may - june 2006 vol 2 issue 3...location-based services anamika das & dr satyaprakash 2222 may -...

Location-Based ServicesAnamika Das & Dr Satyaprakash

Location-Based ServicesAnamika Das & Dr Satyaprakash

2222

MAY - JUNE 2006 VOL 2 ISSUE 3

www.gisdevelopment.net

30 THE GALILEO TEST

RANGE

G. Lancia, Marco Manca

34 CONTAINER SECURITY

WITH GEOGRAPHIC INFORMA-

TION SYSTEM

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. HelmutKraenzle

40 VERTICAL CONTROL

NETWORK OF AL AIN REGION

Dr Kamal Abdellatif Abdalla

46 GNSS RTK NETWORKS

AND THEIR BENEFITS

Ratan.K.Awasthi

Rolta Tower A, Rolta Technology ParkMIDC, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 093, India

Tel. : +91(22) 2832 6666 / 2826 2222Fax +91(22) 2836 5992 ROLTA

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DEPARTMENTS

EDITORIAL 07 NEWS 08 EVENTS 50

GNSS

30 THE GALILEO TEST RANGE

G. Lancia, Marco Manca, Filippo Rodriguez, Franco GottifrediThe Galileo Test Range paper

assesses the development of a

laboratory for the test and analy-

sis of the Galileo signals,the sup-

port for the development,test and

certification of user terminals

(GPS, EGNOS, Galileo)and of

applications in different user

domains....

GIS

34 CONTAINER SECURITY

WITH GEOGRAPHIC

INFORMATION SYSTEM

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Helmut KraenzleThis paper assesses the

GISSCM's method of

monitoring containers

that enable high risk or

hazardous material to contain

additional alerts....

SURVEYING

40 VERTICAL CONTROL

NETWORK OF AL AIN REGION

Dr Kamal Abdellatif Abdalla

GPS INFRASTRUCTURE

46 GNSS RTK NETWORKS AND

THEIR BENEFITSThis paper enisages how a

GNSS RTK Network can deliverfaster ambiguity resolution,longer ranges andhigher reliability....

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T | J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 Vo l . 0 2 I s s u e 0 4

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22 Location Based Services Anamika Das & Dr Satyaprakash

34

46

Middle East has been a region marked by availability of resource and willingness tochange. The ability to absorb new technologies has always been fast. It is quite evidentfrom the widespread usage of GPS in infrastructure projects, car navigation and trans-portation including surface and marine. This has been supported by the availability togeospatial database also. The outcome is most of the private cars and taxis which arebeing sold are fitted with the car navigation system which helps the person look forbetter routes to go from one place to other. The government initiatives are also worthnoting for an example the Dubai Government has implemented through the RoadTransport Authority the Intelligent transportation system, ITES along with Daliliwhich is bound to provide the car navigation systems a new perspective. The privateindustry too has grown in this segment. There are car navigation solution whichcomes along with the hardware, necessary software and map data being sold as commodity in the open market. This looks like a sign of maturing of the satellite basednavigation and positioning industry.

But, amongst these happening things, there is something missing. Location Based Services. The LBS, which is now under consideration by Etisalat, should be available tothe user shortly. The other area, where the Middle East region could look into is thesatellite or ground based augmentation system. Possibly it could be looked into by theGCC, which could benefit the entire region of Middle East.

7G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

From the Editor

[email protected]

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

8 G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

IRAN

Researcherscreate 3D modelof tomb andprison of Cyrusthe GreatIran's Parse-PasargadaeResearch Center has succeed-ed in providing the accurate3D model of the prison andtomb of Cyrus the Great inPasargadae to keep an eter-

nal perspective of these twounique monuments. Thisproject was done in conjunc-tion with Iran's AstronomyCommunity and a team con-sisted of archeologists andIranian and foreign experts.The monument which isknown as the prison of Cyrusis something similar toZoroaster's Kaba which is inNaqsh-e Rostam historicalsite. Only one wall from oneside of this prison hasremained and the three oth-ers have been destroyed overtime. This monument was onthe verge of collapse; there-fore scaffolds were setbehind the only remainedwall to prevent collapsing ofthis wall although the metalsupports have somehow vul-garized the landscape of thismonument, but it was theonly way to save the remain-ing of Cyrus' jail in shortest

time. In order to strengthenand restore this historicalprison, the remained stonesshould be detached and afterstrengthening them, wewould stick them backtogether. Of course, thisprocess many cause someharms to the monument.Therefore, to reduce the pos-sible damages to the monu-ment as much as possible,the map and hologram ofthis monument and thetomb of Cyrus the Great wereprovided with the support ofIran's Astronomy Communi-ty. Hologram is a laser photo-graph which makes a pictureor image look life-like. The 3Dplan of the monument hasbeen provided with maxi-mum precision and delicacyand will give archeologists achance to observe all thedetails of this monumentwith computer. Pasargadaehistorical site, which is regis-tered in the List of UNESCO'sWorld Heritage Sites, was thefirst dynastic capital of theAchaemenid Empire, found-ed by Cyrus the Great, in Pars,homeland of the Persians inthe 6th century BC.

www.chn.ir

KAZAKHSTAN

Remote sensingsatellite launchedfrom BaikonurA Russian Soyuz rocketlaunched a civilian Earthobservation satellite intoorbit on June 15 to begin athree-year mission to keeptabs on natural resources and

emergencies from space forboth government and com-mercial users. The payloadwas the first such craftlaunched since 1999. The

three-stage Soyuz rocket lift-ed off at 0800 GMT (4:00a.m. EDT) from the BaikonurCosmodrome in central Kaza-khstan. The almost 15,000-pound Resurs DK1 spacecraftsuccessfully separated fromthe Soyuz upper stage lessthan nine minutes later in anorbit with an apogee ofapproximately 230 miles, aperigee of around 125 miles,and an inclination of about70 degrees. The newestmember of the Resurs satel-lite fleet is the first in anupgraded series of spacecraftwith improved capabilitiesin imaging resolution andcommunications. Resurs DK1will offer one-meter resolu-tion images in black-and-white and a resolution of upto two meters in color. Unlikemost earlier Russian civilianremote sensing craft, ResursDK1 carries an advanced

communications system toquickly downlink recentimages to ground stations.Resurs DK1 drasticallyreduces the lag time fromdays and weeks to minutesand hours. An area of up to270,000 square miles can bedocumented in just one dayby the new observation bird.Images from Resurs DK1 willbe used by Russian govern-ment agencies, internationalgroups, and even sold com-mercially to private cus-tomers. It is expected that theimages will help shed lighton the usage of naturalresources, all types of envi-ronmental pollution, andhuman and natural disasters.Other areas of study includesea surface status, ice obser-vation, and the monitoringof polar weather conditions.Data from the satellite couldalso aid in topographic andthematic mapping.

www.en.rian.ru

LEBANON

Lebanesegovernment tocreate unifiednational mapfrom satelliteimagesThe Minister of State forAdministrative Develop-ment, Jean Hogassapian hasannounced that his ministrywill draw a "unified nationalmap" created from digitalsatellite images and essen-tial for GIS. The project wasprepared by the National

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News: Middle East


Committee to Organize andDevelop a Unified NationalMap of Geographic Informa-tion Systems and GIS expertGhassan Mikati, and execut-ed by the Bureau StephanCompany. The project willallow 11 public institutions touse the images, said MarounKhreish, head of the Direc-torate of Geographic Affairs,and Army approval will berequired to copy or sell theimages. The images will helpin conducting geographicanalysis and statistics in dif-ferent fields.

www.dailystar.com

PAKISTAN

Charles Darwinresearchers tomake use of GISfor solving waterproblemCharles Darwin University(CDU) researchers are work-ing with colleagues fromPunjab University and gov-ernment agencies in Pak-istan to help solve a criticalwater problem. Over the last40 years, sediment has beenbuilding up at the bottom ofthe giant Malaga Dam reser-voir on the river Jhelum. Theresearch will determine themajor sources of sediment bycombining erosion modeling,GIS, Remote Sensing, geo-morphology, hydrology andsediment source tracing. Partof the Indus river basin sys-tem, the Malaga Dam wasbuilt in 1967 with a storagecapacity of 5.88 million-acre

feet. Since its construction, alarge quantity of sedimenthas been continuously trans-ported into the reservoirreducing its storage capacityby 20 per cent. This has had aimpact on irrigation andelectricity generation. Theresearch project also includesthe Tarbela Dam in the Induscatchment area, which is alsosuffering from a build up ofsediment. Construction of afurther dam upstream willassist in reducing the prob-lem but requires carefulplanning construction.

www.cdu.edu.au

UAE

New policefacility linked toover 1,000camerasDubai Police's new Opera-tions Room is linked to morethan 1,000 cameras coveringthe entire emirate. The newfacilities also include moni-toring the location of policepatrols and the military byusing the Tetra system andGPS. The facility, which has40 monitors, has 1,089 cam-eras, which are linked to thir-teen shopping malls and sev-en police stations. The cam-eras can be used at night andin cases of people drowning.They can also be used in res-cue missions if buildings col-lapse. The new operationsroom can accommodate 87members of staff and hasnine sections, which includestaking emergency calls andmanning hotline numbers.

The facility also houses acriminal investigation con-trol section and traffic acci-dent control section. The 40screens are linked to eachother. The high-tech equip-ment can also scan in the pic-tures of wanted people into acentral system.

A three-dimensional map,which covers the whole emi-rate, is also on display in thenew room. The new opera-tions room is linked to cam-eras in 13 shopping mallsacross the emirate as well asseven police stations. Thenew system also makes pos-sible the use of portable cam-eras during rescue missions.

www.gulfnews.com

Satellite helpsSharjah locategroundwaterresourcesSatellite imaging technologywill boost efforts to findgroundwater in the NorthernEmirates. The Sharjah Elec-tricity and Water Authority(SEWA) held a symposiumrecently, reviewing researchwork for exploring ground-water using satellite images.The project was launchedfour years ago under thedirection of Dr. Shaikh SultanBin Mohammad Al Qasimi,Member of the SupremeCouncil and Ruler of Sharjah.The project is crucial inpreparing a long-term strate-gy for rational use of ground-water resources. Identifica-tion of sites for drilling outgroundwater will be possibleusing the GIS. The analysis of

the images emphasizes thepotential for groundwaterfrom two unconventionalsources, which includes net-works of fractured zones inhighlands and the buriedcourses of former rivers andstreams. The project will helpcompile a database ongroundwater and its direc-tion of flow. Through the GISsatellite images, the existinggroundwater as well as thequantity and quality of theselocations can be found out.

www.gulfnews.com

Abu Dhabi tocarry out majorsoil surveyThe Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) has signeda Dh 24 million contract withan Australian firm GRM

International for a soil sur-vey, which involves satelliteimages, soil analyses andland mapping. The projectwill be carried out in partner-ship with the Dubai-basedInternational Centre for Bios-aline Agriculture (ICBA). TheICBA will provide technicalsupport during the project,which is aimed at providingbaseline information to bet-ter understand, manage, con-serve and sustain the emi-rate's soil resources. The firstphase of the survey will cov-

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er the entire area, while thesecond phase will cover400,000 hectares of the onemillion hectare site as thecore area of the survey. The survey will assist deci-sion-makers in future landuse planning on scientificgrounds.

It will also provide an on-the-ground, scientific inven-tory of soil resources, help indeveloping a soil databaseusing GIS, prepare a soil sur-vey report and soil and landuse maps and build thecapacity of UAE nationals.Under the project, the soil,mainly in the Eastern Regionof Abu Dhabi Emirate, will bemapped and classified usingthe latest satellite images,and norms and standards ofthe United States Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA).Planners, engineers anddevelopers will be able to usethe soil survey maps anddata to evaluate soil for engi-neering purposes, select sitesfor residence, agriculture,industry, construction,routes for highways or golfcourses and identify specialpractices needed to ensureproper construction. The soilsamples would be collectedand analysed at Abu Dhabilaboratories and in Australia.

www.gulfnews.com

Map to helpprotect southernGulf's coral reefsThe first ever map of south-ern Gulf coral reefs was pre-sented in Abu Dhabi recent-ly, a venture undertaken byresearch teams in the UAE

and Qatar. Majid Al Man-souri, secretary-general ofthe Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) and board

member of the EmiratesWildlife Society (EWS) andthe World Wide Fund forNature (WWF), unveiled thepreliminary map. The projectis a joint enterprise betweenexperts from the EAD andQatar's Supreme Council forthe Environment and Natur-al Reserves.

The project has shownmost Gulf coral reefs are ingood health. With the help ofthis coral reef map, futureprotection measures will bemade much easier. The proj-ect is sponsored by DolphinEnergy Limited, and is man-aged by the UAE's EWS andthe regional branch of theWWF. The project would behelpful when natural gas istransported from Qatar tothe UAE. Now it can also beknown, where the corals arelocated and they can be con-served and protected inevery possible way.

www.gulfnews.com

DM organizes GISseminarThe GIS Centre at DubaiMunicipality (DM) recentlyorganized a seminar on theMunicipality's GIS data deliv-

ery standard for as-builtdrawings. The seminar con-ducted by Elizier NelsonVijay, GIS Technician at theGIS Centre, unveiled thedetails about the DubaiMunicipality standard forCAD/GIS/Mapping and digi-tal cadastral information. The seminar asserted thateach department or organi-zation is responsible forchecking the accuracy of itsdrawings whether it is with-in the GIS data delivery stan-dard or not, and giving theapprovals to their contrac-tors or consultants beforesending the drawings to GIScenter. The role of GIS centeris to put accurate data in geo-graphic form that can beused in different fields andbe available for all users. Theseminar discussed the pur-pose of As-Built CAD draw-ing standards, scope of work,As-Built CAD drawing guide-lines, procedure for submis-sion of As-Built drawing files,quality assurance, issues onvarious types of As-Built, As-Built accuracy and ill effectsof As-Built drawing errorsand the use of As-Built Construction ManagementApplication in GIS. The semi-nar also gave details of theConstruction ManagementApplication, a system admin-istered through a websiteallowing consultants andcontractors to submit As-Built drawings and scheduleon-line.

The system, which is currently being used byDubai Municipality engi-neers, inspectors, officers and

administrators, will be avail-able in future for externalusers like consultants andcontractors.

www.ameinfo.com

GPS based eco- friendly fleetmanagementapplied.A new fleet managementpolicy adopted by S.S. LootahGroup, a private business

conglomerate in the UAE,promises to cut congestionand thus reduce pollutionresulting from emissionswas revealed in Dubairecently during a workshopheld as part of the group'sExcellence Journey, tacklingquality, health, safety andenvironment management.The new fleet managementinitiative includes innova-tive training programs fordrivers and operators, use ofGPS navigation system,improving and introducingnew maintenance tech-niques, fleet modernizationand plans to use natural gasas a cleaner fuel for lightvehicles and vans. 'The newfleet management policywill substantially contributeto reduction of traffic conges-tion and environmental pol-lution,

www.ameinfo.com

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BUSINESS

Agreement forinteroperabilityof GPS III ANDEuropean Galileo Lockheed Martin and EADSAstrium, Germany haveannounced that they havesigned a teaming agreementto ensure interoperability ofthe GPS III and the EuropeanGalileo Satellite Navigationprogrammes, the world's twomost important upcomingsatellite navigation systems.The companies intend to per-form systems engineeringand technical assistancetasks for each other in theareas of interoperability,integrity and optimisation ofjoint constellation perform-ance. Additionally, the com-panies will offer reciprocalbids on operational hard-ware and software withinthe policy and export con-straints of both programmes.

www.lockheedmartin.com

DM SolutionsGroup integratesits offerings withMapGuide OpenSourceDM Solutions Group, aprovider of the open sourceWeb mapping technology,has announced the integra-tion of MapGuide OpenSource as a key technology toits commercial service andproduct offerings. Central tothese services will be anopen source Web authoringenvironment developed byDM Solutions Group that willbe maintained within the

MapGuide Open Source proj-ect. The new Web authoringenvironment will allowusers to load and style theirGIS data for MapGuide andwill act as the default inter-face to MapGuide OpenSource.

www.opensource.sys-con.com

AAA selectsNAVTEQ toprovide mapsNAVTEQ, a provider of digitalmap data for location basedsolutions and vehicle naviga-tion, has been selected byAAA, a provider of travel,insurance, financial andautomotive-related services,as its digital map provider forthe United States and Cana-da. AAA already utilizesNAVTEQ maps for its Inter-net TripTik, an online travelplanning, mapping and rout-ing tool which allows AAAmembers to plan trips andacquire directions to andfrom specific destinationpoints. AAA has now alsochosen NAVTEQ to providethe critical street and high-way data network that pow-ers AAA's successful D/2000Roadside Assistance applica-tion. The D/2000 RoadsideAssistance application pro-vides AAA with a location-enabled roadside assistancesystem for call taking, dis-patching and service deliverymanagement that includesintegrated mapping andmileage calculation.

www.navteq.com

EarthData to mapPapua New

GuineaEarthData International has

announced, the award of a$16 million contract by theGovernment of the Com-monwealth of Australia toproduce the first-ever high-resolution image and terrainmaps of Papua New Guinea.The Australian Governmentis funding the project under amemorandum of under-standing with the govern-ment of Papua New Guinea.EarthData will deploy itsGeoSAR radar mapping sys-tem to complete airbornedata acquisitions over the318,000-square-kilometerarea. Mounted on a jet air-craft and using two radarbands simultaneously, theGeoSAR system will fly overthe area and collect extreme-ly accurate images and three-dimensional models of theforest canopy surface, as wellas the terrain beneath thecanopy. The resulting datawill be used with standardGIS software to support deci-sion-making in a variety ofland management and engi-neering applications. Tocomplement the radar imagemaps and terrain modelswith detailed infrastructureinformation, Fugro SpatialSolutions Pty Ltd. of Perth,Australia, a team member onthis contract, will be respon-sible for the acquisition ofaerial photography over criti-cal infrastructure in 35 indi-vidual sites throughoutPapua New Guinea. HorizonGeoscience Consultants, ofSydney, Australia, EarthDa-ta's strategic partner in the

Asia Pacific region, will pro-vide local project manage-ment support, as well astraining to Australian Gov-ernment staff on radar datainterpretation.

www.earthdata.com

Image Techexpands digitalmappingcapabilitiesImage Tech, Inc., a pho-togrammetric scanning firmhas announced the expan-sion of its capabilities toinclude full digital mappingservices, including flightplanning, aerotriangulation,compilation QC, editing, digi-tal orthophoto generation,and mosaicking, in additionto continuing their estab-lished scanning and consult-ing services. ITI will providestereo compilation servicesin partnership with veryexperienced compilationfirms. While the partners willfurnish the actual compila-tion services, editing and QCwill always be provided byITI.

www.imagetechinc.biz

Multimap addsits 'In-line' serviceto online travelagencyMultimap, a provider ofmapping and location-basedservices, has announced thatwww.travelrepublic.co.uk,the UK's online travelagency, has implementedMultimap's 'In-line' service.This was announced duringthe Travel Distribution Sum-mit Europe 2006 held in Lon-

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News: World

13

don. According to the compa-ny, the site enhancementenables customers to accessmaps showing the exactlocation of hotels, and what'slocated in the vicinity. Theeasy-to-read maps show hol-iday-makers that a hotelreally is as close to the beach,tourist attractions, or a rela-tive's address, as it claims tobe; they then have the confi-dence to proceed to make abooking.

www.m-travel.com

Digital Angelawarded contractfor satellite-basedtrackingDigital Angel Corp.announced its OuterLinksubsidiary has won a $3.2million contract from theSouth Carolina Army Nation-al Guard to demonstrate thecapability of its satellite-based Automatic Flight Fol-lowing System to communi-cate with helicopter andground vehicle fleets at theMcEntire National GuardBase at Eastover, S.C. A keycomponent of the pro-gramme will apply the Out-erLink systems secure wire-less data communications todemonstrate seamless inter-operability with existingcommunications equipmentof the Department of Home-land Security and other fed-eral or state public safetyagencies, the company saidin a statement. The terms ofthe 12-month contract call forOuterLink to deliver theAutomatic Flight FollowingSystem, integrate it into

existing National Guardequipment including heli-copter and ground basedvehicle operations, test andoperate it, and provide logis-tical support. Digital Angel'sgoal is to make the OuterLinksatellite system the standardfor providing condition-based maintenance informa-tion for all National Guardunits as well as other agen-cies involved with the DHSand the Department ofDefence.

www.spacemart.com

PCI Geomaticscertified forCARTOSAT-1satellite imageprocessingPCI Geomatics has achievedcomplete certification for itsflagship software, Geomati-ca, to be used for processingdata from the CARTOSAT-1satellite, from the Indiangovernment-contractedANTRIX Corporation. TheIndian Space Research Orga-nization (ISRO) launched theCARTOSAT-1 satellite on 5May 2005. With twopanchromatic cameras thatdeliver a spatial resolution of2.5 meters, CARTOSAT-1 pro-vides stereo data suitable foradvanced, large-scale map-ping applications. The dataare also optimal for generat-ing digital terrain models(DTMs) and digital elevationmodels (DEMs). This certifica-tion states that GeomaticaVersion 10.0.2 has compliedwith all six identified levels,which include: image importand image processing, single

image triangulation, stereopair triangulation, block tri-angulation for monoimagery, block triangulationfor stereo imagery, digitaltopographic mapping.

www.pcigeomatics.com

DigitalGlobenames MAPSgeosystemsdistributor forMiddle East andAfricaDigitalGlobe announced thatit has named MAPS geosys-tems, its reseller headquar-tered in Sharjah, United ArabEmirates, its "Business Part-ner of the Year" and that thecompany will now be thesole distributor of Digital-Globe satellite imagery inboth the Middle East and thesub-Saharan region of Africa.MAPS geosystems, as a busi-ness partner of DigitalGlobe,collected two business part-ner awards for innovationand sales just prior to beingnamed sole distributor.

www.media.digitalglobe.com

NT Conceptslaunchesgeospatialbusiness lineNext Tier Concepts, Inc. (NTConcepts) has launched ageospatial business line toprovide consulting and GISsupport to government, com-mercial customers. Theseservices include deploymentof custom Google EarthEnterprise systems. NT Con-cepts' initial focus will be insupport of several U.S. Gov-ernment projects. The geo-

spatial market is rapidlyexpanding in both govern-ment and commercial sectorswith availability of powerfultools like Google Earth. Thisbusiness line will expose usto new customers and allowus to apply geospatial tech-nologies to enhance ourofferings to existing cus-tomers. There is a strongpotential to integrate appli-cation development andeLearning services with thegeospatial efforts to developcomprehensive solution sets.

www.ntconcepts.com

SAIC acquiresGeoViz.com Inc.Science Applications Interna-tional Corporation (SAIC) hasannounced that it has com-pleted the acquisition ofGeoViz.com, Inc. California,GeoViz.com, Inc. is a providerof commercial off-the-shelf(COTS) tools targeted at com-mand, control, communica-tions, and computers, intelli-gence, surveillance andreconnaissance (C4ISR); testand evaluation; modelingand simulation; and embed-ded training market seg-ments. With representativesin Los Angeles, San Jose, Col-orado Springs, San Diego andWashington, D.C., the com-pany's software enables 2Dand 3D viewing of geospatialdata through a Web browserinterface. It also includes aWeb Centric Geospatial Col-laboration tool that allowsusers to share, annotate andcontrol mapping functionsfrom locations across world.

www.saic.com

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APPLICATION

Aerialphotographyhelps locateancient tombsTechnology, including air-craft and aerial photography,has helped locate a series ofancient tombs in Italy'smountainous Abruzzo area

in Italy. The oldest tombsdate to the 8th century B.C.,before Rome was founded,while others date to the 2ndcentury B.C.

Although scientists wereaware the area coveringthousands of square milescontained numerous tombs,they have been unable tolocate many of them so theyasked for Italian Air Forceassistance.

www.upi.com

GPS mapping toaid educationscheme in IndiaMadurai district is one of thedistricts in Tamil Nadu, India,which is using GPS to mapthe schools and areas as a

part of project calledSCHOOLGIS, funded by Min-istry of Human Resourcesthrough Sarva SikshaAbhiyan (Education for All)scheme, Government ofTamil Nadu University. Byusing the outcome of thepresent project, the user canfind out the areas whichremain inaccessible to pri-mary schools within the userspecified distance againstthe backdrop of the sufficientnumber of general popula-tion and also school-goingpopulation as per SSA indica-tors.

Similarly priority analysiscan be conducted to providefacilities like sanitation,drinking water, laboratoriesfor better performing schoolsand also to upgrade schoolsbased on spatial distributionof the same category schoolsand near proximity to loca-tion of needy hamlets.

www.newindpress.com

VDOF implementsESRI ArcGISServer to manageforestlandsESRI has announced that theVirginia Department ofForestry (VDOF), USA hasimplemented its GIS soft-ware- ArcGIS Server, for itsprogram called the Integrat-ed Forest Resource Informa-tion System (IFRIS) to man-age forestlands.

IFRIS will enable field staffto make better assessmentsof how landowners shouldmanage their resources withrespect to short- and long-term goals. The mapped data

will also permit regional andstatewide spatial analysesrelative to other spatial unitssuch as watersheds, steward-ship priority areas, economicimpact zones, and others.This application will make iteasier for field staff to cap-ture data describing the loca-tion and nature of wildfireincidents, water quality, har-vest inspections, foresthealth observations, and oth-er critical data. IFRIS is in itsfirst phase of development.Future IFRIS developmentwill incorporate field-basedmapping and data collectionusing personal data assis-tants with integrated GPS.

www.esri.com

Maui PoliceDepartment usingGIS for E911Dispatch SystemThe Maui Police Department

(MPD), California, USA isusing GIS technology fromESRI for E911 dispatch systemthat allows dispatchers totrack the locations of people

using a wireless phone to callin an emergency. The systemcan pinpoint and digitallymap an emergency call loca-tion within seconds, allow-ing dispatchers to rapidlyrespond to emergencies nomatter the location, whether

on land or sea or in remotehiking or camping areas. Thesystem is the first to goonline for the state ofHawaii. The departmentdeploys ArcGIS 9 softwareincluding ArcView andArcInfo software.

www.esri.com

Satellite guidancefor the visuallyimpairedA prototype satellite naviga-tion system accurate enoughto direct vision-impairedpedestrians to their destina-tion has recently been suc-cessfully demonstrated inMadrid. Developed by ESA,with the Spanish firm GMVSistemas, this device offersgreater autonomy for thevisually impaired.

The system is not intendedto replace a white cane or aguide dog but to complementthem with an 'audible map'.The user no longer needs toseek frequent guidance fromother pedestrians; the guid-ance equipment follows hisevery move and advises himaccordingly. This system,designed with the advice ofthe Spanish National Organi-sation for the Blind (Organ-isacion Nacional de los Cie-gos de España -ONCE), isbased on EGNOS, a position-ing system that processesGPS data to provideimproved accuracy. This israther important for a blindperson, since one-metrelocalization accuracy makesthe difference between beingon the path or in the road.

www.esa.int

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

15

Satellite imageryused to planagriculture anddisaster reliefeffortsHealing Hands International(HHI), a non-profit humani-tarian organization, is work-ing with the Native Commu-nities Development Corpora-tion (NCDC), a DigitalGlobebusiness partner, to obtainsatellite imagery from Digi-talGlobe for planning andvisualising efforts surround-ing agricultural develop-ment and disaster relief mis-sions in Africa and CentralAmerica. DigitalGlobe's satel-lite imagery of Honduras,Nigeria and Senegal havebeen instrumental in allow-ing HHI to assess agriculturepotential and conduct pre-planning before visitingthe location to implementagricultural programs likedrip irrigation systems andtraining.

The imagery allows HHI toprioritize its efforts in time ofemergency and developdetailed rebuilding plans toensure that, once on theground, precious time andresources are leveraged. Theimagery is also helpful forplanning access to devastat-ed rural areas.

www.media.digitalglobe.com

Hong Kong makes use of GISfor improving airqualityTo improve the quality of airin Hong Kong's atmosphere,a regional air-quality moni-toring network has been

developed. A GIS is helpingthe centre's staff to locate aproblem area on a digitalmap to take immediateaction. A three-dimensionalenvironmental impact

assessment public engage-ment tool has been devel-oped to put into practice thecontinuous public involve-ment concept. Hong Kong istaking the lead in introduc-ing this concept in the envi-ronmental impact assess-ment process. With the tool,different options for develop-ment projects and their envi-ronmental performances canbe presented in 3D modelsthrough coloured illustra-tions, graphics or multime-dia images. The use of suchtools would foster bettercommunication of environ-mental impact assessmentissues and promote publicdialogue on major develop-ment projects during projectplanning and implementa-tion.

www.news.gov.hk

GIS mappinghelps detectpower theft inNew DelhiGIS mapping has helpedBSES teams unearth powertheft of 4300 KW. The penal-ties imposed on the default-

ers amount to around Rs. 17crore (USD 3.6 million). BSEShas started mapping all itslicensed areas and cus-tomers.

Their electricity consump-tion and loads patterns arebeing closely monitored. Anydeviation is immediatelyflagged at BSES end. With thehelp of GIS mapping tech-niques, BRPL enforcementteams swooped down on GKResidency a posh guesthousein South Delhi and found itpilfering power to the tune ofover 95 KW.

www.thestatesman.net

VegMachine givesfarmers eye in the skyLandholders across thenorthern rangelands of Aus-tralia can now use satellitemonitoring to keep track ofenvironmental changes ontheir properties. The newsystem, which is called Veg-Machine, has been trialedacross 80,000 square kilome-tres in Western Australia, theNorthern Territory andQueensland. It gives you abirdseye view of the proper-ty. The idea is the mystery ofsatellite imagery, what it cansay and do is being exposedback. It still hasn't got to thepoint where we can actuallywork out kilograms perhectare on the ground. But, itcertainly gives an idea ofhow productivity can berelated to use of theresources or trapping of theresources available. Whetherit's the actual vegetation, thesoils or the nutrients in the

soil. A total of 33 propertieshave been involved under aresearch partnership fundedby Meat and Livestock Aus-tralia and the respectivestate and territory govern-ments.

www.au.news.yahoo.com

Kansas using GISto map livestockdisposal sitesOfficials in Kansas (USA) areusing GIS to map out appro-priate sites for the mass dis-posal of livestock in theevent of bioterrorism or oth-er disease outbreak as a pre-caution. Kansas State Univer-sity said on July 2 that itsresearchers and various stateagencies were mapping outdisposal sites statewideusing GIS to correlate largeamounts of data. The neces-sary information is beingacquired in digital form andbuilding a model that canhelp find a suitable site forburying a large number oflivestock. Given the type andsize of the animals, one candetermine the size of the bur-ial pit, then use GIS to auto-matically search for the bestplace to dig. The systemexamines such conditions assoil type, topographicalslopes in relation to water,and proximity to humanpopulations.

www.upi.com

TokyoMetropolitanGovernmentplanning the citywith GIS The Tokyo Metropolitan Gov-



ernment (TMG), a longtimeuser of ESRI's geographicinformation system (GIS)software, has implemented aWeb based system thatpromises broad new capabil-ities and greatly expandeduse throughout the govern-ment.

"Since TMG first beganusing ArcInfo on an IBMmainframe in the early '90s,the fact that GIS can take apivotal role in city planninghas been increasingly recog-nized within the Tokyo gov-ernment.

In order to make moreeffective use of its GIS for cityplanning, it was decided tobuild an urban planning sys-tem using ArcGIS Server,"commented Chiharu Masaki,Managing Director at ESRIJapan. The new Tokyo Metro-politan Urban Planning GIS isa Web-based system thatmeets the security require-ments of the Tokyo Metro-politan Government LocalArea Network system. TheGIS was designed with multi-ple menus and functionsadapted to the various func-tions and skills of the opera-tors. Presently, TMG's Bureauof Urban Developmentenables all 1,500 bureau staffmembers to use GIS to viewand edit a wide variety ofcity planning informationfrom their PCs, which booststheir productivity.

In the future, TMG antici-pates that the GIS will beavailable to all TMG depart-ments, allowing instant on-line access to more than30,000 staff members. TMG's

new GIS product configura-tion includes ESRI's ArcGISServer, ArcSDE, ArcIMS,ArcInfo, ArcView, SpatialAnalyst, 3D Analyst, and Net-work Analyst.

www.esri.com

Remote Sensinghelps scientist instudy of ancientIndian citiesAn insight into 'cosmic cities'described in the Indian epicsincluding Ramayana andMahabharata can beobtained by analysing pic-

tures sent by an IRS satellite,said P S Thakker, a senior scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO).

Though these sites areknown to people, it is notpossible to know the settle-ment pattern from the sur-face as they have beendestroyed with passage oftime and some have beenburied. However, by lookingat satellite pictures one cansee things that are not visibleto the naked eye. RemoteSensing can play an impor-tant role to correlate archeo-logical findings from ancientsites, which are mentionedin the scriptures of Hindureligion. Thakker has worked

on a project called RemoteSensing of Cosmic Cities inAncient India, studyingimportant historical andancient cities, which aredescribed in the Hindu scrip-tures and correlating themwith Remote Sensing dataobtained from satellite at thealtitude of above 800 km inspace. Some sites, which hehas studied, include Kausam-bi, Ahichhatra, Lumbini,Shravasti and Nalanda.Remote Sensing data can alsosuccessfully be used forbuilding up historical recordsof changes that might havetaken place on the surface ofthe earth. The data may alsobe used in updating ancientatlases.

www.rediff.com

GIS for Thailand'stourism industryThe Software Industry Pro-motion Agency (SIPA) hasdeveloped an infrastructurefor GIS, which contains infor-mation on tourism and relat-ed services in five provinces,for distribution to travelwebsites free of charge. Thismove is expected to not onlypromote tourism in Thailandbut also open markets forlocal software developers.The agency has developedGIS for Thailand's TourismCollaborative Commerce(TTCC) project to gatherinformation on tourism andrelated services after pur-chase of map engines fromlocal companies to make fur-ther developments. The pro-gramme itself comes with anopen application program

interface, in order to allowwebmasters to develop andadd more applications asrequired. To collect accurateand up-to-date information,it hired people to ride motor-cycles equipped with GPSreceivers to go around Chi-ang Mai collecting locationsand details of each tourismdestination for the electronicbase map.

www.nationmultimedia.com

GIS MapActiondisastermanagementoperation inIndonesiaA field-based MapAction'steam of two has beendeployed to Yogyakarta,backed up by more GISresources in the UK as a partof the response to the earth-quake disaster on 28 May2006 in Yogyakarta, Java. InIndonesia the team will workalongside the UN's emer-gency information manage-ment team. They are self-suf-ficient with a range of tech-nology tools to produceprinted maps locally and alsoto upload them via their ownsatellite communicationssystems to MapAction's UKbase for worldwide distribu-tion. MapAction's mission isto translate fast-changingsituation information intomap form. Maps will showneeds for and provision ofrelief. This helps humanitari-an agencies both within andoutside Indonesia to ensurethat aid reaches the rightplaces, quickly.

www.mapaction.org

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

TECHNOLOGY COVERAGE

APPLICATIONS COVERAGE

POLICY COVERAGE

• Geographic Information System

• Remote Sensing• Airborne Laser Terrain

Mapping• Aerial Photography/

Photogrammetr• Surveying/Mobile Mapping• Cartography• High Resolution Satellite

Imagery• Web GIS• Location Based Services

• Surveying• Transport• Disaster Management• Water Resource Management• Forestry• Mineral Resources• Archaeology• Utilities• Infrastructure• Urban Planning• Land Information System• e-Governance• Education• Health• Marine GIS• Coastal Management• Business GIS• Enterprise GIS

• GIS Ethics• Map Policy • Spatial Data Infrastructure• Data Standards• Interoperability

www.gisdevelopment.net

Dear Friends,

With pleasure we inform you that the free subscription offer for GIS Development Middle East, the first and only GIS Magazine for the Middle East Region is here again for a limited period of two months only.

The free subscription offer is open for qualified professionals in the field of GIS, GPS, Remote Sensing, Aerial Photography and related geospatial technologies and it’s application sectors.

Readership profileWith more than 4,000 copies of circulation GIS Development Middle East reaches to:

• Students, Academicians and Scientists

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To avail the free subscription offer, just write/call/mail us at:

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Thank you and enjoy reading!


PRODUCTS

HP Launches newPrinters for AEC,GIS users HP has launched two newprinter models: the HPDesignjet 820 MFP, a newmultifunction solutionwhich offers efficient, quali-

ty wide-format copying andscanning; and the HP Design-jet 500 Mono, targettingoffices engaged in architec-tural, engineering, construc-tion and mechanical design,designed for AEC and GISusers, as well as reproductionhouses, the HP Designjet 820MFP is a versatile, wide-for-mat colour printing solutionwith a space-saving design.It prints one A1 printout in 90seconds, at 2400 x 1200 dpi,leveraging HP's R&D expert-ise for customers requiringreliability and excellentcolour quality. The HPDesignjet 500 Mono printslarge-format technical draw-ings with fine black-and-white line quality, a highdegree of accuracy and supe-rior resolution. Aimed attechnical office, the HPDesignjet 500 Mono brings acompetitive-edge to techni-cal designers by giving themimmediate access to theirCAD drawings, thereby

increasing productivity andenhancing operations.

www.hp.com

ALK and DELLrelease CoPilotNavigator 9ALK Technologies annou-nced the availability of CoPi-lot Navigator 9 being soldexclusively on DELL's website. CoPilot Navigator 9'sintuitive features guide trav-elers to their destinationusing a DELL Inspiron note-book equipped with CoPilotGPS Software and GPS hard-ware. CoPilot provides driv-

ers with powerful, portableGPS navigation completewith turn-by-turn voiceguidance and detailed street-level maps for the entireUnited States. CoPilot'sextensive map database con-tains over 100 millionaddresses and over 3 millionpoints of interest includinghotels, restaurants, andinterstate exit services andfacilities. Unlike other GPSLocator solutions, CoPilotNavigator 9 is a full functionGPS navigation solution thatdelivers superior customerexperience to consumers andmobile professionals similarto that found in high-endluxury car navigation sys-tems. CoPilot Navigator 9

combines advanced naviga-tion software with the latestin GPS receiver technology.The CoPilot high-perform-ance USB 2.0 GPS receiver isthe first GPS receiver todirectly utilize the processingpower of your notebook. Thisbreak-through GPS receivertechnology is only availablewith CoPilot Navigator 9.

www.dell.com

Microsoftlaunches UKversion of VirtualEarthMicrosoft has introduced aUK version of its VirtualEarth mapping service.Included is some 230 miles ofaerial photography includingLondon, Portsmouth,Southampton and Cam-bridge. Microsoft has addedthe street names to the pho-tographs to help with identi-fication. Microsoft says itexpects to extend the pho-tography to include 80 percent of Europe over the nexttwo years. Along with themaps, the British Local Liveservice offers navigationinstructions for drivers todestinations around the UK.The service is also linkedwith a database of local busi-nesses such as the usual piz-za delivery services throughto a selection of 'popularsearches', which includesthose must-have services likedry cleaners and plumberswithin the currently dis-played area. Users can alsosave their data on a 'scratch-pad' using their Microsoft ID,Hotmail or Messenger

accounts. There is also theoption to make the maps andlocation information 'public'with contacts in Messenger.

www.pcpro.co.uk

Leica Geosystemslaunches LeicaALS50-II LIDARSystemLeica Geosystems hasannounced the launch ofLeica ALS50-II LIDAR System.With the Leica ALS50-II, LeicaGeosystems presents the Air-borne Laser Scanner. The

product allows data captureat pulse rates up to 150kHz,while offering improvedaccuracy. With the LeicaALS50-II, users can get plani-metric spacing while achiev-ing accuracy of 11cm (includ-ing GPS errors) at all pulserates. Leica ALS50-II is thesecond generation of theLeica ALS50 and features oth-er notable improvements,including: expanded flyingheight envelope (200m -6000 m AGL) and faster scanrates to 90 Hz; Simplifiedoperation with all functionsnow controlled via advancedgraphical user interface, andno need for discrete laserattenuators; Incorporation ofLeica Geosystems' new IPASGPS / inertial measurementengine and Redesigned Con-


trol Electronics for a 54%reduction in volume and 33kg reduction in weight whileimproving reliability. TheLeica ALS50-II is a compact,airborne LIDAR systemdesigned to acquire topo-graphical and return signalintensity data from numer-ous airborne platforms. Thesystem computes this datausing laser range and returnsignal intensity measure-ments recorded in-flight,along with position and atti-tude data taken from air-borne GPS and inertial sub-systems.

www.leica-geosystems.com

AND releases newmaps for SloveniaAND Automotive NavigationData, provider of worldwidedigital mapping data for 'in-car' and personal navigation,has released new map dataof Slovenia. The new digitalmaps show the first results of

the expansion of AND's Indi-an production facility there-by accelerating the enrich-ment of the worldwide data-base enabling AND to meetthe users' increasing needs.The maps include all neces-sary navigation features andare in line with the highquality specifications asdefined by AND in coopera-

tion with its customers. Themap of Slovenia coversalmost 24,000 kilometreslinking all Slovenian cities tothe road network. The citiesLjubljana, Celje, Kranj andMaribor are included onstreet level allowing door-to-door navigation. Further-more, many Points of Inter-est are included such as park-ing lots, petrol stations, parksand train stations to makenavigation even easier.

www.and.com

World fire mapsnow availableonline in nearreal timeFor a decade now, ESA (Euro-pean Space Agency) satelliteshave been continuously sur-veying fires burning acrossthe Earth's surface. World-

wide fire maps based on thisdata are now available tousers online in near-real timethrough ESA's ATSR WorldFire Atlas. The ATSR WorldFire Atlas (WFA) - the firstmulti-year global fire atlasever developed - providesdata approximately six hoursafter acquisition and repre-sents an important scientificresource because fire is amajor agent of environmen-tal change. Quantifying fireis important for the ongoing

study of climate change. The1998 El Niño, for example,helped encourage fires acrossBorneo, which emitted up to2.5 billion tonnes of carboninto the atmosphere, equiva-lent to Europe's entire carbonemissions that year. Thereare over 200 registered usersaccessing the WFA. The dataare being used in Europe,Asia, North America, SouthAmerica, Africa and Aus-tralia for research in atmos-pheric chemistry, land usechange, global change ecolo-gy, fire prevention and man-agement and meteorology.Harvard University, Univer-sity of Toronto, National Cen-tre for Atmosphere andNASA, among others, haveused the data in researchpublications. To date, thereare more than 100 scientificpublications based on WFAdata. The WFA is an internaland Data User Programme(DUP) project.

www.esa.int

Cities Revealed 3DBuildingsavailable forGoogle EarthThe GeoInformation Group,publishers of Cities Revealedaerial photography, hasannounced the availabilityof Cities Revealed 3D build-ings in Google Earth 3D for-mat. This new format pro-vides the user with extruded3D building polygons createdusing the highly accurateCities Revealed BuildingHeights database. The result-ant 3D buildings can be visu-alised within Google Earth,

over the existing high-reso-lution aerial imagery. CitiesRevealed 3D buildings arecurrently available for cen-tral London and over the nexttwelve months BuildingHeights databases and 3Dbuildings will be made avail-able for 568 UK cities.

www.citiesrevealed.com

MWH SoftreleasesInfoWater VCMTo equip the global drinkingwater industry with the GIS-centric modeling and man-agement solutions, MWHSoft has announced therelease of InfoWater ValveCriticality Modeling (VCM).The new InfoWater Suiteextension gives usersexpanded power and flexibil-ity in identifying all vulnera-bilities affecting their waterdistribution system reliabili-ty, estimating the extent andpotential consequences ofinfrastructure failure on cus-tomer service levels, optimiz-ing the allocation of rehabili-tation and maintenanceresources, and improvingknowledge of system opera-tion. Valve criticality assess-ment identifies which valvesmost crucially affect thescale of impact of potentialsystem failures. InfoWaterVCM automatically carriesout a comprehensive assess-ment of the hydraulic impactof valve operations on cus-tomer service levels, eitherwhen the valves are shut orfail to shut, during plannedor emergency work. Thisinformation is critical in


focusing future expenditures(maintenance and replace-ment) on the valves mostcritical to maintaining theserviceability of these keyinfrastructure assets. Pin-pointing these critical valvesrequires an understanding ofthe risk (probability and con-sequence) should the valvefail to shut. Consequence ismeasured in terms of thenumbers of properties (andcustomers) that would bedisconnected or experienceunacceptable levels of serv-ice (e.g., low pressure or lossof supply).

www.mwhsoft.com

GlobeXplorer adds 200thDigitalGlobeCitySpheresatellite imagery GlobeXplorer has announcedthe successful loading of its200th DigitalGlobe City-Sphere market to its suite ofonline data services for map-ping/GIS users and Web

developers. Dated from 2002to 2006, the CitySphere col-lection includes high-resolu-tion satellite imagery of 200of the largest cities across theglobe, including the Americ-as, Europe, Africa, Asia andAustralia. DigitalGlobe'sCitySphere collection fea-tures orthorectified 2-foot

resolution color imagery. Theresolution and industry-lead-ing accuracy of CitySpheremake it ideal for use as abasemap in Web mapping,GIS, and other applications.

www.globexplorer.com

ASPRS releases'Remote Sensingof the MarineEnvironment'Produced by the AmericanSociety for Photogrammetryand Remote Sensing,"Remote Sensing of theMarine Environment" is the

sixth volume in the Manualof Remote Sensing, Third Edi-tion, the basic reference workin the field. It brings togethercontributions from an inter-national team of scientistsactive in remote sensing andocean research. Remote Sens-ing of the Marine Environ-ment is a comprehensive, up-to-date resource for oceanog-raphers and marine scien-tists interested in applica-tions of satellite imagery andother remote sensing tech-niques to studying and mon-itoring ocean and coastalwaters. The volume consists

of chapters on ocean produc-tivity, circulation, pollution,wind, planetary waves, seaice and coastal processes. Thevolume editor, James F.R.Gower, Ph.D., is a researchscientist with Fisheries andOceans Canada, where hehas explored applications ofsatellites to oceanographysince 1971.

www.asprs.org

Group 1 Softwareextends GeocodingsolutionGroup 1 Software, Inc., a soft-ware developer companythat provides a comprehen-sive Customer Communica-tion Management (CCM)solution, has announced thatits GeoStan geocoding solution now supports Unit-ed Kingdom and Irelandaddresses, providing multi-country address correction,standardization and high-definition geocoding in one pass. Based on cascadinggeographic logic, GeoStanprovides high-speed geocod-ing at successive degrees ofprecision to help ensure anaccurate match for addressdata with minimal usereffort. GeoStan's high-defini-tion data is used by insur-ance, telecommunications,transportation, finance, rout-ing and mapping companies,among others, for a variety ofmarketing and operationalapplications, including iden-tifying customers eligible forlocation-based services, moreaccurately identifying insur-ance rate territories, and pro-viding starting and ending

locations for optimizingdelivery routes.

www.g1.com

Safe Softwareannounces therelease ofSpatialDirect2006 GBSafe Software Inc., a providerof interoperability solutionsfor the exchange and transformation of spatialdata, has announced therelease of SpatialDirect 2006GB. With Safe Software's Fea-ture Manipulation Engine(FME) capability, Spa-tialDirect delivers spatialdata over the Web in many ofthe over 160 formats sup-ported by the underlyingFME servers. SpatialDirectalso includes a Web FeatureService (WFS) Server andInternationalization (I18N)support. SpatialDirect 2006GB adds important enhance-ments to SpatialDirect 2006.FME Workbench can now beused to configure Spa-tialDirect, allowing greatercontrol of complex datatransformations, and thenew FME 2006 GB Serverincluded in SpatialDirect2006 GB provides improvedraster support. Formats sup-ported for the first timeinclude GML Simple FeatureLevel 0 and beta support forESRI File-based Geodatabasefor ArcGIS 9.2 users. Distribu-tion of GE Smallworld data issupported through Spatial-Biz third-party plug-in avail-able from Spatial BusinessSystems of Denver, Colorado.

www.safe.com


GeoNorthlaunches CartoPortGeoNorth has announced therelease of its new productsolution that provides a con-venient way to author mapsfor ArcIMS. CartoPort allowsusers to publish their ArcGISmaps to ArcXML in secondspreserving cartography andsettings such as scaledependency, layer visibility,transparency, text maskingand group renderers just toname a few. In the past, GISusers wanting to publishtheir ArcMap Documents tothe web had to struggle withthe replication of map car-tography in the ArcIMS'sAuthor tool. There was sim-ply no easy way to replicatework done in ArcMap toArcIMS and at the same timeretain performance andallow developers full accessto data sources. CartoPort isan ArcGIS tool providing aradically simple process forpublishing maps to ArcIMSArcXML files. CartoPortmakes this easy, by interro-gating an ArcMap Documentand exporting the cartogra-phy and settings found inyour MXD to an ArcXML file.Non-compliant data sourcessuch as personal Geodata-bases, CAD files, and ArcInfoCoverages are automaticallyexcluded from resulting AXL.

www.geonorth.com

GeomagiclaunchesGeomagic Studio9Geomagic, a software andservices firm, announced therelease of Geomagic Studio 9.

This latest release of the digi-tal reconstruction softwarefeatures three major areas ofenhancement: 3D feature-based modeling, advancedcolor texture generation andversatility with user-definedpatch layouts. As a softwaretool, Geomagic Studio caneffectively and automatical-ly process 3D scan data forapplications ranging fromreverse engineering todesign and analysis. The soft-ware automatically createsaccurate models from anyphysical part, making it idealfor emerging applicationssuch as mass production ofcustomized devices, build-to-order manufacturing anddigital asset archiving forautomatic recreation of lega-cy parts. The new featuresprovide unmatched automa-tion through: the auto-detec-tion of 3D features; aredesigned powerful macrosystem with the ability toadd logic and flow control toautomation scripts; and asystem that enables users todefine their own workflowprocesses to reduce (or elimi-nate) time-intensive tasks.For designers or other engi-neers requiring self-pre-scribed patch layouts, theGeomagic Studio 9 DrawPatches feature has leapedone step farther to make cre-ating and editing patch lay-outs as easy as drawingcurves. A significant additionto Studio 9 for artisans andhistorical preservationists,the Advanced Color featureoffers the capability to con-vert per-vertex color models

to new representations thatuse texture maps to retainthe full color resolution.

www.geomagic.com

GeoServer 1.3.2releasedThe GeoServer Project hasannounced the release of ver-sion 1.3.2. Improvements forthis release include anupgrade to GeoTools 2.2.x,and some performance tun-ing on the toolkit, with usersreporting at least a 60-70%speed increase against Post-GIS. There are also user con-tributed fixes to create PDFmaps from WMS and toadjust headers to allowcaching, which can optimizeGeoServer for tiling webmapping clients like GoogleMaps or OpenLayers. Theother improvements weresupported by Google, in orderto leverage GeoServer's datareading and map producingcapabilities to allow anyoneto make their existing dataavailable on Google Earth.The bulk of the work was tocreate KML/KMZ outputfrom the open WMS stan-dard, which is compatiblewith Google's network link.Also funded was a basic SLDcreation wizard, so that basicmap styles can be createdthrough the web administra-tion GUI. There is also a builtin KML reflector, making itvery easy to connectGeoServer to Google Earth.GeoServer supports PostGIS,ArcSDE, Oracle Spatial, DB2,and Shapefiles and recentimprovements with GeoT-ools 2.2.x pass the majority of

the spatial processing back tothe database. There is also aKMScore optimization,which has GeoServer renderthe features as a raster to beused as a Ground Overlay.

www.docs.codehaus.org

TatukGISlaunches GISEditor 1.7.2VersionTatukGIS has announced theversion 1.7.2 update of its GISEditor product, adding sup-port for the following fea-tures- KML data format:Open, create, edit, and saveKML files as used by GoogleEarth. Convert map datafrom just about any GIS orCAD data format into theKML format or from KML intoother common file formats,e.g., SHP, MIF, DXF, GML, GPX,DLG, or SQL database layers.GPX data format: Open, edit,create, and save GPX filesand exchange GPS data (way-points, tracks, etc.) with GPSdevices. GPX data exportedfrom third-party GPS soft-ware can be opened as a maplayer in the Editor withoutthe need for any format con-version. When required, theEditor can be used to convertthe GPX data into other for-mats, such as SHP, DXF, KML,etc. ECWP protocol: ECWimages loaded on the localcomputer hard drive, viewECW images running on aremote server. ECW imagerunning on the remote servercan be opened as a map layerwith data layers within thecontext of a GIS project.

www.tatukgis.com

22

Geographical Information Sys-tem (GIS) and Global Posi-

tioning System (GPS) technologies areexpanding their traditional applications toembrace a stream of consumer-focused,location-based applications..

Through an integration with handheld devices capable ofwireless communication and mobile computing, a wide rangeof what might be generically referred to as "Location-Based Ser-vices" (LBS) may be offered to mobile users.

A location-based service is able to provide targeted spatialinformation to mobile workers and consumers depending upontheir location. These include utility location information, per-sonal or asset tracking, concierge and route-guidance informa-tion, to name just a few of the possible LBS. The technologiesand applications of LBS will play an ever increasingly importantrole in the modern, mobile, always-connected society.

LBS "aims to provide specific, targeted information to usersbased on each specific user's location at any time". In the case ofemergency calls, it is obvious that if the call responders haveinformation concerning the location of the people making thecall, then the response time can be reduced. Hence security andsafety are important considerations for a "mobile society". Thesecond type of application is concierge services where location-specific information on something nearby is sought. The

requested information may be related to points-of-interest suchas hospitals, restaurants, cinemas, car parks, ATMs, and so on.Such a service may provide information about the point-of-interest, or route-guidance to find it.

There are also many examples of applications in typical workpractices which might not be viewed as a form of "l-commerce",but which nevertheless benefit from using procedures thathave a "spatial component". For example, in the case of a gaspipeline breakdown emergency call, a worker has to go into thefield and quickly find the location of the broken pipe, details ofthe owners of nearby properties, etc. A mobile device (with posi-tioning capability) can be used to query a GIS database of valvesthat would permit the isolation of the gas supply at the appro-priate location.

In essence, LBS can only be provided through the integration ofwireless communications and computing technologies, with'spatial elements' such as positioning technologies and spatialdata sets. These components form a network using wirelesscommunication standards to transfer service requests andinformation between a mobile user and a service (or server)facility. The location-based service facility is able to performspatial functions based on the user's location, generally with theaid of a Geographical Information System.

STANDARDS THAT SUPPORT LBS LBS span technologies from 2 generation (2G) wireless commu-nication through the so-called 2.5 generation (2.5G), to the thirdgeneration (3G). 2.5G is an evolution from the 2G technologysuch as GSM, and currently includes SMS and GPRS. These are'always connected' network standards. The 3G technologiessuch as EDGE and HSCSD are with higher capacity for datatransfer. The so-called 'Wireless Internet' or 'Mobile Internet'

LBS

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

ANAMIKA DAS & DR SATYAPRAKASH

LOCATION BASED SERVICES


also permits telecommunication carriersto add more services, including location-based services, to existing wireless net-works. The Mobile/Wireless Internet isbeing developed under some constraints.First of all the range of wireless commu-nication systems is very diverse. TheMobile/Wireless Internet must be com-patible with GSM, CDMA and AMPS. Sec-ondly, the small size of mobile devicesmeans a restricted user interface, lesspowerful CPU and comparatively lowmemory capacity. The wireless network,in comparison with the standard wirelinenetwork, "has limited bandwidth, longerlatency and lower degree of reliability todeliver wireless data" (Lin & Chlamtac,2001). Moreover, standard Internet con-tent will not be interpreted correctly bythe micro-browsers found in mobiledevices. Therefore new mobile Internetstandards are needed, such as the Wire-less Application Protocol (WAP) and theWireless Markup Language (WML).

POSITIONING AND LBS Determining the location of mobile usersis one of the most challenging tasks thatmust be undertaken in order to enablelocation-based service. LBS providers cur-rently use different methods to deter-mine locations. Three main families ofpositioning:

NETWORK ORIENTED USING SOME FORM

OF TRIANGULATION

The most common non-GPS solutions formobile positioning are: Cell of Origin,Time Difference of Arrival, Angle ofArrival and Enhanced Observed Time Dif-ference. All make use of the wirelesstelecommunications system itself.

Cell of Origin (COO) is the most straight-forward solution, and uses the cell identi-fication information within the mobiletelephony network to identify theapproximate location of the caller. How-ever, this technique is often not very use-ful because of the low positioning accura-

cy. In Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA)system (Figure 1) each tower is able tomeasure the amount of time it takes toreceive a phone's signal. They can thentranslate this information to estimate thedistance of the phone from the tower. Bycross-referencing this information fromother towers in the system, a phone'sposition is expressed in X and Y coordi-nates based on longitude and latitudereadings.

The Angle of Arrival (AOA) (Figure 2)technique seeks to determine the locationof a mobile device based on the angle atwhich signals transmitted from thedevice arrive at the base station(s).

The Enhanced Observed Time Differ-ence (E-OTD) (Figure 3) technique deter-mines the location of a mobile device byusing location receivers that are geo-graphically dispersed across a wide area.These so-called Location MeasurementUnits (LMU) each have an accurate tim-ing source. When it is possible for E-OTD(software-enabled) mobile devices andthe LMUs to receive signals from at leastthree base stations, the time difference ofarrival of the signal from each base sta-tion at the handset and at the LMU arecalculated. The estimated location of thehandset is calculated, based on the com-bination of the differences in time,

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 1 Time Difference of Arrival

Fig. 2 Angle of Arrival

at = d1

ao

co

bo

a, b, c = delay

t = time

d = distance

ct = d3

bt = d2


through a hyperbolic positioning tech-nique. The E-OTD technique offers anaccuracy level from 50 to 125m.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

BASED

The technique involves standalone GPSreceivers and network assisted GPSdevice (Figure 5). The Global PositioningSystem (GPS) is a satellite-based naviga-tion system. GPS is a position, velocityand time determination system that istruly global, is able to operate 24 hours aday under all weather conditions, andcharges no user fees. GPS offers compara-tively high accuracy, when operationalconditions are favourable.

GPS does, however, have some seriouslimitations due to the strong attenuationof the satellite signals by buildings,foliage, etc. Therefore GPS does not oper-ate well (or at all) in dense 'urban canyon'areas, or inside buildings. Yet these areoften the very areas where demand forlocation-based services is the highest.

However, since GPS offers so manyadvantages it is considered a 'first choice'

solution for many mobile positioningapplications, even for the emergencyservices and the LBS that can be support-ed by the location determination technol-ogy implemented for mobile telephony.In order to overcome the problem of posi-tioning indoors and in urban areas, someGPS receivers have been developed thatcan operate in weak signal environmentsand one such is A-GPS.

Assisted GPS (A-GPS) refers to the GPSpositioning technique whereby there isassistance data provided from a specialGPS server/base station by the mobiletelephony network. A-GPS enables GPSpositioning even in urban and indoorareas, where the signal is too weak to beacquired using standard signal trackingprocedures within the receiver. A-GPS isbasically of two types:

• First, are those where the networkassists the mobile device to make thefinal position calculation (the so called'fix')

• Second, where the fix is calculated bythe operator's network with the assis-tance of information from the handset -which is only at the end communicatedback to it.

Network based that use Cell ID informa-tion plus some other radio signal meas-urement. These include Cell ID, Cell IDcombined with base station TA (TimingAdvance) information or Cell ID with RTT(Round Trip Time). These are techniquesbased on measurements of signal delays,round trip delays or signal jitter com-bined with Cell ID information.

Outside the remit of 2G, 2.5G and 3G cel-lular networks, exist other families ofpositioning technologies that are oftenreferred to as 'local positioning', whichusually make use of short range networkssuch as 802.11, Bluetooth, RFID, ultra-sound, UWB of IrDA. Furthermore, recent-ly there have been attempts to use posi-tioning technologies based on TV radiosignals. Figure 6 shows the level of accu-racy by different positioning system .

LBS LOCATION MANAGEM ENT

COM PONENTS - MPC AND GMLC It is not enough to be able to position themobile user and know the map dataaround that position. There must be alocation management function to

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Fig. 3 Enhanced Observed Time Difference Fig. 4 GPS Based Positioning

x, y

x, y

GPSSATELLITE

y

25G I S @ D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

process positioning and GIS data onbehalf of LBS applications. The locationmanagement function acts as a gatewayand mediator between positioningequipment and LBS infrastructure. TheGateway Mobile Location Centre (GMLC)and the Mobile Positioning Centre (MPC)are gateways to connect the positioningcomponents of the GSM mobile telepho-ny network and location-based serviceapplications. One of their functions is tocalculate the position of the mobiledevice, and deliver this information tothe application. To perform this task, it isnecessary to have communication inter-faces between the mobile telephony net-work and the LBS application. For theMPC the interface is the Mobile Position-ing Protocol (MPP) and for GMLC, theinterfaces are by the Open Location Ser-vice.

SPATIAL DATA AND LBS Another essential component of the LBSarchitecture is storing and analysing spa-tial data. GIS are used to store, manageand analyse spatial data. From a GIS per-spective, location-based services do notinclude many complex spatial analyses.However, it is the nature, completenessand accuracy of the database content

that impacts on the quality of the subse-quent LBS. For a certain service area, thedatabase must include all the appropriatefeatures such as roads and points of inter-est. The spatial data analysis functionsused for location-based services are typi-cally geometric functions involving thecomputation of distance, area, volumeand directions. However, in LBS, distancebetween two points may be expressed intravel time (for different means of trans-portation -- car, by foot, public transport,etc.), or in travel cost, rather than in met-ric units.

THE COM PLETE LBS SYSTEM

The LBS architecture basically comprisesthe components shown in Figure 7. Thefirst component is the mobile positioningsystem. This can be network-based (AOA,TOA, TDOA), or handset-based (E-OTD,GPS), or GPS/A-GPS based. The secondcomponent is the mobile telephony net-work, which delivers the service to users.Service gateways in the mobile telepho-ny network are essential. Their functionis to connect positioning systems withthe wireless network and the location-based service application. The third com-ponent is the location-based serviceapplication itself. This consists of an

application server and a spatial database.Components communicate with eachother via application programming inter-faces (APIs). These are designed to helpwireless Internet developers integratelocation-based services into mobiletelephony networks. They also allow theapplication server to communicate withthe spatial database and with the billingserver. The processing centre for a loca-tion-based service platform is the appli-cation server that handles user interfacefunctions and communicates with thespatial database or data warehouse.

SERVICES OF LBSFollowing are the services of LBS:

LOCATION BASED INFORMATION

Many people are familiar with wirelessInternet, but many don't realize the valueand potential to make information serv-ices highly personalized. One of the bestways to personalize information servicesis to enable them to be location based. Anexample would be someone using theirWireless Application Protocol (WAP)based phone to search for a restaurant.The LBS application would interact withother location technology components todetermine the user's location and providea list of restaurants within a certain prox-imity to the mobile user.

LOCATION BASED BILLING

The ability to have preferential billing isprovided by this type of application.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 5 Assisted GPS

Space Vehicle

Pseudoranges

GPS Antenna

Base StationMobile Station withan integrated GPS

Assistance Data

from BS and MS

Location or Measurements

from MS to BS

GPS Signal

Cellular Signal

Cellular Signal (optional)

Ephemeris, Almanac, Pseudoranges, etc

Fig. 6 Level of accuracy by different positioning system

Raral

GPS

AGPS

Urban

City

Cel

lula

r pos

ition

ing

EOTD

, TD

OA

, AO

A

0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100

Cel

l ID

Indoor

26 M A G A Z I N E N A M E

27M A G A Z I N E N A M E


Through location based billing, the usercan establish personal zones such as ahome zone or work zone. Througharrangements with the serving wirelesscarrier, the user could perhaps enjoy flat-rate calling while in home area and spe-cial rates while in other defined zones.This type of application can be especiallyuseful when use in conjunction with oth-er mobile applications such as prepaidwireless.

EM ERGENCY SERVICES

A location based emergency serviceapplication pinpoints the location andrelays it to the appropriate authorities. Inthe United States all wireless carriersmust provide a certain degree of accuracyin pinpointing the location of mobileusers who dial 9-1-1.Dubai Policelaunched an emergency and SOS servicethat gives drivers (for BMW), in the Mid-dle East, a direct voice link to a DubaiPolice Emergency Centre when some-thing unforeseen happens.

TRACKING

This is a rather large category that con-tains everything from the difficult fleetapplications to enabling mobile com-merce. Fleet applications typically entailtracking vehicles for purposes of theowning company knowing the where-abouts of the vehicle and/or operator.

Tracking is also an enable of mobile com-merce services. A mobile user could betracking and provided information thathe has predetermined he desires, such asnotification of a sale on men's suits at astore close to the user's current proximity.

LBS ISSUES

The issues faced by the LBS market are:

DIVERSE MOBILE MAPPING STANDARDS

The issue of mobile mapping is importantin the context of LBS as ability to displaymapping information on mobile devicessuch as cell phones and PDAs is limited.

INTEROPERABILITY

Interoperability is a must for the wide-spread adoption of location-based servic-es. Achieving the full value for locationservices depends on consistent commu-nication across different regions, technol-ogy platforms, networks, applicationdomains, and classes of products.

MARKET CAPACITY

The most important concern is whetherconsumers are really interested in LBS,and whether they are willing to pay forthem. A survey conducted by Berg Insightamong 200 LBS professionals showedthat for 50 percent respondents more vis-ibility and marketing of LBS is importantto make the end-users aware of the serv-

ices. The operators are also looking formore innovative LBS that really can catchthe needs of the end-users, which 35 per-cent of the respondents answered.

USER PRIVACY

Another important issue for LBS is wire-less location privacy protection. The loca-tions of customers, whose mobile deviceshave position-determination capability,may be known to an accuracy of few cmswhenever they make a call. Hence theireveryday 'tracks' can be recorded andanalysed unless safeguards are intro-duced. Such customers are worried aboutthe privacy of information about theirlocations. However, companies are work-ing on modus operadi through whichonly those location will be tracked whichthe customer has opted for.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately when talking about LBS,most think in terms of static user-initiat-ed scenarios like finding the nearest taxirank or getting a map proximate to theuser's position. Although such applica-tions of location awareness are indeeduseful and can bring revenue to manyservice providers, it is somehow limitingthe domain and range of the possibilitiesarising from location aware computing,especially in the context of mobilephones. Granted that these are the earlydays and such services are limited andnot widespread, nevertheless we need tothink about LBS in terms of an enabling(infrastructure almost) technology,where location awareness is invisible andnot an end in itself. In many cases, usefulLBS can be achieved without high degreesof positioning accuracy or in fact avail-ability. While for some other cases onlyaccurate positioning will do.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 7 Location Based Service Component

Anamika Das and Dr Satyaprakash GIS Development

[email protected]

Mobile PositioningSystem

Mobile Telephony Network

Network Based Handset BasedGPS/A-GPS

BasedApplication

ServerSpatial

Database

Location Based Service Application

30

The Galileo Test Range (GTR) proj-ect is an initiative of Regione

Lazio in the frame of its support to technicalresearch and innovation in satellite naviga-tion. It is born with the scope of supportingthe following high level missions:

• Characterization of the Galileo signal: the GTR aims to supportthe activity of analysing the performance of the Galileo navigationsystem, through the analysis of signal measurements in an envi-ronment suitably characterized and controlled. For this purpose,the GTR shall be able to gather raw navigation data within anexperimental area and to process them in its analysis laborato-ries. Such objective is limited, as far as Phase A is concerned, tothe characterization of the signal GTSB-V2, as it is propedeuticalto the final scope of characterizing the Galileo signal, this latterassigned to the Final Phase of the Programme. This Centre willsupport the certification of the Galileo receivers the GTR mustrepresent a suitable Test Bed for Galileo terminals, besides theGPS and EGNOS, placing the own navigation infrastructures andall the necessary hardware and software support instruments atdisposal.

• Realization and Distribution of Services: The GTR, with theknow-how and the experience gathered in the first operative

phase of the project, must be set as a base for the realization of

GNSS

The Galileo Test Range

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

The Galileo Test Range paper assesses the development of a laboratory for the test andanalysis of the Galileo signals,the support for the development,test and certification ofuser terminals (GPS, EGNOS, Galileo)and of applications in different user domains.

G. LANCIA, Marco Manca, Filippo Rodriguez, Franco Gottifredi

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

31

the Services to be distributed to the endusers both public bodies, companies andprivates. The support for the certificationof applications, at a system level and atuser terminal level, the possibility of pro-viding universities and research centreswith laboratories and testing areas, thecontinous monitoring of the Galileo con-stellation are the basis of the GTR offer.Moreover the GTR aims to support thedefinition and the development of newHigh-Tech applications in the various userdomains, for the utilization of the servicesoffered by Galileo once operative.

The development of the GTR is foreseenin three phases, in order to match thecapabilities of the system with the devel-opment plan of Galileo:

• Phase A = Definition and Start up:implementation of the initial system,based on the generation on ground ofnavigation signals (GPS-like) usingpseudolite technology and based on theanalysis and use of signals in space com-ing from GPS and EGNOS.

• Phase B1 = Preparation to the develop-ment and deployment of Galileo system:implementation of the GTR in a configura-tion able to generate Galileo-like signalswith ground equipment and to receive realsignals coming from GSTB V2.

• Phase B2 = Full deployment and initiali-sation of the GTR: implementation of theGTR final configuration, not only able togenerate Galileo-like signals, but also toreceive and process real signals comingfrom Galileo IOV satellites.

The Phase A of the project started onJuly 2005.

The project is coordinated by a Consor-

tium Agreement (C.A) composed byTelespazio, Alactel Alenia Space Italia andFinmeccanica under the supervisory ofFILAS S.p.A. the regional Financial Invest-ment Agency dedicated to the support ofinnovation.

THE OBJECTIVES OF PHASE AIn the phase A, the C.A.. has the responsi-bility of developing an infrastructure ableto acquire and process signals comingfrom 4 pseudolites, from GPS, fromEGNOS and from the GSTB V2 experimen-tal satellite and able to support the test-ing of applications demanding high accu-

racy positioning providing augmentationto the users in the covered area.

During Phase A, the GTR will achieve abasic configuration, called "start-up" andits main objectives are:

To provide a preliminary validation ofthe whole set of pseudolites implement-ed from this first stage, eventually incombination with the reception of thesatellite GSTB-V2 that is already in orbitfrom the beginning of 2006, waiting forthe Galileo signal.

To carry out analysis and experimenta-tion on the GPS, EGNOS e GSTB-V2 signals(the latter at least for the frequency in theL1 band) that bring to the evaluation oftheir navigation performance, throughthe suitable acquisition, filing and pro-cessing of the gathered data.

The characterization of the environ-ment, by means of the use of an appropri-ate meteo station foreseen in the GTRarchitecture.(Figure 1)

The physical realization of a local timereference, through the development andimplemantation of a time laboratorywithin the GTR.

The implementation of local "augmen-tation" of the navigation performance forthe development of applications proto-

Fig. 1 GTR final high level architecture

GTR aims to support the definition and the developmentof new High-Tech applicationsin the various user domains,for the utilization of the services offered by Galileoonce operative.



types based on the use of navigationGPS+EGNOS signals. The Phase A archi-tecture has been designed taking intoaccount the mentioned technical require-ments and it is composed by the follow-ing macro segments:

• The Space Segment: the space segmentis external to the GTR system. Neverthe-less the GTR is structured in order toallow the reception and the evaluation ofthe signals coming from the GPS, GSTB-V2, EGNOS and Galileo satellites.

• The Analysis & Control Centre

• The Experimental Area

• The User Segment

THE ANALYSIS & CONTROLCENTERThe characterization of the Galileo signal,with the consequent evaluation of thenavigation performance in relation to itsmore prominent design aspects, such asthe modulation and coding scheme itadopts, cannot leave out of considerationspecial calculation infrastructures. Fromthe above follows the identification of acertain number of laboratories (for thegeneration of the time, the computationand analysis of orbitography and integri-ty) that the GTR requires in its configura-tion to be able to process and file the nav-igation data gathered with suitable

Galileo receivers (available on site).The Analysis & Control Center, the heart

of the GTR, is composed by a Control Cen-tre, Processing Facilities and SpecialisedLaboratories, and it is sited in the Tec-nopolo Area (in the East of Rome).

It includes the structures dedicated tothe processing of the navigation data pro-duced in the experimental area. Itincludes the Signal Generator (SGF), thatprovides a controlled environment forUser Terminal Qualification Tests.

The Analysis & Control Center includesmoreover the Time Laboratory (TLF), usedto provide a reference time scale to theGTR system. This laboratory is composedby a group of high stability atomic clocks(one H-Maser and four Caesium atomicclocks) operating in a controlled environ-ment. This guarantees a high stabilityboth at short term and at medium/longterm; the GTR-ST time scale is moreover

synchronized to the TAI by means of GPSSystem Time.

The Integrity (ILF) and Orbitography(OLF) Laboratory facilities provide thesupport for the implementation of theintegrity and navigation algorithms bothon the GPS and Galileo constellation andon the pseudolite constellation.

Two types of processing chains areimplemented in the GTR:

• Real time Processing for orbit determi-nation and time syncronization, with theaim to provide the syncronization to all theelements composing the testing area andprovided by part of the OLF·Real timeintegrity determination, with the aim tomonitor the quality of the signals generat-ed in the testing area and to rise alarmflags if system errors exceed certainthresholds, provided by part of theILF.(Figure 2)

Finally the Control Center contains theinfrastructures for the monitoring andcontrol of all the GTR elements besidesthe filing center of all the data producedby it. Moreover the general purpose GTR-Laboratory has all the instruments neces-sary to support more innovative studiesand activities, such as analysis, modellingand compensation of errors affecting GPSand Galileo measurements, developmentof Galileo Receivers technology, develop-ment of prototype applications and certi-fication (with focus on the applicationscertification).

THE EXPERIMENTAL AREA Two main areas can be identified in theground segment:

• The Experimental Area: for the supportto the Galileo receivers certification, anexperimental area, in east of Rome, hasbeen identified, where it is possible to

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

The general purpose GTR-Laboratory has all the instru-ments necessary to supportmore innovative studies

Fig. 2 Sycronization concept


perform the relevant tests, taking intoaccount the most typical environmentalconditions that cannot be reproduced inan extremely good way in alaboratory.(Figure3)

• The Test Area: that is the area coveredby the Pseudolite Signals and where it isthen possible to conduct Tests in a fullycontrolled (also in terms of Signals) envi-ronment. The Test Area is a subset of theExperimental Area.

At the same time special test cam-paigns are foreseen for the testing of theprototypes of applications and relevantadded value services in portions of theexperimental area that contains theinfrastructures representative of the con-cerned users domain, such as parts ofroads, railways, sections of urban envi-ronment and others.

The Experimental Area is mainly char-acterized by the following elements:

• A constellation of pseudolites (PSL) thatbroadcast navigation signals representa-tive of the GPS and/or Galileo System(only GPS in phase A) to the users pres-ent in the area,. They are synchronized bythe GTR-OLF with respect to the refer-ence time scale of the GTR (GTR-ST),generated by the Time Laboratory (TLF),also part of the Analysis & Control Center.

The Sensor Station (SS): the navigationsignals generated both from the groundnetwork of pseudolites and from thesatellites in orbit, are also processed bytwo monitoring stations one sited in thetest area and the other co-located into theTLF. The two SS gather the observablesuseful for the estimation of the syn-cronization parameters of the pseudolitesto be sent to the users. The synchroniza-tion algorithm is based on the wellknown Common View technique, pro-cessing the measurements acquired bythe two sensor stations and computingthe clock biases of the different elements.

• The Differential Reference Stations(DRS): the experimental area will includeinfrastructures of augmentation for theimplementation of applications proto-types: besides the pseudolites, two Differ-ential Reference Stations will be installed.The two DRS are collecting raw data thatare then archived in the Control Centre asRINEX files, but they are also distributingcorrections in real time through the

NTRIP protocol (message types 1, 3, 16,20 and 21), so that users can haveaccess to high accuracy positioning serv-ice directly through internet.

The user segment includes the follow-ing elements:

• GPS/EGNOS Receivers: necessary forthe evaluation of the user position calcu-lated with the GPS system, as a referencefor the tests carried out with otherreceivers.

• GSTB-V2 Receivers: used for the recep-tion of the GSTB-V2 signal, that will berepresentative of the final Galileo signal.In combination with the processing of thesignals transmitted by the pseudolites(transmitting GPS Signals), it allows a firstevaluation of performance at user level,obtainable with the Galileo signals.

CONCLUSIONSThe Regione Lazio represents an area of

absolute international relevance in theaerospace sector. With 5 billion turnover,more than 30,000 employees and 250prominent sized companies the region ischaracterised by strong technical capabil-ities, high quality productivity and broaddiversification in national and interna-tional projects.Actually the proposal ofconstituting an international center ofexcellence for satellite navigation followsthe strategy of growth of industrial andtechnological capabilities in the frame ofan industrial development policy pur-

sued by Regione Lazio. In particular, SMEsthat wish to step into the new business ofsatellite navigation, have been particu-larly addressed during the developmentof the project, supporting the C.A.. in theresearch and development activities con-cerning the set up of the GTR.Moreoverthe role of 10 public research centers, 5Universities (La Sapienza, Tor Vergataand La Terza, Cassino, Viterbo) and 4 aero-space engineering faculties in the Lazioregion is of paramount importance in theentire framework since they participateproactively both to the definition and tothe development of the Galileo TestRange.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

G. LANCIA

[email protected]

MARCO MANCAHead of R&D, Telespazio [email protected]

Eng. FILIPPO RODRIGUEZProgram Manager, TelespazioS.p.A.,[email protected]

FRANCO GOTTIFREDIfghgf

Fig. 3 Experimental area

34

AAccording to the ContainerSecurity Initiative (CSI) fact

sheet, "about 90 percent of all world cargomoves by container, and almost half ofincoming trade by value arrives in the UnitedStates by sea containers" [1]. The huge num-ber of containers traveling around the worldhas alerted concerns in safety and security. According to the US Customs and Border Protection, in 2003, theUnited States had a total of 22,727,291 containers entering thecountry that year [2]. In Hans Binnendijk's article, Defense Hori-zons, he writes that under procedures in the United States as ofthe year 2002 when the article was written, "approximately 2percent of containers are selected for inspection to ensure com-pliance with US laws governing importations, to determineappropriate entry of restricted merchandise such as hazardousmaterial, and to intercept prohibited items such as narcoticsand other contraband" [3].

However, more recently, according to the 2004 Fact Sheetwritten by the Customs and Border Patrol Agency ("Fact Sheet:Cargo Container Security-U.S. Customs and Border Protection

GIS


CONTAINER SECURITYwith Geographic Information System

PROF. DR. RER. NAT. HELMUT KRAENZLE | Professor and Director, Masters Program in GIS and Remote Sensing, Abu Dhabi, UAE

This paper assesses the GISSCM's method of monitoring containers that enable high riskor hazardous material to contain additional alerts.


Reality"), the United States customs "useintelligence to screen information on100% of cargo entering ports, and all car-go that presents a risk to [the UnitedStates] is inspected using large x-ray andradiation detection equipment" [4].

The 2004 Fact Sheet release continues inthe following passage:

Following 9/11, [the United States]developed and implemented a smarterstrategy to identify, target, and inspectcargo containers before they reach U.S.ports…. The strategy is to rule out poten-tial threats before arrival at [the] bordersand ports. In fact, the security measuresnow in place allowed us to rule out 94%of the cargo as potential threats prior toarrival. [In 2004], six percent (6 %) of totalcargo containers were identified aspotential threats and were physicallyinspected immediately upon arrival [4].

Containers are usually measured inTwenty-Foot Equivalent Units or TEUs.For example a twenty-foot containerwould be 1 TEU, and a forty-foot containerwould be 2 TEUs. The table below showsthe top ten ports in the world in total car-go traffic in 2004 [5]. Six of the top tenports are located in Asia with Hong Kongat the top with 21,984,000 TEUs in 2004.

In 2006, Dubai Ports World (DP World)of the United Arab Emirates made inter-

national news with the acquisition of theBritish company P&O for $6.8 billion,which included management of 6 USports. Due to security concerns posed byUS, DP World eventually turned its US-based operations to a US entity.

However, the acquisition of P&O hasmade DP world a top three global portoperator [6]. DP World continues its

expansion, most notably in Asia. Current-ly, the Dubai-based company operatescontainer berths at six ports in Chinawith a combined throughput of about 11million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units),according to the Gulf News web site [7].In June 2006, it announced the construc-tion of a container port in Ho Chi MinCity, Vietnam and agreed to invest in anew terminal in Tianjin, China [8, 9].

The challenge of facing the tremendousgrowth in containers entering and exit-ing ports exists worldwide. According tothe DP World web site, in 2004, DubaiPorts handled a throughput of 6.42 mil-lion twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs),which was a growth of 24.6 percent overits handlings in 2003 [10]. In 2004, itranked the world's 10th largest port andalso, the third fastest growing port [10].

Debated issues include hiring more peo-ple to manually inspect containers, col-laborating with other countries to keepthe containers safe before they leave theports, and implementing new technolo-gies to ensure safety and security.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 1 Sample of shipping, train and truck routes.

RANK PORT COUNTRY TEUs,000

1 Hong Kong China 21,984

2 Singapore Singapore 21,329

3 Shanghai China 14,557

4 Shenzhen China 13,615

5 Busan South Korea 11,430

6 Kaohsiung Taiwan 9,714

7 Rotterdam Netherlands 8,281

8 Los Angeles United States 7,321

9 Hamburg Germany 7,003

10 Dubai United Arab Emirates 6,429

Source: AAPA Port Security Statistics [5]


The Geographic Information System forSimulating Container Movement (GISS-CM) focuses on the technological aspectof tracking the millions of containersentering the United States with the pur-pose of security in preventing illegalactivities, tampering of merchandise andtheft. The GIS has been created to demon-strate that users can monitor the world-wide transportation of containers travel-ing to and within the United States. Thetracking would follow the container as itmakes its trip via ship, truck and/or train.A prototype of the GISSCM was designedwith a user friendly, visual interface thatallows the user to monitor the containersas well as analyze and manage relevantinformation pertaining to each container.In addition, it is planned that the user willbe able to receive alerts for selected con-tainers and for containers that have

unexpectedly left their intended paths.GIS will benefit both the government andbusinesses in assuring safety as well aspreventing theft and loss of merchandise.

GIS AND THE GISSCMIn general, a GIS, in conjunction with aGlobal Positioning System or radio fre-quency identification (RFID) technology,can track and organize data, signal alertswhen a container strays from its desig-nated path and/or allow for the monitor-ing of selected "high risk" contents. Awell-organized GIS can aid in the safetyand security of containers as they travelat seas as well as on land. The prototypeof the GISSCM is the first step toward asystem like that.

The current version of the GISSCM dis-plays spatial information with the capa-bility of retrieving, analyzing, modelingand managing its data. The feature thatmakes this information system unique isits ability to represent and process infor-mation in a referenced geographic space.In other words, "the data are registered toan accepted geographical coordinate sys-tem of Earth's surface, so that data fromdifferent sources can be cross-referencedand integrated" [11]. The data are organ-ized into layers representing objects suchas cities, road networks and rivers, withthe attributes for each entity in the datalayers stored in a separate table or data-base. This table is linked to the spatialdata by a unique identifier found in both.The GIS's capabilities, in general, are the

ideal tools to be used in tracking the ship-ping containers' coordinates as well astheir particular content.

As a container travels to its destinationvia ship, truck and/or rail, it usually fol-lows a pre-determined route. However, ifit starts to deviate from its intended path,an alert can be initiated through a wire-less network or wireless system. Then,the contents of the strayed containermay be checked and compared with theattribute table of the GIS to ensure thecontents are accurate. This functionalityis not included in the current prototype;however, it can be implemented in futureversions of the system.

COMPONENTS OF THE GISSCMThere are four components of the GISS-CM: the GIS Visualization Component,the GIS Container Database, the Simula-tion Program and the Visualization of theSimulation. The utilization of these com-ponents result in a user-friendly, graphi-cal interface that allow the monitoring ofcontainers coming from overseas to theUnited States in real time. Also, the GISS-CM will follow the containers' pathsinside of the United States as they maketheir way to their destinations via ship,truck and/or train.

The GIS Visualization Component con-sists of world maps of the land and seasurface, including the major foreign con-tainer ports. Also, the Visualization Com-ponent has the map of the United States

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

The GISSCMfocuses on thetechnologicalaspect oftracking themillions ofcontainers

OBJECTID X_COORD Y_COORD START DESTINATION CONTENTS MODE_OF_TRANSPORT DISPLAY_NUM

143975 -82.9988021851 39.9611740112 Newport News Columbus Unknown Train 57

1401653 128.215766459 30.3235607189 Kaaohsiung Long Beach Unknown Ship 4971

1388710 -4.21372277446 49.5739971822 Antwerp New York Unknown Ship 4837

1417742 136.505084225 27.4880860741 Busan Long Beach Unknown Ship 4566

1380142 110.302855855 7.3406763661 Kalang Long Beach Unknown Ship 4301

1384443 92.5395549291 9.84959456289 Kalang New York Unknown Ship 4267

Table. 1 Example of container database records.

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with all major container ports of the US.In addition, it maps the major shippingroutes to and from the United States aswell as at least 10 major interstates con-necting the ports and the major citieswithin the United States.

The GIS Container Database is an attrib-ute database with the following informa-tion: 1) Data field for the location of thecontainer with an X, Y coordinate 2) Datafields for the content of the container 3)Data fields for customs information and4) data fields with information about theshipper. Additional data fields might bedeveloped if found necessary during thedevelopment of the GIS.

The Simulation Program has the pur-pose to simulate and test the GIS for con-tainer movement. The program gener-ates a database where the movement ofthe containers is simulated. The Simula-tion Program is a software algorithm tocreate X,Y coordinates for simulation ofcontainer movement along internationalwaterways from international seaportsto the United States. The software algo-

rithm will create X,Y coordinates for sim-ulation of container movement alongmajor US interstates from US seaports tomajor US cities. In addition, the softwarealgorithm is developed to simulate thecontent of the container database (e.g.,container content, customs information,shipping information, etc.). If the GIS sys-tem will be implemented to monitor con-tainers, the Simulation Program will bereplaced by an interface that will submitthe location (X,Y coordinates) via a real-time data link to the GIS.

The Visualization of the Simulationdeals with the visual aspect of the GIS.The GIS visualizes the simulation of con-tainer movement and the contents of thecontainer. In addition, the spatial data-base with the real-time movement simu-lation of the containers can be document-ed in tables and statistically in the future.Currently, new locations for each con-tainer in the database are simulatedevery hour. The position changes will bevisualized along shipping routes, ports,interstates and train routes.

DETAILS OF GISSCM COMPONENTSMap visualization is one of the integralcomponents of any Geographic Informa-tion System. The GISSCM visualizationcomponent is represented by a standardESRI ArcMap interface that allows the dis-play of various data types and informa-tion. The visualization interface allowsthe user to view the absolute spatial ref-erence of features in latitude/longitude,decimal degrees, UTM coordinates, etc.and the relative location of the featuresreferenced to others. The technology andcapabilities provided by the GIS are suit-able for map display, data analysis anddecision support systems. The inherentfunctionality in this system allows fordifferent types of data to be displayed atvarious mapping scales based on thescope of the data. The software offers ahost of analysis and display capabilitiesthat include viewing data, querying thecontainer database and performing spa-tial analysis between data layers.

The GISSCM visualization componentsupports the overall container simulationprocess by providing an environmentthat displays the absolute and relativelocation of containers. The container loca-tion, simulated by an external program,can be constantly updated, and thechanging locations are easily presentedin the map window. The X and Y locationof the container on the map is automati-cally generated by corresponding"X_Coord" and "Y_Coord" fields in the con-tainer database. The container databaseand all other data layers of the GISSCMare in Geographical Coordinates, and thereference ellipsoid is in WGS 1984.

The representation of container sym-bols on the map depends on the mode oftransportation. The three main methodsof transportation addressed in this com-ponent are the following: ships, trainsand trucks. The display functionalityallows the user to discern the varyingmodes of container transport and their

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 2 Containers are transported by ships, trains, and truck on corresponding routes. Symbol sizes vary depending on the number of containers at each location.


corresponding routes (Figure 1). Displaycapabilities of GIS also allow symbols ofcontainers to range in size based on num-ber of containers transported by eachmethod (Figure 2). Figure 3 shows anexample of a large scale map of system.

Besides the visualization of containers,the visualization component of the GISincludes the following layers: nationaland international roads, railroads, portsand cities, the world countries, all statesin the United States, world satelliteimagery and world elevations data. Somedata sets have been compiled by headsup digitizing and others are from ESRI,WorldSat International and the Bureau ofTransportation.

The current visualization configurationis the first step toward fully developing acomprehensive worldwide GIS that con-tains standardized and complete datalayers. By further integrating world datacoverage, the analysis and systems devel-oped for this project can be applied to anyother location in the world. Map visuali-zation is backbone for performing analy-sis and making spatial sense of locationsfor simulated or real cargo containers.

For phase 1 of the project, a VisualBasic.NET program was developed topopulate a Microsoft Access databasewith approximately 100,000 records.Each database record represents one con-

tainer and consists of the following fields:Object ID, X and Y Coordinates, startingpoint, destination, container content,mode of transportation and the displaynumber (see Table 1). The database wasused as an input for the GIS visualizationcomponent to display an example of con-tainers along shipping routes, truckroutes and railroads.

In phase 2 of the project, a program wasdeveloped to simulate the worldwidemovement of containers. The simulationprogram creates X,Y coordinates for sim-ulation of container movement alonginternational waterways from interna-tional seaports to the USA. [12]

CONCLUSIONThe GISSCM has a variety of possible usesthat range from the commercial to thegovernment sector. On the commerciallevel, ensuring the timely, accurate ship-ment of goods is an integral part of busi-ness. The GISSCM's capabilities to trackcontainers in real time allow the trackingof merchandise and help prevent theft

and/or loss. On the governmental level,dealing with terrorism and threats tomajor ports is an important issue. TheGISSCM's method of monitoring contain-ers will enable high risk or hazardousmaterial to contain additional alerts thatare displayed visually on a map as well asin the attribute tables.

With the huge volume of containersentering and exiting the United States,security and safety are important issues.Having a reliable means for tracking eachcontainer and receiving relevant infor-mation pertaining to the containers isimportant. A well-designed GIS with thenecessary tools will aid in organizing andkeeping track of containers.For complete list of references visit

http://www.mapmiddleeast.org/

magazine/2006/mar-apr/index.htm

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 3 Container location in San Diego relative to local cities, interstates and railroads.

GISSCM hasvariety of pos-sible uses thatrange fromcommercial togovernmentsector.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. HelmutKraenzleProfessor in Geography, JamesMadison University, Harrison-burg, Virginia, U.S.A.

[email protected]

40

In order to place individual surveyingprojects into a larger spatial context,

a geodetic control network is necessary.Such a network consists of a number ofpoints spread across the area under consid-eration, these points are usually in the formof monuments established and placed in theground, along with a high-accuracy position-al value for each point.

Traditionally, there have been completely separate networksfor horizontal and vertical control, but some and recent net-works combine the two on common monuments. By referenc-ing field measurements to such a network, the resulting dataand information from multiple local survey activities can beaccurately connected. The accuracy of each activity or project isno higher than the control network to which it is referenced.

Actually, Geodetic control is typically separated into two com-ponents: horizontal (latitude/longitude) and vertical (elevation).This is because both are based on completely different conceptsand measurement methods. Even today when GPS can provideextremely high-accuracy horizontal results, a more traditionalmethod is required to establish vertical control. Geodetic controlsurveys are usually performed to establish a basic control net-

work (framework) from which supplemental surveying andmapping work are performed. The required accuracy for a con-trol survey depends primarily on its purpose. Different sets ofdetailed standards of accuracy and specifications for geodeticsurveys are to be considered to get reliable control points.

Horizontal geodetic control networks can be established by anumber of different methods, however GPS has become themost widely used method due to its efficiency and superiorresults. These networks provide positional information with ref-erence to a mathematical surface called an ellipsoid (horizontaldatum) defined to model the size and shape of (all or some partof) the Earth.

The high accuracy reference network is usually being estab-lished in many countries. It provides the surveying communitywith a network of highly reliable positional coordinates to con-trol their surveys. Vertical control networks are a series of pointson which precise heights, or elevations, have been established.Vertical control stations are typically called Bench Marks (BM).The benchmark's elevation is known relative to a verticaldatum, usually approximating the mean sea level.

During previous years more than 2000 precisely located, in-ground or monumented reference points were installed tomeasure heights in Al Ain region. The classical line-of-sightmeasurements do not provide the real-time accuracy needed fortoday's positioning technologies and applications. By using GPSpinpoint-positioning accuracies can be provided 24 hours a day.The combination of an improved height system along with GPS,will offer the ability to obtain precise vertical measurements inreal time. In the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi, because much ofexisting vertical control has been lost to destruction or distur-

SURVEYING


VERTICAL CONTROL NETWORK OF ALAIN REGIONDR KAMAL ABDELLATIF ABDALLA | Planning and Survey SectorMunicipality of Al Ain


bance, and because network was notdense enough to support use of GPS toderive elevations, Al Ain Town Planninginitiated a project for height determina-tion based on gravimetric determinationof geoid.

Prior to GPS, horizontal control wasmost easily established by measuringbetween hilltops. Similarly, vertical con-trol was (and still is) most easily estab-lished by leveling along railroad or high-way corridors. Even once GPS became apractical technology, vertical controlmonument locations were still problem-atic as control stations since some arenear buildings and along the roads cov-ered by trees and others are not easilyaccessible.

Nevertheless, it can be seen in Al Ainthat its a great advantage in property sur-veys to have control values distributed allthrough the developed areas, because thesurveyor saves the time otherwiserequired to survey ("run") control in fromnearby (sometimes several miles or moreaway) geodetic stations.

There are several phases involved inestablishing a geoid surface that can beused to correct GPS derived heights sothat they are consistent with the existingorthometric height reference system. Ini-tially, it is necessary to assess the existingcontrol, and confirm its validity and con-sistency. Once this has been done, can ageoid be determined and then fitted tothe existing vertical control points.

EXISTING VERTICAL CONTROL

The current height network in the East-ern Region is based mainly upon a seriesof leveling runs carried out by BKS Sur-veys between 1983 and 1987. A total ofabout, 214 levelling circuits were carriedout over a total distance of 2396 km. Theaccuracy was specified as 10 mm persquare root of levelling run in kilometres.The aim was to provide one point forevery square kilometre in areas to be cov-ered by 1:500 and 1:1000 mapping, and

one point for every 5 sq. km in areas to becovered by 1:2000 mapping. Of the 2000ground markers, 814 were spirit levelled.The rest were heighted by reciprocal ver-tical angles. Many of these points havesubsequently been destroyed duringdevelopment work, and that only as fewas 25% may still exist in some areas. Thedatum used for this levelling was the PortRashid datum of Dubai, established bylevelling carried forward from Dubai topoints BTP219 (Al Faqa) and BTP226(Schweib). These two points mark thenorthern extent of the levelling work; thesouthern extent is at Al Qua. In additionto the levelling and trigonometric height-ing established by BKS, two other sourcesof height information are available in AlAin Town planning database. The first ofthese are the points identified by the ini-tial prefix "K", which relate to a boundarysurvey carried out along the border withOman by KLM. The second set of points isthat identified by the initial prefix "G",which were geodetic points establishedby the Survey Section of Al Ain TownPlanning in the 1990. Concrete monu-ments were installed in all non-rocky andnon-sandy locations. In rocky locationswhere excavation proved difficult ashortened central tube was used. Insandy locations liable to erosion, thethree-metre pipe marker was installedwith witness posts. A total of 1712 monu-ments of all types were installed to pro-vide the vertical control network of theeastern region.

Vertical control analysis showed thatthere are several discrepancies in the con-trol points used in the region. In the firstplace, the heights of the KLM points wereactually determined by trigonometricheighting which leads to a lower accura-cy, as well the points were refereed to RasGhantut datum, while that used by BKSto determine the heights of the BKSpoints referred to Port Rashid mean sealevel datum. The comparison betweenBKS and KLM indicates a difference

between datums of approximately 4 m,which indicates that, it is possible, thatthere is a further confusion betweendatums. Secondly, there is also a problemwith the way in which the "G" pointswere established. These points were posi-tioned with GPS during the 1990s, using"B" points as control and deriving trans-formations using the SKI software. Theeffect of this is to derive heights that areneither orthometric nor ellipsoidal, butwhat can be termed "linearly correctedorthometric": that is, they are ellipsoidalheights that have been converted (implic-itly, rather than by design) to orthometricusing a model of the geoid that is definedas a plane through the values at the con-trol points. This approach is generallyvalid over short distances (several hun-dred metres, or perhaps some kilometres),where to a certain extent the geoid can bemodelled as an inclined plane. The evi-dence here, however, is that it has beendone over several tens of kilometres: overthese distances, the necessary assump-tions break down completely. An exami-nation of the form of the EGM-96 geoidshows that errors of around 0.5 m could

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Fig. 1 WGS84 Geoid of the Eastern regionof Abu Dhabi Emirates


be introduced in this way, and possiblylarger since EGM-96 is a smoothed modelof the geoid. In addition, if any "K" pointswere used as control, then the errorswould be even worse than this. It is there-fore necessary to ignore both the "K"points and the "G" points in assessing thequality of the vertical control network,

this leaves only BKS points to the verticalcontrol of the Eastern Region.

RELATIONS BETWEEN

ORTHOM ETRIC HE IGHTS AND GEOID

The GPS measured heights are measuredfrom the ellipsoid, therefore, they need tobe converted into an orthometric height

system. The current methods of convert-ing GPS elevations to orthometric eleva-tions (Acharya and Popp, 1994) are:

• To incorporate a priori geoid undulationdata in three-dimensional adjustmentwhich holding the benchmark elevationsfixed for stations with known valuesdetermined by spirit leveling. The mini-mum number of benchmarks should befour, well distributed through out theregion.

• Determination of orthometric heightsfrom GPS vector baseline data involvesperforming a 3-d adjustment withoutusing geoid undulation data.

• The best method is to compute the actu-al geoid undulation difference detailsfrom gravity anomalies for the desiredstations where ever centimeter accura-cies are derived.

The ultimate aim for the vertical net-work is to determine a geoid surfaceacross the region, in such a way that GPSobservations can be corrected so thatthey agree with the orthometric heightdatum. An initial assessment of problemsassociated with the geoid in Al Ain regionwere made by Hansa Luftbild (2001);using the observed WGS-84 coordinateswith GPS of selection of points across theregion. From the differences between GPSand orthometric height, the initial valuesfor the geoid separation, N (Fig. 1) wasdetermined. This figure was then com-pared with the value given by the EGM-96 global Earth model, and the results areshown in Table 1. After correcting for anoverall bias (which would be expectedsince the heights use different datums),the residual variations are shown. How-ever, considering the known accuracy ofEGM-96, the type of terrain, and the areacovered, these variations are far greaterthan would be expected.

The residuals shown in table.1 are of amagnitude that is consistent with anunderlying more detailed structure of thegeoid than is modelled by EGM-96. Theanalysis showed that the "B" points are inan orthometric height system and aresufficiently widely spread to form thebasis of an on-going vertical control sys-

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

STATION Observed EGM96EGM96 Bias Corrected

Observed GeoidMinus EGM96 Bias Corr

B1048 -33.38 -32.4 -34.22 0.84

B1136 -31.06 -29.99 -31.81 0.75

B1276 -31.96 -30.95 -32.77 0.81

B128 -31.75 -30.58 -32.4 0.65

B1346 -31.99 -31.11 -32.93 0.94

B1451 -32.60 -31.64 -33.46 0.86

B1578 -32.54 -31.68 -33.5 0.96

B273 -33.81 -32.8 -34.62 0.81

B313 -33.46 -32.57 -34.39 0.93

B3725 -32.84 -31.86 -33.68 0.84

B3733 -31.30 -30.16 -31.98 0.68

B44 -32.65 -31.93 -33.75 1.10

B472 -33.70 -33.14 -34.96 1.26

B556 -33.74 -33.01 -34.83 1.09

B696 -33.42 -32.84 -34.66 1.24

B757 -33.49 -32.86 -34.68 1.19

B9055 -32.20 -31.27 -33.09 0.80

G6128 -33.49 -33.11 -34.93 1.44

G6129 -34.04 -33.13 -34.95 0.91

G6134 -35.20 -33.03 -34.86 -0.34

G6136 -36.91 -32.7 -34.52 -2.39

G6137 -37.28 -32.75 -34.57 -2.71

G6147 -36.29 -32.86 -34.69 -1.60

G6151 -34.10 -33.05 -34.87 0.77

G6152 -32.89 -32.7 -34.52 1.63

G6154 -33.49 -33.02 -34.85 1.36

G6155 -35.09 -33.11 -34.93 -0.16

G6156 -37.39 -32.63 -34.45 -2.94

G6166 -33.63 -32.78 -34.6 0.97

KL1211 -37.60 -32.84 -34.66 -2.94

KL1261 -37.92 -32.82 -34.64 -3.28

KL1510 -34.88 -30.46 -34.28 -2.60

KL1620 -35.91 -30.45 -34.28 -3.63

Table. 1 Comparison between WGS84 and EGM96 geoids in Al Ain region


tem. The "K" points are few in numberand based on the Ras Ghantut localdatum; the "G" points are not in an ortho-metric height system. In adopting the "B"points as the sole basis for the orthomet-ric height datum, however, an assess-ment will have to be made of the extentto which "K" and "G" points have alreadybeen used to control mapping, and appro-priate corrections will have to be applied.

THE EARTH GEO-POTENTIAL

MODEL EGM96The EGM96 model is the result of collabo-ration between the National Imagery andMapping Agency, the NASA GoddardSpace Flight Centre, and the Ohio StateUniversity. Major terrestrial gravityacquisitions by NIMA since 1990 andcooperative gravity collection projects,several which were undertaken with theUniversity of Leeds. These collectionefforts have improved the data holdingsover many of the world's land areas. Inaddition, there have been major efforts toimprove NIMA's existing 30' mean anom-aly database through contributions ofvarious countries in Asia.

Presently the best available model ofthe Earth is the EGM96 covering theEarth gravity field up to degree and order360. This corresponds to a spatial resolu-tion of up to 55 km and models the geoidwithin an accuracy of about 40 cm (glob-al average). For further refinement ofEGM96 in the Eastern Region, surfacepoint information has to be introduced. Apoint separation of less than 30 km isneeded to cover the short wave lengthpart of the harmonic development of theEarth gravity field (degree 361 . . . 10000,0.5 m . . . 0.01 m geoid undulation, pointseparation 30 km . . . 1 km (grid wise)).

The exercise of establishing a localgeoid for the Eastern Region of the AbuDhabi Emirate has been attempted intwo steps, first the EGM96 model wascompared against the geoid undulationsas derived from actual survey data. Sec-

ondly the result-ing bias was thenused to best fit theEGM96 model tothe local condi-tions in anattempt toimprove theresults, hencetransforming thebias correctedEGM96 to a best-fit local geoid. Theinitial analysis ofthe first process-ing step revealed adifferencebetween Al Ainregion, orthometric heights and the cor-responding EGM96 heights of the magni-tude of 1.82m. EGM96 values were thenuniformly corrected by this regionaldefault value. However, the mismatchbetween bias corrected EGM96 valuesand actual GPS height minus orthometricheights was definitely more than expect-ed. An agreement within 40 or 50 cmcould be expected considering the overallquality of the EGM96 model. In thisexample, the rms difference between theobserved and the EGM96 bias correctedheights was ±1.63 m (without bias correc-tion ±2.45 m), which is 3 to 4 times morethan expected.

In the northern part (above 24 deg) theresiduals are mainly positive and in thesouthern part large negative residuals ofthe bias fit are evident. The extreme val-ues were +1.63m (maximum difference)and ±3.63m (minimum difference). In theeastern part of the investigation area thestation distribution was denser andshowed an inhomogeneous behaviour ofthe residuals with positive and large neg-ative values. The second processing stepof the local geoid determination showeda best fit transformation of the bias cor-rected EGM96 values to the actual valuesas derived from local observations. Fol-

lowing the transformation the rms differ-ence between the observed and theEGM96 bias/tilt corrected heights was±1.33m. The residuals indicate that, simi-lar systematic errors are inherent in adja-cent stations, especially in the northernpart of the region. This could be due to theuse of different height datum points inthe local levelling networks.

Al Ain Town Planning has provided afundamental component of determininga local geoid that of an accurate homoge-neous control networks extendingthroughout the region. The extent of thesurveying activities within the regionwill be dependent on the uncertaintiesrequired within the local geoid model.Greater height accuracies will be requiredwithin the developed and developingareas and therefore smaller uncertaintieswill be required within the local geoidwithin these areas. Outside these areas aless rigorous determination of the modelwill be required, which can be updatedinline with the ever-expansive surveyrequirements.

GRAVIM ETR IC GEOID

DETERM INATION

The initial step in the computation of ageoid surface that will be used to correct

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Fig. 2 EGM96 Geoid Model for the United Arab Emirates


GPS observations is to determine a "pure"gravimetric geoid in a global datum. Thiswill then be tailored to the datum of theexisting control points, during whichprocess the long-wavelength errors in thelevelling will be absorbed. To determine agravimetric geoid to an accuracy of 5 cm,ideal requirements (Cross et. Al, 2002) are:

• Use of the EGM-96 for long-wavelengtheffects.

• Observations of gravity anomalies on a 5km grid across the whole of the regionwhere the geoid is required, and in abuffer zone extending 60 km beyond ineach direction.

• Provision of a digital elevation model todescribe the topography across theregion where the geoid is required, at agrid density of 100 m.

In practice, some of these requirementsmay present some problems in this case,in particular because:

• The Eastern Region has borders withcountries (such as Oman); in such casean arrangement or permission is requiredfor the acquisition of gravity data.

• Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are notconsistently available across the region.

The exact effect of these omissions isalmost as complicated computation asthat of the geoid itself, and would requireaccess to appropriate data sets. However,as suggested by cross et. al (2002) an esti-mate of geoid can be made as:

• For areas of the Eastern Region adja-cent to areas where gravity cannot beobserved, it is likely that there would be"edge effect" errors that may amount toup to 20 cm.

• Acting on the fact that DEMs are notavailable for Eastern Region, error effectwould be dependent on topography.

Once the gravimetric geoid has beencomputed, it is then necessary to fit thissurface to the locally established PortRashid datum. This was done by deter-mining some geoid separation valuesusing GPS observations at existing con-trol points as shown in table 1. The fittingprocess suggested by cross et. al (2002)involves warping the gravimetricallyderived geoid onto the orthometric tie

points, by a collocation process. The eventual result of the fitting proce-

dure will be that, the new observations(from a "GPS+geoid-model" approach)will be broadly in sympathy with exist-ing height data in areas where "B" pointswere available in the tailoring process.Some discrepancies may be apparent, assome outliers and some where no tiepoints were available. In these situationsthe correct definition of the datum is giv-en by the geoid model in combinationwith GPS observations. In other words,the geoid model should be regarded as abetter approximation to a true orthomet-ric height system. If this approach is notadopted then it is likely to lead to long-term problems,

Observation of gravity anomalies acrossthe Eastern Region and - where accesspermits - across a 60 km wide edge zone,are to be made on a grid at 5 km spacing,although precise adherence to a grid pat-tern is not essential. Observations shouldbe tied into international gravity net-works and be of an accuracy that is com-patible with geoid determination. Thencompute a gravimetric geoid across theEastern Region, using: the observed grav-ity anomalies; a high accuracy globalmodel of the geoid such as EGM-96; andextraction of DEMs from other datasources. Fit the gravimetric geoid to theGPS/orthometric points supplied toderive a GPS correction surface. The fit-ting procedure is to be the equivalent of acollocation-type approach with a correla-tion length in the region of 50 km. Finalproduct should be accompanied by anassessment of the accuracies achieved,both in the gravimetric geoid and in thefitting procedure, accompanied somestandard quality control data as thedetails of rejected data and so on. Thefinal product should be in the form ofdata files for the gravimetric geoid andthe GPS correction surface, as well as asoftware routine that is able to interpo-late the values at given locations in an

interactive mode. An area where map-ping exists was examined, but no tiepoints have been used to control thegeoid surface (for example, where height-ing has been carried out with respect to"G" or "K" points). Evaluate the discrepan-cies between heights now defined by"GPS+correction surface" and archiveheights. If these discrepancies are of amagnitude whereby problems are likelyto be induced, then a once off datum shiftto the archive data is to be carried out, insmoothly varying steps.

CONCLUSIONS

The article showed that the basis for theorthometric heights in the Eastern Regionshould be in consistent with the controlpoints obtained by BKS, which are basedon the vertical datum of Port Rashid ofDubai. The mean accuracy of the adjustedBKS vertical network is given as 9mm.Vertical control analysis showed thatthere are several discrepancies in the con-trol points used in the Eastern region. Inthe first place, the heights of the pointsobtained by KLM referred to Ras Ghantutdatum were actually determined bytrigonometric heighting which leads to alower accuracy, as compared to the verti-cal control points obtained by BKS. Thecomparison between BKS and KLM indi-cates a difference between datums ofapproximately 3 m. As much of the exist-ing vertical control has been lost due todestruction or disturbance, and becausethe network was not dense enough tosupport use of GPS to derive elevations, aprecise geoid model should be deter-mined. The study recommended that AlAin Town Planning have to initiate aproject for height determination basedon gravimetric determination of geoid.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Dr Kamal AbdellatifAbdallaPlanning and Survey SectorMunicipality of Al AinAl Ain, United Arab Emirates

[email protected]

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46

Acontinuously operating, GPSreference station - or perma-

nent reference station as it is often called -comprise a GPS receiver and antenna set upin a stable manner at a safe location with areliable power supply.

The receiver operates continuously, logging raw data, perhapsalso streaming (continuously outputting) raw data, and oftenoutputting Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and Differential GPS(DGPS) data for transmission to RTK, GIS and GPS navigationdevices. The receiver is usually controlled by a computer thatcan be located remotely if necessary. The PC will usually down-load data files at regular intervals and pass them to an FTP serv-er for access by the GPS user community.

One or more single reference stations supply GPS Services tousers in the immediate surrounding areas may be all that isrequired by some organizations. Other authorities, however,may need to establish networks of reference stations - perhaps5,10,20,50, or even more stations - to provide complete GPS serv-ices over entire regions and even countries. A single server


GPS Infrastructure

GNSS RTKNetworks andtheir benefits

This paper enisages how a GNSS RTK Network can deliver faster ambiguity resolution,longer ranges and higher reliability.

RATAN.K.AWASTHI | Leica Geosystems

G I S D E V E L O P M E N T - M I D D L E E A S T

(computer) running a GPS reference sta-tion software and communicating bytelephone, LAN, WAN or Internet can con-trol all the stations in the network (PC'sare not required at the receivers).

This brief introduction illustrates thatreference stations and networks can varyconsiderably in extent and complexity.Organizations that are studying theestablishment of reference stationsshould consider carefully what the sta-tions will be used for, what services they

will have to provide, and what will be theappropriate levels of sophistication andcost.

Once set up and configured, the sta-tions and network will run fully automat-ically. However, system supervisors canlog in, inspect the receivers and the net-work and make any changes that are nec-essary.

The main requirement today is to pro-vide the data needed by real-time surveyand GIS rover equipment. The receivers at

the reference stations can output data instandard Radio Technical Commission forMaritime Services (RTCM) formats and inother proprietary formats (Leica, CMR,CMR+) for transmission to and use by RTKand GIS field rover receivers. Transmis-sion can be directly from the stations orvia other suitable locations. Communica-tion for transmission of RTK and DGPSdata will usually be by radio, high-speedwireless (GSM, GPRS, CDMA) etc.) or evenby the Internet.

If it is required to monitor any move-ments within a network, it is also possi-ble to arrange for the positions of theantennas to be computed automaticallyat regular intervals.

A CASE STUDY OF GNSS REFERENCE STATION NETWORK

IN BAHRAIN

This section of paper studies a practicalexample of a Network of GNSS referencestations which would cover the wholeGeographical Area of Kingdom of

The main requirement today is to provide the data neededby real-time survey and GIS rover equipment. Thereceivers at the reference stations can output data.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 47


Bahrain. The system is built around LeicaSpidernet GNSS reference station soft-ware, Leica GRX Pro 1200 GNSS receivers,CISCO Routers and T1/E1 ISDN telephonysolution from Batelco.

The purpose of this network is to pro-vide RTK corrections to all registeredusers to achieve 1 cm level accuracy inposition and 2 cms in height throughoutthe Kingdom and use it for land registryand titling purpose.

Site Server ComponentSite server application in Spider Net isresponsible for managing and controllingIndividual GPS reference station siteincluding single base RTK transmissionfrom these sites. The functionality includ-ed in site server component is listedbelow:

• Site Map: Gives you a graphical overviewof the status and configuration of all thesites belonging to your server.

• Site: Create, edit, view and delete suchsites. Start and stop logging and RTKtransmission.

• Sensor: Configure sensor settings, suchas logging, RTK, meteorological and tiltsensors, and upload them to the sensor.Start and stop logging and RTK transmis-sion.

• Raw Data Status: View the real timeconnection status of the configured sites.

• File Products: Define the creation ofdata files, e.g. RINEX, Leica MDB files,Leica QC (quality check) files and eventlogs.

• RT Products: Create real time correctionstreams for RTK rovers.

• Positioning Products: Create baselinesfor real time positioning between twosites.

Network Server Component

The Network Server Component in Spider Net is responsible for getting thedata streams from the individual refer-

ence station sites via Site Server and com-pute the network correction by assigningsites to Cluster Server and forming thecells (as per the Master AuxiliaryApproach of RTCM 3.0) or by AutomaticCells using the Rover NMEA positions.Some the main components are givenbelow:

• Net Configuration: Provides an interfaceto configure all settings related to network processing and output of network RTK corrections. Here adminis-trator can assign the Site Servers to thenetwork and then these sites can beassigned to Cluster Servers and configu-ration of cells.

• RT Products: Enables network correc-tion information, individualized networkcorrections and single site RTK correc-tions to be transmitted to users in the fieldusing any of the supported communica-tion media.

• Map View: Provides location based infor-mation of all rover user on the networkserver

• Rover Status: Provides a list of all roveruser on the network server and also in themap view. You can disconnect a user withjust a mouse click.

• Sat Status: Displays the cluster (NAL)status for each satellite and each site.

One of the highlights of Leica solution iszero difference processing of all theobservations form all the reference sta-

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Reference stations offer multiple application supportand extremely useful for thedevelopment of communities.They provide a platform toshare RTCM corrections overInternet using NRTIP protocol


tion sites and then estimating the Com-mon Integer Ambiguity level in the net-work and transmit the correction fromone master and correction differencesfrom auxiliary.

Also the dispersive component (Ionos-phere) and Geometric Component (Tro-posphere and Orbit errors) can be sent atdifferent rates. This is in 100% compli-ance and as per RTCM 3.0.

For legacy GPS rover receivers the net-work processing can do space state mod-eling of Ionosphere, Trposphere andOrbits and generate RTCM version 2.1, 2.2and 2.3 messages.

RTK Proxy Server and User

Management

RTK proxy server is responsible for distri-bution of RTK products and user manage-ment. RTK data can be distributed viaserial, radios, GSM, TCP/IP, NTRIP cover-ing all the possible communication meth-ods. Some of the main features of the RTKproxy server are listed below:

• Authentication

• Who connects to my Spider server?

• Auditing

• What is the rover users current status?

• Authorization

• What is the rover user allowed todo?

• Accounting

• What did the rover user do in the past?

The Integrity monitoring is provided bypositioning products on Site server tocompute Individual baseline vectorsbetween the reference stations at 1 Hzrate and this data goes through a timeseries analysis and any detection of cross-ing of threshold can be informed toAdministrtor by e-mail, netsend and also via SMS option.

Web Server and FTP server

SpiderWEB is an internet based applica-tion that aims to provide reference sta-tion system operators with the required

tools and interfaces to provide web basedservices to their end users such as fieldsurveyors or GIS users.

These services include but shall not belimited to:

• reference station meta data

• reference station status information

• provision of RINEX formatted GPS rawdata from reference stations

• provision of coordinate computationservices

• user registration

• usage tracability

With this functionality SpiderWEB inte-grates with and complements GPS Spiderreference station suite of software.

Spider Web can be easily customized tobe the Web server of RINEX data for theSLRB and the logos, colours and appear-ance can be cusomised.

SUM MARY

Reference stations offer multiple appli-cation support and extremely useful forthe development of communities. Theyprovide a good return on investment andmust be treated as a National GPS Infra-structure. Usually they are maintained byNational Survey/Cadastral/Met Authori-ties and they can serve a multitude ofapplication and data can be shared overInternet to many users automatically.Today they provide a platform to sharethe RTCM corrections over Internet usingNTRIP protocol which allows multiplex-ing of corrections from multiple sitesusing the moutpoints.

J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 0 6

Ratan.K.AwasthiLeica [email protected]

50

July 2006

24 - 28 JULY Geo Web 2006Vancouver, BC, Canadawww.geoweb.org

31JULY - 4 AUGUST IGARSS 2006 Colorado, USAwww.igarss06.com/index.html

August 2006

7 - 8 AUGUST 3D GeoInfo'06Kuala Lumpur, Malaysiahttp://www.gdmc.nl/zlatanova/3Dgeoinfo2006

7 - 11 AUGUST Twenty-Sixth Annual ESRIInternational User ConferenceSan Diego, California, USAhttp://www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html

14 - 18 AUGUST The 12th GISnet Conferenceand Exhibition on GIScience;RS; GPS; Space Science andTechnology AppliccationsLegend Hotel, Hochiminh,Vietnamwww.ditagis.org

23 - 27 AUGUST 1st Indonesian GeospatialTechnology ExhibitionJakarta, Indonesia.www.geospatial-exh.com

29 AUG. - 1 SEPT. Map Asia 2006Queen Sirikit National Convention CenterBangkok, Thailand [email protected]://www.mapasia.org

28 - 30 AUGUST 2006 Intercarto Intergis 12: International Conference on GIS and Sustainable DevelopmentGermanywww.intercarto12.net

September 2006

4 - 8 SEPTEMBER UN Regional CartographicConference For Asia and thePacificBangkok, Thailandwww.fig.net/events/events2006.htm

14 - 22 SEPTEMBER 9th International Symposiumon High Mountain RemoteSensing Cartography Graz, [email protected] http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/geowww/hmrsc/hmrsc_9

18 - 21 SEPTEMBER GORS-15th International Symposium & Exhibition onRemote Sensing and AssistingSystemsDamascus, Syria.www.gors-sy.org.

19 - 21 SEPTEMBER International Symposium &Exhibition on Geo informa-tion 2006Selangor, Malaysia.www.isg06.org

20 - 23 SEPTEMBER GIScience 2006 Schlossplatz 2University of Munster, Munster, NRW Germany www.giscience.org

25 - 26 SEPTEMBER Gi4DM

Goa, India www.commission4.isprs.org

October 2006

8 - 13 OCTOBER FIG Working Week 2006 and XXIII General Assembly Munich, Germany http://www.fig2006.de

9-13 OCTOBER 27th Asian Conference onRemote Sensing (ACRS2006Ulaanbaatar, Mongoliawww.acrs2006.ub.mn

14-18 OCTOBER Southwest Users Group Conference 2006Flagstaff, AZ, USAwww.swuggis.org

28-29 OCTOBER Geoinformatics 2006LIESMARS, Wuhan University,Wuhan, Chinawww.swuggis.org

November 2006

3 - 11 NOVEMBER GSDI-9: Ninth InternationalConference On Global Spatial Data Infrastructure GSDI and El Instituto Geográ-fico Militar, Santiago, Chile www.gsdi9.cl

10-11 NOVEMBER 14th International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information SystemsArlington, USAwww.itc.nl/acmgis06

13-17 NOVEMBERSPIE Asia Pacific Remote Sensing Fifth InternationalSymposiumPanaji, Goa, Indiahttp://spie.org/conferences/calls/06/ae

20 - 24 NOVEMBER 13th Australasian RemoteSensing & PhotogrammetryConference 2006 Canberra, Australiahttp://www.apspc.org

23 - 25 NOVEMBER Joint Workshop on Ubiquitous, Pervasive andInternet Mapping International Cartographic Association(ICA) University of Seoul,Seoul, Koreahttp://ubimap.net/workshop2006

December 2006

4-5 DECEMBER The 6th International Symposium on Web andWireless GISHong Kongwww.dl.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp

11 - 14 DECEMBER NAVITEC Workshop on Satellite Navigation User Equipment TechnologiesESA / ESTEC, The Netherlandshttp://www.congrex.nl/06c17

13 DECEMBERESRI Virtual Engineering User Group MeetingRedlands, Canadahttp://www.esri.com/events/webinars/engineering

Events


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Copyright © 2006 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, ArcGIS, the ArcGIS logo, The Geographic Advantage, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

For more information on how you can get the geographic advantagewith centrally managed GIS, visit www.esri.com/arcgisserver06.

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