GIS in Education

BlackBerry smartphone users in the UK will soon be able to view and edit map and location data on the move, as Esri UK becomes the official exclusive distributor for TDC's Freeance Mobile Software in the UK.

According to company, the application allows public and private-sector organisations already using BlackBerry smartphones to maximize their investment in GIS, opening up live dynamic maps, data collection and location services to their staff.

Richard Waite, Managing Director, Esri UK, said, “This will further fulfil our mission to make GIS technology an indispensible part of everyday life.”

Matthew Reddington, CEO of TDC Group, said, “By uniting the strengths of both companies, this partnership adds new value to GIS in government, utilities, public safety and other enterprises within the UK. Using Freeance Mobile software, customers can now leverage all the benefits mobile GIS has to offer such as increased efficiencies, dramatic cost savings and better customer service.”

Freeance software allows any organisation running ESRI's flagship ArcGIS Server to publish their maps live to an unlimited number of BlackBerry smartphones. This is another opportunity for public sector customers to realise efficiency savings, delivering more for less from their IT investment, the company added.

Navigating rain-soaked streets is a familiar experience for Harris County residents. And while street flooding generally is a temporary nuisance for most drivers, it can be a serious obstacle for emergency responders.

However fleeting, flooding can cause traffic delays for EMS crews that are trying to reach and transport people in need of medical assistance. Minutes, even seconds, can count.

University of Houston Professor Gino Lim is trying to ease this traffic problem by developing a computer-based real-time flood-mapping system that will help emergency responders better navigate roads in bad weather.

Lim recently received a $400,700 grant from the city of Houston to build a computer program that will instantaneously classify the level of flooding on roads near major highways within the Sam Houston Parkway (State Highway Beltway 8). Similar in concept to Houston TranStar's online real-time traffic map, Lim's Real-Time Flood Mapping System will use a color-coded computer map to indicate the severity of flooding on major road segments. Red will mean that segment of road is severely flooded, while green will mean it's safe to travel the road. This technology could eventually be helpful for any large metropolitan area that frequently has to deal with flash-flooding. Limphoto

This month, Lim and his team have started to develop a database that connects to three major flood-monitoring database systems. Once the system is developed, it will undergo six months of testing, and it's expected to be in place for first responders to use by the beginning of the hurricane season in June 2013.

"This will be a major advancement," said Lim, Hari and Anjali Agrawal Faculty Fellow and an associate professor of industrial engineering at UH. "In Harris County, street flooding and the resulting traffic problems are still unresolved problems. But the inability to effectively inform and navigate emergency vehicles through flooded streets is not caused by a lack of technology but by the lack of proper integration of available technologies."

"This tool will substantially improve first responders' decision-making abilities and their response times. Information like this is priceless and could mean the difference between life and death," Lim said.

Lim's system will merge city and flood databases into one comprehensive resource that will be hosted on TransStar's website. Algorithms devised by Lim will turn this data into color-coded, visual representations of flooding on a map that can be accessed by emergency responders via the Internet on their laptops.

"During Hurricane Ike two years ago, we did a lot of testing on data transfer," Lim said. "What we found is there can be problems with wireless connections because they are reaching the maximum capacity of some towers, which makes this communication difficult."

To overcome that issue, Lim is partnering with Houston PBS to transmit a static image of the flood map via a television signal that would refresh every 10 minutes, or less, depending on demand. This program will allow responders to download the most up-to-date image on their laptops.

Lim is being assisted by Tom Chen, a UH engineering professor, and graduate students and researchers from UH's Systems Optimization and Computing Laboratory (SOCL) in the industrial engineering department, and the Southwest Public Safety Technology Center (STWC).

Lim founded SOCL, where researchers explore mathematical programming techniques to solve various optimization problems. SWTC is led by Steven Pei, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH. SWTC is a grant-supported project dedicated to research and education in the area of public safety technology and homeland security.

For more information about SOCL, visit here.

For more information about SWTC, visit here.

This is a Request for Proposals for the State Water Resources Research Institute Program. This program, authorized by section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984, is a Federal-State partnership which:

* Plans, facilitates, and conducts research to aid in the resolution of State and regional water problems
* Promotes technology transfer and the dissemination and application of research results
* Provides for the training of scientists and engineers through their participation in research
* Provides for competitive grants to be awarded under the Water Resources Research Act

The state water resources research institutes authorized by the Act are organized as the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR). NIWR cooperates with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in establishing total programmatic direction, reporting on the activities of the Institutes, coordinating and facilitating regional research and information and technology transfer, and in operating the NIWR-USGS Student Internship Program.

The South Dakota State University Water Resources Institute (SD WRI) is making plans for FY2011 regarding the State Water Resources Institute Program (SWRIP). The Department of Interior has not yet done the official "apportionment" of the funds; therefore, there has not yet been a final determination of the amount to be awarded to each institute under its base grant. We will be proceeding with the assumption that funding will remain at the same level as last year. Last year, the SDSU Water Resources Institute funded five research projects at SDSU totaling approximately $60,000. We will proceed at this time with the assumption that we will again fund research for an approximate total of $60,000 for 3-5 projects. That dollar amount is subject to change, depending on what happens at the Congressional level. Faculty and staff employed at all state-owned universities and colleges are eligible to apply for these grant funds.

The deadline for pre-proposal submission to SD WRI is November 1, 2010. Pre-proposals will be reviewed and those selected for submission to USGS for funding will be notified no later than November 15, 2010 although if no Congressional action has been taken, this date will be pushed back. After review of proposals by the Institute’s Advisory Board, those highest ranked will be funded based on budgets and total research funds available. The Advisory Board has listed a few topics of particular interest for this year’s call: surface water quality, drinking water treatment, agricultural waste treatment, and watershed-scale projects. Full proposals will be due to me at SD WRI no later than December 22, 2010. We are anticipating a start date for these one-year research projects of 3-1-11.

I am attaching files containing the criteria by which pre-proposals will be reviewed, the required formats for pre-proposals and budgets, and an example of a 104b budget. Please use these formats when submitting your pre-proposal. Keep in mind that the 104 Grant program REQUIRES a TWO TO ONE Match (two non-federal dollars per federal dollar awarded). Indirect costs are not allowed on the federal side, but may be used as match. Please keep your pre-proposals to a two page maximum, not including budget sheet and budget justification. Please e-mail your pre-proposals to me in a Word or WordPerfect format.

Please feel free to forward this message to any parties who may be interested in applying for these grant funds who may not have received a copy of this notification. I apologize for any duplicate e-mails. If you have any questions pertaining to this RFP, please feel free to contact me.


Thank you!

Denise Hovland
Program Assistant
Water Resources Institute
SAE 211, Box 2120
Brookings, SD 57007
605-688-4910 (phone)
605-688-4917 (fax)
Denise.Hovland@sdstate.edu

Esri has launched 2010 ArcLogistics Government Grant Program, which will award subscriptions to Esri’s new cloud-based vehicle routing solution. One hundred state and local government agencies in the US will receive grants totalling USD 450,000 in value.

Christopher Thomas, director of government marketing, said, “Our hope is to assist governments by increasing the productivity of employees who spend time in the field. I am excited to see how governments will use ArcLogistics online to reduce costs while meeting green government objectives.”

Esri developed the programme to help governments reduce recurring costs associated with running fleets of vehicles and managing mobile workforces. Grants will be awarded to governments that propose innovative approaches to routing that can be shared as lessons learned and best practices for other government agencies.

ArcLogistics helps anyone who needs to find locations, assign stops to vehicles and sequence stops while considering factors such as time, cost, capacity and productivity. ArcLogistics has helped state and local governments reduce costs in health, housing and building inspections; property appraisals; public works and solid waste.

Applicants can submit their applications between September 16, 2010 and November 11, 2010 (till 5 p.m. (Pacific Time).

GIS Cloud will present its noteworthy business model which promises to open the benefits of GIS to anyone anywhere.

For many organizations realizing the complete benefits of real GIS has become too expensive or too complicated (or both). GIS Cloud's SaaS technology allows full-featured GIS to affordably flow throughout every part of an organization.

In addition to supporting the Li Geocloud 2010 Conference as a Gold Sponsor, GIS Cloud will release the details of its "Freemuim" approach to Geospatial delivery.

GIS Cloud allows anyone with a browser to instantly experience GIS for free. This innovative cloud computing technology gives subscribers full access to GIS tools such as data creation, analysis, editing and visualization. Simple collaborative utilities further enhance the spread of GIS across an office or across the globe.

"Geospatial technology works well when made available to as many players as possible" said Dino Ravnic co-founder and CEO of GIS Cloud. "The answers that GIS renders must be abundantly shared if we are to truly reap its rewards"

Visit www.giscloud.com for free and premium GIS solutions.

For inquiry contact: info@giscloud.com

The recent U.S. Geological Survey policy offering Landsat satellite data at no cost provides researchers new opportunities to explore relationships between environment and health.

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for using Landsat satellite data to support pesticide exposure assessment in California.Methods and ResultsWe collected a dense time series of 24 Landsat 5 and 7 images spanning the year 2000 for an agricultural region in Fresno County. We intersected the Landsat time series with the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) land use map and selected field samples to define the phenological characteristics of 17 major crop types or crop groups.

We found the frequent overpass of Landsat enabled detection of crop field conditions (e.g ., bare soil, vegetated) over most of the year. However, images were limited during the winter months due to cloud cover.

Many samples designated as single-cropped in the CDWR map had phenological patterns that represented multi-cropped or non-cropped fields, indicating they may have been misclassified.

Conclusions: We found the combination of Landsat 5 and 7 image data would clearly benefit pesticide exposure assessment in this region by 1) providing information on crop field conditions at or near the time when pesticides are applied, and 2) providing information for validating the CDWR map. The Landsat image time-series was useful for identifying idle, single-, and multi-cropped fields.

Landsat data will be limited during the winter months due to cloud cover, and for years prior to the Landsat 7 launch (1999) when only one satellite was operational at any given time. We suggest additional research to determine the feasibility of integrating CDWR land use maps and Landsat data to derive crop maps in locations and time periods where maps are not available, which will allow for substantial improvements to chemical exposure estimation.

Author: Susan MaxwellMatthew AirolaJohn Nuckols
Credits/Source: International Journal of Health Geographics 2010, 9:46

A PhD-candidate in land remote sensing "Applying terrestrial LIDAR to measure vegetation characteristics and improve remote sensing monitoring applications."

The Centre for Geo-Information at Wageningen University (NL) is offering a PhD position for combining terrestrial LIDAR measurements and new remote sensing algorithms for monitoring of vegetation structure and biophysical variables; with focus on forest areas. The PhD student is expected to perform research on the analysis of hemispherical, multiple-return terrestrial LIDAR measurements and integrate such data with improved and innovative land remote sensing approaches for calibration and validation purposes. The methodological work will entail field campaigns (also international), the analysis of three-dimensional LIDAR signals to derive vegetation parameters, and the application of quantitative digital image analysis techniques. The research is part of international research collaborations.

PhD Requirements
MSc degree and experiences in relevant fields such as Remote Sensing, Forestry, Ecology, Environmental Science, or Geography. Knowledge in the areas of expected methodological work and programming skills in IDL or MATLAB is preferable. The candidate should have an interest to work in a research team including international partners.

Conditions of employment
A full-time PhD-position for 4 years. There will be a probationary period of 18 months.The gross salary is € 2.042,- based on a full-time position in the first year and increases to € 2.612,- in the final year. Location: The candidate is expected to pursue a PhD study at Wageningen University’s Center of Geoinformation, Netherlands

Organisation
Wageningen UR (University & Research centre)
Centre for Geo-Information (CGI) has a leading role in the field of geo-information, remote sensing and ICT. With scientific, interdisciplinary and a user-oriented approach, CGI contributes to solutions of (inter-) national spatial topics.

Wageningen University and Research Centre. Delivering a substantial contribution to the quality of life. That’s our focus – each and every day. Within our domain, healthy food and living environment, we search for answers to issues affecting society – such as sustainable food production, climate change and alternative energy. Of course, we don’t do this alone. Every day, 6,500 people work on ‘the quality of life’, turning ideas into reality, on a global scale. Could you be one of these people? We give you the space you need.For further information about working at Wageningen UR, take a look at www.jobsat.wur.nl.

Additional Information
More information is available through Prof. Dr. Martin Herold, e-mail martin.herold@wur.nl.

Intermap Technologies Corporation announced that Brian Musfeldt, has announced his resignation from the positions of chief financial officer and vice president. The Company will announce details on Mr. Musfeldt’s replacement in due course. Through this change, Mr. Musfeldt will provide support to ensure a smooth transition for the Company moving forward, including the completion of 2010 third quarter financial reporting.

“As the Company progresses through this necessary transitional phase, changes in leadership and direction are eminent. As previously announced, the Company is searching for a permanent CEO and we look at this change as an opportunity to obtain a new CEO/CFO team. I am confident that with Brian’s support in transitioning to a new CFO that our experienced accounting and finance team is well suited to handle the tasks at hand,” stated Howard Nellor, Intermap’s president and CEO.

3rd International Conference on Geoinformation Technology for Natural Disaster Management
19-20 October Chiang Mai, Thailand

We are very pleased to inform that all the preparations for the conference are in full swing. Highlights of the conference:

* Key Presentations
* Exhibition by NGOs and Industry
* Workshops/ Special Sessions - 3
* Technical Presentation Sessions - 9
* Poster Sessions
* Hardcopy Proceedings
* Conference Bag/ Kit
* Networking and Mixing during - Lunches and Tea Breaks
* First 100 registered delegates - win lucky draw prizes

Please visit the website to know more.

Overwatch, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, today announced updated versions of its automated feature extraction software extensions, Feature Analyst and LIDAR Analyst. These extensions provide geospatial analysts with the ability to automatically extract fully-attributed feature data such as roads, buildings, vegetation, etc. from imagery and Light Detecting and Ranging (LIDAR) data. These updates help accelerate geospatial data production within the Geospatial Intelligence, Homeland Security, and commercial mapping sectors.

Feature Analyst 5.0 enables users to accurately extract and attribute features from satellite and aerial imagery. One of the most commonly collected features from imagery are buildings, and to address this need, Overwatch has created the Building Collection Toolkit which can reduce the collection time of buildings by as much as 30 percent. The Building Collection Toolkit furthers efficiency by automatically computing many of the commonly collected attributes, such as orientation, length, width, and area, while the new Feature Simplification tool streamlines and automates the labor intensive process of accurately incorporating extraction results into an existing database.

The adoption of LIDAR technology by the defense and intelligence community has resulted in the need for advanced 3D exploitation tools capable of managing larger, more complex geospatial datasets. Many of the enhancements made to LIDAR Analyst 5.0, such as improved bare earth extraction and terrain analysis, were designed in response to the high-density point clouds currently being collected by newer LIDAR collection platforms. LIDAR Analyst 5.0 has improved memory management, automatic tiling of point clouds, improved detection of point spacing, and the ability to perform on-the-fly re-sampling.

Version 5.0 of Feature Analyst and LIDAR Analyst marks the first time both tools can be used in tandem to develop extraction models that can be incorporated into popular GIS software such as Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGISTM. This powerful new capability allows users to augment their existing geoprocessing toolbox and create a complete end-to-end workflow. With the application of these improved extensions, along with each tool’s core capabilities, analysts can leverage the imagery and LIDAR data together to achieve higher quality extraction results. The end result is an improved functionality that allows the user to more precisely fix a potential target to a specific location using imagery and high resolution LIDAR, optimizing targeting and providing a confident tool with which to validate Battle Damage Assessment.

“As the industry standard for feature extraction across a broad customer base, the release of Feature Analyst 5.0 and LIDAR Analyst 5.0 provides enhanced capabilities to analysts within the defense and intelligence sectors, Homeland Security, the National Forest Service, commercial GIS users, as well as local, state and federal government agencies.” said Stuart Blundell, Overwatch vice president of geospatial products and solutions. “This release marks a quantum leap in visualization technology and speaks volumes to the hard work and persistence that Overwatch applies to fulfilling our pledge to customers by producing the best feature extraction software available.”

The United States GIS Data Repository (USGDR) is on a mission of “Making Public Data Public” and needs federal, state, and local GIS departments to join in. Kyle Souza, a Director at the USGDR, explains, “The government generates a large amount of vector data, but lacks the resources to distribute their data. This is where the USGDR comes in; as a non-profit we are not in this for “the money,” we are here to help both the data creators and the data users. We want to partner with those who manage data, to help them cut costs, while at the same time making it easy for end-users to freely access this data.”

The mission of the USGDR is accomplished by making an arrangement with the data author/manager (such as a state GIS department) that allows that organization to upload their GIS data to USGDR servers. Anyone who visits to the USGDR website (www.usgdr.org) can then download the data for free.

The USGDR is looking for federal, state, and local GIS departments that want to save money without compromising quality. By pooling the resources of many organizations everyone can save money, especially those looking to download data. If you are interested in partnering with the USGDR please email info@usgdr.org.

[From German Aerospace Center] What works on a small scale also works on a large scale. For the last several years, a helicopter-mounted measuring instrument developed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has been hard at work detecting methane leaks from natural gas pipelines. From 2014, a similar instrument will be used on a German/French satellite orbiting Earth at an altitude of 650 kilometers. The climate mission Merlin (Methane Remote Sensing Lidar Mission) will track down the greenhouse gas methane around the globe.

This Franco-German collaborative venture has one principal objective – to obtain more and higher-precision data on methane emissions. Methane and carbon dioxide both cause global warming, although the impact of methane is 25 times more powerful than of carbon dioxide. Now, at a time when there is much discussion about mankind being directly responsible for the rise in the emission of greenhouse gases, methane emission levels already far outstrip carbon dioxide. Since pre-industrial times, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled, whereas the growth in carbon dioxide levels during the same period has been 'only' thirty percent. Alongside carbon dioxide, methane is one of those gases for which the Kyoto Protocol stipulates that cuts must be achieved.

Tried and tested measuring principle

Methane LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, sometimes referred to as 'light radar') works from space in exactly the same way as its helicopter-mounted counterpart. The instrument, developed jointly by DLR, ADLARES GmbH and E.ON Ruhrgas AG, transmits pulses of light towards Earth, and then receives the radiation that is reflected back from Earth's surface, again in pulse form. Whenever one of these pulses encounters methane, its signal strength is reduced and the instrument detects this reduction. This is how the LIDAR on a helicopter is able to detect methane leaks from natural gas pipelines. Now, instead of testing a mere eight kilometres of pipeline per day, the CHARM system (CH4 Airborne Remote Monitoring) is able to inspect 50 kilometres an hour. "The measurement principle has already been tried and tested," emphasises Peter Schaadt of the DLR Space Agency.

Instead of inspecting natural gas pipelines, the space-borne instrument will seek out both natural methane sources and those due to human activities at a speed of 25,000 kilometres an hour. It will send its laser beam to and from Earth 50 times a second. "With the measured values, we can produce a world map showing atmospheric methane concentrations and also highlighting regional differences," says Gerhard Ehret from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics.

To promote the awareness of geography to the public during the nation-wide Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 14 – 20, 2010) and GIS Day (Nov. 17, 2010), a poster competition has been organized by the Department of Geology/Geography at Northwest Missouri State University. Anyone interested in sharing their geography experiences and knowledge is encouraged to participate and submit a poster. The subject of your poster should be geography related, such as Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, Global Positioning System, cartography, physical geography, human geography, or regional geography.

Electronic submissions should be sent to Dr. Eva Wu through e-mail or postal service to the address listed below. Submissions must be received by Monday, Nov. 8, 2010 in order to be considered. Your poster should be a maximum 34" X 45" in size, preferably in Microsoft PowerPoint format, and must include your name and contact information. You should also indicate which group you are eligible for: Student Group (for individuals who are undergraduate students) or Professional Group (for individuals who are graduate students or working professionals). Visit http://www.nwmissouri.edu/dept/geo/gaw.htm for winners from previous years.

Winning posters will be awarded as follows:
Cash prize:
1st place with $100.
2nd place with $75.
3rd place with $50.

All winners:
- One year complimentary ASPRS student membership*.

- Posters on display in the Garrett Strong Science Building on the Northwest Missouri State University campus during Geography Awareness Week.

- Posters on display in the ASPRS St. Louis Region Annual Meeting in June 2011.

First place winners**:
- A complimentary student registration to the ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference to be held in Milwaukee, WI, May 1-5, 2011.

- Posters may be on display in the Poster Section during the ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference.

*: if qualified as full time student.
**: pending on judges' decision.

Address any questions to:
Dr. Yi-Hwa (Eva) Wu
Department of Geology/Geography
Northwest Missouri State University
800 University Drive, Maryville, MO 64468
ywu@nwmissouri.edu (660) 562-1869

A team of investigators in Spain is currently developing a technology that could keep a virtual eye on pollution levels being generated by traffic jams, says Softpedia.

Whenever large numbers of vehicles amass in a traffic jam, a large portion of all drivers do not turn off their engines. This leads to the accumulation of toxic fumes above these areas.

Using remote sensing capabilities, researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in Spain, hope to be able to track how these pollutant emissions vary over time.

They are developing a scientific instrument that could infrared radiation to analyze the air at certain locations in a single measurement.

At this point, in order to determine the amount of pollution present above an area, researchers need to conduct a series of studies, which includes tests for various chemicals that may exist in the air.

But the Spanish research team wants to develop a system of doing this in a single, fell swoop. Their approach is based on the existing Open-Path FTIR approach.

The methodology was developed in collaboration with researchers from the Universidad Europea de Madrid. It relies on several chemicals and physical properties of gases to conduct the measurements.

One of the things gases do is absorb light of particular wavelengths. These wavelengths are unique to each chemical in existence, and researchers can therefore easily figure out the chemical composition of a gas by simply and literally shining light on it.

Euroconsult has forecast that an estimated 1,220 satellites will be built for launch over the next decade. The average of 122 satellites to be launched per year is up significantly from the annual average of 77 satellites launched in the previous decade, a sign that government and commercial operators require more satellite capabilities.

In Euroconsult's just-released "Satellites to be Built and Launched by 2019, World Market Survey," via Space Daily, the company projects that revenues from the manufacturing and launch of these 1,220 satellites will reach $194 billion worldwide for the decade.

The report concludes that governments around the world will continue to dominate the space market, accounting for two thirds of the total number of spacecraft launched and the same amount of launch and manufacturing revenues.

Telmap today announces the launch of the Telmap5 Mobile Location Companion, commercialized by SFR in France under the name SFR GPS.

SFR GPS is the next level of evolution in mobile location-based services, capturing the essence of what users expect today; high quality maps and a rich search experience including the ability to search for proximity services in their immediate surroundings and the famous Telmap navigation service which completes the experience.

The new location companion is the next generation of SFR’s existing Find & Go service (also powered by Telmap) and in addition to the complete navigation offering, Telmap have added several innovative features for a richer and more valuable experience:

* The unique widget carousel which enables quick and focused access to nearby information from any screen within the application. Using the widget carousel, customers can quickly and easily find whatever they are looking for: The nearest Velib bike rental station or SFR shop, parking, hospitals, ATM’s and more all by simply clicking on the relevant widget on the carousel.

* The intuitive free-text search that enables users to access millions of points of interest from a variety of content providers and categorizes the results to ensure their relevance to the user.

* The new and improved map-centric user-interface which places users at the centre of the map enabling them to make the most of their surroundings.

SFR GPS is available on the BlackBerry Curve 9300 and 8900 and on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and 9000; it will be available shortly afterwards on additional smartphones. SFR customers have free access to the application for local search, mapping and pedestrian navigation and for a monthly subscription, customers can also benefit from complete turn-by-turn in-car navigation.

“This is the next step in our commitment to enable SFR to drive customer loyalty by bringing true value to their end-users through a differentiated offering that answers customers’ day-to-day needs,” says Oren Nissim, Telmap CEO. “By constantly identifying new consumer trends, we will continue to enhance SFR GPS with additional content and services in the future.”

Laser Technology, Inc (LTI) just announced the release of LaserGIS for ArcPad. This new software extension truly maximizes field work productivity because it complements the current ArcPad platform and workflow, and significantly enhances its laser measurement capabilities.

Integrating lasers with GPS to remotely position features is becoming increasingly popular in the GIS industry because of the mere fact that you do not need to physically occupy the feature you want to map. LaserGIS allows you to easily record laser offset data with any GPS or by using existing features or coordinates on an ArcPad map. The software also has a "Quick Traverse" routine which allows you to easily map in a large polygon. Once completed, you can determine the percent error of closure on the traverse and calculate the perimeter distance and area contained within the boundary.

Collecting and recording attribute data within your GIS has never been faster. LaserGIS automatically imports your height measurements, as well as any other measurement from the laser, right into your data attribute forms. To take it a step further, you can even refer to the trace file that automatically logs all the raw data for every laser shot you take.

“This is the first time any field data collection software has ever been able to ‘catch up’ to all the full capabilities found in our TruPulse 360 compass laser,” says Paul Adkins, Marketing Communications Manager of Laser Technology. “Using a laser to collect field data can certainly save you time, but it still has to work seamlessly with GIS software to be truly beneficial to this market.”

Connecting your LTI laser to ArcPad and configuring your options can now be done quickly within LaserGIS. Toggling on the "Rapid Fire" mode will allow you to map and record multiple targets without ever touching the screen. Automatically apply Declination settings based on your map or GPS location simply by checking a box within the set up menu. Make a quicker connection, take fewer steps and have more flexibility than ever before with LaserGIS for ArcPad. This is a true integration between lasers and GIS.

Visit this link to watch our “Survival Guide To Field Work” video and to download a FREE trial version of LaserGIS (ArcPad 8 or 10 is required).

Laser Technology, Inc. manufactures professional-grade, handheld lasers, mapping accessories and software solutions for GIS, Forestry, Mining, Construction, and Utility markets.

Call Toll Free: 1-877-OWN-A-LTI Direct: 1.303.649.1000

The scenes aren’t always encouraging, but Andrew Curtis keeps going back for more.

Curtis, who teaches geography at USC College, has been spearheading a project to gather video evidence of the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Now nearly five years after the storm hit, Curtis’ research, which is focused on the city’s Lower 9th Ward, shows that there has been little improvement.

Homes left uninhabitable sit on plots of land that have been overgrown with vegetation, and some streets are still nearly impassable because they are so damaged.

“It’s shocking how little activity has been going on,” Curtis said. “We’re told Katrina is old news, and that’s the problem for people in New Orleans.”

Curtis started this project while at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. There he put together a spatial video system using multiple cameras connected to a central global positioning system. He hooked the whole thing up to a car and recorded images of what the neighborhoods, specifically the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward, looked like. Using a GPS signal encoded on the video, he then layered it over a digital map so that clicking on any spot on the map will bring up a video of what that area looked like at that point in time. He brought this project with him to USC when he joined the faculty in 2007.

This research includes not only filming but also work with pastors and other community leaders to discuss the most pressing neighborhood matters, which include a lack of services, vegetation overgrowth and a rising crime rate.

Video Research of Hurricane Katrina Damage to New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward


The complete story is here.

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, announced the launch of NAVTEQ Traffic in Brazil, delivering comprehensive, real-time traffic information to nearly 48 million people in six major cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.

NAVTEQ Traffic is currently available throughout North America and 14 countries in Europe, and its availability in Brazil is part of a significant global expansion effort. NAVTEQ’s Brazilian coverage includes nearly 15,000 kilometers across the six cities, encompassing nearly 48 million people.

NAVTEQ Traffic is a quality-tested, comprehensive solution that links up-to-the minute traffic information to map data and enables wireless transmission directly to in-vehicle navigation systems, personal navigation devices and mobile phones. NAVTEQ Traffic delivers detailed information about current traffic conditions, allowing drivers to make better routing and re-
routing decisions.

To deliver the most comprehensive traffic solution, NAVTEQ has selected best-in-class data sources with years of experience in their local markets. In Brazil, this includes GPS probe data from consumer devices, including Nokia handsets. NAVTEQ’s advanced data aggregation methods, proprietary traffic modeling capabilities and stringent quality verification processes optimizes and blends this data into a high-quality traffic service that is consistent with NAVTEQ’s global traffic offering.

“The launch of NAVTEQ Traffic in Brazil marks an important milestone in our commitment to provide the highest quality traffic solution to our customers and commuters,” said Howard Hayes, senior vice president for NAVTEQ Traffic. “Travelers demand high quality, accurate real-time traffic information, and NAVTEQ’s unique expertise in global traffic processing provides an accurate and seamless traffic solution that will save travelers in Brazil time and supports reduced traveling frustration.”

Two NASA Earth scientists are using satellite data and ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology to map and protect areas of archaeological interest for an excavation project in central Turkey. Scientists Compton Tucker from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Joe Nigro, who works at Goddard through Science Systems and Application Inc., hope to use the data to pinpoint the position of tombs and artifacts prior to excavation, protecting them from both natural elements and looting. In the past, NASA radar has been used on satellites and spacecrafts to detect ice deposits and to explore deep canyons on the moon’s surface.

"The radar assists in excavation by helping archaeologists identify areas where there are features under the ground, but GPR is also used as a non-invasive technique so that the site doesn't have to be excavated," said Nigro, a GIS specialist and archaeologist by training.

"Archaeology is inherently labour intensive, and thus expensive in terms of time and money, so we rarely get to excavate an entire site. GPR and other geophysical techniques allow us to collect data on parts of the site we might otherwise not be able to investigate," said Philip Mink II, a GIS manager and staff archaeologist from the University of Kentucky, Department of Anthropology. "These investigations may locate archaeological features such as houses, tombs, burials, trash and storage pits, and ceramic firing areas that can be targeted for excavation given the limited money and time field archaeologists often face."

Mink, who has no affiliation with the Gordion project, believes that GPR is one of the most diverse and useful tools of all geophysical techniques used in archaeology.

State of the art software will be used to process the 3-D radar data and construct virtual representations of the buried features. According to Mink, the amount of data collected per unit area surveyed by GPR definitely surpasses the other geophysical techniques because it is collecting data constantly at a variety of depths.

GPR also allows the scientists to carry out their work while remaining culturally sensitive to the land, preventing the disturbance of burial sites or relics from the past, an activity that may be considered taboo by some indigenous groups.

From satellite images and digital elevation data, the team of space archaeologists will anchor and standardise reference points using GPS. They will compare land measurements with computed GPS data to correctly locate archaeological features by creating a network of points partially based on existing maps. Aerial and balloon photography from previous years will also serve to better locate trenches and structures from various excavation seasons.

In addition, the team is also using remote sensing technology to detect the dynamic changes in the environment caused by both natural processes and human practices, such as climate and agriculture. These environmental changes may be hidden to the naked eye.

"We don't want to be limited by our eyes, so we use electromagnetic spectrum radar to look beneath the surface," Tucker said. To observe land use and land cover change in Central Turkey from 1950 to 2010, the project will also examine NASA Landsat satellite images. The imagery will be processed and analysed to map natural and human-induced vegetation changes. For each time period, the Landsat data will categorically be divided by areas with variations of water, forest, pastures and cultivation. Apart from contributing to the continued preservation of Turkey's cultural legacy, the data from these NASA images will further promote sustainable development, according to Tucker and Nigro.

Both men anticipate the techniques developed in the Gordion Project will be applicable to many other archaeological sites with similar mapping problems such as the Hassanlu site in Iran and Tikal in Guatemala.

Provided by NASA.

South Dakota State University has plans to create a new Imaging Sciences Institute as a way to grow its partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center near Garretson that collects and archives satellite images for the federal government.

University officials shared their visions for the institute Wednesday with Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Marcia McNutt, director of U.S. Geological Survey, at a roundtable discussion on the Brookings campus and during a tour of EROS.

The new Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence is in the concept stage, and SDSU President David Chicoine said it would help researchers keep up with advancements in data collection and storage of satellite images. Students will work with acquisition, calibration, processing, training and leadership, which will expand the university's role into all areas of remote sensing and imaging.

He said the long-standing partnership between the university, EROS and U.S. Geological Survey is continuing to grow.

McNutt said the U.S. Geological Survey is at a major turning point with regard to Landsat satellites, and its role as a server and manager of space information, because it has been asked to step up as the agency responsible for national land imaging. The partnership with SDSU will play a key role in providing opportunities for these future missions.

[via Argus Leader]

NASA and NOAA's latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-15, has successfully completed five months of on-orbit testing and has been accepted into service. The satellite has demonstrated operational readiness of its subsystems, spacecraft instruments and communications services. GOES-15 is the third and final spacecraft in the GOES N-P Series of geostationary environmental weather satellites.

The GOES fleet help NOAA forecasters track life-threatening weather and solar activity that can impact the satellite-based electronics and communications industry. During the checkout period, GOES-15 delivered high-resolution images from space, including the first visible and infrared images of Earth taken by its imager instrument, and the first image of the sun taken by its solar X-ray imager instrument.

"NASA is ecstatic that we were able to deliver on our promise to provide NOAA and this Nation with three geosynchronous weather satellites," said Andre Dress, GOES Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "From the very beginning, we set the bar high and we have attained all our goals. It is something that NASA and its contractors (Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, Lockheed Martin, ITT and United Launch Alliance) can be very proud of."

NOAA operates GOES-13 in the east and GOES-11 in the west -- both provide weather observations covering more than 50 percent of the Earth's surface. The GOES-15 spacecraft, designed and built by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, will be placed in an on-orbit storage location at 105 degrees west longitude should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or exhaust their fuel. It will share a parking space with GOES-14, currently in the same storage orbit. Both satellites can be made operational within 24 hours to replace an older satellite.

"With more than 35 million Americans living in hurricane-prone areas, we need the reliable, accurate data GOES provide," said Gary Davis, director of the Office of Systems Development at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

A six-minute view of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season as seen from space by GOES-12, formerly the East Coast GOES sentinel, is available online. The video highlights NASA technology and NOAA satellite data.

NOAA manages the GOES program, establishes requirements, provides all funding and distributes environmental satellite data for the United States. NASA Goddard procures and manages the design, development and launch of the satellites for NOAA on a cost reimbursable basis.

Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

A new study using laser pulses shot from satellites has found that the world's tallest forests are along the Pacific Northwest coast, Miami Herald reports. The temperate forests of Douglas fir, Western hemlock, redwoods and sequoias that stretch from northern California into British Columbia easily reach an average height of more than 131 feet. That's taller than the boreal forests of northern Canada and Eurasia, tropical rainforests and the broadleaf forests common in much of the United States and Europe. The only forests that come close are in Southeast Asia, along the southern rim of the Himalayas and in Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos.

Scientists suspect that the forests with the biggest trees store the most carbon, and the Northwest forests are probably among the largest carbon sinks in the world. However, they also say that while slower-growing older trees store more carbon, younger trees also absorb more carbon as they grow rapidly.

That sets up a debate about how forests should be managed, particularly whether older trees should be cut to make way for younger ones or whether they should be protected to store the carbon they contain.

Ongoing studies using the satellites and LiDAR may provide valuable information on how fast the forests are growing and how much carbon they store. "All of the remote sensing is providing us with the ability to monitor changes in the environment in a way you might not see on the ground," said Michael Lefsky, an assistant professor in the department of forest, rangeland and watershed stewardship at Colorado State University. "We are expecting under global warming that the productivity of the forests will change."

With the help of computers, Lefsky put together a global forest height map based on LiDAR data from 250 million laser pulses collected during a seven-year period. "It's like an echo," said Lefsky, whose findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Overall, LIDAR offered direct measurements of only 2.4 percent of the Earth's forested surfaces. "This is really just a first draft and it will certainly be refined in the future," he said.

LIDAR measures the height of forest canopies by shooting laser pulses and measuring how much longer it takes for them to bounce back from the surface than from the top of the forest canopy. The pulses can penetrate through the canopy to the ground.