MAPPS/ASPRS 2012 Final Program Now Available

Are you joining the MAPPS/ASPRS 2012 conference? The MAPPS/ASPRS 2012 Specialty Conference Final Program is now out and available for download. Download the PDF file.

The MAPPS/ASPRS 2012 Specialty Conference will happen in Tampa, Florida on October 29 through November 1, 2012. This dynamic conference will focus on emerging trends in technologies that support Geospatial applications including lidar (Airborne, Ground based Flash and Waveform), Visualization and Modeling, Data Fusion/Integration, 3D GIS and the integration of GIS and BIM technologies. Don't be left out, join us for a glimpse of the Ground to Cloud (R)Evolution!

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ASPRS 2013 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland

Join the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) for the 2013 Annual Conference as we return to Baltimore, Maryland, March 24 - 28, 2013. The conference theme: Confluence by the Bay - A Gathering of Geospatial Insights, refers to the "coming together" of researchers and practitioners for the purpose of open dialogue with respect to the most recent advances in geospatial analysis. The term "confluence" also has meaning in the assessment of the three earth's spheres (hydrologic, terrestrial, and atmospheric) via remote sensing; very apropos for our confernece location on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Year 2013 promises to be an encouraging period due to the successful launch (fingers crossed!) of the LDCM Earth observing satellite (January 2013). We anticipate first look imagery from Landsat 8 will be presented at our conference!

Check out the registration fees and how to register for the event.

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ASPRS Recertification Requirements (UPDATES)

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Evaluation for Certification Committee has recently updated the ASPRS Recertification requirements and revised the related Certification Guidelines. These changes were made as a result of the Committee’s ongoing interaction with the Council of Engineering & Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB) as ASPRS moves toward accreditation of the ASPRS Certification Program by CESB. One of the key recommendations CESB made was for ASPRS to base its recertification requirements on standardized Professional Development Hours (PDH) or Continuing Education Units (CEUs), rather than the internally designed point system ASPRS had been using.

Mike Renslow, chair of the ASPRS Evaluation for Certification Committee, explained, “Basing recertification on Professional Development Hours clarifies the types and levels of activities that applicants must document, and provides a standardized framework for evaluation by the review committees. This improvement strengthens the ASPRS Certification Program and implements a process used by many other scientific/technical certifying bodies.” As a result of these recommendations, ASPRS began the process in 2011 of moving to a PDH format with input from industry, academia, and the public sector.

The updated guidelines are posted on the ASPRS website. The recertification PDH requirements are outlined in a table on the website, together with a list explaining specific activities and the number of PDHs that may qualify for recertification. The applicant may also earn “ASPRS PDH Credits” for selected additional activities that count toward recertification. The most significant difference with the newly revised requirements is that additional documentation is required when PDHs or CEUs are earned.

Applicants seeking ASPRS Recertification may begin using the new PDH-based system immediately, and will be required to use it starting January 1, 2013. The ASPRS Certification Program continues to evolve and maintain its leadership position in the geospatial sciences. The Program is currently in the final evaluation phase of the accreditation process by CESB, the results of which will be announced soon.

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ASPRS Creates Lidar Division

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Board of Directors approved the formation of a Lidar Division at its Board meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday, May 5. Lewis Graham, CEO of GeoCue Group, was appointed Interim Division Director until a national election for this position is held in late 2011. The new division would subsume the current ASPRS Airborne and Mobile Lidar subcommittees (retaining them as subcommittees within the Lidar Division) and have a top level link on the ASPRS web site.

Graham first proposed the formation of a Lidar Division at the ASPRS 2010 fall Board of Directors meeting. The Board unanimously agreed that they would support the formation of a new division and instructed Graham to obtain support from the required number of voting members of ASPRS. More than sufficient signatures were collected, enabling a Board ballot to finalize the establishment of the Division.

The rationale for forming a Lidar Division stems from the fact that technology in this area is currently exhibiting the most growth and innovation. According to Graham, "We are, I believe, at a critical point in the evolution of laser scanning technology for mapping. ASPRS is currently the only organized repository for technical information for mapping lidar. The Society has released guidelines for horizontal and vertical accuracy for airborne laser scanning. ASPRS also, of course, is the keeper of the LAS, the ubiquitous file format exchange standard for kinematic lidar data." Graham’s intent was to form a vertical division within ASPRS for what he calls Kinematic Laser Scanning. The focus being moving lidar platforms, not stationary tripod scanners (these devices are solidly an element of the survey community and are technically covered by the ASTM).

Reacting to the decision by the Board, ASPRS Executive Director Jim Plasker observed "Establishing the Lidar Division represents yet another forward-leaning action by ASPRS. Over the years, one of the most important aspects underpinning the evolution of ASPRS has been its ability to maintain its relevance with respect to the cutting edge technologies of the day, and to adapt the organization to those changing technologies. Thus, the Society began with only photogrammetry as its focus (and within its name), but over time embraced each major technological breakthrough in the (now) geospatial sciences. This has kept ASPRS in a strong leadership position throughout its history, and we see the Lidar Division fitting well within that arc."

The last new division added by the ASPRS Board was the Geographic Information Systems Division in late 1988. When individuals join ASPRS, they indicate their technical division preference on the membership form and are invited to participate in the ongoing technical work of the divisions. ASPRS has operated with five divisions for the last 23 years -- the Geographic Information Systems Division, Photogrammetric Applications Division, Primary Data Acquisition Division, Professional Practice Division, and the Remote Sensing Applications Division.

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ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference

The ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference Preliminary Program is now available for viewing online at www.asprs.org/milwaukee2011. The Annual Conference will be held May 1-5, at the Frontier Airlines Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

With a conference theme of, “Ride on the Geospatial Revolution”, attendees will travel along the geospatial road for the next generation with an outstanding lineup of pre-conference workshops, captivating speakers, 100 plus technical sessions, a new poster session format, student and young professional events and social networking events for everyone.

Kicking off the conference will be Paul Ramsey, co-founder of PostGIS, an open source geospatial database used globally in the geospatial industry. The Conference will also feature an address from incoming ASPRS President Gary Florence. We will then take a moment to look back at our geospatial history with a roundtable discussion led by ASPRS President Carolyn Merry, who will be joined by three esteemed geospatial leaders – Dr. Terry Keating, Dr. Charles Olson, Jr. and Ronald Ondrejka. These gentlemen will all give us an oral history of where the geospatial road has been, where we are now and where we will go in the years to come.

And that’s not all. Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the Exhibit Hall with vendors from around the world, and the networking opportunities offered throughout the conference. Early registration runs through April 1, 2011. For more details and information about the ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference, take a look at the Conference Preliminary Program at www.asprs.org/milwaukee2011.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

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Mapping in Motion Workshop at ASPRS 2010

Optech Inc. has announced that it will host the Mapping in Motion workshop at the ASPRS 2010 Annual Conference. The workshop will be held in San Diego, California, on April 27, 2010.

Brent Gelhar, Optech’s Vice President, Sales and Strategy, said, "The Optech ASPRS workshops are a great opportunity for industry professionals to keep abreast of the latest innovations in sensor hardware and software design. We have been extremely busy over the past year and have a lot of information to share. I am certain that every client will find something they can incorporate to maximise their collection and processing efficiencies. Whether it is our latest ALTMTM sensor platform, our enhanced production software capabilities, or our new hardware toolsets, expect a very informative session this year."

This year’s Mapping in Motion workshop will include presentations and discussions on Optech’s latest hardware and software innovations in airborne and mobile mapping products. Dramatic advances in mobile mapping are turning the traditional surveying and engineering workflows upside down. Mobile terrestrial mapping works and its value proposition is a compelling one. Optech will discuss strategies to manage large data sets, how to plan with Lynx software tools, and how to use surveying parameters to produce engineering-grade data.

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Daniel Civco - 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award Winner

ASPRS Announces Daniel Civco as 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award Winner.

Daniel Civco, PhD, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources Management and Engineering at the University of Connecticut, has been named as the recipient of the 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award.

The SAIC Estes Memorial Teaching Award was inaugurated in 2003 and is named in honor of Professor John E. (“Jack”) Estes, teacher, mentor, scientist, and friend of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). This award is designed to recognize individual achievement in the promotion of remote sensing and GIS technology, and applications through educational efforts. Award recipients are chosen based on documented excellence in education, teaching, mentoring and training. The recipient receives a presentation plaque and a $2,000 cash award.

Civco currently serves as Director of the Center for Land use Education and Research (CLEAR) and is Co-founder of the Laboratory for Earth Resources Information Systems (LERIS) as well as a Co-PI of the NASA-funded Regional Earth Resource Applications Center (RESAC) established in 1999. Civco received his BS degree in Natural Resources Conservation in 1974, and the MS and PhD degrees in Plant Science, the former concentrating in Landscape Planning and the latter in Remote Sensing.
Working with students in the classroom, and spending countless hours preparing content for his students is Civco’s true passion. His approach toward education is one based on teaching principles and practices as well as the use of geoprocessing tools, both of which are essential for the effective management of the environment. Civco is engaged in advising undergraduate students within the geomatics and other natural resource concentrations. He has served as major advisor to more than 30 MS and PhD-degree graduate students, as well as serving as Associate Advisor to nearly 70 others. His manuscript “Perspectives on Earth Resources Mapping Education in the United States” provided the impetus for the creation of the ASPRS Remote Sensing Core Curriculum, and it served also as the blueprint for the IAEGS curriculum.

He is a well-published scholar, and received the ESRI Award for Best Scientific Paper in GIS in 1997 and in 2001, and second place for the 1999 ERDAS Award for the Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing. In 2007 he received the National Award from the Program for Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the highest honor an educator in the field of agriculture and natural resources can receive.

In expressing his appreciation to ASPRS for this award Civco said, “Receiving an award bearing Dr. Estes’ name is truly an honor, and to be mentioned in the same company as past recipients -- words can’t describe what that means to me. Though I got to know him only in the latter years of his life, I admired and respected Jack throughout my entire professional career. I am no Jack Estes, but I have tried to aspire to the principals and ideals that defined him. Jack was an exceptional scholar, mentor, leader, and gentleman.”

In addition to his excellence in teaching, Civco has been very active in ASPRS. In his first term as Chair of the ASPRS Education and Professional Development Committee, he was instrumental in assisting then President Roger Hoffer in establishing the ASPRS International Educational Literature Award. He was a Director for the New England Region, served on the National Board of Directors from 2002 thru 2004, was elected Director of the Remote Sensing Applications Division in 2000, and served as Chairman of the ASPRS Education and Professional Development Committee, of which he will again be Chair in April 2010. He received an ASPRS Fellow Award in 2003.

The Award, with funding provided by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), will be presented in April at the ASPRS 2010 Annual Conference in San Diego California.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

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2010 ASPRS Fellow Award Winners

George F. Hepner, Marguerite Madden, J. Chris McGlone, and Clifford J. Mugnier have been named the 2010 ASPRS Fellow Award winners. The ASPRS designation of Fellow is conferred on active Society members who have performed excep­tional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences (photogrammetry, remote sensing, surveying, geographic information systems, and related disciplines). The designation of Fellow is awarded for pro­fessional excellence and for service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by other active members, recommended to the Fellows Committee, and elected by the ASPRS Board of Directors. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active members may be elected as Fellows in any one year. The nominees must have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in practice, research, development, administration, or education in the mapping sciences. Members of the Fellows Committee and the Executive Committee are ineligible for nomination. This year’s awards will be given in April at the ASPRS 2010 Annual Conference in San Diego, California.

GEORGE F. HEPNER
George Hepner is currently a professor at the Department of Geography, University of Utah. Hepner earned his B.Ed and MS from the University or Toledo in 1972 and 1975 respectively and his PhD from The University of Arizona in 1979. His research focused on rural to urban land use conversion.

MARGUERITE MADDEN
Marguerite Madden is Director of the Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping at The University of Georgia. She received her BA and MA degrees in biology from the State University of New York in 1979 and 1984 respectively, and her PhD in Ecology from The University of Georgia in 1990. She also participated in the SUNY Study Abroad Program at the University of Copenhagen in 1979. Her research interests are landscape ecology and use of remote sensing and GIS for vegetation studies and natural resource management.

J. CHRIS McGLONE
J. Chris McGlone is currently a photogrammetrist at SAIC, Inc., working on urban modeling from lidar and other sensors. He received his BS in Civil Engineering in 1974 from the University of Kentucky and his MS and PhD in Photogrammetry from Purdue in 1977 and 1980, respectively. His dissertation topic, supervised by Dr. Edward M. Mikhail, was “Photogrammetric Analysis of Aircraft Multispectral Scanner Data.”

CLIFFORD J. MUGNIER
Clifford J. Mugnier graduated from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1967. He attended the U.S.A.F. Aeronautical Chart & Information Center Professional Cartographer course in St. Louis where he first joined the American Society of Photogrammetry in 1967. He is currently General Manager of the Photogrammetry Division of Owen & White, Inc. Consulting Engineers.

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GIS Manual published by ASPRS

The Manual of Geographic Information Systems is the latest addition to the rich collection of manuals published by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). Until now, there has never been a manual devoted to GIS.

Edited by Marguerite Madden, PhD, with the Foreword by Jack Dangermond, President, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), this volume is designed to be a comprehensive resource on GIS for students, researchers and practitioners who are interested in asking spatial questions, assessing landscapes, building geodatabases and envisioning a world of integrated geospatial technologies.

The GIS book has been organized in eight major sections: Background and Overview; Data Models, Metadata and Ontology; GIS Data Quality and Uncertainty; Spatio-Temporal Aspects of GIS; Analysis and Modeling; Blending GIS with Remote Sensing, GPS and Visualisation; GIS and the World Wide Web; and, GIS Applications. Top researchers in GIS from around the world, along with emerging scholars, have told the story of a discipline that originated alongside advances in computer technology and is increasingly incorporated into our daily lives. The Manual of GIS provides a conceptual framework for data connected to location, the language needed for spatial conversation and analysis tools for discovery of geographic place, proximity, dimensions, trends and correlations.

The GIS Manual is available at a pre-publication price of $95.00 plus shipping and handling until June 30, 2009.

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2009 ASPRS Fellow Award winners

RAY HELMERING and THOMAS R. LOVELAND have been named the 2009 ASPRS Fellow Award winners. The ASPRS designation of Fellow is conferred on active Society members who have performed exceptional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences (photogrammetry, remote sensing, surveying, geographic information systems, and related disciplines).

The designation of Fellow is awarded for professional excellence and for service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by other active members, recommended to the Fellows Committee, and elected by the ASPRS Board of Directors. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active members may be elected as Fellows in any one year. The nominees must have made outstanding contributions in a recognized Society specialization whether in practice, research, development, administration, or education in the mapping sciences.

Members of the Fellows Committee and the Executive Committee are ineligible for nomination. This year’s awards will be given in March at the ASPRS 2009 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Thomas M. Lillesand: ASPRS Honorary Member

I used his books when I was still doing my Masters degree. Thomas M. Lillesand is deserving of this recognition from ASPRS.

Thomas M. Lillesand will be the next Honorary Member of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). His nomination was approved by the ASPRS Board of Directors at their recent meeting in Denver, Colorado. The highest award an ASPRS member can receive, there are only 25 living Honorary Members of the Society at any given time. Candidates are chosen by a Nominating Committee made up of the past five recipients of the award and chaired by the most recent recipient. Roger Hoffer served as chair of the current committee.

Initiated in 1937, this life-time award is given in recognition of individuals who have rendered distinguished service to ASPRS and/or who have attained distinction in advancing the science and use of the geospatial information sciences. It is awarded for professional excellence and for at least 20 years of service to ASPRS. Lillesand, who has been a member of ASPRS since 1969, will receive the award in 2009.

Thomas M. Lillesand is a Professor Emeritus of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the Department of Forest Ecology and Management, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He obtained his formal education in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BS, 1969; MS, 1970; PhD, 1973). He began his career as a remote sensing educator in 1973 as a faculty member at the State University of New York (SUNY/Syracuse) College of Environmental Science and Forestry. From 1978-1982, he taught at the University of Minnesota and directed that university’s Remote Sensing Laboratory. He joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982 and was the director of Wisconsin’s Environmental Remote Sensing Center (ERSC). For many years he chaired UW-Madison’s Environmental Monitoring Graduate Program.

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