FEBRUARY 2010 VOL 14 ISSUE 02

AFRICA I AMERICAS I ASIA I AUSTRALIA I EUROPE www.GISdevelopment.net

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5February 2010

Time for neo-photogrammetry?Franz W. Leberl

Graz University of Technology, Austria

Engaging people for common goodAlex Singleton

Centre for Advance Spatial Analysis, University College London, UK

Fostering citizen participationAhmed Abukhater

ESRI

INTERVIEW

REGULAR FEATURES

Neogeography

07 Editorial 08 News 52 ISPRS:In Retrospect & Prospect

GIS DEVELOPMENT

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CHAIRMAN M P Narayanan

Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Director Maneesh Prasad

Publisher Sanjay Kumar

PUBLICATIONS TEAM

Managing Editor (Honorary) Prof. Arup Dasgupta

Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant

Associate Editor Bhanu Rekha

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for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Printed and Published by Sanjay Kumar.Press M. P. Printers B-220, Phase-II, Noida, GautambudhNagar (UP) INDIA Publication Address P-82, Sector-11, Gautambudh Nagar, Noida, India Editor Ravi Gupta

Volunteered geographic

data is the future

“GIS is all about describing the world. Geodesign will help peopledesign a future that considers sustainability.”

Jack Dangermond

President, ESRI

Mapping for changeDr. Mordechai (Muki) Haklay

University College London, UK

Empowering forest communitiesGeorges Thierry Handja

Congo Basin Rainforest Foundation, UK

Should PGIS serve two masters?Jeroen Verplanke

University of Twente, The Netherlands

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Participatory GIS

6 February 2010

ADVISORY BOARD

Dato’ Dr. Abdul Kadir bin TaibDirector General of Survey and Mapping, Malaysia

Bhupinder SinghSr. Vice PresidentBentley Systems Inc.

Prof. Ian Dowman Former PresidentISPRS

Prof. Josef Strobl Director, Centre for GeoinformaticsUniversity of Salzburg, Austria

Kamal K Singh Chairman and CEORolta Group of Companies

Mark Reichardt President and CEO,Open Geospatial Consortium

Matthew O’Connell CEO, GeoEyeUSA

Dr. Prithvish Nag DirectorNATMO, India

Prof. V. S RamamurthyDirectorNIAS, Bangalore, India

KCM KumarChairman & Managing DirectorSpeck Systems Limited

Brian NichollsGeneral ManagerAAMHatch

Shailesh Nayak SecretaryMinistry of Earth Sciences, India

Prof William CartwrightPresidentInternational Cartographic Association

Dr Derek. G. ClarkeChief Director: Surveys and MappingSouth Africa

Bradley C SkeltonChief Technology OfficerERDAS

GIS DEVELOPMENT

A. K. Singh

CMDCentral Mine Planning & DesignInstitute, India

Indigenous knowledge validates GIS outcomePurabi Chanda

Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India

INTERVIEW48

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CONFERENCE REPORT

Towards efficient and

safe mining

Map India 2010

Time to state

a vision for India

Power to the people

anuary was an important month for GIS Development.We came out with our 150th issue and we held ourflagship event, Map India 2010. The theme of theevent was "Defining a Geospatial Vision for India".

With 1200 plus delegates, 28 countries and 41 exhibitors,clearly the vision was full of promise; and why not? While onthe one hand Joseph Stiglitz calls for another round of stimulifor the economy of the developed world, on the other handIndia shows a seven percent growth amongst all the gloomand doom. President Obama declares that India will not waitand to protect American jobs he promises to withdraw taxreliefs to companies who take jobs out of America. All theseare part of this vision which shows India's strong growth.

There is a lesson in this for our geospatial companies thatdepend on work from abroad and a lesson to our lawmakerswhose restrictive colonial approach to data availability is hurting the growth of the industry. Geospatial industries cannot live by selling boxes alone. They need data to be able to reach the next level of growth: value addition. The statement of the Minister of Science and Technology was bothheartening and disheartening. He spelt out the futility of the present policy and promised a betterone. That pronouncement gave me a distinct feeling of déjà vu.

Enough of the past; in this issue we cover an emerging and very important aspect of geospatialsystems: peoples' participation. We were pleasantly surprised by the tremendous response fromauthors. It clearly shows that peoples' participation has arrived, not as a novelty but as a seriousattempt to come to terms with their geospatial context. Open Street Maps showed the way;Google followed and now even established market leaders like ESRI have acknowledged theimportance and value of neo-geographers. With hindsight this was only to be expected. On theone hand high resolution data from satellites require comparable fine scale data collection on theground. The costs of such data collection are too high for any single organisation. On the otherhand the common person is no longer satisfied being a passive spectator of development effortsfor his benefit. He or she needs to be a part of that decision making process. Last but not least,when an event like the Haiti earthquake happens, there is just no time for a formal data gatheringprocess. This is a situation where the efforts of neo-geographers come into focus. They can provide real time information and assist rescue and recovery efforts in a much timelier mannerthan formal databases. There are issues of interoperability and standardisation which need to beaddressed. There is also a need for the neo-geographer to have a basic background in geography.But these are details; the future belongs to the people.

7February 2010

EditorSpeak

Prof. Arup Dasgupta

Managing Editor (Honorary) arup.dasgupta@GISdevelopment.net

J

GIS DEVELOPMENT

EDITORSPEAK

NEWS

AfricaZAMBIA

Satellite imagery formalaria control

Satellite imaging is being used tolocate potential mosquito breedingsites in southern Zambia, in a bid toreduce malaria transmission in thearea. Researchers use data, con-taining information such as soilmoisture and water drainage pat-terns, to identify areas where mos-quitoes live and breed.

NIGERIA

Nigeria to launch twosatellitesAll is now set for the launching oftwo Nigeria satellites to the spaceby the 3rd quarter, 2010. Dr. Alhas-san Bako Zaku, Minister of Scienceand Technology, said that that thetwo Earth Observation satellitesnamely, NigeriaSat-2 and Nigeri-aSat-X are of high resolutions. Nige-riasat-2 carries a high-resolutionimagery of 2.5m [pan] and 5m[mutispectral] along with a 32mspatial resolution payload that willbe used to replace NigeriaSat-1 whohave lifespan of five years which isstill in the orbit.

AsiaINDIA

Rolta and Infoterrasign pactInfoterra France has signed anagreement with Rolta India. Theagreement allows Rolta to augmentthe capacity of its delivery centresfor photogrammetric processing.Infoterra’s “Pixel Factory” is aunique photogrammetric suiteentirely digital, highly automatedproduction work-flow designed toprocess high volumes of geographicdata while maintaining a superiorproduct quality. K K Singh, Chair-man and CEO of Rolta India Limited,said, “The Agreement also promotesthe cooperation between the com-

panies to other areas of nationalinterest such as agriculture (cropmonitoring /forecasting), environ-mental monitoring, telecom networkplanning and risk management/dis-aster response, through proven andsophisticated solutions and services."

US help in rainfallpredictionThe USA has agreed to provide Indiawith imagery from its satellites onweather patterns over the IndianOcean and the subcontinent that willallow scientists to predict rainfall 15days in advance. At present, Indianscientists can predict the monsoonsonly one-and-a-half days inadvance. It will also supply India asupercomputer that can analyse and

NSDI 9, the annu-al event of theNational SpatialData Infrastruc-ture (NSDI), washeld from Decem-ber 22-24, 2009 inPune, India, withG-governance asits theme. It was held under the aegis of India Meteorological Department(IMD).

Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State (IC) for Science & Technology andEarth Science opined that data created through public funds should bemade available to the people. Data sensitivity might require certain restric-tions though other speakers reiterated that data generated needs to be putto use for civil society planning and development. Discussions in the plena-ry session focussed on the involvement of NSDI in g-governance. Geotag-ging was highlighted as one of the most important capabilities of GIS for g-governance. Other focus areas of the event included NSDI research andcapacity building and regional SDIs. The event also witnessed the launch ofKarnataka State Geoportal.

GIS DEVELOPMENT8 February 2010

NSDI 9 spotlights on g-governance

interpret satellite images.Climate change has made weatherforecasts difficult for the IndianMeteorological Department (IMD).Unpredictable monsoons can causelosses of 1-1.5 per cent of IndianGDP

GIS-based voters' listKarnataka State joint chief electoralofficer BV Kulkarni said that by2010, the voters' list for the city ofBangalore would be updated usingGIS. The GIS-based voters' listwould be made available at all thepolling booths in the city. NRNarayana Murthy, chief mentor,Infosys and “Jaagte Raho” advisoryboard member said that citizens'potential to transform the city into abetter and safer place could only beachieved by actively participating inelections.

ERDAS hosts usermeetERDAS-India User Conference,hailed as a celebration of user com-munity, was held on 18th January. Plenary speakers included Dr. Van-dana Sharma of National Informat-ics Centre, Dr. KM Reddy of AndhraPradesh State Remote SensingApplications Centre, Major GeneralGirish Kumar of DSSDI Project,Mark Reichardt of Open Geospatial

Consortium and Sanjeev Nair ofDepartment of Science & Technolo-gy. The plenary highlighted the inte-gration of spatial data from variousorganisations, use of space technol-ogy in mitigating casualties duringfloods in the Indian state of AndhraPradesh and creation of 3D model ofDelhi city. Instances where ERDASsoftware was used in the processwere also highlighted. Other issuesdiscussed were benefits of stan-dards and interoperability and policyissues regarding geospatial technol-ogy. The technology exposition wit-nessed an overview and demonstra-tion of salient features of ERDAS2010 product suite. The conferencealso featured technical sessions oninfrastructure and urban planning,

defence and security and naturalresources management.

GIS map for seismiczonesThe Remote Sensing Department ofthe State of Uttar Pradesh Direc-torate of Science and Technologyhas made a GIS map of the two states (Uttar Pradesh and Uttarak-hand) to keep track of habitation inseismic zones IV and V of the country.

The department has found 80spots lying in these seismic zones,which have rural or urban habita-tion. The project has been complet-ed based on guidelines by theNational Disaster ManagementAuthority.

Award for Amity’s visionThe project designed by Amity International School, Saket, New Delhi, wonthe top honours in the 4th annual competition, Future Cities India 2020.The Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and BentleySystems presented a trophy and a cheque of 100,000 INR to Amity. Runner-up, Manava Bharati India International School, was given away a cheque of44,000 INR and the trophy.

According to the jurors, Amity School portrayed the best way to developmodern Chandni Chowk (one of the oldest and busiest markets in centralnorth Delhi) - keeping its heritage intact. In other categories, ApeejaySchool, Faridabad, Haryana won the best essay prize. Salwan publicSchool, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi won the best computer model prize andFather Agnel School, Gautam Nagar, New Delhi won the best physicalmodel prize.

GIS DEVELOPMENT 9February 2010

UAE

Geospatial benefit forlimousines

Limousine companies in UAE couldsave millions of Dirhams afterinstalling a high-tech system thattracks and monitors vehicles 24X7.ArabIT is the certified serviceprovider in the UAE of the advancedtelemetry fleet management systemproduced by Telargo of the UnitedStates. The on-board equipmentallows real-time vehicle tracking

and engine monitoring, enablingdriver behaviour analysis. This, inturn, helps to preserve vehicleresidual values and lower the insur-ance costs by increasing the trans-parency of operations. Locationmanagement also helps to ascertainwhether vehicles have entered areasnot covered by insurance or the con-tract.

RUSSIA

PCI now reseller ofScanExScanEx Research & DevelopmentCentre and PCI Software (www.pci-india.net) have signed a reselleragreement. Under this agreementPCI Software will distribute thecomplete set of ScanEx softwareproducts, designed for remote sens-ing data processing, in the territo-ries of India and South-EasternAsia. ScanEx Centre offers a com-prehensive sequence of handlingspace images. To date, dozens ofsoftware products of different diffi-culty levels have been developed forground stations control, preliminary

data processing, creation of RS dataarchives, as well as for thematicprocessing of optical and radarimagery data.

MALAYSIA

RazakSAT images tobe available soonImages recorded by RazakSAT,which orbits the earth along theequator will be made available thisyear to users. According to DeputyScience, Technology and InnovationMinister Fadillah Yusof, the imagesrecorded by the satellite can beutilised for various applications suchas precision agriculture, landscapemapping, disaster prevention, roadnetwork and urban planning. Evenmilitary can use these images tomonitor activities along the coun-try's border.

PHILIPPINES

Geohazard maps inan yearPhilippines government has allottedP60 million to complete its nation-

GIS DEVELOPMENT10 February 2010

Americans map sensitive info According to a report in The Nation, Americans are conducting adetailed survey across the country and mapping each and every sen-sitive as well as strategic installation in Pakistan. Officials of CentralIntelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and mer-cenaries of Blackwater have started making diagrammatical draw-ings of important routes, especially the areas which interest themthe most. The report highlights, “They are collecting minute detailsof our geography including, urban areas, roads, bridges and otherassets. Americans are employing all available tactics to get accessto the maps, which have been drawn up by security forces.”

PAKISTAN

NEWS

wide geohazard mapping and pro-duction of digitised maps within theyear- an effort that started in 1996. Itincludes the identification of areassusceptible to landslides, floods,coastal erosion and other groundinstabilities. The 1:50,000 scale geo-hazard maps will be completed thisyear. As of end-December, the Minesbureau had mapped and assessed89.6% or 1,451 out of the targeted1,618 municipalities.

BHUTAN

UWICE seeding GISThe Ugyen Wangchuck institute forConservation and Environment(UWICE) organised a three-day train-ing titled ‘Advanced GIS in Geo-statis-tical modelling’. It was conducted byDr. Moe Myint, a Research Scientist

from the Yale School of Forestry andEnvironmental Studies, Yale Universi-ty, USA. This first of its kind trainingprogramme was structured to givehands on training on the use andapplication of R statistical software,ArcGIS in combination to model thespatial data in the geo-statistical per-spective. The UWICE also conducteda two day in-house training on habi-

tat modelling using GIS with the helpof data points of snow leopard stud-ies by Tshewang Wangchuck.

CHINA

Two more satelliteslaunchedChina successfully launched two ofits satellites from the Tai-yuan Satel-lite Launch Center in Shanxi Provi-nce. Yaogan VIII remote-sensingsatellite and science researchingmini-satellite, Hope One, were putinto orbit by a Long March 4C carrierrocket. Early this month, Chinalaunched Yaogan VII from the Jiuquansatellite launch centre in Gansu, China. Hope One satellite will beused by Chinese students and enthu-siasts to study science aerospace and technology.

ISRAEL

Telmap leading EMEAmarketAccording to an independent researchconducted by analyst house Canalys,Telmap is the dominant provider ofmobile navigation in EMEA (Europe,Middle East and Africa), with 46 percent market share at the end of Q3,2009. This achievement is a result ofTelmap’s cooperation with mobileoperators to deliver a comprehensiverange of mobile navigation solutionsto end users. The Canalys researchlooked into the use of mobile naviga-tion across EMEA and found that ofthe 2.6 million people using phone-based mobile navigation solutions ona regular basis (excluding peopleusing free trial offers), operator-pro-vided navigation services, based onTelmap’s solution was the numberone choice.

GPS with MDTVreceiver chipsGarmin, Mio, Navigon and others

have integrated Siano’s mobile digitalTV (MDTV) receiver chips into theirlatest consumer GPS products. WithSiano’s MDTV receiver chips, PNDsmeet the high demands of PNDusers, such as crystal clear receptionin tough urban canyons and whentravelling at high speeds. Siano enables all vendors with ‘free-to-the-user’ mobile TV viewing,transmitting television programmesfrom major terrestrial televisionchannels. Representative of Siano’sglobal market reach, the navigationplus TV devices with Siano inside areavailable in Korea, Europe, China, andBrazil, supporting the differentmobile TV technologies of theseregions.

TAIWAN

GIS-based bike trailnetworkTaiwan EPA (Environmental Protec-tion Administration) is GIS-basedrouting system for bicycle riders.EPA’s aim is to promote the wider use

of bicycles, increasing the develop-ment of the local bicycle industry andboosting the production value ofgreen economy. Government agencies are providing data, such as bike trails’ name, longitudeand latitude, length, nearby tourist attractions, hostels and stores, to the EPA to help complete the system.

At present, the EPA website is showing graphicsand images of bike trails at a cobined length of 281 kilometreson the Taiwan Island and outlyingislets.

NEPAL

ICIMOD’s stand atCOP-15 conferenceThe International Centre for Integrat-ed Mountain Development (ICIMOD)and the Centre for International Cli-mate and Environmental Research(CICERO) together held a side eventduring the UNFCCC (UN FrameworkConvention on climate Change) COP-15 conference on ‘Facing the Chal-lenges: Climate Change in theGreater Himalayas’. The purpose ofthe side event was to allow the gov-ernments of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region to presentthe situation of their countries on cli-mate change and to explain the prior-ities of their country in relation toadaptation. In contrast with the cau-cuses for Africa and the small islandstates, there was no advocacy for orrepresentation of the interests of themountain countries. Meanwhile, ICI-MOD released a report which statesthat adaptation and mitigation ofrural lands are complementary, notmutually exclusive, approaches totackling climate change.

GIS DEVELOPMENT12 February 2010

MONGOLIA

Atlas chronicling historyArchaeology and Landscape in the MongolianAltai: An Atlas is a chronicle of 15 years ofresearch and documentation innorthwest Mongolia, and it is nowavailable from ESRI Press. With itsextensive maps and outstanding photo-graphs, the atlas presents the 12,000-year history and cultural heritage of thepeople living in the rugged landscape foundalong Mongolia’s borders with Russia and China.

NEWS

P o s i t i o n i n g f o r S u c c e s s T o d a y . A n d T o m o r r o w .

For a complete range of Trimble positioning solutions, visit www.trimble.com

Visit us at Map Middle-East, 22–24 March 2010

GIS DEVELOPMENT

EuropeUK

Aerial photos of 1949LondonAerial survey specialist Bluesky hasuncovered a series of 1949 originalaerial survey photographs coveringthe whole of Greater London. Thephotographs were rediscovered fol-lowing an agreement betweenBluesky and Blom Aerofilms whichwill see these images, part of theUK’s largest collection of commer-cial aerial survey images, availableonline at www.oldaerialphotos.com.

The original survey was taken byHunting Aero Surveys in June andJuly 1949 and comprises two sets ofphotographs; a low scale survey ofthe whole of Greater London andcoverage of the old administrativeCounty of London at a higher scale.

Parish Online livenowParish Online is a Web-based serv-ice designed to help Parish andlocal councils conduct their busi-nesses more effectively. It providesaccess to Ordnance Survey digitalmaps, Getmapping’s aerial photog-raphy and the National Land andProperty Gazetteer, the nation’saddress database. Parish Onlineprovides detailed mapping and someeasy to use tools that enable themaps to be annotated, marked up,saved and printed. Parish Online canbe purchased by an annual sub-scription.

LBS trends for 2010Looking to 2010 Telmap believesthat the top trends in LBS (LocationBased Services) to look out forinclude:

• Location will start to enrich coreservices such as SMS and voice. In2010, this trend will penetrate the low-end devices market.

• The explosion of mobile social net-working has marked the advent ofapplications that integrate location intosocial communities. This is set tobecome popular as the ability to tagfavourite places and share content in asimple and interactive way becomes areality.

• Location–based advertising willcome of age.

The LBS battleground is definedwith direct to consumer playerssuch as the original device manu-facturers and internet players on

one side, and mobile operators onthe other side. Telmap believes thatkey developments in the mobileindustry will continue to establish anenvironment for LBS to flourish inEurope.

DENMARK

Google atCopenhagenGoogle has demonstrated a newtechnology prototype at the Interna-tional Climate Change Conference inCopenhagen. The prototype is aimedat halting the devastation of rainforests by monitoring emissionsfrom tropical deforestation and cur-tailing global warming.

The project, initiated by Google, isbased on Google Earth’s satelliteimages to pin-point the areas wheredeforestation is taking place.Google’s cloud computing technolo-gy has powered the computationalanalysis of images taken via GoogleEarth to compare forest cover ofareas to determine the rate of defor-estation. Google, in order to developthe technology had collaboratedwith Greg Asner of Carnegie Institu-tion for Science and Carlos Souza ofImazon.

14

NEWS

February 2010

Rugby club to trackplayersBradford will be the first SuperLeague club to track their playersusing satellite technology. They wereat ninth in the table last year. CoachMcNamara believes that GPS moni-

toring sys-tem willallowBradford tohave moredetailedinforma-tion abouttheir play-ers' per-formance

during both training and matches.The device is placed in a harnessincorporated into a vest and linked toa monitoring patch on the player'sback. It will be used to monitorheart-rates and track a player'smovement around the field.

GIS DEVELOPMENT

AmericasUSA

NAVTEQ’s agreementwith MicrosoftNAVTEQ announced a new technolo-gy agreement with Microsoft. It willallow NAVTEQ to more rapidlydeploy innovative collection capabili-ties and accelerate the collection,creation and storage of 3D map dataand visuals. Microsoft will get 3D

map data and visuals from NAVTEQto power its new mapping features.“Microsoft is enthusiastic about thisnew chapter in its relationship withNAVTEQ and is focused on bringingthe mapping experience alive for ourconsumers, using street level visu-als powered by NAVTEQ,” said ErikJorgensen, corporate vice presidentof MSN at Microsoft.

USGIF joins COGOteamThe United States Geospatial Intelli-gence Foundation (USGIF) has beenunanimously voted into the fullmembership of the Coalition of

Geospatial Organisations (COGO)during a meeting at theASPRS/MAPPS 2009 Conference.COGO is a recently formed coalitionof 16 national professional societies,trade associations and membershiporganisations in the geospatial field,representing more than 30,000 indi-vidual producers and users ofgeospatial data and technology.

Business Analyst withbusiness searchThe latest version of ESRI BusinessAnalyst Online includes new busi-ness search capabilities and toolsfor more refined market research,giving business owners a thoroughunderstanding of markets, cus-tomers and competition. It has beennow integrated with Bing businesssearch. It allows users to search forany type of business and refinesearch results. Bing online searchcapabilities provide users withaccess to the latest business list-ings, ensuring decisions are madeusing the most accurate and up-to-date information available.

GIS fraternity helpingHaitiThe US Army Geospatial Centre’s(AGC) hydrologic and environmentalanalysis branch compiled earth-quake, water and geology maps, aswell as a number of other data setsand made them available via theAGC's public and internal Public KeyInfrastructure (PKI) web sites in thesupport of U.S. humanitarian effortsto Haiti recently. ESRI is also work-ing closely with the GIS communityand agencies responding to the Haitiearthquake by providing software,technical support, GIS data and per-sonnel. Personnel and agencies

15February 2010

Geospatial in toptech spends

Cloud Computing, VirtualiSation, Service OrientedArchitecture (SOA),Open Source

Software (OSS) andGeospatial technologies

are poised for increased federal gov-ernment adoption over the next five years

as cost-saving initiatives drive investment inthese solutions, according to new research from INPUT. Nearly half of

federal and IT industry professionals surveyed by INPUT believe thesetechnologies will have a major impact on their technology environmentdespite concerns over security and up-front costs.

This report examines the market outlook for specific emerging technologies and provides recommendations for businesses seekingopportunities in the federal market. Questions answered by the INPUTreport include:

• What are the factors driving growth in the emerging technology markets?

• How, when and why will the federal government increase adoption of thesetechnologies?

• What are the primary drivers and obstacles to Cloud Computing adoption?

• How will security concerns impact IT adoption?

whoever are helping the relief effortcan take advantage of maps, data,software and Web services availableonline through the ESRI Web site(www.esri.com/haiti). Some of thedata and services include a 25-meter reference grid of Haiti, anESRI Geo Viewer and Haiti basemapdata from United Nations availableon ArcGIS Online. In addition, ESRI-generated earthquake and recoverymaps are available for both themedia and public.

A new platform forREDDClark Labs created a blog(www.redd-modeling.org) devoted toutilising its GIS technology for REDD

(Reducing Emissions from Defor-estation and Forest Degradation)applications. Research Associate,Stefano Crema, is the primaryauthor of this blog. The developmentof REDD projects requires robustmodelling tools to address theinherent complexities of such proj-ects. This blog will discuss method-ologies, the potential of currentlyavailable land change analysis andprediction software and strategiescurrently employed at REDD pilotsites. Clark Labs’ IDRISI Taiga soft-ware is already providing solutionsfor technical challenges inherent inaddressing conservation strategiessuch as forest protection or sustain-able forest production. The technicalissues of REDD--carbon accounting,

additionality, baseline or "businessas usual," leakage and perma-nence--can all be measured utilis-ing the tools within IDRISI.

Clark Labs has also recentlylaunched a new application area onits website devoted to REDD.

GIS DEVELOPMENT16 February 2010

US Topo maps turn digital U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has turned US Topo maps

into digital mode, keeping all the qualities of traditionalpaper topographic maps intact. However, in contrast topaper-based maps, US Topo maps provide technical

advantages that support faster, wider public distributionand enable basic, on-screen geographic analysis for allusers. Arranged in 7.5-minute quadrangle format, USTopo maps are available free on the Web. Each map quad-rangle is constructed in GeoPDF format from key layersof geographic data — orthoimagery, roads, geographicnames, topographic contours and hydrographic features— found in The National Map, a nationwide collection ofintegrated data from local, state, federal, and othersources.

ERDAS 2010 available nowERDAS released ERDAS 2010 annual software. It includesnew and updated versions of ERDAS’ products to author,manage, connect and deliver geospatial information. Itincludes new versions of ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, ERDASER Mapper, ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS, ERDAS ADE,ERDAS APOLLO and ERDAS TITAN Client. In addition,ERDAS is introducing several new products, includingIMAGINE Feature Interoperability and IMAGINE SAR Inter-ferometry, as well as a technology preview of a new auto-mated terrain extraction capability in LPS eATE.

NEWS

WorldView-2 fullyoperationalDigitalGlobe announced that the lat-est high-resolution satellite, World-View-2, has achieved full operationalcapability.

Imagery from the satellite is nowavailable to global resellers, partnersand customers. WorldView-2 expand-ed the constellation’s collectioncapacity, enabling an annual imaging capacity equivalent to three times the area of earth’s landmass and allows for intraday revisit, providing customers with the most timely, relevant imageryavailable in the commercialmarket.

3D GPS in Audi A8Audi has announced that its new A8model will integrate data fromGoogle Earth to deliver 3D terrainmaps alongside traditional satellitenavigation data from mid-2010. Thisis the first time that Google Earth hasbeen integrated into a productionvehicle and will allow drivers todownload points of interest, satelliteimagery or information articles to theA8's eight-inch LCD display from themobile network. Audi also claimsthat the system will be able to "pred-icatively analyse" route information,with the multimedia interface relay-ing navigation information to thecar's other systems.

Protest againstfederal govt’s standThe federal government's decision to

shut down the LORAN (Long RangeAid to Navigation) system used byfishermen and mariners in Maine isdrawing protests from state officialsand politicians.

Gov. John Baldacci and membersof Maine's congressional delegationmentioned in a letter to HomelandSecurity Secretary Janet Napolitanolast month that he was concernedabout losing the system which hadproven to be cost-beneficial whileothers believe that it is a mistake toshut LORAN down.

Given the vulnerabilities and limita-tions of GPS, LORAN should be main-tained and enhanced to become avital backup system to GPS for vari-ous critical infrastructure users. Thebest action should be to keep andupgrade eLORAN, a newer version ofthe system.

CANADA

Rolta and PCI signagreementPCI Geomatics has signed an agree-ment with Rolta India Limited.

This agreement will enable Rolta to develop cutting-edge earth science solutions by using advanced geo-imaging and pho-togrammetry capabilities. KK Singh,CMD Rolta, said, "Rolta hasembarked on an ambitious programme and is developing thenext generation of earth scienceSolutions to meet the varying needsof clients in the geo-imaging market."

Bob Moses is director,TecterraDr Robert Moses, President and CEOof PCI Geomatics, has been appoint-ed to the Board of Directors of

Tecterra. Tecterra supports applied research and commercialisa-tion of technology focussed on geomatics-based, intelligent, inte-grated resource management tools to observe, monitor, forecast and manage Alberta andCanada’s land and natural resources.

IceWEB to track H1N1Canadian Health has deployed

IceWEB GIS server technology to aug-ment their efforts to combat thegrowth of H1N1 flu virus.

IceWEB manufactures and marketspurpose built appliances, networkand cloud storage solutions anddelivers on-line cloud computingapplication services.

Get Toronto city dataonlineMunicipal data of Toronto city is available to the public now. Torontomajor David Miller launched city'sofficial data set catalogue (toronto.ca/open), at the Toronto InnovationShowcase.

This site includes data sets rangingfrom apartment inspection data tochild care data availability to dozensof GIS mapping data (sets) that willenable a broad range of location-based applications.

BRAZIL

Airlines to get GPSlanding system Brazilian airline will equip all its aircrafts with sensors to allow theuse of the GPS landing system, alanding and takeoff system and verti-cal situational display, a tool for determining the aircraft's position inrelation to the ground.

The GPS landing system allows theplotting of curved segments in a sin-gle procedure, with increased accura-cy and safety, enabling continuousascent or descent.

Vertical Situation Display enablespilots to accurately identify informa-tion on ground relief and obstaclesfrom the cockpit, by providing anadditional tool for monitoring theposition of the aircraft in relation tothe ground.

February 2010GIS DEVELOPMENT18

Guyana’s GIS initiatives Guyana is developing the world’s first national low-carbondevelopment strategy (LCDS) using enterprise GIS technologyand expertise from ESRI to mitigate the effects of climatechange. The government of Norway, the World Bank, theClinton Climate Initiative and McKinsey and Co are working

with Guyana to implement LCDS. This strategy aligns withthe United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reduc-

ing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degrada-tion in Developing Countries (UN-REDD).The Monitor-

ing Reporting and Verification (MRV) system willintegrate field observations with satellite

imagery and other geographic data usingmethodologies consistent with the Inter-

governmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) guidelines for

measuring, reporting andverification.

NEWS

February 2010

How do you define GIS in today's changingworld? How do you position GIS vis-a-visgeospatial and howw do you see a conver-gence of these technologies happening?GIS continues to evolve and be applied tomany complex problems around the world.The technology itself plays three main roles -as an application platform technology forgeospatial applications, as an informationmanagement system for geospatial contentand as a framework for integrating many dif-ferent types of geographic information. Thisframework supports cross cutting analysis,science and increasingly affects the way peo-ple think and approach problem solving.

Today, the term geospatial is being usedsynonymously with geography. Personally, Iprefer to use the word geography because itis basically the root science of what we do(e.g. the science of our world).

A lot of integration is happening bbetween GISand imagery. What in your view holds thefuture in this aspect? The technology of pro-duucing and processing imagery is taking giantleaps. Will imagery be a branch of geospatialreplacing cartography in the future?First, imagery data has become a foundationdataset inside of a GIS. Historically, there's a

distinction between image processing tech-nology and GIS. In the last several years, withthe integration of raster data models in GIS,we have seen the full integration of imageprocessing tools with traditional GIS technol-ogy. For example, at version 10, ArcGIS canmanage, process, serve and visualiseimagery data with the same speed and func-tionality as traditional image processing sys-tems. At the same time, modern high-endimage processing products such as ITT-VIShave been engineered to fully integrate withGIS. This merging of technologies is havingenormous impacts on the marketplace. Peo-ple don't want to acquire, learn and supporttwo technologies. They want their GIS tomanage all types of geographic data andsupport common tools and trade craft in asingle user experience. The big trend frommy perspective is the enormous growth in the

ack DangermondPresident, ESRI

VOLUNTEERED GEOGRAPHICDATA IS THE FUTURE

J

Inte

rvie

w

GIS DEVELOPMENT 19

volume, frequency and quality ofimagery for use as standard back-ground basemaps as well as advancedanalytic applications. This imagery isalso increasingly being pipelined intoreal time GIS applications for situationawareness and command and controlenvironments.

I think there is a strong role for bothkinds of geographic visualisations(imagery and maps) and we increasing-ly see them mixed in various kinds ofapplications. The big trend technologi-cally is in image serving whereinimagery is processed and serveddynamically. This breakthrough hap-pened only a few years ago and haschanged the character of how peopleaccess and use imagery. Image servertechnology not only processes imageryin near real time but also makes it avail-able as disseminated services to mobilephone, browsers, desktops and highend analytic users. This is critical in

applications like emergency manage-ment.

What will be the role of geospatialtechnology in sustainable design?GIS has a long history of applicationsrelated to sustainability. Geodesign is anew emerging area of interest thatfocuses on integrating traditional GISand interactive design tools. It inte-grates interoperative maps (suitabilitymodelling) with the ability to sketchland use proposals on top of thesemaps and in such a way these propos-als can be immediately evaluated interms of their consequences. The ideais to combine the science of GIS withthe ability to quickly evaluate the sus-tainability consequences of a design.

We are building these tools into coreGIS technology. We think this willimprove how users make design deci-sions on land use, business, publicfacilities and virtually every other type oflocation plan. The tools will help themevaluate the consequences of the deci-sions so that they can then ultimatelymake wiser choices.

Right now GIS is all about describingthe world. Geodesign will help peopledesign a future that considers sustain-ability. They will incorporate all theknowledge and consider all of the envi-ronmental factors that will ultimatelymake us more sustainable.

What in your opinion are the three mostdisruptive technologies we will see inthe next five years?The first is the computing platform.GIS technology has evolved frommainframes to mini computers toworkstations to desktops to clientserver technology to now rapidly beingdeployed on the Internet with Webservices. With each of these historicstages, GIS has grown about an order

of magnitude. This platform, in additionto reach, has the added characteristicof being much easier. Ultimately, I seethe Web as the platform for a kind ofdistributed, global GIS. I see multipleorders of magnitude of growth reachingall corners of the world, from ruralfarmers in Africa to businessmen inNew York. GIS servers provide thefoundation for both enterprise GIS andWeb GIS. GIS servers are evolutionarytechnology.

The second technology is that ofmobile. Mobile GIS is not stand alone;it is intermingled with GIS servers.Mobile GIS serves map and analyticservices that help the mobile workforceconnect back into the enterprise, cap-ture data in the field and send it back.

The interesting technology trendinvolves the concept and technologysupporting volunteer geographic infor-mation (VGI). This involves users (viamobile devices and browsers) to con-tribute geographic data. Today, we seethe beginning of this with simplesketching and dots on maps at con-sumer websites. This year, wewill be releasing a Webapplication that doesthis directly on aGIS geodata-base. Thesetransac-tions

GIS DEVELOPMENT20

The big trend

technologically is

in image serving

wherein imagery

is processed

and served

dynamically.

This break-

through happened

only a few years

ago and has

changed the

way people access

and use imagery

February 2010

will be done with well organised datamodels in a DBMS. This approach isvery powerful because it means thatthis type of observational data can beintermingled with all the other GIS lay-ers and analytics applied to it so wecan build new kinds of applications.This Web 2.0 concept will supportmany applications (i.e. citizen science,community feedback and crowd sourc-ing, etc.). Fundamentally, all three ofthese changes are enabled because ofMoore's law. Computing is gettingfaster, pipes are getting bigger, storageis getting cheaper, etc. It is just thesystematic and steady application ofMoore's law. I have seen it through myentire career.

How can the geospatial communitybecome relevant in the context of worldchallenges today?The footprints that geospatial profes-sionals have laid down are exciting andare contributing enormously. They aremaking organisations more efficient,

helping people do more sciencebased analysis and make better

decisions. The next big stepwill involve GIS knowledge

being available asWeb services

on theopen

Web. Today, GIS isalready successful at andis delivering huge valueacross organisations andenterprises. The next bigstep will be to leveragethese individual contribu-tions to build a largeframework of geospatialinformation that can beleveraged by all of society.

If we go back to the fun-damentals of geospatial,we would say one of thereasons that it has beensuccessful is the conceptof sharing data. This willrequire that each userwho creates geographicknowledge, serves it outin open standards basedservices that can be easilydiscovered (like RESTservices), that can bemashed up with openAPIs like the ones thatESRI now provides. Thiswill mean the entire Inter-net will be leveraged forGIS. To realise this vision we will needto collaborate and share our work,datasets, applications and knowledge.The internet provides us the technicalframework to do this. I have a lot ofhope that GIS users and the conceptsthat we have built can be leveraged inthat way to support advanced environ-mental applications, land use planning

applications, health applications,making government transparentapplications, and on and on.

GIS development has just com-pleted 150 editions. You havebeen following GIS Developmentfrom its inception. What iis yourview about our publication? Are

we meeting the aspirations of thestakeholders? What more cann we do?This is an enormous accomplishment.To be able to pull this off from nothingto such a powerful knowledge dissemi-nation publication has been very impor-tant for our field. Your work and yourdedication on an ongoing basis hasmeant that people who didn't haveaccess to both the fundamental tech-nologies and applications and knowl-edge of how to implement them, hadtheir eyes opened and had understoodthings much better. I am sure yourreaders as well as other stakeholderswould agree that it has provided a kindof community that is unparalleled in thegeospatial world.

GIS DEVELOPMENT 21February 2010

With the advent of

Internet-of-things, all

objects can be

catalogued, monitored

and tracked.

Community contributed

images and

Web-resident

photogrammetry

solutions will soon

dominate geo-data

GIS DEVELOPMENT

n January 2008, a keynote was delivered at the Consumer ElectronicsShow in Las Vegas by Microsoft's Bill Gates. He argued that the worldhad just entered into its second digital decade. He defined the first dig-

ital decade by:• The install base of personal computers at well beyond 1 billion;

• Cellular telephony available to more than 40% of humanity;

• Broadband connectivity having gone from nothing to 250 million users;

• Imaging by the "power of software" in lieu of film.

Of course, Bill Gates connected this to the Internet which predated the firstdigital decade. What strikes one in this statement is that "digital imaging" isone of the four defining elements of our digital age. Well stated, given that ayear later, in 2009, the Nobel-price for physics was awarded to the inventors ofthe digital camera. Anyone dealing with "photogrammetry" will thus pay atten-tion. An alert observer will note today's creative Internet-juices enabling dra-matic changes in how we all live, work, read, interact, travel and drive. Somesay that we have hardly scratched the surface of what is feasible. We do snapdigital images with a smart telephone, upload them via a broadband connectionand publish them on a medium like Flickr, and this is happening at a rate of 1million images per month, with 3 billion images already being available today.20% of all Internet traffic is taken up by YouTube movies.

How is this related to geodata? The major source of fresh geodata is fromimagery and their analysis by photogrammetric and photo-interpretation tech-nology. One might ask how a field so heavily dependent on images will changeduring the second digital decade. Let us try and find out.

LOCATION AWARENESS OF THE INTERNET

Search in the Internet'Search', as an Internet-phenomenon, is best understood by the rapid growth ofone company, Google. By 2005, search started to become supported by geoda-ta, first in the form of 2D street maps, identical to the data used in car naviga-tion. Not much later, the 3rd dimension was introduced in the form of a topo-graphic model, a DEM and the density of information was increased by the useof aerial or satellite orthophotos. Today's search providers all need to offer a'location-aware internet'.

22

NEOGEOGRAPHY

February 2010

TIME FOR NEO PHOTOGRAMMETRY?

Franz W. Leberl

Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision

Graz University of Technology, Austria

leberl@icg.tugraz.at

I

GIS DEVELOPMENT

Navigation and location based services Massive digital street map repositories have been assem-bled for navigation, and were entirely decoupled from theInternet. Today, it is the location-based search functionthat overwhelms the commercial relevance. Adding theGPS enhances the travel planner to a navigation systemso that navigation function is now available on everysmart phone equipped with a GPS-receiver. As a result wenow observe a vast transition of geodata from everyone'scar to everyone's pocket. "Everyone" is us all, but alsoincludes experts in location-based services or engineersusing augmented reality to combine camera images froma smart phone with computed 3D geoinformation receivedvia a broadband connection to the Internet.

From the Internet-of-things to ambient intelligenceObjects in museums or parts of a car are valuable, do ofcourse get digitally cataloged and are being oftentimesdigitally modeled and closely monitored. However, withthe advent of the Internet-of-Things, all objects, even liv-ing beings do become of interest to cataloguing, monitor-ing, tracking.

At the root of the development is RFID in the form of tinymarkers as small as 0.5 x 0.5 mm2. These get embeddedin all objects as they are being manufactured, as well asin many living beings, and even in electronic markers incredit cards, car keys, phones etc. One can see the RFIDas the successor of the bar code.

It seems fairly obvious to combine RFID-marked objectsand beings with a wireless network and the Internet. If weassign to each marker an URL, we have the Internet-of-Things. An essential idea of this development is the loca-tion of each mark and associated object. In the Internet-of-Things, location will need to become known at ahuman-scale, naturally in 3 dimensions and at accuraciesin the ±10 cm range.

Now consider an extension of the Internet-of-Thingswith hundreds of sensors in each home measuring every-thing one can think of, from the temperature of each wall,the moisture in each room to the status of the milk supply

in the refrigerator and associated computing and displayfacilities. We find ourselves in a world of ubiquitous sens-ing, computing, connecting and displaying that will extendto all areas of the human presence. One denotes this asambient intelligence.

AN EXABYTE 3D WORLD MODEL?Support for an Internet-search is thus but an initial factorin developing a model of the world at a human scale sothat we can experience the world via its model in somerealism.

23February 2010

The entire surface of the Earth at 15 cm

Urban street canyons at 2 cm

Important building interiors at 0.5 cm

Table 1: Expected image resolution for a 3D World Model.

Example of a 2D street map and the vastly enriched information when superimposed byan orthophoto.,. This example is being taken from www.bing.com/maps.

Augmented Reality in a Smart Phone connects the image of a natural environment with computed data from a GIS, perhaps showing an underground structureThis example is from project Vidente (2009).

The Internet-of-Things and Ambient Intelligence maycome to mind when reflecting on such ambitious visions.The human scale of such data leads one to a specificationfor the geometric resolutions, as shown in Table 1. Streetcanyons need to be sufficiently resolved to be able to readstreet signs and text on facades. The interior of buildingsneeds to be resolved to model geometric detail.

We now convert this into an estimate of Terabytes of theimage sources. Table 2 summarises that we will deal withdata in excess of 1 exabyte to develop such a model once,and additional data will be needed for upkeep.

NEO-PHOTOGRAMMETRY: COMMUNITY-CONTRIBUTIONS TO A 3D WORLD MODELConsidering the need to use street-level imagery andimages of the interiors of important buildings or shoppingmalls, one will quickly expect that such images will comefrom us, the universe of Internet users. We are already

feeding images at a rate of 1 million per day into FLICKRand similar sites. In anticipation of such developments,Microsoft has introduced its Photosynth solution, and hasbegun to integrate this with its BING/Maps location awaresearch engine.

While this is an ongoing effort and far from being com-pletely integrated with the 3D world model, it alreadyshows how users can submit a set of overlapping imagesfrom street sides or from the interior of buildings. Theuploaded photographs then get processed by the websiteinto a triangulated block and a navigation tool helps oneto navigate the 3D space using the rectified 2D photo-graphs. Figures 3 and 4 explain.

NEO-PHOTOGRAMMETRY: TOWARDS WIKI-TYPE URBAN MODELS Traditional photogrammetric mapping has been in therealm of industrial organisations collecting imagery fromthe air and developing maps and perhaps 3D informationof urban spaces from these images.

The 150 sq km surface area of the city of Graz has tradi-tionally been imaged from the air onto about 150 filmimages. Scanning of these images may have produced apixel size in the 25 cm range. Lately, a digital aerial cover-age has been collected, but now on 3000 images, simplybecause the lack of variable image costs results in select-ing a smaller pixel size at 8 cm, and because one collectsimages at a much higher overlap, namely at 80% forwardand 60% sideward overlaps: less occlusions, moreautomation.

But what if one augments the coverage by street sideimagery? Graz has about 70,000 structures. If each one ofthese gets photographed onto 40 images, either by theowners or by interested amateurs, one will obtain almost3 million photographs. If one had those street-sideimages, do we still need aerial imagery? We may get sur-prised by emerging fully automated photogrammetricsolutions, such as those implemented inside Photosynth,and seeing these executed on GPU-accelerated comput-ers capable of passing through 3 million photographswithin a single day.

We envision a geo-data-future dominated by communi-ty-contributed images and Internet-resident automatedphotogrammetry solutions. One may well find an entirelynew mapping paradigm, away from industrial solutionsand defined by the global community of Internet-users,each one a potential neo-photogrammetrist.

24 February 2010GIS DEVELOPMENT

Photosynth Output - The block of images is triangulated, a sparse cloud of 3D points hasbeen computed and the individual photographs can now be navigated in 3D.

Earth's land area, sq km 148 million

Area of an aerial photograph, in sqkm 4

Aerial photos, at 10 times redundancy 350 million

Terabytes for images of the landmass 190,000

People on Earth 7,000,000,000

Structures on Earth 1,750,000,000

Images, at 40 per structure 70,000,000,000

Terabytes for the images of structures 1,260,000

Structures with need for interior 175,000,000

Images, at 100 per interior 17,500,000,000

Terabytes for images of the interior 315,000

Table 2: The input images needed to create a 3D World model are expected to be at geometric resolutions shown in Table 1. Tofully automate the image analysis, a redundancy factor of 10 ispostulated. This will add up to more than 1 Exabyte of input data. We assume a structure to exist per 4 people. For example,France has a population of 60 million and 15 million structures, as reported by the Institut Géographique National (IGN) in Paris.

Neogeography

has a clear power

to engage with

the public by

providing access

to information that

previously has been

disparately located

or in formats

that hindered

interpretation

GIS DEVELOPMENT

ether they are aware of it or not, most casual browsers of the Internetover the past five years would have come across at least one websitewhich could be described as being an example of neogeography. These

websites commonly show some sort of spatially referenced data as a point orchoropleth map overlay on top of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and more recentlyOpenStreetMap-supplied cartography or satellite background layers. These“mashups” will typically function as “slippy maps,” where users can click anddrag around a map interface, with the content seamlessly streamed to theviewer without needing to refresh the web page.

An example of a neogeography website is Maptube (www.maptube.org) fromthe Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London. TheMaptube website and accompanying software GMapCreator enables a user toconvert a standard offline GIS data file (e.g. Shapefile) into a format whichenables display online and on top of Google background imagery. These datacan then be overlaid with maps created by other Maptube users, enabling col-laboration or enhanced interpretation. The interface also gives users somebasic GIS operations such as zooming, panning and the ability to show, hideand change the opacity of layers. Websites such as this have taken GIS awayfrom the realm of the isolated desktop user and in doing so created a broaderand enthusiastic new audience who may traditionally have only engaged withgeographic information as part of simple map reading tasks.

Evolution of neogeography The two main technologies that have enabled neogeography are AsynchronousJavascript And XML (AJAX) and Application Programming Interfaces (API), bothof which are now supported in modern web browsers. AJAX enables the devel-opment of websites with interaction that feels more akin to a desktop applica-tion. The XML component of AJAX refers to eXtensible Markup Language whichis a set of data standards that enable information to be formatted in such a waythat it is usable across a variety of different software. For example, usingGeoRSS (an emerging XML type standard), location can be coded into onlinecontent such as news stories or blog posts. This information could then be usedin multiple Web applications; for example, simple display on top of a base mapin a web browser, or, in location based services delivered to Internet equippedmobile phone handsets. In both applications the source information wouldremain the same, however the application differs. APIs are available from a

26

NEOGEOGRAPHY

Alex Singleton

Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis University College LondonLondon, United Kingdom

a.singleton@ucl.ac.uk

W

ENGAGING PEOPLEFOR COMMON GOOD

February 2010

variety of websites, both spatial (e.g. Google Maps, Yahoo!Maps or Microsoft Live Maps) or aspatial (e.g. Facebook,Nestoria) and provide a variety of functionality to thirdparty applications. Although it is a task to create websitesusing APIs, the construction of these applications is farsimpler than the learning curve required to install, config-ure and manage more traditional Web GIS platforms. Oth-er contributing factors to the rise of neogeography haveincluded the increasing prevalence of cheap mobile databandwidth, the growing sophistication of mobile phoneweb browsers and the decreased cost of devices that are

location aware. Through these combined tech-nologies citizens can act as distributed sensorsto gather huge volumes of information fromacross wide geographic areas.

This crowdsourcing relates to how largegroups of people can work together for a com-mon goal by performing functions that wouldeither be difficult to automate or expensive toimplement in a non distributed environment.One, if not the most successful neogeographyproject using this collaborative paradigm isOpenStreetMap which aims to create a set offree to use global map data through assimila-tion of volunteered geographic information.This information is collated by the OSM com-munity from a variety of sources including GPStraces, digitising of satellite data or the agreedupload of licence free spatial data from thirdparties (e.g. a NMO). Once entered into the OSMdatabase, these data then become availableonline as a slippy map in a publicly accessiblewebsite. In addition, unlike commercial map-ping websites, the data are also available todownload in vector format with a creative com-mons licence where the only requirement beingthat an attribution is given when the data arepublished or displayed. This resource hasbegun to spawn a number of commercial busi-nesses who have based their services aroundthese data.

Digital justice: Public data, neigh-bourhood and civic engagementNeogeography requires something to map, bethis community created content such as thelocation of photographs on Flickr or the avail-

ability of free to access databases such as houses forsale, e.g. Nestoria. There are a variety of potential motiva-tions for why people create mashups from data such asthese. Some of these mashups exemplify serious socialconcerns, such as plotting hurricane damage and loca-tions of people at risk, while others remain less serioussuch as the global prices of beer or Big Macs. However, a trend starting to emerge from the many mul-tiple examples of neogeography are increasingly sophisti-cated uses of the technology to provide information por-tals that create opportunities for civic engagement or pro-

GIS DEVELOPMENT28 February 2010

Maptube showing the distribution of deliberate fire incidents in Greater London

The OpenStreetMap website showing an area of South East London

The Education Profiler website showing a school in Leeds, England

vide neighbourhood intelligence. For example in the UK,one can request that local authorities fix some aspect ofthe local area or get alerts of potential new buildings beingplanned near one’s home. Other sites provide local intelli-gence systems detailing multiple aspects about the neigh-bourhoods in which one lives. It looks as though this trendis set to continue in the UK.

Neogeography has a clear power to engage with the pub-lic by providing access to information that previously hasbeen disparately located or in formats that hindered inter-pretation. As such, neogeography powered geoportalspresent significant potential to enhance social justice byempowering local communities with sophisticated yetsimple-to-use tools for describing and challenging thoseissues of neighbourhood concern. However, during thisflurry of development, it is important for policy makers toremember that there is a world outside of the Internet.

Previous research at University College London showedthat these patterns of disengagement are far more com-plex than a simple “digital divide,” with users of the Inter-net engaging (or not) in many different ways. Promotingthe benefits of the Internet or enabling access to restrictedgroups is a priority if the maximum societal benefit is to beutilised from neogeography.

Towards an intelligent neogeographyNeogeography has had massive impact in technical com-munities and is demonstrating increased potential to ben-efit society. However, neogeography is already equippedwith the bulk of those tools necessary to enable rich datato be assembled and then displayed in visually engagingformats. So where do we go from here?

Two avenues for future developments in neogeographythat appear to have growing academic and communityinterest are data mining and linking visualisation to mod-elling capability. Much of these distributed data are openlyavailable through APIs and can be queried by third partyapplications. However, as Charles Leadbeater (author of“We Think”) describes, “crowds are not automatically wiseand mobs are not necessarily smart.” How do we makesense of all this data, what is reliable, andhow can we aggregate it intooperational information? For-tunately for the neogeogra-pher, data mining communi-ties have been thinkingabout this for a long time

and a plethora of knowledge exists which could be broughtinto the field. This area of research is likely to be enhancedfurther with the growth of the semantic Web where data isprovided with associated metadata enabling enhancedlinkage or query. A second area of development is the link-ing of analytical platforms to neogeography style visualisa-tions which will transform simple query and browse typewebsites into those which offer modelling and scenariotesting capability.

For example, developments in the computational statis-tics field have begun to extend the capabilities of the pop-ular statistics package R to offer Web service capability.These could be loosely coupled to neogeography interfacesand create very sophisticated analytical tools.

Neogeography has made significant advances in bringingbasic GIS operations to the masses, enabling users withno previous geographic training to create, search andshare their geographically referenced data with relativeease. Although the use of the term neogeography may losepopularity in a similar way to other online neologisms suchas “cyberspace” or the “information super highway,” thebasic principles of collaboration and openness are unlike-ly to lose momentum. The future looks encouraging,and it will be very interesting to see whatneogeography brings in thenext five years!

February 2010

Spatial interaction model of transport flows outputting results to Google Earth

GIS DEVELOPMENT 29

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Social media andthe GeoWeb canprovide the neededsocietal infrastruc-ture for humaninteraction whereinthe government canobtain feedbackfrom the public witha high level oftransparency andaccountability

GIS DEVELOPMENT

lanners constantly make decisions and have to think on their feet.Though the voices of elected leaders and officials ring loudly in theirminds, planners must also be careful to listen closely to the voices of

the citizens they serve. Planning for the people requires involving communitiesfrom the very onset of the planning process, which must be comprehensible,transparent, legitimate and interactive. When planners fail to engage commu-nities and only follow the status quo, the outcomes are undesirable at best.

To engage citizens today, it is important to communicate in new ways and pro-vide collaborative decision-making platforms. Exchanging information effec-tively in planning means expanding the communication footprint, movingbeyond technical jargon and the resulting language boundaries. It also meansholding conversations outside traditional in-person community meetings andforums to reach across the entire community.

Social media tools and the GeoWeb answer this call, and planners are alreadyutilising these Web 2.0 technologies to create effective planning support system(PSS) platforms that cater to planning processes and workflow needs. Theemerging Planning 2.0 environment fosters the bi-directional citizenry partici-pation that is so critical today. Open, accountable, interactive government takesus to a higher level of democracy, where citizens are empowered in new, boldways to help shape the decision-making process and define desired future con-ditions. For this to happen on a broad scale, a profound transformation in theway planners conduct their business is required.

How should planners leverage Planning 2.0 to connect with their communi-

32

NEOGEOGRAPHY

February 2010

FOSTERING CITIZENPARTICIPATION

Ahmed Abukhater

Community Development Industry Manager,ESRI

AAbukhater@esri.com

P

GIS DEVELOPMENT

ties? Dr. Zorica Nedovic-Budic, professor and chair ofspatial planning and GIS at the School of Geography,Planning, and Environmental Policy at University CollegeDublin sees Planning 2.0 technology as readily availablefor use by planners. She also believes that new communi-cation channels and tools ought to provide informationthat is relevant to the varied urban communities. This ismeaningful information that sends clear messages aboutthe community-its condition, issues, prospects and theforces and factors affecting its future. She also notes thatcapacity building is the key to widespread adoption. Shealso observes that there is an uneven landscape of tech-nology usage even among planners and within govern-ment organisations, let alone in the broader environment.The high-quality and innovative ideas are not necessarilyrelated to the ability to utilise the technological tools.Insights into both status quo and future solutions areembedded deep within the community. Designing theinterfaces that would reach to this depth is the maintask that planners face.

Her notion of interface includes meeting points,Internet access nodes (in private and public spaces),and opportunities and formats for expressingopinions and ideas. Web 2.0 is here to facil-itate those interfaces, but only as part ofthe overall setting and process. The chal-lenge for planners and their technical sup-port staff is to carefully integrate the newtools in well thought-out exchanges withthe public. It is an art of public debate thatcould be enhanced with Planning 2.0 alongwith other information and communicationtechnologies.

Michael Gallis, an expert in developingintegrated multi-system approaches tostrategic planning, observes that effectiveplanning processes should include a civicengagement and a communication strate-gy to ensure that the broadest involvementof stakeholders and the public is madepossible. The most common form of civicengagement is the town hall meeting.This type of meeting is typicallyfocussed on a single topic area, whichcan be either very broad or quite nar-rowly focussed (e.g., future communityvision or project input). The strength is

in its openness and inclusiveness, but its weakness is thatit is still limited in both attendance and the ability of itsparticipants to continue to provide input following themeeting.

Gallis notes that more sophisticated techniques areavailable to broaden public participation. These tech-niques are based on creating a hierarchy of engagementopportunities that extend from steering committees, advi-sory boards, topic-specific task forces and town hallmeetings. The strength of these more sophisticatedprocesses is that they offer additional structure and ongo-ing involvement, but their weakness is that the coordina-tion of activities becomes a very expensive and time-con-suming process that most planning agencies cannotafford. Communication strategies used in planning

processes exhibit the same simple-to-com-plex range, from flyers sent out toannounce meetings and public events to

more sophisticated techniques involvingprint and broadcast media.

The concept of Planning 2.0 is especially rel-evant to the quest of democratic processes.To that end, social media and the GeoWeb can

deliver data acquisition and dissemination capa-bilities and provide the needed societal infra-structure for human interaction wherein the

government can obtain feedback fromthe public with a high level of trans-parency and accountability. This willtake us to a whole new level of democ-racy, where citizens are empowered tohelp shape the decision-making processand define desired future conditions. Forthis to happen, a profound transforma-tion in the way planners conduct theirbusiness is warranted.

The success of planners in combatingchronic urban problems is largely deter-mined by their ability to communicatetheir ideas and the extent to which theyproactively seek public involvement andsupport to execute them. This is espe-cially important because planners do notplan for themselves-they plan for peo-ple, and the people are flocking to newforms of communication. Now it's up toplanners to embrace them.

33February 2010

The emergence ofnew mechanismslike geospatial Webhas the potential toaddress currentchallenges and buildupon the currentPPGIS/PGISpractice facilitatingtwo-way dialoguebetween govt and the public

GIS DEVELOPMENT

s awareness about the environment started increasing, there is grow-ing acknowledgment that 'the global environment is no longer a mattersolely for the heads of state and government'. People's habitats and

lifestyle which cannot be changed through the dictate of national strategies,plans, policies and procedures have an impact on local and global environmen-tal problems (Agenda 21, UN 1992). Therefore, the public has a critical role toplay in initiating change by contributing ideas and spreading knowledge andinvolvement (Church and Elster, 2005).

However, expectations from the public about modes of engagement meanthat traditional methods of public participation are being challenged. E-govern-ment systems, such as authoritative Web mapping sites, which were heraldedas the solution for over a decade since the emergence of the Web, predomi-nantly offer one-way communication from government bodies to the public anddo not include effective means to collect citizen feedback nor engage citizens intwo-way dialogue (Rahemtulla and Sieber 2009). The challenge therefore 'is totry to communicate information to people and organisations having different

34

PGIS IN GEOWEB

MAPPING FOR CHANGE

Dr Mordechai (Muki) Haklay

Senior lecturerm.haklay@ucl.ac.uk

Louise Francis, Dr Hanif Rahemtulla

Honorary Research Fellows

Dr. Claire Ellul

Lecturer in GIS, Department of CivilEnvironmental and Geomatic EngineeringUniversity College London

A

February 2010

GIS DEVELOPMENT

specific concerns, as well as encouraging them to gatherand exchange knowledge, and hence participate more inthe environmental debate'. (Sieber 2007, p.1)

Recent changes in the use of information technologyand Web-based resources have provided new opportuni-ties for information dissemination and more importantly,for information exchange. The emergence of new mecha-nisms such as the Geospatial Web (GeoWeb) has thepotential to address current challenges and build uponthe current PPGIS/PGIS practice facilitating two-way dia-logue between government officials and the public (Sieberand Rahemtulla 2009, 2010). This opens up new possibili-ties for communicating and engaging the public on arange of issues from local environmental inequalities tocommunity action to deal with climate change.

To demonstrate the potential of these tools, this articlefocusses on the lessons learned during the MappingChange for Sustainable Communities (MCSC) project andsubsequent activities that are being implemented withinthe activities of Mapping for Change, a social enterprisededicated to community mapping. MCSC aims at mappingenvironmental change and development in London. Theproject is designed to assist community groups towardsgreater participation in local decision making by providinginteractive community maps displaying local informationwhich are controlled and managed by the communityitself. The project combines community development andparticipatory mapping, using a public mapping system(Google Maps) to monitor local sustainability and localdevelopment plans.

Community mappingMany communities face change through activities such as

regeneration projects and commercial development proj-ects. If local people and communities are to engage effec-tively with the processes of change, they need to knowwhat is going on, understand how proposed changes mayaffect them and to feel confident that they can play a pos-itive role in those changes. Mapping is a powerful way toengage local communities as well as visually representtheir information, helping to draw new links and ideas. Anon-line map and directory provides an effective alternativeto the static directories of old and offers a new way tohighlight local facilities and resources. The ability toaccess an interactive map that provides information onanything from health services to education, supportorganisations to transport, provides a way in which peopleinterested in their community can find out what is goingon and those operating within the community can pro-mote their services and activities.

Furthermore, mapping provides a mechanism to com-municate community-gathered ('local') information tohighlight environmental issues and priorities. Forinstance, many decisions made about local areas in theUnited Kingdom are based on 'evidence' collected or sup-plied by the government. While this seems reasonable,often this official information fails to communicate thewhole story or evidence is missing altogether. Bringinginformation based on local knowledge to a situation canhelp challenge official views and help create positivetransformations in the community.

However, while an online interactive map can be a valu-able resource, research shows that developing communi-ty initiatives as part of a participatory process is extreme-ly important. Understanding the needs of end users and

35February 2010

Hackney Wick Community Map:The map highlights elements of local history in addition to community views, facilities, Olympic developments, transport details and more.

The Participatory Mapping Process

their input in the development of the map is ultimatelywhat leads to the development of a successful tool.

The MCSC community maps were developed usingGoogle Maps. Although much of the functionality requiredfor a community map can be obtained by using standardGoogle Maps, LiveSearch or similar technology, a numberof additional features are also required to create a fully-functional community map.

Following the development of the community map infra-structure, the MCSC team initially worked with four Lon-don-based communities to establish local websites (Roy-al Docks, Thames Ward, Hackney Wick and Archway). Inestablishing each local web-based map, the project teamdeveloped, through iterative learning process, a genericprocess that was adapted according to each community.

At each stage in the participatory process, various map-ping methods and resources were used ranging frompaper based exercises using large Ordnance Survey mapsof the area, Web-based maps such as those provided byGoogle, and our own community map website developedas part of the project. In each community we held work-shops and focussed meetings with representatives fromvarious organisations and businesses, the local authorityand individuals. The results of the participatory mappingexercises were digitised by the team and formed the basisfor the information available on the community map web-site. The key issues that emerged during these exercisesranged from noise pollution to the loss of historical land-marks. These issues were followed-up with additional

mapping activities designed to gather more data. Withinsome communities, this took the form of general percep-tion mapping and focussed evidence gathering.

Significance of community mapsThe importance of these community maps extends wellbeyond their immediate circle to include many differentorganisations and people within the community:

• Local organisations can add themselves to the map andinform other in the community about their initiative. They willbe able to promote what they do and find and learn from oth-ers doing what they might wish to do.

• Local service providers can provide details of their services,communicate any changes to these in a format that is not inisolation but is holistic.

• Individuals can use such a map to find out what is going onin their neighbourhood and ways in which they can becomemore active and engaged.

• Individuals can use the map to express concerns they mayhave surrounding specific issues, which can also stimulatethe creation of new groups.

• Local government agencies and other similar bodies will geta clearer idea of what is happening in their area.

Other advantages include:• Mapping change over time: These maps can be saved or'archived' annually. This will provide a record of how activitychanges and develops: in the longer term this will provide avaluable social and institutional memory and a unique histor-ical record of a sector that has always been poorly recorded.

• Capacity-building: Many organisations are still laggingbehind in their use of IT systems. This easy-to-use system,complete with training and support, can help develop localskills so that the use of what may now be seen as a complex

GIS DEVELOPMENT36 February 2010

Royal Docks Noise Mapping Development of the North Dorset Climate Action Map

system becomes a simple part of day-to-day working.

• Dissemination of new ideas and issues: This system offers aunique way to get to interested organisations: e-lists and dis-cussions, for a link to the database at the core of the systemwill allow for much better interaction between organisations.

It should be noted that this study has highlighted issueswith the use of geospatial technologies for communitymapping. Specifically, the study brings to light a mismatchbetween the Web skills of active community group mem-bers and the Web skills required to access and processinformation provided using these emerging Web-mappingplatforms.

As Ellul et al. (2009) note, the skills required to operateWeb mapping platforms are beyond those of basic Internetuse and extend to map reading, the ability to understandand interpret information presented in map format as wellas evaluate its quality, currency and source - alwaysassuming that the user is able to successfully locate theinformation in the first place. In response, our projectpartner - Planning Aid for London - was set up to providefree and independent advice to individuals and groupsunable to afford professional consultants, and to help suchpersons overcome the technicalities of the process.

From the positive responses to the processes and toolsdeveloped as part of MCSC, London, in partnership withUniversity College London (UCL) has set up a new socialenterprise known as Mapping for Change (MfC) whose aimis to develop local and regional mapping to facilitateaccess to data, maps and mapping techniques that will provide people with a better understanding of placeand help them make positive improvements to their environment.

ConclusionThe MCSC project provided learning for team membersand participants alike. There are clearly benefits to provid-ing communities with the support and tools required toaccess and interpret a range of 'relevant' spatial data, inaddition to collecting their own user-generated data. Withsufficient support, communities are able to focus commu-nity action and construct their views and experiences in aformat that facilitates dissemination to a wider audience.The apparent lack of this type of service provision withinthe GI industry has been the driving force behind the set-ting up of MfC.

GIS DEVELOPMENT 37February 2010

Rainforest Founda-tion's programmeempowers forestcommunities inCongo Basin toensure sustainablelivelihood by reinforcing theirrights to access and control forestresources

GIS DEVELOPMENT

aps are more than pieces of papers; they are stories, conversations,lives and songs lived out in a place and are inseparable from the cul-tural and political context in which they are used" (Warren, 2004). This

is especially true concerning participatory maps, maps that make visible theassociation between land and local indigenous community uses and percep-tions. These maps can play a key role in planning and understanding forestuses. They can be used in many different ways: to describe the landscape andvegetation of a particular region, to delimit traditional and customary territo-ries, to assign land uses and forest exploitation regimes and to identify areas ofcultural interest. Used well, a map can be a powerful tool for development.Both literate and non-literate people can use and discuss around a map todevelop a common understanding of the challenges facing their area and toplan how to address them. However, this does depend on the map being sufficiently accurate and containing enough information on which to makeinformed decisions. The Rainforest Foundation started supporting participatorymapping work in Congo Basin many years ago and has developed a robustcommunity mapping programme in the region, mapping more than a hundredcommunities. The aim of the programme is to empower forest communitiesand institutions working with them in the countries in the Congo Basin toensure a sustainable livelihood by reinforcing their rights to access and controlforest resources. The programme is supposed to inform about the developmentof forest policy in the region which includes securing of traditional rights to for-est lands and resources as a central element.

38

PARTICIPATORY GIS

EMPOWERING FOREST COMMUNITIES

Georges Thierry Handja

Programme AdvisorParticipatory GIS, Congo BasinRainforest Foundation UK, London, United Kingdomhandjagt@gmail.com

M

Project coordinator during a prospection meeting in a the village of Aballa in Congo

February 2010

GIS DEVELOPMENT

Approach used The overall participa-tory mapping processinvolved representa-tives from civil societyorganisations workingwith local and indige-nous communities,state representativesin charge of forestmanagement in differ-ent countries andcommunities' repre-sentatives.

State agent and civilsociety organisationrepresentatives who

are trained are called "mapping facilitators," and commu-nity representatives are called "local mappers." Beforethe trainings, prospecting visits in various regions areorganised where the intention is to help communities dotheir maps. The objective of this phase is to inform thetarget communities the importance of mapping in partici-patory decision-making in the context of participation ofindigenous and local communities in managing forestresources, encouraging commitment to the project andestablishing with communities a projected timetable ofactivities.

After this phase, mapping facilitators are trained to beable to better help communities to produce their maps.Their training consists of notions onparticipatory approaches and knowl-edge on participatory mapping. At theend of this training, participants aredivided into many groups and sent todifferent villages previously identified totrained local mappers help them to pro-duce sketch maps of their land andresources use, and help them to useGPS to collect data. The training of localmappers covers drawing of the map onthe ground and transferring the map onpaper, symbols of resources by types ofactivities, ways to take GPS points usinga GPS unit and checking differenttracks to cover all information providedon the draft maps on paper. At the end

of the training of the localmappers in the communities,teams composed of localmappers, other communitymembers and/or mappingfacilitators are organised andsent to the forests accordingto the paths using by the com-munity to gathered resourcesand exercise cultural and cul-tural activities on their land.Once the GPS points havebeen uploaded into the ARC GIS software, a draft map isproduced which is then taken to the communities for vali-dation. Specifically this phase enables communities to:

• Analyse the printed version of their maps;

• Comprehend the legend (symbols) of the map or proposenew ones;

• Correct any errors;

• Reflect on advocacy and negotiation strategies.

The validation of the maps is an important step in theprocess of participatory mapping because it allows theimprovement of working relations with communities andthe production of effective tools. This is where the prepa-ration and the planning of the use of the maps for lobby-ing and negotiation start. Communities start thinking whoin the community could take the leadership on the nextstapes.

What next When the final version of the map isproduced, there are different scenariospossible depending on the issues goingon around the communities and in thecountries. Generally, we help commu-nities to have discussions with govern-ment representatives in charge of for-est management. During these meet-ings, maps are presented by communi-ties' representatives together with allthe history, the culture and beliefsaround these maps, and at the endcommunities make recommendationsof how they would like to be involved inforest management and also how theywill like their right to be considered andinclude into policy and legislation.

Validation of mapsis an important stepin participatorymapping because itallows improvementof working relationswith communitiesand the productionof effective tools.

A community member collecting data with a GPS unit

Training of community mappers in Moale, CAR

February 2010 39

The government needsto communicate itsintentions clearly inorder to overcome biasand misunderstandingwhile communities,citizen groups, etc.need to make all relevant government institutions aware oftheir needs & concerns

GIS DEVELOPMENT

eople at local level wish to be informed about the decisions taken athigher levels that influence their environment. Planning agenciesacknowledge that spatial knowledge from communities is useful or

even vital for sustainable planning to be made. This interaction can be seen asa two way process where the government gains knowledge and information toserve national interests while communities expect government assistance andinput to address their needs as well.

Participation and local spatial knowledgeWhen information for planning purposes is required from local level sources(maps, records of ownership, etc.), this usually encompasses both informationthat is formatted to suit government data infrastructure and information thatdoesn't fit. As an example, we can look at a situation where statutory and cus-tomary law applies. In many developing countries, a transition occurs from cus-tomary into statutory law. One field where this can become a problem with

40

PARTICIPATORY GIS

February 2010

SHOULD PGIS SERVETWO MASTERS?

Jeroen Verplanke

University of Twente

Faculty of Geo-information Science and EarthObservation - ITC

The Netherlands

verplanke@itc.nl

P

GIS DEVELOPMENT

regard to planning is land rights. Inthe process of transferring rights orincorporating the customary andstatutory system, it is vital to haveinformation from both systems avail-able.

Comparison of these informationsources depends to a great extent onthe local spatial knowledge (LSK) thatis available. When it comes to elicitingLSK, many participatory approachesexist to accomplish this. As PGIS isthe flexible toolbox as presented, onecan ask a question whether the out-put (maps, inventories, plans etc.) of such practice canonly be suitable for one interest group?

One could argue that communities would like to providethe best information out of reciprocal interest. But thatstill does not deal with the fact that PGIS puts form andnature of the spatial information second to culture andcustom of the community.

If PGIS is used to visualise LSK for planning purposes, itis difficult to make the outputs (maps etc.) acceptable forofficial purposes. Mapped LSK often does not fit the datainfrastructure or legal standards that government uses.Officials also tend to have a natural suspicion towards thequality of community maps. Luckily in many cases whereofficials are invited to join such mapping exercises, theyrapidly overcome their scepticism and turn it into amaze-ment.

Still many community maps fail to live up to standardsand criteria of official mapping and surveying. As it is notvery useful to see if we could adapt those standards, theway forward is to see if it makes sense to incorporatemore standards into PGIS. But the argument here isn'tabout these standards. It is about what would happen tothe participatory practice if it was to incorporate more ofthese standards and conventions, whatever they are.Would PGIS be able to listen to and serve two sides equally?

Putting 'P' into practiceWhen we look at PGIS as if it was about adding or inte-grating participation into existing geographical informa-tion systems (p-GIS), the answer might be 'yes'. Most ofthe existing GIS software have all of the important con-ventions and standards incorporated and the tools would

have to be adapted to fit a participatory practice. The out-puts of such practice could then be acceptable to bothofficial and customary systems.

When we look at PGIS as if it was about handling geo-graphical information within a setting of (ongoing) partic-ipatory practice (P-gis), the answer is not so straight for-ward. The purpose of a participatory practice is to createas many benefits as can be associated with participationfor the target community. The starting point of such apractice is to put the purpose of the output in line with theobjectives of the (target) community. Imposing a set ofmapping conventions doesn't allow the community objec-tives to stay in front. They might want to map differentpieces of spatial knowledge that do not fit or combineunder the conventions. So if PGIS serves two masters, canit then still serve community purposes the best way?Maybe not if we consider it from a purist participatoryperspective. Serving two masters then implies compro-mising the methods and therefore eroding the basic prin-ciples of participation.

When PGIS is 'sold' as the flexible toolbox for participa-tory spatial planning, the 'purpose' of the participatoryaction is taken as a basis. In spatial planning, governmentis likely to take initiative and define the purpose. The par-ticipatory action in spatial planning should therefore suitthe set of objectives of national/regional level according tothe 'three P's of participation' (purpose, purpose and pur-pose) (Chambers, 2005). We speak of PGIS products, use-ful for (government) planning agencies, which could beuseful for the community as well, but not per definitionand most likely not vice versa. PGIS is then 'possibly' serv-ing two masters at once. PGIS will in such a way enablethe local spatial knowledge to be communicated to

41February 2010

enhance decision making. Within PGIS practice, it is wellknown that just representing LSK to suit community pur-poses is by itself a difficult task. To have LSK suit nationalpurposes does not make the issue simpler. Still muchdepends on the acknowledgement and accreditation ofthe information and an error free translation of the LSKinto formally accepted standards. Extraction of LSK with-out clear benefits or function for the owner of the knowl-edge is always a tricky issue and one that many commu-nities are sensitive to, especially when rights or liveli-hoods are at stake, planners must be highly convincing togain trust and acceptance within communities. Planningobjectives must therefore be to a large degree in line withcommunity needs.

Also sufficient tangible benefits or incentives must beavailable if any participatory practice to elicit LSK is to besuccessful. The value and quality of LSK is widelyacknowledged but with formal or legal issues much scep-ticism still exists.

So a thin line becomes visible along which PGIS couldserve two masters. The right purpose must be definedfrom a planning point of view. A purpose that is in line withcommunity needs. A set of tools must be used that canfunction within the formal planning system as well as in acommunity setting. The tools must be able to grasp andcommunicate LSK. The tools must be able to create out-put that is useful for the community and which fits the for-mal system.

Mapping local spatial knowledgeBut is it worthwhile to tread on such a thin line? We runthe risk of compromising so much on the participatorypractice that the quality of the elicited LSK is unsatisfac-tory. Putting too many constraints on the methods to fitformal (scientific) conventions might limit that quality.

Maybe a less participatory way of capturing LSK will pro-vide similar results quicker and cheaper. Studies havebeen done (Asare, 2008; Elifas, 2008; Neewa, 2007; Ram-baldi et al., 2007) where LSK about land use, land rightsand natural resource management (NRM) was added toexisting spatial information layers. In all these studies themode of eliciting information was different as were theexisting in-formation layers and the level of participationdiffered in each of these studies. Asare (2008) exploredtools for eliciting the customary knowledge of a commu-nity with the view of helping bridge the gap between thetwo systems.

This knowledge was sought to see if they could suitablyreflect the local spatial knowledge of the customary peo-ple and at the same time communicate customary landissues to the formal system. Maps were subjected to theformal system's tests to see their suitability to communi-cate customary land issues. These maps proved invalu-able as they produced alternative sets of land rights andboundary maps which showed areas of conflict and over-laps with the views of the formal agencies. This "bridge",linking the two systems is one step to help close theknowledge gap existing between the two systems. PGIStools here helped to enhance the body of knowledge in thesystem of land interaction in Ghana. The customary own-ers' spatial knowledge was useful in mapping and reflect-ing their perspectives which was duly communicated tothe formal system through the use of existing layers ofspatial information.

The answer could therefore lie with the existing layers ofinformation. Maybe the quantity and quality of LSK thatcan be recorded of media such as topographic maps, aer-ial photographs or satellite images is not in the first placedependent on the participatory approach. Participatorymethods were used to elicit the information, but the pur-pose, time and resources involved were all different. Whatwas clear from the studies by Asare (2008) and Rambaldiet al., (2007) in comparison with Neewa (2007) and Elifas(2008) is that best results are obtained from high resolu-tion aerial photographs. These enabled the communitymembers best to visualize their LSK in terms of accuracy.While many visualizations of LSK lack a verifiable meas-ure of accuracy, this is not the case with aerial photo-graphs. Information added to these can easily be verifiedand officials have been impressed on many occasions ofthe accuracy and precision with which communities areable to map.

GIS DEVELOPMENT42 February 2010

Back to the future of PGIS?Can we then say that "Participatory use of GIS" is able toserve two masters, but "PGIS/PPGIS" as an acronym isnot? The issue of how to name the practice has beenraised before and for a few years the consensus has beento refer to "PPGIS or PGIS" when tools from the wide rangeof participatory practices (RRA/PRA/PSP etc.) deal withspatial information. This acronym was in the first place thereal abbreviation of adding participation (P) to GIS. Butsince in 2005 the "Mapping for Change" conference washeld in Nairobi, practitioners in developing countries havegiven a boost to the "adding GIS to the participation" idea.As a consequence, "GIS" has been diluted to include everyimaginable piece of (spatial) information. The processingand data management qualities of GIS software and hard-ware have indeed become much less important. Maybe weshould, in the context of PGIS, no longer refer to GIS incapitals (Pgis). The understanding about the importance ofspatial information has however increased. PGIS hasapparently become much more about including (unused)spatial information in the (planning) process than it is

about processing the data. It is likely that this change hascaused the shift from PGIS to Pgis. So do we need twoacronyms: "P-gis" and "p-GIS"? Must we divide the prac-tice into "soft and hard"? Maybe we need to use moredescriptive acronyms that fit the purpose better as forinstance Corbett and Keller (2006) have done with Com-munity Information Systems (CIS) and Weiner and Harris(1999) with Community-integrated GIS (CiGIS).

Participatory Spatial Planning (PSP) is probably the bestdefinition to cover the use of PGIS in planning. The conceptof PSP leaves open to which extent GIS is added to the "P"or vice versa (McCall, 2004). PSP does however stronglydepend on participatory principles and therefore the out-put of PSP also might not immediately be suitable to serve"two masters". Most important is that the awareness ofthe different approaches within PGIS practice exists. Tofocus (P)PGIS more on people and participation than onGIS was a necessary achievement that nobody regrets.When people understand that PGIS has become more likea noun rather than an abbreviation or acronym there is noneed to change.

As GIS has plentyof agriculturalapplications, theparticipatoryapproach of GIScan serve as an effective technique for sustainablemanagement of natural resources

GIS DEVELOPMENT

ndia has gained excellence in science and technology in recent years,but the development seems incomplete without proper blending of sci-ence and technological advances with indigenous knowledge, which

has been created and nurtured since long. Researchers are executing variousinnovations for development, but they are giving partial benefits. It is under-stood that the involvement of common people can significantly hasten thedevelopmental process once it becomes a part of the efforts of the researches,scientist and government and non-government organisations. Participatory GISis fast emerging as a tool for better management of natural resources. In placeof time consuming and complex procedures of scale mapping, P-GIS methodsemploy participatory rural appraisal techniques in creating spatial naturalresource maps. This requires effective strategy for developing the communica-tion skills of local people regarding the current natural resource endowment oftheir areas and socio-economic aspects.

Farmers have a good understanding of their soil and land, though they may

44

PARTICIPATORY GIS

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VALIDATESGIS OUTCOME

Purabi Chanda

Research Fellow

purabi.chanda@gmail.com

Sonali P. Mazumder , Ranjeet Kaur,

Sandeep K. Sharma, K.H. Kamble,

R.N. Garg, Debashis Chakraborty

Indian Agricultural Research Institute, NewDelhi

I

February 2010

GIS DEVELOPMENT

not be able to scientificallyexplain the phenomena andprocesses. They need to beeducated and explained thebehaviour of the land, differ-ent soil quality aspects,inputs (water, fertiliser,plant protection measures)required for a better andsustainable harvest. As GIShas plenty of agriculturalapplications such as spatialmapping of soil and ground-water resources, managingcrop yields, estimating soilloss, optimising input application for single field or farmor entire region, the approach of P-GIS should improvethe GIS application potential. This article focuses on thetransfer of indigenous knowledge of people in Lapodia vil-lage in Rajasthan, India, regarding the soils and the cropsto the spatial scale of the watershed on a GIS platform.The focus is the soil type pertaining to the watershed fromlocal individuals' point of view. Simultaneously, it includesnew technology like collecting ground control points withGPS, spatial mapping with remotely sensed satelliteimagery etc., extraction of information and giving it a spa-tial dimension.

The exercise involved generating spatial distribution ofland use using geoinformatics tools like remote sensingsatellite images, GPS etc, preparing a layout map by thevillagers of their village and identifying their piece of landin the map along with the problems associated with their

field, giving the hand drawn map ageospatial dimension by

rectifying it with refer-ence to the map cre-

ated using geoin-formatics toolsand generatingmaps showingthe distributionof soil parame-ters throughout

the village.Using Google

Earth satellite data,the study area was

delineated. It was also identified on the Survey of Indiatoposheet no. 45N/2SE of 1:25000 scale. The toposheetwas rectified and registered using ERDAS software fol-lowing the standard procedure to match with the worldcoordinates for further proceedings. Subsequently, thevillage (Lapodia) boundary was digitised form thetoposheet and the areal extent was calculated as 1161hectares. The main features like settlements, roads,water bodies were identified from the toposheet and digitised to complete the base map. Remote sensingsatellite imagery was used for the land use, land coverclassification. Once the necessary pre-processing stepswere over, both the data sets were subjected to variousclassification techniques like unsupervised, hybrid andsupervised classification. In the beginning, due theenhancement of spatial resolution, seven land use class-es were identified as settlement, cropland, seasonal fal-low, cultivable and uncul-tivable wastelands, ponds(otherwise called as waterharvesting structures) andother prominent land useclasses like pasture land.

Conducting focus groupdiscussions among theincome groupsAfter generating the base mapof the study area, focus groupdiscussions were held toretrieve the current naturalresource endowment of the

45

Though the villagerswere not able toprovide informationin a scientific way,their perceptionregarding soil wasmore or less similarto result of the soilsurvey carried outby a project team

Base map ofthe study area

preparedusing the

Geoinformat-ics tools

Lay out of thewatershed

and its variousfeatures as

prepared bythe villagers

February 2010

area and capture the decision making process in contextof natural resources management. A list of question-naires was prepared and the village people were askedquestions regarding their natural resources and basis oftaking their decisions regarding their natural resources.People were also asked to draw a resource map of Lapo-dia which had different kinds of crops grown at variousplaces, rainwater harvesting systems, type of soil, slopeof the area. Once the maps are prepared, the task was togive the indigenous knowledge of the villagers a spatialdimension. There were two methods for carrying out thisprocess - either by keeping the digitised map in front ofthe villagers or by georeferencing the map drawn by thevillagers with reference to the digitised base map. Fieldswere identified by farmers on both the maps.

Analysis of remote sensing parametersThe classification of remote sensing images and theiranalysis in a temporal scale gives a change detectionmatrix that shows the change of crop land to fallow whichcan be associated with the decrease of rainfall over theyears. The area statistics shows that there was enormousdifference in agricultural production in 1998 and 2007,due to the huge difference in amount of rainfall in theseyears. The above themes were generated using geoinfor-matics tools (GIS and GPS) with the soil data analysed inthe laboratory following standard protocols. At the time ofdiscussion, villagers could identify the patches of landwhere the quality of soil is good and therefore, favourable

of agricultural practices,and where it is not. Theseperceptions were muchsimilar to the resultsobtained through applica-tion of geoinformaticstools. As per the observa-tions, the soil quality isgood and favourable foragricultural productivity inthe eastern and northeastern and in some partsin the southern directionwhere as the qualitydegrades towards thewestern part where thesoil has been unproduc-tive. In course of time, the

natural vegetative cover (grasses, shrubs and trees) wasregenerated. Thus, a non productive land was convertedto productive one (other than cultivation) through theprocess of pasture land development. Though the vil-lagers were not able to provide information in a scientificway, their perception regarding soil was more or less sim-ilar to the results of the soil survey carried out by the proj-ect team. The soil parameter maps were validated withresource map prepared by the community.

ConclusionThe study presented in this article tries to integrate thegeoinformation techniques with farmers’ ingeniousknowledge regarding their land and water resources. Thesoil quality was found suitable for agricultural production,though low productivity of crops was observed. The GISthemes of soil information identified patches of low soilproductivity, which coincided well with the observation bythe farmers. The single most problem was the unavail-ability of water for irrigation due to poor rainfall. Someinitiatives have already been taken by the villagersthrough the efforts of Gram Vikas Navyuvak Mandal Lapo-dia (GVNML), a formal group working for the village.However, the study envisages that more conservation ofthe rain water and their utilisation in irrigation is required.Training programmes should be conducted in the villageto improve the awareness of water harvesting and savingtechniques, improvement of soils and their suitability tocrops.

GIS DEVELOPMENT46 February 2010

Schematicdiagram

showing steps inpreparation of

base map ofLapodia micro

watershed usinggeoinformatics

tools coupledwith farmers'

inputs

Global Geospatial Mag 7.75x10.25 R1.indd 2Global Geospatial Mag 7.75x10.25 R1.indd 2 1/26/10 12:04:43 PM1/26/10 12:04:43 PM

GIS DEVELOPMENT

What are the consultancy services provided byCMPDI?Central Mine Planning & Design Institute(CMPDI) - a Miniratna company and a miningconsultant, is a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd.Under the Ministry of Coal, Govt. of India,CMPDI offers its services in the fields ofgeospatial technology, mineral exploration,mine planning, coal preparation and utilisation,environmental management, information andcommunication technology, mining electronicsand infrastructure planning.

What are the geospatial services provided byCCMPDI?Realising the potential of geospatial technolo-gy in the natural resources sector, CMPDIestablished a geomatics division way back in1989, when India had launched its firstremote sensing satellite (IRS-1A).

CMPDI offers geospatial technology servic-es ranging from topographical survey, mineralexploration, land use/ vegetation cover map-ping, water resource survey, land reclamation

monitoring, excavation measurement, pre-mining baseline data generation for environ-mental management, monitoring of opencastoperation, slope stability, infrastructure plan-ning, coal mine fire mapping, locating the sitesfor TPS and coal washery and siltation inreservoir/river.

How has the use of geospatial technologiesfacilitated better mining activities?Geospatial technology is closely associatedwith all the three stages of mining ie pre-min-ing, syn-mining and post mining. During themining stage, excavation measurement ofOB, slope stability monitoring in open pitmines is based on terrestrial LiDAR, monitor-ing of mining operation is using GPS technol-ogy and underground correlation survey in UGmines based on Gyromat 3000 is used forsafety of the man and machinery in the mines.

February 201048

Inte

rvie

w

K. SinghCMDCentral Mine Planning & Design Institute India

TOWARDS EFFICIENT ANDSAFE MINING

A

At the post mining stage, land reclama-tion and mine closure monitoring of allthe opencast projects have been takenup by CMPDI using high resolutionsatellite data on an annual basis till thelife of the mine to ensure proper landreclamation and mine closure of themined out land and to take remedialaction, if any required, for environmentfriendly coal mining.

Environmental impact factors promi-nently in mine planning. How doesCMPDI ensure that the impactt is mini-mum?There is an urgent need to ensure thatalong with mineral sector growth, envi-ronment and sustainable mining issuesare addressed by the stakeholders con-structively. Mining is a site-specificindustry and it cannot be shifted any-where else from the location where themineral occurs. CMPDI has startedusing high resolution remote sensingdata for land reclamation monitoring ofopencast coal mining projects of CoalIndia Ltd. to minimise the impact of min-

ing on land environment. Remote sens-ing data is very useful in generating thepre-mining database with respect toland, water, drainage, vegetation cover,terrain, settlement, infrastructure etc.present in the core and buffer zone ofthe mining projects before the mining.Land use/cover database of all thecoalfields are updated regularly at aninterval of 3 to 5 years to assess theimpact of coal mining on vegetation cov-er and land environment. CMPDI, in col-laboration with Survey of India, has tak-en up the task of preparing maps of 28major coalfields covering about 26000sq. km. area using remote sensingtechnique. Topographical maps will begenerated on 1:5000 scale with 2m.contour interval in digital GIS format.These maps would be useful fordetailed coal exploration, mine planningand environmental management plan-ning of the mining projects. Coal IndiaLtd. has funded Rs.117.26 crore forthis project. Land reclamation monitor-ing of all the opencast coal mining proj-ects has been taken up by CMPDI using

geospatial technology to assess theimpact of mining on land environment.

Does CMPDI suggest any alternativeways for environment management?Does it allso look into the conservationaspects?CMPDI has prepared a comprehensiveenvironmental management plan (EMP)which includes land reclamation, reha-bilitation and resettlement planning andmine closer planning with a number ofalternative scenarios. High resolutionsatellite data are very useful in mappingthe vegetation cover at species level andconservation of endangered species canbe planned by analysing topography,landform, soil characteristics, wateravailability etc using GIS for conserva-tion site suitability.

How are geospatial technologies help-ing in disaster manaagement of mines?Accidents in opencast mines due to fail-ure of OB dump and slope stability havebeen monitored using geospatial tech-nology. LiDAR technology is very usefulfor rapid and accurate measurement ofthe dump slopes in all mining projects,

49February 2010 GIS DEVELOPMENT

CMPDI has prepared

a comprehensive

environmental

management plan

which includes land

reclamation,

rehabilitation and

resettlement planning

and mine closer

planning with

alternative scenarios

so that remedial action can be initiated ifrequired to prevent the dump failure. It ispossible to monitor ground subsidenceregularly using microwave remote sens-ing data to take the mitigative measuresdue to the effect of underground miningon surface. Gyromat- (3000) is beingused in correlation survey for preciseplotting of underground working in orderto prevent mine accidents/disasterscaused by inundation from surface orunderground water logged workings.

Coal mine fires are affecting the Jhariacoalfield, which is the only prime sourceof coking coal in our country. CMPDIhad procured Deadalus Thermal Scan-ner and used the same for fire mappingin collaboration with NRSC, Hyderabad.The spatial resolution of the scannerwas 1.00m. The scanner has now outlived its life. In India, there are no airborne thermal scanners available atpresent. Aster satellite has thermalinfrared band but spatial resolution is100m., which is not useful for detailedfire mapping. ISRO should consider put-ting a high resolution thermal infraredband in its next generation satellite formapping of coal mine fires, forest fires,hot springs etc.

Change detection is another aspect ofgreat importance in mining operations.How does CMPDI ensuure this?CMPDI has taken up satellite surveil-lance of all the opencast mines regular-ly on annual basis to assess the landreclamation status. Such monitoring isvery effective in taking the remedialmeasures if any are required for envi-ronmental protection. Studies revealthat 74% of mined out land has alreadybeen reclaimed and balance 26% areaof land is under active mining. Landreclamation monitoring was also includ-ed in a 100 day programme by the Min-istry of Coal. There is a programme tocover all mega projects of more than 5million tons (coal+OB) per year capacityand other mines at three years interval.The report on land reclamation has beenalready uploaded in the website ofCMPDI and Coal India Ltd. in publicdomain and will be updated on an annu-al basis. At present we are usingResourcesat -LISS-IV satellite data with5.8 m. spatial resolution for this moni-toring. We are using terrestrial LiDARfor measuring the slope stability of OBdumps in OC projects for mines safetyas well as for OB excavation.

What are the initiatives of CMPDI tobuild a spatial data infrastructure (SDI)of mines in India?CMPDI has taken an initiative for creat-ing a geospatial database for coalresources of the country called ICRIS(Integrated Coal Resources InformationSystem). This project is funded by theMinistry of Coal. Under this project, allthe data related to coal resources likelocation of coalfields, coal blocks, coalreserves, coal quality, etc. will be gener-ated and uploaded on the website ofCIL, CMPDI and MoC. ICRIS will pro-vide comprehensive information aboutthe coal resources of India. CMPDI has

also generated database for land use,vegetation cover, wasteland, miningarea, water bodies, drainage etc. for allthe major coalfields based on satellitedata on GIS platform to assess theimpact of coal mining on land environ-ment at a regional scale. Furthermore,CMPDI has also started land reclama-tion monitoring of all the OC projectsproducing more than 5 m. cum. (Coal+OB) regularly on annual basis andgenerating the dynamic database forland reclamation.

Is CMPDI looking at exploring alterna-tive mineral/energy sources?Apart from coal, CMPDI is activelyinvolved in exploring the alternativeenergy resource coal bed methane(CBM) in the country. Assessment ofCBM in Singrauli and Korba coalfield isunder progress. Coal bed methane is agreenhouse gas, associated with coalwhich gets liberated in the atmosphereduring the mining. CBM resource canbe utilised for generating energy andreducing greenhouse gas. The datadossier consisting of preliminary infor-mation about the occurrence of CBMresources was prepared by CMPDI foropen bidding of the CBM blocks forexploration and exploitation of the CBMand same was highly acclaimed by inter-national experts.

CMPDI is the nodal agency for CBMresources in India. A CBM clearinghouse has been established at CMPDIin association with the United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency(USEPA) to provide information relatedto CBM resources of the county. We arecommitted to bring clean coal technolo-gy in India, especially under ground coalgasification (UCG) in collaboration withInternational agencies for exploitingenergy from coal deposits which are dif-ficult to mine.

GIS DEVELOPMENT50 February 2010

CMPDI has taken

an initiative for

creating a geospatial

database of coal

resources called

ICRIS. It has taken

up satellite

surveillance of all

opencast mines to

assess land

reclamation status

Call for Papers

GIS DEVELOPMENT

uring my studies of Geo-detic Engineering at theTechnical University of

Munich, one of my teachers, Wal-ter Hofmann attended the ISPCongress 1952 in Washington,where Germany was re-admittedinto the Society after World War II.During a presentation, Hofmannpainted the future of photogram-metry, as seen during that Con-gress, in bright colours.

My colleague Gerhard Winkel-mann from Munich and I enteredthe graduate school of Ohio StateUniversity in 1954. Bertil Hallert,ISP Congress Director of 1956 inStockholm was my teacher therealong with Fred Doyle. Fred, inpreparing a paper on digital pho-togrammetry for the 1956 Stock-holm ISP Congress, took me to Day-ton, Ohio, where the Wright-Patterson Air Force Baseheld a new digital image coordinate measuring device onwhich we did the measurements. In 1959 I joined the Uni-versity of New Brunswick in Canada, starting a surveyingengineering degree program with the help of Sam Gam-ble, the Canadian Director of Surveys and Mapping, wholater became ISP President. I made it to the 1964 LisbonISP Congress, where I reported on our UNB efforts inphotogrammetric education while Prof. Burkhardt fromBerlin was ISP Commission VI president.

At the 1968 ISP Congress in Lau-sanne, Sam Gamble became ISPCongress Director for 1972 andKurt Schwidefsky of Karlsruhe ISPCommission II President. At UNBwe had acquired the first program-mable analytical plotter, the OMI-AP/C. Schwidefsky invited me topresent the experiences at thePhotogrammetric Week 1969 inKarlsruhe. At this meeting I got aninvitation to come to Hanover,which I finally did in 1971.

At Hanover, I was able to pass onDuane Brown's paper on bundleblock adjustment with additionalparameters to Dr. Bauer, who hadjust completed his dissertationwith my predecessor GerhardLehmann on bundle block aerialtriangulation. Bauer applied the

methodology and was able to produceunbelievably accurate results for bundle block adjust-ments based on German accurate test fields. He present-ed this in a paper to the 1972 ISP Ottawa Congress.

During the Ottawa Congress, Landsat was successfullylaunched, and it brought photogrammetry into a newdirection, remote sensing and space photogrammetry.Already during my last year at UNB I was able to partici-pate in the Canadian assessment of this technology and Ihad defence connected projects using line scanners,which prompted ISP Commission IV President Van der

52

ISPRS: IN RETROSPECT & PROSPECT

February 2010

PROFESSIONAL TOTHE CORE

Prof. Gottfried Konecny

Former President, ISPRS (1984-1988)

D

VIENNA

Hamburg- The Congress Director and the incoming Secretary General Prof. Konecny

GIS DEVELOPMENT

Weele to entrust me and Franz Leberl with an ISP workinggroup on geometry of remote sensing systems with FranzLeberl covering the radar part.. In Hanover we had thechance to cooperate in the German Space Agency (DLR)nmanaged remote sensing program with first results pre-sented at the 1976 ISP Congress in Helsinki.

In 1975 I had applied for the vacant professorship in pho-togrammetrry in Munich, but the appointment committeefavoured to appoint H.K. Meier who did not accept theposition due to his engagements at Carl Zeiss and Hein-rich Ebner in the second place and me in the third place.My challenge was clear: Let's do something for pho-togrammetry in the north of Germany instead. With thehelp of the newly established Congress Center organisa-tion in Hamburg and the German Society for Photogram-metry (I had become President in 1972 on suggestion of K.Schwidefsky), I applied in the name of the German Societyat the ISP General Assembly for the 1980 ISP Congress tobe held in Hamburg, and we won.

There was hardly a photogrammetrist in Hamburg.Therefore we organised the Congress by a joint Germaneffort, with two University Institutes for Photogrammetrycarrying the main burden: our Institute in Hannover andthe Institute of Fritz Ackermann in Stuttgart. Fritz hadbecome my successor as president of the German socie-ty, shortly after we changed the name of German Societyfor Photogrammetry into German Society for Photogram-metry and Remote Sensing. In Hamburg we were able tochange the name of the International Society for Pho-togrammetry (ISP) into International Society for Pho-togrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) as well.

For us it was important to open relations to nations, forwhich political boundaries blocked international coopera-tion in our disciplines. We especially invited scientists and

engineers of theSoviet Union andits neighbours toour Congress, aswell as thosefrom China. Inpreparation forthis I was invitedto travel to Chinain 1979, and weprepared themembership ofthe Chinese

Society into ISPRS. Togetherwith President Jean Crusetand Secretary General FredDoyle we managed longnegotiations, so that after achange of our statutes"Countries and Regionsthereof, which have an inde-pendent budget" couldbecome members of ISPRS,which meant that Chinacould be admitted despitethe fact that Taiwan wasalready a member. Onestatute change also permit-ted another - after 1980 asCongress Director I couldbecome Secretary Generalof ISPRS during the 1980-1984 period, while myrevered teacher Fred Doylecould be president of ISPRSduring the 1980-1984 period. This Council period was veryconstructive and worked beyond political boundaries withIvan Antipov from the USSR and George Zarzycki beingVice Presidents. Zarzycki as former Polish citizen was notpermitted to go to the Eastern block, so we had a Councilmeeting in West Berlin in 1983 which could be attended byZarzycki but not by Antipov. Instead we arranged a secondCouncil Meeting in Minsk in the Soviet Union at whichAntipov could attend, but not Zarzycki.

The 1984 ISPRS Congress in Rio de Janeiro was the firstCongress outside of Europe and North America and itbrought home to photogrammetrists and remote sensingexperts that we are global disciplines.

In Rio I was elected President of the Society, and itbecame a challenge to personally visit 40 ISPRS membercountries on official missions, extending from Cuba toLatin America, Africa, Australia and Japan.

At the Kyoto ISPRS Congress in 1988, Washington in1992 and Vienna in 1996 I was very happy that this tradi-tion was followed by my able and dedicated successorsKennert Torlegard and Shunji Murai with others to follow.After Amsterdam 2000, Istanbul 2004 and Beijing 2008,ISPRS is a forward looking professional society meetingthe demands of our changing globalised world. It hasbeen a privilege to have been part of this effort.

53February 2010

ap India 2010, the 13th Annual International Conference and Exhibitionon Geospatial Information Technology and Applications, aimed atsteering the future direction that geospatial technologies can provide to

the various verticals in the country, was a resounding success with an impres-sive participation from the government, academia and industry and discourseson its stated theme "Defining the Geospatial Vision for India." The event, heldduring January 19-21, 2010 at Epicentre in Gurgaon, India, witnessed 1262 del-egates and visitors from 28 countries gracing the occasion and 41 companiesexhibiting.

"Geospatial technology is fast maturing and government will facilitate thespeedier development of this industry in the country," pronounced PrithvirajChavan, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, in his inaugu-ral address. Chavan added that the information we are trying to hide is already

available on the Internet and information should be accessible tothe citizens who are the legitimate owners. He called on thegeospatial community to work together closely to create innovation-based enterprises. Delivering the guest address at the inaugural,Prof Yashpal, distinguished academician and scientist, lamentedthat while technology innovation is fast removing the boundaries,physical boundaries between people, between countries are actual-ly gaining ground. According to Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Min-istry of Earth Sciences stressed the need and potential of seabedmapping.Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman and co- founder, NIIT Group,

had a bottom-up prescription for GIS inIndia.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr Krish-naswamy Kasturirangan, Member, PlanningCommission, called upon the geospatialstakeholders to make India a geospatialprovider by 2020. According to KK Singh,CMD Rolta India, the national map policyneeds to unleash the potential of privatesector to build a robust geospatial infra-structure in the country.

54

TIME TO STATE A VISION FOR INDIA

M

February 2010

CONFERENCE REPORT

GIS DEVELOPMENT

GIS DEVELOPMENT

Panel Discussion The panel discussion "DefiningGeospatial Vision for India" endeav-oured to set the map for the roadahead for the geospatial industry inIndia. Moderator V.S. Ramamurthy,Director, National Institute ofAdvanced Studies, India, assertedthat the end user and his expecta-tions should play an important rolein defining the vision for the sector,and highlighted the need for bettergovernance using this technology.Maj.Gen. S.V. Chinawar, AdditionalDirector General, Military Survey,Indian Army elaborated on the needto satisfy the end user. Ajay Seth,Managing Director, Elcome Tech-nologies, analysed that archaic poli-cies and procedures are inhibitinggrowth in a much unregulatedindustry. "Collect right" was hisvision for the geospatial industry.

Amitabha Pande, Former Secre-tary, Inter State Council, India,viewed the vision for the geospatialindustry as its role in the vision forIndia. He expressed that the distinc-tion between those who produceknowledge and those who useknowledge should get completelyblurred, with the end user becomingthe producer of his own knowledgefor his own use and his own applica-tion. The panel was of the view that ifthe issues of data availability andinteroperability, education andawareness creation are addressed,then the geospatial industry canreach where it wants to.

Plenary sessions Technology Trends: he plenary ses-sion 'Technology Trends' witnesseda debate on the latest technologiesin the geospatial by stalwarts. ARDasgupta, Distinguised Professor

BISAG and Managing Editor (Hon-orary), GIS Development assertedthat neogeographers who makerural data available for digitisationare the need of the hour. ShantanuBhatawdekar, Scientist, ISRO, high-lighted the activities and role of ISROin Indian geospatial panorama. RobLaudati, VP- Mapping/GIS and Der-rick Darby, VP -Connected Site,Trimble addressed various aspectsof real time data availability includ-ing the importance of real time datain utility sectors, fleet managementand asset management. BruceChaplin, VP- Product Development,ERDAS, demonstrated the need ofoblique imagery with the help ofsome imagery from Google andMicrosoft. He concluded that cloudcomputing has to lead the geospa-tial industry.

Connecting Communities: The ple-nary 'Connecting Geospatial Com-munites' on the second day of MapIndia 2010 explored possible ways toconnect the disparate communitiesworking with geospatial technolo-gies. Discussions veered aroundways of exploiting geospatial intelli-gence provided by high resolutionimagery, need to leapfrog with tech-nology adoption, best practices ofdesign and construction etc. According to Mukund Rao, Presidentand COO, ESRI India, GIS will nomore be just maps and images.Geotagging of business data, tabulardata is happening and once theseare served on maps, enabling visu-alisation and analysis, it will be athird generation boost to GIS. Healso added that a national G-cadas-tre and a GIS system of systems canaccrue immense benefits to individ-uals and to the society.

55February 2010

www.mapindia.org

Symposia Urban Development:The symposium ongeospatial for urbandevelopment had alook at the current sce-nario in India and todiscuss the possibili-ties of defining a visionfor urban India. JPremnath Singh,Head-Data Delivery,ESRI India spoke aboutthe changing trends inurban planningimpressing upon theaudience the impor-tance of technology fordeveloping masterplans in a easier way.Dr. P.S. Uttrawar,Director (Planning),

Delhi Development Authority (DDA), presented a casestudy on use of geospatial technologies to develop a town-ship. Prof Mahavir, School of Planning and Architectureadvocated the need to establish a ministry of regionaldevelopment, which according to him will solve lot ofissues. The panel discussion witnessed a number ofissues highlighting the problems urban planners face. Itwas discussed that the legal system has to recognise thework being done by using geospatial technologies tomake the system more effective and accepted. Somepointers like keeping the scale of data in mind for a par-ticular requirement and that the technology needs to bemade user-friendly and simple to enable the commonman to use it for their data requirements were made.

The symposium and panel discussion Geospatial for Elec-tricity on the second day of Map India 2010 strongly tookup the case of power sector reforms through the R-APDRP (Re-structured Accelerated Power Develop-ment and Reform Programme). Devendra Singh, JointSecretary, Ministry of Power opined that GIS can be aneffective solution to eradicate power theft and efficientpower distribution without pilferages. Jayant Sinha, Techhead (Power IT), SPANC, said that if any state governmentdoes not complete the project within the timeframe, the

grant will automatically get converted into a loan. BM Ver-ma, Ex Chairman, Jharkhand State Electricity Board,India talked about public resistance in rural areas withpeople often misunderstanding mapping and surveyingpractice. Dr R S Hooda, Chief Scientist, Haryana RemoteSensing Application Centre, India, emphasised the impor-tance of alternate energy sources like biomass. SatyaPrakash, GIS global practice head, TCS, underlined theneed for a meeting of GIS professionals every quarter todiscussion the progress of GIS implementation.

The symposium 'Climate Change and Disaster Manage-ment', on the second day of Map India 2010 witnessed anenthusiastic discussion on the use of geospatial technolo-gies in the context of climate change and disaster man-agement. Dr KJ Ramesh of MoES moderated the session.

Eminent speakers during the symposium included Dr.Orhan Altan, President, ISPRS; Michael Oberg of DigitalGlobe; Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy of Vikram Sarabhai SpaceCenter, India; PH Joshi of TERI University, India; VinaySehgal of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India; DrG Srinivasan of Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre,Thailand; Dr. Sisi Zlatanova of Delft University of Technol-ogy, The Netherlands; G. Srinivasa Rao of NationalRemote Sensing Center, India and Dr. Akhilesh Gupta ofDepartment of Science and Technology (DST), India.

The symposium highlighted the need of effectivelyexplaining the importance of role of geospatial technologyin observing human induced and natural disasters, use ofgeospatial technologies in monitoring and managementof climate change culprits carbon dioxide and aerosols,geospatial tools for climate studies in forestry sector,changes in agro-ecosystem using spatial datasets to sup-port climate change studies, the importance of takingdecision despite uncertainty in climate change manage-ment, importance of user-centric systems for emergency

GIS DEVELOPMENT February 201056

response, technological convergence and Indian govern-ment's initiatives in disaster management.

The key observations made by participants in the paneldiscussion included the importance of data disseminationand sharing, the challenges posed by climate change toweather predictability and need for increased accuracylevels in various models, a system on the lines ofWikipedia regarding data and a semi-philosophical obser-vation that Earth is a system and we have to observe it.

Speakers at the symposium, 'Geospatial for DevelopmentSector' reiterated that geospatial data is a critical ingredi-ent for sustainable development.

Key issues discussed at the symposium included advan-tages of remote sensing data and other spatial data in thedevelopment sector, need for data disseminationamongst different organisations to tackle a commonproblem, importance of mapping of regions like PCPIRand SEZ as it helps a lot while dealing with hazardouswaste keeping environment concerns in the mind, value ofgeospatial data in vulnerability and disaster preparednessand management, role of GIS in monitoring and evalua-tion and observation that GIS cannot be a replacement forexisting data models. Eminent speakers at the sympo-sium included Prof Amitabh Kundu of Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, India, Dr. Elizabeth Warfield of USAID, India,Dr. Basanta Shrestha of ICIMOD, Nepal, Dr. George Math-ew of TISS,, Vijay Kumar of TCS, India and Dr. JuergenBischoff of GTZ, India.

Seminars The seminar 'State SDI implementation: Challenges andRoad Ahead' on the second day of Map India 2010 high-lighted the initiatives by various states including Delhi,Gujarat and Karnataka in this direction and presented thestatus of their SDI implementation.

The challenge ofcoordination amongvarious state govern-ment agencies toacquire data wasvoiced by all the speak-ers. The need to have adata access policy anda central mandate fordeveloping SDIs wasalso mentioned. TheHerculean task ofdeveloping dedicatedapplications for eachdepartment having dif-ferent requirementswas specifically high-lighted. No or littlemetadata, lack ofinvolvement of real endusers were the otherconcerns.

Apart from the presentations about various state SDIs, ademonstration of the village information systems (VIS) bySalil Das stole the show. Kaushik Chakraborty fromERDAS observed that effective governance comes fromgleaning information from data and then converting it toknowledge - wisdom follows. The seminar, 'GIS for Government' started with a guestaddress by Dr. C Chandramouli, Registrar General, Cen-sus of India who mentioned that work is already underwayfor 2011 census and that this will be the 15th census thatwould be undertaken since the inception of Census ofIndia in 1872. The census would also be preparing theNational Population Register for the Unique IdentificationNumber (UIN) Scheme. There was also discussion on howNIC has developed Web-based modules created on a col-laborative service delivery platform using common stan-dards for various G2G projects for better governance.

In the concluding panel discussion it was strongly advo-cated to make GIS common man friendly for making g-enable governance possible and successful.

Round Table Public Private Partnerships: The round table on publicprivate partnerships (PPP) reiterated that all stakehold-ers are partners in development and tried to find ways to

GIS DEVELOPMENTFebruary 2010 57

build successful part-nerships.

Maj Gen (Dr) R SivaKumar, CEO-NSDIassured that govern-ment is soon coming upwith a policy that is con-ducive for the growth ofgeospatial industry.Manosi Lahiri, MD &CEO ML Infomap, saidthat a lot of private play-ers in geospatial indus-try feel they are treatedas low cost outsourcing

units and this attitude needs to change. The participantsreiterated the advantages of switching to PPP mode butstrongly felt the lack of guiding policy and legal framework.

Capacity Building: On the concluding day of Map India2010, industry luminaries and academicians got togetherin a round table discussion on capacity building to put forththeir ideas and recommendations. Amit Khare, Joint Sec-retary, Bureau of BP & CR Education Policy, UNESCO, INC& ICC, Department of Higher Education, Government ofIndia, highlighted government as one of the key sectors inaddition to social organisations and for educational institu-tions to develop capacity with existing faculty.

Some of the proposals from the panel included the need

to prescribe a minimum qualification for candidates aspir-ing to take up courses related to geospatial technologies,flexibility in curricula framework, introduction of GIS as asubject in IT, necessitating vertical specific GIS courses incurriculum, teaching GIS in relation to one or more appli-cation themes, programmes to provide students with suf-ficient background in science and mathematics, establish-ment of business hubs, sharing of knowledge by eliteorganisations, recognition of this branch of learning as aprofession, govt funding for capacity building, taking GISbeyond classroom, fitting GIS education into existingframework of education and promoting distance learning.

Technical sessions Map India 2010 witnessed 198 papers being presented intechnical sessions on Web GIS; Mapping, Surveying andLIS; Utility and Infrastructure; Technology Trends; NRDMS;Disaster Management and Climate Change; Education andHealth; Environment, Agriculture and Forestry; UrbanPlanning and Development; Remote Sensing, LiDar &Image Processing; Natural Resource Management; SDI,Database Management & Spatially Enabled Governmentand LBS & Enterprise GIS. The Best Paper Award was wonby Kapil Oberoi of IIRS, India, followed by Malay Adhikari ofNALSAR University of Law, India, and Sneha Rao ofCIESIN, Columbia University, New York. The winner of theBest Poster award was Bharti Bajaj.

Renewed confidence In the concluding session, Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Devel-opment, stated the need to involve and engaging with allstakeholders and facilitating discussion on importantareas for growth. In his valedictory speech, Dr. T.Ramaswamy, Secretary, Department of Science & Tech-nology, observed that government is a promoter and facili-tator but not the owner of data. He also proposed that thegeospatial industry should follow the economic liberalisa-tion model. Map India Awards for Excellence were alsoannounced during the session. ESRI India was adjudgedthe Best Exhibitor, followed by Rolta and Trimble. Dr. Manoshi Lahiri, Founder, MD & CEO, ML Infomap,

received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneer-ing and visionary work in the field. The three-day Map India2010 brought renewed confidence and cheer to the Indiangeospatial stakeholders. International players and associ-ates in the Indian g-field too had something substantial tothink, plan and execute.

GIS DEVELOPMENT February 2010

Geospatial Personality Dr. Mukund K RaoPresident & COO, ESRI India

GIS Software Company ESRI

Image Processing Company ERDAS

Photogrammetry Company ERDAS

Computing & Graphic Hardware Company Hewlett Packard

Survey & Positioning Company Trimble

Engineering and Machine Control Company Trimble

Cameras and Sensors Company Leica

Geospatial Solutions Company Rolta India

Geospatial Services Company RSI Softech

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