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Spatial terminology you need to know (and understand)
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very sector has their jargon, but surveying and spatial is a special case. Depending on your vocation, experience and proclivities, you will know many acronyms, buzzwords and technical terms. It is also quite likely, however, you may be assuming the literal definition of each new word you encounter, which is oftentimes fraught with misinterpretation. The meaning of words change over time; depending on the context; depending on the sector you are dealing with; or on the first language spoken by the user. This year you are sure to encounter many of the following terms, thrown into sentences as if you are expected to know the meaning. While we have not been able to include the full etymology and definition of the terms here, it is worthwhile considering whether you have understood (or even have heard of) each of the following terms: • Digital Earth: the name given to a concept by former US vice president Al Gore in 1998, describing a virtual representation of the Earth that is georeferenced and connected to the world's digital knowledge archives. • Virtual Globe: a three-dimensional software model or representation of the Earth or another world. • SDGs: The Sustainable Development Goals spearheaded by the United Nations as a set of seventeen aspirational "Global Goals", and officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. • Location Intelligence: a spin-off of Business Intelligence, which relates geographic contexts to business data. It uses software to turn data into insight for a host of business purposes. • RPAS: Remotely Piloted Aircraft System, the official term used by governments and international bodies for what are more commonly known as drones, UAV or UAS.
50 position April/May 2017
• BVLOS: Beyond Visual Line of Sight operation of RPAS, whereby the flight goes beyond the distance stipulated in standard operation guidelines. Special approval from the likes of CASA is normally required. • BIM: Building Information Modelling, a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility, used for sharing data and knowledge to various stakeholders during an asset’s life-cycle. Has been expanded to include all types of infrastructure and now has various standards and levels. • VR: Virtual Reality, technologies that use software to generate the realistic images, sounds and other sensations that replicate a real environment, and simulate a user's physical presence in this environment. • AR: Augmented Reality, a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. • Machine Learning: the ability for computerised systems to learn without being explicitly programmed. This is established by the input of ‘training’ data, which is used to establish predictions or aid decision making. • Deep Learning: unsupervised machine learning of multiple levels of features or representations of the data to establish patterns, classification or abstraction. • Crowdsourcing: the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet. • VGI: Volunteered Geographic Information, the harnessing of tools to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic data provided voluntarily by individuals. • Crowd-sorting: removing bias and establishing patterns by examining how a large number of people interact with information.
• Spatial Data Infrastructure: a framework of geographic data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficient and flexible way. • Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure: a framework enhancing users’ abilities to contribute, find and use geographic information. • Data Lake: storage of vast amounts of data within a system or repository in its natural format to facilitate the collocation of data in various schemata and structural forms. • SBAS: Satellite-Based Augmentation System, a system that enables widearea or regional improvements to satellite positioning through the use of additional satellite-broadcast messages. • Reality Modelling: a method of visualising spatial data that closely resembles its real-world appearance for intuitive comprehension by various stakeholders. • Geoscape: a mapping initiative led by PSMA Australia to capture the built environment as an accurate spatial dataset across vast regions or continents, such as the Australian continent. • DBAR: The Digital Belt and Road program, part of the One Belt One Road initiative proposed by the Chinese Government to boost connectivity and cooperation primarily between the People's Republic of China and the rest of Eurasia. • Cloud Computing: often used mistakenly to mean cloud storage, cloud computing is actually the broader term of using a network of remote servers to store, manage, and— significantly—process data. Processing with cloud computing allows for processing tasks to be completed orders of magnitude more quickly compared to ordinary processing with a local computer. ■