GIS in Education

The Philippine Information Agency announced that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau IX (MGB) is about to complete its geohazard mapping of the entire region that will identify places that pose threat to the safety of the people.

Emma Deverala, Information Officer of MGB IX, said the geohazard mapping in the region is now in its final year, which started in 2005.

"We are now in the final year of our geohazard mapping program. This is a 5-year national program that started in 2005", Ms. Deverala said.

A report given to PIA-Zamboanga shows that 87% of Zamboanga Peninsula was already assessed by the bureau.

"We have assessed almost the entire region, 87% to be exact. Our Geahazard Assessment Team, headed by Geosciences Chief Vheina Marie P. Quintana, is expected to fully accomplish the mapping of the remaining municipalities and cities in the region like the Triple S-B or the municipalities of Siocon, Sirawai, Sibuco, Baliguian in Zamboanga del Norte, Isabela City in Basilan, and their last stop, Zamboanga City, within the year. Hopefully by November", Deverala said.

The bureau has yet to release the report per province but Deverala hinted that the entire peninsula, just like the entire country, is prone to hazards like landslides and other land hazards.

She added that they have already talked to the different LGUs of the affected municipalities and gave them recommendations that will prevent or mitigate such threats.

MGB IX is also conducting information and education campaigns throughout the region arming people w/ adequate knowledge of the risk in their area and what to do to ensure their safety.

The geohazard mapping program was given more emphasis and support by the national government after Southern Leyte landslide in Feb. 17, 2006, killing thousands of people thru a Presidential Directive and resolutions from the National Disaster Coordinating Council. It involves the identification and characterization of the types of geohazards, particularly on mass movement and flooding present in the Philippines.

According to Deverala, upon completion of the program, the bureau will come up w/ geohazard maps identifying what type of geohazard a particular area is prone to. The map will also contain information on locations of Barangay centers and important landmarks among others. The maps can also be used by the government, urban and rural development planners, stakeholders and communities as a blue print on their disaster risk management plans or programs.

The high-resolution maps show the hidden seabed of the deep sea around the country in incredible digital detail, making them a treasure for all New Zealanders.

They give an unprecedented insight into the shape of the ocean floor – ridges, volcanoes, plateaus, canyons and seamounts. The data presents digital terrain models generated from multibeam data, combined with traditional bathymetric data.

The 250-metre-resolution digital terrain maps of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone are available in multiple high-resolution file formats to suit many current and future needs. The dataset provides the most up-to-date bathymetry of the major features from one of the largest areas of deep-water seabed under our national jurisdiction.

“These maps produce significant benefit for all New Zealanders and for all users of the marine environment, revealing potential for fisheries, environmental management, conservation, hazard mitigation, and energy and mineral opportunities,” says NIWA Marine Database Manager, Kevin Mackay.

NIWA are proven specialists in fine-detail mapping and advanced bathymetric data analysis. These maps are the culmination of NIWA’s geological, oceanographic, and fisheries research, and their collection of high-resolution sea-floor images from around New Zealand. They also incorporate significant worldwide data sets.

NIWA Chief Scientist Māori Development & Oceans, Dr Charlotte Severne, says putting the maps online is an opportunity to showcase the extent of what NIWA does.

“These are the best map product around. They include an extensive area of 11.7 million square kilometres, an area that extends past the continental shelf, and to depths of up to 11 000 metres,” says NIWA geologist, Dr Helen Neil. “They are the product of truly sophisticated seafloor mapping combined with expert marine geological knowledge.”

New Zealand has the world’s fourth biggest Exclusive Economic Zone. This ocean and sea floor is a massive area of nearly four million square kilometres, and it’s New Zealand’s biggest resource.

So what can you get and what can you do with theses files? The data products start from low-resolution images of the New Zealand region, from the Pacific Islands to the Southern Oceans, for use as a general background to maps, reports and assignments. There is a high-resolution image of the NZ region able to be zoomed in to for more detailed information and planning. At the top end are high-resolution 250 metre gridded Geographical Information Systems (GIS) products for use by mapping professionals. To download the maps go here.

The digital products and bathymetry project are the culmination of effort at NIWA, supported by funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and the Royal New Zealand Navy, the US National Geophysical Data Center, Institute Francais de Recerche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, and Land Information New Zealand.

The maps (bathymetry) of NZ online, were produced from 2 593115 km2 of swath coverage and 5 005 568 kilometres of single-beam survey lines. That’s equivalent to nearly 30 years at sea.

To find out how the seafloor is mapped.

Abstracts are currently being accepted for the 17th Annual California GIS Conference. CalGIS 2011 will take place March 28-31, 2011 in Fresno, California. The conference program, themed "Meeting California's Challenges" will be developed through a Call for Presentations. Abstracts will be accepted through October 4, 2010.

The Conference Committee reviews all of the abstracts received by the deadline date, and organizes the educational sessions according to those abstracts. The Committee has specified these program tracks for the 2011 conference:

Geospatial Technologies - Geospatial technologies, Web GIS, COTS software developments, open source software, technical tips and tricks, GIS trends.

Agriculture - The Agriculture symposium brings together research scientists, farm advisors, growers, students, participants in ag-commerce and services, and state and federal agencies to demonstrate the various uses of geospatial technologies employed in California’s renewable resources: agriculture and natural resources.

Water Resources - At the forefront of critical state issues, water issues are important in California. This tract will focus on the use of GIS and spatial technology in the realm of water infrastructure, floodplain management, risk and emergency management, agriculture, water allocation, water storage, conservations, and environmental applications.

Local & State Government - Problems and successes with GIS in government including, data sharing, return on investment, decision making, efficiency, tools and applications, privacy, security, cloud computing for government, funding GIS.

Your Interest - In addition to the defined tracks, we want to see what interests you. Whether it is education, public safety, land use, utilities, transportation, renewable energy, tribal, military, health, software development or some extraordinary new use of GIS, please come and share it with us.

Numerous presentation formats will be considered from complete sessions and panel discussions to lightning talks and poster presentations.

For more information and an online submission form, visit www.calgis.org

Trimble will host an analyst and investor event on November 9, 2010 at its Dimensions User Conference. The conference will be held at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. To learn more about the event, please contact Trimble Investor Relations.

About Trimble
Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

For more information, visit Trimble's Web site at www.trimble.com.

SOURCE Trimble

The Ghana Government will soon launch a project dubbed the `Geo-Ghana Project’ under which the whole country will be mapped at a scale of 1:50,000.

Under the project, Ghana’s seashore across the coastline, railway network corridor and the Volta River Authority-Ghana Grid Company (VRA-GRIDCO) network across the country will also be mapped, while a large scale mapping will be provided at the scale of 1:2,500.

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Honourable Collins Dauda, who disclosed these in Accra, yesterday, said a document on the project will be finalised next month and presented to the Ministry for review and approval.

Alhaji. Dauda said the Geo-Ghana Project will ensure that up-to-date spatial data are available for the sustainable development and entire environmental monitoring of Ghana.

He noted that most of the activities to be undertaken by government under Ghana’s Medium-Term Policy priorities place enormous responsibilities on land surveyors as they border on land management and administration.

The Minister, therefore, called on land surveyors to give government the necessary collaboration and support in the implementation of both the Geo-Ghana Project and the Medium-Term Policy priorities.

He was speaking at the opening of this year’s Annual Land Surveyors seminar which is being organised by the Land Surveying Division of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS).

The two-day seminar is on the theme `National Navigation System: A Tool for Sustainable Development for a Better Ghana’.

The seminar provides the needed platform for a focused discussion by experts on the theme in order for implementable proposals to be made for Ghana to derive the full benefits of a National Navigation System.

Over 150 participants are attending the seminar during which more than ten technical papers, covering most of the disciplines of the land surveying profession, will be presented.

In a keynote address, a Supreme Court judge, Mr. Justice S. Gbadegbe, called for the formation of a group of experts at the national level to work towards the introduction of a technology referred to as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) into the country.

This technology, Justice Gbadegbe said, has enormous potential to contribute to national development and poverty alleviation in a sustainable manner as well as help improve efficiency in surveying and mapping.

He said the successful introduction of GNSS will depend on the definition and implementation of an institutional mechanism to guide a well-planned transition into the world of satellite navigation.

Source: ISD (G.D. Zaney) [via]

Over the years, Geospatial World Forum (formerly known as Map World Forum) has matured as a conference and is now widely recognised as one of the most important geospatial industry event worldwide. Held in Hyderabad, the IT city of India, the conference attracts key leaders from industry, academia and policy makers. There is no better place to learn about the latest industry developments and policy trends than Geospatial World Forum.

Do not miss this opportunity to share your experiences and highlight your work. Presenting a paper at Geospatial World Forum can help you gain an edge as you present the latest applications, innovations, policy issues and technological developments to the decision makers and users alike.

Note: Deadline for Abstract Submission has been Extended till 30th of September, 2010.

Geospatial World Forum will host Symposiums, Seminars and Technical Sessions on varied themes. These highly informative sessions will give members of the geospatial community an opportunity to showcase their work through paper and poster presentations. The interested authors are requested to submit the abstract of their intended presentation in Geospatial World Forum in around 250 words.

For paper related queries you can write to us at papers@geospatialworldforum.org.

Or visit the website: geospatialworldforum.org.

Garmin announced on Wednesday through its blog that it is voluntarily recalling about 1.25 million Nuvi GPS devices due to the battery that can cause the unit to overheat and become a fire hazard. About 796,000 of which were sold in the U.S.

To determine if your Garmin Nuvi GPS device is involved in the recall — models 200W, 250W, 260W, 7xx and 7xxT, where xx is a two-digit number, are affected — you can visit Garmin’s website and plug your unit’s serial number in.

You can also call:

* In the United States and Canada, call ? (At press time, Garmin omitted this number. -Ed)
* In North America and South America outside the U.S. or Canada call +913 397-8200
* In Europe, Middle East, and Africa, call (At press time, Garmin omitted this number. -Ed)
* In Asia, call 886/2.2642.9199
* In Australia, call 1800 113 738; and in New Zealand call 0800 427 652

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, announced that it has acquired NAVKEY, the leading provider of digital map data for the Personal Navigation Device (PND) market in Argentina. The acquisition will provide NAVTEQ with full use and rights to NAVKEY’s digital map assets licensed under the NAVIAR brand.

The acquisition will enable NAVTEQ which provides quality navigable maps for 81countries, including Argentina, to incorporate NAVKEY’s digital map data to the global industry leading NAVTEQ® map. The result will be a premier map that enables NAVTEQ customers to develop navigation and location-based applications that not only utilize highly accurate map data, but a variety of products, such as NAVTEQ™ Voice and visual content that enhance the navigation experience.

“The opportunity for development of navigation and location-based services in Argentina is growing exponentially, stated Helder Azevedo, general director- Latin America, NAVTEQ. “By providing customers with high quality products that have the potential to increase the utility of these applications and services we are supporting not only our customers’ goals but bringing new levels of experiences to end-users.”

NAVTEQ has 30 employees located in Argentina. In addition to collection and production support, technical customer support is available in the Argentine office to assist customers in working with the NAVTEQ map database. Because NAVTEQ standardizes their map database to a single global data specification, customers can more easily reinvest development efforts used for bringing product to market for Argentina into applications to enter markets in other countries. This becomes extremely useful in South America where in addition to Argentina NAVTEQ provides maps for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, French Guiana, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

About NAVTEQ:
NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data (digital location content) enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world. NAVTEQ supplies comprehensive digital location content to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has approximately 4700 employees located in 204 offices in 46 countries.

GeoEye announced that it has been ranked 84th on FORTUNE Magazine's 2010 "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" list. The complete list and related stories will appear in the September 6, 2010 issue.

GeoEye qualified for the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list by meeting several criteria which include posting an annualised growth in revenue and earnings per share of at least 15 per cent annually over the three years ended on or before April 30, 2010; trading on a major US stock exchange continuously since June 30, 2007; filing quarterly reports with the SEC; having a minimum market capitalisation of USD 250 million; and having a stock price of at least USD 5 on June 30, 2010. The company also had revenue and net income of at least USD 50 million and USD 10 million respectively, for the four quarters ended on or before April 30, 2010.

Companies that met the above criteria were ranked by revenue growth rate; EPS growth rate; and three-year annualised total return for the period ended June 30, 2010. To compute the revenue and EPS growth rates, FORTUNE used a trailing four quarters log linear least square regression fit. The overall rank was based on the sum of the three ranks.

FORTUNE Managing Editor Andy Serwer has written in the September 6, 2010 issue, "The troubled economy is on all of our minds these days, but sometimes we forget that even in the long slog we seem to be in, entrepreneurs are hard at work, creating the next Cisco or Amgen or Starbucks."

Matt O'Connell, GeoEye's Chief Executive Officer and President, said, "The worldwide demand for satellite imagery, change monitoring and surveillance continues to resist recessions and budget pressures. This, along with GeoEye's ability to collect and disseminate imagery with the world's highest resolution and unmatched accuracy in a timely, reliable and cost-efficient manner, will continue to drive the growth of our business."

Using ENVI for Image Analysis of Vegetation. Please join us for this one hour webinar to learn about the wide array of tools ENVI offers for remote sensing applications of vegetation. Many applications today rely on the knowledge of vegetation health in a given region and over a span of time. By using ENVI with multispectral and hyperspectral data sets, much information can be determined about the state of vegetation over a given site. In this webinar, you will learn about the following topics:

* How remote sensing of vegetation goes way beyond simple NDVI analysis
* ENVI’s vegetation indices and what you can derive from them
* How ENVI can help track vegetation health over time
* How vegetation health is used in various applications like monitoring urban encroachment, tracking pollution, crop fraud enforcement and more
* How to incorporate the results from ENVI into your GIS

No previous experience with ENVI or image analysis is required for this webinar. Preregistration is required.

This webinar will be offered at three different times:

Thursday, August 26, 2010
11 AM Singapore Time - register
2 PM London Time - register
2 PM New York Time - register

Leica Geosystems announces the opening of five more “Leica Geosystems Solutions Centers” – offering local sales, service and support. These state-of the-art factory retail facilities are designed to support the construction, surveying and engineering community throughout the Southwest. The new facilities will offer:

*Superior products and technical service with manufacturer's direct resources
*Full repair capabilities on any major brand of measuring equipment.
*A large pool of rental instruments for short-term projects
*Stock of full range of field supplies Local product training and seminars
*All products at everyday competitive prices

According to Chuck Coiner, General Manager, US West at Leica Geosystems, "From paint and flagging, safety supplies, total stations and GPS systems for surveying, construction lasers and building layout systems, we are here to fulfill our customers everyday needs with outstanding service and support. At our five locations in the Southwestern US, knowledgeable salespeople are available to help customers learn about the latest technology from Leica Geosystems and test-drive any of the current Leica Geosystems products. I am confident our stores are going to be a favorite destination for members of the construction and surveying community. "

Ken Mooyman, President, says "The Leica Geosystems Solutions Center concept was created with the local customer's needs in mind. These five new brick and mortar Solutions Center locations is a continuation of our plan to open nine new Solution Centers across North America in 2010. The Servco name has been providing superior service and support for the professional measurement community for over 80 years and has thousands of loyal customers though out the Southwest. We will continue to provide outstanding service, support and products to those loyal existing customers and look forward to meeting and helping new customers as well. "

Leica Geosystems network of service and product distribution provides customers, local presence and national reach with access to global resources.

Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right

With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 3,500 employees in 28 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.

For further information please contact:

Andre Ribeiro
Director of Marketing
Norcross, GA 30092
E-mail: andre.ribeiro@leicaus.com
Phone: (770) 326-9557
www.leica-geosystems.us

NASA is developing technologies that will allow landing vehicles to automatically identify and navigate to the location of a safe landing site while detecting landing hazards during the final descent to the surface, according to Space Travel.

This is important because future missions - whether to the Moon, an asteroid, Mars or other location - will need this capability to land safely near specific resources that are located in potentially hazardous terrain.

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., has designed three light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors that together can provide all the necessary data for achieving safe autonomous precision landing.

One is a three-dimensional active imaging device, referred to as flash lidar, for detecting hazardous terrain features and identifying safe landing sites.

The second is a Doppler lidar instrument for measuring the vehicle velocity and altitude to help land precisely at the chosen site. The third is a high-altitude laser altimeter providing data prior to final approach for correcting the flight trajectory towards the designated landing area.

In conjunction with laser/lidar sensor development at Langley, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is developing algorithms, or mathematical procedures, for analyzing the acquired three-dimensional lidar maps and determining the most suitable landing site.

The resulting Doppler lidar and laser altimeter data are used by the navigation system being developed by NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, and Charles Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass., to control the spacecraft to the identified location.

These technologies have been integrated as part of NASA's Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project and are in the process of being demonstrated in a series of flight tests.

The most recent flight tests occurred at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., in July.

I have been doing a lot of research on the concepts and applications of space-borne waveform LiDARs for terrestrial phenology monitoring and modeling. So far the results are very promising. I would want to share my list of references to those wanting to know more about phenology concepts and LiDAR applications on forest phenology. Most of these papers are free online. Find them using Google scholar.

You can leave comments if there are others resources you think may be helpful.

Abdalati WH, Zwally J, Bindschadler R, Csatho B, Farrell SL, et al. 2010. The ICESat-2 Laser Altimetry Mission. Proc. of the IEEE, 98 (5). 10.1109/JPROC.2009.2034765

Ahl DE, Gower SN, Burrows SN, Shabanov NV, Myneni RV, Knyazikhin Y. 2006. Monitoring spring canopy phenology of a deciduous broadleaf forest using MODIS. Remote Sens. Environ. 104: 88– 95

Andersen HE. 2009. Using airborne LiDAR to characterize forest stand condition on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. WJAF 24: 95-102

Anderson JE, Plourde LC, Martin ME, Braswell BH, Smith ML, et al. 2008. Integrating waveform lidar with hyperspectral imagery for inventory of a northern temperate forest. Remote Sens. Environ. 112: 1856−70

Andersson K, Evans TP, Richards KR. 2009. National forest carbon inventories: Policy needs and assessment capacity. Climatic Change 93: 69–101

Arp H, Griesbach J, Burns J. 1982. Mapping in tropical forests: a new approach using the laser APR. Photogramm. Eng. Rem. S. 48: 91–100

Asner GP, Jones MO, Martin RE, Knapp DE, Hughes RF. 2008. Remote sensing of native and invasive species in Hawaiian forests. Remote Sens. Environ. 112: 1912–26

Badhwar GD. 1984. Automatic corn – soybean classification using Landsat MSS data: II. Early season crop proportion estimation. Remote Sens. Environ. 14: 31– 37

Baldocchi D, Falge E, Gu LH, Olson R, Hollinger D, et al. 2001. FLUXNET: A new tool to study the temporal and spatial variability of ecosystem-scale carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy flux densities. B Am Meteorol. Soc. 82: 2415–34

Barilotti A, Turco S, Alberti G. 2006. LAI determination in forestry ecosystems by LiDAR data analysis. Workshop on 3D. Remote Sens. For. 14-15/02/2006, BOKU Vienna.

Black T, Chen W, Barr A, Arain M, Chen Z, et al. 2000. Increased carbon sequestration by a boreal deciduous forest in years with a warm spring. Geophys Res Lett 27:1271–74

Blair JB, Rabine DL, Hofton MA. 1999. The laser vegetation imaging sensor: a medium-altitude, digitization-only, airborne laser altimeter for mapping vegetation and topography. ISPRS J. Photogramm. 54: 115-22

Blair JB, Hofton MA, Luthcke S. 2001. Wide-Swath imaging LiDAR development for airborne and spaceborne applications. International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Volume XXXIV-3/W4 Annapolis, MD, 22-24

Boudreau J, Nelson RF, Margolis HA, Beaudoin A, Guindon L, Kimes DS. 2008. Regional aboveground forest biomass using airborne and spaceborne LiDAR in Quebec. Remote Sens. Environ. 112: 3876–90

Buddenbaum H, Seeling S. 2008. Characterization of forest stands using full waveform laser scanner and airborne hyperspectral data. SilviLaser. Sept. 17-19, 2008 – Edinburgh, UK

Cannell MGR, Smith R. 1983. Thermal time, chill days and prediction of budburst in Picea sitchensis. J Appl Ecol 20: 951–63

Carlson TN, Perry EM, Schmugge TJ. 1990. Remote estimates of soil moisture availability and fractional vegetation cover for agricultural fields. Agriculture and Forest Meteorology 52: 45-70

Cayan D, Kammerdiener S, Dettinger M, Caprio J, Peterson D. 2001. Changes in the onset of spring in the western United States. B Am Meteorol Soc 82: 399–415

Chmielewski FM, Rotzer T. 2001. Response of tree phenology to climate change across Europe. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 108: 101-112

Clark ML, Clark DB, Roberts DA. 2004. Small-footprint lidar estimation of sub-canopy elevation and tree height in a tropical rain forest landscape. Remote Sens. Environ. 91: 68–89

Collin A, Long B, Archambault P. 2010. Salt-marsh characterization, zonation assessment and mapping through a dual-wavelength LiDAR. Remote Sens. Environ. 114: 520–30

de Beurs K, Henebry GM. 2004. Land surface phenology, climatic variation, and institutional change: Analyzing agricultural land cover change in Kazakhstan. Remote Sens. Environ. 49: 497– 509

de Beurs K, Henebry GM. 2005. A statistical framework for the analysis of long image time series. Int. J. Remote Sens. 26: 1551–1573

de Beurs K, Henebry GM. 2010. Spatio-temporal statistical methods for modeling land surface phenology. Phenological Research: Methods for Environmental and Climate Change Analysis. (Eds. Hudson I.L. & Keatley M.R.). Springer Books, New York.

DeFries R. 2008. Terrestrial vegetation in the coupled human‐earth system: Contributions of remote sensing. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 33: 369–90

Delbart N, Toan TL, Kergoat L, Fedotova V. 2006. Remote sensing of spring phenology in boreal regions: A free of snow-effect method using NOAA-AVHRR and SPOT-VGT data (1982– 2004). Remote Sens. Environ. 101: 52–62

Drake JB, Dubayah RO, Knox RG, Clark DB, Blair JB. 2002a. Sensitivity of large-footprint lidar to canopy structure and biomass in a neotropical rainforest. Remote Sens. Environ. 81: 378-92

Drake JB, Dubayah RO, Clark DB, Knox RG, Blair JB et al. 2002b. Estimation of tropical forest structural characteristics using large-footprint lidar. Remote Sens. Environ. 79: 305–19

Drake JB, Knox RG, Dubayah RO, Clark DB, Condit R, Blair JB, et al. 2003. Above-ground biomass estimation in closed canopy neotropical forests using lidar remote sensing: Factors affecting the generality of relationships. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 12: 147–59

Dubayah RO, Blair JB, Bufton JL, Clark DB, Ja´Ja´ J, et al. 1997. The Vegetation Canopy Lidar mission. Proc. Conf. Land Satellite Information in the Next Decade II. American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, pp. 100–12

Dubayah RO, Blair JB, Bufton JL, Clark DB, Ja´Ja´ J, et al. 1997. The Vegetation Canopy Lidar mission. Proc. Conf. Land Satellite Information in the Next Decade II. American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, pp. 100–12

Dubayah RO, Drake JB. 2000: Lidar remote sensing for forestry. J. Forestry 98: 44–46

Dubayah RO, Knox RG, Hofton MA, Blair JB, Drake JB. 2000. Land surface characterization using lidar remote sensing. in M. Hill and R. Aspinall, eds. Spatial Information for Land Use Management. International Publishers Direct, Singapore

Duchemin B, Goubier J, Courrier G. 1998. Monitoring phenological key stages and cycle duration of temperate deciduous forest ecosystems with NOAA/AVHRR data. Remote Sens. Environ. 67: 68–82

Duchemin B, Guyon D, Lagouarde JP. 1999. Potential and limits of NOAA–AVHRR temporal composite data for phenology and water stress monitoring of temperate forest ecosystems. Int. J. Remote Sens. 20: 895–917

Farid A, Goodrich DC, Sorooshian S. 2006. Using airborne lidar to discern age classes of Cottonwood trees in a riparian area. WJAF 21(3): 149-58

Fisher JI, Mustard JF, Vadeboncoeur MA. 2006. Green leaf phenology at Landsat resolution: Scaling from the field to the satellite. Remote Sens. Environ. 100: 265–279

Fitzjarrald D, Acevedo O, Moore K. 2001. Climatic consequences of leaf presence in the eastern United States. J Climate 14: 598–614

Freeman A, Rosen P, Jordan R, Johnson WTK, Hensley S, et al. 2009. DESDynI – A NASA Mission for ecosystems, solid earth, and cryosphere science. Proceedings of the Pol-InSAR Workshop, Frascati, January 26-30, 2009.

Gaulton R, Danson FM, Pearson G, Lewis PE, Disney M. 2010. The Salford Advanced Laser Canopy Analyser (SALCA): A multispectral full waveform LiDAR for improved vegetation characterisation. Proceeding of the remote sensing and photogrammetry society conference, Remote Sensing and the Carbon Cycle, Burlington House, London, 5 May 2010

Gibbs HK, Brown S, Foley JA, Niles JO. 2007. Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDD and reality. Environ. Res. Lett. 2 045023. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/045023

Goetz SJ, Bunn AG, Fiske GJ, Houghton RA. 2005. Satellite‐observed photosynthetic trends across boreal North America associated with climate and fire disturbance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102(38): 13521–13525.

Gordo O, Sanz JJ. 2010. Impact of climate change on plant phenology in Mediterranean ecosystems. Global Change Biology 16: 1082–106

Goward SN, Markham B, Dye DG, Dulaney W, Yang AJ. 1991. Normalized difference vegetation index measurements from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. Remote Sens. Environ. 35: 257–77

Gutman G, Ignatov A. 1998. The derivation of green vegetation fraction from NOAA/AVHRR data for use in numerical weather prediction models. Int. J. Remote Sens. 19: 1533–43

Hänninen H. 1990. Modeling bud dormancy release in trees from cool and temperate regions. Acta For. Fenn. 213: 1-47

Häninnen H. 1994. Effects of climatic change on trees from cool and temperate regions: an ecophysiological approach to modeling of bud burst phenology. Can J Bot 73: 183–99

Harding DJ, Lefsky MA, Parker GG, Blair JB. 2001. Laser altimeter canopy height profiles: methods and validation for closed canopy, broadleaf forests. Remote Sens. Environ. 76: 283–97

Harding DJ, Carabajal CC. 2005. ICESat waveform measurements of within-footprint topographic relief and vegetation vertical structure. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32: L21S10, doi:10.1029/2005GL023471

Helmer EH, Lefsky MA, Roberts DA. 2009. Biomass accumulation rates of Amazonian secondary forest and biomass of old-growth forests from Landsat time series and the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System. J. Appl. Remote Sens. 3: DOI: 10.1117/1.3082116.

Hopkinson C, Chasmer L, Hall RJ. 2008. The uncertainty in conifer plantation growth prediction from multi-temporal lidar datasets. Remote Sens. Environ. 112: 1168–80

Hopkinson C, Chasmer L. 2007. Modelling canopy gap fraction from LiDAR intensity. ISPRS Workshop on Laser Scanning 2007 and SilviLaser 2007, Espoo, September 12-14, 2007, Finland

Hopkinson C, Chasmer L. 2009. Testing LiDAR models of fractional cover across multiple forest ecozones. Remote Sens. Environ. 113: 275−88

Houghton RA. 2005. Aboveground forest biomass and the global carbon balance. Global Change Biology 11: 945–58

Hurtt GC, Dubayah RO, Drake JB, Moorcroft PR, Pacala SW, et al. 2004. Beyond potential vegetation: Combining lidar data and a height structured model for carbon studies. Ecol. Appl. 14: 873-883

Inouye DW. 2008. Effects of climate change on phenology, frost damage, and floral abundance of montane wildflowers. Ecology 89:353–62

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, Chapter 1. Assessment of Observed Changes and Responses in Natural and Managed Systems. IPCC Secretariat. Geneva, Switzerland; http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter1.pdf.

Jackson RB, Lechowicz MJ, Li X, Mooney HA. 2001. Phenology, growth, and allocation in global terrestrial productivity. In: Roy J, Saugier B, Mooney HA (eds) Terrestrial global productivity: past, present, and future. Academic, San Diego, 61–82

Jarvis PG, Leverenz JW. 1983. Productivity of temperate, deciduous and evergreen forests. In: Lange OL, Nobel PS, Osmond CB, Zeigler H, eds. Physiological plant ecology IV. Ecosystem processes: mineral cycling productivity and man’s influence. Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology. Vol. 12D. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 233-80

Kaduk J, Heimann M. 1996. A prognostic phenology scheme for global terrestrial carbon cycle models. Climate Research 6: 1–19

Kang S, Running SW, Lim JH, Zhao M, Park CR, Loehman R. 2003. A regional phenology model for detecting onset of greenness in temperate mixed forests, Korea: An application of MODIS leaf area index. Remote Sens. Environ. 86: 232– 42

Kim Y, Wang GL. 2005. Modeling seasonal vegetation variation and its validation against Moderate Resolution Imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations over North America, J. Geophys. Res. 110, D04106, doi:10.1029/2004JD005436

Kim S, McGaughey RJ, Andersen HE, Schreuder G. 2009. Tree species differentiation using intensity data derived from leaf-on and leaf-off airborne laser scanner data. Remote Sens. Environ. 113: 1575–1586

Koetz B, Morsdorf F, Sun G, Ranson KJ, Itten K, Allgower B. 2006. Inversion of a lidar waveform model for forest biophysical parameter estimation. IEEE Geosci. Remote S. 3: 49–53

Koetz B, Sun GQ, Morsdorf F, Ranson KJ, Kneubuhler M, et al. 2007. Fusion of imaging spectrometer and LIDAR data over combined radiative transfer models for forest canopy characterization. Remote Sens. Environ. 106: 449–59

Kogan F. 1995. Droughts of the late 1980s in the United States as derived from NOAA polar-orbiting satellite data. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 76: 665– 68

Krabill WB, Collins JG, Link LE, Swift RN, Butler ML. 1984. Airborne laser topographic mapping results. Photogramm. Eng. Rem. S. 50: pp. 685-94

Kramer K. 1994. Selecting a model to predict the onset of growth of Fagus sylvatica. J. Appl. Ecol. 31: 172—81

Kramer K, Leinonen I, Loustau D. 2000. The importance of phenology for the evaluation of impact of climate change on growth of boreal, temperate and Mediterranean forests ecosystems: An overview. Int. J. Biometeorol. 44: 67– 75

Lefsky MA, Cohen WB, Acker SA, Parker GG, Spies TA, Harding D. 1999a. Lidar remote sensing of the canopy structure and biophysical properties of Douglas-fir western hemlock forests. Remote Sens. Environ. 70: 339–61

Lefsky MA, Harding D, Cohen WB, Parker GG. 1999b. Surface lidar remote sensing of the basal area and biomass in deciduous forests of eastern Maryland, USA. Remote Sens. Environ. 67: 83-98

Lefsky MA, Cohen WB, Parker GG, Harding DJ. 2002. LIDAR remote sensing for ecosystem studies. Bioscience. 52: 19–30

Lefsky MA, Cohen WB, Harding DJ, Parker GG, Acker SA, Gower ST. 2002b. Lidar remote sensing of above-ground biomass in three biomes. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 11: 393–99

Lefsky MA, Hudak AT, Cohen WB, Acker SA. 2005. Geographic variability in lidar predictions of forest stand structure in the Pacific Northwest. Remote Sens. Environ. 95: 532–48

Liang L, Schwartz MD. 2009: Landscape phenology: an integrative approach to seasonal vegetation dynamics. Landscape Ecology 24: 465–72

Lieth H. 1974. Phenology and seasonality modelling. Berlin, Germany: Springer.

Lim KS, Treitz PM, Wulder M, St-Onge B, Flood M. 2003. Lidar remote sensing of forest structure. Prog. Phys. Geog. 27: 88–106

Lim KS, Treitz PM. 2004. Estimation of above ground forest biomass from airborne discrete return laser scanner data using canopy-based quantile estimators. Scand. J. For. Res. 19: 558–70

Lloyd, D. (1990), A phenological classification of terrestrial vegetation cover using shortwave vegetation index imagery. Int. J. Remote Sens. 11: 2269– 79

Lucas RM, Lee AC, Bunting PJ. 2008. Retrieving forest biomass through integration of CASI and LiDAR data. Int. J. Remote Sens. 29: 1553–77

Magnussen S, Eggermont P, LaRiccia VN. 1999. Recovering tree heights from airborne laser scanner data. Forest Sci. 45: 407-22

Martens SN, Ustin SL, Rousseau RA. 1993. Estimation of tree canopy leaf area index by gap fraction analysis. For. Ecol. Manage. 61: 91-108

Martinuzzi S, Vierling LA, Gould WA, Falkowski MJ, Evans JS, et al. 2009. Mapping snags and understory shrubs for a LiDAR-based assessment of wildlife habitat suitability. Remote Sens. Environ. 113: 2533–46

Menzel A, Fabian P. 1999. Growing season extended in Europe. Nature 397:659

Menzel A. 2000. Trends in phenological phases in Europe between 1951 and 1996. Int. J. Biometeorol. 44: 76–81

Menzel A, Estrella N. 2001. Plant phenological changes. In “Fingerprints” of Climate Change — Adapted Behaviour and Shifting Species Ranges, Walther G-R, Burga CA, Edwards PJ (eds). Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers: New York; 123–37

Miller-Rushing AJ, Primack RB. 2008. Global warming and flowering times in Thoreau’s Concord: a community perspective. Ecology 89: 332–41

Miura N, Jones SD. 2010. Characterizing forest ecological structure using pulse types and heights of airborne laser scanning. Remote Sens. Environ. 114: 1069-76

Morin X, Jacques R, Sonie L, Chuine I. 2010. Changes in leaf phenology of three European oak species in response to experimental climate change. New Phytologist 186: 900-10

Morton DC, DeFries RS, Shimabukuro YE, Anderson LO, Espirito‐Santo FDB et al. 2005. Rapid assessment of annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon using MODIS data. Earth Interactions 9(8): 1–22

Moulin S, Kergoat L, Viovy N, Dedieu G. 1997. Global-scale assessment of vegetation phenology using NOAA/AVHRR satellite measurements. J. Clim. 10: 1154– 70

Murray MB, Cannel MGR, Smith RI. 1989. Date of bud burst of fifteen tree species in Britain following climatic warming. J Appl Ecol 26: 693–00

Myneni RB, Keeling CD, Tucker CJ, Asrar G, Nemani RR. 1997. Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981– 1991. Nature 386: 698–02

Naesset E. 1997. Determination of mean tree height of forest stands using airborne laser scanner data. ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens. 52: 49 –56

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). 2009. IceSat Homepage. http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.php (accessed July 22, 2010)

National Research Council. 2007. Earth Science and Applications from Space: National imperatives for the next decade and beyond, executive summary. National Academies Press. 43 pgs. [downloadable pdf at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11820.html, la= July 19, 2010]

Nelson R, Ranson KJ, Sun G, Kimes DS, Kharuk V, Montesano P. 2009. Estimating Siberian timber volume using MODIS and ICESat/GLAS. Remote Sens. Environ. 113(3): 691–01

Nilson T. 1971. Theoretical analysis of frequency of gaps in plant stands. Agricultural Meteorology 8: 25−38

Oberto B, Loverro A, Hu S, Blair B. 2008. Mission and Spacecraft Configuration Studies (Priority Tasks 1, 2, & 4). DESDynI Science Study Group Meeting. June 2008, Greenbelt, MD.

Parker GG, Harding DJ, Berger ML. 2004. A portable LiDAR system for rapid determination of forest canopy structure. J. Appl. Ecol. 41(4): 755–67

Parmesan C. 2006. Ecological and evolutionary responses to recent climate change. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Evol. System. 37: 637–69

Peñuelas J, Filella I. 2001. Phenology: responses to a warming world. Science 294: 793–95

Peñuelas J. Rutishauser T, Filella I. 2009. Phenology feedbacks on climate change, Science, 324(5929), 887–888, doi:10.1126/science. 1173004

Powell SL, Cohen WB, Healey SP, Kennedy RP, Moisen GG et al. 2010. Quantification of live aboveground forest biomass dynamics with Landsat time-series and field inventory data: A comparison of empirical modeling approaches, Remote Sens. Environ. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2009.12.018.

Raman CV. 1928. A New Radiation. Indian Jour. Phys. 2: 387

Rathcke B, Lacey EP. 1985. Phenological patterns of terrestrial plants. Ann. Rev. Ecol Syst. 16: 179-214

Reed BC, White M, Brown JF. 2003. Remote sensing phenology. In: (M.D. Schwartz, ed.) Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science, pp. 365–381. Kluwer: Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

Reed BC, Brown JF, VanderZee D, Loveland TR, Merchant JW, Ohlen DO. 1994. Measuring phenological variability from satellite imagery. Journal of Vegetation Science 5: 703– 14

Reutebuch SE, Andersen HE, McGaughey RJ. 2005. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR): An emerging tool for multiple resource inventory. J. Forest. 103(6): 286-92

Rignot E, Echelmeyer E, Krabill K. 2001. Penetration depth of interferometric synthetic-aperture radar signals in snow and ice. Geophys. Res. Lett. 28: 3501–04

Robin J, Dubayah R, Sparrow E, Levine E. 2007: Monitoring start of season in Alaska with GLOBE, AVHRR, and MODIS data. J. Geophys. Res. 113: G01017, doi:10.1029/2007JG000407

Rosenqvist A, Milne A, Lucas R, Imhoff M, Dobson C. 2003. A review of remote sensing technology in support of the Kyoto Protocol. Environ. Sci Pol 6(5): 441–55

Sakamoto T, Yokozawa M, Toritani H, Shibayama M, Ishitsuka N, Ohno H. 2005. A crop phenology detection method using time-series MODIS data. Remote Sens. Environ. 96, 366–74

Schaber J, Badeck FW. 2003. Physiology-based phenology models for forest tree species in Germany. Int. J. Biometeorol 47: 193– 201

Schmid HP, Su H-B, Vogel CS, Curtis PS. 2003. Ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide over a mixed hardwood forest in northern lower Michigan. J Geophys Res DOI 10.1029/2002JD003011

Schwartz MD, Ahas R, Aasa A. 2006. Onset of spring starting earlier across the Northern Hemisphere. Glob Change Biol 12: 343–51

Schwartz MD, Hanes JM. 2009. Continental-scale phenology: warming and chilling. Int. J. Climatol. Wiley InterScience. DOI: 10.1002/joc.2014

Sun GQ, Ranson KJ. 2000. Modeling lidar returns from forest canopies. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 38(6): 2617–26

Suzuki R, Nomaki T, Yasunari T. 2003. West-east contrast of phenology and climate in northern Asia revealed using a remotely sensed vegetation index, Int. J. Biometeorol. 47: 126–38

Tarpley JP, Schneider SR, Money RL. 1984. Global vegetation indices from NOAA-7 meteorological satellite. J Climate App Meteorol 23: 491–94

Thoman R, Fathauer T. 1998. An investigation into estimating green-up dates around Fairbanks Alaska using thermal indices, Natl. Weather Serv.

Urban DL. 1990. A versatile model to simulate forest pattern: A user guide to ZELIG, version 1.0. Charlottesville, VA: Environ. Sci. Dept. Univ. Virginia

Ustin SL, Roberts DA, Gamon JA, Asner GP, Green RO. 2004. Using imaging spectroscopy to study ecosystem processes and properties. Bioscience 54(6): 523–534

Vierling KT, Vierling LA, Gould W, Martinuzzi S, Clawges R. 2008. Lidar: Shedding new light on habitat characterization and modeling. Front. Ecol. Environ. 6(2): 90–98
White MA, Running SW, Thornton PE. 1997. A continental phenology model for monitoring vegetation responses to inter-annual climate variability. Global Biogeochem Cycles 11: 217–34

White MA, Running SW, Thornton PE. 1999. The impact of growing season length variability on carbon assimilation and evapo-transpiration over 88 years in the eastern US deciduous forest. Int J Biometeorol 42: 139–45

White MA, Nemani RR, Thornton PE, Running SW. 2002. Satellite evidence of phenological differences between urbanized and rural areas of the eastern United States deciduous broadleaf forest. Ecosystems 5: 260–73

White MA, Nemani RR. 2003. Canopy duration has little influence on annual carbon storage in the deciduous broad leaf forest. Global Change Biology 9: 967–72

White MA, Brunsell NA, Schwartz MD. 2003. Vegetation phenology in global change studies. In: Schwartz MD (ed) Phenology: an integrative environmental science. Kluwer, Dordrect, pp 453–466

White MA, de Beurs KM, Didan K, Inouye DW, Richardson AD, Jensen OP et al. 2009. Intercomparison, interpretation, and assessment of spring phenology in North America estimated from remote sensing for 1982–2006. Global Change Biology, doi: 0.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01910.x.

Zhang X, Friedl MA, Schaaf CB et al. 2003. Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS. Remote Sens. Environ. 84: 471–75
Zhang X, Friedl MA, Schaaf CB, Strahler AH. 2004. Climate controls on vegetation phenological patterns in northern mid-and high latitudes inferred from MODIS data. Global Change Biology, 10, 1–13. doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.2003.00784.x

Zhao KG, Popescu S. 2009. LiDAR-based mapping of leaf area index and its use for validating GLOBCARBON satellite LAI product in temperate forest of the southern USA. Remote Sens. Environ. 113: 1628-1645.

Zhao KG, Popescu S, Nelson R. 2009. Lidar remote sensing of forest biomass: A scaleinvariant estimation approach using airborne lasers. Remote Sens. Environ. 113(1): 182–96

Zhou L, Tucker CJ, Kaufmann RK, Slayback D, Shabanov NV, Myneni RB. 2001. Variation in northern vegetation activity inferred from satellite data of vegetation index during 1981 to 1999. J. Geophys. Res. 106(D17), 20,069–20,083

Zimble DA, Evans DL, Carson GC, Parker RC, Grado SC, Gerard PD. 2003. Characterizing vertical forest structure using small-footprint airborne lidar. Remote Sens. Environ. 87: 171–82

Join ESRI's live training seminar "Running ArcGIS Server on Amazon EC2." Learn how to rapidly deploy and scale ArcGIS Server 10 in the cloud using the Amazon EC2 platform.

Schedule: Thursday, August 26, 2010
9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., & 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (US & Canada)
12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., & 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US & Canada)
4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., & 10:00 p.m. UTC/GMT

GIS training by a technical expert streamed directly to your desktop. The seminars are live, interactive, free and there is no registration—attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Join here.

Trimble announced today it has acquired the assets of privately-held Accubid Systems based in Concord, Ontario, Canada. Accubid is a leading provider of estimating, project management and service management software and services for electrical and mechanical contractors. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Accubid's family of software products allow electrical and mechanical contractors to analyze their estimates in great detail including CAD-based estimating and takeoff and then export the data into project management, accounting, and procurement applications. The acquisition of Accubid broadens Trimble's industry leading "BIM to field" solutions for mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) contractors to automate project estimating and management, modeling, detailing, layout and construction.

"BIM collaboration processes are transforming the way building construction projects are planned, managed and executed," said Pat Bohle, general manager of Trimble's Building Construction Division. "Combining Accubid's deep understanding of the electrical and mechanical trades and their detail rich application data with Trimble's field solutions will provide contractors additional tools to become more productive, efficient, and prepared to meet the demands of the industry in the future."

"In today's world, construction projects have become more complex and sophisticated, yet at the same time contractors are expected to build them faster than ever before," said Giovanni Marcelli, founder and CEO of Accubid. "By combining the strengths of Accubid's project management and estimating expertise with Trimble's powerful MEP field solutions, we can better enable clients to address these challenges head-on."

The Accubid business will be reported as part of the Engineering and Construction segment.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Israel Space Agency (ISA) Director General Zvi Kaplan signed a joint statement of intent to expand the space agencies' cooperation in civil space activities.

NASA and ISA identified the following potential opportunities for bilateral cooperation: space geodesy, the measurement from space of Earth's gravitational field, tides and the movement of its poles and crust; hydrological observations and joint research; an expansion of Israel's participation in the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) education programme; planetary science through ISA's affiliate membership in the NASA Lunar Science Institute; launch and range safety; remote sensing data cooperation; and use of the International Space Station for Israeli research and educational experiments.

The signing followed a meeting between Bolden, Kaplan and Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, Israel's minister of Science and Technology. It advanced discussions that began when Bolden visited Israel in January.

The agencies agreed to identify new joint activities related to Earth and space science, life sciences, space exploration and other areas of mutual interest. The goal is to expand scientific exchanges and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

There was a dead girl on Google Street View! False alarm. People browsing Google Street View and saw the image of the girl who looked dead sprawling on the road were worried why the Google Street View van driver didn't even stop to help.
It turned out that the nine-year-old Azura dropped down to the pavement and pretended to be dead to scare her friends. Google Street View cameras happened to be there at that moment and captured her prank.

The forests in the island are to be remapped using satellite images, Forest Department Assistant Conservator Nishantha Edirisinghe told the Daily News. "The previous mapping was done in 1999.

First we interpret forest cover, grass lands, buildings and water areas through satellite images, and then will go to forest lands to see whether the images obtained are true.

After categorizing into forest cover classes the maps will be drawn using the CIS software" he said.

He also said that, the Department hopes to release this map within next three months.

"This will be of use to obtain contemporary facts about remaining forests in Sri Lanka" he added.

Scientists studying the largest drainage basin in the world have used satellite technology to provide the first detailed measurements of water flow between the Amazon River and its floodplains.

Every year, 285 billion metric tons, or 285 cubic kilometers of water by volume, rises and falls in the Amazon floodplain, accounting for just five per cent of the total water flow into the ocean. Until now, the sheer size of the area and the difficulties of access meant that researchers had to rely on data taken from sporadic field visits, leading them to believe that the water flow was as much as 30 per cent.

The findings will be of critical importance to scientific efforts to understand climate change, and will impact significantly on future predictions and analysis of flood levels.

Four satellites were used to study the floodplain, looking at water level changes during the wet and dry seasons between 2003 and 2006. The measurements were taken using a satellite called GRACE which measures changes in the planet's gravity field and records the weight (and hence the volume) of water resting on the Earth's surface.

The study was conducted by a team of experts from the Universities of Ohio, Baltimore, Bristol and California, and is reported online in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.

Prof Paul Bates, from Bristol’s School of Geographical Sciences, said: “This is the first time we've been able to actually measure the amount of water that flows every year from the Amazon River channel to its floodplain and back again.”

Prof Bates’ team, reputed for its flood assessment work using computer model simulations, and with an expertise in Amazon hydraulics, was able to critically review the data produced using the satellites.

“You can't do this work from the ground because of the vast area and difficulty of getting around, so satellites and models really are the only options,” added Prof Bates. “The work is important as we currently don't know how much water flows from the Amazon into the ocean, or the route that water takes to get there. These new measurements tell us more about both of these things, and provide a baseline from which we can look for future changes in the Amazon flood wave.”

The combined data from the satellites reveals how the Amazon landscape has changed as a result of highland rains creating an overflow into the lowland jungle.

At the height of the rainy season, water flowed into various locations on the Amazon floodplain at a rate of 5,500 cubic meters (5,500 metric tons) per second, and during the dry season, it drained away into the Amazon River - and, ultimately, into the Atlantic Ocean - at a rate of 7,500 cubic meters (7,500 metric tons) per second.

Paper:

Alsdorf et al. Seasonal water storage on the Amazon floodplain measured from satellites. Remote Sensing of Environment, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2010.05.020. [via report]

The Global Software Institute (GSI) has announced that, effective immediately, OpenDragon is available for free download by users anywhere in the world. OpenDragon offers a full suite of image analysis and raster GIS capabilities including image enhancement, supervised and unsupervised classification, geometric correction, measurement and statistics, vector capture and display, slope, aspect and buffer calculations and multi-criterion decision making. OpenDragon also includes the OpenDragon Toolkit, which allows users who can program in C to extend the software functionality.

GSI will also make the source code for OpenDragon available for non-commercial use under an Open Source license during the next six to nine months.

"Schools, colleges and universities need robust, high quality software for geoinformatics teaching and research," said Dr. Sally E. Goldin, president of GSI. "Commercial software is too expensive, especially for lesser developed countries, while 'home grown' software is frequently buggy or incomplete. OpenDragon fills the gap by providing a wide range of core geoinformatics functions in an integrated, easy-to-use package. The Toolkit is especially useful for faculty and graduate students who need to develop and evaluate their own algorithms."

OpenDragon is a free offshoot of the commercial Dragon/ips(r) system from Goldin-Rudahl Systems, Inc. OpenDragon is fully internationalized. The current system provides Thai, Czech, French, Russian, Bahasa Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese interfaces. GSI will gladly cooperate with any organization wishing to translate the software into other languages.

Users interested in downloading OpenDragon should visit http://www.open-dragon.org for details.

The Global Software Institute was founded to apply computer technology to global needs. For more information on GSI visit http://www.global-soft.org.

For information on the more powerful commercial version of Dragon, visit http://www.dragon-ips.com.

Intermap Technologies Corporation ("Intermap" or the "Company") announced today that, by mutual agreement with the Intermap board, Brian L. Bullock will be stepping down as the Company’s president and chief executive officer. He will be succeeded by fellow director Howard J. Nellor, who will serve as an interim president and chief executive officer until the board completes a currently ongoing executive search. Mr. Bullock will remain chairman of the board of directors and, in that capacity, will remain engaged with Intermap’s strategic initiatives and major sales as well as providing Mr. Nellor assistance with the transition.

Larry G. Garberding, the Company’s lead independent director said, “The board of directors would like to thank Brian for his service as CEO. He was the animating force in the Company’s formation and has been its guiding light ever since. In particular, the board is grateful for the enormous competence he demonstrated over the past six years at the difficult and complex task of managing the creation of the extraordinary NEXTMap database. Completed last month, on time and under budget, it will be a benefit to every citizen in the countries it covers.”

Mr. Nellor has over 40 years experience in sales, marketing, and management in the technology field. In the past, he served as the president and CEO of Peerless Systems (NASDAQ: PRLS), a provider of imaging and networking technologies to the digital document market. In addition, he was proprietor of a highly successful consulting company where he specialized in product development, production and manufacturing process automation, crisis management, and rebuilding and turn-around situations at various organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Nellor holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He also completed advanced studies in Organizational Development.

“Howard has experience with technology companies in transition,” stated Mr. Bullock. “He will be particularly well-qualified to oversee Intermap’s transition from a company primarily focused on data collection, to one driving products to its target markets. I look forward to working with him as the Company moves forward.

“I would like to personally thank the employees and officers of Intermap for their tireless service as well as the shareholders and advisors who have supported the Company in this great undertaking. I am confident that with the completion of the NEXTMap database we are at an inflection point in the Company’s growth.”

Conference Call
The regular second quarter conference call will be held as scheduled on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 4:30 pm ET (2:30 pm MT). To participate in the call, please dial +1-416-695-6622 or +1-800-766-6630 approximately 10 minutes prior to the conference call. A recording of the conference call will be available through August 17, 2010. Please dial +1-416-695-5800 or +1-800-408-3053 and provide the password 6357014 to listen to the rebroadcast.


About Intermap Technologies
Intermap (IMP.TO) is a preeminent digital mapping and geospatial solutions provider that has set the industry standard for creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth’s surface. The Company has proactively remapped entire countries and built uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, GPS maps, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, renewable energy, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation, and 3D visualization markets.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap has offices in Australia, Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.Intermap.com.

NEXTMap® is a registered trademark of Intermap Technologies Corporation.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.


For more information, please contact:

Intermap Technologies
Brian Musfeldt, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
bmusfeldt@intermap.com
+1 (303) 708-0955

Canada – Financial
Corbet Pala, Investor Relations
e.vestor Communications Inc.
cpala@evestor.com
+1 (416) 657-2400

United States – Financial
Budd Zuckerman, Investor Relations
Genesis Select Corporation
bzuckerman@genesisselect.com
+1 (303) 415-0200

A Proton-M carrier rocket bearing three Glonass-M navigation satellites will be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on September 2, Russia's space agency said on Friday.

"Preparation work on one of the three Glonass-M satellites is presently being completed at the Baikonur space center," Roskosmos said in a statement.

The two other satellites will be ready for launch by the end of August.

Glonass - the Global Navigation Satellite System - is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.

Russia currently has a total of 22 Glonass satellites in orbit, but only 16 of them are operational. The system requires 18 operational satellites for continuous navigation services covering the entire territory of Russia and at least 24 satellites to provide navigation services worldwide. [via]

Ford's SYNC system was a small-yet-significant acceleration for drivers but a pedal to the metal for smart cars everywhere. The Dearborn automaker is now working on technology that could push the smart-car envelope even further and faster.

Ford is developing a new and advanced crash avoidance system that uses wireless and GPS technologies so automobiles can literally speak to each other and mitigate accidents. The Automatic Braking Intersection Collision Avoidance System utilizes radio-based wireless sensors, GPS, and navigation information to detect the relative location of other similarly equipped vehicles. The software would use this information to warn the driver of a potential collision and even begin braking.

Current technology based on radar and cameras can only find objects in front of and behind the vehicle. Ford's new radio-based wireless system provides a 360-degree view and uses advanced engineering algorithms to validate any threats and react accordingly in real time.

Such smart car technology has been developed by local universities, government agencies, and automakers for years. However, Ford's latest efforts represent an opportunity to make this a commercial reality, bringing it to market within the next few years.

Source: Ford
Via.

Trimble Dimensions 2010 is a gathering place for the growing community of advanced positioning technology users. Professionals wishing to stay on top of the most current information regarding advanced positioning solutions should attend Trimble Dimensions 2010.

More than 250 industry expert speakers will participate in the 2010 conference. This year's comprehensive educational tracks consist of cutting edge, innovative sessions featuring seasoned and experienced presenters and/or panelists.

When and Where: November 8-10, 2010, at the Mirage, Las Vegas

Registration Packages & Fees:

Individual Attendee
Early Bird Rate -- June 15 – August 15 -- $795
Standard Rate -- August 16 – Oct 7 -- $895
Full Conference Rate -- Oct 8 – Nov 8 -- $1095
Government Rate -- No expiration date -- $595

Group discounts available!

Register here.

Area between Peaks Feature in the Derivative Reflectance Curve as a Sensitive Indicator of Change in Chlorophyll Concentration
Eric Ariel L. Salas and Geoffrey M. Henebry
Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence (GIScCE), South
Dakota State University, 1021 Medary Ave., Wecota Hall 506B, Brookings,
South Dakota 57007-3510

Abstract: Vegetation spectral features can detect chlorophyll concentrations. Two key spectral features evident in the first derivative (FD) of reflectance constitute the two main peaks: one located around 685–705 nm and the other near 710–725 nm. We propose that the area between peaks (ABP) can be used as a sensitive indicator of changes in the photosynthetic pigments at leaf level and demonstrate it using a high-spectral-resolution dataset of maize leaves collected by Gitelson and coworkers (2005). We find significant high positive correlations (r2 > 0.90) between chlorophyll concentrations and both the ABP and its continuum length feature.

Keywords: Reflectance Curve, Derivative Spectrum, Double Peak, Chlorophyll, Three Peaks, Hyperspectral Analysis of Reflectance Data, Hyper-spectral Approach, Images

Document:

SuperGeo Technologies establishes Truck Dispatch Management System for construction sites to track trucks’ status and improve the efficiency of truck dispatch by using SuperObjects and GPS technologies. The status of each construction site and truck can be accurately checked via the platform.

Infrastructure construction has been an essential index of economic development. The sites are increasing in many countries with a great demand for new buildings. The government agencies in Taiwan, therefore, plan to build a system to manage and dispatch trucks that deliver raw materials for constructions.

Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) is the indispensable raw material for constructions. When the construction sites order RMC, the RMC would be delivered from factories to the construction sites.

However, the dispatch in RMC factories is still operated by experiences and radioing. A RMC factory generally needs to dispatch RMC to more than 5 to 10 construction sites per day. Thus, it is difficult for the dispatchers to track the status of trucks fully. The construction site sometimes might need to be suspended and wait for the RMC.

Consequently, the project intends to apply GIS technologies to build a dispatch management system to help dispatchers manage the trucks between RMC factories and the sites. Thus, the efficiency of dispatch operation can be improved, and the work efficiency can be optimized too.

RMC Truck Dispatch Management System combines GIS, GPS, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), communication system and electronic detection technologies. The system enables the dispatch center to effectively track each truck’s real-time status. Thus, the dispatch center can adjust the delivery intervals based on the current status.

The system adopts SuperObjects developed by SuperGeo Technologies to develop each GIS function. SuperObjects is a SDK based on COM objects; its library is composed of over 100 interfaces. As a result, developers can utilize the objects and interfaces to develop the needed GIS functions to satisfy their requirements.

More information is available here.

Optech Incorporated, the world’s leading manufacturer of advanced lidar survey instruments, is pleased to announce the appointment of four new members to its Board of Directors. The appointments of David Nale, Philip Lapp, Dan Cornacchia, and Tony LaVista to Optech’s Board of Directors add the deep experience in high-tech business that will be needed for the company's future growth.

David Nale is a highly respected figure in photogrammetry, mapping, and GIS. As an entrepreneur and technical specialist in the surveying and remote-sensing markets, Mr. Nale has been directly responsible for the detailed photogrammetric and lidar mapping of hundreds of cities, regions, and government projects throughout the world. He serves as a geospatial consultant to a number of major corporations, and is currently the owner/CEO of eMap International.

Philip Lapp is a senior figure in the Canadian high-tech sector, formerly a senior technical manager for Canadian aeronautics/space companies such as SPAR Aerospace Ltd. and DeHavilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. Mr. Lapp is a former President of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario and of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers. He has received numerous professional honors in his career, including being made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dan Cornacchia is an experienced business advisor with a recognized background in governance, risk oversight, and management. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, with more than 35 years' of experience at Ernst & Young in entrepreneurial business and finance. Mr. Cornacchia is also deeply involved in community charities and volunteer programs.

Tony LaVista is an expert in financing processes and banking operations, and has been a trusted advisor to Optech for more than 12 years. He is a founder of the Royal Bank of Canada, Knowledge Based Industries (KBI) group, where he spent over 10 years. Mr.

LaVista is highly respected as an expert who truly understands the needs of clients in the high-tech sector. "We are very pleased to be able to add such respected professionals to our board," said Don Carswell, President, Optech Incorporated. "Their wide range of expertise will be invaluable, and we look forward to benefiting from their collective experience. As Optech continues to grow, the guidance of such successful professionals will be of enormous benefit."

For further information, please contact:
Wayne Szameitat
International Sales Manager
Optech Incorporated
300 Interchange Way
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada L4K 5Z8
+1 905 660 0808
inquiries@optech.ca

Alonso Arellano, a Professor from the Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), along with Guillermo Sanchez Arellano, has developed a new approach to analyse geotectonic activity through the study of remote sensing satellite images. The new approach considers the tension in the earth's crust, reflected on the surface of the Earth in the form of alignments. Studies of the temporal variation of these alignments identify changes in the tension of the crust.

Andrea and Cristián have substantially improved an algorithm proposed by Zlatopolsky for the detection of these alignments. However, this programme has some drawbacks such as: the stiffness of the parameters, the need to implement other programmes for the collection and analysis of results and defects in extracting directional alignments.

The new image processing programme in the USACH performed by the Matlab programming language, has proved highly effective for studying the accumulation of stress in the crust prior to major earthquakes. This has been achieved through the observation of the variation in the density and orientation of the alignments observed in the sequence of satellite images Terra (Aster) for months before and after the event. The development of the thesis has enabled the undergraduates of USACH to actively participate in cutting-edge research worldwide.

Arellano, Doctor of Science in Engineering from Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, working since 2004 with satellite images of earthquake precursors. During these years, eleven earthquakes of magnitude greater than five points (Richter scale) have been studied, confirming the hypothesis that through analysis of satellite images and other mechanisms, can predict earthquakes.

[via1, via2]

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the newest layer for Bing Maps and the newest Bing Map App in the gallery. The map app, dubbed simply, “OpenStreetMap” loads OSM maps as a new map style option. OpenStreetMap follows a similar concept as Wikipedia, but for maps and other geographic facts (despite its name, it's by no means only limited to streets and roads). People, like you and me, gather location data across the globe from a variety of sources such as recordings from GPS devices, from free satellite imagery or simply from knowing an area very well, for example because they live there. This information then gets uploaded to OpenStreetMap's central database from where it can be further modified, corrected and enriched by anyone who notices missing facts or errors about the area.

Users can still perform searches atop of the OSM map layer. Once the OSM Maps are rendered, users will find the OSM map option listed in the map types so if you switch to Bird’s Eye or some other native Bing map types, you can easily return to the OSM map style. Of note, we are using the Mapnik map style from OSM (one of the many map styles available to open source users) to create our OSM map type.

Check it out on Bing.com.

China successfully launched its fifth navigation satellite in orbit at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, as a part of its indigenous satellite navigation and positioning network, Beidou. The satellite was launched from the Long March 3I carrier rocket, according the report.

It is the 126th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets. The satellite will join another four satellites in orbit to form a network that will eventually consist of 35 satellites.

The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others.

China started building its own navigation satellite system to end its dependence upon the US GPS system in 2000, when it sent two orbiters as a double-satellite experimental positioning system.

The system is designed to provide navigation, time and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region before 2012 and will be capable of providing global navigation services by 2020.