Smart GEO Expo 2021 takes place at the Coex Hall C3 and C4 in Seoul, South Korea, July 21-23. An online version will also be available.
The Smart GEO Expo aims to promote spatial information industry development and support overseas expansion of domestic companies.
The Smart GEO Expo has become an annual event since 2008, when separate events such as GIS Korea, Cadastral Innovation Expo and Measurement Day were integrated and expanded, owing to the reorganization of government departments related to spatial information.
The expo includes an exhibition where host, organizers and many other geospatial information-related companies and agencies provide showcases. The event also includes the International Meeting for the Advancement of the Geospatial Information Cooperation for expansion of exchange and information sharing with foreign guests.
$50K prize purse for solutions to advance computer vision for time-sensitive mapping
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA have launched a crowdsourcing competition, the “Overhead Geopose Challenge,” which is being implemented by DrivenData and HeroX.
The challenge seeks solutions that make overhead images more useful for time-sensitive applications like security and disaster response. Participants are competing for a prize purse of $50,000. To accept the challenge, visit this website.
The challenge seeks to build computer-vision algorithms that can effectively model the height and pose of ground objects for monocular satellite images taken from oblique angles.
Overhead satellite imagery provides critical time-sensitive information for disaster response, navigation, and security. Most current methods for using aerial images assume that the images are taken from directly overhead.
However, the first images available are often oblique. These camera orientations complicate useful tasks like image alignment and change detection that are needed to ensure that maps are accurate in dynamic environments.
Solvers will transform RGB images taken from a satellite to accurately determine each object’s real-world 3D structure or “geocentric pose.” Geocentric pose is an object’s height above the ground and its orientation with respect to gravity. Calculating geocentric pose helps with detecting and classifying objects and determining accurate object boundaries.
NGA is continuously seeking novel concepts for assured positioning, navigation, and timing, said NGA Research Chief Scientist John Main. “We think the broader innovation community can help us support disaster response operations more effectively by exploring novel ways to understand where things are happening — or even better where things will be happening — during an emergency event. This is NGA Research’s goal and the reason we tap scientific and technical talent and ideas from national labs, universities, and businesses.”
“This is a hard computer vision problem that will benefit from the diverse approaches that a machine learning challenge can bring to bear,” said Greg Lipstein, co-founder and principal of DrivenData. “This is a great opportunity to bring together a fascinating dataset with a passionate community of experts to generate innovative solutions for disaster response and other time-sensitive needs”
“Our global network of problem-solvers is perfectly suited to support the advancement of state-of-the-art methods for using and understanding satellite imagery,” said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. “Having great minds come together for an initiative like this will help us more quickly and more effectively support people in times of need.”
Eligibility to Compete and Win Prizes
The challenge is open to anyone aged 18 or older not affiliated with DrivenData or the challenge sponsor and permitted to compete under the laws of the U.S. and their local jurisdictions.
Finalists will be determined by performance on a private test set of historical measurements, and bonus prizes will also be awarded for qualifying scores that reflect innovative approaches. All prize-winning approaches will be shared under an open-source license for learning and use by the community.
Women make up more than half of NV5 Geospatial’s eGIS business unit, which collects and analyzes data to develop custom applications for government clients.
Women make up more than half of the company’s team. From left are Alexa Ramirez, Nicole Wigston, Danielle Comely and Cherie Jarvis. (Image: NV5 Geospatial)
Even though women make up nearly half of the workforce, they are still highly underrepresented in the science, technology, engineer and math (STEM) field. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that while women have made gains since the 1970s, they still only account for about 27% of STEM workers.
But one company bucking this trend is NV5 Geospatial, which was formed with the 2019 merger of global engineering firm, NV5 Global, and Quantum Spatial Inc., North America’s largest geospatial data firm. Quantum Spatial brought with it a long history of providing innovative remote sensing, acquisitions and analytics solutions that answer some of the toughest questions and deliver unique insights. It has become the go-to provider of geospatial services for a wide range of clients, including major government agencies, the military, utility companies, engineering and construction firms, and corporate organizations. These clients value the organization’s proprietary and ground-breaking approach of using geospatial information to plan, manage resources, mitigate risk and contribute to scientific understanding.
Women make up more than half of NV5 Geospatial’s enterprise GIS (eGIS) business unit, which is responsible for collecting and analyzing data to develop custom applications for key government clients.
In 2020, the company named Cherie Jarvis as director of the eGIS team, which has grown to include three female project managers and four analysts that bring diverse backgrounds – from marine biology and zoology to environmental science to geology – to their work.
“Seeing so many women in GIS is not unusual for me because I think strong women attract other strong women,” Jarvis said. “The women on our team are not only experts in their field, but they are very detail oriented and have the technical, organizational and people skills to adeptly handle all the variables that come with the complex eGIS projects we manage.”
Jarvis, a PMP, Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner, has led several award-winning projects, including a decision support tool to guide environmentally sound dredging of offshore sand shoals for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and a portal to access navigation-related data and tools for sediment and ecosystem management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
Others on the team include:
Alexa Ramirez, senior project manager, PMP, GISP is a 13-year veteran of NV5 and its predecessor companies, where she previously specialized in lidar processing. She transitioned to the GIS team to create the data model for the BOEM Marine Minerals Information System (MMIS).
Danielle Comely, senior project manager, PMP, CSPO is an environmental scientist who recently joined NV5 from NOAA to work on BOEM, USACE and Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) projects.
Ashley Reade, GIS analyst and one of the newest in the eGIS group, moved from the NV5 acquisition team to help manage MMIS and leverage her marine biology background to help assess fish habitat during dredging as part of the USACE South Atlantic Regional Biological Opinion (SARBO).
Liz Rodgers, senior GIS analyst, leveraged her degree in zoology to help build an environmental sensitivity index tool for NOAA and has been supporting work on USACE SARBO.
Emily Sandrowicz, GIS analyst, joined to work on MMIS, but moved to the geoESPIS (Environmental Studies Program Information System) project. She’s now pursuing her Master’s degree in GIS.
Maggie Satterfield, senior GIS analyst, brings a background in forestry to her work on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Cultural Resources Information Management System (NCRIMS).
Nicole Wigston, senior project manager, PMP, CSM, brings a strong geography and technology background having previously worked for ESRI. She manages national data standardization projects for BLM and on projects automating NV5G internal data pipelines.
The accelerator collaboration, the first of its kind sponsored by a U.S. intelligence agency, aims to engage the geospatial ecosystem in the greater St. Louis region and beyond to develop innovations in geospatial technology through collaboration and a transfer of technology and subject matter expertise.
The program is seeking novel geospatial based technology from early-stage companies that serve four core areas:
data management
advanced analytics and modeling
data integrity and security
artificial intelligence
The value proposition is two-fold, said Josh White, NGA futures consultant.
NGA has the opportunity to convey its needs directly to industry, which helps commercial vendors develop technology solutions tailored for the agency.
NGA galvanizes its workforce toward transparency, innovation and modernization.
Great innovation ecosystems are equipped to grow and attract talent, said Dedric Carter, Ph.D., chairman of Missouri Technology Corporation. “The collaboration is helping to fuel such an ecosystem by providing opportunities in the state for around eight promising early-stage geospatial sector companies from across the country,” he said. “Bringing the best potential from near and far is the attractive force that we need to super-charge innovation.”
Companies selected to participate in the program will have access to incentives including a $100,000 non-dilutive grant, mentoring and coaching from subject matter experts from the NGA and Capital Innovators, investor connections and access to the greater Capital Innovators network, participation in a demo day in St. Louis, and more.
“The NGA Accelerator powered by Capital Innovators has been an amazing experience!” said Tyler Carter, COO and founder of InfraLytiks. “We jumped right in to discussing problem/solution fits with NGA during the first week of the accelerator. We have also been working with the Capital Innovators team to improve and develop other areas in our business including our internal operations and sales and marketing.”
Early-stage geospatial technology companies from across the U.S. are invited to participate in the program. Applications will close June 23 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
1Spatial, a company with location master data management (LMDM) software and solutions, has been granted a UK patent for modification and validation of spatial data.
The UK patent protects the use of 1Spatial’s rules engine technology, which is used in products such as 1Integrate and 1Data Gateway, further strengthening the group’s international patent coverage, which includes a U.S. patent for modification and validation of spatial data.
The 1Integrate rules engine solves the issue of managing the quality of data in one or more databases. Ensuring good-data quality, which is also referred to as master data management is an issue for most organizations, especially where databases are large, complex and interconnected with other systems.
Bad data quality reduces the operational efficiency of organizations and prevents effective decision making. The 1Integrate rules engine solves this issue using a rules-based validation process which checks and cleans the data in order to measure, improve and protect the quality of the data and hence improve the operations, decisions and software implementations that depend on it.
“As pioneers in the cleansing of location data, we are delighted to have been granted a UK patent for our rules engine technology, recognizing its power as a tool to ensure good quality data and facilitate trust when sharing data,” said Claire Milverton, CEO of 1Spatial. “Our understanding of the complexity of location data formats and sources, the rules that need to be applied and the issues that arise, has seen our technology be selected to power some of the world’s largest location data implementations.”
Skyward, a Verizon company, has announced its integration with Pix4D, a photogrammetry software suite for drone mapping. The partnership gives customers the ability to turn drone data into 2D maps and 3D models.
Enterprises and drone pilots can now plan flights, receive approval to fly in controlled airspace with LAANC, fly with Skyward’s InFlight ground control station, and process data using Pix4D — all from within the Skyward platform.
“Skyward has been bringing our customers tools to access airspace, plan and fly — now they can produce business-ready data deliverables without leaving Skyward,” said Mariah Scott, Skyward president. “Enterprises in construction, energy and utilities, and the public sector can get even more ROI out of their drone programs when combining Skyward’s drone management platform with Pix4D’s market-leading photogrammetry tools.”
Skyward Mapping & Modeling, powered by Pix4D, enables customers to create, view, measure, and export 2D orthomosaic maps and 3D photogrammetric models right from Skyward’s web app. With the processing power of Pix4D, Skyward customers can get business-ready data sets through a seamless plan, fly, process workflow.
“Enterprises are seeking to scale their drone operations and transform their businesses with better data and faster time to insight. Skyward’s platform, along with the power of Pix4D, delivers a powerful, comprehensive solution,” said Christopher Cressy, Pix4D managing director for North America.
To learn more about Skyward’s mapping and modeling features, join a webinar on June 8 at 2 p.m. ET. Enterprises and commercial operators can try Skyward Mapping & Modeling powered by Pix4D free for 30 days.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee is offering a free online course on GNSS and Applications on the NPTEL platform. The four-week course will provide a basic understanding about digital elevation models (DEMs) and their applications in civil engineering and Earth sciences.
During the course, various DEMs and their sources, generation techniques, derivatives, errors and limitations will be discussed extensively. Surface hydrologic modeling using DEMs, modeling derivatives and their applications will also be discussed.
Intended audience. Under- and post-graduate engineering and post-graduate science students and faculty.
Pre-requisites. Current students of engineering, post-graduate science students and Ph.D. students should have basic knowledge of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing.
Industry support. Geoinformatics companies (such as NIIT, Esri India, Leica Geoinformatics, MapmyIndia, ISRO and more).
The course will be taught by Arun K. Saraf, professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at IIT Roorkee. He teaches courses on remote sensing, digital image processing, GIS, advanced GIS, geomorphology and related topics to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Geological Technology and Applied Geology. He has a Ph.D. in remote sensing from the University of Dundee, United Kingdom.
The course takes place July 26-August 20. Registration is open until August 2 and can be done through the SWAYAM platform.
Geospatial data is key to logistics, including for the huge increase in e-commerce we are experiencing following the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.
The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works. — Jeff Bezos
This past year has been a boon for the e-commerce industry. It increased from 4% of retail sales a decade ago and pushed past 20% in 2020, reaching nearly $800 billion — a 32% jump in 10 years.
Online businesses climbed to all-time highs. A few examples stand out. Amazon’s stock increased in value 83% over the course of last year. That type of growth happens with startups and small-cap companies but is usually unheard of with large blue-chip stocks.
Along with Amazon’s growth last year, FedEx had $69 billion in annual sales. DoorDash, an e-commerce food delivery company, has a market valuation of $45 billion, making it larger than Domino’s Pizza, Texas Roadhouse and Yum! Brands combined; and Yum! Brands owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
The e-commerce global trend in online sales is expected to reach $4.9 trillion in four years based on only 2.14 billion online shoppers. That is less than one-third of the world’s population. There is a lot more room to grow. This past year moved the trend several years forward.
Where are all those goods stored?
Photo: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jasen Moreno-Garcia/U.S. Navy
Each consumer requires an average logistics space of 35 square feet. In the United States alone, there are more than nine billion square feet of warehouse space, and when online sales increase another 10% it will require 3 to 4 billion square feet more of space to keep up with demand.
The increase in freight driven by this trend is captured in the chart below published by the Federal Reserve, with data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The blue line is increasing freight transportation services, while the red line indicates on-hand inventories.
As transportation increases and becomes more reliable — a reflection of the overall health of the logistics supply chain — the amount of on-hand inventory decreases, allowing sellers to free up space and save money, or offer greater variety knowing that stocks can readily be backfilled.
However, when inventories get too low, the system is subject to severe supply shocks, making prices more sensitive to the law of supply and demand. The grey-shaded areas on the chart are economic downturns officially recognized as recessions.
If delivery took six-to-eight weeks these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
21st-century logistics
Goods from global corporations now arrive at each customer’s doorstep. This is 21st-century logistics. Home delivery in two days or less is the expectation. The compression of time in this industry is astounding when compared to “the way things used to be.” The way things are compared to the way things used to be reminds me of hearing my grandparents talk about life before automobiles.
Back in my day, ordering from a catalog required calling the company and speaking to a representative. The call had to be made from a corded landline, and long-distance charges might apply. If ordering a gift for someone in the household, it was difficult to be clandestine with everyone nearby. The other option was to mail in an order form. Either way, delivery took a minimum of six to eight weeks, and sometimes more. If delivery took that long these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
Knowing where to pre-position supplies ahead of anticipated demand is a geospatial problem. Most think of this in terms of sales to customers and deliveries ahead of seasonal demands, but many countries in the world are facing this dilemma right now figuring out the best way to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. That challenge is taking place in your own community and has been a long-standing public health challenge.
Beginning in the mid-2000s, geospatial information systems (GIS) were brought in to help control outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus. In 2014, I took a Penn State geospatial intelligence course. The final exam addressed the geospatial challenges of fighting an epidemic. Theoretically, it was difficult to get the required goods to the right place at the right time. But now, it’s not an exercise, and getting it right is not an option.
If you have received the COVID-19 vaccine, you can appreciate the pharmaceutical industry for developing vaccines in record time. However, getting the vaccines to everyone is a logistics challenge, and GIS is the unsung hero. Logistics is the life blood of empires — it is the game of kings and generals. With it, wars are won and commonwealths prosper; without it, empires crumble to dust.
How Geospatial Data Guides the Goods
Back to the traditional understanding of supply chains from seller to buyer. The needs of the buyer are simple: faster, better, cheaper. For the seller, it is much more complex, and considerations deal heavily with location.
Where is the best place to have a distribution center?
Is it more important to be close to a multi-modal transfer station, or to population centers, or are land prices more important?
What about access to highways?
What are the trade-offs in delivery times being further away from the population?
Is the trade-off worth it for the cost of land and lower taxes?
Geospatial data can answer all of these questions, even going so far as to run “what-if” scenarios.
At the local level, transportation logistics schedules the most efficient routing to deliver more packages along the shortest path. This saves time and fuel, as shown in the image below using Maptitude software. Radiuses can also be calculated based on drive times instead of distances.
Caliper truck routing software can be used for planning deliveries that account for vehicle capacities, time windows, multiple depots and more. (Image: Caliper)
Navigation routing applications are dynamic, and pick-ups are automatically routed to drivers while out on delivery runs. Dynamic routing avoids delays such as accidents and road closures.
This same type of technology is used for emergency services to respond to a call. Ambulances, police and fire trucks all use dynamic routing to get to distress calls as soon as possible.
Global transportation logistics also need to account for international laws and regulations as cargo passes through each country. These regulations can be onerous, but the logistics industry has worked out the legalities to ensure a seamless, uninterrupted flow from ship to train to airplane to truck and to final delivery. It is symbolized by the universal 40-foot international shipping container standardized throughout the world.
At each facility, inventories are tracked. Each item passing through receives a time and location stamp. Estimated delivery times are sent via text message to your mobile device or email. When the item is out for delivery, it is possible to watch it on a map as the delivery truck makes its way towards your location. When the item is delivered to your doorstep, a picture of it is sent to your phone with an alert that the package was delivered.
Only a few days earlier, the manufacturer — perhaps on the other side of the world — placed the item in a box and taped it shut; even though you ordered it in your language, the order received by the manufacturer was in their language. The package started its journey to you at the next scheduled pickup, maybe within an hour of you placing the order. Shortly afterward, your order was on a ship or an airplane. As you went about your usual business, the incredibly efficient system of e-commerce sped your package around the world to deliver it to your doorstep.
Logistics has undergone a revolution built upon the most advanced technological innovations: robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile devices, cloud computing, electronic payment processing, and a vast geospatial framework.
In fact, it is a continuously operating, seamless, geospatial mesh running on a global scale across all time zones that allows the industry to function. Every aspect of the logistics supply chain relies upon GIS in some way, from land, air and sea navigation from global location-based systems down to inside a warehouse for storage and retrieval of merchandise. Modern-day logistics is a geospatial industry connecting goods and services to consumers, putting the GIS in lo-gis-tics.
Image: U.S. DOT
Can GIS predict the future?
Regarding whether GIS can predict a market correction… I’ll not make a prediction, but the Transportation Services Index (TSI) for March is due to be released today, May 12. If it is down from February, it would mean two months of back-to-back decline. April’s numbers won’t come out until June. However, here is an indicator of where things currently stand. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, CA, the largest shipping ports in the United States is five days behind schedule, which is down from over 10 days in January.
The TSI is a leading indicator of the economy. When 20% of sales are online in a consumer-based economy, the wellbeing of the commonwealth is measured one delivery at a time.
“Trade isn’t about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them.” — C. J. Cherr
William Tewelow
William Tewelow works for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is a graduate of the FAA management fellowship program. He served on special assignment to the U.S. Department of Transportation leading a national strategic geospatial initiative for the White House Open Data Partnership. He is a Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and a speaker for the Maryland STEMnet Scholar program.
He was among the first in the nation to earn a Geospatial Specialist Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor while working at NASA Stennis Space Center. He has degrees in Geographic Information Technology, Intelligence Studies, and is completing a masters degree in Organizational Management.
William is a 23 year veteran for the U.S. Navy serving as a Geospatial Specialist, Imagery Intelligence Specialist, a Naval Aviator, a Meteorologist, and a Tactical Oceanographer. He is married, enjoys writing and traveling.
His favorite quote is, “A man’s mind changed by a new idea can never go back to its original dimension.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
Drone company Parrot is partnering with Rapid Imaging, a technology provider delivering geospatial augmented reality (AR) and situational awareness solutions to government and enterprise users.
The partnership pairs Parrot ANAFI USA platform drones and the FreeFly SDK with Rapid Imaging’s SmartCam3D SDK, a geospatial augmented reality and situational awareness platform for unmanned aircraft systems.
SmartCam3D overlays geospatial data such as street vectors, road names, points of interest, polygons and other pertinent map entities onto real-time, full-motion video (FMV) provided by ANAFI USA’s 4K HDR video, 32x zoom and live video streaming capabilities. This provides mission personnel with advanced situational awareness as they perform critical drone operations.
SmartCam3D also allows end-users to interact with live drone video in the same ways they would a map display, such as dropping a pin to mark a location or geocoding a selection from the real-time video stream.
These situational awareness capabilities provide opportunities across a variety of mission sets: airborne law enforcement, insurance, industrial inspections, natural disaster response, real estate and search-and-rescue operations.
The SmartCam3D SDK is a turn-key solution for UAS platform providers seeking to enrich their offerings with geospatial augmented reality and situational awareness tools. Features include geospatial AR, allowing users to enjoy a “Google Maps” type experience but with live drone video as the background layer rather than a satellite image. Granular declutter options allow users to select the types of map entities displayed on their live video feed.
Custom GIS data integration allows users to import their own geospatial data to display. Pin-dropping allows users to mark locations within the live video with AR annotations and communicate those locations to a map display.
Also, forward- and reverse-geocoding allow professional drone pilots to designate a point in the video and immediately receive the geospatial data associated with that point (lat/long or address) or designate a location and mark the location with an AR annotation within the video display.
Finally, cross-Cuing allowing end-users to simultaneously navigate a full-motion-video display and map display.
“Leveraging Parrot ANAFI USA’s precise GPS coordinates and advanced flight features, SmartCam3D® provides first responders and military personnel with up-to-date geospatial AR overlays on live video, combining the benefits of both a 2D map display and a Full-Motion-Video display into a single operating picture.” said Jerome Bouvard, director of Strategic Partnerships, Parrot. “This new partnership will provide easy-to-comprehend data to better assist first responders into making quick and accurate decisions during high-stress missions.”
All data captured through SmartCam3D during sensitive missions is secure, as Parrot drone users must opt-in to share flight data with Parrot’s secure to store footage. Parrot ANAFI USA also features secure digital (SD) card encryption, which ensures complete protection of photos and videos if the drone or the SD card is lost.
The SmartCam3D SDK is available for Android, iOS, Linux, and Windows systems for use with ANAFI and ANAFI USA platform drones.
In recent years, sinkholes have been occurring around the world. A new service offers a sinkhole detection prediction tool using satellite imagery analysis.
Synspective Inc., a satellite data and analytic solution provider, has released a sinkhole detection feature that predicts ground sinking area.
Sinkholes are often caused by human activities (underground tunneling, oil/gas pumping, underground coal drilling, groundwater pumping, etc.). When these sinkholes occur in residential areas, they can cause significant damage to buildings and sometimes even loss of life.
The sinkhole detection function developed by Synspective is a unique prediction algorithm that uses data science and machine learning to combine and detect the characteristics of spatial and temporal variations. With this technology, it is possible to identify areas where sinkholes are likely to occur in advance, areas where cave-ins have occurred, and areas where cave-ins are in progress after they have occurred.
This function will be implemented in Land Displacement Monitoring, a solution service announced in 2020 that analyzes ground deformation over a wide area using satellite data. The input data is automatically updated, and the platform handles the processing and analysis of the complex satellite imagery. Since it can be viewed in a web environment, it can be checked at any time from the office as well as from the field.
This new service’s expected use is multifaceted — it can be applied in many land risk-management projects such as construction projects, airport maintenance projects, and subway development projects, among others.
In addition, remote area/site surveying can be extremely relevant in disaster struck areas where human access is restricted or dangerous, or where social movement is restricted due to the COVID-19 virus impact.
NavVis has launched NavVis IVION Core, a reality capture platform for management of 3D scans with intuitive tools for creation, collaboration and publication. Previously known as NavVis IndoorViewer, NavVis IVION Core makes mobile mapping workflows more efficient, speeds up model creation and delivery, and adds value to data, the company said.
“NavVis IVION Core represents the future of reality capture software,” said Lisa Cali, head of Product Web and Cloud at NavVis. “We want to offer our users a next-generation platform that not only transforms their mobile mapping workflows but also extends them so that they can do more with their spatial data.”
With all the existing features of NavVis IndoorViewer, such as point cloud downloads and virtual measurements, NavVis IVION Core offers a refreshed look and new features and improvements.
Enhancements are expressly designed to support laser scanning service providers, surveyors and AEC companies. These include multi-site functionality, updated user management, and site coordinate systems for survey-grade geo-registration of data.
Multiple sites, one space. The multi-site functionality means users are able to host multiple sites, including several buildings, in one instance. The new home screen displays a map view with markers showing the location of each site. It’s easy to navigate and provides the user with a clear overview of each site or project across the globe, with quick switching between sites from the central dashboard. Each site has a unique website address and user permissions, providing complete control over site usage.
Updated user management system. This improvement gives users more clarity and control over their projects. Admins can grant specific access and permissions for each site and get an overview of the permissions of each user. From an editor to a visitor, accessibility and permissions can now be set easily and viewed clearly from one instance.
Site coordinate system. Users can now enter the latitude and longitude or a custom spatial reference system, allowing for survey-grade geo-registration of data. Selecting a site coordinate system also ensures that data is aligned to the exact location of a site, making it easier and faster to upload and download data.
Aerial imagery company Nearmap is partnering with Geographic Technologies Group (GTG), which helps local government agencies throughout the United States and Canada with geographic information systems (GIS).
GTG offers local governments with GIS services including strategic planning, consulting, comprehensive data services, mapping services, software development, training and on-call support. GTG also provides ongoing GIS maintenance for villages, towns, cities, counties, multi-regional agencies, public works and public utilities, water districts, and Native American and Alaskan Tribes.
“Our range of high-resolution aerial content — from vertical to oblique, 3D and AI [artificial intelligence] — integrates easily with GTG’s applications and acts as a valuable component to the strategic planning services offered by GTG,” said Karl Terrey, director, Global Alliances at Nearmap. “Our imagery is refreshed multiple times per year and, when combined with GTG’s technology, allows cities, towns, counties and state governments to make decisions based on conditions in their communities in near real time, at a fraction of the cost.”
Nearmap’s 3D imagery provides local governments with the ability to quickly export custom areas for use in platforms such as Esri, Bentley Systems and Autodesk. Nearmap AI enables governments to instantly identify attributes about properties required for the appraisal process. Nearmap AI Packs enable users to determine the type of access made visible in MapBrowser for items such as impervious surfaces, vegetation and solar panels at citywide scale.
Nearmap’s library of aerial imagery provides some of the most accurate imagery available with updates occurring up to three times a year throughout more than 430 markets in North America, including 700 urban and regional areas accounting for more than 70 percent of the United States population.
“Our goal has always been to break through boundaries, solve problems, and introduce a new kind of decision support for our clients,” said James Kelt, vice president of corporate software at GTG. “We began using Nearmap’s aerial imagery a few years ago because we recognized it as a way to differentiate ourselves and push the envelope. Our clients love the imagery and the more we worked with Nearmap, the more it made sense to find a way to partner so we could provide this added value to all of our customers.”
Smart GEO Expo 2021 takes place at the Coex Hall C3 and C4 in Seoul, South Korea, July 21-23. An online version will also be available.
