Position issue 95 June-July 2018

June/July 2018 – No. 95

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

ALIGN EVERY PROJECT Official publication of

MAGNET Office Australia and New Zealand Conference

inside Diversification Key to adapting to a transforming industry

Rural precision Remote cadastral modernisation

Smart cities What’s in a program?

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contents

June/July 2018 No.95

26

14

28

22

features 14 Q&A with Peter Woodgate

32 Smart cities: how should they be nurtured?

A veteran mover-and-shaker of the Australian spatial industry on historic policy announcements and adapting to disruption.

20 Letter to the editor

Jon Fairall examines programs to support the next generation of urban centres in Australia.

34 Rural precision

Reader responses to a popular article from Position 93.

22 Trim the fat: fostering agility with RPA certification Part one of our guide to getting licensed and certified to operate commercial UAVs in Australia.

26 Crashing out How spatial businesses self-sabotage at tender.

28 Diversify and conquer

Modernising the cadastral database in remote South Australia.

regulars 4 7 8 36 38

Upfront, calendar Editorial News New products SSSI

Addressing structural imbalance in the spatial sciences, and why diversifying is key to the future. www.spatialsource.com.au  3

Upcoming Events 14 June: Illawarra Geospatial Users Group (iGUG), Wollongong, NSW https://info.esriaustralia.com.au/acton/for m/19230/00d1:d-0001/0/-/-/-/-/index.htm 20 June: SSSI Twilight Networking: Australian developments in hydrography, Sydney, NSW www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sssinsw-twilight-networking-australiandevelopments-in-hydrographytickets-46458999117 10-11 July: CUBESAT2018: Cubesat Innovation Workshop, Sydney, NSW www.acser.unsw.edu.au/cubesat2018

upfront

29-31 July: 12d International Conference 2018, Brisbane, QLD www.12d.com/community/2018_ conference.php

Animal magnetism

O

ne could argue that all of humankind’s crowning achievements are built upon mimicry. From direct rip-offs such as the aerofoil that confers the power of flight, or Sonar lifted directly from bats, to more oblique thefts: bullet train fairings modelled on the beaks of kingfishers, or the wings of butterflies informing the design of next-generation solar roofing.

Now, an innate form of navigation derived from the animal kingdom could be guiding drones and autonomous vehicles in the near future — without the need for maps or GPS. The concept’s known as magnetoreception, and it’s used by a range of creatures from fruit flies to red foxes.

A new study, published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, investigated the feasibility of animals using combinations of magnetic properties as waypoints to help them navigate.

The study’s author, Dr. Brian Taylor, from the US Air Force Research Laboratory said: “The aims of this study were two-fold. First, to better understand how various animals use the Earth’s magnetic field to aid them in navigation; and second, to understand how those methods could be applied to help autonomous vehicles navigate without artificial external aides such as GPS.” Dr. Taylor created a software simulation to carry out several closed loops around a series of goal locations, in a variety of environmental and system conditions. His findings provide insight into how an animal might navigate using

4 position June/July 2018

magnetic signatures as waypoints, and other concepts that an engineered system might use for navigation.

“This concept has been put forward before through various experimental work with artificial magnetic fields, and simulation work that examines an animal's motion in the context of ocean current motion and the magnetic field.”

Using these works as a foundation, the study developed a navigation strategy around a series of locations, with the goal of trying to move towards magnetic signatures associated with these locations.

Dr. Taylor said that from an engineering perspective, the results show how a simple algorithm with little prior knowledge of its environment can successfully navigate to different specified points.

“The idea of using a combination of magnetic field properties as a navigational marker seems to be viable,” he said.

“If multimodal sensing is used for distinct phases of navigation — magnetoreception for midcourse navigation and vision for terminal guidance, for example — this approach may provide a way for engineered systems to autonomously navigate without external positioning aids.

“Because the algorithm only has limited prior environment knowledge, a detailed map does not necessarily need to be created or maintained prior to a task or mission, which can save on resources, and is promising for situations where creating the map would be logistically difficult.”

This may represent a great leap forward in positioning — and once again, we have the animal kingdom to thank. ■

31 July: Autonomous Vehicles Summit 2018, Sydney, NSW 17 August: Australia and New Zealand MAGNET User Conference, Sydney, NSW www.positionpartners.com.au/events/ survey-geospatial/australia-and-newzealand-magnet-user-conference 1 October: Commercial UAV Expo Americas, Las Vegas, USA www.expouav.com 2 October: 6th International FIG 3D Cadastre Workshop, Delft, The Netherlands www.gdmc.nl/3DCadastre/workshop2018 8-9 October: Pix4D User Workshop Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC www.eventbee.com/te/113269023/ puwmelbourneemail#/tickets 11-21 October: Pix4D User Workshop Sydney, Sydney, NSW www.eventbee.com/te/183168924/ puwsidneyemail#/tickets 22 November: SSSI NSW & ACT Annual Regional Conference, Wollongong, NSW www.sssinswconference.com.au

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The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

from the editor

Publisher Simon Cooper

Feet on the ground, eyes on the stars

Editor Daniel Bishton dbishton@intermedia.com.au

he skies above have always helped us find our way across the Earth’s surface.

From the first cosmic maps daubed on cave walls at Lascaux around 14,500 BC, to the orally-distributed star maps belonging to Australia’s First Nations that served as waypoints through country, eventually informing some of the first road networks — the stars have long guided our footsteps.

While methods have moved on, with a different kind of constellation guiding our transit via handheld devices, a new phase is set to kick off with the announcement of $224.9 million for satellite and ground based positioning enhancement technology. This will usher in an entirely new vista of opportunity as centimetre precision becomes available across Australia’s landmass and maritime zone.

New approaches to ancient problems informs the theme of this issue. A bevy of budget measures look to raise the stocks of the spatial industry in terms of government support and infrastructure, but a series of interrelated disruptions will permanently change the way spatial scientists, analysts and surveyors carry out their work as convergence with other industries and discipline deepens.

With that backdrop, we sit down with Peter Woodgate to discuss some of the recent institutional milestones and how spatial professionals should prepare for the years ahead, as he summarises some of the key lessons from the CRCSI’s 2018 Global Outlook report (page 14).

With agility as the goal, we look at how organisations can incorporate UAVs into their business to reap major rewards in terms of efficiency, cost and safety in the first of a series that will examine the process of getting licensed and certified to fly and operate a drone fleet in Australia (page 22).

Bruce Douglas draws on deep experience to bring us an inside look at the most common ways that spatial solution providers disqualify themselves from government tender processes, and Jon Fairall brings us an update on the federal government’s Smart Cities and Suburbs program that raises some searching questions (page 32).

We’ll meet the thought leaders ushering in a new era of diversity in the spatial sciences, who’ll show us why this concept is critical to success in 2018 (page 28), and how contemporary technology is being used to update the cadastral database in rural South Australia. Finally, as a little bonus for this issue, we’ve published some selected reader responses to our feature on cadastral land surveying in the February/March issue.

I hope you enjoy Issue 95 of Position magazine.

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

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

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

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August/September 2018 - Issue #96 3D modelling & BIM – the new dimension in infrastructure • Smart transport and logistics – tech to get you moving • Open standards – overcoming barriers for global benefit • Mining & Offshore – geoinformation for geological exploration

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news GEDI, NASA’s massive LiDAR instrument, to map the world’s forests in 3D NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) laser instrument is undergoing final integration and testing at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, putting it on a fast-track for launch to the International Space Station (ISS).

Yes, it’s pronounced “Jedi” — NASA’s media department is quick to point out. Cute puns aside, GEDI will be on a fascinating and important mission. It will be the first space-borne laser instrument to conduct high resolution,

GEDI being assembled at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Image provided by NASA.

MH370 search reveals 19th century shipwrecks As Ocean Infinity’s Seabed Constructor carried out its final surveys as part of the firm’s $70 million ‘no cure, no fee’ deal to locate the wreckage of MH370, analysis of data collected during the initial phases of the search revealed the wrecks of two 19th century merchant trading vessels.

Researchers from the Western Australian Museum say the wrecks provide tangible archaeological evidence for the ‘Roaring 40s’ trade route for ships travelling between Europe, North

America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan.

Dr. Ross Anderson, Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Museum, performed the investigation on sonar and video data captured by the Fugro Equator and Havilah Harmony in May and December 2015.

“Both wrecks were found at depths between 3,700 and 3,900 metres, roughly 36 kilometres apart. We used a combination of all of the data supplied by the

ATSB, historical research and maritime archaeological analyses to determine both wrecks were in fact 19th

three dimensional mapping of the world’s tropical and temperate rainforests.

GEDI is specifically designed to measure forests, and will use three lasers to generate eight ground tracks in total, which it will use to measure density and height of vegetation of trees, and will have the resolution to discern the structure of individual leaves and branches in a forest’s canopy.

GEDI is expected to launch aboard SpaceX’s 16th commercial resupply services mission, targeted for late 2018.

An anchor and other ship-related debris on the sea floor. Image provided by ATSB and Fugro.

Century merchant sailing ships – one wooden and one iron – both carrying coal,” Dr. Anderson said.

$260 million for GNSS and imagery Under the federal government’s 2018 budget, Geoscience Australia will receive a whopping $260 million to overhaul satellite-based positioning and data provision services for Australian GNSS and spatial data users.

The investment will task Geoscience Australia (GA) with overhauling our space-based positioning infrastructure, which has indicated that it will allocate $224.9 million to the task.

Of this figure, GA will use $160.9 million to develop a dedicated Australian SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation System) to improve the

8 position June/July 2018

Image provided

by Arianespace.

accuracy of GPS coverage, which will deliver a claimed 10 centimetre accuracy across Australia and its maritime zone.

The remaining $64 million will be directed towards developing National Positioning Infrastructure Capability (NPIC) to deliver a claimed 3 centimetre precision in areas with mobile coverage.

“Our investment in this world-standard technology will have direct benefits including virtual fencing for farms and better management of cattle and livestock over vast distances,” said Matt Canavan, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia.

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news Industry input sought on 2021 Census Data nerds, speak up — the Australian Bureau of Statistics is calling for input from the users of Census data on what they should be collecting in 2021.

The Australian Census, that gold standard of demographic data and most comprehensive national survey. Have you ever wished you had an indicator that just wasn’t there, or

access to a resolution that just didn’t exist?

Well, now you can make your voice heard.

The ABS will be accepting input on topics for the 2021 Census until June 30.

“Nearly 100 submissions have been received to date,” said Caroline Deans, director of the 2021 Census content review. “Key areas of interest

from the community to date have been regarding the Census collection of information on occupation, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples, religion and gender.”

You can view a detailed video briefing on the review of the 2021 Census topics and how to get involved in

this process at abs.gov.au.

Submissions can be made via the ABS consultation hub at www.abs.gov.au/census-consult.

Canberra hosts new space agency Australia’s national space agency lifts off on July 1 with $15 million of the committed $41 million to go towards promoting strategic Australian involvement in international missions.

After a pre-budget leak, the government confirmed that former CSIRO boss Megan Clarke will lead the agency’s

establishment and first year of operations. The new agency will be headquartered at the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science in Canberra, at least for the interim.

More significant is the release of the report on the review of Australia’s space industry capability, running

since July 2017, and the government’s response to that report.

This document gives the most concrete indication yet of the government’s intentions going into the establishment of this historic agency — and an initial set of commitments and considerations that while aspirational, will be useful to

track its progress against stated aims as the agency develops.

The review’s output was distilled into nine recommendations for government, mainly revolving around the establishment of a statutory national space agency, a national space industry strategy, and a charter to govern the agency.

A shot in the arm for Augmented Reality Augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D web technologies are set to receive a major boost in Australia, as CSIRO’s Data61 announces its Immersive Environments Lab. The lab will be part of the CSIRO’s new $100 million facility in Canberra, and allow CSIRO and Data61 engineers and researchers to develop new interactive technologies and imaging services, specifically focused around

Demonstration of Synergys smart building features with Hololens.

Image provided by Data61.

3D, virtual and augmented reality environments.

Senior research engineer and experimental scientist at CSIRO’s Data61, Matt Adcock, said that the team’s effort would focus on new applications and custom software, citing remote paramedic support to first responders at an accident site as an example, and maintenance staff interacting with smart buildings in novel ways.

“AR technologies can sense elements of the physical environment and enable delivery of holographic data right where and when it is needed most,” Mr Adcock said.

The new facility hosts a fleet of new toys — wearable holographic computing devices, spatial cameras, 3D object scanners, haptic (virtual touch) displays, interactive projection mapping stages and motion capture rigs.

UNSW launches City Analytics Lab, Masters program The new City Analytics Lab, housed in the basement of the faculty of Built Environment and within the City Futures program, was formally opened by Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities Paul Fletcher and Professor Chris Pettit, chair of Urban Science.

The new laboratory aims to facilitate information sharing and collaboration among agencies and entities

10 position June/July 2018

responsible for urban planning and design with a raft of cutting-edge tools and technologies.

“City analytics is really the digital toolkit that comprises the frameworks — not just technology, the frameworks — for looking at cities as systems, and the methods that we can bring to bear to try to make our cities more livable,” said Professor Pettit in his opening remarks.

Professor Pettit also announced a new Masters program in city analytics, with the purpose of developing competencies in use of digital analytics for urban planning.

“It’s all good to do this research, and play with our tools and our sandboxes here in the basement, but we actually need people to use these tools and understand: what are dashboards, big

data, open data — how do we actually use these in the real world?” he said.

MP Paul Fletcher announced a $22 million second round of funding for the federal government’s Smart Cities and Suburbs grant program, which provides funding for technology-focused projects led by local government to tackle policy challenges in management of their LGAs.

TESS, NASA’s Kepler successor, to seek extrasolar worlds

TESS’ wide-angle cameras are anticipated to discover thousands of exoplanets.

Image provided by NASA.

NASA has successfully launched its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) telescope into orbit, which will map 85 percent of the sky over the next two years.

Lifting off from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in April, NASA’s TESS mission is expected to increase the number of known extrasolar planets (exoplanets) by a factor of 400. TESS will measure the brightness of nearby, bright stars — primarily red dwarfs within 300 light years of earth, looking for a dip in luminosity that signals a planet’s transit across the viewed star’s surface.

TESS will pick up where the Kepler mission left off, which successfully detected around 2,500 exoplanets using the same method, but will soon run out of fuel.

TESS’ four wide-angle cameras will give it a coverage of around 350 times that of Kepler’s, with a new study predicting with 90 percent accuracy that TESS will discover between 4430-4660 new planets in its first two years alone.

www.spatialsource.com.au 11

news Budget welcomed with cautious optimism Industry response has been mixed to a budget that contains a number of windfalls and bonuses for the surveying and spatial industries — along with a ‘hands off’ approach to infrastructure support.

Welcome investments in positioning technologies, scientific research and an Australian space agency are tempered by underwhelming public backing for key infrastructure projects.

Consulting firm BIS Oxford Economics have warned that the proposed measures in the Coalition’s budget will not mitigate a major public investment peak for infrastructure projects in 2018/2019, following a 10 percent rise to $96 billion in 2017/2018 — a shortfall unlikely to be filled by the private sector due to the contraction in the oil and gas industry.

“Driven by a range of new projects across transport as well as the rollout of the NBN, higher public infrastructure investment has helped offset the drag from the bust in resources investment – and has been a key driver of growth and employment in the national economy,” a spokesperson said.

“The problem is, even accounting for the 2018-19 federal budget, we are fast approaching the crest of the public investment ‘wave’

– meaning the Australian economy will require new drivers to support growth in employment and incomes into the future.”

The Master Builders Association welcomed the proposed tax breaks for SMEs, noting that it will benefit 370,000 small to medium building enterprises, whilst also congratulating Labor’s plan to scrap upfront TAFE fees, along with their income tax cuts that benefit unincorporated businesses.

Michelle Blicavs, CEO of the Association of Consulting Surveyors, also welcomed the proposed tax measures in the government’s federal budget, noting the crucial role of surveyors in infrastructure development. “‘We’d like to see continued support for small business right across Australia. The

announced tax offset will be of great benefit to many small surveying firms due to the significant cost of surveying equipment,” she said.

“It’s important for surveyors to know what infrastructure works are in the pipeline for future years. Surveyors are at the forefront of these works – they play a vital role in the planning stages for major projects so need to be talking to government and infrastructure bodies right from the beginning. National and state-significant infrastructure projects, such as the Sydney Metro project, commence with detailed planning from surveying firms and often take years to get off the ground.”

Blicavs also noted skills gaps within the profession, highlighting the level of access to publicly-funded surveying education.

Consulting firm BIS Oxford Economics have warned that the 2018 federal budget will not prevent a major public investment peak for infrastructure projects in 2018/2019.

“Consulting Surveyors National is also aware that the current skills shortage in surveying, outlined in our 2014 BIS Shrapnel skills gap report, is ongoing and that this situation impacts many firms requiring registered or licenced surveyors to meet business demand levels,” she said.

“Currently all NSW surveying TAFE courses are full; however, it is of some concern that no surveying courses are available through the Tasmanian TAFE system. We will continue to advocate for increased funding in education focused on surveying, while also encouraging students to embrace a career in this area.”

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 June/July 2018

Spookfish launches in South Australia

Adelaide Hospital, May 2018.

Image provided by Spookfish.

Aerial capture company Spookfish has announced its operations in South Australia and an expansion of coverage in metropolitan Melbourne.

The announcement comes as the company publishes over 50 trillion pixels of imagery with their most recent pass of Perth’s greater metropolitan area.

Its capture program now covers Adelaide’s metropolitan area with 4,100 square kilometres of ultra-high resolution imagery, with Melbourne’s coverage now at 6,300 square kilometres.

The Perth-based provider has been expanding rapidly in the past year, recently taking out the prestigious export award at the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards for a the uptake of the firm’s patented capture technology by a major North American partner.

“At a time when cities are growing faster than ever, we are delighted to offer our customers very high resolution imagery in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. We are excited to be building our national footprint and will offer an extended coverage area across Australia within the next 12 months,” said Spookfish CEO, Jason Waller.

AIMS Conference slated for September The Australian Institute of Mine Surveyors Ltd (AIMS) is gearing up for its annual conference, being held this year in Townsville, Qld, from 12-14 September at the Ville Resort and Casino.

Papers and presentations will provide industry experiences, latest technological advances in UAV systems, GNSS, terrestrial scanning, site and

supplier testimonials.

Organisers say the AIMS Conference is a great way for likeminded professionals to network and build upon strong relationships developed over many years. The event is an opportunity for young professionals to mix with their peers and establish connections with mine surveyors who have “been there, done that”, while the

“old dogs” will get the chance to learn some new tricks.

Major sponsors of this year’s event include CR Kennedy, Survey Solutions, Maptek, Geosight CMS and Fyfe.

In addition to the slate of presentations, the organisers have confirmed several tours for attendees to take part in.

Partners can enjoy a fully guided bus tour of Magnetic Island or get up close to the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef — without getting wet — at Reef HQ Aquarium.

Pitney Bowes launches Software and Data Marketplace Pitney Bowes has announced a new platform aimed at simplifying access to world leading location-based data and software.

The Software and Data Marketplace is a self-service portal for users to search for, view, and download industry-leading data such as demographics, addresses, streets, suburbs, postcodes, and building footprint data.

“The rise in digital technologies and interactions has increased the need for bringing outside data into businesses,” says Nigel Lester, ANZ Managing Director, Pitney Bowes, Software Solutions.

“The Software and Data Marketplace allows users to test drive new datasets, and is an efficient way for data subscribers to download data updates and renewals.”

Image courtesy of Pitney Bowes.

www.spatialsource.com.au 13

q&a

P

eter Woodgate should need no introduction to readers of Position. Presiding over the CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) for 14 years, he now chairs the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN), among a myriad of current credits. A brief selection of highlights: he chaired the bid for the SmartSat CRC and its proposed board, and the Open Digital Earth Foundation, is co-chair of the 2026 Spatial Industry Growth and Transformation Agenda, a member of Charles Sturt University’s council and a member of the editorial committee of the International Journal of Digital Earth — and still remains engaged with the CRCSI as an advisor. It was our pleasure to sit down with him for Position.

It’s been quite a year for you so far – your role with the CRCSI changed at the end of last year, you now chair AURIN (the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network), but maintain a strong presence within the CRCSI among a range of other roles. What can you tell us about this change, and how are the new roles treating you?

I’ve really enjoyed the shift. The CRCSI has developed very pleasing momentum now as it transitions to its next phase.

After 15 years it is soon to move beyond the CRC programme as FrontierSI, a new permanent entity. The next generation of leadership will shape its future in close collaboration with the many great partnering organisations that have signed up. I’m playing a support role, helping design and bed down the new governance model.

In recent months I’ve also been most fortunate to pick up a small number of other roles and am finding great satisfaction in helping other organisations by drawing on my love of spatial, strategy, development and research generally.

Q&A with Peter Woodgate 14 position June/July 2018

The 2018 budget contained some historic allocations for the spatial industry – a huge award of $262 million to Geoscience Australia to radically scale up positioning infrastructure, with full funding also awarded to Digital Earth Australia. How do you respond to this, having headed the CRCSI for 14 years and presided over some of the developmental stages of these initiatives?

I had always hoped that in time we’d see these developments, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the size and the speed at which this budget has progressed them. They are truly going to shape this nation for the better and the benefits will be huge, far outstripping the costs.

We are now in a precision world, where people want their information product immediately, wherever they are located. These initiatives put Australia at the forefront of the world in delivering real-time, centimetre-level accuracy based on all constellations of global and regional navigation satellite systems, supported by a dedicated augmentation satellite for Australia and New Zealand. The super computer sitting behind DEA and its 40-year satellite image archive creates a whole new vista of great opportunities for product generation, unlocking new insights across the continent while opening up brand new opportunities for commercialisation. Congratulations to the government and all those involved, especially at Geoscience Australia and the current team at the CRCSI. What do you feel this represents for the relationship of the CRCSI with government, and its profile going forward?

We are witnessing a step change in the relationship between government and research organisations. Collaboration on large and complex issues, of nation building importance, that involve policy, long term (decadal) strategy and advanced science capability is increasingly requiring more sophisticated types of collaboration.

Over the last few years, the CRCSI has grown into this role and FrontierSI is poised to grow it much further.

Like so many other organisations, FrontierSI will be aided by the activities of the 2026 Spatial Agenda which is helping steward collaboration and strategic intent on a much broader scale throughout Australia to transform and grow the industry. Great synergies are being built through collaboration on many of the big-ticket items like a coordinated national positioning system (the NPI and SBAS), the introduction of the dynamic datum, the future role of the DEA, and the Foundation Spatial Data Framework, to name a few. FrontierSI will be pleased to make a contribution to these and others.

AURIN looks to be in good stead after this budget, with the announcement of a further $1.9 billion over the next 12 years for the NCRIS [National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy -which AURIN operates under], on top of the $1.5 billion committed in 2015. What’s on the horizon for the years ahead, and how might this announcement affect those plans?

Indeed. We look to have nearly doubled our budget to just over $4 million a year for the next four years. With the program being extended for 12 years there are also good prospects for funding over the next decade or more.

AURIN supports research into Australia’s urban settlements to improve urban resource policy, planning, management and practice. It supports academics, government and, in the future, the private sector. It does this by providing research infrastructure, enabling discovery and visualisation of open and secured access data — with over 4000 datasets now and rising rapidly. AURIN has over 90 collaborating organisations in its network.

Now with a clear funding allocation, AURIN is recasting its strategy for the next 5 to 10 years. It will increasingly address the pressing need for more evidenced-based and informed decision making in planning, energy supply, sustainable resource use, and many, many more challenges for our built environment. Key priorities including significantly strengthening its collaboration with policy makers across the governments of Australia, and growing a much more sophisticated model of private sector engagement.

You are now an honorary fellow of SSSI, the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute. Firstly, congratulations. How do you see the role of the institute and its relationship to professionals working in geospatial fields in 2018?

Thank you. All professions worthy of the name have a peak professional body to represent them. Its very existence makes an important statement to the world; that there are standards, expectations and values that govern members. They offer a sense of stability in a rapidly changing world. The SSSI does this for its membership. Through the Locate conference, the SSSI, in partnership

with SIBA-GITA, and in its many other activities, serves to support and grow the profile of our profession. Its members recognise the importance of this role.

Building upon that idea, you have just co-authored the CRCSI’s bi-annual Global Outlook report 2018. What are the key lessons that spatial professionals should live by to develop an agility for the industry changes to come?

Awareness. Context. These are two key take home messages. The rate of change of our own technologies is accelerating rapidly. The rise in scope of influence that we are having is profound, across all sectors of all economies, society and the environment, globally. So long as we follow these developments as students of change then we will be well equipped – as individuals, practitioners and collectively to manage their impact and to take advantage of their opportunities.

Another lesson; the relationship between the spatial and space communities in Australia is set to grow much closer together, especially with the announcement of the creation of an Australian space agency. Together they form the basis of a powerful value chain; remote sensing, positioning, navigation and timing, and communications. Watch this space!

Respect for our future role is growing significantly too – with policy makers, entrepreneurs, academics at all levels, as well as the general public. This brings with it an expectation of trust that we as professionals will diligently work to help society, including as protectors. National security and personal privacy are two most immediate issues that will act to define our place in the future. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 15

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LandTeam was established from the merger of three companies and Greg Goodman, Managing Director of LandTeam found that the merger of three different companies meant there were three different lots of technology. Specifically, there was a range of five different survey software solutions, including MAGNET Office, being used across the company.

16 position June/July 2018

When Goodman decided to unify the software system, he chose MAGNET Office for a variety of reasons.

“It’s widely used, it’s always progressing, it’s user-friendly and a lot of the young blokes coming out of TAFE get involved with MAGNET Office so they’ve got an instant base to start calculations on rather than learning some other software package,” said Goodman.

“One of the other big moves to Position Partners, and thus MAGNET, was the serviceability. We like the backup, we like the way we can phone up Position Partners and get answers, we like the way that if we’ve got to get our equipment serviced then there will be a back-up made available to us and we like the fact that on most of the engineering jobs and construction jobs across NSW it’s Position Partners’ GNSS on the machines. It’s the coverage.

“Plus, it’s value for money. The licensing and maintenance charges make it very functional from a price point of view as well.”

Implementing MAGNET Office across the company has allowed for inter-office transfer of survey information and decreased double handling saving time and money.

“We can send a survey crew to the Highlands office to do survey work up there that has been calculated and prepared in the Highlands office and through our computer network we can get into the file and upload it ourselves and away we go,” said Goodman.

“We’ve certainly increased our effectiveness and efficiency in relation to our survey work.”

Currently, LandTeam has Topcon GNSS and MAGNET Office meaning both the equipment and the software are integrated.

Goodman’s next step is to upgrade the total stations to Topcon so LandTeam will have a fully integrated solution: GNSS, total stations and office software.

‘It’s handy to have your instrument provider also providing your software. They’re always talking to each other. It becomes a seamless process,” said Goodman.

Steve Galic and Jodie Kast from LandTeam using MAGNET Office

MAGNET Conference In Sydney, 17 August 2018 at the Heritage Ballroom, The Westin Hotel, 1 Martin Place. Tickets to the MAGNET Conference are:

• $300 + GST each • Early bird rate of $200 + GST each if registered by 13 July 2018 This event will be assessed for CPD points.

To book accommodation at The Westin Hotel, call 02 8223 1111.

Position Partners and Topcon are presenting the MAGNET Conference in August this year where Goodman is leading the users wish list session. Attendees will be invited to help shape the future of MAGNET Office by providing their own wish list for future enhancements.

The MAGNET Conference is a one day only conference that will provide attendees with a full breakdown and demonstration of the latest updates to the MAGNET software. Attendees will learn how they can use MAGNET Office to improve efficiency and productivity within their own businesses.

Goodman has been working on his wish list to share during the wish list session. His two-fold wish list includes: • MAGNET software to get on top of Land XML: “Land XML is a formatting of the deposited plans that are lodged with LRS for registration. They’re really having a push over the last couple of years to format our lodgements in a Land XML format,” said Goodman.

• When preparing a DTM, the breakline and process within MAGNET Office could be improved: “It would be nice to see those things concentrated on so that preparing the DTM through MAGNET is a seamless process,” said Goodman.

The MAGNET Conference will be Chaired by Garry MacPhail, Executive Director and National Geospatial Manager of Position Partners.

Jason Hallett, Vice President of Global Software Business Development, Topcon Positioning Group will present the Topcon Vision to attendees, giving attendees the inside scoop on what’s next for MAGNET Office.

“We’ve certainly increased our effectiveness and efficiency in relation to our survey work.”

Greg Goodman, Managing Director of LandTeam

Members of the Topcon MAGNET research and development team will be on site to discuss and present upcoming developments and address any challenges end-users may be experiencing.

Attendees will have the opportunity to attend information sessions detailing the MAGNET Office Version 5 release, new features, enhancements, reviews and product demonstrations. Attendees will also benefit from MAGNET Office support desks and Tips and Tricks sessions.

Throughout the conference, the Position Partners national MAGNET support team will give MAGNET software users the opportunity to participate in three punchy classroom sessions and multiple workshops targeted towards specific features of the software.

The Q&A Panel will give attendees the chance to ask MAGNET Office experts questions specific to their own needs. The Q&A Panel will comprise: • Jason Hallett, Vice President of Global Software Business Development, Topcon Positioning Group • Barkley Hensley, Senior Product Manager for MAGNET Office Products, Topcon Positioning Group • Scott Wielt, Senior Manager of the MAGNET Product Management Team, Topcon Positioning Systems • Graeme Hetet, Technical Support Manager, Position Partners (NZ) • David Banks, Senior Application Specialist, Position Partners This event will be assessed for CPD points.

Position Partners and Topcon will present the MAGNET Conference on 17 August at The Westin Hotel, Sydney. Tickets to the MAGNET Conference are $300 + GST each, with an early bird rate of $200 + GST each if registered by 13 July 2018.

For more information or to register for the MAGNET Conference, call 1300 867 266 or visit www.positionpartners.com.au. ■ Information provided by Position Partners. www.spatialsource.com.au 17

feature

Future farms: tomorrow’s practice, in Australia today ROSS JOHNSON

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sk any farmer today what technology in agriculture brings, and he or she will say gains in productivity. In our competitive global economy, it is imperative that farmers are technologically savvy enough to take advantage of new ways of doing business on the land. With geospatial technology becoming ubiquitous across all business sectors, Australian farmers are increasingly deploying actual solutions on their farms, many of which were research projects or industry pilots only a few years ago. In 2018, this includes robots to deploy spray to crops, drones to determine crop health, analysis of satellite imagery to assess crop yield, and the geospatial tracking of cattle.

Robots on the plot Robots have been rapidly proliferating in Australian agriculture. In one approach to the modern farm, robotic farm machines analyse plant health and relay data back to base, and are able to deliver herbicides directly to individual weeds.

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The University of Sydney's Australian Centre for Field Robotics are pioneers of robotic farming, having developed a series of driverless tractors now being deployed on farms across Australia. These robots can line themselves up and drive over crops, collecting data that is transmitted to a farmer's workstation in real time, and even perform tasks like spraying, weeding, trimming branches — with the end goal of harvesting fruits. Such machines are remotely controlled by the farmer and incorporate built-in mapping to track the delivery of the herbicides across the farm area, with efficiencies achieved with repeat deployment. A farmer may have up to three computer systems in their farm office in which they can monitor crop and stock activity, but also access detailed weather forecasting, agricultural modelling software to calculate productivity, digital farm plan maps and aerial photography.

While the physical automation brings the ‘wow’ factor to agricultural robots — it’s actually the data collection and analysis capacity that may truly ultimately supplant human farmers. “Traditionally

it has been necessary for someone to actually walk through the orchard, taking and analysing soil and other samples and making decisions on the health and yield quality of the plants,” said Professor Sukkarieh, of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics. “The devices we’ve developed can collect, analyse and present this information in greater detail and over the whole farm, giving the farmer more accurate data to help them better manage crop yields.”

Actionable insight through imaging There are other methods for collecting crucial farm data — some from the air.

Dr. Dipak Paudyal, principal consultant in remote sensing and imaging with Esri Australia and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, has researched the use of satellite imagery and drones in agriculture. Satellites and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) drone imagery offer an efficient and effective way to survey small to large scale farming operations to assess overall crop health.

Remote sensing techniques can be used

LEFT: Satellite imagery combined with artificial intelligence is being used to assess vine health.

TOP RIGHT: Professor Sukkarieh, of the Sydney's Australian Centre for Field Robotics BOTTOM RIGHT: GPS is being used to track cattle movements, led by Dr. Amy Cosby.

BELOW: UAVs have emerged as a staple of precision agriculture in Australia.

to analyse this aerial imagery to pinpoint areas of crop stress and determine the appropriate remedy for the situation.

This type of analysis provides actionable information to determine when, where, and how much water, pesticide, and fertiliser is needed to produce a healthy crop. Agricultural operations work on razor-thin margins, according to Dr. Paudyal. One key to profitability is being able to use the minimum amount of crop inputs while simultaneously maximising yields. This is often easier said than done, since conventional field inspection methods are time consuming and inefficient. Missing a small area of pest or insect infestation can result in significant losses come harvest, and over fertilising can be just as costly as using too little fertiliser over the long term. This is a key area in which UAV technology can greatly assist the agricultural sector.

Satellite eyes, machine mind The techniques and technologies described above may be some of the first to mind when thinking of a farm of the future — but there are other innovations coming to the fore in Australia. High resolution imagery, supercharged by machine learning techniques are helping to monitor vine health, in an Australian-first product.

Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture (GAIA) has been developed

by Adelaide-based company Consilium Technology, in partnership with DigitalGlobe and Wine Australia. According to Dr. Sebastien Wong, Director of Machine Learning with Consilium, GAIA’s machine learning algorithms analyse the latest satellite images to quickly and easily provide detailed insights including assessing the impact of weather-related damage on vineyards.

Dr. Wong expect growers to have access to GAIA’s detailed maps of vineyards by the coming Australian growing season in September 2018. His team said the technology would help growers increase yields and the quality of their fruit. “It’s the artificial intelligence that’s the ground-breaking aspect of GAIA. By automating it, we can do things at scale,” he said.

Pinpointing stock from space Taking a very different tack, a new program launched in Australia this year aims to start at the source — teaching students to use geospatial technology to track cattle movements. Global Positioning

Cows (GPS) Cows is an innovative research project, currently being piloted across eight Australian high schools in rural Queensland. The project involves tracking the movements of cattle (and in some places, goats and sheep) using a GPS to give students a chance to work with emerging technology in agriculture.

Students selected for the pilot come from a range of rural backgrounds but all have a strong interest in technology.

Project lead, Dr. Amy Cosby, senior research officer in Agri-tech Education and Innovation at CQ University Australia said she wants to showcase the use of technology in the agricultural sector, while creating something relevant and engaging for students to use. Dr. Cosby hopes the project will encourage STEM and geoscience students to develop a passion for agriculture and GIS. Using Esri Australia’s free GIS technology for schools program, students import their data intro ArcGIS Online and use a wide variety of analysis tools to understand and visualise the cattle’s behaviour. This includes herd activity, preferred grazing and watering times, and the distance travelled from water troughs. The data collected is analysed and used to increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of a farming business, as farmers better understand how to manage their herds and the farming landscape.

In a boost to this technique, a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) test-bed project is underway in Queensland in which farm stock are collar tracked. CQ University is testing how SBAS, which offers navigational accuracy of around 10 centimetres in the horizontal plane, could improve cattle and sheep farm outputs, and help with early disease detection and more efficient breeding programs. And the application of virtual fencing through use of collars that emit audible cues will assist on over-grazing and keep animals out of riverbanks and other fragile areas on the farm.

Ross Johnson is a freelance writer and committee member of the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI). ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 19

letter to the editor Dr. Craig Roberts in the field with two aspiring cadastral land surveyors.

We’ve received some correspondence from readers on the article titled ‘The mysterious art of cadastral land surveying’, written by Dr. Craig Roberts and published in Position Issue 93, February/March.

Scott Murray of Sutherland, NSW, writes:

Thank you for the recent feature ‘The mysterious art of cadastral land surveying’

by Dr. Craig Roberts, in which he so eloquently describes the intricacies of cadastral surveying. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and it gave me a few laughs as he described the expectations of the farmer, and the cadastral surveyor for that matter, that the boundaries are fixed on the ground rather than in GNSS space. I will be handing it around to my friends and family to read as they struggle to understand what it is that we do.

I often describe the cadastral fabric as a patchwork quilt that has been worked on by many hands over hundreds of years by various surveyors, to keep it together

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— with differing ability and care. When given the opportunity to repair the quilt, some surveyors go to great trouble with fine needle work, while others sew in a patch with little regard to preserving the intricacies – this pulls the quilt out of shape and causes problems.

That is why the first thing we ask is: ‘Who sewed in the last patch?’ as we are often very familiar with their handiwork.

Also the quilt deteriorates with age, while the general public expects it to improve over time as technology improves — as Craig touched on in his article. This patchwork quilt is carefully laid over the land, with hills and valleys that introduce some scale factor, while the location of the central meridian of the zone also plays a role as we attempt to transform each patch onto the geodetic grid — so that people know ‘where it is’ on the planet so they can drive there, send an ambulance or deliver a pizza. It is not reasonable to join together a series of patches projected on the grid and then expect them to be in the correct location when projected back up to the ground.

The modern day sewing machine (computers and GNSS) is great for

laying out new work, while love and care is often called upon to bring back together the work of old on the ground — not on the grid. I say this with love here, as Craig also touched on fact that the cost of doing a thorough job can be expensive, and that cost is often borne by the conscientious surveyor whose care for the cadastre often outweighs the value of money.

Scott Murray, Boxall Surveyors And John Walker, co-author of Surveying for Civil and Mine Engineers, gives us a correction on the width of a one-chain road, writing:

Dear Editor and your contributors, 1 link = 0.201168m. So a 1-chain road is 20.117m wide. The link and the chain are wonderful units of measure — and I do own a Gunters chain, so you can do a check measure.

John Walker BAppSc, Surveying and Mapping (Curtin), PostGradDip. Surveying and Mapping (Curtin).

feature Traditional asset inspection workflows for road infrastructure require considerable investment in skills and equipment, with high safety risks and frequent traffic disturbances.

Trim the fat: fostering agility with RPA certification This article is the first in a series in which we’ll walk through the process of obtaining your remote pilot’s license and operating certificate to fly remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) commercially in Australia.

DANIEL BISHTON

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ven a decade ago, few could have predicted the scale of the civilian drone industry’s runaway success. As a consumer sensation, Chinese manufacturer DJI has rewritten the rules on market domination with its rapidly iterated line of powerful, user-friendly quadcopters. Their Phantom and Mavic products have ignited colossal demand for the unique blend of recreational flying, personal cinematography and exploration offered in the experience of owning a drone, the latter tapping into the aspirations of Millennial adventurers with a suite of modes that essentially automate the flying and filming experience.

But beyond the lifestyle hype, the lasting disruption will be the

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impact on legacy industries offered by commercial application of these incredibly sophisticated tools. First to collect were those working with motion capture already: cinematographers and independent filmmakers vaulted into the space, taking advantage of the impossibly lower overheads of using multirotor UAVs to capture aerial photography, where previously an avgas-thirsty manned helicopter would have been required — with all of the attendant, costs, risks and required approvals.

Suddenly anybody could shoot technical, cinematic aerial scenes — not just those with Hollywood-deep pockets.

The fever gripped other sectors soon after. Real estate became an unlikelyseeming adherent, with 360-degree aerial sweeps of properties becoming an advertising staple. Survey applications were a little slower off the mark, but as the technology for processing UAVderived imagery quickly matured, and LiDAR scanners shrunk down small enough, uptake into workflows within construction, infrastructure maintenance, mining and agriculture blossomed and continues to grow steadily.

Regulation plays catch-up As with most disruptive developments, legislation trails in technology’s wake, leaving yawning gaps of opportunity and risk. The explosion in uptake of consumer drones — incredibly competent small aircraft that could fly at high speed, achieve mammoth altitudes and required little to no training to fly — was unprecedented. Once the sole preserve of hobbyists who understood the risks of aviation and generally treated their flights with the same respect as pilots of full-sized aircraft, the sudden influx of new flyers with this new breed of aircraft had perhaps predictable results — particularly in the holiday season, neatly encapsulated in the hashtag ‘#dronecrashmas’.

Seeing the imminent risks to conventional aviation in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clamped down hard on this largely unregulated space in 2014.

In the American context, these potent little aircraft had already been put to a range of civilian uses including research, environmental monitoring and searchand-rescue operations, non-commercial

Alex Imvriotis of Burning Sands Productions found there was a lot more to flying a drone than he initially considered.

use was banned outright until a fullydeveloped legal framework could be put in place.

Unnerved at a number of near misses and complaints from the professional UAV and aviation industries proper, the FAA chose to shut it all down before an accident may have stopped the accelerating industry in its tracks. When they did introduce a comprehensive set of guidelines governing use of UAVs, they based it around the one jurisdiction in the world that had developed a cohesive framework of legislation — Australia.

Tickets to ride The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is responsible for overseeing all aviation activities in Australia, and are the body responsible for creating and implementing laws governing use of drones. Currently, UAVs weighing between 100 grams and 2 kilograms can be flown for commercial purposes without a licence in the ‘excluded’ category— if you are willing to notify CASA and wait for permission every time you fly.

This isn’t plausible for many operators that rely on the use of UAVs for anything other than one-off occasions.

Alex Imvriotis is the owner of Burning Sands Productions, a Sydneybased film studio that primarily produces short films for promotion and marketing of small businesses. Imvriotis has undertaken his Remote Pilot licence (RePL), meaning that he no longer needs to apply for permission to fly for a shoot.

“Every video that we do has some form of a drone used in it, because we believe that it adds value and a different perspective on the stories that we're trying to tell,” he said.

Training for an RePL is an involved affair, covering a comprehensive syllabus of aeronautical theory, as well as operational flight training.

Imvriotis carried out his training at Flightcontroller, an RPA training school that drew on their extensive experience in helicopter licensing to develop a sixday RePL training program that covers topics including RPA aerodynamics, multirotor systems, RPA law, radiotelephony, aviation meteorology, human factors and risk management.

Imvriotis said he was shocked at the complexity of the factors involved in flight after completing the course.

“I think the general public needs to know how much information they need, and education that they may personally need to do before flying a drone — even recreationally,” he said.

“I went in to do my course as a recreational flier, and I saw how much work, concentration and knowledge you need to actually know about your surroundings and the airspace — even now when I go flying recreationally, I don't take that for granted.

You really become aware of how much can go wrong — and if it does go wrong, that it actually can be fatal.”

Imvriotis is currently applying for a RPA Operators Certificate (ReOC), the next stage of certification as a www.spatialsource.com.au 23

feature Drones are well suited to applications that may be difficult to access via traditional means.

commercial drone operator. A ReOC is an organisation-level certificate that would allow them to fly within controlled airspace with permission, which includes Sydney Harbour and much of the CBD, sites that Burning Sands frequently needs to shoot within.

Putting it into practice Elliott McRobert, senior project manager at Amey and asset manager at Amey-Broadspectrum, had similar impressions after undertaking his RePL training. Working at VBAJV (Ventia Boral Amey Joint Venture) at the time, he spearheaded an initiative to integrate UAVs into all of his department’s asset inspection operations, which handled major contracts covering a significant proportion of the road infrastructure in NSW — encompassing roads, bridges, flying gantries, cuttings and culverts.

“Normally, inspecting a bridge, you either need to climb up, set up scaffolding or use a heavy lift vehicle,” he said.

“For example, there’s a road with a bridge on one of our networks in Sydney, and we need to shut the entire road in both directions to do an inspection. That’s ten grand. We need a specific under-bridge unit to do it, that’s another ten grand, along with traffic control, communications — and it takes a fortnight to do.”

The Amey asset inspections team can now carry out this same inspection using a single, off-the-shelf multirotor with a top-mounted camera. McRobert said that the key advantage in transitioning to UAV-borne inspections was safety, but that the cost savings and efficiency gains were colossal.

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The efficiencies and cost savings were still so large that a little bit of extra planning wasn't going to change things that much.

“Once we did the business case, we realised straight away that it was worthwhile so we just went right in and did it [the RePL course],” he said. But upon completing the training, McRobert found that that the regulations and the laws are a lot more complicated than they had accounted for.

“We knew you couldn't fly around airports, but we didn't realise that there are all these other restrictions as well.

Around hospitals, helipads — this, that and the other one. So most of the area we looked after, we couldn't fly in without a ReOC and a flight plan submitted to CASA,” he said.

“But the efficiencies and cost savings were still so large that a little bit of extra planning wasn't going to change things that much.”

McRobert has just completed the process of acquiring a ReOC certificate for Amey, which means the organisation is licensed to operate their UAVs without requiring per-flight approval. No further training is required for this process, but applicants need to demonstrate that they have created a set of operational procedures, policies and management plans within the organisation for safe use of UAVs. The process was assisted by Alex Grivas, founder of Flightcontroller, who worked with them as a consultant.

“It was quite a smooth process — but without someone like him it would probably be quite an involved process going back and forth with CASA,” McRobert said.

Amey has big plans for its drone fleet going forward. All of their inspectors will soon be licensed, and with their recentlyacquired ReOC, they can fly around structures to perform their inspections.

UAVs will also be used on all future construction projects, for which they’ll be using them to create point clouds and BIM models — including for around 800 kilometres’ worth of road assets that they need to model in the next three years.

McRobert said that this will decrease their training costs by allowing them to conduct VR training programs, meaning they don't need to conduct all training sessions on site, with the additional benefit of facilitating refinement of the models themselves by increasing sitemodel familiarisation.

Applications in the wild An interesting thing happened once this technology was applied within McRobert’ department. Others in the company and the broader group began integrating drones into their own operations in novel ways. Broadspectrum is now using drones to inspect electrical cables in Queensland, and drones enclosed by cages are being flown inside of pipes, pressure vessels and waste management infrastructure.

McRobert said that this was one of the key take-aways from the experience so far, along with a caveat for those considering going down this path.

“Once it gets out in the company, lots of people come up with other ideas — and there are many more applications out there that people haven't even thought of yet,” he said.

“But you need to communicate the key restriction around using them throughout the organisation. It's not the case that you can just go and buy one and start using it, you've actually got to go through the whole planning process, and it's a lot more involved than we initially thought.”

This article is the first in a series walking through the regulations and process for getting licensed and certified to operate RPAs commercially in Australia. In the next instalment we’ll go through the process of getting your Remote Pilot’s Licence (RePL) in detail. ■

partner feature

How drone mapping is making on-farm test plots an even more relevant practice for everyone Why plot level statistics?

The importance of plot level statistics make agriculture efficient, profitable, and sustainable ensuring that new techniques are proven to work. Scientific evidence is the key for new agricultural techniques to move their way into the mass market.

Projects like this one reinforce that goal, replicable numbers become the building block for everything else.

Generating plot level statistics with industry experts Stratus Imaging with the help of Precision Agronomics in Australia, used Pix4D software to provide plot level statistics for a large research/government group on a noncommercial farm. The goal was to acquire precise and measurable maps that helped the group to understand crop changes over time and different input applications from radiometrically correct Index maps and all derived statistical data.

Even though the trials were relatively small (30m x 100m), every flight had to be carefully planned. The target was to provide sub centimeter resolution; the DJI Inspire 1 drone was flown at 60ft (18m) with 80% overlap to ensure accurate data acquisition with a RedEdge 3 multispectral camera. After emergence had occurred, six flights were conducted approximately every two weeks.

Ground control points (GCPs) were placed just after seeding on each corner, allowing for accurate data processing of subsequent flights. If the goal is to proceed with temporal analysis, it is always necessary to make sure all maps are properly georeferenced.

Example of a trial site in Australia: canola

Radiometric accuracy with Pix4D

The truth is in objective and replicable numbers

The data was processed using Pix4D software, allowing for an easy, offline and radiometrically correct generation of reflectance maps from multispectral images, including the data from the GCPs. When it comes to comparing data over time, it’s absolutely critical to make sure that those maps account for different illumination conditions. If you want to derive decision from those trends, maps need to be comparable.

To deliver accurate and right statistics, Stratus Imaging partnered up with Precision Agronomics Australia. Once the reflectance maps were generated in Pix4D, Stratus imaging could easily export the GeoTIFF files and provide those to Precisions Agronomics team so that they can start deriving statistics from the data at the plot level.

Flying over the plots, and deriving plot statistical information (NDVI mean, median, stdev and min & max) from indices, helped the researchers in this project to understand the impact of different agricultural techniques over the crops.

Farmers, agronomists, breeders and R&D teams covering the whole agriculture spectrum, are constantly evolving and improving. To get better yields while utilizing less input is a work of art, and drone mapping is allowing these groups to understand their decisions, and ramifications in an objective and quantitative way.

The radiometric accuracy of the maps across several flights is critical when it comes to comparing data.

www.spatialsource.com.au  25

feature

How vendors disqualify themselves from tenders BRUCE DOUGLAS

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properly run government or council tender should be focused on selecting the most cost-effective solution for goods and services in a transparent, accountable manner, since public money is being spent. If proper tender processes are not followed, there can be severe and painful consequences from bodies such as ICAC (the Independent Commission Against Corruption) in NSW, as several councils have recently discovered the hard way.

So while it is important that the tendering process is fair, it must also be seen to be fair. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure that the winning tender is demonstrably the best outcome to all involved. Ideally, losing vendors should accept that the winner really has won and that their product or service is the best outcome. The losers must also accept that they have lost, and the best way to do this is to show them the evidence of their loss at the end of the tender, which reduces the likelihood of their objection.

This is also called the Bradbury approach – select the losers and the one left standing hopefully becomes the winner.

As incredible as it seems, this approach is helped when the vendors inadvertently position themselves as one of the losers, which occurs frequently — and often by companies who should know better.

So why do vendors do this? Glaring examples include: giving false references (as if we wouldn’t check), failing to

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complete key pricing schedules, and amazingly — not bidding at all, but still expecting to win.

Some proposed theories: • They don’t understand the process, or they hold a perception that the process does not apply to them.

• They don’t take the tender process seriously: ‘we have already won and are just going through a formality’.

• They believe their own propaganda, or hold that because they are a large, international vendor that the rules don't apply to them.

• They don’t understand the capabilities of their competitors, perhaps because they have no direct experience with that software, so specific requirements are treated with a flippant ‘why would you want that’ approach.

A good example is a recent GIS tender that I ran for a large Sydney council. The 18 companies who responded to the expression of interest were culled to five, who were considered to have the depth and breadth of products and services required to meet the specification. These five companies were invited to respond to the detailed request for tender document.

• Company A was a large Australian company who had considerable experience in GIS, as well as asset management and financial systems.

They bid their own software with applications meeting most of the tender requirements. The tendered price was about $330k.

• Company B was an overseas value added reseller (VAR), bidding a large international vendor's software, with extensive development of specific applications. The tendered price was about $850k.

• Company C was a local VAR bidding the same large international vendor's software as was Tender B, but for considerably less application development. The tendered price was about $430k.

• Company D was the incumbent GIS. They failed to read the tea-leaves: that the reason the council was going to tender was to get rid of their system, because their software was not meeting council’s functional requirements and their support was terrible.

• Surprisingly, Company E, one of the biggest vendors in the GIS marketplace, declined to bid, saying they were too busy and that they shouldn't have to respond to a tender anyhow because they were ‘simply the best’. In believing their own propaganda, the sales rep said that the council should already know they were the best and award the contract to them. Obviously that didn’t happen.

So what did happen?

Company E didn’t bid, so they were out, but were arrogant enough to complain that they should have got the contract.

Company D were never going to win. There would have been a mutiny if anyone had suggested that their tender response be taken seriously, given that

their product was known not to meet council’s requirements.

Company B and C were both bidding the same identical product, but B was almost double the price of C, mainly because Company B had included over 1,300 days of software development for functionality which I knew already existed in the GIS software. Company C had bid 40 days for development, which seemed reasonable given that they were both bidding a well-known and mature product. Needless to say, Company B's huge software development cost simply highlighted that they didn’t understand the product they were bidding.

Consequently, they didn’t make the cut for further consideration.

So that left us with companies A and C to evaluate as serious contenders.

Prior to the tender evaluation, the evaluation team developed a number of business process tests so that we could see how the GIS would work in real life.

This was vitally important because if selected, the GIS had to perform using spatial and asset data on actual council business processes.

Each company demonstrated their solutions by working through the scenario tests. Company C went first and while their solution was competent, it was difficult to use and was exacerbated when the demonstrator (being a technical type) decided to show everyone how to write an SQL script while he was doing an address search. So a simple, 10-second query took over 15 minutes and confused everyone in the room. The end result was that a

number of the council staff said to me in the break: “No way am I doing that every time I have to do a simple property search.”

The representative later belatedly tried to explain to the audience that they wouldn’t have to do this every time they wanted to do a property search, but by then the audience had switched off and weren’t listening – the damage had been done.

“As incredible as it seems, this approach is helped when the vendors inadvertently position themselves as one of the losers, which occurs frequently — and often by companies who should know better” Then Company A did the scenario tests and demonstrated their products impressively and with time to spare.

They focused on the scenario scripts and showed everyone how their solution would make their business run more smoothly.

Company A had the best technical solution, but the evaluation process was made a lot easier because the other four companies set themselves up to lose:

SPECIALISTS IN PORTABLE MAPPING SYSTEMS

• Company B’s response highlighted their lack of product knowledge.

• Company C’s response was credible but was badly demonstrated by staff who had poor product knowledge – the same staff who would later provide product support.

• Company D’s GIS was known to not have the capability required and had very poor support.

• Company E did not bid.

So, Company A ‘did a Bradbury’ because everyone else set themselves up to lose. Company A also had the cheapest price, a proven track record and good local support. Therefore it became a ‘no brainer’ to award the contract to Company A. Lastly, each of the losing companies were invited to a debrief session to discuss why they had lost (not why Company A had won). Because the evidence of their loss was specific and demonstrable, there were no complaints. This highlighted that the tender process is as much about gathering specific reasons for each loser losing, as it is about selecting the winner.

At the end the tender, the Council IT manager publicly said that “…the development of a specification for a replacement GIS and the evaluation process resulted in a great outcome for council.”

Bruce Douglas is director of Corporate GIS, an independent strategic management consultancy in the spatial information industry. He has run over 50 tenders for clients, ranging from $100k to $20m. Bruce is also a past president of the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA), ANZ. ■

CONTACT Erron 0447 440 234 Max 0428 501 887

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feature

Diversify and conquer GUY WERESS

S

tructural imbalances in the sciences still impede efforts to achieve parity in female representation, especially in the higher-exposure realms of decisionmaking and public-facing roles.

Balancing act The World Economic Forum ignited headlines in 2015 when it calculated in its Global Gender Gap report that at the current rate of progress, institutionalising equality of empowerment and opportunity between the sexes wouldn’t occur globally until the mid-2100s, giving the parity movement yet another wake-up call.

It’s possible that the watershed moment then came in 2017, when longterm parity advocate and incoming United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres nominated a gender task force to create a system-wide strategy on gender parity with an ambitious target to ensure 50-50 gender representation (to remain permanently in the range of 47-52 percent) across the UN globally by 2028.

Many emboldened organisations followed, and policies that standardise such rebalances are steadily becoming the new normal in both business and increasingly, in research.

Diversity and equality have become ubiquitous management watchwords, and for reasons that become more obvious with every new study: not only are the Fortune 500 companies with the most women in positions of power between 19 and 69 percent more profitable than the lower tiers, but we now know that 70-80 percent of all consumer purchases are made by women. It is slowly dawning on the corporate world that it makes little to no sense to continue systematically excluding women from decision-making when they seem to be the ones making the important decisions.

Restructuring the sciences Aside from equal and diverse companies outperforming their rivals, the social benefit of having an equal number of men and women empowered in an industry or organisation is supported by an everincreasing trove of data, often contributed by new generations of female researchers who’ve found themselves in a position to unpick a biased scientific system.

The Gendered Innovations movement is attempting to do just this: in public

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health, for example, the overwhelming majority of lab mice are male, yet male and female human beings metabolise drugs at different rates, which can lead to female overdose and potentially death.

Gender parity presents a challenge of systems design: how systems of knowledge and power formed over time, by and for a particular group, can adapt to reduce the disadvantage of another while ensuring no group encounters further disadvantage.

Association for Women in Science investor and venture capitalist Jonathan Sposato says that an objective view needs to be developed if those men and women currently in positions of power are to be on the right side of history.

Deanna Hutchinson, CEO of SIBA|GITA.

“We're all inheritors of a broken system that we did not ourselves create," he said, “but until we step out of its context and take stock of how a flawed system is sustained by our inaction, we're all guilty parties in its continuance.”

The gender parity project aims to remove obstacles that prevent, firstly, a roughly equal number of men and women participating and being empowered in the scientific labour force and, secondly, an equity between the contributions those people make to net scientific knowledge.

In science, the structural problems run deep. Though more than half of university graduates worldwide are female, the number graduating in the sciences is stuck in the 80-20 percent doldrums, and a majority of women starting out in science and technology careers transition to other industries within their first decade.

In Australia, the federal Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative reported in 2014 that 50.2 percent of the population and 60 percent of undergraduates are female, but this translates to less than 30 percent of tenured academics. Although 52.3 percent of graduates in natural and physical sciences are women, only 17 percent of IT graduates, 15.6 percent of engineering graduates, and 12.4 percent of Australian engineers are women.

Forming a new spatial culture The 80-20 rule of female representation is especially true in the spatial sciences, historically male industries that have been relatively slow to implement gender diversity strategies. An audit of Geoscience Australia’s workforce in 2013 found it was historically predictable at 65 percent male nationally, which spurred its Gender Strategy 2015-18 goal of ‘increased representation of women in senior leadership positions from 19 percent at 31 March 2015 to 33 per cent by 30 June 2018.’ Geoscience Australia also joined the CSIRO and forty other universities and research organisations in 2017 as a card-carrying SAGE signee.

CEO of spatial industry peak body Spatial Industries Business Association and Geospatial Information Technology Association (SIBA|GITA) Deanna Hutchinson has this year convened a working group to holistically address gender inequality and notes its core task is structural: to redistribute power.

“We built this group not to duplicate diversity initiatives already going on, but to recognise and better coordinate all the different activity happening and to see what’s missing,” she said. “Are we rewarding projects and organisations that encourage diversity? Currently, no, it’s not even on the radar.

“We have a really specific purpose: to make structural change to the culture of the industry,” she said. “So it was really important to have SIBA|GITA, the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI), Australian Computer Society (ACS), and the Institution of Surveyors in NSW all on board.

Diversity is important but it’s not the end-goal, which is to have a vibrant and growing industry. Diversity is just

a hallmark of that. And it’s more than gender: it’s age, skillset, the way people think, it’s where they’ve come from, culturally and geographically. So we need to be inclusive. When you’re not diverse you create an echo chamber, you have groupthink. The spatial industry is a bit stuck in its transition into the new economy, diverging into Internet of Things (IoT) and others, and it will take diverse thinking to reform it.”

First and foremost is the task of leading female engagement in the public side of the industry, especially to the gigantic cohort of younger women coming up through the universities who are still not confronted with an equal number of women speaking at conferences. Hutchinson: “We were getting pressure from government to have 50-50 gender diversity speaking at our events, which we’d been trying [to achieve] for years. Either it’s hard to find women, or a man will end up coming in their place. We already knew women in the spatial industry don’t have high-enough profiles – women make up about 3 percent of registered surveyors.

The group’s tasks involve understanding the host of damaging myths and negative practices preventing women joining and then remaining in technical industries.

“Women are an invisible subset within the spatial industry, which is invisible within the STEM sector, which is still fairly invisible within the broader economy,” she said. “If women aren’t coming into the industry, why not? One wrong assumption is that women don’t become surveyors because it involves outdoor fieldwork.

“We need to communicate already established diversity practices that can make workplaces more attractive and accommodating for male and female caregivers. Some people couldn’t attend Locate, for example, because they couldn’t be away from their small children for five days. Locate is seen as a vehicle for delivering change under the goals of the [2026 Spatial Industry Transformation and Growth Agenda] so how can it demonstrate more inclusiveness? Perhaps we could make the seminars available online to those who can’t attend? These are core structural practices we can change.”

Renewables SA’s Mary Lewitzka says that vibrant networks are key to younger women feeling they belong in an industry, and that conference convenor Gary Maguire “worked very hard to make sure there were as many female speakers as possible” at Locate 2018, where she ran a Women at the Spatial Frontier session.

The Women in Geospatial Professional Network.

“When you’re not diverse you create an echo chamber, you have groupthink.

The spatial industry is a bit stuck in its transition into the new economy, diverging into Internet of Things and others, and it will take diverse thinking to reform it.”

“I have very often been the only woman at an industry event,” she said, “and I’m okay with that. But women are far more likely to go if they know another woman will be there. It came to a head at an event last year, where we had minimum 50 percent female participation, but only 12 percent of speakers were women, and none were keynotes.”

“We created the Women in Geospatial Professional Network to create a community of like-minded women in South Australia, a supportive network to encourage personal and industry growth, to help them understand their potential.

We use mentoring and professional development to give women the confidence to present their work and also engage the men in those networks.”

A University of Cambridge study analysed speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting from 2014-16. ‘The opportunity to speak is fundamental to career advancement across career stages for job opportunities, collaborations, awards and recognition,’ it concluded in April. Though conference speakers are disproportionately male because conference organisers generally are, the numbers are surprisingly encouraging.

‘Women disproportionately occupy the student career stage and few speaking opportunities are offered to students,’ it said. ‘When we control for career stage, we see similar rates of oral presentations between women and men, and women at early career and mid-career stages are invited authors more often than men.’

If the final hurdle for a woman working in an industry with diversity programs in place is simply to claim that right, Lewitzka says those who ‘lean in’ can make great individual progress, as Sheryl Sandberg famously and somewhat controversially suggested in her 2013 book of the same name.

“Women often don’t back themselves,” she said, “but many do take a risk. Those who are confident, are doing good work and are encouraged by supportive women and men to step up and get out of their comfort zone are seen by younger women coming up and it will become a norm.

That’s how the culture can change.”

Guy Weress is an editor and writer working in design, architecture and transportation. He has contributed to The Futurist, Grey Room, Journal of Architecture and Numéro. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 29

partner feature

How GIS saved one billion litres of water

Image Credit: Power and Water Corporation

Powerful mobile mapping tool helping Power and Water Corporation shore up Darwin’s sustainable water future and saving customers two million dollars per year in the process.

The challenge

W

Central to Power and Water Corporation’s solution were two user-friendly, mobile mapping applications that plumbers and the corporation’s own leak checkers used to record relevant data accurately in the field and upload it to an operations centre in real-time.

With each group using their own purpose-built survey app, leak checkers recorded the locations and volumes of leaks, while plumbers subsequently recorded the leak repair and confirmed the volume. By replacing tasks previously conducted using a pad and pen, the apps have vastly improved efficiency and data quality by standardising data collection and removing paper trails. Additionally, Tori Hampton, Water Efficiency Project Manager should there be any future incidents, Living Water Smart, Power and Water Corporation asset data can now be instantly accessed, enabling many issues At the heart of this update to be resolved from the office was the checking of instead of sending another around 30,000 residential contractor to the site.

Solution Mix: water meters for signs The apps have also + ArcGIS Online of leaks. To undertake empowered the plumbing + ArcGIS for Desktop this task efficiently and sector to carry out Power effectively, Power and and Water Corporation’s + Collector for ArcGIS Water Corporation needed sustainability objective of a mobile, reliable and usersaving water through fixing friendly data collection system leaks. Simply using the app that would allow its team of leak has built awareness in the industry

ith unseasonable weather patterns, and using more water than it captures or stores, Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory was faced with a big challenge – expend on capital infrastructure to build a new dam and potentially increase water costs for residents; or avoid this by looking to conserve and preserve as much water as possible.

Power and Water Corporation is responsible for water and sewerage services across the Northern Territory, an area of more than 1.3 million square kilometres. In the Darwin region, water resources are under greater pressure than ever before. Power and Water Corporation, through its Living Water Smart program completed more than 700 residential water audits and 50 commercial and government audits. The audits showed that approximately 15 per cent of Darwin’s water consumption was the result of leaks.

To specifically target this water waste in a cost-effective way, Power and Water Corporation designed the Community Leak Program to reduce leaks in the region whilst increasing community awareness of the water and money wasted.

30 position June/July 2018

Power and Water Corporation saw that water lost through leakage was a major contributor to water wastage. To tackle the problem, the corporation first needed to identify where the leaks were.

This involved updating its infrastructure and maintenance information to provide operational and asset management teams with the data needed to make informed decisions regarding its maintenance program.

“Initially we found one in every eight homes had a leak. So far, we’ve fixed 3,000 of them, saving more than one billion litres of leaking water per year.”

checkers and 18 different plumbing companies to receive and capture data out in the field. They also needed to be able to integrate this information back into their existing corporate systems for further analysis.

The solution

LEFT: Dashboard showing infrastructure faults including reasons for the fault. Image credit: Power and Water Corporation BELOW LEFT: Live monitoring to check household water meters and leaks, showing immediate volume and annual costs savings of fixes.

Comparing today's information with yesterday, last week, last month, and over the whole campaign. Image Credit: Power and Water Corporation BOTTOM: Leak checker inputting data while on site. Image Credit: Power and Water Corporation

“By using this software, we saved the cost of two full time administration resources and an external consultant: around $200,000.”

Tori Hampton, Water Efficiency Project Manager Living Water Smart, Power and Water Corporation

efficiency, data integrity and reduced costly double-handling and multiple visits to the same site.

The data has also provided Power and Water Corporation’s operational and asset management teams with vital technology infrastructure and maintenance information that now informs decisionmaking across the board. about leak identification and repair, thereby extending the longevity of the program. It is hoped that leak checks will become ‘business as usual’ for the Darwin plumbing sector and residents, as they now understand the sheer volume of water that is wasted and the subsequent water costs that result.

To date, almost 3,000 leaks have been repaired, while more than one billion litres of leaking water is now saved each year.

The innovation The award-winning Living Water Smart program used highly successful mobility applications that were the first of their kind in Australia.

The apps were recognised and highlighted as a key innovation at the industry-leading OzWater conference, and have been roundly praised by government, utility and plumbing sector stakeholders.

By replacing old technology infrastructure, surveying and monitoring processes, the apps revolutionised data collection for Power and Water Corporation by allowing field workers to enter information directly into the system in real-time. This significantly raised

“The app will also be extended to existing and future programs – such as field auditing on vital Power and Water assets – which will dramatically reduce data handling.”

Tori Hampton, Water Efficiency Project Manager Living Water Smart, Power and Water Corporation

The outcome The solution has been a central contributor to Power and Water Corporation’s efforts to improve Darwin’s sustainable water future and deliver financial savings for its customers and the community at large. Key outcomes: • Repairing nearly 3,000 leaks and saving more than a billion litres of leaking water per year.

• Reducing water bills by 2 million dollars per year.

• Automating data integration processes, saving around $200,000 in personnel costs.

• Broadened and strengthened relationships with the other Government agencies and the local plumbing industry, with all parties benefitting from collaborative knowledge and skill sharing.

• Significantly building awareness across stakeholders and implementing a culture within the plumbing industry of acting against water loss and wastage.

Find out more about how GIS is changing the water utility industry at www.esriaustralia.com.au/savewater. ■ Information provided by Esri Australia. www.spatialsource.com.au 31

feature

Smart cities: how should they be nurtured?

Adelaide from the air. Image provided by Nearmap.

JON FAIRALL

M

ove over, miners. It’s boom time for smart cities, or at least, so it seems. In the last year, the federal government has funded dozens of small-to-medium projects aimed at improving the efficiency of cities by better application of information technology.

Whether this approach is the correct one, however, remains to be seen.

Just a small sample of the projects the government has funded: In Launceston, the city council is building a $1.6 million 3D model of the city; the University of Technology Sydney is building a $443,000 environmental platform to provide data on heat, air quality and noise around Lake Macquarie; in Canberra, they are putting in sensors for temperature, lighting and motion to provide real-time analysis of people moving in the built environment.

The list goes on: Cairns regional council has $827,000 for a network of environmental sensors in urban waterways to gather real-time water quality data on discharges into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; Light Regional Council in Kapunda, South Australia, is integrating CCTV, WiFi

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electric car charging systems, renewable energy generation and LED parking systems to effect a digital transformation of the town.

All these projects are being funded under round one of the Smart Cities and Suburbs program, under a first round worth $28.5 million in federal funding.

Applications for a $22 million second round are currently under consideration.

The list of programs is impressive, but do they deserve the Smart Cities label? Each project is being managed at the local level by the relevant local government authority. While the initiative aims to incentivise and empower local governments to take on innovative projects and experiment with new technologies, there is no attempt at co-ordination between the projects, nor any requirement to integrate them into existing information infrastructures.

Let’s take a look at the drivers. The department is attempting an important initiative to address the effects of large scale demographic changes that have occurred over the last decade. In the year to June 2017, the Australian

Bureau of Statistics says the number of people resident in Australia rose by 388,100. This is 1.6 percent more than the previous year and one of the highest rates of population increase anywhere in the world. By comparison, in the same period, the global increase in population was 1.1 per cent.

This has turbocharged the size of the Australian economy, much to the satisfaction of treasury officials, but the downsides of this unprecedented growth are starting to become apparent. In particular, our two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have become unpleasantly chaotic as the surge in numbers has overwhelmed transport infrastructure, the real estate market and planning systems. Both are expanding faster than the national average. Sydney’s growth rate is 2.29 per cent on a population of 5.37 million. In Melbourne, it’s 3.21 per cent on a population of 4.82 million.

Hence the aim should be to use information and communications technology to wring every last bit of efficiency from existing built infrastructure. However, this raises a significant question — are a bevy of microprojects the most effective way forward?

There is a range of views on how ICT could be used to improve the livability of our cities. Richard Lemon, technical director of imagery and aerial survey at engineering company Jacobs, holds that sophisticated 3D models of urban environments will be key to solving intractable problems.

“I think the concept is to build and maintain a ‘digital double’ of a city.

Government can use this digital double in various ways for better management.

There is also potential for other users to leverage it,” he said.

“I think the concept of smart cities is still in its infancy. People are still getting their head around what it is and what benefits it can bring.”

Indeed, there is a growing body of opinion that micro-projects will not realise the full potential of the smart cities concept. In a submission to the federal government’s Smart Cities plan, Adam Lovell, the executive director of the Water Services Association, wrote: ‘Integrated planning of essential infrastructure and services requires significant attention in

Australia. Infrastructure solutions are not fully capitalising on the value of transport, water, energy, telecommunication and waste working together. Collaboration across sectors is essential.’

In practical terms, this vision of what a smart city might be is a big leap from current Australian plans, but it is already been embraced in other centres, notably in Singapore. The National Research Foundation of the city state has spent $73 million on building what it calls Virtual Singapore, a data rich, real-time, digital replica of the actual city. Its main purpose is as a planning tool for officials, and as a means of communicating with citizens. The platform should be ready this year.

To realise the full potential of such models, data sharing from a multitude of sensors, applications and databases will need to be facilitated and designed for.

The plan is that Virtual Singapore will be infused with different sources of static, dynamic and real-time information on demographics, the movement of people and vehicles and the environment.

The same vision drives the City Analytics Lab at the University of New South Wales, which opened in April 2018. Professor Chris Pettit, the chair of Urban Science in the Built Environment Faculty at UNSW says the idea of the lab is to bring down existing barriers to the sharing of information, to open up siloed knowledge repositories that can develop within the branches of government.

“I hope our new City Analytics Lab will provide the space to support collaborative city planning and user-centred design.

It’s been built to support 20-30 people to come together as supported through data, locational insights, models and visualisations and work towards collectively solving some of the challenges facing our cities as we live in a rapidly urbanising world,” Pettit told Position.

Professor Pettit welcomes the federal government’s program to encourage cities to innovate, but would like to see some structural changes to facilitate more holistic management of populated areas, and opportunities for international collaboration within the program.

“I think we really need more streamlined government and improved city governance.

Taking the Greater London Authority model — I think this is something Australia should look at carefully,” he said, citing an example presented by Eamon Waterford, CEO for the Committee for Sydney at the Australian Smart Communities Association Conference in Melbourne.

“So moving towards a mayor of the Greater Sydney Authority and Greater Melbourne Authority — I think makes a

“Having our cities fragmented into 2030 local government areas doesn’t make a lot of sense and makes it difficult to scale smart city solutions.” lot of sense. Having our cities fragmented into 20-30 local government areas does not make a lot of sense and makes it difficult to scale smart city solutions,” he said.

Regardless of the definition, the concept of the smart city is inextricably bound up with the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT would see all assets with economic value connected to the internet, either as sensors feeding data to information processing units, or as intelligent devices that can respond to them. IoT is central to this conception of smart cities because it will enable realtime monitoring of the state of any asset of interest and give city officials the ability to respond in some way.

The idea of ‘data sharing’ will, of course, spur the interest of readers of this magazine. It’s a familiar problem in any GIS and it’s more complicated than it looks. This was the crux of an argument put forth by Standards Australia to the house standing committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities when the committee held an enquiry into the significance of smart cities.

Standards Australia warned the federal government that a lack of standards would greatly increase the cost of smart city deployments, citing a 2016 study

UNSW’s City Analytics Lab contains a suite of digital modelling tools, presented via interfaces designed to foster collaboration.

from IoT research company Machina Research that estimated IoT uptake without interoperability standards would add $US341 billion in costs to smart city deployments worldwide by 2025, increasing costs from $US781 billion to $US1.12 trillion.

Standards Australia argued for what it termed a ‘blueprint’ that would list the minimum requirements for a connected Australian city, an associated standards roadmap and a development strategy.

The move towards smart cities may be one of the most important legacies of this era. But it won’t be simply because we have more efficient lighting systems, or the traffic runs a little quicker. It will be because the experience of living in the city is more pleasant.

“It seems like everyone has their own definition of a Smart City. Personally, I think a Smart City is one which focuses on community centric solutions which endeavour to make our cities and regions more liveable, productive, sustainable, and resilient,” said Pettit.

To achieve these aims, it may be necessary to build a digital simulacra of the real city that model much of its complexity, but also gives us the ability to predict and control some of the things that occur within it. To get real value from such systems we will need a holistic view of the way the city works and applications that allow us to test ideas on how things can be improved. That could be more expensive and more difficult that current plans envisage, but it may be necessary if 10 million people are to call Sydney or Melbourne home. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 33

feature

Rural precision JOHN STENMARK

An Australian company uses satellite correction services to increase GNSS accuracy and productivity in isolated locations.

S

urveyors often face unique challenges when working in remote regions. Difficult access, limited communications and the lack of suitable control often complicate the work of collecting position information. When remote projects include requirements for high accuracy, the effort can present some vexing hurdles.

Certainly, GNSS is well suited for surveying in isolated areas. However, traditional approaches to accurate measurements have their challenges.

Static GNSS surveys call for multiple receivers and time-consuming procedures.

RTK requires suitable reference stations and reliable data communications.

For surveyors with Fyfe, an Australian consultancy, the solution comes from satellite-based GNSS corrections.

Based in Adelaide, Fyfe specialises in engineering, environmental, planning and surveying services. Their surveyors face a dichotomy of conditions when using GNSS. When working near Adelaide, they can access a number of continuously operating GNSS reference stations (CORS) to support RTK surveying. But most other areas in South Australia lack real-time coverage, a result of either sparse GNSS control stations or spotty cellular service.

“South Australia is a very large place,” said Joe D’Aloia, Fyfe’s survey manager. “There simply isn’t the money or population to support a statewide real-time network.” As a result, surveyors in outlying areas must rely on static

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techniques to establish local control. They can then use single-base RTK for specific project operations; multiple RTK bases are often needed to produce adequate coverage and accuracy. The static plus RTK method produces good results, but covering large regions adds significant time and cost to any project.

In spite of the difficulties, precise GNSS positions are important. One of their most valuable contributions is to improve the accuracy of the region’s digital cadastral database (DCDB). The database is used by government and private sectors to overlay boundary information on maps for planning and administration. In the cadastre’s early years, boundary locations were digitised from old paper maps.

Over time, the data has gotten better as surveyors measured and recorded the location of physical monuments.

But there’s still plenty of room for improvement. “If the digital data is more accurate, then aerial imagery and future planning can work from more accurate maps and GIS,” D’Aloia said. “It helps avoid issues when ground surveys attempt to tie aerial imagery to existing monuments. The difficulty arises in bringing accurate ground measurements to the remote locations.” To solve the problem, D’Aloia turned to an innovative approach to GNSS positioning.

Establishing an objective test Before approaching clients with new GNSS techniques, Fyfe needed to be confident that they could solve the challenges of remote surveying for cadastral applications. They developed a plan to use Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction services in conjunction with Trimble R10 GNSS receivers.

Trimble CenterPoint RTX gathers data from Trimble’s global network of

GNSS reference stations. The information is used to create precise correction models for satellite orbits, receiver clocks and atmospheric parameters. The correction data is delivered to subscribers via satellite or cellular Internet connections. CenterPoint RTX operates in the background and enables users to follow existing workflows for real-time GNSS surveys.

Based on experience from projects in Queensland and other parts of Australia, Fyfe knew that CenterPoint RTX could provide the accuracy suitable for rural cadastral applications in South Australia — point positioning accuracy of 5 centimetres is generally accepted in the state’s rural regions.

D’Aloia wanted to test the capability to meet accuracy requirements in the state’s outlying areas. He devised a project to make a head-to-head evaluation of real-time positioning techniques using CenterPoint RTX compared with static GNSS measurement. The work was intended to provide a rigorous test of the performance of the system under a variety of conditions.

The Fyfe teams identified 40 existing survey marks to use in the tests. While many marks were in open areas, they purposely selected other points under tree canopy or near buildings or obstructions.

They occupied each mark with a Trimble R10 and collected two sessions of static observations a few hours apart. They tied to the national reference framework using Trimble R10 receivers placed on accepted geodetic control monuments. The data was processed in Trimble Business Center software (TBC) and converted into local grid coordinates.

The teams also measured each mark in real time using a Trimble R10 and CenterPoint RTX. They measured each point at least twice, collecting observations

with 6 epochs of data and immediately again with 30 epochs. They collected more than 90 real-time measurements and compiled notes describing obstructions or canopy.

The crews reported that typical time to initialise (or converge) the CenterPoint RTX solution was 10 to 15 minutes; the initialisation was typically required only at the beginning of each survey. Once initialised, crews could operate in the same manner as their usual RTK surveys. D’Aloia noted that the time could be reduced to less than five minutes by using the ‘quick start’ method.

“Managing the convergence was part of the learning process,” he said. “Rather than trying to collect a point in a location poorly suited for GNSS, it’s faster and just as accurate to set a pair of points in the clear and use a total station to measure to the mark.”

After downloading the data to TBC, D’Aloia compared horizontal positions of the static and real-time results. The results were excellent. Aside from a few obvious outliers noted by field crews due to heavy canopy, nearly all of the points measured using CenterPoint RTX met the South Australian requirements for cadastral surveys.

Efficiency on remote projects With solid data on the performance and reliability of CenterPoint RTX, Fyfe put the technology into action. D’Aloia could show the results to the Surveyors General in the various Australian states and identify suitable projects for remote surveying.

For example, Fyfe worked with the South Australia government on a project to maintain cadastral markers north of Adelaide. Crews visited roughly 150 markers to recover the marks and install witness posts. In the process, they captured GNSS locations of each mark.

The government will add the GNSS data to the DCDB. The database includes layers on boundary data, which requires accuracy of 5 to 15 centimetres on cadastral markers.

By establishing a suitable class of coordinate accuracy on the marks, the government can save money while still providing valuable services for the public. “The surveyor general doesn’t have enough money to do high-precision surveys,” D’Aloia said. “This method lets them get sufficient data. And it makes it easier for subsequent surveyors to find the markers.”

Fyfe’s work is supporting the modernisation of the cadastral control in South Australia.

The control marks, which are referred to as ‘trig stations,’ were formerly a survey mark with a 5-metre high beacon used for resection with total stations. But the trig stations were expensive to maintain. The beacons are now coming down and the points are coordinated using GNSS. The information is added to the state’s public map, PLB, which shows the location of the permanent survey marks.

During the mark maintenance project, Fyfe crews repeated the earlier head-to-head test process and captured both fast-static and

Data on a point 2005 (top) is updated and included with modern data (bottom) in the state’s digital cadastral database.

CenterPoint RTX measurements on 37 trig stations located around the town of Eudunda.

Again, the system produced solid results: the average horizontal difference between the static and RTX positions was less than 2 centimetres and average height difference was under 4.

The experience in South Australia has enabled Fyfe to determine when this system is suitable for a particular job.

D’Aloia noted that in the isolated areas, using RTK can add several hours per week to a project. So the convergence time related to their new method is an easy trade-off compared to the time and effort needed for RTK or static observations. The ability to produce real-time positions quickly with accuracy of a few centimeters gives Fyfe an advantage over competitors using conventional RTK surveying.

John Stenmark, a licensed surveyor, is a writer and consultant working in the geospatial and associated industries. He has more than 25 years of experience in applying technology to surveying and related disciplines. ■ www.spatialsource.com.au 35

new products

Skyline’s PhotoMesh 7.4 supports LiDAR integration, improved aerial triangulation Skyline has announced the latest version of its Photomesh software suite as part of its SkylineGlobe products. This release supports the loading of LiDAR point cloud data into a project to improve the accuracy and quality of the 3D model, including under vegetation canopies.

Skyline says that if LiDAR colour data is available, PhotoMesh 7.4 will texture areas not covered by photos.

The software house also claims that a much-improved aerial triangulation (AT) process significantly improves the speed of model creation and provides a range of export options for AT results.

Phase One launches UAVspecific medium format camera Phase One Industrial, makers of medium format camera systems, have released a 100 megapixel, UAV-specific camera system based around the world's fastest medium format imaging sensor.

The iXM 100MP's sensor is the first to use backside-illumination technology, which provides high light sensitivity and extended dynamic range, according to Phase One — whose sensors are

already renowned for their broad dynamic range.

This system has been engineered or surveying, mapping and inspection missions, with a robust case, IP53 weatherproofing, and a new range of lenses with a leaf-shutter system that supports capture up to 3 frames per second at a speed of 1/2500 second, and a guaranteed 500,000 actuations.

NCTech releases iSTAR Pulsar NCTech has unveiled the iSTAR Pulsar, the company’s professional edgeto-cloud big data system, designed for mobile capture on the move.

NCTech says the iSTAR Pulsar is designed to capture 360-degree data while mounted on a vehicle, drone or on foot. ‘The system is designed for ease of use and does not require any photography experience or even a computer to operate. The iSTAR Pulsar app provides the ability to plan routes, as well as to view and share content online.’

The iSTAR Pulsar was developed with Sony and Intel, designed specifically for capturing moving 360-degree data. The device provides 11k spherical resolution, delivering a 60.5 panoramic image, with weighted metering and sub-pixel calibration.

36 position June/July 2018

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Trimble unveils new TSC7 field controller, software and rovers Trimble has announced its newest controller, which hits the market together with a new version of its field software, Access 2018.

Trimble's newest field device features an ergonomic tablet form factor with a physical keyboard, a 7-inch sunreadable touchscreen and front and rear cameras. Under the bonnet is an Intel quad core x64 processor, and a Windows 10-based architecture, and

an IP68-certified ruggedised exterior, keeping its internals safe from dust or water ingress.

Trimble appear to be heavily ramping up the usability of their field devices with the TSC7, porting over familiar features from consumer devices such as the touch screen and cameras for video conferencing from the field, and investing heavily in the engineering of the TSC7's ergonomics.

Topcon launches ‘cost-efficient’ GM-50 total station Topcon has announced its latest addition to the GM line of manual total stations, the GM-50, which they say has been designed to provide fast and accurate measurements in a costefficient package.

“In a compact and sleek design, the GM-50 offers high-end performance and exceptional functionality for jobs such as site layout or as-built survey,” said Ray Kerwin, director of global surveying products.

Topcon claims the GM-50 can offer a rapid distance measurement of 0.9 seconds, regardless of the target.

“The iM-50 EDM features a prism range of up to 4,000 metres and up to 500 metres in reflectorless mode, with an incredible 1.5 mm/2 ppm accuracy for accurate measurements in most any entry-level survey or layout application,” said Kerwin.

The newest addition to the GM line carries an IP66 certification.

Boundless enables offline basemap access

Boundless says its new Offline Tile Server is a lightweight, portable, purpose-built map tile server that provides detailed global basemaps on demand while offline.

The company says this announcement fulfills an important requirement in the first responder, field operations,

and disaster response communities to be able to access and provide basemaps without an internet connection.

“Boundless has always led the open GIS community with development and enhancement of robust, affordable, efficient web servers,” said Anthony Calamito, Chief Geospatial Officer at Boundless.

“Now, it’s only natural that we bring this same capability to a portable offline format, allowing our users to visualize detailed basemaps in a completely disconnected environment. This is a breakthrough offering for the defense, intelligence and first responder communities and we are excited about the possibilities.”

MAGNET Enterprise now integrates with Autodesk BIM 360 Topcon’s Magnet Enterprise data management suite now supports full integration with Autodesk’s BIM 360 and A360 Drive environments.

The new offering allows operators to manage 2D plans, 3D models, and any other project documents within Autodesk’s cloud platforms.

“The BIM 360 integration allows construction teams to perform field layout from building plans stored in the Autodesk cloud or collect survey and positioning data that can be directly uploaded to BIM 360,” said David Ahl, Topcon’s director of software product management.

“Additionally, machine automation users can access Autodesk documents through Enterprise and Sitelink3D.”

Faro releases AsBuilt platform with Autodesk integration Faro has launched the As-Built software platform, designed to take processed 3D data from their SCENE software platform and facilitate point cloud modelling with the latest 2019 Autodesk BIM suites.

Faro says that ‘As-Built enables efficient and cost-effective transfer of 3D reality capture into Autodesk design tools to create ready to use CAD and Building Information Modeling (BIM) deliverables. As-Built is specifically designed to minimise the effort and time required to create as-built documentation, which is the main task across AEC professionals in the building, facility and infrastructure design phases.’ www.spatialsource.com.au 37

sssi

News and views from the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute

SSSI Board – 2018 President – Gaby van Wyk President-Elect – Zaffar Mohamed Ghouse NSW Director – Gaby van Wyk (Interim Chair) NT Director – Rob Sarib QLD Director – Lee Hellen SA Director – Franco Rea TAS Director – Paul Digney VIC Director – Richard Syme WA Director – Kerry Smyth ACT Director – Zaffar Mohamed Ghouse Hydrography Commission Director – Richard Cullen YP representative (Observer) – Roshini Sharma Company Secretary – Jonathan Saxon

38 position June/July 2018

CEO’s report

O

ver the coming year, you will see several new initiatives across SSSI to improve the services we provide to our members, and to increase the value of SSSI membership.

We are targeting stronger member retention and significant long-term growth in our member numbers. We do so unashamedly — a bigger member organisation is generally stronger, better funded, more capable and more stable.

For the long-term future of SSSI, all our members are vital, but none more so than our young members. They are the future of our professions, our industries, and our institute.

That is why the first initiative of many is the change we are announcing to our student membership, effective now. I am pleased to advise that we have updated our free student membership to now include both full-time and part-time students enrolled in a relevant spatial course at a university or a technical institute. Students will only need to show a copy or photo of their student ID card to prove that they are a student to be eligible for free membership. The significant evidentiary requirements (excluding the student ID card) have been removed.

Importantly, the student membership will now be valid for the entire period of their enrolment, without requiring annual renewals.

Of course, SSSI student membership will continue to offer great opportunities to our future professionals, such as: • Building key contacts across our industry through many events and networking opportunities • Enhancing career development by being around fellow members who are willing to volunteer their time to support their industry with education and mentoring • A significantly expanded mentoring program, coming soon!

• The chance to meet future employers • Discounted or free tickets to events including SSSI conferences, meetings and workshops.

To take advantage of our free SSSI Student membership, sign-up online at www.sssi.org.au.

The strength of SSSI has always been the capacity, dedication and integrity of its members and leaders. The change to our student membership will build on the strength imbued to us by those who built SSSI into a great member organisation.

“The strength of SSSI has always been the capacity, dedication and integrity of its members and leaders.”

Goodbye to Peter Ramm

Sadly, we recently lost one of these leaders with the passing of Peter Ramm, an honorary fellow of SSSI. Peter was a strong advocate of SSSI from its original inception until his illness limited his active participation. He was one of the architects of the earliest Spatial Science Coalition agreements and an active participant in founding the Land Surveying Commission in the Victorian and National jurisdictions. Peter held positions on the SSSI Victorian Regional Committee, including regional chair from 2004 to 2005, chair of the Land Surveying Commission and a member of the SSI board.

Peter worked tirelessly to overcome the significant legacy issues and obstacles which threatened the viability of the SSSI in its early days. It was through his diplomacy, persistence and application of carefully constructed argument, that Peter overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles which also led to the introduction of the inaugural SSSI certification scheme. Peter had the ability to clearly see what needed to be done and work towards obtaining the best available outcome. In doing this, Peter would take his peers with him, always operating in a collaborative fashion.

For those who benefit from what SSSI is today, spare a thought and a thank you for Peter Ramm.

SSSI CEO Peter Olah

SSSI sustaining partners

Army hydrographic survey in support of amphibious operations BlueZone Group has recently been working closely with the Australian Army on applications of the Teledyne Oceanscience ‘Z-Boat’ for coastal and inshore hydrographic survey in support of amphibious operations. This task comes as a direct result of BlueZone participation in Army Innovation Day (AID) 2016 where the lead theme was ‘manned and unmanned teaming for the soldier.’ AID 2016 is a part of the Army Innovation Investigation Program that helps to shape Army’s capability and its approach to the challenges of modern warfighting.

The hydrographic survey capability will enable multibeam bathymetric and LiDAR survey of the coastal and riverine environment to enable safe passage and entry into the environment. The Z-Boat may be operated under remote control or in an autonomous waypoint-following mode.

The Z-Boat is a strong example of a robotic technology that takes the soldier out of the danger zone and supports manned-unmanned teaming (MuMT) for a combined army team in a joint environment. The Z-Boat can be deployed into areas of uncertain hostility and confirm or deny the presence of hostile forces to de-risk the riverine environment. For river measurement, the Z-Boat can be deployed in dangerous (e.g. flooding & fast-flowing) rivers or other rivers where hazards exist (e.g. crocodile attack or bio-hazards).

BlueZone GM Oceanographic and Hydrographic, Mark Hegarty, said that the Z-Boat was a strong example of a novel capability that Navy could also consider for littoral survey projects such as SEA1770 Rapid Environmental Assessment and SEA2400 Hydrographic Data Collection Capability. “The capability for in-shore and coastal bathymetric survey using the autonomous waypoint following function of the Z-Boat is an innovative approach that may be of benefit for these projects,” said Mark. Robotic and autonomous technology is a ‘force

“The hydrographic survey capability will enable multibeam bathymetric and LiDAR survey of the coastal and riverine environment to enable safe passage and entry into the environment.”

Commission Chairs Engineering & Mining Surveying Andrew Edwards chair.emsc@sssi.org.au Hydrography Commission Chair Richard Cullen chair.hc@sssi.org.au Land Surveying Commission Chair Lindsay Perry chair.lsc@sssi.org.au Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Commission Chair Petra Helmholz chair.rspc@sssi.org.au Spatial Information & Cartography Commission Chair Kerry Smyth chair.sicc@sssi.org.au Regional Committee Chairs ACT Regional Chair Zaffar Mohamed Ghouse chair.act@sssi.org.au

ABOVE: Robotic Z-Boat configured for survey operation BELOW: Z-Boats lined-up in the BlueZone engineering workshop as systems are integrated, tested and prepared for operation

multiplier’ for the Australian Defence Force, and for civil applications this technology will enable surveys to be completed more rapidly, at lower cost and with reduced risk to survey personnel. “The Z-Boat is an alternative to ‘two-men in a tinny’,” said Mark, “Surveys conducted from small boats expose surveyors to long periods in the weather and risks with small boat operations, launch and recovery.”

BlueZone Group CTO, Darren Burrowes, said that the large amount of light-weight and low-cost technologies developed for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) applications provided many options for application to the Robotic Z-Boat. “Miniaturisation of navigation systems such as Inertial Navigation Systems and GPS are very suitable for Z-Boat applications,” said Darren, ‘Combined with sensors such as LiDAR and multi-beam sonar, the Z-Boats can provide a powerful capability in an easily deployed package.” A gimbal system used to mount a pan-tilt-zoom camera on the Z-Boat is manufactured from carbon fibre and originally designed for mounting on a UAV. ■

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

www.spatialsource.com.au 39

sssi Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Commission report

Certification – Expression of Interest

In the Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Commission (RSPC) expertise is endorsed in the two broad areas of photogrammetry and remote sensing. Endorsement in one of these two areas informs the general public and other professionals that your skills and expertise are recognised at SSSI’s highest level. The specialised certification process requires a professional to initially demonstrate that an advanced level of expertise has been achieved.

SSSI Members and non-members are eligible to apply for RSPC specialised certification. More information is available on the SSSI webpage.

The RSPC committee have identified the need to review the existing certification regarding the levels available and also the process to apply for certification to meet new industry needs.

For instance, applications such as drone surveys become a tool not only utilised by spatial/surveying trained and skilled people. The number of applications and also the number of professions using drones seems to be unlimited.

However, to meet required standards and qualities of the survey outcomes, process have to be followed. And while a CASA certification can prove that the

person is competent to fly and operate a drone, it is no indicator of the ability to process the data and deliver products which meet the client’s requirements. A RSPC certification could help to separate your business from ‘cowboys’, a term often used in this context. Additionally, remote sensing experts face similar issues with more and more satellite data being available that can be processed with little expertise through the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

For the review of the certifications we seek the support of our members to better understand what aspects are important to what level of practise or better what are the outcomes you want to see. If you are interested to be part of the reviewing process or simply want to provide with feedback please send an email to chair. rspc@sssi.org.au.

Events

The following events were run in Australia with a special focus on Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry in the first 4 months of 2018: • 08 Feb 2018: The first twilight networking event (NSW) took place early February. The twilight networking events will run throughout 2018, each with a different topic.

The topic of this event was ‘Remote sensing: modern imagery & sensors’ and included two formal presentations as well as an open floor Q&A and face to face networking.

• 20 Feb 2018: Dr. Dimitri Bulatov from the Fraunhofer Institute in Karlsruhe presented at the Curtin

Spatial Sciences Colloquium (WA) about semantic scene reconstruction – focusing on depth maps extraction.

• 15 Mar 2018: A mix of talks within RSPC and SICC has been presented at the GOING PLACES 14 (WA) event.

Overall seven presenters report from underwater photogrammetry over drones to satellite bathymetry.

• 05 Apr 2018: Associate Professor Guenther Retscher (TU Vienna) presented at the Curtin Spatial Sciences Colloquium (WA) about differential Wi-fi – a new opportunity for localisation of individuals and groups of smartphone app users.

• 08 May 2018: Rebecca Ilehag from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany presented at the Curtin Spatial Sciences Colloquium (WA) about UAV-based multimodal remote sensing to assess energy demand in urban areas.

If you require any further information about events, please get in touch with rom.sa@sssi.org.au Newsletter and reports

Conference reports and RS&P newsletters are available on the resources page on the SSSI webpage and is available here:

Further information

Image provided by Airbus

40 position June/July 2018

Cloud-based Earth Observation ‘exploitation platforms’ have been independently developed by many public organisations and commercial companies.

Their independent development has hampered interoperability between these platforms. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has been seeking comments on the draft charter of a proposed Earth Observation Exploitation Platform Domain Working Group (DWG).

This domain working group will bring together service and technology providers of Earth Observation data exploitation platforms in order to define a standardsbased framework for the platforms’ interfaces that addresses and unifies the platforms through this common set of functionalities.

Further information is provided here: www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/ pressreleases/2792

SSSI sustaining partners

FIG 2018 Istanbul Turkey, 4 May to 11 May South East Asia Survey Congress Darwin 2019

G

eoffrey Patterson, SSSI Land Surveying Commission Victoria, reports on his experiences at FIG 2018.

The Congress theme was ‘Embracing our smart world where the continents connect: enhancing the geospatial maturity of societies.’ This was reflected in the four plenary sessions that had the overall themes: 1. Urban development 2. Modern technology usage for our profession 3. Rural development 4. Spatially-enabled societies I was lucky enough to be one of the 2,320 participants to the congress, where 400 papers were presented. There were 133 young surveyors from New Zealand to Finland, in between and beyond. Istanbul is an amazing setting straddling Europe and Asia. Its 15 million inhabitants occupy a city that was founded nearly 3,000 years ago. The people are welcoming, and the city is an amazing place.

The pre-conference kicked off with seminars on reference frames and BIM for surveyors, the 4th young surveyors conference and the general assembly (part 1). Monday to Thursday featured up to ten parallel technical streams with a focus around the congress theme, as well as core FIG topics. In the general assembly, SSSI and Australia was represented by Robert Sarib.

There were also numerous social events either open to all or restricted to people associated with either commissions or special interest. I stood in for Rob at the Regional Bodies Forum at Sait Halim Pasa Mansion and presented a report on activities in Australia and Papua New Guinea over the last 12 months or so as well as upcoming events.

Some discussions at the regional bodies forum included International Land Management Standards(ILMS) matters, the ‘Code of Professional Qualifications for Property Surveyors’ and ‘European Requirements for Property Surveyor Activities’, Global Surveyors Day and many other items before we raced off for the Gala Dinner cruise on the Bosphorus.

I will follow up on many of these standards, particularly as they are on UN and World Bank radars.

Rob Sarib, SSSI board member and Acting NT Surveyor General

One of the other meetings that I attended, with a follow up dinner, was the ILMS (International Land Management Standards) coalition. A draft report on the proposed standards was presented.

The ‘ILMS’ is proposed to be a standard designed to enable global consistency in land and real property transaction reporting. More will follow in the coming months. The draft will be translated into French, Spanish, Russian etc. and circulated for comment with an expectation that a final standard will be in place in less than 12 months. This has World Bank and UN support. The World Bank is pushing for greater transparency and the ILMS has the World Bank’s full support. It will feed into national and state level here sooner, rather than later. It sets a minimum level of acceptable outcomes.

At the final general assembly, Rudolf Staiger from Germany was elected as the new FIG president and Diane Dumashie from the UK and Jixian Zhang from China were elected as vice presidents.

SSSI personnel continue to play significant roles within FIG. Congratulations go to David Mitchell who was appointed as chair of commission 2 (education) and Rob Sarib continues his long involvement in FIG, currently being Chair of the FIG Asia-Pacific capacity development network.

The 2022 FIG congress was awarded to Cape Town in South Africa. In between, the FIG working weeks for 2019, ‘20 and ‘21 will be held in Hanoi, Amsterdam and Accra respectively.

The FIG 2018 Istanbul congress was well managed, located in an exciting city and was attended by a great many surveyors from across the world and in all age groups. ■

If you can’t make the FIG working weeks, you can look forward to receiving a similar outcome in Darwin next year. The SSSI would like to extend an invitation for all surveyors to come to the South East Asian Survey Congress, being held in Darwin 15 to 18 August 2019.

The theme of the conference is: ‘Collaboration, communication and capacity building in the 21st century’. It is anticipated that over 500 surveyors from across SE Asia, the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand will attend this international congress. The conference will focus on how surveying remains relevant to the needs of society through working collaboratively to meet the future technical, social and environmental challenges in digitally connected surroundings.

The congress is open to all professionals across various disciplines and will strive to have the Territorian spirit of unity, active participation in a friendly and casual atmosphere.

There are those who attended such conferences as young surveyors many years ago and the memories of the events and the people that they met, remain fresh in their minds, especially when they bump into them again at subsequent events. We can offer you an exciting program in a vibrant location. The weather will be fantastic and the social events are also exceptional. You will never never know if you never go.

For more information visit www.seasc2019darwin.com.au

Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea conference 4-6 July, 2018 The Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea (ASPNG) will be holding their 52nd conference at the Lae International Hotel, Lae PNG from 4 to 6 July 2018.

The Theme is: Role of Surveyors & Allied Professionals in Land Governance to Enable Sustainability in PNG. These conferences are always well attended, bringing together surveyors from all over PNG and beyond.

Further details available at the website: www.aspng.org/events.htm

www.spatialsource.com.au 41

sssi Goyder’s Day 2018 Despite the inclement weather, about 25 enthusiasts made it to Roadmasters House Museum on Monday 5th February to commemorate the 149th anniversary of the foundation of Darwin.

National Trust NT president Trevor Horman commenced proceedings by welcoming visitors and outlining the significance of the occasion. Museum curator Trevor Menzies followed up by recounting the achievements of the Northern Territory survey expedition in surveying land that has evolved in to the City of Darwin and beyond.

The expedition comprised about 130 personnel and was led by South Australia’s Surveyor-General George Goyder. They arrived in Port Darwin on 5th February 1869 on the ship Moonta after a six-week voyage from Adelaide.

A base camp was set up at Fort Point near the present intersection of Hughes avenue and Kitchener drive at the Darwin waterfront. From here, twelve survey parties ventured into the hinterland to peg 2,200 rural sections and 2,500 lots in the townships of Palmerston (now Darwin), Virginia, Southport and Daly. The extent of the area surveyed is now covered by the municipalities of Darwin, Palmerston, Litchfield and part of Goyder, the rural hinterland almost to the Adelaide River, the Adelaide River flood plains, west toward the Daly River, and south towards the later site of Adelaide River township.

The work was completed in seven months, which was an incredible

achievement given that they were working in unknown country under very harsh conditions. The names of the surveyors are commemorated in the street names in Darwin’s CBD: Mitchell, Smith, Woods, McMinn, Knuckey, Daly, Harvey and McLachlan and the draftsman Bennett.

The Museum’s collection of maps, photographs and surveying instruments from the era were on display for the event.

But the achievements of the expedition were not just about the land survey.

Sarah Hirst from the Top End Native Plants Society (TENPS) outlined the botanical work undertaken by naturalists Frederick and Alfred Schultze, and artist William Hoare. Sarah said that Hoare was employed as the surgeon’s assistant, but his artistic talents were demonstrated in his illustrations of plants, animals and the landscape. Some of Hoare’s fine illustrations of the plants collected by the naturalists were on display.

The final activity in the program was a walk from Roadmasters House to Goyder Park which is on the site of the original base camp. The heavy rain that persisted at the start of the event had moderated to a drizzle so a small group with umbrellas were keen to take part. The walk included stops at historic sites along the way including Travellers' walk, the site of old Chinatown and Darwin’s first road (Hughes avenue). The final stop before arriving at the Park was at the memorial on Hughes avenue unveiled in 1969 by Goyder’s granddaughter, Margaret Goyder

Sarah Hirst, President of the Top End Native Plants Society, and Trevor Horman, National Trust NT President

Kerr, to commemorate the centenary of Darwin. For TENPS, this event is an opportunity to highlight the botanical surveys also undertaken during this expedition; particularly William Webster Hoare, the surgeon's assistant and talented illustrator who painted many of the plants collected by the father and son botanists Fredrick and Alfred Schultz.

Goyder Park was established as part of the Darwin waterfront development and opened on Goyders Day 2015. It contains several timber structures that are in the same position as some of the original buildings. The layout and nature of these buildings is shown on a plan displayed at the site.

Goyder’s Day 2019 will commemorate the 150th anniversary so consideration is being given for a major event next year.

It would be most appropriate to hold the event at Goyder Park, but experience has shown that there is a good chance of rain in the afternoon / evening of 5th February.

Maybe a large marquee erected over the park could be a solution.

The value of mentoring Why is mentoring relevant to you?

We’ve all heard it before - ‘you can’t buy experience’. And no doubt, as you go through your career, you pick up those intangible skills, those instincts about how to behave in certain situations, how to manage relationships more effectively, how to communicate well and ask for what you need in the right ways so people can hear you. Arguably more important than these things is working out where you want to go in your career in the short, medium and long term and what you can do to effectively get there.

Mentoring is a great means to achieving this more quickly. It is engaging with someone who has more experience than you do, asking questions and receiving guidance and support.

This works well if the mentee is driven, curious about the profession, selfmotivated and passionate about making

42 position June/July 2018

the most of your their career. Mentors also need to be willing to share their experience and insights and experience and be able to relate to their mentee.

The mentor-mentee relationship is a professional one that requires respect, integrity, communication and dedication from both parties, as well as clear boundaries and rapport.

Mentoring doesn’t only go one way, however — recent research in professional development indicates that establishing a two-way openness in mentoring relationships can be beneficial for both the mentor and the mentee. While mentors provide a wealth of experience about the industry to mentees, mentees can often provide insights on cutting-edge research, technological trends, software applications and other developments that mentors can tap into. Young professionals can offer a different kind of energy and

worldview to those who have been in the field for decades.

In the surveying and spatial industry, mentoring is more important than ever, with many experienced professionals nearing retirement age, and young professionals and students needed to assist this transition over the coming years. For the industry to continue to grow and in coming years, become a global leader in geospatial science and surveying, continuity of knowledge and experience is vital. Now is the time to get involved and start these conversations, for people at all stages in their spatial or surveying career!

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

June/July 2018 – No. 95

The Australasian magazine of surveying, mapping & geo-information

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