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Trimble Juno SC Handheld Integrating Utility Asset Information
Fugro-BKS PostGIS
M a g a z i n e f o r S u r v e y i n g , M a p p i n g & G I S P r o f e s s i o n a l sApril/May 2009
Volume 12
3
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Whats below the Surface
Some weeks ago, a new version of Google Street View was introduced in the Netherlands.Aside from privacy issues, responses from users were positive and enthusiastic. What willGoogles next step be? We can expect to see more cities in Street View before too long. Also,people want to see whats under the surface. For example, sea floor mapping is currently ahot topic, and we are happy to announce that readers of GeoInformatics can expect someinteresting content on sea floor mapping in the near future.
But lets stay on the mainland for a minute, and have a look at whats below the surface ofthe earth: theres a whole world that has not been mapped yet, or only on paper, like net-
works of all sorts of wires. More and more national initiatives are taking place as a responseto the need for a single source of digital information that contains this underground informa-tion, like a Google Underworld, as one contribution calls it.
Will there ever be a Google Underworld? Im sure there is still a long way to go, but nation-al initiatives are popping up everywhere that indicate a need for data exchange and harmo-nization and integration.
On the other hand, we see more and more 3D models being used. One particular area Imvery enthusiastic about is the gaming industry, since 3D modeling techniques from the geospa-tial industry are used successfully in gaming environments. I have heard many critical remarksthat border on jealousy, saying that gaming is for kids and geospatial matters are seriousbusiness. This distinction is no longer valid, as you can read in Florian Fischers contributionin this issue. And its not about geo-caching. We have gone beyond that: the geospatial
industry seems to be integrating the best of both worlds, and coming up with solutions thathave a significant impact on the spatial perceptions of gamers. Now thats something youcan call serious gaming.
Eric van [email protected]
April/May 20093
GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis andcommentary with respect to the international surveying,mapping and GIS industry.
PublisherRuud [email protected]
Editor-in-chiefEric van Rees
EditorsFrank [email protected] [email protected] van [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
ColumnistsAndy CooteJames Fee
Contributing WritersFlorian FischerGordon PetrieHuibert-Jan LekkerkerkJoc TriglavAngela BakerPierre-Philippe Mathieuzgr ErtacStephan HollHans PlumKristine CarberAdam SpringCaradoc PetersAnthony BeckGraham Stickler
Account Manager
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SubscriptionsGeoInformatics is available against a yearlysubscription rate (8 issues) of 89,00.To subscribe, fill in and return the electronic replycard on our website or contactJanneke Bijleveld [email protected]
Advertising/ReprintsAll enquiries should be submitted toRuud Groothuis [email protected]
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ISSN 13870858
Copyright 2008. GeoInformatics: no material maybe reproduced without written permission.
GeoInformatics is published byCMedia Productions BVPostal address:P.O. Box 2318300 AEEmmeloordThe NetherlandsTel.: +31 (0) 527 619 000Fax: +31 (0) 527 620 989E-mail: [email protected]
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mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.geoinformatics.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03
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Urban GamesDuring a workshop at the EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009 in
Bingen a group of graduate and post-graduate students from all over
Europe gathered to fathom the phenomenon of Urban Games. Alongside
a possible categorisation of urban games, the adoption of geospatial
technology for gaming and its impact on spatial perception has been
discussed and deepened during a hands-on exercise facilitated by Daniel
Schober from ESRI Germany.
C o n t e n t
April/May 2009
ArticlesUrban GamesThe Future Role of Geospatial Technology
for Urban Gaming 10
Standards in PracticePart 10: CityGML 24
GIS In Schools EducationOverview of GIS education landscape today,
some of the issues and challenges 20
The View from SpaceTaking Corporate Sustainability to New Heights 26
Integrating GIS & GridComputing for Disaster Management
The SCIER Project 46
Essays on Geography and GISFree ESRI Publication on Best Practices 32
PostGISPowerful GIS Functions in the
Database System PostgreSQL 34
The Current Climate for Data Capture,Processing and ArchivingDigital Preservation Processes within Cultural Heritage 54
Integrating Utility Asset Information
Data Integration Challenges for Reducing Street Works 58
Product ReviewTrimble Juno SC HandheldGPS Product Review 6
InterviewsERDAS - The Earth to Business CompanyAn Interview with Jergen Dold 14
Fugro-BKS: Part of Fugros Survey Division
Interview with Lynn Neill 38
The GeoInformation Group
Page 10
The SCIER ProjectThe EU-funded SCIER project (Sensor & Computing Infrastructure for
Environmental Risks) introduces a new approach to GIS-based disaster
management. Its goal is to make the much-neglected urban-rural-inter-
facing zones safer for European citizens faced with natural hazards and
environmental accidents. After mobilizing partners from research
institutes, academia, public authorities and service providers from seven
EU countries, its time for a look at the final implementation.
Page 46
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GPS Product Review
GPS is becoming more and more the standard tool for data collection, but also
for navigating to a certain object in the field. Whereas for data collection the
required accuracies need to be relatively high to create a dataset that is
positionally correct, this does not have to be the case for simply updating
attribute data in the field or in order to navigate to a certain object.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
With the price of survey grade receivers rel-atively high it is an expensive job to equip
everybody with his / her own personal GPS unit.
An alternative would be to purchase consumer
type receivers but these rarely support the soft-
ware needed. As an alternative, manufacturers
develop low-end GPS units that still suit pro-
fessional needs. One of the latest of these to
come to the market is the Juno handheld from
Trimble. This review will focus on the Juno SC
handheld version, which is identical to the less
expensive Juno SB handheld that lacks the 3.5G
cellular communications options provided with
the Juno SC handheld. The unit has been test-
ed together with Trimble TerraSync software.
ReceiverThe receiver is based on a typical PDA type
handheld. As a result, all controls and interfaces
are quite familiar to any other windows based
PDA. As a result the main user interface is the
colour touch screen in addition to a few hard-
ware keys. As a result typing has to be per-
formed using the on-screen keyboard.
The Juno SC handheld is equipped with just
about any form of communication one needs
nowadays. There is no RS232 port, but these
can be considered obsolete by now. The Juno
SC model is equipped with a 3.5G cellular
modem, which we did not test. The SIM card
for this slot can be easily inserted / extracted
as it is located under a rubber cover next tothe micro SD card that Trimble has chosen for
memory expansion.
The upside of using a high capacity microSD
card is that you, when using the Juno SC hand-
held for mapping, will probably never run out
of memory. The downside is that the microSD
card requires an additional adapter when insert-
ed into e.g. a PC.
CameraThe Juno SC handheld is equipped with a 3
Megapixel colour camera with auto focus. The
camera is of the type typically found in mobile
devices and has no flash. As a result it is hard-
ly usable under dark conditions, but outside in
broad daylight it functions well enough. The
6
Product review
April/May 2009
Trimble Juno SC Handheld
8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03
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main problem with this type of camera is the
so-called shutter lag.
I consider myself a relatively experienced pho-
tographer, but I could manage to have a sharp
picture one out of five times. This is the result
of the situation that the camera requires about
6 seconds between pressing the shutter release
button and taking the photograph. Cameraquality is what one would expect and decent
enough (if sharp enough) to be used for GIS
type data collection.
Apart from the above I only experienced a few
minor problems with the camera. One was that
after taking a few photographs the colour rep-
resentation went wrong (all green image,
striped etc). After turning on/off the camera it
worked correct again however. According to
Trimble the problem experienced here might be
related to the specific I tested unit and will be
investigated. The other was that I inadvertently
turned the unit off while taking a photograph
in landscape mode. This was because the on/off
switch is exactly in the spot where you would
normally hold the camera to steady it.
rect any features in the field and mark them as
changed so that on re-import these objects can
be selected easily.
The downside to the procedure used by Trimble
is that when e.g. a shape file is used as basis
for the updating process, the import is good
enough but certain information from the origi-
nal file can be lost. An example is e.g. when a
menu list has been defined (and used). The val-ues are then, by default, imported as text and
not as a menu item. If however a so-called data
dictionary is available or if the data was origi-
nally collected using TerraSync then GPS
Pathfinder Office software offers the opportuni-
ty to match the values from the input file This
way menu entries can be created and certain
specific fields such as auto numbering can be
inserted that are not available in e.g. the shape
format used for the updating.
AcquisitionData acquisition or updating in the field is sim-ple enough. Select the correct feature on the
map and start logging or editing until the receiv-
er indicates enough data has been collected. It
is possible to edit the data dictionary in the
field using the TerraSync software, although
most people will want to avoid this consider-
ing the relatively small screen and on-screen
keyboard.
When mapping features with a point or line
geometry, the software offers the option to sur-
vey with an offset. This feature can be quite
handy when mapping e.g. a building or a tree.
One can simply stay away from those ever-
shielding walls and canopies and still be able
to accurately survey the position of the tree or
building.
ProcessingData is, as is usual with Windows Mobile
devices, transferred using ActiveSync. When
transferring measurement files, the connection
manager of GPS Pathfinder Office software has
to be used instead of the more generic file
explorer from Windows. This is necessary sinceduring transfer the software combines various
files from the receiver into a single data file on
the office computer; something that is not pos-
sible without GPS Pathfinder Office. If the GPS
Pathfinder office software is not available, then
the TerraSync software offers the possibility of
shape file export.
After transfer, the data can be viewed, edited
and exported from the GPS Pathfinder Office
software. The TerraSync software has only lim-
ited export options (to shape file), but GPS
Pathfinder Office has a myriad of export formats
available. All export formats can be tuned to
the user needs with regard to which features,
attributes and metadata is exported to the out-
put file.
Otter BoxThe Juno SC handheld is
not watertight by itself. It
is slightly shockproof, but
since it is essentially a
PDA it has the same type
of resistance to water
and shocks as any com-
mon PDA. Trimble real-izes this and offers a more sturdy housing as
optional. The OtterBox Defender Series case
does make the device more sturdy (and
bulky).
With the box in place the unit does not
become fully waterproof but will withstand a
heavy rain shower without much problem. The
unit is waterproofed using rubber flaps and a
silicon plastic covering around the front and
backside of the unit. The downside is that the
touch screen becomes much harder to read
and touch and that the image quality fromthe camera suffers from the additional layer
of plastic. Also, the waterproofing is not IP
rated and as such gives no guarantee to abso-
lute water tightness in any way.
All ports, with the exception of the battery
cover are however still accessible with the
cover on the unit.
SoftwareSince the Juno SC handheld runs on Windows
Mobile, one could use any software that is com-
pliant with that operating system. Trimble deliv-
ered the unit together with their standard
mobile GIS acquisition package, TerraSync soft-
ware. The software is relatively easy to under-
stand although one has to get used to the oper-
ation of the menus. Instead of using a menu
bar with pull down menus for the main menu
items, the software has two pull down menus.
The top one is to select the main menu item
whilst the bottom one is to select the specific
operation to be performed. Once one is used
to it, operation is no problem.
When using TerraSync, a feature can have an
attribute defined that will link an image fromeither the onboard camera or the memory to
that feature. Positional information taken from
TerraSync is also stored in the so-called EXIF
meta information layer of the photograph.
PreparationAs the main purpose of this type of receiver is
the location of objects or the updating of their
attribution, most users will want to download
their information to the receiver for updating.
Existing file types can be converted using the
Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office software to a for-
mat that TerraSync software can handle. GPS
Pathfinder Office is a collection of useful pro-
grams including a viewer and processing
options. Using this software it is easy to cor-
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Product review
7April/May 2009
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For ESRI locations worldwide, visit www.esri.com/distributors.
Czech Republic
www.arcdata.czDenmarkwww.informi.dk
Estonia, Latvia,and Lithuaniawww.hnit-baltic.lt
Finlandwww.esri-nland.com
France
www.esrifrance.frF.Y.R.O.M.www.gisdata.hr
Germanywww.esri-germany.de
Georgiawww.geographic.ge
Greece and Cypruswww.marathondata.gr
Austria
www.synergis.co.atBelgium and Luxembourgwww.esribelux.com
Bosnia and Herzegovinawww.gisdata.hr
Bulgariawww.esribulgaria.com
Croatiawww.gisdata.hr
Hungary
www.esrihu.huIcelandwww.samsyn.is
Israelwww.systematics.co.il
Italywww.esriitalia.it
Maltawww.geosys.com.mt
Moldova
www.trimetrica.comThe Netherlandswww.esrinl.com
Norwaywww.geodata.no
Polandwww.esripolska.com.pl
Portugalwww.esri-portugal.pt
Romania
www.esriro.roRussiawww.dataplus.ru
Slovak Republicwww.arcgeo.sk
Sloveniawww.gisdata.hr
Spainwww.esri-es.com
Sweden
www.esri-sgroup.seSwitzerlandwww.esri-suisse.ch
Turkeywww.esriturkey.com.tr
Ukrainewww.ecomm.kiev.ua
UK/Irelandwww.esriuk.com
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Differential Positioning
The Juno SC handheld has a built-in SBASreceiver, allowing it to receive corrections from
the available WAAS and EGNOS satellites. The
downside to using SBAS is that the satellites
visible in Europe (EGNOS) are relatively low on
the horizon resulting in potential obstruction of
the differential signal in build-up areas or under
tree canopies. Trimble however offers a post-
Comment from TrimbleTrimble Mapping & GIS division thanks
GeoInformatics for conducting this product
review and for providing the opportunity to
comment on their findings. As Mr.
Lekkerkerk points out, the Juno SC well
suited for mobile workers engaged in data
collection and attribute update who require
connectivity in the field. To support thesetypes of users, TerraSync does manage
information from the internal camera,
including GPS location, when a data dictio-
nary is created that contains a picture
attribute. Furthermore, the camera issues
noted, including the long shutter lag as well
as several image colour problems, are due
to be resolved in an April update of
Windows Mobile 6.1.
processing option in GPS Pathfinder Office soft-
ware. Using data from fixed reference stations
around the world, the data collected in the field
is post-processed. Earlier tests with the GeoXT
handhelds performed by this magazine indicat-
ed that the results of code post-processing are
similar to those with SBAS collection.
ConclusionThe Juno SC handheld is an affordable alterna-
tive to its bigger brothers, but do not expect
miracles from it in the sense of accuracy. It is
however a good alternative for attribute updat-
ing or object recovery, especially when using
TerraSync software.
One thing that disappoints me is the camera
since it is very hard to use due to the shutter
lag. The method chosen by Trimble for trans-
ferring data files helps to keep the paths in the
data to the photograph correct whenever
Pathfinder Office is used for data processing.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
[email protected] isfreelance writer as
well as project manager at IDsW. This review was
done in cooperation with the students from the fifth
Skilltrade course Hydrography B in Rotterdam.This
article represents their personal views. For more
information on the GPS: www.trimble.com.
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Product review
9April/May 2009
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The Future Role of Geospatial Technology for Urban Gaming
During a workshop at the EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009 in Bingen a
group of graduate and post-graduate students from all over Europe gathered to
fathom the phenomenon of Urban Games. Alongside a possible categorisation
of urban games, the adoption of geospatial technology for gaming and its
impact on spatial perception has been discussed and deepened during a hands-
on exercise facilitated by Daniel Schober from ESRI Germany.
By Florian Fischer
Linking Space and Gaming byGeospatial TechnologyUntil now a great variety of different games
exists that combine space and gaming.An
example of this is geo-caching, where people
all over the world search for hidden treasures
by hunting places that are only described by
their coorditantes with the aid of GPS receivers.
More and more of these types of games make
use of ever more sophisticated geospatial tech-
nology like GPS, digital mapping in combina-
tion with mobile communication. The conver-
gence of these technologies allow for the pro-
duction of particular settings for urban games
by mixed-reality. A term that describes the direct
link up of material space with media-space by
geo-references. Thus the player acts in material
space as well as in media-space during the
game.
During a workshop at the EGEA Western
Regional Congress 2009 in Bingen a group of
graduate and post-graduate students from all
over Europe gathered to fathom the phe-
nomenon of Urban Games. Alongside a possi-
ble categorisation of urban games, the adop-
tion of geospatial technology for gaming and
its impact on spatial perception has been dis-
cussed and deepened during a hands-on exer-
cise facilitated by Daniel Schober from ESRI
Germany.
Why Do We Play?Games fulfil various personal aims for players
such as having fun, action, teambuilding, win-
ning or simply getting a prize. Media-scienceprovides a building of theories to describe why
we play. Likewise simulations, gaming has a
close connection to real-life - in contrary to com-
mon opinion that says gaming is out of real
life. According to widely accepted action theory
gaming serves the purpose to trial and error
the effectiveness of procedures, strategies,
methods and instruments of acting. The player
can establish individual knowledge for future
actions and evaluate his knowledge continu-
ously within a game.
Hence urban games promote different settings
and typologies of acting to practice for reality
and build up knowledge within the context of
urban space. Exemplary two games show how
action typologies and settings vary by the inte-
gration of the environment and the appropria-
tion of mixed-reality using geospatial technolo-
gy.
The TargetWhereas the material setting is an important
factor of an urban game many games tend to
have a strong focus on the virtual setting
recently. One example is The Target, a copsand robbers game that exhaustively makes use
of GPS- and mobile technology.
There are three policemen who hunt for one
gangster in this game. Their weapons are a
mobile phone and the satellites that are hang-
ing above the city that is, the GPS-satellites.
The gangster has to steal virtual objects that
are located all over the city to be able to com-
mit crimes. Virtual objects appear on the screen
of the mobile phone an can be grabbed as soon
as the gangster is within a 30 meter radius of
the object. The objects can be knives, a rope
ladder or explosives. Every time the gangster
steals an object or commits a crime the police-
men get a signal and can locate him on their
mobile phones. Thus they have a track of the
10
Art icle
April/May 2009
Figure 1: The convergence of technologies -- communications, internet and geospatial -- enables the
production of particular settings for mixed-reality urban games
Urban Games
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gangsters activities in the city that can be fol-
lowed. Furthermore the policemen automatical-
ly get a signal from the gangster every six min-
utes. Hence they can continuously check fortheir target. Both parties can shoot virtually
each other if they are within a radius of 25 m
from the other party but they only have three
bullets. The game ends when the policemen
have shot the gangster. Every shoot is calculat-
ed by the relative GPS-position of the parties
taking into account the material structure of the
urban environment. The gangster himself has
all the same information on his mobile phone
and can use a bunch of virtual tools to shake
off any police pursuit. He can use the radio jam-
mer to hide his GPS-signal, a bullet-proof west
to be protected from shoots and a mine to set
a snare for policemen. The game is appropriate
for three to thirty-six players and is available in
many cities in the Netherlands, Belgium and
France. Eventually it is more like a video game
that has been adapted to the urban environ-
ment as a play board.
The virtual setting becomes very important for
this game. GPS- and mobile communication
technology are essential to make the game
work and connect players, the material struc-
ture of a city and the virtual objects with each
other. The Target could not work without loca-tion and mobile communication technology as
game flow is inextricably intertwined with the
moves of players that is, all players need to be
informed about the movements and actions of
the other party in real time to be able to play
the game. Thus the level of location awareness
is an essential element for all players being
enabled by GPS-technology and mobile com-
munication.
4816 Confluence Project in ViennaConfluence games are taking a different
approach of playing. Confluence points are the
intersection points within a coordinate system.
These points are purely virtual objects as they
do not have any material appearance on Earth.
to the points to be found. Although the players
are in competition, they don not know who
might be their competitor. There is nothing to
win but to cope with a personal challenge.
Location Awareness an Enabler forUrban GamesFor many urban games the adoption of media
tools is a requirement. Websites usually accom-pany the game or provide important functions
for the game. Mobile communication is a key
element if real-time information or the connec-
tion to a control centre has a crucial role for
the flow of the game. A digital camera is an
important part of the equipment for many urban
games to fix a moment and have a proof for
the reaching of a location, a finished task or
the documentation of actions in general. GPS
technology is already a familiar element in many
urban games because many of them have their
roots in a geo-caching-like mode of playing.Maps have been used in many urban games
already, normally for orientation, remarks or to
give a route for the players. Digital mapping
and the integration of geo-browsers broaden
the adoption of maps in urban games. In com-
bination with mobile- and GPS-technology, dig-
ital mapping can be used to intertwine the
video game, a virtual space, with the urban
game and thus with the material space. Digital
mapping and mobile communication allow for
the visualisation of living maps in real-time and
thus players can react on the actions of other
players even when they are out of sight, like in
a video game but normally impossible in mate-
rial urban space. Now the creators of games
can draw from both worlds and put together
games that can be an urban intervention, a dis-
In fact sometimes they are marked or a sign is
put on confluence points but eventually they
are fictitious points. The aim of confluence pro-
jects is a hunt for these points to make them
visible. Thus every player and it can be every-
body with a GPS-device and a camera is in
competition with others to be the first discov-
erer of a confluence point. The project 4816 is
a confluence project dedicated to the Austriancapital Vienna to find and take a photo of all
minute intersection points within the adminis-
trative borders of the city. Looking at the matrix
of minute intersections in Vienna unfolds the
number of 185 points to be discovered. A web-
site accompanies the project that displays all
intersection points on a map and displays those
which have already been found.
When a point is found, a picture of the point
including the GPS-device with correct coordi-
nates as evidence should be taken. This picture
can then be uploaded to the website of the pro-ject. Many points have been visited already,
some even more than once, e.g. once in sum-
mer and once in winter. But there are still some
left which are very tricky such as points within
waterbodies.
Some points are even impossible to be discov-
ered legally as they are on private property, in
factory buildings or military zones. The game is
not about teambuilding and neither about hunt-
ing someone else but being a discoverer. The
intersection points as virtual and fictitious for-
mations of a geospatial coordinate system con-
nect the player by their georeference to unex-
pected and in fact unforeseen places in the
material world. The GPS-device becomes the
decoder for the coordinate system, guiding the
player within the urban environment of Vienna
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
11April/May 2009
Figure 2: Location awareness in the urban game
The Target
Figure 3: The map of all intersection points in Vienna as shown on the website of Project 4816.
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covery a challenge or a robber and cop game,
merging real and virtual spaces. Eventually loca-
tion awareness seems to be a key element of
many urban games and I expect it to become
the most important element of many urban
games in the near future. Location awareness
that is, using devices that know and display the
position of all players and objects to a certain
degree, enables the players to react on other
players movements. In most urban games loca-
tion awareness will be only given partially and
depending on the role a player has. The actualchallenge of most urban games will then be to
guess where others are going and what other
players are doing while they only have a par-
tial knowledge about their location and move-
ment. Furthermore it is still an open question
how the location awareness of the device has
an effect on the spatial perception of the play-
ers. Many urban games have an educational
purpose as they want to communicate the his-
tory of a city or the establish knowledge for the
orientation within a city or educate about a cer-
tain local topic. Some research points out that
the effect of using location aware devices is not
necessarily a broadened location awareness of
the player. In contrary, in some cases the play-
ers in urban games totally forget about the spe-
cific meaning of the materiality of urban space
and do hardly realize anything else than the vir-
tual setting.
While partial location awareness for different
roles of players allows the creation of interest-
ing challenges in space, the game itself has full
location awareness. In fact all location informa-
tion can be stored continuously which opens
new possibilities for the review and scoring ofgames.
GIS for Gaming AnalysisGIS software provides a huge tool box not only
to conduct urban games but to analyse them
as well. I will take the product portfolio of ESRI
for example. ArcPad as a mobile client runs on
most PDAs with a Windows Mobile operating
system. Thus ArcPad could act as the client for
the game to show an actual map with interest-
ing objects for the player, record a GPS-track
and even allow for input within the game. The
desktop GIS ArcMap can then be used to anal-
yse and visualize the game afterwards. This
could be average speed, longest way or high-
est total difference in altitude or a spatio-tem-
a message. In fact many urban games that we
know nowadays have their roots in an artistic
initiative.
It is still a question which effects games have
on spatial perception and spatial experience. At
least they seem to be a perfect opportunity to
try out action and evaluate individual know-
ledge and thus prepare for real life. Probably
that is why they used for team-building often.Finally if you once played an urban game you
immediately get addicted to this mixture of
playing, using geospatial technology and being
outside. Addicted like all the participants of the
workshop on Urban Games were in the end of
the EGEA Western Regional Congress.
Contact:
Florian [email protected],GIS
Editor Geoinformatics and Research Assistant at the
Austrian Academy of Sciences GIScience research
facility in Salzburg, Austria.
The author would like to thank the following
workshop participants for their contributions: Matyas
Rajnai (Hungary), Elisabeth Gruber (Austria),
Martinus Everhardus Spoelstra (The Netherlands),
Stefanie Rieger (Germany), Andrei Molnar (Romania),
Christine Ornetsmller (Austria), Vlad Dumitrescu
(Romania), Sylvain Rigollet (France), Dick De Munter
(the Netherlands); thank you to my co-workshop lead-
er Elisabeth Wimmer from the Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universitt Mnchen; and last but not least thank
you to Daniel Schober from ESRI Germany for
providing the hardware and software for the
workshop and for dedicating so much of his time
to the preparation and the performance duringthe workshop.
Links:
Frisse Wind Events The Waddengame:
www.frissewind.com
La Mosca Citygames The Target:
www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htm
4816 - Confluence Project Vienna: http://4816.nsew.at
EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009:
www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09
poral analysis of the players movements with
the tracking analyst extension. ArcExplorer is
another tool to be used for visualising the game
flow and additionally adding photos to certain
point features. During the EGEA Western
Regional Congress a urban game has been
played using the product portfolio of ESRI. The
competing teams had to find ten places given
on ten pictures and then make a photo and seta place-mark with their PDA. Every group had
a GPS-enabled PDA with ArcPad installed. It has
been used to create the place-marks and to log
their track through the city. Afterwards the game
has been analysed in ArcMap and ArcExplorer.
This is still an easy way to use available GIS-
software for urban gaming. The adoption of
ArcGIS Server and mobile communication
seems to be a very powerful instrument for the
creation of urban games that also can take real-
time location awareness into account. Location
signals of various players can be sent by mobileconnection to the ArcGIS Server that does the
real-time server-side processing and forwards
necessary location information about the state
of play on the mobile maps of all players. It
seems that ESRI already provides all compo-
nents to set-up and urban game, do they.
Maybe this can be a future business case for
ESRI? ArcGIS Server might be too powerful to
only use it for gaming as some of you might
think. Of course more than simple urban games
could be done with ArcGIS Server but neverthe-
less: Why shall we not think about it.
GIS and Games much more thanScavenger HuntConcluding urban games are empowered by
geospatial technology and often enabled only
by it. I expect urban games to develop in the
direction of locative media games in the near
future. Mapping, mobile communication and
location services will be key technologies for
urban games then. The technology already
exists but it has to be simplified
because gaming is not about
reading a 500 page manual. Sofar most urban games have their
roots in three archetypes.
Games in the robber and the
cop category are mostly about
fast action like running, about
chasing each and to foresee the
next steps of your competitors.
Games like geo-caching are usu-
ally a scavenger hunt for places
or objects. Their aim is to cope
with a row of tasks in order to
find a location or be guided
along interesting tour. Still there
are also many artistic urban
games that do not follow a cer-
tain aim but want to transport
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
13April/May 2009
Figure 4: Some intersections points are really difficult
to find, like the point N48 14 E16 24.
Figure 5: Visualizing resultsof an urban game via
ArcExplorer
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.frissewind.com/http://www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htmhttp://4816.nsew.at/http://www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09http://4816.nsew.at/http://www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htmhttp://www.frissewind.com/mailto:[email protected]8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03
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An Interview with Jergen Dold
ERDAS-The Earth toBusiness Company
GeoInformatics editor Joc Triglav teams up with Mr. Juergen Dold, President
Geospatial Solutions Division at Leica Geosystems AG. In this interview,
he explains all about how the new ERDAScame into being, as well as its
current philosophy of transforming data into geospatial information.
Special attention is paid to improvements in the methods of sensor data
acquisition, analysis and data modeling, as well as ERDAS strategic
OGC membership.
By Joc Triglav
Mr. Jrgen Dold joined Leica Geosystems in1995. At Leica Geosystems he managed as
product and general manager several product
and business lines that included high-tech
hardware and software solutions. In 2008 Mr.
Dold was appointed as President of the
Geospatial Solutions Division which is respon-
sible for Leica Geosystems Terrestrial Laser
Scanner and Airborne Sensors business as wellfor ERDAS the solution provider for authoring,
managing, connecting and delivering geospa-
tial information.
JT: To represent ERDAS briefly to ourreaders please give us a shortoverview of your company, its recentactivities and goals. How is ERDAS aswe knew it a decade ago differentfrom the ERDAS today?
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, ERDAS Inc. wasestablished in 1978. A small start-up initially
located on Georgia Tech's campus, ERDAS devel-
oped software to process Landsat imagery into
maps, utilizing remote sensing and GIS tech-
niques. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the
geographic imaging market rapidly developed,
with ERDAS as an industry leader.
In 2001, ERDAS and LH Systems were acquired
by Leica Geosystems, and this division became
Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping (later
renamed to Leica Geosystems Geospatial
Imaging). ERDAS was a remote sensing and
geospatial imaging software company and LH
Systems was a provider of aerial survey and
photogrammetry solutions. The combination
of these two entities created a comprehensive
solution provider, addressing the entire imag-
ing process from capturing raw data to pre-
senting 2D and 3D maps. In essence, Leica
Geosystems defined and powered the geospa-
tial imaging chain, as the experts in imagery.
Hexagon purchased Leica Geosystems in 2005,
maintaining the company's name and identity.
In 2007, the division acquired Acquis, ER
Mapper and IONIC, providing the companywith new technology and strengthening its
global presence. With these acquisitions, the
company broadened its offerings, appealing
to much larger web and enterprise wide, non-
traditional markets. In 2008, the company
became the new ERDAS, expanded to provide
the most dynamic geospatial solutions to meet
everyday business needs.
Today, ERDAS provides solutions that meet the
full spectrum of an organization's require-
ments, transforming geospatial data into infor-
mation useful for decision-making processes.
Incorporating standards-based interoperability
for authoring, managing, connecting and deliv-
ering geospatial information, ERDAS ensures
that data is seamlessly integrated for enter-
14
Interview
April/May 2009
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prise, web-based, mobile and desktop clients.
For over 30 years, ERDAS has been an indus-
try leader in image exploitation, processing,
visualization and geospatial data manage-
ment. With Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
and International Organization for Standar-
dization (ISO) interoperability, ERDAS develops
standards-based solutions with the most
advanced service-oriented platform available.Building on the company's rich history and
expertise in geospatial imaging, ERDAS is now
a leader in the broader geospatial information
market.
JT: The ERDAS philosophy of trans-forming data into geospatial informa-tion is structured in four essentialsteps author, manage, connect anddeliver. Please, explain in detail themeaning and the contents of these
four steps.
The four steps are based upon the under-
lying premise that the earths geography is
continuing to change at a rapid pace. As a
result, there is an increasing need for geo-
graphic information to understand the earth.
This spark fuels the lifecycle of geographic
information. The lifecycle is broken down into
four primary components: Author, Manage,
Connect and Deliver. As the earth changes, we
have an increasing need to sense the earth.
Data can be captured from a variety of sen-
sors, including airborne, satellite and terrestri-
al. As the raw data is captured, it needs to be
authored in a form that is useable to derive
information. As the volume of data increases,
organizations experience a data management
problem. Enterprise solutions are needed to
manage the large volumes of data that have
been sensed. Once the data has been cen-
trally managed, there is often a need to share
that information with others distributed across
an organization. Delivering all this information
to end users is the final step. With an increas-
ing need to understand our dynamic world,this is an ongoing, recurring lifecycle. Our thirst
for understanding the earth ultimately pro-
vides us with more knowledge. This knowl-
edge enables us to take necessary precautions
to protect our planet and ensure a viable
future. Each of the components of the lifecy-
cle and our product portfolio are explained in
more detail below:
Author Transform source data into products,
including orthos, 3D data, land cover data and
processing models. ERDAS offers a full suite of
authoring products including ERDAS IMAGINE,
ERDAS ER Mapper, LPS and extensions for
ArcGIS.
Manage By centrally managing authored or
LIDAR systems now have a medium-format dig-
ital camera fully integrated.
With respect to airborne digital imaging, we
have seen improvements in maximizing area
coverage so that less flight lines have to be
flown to cover more area. Line staggering with
pushbroom sensors enables high-resolution
acquisition of up to 24,000 pixels acrossswath, increasing productivity up to 50%. This
allows faster flying times, acquiring more data
for photogrammetric and remote sensing
applications. The Leica ADS80 can capture
2,000 megapixels per square scene.
Increasingly, airborne data is being used for
thematic interpretation and classification as
well, replacing some satellite data. Sensors
that acquire data without requiring pan sharp-
ening during post-processing and provide
good radiometric calibration deliver superior
performance in feature extraction and classifi-cation.
Increasing the amount of data acquired dur-
ing a mission requires processing techniques
that provide fast post-processing without the
loss of accuracy. We believe workflows that
deliver high accuracy at the "speed of flight"
(with minimum interaction) will become more
important, particularly as we collect more data.
After the data is captured, ERDAS provides work-
flow driven solutions for authoring the data.
ERDAS has products such as LPS and ORIMA to
produce the data as it comes out of the sen-
sors, including block triangulation, automatic
point matching, automated terrain extraction
and ortho-mosaic production. ERDAS IMAINE is
also used to extract derivative information
products from this data, thereby increasing the
overall return on investment while maximizing
the depth of information contained within the
source data. ERDAS also has software to cen-
trally catalog and manage the data, as well as
high-speed internet delivery solutions for
rapidly incorporating the data into businessapplications. ERDAS seamlessly transitions that
data from the sensors into a variety of appli-
cations for authoring, managing, connecting
and delivering geospatial information.
JT: How do geospatial disciplines anddomains relate to Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC) web services andwhich are the benefits from OGCinteroperability? Which steps is ERDASmaking in implementing OGC compli-ance? How are the tasks of variousdata conversions implemented inERDAS technologies? How OGC strate-gic membership benefits ERDAS cus-tomers?
purchased data, the data is organized for quick
and efficient discovery. With ERDAS solutions,
users can easily manage their information,
including finding, describing, cataloging and
serving data and web services. Products
include ERDAS APLOLLO and ERDAS ADE.
Connect Organizations need to connect their
users to share data. ERDAS TITAN securely con-
nects users to rapidly share content through-out an organization or business-to-business.
Deliver After data has been provisioned,
users need to be able to deliver the data cus-
tomers need, the way they want it and when
they need it. ERDAS provides the industry lead-
ing solution for quickly delivering large
amounts of imagery that can be easily inte-
grated into CAD, GIS, mobile, web and desk-
top geospatial or business applications. ERDAS
Image Web Server efficiently distributes mas-
sive amounts of geospatial imagery to thou-
sands of users, all on a single server. Solvingthe infrastructure congestion problems tradi-
tionally associated with deploying large
amounts of image data, users quickly access
the information they need.
JT: In your opinion, which are themajor recent improvements in themethods of sensor data acquisition,quality analysis of the acquired data,combined use of various sensor dataand data modeling? How can ERDAStechnologies be helpful in these pro-
cesses?
With respect to LIDAR data acquisition,
there have been major improvements in point
density and accuracy. Since its introduction,
LIDAR systems have drastically increased in
accuracy. Both accuracy and point density
must increase together to avoid "fuzzy look-
ing" data with details masked by "noise.
Today's LIDAR systems deliver 40 times as
many data points per square meter of terrain
as systems did ten years ago, capturing finer
features in the terrain.
Leica incorporates various technologies in its
LIDAR product. System accuracy has improved
from tenths of meters in the late 1990s to
three to five centimeters today. Quality analy-
sis has also progressed, and there are now a
significant number of accepted practices used
to analyze the accuracy ofLIDAR data, even over
very large project areas. In many cases, the
techniques borrow from conventional tech-
nologies, adapting to meet the strengths
inherent in the LIDAR capture method. You can
now also combine various data acquisition
technologies. We have a number of customers
flying large-format imaging systems concur-
rently with LIDAR. In addition, 50% of all Leica
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Interview
15April/May 2009
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Overview of GIS Education Landscape Today, some of the Issues
GIS In Schools EducationAt a time when floods, climate change and traffic management should be
making geography one of the most important subjects in schools worldwide,
the Office for Standards in Education, Childrens Services and Skills (OFSTED) in
the United Kingdom last year reported a drop in the number of pupils taking
Geography for high school GCSE and A-Level studies. What role does
technology namely GIS - have in engaging students, giving the next
generation the skills it needs to meet the major global challenges
that lie ahead?
By Angela Baker
GIS became part of the curriculum inEngland at Key Stage 3 in September 2008
and is now also mentioned in various A level
and GCSE specifications. As well as assisting
teachers, students and their schools to
answer geographic questions, and to foster
critical thinking and problem solving, GIS can
help to prepare our 21st century workforce
with the skills and geographical awareness to
sustain our fragile world.
GIS brings real life examples into the class-
room, engaging children who are now famil-
iar with internet access, mobile phones and
electronic games consoles at home and
encouraging young students by showing them
20
Art icle
April/May 2009
The Grammar School at Leeds embeds GIS training and exercises into its wider curriculum and believes that its
use of GIS engages students and challenges them to think.
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that geography is far from the boring subject
they may think it is.
Pupils are being entertained using creative
mapping software in activities such as time
travelling to analyse electronic historical
maps compared to modern day geographies,
investigating how rivers and shorelines move,
or writing newspapers and podcasts about
their geography-based findings. Mapping
software helps pupils learn concepts and
skills in a way that goes beyond traditional
worksheets and appeals to children via the
media that they habitually use.
One of the major challenges is trying to sup-
port teachers to bring this technology into
Institute of British Geographers (RGS with
IBG).
This programme has recently won funding
for a further three years.
The APG's goal is to provide everyone -
opinion formers, policy makers, parents
and pupils - with a clear vision of geogra-
phy as a relevant, powerful 21st century
subject; and to equip teachers with theprofessional skills and support they need
so that pupils can enjoy and succeed in
geography.
The APG supports various initiatives that
are promoting geography within schools
including GIS and mapping. The GA and
RGS both promote GI to their members
and have a keen interest in helping
teachers learn about how to implement
GI into their classrooms.
However it is the responsibility of theGI industry as a whole to encourage
schools, teachers and children to be
interested in geography and encour-
age them to develop their own spa-
tial awareness. A number of UK-
based and international GI
companies are already involved in
promoting education and the
Ordnance Survey, Great Britains
national mapping agency, are lead-
ers in this field.
Why GIS is a useful Tool forTeachers and ChildrenGIS helps students to become bet-
ter geographers because it cuts to
the heart of what geography is about; the
visualisation and analysis of spatial informa-
tion. GIS provides new opportunities for stu-
dents to develop their skills of geographical
analysis to a level not previously achievable
in schools. In this way, GIS in the classroom
can enhance the sophistication of geographi-
cal learning by allowing pupils to access real
data to tackle real problems. This helpsGeography to remain relevant and gives stu-
dents opportunities to use the subject in a
way that stretches and challenges them.
New technologies like GIS give a boost to the
subject of geography, helping to arm young
people with a new set of skills not just ICT-
related but the mental skills needed for data
analysis and problem solving, highly relevant
to a whole host of educational paths and
occupations.
Geography as a subject has always produced
students with very strong transferable skills.
In the near future, GIS skills will be expected
from employers in the same way spreadsheet,
word processing and email skills are today.
If we are going to arm our young people with
their classroom.
They are not GIS experts and do not have
the time to learn the software so there is a
responsibility on the GI industry to support
this new set of users, to help them integrate
the software into their teaching. One of the
other key challenges is communicating thatGIS is not just a visualisation tool, but a
strong analytical tool that can aid learning of
geographical techniques. Making the software
and data accessible and then supporting
teachers to integrate this into their teaching
will really help them bring GIS to the next gen-
eration.
Who's doing what to helpIn March 2006, Lord Adonis, the Schools
Minister, and Michael Palin announced the
Action Plan for Geography (APG). The APG was
a two-year programme of support and devel-
opment for school geography led jointly and
equally by the Geographical Association (GA)
and the Royal Geographical Society with the
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
21April/May 2009
and Challenges
Tocoincidewithitsentryint
otheGeographyAlevelcurriculum,
ESRI(UK)andtheGeograph
icalAssociation(GA)joinedf
orcesto
publishthefirstEuropeanG
ISA-Leveltextbook.
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SuperGIS Image Serveris a set of server software, which provides management,processing, and distribution of volume spatial imagery data. Through the real-time
image processing function provided by SuperGIS Image Server, end users can
effectively apply the provided imagery data in many aspects with the strengthened
processing capability. The process of using SuperGIS Image Server will reduce the
data management problem that is generated by pre-processing and will also
provide more flexible combination of processing functions for end users so that the
value of image use gets optimized. Furthermore, when cooperated with SueprGIS
Globe 3D platform in the front end, the imagery data could be simulated even better
and be displayed in much more diversity.
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these skills we need to bring GIS and
industry-standard training into the class-
room.
Who is teaching GIS well?Education isnt just about teaching students
facts. Its also about teaching them how to
reflect, analyse and problem solve. That, cer-
tainly, is the view of The Grammar School at
Leeds who are one of the schools who haveintegrated GIS into their teaching. This pro-
gressive school embeds tailored GIS lessons
into several subject areas, including Geo-
graphy, Biology, History and Religious
Studies, and believes that its use of GIS
engages students and challenges them to
think. They find that their students start to
use GIS as a tool to help fieldwork and
coursework, and as they use it more they
understand the techniques and are able to
undertake quite advanced GIS analysis as
they reach GCSE and A Level. In one project,students took raw data about childhood
health and living conditions from the Internet
and joined it to the Primary Care Trust
Boundaries base map. They then created
choropleth maps to help them identify
potential links between unfit housing and
asthma. These real-life exercises equip young
people with practical GIS skills that they can
employ in their future occupations. But,
these exercises also help students to develop
analytical skills that will benefit them in many
ways, throughout their lives. GIS is also being
taught in universities not just in Geography
Departments but in many different subjects
both at under-graduate and post-graduate lev-
els. It is also used in various research teams
ranging from Zoology to Archaeology, from
Geology to Sociology.
Why there is a Need for the A LevelBookTo coincide with its entry into the Geography A
level curriculum, ESRI (UK) and the Geo-
graphical Association (GA) joined forces to pub-
lish the first European GIS A-Level textbook;previously, GIS text books in English were only
published in North America. Consisting of a text
book, exercises and ESRI GIS software, teach-
ers and students now have access to a com-
prehensive GIS teaching aid - a complete guide
to the theory and applications of GIS, with five
practical exercises described step-by-step.
Written by Dr Peter OConnor, Head of
Geography at Bishops Stortford College in
England and a member of the Geographical
Association ICT Working Group. The book is
written from a teachers point of view and
describes how governments, organisations and
individuals are using GIS to grapple with
increasingly complex social, economic and envi-
ronmental problems. It then develops students
ing. With todays children being more famil-
iar with technology and the digital environ-
ment than ever before, they just need to be
pointed in the right direction and given the
opportunity to explore the software as they
progress through their work.
Lesson plans that link into the curriculum are
vital if we are to encourage teachers to use
GIS. They need to be able to learn the soft-ware, download something and use it
straight away. In time, the ideal scenario
would be to encourage teachers to share les-
son plans thus building an evolving resource
and library that links into the UK curriculum
across many subjects, written by teachers for
teachers.
ESRI (UK) is committed and passionate about
supporting GIS within both the school and
further / higher education arena. Putting
something back into our community and
working with the next generation is an idealway to do this. While we have supported var-
ious initiatives in the last few years that help
promote the use of GIS within schools, we
are now looking at how we can improve on
this. During this year we intend to launch a
project that will help teachers integrate GIS
into their teaching. It is all about Community
- how to build a modern community which
obviously means an online community and
about using the power of the technology to
help children learn, building a skilled workforce
for the future.
GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week are
international campaigns that promote geogra-
phy, inspire future careers and encourage the
learning of new geographical skills by both
teachers and pupils. GIS Day is aimed at show-
ing students the vast extent to which geo-
graphical information underpins daily life, with
activities taking place in over 80 countries. This
year GIS Day is 18th November and everyone
is invited to take part visit www.gisday.com
for details. Good geographical knowledge and
skills are vital for all of us, as responsible citi-
zens, if we are to fully understand the natureof change in the worlds people, places and
environments. We can and must - support
the next generation to foster these skills.
Angela Baker is Community Programmes Manager at
ESRI (UK). Go to www.esriuk.com/educationfor more
information or to learn more about the work being
done in promoting GI in education see the following
links:
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) www.rgs.org
Geographical Association www.geography.org.uk
Action Plan for Geography -
www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk
ESRI (UK) GIS Day resources
www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresources
MapZone -
http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone
GIS skills through the use of GIS software.
An understanding of GIS plays a crucial role in
introducing students to modern methods of
spatial data capture, processing, analysis and
presentation. Many chapters in the book can
be used as case study material to reinforce stu-
dents learning about the different stages of a
geographical investigation.
Through this resource teachers have the exer-
cises, data and software all provided in one
place along with the theory. It allows teachers
to integrate GIS into their lessons in a very
straightforward manner. The book is inexpen-
sive and so allows the teacher to trial the con-
cepts without a large financial outlay.
For sample pages of the book please see:www.geography.org.uk/post16he/
What does the Future hold?The schools market requires something that will
make GIS much more accessible to teachers
and therefore to children. They do not need
professional GIS, but GIS software that is easy
to use and relevant to the curriculum. This
means they need more than a piece of soft-
ware.
Data is very important, especially for their local
and fieldwork areas. This needs to be access-
ible and easy to import into the GIS. They must
also have lesson plans which show how the
software is relevant to what they are teaching
and links into the curriculum they are follow-
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
23April/May 2009
At last year's ESRI EMEA User Conference, students from The
Grammar School at Leeds took to the podium alongside teachers
to demonstrate how they have been using GIS in their studies.
http://www.gisday.com/http://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.rgs.org/http://www.geography.org.uk/http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/http://www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresourceshttp://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzonehttp://www.geography.org.uk/post16hehttp://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geography.org.uk/post16hehttp://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzonehttp://www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresourceshttp://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/http://www.geography.org.uk/http://www.rgs.org/http://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.gisday.com/8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03
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Part 10: CityGML
Over the last few years, the geo-industry has become increasingly aware that
the world is a 3D place. In the past, cities, landscapes, etc. were always
displayed as 2D chart representations. The best 3D that could be offered was a
DTM of heights or depths. At the other end of the spectrum, there have always
been those who did cityscaping and landscaping. Although they viewed the
world as a 3D place, their models were not anchored in the real world and,
as such, could not be combined with other sorts of information. They were
defined as purely graphical or geometrical models, thereby ignoring semantics
and topology. CityGML is an attempt to resolve these aspects in a coherent way.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
CityGML is an extension of GML version 3.1.1to allow the exchange of common semantic
information models for the representation of
3D urban objects. CityGML is based on a num-
ber of standards from the ISO 191xx family, the
Open Geospatial Consortium, the W3C
Consortium, the Web 3D Consortium, and
OASIS. CityGML defines the classes and rela-
tions for the most relevant topographic objects
in cities and regional models with respect to
their geometrical, topological, semantic and
appearance properties. City is broadly
defined to comprise not just built structures,
but also elevation, vegetation, water bodies,
city furniture, and more. CityGML is applica-
ble for large areas and small regions and can
represent the terrain and 3D objects in differ-
ent levels of detail simultaneously.
CityGML has been developed, starting in 2002,
by the members of the Special Interest Group
3D (SIG 3D) of the Geodata Infrastructure North
Rhine-Westphalia (GDI NRW) initiative in
Germany. The SIG 3D is an open group con-
sisting of more than 70 companies, municipal-
ities, and research institutions from Germany,
Great Britain, Switzerland, and Austria. In 2008version 1.0.0 was established as an Open
Standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC).
ModularizationCityGML consists of a wide variety of object
classes. However, implementations are not
required to support the overall data model in
order to be conformant to the standard, but
may employ a subset. For this, the CityGML
data model is thematically decomposed into
a core module and thematic extension mod-
ules. The following eleven thematic extension
modules are available: Appearance, Building,
CityFurniture, CityObjectGroup, Generics,
LandUse, Relief, Transportation, Vegetation,
WaterBody. CityGML compliant implementa-
tions may support any combination (or pro-
file) of extension modules in conjunction with
the core module.
CityGML does not define very specific infor-
mation on objects. In fact there are objects
not covered by the thematic extensions. In
reality it is on this information that analyseswill usually take place. Extension of the model
is allowed in CityGML through two different
processes: generic objects and attributes and
Application Domain Extensions.
Generic objects allow extension of existing
objects with new attributes at runtime with-
out changing the CityGML schema. The gener-
ic extensions are covered in the thematic
extension Generics.
Application Domain Extensions (ADE) speci-
fies additions to the CityGML data model that
allow not only new attributes but also new
object types. The ADE is defined in its own
XML schema, thus allowing for validation of
the extension together with validation against
the regular CityGML schema.
24
Art icle
April/May 2009
Standards in PracticeCityGMLWhat it is for: Semantic description of cities,
landscapes and buildings
Relevant standards: GML, ISO 191xx series
Technical implementation: GML
Legal basis: None; OGC standard
Stadt Ettenheim CityGML model in Autodesk LandXplorer CityGML viewer with Google Maps inset of the same area.
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Level of Detail
In CityGML, the Level Of Detail reflects differentapplication requirements and facilitates efficient
visualization and data analysis. The available
levels of detail (LOD) range from LOD 0, which
is essentially a digital terrain model with an
aerial image draped over it, to LOD 4 which
details buildings with all their architectural
details and interiors, stairs and furniture.
In a CityGML dataset, the same object may be
represented in different LOD simultaneously,
enabling the analysis and visualization of the
same object with regard to different degrees of
resolution. Furthermore, two CityGML data sets
containing the same object in different LOD may
be combined and integrated.
While in CityGML each object can have a differ-
ent representation for every LOD, often differ-
ent objects from the same LOD will be general-
ized for representation by an aggregate object
in a lower LOD. CityGML supports this aggrega-
tion / decomposition.
Combining Buildings with DTMBuildings do not stand on their own; often this
information is integrated with Digital Terrain
Models (DTM). Problems arise if 3D objects floatover or sink into the terrain. This is particularly
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the case if terrains and 3D objects in different
LOD are combined, or if they come from differ-ent providers. To overcome this problem,
CityGML allows what it calls a Terrain
Intersection Curve (TIC) to be modeled on every
building. When combining the building with a
DTM, the TIC allows the building to be correct-
ly positioned height-wise in the DTM.
Prototyping ObjectsIn CityGML objects of equal shape like trees and
other vegetation objects, traffic lights and traf-
fic signs can be represented as prototypes,
which are instantiated multiple times at differ-
ent locations. The geometry of prototypes is
defined in local coordinate systems. Every
instance is represented by a reference to the
prototype, a base point in the world coordinate
reference system and a transformation matrix
that facilitates scaling, rotation, and translation
of the prototype.
Exchange of DataOne of the main drawbacks of CityGML is prob-
ably also its strongest point: the use of GML.
The advantage of using GML is, of course, that
the files can be validated against a schema andthat semantic coherence between the various
objects is clear. The main downside to using
GML is the size of the resulting files; for exam-
ple, Castle Herten as featured in this article com-
prises a dataset of 5 Mb. The model of the city
of Ettenheim is already 42 Mb. Packaging the
files in a zip archive helps, but the sheer size
of the files will hamper normal XML validation
as well as their use in a WFS.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
[email protected] isproject manager
at IDsW and freelance trainer and writer. For more
information: www.ogcnetwork.net;www.citygml.org
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com25
April/May 2009
Conceptual model of CityGML (source: www.citygml.org)
Levels of detail in CityGML (source: www.citygml.org)
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.ogcnetwork.net/http://www.ogcnetwork.net/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.ogcnetwork.net/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03
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own needs (Our Common Future, report of
the World Commission on Environment andDevelopment headed by Gro Harlem
Brundtland in 1987). The all-embracing view
from space helped pioneer the emergence of
the concept of Sustainable Development,
whereby economic growth should ensure at
the same time long-term quality of life and
respect for the environment.
Over the last decades, the principles of sus-
tainability were progressively adopted by
world leaders on the occasion of a series of
Earth Summits (e.g. Stockholm, 1972; Rio,
1992), culminating in 2002 at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
held in Johannesburg. At this summit, world
leaders called upon business and civil soci-
ety to contribute to the Millennium
global environmental and social impact of
human activities. EO data is well suited to thistask as it delivers global and consistent data
on a wealth of environmental parameters
(ranging from land cover and oceanic condi-
tions to atmospheric composition), at a vari-
ety of scales, and even in regions physically
or politically inaccessible to traditional sur-
veying. Just by virtue of being global, EO data
nicely complement traditional point-based
observations based on in-situ surveys, which
are often sparsely distributed, or even com-
pletely missing, particularly in remote regions.
The capability of a space-based asset has
been recognized in the WSSD statement call-
ing for wider use of earth observation tech-
nologies to support water and disaster man-
agement.
Development Goals and to the implementa-
tion of sustainable development principlesthrough the Agenda 21 plan.
Meeting these objectives involves many chal-
lenges. The first one is the ability to quantify
sustainability by assessing the overall envi-
ronmental and societal impact of human activ-
ities, as well as its evolution in time compared
to a baseline. This is not an easy task, given
the complex nature and global scale of the
problem.
In this context, this paper will examine how
Earth Observation (EO) satellites in orbit
around the Earth - in particular from ESA mis-
sions and Third Party missions - can con-
tribute to meeting this challenge by provid-
ing a quantitative tool, going well beyond
simple imagery, to assess the cumulative
Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
27
Figure 1. Monitoring change within oil sands development areas in Canada. Rapid expansion of mine footprints between 2004 (left panel) and 2006 (right panel), as seen by
ENVISAT ASAR. Service providers are Hatfield Consultants and ACRI-st.
April/May 2009
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Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com
Art icle
29
The focus of this paper will be on the imple-
mentation of Corporate Sustainable
Development (CSD) within business practices,
also sometimes referred to as Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR). Following increas-
ing pressure from stakeholders, a series of
corporate leaders in CSD have adopted a new
business ethic based on the principles of sus-tainable development. This has resulted in the
creation of new types of non-financial audit-
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