Geoinformatics 2009 Vol02

www.geoinformatics.
com
G FME 2009 G Magellan ProMark 500 G The OpenGeo Stack
G Cyclomedia G Kalypso Open Source
Magaz i ne f or Sur veyi ng, Mappi ng & GI S Pr of es s i onal s
March 2009
Volume 12
2
GPS BY ITSELF
WOULD BE GREAT.
IF THE WORLD WERE
STILL FLAT.
IMPROVEYOURGPS.COM
Creating Opportunities instead
of Problems
This editorial will be not be about the economic crisis. Well, maybe a little bit. The crisis is
also affecting the geospatial industry, but I prefer to talk about the opportunities this creates
rather than all the negative effects that fill the papers and news broadcasts 24-7. In this
issue you can read about innovative, successful initiatives undertaken by companies, user
communities, scientists and more: people who are determined to get the best out of their
products and data and are looking for new opportunities if present solutions fall short. The
articles we present here give a broad overview of how the industry is on the move,
everywhere and all the time.
For the first time we are presenting a series of articles on Open Source GIS solutions. Its
success didnt come overnight, but was in most cases the result of years and years of
development. The advantages of open source software are clear: free source code and free
distribution. In a time when you need to cut back on expenses, free software is tempting.
But lets not hurry things too much: software can be free but this does not mean your
problems are solved.
However, we believe we need to inform you about new initiatives in the open source
landscape. Last year we presented an interview with open source guru Paul Ramsey, and
with this issue we offer you a series of articles on open source software initiatives such as
QGIS, Kalypso and OpenGeo Stack. These three articles represent just the tip of the open
source iceberg and Im very proud the authors wanted to share their experiences with open
source software in GeoInformatics. Also, the efforts of Fugro Aerial Mapping and Cyclomedia
should be mentioned when it comes to innovative new products. Spatial data experts will be
happy to find an interview with Safe Software, which just released FME 2009. In the
surveying, mapping and photogrammetric contributions I find the same innovative approach
as in the articles Ive mentioned, so I can safely say that this issue will give the reader a lot
of inspiration for creating opportunities in his or her daily work.
Enjoy your reading,
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
March 2009
3
GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and
commentary with respect to the international surveying,
mapping and GIS industry.
Publisher
Ruud Groothuis
rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com
Editor-in-chief
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
Editors
Frank Arts
fartes@geoinformatics.com
Florian Fischer
ffischer@geoinformatics.com
Job van Haaften
jvanhaaften@geoinformatics.com
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com
Remco Takken
rtakken@geoinformatics.com
Joc Triglav
jtriglav@geoinformatics.com
Columnist
James Fee
Contributing Writers
Florian Fischer
Gordon Petrie
Joc Triglav
Remco Takken
Gernot Belger
Michael Haase
Thomas Jung
Kaj Lippert
Sebastian Benthall
Otto Dassau
Gary Sherman
Tim Sutton
Marco Hugentobler
Paolo Cavallini
Rebecca Peck
Account Manager
Wilfred Westerhof
wwesterhof@geoinformatics.com
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Sander van der Kolk
svanderkolk@geoinformatics.com
ISSN 13870858
Copyright 2008. GeoInformatics: no material may
be reproduced without written permission.
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Cyclomedias large scale Visualisations
Dutch company Cyclomedia specializes in creating large amounts of
panoramic spherical imagery. These visualizations are finding their way
to a broad range of costumers and different work fields. To maintain a
lead in the market, research and development of the system connected
to capturing the imagery is indispensible. CSO Sander Jongeleen explains
all about the companys main product, recent projects and R&D activi-
ties.
C o n t e n t
March 2009
Articles
Higher Accuracies with FLI-MAP 400 6
Innovation Project strengthens Fugro
Aerial Mappings Market Position
Enterprise Mash-ups 14
Spatial Business Intelligence the Way You want It
The Reykjavik Graffiti Project 30
Handheld Computers with Built-In GPS
Capabilities help to clean up Graffiti
GNSS Update 34
GLONASS Glory
Kalypso Open Source 36
A GIS-based Platform for Environmental
and Water Resources Modeling
The OpenGeo Stack 40
An Open Source Web GIS Solution
Quantum GIS 1.0 44
A Testimony to the Power of Open Source
A Profile of the ScanEx Company 54
A Russian Commercial Remote Sensing Success Story
Product Review
Magellan ProMark 500 18
Back to the Future
Interviews
FME 2009 10
Improving Performance in handling Spatial Data
Cyclomedias large scale Visualisations 22
Creating up-to-date Panoramic Spherical Imagery
Geoserve 26
Adding Value to the Distribution
Chain of Satellite Imagery
An Interview with
Pitney Bowes James Buckley 48
New Software, New Division
Page 22
FME 2009
In January 2009, Safe Software
released FME 2009. Joc Triglav
had an interview with Safe
Softwares co-founders Don
Murray and Dale Lutz and asked
them all about the improve-
ments of this new soft-
ware, its new data trans-
formers, FME Server,
support for 3D data
and more.
Page 10
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
5
March 2009
On the Cover:
Satellite image of Bandar Abbas, a port city in the south of Iran.
Image owned by Digital Globe. See the article on page 26.
Enterprise Mash-ups
Mash-ups have become very popular in the domain of neogeography and
big players like Microsoft, Intel and IBM have developed incredibly easy-
to-use mash-up tools. Florian Fischer has a look at these tools and exam-
ines how mash-ups could make their way into enterprises to make busi-
ness intelligence tools more spatially aware.
Page 26
The OpenGeo Stack
The OpenGeo software stack provides a way to connect people with geo-
graphic information through the web, but with a difference: it is entirely
open source. The stack includes PostGIS, a spatial database; GeoServer, a
server for geospatial data; GeoWebCache, a tile caching proxy; and
OpenLayers, a map viewing library. They can be used individually and with
a variety of other projects. But OpenGeo's comprehensive support makes
it especially easy to combine them all into a complete and customizable
web GIS solution.
Page 40
Column
Putting Spatial Analysis in Front of Users p.35
By James Fee
Events
Panasonic Toughbooks, the Seventh Generation 52
Advancements in LED, Touch Screen and Connectivity
Calendar 58
Advertisers Index 58
Page 14
Higher Accuracies
with
FLI-MAP 400
A Dutch innovation project for the Ministry of Transport
(Rijkswaterstaat) with very demanding accuracy
requirements contributed to a further refining of the
FLI-MAP system. Through the use of so-called LiDAR
marker boards, higher accuracies can now be achieved
when surveying roads, rail roads and DTM-design
projects. These successes can be used as input for
comparable projects abroad. Huug Haasnoot, Managing
Director of Fugro Aerial Mapping B.V. explains how such
high accuracies of better than 20mm can be reached and
what this means for Fugros market position.
By Eric van Rees
How has FLI-MAP been developed into the system you
have now with such a high accuracy?
We started with FLI-MAP 10 years ago and since then it has under-
gone an enormous amount of development. Two years ago we intro-
duced much more accurate lasers onto the market, which allowed sur-
vey ranges to be measured within 1 centimetre. This presented us with
the challenge to increase the total accuracy of the LiDAR point cloud
by defining the position and attitude of the helicopter as precisely as
possible. The solution was reached by minimalizing the error in the
positions through the use of LiDAR marking points.
Back in 2003, we carried out a test with the Dutch Ministry of Transport
to define the accuracy of FLI-MAP and to see if all road-side details
could be recorded. The conclusion was that this system was just not
accurate enough and did not record small features such as hectometre
poles: the resolution for this was not sufficient.
When we introduced our new FLI-MAP 400 system onto the market,
there was also a tender for an innovation project just released by the
Ministry of Transport, Public Work and Water Management (also known
as Rijkswaterstaat). The ministry wanted to reward five innovative
projects that contribute to new developments. For this, a proposal had
to be written from which ultimately five providers would be chosen.
FLI-MAP was one of them, and subsequently we did a test with
Rijkswaterstaat to find out how a road design, using FLI-MAP 400,
could be executed. In September 2006 we completed the flying
6
I nt er vi ew
Innovation Project strengthens Fugro
Aerial Mappings Market Position
March 2009
followed by a lot of research and data processing. After field and accu-
racy controls were done by Rijkswaterstaat, the conclusion reached was
that the necessary accuracy could be achieved with FLI-MAP for creat-
ing a road design. The report by the Ministry was very positive and we
have since been able to use FLI-MAP 400 for a number of projects in
the Netherlands. At the same time we took this expertise to our
European clients and FLI-MAP partners, in both Serbia and Greece,
where quickly and accurately a road corridor had to be surveyed.
The high accuracy can also quite easily be achieved using traditional
surveying methods, but with projects like these you are dealing with
hundreds of kilometres and a short timescale to completion. Since we
can survey by air, we can deliver the data to the client much faster.
These types of projects always lack time. People are always behind
schedule because the surveying work is mostly a side-issue, and as
always, the results had to be known yesterday.
How could you guarantee the accuracy with all these
orders?
To guarantee this, we placed LiDAR marker boards alongside the
corridor. We put control points every few kilometres, which we
surveyed very accurately using RTK GPS and precise levelling. That way
we can obtain extremely accurate benchmarks, which can be easily
recognized in the laser data. This allows us to perform an accurate
control of the surveyed position and height.
Ultimately, we developed special software to correct the position of
the helicopter with the use of additional control measurements of these
boards. We have mastered this really well and that way we correct the
data until it fits within circa two centimetres. We do this particularly
with roads, railroads and design projects that require a high-accuracy
level.
We are a company that wants to get as much as possible out of our
FLI-MAP system in this particular market. We are known as an innova-
tive company and we want to maintain that position. With FLI-MAP 400
we made a big step forward. The current market is demanding more
and more, particularly higher details, higher accuracies and detailed
visual information.
An example of this is that RGB values are measured independently
and saved immediately, 250.00 per second. A linescan camera is inte-
grated with the laser so that after the flight we immediately get the
x,y,z and RGB colour values. Admittedly, these are not photos from a
camera, but they can be used directly as true-orthos for further
processing. Our most recently developed system has been used com-
mercially since September. Besides the frequency of 250,000 laser dots
per second, the system is also capable of producing a multiple pulse
in the air-solution, which means that the next pulse can be sent out
before the previous one has returned. This allows us to fly at a higher
altitude and therefore survey a wider corridor. We also made a step
forward in providing better visual material by developing a dual down-
ward camera so that flying at higher altitudes, we record an even small-
er pixel size and wider strip. If we fly at 200 meters, the pixel size is 2
centimetres and you are able to zoom-in with high detail. At 1000 metres
we still can get a 15 centimetre pixel size.
To what extent are you engaged in data analysis for cus-
tomers, or are you only concerned with acquiring data?
In the Netherlands we are engaged in data analysis and processing
for end products, but abroad we often hand this over to our FLI-MAP
partner. Spain and Portugal are good examples of this. There we have
a partner, Estereofoto, which has developed an impressive GIS applica-
I nt er vi ew
7
March 2009
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tion together with the client for the FLI-MAP data. The juridical, posi-
tioning and maintenance information of all roads and associated objects
like traffic signs, are stored in one large database. For example, you can
find information on how old the signs are, when maintenance has been
performed and also when they have to be renewed or replaced. We try
to implement this type of information with partners in other countries.
What are your expectations for the rest of the world
when looking at the growth of higher accuracies which
can now be obtained?
Maybe we can fly even higher and simultaneously capture in one pass
more data without losing this our accuracy. 10 years ago we flew
corridors of 100 meters wide at a height of 125 meters, now we are
flying at roughly 1000 meters a corridor with an 1150 width and obtain-
ing the same specifications. This is already a factor of 10. If you could
continue this development, maybe in another 10 years youd be able to
fly at a height of 10,000 metres and then you are talking about captur-
ing large areas at commercially attractive rates.
We try to focus on countries that we think contain a growth potential,
like Belgium, Great Britain and Germany. Those countries already have
height models, but not quite as accurate. The 10 points per m2 that
we offer for the current height model in the Netherlands (AHN 2) is
cheaper than the one point per m2 of AHN 1, and that way we try to
show in other countries that you get a lot more detail and accuracy for
a little more money. We will certainly promote this in the countries
where we are active now and where we think it is necessary, like Britain,
which faced many floods in the last couple of years.
We do a lot of work in Britain, but of a smaller size than in the
Netherlands. The accuracy requirements are less compared to here. The
Environmental Agency there is responsible for flood defence and has
its own commercial systems. Only when their capacity is insufficient, or
when they need a higher accuracy, FLI-MAP is deployed.,
How important are smaller, local partners for you? How
saturated is the mapping market in terms of suppliers at
the moment?
You often see the same companies in the market, thats why we try to
focus on the niche market of high accuracy and details, where the level
of competition is not as great. On the one hand, my feeling tells me
the market is getting saturated at the moment. The LiDAR market has
certainly grown up. Until a few years ago clients would be willing to
accept data even if it was not optimal, but nowadays this is not the
case. You get a lot more distinction between companies that deliver
quality and those that have trouble delivering quality. I personally think
this is a good development.
The nationwide Height Model of the Netherlands for example, was not
only large, but the responsibility of controlling and proving the achieved
quality was put much more to the contractor. The contractor is fully
responsible for the delivered quality of the end products and the client
limits the control to spot checks. For this, we had to adjust our busi-
ness processes quite a lot. Fortunately, we are part of a very large
FUGRO company, which enables us to make use of various kinds of
expertise, and we really needed it this time. These types of projects
have helped to distinguish us from the average supplier, who will
undoubtedly face difficulties in the long term. Such a project asks for
more than just putting a scanner under a helicopter or an airplane. Its
a challenge we enjoy, as it allows us the opportunity to go after
projects of this complexity and level of accuracy. It gives our company
a lot of satisfaction to hear from clients that we have delivered a
top-quality product that fulfils their requirements for more than 100%.
Eric van Rees is editor-in-chief of GeoInformatics.
For more information, have a look at: www.flimap.nl
Ar t i cl e
9
March 2009
Survey of the city of Rotterdam using the FLI-MAP 400 system
Improving Performance in handling Spatial Data
In January 2009, Safe Software released FME 2009. Joc Triglav had an interview
with Safe Softwares co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz and asked them all
about the improvements of this new software, its new data transformers,
FME Server, support for 3D data and more.
By Joc Triglav
We had an extensive interview last
year in the January/February issue of
GeoInformatics. What is new in your
company in the last year?
Over the last year, the biggest news for
Safe Software has certainly been the arrival
of FME Server. The launch of our new prod-
uct last spring introduced two major capabili-
ties to FME users: 1) The ability to distribute
their spatial data over the web using data
download and data streaming services, and
2) The ability to validate, load and convert
high volumes of spatial data, right over the
web. FME Servers scalable architecture
enables users to perform much larger data
validation and transformation tasks than ever
before, and enables organizations to easily
share their spatial ETL tasks across their orga-
nization through a simple web form. Best of
all, weve designed the platform to integrate
directly within our users current infrastruc-
ture, so they can continue to use their pre-
ferred applications and systems to work with
their spatial data.
In this last year we have also launched
two releases of FME. Our 2008 release last
spring introduced, among many other things,
the ability to integrate 3D spatial data with
traditional 2D spatial data. The industrys
growing interest in the convergence of 3D
with GIS, CAD and other systems is proven by
the continuing emergence of 3D integration
workflows popping up among our customers.
At Safe we take great care to listen to the
markets needs, interact with our customers,
and then respond accordingly. Our introduc-
tion of support for the most popular 3D
formats last year is a direct result of this
strategy.
Another request weve been hearing
more and more of from our users is the need
to transform larger datasets even into the
terabytes. While FME Server offers the pro-
cessing power to achieve transformation of
these enormous datasets, many of todays
computers do not. That is why weve decided
to enter the world of cloud computing, part-
nering with WeoGeo, an organization known
for their cloud computing expertise, in the
first-ever initiative to bring spatial ETL tech-
nology to the cloud. Weve developed FME
Server in a way that is compatible with this
new possibility of using vast networks of
high-processing machines based in the cloud
to achieve extremely high volume data trans-
formations.
10
I nt er vi ew
March 2009
FME 2009
Safe Software co-founders
Don Murray (left) and Dale Lutz.
Obviously, FME 2009 is the top
headline news. Please, give us a
short overview on the softwares
main new characteristics and
improvements.
The key enhancement that all users will
experience is the improvement in perfor-
mance. We have worked hard to make FME
2009 the fastest FME ever, and through our
internal testing we are seeing an average of
a 20% speed improvement. Some tests are
showing results that are even 20 times faster.
While most software gets slower as more
capabilities are added, we are determined to
ensure that each FME release raises the bar
in performance expectations, becoming faster
than each previous release at the same time
as adding the functionality our users require.
Don: As weve done with every release of FME,
we added support in 2009 for more than a
dozen new formats. FME now ships with read-
ing/writing for 225+ formats, right out of the
box. Some of the more exciting formats weve
added support for include Adobe Geospatial
PDF, Autodesk 3DS, CityGML, IBM Informix
Spatial and OpenStreetMap (OSM) XML. Of
course there are more, but these are a few
that a significant portion of our users appear
to be most interested in.
We also always spend a large amount
of time improving our FME Workbench envi-
With the end goal of making their spatial data
available to the users who need it, customers
have implemented FME Server as a data
accessibility and sharing solution, and as a
data upload and validation solution. As
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiatives like
the European Unions INSPIRE begin to be
implemented, the need for a tool that can
enable the uploading of valid data in a stan-
dard model, without impacting the data
authors existing infrastructure, will continue
to grow.
This is one of the strengths of FME
Server that it works alongside whatever
system an organization already has, and com-
plements it. We recognized right away that
we had to make it easy for organizations to
integrate the platform in whatever language
they are currently using. With the current
release, we have provided APIs in C++, JAVA,
.NET, SOAP and through simple http requests.
Looking down the road you will also see
other interfaces being defined such as REST
and others, to ensure that we continue to
make FME Server easy to integrate with what-
ever system an organization already has in
place.
Please, describe the new FME 2009
transformers, like the Raster Expres -
sionEvaluator, the Decelerator and
XML data handling.
ronment, as that is the graphical user inter-
face with which our users spend most of their
time designing their spatial data flows
(workspaces); it is the authoring environ-
ment that powers both FME Desktop and FME
Server. Here we have made several small, but
impactful, changes that help make users more
productive as they create their workspaces.
How has FME Server met the users
expectations since its introduction
last year? In which ways is FME
Server helpful in solving common
users problems? How can the users
integrate it into their current IT envi-
ronment?
We created the FME Server platform in
direct response the needs of our users, and
the reaction in the marketplace is what we
hoped it would be. There were several major
needs in the market that lacked a solution -
the need for a system that is designed to
work alongside 3rd party web mapping solu-
tions to provide data download capabilities,
the need for on-the-fly data transformation,
validation and loading, and the need to per-
form all these actions on large data volumes.
We now have customers on several conti-
nents, including Europe, North America and
Australia, who have found that FME Server
meets their needs and have implemented the
platform within their existing environment.
I nt er vi ew
11
March 2009
The new set of XQuery transformers in FME 2009 make it easy to perform queries on XML datasets. In this screenshot of FMEs graphical authoring environment, a sample
workspace extracts vehicle accident data from an XML dataset for the city of Austin, Texas. The workspace then turns this extracted information into true spatial data capable
of being written out for use in a GIS or visualization tool, or combined with other data as a mashup.
I believe in innovation.
Leica Geosystems AG
Switzerland
www.leica-geosystems.com
SmartStation the worlds first total station with
integrated GPS is a fine example of our uncompro-
mising dedication to your needs. Innovation:
yet another reason to trust Leica Geosystems.
Innovation is intelligence
tap it and let your work flow.
You want the tools of your trade to be state-of-the-art. Thats why
Leica Geosystems is continuously innovating to better meet your
expectations. Our comprehensive spectrum of solutions covers all
your measurement needs for surveying, engineering and geospatial
applications. And they are all backed with world-class service and
support that delivers answers to your questions. When it matters
most. When you are in the field. When it has to be right.
You can count on Leica Geosystems to provide a highly innovative
solution for every facet of your job.
Transformers in FME are objects that
carry out the restructuring of features in
other words, they transform spatial data so
that it is produced in the model that the end
user requires. Transformers also enable users
to perform complex spatial data validation
operations. FME ships with a library of over
300 transformers. One of our new favourites
in FME 2009 is the Decelerator transformer.
We joke that we had to create it because we
made FME so much faster! What the
Decelerator is really useful for is to slow down
the rate of requests that are sent to web ser-
vices, which are called from within an FME
spatial ETL operation. Basically it ensures that
FME doesnt send requests too quickly so that
the receiving web services dont get over-
whelmed or time out.
The transformers we created for XML
handling add the ability to use XQuery
(XQuerier) within FME. XQuery is an incredi-
bly powerful XML processing technology that
enables users to extract and reformat XML.
Adding these transformers to FME fits well
within our philosophy of embracing other
technology and folding it into FME.
The RasterExpressionEvaluator is a
powerful new transformer that enables users
to work on one image or combine two images
through pixel-by-pixel algebra. Our users
asked for the ability to integrate raster data
at the pixel level, and so we delivered it to
them.
we have added support for several key 3D for-
mats. These, coupled with the 3D systems we
introduced support for in FME 2008, enable us
to now move data between many different sys-
tems. As we add new 3D formats and continue
to understand more about the nuances of true
3D data exchange, were continuing to enhance
our support beyond positional information, pro-
viding further visual representation information
such as vertex normals and texture coordi-
nates.
How would you evaluate the influen ce
of the current global economic and
financial crisis on your company and
its products?
So far our sales have been strong despite
the economic downturn. It is difficult to say if
this is going to continue, but our sense is that
since our products enable organizations to save
money and be more efficient with their time
and resources, we are well positioned to ride
out the storm.
We have always, and will continue to, re-
invest heavily in research and development so
that we bring truly innovative, productive and
high-value products to our users a strategy
which we are confident will ensure a continu-
ing revenue stream.
Joc Triglav jtriglav@geoinformatics.com is editor of
GeoInformatics. For more information on Safe
Software and FME 2009, have a look at www.safe.com
Dale and I both enjoy travelling around the
world, seeing the amazing things that our users
do with FME, and so it is no surprise that Im
excited to see what our users do with these new
transformers.
In which ways can users achieve
more flexibility in data manipulation
using Generic Writer?
The Generic Writer enables users to author
a spatial ETL task (workspace) where the out-
put format and data model are not specified until
the task is run. This enables the user running
the workspace to choose the destination format
they prefer from the 200+ formats FME supports,
instead of needing the workspace to be dupli-
cated for each potential output format.
When used with FME Server, the possi-
bilities are very exciting as now an organization
can publish a data model and leave it to the
requesting user to decide, at run time, what for-
mat they want the data model to be produced
in. The Generic Writer in FME 2009 is just the
first step in a much larger development effort
to take spatial ETL technology to a new level.
Is there anything new in FME 2009
regarding the support for 3D data
and the preservation of 3D data
fidelity during translation?
3D/BIM continues to be one of our most
active development areas. In the 2009 release,
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13
March 2009
In this screenshot, the FME Server data download service has been integrated with Google Maps, allowing users to select the data they wish to download using a familiar visu-
al interface. Designed for distributing and loading spatial data, FME Server can be integrated directly into an organizations existing environment.
Spatial Business Intelligence the Way You want It
During my studies in geoinformatics I became familiar with the concept of service chaining, a way to arrange web services.
Then we were working with aggregate services that orchestrated various OGC web services to build a complex application.
It was a rather complicated process, and substantial programming skills were necessary. Maybe the time is now ripe for
change. Mash-ups have become very popular in the domain of neogeography and big players like Microsoft, Intel and IBM
have developed incredibly easy-to-use mash-up tools. This article will take a look at these tools and examine how
mash-ups could make their way into enterprises to make business intelligence tools more spatially aware.
By Florian Fischer
Let the GIS Orchestra begin
In the last issue of GeoInformatics I talked
about the new version of ArcGIS Desktop. It
allows for complex geo-processing and work-
flow management. These workflows can then
be disseminated to a broader public of non-
GIS experts to fulfil their tasks and use GIS
functionality. Since Spatial Data Infrastructures
(SDI) have become widespread, the idea has
been to give these GIS non-experts tools to
create workflows by themselves at least sim-
ple workflows. If you have a list of real estate
properties and just want to draw them on a
map to make a simple visual analysis, it
seems rather ridiculous to ask a GIS expert
to create a workflow today, doesnt it? High-
end desktop GIS systems have been efficient
only in the hands of GIS experts. Conceptually,
SDIs allow the creation of workflows by non-
GIS experts. But the middleware for combin-
ing services needs to be developed using con-
ventional programming languages. Thus every
modification for every single workflow has to
be made within a programming environment.
At this point the dream crashes again because
the non-expert needs to be a software engi-
neer. This makes all the more promising the
concept of Web Service Orchestration (WSO),
an automated arrangement and combination
of various (geo-)web services to fulfil a cer-
tain task. WSO, which stems from the
paradigm of Service Oriented Architecture
(SOA), would provide an easy and flexible way
to link services to build applications on
demand. Workflows are then mapped as ser-
vice chains and configured with graphical
tools. The XML-based language BPEL
(Business Process Execution Language) is an
example of this way of mapping workflows.
The service chain is represented as a BPEL
document and can be executed in a web ser-
vice orchestration engine like Twister, an
14
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Enterpri se Mash-ups
Figure 1: Microsofts tool Popfly uses a graphical interface to create mash-ups
open-source implementation of the
BPEL standard LGPL. BPEL and Web
Service Orchestration are considered
to be a way of organizing web-based
geospatial applications in the future
as it is already widespread in main-
stream IT.
Workflows for Emergency
Management
A research group organized around
Alexander Zipf and Albrecht Weiser at
the University of Applied Sciences in
Mainz worked on proof-of-concept
within the domain of emergency man-
agement. The project OK-GIS was
aimed at the development of an archi-
tecture that ensures flexible reactions
to the various demands of emergency
management. The framework was to
be applicable for various scenarios
and requirements in the event of a
disaster. In particular the OGC WMS
GetMap request was tested with the
Oracle BPEL Process Manager. The trial
demonstrated that it is possible to create
workflows of a certain granularity with added
value by aggregating standardized base ser-
vices. But a necessary requirement for the
orchestration is a continuous service chain
without human intervention. Furthermore,
orchestration on-the-fly was still not possible
and still too complicated to be achieved by
non-technical users.
Mapping Mash-ups
In a totally different paradigm,
Web 2.0, the concept of mash-ups
is widely known. Basically mash-
ups are web applications that
combine content from multiple
sources in a way that is seamless
to the user. After the appearance
of geobrowsers, various mash-ups
emerged combining the capabili-
ties of the mapping platforms with
web services that before then had
not been spatially oriented. Open
Application Programming
Interfaces (API) such as Googles
Map-API are normally used to cre-
ate these geo- or mapping mash-
ups. While Web Service
Orchestration uses loops and decisions, and
actively calls and organizes a chain of web
services, mash-ups are rather new applica-
tions that emerge from the combination of
content. Some mash-ups even offer their own
APIs to enable further mash-ups to be built.
Mash-ups are also focused more on content
combination than on service combination, but
this is not compulsory as APIs are somewhat
ing the websites to be mashed up
and telling Intels Mash Maker how
and what to connect, a mash-up is
created. Mash Maker even allows
sharing of mash-ups within a virtual
community. Mash Maker enables
users to build mash-ups on the fly
and to tailor a mash-up to their spe-
cific needs. Popfly from Microsoft is
a visual tool to construct and share
not only mash-ups but also games,
gadgets, web sites and applications.
It is even possible to rate other user-
s mash-ups and remix creations
from Popfly. An advanced option
allows for rapid-prototyping by pro-
grammers and then refining their
applications by real coding. IBMs
Mash-Up Center provides similar
functionality. While Intel and
Microsoft are focusing more on per-
sonal mash-ups, IBM sees enterprise
mash-ups as an important aspect of
its Mash-Up Center to combine
sources of information both inside and out-
side an enterprise. More and more enterpris-
es see opportunities for enhanced spatial
business intelligence applications by using
enterprise mapping mash-ups. Thus they
intend to do more than just look for some
locations of some branches. The approach of
a visual construction kit for enterprise mash-
ups enables a broad audience within an enter-
prise to create customized
tools for their respective pur-
poses and analyses.
Consequently various service
components can be combined
in different ways to create
new applications that can be
shared within the enterprise
(see Figure 1).
Enterprise Mapping
Mash-ups
The combination of mapping
services with spatial data such
as KML or GEORSS reveals a
variety of options for spatial
business intelligence, says
Tobias Loerracher. A graduate
of the Karlsruhe University of
Applied Science, Loerracher
did his diploma thesis on the topic of enter-
prise mash-ups in cooperation with
Microsofts Virtual Earth business unit. Typical
questions in spatial business intelligence are
about the most profitable branches, the ideal
distribution of promotion material to the tar-
get audience and the whereabouts of a cer-
tain article. The core of spatial business intel-
ligence is geo data which is segmented into
of a service interface as well. ESRI software
also uses APIs to make GIS functionality capa-
ble of being integrated into websites.
Mapping mash-ups have become very popu-
lar in the Web 2.0 domain. Currently more
than half of all the mash-ups on the renowned
Program mableWeb list are categorized as
mapping mash-ups (ProgrammableWeb
2008).
The Web the Way You want It
Until recently basic programming skills were
necessary to get through the API and build a
mash-up. But more and more mash-up tools
have emerged that have graphical interfaces
to ease the creation of mash-ups using not
much more than drag and drop. Intel has a
tool called Mash Maker which is integrated
into the browser as an add-on. By simply pick-
Ar t i cl e
15
March 2009
Figure 2: Exemplary result of an enterprise mash-up for site selection
(from: Courracher, T. , 2008)
Loerracher writes that enterprises will use mash-ups
extensively within their business intelligence units in the
future. While consumer mash-ups are usually freely
accessible to everyone, enterprise mash-ups will need to
integrate internal data which has restricted access.
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internal and external data from the enterprise
viewpoint. Internal data is directly related to
the enterprise, like branch locations and sales
areas. This geo data can even be dynamic,
such as the whereabouts of a product, usual-
ly detected by RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification). External data like population
data, socio-demographic and socio-economic
data, is normally necessary for in-depth mar-
ket analysis. All this information needs to be
geo-visualized in order to derive knowledge
for managerial decisions, while the most com-
mon way for this is by positioned signatures
and choropleth maps. Loerracher writes that
enterprises will use mash-ups extensively
within their business intelligence units in the
future. While consumer mash-ups are usually
freely accessible to everyone, enterprise
mash-ups will need to integrate internal data
which has restricted access. In his thesis
Loerracher developed a showcase for an
Building the Incredible Geographic
Machine
The work of Tobias Loerracher shows that
map-based enterprise mash-ups can be
applied to simple spatial reasoning. Thus, in
the future, building an incredible machine for
geographic information processing might be
as easy as making a cup of coffee. The cre-
ation of enterprise mash-ups by employees
takes into account their particular needs. The
expenditure of time needed for the develop-
ment of a mash-up is considerably small in
comparison to traditional GIS development.
Mapping data and tools for geo-visualization
are provided by external services like
Microsoft Virtual Earth and applications can
easily be rearranged. Nevertheless, in the
brave new world of mapping mash-ups
Geographic Information Systems are still nec-
essary to solve complex spatial problems.
Florian Fischer ffischer@geoinformatics.com, GIS
Editor and Research Assistant at the Austrian
Academy of Sciences GIScience research facility in
Salzburg, Austria. For this article, the author made
extensive use of the following publication:
Lrracher, T., 2008 (unpublished). The Location
Intelligent Enterprise kartenbasierte Enterprise
Mashups. Zusammenfassung der Diplomarbeit .
Hochschule Karlsruhe.
Links to mash-up tools:
Microsoft Popfly: www.popfly.com
Intel Mash-Maker: http://mashmaker.intel.com/web
IBM Mash-up Center:
www-01.ibm.com/software/info/mashup-center
enterprise mash-up using Microsoft Virtual
Earth and Microsoft SQL Server. It is a simple
search for site selection. The user defines the
criteria for a new site and the mash-up cre-
ates a map showing all relevant areas and
gives additional information such as the avail-
ability of real estate (see Figure 2).
Ar t i cl e
17
March 2009
Figure 3: Possible enterprise mashup tool based on Microsoft Popfly suggested by Tobias Lrracher
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Back to the Future
It has been a while since we last tested an RTK system. There are various
reasons why, but the main ones are simply that its been a while since a new
product has emerged, and also that Ive moved houses and simply did not have
the time. The Magellan ProMark 500, however, has been on my wish list for a
while. Until recently, though, it was not available from Magellan for a review.
So my main Christmas present this year consisted of a ProMark 500 that
Magellan shipped to my home.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
That meant that over the holidays (and a while after that) I was busy
working with the ProMark 500. Our regular readers will remember that
2007 was the last time we tested an RTK receiver from Magellan, the
Z-Max. The ProMark 500 replaces that unit and is Magellans new flag-
ship. It is also the first receiver in a long time to come from Magellan
(or its predecessors) with GLONASS available.
I reviewed a base-rover combination with a UHF radio link. The units
are standard equipped with a GSM modem to receive GPRS corrections.
Unfortunately I did not have a subscription to a correction service, so
all results below were obtained using a UHF radio connection. As a
result no tests were made with the ProMark 500 in combination within
a network with receivers from other brands.
Receiver
As Ive mentioned before in GPS reviews, beauty is in the eye of the
beholder, and in my opinion the ProMark 500 is a good-looking receiv-
er. Not that such a thing is overly important, but lets be honest: it does
help. All the usual connections are present on the receiver and it even
has a built-in GSM modem as standard. If you want to make use of it,
however, make sure you order that option activated or it will not be
usable. A small whip antenna is included with the unit so just pop in
your SIM card and you can start using RTK (almost) out of the box.
One of the nice features of the ProMark 500 is the graphic OLED dis-
play where most competitors have a few LEDs to indicate the status.
Although relatively small, it is very easy to read and will give you all
the important status information as well as information on logging and
error messages. The disadvantage of an LED display over small LEDs
however is that they break more easily when the unit is accidentally
dropped. There are only a few buttons, so the only thing one can con-
trol without using the controller are logging, memory, RTK status, alarm,
firmware version, on/off and browsing through the displays. This is usu-
ally enough, however.
The units reviewed (base and rover) were not identical, the rover hav-
ing an optional UHF module internally and the base having a separate
UHF radio that was connected to the base using the RS232 / RS422
communication port.
Controller
The controller supplied with the receiver is the trusted MobileMapper
CX series that featured before in the ProMark 3 series review. As with
most controllers a full keyboard is miss-
ing although a small numeric key-
board is present as well as the
main control buttons. The color
screen is easily readable, even
with the sun shining brightly or
in the (semi) dark.
18
Revi ew
March 2009
ProMark base and receiver set in transport case with
(almost) all necessary accessories.
Front of the (base) receiver with OLED display
Underside of the (base) receiver
with connections and battery
compartment (replaceable)
Magellan ProMark 500
There are not many communication options on
the controller; besides Bluetooth, just a single
SD card slot is available. A detachable docking
station that clips to the controller allows for
more connections such as USB and a serial port
as well as a power supply.
One disadvantage that we registered with the
MobileMapper CX earlier is that there is no pen
storage in the controller itself making pens very
easy to lose. This is something Magellan seems
aware of since the set I received had two pens
with it. The pen delivered with the unit has the
same size (and shape) as a regular ballpoint,
making it very comfortable in everyday use.
As with all modern GPS receivers, the receivers
are linked to the controller using a Bluetooth
connection. At first the controller and the base
had some problems getting paired using the
Bluetooth link, but after a few tries both the
base and rover were recognized on the first try
and after that no more problems were experi-
enced.
Setting up
Setting up the base is slightly more complicat-
ed then with other RTK sets Ive reviewed in the
past. The main reason is that the UHF radio is
a separate unit and connected to the receiver
on one side and a power supply (in my case a
12 V battery) on the other. It is not possible to
power the UHF radio directly from the receiver.
The cable that came with the set was a few
meters long, making an advantage of the sepa-
rate radio; it can be placed a few meters away
from the receiver, or higher, giving more options
for good placement and thus a larger range.
One disadvantage noticed with the separate
radio was that it had to be pre-programmed with
the correct frequencies and could not, as with
the Z-Max, be changed to any frequency sup-
ported by the radio in the field. According to an
engineer Ive spoken to, the radio should be pro-
grammed using a terminal program with a spe-
cific set of commands. These were, however, not
listed in the manuals that accompanied the unit.
Selecting pre-programmed frequencies is easy
enough with the FAST Survey software.
FAST Survey
The controller came with the FAST Survey soft-
ware, which Ive reviewed before with the Z-Max,
already installed. Some development has been going on since our last
review and this version differed in some aspects from that tested with
the Z-Max. Since FAST Survey is derived from a generic survey package,
it will also let you connect to other brands or models of surveying equip-
ment such as total stations, echo sounders and other GPS receivers.
From the layout of the software one gets the impression that a survey-
or has designed it. All the buttons are on the large side. There are very
few pull-down menus and instead of the tiny onscreen keyboard pro-
vided by Microsoft, it has its own keyboard that covers (almost) the full
display allowing for easy entry.
All the survey options one could want are available such as staking out,
continuous logging etc. There is a graphical dis-
play of the survey results that will accept back-
ground maps, but as a result of the rather large
onscreen buttons, the available space is limited.
Although the graphics look as though they came
from an old Windows 3.1 computer, they are very
functional.
Surveying
No review can be complete without a small sur-
vey where data is acquired, processed and pre-
sented. Since Ive moved houses since my last
reviews, I decided to figure out if I had gotten
the acreage of land I had paid for. This meant
bringing the ProMark 500 into one of the most
hostile GPS environments possible, the Urban
Jungle (also known as my neighborhood).
First of all it was cold. The average temperature
during the review was just a few degrees above
freezing, with high humidity. As a result, battery
life suffered and the six hours quoted were
beyond reach. Not that the survey lasted six
hours, but based on an indicated loss of 60% of
battery life on the receiver over three hours, the
total surveying time would have come out at
around five to five-and-a-half hours.
Second, the survey area had a lot of shielding.
As a result the RTK fixed solution was lost on
several occasions due to a lack of satellites. The
receiver has a specific development from
Magellan called Blade technology that can cover
small gaps in the reception of the correction sig-
nal, as well as make it possible to work in a net-
work with receivers from other manufacturers.
Since the horizon was shielded from the satel-
lites instead of the UHF link, the Blade technol-
ogy did not give me an advantage in this situa-
tion. Re-initialization of the receiver was
comparable to other units at between 10 and 15
seconds, but nowhere near the 2 seconds quot-
ed.
The actual survey was easy enough: simply point
and click with the pole. The weight of the rover
/ pole / controller combination is around three
kilograms, depending on the type of pole, with
the weight distributed nicely around the pole.
Without the UHF module the unit is 200 grams
lighter, making the weight distribution even bet-
ter and easier to handle.
Processing
Since I had no control point available, I decided upon a two-step
approach. First of all I logged raw data on the base station (while it
was in base mode and transmitting corrections to the rover). While the
base was collecting the raw data, I proceeded with the survey using an
approximate position (derived from the base GPS position) to collect
the data points in RTK mode on the rover.
Using the supplied GNSS Solutions software, I processed the raw data.
As control points I used the three Dutch IGS stations that continuously
log raw GPS data, which is then put on the Internet. This process is
very simple with GNSS Solutions since one can connect to this data
using the program itself. Simply select the date and station to use and
Revi ew
19
March 2009
Base station setup with external UHF radio
Rover with internal UHF radio
the software will
download the data
and correction files
itself.
The data collected
with the rover had to
be processed using
GNSS Solutions as well
since I had to shift all
the rover positions
using the correct base
position. When the
data is already correct-
ed, a simple export
from FAST Survey is
enough to get an X, Y and Z file (or a graphics / GIS file). Now, Ive
used GNSS Solutions before with the ProMark 3 review, and both then
and now I found that, although it is a very complete package, it can
also upset a novice GPS user. There are a few simple steps to take for
a base shift, but the user interface is that of a complete adjustment
and raw data processing package so the correct option is very hard to
find. It also takes quite a while on my somewhat older (but still quite
potent) computer for recalculating and redrawing the data.
Presentation
GNSS Solutions is not very strong at making graphics or turning surveyed
data into GIS files, so I had to use my trusted Global Mapper package for
this. Using the ASCII export, I then imported the data back for presenta-
tion and also to make some checks. Some of the data points collected
during the survey were partly shielded, and this directly showed in the
collected data. A few angles that had to be straight were slightly skewed;
upon inspection of the data I found out that they were collected with float
solutions (which I had been duly warned about during the acquisition)
and had an RMS of a few decimeters, resulting in incorrect positions.
Conclusion
The ProMark 500 is a big step up from the Z-Max that we reviewed
before. In relation to the competition there are a few additions that
make it stand out such as the OLED display, its design and the built-in
GSM modem.
In terms of things that can be improved upon, there is the GNSS
Solutions software which is perfect for processing raw data but much
too complicated for simple RTK surveys. It would help if something like
a correction wizard were included.
Another thing that I, personally, would like to see changed is the need
for a separate battery to power the radio on the base. In my view tak-
ing an extra power supply should be an option, not a requirement.
But having said that, the arrival of the ProMark 500 means it has
become even harder than before to choose your RTK solution amongst
the available solutions, especially when one considers the price at which
the ProMark 500 is offered. According to Magellan your quote should
be in the order of 30% less than for comparable systems from the com-
petition.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is editor
of GeoInformatics as well as project manager at IDsW.
This article represents his personal views.
Revi ew
21
March 2009
Manufacturers response to ProMark 500 product review.
Magellan Professional greatly appreciates the effort of GeoInformatics
to review the ProMark 500. However, the reviewer was only able to test
some of the capability of the system. For example, he did not test the
Network RTK performance of our product, as he only used reference
data from another ProMark 500 using a UHF radio link. The particular
advantage of our BLADE technology is seen primarily when using a
ProMark 500 in a network of other manufacturers base stations. This
is because the ProMark 500 is constantly estimating the GLONASS hard-
ware biases of the reference receiver. Without properly accounting for
these biases, most of the rovers GPS+GLONASS are not able to use the
GLONASS corrections unless the reference receiver is the same brand
as the rover. BLADE allows the ProMark 500 to work seamlessly in any
Network RTK environment, regardless of the type of correction (VRS,
MAC or FKP) or brand of the reference receivers. ProMark 500 confers
to the user the great advantage of optimal use of the GLONASS sig-
nals, with higher performance in GPS+GLONASS RTK network and harsh
survey environments. We invite readers to learn more about BLADE at
pro.magellangps.com/en/products/technology.asp and contact us for the
BLADE White Paper at cgeffroy@magellanGPS.com.
MobileMapper CX
controller (b)
Survey results in GNSS Solutions (a) and after export and further processing in
Global Mapper (b).
large scale
Cyclomedias Visualisations
The Dutch company Cyclomedia specializes in creating large-scale panoramic
spherical imagery. With this expertise it is not just local governments that are
interested in their visualization products but a broad range of customers
involved in many different work fields. To maintain a lead in the market,
ongoing research and development into the systems technology is essential.
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Sander Jongeleen explains all about the
companys main product, recent projects and R&D activities.
By Eric van Rees
Cyclomedia is a market leader in the area
of capturing large-scale 360 panoramic
imagery. The high resolution and georefer-
enced image products (called Cycloramas) are
used by a wide range of clients, such as
insurance companies, and national and local
government agencies. The company, which
started in the Netherlands, is now active in
11 countries. Last year Cyclomedia intro-
duced a new data-capturing system, where
every five meters, a panoramic picture can
be taken from a vehicle traveling at 80 kilo-
meters per hour. Although building databas-
es of panoramic imagery is the companys
main activity, the technology behind it is of
equal importance. CSO Sander Jongeleen
explains: We develop our own equipment
and patent our technologies. In terms of mea-
suring, we capture everything that is the size
of a city and larger, since our system is too
costly to capture small places. In Holland we
capture images of all public paved roads,
with a five-meter interval, and all that is done
every one and a half year. In other countries
we work in a different way: sometimes we
first acquire a project before we start captur-
ing the data.
The large, national scale at which the com-
pany captures data is an advantage when it
comes to attracting new customers: the
main clients of Cyclomedia in the Netherlands
are local government agencies, but the mar-
ket has grown to include banks, insurance
companies, national government agencies
and public safety agencies after weve raised
our cover factor. For these parties youre only
interested when youre active on a national
scale.
Imagery
This large demand for panoramic pictures
begs the question, why is this imagery so
popular and what can be done with it?
Jongeleen: The imagery we create nowadays
can be used for much more than visualization
alone. One of the things our customers do
with it, is to project data on the images. Since
our images are georeferenced, as well as the
geometry within it, we are able to project vec-
tor information (such as CAD imagery) onto
the imagery, so that you can see electricity
wires in 3D on the photograph. Another thing
that is done is linking the imagery to an
administrative system through a GIS, which
22
I nt er vi ew
March 2009
C r e a t i n g u p - t o - d a t e P a n o
CSO Sander Jongeleen
will allow you to click on a map that shows
the panoramic image of a house and its
administrative data. This comes in handy
when outsourcing the administration of pub-
lic spaces, so that people who are in the
street have exactly the same image of a situ-
ation as a GIS expert. We create a virtual inter-
face of administrative data.
The panoramic images have also been used
in a large-scale disaster management exercise
in the Netherlands, called Eagle 1. Along with
ESRI and Microsoft, the Dutch company
Geodan built a GIS infrastructure based on
Microsoft Virtual Earth, which was the first
local Virtual Earth installation outside of the
United States. The panoramic images helped
to create a common operational picture for
sharing information with a large audience.
Now that all parties share the same imagery,
they can cooperate faster and more efficient-
ly. A fire department vehicle for instance can
see what is the shortest route to a fire after
consulting the Cycloramas. (see also
www.ve.geodan.nl).
A Flemish Traffic Sign Database
The Flemish government put out a tender for
generating an inventory of everything related
to traffic signs. They wanted this to be done
using a mobile mapping system so as not to
disturb other traffic on the roads. For a pro-
ject on as large a scale as Flanders, to be fin-
ished within two years is quite a challenge.
Together with a partner, Cyclomedia is carry-
ing out the project, capturing all the traffic
signs with the partner generating the inven-
tory.
A Cyclorama contains everything needed to
create this inventory. Data is captured on a
large scale, and has the metric quality to be
related road content. Jongeleen: If you want
to avoid unwanted traffic through residential
areas, you need to route traffic in a better
way. But in order to do this, you need to pro-
vide this information to digital map providers
so that they can adjust their navigation sys-
tems. Thats just one of the reasons people
are capturing this data.
Also, it shows that there are more efficient
ways of indexing the environment.
measured in a secure way. A Cyclorama can
be imported into a GIS environment to allow
you to see where signs are located. They can
also be measured and collected into a
database. This project started within the
scope of the European Union Rosatte project
(www.rosatte.eu), aimed at establishing an
efficient, and quality-ensured data supply
chain, from public authorities to commercial
map providers, with an emphasis on safety-
I nt er vi ew
23
March 2009
r a m i c S p h e r i c a l I m a g e r y
CEO Paul Bosman
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Cycloramas are one way of doing this.
Classically measured objects can be captured
with the panoramic pictures that we provide
to our clients. Also, in Belgium the govern-
ment is looking for a way to accelerate the
process of updating the national base map
by using our imagery instead of taking terres-
trial measurements.
After classifying and filing these traffic signs,
the next step is to automate this process. We
created a whole new type of algorithm, which
automatically detects, classifies and measures
traffic objects. It also tells us where this pro-
cess works and where it does not, so that we
know where to check things manually. What
we want to produce are databases of stan-
dardized base material, with Cycloramas, aeri-
al photography and various types of content
able to be automatically measured, such as
traffic signs, lamp posts, etc. You can run the
automatic feature detection across the screen
through a series of images. The algorithms
measure corresponding points and if they are
recognized they can be measured automati-
cally. This creates a 3D registration of the
environment that looks like a point cloud,
which you can then use as a model to over-
lay the Cycloramas as a texture. With special
monitors that show depth, we project these
It writes approximately 80 megabytes of raw
imagery per second to a PC with several par-
allel disks. We organized a network of people
to bring all that data to our office in time.
With our new system we can capture imagery
very quickly, in comparison to our old system,
where we had to stop after each recording
point for six seconds. Also, these images were
captured from one point of view.
Our main product is the imagery, but we need
this high-tech system to create imagery with
such high quality. The fact that we understand
so well how to build our cameras, means that
we can produce large registrations with excep-
tionally high quality. We possess this combi-
nation. We are also able to do content analy-
sis because we know how to position these
images, independent of how and where a
vehicle was at the moment of capturing the
image. You cant do this with a random image,
you have to know how its being created.
Sander Jongeleen is CSO of Cyclomedia. For more
information, have a look at: www.cyclomedia.nl.
Other links:
www.rosetta.eu
www.ve.geodan.nl
models to create environments you can mea-
sure virtually. We are not interested in small
models, but think of models of one country
as whole.
R&D
Creating Cycloramas requires a lot of technol-
ogy and research. Jongeleen: When looking
at the Cyclorama chain, we develop our own
camera systems, processing software, man-
agement software based on standard
databases, our hosting applications, and anal-
ysis and 3D construction software. This is all
done in-house. At the moment we have 40
R&D employees. We position ourselves as
content makers, integrating this content
inside an application. We also have partners
for all markets that we serve. What a lot of
people dont realize, is that theres a whole
chain around this capturing process. It takes
a while before you are able to start driving
and capturing images, for instance, calibra-
tion of the system. We add around five vehi-
cles a month with our new image capturing
system.
The new system contains a high-quality GPS
antenna, two specific cameras, a temperature
tuning unit and an eye-view trackers naviga-
tion sensor, all packed into one compact unit.
I nt er vi ew
25
March 2009
Cyclomedia vehicle
Adding Value to the Distribution Chain of Satellite Imagery
Geoserve is a Dutch distributor of satellite data and offers information and distribution services. Active since 1997, the
company specialized itself in getting the right data for the customer. At the moment they are operational in 18 countries
all over the world. Frank Wouters, CEO of Geoserve, explains how the company operates in the data satellite imagery
distribution chain, and why culture is so important. Last year, a self-organized conference for suppliers and end users
of satellite imagery showed the added value of the company in this highly specialized and rapidly growing market.
By Eric van Rees
Can you give an overview of the
satellite imagery market? What is
Geoserves place in this market?
Actually, we supply raw data to everyone
who needs it, like large end users such as oil
companies, ministries, large engineering com-
panies and the like. But we also win service
contracts, such as those from the JRC in Italy:
this is the research agency of the European
Union that writes out tenders on which you
can bid. If you win such a contract, you have
supply rights for five years for a fixed price.
Apart from this, there are lots of small clients
who incidentally need data, and what Id call
interesting gadgets. For instance, people
who want to know if dredging work has been
done according contractual agreements.
I started this company by myself in 1997,
and now we are six people. We have a sales
volume of 1,5 to 2 million Euros a year and
this amount is still growing. One notices that
the kind of sales and the way of doing busi-
ness changes very much, and also the
amount of work is growing more and more.
In the early days, you could choose between
four or five satellites but now there are twen-
ty five of them, so you need to have more
knowledge which takes a little more effort,
before you can give your customers good
advice.
For Geoserve, its more or less accidental
where we are active and where we are not.
At the moment, we have customers in 18 dif-
ferent countries, which is not bad for a small
company.
Last year you organized a conference
at Schiphol Airport in the Nether -
lands, where you invited several
satellite imagery distributors and
their clients. Can you tell me about
the use and necessity of this
conference? How do you look back
at the event?
For us, organizing this conference was an
experiment that turned out to be a success.
We as a company are so convinced of our
added value in the distribution chain and of
the fact that this market is so complicated, that
we decided to put all our clients and distribu-
tors in one room. There was a risk of clients
saying we dont need Geoserve, I can do busi-
ness with suppliers directly, but we were sure
26
I nt er vi ew
March 2009
of our role so we didnt think we would be
eliminated from the chain. It was also a nice
experiment, because our clients could speak
to our suppliers, which is something they dont
normally do because we are the intermediate
party. Everyone had a good time that day, and
I have the feeling that we gained more cus-
tomers instead of losing clients. We hope to
organize the next Geoserve conference in 2010.
Also, we want to keep it free for everyone and
organize it at a location that can be reached
easily, to show that logistics is a matter of
using ones brains.
When we started in 1997, the internet was all
very new and we didnt know if everybody was
going to gather information all by themselves,
and not consult us. Before that time, we were
the only ones having fax and telephone con-
tacts with main suppliers. We were uncertain
if we could make a difference in this market
now that suppliers could publish their prod-
ucts on the internet so that everyone could
look these up for themselves. The answer has
always been yes, and I foresee that this will
stay that way: of course everyone can go to a
supplier and get an offer, but the question is
if you havent deprived yourself seriously.
One thing that struck me during the
presentations of all the data distrib-
utors, was that you have to know
every little detail to be able to tell
the difference between the services
of one distributor and another.
This is exactly our problem when finding new
employees. You can get employees with a cer-
tain basic knowledge, but you will have to
not as their main activity, but as a side line. I
have always thought that in the long run, you
cannot afford this because the industry would
professionalize so that only the companies
that would invest and focus most would sur-
vive. And thats what were trying to do.
educate them yourself. This is a disadvantage,
but you can turn this into an advantage as
well. Our mission is also unique in Europe,
except for the big organizations, but I dont
know any small companies that focus purely
on distribution in Europe. There are a lot of
companies out there that treat distribution
I nt er vi ew
27
March 2009
Satellite Imagery samples
www.topcon.eu
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Has the quality of satellite imagery
yet reached a maximum? And how
about the techniques of acquiring
this imagery?
No, the techniques are still developing rapid-
ly. At this moment there is the problem of leg-
islative restrictions instead of technical restric-
tions. The GeoEye-1 imagery is more detailed
than what is sold. Technically seen, it can be
41 centimeters resolution but it is sold at 50
centimeters. In terms of detail rendering, there
is not much more possible, but at the same
time you can add more spectral bands so that
you get 100 channels of a certain area. With
this you can perform mineral analysis in a
much better way for instance.
With satellite imagery you can see if a tree
is healthy or not. These optical bands have
all been determined, but, the more frequen-
cies you have, the more data youll get. In the
past, the bandwidth was limited for record-
ing and sending data to the ground. That
meant you had to make a choice in terms of
frequencies. Now this becomes less a restric-
tion so you can record more frequencies, but
now the problem is that you have to know
who do know how to deal with it work for
government agencies and dont teach. Even if
you educate someone, this person is not yet
a radar expert, because you need to have a
couple of years of practice before you can call
him or her an expert. So these people are not
there at the moment. And the best studies
that are there are all commercial ones, pub-
lic universities have not yet caught up with
offering this studies.
For more information,
have a look at www.geoserve.nl
what you want with all
these frequencies.
An area that has a lot
of potential at the
moment is radar
imagery. In terms of
detail, a lot is possible
but the problem is that
hardly anyone at the
moment exactly under-
stands how to analyze
this and acquire the
information from it.
There is an enormous
backlog when it comes to people who can
interpret radar well.
How come nobody knows how to do
this?
Those satellites providing radar images have
lots of possibilities that have only recently
become available. The problem is that lots of
radar data have been made available for the
commercial market only recently and that
theres hardly anybody to deal with it and
therefore nobody to teach this. The people
I nt er vi ew
29
March 2009
Handheld Computers with Built-In GPS
Capabilities help to clean up Graffiti
The Reykjavik Graffiti Project
The City of Reykjavik Department of Public Works Department began a pilot project to identify and stop the citys growing
graffiti problem. Using Trimble Recon and Trimble Nomad handheld computers, individuals collected precise GPS data
points for nearly 25,000 graffiti points. Also, staffers captured attribute data such as size, mark, type, and location of
graffiti. The team shared GIS and attribute data with police to support stronger legal action against graffiti. With this
information the they implemented a more systematic and efficient cleaning schedule to paint over tagged areas.
In six months, the department reported a 62 percent decrease in the number of graffiti marks in Reykjavik city centre.
By Rebecca Peck
Founded in 1786, Reykjavik is the capital of
Iceland and the northern-most capital city in
the world. The Reykjavik Capital Area has just
under 120,000 inhabitants, which is about 40
percent of the total population of the coun-
try. As the modern capital of a highly devel-
oped country, the city boasts a first-class
infrastructure that is managed by city council
and maintained by the City of Reykjavik
Department of Public Works.
In 2007, the Reykjavik community began to
notice a growing problem on the city streets:
graffiti. Faced with this issue, the citys depart-
ment of public works began an important
pilot project. Two staff members from the
citys GIS group began using Trimble Recon
handheld computers equipped with ESRI
ArcPad software to collect data points and
other attributes about graffiti marks. With
these handhelds the GIS team performed reli-
able, accurate, and validated field data col-
lection of graffiti marks located on city prop-
erty, including traffic signs, parking meters,
trashcans, and other public assets.
Combating Graffiti City-wide
The team also collected GPS coordinates and
took digital photos of graffiti on private (as
well as public) property, including tags found
on garages, private residences, fences, and
more. For the initial project, the team focused
on a small section of the city centre, captur-
ing data points for about 3300 (se poster)
unique graffiti marks all at a reliable 2 to 5
meter accuracy level. The team then loaded
the data into the public work databases to
allow further analysis and to share this
detailed information with the citys police
department and the city council. With data
from the pilot project in hand, the city coun-
cil determined it was time to implement a
more strategic and long-term plan for com-
30
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
bating graffiti city-wide. Trimble will use their
experience from this pilot project with few
changes to use in the project Clean City 2008.
In 2008 the council enacted Project Clean
City and at that point we knew we needed to
extend our investment in Trimble to make the
project a success, said Hermann Her -
mannsson, GI specialist for the Reykjavik
Department of Public Works. We purchased
five Trimble Nomad handheld computers to
month period the students worked a com-
bined 1,600 hours and collected nearly 25,000
unique graffiti points. Using the integrated
GPS receiver within the Nomad devices, they
captured the precise location of each graffiti
mark along with valuable attribute data,
including: type of position (i.e. garage, house,
lamp pole, etc.), size of graffiti mark, and type
of graffiti (i.e. words, images, etc.). For even
more detail, the team took about 8000 digi-
collect, save, and transmit data in the field
because they are rugged, have a long battery
life and they include built-in GPS, bar code
scanner, and digital camera.
Saving Time and Money
To get the project off the ground quickly, the
department hired students studying GIS at
Reykjavik University to collect graffiti data
points throughout the entire city. Over a five
Latest
Ar t i cl e
31
March 2009
Graffiti and tags in Reykjavik city center March 2008
Graffiti and tags in Reykjavik city center October 2008
Are you using costly, outdated paper map books to complete
time-sensitive projects such as field mapping, asset inventory,
asset maintenance, inspections or incident reports?
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For more information, please contact your local distributor or call ESRI Europe at +31-10-217-7788, or ESRI headquarters at +1-909-793-2853.
Croatia
www.gisdata.hr
Czech Republic
www.arcdata.cz
Denmark
www.informi.dk
Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania
www.hnit-baltic.lt
Finland
www.esri-nland.com
France
www.esrifrance.fr
F.Y.R.O.M.
www.gisdata.hr
Germany
www.esri-germany.de
Austria
www.synergis.co.at
Belgium and Luxembourg
www.esribelux.com
Bosnia and Herzegovina
www.gisdata.hr
Bulgaria
www.esribulgaria.com
Georgia
www.geographic.ge
Greece and Cyprus
www.marathondata.gr
Hungary
www.esrihu.hu
Iceland
www.samsyn.is
Israel
www.systematics.co.il
Italy
www.esriitalia.it
Malta
www.geosys.com.mt
Moldova
www.trimetrica.com
The Netherlands
www.esrinl.com
Norway
www.geodata.no
Poland
www.esripolska.com.pl
Portugal
www.esri-portugal.pt
Romania
www.esriro.ro
Russia
www.dataplus.ru
Slovak Republic
www.arcgeo.sk
Slovenia
www.gisdata.hr
Spain
www.esri-es.com
Sweden
www.esri-sgroup.se
Switzerland
www.esri-suisse.ch
Turkey
www.esriturkey.com.tr
Ukraine
www.ecomm.kiev.ua
UK/Ireland
www.esriuk.com
tal photos using the handhelds integrat-
ed digital camera. This information was
then loaded into the departments
database where staff could compile
results, make queries, and identify pat-
terns in the data.
The team is able to calculate the com-
bined square meters of certain types of
graffiti, and then the police use surveil-
lance footage to match them to the
responsible parties, said Hermannsson.
Our data is helping to make the case for
tracking these crimes on a larger scale,
essentially so law enforcement can take
more effective legal action.
In addition to supporting the police, the
department is also using the data to deploy
a more systematic graffiti cleaning schedule.
Today public works staffers are assigned to
particular areas to clean or paint over the
marks. And because details about the graffiti
are shared beforehand, field workers can
bring the right tools to the site the first time,
saving time and money. Hermannsson
believes quick action is important because
ultimately graffiti tends to attract more graffi-
ti and even other criminal activities.
seek to recognize best practice in six crit-
ical areas of city management, from Best
City Initiative to Best City Experience. The
City of Reykjavik has been recognized as
a finalist in the prestigious Centre
Experience category; winners will be
announced in spring 2009.
Hermannsson believes that Trimble
Nomad handheld devices were critical in
helping his department tackle the citys
graffiti problem in the most efficient and
cost effective manner possible. Pending
future funding, the public works depart-
ment plans to continue its efforts by
cleaning up graffiti as quickly as possible
and by revaluating the effectiveness of the
program on a yearly basis.
Collecting thousands of graffiti data points
by hand would have been nearly impossible,
taking too many man hours and requiring too
much money, said Hermannsson. Were
always looking for ways to stretch our bud-
get and without Trimble the problem could
have gotten out of control quickly.
For more information, have a look at
www.trimble.com/mgis
Cost Effective
Since the start of the project in 2008, the pub-
lic works department has recorded fewer inci-
dences of graffiti in the projects sample area,
which spans Reykjavik city centre. In fact, by
October the pilot project area had 168 graffiti
points, compared to the 445 captured in
Marcha decrease of more than 62% over-
all. Happy with the results, the team nominat-
ed the Reykjavik Clean City Project for an
award sponsored by the Association of Town
Centre Management (ATCM). The ATCM Awards
Ar t i cl e
33
March 2009
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GLONASS Glory
GNSS Updat e
The GLONASS program is finally getting up to speed with another three
satellites launched on Christmas day. This seems to be the Russians favorite
launch date; they have launched three GLONASS satellites as Christmas
presents to the world in the last few years. For the last two years, Resetnev
Information Satellite Systems, the Russia-based builder of the GLONASS
satellites, has been producing six GLONASS-M SVs per year in accordance with
the Federal GLONASS Program schedule. All in all, as you are reading about it
the constellation is getting very close to 20 operational satellites.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
Although the launch of new satellites is
hardly news any more for GLONASS, it is dif-
ferent this time. With almost all the older-type
satellites being decommissioned, it seems
that the build up is finally becoming reality.
According to Sergey Revnivykh of the Russian
Space Agency (RSA), there should be a nomi-
nal 18 satellites, depending on whether the
last older-type satellites keep functioning or
not. Russia expects to have enough GLONASS
satellites operational by the end of this year
to provide global services.
GLONASS Developments
In the meantime the Russians are designing
the next generation of satellites: the
GLONASS-K. These will use the GPS compati-
ble CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) sig-
nal structure instead of the current FDMA
(Frequency Division Multiple Access) tech-
nique. Or in laymans terms, it should become
easier (and therefore cheaper) for manufac-
turers to build GLONASS / GPS / Galileo
receivers in a decade or so.
Galileo
The European Union has issued a second call
for Galileo and Egnos proposals under the 7th
Research Framework Programme (FP7). Out of
a budget of 40 million Euros, around 39 mil-
lion is to go to European businesses to devel-
op new applications and services in prepara-
tion for Galileos operational phase. Proposals
should demonstrate the benefits and efficien-
cy of satellite navigation technology. The
focus is on research with a short time-to-mar-
ket to maximize impact in the short term.
GPS
Lockheed Martin, who is developing the GPS
III satellites, has successfully completed an
integrated baseline review. This review con-
sists of a comprehensive review of the entire
program. The next step will be the comple-
tion of the space vehicle preliminary design
review in the second quarter of 2009. The first
launch of a GPS IIIA satellite is still projected
for 2014.
QZSS
The Japanese GPS augmentation system QZSS
differs from the American WAAS and European
Egnos in that it does not use geostationary
satellites. Instead it uses satellites that rotate
in a figure of eight pattern, which solves one
of the major problems experienced with WAAS
and Egnos: the fact that the satellites are low
to the horizon in northern and southern lati-
tudes.
The QZSS satellites will,
besides augmentation
signals, also transmit L1,
L2 and L5 signals. The
aim of the Japanese
authorities is to have
QZSS transmit the GPS
L1C signal before GPS
itself. The first Japanese
QZSS satellite should be
launched in 2010. The
entire constellation will
consist of three satellites
giving excellent coverage
over Japan.
Compass
China has confirmed that it plans to complete
its Compass GNSS by 2015. At that date, a
Chinese space technology official stated on
January 18, a total of 30 more satellites will
have been launched,. There are already plans
for sending 10 navigation satellites into space
in 2009 and 2010.
hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is project manager
at IDsW and a freelance writer and trainer.
This article reflects his personal opinion.
34
Ar t i cl e
(
s
o
u
r
c
e
:

w
w
w
.
i
a
b
c
.
c
z
)
Japanese QZS1 satellite (source: www.nasa.gov)
March 2009
I find it really amazing when talking with programmers who arent
familiar with GIS how they perform typical GIS analysis tasks. They
break down what are complicated tasks for even GIS Analysts to
accomplish into very basic tools and concepts. With so many people
getting into spatial analysis with spatial databases such as Microsoft
SQL Server and PostGIS, the freedom that they attack complex spatial
analysis is very refreshing. It seems just yesterday that the big thing
was putting pushpins on a map and visualizing tabular data. Today
the really amazing work is taking that visual information and perform-
ing analysis on it inside lightweight clients directly by the end users.
No longer do we have middleware getting in the way of decision mak-
ers working directly with the information. So what does this mean for
GIS professionals? We need to stop referring to what we do as geo-
processing, GIS or anything that doesnt directly describe what is
going on. Many GIS pros tell me their spouse doesnt understand what
they do and if we cant explain it to our loved ones, how are we going
to explain it to general users? Ease of use is also critical. Leveraging
consumer interfaces such as Google Earth/Maps and Virtual Earth are
all that is needed. We arent trying to enable GIS of the web, just
allowing people to work with the data. In conjunction with this, we
only need to enable simple analysis (buffers, intersections, distance
calculations). This means that we deliver simple solutions to the cus-
tomers and that goes a very long way to scalability (the heavy lifting
can be done by the spatial database which is designed to handle
such work). We are already seeing the realization of these concepts
where companies such as ESRI, Microsoft and others are using sim-
ple front ends to complex analytical work. Working with simple APIs
where users can easily work with spatial data, allowing dynamic visu-
al presentation allowing users to determine the how and why to make
important decisions. Not only
will they be happy that they
can work directly with data
they already have in their
databases, but theyll be com-
ing back to ask you to give
them more. Isnt that what
both the user and the pro-
grammer want?
Column
Putting Spatial Analysis in Front of Users
James Fee james.fee@rsparch.comis Geospatial Manager at RSP Architects Ltd.
Have a look at his blog www.spatiallyadjusted.com
Register today at
www.esri.com/uc.
Copyright 2009 ESRI. Alal rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.
JULY 1317 | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
ESRI International User Conference
Jane Schafer-Kramer, GIS Analyst,
California Department of Water Resources
This is the most value-packed
conference I have ever attended.
GIS Is Vital to Managing Our Rapidly Changing World
Advance Your Use of GIS at the ESRI UC
Our global economic and environmental systems are increasingly
dynamic, bringing about unprecedented change. Attend the
ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) to get the skills and
connections you need to move forward with your GIS projects
and applications.
Hear aboul advances in lhe sollware lools and melhods
that support your efforts.
Learn new ways lo leverage your currenl ClS inveslmenls.
Meel slall lrom all areas ol LSPl.
A GIS-based Platform for Environmental and Water Resources Modeling
The Kalypso project encompasses a rich environment for environmental and water resources modeling. Workflow-based
pre- and post-processing functions allow for preparing input data for computation modules and analyzing computational
results in a GIS context. A precipitation-runoff model, a one-dimensional water surface profile model and a model for
unsteady coupled 1D/2D flows for surface waters are distributed as freeware with Kalypso as well.
By Gernot Belger, Michael Haase, Thomas Jung and Kaj Lippert
Kalypso is a software product serving as a
modeling environment in the field of water
resources management, for example for devel-
oping flood defense concepts, flood hazard
maps and flood risk maps. Kalypso is designed
to be used by public associations, public
authorities, universities and engineering com-
panies engaged in the fields of water resource
management as well as nature and landscape
conservation. The software is developed in the
context of an open source project and may
therefore be used free of charge. It is licensed
with the GNU LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public
License) and can be downloaded from kalyp-
so.sourceforge.net. Kalypso meets all relevant
OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards.
The European Flood Directive (2007/60/EC) on
the assessment and management of flood risks
came into effect on November 2007. This direc-
tive requires Member States of the European
Union to identify the river basins and associat-
ed coastal areas at risk of flooding by 2011, in
a preliminary assessment. For such zones the
Member States need to draw up flood risk maps
by 2013 and establish flood risk management
plans focused on prevention, protection and
preparedness by 2015. The challenge to meet
the required specifications of this directive is
immense and demands the application of spe-
cial software tools - such as Kalypso.
Technical Basis
KalypsoBASE is a framework for building Java-
based rich client decision support and infor-
mation systems. It resembles a Greek temple
(see figure 1). The foundation of KalypsoBASE
rests on the Java programming language which
includes the corresponding Java virtual machine
and the Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) development
environment. The pillars in this analogy, among
others, are the deegree GIS www.deegree.org,
the Java Topology Suite www.vividsolu
tions.com/jts/jtshome.htm for processing geo-
data, the Open Office package www.openof
fice.org, the JFreeChart www.jfree.org/jfreechart
collection and the Apache Commons library
commons. apache.org. On top rests the archi-
trave and frieze, the latter carries the facets OGC
WMS-Client, OGC WFS-Client, OGC WPS-Server
and OGC WPS-Client, GML-3-Formats (for details
about these services and formats please refer
to the Open Geospatial Consortium, www.open
geospatial.org). These libraries are encapsulat-
ed by KalypsoBASE, which represents the tym-
36
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Kalypso Open Source
Figure 1. Setup of KalypsoBASE
panum within the cornice of this temple.
Kalypso Modules
Kalypso Modules are based upon KalypsoBASE.
At present, the following main modules are
available as open source from the Kalypso
Project:
Kalypso Hydrology A distributed rainfall-
runoff model for simulating hydrological
processes within a catchment
Kalypso WSPM A one-dimensional back-
water surface profiling model for one-
dimensional non-uniform steady fluvial flow
Kalypso 1D/2D A hybrid one- and two-
dimensional Finite Element model for
non-steady flow simulation of rivers and
estuaries
Kalypso Flood A tool for visualizing flood-
ed areas determined either by Kalypso
WSPM or Kalypso 1D/2D
Kalypso Risk A tool for determining the
expected annual damage and classifying
flood prone areas into risk zones
Kalypso Hydrology, Kalypso WSPM and Kalypso
1D/2D are comprised of three parts: a data pre-
processing component, a numerical processing
component the numerical processing software
is available as freeware with the Kalypso
Modules from the Institute of Hydraulic
Engineering at the Technical University of
Hamburg-Harburg (www.tu-harburg.de/wb/) -
and a post-processing component for present-
ing and analyzing data obtained with the
numerical processing component. Data can be
easily shared between the different Kalypso
Modules.
Kalypso Hydrology
Kalypso Hydrology is a software package for
carrying out precipitation-runoff simulations.
The model allows for simulating the entire land-
based part of the water balance on the basis
Navigator. The selected map is displayed on the
center upper part of the window. Commonly
known means for navigating on the map and
editing geometry features are of course provid-
ed as well. On the lower central part of the win-
dow time series for user selected nodes are pre-
sented. On the right hand side alpha-numeric
model data may be edited and simulation runs
controlled as well.
Tools are at hand for building flood forecasting
centers on the basis of Kalypso Hydrology.
Online precipitation and gauge runoff data may
then be used to generate flood forecasts. This
information will help emergency management
services to coordinate their activities in order
to save lives and assets as well as avoid envi-
ronmental hazards. The public and decision
makers are provided with up-to-date warning
messages via a variety of pull and push ser-
vices (e.g. web pages, teletext, SMS). The flood
forecasting centers of the German states of
Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt have been equipped
with this software.
Kalypso WSPM
Kalypso WSPM (Water Surface Profiling Model)
is a module for determining one-dimensional
water surface profiles in near-natural creeks and
rivers, e.g. for identifying inundated areas on
the floodplain due to predefined creek / river
flows on the basis of flood plain and river mor-
phology. Flood plain and river cross sections
are established on the basis of Digital Terrain
Models (DTM) and morphologic river surveys.
These cross sections are technically subdivided
into a main channel with foreshores on the left
and right hand side of the main channel. In
addition, the hydraulic active area must be
specified in order to define boundary conditions
for the numerical computation.
The model allows for computing stationary non-
uniform water surface profiles, optionally tak-
ing user selectable flow laws into account
(Darcy-Weissbach or Gauckler-Manning-
of a given time
series. It transforms
precipitation, poten-
tial evaporation and
temperature input
data into runoff out-
put data, on the
basis of predefined
process parameters
derived from physi-
cal spatial data, such
as the distribution of
soil types in a catchment.
In this context the processes of snow storage,
evapotranspiration, soil water storage, ground-
water recharge, surface runoff, interflow (lateral
water flows in the vadose zone), groundwater
flow, and flow in rivers, creeks and open chan-
nels (wave translation) are modeled. In order
to be able to analyze the water balance in the
catchment in detail, the catchment is subdivid-
ed into subcatchments which in turn may be
comprised of several distinct hydrological
homogeneous areas (hydrotopes).
The setup and editing of the model is support-
ed by a graphical user interface thereby mak-
ing extensive use of built-in GIS-functions.
Topological river/creek networks are defined as
node-link-networks against the geographical
background information. Simulation runs are
controlled within this environment by the graph-
ical user interfaces as well. The calculated runoff
may be analyzed at any node of the node-link-
networks by selecting a node with the mouse
on the map.
Figure 2 depicts an example of the user inter-
face of Kalypso Hydrology. On the left hand side
within the Navigator different model-specific
information items
may be selected (e.g.
maps, model scenar-
ios) in a treelike view.
Display characteris-
tics of selected maps
may be defined with-
in the Outline view
located below the
Ar t i cl e
37
March 2009
Figure 2. User interface
of Kalypso Hydrology
depicting a map of the
river / creek network
and assigned gauging
data.
of Kalypso WSPM
depicting a map of a
stretch of a river
including assigned
cross sections and a
selected cross section in
detail.
Strickler). Fouling roughness is accounted for
by the approach of Pasche and Linder. The
effects on the flow regimes of intersecting
bridges and weirs are taken into account by the
software.
Figure 3 depicts an example of the Kalypso
WSPM user interface for analyzing cross sec-
tions. All cross sections are listed with regard
to the station of the intersection of the cross
sections with the creek / river branches in a
tree-like view on the upper left side of window.
On the lower left side of the window a map
depicts the location of the cross sections. The
selected cross section is presented to the user
in a diagram on the right hand side of the win-
dow. The numeric properties of this cross sec-
tion are contained in a spreadsheet-like view
on the upper right side of the window. The user
may either edit the cross section data in the
diagram view by using mouse functions or in
the spreadsheet.
Roughness and
fouling zones can
be automatically
assigned to cross
sections by integrat-
ed GIS functions
(intersection).
Geographic data may be imported and export-
ed in ESRI Shape and Grid formats. Web Map
Services can be integrated as background infor-
mation on demand. An interface to Kalypso
Flood is provided in order to revise inundation
areas. In order to account for comparisons of
different model scenarios (e.g. for analyzing the
effects of nature-oriented flood protection mea-
sures by relocating dykes on the flood plain
upstream on flood patterns of densely popu-
lated areas, downstream of a selected river /
creek) calculation results are automatically
stored in the background for further analysis.
Kalypso 1D/2D
Kalypso 1D/2D allows for computing water sur-
face profiles for the unsteady flow of surface
waters. The study area may either be discretized
by a two-dimensional mesh of finite elements
or a one-dimensional string of nodes. As a spe-
cial feature of this module, one- and two-dimen-
sional modeled areas may be linked into a sin-
gle hydraulic model (see figure 4). No limits
exist with regard to the number of transitions
between one- and two-dimensiona-modeled
river / creek stretches. The programs nucleus is
based upon the well known RMA 10S by Prof.
Ian King of Resource Management Associates
and has been further enhanced by the Technical
University of Hamburg-Harburg. The mathemati-
cal basis of the computation module is formed
by the St. Venant equations and the depth-aver-
aged shallow water equations. The computa-
tion module is based on the finite element
method (FEM).
The computation module allows for optionally
selecting either the flow-laws of Darcy-Weisbach
or Gauckler-Manning-Strickler. Fouling rough-
ness is also accounted for. Wetting and drying
algorithms are integrated in the two-dimension-
al modeling approach for determining spatial
transitions for unsteady flow conditions. The
software is capable of handling subcritical as
well as supercritical flow conditions during sim-
ulation. Various turbulence models are imple-
mented in the software, e.g. constant eddy vis-
cosity, soil surface induced turbulence model,
Prandtls mixing length concept and
Smagorinskys model.
Kalypso 1D/2D allows for cost efficient hydraulic
analysis of long river stretches in big catchment
areas. Depending on the local complexity of the
hydraulic processes and the required accuracy
of the results, either the one- or two-dimen-
sional approach can be selected for modeling
the particular stretch of river / creek. For exam-
ple, straight stretches of rivers confined by
mainly agricultural or forested areas can be
modeled extremely well with the one-dimen-
38
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Figure 4. User Interface
of Kalypso 1D/2D
depicting simulation
results flow velocities
and flow depths
against the back-
ground of a transition
between a one- and
two-dimensionally
modeled project area.
Figure 5. Manual extrapolation of inundation areas with Kalypso Flood - workflow from left to right.
sional approach, with good results. On the
other hand, urban areas with high vulnerabili-
ties will need to be modeled in a more detailed
manner by using the two-dimensional
approach. Both approaches may be linked into
a single hydraulic model. Choosing the
unsteady flow simulating option of the compu-
tation module allows for taking hydrodynamic
effects of the flood wave propagation into
account. Thus, the effects of flood plain reten-
tion can be modeled with a high degree of accu-
racy. The latter is commonly neglected in steady
state flow calculations. The resulting inundation
areas of extreme flows may therefore be small-
er using this option and thus flood protection
schemes designed on the basis of these simu-
lations may save money to the taxpayer.
The module is equipped with powerful pre- and
post-processing functions which are integrated
in the graphical user interface. The user inter-
face is based on the idea of workflow manage-
ment and has been designed and implement-
ed according to modern principles. The entire
process of setting up a hydraulic model and
analyzing model results is implemented in a
workflow-driven manner, thus the user is pro-
vided the utmost assistance in handling the sys-
tem. The user is interacting with the modeling
software on a background of available spatial
information, e.g. maps supplied for the study
area by a Web Map Service.
A finite element mesh generator for river chan-
nels, based on cross sections as well as meth-
ods for generating and refining the finite ele-
ment mesh (e.g. on the floodplains), is
implemented in the system. Finite element
nodal points are automatically assigned eleva-
tions on the basis of a digital terrain model e.g.
derived from airborne laser scanner data.
Common data interfaces are supported by the
software for this purpose (e.g. ESRI ASCII Grid
format). Land use data may be utilized for
assigning roughness values to the finite ele-
areas. Figure 5 depicts the workflow for extrap-
olating flow depths into a side river branch
which has not been included in the hydraulic
modeling process.
Kalypso Risk
Kalypso Risk complements the post-processing
palette of Kalypso with a module for determin-
ing flood risks along the course of rivers. On
the basis of land use data and flow depths, the
module provides a means for determining dam-
age potentials and yearly expected damage val-
ues as well as allocating risk zones. For deter-
mining annually expected damage values, flow
depth data from a variety of flood events cor-
responding to different return intervals are
required.
Land use data are imported as Shape data into
Kalypso Risk. Flow depths are imported as
raster data in ESRI ASCII Grid format. Efficient
management tools for carrying out these tasks
are provided in the Kalypso Risk user interface.
Annual expected damage values are computed
based upon a mesoscale approach for mone-
tary values (specific asset allocations to land
use categories) and user selected stage-dam-
age function, which determine the relationship
between water depth and structure damage.
The user of Kalypso Risk can choose between
working with specific asset values and stage-
damage functions defined by him or herself, or
applying existing material, e.g. from the
International Commission for the Protection of
the Rhine (IKSR) or the International
Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River
(IKSE). Annual expected damage values are of
particular interest in evaluation processes of
planned flood protection schemes, e.g. for car-
rying out cost-benefit analysis.
Flood risk zones are derived from specific annu-
ally expected damage values [/a/m ]. Six risk
zone categories may be differentiated with
Kalypso Risk taking only the land use cate-
gories settlement areas and unsettled areas
into account; a differentiation between highly
affected, medium affected and little affect-
ed is possible. The user interface offers a
means for defining and editing limiting values
for these categories. Figure 6 depicts an exam-
ple for a risk zone classification of a settled area
close to a meandering river (southern bound-
ary in figure 6).
Mr. Gernot Belger, Dr. Michael Haase, Mr. Thomas
Jung and Dr. Kaj Lippert are with the department of
Hydroinformatics at Bjrnsen Consulting Engineers
in Koblenz, Germany www.bjoernsen.de,
e-mail: info@bjoernsen.de.
Have a look at: kalypso.sourceforge.net and
nofdpidss.sourceforge.net
ments by intersect-
ing the land use
layer with the finite
element mesh layer.
Results from the
computation mod-
ule may be auto-
matically processed
into, for instance,
flow vector maps,
inundation isolines
and flow speed isolines presented against a
background of topographic maps. Hydrographs
which are generated by the computation mod-
ule for all nodal points of the finite element
mesh can be displayed for user selected loca-
tions in time-series plots. Last but not least,
the user may define arbitrary cross sections for
display in a separate cross sectional view,
including water tables and ground surface.
Kalypso Flood
Kalypso Flood is a post-processing module for
determining and displaying inundated areas
and flow depths on the basis of digital terrain
model data and water surface profiles. Kalypso
Flood works with ESRI ASCII Grid formatted data
with arbitrary spatial resolution.
During data processing every cell of the digital
terrain model is assigned a water surface pro-
file value from the water surface profile data.
By determining the difference in these values
flow depths for every grid cell are calculated.
This results in a flow depth grid inheriting the
cell size and spatial resolution from the digital
terrain model being used. Water profile data are
directly imported from Kalypso WSPM and
Kalypso 1D/2D. Water profile data from other
sources may be imported in ESRI Shape format.
Kalypso Flood allows merging of different model
results into a single result set, thus providing a
means for combining separately computed
model segments for further processing. The
result of these computations is also used in
Kalypso Risk for determining damage potential
and risk maps. Data from Kalypso Flood may
be exported in ESRI ASCII Grid format for fur-
ther processing with other software.
Furthermore, Kalypso Flood provides a means
for manual data editing. For example, clip and
extrapolation areas may be defined in order to
exclude areas from intersection processes or to
assign water level data to areas with no water
level data for determining overall inundated
Ar t i cl e
39
March 2009
of Kalypso Risk depict-
ing an example of a
risk zone mapping
against the back-
ground of land use.
A n O p e n S o u r c e W e b G I S S o l u t i o n
The OpenGeo software stack provides a way to connect people with geographic
information through the web, but with a difference: it is entirely open source.
The stack includes PostGIS, a spatial database; GeoServer, a server for geospa-
tial data; GeoWebCache, a tile caching proxy; and OpenLayers, a map viewing
library. They can be used individually and with a variety of other projects. But
OpenGeo's comprehensive support makes it especially easy to combine them
all into a complete and customizable web GIS solution.
by Sebastian Benthall
For many kinds of software today from
web browsers to music players the abili-
ty to download and use an application at
zero cost is a rule, rather than an excep-
tion. A similar change is coming to geospa-
tial software, thanks largely to the growing
community of open source geospatial soft-
ware developers. By bringing several open
source components together, OpenGeo
provides a software stack comparable in
features to ESRI's ArcGIS Server.
The OpenGeo stack provides all the tools
needed to connect people to geospatial
information through Google and rich web
applications. Two things distinguish the
OpenGeo stack from other web GIS solu-
tions. First, components of the OpenGeo
can be used with almost any existing
geospatial infrastructure, so users are
never locked into a vendor. Second, the
OpenGeo stack is entirely open source
software.
A Sum of Parts
The OpenGeo stack has four pieces: PostGIS,
the database; GeoServer, the server;
GeoWebCache, the accelerator; and Open -
Layers, the client-side map viewer. Each piece
has its own history most often predating
OpenGeo and so is a stand-alone product.
PostGIS and OpenLayers each have hundreds
of users that have never even heard of the
other software.
The components are each designed for com-
patibility with a wide range of other products,
so users can maintain their existing infrastruc-
ture and are never locked into a single ven-
dor. If an agencys data is in Oracle Spatial,
they can still use GeoServer to publish it to
the web; they do not have to switch to
PostGIS. OpenLayers can be used with an
ArcGIS Server running as a Web Mapping
Service (WMS). And so on.
What enables the components to come
together as a stack is a commitment to open
standards such as those put forward by the
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The result
is that each piece of software speaks a com-
mon language with those it interacts with;
even though they are independent projects
they work together without a hitch.
Open Source
Compatible parts are convenient for users,
but what most distinguishes the OpenGeo
stack from comparable products is that it is
open source software. For the GIS profes-
sional, this means that the OpenGeo stack,
or any piece of it, is free to download and
use. But the difference between open source
and proprietary software runs deeper than
merely price.
Open source software projects are devel-
oped by communities that involve many dif-
ferent companies, independent consultants,
including academics and hobbyists. Diverse
communities mean that users have many
possible providers to turn to for support.
Indeed, much information can be found in
public mailing lists where users and core
developers compare notes and discuss new
features. The communities welcome partici-
pation because when a user raises an issue
it provides valuable knowledge to the pro-
ject as a whole. With users offering feedback
and several companies pooling resources on
the same project, the open source develop-
ment process can quickly enhance the soft-
ware allowing it to rise to new challenges.
40
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
The OpenGeo Stack
Figure 1 - OpenLayers contributor and project steering committee
member Tim Schaub teaches a new user how to use the software
at a workshop.
P
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o
:

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h
r
i
s
t
o
p
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e
r

S
c
h
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i
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t
PostGIS
When looking at the OpenGeo stack from back-
to-front, one starts with its newest addition,
PostGIS. PostGIS is an extension to the open
source database PostgreSQL that allows for the
efficient storage and lookup of geospatial fea-
tures. It is comparable to products like Oracle
Spatial and ESRI's ArcSDE.
One notable user of PostGIS is the Institut
Gographique National (IGN), France's national
mapping agency. IGN discovered that PostGIS's
performance was similar to proprietary alterna-
tives and used it in a prototype for a new data
management system. More than satisfied, they
then decided to use it permanently. Their sys-
tem now contains the data on roads, railways,
vegetation, administrative boundaries and more
for all of France. Field researchers synchroniz-
ing their findings with the database make heavy
use of PostGIS's robust transactional support.
The PostGIS project was begun in 2001 by
Refractions Research, a Canadian IT consultan-
cy. In 2008, OpenGeo hired a core PostGIS
developer in order to offer support for the pre-
mier open source spatial database.
stream large datasets to Google Earth with
ease, taking advantage of the 'Super Overlay'
features of KML.
MassGIS, the office of geographic information
for Massachusetts in the United States, uses
GeoServer to make all of its data available
through WMS and WFS. Another user is the
Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI),
which has clients like the Environmental
Protection Authority and the Bureau of Land
Management. Early MTRI use of GeoServer led
it to hire OpenGeo to add layer-level security
to GeoServer. This feature, important to many
organizations, is now available to them all
because of MTRI's funding. Meanwhile, Tyler
Erickson, a researcher at MTRI, contributed to
the GeoServer community more directly with
a tutorial on how to use GeoServer and
PostGIS to track tropical storms in Google
Earth (see Figure 2). GeoServer began in 2001
at The Open Planning Project (TOPP), a not-
for-profit organization based in New York City,
as one of its many eclectic projects. As
GeoServer gained in popularity and attracted
GeoServer
GeoServer is server software that publishes
geospatial information to the web. It connects
to a number of spatial data backends, includ-
ing ArcSDE, Oracle Spatial, Shapefiles, DB2,
and, of course, PostGIS. It then makes that
data available in all major open web stan-
dards. GeoServer can render data with Styled
Layer Descriptor (SLD), an open standard of
styling rules, into tiles and deliver them
through the WMS standard. It can serve
unrendered data in GML, GeoJSON, and KML,
the standard favored by Google, through Web
Feature Service (WFS). GeoServer also allows
through-the-web editing of geospatial data
using WFS's transactional extension.
GeoServer's programmers have responded to
the new demands the internet makes on the
world of geospatial information. In particular,
GeoServer now makes data crawlable by
Google so that it can be searched for in
Google Maps. In addition, GeoServer has bet-
ter support for Google Earth than any geospa-
tial server, proprietary or open source. Google
has funded OpenGeo to enable GeoServer to
Ar t i cl e
41
March 2009
Figure 2 - After using GeoServer at MTRI, Tyler Erickson wrote a tutorial on using GeoServer and PostGIS to track tropical storms in Google Earth for the community.
business, Chris Holmes, Managing Director at
TOPP, developed a broader vision of a social
enterprise focused on open source web GIS
tools. OpenGeo consequently spun off as
TOPP's geospatial software division and has
taken other projects into its stewardship.
GeoWebCache
Users of the WMS often run into performance
problems because it is difficult to render com-
plex tiles on the fly. In an age of fast, dynam-
ic web maps, slow loading times drive away
users.
OpenGeo's solution is GeoWebCache, a proxy
that sits between the WMS service (such as
GeoServer) and the client. GeoWebCache
maintains a store of cached tiles and inter-
cepts incoming requests for them. If the
appropriate tiles are in the cache, it provides
them quickly. Otherwise it queries the server
as usual.
GeoWebCache began as a student's summer
project funded by Google. Later OpenGeo
expanded it and made it part of the stack.
Users include SafeTrack, a Danish provider of
on-line fleet tracking software, the city gov-
ernment of San Francisco, and Sweden's
Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. The
latter has contracted with Curalia, a Swedish
consultancy, for improvements to Geo Web -
Cache that will be contributed back to the
community.
OpenLayers
Just because data is available on the web
does not mean that it is accessible to every-
one. Most users are uninterested in raw GML
or uncoordinated piles of tile images. Bringing
GIS to the web requires a user interface to
the data that can be accessed with a web
browser.
Google set the modern precedent for dynam-
ic maps on the web with Google Maps. The
OpenGeo stack contains an open source alter-
native: OpenLayers.
OpenLayers is a pure JavaScript, server-inde-
pendent library that displays dynamic maps
in a browser. An OpenLayers map can show
any WMS layer on the web with a few lines
of JavaScript code. It can import commercial
layers like those used by Google or Yahoo into
an OpenLayers map.
OpenLayers also supports the editing of fea-
tures through the browser. First, it parses data
in formats like KML and GML and renders it
on a map. Next, users modify the geometries
of those features with OpenLayers tools. Last,
OpenLayers can send the edited features back
to the server as a transaction. These features
make OpenLayers a good foundation for web
GIS applications.
The OpenLayers project started at MetaCarta
Inc., a company specializing in geographic
intelligence services. Early on, they opened
the source code. Now OpenLayers thrives with
a worldwide community of users and contrib-
utors. Some of the users, like Rijkswaterstaat,
the ministry of water and transportation in
the Netherlands, have worked with OpenGeo
to improve the library. Websites like
Everyblock.com, a geolocated new website,
and OpenStreetMap, a free editable road map
of the world, take advantage of OpenLayers
open source code and tailor it to their needs.
OpenGeo's Role
The projects in the OpenGeo stack are com-
munity-driven. OpenGeo, in particular, does-
n't "own" any of them, and anyone can
download any component from its project
website. So what makes any of this the
OpenGeo stack?
The answer is that OpenGeo employs experts
in the software who participate in each com-
munity. This qualifies OpenGeo to build new
features and fix bugs in its stacks. The latter
is necessary for the provision of support con-
tracts.
Proprietary software companies have worked
hard to perpetuate the idea that support is
the Achilles heel of open source. And indeed,
many organizations cannot depend on soft-
ware for which there is not a number to call
when something goes wrong. Even when an
open source solution is preferred, due to
affordability or technical superiority, decision-
makers within these organizations often have
difficulty convincing superiors to approve of
their choice because of perceived risks.
OpenGeo refutes the myth of the riskiness of
open source software by offering support con-
tracts from a qualified team.
Commercial support and services for open
source software is not a new idea. Red Hat
provides commercial support for Linux.
EnterpriseDB provides commercial support for
PostgreSQL. Oracle even provides support for
its own version of Linux. In the geospatial
domain, there are several other companies
that offer support on the very software
OpenGeo services. However, Open Geo has
gone a step beyond other companies in
42
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Figure 3 - TriMet's on-line Trip Planning application is built using several pieces of the OpenGeo stack.
putting together and supporting a
complete stack of software. A
database, server, or map viewer
alone has limited use to many
clients. Together they are a power-
ful web GIS solution, but in the past
it has been difficult to track down
help for each component.
Comprehensive support from a sin-
gle source removes that barrier to
adoption.
One of the users of OpenGeo stack
support is TriMet, the regional trans-
portation authority for Portland,
Oregon. TriMet overhauled their
interactive System Map and inte-
grated it with an on-line trip plan-
ning application, building it with
OpenGeo stack technology: Post -
GIS, GeoServer, and Open Layers.
Through an OpenGeo Enterprise
contract, TriMet guaranteed for itself
unlimited bug fixes and drove
enhancements to both GeoServer
and OpenLayers. But the choice to
use OpenGeo support paid off most
when, as part of the contract,
OpenLayers expert and project
steering committee member Tim
Schaub, flew out to Portland to
work with TriMet in person (see
Figure 3).
OpenGeo is a not-for-profit social
enterprise that measures its success
by the vitality of the projects it
sponsors. With no shareholders to satisfy, sto-
ries like TriMet's, in which a client contributes
to and becomes a part of an open source
community, are the ones it most enjoys
telling. Attempting to pioneer a new way of
Present and Future
OpenGeo is growing despite the eco-
nomic downturn and plans to expand
on its services and technology in the
coming year. It is exploring partnerships
with European companies to bring its
enterprise level of support to EU gov-
ernments. It plans to expand its train-
ing offerings with formal conferences
and improve its phone support system.
And it is broadening its software stack,
working with Camptocamp, a Swiss
company, to develop a new suite of
tools for building rich web mapping
applications named GeoExt.
With all this growth, OpenGeo has
begun working on marketing efforts as
well, but so far most of its success has
been due to the quality of its stack
speaking for itself. Those curious about
the product should inquire with the
users' mailing list for each project, and
take advantage of the freedom of the
software.
Sebastian Benthall seb@opengeo.org is a soft-
ware developer and open source
contributor at OpenGeo http://opengeo.org
making and doing business, Chris Holmes
styles OpenGeo as an open source "dot-org",
fast paced, commercially sustained and tech-
savvy like a dot-com, but driven primarily by
mission, not money.
Ar t i cl e
43
March 2009
Chris Holmes, Managing Director at The Open Planning Project and President
of OpenGeo.
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A Testimony to the Power of Open Source
Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user-friendly Geographic Information System
(GIS). It is written in C++ and Python with a Qt4-based graphical user
interface (GUI). It is licensed under the GNU General Public License
(GPL) and is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial
Foundation (OSGeo). The current stable version 1.0 was released in
January 2009.
History
The QGIS project started in February of 2002, with the first release in
June of the same year. The initial goal was to create a viewer for PostGIS
data that ran on GNU/Linux. From those beginnings, QGIS has become
a true cross-platform application that runs on all major versions of Unix
and GNU/Linux, as well as Mac OSX and MS Windows. It supports
numerous vector, raster, and database formats and provides a wide
variety of core and external geo-processing functionalities.
1. QGIS Open Source Community
The QGIS project is the work of a group of dedicated developers, trans-
lators, documenters, release helpers, bug reporters, and promoters.
Their contributions are mainly on a voluntary basis, except in a few
cases where people are able to contribute to QGIS as part of their daily
work. QGIS is managed by the Project Steering Committee (PSC), a five-
member committee providing technical guidance, community liaison,
release management, and financial/marketing activities. The work of
the QGIS project process is spread between numerous people who each
have a specific area of responsibility, and ad-hoc contributors.
These volunteers together with a large number of users make up the
world-wide QGIS community (see Figure 1). Over time their efforts have
resulted in a comprehensive, valuable and useful code and documen-
tation base which is free for everyone to use and improve upon.
With community platforms such as the website, wiki, forums, and blog,
the QGIS project provides current news, release, usage, and develop-
ment information. In most cases these community web sites permit
user contributions after registering. The QGIS-user mailing lists, forum
and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) provide a valuable interface with other
users and for discussions of QGIS in general. In the spirit of open pro-
cess and sharing knowledge, contacting developers directly instead of
going through these community-based avenues of communication is
frowned upon.
2. Graphical User Interface
Working with QGIS is simple and intuitive as you are presented with a
modern and friendly GUI based on Qt4. All functions are clearly sepa-
rated (see Figure 2).
A menu bar provides access to QGIS features using a standard hierar-
chical menu, with icons of the corresponding tools as they appear on
the tool bar and with keyboard shortcuts. The tool bar icons provide
direct access to functions of the menu bar, plus additional tools for
interacting with the map view. To make the GUI appear simpler, tool
bar icons can be switched on and off. The business end of QGIS is
the map view. Various operations can be performed on the map such
as pan, zoom-in, zoom-out, select or query. It is tightly bound to the
map legend, where layer visibility is managed and set to a z-order,
meaning layers listed nearer the top of the legend are drawn over lay-
ers listed lower down. The map overview area provides a full extent
view of selected layers with a rectangle showing the current map extent
in the map view. And finally, the status bar shows the current mouse
pointer position in map coordinates, view extents of the map view, the
progress of rendering or analysis activities, the current map scale
44
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user-friendly Geographic
Information System (GIS). The current stable version 1.0
was released in January 2009. Although the initial goals
were modest, QGIS has become a mature and extensible
tool for viewing, editing, and performing GIS analysis.
While it took nearly seven years to get to version 1.0, the
process is a testimony to the power of open source in
bringing the talents and ideas of many individuals
together to create a tool used by thousands in academia,
government, and private industry around the world.
By Otto Dassau, Gary Sherman, Tim Sutton,
Marco Hugentobler and Paolo Cavallini
Figure 1: QGIS Community Map
Figure 2: Quantum GIS 1.0.0 Kore
Quantum GIS 1.0
depending on the defined Coordinate Reference System (CRS), and infor-
mation about available external plugin updates.
3. Functionality
QGIS offers a growing array of common GIS functionality provided by core
features and plugins, and at a glance provides the following features:
view and overlay vector and raster layer in different formats and
projections without conversion to an internal or common format.
Supported are PostgreSQL/ `PostGIS, GDAL/OGR supported vector
and raster layers such as ESRI Shapefile, MapInfo, GML, GeoTiff and
Erdas Img, GRASS rasters, vectors, and locations, and OGC-compli-
ant WMS and WFS;
interactively explore data, including features such as on-the-fly (OTF)
projection, identify/select geometries, view, select and search
attributes, label features, change vector and raster symbology;
compose print layouts adding map canvas, legend, scale bar, images
and text labels in a print composer plugin;
create, edit, manage and export vector layers into several formats.
Raster layer have to be imported into GRASS GIS to be edited and
exported;
perform spatial geo-processing on PostgreSQL/PostGIS and other
OGR supported vector layers including overlay, buffer, sampling,
geometry and database management. The integrated GRASS plugin
allows easy access to more than 260 GRASS modules, allowing
complex GIS raster and vector analyses, including raster algebra,
hydrological modeling, interpolating surfaces, network analyses,
database operations, and much more.
4. Plugin Architecture
QGIS has been designed with a plugin architecture and therefore new
customized features and functions can easily be added to the applica-
tion. Many of the features in QGIS are actually implemented as core or
external plugins.
Core plugins are maintained by the QGIS Development Team. They are
written in C++ or Python, are automatically part of every QGIS distribu-
tion and can be enabled with the Plugin Manager. There are currently
17 core plugins available, including GRASS GIS integration,
Georeferencer, Mapserver Export, Shapefile to PostGIS Import Tool, OGR
Layer Converter, GPS Tools, Add Delimited Text Layer and WFS support.
External plugins are all written in Python and divided into official and
user-contributed plugins. The user can easily add those plugins to QGIS
with the Python Plugin Installer (See Figure 5).
Official external Python plugins are stored in an official, moderated
repository at http://pyqgis.org/repo/official as part of the official
QGIS release and maintained by their respective author
User-contributed external Python plugins are stored in an unofficial
repository at http://pyqgis.org/repo/contributed and contain plugins
that are not yet mature enough but are on the way to the official
repository
In addition to these two repositories, a number of QGIS developers
provide and maintain their own repositories. These can be added to
the repository list of the Python Plugin Installer.
5. Development
Since QGIS is open source software, participation in the development
process and writing new applications that use the libraries of the QGIS
project are not only possible but encouraged. Development with QGIS
can be done either in the existing classes of QGIS, as plugin extensions
or in the form of custom applications that make use of the QGIS
libraries. All code in QGIS is licensed under the GNU GPL
www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html. That means that for all three
cases, published software must be distributed under the terms of the
GPL, too. QGIS 1.0 provides a stable API which provides an assurance
that plugins and applications developed against the 1.0 API will work
against future releases in the 1.X release series.
5.1 Development in the Core Classes of QGIS
Changes to existing classes may be submitted as patches using the
QGIS Project bug tracker https://trac.osgeo.org/qgis. The code maintain-
ers of the QGIS project, each responsible for a certain part of the code
base, regularly check the tracker.
5.2 Development of Extensions as C++ or Python Plugins
The plugin interface allows extensions to access the running QGIS
instance and to use and extend the objects in the core of QGIS. Plugins
may be written in C++ or in Python. The QGIS documentation contains
Ar t i cl e
45
March 2009
Figure 3: Shapefile to PostGIS Import Tool
Figure 4: One of the QGIS Core Plugins (GRASS GIS Integration)
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simple examples for both programming languages, making it straight-
forward to get started with plugin programming. The development of
Python plugins is especially fast and convenient. Simple plugins require
only a few hours of development time. As a result, an increasing num-
ber of users are contributing new plugins, for either specialized or gen-
eral use.
5.3 Custom Applications that Use the QGIS Libraries
It is also possible to write new applications that provide their own user
interface and use the QGIS core library for the GIS logic, data access
and map rendering.
An example using this approach is the QGIS map server project
http://karlinapp.ethz.ch/qgis_wms that provides a WMS-compatible map
server on top of the QGIS core library. This software has no graphical
user interface. It is a FastCGI application that waits until called by a
web server. It parses the request parameters and uses QGIS to render
a map into an off-screen buffer. The content is then returned as a bina-
ry image back to the client.
Another context where this approach would make sense is to provide a
mapping application for mobile devices. Applications for mobile devices
usually need different user interfaces to desktop computer applications
and laptops. The QGIS libraries offer the potential to be used as a GIS
back end for applications targeting mobile devices.
6. Who uses QGIS?
QGIS is now widely used by professionals, government and local agen-
cies, universities, students, and amateurs alike for a large variety of
tasks, from simply viewing raster and vector data (especially useful is
the capability of dealing with PostGIS layers) to running complex and
custom analyses through GRASS modules. Often QGIS is used to replace
or integrate proprietary software, and several migrations have been
accomplished or are underway, both in small and large companies and
public administrations. Among the hundreds of people who have attend-
ed courses on QGIS use, a common feeling is that the switch from pro-
prietary software is painless because many tasks and menus are very
similar, and the interface is generally judged very intuitive. No doubt
thanks to its free and open source license, it is also used in some of
the poorest countries, thus helping to reduce the world digital divide
and bring more geoinformatic knowledge to areas where local condi-
tions are more difficult.
QGIS is also used by many software developers to produce new GIS-
enabled applications. As a free alternative to GIS toolkits such as ESRI
ArcObjects, QGIS provides a compelling option. Even more developers
are building custom plugins to suit their own needs and are sharing
them via plugin repositories. One of the curious aspects of being a free
and open source project is that we have very little idea of exactly how
many people are using QGIS. Since the software can be freely copied
and passed around after it is downloaded it is difficult to judge usage
numbers. With around 1,550 registered users on the community map
we can extrapolate a user base in excess of 15,000 given a conserva-
tive estimate of a 10% sign up rate.
Professional support for QGIS is provided by a number of companies
whose services are listed on the project website.
7. Perspective / Conclusion
Quantum GIS began as a one-developer application that was met with
skepticism by many who asked, Why another open source GIS?.
Although the initial goals were modest, QGIS has become a mature and
extensible tool for viewing, editing, and performing GIS analysis.
Creating a feature-complete GIS from scratch is a tremendous undertak-
ing and at the outset was not really a goal of the project. With the
GRASS integration and the extensibility possible through plugins, QGIS
is positioned to grow into an even more robust toolset for the GIS user.
Early in life, the QGIS community was small and grew quite slowly. With
the addition of several key developers, the features and capabilities
expanded rapidly and with it, the community. QGIS now has an estab-
lished community providing peer support, testing, and new features via
plugins.
At version 1.0, QGIS provides a rich, stable API from which developers
can create custom solutions in Python or C++. As the project moves for-
ward, there are many exciting developments underway in both the core
application and plugins.
While it took nearly seven years to get to version 1.0, the process is a
testimony to the power of open source in bringing the talents and ideas
of many individuals together to create a tool used by thousands in
academia, government and private industry around the world.
Otto Dassau dassau@nature-consult.de lives and works in Hannover, Germany.
His topics are FOSS GIS and applied remote sensing.
Gary Sherman gsherman@mrcc.com lives and works in Alaska and has been
torturing computers and programming languages for well over two decades.
In 2002 he founded the Quantum GIS project.
Tim Sutton tim@linfiniti.com runs a consultancy business in Gauteng,
South Africa where he provides commercial support and development
services for QGIS and other FOSS GIS software.
Marco Hugentobler marco.hugentobler@karto.baug.ethz.ch lives in Zurich,
Switzerland. He works for the Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich and for
his company that provides programming and consulting services for
FOSS GIS software.
Paolo Cavallini cavallini@faunalia.it lives and works in Italy. He heads a small and
active group of professionals (biologists and agronomists) under the name Faunalia.
For more information, have a look at
the following websites:
Quantum GIS project: http://qgis.org
QGIS Forum: http://forum.qgis.org
QGIS Blog: http://blog.qgis.org
QGIS User Mailing List: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
QGIS IRC: Channel #qgis port 6667 at irc.freenode.net
QGIS Map Server Project http://karlinapp.ethz.ch/qgis_wms
GNU GPL: www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html
Open Source Geospatial Foundation: www.osgeo.org
Ar t i cl e
47
March 2009
Figure 5: QGIS Python Plugin Installer
An Interview with Pitney Bowes James Buckley
2008 was the year where GIS vendor MapInfo came to the fore under the umbrella of Pitney Bowes. The company had
been relatively quiet since its acquisition by Pitney Bowes mid 2007. Now there is a new version of MapInfo Professional,
new momentum around web services and collaborations with Microsoft and a new division - Pitney Bowes Business
Insight. James Buckley, Vice President Services at Pitney Bowes Business Insight EMEA, explains all.
By Remco Takken
It may have appeared quiet, but
that doesnt mean we havent been
busy. Quite the contrary. Our tradi-
tional location intelligence business
the MapInfo business with its big
customer base has continued to
grow steadily over the last couple of
years. In 2007 we made a number of
acquisitions, including Acxiom GIS
and Geomarketing in France and
Encom Australia, which are in the nat-
ural resources space Not only that,
but we have also been working hard
on more deeply integrating our exist-
ing businesses to leverage more
value propositions from what we
already had. A great example is our
strategy through our services organi-
sation to integrate our predictive ana-
lytics modeling capabilities into our
enterprise and server products, as
opposed to our traditional desktop
products. Another is our Converge
offering, which provides both intranet
and internet location intelligence
capabilities for our asset manage-
ment application, Confirm. We have
also launched AnySite predictive ana-
lytics desktop products in the UK and Spain, with Germany and France
planned for 2009.
MapInfo Professional is still an important flagship product for us, but
we are also seeing some real traction in the enterprise space with our
Envinsa platform. We have had a number of significant local and cen-
tral government deployments in the UK, supported by a very strong
pipeline. I think this is real evidence that our strategy is paying off and,
as a result, our customers are wit-
nessing the real value we bring to
them across the broader location
intelligence area.
The year 2008 not only saw a
new version of MapInfo
Professional, but also the
establishment of Google-like
web applications in the pro-
fessional lives of people.
Pitney Bowes Business
Insight seems to recognize
this.
The whole future direction of the
business is about integrating and
bringing together our enterprise and
desktop capabilities. We will deliver
this to market throughout 2009 in
the form of exciting new develop-
ments around our enterprise SOA
platform, supported by our great
new product range, Stratus, which
gives users a fantastic new applica-
tion tier on top of the platform. This
will enable us to move an organisa-
tion beyond MapInfo Professional on
the desktop, and integrate relevant location intelligence functionality
into the customers existing technology stack and across their busi-
ness processes. MapInfo Professional is a crucial and seamlessly inte-
grated component in this solution, which ensures analysts can man-
age content and continue to create value for their organisations
through the power of the GIS desktop tool. That brings up the ques-
tion of why the web applications are important in the first place.
48
I nt er vi ew
March 2009
NEW
NEW
Software , Division
James Buckley
We have to recognize that our customers expect what we bring to mar-
ket to integrate effectively into their business processes and provide a
familiar user interface. I believe the applications were now bringing to
market will combine the power of professional GIS with the agile nature
of some of the Web 2.0 applications that our users have become accus-
tomed to during their non-working lives. All of this will be built on top
of a service oriented architecture (SOA). This means enterprise clients
will be able to craft geospatial or location intelligence, whatever youll
want to call it, into their business processes and workflows. Our appli-
cations development team is moving quickly towards user-centred
design concepts, enabling us to better understand how our end users
want to work with location intelligence functionality.
In the last few years, millions of people suddenly became
aware of geospatial through Google Earth, while the pro-
fessional has been struggling with these tools for years.
Wouldnt it be fair to state that GIS vendors only now see
the power of user friendliness?
I think weve only talked about usability as an industry in the last few
years, and I mean software, rather than just GI. With technological
advances enabling us to build products like Stratus and Envinsa, cou-
pled with our new thinking about our users, we are now able to lever-
age what was high-end, complex GIS functionality and bring its most
valuable components to much larger groups of users. Essentially, we
have spatially enabled an existing business process. A company like
Google was in the privileged position of taking what the traditional GIS
industry had learned and rapidly offer a very small sub-set to con-
sumers. We are trying to do something very different from those guys.
And where did it get us?
This is a really exciting time to be part of this company, as many years
of experience, new thinking, acquisitions and hard work will be out there
for our customers and partners to share with us over the coming months.
Somewhere along the line, the word GIS was dropped
by many software vendors. Was it helpful to carry on
with what you had, but suddenly call it geospatial, or
location intelligence?
We see location intelligence as the natural evolution of geographic
information. Its very misleading for people to say we are moving away
from our roots, our customers; thats not what we are doing at all. What
we are recognising in our business is that information alone is not
enough. We know that presenting information in a map is a more effec-
tive way than presenting it as tabular data, for example. But its still a
lot of data. So you have to move beyond an overload of data to deliv-
er the right information in the right format at the right time to enable a
better decision support tool for your customers.
There have been rumours about Pitney Bowes retracting
the MapInfo brand from the market, which later were
declared false. Shortly after that, a name change did
occur, involving Group 1 Software. Can you shine some
light on the confusion?
The division name is now Pitney Bowes Business Insight. The prod-
ucts are still the MapInfo suite of products. We have to take one or
two steps back to explain. Pitney Bowes acquired MapInfo in April 2007.
In October of that year, they announced that MapInfo and another divi-
sion they had recently acquired, Group 1 Software, were going to be
merged. That merger has now been completed, and will be rolled out
as Pitney Bowes Business Insight from the beginning of 2009. The inte-
gration is going to enable us to do some even more exciting and unique
things for our customers with our technology, around location intelli-
gence, customer communications management (CCM), data quality and
data integration.
The new Pitney Bowes Business Insight mantra is Locate,
Connect, Communicate. Can you explain how this marries
to the broader portfolio of solutions to provide a cohesive
business proposition?
Our mission is to deliver insight by providing innovative solutions that
help our customers locate opportunity, make connections in their busi-
ness and communicate with their customer more effectively. The marriage
of Pitney Bowes, Group 1 Software and MapInfo enables us to deliver truly
holistic solutions, tools and expertise to help businesses to Locate cus-
tomers, prospect, trends and opportunities; Connect trends, drivers and
opportunities to look for efficiency gains and Communicate information as
needed, where needed and by the optimal channel.
So these fast changes are basically what caused the
uncertainty about the brand name: what does this say
about MapInfo as a brand?
Now, as far as the product brandings are concerned, like the MapInfo
brand name, there is no plan to withdraw. There is a lot of equity in
the MapInfo brand. Its very strong. In fact, MapInfo is one of the only
product names that clearly says what it does on the tin!
Lets move on to the dot-net side of things. Although
MapXtreme 2008 has been released earlier this year, the
products name seems to be unrelated to the year it was
launched. Isnt that right?
Yes, thats correct. MapXtreme 2008 does not relate to the year it was
released, but to the fact that it integrates with Visual Studio 2008. In other
words, last year we were still selling MapXtreme 2005; this was the release
that integrated with Visual Studio 2005. I think weve had four releases of
MapXtreme 2005, so it has nothing to do with the year it was issued.
There has been some discussion within the company, because by using
this identification, we have the potential for customers to misunderstand
and think its an old product.
It came out within a few months of the release of Visual Studio 2008,
and its a pure .NET product. It integrates with the Visual Studio frame-
work. It has lots of components you can use to build an application. Its a
very strong product that supports .NET both on the desktop and on the
web. We will continue to support the .NET platform as a continuous part
of our strategy to support both the .NET and JAVA development environ-
ments and platforms. On the database side, we have announced that
MapInfo Professional 9.5, which was released last summer, supports
Microsofts SQL Server. I know the roadmap for MapInfo Professional 10,
which were already starting to work on now that 9.5 is out on the street,
is to extend the level of support for SQL Server. Our tools need to sup-
port the primary databases that our customers choose to use. Its very
clear that whilst Oracle probably holds the high end the very large
databases SQL Server is the database that many of our mid-sized cus-
tomers, departmental, large departments will choose. Its not about which
one is better, or which one has the lowest cost of ownership. Although
there is a debate about this going on in the industry, we will just support
our customers choices. We are not imposing one technology strategy on
them.
I nt er vi ew
49
March 2009
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51
March 2009
Have you seen the use of Microsoft SQL Server grow?
When you look at the database market, there are three or four players.
Microsoft is a major player. Whether Oracle or Microsoft is bigger, who
sells more databases; either debate Ill leave to those two companies.
They are massive vendors of database solutions. A lot of application
developers develop on top of SQL Server. Its clear that we have to sup-
port that database, as it has a spatial capability. The fact that the two
probably leading database vendors both have native support for a spa-
tial data type is very exciting. You will see, with both Microsoft and
Oracle supporting spatial data, a rapid move to store spatial data with-
in the database is the norm. The use of propriety data file formats will
decline.
But MapInfo still has its own TAB-data type?
Of course we do. We always will, because there will always be a number
of reasons. In fact, there are hundreds of reasons why you would want to
use a file format rather than store everything in the database. Of course,
MapInfo supports multiple file formats, and you also get the interoper-
ability that will, in another way, impact the use of propriety files. Whilst
we were among the first GIS vendors to support Oracle, being committed
to one vendor is not a strategy to make sense to us.
That brings us to another, sometimes politically fuelled,
type of software domain, which is open source. Would it
be right to state that MapInfo users, for instance in the
Scandinavian countries, have an above-average interest in
open source? And how does MapInfo relate to questions
of that nature?
We know that some of our clients are interested in open source, and its
not just in Scandinavia. The point about open source is that its not free.
There is a lot of confusion around it, because you can go to Source Forge,
or the Open Geospatial Forum, and download a piece of software without
anybody asking you for money. This creates an illusion, but its just anoth-
er business model. You pay for different things and you take bigger risks
with the smaller players.
So where lies the difference in closed versus open source?
When we look at a solution, which is the important thing to focus on
rather than its components, a solution will comprise software, data, hard-
ware, services, know-how a whole range of things. In a commercial solu-
tion, the software might be 15 or 20 per cent of the cost. If thats the
case, the issue of whether or not the software is open source, or whether
it is proprietary, needs to be seen in that perspective. If you want to build
very powerful, reliable, scalable solutions, youll likely want the organisa-
tion behind those solutions to have the technical and financial capabili-
ties to take responsibility. That has nothing to do with open or closed
source; it has to do with contracting with small or large companies. When
it comes to open source service providers of operating systems, two of
the biggest are RedHat and Novell. They service their own flavours of
Linux, and they dont charge you for the software. But they charge you
for services and support around the software. These are both big busi-
nesses. They are billion-dollar-plus businesses. Think about it: staying
small is quite difficult when youre successful.
James Buckley, Vice President, Services,
Pitney Bowes Business Insight, EMEA.
For more information, have a look at www.mapinfo.com and
www.pbbusinessinsight.com
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Advancements in LED, Touch Screen and Connectivity
In February 2009, Panasonic introduced new versions of their CF-19 and CF-30
(Mark 3) Toughbook ruggedized notebooks. With competitors still a few steps
behind, the inventor of the Toughbook is careful not to change too much in its
winning team.
By Remco Takken
The biggest advancements seen in the
rugged construction of Panasonics
Toughbooks are the LED backlit screen tech-
nology and the wider variety of interfaces.
Thanks to enhanced Intel processors in both
the CF-19 and CF-30 models, energy-efficient
performance (nine hours of power from a sin-
gle charge) is coupled with multi-tasking dur-
ing local processing requirements.
Backwards Compatible
Toughbooks go back as far as 1996, when
Panasonic was the first, and for quite a long
time, only computer manufacturer to enter
the very special market segment of ruggedi-
zed notebooks. As a pioneer, Panasonic is
now facing the fact that many fleets consist-
ing of classic CF-18s, are still in use in the
fields. This means that any new model needs
to be fully backwards compatible with earli-
er incarnations, says AJ Edmeads, general
manager European marketing with
Panasonic. The product is in its seventh
generation. Theres a high volume of earlier
models out there, and many of them are
vehicle mounted items still in use. It would
become very expensive for existing cus-
tomers if they would have to change all
those mounts and racks.
Evolution
This pioneering position might explain why
Panasonic is calling the new Toughbooks a
result of evolution, instead of the, market-
ing-wise more aggressive term revolution.
The main competitors are still mainstream
laptop manufacturers, while the main
demands of ruggedized designs come from
a different area than computer design. The
machine has to be extremely robust, weath-
er condition (rain and temperature) resistant,
shock resistant, dust, sand and oil sealed.
Of course, battery operation time and gener-
al reliability has to be high.
Main Types
Although Panasonic currently sells many dif-
ferent types of laptops and notebooks, the
ruggedized variety mainly consists of three
basic models, the CF-19 Mark 3, the CF-30
Mark 3 and the CF-52. During the 2009
launch in Spain, Panasonic executives
explained that the robustness varies from
model to model. One chooses according to
the type of work. Half-jokingly, it was stated
that the semi-ruggedized CF-52 might be a
good solution for clumsy clerks who inciden-
tally throw over their laptops from their
desks, while the CF-30 must survive Formula
One pit stop crews, even when they some-
times aggressively throw it in the garages
corner after missing a cue.
52
Event
March 2009
Panasonic
Toughbooks,
the 7
th
Generation
CF-19 Mark 3
De CF-19 is, at 2,300 grams, a truly portable
combination of a regular notebook and a
tablet PC. To transform the laptop into tablet
mode, the user twists the 10.4 inch colour dis-
play vertically back-to-front and folds it over
the keyboard. The resulting touch screen
allows for data entry using a finger or stylus.
The next generation CF-19 will benefit from
Duo Touch, which will enable pen driven
applications to sit side by side to the rugged
touch environment.
At this moment, around 100,000 units are
being used in Europe. Panasonic keeps in
touch with users within organizations like
British Telecom and Deutsche Telecom for pos-
sible modifications. AJ Edmeads, General
Manager European Marketing: These people
have already invested in this product, so we
make a point in listening to their experi-
ences.
CF-52
The budget-friendly business notebook is
semi-rugged, with an integrated carry han-
dle. It offers a comprehensive array of inter-
faces and enhanced data security. For the first
time, the CF-52 comes with touch screen func-
tionality. The screen is now 4/3, and it
includes a pen holder. Using the LED technol-
ogy, even bright sunlight and various angles
of view dont blur the screen. Intriguingly,
theres a dimmed screen option, especially
designed for military. As CF-52 Product
Head Jon Tucker remarked: You dont
want your soldier out in the field in
full camouflage, flagging with this
screen as if hes screaming please
shoot me, Ive got a laptop. As a
semi-ruggedized laptop it meets with
the MIL-STD-810-F standard, it weighs around
3,3 kilograms, while the touchscreen can sur-
vive a fall up to 30 inches. Your typical
heavy vibrations. Component protection is com-
pliant with MIL-STD 810-F and IP54 standards.
The Toughbook can withstand falls of up to 90
centimetres when open and fully operational. It
has an all-round magnesium casing and its
hard-drive protection comes in the shape of a
32 millimetre thick foam jacket and aluminum
frame mounting.
GPS
In addition to WLAN/ WWAN, GPS can pass
through both the CF-19 and the CF-30, allowing
two out of the three modes to function simul-
taneously. Keeping in mind that outdoor work-
ers are more often than not uninterested in the
latest and greatest version upgrades, its com-
pletely possible to downgrade Windows Vista
to the previous XP version of Windows.
Automotive Focus
Automotive was the overall theme during the
press launch at the Ascari Race Track in Ronda,
Spain. Numerous members of the Panasonic
Toyota racing team, both engineers and drivers,
came over to explain the tough environment
their computers need to operate in.
With this automotive focus during the press
meeting, Panasonic aims to reach car repair and
service stations, who to this day rely on huge
mounts of outdated and virtually hardware
in their workspaces. For sectors outside
of automotive, like energy/ utilities,
building/ construction and
GPS/geodetic assignments, it only
takes a little bit of imagination to
see what a ruggedized Toughbook
will add to the work force.
Remco Takken rtakken@geoinformatics.com is
editor of GeoInformatics.
Event
March 2009
height of an office desk, says Tucker.A specific
focus of the CF-52 is mobile communication. The
laptop is WLAN and WWAN (HSPA) ready for
wireless data transfer on the move.
CF-30 Mark 3
The CF-30 is seen as Panasonics flagship in their
portfolio. At only 3,800 grams its still a relative-
ly heavy weight machine, and it comes with a
13.3 inch colour display and features a handgrip
to transport it.
The CF30 is the backbone of our success, the
bigger brother for utilities, construction, military
and telco, says Russell Younghusband.
Although Younghusband is European Vertical
Sector Manager Automotive, he vividly memo-
rizes the first big Toughbook customer from
another sector, British Gas, with 12,000 users.
LED Back Light
The adoption of a LED back light guarantee
lower power consumption, while anti glare coat-
ings provide good clarity under bright sunlight
and various angles of view. In the case of the
CF-19 Panasonic claims they have doubled the
screen brightness. Both the CF-19 and the CF-
30 feature 1,000 nit brightness and touch screen
functionality.
Connectivity
Using an integrated Gobi (Qualcomm) Module,
the Mark 3 models will support connectivity from
GSM dial up, GPRS, EDGE, 3G to 7.2 MegaBytes
per second HSUPA access. More flexibility is pro-
vided through CDMA and GSM support.
Outdoor Use
The storage and access times of the Mark 3s HHD
is increased from 120 Gigabyte to 160 Giga byte.
The data stored on this hard drive should be pro-
tected in extreme cold, heat, dust, humidity or
CF-30
CF-19
53
A Russian Commercial Remote Sensing Success Story
Arising from the unique characteristics of the Russian landscape much of which comprises huge areas of steppe, forest,
mountain, tundra and permafrost with a very low population density remote sensing imagery is now playing a prominent role
in the generation of geo-information products within the Russian Federation. Often the use of medium-resolution spaceborne
imagery providing wide area coverage is the appropriate solution to the problems of mapping and monitoring such huge areas.
This was the perspective offered at a recent conference by Dr. V. Gershenzon, the managing director of the ScanEx company.
Based on this statement, it seemed that it would be interesting to visit this company and to see and hear something about its
activities in the field of spaceborne remote sensing during my recent stay in Moscow and indeed this proved to be the case!
By Gordon Petrie
Background
The ScanEx company began its operations as a commercial company in
1989, first building inexpensive ground receiving terminals that could
receive the low-resolution image data that was (and still is) being broad-
cast at VHF frequencies by the polar-orbiting NOAA weather satellites. After
which, during the 1990s, the company developed its more powerful ScanER
ground stations that could receive the space image data with a 35 m GSD
that was being transmitted at X-band frequencies from the Russian Resurs-
01 satellites. A network of these ScanER ground stations was supplied to
Russian government agencies that gave them the capability of receiving
this data locally in a decentralised manner across most of the country.
Due to the decline in the number of Russian Earth Observation (EO) satel-
lites that were operational by the end of the 1990s, the company then
turned its attention to the provision of ground stations that were capable
of receiving image data from foreign EO satellites.
By 2001, ScanEx had developed that could receive image
data directly from the Indian IRS-1C/D satellites. Since then, the company
has steadily expanded both the range and the capabilities of its ground
station products to be able to receive data from other optical satellites.
They now include the Indian IRS-P5
(Cartosat-1) and -P6 (Resourcesat-1)
satellites; the Israeli EROS-A and -B
high-resolution satellites; the French
SPOT-2 and -4 spacecraft; and the
American Terra and Aqua (EOS) satel-
lites. The capability to receive imagery
from the newer Russian satellites such as
the Meteor-3M weather satellite that oper-
ated between 2001 and 2006; the Monitor-
E that operated between 2005 and
2007; and the high-resolution Resurs
DK-1 satellite that was launched in 2006,
has also been developed. In addition,
ground stations have been developed
to receive image data from
radar satellites such as the
Canadian Radarsat-1 and ESAs
Envisat. In parallel with all of
this intensive hardware devel-
opment, a range of
has also been devel-
oped to support the acquisi-
tion, processing and archiving
of the image data that could
be received by these different
types of ground station.
Recently ScanEx has become a
that it
now acquires directly using its own in-house network of ground stations,
as well as acting as a distributor of other types of spaceborne imagery.
Finally, most recently, it has become a major force in the establishment of
geo-portals within Russia.
Current Activities
Currently ScanEx employs 120 people at its two main . The first of
these is located in Central Moscow and includes the companys main office.
It is also the site where the company carries out the manufacture, assem-
bly and testing of its ground stations and the development of its soft-
ware products. The second site is located outside Moscow and comprises
a ground receiving station and the facilities for the archiving, processing
and sale of the image data received by its own ground station network.
Given this overall background and arising from the various developments
that have been outlined above, the specific activities that are currently
being carried out by the ScanEx company are the following:-
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Fig. 1 The tracking antenna of an Alice-SC ground station equipped
with a 1.2 m diameter reflector dish that is being used for the reception
of AVHRR data in HRPT format from NOAA satellites.
Fig. 2 The tracking antenna
system of a UniScan-36 ground
station equipped with a 3.1 m
diameter reflector dish that is
undergoing tests in a
Moscow park.
A Profile of the ScanEx Company
54
The design, manufacture, sale and support of a range of
called Alice-SC and UniScan that can be used to receive
and process image data from an ever widening range of Earth
Observation satellites;
Development of a range of such as ScanReceiver;
ScanMagic; ScanEx Processor; and ScanEx Catalog Manager that can
carry out the reception, processing and archiving of the image data
that is acquired from the various satellites mentioned above.
The reception, processing, archiving and sale of
that is being acquired by ScanExs own in-house operated network of
ground receiving stations that are located in strategic positions within
Russia is now another major activity. These stations acquire data from
the various Indian (IRS-1C, P-5 and P-6); French (SPOT-2 and -4); Israeli
(EROS-A and B); and American (Terra and Aqua) optical satellites and
the two radar satellites (Radarsat-1 and Envisat) that have been men-
tioned above.
The development of such as Kosmosnimki and
Transparent World is now being carried out on the basis of space-
borne image data. These portals are intended to provide low-cost space
imagery to educational establishments and to nongovernment organi-
sations (NGOs), particularly those concerned with environmental moni-
toring activities.
Ground Receiving Stations
The ground stations receive weather satellite imagery. However they
do so using the higher resolution (1 km GSD) HRPT digital data from the
AVHRR-type scanners that is being transmitted at the 1.7 GHz frequency (in
L-band in the microwave spectrum) from several different satellites. These
include the European MetOp and Chinese FengYun satellites, as well as the
NOAA series. Each Alice-SC station utilizes a reflecting dish antenna with a 1.2
m diameter [Fig. 1] that can track the satellites instead of employing the sim-
ple non-tracking pole type of antenna that was used with the older Liana
ground stations that had been supplied previously by ScanEx. Besides the
actual receiving unit, each Alice-SC unit is supplied with an interface board
that is installed in the PC that will be used by the customer to store and pro-
cess the image data. Over 30 of these Alice-SC stations are in current use.
Most are located within Russia, but two stations have been installed abroad
in Almaty, Kazakhstan and in Jos, Nigeria respectively. Prior to the introduc-
tion of the Alice-SC stations, the company supplied its so-called ScanEx sta-
tion to undertake this type of HRPT data acquisition. Over 30 of these earlier
models are still in current operation.
The most versatile of the ground stations that are being manufactured
currently by ScanEx are its series. These stations can carry out
the reception of the digital imagery that is being sent at very high data
rates from those medium-resolution and high-resolution optical and radar
satellites that are transmitting their signals within the frequency range 8
to 8.4 GHz in the X-band. Thus, in practice, the UniScan stations can receive
the data that is being transmitted from a wide range of satellites from
the relatively low-resolution (250 m to 1 km) image data that is being gen-
erated by the MODIS scanners on-board the Terra and Aqua satellites to
the very high-resolution image data (0.7 m) that is being generated by
the EROS satellites. There are two models in the series the UniScan-24
which utilizes a tracking antenna equipped with a parabolic dish that is
2.4 m in diameter and the UniScan-36 which uses a similar type of anten-
na that is 3.1 m in diameter [Fig. 2]. A mobile version of the UniScan has
also been developed with the control equipment mounted in a caravan
[Fig. 3].
Around 40 UniScan stations are currently in operation. Of these, ten are capa-
ble of receiving data from Radarsat-1; indeed seven of them have already
been certified and accepted into operational service by the Canadian Space
Agency (CSA) and the MDA Geospatial Services company that actually oper-
ates the Radarsat-1 satellite. A further eight stations located within Russia are
capable of receiving data from the SPOT-2 and -4 satellites. Of course, the
operators of these ground stations need to pay the appropriate licence fees
to the spacecraft operators to ensure that they can receive data from these
satellites. This licensing can be arranged by ScanEx for the operators of
UniScan stations within Russia and the CIS countries. Besides these stations,
further UniScan stations are being operated abroad in Spain, Iran and the
United Arab Emirates.
In summary, one notes that ScanEx has installed over 200 ground receiving
stations of various types over the last twenty years and is now a major play-
er in this particular field. Certainly the development of these stations has
allowed a large number of users within Russia and the CIS countries to have
direct or rapid access to a wide range of imagery from foreign spacecraft for
their own specific purposes. The installed networks of ground receiving sta-
tions within Russia include those set up by the Federal Department of Hydro
Meteorology & Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet); the Ministry of
Natural Resources; the Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster
Response (EMERCOM); and the Ministry of Higher Education. All of these net-
works cover the whole of the Russian Federation, but each acquires only the
specific types of imagery that are required to undertake its particular mis-
sion. It really is a quite astonishing development, especially given the large
financial investment that has been made and its high dependence on the
supply of non-Russian imagery.
Software
As noted above, ScanEx offers a fairly comprehensive range of software
for use with its ground receiving stations. is an easy-to-use
but fairly powerful package for viewing, processing and analyzing
Ar t i cl e
55
March 2009
Fig. 3 (a) The ScanEx mobile ground station with the Alice-SC and UniScan dish antennas located in the background. (b) Showing the electronics and computer equipment
that is used to receive and process the data inside the caravan of the mobile ground station.
[a] [b]
spaceborne imagery. The is based on
Microsoft Windows and carries out all the preliminary and basic process-
ing operations on the acquired imagery. In addition, a range of modules
is available with this package to carry out image classification; 3D mod-
elling and visualization; DEM generation from stereo-imagery; etc., togeth-
er with a software development kit that includes standard mathematical
functions, operators and filters. ScanEx has also developed packages for
use with specific types of spaceborne imagery. Examples are the
that is designed to carry out the processing of
SAR image data acquired from the Canadian Radarsat-1 and the
that carries out similar operations on the
SAR data generated from the ASAR system installed on ESAs Envisat. For
SPOT optical image data, ScanEx has developed its
. An additional product that has a more general application is
the software package, which is based on the use of neural
networks and can be used to carry out the advanced thematic analysis of
spaceborne image data. Special training courses are run by ScanEx to
ensure that users can use each of these different packages in an efficient
manner. Besides which, the International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package
has been ported by ScanEx to run under the MS Windows oper-
ating system and is available free from the ScanEx Web site www.scanex.ru.
Spaceborne Image Data Reception & Supply
As mentioned above, ScanEx has also implemented its own in-house net-
work of ground receiving stations comprising UniScan stations that are
located in Moscow, Irkutsk (on Lake Baikal) and Magadan (on the Sea of
Okhotsk). In total, they provide more or less complete coverage of Russia
[Fig. 4]. I was able to visit the Moscow Archive and Reception Center
(MARC) which is housed on the eighth floor of a tall multi-storey building,
mainly occupied by electronics companies, which is located within the
Rumyantsevo Business Park in the Leninsky District, 45 km south-west of
Moscows city centre. This accommodation houses the Centers planning,
operations and image evaluation teams, alongside the massive data
archive, which stores several tens of terabytes of data. Also housed with-
in the Center are the customer team, who provide information to cus-
tomers on data availability and take orders for imagery, and the data pro-
cessing team, who actually execute these orders. Other specialist teams
in the Center carry out analyses of imagery and prepare reports for gov-
ernment agencies, NGOs and large commercial companies under various
grants or contracts.
The three receiving antennas installed at MARC have been placed on the
roof of the tall building to provide the widest possible field of view
[Fig. 5]. The ground stations in Irkutsk and Magadan are under remote
control from the MARC facility via the Internet and can receive data from
much the same range of satellites as the Moscow station. The Irkutsk sta-
tion is located in a facility that is shared with a government environmen-
tal monitoring agency and also has three antennas, while the Magadan
station has a single antenna. As much processing as possible is done
locally on-site at these remote stations in order to keep down the vol-
umes of data that have to be transmitted over the Internet to the central
archive at MARC. Image data from the MODIS, SPOT and IRS satellites is
acquired routinely and placed in the archive, whereas the high-resolution
image data from EROS satellites and the SAR data from Radarsat-1 are
only acquired for those areas for which an order has been placed.
Geo-Portals
ScanEx has played a big role in the establishment of geo-portals within
Russia. These portals are based on the use of a seamless mosaic of space-
borne imagery covering a huge area of the Earths surface (at first within
Russia) that can be accessed via the Internet. One of these geo-portals is
(www.transparentworld.ru/en). Its stated aim is to pro-
vide access to a wide range of spaceborne imagery on the part of NGOs
and educational establishments that often do not have the financial
resources to purchase such imagery at normal commercial rates. To meet
this objective, it has established a series of image libraries in collabora-
tion with a number of interested NGOs. The library contains
3,000 images that cover Russia, a large part of Asia and the northern half
of South America. The library contains over 1,300 scenes cov-
ering Western and Central Russia, Eastern Europe and the CIS countries of
Central Asia. The library contains over 5,000 scenes that mainly
cover Russia and parts of Canada. Specific projects that have been imple-
mented under the Transparent World banner include the production of an
atlas of the UN World Heritage sites in Russia that has been published
with the support of the Moscow Department of Education and the publi-
cation of a number of guide books to areas of special interest to tourists.
The geo-portal (www.kosmosnimki.ru/index_eng.html) is a
continuously updated map service which provides users with access to
on-line maps and associated tools. The Kosmosnimki geo-portal is also
an Internet shop that allows users to inspect, select and buy images of
the Earth on-line. It is updated on a regular basis using images that have
been acquired by the ScanEx ground receiving station network. Certainly,
when I tried it out, it worked extremely well and very smoothly for the
Moscow region in a similar manner to that of Google Earth, with the high-
est resolution (Ikonos) images having been supplied by the European
Space Imaging company. It also operated very well for the Volga region
based on imagery from the Indian IRS satellites. Furthermore it is worth
noting that ScanEx also operates two on-line Internet sites on its own
account. The first of these two sites http://catalog.scanex.ru is an on-line
catalogue of the image data that is stored in ScanExs archive, which also
allows the images selected by a user to be ordered and purchased [Fig.
Ar t i cl e
March 2009
Fig. 4 This map shows the location and coverage of each of the three ground
receiving stations forming ScanExs commercial ground station network.
Fig. 5 This picture shows the various antennas that are mounted on the roof of
the Moscow Archive & Reception Center (MARC).
56
6]. The second site http://eostation.scanex.ru provides a Web-based interface
to the EOS Direct Broadcast Satellite Ground Station that is operated by ScanEx
and receives MODIS data at its Moscow site. It provides very detailed infor-
mation about the satellite schedules, the archived data and the stations char-
acteristics and has an excellent gallery of selected MODIS images [Fig. 7].
Conclusion
ScanEx is a real success story, the company having grown steadily over the
twenty years of its existence to the point where it now markets a wide port-
folio of products for the reception and processing of spaceborne imagery.
Besides which, it has also developed a powerful network of ground receiving
stations that is being used to acquire image data of Russia for sale to an
ever expanding market. It is also making strong educational efforts to popu-
larize the use of spaceborne imagery within Russia through its active involve-
ment in the development of geo-portals.
Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor in the Dept. of Geographical & Earth Sciences of the
University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. E-mail- Gordon.Petrie@ges.gla.ac.uk
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For more information www.riegl.com
Revolutionary :
Digital Signal Processing,
Online Waveform Analysis
New -Line
Laser Scanners for , ,
mobile & industrial applications
airborne terrestrial
Innovation in
3D
RIEGL
RIEGL VZ-400
Fig. 6 A MetOp image of the Caucasus Mountains that has been acquired using an
Alice-SC ground receiving station.
Fig. 7 This MODIS image shows the extent of sea ice in the Kara Sea. At top left is the
southern part of the island of Novaya Zemlya, leading to Vaigach Island and the
mainland of Northern Russia. At right is the Yamal Peninsula with the Gulf of the
River Ob acting as its eastern boundary.
Calendar 2009
Advertiser Page
Bournemouth
University www.bournemouth.ac.uk/pgenvironment 17
Cardinal Systems www.cardinalsystems.net 43
ESRI www.esri.com/arcpadgps 32
ESRI www.esri.com/uc 35
Geo9 www.worldofgeomatics.com 46
GSDI www.gsdi.org/gsdi11 33
ITC www.itc.nl 20
Leica Geosystems www.leica-geosystems.com 12
Magellan www.pro.magellanGPS.com 24
Novatel www.improveyourgps.com 2
Petro-GIS www.petro-gis.com 50
Riegl www.riegl.com 57
Sokkia www.sokkia.net 16
Sokkia www.sokkia.net 60
SuperGeo www.supergeotek.com 59
Topcon www.topcon.eu 28
Trimble www.trimble.com 8
UniGIS www.unigis.org/uk 51
Advertisers Index
22-25 April REAL CORP 2009, 14th
International Conference on Urban
Planning, Regional Development and
Information Society
Sitges, Spain
Tel: +43 1 90360 1240
Fax: +43 90360 1299
Internet: www.corp.at
23-24 April International Conference
Cartographic Challenges: Movement,
Participation, Risk
Bergamo, Italy
Internet: www.unibg.it/geografia
27-29 April ESRI Southeast Regional User
Group Conference
Jacksonville, FL, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 909 793 2853 ext. 4347
E-mail: prattanababpha@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/serug
May
02-05 June ISPRS Hannover Workshop
2009 - High-Resolution Earth Imaging for
Geospatial Information
Hannover, Germany
Tel: +49 511 762 2482
Fax: +49 511 762 2483
E-mail: boettcher@ipi.uni-hannover.de
Internet: www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/ipi-work-
shop.html
02-05 June 12th AGILE International
Conference on Geographic Information
Sience - Advances in GIScience
Hannover, Germany
Tel: 511 762 3465
Fax: 0511 762 2780
E-mail: Birgit.Elias@ikg.uni-hannover.de
Internet: www.agile2009.de
05-09 June URISAs 2nd GIS in Public
Health Conference
Providence, RI, U.S.A.
Tel: 847 824 63 00
E-mail: wnelson@urisa.org
Internet: www.urisa.org
09-11 June The International Emergency
Management Society TIEMS 16th Annual
Conference
Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 (212) 285 3782
Fax: +90 (212) 285 3782
E-mail: sahin@itu.edu.tr
Internet: www.tiems2009.org
11-12 2009 FME International User
Conference
Whistler, BC, Canada
Tel: 1 604 501 9985
Fax: 1 604 501 9965
E-mail: fmeuc@safe.com
Internet: www.fmeuc.com
14-19 June International Multidisciplinary
Scientific Geo-Conference and Expo - SGEM
Albena sea side and SPA resort, Bulgaria
Tel: 359 2 975 3982
Fax: 359 2 817 24 77
E-mail: sgem@sgem.org
Internet: www.sgem.org
15-18 June Intergraph 2009
Washington, DC, Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center, U.S.A.
Internet: www.intergraph2009.com
15-19 June 11th GSDI World Conference
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 334 604 100
Fax: +31 (0) 334 656 457
E-mail: a.riedijk@geonovum.nl
Internet: www.gsdi11.nl
17-19 June The British Cartographic
Societys Annual Symposium: Man At Work
Newport Pagnell, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 880077
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 880097
E-mail: nikkij@citiesrevealed.com
Internet: www.cartography.org.uk
22-23 June Berlin Open 2009
Berlin, Germany
E-mail: contact@berlin-open.org
Internet: www.berlin-open.org
24-26 June UDMS 2009, 27th Urban Data
Management Symposium
Ljubljana, Slovenija
Internet: www.udms.net
E-mail: info@umds.net
July
01-03 July 9th Conference on Optical 3-D
Measurement Techniques
Vienna, Austria
Internet: http://info.tuwien.ac.at/ingeo/
optical3d
07-09 July GeoSpatial Africa 2009
Johannesburg, South Africa
E-mail: peter@b2bsolutions.co.za
Internet: www.b2bsolutions.co.za/events/
GeospatialAfrica.html
07-10 July GeoInformatics Forum Salzburg
(GI_Forum2009)
Salzburg, Austria
Internet: www.gi-forum.org
E-mail: office@gi-forum.org
11-12 July ESRI Homeland Security GIS
Summit
San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 909 793 2853 ext. 2894
E-mail: kshearer@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/hssumit
11-14 July ESRI Education User Conference
San Diego, CA, U.S.A
Tel: +1 909-793-2853, ext. 3743
E-mail: educ@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/educ
11-14 July ESRI Survey & Engineering GIS
Summit
Tel: +1 909-793-2853, ext. 4347
E-mail: http://segsummit@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/segsummit
13-17 July 29th ESRI International User
Conference
San Diego, CA, San Diego Convention
Center, U.S.A.
Internet: www.esri.com
27-31 July GeoWeb 2009
Vancouver, Canada
E-mail: chiebert@galdosinc.com
Internet: http://geowebconference.org
August
02-06 August SPIE Optics + Photonics
2009
Internet: www.spie.org
E-mail: media@spie.org
04-07 August 10th South East Asian
Survey Conference (SEASC09)
Bali, Indonesia
E-mail: dkirana@bakosurtanal.go.id
31-August - 03 September SPIE Europe
Remote Sensing 2009
Berlin, Germany
Internet: www.spie.org
E-mail: peterb@spie.org
31 August - 04 September Geodesy for
Planet Earth IAG2009
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Internet: www.iag2009.com.ar
September
09-12 September 6th International
Symposium on Digital Earth
Beijing, Peoples Republic of China
Internet: www.isde6.org
16-17 September GIS in the Rockies 2009
Loveland, CO, U.S.A.
E-mail: chair@gisintherockies.org
Internet: www.gisintherockies.org
21 September International Workshop on
Presenting Spatial Information: Granularity,
Relevance and Intergration (in cojunction
with COSIT 09)
Aber Wrach, France
Tel: +61 3 8344 7875
Fax: +61 3 9347 2916
E-mail: winter@unimelb.edu.au
Internet: www.sfbtr8.spatial-cognition.de/
cosit09-psi
21-25 September Conference on Spatial
Information Theory (COSIT 09)
Aber Wrach, France
E-mail: claramunt@ecole-navale.fr
Internet: www.cosit.info
March
08-13 March ASPRS Annual Conference
Baltimore, MA, Baltimore Marriott
Waterfront Hotel, U.S.A.
Internet: www.asprs.org
13-17 March SPIE Defense, Security and
Sensing 2009
Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 360 685 5407
Fax: +1 360 647 1445
E-mail: PeterB@SPIE.org
Internet: www.SPIE.org
17-18 March 3D-Forum Lindua
Lindau, Germany
E-mail: stadtplanung@lindau.de
Internet: www.3d.geodaten.de
20-21 March iGEOMAP 2009
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
E-mail: info@igeomap.org
Internet: www.igeomap.org
21-24 March ESRI Worldwide Business
Partner Conference
Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Tel: 1 909 793 2853 ext. 3743
E-mail: bpc@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/bpc
23-26 March ESRI Developer Summit
Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Tel: + 1 909 793 2853 ext. 3743
E-mail: devsummit@esri.com
Internet: www.esri.com/devsummit
28 March - 01 April Gas & Advanced
Applications for GIS in Oil: PetroGIS
Manama, Bahrain
Internet: www.iirme.com/petrogis
30 March - 01 April SPAR 2009: 3D
Imaging for Design, Construction and
Manufacturing Operations
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Tel: +1 978 774 1102
Internet: www.sparlic.com
April
01-02 April GEO-09
Coventry, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1438 352617
Fax: +44 (0) 1438 351989
E-mail: sharon@pvpubs.demon.co.uk
Internet: www.pvpubs.com
01-03 April GISRUK 2009
Durham, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)191 222 6353
Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 6502
E-mail: dave.fairbairn@newcastle.ac.uk
Internet: www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/gisruk2009
14-19 April IGSM 2009
Zurich, Switzerland
E-mail: igsm@ethz.ch
Internet: www.igsm.ethz.ch
15-17 April Remote Sensing-the Synergy of
High Technologies
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: conference@sovzond.ru
Internet: www.sovzondconference.ru
19-22 April GITAs 2009 Geospatial
Infrastructure Solutions Conference &
Exhibition
Tampa, FL, U.S.A.
Internet: www.gita.org
21-23 April GEO-SIBERIA 2009, 5th
International Exhibtion and Scientific
Congress
Novosibirsk, Russia
Internet: www.geosiberia.sibfair.ru
22-23 April XCES, The Exhibition for
Construction and Engineering Surveying
York Race Course, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 0161 972 3112
E-mail: xces@ices.org.uk
Internet: www.ices.org.uk/xces.php
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to: calendar@geoinformatics.com
58
March 2009
SuperGIS Server
SuperGIS Server is a set of GIS server software, enabling
users to have GIS data, various GIS functions, such as GIS
data management, data visualization application, spatial
analysis, and services integrated into the server. With features
of concentrated management, rich standards-based platform,
and high integration to SuperGIS Server, end users can
connect to the server host that already has SuperGIS Server
installed through the Internet by desktop software or mobile
GIS applications, so end users can use the data or services
provided by such server. In addition, SueprGIS Server also
allows the SOA enterprises to use SuperGIS Engine as the
core to develop a full-functionality operation engine and build
up the SOA architecture with high-stability, high-reliance and
high performance to make the enterprise more competitive.
Beta versi on
wi l l be rel eased
i n March 2009
For more i nformati on pl ease
vi si t at
www.supergeotek.com
If you re i nterested i n becomi ng one of our resel l ers, pl ease
feel free emai l to staff@supergeotek.com
WWW.c|||a.|e| 2009 SOKKlA TOPCON CO.,LTD
FeeI the freedom to move
Sokkia's SRX offers you the ultimate freedom to move in the feld of robotic measuring. Whatever the application,
the SRX delivers reliable and high precision results without losing target. Moreover the SRX total station range
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be confgured to your individual needs.
The SRX is equipped with the RED-tech EX EDM, the latest in Sokkia's innovative refectorless measurement
technology, which makes it possible to perform highly accurate refectorless measurements from 30cm up to
500m.
Experience 8okkia's 8RX total stations

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Wide range of communications

Rugged base & rover solution

Multi-application field terminal

software provides an accurate, hassle-free data

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