it was a year of m&as with over 20 key acquisitions …...that the global rs tech-nology market...

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NEWSMAKERS 2012

It was a year of M&As with over 20 key acquisitions across the geospatial industry, led by DigitalGlobe’s USD 900-million takeover of GeoEye

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MERGERS & AC

Geospatial World I December 2012

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RS & ACQUISITIONS MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS


INDUSTRY TRENDS

Technology genres like cartography, remote sensing, GIS and GPS are growing individually but they need to come together to create geospatial music.

Ola Rollen, President and CEO, Hexagon


Setback to EO industry, Envisat goes silent

In a big blow to earth observation (EO) industry, ESA'sEnvisat, the world's largest earth-watching satellitefor civilian use, stopped sending data to earth in Aprilthis year. The EO satellite was declared dead by theESA on May 9. Realising the urgency, scientists areplanning to launch the GMES Sentinel satellites,which are planned to replace Envisat, as soon as pos-sible. The landmark Envisat mission has been in orbittwice as long as it was designed for. Also, ESAannounced the retirement of its GIOVE-B experimentalnavigation satellite. Paving way for Europe's Galileoconstellation, GIOVE-B is gradually raising its orbit atthe end of its four-year mission. "Since the firstGalileo satellites have joined them in orbit and haveproven to be operating extremely well there is nolonger any role left for these experimental satellites,"said Valter Alpe, managing the GIOVE satellites forESA.

US EO missions hit by budgetshortfalls, launch failures

Budget shortfalls, launch failures and end of long running missions have caused a decline in US earthobservation (EO) capabilities over the last five years, atrend that could undermine the nation's ability tomonitor natural disasters and climate change. Areport, published by the National Research Council(NRC), says that lack of satellite-based earth monitor-ing technologies "will have profound consequences onscience and society." As a consequence, the ability tomeasure and understand changes in earth's climateand life support systems will also degrade. The newreport finds that although NASA responded favorablyand aggressively to the survey, the required budgetwas not achieved, greatly slowing progress.

Financial crisis shrinks spaceexploration space...A challenging economic environment has resulted in global budgets for space programmes reaching a pplateau.

$70 bn Global budgets for space programmes

$10 mn Invested by 53 countries in space applications and technologies

42 Countries investing in space programmes

$43 bn US spending in 2011, first decline since the mid 1990s

Funding trends in various areas

$40 bn Civil programmes

$30 bn Defence space programmes

$10.9 bn Human spaceflight

$9 bn Earth observation & meteorology

$8.4 bn Satellite communications

$6 bn Science andexploration

$3.2 bn

Satellite navigation

$2.4 bn

Space security

Source: Euroconsult

Countries are increasingly being mapped by their people, with 187 out of 192 countries being mapped by their people. Phone is becoming the computer of tomorrow.

Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate, Google

Geospatial World I December 2012 11

Euro 10-bn boost to Europeanspace activities

In an environment of budget constraints and eco-nomic crisis, the European space activities and pro-grammes got a big a breather of EUR 10 billion inNovember. Ministers from the European SpaceAgency's 20 member states and Canada securedinvestments for the detailed definition studies of thenew launcher Ariane 6 and the continuation of thedevelopment of Ariane 5 ME adapted, with the goal todevelop as many commonalities as possible betweenthe two launchers. These activities are funded for twoyears with a decision on the continuation of bothlaunchers to be taken in 2014. Britain's contributionto the ESA will increase by around 30 per cent to EUR240 million a year over the next five years, as the gov-ernment seeks to spur growth in the space sector.

US defence dept’s use of g-techto touch USD 3.2-bn by 2017

The dependence of the US military on GIS technologyis increasing more than ever. The US military isincreasingly using geospatial products and servicesto make quick decisions about operations order,placement of installations and gathering of intelligence. A new research from Frost & Sullivanestimates that Department of Defense (DoD) spend-ing on geospatial products and research will reachUSD 3.21 billion by 2017. This amount would be significantly higher if classified spending were publicly accessible. However, geospatial datarequires exploitation by qualified intelligence analystswho are being inundated with large quantities of rawdata. The Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency is developing technologies that will automateand streamline some initial analysis functions tospeed up the exploitation process.

INDUSTRY TRENDS

... but satellitelaunches stay in orbit

The fate of the satellite launch market for the next 10 years looks bright.

1,075 Satellites to be built worldwide by 2021

$198 bn Revenue to be generated from launch

710 Satellites expected to be ordered by govts.

66% Share of government funding

800 Satellites launched in the past 10 years.

85% Future govt satellite demand dominated by just

six countries — US, Russia, Europe, Japan, China and India

36% The increase in revenues from manufacture and

launch of these satellites

120 Satellites likely to go into orbit each year

260 EO satellites to be launched from 42 countries

75% New commercial orders will be

replacements of ageing spacecraft

100 Spacecraft

launched in 2011

12 Geospatial World I December 2012

NEWSMAKERS

2012

INDUSTRY TRENDS

GIS is evolving into a new platform: cloud GIS. This is making geographic understanding pervasive. Cloud GIS integrates all types of geospatial data, models, and applications and makes them available as web maps. The cloud is agile and flexible.

Jack Dangermond, President, Esri

Remote sensing tech breaksout of defence, intelligenceThe remote sensing technology has been witness-ing increasing interest from various industries eventhough defence, intelligence and security sectorscontinue to be a key growth driver for the market,say analysts at market research firm TechNavio.Consumer electronics and automobile industries

are increasingly adopting RStechnology to enhance their

offerings with advancedfeatures. TechNaviohas even forecastedthat the global RS tech-nology market will growat a CAGR of 6.74 percent over the period2011-2015. One of thekey factors contributingto this market growth isthe need for improvedunderstanding of the

earth system. As a result,the government sector is the major

end-user of remote sensors.

Big data creating bigger opportunitiesBig data is just getting bigger. Today, it has become as essential to businesses as land, labour and capital, says areport by Capgemini. The use of big data has improved businesses' performance, on an average, by 26 per cent and the impact will grow to 41 per cent over the next three years. As majority of companies (58 per cent) claim they willmake a bigger investment in big data over the next three years, the area is expected to create 4.4 million IT jobs global-ly, of which 1.9 million will be in the US, says a study by analyst firm Gartner. “Every big data related role in the US willcreate employment for three people outside of IT, so over the next four years a total of 6 million jobs in the US will begenerated by the information economy,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior VP and global head of research, Gartner.

Global slowdown gives anupward push to GIS

The economic cri-sis has proved tobe a boon in dis-guise for the globalGIS market, whichis expected to growat a CAGR of 9.2per cent over the

period 2011-2015. Many non-manufacturing industrieshave started to adopt GIS technology at a rapid rate asthey see these customised solutions as a way of surviving in this competitive business environment,says a report by TechNavio. Although industry-specificGIS solutions are currently available, customers alsoexpect company-specific GIS solutions. CustomisedGIS applications and solutions offer numerousopportunities. The public sector continuesto drive the market and is expected toretain its dominant role even asgovernments and military bod-ies are increasingly investingin GIS to enhance nationalsecurity infrastructure.


The US will join Europe and other nations in developing an international code of conduct for space operations. A code of conduct will help maintain the long-term sustainability, safety, stability and security of space by establishing guidelines for theresponsible use of space.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State

POLICY

Land administration systems back on trackAfter a long wait offive years, the 'LandAdministrationDomain Model(LADM)' wasapproved as an offi-cial International ISOStandard on Novem-ber 1. This is a mile-stone in the develop-ment of land admin-istration systems asthere is an urgentneed worldwide for proper standards in land information, both for initial data acquisition and fordata maintenance and information exchange. Thestandard provides an abstract, conceptual modelwith four packages related to parties (people andorganisations); basic administrative units, rights,responsibilities, and restrictions (ownershiprights); spatial units (parcels, and the legal spaceof buildings and utility networks); and spatialsources (surveying), and spatial representations(geometry and topology).

Standards to promote spatial data sharing across defence forces

Recognising the importance of sharing geospatial data across multinational ground forces, the US Army in collabora-tion with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and US Marine Corps (USMC) is working to establish the Ground-Warfighter Geospatial Data Model (GGDM) as the ground-warfighter National System for Geospatial-Intelligence stan-dard. The GGDM will serve as one of the core components of the Army Geospatial Enterprise. The purpose of the effortis to reduce stovepipes, lower costs, simplify acquisition and accelerate transition of technology as part of a standardand shareable geospatial foundation. A roadmap is being established for transitioning Army ground-warfighter systemsand geospatial data to the GGDM.

NGA vision redefines the power of geointelligenceIn an era of fiscal austerity and increasingly complexchallenges, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency(NGA) must anticipate tomorrow's threats to positionitself for the future. Setting the future course of action ofthe agency, NGA released its strategic goals and objec-

tives for thenext fiveyears. Thestrategy aimsto ensure thegeospatialintelligencediscipline is akey contribu-tor to USintegratedintelligenceoperations insupport ofmultiple mis-sion areas,

including military and intelligence operations, intelligenceanalysis, homeland defence and humanitarian and disas-ter relief.


POLICY

Maps are becoming apps. Today, data is a commodity andapps must be readily available to users; for users nowadaysare tech-savvy customers, collaborators, contributors andcreators.

Barry Barlow, Director, Online Geoint Services, NGA

Galileo, EGNOS missions get a lifeline

At a time when governments are reeling under tremendous space budgetconstraints, the European Commissionearmarked around EUR 7.9 billion to complete the EU's satellite navigationinfrastructure over a seven-year period.The industry committee members of theEuropean parliament approved the newlegislation in September to ensure Galileo and the EGNOS programmes could be funded and operated from 2014 to 2020. The EU wants to ensure that from 2014 key services such as

police and ambulance services continue to operate in times of crisis and are free. So must the Safety of Life Service, a European Geostationary NavigationOverlay Service (EGNOS) programme, which will be fully available later and will make air navigation safer.

ISRO creates history with 100th launch

The Indian SpaceResearch Organisation(ISRO) made history as itlaunched its 100thindigenous mission onSeptember 9 this year.The space agency's PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) successfullylaunched two foreignsatellites, SPOT 6, aFrench remote sensingsatellite and PROITERESof Japan. This launch ishailed as the first all-commercial launch byISRO. Speaking toGeospatial World, DeviPrasad Karnik,spokesperson, ISRO,said, "Apart from revenue generation, thislaunch has enabled ISRO to build up its credibilityamong foreign customers. With this launch, ISROhas strengthened its position as a sought-after commercial launcher."

Image courtesy: ISRO


INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Cloud, mobile and social technologies are reshaping design work-flows. We are moving to a world where the computing centre of theworld is really where you are. I'll never [again] be in the position ofsaying I'll email you those files when I get back to the office.

Carl Bass, President and CEO, Autodesk

Keeping an eye from the sky onvolcanoes

Hope is here on volcanoes too. Interferometric Syn-thetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data can be used tomonitor volcanoes. Tiny changes on the groundcause changes in the radar signal and lead to rain-bow-coloured interference patterns in the combinedimage, known as a 'SAR interferogram'. Movement ofmagma underground may cause deformation of thesurface above, thus enabling InSAR to monitor volcanoes. An article, 'Monitoring Volcanoes', pub-lished in Science refers to a study of over 440 active

volcanoes in 16developing coun-tries and revealsthat 384 haverudimentary or nomonitoring,including 65 vol-canoes identifiedas posing a high

risk to large populations. In response, the EuropeanSpace Agency claimed that earth-observing satellites such as Envisat can detect unrest on currentlyunmonitored volcanoes.

New system measures quakescale in minutes

Aftershocks and delay inprompt evacuation after ahuge earthquake oftenleads to more casualtiesand damages. To addressthis, the Geospatial Infor-mation Authority of Japan,in association with TohokuUniversity, has developed anew GPS-based quake scaleestimation system whichcan estimate the scale ofcrustal movement withinminutes. This is much fasterthan the system widely usednow that takes more thanfive hours to do so. Forinstance, at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquakeand tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency initiallyannounced its magnitude was 7.9, but drasticallyrevised it to 9.0 two days later. The new system couldhave estimated the preliminary magnitude of thequake at 8.7 and helped save lives.

Off-the-shelf smartphone to help soldiers on battlefieldSmartphones just got smarter this year. University of Missouri (MU) researchers have developed a new software usingsmartphone GPS and imaging abilities that determine the exact location of distant objects as well as monitor the speedand direction of moving objects. The software could eventually allow smartphone-armed soldiers to target the locationof their enemies. "On the battlefield, a soldier needs a rangefinder, compass, GPS and other tools to do reconnais-sance before calling in an air strike. With our software, the soldier can have all those instruments in one device thatcan be purchased off the shelf. When the soldier returns from war, he can use the same software to protect their familyby clocking a speeder near his children's school," says Qia Wang from MU.

Image courtesy: NASA

Some 20 quakes of magnitude6 or greater rocked Japan afterMarch 11, 2011 quake. Thelargest aftershock was a magnitude 7.1 quake thatstruck less than an hour afterthe main shock.



More and more content is getting geo-referenced and displayed on a map. So, there is enormous growth in theusage of geographical information systems and data. We arelicensing our content to smartphone makers and developingour own mobile applications.

Harold Goddijn, Founder & CEO, TomTom

EU plans to map Internetcensorship around the world

Keeping track of reports about denial of Internetfreedom and surveillance initiatives could be a

difficult task. But soon there could be a solution athand. The European Union (EU) will launch a globalmonitoring system that will help chart digital repression by mapping the Internet's 'cyber geography' in near real-time. The European Corpo-rate Security Association (ECSA) will attempt to visu-alise up-to-date intelligence about the state of theInternet across the world. It will show content filter-ing, blocking, or other disruptions to the Web, amongother things. ECSA could prove to be a vital resource, particularly if it is opened up for free public use.

Autonomous plane flies indoors without GPS

After years of decades of research, the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have broughtthe world one step closer to autonomous robotic vehicles. MIT researchers have developed a fixed-wing plane that can travel at high speeds while dodg-ing obstacles and manoeuvring through tight spaceswithout GPS. The aircraft is able to navigate itself byusing on-board sensors, a laser and a basic IntelAtom processor. For it to truly be autonomous andwork in the real world, researchers need to equip theplane with the ability to map its own environment.Using an algorithm for determining its "state" itslocation, physical orientation, velocity and accelera-tion the plane was able to complete a seven-minute

flight at 22 miles per hour during tests. It coveredthree miles of distance and managed to avoid obsta-cles despite coming a few centimetres within them.

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Image courtesy: Reporters without borders, an NGO for freedom of expression and information

The question I keep asking myself is with all of this technology have wereally taken the steps forward that we should have? Simply being fasterand simply being cheaper is not enough. The idea is to use the technolo-gy and be transformational and be better than we have been before.

Steve Berglund, President & CEO, Trimble



Phones in space: Nanosatellites to ride Android

In a technological breakthrough, NASA's team of engineers at Ames Research Center have developed nanosatellitespowered by Android smartphones. Expected to be launched this year itself, the devices are cube-shaped miniaturesatellites — smaller and lighter, measuring about 4 inches and weighing less than 4 pounds. Being built with off-the-shelf hardware, which is reducing the cost of each prototype to USD 3,500, the nanosatellites can be operated by cellphones, which provide the operating system and the communications capabilities. NASA says it has already builttwo types of these smartphone satellites.

Wear a gadget, map yoursurroundings

Sandy-like hurri-canes can stillwreak havoc butrelief may comequicker and easiernow. To help emer-gency responderscoordinate disasterresponse,researchers at theMassachusettsInstitute of Tech-nology (MIT) havebuilt a wearablesensor system thatautomatically cre-ates a digital map

of the environment through which the wearer is mov-ing. In experiments, a student wearing the sensorsystem wandered the MIT halls and the sensorswirelessly relayed data to a laptop in a distant confer-ence room. Observers in the conference room wereable to track the student's progress on a map thattracked movements. The prototype sensor alsoincludes a stripped-down Microsoft Kinect cameraand a laser rangefinder.

New navigation system couldgive GPS a run for its money GPS can soon become a thing of past. UK defencefirm BAE Systems has developed a new positioningsystem, Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAV-SOP), which could complement or even replace cur-rent technologies such as GPS. NAVSOP relies on thesame signals used by mobile phones, TVs, radios andWi-Fi rather than navigation satellites. NAVSOPcould help find victims inside buildings during a fireand locate stolen vehicles hidden in underground carparks, claims BAE Systems. It could also be used ina war if the SatNav system was turned off. It wouldalso be useful to the military in case one side delib-erately switches off GPS to prevent its adversaryfrom locating its units.

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FOR A BETTER WORLD

Basic essential data which emerges from Planet Earth must be available free of cost across the board to anybody who wishes to useit. This is one thing that needs to be agreed upon if we really want tomake use of data in a substantial way.

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communication and IT, India

NASA tries to penetrate the thickand thin of oil spill

Two years andbillions of dol-lars in clean-up operationsafter the BP oilspill in the Gulfof Mexico, thecoast is farfrom clear. In abid to improveresponse opera-tions to such environmental disasters in future,researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory andthe California Institute of Technology have developed amethod to use specialised NASA 3D imaging radar tocharacterise the oil in case of spills. The team usedUninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radarwhich characterises an oil spill by detecting variationsin the roughness of its surface and, for thick slicks,changes in the electrical conductivity of its surfacelayer. UAVSAR's high sensitivity and other capabilitiesenabled the team to separate thick and thin oil for thefirst time using a radar system.

Global mineral map to aid in mining explorationsThis could be handy for mining companies reeling under soaring exploration costs. Scientists at Australia's Common-wealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in collaboration with those from Japan and USA, havedeveloped the world's first continent-wide suite of mineral maps. The new suite of maps will enable mining companiesto increase the efficiency and viability of their exploration efforts. The mineral maps show information about rock andsoil mineral components and provide a Google-like zoom to view images from thousands of kilometres wide to just afew kilometres. The maps were generated from a 10-year archive of raw Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission andReflection data collected by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Japanese government'sSpace Systems.

A network of networks for crisis response

Online technology communities step up to gather,process and share crucial information resources tohelp aid agencies on the ground in times of emergen-cies such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake or HurricaneSandy. In view of the fact that volunteer communitiesoften are adept at exploiting online technologies andcrowdsourcing methods to turn new sources of rawdata into useful intelligence, MapAction, CrisisMappersand GISCorps have teamed up with the United Nationsto form DigitalHumanitarian Network(DHN). The Networkaims to provide a bet-ter linkage betweenformal humanitarianorganisations and theonline technologycommunities in disaster situations. For example,blending analysis of satellite imagery with mobilephone traffic data may offers ways to detect movementof displaced people across a disaster zone. DHN isaimed at reducing "data noise" and providing betteraccess to priority information for aid agencies.

BP was fined USD 4.5 bn for Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Image courtesy: DigitalGlobe


FOR A BETTER WORLD

Open atlas to track renewableenergy sources

With diminishing energy resources, the calls for use ofalternative sources like solar radiation and wind powerare getting shriller. However, understanding where andwhen these renewable energy sources are available isessential for their effective exploitation. In order tomake this data available globally, the first atlas forsolar and wind energy has been launched by the Inter-

national Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and theGerman Aerospace Centre (DLR). The atlas providesopen access to information about where solar and windenergy can best be exploited and is set to acceleratethe development of renewable energy sources. Existingmaps and data collections of solar and wind energyresources are limited, claims IRENA.

Governments and private sector should work together tomake accurate, authoritative, reliable geospatial informationreadily available to support national, regional and globaldevelopment.

Paul Cheung, Director, United Nations Statistics Division

Global group to improveemergency mapping

Earth observationsatellites andimagery areincreasingly beingused to map andsupport disasterand emergencyrelief operations.Global cooperation,best practices,shared technicalstandards and pro-tocol are, therefore,needed to improvesatellite-basedemergency map-

ping. To support this vision, an International WorkingGroup on satellite-based emergency mapping (IWG-SEM) was formed by approximately 20 representa-tives from different space agencies. The IWG-SEMaims to establish best practices between emergency-mapping programmes (like International Charter,Sentinel Asia and GMES Initial Operations Emer-gency Management Service) to enable better collabo-ration and capacity coordination, with a view to alsodefine jointly a set of professional standards foremergency mapping and data use.

Once completed, the atlas will give analysis of wind and solarpotential at any geographic scale and real-time calculation ofspecific indicators, e.g. CO2 reductions, investment, marketand employment volume


FOR A BETTER WORLD

We need to explore how geospatial technology can help the bottom of the pyramid. Creating a sustainable development modelfor the 3 billion rural people involves linking data, informationexchange and proper dissemination."

Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India

Seabed map to explorepotential of European waters

Oceans and seasthat surroundEurope offernew opportuni-ties for growthand jobs. To besttap this poten-tial, the Euro-pean Commission(EC) has proposed to create a digital seabed map ofthe European waters by 2020 by collecting all exist-ing data into one coherent database accessible toeveryone. The new seamless multi-resolution digital seabed map of European waters will be ofthe highest resolution possible, covering topogra-phy, geology, habitats and ecosystems. "The Euro-pean economy can benefit from a more structuredapproach to marine knowledge. This can improvethe competitiveness of those working on our seasand coasts by EUR 300 million per year. It can gen-erate new opportunities worth another EUR 200million a year,” said, Maria Damanaki, Commission-er for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

Waste no more! Roadmap tosolve garbage crisis

Health experts and environmentalists increasinglyconcerned about the billions of tonnes of waste pro-duced worldwide can rest easy. The Clinton Global Ini-tiative has launched the Foundation for SustainableWaste Resources. The first initiative of the foundationwill be to partner with organisations, companies and

NGOs to create an interactive global map of globalwaste sites and systems. The map will be createdthrough development of a platform using IT, GIS, data-bases and mobile applications. Existing databases andsources will be merged and uploaded into a singledatabase. The foundation will identify locations of sig-nificant amounts of waste and then work with thewaste management industry, including collectors,developers and governments to find ways to convertthat waste into valuable resources.

Strengthening space technology for disaster response

Space-based technologies and solutions are increasingly being used for risk assessment, mitigation and preparednessphases of disaster management. As the global community learnt from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan,space technologies have a central role to play in providing early warning to communities that are at risk. Recognisingthe importance of such technologies, Asia-Pacific countries launched a five-year campaign aimed at promoting greateruse of space technology and GIS for improved disaster risk reduction and management as well as to minimise the envi-ronmental costs of economic growth in the region. To achieve this, the Asia-Pacific Years of Action aims to increase rel-evant activities at the national, sub-regional and regional levels, while building on efforts to strengthen regional coop-eration in applications of space technology and GIS.

Image courtesy: Subsea World

it was a year of m&as with over 20 key acquisitions …...that the global rs tech-nology market...

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