Geospatial World II July 201132

SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE II Prof Ian Dowman

In this age of climate change and global warming, sus-taining our environment for the future generations is apriority for the humanity. Those involved in geospatial

technologies know well that they can contribute to this;indeed, they can make a vital contribution to protect theenvironment and to allow sustainable development. Howdo we do this?

We have at our disposal the means to collect datawhich is indispensible for this purpose and we also havetools for processing and analysing the data. These toolsare recognised by decision makers and are being usedextensively in areas like agriculture, for monitoringchanges in the natural environment and for managingdisaster response. In other areas however, the benefits ofgeospatial technology are less well understood, and attimes not appreciated by decision makers who controlthe purse strings.

One component which is very important is a spatialdata infrastructure (SDI), necessary to allow data andinformation to be available to many organisations. Thisarticle is designed to bring together information onissues and good practices, and to present a comprehen-sive picture of the role of geospatial information in thedevelopment and management of infrastructure, particu-larly in the built environment.

Data issues

There is much discussion atpresent on building asmarter planet to deal withthe many challenges whichface us. These includeincreasing population,migration of people to citiesand increasing purchasingcapacity resulting in increas-ing consumption. This is verymuch related to the politicalsituation: developed Vs emerg-ing Vs developing economies; thenorth south divide; climate change;depleting resources etc.

Information on location is clearlythe primary service which the geospatialinformation (GI) industry can provide. It canprovide answers to many pressing issues ofdeveloping world - site selection of facilities likepower plants, waste disposal plants and healthcarefacilities - areas where GI tools can facilitate optimumsolutions to the planners. Going beyond, geospatial tech-nology can be used in the entire life-cycle of infrastruc-

SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE FULFILLS THE PRESENT SOCIETAL NEEDS

WHILE REDUCING THE IMPACTS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS BY INTEGRATING

MATERIALS AND METHODS THAT PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY,

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY, ECONOMIC VITALITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THROUGH

ITS DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION. THIS ARTICLE BRINGS OUT

THE USE OF GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY IN INFRASTRUCTURE LIFE-CYCLE

AND THE CHALLENGES INVOLVED

Geospatial World II July 2011

COVER STORYture, including planning, building, operations and mainte-nance. Besides being able to provide location, geospatialprofessionals contribute an understanding of handlingdatasets, merging datasets and in particular, of accuracy.An infrastructure is frequently developed in a piecemealfashion by different organisations using data from manysources; managing this as a whole requires detailed infor-mation at scales ranging from regional to neighbourhoodlevel.

A key component in establishing and main-taining a sustainable infrastructure is good

records. This is necessary for managingthe infrastructure. As an example, con-

sider the infrastructure for a city whichmight include details of buildings,inside and out, transport, and under-ground services: the data wouldhave been compiled from manysources such as traditional survey-ing, photogrammetry, laser scan-ning and existing digital or hardcopy records. It is important tounderstand the legacy of the datato assess its quality before the datais used for modelling to help plan-ning efficient use of energy, under-

stand and reduce air pollution, noisepollution etc.

Another issue is the role of govern-ment and national mapping organisa-

tions (NMOs). Governments may mandateauthorities to manage 'green facilities' for

the benefit of the society. In the United King-dom, several directives require local authorities

to take note of the green infrastructure concept inmaking their plans and decisions. NMOs can supply

basic data for management of urban and rural infra-structure, but do not generally get directly involved.

Geospatial industry involvement

At the recent Hexagon user conference, the main theme

Definitions

ww Infrastructure is defined by Wikipedia as the basicphysical and organisational structures needed for theoperation of a society or enterprise, or the services andfacilities necessary for an economy to function.

ww A Sustainable Infrastructure is considered to beone in which maintaining, repairing and upgrading theinfrastructure sustains our quality of life.

ww Green Infrastructure is a strategically planned anddelivered network comprising the broadest range of high-quality green spaces and other environmental features.

ww Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a frameworkof spatial data, metadata, users and tools that are interac-tively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficientand flexible way.

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revolved around building a smarter planet focusing ongreen infrastructure and green energy, demonstratingthat a geospatial company has linked up these globalissues with its business focus. Other companies such asESRI, Autodesk and other GIS software companies arecomplementing positioning technology companies likeTrimble, Topcon, and Leica which are strongly pursuinginfrastructure as a major business segment.

Bentley has developed software for managing 3DCities and emphasises on 3D modelling, quality control,management, 3D analysis and design as the essentialcomponents. Quality of course is a primary element ofgeospatial data for this type of application, as well asinteroperability. Bentley recognises the terrain, buildings,transportation network, bodies of water, city furniture,electric/power lines, and vegetation objects as the com-ponents of an urban infrastructure.

Esri provides software for managing geospatial dataand this has been used for such diverse applications andmanaging cities facilities. For example, Esri software hasprovided optimum location for building materials andvisualisation software to communicate the status ofenergy and water usage to the residents of Masdar city inUAE.

Merrick & Co, through its products, demonstrateshow geospatial techniques can contribute to every stagein the life-cycle of a power line project , demonstratingefficiencies at each stage, and particularly in the ongoingoperations and maintenance stage essential for sustain-able energy supply.

Spatial data infrastructure

A prime example of a spatial data infra structure isINSPIRE in Europe. INSPIRE will enable the sharing of

environmental spatial information among public sectororganisations and facilitates better public access to spa-tial information across Europe. It will assist in policy-making across boundaries. The spatial information con-sidered under the INSPIRE directive is extensive andincludes a great variety of topical and technical themes.INSPIRE is linked to GMES (Global Monitoring of Environ-ment and Security). INSPIRE and GMES share manycommonalities such as their focus on environmental pol-icy support, their system of systems nature, their use ofgeomatic and geographic information, their Europe, orworldwide, dimension, their reliance on internationalstandards and the advanced spatial data infrastructuresthat are needed for their implementation.

An example of a service provided by GMES is 'TheSpatial Planning Service' which provides harmonised andhighly accurate earth observation based informationproducts and tools to describe, explain and forecasturban land use changes supporting spatial planning fromregional to European scale. The Spatial Planning Serviceof GMES builds upon the applicability of core landcover/land use mapping data from the continental GMESLand Monitoring Core Service, which depict the extent,development and density of urban areas and their sur-rounding landscapes. Subsequently, the maps are inte-grated with ancillary geospatial and statistical data intogeographical information procedures, toolsets and mod-els. These derived information products open the way foranalysing demographic developments and for analysis ofchanging land use and its impact on the environment. Akey benefit is seen as support of spatial planning author-ities with consistent and comparable EO based informa-tion products and tools to describe, explain and forecasturban land use changes and this indicates how the use ofgeospatial data is moving from observing and monitoring

Geospatial World II July 201134

FFiigguurree 11.. The life cycle of a power line project

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35Geospatial World II July 2011

to the evaluation of policy options.Another example is in Indonesia where the SDI serves

many central and local government departments and theprivate sector. This is emphasised by the example of theIndonesian SDI which will serve not only BAKOSUR-TANAL (the national mapping agency) and the NationalLand Registry, but also the National Aeronautics andAerospace Institute, government ministries includingforestry, public works, transportation, agriculture,marine and fisheries and also the private sector and localgovernments which has more has 500 nodes participat-ing. This was discussed further in the article on NationalMapping Agencies in May 2011 of Geospatial World.

It might be argued that progress in Africa is hinderedby the lack of a spatial data infrastructure, although thisdeficiency is recognised and being remedied by projectssuch as the African Reference Framework (AfREF) proj-ect which is designed to set up a continent wide referencesystem, making it easier for data to be exchangedbetween organisations in different countries.

Sustainable cities

A key theme in current development practice is the sus-tainable city and more specifically, the eco city. The ideais to make cities cleaner, greener and more energy effi-cient, and the role of geospatial information is central tothis. The city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, self proclaimed asthe 'world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city' is aprime example. In Masdar, it is recognised that GIS has akey role to play and a GIS team is responsible for manag-ing the overall spatial information needs of the project.This includes the provision of basic geospatial informa-tion tools such as a base map and visualisation tools toenable all stakeholders to understand the environment.

Planners use GIS to determine the siting of key facili-ties like Masdar's water treatment and sewage plants,material recycling centre, solar power plant, geothermaltest site, solar panel test field and concrete batchingplant - all amenities which need to be situated inside thecity's boundaries. GIS is seen to operate as a decision-making tool; informing the practitioners who work on theMasdar project. GIS is also being used to model some ofMasdar's key infrastructural features directly. Its involve-ment in simulating the city-wide Personal Rapid Trans-port System (PRTS) is one such example. (More informa-tion on Masdar on Page No. 40)

Another example comes from the USA. The City of

Philadelphia has a plan to invest USD 2 billion over thenext 25 years on green infrastructure to clean up thecity's water. According to the information available atPWD's website , GIS is already playing a major role in thisambitious initiative. The Department is using GIS toanalyse and visualise information about its watersheds.GIS software enabled users to view individual or multiplephysical features as a series of stacked, two-dimensional'layers' that form accurate maps and diagrams. Thecapability of this software encompasses many other dataanalysis functions; for example, GIS can be used to tracesewer routes, find how much of a watershed area ismade up of certain types of land uses, or determinewhich land parcels are located adjacent to creeks.

There are many well known examples of the use ofgeospatial information to improve the quality of the envi-ronment, and to make activities more efficient. Other

FFiigguurree 33.. Major Philadelphia watersheds

FFiigguurree 22.. Proposed Masterplan of Masdar City

Geospatial World II July 201136

examples include the use of 3D city models (air and noisepollution) and emergency services (GNSS for efficientrouting, location of vehicles and facilities and use of facil-ities). A less well known example is the mapping anddescription of trees which can be done by combininginformation from imagery and from laser scanning,together with contextual information.

While showing where trees are, an assessment canbe made on the overall impact which they might have onthe immediate area in the form of roots affecting adjacentbuildings; the impact of water run-off and the effect onlighting, all requiring information on the species, canopyextent and height. Insurance companies also find thisinformation useful in assessing the risk to buildings andservices. The location of smart energy meters in domes-tic properties can provide information of how energy isbeing used and help plan more efficient delivery.

Transport

Transport is another area where geospatial information isimportant. Using GNSS for routing is a long establishedtechnique which makes journeys shorter and saves fuel,but the application can be more sophisticated than this.Ola Rollen of Hexagon gives the example of using GI forthe siting of bus stops, where the slope of the road is tak-en into account: more fuel is needed if a bus has to starton an upward slope, so it is more fuel efficient to site busstops on downward slopes.

Many countries are building high speed rail networks

and geomatics techniques are being used in the plan-ning, construction and management of these networks.An important element of a railway system is safety andalthough GNSS can provide position, this has to be 100%reliable if used for signalling. For example, Figure 5shows the track of a GPS receiver plotted on an aerialimage as the number of satellites used for positioningchanges. Current research is determining how completereliability can be achieved by using available GNSS sys-tems to overcome this problem.

Another interesting example comes from Portugal .Ferbritas SA is a consulting engineering company spe-cialising in transport. They use GIS within their projectlife-cycle and stress that "The requirements of the asso-ciated interventions are very technical in nature andinvolve multiple specialties and technologies, and thefinal result is only guaranteed if the various componentsof this interwoven puzzle are compatible and properlyjoined together." GIS is an important tool in this process;they have also developed a Cadastre Information System"designed to meet the needs of the rail sector andbeyond. It also is applicable to the activities of entities ororganisations to which it is important to ensure thedynamic control of cadastral and real estate property."

GI measuring techniques are used to measure thethickness of tarmac on road surfaces, ensuring that onlythe optimum amount of material is used. Similar tech-niques are used on the Monaco Formula 1 grand prix cir-cuit to accurately define the exact topography of thetrack.

FFiigguurree 44.. IKONOS image with LiDAR point cloud showing position of trees.

FFiigguurree 55.. The track of a GPS receiver plotted on an aerial image as thenumber of satellites used for positioning changes .

37Geospatial World II July 2011

Another example from the USA is illustrated in theTransportation for the Nation (TFTN) strategic plan inwhich it has been recognised that redundancy in datasetscost taxpayers millions of dollars. The generation of con-sistent, current, high quality road centre line data for theentire country would bring about significant efficiencies.As well as using existing datasets, the identifiedapproach also envisions capitalising on the emergence ofvolunteered geographic information (crowd sourcing) tomaintain quality and provide a user feedback mecha-nism. A completed comprehensive dataset will communi-cate knowledge of the US road network, thereby promot-ing innovation, commerce, informed public discourse,basic research and sharing within open communities ofinterest. Some pervasive applications include: on-boardvehicle navigation, emergency vehicle dispatching androuting, census enumeration, postal and delivery servic-es, disaster response and relief efforts, tax collection,mapping accidents, asset inventories, map directions onsmartphones, and other location-based systems. In addi-tion to the general uses of road centre lines outlinedabove, transportation professionals utilise road centrelines extensively for explicit transportation planning andmanagement activities. These activities include highwaysafety involving issues like road geometry and guardrailplacement, intelligent transportation system planning,congestion management and environmental issues suchas wetlands and air quality along rights-of-way, andhighway performance issues to gauge the health andusability of the transportation system.

Challenges

On the face of it, the examples above seem to provide awin-win situation: the use of GI allows infrastructureprojects to be more efficient and save money. The GI soft-ware companies and the instrument providers recognisethis and target infrastructure managers with their prod-ucts. Key issues are whether such large and diversedatasets can be managed and shared by different depart-ments, in other words: can spatial data infrastructurescope with the demand put upon them. Potential issuesarising from this include interoperability between soft-ware packages and standards to ensure smooth datatransfer. It should be the geospatial community whichensures that their data can be used efficiently on the sys-tems used by local authorities and government. CanNMOs and commercial mapping companies provide the

data which can be used in complex systems? Can thedata providers and software providers also act as systemanalysts and ensure that data and software are compati-ble across the board? Is this an opportunity for GI profes-sionals to extend their expertise, and their influencebeyond providing data?

The other side of the coin is that decision makersmust be convinced that geospatial information is fit forpurpose, and that money spent in developing compre-hensive infrastructure management will pay off. May be itcan in a new development such as Masdar, but can sucha system be imposed on existing, multi-sector organisa-tions? Another important tool to help decision makersand the public to understand information is to use visual-isation tools developed by geospatial industry, but this toomust go with intelligent presentation.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that geospatial information is essentialto the development and management of infrastructure. Awell planned and well managed system can be sustain-able but there are necessary preconditions: all potentialusers should be aware of what is involved and what thebenefits could be. The development of a wide selection ofcase studies to demonstrate the benefits in efficiency andcost effectiveness brought about by geospatial informa-tion would be beneficial. Many straight forward examplesexist, ranging from the simple provision of a static posi-tion, through positioning for routing and the emergencyservices, to geospatial analysis of data for siting facilities.But it has been demonstrated that GI can provide morethan this, involving the full life-cycle of a project, particu-larly in the maintenance of a facility. Knowledge of accu-racy requirements and accuracy attained is vital, as is thepresentation of information to decision makers and thepublic on the performance of a system.

PPrrooff IIaann DDoowwmmaann,, Editor - Europe, Geospatial Worldian.dowman@GISdevelopment.net

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