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In-focus
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Inside...
July 2013 • Vol 3 • Issue 12
Articles
28 Transparency for
risk assessment
Cover Story
47 Advances in rail
measurement
Jim Dickey and Anthony
G. Cinquini
Andreas Siebert
34 GIS for Intelligent
transport system
Terry Bills
37 Geo-location enabling
airports to do business
Kevin Carlson
60 UAVs open up a whole
new world
Stef De Ridder & Egbert
Moerland
64 How mature is your GIS?
Greg Duffy
40 Towards a sustainable
maritime trade
18
Be insured with risk mapping
Anusuya Datta
Celine Roux
Case Studies
32 Guarding fleet on
the roads
54 Towards safer,
accident-free roads
CHAIRMAN
M P Narayanan
Publisher Sanjay Kumar
50 GIS for integrated
waterways
56 Digital terrain model
for highways
Publications Team
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Editor — Building & Energy
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Editor — Latin America (Honorary) Tania Maria Sausen
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52 Information system for
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58 Managing airport
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Interviews
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30 Iain Willis
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Product Manager, EQECAT
07 Editorial 08 News
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EditorSpeak
Short-sighted
policies vs
long-term effects
Prof Arup Dasgupta
Managing Editor
[email protected]
J
une has been a month of disasters. In Canada,
floods in Alberta resulted in the flooding of
Calgary city leading to its evacuation. Similarly, flooding affected life in Christchurch in New
Zealand. In Germany, the Elbe River flooded huge
areas. In India, a cloudburst over Kedarnath, a pilgrimage site in the Himalayas, has created devastation. In all these cases, it has been unusually heavy
rains that created havoc, and the cost of recovery is
in billions of dollars and timescales of 5 to 10 years.
As governments come to terms with the cost and
begin to prepare for recovery, individuals also have
to come to terms with their losses in terms of damaged or destroyed homes, businesses and lives.
Insurers are going to be very busy, and coincidentally, this month we focus on how geospatial
technology is being used to assess risk in deciding
coverage and premia, and to compute damages
and compensation. While this works well for
movable and immovable properties, its extension
to other areas is still evolving. For example, crop
insurance is a major area of application. In developed countries, crop insurance is well known and
there are commercial models to help farmers to
evaluate their risks based on climate information
and market intelligence. It is still at a nascent level
in developing countries and tied up to government
support. Determination of the quantum of support
to individual farmers is not easy as most holdings
are small. This is an area where geospatial technology should be brought to bear.
While debates on global warming and climate
change can go on in seminar halls, extreme weather events and natural disasters like earthquakes,
tsunamis, landslides and drought will also continue to happen. As a part of risk mitigation, these
events need to be understood and suitable early
warning systems have to be put in place. This is a
major arena for geospatial technologies. The insurance industry has understood the importance of
this fast-evolving technology and is in the process
of assimilating this into their evaluation system.
However, governments and local authorities do not seem to grasp the importance of
the information provided by the application
of geospatial systems to evaluate and mitigate
risk. Thus, city developers build on floodplains,
drainage is dammed indiscriminately, tectonically active zones are ignored while laying roads
through mountainous regions, steep slopes are
denuded of vegetation, and all this in the name
of development. Short-sighted policies ignore
long-term effects until nature strikes back and
then the bickering over responsibility drowns
out the cries of the affected. Administrators
and vested interests make this out to be a battle
between them and ‘the green brigade’. In reality
both need to work together and find the golden
mean through the use of geospatial systems.
7
Americas
news
Business
Google’s Waze acquisition
draws FTC’s antitrust review
Google’s $1.1-billion acquisition of
Israeli mapping startup Waze has
drawn the attention of the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC). It has been
contacted by FTC lawyers intending
to conduct an antitrust review of the
acquisition. Google may have sidestepped the usual process of notifying
regulators prior to its announcement
of the deal. Filing is not required if the
foreign company being acquired has
sales of less than $70.9 million, which
Waze is unlikely to have.
soft’s Online Services Division where
he will likely work on Bing Maps and
its related products. At Google Maps,
Shah was responsible for the part of
the operation that brought in mapping
data from around the world and then
integrated it into Maps.
Northrop Grumman delivers
8,000th navigation system
Google loses head of map
operations to Microsoft
Microsoft has just made a key hire that
could help it re-energise its online
mapping services. Raj Shah, who was
previously heading up Google’s worldwide maps operations as the Engineering Director for Maps, will join Micro8
62%
New open data rules to
enhance US govt efficiency
Aruba buys indoor mapping
start-up Meridian
Enterprise Wi-Fi network vendor Aruba has acquired Meridian, a US startup that offers apps and an app-making
platform for indoor geo-location. With
this acquisition, Aruba is looking to
combine its enterprise Wi-Fi technology with Meridian’s location services
to provide context about users and
devices. The aim is to create an “indoor
GPS” system to enable applications
inside of malls, casinos, arenas and
museums. The idea is that companies
will be able to better deliver contextual
ads, directions and various pitches.
President’s latest budget request would
slash funding for mapping even further
to $84 million — a drop of 62% over the
last four years. The Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) has
estimated the
cuts would
delay its map
drop in mapping
programme
budget since 2010
by three to
five years. The
programme “will continue to make
progress, but more homeowners will
rely on flood hazard maps that are not
current,” FEMA said.
An engineer at Northrop Grumman tests
the LN-100 inertial navigation system
Northrop Grumman has achieved a
significant milestone by delivering its
8,000th LN-100 inertial navigation system (INS), which provides primary and
backup navigation information for a
variety of airborne and shipboard platforms. In production since March 1993,
the LN-100 has been delivered to more
than 70 customers worldwide and is
in use on both tactical and transport
aircraft, including the US Navy and Air
Force platforms.
Miscellaneous
US cuts funding for
mapping project
The US Congress has cut funding for
updating flood maps by more than half
since 2010, from $221 million down
to $100 million this year. And the US
US President Barack Obama has
signed an Executive Order to make
information generated and stored by
the Federal Government more open
and accessible to innovators and the
public, to fuel entrepreneurship and
economic growth while increasing government transparency and efficiency.
The move will make troves of previously inaccessible data easily available
to entrepreneurs, researchers, and
others who can use those files to generate new products and services, build
businesses, and create jobs.
Earthquakes have created
global-scale GPS errors
Twelve years of high-scale earthquakes have contaminated GPS sites
around the world, finds a new study.
Except for spots in Australia, western
Europe and the eastern tip of Canada,
every GPS site on the ground underwent small but important shifts since
2000 because of big earthquakes,
claims a study published in the
Americas
news
DARPA builds sensors with
smartphone technology
The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Administration (DARPA) has
announced plans to roll out a programme for the rapid development
and manufacture of sensors to help
power unmanned aerial, land and
cial smartphone industry. The goal is
to develop low-cost, rapidly updatable
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors in less than a year,
a marked improvement to the current
three-to-eight year development
process.
Courtesy: DARPA
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid
earth. The research confirms that
earthquakes bigger than magnitude
8.0 can have far-reaching effects on
the earth’s crust. And because GPS is
critical for everything from calculating satellite orbits to sea-level rise to
earthquake hazards, scientists can’t
ignore these tiny zigs and zags, the
researchers conclude.
USGS takes operational
control of Landsat 8 satellite
The new UGS can provide users with a costeffective ground sensing capability
underwater vehicles. DARPA’s Adaptable Sensor System programme aims
to transform how unattended sensors
are developed for the military by using an original design manufacturer
process similar to that of the commer-
The US Geological Survey (USGS)
EROS Center in Sioux Falls has taken
over the Landsat 8 satellite mission
from NASA. The Center will collect
at least 400 Landsat 8 scenes per day
from around the world which will then
be processed and archived at the EROS
facility. EROS specialists will also provide more than 2 million current and
AfricaGIS 2013 / GSDI World Conference (GSDI14)
4-8 November 2013 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
AfricaGIS is the largest regularly occurring GIS conference in Africa with
participants from the entirety of the continent. The GSDI World Conference
has built a reputation for excellence in content and moves across the globe
to offer geospatial specialists in all parts of the world opportunities to
better exchange ideas and learn from global peers in building spatial data
infrastructure.
The joint AfricaGIS 2013 and GSDI World Conference (GSDI 14) theme is
Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic Development and Poverty
Reduction.
More information at: http://www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi14
Main sponsor
Hosts
Lead collaborators
Collaborators
Endorser
9
Americas
news
historical Landsat images per year free
to users over the Internet.
NASA satellite captures 6,000-mile-long image of Earth
NASA has captured the world’s largest panoramic
photo at 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide using a satellite orbiting 438 miles above the earth.
The swath is made up of 56 still images taken
during the satellite’s final orbit and stretches
from northern Russia down to South Africa.
NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission
(LDCM) scanned the surface of the earth
during orbit in April and took just 15 minutes
to take the shots. The LDCM took 56 individual shots of the land as it orbited the earth and
NASA stitched these images together to form the
seamless swath.
RADARSAT-1 goes defunct
after 17 years of service
Surpassing its expected lifetime by
12 years, RADARSAT-1, Canada’s
first earth observation satellite has
been declared non-operational after
a final anomaly consigned the satellite to what will be a very slow deorbit to a final fiery burn-up in the
Earth’s atmosphere. Launched in
November of 1995, its mission was
to monitor environmental changes
and the planet’s natural resources.
Ironically, it was just over a year
ago when Europe’s newer ENVISAT
satellite went offline and for which
RADARSAT-1 was tasked to help fillin with the lost access to data.
MapBox develops
cloudless atlas
Image of the globe showing the swath of land captured by NASA’s LDCM as it orbited
the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour
Mapping site MapBox has created
an interactive cloudless atlas using
images taken by NASA satellites in
the last two years. More than 339,000
images were collected from NASA’s
Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer technology. Cartographers from MapBox sorted through
the images, pixel-by-pixel, finding
images taken on cloudless summer
days and layered them on top of each
other to create the atlas.
Ecuador
Ecuador’s only satellite
damaged in space collision
A clear image of the UK taken from
MapBox’s cloudless atlas
10
A tiny Ecuadorian satellite, Pegaso,
which collided in space with the
remains of a Soviet rocket, survived
the crash, but was damaged and is not
transmitting any data, the national
space agency has said. Ecuador’s
space agency EXA’s director Ronnie
Nader said that the satellite’s antenna
had lost its orientation and the craft
was spinning wildly over two of its
axes, so it could not currently receive
transmissions or send commands.
Chile
Digital map unveiled to
improve decision making
Chile’s Ministerio de Bienes Nacionales,
roughly translated as the Ministry of
Government Resources, has launched
a digital map of the country aimed at
improving investments and decisionmaking in Chile. The ‘Map Viewer IDE’
is the first Web platform with Chilean
territorial information which will allow
both businessmen and the general
public easy access to the content for
better project planning. So far, the map
has information of the first four regions
of northern Chile (Arica and Parinacota,
Tarapaca, Antofagasta and Atacama).
It is expected to add one region per
month, in addition to incorporating
census data and emergency protocols,
among others.
Europe
news
France
moisture. More rain meant that it immediately ran off as the surplus water
could not soak into the soil, and this
resulted in these terrible floods.”
Intel buys ST-Ericsson’s
GNSS business
OHB inks contract for
European data relay satellite
Satellite manufacturer OHB AG has
signed a final contract for the construction of a data-relay satellite
that will use laser communications
to speed delivery of European earth
observation data to users. OHB has
been working on the European Data
Relay Satellite System (EDRS) for
about two years under a preliminary
contract with Astrium Services, which
is managing the EDRS system as a
public-private partnership with the
20-nation European Space Agency
(ESA). The final contract is valued at
157.5 million euros ($205 million).
ESA satellite measures
pre-flood soil moisture
Massive floods have heavily affected
regions in Germany, Austria, Czech
Republic and other European countries over the past days. In order to
better prepare for such floods in the
future, satellites such as ESA’s SMOS
(Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity)
UK
OS to create 3D spatial
data model for Bahrain
Courtesy: ESA
ST-Ericsson has sold its GNSS mobile
business to Intel. ST-Ericsson, which
focuses on mobile and wireless chips,
announced the sale. Neither company
revealed the price, but ST-Ericsson
said the proceeds from the sale, combined with the avoidance of employee
restructuring charges and other
related restructuring costs, would
reduce the joint venture’s cash needs
by approximately $90 million.
Soil moisture from SMOS
could help to improve the accuracy
of flood prediction by measuring the
soil moisture. Prior to the torrential
rains, SMOS showed that soils in
Germany were showing record levels
of moisture – in fact, the highest ever
observed. ESA’s SMOS mission scientist, Matthias Drusch, explains, “Data
from SMOS can be used to monitor
the saturation of the soil. At the end
of May we see that the soil was almost
fully saturated, with record values for
Ordnance Survey International is collaborating with the Survey and Land
Registration Bureau (SLRB), Bahrain
to develop a new 3D-enabled spatial
data model of Bahrain. Experts from
the Ordnance Survey International
will help the SLRB to design and build
a new 3D-enabled national spatial
data model. The new model will
produce intelligent data, enabling
effective analysis, decision-making
and greater consistency in the way
SLRB maintains data and distributes
it to stakeholders. The model will be
built on industry standards from the
Open Geospatial Consortium and the
International Organization for Standardization.
Rome
Satellite imagery of Rome delivered in 11 minutes
Gone are the days when processing satellite images used to take days and weeks.
Setting a record, DMC International Imaging (DMCii) and Spacemetric have
delivered a satellite image to the end-users
in just 11 minutes flat. An image of Rome
was acquired at 09:17 UTC on June 5 and
was processed and made available by
09:28 UTC the same morning. “Demonstrating that it’s possible to capture Rome,
download the image and process it in just
11 minutes is hugely exciting and proves
that an age where civil users can tap into
near real-time data from space is just
around the corner,” said Adina Gillespie, DMCii’s Product Development Manager.
11
Asia
news
China
High-performance satellite navigation receiver developed
Alibaba to invest $294 mn in
mapping firm AutoNavi
A new-type high-performance satellite navigation receiver, developed by the
College of Electronic Science and Engineering under the National University of
Defense Technology (NUDT) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has
been unveiled. The satellite navigation
receiver can simultaneously receive
signals of China’s Beidou Navigation
Satellite System, US’s GPS and Russia’s
GLONASS, with a positioning accuracy
of 10 metres. Therefore, it can be widely used in such platforms as aircraft,
ships and automobiles. The new-type
satellite navigation receiver developed
by the NUDT creatively integrates
three signal systems of the BDS, the
GPS and the GLONASS into a circuit
ID-card-sized high-performance
board, thus increasing the selectivity in
satellite navigation receiver
different environments.
Alibaba Group, China’s largest
e-commerce firm, will take a 28%
stake in digital mapping company
AutoNavi Holdings, part of Alibaba’s
move to boost its competitiveness by
beefing up its product lineup. Alibaba
will invest $294 million to become the
largest shareholder in the China-based
firm. The parties plan to share certain
data, including AutoNavi’s map data
and location-related information of the
merchants on Alibaba’s e-commerce
platforms, including Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com.
Satellite data network
reaches South China Sea
China has commissioned a satellite
data receiving station to observe the
disputed South China Sea, where
Beijing was involved in maritime
disputes with a number of South East
Asian countries. The station at Sanya
in China’s southern island province of
Hainan was launched by the Institute
of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. China will now be able to obtain
satellite remote sensing data of the
country’s southern territorial waters
for civil use directly from its groundbased receiving facilities.
Thailand
GPS market on a
growth path
Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
12
has said the country’s GPS market is
growing, with its overall value expected
to reach THB 4 billion ($133.4 million
approx) this year. Passakorn Prathombutr, NSTDA Service Research and Innovation Program Director,
predicted that
this year’s
Value of GPS market
market share
by 2013
would realise
23% more
than last year’s at THB 4.2 billion, or
around 378,000 devices.
par with Google Earth. The geoportal also includes Pocket Bhuvan. It is
accessible on all smartphones and
functions like Google Navigation,” said
Himanshu Pandya, a scientist at the
Space Application Centre (SAC). “The
biggest advantage that Bhuvan has
over Google Earth and Google Navigation is that it is able to map even the
remotest corner or village of the Indian
territory,” added Pandya.
India
ISRO has opened its navigation centre
in Bangalore Rural District for the proposed Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), a constellation
of seven spacecrafts that will enable
users to know their location and time
accurately. ISRO Navigation Centre
(INC), established at the Indian Deep
Space Network complex at Byalalu,
about 40 km from Bangalore, will be
responsible for the time reference,
$133.4 mn
ISRO’s geoportal
Bhuvan turns 3D
India’s Space Research Organisation’s
(ISRO) geoportal Bhuvan, which helps
in geo-mapping and navigation across
the country, has turned 3-dimensional.
“The new 3D feature of the portal is
ISRO’s attempt to bring Bhuvan on a
RNSS Navigation centre
inaugurated near Bangalore
Asia
news
Pakistan adopts China’s
Beidou navigation system
generation of navigation messages
and monitoring and control of ground
facilities, including ranging stations.
China’s home-grown satellite navigation system Beidou is expected to add
yet another customer after Pakistan
signed up to host ground stations for
the service. Thailand, China, Laos and
Brunei already use the Chinese system,
which currently consists of 16 operational satellites. With this agreement,
Pakistan will become the fourth country to use Beidou navigation services in
the Asia-Pacific region. Construction of
continuously operating reference stations (CORS), which collect and transmit satellite data, will help to increase
Beidou’s accuracy in Pakistan.
Survey of India to share
expertise with Thailand
Survey of India (SoI) is all set to share
its expertise in surveying and urban
mapping with geo-informatics experts
from Thailand in the coming months.
An MoU was signed between the
SoI and Geo-Informatics and Space
Technology Development Agency of
Thailand, as part of ‘Indo-Thai Geo
Spatial Cooperation’ initiative during
the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to
Thailand. According to the agreement,
SoI will map a town measuring about
100 sq km to demonstrate its expertise
in urban survey and mapping. The
survey would help in understanding
the topography and developing maps
for the town.
Philippines
DST to adopt Indonesia’s
open source disaster tool
Russia
A Russian satellite launched last year
to map the Arctic has stopped working, a space industry source said, in the
latest disappointment for the country’s
once-pioneering space programme.
The orbiter, Zond-PP, was the first of
Courtesy: Satnews
Ordinance to regulate
mapping standards
Illustration of Russia’s Zond-PP satellite
Courtesy: insafe.org
Satellite to map Arctic
malfunctions
Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari has promulgated an ordinance to regulate and
implement surveying and mapping standards in the country and
to enable Survey of Pakistan (SoP)
effectively assume its role of national
mapping organisation. The ordinance
aims to regulate and curb unqualified
and unregistered firms to take part in
surveying and mapping activities. It
also aims to avoid duplication in mapping efforts in the country. The Bill
prepared was duly approved by the
Cabinet and was unanimously recommended by the National Assembly
Standing Committee on Defence.
five earth-mapping satellites being
developed by Russia. Launched in
July 2012, it was expected to have a
three-year life-span. The satellite was
equipped to monitor ocean salinity levels and land humidity to help
Russian meteorologists model ocean
currents and ice floes in the Arctic.
Earthquake scenario in Indonesia. OSM
building footprints likely to undergo
damage shown in red
The Department of Science and Technology has revealed plans to adopt
InSAFE, a disaster mitigation technology from Indonesia, to its Nationwide
Operational Assessment of Hazard
(NOAH) project in a bid to improve
disaster planning and preparedness
in the country. InSAFE, or Indonesia
Scenario Assessment for Emergency, is
an open source software that produces
realistic natural hazard impact scenarios to help decision makers in their
disaster planning, preparedness and
response activities.
13
Australia
Courtesy: AGDATA
Native vegetation database
developed in Queensland
in the rugged forest of Connondale
National Park, using a combination
of GIS and LiDAR technology. “The
technology effectively created a digital
forest with different colours representing varying tree heights and canopy
levels. It was by viewing information in
this way that we first identified Big Bob,
which has since been confirmed as the
highest tree on record in Queensland,”
Sunshine Coast Council geospatial
analyst Toby Clewett said.
Free satellite mapping
service to graziers soon
Native vegetation classification
A state-wide landcover and tree study
was undertaken by the Queensland
Department of Natural Resources to
identify and classify all vegetation
zones across the state. Remote sensing
technology along with field surveys
was used to develop a vegetation database which the government can stipulate vegetation management guidelines by which all landholders must
abide. The premise of this effort was to
assist landholders, scientists, industry, and government with the world’s
best-practice landscape management.
With the help of native vegetation
classification software, landholders
were able to load the spatial vegetation
data, overlay it on their property, and
view the classification of each vegetation zone.
Environmental icon
uncovered via GIS
The Sunshine Coast Council has
discovered a new environmental icon,
Queensland’s tallest tree, while surveying tree heights across the region.
The 73-metre giant was found hidden
14
The Federal Government and some
state governments may soon roll out
free satellite mapping services to all
graziers across Australia. Currently,
the Queensland Government is funding this service to graziers in North
Queensland, but it could be rolled out
at a national level by the end of the
year. Mike Digby, regional mapping
services co-ordinator with the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group
in Queensland said they have mapped
200,000 sq km within the northern gulf
of Queensland.
Port authority uses GIS for
better decision making
The Port Hedland Port Authority
(PHPA) has created an intelligent
multi-layered mapping platform to
enable operators make well-informed
decisions critical for the Port’s development, management and planning
strategy over the next decade. PHPA’s
multi-layered mapping platform draws
on Esri’s ArcGIS technology to visually
represent the Port’s core business
information – such as the location of
existing infrastructure, access routes,
Courtesy: PHPA
Australia/Oceania
news
The map shows an overview of the Port
Hedland Port Authority Landside area
unused land and development plans –
with other data, such as sites of cultural
or environmental significant.
New Zealand
GIS-based database of
sedimentary basins prepared
The first systematic GIS-based
compilation and interpretation of
geological data, leading to improved
understanding of the structure and
distribution of sedimentary basins
in the New Zealand region has been
released. The New Zealand Extended
Continental Shelf SEEBASE GIS project delivers a 1:3,000,000 GIS-based,
geophysically constrained, depth-tobasement geological model across
New Zealand’s onshore, territorial
sea, exclusive economic zone and
extended continental shelf. “The
project provides new interpretation and modelling in a cohesive,
country-wide GIS-based package,”
said Dr Brad Ilg, Manager Petroleum
Strategy, Planning and Promotion.
Africa
news
Nigeria
Mapping of vulnerable areas
for flood preparedness
Courtesy: This Day Live
The Nigerian National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) had
carried out mapping of all the communities likely to be affected by the
predicted 2013 flood as part of its
preparedness against disaster occurrence in the country. NEMA’s Director
General, Alhaji Mohammad Sani Sidi,
Vulnerability assessment of seven communities has been carried out by NEMA
said the organisation had also carried
out vulnerability capacity assessment
of seven communities to determine
the existing capacity in each community and its level of resilience. The
Nigeria Metrological Agency (NIMET)
had predicted rainfall with a possible
flooding in some low plain areas.
Abuja gets remote
sensing laboratory
A laboratory for remote sensing,
run by the Department of Federal in
Nigeria, has been opened in the capital city of Abuja. The laboratory also
doubles as the Forestry Geographic
Information System (GIS). The facility,
funded by the Ecological Fund Office
of the government, also houses a
Web-based National Forestry Information System, a platform for free
online network access to information
about forestry in the country. Remote
sensing should help the national
forestry department gain up-to-date
information on the country’s forest
resources “for the purpose of planning and sustainable management,”
explained Dr Bukar Hassan, Director
for drought and desertification ame-
lioration at the environment ministry,
Nigeria.
Ghana
Street, property naming
project underway
Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis has
begun the street and property naming
process. Around 180 field workers and
supervisors have been trained for the
project under which 3,440 streets in
the metropolis are to be named, while
40,000 properties will be addressed.
The Managing Consultant of FD Associates, consultants for the project,
William Hagan Amoah, said, “We want
to keep a database which can make it
easy for locating places and the GIS
provides this tool”, he said. The streetnaming and property-addressing system will help all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to mobilise
local revenue. GIS enables to put street
names and property numbers on a
single platform for easy reference and
maintenance of the system,
added Amoah.
3,440
streets in the
metropolis to be
named
15
Product
Watch
iOne IMS for aerial mapping
and surveying
Visual Intelligence has unveiled iOne Infrastructure Metric Mapping
System (iOne IMS). It allows aerial imaging companies to capture
more imagery and data at a fraction of the up-front investment
allowing them to do much more for less.
Key features:
• It is capable of collecting ortho, multispectral, forward and backward oblique in one pass using the VI ARCA technology.
• It is mountable on helicopter or fixed wing air platforms.
• The sensor is light weight, compact, with a lower cost of ownership.
MapGIS IGSS 3D for information services
Zondy Cyber Group’s new product
MapGIS IGSS 3D is a smart solution
based on 3D geospatial information
service sharing platform.
Key features:
• MapGIS provides 3D visualisation
solution of aerial, above-ground,
ground surface and underground
objects.
• It offers 3D modelling and
professional analysis tools which
enable users to make more informed decisions.
16
• It also provides visualised development environment and a secondary
development platform.
MapGIS uses quickly build-up,
on-demand service pattern to
supply 3D GIS solution to all industries. The new pattern will be more
efficient, convenient and practical
MapGIS IGSS 3D can show disaster
information in graph or report forms;
analyse historical data to forecast
disaster; and share multi-dimensional
data with high efficiency.
Product
Watch
Autodesk BIM
360 Glue
to streamline
construction
processes
Autodesk has launched a new
version of Autodesk BIM 360
Glue, a cloud-based building
information modelling (BIM)
solution. Autodesk BIM 360
Glue extends the BIM process
from design to construction by
providing all stakeholders access to project information for
model coordination and clash
detection via desktop, mobile
and web.
Key features:
• Provides enhanced cloudbased collaboration and
mobile access.
• One-click access to review
the latest project models.
• Improved coordination with
Autodesk Revit, Autodesk
AutoCAD and Autodesk
AutoCAD Civil 3D.
• Reduces the coordination
cycle and helps in saving on
project duration and cost.
Architects, engineers, owners,
and builders across the globe
can collaborate and coordinate
in real time from the office or
mobile devices with Autodesk
BIM 360 Glue.
UltraCam Osprey
aerial digital system
Microsoft’s UltraCam business unit has
introduced UltraCam Osprey, a new
digital aerial system that combines
a high performing photogrammetric
nadir camera with oblique image
capture capabilities.
Key features:
• It’s 3D generation and custom
electronics deliver a 1 frame per 2.0
second frame rate.
• The camera includes an optional
embedded OEM UltraNav GPS/INS/
FMS system, and modular solidstate storage, providing flexibility for
onboard orientation of equipment.
• It has an in-flight exchangeable solidstate image storage system to store
more than 3,160 images, resulting in
minimal ground time.
• It has a user-focused interface with
touchscreen technology to ease
configuration and operation and
allow in-flight control of each image.
The UltraCam is fully supported in the
UltraMap workflow software system.
The ability to perform aerotriangulation
and dense matching allows for the
creation of high accuracy point
clouds, DSM, DTM, DSMorthos and
DTMorthos.
TopoDrones map at 25 mm
topographic accuracy in height
South Australia-based DroneMetrex manufactures its own remote-operated
drones and has developed the accompanying hardware and unique mapping
software that can provide full topographical 3D images at up to 25mm resolution. TopoDrones can map at unprecedented 25 mm absolute topographic
accuracy in height. So far, no other manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) has claimed such accuracy.
Key features:
• G enuine photogrammetric mapping system
• Calibrated large-format camera (39Mp)
• ‘Active’ Gimbal camera mount
• Can be flown autonomously and manually
TopoDrone 100
17
Cover Story
Be insured with
risk mapping
√June 2013. With floods continuing to wreak
havoc in central Europe, Aon Benfield, the
global reinsurance intermediary, created
a scenario model using event footprints to
enable insurers to obtain a realistic estimate
of their exposure. As the flooding continued,
the footprints were updated with new
developments.
√March 2011. When a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan setting off a devastating
tsunami, catastrophe risk modelling firm
EQECAT needed quick information to
update clients on risk exposure. EQECAT’s
webinar Catastrophe Watch was ready within
a week and attended by a host of primary
insurers, reinsurers, brokers, corporations,
hedge fund managers and investment firms.
√December 2005. A series of explosions hit
the London Buncefield oil depot, impacting
the neighbouring commercial and residential
properties. Within 36 hours, UK insurer
RSA provided an estimate of the damage
to its policyholders and the likely payout in
claims. Months later, with all claims finally
in, the estimation was within 7% of the
actual amount.
18
As globalisation and increasing catastrophes make risks
around the world more and more complex, geoinformation
and location analytics could open up a whole new vista
for the insurance industry which needs to continuously
innovate and develop new tools
N
atural catastrophes cost
the global insurance
industry $40 billion in
2010 while man-made disasters
cost $3 billion. In contrast, the
total insured losses for 2009 were
$27 billion, according to a report
The Reactions Guide to Insurance
Markets 2012. In 2012, Superstorm
Sandy alone is estimated to have
cost around $50 billion in insurance claims.
Accuracy is one of the most fundamental elements for insurance
players. The more accurate one is
in assessing the risk situation, the
more efficient will be its risk management. This also means accurate
allocation of reserves and no unnecessary holding up of the capital.
With an alarming increase in the
number and value of exposure in
risk-prone areas around the world,
it is becoming critical for insurance
companies to adopt better risk
management practices and move
to risk-based pricing. However, an
insurer’s ability to manage risks
depends to a large extent on how
well it knows the risk situation and
the insured area; the primary question being ‘where’.
Location intelligence helps
insurance companies to identify,
manage and mitigate risks. “It is
instrumental in catastrophe management planning and response, risk
exposure management, pricing and
cost control, and more importantly,
financial survival,” says Bill Sinn,
Courtesy: ginabaksa.com
Strategic Marketing Director, Insurance and
Healthcare Practices, Pitney Bowes.
Risk modelling firms like EQECAT and
Aon Benfield, which use multiple data
sources such as field surveys, land-use information, digital elevation models, satellite
imagery, and develop on them with their
internal experts from wide-ranging fields like
seismologists, meteorologists, hydrologists,
engineers, mathematicians, finance, risk
management and insurance professionals,
see GIS as the only tool to turn such disparate
information into a meaningful solution. “h.
For instance, following the floods in Europe,
Impact Forecasting used footprints based
on its field survey, images from the German
Aerospace Center and Astrium Services/Infoterra GmbH, and data from SERTIT supplied
by PERILS. The hazard was then superimposed onto the insurer’s portfolio to calculate
the exposed sum insured.
“GIS is an effective tool in decision
making of insurance business as it provides
an integrated view of exposure, hazard and
business data and helps unlock valuable
information hidden in seemingly disparate data by analysing geographic/location
linkages,” says Anup Jindal, Chief Operating
Officer, RMSI, a geospatial solution provider
in this space.
Agrees Iain Willis, Product Manager,
EQECAT. “The CatWatch visuals following the
Japan earthquake showed where the disaster
occurred, the magnitude and the likely insurance exposure. These aspects are of immediate concern for clients, who will ultimately be
impacted by these events and therefore, the
need to react to the market quickly.”
Esri sees a huge demand for Esri’s Disaster
Response Programme, which provides
software, data, and technical assistance for
disaster response, such as hurricanes. “If you
can model the impact in advance, everyone
can be better prepared for possibilities,” says
Simon Thompson, Director, Global Commercial Solutions, who feels Hurricane Sandy,
which struck North America in 2012, was a
big lesson. Esri quickly provided authoritative information — including after-the-event
imagery — so insurance carriers could overlay these with their own portfolios and perform analysis, adds Thompson, “Our users
were able to estimate potential losses, work
out how to deploy adjusters, identify risks
and work with customers to mitigate losses,
as well as help to educate the public.”
19
Cover Story | Insurance
“
If you can model the
impact in advance,
people can be better
prepared... our users
can estimate potential
losses, identify risk
areas and work to
mitigate losses
Simon Thompson,
Director, Global Commercial
Solutions, Esri
GIS for reinsurance
“
Location intelligence
is instrumental
in catastrophe
management planning
& response, risk
exposure management,
pricing & cost control,
and more importantly,
financial survival
Bill Sin,
Strategic Marketing Director,
Insurance and Healthcare
Practices, Pitney Bowes.
20
Geoinformation tools and analytics are
being widely used by dedicated solution
providers like EQECAT, Aon Benfield, Willis,
WSN, Insurance Services Office, Property
Loss Research Bureau, AIR Worldwide,
Risk Management Solutions, as well as pure
insurance majors like Zurich Insurance, Allianz, Royal Sun Alliance, Amica and BMS.
The importance of location and geoinformation is underlined by the fact that
geographic analysis has come up from being
a back-office, ‘after-the-fact’ function in
the property and casualty (P&C) insurance
industry till a few years back, to a leading role
in real-time underwriting decisions. After the
record high losses due to natural catastrophes in 2011, carriers and reinsurers are
demanding a vastly improved catastrophe
risk management methodology, adds Sinn.
An encouraging trend, Thompson sees, is
that these solutions are not predominantly
GIS-centric, but are coming from a different
angle, so often maps are not used. Instead,
the outcomes of analysis and spatial data
fusion are what the end users see.
Insurers control their exposure through risk
transfer. This is vital to reduce acceptable
levels of probability of a severe claim that
could threaten its financial stability. Accumulation control, portfolio analysis and
catastrophe analysis are integral part of risk
management through which insurers apply
risk transfer or reinsurance, cession limits,
liability limits, etc.
Location is not a new buzzword for the
reinsurance sector. Reinsurers and insurance advisory firms have for some time now
been depending on geoinformation and
catastrophe modelling. But as the world
becomes more connected, recent catastrophes
demonstrate new dimensions of risk correlation. Losses from the 2011 Thailand floods, for
instance, revealed the magnitude of business
interruption elsewhere. The floods disrupted
automobile and electronics manufacturing in
Japan — as a large number of automotive part
Flood footprint of Deggendorf develop by Aon Benfied
manufacturers and electronic chipmakers
were hit — and caused contingent business
interruption losses for thousands of insureds
in Europe and North America. Such interconnections add another dimension to catastrophe modelling, notes 2013 Global Insurance
Outlook by Ernst & Young, which says increasing natural disasters are reshaping the insurer
views of risk and reinsurance, compelling
them to cede more risk to reinsurers.
“Geographic information has a strong
influence on risk management, mainly
risk identification and assessment,” says
Andreas Siebert, Head of Munich Re’s
Geospatial Solutions Department. Munich
Re analyses customer portfolios in combination with natural hazard information
or man-made risks. In the case of major
catastrophes, it does a lot of loss estimation
and claims analysis with geo-tools.
The significance of geospatial in the
insurance sector can be gauged from the
fact that the world’s biggest reinsurance firm
had started way back in 1995 with a local
standalone GIS-tool, before making geointelligence an integral part of its underwriting
process, mainly for its non-life business such
as property, marine, engineering. Siebert
says the advantages are on the qualitative
side: improved risk transparency and risk
dialogue with stakeholders; improved risk
modelling and pricing; new perspectives in
portfolio steering; better risk control; higher
efficiency in daily underwriting process,
claims handling and risk mitigation.
Similarly, Swiss Re, the world’s second
largest reinsurer, has a catastrophe network
service that disseminates information to
direct insurers and other organisations,
including risk rates and CRESTA zones.
The London-headquartered Willis Group
also uses the whole spectrum of GIS capabilities. The group’s Willis Research Network,
world’s largest collaboration between the
public, science and financial sector, has dedicated hubs such as climate risk, earthquake
risk etc, each of which is essentially geospatial in nature, points out Sharon Palmer,
Divisional Director, Global Analytics.
GIS for property & casualty
With Google Earth opening up a whole new
world, geoinformation systems have established themselves in the insurance industry
more quickly than was anticipated. For an
insurance company, especially in the commercial lines for products such as property
and fire, having a geo-location capability is
becoming a necessity. “It enables the tracking
of the risk accumulation at a fine-grained level
and provides an ability to do further analytics
on whether the company is overexposed in
certain geographies,” says Ram Medury, Vice
President (Technology) ICICI Lombard, India’s
largest private general insurer.
Zurich Insurance uses granular location
information primarily to support risk selection, pricing, claims management for personal lines and risk/catastrophe management for
commercial lines, reveals Vincent Branch,
Chief Underwriting Officer, Motor & Personal
Lines. Online resources and integration with
non-GIS applications have also opened up a
much wider vista for primary insurers.
»Risk management: By combining geographic and location-related data with other
business data, organisations can gain critical insights, identify a trend or recognise
a pattern amongst customer and demographic information, and are empowered to
make better business decisions, notes The
Next Big Wave — Location Intelligence in
Insurance, a white paper from Cognizant.
“GIS has certainly helped us improve the
quality of risk assessment, save time and
reduce costs,” says Hiroo Shimada, Manager, Corporate Communications and Investor
Relations Group, Tokio Marine Holdings.
The Japanese insurance giant uses GIS
mainly for risk assessment.
“GIS helps you gain insights by connecting predictive modelling and come out with
different ways of managing a risk portfolio,”
points out Manuel Z. Rios, President and
CEO, American Modern Insurance (AMI),
which provides specialty insurance products for homeowners, specialty dwellings,
watercraft and collector vehicles etc. AMI,
owned by Munich Re and part of the German insurance giant’s primary insurance
operation in the US, seems to have learnt
early lessons from its parent. It has all its
policies geocoded and is now doing risk
modelling for entire blocks of its business.
For contingencies like floods, pure street
address information could lead to wrong
conclusions, as Zurich Insurance learnt early.
“In catastrophe risk management, where
we rely heavily on models, we need pure
location-specific information to better predict our exposure,” says Jean-Pierre Krause,
Zurich’s Head of Risk Engineering, Europe &
Middle East/Africa.
»Underwriting: Primary insurers need quick
and accurate location-based information to
come up with fair and competitive pricing
models. They need solutions that organise,
manage, and analyse extremely large datasets
to measure risks such as proximity to hazards
and emergency services, traffic patterns, commute routes, assets, and crime, which is how
location data allows for better pricing, finds
the report Understanding the Value of Location
Intelligence Solutions by research firm Celent.
For the commercial property underwriter, location-based solutions can map other
insured properties in the area. Depending
How they stack up
Geoinformation is used by insurers in many business processes.
As the charts show, reinsurers
and primary insurers do not
have the same focus.
Reinsurance perspective
10%
50%
30%
10%
Risk management
Product development
Client management
Claims management
Primary insurance perspective
10%
10%
10%
30%
40%
Sales & marketing
Risk management
Client management
Claims management
Product development
Source: Munich Re
21
G-tech to the rescue
Risk management
• A
ggregated view of risk
exposure across lines of
business
• Model impact of exposure
to perils such as floods,
fires, or windstorms
Underwriting
• L ocation data allows for
better pricing of risk taking
into account risk of perils
and accumulation of risk at
that location
• Supports better understanding of risk accumulation and resulting exposure
• Affords new business
opportunities with risks
previously declined
Claims
• I dentify fraud patterns
using spatial analysis
• Map location of incidents
to support large response
teams
Service
• P inpoint locations where
resources are needed in
large-scale disasters.
• Allocate adjusters in
real time
Marketing
• B
etter targeted marketing
in areas where the insurer
is currently underexposed
• Identifying new prospects
Source: Celent
22
on the appetite for new risk given the aggregate risk for the area, he can then decide to
proceed or not. For instance, UK-based Allianz Commercial uses an accumulation and
perils management tool to analyse various
risk levels against postcodes and produce
hazard rating for an individual postcode.
This means underwriters can make decisions using up to-date information, which
could then be combined with other information, such as flood risk areas, contaminated land or potential terrorist targets.
»Claims management: The speed and
accuracy of claims processing is always an
important factor for P&C insurers, especially
during major disasters. New Jersey’s insurance regulator asked insurance companies
to supply it with claims data soon after
Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012. It
also gathered data on the National Flood
Insurance Program claims. The National
Association of Insurance Commissioners, an
umbrella group for state insurance regulators, helped to crunch the data by county and
ZIP codes. Despite use of all the available
location intelligence, of the 4 million-plus
claims filed in New Jersey alone, nearly 23%
has resulted in no payment as of today.
Further, there are other areas where the
claims department can act pre-emptively.
Location intelligence enables it to accurately
forecast the number of adjusters and inspectors required to handle an incident. The
forecasting can also help predict if independent inspectors and adjusters are required.
Accurate location information helps
insurers to avoid fraudulent claims too. For
instance, during Hurricane Katrina, social
networks carried the news that homeowners
could claim $500 for electrical outages and the
claims, many fraudulent, flooded in. Adjusters
used mapping to see if a claim was coming
from outside the area hit by a power outage.
»Marketing: In addition to risk analysis,
geo-solutions also help insurers in marketing
pitch like targeting underexposed areas, iden-
tifying prospects or change in pricing, write
additional policies or depute more inspectors.
By combining geographic and location data
with others, organisations can gain critical
insights, identify a trend or recognise a pattern among customer and demographic information, notes the Cognizant white paper.
A typical example here would be insurers
immediately reassessing their risk assessment strategies in cities following the 9/11
attacks. For instance, auto insurers who may
have considered an underground parking
facility safe some years ago today know that
such structures are potential terrorist targets.
Geo-analytics for customer segmentation, market penetration, producer and
channel effectiveness help agents better
identify and target the best business and
consumer sales opportunities. Once the exposure in terms of sum insured and claims
are aggregated at a specific administrative
level, a thematic map of the sum insured
and claims by administrative unit could
be prepared. Visualising this geo-tagged
exposure and claims against the demographics gives insight for identifying areas
for growing business, odd patterns in claims
and possible reasons, says RMSI’s Jindal.
»Customer service: A host of insurers are
integrating location intelligence services
with customer service portals. ICICI
Lombard, a motor and health insurance
provider, empowers customers with details
of nearby garages, hospitals and branches,
including real-time driving directions,
via the location-sensing capability of the
user’s mobile. “For both motor and health,
customers get their claims serviced at
various garages and hospitals, respectively.
This translates into hundreds of locations
across India,” explains Medury. During a
claim situation, one of the first questions
that a customer thinks is ‘Where do I get
my car serviced?’ or ‘How do I reach the
nearest hospital that is part of my insurance
network?’ Medury says this was the trigger
for the company to create this tool.
Insurance companies could also use
catastrophe modelling and their client information to send out a warning to policyholders to prepare for a storm or get cars into the
garage. Because the system runs in real time,
carriers can change plans and priorities as
often as a storm changes course.
GIS for auto insurance
Evolving technologies like connected car and
telematics are opening hitherto unexplored
areas for auto insurance players. Although
motor insurance is a mature market and the
largest class of business within general and
property/casualty insurance in many countries, underwriting profits have remained
elusive for the sector for some time now.
Aggressive and unsafe driving can cost
companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee injuries, lost productivity,
fines, asset damage, litigation, poor fuel
economy and excess CO2 emissions.
Telematics devices can wirelessly
monitor a vehicle’s geographic coordinates
and driver performance in real time and
has attracted huge consumer awareness, a
Celent report on vehicle data and telematics
has found. This has prompted auto companies like General Motors’ to come up with
offerings like ‘OnStar’, a subscription-based
communication on in-vehicle security,
hands-free calling, turn-by-turn navigation,
and remote diagnostics. Similarly, the ‘Sync’
service is available on all Ford, Lincoln,
and Mercury products. Within Asia-Pacific,
‘GBook Alpha’ is a standard in most Toyota
vehicles. Though the adoption rates are
quicker in commercial fleets, the trend is
picking up in personal vehicle space too.
“As specialised analytics from these
applications continue to grow, companies
can gain real insight into driver activity. The
right system can make a significant improvement to field service and fleet operations,” says Joyce Tam, Director of Product
Marketing, Trimble Field Service Management. Trimble caters to fleet management
and partners with carriers like Zurich for
telematics solutions to help fleet operators
mitigate risk and protect their people and
assets. Early results on the use of telematics as part of the Zurich Fleet Intelligence
proposition indicate a very positive impact
on collision rates, adds Branch.
Fleet intelligence solutions can also
help customers to understand their drivers’
risks and initiate risk mitigation action in
the form of behavioural assessments and
trainings. Interestingly, Krause points out,
location-specific information is just one
element within the mix of data that is analysed to get a smarter understanding of risk.
“The ‘where’ doesn’t tell us the full story.
Often it needs to be brought together with
the ‘how’, behavioural aspects, that drive
the risk,” he adds.
Agrees Tam: “Whichever telematics
solution is selected, data on its own is of little
value — how that data is actually delivered,
interpreted and put to use is the key.”
In the competitive world of motor insurance, insurers are looking at such data as a
possible mine of information as this could
be used to develop accurate pricing and
reduce claims losses. For actuaries, such
data could help determine new pricing
variables and improve current variable
quality; for underwriters, tracking data
devices can provide validation of annual
mileage, commute distances, garaging
location, and other variables linked to leakage. For marketers, innovative products or
unusual additional services could be used
to reinforce positioning and branding.
The data thus collected can also be used
in claims assessment process — in case
of stolen vehicle tracking or crash data to
support claims.
Use of telematics has led to one of the most
innovative schemes in motor insurance — pay
as you drive. As the name suggests, it allows
the policyholder to pay premium based on the
car’s usage. The scheme relies upon a device
that tracks a vehicle’s position, speed and
other information via GPS and transmits the
data to a production centre.
“
GIS provides an
integrated view of
exposure, hazard and
business data and
helps unlock valuable
information hidden in
the seemingly disparate
data by analysing
geographic and
location linkages
Anup Jindal,
Chief Operating Officer, RMSI
“
We have shown that
by using disparate yet
accurate data in our
models, we can reduce
the uncertainty in loss
calculation
Chris Ewing, Catastrophe Model
Developer, Impact Forecasting,
Aon Benfield
23
“
Geo-location
capability enables
the tracking of the
risk accumulation at
a fine-grained level
and provides an
ability to do further
analytics on whether
the company is
overexposed in
certain geographies
Ram Medury,
Vice President,
Technology, ICICI Lombard
“
The ‘where’ doesn’t
tell us the full story.
Often, it needs to
be brought together
with the ‘how’,
behavioural aspects,
that drive the risk
Jean-Pierre Krause,
Head, Risk
Engineering, Europe
& Middle East/Africa,
Zurich Insurance
24
GIS for agri insurance
Innovative technologies like precision farming are streamlining crop insurance reporting. While automatic data capture simplifies
the time-consuming crop reporting process,
the systems deliver accurate planting and
harvest information, avoiding mistakes from
missed fields or inaccurate reporting.
John Deere, the US-based agricultural
machinery giant, has its own insurance
division as also an automated crop reporting service for its clients. Geospatial major
Trimble recently tied up with Great American Insurance Group to help farmers automate their crop insurance reporting under
the US Department of Agriculture Federal
Crop Insurance Program. The recordkeeping system makes it possible for Trimble’s
Farm Works software users to submit their
crop insurance records electronically to the
insurer. Tools like Farm Works can be used
to read precision agriculture data from a
wide range of displays, including planting
and harvesting data. Once the data is read
into the software, it can be submitted electronically to crop insurance providers, thus
making the process simpler and less time
consuming, says Scott Nusbaum, Product
Manager, Trimble’s Agriculture Division.
Return on investments
The benefits of using location intelligence for
the insurance industry are difficult to translate into figures though and have tended to
be internal rather than externally published.
They can fall into one of the two areas: saving
costs or generating new income.
As Rios spells out, RoI is loss avoidance.
“I can’t give a number. But if we put together
portfolio maximisation and the returns on
investment based on cost and loss avoidance,
the damages we would have had to pay had
this technology not been there is extreme. I
think a robust, real-time geospatial programme can get a minimum of 10% improvement in loss cost.”
Esri’s Thompson thinks the RoI is hard to
calculate since much of it is intangible. “If you
didn’t incur the cost because of certain better
decisions, it is not going to show up on your
balance sheet.” But he believes the consistent
double-digit-plus growth in this sector is
testament to its awareness of the RoI.
Access to a single tool for the end-to-end
risk assessment process can reduce the time
taken to process a new application. Providing
frontline staff with the automated decision
on a new prospect reduces the volume of referrals, saving both the time of the skilled underwriter and the capacity in the team, finds
the Celent report. Rios elaborates: “Even if
my policies keep growing 10% every year, the
staff count could remain the same because
the technology takes care of the workload.
That is where the heavy RoI kicks in.”
The hurdles
Why is it then that the market not flooded
with P&C insurers looking for GIS solutions?
The reason is cost of investment and focus
on core systems modernisation. Based on the
data collected in its vendor review process in
2011, Celent found that a GIS project could
cost around $1.6 million for single country
implementation with 400 users and $600
million in premium income. This is a significant investment, and one that would require
board approval and iterations through IT department. And herein, Celent identifies, lies
the second problem. Many insurers are some
way into their legacy modernisation programme and another large-scale IT investment against this backdrop is not a priority.
The main issue is convincing the top-level management about the potential of geoinformation. “A lot of them do not understand
what longitudes, latitudes and real-time
maps got to do with insurance. If they do
not see the bigger picture, you do not get any
funding,” says Rios, a rare case where the
CEO is a geospatial enthusiast.
Also, in countries like India, primary
insurers are not capturing structural and
occupancy attributes of locations at the level
of details that is enough for appropriate risk
assessment from natural or man-made haz-
Courtesy: Esri
Insurance Program, which
has been marred by reports
of claims rejection following
Sandy even after extensive
use of geospatial data and
technology. In developing
countries like India, there
is no system to even scientifically estimate the losses,
let alone fix relief quantum
after natural disasters like
the recent flash floods and
landslides in the Himalayan
state of Uttarakhand.
“
Latest developments
from risk modelling
companies show that
there is a now a full
integration of mapping
analysis and direct links
to the so-called financial modules within the
risk analysis tools,
Andreas Siebert,
Head, Geospatial Solutions,
Munich Re
The future
Swipe map of Hurricane Sandy
ards, point outs Jindal. This could be because
of the inherent lack of awareness about location intelligence in the developing world. Lack
of historical data about hazards, absence of
standardised data, integration of spatial and
non-spatial data are also major challenges.
Already, data from government agencies like
meteorological departments, disaster management authorities, and security agencies
like the police and armed forces are providing
crucial layers to the primary data.
What is also required is, to facilitate
proper and fair claims settlement in emergency situations, establishment of standards
and best practices by the insurance regulators to address grey areas. For instance,
insurance claims in the US due to Hurricane
Sandy are expected to total $18.8 billion,
according to ISO’s PCS unit which tracks
catastrophe claims. The cost to private insurers might have been higher, but much of
the damage was due to storm surge and subsequent flooding which was not covered by
the commercial policies of standard homeowners or most small business owners.
In the US, coverage for floods is available
from the federal government’s National Flood
Population growth, new
businesses and wealth
creation are driving growth
in construction, land development, energy and transportation, all
creating a greater need for insurance. Given
that, it becomes all the more pertinent for
insurance industry to use tools that spell out
accurate location-specific requirements and
risks. In times to come, new technologies like
the emergence of unmanned aerial systems,
Cloud, social networks and crowdsourcing
are expected to add traction to the acceptance
of geospatial data and technology by smaller
players and further innovation by
existing ones.
“Latest developments from risk modelling
companies show that there is a now a full
integration of mapping analysis and direct
links to the so-called financial modules within the risk analysis tools,” says Siebert, who
even sees pure insurance companies expand
services on risk management in future.
Moving geospatial data and analysis to
the Cloud is making the technology lot more
relevant. Questions that might not have had
answers only three years ago can now be
solved with more data and powerful analytics, says Thompson, who feels the acceleration is phenomenal, leading to many more
geo-centric solutions for insurers.
Further, there is a huge potential in the
“
Whichever telematics
solution is selected, data
on its own is of little
value — how that data
is actually delivered,
interpreted and put to use
is the key
Joyce Tam, Director, Product
Marketing, Trimble Field
Service Management
25
The insurance industry understood the need for accurate geo-information years
back, which saw the establishment of CRESTA in 1977, an independent, non-profit
organisation, aimed at creating an efficient, globally uniform system for the exchange
of accumulation-risk data. Based on geographically defined accumulation areas,
known as CRESTA zones, it now covers 79 countries
“
I can’t give a number.
But if we put together
portfolio maximisation
and the returns on
investment based on
cost and loss avoidance,
the damage we would
have had to pay had
this technology not been
there is extreme
Manuel Z. Rios, President
& CEO, American Modern
Insurance
26
health and life insurance market still to be
tapped. “GIS is a powerful resource for sales
and marketing because it brings together a
company’s internal view of the customers’
life with public demographics, lifestyle and
location information,” says Thompson. Companies are increasingly creating specialised
products based on specific characteristics for
each family or household. This wide range of
offers benefit both the insurer and insured;
things like life and health insurance, mortgage and income protection, auto, travel and
even pet insurance. GIS improves the agency
role so companies can better understand,
price and target products to this sector which
globally accounts for more than 60% of all
written premiums.
Ruggedised data collection and infield
devices have opened up the ability for both
sales and customer care work to be done
anywhere with mobile-based location analytics and GIS. New insurance models are
arising from the ability to view and analyse
telematics data for both commercial fleet and
consumer automotive insurance industries.
The ability to aggregate, visualise and
manage risks, in some cases, is fundamental
to regulatory compliance, overall solvency
and long-term viability, says Sinn of Pitney
Bowes. “Yet, it has been difficult for most
insurers to gain a single, operational view of
risks across their organisations. Operational, data and technology silos have obstructed a 360-degree understanding of the risk,
and the ability to act on it. But new technologies now offer a single operational and
map-based view of risk in near real-time.”
A demand for such accurate data also
opens up the problematic area of geocoding.
Although street-level geocoding solutions exist for some countries, it is still an issue particularly in the developing world. Geospatial
players see a huge potential there, something
the insurance sector is also upbeat about.
“It will mean that exposure in emerging
markets can be more precisely located,” says
EQECAT’s Willis, who also sees a growth
area for ‘lightweight’ geo-visualisation tools.
“Although GIS desktop tools will continue to
be needed for the ‘heavy lifting’ for analytical
work, I foresee an increase in the amount of
spatially enabled dashboard reports.”
Insurance players also feel the sector is
not a priority for the geospatial industry.
“Big geospatial companies are focussed
on municipalities, governments, mining,
agriculture… if they were to dedicate some
resources just for us that would be a home
run for both. There would be a whole new
world, because insurance is big money,”
emphasises Rios.
The global economic slowdown, a
prolonged period of low interest rates and
subsequent anaemic returns highlight a
critical mandate for increased underwriting
excellence for the insurance industry, predicts Deloitte’s 2013 Property and Casualty
Insurance Industry Outlook.
The future success of location intelligence in insurance lies in how quickly it
realises the opportunity, breaks away from
the traditional GIS world and integrates into
the key operations of corporations. Because,
as Aon’s Ewing says, if you do not know
where your risks are located you do not have
an accurate view of your risk. Anusuya Datta, Deputy Executive Editor
[email protected]
Insurance | Data Transparency
Transparency for
risk assessment
One of the many lessons learned from the devastating Thai
floods, was that the growth of emerging Asia brings additional
exposures that were not sufficiently identified or analysed
A
The need for
transparency
has become
clear, and
the market is
seeking more
detailed data
on which to
base their
underwriting
decisions
28
sia is developing rapidly, generating
new exposures and more complex and
higher-value risk scenarios. The 2011
floods in Thailand specifically was a wake-up
call to the huge concentrations of values that
have grown in Asia in recent decades. The scale
of losses suffered by the insurance industry
from the floods has raised awareness of the
potential for similar losses elsewhere in the
region. Unless insurers and reinsurers can
track and assess these new exposures, they will
continue to take risks onto their balance sheets
which can cause shock losses.
The need for transparency has become clear,
and the market is seeking more detailed data on
which to base their underwriting decisions. Risk
transparency, including geo-referenced locations
of the risks, occupancies, business interruption
plans and more, is therefore becoming more important. It is vital that all stakeholders along the
insurance value chain ensure that exposures are
assessed and managed professionally. This starts
with physical risk mitigation, avoidance of underinsurance, adequate product design and pricing, and extends all the way to the government’s
important role in the regulation of these perils
to the economy. With the changing dynamics of
risks, we have seen contingent business interruption (CBI) exposure around the world — originating from Asia. And after Thailand and Japan,
many insurers and reinsurers have revised terms
to limit exposure to contingent business interruption in supply chains.
Transparency of risk-exposed values is key
The Asian region is extremely prone to natural
disasters. In the last 32 years alone, 42% of the
global economic losses and 14% of insured
losses were generated here. Weather-related
catastrophes in Asia have more than tripled
over the last 30 years.
Transparency regarding risk-exposed values
is key for the future. In the past, the models
underestimated loss potential, especially from
Thailand, which created significant accumulation of losses from domestic business and from
overseas cedants’ “interests abroad“.
Key industries with CBI exposure were affected, and the market was surprised by the
clustering, ie the unidentified concentration
of insured values in highly exposed regions.
There was a deficiency of knowledge of the fastgrowing hot spots, like large industrial parks or
Risk hot spots around Thailand
development zones.
Clusters of industrial exposures
Some of the biggest recent losses occurred in
the industrial parks which have materialised
within the region over the last decade or so.
These industrial parks contain many multinational companies, with a high number originating from the automobile and electronics
industry. Such industrial exposures are “clustered” together side by side, generating billions
of dollars of values within a small geographical
area. The industry needs to better understand
the issues:
• Lack of clarity with regard to risk locations
and their interdependency;
• Value concentrations, especially in emerging
markets,triggering new/unknown exposures;
• Identifying increased vulnerability in supply
chains;
• Increasing losses from natural catastrophes;
• Demands from regulators for increased risk
transparency.
With the RiskMapper tool, risk managers can
monitor, identify and assess their own exposures
and protect their business against such shock
losses as witnessed within the region.
Tool to identify 'hot spots'
Facultative and treaty exposures can be
uploaded onto an interactive, flexible and easyto-handle Web-based application, which allows
the user to search and track key risk exposures
as well as identify peak exposure concentrations or hot spots.
The tool contains many features to allow
underwriters to search their data and display
the results. Real-time results are possible using
the geocoding of data, and spatial analyses such
as surface profiles and area calculations can be
made. This includes the distance of industrial
parks to rivers or the ocean, the level of elevation of the specific site, critical infrastructures
like nuclear power plants or dams, and business-relevant industries like semiconductors
or automotive industries. To identify the extent
to which the population may be affected by a
catastrophe, a circle-based function calculates
the number of people within a defined radius .
Peakexposure
concentrations or
'hot spots'
At the click
of a button, a
portfolio can
be displayed
down to street
level, should such
granularity be
required. Event
footprints and
real-time catastrophes can be
overlaid and assessed for a tailor-made analysis
of the exposures. Munich Re’s global NATHAN
natural hazard maps are also fully integrated.
Over 1,100 industrial parks or locations have
already been identified in Asia, where the initial
phase of the RiskMapper analysis is concentrated. The project is currently being expanded
to cover other relevant markets.
The circle-based function
calculates the number of
people within a defined radius
Greater transparency is crucial
One of the main lessons learned from the 2011
Thai floods was the need for greater transparency. The output of this risk assessment tool
can be used to make transparent and holistic
decisions. The exposure accumulation analysis
results in improved confidence in the primary
insurer’s day-to-day underwriting decisions. In
addition,the output can be taken into consideration in the pricing process.
Obtaining the necessary transparency is
crucial to adequately assess the exposures in
the models. Only then can a risk-commensurate
price be determined. The more the transparency, the easier it is to acquire large (international) capacity. Continued cooperation
between reinsurer, primary insurer and other
stakeholders will be vital for assessing exposure
for any given risk. Andreas Siebert, Head, Geospatial Solutions,
Munich Re, [email protected]
29
Insurance | Interview
Spatial data is
a catalyst for
understanding risks
The insurance industry’s need for
accuracy means geocoding and GIS
are key tools in this business, says
Iain Willis, Product Manager, EQECAT
Whether it is the
ability to overlay these
geographic sources as
map layers or using
spatial interpolation
to produce a smoothed
hazard surface, GIS is
an integral part of our
model development
30
How is EQECAT using geospatial
technology as part of its workflow?
EQECAT was established in 1994 and
from the start it became apparent that
location was fundamental to catastrophe modelling. Whether you are modelling forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes
or tornados, the common denominator
is that location dictates the extent to
which you are at risk of these hazards.
For instance, the geographic distance
between whether your property lies in
a flood plain or in a safe, elevated area
can be just a few metres. However, the
insured risk potential of these two locations for our clients is entirely different.
Geospatial technologies are harnessed at every step at EQECAT. Our
clients’ need for accuracy means
geocoding and GIS are key tools in our
business. In developing our European
Windstorm Model, for example, we used
multiple data sources to build our hazard
components — global land-use information, digital elevation models, as well as
discrete vector layers such as recorded
windspeed at thousands of locations.
The only way to take this disparate
information and turn it into a meaningful hazard is by using software tools like
GIS. Whether it is the ability to overlay
these geographic sources as map layers
or using spatial interpolation to produce
a smoothed hazard surface, GIS is an
integral part of our model development.
EQECAT’s report Catastrophe Watch,
or CatWatch, was out within a week
after the devastating Tohoku earthquake (in Japan) in March 2011. How
did EQECAT manage all that in such a
short period of time?
We really worked hard to get our
CatWatch reports out as quickly as possible. Our subscribers rely on us to deliver a timely, well-informed narrative of
a developing disaster, so it is important
we use a wide range of sources. The
Tohoku event is a good example of this.
As the event unfolded, we used a wide
range of sources including USGS data,
regional news websites, market releases,
as well as the scientific resources available within the company. Given that we
have several experienced seismologists,
we were able to publish the CatWatch
report that captured the humanitarian and economic scale of the crisis, as
well as the scientific context of Tohoku,
being the largest recorded earthquake
in the Japan trench and something of a
game-changer in seismology.
The report included digital maps
showing tsunami flood zones, location
of aftershocks, damaged areas, including
roads and location of population centres
in affected areas. Of course, a huge element of the reports is visual representation. The GIS-derived seismic maps, images and conceptual diagrams are a key
tool in helping convey the story to our
clients. The CatWatch visuals help show
where the disaster occurred, the magnitude and the likely insurance exposure.
These aspects are of immediate concern
to our clients, who will ultimately be
impacted by these events and therefore,
need to react to the market quickly and
accordingly. Spatial data provides a catalyst for this understanding.
How does RQE, EQECAT’s catastrophe
risk modelling platform released in
2013 use spatial technology to aid the
insurance industry?
There is a great deal of uncertainty in the
insurance industry around location data.
Since many insurers, reinsurers and brokers keep data at highly aggregated levels
of geography (zip code, county), this
poses a big problem for modellers when
it comes to accurately locating these
exposures. In our previous platform, as
in RQE, we employ a technique called
‘disaggregation’, whereby we can take
aggregate exposure data and suitably
map this risk into the most likely locations in that zip code or county. Based on
local demography, we are able to make
informed decisions about the placement
of risk and essentially downscale a client’s portfolio to a suitable level for risk
analysis. Such techniques are critical to
many of our clients, and thus help them
manage risk that is difficult to locate.
While geoinformation systems were
largely being used by reinsurers and
modelling firms in handling of property insurance risks till a few years
back, today they are used for a much
broader spectrum, including primary
insurers. Your comments?
Definitely. There is no doubt there has
been a continued growth in geographic
information systems among the primary
insurers the last few years. I think there is
a number of factors driving this. Firstly,
the rise in geo-information is something
that is embracing every aspect of society,
not just the insurance industry. Whether
it is using your smartphone’s geo-mobile
technology to find the nearest Starbucks,
using Google Maps to plan a car journey,
or GPS for Facebook check-in, all of us
are becoming more aware of location.
This distributed availability of geospatial
solutions, together with the increasing
awareness of underwriters and chief
risk officers as to the benefits of these
technologies, are key factors in its rapid
adoption by primary insurers.
Which are the future areas of application of geospatial technology you
foresee for the insurance industry?
The key areas of application I see
growing in the future are really around
data precision and browser-based
geo-visualisation.
Also, although street-level geocoding
solutions exist for numerous countries
across the world, they are still lacking
in many places. I see a huge growth
potential there and something that will
be greatly welcomed by the insurance
industry. It will essentially mean that
exposure in emerging markets can be
more precisely located.
Likewise, another growth area is
lightweight geo-visualisation tools. Although GIS desktop tools will continue
to be needed to do the ‘heavy lifting’ for
analytical work, I foresee an increase
in the amount of spatially enabled
dashboard reports. With browser plugins and web map APIs, the capability to
produce these reports already exists and
is starting to be widely used. I see this
trend continuing in the near future. For our European
windstorm model, we
use multiple data sources
to build the hazard
components — global
land-use information,
digital elevation models,
as well as discrete vector
layers such as recorded
windspeed at thousands of
locations across Europe
31
Insurance | Case Study
Guarding fleet
on the roads
A leading truck insurance firm providing physical damage and
non-trucking liability insurance turns to g-tech for accurate
address validation, customer mapping capabilities and
geolocational information for managing claims
Courtesy: 1st Guard
1
st Guard is a leading specialty truck
insurance firm based out of Venice,
Florida, providing physical damage and
non-trucking liability insurance to leased
owner operators and small fleet owners. With
the responsibility of underwriting for more
With geocoding capabilities, 1st Guard
can match the exact physical location
of an address and provide latitude and
longitude coordinates
32
than 15,000 vehicles, the company needed an
efficient way to streamline operations, reduce
amounts of returned mail and provide excellent customer and claims services to policyholders.
Business challenge
With an abundance of returned mail, incomplete address data and no customer mapping capabilities, 1st Guard was looking to
improve its use of geolocational data. Also
with address-specific postal regulations and
coding policies that differ from state-to-state,
it required a solution to help identify the
appropriate tax jurisdiction requirements for
its policies. With nationwide customers, the
company also wanted to enhance its ability to
pinpoint address locations for better business
decision-making capabilities, and to establish
a better process for validating, correcting and
standardising customer address data.
In addition, it was taking truck drivers days
to complete a claim while out on a job. The
company wanted a faster way for truckers to
submit an insurance claim from anywhere in
the country. “We’re a niche player in the insurance market,” says Dan Ribar, CIO of 1st Guard.
“Therefore, we required an innovative solution
that would address our needs and be easy to
manage, along with a partnership to help lead
the way from a technology standpoint.”
Solution
As a result, 1st Guard turned to Pitney Bowes
Software’s Spectrum OnDemand softwareas-a-service solution to provide accurate
address validation, customer mapping
capabilities and geolocational information for
managing claims.
Using Spectrum, 1st Guard is able to validate
addresses for policies and make precise tax
jurisdiction calculations. With geocoding capabilities, it can match the exact physical location
of an address and provide latitude and longitude coordinates. The company can also use
latitude and longitude information to find the
best possible address match for that location.
In addition, Pitney Bowes Software’s Spectrum is a crucial component in the claims portion of 1st Guard’s revolutionary Trucker1 iPhone application, helping to improve the speed
of claims. If a driver gets into an accident, the
application allows them to identify which truck
they’re driving, take pictures of the damage,
and record a statement. The claim is then sent
directly to the adjuster to begin the appropriate
paperwork. A process that used to take days,
now takes 60 seconds, thanks to location validation in part powered by Spectrum.
“Spectrum has become a supporting service
that we use across the company for any address
A screen shot of 1st Guard's Instant Quote application for truckers
validation or geocoding specific issue,” says
Ribar. “The ease of integration and the service
has been exceptional, making Pitney Bowes
Software a pleasure to work with. The service
is always up and running and we don’t worry
about it.”
Results & benefits
After using Pitney Bowes Software’s Spectrum
OnDemand, 1st Guard gained the following
benefits:
• Reduce the amount of returned mail using
accurate address standardization, correction and validation.
• P rovide precise tax jurisdiction information
for all policies to ensure compliance.
• P inpoint the location of current and potential customers within a certain radius using
geocoding and reverse geocoding, to capitalise on potential business opportunities.
• E nhance 1st Guard’s ability to field and
process an insurance claim from drivers
anywhere in the country.
• I ncrease the driver’s ability to access his
coverage information and process claim
information within 60 seconds, regardless of
the time or the location of the incident. Courtesy: Pitney Bowes
33
Transportation | Roads
GIS for intelligent
transport system
Courtesy: US DOT
Apart from constructing impeccable transport facilities,
governments across the globe are utilising GIS in their quest
for smarter and safer transportation networks
T
he focus of most transportation
professionals in the urban areas of
the world has shifted from the construction of new highway facilities to maximising the utility of existing infrastructure,
and the development of new public transport facilities and capabilities. At the same
time, a renewed focus has emerged on
using technology effectively to make urban
centers more efficient, livable and sustainable. These trends have produced two
overlapping initiatives: intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and the concept of
smart cities. It is clear that GIS technology
will play an ever increasing role in both
initiatives. As a platform to integrate and
34
fuse vast amounts of information, GIS has
already come to play a significant role in
a large number of ITS systems which are
briefly reviewed here.
Traveller information systems
These systems were one of the first
applications in ITS, and were designed to
provide the public with current information on traffic conditions and alternative
travel options. Such systems brought
together information from various sensors and automated systems to provide a
single source of up-to-the-minute travel
information and choices. One of the early
examples, and still one of the best, is the
system implemented for the San Francisco
Bay region (www.511.org ). It combines
information on real-time traffic speeds
along with travel options (and a journey
planner) for public transport, car sharing,
bicycling and parking availability into a
single application which is widely used
by locals and tourists alike. The current
traffic site fuses four separate services
in real time to deliver information to the
public: traffic speeds from embedded loop
detectors, streaming video from CCTV
cameras, incident information from the
California Highway Patrol, and current
construction activity from the California
Department of Transportation, all organised and presented through GIS. In fact all
of the information from the various model
choices is managed by GIS in the background, including the stop, route and fare
information from over 50 different public
transport providers.
Similar systems have been developed
throughout Europe and Asia, with Transport
Direct and Madrid’s EMT system being some
of the better examples.
As various traffic
data and sensors
become more
ubiquitous, there
is ever greater
effort to develop
automated
algorithms to
adjust traffic
flow in real time
with less human
intervention
Incident management
The Los Angeles County currently experiences
over 3,000 incidents a day, all of which impact
the levels of congestion on the freeway system
and urban arterials. As such, great effort
has gone into the coordination of the allied
agencies responsible for dealing with (and
clearing) such incidents. A GIS-based system
helps identify the location of each incident as
the telephone call comes in to the dispatch
centre, and each of the allied agencies (highway patrol, tow truck operators, emergency
response units) is notified through a central
Traveller information system for San Fransisco Bay region
Courtesy: www.511.org
Traffic management systems
Much of the same hardware installed for
Traveller Information Systems was also designed to provide the information for urban
traffic management systems. Initially, these
technologies were often stand-alone systems, with the result that early traffic control
centers were often an assemblage of large
banks of CCTV monitors, and characterised
by a number of non-integrated technologies
for traffic management. As these systems
matured, integration of these disparate
technologies became a primary goal, along
with the desire to achieve inter-agency coordination to facilitate better traffic management, incident management and emergency
response. It was largely as agencies began
to focus on inter-agency coordination, and
ways to present a more effective “common
operating picture” of their urban transportation systems that GIS came to the forefront.
A number of the leading traffic manage-
ment solutions now incorporate GIS as a
way of better understanding (and managing) urban traffic. Siemen’s Stratos solution,
along with other leading traffic management
solution providers Transcore, Iteris and Kapsch, among others, have all integrated GIS
components into their traffic management
solutions.
The goal of such systems is to dynamically adjust traffic flow through urban centers
responding to incidents and traffic congestion in real time. As various traffic data and
sensors become more ubiquitous, there is a
greater effort to develop automated algorithms to make these adjustments with less
human intervention. In addition, such information can be fed back into the planning
efforts of these transportation agencies to
assist them in better designing new roadway
improvements, and in better managing their
existing traffic flows.
35
Transportation | Intelligent Systems
Freeway incident response service tracking
for South LA County
As more sources
of real-time traffic
information become
available, this will
begin to influence
other sectors of
emergency response
as well, with
ambulances, fire
trucks, police cars
and such, making
greater use of realtime and predictive
traffic data
36
GIS-based system. In this way, inter-agency
coordination is facilitated, with the result of
a more efficient response to such incidents,
and lower traffic congestion.
As more sources of real time traffic information become available, this will begin
to influence other sectors of emergency
response as well, with ambulances, fire
trucks, police cars, among others, making
greater use of real time and predictive traffic data. Existing research shows that ambulances responding to a traffic accident
at the same location but at different times
of the day should transport patients to
different hospitals based on the relative
congestion levels, with time differences on
the order of 15 minutes, crucial time with
an injured patient.
Safety management
One of the major promises of ITS is greater
safety on our roadways. Considerable
research has gone into new technologies
designed to be incorporated into the vehicle, as well as to utilise emerging technologies to better understand causes of traffic
accidents. Both depend on the use of GIS,
and are advancing rapidly.
In the first instance, there are a range
of in-vehicle technologies which are
designed to improve road safety and assist
driver behaviour. Known as Advanced
Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), these
constitute technologies designed for collision avoidance, lane departure warning
systems, intelligent speed adaptation, and
pedestrian warning systems, among others. Each is designed to warn the driver
of unsafe driving, and potential hazards
unknown to the driver.
If a driver is approaching an upcoming
turn at too high speed, ADAS technology
would first issue a warning, and if not acted upon, the car would assist in braking
without the driver’s active involvement.
Similar warnings would alert the driver
of pedestrians in an upcoming intersection, or of any unsafe roadway conditions.
Central to such systems is a highly accurate road network with high-precision
roadway geometrics, all managed in a GIS
database. Many of the major commercial
street network vendors have turned their
attention to collecting such roadway characteristics, often utilising high-precision
LiDAR data collection methods. In time,
such efforts will lead to evermore automated guidance systems in our vehicles.
The same LiDAR data collection techniques are being used to extract roadway
geometrics for use in crash analysis.
Extracting such characteristics as bank,
slope and roadway curvature, these variables can now be added to other roadway
and driver characteristics, for more
sophisticated crash analysis. In addition,
the rapidly evolving field of geospatial
statistics is being applied to these analyses,
all in an effort to better identify problematic locations of high crash frequency. A
coordinated multi-agency research effort
between the Utah Department of Transportation, Esri and the AAA Foundation
is looking to apply such techniques to develop the next generation of crash analysis
methodologies.
In each of these areas of ITS, GIS has
become an essential technology for fusing
together vast amounts of data, all with the
goal of making our roadways safer and less
congested, and ultimately our cities more
livable and sustainable. Terry C. Bills, Transportation Industry
Manager, Esri, [email protected]
Transportation | Airport Infrastructure
Geo-location enabling
airports to do business
Airports are not just places where airplanes land and take off. As highly
secure, micro economies running their own businesses, airports need
g-tech as information backbone at every step
I
n today’s always-connected digital
world, we take for granted being able
to access troves of information about
almost anything from almost anywhere.
Increasingly, the concept that matters
most is not what we are looking for or
how we are connected to the grid, but that
our devices always know exactly where
we are. Coffee? We quickly access a list of
the highest-rated establishments within
a mile of where we are standing. Traffic?
Our phones tell us where to turn to find
a less congested route. This paradigmshifting concept is called geolocation,
and airports are employing it and other
geospatial technologies to improve the
way they do business.
Enabling ground workers
Airports in the United States are required
to inspect their facilities multiple times a
day to ensure that the lights, signs, marking, pavement and other critical assets
are in good working condition. Under
the US Code of Federal Regulations,
Part 139, airports failing to comply risk
losing their operating certificate. At the
General Mitchell International Airport in
Milwaukee, paper forms and radio calls
had long formed the backbone of airport
operations and maintenance, as they still
do at many airports today. By equipping
airport inspectors with mobile devices in
the field, General Mitchell now enables
inspectors to electronically mark the
precise location of any abnormal condi-
tion they find. No radio call is required, nor a
trip back to the office to fill out a paper form.
Maintenance teams respond using the same
mobile tools and can quickly find the pavement crack, broken airfield light, or missing
sign that, if left uncorrected, could ultimately
affect airport safety.
Oftentimes in Milwaukee, the item noted
by the airport inspector is blanketed with
six inches of snow, and without spatial data
crews could literally spend hours locating
and fixing the problem. Tim Pearson, General Mitchell International Airport’s GIS Coordinator, says, “Using geospatially enabled
mobile devices in the field for inspection and
work orders has made everyone more efficient — from inspectors to maintenance to
management. Everyone is on the same page
all the time. We know exactly where work
needs to be performed, and
we generate no paper.”
Airport situation management
with a geospatial component
Property management
Airports are not just places
where airplanes land and
take off. They are micro
economies that support
their existence by leasing
property and charging fees
for parking. Property management systems have been
used for years at airports to
track tenants and leases. Today, airports are using geospatial technology to turn
these stuffy data warehouses
37
Work orders for the terminal at General
Mitchell International Airport
Using
geospatially
enabled mobile
devices in
the field for
inspection and
work orders has
made everyone
more efficient,
from inspectors
to maintenance
to management.
Everyone is on
the same page
all the time
38
into real time sources of critical operating
information.
Have a security problem somewhere
in the terminal? A few mouse clicks on a
geospatial system, and airports like General Mitchell can generate a list of nearby
tenants and their contact information to
spread the word quickly.
Airports are also embracing the analysis
capability of geospatial technology to
reduce time traditionally spent on tedious
tasks. For example, Denver International
Airport has invested in Web-based tools
used by the airport’s planning department
to evaluate potential construction and
obstructions. Using the Internet browser,
a highly-accurate base map and an airport
terrain model, the staff at Denver International Airport can quickly determine the
impact of planned construction. Information available includes which navigation
surfaces — imaginary surfaces uses to protect airspace around aircraft flight paths —
might be infringed upon by new construction and by how much; and whether the
control tower’s line of sight to the airfield
will be impacted in any way. Geospatial
tools such as these reduce the time airport
staff spend answering routine questions
both internally and for the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).
Real time spatial information
Increasingly, real time spatial information is also available to airports. The FAA
recently released official guidance defining
how airport ground vehicles — hundreds of
operations vehicles, escorts, catering trucks
and snow plows that crisscross most major
airports — can participate in the same real
time spatial network that aircraft do. This
technology, called Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), relies
on an aircraft or vehicle knowing its own
position through on-board GPS equipment, and broadcasting that information
out to other listening devices on a regular
interval. With the path cleared for ground
vehicles to participate in the network,
airports are working to figure out how to
best leverage this new common operating
picture.
In the near future, approaching aircraft
and the control tower will both know if a
ground vehicle, such as a snow plow in the
middle of a winter storm, is lingering on
the runway. Likewise, an airport operations vehicle responding to an arriving aircraft with a passenger in medical distress
will see exactly where that aircraft is at any
given time. Some of the most promising
uses of real time positioning at airports,
such as routing the nearest maintenance
vehicle to the scene of a critical pavement
flaw, depend equally on the vehicle’s
onboard GPS position and a high quality
airport geospatial basemap.
Security and situation management
An emerging, security-related application
of geospatial technology at major airports
is called situation management. When
an incident occurs at an airport, it’s often
difficult to tell early on how severe the incident will become. For example, a piece of
luggage left by itself in the terminal is most
likely an innocuous lost bag, but airports
have to be prepared for any alternative. Under the concept of situation management,
airports design workflows in advance to
manage most conceivable situations and
handle any contingency. Effective situation management software deploys these
workflows and depends heavily on the
geospatial location of an airport’s assets.
The locations of security cameras, exits, key
utilities, shutoff valves, access-controlled
doors and many other assets are linked to
situation management software.
At major airports today employing
situation management, if a bag is left
unattended and its location is radioed to
the control center, a supervisor can immediately access the nearby critical assets
necessary to deal with the situation. Kevin Carlson, Associate VP, AECOM
[email protected]
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registered in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SUR-218
Transportation | Marine
Towards a sustainable
maritime trade
Innovative geospatial solutions can help reduce environmental
footprint of the growing maritime trade, especially when private
and public sectors cooperate closely
O
Figure 1: Polar diagram shows safe
speed and heading
ceans represent an invaluable
economic resource for many
stakeholders, like the fishing or
the mining industry; this also includes the
international maritime trade. The Secretary General of the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) recently warned that
“establishing a sustainable maritime transportation sector is essential to the development and growth of the world’s economy”.
The maritime traffic volume has increased substantially in the past years and
the growth rate is expected to ascend even
further in the years to come. The resulting
amount of gas emissions from the international trade and the risk for ship accidents
are proportionally intensifying. These two
elements have a significant global impact on
the marine environment and climate change.
Innovative geospatial solutions, such as
vessel and voyage planning optimisation or
the e-navigation an International Maritime
Organisation concept, can help
reduce the maritime trade environmental footprint. However,
this is possible with cooperation between the private and
public sectors.
Vessel and voyage
planning solutions
Vessel and voyage planning
solutions integrate several
geospatial data types in order
to provide the navigator with
an optimised ship route. When
40
planning the voyage, parameters like the
vessel’s structure, weather prediction and of
course marine cartography, are taken into
account automatically by the algorithm. It is
then possible to ensure an efficient and safe
voyage, by minimising fuel consumption
for the desired arrival times, thus reducing
the green house gas emission of the ship.
Such an analysis can be made before the
voyage using predicted parameters and the
available marine charts database, and also
real time on the sea via satellite communication — with updated data streams such as
wind, wave, current as well as chart updates
received directly on board.
In Jeppesen VVOS, a ship-specific model
of the ship’s motion, engine and propeller characteristics is used to recommend
speed and heading changes to manage
ship motions according to the waves and
wind forecasts (Figure 1). This helps the
mariner make en route informed decisions
to minimise heavy weather damage. The
mariner can also download the latest ocean
area forecasts and recalculate the passage
plans as new forecasts become available or
operational requirements change.
Route optimisation is performed on a
user-defined grid using weather assembly
and taking into account safe operating limits
imposed by the mariner and ship responses.
A histogram is then produced, which can
be used to minimise fuel consumption for a
range of arrival times (as presented in Figure
2). Many other geospatial tools, including
automatic routing, under keel clearance,
Courtesy: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US
tide current optimisation, are now fully operational and available to the mariner. Such
vessel and voyage optimisation solutions
allow for safer and more economical passage, by minimising accidents like groundings and collisions as well as reducing fuel
consumption and GHG emissions.
Recent technology developments,
have increased the capacity of mariners
to access near real-time information even
further away from the coast. Data streams
with information like weather predictions,
wave heights or nautical charts updates
are produced by various data originators.
The transmission means can be radio
broadcasts, satellites messages or on board
sensors, for example. For the vessel and
voyage optimisation process to be possible,
these data streams need to be interoperable. Then, in order to bring situational
awareness to the mariner, the information
will need to be rendered intelligently as a
non-cluttered visual. Homogeneous data
streams and coordinated implementation
of new maritime capabilities is managed by
the IMO, via the e-navigation framework.
E-navigation
IMO defines e-navigation as “the harmonised collection, integration, exchange,
presentation and analysis of maritime
information on board and ashore by
electronic means to enhance berth to berth
navigation and related services, for safety
and security at sea and protection of the
marine environment”. As such, it aims at
enhancing global safety of navigation and
environmental protection by ensuring the
implementation of intelligent information
integrated solutions, which will provide
critical navigational and operational information to the mariner. This information
also needs to be delivered in a timely manner by combining real-time geospatial data
streams from various data originators with
the marine vector cartography. All the data
streams, whether static or dynamic, require
merging and appropriate rendering by the
final visualisation system.
The data fusion process is made more
complex as various parties and means of
transmission are involved in the production and distribution of maritime safety
information: hydrographic offices produce
the cartographic base layer available on
board the vessel as a core database and
issue additional updates as necessary; in
trafficked areas, maritime safety administrations broadcast traffic information to all
ships using their Automatic Identification
Figure 2: Histogram of fuel consumption
trade-off with arrival times and
corresponding optimum route
41
Transportation | Marine
With efficient PPC,
state-of-the-art
geospatial solutions
can minimise the
risk of accidents
at sea and the
environmental
impact of the
growing
maritime trade
Figure 3: ECDIS screen shot with
e-navigation prototype
42
Systems (AIS), together with aids to navigation status updates for instance.
So as to ensure a harmonisation of
existing and future data streams on board
a vessel and allow for a safe passage, the
International Hydrographic Organisation
started working in 2001 on the S-100 data
model. This data model is compliant with
ISO 19100 series of geographic standards
and will ensure the compatibility as well
as the merging capacity of data streams
produced by various data originators, emitted by different means and received by the
multiple systems on board the vessel.
An e-navigation prototype, including
schemes following the S-100 data model,
were developed and implemented by
Jeppesen for maritime safety information,
meteorological and hydrodynamic data, as
well as notice to mariners. This can either
be broadcasted by AIS or via email, for early
notice to the bridge crew and displayed
directly on the Electronic Chart Display and
Information System (Figure 3.)
With the guidance from IMO and
IHO, intelligent and timely information is made available to the mariner on
the bridge of a vessel. This improves the
maritime situational awareness of navigators and significantly diminishes the risk
of accidents at sea. A reduced number of
groundings and collisions results in less oil
spills and sub-surface drifting containers.
Therefore, improving navigation safety with
the implementation of e-navigation and
other innovative geospatial solutions also
enhances environment protection.
Private-public cooperation
Private-public cooperation in furthering
the sustainability and safety of the maritime trade is also important. Public bodies
produce reliable and quality geospatial
information which is a necessary input to
the above-mentioned innovative maritime
solutions. For example, official marine vector cartography constitutes the base layer
of e-navigation and geospatial optimisation algorithms. However, its availability
to the private sector is still critical. On
the contrary, the cooperation can sometimes go further than simple data access
when the private sector provide tools and
services to data originators to help them
improve their data gathering and information consolidation.
While public sector organisations manage public interest, create and maintain
regulations, the private sector is well
equipped to develop innovative products
and manage product lifecycles. Publicprivate cooperation (PPC) allows both
partners to focus on their core competencies and perfect the delivery in these areas.
Roles and responsibilities should be clearly
defined for instance within contractual
agreements and the private sector must
respect the authority of the data originator. Both parties should acknowledge their
respective competencies and communicate regularly to build a strong relationship.
Such PPC allows for full concentration on
the common goal and an innovative future.
Private and public sectors are required
to cooperate closer to provide the mariner with the best of both worlds: reliable
quality data combined with innovative
geospatial solutions. With efficient PPC,
state-of-the-art geospatial solutions can
minimise the risk of accidents at sea and
the environmental impact of the growing
maritime trade.
Conclusion
Under the guidance of international bodies, together with reinforced PPC, innovative geospatial maritime solutions can
significantly improve safety of navigation
and enhance environmental protection.
Combining the effort of all stakeholders,
we can speed up our journey towards a
sustainable maritime trade and global
“blue economy”. Celine Roux, Business Operations
Specialist, Maritime Industry, Safety, Affairs
and Services, Jeppesen, A Boeing Company,
Australia, [email protected]
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Transportation | Interview
‘Building sustainable
transportation with
lower environment
footprint is our aim’
Besides providing efficient transport solutions, the
land transport authority of Singapore (LTA) has
embarked on various innovative traffic-related
solutions, including crowdsourcing, PPP models
and open data framework. Rosina Howe-Teo,
Group Director, Innovation & InfoComm
Technology Group, elaborates how the agency is
planning to leverage business intelligence technology
and advance real-time analytics to mine big data and
derive new insights to enhance business decisions
What are the activities and mission
of the Singapore Land Transport
Authority?
The Land Transport Authority of
Singapore (LTA) was set up under the
Ministry of Transport to spearhead land
transport developments. The primary
role of LTA includes planning, designing, construction, management and
maintenance of the transit systems,
roads and related facilities. LTA acts
as an agent for the Singapore government in the administration, assessment,
collection and enforcement of various taxes, fees and charges, and other
services relating to land transportation.
Our mission is to provide an efficient
and cost-effective land transport system
for different needs.
Singapore is a small island country
with limited land resources. Keeping
44
this in mind, how challenging is it
for the LTA to plan and manage road
transport infrastructure?
Singapore has seen incredible growth
and progress over the years. With a
population of over 5 million, the LTA
thinks continuous improvement of the
public transport system is an imperative. LTA’s commitment to enhance the
commuting experience has translated
into initiatives like building new rail
lines, introducing new bus routes and
raising taxi service standards.
Given the small size of the country, we want to make public transport
system more attractive and compelling
so that it becomes a first choice for the
commuters. This is also in line with the
government’s blueprint of promoting
sustainable transportation to achieve a
cleaner, greener transport system with
lower environmental footprint.
The centre of the LTA’s GIS infrastructure is the Data Hub, which manages
more than 70 layers of road and rapid
transit system features. How do you
manage such large amount of data?
One key success factor for managing
the GIS data hub is the establishment
of LTA’s Data Management Framework
managed by senior officials to drive key
data initiatives, including the appointment of data owners, harmonisation
and classification of data and usage
of data. Through the Data Management Framework, LTA has put in place
an enterprise metadata taxonomy, a
well-defined information structure and
data access policy to promote datasharing and open data as a strategic goal of
the organisation. The framework has
provided a common platform for open
discussions and close cooperation
among the user groups in resolving conflicts in a timely and efficient manner
and enabling joint development, both
within and outside the organisation.
However, we faced challenges like
bringing numerous interest groups
together and negotiating to streamline
multiple data management processes,
formulating an enterprise data dictionary for consistent interpretation of the
GIS information as well as to establish
ownership to measure accountability,
data quality and accuracy.
With increasing population and
travel demand, traffic information has
become a ‘must-have’. What kind of
real-time facilities do you provide to
your commuters?
My Transport.SG is the LTA’s mobile
service which provides a comprehensive and one-stop solution for mobility
needs of the commuters, motorists and
cyclists. The app allows users to personalise and choose their favourite services,
receive updates on the latest real time
traffic and disruption news. The app
also informs the users about the latest
events and promotions near them.
Whether checking for the next arrival
time of a bus, looking for parking in
town, or getting an update on the traffic
condition, commuters can now check
all of their travel options to decide on
how to reach their destinations. The app
also reduces waiting time at bus-stops,
and cuts down on traffic congestion
since drivers can be apprised on the
availability of carpark lots in popular
buildings in the city before they embark
on their journey.
LTA has experimented with
crowdsourcing. How successful is
your Snap&Send@MyTransport
app? How do you plan to extend this
initiative in other spheres?
The Snap&Send app allows the public to
take photos of roads with defects such
as potholes, faulty streetlights, footpaths, traffic lights and wrong signage
using smartphones. LTA then takes
remedial action based on these photos.
Using the embedded geo-location information from the photo, LTA engineers
quickly conduct a visual assessment
on the road defect, pin-point defect
location and recommend appropriate
treatments. The use of photo geolocation data and spatial analytics has
enabled us to better analyse road defect
occurrences and adjust its maintenance
regime accordingly. It has also enabled
us to reach out to more remote parts of
Singapore.
LTA adopts a private-public-people
partnership model for most of its
initiatives. This approach has yielded
significant returns as we are able to
concentrate on what we do best while
leveraging on the nimbleness of the private sector to offer innovative solutions.
Transport data is openly shared with
the community on a cloud computing platform. There is our datamall@
mytransport service to facilitate community cooperation and collaboration
We sponsor the local
annual programming
competition
‘code::XtremeApps::’
to encourage local
developers and young
innovators to participate
and create traffic-related
applications that will
improve the daily
commute
Making roads safer
Year
Fatalities
Injuries
2008
221
10,760
2009
183
10,748
2010
193
11,065
2011
195
9,760
2012
168
9,105
45
Transportation | Interview
Our aim is to engage
all groups of citizens
and partners to take
part in the active
development of an
interactive transport
community that can
generate innovative
and personalised
services
Integrating GIS and traffic sensors
in creation of innovative applications
and services by leveraging on the LTA’s
data. Journey planners and other such
applications give commuters access to
integrated mobility information on the
go, anytime, anywhere, on any device.
We sponsor the local annual programming competition ‘code::XtremeApps::’
to encourage local developers and
young innovators to participate and create traffic-related applications that will
improve the daily commute by making
smart use of LTA data.
Our work with industry partners
helps integration of transport data into
high-impact consumer applications,
furthering location-based services
and innovative applications. One such
notable collaboration is with Google
for Google Transit & Traffic, Singapore.
We have embarked on future research
collaborations with renowned research
institutions such as the MIT, Stanford,
ETH Zurich together with local institutes of higher learning to explore
long-term transport planning and
behavioural studies. The aim is to glean
insights for better demand management and expansion of Singapore’s land
transport network.
How do you ensure that your
workforce is adequately skilled and
updated to innovate and use these
technologies?
Our staff development effort includes
both classroom and on-the-job training. One key strategy of implementing
an agile GIS infrastructure to support
dynamic changes in organisational
needs is the formation of project team
comprising representatives from user
departments and IT GIS team. This
project structure has served us well in
providing a platform for the teams to
gain good understanding of the domain
knowledge as well as business issues
and to appreciate the complexity of the
technology. The user-groups will define
46
the business requirements and business
rules and the IT GIS team will architect
the technology infrastructure required
to support these business needs as well
as ensure compliance with technology architecture standards. Over time,
both teams have developed respect
and strengthened their partnerships in
handling complex issues that arose from
time to time.
Singapore LTA has set an example
by leveraging GIS technology
for transport management. How
according to you is your system
different/evolved from traffic
management systems in the
developed countries like the US,
Europe or Japan?
LTA has evolved from leveraging
technology to enhance its operational
efficiency to delivering effective public
service, whether it is in the form of
speedy transactions that are paperless
and hassle-free, to disseminating useful
information to public on any device or
channel of communication and allowing third-party access to real time information and create new value-added
services. Our aim is to engage all groups
of citizens and partners to take part in
the active development of an interactive
transport community that can generate
innovative and personalised services.
In response to the accelerated pace
of public transport service delivery,
our plan is to further leverage business
intelligence technology and advance
real-time analytics to mine big data and
derive new insights to enhance business
decisions. Going forward, we are planning to merge GIS with big data analytics
to create impactful visualisation tools to
support national decisions on strategic
policies of transport plans as well as
to develop our capability in applying
predictive algorithms to aid operational
effectiveness as land transport management becomes more dynamic. Transport | Railway Infrastructure
Advances in rail
measurement
Fast, mobile surveying systems capture rail data with
increased productivity and accuracy
T
here is a growing need for accurate
measurements on track alignments and locations in the United
States. Much of this need comes from
ever-tightening track tolerances as well
as regulations for positive train control
(PTC), which call for digital maps to show
the location of track and related fixtures.
This information typically covers large
areas and is accurate to a few feet, which
is sufficient to meet the requirements to
know a train’s location. But many other
applications require measurements with
much higher precision. For example, the
demands for increased accuracy in track
construction have introduced new challenges in positioning and measurement.
In addition to general track locations,
design and maintenance processes can
require precise top-of-rail measurements
at short intervals. And, as windows for
track access for maintenance continue
to shrink, railway operators and surveyors face the challenge of gathering more
information in shorter periods
of time.
Wheels of change
Railways always use a variety of technical approaches to gather and manage
the large amounts of spatial information
needed for engineering, construction and
GIS. Many agencies utilise airborne or terrestrial LiDAR to acquire high-volume information. Airborne systems provide good
coverage, and rely on ground surveys to
fill in information from congested or areas
not visible from the air.
Terrestrial LiDAR, often collected using mobile systems
installed on hi-rail vehicles,
can provide additional detail. But since its positioning relies on GPS, terrestrial mobile LiDAR is also
supplemented by ground
surveys and still requires
significant track time to get
the equipment on track in
the correct location. While
both the LiDAR approaches
can work well for general
locations (including PTC),
they can’t match the precision and detail produced by
trained field crews collecting track data on the ground. For these
ground-based surveys, new approaches are
producing significant increases in efficiency
and productivity.
Historically, surveyors have used rail
shoes, gauge bars or other methods to collect
individual points along the track, often making additional computations in the office to
produce positions of rail or centreline points
based on the field measurements. Recently,
new techniques have emerged in the US
to significantly increase the productivity
of a survey team for gathering information
on existing rails. These techniques, which
utilise new trolley-based measurement
systems, can match the precision achieved
by ground-based surveying while radically
reducing the time required to collect, store
Courtesy: www.sf.streetsblog.org
47
Surveyors working on the track at night to
maintain normal train traffic
Moving at walking
speed, the system
collects essential
data: track
location, vertical
profile, gauge and
superelevation at
specified intervals.
The 3D positioning
data is captured
using high-precision
robotic total stations
or GPS, with all data
stored in a handheld
field computer
48
and process the data.
Consisting of a small trolley that is placed
on the rail track and pushed by an operator, these systems contain tilt and gauge
sensors, 3D positioning equipment, a power
supply and supporting electronics. The
trolleys are isolated from the rails to prevent
interference with the signalling system. The
trolleys measure the railhead by providing
a physical measurement along the top of
the rail and along the inside of the railhead
at the correct location, 5/8 inch (16 mm)
below the top of the rail. These measurements are then related to the positioning
data provided by survey-grade total stations
or GPS equipment. With either setup, the
trolleys can move along the track while taking measurements and can stop at specific
locations to take single measurements of the
track or surrounding features.
Moving at walking speed, the system
collects essential data: track location, vertical profile, gauge and super elevation at
specified intervals. The 3D positioning data
is captured using high-precision robotic total stations or GPS, with all data stored in a
handheld field computer. The trolleys may
be quickly placed onto or removed from
the track, making it easy for crews to collect
data while complying with work rules for
safety, track access and short work windows. Since the system is very portable, it is
also possible to mobilise quickly to remote
areas where rail information is needed.
Technology on track
Prior to a survey, technicians can load the
track’s design alignment information into
the field computer. As the crew moves the
trolley along the track, the field computer
calculates and displays the station for the
trolley location. The field computer also
displays the deviations of the track from
the design alignment, gauge and elevation
of each rail. The trolley enables the survey
team to capture information at specified
locations along the track, and to relate
objects to track stationing as well as absolute geographic coordinates. At the end of
the day, the field data is downloaded for
quality checking, analysis and sharing with
downstream users. If needed, reports can
be created and delivered before leaving the
project site. Output information includes
coordinate information, rail warp, travelling chords for horizontal and vertical
alignments, together with graphical output
of the track information compared to the
design data. This information is provided
on the project coordinate basis, allowing
the surveyors, engineers and owners to
determine if the track was built per design
or if the rail has shifted out of alignment.
While the trolley systems were originally
developed to meet the tight tolerances of
European freight, passenger and high-speed
railways, recent work by surveying company
Cinquini & Passarino Inc (CPI) in California demonstrated the effectiveness of such
technology on US lines as well. CPI used a
GEDO CE system manufactured by Trimble
as a tool to provide track surveying services.
Under a contract from the Parsons Transportation Group, CPI conducted a survey for
PTC on 52 miles (84 km) of track in central
California. The work called for location of
track centreline, switches and frogs, derails,
roadway and pedestrian crossings, signage,
wires and tunnel portals.
The job was all the more complicated
as surveyors could work on the track only
between midnight and 4 am to maintain
normal train traffic. The narrow windows
called for the surveyors to mobilise quickly
and not waste time due to equipment
malfunction or data collection errors. By
using a library of defined features stored
in the field computer, the survey teams
could quickly and consistently record
information about the track and surrounding features. The pre-defined feature codes
prevented errors in the point descriptions
and attributes required for the PTC database and eliminated the need for rework.
Information was collected and managed
using PTC data model definition formats.
The data was exported to spreadsheets and
CAD as charts and reports.
In another instance, working for the
Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit District
(SMART), CPI crews collected detailed
information on SMART’s rail network. One
project called for precise location of existing track as part of the design process for
a new bascule bridge. The trolley enabled
CPI to operate with exceptional efficiency
to meet the design engineers’ request for
detailed top-of-rail information, with an
accuracy of 1/8 inch (3 mm) or less, for
roughly 1,000 ft (300 m) on each side of the
bridge. The designers wanted data at 25-ft
(8-m) intervals. By using the trolley system,
CPI could provide data every 10 ft (3 m)
and with no increase in cost.
Prior to utilising the trolleys for client
projects, surveying companies like CPI
performed extensive testing to ensure that
they could collect track geometry data that
is accurate and comparable to information
collected using traditional methods.
The trolley systems are also useful for
track monitoring and maintenance activities
such as tamping. Field crews can quickly
gather information about existing track
alignment and conditions. In Europe, the
measurements are automatically compared
to design alignments, with the results then
loaded into the control systems onboard
tamping machines. Similar approaches will
also work well in the US. The system collects
data very quickly, making it cost-effective
over long stretches of track. And because
data can be collected with a precision of
1/16 inch (3 mm) or better, the information
for position, gauge, cant, superelevation
and cross level can be used on a variety
of track classes ranging
from low-speed Class 1 up
through Class 9 high-speed
freight and passenger
trains.
Customising to local
needs
The trolley approach may
be configured based on
local needs. For example,
precise GPS positioning
(accurate to roughly one
inch) works well for track
location and alignments
over large areas. In applications where higher
precision is needed, a trolley can utilise robotic total
stations as the primary
positioning device. Trolley systems with
total stations can be used for construction and inspection of slab track, where
they have produced solid improvements
in field productivity. The trolleys can also
be equipped with 3D laser scanners and
controlled with GPS or a total station to
collect dense clouds of points similar
to aerial LiDAR data. This configuration
provides an excellent tool for railways to
gather spatial information for maintenance
and clearance envelope studies in tunnels,
stations, platforms and other constrained
A surveyor pushing the rail trolley and
areas while simultaneously collecting the
collecting data along the SMART corridor
track information.
While such a system excels at providing detailed, precise measurements, the
primary benefit comes from its ability to
reduce costs and reduce track time needed
to complete a survey. A CPI evaluation
found that the speed of the trolley system
cut field labour costs by a factor of six.
The cost savings came from speed and
efficiency. Jim Dickey & Anthony G. Cinquini,
Principals at Cinquini & Passarino
[email protected]
[email protected]
49
Transportation | Case Study
GIS for integrated
waterways
The Brazilian national agency for
waterway transport has utilised GIS
solutions to integrate all waterways
in the country for smooth maritime
navigation and trade activities
Courtesy: Dredging Today
T
he National Agency for Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ) in Brazil is a special
agency which regulates, supervises
and oversees the economic activities related to
water transportation. It has the responsibility
of looking after the entire waterway infrastructure, port facilities and water transport services
in the country.
In 2010, ANTAQ tied up with the Laboratory of Transportation, Federal University of
Santa Catarina (LabTrans / UFSC) to launch the
National Plan for Integrated Waterway (PNIH),
which also had the task of additional delimiting
areas for waterway terminals. A georeferenced
database and simulator logistics based on GIS
were needed for this purpose.
The project
With ANTAQ’s help, LabTrans/UFSC developed
a geographic database for waterway transportation (inland, long haul and cabotage) and for
the port facilities. Vector maps of water transport routes were prepared with the help of sat-
50
ellite images obtained from different sources.
Other vector files, usually in Esri model format,
were obtained from other public institutions.
Waterway routes from other countries, bordering Brazil, were also added as they facilitate
the simulation in sections of in-land international routes, which usually happens in the
tributaries of the Solimões River in Peru and
Colombia, and the Paraguay River in Argentina
and Paraguay. For port facilities, besides the
cadastre of available ports in the database,
ANTAQ also added ports in other countries,
a procedure that facilitates the simulation
in international sections. The georeferenced
waterway database is now open to all users and
available on the website of the agency.
Further, the waterway network was added
onto the highway network and railway terminals to provide a complete a transportation network, available for use in future simulations.
Areas of influence were defined for the
major waterway passage and the flow of goods
was identified from the matrix of origin and
Rail net planned for the area of influence
into technical report and executive, where it is
possible to identify the flows of port facilities
and waterway passages. Altogether, the study
indicated 41 potential areas and a projected
demand of 458 million tonne cargo to the
waterways by 2030.
destination developed by the National Plan
Transport Logistics (PNLT) of the Ministry of
Transport. The flows were projected for the
years 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030. Additionally,
the impedances of transportation were identified by the estimated investments and operating costs of each project.
The methodological steps culminated in
logistical simulations with the identification of
the flows through port facilities and waterway
passages planned for the horizons defined.
The analysis of the simulations also resulted
in the appointment of new areas for the installation of waterway terminals, promoting the
expansion of waterway net and its penetration
in domestic markets, unexplored until this
moment, which can generate new productive
rearrangement in Brazil.
A total of six watersheds in Brazilian
territory were studied: Amazon, TocantinsAraguaia, São Francisco, Paraguay, Parana and
South Study. The results are segregated into 14
volumes, two for each watershed, subdivided
The result
In addition to the use of geographic database
for defining the potential use of new terminals
and sections of waterways, the project also
helped other agency activities like, the analysis
of logistics competition between national agencies and private companies in the navigation
sector. ANTAQ’s current challenge is to follow
the economic and social dynamics imposed
by the evolving market and society, translating these inputs for their actions and for the
relevance of its database.
In addition to the regulatory aspects
associated with the ANTAQ work, the geospatial
information used to design the National Plan for
Integration Waterway can also help in research
and development of water transportation in
Brazil. Eduardo Pessoa de Queiroz, Isaac Monteiro
do Nascimento and José Renato Ribas Fialho
Specialists in regulation of water transportation
services, ANTAQ
51
Information system for
growing transport networks
The Dubai transport authority utilises enterprise GIS system for
agency-wide access to geographical data and centralised visualisation,
data management and access platform
O
ne of the world’s fastest growing cities, Dubai, has witnessed tremendous growth in infrastructure, construction projects and road networks.
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is responsible for
planning and executing all transportation projects in the city,
preparing legislation and strategic plans, planning and constructing the Dubai Metro, developing other integrated solutions
of road systems and marine networks that are safe and in line
with the city's economic development plans.
G-tech for informed decisions
In order to proactively manage the transportation system in
Dubai, the RTA required a very strong focus on geospatial information management. There is a great deal of data which is generated, acquired and managed by various agencies, departments
and sections within the RTA. This information comes in many
formats and is acquired from consultants, other governmental
agencies and various other data providers. To properly support
the RTA’s goals and objectives, this data must be complete, easily
accessible, accurate and up-to-date.
In the past, the RTA tried and implemented vendor-neutral geospatial technology to create an interoperable platform to manage
and maintain its geospatial data. However, due to difficulties faced
during spatial data administration and maintenance, the RTA went
into an in-depth evaluation of the different GIS systems and technologies available, and by end of 2011 decided to go for a complete
enterprise GIS platform revamp implementation project based on
Esri ArcGIS Server, Geocortex Essentials and FME technology. The
project was awarded to GISTEC, the local Esri distributor.
EGPR project highlights
• The revamped enterprise GIS provides improved access,
allows better management of geospatial data and facilitates
GIS integration with other RTA systems.
• Utilises RTA’s Enterprise Service Bus to publish GIS Web services for consumption by RTA’s agency applications.
52
• Provides efficient problem solving.
The project was supported and executed under
the leadership of the GIS Section, which is
part of the Information Technology Department at RTA. There was a well-defined sense of
direction regarding software platforms, data
administration and project coordination. The
RTA very clearly articulated the need for a central enterprise GIS system-based on servicesoriented architecture to extend the benefits of
GIS technology and assets to more business
processes and non-GIS professionals in a variety of business units.
GIS Web services framework
The GIS services exposed by ArcGIS Server and
FME were integrated and published on the
RTA’s Platform Agnostic Enterprise Service Bus
(TIBCO) for consumption by various agency
applications within the RTA. This integrated
solution offered platform-neutral support for
heterogeneous IT and SOA environments,
ensuring the RTA was not tied to any single
product or vendor.
GIS portal
Another key success criterion for the project was
the migration of the existing Web portal to new
revamped sites that enabled all key RTA businesses such as the rail agency, marine department, public transport, traffic department,
strategy and corporate governance and corporate
technical services support sector to visualise and
manage their respective GIS assets.
The revamped portal provides advanced Web
mapping capabilities and allows exposing out-ofthe-box, feature-rich, user-centric Web mapping
applications. The revamped GIS portal was built
to achieve the following objectives:
• A llow agency-wide access to GIS data based
on authorised content, whereby each agency
can visualise data that they own against common vector and image basemaps.
• A llow each agency to perform Web-based
editing for easy management of the GIS layers
that they own.
• Deliver services such as driving directions,
data download,
search, query,
overlay, measure,
charting, customised reporting etc.
for all internal RTA
agency users.
• Provide an interface
for running the
complex geo-processsing services
hosted by RTA GIS
administrators.
Advanced mapping capability and
services offered by the portal
Update by CAD
clients
CAD drawings are
widely used in RTA
during all roads
construction cycle.
The power of FME
was utilised to give
the RTA business
users a Web interface
whereby they could
download GIS data
into a CAD format. This feature has allowed the
RTA to upgrade its enterprise GIS while maintaining compatibility for various versions of
CAD clients for some of the specific tasks. This
capability allows RTA business users to extract
and download GIS data on-demand from the
GIS portal.
Extraction and download of GIS
data on demand from GIS portal
Conclusion
The availability of SOA-style GIS Web services
has ensured that the platform supports standards that promote enterprise wide availability of GIS services. The revamped system has
thereby provided an operational focal point
for delivering access to all of RTA’s geospatial data, services, applications, and the GIS
infrastructure. Hanan Bajash, GIS Manager, RTA
[email protected]
Saed Abu Helwa, Technical Director and CTO,
GISTEC, [email protected]
53
Towards safer,
accident-free roads
With the help of road accident data management system, the Indian state
of Tamil Nadu has significantly reduced number of accidents on its roads
T
he number of registered vehicles on
the Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s roads
has gone up by almost 40% - from 8.2
million in 2007 to 13 million in 2010. With more
vehicles on the streets and little demarcation
of lanes for those travelling at different speeds,
road accidents in the state were rising. This was
compounded by poor road conditions, little
driver education, and poor enforcement of
traffic rules. To improve road safety, data was
needed on the most frequent causes of accidents and the most accident-prone locations.
The paper-based First Information Report (FIR)
process was not effective as it lacked important
information, was cumbersome, and generated a
heavy backlog of work at police stations. Moreover, actions between the key departments
involved in road traffic management — police,
highways, transport — were not coordinated,
resulting in piecemeal efforts to improve
road safety.
Road accident data management system
The first step to improve road safety was the
development of a comprehensive database
on which appropriate road safety measures
could be based. Accordingly, as part of its
Road Safety Action Plan, the state engaged an
international road safety consultant to develop
a comprehensive bi-lingual software package
to collect, analyse and generate crucial reports
on road accidents on a day-to-day basis. Major
stakeholders such as the police, transport and
highways departments were involved in the
software’s development.
In 2009, an easy-to-use software known as
54
the Road Accident Data Management System
(RADMS) was developed. Its uniform, intuitive
screens make it one of the simplest systems to
use. After visiting the accident site, the police
person on duty logs onto the system’s website
at the police station and enters the details of the
accident into a simple online Accident Record
Form. The details of each accident include the
registration numbers of the vehicles involved,
the number of people involved in the accident,
the number of fatalities, the severity of injuries,
the exact location and condition of the road,
whether helmets and/or seat belts were being
used or not, the levels of intoxication, if at all, of
the driver, the type of accident – whether headon or from the rear, etc. The system has made
the cumbersome paper-based FIR reporting
process a thing of the past.
RADMS was developed with the help of an
international consultant, under the World Banksupported Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project.
The GIS-based RADMS software geographically
maps all road accidents that take place on Tamil
Nadu’s national and state highways, as well as
on urban and district roads. The system identifies the most accident-prone spots and displays
crash trends and other information at the click
of a mouse. The RADMS software, developed
after detailed consultations between the police,
transport and highways departments, has been
helping the authorities analyse the ‘how’, ‘where’
and ‘why’ of road accidents, and enabling them
to plan and implement remedial measures. In
the two years since the system has been operational, nearly 3,000 accident-prone spots have
been identified. The implementation of road
Cluster analysis facilitates analysis of the density and
severity of accidents
safety measures based on this analytical data has
brought down the number of accident fatalities in Tamil Nadu, from 13.39 for every 10,000
vehicles in 2006 to 10.09 in 2010, exceeding the
targets set by the state.
The RADMS software, developed at a cost
of Rs 22 million (about $500,000), has been
deployed at all the state’s 1,400 police stations
and personnel at each station have been trained
in its use. While similar software was first used
in Kerala, Tamil Nadu is the first state to deploy
it extensively. The software is constantly being
improved. It is planned to provide each police
station with a hand-held GPS device to enable
personnel to enter the details at the accident
site itself. It is also planned to link the system
with medical facilities across the state for quick
attention to accident victims. The creation of
a national road accident database along these
lines can help to markedly improve road safety
across the country.
Accident analysis
RADMS is supported by a powerful analysis
engine that enables the authorities to identify
high-density accident locations and generate automatic vehicle collision diagrams. This
is designed to assist road safety engineers in
improving the safety of roads and intersections.
• K ilometer analysis helps in analysing accidents along a selected stretch of road.
• Grid analysis looks at the frequency of
accidents in a specified area and identifies
accident hotspots.
• Cluster analysis provides an analysis of the
density and severity of accidents in selected
areas.
• Monitor sites analysis provides a visual
comparison of the severity of accidents on
selected sites. It also generates reports and
graphs showing the effect of remediation
measures.
• Collision diagram analysis helps in analysing the general pattern of accidents in select
locations, usually junctions.
• Corridor analysis locates high-crash concentrations within a corridor.
• L ink node analysis helps in analysing acci-
Monitor site analysis is used to analyse the accident
density in a defined region
dents occurring between any two nodes in
the road network and is used when no maps
are available to enter accident details.
• Safety benefit evaluations study the effectiveness of remedial measures to reduce
accidents.
• Stick analysis gives a pictorial representation
of accidents along a number of parameters.
Courtesy World Bank
web.worldbank.org
55
Transport Infrastructure | Case Study
Digital terrain model for
highway construction
Integrating Bentley Software with machine-control
technology allowed Creighton Manning to expedite
bypass extension project delivery
For the Slingerlands Bypass, state and
town planners wanted to improve
vehicle capacity, relieve congestion,
improve safety, and provide sufficient
lane capacity to meet 20-year traffic projections. They also wanted to
enhance current land use, provide
for projected land use changes, and
facilitate economic development. In
addition, this was to be done while
maintaining traffic during construction—16,000 vehicles each day travelling about 60 miles per hour.
In all, the Slingerlands Bypass
involved construction of 1.5 miles of
new, four-lane divided highway and
reconstruction of 1.75 miles of twolane highway into a four-lane divided
highway.
3D modeling minimises
environmental impacts
Models were useful in most phases of
the project, particularly environmental aspects, according to CME CADD Manager
Karl Detrick. “The 3D model and the digital
terrain models were instrumental in designing
and constructing the project to minimise environmental impacts. For example, with the
models we were able to compare several different alternative alignments during the design
phase and find the best ways to avoid wetlands
and historic properties,” adds Detrick.
Model-based design tools in the InRoads
Suite, Bentley’s software for civil engineering,
Three two-lane roundabouts
replaced signalised intersections
to improve safety
T
he New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) retained Creighton Manning Engineering (CME), an
engineering and surveying firm in New York, to
design the $15.2-million Route 85 Slingerlands
Bypass Extension project, which addressed
capacity and service-level issues along a 3.25mile highway section near Bethlehem. CME
used Bentley’s InRoads software to expedite
design and construction so that the bypass
could open on schedule despite delays.
56
were used to develop the roadway’s horizontal
and vertical alignments to meet the following
environmental goals:
• Provide a buffer between the roadway and
historic properties.
• Minimise the number of ravines crossed,
thus diminishing the overall section
footprint.
• Minimise the visual impact on existing
homes and businesses by depressing the
roadway.
• Minimise impact on wetlands, and mitigate
impact with the creation of new wetlands at a
2:1 ratio.
Pilot testing machine-control technology
NYSDOT had delayed the award of this contract
by five months, so the contractor, Delaney
Construction, was working under extreme time
pressure from the moment construction began
in February 2007. But time was saved during
the construction phase through a close collaboration with NYSDOT and the design engineers,
and the successful application of machinecontrol technology.
Slingerlands Bypass was named a NYSDOT
pilot project — one of just three state-wide in
2008 — for the integration of machine-control
technology and Bentley’s InRoads. The software
allowed CME to provide a complete digital terrain model (DTM) to the grading contractors.
Demonstrating a commitment to the technology
and training required to meet project goals, CME
collaborated with NYSDOT during the initial use
of the Quantity Manager tools within InRoads
and formulated suggestions as to how to best
work with the tools.
Quantity Manager was used to link the features from InRoads to the project’s pay items database. Contractors deployed the tools to grade
the project with stakeless technology, while
precisely monitoring quantities using Bentley’s
OnSite. This facilitated the movement of more
than 200,000 cubic meters of earth in a relatively
short time frame. Grading using this approach
was more efficient and was accomplished with
improved accuracy, resulting in a higher quality
project. InRoads reports were also a big help to
state inspectors on the project.
Construction-stage design change
The DTM-enabled construction process was
even flexible enough to accommodate a late
project addition. During construction, the
developer of a new technology park proposed
that a fourth roundabout be added in the
middle of the bypass to provide access to the
park. But a change order contract would have
meant unacceptable delays.
Instead, the new work was undertaken simultaneously under a highway work permit. NYSDOT, CME, Delaney Construction and the town
of Bethlehem all worked together to execute the
work permit, and the Slingerlands Bypass —
even with the last-minute roundabout — opened
to traffic on schedule in September 2008.
Energy, environment, and safety benefits
The four roundabouts built into the Slingerlands
Bypass have eased congestion and reduced
fuel consumption and emissions. They are also
more efficient: NYSDOT analysts say the average
commuter delay per vehicle has been reduced by
seven to 15 minutes during peak hours. Perhaps
most importantly, the roundabouts are safer.
Before the bypass work, the signalised intersections that were replaced by roundabouts had an
accident rate significantly higher than similar
intersections statewide.
One of the new roundabouts in the Slingerlands Bypass is at Blessing Road, which created
a gateway leading into Slingerlands Hamlet. The
roundabout slowed traffic entering the hamlet.
Together with a new pedestrian network (including
a pedestrian bridge, and a main bridge renovation
that accommodates bicycling and pedestrians), a
canoe launch, and a picnic area on the Normanskill
Creek, the bypass has reduced the impact of heavy
traffic on the surrounding community.
The bypass project has also facilitated sustainable development of a 1.4-million-square-foot
mixed-use commercial space known as Vista
Tech Park. This will make a substantial contribution to the town’s non-residential tax base. Courtesy: Bentley Systems
57
Transport Infrastructure | Case Study
Managing airport
leases in real time
Apart from aiding smooth navigation, GIS is enabling
an airport authority in managing its leases by providing
real-time automated data and enabling data sharing
T
he Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which owns and operates three
airports in Boston — Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field, and Worcester
Regional Airport — started using GIS technology after recognising that paper drawings
pieced together with data from various business
systems failed to produce accurate location
information for its property managers.
Often, the information that Boston Logan
International Airport’s property managers
accessed was inaccurate or out of date. Generating a floor plan to reflect an increase in the
size of a tenant’s leasehold used to take hours.
Further, when employees made the change to
the relevant map file, they had to enter the new
measurements manually into the billing system.
CLMS for automatic updates
Massport set out to remedy this situation by issuing an RFP for acquisition of a Common Lease
Management System (CLMS) to update its existing lease management. The specifications for
the new system included the ability to interact
and interface with computer-aided drafting and
design (CADD) drawings. The selected system
was one of the first breed of the new browserbased applications that utilised a Web browser
to deliver information to desktops. Use of a Web
The CLMS login screen of Massport
58
browser-based solution instead of a traditional
desktop application provided an unprecedented
flexibility to integrate the seemingly unrelated
products into a single user interface. One of the
cornerstones of the selected application was the
ability to integrate and display floor plan drawings
in the form of interactive maps beside tenant and
agreement data. In essence, CLMS delivered a
GIS-enabled application to users.
Portal for real-time information
Subsequent to the implementation of CLMS,
it became apparent that the GIS data available in CLMS would be extremely helpful for
other users at Massport. An essential factor for
making the GIS data available was the ability
to restrict sensitive financial information to the
appropriate users. The Massport Geographic
Portal (MGP) was developed to provide real
time spatial information to all authorised users.
CLMS has enabled a single employee to maintain lease plans and geospatial data for more than
10 million square feet of space, covering exterior
areas and 39 buildings. All of the data is stored
within an Oracle database and integrated with information from Massport’s business systems. The
GIS engine of CLMS drives information sharing
by delivering real time maps that blend geospatial
and financial data to authorised users.
Terminal floor plan
Increased productivity
When lease managers need to view a lease plan
and contract information, they can find the
information instantly on Massport’s intranet.
“Our GIS-enabled application has proved very
valuable,” explains Greg Zanni, Massport’s manager, airport properties and leasing. “I use it every
day to review vacancies and spaces that tenants
occupy throughout the airport. Compared to our
old system, it is a tremendous time-saver because
we no longer require assistance from a CAD specialist to view electronic lease plans.”
The system also ensures the continuous alignment of spatial and financial information. If an
airline acquires new gates or maintenance space,
the system automatically adjusts the billing based
on the tenant’s negotiated price per square foot.
“Space planning is a breeze. Just set up a proposed
contract; code the rooms you want into it; and
run accurate reports and drawings right out of the
system in minutes” says Kevin Gabel, CADDspecialist, Massport Airport Business Office.
Moreover, access to information extends
beyond lease managers. For example, grounds
managers use the system to plan maintenance
operations and measure landscaped areas.
Massport has witnessed a measurable
improvement in the way it manages lease plans
and shares spatial data. “Our system delivers
real-time maps and business information, helping us to improve productivity and make better
decisions. Our lease managers save hundreds of
hours each year, and more than 200 employees
access dynamic facility maps each day through
2MGP user interface
MGP,” says Gabel.
“Building a strong GIS platform to provide a fast
flexible system that accesses trustworthy information has become a vital aspect of the airports daily
function,” states John White, former head of the
Geomatics Centre at Brussels Airport. According to
White, GIS systems have become the cornerstone
for decision-making at airports in the areas of:
• A irport construction, infrastructure management, safety and operations;
• Environmental issues and crisis scenarios,
including 'what if' options;
• Space, cable and asset management;
• Security, including key and access management;
• Utilities, including electrical, water, communication, gas, and fire prevention.
Data acquisition and maintenance is the single
most expensive and vital factor for a successful
GIS, and as the usage of geospatial data increases,
a generic and a centralised approach for data storage is critical. One of newest trends in GIS is the
development of a data-centric model instead of
an application- centric one, based on an open and
non-propriety database. In other words adopting
and implementing a system/data architecture that
enables full interoperability among all CADD/GIS
software vendors.
As the role of GIS in support of all aspects
of airport operations increases, a well-planned
and executed approach to implementing such a
system is the key to success. Ed Maghboul, President, x-Spatial
[email protected]
59
UAV technology | Suriname
UAVs open up a
whole new world
South America’s smallest country has started leveraging the
many benefits of UAV technology in areas where traditional
remote sensing or survey techniques fall short owing to its deep
forest cover
U
nmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), used
for military applications for long, have
now entered the civil market, opening up new possibilities within the mapping
and remote sensing industry. With the ability
to acquire highly accurate imagery from a low
altitude, UAVs have proved to be helpful in the
acquisition of remote sensing data in locations that are difficult to access or in regions
where dense cloud coverage throughout the
year makes it impossible for satellites to collect
good-quality images.
Located in South America on the north of
Brazil, Suriname is the smallest country in the
region at just under 165,000 square km. With a
number of national parks, including a UNESCO
World Heritage Site — the Central Suriname
Nature Reserve — in the upper Coppename
River watershed, the country is famous for its
unspoiled forest biodiversity. However, with 90%
of it covered by tropical rain forests, Suriname
is very hard to map using traditional remote
sensing techniques. The introduction of the UAVs
in 2012 formed a revolutionary breakthrough in
the mapping business in Suriname with several
applications being initiated in land management
and mining in the past six months.
Mapping
Closely related to the application of UAVs to
support traditional authorities in preserving
their community boundaries, this technology
finds its use in mapping households and facili-
60
UAV X100 takes off
ties of traditional villages.
Suriname, with a population of around 0.5
million is made up of several distinct ethnic
groups. To preserve the privacy and cultural integrity of such a diversity, data inventory by UAVs
can take place without teams being actively and
visibly present in the localities, thus avoiding
social and cultural conflicts. Performing a settlement inventory and mapping the terrain in 3D
provides the necessary data, e.g. to design water
distribution networks or electrification projects.
A first pilot project is currently being planned.
Mining
Suriname’s economy is dominated by the
bauxite industry, which accounts for more than
15% of the GDP and 70% of export earnings. It
has also recently started exploiting some of its
sizeable oil and gold reserves.
Likewise, the most common use of UAV technology in Suriname is within the bauxite mine
X100 orthophoto; settlement
inventory
industry where weekly missions provide data to
evaluate mine progression. By using low-altitude
flights (100-150 metre above surface) images
are acquired with an overlap of 75-80%. Following a six-hour post processing, both digital
elevation models and ortho photos are available
that provide up-to-date information regarding
surface changes, calculating the amount of ore
that is removed from the pit and transported to
the different stockpiles.
Apart from providing an accurate tool to verify
the transportation costs as billed by the contractor, mining companies now have weekly, accurate
surveys to support their planning activities, something that could not have been possible in the
same timeframe using traditional survey. When
benchmarking the use of UAVs against traditional
survey, a mining company calculated a cost ratio
of 1: 187, a solid business case to invest in UAV
technology to support planning and operations .
Border disputes
Mining and forestry are the two major growing
industries currently present in the interiors of
Suriname on both, a large industrial scale as
well as a small individual scale. Delineation of
concession boundaries is therefore a very crucial
aspect in regulating the activities but nevertheless rather difficult due to the dense canopy
cover. Inaccessibility of suitable take-off and
landing spots, however, pose a challenge to the
use of UAVs in the small mining industry.
Traditional communities that live in the interior of Suriname, rely on the forest and savannah
to provide food, building materials and natural
resources for their village. The presence of illegal
operations along the community boundaries,
often initiate disputes between the traditional
communities and the operating companies
or individuals. Obtaining legal proof of illegal
border crossing activities is a necessity in such a
situation, although often a difficult case to build.
This opens possibilities for the UAV business.
Within the village boundaries, suitable take-off
and landing locations can easily be found and
maintained and permanent ground control
points can be constructed. In Suriname, GISsat
closed an agreement with a local community
to provide baseline inventory data on a regular
basis. The imagery is acquired from an altitude
of 300 metre, thus covering a large area within
one flight. The purpose of the operation is to
monitor activities along the official community
boundaries in order to provide legal proof for the
local community when illegal mining or forestry
activities take place. Although still executed on
a small scale, the authorities are striving to get
this supported by an international forum and to
assist in setting up a national monitoring programme to support local authorities.
Project management
Baseline inventory and periodic monitoring
form the two key aspects that define the application of UAV technology. Within the public
works industry, UAVs were used to monitor
as-built construction activities of a large social
housing project. By comparing the imagery
with the design plans, non-conformities could
be identified during the construction phase
and proper management decisions could be
made before the construction reached its final
stage. For the executing contractor, the imagery
was used as a reference for progress overview.
Although still relatively new in Suriname, UAVs
open up vast possibilities for land management,
spatial monitoring and terrain visualisation,
areas where traditional remote sensing or survey
techniques fall short. Fast deployment, quick and
highly accurate results and no impact by clouds
are the key aspects that make this technology a
winner for tropical environments. Suriname factfile
• Size: 165,000 square
kilometre
• Population: Around 0.5 million
• 90% of the country
covered by rain forests
• Bauxite industry
dominates the economy
of Suriname, accounting
for over 15% of GDP and
70% of export earnings
Stef De Ridder & Egbert Moerland, nv GISsat
61
techknow
Buzz
How does a GINCAN work?
Unjamming
the GPS
Signal enters receiver with jamming removed
GINCAN chip
Weighting network
Weighting calculation
GNNS receiver
Jammer detect output
2.5V power
Two or more elements in the antenna
T
he growing use of Global Positioning System
(GPS) in various spheres of our lives is
well recognised. From searching for the shortest route to a destination to guarding against
a car theft, GPS impacts our lives in a lot of
ways. However, despite its growing utility, it is
the blocking of GPS signals which is hitting the
headlines. GPS signals are known to be inherently weak and are prone to accidental and
deliberate interference. With advancement in
technology, jamming devices are extremely easy
to obtain and instances of GPS jamming are
growing by the day.
Courtesy: National Physical Library, UK
62
What’s the threat?
With the increasing use of GPS jamming
devices, it has become difficult to rely on GPS
for navigation and positioning. Carjackers can
easily disable the tracking device in a vehicle
and thus steal valuable cargo without being
tracked. According to a news report, there were
more than sixty cases of GPS jamming in just
six months in the United Kingdom. Moreover,
the effects of jamming can reach far beyond
its intended area, thus endangering critical
infrastructure that relies on GPS signals for its
functioning.
In 2010, The Economist reported that a commercial vehicle fitted with a GPS jammer drove
past the Newark airport as part of its daily route.
The jamming device inadvertently disrupted
the airport’s landing system, which lead to an
enquiry spanning several months, by the airport
authorities.
Countering the threat
As news is spreading about GPS jamming,
technology to counter GPS jammers is also making rounds. By connecting a small, feather light
device, you can protect your GPS receiver against
jamming. Known as GINCAN (GNSS Interference Cancellation), the product developed by
Roke, uses a combination of technologies. It is
a bolt-on anti-jamming product, which can be
installed by simply removing the existing GPS
antenna from your unit and replacing it with the
GINCAN device and its antenna.
The fact that the device does not require
any major changes to the existing GPS receiver
makes it a cost-effective solution to counter the
threat of GPS jamming. Apart from protecting
GPS devices, the GINCAN device can also shield
other GNSS systems such as GLONASS and Galileo against jamming.
Super-continuum laser to revolutionise
military surveillance
A
new laser that can show what objects are made of
could help military aircraft identify hidden dangers
such as weapons arsenals far below.
The system, which is made of off-the-shelf telecommunications technology, emits a broadband beam of infrared
light. While most lasers emit light of one wavelength, or
colour, super-continuum lasers like this one give off a tight
beam packed with columns of light covering a range of
wavelengths — a blend of colours. Because this beam is in
the infrared region, it's invisible to human eyes. But it can
illuminate deep information.
The infrared contains what scientists refer to as the
"spectral fingerprinting range" — frequencies at which
they can detect echoes of the vibrations of the molecules
that make up a solid substance. A substance's spectral
fingerprint reveals which wavelengths of light it absorbed,
and which it reflected. Different substances absorb and
reflect different wavelengths. So by shining the new laser
on a target and analysing the reflected light, researchers
can tell the chemical composition of the target.
While broadband infrared lasers do exist, this one is
more powerful, according to Mohammed Islam, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and
biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan. His
team tested a 5-watt prototype. They've built a 25.7 watt
version. And they're now working on a 50-watt prototype.
These higher power lasers could give an aircraft flying
at higher altitudes the capacity to illuminate a region with
brightness comparable to sunlight, and then image that
region. Many chemical sensors in use today work at close
range, but few, if any, can do the job from a long distance. A
paper on the research is published online in Optics Letters.
Courtesy: University of Michigan News
Create and interact with beautiful maps
rganisations around the world use Google Maps Engine to host their
geospatial data, be it ecological records used in the fight against habitat destruction, census income and age distributions or up-to-date store
locations and hours. Much of this data is available for public consumption.
Making this initiative more user-oriented, Google introduced a new
way for developers to visualise and interact with data hosted in Maps
Engine: DynamicMapsEngineLayer. This class performs client-side rendering of vector data, allowing the developer to dynamically restyle the
vector layer in response to user interactions like hover and click.
To get started making maps, developers can find public datasets of
their interest hosted by Maps Engine at Google’s Earth Gallery. They can
check out the detailed documentation provided for DynamicMapsEngineLayer and for a deeper dive, can check out the Google MapsEngine
API, which allows developers read and write data stored in Google
Maps Engine.
Courtesy: Google Maps
O
63
In-focus
How Mature is
your GIS?
By failing to gauge its maturity, enterprises are missing the
essential strengths of today’s GIS and the awesome power
of ‘where’
O
ften, those in the business of geobased Information and technology speak of “pervasiveness”
and “maturity” of enterprise applications
such as BI (business intelligence), ERP
(enterprise resource planning), AMS/
WMS (asset management and work
management systems) and other largescale, wide-reaching applications. These
analyses are pursued in order to measure
the progress towards a fully robust, widely
accessible data and apps that enable employees and customers to foster efficient
and effective business transactions and
service relationships. The maturity of our
GIS systems also should be measured the
same way.
There are five levels of IT performance
management maturity commonly cited by
global consulting leaders such as Gartner,
IBM, SAS and others. One common example is a five-step model series of Unaware
ingeniosus.net
64
(unknown), Tactical, Focused, Strategic and
Pervasive. Another scale uses Chaotic, Reactive, Proactive, Managed and Utility. Categories and their names are not absolute but
they do encourage us to think about where
we are and where we want to be. The SAS
Institute set prefers Operating, Consolidating, Integrating, Optimising and Innovating.
One can add a sixth to any list — Open — as
in significantly publicly accessible.
By failing to gauge its maturity, we are
missing the essential strengths of today’s
GIS and the power of ‘where’. Twenty years
ago we were satisfied with making maps and
today we are still dissatisfied with not being
at the senior management table. That is why
today, more than ever, we must cheer loudly
for what GIS does throughout the enterprise
to deliver corporate bottomline results.
GIS is not just a ‘Geographic Information
System’, but rather a ‘Geographic Information Strategy’. How we value that ‘S’ word
is fundamental to targeting mature GI as a
paradigm, not just a software. The ‘where’ of
our business is a critical enabler of meeting
the ‘what’, ‘how much’ and ‘when’ of our corporate KPIs (key performance indicators).
Most of us would agree that GIS is the
best possible foundation for organisations
that deal with assets, work orders, customers, markets, constituencies and so many
other variables. GIS focuses on the importance of ‘where’ things are: what they do
there, how they got there, who put them
there, what they connect to and what their
initial or residual values are. As we hear so
often: GIS matters. How can we accept that
we do not have sufficient awareness about
how mature our GIS may be or should be?
Maturity denotes a level of preparedness, of capacity, capability and responsiveness in enabling enterprises to fulfill
their mandates. Maturity is not about
server size, bandwidth, number of licences,
years of practice, staffing levels, spans of
control or how senior a GIS champion
is. Maturity is about the level of direct
valuable contribution to fulfilling the
mandate of the organisation and its key
performance metrics.
Given the importance of such a foundation, do you know how mature your GIS is
today? Do you know what value accrues
from your current level of maturity? What
should you do if the current level is not
satisfactory to you, your leadership and
overseers, your regulators, your public?
To evaluate the maturity level of geospatial usage, let us assume that the more mature your GIS is, the more likely your return
on investment continues to accrue.
Measurable levels of GIS maturity
»Unknown or Operating or Chaotic: Till
a few years back, only a handful of people
even knew of the GIS team’s existence
or potential. This team was unknown,
anonymous and driven within by a couple
of desktop enthusiasts. At this level, the GIS
team was just the mapping people in engineering or planning. More regrettably, they
were approached only for making paper
maps and most often referred to as “those
mapping people”, not on anyone’s radar.
The business model was a chaotic “overthe-counter” service scheme. Priorities were
based on loudness or next in line. The GIS
team reported to someone unfamiliar with
their abilities.
The sign on their door only said: GIS:
Geographic Imprint Storage
»Tactical or Consolidating or Reactive:
Rarely found today are these teams with
one predominant business sponsor. They
are limited users who rely on a few narrow
data feeds with much data inconsistency.
These teams of a few people are essentially reactive and they remain severely
underfunded. Their champion is their own
manager.
Their work programme is based on past
needs that established them. Any alignment with higher corporate goals is by
chance and by not design. Their software
and other tools are not current. Funding is
internal to their division and often equal
to last year’s, so they are actually falling
behind. They simply consolidate geocoded
data in support of very narrow duties.
The door sign suggests: GIS — Geographic
Improvement Services
Maturity is
about the level of
direct valuable
contribution
to fulfilling the
mandate of the
organisation and
its key performance
metrics
»Focused or Integrating or Proactive: GIS
is a celebrated asset when it gets noticed
because it serves a corporate need or divisional role. This GIS maturity model level
is seen as contributing to a greater good.
In a focused sense, it targets the department’s role in fulfilling a greater corporate
role for the overall corporate good such as
engineering network design. This proactive
but struggling GIS team is larger and better
trained, representing a combo of power
users and task-oriented users. The team
leader is acutely aware of GIS potential
but there still is no well-known respected
champion in the corporation.
Focused but too inward looking, this
team competes for funding, and wins often
but does not move ahead in scale, scope
or maturity. It is still focused on a few
straightforward production project themes.
RoI, NPV and other paybacks are understood but not seen as reflecting contribution, which is simply to integrate data for
specific outputs.
The door invitingly says: GIS: Geo-Info
Specialists.
»Strategic or Optimising or Managed: Like
all IT, GIS is optimally driven by business
objectives. GIS-budgeted line-item investments are managed for data, equipment,
65
In-focus
Corporate vision,
mission & goals
Metrics of KPIs
& other successes
software and
expertise. The
Geo-IT role
becomes one
Employees, resources
of official geo& processes
data custodian,
official process
leader and excellence bureau
IT infrastructure
with a difference. It is now
able to optimise
inputs and
outputs, to optimise support for
enterprise goals.
This GIS function has grown beyond a
team, to become a way of doing business,
and managing work and assets according
to the ‘where’ element instead of just ‘what’.
This centre of excellence produces a highquality standard set of outputs as a form
of business intelligence. These people are
now at the thought centres of enterprise
processes and results.
The sign on their door proudly says GIS:
Geo Intelligence Strategies … An Enterprise
Centre of Excellence.
A mature GIS system
Applications accesing
geo intelligence
Mature GIS
resources
In open GIS
maturity, we have
a new willingness
by governments
to respond to
the energetic
demands of
citizens for access
to information
66
»Pervasive or Innovating or Utility: Pervasive means “occurring throughout” and
applies to GIS making an impact across
the enterprise, reaching back to suppliers and ahead to customers and citizens.
Here we see the ability to innovate, to be
instrumental in corporate success stories
that exploited the ‘where’ ubiquitously
throughout the organisation. They lead,
consult, coach and train. GIS is a highly
sought-after valued utility.
This GIS team is trusted and well known.
The spatial data under management is
recognised as a valuable asset. They are consulted before projects take shape. Geo-data
is integrated with business data, redefining
or blurring what ‘our data’ really means.
GI is commonly applied to add creative insights. The CEO/CAO is the champion with
the CFO on the right and the CIO on left.
Workload is the real challenge, not anonymity, credibility or reliability.
The door sign boasts GIS: Geospatial
Informatic Sciences.
»The OPEN (sixth) level: We could add
a sixth level to recognise where our best
practicing geospatial enterprises have
located themselves: Open — internally
and externally, locally and regionally,
nationally and internationally. Motivated
by cost management and corporate social
responsibility, the GIS can drive increased
transparency and public respect.
The open corporate website has a number of geospatially driven functions and
search abilities because that is what best
practices are today — they are collaborative
with the citizens, customers and employees
alike. In open GIS maturity, we have a new
willingness by governments to respond
to the energetic demands of citizens for
access to information. Private sector firms
and middle of the road utilities are similarly becoming much more accessible and
transparent in many parts of the world and
across most sectors. They are no longer the
trademark of an ‘unknown’ GIS desk.
The sign on the GIS Centre door frame
says: Open, no door needed, we are virtually
everywhere.
The GIS strategic maturity loop
Where does the mature, the pervasive GIS
reside? Clearly it belongs everywhere that
assets, activities, customers, employees or
transactions occur. The enterprise begins with its vision, mission and goals. It
involves employees, things and processes,
and ensures an IT infrastructure as well
as offices, work centres and field-oriented
assets; assembles a mature geospatial
resource; employs various applications to
access geo and other intelligence; develops
metrics to measure its goal attainment and
other insightful KPI informatics. Greg Duffy, Coach, consultant & speaker,
[email protected]
Picture This
A
stitch
in time...
A
Berlin-based artist, Daniel Schwarz,
has revealed several instances of
interesting incongruities in Google’s
images of the Earth’s surface. The artist posted
a collection of satellite images that have been
gathered from different points in time and
under different weather conditions which
Google had stitched together. When Google
updates its maps, it sources images for a given
location from various periods in time. The images load automatically, on a grid, without the
benefit of a discerning human eye. Schwarz,
though, admits that Google may have replaced
these images by now with more suitable ones.
“Due to their source and its constant flow of
actualisations, the chosen glitches are potentially nonexistent, and replaced by more recent
photos,” he says.
Courtesy: fastcodesign
67
Conference report | GeoIntelligence India 2013
1
Defence experts call for
geospatial framework,
new applications
Top: Admiral D.K. Joshi, Chief of Naval Staff, Indian Navy addresses the
gathering at the GeoIntelligence India Conference 2013 in New Delhi.
Bottom: A confluence of Indian Army, Navy and Air Force at the conference.
T
here is a need to harness the potential
of geospatial information by developing
applications in the military domain,
said Admiral D.K. Joshi, Chief of Naval Staff,
Indian Navy. Timely availability, integrity and
security of information are the major challenge for the security agencies, according to
him. Admiral Joshi was speaking at the seventh edition of the annual defence conferencecum-exhibition, GeoIntelligence India 2013,
held in New Delhi recently.
Lt Gen Anil Chait, GOC-in-C, Central Command, Indian Army, called for a geospatial
framework for the country while acknowledging
that geospatial technology was a great facilitator
of network-centric operations, both at the operational and tactical level. However, to facilitate
and support such a framework, India needed a
68
national communication network that can leverage on a national information grid to harness
national power, he added.
The two-day GeoIntelligence India 2013,
one of the major defence meets in the country
focusing on the use and application of geospatial
technology in defence and internal security, was
based on the theme, ‘Geospatial – Force Multiplier for Modern Warfare’. The panel of speakers
comprised top military, industry, and policy
makers, while the exhibition showcased cuttingedge technological solutions for security matters.
“China’s aggressive posturing against India
necessitates review of security implications
of our space assets and development of space
weapons to protect them,” said Gp Capt R.K.
Singh, IAF, Senior Research Fellow, United
Service Institution of India. He discussed the
increasing Chinese military capabilities in space
and its implications for India.
There was no excuse for taking a wrong decision citing the lack of information at the right
time, said Kaushik Chakraborty, Vice President,
Hexagon India, while giving the industry perspective. “In this period of transition and partnerships,
it is important to take advantage of the legacy
systems, work on them to build new platforms
with the right use of technology,” he added.
Brig (Dr) Arun Sahgal (Retd), Director, Forum
for Strategic Initiative, deliberated upon militarisation versus weaponisation. Calling space ‘the
new frontier,’ he said militarisation of space implies developing and deploying assets in space
for providing early warning, communications,
command and control, position navigation and
timing and monitoring remote sensing, and national technical means; and is aimed at enhancing military command, control and communications, strategic and battlefield surveillance and
weapons targeting.
S. Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary — Centre
States, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI), discussed the initiatives
taken by the government in implementing GIS
in crime analytics. Visualisation of geo-enabled
crime data is the need of the hour, he said.
Discussing exploitation of geointelligence in
the Indian operational environment, Brig Rahul
Bhonsle (Retd), Director - Security Risks Asia,
mulled on the creation of a national agency for
geospatial intelligence. He said the key enablers
included the commander’s understanding of
geoint potential, the geoint-enabled OODA (observe, orient, decide and act) loop, understanding of terrain and restrictions of geoint.
Wg Cdr Satyam Kushwaha, National Security
Council Secretariat, underlined the need for a
3D system capable of handling all kinds of maps,
something that is designed for Indian conditions
and can be used by all the three forces. “But most
importantly, what is required is that we should
know how to use this technology,” he added.
Talking about the IED challenge being faced
by security agencies throughout the world, Prof
Subrahmanian introduced the audience to the
new field of ‘geospatial abduction,’ in which
geospatial technology is being used to predict
locations of IED weapons caches and/ or high
value targets (HVTs) associated with IED attacks.
Dr Narayan Panigrahi, Scientist ‘F’, Centre for
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, discussed the
robust computational techniques for computation of geospatial data registered temporally
and geometrically. The areas in which these
techniques can be used include coordinates,
map projections, space visualisation of earth,
multiplicity in GIS, image registration, GIS as a
platform for sensors, data integration, and cross
country mobility map generation.
Brig AS Nagra (Retd) discussed the promises and problems in network-centric warfare.
According to him, challenges that need to be
addressed, include overestimating human capacity, underestimation of enemy’s capabilities,
situational awareness being neither sufficient
nor necessary for self sync, and so on.
Anil Pant, Sr DGM (D&E/NCS), BEL,
elaborated on how situational awareness can be
ensured through network-centric operations.
The fundamental requirement in such a scenario
is that the right information should be delivered
to the right place at the right time.
Organised by Geospatial Media and Communications, the conference was held in New Delhi
on June 13-14 and was attended by a host of defence experts and various stakeholders working
in the area of geointelligence. Clockwise from top: S. Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Centre States, MHA, GoI; Air Marshal SB
Deo, DG Air (Ops), IAF; Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary, North East, MHA, GoI; People thronging
the exhibition area at the Conference.
69
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24 - 26 SEPTEMBER, 2013
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