Communities in need of resources can access location intelligence technology at no cost with six-month trial
Location intelligence company Esri is making its software available to public and private sector organizations fighting the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The COVID-19 outbreak has escalated rapidly across the globe, and with municipalities struggling to respond, Esri has built out resources to help organizations understand the potential impact of the disease on public health, as well as potential community risk areas and their capacity to respond.
A COVID-19 GIS Hub site provides much of this essential data, including case locations and social vulnerability, that communities and health organizations can use to inform their response.
To help public health agencies and other organizations jump-start their response, Esri is providing the ArcGIS Hub Coronavirus Response template at no cost through a complimentary six-month ArcGIS Online subscription with ArcGIS Hub. The template includes examples, materials, and configurations to rapidly deploy a local ArcGIS Hub environment. ArcGIS Hub is a framework to build a website to visualize and analyze the crisis in the context of an organization’s or community’s population and assets.
“Esri has always prioritized assisting communities during large-scale emergencies and natural disasters,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. “For the past 25 years, our Disaster Response Program provides data, software, configurable applications, and technical support for emergency operations. We consider it part of our mission to provide these services free of cost during this time of national crisis.”
For more information on the complimentary software and the disaster relief support, visit esri.com/disaster.
TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS Desktop and Server 7.7.0 is now available, according to the company. It supports ArcGIS versions 10.4 to 10.7.1.
TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS is an extension to Esri ArcGIS that allows users to produce and consume GeoPDF documents with ArcMap. TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS gives you unmatched capabilities for configuring and optimizing the PDF documents you create with ArcGIS, TerraGo said. In addition, the GeoPDF documents made with TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS can be used with the TerraGo Toolbar. They also can be extended to Adobe Acrobat Reader to provide a host of GIS-lite capabilities. These capabilities include an Identify Tool, simultaneous display of multiple geographic coordinates, measurement and geospatial markup.
Other release updates include support for ArcMAP 10.7.1, the addition of Publisher for Server Toolbox and expansive naming capabilities.
Version 7.7.0 also includes a page insert feature, as well as support for Network Common Data Form data formats. It adds Python tools for creating and working with TerraGo GeoPDFs and now handles non-Roman characters in GeoPackage table names rather than replacing the characters with underscores.
Streaming 3D geospatial technology company Cesium will support the Smithsonian Institution by streaming 3D models of massive objects in its collection, such as the Space Shuttle Discovery. The models will be streamed over the internet in high resolution for the first time.
The collaboration is part of the Smithsonian’s Open Access Initiative. Through the initiative, the Smithsonian will release about 2.8 million 2D and 3D images, public collections metadata, and institutional research data sets as Creative Commons (CCo) for any purpose, such as education, research, commercial endeavors, creative reuse, computational analysis, and innovative explorations.
“The Smithsonian Open Access Initiative aligns perfectly with Cesium’s vision to make the world’s collection of data more useful and accessible,” said Cesium CEO Patrick Cozzi. “We are proud that our technology will give researchers, educators, and the public the ability to study 3D models in the Smithsonian’s collection in the highest resolution detail from anywhere in the world.”
Cesium Stories enable 3D storytelling
Cesium Stories enable creation and sharing of 3D geospatial presentations on the web, without requiring any writing of code. An intuitive interface enables story creation using Cesium’s 3D world terrain basemap, the user’s own 3D data, or a combination of multiple datasets, fused into interactive scenes. Learn more here.
Making massive high-resolution 3D models shareable begins at the intersection of Cesium’s core competencies of computer graphics, 3D data and open standards. With Cesium, glTF models are converted to 3D Tiles, an open specification developed by the company and adopted by the Open Geospatial Consortium (“OGC”) to make sharing massive amounts of 3D data as simple as sending a link.
Cesium develops, supports, and promotes open standards with organizations like the OGC and The Khronos Group to advance technology, encourage collaboration and fuel cross-disciplinary innovation.
The Space Shuttle Discovery — on display at the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia — is one of the largest objects in the Smithsonian’s collection. It is more than 122 feet long and weighs more than 4.5 million pounds.
Now, a shareable, high-resolution 3D rendering will enable anyone to rotate, zoom in, and study its details from anywhere in the world.
Men wearing white bio-suits entered the market from the main entrance. A panic ensued at the sight, and a commotion quickly spread through the crowd.
Shop keepers, sensing the worst, hurriedly gathered their belongings. People rushed towards the exits. More armed soldiers in white bio-suits pressed in, sealing off escape. Screams and weeping filled the market with the din of anxiety and fear. The Huanan Seafood Market was under lock down. The order was not to hurt anyone, but no one was to leave. The quarantine had begun.
Empty semi-trucks lined the main road. The trucks entered the parking lot one by one, and masked soldiers guided people into the backs of the empty trucks. Once filled, the trucks drove away until the market was empty. The people were transported to “isolation centers” several hundred kilometers outside the city.
Image: Duncan A Smith, CASA UCL. Data from Global Human Settlement Layer, https://ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php
In Wuhan, the situation had deteriorated rapidly. A month earlier videos went viral about a mysterious flu with pneumonia-like symptoms. Most of the information was coming from citizen journalists. People speculated the Huanan Seafood Market was the source of the illness, but no official statements had been made.
Anxiety spread. People began fleeing Wuhan ahead of the Chinese New Year, which is the world’s largest annual human migration. Making matters worse, Wuhan is a major transportation hub in Central China, servicing 400,000 commuters per day through the Hankou Railway Station, a short, 15-minute walk to the Huanan Seafood Market.
Alerting the world
On Dec. 31, 2019, China notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of the infection. The cause was a new strain of coronavirus along the same viral spectrum as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The next morning, on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020, the WHO declared the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) a public health emergency. It was also that morning that the seafood market was shutdown.
Above: One of the first and only videos coming out of China that covers the outbreak. Copyright: DW News, posted 23-JAN-2020
Twenty-three days after China notified the WHO, the city of Wuhan and the entire province of Hubei were quarantined and cut off from the rest of the world — an area comprising 57 million people, unprecedented in the history of public health.
Still, even with such extraordinary measures, it was already too late. The people moved faster than the system could adjust. Five million people, almost half the residents of Wuhan, had already evacuated. Many traveled to other parts of China to stay with family while others left China altogether, some finding themselves in countries they were banned from entering.
Containment and quarantine
China is now dealing with a containment issue at some level in every one of its provinces. In total, 174 million people in China are under some level of travel restriction. By comparison, that is equal to more than half the population of the United States.
China immediately began leaning on its massive surveillance network and facial recognition technologies to control the outbreak. Using these technologies, Chinese authorities could narrow the search for those most likely to carry the virus. The situation transitioned from a medical emergency to a national security emergency on Tuesday, Feb. 11, when China fired its two highest ranking medical officials in Hubei province, replacing them with a senior Chinese government party official.
Additionally, China continues working with the three cellular phone carriers in the country to gain access to users’ location data. This information will enable China to conduct geospatial analysis at an individual scale to identify those who have come into contact with infected areas. This practice is very controversial, placing privacy and human rights in conflict with public health security.
Roots of GIS in epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of people, place and disease, perfectly suited for geospatial technologies. Not surprisingly then, the true origins of geographic information systems (GIS) are founded in epidemiology, harkening back to John Snow’s Cholera map in 1854. The location of infected people clearly pointed to the Broad Street water pump as the cause. That changed the scientific understanding of the time from believing cholera was transmitted in the air to realizing it was a waterborne disease.
John Snow’s 1854 map of the London Broad Street Cholera outbreak. (Image: public domain)
Similarly, the scientific consensus of COVID-19 has also changed since it first emerged. When the outbreak began, it was believed to be zoonotic, meaning the virus originated from animals and transmitted to humans. It was then believed the virus could only be transmitted directly from person to person. Now, it is known to be carried through the air or by touching infected surfaces.
Each of these modes changes the transmission rate of the disease. This is known as the reproduction number, written as R0 and referred to as the R-naught number. The larger the R-naught, the more infectious the disease. COVID-19 is estimated to have an R-naught between 1.4 and 6.6, which is similar to its cousin the SARS virus; however, SARS only infected 8,096 people and this virus is already more than 10 times that amount.
In terms of GIS, the higher the R0, the greater the geographic area potentially infected. Narrowing the area to concentrate resources more efficiently requires improved modeling and collecting more data, both of which increase the time required before effective measures can be taken. This creates a dilemma between acting swiftly and acting accurately. This explains some of the images coming out of China showing people forcibly removed from their homes and placed in quarantine.
Image: John Hopkins CSSE, https://systems.jhu.edu/research/public-health/ncov/
Controlling the spread of the virus also requires knowing the source of each outbreak. The originating source, called the reservoir, once discovered can be cordoned off. Afterwards, through a process called “contact tracing,” all potentially infected people are tracked down and monitored or quarantined if necessary.
Probability models based on geospatial analysis use factors such as age, sex, pre-existing health conditions and distance from the reservoir overlaid with data such as population density to create an intensity map showing the areas most favorable to the spread of infection. People in the defined areas can be isolated and monitored, preempting further spread.
Click to enlarge. (Maps: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) requires data be aggregated at the zip code or county level, which is useful in defining regional trends, such as the CDC maps above of heart disease (red) and the areas of least physical activity (teal). Comparing the two visualizes the premise that exercise and good health go together. However, at this scale the information is not useful in fighting a dynamic and evolving situation like an infectious outbreak.
Ultimately, the goal is real-time feedback at a high-scale resolution. Smartphones and other mobile devices offer unique opportunities to combat epidemics. South Korea is using location information to help contain the outbreak. People use a special number to text where they have traveled. This is to assist in contact tracing if necessary.
Mobile devices can also report location data along with vital signs to monitor overall health and instantly identify individuals who may be a risk. The mobile device can also alert individuals if they are nearing an infected area and show the infected zones on their phones.
COVID-19 reporting via GIS
Systems can be established to report live events like Waze does for reporting traffic hazards, which have proven to report accidents faster than 911 calls. Also, the use of social media live feeds can help identify evolving situations and monitor existing ones.
Perhaps the government, working with mobile application mapping companies, should create a layer specifically for the epidemic that provides critical information, such as healthcare centers, some of which might be established specifically for the care of the disease outbreak.
Also, included in that public health layer would be high-risk areas, prohibited entry locations, areas under quarantine, and more, in order to provide an integrated interface to communicate with the general public. This is similar to how the departments of transportation, public works, and emergency response units provide information to the public to reroute traffic around congestion, accidents or closed-off areas.
Image: Coronavirus story map by Maria Laturnas, University of Potomac
A former U.S. Navy healthcare executive, Ben Boccuzzi, Ph.D., shared his thoughts on the matter with me. “The actual mortality rate of COVID-19 (in the U.S.) is hard to determine until mass testing can be done,” Boccuzzi said. “As of now, the true denominator (all people that would test positive for the virus) we only know of symptomatically and those that died from the disease. So, with these small numbers, the real mortality rate is not fully known. When testing begins on a grander scale, and more people are known to have the virus and do well, the actual rate of mortality will become much smaller.”
It is now more than two full months since the WHO declared a public health emergency. The number of known cases worldwide stands at 105,941 with 3,569 deaths affecting 100 countries.
Image: Coronavirus story map by Gangesh Khadka, University of Potomac
If you have read this far, thank you. I would like to leave you with the most important information in this article.
When I began covering this story it was early January, the virus was just beginning to make the news. Fear was in the air. I began to worry. As I immersed myself deeper into the topic, I became even more concerned; so much so, I bought two months of supplies preparing for a long-term self-quarantine situation.
If you’ve been watching the news, you may be nearing the same state of mind I found myself in. If so, I’ve got good news for you.
Paradoxically, people are attracted to fear. Fear is a potent biochemical rush. The horror movie industry rakes in $11.7 billion per year. Most media’s primary business is not information. It is using information to increase its readers and viewers, and fear captures people and holds their attention. The media is a profit-driven business. Facts tell. Fear sells.
The following is what is reported by the WHO based on 55,924 laboratory-confirmed cases since the coronavirus began. The study was published on Feb. 28. At that time, there were 86,992 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,979 deaths, equating to a mortality rate of 3.4%, but those numbers were mostly in China, specifically Hubei province. Outside of China, the number of cases were only 7,166 with 109 deaths having a fatality rate of 1.5%.
Image: Coronavirus story map by Zaid Alshaboul & Kush Shah, University of Potomac
These numbers do not reflect the whole story. If you are below age 50 and in good health, recovery is 99.1%, so there is almost no reason to be concerned. For those older than age 50 the mortality rate is 1.3%, and over age 60 it increases to 3.6%. For those over age 70 it doubles to 8.0%. The most vulnerable populations are those over age 80 with a mortality rate of 14.8%.
Additionally, those with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or respiratory disease are also at high risk. If you fall into either of those categories, take great care with your hygiene and personal protection. However, if you are below 60 and in moderately good health, there is less than a 1.3% reason to be concerned and more than 98.7% reason not to be concerned.
Unless something significant changes, the virus is a reason for caution, but should not be a cause for panic. The fearmongering has gotten out of control. We may or may not get COVID-19, but for those of us who do, most of us will only experience muscle aches, fever and a dry cough, about the same as catching a bad cold.
Ironically, be grateful in times like these. They give us reasons to take pause, love our family, appreciate what we have, realize life is worth living, and get our house in order. The truth is not the story we are being sold.
TerraGo unveiled Publisher for Raster, an application for publishing geospatial raster maps and imagery as GeoPDF documents for use with TerraGo Toolbar.
According to TerraGo, information otherwise locked away in arcane geospatial raster formats can be made available to a much wider audience as GeoPDF documents that can be measured, analyzed and annotated with TerraGo Toolbar.
The new release, version 7.1.0, features an improved output naming scheme when processing CADRG and other RPF formats with multiple images. It also reports the same application version number for the online help, processing data using the command prompt, using version, user interface and the installer. Finally, it now pulls the WKT from the GCP tag when the WKT is not listed in the standard
tag.
Version 7.0.4 adds support for Windows Server 2016 and Server 2019. It also addresses installation and license activation issues seen on some systems, TerraGo said.
Users can now install and test Touch GIS, a mobile field data mapping app, for as long as needed with a free license tier. Previously, users were able to install the app and sign up for a 14-day free trial period.
“We realized some users needed more time to evaluate the many features of Touch GIS,” said Joe Wilson, head of product for Touch GIS.
Touch GIS, a mobile app available on iPhones and iPads, can be used for geologic exploration, utility mapping, farming, real estate, search & rescue and other applications.
Touch GIS features point, line and polygon drawing features; an offline workflow; WMS/WMTS support; customizable attribute forms; custom feature class creation; SHP, KML, KMZ, GeoJSON, GPX support; and more.
“We’re really excited to be able to offer this new tier,” Wilson added. “We love working with our users to support their needs in the field. The free tier will allow us to do this better. We also hope this will encourage new users to jump in and really kick the tires. We’re proud of what we’ve built and are excited for more people from a variety of industries to discover the apps capabilities.”
Users who wish to unlock offline map caching and exporting capabilities can purchase an annual or monthly license, the company said. In addition, discounts are available for educational institutions, qualified non-profits and credentialed U.S. federal government employees.
SimActive Inc., a developer of photogrammetry software, released an enhanced workflow in Correlator3D to accelerate stockpile measurement. The new capability allows users to automatically assess multiple volumes within the same project and output comprehensive reports.
If the same area is regularly flown, the new workflow also allows easy comparison of volumetric values to assess differences in time. In addition, change detection can be performed to precisely quantity variations in topography.
“Facilitating volume calculation reduces the associated costs for our clients,” said Louis Simard, CTO at SimActive. “Our new workflow is thus a definite advantage for users in multiple industries, including mining, forestry and construction.”
This image shows the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation Lidar (GEDI) being assembled NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. (Photo: NASA)
Under a contract with the University of Maryland, Ecometrica, a sustainability and space data company, will be helping disseminate data from NASA’s latest “Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation” (GEDI) lidar instrument.
According to Ecometrica, the Ecometrica Platform will make processed maps more widely available to end users and reduce the need for additional processing of highly technical remote sensing lidar data.
GEDI is led by the University of Maryland, in collaboration with NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, and deploys a multibeam lidar instrument onboard the International Space Station to measure the forest vertical structure and biomass. Carried from Earth to the International Space Station atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it is already providing valuable raw data, which will be crucial in better understanding climate change and the Earth’s ecosystems, Ecometrica said.
“The value of downstream satellite data in managing climate and environmental risks is significant and it is important that this is available and easily accessible to users all over the world,” said Richard Tipper, executive chairman at Ecometrica. “Projects such as Forests 2020, the global forest monitoring initiative that is part of the U.K. Space Agency’s international program, and managed by Ecometrica, are already proving very successful in using data from space to protect ecosystems on Earth. Importantly, this has also helped create an international skills-base and infrastructure across tropical forest countries, which can now benefit from the results of the very latest Earth observation instruments from NASA.”
The lidar instrument is operated by the university, which is working with Ecometrica to make data available globally in a format that is easy to use for environmental monitoring and protection purposes. According to Ecometrica, its platform will display key findings on rapidly updating maps, allowing conservation organizations and government agencies around the world to tap into the findings and use the real-time data to monitor forest canopies and cover.
The partnership is set to continue as part of the latest three-year contract.
This image of Wales is color-coded to show the relative height of the land. (Image: Bluesky)
Aerial mapping company Bluesky International has been awarded a contract by Natural Resources Wales, on behalf of Welsh Government, to capture a high-resolution laser mapped aerial survey of the whole of Wales.
Working alongside Natural Resources Wales and the Welsh government, Bluesky will capture the data at a resolution of 2 points per metre before processing and delivering lidar data for more than 20,000 square kilometers of rural and urban landscapes.
The Bluesky lidar data will be employed in a range of policy areas including flood modeling, forestry management, coastline monitoring, urban planning and archaeological conservation.
In addition to use internally by Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales, the lidar data will also be made publicly available in due course, via Welsh Government’s Lle Geo-Portal website and Bluesky’s Mapshop.
“Historically, lidar data has been acquired over Wales at various points in time from the 1990s onwards,” said Paul Isaac, project manager at Natural Resources Wales. “However, since these datasets have been collected for different reasons a patchwork of data exists that is inconsistent in terms of capture technology, coverage and resolution. Also, many of the high-altitude, mountainous areas have not been captured at all resulting in key habitats and ecosystems remaining unmapped.”
“This pattern of largely uncoordinated acquisitions would likely have continued with different programmes and projects funded from various sources,” he added. “Therefore, rather than different public sector bodies securing data individually — leading to inefficiencies and discrepancies — Welsh Government proposed to capture one consistent dataset to cover the whole country. A further key driver for the projects is the wider economic benefit as organizations and individuals will no longer have to fund separate data capture.”
Bluesky was awarded the National Lidar for Wales contract following a formal tender process with responses evaluated on technical ability as well as price. All tenders were required to provide a detailed methodology of how they would complete the project to the published specification.
“Bluesky was able to provide evidence that they could provide the required services at a competitive price,” Isaac said. “Bluesky also showed they had extensive experience in this field having successfully delivered a number of related projects.”
“We are delighted to be working with Natural Resources Wales on this nationally significant project,” said Rachel Tidmarsh, managing director of Bluesky International. “As a team, we have great experience delivering large scale projects of this nature to the required specification and timescales.”
GIS company GeoComm is partnering with Atos Public Safety LLC on its contract with the State of California to transform the state’s 9-1-1 system.
The upgrade will turn the state’s system to a broadband communication platform. The upgrade will give California — a state with a population of 40 million, more than many countries — the ability to intelligently route, manage and deliver a broad array of real-time information to 9-1-1, including text messages.
The change also allows for an exchange of information within the 9-1-1 centers to reduce response time, enhance situational awareness and increase first responder safety.
GeoComm, in partnership with Atos, will serve as the State of California’s statewide Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) GIS data services provider.
Reliable and up-to-date GIS data is critical in NG9-1-1 to ensure accurate routing of 9-1-1 calls in an Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet). GeoComm’s public-safety GIS solution will power the underlying GIS data quality delivered through the Atos NG9-1-1 IP network and the regional networks as the authoritative NG9-1-1 GIS data for the state.
In August 2019, Atos was awarded a five-year, $198 USD million contract with the State of California to transform the state’s 9-1-1 system to leading-edge broadband communication platforms that advance emergency services for the public, 9-1-1 professionals and first responders.
“Access to a secure, reliable NG9-1-1 IP network will have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of communications between emergency callers and first responder resources within communities,” said Phil Rotheram, Atos. “Atos Public Safety has been entrusted to migrate some of the world’s most mission-critical environments and we are happy to partner with GeoComm in the State of California for the critical statewide GIS element,”
“GeoComm continues to be recognized throughout the country as the leader in NG9-1-1 GIS solutions and services,” said Erik Loberg, GeoComm vice president of product management. “We are honored to be working with Atos Public Safety LLC and the State of California for this exciting NG9-1-1 transformation project as the state migrates its 9-1-1 network, advancing emergency services for the public, 9-1-1 professionals, and first responders.”
The first two Airbus-built Pléiades Neo imaging satellites have started comprehensive environmental testing to ensure they are ready for in-orbit operation, according to Airbus.
During the tests, the satellites are subjected to extreme temperatures and vacuum, vibration and acoustic noise, as well as electromagnetic interference. This will ensure they can withstand the harsh conditions they will experience during launch and their mission in orbit.
These first two new generation very high-resolution satellites are on schedule for launch in mid-2020. They will join the Airbus constellation of optical and radar satellites, improving both the revisit and resolution capacities.
Entirely funded, manufactured, owned and operated by Airbus, Pléiades Neo will provide institutional and commercial customers with high-level insights for the next 12 years. Each satellite will be adding half a million km² per day at 30-cm resolution to Airbus’ offering.
The images will be streamed into the OneAtlas online platform, thanks to an innovative cloud-based ground segment architecture, allowing customers to have immediate access to freshly acquired and archived data as well as analytics.
New product enables collection, correction and confirmation of spatial data in the field
The new Location Mobile App Platform (LMAP) by 1Spatial enables easy and flexible spatial data collection in the field. Leveraging existing expertise in data management and data quality into a mobile app platform delivers an easy to use user interface, flexibility in integration and in-built validation based upon business rules.
LMAP can be configured to provide a solution to any number of spatial data challenges facing businesses and has been made available to offer complete integration and configuration flexibility to customers. Utilities, for instance, have geographically dispersed assets and the need for quality-driven spatial data editing via a field-based workforce.
LMAP helps guide users to capture the right data at the right time and, crucially, make sure that the data is right first time.
“We have a host of great customers and always strive to create solutions that make all parts of data collection easier,” said Sarah Gadd, product manager at 1Spatial. “We know that our clients love the reliability and power of our patented rules engine and want to bring that to the field. Simple and powerful apps tailored to our customers’ needs is our next big step in delivering spatial data quality to every stage of the data journey.”
For more information and for a demo of LMAP, join 1Spatial for a free webinar on March 10 at 2 p.m. GMT. Register here.
Location intelligence company Esri is making its software available to public and private sector organizations fighting the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
