GeoSUR - South America GIS Data Online

In order to build better understanding about South America and to support development planning activities that require the use of geographic information, GeoSUR Program launched for South American countries. It is a regional geographic website, developed by the Andean Development Bank (CAF) and the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), with technical support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Center (Earth Resources Observation and Science Center).

GeoSUR offers access to national maps posted on the Internet by more than thirty institutions in South America. Each of these institutions has implemented an interactive mapping service, a mechanism to provide access to their maps and other geographic data on the Internet. This is the first geographic portal that offers access to geographical data from institutions throughout South America, according to GSDI newsletter.

The second service, a Topographic Processing Service (TPS), helps create supranational seamless maps on slope, aspect, shaded relief and drainage basins, among others; and provide altitude profiles and visibility analysis for any selected point or area of South America. Data derived from the analysis are automatically generated on the Internet and are freely accessible. This is the first regional service that provides data derived from the 30 meter SRTM elevation model which is implemented in the world.

The third application developed by GeoSUR is an interactive map of South America that offers access to a wide range of spatial information, such as regional road maps, relief, settlements, hydrography, protected areas and ecosystems, as well as satellite imagery and infrastructure project information. The three above applications have been developed with technical support from the EROS Center.

Antonio Juan Sosa, Vice President of Infrastructure of the CAF, said, "Geographic information is a key to development planning and may improve investment decision-making processes in the region.”

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GIS for Philippines Local Government Units

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 2 urged all Local Government Units to prioritize establishing their own Geographic Information System (GIS) to mainstream disaster risk reduction in planning, says report.

Regional Director Milagros A. Rimando said the Regional Geographic Information Network (RGIN) aims to establish a more systematic and organized sharing of geographically referenced information.

She said the geographic information from the different municipalities will be incorporated to the information available to the RGIN.

Rimando explained that by using available maps in the municipality, buildings, road networks, infrastructure and utilities must be digitized.

Leomar Israel, GIS expert of NEDA, further explained that the maps help point out risky areas during calamities.

Israel sets as an example the use of GIS in flood risk management. He pointed hat through the GIS map the areas with low elevation, prone to erosion will be easily determined as well as number of buildings and population to be damaged.

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GeoZone: Free resource for GeoBase developers

Telogis, the leading global platform for enterprise location based services today announced the launch of GeoZone, a free resource for GeoBase developers. GeoBase is the company’s market leading geospatial engine – enabling mapping, routing and navigation on platforms ranging from mobile to server. Registered members of GeoZone gain access to the latest releases of the GeoBase SDK, sample map data, sample code, tutorials and whitepapers. Additionally, Telogis has assembled a premier list of partners from the Location Based Services (LBS) ecosystem to provide additional technical resources and samples of their products.

GeoZone is designed to be the central resource for application developers using the GeoBase platform. Augmenting the main GeoBase Software Development Kit (SDK) resources, the GeoZone contains additional technical information, design notes, sample applications and white papers for the GeoBase platform. Premier content providers contribute sample map data, satellite imagery and real-time traffic feeds. Hardware providers and wireless carriers supply technical information on their technologies and go to market strategies.

“Through strong relationships with leading companies within the LBS ecosystem, the GeoZone will provide the tools, information and data needed to create powerfully differentiated location-enhanced products and services,” said Newth Morris, President of Telogis’ GeoBase group. “Telogis will continue to expand the geographic reach and technical depth of content contained in our portal. No other developer portal offers such a comprehensive resource.”

The GeoBase SDK enables organizations to add sophisticated location functionality to business applications. Designed to bridge the divide between consumer–grade mapping engines and legacy GIS tools, GeoBase combines the scalability and elegance of new location technologies with the flexibility required in the enterprise. GeoBase supports logistics data sets, custom GIS layers, sophisticated routing, scalable location rule processing and a unified API, creating a single platform for routing, mapping and navigation in the enterprise.

LBS developers can register and begin developing at geozone.geobase.info. The automated approval process provides instant access to the tools and information available on the GeoZone.

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Award-Winning Geospatial Technology at 2008 GEOINT Symposium

The U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center will demonstrate its BuckEye system, Geo-referenced PDF project (GeoPDF), Joint Geospatial Enterprise Services (J-GES) program, and Engineering Field Planning, Reconnaissance, Surveying, and Sketching Set (ENFIRE) during the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's 2008 GEOINT Symposium, October 28-30, at Booth 975.

BuckEye is a high-resolution digital imagery system that uses a 39-megapixel color camera and Light Detection and Ranging elevation data to produce unclassified 10-15 centimeter resolution imagery for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and change detection missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The system received Army Greatest Invention of the Year honors in 2006, as well as USGIF's 2006 Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award for the system's valuable contributions to the geospatial capability of coalition forces during the Global War on Terrorism. It was also selected as one of C4ISR Journal's Big 25 Award finalists (sensor category) this year.

GeoPDF allows Soldiers to print easy-to-read maps "on demand" and to access detailed, up-to-date information on Adobe PDF-enabled computers. Standard NGA map sheets for 8 countries involved in the Global War on Terror have been converted into the GeoPDF file format and packaged on DVDs with a user-friendly index sheet.

J-GES was developed to partner with Dept. of Defense and federal agencies, private industries and academia to develop and influence geospatial standards, policies and procedures, promoting the use of geospatial technologies to allow data management, collection, exploitation, visualization and dissemination of geospatial information from any available national or tactical source. It provides a dynamic, customizable common operational picture and tactical decision aids to allow rapid analysis and situational awareness based upon the best available information across the network, especially from Soldiers on the ground. J-GES received the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.'s (ESRI) Special Achievement in GIS Award for demonstrating vision and leadership through the center's use of geographic information system (GIS) technology to better serve the warfighter and the nation.

ENFIRE, an Army Program of Record, is a tactical engineering tool set designed to modernize the collection and dissemination of engineering information. It enables the user to auto-populate bridge, road, hasty minefield, and other data on standard Army forms in a digital format using custom commercial and government off-the-shelf hardware and software, as well as computer-based geographic information systems linked to peripheral components. ENFIRE also allows engineer Soldiers conducting tactical reconnaissance under hazardous conditions to do so using a standardized format and at a safer distance.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's (ERDC) Topographic Engineering Center (TEC), located in Alexandria, Va., provides the warfighter with superior knowledge of the operational environment and supports the nation's civil and environmental initiatives through research, development, and the application of expertise in the topographic and related sciences. The ERDC is the premier research and development facility for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, consisting of six laboratories and one center at four geographical sites with more than 2,000 employees and an annual research program approaching $1 billion. It conducts research in both military andcivil works mission areas for the Department of Defense and the nation.

For more info, contact:

JAMAL B. BECK
Public Affairs Specialist
ERDC Topographic Engineering Ctr
7701 Telegraph Rd
Alexandria, VA 22315
Ofc: 703-428-3736
Mobile: 571-215-8181
FAX: 703-428-6257

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Discover 3D Version 4.0

Encom, a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes and a leading provider of desktop geoscientific and GIS software, data management, and advanced technical consulting for the natural resources sector, has released Discover 3D Version 4.0.

This latest release of Discover 3D for MapInfo Professional delivers an impressive new range of capabilities to geoscientists working with three-dimensional data. Additions include new analysis and editing tools for drillholes, boundaries, surfaces, and solids. Discover 3D also now offers users a three-dimensional data-immersion experience and, at the same time, has boosted 3D graphics performance.

“Working in 3D changes the way you think about geological relationships and improves the quality of drilling decisions” said Brett Merritt, Managing Director, Software, Encom. “Discover 3D is fully integrated with MapInfo Professional, provides direct support for many mine planning applications, and gives the exploration geologist the flexibility to do what they do best - search for the next world-class ore deposit.”

Using the new Drillhole Planner in Discover 3D 4.0, geoscientists are now able to dynamically create and visualise new holes and directly target mineralisation. Holes can be interactively refined to accurately and thoroughly intercept and test target zones, utilise existing drill pads, or wedge off parent holes. The speed and ease in which geoscientists can now plan holes in 3D to more accurately intercept targets results in more precise and informed decisions and maximises the return on drilling expenditure.

Enhancements to the 3D drawing and digitising tools in Discover 3D make it possible to more accurately delineate mineralisation and structures when digitising geochemical or geological interpretations. Geoscientists now have the ability to snap to 3D features, such as the boundary of an orebody, and to existing drillhole intervals. This ensures that interpretations are accurately aligned with the known data.

"Discover 3D enables us to provide a high level of visualisation for our internal and external customers," says Justin Weaver, GIS and Database Analyst, GHD. "With Discover 3D we're able to display drill-hole, surfaces and mine plans in one package, making it very easy to configure and use live 3D data and create reports on-the-fly."

Manipulating and editing 3D solid models, such as those used to represent geological units or mineralisation, is now possible with the new set of powerful feature editing tools. Using the new toolset, an inclined orebody, for example, which is truncated between an upper unconformity surface and an inclined fault plane, can now be modelled, trimmed, visualised, and have its volume calculated.

The addition of dual graphics card support in the latest version of Discover 3D means the system can directly drive full-colour 3D stereo projector systems to create a semi-immersive 3D visualisation environment. By presenting detailed geological information using full-colour 3D stereo projection, project teams are able to better visualise, communicate, and collaborate on the information available. And that means improving the chances of detecting subtle geometric relationships in the data that are often overlooked using conventional sectional and three-dimensional views.

Significant enhancements have also been made to the visualisation of 3D data. Smooth, intuitive, fly-through navigation is now possible using the inbuilt support for 3D Connexion’s SpaceNavigator™ series of interface devices.
MapInfo and Encom have partnered for over 12 years to deliver an integrated geographic information system (GIS) tailored specifically for geoscientists.

“The marriage of MapInfo’s core GIS engine and Encom’s expert knowledge of the geoscience sector has proven to be a highly successful partnership” said Jonathan Wright, Vice President Asia Pacific, Pitney Bowes MapInfo. “Encom’s advanced understanding of the geosciences has largely been responsible for MapInfo Professional and Discover becoming one of the leading GIS-based solutions for the mineral exploration industry”.

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Geospatial Solutions Group to Provide Innovative GIS Products and Services

James W. Sewall Company is pleased to announce the formation of Geospatial Solutions (GS), a new GIS-oriented technology group that will develop and deliver innovative products and services to Sewall clients in government and industry. To lead the GS team and bring to market new offerings, Sewall has hired technology executive David Levine as Vice President, and GIS product development professional Bill Sharp as Product Manager.

As Vice President, Mr. Levine brings to the team over fifteen years’ experience in the technology industry, with the focus on high-performance and open-systems distributed computing. He founded Emergent Game Technologies, a leading provider of video game development tools, rendering engines and networking software for consoles, PC and online games.

Mr. Levine served the geospatial sector as Executive Director of the National Technology Transfer Center, where he was responsible for commercializing public sector inventions from such institutions as NASA and the EPA, and is supporting an effort of the West Virginia University Research Corporation to spin out Datacaster, an invention that enables the Geospatial Web, into the private sector.

Mr. Levine also has provided management and technology consulting services for organizations such as the World Bank, the Coca-Cola Company and the Times Mirror Corporation (now the Tribune). A graduate of Yale University, Mr. Levine has published and presented extensively. He wrote Live Java: Dataspace to Cyberspace (Harcourt Brace/AP Professional 1996), contributed a chapter to Grid 2: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure (The Elsevier Series in Grid Computing, 2003), and presented a paper at the First International Conference of the World Wide Web at CERN Particle Physics Lab in 1994.

As Product Manager, Bill Sharp has over 20 years’ industry experience with a broad range of geospatial marketing and business development, software project and product management, applications engineering, and technical consulting. At ERDAS, Inc., he managed software development and testing, product marketing, and staff training, supervising the development and release of ERDAS Virtual GIS software.

At Research Systems, Inc. (now ITT), he managed full life-cycle software product development and release, advancing the market position of ENVI software by adapting interface and functionality to meet client needs.

As an international technical consultant and advisor in Brazil, he directed several geospatial projects, including a satellite mapping project for the World Bank, and the development of a web-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) service. Most recently, Mr. Sharp has been Global Business Development Manager, GeoSAR Services, at Fugro EarthData, Inc., establishing a business partner network for Latin America. He has a BS in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Connecticut.

The new Geospatial Solutions group combines the capabilities of Sewall’s software engineering, natural resource land mapping, GIS analysis and cadastral conversion and maintenance teams. To best serve our clients, Sewall has organized GS into a Systems Team, managed by Gary Mullaney; Project Team, managed by Mary McDonald; Production Team, managed by Aaron Weston; and Product Team, managed by Bill Sharp.
As Director of Systems, Mr. Mullaney will supervise software engineering, web services, database administration and systems integration.

With 26 years’ experience at MeadWestvaco, he was the key developer and project leader for the company’s first web-based GIS and related online applications. At Sewall, he has developed information systems for a variety of natural resources, municipal and engineering clients.

Mary McDonald, LPF, will lead the teams of GS technical consultants that manage the direct engagements with Sewall clients. With 22 years’ GIS experience at Sewall, Ms McDonald has managed most of the company’s natural resource GIS and mapping projects, supervising GIS compilation and database development and training and supervising project staff.

As Production Manager, Aaron Weston will manage the development, conversion, and maintenance of geospatial data for the GS team.

A certified mapping specialist, Mr. Weston supervises Sewall technical staff on a wide range of GIS projects for municipal and private-sector clients, overseeing digital map compilation, database cross-referencing, parcel updates, and quality control.

Founded in 1880, Sewall is an integrated team of geospatial, engineering and natural resource consultants that partners with clients to create practical, sustainable solutions. The company’s diverse portfolio is based on 100 years' experience in surveying and engineering; 60 years' in aerial mapping; and 20 years' in GIS and software application development. In the last 10 years, Sewall’s offerings have expanded to include web services, software as a service, and a secure geoportal for the collection, distribution, and resale of data.

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GIS advanced maps for Binghamton Police crime-fighting plan

As part of their crime-fighting plan, Binghamton Police installed cameras at hand-picked locations last year throughout the city. They'll now have access to a map that can pinpoint the most crime-ridden areas, which means more cameras and detailed strategy.

"Within the next week or two, I'm going to be giving my administrative staff some reports showing density maps, where the calls were, what time of day, the day of the week and that would help us greatly in allocating our manpower more efficiently," said Binghamton Police Chief Joe Zikuski.

The advanced maps are part of the new Geographic Information System, or GIS. Broome County already subscribed to the service, but the newly-penned deal now includes the city.

"When we came into office, there was really a hole in the county map, where GIS system was not pertaining to Binghamton and we worked hard to make sure that changed," said Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan.

County emergency services have also signed on. They believe the GIS system will be a necessary tool, should a disaster like the 2006 floods strike again.

"To be able to build all the 911 addresses and so on in a layer in GIS, we then will be able to access an area in the mapping right away, an identifying area, that we can use the Reverse 911 New York Alert system to notify, make decisions on evacuations," said Brett Chellis, the county emergency services director.

Officials predict this new GIS system will have a capacity three times that of its predecessor. The total cost of $111,000 will be divided among the different municipalities.

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Platinum Postal Suite: next generation Canadian postal geography

DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a leading provider of enterprise location intelligence solutions, is demonstrating the value of their Platinum Postal Suite (PPS), the next generation of Canadian postal geography, through a case study that highlights the dramatic increase in new business revenue experienced by client Artistic Minds (AMi). Artistic Minds is a leading marketing analytics firm specializing in mailing campaigns.

Through the use of Platinum Postal Suite, AMi has realized several positive outcomes. With precision geographic content, client trade zones are now aligned with 6-digit postal code boundaries, providing far more precise target marketing than traditional methods. This has enabled AMi to expand their scope of new business with analytic services by 40%, now the fastest growing part of AMi’s business. A key performance metric, turnaround of information to clients is now 5 times faster. In one recent campaign, coupon redemption rates went from 3.5% to 6% for a key national client, demonstrating a 71% improvement.

“With Platinum Postal Suite, we can provide the precise postal code distribution our clients are seeking and significantly improve the ROI on their direct marketing programs. Now they are turning to us for marketing analytic services, a significant growth area for our business,” said Kevin Feltmate, Director of Advancement, Artistic Minds.

“The success Artistic Minds has experienced with Platinum Postal Suite emphasizes the value that our software can bring to direct marketing campaigns. Having the ability to penetrate a trade zone precisely enables companies to target their programs, optimize the ROI of their mailing plans and improve their time to market,” explained John Sorrell, VP & GM Mapping Solutions at DMTI Spatial.

To read the AMi Case Study: http://www.dmtispatial.com/DocumentRequest.aspx.

For more information about Platinum Postal Suite:
http://www.dmtispatial.com/postal/index.html

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Comprehensive New Geospatial Product Portfolio With Powerful GIS Capabilities

Bentley Systems, Incorporated today introduced a comprehensive new geospatial product portfolio with powerful GIS capabilities that supports infrastructure engineering workflows across the entire asset lifecycle, from planning, design, and construction to operations and decommissioning. These products synthesize engineering and geospatial workflows, dispensing with data silos and bridging the traditional divide between GIS specialists and the engineering community. By delivering GIS technology and other spatial information seamlessly and transparently to engineers when they need it, organizational efficiency is increased, errors are decreased, and data quality is improved. Newly introduced products in the portfolio include Bentley Map and Bentley Cadastre as well as Bentley Geospatial Server – all of which extend Bentley’s broad portfolio of existing geospatial products. These new geospatial products will be deployed across multiple solution communities, including cadastre and land development, electric and gas utilites, water and wastewater utilities, communications service providers, and others.

Styli Camateros, Bentley vice president, Civil and Geospatial Products, said, “Bentley’s geospatial product portfolio underscores our commitment to advance GIS for infrastructure and provides engineers and GIS professionals with an entirely new way to work. The products are designed to make spatial data and GIS functionality available within engineering workflows to all users, when they need it and without file transformations or conversions. This results in end-to-end support for spatial data within online and offline workflows and, ultimately, increased organizational efficiency. All of the products in this broad and growing portfolio are open, extensible, and customizable, and they make spatial data available to support the infrastructure asset’s entire lifecycle.”

Bentley Map and Bentley Cadastre

Bentley Map is next-generation software for managing the world’s infrastructure in a geospatial context. It forms the basis of industry-specific products, including Bentley Cadastre, Bentley Electric, Bentley Water, and Bentley Gas. Bentley Map combines powerful GIS functionality with all of the editing precision and graphics capabilities of MicroStation to support extensive spatial analysis, thematic mapping, presentation, and plot production.

“Bentley Map is an extremely powerful, flexible, and easily configurable editing environment that has increased our productivity demonstrably,” said Mario Cipriano, chief information officer, IRIDE Energia.

Using the software’s Geospatial Administrator, end-users can configure business and topological rules without programming. In addition, Bentley Map can edit Oracle® Spatial and other GIS data types, including ESRI SHP files. Its highly flexible output includes 2D and 3D PDFs.

Bentley Cadastre provides powerful support for any type of parcel management workflow for local government, central government, cadastres, and other organizations that manage land or property. Bentley Cadastre ensures that the day-to-day maintenance of cadastral fabric is achieved with the highest possible accuracy by providing the editing environment to underpin a range of possible GIS and geospatial solutions.

Bentley Geospatial Server

Bentley Geospatial Server extends ProjectWise capabilities, adding powerful enterprise access to Oracle® Spatial and other enterprise GIS data stores. Organizations already taking advantage of its capabilities include Greater Toronto Airports Authority; multi-utility IRIDE Energia; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; state-owned mining, power, and industrial processing conglomerate MIBRAG; and the government of Ville de Montréal.

Bentley Geospatial Server also provides unique enterprise access to heterogeneous engineering documentation, whether spatial or nonspatial in nature, through a spatially enabled interface. Bentley Geospatial Server is a federated environment that unites information independently of its source, allowing users to leverage and unify information stored in both spatial databases and as unstructured documents. In addition, it enables live Oracle® Spatial editing with long transactions through Bentley Map, intelligent, distributed printing and plotting, and support for enterprise collaboration and configurable workflows.

“The Technical Data Centre employs several services of the Bentley Geospatial Server that will enable controlled enterprise-wide access to our Oracle® Spatial data and allow us to manage extensive nonspatial engineering documentation in an efficient manner, including direct access through a map-based GUI,” said Mike Robertson, manager, Technical Data Center, Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Additional Products in the Geospatial Portfolio

Bentley’s wider portfolio of geospatial products includes products for high productivity visualization, raster-to-vector document conversion; extending spatial data into the field to support offline access to enterprise data; and products for publishing spatial and nonspatial data over the web to intranets, extranets, and public websites. In addition, Bentley provides products that support geospatial and engineering workflows in specific industries, including water and wastewater utilities, electric and gas utilities, and communications service providers.

For more information about Bentley’s GIS product portfolio, visit www.bentley.com/en-US/Products .

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FDO Open Source 3.3.0 Release

FDO Open Source 3.3.0 Release

10 March 2008
FDO Open Source project has announced the official releas of FDO Open Source version 3.3.0.

Highlights among the new features of FDO 3.3.0 include:
# SQL Server Spatial 2008 support
-- This FDO Provider is currently available in "beta" form, and intended to
work with the Microsoft Community Technical Preview (CTP) program
-- The provider will function with AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 beta 2, Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise/Studio 2009 beta and OSGeo MapGuide Open Source v2.0.0
# Addition of an FDO provider for PostGIS
-- This FDO Provider is currently being made generally available, but should also be considered as a "beta" release
-- The provider will work with OSGeo MapGuide Open Source v2.0.0
# Added FDO Expression Engine support
-- Common code that evaluates FDO expressions complete with implementations of all the functions added in RFC8 and RFC11. Can be used for new provider implementations.
# Enhanced WMS image format support for png, tiff, jpeg, and gif image types
# Improved FDO Schema Manager support for database views

For a complete list of the new features, see the 3.3.0 milestone page.

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Solaris Version of GeoCalc from Blue Marble Geographics

Blue Marble Geographics (www.bluemarblegeo.com) has released an update to their flagship developer toolkit, GeoCalc, the world's most comprehensive coordinate conversion engine. Found under the hood of the popular Geographic Calculator software, GeoCalc supports over 12,000 coordinate system transformations, along with pre-defined linear and angular units, ellipsoids, geodetic datums and coordinate systems.

Blue Marble’s coordinate conversion technology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

New Features and Enhancements in GeoCalc 6.3.5 include:

Enhanced Datasource management functionality. Now you can lock your base Datasource and all custom definitions will be added to a second, editable XML data file.
GeoCalc 6.3.5 now supports higher order polynomial coordinate transformations between two arbitrary horizontal datums. Users can now apply 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th order polynomial datum shifts.

All internal dialogs have been updated to version 4 of Trolltech’s Qt cross-platform display libraries.

New Canadian Vertical Height models are now supported.

String formatting for Linear and Angular Units has been improved to support additional formats.

The updated XML Datasource now has a full match to the EPSG database version 6.14.

“Introducing support for higher order polynomial datum shifts provides increased accuracy when performing coordinate transformations” states Kris Berglund, Blue Marble’s Director of Sales, “Just another reason why GeoCalc is known for its accuracy, reliability and scalability.”

About Blue Marble Geographics: Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, Maine is a leading developer and provider of geographic software products that provide sensible solutions for users and developers of geographic data. Blue Marble has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for 15 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Learn more at www.bluemarblegeo.com

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Making GIS data easy to share

The Agriculture Department is seeking information about methods for delivering, disseminating and integrating large geospatial datasets for its Farm Service Agency and other users. USDA is interested in commercial software and/or online mapping interface services that could replace FSA's current systems.

Those systems are outdated, allow only limited access and make it difficult to share information, USDA said in the request for information posted on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site Jan. 25.

USDA wants an environment that consists of a centralized, fully integrated architecture. It could potentially be hosted at its National IT Center in Kansas City, Mo., and Aerial Photography Field Office in Salt Lake City. Centralizing the hosting of geospatial applications would improve communication between FSA headquarters, state offices and service centers.

By allowing users to access data from a central location, the system would reduce the need to request information from specific service centers.

FSA administers programs such as crop commodity price support, disaster relief and assistance for conservation practices in part by digitizing and maintaining agricultural field boundaries or common land units from digital ortho-imagery supplied by the National Agriculture Imagery Program. The agency also verifies that farmers’ and ranchers’ agricultural practices follow USDA guidelines.

The aerial imagery is viewed at 2,350 county service centers, which store and manage the geospatial data for their locales. The centers also use the imagery to help identify farm parcels and acreages. In addition, the centers store and use supplemental data provided by state and local governments and private-sector sources.

Each center has state information technology employees who maintain, update and secure the infrastructure. Clients above the service-center level can't access information because users can only work with data on the local server and within their administrative area. However, cataloging and publishing metadata on centers’ data holdings would further tax the already overstretched staff resources at the state and local levels.

Furthermore, the service centers rely on infrastructure hardware that is targeted for replacement, and an increasing number of business applications are migrating to a centralized, online environment.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer also wants the agency to consider moving the major geospatial hardware from county service centers and consolidating the equipment at six data centers, which would reduce the risks to physical and information security.

Responses to the RFI are due Feb. 29.

Source : http://www.fcw.com/

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The Advantages Of Geographic Information Systems In Your Business

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c81920) has announced the addition of "Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization" to their offering.

This book lets you exploit the advantages of Geographic Information Systems in your business. Once the domain of cartographers and other specialists, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being employed by the business community. Location-based services, supply chain management, management of field-distributed equipment, geographical marketing and promotion, and the spatial web are some of the current business applications which make use of GIS principles.

Written specifically for the businessperson, "Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization" is the first book to provide comprehensive coverage of GIS applications in the business and organizational environment. Going beyond a strictly geographical focus, this book sets GIS in the context of business information systems and other business sub-disciplines such as logistics, marketing, finance, and strategic management.

It presents from an organizational perspective the advantages of spatially enabling existing enterprise systems and illustrates how GIS is applied in the real world through rigorous case study analyses of twenty companies, including Baystate Health, Chico's, Kaiser Permanente, Lamar Advertising Company, Rand McNally, Southern Company, Sears Roebuck, and Sperry Van Ness. In this book, you'll find out: what GIS is and how it can be integrated into your organization's existing information infrastructure; how GIS is currently making businesses better, and how you can apply the same techniques to your industry or organization; the expanding roles of GIS and spatial technologies in the web and mobile environments; the ethical, legal, and security issues of special technologies; and, how to conduct a cost/benefit and ROI analyses for GIS.

Grounded in the real world of business and IT, "Geo-Business" will show you how spatially enabling your IT systems can give you a unique advantage to beat your competitors in the market, win and retain customers, grow your business, make better decisions, develop new products and services, and optimize your workflow.

Contents:

1 GIS in the Digital Economy

2 Information Systems and GIS

3 Supporting Business Decisions

4 Enterprise Applications

5 Customer-Facing GIS: Web, E-Commerce, and Mobile Solutions

6 Spatial Systems Development

7 The Value of Investing in GIS

8 Managing Spatial Data

9 Organizational and Industry Aspects

10 Industries and Outsourcing

11 Ethical, Legal, and Security Issues of Spatial Technologies

12 GIS and Business Strategy

Index

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c81920

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MetaCarta NewsMap Service for Online News Publishers

MetaCarta, Inc., the leading provider of geographic search and referencing solutions, today announced MetaCarta NewsMap service, a new hosted service that allows online media outlets to display maps that show the places mentioned in their news stories. Users and businesses, such as financial institutions, media organization and corporate entities, can now quickly visualize breaking news, based on where it is happening, and anticipate how news events will impact financial and business markets. MetaCarta NewsMap draws users back to the publisher’s site for repeat visits, substantially increasing user frequency and page views metrics, enabling publishers to better capture advertising dollars and maximize advertising rates.

Reuters is the first media company to use MetaCarta’s NewsMap service, deploying it on Reuters.com. When a visitor to Reuters.com views a U.S. news story, the NewsMap appears next to the story.

“For users, a NewsMap is an interesting way to see where the news is happening and to visually drill down to the places in which they are interested. For publishers, a NewsMap provides a great way to highlight content in a visually interesting and interactive manner, and provides another vehicle to repurpose valuable content assets,” said Rick Hutton, Vice President of Content Services at MetaCarta.

Features of MetaCarta NewsMap service include:

For consumers:

Information Visualization – At a glance, users can see where the news is happening.

Interactive Interface - Users can easily pan or zoom the map to locate areas of interest and identify associated stories.

Users Choose What Is Important – NewsMap empowers users to read news that interests them.

For publishers:

Creates Additional Ad Inventory – NewsMap create new advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

Increase Page Views - Encourages readership and leads to repeat visits.

Supports Popular Map Servers - Including Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps and OpenLayers.

Hosted Solution – MetaCarta’s Data & Software-as-a-Service (DSaaS) model offers rapid implementation and on-demand scalability.

About MetaCarta

MetaCarta, Inc., is the leading provider of geographic search and referencing solutions. MetaCarta products make data and unstructured content “location-aware” making that information geographically relevant. Using a map interface, these innovative solutions make it possible for customers to discover, visualize, and act on important location-based information. Founded by a team of MIT researchers in 2001, MetaCarta is privately held, with US headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts and offices in Vienna, Virginia and Houston, Texas and resellers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.metacarta.com MetaCarta Resource Center.
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GIS system for oil and gas

Interactive Net Mapping has launched a new system for oil and gas companies to view their wells, seismic surveys and related information online. The service, called Oilelefant, is aimed at companies which do not want to spend money on a fully comprehensive GIS.

The software can take input data in various different formats, and transfers them to a geographical projection in WGS-84 standard. It uses a map of the world with water depths and mountain heights, and limited civil infrastructure, such as roads, railways and cities. Oil companies can find out about nearby relevant civil infrastructure, such as storage terminals, refineries and ports.

Companies can connect their documents to the map, for example seismic records and well logs, so they can easily be found. It uses PPDM Lite data model for the spatial model component. The server runs in Windows Server. It is delivered on 2 CDs and takes about 2 hours to install.

The system is used by exploration and production company GB Petroleum, which has been using the software to manage data about license blocks purchased, seismic surveys completed and wells drilled for its operations in Europe and North Africa.

GB Petroleum says it could reduce the amount of hard copy information it needed to store as a result of having the system, and managed to install it without external assistance. The company is now working on its version 2.0, which will include modules for records and information management.

Source : www.oilelefant.com

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Jeddah forum on GIS technology

The Jeddah Municipality is organizing a forum on the role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in municipality services on November 14.

Al-Harthi, head of the GIS centre at the Jeddah Municipality, said that the municipality has invited officials from across the Kingdom, government firms and GIS-related companies to attend the one-day forum.

A number of seminars are to be held at the forum for participants to exchange experience and share future developments related to GIS in both the local and private sectors, said Al-Harthi, adding that the event would take place at the Westin Hotel.

According to Al-Harthi, GIS would help develop the work that municipalities do, especially in civil planning and environmental studies. It has given a new dimension to digital information databanks, especially with the availability of satellite monitoring technologies, which provide high-quality footage that is essential for building GIS information, he said.

Source : http://www.arabnews.com

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GIS for Tiger Conservation

Project Tiger, now the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been in the process of refining the All India tiger estimation since 2002. A pilot project was undertaken in the Satpura landscape of Madhya Pradesh, and the estimation protocol was jointly finalized as collaborative initiative with the State Government and the Wildlife Institute of India. The process was totally funded, implemented and monitored by the NTCA, in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India and all the 17 tiger States. To complement the process, assessment of tiger habitat status in the country was done at Taluka level in the GIS domain, in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India. Further, a comparative appraisal of forest cover status in and around tiger reserves (up to a radial distance of 10 kms), in collaboration with the Forest Survey of India for evolving reserve specific restorative strategies involving local people in the peripheral / buffer areas, was undertaken.

The present study is based on robust scientific process and is a benchmark. The estimated tiger population as per the estimation carried out during 2001-02 was about 3642, out of which, 1576 tigers were in the tiger reserves/ Protected Areas and 2066 were estimated in the forests outside tiger reserves/Protected Areas. The indication emerging from the present exercise, which though not comparable to earlier used methods, is that, the tiger population may be in the range of 1300- 1500 in the country. The study further indicates that the tiger population in tiger reserves and protected areas has changed marginally but in forest areas outside tiger reserves/Protected Areas, has sharply declined. This is due to degradation of habitat and various other limiting factors. The protection status in tiger reserves and other areas is not up to the desired level, on account of frontline staff vacancies and ageing of staff, due to the policy of non-recruitment in several States. The results of the ongoing survey being conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India, in its efforts to estimate and evaluate tiger populations in Project Tiger areas, protected areas and tiger landscapes, needs to be discussed, particularly in relation to urgent follow up action that is required to be taken in areas that have shown serious losses of wild tigers.

The following urgent measures have been taken for strengthening tiger conservation:

# For strengthening protection in important tiger reserves, central assistance is being provided for creation of “tiger protection force” comprising of ex-army personnel and native workforce, complementing the efforts of field staff and existing protection initiatives.
# State Chief Ministers have been addressed at the level of the Prime Minister for filling up of frontline field staff vacancies.
# Process has been initiated for enhancing the village relocation package for creation of inviolate areas in tiger reserves, and criteria have been finalized for determining such spaces. The Planning Commission has accorded in-principle approval for additionalities in the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger, which, inter alia, includes enhanced village relocation package.
# Guidelines for preparation of tiger conservation plan to ensure viable population of tiger has been finalized.
# States have been asked to delineate buffer zones around core areas of tiger reserves in a time bound manner for mainstreaming tiger concerns in the landscape.
# Creating trans border policies for South Asia and ensuring the implementation of the recent Resolution proposed by India, Nepal, China and Russian Federation and adopted in the recent 14th Conference of Parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
# Eco tourism guidelines have been finalized to benefit local communities.

Source : http://pib.nic.in

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World’s Fastest Geocoding Solution at GEOINT 2007 Symposium

Appistry today demonstrated the world’s fastest commercially available solution for high-volume geocoding at the GEOINT 2007 Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. Geocoding is the process of resolving geographic place names, addresses or other data to geographic coordinates or geocodes, and is a foundational process for both commercial and government users of geospatial data.

The demonstrated solution utilizes Appistry Enterprise Application Fabric (EAF) to provide scalability and reliability for a geocoding application based on the industry-leading ESRI ArcGIS 9.2. The geocoding application was developed in hours using ArcGIS, and designed to run on a single computer. Appistry EAF allowed it to be quickly and easily scaled-out across 16 dual-CPU servers.

“With the explosion in available geospatial data, the ability to quickly manipulate it in high volumes has never been more crucial,” says Chris Cappelli, director of sales, ESRI. “Appistry’s ability to take ArcGIS-based processes and easily scale them across many computers creates exciting new opportunities for organizations that depend on geographic information.”

Presented with 1.5 million randomly selected US addresses distributed across 50 states, the distributed solution bulk-coded the addresses in just over 30 seconds. The average rate demonstrated was in excess of 40,000 geocoding transactions per second. Moreover, because the system’s geocoding performance scales linearly as additional computers are added, it is capable of meeting any level of demand.

“ESRI’s ArcGIS product is a de facto standard for companies seeking to take advantage of the wealth of geospatial information available today,” said Sam Charrington, Appistry vice president of product management and marketing. “We’re thrilled that Appistry EAF enables ESRI and its customers to quickly, easily and inexpensively achieve unprecedented levels of scalability, agility and performance.”

Appistry EAF is platform software that simplifies the delivery of highly scalable applications for a variety of data- and CPU-intensive tasks. Appistry EAF works by transparently scaling applications across a pool of inexpensive computers ensuring linear scalability, software-based fault-tolerance and streamlined operations.

ArcGIS is a complete system for authoring, serving, and using geographic information. It is an integrated collection of GIS software products for building and deploying a complete GIS wherever it is needed — on desktops, servers, or custom applications; over the Web; or in the field.

Parties unable to attend GEOINT but interested in learning more about the distributed ArcGIS demonstration can visit Appistry’s Grid Computing for Geospatial Intelligence Resource Center to register for an on-demand Webinar and demonstration.

For more information, visit www.appistry.com, or call 888-APP-0111 (888-277-0111).

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Open source software to track epidemics

A new software developed by Zyxware Technologies is about to revolutionize the way information is collected and processed in tracking diseases like Chikungunya and Dengue. The software is being dedicated to the nation as Free Software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) on 5th October 2007. Although the software was developed for the State of Kerala, India, the GNU GPL will allow it to be downloaded and used for free by any other government in the world.

The software is web based and allows Hospitals to report cases of diseases as soon as they are registered at the hospital. The software seamlessly integrates with the existing manual process by allowing hospitals that does not have any web access to send paper based reports to data entry operators who can enter them into the system or send soft copies of the reports that can be imported automatically. The system allows secure login with role based privileges for different roles like Government Medical Official, Hospital Staff, Data Access Operators and System Administrator.

The GIS interface uses Google maps to present the data on a real time basis on a map of the state. Cases of diseases are represented by markers on the map and easy visual analysis of the pattern and extent of spread of diseases is possible. The GIS and reporting interface processes the cases registered and present reports that can be used by the Health Department to monitor the situation on a real time basis and take precautionary measures if required. Such a system will help in preventing occurrences of disease outbreaks of the scale experienced by the State of Kerala in the last couple of years.

Main objectives in releasing the software as Free and Open Source Software is to promote the fact that it is possible to develop state of the art software at very low costs and a developing country like India does not have to languish behind other IT leaders in any areas.

The software is available for free download at the company's website: www.zyxware.com

Visit the health monitoring website: http://www.zyxware.com/projects/healthmonitor

Source : http://www.zyxware.com

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ArcPad Edition of GPS-Photo Link Software

GeoSpatial Experts today introduced the ArcPad Edition of its GPS-Photo Link photo-mapping software. Designed primarily for mobile GIS users, the GPS-Photo Link ArcPad Edition automatically links digital photographs to existing or new ArcPad records while the user is in the field.

“GeoSpatial Experts created the ArcPad edition for the growing numbers of GIS users who capture or edit geospatial data working onsite in their project area,” said Rick Bobbitt, President of GeoSpatial Experts. “This new edition saves time and improves the efficiency of field work for anyone who uses ArcPad by allowing them to link photos to geodata in the field without going back to the office.”

The GPS-Photo Link software automatically links digital photographic images with GPS location data and then accurately maps the photographs in their correct georeferenced locations on a GIS layer. In addition, GPS-Photo Link creates web pages in which the watermarked photographs are integrated with satellite imagery, street maps, or other GIS-based mapping layer. The software enables users to display their photo locations as icons in a Google Earth map layer and add arrows indicating the directions in which the photos were taken.

The new version runs inside of ESRI’s ArcPad software on any standard field data collection device, personal digital assistant (PDA) or mobile GIS system that can communicate with a GPS receiver. The photo-mapping software also requires a Bluetooth or WiFi compatible digital camera, such as the Ricoh 500SE, which wirelessly transmits photos to a data collection device.

As the user takes digital photos, GPS-Photo Link ArcPad Edition automatically creates a new ArcPad record and georeferences it to the correct location in the GIS data layer. Multiple photos can be linked to the same record, allowing the user to take pictures from several angles and store them as attributes. Once the record is created, the user can proceed to record other attributes in the ArcPad interface screen.

In the map update mode, the ArcPad Edition enables users to take existing GIS data with them into the field and access records from any ArcPad layer. GPS-Photo Link lets them acquire new digital photographs for inclusion in the attribute fields of a given feature. Other attributes can be updated in standard fashion using the ArcPad menu. Once the user returns to the office, the ArcPad files can be uploaded with the photos into the GIS for immediate updating of the appropriate data layers.

“The ArcPad Edition of GPS-Photo Link is a fast and easy way for mobile GIS users to build a historical record of georeferenced photographs showing the condition of features in the field at specific times,” said Bobbitt. “This is a great tool for utility and municipal GIS users who repeatedly map assets and their attributes.”

For more information on GPS-Photo Link, visit www.geospatialexperts.com or call Linda Bobbitt at 303-255-2908.

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