Proteus FZC, a provider of satellite-derived mapping and classification services, will discuss its use of high-resolution WorldView-2 imagery to derive accurate forest inventory and tree classification maps in Abu Dhabi during a free webinar with DigitalGlobe.
“Vegetation Analysis in the Desert Using Satellite Imagery,” part of the ongoing DigitalGlobe LEAD Webinar Series, will be held September 24 at 12:30 p.m. BST (7:30 a.m. U.S. EDT). Register by clicking here.
The webinar is aimed at managers and technical analysts from forestry, agriculture, remote sensing and GIS organizations in private and public sectors. The webinar will cover:
How very high-resolution satellite remote sensing technology is being deployed commercially for tree inventory and condition analysis.
Tools that are available now to help agriculture, forestry and environmental decision makers in areas with sparse water resources.
How to use satellite data in support of environmental planning and policy creation.
Richard Flemmings, Proteus project manager, will offer insight into a recent 20-million tree mapping and classification project performed by Proteus FZC in Abu Dhabi. As an extension to an Emirate-wide habitat and land use/land cover project, Proteus applied advanced processing algorithms to the multispectral and panchromatic WorldView-2 image data to differentiate many tree species and assess the condition of individual trees, critical for irrigation management.
“This project demonstrates the viability of using very high-resolution satellite imagery to quickly and cost effectively create baseline vegetative inventories within diverse land-use areas,” said Flemmings. “The mapping technique used in Abu Dhabi can be applied to create forest and vegetation inventories of other species anywhere in the world.”
Since 2011, Proteus has been delivering solutions for mapping and classification projects using multispectral satellite imagery. These mapping projects have been delivered for environmental, oil & gas, engineering and other coastal zone applications in Europe, USA, the Middle East and Caribbean.
For more information on Proteus products, see www.proteusgeo.com or email [email protected] for further details or to discuss individual requirements.
Following the July launch of Explorer for ArcGIS on Mac OS X, the Explorer team released an update into the app store today that broadens the reach of Explorer by adding support for 21 new languages.
Explorer for ArcGIS is now available in all of the country app stores supported by the Mac App Store.
LandWorks Inc., a developer of land-management solutions, has added linear project mapping capabilities to its online Web AutoMapper service, which converts land legal descriptions into GIS-ready map polygons. Web AutoMapper clients can now download digital parcel polygons with ownership information for every property crossed by a linear right-of-way project.
The linear mapping capability in Web AutoMapper facilitates the planning of any linear infrastructure development project – pipelines by energy companies, electric transmission lines by utilities, roads and highways by departments of transportation, and buried fiber networks by telecommunication companies.
“Web AutoMapper makes it faster and less expensive to map a proposed right-of-way or corridor project,” said LandWorks President Jerry Bramwell. “In minutes, project planners can download all of the digital parcel and land ownership information needed to select the safest and least costly route.”
To use the service, the client logs onto Web AutoMapper and creates an account. The user then uploads a shapefile of the proposed linear project route from their GIS or mapping software. Web AutoMapper prompts them to enter start and end points for the route. Customers are also given the option of having their route mapped with or without a buffer on either side.
Within minutes, Web AutoMapper overlays the route onto the nation-wide tax parcel grid developed by Digital Map Products of Irvine, California. Web AutoMapper then provides an onscreen map showing every property crossed by the route or within the user-selected buffer around the route. Paying with credit card or a customer account, the customer downloads the Digital Map Products parcels for only those properties affected by the proposed route. The parcel polygons are delivered in either shapefiles or as a file geodatabase for seamless ingest into the GIS or other mapping software.
Also included in the Web AutoMapper deliverable is a Line List Report identifying every property crossing in order from the starting to end points of the proposed route. Both the parcel polygons and Line List Report contain important attributes for each property, such as landowner and address details, obtained from county tax records.
“The linear mapping capability in Web AutoMapper serves as an easy-to-use cost-estimating tool for major infrastructure development projects,” said Bramwell. “The planner receives all of the land ownership information that will be needed to acquire rights-of-way for the project.”
In many cases, the ownership information in the parcel file will help planners identify certain types of properties — such as hospitals or schools — where rights-of-way may be impractical or simply too costly to acquire, said Bramwell. This allows the planners to look for less expensive alternatives while the project is still in its early phases.
Some linear projects require the developer to notify land owners within a certain distance of the proposed route. The buffering option in Web AutoMapper enables the planners to easily obtain land ownership information for properties within the regulated proximity to the line.
LandWorks introduced Web AutoMapper in 2013 as a fast and easy method of processing many types of standard property descriptions and converting them into digital map polygons. The cloud-based application is used extensively by organizations that must manage large tracts of land and keep property records up to date for activities related to oil and gas, renewable energy, mining, banking, utility, pipeline, state/local government, transportation, telecommunications, water and real estate sectors.
CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, has released an analysis ranking Florida as the U.S. state with the highest level of comprehensive risk exposure to multiple natural hazards, with Michigan identified as the state with the lowest risk.
The analysis was derived from the new CoreLogic Hazard Risk Score (HRS), an analytics tool launched today that gathers data on multiple natural hazard risks and combines them into a single easy-to-use score ranging from 0 to 100. The overall score indicates risk exposure at the individual property and location level.
For every geocoded location across the U.S, the CoreLogic HRS is compiled using data representing nine natural hazards: flood, wildfire, tornado, storm surge, earthquake, straight-line wind, hurricane wind, hail and sinkhole. Locations with higher risk levels are exposed to multiple hazard risks and will, therefore, receive higher scores when the risk analysis is aggregated. Subsequently, locations with minimal risk levels have lower exposure and receive lower scores. Geocoded locations are generated at the property-address level using latitude and longitude coordinates and include both residential and commercial properties.
“Florida’s high level of risk is driven by the potential for hurricane winds and storm surge damage along its extensive Atlantic and Gulf coastline, as well as the added potential for sinkholes, flooding and wildfires. Michigan alternatively ranks low for most natural hazard risks, other than flooding,” said Dr. Howard Botts, vice president and chief scientist for CoreLogic Spatial Solutions.
The proprietary CoreLogic HRS is able to calculate risk based on a 10 x 10 meter grid, the lowest level of granularity available for the underlying hazard data. In calculating the overall score, both the probability of an event and the frequency of past events are significant contributing factors used to determine risk levels associated with individual hazards, as well as each distinct hazard’s risk contribution to total loss. The data is combined into an aggregated, consistent and normalized value that allows statistically valid combinations to be derived.
“In the past, natural hazards have been difficult to compare and combine in a meaningful way,” said Dr. Botts. “Hazard Risk Score is a single solution that measures risk concentration consistently and pinpoints the riskiest places in the U.S. with timely and granular accuracy. This insight is critical in conducting comparative risk management nationwide and fully understanding exposure to potential natural hazard damage.”
Insurers, risk managers and mortgage servicers can use CoreLogic Hazard Risk Score to improve decision-making and enhance a variety of business operations, including:
Business continuity and disaster recovery planning
Analyzing risk associated with a residential property or portfolios of properties
Measuring mitigation savings vs. total hazard potential damage
Evaluating and determining natural hazard risk levels of distribution and supplier networks
Recognizing which underinsured or uninsured properties may become at risk of default
Adverse selection avoidance and identification of “good risk” properties
U.S. Natural Hazard Risk by State* (Ranked by CoreLogic Hazard Risk Score)
Rank State HRS
1FL94.51
2RI79.67
3LA79.23
4CA75.56
5MA72.12
6KS69.51
7CT69.04
8OK66.82
9SC66.38
10DE65.38
11OR64.89
12NJ61.54
13IA61.02
14TX60.89
15NC59.72
16MO57.81
17DC57.33
18MS57.05
19AR56.7
20NH55.3
21ID52.75
22MD52.28
23CO51.88
24NE51.86
25IL51.8
26IN50.74
27GA50.58
28NV50.12
29AL49.42
30KY47.34
31TN46.48
32UT45.22
33NM43.76
34AZ42.81
35VA42.35
36WA42.3
37WI38.52
38SD38.24
39MT37.91
40MN36.42
41OH34.61
42ME31.64
43WY30.24
44PA28.79
45VT28.31
46ND27.5
47NY24.97
48WV20.67
49MI20.22
Source: CoreLogic 2014.
* AK and HI were excluded in the ranking due to limited natural hazard risk data.
I’m attending ION GNSS+ 2014 in Tampa, Florida, this week. Although this is a GPS conference, there are topics that will be of interest to us geospatial people. The opening plenary session Tuesday night included a series of short “Ignite” presentations that were moderated by Alan Cameron of GPS World.
I am completely sold on the concept of short “ignite” presentations, which are a preview of full sessions to come later in the conference. It was quick, kept my interest, and drew my attention to sessions that I may not have attended.
All conferences should start with this kind of quick preview of things to come.
LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, will be showcasing its products at eight conferences this fall.
LizardTech representatives will highlight its newest product, GeoGofer, a software solution for powerful image searching and sorting. The representatives will be available for product demonstrations and to answer questions at the following shows:
September 8-11 in New Orleans, Louisiana, at GIS-Pro 2014, booth 229.
September 15-16 in Orlando, Florida, at the eighth annual Central Florida GIS Workshop.
September 22-24 in Columbus, Ohio, at the 2014 Ohio GIS Conference.
September 22-26 in Grand Junction, Colorado, at the GeCo in the Rockies Conference.
September 25 in Denver, Colorado, at the Esri DIUG.
October 5-8 in Groton, Connecticut, at the Fall Northeast Arc Users Group (NEARC).
October 20-24 in Austin, Texas, at the 2014 Texas GIS Forum.
October 22-24 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the MAC URISA 2014 Conference.
In addition to GeoGofer, LizardTech representatives will provide product demonstrations of the company’s entire line of geospatial products. The LizardTech product line includes GeoExpress software, which enables geospatial professionals to compress and manipulate satellite and aerial imagery, Express Server software for high-performance image delivery and publication, and LiDAR Compressor software, which turns giant point cloud datasets into efficient MrSID files.
Microsoft Corp. has announced the Nokia Lumia 830, Lumia 735 and Lumia 730 Dual SIM smartphones running the latest Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, bringing industry-leading imaging technology to more affordable price levels.
Microsoft also announced two new accessories that provide innovative ways for people to interact with their phones, plus the Lumia Denim update, which brings extra features and enhancements to existing Lumia smartphones.
“Our strategy is to help people do more with stunning products that unite and showcase the best of Microsoft’s digital work and life experiences,” said Chris Weber, corporate vice president of Mobile Devices Sales at Microsoft. “The Lumia 830, Lumia 735 and Lumia 730 Dual SIM combine popular Microsoft services such as Skype, Microsoft Office and OneDrive with amazing Lumia innovations in design and imaging to bring experiences that people value, at prices they can afford.”
The Lumia 830: The Affordable Flagship
With a slim design, the Lumia 830 is what Microsoft calls an “affordable flagship” that delivers high-end innovations such as optical image stabilization and PureView imaging to more people. It captures high-quality images and videos, day or night, with a 10-megapixel PureView camera with ZEISS optics, Rich Recording and the thinnest optical image stabilization system to date on a Lumia.
It delivers the best of Microsoft with pre-loaded Microsoft Office Mobile; the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim; and OneDrive with 15 GB of free storage, allowing content to be synced and shared easily. It comes with flagship Lumia innovations such as integrated wireless charging in a sleek and light aluminum and polycarbonate design.
Lumia 830 will begin rolling out globally this month.
Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 735: Built for Skype and Selfies
With wide-angle, front-facing cameras and a slim, pocketable style, the Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 735 let people easily capture and share more. The front-facing 5-megapixel camera is great for Skype video calls, letting people share more of the world around them or bring more family and friends into a call.
With an offer for a free, three-month Skype Unlimited World1 subscription, it’s easier than ever to have an international voice call with friends and family on their mobile and landline phones, right from the Lumia 730 or Lumia 735. Plus, with the integration of one-tap Skype video call access during voice calls, people have even more ways to share their stories, no matter where they are.
Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 735 will also begin rolling out globally this month, featuring a 2220 mAh battery, 8 GB of internal storage and 15 GB of free OneDrive storage. The Lumia 730 Dual SIM will be priced around 199 euros before taxes and subsidies, while the Lumia 735 with LTE/4G and wireless charging support will be priced around 219 euros before taxes and subsidies.
New Accessories
Microsoft Devices Group on Thursday also announced two new additions to the innovative Lumia accessories line:
The second-generation smart Wireless Charging Plate DT-903 makes the most convenient way to charge even better by intelligently alerting people when to charge and highlighting notifications with a subtle glow.
The Microsoft Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10 lets people beam any content from their smartphone to an HDMI-enabled screen, easily and without content restrictions. It is good for reliving memories with friends and family or sharing presentations at work.
Lumia Denim
Lumia Denim combines the latest Windows Phone 8.1 update with exclusive experiences for Lumia smartphones. Lumia Denim also cements Microsoft’s leadership in imaging with the introduction of unique innovations in Lumia Camera that make the camera work faster and more intuitively. Coming as part of the Lumia Denim update to Lumia 930, Lumia Icon and Lumia 1520, Lumia Camera offers the following:
Speed. Never miss a moment with Lumia Camera and its fast camera startup and capture speeds. Take numerous photos with just milliseconds between shots.
High definition. Using Moment Capture, a long press of the camera button within the app automatically starts 4K-quality video recording at 24 frames per second. Each frame is of high image quality at 8.3 megapixels, allowing every single video frame to be selected and saved as a still image.
Intuitiveness. Get the best shot every time with Rich Capture, which simplifies picture-taking with auto HDR and Dynamic Flash. With Rich Capture, people can avoid the hassle of adjusting camera settings; they can shoot first and edit and select the perfect shot later.
Quality. Capture high-quality smartphone images in low light with the latest-generation imaging algorithms.
Lumia Camera will initially roll out as an update with Lumia Denim for Lumia 930, Lumia Icon and Lumia 1520 and as an over-the-air update for Lumia 830 in Q4 2014. Lumia Denim will roll out as an over-the-air update to all the other Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones, following partner testing and approvals.
The Trimble InSphere Data Manager provides efficient geospatial data management for an entire organization.
Trimble has introduced a new Data Marketplace service for the Trimble InSphere geospatial information management platform. The InSphere Data Marketplace allows geospatial professionals to quickly search, locate and obtain spatial data on demand. InSphere users can now find and use additional free and premium spatial data layers, including aerial and satellite imagery, terrain, elevation and topographic maps, building footprints and other third-party data. In addition, new capabilities have been added to a variety of InSphere applications to streamline geospatial data access.
“As the latest addition to the InSphere platform of applications, the Data Marketplace service plays an important role in our cloud-based geospatial information management platform. InSphere’s Data Marketplace is designed to help our customers find, manage and use spatial data critical to their business,” said Alain Samaha, business area director of software for Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “Giving our customers access to multiple layers of spatial information makes end deliverables more robust for their clients.”
The Trimble InSphere Data Marketplace is a new application that is part of Trimble InSphere, a cloud-based platform of software, data, and services focused on the needs of geospatial professionals including surveyors, engineers and GIS professionals. InSphere’s web interface provides access to other productivity-enhancing applications such as Trimble InSphere Data Manager, Trimble InSphere Equipment Manager, Trimble TerraFlex and Trimble Access Services.
The latest release also adds capabilities and enhancements to the applications within the InSphere platform:
Trimble TerraFlex — Unified Geospatial Data Collection and Simplified Digital Forms
The TerraFlex application includes productivity enhancement features that enable a tighter integration for Esri’s ArcMap plugin and allow GIS users to bring in data directly from TerraFlex into an ArcMap project. The module includes Esri basemap support for access to a range of freely available Esri basemap layers, new export options for more flexibility for portable data formats, exchange, and full Windows 7 and 8 support on TerraFlex Mobile. This enables users a broader range of devices to select and use in the field for collecting asset information data. In addition, the TerraFlex user interface is now integrated into the Trimble InSphere platform, giving users a seamless experience between TerraFlex and other InSphere modules. A 30-day free trial is available online.
InSphere Data Manager — Geospatial Information in One Place
Data Manager now supports Trimble Business center version 3.2 files, increasing support for more data file formats that a user is able to upload and view within the module. A 90-day free trial is available online.
The release expands the compatibility to add and manage more devices faster and easier. Users can now import a list of devices from an Excel spreadsheet to immediately begin managing devices in the module. In addition, Equipment Manager now supports Trimble Access Software version 2013.40 (and higher), increasing the number of devices that a user can manage. A 90-day free trial is available online.
This is the mecca of geographic information systems, or GIS, at least in the United States: the 2014 Esri International User Conference (UC) in San Diego, California, held every July. GPS World and Geospatial Solutions were there in force. A newly dominant technology that got plenty of discussion was unmanned aerial systems (UAS or UAV). Eric Gakstatter, GPS World’s survey and GIS editor, said “I can boil where this technology is headed down to one word: real-time.”
This is the mecca of geographic information systems, or GIS, at least in the United States: the 2014 Esri International User Conference (UC) in San Diego, California, held every July. GPS World and Geospatial Solutions were there in force. A newly dominant technology that got plenty of discussion was unmanned aerial systems (UAS or UAV). Eric Gakstatter, GPS World’s survey and GIS editor, said “I can boil where this technology is headed down to one word: real-time.”
LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, has launched GeoGofer, a new addition to its product line. GeoGofer is a software solution for finding geospatial imagery quickly and efficiently, regardless of where it is located.
GeoGofer was designed to streamline the process of finding, organizing, and tracking geospatial imagery. To that end, GeoGofer comes with powerful search and filter features that can be used to find imagery by keyword, by projection, by file format and more.
“Our customers will never again have to struggle to find their geospatial images,” said Jon Skiffington, director of product management at LizardTech. “Our product preview demonstrations have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from existing LizardTech customers and from a sampling of Esri User Conference attendees.”
With GeoGofer, users can browse all of their imagery on a single map, tag images for later use, and perform powerful queries using simple tools. Users can search by modification date, by number of bands, or by resolution to find the imagery they need.
GeoGofer integrates fully with trusted Esri technology. GeoGofer uses an existing ArcGIS Online subscription to store and query image information. Additionally, if users have ArcMap installed on the same machine that runs GeoGofer, they can open images directly in ArcMap.
More product information, purchase options, and a free 14-day trial are available at the website.
CartoPac International Inc. has announced a major new release of the CartoPac Mobile Platform. CartoPac 5.0 extends the mobile platform with support for Windows 8 and introduces the CartoPac Workflow Manager, which provides a structured process to manage the use of geospatial data across the enterprise.
CartoPac will demonstrate the applications and technologies of Version 5.0 in the free CartoPac Mobility Webinar Series beginning on September 30.
The CartoPac Platform is a configurable suite of field and office tools designed to maximize the productivity of crews as they digitally map, inventory and inspect critical assets using GPS-enabled mobile devices. Seamlessly integrating with the Esri ArcGIS Server, CartoPac is used extensively by oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, electric utilities, state/local governments and environmental engineering firms to populate the enterprise GIS and asset-management systems with captured infrastructure information.
The new CartoPac Workflow Manager (CWM) in CartoPac 5.0 provides organizations with a structured workflow to view, edit, validate and approve asset data as it moves from the field back into the enterprise. CWM ensures that individuals responsible for data are notified as it comes into the organization so they can incorporate the data into systems related to work-order fulfillment, risk analysis, integrity modeling and other asset management processes.
CartoPac developed CWM for the management of heavily regulated assets in the field, such as gas pipelines and electric distribution infrastructure. A module within the CartoPac Server, the CWM extension creates an audit trail of all the edits and modifications made to the data sets that represent the monitoring and maintenance of real world assets in the field.
“CartoPac Workflow Manager fills the gap between data collection and enterprise asset management systems to enable organizations to maximize the value of their data,” said CartoPac CIO Scott Crouch. “CWM enables organizations to show regulators they have a structured process for tracking and responding to the conditions of their critical assets and has proven to be key component for assisting companies with their regulatory compliance and integrity management programs.”
Further expanding the capabilities of the CartoPac mobile components, version 5.0 has been optimized for the Windows 8 operating system running on standard GPS-enabled laptop computers and tablet devices. This migration means that crews can use CartoPac to collect and manage asset data in the field on the same hardware devices they will use back in the office to run their daily business applications.
“The attractive cost, integration with GPS and expanded performance of Windows 8 tablets and laptops will enable organizations to put more personnel into the field, ensuring that vital infrastructure is mapped, inventoried and properly managed,” said Crouch “Laptop/tablet-equipped maintenance personnel in the field will now be able to run CartoPac solutions on the hardware they already use for tracking repairs and closing work orders.”
To demonstrate the advantages of enterprise asset management, CartoPac has launched the CartoPac Mobility Webinar Series, which will feature applications by electric and gas utilities and highlight new mobile technologies. The first webinar, “Applying New Mobile Technologies to Electric Utility Inspections,” will be presented with EDM International Inc., a Colorado electric utility services company.
The free “Applying New Mobile Technologies to Electric Utility Inspections” webinar will be held on September 30, 2014, at 4:00 pm Eastern Time. To register, click here.
