Aug 2006

Governance

AUGUST 2006 VOL 10 ISSUE 8

GPS

Theodolite

30 A COST EFFECTIVE GPS LEVELING METHOD VERSUS CONVENTIONAL LEVELING METHODS FOR TYPICAL SURVEYING APPLICATIONS

Total Station

Dr. Metin Soycan

38 VECTORIZATION OF CONTOURS FROM SCANNED TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS

Plane Table

Dr. K. Ananthanarayanan, Dr. Koshy Varghese

44 PERSPECTIVE: E-TOOLS IN GOVERNANCE

Infrastructure

Yang Fengchun, Zhou Zhenlin

46 COMPARING E-GOVERNMENT VS. E-GOVERNANCE

Thomas B. Riley www.gisdevelopment.net

24 Land surveying in India: Present status Dr. Satyaprakash

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24 Land surveying in India: Present status Dr. Satyaprakash

D E PA RT M E N T S EDITORIAL

07

EVENTS

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NEWS

08

Dr. Metin Soycan This study proposes a cost effective GPS Leveling (GPSL) methods based on multi-reference kinematic GPS and precise geoid model for typical surveying application....

38 VECTORIZATION OF CONTOURS FROM SCANNED TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS Dr. K. Ananthanarayanan, Dr. Koshy Varghese The paper proposes to develop an automated scheme for the

GIS DEVELOPMENT WEEKLY

William Sheridan, Thomas B. Riley

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e-Governance is a broader topic that deals with the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within...

30 A COST EFFECTIVE GPS LEVELING METHOD VERSUS CONVENTIONAL LEVELING METHODS FOR TYPICAL SURVEYING APPLICATIONS

46 COMPARING E-GOVERNMENT VS. E-GOVERNANCE

extraction and vectorization of contour lines from a scanned topographic map.....

46

44 PERSPECTIVE: E-TOOLS IN GOVERNANCE

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Map Asia 2006

GIS Development Asia Pacific does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. It is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided. GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Printed and Published by Sanjay Kumar. Press Yashi Media Works Pvt. Ltd. B-88, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase - II, New Delhi - 110 020. India Publication Address P-82, Sector-11, Gautambudh Nagar, Noida, India Editor Ravi Gupta

President M P Narayanan Editor in Chief Ravi Gupta Managing Editor Maneesh Prasad Publisher Sanjay Kumar Honorary Advisor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Hrishikesh Samant Sr. Manager - HR and Administration Shivani Lal Marketing Co-ordinator Megha Datta Sr. Graphic Designer Deepak Kumar Assistant Graphic Designer Manoj Kumar Singh ~ Asia Pacific Team Regional Manager Sunil Ahuja Regional Sales Manager Niraj Assistant Editor Saurabh Mishra ~ South Asia Team Regional Manager Annu Negi Sales Manager Rahul Birthray Assistant Editor Rituparna Sengupta ~ Middle East Team Regional Manager Swati Grover Regional Sales Manager Prashant Joshi ~ Portal Team Product Manager Samik Basu Sr. Manager (Web Development) Kumar Vikram Sub Editor Dhawal Kumar Research Assocaite Neha Arora ~ Training and Research Team Programme Co-ordinator Satyaprakash Course Coordinator Neeraj Budhari ~ Events Vicky Kalra, Albert Ahmed, Rupal Mehta Dy. Manager - Accounts Yatindar Mohan Srivastava Sales Coordinator Sumit Kumar Circulation Vijay Kumar Singh

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C | A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 Vo l . 1 0 I s s u e 0 8

From the Editor

Advisory Board Amitabha Pande, IAS | Prof. Arup Dasgupta, Distinguished Professor, BISAG, India | Dr David Maguire, Director of Products, ESRI, USA | Kamal K Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Rolta India Ltd. | Dato' Nik Nasruddin Mahmood, Director, Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing (MACRES), Malaysia | Prof Michael F Goodchild, University of California, USA | Dr Milan Konecny, President, International Cartographic Association | Dr M P Narayanan, President, CSDMS | Preetha Pulusani, President, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions | Prof Shunji Murai ,General Secretary, Asian Association on Remote Sensing | Dr Suvit Vibulsresth,

S

urveyors have been measuring distances, directions, and angles between points and elevations of points, lines, and contours on, above, and below the earth’s surface. Surveying and mapping technicians assist the professionals like cartographers and photogrammetrists in their duties by collecting data in the field and using it to calculate mapmaking information for use in performing computations and computer-aided drafting. Today there is much more to surveying and cartography than meets the eye. The surveying aids from old times - Chains, transits, theodolites, and plumb lines have given way to new age technology such as the GPS, laptops, and robotic total stations. GIS has also become an invaluable tool to both surveyors and cartographers. As more of these new technologies emerge and are developed, we see a new type of mapping scientist emerging from the older specialists in photogrammetry and cartography. This new age mapping scientist combines the functions of mapping

Member, Board GISTDA, Thailand | Dr

science and surveying into a broader field concerned with the collection and analysis of

Xavier Lopez, Director, Spatial and Location

geographic data.

Technologies, Oracle Inc.

Growing opportunities in this realm have these new technologies as catalysts. Thus the growth of the surveying industry is being watched closely today! Studies are being

Country Editors

done to understand the intricacies of development in this sphere and such studies

India Dr R Siva Kumar, Head (NRDMS & NSDI), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India | Japan Prof Hiromichi Fukui, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University at Shonan Fujisawa | Malaysia Dr Abd Rashid Mohd Shariff, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia | Singapore Dr Chan Weng Tat, Associate Professor, Centre for Transport Research, National University of Singapore | Thailand Dr Phisan Santitamnont, Assistant Professor, Survey Engineering Department, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok | Vietnam Dr Tran Vinh Phuoc, Vice-Rector of the UIT, Vietnam

create great value in bringing forth the correct perspective. A study done through questionnaire survey by the Asia Pacific group of GIS Development analysed the present status of land surveying in India and the results are encouraging. Keeping in mind the need for more such studies, GIS Development will continue to make efforts to conduct and contribute more such studies to the surveying community in the future.

“”

[email protected]

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C | A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 Vo l . 1 0 I s s u e 0 8

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News

CHINA

inshore ocean launched in 2003. The first summer phase of the programme is expected to take 1.5 months and involve over 3,000 surveyors who will begin research from the northeast coast down to the south simultaneously, said Lei Bo, Vice Director of the National Bureau of Oceanography. www.chinadaily.com.cn

China launches oceanic environment survey China launched its oceanic environment survey on July 15 to probe the conditions of its maritime space. The programme, sponsored by the

National Bureau of Oceanography, will last two years and cover 1.02 million sq. km of sea area off China's coasts. The research findings are expected to guide development of the maritime economy, tapping of oceanic resources, maritime disaster relief and prevention, and oceanic environmental protection. Scientists will record data on water depths, waves, water levels, ocean currents, water temperatures and colors, mineral contents and plankton in four seasons. The programme is part of a comprehensive survey and evaluation project on China's

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SSTL delivers Beijing-1 EO satellite British satellite manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has just completed a landmark commercial satellite contract with the Beijing Landview Mapping Information Technology Co., Ltd (BLMIT) in order to commercialise the data services from Earth observation (EO) satellites. At a ceremony held in Beijing, BLMIT signed the formal in-orbit acceptance of the high resolution EO microsatellite (Beijing-1) system built in cooperation with BLMIT. The 166 kg Beijing-1 is the EO satellite, carrying two payloads that provide highresolution multi-spectral images with an ultra-wide 600km imaging swath. Beijing-1 will provide the Chinese government and commercial users with information on agriculture, water resources, environment and disaster monitoring throughout China. The satellite will be used extensively for monitoring urban development and pollution, especially in the lead up to the 2008 Bei-

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

jing Olympics, and to generate digital maps of China using the high-resolution panchromatic imager. The satellite is capable of continuously imaging Chinese territory even at the longest landmass track (3000 km) and transmit images to the ground station in Beijing in real-time at high speed (40Mbps) with on-board programmable compression. www.earsc.org

Hong Kong makes use of GIS for improving air quality Improving air quality tops our environmental agenda, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Donald Tsang says,

on a digital map to take immediate action. The Chief Executive viewed a demonstration of a three-dimensional environmental impact assessment public engagement tool that is developed to put into practice the continuous public involvement concept. Hong Kong is taking the lead in introducing this concept in the environmental impact assessment process. With the tool, different options for development projects and their environmental performances can be presented in 3D models through coloured illustrations, graphics or multimedia images. "The use of such tools would foster better communication of environmental impact assessment issues and promote public dialogue on major development projects during project planning and implementation," Mr Tsang said. www.news.gov.hk

INDONESIA

adding air cannot be cleaned up quickly and sustained efforts by Hong Kong and Guangdong are necessary. In a visit to the Environmental Protection Department Mr Tsang was briefed on the regional air-quality monitoring network developed with Guangdong and efforts to Improve regional air quality. Mr Tsang saw how information technology, including a GIS allowed the centre's staff to locate a problem area

Indonesian President asks for speeding up of tsunami early warning project Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on July 20 asked for the speeding up of the installation of a tsuna-

AUG UST 2006

mi early warning system, mindful of the recent tsunami in Java`s southern coastal regions. "Development of the system is complicated and costs much. It also takes a process. Initially it was to be completed by 2009 but now we will speed it up to finish it in the middle of 2008," he said. He made the statement after listening to presentations by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro and Transportation Mnister Hatta Radjasa on the country`s geographic and geological conditions and the earthquake information system of the Meteorolgy and Geophysics Agency. The President would ask the Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare and the Finance Minister to discuss the allocation of funds for the project with the House of Representatives. He said he would seek the fulfillment of aid commitments by certain countries and international donors at Tsunami Summit in 2005. "We will also seek foreign assistance to speed up the project," he said. www.antara.co.id

JAPAN

Tokyo Metropolitan Government implements GIS in city planning The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), a longtime user of GIS, has implemented a Web based system that

AUG UST 2006

promises broad new capabilities and greatly expanded use throughout the government. The new Tokyo Metropolitan Urban Planning GIS is a Web-based system that meets the security requirements of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Local Area Network system. The GIS was designed with multiple menus and functions adapted to the various functions and skills of the operators. Presently, TMG's Bureau of Urban Development enables all 1,500 bureau staff members to use GIS to view and edit a wide variety of city planning information from their PCs, which boosts their productivity. In the future, TMG anticipates that the GIS will be available to all TMG departments, allowing instant on-line access to more than 30,000 staff members. www.esri.com

Kobe center's satellite to help 25 nations cope with disasters The Asian Disaster Reduction Center in Kobe, Japan will in autumn be able to access a system capable of providing 3-D images of disaster-stricken areas anywhere in Asia using a satellite made available by the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The center hopes the new system will help people in disaster-stricken areas deal with emergency situations more quickly, to prevent damage. The center also hopes to use the advanced technology to learn lessons from disasters, including how water flows in floods, and how sand and earth move in landslides. The center will use the agency's Daichi advanced landobserving satellite that was launched in January. Daichi is one of the world's largest satellites and carries three types of observational equipment, including one that uses a microwave sensor, which enables it to take pictures of locations at night or if they are covered by clouds. In February, the satellite took images of Leyte Island in the Philippines when a landslide occurred there. The images were then compared with images taken by another satellite. By comparing the two images it was possible to identify which areas had been worst hit by the landslide. When a powerful earthquake struck the main island of Java, Indonesia, in May, Daichi was used to determine which buildings on the island had suffered damage. Daichi also can identify flood-affected areas, check the extent of lava flows and determine the size of landslides. When the system is introduced, the center will act as a liaison site for its 25 member countries in Asia.

The agency will analyze images of disaster-stricken areas taken by Daichi and process the images by coloring them. The center will send the images to its member countries along with information, including the population of the areas. www.yomiuri.co.jp

Personal Earth-orbiter on sale A personal earth-orbiter, MySat-1 - a 44-pound box, less than ten inches on its side - is now available for purchase from Japan-based Astro Research Corporation. It can make space more accessible to commercial businesses, public institutions and research communities. Among its potential uses could be satellite component testing, disaster monitoring, Earth observation, Remote Sensing. Each satellite can be customized to the owner's needs and equipped with additional instruments depending on the user's needs. "MySat-1 itself can be launched within a year-anda-half after an order is placed," said Kio Murakawa, a manager in the MySat Division at Astro Research. Once in low earth orbit, about 600 to 800 kilometers in space, MySat-1 will circle the earth about 14 times per day. Owners can also tune in to their satellite's radio signal on a website to monitor its location and listen to it as it passes overhead. A four-cubic

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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News inch container called MyBox is designed to hold any MySat-1 payload weighing up to 11 pounds. MySat-1 can fly in low earth orbit for more than 20 years, possibly more than 30. www.dsc.discovery.com

MALAYSIA

Malaysian state to track leatherback turtles by satellite A Malaysian state is to conduct a million-dollar satellite study of turtle migration, focusing on the leatherback which is close to extinction, a report said. The coastal state of Terengganu, famed for exotic islands and beaches,

has allocated five million Ringgit (1.35 million dollars) for the exercise, the Star newspaper said. Mohamad Jidin Shafee, Terengganu State Executive Councillor, said the study would cover several turtle species, particularly leatherback sea turtles that are on the verge of extinction. "The exercise is expected to be held this September," he told the Star. Terengganu conducted a similar study last year, attaching transmitters on four turtles to study their

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movements after laying eggs. The study showed that the turtles migrated to Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia after laying eggs in Terengganu, Mohamad said. In the new study, officials will install transmitters on turtles at the same place chosen last year, Kemaman, to see where the turtles go this year, Mohamad added. Last year only one leatherback turtle -- the most endangered of Malaysia's turtles -- was sighted. And for the first time in history, neither of the other important species -- Olive Ridley and hawksbill turtles -- landed at the traditional nesting sites. The alarming development raised fears that the turtles may be lost forever from the beaches, which are a big draw for tourists who come to watch the egg laying as well as the emergence of hatchlings. Turtles are hunted for their meat and shell, and are also killed by getting entangled in fishing nets in the open seas. The tourism industry boom has contributed to the decline, with hotels and bright lights near the beachfront caused turtles to shy away. www.physorg.com

PAKISTAN

Charles Darwin researchers to make use of GIS for solving water problem Charles Darwin University (CDU) researchers are work-

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

ing with colleagues from Punjab University and government agencies in Pakistan to help solve a critical water problem. Over the last 40 years, sediment has been building up at the bottom of the giant Malaga Dam reservoir on the river Jhelum. The research will determine the major sources of sediment by combining

erosion modeling, GIS, Remote Sensing, geomorphology, hydrology and sediment source tracing. Part of the Indus river basin system, the Malaga Dam was built in 1967 with a storage capacity of 5.88 million acre feet. Since its construction, a large quantity of sediment has been continuously transported into the reservoir reducing its storage capacity by 20 per cent. This has had a major impact on irrigation and electricity generation. The research project also includes the Tarbela Dam in the Indus catchment area which is also suffering from a build up of sediment. The construction of a further dam upstream will assist in reducing the problem but requires careful planning and construction. www.cdu.edu.au

RUSSIA

Russia's leadership in space industry to be fostered Russia needs to make every effort to keep its leadership in the space industry, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov stated at a government meeting convened to discuss the strategy for this sector up to 2015. In his opinion, to retain its position, Russia needs to provide additional financing in this sphere, organize things better, modernize its enterprises and implement state-of-the-art technologies. The space industry is not only about launches and manned space operation, but developing a wide range of sectors on the basis of space technologies, safeguarding the country's defence capacity and security, furthering communications and RS, and manufacturing equipment that can be used in all the sectors of the economy, Fradkov said, believing that some of these areas were being neglected. www.rbcnews.com

THAILAND

GIS developed for Thailand's tourism industry The Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) has developed an infrastructure for GIS, which contains information on tourism and relat-

AUG UST 2006

ed services in five provinces, for distribution to travel websites free of charge. This move is expected to not only promote tourism in Thailand but also open markets for local software developers. Panutat Tejasen, SIPA Chiang Mai branch manager, said the agency had developed GIS for Thailand's Tourism Collaborative Commerce (TTCC) project to gather information on tourism and related services after purchase of map engines from local companies to make further developments. The programme itself comes with an open application program interface, in order to allow webmasters to develop and add more applications as required. "To collect accurate and up-to-date information, we hired people to ride motorcycles equipped with GPS receivers to go around Chiang Mai collecting locations and details of each tourism destination for the electronic base map," said Panutat. Once the GIS for Thailand's TTCC infrastructure has been completely developed, it will be available for free download at www.chiangmai.ttcc.org www.nationmultimedia.com

VIETNAM

New state university in Vietnam The UIT is Vietnam's new state university located in Hochiminh City, Southern Vietnam, founded by the

AUG UST 2006

Decision of Vietnamese Prime Minister in June, 2006. In state university system of Vietnam, the UIT is at the same level with the University of Technology, the leaderr of the Center for IT and GIS (DITAGIS) in the past. The mission of the UIT is to promote the education with high quality, the research and development of the information technology and computer science including the GIS, Remote sensing and space technology in Vietnam. It comprises 5 colleges such as the college of computer science, the college of computer engineering, the college of networking and communication, the college of knowledge technology and the college of the information system. The GIS, remote sensing and space technology is part of the college of the information system. Each year, the UIT plans to receive about 500-700 new 4-year bachelor students, 100 new 2-year master students and about 10 Ph.D students, including the GIS, RS field. The UIT is lead by three persons, one Rector and two Vice-Rectors. Hence forth the Center for IT and GIS (DITAGIS) will not exist. The entire staff, experts, projects, contracts, data, software, products and comsumers of the DITAGIS are transferred to a private Company, named TRANVINH Promoting Technology Ltd. www.ditagis.org

News people to evade the tax net. www.cities.expressindia.com

Indian municipality undertakes digital camera survey for new property tax system

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Officials plan to have income tax map

The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH), India, is planning to use digital cameras for the classification of residential and commercial properties. The exercise, like-

Armed with data from the Annual Information Return (AIR), the Income Tax Department is going to tighten its surveillance on defaulters. There are plans to map all this information on GIS and have an income tax map of Pune city. ''This will enable us to compare the standard of living with the returns filed,'' said J Suresh, Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Information Bureau. The department is also in touch with Pune Municipal Corporation, cellular companies, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited and various service providers for data on users. ''Only 18,720 people have reported their income above Rs. 10 lakh in Pune, Thane, Nashik and western Maharashtra regions,'' said Shiv Kumar Sharma, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax. This figure is a pointer towards the extent of under reporting and tax evasion in Pune region. Besides the evaders, the department will also keep a close watch on the tax practitioners and property valuators who help

ly to be launched early next year, will be a precursor for implementation of the new area-based property tax system from next financial year beginning on April 1. Tenders are to be opened to select the agency for taking up the survey to record digital data that will take about four months time. This data will be combined with spatial data obtained through the GIS to get a complete picture of properties. Additional Commissioner (Finance and IT) B. Ramesh Babu insists the new system will only rationalise collection of property tax in the sense that correct estimates can be made of the plinth area and the rental value of properties. "We are not thinking of increasing rates. We are aiming at fair assessment of properties, residen-

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

tial or commercial for which physical verification is a must," he said while explaining the rationale of using digital cameras. The municipal corporation has announced formation of 47 zones and 140 sub-zones without tinkering with the prevailing administrative structure for the new tax system. The divisions are based on availability of civic amenities, educational institutions, medicare, markets, etc. The NRSA is preparing base maps and 90 per cent of the work has been completed. It will give complete data of each area like roads, water pipelines, drains, power lines, buildings, etc.

status is also monitored with the complaint tracking system." He added. The site would be interactive and transactional. www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Merger between RMSI, RMS Inc. Over the past few years, the world has seen a spate of natural disasters of the "Super Catastrophe" category, such as Tsunami, hurricanes, and endemics, amongst others. To provide

www.thehindu.com

Property tax to be integrated with GIS in Indian city, Bangalore The BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) in partnership with eGovernments Foundation has chalked out a scheme. To start with, property tax would be integrated with GIS, which means, there would be no lapses in declaring a citizen's exact property dimensions. Srikanth Nadhamuni, Managing Trustee, eGovernments Foundation, said the entire exercise was a completely internet-driven enterprise. "There will be English and Kannada content. It will make for an interactive site where a complaint is filed online by a citizen and tracked later. The

more comprehensive solutions to address the risks stemming from these disasters, the Daily Mail and General Trust Group have decided to merge two of their portfolio companies, RMSI and RMS Inc. This merger will strengthen the synergy between these organizations, compliment their core domain skills and provide higher quality solutions to this industry. RMSI's geospatial data and solutions will help in accurately addressing the needs of disaster risk modeling. While the two companies will work together on opportunities in the disaster risk management space, RMSI will also continue to maintain leadership and offer geospatial services

AUG UST 2006

to vertical markets other than disaster management. To catalyze this relationship, RMSI has announced key strategic changes to their management structure. Rajesh Kalra, one of the founding members, has been promoted as the Managing Director of RMSI. Rajesh started his professional career in the construction division of Larsen and Toubro Ltd., and has also worked for the Rail India Technical & Economic Services (RITES). Ajay Lavakare has been elevated to the role of Chairman of the company and has relocated to California. Ajay has also joined the senior management team at Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS), as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of a new business unit called RMS Data Solutions.

ISRO shows the way for urban waste management The Indian Space Research Organisation is coming to the rescue of cities in solving their challenge - waste disposal. ISRO's expertise in Remote Sensing is being used in 'urban waste management'. "We are already using Remote Sensing and communication satellites like Cartosat-1, Resourcesat-1 and the IRS series of satellites to obtain a wide variety of high resolution images and data in spatial resolutions," said P G Diwakar, Head, Regional Remote Sens-

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ing Service Centre (RRSSC), ISRO. He said that space application gives them very high resolution images. "The 2.5m high resolution data obtained from Cartosat-1 can be used in locating the drainage map and the exact area for the disposal of waste. For earmarking garbage dumps, ISRO has prepared a three-dimensional model and this is used to find garbage dumps so that the wastes do not flow into the water bodies in the lowlying areas. Application of Remote Sensing and GIS can be used to facilitate site selection for solid waste disposal. The RRSSC of ISRO at Jodhpur has developed a customised geographical information system package called 'Package for Optimum Routing, Interactive Resource Allocation and facility Management' (Parikrama). This helps in network-related applications and can be customised for efficient management of solid waste disposal. The Ranchi Municipality in Jharkhand, which has 37 wards with an area of 177.19 sq km, is using customised solutions of ISRO in tracing suitable landfill sites, the areas that generate the highest amount of waste and the shortest possible route to transport them to the landfill sites. "They have initially implemented our suggestions for the smaller areas and are in the process of implementing this in the larger areas," said Diwakar. www.business-standard.com

Remote Sensing helps scientist in study of ancient Indian cities An insight into 'cosmic cities' described in the Indian epics including Ramayana and Mahabharata can be obtained by analysing pictures sent by an IRS satellite, said P S Thakker, a senior sci-

Ahichhatra, Lumbini, Shravasti and Nalanda. He said Remote Sensing data can also successfully be used for building up historical records of changes that might have taken place on the surface of the earth. The data may also be used in updating ancient atlases. www.rediff.com

GIS mapping helps detect power theft in India's capital

entist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Though these sites are known to people, it is not possible to know the settlement pattern from the surface as they have been destroyed with passage of time and some have been buried. However, by looking at satellite pictures one can see things that are not visible to the naked eye, he says. Thakker said Remote Sensing can play an important role to correlate archeological findings from ancient sites, which are mentioned in the scriptures of Hindu religion. Thakker has worked on a project called Remote Sensing of Cosmic Cities in Ancient India, studying important historical and ancient cities, and correlating them with RS data obtained from satellite. Some sites, which he has studied, include Kausambi,

GIS mapping has helped BSES teams unearth power theft of 4300 KW. The penalties imposed on the defaulters amount to around Rs. 17 crore (USD 3.6 million). BSES has started mapping all its

licensed areas and customers. Their electricity consumption and loads patterns are being closely monitored. Any deviation is immediately flagged at BSES end. "With the help of GIS mapping techniques, BRPL enforcement teams swooped down on GK Residency in South Delhi and found it pilfering power to the tune of over 95 KW," said the spokesperson. www.thestatesman.net

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AUSTRALIA

VegMachine gives farmers in Australia an eye in the sky Landholders across the northern rangelands of Australia can now use satellite monitoring to keep track of environmental changes on their properties. The new system, which is called Veg-

Machine, has been trialed across 80,000 square kilometres in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. NT Government researcher Luke Peel wants to see the free computer software program used more widely. "It gives you a birdseye view of the property," he said. "The idea is the mystery of satellite imagery, what it can say and do is being exposed back. "It still hasn't got to the point where we can actually work out kilograms per hectare on the ground. "But, it certainly

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gives an idea of how productivity can be related to use of the resources or trapping of the resources available. "Whether it's the actual vegetation, the soils or the nutrients in the soil." A total of 33 properties have been involved under a research partnership funded by Meat and Livestock Australia and the respective state and territory governments. www.au.news.yahoo.com

BRAZIL

GE Energy provides Smallworld technology to Sabesp of Sao Paulo GE Energy has supplied Sabesp - Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de Sâo Paulo (Sabesp) of Sao Paulo, Brazil with its Smallworld geospatial technology. This technology forms the core of the SIGNOS integrated water management system, improving water delivery to households and response time to service outages. Sabesp is the largest water and wastewater company in Latin America. The new GIS application has allowed Sabesp to standardize network information graphically. The installation of the system has also permitted data integration and integrated analysis, which has led to broader access and more uniform data consistency for the entire company. The Sabesp implementation covers 34 cities and approximately 20 million

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people as well as a 28,000kilometer water network, a 20,000-kilometer wastewater network in a 1,600 square kilometer urban area. Edinfor, a Logica CMG company, implemented the project. Since the implementation of the SIGNOS system, a number of benefits have been realized. Calculation time and data analysis time have been decreased. Automated thematic maps, which can identify features like water pipelines, are also being generated, defined and executed monthly by system end-users. They also allow business results to be checked and compared periodically. Recently, the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) presented Sabesp with an Excellence Award at its 2006 conference, recognizing the implementation of the SIGNOS GIS. www.gepower.com

Brazil plans to develop geostationary satellite The Brazilian Space Agency’s (AEB’s) Space Programme includes a plan to develop a geostationary satellite to furnish basic meteorological and communications services (such as television and telephone transmissions). Brazil currently acquires these services by buying space in satellites belonging to foreign companies. According to the president of the AEB, Sérgio Gaudenzi, the chief purpose of the Space Programme is to observe the

Earth. The images generated by the three Brazilian satellites, he informed, are mainly used to control deforestation and burnings and to help orient agricultural production by providing data on harvests. They are also used in urban planning and ocean control. According to Gaudenzi, Brazil may have its geostationary satellite by 2012. He explained that, in spite of the high cost, possessing the technological is a strategic matter for the country. www.internacional.radiobras.gov.br

CANADA

RADARSAT International changes name to MDA Geospatial Services Inc. As a final step in the rebranding process at MDA, the legal name RADARSAT International Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) was changed to MDA Geospatial Services Inc., effective as of June 23, 2006. The company continues under the laws of the Canada, and will continue to operate from Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

New agri-environmental portal utilizes GIS Information data on land use, soil, water, climate and biodiversity collected from different sources using GIS technology is now available

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on the new bilingual Web portal www.agr.gc.ca/nlwissnite, developed by the National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). The portal offers easy access to agrienvironmental maps, data, tools and expertise, all on one Web site. It also intends to provide expertise to help decision makers interpret the information. www.agrinewsinteractive.com

ETHIOPIA

Satellite captures creation of new continental crust A new sea is forming in the desert of northeastern Ethiopia. Millions of years from now, the pulling apart of the Arabian and Nubian tectonic plates will allow waters to rush in and widen the Red Sea. And thanks to the availability of satellite imagery, scientists have been able to get an unprecedented glimpse of the workings of stretching plates, the rock crust moving across Earth's surface at up to 12 centimeters per year. Tim Wright of the University of Leeds and his international team of colleagues collected ground- and spacebased observations of a widening rift in the Afar Desert of Ethiopia. Between September and October last year, a 60-kilometer-long stretch of rock spread by as much as eight meters.

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Magma from adjacent volcanoes filled in the bottom part of the rift, creating new continental crust and a dyke of roughly 2.5 cubic kilometers-twice as much material as erupted from Mount St. Helens--more than two kilometers below the surface. "A lot of ash was thrown up in the air and a lot of cracks appeared in the ground, some of which were more than a meter wide," says team member Cindy Ebinger of the University of London. "The Afar region provides a unique study area for continental breakup and formation of new ocean basins." That is because it is one of the few active rifts on land rather than in the depths of the old oceans. This spreading of the continental crust will continue along the rift, stretching from Lebanon to Tanzania, with the eastern edge of Africa potentially following Madagascar out to sea. A paper presenting the research appeared in Nature on 20th July. www.sciam.com

FRANCE

Maporama launches upgraded website Maporama International has announced the release of its new maps and itineraries website www.maporama. com and its entrance in the Web 2.0 era. The website has been totally redesigned, on the ergonomic level as well

as on the technical side. The new interface, based on AJAX technology, brings to the web users new enriched functionalities, dynamic contents and a more rapid information display. The new www.maporama.com applications manage data and requests in asynchronous mode, in background, to accelerate the display of the web pages and information. The website also offers functionalities in BETA version. Moreover www.maporama. com includes a cartographic view service to display in one click the road traffic situation on street level maps. These services are currently available for the France region. www.maporama.com

Scientists from 60 countries to conduct research during International Polar Year 2007-2008 Thousands of scientists from 60 countries will be conducting research during International Polar Year 2007-2008 and will, for the first time during an International Polar Year, be armed with satellite measurements offering complete coverage of the polar regions, which play a vital role in the Earth's climate and ecosystems. Having access to near-continuous satellite data of these regions over long periods of time is important for scientists to identify and analyse longterm climatic trends and changes. ESA will provide

current and historical data, dating back 15 years, from its ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat satellites as well as data collected from a number of nonESA satellites. Dr. David Carlson, Director of the International Programme Office for the Polar Year, said, " we will use every form of satellite data - passive visual, active micro-wave, and even sensitive gravity measurements to understand changes in the global ice sheets." International Polar Year (IPY) 20072008 aims to enhance international collaboration in polar region research and monitoring, link researchers across different fields to address questions and issues lying beyond the scope of individual disciplines, ensure data collected under the IPY are made available in an open and timely manner and intensify the recovery of relevant historical data and ensure these also are made openly available. www.esa.int

GERMANY

CyberCity offers 3D city model of Hamburg commercially A collaborative agreement has been signed between the

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State Office for Geo-Information and Survey (LGV) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and CyberCity, Zurich to market and improve the massive 3D city model of Hamburg, Germany. The city model includes more than 300,000 buildings and will be offered in three different Levelsof-Detail: non-textured block models, non-textured detailed models and textured detailed models. The city center will consist of over 2,000 buildings and will include approximately 40,000 façade images. Textures will be semi-automatically applied from oblique aerial imagery using CyberCity-Modeler's texturing tool that is used to create a more realistic environment. The final deliverable will be available to the public via the Internet (www.cybercity.tv) in October 2006. Applications include tourism, safety, security, architecture and urban city planning and car navigation. The deliverable also includes a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and a digital Orthophoto. LGV and CyberCity will co-market the 3D data. LGV will distribute the data within the municipal agencies and organizations and CyberCity will market exclusively to all other interested parties. Additional applications/customers for Hamburg's 3D City Model include mission and safety planning for fire and police departments,

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architects, urban planners and other agencies who may use CAD renderings to demonstrate project alternatives and communicate project plans. 3D city models are also being used in some car navigation systems. www.cybercity.tv

RWANDA

GIS center offers weather updates based on satellite images The Center for Geographical Information Systems (CGIS) at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) is to use its new Meteosat (MSG) Satellite Technology to relay daily weather updates to Rwanda television for its viewers, disclosed Florent Lasry, an expert at NUR's CGIS. Lasry said that the Meteosat's second generation is a satellite system that captures images from all over Africa and are received at the CGIS center at Butare by powerful and ultra capacity computers. He explained that images sent by the MSG satellite can then be used to monitor meteorological changes like temperature, rainfall, wind, water resource management, soil erosion management, lake and river level monitoring, agriculture and crop management, in addition to monitoring fire in game parks and forests. "Meteosat satellite records images automatically in every after 15 minutes, some-

one on our computers can easily know the weather changes all over Africa, the most affected areas with soil erosion, area affected by fire in addition to providing useful data, like maps and images that can be use for educational reasons," Lasry explained. "The use of this Meteosat satellite technology is of great importance, its use would help us in controlling and monitoring the level of River Nile, a river that is so important to many African countries," Frank Habineza, the National Co-coordinator of Nile Basin Discourse Forum in Rwanda who was one of the participants, commented. www.allafrica.com

SOUTH AFRICA

2005 population estimates for South Africa now available SAtoZ, which aims to provide the marketing and research communities with regular updates of relevant and accurate information, has released its first dataset for 2006 - an update of the 2001 Census population estimates for the country, generated at various spatial levels, including enumeration areas, municipalities and provinces. The data is also available in tabular format. The 2005 estimates at an enumeration area level contain statistics on the type of area (e.g. farm, smallholding, formal urban, tribal), admin-

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istrative boundaries, gender, population group, age groups, total population and population density. Prof. DJ Stoker, in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), generated the 2005 demographic estimates during the past four months of 2006 using benchmark weighting techniques and the mid-year estimates for 2005 from Statistics South Africa. SAtoZ is working with strategic partners such as GeoTerraImage on the update of detailed counts of dwellings in the major metropolitan areas using satellite imagery taken during 2005. This information will be further used to fine-tune the estimates in metropolitan areas where there has been densification of settlements and new areas have been developed. SAtoZ and its partners are also planning to generate estimates of the population at an enumeration area and municipality level on an annual basis. All of the information is in a GIS format, which means that it can be integrated with other layers of information and new variables can be created. On request, SAtoZ can aggregate the 2005 demographic estimates to other spatial layers of information, for example, sales regions of businesses. This information is invaluable for market size calculations, research purposes and in the design of samples and the implementation of market research surveys. Other

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geo-information at SAtoZ's disposal includes Living Standard Measures (LSM), poverty, mindset and economic statistics. www.bizcommunity.com

supplied to the customer allow to: forecast the potential flood locations, plan preventive measures in case of flood, conduct shore protection and create GIS for water resources management. www.geokosmos.com

www.opengeospatial.org

SPAIN

Geokosmos completes 3D mapping project in Andalusia, Spain Geokosmos, Moscow based air survey company, has completed a 3D mapping project in Andalusia,

autonomous region of Spain for various Municipal authorities. Using the aerial laser scanning technology, Geokosmos conducted a survey of the Guadalquivir River, which is one of the longest rivers on the territory of Spain with a length of 3144 km with a rather complicated surface, aiming to create 3D Digital Terrain Model. The total volume of work reached approximately 700 sq. km. The survey was conducted with up-to-date LiDAR equipment - ALTM 3100 (produced by Optech Inc.) - and by medium format digital camera Rollei AIC modular LS. The high precision 3D Digital Elevation Models of the river's channel

well as the Sensor Web Enablement effort. His work in ISO has been of great value in helping OGC standards receive ISO standing, and he has been a strong advocate of OGC in Australia for a decade.

UNITED KINGDOM

Simon Cox bags OGC's Gardels Award At the June meeting of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) in Edinburgh, Scotland, Simon Cox received OGC's eighth annual Kenneth D. Gardels Award. The Gardels Award, a gold medallion, is awarded to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to advance OGC's vision of geospatial information fully integrated into the world's information systems. The award is given annually in memory of Kenneth Gardels, one of the founding directors of OGC and OGC's former director of academic programs. Simon Cox is a Research Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Exploration and Mining, Perth, Australia. He has been associated with OGC Technical Committee for many years, where he has made significant contributions to the OpenGIS Geography Markup Language (GML) and Web Feature Service (WFS) Implementation Specifications as

100 year old aerial photographs of Stonehenge to be displayed Aerial views of Stonehenge taken 100 years ago are among dozens of historic and modern aerial photos

and illustrations that are on display at Stonehenge next month. It explores the world of aerial photography in Victorian, Edwardian and wartime Britain, and looks specifically at the contribution that the last 100 years of aerial photography has made to our understanding of 6,000 years of British history and pre-history. The events have been organised to commemorate the first aerial photographs of Stonehenge and indeed of a British archaeological site taken in 1906 by Lieutenant Philip Henry Sharpe of the Royal Engineers' Balloon Section, who was based in the Sappers' Balloon Section located only

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a mile from Stonehenge. This was where military ballooning and then fixed wing aviation developed, prior to the formation of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912. Six years later, the RAF was formed. The exhibition, entitled "100 Years of Discovery" is from August 1 to 7 and tells the story of those first photographs. The 1906 photos demonstrated the clarity with which even slight earthworks could be picked out from above and more easily understood. Dave Batchelor, chief Stonehenge archaeologist at English Heritage, said: "Aerial photography is most useful in helping us understand the human use and development of the landscape around Stonehenge. This detailed understanding is used daily in our management of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and contributes to the enjoyment of the many thousands of visitors every year."

Lord Sainsbury also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a member of the Algerian space sciences delegation, promising cooperation between the British National Space Centre and its Algerian counterpart. Britain and Algeria are already co-operating in a satellite-based Remote Sensing project.

www.24dash.com

in record-breaking July heat. The images show major cities like London, Birmingham and Liverpool experiencing the highest levels of the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The images were generated from data gathered by the European Space Agency's Envisat and NASA's Aura satellites. John Remedios, Head of Earth Observation Science at the University of Leicester, said: "The latest satellite data shows a perspective of the environment in which we live that can only be

UK signs space cooperation agreement with Algeria The UK government signed an agreement with Algeria on co-operation in future space projects. The agreement to share expertise and experience came on day three of the biennial Farnborough International Air Show, the aerospace trade fairs, held this week on a former military airfield near London. The UK's Minister for Science and Innovation,

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www.bsn.org.uk

Satellite images show sharp rise in UK’s temperatures and air pollution levels Sensors in space have recorded the dramatic increases in land temperatures and air pollution as the UK swelters

obtained from space. The images show temperature increases and increased pollution for every region in the UK." The images show the stark differences in land temperatures and nitrogen dioxide between 15 and 18 July when most of the UK experienced heatwave conditions. Researchers at the University of Leicester, who released the images, said the data could offer some insight into the future. “These extremes of temperature and of pollution are likely to occur periodically throughout this summer as the prevailing heatwave conditions maintain themselves," Earth Observation Science's Dr Gary Corlett said. “Moreover, current climate change predictions for the UK suggest that the frequency of the these extreme periods of high temperature and pollution will increase." www.news.bbc.co.uk

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Infoterra to supply height data to Northumbrian Water Infoterra Ltd, a provider of geographic information products and services, has secured a contract to supply Northumbrian Water with lidar height data, allowing sophisticated flood modelling and accurate topological analysis to be carried out across the North East of England. Northumbrian Water will use the lidar* height data to enable highly accurate flood risk models to be generated, which will

demonstrate the direction and flow of potential and actual sewer flooding. Lidar height data has a vertical accuracy of +/- 15cm, offering surveyors and planners valuable information which is likely to reduce the need for initial ground surveys. Lidar height data also shows the topography of the land. This, together with detailed knowledge of underground assets, allows Northumbrian Water to create hydraulic models of its underground networks to determine how they react during rainstorm events. Overland flow path are also calculated to determine the route of any flooding caused by overloaded sewers. www.infoterra.co.uk

USA

MDA receives $3.4M order from US government MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), a provider of essential information solutions, announced that it has received an order for US$3.4 million to provide a US government agency with additional RADARSAT-1 information products to be delivered over a 12-month period. The order was issued under an existing Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. IDIQ Contracts are utilized by US Executive Branch federal agencies to procure certain recurring services from pre-

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established suppliers. The US Government uses space borne wide-area surveillance information to monitor locations around the world. Continued market demand from key users underscores the value of radar satellite data as a dependable source of information crucial to government operations. MDA's RADARSAT-2 mission, the follow-on mission to RADARSAT-1, will provide a broader suite of higher-resolution data products once operational next year, which are expected to provide additional value in addressing the monitoring and surveillance needs of government and commercial customers around the world. www.mdacorporation.com

Global coral reef assessment built on NASA images A survey of how well the world's coral reefs are being protected was made possible by a unique collection of NASA views from space. A team of international researchers using NASA satellite images compiled an updated inventory of all "marine protected areas" containing coral reefs and compared it with the most detailed and comprehensive satellite inventory of coral reefs. The global satellite mapping effort is called the Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project and was funded by NASA. The study was reported on recently in the journal Science. The assess-

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ment found that less than two percent of coral reefs are within areas designated to limit human activities that can harm the reefs and the sea life living in and around them. Countries around the world have created these protected ocean and coastal zones where human activities such as shipping, fishing, recreation and scientific research are restricted to varying degrees. To achieve worldwide views of the small and widely scattered reefs, the Millennium Project team analyzed nearly 1700 images taken by the Landsat 7 spacecraft over four years. Computer processing of these data resulted in the coral reef inventory and maps that revealed detailed information about the structure of individual reefs. www.nasa.gov

Market research study on LBS, telematics and navigation systems released C.J. Driscoll & Associates has released a nationally projectable marketing research study on consumer interest in a wide range of GPS-based applications and wireless services. This study was partially funded by eleven companies, including leading digital mapping companies, cellular carriers, automotive manufacturers, GPS navigation system suppliers, and suppliers of LBS applications and technology. The study assesses interest and willingness to pay

for vehicle-installed and portable navigation systems, traffic information and other telematic services, and location-based services delivered to cell phones. It also quantifies consumer use and satisfaction with navigation systems and telematic services, and provides feedback from early adopters of LBS. In addition, the study assesses consumer opinions regarding location-based advertising and the potential impact of location-based services on privacy. The 2006 LBS, Telematics and Navigation Systems Study assesses consumer intent to purchase installed, portable or cell phone based navigation systems and services, as well as awareness and preference by brand. It also evaluates consumer interest and willingness to pay for traffic information services and other telematic services. The study covers interest of cellular subscribers in a wide range of location-based services. www.cjdriscoll.com

Tracking progress of wildfires with help of maps now possible The joint effort of NASA, the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Maryland and the National Interagency Fire Center has made it possible to track the progress of wildfires in the USS with maps updated several times a day and posted online for public. MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) imaging devices mounted on

two NASA satellites monitor the Earth and can pinpoint a fire within a 500-meter distance. The instruments return data that is then turned into maps, which shows the location of past and actively burning fires. www.news.com.com

Jack Dangermond honoured with honorary doctorate ESRI founder and President Jack Dangermond received an honorary doctorate from Loma Linda University (LLU) Adventist Health Sciences Center during the Universi-

ty's School of Public Health (SPH) commencement ceremony in Loma Linda, California. The highest academic honour awarded by the university, the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters recognizes outstanding contributions to the welfare and enrichment of others. Since founding ESRI in 1969, Dangermond has worked to create GIS software that links geographic information with descriptive data as a means toward achieving cuttingedge analysis and insight in a wide range of disciplines, including health fields. www.esri.com

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eSpatial announces launch of iSMART 5.1 eSpatial, an Enterprise Geospatial software and technology company, announced the latest version of its geospatial iSMART product suite, iSMART 5.1. iSMART 5.1 provides new features including advanced metadata management, further Oracle integration, and increased use of Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX and the enhancement of the iSMART GeoPortal and development environment to match emerging web mapping interface standards from companies such as Google and Microsoft. A key updated feature in iSMART 5.1 is the treatment of Metadata: iSMART 5.1 can easily Configure, Enter, View and Search metadata; this capability enables iSMART users to easily find useful spatial data sets and add them into maps for viewing, editing, and analysing across an organisation or the internet. This is also an essential capability for Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) and complies with industry metadata standards such as ISO 19115 and ISO 15836 ("Dublin Core")

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iSMART 5.1 provides even deeper support for Oracle functionality, including integration with Oracle 10g Mapviewer. This facility enables use of this Oracle application server component for visualising spatial data. It allows data rendered by Mapviewer to be combined with other data managed by iSMART such as from Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services, live / tracking data feeds, image stores, and custom data sources, for display, analysis and editing, and provides iSMART's "out of the box" powerful end user tools for data management, visualisation (GeoPortal), and Editing to Oracle Mapviewer. It also increases the range of data types that may be viewed using iSMART tools and custom applications (including 10g GeoRaster GRID, and Network Data). www.espatial.com

NAVTEQ releases full coverage map of South Africa NAVTEQ has announced a full coverage map for South Africa. Included in the data set is over 450,000 km of roads, enabling customers using the NAVTEQ digital map for South Africa to create navigation solutions for the entire country. The map includes over 25,000 points of interest including high value listings such as approximately 3,900 restaurants and 2,100 hotels. Cus-

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tomers integrating the map into consumer and business applications will have access to data representing over 4,955 named places in the country. The NAVTEQ database now includes virtually all navigable and named roads in South Africa, with full verification of all functional class one through four roads. These functional classes range from high volume, controlled access roads connecting urban areas to roads connecting major business streets with residential roads. NAVTEQ has also made a commitment to provide expanded coverage to support navigation needs during FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2010, enabling navigation between venues and providing detailed destination information. www.navteq.com

Avenza announces MAPublisher 7.0 for Adobe Illustrator Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop announced the release of MAPublisher 7.0 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 7.0 is the latest version of the mapmaking software used to produce maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics capabilities of this graphics design software.

New functionality in MAPublisher 7.0 includes a labeling engine, grid, graticules and scalebar generators, improved MAP attributes engine with expression builder, advanced selection filters and support for double-byte character sets. Electronic versions are immediately available for purchase and download. Boxed copies will be available the week of July 24th. www.avenza.com

Spatial Network Solutions releases NuMap 2.0 NuMap 2.0 is now available and features a MultiSpeak v3.0 interface to Milsoft's WindMil engineering analysis product, plus a configurable numbering module used to generate custom facility ID/location numbers Spatial Network Solutions' NuMap brings AutoCAD's drafting tools and engineering accuracy to the small and mid sized utility mapping space. NuMap is an automated mapping and facilities management system built on the 2007 releases of AutoCAD and Autodesk Map 3D. This product provides a utility context and excellent mapping tools on this platform. Functionality includes: electric network connectivity management, data integrity verification, context sensitive data entry and domain specific queries. NuMap is the replacement for GenMap and was created for mapping professionals, utility design-

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ers and engineers whose needs are closely aligned with digital representations of their distribution system. www.emediawire.com

ESRI releases 2006/2011 demographic data ESRI's 2006 demographic data estimates and 2011 projections have been released and are available as downloadable reports and maps from Business Analyst Online, ESRI's on-demand reporting and mapping service. The 2006/2011 data is available in more than 50 reports and maps such as the Demographic and Income Profile, Market Profile, and Age by Race Profile. Over the past year, ESRI's data development team completely revised its update models to develop a new methodology that achieves a higher level of accuracy previously unattainable from any data provider. This methodology blends ESRI's 2006/2011 demographic data and GIS technology with data from other leading data providers to produce extremely accurate results, unique in today's marketplace. www.esri.com

Leica Geosystems presents Leica GPS900 Leica Geosystems has introduced Leica GPS900, a midrange RTK GPS system that delivers productivity for a wide variety of tasks. The new Leica GPS900 uses Leica Geosystems' proven GPS

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technology. Consisting of a Leica RX900 Controller and a Leica ATX900 GPS Antenna the all-on-the-pole GPS900 RTK rover is ideal for oneperson stakeout and topographic tasks. With its flexible, easy-to-use onboard software, Leica GPS900 is the solution for a wide range of jobs including foundation and drainage work, alignment stakeout, topographic and as-built surveys. For the one-man-team, Leica GPS900 is easy to setup and use: the RTK reference and rover fit easily into a single rugged case. The GPS900 rover is lightweight and optimised to reduce operator fatigue. The icon-based, graphical onboard software can be easily operated using the VGA touchscreen. Import and export functionality allows the instrument to be compatible with Leica TPS400, Leica TPS800 and System 1200 TPS and GPS. www.leica-geosystems.com

GeoServer 1.3.2 released The GeoServer Project has announced the release of version 1.3.2. Improvements for this release include an upgrade to GeoTools 2.2.x, and some performance tuning on the toolkit, with users reporting at least a 60-70% speed increase against PostGIS. There are also user contributed fixes to create PDF maps from WMS and to adjust headers to allow caching, which can optimize GeoServer for tiling web

mapping clients like Google Maps or OpenLayers. The other improvements were supported by Google, in order to leverage GeoServer's data reading and map producing capabilities to allow anyone to make their existing data available on Google Earth. The bulk of the work was to create KML/KMZ output from the open WMS standard, which is compatible with Google's network link. Also funded was a basic SLD creation wizard, so that basic map styles can be created through the web administration GUI. There is also a built in KML reflector, making it very easy to connect GeoServer to Google Earth. GeoServer supports PostGIS, ArcSDE, Oracle Spatial, DB2, and Shapefiles and recent improvements with GeoTools 2.2.x pass the majority of the spatial processing back to the database. There is also a KMScore optimization, which has GeoServer render the features as a raster to be used as a Ground Overlay, for situations when there are too many features for Google Earth to efficiently portray. www.docs.codehaus.org

TatukGIS launches GIS Editor 1.7.2 Version TatukGIS has announced the version 1.7.2 update of its GIS Editor product, adding support for the following features: KML data format: Open, create, edit, and save

KML files as used by Google Earth. Convert map data from just about any GIS or CAD data format into the KML format or from KML into other common file formats, e.g., SHP, MIF, DXF, GML, GPX, DLG, or SQL database layers. GPX data format: Open, edit, create, and save GPX files and exchange GPS data (waypoints, tracks, etc.) with GPS devices. GPX data exported from third-party GPS software can be opened as a map layer in the Editor without the need for any format conversion. When required, the Editor can be used to convert the GPX data into other formats, such as SHP, DXF, KML, etc. ECWP protocol: In addition to the viewing ECW images loaded on the local computer hard drive, view ECW images running on a remote server. The ECW image running on the remote server can be opened as a map layer with other data layers within the context of a GIS project. www.tatukgis.com

Thales' MobileMapper CE upgraded Thales' MobileMapper CE, handheld GPS receiver for GIS applications, now offers differential corrections via NTRIP and direct IP. The functionality will be available for delivery and via upgrade for current MobileMapper CE owners starting August 2006. Thales will offer current owners of MobileMapper CE a free firmware update at the

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Thales FTP site. The Mobile Mapper CE GPS receiver offers an impressive array of features, including real-time, sub-meter GPS positioning, embedded Microsoft Windows CE .NET, Bluetooth wireless technology, removable SD card memory and an all-day removable battery that make it attractive for a wide variety of demanding GIS data collection and mapping applications. www.thalesnavigation.com

Mapping software transforms online ticket buying Adeso Technologies in US announced on July 10 the release of VisualBoxOffice (VBO), a mapping software that transforms the way consumers buy online tickets. The software uses interactive 3D maps that simultaneously show ticket-buyers the location and price of available seats and a section view, and allows them to buy tickets on the same screen. "VBO puts consumers in the driver's seat," said Valeno Valentino, CEO of Adeso Technologies. "They can see where they want to go and buy their tickets in one click." The average time to buy tickets with VisualBoxOffice is approximately 45-60 seconds. VBO also allows consumers to easily compare prices and seats; and to see the view from certain sections on selected maps. www.adesotech.com

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Tele Atlas adds speed camera data to digital maps covering seven European countries Tele Atlas has announced that speed camera information from RoadPilot Limited, the UK based provider of technology for safer driving, is now available in its digital maps covering Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Weekly updates ensure that Tele Atlas customers developing in-car and portable navigation applications have the most up-to-date information to alert drivers to the location of nearby speed cameras. “Because the information is constantly refreshed, our maps can even include temporary speed restrictions at roadworks,” said Jack Reinelt, Tele Atlas’ Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Europe. “And because the data uses a Tele Atlas map as its foundation, the speed camera is positioned in its precise place, even indicating which side of a dual carriageway the cameras are monitoring….” Reinelt added that road statistics show speed cameras encourage European drivers to moderate their speed. “In the opinion of the regulatory authorities, providing this information is a positive contribution to making the roads safer.” The new service is available today to application developers, with the first consumer products expected this summer. Addi-

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tional European countries will be added to the catalogue in the coming months. www.teleatlas.com

Google live traffic maps on cell phones On 25 July 2006 Google said it is offering mobile phone users to view highway maps with live traffic data. Available initially in 30 U.S. cities, Google Maps for mobile will show traffic, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: red means congested, yellow & orange means slowdowns and green for open traffic. The service combines satellite imagery, directions, and traffic data -completely free. One can check out the service by going to http://google.com/ gmm on mobile phone. Currently, it's only available in the U.S. market. Live traffic information for more than 30 cities in the United States will be as close as a commuter's mobile phone via the Google Maps for Mobile service. Presently, Google offers several Maps services for mobile handset users. Searching for local businesses returns integrated results featuring location and contact information to the phone. Google Maps can deliver draggable, zoomable maps to those phones, and provide satellite imagery of a location. Users who need walking or driving directions can retrieve those with stepby-step instructions from Google Maps for Mobile as well. The company disclosed

through a Reuters report on the latest addition to its Maps for Mobiles lineup of services. Live traffic data allows users to see congestion areas and estimate delays. The service will launch with coverage for over 30 metropolitan areas in the US. Traffic display information noted by Reuters will be color-coded. Red means congestion, yellow for delays, and green indicates normal traffic flow for a route. Google has not yet revealed the source of its traffic information for the new Maps service. The color system looks similar to that offered by Traffic.com, which currently provides traffic data to Microsoft's online service, Windows Live Local. Traffic.com lists available traffic information for 50 cities on its website. Mobile users with Java-enabled (J2ME) handsets from Cingular or Sprint, or color BlackBerry devices from any carrier, can access Google Maps for Mobile services. www.laptoplogic.com

MWH Soft ships urban hydrologic modeling textbook MWH Soft, a provider of environmental and water resources applications software, has announced the release of ‘Comprehensive Urban Hydrologic Modeling Handbook for Engineers and Planners’ – a resource for anyone involved in the design, operation, protection, and management of urban

AUG UST 2006

infrastructure systems. Written by industry experts, Comprehensive Urban Hydrologic Modeling Handbook for Engineers and Planners is an advanced comprehensive reference on the various aspects of surface water hydrology including hydrologic processes, analysis, and design. A working handbook for engineers, hydrologists, students, urban planners and practitioners, it covers both the practical and theoretical aspects of urban hydrology, hydraulics, and storm water quality modeling. The book brings together the principles and tools available for evaluating the quantity and quality of storm water, and presents them in a manner that can be easily under-

stood. Moreover, it provides guidance on methods of managing and controlling storm water in the urban environment. 150 solved problems place special emphasis on the application of these tools and methods. www.mwhsoft.com

geoVue releases marketVue Portal v.2.0 geoVue, a location intelligence software provider, has announced the release of marketVue Portal v.2.0, the latest version of its Web Services-based platform for market planning, site selection and sales forecasting. Retail, franchise, and commercial development clients can access geoVue’s location

intelligence software applications iSITE (site selection and trade area analysis) and iPREDICT (sales forecasting), through the marketVue Portal. The marketVue Portal can also be seamlessly integrated with third-party data and clients’ proprietary applications. With MarketVue Portal v.2.0 users can model trading areas, determine market capacity, and estimate sales potential for any location, at any time. Maps, charts, graphs and reports generated from this analysis are highly configurable, and data can be exported into a variety of common formats, including Excel, CSV and XML for fast, easy sharing across the enterprise. As a result, the chain operation can quickly

screen prospective locations. New features have been added in this latest release, some developing as a result of geoVue’s new business partnerships, including the following: Integrating aerial photography from GlobeXplorer and TerraServer-USA to create powerful hybrid maps that blend geoVue’s modeled data with high resolution photography; Generating interactive, updated drive time boundaries for any location, directly from the marketVue Portal. The drive time extension is available through geoVue’s partnership with ESRI and can be both viewed interactively and incorporated into geoVue’s automated sitebooks. www.prweb.com

SURVEYING

LAND SURVEYING IN INDIA: PRESENT STATUS Surveying has been traditionally defined as the science and art of determining the relative positions of points Dr. Satyaprakash infrastructure, in terms of railroads, canals and roads. This led to the development of more sophisticated instruments and this

B AC K S I G HT Humans have pondered over the ‘shape of the earth’ for more than a millenia. This led to some systematic processes and measurements which were later baptized as ‘Geodetic Surveying’. Surveying has been traditionally defined as the science and art of determining the relative positions of points above, on, or beneath the surface of the earth, or establishing such points. The purpose of which is to research the form and size of the earth and the geometrical shape and spatial position of the objects on the surface of the ground. In other words, it is the science to collect, analyze, integrate, manage and apply the geographical data about above and under the ground surface or in the water with features of spatial contribution with all kinds of appropriate approaches and instruments, which aims to make the natural appearances known to the people. Historically, it was as early as 1400BC that the Egyptians first used surveying to accurately divide land into plots for the purpose of taxation and sometime in 120BC the Greeks developed the science of geometry and used it for precise land division and also standardized the procedures for conducting surveys. They were also the first to develop an instrument (Diopter) for conducting surveys. However, in 1800AD, during the industrial revolution, surveying became an important aspect for development of public

24

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

was the time when science of Geodetic and Plane surveying was developed.

Today, surveying has become a part of our lives and irrespective of whether we realize it or not, it is affecting our daily lives. Whether it is the development or realignment of our neighbourhood road, development of a new shopping mall in the vicinity, the development of a new amusement park, the laying down of the optical fibre cables for more telecommunication lines or the development of a new line for metro rail in our neighbourhood, without surveying, all these would not have been possible. Some of the common surveying applications have been, • to map the earth above and below the sea, • prepare navigational maps (land, air, sea), • establish boundaries of public and private lands, • develop data bases for natural resource management, • development of engineering data for - bridge construction, - roads, - buildings and - land development etc.

The methods of surveying can be classified under major two headings, viz., Geodetic and Plane. Geodetic is one where the spherical shape of the earth is taken into account and it covers large areas and has high accuracy. Plane surveying is concentrated into smaller areas where accuracy requirement is not

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that stringent and this method considers

obtained from our internal resources,

region as flat, instead of spherical. This is

web-search and websites of the compa-

commonly used for most of the work,

nies. Once the consent was obtained, the

whereas geodetic surveying is employed

questionnaire was sent to the concerned

for determining shape and size of earth

department or concerned person and/ or

and establishing control points.

the CEO of companies, spread all over the

Surveying has broadly been classified

country, engaged in surveying and GIS

into the following categories (after

work. It was also sent to some free-

http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~asm215/

lancers/ retired professional, either who

topics/history.html), depending upon the

are currently engaged in surveying tasks

purpose for which they are being used, • Control surveys

or

were

engaged

previously.

The

P LOT TI N G The entire analysis of the questionnaire was divided into two sections. First section (Pole A) covered the type of survey and the instruments being used in India by different companies, their locations vis-à-vis their turnover and Return on Investment. In the second section (Pole B), satisfaction level of different instruments was studied along with the service and support the vendors offer to them.

response was overwhelming and we are

• Topographic surveys

thankful to all those, who took their time

P OLE -A

• Land, Boundary and Cadastral surveys

and responded to the questionnaire.

The companies who participated in the survey, 43% of them were from South of

• Hydrographic or Marine surveys

platform, from where surveying is done.

S TAKE O UT With development taking place in the field of surveying world over and also in India, we thought of conducting a study through questionnaire survey, to study the present status of land surveying in India. A questionnaire was designed where it was decided to study the different activities of companies engaged in the surveying field, their geographical reach, core land surveying companies visà-vis GIS companies where surveying is an associated task. The study was also intended to look into the different instruments being used and their feedback interms of usability, user-friendliness, availability in their region, after-sales service and overall satisfaction level. The questionnaire also asked about the usage of GPS in the surveying work and also the Return on Investment. Before the questionnaire was sent, a consent letter was sent to around 200 companies, the data for which was

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only 14% response from the western part and almost similar response of approximately 22% from East and North. There was only one response from the NE region, catering to almost all the eight NE states. The different activities, companies are engaged in, could be listed as, • Topographic survey • Cadastral survey • Utility survey • Engineering survey • Natural Resource Management (NRM) • Urban Mapping

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Urban (35%)

of measurement and depending upon the

lore, Hyderabad or Chennai. There were

NRM (14%)

ing upon the instruments used, the type

India, with their head offices in Banga-

Engineering (29%)

Surveying can also be classified depend-

Utility (57%)

• Mine surveys

Cadastral (43%)

• Construction, Urban Planning or Engineering surveys

Topographic (65%)

• Route surveys

T R IAN G U L ATI O N The questionnaires were analysed on the basis of the location of the surveying company vis-à-vis the geographic area they carter to, their annual turnover as a percentage to their total business. The kind of instruments being used by these companies were also studied and also from where they are purchased. One important motive of this survey was to assess whether GPS was being used in land surveying or not, and if yes, its penetration. The Return on Investment for the surveying projects was also studied. All these were in addition to the different kinds of surveying, the companies are engaged in.

Fig. 1 Bar diagram showing the different surveying activities, companies are engaged in

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

25

38

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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J U LY 2 0 0 6

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

27

Plane Table ( 21%)

GPS and DGPS ( 92%)

Auto Level ( 35%)

Sokkia Leica

Topcon

Theodolite ( 21%)

Nikon Trimble Total Station ( 65%)

Fig. 3 Distribution of make of surveying instruments (except GPS)

Fig. 2 Usage of instruments for surveying tasks

The percentages of these activities could be shown by Figure 1.

profit and the rest between a profit mar-

ordered/ imported directly from the man-

gin of 30-50%.

The instruments being used by differ-

ufacturer. Also all the companies prefer to

ent companies for conducting the above

obtain the instruments locally through

P OLE -B

survey are, • Plane Table

their local vendors because of their sup-

This section of the survey was the tricki-

port and service, but how much do they

est one where it was intended to get an

• Auto Level

get, is a concern. More on this is in the

idea about the satisfaction level in the

• Theodolite

next section.

• Total Station

The use of GPS has really penetrated the

usage of instrument being used by different companies and also the satisfaction

land surveying arena, although 37% of

level with the local vendors. Since almost

the respondents still use hand-held GPS

all of the companies preferred to pur-

and mapping type, Geodetic type and

chase the instrument from the local ven-

DGPS are almost equally distributed.

dors, due to their availability for support

It could be seen from Figure 2, that most

Another important aspect is that 80% of

and service, it was to be seen, how much

of the companies (more than 90%) have

these companies, own the GPS they use

they satisfy their customers.

started using GPS and/ or DGPS for their

and even some of them rent it out. There

The main make of instruments being

survey work. For conventional surveying,

are only 20% such surveying companies,

used were Leica and Trimble, with some

still Total Station is a preferred choice

who rent the GPS instruments. Although

of them preferring Topcon, Sokkia

with 65% users opting for this and 35%

most of them own the GPS instrument,

and Nikon instruments. As per the

uses Auto Level. Other instruments are

but for specialized jobs, they hire. Anoth-

respondents, 33% are using Leica survey-

used almost uniformly. However, there

er important conclusion arrived at was

ing products, 22% are using Trimble

have been few companies who have

the use of post-processing software for

instruments and 17% each are using

started using Laser Range Finders and

better accuracy. Almost 85% of the com-

Nikon and Topcon. In this section, the sur-

also laser based levels, but the most

panies using GPS survey, use some or the

prise to me was the Sokkia surveying

important fact emerged was, a couple of

other GPS post-processing software.

products which only 11% of respondents

companies have started LIDAR surveying

However, all are system specific, the most

use. Surveying market share could be

as one of their important activities, viz.,

common being Leica Ski-Pro.

shown in Figure 3.

• GPS and DGPS The distribution of these instruments in percentage is shown in Figure 2.

Genesys International of Bangalore and

Although, no company gives an esti-

In the GPS section, Leica was the leader

mate of their earnings, still we tried to

with 45% of the respondents using their

In almost all the cases, the instruments

look at their Return on Investment (ROI).

products, followed by Garmin with

have been obtained through the local

It was found that the ROI for most of

35% and Trimble with the rest of 20%.

vendors and in exceptional cases, when it

them (about 85%), in the range of 10-30%

Trimble might have lagged Garmin in

Geofiny Technologies of Chennai.

28

is very specialized one, it has been

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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8 7 6

Garmin

5

Leica

4 3 2 1

Satisfaction

Fig. 4 Market share of GPS instruments

Nikon

Topcon

Sokkia

Trimble

0 Leica

Trimble

Service Support

Fig. 5 Make of the instruments vis-à-vis satisfaction level

the GPS section, because most of the com-

The instrument satisfaction level for

staff and good training institutes. From

panies are using hand-held instruments.

almost all make is the same but it is the

the use of GPS point of view, the com-

But if we compare Leica and Trimble,

service and support of the local vendors

patability with Galileo and the prohibi-

there is a wide gap of 25% in the market

which decide companies to purchase

tive import duty was few of the concerns

share. GPS market share could be shown

which brand of the instrument.

of the respondents.

in Figure 4.

The satisfaction level for the GPS of both

There have been few responses, which I

In the instrument satisfaction level

Trimble and Leica are the same at 7.5

would like to quote verbatim:

(ease of use and navigation) a scale of 10

points but in service and support again,

was used with 1 being the least satisfied

Leica has scored 8 and 7.75 over Trimble's

and 10, the most. In this part, Topcon

score of 5 in both service and support. The

scored the highest with 7.3 points while

satisfaction level of Garmin in this sec-

Trimble and Leica were neck to neck with

tion of the product is much below.

“Surveying is the foundation of any infrastructure project so accuracy & integrity is the most important factor in surveying. There should be some registration on national level to this industry.” - Sunil Kokare, Director of Monarch Surveys and Contractors Ltd., Pune.

6.75 and 6.5, followed by Nikon with 5 points. However, in the service and sup-

port category, Leica scored 6.7 and 6.5 respectively whereas others scored in the range of 2-3 points, in both the categories, where a lot to be desired form the local vendors of these companies. Dr Sharma from EnGeo consultancy says, that the Leica has a very modern service centre and their service is prompt (considering the fact that his company is in the NE) and the support is good. Sunil Kokare of Monarch Surveyors, Pune has very bad experience with the local Trimble vendor and has rated them as poor in both service and support and has even rated Nikon local vendor to be very poor in terms of service and support. Comparison of the instrument satisfaction and service support are shown Figure 5.

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F O R E S I G HT This is one of its kinds of study for the Indian market and users. An attempt was made through the present study to get an idea about the different applications, the companies are engaged into and the different instruments being used by them. Attempt was also made towards studying the market share of the different vendors, the satisfaction level of the instruments and service and support of the local vendors. Although the response of the companies was overwhelming, detail survey is needed to come to a definite conclusion. Most of the respondents have voiced their opinion of better service and support from the local vendors. Another aspect highlighted was the lack of trained

“Its time we had a national grid of GPS differential stations available for common use at no cost.” - Col J Jacob VSM (Retd.) of Genesys International, Bangalore. “Import duty continues to be high. Some of the vendors do not have trained staff for aftersales support. Lack of awareness does not allow us to go for it. None of the vendors has taken initiative to provide free training with the instruments to non-users.” - Dinesh Sharma, Topcon Surveying, Faridabad.

I thank all those who took part in the survey and provided their valuable inputs for the article. Dr. Satyaprakash GIS Development [email protected]

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

29

SURVEYING

A COST EFFECTIVE GPS LEVELING METHOD VERSUS Conventional Leveling Methods for Typical Surveying Applications This study proposes a cost effective GPS Leveling (GPSL) methods based on multi-reference kinematic GPS and precise geoid model for typical surveying application. Dr. Metin Soycan constitute and densification of the vertical geodetic net-

S

works, traversing and similar applications use several methods and technique. To achieve cm height accuracy, surveyors have been examined alternative methods instead of static GPS surveying methods with long session duration and professionally processing and analyzing of the collected data for long years. As the result of the develop-

ince 1980s GPS have been used for the purposes of studying and monitoring the earth, locally, regionally or as a whole; exploring its unknown aspects, engineering studies, and many areas of our daily lives.

ment in fast static, stop and go, kinematic and other survey-

Studies aiming to make this system a multipurpose global mon-

can make use of active RTK networks that have been devel-

itoring system that can be used easily are made for collection

oped in recent years for this purpose and resolve the vertical

and processing of GPS data in conformance to certain standards,

positioning problem very economically, cheaply and practi-

and for delivering such data groups to users in several commu-

cally by means of multi-reference RTK approach [6,9,19,27].

nication technologies with different methods.

GPS derived ellipsoidal heights have geometric meanings in

ing methods, GPS receivers, IGS and other regional and local permanent GPS networks, it can be seen that it is possible to obtain desired accuracy in very short time interval by using single GPS receiver [5,10,14,17,18,19,24]. To the extent that, many countries throughout the world

30

In determination of orthometric heights with GPS, the accura-

practical engineering survey, geophysics and in other appli-

cy of vertical positioning changes depending on the application

cations, and they bear no physical meanings. However, in

type and quality of the project. The efforts and the attempts for

many surveying and engineering applications, orthometric

using the system practically and rentable especially engineer-

heights are required. To have ellipsoidal heights converted

ing aimed geodetic application have been increased for the last

into orthometric heights, precise geoid heights are required.

decades [1,2,12,13]. It is known that the surveyor especially to

The most effective technique used in practice particularly

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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for the determination of orthometric

(Figure 1b).

heights is the GPS-leveling technique.

with cm accuracy. Besides, this method is

Geometric Leveling measurements

one that is accepted and applied by the

In GL measure-

whole world due to its measurement,

ments, Wild-NAK2

ease of computation and its economic

precise

application[3,7,8,11,15, 16,23,26,28].

instrument

With the GPS-leveling method, it is possible to determine orthometric heights

The purposes of this study are the deter-

leveling and

millimeter-parti-

mination of GPS ellipsoidal heights based

tioned miras were

on post-processing multi-reference kine-

used. A total of 5

matic technique with cm level accuracy,

routes

by using appropriate geoid model trans-

formed with the 6

formation of this heights into orthomet-

adjacent

ric type and examination of its accuracy,

point, the height

productivity, efficiency and practicabili-

of 87 points on the

ty. Strategies of the proposed model are

profile have been

given, and it has been applied in a test

determined with

area and compared with the other con-

the forward and

ventional leveling methods. For this pur-

reverse GL meas-

poses, geometrical leveling (GL), trigono-

urements. In the

metrically leveling as unidirectional

study area, there

(UTL), leap-frog (LFTL) and simultaneous-

was no possibility

ly-reciprocally (SRTL) and GPS observa-

observing

or

tion were performed on 87 test points

obtaining

the

between 16km length Beykoz and Riva

gravity values due

highway of Istanbul.

to some restric-

were IGNA

tion. But as the

TEST STU DY FOR COM PAR ISON OF PROP OSE D M ETHOD WITH CONVE NTIONAL LEVE LLI NG M ETHODS In application of conventional leveling methods a test network given in figure 1a was established. Leveling measurements were performed on 5 leveling route which changes between 2.7 and 6.1km. There are 6 Istanbul GPS Network (IGNA) stations with known ellipsoidal and orthometric heights. 1 rover, 1 local reference (34082) and 2 permanent GPS stations (ISTA and TUBI) in Istanbul were used for GPS campaigns. 34082, ISTA and TUBI considered as multi-reference so, positions of the rover on 87 test points was obtained by the adjustment of the post-processed baseline vector components from 3 different reference stations

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Figure 1. Network configuration for conventional and proposed leveling methods in test area

Figure 2. Trigonometric leveling measurements

result of the several

approximate

formulas (D.Clark-B.Dubuisson, Jordan-

series zenith angle observed for each

Eggert, Naebauer) the orthometric correc-

method. Geodimeter-520 totalstation

tions that might be made in the heights

were used for unidirectional and leap-

measured with GL are negligible, more-

frog observations easily. For the simulta-

over, it is seen that the lengths of leveling

neously and reciprocal type of trigono-

routes and heights differences are not too

metric leveling two Wild-T2 theodolites

large, so orthometric corrections have

were used. Using observation signs

been undervalued and the heights

whose zenith angle series have been

obtained as a result of raw leveling meas-

developed by us and mounted to the

urements have been taken as orthomet-

Wild-T2 theodolites, it has been simulta-

ric heights.

neously and reciprocally measured as 2 full series.

Trigonometric Leveling measurements

station has been determined under labo-

Three different trigonometric leveling

ratory conditions and has been brought

methods were considered as the unidirec-

as correction to zenith angle measure-

tional, leap-frog and simultaneous recip-

ments. Distance measurements have

rocal zenith angle observations. 2 full

been made with the Geodimeter-520

Index error of each theodolite and total-

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

31

Figure 3. Comparison of the TL and GPSL. derived orthometric heights with GL (units are m.)

lengths of sight

geodetic receivers. ISTA and TUBI perma-

and no corrections

nent GPS stations have Ashtech Z-XII3

have been made

receivers.

in the measured

Each of the 87 points has been posi-

zenith angles due

tioned from three reference stations with

to deviations of

3-5 minute double sessions in different

vertical. Therefore

satellite geometry using the post-pro-

the most impor-

cessing kinematic method. Elevation

tant

remaining

mask is 150, epoch interval is 5 second

effect is the refrac-

were selected during the observations.

tion

by

Standard troposphere model, use of L1L2

effect,

the

observation and broadcast ephemerides

length of sights

are sufficient for the observing ellipsoidal

between

heights in cm level.

choosing

points

totalstation and in slope form and neces-

short, and by making simultaneous and

Ashtech Solution 2.6 GPS post process-

sary corrections have been made. As

reciprocal zenith angle observations in

ing software were used for processing of

shown in figure 2, measured zenith

favorable meteorological conditions; this

the achieved GPS data. First of all, pro-

angles Z, iA and iB heights of the instru-

effect has been targeted to be reduced to

cessing was performed based on 34082

ments or targets, S slope distance meas-

a great extent for SRTL. To minimize

reference station. Then, ISTA and TUBI

ured using the totalstation, equations

refraction effect on LFTL sight length was

permanent GPS station were included the

1,2,3 respectively UTL,LFTL,SRTL was used

chosen equally so only the difference of

processing as second and third reference

for the height difference between A and B

the coefficients of refraction effects the

station so achieved ellipsoidal height

points. Height difference between two

results [25]. Finally, for UTL a refraction

accuracy was improved between percent

adjacent points for 5 leveling routes has

coefficient was used as 0.13.

20 to 50. As it seen in table 2 the best

been computed as the sum of the several

In standard deviation computation for 1

result were obtained by usage of the

single height differences obtained from

km GL line, differences between forward

three reference (ISTA+TUBI+34082) sta-

each settlement by using equations 1,2,3

and reverse measurements and misclo-

tion. Ellipsoidal height accuracy of the

[20,21,22,25].

sure values between known and comput-

test points obtained by in this way is

ed heights are used. For GL accuracy has

under cm level and consistence of the

been computed from misclosure and has

ellipsoidal heights obtained by first and

been computed from difference between

second kinematic GPS campaigns is 1cm.

forward and reverse measurements.

into orthometric heights three different

ward and reverse measurements and

geoid model given their details in below were considered.

The height differences are affected by

misclosure values between known and

several systematic errors such as influ-

computed heights are used for a 1 km TL

ence of deviation of vertical, earth curva-

line, standard deviation has been com-

IGNA geoid model

ture and refraction. According to Tilk-

puted as from misclosure and as from

To determine "cm" accuracy geoid by GPS

Thies for a sight length of 1km an error of

difference between forward and reverse

and GL data, within the borders of Istan-

3km for the mean radius will disturb the

measurements for SRTL. from misclosure

bul municipality, 458 geoid base points

height differences with 0.03mm. On the

and as from difference between forward

covering the said region has been taken

other hand, in length of sight shorter

and reverse measurements for LFTL.

in an area of 65´160km. IGNA geoid mod-

than 500 meters, one may accept that the

from misclosure and as from difference

el has been determined using the multi

effect of deviation of vertical on height is

between forward and reverse measure-

parameter regression method for practi-

negligibly small. So, the raw height differ-

ments for UTL

cal use. Geoid heights, calculated from

(1) ences from reciprocal trigonometric level-

32

To transformation of ellipsoidal heights

Similar to GL differences between for-

GPS and GL measurements, are modeled

ing will lead to the same value as GL.(2) In

GPS leveling measurements

as two-parameter surface polynomial,

this regard, in this study TL measure-

GPS receivers used in study are Ashtech

which is in fifth order. The accuracy of the

(3) ments are made with 100-150m average

Z-surveyor dual frequency, multi channel

model is tested via independent leveling

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

33

the gravimetric geoid heights belonging to the same points, they have been determined using the minimum curvature interpolation method with 6 parameters trend surface. As a basic data, the study used the difference between gravimetric geoid height and GPS-Leveling geoid height. During the evaluation stage, 1 point was removed due to inconsistency, and 196 points were used. The inner accuracy of model is achieved in ±5cm from the difference between interpolated and measured geoid heights for 196 points. Furthermore, the accuracy of the model is tested in 122 independent points throughout Turkey, and the outer geoid height accuracy has been found to be ±10 cm. It is possible to obtain values with relatively higher accuracy values [26].

Local geoid model 7 control points covering the test region has been taken in an area of 15´15km. Local geoid model has been determined using the radial basis function (multiquadratic) method for better fitting. After

34

and GPS measurements different parts of

through modeling of differences on GPS-

Multi-quadratic surfacing, there are any

Istanbul. As a result of studies made for

Leveling points of long wavelength

residuals in control points and distribu-

the accuracy of the model, model consis-

effects in the Turkish Gravimetric Geoid

tion of control points does not affect

tency has been found to be about ±4 cm.

(TG-91) computed in 1991. GPS coordi-

results. In this method, depending on

As for relative accuracy, it may be

nates (j,l,h) and orthometric heights(H) of

known control points, a trend surface is

obtained higher than this value [8].

197 points and the 3'´3'grid value used in

determined by using simple planar or

TG-91 has been used. GPS-Leveling geoid

quadratic surface. After this operation,

TG-99A geoid model

heights were obtained from the differ-

residuals in control points are used for

As for the TG-99A geoid model, it has

ence between the GPS ellipsoidal heights

surfacing and all surface coefficients are

been computed at the 3'´3'grid frequency

and the orthometric height values. As for

calculated. All surface area is described

Standard deviation of first campaign

Standard deviation of second campaign

Differences between first and second campaign

Reference

Max.

Min.

Mean.

Max.

Min.

Mean.

Max.

Min.

RMS.

TUBI

50.8

15.6

30.1

44.5

21.1

30.0

45.2

-61.7

37.4

ISTA

38.3

15.7

26.4

31.8

12.6

23.1

59.1

-54.2

22.7

ISTA+TUBI

38.8

10.0

24.8

19.5

7.6

13.5

46.2

-41.8

21.4

34082+TUBI

31.0

8.0

19.8

17.5

6.5

11.8

51.1

-47.8

15.0

34082

24.7

9.5

16.0

26.9

13.8

19.7

26.5

-29.2

11.3

34082+ISTA

17.5

3.8

10.6

22.2

9.8

15.8

24.9

-38.1

12.6

ISTA+TUBI+34082 12.8

4.6

7.9

13.1

6.0

9.9

24.9

-20.9

10.1

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

AUG UST 2006

Delivering World-Class GIS Services

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heights

were

geoid model use homogeny control

compared with GL

points group by a flexible surfacing

derived orthomet-

methods in the test area for only this

ric

study so better accuracy can be available

heights.

Obtained differ-

from this geoid model.

ence and their statistical information were shown both numerically and visually in figure 3. Although TG99A

is

national

a

geoid

model, when the distributions

of

the GPSL control points are considered; two control Figure 1. Osaka Gas New Gas Pipe Facility Management System

points were discovered in the test region.

Conse-

with only one function. Parameters of

quently, the better accuracy could be

function are determined from all control

available in this area. When the distribu-

points. The accuracy of the local geoid

tion of the control points used in the

model is better than TG99A and IGNA

IGNA geoid model will be examined,

model. According to test results, model

scarcity of the number of points and used

consistency has been found to be about

surface model in test area affect the

±1-2 cm.

results. It can be seen 3-4cm systematical effect on IGNA derived orthometric

COM PAR ISON OF TH E R ESU LTS In comparison it was thought that examination of the consistence of the TL and GPSL with GL that considered is more accurately than the other methods. SRTL, LTFL,UTL and GPSL. derived orthometric

99A is not only a gravimetric geoid model, and it is based on GPS-leveling data with gravity. From this point of view, the consistency of orthometric heights obtained from GPS_GL with TG-99A has been found to be better than IGNA. Local

ConsistenPersons Instruments cy With GL

Production

GL

-

4

1 Lev.Ins+2 Miras

1km/2 Hours

SRTL

10mm

4

2 Theodolites

1km/2 Hours

LFTL

23mm

3

1 Totalstation+2 Reflector

1km/1 Hours

UTL

37mm

2

1 Totalstation+2 Reflector

1km/1 Hours

GPSL

20mm

1

2 GPS Receiver

1km/0.7 Hours

Method

36

height from comparison. Moreover, TG-

Accuracy

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

CONCLUSION As the result of the observation, measurement and evaluations, it can be said that GL and SRTL are the most accurately leveling techniques among the all of them. But these techniques require more surveyor, instruments and time. Although LFTL and UTL more practicability than the GL and SRTL, they have systematical effects due to refraction and precision of instruments used in research. Consequently these methods offer lower accuracy. Aforesaid situation was appeared with the comparison of the derived orthometric heights of 87 test points. It can be easily seen that the accuracy of the proposed method are depend on accuracy of the geoid model. Use of local geoid model instead of national or regional can supply an accuracy improvement between percentages 40 to 50. Orthometric heights obtained from 3 reference GPS and local geoid model consist with the GL 2.0cm, consist with SRTL 2.7cm. Moreover these methods have better consistency than the LTFL and UTL. Both inner accuracy and consistency with other leveling techniques of the proposed methods can be satisfy expectations for routine surveying applications. On the other hand, proposed method can be performed by only one surveyor economically and practicability versus other conventional leveling methods when considered the surveying team, instruments and expenses.

Dr. Metin Soycan Assistant Professor Yildiz Technical University Civil Engineering Faculty Geodesy and Photogrametry Engineering Division ISTANBUL [email protected]

AUG UST 2006

VECTORIZATION

VECTORIZATION OF CONTOURS

From Scanned Topographical Maps The paper proposes to develop an automated scheme for the extraction and vectorization of contour lines from a scanned topographic map. Dr. K. Ananthanarayanan, Dr Koshy Varghese

G

eneration of Digital Elevation Models and selection of optimal route for cross country transmission line projects is a long standing demand of the Construction Industry. The Geographical Information System is really helpful to find a visually intuitive and efficient solution. For effective real time use of Geographical Information Sys-

tem for such applications, it is essential for the data to be available in vector format rather than raster format. Vectorization is the process of converting raster data into vector form. The most widespread source of height (elevation) data

38

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

AUG UST 2006

for digital elevation model generation is the contour lines in the topographical

SCAN N I NG TH E MAP

maps. One of the preliminary processes in Transmission Line Routing is the preparation of optimal routes and feasibility reports using a GIS. This is carried out by map digitization, preparation of digital elevation model for GIS and selection of the optimal route. The following limitations exist in the present process • A GIS cannot extract information about the different topographical features (data layers like contours, river systems, existing power lines etc.) Using scanned topographical maps in their raster form. • The scanned topographical maps being utilized at present are in the form of raster images, which need to be vectorized before the GIS can use them. This activity, carried out manually using AUTOCAD, which is a time consuming process. • The size of the raster bitmap file is huge which requires large amounts of computer memory storage capacity. Vectorization is a good alternative that can reduce the topo map files size, while maintaining data integrity. The above limitations can be overcome by the use of Image Processing techniques to convert the raster Bit Maps into a Vector Format. The vectorized topographical map can then be input through the GIS and using computer run algorithms, an optimal transmission line route may be finalized.

The specific problem of the interpretation of the contour lines out of a scanned map is difficult to resolve. AUG UST 2006

S CANNER P ARAMETER Scanning is the first step towards obtaining a raster image before it is used for vectorization. The aim is to have a raster image which can be converted to a Fig. A Scanned Survey of India Map vector format automatically rather than manually. The parameters which the scanner assigns a value to a like resolution, Bit depth, Threshold value pixel as a representation of the intensity and Gamma correction of the scanner and color of the image. In color scanning will influence the quality of the raster the output is a RGB image, which is a coloutput image. or model in which a three layered pixel Resolution: resolution may be defined matrices are formed, one each for R, G, as the density of a raster image. The num- and B channels ber of pixels that are present in a given unit region (inch) of the image which is C OLOUR TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS defined as dots/pixels per inch (dpi). The The specific problem of the interpretation Survey of India maps (fig1) which are of the contour lines out of a scanned map often drafted with 0.2 mm tip ink pens, is difficult to resolve not just because of the actual colour lines are around 0.5 the nature of the raster data set, but thick and the distance between adjacent because of global constraint due to their contours is generally greater than the topology. Previous studies have shown that the local geometry of the contour contour width itself. However the contour line thickness also lines does not provide evidence for an makes a difference. A resolution of 300 automatic reconstruction of the relief. To dpi is sufficient to differentiate adjacent contours, most cases the raster contour line thickness varies from 3 to 8 pixels Bit depth: Bit depth is a description of the range of values in gray scale that can be possibly assigned to one pixel. For example, a bit depth of 8 bits/pixel, would enable a single pixel to take 256(2 ) values from 0 to 255 on the grayscale (Fig 2). The more the bit depth, greater is the color information stored in the image and Threshold consequently higher is the image quality. Thresholding: This is the key to raster output. Thresholding is the process by Fig. 2 Sample Histogram

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

39

Image color reduction (Quantization) Image Gamma Correction (Enhancement) image filtering and sharpening

Raster Image Segmentation and Thresholding for contour feature extraction

Image Binarization Image Morphology and Skeletonization 2D Contour reconstruction (interpolation)

Raster Image Vectorization, CAD compatibility (generation of DXF/ ASCII file)

overcome this most of the research works

neural network to extract characters and

concentrate involving the intervention of

lines from colour map images.

an operator. The role of the human being

Their inputs include features that com-

is to generally resolve the ambiguities

prehend color intensities and gradients.

and/or to correct the result of the recon-

This approach does not figure out color

struction. Research in image processing,

aliasing and false colors inherent in the

computational geometry, image repre-

topographic maps. Hedly and Yan devel-

sentation and pattern recognition has let

oped a gradient threshold method to

to the development of wide variety of

overcome the aliasing and false colour

algorithm for contour vectorization.

problems. The final thinned raster image

However the problem of contour extrac-

often consists of broken lines. These lines

tion is complex and none of the existing

when vectorized and exported to stan-

schemes claim to be the best solution for

dard CAD software like AutoCAD cause

the same.

huge problems to the GIS user, because

Now days the colour topographical

they have to identify and reconnect all

maps are available and it is essential to

the open (hanging) contour lines.

recognize all its features. Recent papers

Researches in the field of GIS have looked

deal scanned colour images using the

at various methodologies to resolve this

mean and variance of the hue channel for

problem.

discriminating soil types on a digitized soil map or transforming the input RGB colour space into another colour space taking the chromaticity into account. A

Fig. 3 Overview of conventional vectorization methodology

majority of map analysis techniques have concentrated on binary maps that have thicker features which are spaced far apart from each other. Only few focused on colour images and thin closely

Data source selection collection Phase

spaced linear features. Dupont et al. used a water shed divide algorithm in RGB space to assign a pure map colour to each pixel. This algorithm performs well for image scanned by high

Raster Image pre-processing

resolution and quality scanners but not for the image which contains alias and false colour. Wu et al. used a multi-layer

I MAGE PROCESSING FOR CARTOGRAPHY : A R EVIEW Analytical and computer cartography were used in the image processing applications earlier, but researchers start using the recent developments in the new areas like computational geometry and neural network to solve image processing problems. Conventional approaches split the raster to vector conversion process in the following four main steps - Raster image pre-processing, Raster Image segmentation and contour extraction, Raster Image post processing and skeletonization and Raster to Vector conversion (Fig3). The outputs of the first three steps

Raster to vector conversion

Data Validation, error detection & correction

Fig. 4 Methodology for the Vectorization Process

40

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

Fig. 5a Scanned Image

Fig. 5b Multiple pixel intensity filter

AUG UST 2006

Fig. 6a Scanned Image

Fig. 6b Characters Removed

are in the form of raster image and only

when compared to vector data since it is

in the final step DXF file (vector format) is

the direct output of satellite imagery, aer-

generated.

ial photographs, scanned topographical maps, etc.

ALGOR ITH M FOR VECTOR I ZATION PROCESS The following are the main features proposed algorithm • Data identification and extraction based on colour (through user input). • Raster pre-processing using proven and relevant Imaging techniques. • Resolving the character recognition problem by prompting user to select the colour of the characters and subsequently erasing those pixels. • Interpolation between loose ends of the contour trace. • Saving the elevation data at all contour lines. • Prompt for user input wherever the logic is unable to resolve the trace. • Error detection and correction. The methodology used in the proposed

However for most applications such as terrain modeling, network analysis, etc., vector representation of data is essential. Raster data can be converted in to vector format. Acquisition of geospatial data and its conversion in the vector format is quite expensive. Maps being economical, readily available and easy to interpret and vectorization can be done. The following points are very important while digitizing a topographical map. • Clearly defined data that is required to be extracted from the map. • Scale of the topographical map. • Scanner resolution and settings. • Error detection during digitization. • Minimization and elimination of any data discrepancies during digitization.

Fig. 6c Final - Image

RASTE R I MAG E PR E-PROCESSI NG PHASE Pre processing phase steps are • Getting user input to identify the data layer required to be extracted (in our case it is Contour Elevation). The data identification is to be resolved by colour (since all contours on a given map have a unique colour). It is proposed to employ some kind of THRESHOLDING technique to finally extract the required data. • GRAYSCALING of image to convert it to a BINARY Image or to one with 255 colors on gray scale. • FILTERING of spurious data and noise pixels by segmentation or Hough Transformation techniques. • SKELETONIZATION (Thinning) and EDGE DETECTION of the object boundaries by various std. imaging algorithms

RASTE R TO VECTOR CONVE RSION FROM CONTOU R MAPS The contour Raster to Vector conversion process consists of two phases' 2D con-

algorithm for the Vectorization process is shown in fig 4.

DATA COLLECTION PHASE Geographic Information System (GIS) is a very good information system to support decision making by capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying the spatial data. Depending on the application, spatial data can be represented by a raster format or vector format. Data for GIS is widely available in raster format. Acquisition of raster data is easier

AUG UST 2006

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a very good information system to support decision making by capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying the spatial data. G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

41

In the model developed the automation

Contour lines are the most complex amongst all features found on a topographical sheet or maps. They may be closely spaced (crowded) depending up on the slope of the terrain they represent. tour reconstruction and vectorization

many commercial software packages are

Contour Reconstruction

available to carryout automatic or semi-

The final thinned raster image often

automatic vectorization of maps. Howev-

consists of broken lines. These lines when

er they are not custom made for contour

vectorized and exported to standard CAD

vectorization.

software like AutoCAD cause huge prob-

Developing a robust automatic contour

lems to the GIS user, because they have to

vectorization schemes is the research top-

identify and reconnect all the open

ic that has been in focus. This is evident

(hanging) contour lines. Researches in the

from the volume of active research works

field of GIS have looked at various

carried out in the past 30 years towards

methodologies to resolve this problem.

designing an automatic scheme for tracing contour lines.

V E C TO R I ZATI O N Vectorization is the process of making explicit, information in the raster image, by defining objects within the image using lines, arcs, closed polygons, etc. Vectorization of contours from a scanned topographical map is a complex procedure, requiring identification of features, rigorous image classification strategies and manipulation of spatial data structures like direction of line, boundaries and nodes, polygon vertices chain, etc. the automatic extraction of contour lines from a scanned topographical map and its subsequent vectorization is one of the major research problems in computer cartography and GIS. The industry practice of manual vectorization using CAD software is time consuming and usage of automatic vectorization schemes is desirable. There are

42

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

Contour lines are the most complex amongst all features found on a topographical sheet or maps. They may be closely spaced (crowded) depending up on the slope of the terrain they represent. They may be broken in places where cliffs are represented by vertical lines and they are often overrun by word descriptions as well as some symbols. Hence, in the

problem is treated from a unified point of view, leading to the creation of software that is generic and is capable of extracting contours from arrange of cartographic raster maps..

DATA VALI DATION, E R ROR DETECTION & ITS COR R ECTION Data validation has been done for two scanned colour images as shown in fig 5 and 6 and it can be seen that it is exactly matching with the original map. Fig 5a, Fig. 5b shows the scanned image and the multiple pixel intensity filtered. Fig 6a, 6b and 6c shows the scanned Image characters removed and final image for the second scanned image. CONCLUSION The proposed scheme uses colour space transformation and subsequent thresholding to extract contour pixels. Image enhancement and quantification rules were applied to negate effect of the large variation in the image colour. Once colour pixels were classified, a crop tool was implemented to remove the elevation descriptors (contour height) as these were of the same hue as the contour lines and could not be removed by simple Thresholding. Finally, the binary, thinned image was post processed (for noise filtering) to get a clean thinned, binary colour raster which is converted into vector image

process of conversion of the raster image to vector image, it becomes all the more complex to define set algorithms to extract all these contour lines correctly and without loss of data. An analysis of the contour extraction

Dr.K.Ananthanarayanan Associate Professor Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras [email protected]

issue and performance of commercial raster to vector software reveals that

Dr Koshy Varghese

automated or semi automated systems

Professor Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras

essentially carryout one kind of operation by and follow discrete points along the curve.

[email protected]

AUG UST 2006

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Perspective government officials begin to take action in urban constructions. Currently, GPS/GIS/RS technology is widely used in these areas. Therefore, the effective use of technology is directly related to urban management and specific figures of urban construction. In the governance field, with the rapid development of computer technology and the deepening of GIS appli-

e-Tools in Governance

cations, urban management is utilizing GIS technology to deal with more routine processing of documents, information enquiries and decision support. Urban managers have understood that the basic framework is very important and urgent. Beijing Dongcheng District established a "10,000 meters grid" system, which means every 10,000 square meters is a unit. The city officials integrate mobile communications networks and urban GIS. Currently, the system has been completed and put into use, which offers new solutions for urban management. At the same time, the GIS is playing an important role in humanities, economics and even in emergency management.

Yang Fengchun, Zhou Zhenlin

G

overnance refers to the act, process, or power of governing. Effective governance helps to strengthen the public security and social cohesion, promotes economic prosperity, and even assists to shorten the gap between the poor and the rich.

Effective governance is the most important task for the Chinese government to do, because our state is a developing country with a huge population and confront some problems such as income disparities and the gap between urban and rural areas. In this situation, it is necessary to lay greater emphasis on e-governance in China. E -G OVE R NAN C E BAS E D O N

G IS

Urban informationization is a long-term, comprehensive process. China's Ministry of Construction has announced "The Digital Project of Urban Planning, Construction, Management and Services" (short for Digital City Project) as a major scientific and technological project. Among the 668 large and medium cities, and 30,000 small towns in China, nearly 40 cities have started Digital City Project. "Digital Beijing", "Digital Haidian", "Digital Shenzhen", "Digital Guangzhou" and other terms with various slogans can be seen everywhere. In China, all levels of

44

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

O TH E R TE C H N O LO GY I N G OVE R NAN C E O F C H I NA In addition to these technologies, Chinese government also uses other technological governance, such as Internet, Mobile Networks, City Wireless Networks, and Broadcast Network. In Beijing, Vehicles Positioning System is making use of GPS, while city management and tourism, and other large urban areas are using GIS. Remote sensing is applied in the digital city's model buildings. At the same time, Data transmission is using the Internet, mobile nets, city wireless networks, and even broadcast networks. Particularly, with rapid economic development, urban transportation problems are becoming more and more serious. In order to solve this problem, the government had continued to broaden the road, and increased urban public transportation facilities, which have no obvious effects. Now, Beijing government has started to develop ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems). Now the growing urban traffic conditions has been improved. In China, most cities have started to use mobile networks and RFID technology to take care of street lamps and covers (such as covers of urban sewage pipelines and communications cable channels). In Beijing, the mobile Government Lab has been built, in which experts in Yang Fengchun mobile technology Dean, Associate Professor; Academy of e-Government; have done a lot of Peking University research in [email protected] nance and some related fields. These Zhou Zhenlin research studies Researcher, offer valuable Academy of e-Government; Peking University advices for the government.

AUG UST 2006

e-Governance

Comparing e-Government Vs. e-Governance e-Governance is a broader topic that deals with the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within government regarding the usage and application of ICTs.

William Sheridan, Thomas B. Riley

e

Government and e-governance can be defined as two very distinct terms. e-Governance is a broader topic that deals with the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within government regarding the usage and application of ICTs.

e-Government is actually a narrower discipline dealing with the development of online services to the citizen, more the e on any particular government service - such as e-tax, e-transportation or e-health. e-Governance is a wider concept that defines and assesses the impacts technologies are having on the practice and administration of governments and the relationships between public servants and the wider society, such as dealings with the elected bodies or outside groups such as not for profits organizations, ngos or private sector corporate entities. eGovernance encompasses a series of necessary steps for government agencies to develop and administer to ensure successful implementation of e-government services to

46

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

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the public at large. The differences between these two important constructs are explored further in this essay.

T H E B AS I S O F TH E S E R VI C E e-Government is an institutional approach to jurisdictional political operations. e-Governance is a procedural approach to co-operative administrative relations, i.e. the encompassing of basic and standard procedures within the confines of public administration. It is the latter that acts as the lynchpin that will ensure success of the delivery of e-services. The "E" part of both e-government and e-governance stands for the electronic platform or infrastructure that enables and supports the networking of public policy development and deployment. It is by now widely acknowledged that the original impetus for acquiring and using electronic apparatus in government and governance arose from the earlier successes with the same kind of strategy in commerce. E-Commerce had previously rested on credit and debit card processing for purchases, and on faxing of bulk orders and subsequent invoices in business-to-business transactions. In Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, for example, the emergence of ecommerce by the private sector helped to stimulate and drive the evolution of egovernment within departments and agencies. At the political leadership level it was clear that e-commerce was reflecting the enormous changes taking place in the economies of countries in the developed world. The evolution and growing importance of e-Commerce in the economies of nations stimulated the need for government to move to the Internet to deliver egovernment programs and services at every level of society. This has been an evolution over the past ten years with most developed countries now having extensive e-government programs and

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e-Government is an institutional approach to jurisdictional political operations. e-Governance is a procedural approach to co-operative administrative relations, i.e. the encompassing of basic and standard procedures within the confines of public administration. significant website presences now being

ernment and e-governance. As noted, the

used by hundreds of millions of citizens

success of e-commerce drove govern-

world wide. For example, in Canada the

ments to realize that citizens, now able to

latest statistics indicate that 75.6% of citi-

undertake transactions online, capable of

zens have access to the Internet and the

using email as an important communica-

worldwide web either at home or from an

tions tool that sped up and changed the

outside source such as the work place or

way we communicated with each other.

an educational institution. In Canada,

The evolution of the worldwide web in

52% of Canadians online go to govern-

the early 1990s created expectations that

ment web sites at either the national,

if businesses and the population at large

provincial or local governments. Access

could engage in online commerce and

figures are similar in most developed

share knowledge and information in

countries.

ways never before conceived, then it was

The transformation of the Internet from

incumbent on governments to provide

an academic research network to a pub-

online services. This phenomenon was a

licly

utility

case of governments having to respond

prompted increasing numbers of busi-

to a cultural change in the way people

nesses to create a "web presence". The

dealt with each other and with groups in

initial postings were mostly electronic

society on an international basis. The

advertising brochures and product cata-

high expectations of change resulted, by

logues, with invitations to "order by

the mid-1990's in rapid development of e-

phone". As e-commerce came to the fore

government services.

accessible

information

it became apparent to governments that

In essence, because the public liked e-

customer expectations were moving in

commerce when it worked properly, they

the direction of greater speed and con-

began to want their governments to per-

venience for transactions; so direct order-

form in the same way. In terms of servic-

ing through the Internet was developed

es provided, e-government and

and launched. The only issue, which still

e-governance developed along the

inhibits the public from taking full

same trajectory as had e-commerce pre-

advantage of e-commerce, is the concern

viously. The internal operational aspects

with security of information and funds, a

of e-commerce included rationalizing

challenge which is also reflected in e-gov-

supply chains and business rules. This

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

47

e-commerce is premised on profitable transactions, whereas e-government provides public services, and e-governance facilitates appropriate behavior. So, in each case, the motivation and the mandate will be distinct.

applied for, or renewed on-line. Use of such things as publicly provided recreational facilities can also be booked (reservations) and paid for (user fees) via government Internet websites.

Even

when some kinds of special reports are made available on-line, access to them may still be by subscription or single payment.

Background budgetary docu-

ments, expert studies, or reports from commissions of enquiry may all have charges attached to them, depending on the government's dissemination policy and the costs of preparing the documents. When there is a price attached,

aspect was referred to as "back office"

from electronic governing, and e-govern-

governments have set up e-commerce

requirements in government, and it

ment from e-governance is the purpose

arrangements for credit card payments

focused around rationalized workflow

and functions that such networking sup-

similar to what prevails in the market-

and information sharing.

ports. e-commerce is premised on prof-

place. The exchange of information

The external offerings of e-government

itable transactions, whereas e-govern-

between governments and various seg-

and e-governance started with making

ment provides public services, and e-gov-

ments of the public similarly occurs

policy documents available electronical-

ernance facilitates appropriate behavior.

increasingly by way of electronic forms.

ly. Both "stand-along" studies and on-

So, in each case, the motivation and the

Businesses report many of their financial

going series (newsletters, press releases,

mandate will be distinct.

and functional operations to their gov-

etc.) were posted and could be printed out as hard copies or stored electronically by whoever in the public was accessing them. The second phase of electronic products and services consisted of on-line electronic forms, either to exchange information (census forms, etc.) or to conduct transactions (purchase documents, pay user fees, submit tax returns, etc.). The third phase, now just emerging, involves consultation on issues of concern, and participation in policy making and regulatory administration. The point of the above mini-history is to demonstrate that, in terms of the electronic platform and its operations, there are parallels between electronics for governing and e-commerce, and between e-government and e-governance. The computers, cables, software languages, and communications protocols, are standardized products for any kind of electronic networking, regardless of its information content or organizational context. What differentiates e-commerce

48

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

ernments via the Internet, as part of their

e-G OVE R N M E NT AS B ET TE R P U B L I C S E R VI C E The observation has become widespread amongst government analysts that the public expects more and more in terms of service coverage and customization, while at the same time expecting to pay less and less for such services in terms of unit costs (and the aggregate tax bill). This consideration is behind the decision to put an increasing proportion of government documents on-line - electronic distribution places the cost of paper and printing on the consumer rather than the supplier, and in the case of government documents this accounts for the biggest share of the price of making these documents available. It takes far less time and person-hours to design and post an electronic document than to print and mail out the same information. Electronic forms are also premised on lower costs and more convenience. Many jurisdictions enable driver's licenses to be

regulatory requirements. Data on the kinds, volumes, and revenues of transactions go to the government's statistical repositories, to the finance departments for taxation purposes, and to the particular departments that oversee the kind of business being conducted (automobile production figures go to the department of transport, etc.). Those of the citizenry who are recipients of welfare and social assistance services (whether they be individuals or organizations) frequently use government websites and e-mail to exchange information and file claims. By these means, governments check on eligibility, inform claimants of the terms and conditions of support arrangements, and provide training or instructions on such matters and job searches and income management. The "final frontier" of e-government is the attempt at extending "e-democracy". Voting has been conducted on-line, and will likely be extended once the design of

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the user-interface has been rendered

of jurisdictional "stovepipes" was (and is)

more "user-friendly" and the security of

the problem, but overcoming this prob-

the information has achieved more credi-

lem has not proven easy. Once informa-

bility. Consultation on issues of concern

tion, knowledge, and jurisdiction are

has been widely practiced, but with

shared, the old notion of bureaucratic

mixed results. The difficulty in this case

control and accountability is jeopardized.

is with clarifying the terms of engage-

The only effective response to this chal-

ment. There are three alternate formats

lenge (if the cooperation is to succeed) is

available: (1) "Tell us what you think/feel"

to re-conceptualize the situation as "mul-

merely asks for public input without any

tiple contributions to common processes

promise of either reporting what was

and solutions".

The "final frontier" of e-government is the attempt at extending "e-democracy".

presented, or using the substance of the

Within governments, this e-governance

suggestions; (2) "Share your views" car-

will take such forms as these: shared

ries the promise to at least report back to

databases of constituent particulars will

cooperative arrangements have to be

the public the transcript of what was pro-

assure consistent profiles to be built and

carefully thought out and diplomatically

vided as advice, with or without com-

used so that services can be customized

negotiated. The machinery of govern-

ments as specified in advance; (3) "Let's

and repetitive data requests kept to a

ment does have hidden, long-term impli-

cooperate" involves the specific commit-

minimum (constituents usually hate

cations that may come back to haunt

ment to not only report back, but to actu-

being asked for the same data by each

those who act too precipitously under the

ally use what was presented or explain in

department or branch). Where programs

threat of public displeasure.

convincing terms why it was not used.

or policies involve inputs from a variety

The e-governance solution to the han-

More e-government is still to come. The

of departments or branches, a single

dling of these diverging expectations is,

driving forces behind all of these develop-

point of entry ("one-stop-shopping") can

ironically, both the most effective and the

ments will continue, as will the digitizing

be arranged by creating a joint website

most disquieting to many public officials.

of governments.

that blends all of the requirements from

Transparency is the one policy that

the multiple sources, and presents it to

expanding government networks can

the public as a unified program or policy.

easily support. It can also shift the locus

In most cases, the users do not care where

of contention away from public officials

the inputs come from or what jurisdic-

and onto disputing social factions. If con-

tional coordination was involved in pro-

sultation and participation are made

ducing the services - they just want the

transparent, the diverging values that

results to be convenient, high quality,

cause policy conflicts can be revealed as

and low-cost.

in the public domain rather than in

e-G OVE R NAN C E AS C O O R D I NATE D P R O P R I ET Y The very concept of e-governance faces a dilemma: on the one hand, infractions of both legal requirements and good standards of behavior have prompted many to ask for greater scrutiny and more stringent enforcement; on the other hand, over-controlling through draconian statutes or proliferating regulations, has a chilling effect on management decision-making and organizational innovation. Good governance in general, and egovernance in and between large institutions and governments, is seen as a way to avoid the aforementioned shortcomings and still produce better outcomes. Even the technical platform for some of this coordination has proven to be problematic. Information sharing, knowledge sharing, and jurisdictional cooperation (horizontality), are the means to achieve e-governance. The previous arrangement

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Between levels of government (nation-

machinery of government. But what this

al, provincial, municipal, etc.) the

clearly leads to is the sharing of power

mechanics of cooperation and coordina-

with the public and other jurisdictions, to

tion are even more challenging. From the

reflect growing interdependence. As the

public perception, a problem or issue as

scale, scope, and complexity of situations

they see it may involve policy responsi-

and circumstances increases, this trend in

bilities and fiscal implications from two

e-governance will intensify.

or more jurisdictions.

The planning,

financing, and maintenance or roads, the provision of health or education services, the regulation of land, water, and air use,

William Sheridan Research Fellow, Commonwealth Centre for e-Governance, Canada

are all shared jurisdictions - but the public wants workable answers rather than excuses for persisting problems. However, this desire by the public for efficacious solutions does not alter the fact that

Thomas B. Riley Executive Director, Commonwealth Centre for e-Governance Canada [email protected]

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

49

Planner SEPTEMBER 2006 4 - 8 September

UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand www.fig.net/events/events2006.htm

AUGUST 2006

14 - 18 October

Southwest Users Group Conference 2006 Flagstaff, USA www.swuggis.org

NOVEMBER 2006

18 - 21 September

3 - 11 November

GORS-15th International Symposium & Exhibition on Remote Sensing and Assisting Systems.

GSDI-9: 9th International Conference on GSDI & El Instituto Geográfico Militar, Santiago, Chile

Damascus, Syria.

www.gsdi9.cl

7 - 8 August

www.gors-sy.org.

3D GeoInfo'06

20 - 21 November

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.gdmc.nl/zlatanova/3Dgeoinfo2006

7 - 11 August

19 - 21 September

Arab eGovernment Summit

International Symposium& Exhibition on Geo information

Dubai, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com

Selangor, Malaysia.

Twenty-Sixth Annual ESRI International User Conference

www.isg06.org

GIScience 2006

Joint Workshop on Ubiquitous, Pervasive and Internet Mapping ICA

University of Munster,

University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea

20 - 23 September

San Diego, California, USA www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html

14 - 18 August

23 - 25 November

NRW Germany

www.ubimap.net/workshop2006

The 12th GISnet Conference and Exhibition on GIScience Legend Hotel, Hochiminh, Vietnam www.ditagis.org

www.giscience.org

DECEMBER 2006

25 - 26 September

Gi4DM

5 - 7 December

Goa, India

23 - 27 August

www.commission4.isprs.org

1st Indonesian Geospatial Technology Exhibition Jakarta, Indonesia.

Quebec, Canada

Digital Earth Summit on Sustainability

www.geodiffusion.com

OCTOBER 2006 8 - 9 December

www.geospatial-exh.com

27 - 30 August

Geodiffusion 2006

9 - 13 October

Geo-Informatics Conference

27th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS2006)

Thane, Maharashtra,India www.vpmthane.org

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Auckland Convention Centre, New Zealand

www.acrs2006.ub.mn

www.digitalearth06.org.nz

JANUARY 2007

28 - 29 October 29 August - 1 September

Geoinformatics 2006

22-25 January

Map Asia 2006

LIESMARS,Wuhan University,

Map World Forum

Bangkok, Thailand

Wuhan , China

Hyderabad, India

www.mapasia.org

50

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T : A S I A PA C I F I C

www.lmars.whu.edu.cn/geoinformatics2006

www.mapworldforum.org

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