GIS in Education

Independently owned light detection and ranging (Lidar) and aerial surveying company Southern Mapping Company has invested in hyperspectral equipment in addition to the conventional laser equipment and cameras it already has.

Recent advances in remote sensing and geographic information have led to the development of hyperspectral sensors.

Hyper-spectral remote sensing, also known as imaging spectroscopy, is a relatively new technology that has been investigated by researchers and scientists for the detection and identification of minerals, terrestrial vegetation, and man-made materials and backgrounds.

“We are delighted with this new technology and everyone here at Southern Mapping Company knows that this year is going to be great,” says Southern Mapping Company CEO Peter Moir.

The current equipment at Southern Mapping is able to produce a three-dimensional digital terrain model on which the images are placed. With the addition of the hyperspectral remote sensing equipment, it will now be able to identify, for example, contaminated trees in a forest. It can then produce further and more in-depth knowledge of the area that has been surveyed and would also be able to tell if the land is suitable for any development.

Source : http://www.engineeringnews.co.za

The faculty of Kashmir University has been awarded the prestigious “Best Research Award” at the ISRO Society sponsored National Conference for the third consecutive year.

Kashmir University, according to its PRO, has emerged as a credible centre for the cutting edge research in the field of Space Technology and Geo-informatics and over a short period of four years, it has won credibility of national and international agencies in the application of Remote Sensing, GIS and Geo-IT to varied disciplines in science and technology.

“The University is first in the north India to start a self financed job oriented PG Diploma Course in Geoinformatics at the Department of Geology and Geophysics in the year 2004. Since then, it has entered into partnerships and research collaborations with several Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Department of Space research institutes,” the PRO said.

He said that during last two years, the University has won funding for sponsored research and infrastructure development in the field of Geoinformatics to the tune of Rs 120 lakhs. “Under these sponsored research schemes, the Space and Geoinformation Technologies are applied in the field of hydrology, snow and glaciers, wetlands, desertification, land degradation, biodiversity, disaster management and many other fields,” he said.

Source : http://www.greaterkashmir.com/

Geoscience Australia is re-releasing a range of atlases that depict the changing face of the Australian environment and resources over time. First released between 1980-1990, this historical series has been out of print for several years.
Image showing the original hardcopy covers of the historical atlas series.(Copyright Geoscience Australia)

The new digital format will allow community access to the extensive information, maps and photographs of the Australian continent that each atlas contains.

The Atlas of Australia series comprises six editions, four of which are now available free online, with the two remaining volumes (Climate and Population) to be made available in the future.

The available volumes are: Soils & Land Use (1980), Agriculture (1982), Geology & Minerals (1988) and Vegetation (1990).

Source : http://www.ga.gov.au/

The fact that the creation of a South African Space Agency is now only a matter of months away is attracting international interest, including proposals for technological cooperation, to this country. "Word has gotten out that South Africa is very keen on putting together a space agency," reports Department of Science and Technology (DST) Space Science and Technology Manager Dr Val Munsami, "and people, internationally, are approaching us, in terms of becoming partners on new generation satellite programmes, so these are opportunities. We are targetting a number of international partnerships, in terms of being able to build competencies here."

"Obviously, our main focus is on our own indigenous satellite programme," he asserts. "The future satellite programme will be situated inside the space agency, and, once the agency kicks off, there is a whole business plan for the agency, and that includes a satellite programme. So, we might use these partnerships to build capacity - as long as, at the end, we can put our own satellites up. I think that's very important."

The DST is hopeful that the space agency could receive parliamentary approval by at least June. "It's a process," he points out. "It needs Cabinet and parliamentary approval. We're trying to put together an interim arrangement for the agency." Thus, when final Cabinet and parliamentary approval is granted, the space agency will be able to start its work immediately.

South Africa already has some of the best space infrastructure in Africa, and the new space agency will incorporate existing institutions. Which ones these should be has been debated for years. It has finally been decided that, initially at least, the space agency will take over, and be based upon, two established organisations. These are the Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Houwteq division of State-owned defence industrial group Denel.

"SAC is obvious. Its main focus is on satellite telemetry, tracking, and control. There's a lot of business opportunities it brings from this arena into the country," explains Munsami. "It's also quite critical for the space agency, given that we'll need mission control for our own satellites. So there are a lot of competencies within SAC that we are going to need for the new space programme."

Houwteq is a facility left over from the old, military, space programme of the 1980s. "But its infrastructure is quite critical in terms of the assembly, integration, and testing of our satellite platforms," he highlights. South Africa's second satellite, SumbandilaSat, which hopefully will be launched later this year, has been tested at Houwteq. "At the moment, Houwteq sits with Denel and we are busy in discussions with them regarding the acquisition of Houwteq," he adds. A lot of the infrastructure at Houwteq is now relatively old and will need replacing in the next few years.

The space agency will be an autonomous agency, owning and managing its own facilities and assets, which will interact with private companies, manage State investments in the public interest on a long-term basis, have high degrees of indepedence and focus, and attract the necessary skills. The space agency executive will report to a space agency board, which will be assisted by a Space Advisory Committee of experts, which could include international experts. Regulatory oversight will be provided by the Space Affairs Council.

The DST has a ten-year plan for the space science and technology, which includes the agency. At the end of the first year, the intent is to have the interim form of the agency in operation; to have gained approval of the National Space Science and Technology Strategy; and to be running continuing technology programmes and partnerships. By the end of five years, it is proposed that the space agency will be fully established, appropriate technology platforms (satellites) will be in space, human capital development will have been stimulated, and strategic international partnerships and projects established. By year ten the hope is that the space agency will be globally positioned, the counrty will have a resident space capacity in place, and the agency will be delivering appropriate services and products relating to space applications.

The space programme will have three key focus areas - innovation and economic growth, environment and resource management, and, safety and security. Innovation and economic growth will include agriculture, communications, mining, space science and exploration, and space technology transfer and spin-offs. Environment and resource management will include land management, rural development and urban planning, meteorological monitoring, hydrological monitoring, and ocean, coastal and marine management. Safety and security will encompass, amongst other things, disaster monitoring and relief, hazards forecasting and early warning, asset monitoring, and defence, peacekeeping and treaty monitoring.

Source : http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/

Give your entire company, all of your library patrons, or even a whole university campus unlimited online access to demographic data with GeoLytics’ online network licenses. Users no longer have to use a CD or DVD to download data and there is no software to install. Now all of your users/patrons can access data from the convenience of their own offices.

Products currently available online include:

* 2007 Estimates and 2012 Projections

* Estimates Professional 2007/2012

* 2006 Estimates and 2011 Projections

* Estimates Professional 2006/2011

* 2000 Census Long Form

* 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries

* 1980 census in 2000 Boundaries

* Neighborhood Change Database: 1970-2000 Tracts

* 1990 Long From

* 1970 Long Form

Coming Soon:

* 2008 Estimates and 2013 Projections

* Estimates Professional 2008/2013

You can purchase a new online subscription or upgrade a single user CD to a network-wide online subscription. If you already own many products or CD packages, upgrade now and have access to the databases online. Like all of our demographic databases, the online products have functional mapping capabilities and easily export data and geographic boundaries.

You can test drive our online data and maps with GeoLytics FREE Census 2000 data. You can also test any of the current online databases by registering and logging in. Each data set allows users to access and download data for a single county as a sample test drive. Go to our website and register for your free test drive at: http://www.geolytics.com/

Source : http://geolytics.com/

GIS Development Pvt. Ltd., a Global Geospatial Network Company released the Indian

Geospatial Handbook 2008 during the recently held Map India 2008 Conference. This handbook is an outcome of in depth study on geospatial community in India. Being the first of its kind on Indian Geospatial Community, the handbook provides contemporary information on Geospatial Data Producing Agencies, User Organisations, Geospatial Industry, Educational Institutions, Geospatial Policies and Associations.

The handbook was released by Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India during the inaugural session of Map India 2008 on February 6, 2008 at India Expo Centre, Expo XXI, Greater Noida, India.

The handbook is meant to provide a profile of overall geospatial community in India and to serve as a reference to various professionals and organisations representing government, academia and the industry. It will also serve as a reference document on the Indian Geospatial Community (Private and Government) and give valuable information on "Spatial Data", its sourcing methods, upcoming potential of the geospatial usage amongst various user segments and understanding the market requirement in terms of the human resource and research required by the industry.

On the release of the handbook, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, GIS Development said, “The Indian Geospatial Handbook is the first document of its kind and a landmark book. The Editorial and Research Team of GIS Development has put in considerable efforts, to come up with this resourceful compilation. The handbook provides a holistic view of the emerging, evolving and growing geospatial industry in India and also act as a guidebook for future to commensurate with the increasing demand of integrating geospatial tools in the present functioning of the system.” The handbook is priced at Rs 15,000/- (India) per copy and at USD 500 (outside India). The book can be directly purchased from GIS Development.

Source : http://www.gisdevelopment.net

Gensler’s Washington, DC office recently licensed geographic information system (GIS) software for use in site location, design studies, and market planning. The architecture, design, and planning firm will be using ESRI’s ArcGIS Business Analyst software to assist clients in the consultancy side of its business. ArcGIS Business Analyst will be used primarily for investigation and analysis of client sites for master planning.

“It is a great advantage to have the robust capabilities of ArcGIS Business Analyst in-house,” says managing director Jordan Goldstein, AIA. “It affords us the opportunity to give our clients a wealth of information that empowers their decision making and to seamlessly integrate that information into our own design technology.”

The firm had previously utilized third-party GIS services to furnish clients with data gained from GIS. Gensler's decision to move to ArcGIS Business Analyst enables more effective management of the data-gathering process as well as integration of knowledge management related to master planning, development, and architectural projects.

The Business Analyst product suite is a scalable family of GIS products that is easily deployed throughout an organization for improved collaboration and knowledge sharing. The software combines GIS technology with extensive business, demographic, and consumer spending data, providing a complete business geointelligence solution. Its out-of-the-box Web applications and services help organizations solve complex business problems including business continuity planning, site selection analysis, and customer analysis.

“We are pleased to bring our technology to such an innovative company,” says Eric Maier, commercial business sales manager, ESRI. “ ArcGIS Business Analyst will help it analyze markets, evaluate locations, and perform customer analytics. The software is intuitive and allows Gensler to publish analysis to anyone at the company regardless of location, a real boon for such an international company.”

Gensler purchased the software licenses in the last quarter of 2007 and will employ ESRI business partner Thinformation, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to assist in developing and rolling out in-house training sessions to corporate users.

About Gensler
Gensler is a global design, planning, and strategic consulting firm with more than 3,000 professionals networked across 30 offices on five continents. Consistently ranked by U.S. and international industry surveys as the leading architecture and interior design firm, Gensler leverages its deep resources and diverse expertise to develop design solutions for industries across the globe. Since 1965, Gensler has collaborated with clients to create environments that enhance organizational performance, achieve measurable business goals, enrich people and communities, and enhance everyday experiences. For its long-standing commitment to the advancement of sustainable design, Gensler received the Leadership Award from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2005. The Washington, D.C., office of Gensler offers a full range of design, planning, and architectural services across 14 practice areas. Visit www.gensler.com.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.


Press Information:

Karen Richardson
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 3491
E-mail: Email Contact

The Island Institute has received a NOAA Excellence Award for Coastal and Ocean Resource Management. President Philip Conkling accepted the award in Washington, D.C. today on behalf of the Institute and its 30-plus staff.

The honor, awarded by the U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, annually recognizes a nongovernmental organization that has made significant contributions supporting coastal or marine resource programs.

Since its creation by Conkling in 1983, the Island Institute has worked to ensure the long-term sustainability of Maine's year-round island and coastal communities by both focusing on the communities themselves and creating awareness of the unique challenges they face. Institute publications such as The Working Waterfront, Inter-Island News, and Island Journal keep these widespread and disparate communities connected to each other and the world. The Institute's Island Fellows Program has placed over 50 young professionals in island communities, and the Institute has provided island students with over $400,000 in scholarships. The Institute has helped communities obtain training and expertise in satellite imagery and geographic information systems (GIS). In 2005, the Institute created the first comprehensive map of Maine's "working waterfront" revealing that only about 20 miles of such access remain along the 5,300-mile coast.

"The Island Institute is recognized as being dedicated to serving the needs of island and coastal communities," said Natalie Springuel, a marine extension associate with Maine Sea Grant. "Their recent project to map waterfront access in all Maine coastal towns has emerged as a fundamental tool for planners, residents, and the fishing industry," said Springuel, who works closely with the Island Institute on waterfront access issues.

One of the founding organizations of Maine's Working Waterfront Coalition, the Island Institute has taken an important leadership role in the Coalition in recent years, said Jim Connors, senior planner with the Maine Coastal Program. "Their work is being recognized nationally in coastal regions concerned with the lost of working access," said Connors. The Institute launched the Affordable Coast Fund in 2007 a new fund that will provide $235,000 in grants to help communities, families, and fishermen acquire property, technical assistance, and professional development.

"They are not afraid to take a chance and try something new to benefit Maine's coastal and island communities," said Hugh Cowperthwaite, fisheries project director with Coastal Enterprises, Inc., who has worked with the Island Institute for the last five years.

"Island Institute staff have an excellent grasp of the issues, offer sound opinions and insights, and work hard as a partner in working waterfront access collaborations," said Dana Morse of Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Maine Sea Grant nominated the Island Institute for the 2008 NOAA Excellence Award.

McObject has added support for the KD-Tree, a database index with uses in spatial and pattern-matching applications, to its Perst™ open source, object-oriented embedded database system. For developers working with Perst, the KD-Tree expands coding efficiency and helps make Java and .NET data objects easier to use in certain types of application.

For McObject, Perst’s new feature marks a widening of its lead in providing application developers with the best data management tools for building highly efficient software – an edge that is evident in the company’s growing list of supported indexes, many of them specialized and customizable.

The new k-dimensional tree or KD-Tree index adds a structure in Perst that stores and manipulates point objects in a k-dimensional space by partitioning that space. Practical uses include computer graphics, geographical information systems and biometric applications such as fingerprint matching. In addition to their efficiency in handling multi-dimensional data, KD-trees are useful in "normal" applications in which query predicates contain various combinations of object fields. For example, KD-Trees are used to construct Query-By-Example (QBE) features in which the user selects fields and values, and the application builds database queries based on these selections.

Most database systems don’t venture beyond general purpose b-tree indexes and, for Java and .NET databases, the standard JDK/.NET collection classes. In contrast, McObject’s Perst and eXtremeDB embedded databases offer a rich assortment of index types, including:

• B-trees for common sorting and searches, insertions, and deletions

• R-trees for geospatial indexing (common in GPS/navigation systems)

• T-trees for all-in-memory data storage and access

• Hash tables for quickly locating a single unique index entry

• Patricia trie index, which speeds searches in networking and telephony applications

• “Custom indexes” for b-trees that allow the application to define the collating sequence of entries; this is useful in implementing soundex algorithm searches, for example

• Bit or bitmap indexes that are optimized for columns in which values repeat frequently (for example, fields to which only three values could apply)

• TimeSeries class to efficiently deal with small fixed-size objects

• Specialized versions of collections for thick indices (indexes with many duplicates), and bit indexes

“Support for diverse index types is especially valuable in embedded and device-based applications, where code efficiency takes full advantage of scarce memory and CPU resources and enables developers to ‘do more with less.’ McObject shows the way in providing data management that is designed with intelligent devices in mind, so it makes sense that we focus on widening our index toolset,” CTO and Co-Founder Andrei Gorine said.

Source : http://www.mcobject.com/

YourMLSsearch.com has integrated ESRI's RouteMAP IMS into its Web hosting services for multiple listing service (MLS) agencies throughout the United States. YourMLSsearch.com provides Internet solutions for real estate agents and brokers including Internet data exchange (IDX), Web site hosting, and Web site development. RouteMAP IMS is incorporated into YourMLSsearch.com's iMapRES, allowing the company to host interactive mapping and residential data searches for more than 80 MLSs in 20 states.

"RouteMAP IMS was the ideal solution for providing this service at a great price to our customers," says Alain Nisam, Chief Operating Officer (COO), YourMLSsearch.com. "We looked at other solutions to power iMapRES and found RouteMap IMS to be the best choice, since it resides on in-house servers and provides a robust API to create the right look and feel for our clients' Web sites. We are also able to create millions of listings from coordinate data instead of relying on street addresses, unlike any other software in this venue. This allows us to give our customers bulk real estate lookups, saving them the time and cost of frequent updates."

YourMLSsearch.com also finds the data, such as points of interest, bundled with the software to be advantageous in the marketplace. "When you look for a house, you want to know about the neighborhood, for example, what churches, restaurants, and banks are in the area," says Nisam. "We can rely on the data that comes with RouteMAP to give a clear picture of surrounding areas."

RouteMAP IMS data options allow YourMLSsearch.com to provide complete mapping, driving directions, and location information for the United States. Data for North America is provided with the software including Tele Atlas' Dynamap Transportation covering the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. North American datasets support street-level routing as well as geocoding by address, postal code, and latitude-longitude.

"We are pleased to be able to offer the solution YourMLSsearch.com was looking for," says Jay Hoffman, RouteMAP IMS product manager, ESRI. "By using this software, the company can provide all the information it needs, including mapping data, to others for the cost of the application instead of by subscription. This means YourMLSsearch.com and its clients can budget effectively year after year and know exactly what their costs will be."

Clients including Sky Sotheby's International Realty use the RouteMAP IMS service provided by YourMLSsearch.com.

Source : http://www.esri.com/

Pictometry International Corp., the worldwide leader in digital, aerial, oblique, geo-referenced imagery and measuring software systems, has signed a technology agreement with its licensee, AAMHatch of Australia which will expand the coverage area for Pictometry’s patented image capture process into 12 countries.

Under the agreement, AAMHatch – a leading Australian aerial survey and mapping company –has expanded its prior exclusive rights to utilize Pictometry’s image capture and processing technology and market image libraries and software in South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

"We are very pleased to be able to expand our image capture technology into these new regions of the world,” said Robert Carroll, president of Pictometry’ International Division, noting that Pictometry’s image library covers Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa. “AAMHatch has been a strong advocate of the Pictometry solution in its existing markets, including impressive collection schedule and important deliveries to key end-users,” said Carroll, adding, “AAMHatch is highly regarded for their superior technical capabilities in geospatial services and top-notch approach to customer satisfaction.”

AAMHatch is one of Pictometry’s four select international technology licensees. The company became a Pictometry licensee in 2005 and has since captured oblique imagery covering populated regions within Australia and New Zealand.

“The agreement will enable us to significantly expand ours service offering to both existing and new clients throughout South East Asia and South Africa,” said AAMHatch General Manager Brian Nicholls, noting that the ability to harness the power of Pictometry’s oblique imagery is becoming increasingly important to users of spatial information. “Pictometry imagery enables users to easily see, measure and interpret any point or object within the subject area from multiple view points,” added Nicholls. “Pictometry technology is revolutionary -- it really does offer a breakthrough for so many applications including asset management, urban planning, GIS and emergency response applications.”

Source : http://www.pictometry.com/

The Railways are on a technology upgradation drive and will depend on technology to make improvements in operational efficiency, bring transparency in working and provide better services to passengers.

In addition, the railways are trying to bring about radical changes in railway technology systems and processes. The railways will focus on information technology application in freight service management, passenger service management and general management.

For getting maximum benefit in the coming years, the mantra for present and future IT applications would be seamless integration. The railways nationwide communication infrastructure will provide the foundation for a common delivery network and platform. Modern technologies like GIS, GPS and RFID will be applied progressively.

“A centralised information system will not only be useful for the customers but also for the organisation as well. The customers will have accurate, fast and on-line access to information on various subjects. For the customer it would result in superior experience with improvements in overall efficiency, safety of railway operations, ease of transactions and value added services like infotainment, on-board television and knowledge kiosks with internet facilities,” Prasad said while presenting the budget.

For the organisation, planning and deployment of resources would become much easier with a panoramic view of assets and this would have a multiplier effect on productivity, organisational efficiency and staff satisfaction.

Source : http://www.financialexpress.com/

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announces the release of RedSpider Enterprise 3.5.2. With numerous enhancements, RedSpider Enterprise has increased its compliance with the Open Geospatial Consortium and International Organization for Standardization (OGC/ISO) standards.

RedSpider Enterprise 3.5.2 empowers users to build customized geospatial web applications. With an enhanced user interface, organizations may easily create more intuitive and versatile applications. In addition, new security features provide seamless protection for business applications.

“Ensuring smooth integration of all geoweb components, RedSpider Enterprise reliably meets the large scale and short time to market requirements of the most demanding enterprises,” said Luc Donéa, Enterprise Platform Product Manager, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. “This new release illustrates Leica Geosystems’ commitment to continue developing and integrating IONIC’s solutions into the company’s growing portfolio.”

In 2007, Leica Geosystems acquired IONIC and their RedSpider Suite. A vital component of Leica Geosystems’ portfolio of enterprise solutions, the RedSpider Suite’s continued development affirms the company’s commitment to deliver solutions with open standards-based interoperability.

Source : http://www.gi.leica-geosystems.com

ITT Corp.'s Space Systems Division based in Rochester, N.Y., has shipped the next-generation commercial imaging payload for DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 commercial remote sensing satellite. The WorldView-2 imaging payload is the second such system engineered and manufactured by ITT Space Systems Division for DigitalGlobe.

WorldView-1 was launched in September 2007 and has been providing the highest resolution images ever captured by a commercial imaging system, says a company representative. WorldView-2 will provide eight-band multispectral, full-color images for enhanced mapping and monitoring applications.

ITT's contribution includes the design and manufacture of the electro-optical assembly (camera and telescope), the detectors and focal plane assembly, as well as high-speed digital processing electronics. Once deployed, the imaging system will take pan-sharpened, multispectral images of the earth with better than 0.5-meter resolution from almost 500 miles above the Earth.

"The WorldView-2 imaging payload is the most advanced to date and will supply unprecedented detail and geospatial accuracy, further expanding the applications for satellite imagery in both commercial and government markets," says Rob Mitrevski, vice president and director, commercial and space sciences, ITT Space Systems Division.

In addition to the two satellites named above, ITT also supplied the imaging system for GeoEye-1 and has received initial funding to supply another system for GeoEye-2.


Source : http://mae.pennnet.com/

A space-based international Earth observation network to detect and monitor natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region has been formed with a substantial contribution from Australian science.

Called Sentinel Asia, the network of information-delivery websites has its roots in the Australian bushfire tracking system, Sentinel Hotspots, which was developed in 2002 by CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation.

"This will be a critical information delivery system on wildfires, flooding, drought, and landslides in our region, where those events can be seen by Earth observing satellites in real time," says the coordinator of Australia's input, senior CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist Dr Alex Held.

"Australia has had a pivotal, strategic role in developing the system which has the potential to benefit billions of people in our region by assisting authorities in a recovery response," he said.

"The concept of Sentinel Asia is to provide online information from Earth observation satellites in 'near real-time' through a network of webGIS services such as the Australian Sentinel Hotspots system."

Initially supported by the Japanese Government through the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sentinel Asia aims to show the value of Earth observation data for disaster management in the region. The system has been activated 10 times by seven countries including Australia in the last 12 months, mostly in response to earthquakes and floods.

Planned improvements include further nodes in other countries, use of high bandwidth communications satellites to provide information more quickly, and access to a wider range of Earth observation satellites.

Dr Held said many of the causes and impacts of natural disasters, including droughts, are observable, often in real-time, from space by orbiting or geostationary Earth observing systems.

"When efficiently combined with modern information-distribution methods, this data can be sent rapidly to affected communities and local emergency agencies in some cases as early-warning before the disaster occurs, or as post-disaster maps, to assist in recovery operations," he said.

The system largely uses free-to-air satellite imagery produced by Earth-observing satellites operated by the US, Europe, Japan, India and, in the future, other countries in Australasia which are planning satellite launches.

Source : http://www.terradaily.com/

Urban Mapping, Inc. (UMI) the leading provider of location-rich content for interactive applications, today announced the launch of a developer portal and free API for access to Urban Mapping's pioneering neighborhood-based information. The Urban Mapping API uses REST, or representational state transfer, an XML-based protocol for summoning Web services over HTTP. The Urban Mapping developer portal, located at http://developer.urbanmapping.com, and REST-based API enable developers to quickly and easily build applications that are designed with enhanced local search in mind.

The new developer portal also offers code snippets, a technical demo, documentation for SOAP and REST, a developer forum, and registration for the free neighborhood API and direct access to the industry-leading Urban Mapping neighborhood database which contains more than 25,000 distinct neighborhoods, each geographically defined. Urban Mapping data also includes more than 1,000 cities and towns in the United States. A Canadian and European product includes more than 100 cities.

"Since the introduction of our free neighborhood API last month, we've received a tremendous response from the developer community," commented Ian White, CEO of Urban Mapping. "With dozens of customers already leveraging our industry-leading neighborhood database for a variety of optimized local search applications, I'm confident that this RESTful implementation will have others running, not walking, to our developer portal."

White added that neighborhood boundaries are of significant value across the local search and interactive real estate landscape as they represent how users think about space, something ZIP code boundaries have proven woefully inadequate at providing.

Brady Forrest, geo-techno evangelist for the O'Reilly Radar, a technology- oriented publisher and conference chair, commented, "I'm impressed with Urban Mapping's responsiveness to the developer community. Only one month ago the company rolled out SOAP services, but heard the clarion call - give us REST or go home. I expect their release of neighborhood data to the geohacking community to have widespread effects across the net."

Because Urban Mapping already provides its core database to leading portals, companies within the search marketing ecosystem are able to leverage the same geographic definitions for the same geographic keywords. Using the Urban Mapping geographic definitions, smaller organizations can reap benefits previously unavailable to them.

Urban Mapping's Urbanware(TM) products enhance the value of local content for interactive platforms. Its flagship product, Urbanware Neighborhoods, is a database of informal space, is used by all major portals, map platforms and Internet yellow page publishers including Microsoft's Virtual Earth, Idearc's SuperPages.com, MapQuest and AT&T's YellowPages.com. The company also offers a database of mass transit systems and a novel geotargeting solution focused on the needs of local search. For more information about Urban Mapping, visit http://www.urbanmapping.com.

Urban Mapping and Urbanware are trademarks of Urban Mapping, Inc.

Contact:
Bob Stern
Urban Mapping, Inc.
Tel: 415-946-8170 x88

Email Contact

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

Web site: http://www.urbanmapping.com/
http://developer.urbanmapping.com/

ESi(R), the global crisis information management solutions provider, today announced the release of WebEOC(R) 7, the latest version in its product suite of emergency communications software. Equipped with new powerful technology tools, WebEOC 7 offers users an upgraded level of interoperability and functionality to better prepare and respond to any event or emergency situation.

"WebEOC provides our customers worldwide with a dynamic collaboration tool, enabling them to create a common operating picture that will provide responders and managers access to critical data needed to make sound decisions quickly," said Nadia Butler, CEO of ESi. "We've equipped the latest version with a variety of tools and functions that are easy to use and navigate."

Launched in 1996, the WebEOC suite was the first Web-enabled collaborative crisis information communications system that provides real-time information sharing to facilitate decision making in any event or emergency situation. WebEOC now connects thousands of crisis response teams and decision makers at national, state, and local agencies, healthcare providers, airlines and corporations worldwide.

ESi has a strong reputation for providing its customers with easy-to-use technology to meet daily challenges. With WebEOC 7, ESi continues to respond to customer requests, making available tools that will further enable them to stay abreast of the increasing numbers of situations that call for instant and informed decisions. In addition to the features summarized below, WebEOC 7 provides full support for the forthcoming ESi WebFUSION(TM), bringing true collaboration and data sharing to the ESi user community.

WebEOC 7 offers a number of unique capabilities to enhance the overall user experience, including:

-- Redesigned Control Panel: Control Panel items are now grouped into collapsible panes, with new icons to indicate status and board functions. In addition, users may now open multiple status board input windows.

-- Redesigned Admin Manager: Enhancements designed to greatly reduce the amount of time needed to administer WebEOC. These include the ability to expand or collapse sub-menus; search and filter list windows; sort list windows using column headings; and navigate through multi-page lists using embedded links. In addition, a new "Home" link allows quick access to tech support and WebEOC server information.

-- Positions Feature: Provides WebEOC administrators with more flexibility in assigning permissions; provides the ability to predefine specific emergency response roles while still allowing for the size of the response to quickly scale up during an emergency.

-- User self-registration: Eases the administrative burden associated with adding new user accounts, resetting passwords, and editing account information while maintaining overall system security and increasing individual user accountability.

-- Regional incident mapping: WebEOC administrators can now control how information flowing in from other WebEOC systems is mapped to specific incidents in their WebEOC system. This allows multiple jurisdictions to effectively share information during emergencies while giving each single jurisdiction complete control over how data is managed locally in WebEOC.

-- Enhanced Interoperability: WebEOC now includes a robust, fully functional web service based programming interface (API). The new API enables quick and easy integration of WebEOC with other systems.

Enhancements found in WebEOC 7 will integrate with previous product releases, making the user experience familiar for current customers. Necessary tools and support to ensure a smooth upgrade will be readily available to customers to help them leverage the new features and functionality during their WebEOC implementation.

In addition to newly designed user interfaces, login enhancements and upgraded geographic information system features, WebEOC 7 also features cross-browser functionality to allow customers to utilize the software with any of today's most popular Web browsers.

"With the increasing popularity of other browsers, we've designed WebEOC 7 to meet the needs of those customers who don't use Internet Explorer," said Scott Johnson, Vice President of Development for ESi. "WebEOC 7 not only supports Internet Explorer 6.5 and higher but also Mozilla Firefox and Safari."

WebEOC 7 also features a more secure login process for users, with easy retrieval of lost credentials and incident lists filtered based on user group permissions.

"We gain insight from our customers based on their daily feedback and area-specific requirements," continued Butler. "From that vantage point, we continually strengthen our software to reflect the ever-changing needs of our users."

For more information about WebEOC 7, please visit www.esi911.com.

About ESi

ESi(R), the global leader in crisis information management solutions provider, pioneered the market with WebEOC(R), the world's first Web-enabled emergency management communications system. Recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2007, ESi connects crisis response teams and decision makers at national, state and local agencies, healthcare providers, airlines and corporations worldwide, providing access to real-time information for a common operating picture during an event or daily operations. By offering a solutions package from initial design and installation through training, implementation and maintenance, ESi sets the standard for crisis information management. For more information, please visit www.esi911.com.
Contact:

ESi
Anne Murray Sims, 706-262-2596
Email Contact
or
Fleishman-Hillard
Martin Humphrey, 404-739-0138
Email Contact

Quorum Business Solutions, Inc. ("Quorum"), a leading provider of software and consulting solutions for the energy industry, announces Quorum GIS 4.0. This new version, re-architected on ESRI 9.2 technology, allows clients to easily incorporate web applications and business intelligence reporting into the system. Quorum GIS 4.0 is already in use by three clients.

"Building on ESRI's 9.2 platform is further evidence of Quorum's continued investment in our solutions," said Gary O'Dwyer, Executive Vice President of Quorum. "Our new release broadens the reach of spatial analysis throughout the enterprise."

Quorum GIS 4.0 extensions for ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Desktop enable clients to develop, manage, and secure layers, maps and plats. The product also includes a number of tools to assist with data capture workflow. These tools include rich textual and spatial search capability, data capture for metes and bounds, an aliquot (quartering) tool, and batch polygon generation from legal descriptions.

About Quorum Business Solutions, Inc.

Quorum Business Solutions, Inc. is a software and consulting solutions company that develops, implements, and supports a suite of business software solutions for the energy industry with a unique approach to providing a longer product life span. Founded in 1998, Quorum employs over 300 staff operating out of offices in Houston, Dallas, and Calgary. Quorum has over 90 clients, among which 25 Fortune 500 Companies are represented.

The Quorum Energy Software Suite is a set of integrated business applications designed for companies that produce, gather, transport, process and market oil, natural gas and other energy commodities. The inherent integration of the suite allows the products to work together to facilitate straight through processing. The Quorum Upstream Suite includes products for land & lease management, integrated mapping/GIS, production & revenue accounting, financials (GL, AP, AR), cost accounting (JIB, AFE, FA), division order, and gas marketing. The Quorum Midstream Suite includes TIPS, the de facto industry standard solution for gas plant accounting, PGAS, the leader in gas measurement software, gathering management, liquids marketing, and enterprise contract management. The Quorum Pipeline Suite includes products for pipeline transaction management, and right-of-way management.

For more information, visit Quorum's web site at www.qbsol.com or call us at 713-430-8601.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcGIS, ArcPad, and MapObjects are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.
Contact:

Quorum Business Solutions, Inc.
Jessica Sumners, 713-430-8624
Email Contact

China plans to launch its second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, around 2009, according to a top satellite scientist.

Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer of China's first moon probe satellite system, revealed the plan during an interview program on CCTV, China Central Television.

However, Ye did not elaborate on the plan with more details. He said Chang'e-1, the country's first lunar probe, had resumed contact with the control center after it moved out of the shadow area caused by an eclipse of the sun at about 14:10 on Thursday.

From about 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, the satellite was blocked from the supply of solar energy when the Earth eclipsed the sun and lost the contact with the control center.

Scientists redirected the orbit of the satellite before the eclipse started. The satellite will perform another orbital adjustment while preparing for a second eclipse in August, he said.

The 2,350-kilogram satellite carrying eight surveying facilities aims to make a three-dimensional survey of the moon's surface. It will also analyze the abundance and distribution of elements on the lunar surface, investigate the characteristics of the powdery soil layer on the surface, and explore the environment between the Earth and the moon.

China's moon mission also includes a landing of a rover vehicle around 2012 and the launch of another rover that will land and return to the Earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research around 2017.

Source : http://www.china.org.cn

Governance in Jharkhand is all set to go online even at the grassroots level. Common service centres would be set up at each of the 4,562 panchayats in the state by March 31 where villagers can avail services like registration of certificates, filing commercial taxes among others.

“We have already set up such centres at more than 3,000 panchayats. The rest would be over by the end of this fiscal,” said R.S. Sharma, the state principal secretary of IT.

The centres — kiosks set up by the government and operated by private companies — would also offer record of rights and also documents related to transport. “We are among the first to connect all the 212 blocks and 4,500 offices through IP phone and data cable. The IP phones facilitate video-conferencing at lower cost. In fact, public distribution centres, jails, treasuries and co-operative banks are also put on a wide area network,” Sharma said pointing out the advantages e-governance has over the conventional methods of governance.

With the kiosks being outsourced to private companies, the services, however, would not come free. “There is no concept of free lunch anymore,” Sharma quipped, adding that only a token charge would be levied for the services rendered to the villagers at their doorstep.

“We are also trying to use geographic information system (GIS) for digital mapping of districts so as to know the exact location of a village. GIS would also be used to calculate how much rainfall an area receives in a year to facilitate irrigation. We are also trying to put emphasis on water harvesting mapping using GIS in the ground level,” said Sharma while attending Infocom, an initiative of Businessworld, an ABP Group publication which also publishes The Telegraph, in Calcutta.

Sharma also said that funds were not a hindrance to the ideas as the Union government supported their initiative with National E-governance Plan (NEGP). “With adequate funds, we have put the infrastructure in right place. The result of our efforts lie in future,” he said.

Via Source : http://www.telegraphindia.com/

A new report has exposed major flaws in the management of key rivers and flood plains along the Murray Darling Basin.

Satellite images of a key wetland in north-western New South Wales reveal more than 2,000 kilometres of earthworks have carved up the waterway.

While some of the channels and levees may have been authorised, others are considered illegal and are diverting water into irrigation and farming.

Scientists say the flood plains are being sucked dry and there is no legislation in place to stop further development.

The report says the plight of this wetland is similar to others in the Murray Darling system.

It is the most comprehensive analysis of flood plain development on any river in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Using satellite images and comparing aerial photographs over half a century, scientists took a closer look at the Macquarie marshes as a case study. It is a wetland that is internationally recognised and is surrounded by flood plains that are dependent on overflows from the river.

What they revealed is what scientists say is a maze of earthworks that are destroying the wetlands. This includes levees or banks up to five metres high, channels up to 20 kilometres long, and storage dams diverting water around the flood plains and away from the marshes.

Source : http://www.abc.net.au/

The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) have approved version 1.0 of the OpenGIS Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard.

The WPS standard defines an interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes and makes it easier to write software clients that can discover and bind to those processes. Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially referenced raster or vector data. Publishing means making available machine-readable binding information as well as human-readable metadata that allows service discovery and use.

A WPS can be used to define calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced data from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a hydrological model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or it can be made available at the server. This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and manage the output from the calculation so that the client can access it.

The OGC's WPS standard will play an important role in automating workflows that involve geospatial data and geoprocessing services.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.

The sixth annual MySQL Conference & Expo, co-presented by MySQL AB and O'Reilly Media, is expected to bring together 2,000 open source and database users from some of the most exciting and fastest-growing companies in the world, as well as from the large and active MySQL community. The conference will take place April 14-17, 2008, in Santa Clara, California.

To register and learn about early registration discounts, please visit http://mysqlconf.com.

MySQL AB CEO Marten Mickos and Jonathan Schwartz, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, will kick off the conference with keynotes highlighting the strategic, technical and community synergies between the two companies and their pending merger. Mickos' annual "State of the Dolphin" address is always thought-provoking for corporate customers, open source developers and MySQL ecosystem partners alike. Schwartz will be speaking on "Open Source: The Heart of the Network Economy" -- how free software and open communities like MySQL are the lifeblood of network innovation. Tuesday's other keynote will be Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com, who will speak about distributed computing in the modern Internet era.

Additional conference keynotes include:

-Jacek Becla, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, "The Science and Fiction of Petascale Analytics" Scientists are trying to understand dark matter, discover distant galaxies, hunt for the Higgs boson, detect asteroids, and take movies of molecules. Their science is fascinating, but their analysis requirements may seem like science fiction. Few have experienced the reality of petascale analytics so far, but everybody will face it tomorrow. Are we ready?

-Rick Falkvinge, Swedish Pirate Party, "Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties" Falkvinge will discuss the rise and success of pirates and why pirates are necessary in today's politics. He'll also outline the next steps in the pirates' strategy to change global copyright laws.

-Dick Hardt, Sxip, "Who is the Dick on My Site?"
Much of the data in a database is about people. Identity 2.0 technologies will lower the friction for people to provide and easily move data about themselves online. This fast paced keynote will offer a background on Identity 2.0, discuss current roadblocks and future opportunities, and explore the potential impacts these will have on databases.

Other keynote presenters on the agenda include Raj Cherabuddi of Silicon Query and Chander Kant from Zmanda.

The additional 100-plus conference sessions and tutorials will be geared toward a variety of skill levels and company size, all designed to help attendees rapidly build scalable online database applications with MySQL. The four full days of keynotes, sessions, tutorials, and social networking events will allow participants to learn and share MySQL database knowledge in a relaxed, enthusiastic atmosphere.

Attendees can also expect a world-class Expo Hall, featuring dozens of the latest database tools, products, and services from conference sponsors and exhibitors -- including: Zmanda, Silicon Query, Continuent, Jaspersoft, Sun Microsystems, XAware, DataDirect, Dolphin Interconnect Solutions, HP Invent, Infobright, Linagora, Microsoft, OpSource, Oracle/Innobase, Pentaho, R1Soft, Ticketmaster, XAMPP, Apache Friends, Entrance, Etelos, Facebook, Google, Kirix, Melissa Data, Memcached, MindTouch, mojoPortal, O'Reilly Media, OpenMRS, Phorum, phpMyAdmin, Talend, PHPWomen.org, ScaleDB, SilverStripe, Sphinx, Symfony Project, Talend, and Tokutek.

Learn more about the MySQL Conference & Expo 2008 by visiting: http://mysqlconf.com

If you'd like to stay up-to-date on information relating to the MySQL Conference & Expo 2008, sign up for the conference newsletter (login
required):
http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/nl/home#conferences

To apply for media credentials, visit: http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2008/public/content/media

If you have ideas about subjects you'd like to see added at the conference, send a note to: mysql-idea@oreilly.com

For information about exhibiting or sponsoring the MySQL Conference & Expo, contact Sharon Cordesse at (707) 827-7065 or scordesse@oreilly.com.

Watch keynote presentations from the 2007 MySQL Conference & Expo by
visiting:
http://mysqlconf.blip.tv

For information on media & promotional partnerships at MySQL Conference & Expo, contact Avila Reese at (707) 827-7116 or mediapartners@oreilly.com

Stakemill has assembled an entry level GeoTagging package that consists of a DeLorme PN-20 Hand Held GPS unit, the Topo 7 software package, the Earthmate Image Tagger software and a HP Camera.

See this one.

GPS Features

Extensive On-Device Memory
75MB of internal flash memory available in addition to the preloaded world base map. Holds up to ten tracks (10,000 points per track); 1,000 user-defined waypoints; and 50 routes. SD slot also available.

1-GB SD Card & Reader Included
This bundle includes the 1-GB SD Card & Reader, which are ideal for use with large files including the DeLorme Aerial Data Packets (ADPs).

Software Features

The most up-to-date Topographic Mapping software

Amazing 3-D Flyovers and new aerial imagery downloads

GPS-Ready!

Geo-tag your digital photos
Improved Geocaching Features
Bring all the new Points-of-Interest and Atlas categories on your PN-20.
Extended descriptions and hints from .gpx files found on geocaching.com now transferable to the PN-20 !!
New improved Handheld Exchange for selecting a variety of grid sizes for sending to the DeLorme Earthmate GPS PN-20
Link your digital photos to any DeLorme mapping software based on GPS timestamp automatically!

Earthmate Image Tagger Full Details

How It Works
The Earthmate Image Tagger can link a collection of digital images to a GPS file based on the image timestamp and the GPS log time. If your camera was set to an incorrect time, you can calculate an offset and apply it to the collection of photos.
Your photos remain untouched, while an output (DeLorme Draw or XData) file is generated that link the photos to the map.

Camera Features

Point-and-shoot simplicity
Get high-quality images with the 5 MP resolution
Zero in on your subjects with the precision lens with 5x digital zoom
Frame, snap, and view images on the 1.5" display
Easily snap and review shots with the easy buttons and menus
Banish red eye with our industry-leading, in-camera red-eye removal
Capture live action with the video setting
Easy storage, battery charging, and more
Store photos with the 16MB internal memory; add a Secure Digital memory card for extra capacity
Recharge the batteries while in the optional printer dock1
1 year warranty
Light weight


Technical Details
Sensor: 5.0 Megapixel CCD
Size: 1/2.5-inch
Image Resolution: 2576 x 1920
Image Resolution: 2080 x 1552
Movie Resolution: 320 x 240
Memory Included: 16MB Internal
Storage Media: Secure Digital
Storage Media: SDHC Memory Card
Compressed Format: JPEG
Movie File Format: Motion JPEG
Digital Zoom: 5x
Focal Length: 6.0 mm focal length (equivalent to 36.4 mm)
Focusing Range: Digital Focal Distance: Approximately 1 m to infinity,
Focusing Range: 35 mm equivalent: Approximately 36.4 mm to infinity

MORE INFO AT www.stakemill.com
Visit this.

A comprehensive new study authored by UB scientists and their colleagues for the first time documents in detail the dynamics of parts of Greenland’s ice sheet, important data that have long been missing from the ice-sheet models on which projections about sea-level rise and global warming are based.

The trimline (broken brown line) marks the maximum extent of the ice sheet at the end of the 18th century and the subsequent retreat of the glacier and land exposed since 1944.

The research, published online this month in the Journal of Glaciology, also demonstrates how remote-sensing and digital-imaging techniques can produce rich datasets without field data in some cases.

Traditionally, ice sheet models are very simplified, according to Beata Csatho, assistant professor of geology, College of Arts and Sciences, and lead author of the paper.

“Ice-sheet models usually don’t include all the complexity of ice dynamics that can happen in nature,” said Csatho. “This research will give ice-sheet modelers more precise, more detailed data.”

The implications of these richer datasets may be dramatic, Csatho said, especially as they impact climate projections and sea-level rise estimates, such as those made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“If current climate models from the IPCC included data from ice dynamics in Greenland, the sea-level rise estimated during this century could be twice as high as what they are currently projecting,” she said.

The paper focuses on Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland’s fastest-moving glacier and its largest, measuring four miles wide.

During the past decade, Jakobshavn Isbrae has begun to experience rapid thinning and doubling of the amount of ice it discharges into Disko Bay.

“Although the thinning started as early as the end of the 18th century, the changes we are seeing now are bigger than can be accounted for by normal, annual perturbations in climate,” Csatho said.

In order to document the most comprehensive story possible of the behavior of Jakobshavn Isbrae since the Little Ice Age in the late 1800s, Csatho and her colleagues at Ohio State University, the University of Kansas and NASA used a combination of techniques.

These included field mapping, remote sensing, satellite imaging and the application of digital techniques in order to glean “hidden” data from historic aerial photographs as many as 60 years after they were taken.

By themselves, Csatho explained, the two-dimensional pictures were of limited value.

“But now we can digitize them, removing the boundaries between them and turning several pictures into a single ‘mosaic’ that will produce one dataset that can be viewed in three-dimensions,” she said.

“By reprocessing old data contained in these old photographs and records, we have been able to construct a long-term record of the behavior of the glacier,” said Csatho. “This was the first time that the data from the ’40s could be reused in a coherent way.”

The data from the historic photos were combined with data from historical records, ground surveys, field mapping and measurements taken from the air to document important signs of change in the glacier’s geometry.

Csatho explained that conventional methods of assessing change in glaciers have depended on documenting “iceberg calving,” in which large pieces at the front of the glacier break off.

“But we found that you can get significant changes in the ice sheet without seeing a change in front,” she said.

Other key findings of the paper are that two different parts of the same glacier may behave quite differently and that a glacier does not necessarily react to climate change as a single, monolithic entity.

“Climate forces are complex,” Csatho said. “For example, we found that the northern part of Jakobshavn was still thinning while the climate was colder between the 1960s and the 1990s.”

Csatho, who is a geophysicist, added that the research is the result of a strong interdisciplinary team involving experts in glaciology, ice-sheet modeling and photogrammetry, the science of making measurements based on photographs.

At UB, research in Csatho’s remote sensing laboratory focuses on a multidisciplinary approach that integrates information across the geosciences.

Csatho’s co-authors on the paper are Tony Schenk of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science at Ohio State University, Kees van der Veen of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas and William B. Krabill of NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.

Source : http://www.buffalo.edu/

GeoWeb 2008 Conference Organizers Call for Papers Deadline is in two weeks. The theme for the GeoWeb 2008 conference is Infrastructure: Local to Global. This implies the GeoWeb has a local or community dimension as well as a global one - that the integration of local infrastructures will give rise to a global infrastructure - that global aggregators will drive the creation of local infrastructures. Papers on any aspect of these issues are welcome and key themes of the paper presentations are:

* Global aggregators and Data Communities

* GeoWeb in Security and Defense

* Real time emergency response and environmental security

* Neo-geo, user generated data and the GI professional

* CAD-BIM-GIS-Games Integration - 3D Cityscapes (Worlds Real and Virtual)

* Infrastructure for information - building alongside physical infrastructure

* Municipal SDI in the GeoWeb

* Imaging, Coverages and Information Infrastructures

Conference papers can also be submitted that address these issues in technical terms or in policy/social terms or even combinations of the above. Presenters will be chosen based on a formal selection process led by GeoWeb's Organizing Committee. The 2008 Organizing Committee consists of:

* David Burggraf, Director of Research and Development, Galdos Systems, Inc.

* Tim Case, Geospatial Practice Lead, Parsons Brinckerhoff

* David Dodds, Director, Open-Meta Computing Inc.

* Michael Gerlek, Software Architect, LizardTech, Inc.

* Michael Jones, CTO, Google Earth

* Ron Lake (Committee Chair), Chairman & CEO, Galdos Systems, Inc.

* Natasha Leger, Columnist, Imaging Notes

* Nicolas Loubier, Product Manager, Bentley Systems

* Gordon Plunkett, Director, ESRI Canada Limited

* Carl Reed, III, CTO, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

* Carsten Roensdorf, Principal Data Consultant, Ordnance Survey

* Daniel Shannon, Manager Operations, Telus Geomatics (TCI)

* Geoff Zeiss, Director of Technology, Autodesk

Prospective speakers should submit abstracts no longer than 200 words and include the presentation title, the name of the presenter or presenters, the presenting organization, and their preferred theme. The abstract online submission form as well as complete information on the call for papers process may be obtained at www.geowebconference.org and must be submitted prior to Friday, March 7th, 2008.

Source : http://www.geowebconference.org

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a three-dimensional (3-D) simulation, visualisation and analysis tool that could benefit the defence industry.

“The South African scientific, defence and industrial research domains are looking more and more at modelling and simulation tools to save costs or advance their research and development capa- bilities and offerings,” says CSIR defence, peace, safety and security researcher Bernardt Duvenhage.

The Cyclops 2 visualisation and visual analysis tool is capable of visualising a synthetic environment with terrain and virtual objects inhabiting the environment.

“The synthetic environment has, to date, been used for visualising the experiment results from simu-lations of air-to-air missile target engagements, system-of-systems level ground-based air defence deployments, and even satellite ground coverage for surveillance,” says Duvenhage.

However, he says, it would also be possible to visualise experiment results from, for example, environmental impact or crowd behaviour simulations.

Duvenhage explains that the tool allows simulation data to be imported from live or logged simulation results through a transmission control protocol network connection or a log file. It allows live pause and replay of simulation results. The visualisation component may also be used as a dynamic-link library or shared library in many programming languages.

The simulation objects are displayed in a 3-D view, allowing the user to move around in a virtual world and to inspect the spatial and temporal relationships between objects.

The tool enables the user to add or draw information or objects that are not directly observable, such as radar detection cones, complex domes and ellipses or motion trails.

“The terrain database supports layered visual and digital elevation data and the inclusion of other geographical information science data,” says Duvenhage.

Further, through a hierarchical tree-based filter, the user can selectively hide unwanted visual details or objects, based on his requirements, to clear away objects to make the view less cluttered.

“The Cyclops 2 tool is based on experience gained during research and development work at the CSIR for at least the last ten years. Development on this latest version of the visualisation capability began in 2005, and is still continually being expanded as new requirements and new users emerge,” says Duvenhage.

He adds that any industry that does research that involves the environment around humans or human-machine environment interactions could potentially bene-fit from using a synthetic environment visualisation tool such as the Cyclops 2.

“The user group for this tool is still growing in size and we currently still have the opportunity to mould it to the direct needs of the users,” explains Duvenhage.

He concludes that the visualisation component of the tool makes use of a well-supported and rapidly developing open-source scene graph library. “This allows continued access to the latest visualisation techniques and the opportunity to contribute back to the open-source community."

Source : http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/

Magellan today introduced the latest addition to its MobileMapper GIS and mapping line of products – the MobileMapper 6. A rugged, waterproof, handheld GPS/GIS receiver, the MobileMapper 6 fulfills the requirements for low-cost, professional GIS field data collection. It fills a market gap in the data collection field between high-cost devices and consumer-grade products. It is expected to particularly appeal to forestry and other natural resource organizations, oil and gas, agriculture, utilities, government agencies, and businesses large and small that need a highly-rugged, robust GIS unit that can collect geographic data with 2-5 meter accuracy in real-time with SBAS corrections.

The MobileMapper 6 is a Windows Mobile 6 open platform, unlike competing consumer-type units, it offers full compatibility with popular GIS software to enable companies to select and use the GIS software of choice. In addition, unlike PDA devices, the MobileMapper 6 is highly rugged for rough-and-tumble business applications. The MobileMapper 6 offers the professional features associated with more costly high-end GIS/GPS units, yet it is price-competitive with consumer-grade GPS.

“The MobileMapper 6 is an economically, professional-grade GPS/GIS handheld receiver rugged-built for business applications,” said Francois Erceau, general manager of Magellan Professional. “With its low-cost, lightweight rugged design, and the ability to run virtually all GIS software, we expect it to become a favorite of businesses both large and small.”

It comes standard with an integrated 2-megapixel camera that can take photos, which can be tagged with the GPS location and used as a point description data in any GIS application, such as Magellan’s Mobile Mapping software, ESRI’s ArcPad or other third-party software. It also includes a built-in microphone to record and replay voice notes to enrich the collected data.

The MobileMapper 6 comes with Microsoft Windows Mobile version 6, along with a touch-screen and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. The rugged design of the MobileMapper 6 is impact resistant and water- and dustproof for use in harsh and difficult field conditions. It is able to withstand a one-meter drop to solid ground and water submergence.

Weighing less than 8 ounces (224 grams) and measuring approximately 5.7 in x 2.5 in x 1.1 in (14.6 cm x 6.4 cm x 2.9 cm), the MobileMapper 6 is lightweight and compact for easy, convenient use. It provides excellent autonomy with up to 10 hours of operation on a set of two AA alkaline batteries, easily exchangeable in the field.

Data collection is enabled by 128 MB of non-volatile Flash data storage, and storage of large amounts of field date is made possible through a Secure Digital (SD) card slot that accepts SD cards with up to 4 GB of memory.

Source : http://pro.magellangps.com

Allan Falconer, Peggy J. Harwood, Frank L. Scarpace and Bernard “Barney” Schur have been named the 2008 ASPRS Fellow Award winners. The ASPRS designation of Fellow is conferred on active Society members who have performed exceptional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences (photogrammetry, remote sensing, surveying, geographic information systems, and related disciplines). The designation of Fellow is awarded for pro¬fessional excellence and for service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by other active members, recommended to the Fellows Committee, and elected by the ASPRS Board of Directors. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active members may be elected as Fellows in any one year. The nominees must have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in practice, research, development, administration, or education in the mapping sciences. Members of the Fellows Committee and the Executive Committee are ineligible for nomination. This year’s awards will be given in April at the ASPRS 2008 Annual Conference in Portland Oregon.


ALLAN FALCONER

Allan Falconer received his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees from the University of Durham in England. In May 2007, he completed 40 years as a professional geographer. He taught geography at six universities on three continents. Falconer served in industry, as an employee of Spectral Data Corporation (1978/84) under contract to USAID as Program Manager for the Regional Remote Sensing Facility in Nairobi, Kenya while with the EROS Data Center. He served as Head of the Department of Geography and Earth Resources and as Director of the RS/GIS Laboratories at Utah State University (1991-97). In November 1997, was appointed Executive Director of the Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative (MSCI). In August 2004 he was appointed to his current position of Professor and Chair of The Department of Geography at George Mason University.

Falconer worked on the early days of the ERTS A & B (Landsat) simulation program using aircraft and satellite data to study the hydrology of the Lake Ontario Basin. He used Landsat data for image mapping in Ontario and worked with quick-look data to map Eco-regions and monitor Arctic pipeline routes. He participated in a multi-disciplinary study of the harp seal using Landsat data to track the movement of ice in the St. Lawrence estuary. During this time, he was at the University of Guelph in Canada and served on the Canadian Advisory Committee on Remote Sensing and chaired its Geography Working Group. In Australia, he used Landsat data for many purposes including the mapping of functional Ecological units, defining habitat regions and analyzing agricultural production. In Nairobi, Kenya, under his supervision, more than 1,000 Eastern and Southern African scientists participated in training courses. Additionally this program created image maps of Swaziland and Lesotho and portions of Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. Image maps were used to provide the first surveys of land cover and forest reserves since independence in a number of East African countries.

At Utah State Falconer worked with USGS and ESRI on the GAP Analysis Project that had considerable influence on policy and adoption of COTS standards in these agencies; a huge benefit to all ASPRS industry and academic members. During the MSCI years, Falconer developed an industry cluster of 42 companies spending more than $70 million annually in the local economy of Southern Mississippi. The MSCI Education Program developed instructional modules for use in the schools (Grades 7-9) and a Geospatial Science module for graduation credit as an elective in Grades 10-12. The Technical and Community Colleges developed courses and Associates Degrees in

Geospatial sciences. At George Mason he has grown the program to 76 majors and the graduate program has more than 100 active students.

As an active member of ASPRS for over 30 years, Falconer regularly participates in ASPRS conferences. He served as Director of the Remote Sensing Applications Division (1996-1998) and as a member of the Board of Directors (1996-98). He was elected to the Executive Committee and Chair of the Division Directors’ Committee and was twice nominated as a candidate for Vice-President of the Society by the nominating Committee. From 1998 to 2003 he served as the Chairman of the Education and Professional Development Committee. Falconer is the recipient of many awards, including the ASPRS Meritorious Service Award (1996, 1998).


PEGGY J. HARWOOD

Peggy Harwood currently serves as Planner for the Urban & Community Forestry Staff of the USDA Forest Service. Harwood earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and 1972 and a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University. She is also a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), National Defense University at Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.

Harwood was associate director at the Council of State Planning Agencies (affiliated with the National Governors Association) responsible for compiling information and developing policy related to state GISs. At the Texas General Land Office in Austin, Texas, Harwood was a geologist, environmental planning program manager, and a principal investigator for a successful, two-year NASA-State of Texas investigation using Landsat data and applications inventorying and monitoring Texas coastal resources. While still in graduate school, she worked as a photogeologist for the Bureau of Economic Geology, completing the Texas Geologic Atlas Project, Texas Coastal Atlas, and completing the first land use and hurricane flood hazard maps of the upper coast.

She joined the Forest Service in 1989 as Geometronics Program Manager and has since held various program manager positions related to spatial planning in the National Forest System. Other federal positions included coordinating community-based planning for the BLM, and coordinating interagency activities for weather and land satellite programs in NOAA. She chaired an interagency working group to define roles and develop charters for lead agencies that would coordinate federal standards for such geospatial data as soils, vegetation, and transportation during transition to the FGDC. Harwood coordinated development of NOAA's first regulatory program for licensing U.S. private operators of remote sensing space systems. She was also executive officer for a Federal Advisory Committee and Assistant Secretary-level policy group established to advise the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA officials regarding transfer of Landsat & weather satellites to the private sector.

In addition, she has become active in various sustainable development initiatives, including development and delivery of a Green Infrastructure Training Program for the USDA. She has organized and given presentations at numerous workshops and technical sessions on green infrastructure at local and national conferences. She is also the co-leader for USDA's participation in the My Community, Our Earth partnership with the National Geographic Society, Association of American Geographers, ESRI and the UN Environmental Programme promoting geographic learning and problem solving among secondary school and university students worldwide.

Harwood joined ASPRS in 1976 and has served on the Board for the Texas-Louisiana and Potomac Regions. She was also President of the Potomac Region in 1991 as well as the Region's National Director for two terms serving on the ASPRS Board including five years on the Society’s Executive Committee. She also served as Director of the GIS Division. She has also been a member of the IGIF Board of Trustees, and was active in the Awards, Strategic Planning, Electronic Communications, and Division Directors' Committees

FRANK L. SCARPACE

Frank Scarpace received his PhD in the field of physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is retired from the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Scarpace has been teaching and conducting research in the fields of remote sensing, image processing, and digital photogrammetry since 1972. He taught all of the advanced courses in remote sensing, image processing, algorithm development, and digital photogrammetry within the mapping science field at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as workshops for ASPRS. He has been an ASPRS member since 1991.

WIth more than 130 published articles and papers, Scarpace is also the author of numerous software programs involving image processing and digital photogrammetry. A number of his current research grants involve using softcopy photogrammetry to produce digital orthophotographs and high resolution (6 inch) DEMs, developing digital photogrammetric techniques to measure shoreline erosion, and applying digital photogrammetry to problems of concern within industrial applications. The National Digital Orthomapping Program is a result of his research work. Other current research includes use of neural networks and fuzzy logic for image classification, the use of wavelet transforms for image compression, developing methods of geometrically correcting multispectral scanners, and improved multilevel matching for softcopy photogrammetric applications.

BERNARD “BARNEY” SCHUR

Bernard “Barney” Schur has been with AERO-METRIC, INC. since its inception in 1969. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the AERO-METRIC companies which include AeroMap, Anchorage, Alaska, Walker and Associates, Seattle, Washington; Aero-Metric, Fort Collins, Colorado; Mark Hurd, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and, Air Survey, Dulles, Virginia. His experience includes the organization and management of major domestic and foreign survey and mapping projects. His business association includes governmental contracting agencies, utility companies and the private engineering community.

Schur has more than 40 years of photogrammetric experience in private industry. He began his career in photogrammetry in 1959 at Chicago Aerial Survey (CAS) as a field surveyor and then as a cartographic draftsman. He served in the U.S. Army from 1963 – 65 after which, he returned to his position at Chicago Aerial Survey and took on the responsibility for managing the cartographic drafting department. Near the end of 1969, Aero-Metric Inc. was incorporated and Schur became one of the original start-up employees of a new company. Within a few years, he became a principal in the company and also the marketing manager. He was elevated to corporate president and director in 1998.

He has served ASPRS as sub-committee chair of the photogrammetry review panel of the Evaluation for Certification Committee, for which he received ASPRS Merit Awards in 1994 and 1998. In 1995, he received the ASPRS Meritorious Service Award and in 2003 the Outstanding Service Award. He is the Past President, Vice President and Director of the former Wisconsin Chapter ASPRS. He also served as a Director for the Management Association Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS). He served briefly on the Board of Trustees for the ASPRS Foundation, and is a Certified Photogrammetrist and a Registered Land Surveyor (Photogrammetry) in North and South Carolina.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

Source : http://www.asprs.org/

Adapx, the company that is changing the economics of field data management, and ESRI, the world leader in the geographic information system (GIS) software industry, today announced a strategic agreement to deliver Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop to all of ESRI’s markets such as government, utilities, engineering, natural resources, and various other industries. Under the terms of this agreement, ESRI will offer Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop in the United States through its direct sales force and channel of 1,700 resellers. Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop is a fully integrated GIS software solution that digitally enables paper-based field mapping with a digital pen and standard paper for a broad range of industries.

“We have been a key player in the GIS market for over 25 years and continue to stay on the cutting-edge by offering the latest products to meet the changing needs of our customers,” said Jack Dangermond, president at ESRI. “Adapx offers a refreshing approach to field data management with a truly integrated end-to-end solution designed for the way people work in the field – pen and paper technology that is intuitive to use and feature rich.”

ESRI sees Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop as a complementary solution to its portfolio of ArcGIS software products. Capturx enables ESRI customers to simply upload field annotations from paper maps directly into ESRI’s ArcGIS software without manual data entry, making handwritten GIS information instantly available in a digital format and ready to share with colleagues. The digital pen stores data and once docked in its station transforms it into geodatabase features. Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop is a powerful, simple, digital data collection solution that empowers ArcGIS Desktop users to collect GIS data with pen and paper.

There are three core components of Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop solution:

# The Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop software platform – Only Capturx offers a software platform that interprets information back and forth from the field to computer. After paper maps have been marked up, the software platform translates the digital ink captured in Penx as geodatabase features available in ArcGIS Desktop.

# The Penx digital pen – Penx, the field-ready digital pen, writes on paper with regular ink and simultaneously records pen strokes as digital ink. The durable construction is designed to go in even the harshest climates and conditions and ranks higher in convenience by users than rugged PCs and tablets. Penx is designed for the way people work, with virtually no training required.

# Digital paper – Any standard paper up to A2 (16.5 x 23.4) can be used to print the ArcMap-designed map. Most color, high-resolution and PostScript Level 2 printers can imprint the special digital pen-enabling pattern of dots recognized by Penx.


Source : http://www.adapx.com/

Only 48 hours after UNOSAT, a United Nations operational programme of UNITAR that provides an enhanced access to satellite imagery, contacted Infoterra GmbH's teams in Friedrichshafen, the company's experts were able to deliver a readily processed high-resolution radar image acquired by the new German radar satellite TerraSAR-X.

Heavy rainfall had caused severe flooding in Bolivia, already killing more than 60 and leaving over 40.000 people homeless by February 13th, 2008. In the worst-hit province, Beni, thousands of people had to leave their homes amid rising floodwaters; rivers had broken their banks, and floodwaters were threatening to breach a raised road surrounding the provincial capital Trinidad, home to some 90,000 people.

Fearing the worst for the local population and rushing to prepare an effective emergency response, UNOSAT's Rapid Mapping, Applications and User Relations Unit, considering TerraSAR-X "the only radar satellite capable of properly detecting floods inside an urban setting like Trinidad", asked Infoterra to assess the possibilities of acquiring high-resolution radar imagery of the area.

A rapid tasking of the satellite led to an image acquisition February 14th; on the same day, the image was downloaded to the ground station and entered into the processing procedures with a high priority. On February 15th, a mere 48 hours after the initial inquiry, the image was delivered to the UNOSAT experts, who expressed a great satisfaction not only with the rapid response and delivery, but the impressive quality of the data as well.

Less than another 24 hours later, UNOSAT made a preliminary flood water analysis at scale 1:20.000 publicly available through its website: a valuable source of information not only to UN institutions, but to any other organization preparing emergency relief actions in the area – whether national or international, governmental or non-governmental.

According to UNOSAT, the map clearly depicts the flood waters over the affected urban extent of Trinidad. The flood water analysis was conducted with a single TerraSAR-X radar scene recorded on February 14th, enhanced by previously acquired RADARSAT-1 satellite data (8 February 2008, 5 April 2001). Reference: www.unosat.com

Source : http://www.infoterra-global.com/

Bottom trawling for fish stirs up billowing plumes of sediment that can be seen from space and destroys entire seafloor ecosystems, new imagery reveals.

The technique, used all over the world, is a way to catch fish in deeper parts of the ocean with huge, deep nets, now that many near-shore fish populations have been virtually wiped out from over-fishing. Several studies have shown the significant impact that trawling has on ecosystems, killing corals, sponges, fish and other animals.

New and previously released satellite images show the extent of the plumes of material kicked up. And a video of the seafloor reveals how trawling denudes an underwater world.

"Bottom trawling is the most destructive of any actions that humans conduct in the ocean," said zoologist Les Watling of the University of Hawaii. "Ten years ago, Elliott Norse (of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute) and I calculated that, each year, worldwide, bottom trawlers drag an area equivalent to twice the lower 48 states. Most of that trawling happens in deep waters, out of sight. But now we can more clearly envision what trawling impacts down there by looking at the sediment plumes that are shallow enough for us to see from satellites."

Watling presented his findings Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

Persistent plumes
As nets are dragged across the seafloor, they can crush coral reefs, drag boulders across the bottom, and trap fish and animals not intended to be caught, called bycatch. All this activity stirs up sediments from the seafloor, which create the persistent plumes in the wake of the fishing ships.

Watling and his colleagues say that the plumes visible in satellite images are likely just the "tip of the iceberg" as most trawling is in waters that are deep enough that the plume remains hidden by the water above.

"Bottom trawling repeatedly plows up the seafloor over large areas of the ocean," said fellow presenter John Amos of SkyTruth, a digital mapping non-profit group aimed at environment issues based in West Virginia. (Images of these plumes can be seen on the group's website.)

Bans and restrictions
Scientific studies showing the impacts that trawling has on ecosystems have led to increasing restrictions on the practice.

In 2005, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean banned trawling there below depths of 3,289 feet. The United States closed large deep-sea areas off the coast of Alaska to bottom trawling in 2006. Many South Pacific nations have also put a stop to the practice, and the United Nations began deliberations on a trawling moratorium in the high seas in 2006.

Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Only 48 hours after UNOSAT, a United Nations operational programme of UNITAR that provides an enhanced access to satellite imagery, contacted Infoterra GmbH's teams in Friedrichshafen, the company's experts were able to deliver a readily processed high-resolution radar image acquired by the new German radar satellite TerraSAR-X.

Heavy rainfall had caused severe flooding in Bolivia, already killing more than 60 and leaving over 40.000 people homeless by February 13th, 2008. In the worst-hit province, Beni, thousands of people had to leave their homes amid rising floodwaters; rivers had broken their banks, and floodwaters were threatening to breach a raised road surrounding the provincial capital Trinidad, home to some 90,000 people.

Fearing the worst for the local population and rushing to prepare an effective emergency response, UNOSAT's Rapid Mapping, Applications and User Relations Unit, considering TerraSAR-X "the only radar satellite capable of properly detecting floods inside an urban setting like Trinidad", asked Infoterra to assess the possibilities of acquiring high-resolution radar imagery of the area.

A rapid tasking of the satellite led to an image acquisition February 14th; on the same day, the image was downloaded to the ground station and entered into the processing procedures with a high priority. On February 15th, a mere 48 hours after the initial inquiry, the image was delivered to the UNOSAT experts, who expressed a great satisfaction not only with the rapid response and delivery, but the impressive quality of the data as well.

Less than another 24 hours later, UNOSAT made a preliminary flood water analysis at scale 1:20.000 publicly available through its website: a valuable source of information not only to UN institutions, but to any other organization preparing emergency relief actions in the area – whether national or international, governmental or non-governmental.

According to UNOSAT, the map clearly depicts the flood waters over the affected urban extent of Trinidad. The flood water analysis was conducted with a single TerraSAR-X radar scene recorded on February 14th, enhanced by previously acquired RADARSAT-1 satellite data (8 February 2008, 5 April 2001). Reference: www.unosat.com

"The rapid system response time and the supreme reliability thanks to its weather-independence make TerraSAR-X an extremely valuable data source in such time-critical situations," explains Joerg Herrmann, Managing Director of Infoterra GmbH. " The TerraSAR-X high priority acquisition was delivered to UNOSAT free of charge: we are of course more than happy to apply the system's benefits when it comes to supporting humanitarian relief activities and thus – at least indirectly – to reducing human suffering."

About Infoterra GmbH
Infoterra GmbH, Germany, holds the exclusive commercial exploitation rights for the new German radar satellite TerraSAR-X, successfully launched on June 15th, 2007 – enabling the company to provide weather-independent, high-resolution, new-quality radar data as well as reliable data access services.

A variety of geo-information products and services complete the portfolio: based on radar data as well as data acquired by other spaceborne sensors, Infoterra provides reliable and timely knowledge to customers operating in versatile fields of application around the globe.

Infoterra GmbH has been a leader in development and validation of GMES services for several years, having established a strong expertise in geo-information services for land monitoring, water quality assessment, flood risk management, and spatial planning applications.

The company is headquartered in Friedrichshafen and operates a production centre in Potsdam, currently employing an overall workforce of more than 120 employees.

Infoterra GmbH is part of the Infoterra Group, which also comprises companies in France, Spain the United Kingdom and Hungary, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium, Europe's leading space specialist.

About TerraSAR-X
The TerraSAR-X Earth observation satellite is a joint venture being carried out under a public-private-partnership between the DLR and Astrium GmbH (Friedrichshafen). At the DLR, a team of four institutes is responsible for implementing the mission in collaboration with the space agency. Astrium GmbH developed, built and launched the satellite; the exclusive commercial exploitation rights are held by the geo-information service provider Infoterra GmbH.

Contact:
Mareike Doepke
T +49 7545 8 3924
M +49 171 793 7253
E Email Contact
www.infoterra.de

Tele Atlas , a leading global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the nation's largest water, earth and biological science and civilian mapping agency, today announced an agreement whereby the USGS will leverage Tele Atlas digital map data to help develop internal USGS mapping operations solutions and for use within the USGS Web Locator application for the display of maps and geocoded addresses.

"As we continue to expand the scope of our map-based offerings and more organizations and individuals seek map-related information from USGS, it is vital that we are able to continue to offer products of the highest quality," said Kari Craun, Director of the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC).

Through the agreement, the USGS will deliver Web-based 1:24,000-scale maps containing the U.S. National Grid in conjunction with Tele Atlas map data, to support the efforts of the USGS serving the emergency and first responder communities. All USGS products will continue to be modeled on the traditional 7.5-minute topographic maps and designed for mainstream digital map users.

"We're proud to work with the USGS to power its mapping applications and to collaborate to help deliver its first products based on private and public cartographic resources," said John Cassidy, vice president of enterprise and government markets, Tele Atlas. "The strength and accuracy of our digital maps and the broad application offerings available through the USGS combine to meet the demands of vital government and public service functions, as well as for the individual map user, to better support the USGS mission."

About Tele Atlas
Tele Atlas delivers the digital maps and dynamic content that power some of the world's most essential navigation and location-based services (LBS). The information is the foundation for a wide range of personal and in-car navigation systems and mobile and Internet map applications that help users find the people, places, products, and services they need, wherever they are. The company also works with business partners who trust its digital map data to deliver critical applications for emergency, business, fleet, and infrastructure services. Through a combination of its own products and partnerships, Tele Atlas offers digital map coverage of more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The company was founded in 1984 and today has approximately 2,500 full-time staff and contract cartographers at offices in 24 countries and uses a sophisticated network of professional drivers, mobile mapping vans, and more than 50,000 data resources to deliver highly accurate and up-to-date digital maps. Tele Atlas is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TA6) and on Euronext Amsterdam (TA). For more information, visit www.teleatlas.com.

Source: http://www.teleatlas.com/

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging today released Leica Image Manager, an innovative new solution for efficiently storing and quickly sharing imagery throughout the enterprise.

This dynamic solution comprehensively addresses problems universal to many geospatial data providers and those in the public sector and civil engineering, oil, gas and land management industries. These businesses often work with geospatial data too large to be centrally stored, or rapidly shared.

Leica Image Manager is a comprehensive, Open Geospatial Consortium and International Organization for Standardization (OGC/ISO) compliant solution that solves business problems associated with securely discovering, describing, cataloging and serving imagery to a variety of web and rich client applications throughout an organization. Providing true interoperability, Leica Image Manager seamlessly connects to numerous geoweb applications and geospatial solutions, including ERDAS IMAGINE®, Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) and ArcGIS desktop products.

“When your data includes imagery, implementing a business system that securely manages and rapidly delivers your imagery to users across an organization is critical to fully realizing the potential of your geospatial data investments,” said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. “Implementing new technology, Leica Image Manager compliments our growing portfolio of solutions that bring geospatial intelligence to everyday business needs.”

Leica Image Manager is flexible, while ensuring a high level of security through administrator defined privileges. With Leica Image Manager, users may develop vertical market applications using an extensible web and rich client application framework. Implementing OGC standards (WMS, WCS and CS-W) and the ECW-P protocol, Leica Image Manager provides rapid delivery of unprecedented volumes of imagery to domain specific desktop and consumer web client applications. Leica Image Manager also leverages existing business systems, such as the Oracle database for persisting intelligent metadata and application specific information. Additionally, with Leica Geosystems’ RedSpider Enterprise and Image Integration Framework products, Leica Image Manager may be extended with tools to build geoweb applications that directly consume data and OGC web services from a variety of sources.

For more information about Leica Image Manager or Leica Geosystems, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.gi.leica-geosystems.com.

About Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging
To be successful in our changing marketplace, you need reliable, enterprise-enabled geospatial information. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging transforms your raw data to useable information, integrating a broad range of geospatial technology throughout your enterprise, via web-based, mobile and desktop clients. Delivering the most comprehensive solutions in image exploitation, processing, visualization and data management, Leica Geosystems provides robust image compression techniques and the most efficient delivery of imagery over the Internet or within an organization. With Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) interoperability, Leica Geosystems develops solutions with the most advanced service-oriented platform available.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products trust them for their precision, seamless integration, interoperability and superior customer support. Geospatial solutions from Leica Geosystems - when it has to be right.

A part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden, Leica Geosystems recently acquired ER Mapper and IONIC. For more information about Leica Geosystems or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.gi.leica-geosystems.com.

Media Contact:
Jason Sims
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging
Marketing Communications Specialist
5051 Peachtree Corners Circle, Suite 100
Norcross, GA 30092
Phone: +1 770 776 3400 or +1 866 534 2286
Fax: +1 770 776 3698
E-mail: Jason.Sims@gi.leica-geosystems.com

Mapping Louisiana Communities Workshop: An Introduction to GIS and Community Analysis
8:30 am - 4:30 pm
New Orleans: March 3rd
Baton Rouge: March 6th and 7th (Two separate one-day workshops offered)

Register/Get More Info (www.nur-online.com)

Audience: Beginners, anyone interested in mapping their community

Participants will learn to use ArcGIS 9.2 to do the following:

Creating thematic maps

Participants will learn to create thematic maps of their own data, and display spatial trends in information.

Address mapping (geocoding)

Participants will learn to map addresses of their clients, their projects or incidents such as crime or disease.
Download and map Census & American Community Survey data

Participants will learn to extract and map current Census data such as poverty, race, language, population,
transportation, education and workforce characteristics.

Participants will also learn to:
Conduct spatial queries
Download free shapefiles
Create well designed maps
Mapping techniques transferable to all other communities. Exercises are designed for beginners. Intermediate Excel skills required.

Materials

+ Comprehensive workbook (75 pages), which includes the presentation, exercises and reference worksheets,

+ ArcGIS (ArcView 9.2) software 60-day trial CD set,

+ Thirty day free access to new 2005 Tiger/Line geography files (converted to shapefiles) which include streets, zip codes, school districts, voting districts, census tracts and many other useful geographies

+ Thirty day free access to our Analyzing Your Community: Local Demographic Analysis Online Workshop

What People Are Saying

Georgia Department of Community Affairs: "This was a good class, with very useful materials."

United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta: "This workshop was great. It made learning easy and fun."

Centers for Disease Control: "This workshop was definitely worth the time. It was well organized and presented."

Alabama Department of Transportation: "Excellent. I gained a greater understanding of ArcGIS."

New Urban Research, Inc. is a national social research organization specializing in quantitative and spatial community analysis.
New Urban Research, Inc. 33232 NE 33rd Ave Portland, Oregon 97212 | 877.241.6576 | www.nur-online.com

Training 4 GIS, the training and consultancy division of The GeoInformation Group™, announced today that it is offering its sixth national GeoDATA seminar series showcasing geographic data and the benefits they bring to those within both the public and private sectors.

This successful series of events will retain its popular format of educational presentations and accompanying exhibition. As a company responsive to change, Training4GIS has evolved the programme content to focus on the business applications and return on investment issues affecting the geographic information industry.

The free to attend 1-day seminars are accredited by The Association of Geographic Information and are worth four CPD points towards the Chartered Geographer (GIS) status. The series will commence in London on 13 May followed by Manchester on 15 May, Cardiff on 20 May and Glasgow on 22 May 2008.

Leading data suppliers and data management specialists scheduled to participate at this event will include: The GeoInformation Group, Autodesk, British Geological Survey, Cadcorp Ltd, Bentley Systems, STAR-APIC, KOREC, Intermap Technologies (UK) Ltd, Environment Systems and The Association for Geographic Information.

The new seminar content will include educational presentations focusing on working practices and the latest technologies, and applications for service delivery. Topics will include:

# Open standards database management and data warehousing
# Data from different sources – Interoperability
# Application of data collected by GPS – have we identified all the applications?
# Time and the 3D – addressing some of the problems
# 3D & 4D Geological data
# Directions for the future of the GI industry
# Will imagery data take over from the vector map?
# The challenge of sharing data in a large organisation
# Web mapping – the opportunities and the pitfalls
# Integrated Project Management – Bridging the GAP between CAD, GIS & Content Management

“As the only event of this sort in the UK, Training4GIS has a unique opportunity to reflect the issues affecting GI users. In providing an independent platform for users to communicate with vendors from all aspects of the world of GIS, GeoDATA is an established event in the GI calendar.” comments Fiona Cocks, Training Manager for Training 4 GIS.

GeoDATA 2008 expects to draw an even larger audience than last year’s 500-strong attendance and delegates are strongly encouraged to register their interest promptly by calling 01223 880077.

For further information about this press release, please contact Nikki Jones or Rachel Widdicombe (tel: 01223 880077).

About Training 4 GIS
Training 4 GIS, The GeoInformation Group’s training and consultancy arm, provides high quality GIS and imagery training solutions specialising in tailored solutions designed to meet the specific training requirements of the customer.

Training 4 GIS has trained a diverse and extensive range of staff from the public and private sectors across the UK. Experiences range from intensive systems applications, data management, analysis and software training for operation staff through to geospatial information strategy training for senior managers.

ScanEx R&D Center offers all interested to find out more about the new MagicCatalog software package that has been created to generate and to manipulate with catalogs of space images, setting up archives of remote sensing data. This software component is integrated and is part of ScanMagic software application version 2.5 that began to be supplied starting in 2008.

Cataloguing (creation and replenishment of metadata, describing the space images) is an integral part of RD data archiving (storing data in archives on specific storage media). Cataloguing enables to systematize data, to ensure quick retrieval of references about the data archives stored, to arrange for search and selection from archives of the data of interest per user request.

MagicCatalog universal cataloguing tools make it possible to:

# Handle large volumes of RD data of different type, output format and processing level. In other words, separate or combined catalogs can be created for RS data, received from different imaging systems of various satellites, in different formats and processing levels. Any data ScanMagic software can operate with (over 70 diverse graphical, GIS and ERS formats), can be cataloged using MagicCatalog.

# Automatically retrieve metadata, quicklooks and images geolocation. That means that all data, required for cataloguing and further use is retrieved automatically when images are stored in the catalog. The user may change attributes of records and enter comments. A set of images can be added into the catalog automatically with just one mouse click, thus enabling data batch processing. Each image being cataloged can be associated with the name of data storage medium where the output image will be saved to.

# Create and edit custom catalogs (databases). Global catalogs (e.g. RS data unified archive of the reception center; a catalog of a stand-alone organization) and local catalogs (e.g. thematic catalogs for this or that thematic project) can be supported. MagicCatalog® users may exchange information about the cataloged data both inside and beyond one organization and with external users. Possibility to create and arrange for access to network catalogs (within one local net) enables to tailor flexible solutions for storing metadata of images being archived.

# Perform attributive search and display catalog data selection results. A user-friendly request form (search filter) enables to do data search by any available attributes (imagery data, satellite type, geographic location, etc.). Search results are displayed in table as contour coverages on the world map with a possibility to view quicklooks and attributive data (metadata) of each image.

# Create any catalog record dumps to transfer data about the image to other persons. Several files are created: quicklook in JPG format, metadata in TXT format and georeference in SHP format that can be previewed and used in other software packages.

All the abovementioned features make cataloguing tools easy-to-use and efficient

Source : http://www.scanex.com/

Work is underway by Fugro EarthData, Inc., to acquire color airborne imagery at a 6-inch pixel resolution over Effingham and Chatham Counties in Southeast Georgia. Organized by regional stakeholders to secure updated, high-accuracy orthoimagery and ancillary mapping products, the project is being performed under two separate contracts—one awarded directly by Effingham County and the other by the Chatham County Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission on behalf of the City of Savannah and Chatham County.

The project positions Fugro EarthData to work once again with Savannah Area GIS, a group charged with coordinating geospatial activities in the region. “Having previously worked together on three consecutive mapping contracts since 1996, Fugro EarthData is thrilled to continue our long and successful partnership with SAGIS,” said Anne Hale Miglarese, managing director of Fugro EarthData.

According to SAGIS Director Noel Perkins, “SAGIS is excited to work with Fugro EarthData in its acquisition of 6-inch aerial photography of Chatham County, Georgia. The cost savings of partnering with neighboring Effingham County allow us to acquire higher resolution imagery than we originally expected.”

Final mapping deliverables are scheduled for June 2008.To achieve fast project turnaround, Fugro EarthData is using its signature all-digital approach based on Leica ADS40 digital imagery combined with its Pixel FactoryTM mapping system to produce the orthophoto base maps. The project also calls for planimetric updates to include collection of building footprints and roads, as well as hydrographic features. Together, these deliverables will be used by local government agencies to support a variety of critical business processes including property assessment, growth and environmental planning, and impervious surface calculations.

Source : http://www.earthdata.com

The City of Cape Town's nature reserves are assisting schools with Geographic Information System (GIS), a new section in the geography curriculum of South African schools.

The nature reserves are providing school children with an opportunity to use hand-held Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) devices in a practical and beneficial way.

At a function in the city's Tygerberg Nature Reserve on Wednesday, learners will find out about careers in nature conservation and GIS.

Everyone will have some healthy exercise in the fresh air participating in a treasure hunt on Tygerberg Hill using their GPS units.

The schools participated in 2007 in the first year of the high schools Youth, GIS and Urban Nature project funded by the Table Mountain Fund, World Wildlife Fund -South Africa and the city.

As part of this project, which forms part of the city's Youth Environmental School (YES) Programme, Grade 11s from seven local schools took part in geography field trips to Rondevlei and Tygerberg Nature Reserves.

They used the GPS units to find their way to sites where they could observe and record plants, animals and the physical surroundings. They took digital photographs, monitored the weather and recorded their findings on a computer database. They then linked all their information to an electronic map of the nature reserve, using the GIS.

Schools will help the reserve to record the plants and animals found in an area that will be burned next summer as part of the reserve's field management programme. After the fire, they will keep regular records of what plants and animals return, providing very useful ecological information for the nature reserve.

Senior Geography teachers from schools close to the three nature reserves involved in this project are welcome to contact education officers to enquire about booking a GIS field trip.

Source : http://allafrica.com

Pitney Bowes MapInfo has been selected as a Catalist supplier on OGCbuying.solutions' Geographic Information Services and Systems framework agreement, which was awarded this month.

As the sole provider of location intelligence solutions of the ten GIS providers listed in categories 2 and 3 - Map Making Services and Data Capture, Analysis and Manipulation respectively - these awards will be strongly beneficial for public sector procurement of Pitney Bowes MapInfo Strategy and Analytics solutions and Location Reporting Services(LRS).

Pitney Bowes MapInfo's Strategy and Analytics offers innovative research, forecasting and modelling solutions focused on market and community analysis for selecting locations for facilities and resources that allow public sector organisations to better serve their citizens and customers. Pitney Bowes MapInfo's LRS provides an array of outsourced consulting services to meet its clients' needs, including: citizen/customer mapping, cartographic presentation, sales transfer studies and forecasting, field research, strategic deployment evaluation, budgeting assessments and market research.

The GISS framework agreement builds on Pitney Bowes MapInfo's existing Catalist ICT framework agreements, where the company is now accredited in multiple categories, helping to simplify the ways in which public sector bodies can access broad location intelligence solutions. Using the framework agreement it is possible to place orders for both Pitney Bowes MapInfo's market-leading GIS server and desktop software together with the Confirm asset management suite and GeoPlatform applications. The award comprehensively covers associated deployment services such as implementation, integration, training, support and hosting.

Source : http://www.webitpr.com/

A fifth release candidate of GRASS 6.3.0 free download is now available:

Source code Download:
http://grass.osgeo.org/grass63/source/grass-6.3.0RC5.tar.gz

An initial announcement has been drafted at
http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Release/6.3.0RC5-News

Key fixes include improved portability for MS-Windows (native support), several module fixes, and especially the introduction of a new, Python based portable graphical interface which includes a new vector digitizer.

About GRASS GIS software:
Commonly referred to as GRASS, this is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS is official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.


Source : http://grass.osgeo.org/

Twenty participants from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Iran and Oman are attending the fourth EUMETSAT Satellite Applications Course under way at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) here.

The course is sponsored by European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and is held in co-ordination with the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and Meteorology (DGCAM) and the Remote Sensing and GIS Centre, SQU.

The programme is meant as an opportunity for the participants to learn more about EUMETSAT satellites, the theory of remote sensing, image processing and interpretation, as well as other applications in satellite meteorology and climate studies.

The workshop is conducted by Henk Verschuur and HansPeter Roesli, both from EUMETSAT, Dr Juma Al Maskari and Humaid Al Badi from DGCAM, and Dr Andy Kwarteng from SQU.

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the university is recognised by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) for training in satellite meteorology and was inaugurated in February 2006.

It is a joint venture between the Department of Meteorology of DGCAM and the Remote Sensing and GIS Centre, and caters for the Arab speaking nations and countries in southwest Asia.

The centre’s activities are supported by EUMETSAT. Data and services from EUMETSAT's satellites provide a significant contribution to the improvement of weather forecasting and to the monitoring of global and regional climate.

Some 100 weather forecasters and environmental scientists from the Arab and southwest Asian countries have been trained since the establishment of CoE in Oman.

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/

The Grand Canyon was not just carved by water. It has also been the scene of periodic wars between the Colorado River and volcanic eruptions that dammed the river, then burst.

New airborne elevation survey data and radioisotope dating of Grand Canyon lava flows sheds new light on the battle between water and molten rocks there over the past 725,000 years.

Collecting data

To sort out all the lava flows, Crow and his colleagues used light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data that was originally collected for the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center in the northern hemisphere spring of 2000.

The LIDAR survey data allowed the team to map out the lava flows in relation to sea level, making it easier to identify the tops and bottoms of the lava flows seen pasted on the walls of the canyons.

As for exactly how the lava dams worked, how far they backed up water and how violently they failed, that's all still largely a matter of conjecture.

"There are many possible scenarios and explanations for how the dams were formed or were destroyed, and it's likely that we'll never know them all," says Dr Cassandra Fenton, a geochemist at GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam in Germany.

Fenton has studied what may be some of the largest lava dams in the Grand Canyon and their outburst floods."It makes you wish you could have been standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon watching it all happen when those lavas were damming the river, or see when the river finally overtook the dams," she says.


Source : http://www.abc.net.au/

The Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) only female surveyor, Ms Loh Sook Yee, became the first Asian woman to win the coveted Hart Prize in Surveying from the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering from the University of Central London (UCL) in February this year. At just 28 years of age, she is the youngest woman surveyor in Singapore, To-date, there are only 3 women out of 67 registered surveyors with the Singapore Land Surveyors Board (LSB). SLA is the national land surveying authority and it manages and maintains the national land survey system, including the defining of boundaries or legal limits of properties based on a coordinated cadastre survey system.

The UCL in the United Kingdom is the Ivy League-equivalent in surveying and UK is the international authority in surveying and mapping. The prestigious Hart Prize from UCL awards the best student on exams and coursework. Recognized as the most prestigious surveying academic award in U.K., it is founded in 1971 by Mrs Elsie H B Hart in memory of her husband, Cecil Augustus Hart, sometime student and member of staff of the College, Professor of Photogrammetry and Surveying and Fellow of the College. The recipient receives 250 pounds and a distinguished award.

Sook Yee’s course project was on Singapore’s high-accuracy GPS positioning called SiReNt, which stands for Singapore Satellite Positioning Reference Network. Developed by SLA, SiReNt uses reference stations to improve the accuracy of positions acquired using GPS technology. It is physically represented by five GPS reference stations strategically located around the island and provides many new opportunities for various geospatial applications. The applications are far-reaching, such as in transport, logistics, fleet, security, and homeland and incident management.

Sook Yee said: “The positioning of vehicles and moving objects achieves accuracy levels in the several metres range. With SiReNt, users can tap into it to achieve sub-metre accuracy levels. This makes for more efficient and secure operations. We envision that SiReNt will become the national GPS-reference network for customised applications and change the way we work, live and play. It will mark a new era of high precision and improved productivity for land and maritime surveying, emergency response, public transport fleet management, mapping, navigation and tracking activities in Singapore."

Sook Yee graduated with a 2nd Upper degree in Civil Engineering of NUS, and has been with SLA for 4 years in its Land Information Centre and Survey Services, doing mapping and positioning technologies. She went on SLA’s Postgraduate Scholarship Award (a development program for our high potential officers) and obtained her MSc in Surveying with the top distinguished Hart Prize in the cap. She is now involved in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure project and promotion of high-accuracy GPS infrastructure to both the public and private sectors.

The award Council spokesperson from UCL, Dr Jon Iliffe said, “Sook Yee showed a strong performance across the full range of the course, from the highly theoretical and mathematical aspects to field surveying. She survived the rigours of a field course under challenging weather conditions in March, and won the respect and affection of both staff and her fellow students”.

Soh Kheng Peng, Singapore’s Chief Surveyor and President of Singapore’s Land Surveyors Board said, “The small female presence in this traditionally male-dominated discipline is undaunted. Our female surveyors are today making significant inroads in surveying, in their own ways. The Board hopes to increase public interest in pursuing land surveying as a profession.”

Source : http://www.sla.gov.sg

About 2,400 kinds of maps, atlas, digital and on-line maps, as well as surveying and mapping books, were published in China in 2007, figures released by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) on Monday show.

In all mediums, there were about 150 million maps in total.

The publication has satisfied the public's need for study and traveling, the bureau said on its Website.

The surveying and mapping personnel provided services for various initiatives last year, including the second national land survey, preservation of the Great Wall, Arctic exploration, and the Beijing Olympic Games preparations, the bureau said.

In 2007, notable progresses were also made in basic surveying and mapping, the bureau said. They had completed nearly 600,000 maps, up 61 percent year-on-year, and developed hundreds of software and geographic information application systems, up 25 percent.

SBSM provided 1.54 million land survey results, digital maps and aerial photos to 20 sectors in the country, including land and resources, petroleum, communications and environmental protection.

The production value of the geographic information industry reached in excess of 50 billion yuan (about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007.
This had promoted the development of intelligent communications, modern logistics and Internet services, according to the bureau.


Source : http://news.xinhuanet.com/

TopoSys North America Inc., Denver, Colo., will feature the advantages of simultaneous LIDAR/Ortho Image acquisition at the International LIDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) in Denver, Colo. February 21-22 and will conduct a workshop titled “Complete, End-To-End, Workflow of Typical LIDAR Projects from Pre-Flight Planning through to Data Processing and Final Deliverables.”

The workshop will provide an in-depth view of the step-by-step processes and workflows of wide-area and corridor LIDAR/ortho imagery projects. It will focus on the use of the TopoSys line of LIDAR/imaging systems and using TopPIT, the pre-and-post processing software, to create deliverables such as Digital Surface Models (DSM), Digital Terrain Models (DTM) and True Ortho-Imagery.

The TopoSys line of LIDAR/Imaging systems is comprised of three systems: The state-of-the-art Falcon III features a fiber-based laser providing the most accurate, uniform LIDAR point-cloud and an integrated RGB/NIR line scanner; the versatile Harrier 56 with Full-Wave-Form echo digitization, 200 kHz pulse rate laser scanner combined with a calibrated 39M pixel camera; and Harrier 24 is an optimized entry-level system for helicopter-based mapping with the combination of a calibrated 39M pixel camera and a low-cost 10 kHz Laser.

All three sensor systems are complemented by TopPIT, the LIDAR processing software developed by TopoSys to handle all pre-and-post processing functions. It streamlines the entire workflow from pre-flight planning to the creation of deliverables such as DSM’s, DTM’s and true ortho-imagery. TopPIT co-registers the RGB/CIR imagery together with the LIDAR data and uses the DEM to rectify "true" orthophotos in one production flow. (To read article with images click: http://www.lidarcomm.com/id31.html).

The workshop will also look at the advantages the TopoSys LIDAR/Imaging systems provide aerial LIDAR surveys, such as: Reliability, Productivity, Quality and Accuracy.

1 – Complete line of sensor systems:
Totally integrated systems include GPS, IMU, data storage, flight planning, LIDAR sensor and RGB/CIR camera.

2 – No mechanical wear-out means no repetitive calibration or boresight:
The advanced systems TopoSys utilizes, such as the fixed-beam deflection of the fiber-based scanner, have eliminated all mechanical errors. Therefore, they do not require regular calibration or boresight tests. Toposys systems require calibration only once a year performed by a factory technician.

LIDAR coordinate systems change significantly on systems based on an oscillating mirror to deflect the laser beam, thus requiring frequent boresight flights. LIDAR technology based on an oscillating mirror needs to mechanically accelerate from side to side, deflecting the laser pulse onto the ground. This mechanical process of flipping the mirror from side to side, requires the mirror to start, speed up, then slow to a complete stop before reversing, speeding up and stopping again hundreds of times per second. This leads to mechanical wear-out causing the alignment with the IMU to drift and requiring a “boresight” before every mission.

3 – Highest quality data:
High-density, overlapping measurements and a uniform scan pattern allow for exact detection of objects and line objects such as power line cables, polygon structures and better representation of small vertical objects. Vertically stacked objects such as individual power line cables can also be identified.

A further consequence of the accelerating/decelerating oscilating mirror is that it paints the ground with a varying point density: More points are concentrated on the swath-ends than in the center where they are more useful for aerial LIDAR surveys.

4 – Production-proven:
TopPIT LIDAR/Imaging software has been used on a daily basis in a LIDAR/Ortho Image production environment for 12 years with proven productivity. One software handles the entire workflow from pre-flight planning to creation of final deliverables such as DSMs, DTMs, and True Digital-Orthos. The high quality data from the TopoSys sensors helps to automate and streamline the process.

5 – Productivity gains:
Save up to 50% in data acquisition times for projects requiring LIDAR and imagery by collecting accurate, high-density LIDAR simultaneously with high-resolution RGB/NIR ortho imagery.

6 – Proven reliability:
Twelve years of day-to-day, aerial survey operations in fixed-wing or helicopter platforms makes the TopoSys LIDAR/Imaging Systems the most reliable on the market - German-engineered, space-frame construction results in the most stable, durable and dependable LIDAR/Imaging systems.

7 – 12 years of practical experience as a service provider is built into systems, software and support for its customers’ LIDAR mapping business.

About TopoSys:
TopoSys Topographische Systemdaten GmbH was founded in 1995 as a spin-off of Dornier GmbH, one of the world’s leading air- and spacecraft manufacturers. Building on its long-standing expertise in the development and production of fibre-optic LiDAR scanners, TopoSys is committed to the manufacturing and worldwide marketing of turnkey LiDAR systems that include three newly developed products: Falcon III, Harrier 56 and Harrier 24. TopoSys offers a well-balanced family of sensor systems, allowing its customers to deliver all LiDAR applications from precise, wide-area topographic mapping to high-density corridor mapping. TopoSys North America Inc. was established as a wholly owned subsidiary in February 2007, with its North American headquarters situated in Denver, Colo.

For more information, please visit http://www.toposys.com

Administrators can learn how to better manage ArcGIS Server by tuning in to an upcoming Web seminar that provides an overview of the product’s architecture along with related data access and security information.

ArcGIS Server Setup and Administration will air on ESRI’s Training and Education Web site at www.esri.com/lts on February 28, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific standard time).

People unfamiliar with ArcGIS Server will benefit from first watching the free training seminar, What’s New in ArcGIS Server at 9.2, at www.esri.com/server92seminar .

ArcGIS Server provides many ways to build and deploy a true server-based geographic information system (GIS). But whether your organization uses the product out of the box or in a customized environment, learning some basics about the software’s architecture will help in managing the technology. During the seminar, attendees will learn about

# The overall product architecture including the different components of ArcGIS Server and where they can be installed
# How the architecture relates to data access and security and how to manage users and permissions
# Configuring service properties using ArcGIS Server management tools
# How to locate ArcGIS Server documentation and help resources

A broadband Internet connection and an ESRI Global Account are needed to watch the seminar. Creating a global account is easy and free: visit www.esri.com/lts, click Login, and register your name and address. After the live presentation, the seminar will be archived and available on the ESRI Training and Education Web site.

For more information about this free live training seminar and upcoming classes, visit www.esri.com/training.

About ESRI Educational Services

With more than 150 courses to choose from, ESRI Educational Services is a recognized leader in GIS training. Courses cover a variety of topics related to ESRI software, the theory underlying GIS technology, and applying GIS tools to find solutions in particular fields while combining hands-on experience, interactivity, and instructional support to create an effective learning environment. Visit www.esri.com/training for more information.

Global Positions, LLC announced the release of KnowGIS 9, which is now shipping. The KnowGIS training series provides video-based innovative training material for learning and knowing ArcGIS Desktop, including ArcView software. This innovative video training series contains eleven (11) tutorials and is an excellent tool for learning and understanding ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop. It is also an excellent reference for information and techniques. The detailed instruction on GIS concepts and software techniques, combined with project files to work along with the instructor, enable you to retain more and broaden your skill set. This video series which contains eleven (11) videos is dedicated to helping you understand ESRI's integrated suite of applications which make up ArcGIS Desktop, including ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcToolbox, the Command Line Window and Model Builder.

Jere Folgert, Training Host, shares his real-world knowledge of how to use ESRI's incredible GIS applications. Mr. Folgert became an ESRI certified instructor in 1999. Jere has worked in the GIS arena for over (17) seventeen years, is a GIS Professional, and has a Masters of Science Degree in GIS. He is a member of the General Council at the University of Edinburgh, Great Britain and has provided GIS training to personnel at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Prentice Hall Publishing, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service (NWS), USDA NRCS, Adventure Travel Company, United Parcel Service (UPS), University Professors, private industry, and many State and County governments.

Education is a prudent and an essential investment. Pervasive technologies such as GIS, demand highly trained personnel. As geographic information technology moves from innovation to maturity, our educational concerns will also increase. Many organizations are faced with the need for renewal in an age of constant change and innovation. Overall, there is a need for existing workers to acquire practical knowledge and skill in the subject of geographic information systems (GIS). Learning to use a GIS effectively the users must not only know how to use the software and hardware which the system is comprised but how geographic information is going to help them solve problems in their related field.

Visit the site.

Abaco Srl, leader in the research and development of GIS tools and applications, today presented at Top-Cart 2008 the new integrated Land Management Information System under the name of “SITI Project”, designed to make it easier for Central and Local Authorities to get an integrated web-based solution to manage Land, Urban Units, Hydrograph and Streets, incorporating the market recognized products DbMAP ASJ and DbMAP Web 3D.

The solutions allows to exploit all the potential of National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) and provides a concrete answer to the EU Inspire initiative; SITI Project tries to address the need of real applications that have to take care of all the NSDI stakeholders, being those technology or people, and allowing to “define or use” the “existing or forthcoming” standards and criteria.

SITI Project is an open framework that contains an out-of-the-box solution fostering the concept of centralized spatial database, but customizable and connectable to the existing sources of data available within the SDI; it promotes the re-use of existing Spatial Data, especially on Spatial Data Infrastructures based on a centralised architecture, to improve the service level and visibility, to shorten the time-to-market of Land Management solutions, to reduce the risk through Abaco’s proven technology, and to drive fast integration and implementation of Land Management applications.

The underlying Abaco’s technology is well known for it’s complete openness towards all the major standards of GIS Data, from Rasters to ESRI ShapeFiles, from WMS sources to Pictometry, allowing to have the best-of-breed tools to manage existing data; plus it supports the standard interchange formats of cadastres, allowing to quickly create new interfaces for upcoming formats.


Source : http://www.abacogroup.com

GfK GeoMarketing has updated its digital maps of Australia and New Zealand. Each country-specific map set includes around 30 maps covering, among other things, postal code districts, municipalities, bodies of water and road networks. The digital maps are available in all standard data formats.

Digital postal code maps form the basis of sales territory and expansion planning in modern businesses. These and other such maps can be implemented into specialized software applications known as geographic information systems (GIS). Using postal codes, a wealth of company-related information can then be imported and analyzed, from customer addresses and turnover figures to sales force distribution and logistics networks. By displaying this information visually, new relationships and trends can be discerned in a company's data.

However, as postal code systems are frequently restructured, it's crucial that companies have access to the latest maps and cartographic information.

New Zealand is a case-in-point: A comprehensive postal code reform will go into effect on July 1, 2008, after which the previously used postal codes will no longer apply. GfK GeoMarketing has already digitized these new postal code districts, ensuring continued accuracy with regard to companies' customer locations, sales territory planning and regional revenue forecasts.

The city points in the New Zealand map set have also been revised and expanded. For example, the new map set contains 200 city points with associated population information, providing an important basis of orientation. New with this edition are maps of the rail network, city areas, elevation levels and airports.

The Australian map set has also been significantly revised. The postal code map with more than 2,600 postal code districts has been newly digitized for enhanced accuracy. All administrative maps have been fully updated and refined, from the country's states and territories to the approximately 1,400 “local statistical areas”. The Australian map set also has some new additions, including maps of city areas and the rail network.

Both map sets offer a significantly higher level of detail than in previous editions. All of GfK GeoMarketing's digital maps are vector-based, meaning that they allow continuous zooming. In many locations, the level of detail corresponds to a resolution comparable to that of a conventional topographical map at a scale of 1:50.000. This level of quality is necessary for successfully making use of the maps in other digital environments and applications.


Source : http://www.gfk-geomarketing.com/

A satellite image of fires that burned south of Richmond can be downloaded from: USGS. (Size7.40 MB)

Approximately 6,000 acres of burned area is visible from space. On February 11, the U.S. Geological Survey's satellite, Landsat 7, captured an image of the fires south of Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. The blue area near the bottom of the image represents recently burned areas. The orange color on the edge of the blue areas indicates active fires at the time of the image.

Landsat 7 flies at an altitude of approximately 445 miles and has a 16 day cycle for complete global coverage of the land mass of the planet. Fire fighters, disaster management teams and state and local officials frequently use the satellite images to monitor location, extent and condition of burned areas.


Source : http://www.usgs.gov/

The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala, here, an institute under the State government, has announced the launch of the State’s first Active Web Geographical Information System (GIS) service in public domain using free and open source software technology.

Announcing the launch here on Saturday, K.R. Srivathsan, Director of the institute, said publication and distribution of spatial data were becoming increasingly important for scientific and business organisations to make smart decisions.

Active Web GIS had a significant role in e-governance applications, which used a large volume of geographical information. The main objective of Active Web GIS, he said, is to make dynamic geographical information available in a simplified, open Web interface. He was addressing the concluding session of the three-day Free Map workshop held at the institute.

Free Map is a voluntary group of experts aimed at empowering communities across India and the world to lead the growth of free and open mapping in India. A group of 43 professionals and students attended the workshop.

Participants mapped the Technopark campus by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Open Stret Map technology.

The site, hyperlink “ http://www.edugrid.ac.in/webgis,” helps the visitor access State-wide dynamic weather information and one-week forecast updated every three hours. It provides thematic maps of Kerala and advanced fly-through of 3D topography.

In an active Web GIS, the geographic objects or attributes are powered by dynamic database systems that represent the changes in the real world. It allows the visualisation of dynamic data in a natural geographic setting.

Source : http://www.hindu.com

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) will provide the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology (DOST) with full support to establish a roadmap for capacity-building and the implementation of space technology application programs in disaster response and management.

At a meeting with the Philippine delegation, UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) chief Mazlan Othman vowed support for the development of the Philippines’ space technology applications, after the National Congresses on Space Technology Applications and Research (NC-STAR) identified the country’s roadmap.

A major focus of the Philippine participation in COPUOS involves securing access to space technologies in disaster response and management through the recently established UN Platform for Space-Based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).

Established in 2006, the UN-SPIDER program seeks to provide countries with ready access to space-based data for use in all phases of the disaster management cycle and helps reduce the loss of lives and property during natural calamities.

The Philippines considers the UN-SPIDER a priority program, given the country’s vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) have been designated as national focal points for Philippine participation in the UN-SPIDER program which will maintain offices in Bonn, Germany; Beijing, China; and Geneva, Switzerland.

The DOST and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) agreed that much work remains to be done to inform the average Filipino of the relevance of outer space technologies, not only in addressing profound development challenges, but also in making possible day-to-day activities such as long-distance phone calls and short messaging (texting).

Ambassador to Austria Linglingay Lacanlale, who sits as Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN COPUOS, said that although the COPUOS addresses highly technical matters such as space debris mitigation, near-earth objects, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and compliance with the UN outer space treaties, it also pursues valuable initiatives to enable countries without active space programs, such as the Philippines, to gain access to space technologies and useful applications.

The Philippines highlighted the important role of space technology in supporting sustainable development in developing countries at the ongoing 45th Session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STSC) of the UN COPUOS.

Speaking at the two-week session, DOST Senior Science Research Specialist Dr. Jose Edgardo Aban commended the UN for promoting international cooperation in outer space matters through the COPUOS, making it possible even for developing countries to benefit from the application of space technologies to critical development-related concerns and quality-of-life issues.

Aban, senior science research specialist of the DOST’s Committee on Space Technology Applications (COSTA), presented the Philippine position on space-system-based disaster management support.

He also informed the UN on the Philippines’ efforts to revitalize the domestic space technology applications sector under the biennial NC-STAR.

Convened by the DOST in 2005 and 2007, the NC-STAR has to date resulted in a road map for capacity-building and implementation of space technology application programs in the Philippines, within the context of the goals enunciated under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Water Sector Development Strategy (WSDS), and the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

Source:

Ghana's annual production of salt of 250,000 metric tones falls far short of her potential for commercial production estimated at 2.5 to 3.0 million metric tones per annum, Mr Joe Baidoo-Ansah , Minister for Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and PSI said yesterday.

This is due to inefficient production methods, obsolete machinery, lack of capital and industry data information and weak production infrastructure.

To salvage the situation, the Ministry with support from the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Services and UNICEF, have established the National Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to provide the right information needed for an accelerated growth of the industry, Mr Baidoo-Ansah stated.

Launching the GIS yesterday, the Minister said the salt industry had been identified as one of the strategic industries in which the country had high growth potentials and the PSI and the GIS would transform the Ghanaian salt industry into an internationally competitive one.

He said the system, which would tap both unexploited and underexploited salt deposits, would be capable of providing one of the best quality salts for the people in the sub-region and beyond.

Benefits to be derived from the GIS include an information gateway for investors, a database for the salt industry, contours on producing areas in Ghana, detailed information on towns where there is salt and pictorial presentation on the salt industry in Ghana.

Source : http://www.modernghana.com/

Take a trip to the Museum of Modern Art in New York this month and you will get to see a rather frightening online map pinpointing possible terrorist acts in real time, presented as part of the museum’s ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’ exhibition which opens on 19 February.

The frighteningly patriotic site, called Global Incident Map, is described as “a display of the wedding of technology and human behaviour”. It's presented alongside other such “software mash-ups" combining mapping and presentation of data including terrorist acts, open pubs, local crimes and restrooms.

Designer doesn't think it's art.

"It seems relevant, even though I can't look at my website and think of it as art," Global Incident Map creator Morgan Clements told AFP news. "Anyone who goes to the website is usually shocked by what's going on in the world at any given moment."

Clements spends all his time sifting news from around the world and marking anything he considers sinister on his maps.

"We could use this to map anything," Clements said of the program. "Bird flu outbreaks, gang violence, and disease outbreaks. You could map UFO sightings if you want to."

Clement’s site typically gets 40,000 to 50,000 visits daily. We’ll let you decide if it’s art or simply the strange meanderings of a single, misguided patriot/crackpot.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/

THE nation's insurance giants are developing a map of the coastal areas at risk from rising sea levels in a bid to curb billions of dollars in potential payouts resulting from climate change.

The move comes as the New South Wales Planning Department has refused to release a report expected to warn that tens of thousands of homes on the state's central coast face inundation as sea levels rise.

Through the Insurance Council of Australia, home insurers such as IAG are developing a nationwide flood mapping tool aimed at identifying areas most at risk from rising sea levels and increased flooding and cyclonic activity.

"Flood remains a significant community issue that stands to worsen with the various inundation predictions arising from current climate change models,'' IAG chief risk officer Tony Coleman said Thursday.

Members of the ICA are working to simplify the criteria relating to climate change-related claims -- such as by establishing a "minimum standard definition for flooding'' - because insurance laws surrounding such claims are complex and in some cases unclear.

Most insurance policies do not cover against general flooding, while building damage caused by associated land erosion is generally covered.

Sea level expert and head of Geosciences at Sydney University Peter Cowell, who is working closely with IAG, said hundreds of thousands of homes faced possible inundation resulting from climate change over the next 20 to 30 years.

Source : http://www.news.com.au/

There is a much used adage regarding the ocean that goes something like this: we know more about our solar system than our ocean. Whether or not one believes this to be true (less than 5% of the ocean has been explored), a group of over twenty researchers, by agglomerating the available information on the oceans, have created a large-scale image of the ocean's health.

Compiling massive amounts of data from professional literature and research on marine ecosystems, the researchers created the first map displaying the extent of human impact on marine ecosystems.

"A series of papers have highlighted the role humans are having on the degradation of the oceans through specific activities. It's timely to put it all together—to show how all the different effects sum up," explained Dr. Fiorenza Micheli, associate professor of biology at Stanford and lead author of the study.

Such maps have been made for terrestrial landscapes using satellite imagery, but to do so for the ocean required studying particular human activities and their impacts on varying environments. It also required a greater reliance on modelling and predictions.

The researchers selected seventeen ways in which humans' impact marine ecosystems, including commercial fishing, global warming, development on the coasts, pollution from shipping, and runoff from fertilizer and other chemicals. Micheli commented that "for some human activities, we have global data, like commercial fisheries catches. For others, we developed models to estimate global impacts." They measured these impacts against twenty marine ecosystems, from coral reefs to open ocean, taking into account the particular vulnerabilities of each ecosystem. The ocean was broken down into square kilometers—361 million of them—each of these square kilometers were measured according to its ecosystem and the human impact on that particular kilometer. A number was then assigned depending on the degree of impact.

The research yielded some disturbing results. Forty-one percent of the ocean suffers from high impact of human activities, while only four percent can be considered pristine. One of the most affected ecosystems is coral reefs, half of which are greatly threatened. Other highly-degraded marine environments include mangrove forests, seagrass beds, seamounts, continental shelves, and rocky reefs. Open ocean and deep ocean, perhaps not surprisingly, did far better, although they are still affected by human activity.

Particular regions, as well, stand out. Worst among them are the Caribbean, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, Japanese waters, South-east China seas, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea, the East Coast of North America, and the western Pacific. The fact that most of these areas are adjacent to large human populations corresponds to another recent study which directly linked coral reef deterioration with proximity to human populations. The Arctic and Antarctic are the least impacted, however they are also the seas which are first and most affected by increasing global warming. Other regions of low impact include northern Australia, western-central Pacific, and spots along the coasts of South America and Africa.

Dr. Micheli believes that this map and its successors are great tool for conservationists and governments. She said that it should "guide ocean zoning and management of coastal waters."

Source : http://news.mongabay.com/

The Agriculture Department is seeking information about methods for delivering, disseminating and integrating large geospatial datasets for its Farm Service Agency and other users. USDA is interested in commercial software and/or online mapping interface services that could replace FSA's current systems.

Those systems are outdated, allow only limited access and make it difficult to share information, USDA said in the request for information posted on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site Jan. 25.

USDA wants an environment that consists of a centralized, fully integrated architecture. It could potentially be hosted at its National IT Center in Kansas City, Mo., and Aerial Photography Field Office in Salt Lake City. Centralizing the hosting of geospatial applications would improve communication between FSA headquarters, state offices and service centers.

By allowing users to access data from a central location, the system would reduce the need to request information from specific service centers.

FSA administers programs such as crop commodity price support, disaster relief and assistance for conservation practices in part by digitizing and maintaining agricultural field boundaries or common land units from digital ortho-imagery supplied by the National Agriculture Imagery Program. The agency also verifies that farmers’ and ranchers’ agricultural practices follow USDA guidelines.

The aerial imagery is viewed at 2,350 county service centers, which store and manage the geospatial data for their locales. The centers also use the imagery to help identify farm parcels and acreages. In addition, the centers store and use supplemental data provided by state and local governments and private-sector sources.

Each center has state information technology employees who maintain, update and secure the infrastructure. Clients above the service-center level can't access information because users can only work with data on the local server and within their administrative area. However, cataloging and publishing metadata on centers’ data holdings would further tax the already overstretched staff resources at the state and local levels.

Furthermore, the service centers rely on infrastructure hardware that is targeted for replacement, and an increasing number of business applications are migrating to a centralized, online environment.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer also wants the agency to consider moving the major geospatial hardware from county service centers and consolidating the equipment at six data centers, which would reduce the risks to physical and information security.

Responses to the RFI are due Feb. 29.

Source : http://www.fcw.com/

Trimble has announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007, ended Dec. 28, 2007. Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $312.8 million, up approximately 34 percent from revenue of $234.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Fiscal 2007 revenue was $1.222 billion, up 30 percent when compared to fiscal 2006 revenue of $940.2 million.

Operating income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $39.3 million, up 44 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006. Operating margins in the fourth quarter of 2007 were 12.6 percent, compared to 11.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006. It should be noted in year-over-year comparisons that amortization of intangibles increased from $4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 to $10.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Additionally, the impact of stock-based compensation expense was $4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to $3.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. There was no in-process research and development expense in the fourth quarter of 2007, while there was a $860 thousand in-process research and development expense in the fourth quarter of 2006. Excluding these impacts, non-GAAP operating income of $53.4 million grew by 51 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. Non-GAAP operating margins were 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 15.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Operating income for fiscal 2007 was $178.3 million, up 32 percent compared to 2006. Fiscal 2007 operating margins were 14.6 percent, compared to 14.4 percent in 2006. Amortization of intangibles increased from $13.1 million in 2006 to $38.6 million in 2007 due to acquisitions. Stock-based compensation expense was $15.0 million in 2007, compared to $12.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. In-process research and development expense was $2.1 million in 2007 compared to $1.9 million in 2006. In 2007 there was a $3.0 million restructuring expense, while in 2006 there was no restructuring expense. Excluding these impacts, 2007 non-GAAP operating income of $237.0 million grew by 45 percent compared to 2006. Non-GAAP operating income margins were 19.4 percent in 2007, up from 17.3 percent in 2006.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was up approximately 10 percent, to $26.3 million, compared to net income of $24.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2007 were $0.21, up from diluted earnings per share of $0.20 in the fourth quarter of 2006. The tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2007 was 35 percent, compared to 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Adjusting for the amortization of intangibles, in-process research and development, and the impact of stock-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was up 18 percent, to $35.5 million, compared to non-GAAP net income of $30.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Non-GAAP earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2007 were $0.28, up from non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.26 in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Net income for fiscal 2007 was up approximately 13 percent, to $117.4 million, compared to net income of $103.7 million in 2006. Diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2007 were $0.94 up from diluted earnings per share of $0.89 in the fourth quarter of 2006. The full year tax rate for 2007 was 36 percent, compared to 30 percent in 2006.

Adjusting for restructuring charges, the amortization of intangibles, in-process research and development, and the impact of stock-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2007 was up 26 percent, to $155.1 million, compared to non-GAAP net income of $123.2 million in 2006. Non-GAAP earnings per share for 2007 were $1.25, up approximately 17 percent from 2006 non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.06.

Source : http://trimble.com/

THE annual INFOMAR seminar at the Marine Institute headquarters in Galway today announced new plans for marine mapping and outlined how the project is supporting efforts to combat climate change.

INFOMAR (INtegrated Mapping FOr the Sustainable Development of Ireland’s MARine Resource) is the national marine mapping programme and follows on from the Irish National Seabed Survey. It is managed jointly by the Marine Institute and Geological Survey of Ireland. It is a multi-annual NDP supported programme and provides vital baseline data to support a range of marine activities from shipping safety, to aquaculture and research.

In 2007, the INFOMAR team surveyed more than 4,600sq. kms of area, discovering new offshore features including a major glacial moraine over 15km long and a 40km long deep trough extending along the Dingle peninsula coastline. In addition to offshore of Dingle, Bantry, Dunmanus and Galway Bays were extensively mapped. All of the digital data produced by the project is now available free to download from a new interactive map on the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) Website. Among the projects and research being supported by INFOMAR are a number of climate change initiatives:

Mapping was carried out off Belmullet for the site selected for a new Wave Energy facility;

INFOMAR supported IMAGIN, a project examining the feasibility of extracting aggregates from the Irish Sea, recognising significant potential reductions in the carbon footprint of the industry by moving production offshore;

Drill cores taken by the project in Galway Bay show evidence of extreme weather events in the relatively recent past, which may reflect former climate change;

Galway Bay data is feeding into a new study into groundwater interactions, which it is hoped will help understand the cyclical flooding and drought events in the surrounding area, which are predicted to worsen with climate change.

Source : http://www.fishupdate.com/

Arup, a global firm of designers, engineers, planners, and business consultants, has chosen a server-based geographic information system (GIS) provided by ESRI to help manage more than ten thousand worldwide engineering projects.

Through an ESRI enterprise license agreement (ELA), 86 Arup offices, located on five continents, will connect with one another and with clients and project stakeholders using ESRI's ArcGIS Server as well as many other ESRI desktop products.

"Location is everything," says Arup lead GIS consultant Ewan Peters. "Our projects generate and require a vast amount of location-based information that comes from different sources and exists in different formats. ESRI's suite of GIS products provides the tools that Arup needs to manage, analyze, and communicate ideas and designs to help shape a better world."

Arup has used ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop software for various projects throughout the last 10 years and has recognized an increasing demand for GIS services on an enterprise and customer service level. The management of engineering projects, such as highway design, site development and regeneration, flood modeling, environmental management, acoustic modeling, and transport planning, highlight Arup's extensive plans for the use of ArcGIS Server.

"ArcGIS Server is going to play a vital role in future projects as well as how we operate as a firm," says Peters. "Having the ability to use GIS on an enterprise level within a managed information system is a crucial part of our corporate GIS strategy. ArcGIS Server provides the tools to allow us to do this."

ArcGIS Server is a complete and integrated server-based GIS. It comes with out-of-the-box, end-user applications and services for spatial data management, visualization, and spatial analysis. ArcGIS Server offers open access to extensive GIS capabilities that enable organizations to publish and share geographic data, maps, analyses, models, and more. With ArcGIS Server software's rich standards-based platform, centrally managed, high-performance GIS applications and services can be accessed throughout an organization using browser-based, desktop, or mobile clients.

Source: www.esri.com.

Geographic Technologies Group, Inc. (GTG) is at the top of their game when it comes to GIS, and they are using their expertise to save time, money, and lives. Their newly released GeoBlade Crimes is guaranteed to make a difference in local government organizations across the nation. GeoBlade Crimes is just one of the multitudes of “blades” incorporated into the GeoBlade toolset. Blades are additional functionalities to the core viewer, specific to an agency’s departmental needs.

GeoBlade Crimes is designed to give Police and Sheriff Departments the ability to make intelligent decisions that will help make their city or county a safer place to live. GeoBlade Crimes also gives public safety users the ability to create pin maps for incidents, accidents, arrests, citations, and sexual predators in a seamless GIS interface that directly connects to an organization’s Crime Record Management databases. This application gives users the ability to run geographic analysis for crime trends, generate high quality incident reports, and print maps with crime data.

GeoBlade Crimes is unique due to its ability to leverage any Crime RMS platform and the fact that it is built on the latest ESRI technology; this gives users a true return on investment that leverages their existing GIS and Crimes RMS platforms. GeoBlade Crimes is the bridge between these two applications that puts incident and GIS data in the hands of every public safety official. “GeoBlade Crimes is the most powerful enterprise-wide crime analysis package,” said James Kelt, Regional Manager for GTG. “It gives officers the ability to see crime data in a whole new light.” For more information on the GeoBlade software suite, visit www.geotg.com/geoblade or call 888-757- 4222.

U.S. scientists have documented, for the first time, the dynamics of parts of Greenland's ice sheet using remote sensing and digital imaging.

The University at Buffalo researchers said their findings represent important data that have long been missing from the ice sheet models on which projections about sea level rise and global warming are based.

Traditionally, ice sheet models are very simplified, said Assistant Professor Beata Csatho, lead author of the research. "Ice sheet models usually don't include all the complexity of ice dynamics that can happen in nature. This research will give ice sheet modelers more precise, more detailed data.

"If current climate models … included data from ice dynamics in Greenland, the sea level rise estimated during this century could be twice as high as what they are currently projecting," she said.

The researchers, among other things, found two different parts of the same glacier can behave quite differently and that a glacier does not necessarily react to climate change as a single, monolithic entity.

The study that included scientists from Ohio State University, the University of Kansas and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration appears in the online edition of the Journal of Glaciology.


Source : http://www.upi.com/

Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli seismologists have formed a cross-border partnership to research earthquake activity in the Middle East.

Tel Aviv University seismologist Hillel Wust-Bloch created the earthquake mapping research partnership to explore seismic activity around the ancient city of Jericho -- one of the world's most vulnerable areas for quakes and a region important to Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis.

The four-year project will mark the first time that Earth scientists from those three regions have worked together directly, Wust-Bloch said. In the past, partnerships have usually occurred through a third party, such as the United Nations.

The project, which includes scientists from Al-Balqa University in Jordan, and An Najah University in Nablus, will be led by Tel Aviv University and involves deploying six nano-scale "seismic microscopes" in the Jericho region, in order to map a 39-square-mile (100-square-kilometer) area.

"From a scientific point of view, this project is innovative because we are monitoring the seismic activity of a region which is well-known, but we are doing it at much lower thresholds," said Wust-Bloch.

Source : http://www.earthtimes.org/

The European Environment Agency has finalised an agreement with an ESA-led consortium to provide unparalleled information on air pollution, which contributes to the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Europeans annually.

Under the agreement, the European Environment Agency (EEA) will use a service, which combines and processes satellite data with surface measurements from 29 European countries to deliver accurate information on air quality daily, to support the implementation of European air-quality policies.

"Sophisticated processing and satellite data from ESA will combine to deliver state-of-the-art information on air quality. This will allow EEA to get the most from ground-based measurements collected through its networks," EEA Project Manager Tim Haigh said.

The 'Integrated Air Quality Platform for Europe’ service, part of the ESA GMES (Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security) PROMOTE (PROtocol MOniToring for the GMES Service Element) project, was developed to provide end-users information about air quality and is currently providing forecasts for up to 72 hours at a resolution of 50 km.

The service includes data on ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (the sum of all particles suspended in air, including dust, smoke, pollen, etc.). Exposure to these pollutants can cause adverse health effects such as decreased lung function, increased respiratory symptoms and allergic responses, according to the World Health Organisation.

The service applies an ensemble approach by combining three different and thoroughly validated air-quality models: MOCAGE (Meteo-France), EURAD (RIU), and CHIMERE (INERIS). These models combine in-situ and satellite data using different data assimilation techniques in order to generate consistent information about air quality.

The Service Level Agreement (SLA) was signed between EEA and the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) and the German Space Agency (DLR).

In addition to supporting air quality policies, the service offers the wider public the ability to protect better their health by avoiding exposure and taking measures to reduce air pollution.

Source : http://www.esa.int/

A new edition of the Year Book Australia series has been launched by His Excellency, Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Miriam Middlemann, His Excellency Governor-General, Amy Prendergast and Dr Neil Williams at the 2008 Year Book Australia launch

2008 Year Book Australia, which contains 3 articles contributed by Geoscience Australia, is the latest edition of the principal reference work produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It provides a detailed, comprehensive statistical overview of aspects of the economic, social and geographic conditions of Australia.

The Year Book is the ”flagship„ publication of the ABS, with the first official edition being published in 1908. This year it reflects on the International Year of the Planet Earth, and also pays tribute to the Year of the Scout.

Geoscience Australia is proud to have collaborated with the ABS on 2008 Year Book Australia, contributing the articles Sustaining the mineral resources industry - overcoming the tyranny of depth, Tsunami risk to Australia, and Understanding natural hazard impacts on Australia.

For more information on 2008 Year Book Australia, please consult the ABS website.

Source : http://www.ga.gov.au

The French space agency CNES and Spot Image are contributing to a number of research programmes now underway for International Polar Year (IPY), for which they have built up a significant archive of imagery of the polar regions from SPOT 5’s HRS instrument (High Resolution Stereoscopic). With global warming today a chief concern, these data are giving scientists around the globe an opportunity to gain a closer insight into the world’s changing ice cover.

Satellite imagery is a vital tool for tracking temperate and polar ice cover. In this respect, SPOT 5’s HRS instrument has the key ability to acquire stereopair imagery at a spatial resolution of 5 metres, covering an area of 120 km x 600 km.

CNES and Spot Image have launched the SPIRIT project (SPOT 5 stereoscopic survey of Polar Ice: Reference Images and Topographies) in partnership with French survey and mapping agency IGN, responsible for generating digital elevation model (DEM) products, and the LEGOS space geophysics and oceanography research laboratory, principal investigator. The chief aims of this project are to:

* Image 2.5 million sq.km. of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, covering glaciers, small ice caps and the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland.

* Allow scientists around the world working on themes in line with IPY to access the SPOT 5 HRS archive through a dedicated Web interface.

* Distribute DEM products free of charge to research laboratories approved by CNES, to give them a baseline topography that until now has been lacking for studies of polar ice, so they can map change in these regions.

An initial imaging campaign in the Northern Hemisphere has already covered 830,000 sq.km of Arctic regions. The ongoing Antarctic campaign has set out with the ambitious aim of covering 2 million sq.km of the ice sheet.

Source : www.spotimage.com/IPY

NAVTEQ (NYSE: NVT), a leading global provider of digital map data for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions (LBS), has announced this year’s semifinalists for the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge – Americas. One Grand Prize Winner and three Runners-up will be revealed during an awards ceremony at CTIA in Las Vegas on April 2, 2008.

The 2008 Global LBS Challenge – Americas semifinalists are:

America's Emergency Network’s solution, AEN Mobile
Cutlass, Inc.’s solution, Game Park
Duzine LLC’s solution, SportsTalk
HeyWhatsThat’s solution, HeyWhatsThat
Hollowire’s solution, Proxido
KnowledgeWhere, Inc.’s solution, PhoneTag Elite
Medianet’s solution, TaxiStop
SearchQuest, Inc.’s solution, POI Cruiser
Synctones’ solution, WildLab
Ten23’s solution, SpotJots
Tenereillo, Inc.’s solution, Trapster
Twipster’s solution, Twipster
Urban Mapping, Inc.’s solution, UMI Transit
Yojo Mobile, Inc.’s solution, MizPee
Zoospi, Inc.’s solution, ZooM

The annual Global LBS Challenge invites developers to build location-enabled applications that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ® map data. Participants compete for a global prize pool of cash, licenses and services from NAVTEQ and sponsors of the event, with this year’s prize pool the largest to date, valued at nearly $3 million US.

Contestants are judged by an elite panel of judges comprised of major wireless carriers, industry experts and venture capitalists. To view details about the semifinalists and their applications, visit www.LBSChallenge.com.

At its World Press Days event, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced updates to its comprehensive software solutions for building information modeling (BIM) including Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, Revit MEP, AutoCAD Civil 3D, and Autodesk NavisWorks. BIM is an integrated workflow built on coordinated, reliable information about a project from design through construction and into operations. By adopting BIM, architects, engineers, contractors and owners can easily create coordinated, digital design information and documentation; use that information to accurately predict performance, appearance and cost; and reliably deliver the project faster, more economically and with reduced environmental impact.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080212/AQTU085-a)
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080212/AQTU085-b)

"Demand for innovation and efficiency in building design, civil engineering and construction continues to drive the AEC industry's adoption of BIM," said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. "Autodesk is continually working to provide our customers with technology that provides competitive advantage and design innovation. Our BIM solutions offer complete, effective design and analysis tools and continue the revolution in AEC workflow catalyzed by our Revit platform."

Autodesk's 3D modeling technologies are helping customers understand and improve the performance and operation of their designs before they are built. Through highly regarded analysis technology from Robobat, Intelisolve, and NavisWorks -- all now part of the Autodesk portfolio -- Autodesk's 2009 BIM solutions help architects, engineers and designers to make better design decisions earlier in their process. The updated BIM solutions also improve project collaboration and integration between the building design, civil engineering and construction disciplines.

2009 Revit Platform

The Revit platform for BIM features improvements to each of the purpose-built solutions for architects and engineers. It keeps information coordinated, up-to-date and accessible in an integrated digital environment, giving project teams a clear overall vision of their designs and streamlining the decision-making process. New updates to the Revit platform include:

-- Revit Architecture 2009 (BIM for architects and designers) allows
customers to capture early design concepts with improved analysis and
visualization capabilities via:
o Increased sustainable design and energy analysis capabilities
through easy exchange with partner applications
o Improved visualization functionality with the new Mental Ray
engine for rendering, improving speed, quality, and usability

-- Revit Structure 2009 (BIM for structural engineers, designers and
drafters) has been enhanced with greater modeling and documentation
capabilities and is compatible with the newly acquired Robobat
solutions. The AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite now includes AutoCAD
Structural Detailing, enabling:
o Steel and reinforced concrete detailing and shop drawings
o State-of-the-art formwork drawings

-- Revit MEP 2009 (Revit for MEP engineering) provides customers with
detailed, specified modeling functionalities, including:
o Air handlers, commercial condensing units, packaged rooftop units,
and high-efficiency water source heat pumps

Autodesk NavisWorks 2009

Autodesk NavisWorks extend the value of BIM by enabling the aggregation of building information with data and geometry from other sources. By integrating building information, data, and geometry, Autodesk NavisWorks solutions enable the most complete understanding possible of the overall project, despite the use of multiple software platforms and applications -- improving coordination, collaboration, and project sequencing for design and construction projects. With Autodesk NavisWorks solutions, users can:

-- Aggregate design models and data from documents created on both
Autodesk and non-Autodesk software applications
-- Develop more comprehensive views of projects and analyze and simulate
designs before construction
-- Make better design and construction decisions, and extend the value of
their investments in design software.

The Autodesk NavisWorks solutions consist of four software products: Autodesk NavisWorks Review provides basic model aggregation; Autodesk NavisWorks Simulate includes NavisWorks Review and adds time line and 4D capabilities; Autodesk NavisWorks Manage also adds clash detection functionality, enabling seamless visualization of all types of models, precise replication of designs, accurate simulation of 4D construction schedules, and clash detection to keep all project stakeholders on the same digital page, whether they are creating, viewing, or reviewing 3D models. Autodesk NavisWorks Freedom is a free viewer for files in Autodesk NavisWorks NWD and 3D DWFTM formats.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 enables the benefits of BIM for civil engineering, from surveying and design through to documentation submittal and the delivery of 3D models for GPS machine control during construction. Important new functions in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 include:

-- A comprehensive stormwater hydraulics and hydrology solution for storm
sewer design, watershed analysis, detention pond modeling, and culvert
analysis.
-- Complete survey functionality that allows users to directly import raw
data; edit survey observations; and create points, figures, and
surfaces that are directly integrated into the model to support the
design process.
-- Criteria-based road design that ensures local design requirements such
as stopping and passing sight and headlight distances are being met.
-- Easy to implement solution for sharing model data across project teams
using standard AutoCAD xrefs and intelligent Civil 3D data shortcuts
(without requiring Autodesk Vault).

Availability

Product availability will vary by country. Details and purchasing options will be accessible starting March 25, 2008, at: http://www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions. Information and selected content from Autodesk World Press Days may be found at http://www.worldpressdays08.com/.

The U.S. Geological Survey, has awarded Global Marketing Insights, Inc. a contract to complete a market research study of the African Remote Sensing Market in aerial and satellite data technologies.

The USGS serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.

In their continuing support of the Earth Sciences this USGS study includes a five and ten year analysis of the Political, Economic and Technical Trends impacting the African Remote Sensing Professions; Academic, Commercial and Government Users. A key segment of this research will be completed by collecting information from respondents on-line. The surveys encompass political and economic trend information impacting the remote sensing industry, as well as applications usage, and data needs concerning Aerial Film, Aerial Digital, Aerial Sensors, and Satellite data.

The USGS African Remote Sensing Research surveys can be accessed by logging onto http://www.empliant.com/USGS-remote-sensing-research . A respondent simply clicks on the appropriate link based on their background in order to complete this brief (5 minute) survey. The survey information is being collected real-time in order to obtain statistical research based on the current responses. These surveys are targeted to the commercial end users and producers of these technologies, ground station data collectors, value added providers and processors of remotely sensed data, as well as academic and government users of remote sensing technologies. The final research project will be publicly available by early 2009.

Source : http://www.globalinsights.com/

Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer, Cadcorp, has announced that Bedfordshire County Council has awarded it a contract to replace the council’s existing GIS with a new, web-enabled system based on Cadcorp SIS – Spatial Information System.

Cadcorp will supply multiple licences of Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller and Map Editor desktop and GeognoSIS web-based digital mapping/GIS software, together with its desktop and Internet software development kits (SDKs).

The new software will replace Bedfordshire County Council’s existing corporate and departmental GIS facilities in order to provide a unified GIS environment for all of the council’s spatial data-related applications and across all council departments. It will also provide access to spatial data, via the council’s web site, for the general public.

“Following the usual competitive tendering process, we selected Cadcorp SIS and GeognoSIS, from a shortlist of two possible suppliers, for a number of reasons, including value-for-money and database flexibility,” said Dr. Martin Alcock, IS consultant, Bedfordshire County Council. “External database links are built into the software as standard, so there is no requirement for additional-cost ‘middleware’ in order to connect to third-party database management systems, such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and PostGIS,” he explained. “Further, its ability to read/display and write to over 160 native GIS, CAD and graphics formats, again as standard, will enable us to use our legacy GIS data in the new system without difficulty,” he added.

“On top of that,” he went on, “the value for money that the Cadcorp solution represents will enable us to develop and deploy a more comprehensive corporate GIS within the available budget”.

Among the benefits that the combination of the new Cadcorp SIS-based GIS and the open-source PostGIS spatial database will bring the council are simplified and improved access to spatial data held by Bedfordshire County Council, its partners, district councils and government bodies; greater currency and reliability of information; and improved administrative efficiency. By providing controlled public access to information via the Internet it will also enable the council to better meet its electronic service delivery targets, to the benefit of its citizens.

“We are proud and delighted that Bedfordshire County Council has selected Cadcorp SIS as the basis of its new corporate GIS,” said Mike O’Neil, managing director, Cadcorp. “We look forward to working with the council’s team to help it realise its ambitions.”

Source : http://www.cadcorp.com/

Anne Hale Miglarese, president of Fugro EarthData, Inc., was appointed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to serve as chairperson of the newly created National Geospatial Advisory Committee. Comprising experts from government, the private sector, and academia, Miglarese, along with other committee members, will provide advice and guidance on the direction of geospatial policy at the national level.

“Serving as chair of this group is a tremendous honor,” Miglarese said. “My fellow committee members are among the best and brightest in the geospatial community. By working together, we have a unique opportunity to share our different perspectives, experiences, and expertise to the benefit of federal geospatial programs.”
Miglarese will share committee leadership responsibilities with Vice-Chair Steven Wallach of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and will report to the chair of the Federal Geographic Data Committee. Meeting three to four times a year, one of the group’s primary focuses will be to provide advice to further develop the National Spatial Data Infrastructure for increased availability of geospatial data to all potential users.

“Better coordination of existing and proposed geospatial resources is something I am very passionate about. If our committee can help federal decision-makers manage and leverage existing programs that maximize investment by serving the greatest number of users, then we will have made real strides toward enabling spatial decision support for hundreds of programs across all sectors of our economy and as a result more efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars,” Miglarese said.

Miglarese offers the committee both public- and private-sector experience. Serving as president of Fugro EarthData since 2004, she previously was in charge of coastal information services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coastal Services Center, and the natural resource and planning section at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Source : http://www.earthdata.com/

Mobile World Congress 2008 booth #1G45 -- NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital maps for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions announces the global launch of NAVTEQ Discover Cities(TM) which is the first bundled digital map data and location content to bring the power of a local guide to mobile devices.

The product is now available for major cities in Europe, with plans in place to expand to major Asian and Latin American cities later in the year in addition to multiple existing North American cities.

NAVTEQ Discover Cities(TM) combines pedestrian thoroughfares like sidewalks, walkways, tunnels and bridges with time-sensitive public transit system information to enable true multi-modal routing. For the first time, urban travelers in Europe with enabled devices will be able to take full advantage of their surroundings by being able to get from place to place using the most time efficient and closest transportation option. Business travelers and tourists will also have a better understanding of what's around them, enhancing orientation even in unfamiliar cities for greater efficiency on business trips and more memorable vacations. This represents a significant increase in features and functionality than previous versions of the product.

When used in combination with other location content from NAVTEQ, such as JiWire Wi Fi hotspots, branded travel guides, 3D Landmarks and 3D City Models, Discover Cities gives users a richer, more informed travel experience and assists their transition from one type of transportation to another during a journey.

"As a leading provider of digital location-based content, NAVTEQ understands the power of a location-referenced world and is committed to providing users with the content they need to make smarter decisions," commented Shane Green, VP Location Content at NAVTEQ. "Discover Cities has the potential to completely change the travel experience. Imagine arriving in an unfamiliar city and having the information at your fingertips to move through and take advantage of what that city has to offer just like a local would, whether you are driving, walking or taking public transportation".

For more information about NAVTEQ Discover Cities, please visit our booth at 3GSM Mobile World Congress, booth 1G45 or go to http://www.navteq.com/discovercities. Demonstrations of NAVTEQ Discover Cities will be available for viewing.

The first new geospatial exhibition for more than 15 years - targeted at engineering, surveying, geomatics and GIS professionals - has been launched in the UK. GEO-8 combines the hugely successful annual event the World of Geomatics with a new opportunity - GIS Innovations - and is set to become the UK’s biggest exhibition showcasing all aspects of geospatial information.

GEO-8 will take place on the 9th and 10th of April 2008 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK. GEO-8 has already attracted top names from the international world of measurement and data collection together with leading suppliers of geographical information solutions, respected UK educational establishments and professional trade organisations.

“Place Matters according to a recent report to government and with our relocation to the world class facilities offered by the Ricoh Arena we think that Coventry is the place to be in April 2008,” said Stephen Booth of PV Publications, organisers of the event and publishers of Geomatics World, GIS Professional and Engineering Surveying Showcase. “By bringing together suppliers from all aspects of the geospatial industry from those involved in measurement, mapping, processing, presentation and modelling of geospatial data through to those who use the information in sophisticated systems that rely on geographical locations we hope to create industry leading event.”

GEO-8 will also co-host the m3 Conference. Focusing on the 3m’s of geospatial information - measuring, modelling, managing the conference will provide the opportunity for geospatial professionals to come together to discuss current practice, consider current and emerging technologies and to hear topical presentations from high profile business leaders, practitioners, academics and researchers.

The Ricoh Arena in Coventry is a world-class centre for business, entertainment and sport. The Ricoh Arena offers state-of-the-art conference, banqueting, exhibition, hotel and sports facilities and the multi purpose complex has already won awards for its design. Occupying more than 40 acres close to the M6 motorway the Arena is home to Coventry City Football Club and has also attracted stars such as Brian Adams, Bon Jovi and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to the Midlands city.

Contacts:
Stephen Booth
Tel: +44 (0)1438 352617
Email: Email Contact
Web: www.pvpubs.com

Blue Marble Geographics (www.bluemarblegeo.com) is pleased to announce they will be exhibiting at the ESRI Federal User Conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, February 20th and Thursday, February 21st. Come and visit booth 603 to learn why Blue Marble’s coordinate conversion technology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

Blue Marble recently released Geographic Calculator v7.0, a major version upgrade that features a new ArcGIS Extension, enabling users to access Blue Marble features directly in ESRI’s ArcGIS software. This exciting new feature of the Geographic Calculator extends the power of ArcGIS as a geodetic definition and geospatial management interface.

The new ArcGIS Extension allows users to work with the Geographic Calculator directly in ArcGIS. Some of the main features of this extension include:

# The ability to switch between geodetic definitions found in the Blue Marble GeoCalc XML data source and other existing geodetic definitions contained in ArcGIS
# Define and generate a custom PRJ using the Blue Marble coordinate system dialogues
# Compare data conversion results from ArcGIS projects in the Geographic Calculator
# Convert a point layer in the Geographic Calculator and add it as layer in ArcGIS

Use Blue Marble’s Administrative conversion rules to define acceptable geodetic conversion routines and apply them for your ArcGIS users. These tools will ensure that your GIS users are using the most accurate methods for creating and manipulating geospatial data.

“We are extremely pleased to introduce our Calculator extension for ArcGIS to the federal user,” stated Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “Our software extends and enhances the geodetic tools found in ArcGIS, enabling GIS users to create and maintain high accuracy and high quality data throughout their GIS data lifecycle.”

About Blue Marble Geographics

Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, Maine is a leading developer and provider of geographic software products that provide sensible solutions for users and developers of geographic data. Blue Marble has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for 15 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Learn more at www.bluemarblegeo.com

Contact Information:

Kris Berglund
Blue Marble Geographics
Gardiner, ME, USA
Email Contact / 800-616-2725

Cengea Solutions Inc. announces today that it has acquired the assets of Inform Network for Systems Management Limited.

Cengea and Inform have been the two dominant suppliers of spatially enabled information systems to the forest products industry in Canada and have had growing success in providing systems to the forest products industry in the United States.

“The acquisition of Inform broadens the Cengea product set and strengthens our ability to address the emerging needs of the North American marketplace. The skill base that comes with Inform enhances our ability to not only service existing customers but address the opportunities we see rising in the related land use applications. “ said Garry Rasmussen President and CEO of Cengea Solutions Inc.

Mary Jane Devine, President, Inform Network for Systems Management Limited said“ by combining the capabilities of the two companies we provide our customers with an expanded capacity to meet their needs in future and our employees with a greater diversity of opportunities.”

Cengea Solutions Inc. is the result of a merger in 2006 of Ansera Resources Inc. of Vancouver and Linnet Geomatics International of Winnipeg. The company is active in both the Forestry and Agriculture Industries with customers in Canada the United States and Great Britain.

Inform Network for Systems Management Limited is a joint venture of TELUS and Timberline Natural Resouce Group. Founded in 1999 the company has customers in Canada and the United States.

For additional information contact
Cengea Solutions Inc.
Garry Rasmussen
Email garry.rasmussen@cengea.com
Phone 604 697 6464

Inform Network for Management Systems Limited.
Mary Jane Devine
Email MaryJane.Devine@informgis.com
Phone 604 714 2873

Remote sensing and aerial survey specialist Bluesky has been awarded a project by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to create a digital archive of scientific images from the organisation’s Airborne Research and Survey Facility.

Bluesky will scan the unique photographic images using state of the art hardware and software. The images will then be individually referenced for wider use by the Council, government, academia, other research agencies and commercial organisations. Bluesky has previously completed a contract on behalf NERC to scan more than 43,000 aerial images dating back more than 25 years.

The Bluesky team of experienced and dedicated personnel will scan the images, captured by the Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF) during 2007 in a variety of locations throughout mainland Europe, Iceland, Greenland and the UK, using two high-end scanning machines, (Vexcel Ultrascan 5000 Photogrammetric Flatbed Scanners). Metadata (data about data) such as Project Name, Location, Film and Frame Number and the date, time and GPS position of the camera, will then be added to each digital file before the images are transferred to the NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC) archive at the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot.

“The images were collected for historical comparison with existing photographic records providing a valuable record of landscape and land use change,” said David Davies, Co-Pilot and Systems Engineer at the ARSF of NERC. “We can only undertake this analysis by comparing like with like and as Bluesky created our ‘master’ archive it was only natural to award them the contract for conversion and reference of this years images.”

Davies continued, “In addition the digital files will be used to assist in the production of highly detailed 3D height models (DEMs) and as the images cover a variety of terrains; forest, heathland, wetland and glaciers as well as industrial and urban centres, they will provide a valuable resource for additional fieldwork and investigations.”

The original project was commissioned by NEODC as part of their role in supporting the Council’s earth observation community in locating, accessing, interpreting and exploiting Earth Observation data and ensuring the long term integrity of Earth Observation datasets produced and acquired by NERC projects and programmes.

Bluesky is a UK based company specialising in aerial imaging and remote sensing data collection and processing. With projects extending around the globe it has an international reputation for the creation of seamless digital aerial photography and 3D landscape and cityscape visualisations. Bluesky’s national mapping centre provides digital maps, site maps, satellite imagery, aerial photography and ultra-high resolution imagery of cities and towns.

Website: www.bluesky-world.com
Editorial enquiries, contact Robert Peel on tel. +44 (0)1666 823306
Colour separation requests – please fax only to +44 (0)1666 824 668
All reader enquiries to Bluesky sales on +44 (0)1530 518 518

DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a leading provider of Location Intelligence, has announced the availability of a reverse geocoding service for it’s DevZone, a feature rich, software development platform for developers interested in creating innovative Location Intelligence applications. As a Location Hub™ service, reverse geocoding uses Geography Markup Language (GML) to return civic addresses based on a set of geographic coordinates typically generated by GPS enabled devices.

Although reverse geocoding is not new to the location intelligence scene, this functionality is now easily accessible through the DMTI DevZone. Against the back drop of Location Hub’s accurate, high quality data, validated address points and multiple dwelling unit (MDU) buildings are returned to the user to drive workflows dependent on using address based information. A host of solutions can be developed, including traditional applications like asset management and tracking as well as new opportunities such as pedestrian-based local search, social networking applications.

“With the release of the reverse geocoding service for DevZone, DMTI continues to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to evolve the platform and ensure that our customers receive the greatest benefit from their Location Intelligence applications," stated George Staikos, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Sales, DMTI Spatial. "Being able to quickly develop a location based solution easily for industry specific business problems enables our customers to better profit from the use of location within their enterprise."

The 2008 Intelligence Enterprise Expedition (IEE08) conference will showcase the DMTI DevZone and has an open working area for developers. For more information about the DevZone at the IEE08 conference see: http://www.dmtispatial.com/iee08

For a free preview of the DMTI DevZone, visit www.locationintelligence.com

The Carbon Project announced today that the National Science Foundation has awarded the company a grant to develop a new geosocial networking application called ((Echo))MyPlace®.



((Echo))MyPlace is a “real time, real place” social networking application that combines 2D and 3D mapping from Microsoft Virtual Earth with a peer-to-peer network featuring dynamic streams of location-based digital news, video content and geographically-targeted marketing.

”((Echo))MyPlace has a very modern and exciting look and feel that will appeal to a wide range of users,” said Jeff Harrison, President and CEO of The Carbon Project. “It’s designed to let local entrepreneurs target their message to the people most likely to be interested in their products and services and enhance the value of their advertising.”

A beta version of ((Echo))MyPlace is expected to be released mid 2008. For more information on ((Echo))MyPlace contact info@TheCarbonProject.com.

This work is being support by the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

About The Carbon Project

The Carbon Project is an innovative, high-energy software and technology company specializing in mapping and Geosocial Networking™. The Carbon Project serves professionals, software developers, government agencies and businesses that develop mapping solutions or use geospatial data. The Carbon Project also provides geographically enabled social networking solutions for distributing real-time digital news, video content and geographically targeted marketing. Headquartered in Boston, The Carbon Project is a privately owned company backed by individual investors. For more information please visit: www.TheCarbonProject.com

The Carbon Project, ((Echo))MyPlace and Geosocial Networking are trademarks or registered trademarks of Carbon Project, Inc.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

LizardTech, a division of Celartem, Inc., and a leading provider of software solutions for managing and distributing digital content, today officially launched a portal site where existing GeoExpress users can upload imagery to Express Server 6. The portal site can be found at http://portal.lizardtech.com/.

The key new feature in the recently released version 7 of GeoExpress is its integration with Express Server, specifically the ability of a GeoExpress client to upload imagery directly to Express Server 6. To showcase the benefit and ease of using this feature, LizardTech deployed a public Express Server portal site for GeoExpress users to publish their imagery to on a 30-day trial basis. Upon publishing, users can instantly view their imagery in WMS applications, ArcIMS, and several Web applications, including Javascript, Flash and Ajax. This results in increased productivity by reducing the effort and time it takes to distribute imagery to the decision makers who need it.

"One of the most exciting new features of GeoExpress 7 is being able to encode and publish imagery to Express Server in one simple operation," said Jon Skiffington, LizardTech senior product manager. "With the new Express Server portal site, our current GeoExpress users can see just how quickly they can publish their imagery and make it accessible."

Customers who do not currently have the latest version of GeoExpress and would like to take advantage of the Express Server portal site can contact their sales representative at http://www.lizardtech.com/purchase/other.php and request an upgrade. Those who do not own GeoExpress can download a trial version here: http://www.lizardtech.com/products/geo/pretrial.php

About LizardTech
LizardTech, a division of Celartem, Inc., was founded in 1992 to build valuable business solutions from technologies created by the world's leading research organizations including Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and AT&T Labs. LizardTech is a leader in applying state-of-the-art technologies to the real-world challenges of managing, distributing, and accessing large complex digital content such as aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and color scanned documents. LizardTech's software is installed on millions of desktops and integrated into a wide variety of platforms and applications. LizardTech has offices in Seattle, London and Tokyo. LizardTech is a division of Celartem, Inc., which is wholly owned by Celartem Technology Inc., (Hercules: 4330). For more information about LizardTech, visit www.lizardtech.com.

About Celartem
Celartem Technology Inc. develops and sells innovative technologies for storage, access and distribution of rich media content. Celartem has developed technology in the areas of digital image compression, scalable image viewing and secure content distribution and management. Celartem is listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, Hercules:4330. Established in 1996, Celartem is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Celartem Inc. with headquarters in Seattle.

TerraServer has announced that digital satellite and aerial image files are now available to be delivered on various backup storage devices, including CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, HD-DVD, USB Flash, and Hard Drive.

This allows TerraServer customers to easily create custom imagery discs, which can be used offline without an Internet connection and provide extra security/redundancy for data backup and recovery.

"This is a way to offer our customers some security on their imagery investment," said Brian Randy Funk, COO of TerraServer. "We see this as a great backup solution for our large aerial and satellite imagery customers."

The offline, hard copy backup option is available for digital imagery purchases for an additional price, depending on the selected storage method. All custom backup methods are then created on demand and then shipped directly from TerraServer. Additionally, all digital imagery purchased through TerraServer is always immediately available for download once the transaction has been completed.

TerraServer is offering imagery on traditional Compact Discs (CD-ROM) and Digital Versatile Disc (DVD-R). TerraServer also support the next generation, high definition discs including Blu-ray Disc (BD-R) and High-Definition DVD (HDDVD-R). By comparison, the HD-DVD offers 20 times as much storage space as a CD-ROM and the Blu-ray Disc can store 34 times as much as a CD-ROM. In addition, TerraServer offers Flash Memory Drives (USB) and external Hard Disc Drives with storage capacity up to 80 GB, which is equivalent to 115 CD-ROMs.

About TerraServer
Since 1997, TerraServer® has positioned itself as the leader in online imagery. The company, based in Raleigh, NC, aims to be the one-stop site for aerial photos and satellite pictures. The interactive TerraServer.com website allows customers to easily search and view imagery from multiple sources and offers custom image downloads and prints.
www.TerraServer.com

Lynx Transcends Traditional Site Selection by: Accelerating Franchise Sales, Optimizing Target Markets, Screening Real Estate Efficiently

Orlando, Feb. 11, 2007 -- geoVue, a leading provider of dynamic location optimization software, today announced here at the International Franchise Association’s 2008 International Convention iPLAN Lynx and its Franchisee Portal Solution, a groundbreaking advance to its iPLAN market planning platform that enables retail and restaurant chains to optimize targeted growth markets in seconds or minutes vs. hours or days.


geoVue goes beyond simple site selection. It optimizes locations. Using its innovative solutions and domain expertise, geoVue develops predictive store trade areas that allow clients to decide which markets to enter, expand or exit, how they should optimize store networks within each market and what sites to choose.

“Identifying new growth opportunities and maximizing existing store performance are the two most significant ways in which a retailer can increase the value of its chain,” said James Stone, founder of geoVue. “For too long, many retailers have been reacting simply to what is currently available in a market rather than proactively developing the right number of stores in the right locations. Only iPLAN Lynx helps chains assess the market landscape, determine the optimal number of locations that a given market can support and identify the ideal position of each site to get the most from the entire network in minutes. iPLAN Lynx combines the power of mathematical models with the experience of research analysts. The result is an efficient, practical, reliable and valuable way for chain facility operators to get maximum returns on their investments.”


The latest version of geoVue’s iPLAN offers a number of breakthrough features, including the following:

New Features:

High-speed drive-time engine computes hundreds of thousands of drive-time “trips” from each neighborhood in a market to each candidate location. Using this new engine, chains can now optimize entire markets in seconds or minutes vs. hours or days.

Enhanced usability features enable even inexperienced users to run “what if” scenarios and create and analyze highly usable reports. Now, even non-technical individuals without analyst training (execs, assistants, franchise sales managers, etc.) can achieve top results.

Works in conjunction with numerous desktop mapping and reporting software offerings (ESRI’s Business Analyst, etc.) through the geoVue toolbar, so that customers can leverage their existing investments.

In addition to the existing stand-alone desktop configuration, customers can now purchase hosted ASP Web-based solutions or integrated enterprise applications that can be tailored to a retailer’s size and needs, with customized, role-based access to information.

The Franchise Portal, a Lynx-based packaged solution for franchise companies allows quick and efficient access of optimized markets, creating efficiency in territory development and accelerating new franchise locations.

“iPLAN Lynx represents a fundamental shift in reporting functionality for real-time market planning," said Jim McConville, director of Real Estate, Pet Supermarket. “With this latest version from geoVue, non-technical and inexperienced users even executives will be able to report on and conduct real-time market planning."

“geoVue has raised the bar again,” said Andy Verostek, market planning analyst at Sagittarius Restaurants, LLC. “With easy-to-use interfaces, concise reporting features and lightening speed, the new iPLAN Lynx has revolutionized the way I plan markets. When you are planning brand growth in numerous DMA’s from coast to coast, speed with accuracy is essential. iPLAN Lynx exceeds all performance expectations, allowing me to spend more time doing what I was hired to do, produce results.”

geoVue’s iPLAN software adapts to changing market conditions. While a market blueprint is a snapshot in time, iPLAN allows clients to update plans and evaluate “what-if” scenarios as business landscapes evolve. The software allows users to perform the following analyses:

Market Potential: Identify over or under-performing locations

Market Capacity: Estimate the ideal number of locations a market can support

Market Opportunity: Identify the best new locations to maximize market performance

Ideal Market Layout: Determine the ideal market configuration to asses repositioning opportunities

Market Comparison: Assess the impact of adding, closing and relocating stores in a market

Market Analysis: Evaluate merger and acquisition opportunities

iPLAN Lynx is available immediately. geoVue will be demonstrating the new product here from February 9th-12th 2008 at IFA booth #1104.

About geoVue (www.geovue.com)
geoVue is the leading provider of dynamic location optimization software for retailers, restaurants and other real-estate based consumer channels seeking a higher return on capital investment. geoVue’s state-of-the-art modeling and optimization solutions help its clients holistically plan store networks and prioritize capital investments based on predictive, multi-factor trade areas. Clients prioritize markets to enter, expand or exit; optimize store networks; and localize marketing and merchandising. geoVue’s unique approach to data and model maintenance provides each client with a localized, real-time geospatial decision-making framework configured for its particular customer-centric strategy. geoVue clients “don’t leave square footage on the table.”

Founded in 1994 and based in Woburn, Mass., the company has more than 150 clients, including Big Lots, Dunkin’ Brands, Meineke, Papa Murphy’s, Pet Supermarket, REI and Burlington Coat Factory.

Crown research institute GNS Science has published a geological map and companion book covering a 24,000sq km slab of the central South Island, from South Westland across much of Canterbury.

The 1:250,000 scale map contains greater detail than existing geological maps of the area, released in the 1960s, and has been compiled using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and published and unpublished research.

But compiler and GNS Dunedin geologist Dr Simon Cox said the map, which cost about $1.5 million to produce, was already out of date.

"On Sunday the week before last, a large rock avalanche fell off Vampire Peak in the Mount Cook area. We recorded it on our seismographs like a 2.5 (magnitude) earthquake," he said.

"I went up there the other day and there's a big rock pile over the Mueller Glacier. That shows to me the dynamics of the landforms."

The map uses cross-sections put together from seismic experiments carried out in the late 1990s to show rock structures up to 5km below the surface. It also records more than 70 types of gravel from glacial advances and retreats.

The accompanying text de scribes rock types and other deposits and highlights potential geological hazards and economic geology.

Cox said producing the map had been a "mammoth" job. It covered areas that had not been visited before by geologists.

Many geologists and field workers had been involved over the eight years, and support had been given by more than 20 organisations. Landowners and the Department of Conservation had allowed access and the use of huts, and helicopter companies had provided transport.

The compilation team had calculated where there were gaps in knowledge before doing the fieldwork. The result was a map that was a vast step forward from the earlier ones, Cox said.

"The first maps came out after about a couple of years of fieldwork, before (the theory of) plate tectonics had been accepted,'' he said.

"The new map shows over 1500 different faultlines over which that strain could be released.''

Source : http://www.stuff.co.nz/

Scantech International, a specialist 3D laser scanning service company, has selected a state of the art laser scanning system from 3D Laser Mapping. The system is based on a Riegl LMS Z390 scanner and was chosen after extensive field trials that impressed with the speed and accuracy of data capture; the device can capture up to 12,000 measurements per second to 5mm accuracy.

The system was initially used by Scantech to complete a full building survey of Leicester General Hospital in the UK producing as-built drawings, plans and elevation models of every room in the Victorian and more recent buildings. The hospital was originally opened in 1905 to house 512 patients and is now a leading national centre for renal and urology patients and home to the headquarters of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. After a competitive tendering process, the project to undertake a full measured building survey was awarded to Scantech International in two parts. Scantech completed the first phase, approximately 10,000 square metres, using both traditional survey and laser scanning methods however it was apparent that this method was not ideal for remaining 70,000 square metres.

The second phase of the survey was completed in just 10 weeks and using the measurements captured by the Riegl LMS Z390. Scantech produced plans, elevations and sections of all the rooms in the hospital to allow the hospital’s condition survey consultants and architects to carry out their work using accurate as-built drawings and if required 3D models.

“3D Laser Mapping was able to successfully demonstrate the capabilities of the Riegl LMS Z390,” said Keith McCrory, Managing Director of Scantech International. “The speed of data capture meant that we could minimise disruption to the patients, nursing and medical staff at Leicester General Hospital. A distinct benefit of using the Riegl scanner was that we could complete surveys of each of the surgical theatres in the 90-minute period before operations commenced. This minimised our impact on the day to day workings of the hospital and avoided the problems of out of hours access.”

The Riegl LMS Z390 uses laser beams to record the position of features and surfaces with unrivalled speed, precision and repeatability making it an ideal tool for architectural, archaeological, heritage and engineering projects. The scanner, together with an integrated Nikon D200 12.3MPixel camera for the capture of digital images of the scene being surveyed, can be operated by any standard PC or Notebook and allows wireless data transmission for remote working.

ScanTech International is a company specialising in 3D surveys using laser scanners in the rail, healthcare, measured building, urban visualisations and structures environments applying the data to produce engineering and/or architectural as-built deliverables. For further information www.scantech-international.com

Enquiries to Dr Graham Hunter, 3D Laser Mapping Ltd, Email Contact
tel: +44 (0) 870 442 9400, www.3dlasermapping.com

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c81920) has announced the addition of "Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization" to their offering.

This book lets you exploit the advantages of Geographic Information Systems in your business. Once the domain of cartographers and other specialists, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being employed by the business community. Location-based services, supply chain management, management of field-distributed equipment, geographical marketing and promotion, and the spatial web are some of the current business applications which make use of GIS principles.

Written specifically for the businessperson, "Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization" is the first book to provide comprehensive coverage of GIS applications in the business and organizational environment. Going beyond a strictly geographical focus, this book sets GIS in the context of business information systems and other business sub-disciplines such as logistics, marketing, finance, and strategic management.

It presents from an organizational perspective the advantages of spatially enabling existing enterprise systems and illustrates how GIS is applied in the real world through rigorous case study analyses of twenty companies, including Baystate Health, Chico's, Kaiser Permanente, Lamar Advertising Company, Rand McNally, Southern Company, Sears Roebuck, and Sperry Van Ness. In this book, you'll find out: what GIS is and how it can be integrated into your organization's existing information infrastructure; how GIS is currently making businesses better, and how you can apply the same techniques to your industry or organization; the expanding roles of GIS and spatial technologies in the web and mobile environments; the ethical, legal, and security issues of special technologies; and, how to conduct a cost/benefit and ROI analyses for GIS.

Grounded in the real world of business and IT, "Geo-Business" will show you how spatially enabling your IT systems can give you a unique advantage to beat your competitors in the market, win and retain customers, grow your business, make better decisions, develop new products and services, and optimize your workflow.

Contents:

1 GIS in the Digital Economy

2 Information Systems and GIS

3 Supporting Business Decisions

4 Enterprise Applications

5 Customer-Facing GIS: Web, E-Commerce, and Mobile Solutions

6 Spatial Systems Development

7 The Value of Investing in GIS

8 Managing Spatial Data

9 Organizational and Industry Aspects

10 Industries and Outsourcing

11 Ethical, Legal, and Security Issues of Spatial Technologies

12 GIS and Business Strategy

Index

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c81920

PCI Geomatics, the world-leading developer of software and solutions for geospatial imaging applications, announced today the launch of a new international office in India. The new company, PCI Geomatics Pvt Ltd. will be led by Dr. Ashok Kaushal, Director and Country Manager, and, under special license, will offer PCI Geomatics technology, services and solutions for both the private and government sectors.

PCI Geomatics has maintained a long term relationship with the Indian market, established through a team of geospatial resellers located throughout Calcutta, Hyderabad, Pune and Nepal. While continuing to work with these resellers, the new company will focus on providing imaging solutions to the geospatial market in India.

“The new Indian office exemplifies PCI Geomatics’ continued commitment to serve the region and will provide services and support for a variety of new imaging solutions being launched by PCI Geomatics - including PCI’s highly automated image processing chains and on-demand mapping solutions,” said Dr. Ashok Kaushal, Director and Country Manager, PCI Geomatics Pvt Ltd.

In addition, the Honourable Herb Dhaliwal has been appointed as Chairman of PCI Geomatics Pvt Ltd. In accepting this position, Mr. Dhaliwal said, “PCI Geomatics clearly recognizes India as a major emerging market and as such has taken decisive steps to become the top provider of geospatial imaging applications and solutions to India.”

The PCI Geomatics Pvt Ltd. office will open for business immediately, with full operations up and running by mid-year. Furthermore, PCI Geomatics Pvt Ltd. will be participating in an Expression of Interest related to interoperability, national spatial data infrastructure and international standards.

For more information about PCI Geomatics, visit booth #18 at Map India 2008 in Noida, India, February 6 – 8.

About PCI Geomatics

PCI Geomatics is a world-leading developer of geospatial software, specializing in remote sensing, digital photogrammetry, spatial analysis, cartographic production, and, more recently, automated production systems. Today, with our trusted Geomatica brand, PCI Geomatics provides all the image-centric solutions necessary to meet the expectations of a large and expanding industry. Since 1982, the company and its reputation have continued to grow as a result of innovative leadership, strong technology partnerships, active geomatics community involvement, and a dedication to earn the trust of customers who use PCI Geomatics.

For more information, visit www.pcigeomatics.com

The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) is sponsoring its second annual student paper competition.

The objective of the competition is to challenge undergraduate and postgraduate students to demonstrate development and effective use of information systems in both their field of study and the community. The competition is open to all eligible students but particularly those interested in careers using geographic information systems, information technology, geospatial technology, planning and/or community development.

The deadline for submissions is June 9, 2008.

URISA will award students cash prizes for best student authored papers. Winners will be recognized at the URISA Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA, October 7-10, 2008.

Prizes:

First Place
$500 cash. Free conference registration and recognition at the URISA Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA, October 7-10, 2008. Paper may be published in the URISA Journal.

Second Place
$300 cash. Free conference registration. Paper may be published in the URISA Journal.

Third Place
$150 cash. Free conference registration. Paper may be published in the URISA Journal.

The following types of papers are encouraged:

1. Comprehensive literature review on a spatial technology and its application.

2. Application of spatial statistics.

3. Application of an implemented spatial technology and its demonstrable impact on a public or private sector organization.

4. Treatment and development of spatial technologies and theory.

Application areas of particular interest to URISA members include, but are not limited to, the following:

Remote sensing
Economic development
Safety or homeland security
Environmental planning and resource management
Geographic information systems
Infrastructure management
Urban land use planning and management

The URISA Student Paper Committee reviews all papers. Winners will be notified in August 2008. Winners will be recognized during the awards ceremony at URISA 2008 in New Orleans, LA.

Only papers meeting the evaluation criteria will be considered. Further information regarding eligibility, submission criteria, prizes, and policies are available on the URISA website at http://www.urisa.org/student_paper_competition.

URISA promotes the effective and ethical use of spatial information and information technologies for the understanding and management of urban and regional systems.

The President has proposed a budget of $968.5 million for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in fiscal year 2009, a decrease of $38.0 million from the 2008 enacted level. The FY 2009 budget focuses on the highest priorities for research while ensuring that the USGS builds the expertise it needs to continue answering the complex scientific questions that may arise. The budget includes $34.9 million in program increases and $15.0 million in fixed costs, offset by $87.8 million in reductions for lower priority efforts and unrequested increases.

“The USGS is committed to providing timely, objective scientific information in support of key Departmental and Presidential priorities, including Water for America, Birds Forever, Healthy Lands, and Ocean and Coastal Frontiers,” said USGS Director Mark Myers. “The proposed budget will also strengthen our efforts in climate change studies, priority ecosystems research and the development of a National Land Imaging Program.”

The 2009 budget includes a net increase of $8.2 million to support the water census component of the $21.3 million Water for America Initiative with the Bureau of Reclamation. To support the water census, the National Streamflow Information Program is funded at $23.8 million, including an increase of $3.7 million to upgrade 350 streamgages with real-time telemetry and to reinstate 50 discontinued streamgages in 2009. Increases of $3.0 million for the Ground-Water Resources Program and $1.5 million for Cooperative Geologic Mapping will provide additional support for the water census by increasing knowledge related to groundwater resources.

The Birds Forever Initiative is a joint effort between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the USGS. A proposed $1.0 million increase to support this initiative will fund USGS efforts to better understand large-scale drivers of migratory bird population and habitat change such as global warming, deforestation and urban development. This initiative supports monitoring efforts, including the Breeding Bird Survey and other migratory bird monitoring activities.

The budget also proposes a $3.5 million increase to expand activities in support of the Healthy Lands Initiative, and the USGS is a significant partner in this multi-bureau initiative. Continuing work in southwest Wyoming, the USGS will conduct an ecological assessment in Healthy Lands Initiative areas to develop a baseline of scientific information related to wildlife habitat and development activities occurring or planned. Tools, models, and protocols developed will be transferred and applied to other areas.

In addition, the proposed budget includes an increase of $7.0 million for oceans science in support of the Department’s Ocean and Coastal Frontiers Initiative and completing the work started in 2008 on the U.S. Ocean Action Plan. Coastal and Marine Geology is funded at $47.4 million. An increase of $4.0 million will be used to collect data for the extended Continental Shelf of the Arctic Ocean, working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to support the Nation’s claim to its mineral and energy rights in the extended Continental Shelf. An additional $2.0 million will be used to conduct merit-based ocean research projects, and $1.0 million will complete funding for efforts in seafloor mapping, models to forecast response to extreme weather events, and developing a water quality monitoring network.

The 2009 budget reflects a restructuring to create a global change activity and sustains $5.0 million of the $7.4 million increase in 2008 for climate change science. The 2009 request of $26.6 million includes $21.6 million in base funds to continue current global change research, $4.0 million to establish a pilot program in Alaska for a national climate change network, and $1.0 million for climate change adaptation studies. These components will provide critical monitoring information needed for predictive modeling related to our changing climate and its effects on the landscape and the Nation’s resources.

The 2009 budget consolidates funding for a new Global Change Activity totaling $26.6 million that is supported by an additional $4.8 million in Climate Change Science, bringing total climate change funding to $31.4 million.

Priority ecosystems studies have a proposed budget of $10.4 million. The USGS will continue funding for work in the Greater Everglades, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, the Mojave Desert, the Platte River, and Yellowstone.

Land Remote Sensing is funded at $62.6 million, including a programmatic increase of $2.0 million to develop a National Land Imaging Program. This program will assess the future need for civil, operational land imaging data and develop a blueprint to determine future needs for acquisition of satellite data to supplement Landsat 7 imagery.

In order to focus programs on activities that are inherently governmental and to concentrate on highest priority research, the President’s 2009 budget reduces funding to the Mineral Resources and the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) programs. A $24.6 million net reduction to Mineral Resource Assessments is proposed, which will result in a 2009 program of $26.3 million. A $10.9 million net reduction to NAWQA is proposed for a total 2009 program of $54.1 million. The President’s 2009 budget also reduces the Earthquake Hazards Program by $5.0 million, retaining $49.1 million for the highest priority earthquake research projects.

For more information on the President’s proposed USGS FY 2009 budget, visit http://www.usgs.gov/budget/2009/2009index.asp.

The USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released July 1, 2007, estimates of the voting-age population in each state. The Census Bureau is required by law to produce these estimates annually for the Federal Election Commission.

The estimates show the total number of residents in each state, the total population age 18 and older and the percentage of the total population 18 and older. They do not reflect citizenship status or voting eligibility. According to the estimates, California had the largest adult population, at 27.2 million, while Vermont had the highest percentage adult population, at 78.9 percent. (In the District of Columbia, the corresponding percentage was 80.7 percent.) There were 227.7 million U.S. residents 18 and older, comprising 75.5 percent of the total population.

This is one in a series of population estimates that will be released over the next several months. In addition to this set, estimates will be provided for the total population of counties, incorporated cities and metro areas, as well as the population of the nation, states, and counties by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.

The Census Bureau develops state population estimates by measuring the population change since the most recent census. It uses births, deaths, administrative records and survey data to develop estimates of migration. For more detail regarding the methodology see www.census.gov/popest/topics/methodology

The City and County of Denver recently expanded its ESRI-powered Denver Maps Internet Web site to make available three years of local crime data to the public. The new mapping service leveraged ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) application framework to enable residents to be more informed about criminal activity in their communities and help foster greater collaboration between the public and the Denver Police Department.

"When the mayor took office more than four years ago, a primary focus was to improve public safety. To assist with this, the mayor hired an independent monitor to take a look at how the police are doing their job," says David Luhan, director of geospatial applications. "One of the recommendations that came out was to provide the community with a way to be more informed about what is going on in their neighborhoods to help in preventing crime. Making this information available to the public has epitomized true community policing. GIS has assisted Denver's Crime Prevention and Control Commission to help reduce crime by over 10 percent in 82 percent of the neighborhoods in the city."

The Denver crime mapping application was launched in November 2007, leveraging GIS data from the city's vast spatial information resource, and maintains crime data from 2005 to the present. The application was developed by the city's Denver GIS group, which worked closely with the Denver Police Department and the mayor's office for application customization and policies for record publishing. Within the first 24 hours of being featured on local Denver news stations, the Denver Maps site recorded more than 119 page views a minute, averaging 1,110 report views per hour. "The ESRI application suite provides the speed, scalability, ease of integration, and functionality to enable us to meet the growing demand for geographic information services," says Luhan.

Denver residents can now search up-to-date crime data, generate maps and tables, and obtain a detailed understanding of crime that has occurred in their neighborhood or area of interest. They simply enter information about a particular crime type, date range, time period, or location or use the intuitive digital map interface to point to and click on an area of interest. The application displays maps of individual crimes and related tables detailing when and where incidents occurred. It allows people to search by address, park, school, library, or neighborhood. Information is updated daily as new crimes are reported and investigations yield new information. Certain information is withheld to avoid identifying juveniles or victims of sex crimes. The Denver Maps site can be accessed at www.denvergov.org/maps under Public Safety, then Custom Crime reports.

"Crime is not solely a police problem; it is also an issue for everyone in the community," says Lew Nelson, law enforcement industry solutions manager, ESRI. "The Denver Maps crime mapping Web site is an excellent example of law enforcement sharing relevant information with their community. Experience has demonstrated that educating a community about the nature and location of their problems empowers them to assist in addressing those problems."

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.

Press Information:

Jesse Theodore
ESRI
Tel: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1419
E-mail: Email Contact

The Ascension Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) announced today the availability of GIS technology to determine the best parcels in Ascension Parish for light manufacturing and commercial development.

The program, which is an ongoing project developed by C-K Associates of Baton Rouge, was created to assist AEDC in measuring the suitability of parcels in the Parish for its continuing business park project and other on-going projects considering Ascension Parish. AEDC staff determined the variables associated with the ranking of parcels including distance to interstate, zoning, land use, and access to utilities.

Every parcel in the Parish of Ascension was analyzed and has an appropriate score and ranking for development and provides instant information on property ownership and parcel size. With the use of Arcview software, AEDC can also change the value of inputs and tailor-make searches according to specific project needs.

The service is available to realtors and developers considering a project in Ascension Parish. The program is already being used to determine the location for a utility project planned for the Parish.

Eventually, AEDC intends to make the program web-enabled. The project was funded in part by a grant from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development's Tier II matching grant program.


Source : http://www.ascensioncitizen.com/

C&C Technologies Inc. is currently offering the public a free Gulf of Mexico GIS planning tool, the company said Thursday.

C&C Technologies is a survey services company that offers globally corrected GPS services, marine construction surveys, high-resolution geophysical surveys, geotechnical laboratory testing, and land surveys. Its CCGIS Map provides users with online graphic visualization coordinates of the oil and gas infrastructure within Gulf of Mexico federal waters, according to the company. Platforms, wells, pipelines, NOAA obstructions, MMS blocks, lease areas, fairways, and other relevant information are included. In addition, tropical weather systems are tracked so users can monitor storm paths relative to their structures and facilities, according to the company.

CCGIS Map data is updated regularly from governmental and other publicly available resources, although this product is not intended as a substitute for diligent desktop reviews or comprehensive marine hazard surveys, C&C Technologies said.


Source : http://sc.gpsworld.com

Following a closed alpha launch on 14 December, Ordnance Survey has completed testing of its OS OpenSpace API. It is now available for developers to mash up their own applications using the UK national mapping agency's data grid as a backdrop.

Registered users can build applications from a countrywide view down to street level, and use up to 30,000 "tiles" of geographical data and up to 1,000 place-name searches per day. In line with the government's current aim to make public-sector information more accessible, OS OpenSpace is intended to open the door to non-commercial experimentation with Ordnance Survey's mapping data.

The minister responsible for Ordnance Survey, Iain Wright MP, said: "In launching OS OpenSpace, Ordnance Survey is taking a lead in providing greater access to public information. The launch will allow others to innovate using geographic information, with confidence in the national consistency and currency of the data they use."

Web developers using OS OpenSpace can add markers, lines and polygons on top of Ordnance Survey mapping, search for place names with a gazetteer-style geographical dictionary and display other location data, such as the whereabouts of pubs, cafes or public conveniences, from elsewhere on the web.

"A full set of online API documentation is available for developers looking to get started with OS OpenSpace. We also provide a step-by-step set of illustrated tutorials, how-to guides and a user forum in our support section for those new to this kind of JavaScript 'slippy map' technology," said Joseph Greenwood, a product manager at Ordnance Survey.

News of OS OpenSpace follows last September's announcement of Ordnance Survey's Explore portal, designed to give ramblers and walkers a space to share favourite routes and locations, in close proximity to the other mapping resources available on the site.
To register as a user, visit the OS OpenSpace website.

Source : http://news.zdnet.co.uk/

Crown research institute GNS Science has published a geological map and companion book covering a 24,000sq km slab of the central South Island, from South Westland across much of Canterbury.

The 1:250,000 scale map contains greater detail than existing geological maps of the area, released in the 1960s, and has been compiled using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and published and unpublished research.

But compiler and GNS Dunedin geologist Dr Simon Cox said the map, which cost about $1.5 million to produce, was already out of date.

"On Sunday the week before last, a large rock avalanche fell off Vampire Peak in the Mount Cook area. We recorded it on our seismographs like a 2.5 (magnitude) earthquake," he said.

"I went up there the other day and there's a big rock pile over the Mueller Glacier. That shows to me the dynamics of the landforms."

The map uses cross-sections put together from seismic experiments carried out in the late 1990s to show rock structures up to 5km below the surface. It also records more than 70 types of gravel from glacial advances and retreats.

The accompanying text de scribes rock types and other deposits and highlights potential geological hazards and economic geology.

Cox said producing the map had been a "mammoth" job. It covered areas that had not been visited before by geologists.

Many geologists and field workers had been involved over the eight years, and support had been given by more than 20 organisations. Landowners and the Department of Conservation had allowed access and the use of huts, and helicopter companies had provided transport.

The compilation team had calculated where there were gaps in knowledge before doing the fieldwork. The result was a map that was a vast step forward from the earlier ones, Cox said.

"The first maps came out after about a couple of years of fieldwork, before (the theory of) plate tectonics had been accepted,'' he said.

"The new map shows over 1500 different faultlines over which that strain could be released.''

Source : http://www.stuff.co.nz/

Filipino experts in space technology have proposed the development of the country’s own “earth observing satellite” that will help people prepare for natural disasters and disease outbreaks.

Twenty-five government and private agencies recently signed a resolution, declaring that the earth observing satellite would provide real-time data crucial in disaster monitoring and weather forecasting in the country, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said.

Reynaldo Ebora, executive director of the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development, of the DOST, said “an earth observation system will be very beneficial to the country.”

“The Philippines is perennially affected by natural disasters, making timely, synoptic space-based information a necessity,” Ebora said.

DOST’s space technology expert Dr. Jose Edgardo Aban said “having our own earth observation satellite would make the Philippines self-sufficient in terms of satellite image acquisition.”

The DOST explained that “an earth observation satellite, which is polar-orbiting and low-flying, monitors the earth’s land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans.”

“The satellite can track environmental changes in areas it is assigned,” the DOST said. “Through the satellite, processes that the earth undergoes, be it biological, ecological, climatological, or geological, can be monitored and better understood. This enables people, especially leaders and experts, to make more informed decisions that affect lives, the environment, and the economy.”

“Aside from enabling weather forecast and disease outbreak prediction, an earth observation system could effectively monitor forest fires, predict the effect of air quality on people, provide farmers with immediate forecast to help maximize agricultural yields, and calculate the pattern of typhoons and storms,” the DOST said.

Source.

MapsofWorld.com, window to the world of information, continues its saga of exploring new ways of making itself a more interactive and user friendly website.

Apart from successful and timely completion of projects, the website has witnessed phenomenal increase in the number of page views this month, heading towards its all time highest traffic ever. The year 2007 maybe regarded as a watershed year for MapsofWorld.com, in terms of the developments witnessed in technology, graphic layouts, overall organization, innovation and implementation of projects, etc.

The website has launched a unique Maps of World Quiz open to all, worldwide. The wide and exhaustive range of questions based on a variety of topics is sure to activate one’s gray cells and make one sit back and think for a while. Apart from being a fun activity, it makes one learn a number of new facts, for the questions have been specially designed for this purpose.

The site has also launched a comprehensive framework of its Business Model, expressing the simple yet elaborate business logic and structure followed by it. Apart from quality maps and information, now a user finds more reasons to be glued to the site, as it has also put up a new online travel reservation system where one can conveniently shop 24x7 for the best possible travel deals on hotel rooms, last-minute vacation packages, car rentals, cruises, airline tickets, tickets to shows and attractions and a lot more other facilities. Some other novel introductions on the site are Maps of World Help, World Environment, Legendary Map Makers, USA Store Finder, All About GPS, etc.

While Maps of World Help is a compilation of information on all products and services, especially the newly launched ones, World Environment is a completely new site containing articles and write-ups on current environmental issues. Legendary Map Makers is as an online encyclopedia which explores the evolution of cartography and cartographers, divided into sections like Map Makers of the Ancient Period, Medieval Period, Modern Period, Contemporary Map Makers, Online Map-Makers, etc. All About GPS, is a site dealing with a detailed description of latest GPS products launched in the market. Keeping its worldwide visitors in mind, especially those in USA, Maps Of World has launched USA Store Finder, a map-based tool, which enables the user to search for the nearest Retail Store in any area in the USA. One can find its location on the map with its precise contact details.

Source : http://www.newswiretoday.com/

WeoGeo, a company poised to reinvent the market for global mapping and geo-content, was selected by Aerials Express to market and distribute over 16,000 digital air-photos (a nearly 12 terabyte collection). Aerials Express is the leading provider of current nationwide high-resolution digital aerial and satellite imagery, with a marketing collection that represents over 420,000 square miles of digital imagery products, at spatial resolutions as high as 12 inches.

“This is an important addition to the WeoGeo Market,” said Paul Bissett, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of WeoGeo. “These high-resolution air-photos cover 120 key urban areas in the continental United States – areas where this data is in high demand.”

Aerials Express chose WeoGeo to improve the user experience for geospatial professionals as they search, discover, and purchase their high-resolution imagery. WeoGeo will also host the Aerials Express air-photos on its Amazon Web Services e-commerce platform to provide rapid delivery of the imagery products.

"WeoGeo is an excellent opportunity for our company," said Bill Landis, President of Aerials Express. "We are looking to WeoGeo's advanced technology and unique distribution model to enhance the availability of our products into a wider range of GIS related markets."

Source : http://aerialsexpress.com/

ESRI received a Strong Positive rating, the highest possible, from Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. ESRI received this rating in the report entitled MarketScope for Public Safety Geographic Information Systems, 2H07 by Bradley Williams and Jeff Vining and published October 31, 2007. Gartner considers companies receiving a Strong Positive rating to be “providers of strategic products, services or solutions” and recommends that existing customers “continue investments” while potential customers “consider the vendor a strong strategic choice.”

Gartner states in the report, “By the end of 2009, 90% of all state and local government public safety organizations in North America will either use or be supported by geographic information systems. Moreover, GIS [geographic information system] technology is becoming a foundation for data management to drive other core applications through interfaces and links to such things as independent devices, including mobile devices, spatial planning and the Internet. As a result, the purpose of this MarketScope is to better understand what GIS providers are currently offering public safety organizations in order to give our clients a better understanding, because many GIS providers produce general-purpose software and then sell it to various vertical markets.”

As populations and building development increase, the responsibilities of public safety agencies become more demanding and complex. At the same time, agencies are being called upon to deliver services with greater efficiency and economy.

Organizations’ data, including files from legacy systems, can be stored in a GIS geodatabase and used to visualize spatial relationships, revealing trends critical to public safety response and planning.

Solutions from ESRI, including the ArcGIS family of products, enable users to employ one platform to provide a common operating picture for public safety agencies. This platform can be deployed to desktop, mobile, or Web-based clients.

Source : http://www.esri.com/publicsafety

The Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) instrument on board the ALOS satellite captured an image of Rockhampton city and surrounds on Tuesday 29 January. This acquisition coincided with the previously expected flood peak for the city and was requested ahead of time by Geoscience Australia.

Unfortunately, cloud obscures portions of the image but there are several areas where the flood waters are visible. The images below are a subset of a full AVNIR-2 scene, showing before and after images over the city centre, the nearby barrage on the Fiztroy River and flood areas to the north-west.

AVNIR-2 satellite images over Rockhampton showing before and during the January 2008 floods. The image on the left was acquired on 3 May 2007 while the image on the right was acquired on 29 January 2008 near the peak of the floods. © JAXA

Source : http://www.ga.gov.au/