seismic reflection imagery across these margins, and the amount of rock recovered from the seafloor along these margins are all fabulous.

DB: How might data acquired during the voyage inform a decision on the expansion of Australia’s boundaries?

How compelling is the evidence?

MC: The multibeam bathymetry

data demonstrate the contiguity of William’s Ridge with the Central Kerguelen Plateau, which Heard Island and the McDonald Islands surmount. This serves to strengthen Australia’s original case for extending our continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the islands.

Once petrological, geochemical, and geochronological analyses of the rock samples are complete, the results may strengthen the case further by demonstrating similarities between the geology of William’s Ridge and that of Broken Ridge.

DB: How could data and samples collected during the voyage reshape a broader understanding of plate tectonics and Australia’s geological history?

MC: The rifting, breakup, and

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separation of William’s Ridge and Broken Ridge represent an end member of continental breakup.

Because the two features broke up only a few tens of millions of years after they formed by massive magmatism, they don’t have the geological complexity of ancient continental crust that has experienced numerous magmatic and tectonic modifications.

Study of this relatively simple end member should reveal significant insights into the fundamental processes associated with the rifting, breakup, and separation of tectonic plates.

DB: My understanding is that this voyage utilised the extent of RV Investigator’s capabilities in terms of technical acquisition capacity and vessel endurance. Can you run us through the main methods used and their application to the voyage’s objectives?

MC: The voyage certainly pushed the

limits of RV Investigator’s endurance.

The ship’s master constantly monitored our fuel supply to ensure that we could complete our research and then make it home! Our strategy for the voyage was to first map the seafloor using the Kongsberg EM122 deep water system, and then to choose optimal dredging sites and locations of seismic reflection transects on the basis of the newly-created bathymetric maps. We were able to map most of William’s Ridge and the conjugate portion of Broken Ridge for the first time, ~52,000 km2 and ~43,000 km2, respectively. The maps reveal patterns of ridges and troughs comprising the two features, as well as seamounts and sea knolls, which provide insights into the history of tectonism and magmatism. We dredged rocks from nine sites on William’s Ridge, eight sites on Broken Ridge, and three sites on Rig Seismic Seamount (proximal to William’s Ridge); analyses of these samples will yield the age, origin, and evolution of the features. We acquired ~500 line-km of seismic reflection data on four transects of William’s Ridge, and ~600 line-km on five transects of

Broken Ridge. These data illuminate the structural development and stratigraphy of the features. We also acquired potential field data – gravity and magnetics – during the voyage, which will help to constrain the density structure of the crust and its magnetic properties, respectively. All told, we acquired the first seismic reflection data with Australia’s new system, and over the 57-day voyage mapped more seafloor (>100,000 km2) and sailed a greater distance (>10,000 nautical miles) than any previous RV Investigator expedition.

DB: Were there any unexpected challenges during such an ambitious voyage, technical or otherwise?

MC: Weather is always a major factor

working in the Southern Ocean.

Although RV Investigator is a relatively large research vessel, both dredging and seismic reflection data acquisition have limits with respect to weather and sea state. Fortunately, when conditions prohibited these activities, we were able to map the seafloor, albeit at reduced speed. On the transit from William’s Ridge to Broken Ridge, just inside the Roaring Forties from the Furious Fifties, a severe storm – winds exceeding 60 knots and commensurate waves – caused some damage to the ship that would have precluded us from dredging and seismic reflection acquisition. However, the ship’s crew was able to promptly execute repairs while still transiting, and our work program on Broken Ridge was saved.

The inaugural operational deployment of Australia’s new seismic reflection system meant that we were commissioning the system in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties, a situation preferred to be avoided, but the Marine National Facility provided outstanding technical support to ensure the system functioned. Seismic operations were limited to daylight hours, sufficient visibility, and the absence of marine mammals; fortunately only fog inhibited our seismic work. The global Covid-19 situation, while not a direct challenge to

anyone on the isolated ship, was certainly a matter of utmost concern because of families and friends ashore. On the ship we had scientists and students from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, as well as a New Zealand doctor and an Australian nurse. We shared information from our respective countries, and the doctor held regular briefings and consultations on the pandemic. A prime challenge for personnel on such a long voyage, with lengthy transits between work areas, is well-being, including preventing boredom. The entire science and technical team met almost every day at watch change (1400), and 65 seminars were presented over the two months.

Music-making, yoga, and Assassin (https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game)) proved to be popular diversions.

on the geophysical data in August, and rock samples have been identified for analyses. Thus we have no analytical results to report to date.

DB: Was there any other data captured that can inform our understanding of the marine environment surrounding Australia, and may interest our readers?

Any surprises from your perspective, or anything else you would like to add?

MC: Acoustic backscatter and sub-bottom

DB: Are there any discoveries you can share now that there has been some analysis performed of data and subsea samples from the voyage?

MC: As noted above, university lockdowns

profiler data, together with the multibeam bathymetry data, that we acquired will help characterise benthic habitats.

Such information aids in managing and sustaining Australia’s extensive offshore marine jurisdiction. We also deployed both Argo (https://argo.ucsd. edu/) and SOCCOM (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling; https://soccom.princeton.edu/) robotic floats, which acquire physical oceanographic and biogeochemical data that reveal properties and changes in the water column for the Australian and overseas research communities.

RV Investigator also acquires copious underway ocean (e.g., temperature, salinity, acidity, oxygen, chlorophyll) and atmospheric (e.g., aerosols, reactive gases, greenhouse gases) data continuously during every voyage. All RV Investigator data are logged in a public data base that ascribes to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles.

Last but not least, the 56-strong ship’s complement was stupendous. The science party of 22 was 64 percent (14) female and 36 percent (8) male, and included 16 students ranging in age from 19 – perhaps the youngest-ever student to sail on RV Investigator – to 32. For the first time in my 35 research voyages spanning five decades, women outnumbered men in the science party, a noteworthy milestone.

across Australia and the world have precluded nearly all shore-based analyses of the data and samples from the voyage.

A PhD student is scheduled to start work

DB: Congratulations on these spectacular outcomes! Many thanks for your time, Mike. n

DB: One of the research projects taking place on the voyage sought to accurately date a past West Antarctic ice sheet collapse using samples from the Kerguelen Plateau. Are there any results to share from this project?

MC: This evolutionary molecular biology

work, led by A/Prof Jan Strugnell at James Cook University and Dr. Nerida Wilson at the Western Australian Museum, is being conducted on biological bycatch recovered from the dredged rocks. It involves DNA sequencing and subsequent modelling, and is thus laboratory-based and time-consuming. As the samples only made it ashore in March, just prior to ongoing lockdowns at universities and museums across Australia, no results are available yet.

All images by David Dieckfoss.

www.spatialsource.com.au 15

partner feature 50 cm SkySat imagery of the HMAS Stirling, Garden Island, Western Australia, on July 10, 2020. © 2020, Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Soaring through space and time with satellite imagery P

lanet designs, builds and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. Our mission is to image the entire Earth every day and make global change visible, accessible and actionable. Planet embodies the philosophy of agile aerospace, a concept that advocates for the use of low-cost, lean electronics to innovate more rapidly in the fields of aerospace and aviation. In six years, we have successfully deployed 351 satellites—10 times that of any competitor, collecting over 250 million square kilometres of imagery daily, with an unprecedented dataset of on average 1,200 images of every location on Earth’s landmass.

16 position August/September 2020

Planet currently operates two constellations. The satellites that comprise each constellation have unique spatial, temporal and radiometric resolutions, allowing us to capture Earth’s activities from multiple perspectives and dimensions. Our Dove satellites are small— about the size of a shoebox, weighing approximately five kilograms-which is many orders of magnitude smaller than traditional satellites. Doves are typically launched into space in large batches, what we call “flocks.” The SkySat constellation consists of 18 satellites.

SkySats can be tasked to image any point on Earth in high resolution and at subdaily frequency. They can also capture

stereo imagery and video footage for up to 90 seconds. SkySats, unlike Doves, have a propulsion system that allows Planet to maintain them at a desired altitude and optimise global coverage. By operating these diverse assets in both morning and afternoon crossing times, Planet provides unprecedented Earth observation data on a global scale. In addition to creating a unique dataset of near-daily satellite imagery, Planet is revolutionising the way geospatial imagery is processed, analysed, distributed and accessed. We are making satellite data available nearly instantly via web-based APIs and an online catalogue.

The platform is capable of delivering terabytes of fresh data every day and

uses machine learning analytics to yield powerful insights that drive business decisions.

Planet Tasking: On demand high resolution intelligence The accelerating pace of global change demands that organisations have rapid access to fresh and accurate information.

But the traditional satellite tasking model hasn’t evolved to deliver highresolution imagery reliably and quickly, limiting intelligence gathering and hampering decision-making. Planet Tasking empowers organisations with

changing conditions on the ground and adds more granular context to decisionmaking. This is particularly important for commercial and government mapping use cases, where seeing smaller features like road surface markings are key.

Tasking Dashboard At Planet we want to democratise access to our assets, and we hear from all our users a desire to have simpler and faster workflows. The Tasking Dashboard is a new user interface that allows customers to request SkySat collections, while our new API provides efficient, automated

Planet Tasking empowers organisations with global access to high-frequency, very-high-resolution (50 cm) imagery on their own terms, giving them real-time intelligence to proactively identify blind spots, anticipate events, and have confidence in the next mission-critical decision. global access to high-frequency, very-highresolution (50 cm) imagery on their own terms, giving them real-time intelligence to proactively identify blind spots, anticipate events, and have confidence in the next mission-critical decision.

Higher resolution 50 cm imagery Planet has successfully lowered the SkySat constellation to enhance the spatial resolution of our SkySat imagery from 80 cm to 50 cm for our ortho product. This improvement enables customers to get a more precise view of

access. Instead of spending precious time going back and forth with a human rep, with the Tasking Dashboard and API, customers can autonomously submit, modify and cancel SkySat imagery requests. This enables visibility into the end-to-end experience, from order to fulfilment, so expectations can be managed with analysts and teams.

Rapid revisit, with up to 12x revisit capabilities This unprecedented capability will provide more rapid response to global events and enable imaging at times of

the day previously unseen by satellites.

Rapid revisit is a qualitative term used in satellite monitoring to describe the ability of the system to make repeated image captures separated by short time intervals. This implies both that the constellation can respond at short notice to collect a target without waiting days for the satellites to pass overhead, and that frequent collects can be made of a target over a given time of interest.

Diverse Use Cases With 18 satellites in operation, the SkySat constellation is unmatched in size.

Multiple daily passes allow decision cycles to accelerate with accurate, real-time views of what’s happening as conditions evolve. Planet Tasking empowers intelligence across a range of use cases, from intelligence gathering to disaster management to mapping remote corners of the world.

At Planet, we continue to apply our agile aerospace approach to our SkySat offerings to support our growing customer base, from federal and civil governments to commercial forestry to energy and more. These product advances are key components of our overall mission to democratise access to satellite imagery, providing critical intelligence to customers and organisations when they need it most.

See change.

Change the world.

Learn how Planet can help you turn data to actionable insights at go.planet. com/getintouch. You can also visit www.planet.com and follow us on Twitter at @planetlabs.

Information provided by Planet. n

Download our latest use cases planet.com company/resources/.

www.spatialsource.com.au 17

feature

Beyond the model Digital twins are touted as the business transformation tool of the next decade. Can a BIM model on steroids really do that?

DANIEL BISHTON

I

f you’ve been following geospatial trends in a cursory manner over the past few years, the term ‘digital twin’ might have already worn out its welcome. The phrase seems suddenly everywhere – you might be pardoned for wondering what the hype’s all about. Is it just another corporate buzzword? Could the childlike glee and brazen claims of industry leaders all be an act?

If any of the above sounds familiar, you’ve not been paying enough attention – and you certainly haven’t been hands-on with an honestto-goodness digital twin. Market Research Future has projected the global market for digital twins to grow from USD 2.15 billion in 2017 to around USD 35.4 billion by the end of 2025 – more than a 16-fold expansion in less than a decade.

Locally, the ground is being prepared for dominance of the digital twin, too. Key spatial peak bodies ANZLIC, FrontierSI and the Smart Cities Council of Australia and New Zealand have been hard at work on initiatives with a range of government and industry actors that should see unprecedented capability to facilitate digital twin projects in the near future.

Digital twins evade a precise definition at this stage of their development and proliferation – you’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask. This is in part because they are a maturing technology, but

18 position August/September 2020

also because they can take vastly different forms depending on their use case. FrontierSI uses a definition adapted from Gartner in 2017, a ‘dynamic digital representation of a realworld object or system.’ ANZLIC refer to twins as ‘highly advanced digital representations of the real world’, making the distinction of ‘spatially enabled’ digital twins, in which models are contextualised with geospatial and environmental data.

The semantics may not be critical to understand, but the capabilities are. So let’s take a look at what sets twins apart from past spatial modelling and analysis techniques, and try to understand what all the fuss is about.

Models ain’t models They’re just fancy BIM models, aren’t they? The view isn’t as facetious and reductive as it may sound. Digital twins include spatial modelling techniques, currently primarily used by the AEC industries, that have evolved from prior modelling disciplines. It could be said that BIM techniques are a part of the evolutionary history of digital twins – an iterative process of 3D tools for design, planning and construction that evolved from the first CAD suites. While this may reflect the generative development of the software and its capability, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the trajectory or potential of digital twin technology.

DELWP's digital twin for Fisherman's Bend began as a test case for the modernising of foundation geospatial datasets.

A unified, 4D environment for an array of datasets makes sophisticated queries easy and intuitive.

NSW Spatial Service's extensive digital twin covers large tracts of the state.

Whilst digital twins typically do contain highly accurate, metadata-rich 3D models and point clouds, there are significant distinctions to be made in terms of what twins can do, and what they can represent to an organisation when compared to even the most precise and well-annotated BIM model.

Brian Middleton, Vice President of Bentley Australia and New Zealand, refers to a static BIM model as a ‘digital snapshot’, with a key distinguishing feature of a digital twin being the ability to model the environment around it including a range of different data sources and modes.

“You can’t have a sustainable digital twin without managing time, location, change and context,” he said.

“So whilst a digital twin may include a 3D representation, it will also include the context of the environment in which it resides, and you’re managing the continual change of all data over time, including non CAD- or BIM-related data.”

For Mr. Middleton, the crucial difference lies in the ‘live’ aspect, the tightly integrated temporal relationship between the actual asset or project and its digital counterpart, which must reflect its environment and changes as-built and as maintained, not necessarily as-designed.

Redesigns, sequencing by contractors with flow-on impacts to the designs affect the final placement of elements on site.

“If somebody says a digital twin is a representation of a physical asset at a point in time, what happens when there’s change?” he said.

“Suddenly your representation is no longer accurate. Is that a digital twin, a digital ‘sibling’, or is it more like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger?”

Mr. Middleton takes the view that the promise of BIM was never fully realised,

and that viewing the technology from this angle may represent a cautionary tale – CAD managers turned BIM managers may not be the best custodians of the digital twin for an organisation or group of stakeholders.

“We haven’t fully realised the benefits from BIM, in my opinion. We’re still seeing projects that are continually failing to be delivered on time to budget, so we don’t want digital twins to become BIM mark two,” he said.

“If we think in terms of a workflow, CAD to BIM to digital twin is probably a fairly good three-step process. I believe the upside to digital twins are clear and obvious to all parties, whereas the benefits of BIM were never evenly split between design-and-construct versus operate-andmaintain – the builder and the client or owner.”

Bentley’s bread and butter is major infrastructure, and the capability of their product portfolio is expanding over time from design- and constructionfocused tools to a collection of integrated suites for digitally managing an asset as complex as a power station throughout its operational life cycle – not just management of the construction project.

So from Mr. Middleton’s perspective, the final piece of the puzzle for a true digital twin is bringing everything together to facilitate such a multifaceted capability. Combining design systems data (CAD, BIM) with operations technologies such as SCADA, librarians and maintenance-management systems with the engineering data – datasheets, standards, specifications – in a wholly unified system.

“The big differentiator is that information is not sitting in a single system. It’s a federated view. So a simple way of explaining, is like Google or your business, Google for your infrastructure,” he said.

“But if you’re doing that in your own business, you don’t get 64 million returns on your search. You only get relevant returns because you’ve actually modelled the relationships between the data sources, based on what’s most valuable to you.”

Horses for courses

The NSW Spatial Services digital contains additional detail and features on the rapidly developing region of western Sydney.

For others, different factors define the distinction between past digital modelling and analysis practices in planning and construction and the promise of the digital twin. Dr. Samad Sepasgozar is a researcher in construction technology at UNSW’s school of the built environment. He has been a lecturer in civil engineering, construction and architecture for ten years, and has developed a framework to understand www.spatialsource.com.au 19

feature

the complex issues around the practice of technology adoption within his research activities. He’s currently developing a digital twin for an excavator that can be controlled through its digital twin – which shapes his view of a digital twin’s essential components.

His view is that the concept of a digital twin is simple, but simplifications of their capability and misappropriation of the term to other disciplines threaten to curtail their potential. While they are a digital representation of the physical world, the two-way communication between the physical and digital entities is the critical component.

“It’s not just a simple representation – previously we had so many different tools and technologies to represent an object, BIM for the object and GIS representing the world around it,” he said.

“When we talk about digital twins, we are talking about something that is able to exchange data with the physical object as well.”

Dr. Sepasgozar says that a lot of actors may think or say that they are creating working with digital twins, but understanding the differences is key to their embrace and adoption.

“We can’t downgrade the digital twin to all current digital practices, we need to fully understand it first. If we know exactly what a digital twin is, companies can appropriately set their strategy towards achieving them, which will in turn affect the adoption rate,” he said.

He likens a digital twin to a ‘killer app’, a technological zenith such as connected taxi services such as Uber, Grab or DiDi – a nexus of physical

20 position August/September 2020

and digital with a human at its centre.

Although novel in its own right, Uber could not have been realised without the process of miniaturisation that brought us proliferous smartphones, AI, Google Maps, and positioning technology. Dr. Sepasgozar argues that the relationship of digital twins to other spatial modelling disciplines and developments such as cloud computing and machine learning can be viewed similarly – and like Uber, the sheer power and usability of implementation that puts the user in such an empowered position will drive their success. All actors stand to benefit, from labourers on site to residents, asset owners and users.

“We need an environment to bring the physical and digital twin together, in which they interact continuously – and the human is at the centre of that process, benefitting from this communication between physical and digital representation,” he said.

“So this is a lot more than sitting in the office and playing with data. It is real time, useful and solves problems.”

Regional momentum This description of using a fullyfledged digital twin – of previously untapped power and insight, related with excitement – came up again in a conversation with one of the leading lights powering the use of digital twins in the region, Melissa Harris. Ms. Harris is the executive director of Strategic Land Assessment & Information at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Victoria and Deputy Chair of the Australia-New Zealand Spatial

Information Council (ANZLIC). Both of these organisations are doing pioneering work in Australia, promoting cutting-edge projects and establishing frameworks to promote the use of digital twins, respectively.

Ms. Harris says that this tangible, user-focused augmented experience of interacting with a spatially-enabled digital twin forms a kind of innate value proposition to a range of audiences – an aspect that’s attracting supporters for her department’s initiative to further develop critical geospatial datasets and capabilities for the state.

“One of the great things about digital twins is that they provide a really rich experience for people interacting with them, whether they’re from a technology background or not. We’re finding that’s really powerful in terms of building the case to support and invest,” she said.

DELWP is developing a spatiallyenabled digital twin for Melbourne’s Fisherman’s Bend precinct, the largest urban renewal project in Australia, covering 480 hectares over two municipalities and linking Melbourne’s CBD to the bay. The term ‘spatially enabled’ indicates that the twin confers to a set of principles developed by ANZLIC in collaboration with CSIRO’s Data61 and Smart Cities Council Australia and New Zealand (SCCANZ), ensuring that it conforms to current 3D data standards, and contains integrated temporal data (4D) and foundational spatial datasets – particularly cadastral, parcel and land use data. This project contains a range of other goodies too – 4D datasets created by machine learning algorithms

from archival imagery of the precinct, BIM models of buildings, live feeds from sensors to monitor traffic and transport data.

Ms. Harris says that for a planning use case, the essence and power of a digital twin is the convergence of an array of datasets into a unified view – in 3D and 4D that would otherwise be discrete, locked up in siloed government and private databases.

“When it’s at your fingertips in a single platform, and you can use many different combinations to run queries and scenarios and model different outcomes, you have vastly superior decision making capabilities that you wouldn’t otherwise have,” she said.

“Some of the really interesting opportunities these platforms provide us have the potential to revolutionise government decision making – and how we consult with communities about those decisions - and in doing so, really make a contribution towards those long term government goals of liveable, sustainable places and communities.”

The Fisherman’s Bend digital twin

evolved from a need to investigate 3D and 4D formats in a live environment – a component of the ongoing work to modernise the state’s core geospatial and planning datasets that have been developed over decades. Ms. Harris said that her team learnt so much from the development and use of the twin that it’s established a new set of strategic goals for the ongoing work on developing the foundational datasets from planning and cadastral data in legacy data stores.

“Despite so much technology and innovation over decades, digital workflows are still very much characterised by 2D, even analogue formats,” she said.

“But we have learned so many fabulous things – we’ve now got to think about how we can scale these critically important data sets over the near future, to interoperable standards-based 3D and 4D formats that support this kind of capability at scale.”

Watch this space While digital twins in their fullest sense are in their nascency in our region,

momentum is building. ANZLIC has identified digital twins and smart cities as one of its key initiatives for maximising the use of Australia and New Zealand spatial information. Initiatives to collaborate on agreed terminology, standards for interoperability and data exchange are well underway.

FrontierSI is preparing to co-invest in three areas to advance creation of digital twin products and services in support of its government partners’ priorities, and has developed a collaborative partner model that includes development and deployment phases of digital twins – accounting for governance arrangements for data acquisition, sharing, licensing and access and fusion. NSW Spatial services launched its huge digital twin project in March 2020, and the recently formed Digital Twin Consortium is developing its draft charter. And while cloud computing, machine learning, UAVs and reality capture advancements have brought about a potential new paradigm, we are only just witnessing the emergence of this technique. Watch this space.

Daniel Bishton is the editor of Position. n

Photo by Jerry Zhang on Unsplash

The Surveyors’ Trust looks to continue growth, seeks

GENERAL MANAGER

The Surveyors’ Trust is recruiting a newly created General Manager position in collaboration with Holly Tattersall at Digital Talent Co.

This marks an important moment in the organisation’s history as we further invest in the expertise and sustainability of Australia’s surveying and spatial industry.

Should you have any questions or wish to apply please contact Holly directly on 0400 356 656 or holly@digitaltalentco.com.au Information provided by The Surveyors’ Trust

For more information on this role, go to digitaltalentco.com.au www.spatialsource.com.au 21

q&a

Q&A with Steve Amor

A dark horse of the Australian geospatial industry, Euclideon is partnered of many of the big hitters. We sat down with business director Steve Amor, following the recent release of the firm’s udStream product, offering free and unlimited streaming and storage capacity for massive 3D datasets.

Position: Steve, thanks for your time today. In your view, what is the core promise of a digital twin that sets it apart from other spatial modelling and simulation techniques?

SA: Whilst there are similarities, BIM

tends to focus on the design and construct phase of a project, whereas a digital twin is used more for ongoing engagement, exploration and visualisation by the communities, governments and all users of the city (or entity that is being ‘twinned’). A BIM model is quite rigid in its use due to its establishment right at the very beginning of the design stage – possibly many years prior. A digital twin, on the other hand, is more like a living document that is more flexible, accessible and useable in an unlimited array of use cases/situations. For example, no one would have considered the ‘social distancing’ that comes about with Covid-19 when the BIM models were designed. So their usefulness is probably limited. Digital twins, on the other hand, could help a building owner visualise implementation of social distancing restrictions to ensure compliance by being able to show crowd/line-up simulation and density of people within buildings.

Position: The phrase is heard often in our industry, but a view I’ve heard from experts is that active examples of fullyfeatured digital twins in our region are fairly thin on the ground at present.

What’s your take on this?

SA: We have seen many photogrammetry

and LiDAR models being captured every day, but it is true that not many are yet being turned into a true digital twin. I think the terminology has not yet made it to the average person. Certainly, there is not a good understanding of the difference between a standard 3D model, BIM and digital twin.

Position: Can you walk us through any exemplary projects you’re involved with?

22 position August/September 2020

What defines a digital twin to you?

SA: Euclideon has previously been

involved in a number of digital twin projects, where we have used our rendering technology to help model owners to make better use of their models.

For example, the virtual Singapore project, which provided an amazing level of detail right across Singapore – and we additionally built a proof-of-concept based around emergency service scenarios. The digital twin model allowed emergency services from different agencies to be able to cooperate in real-time to manage the situation with the best preparation and knowledge of the locations involved.

I’ve also seen some great models from around the world – particularly South East Asia – that whole region seems to be a great support of innovation in this area.

A digital twin obviously needs to be an accurate representation, it must include a variety of non-visual attributes but at the same time, it should be visually appealing (and actually look like it does in real life).

For me, the thing that most defines a great Digital Twin though is its’ flexibility – as I said before, the flexibility to be used for any number of unknown scenarios in the future.

Position: What do you think are key barriers to increasing uptake at present?

What are factors that might influence this in the near future?

SA: The key barrier at the moment

is that people don’t realise that they can digital twin an entire city or even country – for too long access to a 3D city model has been restricted to engineers working on an expensive desktop computer using a very complex project file of just one single building/location.

Recent growth of photogrammetry and LiDAR capturing companies have caused us to see a huge upsurge in the number of Digital Twin models and the owners (usually city governments or municipalities) are seeking our

assistance to make use of the models they have. Typically a city-sized digital twin model can be terabytes (or more) in file size - making it almost impossible to load quickly and be accessible remotely – this is one of the problems that our udStream service solves.

As more people see how easy it can be and how valuable it is to access a digital twin, then I feel there will be an even greater uptake– we are actively working to remove the barrier of entry to access these digital twins.

geological modelling already being done in the resources sector, land planning by agriculture or battle simulations by the military. We have even started to see people think about ‘digital twinning’ under the oceans. It’s an exciting time for this technology and I’m thrilled to be at the forefront.

Position: Many thanks for your time, Steve. n

Top: Increasing rate and detail of aerially acquired imagery is fuelling digital twin projects around Australia.

Middle: BIM models contextualised with geospatial and environmental data can form powerful management tools.

Bottom: Digital twins provide an environment to model future scenarios in unprecedented detail.

Position: I’ve heard a view that digital twins may have a ‘levelling’ or ‘democratising’ influence on the construction sector once they proliferate further – that the tech may be accessible to smaller players than say, BIM tools may be. Do you agree with this? Why/ why not, and what are the factors that are driving this if so?

SA: Previously you had to have a really

expensive desktop computer, with very expensive software for a very defined specialised task. Even then, you needed access to the models – which were probably stored on a huge hard drive and access was limited to the office.

Thus, it was practically impossible for anyone but a few select specialist engineers to access these models. Now, with solutions such as udStream, those massive models can be hosted in the cloud and accessed anywhere in the world using only a standard browser – there is no need to install specialist software, no need to purchase dedicated storage hardware and the solution is free.

This is being driven partly by a drive towards cloud storage platforms, but also the industry is slowly moving towards a greater acceptance of data sharing. We’ve witnessed some governments even releasing datasets of their entire country as open data – something we at Euclideon are very supportive of.

Position: Digital twins are proliferating most in planning and construction, utilities and extractive industries at present, but the promise associated with them as a business transformation tool seems applicable to almost any industry. What are some other sectors that you see as well-placed in terms of awareness and adoption?

SA: We are well past digital twins only

being relevant to those core industries.

These days our biggest users are in the rail and main roads sectors, actually. If you expand your definition of ‘digital twin’ slightly, how is it different to www.spatialsource.com.au 23

partner feature One of the massive boulders the Gold Coast team located using the Stream C. Photo by Brad Newton.

Stream C GPR helps clear the way How IDS GeoRadar’s massive array system empowered a local council to turn underground boulders from annoyance into armour against beach erosion

T

asked with reconstructing nearly 12,000 sqm of road and replacing nearly a kilometre of water main pipe near Coolangatta’s picturesque Point Danger, City of Gold Coast engineers and crew already knew they had a big job on their hands.

And then they hit a massive boulder under the road surface, bringing the diggers to an abrupt and costly stop.

“So, the council thought we found one, so what can we do to find the rest?” recalls Brad Keane, a Detection Specialist

24 position August/September 2020

at CR Kennedy who has worked closely with the council.

“Well, the call went out to the materials lab which had the Stream C, and therefore some investigation and scanning capability, to see if there are other potential obstructions in this road.”

The Materials Testing section had indeed recently brought on the massive 3D array GPR system manufactured by IDS GeoRadar (part of Hexagon) known as the Stream C. The team had realised they needed a ground penetrating radar

system that is both versatile and accurate.

“We had tried other smaller units and we had to do a grid pattern to try and pick stuff up and get the overall picture,” recalls Alex Munro, Coordinator Materials Testing at City of Gold Coast.

“But with the Stream C we saw that with its massive array it does lend itself to quickly capture some good data over larger areas.”

“We are in an unusual situation in that the section we are in is aligned with both the engineering design arm of our Infrastructure Delivery branch as well as the construction side of it,” he says.

“So, we get involved from investigation through to construction,” he says. “With this equipment, we were looking for it to fulfill a multi-purpose role.”

Usually those purposes have centred on the more common tasks of identifying utility services and looking for voids after slab removal. The Stream C, with its massive array and easy to use software, has been perfectly suited for the wide variety of scenarios the materials testing team find themselves in.

This system allows for dense data collection with 32 antennas spread across a 1m width. This results in an effective scan interval of 4cm between antennas, which allows for detailed images of underground features such as drains and utilities.

But in this instance, they found some very large rocks.

“The guys were able to do a 3D map of the things that reflected the signal under the ground. And they related quite well to the large boulders,” says CR Kennedy’s Brad Keane, who consulted on the project.

But he says a big part of the team’s success with the Stream C GPR system has to do with the new IQMaps software that he says basically processes data on the fly.

“Previously,” Keane says, “you’d have to have an expert stand behind you, and you’d say, hey, can you process the data for us so that we can make the correct interpretation?”

But with IQMaps that processing is now removed, as it uses an algorithm that helps run the data directly.

“It’s more about producing images you interpret rather than radar data that you then have to work on,” Brad says.

“That is what really allowed the Gold Coast team to take ownership of the job and to really roll with it without the need for much geophysics consulting,” he says.

“That’s probably what’s really turned the corner for them and allowed them to unshackle.”

With the Stream C and IQMaps, the team was able to produce clear scans that picked up at least 19 discrete boulders.

The largest one, Keane says, was about

partner feature IDS GeoRadar Stream C: ground penetrating radar for real time underground mapping.

34 tonnes and around 10 cubic metres.

“For guys used to working in mines, that might not sound like much but you multiply that out into a 3D space and consider that this was a residential area, it is a very awkward and very difficult project because you can’t just blast them,” Keane says.

Alex Munro of the City of Gold Coast says the scans allowed the team to get strategic when it comes to removing these massive objects.

“There was one especially large boulder that was causing them grief in the trench for the water main relocation, but as it turned out they did end up getting some geotech advice on that obstacle and ended up being successful using a rock breaker to reduce the size,” he says. “So they just were able to remove that one in fragments.”

And now that the team has a complete map showing the location and size of these massive inconveniences, the team has been able to go through with an excavator and pluck out whole boulders and put them to the side.

Alex Munro says city engineers are keen to hang onto them as they think they have found a way to put them to very good use.

“I understand they are retaining them for potential reuse as rock protection for storm events on our seawalls,” he says.

The City of Gold Coast, like other coastal areas just about anywhere in the world, has seen massive impacts from coastal erosion due to rising seas and swells. Massive boulders like these can help armour the beaches and stem the erosion.

So while they were a giant inconvenience for the road crew, they will now be a valuable resource in the fight to protect one of the council’s most valuable resources – its beaches.

Information provided by CR Kennedy.

“The big story is the software IQMaps that basically processes the data on the fly.

Previously, you’d have to have an expert to stand behind you, and you’d say, hey, can you process the data for us so that we can make the correct interpretation? That’s what really allowed the Gold Coast team to take ownership of the job and to really roll with it.”

CR Kennedy’s Brad Keane

IQMaps signal amplitude map showing boulder regions as broad red regions.

www.spatialsource.com.au 25

feature

Contributions of geospatial sciences to evaluating ecosystem services JOHN TRINDER

26 position August/September 2020

T

he aim of this article is to demonstrate how spatial technologies can play a role in the application and evaluation of ecosystem service values (ESV). It will define ecosystem services (ES) and provide statements about the need for green spaces in urban areas. Then it will demonstrate the use remote sensing data to study changes in land use in two cities, Wuhan in central China and western Sydney, and the fragmentation of green spaces, to determine the impacts on ecosystem services (ES) brought about by the recent developments in these cities.

Ecosystem services (ES) are those services provided for the benefit of humans by the natural environment, which are properly functioning ecosystems. ES demonstrate the extent of the dependence of humans on the natural

environment, in the context of more than 50 percent of the world’s population now living in urban areas. ES have been studied extensively over the past approximately four decades, as described

by Robert Costanza (now at ANU) and his colleagues in 1997 and updated in many recent research publications. The availability of GIS technologies has been an important development in assisting the process of mapping the value of ES. The descriptions of these services are complex, but the understanding is that if ES are diminished for any reason, such as new buildings replacing farmlands, then humans’ well-being and their ability to prosper may be adversely affected.

There have been recommendations that ES should be taken into account in urban planning, so that the needs of the inhabitants of urban areas can be

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 1. Comparisons of classifications in Wuhan (a) for 1987 (b) for 2017; and in Sydney (c) for 1988 (d) for 2017.

considered during this process while others have attempted to assess the ecosystem services of parks and green spaces in several cities in Asia and Latin America and suggested that ecosystem services should become part of urban planning process, including targets and quantities of required services. There has been a thorough review of the uptake of ES in the planning processes in six cities in Europe and USA demonstrating that more than half of the cities investigated revealed a recognition of the dependence of urban inhabitants on ES. Studies of ES have also been carried out in Australia.

Why green space is important in urban areas Firstly, let us look at the benefits of exposure to green spaces which are an essential component of ES. Many authors have {Twohig-Bennett, 2018 #119} described the significant health benefits, including reduced blood pressure, heart rate and reduced incidence of a number of health risks, for urban inhabitants from exposure to green space. They further encourage policy and decision makers to create, improve and maintain green spaces especially in deprived areas of cities, because low levels of ‘nature dose’

can lead to poorer mental health and lower levels of social cohesion. Some metrics defining desirable sizes of green spaces and the distance to them have been proposed, the minimum sizes varying between 0.5ha and 1ha, although short distances together with a smaller size of green space may also be significant. A threshold distance of 300m is likely to have better health benefits than longer distances, although this figure is not definitive. Therefore, these findings should influence urban development policies for the inclusion of green space.

The Greening Sydney Plan which is a supporting document to the Environmental Action 2016 – 2021 Strategy and Action Plan that was endorsed by the City of Sydney in March 2017 has recommended minimum canopy cover targets of 15 percent in central business districts (CBD) and industrial areas, 25 percent in urban residential and light commercial areas, and 50 percent in suburban residential areas. Therefore, it was concluded for the study described in a more extensive version of the paper published in Geo-spatial Information Science Vol. 23 (1) that major cities should aim for a minimum of 15 percent - 20 percent green areas in CBDs, 25 percent

to 30 percent vegetation cover in urban residential areas and up to 50 percent in suburban areas.

Studies of green space changes in Wuhan and Sydney The initial step in the research for determining changes in the distribution of buildings and green spaces in Wuhan and western Sydney over a period of 30 years was to determine the changes in landcover using Landsat data from 1987 to 2017. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province in central China at the confluence of the Yangtse and Han Rivers, with an estimated population of about 12 million. It is composed of thirteen administrative districts, seven of which are urban central districts and were studied in this work. The western suburbs of Sydney were studied because of the recent growth in these regions.

While higher spatial resolution satellite data is desirable for this purpose, no such data is available going back to 1987. Therefore, the procedure used for the landcover analysis was based on Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) to derive class fractions within each pixel. Using www.spatialsource.com.au 27

feature (a)

(b)

Figure 2. G rowth and loss in vegetation objects in terms of distance (a) and orientation (b) from the center of Wuhan.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3. G rowth and loss in vegetation objects in terms of distance (a) and orientation (b) from the center of western Sydney.

Google Earth images as reference, pixels with known class attributes were manually selected from each image to build a spectral library. An optimal set of spectra for all the classes were then selected from the library based on the minimum Endmember Average RMSE (EAR). In addition, shade normalisation was implemented to eliminate shade fractions from the unmixing results.

Based on the class fractions, superresolution mapping (SRM) was employed to generate classification maps at higher spatial resolution for which the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) predicted Wavelet method was utilised, and a scale factor of 4, i.e. the pixel size of the SRM results was 7.5m. Examples of the results of the classifications over Wuhan and western Sydney are shown in Figure 1.

High-resolution images were utilized to assess the classification accuracy for 2013 and 2017. For Wuhan, a Ziyuan-3 image and a Gaofen-1 satellite image were used. Both images have a spatial resolution of 2m. For Sydney, two aerial images acquired by Nearmap with a spatial resolution of 2.39m were utilized. The overall accuracy of the

28  position  August/September 2020

image classifications was estimated to be more than 90 percent for the images for 2013 and 2017 over Wuhan, but lower overall accuracy of 79 percent and 89 percent for images of the same dates for Sydney.

Impacts of fragmentation in green spaces Fragmentation of green spaces and therefore habitats is a typical consequence of urbanisation and there has been considerable discussion in the literature about its consequences. The methods by which fragmentation is determined using remote sensing technologies, should be related to the contextual needs of scientific studies of the effects of habitat changes. It places a greater burden on remote sensing experts to cooperate with ecologists, biologists and other scientists to determine the characteristics of Earth observation data, whether microwave or optical, in terms of wavelengths, spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions, that are suitable for determining the impacts of fragmentation in biodiversity studies.

The levels of fragmentation in Wuhan and Sydney were determined by IndiFrag

feature software which revealed the impact of fragmentation on vegetation areas brought about by the increase in buildings in Wuhan and Sydney. Considering the recommendations for minimum levels of green cover above of 15 percent - 20 percent, while most areas of Wuhan satisfy these recommendations, the heavily built-up regions of Wuhan appear to show lower percentages than these recommended minimum levels, although some increases in vegetation areas have occurred since about 2009. In Sydney building sizes were generally smaller than in Wuhan, being of the order of 3,000 to 4,000 m2, which is indicative of the detached buildings typical of suburban areas in Australia, while vegetation object sizes tended to decrease especially after about 2007 in some areas. The growth and loss of vegetation as well as distances and orientations of changes from the centres of Wuhan and western Sydney are shown in Figures 2 and 3 respectively.

Changes in Ecosystem Services Values (ESV) in Wuhan and Sydney In order to estimate changes in ESV for Wuhan and Sydney in this study, the same ecosystem values for both areas were selected, even though ESV for some Chinese areas have been determined separately. Researchers on ESV state that even though croplands and urban areas are human dominated systems, they do provide some ecosystem services, listed as: ‘provision of services, regulating

services, cultural services, habitat and supporting services’. However, ESV in terms of $2,007/ha/year were extracted from existing published details excluding ESV for buildings because of their uncertainty, and were assigned to the classifications extracted for this study for vegetation + soil + water, as displayed in Figure 4, in which Grassland/Rangeland/ Cropland ESV have been determined from the average of Grassland/Rangeland and Cropland ESV in the literature. The differences in the ESV for Wuhan and Sydney are a function of the relative sizes of the areas of Wuhan and Sydney.

However, the important points to note about Figure 4 are the relative reductions in ESV over the period from 1987 to 2017, there being significant losses in ESV in Wuhan (about 20 percent) and in Sydney (about 3 percent). There is a need to undertake further analysis to determine the impacts of these losses in ESV on the well-being of humans living in Wuhan and the western suburbs of Sydney. This would require research that is typically being undertaken by the many researchers in the multi-disciplinary research field of ESV. Finally, Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Agenda 2030 {Nations, 2017 #55} {Nations, 2017 #209} proposes to overcome poverty and improve the environment of urban areas.

Studies by Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Europe and UN-Habitat in 2018 have

published details of urban areas around the world that have revealed more than was previously known about populations in urban areas, but how urban areas can remain or become more sustainable is yet to be addressed. Generally it is agreed in the literature that there has been inadequate uptake of geospatial information for the studies of the SDG so far, and there are opportunities for the geospatial community to play a significant role in global sustainable development, which should also involve assessments of ecosystem services.

Acknowledgments: The author is indebted to Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for the kind provision of the Gaofen-1 and Ziyuan-3 images for the evaluation of the accuracies of the classifications over Wuhan. We are also indebted to Nearmap Ltd for access to their images over Sydney, as part of the license agreement between UNSW and Nearmap, for the evaluation of the classifications over Sydney. The work of Qingxiang Liu (PhD UNSW) in undertaking the classifications of the many images of Wuhan and Sydney and the computations of the fragmentation by IndiFrag software is also acknowledged.

John Trinder is Emeritus professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales. n

Many authors have described the significant health benefits; including reduced blood pressure, heart rate and reduced incidence of a number of health risks, for urban inhabitants from exposure to green space.

Figure 4. E SV for Wuhan and Sydney derived from vegetation + soil + water, according to accompanying legend.

www.spatialsource.com.au 29

q&a

Q&A with Jorge Fernandez

There have never been as many pressures on Australian food and commodity producers as there today – in light of a rapidly changing climate and increasing market uncertaintly. We sit down with Jorge Fernandez, head of product for Pix4D’s agricultural offering, to discuss new tools may offer agriculturalists a way to increase yields and reduce costs.

Position: Jorge, thanks for your time today.

Farming has never been an easy life. But in 2020, landholders and food producers, those that manage livestock and crops and produce the world’s food, are under increasing pressures. What do you see as the main challenges for agriculture going forwards?

JF: In my personal opinion, because of

the scale and importance of agriculture in the world, agriculturalists could be faced with too many new options to solve ever increasing challenges. The role and architecture of technology and data in agriculture needs to settle. With too many options on the table, it’s hard to choose.

Once the technology and data find their place and synergy, they will become one with the industry. So to achieve that I believe is the main challenge today.

Position: How are the needs of agriculturalists changing as a result, and how might new tools and techniques be poised to assist?

JF: The trend is that, in order to be a

successful agriculturalist, you need to manage more and more land. With

30 position August/September 2020

increasing acres, come increasing challenges: “How can I run the operation efficiently and sustainably, while I don’t have the same level of knowledge as I used to when I managed a smaller operation?” This is a question that many agriculturalists are asking themselves, and the only way to solve this tough equation is by leveraging data.

More and more, we see operations, and all its stakeholders, relying on data and acting on it. Drones are one piece of the puzzle, they make a 150 hectare field feel more like a 20 hectare one. Spatial context is key to make decisions quickly.

We always say, it’s not a technology problem, it’s an operations problem. In many ways the agriculturalists are closer to the role of a big technology CEO. You need to trust your data in order to keep going. New tools alone don’t mean much, unless you have a “farm CEO” that knows how to take advantage of it.

Position: Clearly, new approaches and tools that may offer any competitive advantage or improve legacy farming techniques should be welcomed by the

Photogrammetry and drone mapping tools can greatly reduce scouting time.

agricultural industry – but at least here in Australia, they don’t have a reputation for rapid adaptation to change. How are the new tools and techniques being received?

JF: New technologies take time, especially

when you introduce them to an industry that “never sleeps”. Season after season you need to keep producing and taking care of the soil, it’s not that easy to schedule time to learn how to bring a new piece of technology and data into your operation.

At Pix4D we are proud to have been working with farm operations, agriculturalists and service providers for years. We see our technology going through every season and becoming as ubiquitous as auto steering. Agriculture is the most innovative industry in the world, they’ve been using “self-driving tractors” for decades. Once a piece of technology makes sense, you can’t stop it. Agriculture is like that.

Position: What strategies are you using to reach farmers, and how has any industry consultation shaped the functionality of your agriculture-focused products?

JF: There are two main blocks.

1. We develop honest professional software for the industry. This is critical and runs to the core of Pix4D’s philosophy. Our tools solve problems from day one, whether you are on your first season using drones, or on your 4th season. To provide something that works is critical!

2. We create content that allows agriculturalists to visualise themselves using drones 3-4 years into their operation. By providing transparent use cases, we strongly believe we are helping the industry minimize the risk of adoption of new technologies. We don’t want to sell a dream of a future that doesn’t exist and we want to show exactly how people are using the technology today, so that they understand how it will be in 3-4 years for them.

These are the two pillars of our outreach strategy – a good product and clear use cases.

Position: The use of UAVs and photogrammetry for optimised management of crops via multispectral sensing and NDVI analysis is now well established and understood within the geospatial industry. What are other techniques and tools that may assist agriculture, including those managing livestock? [e.g. new and emerging algorithms, tools and techniques, application of geospatial techniques to farming practices] JF: It’s like the use of a hammer, you

can build a table or fix a roof with it. It’s all about the knowledge on how to use it. Aerial crop analysis has been in the spotlight for many years now, but we see many livestocks operations using the same NDVI analysis to manage their pastures and avoid overgrazing.

We should do a better job at showcasing these different applications, same goes for agroforestry. Multispectral analysis is the hammer in the tool box, it can serve many purposes, you don’t need a different hammer for your table or roof.

You just need to know how to use it in order to achieve optimal results.

Position: In Australia, there is increased interest in regenerative agriculture, and a range of symbiotic techniques that rely on ecosystem services, promotion of local biodiversity and water management to reduce chemical fertiliser use, environmental impacts and increase yields – typically on small plots. The benefits of spatial techniques on large plots is clear but can they offer benefits to these kinds of landholders as well? Is there environmental monitoring capability embedded within these technologies that may benefit this sector?

JF: I shouldn’t continue using the hammer

analogy from the previous question – but

Contemporary tools can produce vegetation index maps from orthophotos in a single mouse click.

it’s the same concept. Farmers know the ins and outs of their farms and are trained to notice every important detail.

Multispectral imagery helps with the invisible part, when there are changes happening in the field we simply can’t see with our human eyes. While hand-tending of small scale farms is manageable, it is about using the knowledge of the farm, and taking it to a next level by using tools that give an extra layer of information that wasn’t available before.

Additionally, the term ‘less is more’ in agriculture is closely connected to drones and sensors. Knowing where to put ‘more’ or ‘less’ fertiliser, pesticide, herbicide…or even water, comes directly from Variable Rate Maps, derived from crop health and vegetation indices. This reduces cost, increases yield and improves the soil and crop quality overall. Saving money is always a plus, but saving while getting better yields and improving your farm health is priceless.

Regenerative farming doesn’t mean smaller fields, it’s just a more sustainable way of looking at the soil. The more you know about your crop and soil, the better you can run your operation.

Position: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

JF: Just a note that agriculture is now even

more important than ever! Countries and regions worldwide have been experiencing various effects on their food systems and food production caused by the pandemic.

However one thing is the same for all of them - agriculture and farming don’t stop.

If anything, exploring and implementing remote sensing technologies in agriculture with drone mapping is a necessary step in bringing social distancing to the farm.

Thanks Daniel for your questions and having us in this edition of the Position magazine.

Position: Many thanks for your time, Jorge. n www.spatialsource.com.au 31

feature

An uphill battle Which street really is the world’s steepest – Ffordd Pen Llech or Baldwin Street?

T

his article provides a comparison of the current world’s steepest street: Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech, Wales with its predecessor: Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand. The analysis covers the three-dimensional shape of both streets, a review of the Guinness World Record parameters used to award the world record to Ffordd Pen Llech, and a recommendation that centreline gradient should be used to determine future world records.

Our view is that straight streets and curved streets need to be assessed fairly.

This can be achieved by measuring gradient at the centreline.

We found that Baldwin Street is steeper than Ffordd Pen Llech by 5.2 percent when both streets are measured on the centreline.

parking on either side. Kerb and channel is provided on both sides over the full length. A footpath is provided over the full length of the south side. A footpath is provided over 80 percent of the north side. The footpaths have long sections of steps owing to the steep topography.

Vehicular access is provided to houses on both sides of Baldwin Street over its full length.

Baldwin Street held the Guinness World Record for steepest street from 1987 until 2019 with a gradient of 35 percent (1 in 2.86).

Baldwin Street Baldwin Street is located in Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand. The road controlling authority is the Dunedin City Council.

It starts 1.4km northeast along North Road from the intersection of Bank Street, North Road, Opoho Road and Great King Street. Baldwin Street is 374m long and rises 69m from North Road to Buchanan Street. The horizontal alignment is entirely straight.

The first (lowest) 180m section of Baldwin Street is a flexible chip seal pavement. It is a two-way carriageway with parking on both sides. From there it steepens significantly and changes to a rigid concrete pavement with no

32 position August/September 2020

Figure 1 – Baldwin Street Location Diagram – satellite imagery courtesy of Google Earth.

Figure 2 – Baldwin Street Steepest Section – satellite imagery courtesy of Google Earth.

TOBY STOFF

Ffordd Pen Llech Ffordd Pen Llech is located in the town of Harlech, in the North Wales county of Gwynedd. The road controlling authority is the Gwynedd Council.

Ffordd Pen Llech starts in central Harlech, 80m south east of Harlech Castle at the intersection of Twitl, Pen Dref, Ffordd Pen Llech and Stryd Fawr (B4573).

Ffordd Pen Llech is 343m long and falls 57m to Hwylfar Nant. The gradient is steep for the first (top) 240m until the end of the world record hairpin curve. The gradient reduces for the final 100m until it is moderately flat at the intersection with Hwylfar Nant. The alignment is complex and contains 12 horizontal curves up to 145 degrees deflection (at the world record corner).

It has a flexible chip seal pavement over its full length.

The carriageway is entirely one way.

There are occasional no parking lines near the top of the street although parking for considerable portions is left to the discretion of road users. Long sections are too narrow to allow any parking on the carriageway. Short sections of concrete kerb and channel are provided, as required, to direct stormwater runoff into mud tanks. Ffordd Pen Llech is a shared space street. No footpaths are provided.

While relatively informal, the engineering is in keeping with its heritage setting. Its purpose is to provide vehicular access to a small number of residential properties and businesses, and to provide

a pedestrian link to lower Harlech. Here amenity values predominate.

Ffordd Pen Llech was awarded the Guinness record of world’s steepest street in July 2019 with a published steepness of 37.45 percent.

Figure 3 – Ffordd pen Llech Location Diagram – satellite imagery courtesy of Google Earth.

Figure 4 – Ffordd Pen Llech Steepest Section – satellite imagery courtesy of Google Earth.

The record is lost Losing the world record was a disappointment, but no real surprise as there had been media reports in the preceding weeks and months advising that something was in the pipeline. It wasn’t until photographs began circulating of the Welsh surveyors measuring on the inside of a curve that it became apparent that things had gone aslant.

Wednesday, 17 July 2019. We undertook a case study of a steep hairpin bend on Lancefield Street in Dunedin.

We demonstrated on our findings on television and showed how gradients vary significantly across the width of the carriageway. We put forward our recommendation to measure gradients on the centreline as this reflects average gradient across the full width. This generated many weeks of media interest.

5 – Work begins We decided to submit to Guinness World Records an assessment of the two streets and to make our recommendation.

The first item to complete was a full survey of Baldwin Street. This would confirm its published maximum gradient of 35 percent and would provide valuable graphical information to support our findings.

Ray Copeland of Global Survey offered to send down a Leica P40 scanner and one of his scanning experts, Lennon

Bedford. Lennon would scan Baldwin Street, produce reports and graphics.

Clark Fortune McDonald & Associates established some accurate benchmarks in Baldwin Street so that the scanned point cloud could be oriented into terms of recognised horizontal and vertical reference systems.

Otago University School of Surveying classmates Mike Constable, Dave Mitchell and Andrew Bonallack set up a Gogetfunding page and began fundraising to send me on a field trip to Wales to measure their Ffordd Pen Llech.

On Wednesday, 7 August 2019 we used the Leica P40 laser scanner to get a point cloud of Baldwin Street. The P40 is an excellent piece of kit which allowed us to gather a rich, accurate dataset very efficiently.

The crowd funding reached over (NZ) $8,000 in a short period of time. The trip to Wales was announced which sparked more media interest.

Another classmate, Sam Harman, volunteered to travel from his home in Aberdeen to Wales where he would provide logistical support. We decided to rendezvous in Manchester as Air New Zealand flew there direct.

We then set about organising traffic management, a job safety assessment, and obtaining the necessary permissions from Gwynedd Council. Traffic management was interesting because all signage had to be English and Welsh. Luckily JTM Signs had everything well in hand.

M&P Survey generously offered free total station hire for the project. Dave Langton also travelled to Harlech and to scanned the steepest section.

So, after a lengthy flight and a very scenic drive through North Wales, at 09:00, Thursday, 7 November 2019 Sam and set up our equipment on the (according to Guinness World Records), New Zealand media in tow, and got to work.

In total we measured 101 survey points around the steep corner which included: • both seal edges at approximately 1m intervals; • centreline at approximately 1m intervals; • spot heights between the centreline and seal edge; and • six nails to act as reference marks (to allow the scanning total station data to be oriented with ours).

We downloaded our modest (4kb) dataset and made the way clear for David Langton to begin scanning.

This left the rest of the morning free to do interviews. TV3 reporter, Lloyd Burr, had bought some Jaffa’s in London so that he could roll them down-hill (a Dunedin

tradition) at the end of his interview.

He was in the middle of telling us how staggeringly expensive they were when his bag split wide open and £10 worth went rattling into the undergrowth. Luckily most of them were recovered and, once the leaves were cleaned off, they were rebagged for the great rolling downhill.

Results Methods of analysis include: • re-surveying both streets using conventional surveying methods; • laser scanning both streets as an independent check, for microlevel evaluation, and for graphical representations; • locating the steepest 10m section of Ffordd Pen Llech on the inside of the hairpin curve and confirming the world record gradient; • projecting this section onto a) the centreline; and b) the outside of the road, then determining the average gradient of the road base on left, centreline and right-hand side gradients; • Demonstrate the amount of gradient reduction from the inside of the curve to the outside; • locating the steepest 10m section of Baldwin Street on the centreline and confirming the previous world record gradient; • projecting the 10m steepest section onto a) the left; and b) right hand sides of the road, then determining the average gradient of the road based on

Sam Harman selfie with the author and NZ media in the background.

David Langton of M & P Survey scanning Ffordd Pen Llech – a cyclist avoids the steepest side.

www.spatialsource.com.au 33

feature the left, centreline and right-hand side gradients; and • Compare the centreline gradients of both streets.

Baldwin Street Baldwin Street analysis was carried out on the P40 scan data from chainage 160.00 onwards. From chainage 0-00 to 160.00 the carriageway is quite flat and not worth analysing. The method of analysis is as follows: 1. calculating the CL gradient between chainage 160.00 and 170.00; 2. calculating the gradient between chainage 160.20 and 170.20, then by moving up on the centreline in 200mm increments through to the gradient between 360.00 and 370.00 (approximately 1000 gradient values); 3. ordering the results based on highest gradient to find the steepest 10m section of the centreline; 4. determining the corresponding gradient of the 10m section on left-hand side; 5. determining the corresponding gradient of the right-hand side; 6. taking the average of the three gradients.

It is interesting to note that our maximum measured steepness on the centreline is 34.8 percent, whereas 35 percent was measured on the right-hand side.

The results show a small difference in left, centre and right-hand side gradients.

For a straight street the centreline gives a good indication of overall steepness.

Duking it out for the title.

Lennon Bedford laser scanning Baldwin Street.

Ffordd Pen Llech The world record is based on the inside seal edge over the steepest 10m section.

This was located it by analysing 10m long sections around the inside seal edge from the beginning of our survey data and moving up in 200mm increments per the Baldwin Street centreline. Refer below.

Now that’s a steep street!

Baldwin Street

From (Chainage)

To (Chainage)

Gradient (%)

CL

289.8

299.8

34.8

LHS

289.8

299.8

34.5

RHS

289.8

299.8

35

Average

34.8

Ffordd Pen Llech

From

Inside (LHS)

5.4

15.4

-38.6

5.8

15.8

-28.6

10.2

20.2

-21.7

CL RHS

To

Average Summary of Results

Gradient (%)

-29.6 Ffordd Pen Llech

Baldwin Street

Centreline Gradient

-28.6%

34.8%

Average Gradient (left, centre & right)

-29.6%

34.8%

34 position August/September 2020

Once the steepest 10m long section had been found on the inside, the gradients of the adjacent 10m long sections were found on the centreline and the outside seal edge.

The road outline in the study area is irregular and care was taken to achieve a best estimate of the centreline. The centreline of the study area comprises an approach straight, followed by a sharp curve to the left and a straight exit.

The centreline in the study area was determined by: • plotting the midpoint between left and right-hand sides around the curve; • estimating a circular curve through these points using linear regression; • estimating the straights on either side using linear regression of the road midpoints along the straights; and • offsetting these lines so that they were tangential to the circular curve (maximum 6.6mm offset required).

Refer appendices for plan and profiles of Ffordd Pen Llech.

The average of inside centre and outside was determined as follows: Interestingly our study found the steepest 10m long section around the inside to be -38.6 percent - steeper than the world record gradient by 1.1 percent.

The study also demonstrates the significant difference in gradient between the inside and the outside (16.9 percent) – such is the nature of steep curves.

Summary of Results Although the steepest 10m section of Ffordd Pen Llech is steeper than Baldwin Street by 3.6 percent, the centreline gradient of the steepest 10m section of Baldwin Street is 6.2 percent steeper than Ffordd Pen Llech. The average gradient of Baldwin Street is 5.2 percent steeper than Ffordd Pen Llech. This illustrates the effect that horizontal curvature has on the steepness of streets.

In addition to Guinness’s existing rules for awarding the world record for steepest street we recommend the following: • Steepness to be determined on the centreline as this equalises straights and curves; • Steepness to be expressed as a percent as this avoids confusion; and Although steep on the inside of the curve Ffordd Pen Llech is not steeper than Baldwin Street overall. The difference between the two gradients is significant.

We recommend that future world records be decided on steepness at the centreline as this allows straights and curves to be assessed equally.

Toby Stoff ((B.Surv, MNZIS, MCSNZ, RPSurv) is a Licensed Cadastral Surveyor. n

feature Earl James, FIG president, pictured in 1995.

FIG and Me A Story of Earl James’s contribution to developing the surveying profession in the international arena.

JOHANNA GASTEVICH

E

arl James’ contribution to the surveying profession is immeasurable. Recently published, ‘FIG and me: My Twenty-Five Years in the International Surveying Arena’ charts Earl’s involvement with the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). Earl James’ initial introduction to FIG was due to him being in the right place at the right time. In 1972, around the time Earl and his wife Wendy had planned to be in Europe for holidays, the 39th Permanent Committee (PC) meeting was being held in Tel Aviv, Israel. A slight diversion to holiday plans meant that Earl could attend his first PC meeting of FIG. As they say, the rest is history – that meeting marked an association with FIG over many years. This is a fascinating read focusing on the people, processes and politics involved in being part of this international forum. To date, Earl is Australia’s first and only President of FIG. Below we feature Earl in his own words on highlights from his career, beginning with his speech at the XVIII FIG Congress in Toronto, Canada in 1986 which clinched the bid to host the 1994 International Survey Congress in Melbourne.

‘First of all, let me emphasise that the success of our bid to host the 1994 FIG Congress was not the result of an individual effort by any one person. That success was due to the combined efforts of a lot of people, both male and female.

Many Australian surveyors had their wives in attendance and these ladies went out of their way to help promote our cause. My task was simply to make the formal oral presentation to the

General Assembly of the Federation.

I was overwhelmed by the fact that our combined efforts, plus the speech I made, resulted in a massive majority ‘yes’ vote.

I then had to prepare myself for the transition from company director and bush surveyor to that of Vice President of an International Federation. I had two years to do it in.’

The 20th International Survey Congress held in Melbourne in 1994 at the time was the largest and most successful International Surveying Conference ever held during the one hundred and sixteen year life of the Federation.

Earl shares how the Congress improved the profile of the Australian surveyors.

‘Attendance numbers at a congress is one measure of its success. The attitudes of attendees at the end of the event is another. There can be no doubt that attendance numbers in 1994 were enough to proclaim the FIG Congress a success that year. As far as attitudes are concerned, I must admit that during my world travels in the years following that congress I was overwhelmed by the number of people who congratulated me on the success of the 1994 Congress. I think it is possible that to the rest of the world, we had come of age. I am sure that in 1986 in Toronto we were at first thought of as colonial hicks who were a little brash and over-confident in their bid to host the congress in 1994. But we convinced them they were wrong and in 1994 we proved it.’

From 1988 Earl served as Vice President (with the Finnish Bureau)

and was then FIG President from 1992 until 1995 with the Australian Bureau.

Each role in itself had its rewards and challenges. Here Earl shares some of his significant achievements.

‘During my four years as Vice President of FIG (1998-1992) I was Australia’s sole representative on the Administrative Bureau of FIG. At that time the Bureau’s headquarters were in Finland One achievement I’m personally proud of is a press release that I circulated in Australia in 1988 calling on the Federal and State Governments to establish a network of super tide gauges around the coast of the country. This, along with actions taken by other parties, eventually resulted in a conference being held in Darwin at which it was resolved to do just that.

My real claim to fame for that period however, was the fact that I led a small taskforce that produced The Definition of a Surveyor which was adopted by the Federation after twenty or so years of heated controversy within the Federation.

The Definition was subsequently adopted by the United Nations, thus giving surveying a separate identity rather than being categorised as a sub-set of cartography as it had been for the past fifty years.’

Earl has been dedicated to the surveying profession for over 60 years.

Told in first person narrative, Earl James shares his personal account of his involvement with FIG in the publication - FIG and Me: My Twenty-Five Years in the International Surveying Arena. The publication is available for download at www.fig.net n www.spatialsource.com.au 35

new products Topcon launches GTL-1000 total station and scanner Topcon’s latest total station features an integrated terrestrial laser scanner that can provide quick 3D scans of a site, according to Australian distributors Position Partners.

“There are many types of survey jobs where a combination of both technologies would be an advantage,” said Paul Malatzky, scanning market development manager for Position Partners.

A distinguishing feature of the GTL1000 is the independent operation of the total station and its laser scanner, which does not rely on the station’s electronic distance measurement.

"A total station’s EDM, no matter how sophisticated, cannot perform anywhere near the speed of most 3D laser scanners on the market today,” Mr. Malatzky said.

Position Partners suggest that ideal use cases for the new unit include forensic surveys such as crash scene investigations, BIM surveys, feature and detail surveys for road and infrastructure, and underground surveys.

Seequent launches toolkit to model contaminated sites New Zealand-based Seequent has released an extension to facilitate modelling contaminated sites for its 3D modelling suite Leapfrog Works.

The firm says that the new tool creates robust 3D models of subsurface contaminant plumes to assist with estimation of contaminants. to facilitate communication and understanding during response and management of a contaminated site.

Seequent’s Environmental Segment Director, Dr. Thomas Krom, said that the extension provides a robust solution to replace cumbersome workflows to model contaminant plumes with spreadsheets or GIS. “By combining 3D dynamic geological models with best practice geostatistical methods, we’re enabling people to build, maintain, communicate and track defensible interpretations and mitigation strategies for contamination resolution – enabling better, transparent decision-making,” he said.

36 position August/September 2020

Faro releases Focus Swift indoor scanner The firm calls the Focus Swift a ‘fully integrated’ mobile mapping solution, meaning it is a complete system composed of a Focus laser scanner, ScanPlan 2D mapper and Faro’s SCENE mobile laser scanning software.

As the product’s name suggests, Faro claims that the Swift is a fast capture solution — up to ten times faster than traditional static scans, according to the firm’s announcement.

The swift captures up to 1 million points per second while mobile and 2 million per second while stationary, providing 3D accuracy from 2 to 10 mm.

The device ways 17.5 kilograms including its carbon fibre tripod, and packs down into two carry-on sized cases. It is compatible with ASTEM 57, LAS, and XYZ file formats.

Emesent launches Hovermap SLAM module for DJI M300

Klau Geomatics launches mapping payload for DJI M300 The new drone-independent payload comprises a KlauPPK module mounted via a custom Klau gimbal for Sony cameras, and choice of an RX1r2 camera with fixed 35mm lens or a4600 with a choice of lenses.

Klau says that its PPK unit offers best in class positioning, with 2-3cm XYZ accuracies achievable in many regions. It is top mounted modular system, containing its own IMU, antenna and battery.

Robert Klau, director of Klau Geomatics, said that beyond the greater pixel count than the factor cameras, the large sensors in the Sony cameras capture more data in each pixel.

“Think about the quality of the data you are collecting.

With KlauPPK you can reduce your side overlaps and still achieve solid aerial triangulation (AT). With the quality lenses and sensors in the Sony cameras, you may want to increase your ground sampling distance to cover more ground, but still achieve accurate, quality results,” he said.

“You can fly longer, cover more ground with less photos and achieve better accuracy and quality than previously achievable.”

Emesent has announced the release of its SLAM payload for the new DJI M300 drone.

The CSIRO Data61-developed Hovermap SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) technology allows precise positioning and scanning to take place in GPS-deprived environments.

The new Hovermap module for DJI’s new flagship industry was developed after the company was selected as one of ten global industry partners to be given access to the M300 ahead of its launch, according to Emesent.

CEO Dr. Stefan Hrabar said this development has resulted in a tight integration with the new drone’s operating system.

“DJI has worked closely with our developers and engineers to integrate Hovermap’s software interface with previous drone models and, as a result of that interaction, they’ve become aware of the work that we do,” he said.

MiRTK: internet-enabled GNSS corrections Position Partners has announced the launch of MiRTK, an open architecture corrections service for GNSS equipment.

MiRTK is an internet-based GNSS corrections service, an alternative to traditional UHF- or RTKbased corrections services, operating via a small modem that fits into the accessory slot of a tripod.

Cameron Waters, geospatial business manager at Position Partners, says that the MiRTK system is open architecture — compatible with all brands and models of GNSS from manufacturers including Topcon, Trimble, Leica Geosystems, Sokkia, and Hemisphere.

“Until now, users that rely on high precision GNSS for applications such as surveying and machine control had no option but to use UHF radios or a network RTK solution,” he said.

The system can operate for 20 hours on a charge, with a standard allocation of up to ten survey rovers or machine control systems, which can be scaled up as needed.

www.spatialsource.com.au 37

sssi

News and views from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute

SSSI Board – 2020 President – Dr. Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President-Elect – Paul Digney NSW Director – Wayne Patterson NT Director – Rob Sarib QLD Director – Lee Hellen SA Director – Michael Grear TAS Director – Paul Digney VIC Director – Richard Syme WA Director – Dr. Lesley Arnold ACT Director – Nicholas Brown Hydrography Commission Director – Neil Hewitt YP representative (Observer) – Roshni Sharma Company Secretary – Jonathan Saxon

38 position August/September 2020

President’s report

‘S

pace: The final frontier’ are words very familiar to science fiction fans. Space is an area of mystery, intrigue and opportunity and the establishment of the Australian Space Agency on the 1st July, 2018 was of significant interest to many Australians and the rest of the world. Space and

spatial conversation with great interest and optimism.

A little closer to earth, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management recently released the draft report Future trends in geospatial information management: the five to ten-year vision.

The report marks the beginning of a highly important decade for both sustainable development and geospatial information management and provides a high-level analysis of the top global geospatial drivers and trends that are predicted to have the greatest impact on the geospatial industry over the next five to ten years.

Recognising that change in the industry is driven by a set of diverse drivers and trends, the report sets out five top forces: 1. Technological advances 2. The rise of new data sources 3. The changing user requirements 4. Industry changes 5. The regulatory and policy environment The draft report is a fascinating read and encourage you to check it out on the ggim.un.org website Now a little closer to home. SSSI is proudly the Australian member of the International Federation of Surveyors

It is with great pride and pleasure that SSSI is represented on the 2030 Space and Spatial Industry Roadmap Steering Committee by both myself and our CEO, Tony Wheeler. spatial industries are both classified as emerging industries and are both growing substantially faster than the national economy. The opportunities for both industries are limitless.

As we celebrate the Australian Space Agency’s second anniversary. It is with great pride and pleasure that SSSI is represented on the 2030 Space and Spatial Industry Roadmap Steering Committee by both myself and our CEO, Tony Wheeler. An opportunity now exists to coordinate the collaboration of these mutually dependent industry sectors. We can develop the synergies between the space and spatial industry and substantially accelerate its growth to create thousands of new, high-value jobs.

It is anticipated the space sector will open up 20,000 jobs in the near future and the spatial community is well positioned to leverage these job opportunities. SSSI will continue to be part of the space and

(FIG). Recently, Earl James AM and SSSI Hon Fellow, recently published ‘FIG and me - My Twenty Five Years in the International Surveying Arena’.

This story gives a unique perspective of the FIG workings, achievements, and challenges during Earl’s term. Back then FIG Council and Office was known as the ‘Bureau’ and from 1988 Earl served as a Vice President (with the Finnish Bureau) and was then FIG President from 1993 of the Australian Bureau.

Australia hosted the XX International Survey Congress held in Melbourne in 1994. Many of our members still remember this! His story would be of interest to anyone in the surveying and spatial field. His story can be found on the FIG website at www.fig.net/ Until the next edition, stay safe and stay strong.

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse President SSSI

SSSI sustaining partner

CEO’s Report

B

y the time this issue hits your desk it has been just over three months since I commenced the role as CEO of SSSI. I believe you start a new role with great anticipation, enthusiasm and an open mind. And to be honest, perhaps a touch of trepidation as well. Starting a new role in the midst of a global pandemic has added a new level of complexity but the overall support from members and colleagues has been immeasurable. Thank you for making me feel so welcome.

Though I have been on the peripheral of the spatial industry for a number of years, it is good to be back in the midst of our industry. In the previous edition of the Position Magazine I was interviewed by the Editor, Daniel Bishton. This was a great opportunity for me to share with you my thoughts and what I see is the future direction for SSSI and the wider industry.

Our ultimate aim is to provide relevant learning experiences and genuine value to our members while effectively representing the surveying and spatial profession.

Collaboration and fostering strong partnerships are the key to SSSI’s success in achieving our goals. If SSSI wants to be seen as the inclusive body that represents the surveying and spatial sectors, we can not do this in isolation from others.

Spatial is classified as an emerging industry and collaboration is key to driving its success.

SSSI has a rich history in collaborating with a number of well-respected international bodies, such as FIG, ISPRS, OGC, ASEAN FLAG, AURISA, RICS UK, AHA, WGIC and ISDE just to name a few.

Though only listed as abbreviations I am sure you know who these organisations are.

We have strengthened our relationship

with many national and international bodies through the establishment of Memorandums of Understanding or MoU’s. MoU’s are critical in fostering a stronger collaboration of surveying and spatial professionals in our region and beyond, as well maintaining our sustained relevance and opening opportunities for improved learning and knowledge sharing.

We are very proud of these relationships we are building and continue to nurture.

Our international collaborations enable us to be aware of issues and trends developing around the world and also enable us to communicate back what is happening here in Australia. Our SSSI members are commonly strong contributors to international committees working collaboratively to solve complex problems.

Looking closer to home collaborative opportunities are endless in the public, private and research sectors.

We are very fortunate to have a number of Sustaining Partners who seek SSSI’s support to be part of industry initiatives or innovative projects. A current example is the Maxar Challenge which is currently being launched in Australia

by SSSI Gold Sustaining Partner, Maxar.

The Maxar Challenge invites teams to develop innovative solutions to help shape Australia’s sustainable future using Maxar’s Geospatial Big Data Platform and accessing Maxar’s extensive 30cm imagery archive. We look forward to hearing more about the innovative solutions put forward. Winners and awarding of prizes will be announced by mid-November.

As CEO, I am keen to progress opportunities for further collaboration which will be of significant benefit to our members and the wider profession. I am also keen to share our stories off SSSI’s successes of how we have worked with our extensive networks and influenced positive change for the spatial and surveying industry.

If you would like to continue the conversation and collaborate with SSSI on a specific project or initiative which you believe would provide value to the wider profession, please contact me directly at tony.wheeler@sssi.org.au It is great to be part of such an amazing community.

Tony Wheeler Chief Executive Officer

CLARIFICATION The June/July 2020 edition of Position Magazine included the article ‘SSSI Land Surveying Certification’. SSSI would like to clarify that in no way would our proposed Land Surveying certification suggest to replace or be seen as an alternative to a surveyor being appropriately licensed or registered in the State or Territory they are actively working in. SSSI sees certification as a way of recognising additional skills and knowledge to undertake their role. SSSI will consult with members, the profession and all major key stakeholders prior to any Certification being introduced.

Commission Chairs Engineering & Mining Surveying Chair Andrew Edwards chair.emsc@sssi.org.au Hydrography Commission Chair Neil Hewitt 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 Spatial Information & Cartography Commission Chair Angus Scown chair.sicc@sssi.org.au

Regional Committee Chairs ACT Regional Chair Noel Ward chair.act@sssi.org.au NSW Regional Chair Mary-Ellen Feeney 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 Graham Walker chair.sa@sssi.org.au TAS Regional Chair Paul Digney chair.tas@sssi.org.au VIC Regional Chair Andrej Mocicka chair.vic@sssi.org.au WA Regional Chair Darren Mottolini 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 39

sssi The Spatial Digital Twin Revolution

T

oday’s digital revolution is generating a huge amount of geospatial data, which has facilitated the emergence in recent years of Spatial Digital Twins. A highly advanced digital representations of the real world, they represent a change in how we visualise environments and their inherent processes and have emerged as a powerful tool to better harness and integrate data to understand our physical environment and help accelerate e-planning, infrastructure development and processes that attract investment.

The value of Digital Twins increases substantially when combined with underpinning spatial data, which positions Spatial Digital Twins relative to each other to reflect the real world.

Spatially enabled digital twins can provide valuable location-based insights, helping users to understand placebased policy and planning issues, test potential interventions, and deliver more sustainable planning and development.

To achieve spatially enabled Digital Twins will require modernized 3D and 4D time based spatial data, in particular land use, cadastral and other data relating to land parcels.

There are numerous data standards to make up a Digital Twin - the ANZ Smart Cities council has released guidance notes and are developing a Digital Twins skills framework. To help drive a nationally consistent approach to spatially enabled digital twins, ANZLIC has collaborated across governments, industry and the research sector and in December 2019, released the Principles for Spatially Enabled Digital Twins of the Built and Natural Environment in Australia.

The ANZLIC Guidelines have developed a common set of nine principles to guide the development of Digital Twins in Australia These are: 1. Public Good - facilitate open access and sharing to non-sensitive data.

2. Value - ongoing value to facilitate infrastructure performance.

3. Quality - development of minimum data standards 4. Adaption - continual evolvement over the long term 5. Openness - collaboration is a critical factor 6. Security & Privacy - Maintain privacy preserving principles.

7. Curation - clarity in ownership of data 8. Standards - Adoption of best practice and open standards 9. Federated Model - to allow connection and sharing of data and services.

40 position August/September 2020

Some examples of Digital Twins already being developed are given below.

Enriched 3D city models NSW Digital Twin was launched March 2020 developed by CSIRO’s Data61 and NSW Department of Customer Service’s Spatial Services. This is the creation of a Western Sydney high-resolution four-dimensional model based on threedimensional aerial imagery and LiDAR, integrated with the state’s digital cadastre records and location of land parcels.

Transport, utilities, planning, natural resource management, environmental management and emergency management data is being progressively added. The platform also integrates Digital Engineering assets, Building Information Models, and live API feeds for public transport, air quality, and energy production.

Victoria’s first Digital Twin is being developed for the Fisherman’s Bend Urban Renewal Project and was launched in August last year.The University of Melbourne and Victorian Government have partnered to provide 3D context and illustrate the human and built relationships within the local environment. This is Australia’s largest urban renewal project which is proposed to accommodate 80,000 people and 80,000 jobs by 2050.

This project provides an excellent opportunity to explore and test future scenarios and technologies and their benefits in locations above and below the ground, to drive better data decisions for planning and infrastructure development. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are also being explored as solutions to bridging the gap between the Physical and Virtual world.

Taylors Development Strategists have developed a Digital Twin of the Melbourne

Grand Prix site to assist with the overall event planning and management as well as producing a range of virtual and augmented reality experiences for attendees of all ages.

Other applications include the development of disaster planning and flood resilience models, visual solutions in agriculture and forestry, with simultaneous capture of Lidar and Imagery.

There is also a pivotal role between geospatial technologies and BIM strategies in infrastructure projects.

Digital Twinning has been used to manage wind farms, BP has modelled representations of its oil fields and a research centre in Glasgow has tested ways to save materials and time in whisky production. The City of Singapore works with an exact digital copy of the metropolis to observe and simulate situations to improve city life A collaborative approach across governments, industry, the research sector and the community will help realise the full benefits and best possible outcomes of a digital twin ecosystem in Australia.

Digital Twin implementation is gaining traction worldwide; to further engage with Digital Twin opportunities, we need to continue to educate ourselves to be able to understand the benefits and the shortcomings in aligning our data management strategies with Digital Twin opportunities, engage with the available education opportunities and consider developing Digital Twin strategies withing your organisations.

SSSI sustaining partner

iXblue

I

t is no secret that Australia and New Zealand are home to some of the most capable and respected hydrographic surveying organisations in the world.

Some of these firms have international parent companies and others are privately held and locally owned. Many of these firms operate in the Australasian Oil and Gas domain which has driven the use of the latest subsea survey technology and practices and generated a highly skilled workforce in the process. It is these men and women who will now drive innovation and the seabed mapping effort around Australia’s coastal waters for decades to come.

Several years ago, iXblue contributed an article to this magazine which briefly discussed the possibility that hydrographic surveying performed in Australia in support of safety of navigation and nautical charting was about to see a significant change in the way it was delivered. The Defence Hydrographic Industry Partnership Program (HIPP) mentioned in that article has now been finalised with a number of Australian and New Zealand based specialist survey firms now working in support of the program. The HIPP programme requires vast areas Australia’s continental shelf surveyed which will require innovation to deliver a strong value for money proposition for Defence and the Australian taxpayer.

Several HIPP service providers have significant experience in the use of unmanned, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) which are now routinely used for numerous subsea surveying tasks such as the search for the MH370 aircraft in the deep depths of the Indian Ocean or the survey and inspection surveys of many hundreds of kilometres of subsea oil and gas pipelines off of Australia’s North West Shelf. More recently, some of these firms have invested in the development of unmanned surface vessels (USV) in an effort to gain a competitive advantage in the marine survey domain. iXblue is one of these companies who have recently developed USV technology and recently used it in the Kingdom of Tonga to collect

DriX fitted with iXblue GAPS USBL Acoustic Positioning System.

iXblue DriX performing operations and preparing for recovery onto the Production Platform.

over 1,200nm of survey data for nautical charting. Over the last 18 months, the iXblue USV DriX has been employed on a number of varied projects around the world and has already saved several early adopters of this technology millions of dollars in the process.

Gulf of Mexico pipelay:

Throughout much of 2019, iXblue operated a DriX for a client in the Gulf of Mexico in support of a pipelay project.

The 8m long DriX was fitted with a variety of sensors for the duration of the project.

A Kongsberg Multibeam echosounder was fitted for bathymetric survey and inspection of the pre and post lays, whilst an iXblue GAPS acoustic positioning system was swapped out with the MBES when the seabed trenching machine was operational and required accurate positioning. The image below shows the DriX being hoisted on to a production platform in the Gulf of Mexico for a sensor swap out.

below shows the iXblue team working on the DriX onboard the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. iXblue are preparing for their DriX to return to Australasian waters in 2020 for use on the HIPP and other projects, just as other survey firms are considering the implementation of this technology. The HIPP project alone has the potential for Australia to be one of the first nations to use USV technology on scale in support of a national charting programme. This is a very exciting time for our survey industry and there has been no better time to consider a career as a hydrographic surveyor. Australia is primed to become a world leader in the seabed mapping industry.

NOAA Thomas Jefferson trials:

During the month of October 2019, iXblue worked with the crew of the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson to integrate and operate the DriX. The primary goal of the project was to test iXblue’s unique deployment and recovery solution specifically designed for Thomas Jefferson’s onboard survey launch davit. NOAA survey launches are limited to daylight operations and deployment and recovery are the most challenging operations the ship undertakes. Utilizing one or more DriX USV for continuous survey operations without having to recover for up to four days would significantly increase the ship’s efficiency. The image

iXblue team work on the DriX onboard the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson.

www.spatialsource.com.au 41

sssi Hydrography’s innovative future and increasing role in the blue economy

H

ydrographic surveys have evolved beyond the critical task of nautical charting and safe navigation to helping ensure a safe and liveable world, particularly for the communities in the Asia-Pacific region. While the hydrographic surveyor’s role in nautical charting remains important in a region highly reliant on shipping and trade, new challenges such as climate change, population growth and increasing levels of urbanisation of coastal areas are driving demand for more detailed and upto-date oceanographic and hydrographic information.

Recognising the importance of ocean science to sustainable development and ocean health, the United Nations declared 2021 through 2030 as “The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”. Increasingly, our understanding of the seafloor will be critical to supporting sustainable development. Going beyond this task, better information on the marine environment supports key blue economy activities such as fishing and resource management, and objectives such as linking communities with submarine cables and modelling threats from storm inundation and tsunamis.

Supporting the blue economy and the need for more accurate seafloor data, The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is a global initiative to inspire the complete mapping of the world’s ocean by 2030 and to compile all bathymetric data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map. Recognising that the task is too great for governments, who have been primarily responsible for sourcing hydrographic data in the past, industry partners such as Fugro are contributing to Seabed 2030 by supplying in-transit bathymetry data to the scientific community and investing in innovative technology which directly benefits the community.

As Seabed 2030 illustrates, effective hydrography is based on high-quality data at a suitable scale. Fugro is developing innovative survey tools and techniques to deliver digitally integrated solutions for hydrographic data collection that are faster, more efficient and more sustainable. Being able to send data from vessels securely and in near real time has dramatically increased data-processing efficiency and our clients’ ability to react to information while survey vessels are

42 position August/September 2020

still offshore. This was demonstrated during the search for MH370, which used Fugro’s Back2Base™ to transfer large amounts of survey data reliably and economically. The vessels deployed to remote parts of the ocean during the search required fewer survey personnel onboard, reducing HSSE risk and project cost, and Back2Base also enabled data from multiple vessels to be managed as a single project at multiple shore sites and in a timely manner.

Taking this further, Fugro’s Office Assisted Remote Services (OARS®) and remote operations centres (ROCs) with satellite communication are providing onshore 24/7 support by qualified surveyors to offshore operations, allowing for efficient monitoring and remote survey support.

Our ROCs have also underpinned the evolution of uncrewed vessels that are able to operate both in the nearshore and offshore environments. The Fugro’s Autonomous Survey – 900 (the FAS900) is a compact and easily mobilised uncrewed surface vehicle designed for hydrographic and geophysical surveys. These new autonomous vessels are consuming up to 95 % less fuel than traditional vessels, supporting international ambitions for zero global emissions in the marine industry.

Fugro has also long demonstrated the ability to collect large areas of data with airborne lidar bathymetry (ALB), which uses sophisticated lasers to map the seafloor in depths of up to 80 m.

Our ALB technology has continued to

evolve, as shown by the imminent trials of Fugro’s LADS HD+ system, which is our upgraded LADS ALB sensor. Another new airborne bathymetry sensor aimed at the nearshore and reef environments is Fugro RAMMS, our Rapid Airborne Multibeam Mapping System, developed by Fugro and Areté. RAMMS is lightweight and easily mobilised in smaller aircraft and autonomous drones, which has been a game-changer for high-resolution nearshore mapping.

Fugro has also added a new deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the Echo Sounder VIII, to our current fleet of deep water AUVs for highresolution seabed exploration and mapping. Rated to 4500 m, the payload includes a multibeam echosounder, subbottom profiler, magnetometer, synthetic aperture sonar and a CathX camera system with pipe-tracking to assist the exploration and asset management needs of our clients.

The acquisition of oceanographic and seafloor data requires increasing levels of efficiency to deliver accurate data safely, and managing the blue economy to support sustainable development will continually demand more recently acquired information. As we have shown, innovative technologies are evolving with increasing levels of digitalisation, and automation of both data collection and processing will support more uses of the information collected by the hydrographic survey community.

For more information, contact Paul Seaton at Fugro.

OGC

®

Making location count.

DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION

UAV