Geoinformatics 2010 Vol03

G Bentley Systems and 3D GIS G Tele Atlas
G GIS and Public Safety G Handheld Nautiz X7 Review

Magaz i ne f or Sur veyi ng, Mappi ng & GI S Pr of es s i onal s
April/May 2010
Volume 13
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Wheres the end user?
Looking at the table of contents of this issue of GeoInformatics, I count a large number of
user stories. Im happy to notice this, because sometimes it seems to me that the end user
is not given that much attention. Its easy to mention all the new features of new hardware
and software products, but in the end, someone has to use them. Similar thoughts occurred
to me when taking a software course last month. Before the course started, the trainer
asked what the participants wanted to learn and for what specific tasks they thought they
would use the software. I was surprised to learn that everybody in the room had complete-
ly different ideas of how to use this particular software. In other words, every user had a
different story to tell.
The course was quite an enlightening experience. Not only was it useful to have some hands-
on training as a writer, but I also realized that challenges can arise where you dont expect
them. I found myself editing GPS files in Notepad for the first time in my life, and I noticed
what happens if you are suddenly dependent on how other people capture and store data.
Its as if youre going to cook with excellent cooking equipment but the ingredients are bad
(ingredients = data, cooking equipment= software), or you dont know what the ingredients
are because you cant read whats written on the label. Although data validation wasnt part
of the course, it was good to see what its like to work with good data.
Back to this issue, you will find a great deal of user stories, working with all kinds of data.
Particular attention is paid to LiDAR data in a number of articles. Another article Id like to
mention is about tile caching and how to do this more efficiently in the future, since imagery
volumes are getting bigger and bigger. I hope the articles in this issue will be of value in
your daily work or inspire you in the future.
Enjoy your reading!
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
April/May 2010
3
GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and
commentary with respect to the international surveying,
mapping and GIS industry.
Publisher
Ruud Groothuis
rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com
Editor-in-chief
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
Editors
Frank Arts
fartes@geoinformatics.com
Florian Fischer
ffischer@geoinformatics.com
Job van Haaften
jvanhaaften@geoinformatics.com
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com
Remco Takken
rtakken@geoinformatics.com
Joc Triglav
jtriglav@geoinformatics.com
Contributing Writers
Job van Haaften
Marco Helbich
Karin Kampitsch
Matteo Luccio
Kenny Legleiter
Gordon Petrie
Daniel Schober
Remco Takken
A. Altobelli
Account Manager
Wilfred Westerhof
wwesterhof@geoinformatics.com
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Bentley Systems and 3D GIS
The release of Bentley's V8i (SELECTseries1) offers a series of new func-
tionalities involving 3D GIS. Gijsbert Noordam, Senior Consultant,
Geospatial Center of Excellence at Bentley Systems, explains the possi-
blities of 3D City GIS, the recent cooperation between Safe Software
and Bentley Systems, and the potential of object oriented data acquisi-
tion and the use of point cloud data.
C o n t e n t
April/May 2010
Articles
The Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service
GIS, Spatial Analysis and Public Safety 10
Rapid Response Mapping at Sanborn
Mapping Against the Clock 14
The Value of LiDAR
In Levee Recertification and Flood Management 24
HPs Skyroom
Meeting in Real-time behind your Desktop 28
An Alternative Source of Very High-resolution Imagery
The Resurs-DK1 Satellite 30
Unraveling the Mysteries of Nature
GIS Camps in Germany, Switzerland and Rwanda 36
Using gvSIGs Remote Sensing Extension
Forest Fire Monitoring 44
The Next Step in Tile Caching
Optimized Tile Delivery Format 48
GNSS Update
Towards Operations 50
Interviews
More Activity in the Mobile Space
Tele Atlas 6
3D Smart Editing, FME Integration and
Object Oriented Data Acquisition
Bentley Systems and 3D GIS 20
Oracle Spatial Database
Beyond Geospatial Boundaries 40
Product Review
Heavy Metal
Handheld Nautiz X7 16
Conferences and Meetings
The Ocean Business Event
Oceanology International 42
Page 20
The Resurs-DK1 Satellite
Although the Resurs-DK1 satellite has been in operation for over three
years, its operations and its imagery are not well known outside Russia
and the CIS countries. Nevertheless an archive of 14,000 very high-res-
olution images with substantial world-wide coverage has been built up;
the satellite is still in active operation; and the imagery is less expen-
sive than that of its commercial competitors. Furthermore two new
Resurs-P satellites are being developed that will follow on from the suc-
cessful Resurs-DK1 and will offer additional improved coverage.
4
Page 30
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
5
April/May 2010
On the Cover:
Tele Atlas Advanced City Model of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
See article on page 6.
Handheld Nautiz X7
There is a new kid on the block. During an exhibition we ran into the
Handheld brand. One of their products looked very promising and we
kindly asked the Benelux dealer if a review model was available. During
one of the coldest spells we've had in the Netherlands over the last few
years the postman delivered a small box.
Oceanology International
Oceanology is probably the worlds largest fair concerned with
Oceanography and Hydrographic Surveying. In the same way as in the car
industry, it is used by most manufacturers to unveil their latest products.
Every since it started, Oceanology has taken place in London's Excel
Exhibition centre. Located in London's Docklands the centre is not only
within easy reach of London centre by light railway, it is also located next
to London City airport and is close to the river Thames.
Page 42
Calendar 54
Advertisers Index 54
Page 16
Page 6
M o r e A c t i v i t y i n t h e M o b i l e S p a c e
After the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona it seemed obvious to ask Tele Atlas about its plans and expectations
for the coming year. Rik Temmink, VP Product Management, explains what the company thinks of topics
such as adopting new industry standards, augmented reality, crowdsourcing and free-to-consumer navigation.
By Eric van Rees
Question: Recently, Tele Atlas was present at the Mobile
World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. Which trends do you
see for 2010 in the area of mobile navigation in general,
and for Tele Atlas in particular?
Rik Temmink: We see a lot of activity in the mobile space, with Google
and Nokia offering free-to-consumer navigation, various players experi-
menting with mobile advertising and paid applications sold through
app stores, and quite a bit of merger and acquisition activity (for
instance TCS buying NIM). There is also a lot going on in the area of
community input (crowdsourcing) as a way to build better, fresher maps.
Question: A term that is often mentioned in the media is
augmented reality, location based information that can be
unlocked through a web service or otherwise for a
(mobile) user. From which type of location based data do
you expect a lot in the near future, and how is Tele Atlas
involved in the development of augmented reality?
Rik Temmink: Augmented Reality is an interesting new application tech-
nology. It is early days and the AR applications are still immature, but
the concept will probably make its way into real applications and main-
stream mobile devices over the next few months. One immediate oppor-
6
I nt er vi ew
April/May 2010
tunity for Tele Atlas is for content such as
POIs that are used in these applications.
We have lots of POIs already which are
used in many navigation systems, but AR
scenarios typically require a wider variety
and some different POIs things like bars,
cafes, etc. TomTom recently acquired a small business listings/local
search company called iLocal, and we expect to use the content and
technology we picked up through this acquisition as a way to address
this new opportunity.
Question: Tele Atlas was working with 3D early on. Are
you also using standards that have taken place in the
geo-information business in the last two years, such as
CityGML?
Rik Temmink: At this point we deliver our 3D content in VRML and
Shape format. Both are industry standards. We are keeping our eyes
open with respect to new formats but do not have plans currently to
support additional 3D formats.
Question: Tele Atlas HD Traffic offers real-time traffic
information to users. Also, Tele Atlas offers Advanced City
Models with 3D visuals of important city centers. Are
there any plans to integrate both applications or is this
not possible yet? Where is the largest demand for both
products?
Rik Temmink: We do not have any specific product announcements to
make at this point, but I agree that there is a market opportunity for
more integrated solutions, not just in consumer applications but also
in traffic monitoring and management solutions sold to government
departments. We have an incredibly large and valuable mountain of
historic and real-time information about where people drive, traffic flow,
bottlenecks etc., and were only just scratching the surface of how we
can use this information.
Question: Will Tele Atlas start to deliver data to new mar-
kets, such as municipalities?
Rik Temmink: We do that already, but it is not yet a major market for
us. One of the reasons is probably that its been hard to integrate these
big 3D datasets in existing applications and render them with good
performance and quality. Those technology barriers are now coming
down, so we hope that 2010 will really be the year that 3D takes off in
all sorts of applications.
Question: Who decides if Tele Atlas data will be suitable
for mobile phones? If Google doesnt seem to become a
success in Europe, theres also Nokia/Navteq as a com-
petitor.
Rik Temmink: Tele Atlas data is used on millions and millions of mobile
phones. Most BlackBerry devices sold around the world come with
BlackBerry Maps, which is based on Tele Atlas map data. Google Maps
for Mobile still uses Tele Atlas data in dozens of countries including most
of Europe, Canada and Asia. At Mobile World Congress we announced
expanded relationships with Vodafone (which will use our maps in sev-
eral of its 360 offerings) and TCS (which uses our data in its LBS ser-
vices and potentially NIMs applications). We also have contracts with
major handset manufacturers like Samsung and mobile navigation soft-
ware companies including TeleNav. So Tele Atlas data is great for mobile
LBS and navigation use, and well continue to invest in making it great.
I nt er vi ew
7
April/May 2010
Advanced City Model of
Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Rik Temmink
Advanced City Model of Ghent, Belgium
Questions: There are people
who plead for free mobile
navigation for everyone. How
real is that wish and what
possible obstacles or oppor-
tunities do you see before
this might become a reality?
Rik Temmink: Some major players
(Google, Nokia) in the market have
recently decided to offer free-to-con-
sumer navigation on their mobile
platforms as a way to make their
devices/platforms more attractive to
consumers, or to earn advertising
revenue. It is too early to tell whether
this strategy will work it probably
will in some cases but not all. Google and Nokia have definitely made
other device makers and online companies think about offering free
navigation services, but we dont expect all of these companies to fol-
low suit. Nokia and Google have the map content and navigation appli-
cations required, which makes their position very different to a player
like Samsung or LG which has neither. It doesnt make sense for every
competitor to just copy another companys strategy it makes more
sense to differentiate on your strengths (for instance: Apple = design,
music and lots of apps).
Question: Does Tele Atlas
see possibilities for feed-
back from users on a large
scale (crowdsourcing) and
will this continue to
expand the correction of
map data? Are there any
other services where user
feedback is being applied?
Rik Temmink: We absolutely
believe in crowdsourcing but as
part of the mix and not as a
replacement of other activities
such as field survey or profes-
sional map editing. In 2009 we
made huge progress in using
Community Input in our map building activities, and we proved that
we can now build better maps faster, and at a lower cost. 2010 will be
about perfecting this and also moving into production with new kinds
of content that simply could not be created without community data.
For instance, were now beginning to build content products that
describe driver behaviour such as acceleration patterns, which can
be used to determine the most eco-friendly routes.
Eric van Rees is editor in chief of GeoInformatics. For more information, have a
look at www.teleatlas.com
8
I nt er vi ew
April/May 2010
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The Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service
GIS, Spatial Analysis and Public Safety
This article discusses the visualization and modeling strategies of crime investigations at the Austrian Criminal
Intelligence Service. GIS and spatial analysis are effectively used in their day-to-day operations, for instance for visualiza-
tion purposes of crime hot spots, crime prevention activities and resource allocation. By some examples the practical
application is shown and clarifies the additional benefit of this new technology in crime prevention.
By Marco Helbich and Karin Kampitsch
Background
In 2009 nearly 592.000 crime investigations
were perpetrated in Austria. Compared to the
year 2008 the amount of criminal offense
increased approximately about 3,3 percent,
whereas solved offenses have been reduced
about 7,4 percent. To counteract such a trend,
crime agencies revert to modern technologies.
Nowadays, geographic information systems
(GIS) and spatial analysis are valuable tools and
effectively used in day-to-day operations of gov-
ernmental agencies. This is also true of police
departments, which increasingly supplement
and enhance traditional criminological modus
operandi with geo-technologies for tactical and
strategic decision-making.
Contrary to the U.S., where crime mapping and
analysis have a long and successful history
reaching back to the 1980s and are common-
place in law enforcement agencies, in Austria it
is a novel and emerging research theme and
field of application. GIS as an exploratory anal-
ysis tool improved the ability to gain knowl-
edge from the data to understand the spatial
and social processes contributing to the pres-
ence or absence of criminal offenses. This arti-
cle discusses the development of the Austrian
Criminal Intel ligence System (ACIS) as a case
study and their application of GIS technology
and spatial modeling methodologies.
Establishment of the Austrian
Criminal Intelligence System
Crime is a spatially heterogeneous distributed
phenomenon, meaning that certain areas are
more likely to exhibit some criminal activities
than others. Because place matters, geoinfor-
mation technologies play a key role in map-
ping and analysis processes and serve as basis
for decision-making. This fact was recognized
at the Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2002
and the ACIS was launched. Their aspired main
objectives were twofold: First of all, the depart-
ment should apply high international standards
and methodologies presented in the literature.
Secondly, GIS should be nationwide imple-
mented and should help visualizing criminal
situations, and support the daily work of the
27.000 Austrian police officers in the field by
providing up to date information about crime
occurrences, for planning their patrols and so
forth.
During the start-up phase the German GIS pro-
ject of the police headquarter of Munich
(Germany) served as a prototype. It was one
of the first crime mapping projects in German
speaking countries, respectively in Europe. The
funding of the ACIS was primarily originated
from the "security billion" to improve the
human and technical resources of the execu-
tive. The money placed at the disposal was
obtained to recruit some experts and to buy
GIS technology. Recently, the department con-
sists of an interdisciplinary team of three exec-
utives with some geoinformatics and crime
jurisprudence background. For analysis and
mapping purposes proprietary ESRI products
like ArcGIS 9.x and ArcGIS Server became their
software of choice. As data base technology
Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL-Server are
in use. Additionally, for the analysis and mod-
eling of crime incident locations the freely dis-
tributed CrimeStat III software by Ned Levine
and Associates is used.
10
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Figure 1. Process of operational data gathering
Figure 2. Kernel density estimation of simulated offenses in Vienna. In red color areas with high offenses.
From Crime Locations to Database
Entries
Figure 1 illustrates the operational data gather-
ing process. Every time a crime investigation
takes place, it is reported to a police station.
On the basis of this testimony the police offi-
cer inserts the facts (e.g. kind of crime act, time,
address) in the Police Information System
(PAD). Offenses of criminal relevance are stored
Because crime is affected by variations of demo-
graphics, the built environment and other social
aspects, an abundance of data and cartograph-
ic material is necessary for crime mapping and
analysis as well. Thus, supplementing the oper-
ational data, a considerable part of seed money
was spent for an additional geographical
database, containing street data as well as
points-of-interests (e.g. gas stations, banks) dis-
tributed by Tele Atlas, socio-economic data dis-
tributed by Statistics Austria and miscellaneous
remote sensing scenes and areal pictures.
Spatial Analysis Tools for
Understanding and Mapping of
Crime
Spatial analysis can be used for strategic and
operational applications. Strategic GIS applica-
tions are, for instance, the representation of
local crime situations, the detection of spatial
displacement effects, or the analysis of video-
monitored areas. On the contrary, operational
GIS applications include the analysis of offend-
er groups, calling and positioning data, as well
as support for task forces. This section presents
some analysis and mapping techniques beyond
traditional geoprocessing tasks (e.g. spatial
queries, buffer analysis) recently used at the
in the crime monitor database operated by the
department of criminal analysis. The geocoding
process is carried out aligning the address of
the crime scene with the Austrian central inhab-
itants register. Henceforth, the criminal data can
be retrieved from the database and are avail-
able for various types of further spatial analy-
sis, of which some are introduced in the follow-
ing section.
Ar t i cl e
11
April/May 2010
Figure 3. Displacement effects on the basis of video surveillance. Green areas represent areas with a decrease
and red areas represent an increase of crime.
ACIS to detect hot spots of crime investi-
gations. Following Eck et al. (2005) hot
spots are (local) areas with a high crime
density or, in other words, areas where
people have an above average risk of vic-
timization. Knowing such past locations
helps to act preventatively. Thus, knowl-
edge in state of the art (descriptive or pre-
dictive) models and mapping techniques
are essential.
Mapping of Crime Situations
Nowadays dotmaps supersede traditional
pin maps, but they do not solve the prob-
lems of readability caused by multiple
points on one location. Therefore an
appropriate method to indentify crime hotspots
is the kernel density estimation, which is a kind
of interpolation technique to convert the dis-
crete points to a smoothed generalized contin-
uous surface over the study site. The surface
represents relative densities, absolute densities
or probabilities of crime incidence. The results
can be visualized as ordinary map, three dimen-
sional plot, and contour map. Figure 2 illus-
trates the application of the kernel density rou-
tine using simulated crime incidents in Vienna
(Austria). Because of data protection laws the
use of real-world data in this paper is prohibit-
ed. The surface shows two peaks of high
offences (colored in red). One is located in the
inner district and the second, but less distinc-
tive hot spot can be localized in the fourth dis-
trict in Vienna. High crime densities are also
locatable along the main intra-urban traffic axis
(Grtel). This example clarifies the easy inter-
pretability and explanatory power of such maps,
as crime hot spot identifiers.
Visualization of Displacement Effects
The cut-and-fill analysis is based on kernel
density estimations as well and aims at visu-
alizing an increase or decrease in criminal
activities in a target area. To this end, two
density maps relating to the same offense but
to different time periods, are compared. The
resulting map shows the geographic displace-
ment of crime within a determined period
before and after a specific campaign. Figure
3, another fictive example, presents drug-
related crime along the rapid transit line S2
in Vienna. In this case one period before fix-
ing a video surveillance at the underground
stations is compared with a period after the
installation of such a system. The map indi-
cates a geographic shift of drug-related crime
from the underground stations to areas in
between the stations and remote areas. As
can be seen, video surveillance operations
decrease crime (green areas) but lead to an
increase (red areas) elsewhere in the neigh-
borhood.
Tracking Analysis
This kind of analysis helps to visualize complex
spatial time series data and is used for repre-
senting situations, where the emphasis lies on
the temporal aspect of the operational data.
The ACIS uses the tracking analysis primarily
for bearing and call data. Bearings are carried
out through a global positioning system receiv-
er, which is, for example, attached to suspicious
target vehicles for tracing the route it takes. This
route can be visualized as an animation or map
representing different time stamps. Based on
this data it is for example possible to assign
some committed offenses in proximate neigh-
borhood of the route to the tracked person.
Estimation of the Offenders Haven
In the near future the ACIS implements and
applies criminal geographic profiling techniques
to model series of crimes committed by a sin-
gle offender and to estimate his/her possible
haven in consideration of psychological con-
cepts and theories, respectively. For this pur-
pose different methods like for instance the
spatial mean, spatial median, and the center of
minimum distance exist. An advanced and pow-
erful method is called journey-to-crime. It tries
to estimate the haven of a serial offender apply-
ing distance decay functions. The potential tar-
get area is narrowed down on the basis of a
probability raster surface, whereas each cell
indicates the likelihood being the haven. Figure
4 shows a fictitious example comparing differ-
ent geographic profiling techniques. In this case
the journey-to-crime approach, whereas the yel-
low cells possess the highest probability val-
ues, and the center of minimum distance (blue
dot signature) are the most accurate techniques
predicting the real offender's residence (trian-
gular signature).
Crime Atlas Austria - An Overview of Current
Crime Events
As an accumulative product of all the map-
pings a digital crime atlas is published. It is
accessible only via the Federal Ministry of the
Interior 's intranet, thus not open to the
public, and enables any police officer to
view a given crime situation in graphi-
cal form and to obtain information on
GIS applications in the security manage-
ment area. The provided maps (e.g.
dotmaps, choropleth maps, density
maps for different types of offenses for
different time stamps) are subdivided by
federal provinces or themes. The under-
lying data is updated to the present
crime scene in (nearly) real-time. The
clients access the crime database with
the ESRI ArcReader data viewer and the
atlas may serve as a strategic planning
tool for decision-making, as it allows
detecting serial offenses at a glance.
Future Agenda and Conclusion
Future crucial steps are the development of
predictive models and the improvement of
their accuracy including spatial and temporal
effects (e.g. seasonal variation) for crime-relat-
ed data. Therefore a close cooperation exists
with the Joanneum Research Center (Austria)
and scientists from the Louisiana State
University (U.S.), respectively, for scientific
support. This example emphasizes that GIS
and its related methods are an effective way
to model and map where, how and why crime
occurs. Secondly, the ACIS underpins the suc-
cessful knowledge diffusion of methodologies
from the academic world to public authorities
once more.
These tools help to reduce crime and improve
the alignment of strategies for prevention.
From the scientific point of view it would be
preferable if the law enforcement agencies in
Europe put their crime maps and data freely
accessible on the web as, for instance, the
Houston Police Department. Such a rethink
could lead to better understanding of crime.
Marco Helbich, Chair of GIScience, Department of
Geography, University of Heidelberg, Berliner
Strae 48, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany,
marco.helbich@geog.uni-heidelberg.de
Karin Kampitsch, Austrian Criminal Intelligence
Service, Department 4, Crime Analysis,
Schlickplatz 6, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
The text is based on an interview with Mr. Paul
Marouschek on January 22 2010. He is head of the,
Department 4, Crime Analysis, Austrian Criminal
Intelligence Service, Schlickplatz 6, 1090 Vienna,
Austria. We would like to thank Mr. Marouschek
for his valuable comments and additional
materials.
12
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Figure 4. Comparison of criminal geographic profiling methods
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Rapid Response Mapping at Sanborn
Mapping Against the Clock
Whether requested to support emergency response activities or planning, rapid response mapping involves limited areas,
short notice, and rapid delivery. To meet these requirements Sanborn, a U.S. photogrammetric mapping and GIS services
company, has a rapid response capability that features Vexcel Imagings UltraCam equipment and software. Llana Hines,
general manager for Sanborns Imagery Services West Division, explains the choice for this particular brand and how the
equipment and software is used in their daily work.
by Matteo Luccio
Early one morning in December 2005, the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric
Plant Upper Reservoir, in the Missouri Ozarks, failed catastrophically,
releasing more than a billion gallons of water in less than a half hour.
The spill generated a 20-foot crest of water that raced down the east
fork of the Black River, creating widespread environmental damage along
its path. In the Fall of 2007, more than a dozen fast-moving wildfires
roared across the hills of San Diego County, California. Driven by gale-
force winds, they burned out of control across the drought-stricken
southern half of the state, quickly charring about 200,000 acres and
forcing the evacuation of a quarter million people.
Disasters like these require immediate response to save lives and prop-
erty, provide aid to affected residents, identify access routes, survey
damage to infrastructure and property, and provide situational aware-
ness. Airborne rapid response mapping that can provide decision-ready
digital orthoimages within hours of an event is an essential tool for first
responders, emergency managers, and local authorities to coordinate
tactical missions and relief efforts. The key is to shorten in-field data
collection and processing times to generate map products, while main-
taining high standards for resolution and positional accuracy.
Rapid response mapping projects can include a variety of services. For
example, following floods and hurricanes, aerial digital orthophotos can be
analyzed to detect changes in topography and ground coverage; during
wildfires, thermal imaging can provide surface temperature and heat inten-
sity information to help firefighters track the position of fire lines; after
wildfires, LiDAR DEMs can be used for volumetric surveys, to assess the
amount of forest lost. Rapid response geospatial information gathering is
also used in non-emergency situations, for example for security planning.
Sanborn
Whether requested to support emergency response activities or planning,
rapid response mapping involves limited areas, short notice, and rapid
delivery. To meet these requirements Sanborn, a U.S. photogrammetric
14
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Aerial view of Haiti captured by UltraCam technology following the 2010 earthquake.
mapping and GIS services com-
pany with more than a century
of history, has a rapid response
capability that features Vexcel
Imagings UltraCam equipment
and software.
No one likes disasters to
occur, says Llana Hines, gener-
al manager for Sanborns
Imagery Services West Division.
When they do, however, we
have teams that are poised and
ready. Our goal is to provide fast
and accurate information. The
critical element in rapid response is the time from collection to delivery.
We have found the UltraMap software to be very efficient with the initial
image processing.
Many Sanborn clients have IDIQ (indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity)
contracts in place in case a client or community needs services, said
Jamie Curtin, Vice President of Business Development at Sanborn. With
the time to delivery often the most critical element, having contract vehi-
cles already in place greatly expedites the ordering process. Often our
clients need more detail or greater ability to see through cloud cover or
smoke than what we normally provide. This is very specialized work. As
an example, Sanborn has a water utility client who manages water sup-
plies in a large area. The utility needs to measure the amount of standing
water that accumulates after a major rain storm before it evaporates. The
rapid response scenario agreement allows the customer to contact Sanborn
as soon as they identify the need. Sanborn will send the resources to
meet the requirement, of delivering the data to meet the timeline for their
analysis. The process of rapid response is the same for natural disasters
such as wildfires and earthquake emergencies.
Processing Speed
Using the UltraCamD large format digital aerial cameras and UltraMap soft-
ware from Vexcel Imaging GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft
Corporation, Sanborn has successfully performed multiple rapid response
projects for its customers. Hines says, Sanborn has been consistently
able to produce full, color-balanced, mosaiced ortho-rectified images with-
in a 24 hour timeline after completing data collection.
Vexcel Imagings image processing software, Hines points out, is engi-
neered in a fundamentally different way from the image processing soft-
ware offered with other digital cameras. Therefore, with the hardware
configuration we use at Sanborn, it performs differently than other image
processing software, she says, enabling her company to process the same
amount of data in about one quarter the time. This is vital for Sanborn,
which processes more than 500,000 exposures a year. Even small effi-
ciencies add up to a lot, says Hines, when you have to pump so many
images through your system.
The huge difference in processing speed is due in large part to the fact
that the UltraCam software processes smaller image files immediately on
a per file basis as opposed to working on an entire flight line as one large
image file, Hines explains. This allows Sanborn to begin the production
process right away: using distributed processing software developed by
Sanborn, the images are distributed across its servers and CPU farm, rather
than having to wait for several hours to work with large files, which delays
beginning the next step in the image production process. By contrast, she
points out, the many other software systems process entire flight lines at
a time and do not have very effi-
cient distributed processing soft-
ware. Most of the other software
on the market was built for a
single thread, not for distribut-
ed processing. It becomes a dif-
ferent way of managing the data
flow, she says.
Hines is in a position to know,
because Sanborn has extensive
experience using multiple cam-
era manufacturers. We have
seen the engineering on many
fronts, she says. I have to
deliver to schedule and quality. The UltraCams OPC image processing soft-
ware performance speaks for itself.
Field Support
For Sanborn, the new solution is moving the hardware configuration to
the field, so as to be able to do as much processing and imagery distri-
bution as possible on site, rather than having to ship the data back to
headquarters because shipping is always dead time. For example,
Hines says, in many locations, especially after a natural disaster, she has
to assume that her crew will have limited access to power. In addition to
the normal equipment we have to make provisions for power and com-
munications
Hines is very positive about Vexcel Imagings field support. When one of
our UltraCam cameras is down, they will immediately ship us a replace-
ment. If we are deployed and, after a flight, we notice that something is
wrong with the camera, we can get another one. That greatly mitigates
our risk. Vexcel Imagings loaner program is also a huge advantage,
because our business is seasonal we bring in the majority of our rev-
enue when the snow is off the ground and the leaves are off the trees
so we often need a loaner during peak times. Nobody else does that. I
am willing to pay the annual maintenance fee to have that feature. Vexcel
says that it is committed to enabling Sanborn to book all of its flight time
and never have down time due to camera problems. Additionally, Hines
points out, the display screen on the UltraCam is much bigger, than it was
in the past, which is important for quality control in the field.
With the market constantly changing, Hines says that her next wish is for
larger capacity memory devices that are cheaper, lighter, and more stable
than hard drives. To stay competitive, we have to go to higher resolution
and better accuracy. With customers moving to much higher resolution
products, the number of images captured increases significantly. Most pro-
jects are at very high resolution and will have 40,000 to 100,000 expo-
sures. So, to do the same amount of mapping in the same time frame, I
need a faster tool and more storage capability on board the aircraft. We
plan to look into solutions in the next few months and are working with
Vexcel Imaging on those new solutions.
Matteo Luccio is the president of Pale Blue Dot Research, Writing, and Editing,
LLC www.palebluedotllc.com, which specializes in public policy and geospatial
technologies. He has been writing about geospatial technologies since 2000 for
eight different technical publications and was previously a public policy
research analyst for a private think tank and for state and local government
agencies.
This article is based on an interview with Llana Hines, General Manager,
Sanborn Imagery Services West Division.
Ar t i cl e
15
April/May 2010
The UltraCam line of large and medium format digital aerial cameras includes the
UltraCamXp Wide Angle, the UltraCam Xp and the UltraCamLp.
Heavy Metal
There is a new kid on the block. During an exhibition we ran into the Handheld brand. One of their products looked very
promising and we kindly asked the Benelux branche if a review model was available. During one of the coldest spells
we've had in the Netherlands over the last few years the postman delivered a small box.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
The first surprise came after unwrapping the
brown paper the box was covered with.
Instead of the usual carton, a brown box with
a small white label which we normally get,
this one was specifically designed to attract
attention. Most of the space inside the box
was taken up by the Handheld handheld
device. And no, that is not a grammatical error
that slipped through the net of the editor-in-
chief, the brand is actually called Handheld
and the product we reviewed is their top-of-
the-line Nautiz X7.
16
Revi ew
April/May 2010
Number of GPS channels SiRFStar III receiver (SBAS)
Communication GSM, 3G / HDSPA, Bluetooth, USB, (host & client port),
Wi COM port; SDIO cardslot
Other sensors 3 MP AF camera with LED ash
Electronic compass
G (roll / pitch) sensor
Altimeter
GSM telephone
Processor Marvell PXA310 806 MHz
Display 3.5" touch screen (640 x 480)
Memory 128 Mb SDRAM
4 GB iNand ash disk
Battery life (quoted) LiOn 5600 mAh; > 12 h
Weight (quoted / tested) 490 / 570 gram
Ruggedness Water & dustproof (IP67)
Drop height 1.2 meters
Handheld Nautiz
Instrument Specifications
Overall
Looking at the specifications of the Nautiz X7
the device is very promising. After unpacking
the box, most of those promises seemed to
be true as well. The Nautiz X7 has a pleasant,
sturdy look and feel. The battery compartment
is easily accessible, even with the elastic strap
fitted into place. One minor blemish was
found after turning the device on, one of the
pixels in the touch screen was defective,
something that I haven't seen in a while. This
is probably be a chance incident and not like-
ly to occur in other units.
One advantage of this device over other, sim-
ilar devices is that it actually has a keyboard.
Granted, the alphanumeric keys are not avail-
able but there is a full numeric keyboard
(which can be used with the telephone func-
tion) which, at the press of a button, doubles
as the more conventional handheld keyboard
with directional keys. Of course there is the
also the usual Windows Mobile on-screen key-
board, but the presence of the numeric key-
pad should make data-entry more easy with
GIS data collection.
When using the Nautiz X7, I found a few prac-
tical issues. The most important of these is the
fact that the SDIO slot is covered by a rubber
cap that is fastened with two Phillips head
screws. No screwdriver is delivered with the
device however. It would be preferable if it had
either screws that can be fastened / loosened
by hand or the supply of a pen-with-screwdriv-
er for loosening the screws. The cap can also
be replaced with an extended cap that can be
fitted with e.g. an RFID reader.
All the other ports are easily accessible since
they have no covers. In practice this means
that, although the device itself is fully dust-
proof, some dirt may accumulate in the con-
nectors themselves making it harder to estab-
lish a connection. No dust should however be
able to enter the device through the ports
themselves.
On the bright side, the screen is very bright
and easy to read. A big advantage is that the
brightness can be set using the keypad, which
helps when the display becomes unreadable
as a result of too much ambient lighting.
Instead of struggling to find the right setting
on a barely visible screen, simply raise the
brightness with the buttons.
The screen does not have the option to auto-
matically rotate with the rotation of the device
although a G-sensor (see further) is available.
GPS
The GPS functionality on the Nautiz X7 is
based on the quite common SiRFStar III
chipset that is normally found in GPS mous-
es, mobile telephones and handhelds. Expect
no miracles from it, but it should bring you
to within 5 meters of the intended location
(or slightly better with SBAS switched on).
On the device there is a small application
from Handheld, which shows the essential
information and allows logging of the
NMEA0183 data to a txt file. This proved a
handy feature as it also permits import into
other survey packages.
As the device is based on Windows Mobile 6,
any survey package running on this operat-
ing system can easily be installed and run
allowing connection to the GPS receiver
through the NMEA input. Also installed on the
device is the Visual GPS freeware package
that allows display of more detailed data and
some additional logging options.
17
April/May 2010
Handheld Nautiz X7 device in
extreme conditions
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Communications
Want to replace some other equipment? This
device has the capability to replace just about
all your other handheld devices. Put a GSM /
UMTS card into the device and you have
turned it into a WLAN communicator that can
connect to your local 3G or HDSPA network.
It even allows you to phone home using the
built in microphone and speaker, with hands-
free dialling as well.
Furthermore the device has the obligatory
Bluetooth as well as WiFi. Setting the com-
munication in my home network posed no
problems at all. However, one minor issue was
that in this review the used HDSPA card did
not run (although a GSM / GPRS SIM card did
work). This could possibly be a problem asso-
ciated with the particular card which requires
specific settings.
One problem found while switching SIM cards
was that the cardslot is not in the most acces-
sible location. First of all the battery needs to
be removed. This however is not a major
problem although it is time consuming as the
device needs a full reboot afterwards. The
main issue is the location of the cardslot
itself. Putting the card in is not difficult, but
when removing it only pops out about 2 mil-
limeters making it very hard to grab and
18
Revi ew
April/May 2010
Connectors showing serial port,
USB, docking connector, power and
SIM slot in battery compartment
Bottom view showing
camera, battery
compartment, speaker
and flash
remove. A better location for the SIM cardslot
would have been next to the SDIO slot under
the top rubber cover.
Other Sensors
The device is not only loaded on the commu-
nications end, it is also stocked with just
about every other sensor one can imagine.
Besides the GPS receiver it has a compass,
altimeter (pressure sensor) and G-sensor (roll
/ pitch / velocity) as well as a built in camera.
The e-compass / altimeter / G-sensor, comes
with a nice application from Getac that shows
all the different readings in one screen (but
not the GPS readings). What I could not work
out is whether the output from these sensors
is available to other applications as well.
Camera
The camera is of the basic 3MP type, which
is good enough for GIS applications. As with
most handheld camera's, the performance is
not optimal. There is a large shutter delay
(time between pressing the shutter release
and actually taking a photo) which results in
a lot of shaky images. Motion capture
(movies) suffers from the same problem as it
struggles to capture faster motions.
The addition of the LED flash helps a bit in
darker situations as does the night mode,
which makes the sensor more sensitive (but
also significantly more 'grainy'). The disad-
vantage of an LED flash compared to a regu-
lar xenon flash is that it does not provide as
much light, making it only effective at very
short distances.
Images are captured as jpg files by pressing
the shutter release button. One thing that
confused me was that the LED flash is only
used when you capture the photo with the
'photo button', whereas it will capture pho-
tos without the flash by pressing the more
conventional 'enter' button.
The major complaint about the photo appli-
cation is that it does not make use of all the
sensors that are available in the device. The
integration of the e-compass and the GPS
would have been a really great advantage as
this would have allowed instant geo-tagging
of the images for display in e.g. Google Earth
/ Maps. This means that to use all the sen-
sors, one has to look for a package that will
support and integrate the readings from all
the available sensors with the cameras (and
then probably also other attribute data).
Conclusion
As a handheld device / data logger in combi-
nation with an external GPS receiver or other
sensor such as a barcode or RFID reader, the
Nautiz X7 could replace quite a few other
devices. It is sturdy and in general quite well
built. As a handheld computer-with-telephone
it will probably prove a reliable device under
all but the most extreme conditions making
it excellent for tasks such as outdoor data col-
lection.
If the device is bought to replace some of the
current types of GIS receivers then there are
a few issues that need to be ironed out such
as the access to the communication ports and
the integration of the photo camera with the
other sensors (especially the compass).
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.comis editor of
Geoinformatics as well as project manager at
IDsW. This article represents his personal views.
19
April/May 2010
SDIO slot with the rubber cap unscrewed
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3D Smart Editing, FME Integration and Object Oriented Data Acquisition
Bentley Systems and 3D GIS
The release of Bentley's V8i (SELECTseries1) offers a series of new functionalities involving 3D GIS. Gijsbert Noordam,
Senior Consultant, Geospatial Center of Excellence at Bentley Systems, explains the possiblities of 3D City GIS, the recent
cooperation between Safe Software and Bentley Systems, and the potential of object oriented data acquisition and the use
of point cloud data.
by Eric van Rees
At the end of 2009, Bentley's V8i
(SELECTseries1) was released with new ver-
sions of Bentley Map, Bentley Descartes,
Bentley Geospatial Server and Bentley Geo
Web Publisher. Bentley itself calls the release
a breakthrough in 3D GIS, because it is not
just about designing 3D Cities, but about
making 3D models intelligent. Noordam
explains why 3D design and 3D GIS are logi-
cal developments for Bentley: Microstation,
our desktop software, was already 3D at the
end of the 1980s, so there has always been
a technological base for 3D at Bentley. The
developments around 3D GIS accelerated with
the CityGML specification of the Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an organisation
for developing international GIS standards.
Also, within Bentley there are a number of
other disciplines that come within reach once
you start working in 3D, such as BIM, Civil
Engineering or Plant Design. CityGML is on
the cutting edge of those disciplines.
20
I nt er vi ew
April/May 2010
New MicroStation tools for working with
point cloud data. Here, height data are used
as reference in MicroStation. Data courtesy of
the Gemeente Maastricht.
3D Smart Editing
The desktop product Bentley Map V8i is the
center of the new 3D City GIS functionali-
ties. At the heart of this is 3D Smart Editing,
a collection of functions with which you can
manipulate the shape of objects, assign
features within the object, as well as infor-
mation to the object itself.
With Smart Editing users can make 'fea-
tures' of existing data. A 3D object by itself
is no more than an empty shape located in
space, but by adding attribute data to the
object it becomes intelligent. This is com-
parable to a traditional 2D GIS, where you
create an object model, assign a feature
and add object information to it. Think for
example of assigning a name to a building,
or information about an elevator shaft, or
the total floorspace. From that moment on
you can do lots of interesting things, such
as analysis, thematic representations, 3D
spatial analysis and the like.
Bentley has a nice starting point when it
comes to 3D analysis, states Noordam,
namely clash detection, a concept from the
plant world. Noordam: Clash detection
means analyzing spatial relations inside of
large objects; what you're looking at is if
objects fit inside a large space or not. This
is used for maintenance or moving large
objects in a plant, for example. This tech-
nology can be applied to 3D analysis. We
are now working on bringing this concept
into Bentley Map for 3D GIS analysis. An
example of analysis is a 3D city model,
placed on top of a 3D height model, that
is used subsequently to see if new objects
fall within height limitations for building
new objects, by using 3D visualisation.
Noordam expects that these developments
will yield interesting analysis tools.
Cooperation with Safe Software
The growing importance of the CityGML for-
mat in Bentley's software has been an impor-
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com April/May 2010
tant motive to work more closely with Safe
Software, according to Noordam. The result
of this is the integration of Bentley Map with
Safe Software's FME Desktop technology. This
technology is used by many GIS vendors to
enable exchange between different data for-
mats and structures. In many cases, a user
buys an FME extension for the geospatial
products he or she is working with, but in the
case of Bentley, a different solution has been
chosen.
Noordam explains why: At a certain moment
you have to make choices as a company,
when it comes to reading, writing and export-
ing data. Do you want to make this a core
activity, or do you opt for working with a spe-
Bentley Map and FME.
Data courtesy of the City
of Quebec.
21
I nt er vi ew
cialized party? It has always been the aim of
Bentley to have a special Bentley-FME exten-
sion, but for a number of reasons this didn't
work out. Now, every Bentley Map user who
starts working with SELECTseries1, is supplied
with an extension for FME. From the moment a
user has FME Desktop, it can use Bentley Map
to plug into FME. This is different from what
happens in many other cases, but the result for
the user is effectively the same.
Bentley chooses to keep supporting a number
of file formats directly, without using FME.
Noordam: There are three reasons for this: not
everyone has FME and is willing to buy it. Some
formats are so widely used that they require a
standard provision, think for instance of ESRI
Shapefiles. And finally, because you require pro-
cess integration with other system when you
are using one common data store in what we
call 'collaborative environments'. In that case
the ProjectWise server environment is used as
an intermediary between the Bentley Map and
for example Oracle Spatial or ESRI
Geodatabases, by coordinating the process of
extracting, modifying and posting the data. Multiple GIS clients then
have access to the same data simultaneously. Conflicts are being avoid-
ed because ProjectWise fully respects the versioning mechanism of the
underlying data store.
Object Oriented Data Acquisition
At the moment, Bentley is working with a number of partners to add
value to acquiring data based on aerial imagery. Currently, allocation
of intelligence often follows after acquiring the data, but this can hap-
pen sooner, according to Noordam: Our intention is to have 'object
oriented acquisition' as early as possible in the process, because then
you can immediately bring added value to your data.
Apart from aerial imagery, Bentley is enhancing the possibilities of using
point cloud data in 3D data acquisition, starting with the abilityto ref-
erence it. Noordam: Very soon there will be an extension to
MicroStation based on Pointools technology where you can directly
access point cloud data like a reference file. Because point clouds con-
sist of large amounts of data, there's a lot of debate on what is most
effective: producing 3D vectors on a large scale from point cloud data
or adding more intelligence to the point
cloud itself. Large scale adaptation of this
for many people new data source will
show where the discussion is heading. Until
now, companies such as TerraSolid already
offer point cloud solutions for the Bentley
platform, but its use is relatively small scale
and mainly by specialists. The threshold of
using point clouds as a data source is low-
ered by including default support for it in
Microstation.
Eric van Rees is editor in chief of
GeoInformatics. For more information, have a
look at www.bentley.com.
22
I nt er vi ew
April/May 2010
Point Cloud data in MicroStation. Data courtesy of the Gemeente Maastricht.
An example of 3D Zoning. Data courtesy of the City of Quebec.
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The Value of LiDAR
In Levee Recertification and
Flood Management
LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) has become a widely accepted tool to generate accurate Digital Terrain Models
(DTMs) used in a variety of water resource applications. This article discusses methods used to create accurate DTMs for
several different dense LiDAR point spacings that can be found in challenging land geomorphology types and includes a
case study to demonstrate how LiDAR is being used by water resource and GIS personnel to manage storm water, flood
mapping, levee recertification, and emergency response applications.
By Kenny Legleiter
LiDAR Overview
LiDAR is being increasingly used by both the public and private sectors
in the collection of mapping data. The geospatial mapping technology
provides users with the ability to acquire highly accurate elevation and
feature intelligence. LiDAR detects any changes in distance from the
sensor to the surface and, thus, can identify a wide range of surface
characteristics including topography, geomorphology, terrain, streams,
dams, drainage systems, and above ground features such as trees and
buildings. The added value of LiDAR is its ease of use in collecting
data over very large areas, varying terrains and surfaces as well as its
ability to obtain high precision data, an outcome that is well above
what GIS users and engineers have traditionally been accustomed to.
LiDARs Application to Water Resources
The application of LiDAR for water resources has been one of the pri-
mary purposes of LiDAR projects for over ten years. LiDAR technology
has continually advanced in speed and reduced cost for acquisition point
density, accuracy, bare-earth filtering, and in breakline and DTM devel-
opment. The knowledge base has also been increased dramatically by
LiDAR acquisition companies and by the users of the data. For many
water resource applications, a bare-earth digital elevation model with-
out breaklines and other hydro feature enhancement will not be as use-
ful in hydrologic and hydraulic models as with breaklines.
During the past ten years, traditional breaklines are being collected on
fewer and fewer projects. For many projects, what is called hydro-
enforced breaklines are the only types of breaklines collected. During
this period, hydro-enforced breaklines have come to the forefront for
inclusion with LiDAR bare-earth data to enhance the accuracy and to
better reflect the true ground geomorphology along and in hydro fea-
tures such as rivers, stream, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and coastal areas.
These breaklines are usually only compiled at the water/land interface
at the bottom of a stream channel or around a water body such as a
lake or pond. Breaklines are also compiled around islands in rivers and
water bodies to reflect the extent and define the water /land interface.
When dual breaklines are collected on either side of stream channel or
around the edge of a water body, the water area is flattened to reflect a
consistent elevation and remove the LiDAR points that fall within these
areas since LIDAR elevations area not accurate on water. Breaklines
arent needed at the top of a stream channel because the LiDAR bare-
earth points accurately portray the land geomorphology in these areas.
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Levees along diversion channel
24
Hydro-enforced breaklines are compiled in 2-D or 3-D. Depending on
the methodology that is used, the z-elevation for the breakline is either
taken from stereo imagery (becoming less common), stereo LiDAR inten-
sity imagery (LiDARgrammetry) or directly from the LIDAR bare-earth
data in 2-D. The cost and speed varies depending on which method is
used, but all three methods provide accurate results with the last two
methods being the most accurate since the elevation value is coming
directly from the LIDAR data.
For many water resource applications, hydro features such as culverts
and dam outlets must be compiled to enforce the drainage into the
DTM to allow water to flow through road and railroad embankments as
is the case in the real world. The enforcement process must be done
accurately to reflect the true depth of the hydro feature (culverts and
dam outlets). This can be done by attributing the upstream and down-
stream hydro connector vertices using the LiDAR bare-earth z-elevation
that is in the stream channel or ditch at the same location as the hydro
connector. The user must ensure that the z-elevation is truly in the
stream channel or ditch, not on top of the embankment or on the chan-
nel banks.
Depending on the water resource application, storm water systems could
be included in any LiDAR DTM derivative product. If bathymetric data
is available, it could be mosaicd to the LiDAR data to create a seam-
less DTM of the land and river channel, which would provide for more
accurate models and for applications such as stream restoration activi-
ties. Similar to bathymetric data, surveyed cross-sections in streams
and river channels can be appended to the LIDAR data to create a more
accurate DTM for H&H models.
A Case Study of the City of Wichita/Sedgwick County,
Kansas, U.S.
The Wichita, Kansas area, located at the junction of the Arkansas and
Little Arkansas River Valleys in south central Kansas, has an approxi-
mate population of 350,000 residents, with another 100,000 residents
living in surrounding Sedgwick County. The area consistently receives
heavy rainfall, with most of that rainfall occurring in the spring or fall.
September, 2008 was the fourth wettest month on record for the area
as 10-12 inches of rain fell across the city and county in a 36-hour time-
frame on September 12th. Much of south central Kansas received 5-10
inches of rain in that same timeframe and the Mid-Continent Airport,
located in Wichita, received 10.31 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
First-return LiDAR surface showing development
Bare-earth LiDAR DTM showing levees
25
Storms such as these have a significant hazard on the region as they
have continually done in the past with 14.43 inches in June, 1923, 13.37
inches in July, 1950, and 13.14 inches in May, 2008.
The Wichita metro area has a large number of canals that move water
during base flow and during periods of flooding. Supporting these
canals are approximately 100 miles of levees that cut across the city
from north to south. These levees, part of the Wichita Valley Flood
Control Project, provide millions of dollars of flood protection. The lev-
ees were constructed in the 1950s to divert excess flows from the
Arkansas River, Little Arkansas River, and area creeks to an 18-mile-
long, manmade channel, known locally as the Big Ditch.
The specific area that was to be addressed as part of this flood control
project was a 33-mile stretch on the Arkansas River that consisted of
levees, floodways, improved channels, and control structures. This pro-
ject also had a companion project, the West Branch Chisholm Creek
Local Flood Protection Project. Both projects provide flooding protec-
tion from the Little Arkansas River, the Arkansas River, Big Slough,
Cowskin Creek, and Chisholm Creek, including its west, middle, and
east branch tributaries. This protection is provided to approximately
49,000 acres of urban and rural lands, in and adjacent to the cities of
Valley Center and Wichita.
The levees that protect the city were required to be recertified by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The City of Wichita
decided that LiDAR would provide the best economic method and most
accurate elevation data for the project. Merrick & Company was select-
ed to acquire the elevation data. The area has very low relief and with
continued growth in the region, the city, county, and local agencies
wanted more accurate and current data to understand the situation
and, subsequently, to provide better flood management. A consortium
was formed to provide the funding for the LiDAR and aerial imagery
products. The data and products would be used for levee recertifica-
tion, urban management, homeland security, and other applications
and needs including those of the Wichita Stormwater Department,
Sedgwick County, National Geospatial Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS), and the cities of Maize, Park City, and Valley Center.
The LiDAR Collection Process
The project team did a simultaneous data acquisition of LiDAR data
and 6-inch color imagery during March, 2008 for the City of Wichita
and adjacent areas including Park City, Maize, and Valley Center. The
high resolution products covered 390 square miles and had LiDAR flown
at 2-ft ground sample distance (GSD) and 6 inch color imagery. The
low resolution area of the project covered 650 square miles and had
LiDAR flown at 5-foot GSD and 1-ft color imagery. Since the project
teams flight included imagery along with the LiDAR, the flights could
only occur during daylight hours, in clear skies, and when sun angles
were 30 degrees or higher. It took approximately two weeks to cover
the project area of 1,040 square miles. To meet the parameters of levee
recertification as well as addressing storm water issues and continued
urban growth, the LiDAR data was collected at a 2-foot GSD for the
high resolution products. The LiDAR data for this area had to meet a
vertical root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.6 inches, which is the
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensings (ASPRS)
accuracy requirements for 1-foot contours. The collected LiDAR data
had a horizontal RMSE accuracy of 2.2 feet. For the low resolution
area, the LiDAR data had to meet a vertical RMSEz of 7.3 inches, which
is the ASPRS accuracy requirements for 2-ft contours. The collected
LiDAR data had a horizontal RMSE accuracy of 2.2 feet.
Merrick, through survey subcontractor Savoy, collected 65 GPS photo-
identifiable aerial imagery checkpoints throughout the project to ensure
the accuracy of the orthophotography. The project team also collected
93 GPS LiDAR checkpoints to ensure the accuracy of the LiDAR data
on flat, bare-ground.
To validate the accuracy of the LIDAR data in various land cover class-
es, the project team collected 60 GPS land cover QA/QC points in
the high density area that included Wichita. The land cover types
included:
Bare-ground, short grass
Urban (pavement or concrete surface)
Woodlands, shrubs, tall grass
Another 60 GPS QA/QC points were collected for the rest of the project
area to validate the LiDAR accuracy in various land cover types that
included:
Bare-ground, short grass
Shrubs, short trees, tall grass
Woodlands
26
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Arc Hydro model showing catchments (red lines) and drainage lines (blue lines)
Data Collection Challenges
Many challenges can arise in LiDAR collection and the following defines
several of those issues that were part of the LiDAR acquisition for the
City of Wichita.
Weather
LiDAR and imagery collection doesnt always go as planned. Several
inches of heavy rainfall occurred one night requiring the team to re-fly
some of the floodplains along the creeks on the western side of town.
Manmade and Natural Feature Filtering
Approximately 40 percent of the project area is an urban environment,
and as with any such environment, LiDAR calibration, filtering, and
breakline compilation can be skewed by manmade and natural fea-
tures. Once the data was collected, those manmade and natural fea-
tures were filtered out.
LiDAR Density
Since the LiDAR GSD was 2-foot for the high resolution area, the pro-
ject team had to process approximately 10 million elevation points for
every square mile. The 2-foot GSD area covered 390 square miles,
resulting in some three billion LiDAR points for the team to process,
just for the Wichita area and not including the remainder of the county
area. Using the LiDAR ground control, this high density LiDAR point
cloud was calibrated to meet a 3-inch vertical RMSE. Once collected,
the project team filtered all the data to a bare-earth surface.
Breakline Compilation
The Wichita area has a significant number of canals to move water dur-
ing base flow and flooding events. To create an accurate DTM for the
levee recertification, a large number of breaklines had to be compiled.
Hydro Geodatabase Development
As part of this project, Wichita required the development of a hydro
geodatabase using the LiDAR Digital Terrain Model (DTM) to determine
the flow of water and drainage area over the landscape. Such a
database provides a very accurate water resource
geospatial layer for the city that can be used for
stormwater modeling, levee recertification, urban
development, etc. In developing the database, the
ESRI ArcGIS Arc Hydro Extension was used.
The DTMs were mosaicd into watershed mosaics
at 4-foot grid cell size for processing using the ESRI
Arc Hydro Extension. The average size of each
watershed was over 100 square miles. Creation of
the hydro database required a series of 44 steps.
Many of the typical processing steps were used
such as fill, flow, direction, flow accumulation, etc.
The specifications called for the development of
catchments with an average size of 5 acres as well
as the primary drainage line and outlet for the
catchments. The project team developed specific
parameters to create accurate flow lines and catch-
ments that accurately portray how water flows
across the landscape during storm events. The
drainage lines provide an accurate stream network
that is within a few feet of the actual location of
the stream channel or, in wider stream channels,
the centerline of the stream flow. To process the
data, The LiDAR was mosaicd to the extent of each
subwatershed from the Watershed Boundary
Dataset (WBD). A 3,000-foot buffer was created around each HUC-12
subwatershed. This was done to ensure any differences in accuracies
of the source elevation data for the WBD and the LiDAR data would
not be an issue.
The hydro geodatabase also included the editing of the WBD linework
and attribution using the catchments as the input layer to increase the
accuracy and currency of the WBD. In addition, a HUC-14 layer was
created and added to the WBD. For the WBD, the catchments were
dissolved to the general extent of the WBD linework so as to match
the general location of the existing WBD boundaries, but incorporated
the higher accurate catchment boundaries created from the LiDAR data
representing the current ground conditions. Now, the WBD linework is
as accurate as the LiDAR generated catchments (1=1,200 scale), which
is far more accurate than the WBD linework that was generated off of
1:24,000 scale maps.
LiDAR and hydro geodatabases have considerable applications in water
resources, including:
1. Levee recertification
2. Flood mapping/DFIRM
3. Culvert & bridge design & shape
4. Areas likely to flood & retain runoff
5. Identify path of flood flows
6. Site plans for new development/storm water planning
7. Storm water mitigation and modeling
8. Stream and wetland restoration
Kenny Legleiter kenny.legleiter@merrick.com,
Senior Account Manager, Merrick & Company
This article is a summary of a report presented at the 2010 ESRI Users
Conference, as presented by Brian Raber CMS, GISP, GLS and Kenny Legleiter,
both of Merrick & Company.
Ar t i cl e
27
April/May 2010
Flooding in Wichita
28
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
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An Alternative Source of Very High-resolution Imagery
The Resurs-DK1 Satellite
Although the Resurs-DK1 satellite has been in operation for over three years, its operations and its imagery are not well
known outside Russia and the CIS countries. Nevertheless an archive of 14,000 very high-resolution images with
substantial world-wide coverage has been built up; the satellite is still in active operation; and the imagery is less
expensive than that of its commercial competitors. Furthermore two new Resurs-P satellites are being developed that
will follow on from the successful Resurs-DK1 and will offer additional improved coverage.
By Gordon Petrie
Introduction
The Resurs-DK1 Earth Observation satellite is
owned by the Russian Federal Space Agency
(Roskosmos) and is operated by its Research
Center for the Operational Monitoring of the
Earth (NTs OMZ). It is a very high-resolution
imaging satellite that can download its
acquired imagery [Fig. 1] to a suitably
equipped ground receiving station. The actu-
al satellite (or spacecraft) was designed and
built by the Russian Progress State Research
& Space Rocket Production Center (TsSKB),
which is based in the city of Samara, located
1,000 km south-east of Moscow. In fact, the
same organisation builds the well known
Soyuz series of rockets, one of which was
used to launch the Resurs-DK1 satellite from
Baikonur, Kazakhstan on 15
th
June, 2006.
Satellite
The Resurs-DK1 is a very large and heavy satel-
lite, measuring nearly 8 m in length and 2.7 m
in diameter and weighing around 6.5 tons [Figs.
2 & 3]. It is capable of accommdating a large
payload of 1,200 kg. The satellite is three-axis
stabilized with an axis orientation accuracy of
0.2 arc-minutes and an angular velocity sta-
bilization of 0.005 per second. Like most
Western or Asian satellites that produce very
high-resolution imagery, the Resurs-DK1 satel-
lite can be body pointed by 30 in the cross-
track direction to obtain images of the ground
that are located on either side of the satellites
ground track.
Besides the imaging capabilities and activities
of the Resurs-DK1 which are the main con-
cern of this article the spacecraft also has two
scientific instruments that are mounted in spe-
30
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Fig. 1 This multi-spectral image which covers the central part of the city of Melbourne, Australia has been acquired by the Resurs-DK1 satellite. In the left part of
the image is the Yarra River with the Swanson and Appleton Docks and Victoria Harbour branching from it. In the lower central part of the image is the Docklands
(now Etihad) Stadium and Spencer Street (now Southern Cross) Railway Station. The lower right part of the image comprises Melbournes Central Business District.
(Source: Sovzond)
cial containers attached to the side of the satel-
lite. The first of these is the Italian Pamela
instrument, which measures the occurrence of
charged particles within the cosmic radiation
that exists in the near-Earth environment as part
of the on-going research into the elusive dark
matter of the Universe. The other is the
Russian Arina experiment, which is designed to
measure the high-energy particles that appear
to act as forerunners or warnings of earth-
quakes.
Imaging System
The Resurs-DK1 satellite is
equipped with a pushbroom line
scanner called the Geoton-1
which can acquire both high-res-
olution panchromatic and multi-
spectral images of the terrain
simultaneously in the form of
continuous strips of linescan
imagery which, in normal opera-
tion, are up to 400 km in length.
The optical system of the satel-
lite which reportedly has been
produced by the Vavilov State
Optical Institute comprises a
large telescope which is
equipped with an apo-chromatic
telephoto lens system having a
focal length (f ) of 4 m and an
aperture of 50 cm (f/8) and
weighs 310 kg. This is a quite
different design to the optical
systems that are mounted in
Western and Asian very high-res-
olution imaging satellites, which
mainly utilize mirror optics.
values of 0.9 to 1 m (pan) and 2 to 3 m (m-s)
respectively over a ground swath of 28.3 km.
The on-board data storage capacity of the imag-
ing system is reported to be 768 gigabits.
Orbital Characteristics & Ground
Coverage
In line with its development from the well-
established design of the manoeuvrable Yantar
series of military reconnaissance satellites, the
Resurs-DK1 has some unusual orbital character-
istics compared with any other civilian high-res-
olution imaging satellite. In particular, the satel-
lite has been placed in a non-Sun-synchronous
elliptical orbit [Fig. 4], rather than the circular
Sun-synchronous orbits of the corresponding
Western or Asian high-resolution satellites.
Indeed, the military Yantar-4KS1 (or Terilen)
satellites from which the design is derived could
have a perigee (lowest altitude) value as low
as 200 km with a corresponding apogee (high-
est altitude) value of 360 km. At this low alti-
tude (of 200 km), its panchromatic imagery
would have a GSD value of 0.5 m. However, at
such a low perigee value, atmospheric drag
would start to be significant. This would need
to be corrected by firing the satellites rocket
engine to maintain altitude and prevent its re-
entry into the Earths atmosphere. However, fre-
quent use of this corrective action would use
up the satellites fuel reserves. So
the Resurs-DK1 satellite is oper-
ated at the much higher perigee
value of 360 km with a corre-
sponding apogee value of
around 600 km. Thus, compared
with the average life of one year
of the Yantar-4KS1 military recon-
naissance satellites, the Resurs-
DK1 satellite, having been oper-
ated from higher altitudes, has
already been in operation for
three and a half years.
The other unusual orbital charac-
teristic of the Resurs-DK1 satellite
is its orbital inclination values of
64.8 and 70 as compared with
the near-polar, Sun-synchronous
orbit inclinations of around 98
of its Western or Asian equiva-
lents. Obviously the use of these
smaller orbital inclination values
limits the ground coverage of the
Resurs-DK1 to those areas lying
between 64.8 and 70 degrees
North and South latitude.
However this still includes all the
Earths main land areas other
than the Antarctic continent and
the Arctic regions of Eurasia and
North America. From an opera-
The focal plane assembly (FPA) which has
been manufactured by the NPO Opteks organi-
sation based near Moscow features four lin-
ear arrays that utilize TDI (Time Delay &
Integration) technology. The first of these four
linear arrays generates the panchromatic image
over the wavelength range 0.58 to 0.8 m. The
other three linear arrays generate images in the
green (0.5 to 0.6 m); red (0.6 to 0.7 m); and
near infra-red (0.7 to 0.8 m) parts of the wave-
length spectrum respectively. These three
images can be merged together during post-
processing to form a composite false-colour
multi-spectral image. Each of the four linear
arrays is made up of 36 individual Kruiz CCD
chips which have been manufactured by the
ELAR electronics company in St. Petersburg.
These 36 chips are arranged in a staggered pat-
tern in two banks to ensure that an uninter-
rupted imaging swath (with no gaps) is covered
over the ground. Each individual Kruiz chip
has an imaging sensor that is 1,024 pixels in
length by 128 TDI lines in depth, with each pixel
being 9 x 9 m in size. Thus each linear array
gives a cross-track coverage (or swath width)
of well over 30,000 pixels. From the
ResursDK1s operational orbital altitude of 360
km, these various parameters result in the
panchromatic and multi-spectral images being
generated with ground sampled distance (GSD)
Ar t i cl e
31
April/May 2010
Fig. 2 This annotated diagram shows the principal
features of the Resurs-DK1 satellite. (Source: Italian
National Institute of Nuclear Physics)
Fig. 3 The Resurs-DK1 satellite is
seen undergoing static ground
tests prior to its launch. (Source:
Italian National Institute for
Nuclear Physics.)
tional altitude of 360 km, the Resurs-DK1 gives
an imaging swath of 28.3 km over the ground.
As noted above, the satellite can be body point-
ed by 30 in the cross-track direction to
obtain images of the ground that are located
on either side of the satellites ground track
within a total coverage width of 448 km [Fig.
5].
Data Reception & Processing
The NTs OMZ organisation operates two ground
stations that can receive the image data
acquired by the Resurs-DK1 satellite. The prin-
cipal station is located in the Moscow area; a
subsidiary station is located in the Khanty
Mansiysk area in West Siberia. The main PC7
station in the Moscow area is equipped with a
tracking antenna that is 7 m in diameter [Fig.
6]. It can receive data simultaneously at two
frequencies within the ranges 8.0 to 8.4 GHz
(X-band) and 1.67 to 1.71 GHz (L-band) respec-
tively. The maximum data transmission rate
from the satellite to the
ground station is 300
Megabits per second [Fig. 7].
Given the special structure
and arrangement of the CCD
arrays that are being used by
the pushbroom scanner to
acquire the images of the ter-
rain, the received data needs
to be processed by NTs OMZ
before it can be used by cus-
tomers. After this preliminary
processing, the image data
that has been acquired by
the Resurs-DK1 can be sup-
plied to customers to any
one of three standard pro-
cessing levels. These are as
follows:- (i) Level 0 data on
which only the basic radio-
metric processing of the full
resolution images has been
carried out; (ii) Level 1 data
on which further processing has
been carried out, including the
simple rectification and geo-ref-
erencing of the image, and which
is supplied together with the cor-
responding orbital navigation
and attitude data; and (iii) Level
2 data on which ortho-rectifica-
tion has been carried out using
the GCPs and DEM data that are
available for the imaged area.
The Level 1 and 2 data can be
supplied to customers in any
commonly used format such as
GeoTIFF and that used in the
ERDAS Imagine software pack-
age.
Coverage & Data Supply
A very large archive of Resurs-
DK1 imagery, comprising over
14,000 individual scenes, has
already been built up. As the
coverage map shows [Fig. 8],
a very substantial and sys-
tematic coverage of the terri-
tory of Russia has been
achieved, together with a
substantial coverage of
Western, Central and Eastern
Europe. However a large
number of cities and specific
sites of interest have also
been imaged world-wide. An
attractive feature of the
imagery is that its cost is sub-
stantially lower than the
equivalent imagery that is
available from the well known Western com-
mercial suppliers of very high-resolution
imagery. Slightly different rates are charged
according to whether the data already exists in
the archive or has to be obtained as fresh
imagery.
With regard to the ordering and supply of
Resurs-DK1 image data, a special order form (in
the form of a Word document) is provided in
English for non-Russian speaking users on the
NTs OMZ Web site see the following Web
page: http://eng.ntsomz.ru/zakaz/data. The com-
pleted form is then submitted by fax or e-mail
direct to the NTs OMZ organiztion. Alternatively
the order for the data can be made on-line to
the Sovzond company, which is the main autho-
rized commercial distributor and international
supplier of the Resurs-DK1 imagery see the
following page: www.sovzond.ru/en/order/shoot.
Besides the supply of basic imagery [Fig. 9],
both organisations offer a substantial number
of value-added products. These include special-
ized thematic image processing and mapping
and the construction of perspective 3D models
based on Resurs-DK1 imagery. Examples of
these are shown on both organisations Web
sites.
A Brazilian company, GeoDesign International,
which is based in Lorena, Sao Paolo, has been
appointed as the distributor of Resurs-DK1
imagery for South America see the following
Web site:
www.geodesign.com.br/Htmls/resurs_dk1.html.
This site also contains a number of interesting
sample images.
Geometric Characteristics
If the Resurs-DK1 imagery is to be used for map-
ping purposes, then a matter of considerable
32
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Fig. 4 This diagram shows the elliptical orbit of the Resurs-DK1 satellite,
which is inclined at 64.8 to the Earths equatorial plane.
(Drawn by M. Shand)
Fig. 5 A diagram illustrating the ability of the Resurs-DK1 to capture its
image data both in the nadir direction directly along the ground track of
the satellite and off-nadir through the body pointing of the satellite in
the cross-track direction. (Source: Roskosmos)
Fig. 6 The PC7 ground receiving station of NTs OMZ with its 7 m
diameter antenna which is used to download the imagery acquired
by the Resurs-DK1 satellite. (Source: NTs OMZ)
importance are its photogrammetric character-
istics and qualities; in particular, whether these
will allow the accurate geometric correction and
ortho-rectification of the images. Thus exam-
ples of Resurs-DK1 pan imagery have been sub-
jected to a number of geometric accuracy tests
that have been carried out both in Russia and
in Poland. In the latter case, the tests have been
carried out by Prof. Kaczynski and Dr. Ewiak of
the Institute of Geodesy & Cartography in
Warsaw using images acquired over the cities
of Warsaw and Krakow. For these two urban
areas, test fields of 28 and 24 ground control
points (GCPs) respectively had been established
using high-quality GPS receivers. The pho-
togrammetric solutions that were used to carry
out the geometric accuracy tests were those
available in the PCI Geomatica software pack-
age. First a rigorous (geometrically correct) solu-
tion was used in combination with the mea-
sured orbital parameter data. Next the Rational
Polynomial Coefficient (RPC) method was
employed in the tests. The accuracies in
planimetry (in terms of RMSE values mX = mY)
that were achieved at the independent check
points were just under 0.5 m (i.e. around half-
a-pixel) for both solutions. Tests of the ortho-
rectification procedures that are available in the
Intergraph Image Station Ortho Pro software
were also carried out on the Resurs-DK1
imagery over the two test areas, in combina-
tion with DEMs derived from the Shuttle Radar
Topographic Mission (SRTM). The results, in
terms of the resulting RMSE values in planime-
try (mpl) for the ortho-images that were achieved
at the independent check points, were just over
1 m. This corresponds to the accuracy specifi-
cations for maps at 1:10,000 scale.
metric accuracy tests to those achieved in the
Polish tests. While, for the ortho-rectification
test, the conclusion was that, at least in accu-
racy terms, the Resurs-DK1 imagery was suit-
able for the generation of ortho-images at
1:10,000 scale. In summary, it is clear from the
results of all these tests which have been car-
ried out over a variety of terrain types in differ-
ent countries that the accuracies attainable
from Resurs-DK1 imagery are similar to those
that are achievable using Ikonos and QuickBird
imagery when employing the same software
packages.
Resurs-P Satellites
Following on from the success of the Resurs-
DK1, Roskosmos has decided to invest in the
construction of two more satellites that can
generate very high-resolution imagery. These
are called Resurs-P1 & -P2. These satellites are
currently under development by TsSKB
Progress in Samara [Fig. 10]. However, although
the basic spacecraft bus remains the same as
that used in the Resurs-DK1, the orbital param-
eters of the satellite and the characteristics of
the resulting imagery will be very substantially
different. According to a recent presentation
given by Roskosmos, each of the new satel-
lites will be placed in a circular Sun-syn-
chronous orbit having an orbital inclination of
97.3 and an orbital altitude of 475 km. These
are of course very different orbital characteris-
tics to those of the Resurs-DK1 with its ellipti-
cal and non-Sun-synchronous orbit. The result
of this major change in the orbital parameters
will be that the swath width of the imagery
acquired from the higher altitude will be
enlarged to 38 km [Fig. 11].
Similar tests of geometric accuracy and ortho-
rectification have also been carried out over a
test field located in Izmir, Turkey by a team from
Sovzond, the international distributor of Resurs-
DK1 imagery. The results were quite similar to
those that were achieved in the Polish tests.
Still more tests have been carried out by Dr.
Sinkova of the Goszemcadastrsyomka (VISHA-
GI) cadastral organisation using Resurs-DK1
imagery of the Tver area, located north-west of
Moscow, and of the Krasnodar area in the
southern part of Russia, lying to the east of the
Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. She has mainly
used the Solver-S and Mosaic modules of the
Racurs PHOTOMOD software for her series of
tests. These have been carried out utilizing (i)
GCPs that had already been established for air-
borne mapping projects in the two test areas;
and (ii) in the case of the Krasnodar area, using
a DEM generated by the SRTM mission. Yet
again, similar results were obtained for the geo-
Ar t i cl e
33
April/May 2010
Fig. 7 This diagram shows the ground controlling
and ground data receiving facilities that relate to
the Resurs-DK1 satellite and its ground coverage.
(Source: Roskosmos)
Fig. 8 A map showing the world-wide coverage of the Resurs-DK1 imagery that has been captured to date. (Source: NTs OMZ)
Since the GSD values will stay at 0.9 m for the
panchromatic imagery and 3 m for the multi-
spectral imagery, obviously there must be cor-
responding changes in the focal length of the
optical system and the length of the linear
arrays. A further change is that the multi-spec-
tral imagery will comprise four bands, with a
blue imaging channel (with a wavelength range
of 0.45 to 0.5 m) being added to the three
existing green, red and near-infra-red channels
that have been used in the Resurs-DK1. Other
reports mention that a hyper-spectral imager
with 96 spectral channels will also be mounted
in the Resurs-P satellites, though this informa-
tion is not included in the Roskosmos presen-
tation. The planned active lifetime of each of
the two new satellites is between five and
seven years. Initially the planned dates for the
launch of the new Resurs-P satellites from
Baikonur using Soyuz rockets were stated to
be late 2010 and 2012 respectively. It remains
to be seen whether these dates will be adhered
to, given the current global financial downturn.
However, in a recent interview, the Samara
Space Center has said that, so far, there has
been no interruption in funding and no delay
in the development of the project.
Conclusion
In summary, the advent of the existing Resurs-
DK1 satellite and the construction of the new
Resurs-P satellites form a most interesting
development in the area of very high-resolution
spaceborne imagery. If the resulting imagery can
be exploited commercially through the estab-
lishment of a suitable network of partner agen-
cies, then this development could be of inter-
national importance, besides its undoubted
value to users within the Russian Federation
and CIS countries.
Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor of Topographic
Science in the Dept. of Geographical & Earth
Sciences of the University of Glasgow, Scotland,
U.K. E-mail - Gordon.Petrie@ges.gla.ac.uk
34
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Fig. 9 This high-resolution panchromatic image (with a GSD of 1m) shows the eastern part of the Frankfurt
Messe complex that has been acquired by the Resurs-DK1 satellite. The Messeturm tower with its long black
shadow is at middle right; the Congress Center is the semi-circular building at middle left with Hall 5
attached to it and running off to the left edge of the image. Hall 3 lies at the lower left part of the image.
(Source: Sovzond)
Fig. 10 This model of the Resurs-P satellite that is
being developed by the TsSKB Progress organisa-
tion was shown at a recent aerospace exhibition.
(Source: Samara Space Centre)
Fig. 11 An image of part of St. Petersburg complete with a set of overlaid diagrams that show the large
swath widths of the Resurs-P and Resurs-DK1 imagery as compared with those of certain other comparable
Western and Asian satellites that are generating very high-resolution imagery. (Source: NTs OMZ)
I believe in reliability.
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It all began four years ago: In 2006 twenty
high school students came to the Bavarian
Forest national park to take part in an experi-
ment. In cooperation with the national parks
department for environmental education, ESRI
Germany had invited students to experience
nature and the national park in a new way: By
using GIS, GPS and mobile computers. The out-
come was impressive, without any knowledge
about GIS the students dove right into using
ArcGIS Desktop and ArcPad and started collect-
ing, analyzing and visualizing environmental
data. At some point the young researchers had
virtually to be dragged out of the pouring rain
to interrupt their work until weather had cleared
up. At the end of the week there was not doubt,
the first ESRI summer camp had successfully
been launched.
This was the beginning of a series of exciting
one-week research camps, teaching hundreds
of children about important questions sur-
rounding different topics in national parks all
over Germany and Switzerland. With two sum-
mer camps already being held in Rwanda it is
safe to say that learning with geo-technologies
is equally fascinating for young people through-
out different continents. Following the theme
of observing, comprehending, and applying
each one of the week-long camps is identically
structured: starting off with activities like geo-
caching or geo-painting, the students make first
36
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Unraveling the Mysteries of Nature
GIS Camps in Germany, Switzerland
and Rwanda
ESRI summer camps: combining spatial learning with modern technology in an
outdoor environment. Since 2006 ESRI Germany is offering free GIS summer
camps, inspiring and motivating young people to think spatially and explore
their environment. In 2010 a total of eight camps will be held in Germany,
Switzerland and Rwanda.
By Daniel Schober
ESRI summer camp Rwanda: Students presenting their work
practical experiences with ArcPad and mobile
computers through playful applications of GIS
and GPS. Day two through four the students
are collecting data in the field, making analy-
ses with ArcGIS Desktop and creating maps with
their findings. Finally, on the last day the par-
ticipants are presenting their results to an audi-
ence before receiving their well-deserved cer-
tificates. Throughout the week the students are
being accompanied by ESRI personnel and
experienced staff from the national parks shar-
ing their knowledge with the young researchers.
But it is not all work and no play, throughout
the week there is a full range of additional activ-
ities like campfire, night hikes, sports and swim-
ming.
Understanding the Environment
through GIS
National parks develop largely without human
intervention. But what exactly is happening and
why? Geographic information systems are help-
ing to recognize, to understand and to repre-
sent the underlying laws of nature. ESRI sum-
mer camps are being carried out in cooperation
with national parks integrating geo-technolo-
gies, such as GPS, GIS, and the use of mobile
computers into environmental education. While
most of the national parks are already using
GIS extensively for research of their respective
ecosystems, there was little to no application
of technology in environmental education.
Establishing a sensible connection between
experiencing nature and applying the proper
technology is a natural fit.
Nowadays you cannot expect young people
being exposed to nature on a regular basis.
Weve had kids in camps that had grown up in
metropolitan areas with no nature around,
except for some parks in the city. They made
their first contact with nature in the camp. It
is great to see how fascinating this experience
were highly fascinated working with GIS and
produced impressive results. With the ability to
think spatially and GI skills becoming increas-
ingly important in the workplace, programs as
the ESRI summer camps can enhance the teach-
ing of a broad range of subjects.
And the concept is spreading: Several schools,
universities and other institutions have started
to organize their own research camps tackling
the where and why and trying to answer them
through GIS. Whether it is exploring environ-
mental change over time by analyzing land-
scape change or surveying animals and path-
ways in the local zoo, the use of modern
technology is clearly giving students additional
motivation to start exploring. Very little time is
wasted getting the students to work with the
tools. Almost all of them are having an amaz-
ingly fast approach to GIS software and mobile
computers.
Digital Natives making Spatial
Decisions
After all we are talking about the generation of
Digital Natives, staying in touch with their
friends over social media and locating them
using Google-Latitude with their GPS-enabled
iPhone - sharing, living and communicating on-
line. Nonetheless this generation will have some
serious issues to solve: Will resources run out?
How to live in a sustainable way? What is the
impact of global climate change? Raising spa-
tial awareness not only - for these issues is
imperative for the ability to think spatially and
foster proper decision making. Using modern
tools like GIS and GPS in environmental edu-
cation will not only get students extra motivat-
ed to engage themselves in certain topics. It
will also make them aware of the possibilities
decision making tools like GIS are offering them
to solve future problems. With technology in
their hands and working on real-life questions,
young people are realizing that they can make
a difference. It is on us to help them building
confidence in their abilities to ask the right
questions and to give them space to explore
freely. Thus the concept of learning is being
raised to another level, not as an end in itself
but as an open and life-long process. Geo-tech-
nologies can act as a valuable resource to sup-
port this task.
Daniel Schober d.schober@esri.de serves as
Business Manager Education at ESRI Deutschland.
He holds a teaching degree in English and
Geography from the University of Regensburg.
Since 1999 the education team of ESRI Germany
and Switzerland are working closely with universi-
ties, schools and other educational institutions to
foster spatial learning. More information on the
ESRI summer camps can be found here:
http://esri.de/schule/camps.html
is for young people and also how quickly they
are adapting tools like GIS. Through the camps
we are hoping to make learning fun, inspire
young people to think spatially and maybe even
awake dormant talents for future GIS experts.
says Susanne Tschirner, project manager for the
ESRI summer camps.
Getting Prepared for Spatial Careers
Since 2008 ESRI Germany is organizing a
nation-wide school competition. Its winners are
invited to a summer camp in the national park
of their choice with ESRI paying for travel and
accommodation. This year six summer camps
will take place in Germany. Furthermore, ESRI
summer camps are held in Switzerland and in
Rwanda.
With schools usually having less and less time
for increasing curricula content, explorative
learning in an informal setting is something new
to both students and teachers, thus making it
an exciting experience for all parties. However
the feedback of the accompanying teachers is
unanimously positive: most of the students
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Student poster ESRI summer camp Swiss National Park: Distribution of a Groundhog population
Students analyzing data with ArcGIS Desktop
37
ISPRS 1910 - 2010
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Xavier Lopez likes to call it the
geospatial data explosion. Oracles
Product Manager Spatial and
Semantic Technologies, sees how
satellite information, mobile map-
ping, terrain models (3-D or not),
have been expanding continuous-
ly. You should also take into
account that all levels of govern-
ment maintain growing amounts of
geodata. And, of course there is
what some call volunteered geo-
information: the non-authoritative,
geo-tagged data as compiled by
the masses. Open Street Map is an
impressive example of this move-
ment. The interesting thing is, how
it is all coming together.
Maps into Business
Applications
For the last couple of years, Oracle
is integrating mapping capability
into business applications. Oracles
Fusion Middleware includes a map
rendering tool, MapViewer, that
fetches data and renders maps
directly from the Oracle Spatial
database. Map Viewer could easily
be interpreted as a developer geo-
ICT tool. Without having to maintain expensive GIS licences, it is now
possible to access and even analyze location information directly out
of the Oracle database. Lopez discerns the notion of Oracle as a GIS
vendor: When our developers designed the mapping tool, it was a
business driven requirement. Oracles MapViewer is designed to incor-
porate web mapping directly into mainstream business applications.
The technology was not meant to compete against more specialized
GIS tools. By making our MapViewer tool a free feature of our middle-
ware offerings, it addresses the need of application developers that
want to location-enable their business solutions without necessarily
resorting to a more complex GIS solution.
Location Intelligence
Oracles current possition in location intelligence solutions results from
technology strength in spatial technologies, combined with recent busi-
ness intelligence (BI) acquisitions. With the acquisition of Siebel and
Hyperion it became possible to
truly integrate location capability
into business intelligence. As a
result, customers can now incorpo-
rate mapping, geocoding, routing,
spatial analysis directly into their
BI tools.
As for the practical use of this inte-
gration, Lopez says: Our cus-
tomers are finding that applying
spatial analysis within BI process-
es is beginning to generate tangi-
ble returns on investment. The
reason is that BI solutions address
key performance issues of the
businesses. For example, in a util-
ities setting, location-enabled BI
help create executive dashboards
that illustrate: What were the total
customers interrupted with service
in particular territory? What are the
current outages by operating
region? What was the average out-
age time before service restora-
tion? What were total revenue loss-
es from revenues last month? Last
year? In each of these examples,
location plays a key role is increas-
ingly an important dimension in
the analytical filtering and decision making process.
Representing a 3D World
And then theres 3D, supported by Oracle since version 11g. One of the
main barriers to the adoption of 3D GIS is the lack of 3D data. However,
Lopez thinks that developments in the 3D field are accelerating rapid-
ly: With the growing availability of lidar sensors and improved digital
orthophotograpy we are moving towards adoption of 3D faster than
when the industry transitioned paper maps to 2D GIS.
In the last two releases of Oracle Spatial (11g1 and 11g2), Oracle intro-
duced support for three types of 3D data. First, theres the 3D vector
model, which is typically used for city modeling. An example would be
a solid model applying the OGC-standardized City GML. The Oracle
Spatial data type is called: sdo_geometry (3d).
A second data type is the triangular terrain model, mainly used for sur-
face modeling, the so-called sdo_tin. Finally, Oracle introduced native
40
I nt er vi ew
April/May 2010
Oracle Spatial Database
Beyond Geospatial Boundaries
For the last couple of years, Oracle is integrating mapping capability into business applications. And theres more. Oracle
Product Manager Xavier Lopez talks about 3D GIS, Oracles stand on Open Source, and further possibilities outside of the
scope of hardcore geo-information, like Building Information Modelling.
By Remco Takken
Xavier Lopez
support for lidar sensor data directly into the database with its sdo_pc
(point cloud) data type. The term point cloud, is a direct reference to
the millions of points associated with lidar and laser scan data. Oracle
has extended its existing 2D data management infrastructure with a
new 3D spatial referencing system to handle these specific data types
and related attributes.
Oracle Spatial to be a BIM Server
An exciting application area for deploying Oracles new 3D capability,
according to Xavier Lopez, lies in the possibility of implementing Oracle
Spatial as a BIM Server, in order to accommodate the upcoming use of
Building Information Modelling (BIM). Lopez: CAD provides rich tool-
ing for 3D object creation, visualization, and workflows. However, a
spatial database can enhance 3D tools by providing transactional sup-
port, versioning, security, attribution, and analysis. At the end of the
day, the combination of the two make 3D CAD models smarter and
easier to share using web services. Moreover, the IT infrastructure for
creating, managing and visualization virtual worlds is not too far off.
Standardization
Ever since Oracle introduced the spatial option to their enterprise
database fifteen years ago, the standards to support access to spatial
data has grown in importance. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
has been instrumental to the standardization process. OGC
Specifications like Simple Features, Web Map Server, Web Features
Server, and Web Coverage Server are now supported by all major GIS
vendors.
There was a time when desktop GIS users had to convert their data
between different types of proprietary formats. This is changing as the
Web becomes the computing platform. Although Oracle was one of
the first spatial database vendors, nearly every major commercial and
open source database vendor now offers support for spatial data. These
developments reflect the mainstreaming use of spatial data across the
industry. Once again, we can thank the OGC for its pivotal role in defin-
ing the specifications that made this possible.
Open Source
Oracle has had a long and productive relationship with open source
technologies. First, nearly all of the leading open source geo-tools sup-
port Oracle Spatial. These include: MapServer, GeoServer, MapBender,
MapGuide, grass, FDO, and GeoTools, among others. Just last year,
Oracle contributed to the gdal/ogr effort to ensure that those services
were available for Oracle Spatial. Oracle is also a major contributor to
a range of open source initiatives in the broader IT community, includ-
ing Eclipse, contributing developers and leadership to three Eclipse pro-
jects: Dali JPA Tools, JavaServer Faces, and BPEL.
Remco Takken is editor of GeoInformatics.
For more information, have a look at
www.oracle.com/technology/products/
spatial/index.html
I nt er vi ew
41
April/May 2010
Oracle and Open Source
InnoDB, created by Oracle subsidiary Innobase OY. InnoDB is the
leading transactional storage engine for the popular MySQL open
source database. Oracles contributions to Linux enhance and extend
enterprise-class capabilities, and Oracle Unbreakable Linux delivers
enterprise-quality support for Linux. Oracle contributes to several
open source tooling projects, including Project Trinidad, Eclipse, and
Spring.
A family of open source, embeddable databases, Oracle Berkeley DB
allows developers to incorporate within their applications an indus-
trial-grade, fast, scalable, transactional database engine. It is the
most widely used open source database, with more than 200 million
deployments. Oracle is committed to enabling open source scripting
language PHP for the enterprise with Zend Core for Oracle.
Oracle contributes to feature development of Xen mainline software,
is a member of the Xen Advisory Board, and hosted Xen Summit
2009.
Oracles recent acquisition of Sun Micro systems increases both the
scale and scope of their commitment to open source. The blending
of commercial and open source technologies is increasingly becom-
ing quite common and cost effective for customers.
This map illustrates MapViewers new heat-mapping capability. Courtesy of Johnston McLamb.
Oceanology International is probably the worlds largest fair concerned with oceanography and hydrographic surveying.
In a pattern taken from the car industry, most manufacturers use it to unveil their latest products. From the beginning,
Oceanology International has taken place in London's ExCeL exhibition center. Located in London's Docklands, the center
is not only within easy reach of central London by light railway, but is also next to London City Airport and close to the
River Thames.
More specifically, the center is located on the edge of the Royal
Victoria Dock, which is completely closed off from the tidal movements
of the Thames by a sluice. The dock is probably the best surveyed piece
of bottom in the world as, every two years, a number of survey ves-
sels survey the dock for three days, around nine hours per day. This is
the result of the 'outside' exhibition where manufacturers display their
products in an interactive way. Most of the survey vessels come from
the UK, but every year a few cross the North Sea to present themselves
in London. This year there were ships from the UK, the Netherlands,
Sweden and Denmark displaying various survey systems.
Multibeam Echo Sounder
In contrast with more 'dry' types of surveying, underwater, only acous-
tic sources are used. Until about 15 years ago the main workhorse was
the singlebeam echo sounder. By the mid 1990s the first commercial
multibeam systems had been introduced and over the next five years a
lot of development went on. The multibeam echo sounder of today is
capable of surveying a stretch of bottom that has a width of around
3.5 times the water depth. Over this swath it collects up to 500 depth
points.
At Oceanology International various manufacturers displayed their lat-
est innovations. These innovations could be divided into two different
types. At one end of the scale there were new entry-level multibeam
echo sounders providing a complete system for around EUR 60,000. At
the other end of the scale the latest development was the so-called
wide-band multibeam. With these wide-band systems the user can vir-
tually specify his own multibeam system in terms of frequency, number
of beams and swath width, allowing the system to be fine-tuned for
the job at hand. Of course this all comes at a significantly higher price
then the entry-level systems, with quoted prices between EUR 150,000
and EUR 200,000.
Water-borne LIDAR
One of the major problems in hydrographic surveying to date has been
that only underwater data can be collected using a multibeam. Most
systems collect data up to around one meter below the water level.
Many constructions do not stop there however and run above water as
well.
Most organizations have solved this problem by either performing a
(RTK) land survey onshore with considerably less point density or choos-
42
Event
April/May 2010
The Ocean Business Event
Oceanology International
ing to perform a LIDAR survey. The downside to LIDAR surveys is that
they are expensive and usually cannot be performed at the same date
and time as the hydrographic survey.
With mobile laser systems gaining a greater foothold in land survey, it
seems only natural for these systems to become water-borne. The first
such system was presented by Riegl from Germany and QPS from the
Netherlands. They have outfitted the Port of Rotterdam survey vessel
'Freedom' with a Riegl VMX250 laser and QINSy Survey software.
Using this combination they were able to create online DTM of the Victoria
Dock above the water as well as below the waterline. According to QPS,
this was relatively easy to achieve as the laser was treated just like the
mulitbeam (although with a much greater data update rate).
With a maximum scanning distance of 500 meters for the laser, the sur-
roundings were captured in great detail. As this laser is a 'multi-detection'
type, it was also possible to see through' bushes and iron gratings allow-
ing one to peek inside structures.
Probably the most impressive aspect was that the DTM was created in
real time with no post-processing needed. According to QPS director Bert
Jeninga, the accuracy of the system is limited mainly by the performance
of the RTK GPS system and the motion sensor used. One of the side
effects of the survey location was that a few aircraft showed up in the
survey data, a result of the Royal Victoria Dock being on the flight path
for London City Airport.
Precise Point Positioning
Precise Point Positioning, or PPP as it is usually called, is a technique that
uses post-processing to correct for just about all GPS error sources, creat-
ing a global set of corrections.
In land surveying post-processing was, and for some applications still is,
a much-used technique. For positioning at sea the technique was often
unusable as the ship is in constant motion and one needs to know the
position straightaway. Therefore only real-time differential GPS techniques
were used.
As shown at Oceanology International, the industry is moving more and
more in the direction of accurate positioning anywhere in the world using
PPP. Suppliers of this technology now have the technique down to an
almost real-time correction with quoted latencies of two seconds and a
30 second update rate after initialization (which may take up to a quarter
of an hour). This allows ships anywhere in the world to position them-
selves with an accuracy of around 10 centimeters horizontally and 15 to
20 centimeters vertically (at 95% confidence levels).
Although this may not seem much to the land surveyor (rather spoiled in
that sense), it is extreme accuracy when you are in the middle of, say, the
Atlantic Ocean. The technique even allows for tide corrections without the
use of a tide gauge.
Socializing
Some things in the 'ocean business' are done differently from their land-
based cousins. What really stands out is the social aspect. At a land sur-
vey or geo-information fair there is usually some social event organized
for those attending the fair. The organizer is normally the organization in
charge of the fair.
Not so for Oceanology International. During the day it is a meeting place
for business associates and friends who have not seen each other for a
long time, with lunches and drinks get-togethers organized throughout
the day just as in other events. Every evening there are a number of recep-
tions hosted by the various manufacturers. This is where the real busi-
ness is usually done. On one night alone there were five receptions tak-
ing place around the exhibition center.
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is project
manager at IDsW and a freelance writer and
trainer. This article reflects his personal opinion. For
more information on OI:
www.oceanologyinternational.com
Event
43
April/May 2010
Port of Rotterdam 'Freedom' with Riegl laser installed Online, real-time DTM of laser and multibeam data
Post-processed laser data of the dock (note the aircraft in the picture - source: Riegl)
Using gvSIGs Remote Sensing Extension
Forest Fire Monitoring
Ecosystem monitoring after a forest fire is based on the study of vegetation dynamics. Remote-sensing analysis makes an
important contribution to finding quantitative differences in green biomass and soil-plant water amounts, permitting the
examination of the ecosystem's capacity to return to its former condition (i.e. before the fire), namely its resilience. This
article describes ecosystem monitoring in Slovenia, where Landsat data from this area has been analyzed with gvSIGs
remote sensing extension.
By A. Altobelli, A. Sgambati, F. Bader, G. Fior, B. Magajna, L. Ferrazzo, R. Braut, P. Urrutia, P. Ganis and S. Orlando.
1. Introduction
Vegetation is a fundamental element of ecosystems: it represents the base
for the food web and for energy fluxes, it regulates the water cycle and
soil conditions, and it guarantees the ecosystems conservation.
Generally severe fires cause almost total disappearance of vegetation cover
and a hydrophobic soil condition, with consequent erosion risk due to
superficial runoff.
Ecosystem monitoring after a forest fire is based on the study of vegeta-
tion dynamics. Remote-sensing analysis makes an important contribution
to finding quantitative differences in green biomass and soil-plant water
amounts, permitting the examination of the ecosystem's capacity to return
to its former condition (i.e. before the fire), namely its resilience.
NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is the most commonly used
green biomass index in remote-sensing analysis. It is calculated using the
reflectance in the red and in the NIR (Near Infrared) bands (Figure 1). In
the spectral vegetation signature the red band is located in the maximal
absorbing interval due to chlorophyll, whereas the NIR band is located in
the high reflectance plateau due to the structure of spongy mesophyll tis-
sue. Therefore NDVI is correlated with green biomass density and vegeta-
tion health status.
Using the NIR (Near Infrared) and SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) bands, a
second index called NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) can be cal-
culated, which is sensitive to leaf water content and soil humidity. SWIR
reflectance is negatively related to leaf water content.
Multi-temporal and multi-spectral images, with a special resolution of 30
m and 16 days revisitation time, can be easily obtained by the Landsat7
ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) satellite and used for this kind of
analysis, even though some of these images are affected by striping noise.
2. Study Area
The study area is located in Slovenia, a few kilometers from the Italian
border. From the structural point of view it is part of the anticlinal Karst
area.
Karst is positioned in a climatic transition zone, which sits between the
Mediterranean and the continental Prealpine region. The zone is charac-
terized by rainy winters, relatively dry summers and extremely short spring
and autumn seasons. The two most peculiar physic-geographical charac-
teristics of the Karst are: the discontinuous elevation (between 300-400
m amsl) and the predominant presence of carbonate rocks. The Karst area
has shallow soils, poor in humus and often moderately productive.
Morphologically and lithologically the Karst is characterized by scarce
superficial water.
In the study area two forest typologies are prevalent: the Karst woodland
and the black (or Austrian) pine (Pinus nigra) planted forest. In the Karst
region deciduous woodlands are very common: nowadays the prevailing
one is the hornbeam and oak woodland (Ostryo-Quercetum pubescentis).
The following species are also always present: Quercus pubescens (downy
oak), Ostrya carpinifolia (hop hornbeam), Quercus petraea (sessile oak)
and Fraxinus ornus (flowering ash). Black pine forests are also very signif-
icant in the Karst. They all have an anthropic origin, since they were plant-
ed under Austro-Hungarian dominance from the middle of the 19
th
century
in order to reforest the Karst. Part of the pine forests in the test polygons
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Fig 1 Landsat wavelength bands (Red, NIR, SWIR) superimposed on the
reflectance curves of healthy vegetation and bare soil. Adapted from Lillesand
and Kiefer (1994).
Fig 2 NDVI image (17 August 2003) with superimposed fire area (red line) and
the four test polygons.
44
(Figure 2) were planted after World War II, and part originate from natural
forest expansion.
A forest fire occurred in this region on 29 July 2003, burning an area of
10.45 square kilometers with the following topographical characteristics:
altitude 161.42 meters, slope 12.48% and aspect 174 (southern exposure)
(Figure 2).
The Slovenian forest authority began a restoration program in the burnt
area in 2004: some zones were planted and others seeded (11,200 saplings
and 92.3 kilograms of seeds over a total surface of 69.5 hectares). In the
research areas the following tree species were planted: Pinus nigra (black
pine), Acer platanoides (Norway maple), Tilia sp. (lime), Prunus avium
(wild cherry), Acer monspessulanum (Montpellier maple), Acer campestre
(field maple).
3. Materials and Methods
Four areas were selected for this research (Figure 2, Table 1). Two are cov-
ered with Karst woodland and the other two with planted pine forest. One
of the Karst woodlands and one of the pine forests were exposed to the
fire.
Landsat images
To follow the evolution of the vegeta-
tion in the burnt areas, we have used
a series of multi-temporal Landsat
images (2003-2009) from Landsat 5
Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus
(ETM+) downloaded from the Glovis
website (http://glovis.usgs.gov). The
images chosen were the following:
16/07/2003 (TM), 17/08/2003 (TM),
08/06/2004 (ETM+), 29/07/2005
(ETM+), 14/06/2006 (ETM+), 19/07/2007
(ETM+), 19/06/2008 (ETM+),
24/07/2009 (ETM+).
gvSIG
From the wide range of free and
open-source GIS software available,
gvSIG 1.9 version (produced by
Generalitat Valenciana) was chosen
due to its remote-sensing extension. Sextante, a set of 239 free geospa-
tial analysis tools included in gvSIG and distributed under GPL license,
was also frequently used.
The geographic data was handled in the following way:
importation of the fire area polygon and land cover data
individuation of 4 polygons: a burnt and analogous non-burnt area,
both for pine forest and Karst woodland
destriping of Landsat 7 ETM+ images with striping noise: these
images were treated replacing missing values with a mean local
value calculated by a moving window of 5x5 cell dimension
importation of Aster DEM image (15 meter resolution) and calcula-
tion, with Sextante, of aspect and slope
calculation with Sextante of vegetation indices NDVI, NDWI with
bands 3, 4 and 5 of the Landsat images, from 2003 to 2009
calculation, with Sextante, of grid statistics (mean, minimum, maxi-
mum, variance) of NDVI and NDWI in the 4 polygons
Vegetation indices
Once the striping noise was corrected on the downloaded Landsat
images, the data could be analyzed to obtain the green biomass index
(NDVI) and the leaf-soil water content (NDWI).
Bands B3, B4 and B5 from the spectral reflectance curve were used to
obtain index values and their images. The NDVI values were obtained
by combining bands 3 and 4 and the NDWI values by combining bands
4 and 5:
NDVI = (B4-B3)/ (B4+B3)
NDWI = (B4-B5)/ (B4+B5)
Where: B3 = band 3 (Red), B4 = band 4 (NIR),
B5 = band 5 (SWIR)
Statistical analysis
The non-parametric U-Mann Whitney test was
used to test the differences between NDVI and NDWI in burnt and
unburnt areas in a random sample for each year and for each vegeta-
tion type. The non-parametric test was selected because the indices
were not normally distributed.Statistical analysis was carried out by the
free software R www.r-project.org.
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Altitude (m) Slope (%) Aspect (degrees) Area (ha)
Burnt Karst woodland 223.13 7.92 145.61 40.32
Natural Karst woodland 293.34 7.99 206.94 40.95
Burnt pine forest 237.80 9.58 142.74 28.62
Natural pine forest 188.00 29.76 181.72 39.60
Table 1. Topographical characteristics of the four test areas.
Fig 3 a) NDVI 16 July 2003
before the fire, b) NDVI
17 August 2003 after the
fire, c) NDWI 16 July
2003, d) NDWI
17 August 2003
Fig 4 Above, Karst woodland NDVI and NDWI values (2003a is before fire and 2003b is after fire). Below, natural pine for-
est NDVI and NDWI values (2003a is before fire and 2003b is after fire)
45
4. Results and Discussion
Using gvSIG software, the Landsat data was analyzed and sixteen images
were obtained, eight for NDVI values (Figures 3a and 3b) and eight for NDWI
values (Figures 3c and 3d): two for 2003, before and after the fire, and one
per year from 2004 to 2009.
The comparison of the reflectance values before and after the fire broke out
indicates the following: a) the damage caused by fire on both vegetation
typologies leads to a strong signal loss in the near infrared (NIR) and a
decrease of NDVI value due to leaf tissue degradation; b) leaf tissue dehy-
dration and the development of a hydrophobic soil layer are the main caus-
es of the reflectance increase in short wave infrared (SWIR) and of the con-
sequent decrease in NDWI value.
Signs of recovery for both vegetation typologies started appearing in spring
2005, two years after the fire.
NDVI differences between the burnt and unburnt areas consistently
decreased in 2008, five years after the fire (Figure 4). Thus the current pho-
tosynthetic activity and CO
2
balance could be considered similar to those
existing before the fire, although the vegetation structure, verified during a
field trip in May 2009, still differs.
In Figure 4 the NDWI trend suggests that the humidity content of leaves
and soil returns to normal conditions when the vegetation cover is regen-
erated, although the structure of the forest is still different.
After a forest fire, the damage to the ecosystem is such that its whole struc-
ture is changed or destroyed. This is shown by red lines in the graphs, where
the steep drop in NDVI and NDWI values is clearly apparent.
It is also important to highlight that in August 2003, just after the fire, and
in 2004, one year later, soil water absorption was very low. This could be
due to the lack of vegetation and to the formation of a hydrophobic sheet
above the superficial soil layer. This crust blocks water infiltration and also
causes soil erosion from water runoff.
Cumulated rain data for the sixty days before the satellite images were taken
was used to correlate the amount of rainfall with NDVI and NDWI values
(Figure 5). The rainfall histogram and the green lines (unburnt areas) have a
similar trend, while the trend is different for the burnt areas (red lines).
The NDWI falls immediately after the fire and starts rising again two years
later (Figure 5). As mentioned before, this suggests that the soil in the burnt
areas has difficulties in absorbing rain water (hydrophobic layer); this is par-
ticularly evident in the pine forest.
46
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
2003a 2003b 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
NDVI Karst woodland U 742.0 106.0 0.0 44.0 64.5 140.0 173.0 328.0
P 0.580 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Pine forest U 268.5 0.0 0.0 5.0 75.0 183.0 550.0 602.5
P 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.237 0.543
NDVI Karst woodland U 722.5 78.5 22.0 63.0 107.0 108.5 436.0 156.0
P 0.459 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Pine forest U 141.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 163.0 45.0 656.5 39.0
P 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.987 0.000
Table 2. U-Mann Whitney
indices (U) with two-tailed
probability (p) applied to ran-
dom pixels of the test areas
for each year. Non-significant
values are in italics (2003a
before the fire, 2003b after
the fire).
Fig 5 Total rainfall: above,
Karst woodlands NDVI and
NDWI (2003a is before fire and
2003b is after fire). Below, pine
forest NDVI and NDWI (2003a
is before fire and 2003b is
after fire).
It must be noted that meteorological conditions in 2003 were extreme:
summer temperatures were especially high, with scant precipitation.
Table 2 shows the values of the U-Mann Whitney test applied to the
NDVI and NDWI of two randomly- sampled areas for each year from
2003 to 2009, comparing burnt and unburnt areas for both vegetation
typologies.
Before the fire (2003a) the NDVI difference is not significant, confirming
the expected similarity of the green biomass of the two woodlands. The
NDVI values of the burnt and unburnt Karst woodlands are always sig-
nificantly different after the fire (from 2003b to 2009), although they
diminish considerably in 2008 and 2009.
For the pine forests, the NDVI values were already significantly different
before the fire (2003a). This could be due to the slope (29.76%) of the
unburnt pine forest that does not allow abundant growth of the vegeta-
tion cover. The differences have become insignificant by 2008 and 2009,
meaning that the quantity of green biomass in the burnt pine forest has
reached the value of the unburnt one. The observed trends (Figure 4,
Table 2) suggest that the NDVI will probably have returned to its origi-
nal values a few years after 2009.
NDWI statistical results are very similar to those of NDVI, except for the
pine forest in 2009. In this year the NDWI difference was significant,
probably because the amount of rainfall was low (Figure 5) and the veg-
etation cover was still in a developmental stage.
5. Conclusions
The consequences of the forest fire that occurred in the study area in
2003 were studied through free multi-temporal satellite images. Using
gvSIG, an open source software, it was possible to analyze satellite
images and quickly obtain results useful for ecosystem monitoring.
NDVI and NDWI were calculated to detect the time needed for the vege-
tation to recover after the fire. According to the statistical analysis the
whole study period (six years) was insufficient to reach the original NDVI
and NDWI values; however, from the trend in values it can be assumed
that this will happen in the next few years.
In ecological terms, although the vegetation has not yet achieved its
original structure, five years after the fire it can already accomplish some
of its biological roles such as photosynthetic activity, CO2 and water
absorption.
A. Altobelli
1
, A. Sgambati
2
, F. Bader
1
, G. Fior
1
, B. Magajna
3
, L. Ferrazzo
1
, R. Braut
1
,
P. Urrutia
1
, P. Ganis
1
, S. Orlando
1
1
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Universit degli Studi di Trieste,
altobell@units.it
2
Ispettorato Ripartimentale Foreste di Trieste e Gorizia,
alessandro.sgambati@regione.fvg.it
3
Zavod za gozdove Slovenije Obmo na enota Se ana
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47
The Next Step in Tile Caching
Optimized Tile Delivery Format
Tile caching is not the ideal solution for every data set. Not only does it take a long time with large data sets, but it
requires a lot of extra disk space which can be expensive. A solution for these problems is OTDF, which stands for
Optimized Tile Delivery Format. This article describes the advantages of working with this new format and the associated
products and environments.
By Patrick de Groot
In the search for faster presentation of
geographical content, tile caching gained
a lot of popularity. Instead of generating
and delivering an image with every zoom
or pan action, map images at different
levels are prepared beforehand and cut
into small tiles. The advantage is that
the requested imagery has already been
prepared and only needs to be delivered
for the extent of the current map view,
without any rendering necessary.
Because the imagery is prepared at dif-
ferent scales, the user automatically
receives the tiles for the right scale.
Many people know this method through
Google Maps.
Disk Space
In terms of speed, tile caching offers a
great advantage to the end user. Until
now, tile caching also brought along some disadvantages, especially on
the side of the administrator. Producing a tile cache is an intensive pro-
cess that sometimes, in the case of large data sets, can take days.
Actually, rendering is still required, but now it is done beforehand.
Because this takes so long, tile caching is not the optimum solution for
every data set. In particular, it is not ideal for fast-changing content, but
a snapshot is taken of the data. When the data changes, a new tile
cache needs to be produced. If this happens once a year, it is not a
problem, but if a tile cache needs to be produced every week or every
day, the process soon becomes wearisome.
In addition, tile caching requires a lot of disk space. Depending on the
settings, a map view can be built on eight or nine different levels that
all need to be saved somewhere. Although individual tiles are not very
large, they mount up so quickly that the amount of disk space required
can double. If all this happens in a database it also means a consider-
ably higher cost because of the need to enlarge the database capacity,
which is often expensive disk space.
OTDF
ERDAS has taken the next step in all this, tackling some of the objec-
tions mentioned above. With OTDF (Optimized Tile Delivery Format), a
very fast response is reached with a minimal management load.
One of the things that users had to deal with was that, relatively speak-
ing, a lot of time is required for opening
and closing individual files, also called
Disk I/O. Although were talking about mil-
liseconds, this can become a bottleneck
with thousands of tiles for larger, multi-
scaled areas and multiple end-users who
all access a web service at the same time.
OTDF creates only one or two files,
instead of thousands, in which to include
the tile structure. Within this single file
the different scale levels are neatly
arranged, so that with a single search the
right map image is always displayed.
Because ERDAS has a rich history in the
field of pyramid layers (displaying differ-
ent aggregations of raster images in dif-
ferent scales), they maintain their reputa-
tion.
Streaming
Producing an OTDF file is much faster than producing a conventional tile
cache. Take, for example, a 15gb data set consisting of around 100
mosaiced ECW files that are corrected by color on the fly when producing
an OTDF file. This will take a four-core machine with 4gb internal memory
roughly 3.5 hours. This is quite a lot of time, but a significant improve-
ment compared to traditional tile caching that takes whole days. If you
take a standard area ECW file (that, in other words, doesnt require mosaic-
ing and color correction), this process goes even faster. For input not only
raster data can be used but also vector data. In the latter case, of course,
the vector data is included in the tiles, so the output will continue to be
raster based.
With version 2011, planned for this autumn, it will be possible to update
parts of the OTDF without producing the whole file again from scratch.
OTDF functionality is part of the ERDAS Apollo Essentials suite, via Image
Web Server (IWS). IWS also offers, among other things, the streaming pro-
tocol for ECW (ECWO) and JPEG2000 (JPIP). Streaming makes it possible
to offer large quantities of data over small bandwidths to many simulta-
neous users with a minimum of required hardware. IWS works well with
other environments, such as ArcGIS, AutoCAD, Google Earth and Mapinfo,
and supports OGC Standards such as WMS and WMS-C.
For more information, have a look at http://iws.erdas.comor www.imagem.nl.
48
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Producing an OTDF file is much faster than producing a
conventional tile cache.
I believe in innovation.
Innovation is intelligence
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Leica Geosystems is continuously innovating to better meet your
expectations. Our comprehensive spectrum of solutions covers all
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applications. And they are all backed with world-class service and
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You can count on Leica Geosystems to provide a highly innovative
solution for every facet of your job.
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Leica TS30 the new total station that redefined
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dedication to your needs. Innovation: Yet another
reason to trust Leica Geosystems.
GNSS Up d a t e
On January 26, the contracts for the first operational phase of Galileo were signed.
The signing ceremony took place in the Netherlands and involved signatures for 14 satellites,
their launch and the industrial system support services.
The 14 satellites have been awarded, as was rumored earlier, to
German-based OHB-System AG at a contract value of EUR 566 million.
OHB is teamed up with SSTL, the provider of GIOVE-A which, four years
after being set operational, is still operational and functioning correctly.
The planned lifetime of GIOVE-A, two years, has been well exceeded
without any apparent loss of performance. The news is even more
incredible when one considers that GIOVE-A was built in just 30 months
at a cost of EUR 28 Million.
The first operational satellite is scheduled to be delivered in July 2012,
with two satellites following every three months thereafter. The last
satellite should be delivered in March 2014. Launching will take place
using Soyuz launchers from the European Spaceport in French Guiana.
The first launch should happen in October 2012 and is to be followed
by four or five launches per year.
The remaining three contracts, for the ground mission infrastructure,
the ground control infrastructure, and the operations, should be award-
ed by mid-2010. An additional framework contract for subsequent deliv-
ery of 18 further satellites has not been awarded yet.
In the meantime, two of the four in-orbit validation satellites that are
being built by EADS Astrium are scheduled to be launched by the end
of November 2010, with the other two following in April 2011.
The European Commission still maintains that the initial service provi-
sion (open service, public regulated service and commercial service) of
50
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Position of GIOVE-A, exactly four years after being set operational (source: www.esa.eu).
Towards Operations
Galileo will be early 2014. It is
questionable what will be avail-
able by then, given the numbers
quoted by OHB / SSTL. Based
on the delivery schedule of the
new satellites, the full opera-
tional constellation of 30 satel-
lites will not be available until
at least 2016 if the same speed
is maintained. The Commission
itself has not yet cited a date
when Full Operational Capability
with 30 satellites will be
reached.
GPS
Mentioned in the previous GNSS
update was the plan to create a
new 24+3 GPS configuration.
Moving three existing GPS satel-
lites into their new orbit should give increased accuracy to all users. The
24+3 configuration is dubbed 'Expandable 24' and should take up to 24
months for full implementation. The first satellite to move is SVN24 which
began on January 14, 2010 and should take around 12 months to achieve
its new position.
The main difference between the new configuration and the current one is
that satellites that are currently
'paired' will be separated. As a
result the number of satellites in
view from any point on earth will
increase, which in turn potential-
ly increases accuracy. This change
will mainly benefit professional
GPS users such as those employ-
ing RTK and GIS-mapping-type
receivers.
Further good news relating to
the modernization of GPS has
been published as well: the first
of the Block IIF satellites with L-
5 on board has been transport-
ed to Cape Canaveral from
where it should be launched
this summer. Let's just hope it
will not have the same prob-
lems as SVN-49 on which the L-
5 payload is currently being tested. In previous updates the anoma-
lous behavior of SVN-49 was mentioned with advice not to use the
satellite unless absolutely necessary.
So far a lot of potential solutions to this satellite-induced multi-path
problem have been tested. Currently a solution has been implemented
that solves the major issues for dual frequency users but actually wors-
Ar t i cl e
51
April/May 2010
GPS 24+3 re-location schedule (source: www.gpsworld.com)
ESRI International User Conference
July 1216, 2010 | San Diego, CA
One week. One place. Everything GIS.
The registration deadline
is May 21, 2010.
www.esri.com/uc
Copyright 2009 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI, ESRI globe
www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or servi
in the United States, the European Community, or certain othe
ens the problem for single frequency receivers (L1-only). Other solu-
tions are under investigation but will probably not be resolved until
midsummer of 2010.
As if the issue with SVN-49 is not enough, a software glitch has been
detected with the GPS control software. The glitch, however, is not in
the actual control software but mainly in the way receivers have imple-
mented the Interface Control Document that specifies how the receiver
should handle incoming messages. The good news is that the new func-
tions in the software are mainly focused on military users and there-
fore do not appear to upset the civilian user.
Glonass
Just after the deadline for the previous GNSS update, it appeared that
three new Glonass-M satellites had been launched. All three were set
healthy in January 2010. On March 2, another three satellites were
launched. These were the satellites shipped back to the factory after
detection of problems with the signal generator. All in all, when the
last three satellites are operational, this should bring the constellation
to the full operational array of 21 satellites. A further two satellites are
currently undergoing maintenance, bringing the available number of
satellites to 23. The resulting constellation is
enough to provide 24-hour service over Russian
territory but is frequently used in RTK solutions
along with GPS satellites giving additional
strength to the solution.
Beidou
On January 17 China launched its third Beidou
navigation satellite using a Chinese-built
Changzheng series rocket. Also published with
the launch statement were details of the open
Beidou service which should provide, free of
charge, positioning accuracies of 10 meters and
timing accuracies of 10 nanoseconds.
Egnos
The European Commission has recently award-
ed an Egnos payload contract to SES Astra. The
new payload should be launched in the second
quarter of 2013 and positioned at 31.5 degrees
East.
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.comis a freelance writer
and trainer in the fields of positioning
and hydrography.
Ar t i cl e
April/May 2010
Launch of Beidou satellite (source: www.china-defense-mashup.com) First GPS IIF being transported to the launch site (source: www.gpsworld.com)
Ren Oosterlinck (ESA) and Berry Smutny (OHB), after signing the order for 14 Galileo satellites. (source:
www.esa.eu)
52
Copyright 2010 ESRI. All rights reserved. ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcPad, ArcGIS, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.
Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
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Slovenia
www.gisdata.hr
Spain
www.esri-es.com
Sweden
www.esri-sgroup.se
Switzerland
www.esri-suisse.ch
Turkey
www.esriturkey.com.tr
Ukraine
www.ecomm.kiev.ua
UK/Ireland
www.esriuk.com
Calendar 2010
Advertiser Page
Applanix www.applanix.com 55
ERDAS www.erdas.com 56
ESRI www.esri.com 51, 53
FOIF www.foif.com.cn 23
GEODIS www.geodis.cz 8
ISPRS www.isprs100vienna.org 38
ITT www.itt.com 39
LEICA Geosystems www.leica-geosystems.com 35, 49
Pacific Crest www.pacificcrest.com 21
RACURS www.racurs.ru 11
RIEGL www.riegl.com 47
Sokkia www.sokkia.net 9
Spectra Precision www.spectraprecision.com 13
SPOT Image www.spotimage.com 17, 19
Topcon Europe www.topcon-positioning.eu 2
VEXCEL Imaging www.microsoft.com/ultracam 29
Advertisers Index
04-06 May Rencontres SIG La Lettre
Marne-la-Valle, ENSG, France
E-mail: deblomac@sig-la-lettre.com
Internet: www.sig-la-lettre.com
05-07 May Italian Cartographic Association
National Conference
Gorizia, University of Trieste, Italy
E-mail:
segreteria@associazioneitalianacartografia.org
Internet:
www.associazioneitalianacartografia.org/
node/625
11 May GeoDATA
Cardiff, U.K.
Internet: www.compass.ie
12 May CGS Conference 2010
Ljubljana, Ljubljana Exhibition and
Convention Centre, Slovenia
Tel: +386 1 5301 108
Fax: +386 1 5301 132
E-mail: gregor.pipan@cgsplus.si
Internet: www.cgs-konferenca.si
12-14 May GEO EXPO China 2010
Beijing, China P.R.
E-mail: sales@chinageoexpo.com
Internet: www.chinageo-expo.com
13 May GeoDATA
Liverpool, U.K.
18-20 May POSITIONALE
Stuttgart, Germany
Internet: www.positionale.de
19-21 May INTERGEO East
Istanbul, Istanbul Convention & Exhibition
Centre, Turkey
Internet: www.intergeo-east.com
20 May GeoDATA
London, U.K.
20-21 May 7th Taipei International Digital
Earth Symposium (TIDES) 2010
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: +886-2-28619459
Fax: +886-2-28623538
E-mail: derc@mail.pccu.edu.tw
Internet: http://deconf.pccu.edu.tw/
2010TIDES/en-welcome.html
25-29 May BALWOIS Conference
Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
E-mail: secretariat@balwois.com
Internet: www.balwois.com/2010
27-28 May GISCA 2010 - Central Asia GIS
Conference - Water: Life, Risk, Energy and
Landuse
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
Internet: http://gisca10.aca-giscience.org
June
02-04 June ISPRS Commission VI Mid-Term
Symposium: "Cross-Border Education for
Global Geo-information"
Enschede, ITC, The Netherlands
E-mail: isprscom6@itc.nl
Internet: www.itc.nl/isprscom6/
symposium2010
02-05 June ACSM 2010
Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 317 637 9200 x141
E-mail: dhamilton@acsm.org
Internet: www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?
Section=Conferences
03 June COMPASS10 Annual Conference
Dublin, Ireland
07-09 June Sensors Expo & Conference
Rosemont, IL, Donald E. Stephens
Convention Center, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (617) 219 8330
E-mail: cgroton@questex.com
Internet: www.sensorsexpo.com
07-10 June 2010 Joint Navigation
Conference
Orlando, FL, Wyndham Orlando Resort,
U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (703) 383-9688
E-mail: membership@ion.org
Internet: www.jointnavigation.org
08-10 June 58th German Cartographers
Day 2010
Berlin and Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: kartographentag2010@dgfk.net
Internet: http://dkt2010.dgfk.net
12-14 June Digital Earth Summit
Nessebar, Bulgaria
Tel: +359 (887) 83 27 02
Fax: +359 (2) 866 22 01
E-mail: cartography@abv.bg
Internet: www.cartography-gis.com/
digitalearth
14-16 June 2nd Workshop on Hyperspectral
Image and Signal Processing
Reykjavik, Iceland
Tel: +354 525 4047
Fax: +354 525 4038
E-mail: info@ieee-whispers.com
Internet: www.ieee-whispers.com
14-17 June Intergraph 2010
Nashville, TN, U.S.A.
Internet: www.intergraph2010.com/
schedule/aag.aspx
14-18 June 8th Annual Summer Institute on
Geographic Information Science
"Interfacing social and environmental
modeling"
Florence (Firenze), Italy
E-mail: info@vespucci.org
Internet: www.vespucci.org
17 June 7th ALLSAT OPEN - GNSS-
Reference Network - Quo Vadis
Hannover, Germany
E-mail: open@allsat.de
Internet: www.allsat.de/en/news/
allsat_open/2010.html
15-20 June 3rd International Conference on
Cartography and GIS
Nessebar, Bulgaria
Tel: +359 (887) 83 27 02
Fax: +359 (2) 866 22 01
E-mail: cartography@abv.bg
Internet: www.cartography-gis.com
20-25 June 10th International
Multidisciplinary Scientific Geo-Conference
and Expo SGEM 2010 (Surveying
Geology & mining Ecology Management)
Albena sea-side and SPA resort, Congress
Centre Flamingo Grand, Bulgaria
E-mail: sgem@sgem.org
Internet: www.sgem.org
21-22 June 2nd Open Source GIS UK
Conference
Nottingham, University of Nottingham, U.K.
Internet: www.opensourcegis.org.uk
21-23 June COM.Geo 2010
Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Internet: www.com-geo.org
22-24 June Mid-Term Symposium of ISPRS
Commission V: Close range image measure -
ment techniques
Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle University,
U.K.
E-mail: j.p.mills@newcastle.ac.uk
Internet: www.isprs-newcastle2010.org
23-25 June INSPIRE Conference 2010
Krakow, Poland
Internet: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
events/conferences/inspire_2010
28-30 June ISVD 2010
Quebec City, Canada
E-mail: ISVD2010@scg.ulaval.ca
Internet: http://isvd2010.scg.ulaval.ca
29 June-02 July GEOBIA 2010
Ghent, Belgium
Internet: http://geobia.ugent.be
29 June-09 July Bridging GIS, Landscape
Ecology and Remote Sensing for
Landscape Planning (GISLERS)
Salzburg, Austria
E-mail: gislers2010@edu-zgis.net
Internet: www.edu-zgis.net/ss/gislers2010
29 June-09 July Spatial Data Infrastructure
for environmental datasets (EnviSDI)
Salzburg, Austria
E-mail: envisdi2010@edu-zgis.net
Internet: www.edu-zgis.net/ss/envisdi2010
April
18-21 April i-SUP2010 - Innovation for
Sustainable Production
Bruges, Belgium
19-23 April BAE Systems GXP International
User Conference and Professional
Exchange!
San Diego, CA, Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines,
U.S.A.
Internet: www.gxpuserconference.com
21 April GeoDATA
Dublin, Ireland
21 April DDGI 3. Deutsches GeoForum 2010
- Verkehr und Geoinformation
Berlin, Hessische Landesvertretung,
Germany
E-mail: geschaeftsstelle@ddgi.de
Internet: www.ddgi.de
25-29 April GITA 2010 Geospatial
Infrastructure Solutions Conference
Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
Phone: +1 (303) 337-0513
Fax: +1 (303) 337-1001
E-mail: info@gita.org
Internet: www.gita.org/gis
26-30 April 2010 ASPRS Annual Conference
San Diego, CA, Town and Country Hotel,
U.S.A.
Internet: www.asprs.org/SanDiego2010/
index.html
27-29 April GEO-Siberia 2010
Novosibirsk, Russia
E-mail: sulaimanova@sibfair.ru
Internet: www.geosiberia.sibfair.ru/eng
27-29 April SIBMINING 2010
Novosibirsk, Russia
E-mail: mazurova@sibfair.ru
Internet: www.mining.sibfair.ru and
www.petroleum.sibfair.ru
28 April International Seminar on Early
Warning and Crises Management
Novosibirsk, Russia
Info: Milan Konecny
E-mail: konecny@geogr.muni.cz
Internet: http://ssga.ru/main/geosibir.html
28-29 April The Location Business Summit
Amsterdam, Hotel Okura, The Netherlands
E-mail: osman@thewherebusiness.com
Internet: www.thewherebusiness.com/
locationsummit/speakers.shtml
28-29 April CERGAL 2010
Rostock, Germany
Internet: www.dgon.de
29 April Oracle Spatial User Conference
Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
E-mail: jean.ihm@oracle.com
Internet: www.myrobust.com/websites/
gita2010/index.php?p=53
May
02-08 May XXIII International Geodetic
Students Meeting (IGSM)
Zagreb, Croatia
E-mail: igsm2010@gmail.com
Internet: http://igsm2010.geof.hr
03-04 May Geographical Analysis, Urban
Modeling, Spatial Statistics Geog An
Mod 2010 GO Local
Gorizia, University of Trieste, Italy
E-mail: geoganmodlocal@gmail.com
Internet: http://sites.google.com/site/
geoganmodgolocal2010
03-06 May IEEE/ION PLANS 2010
Indian Wells/Palm Springs, CA,Renaissance
Esmeralda Resort & Spa, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (703) 383-9688
E-mail: membership@ion.org
Internet: www.plansconference.org
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to:calendar@geoinformatics.com
54
April/May 2010
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