GPS World

Tag: National Spatial Data Infrastructure

  • Bentley Announces Winners of 2015 Be Inspired Awards

    Bentley Systems, a global provider of software solutions for infrastructure, has announced the winners of the 2015 Be Inspired Awards at its Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference. The awards honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world’s infrastructure.

    At a ceremony and gala held Nov. 4 in London, 18 Be Inspired Awards winners and five Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards winners were presented. In addition, Bentley’s Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to J.P. (Peter) Blake, director, Project Delivery Group for Hatch. Blake was recognized for his exceptional vision, numerous career achievements, leadership, and effectiveness as a change agent, having tirelessly advocated throughout his career for improving infrastructure workflows through the better application of advanced technologies. Equally important, he was honored as a great friend and mentor to the infrastructure community at large.

    The Year in Infrastructure Conference is a global gathering of executives in the world of infrastructure design, construction and operations. It features presentations and interactive sessions exploring the intersection of technology and business drivers, and how they are shaping the future of infrastructure delivery and investment returns. The 2015 event was also attended by more than 100 members of the media from publications around the globe who met with Bentley executives on Monday for the company’s annual Media Briefing. The agenda also included presentations by finalists in the Be Inspired Awards program, culminating in the selection of the winning projects.

    This year, 10 independent panels of jurors, comprising distinguished industry experts, selected the 18 Be Inspired Awards winners from 54 project finalists. These finalists had been previously chosen from 360 submissions by organizations in 66 countries.

    Candidates for Bentley’s Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards were selected by the jurors from the top finalist projects as well as other exemplary nominations. This selection was based on the projects’ uniquely innovative and visionary achievements that transcend the narrower focus of the standing Be Inspired Awards categories. The nominees were then reviewed by a panel of Bentley executives, who evaluated them based on the criteria established for each award.

    “This has been a year of major achievements for Bentley Systems that include the introduction of our CONNECT Edition infrastructure engineering software, providing a common environment for comprehensive project delivery,” Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said. “But the achievements that my colleagues and I are most proud of are those of our users. For while our goal at Bentley is advancing infrastructure, we can only accomplish it through the vision, talent, and dedication of the architects, engineers, constructors, and operations professionals who creatively apply our technology in pursuit of effective strategies for achieving new levels of project and/or infrastructure asset performance.

    “Such achievements are exemplified by the extraordinary Be Inspired Award-winning projects we celebrated last night. I heartily congratulate the organizations that were instrumental in the delivery or operations of these truly inspiring projects. Moreover, I applaud all of the project nominees in this year’s awards program for their contributions to improving quality of life around the globe.”

    2015 Be Inspired Award Winners

    2015 Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards

    Advancing Collaborative BIM

    Morphosis Architects – Bill & Melinda Gates Hall – (Ithaca, New York, United States)

    Advancing Comprehensive BIM “Playbooks”

    Hatch Ltd – Keeyask Hydroelectric Generating Station Project – (Nelson River, Manitoba, Canada)

    Advancing Construction Modeling

    Jacobs – NAG Project – (Baytown, Texas, United States)

    Advancing Information Mobility in Operations

    Western Power Distribution – EMU for iPad – (Exeter, United Kingdom)

    Advancing Integrated Projects

    HDR – Union Station to Oak Cliff Streetcar TIGER Design-Build Project – (Dallas, Texas, United States)

    2015 Be Inspired Awards

    Innovation in Asset Performance Management

    SA Water – Predictive and Operational Analytics Tools, Adelaide Metro Water Distribution Network – (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia)

    Innovation in Bridges

    LCW Consult – The Ceira River Bridge – (Coimbra, Coimbra District, Portugal)

    Innovation in Building

    Robin Partington and Partners – One Merchant Square – (London, United Kingdom)

    Innovation in Construction

    Vic’s Crane & Heavy Haul, Inc. – Unit 25 Project – (Rosemount, Minnesota, United States)

    Innovation in Government

    Singapore Land Authority – Mapping Singapore in 3D – (Singapore)

    Innovation in Land Development

    Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd. – Detailed Design of Utility Infrastructure – (Dharampur, Gujarat, India)

    Innovation in Megaprojects

    AECOM – E4 Stockholm Bypass FSK02 Rock Tunnels Design Contract – (Stockholm, Sweden)

    Innovation in Mining

    Tetra Tech Proteus – Kvanefjeld Rare Earth: Uranium Project – (Narsaq, Kujalleq, Greenland)

    Innovation in Offshore

    Keystone Engineering Inc. – Block Island Wind Farm – (Block Island, Rhode Island, United States)

    Innovation in Power Generation

    MWH Global – Tyseley Resource Recovery Centre – (Birmingham, West Midland, United Kingdom)

    Innovation in Process Manufacturing

    Giprotyumenneftegaz – Preliminary Water Removal Unit: North Vankor Field – (Igarka, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia)

    Innovation in Project Delivery

    AECOM – Global Project Collaboration in a Design-build-finance-operate (DBFO) World – (Global)

    Innovation in Rail and Transit

    London Underground Ltd – Bond Street to Baker Street Tunnel Remediation Project – (London, United Kingdom)

    Innovation in Roads

    Grontmij – A6 to Manchester Relief Road – (Stockport, Manchester and Cheshire, United Kingdom)

    Innovation in Structures

    Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates, Ltd. – SkyHouse Apartments – (Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Houston, and Dallas, Texas, United States)

    Innovation in Utilities and Communications

    Pacific Gas and Electric Company – Engineering Contractor Collaboration Solution Using ProjectWise and Bentley Substation – (San Ramon, California, United States)

    Innovation in Water Network Analysis

    Prolagos/Aegea – Water Master Plan for the Região dos Lagos – (Região dos Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

    Innovation in Water Treatment Plants

    Aqua+ – Complex Scheduling and Automatic Water Quality Monitoring of Groundwater – (Khabarovsk, Far East Federal District, Russia)

    Bentley Systems has posted highlights of this year’s winning projects on its website. It will include more detailed descriptions of all nominated projects in the print and digital versions of its 2015 Infrastructure Yearbook, which will be published after the first of the year. To review the past 11 editions of this publication, which together feature more than 2,500 world-class projects recognized in the Be Inspired Awards program since 2004, access Bentley’s Infrastructure Yearbooks.

  • COGO: National Spatial Data Infrastructure Should Be High Priority

    At a news briefing on Monday, former Wyoming Governor James Geringer highlighted the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations’ (COGO) Report Card on the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) released on February 6.

    The NSDI Report Card describes the condition of the nation’s information about roads, water, land, air, bridges, dams, topography, and more. It highlights the poor condition of the nation’s information about our infrastructure at a time when the National Governors Association Chair, Gov. Hickenlooper of Colorado, is calling on states to lead the way in “delivering results” on government promises, COGO said in a statement.

    The report card encourages government agencies to improve the national spatial data infrastructure to better support efficient government operations at all levels. “The goal of the report card evaluation is to bring attention to the need for current and accurate geospatial data for the nation,” Geringer said. Geringer is chair of the panel that drafted the report card for COGO.

    “Governor Hickenlooper’s ‘Delivering Results’ initiative with the National Governors Association is dependent on this information to make state governments work in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible,” Geringer said. “Government agencies at every level are dependent on this data, as are private-sector businesses.”

    The report card is the first of a series of periodic report cards by COGO. “We did not include cost estimates for completing the NSDI or bringing it to a specified level,” Geringer said. “We need state and federal government to make improvement of the NSDI a high priority so the nation can make significant, rapid progress on jobs, education, economic growth, public safety, energy, natural resource management, health care, agriculture, transportation and other areas. This information will also allow us to track and manage our progress in all these areas, reducing duplication and ensuring sustainability of our efforts over time.”

    “On a daily basis, most people encounter and understand the need for maintenance of the nation’s roads, bridges, dams, power lines, pipelines, telecommunications network, and all the rest of our physical infrastructure,” COGO said in a statement. “The local, state and federal government agencies along with private companies that maintain the infrastructure must know where maintenance is needed, when it’s needed, and what needs to be done to plan it out in the most cost effective manner. There are millions of miles of roads, pipelines, and the like to maintain. That means a lot of information is needed and that information must be accurate and up-to-date.”

    In addition to maintenance, COGO said accurate and up-to-date information about the nation’s infrastructure is essential for:

    • getting ambulances to emergencies faster and evacuating people in the path of natural disasters.
    • monitoring and treating public health and environmental issues.
    • responding to the need for jobs, health care, foster homes, and other social services.
    • planning the location of schools, shelters, retail stores, and promoting economic growth.
    • managing traffic flow, and expansion of mass transit and utilities.

    COGO member organizations represent 170,000 professionals who develop and use spatial information about the nation’s physical infrastructure. Member Organizations include: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), Association of American Geographers (AAG), Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS), Geographic and Land Information Society (GLIS), Geographic Information Systems Certification Institute (GISCI), International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS), National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), and Urban Regional Information Systems Association (URISA).

     

  • National Spatial Data Infrastructure Gets a C- Grade

    The Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) has released its Report Card on the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), and given the NSDI a C- grade. The NSDI aims to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic community.

    “Federal agencies have worked for many years to improve their geospatial programs, but the COGO member organizations believe that the national data sets and delivery systems (the NSDI) generally need improvement,” said Michael Vanhook, COGO chairman. “It is time for the federal government to more effectively engage the entire stakeholder community to ensure that America has the highest quality geospatial infrastructure. Doing so will allow us to more efficiently and effectively deal with society’s needs, and to reduce duplication of effort.”

    The Executive Summary of the report calls out the need for greater data sharing between government and the private sector.

    “The federal government jump-started many of the innovations and collaborations that create the current geospatial environment. However, as noted in the 2009 National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) report ‘The Changing Geospatial Landscape,’ the federal government is no longer the dominant data producer. Federal providers of geographic information cannot continue to think of themselves as players separate from the community of private sector, state, local, tribal, and other stakeholders…

    “The relative shifts in data production from the federal government to the private sector and state and local government call for new forms of partnership. Furthermore, the hodgepodge of existing data sharing agreements are stifling productivity and are a serious impediment to use even in times of emergency. There is an urgent need to reexamine the relationships between data providers and users to establish a fair and equitable geospatial data marketplace that serves the full range of applications.”

     GIS-reportcard

    According to the Executive Summary, “The Expert Panel concludes that the Framework requires attention, and that several actions need to take place.

    • The concept of the Framework needs to be reaffirmed.
    • A new model for Framework data needs to be adopted, and this new model must acknowledge the importance of local partners.
    • The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) needs to emphasize that the Framework is part of its Strategic Plan, and that it will work in collaboration with non-federal and non-governmental partners to build an effective NSDI Framework.”

    As stated in the report’s foreword, COGO “recognizes the individual contributions of all federal, state, regional, tribal, and local government agencies that have worked in concert with the private and academic sectors to develop the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) as it exists today. This work has spanned entire careers, and COGO applauds the sincerity of their efforts and the value of their contributions.”

    COGO represents 170,000 individual geospatial practitioners. “Together, the coalition is delivering this assessment to help Congress, the administration, federal agency executives, and others understand the importance of geospatial data to the nation, as well as shortcomings of the NSDI,” COGO said in a statement.