Tag: GIS

OGC announces Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure Project

The Arctic SDI Pilot is sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Natural Resources Canada. The goal is to demonstrate to Arctic stakeholders the diversity, richness and value of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) based on web services and standardized exchange formats in helping address critical issues impacting the Arctic.

Stakeholders include national and pan-Arctic science and monitoring organizations and decision makers engaged in Arctic research, social and economic policy, and environmental management. The organizations participating in the ArcticSDI Pilot will document and publicize best practices that can support a rich network of web-accessible data and service resources for the Arctic.

The pilot has two phases.

Phase 1, an OGC Interoperability Program Concept Development study, began in December 2015. In Phase 1, project planners are building an inventory of currently available Arctic geospatial data layers and web services and defining the Arctic SDI architecture. This work will be supported by partners engaged in industry, research, and numerous jurisdictions. A Request for Information will be published in January 2016 to elicit further ideas, experiences, and projects in industry, research institutions and public administration to make maximal use of the ArcticSDI and to develop it further.

The Arctic SDI Pilot Phase 1 will also provide direct input into OGC’s major Testbed 12 Interoperability Program initiative. USGS has indicated that sponsor funding will be made available for Testbed 12 to test and further develop components identified in the Arctic SDI pilot. Through this collaboration, arctic stakeholders and the Arctic SDI will leverage and benefit from the leading-edge interoperability research, development and outreach that is ongoing in the OGC’s series of major testbeds.

All findings from Phase 1 will serve as input for Phase 2, which will be an OGC Interoperability Program Pilot Project. OGC pilot projects apply and test OGC Standards in operational applications using Standards Based Commercial Off-the-Shelf (SCOTS) products that implement OGC Standards. Pilot projects provide an operational implementation so that users and technology developers can collaborate and learn how to better address their requirements using standards-based architectures.

To articulate the value of interoperability via standards, technology provider participants will implement the recommended Arctic SDI architecture in support of Arctic policy scenarios. A video will be produced to engage policymakers on the benefits of integrating diverse data utilizing Arctic SDI standards and information management best practices.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

January 5, 2016
Updated US Topo maps for Wisconsin add Census Bureau road data

Updated 2015 version of the Madison West US Topo quadrangle with orthoimage turned on. (1:24,000 scale. (1:24,000 scale).

The USGS US Topo map program has entered its third, three-year cycle of revising and updating the digital US Topo maps. To start this new cycle, the USGS National Geospatial Program is excited to announce the inclusion of U.S. Census Bureau’s Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) roads data for the new US Topo maps, starting with the state of Wisconsin.

“The addition of TIGER’s roads layer into the US Topo maps is a great example of how data from one agency can benefit another agency,” said Timothy Trainor, Chief, Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau. “The Census Bureau and the USGS have a long history of collaboration and sharing. This is another win for the American public.”

The TIGER database is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau and was created before the 1990 census to provide over a million unique maps sheets to census enumerators. The TIGER was the basis for the first coast-to-coast digital map to modernize the once-a-decade count. Since 1990, TIGER has evolved into a dynamic mapping system that helped catapult the growth of the geographic information system industry and improve Census Bureau data products.

The TIGER database contains all geographic features — such as roads, railroads, rivers, and legal and statistical geographic boundaries — needed to support the Census Bureau’s data collection and dissemination programs. The TIGER/Line Shapefiles are constantly improving, updated annually, and available for free download.

TIGER’s roads layer includes 6.3 million miles of roads. The original TIGER GIS vector data are available for free download from the TIGER products page. TIGER data are public domain, so using these road data on US Topo removes a previous use restriction from this USGS map product

Other improvements to the new Wisconsin US Topo maps include the addition of the crowdsourced trail data from the International Mountain Bike Association, increased parcel land data (PLSS), and most recently, trail data from the U.S. Forest Service.

Additionally, segments of The Ice Age Trail, one of 11 National Scenic Trails, will continue to be featured on select US Topo maps. The USGS partnered with the National Park Service, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Ice Age Trail Alliance to incorporate the Ice Age Trail onto Wisconsin’s maps. The NPS is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

These new US Topo maps replace the second edition US Topo maps and are available for no-cost file download from The National Map, the USGS Map Locator & Downloader website , and several other USGS applications.

To compare change over time, scans of legacy USGS topo maps, some dating back to the late 1800s, can be downloaded from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.

January 4, 2016
New Esri book teaches principles of map design

A new Esri book guides mapmakers through the process of designing visually pleasing and easily understandable maps.

More emphasis today needs to be placed on map design, especially on the web, according to Esri president Jack Dangermond. “We need to spend more time designing maps and not just producing them,” Dangermond said at a recent geodesign conference.

Cartographer Cynthia A. Brewer’s new edition of Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users, published by Esri, will guide mapmakers through the process of designing visually pleasing and easily understandable maps. “This book helps you develop the graphic skills you need for mapmaking,” said Brewer, a professor and head of the geography department at Pennsylvania State University.

In writing the book, Brewer drew on 30 years of experience teaching and working in map design. The book focuses on the basics of cartography, including layout design; working with basemaps, legends, scales, and projections; selecting colors and type; and customizing symbols. In this second edition, Brewer has added a chapter on publishing and sharing maps and devotes a section to her ColorBrewer application, an online color selection tool that any mapmaker can use. ColorBrewer is now part of the new Esri ArcGIS Pro application.

The large selection of color maps included in the book prove to be very instructional, with examples of poor or mediocre maps being compared to well-designed maps. For example, there are two maps of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, located in the United States and Canada. One map is what Brewer calls “excessively decorated,” with a huge scale bar, illegible typeface, and other elements that distract from the map. The second map, meant to showcase vegetation types, is simple and designed to make the most important information stand out.

Brewer has been a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University for 21 years, teaching introductory cartography and other map design courses. She has written four books, including Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users, which complemented her 2005 edition of Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users.

Brewer also is an affiliate faculty member at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS). She has done consulting work with the National Park Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Health Statistics and Esri. She won the Henry Gannett Award for Exceptional Contributions to Topographic Mapping from the USGS in 2013.

A video about the book is available to watch at esriurl.com/designingbettermaps.

Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users is available in print (ISBN: 9781589484405, 250 pages, $59.99), or as an e-book (ISBN: 9781589484375, 250 pages, $49.99). The book is available at online retailers worldwide, at esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options, or visit esri.com/distributors to contact your local Esri distributor. Interested retailers can contact Esri Press book distributor Ingram Publisher Services.

January 4, 2016
Esri takes top award for Internet of Things innovation

The Smart Energy Catalyst. The project showcased how a smart home, smart electric vehicle and smart energy system can work together in an IoT ecosystem with location as a key interaction point.

Geospatial technology company Esri was honored at the TM Forum Catalyst InFocus event for the company’s contributions to developing solutions for a more connected world. TM Forum, a global industry association for digital business, presented Esri and partners with the Most Innovative Catalyst Award.

“We’re driving toward the ultimate Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem where you can bring different applications together that are going to make our lives safer, more energy efficient, and much better in the future,” said Randy Frantz, telecommunications solutions director at Esri.

Esri’s telecommunications team collaborated with Orange and BearingPoint on the award-winning proof-of-concept project called the Smart Energy Catalyst. The project showcased how a smart home, smart electric vehicle and smart energy system can work together in an IoT ecosystem with location as a key interaction point.

The multiphase project examined the infrastructure necessary to support a smart energy ecosystem. With the latest iteration of the Catalyst, the project team demonstrated how geofencing in homes and cars can work with Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology. When the consumer leaves home or work, mobile devices trigger the GIS to initiate a series of notifications and actions. For example, lights in homes automatically turn off, security systems are enabled, and users are notified that their electric vehicle needs charging.

“Location provides context to the IoT network. It transforms raw sensor data into useful, actionable information,” Frantz said.

TM Forum’s Strategy Committee gave the award to the Smart Energy Catalyst team based on several criteria, including having a compelling and inspiring demonstration; growth potential and business value; and potential for humanitarian or other positive effects on society.

Nearly 200 industry leaders attended the Catalyst InFocus conference, where they explored the organization’s 11 project demonstrations.

TM Forum’s Catalyst program connects diverse companies from across industries, facilitating collaboration and fostering the cocreation of innovative solutions to pressing telecommunications business challenges. Catalysts are member-led projects and demonstrations that both inform and leverage TM Forum best practices and standards including TM Forum Frameworx.

The organization announces Catalyst Awards biannually. Winning teams leverage proven technologies, competencies, and investments. Teams have six months to develop proofs of concept that outline digital solutions.

In addition to his work on the Smart Energy Catalyst, Frantz accepted a position earlier this year as colead of TM Forum’s IoT work stream. The endeavor explores how location, advanced sensor and device data, and powerful industrial and consumer solutions can change social norms and bring business into the modern technology framework.

TM Forum includes more than 900 member organizations and 85,000 individual members.

Photos: Esri

The Esri team at the TM Forum.

January 4, 2016
Aerial mapping of Macchu Pichu: Drone helps preserve archaeological treasure

Two flights were conducted at 120 meters and 100 meters to gather data to help the Peruvian government protect the site from erosion and wear from tourism. (Photo: Trimble)

High up in the Peruvian Andes Mountains lies Machu Picchu, an Incan citadel built in the 15th century, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the fall of 2014, Trimble demonstrated its UX5 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) — along with the Trimble Business Center and Inpho UASMaster processing software — at the famed archaeological site.

Machu Picchu is under the threat of landslides and erosion — plus the site experiences heavy rains known to wash away roads. It has also seen an increase in tourism over the years.

As a consequence, the preservation of the landmark is a growing concern for the Peruvian government. Data captured by a fixed-wing UAS is expected to help the many organizations that govern and preserve the site to visualize and monitor the location.

Getting to Machu Picchu is a challenge in itself. A 3.5-hour train ride from the city of Cusco takes visitors almost 8,000 feet above sea level. When a Trimble team visited the site, access to Machu Picchu was arranged well in advance by its distribution partner Geosystems and the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

Orthophoto of the Macchu Pichu site. (Image: Trimble)

The day of the flight, a small area on one of the terraces was cleared of tourists (but not local llamas) for the flight. Two flights were conducted at 120 meters and 100 meters for enhanced data. Along with Trimble and Geosystems representatives, local archaeologists and surveyors from the Ministry of Culture attended the flight, which went off without any challenges.

With the flight complete, Trimble and Geosystems went to work processing the data immediately in Trimble Business Center and Inpho UASMaster. Trimble Business Center allowed the data to be quickly processed into high-quality point clouds and orthophotos while Inpho UASMaster offers feature-rich photogrammetry workflows.

The following day, Trimble and Geosystems presented government officials with orthophotos and a 3D point cloud model.

December 27, 2015
Esri, Microsoft join on location, spatial services

Esri Inc. is working with Microsoft to integrate location services and spatial analytics to the Microsoft Azure IoT (Internet of Things) Suite.

The collaboration will rapidly enable IoT scenarios by offering customers and partners a set of highly capable platform services as ready-to-use, preconfigured solutions. The forthcoming integrated offering is the next step in Microsoft’s and

Esri’s long-standing alliance to spatially enable the enterprise, Esri said in a press release.

Smart city concepts and innovations in the automotive industry are examples of how data from many sources increases understanding. Governments and businesses use that data to improve safety features, reduce air pollution, and mitigate traffic congestion.

December 22, 2015
Recreating Singapore in 3D

Scope of Project: The 3D mapping project encompasses all of Singapore — more than 700 square kilometers.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is engaged in a 3D mapping initiative to create and maintain a high-resolution survey-accurate 3D national map. Denmark and Switzerland have national 3D maps, and Hong Kong has mapped its central business district.

3D virtual environments support city planning, decision-making and risk management. SLA’s project involves capturing vast amounts of data and creating 2D and 3D datasets in several formats. The project began in April 2014 with airborne data capture and modeling; the modeling of buildings is expected to be completed this month. Mobile data capturing and road modeling is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

The 3D models of buildings and road infrastructure are being created from high-quality images and laser-scanning data. The 3D data is stored in the open information model CityGML, which allows for 3D spatial analysis, simulation and visualization.
The project has employed multiple rapid mapping technologies such as oblique imagery, airborne laser scanning, mobile laser scanning and terrestrial scanning, resulting in more than 500 terabytes of data in multiple formats.

Using Bentley Map software, the project team created, maintained and disseminated 3D information directly from the Oracle Spatial database platflorm. In November, Bentley Systems awarded the 3D mapping project the 2015 Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Government.

Building Level of Detail 2: The Singapore project will model up to LOD2.The five levels of detail (LOD) in CityGML are LoD0 (terrain model), LoD1 (block models with no roof structures), LoD2 (explicit roof structures), LoD3 (detailed architectural models) and LoD4 (interior modeling).

December 22, 2015
Topcon DS-200i connects with Autodesk iPad layout app

Topcon Positioning Group’s DS-200i direct-aiming motorized imaging station is now compatible with the new Autodesk BIM 360 Layout app for the Apple iPad.

The DS-200i is the second total station solution that Autodesk and Topcon have collaborated on for contractors, following the Topcon LN-100 Layout Navigator.

The DS-200i has an electronic distance measurement (EDM) range of up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) without the need of a prism, and 5,000 meters (26,240 feet) with one. The built-in wireless WLAN connects the iPad with the BIM (building information modeling) 360 Layout app.

The collaboration provides contractors the ability to connect a coordinated model to the field layout process, helping to increase job-site productivity while improving the accuracy of staked or installed building components, according to a Topcon news release.

Additionally, the DS-200i offers an excellent reflectorless solution for quality assurance and quality control workflows — verifying items in the field are installed correctly as compared to models.

The DS-200i features real-time video imaging with a 5 MP camera. The controller’s touchscreen video and arrow keys are designed to let remote operators view what is being measured, Topcon said, similar to looking through the telescope.

The Autodesk BIM 360 Layout app is available through the Apple App Store.

December 22, 2015
Smart cities, small imaging satellites anticipated for 2016

Smart cities, hybrid architecture, and flocks of small imaging satellites are among the trends predicted for 2016, according to a blog by Boundless, which develops software for enterprise spatial IT applications.

Earth imaging satellites: “Gone are the days of waiting 7-10 days for a satellite to revisit and collect a new image over a location on Earth. Today, flocks of small, inexpensive satellites are now imaging the entire earth many times each day.” Both DARPA and NASA are planning on launching more imaging satellites. Fortune magazine discusses the trend in a recent article, and a new conference is devoted to them.

Hybrid architecture: “While open source continues to gain momentum, many organizations still leverage their investment in proprietary software and systems,” writes Anthony Calamito. “Building a hybrid platform can help an organization reduce risk and add value by avoiding single vendor lock-in, reducing costs associated with licensing, and promoting interoperability with existing software.”

Other trends outlined by Calamito include streaming data and the Internet of Things, which is leading to “smart cities” — “cities and their governments who have maximized data collection, data mining, and data-driven analytics for the betterment of their constituents,” Calamito writes. “Forbes magazine believes ‘smart city’ is a term we are going to be hearing a lot more of in the coming years as it’s thought that by 2020 we will be spending $400 billion a year building them.”

Read the full blog here.

IBM is working on with the City of Boston on smart city projects too solve long-standing urban challenges. (Credit: IBM)

December 16, 2015
Esri scientist Dawn Wright delivers honors lecture at AGU meeting

Esri chief scientist Dawn Wright gives honors lecture at AGU Fall Meeting.

Dawn Wright, chief scientist at Esri, delivered a named honors lecture at the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Dec. 14–18, at the Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, Calif. The AGU Earth and Space Science Informatics Focus Group designated Wright to represent Esri in delivering the Leptoukh Lecture.

AGU is among the world’s most well-respected Earth science scholarly organizations. Its Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. The Leptoukh Lecture award recognizes achievement in computational sciences, data sciences and informatics that leads to advancements in the domain sciences.

“This is a great honor and opportunity for Esri,” Wright said. “It allows us to describe how Esri’s continuing progress helps advance both data science and Earth science. Given the host of pressing issues facing the planet, such as the impact of climate change on human systems and the natural environment, Esri’s involvement with the scientific community is now more important than ever.”

The Leptoukh Lecture award was named for the late Greg Leptoukh, an Earth scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He was involved in many projects related to data quality and data provenance. The honors lecture’s purpose is to raise awareness of the often-overlooked computational and data advances that enable breakthroughs in domain science. It also fosters exceptional individuals to make continued contributions in informatics and data science.

The Leptoukh Lecture Toward a Digital Resilience (with a Dash of Location Enlightenment) has been selected to be live streamed and recorded as part of the AGU On-Demand program.

The AGU Earth and Space Science Informatics Focus Group addresses an array of research questions and projects. This year’s session topics range from large-scale data management within global cyber infrastructures or virtual observatories, to intelligent systems theory, semantics, and handling of near-real-time data streams, to issues of “dark data,” data transparency, reproducibility and more.

The aim of the lecture is to build, in part, on these themes but to consider more broadly how we might push the boundaries of informatics knowledge more along the lines of use-inspired science — responsive to the needs and perspectives of society while still being fundamental and cutting edge.

December 16, 2015
Fugro awarded airborne lidar bathymetry deal in Canada

Mahon Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, is one of the many sites that Fugro will survey this winter.

Fugro has been awarded new task orders by the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) to conduct airborne lidar bathymetry (ALB) surveys in Eastern and Central Canada, Fugro announced in a news release on Dec. 15. The task orders, which have been issued under a supply arrangement Fugro holds with the CHS, are in support of their nautical charting programs and involve the survey of multiple sites along the coasts of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Central Canada.

Fugro’s ALB systems will be used to acquire hydrographic survey data and seabed imagery in shallow coastal waters, where the acquisition of similar information by traditional vessel-based acoustic methods is inefficient, expensive and unsafe. The data will fill gaps in shallow water and junction with existing deeper water data that have been acquired previously by CHS vessels. All data will be acquired to International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Order 1B, an international standard for conducting hydrographic surveys, and will ultimately be used to update CHS’s nautical charts.

Fugro provides ALB products and services worldwide to public and private sector clients as a rapid and cost-effective solution to nearshore hydrographic survey needs where scale of the project, time constraints and user safety are of primary concern.

December 16, 2015
OGC standard to make environmental data easier for GIS

The membership of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has approved the OGC CF-netCDF 3.0 encoding using GML Coverage Application Schema, an extension to the OGC CF-netCDF 3.0 encoding standard.

The OGC CF-netCDF 3.0 encoding standard has emerged as a widely used and well supported data model and encoding for domains such as atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, meteorology and hydrology. It supports multi-dimensional data representing space and time-varying phenomena.

The new extension to the OGC CF-netCDF standards suite specifies how CF-netCDF datasets are encoded to conform to “OGC Implementation Schema for Coverages.” Coverages are data such as the output of weather and climate forecast models, weather station and ocean buoy observations, balloon soundings, ground-base radar, satellite imagery, digital elevation models and lidar point clouds. This extension specifies how these complex multi-dimensional CF-netCDF data are encoded as OGC coverages for use in GIS or other geospatial systems.

The documents for the OGC netCDF-GMLCOV Standard are available online.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

December 15, 2015