2011 - Geoinformatics

Magazine for Surveying, Mapping & GIS Professionals Oct./Nov. 

● Intergeo 2011 ● A Report on the ISPRS York 2011 Conference 

● Surveying Buildings ● Simultaneous Data Capture 

7 

2 0 1 1 

Volume 14

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GeoInformatics is the leading publication for Geospatial 

Professionals worldwide. Published in both hardcopy and 

digital, GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and 

commentary with respect to the international surveying, 

mapping and GIS industry. GeoInformatics is published 

8 times a year. 

Editor-in-chief 

Eric van Rees 

evanrees@geoinformatics.com 

Copy Editor 

Frank Artés 

fartes@geoinformatics.com 

Editors 

Florian Fischer 

ffischer@geoinformatics.com 

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk 

hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com 

Remco Takken 

rtakken@geoinformatics.com 

Joc Triglav 

jtriglav@geoinformatics.com 

Contributing Writers: 

Hamish Grierson, Matt Sheehan, Henri Eisenbeiss, 

Gordon Petrie, Luigi Colombo, Barabara Marana, 

Monika Sester, Ruud Groothuis, Florian Fischer, 

Financial Director 

Yvonne Groenhof 

finance@cmedia.nl 

Advertising 

Ruud Groothuis 

rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com 

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Some remarks on this year’s 

Intergeo trade fair 

Having returned from this year’s Intergeo trade show, a number of things caught my 

eye. First of all, the number of acquisitions in the industry which resulted in large 

booths on the exhibition floor of big companies with smaller, local parties that are 

owned by the big guys. But that does not mean there are no small, interesting companies 

that do stuff that is promising for the future. On the contrary, my interest 

always goes out to the OSGeo Park, where a number of small booths are combined 

with open source projects. Every year I see new initiatives happening that are shared 

with the audience. That these initiatives are no longer something that is happening 

on the margins of the industry, is proven by the interest shown in them by the big 

guys, or a major event such as FOSS4G. 

Mobile mapping is a technology that seems to have reached its peak and is now 

being replaced by a new trend, namely UAV’s. In this issue there are some contributions 

on this topic that have gained a lot of attention in both the academic world 

and the industry itself. While still an interesting and relevant topic, I noticed less 

attention to mobile mapping systems on the exhibition floor than at last year’s 

Intergeo. 

The presence by Google at the exhibition was to be expected, since their Google 

Earth Builder cloud platform is meant for organizations who want to upload their 

data into the cloud. It will be interesting to follow where exactly this will take Google 

in the geospatial market, since their services and infrastructure are meant as an 

add-on to an already existing GIS infrastructure. But nonetheless, it’s a move that 

could prove to be interesting, although Google is known for trying out many things 

and not always succeeding in the long run. 

Coming back to my first point about acquisitions, I noticed a trend where the whole 

cycle of data capture up to the final end product is now being handled by a number 

of companies operating under the same umbrella or mother company (exceptions 

aside, such as Esri). Hardware and software are being integrated and different 

‘flavors’ are available for different applications, in the case of Z/I Imaging and 

Leica Geosystems. 

All in all, this year’s Intergeo once again was a good indication of how the industry 

is doing. For those of you who weren’t there to witness it, there’s a review of the 

event in this issue, as well as a series of specialized contributions that show that the 

industry as a whole is moving forward at a fast pace. 

Enjoy your reading, 

Eric van Rees 

evanrees@geoinformatics.com 

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com October/November 2011 

3

C o n t e n t 

At the cover: 

CycloMedia brings accurate street level imaging to your desktop. At the 

Intergeo 2011 the availability of the GlobeSpotter application and data 

coverage throughout Europe were announced. An in depth interview details 

the existing possibilities and future applications. (See page 42) 

A r t i c l e s 

Simultaneous Data Capture 6 

The New Location Revolution 10 

Surveying Buildings 26 

Geosensor Networks 36 

Glonass-M sent into Orbit 40 

Cyclorama’s Globespotter 42 

Supporting Ecuador’s National GIS Initiative 46 

At the Crossroads of Geovisualization 48 

E v e n t s 

UAVs on Duty 12 

Cultural Heritage Data Acquisition & Processing 18 

Intergeo 2011 30 

Racurs Conference 2011 52 

I n t e r v i e w 

Esri and Cloud GIS Strategies 14 

C a l e n d a r / A d v e r t i s e r s I n d e x 54

This article presents the current 

26 

status of techniques and technologies 

for the construction of 

a textured model, through the 

support of experiences regarding 

an ancient historical building 

in the Lombardy region 

of Northern Italy. 

42 

On the InterGeo 2011 

CycloMedia demonstrated 

their panoramic imagery 

which take away those 

barriers and brings the 3rd 

dimension to your desktop. 

In line with last year, there is not 

only a 3-day exhibition, but also an 

30 

academic conference, this year 

supplemented with a Navigation 

Conference and the first ever 

Intergeo BarCamp – an open 

space conference devoted to Open 

Street Map. 

Esri IT Strategies Architect 

explains where 

14 

the company 

stands at the moment in 

adopting this new technology 

trend and announces a new 

partnership and a private 

cloud platform. 

Two examples from research at 

the Institute of Cartography 

36 

and Geoinformatics at Leibniz 

Universität Hannover, 

Germany, are given in order to 

illustrate the potential and application 

areas of geosensor 

networks in an exemplary fashion. 

40 

The booster Soyuz-2.1b, carrying 

a Global Navigation 

Satellite System (Glonass) satellite, 

was successfully launched 

from the Plesetsk spaceport and 

put into orbit. Space Troop 

teams monitored the launch through 

the ground automated 

control system. 

The GeoWeb 

48 

brings up more 

and more new ways of mapping 

the world that put the traditional 

distance-based god’s 

eye view of the map on the 

edge. This article give a short 

overview about the changing 

landscape of mapping from 

the author’s point of view. 

The development of the new 

close-range digital imaging, 

photogrammetric and laser 

scanning technologies is 

having a huge impact on the 

measurement, recording, 

depiction and analysis of 

cultural heritage sites and objects 

world-wide – as revealed 

at the recent ISPRS conference 

held in York, England. 

18

A r t i c l e 

ALTM and Large Format Digital Photography 

Simultaneous Data 

Blom have a long history of owning and operating a range of digital cameras and sensors across 

Europe. Traditionally, these instruments would be used independently, even if multiple data formats 

were required. However, the demand for higher quality resources, and the need for improved capture 

efficiency, has seen the long established techniques of aerial surveying put under the microscope. One 

method to emerge is to use aircraft with dual sensor capabilities. In early, 2011 Blom UK adapted one 

of their aeroplanes to enable simultaneous data capture with their Vexcel large format digital camera 

and Optech ALTM LiDAR system. 

By Hamish Grierson 

The Second Hole 

Cutting a hole into the fuselage of an aircraft is not as simple as 

one may initially think, especially if the plane already contains a 

large survey hatch. Before the hole can be cut several things need 

to be considered. Will the control cables that run under the cabin 

floor need to be rerouted? What is the strength and air worthiness 

of the plane and how many alterations will be required? What are 

the logistics of fitting the equipment and operators into the cabin 

and will everything fit? Lastly, timescale and costs need to be considered. 

How long will the plane be out of service and how much 

will it cost, both in down time and in parts and labour? 

Figure 1 - Both sensors are located on the right of the aircraft and the operator sits between them. 

6 

The original concept was to add a second full size survey hatch. 

Following many discussions it was deemed that, with the engineering 

taking up to six weeks, this would be too expensive. More importantly, 

it became apparent that a full size hole was not actually 

required. The ALTM head is a much smaller unit than the digital camera 

so it does not require such a large hole. It could, in fact, utilise 

the existing “Nav-Sight” hole. 

Before the advent of GPS, nav-sights were used by operators of large 

format film cameras to ensure the camera was taking pictures at the 

required rate and over the correct location. The nav-sight sat in front 

of the operator’s seat and required a small hole in the aircraft floor 

October/November 2011

Capture 

to enable the ground directly below to be viewed. With the introduction 

of digital photography nav-sights were no longer required 

so the holes were closed up. By removing the internal and external 

plates the resulting hole was ideally suited to accommodate the ALTM 

sensor. Luckily, this was the most cost effective and quickest adaptation 

for the plane, as minimal work was required to create the second 

hole. 

System Installations 

With two holes now established, the next problem to be resolved 

was how to get all the equipment in, powered up and leaving 

enough room for the operator. Both systems can be operated by one 

operator so there was no need to accommodate another person. 

With both hatches situated on the right hand side of the plane there 

remained plenty of room on the left hand side for both control racks. 

And with the operator sitting between the two sensors it enables 

them to operate the systems efficiently (see Figure 1). 

Each sensor contains it own IMU, but the plane only has one GPS 

antenna. Rather than add an additional antenna to the top of the 

plane, a GPS Antenna Splitter (Diplexer) was fitted to feed GPS data 

to both systems. 

Flight Planning and Data Capture 

When flight planning for dual capture several factors need to be 

considered to ensure suitable data is collected. The primary factors 

being the required point density from the LiDAR and the Ground 

Sample Distance (GSD) of the imagery and their operational capabilities 

need to be assessed to ensure usable data is collected from 

Figure 2 - Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol captured as part of our MetroHEIGHT product range. 

A r t i c l e 

both sensors. The specification and operational capabilities of our 

Optech ALTM 3033 means that the dual capture is flight planned to 

optimise data from it. 

Blom wanted to capture both 4cm GSD imagery and 1m post spacing 

LiDAR and, to achieve this, planned to fly at 700m above 

ground. At this height the imagery has a 60/40% overlap and the 

LiDAR has a 20% overlap. 

Several other factors need to be considered during flight planning. 

Due to the additional weight the endurance of the plane reduced, 

meaning shorter sorties have to be planned. Additional cross strips 

need to be included to help with the calibration and matching of the 

LiDAR data. 

Although the planning is optimised for the LiDAR, the capture has to 

be optimised for the quality of the imagery. This meant that sun 

angles and cloud cover need to be assessed before any data is 

acquired. 

Data Processing 

Once the data has been acquired, the processing flow lines follow 

the standard processing procedures. The LiDAR is extracted to create 

the point cloud; matching to ensure that overlapping flight lines 

align with one another; classification to create a ground class. The 

imagery is colour balanced; using the IMU/GPS data and base station 

data an aerial triangulation is done; the images are mosaiced 

into tiles; final QA and correction undertaken. 

One benefit of dual capture is that a DTM can be created from the 

LiDAR data and supplied for the imagery production to be used as 

a surface model during rectification of the aerial photography. 


7

A r t i c l e 

And the end result is… 

Once we have completed all data capture and processing the LiDAR 

and aerial imagery is added into our data archive as part of the 

product line called BlomMETRO. This creates a high specification 

suite of aerial survey data products, with the core of the database 

being the 4cm GSD aerial photography and 1 point/m² LiDAR, creating 

a unique and up-to-date dataset of urban areas (see Figure 2). 

However, it doesn’t have to end there. What if, on top of the core 

product, we could provide derivative or value-added products? Well 

that’s exactly what we have done. From the aerial survey data five 

categories of sub products will be available. 

False colour and near infra red imagery is categorised as 

MetroSOURCE. This provides vital information for what can generally 

be categorized as environmental studies and this data is often 

used in coastal and environmental monitoring, crop and tree canopy 

management and deforestation studies. Exploiting our extensive 

experience in photogrammetry we use the stereo pairs captured with 

our Vexcel UltraCam to create 3D city models, and lastly, we have 

produced MetroINSIGHT. This is a value-added product designed to 

complement the core data with miscellaneous information such as 

flood risk modeling, or our solar potential analysis as used by Bristol 

City Council. 

As the economies of scale dictate, BlomMETRO is focused on the 

larger urban areas across the UK. However, in keeping with Blom’s 

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ethos of supplying exactly what the customer requires, areas that 

are not currently in the program can be captured on a project by 

project basis. Many targets have already been captured and more 

are in the pipeline and a regular refresh program to keep the data 

as up-to-date as possible. 

Conclusion 

The complexities of simultaneous data capture, especially whilst captured 

in a high speed, high altitude environment, provide many challenges, 

and it’s largely due to the resources and experience that 

Blom has that make this not only possible, but a more effective and 

efficient method for both us and the end user. Reducing the time we 

spend flying not only reduces our costs, which we are then able to 

pass on to the end user, but also offers CO2 savings, always an 

important consideration in the present climate. Secondary to these 

savings, dual capture also ensures that we can offer multiple data 

sets created from data of the same age. For example, this can prove 

important when used as analysis for insurance claims or inspection 

of transport routes. Lastly, collating this data into a package, such 

as BlomMETRO, ensures that Blom is always able to offer a comprehensive 

data set of any urban area, no matter what the clients photographic 

and LiDAR needs are. 

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Technical echnical Seminars 

User Meetings 

Mobile Scanning & Mapping Demos 

Pre-Conference TTutorial 

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Exhibits 

Produced by: 

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Internet: www.blomasa.com 

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Learn more at esri.com/geoinfoinspire 

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A r t i c l e 

Mobile and LBS 

The New Location Revolution 

Location based data is about to move from the margins, to the core of many user applications. 

Bold statements, but should we believe the hype? 

By Matt Sheehan 

Looking back, the GIS and location 

based sectors were very much a niche. 

MapQuest and later Google taking 

advantage of the Web, helped broaden the 

availability, appeal and usefulness of maps. 

Slippy maps, free data and a plethora of 

new (free) tools, spawned a new breed of 

Web based location focused applications. 

Route finding, traffic data, locating points of 

interest, and traditional GIS could all be 

done on the Web. The GeoWeb was upon 

us; a revolution of availability. 

But what of mobile devices? They offer 

portability, instant Internet access, geo-location 

and simple more intuitive interaction as 

key benefits. This article discusses mobile, 

with a particular focus on the location based 

sector. 

The Mobile Market in 2011 

Mobile remains a confusing market place. 

A turf war is being waged between rival 

hardware and software companies. A multitude 

of new devices have been launched in 

the last 6 months. Both smartphones and 

tablets of varying size and spec. 

Disagreements continue over software. The 

recent spat between Adobe and Apple over 

the Flash player, being but one notable 

example. Many companies looking to 

Figure 1 – Mobile ArcGIS Viewer 

develop mobile solutions have remained 

cautiously on the sidelines. 

But slowly the dust is clearing. For platforms; 

Android, Apple, Blackberry and Windows 

dominate. Now, no longer is there the need 

to build multiple versions of an application 

for each platform. A single code base which 

can run across mobile platforms is today a 

reality, thanks to HTML 5 for the mobile Web 

and installed hybrid apps built with Adobe 

AIR. 

Mobile Applications 

There are two ways to access applications 

on a mobile device. The first is to simply fire 

up the mobile Web browser and load a 

Web application. Existing Web sites are 

designed for mouse interaction. Mobile 

interaction is with the finger, thus most Web 

sites need to be optimized for the mobile 

Web. This usually means a rework of both 

design and functionality. Restrictions by 

Apple mean that cross platform Web solutions 

are limited to HTML5/Javascript. Sites 

built with Flash, Flex and Silverlight are not 

accessible on the iPhone or iPad. 

Installed applications are the second type 

accessible on mobiles. These can be downloaded 

from the various app stores. Many 

are written in so called native languages; 

10 

Objective C for Apples IOS, Java for 

Android etc. Native languages are specific 

for a platform, meaning multiple versions of 

the same app need be developed for cross 

platform operation. The recent launch of 

mobile AIR by Adobe, means that so called 

hybrid apps can be written which run across 

all platforms. 

Mobiles and the Location Sector 

Portability and resulting location change are 

key reasons for the popularity of mobiles. 

Location becomes a key piece of this new 

computing universe. The location based sector 

should be well positioned to provide the 

tools for this new universe. Geo-location and 

context are important. Geo-location, tracks 

current GPS location. It has spawned a new 

location based services (LBS) sector. The 

likes of Foursquare, Facebook and Yelp are 

allowing mobile users to discover who and 

what are near them. Extend that to geospatial 

and users can start any GIS query and 

discovery from their current location. 

Routing, traffic and local search provided 

by MapQuest become more relevant and 

useful in the field. 

Context is more subtle, but provides a deeper 

understanding of data. GIS has been traditionally 

used in an office or home. Taking 

Figure 2 - Enterprise Mobile Check-In Application Home Screen 


Figure 3 – Check-In/Out and Data Collection Figure 4 – Directions and Local Search 

these GIS applications into the field and running 

them on a mobile device, dramatically 

improves insight. 

Mobile Hardware and 

Application Development 

The mobile market is made up of smart 

phones and tablets. Historically dominated 

by the iPhone and iPad, new launches by 

other manufacturers have started to challenge 

Apples preeminence. Mobile device 

screen size is an important application 

development and design consideration. 

Screen sizes range from the 2.6″ HP Veer, 

through the 3.5″ iPhone, and 9.7″ iPad to 

the 10.1″ Samsung Galaxy Tab. An application 

designed for a tablet will not necessarily 

work well on a smart phone and vice 

versa. Applications built for a tablet can be 

richer and more complex than those 

designed for smart phones. The smart phone 

is ideal for quick snapshots of information. 

These differences are best illustrated with 

two examples. 

Mobile ArcGIS Viewer for the 

Tablet 

There are a number of excellent Web based 

ArcGIS viewers on the market. One of the 

more notable is the Esri Flex Viewer. This 

provides a rich GIS user experience. But, 

given its architecture, and the fact it is written 

in Flex, it will not run on any Apple 

device. This posed an interesting problem; 

can a viewer of this type be run on a mobile 

device? We took some of the modules 

which make up the Esri Flex viewer and 

started work on integrating them into a 

mobile viewer. Using mobile Adobe Air, we 

found we could modify the base module 

code and run it across all platforms. Figure 

1 shows the final application interface. 

Once built, we started testing the application 

across devices. It soon became clear, 

that even on the largest smart phone, that 

this was a viewer best accessed on a tablet. 

The tools were far harder to use on the smart 

phone, and subtle details in the map hard 

to see. The free application is now available 

for Apple, Android and Blackberry. 

Enterprise Mobile Check-In 

Application for the Smart Phone 

Mobile check-In has become very popular 

in marketing and advertising. Florian Fischer 

discussed this phenomenon in Issue 5 of 

GeoInformatics. To date this has been a consumer 

focused phenomena. But enterprises 

are now looking at the potential use of the 

check-in. Facility management companies, 

surveyors, multilevel marketing, insurance 

claims, pipeline companies, water utilities; 

all have field workers who would benefit 

from this type of mobile application. Not 

only checking in to work sites, but keeping 

a record of the work done; notes, pictures, 

video, even voice records. Using the new 

Flash tools from MapQuest, we went ahead 

and built an application which provided this 

functionality. Figure 2 shows the home 

screen of the application. 

Not only does the application include checkin 

and data collection, but routing, local 

search and a geocoder. Functionality of the 

application is tied to either a point of interest 

or GPS location. The application allows 

a field worker start the day by viewing an 

optimized route of the day’s calls. On arrival 

A r t i c l e 

at each call, the user can use the checkin/out 

screen to register job location and 

provide data relating to the call, see Figure 

3. 

The local search and geocoder provide 

additional tools for discovering who or what 

is nearby and address search capabilities 

respectively. 

A link to a video showing the application is 

provided at the end of the article. This application 

was found to be ideal for a smart 

phone. It provides snapshots of information 

regarding routing and local data. Check-in 

and data collection are simple interactions. 

And portability of the smart phone, makes 

it easy for field workers to both carry and 

use. 

The new mobile revolution offers exciting 

opportunities for the location based sector. 

The combination of geo-location and context 

provides the potential to extend existing 

location focused applications. It also opens 

the way for new, innovative applications. 

Maybe most importantly it offers the possibility 

of integrating with a wide range of 

other applications. 

Matt Sheehan is a Principal and Senior developer at 

WebMapSolutions. The company builds mobile applications, specialising 

in location based services (LBS), GIS and mapping. 

www.webmapsolutions.com 

Links: 

Mobile ArcGIS Viewer – www.webmapsolutions.com/arcgis-ipadandroid-blackberry-playbook 

Enterprise Mobile Check-In Application - 

www.webmapsolutions.com/checkin-data-collection 

WebMapSolutions Blog – 

www.webmapsolutions.com/category/mobile 

WebMapSolutions on Twitter – www.twitter.com/flexmappers 


11

E v e n t 

Civil Applications of UAVs 

UAVs on Duty 

UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are highly developed flight systems, which can be used for a great 

variety of applications, such as monitoring of natural hazards (landslides, flooding and volcanoes etc.) 

and the documentation of archaeological excavations, gravel pits, and construction sites. Furthermore, 

UAVs can be used for mapping of agricultural and forest areas as well as for cadastral tasks in combination 

with traditional surveying methods. 

By Henri Eisenbeiss 

Worldwide interest in UAVs 

The UAV-g 2011 conference was a get-together at ETH Zurich and 

airfield Birrfeld of 220 scientists, users, delegates of government 

authorities and manufacturers coming from over 30 different countries. 

At the conference the current research on UAVs with the emphasis 

on applications in Geo matics was presented and discussed under 

the consideration of user requirements. The focus of the conference 

was on the exchange of UAV-g research activities between the different 

disciplines (artificial intelligence, robotics, photogrammetry, 

geodesy, computer vision, 

and aerospace engineering) 

and furthermore, the needs 

for future developments were 

formulated. 

Use of UAVs under 

legal regulations 

In the keynote speech Roland 

Siegwart (Vice President Re - 

search and Corporate Rela - 

tions and chair of the auto - 

UAVs presented during the UAV-g demonstration. 

12 

no mous system lab ETH Zurich) gave a fascinating overview of 

autonomous navigation, positioning and collision avoidance and 

showed the trend towards the miniaturization of UAV systems. 

Currently available UAV platforms can already be used as measuring 

system for various mapping and monitoring applications. 

However, the operation of UAVs is limited by legal regulations. For 

example, in Switzerland autonomous flying model aircrafts with a 

take-off weight of over 30 kg require a particular authorization by 

the Federal Office of Civil Applications (FOCA). Furthermore, UAVs 

with a take-off weight of fewer than 30 kg can only be operated in 

restricted flight zones, line of sight and operated with a back-up pilot 

who can take over the control of the system at any time. 

Fascinating live demonstrations 

The experts were impressed by the live show at the airfield Birrfeld. 

During the demonstration various autonomously flying UAVs were 

presented, such as open source systems, fixed wings, a helicopter, 

multicopters, a blimp and a motorized kite. The best presentations 

of the live show were awarded with the “Most Innovative UAV 

Application and Demonstration - Award” sponsored by Hexagon 

Technology Center/Leica Geo systems. The R-Pod system could persuade 

the jury due to the light take-off weight (500 g) and the flexible 

applicability. A quadrocopter (open source project MikroKopter) 

realized by a team of the Swiss College of Agriculture (SHL / BFH) 

was awarded with the second price, while the third price went to 

Ascending Technology for the Falcon 8 system. 

Future research and developments will be presented at the conference 

UAV-g 2013 in Rostock (Germany). 

Dr. Henri Eisenbeiss, henri.eisenbeiss@geod.baug.ethz.ch, 

ETH Zurich, Institute for Geodesy and Photogrammetry 

More information under http://www.uav-g.ethz.ch 

Exhibition during the UAV-g conference. 


Combining a global reach with local expertise 

to fulfil your geographical data needs 

Blom is one of the largest providers of aerial imagery and geospatial data in Europe. Utilising a versatile fleet of aircraft and 

sensors, Blom captures oblique and vertical aerial photography plus topographic survey data using LiDAR (Light Detection 

and Ranging) technology. 

Blom uses this information to produce a range of datasets and solutions, such as 3D models and vector maps. This 

information is a vital intelligence resource and is used by local and regional government, transport, infrastructure, engineering 

and environmental industry sectors. 

Come and see us on stand 22 at ELMF 2011 or contact your local sales office at www.blomasa.com to find out more. 

CAPTURING. MODELLING. 

ANALYSING. YSING. SERVING. 

Blom SERVICES 

Blom MARKETS 

On Stand 22 at ELMF 2011


New Initiatives and Perspectives 

Esri and Cloud GIS Strategies 

In the last months, Esri has made a big step forward in embracing the cloud. With developments 

regarding ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Server for the cloud, the company's cloud systems illustrate that 

Esri is at the edge of an upswing concerning cloud technology and solutions. Victoria Kouyoumjian, 

Esri IT Strategies Architect explains where the company stands at the moment in adopting this new 

technology trend and announces a new partnership and a private cloud platform. 

By Eric van Rees 

Esri's ArcGIS Online allows you to take advantage of a cloud-hosted platform for creating and sharing your maps on-demand, including ready-to-use and customizable templates for to create 

a web application with your own look and functionality. 

During the last Esri UC in San Diego, 

the company announced their plans 

for the cloud. This fall, the ArcGIS 

Online system will be shifted to a full GIS-inthe-cloud 

environment. It will be an open 

platform for mapping and geographic information 

in the cloud, where everything is tied 

together with intelligent web maps that are 

described as a new medium where multiple 

services are integrated and shared. Esri IT 

Strategies Architect Victoria Kouyoumjian 

confirms that things are happening fast, as 

opposed to one year ago: “We are full 

steam ahead, that's for sure. We are just at 

the edge of an upswing of getting in the 

cloud and providing more cloud solutions.” 

Cloud Adoption by the Esri community 

With new tools and services, the community 

has a better understanding and capabilities 

of adopting the new technology. 

14 

Kouyoumjian: “ArcGIS Server for the cloud 

has been out there for a year. New features 

to be released on desktop will allow the 

geospatial community to publish right to the 

cloud. So I think the message is clear that 

this is not just a single step into the cloud 

technology landscape - it's something Esri 

intends to put a lot of research and development 

into.” 

Kouyoumjian's task within Esri is to work 

between cloud vendors and the company's 


customers to see where both can meet each 

other: “Primarily, my role involves a consultative 

business approach to examining 

which technologies are worth adopting, particularly 

as these emerging technologies 

move from a blip to a trend. So I spend a 

lot of time in the cloud, so to speak. We look 

at various cloud providers, for instance, to 

see if there's an opportunity there for Esri 

and for our customers. We are fully 

engaged with Microsoft and their Windows 

Azure platform and we are looking at other 

providers going forward. The whole idea of 

the cloud is sometimes hard to “get”, so I 

help to facilitate that, distilling loads of information 

into consumable content, for 

instance, through frequent presentations, 

white papers and articles.” 

Cloud solutions within the Esri 

portfolio 

One might wonder where exactly does the 

cloud fit into Esri's existing portfolio of desktop, 

server and mobile solutions. Will it 

replace or complement the existing products 

and what does the cloud mean in terms of 

licensing costs and models? About this, 

Kouyoumjian is clear: “One of the channels 

of thought that Esri has is that cloud computing 

is not exclusively the solution. It complements 

the portfolios of solutions we have 

and not meant as a 100% replacement.” 

Indeed, it is intended to be another platform 

for organizations, individuals or business 

units that see the benefits of leveraging 

cloud storage, or with disaster response 

operations, or for economies of scale or cost 

purposes. Organizations that already have 

on-premise solutions create their data mainly 

through their field operations or in-house 

and then push that out to the cloud, storing 

it there so they can access it through various 

applications and services, states 

Kouyoumjian. 

Licensing for the Cloud 

When asked how licensing works for the 

cloud in relation to existing software licenses 

for desktop and server, Kouyoumjian 

answers that currently, to leverage ArcGIS 

for Server on Amazon EC2, you need to 

have an ArcGIS for Server license. Term 

licenses are also an option: “Term license 

are attractive to a lot of people because, in 

lieu of 'pay as you go' licenses for Server, 

Esri offers licenses in 1-month, 3-month and 

12-month terms.” Of course, with ArcGIS 

Online, you don’t need a license to initialize 

a SaaS-based solution to immediately 

start building a cloud-based application 

through ArcGIS Exporer Online or the Web 

Map Viewer. 

Victoria Kouyoumjian, Esri IT Strategies Architect 


Going forward, Esri will be expanding 

ArcGIS Online to include the ability for organizations 

to store, manage, and host 

services, personalizing their geo-cloud presence 

for on-premise or off-premise con - 

sumption. Esri will have a subscription 

based offering for hosting map services 

depending on what you're doing with 

ArcGIS Online: With private cloud enablement 

through Portal for ArcGIS, and Esri 

leveraging SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, in a way, 

Esri is taking on the role of a comprehensive 

geo cloud broker.” 

Looking ahead, out of all the many cloud 

providers, only the select few will remain: 

“So you've got Microsoft, Amazon and 

there's all these other ones coming out of the 


15


woodwork for cloud adopters to select from, 

but you can't predict how long they will be 

around for. The prediction is that the number 

of cloud providers will eventually peak and 

those cloud providers that are the most robust 

and trusted and have a successful trackrecord 

will survive and rise to the top.” 

Vblock 

Recently, Esri has become more engaged 

with VCE – a company formed as a joint 

venture by Cisco and EMC with investments 

from VMware and Intel. VCE released a pre- 

A customized interface of private cloud enablement through Portal for ArcGIS 

configured infrastructure platform called 

Vblock Infrastructure Platforms, enabling 

rapid deployment for cloud computing applications. 

Kouyoumjian states that this platform 

offers interesting opportunities for customers 

since Vblock platforms have compute 

storage, networking, security management 

and virtualization, so users can put their 

apps and everything on it, plugging it into 

their existing data center as a private cloud: 

“It's very attractive to a lot of organizations 

that don't want to leverage the public cloud 

and don't want to put their data, applica- 

16 

Vblock Infrastructure Platforms 

tions and their sensitive information in the 

public cloud space. We’ve tested ArcGIS on 

this platform with impressive results.” 

Kouyoumjian is looking forward to see 

what’s happening with Vblock platforms: 

“It's a private cloud infrastructure platform 

that is moving quickly into this new cloud 

skyscape for a lot of organizations that want 

on-premises, but also want to leverage the 

technology capabilities of a cloud.” 

Clearly, cloud computing has moved quickly 

into the mainstream geospatial environment, 

and is impacting nearly every vertical 

leveraging information technology. For Esri 

and GIS, the skies the limit – or is it the 

cloud? Watch this space. 

A white paper by Victoria Kouyoumjian on GIS 

in the cloud can be downloaded through: 

www.esri.com/library/ebooks/gis-in-the-cloud.pdf 


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E v e n t 

A Report on the ISPRS York 2011 Conference 

Cultural Heritage Data Acqui 

The development of the new close-range digital imaging, photogrammetric and laser scanning technologies 

is having a huge impact on the measurement, recording, depiction and analysis of cultural 

heritage sites and objects world-wide – as revealed at the recent ISPRS conference held in York, England. 

By Gordon Petrie 

As mentioned in the report on the ISPRS Commission V 

Symposium held in Newcastle that was published in the 

September 2010 issue of GEO infor matics, one of the most 

active groups within this particular ISPRS technical commission is 

Working Group (WG) V/2 - which is concerned with cultural heritage 

data acquisition and processing and its applications. The working 

group had 30 papers presented on this topic at the Newcastle 

Symposium. A follow-up conference was held by the working group 

in York in Northern England between 17 th and 19 th August 2011 

and produced a further 47 papers. The conference was organised 

by the chairman of WG V/2, Paul Bryan of English Heritage, who 

was ably assisted by a small team drawn largely from his own organisation 

and the University of York. The actual venue for the conference 

was the King’s Manor, which comprises a group of medieval 

buildings that are currently occupied by the Department of 

Archaeology and the Centres for Medieval Studies and Eighteenth 

Century Studies of the University of York. It proved to be a very suitable 

venue for a conference concerned with cultural heritage. 

The format of the conference provided a one-hour keynote address 

at the start of each of the three days over which it was held. These 

were followed by two technical sessions and an industry session 

held on the first day; two further technical sessions and a poster session 

held on the second day; and a final technical session on the 

18 

Fig. 1 – A perspective overview of the faces of the four 

presidents – from left to right: George Washington; 

Thomas Jefferson; Theodore Roosevelt; and Abraham 

Lincoln – at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the 

Black Hills of South Dakota, which has been produced by 

the digital laser scan survey. (Source: CDDV) 

third (half) day. The conference also included a technical exhibition 

of photogrammetric and terrestrial laser scanner hardware and software 

products. The accompanying social events included a reception 

by the Lord Mayor at the city’s Mansion House; an evening boat 

cruise on the River Ouse that passes through the city; and the conference 

dinner which was held on one of the platforms in the hall 

Fig. 2 – The scanning team, supported by harnesses and ropes, are using a custom-made 

tripod and trivet to act as the mount for a Leica ScanStation laser scanner during the 

survey at Mount Rushmore. (Source: Doug Pritchard) 


sition & Processing 

housing the royal trains at the National Railway Museum. In total, 

the conference had a busy and satisfying programme of activities. 

Keynote Addresses 

The first of the three keynote addresses was given by Professor 

Jon Mills of Newcastle University, who is the president of ISPRS 

Commission V. He first reviewed the past and present activities of 

the Commission, before going on to outline the extensive international 

cooperation that is taking place in the acquisition and processing 

of cultural heritage data. The second address, entitled “An 

Update on the Scottish Ten” was given by Doug Pritchard, who 

is the Head of Visualisation at the Digital Design Studio of Glasgow 

School of Art and Director of the Centre for Digital Documentation 

& Visualization (CDDV). The Centre is a collaborative venture 

between the School of Art and Historic Scotland, which is the agency 

of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the country’s 

historic environment. One of its major projects is the so-called 

“Scottish Ten” which aims to deliver the comprehensive digital documentation 

of the five UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in 

Scotland and a further five International Heritage Sites. Using a combination 

of airborne and terrestrial laser scanning and imaging, 

three of the Scottish sites - (i) the New Lanark industrial settlement 

and village dating from the late 18 th Century; (ii) the group of 

Neolithic sites in the northern island of Orkney; and (iii) the remote 

and now-deserted Atlantic island of St. Kilda – have already been 

surveyed. The survey of a fourth large site – the old town of 

Fig. 3 – Stonehenge – showing its circles of large standing stones. (Source: Gareth Wiscombe on Wikipedia) 

E v e n t 

Edinburgh – is currently under way. On the international front, in 

cooperation with the U.S. National Park Service, the CyArk organisation 

and local specialists, the Scottish team has already carried 

out the survey of the spectacular national memorial of four former 

American presidents that has been carved out on the side of Mount 

Rushmore in South Dakota in the U.S.A. The images that have been 

acquired by the team using Leica ScanStation scanners that were 

shown during this address were really outstanding [Figs. 1 and 2]. 

Currently the planning of the survey of the Rani Ki Vav (The Queen's 

Stepwell) site in Gujerat, India dating from the 11th Century is well 

under way and will take place soon. Once this has been completed, 

the next international site that will be surveyed (in 2012) will be 

the Eastern Qing Tombs, located northeast of Beijing, where numerous 

Chinese emperors and empresses are buried. 

The third keynote address was given by Paul Backhouse, who is 

the head of Imaging Graphics & Survey of English Heritage, which 

is the official agency that is charged with the preservation and management 

of the historic built environment of England. He gave an 

account of the strategies and the technologies that have been adopted 

by his agency in acquiring measured data of a large number of 

heritage sites in England and the lessons that have been learned 

from these surveys. Details were given of four case studies – (i) 

Coombe Down, a huge underground stone mine located near the 

city of Bath in south-west England; (ii) Chedham’s Yard, an old blacksmith’s 

workshop located in Warwickshire; (iii) the Dover Tunnels, 


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the maze of underground tunnels lying beneath Dover Castle on the 

cliff coast of south-east England facing France that have been constructed 

for defence purposes over a period of several centuries; 

and (iv) the World Heritage prehistoric (Neolithic) site of Stonehenge 

with its famous circles of standing and fallen stones (dating from 

around 2500 BC) and its surrounding ring bank and ditch earthwork 

[Fig. 3]. Again the documentation resulting from these various 

surveys in the form of images, maps, plans, 3D perspectives and 

video fly-throughs was often eye-catching in the extreme. 

Technical Sessions 

The first of the technical sessions (TS-1) was entitled Sensor 

Development & Mapping Solutions and featured several very interesting 

presentations. Among these was that given by Konrad 

Wenzel of the University of Stuttgart. He and his colleagues from 

the University’s Institute of Photogrammetry have devised a low-cost 

photogrammetric imaging system comprising five small-format cameras 

equipped with very short focal length lenses and a near-IR random 

pattern projector. All of these are mounted together on a 

portable metal frame that can be used to undertake very close-range 

imaging surveys [Fig. 4 (a)]. The highly automated processing of 

the resulting data is then carried out using an image matching algorithm 

that has recently been developed for use with very dense data 

sets. The imaging system has been used to survey the huge triangular 

stone tympana (each 25 m in width and 6 m in height) which 

are mounted at the top of the façades of the Royal Palace located in 

the Dam Square in Amsterdam [Fig. 4 (b)]. The scaffolding and 

screens that have been erected to carry out the restoration of the 

whole building [Fig. 4(c)] only allowed imaging distances of less 

than one metre. With an object (post) sampling distance of 1 mm, 

the point cloud that results from the images acquired at circa 2,000 

different camera positions is simply enormous, as is the subsequent 

task of processing this data mountain (or cloud). Another interesting 

presentation in this session included a comparison of range-based 

(laser scanner) techniques with image-based (photogrammetric) techniques 

for the surveys and documentation of rock art shelters in Spain 

that was given by Professor Lerma of Valencia Polytechnic. Yet 

another eye-catching presentation was that given by Dr. Caterina 

Balletti of the CIRCE Photogrammetric Laboratory of the IUAV 

[a] [c] 

E v e n t 

Fig. 4 – (a) This photogrammetric imaging system 

comprises four small-format digital cameras equipped 

with short focal length lenses and filters that only transmit 

near-IR radiation. The fifth camera transmits light in 

the visible part of the spectrum and is equipped with an 

even shorter focal length lens. The five cameras are 

mounted rigidly on and are protected by an aluminium 

frame. At the top of the frame is the projector from a 

Microsoft Kinect device that projects a random pattern 

in the near-IR part of the spectrum to provide additional 

texture to the images. This helps with the later automated 

image matching process. (Source: Institute of 

Photogrammetry, University of Stuttgart) 

(b) This triangular clay relief was made in around 1655 

to act as a model for the tympanum mounted at the top 

of the façade at the rear of the Amsterdam town hall, 

now today's Royal Palace on Dam Square. (Source: 

Rijksmuseum) 

(c) The front façade of the Royal Palace with the scaffolding 

and screens which have been erected during its 

restoration. The Palace is located in the Dam Square in 

Amsterdam. (Source: Institute of Photogrammetry, 

University of Stuttgart) 

University of Venice. This involved the survey of the historic buildings 

lining Venice’s Grand Canal, which was carried out using a 

boat-mounted Riegl VMX-250 mobile mapping system [Fig. 5] and 

processed using Riegl’s RiPROCESS software. 

The second Technical Session (TS-2), entitled “Imaging Solutions from 

Aerial to Underwater”, proved to be no less interesting. Dr. Geert 

Verhoeven from the University of Ghent gave an entertaining 

account of the aerial photogrammetric survey of an ancient Roman 

quarry located at Pitaranha in the central part of Portugal, close to 

the Spanish/Portuguese border. This was implemented using a Nikon 

D80 small-format (10 Megapixel) digital camera which was mounted 

on a low-flying Helikite aerostat attached to a tether [Fig. 6]. The 

Helikite is a combination of a balloon and kite that is manufactured 

by Allsopp Helikites Ltd. in the U.K. The subsequent data processing 

of the 1,000 often quite tilted images that covered the Pitaranha site 

was carried out using the Structure from Motion (SfM) software that 

is popular in machine vision and robotics to handle multiple-view 

images. [N.B. The SfM software appears to implement a set of fairly 

conventional multi-image photogrammetric solutions, even though it 

uses a wholly different terminology to that in common use in photogrammetry.] 

Also of much interest in this second (TS-2) session were the presentations 

on the aerial surveys of heritage sites from low-flying UAVs. 

The first of these was given by Greg Colley of sUAVe Aerial 

Photographers, who used a Canon 5D camera mounted on a UAV 

that was operated from a very low altitude to survey the Roman 

Amphitheatre in Chester in north-west England. The second presentation 

was given by Dr. Sara Bursanti of the University of Trieste. 

She utilized a quadcopter UAV equipped with a Canon IXUS compact 

digital camera to carry out a survey of the city walls of the 

Roman city of Aquileia in north Italy - which is yet another site that 

has been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. These two 

presentations were supplemented by a poster by Andrew Blogg 

of the KOREC company in the U.K., who brought along (in a suitcase) 

and showed an actual example of the very lightweight Swinglet 

CAM flying-wing mini-drone with its 80 cm wingspan that is produced 

by the SenseFly company in Switzerland [Fig. 7]. It features 


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Fig. 5 – This RIEGL VMX-250 Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) measurement system comprises two 

RIEGL VQ-250 scanners and accompanying inertial and GNSS navigation hardware. The system has 

been mounted on a specially built frame on the boat that has been used to carry out the scanning of 

the historic buildings along the Canal Grande, Venice. (Source: RIEGL) 

a miniaturized GPS/IMU unit that allows the pre-programmed 

autonomous flight of a 12 Megapixel camera over a site. Apparently 

this flying wing drone has already been used to survey the remains 

of ancient walls in Switzerland. Finally what was for me a fascinating 

lecture within this session was that given by Dr. Dimitrios 

Skarlatos of Cyprus University of Technology. He has investigated 

and evaluated the quite staggering amount of free (or nearly-free) 

open-source software or software components that are available on 

the Web and can be used for the photogrammetric processing of 

the images acquired using low-cost digital cameras. Much of this 

information was simply unknown to me (and to other photogrammetrists 

in the audience) and it needs to be publicized more widely 

within the cultural heritage community as well. 

The third Technical Session (TS-3) was entitled “Remote Sensing 

Technologies & Single/Multi Image Approaches”. The presentations 

included a description of the DART project at the University of Leeds 

that is investigating the underlying physical, chemical and biological 

properties and factors in the soil and vegetation that affect the 

contrast in the images that have been recorded by aerial cameras 

and, in turn, affect their interpretation for archaeological purposes. 

This was supplemented by a contribution from Poland that investigated 

the site formation of medieval landscapes in Pomerania. 

Another presentation from Nottingham Trent University described a 

new hyperspectral imaging system for the inspection and analysis of 

wall paintings and other large surfaces, while Ian Anderson of 

SiteScene described his work of monitoring and recording heritage 

plasterwork within the ruined Cowdray Castle in West Sussex. Finally 

Lindsay Macdonald, who is the Professor of Digital Media at the 

London College of Communication, gave an interesting account of 

his comparison of alternative photogrametric and photometric methods 

of constructing a digital model of an Egyptian funerary urn, comparing 

the results with the dense point cloud that has been generated 

by a high-resolution Arius 3D colour laser triangulation scanner. 

This work was done in collaboration with University College London 

and the University of Parma. 

The fourth Technical Session (TS-4) was concerned with “Data 

Processing & 3D Modelling Solutions”. Contributions included the 

E v e n t 

development of automated texture mapping; the 3D modelling of 

building interiors; and the development of the CityGrid software 

suite for 3D city modelling by the Austrian UVM (Urban Visualisation 

& Management) company. Next came a description of low-cost 3D 

modelling as applied to the London City Wall project. Finally there 

was an account given by Professor George Fraser of the Space 

Research Centre of the University of Leicester of the use of Siemens’ 

Teamcenter data management and archiving software in the context 

of the laser scanning of two tomb-monuments of the Howard Dukes 

of Norfolk. Another interesting contribution within this area of 3D 

modelling came from the Virtalis company and the British Geological 

Survey (BGS). This described their joint development of the 

GeoVisionary software for the 3D visualization and interpretation of 

very large spatial data sets – though this contribution was, in fact, 

presented in both the industry and poster sessions instead of TS-4. 

The LFM software suite from Z+F – which provides a complete solution 

from the initial registration of laser scan data to the final as-built 

3D modelling – was also presented both in the industry session and 

in the exhibition. 

The fifth Technical Session (TS-5) had the title “Development of 

Standards & Best Practice Applications”. It began with a most interesting 

and thoughtful presentation by Dr. Stuart Jeffrey of the 

Archaeological Data Service (ADS) at the University of York. This 

expressed his views about the long-term archiving and maintenance 

of the enormous volume of heritage data that is being generated by 

photogrammetry and laser scanning, especially given the processing 

and re-processing that is likely to occur in the foreseeable future. 

He then went on to discuss the revision of the “Guides to Good 

Practice” for the archiving of archaeological and heritage data that 

the ADS has produced in partnership with the University of Arkansas 

and Arizona State University. This work has been carried out in support 

of the U.S.-based Digital Antiquity organisation that is concerned 

with the preservation of and access to irreplaceable archaeological 

records and data. It also oversees the use, development, 

and maintenance of the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), which 

is a unique digital repository for archaeological data. The other contributions 

to this session included two separate accounts (i) of the 

recent very detailed high-precision 3D survey of Stonehenge undertaken 

on behalf of English Heritage by the Greenhatch Group, Atkins 

Mapping and Archaeo-Environment Ltd. using Z+F Imager 5010 

Fig. 6 – Inflating the Allsopp helikite prior to it being used as the platform for the lightweight digital 

camera that has been used to carry out the low-altitude imaging survey of the Roman stone quarry at 

Pitaranha, Portugal. (Source: G. Verhoeven) 


23

E v e n t 

Fig. 7 – The lightweight SenseFly Swinglet CAM flying wing mini-drone is shown together with its carrying 

case and laptop control computer. It is an electrically-powered UAV capable of autonomous flight over 

an operational range up to 20km and can operate in winds up to 25km/h. (Source: KOREC Group) 

and Leica C10 laser scanners and digital photogrammetric procedures; 

and (ii) a similar survey by ArcHeritage using a Leica C10 

scanner that has produced a 3D model of the 17 th Century Staveley 

Hall and its grounds in the Peak District of England [Fig. 8]. 

Poster Session 

Twenty or so of the presentations given at the conference took the 

form of posters. Often at conferences, poster sessions are poorly 

attended and supported, but not at this meeting. The session was 

lively and very well attended and most of the authors had an interested 

group asking questions and seeking more information about 

the topic concerned. No fewer than five of the poster presentations 

came from different Italian universities concerned with the survey of 

various different buildings, monuments and landscapes. As noted in 

my report on the previous Newcastle symposium, this is not wholly 

unexpected given the extent of the cultural heritage from Roman 

times onwards that is so prominent in that country. Two other posters 

were contributed by Por tu guese participants, where again there is a 

similar interest in the country’s national heritage. There were also 

two or three presentations that were concerned with satellite remote 

sensing – which, in my opinion, did not seem too appropriate, given 

that ISPRS Commission V is concerned with close-range imaging and 

measuring techniques and their applications. Either ISPRS 

Commission VII, which deals with the thematic processing, modelling 

and analysis of remotely sensed data, or Commission VIII, which 

covers remote sensing applications, would seem to be a more much 

appropriate platform for the presentation of these contributions. 

Fig. 8 – A perspective view of the exterior façade of Staveley 

Hall that has been produced from digital 3D laser scan data. 

(Source: ArcHeritage) 

24 

Industry Session & 

Exhibition 

As one would expect, these two 

parts of the programme mainly 

featured the manufacturers and 

suppliers of terrestrial laser scanners 

and the accompanying software. 

They also supplemented 

their presentations by displaying 

and demonstrating their instruments 

and systems both in the 

technical exhibition and in the 

grounds of King’s Manor. Most of 

the laser scanners that were 

exhibited were of the short-range 

type based on the phase measuring 

technique that are best suited 

to heritage and building applications. 

They included the Leica 

HDS6200, the Z+F Imager 5010, 

the Faro Focus 3D and the 

Surphaser from Basis Software. 

On the photogrammetric side, the 

well known suite of Vr photogrammetric 

and lidar processing products 

that have been developed by 

Cardinal Systems in the U.S.A. 

were demonstrated by its U.K. 

Fig. 9 – This diagram shows the horizontal 

rotational motion of the SpheroCam HDR digital 

panoramic line scanner around its vertical axis. 

When used together with the near 180° vertical 

field of its fisheye lens, the instrument can generate 

spherical (360° x 180°) digital images in a 

single rotational pass. The instrument is produced 

by the Spheron-VR company, which is based near 

Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate 

in Germany. (Source: Spheron-VR) 

agent. What was more unusual was the presence in the exhibition 

of a single example of a rotating panoramic line scanner in the form 

of the SpheroCam HDR from Germany [Fig. 9]. This instrument produces 

digital panoramic images in a single pass without any need 

for stitching. I have long been mystified as to the almost complete 

lack of knowledge and application of this type of precision imaging 

device (which is also produced by several other German and Swiss 

manufacturers and by Panoscan in the U.S.A.) on the part of the cultural 

heritage community in the U.K. The instruments seem very well 

suited to the imaging of the interiors and exteriors of the large buildings 

that form a major part of the cultural and architectural heritage 

in so many countries and especially in the U.K. 

Conclusion 

This was a very worthwhile meeting to attend - well organised and 

with a friendly but serious atmosphere and a useful outcome. With 

only a few exceptions, the presentations were of a really good standard 

and were very focussed on the specific topics that have been 

set out in the Working Group’s terms of reference. Thus there was a 

great deal of new information for the participants to assimilate, both 

on the hardware and software systems side and on the very wide 

range of applications to cultural heritage documentation that were 

discussed. Undoubtedly the cultural heritage area has already benefitted 

greatly from its successful adoption of modern close-range digital 

photogrammetric and laser scanning technologies. Furthermore, 

on the evidence of this meeting, there is much more to come! 

Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor of Topographic Science 

in the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences of the University 

of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. 

E-mail - Gordon.Petrie@glasgow.ac.uk; 

Web Site - http://web2.ges.gla.ac.uk/~gpetrie 


A r t i c l e 

Point Clouds and Multi-image Panoramas 

Surveying Buildings 

The development of building knowledge systems is nowadays a meaningful step when planning 

architectural maintenance and managing emergencies during a building’s life cycle. A 3D photo-textured 

model, which can describe both spatial connections and material properties, is a measurable 

virtual object that is achieved via terrestrial survey techniques, such as laser scanning and imaging. 

This article presents the current status of techniques and technologies for the construction of a textured 

model, through the support of experiences regarding an ancient historical building in the Lombardy 

region of Northern Italy. 

By Luigi Colombo and Barbara Marana 

Fig. 1- The Monte Oliveto Sanctuary, suggestively placed inside a small valley 

Knowledge technologies 

Survey and representation techniques can provide, without contact, 

spatial numeric plots and drawings with an assigned precision, to 

produce a geo-database of architectural information. 

The survey process can be enhanced using image measurement (close 

range photogrammetry) or scanning laser sensors, which record a 

sequence of spatial points describing the selected object. Usually, the 

combination of both methodologies will overcome accessibility and 

visibility problems, which often affect the employment of optical instruments 

during a terrestrial survey. 

Photogrammetry is based on the use of an imaging camera (film or 

digital), in which the acquisition of many overlapping images produces 

spatial and orthographic representations, thanks to the application 

of projective geometry algorithms. Photo gram metric solutions, 

despite offering interesting and complete application fields, do not 

permit simultaneous processing with acquisition. This said, it is now 

in competition with the emerging laser scanning technology, which 

provides real-time, fast, and increased automatic metric output. 

A sophisticated digital sensor, placed over a standard support, is 

used to emit a thin laser beam towards the object to be measured. 

The beam, while rotating in the horizontal and vertical planes, 

describes pre-selected areas, directly recording a cloud of spatial 

points (coordinates x, y, z). The reflected energy and, under certain 

circumstances, the photographic information, produces an object 

26 

Fig. 2 – The church interiors, with Z+F scanner at work and mobile targets 

point model of given density with materials and natural colours. 

As with photogrammetric methodology, the laser device is located at different 

spatial positions providing overlapping cloud sequences in order to 

guarantee software connection in a global model. 

It is interesting to note that this motorized sensor can record up to 

1,000,000 object points per second, with an accuracy of a few millimetres, 

and within a range of more than one hundred metres. 


The produced sketchy model can be observed and processed using various 

software packages available with many well-known and established 

CAD systems. 

It is easy to think that each cloud could contain redundant information (for 

instance too many points) for zones with simple and regular geometry. On 

the other hand, there could be too little information (voids) caused by the 

position of the measurement device not allowing for by complex object 

morphologies and object roughness. Therefore, editing is necessary to 

simplify and refine the collected data. In addition, the phases regarding 

adjacent cloud connection and texture mapping require manual work and 

the use of different dedicated packages. 

The Monte Oliveto survey: a new experience 

The 16th century Monte Oliveto Sanctuary is located at Adrara St. 

Martino, on the first Val di Pieve reliefs, at the eastern border of the 

Bergamo province (Fig.1).The church interior shows one nave divided 

in three spans by masonry pilasters (Fig. 2).The building (its inside 

and part of the outside, due to restoration) was recently surveyed by 

the Geo-Technology Lab from the University of Bergamo. This program 

of analysis, documentation and cataloguing, was done in collaboration 

with the Historic Research Group of Adrara St. Martino, 

which has been studying the valley monuments for many years. 

It was planned to employ, as usual in the Lab applications, both scanning 

and imaging techniques in order to obtain a 3D spatial model 

of the building. The assigned parameters were 10 mm expected accuracy, 

that is a level of detail corresponding to the traditional 1:50 

scale, scanning density at the highest level (for a linear sampling of 

about 3 mm or 4 mm of the walls), and object detail detection if 

greater than 10 mm, with a 60% level of confidence. 

The technology used was a panoramic laser device (field of view 

equal to 360°x320°) from Zoller+Frölich (500,000 points per second 

rating and cloud scanning time under seven minutes) plus an 

external Nikon reflex camera with panoramic lens (180°) and highresolution 

sensor. 

In this application, an external camera was preferred for photographic 

texturing, instead of the motorized photo camera, superimposable 

to the scanner, adopted in a previous Lab experience 

[Geoinformatics 4, 2011]. The new choice allowed photographic 

textures to be generated more independently from the scanning conditions 

and times, a solution that presents less constraint for 

device/object distance. 

A r t i c l e 

Fig. 3 – The sanctuary façade, 

with the panoramic photo 

camera on its spherical support 

Both the aforementioned selections however provide approximate solutions. 

Only a laser with an integrated photo camera, but of a selectable 

high resolution, allows for the production of a truly coloured point cloud. 

As yet, this option is not provided by Z+F. 

The photo camera was installed over a mechanical support with a round 

head, to be connected to the laser tripod. In this way, 360° images are 

recordable from the same scanning positions (without parallax errors) for 

the final model photo-texturing. For each of the panoramic scans, manually, 

six horizontal shots and one zenithal shot were carried out (Fig. 3). 

These seven images were then processed inside photographic stitching 

software so as to generate a global spherical multi-image panorama 

to be mapped over the point cloud or point-derived triangular 

mesh. This way, it is possible to manage a reduced number of 

Fig. 4 – Single images (top) and the corresponding multi-image panorama (bottom) 


27

A r t i c l e 

Fig. 5 – Wireframe model with local photo-textures 

images, bypassing the heavy step dedicated to each photo projection 

and the need for several homologous tie points. 

Altogether, fifteen scans (each of 800 Mb) were produced, seven 

over the exteriors and eight for the interiors, with the aid of thirteen 

plane targets (mounted over a mobile support to optimize the survey 

inter-visibility) located inside a selected area and suitable for the 

cloud connection. 

The external survey was undertaken in the morning under a clouded 

sky, this way avoiding the unwanted effects of image shadowing. 

The interiors were measured under artificial lighting due to the low 

level of natural illumination provided by the windows. 

The church model and photo-texturing 

With the aid of targets, the sanctuary point model was generated by 

connecting each cloud to the central one, selected as reference. From 

the same scanning positions, proper overlapping images were acquired 

via manual shooting using the Nikon camera. 

The following photo-texturing process was automatically carried out 

thanks to the PTGui stitching package, in order to perform spherical 

multi-image panoramas, which were then imported inside 3D 

Reconstructor software, switching on spherical projectors for model rendering. 

A series of photographic images is shown describing the building façade 

Fig. 6 – Perspective view of the textured model 

28 

and the corresponding spherical panorama produced 

with PTGui (Fig. 4). 

Finally, the following figures (Figs. 5, 6) show some 

striking perspective views of the reconstructed 3D 

church model (points and meshes), with the phototexture 

superimposition. 

Entity edge detection, for the building vector drawing 

generation, was done by automatic extraction 

of the angular discontinuity lines from the point 

model; this 2D product is performed by applying 

geometric tests regarding the local attitude of the 

surface-perpendicular in every point of the model. 

The process provides sketchy elevations of a building. 

Figure 7 shows an example of the church 

main elevation, achieved both through the angular 

surface discontinuity analysis (sketchy drawing 

being completed in CAD) and by tracing a preproduced 

colour orthophoto. 

Final remarks 

Laser scanning techniques provide an interesting 

3D point or surface model, which can be 

integrated with colour images and is fully measurable. 

The extraction of 2D plots from this model is still a complex step: 

starting from the scanned data and using cutting planes, it is possible 

to produce horizontal and vertical cross-profiles to be used 

together with orthophoto backdrops to complete building cross sections. 

However, 2D elevations have to be realized with the heavy 

support of manual editing and the photo-texturing step causes the 

greatest difficulties and errors. 

Nevertheless, the 3D model and its derived 2D plots represent an 

effective tool for the metric analysis of a building (geometry, shape, 

symmetries, alignments, parallelisms), for thematic inspections 

(colours, materials, preservation and/or decay condition) and globally 

for the generation of a knowledge database of an historical 

monument. 

Luigi Colombo, luigi.colombo@unibg.it, is professor of Geomatics and 

Barbara Marana is assistant professor at the University of 

Bergamo - Faculty of Engineering - DPT - Dalmine (Italy) 

Acknowledgements: 

Thanks are due to some graduated students of Geo-Technology Lab 

at the University of Bergamo and to 3DTarget for Z+F technology support. 

Fig. 7 – Sketchy elevation for the main façade (to the left); the same drawing performed by orthophoto 

tracing (to the right) 


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E v e n t 

More than just an Exhibition 

I n t e r g e o 2 0 1 1 

Intergeo is more than just a huge geospatial exhibition. In line with last year, there is not only a 3-day 

exhibition, but also an academic conference, this year supplemented with a Navigation Conference 

and the first ever Intergeo BarCamp – an open space conference devoted to Open Street Map. 


Introduction 

Intergeo is Europe’s major exhibition for the 

geoinformation industry. This year’s event was 

held in Nuremburg, Bavaria during 27-29 

September. The 17th edition of the event, 

which normally combines a trade fair with a 

conference, was for the first time combined 

with a Navigation Conference, held during 

27 and 28 September, jointly organized by 

the German Federal Ministry of Transport, 

Building and Urban Development and the 

Federal Association for Information Tech no - 

logy, Telecommunications and New Media 

(BITKOM). 

No less than 527 exhibitors were to be expected 

from over 30 countries, the visitors amount 

was over 16,000 and 1,500 conference participants 

from around 80 countries from all continents. 

The event claims to cover all the trends 

along the value-added chain, from data acquisition 

to sophisticated applications, on a gross 

exhibition area of 28,000 meters. 

The overarching motto for this year’s conference, 

the 59th German Cartographers Day 

and the Geodetec Week was ‘Knowledge and 

action for planet Earth’. For the first time, this 

year’s event also sees the integration of the 

‘Navigation Conference’, held on Wed nesday. 

One new feature aimed at the open data community 

is a BarCamp devoted to the potential 

of OpenStreetMap. The BarCamp was part of 

the Intergeo Academy launched in 2010 with 

great success and started on the Monday 

before the fair. Participants were to determine 

the program of presentations themselves at the 

outset. 

The BarCamp is a type of open-space conference 

and centers on the idea that coffee breaks 

are the most important part of a conference, 

providing an opportunity to share knowledge 

and float new ideas. Beforehand, 250 participants 

were expected. 

Press Conference 

The German Intergeo event hosted a press conference 

with several major people from the 

industry on Wednesday 28th of September. An 

interesting point made by Prof. Dr. Karl Fr. 

30 

Thöne was that politics was also present at 

Intergeo, which means not only the focus on 

business and technology. The importance of this 

remark was proven by the Galileo project, 

scheduled for 2014/2015 which will yield a 

lot of work for not only satellite building companies 

but also for the industry as a whole. 

Also, it was stressed that it’s important to be 

independent as a country as a whole for having 

such as system for itself. 

Rainier Bomba State Secretary in the BMVBS, 

The German Federal Ministry of Transport, 

Building and Urban Development, spoke about 

the use of navigation systems in transportation, 

as well as building future housing more energy 

efficient, all through the use of geospatial software 

and hardware. 

Matt Delano (Trimble) spoke about the surveying 

industry and the company he represented: 

he described that the future for geomatics professionals 

is not only about location since the 

technique tells you all about the location. This 

vision was shared by Ed Parsons, also present 

at the same press conference, who held a 


mobile device in his hand as to show where 

the future is headed for mobile data capture. 

Of course, surveyors claim rightly that mobile 

consumers devices cannot deliver the accuracy 

they can with professional devices, but the trend 

is clear. The geomatics industry as a whole is 

changing quickly. 

Delano described surveyors as ‘the custodians 

of spatial information’, but the technology has 

put an end to the monopoly position of surveyors 

as data collectors. This is no news for anyone 

in the industry. What was interesting 

though, was that both Delano and Parsons 

shared the same ideas about acquisitions in the 

geospatial industry: both agreed that acquisition 

and innovation are closely linked and therefore 

acquisitions are a good thing. Delano 

argued that integration of technology leads to 

a better use of the technology as a whole. 

Google’s focus on data gets a new perspective 

by their Enterprise suite that makes use of the 

cloud infrastructure that’s already there. 

Parsons claimed to be able to innovate for more 

quickly because of this cloud infrastructure. 

A question for all participants about how to 

deal with a lack of finance was discussed in 

detail. For governments, the current financial 

crisis meant less budgets for geospatial activities 

and for the industry itself harsh competition. 

Although the answers from the participants 

were far from original (‘necessity if the mother 

of invention’, ‘a crisis calls for creativity’ and 

the like), Rainier Bomba stressed that Germany 

itself was well-prepared in terms of budgeting 

for the future, as an example the Galileoproject. 

Key Themes 

Key themes for this year’s event were sensors, 

geodata infrastructures and 3D mapping. I 

noticed a lot of UAV’s whereas mobile mapping 

seemed to be less present than the last 

two years. The sudden interest in UAV’s has 

to do with pricing: a system can be purchased 

relatively cheap. Mavinci was a new company 

present at the exhibition floor that offers 

UAV services. Although cheap, it’s not easy 

to use UAV since permission is needed for car- 

E v e n t 

rying out surveys. Everyone with a UAV will 

tell you how difficult and time-consuming it is 

before all required permission has been 

obtained for carrying out a survey. 

Open source keeps an interesting topic on the 

exhibition as well. As well as the last few 

years, there was an open source park 

(OSGeo Park), with presentations and booths 

of open source initiatives and booths. It was 

announced that for the first time there were 

more than ten exhibitors, making the OSGeo 

Park an integral part of Intergeo. A new company 

I haven’t seen before was CSGIS, a 

German-Spanish collaborative project that 

offers GIS services through open source, from 

web design to cartography, geodata management 

and Web GIS. Other interesting 

open source initiatives present were 

OpenSeaMap, a project that makes use of 

Open Street Map data, but for sea routes. 

The OSGeo-Park organized a day of presentations, 

with German presenters of different 

open source initiatives. This makes clear that 

the open source community in Germany is big 

and has a large following. 

Familiar faces such from 

Quantum GIS and rasmadan 

were present, but also a lot of 

new companies such as 

Omniscale, MapMedia, Inte - 

va tion, in mediares, Where - 

Group and terrestris, as well as 

presentations with technical 

details on how to manage data 

in open source, or Web GIS 

clients for Smartphones, the 

aforementioned Open Street 

Map, MapServer 6, Earth - 

Server and Mapguide, among 

others. 

Google was for the first time 

present at the exhibition floor 

with a booth to promote 

Google Earth Builder, the company’s 

cloud-based mapping 

platform and Google Earth 

Enterprise. 


31

E v e n t 

Product releases at Intergeo 

As always, there were a number of product 

releases at the trade fair. The following is a 

selection of these releases. 

Trimble 

Trimble introduced a new version of its terrestrial 

mobile mapping office software— 

TrimbleTrident Analyst 4.7. The software is 

designed to effectively manage and interpret 

high-resolution digital images and large point 

clouds, and automatically extract features from 

Trimble’s MX Mobile Mapping and Survey 

systems. These capabilities allow land mobile 

data to be transformed into geospatial intelligence. 

The latest version incorporates new quality 

control tools for efficient review of positional 

and orientation accuracy, and quick validation 

of boresight parameters and registration 

results using passive objects in the mapping 

environment. In addition, new 3D point cloud 

classification capabilities increase productivity 

and enhance usability throughout corridor 

mapping and survey workflows. 

Trident Analyst is designed for robust object 

positioning, measurement, and data layer creation—ideal 

for the analysis of geo-referenced 

imagery and laser scanner data. New functions 

can accelerate projects and increase productivity, 

including key automated processes 

such as surface modeling, roadway sign and 

pole detection, lane marking detection, edge 

and breakline detection, road geometry and 

clearance measurements. 

Trimble introduced additions to its portfolio of 

Connected Site survey solutions for the field 

and office. The new and enhanced tools allow 

surveyors to collect, share and deliver data 

faster to improve accuracy, efficiency and productivity. 

Additions to the survey portfolio include: 

• Trimble S6 Robotic Total Station with 

Trimble VISION Technology 

• Trimble M3 Total Station with Trimble 

Access Field Software 

• Trimble GeoExplorer GeoXR Network 

Rover 

• Trimble Business Center Software version 

2.60 

• Trimble Access Field Software Developers 

Kit (SDK) 

Leica Geosystems 

Leica Geosystems announced version 4.0 of 

the easy-to-use Leica SmartWorx Viva onboard 

software being available in November 2011. 

This new version is packed with exciting new 

features to make data collection and stakeout 

even simpler and even more productive. Also 

announced were the CGR10 and CGR15 

radio modems for its Leica Viva CS 10 & CS 

15 Controllers. Both modems are an ideal 

extension to the Leica Viva NetRover and Leica 

Viva GS12 rover. They can also be used with 

the Leica Viva GS10, GS15, and the new 

GS25 receiver. 

Leica Geosystems announces Leica GR25 

GNSS Reference Server, with integrated internal 

and external device management, multiuser 

management, high end security, modular 

and scalable design, the GR25 GNSS 

Reference Server will grow with users’ needs 

and keep their GNSS applications and networks 

fully up to date. The newest member of 

Leica Geosystems’ trusted GNSS Spider family 

is designed for numerous permanent and 

semi-permanent GNSS network installations 

and monitoring applications. Including RTK 

and static networks, single base station, field 

campaigns, structural monitoring, atmospheric 

and seismic studies and offshore positioning. 

Also announced was Leica Exchange. With 

Leica Exchange, secure two-way wireless information 

transfer between the field and office is 

seamless and instant. As soon as field work is 

32 

complete, measurements can be sent to the 

office; or upon design changes, updates can 

be sent instantaneously to field personnel. 

Lastly, the Leica Viva GS25 is the ultimate highend 

GNSS Surveying Receiver and further 

expands Leica Geosystems’ GNSS surveying 

portfolio of its successful Leica Viva family. 

Topcon/Sokkia 

Topcon released the IS-3 Imaging Station. 

Following in the footsteps of its QS A robotic 

cousin, the IS-3 now features the patented 

prism auto-tracking scanning interface technology, 

XTRAC 8 to increase productivity when 

used in two-man auto-tracking or single operator 

robotic modes. When used in conjunction 

with Topcon’s unique RC-4 remote control system, 

the IS-3 will track prisms up to 1000 m 

away. Alternatively, use the innovative longrange 

Wi-Fi WT-100 wireless device, to control 

the instrument via live video feed from up 

to 300 m away. 

Also announced was the MR-1 modular GNSS 

receiver. The new MR-1 receiver is a 

ruggedised GNSS platform that delivers 

Topcon’s G3 and VISORTM technologies in a 

compact and easy to integrate package. It 

incorporates 72 universal tracking channels 

and is capable of tracking all signals from 

GPS, GLONASS and SBAS satellite systems 

that are currently operational and available for 

public use. 

Topcon further announced Tesla - large screen 

data collector .The Tesla is a controller running 

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 operating system. The 

new unit operates with Topcon’s full suite of 

software, including Magnet, Pocket 3D and 

Layout. All three Topcon Tesla units – Standard, 

Geo and Geo G3 –come with Wi-Fi and 

Bluetooth wireless technology. The Geo and 

the Geo 3G add a 3.2 MP camera and GPS 

capability; the Geo 3G also has a 3G GSM 

modem (AT&T network approved). 

Topcon also announced Magnet, cloud-based 

software for real-time collaboration. This new 

software solution makes it possible for real-time 

collaboration between project manager, field 

crews, office personnel, engineers, or consultants.For 

the first time, a software solution is 

available that combines every facet of managing 

a company’s projects, data, and assets 

The Magnet family includes four basic product 

modules: Field, Tools, Office, and Enterprise. 

The Field, Tools, and Office products can be 

purchased outright, or can simply be activated 

on a subscription basis by picking from one of 

the Magnet Solution packages. The heart of 

Magnet is a cloud-based web environment that 

connects every user within a company to each 

other, within the productivity application you 

use, or by simply logging in using your web 

browser. 


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E v e n t 

Blom 

Blom brought a new product to INTERGEO 

2011; BlomSTREET - Powered by Cyclo me dia. 

At the trade fair, the company demonstrated 

how geographically accurate street level spherical 

images, complete with metric capabilities, 

are an essential tool for street asset inventory, 

situational awareness for emergency services 

and responders, and road and waterworks 

amongst others. 

BlomSTREET comes together via an exclusive 

franchise agreement between Cyclomedia and 

Blom in the territories of Norway, Sweden, 

Finland and Denmark. Both companies are currently 

investigating similar agreements for other 

territories in Southern Europe. 

Blom already has a number of customers currently 

using BlomSTREET as during this summer 

Blom completed a pilot projects across the 

Nordic countries. Additional territories in 

Southern Europe are planned to be incorporated 

into this partnership. 

52°North 

52°North presented state of the art Sensor 

Web technology supporting seamless integration 

of live sensor data into Spatial Data 

Infrastructures via OGC Sensor Observation 

Services. A suite of open source tools is available 

for easy and efficient visualization and 

analysis of time series information. Applica - 

tions in water management, environmental 

monitoring and meteorology impressively 

vouch for the benefit of this innovative technology 

and point the way for other fields of application. 

52°North’s new WPS “Appstore” provides 

many advantages for users and providers of 

processes (e.g. hydrological models, EO algorithms 

or geostatistical functions). 

RIEGL 

RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems, manufacturer 

of laser scanners for terrestrial, mobile, 

airborne and industrial applications, an - 

nounced the following releases at Inter geo: 

VZ-4000 Terrestrial Laser Scanner. This High 

Speed, High Resolution 3D VZ-Line Laser 

Scanner offers a wide field of view and a long 

range of up to 4000 m. Hence, the most 

recent RIEGL development is perfectly suitable 

for operation in mining and topography. The 

scanner is characterized by high accuracy (15 

mm), a laser pulse repetition rate of up to 200 

kHz, echo digitization and online waveform 

processing for multiple target capability and 

34 

an optional waveform data output. 

VMX-250 Mobile Laser Scanning System, now 

in an aerodynamic new design, and its sister 

type VMX-450 with a laser pulse repetition 

rate of up to 1.1 MHz. 

Fully integrated Mobile Laser Scanning System 

in a new design, which ensures excellent aerodynamics 

and protection of cabling. Two 

RIEGL VQ-450 "Full Circle" Laser Scanners, 

providing a scanning rate of up to 400 

lines/sec and a laser pulse repetition rate of 

up to 1.1 MHz, are combined with an 

IMU/GNSS unit and assure very fast acquisition 

of survey-grade 3D data. 

Just like its sister type VMX-250, it operates at 

eye-safe laser class 1 and is capable of multiple 

targets, guaranteeing a high penetration 

rate of obstructions. In combination with an 

optional modular camera system, scan data 

and precisely time-stamped calibrated images 

can be acquired simultaneously for seamless 

storage and processing in the same project 

structure. 

The VQ-580 Airborne Laser Scanner, especially 

designed for measuring on snow and 

ice, delivers data in the areas of snowfieldand 

glacier surveying. It distinguishes itself by 

means of a laser pulse repetition rate of up to 

380 kHz and a range of up to 2350 m. The 


combination of echo digitization and waveform processing 

allows for multiple target capability. A field of view of 60° and 

a scanning rate of up to 150 lines/sec and hence an evenly 

distributed high resolution point grid. 

The VQ-820-G Bathymetric Airborne Laser Scanner, especially 

designed and excellently suited for combined land and hydrograhpic 

airborne surveying. The high-accuracy ranging is based 

on echo digitization and online waveform processing with multiple 

target capability. Laser range measurements for high resolution 

surveying of underwater topography, the bottom of shallow 

waters and riverbeds, are carried out with a narrow, visible 

green laser beam at 532 nm, emitted from a powerful laser 

source. Depending on water turbidity this particular laser wavelength 

allows measuring into water. 

In 2012, Intergeo will be held 

in Hannover, Germany. 

Internet: www.intergeo.de 

www.mavinci.eu 

www.csgis.de 

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35

A r t i c l e 

Chances and Challenges 

Geosensor Networks 

Geosensor networks for the observation and monitoring of environmental phenomena are a recent 

trend in GIScience. With the increasing availability of sensors also their integration and cooperation in 

terms of sensor networks will evolve, argues Monika Sester. Two examples from research at the 

Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, are given in 

order to illustrate the potential and application areas of geosensor networks in an exemplary fashion. 

By Monika Sester 

1 Overview 

Sensors are well known in Geodetic Science; 

also, integrating sensor to sensor networks is 

not new. This has been done to observe 

geodetic networks for exact point densification 

ever since. Traditional geodetic networks 

consist of a fixed set of dedicated sensors with 

a given configuration and measurement 

regime. The processing of the data is usually 

done in a centralized fashion. Geosensor networks 

for the observation and monitoring of 

environmental phenomena are a recent trend 

in GIScience. What is new is the fact that different 

sensors act independently, have the 

capability to communicate and thus the network 

is able to operate beyond the individual 

sensors’ capabilities. In this way, the network 

as such is more than the sum of the individual 

sensors. Besides their own position, geosensors 

capture information about the environment, 

such as temperature or humidity. In the 

context of engineering geodesy, sensor networks 

are used for monitoring purposes, e.g. 

to observe and monitor georisks like hang 

slides. For the future, a miniaturization of the 

sensors is envisaged, which eventually leads 

to so-called smart dust, i.e. sensors virtually 

integrated in the environment. This indicates 

that the number of sensors is typically very 

high. 

For scalability of the sensor network potential- 

ly consisting of a huge amount of sensors, 

which are distributed in the environment, different 

characteristics are essential: wireless 

communication, ad hoc determination of network 

topology, i.e. the neighborhood relationships 

between sensors, as well as local analysis. 

Thus, there is no central service in the 

sense of a global data and processing server, 

which receives and analyzes all the data. 

Instead, data is processed or at least pre-processed 

locally on the sensor, typically including 

information of neighboring sensors. Often, 

local information only 

matters locally and 

thus there is no need 

for creating a lot of 

data traffic in the network. 

In this way, a 

tight coupling of processing 

and sensing 

will be achieved. In 

summary, geosensor 

networks are characterized 

both by distributed 

data capture 

and distributed data 

processing. 

Decentralized algorithms 

for geosensor 

networks have been 

investigated by sever- 

36 

Figure 1: principle of cooperative 

adaptation of W-R-relationships 

al researchers and for different applications. 

Laube, Duckham & Wolle (2008) describe an 

algorithm to detect a moving point pattern, 

namely a so-called flock pattern. A flock is 

described as a group of objects that moves in 

a certain distance over a certain time. In a 

similar spirit, Laube & Duckham (2009) present 

a method for the detection of clusters in 

a decentralized way. Depending on the communication 

range, clusters of a certain size 

(radius) can be detected. 

There are many applications for Geosensor 

networks, see, e.g. Stefanidis & Nittel (2005): 

- Environmental monitoring 

- Disaster management, early warning systems 

(Bill et al., 2008), e.g. earthquakes, 

hill slides, … 

- Surveillance, risk management (buildings, 

technical devices, …) 

- Military 

- Traffic management and monitoring 

(car2car-communication) 

- Topographic Mapping 

- Glacier movements 

- Human body 

Figure 2: Quality of rainfall measurement. 


Geosensor networks in the sense described 

above are still in their infancy; today’s networks 

mainly consist of a small number of sensors, 

often linked by wire; the processing often 

is done on a central server. However, one can 

observe an increasing availability of positioning 

sensors, equipped with additional sensing 

capabilities, e.g. smartphones. These sensors 

are already used for massive data collection 

for the determination of the traffic situation by 

companies like TomTom or Google. Another 

example is the exploitation of photos in the 

web to create 3D-models of landmark objects 

(Agarwal et al, 2011). This indicates the huge 

potential, as even low quality sensors, or sensors 

originally dedicated for other tasks, can 

yield quality and instant information when integrated 

in an ad-hoc fashion. With the increasing 

availability of sensors also their integration 

and cooperation in terms of sensor 

networks will evolve. 

2 Distributed Processing 

In the following, two examples from research 

at the Institute of Cartography and Geo infor - 

matics at Leibniz Universität Hannover, 

Germany, are given in order to illustrate the 

potential and application areas of geosensor 

networks in an exemplary fashion. 

2.1 Using cars as moving rain 

sensors 

One example for the distributed data acquisition 

is currently being investigated in the context 

of a project funded by the German 

Research Foundation, entitled RainCars. 

Starting point is the fact that exact measurements 

of rainfall is needed for hydrological 

planning and water resources management, 

especially for highly dynamic and nonlinear 

processes like floods, erosion or wash out of 

pollutants. Surprisingly, such data is not readily 

available: there are recording rain gauges, 

but even in Germany, their spacing is rather 

poor (one station per 1800 km2). Rain radar 

[a] [b] [c] 

is available at a high temporal resolution and 

at a spatial resolution of typically 1km*1km. 

However, radar only measures reflectivity, 

which has to be transformed to rainfall measurements 

in a calibration process. Thus the 

idea of RainCars is to exploit the massive 

availability of cars and use them as rainfall 

measurement devices: if it rains, the wiper is 

put on; depending on the degree of rainfall, 

the frequency of the wipers is increased. 

In this way the cars form a dynamic sensor 

network. In order to transform the raw measurements 

(Wiper (W) frequencies) into rainfall 

(R) values, a functional relationship (WRrelationship) 

has to be determined. This 

relationship will be depending on the car type, 

the inclination of the windshield, but also on 

other factors like the driver, the location (under 

tree, in free space), just to name a few. Thus, 

the idea is to determine the WR-relationship 

in an iterative and integrated fashion in a sensor 

network, consisting of the cars and stationary 

recording rain gauges: As soon as a 

car comes into the vicinity of a station or 

another car, it is able to incrementally adapt 

and correct its current WR-relationship (see 

A r t i c l e 

Figure 4a b and c : Detection of the boundary of a phenomenon: areal phenomenon and initial sensor distribution (a), movement of neurons (b) and 

approximate boundary points in yellow (c). 

Figure 3: Principle of iterative adaptation of sensors (circles) to 

phenomenon (polygon) 

Figure 1). The Figure visualizes qualitatively, 

how the quality of the WR-relationship is 

increasing, when a car exchanges information 

with a station, or another car. 

In a preliminary simulation study it could been 

shown that the accuracies achievable using 

an assumed equipment rate of 4% of all the 

cars the rainfall estimates determined with the 

cars moving car network outperform the values 

determined using traditional methods 

(Haberlandt & Sester 2010). Figure 2 shows 

the standard deviation of the rainfall measured 

in a catchment area using the sensor network. 

It is clearly visible that in the vicinity of the stations 

the quality of the rainfall measurements 

is very high and that this quality is propagated 

along the most frequently used roads 

(Schulze et al., 2010). 

2.2 Distributed delineation of 

boundaries of spatial phenomena 

Distributed processing can also be used for 

the scenario that moving sensors have the task 

to delineate the boundary of a spatial phenomenon, 

such as an oil spill or the moving 

area of hill slide. To this end, a distributed 

algorithm has been proposed, which is able 

to iteratively approximate the boundary of the 

phenomenon (Sester, 2009). The algorithm 

uses the concept of Kohonen Feature Maps 

(Kohonen, 1982): sensors communicate in 

their local environment and try to find the 

boundary of the phenomenon by individually 

checking pairs of adjacent sensors. A boundary 

is identified, if both sensors measure different 

values, i.e. one sensor measures the 

existence of the phenomenon, the other sensor 

does not. In this case, the boundary is 

somewhere between the two sensors. To better 

delineate the boundary, the sensors move 

towards each other; in order to better sample 

the boundary, at the same time, these two sensors 

also drag the sensors in their local neighborhood 

into that direction, thus leading to the 

fact that more sensors aggregate on both sides 


37

A r t i c l e 

Figure 5: Automatically extracted poles 

(vertical structures) from a Lidar Point 

cloud (Brenner, 2009). 

of the boundary. This principle is shown in the 

following Figure 3: sensors A and B detect the 

boundary in between them; they move 

towards each other, dragging their neighbors 

with them. 

Figure 4 shows an application where a set of 

sensors has to detect a concave phenomenon. 

The sensors are spread out in a random fashion. 

On the left is the initial situation of the 

spatial phenomenon in light blue, whose 

boundary has to be approximated; the point 

sensors are randomly distributed in the beginning 

and they are measuring the phenomenon 

(blue) or not (red). If they are exactly on the 

boundary, they are shown in yellow. The figure 

in the middle shows the movements of the 

sensors during the iterative adjustment, and 

the situation on the right shows the situation 

after the adaptation. It clearly indicates that 

the boundary is nicely approximated by many 

sensors. Some sensors are still in the middle 

of the phenomenon – this is due to the fact 

that they were not in the communication range 

of neighboring sensors and thus were not 

dragged towards the boundary. 

2.3 New Maps 

In the context of sensor networks and the massive 

availability of environmental data, a new, 

dynamic understanding of digital maps for 

recording these data is needed. The automatic 

processing of these masses of distributed sensor 

data demands for adequate representation 

forms. A future aim is a system, which – 

depending on the given task – assembles, analyzes 

and interprets the given data and thus 

derives higher level constructs from it (Brenner, 

2006). In this way, a self adapting map is created, 

which knows its quality and its application 

ranges. 

This also includes the fact that the maps of the 

future might not only be readable by humans, 

but also contain elements that make them readily 

usable by machines. Thus the map features 

have to be close to the interpretation capabilities 

of the machine. Only then an immediate 

and exact identification of the correspondence 

of map features and features recognized in the 

environment is possible for the machine. This 

principle is being applied in robotics, where 

often so called occupancy grids are used to 

determine areas, where an autonomous system 

is able to move around. Brenner (2009) 

extends this concept by introducing higher level 

features than just pixels. These features, vertical 

poles, are distinct features in a road environment 

and can easily be extracted with automatic 

processes from Lidar data (see Figure 5). 

These features can be used for exact positioning 

of a vehicle in the environment. Figure 6 

shows a map with the achievable accuracies 

using the poles as ground-control features: the 

distribution and density of the poles directly 

influences the quality (Hofmann et al., 2011). 

Along highways, there are typically no poles, 

thus, no position can be determined using this 

method. However, in city areas, accuracies in 

the low dm-range can be achieved. Thus, such 

a system can ideally complement GPS, which 

has problems in dense city areas and performs 

well in highway areas with free sky view. 

3 Consequences for future mapping 

and maps 

The ever increasing number of sensors leads 

to a situation where we have a lot of measurements, 

even related to the same spatial situation. 

The data will be heterogeneous, of different 

quality, temporal and spatial resolution, 

different scale, inhomogeneous spatial coverage 

and of different type, ranging from lowlevel 

information to high-level data, such as 

raw Lidar points to GIS-data. There are several 

benefits of such a situation, e.g. data can 

be incrementally refined and enriched using 

sensors with complementary capabilities. 

Also, repetitive measurements can lead to an 

increase in accuracy of the data and an immediate 

quality check. Having many sensors 

available leads to redundancy and thus to 

fault tolerance, as the system does not depend 

on one sensor alone. Also, scalability can be 

38 

Figure 6: Achievable accuracies using vertical poles as positioning 

references. 

achieved. The information is directly available, 

as soon as it is acquired, and can be 

used in an instant fashion. Using the concept 

of a dynamic map, which is able to adapt its 

contents to the applications, leads to a high 

degree of data reuse. 

There are new challenges which pose new 

demands on mapping, which can only be met 

with new sensors and sensor integration: 

already now, but even more so in the near 

future, we will have new users, but also new 

applications which demand for high resolution 

environmental data, in geometric, temporal 

and thematic dimension, and in different 

abstraction hierarchies. 

More and more, we see different users of the 

maps: whereas previously, map usage was 

mainly targeted at humans, nowadays also 

automatic or assisted systems are relying on 

accurate and adequate maps. New applications 

– both on the low end side in terms of 

Apps for Smartphones, but also on the high 

end side in assisted system, are coming to the 

market. For a navigation system to operate 

satisfactory the geometric accuracy has to be 

in the dm-range in order to allow for precise 

driving directions, also the timeliness has to 

be very high. An autonomous robot has to 

have sensors to capture the current local situation 

and map it to the knowledge encoded 

in the map. To this end, the dynamics of the 

environment has to be integrated in the map, 

on order to allow the system to interpret and 

explain the sensed features has available. 

Geosensor networks have the potential to 

serve these needs. Besides the developments 

in sensor technology, also new methods for 

data processing have to be developed, as 

well as new data structures to adequately 

manage the data. Besides storing the mere 

information, also information about its quality 

has to be captured and processed. Also, methods 

and processes to handle and respect privacy 

have to be developed. 

Monika Sester, Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Leibniz 

Universität Hannover, Germany. 


A r t i c l e 

Glonass-M sent into Orbit 

The booster Soyuz-2.1b, carrying a Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass) satellite, was successfully 

launched from the Plesetsk spaceport and put into orbit. Space Troop teams monitored the launch 

through the ground automated control system. 

By Ruud Groothuis 

launch of the booster and the orbiting of the satellite passed 

as scheduled,” a spokesman for the Russian Space Troops, 

“The 

Aleksey Zolotukhin, told. The satellite weighs 1,415 kilograms 

and is expected to serve for seven years. 

More Glonass launches are scheduled for this year. A Proton-M rocket 

with a Briz-M booster will launch a Glonass-M trio from Baikonur on 

November 4, while a Soyuz-2-1B rocket with a Fregat booster will 

bring another Glonass-M into orbit from Plesetsk on November 22. 

The Glonass satellite constellation consists of 24 space vehicles, evenly 

distributed in three orbital planes. Satellites operate in circular orbits 

at altitudes of 19,100 kilometers. This configuration permits uninterrupted 

global coverage of the Earth’s surface and terrestrial space by 

the navigation field. 

Data from NIS Glonass 

The Global navigation satellite system Glonass is intended for determining 

location, speed and exact time by military and civilian users. 

The system will provide continuous year-round global navigation support 

globally regardless of weather conditions. The system is available 

to a vast number of users on the Earth’s surface and at elevations 

of up to 2,000 kilometers. 

The first Glonass test flight took place in October 1982, and by 1993 

the Glonass system was brought into operational testing. In 1995 the full 

orbit group of 24 satellites was formed. However, a reduction in funding 

in 1990 for Russia’s space industry led to a deterioration of the Glonass 

project. 

In 2002, the Russian government approved a number of policy 

documents, including the “Glo bal Navigation System” federal program, 

which brought new life and funding to the navigation system. 

Glonass vs. GPS 

According to Russia’s Federal Space Agency, the main difference 

between Glonass and GPS is the signal and its structure. The GPS 

system uses code-division channeling. Glo nass uses frequency-divi- 

40 

sion channeling. Also, Glonass satel lites’ motion is described as 

using fundamentally different mathematical models. 

While Glonass consists of 24 satellites, GPS can be fully functional 

with 24 satellites but is currently using 31 of them. 

According to Voice of Russia, many countries consider GLONASS as 

an alternative to the GPS. Belarus, India, Kazakhstan and Canada 

have signed agreements on using GLONASS. The EU has prepared a 

draft treaty to this effect. Latin American and Arab countries have 

been showing interest too. Experts say, however, that GPS and 

GLONASS are not rivals but supplement one another. Russia’s GLONASS 

is expected to hit 1-metre accuracy in three years. 


A r t i c l e 

Measurement in Cycloramas 

Cyclorama’s Globespotter 

)The technical innovation of panoramic imagery has reached a revolutionary stage. In recent years we 

saw major developments in Lidar-based systems providing additional panoramic imagery. However, 

the combination of street-level imagery with Lidar data requires huge storage facilities and significant 

engineering capability. At Intergeo 2011 CycloMedia demonstrated its panoramic imagery, which 

eliminates those barriers and brings the 3rd dimension to your desktop. 

By the editors 

Company introduction 

CycloMedia is a Netherlands-based company. 

Its core business is the large-scale systematic 

capture of 360-degree panoramic 

photographs (Cycloramas). Every year, 

CycloMedia creates panoramic photos 

every five meters along all the public roads 

in the Netherlands (150,000 km). All the 

pictures are stored in a Cloud environment. 

CycloMedia recently signed contracts with 

partners in Poland, Sweden, Norway, 

Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and 

Spain to enlarge the coverage. These partners 

will capture data with licensed equipment 

from CycloMedia and provide access 

to clients via the GlobeSpotter application. 

GlobeSpotter 

Until recently, performing measurements was 

a cumbersome process that required a certain 

level of expertise. Now, GlobeSpotter 

software allows anyone to do this job. The 

combination of street-level views with aerial 

imagery makes life easier for a much broader 

group of non-expert users. 

Bart van Velden, Product Manager at 

CycloMedia, explains the role of 

GlobeSpotter: “Cycloramas are a unique 

type of data which is not supported by standard 

GIS software that is capable of han- 

42 

dling raster and vector files. GlobeSpotter 

enables this feature for these users. 

However, many large national organizations 

such as banks and insurance companies 

do not have a company-wide GIS platform. 

The application of spatial information 

combined with “normal” data is growing at 


CycloMedia has a wealth of historical material that can be unlocked using GlobeSpotter. Here is an idyllic view in Rotterdam, close to the Maashaven, taken in 1995. 

a high speed. In these cases GlobeSpotter 

provides a total solution. Within that solution, 

the map forms an intuitive and handy 

tool to search for and to view a location.” 

GlobeSpotter provided as 

Software as a Service (SaaS) 

GlobeSpotter fits perfectly with the trends for 

SaaS (Software as a Service), Cloud 

Computing and RIAs (Rich Internet 

Applications). All the data and 

the application itself are provided 

online. Because some (local 

authority) customers require 

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 

or prefer to use a local infrastructure, 

GlobeSpotter is also supported on local 

intranets. 

To provide a user-ready solution on 

www.GlobeSpotter.eu, country-tailored configurations 

of GlobeSpotter are available. 

They include a base map, address search and 

local spatial reference systems and height systems 

by default, with a multilingual user interface. 

The online application enables users 

throughout Europe to locate, search and view 

Cycloramas , perform exact measurements of 

object location and dimensions and overlay 

vector data. 

43 

A r t i c l e 

Additionally the GlobeSpotter API (App - 

lication Programming Interface) offers the 

means to integrate the mobile mapping data 

and functionality into existing applications. 

The API, freely available to any software 

developer, has already been integrated into 

major GIS, CAD and Asset Management software 

solutions (e.g. Esri, Bentley, Autodesk, 

Intergraph, Oranjewoud, Grontmij). 

Measurements 

The origin of the company is in photogrammetry 

and the patented technology allows the 

company to capture its data at an absolute 

average position precision of 10 cm. Pictures 

are also geometrically correct, so they can be 

used for measurement, inventories, asset management 

etc. 

Measuring in photographs is performed in a 

way similar to the method used in stereo aerial 

photographs. Bart van Velden, Product 

Manager at CycloMedia: “Our measuring 

functionality is based on the principle of forward 

intersection. You always require two photographs 

for this.” According to CycloMedia, 

half an hour of training is all that is needed to 

be able to measure in photographic material 

using the correct shortcut keys. 

Commercial Director Martin te Dorsthorst: “The 

advantage is that you measure what you see: 

no interpretation is necessary. A high level of 


A r t i c l e 

expertise is also not required: we make it possible 

for a Park’s Manager to become a surveyor 

as well. Using the measurement functionality 

users are able to update maps and 

inventories, although CycloMedia also offers 

this as a service.” 

Adding information yourself 

The properties of Cycloramas which enable 

measurements can also be used to visualize 

data as overlays on the imagery. Globe - 

Spotter supports several OGC (Open Geo - 

spatial Consortium) standards as endorsed 

by the European INSPIRE directive. 

This functionality has several applications. 

Van Velden explains how this works in practice: 

“The map and the addresses are primarily 

intended for searching, navigating 

and orientating. The street map, recording 

locations of the Cycloramas and the 

addresses, can be displayed on the aerial 

photograph. This data is also projected in 

Like cartography in Aerials now street furniture and road markings can be controlled or created in panoramic imagery. 

the Cycloramas. Insight and understanding 

of the information is created by combining 

and presenting it in this specific way.” 

Van Velden: “When excavation work is to 

be undertaken damage can, for example, 

be prevented by showing underground 

pipes and cables in Cycloramas. The envi- 

44 

ronment, soil use and type of paving can 

also be taken into account when sending 

people out with equipment. An insurance 

company that projects the contract administration 

into the images can perform a risk or 

accumulation analysis. Authorities in the 

Netherlands now use this feature to obtain 

insight in the BAG (Key Register for 

Addresses and Buildings) or BGT (Key 

Register Large-Scale Topography) and thus 

evaluate the quality. Every sector shall thus 

be able to develop its own applications.” 

Future 

CycloMedia and its partners are currently 

providing imagery of areas based on customer 

contracts, while additional areas are 

being captured to improve coverage for 

prospects. With GlobeSpotter only recently 

put into place for end users, CycloMedia is 

already looking forward to new possibilities. 

A preview (now also available via 

www.cyclomedia.com/depth) in the Cyclo - 

Media booth at the Intergeo trade fair 

showed the latest: a 3D mouse cursor in the 

imagery following real-world contours and 

enabling single-click measurements. 

CycloMedia explained it was the result of 

the automated fusion of dense Lidar data 

with the panoramic images. The results and 

the accuracy looked very promising. We 

can probably expect more on this next year. 

Internet: www.globespotter.eu 

www.cyclomedia.com/depth 


ULTIMATE 

VERSATILITY 

Scalable - Affordable - Triple Wireless Technologies 

The entirely new Sokkia GNSS system provides 

unsurpassed versatility and usability for 

RTK,network RTK and static survey, enhancing 

efficiency in all types of field work. 

www.sokkia.eu 

GNSS Receiver

A r t i c l e 

GNSS Technology applied 

Supporting Ecuador’s National 

SIGTIERRAS is a land management initiative in Ecuador where land titling program and promotes 

sustainable territorial planning and growth initiatives is developed. A multi-year pilot project included 

collecting accurate orthophoto and land attribute data across 200,000 parcels of land. The resulting 

land management system now includes aerial photographs, orthophotos, thematic maps, and land 

use value at the municipal level. 

By Rebecca Muhlenkort 

Rapid training of 15 field workers from various agriculture and land planning departments ensures future expansion and long term 

success of the initiative 

In 2009, the Ecuador Ministry of Agri - 

culture, Livestock, Aquaculture and Fisheries 

began a ground-breaking land management 

initiative called SIGTIERRAS. Also known 

as the National Information System and 

Management of Rural Lands, SIGTIERRAS is a 

land-titling program aimed at mapping land 

parcels and collecting property ownership 

information for the entire nation. 

The executive director of SIGTIERRAS, Johnny 

Hidalgo Mantilla, believes an integrated and 

transparent national GIS-based information 

system is fundamental to supporting development 

and business growth in the country. 

Primary objectives of this multi-year initiative 

include: 

• Analysis and design of an information system 

for property tax administration; 

• Implementation and system maintenance 

of land information for each municipality 

at the territorial level; 

• The successful training of representatives 

of each municipality as well as their ability 

to systematically collect and update land, 

location, and attribute records; 

• Creation and implementation of a repeatable 

approach for updating farm and land 

information; 

• Final digital mapping (scale 1:5,000) of 

each municipality, including the use of a 

unique farm code for each parcel of land; 

• The accurate valuation of land and property 

tax data for each municipality; and 

• Generation of final cadastral codes and 

the publishing of results in the SIGTIERRAS system. 

For farmers and land owners, obtaining an 

accurate deed to land is a critical step in securing 

loans. Government-sponsored assistance 

programs and international organizations also 

require official land ownership records to 

receive funding. 

“An integrated approach to data collection is 

absolutely necessary to produce consistent 

parcel boundary definitions and descriptions,” 

said Hidalgo. “This project is a substantial 

46 

undertaking because it requires a synchronized 

effort from property owners, technical 

crews, officials within neighboring municipalities, 

as well as SIGTIERRAS representatives.” 

With the program objectives clearly outlined, 

SIGTIERRAS implemented a pilot program focusing 

first on eight Ecuadorian counties. 

In addition to the comprehensive program 

designed to capture orthophotos across the 

test area, officials selected the Trimble line of 

mapping-grade GNSS units designed for 

mobile GIS data collection including Trimble 

GeoExplorer series GeoXT handhelds for 

ground-level accuracy. Subsequently, Trimble 

GPS Pathfinder Pro XR receivers and Juno ST 

and SB series handhelds were also employed 

for this project. For differential postprocessing, 

SIGTIERRAS relied on Trimble GPS Pathfinder 

Office software. 

Project Methodologies 

For the initial phase of this effort, SIGTIERRAS 

relied on an existing set of aerial photogrammetric 

images produced by the country’s 

Military Geographic Institute (IGM). These 

images are at a scale of 1:3,000 or greater, 

depending on each municipality and the density 

and size of the parcels. Hidalgo and other 

officials agree that for the country’s rural land 

parcels, the most appropriate scale for the 

cadastral survey orthophotos is 1:5,000. The 

team decided to use this scale because it’s sufficient 

to plot maps containing rural parcels 

that vary from one-half hectare (ha), up to hundreds 

of hectares. 

To collect the necessary property data, crew 

members travel to each farm and walk property 

boundaries with assistance from the 

landowner and neighbors. In teams of two 

they collect submeter GNSS points at the parcel 

corners. For the initial pilot project, crew 

members also entered a basic property 

description, including crops planted and infor- 


GIS Initiative 

mation about the land’s natural vegetation into 

the GNSS receiver. 

After completing the survey of each identified 

piece of property, field workers then assign a 

previously defined rural cadastral code. Back 

at the office, these descriptions are linked to 

the location data for each parcel. During the 

initial phases of the project, SIGTIERRAS field 

crews were able to collect pertinent parcel 

data quickly, spending about an hour at each 

property. The teams averaged the successful 

survey of approximately seven parcels of land 

per day, even facing challenging environmental 

conditions. 

“In the field our crew members frequently face 

dense vegetation and heavy cloud cover,” 

said Hidalgo. “We were pleased that spec 

requirements in our pilot project were met— 

20 cm accuracy—even with Ecuador’s diverse 

landscape.” 

Once parcel coordinates and land data are 

collected, a unique cadaster code is assigned 

to each section of land. At that point officials 

perform a series of checks and balances to 

determine the accuracy of the parcel delineation 

as well as to investigate the legal land 

tenure. Once certified by the appropriate 

municipality officials, and any subsequent 

land disputes are resolved, the landowner 

receives a certificate confirming ownership. 

Trimble Solution 

SIGTIERRAS field crews use GeoXT handhelds 

with EVEREST multipath rejection technology to 

record high-quality and accurate GNSS. Back 

in the office, teams use GPS Pathfinder Office 

software for powerful differential correction of 

data. Differential correction techniques are 

used to enhance the quality of location data 

gathered using global positioning system GPS 

receivers. Postprocessing tools used include 

Trimble DeltaPhase technology. In the postpro- 

To collect the necessary property data, crew members travel to each farm and walk property boundaries with assistance 

from the landowner and neighbors. 

cessing environment, crews can achieve 50 

cm accuracy for GNSS code measurements. 

The SIGTIERRAS team is also depending on 17 

Trimble NetR9 receivers to capture aerial photos 

of the area. The large-scale SIGTIERRAS initiative 

will eventually be used to support the 

country’s more sophisticated survey, taxation, 

and valuation efforts. 

Currently SIGTIERRAS has successfully completed 

the pilot project, collecting accurate parcel 

data and georeferenced land information for 

eight intercontinental counties. Nearly seven 

percent, or 200,000 parcels of land out of 

Ecuador’s estimated three million parcels, 

have been captured and stored into the national 

GIS system. 

Hidalgo and other SIGTIERRAS officials are 

extremely pleased with the high level of accuracy 

of the properties and the speed at which 

field crews can acquire submeter data about 

each parcel. 

Future Plans 

Over the next several years, the GIS database 

will continue to be established as the repository 

for Ecuador’s national cadastral informa- 

A r t i c l e 

tion. As additional land data is collected and 

published, the database will act as a clearinghouse 

for georeferenced registration 

records based on physical and legal status of 

properties. 

In terms of updating parcel land records in the 

property database in the future, each of 

Ecuador’s 220 municipalities will be responsible. 

Municipalities will work closely with the 

Public Property Registry, or public appraiser, 

to maintain survey data. For example, if a parcel 

of land has to updated, split, is sold, or 

merged, crews will visit the property, perform 

field verification, pulling up maps and existing 

records on Trimble GeoXT handhelds, collect 

updated measurements and then share the 

land data with the Property Registry. 

With support from Trimble and other partners, 

Hidalgo is confident his team is taking important 

steps to establish a national land administration 

system that will ensure private property 

ownership and provide critical 

informa tion for planning and land development 

throughout the country. 

Rebecca Muhlenkort, Trimble Mapping & GIS: 

www.trimble.com/mappingGIS 


47

A r t i c l e 

How the GeoWeb changes the way of mapping the World 

At the Crossroads of Geo 

The GeoWeb brings up more and more new ways of mapping the world that put the traditional 

distance-based god’s eye view of the map on the edge. Thereby the need for a changed perspective 

on mapping from an object resulting of a process to being a composition of practiced mapping functionalities 

becomes ever more obvious in order to explain how they do work in the world. This article 

give a short overview about the changing landscape of mapping from the author’s point of view. 

By Florian Fischer 

Geovisualisation 

Since the 1990s analysis and output of geographic 

information has been commonly 

embraced by the field of Geovisualization. 

Former cartographic research has mainly 

focused on the efficient communication and presentation 

of geographic information. For this 

purpose specific principles of design have been 

developed over the centuries. An example is 

graphic variables, like geometry and symbols: 

based on epistemological and linguistic 

approaches, they attempt to model the referencing 

between object and symbol in cartographic 

presentation for fast and accurate perception 

by the user. Thereby the presentation 

of geographic information on maps has been 

at the centre, holding data and visual presentation. 

While GIS separated the database from 

the map, the internet made distributed databases 

the groundwork for mapping. Maps that 

became interactive, integrate multiple media formats 

and allow for new ways of visual exploration, 

analysis, representation and knowledge 

construction by the user. 

The rise of the GeoWeb 

The technical opportunity to integrate dynamic, interactive elements 

(e.g. hyperlinks) in digital maps marked an important peak of innovation 

in the history of cartography and geovisualization. It allowed the 

user to thoroughly explore geographical data in multiple dimensions. 

Recently the establishment of the GeoWeb indicated another turning 

point, strongly influencing the practice of mapping with so-called map 

mash-ups as major elements. Sharing information, communication and 

collaboration in online communities allows for a different spatial reasoning 

and construction of geographic knowledge along social ties, 

collaborative classification and discussion. Instead of decision-making 

for public concern, new forms of activism (e.g. smart mobs) and citizen-science 

are enabled, and focused on everyday forms of spatial 

reasoning. Instead of urban planning, the GeoWeb is directed towards 

purchasing real estate, eating out, meeting friends, tourist destinations 

and bike trips. Consequently, the focus on a feed of information between 

public and government makes way for a communication between users 

as consumers and business (B2C) or amongst users themselves as consumer 

to consumer (C2C). GeoWeb applications allow for new ways 

of decision making, like social navigation, where people make decisions 

about their actions based on what other people have done. 

Figure 1: The location-based view concentrates on the user’s 

location using distance based representations of space 

48 

Concurrently, new rationales for geovisualization 

by advertising- and marketing-driven business 

models are introduced by GeoWeb applications. 

Hence selection, graphical pronunciation and 

other variables of cartographic representation are 

re-modeled to influence perception by the user 

according to marketing intentions, instead of political 

intentions one might argue as maps cannot 

be unbiased. Furthermore, maps are increasingly 

used for immediate location-based interaction, 

e.g. in Foursquare a user can directly benefit from 

a map-based transaction (“Check in and receive 

a discount”). 

From Maps to Interfaces 

While these transformations concern the very 

nature of geovisualization for knowledge construction 

about space and its embedment in quotidian 

contexts, the GeoWeb facilitates an integration 

of geovisualization with everyday spaces: 

They are interfaces that can drive interactions with 

any spatial resource. The GeoWeb drives a progressive 

separation between the map as an interactive 

interface and the database as a distributed web-based information 

resource that becomes part of an Internet of Things at an 

ever-increasing pace. The utilization of these interfaces is expanded by 

the global media of communication linked to physical space by geocode, 

and the comprehensive geo-tagging of all aspects of life by map 

mash-ups. They become tools to organize, navigate, search and select 

any type of resource on the internet, from photographs to discussion 

forums. In brief: It is the shift Lior Ron termed from “Google and Maps” 

to “Google on Maps”. At the same time the scope of map interfaces 

within the GeoWeb has expanded far beyond its focus up till now on 

a unidirectional and task-oriented communication between producer 

and recipient. Maps become an interface for networked communication 

about spaces, places and objects, through which users can access, 

alter and deploy information. 

New fields of application for geovisualization emerge and existing 

fields are transformed (e.g. crisis management and urban management). 

In terms of Geovisualization, the GeoWeb is a kind of public 

environment rather than an expert environment, in which lay-users or 

non-experts (termed ‘accidental geographers’), are the driving factor 

behind the design of knowledge construction about space. Thereby 

enormously heterogeneous data and new maps of space emerge, 

extending the map’s still popular bird’s-eye view that concentrates on 

the perspective conceived from a cartographer from above. 


visualization 

Figure 2: The geo-social network view 

partly replaces distance by social 

connectedness 

New Mappings 

Within the GeoWeb environment several new mapping practices have 

emerged, presenting different views of a world that increasingly uses 

mobile devices and their capabilities. They extend from the bird’s-eye 

view to a location-based view, a social-network view to a street view. 

The paper map and its digital equivalents follow a strict approach to 

represent space. This underlying principle allows for the construction of 

social spaces that are primarily restricted to physical distance. In the 

GeoWeb environment map signatures allow for a much broader negotiation 

of meanings as maps become windows to an unlimited amount 

of location-based information and interaction. Several mobile locationbased 

services use a similar distance-based approach but abandon 

A r t i c l e 


49

A r t i c l e 

Figure 3: Based on panoramic photographs street views simulate a walkabout in cities 

the bird’s-eye view of a map in favor of a view from the user’s location. 

It is a different mode of representation of space, as it narrows 

down the view to the immediate surroundings. 

In contrast to the bird’s-eye view of maps, the geo-social network view 

takes a different approach to augmenting space. Though still representing 

objects by geometries and coordinates, the geo-social network view 

replaces physical distance as a paradigm with the social connectedness 

of places and people. Hereby the map is reworked from a distance-based 

representation of physical space to the representation of 

space by means of weak and strong social ties within a social network 

platform, e.g. Qype.com. 

In recent years, Google and Microsoft have supplemented the bird’seye 

view with the street-level view, a new way of projecting the earth’s 

surface and allowing users to roam it. Referring to that perspective, this 

mode of representing space might be termed street-view. Street views 

simulate a walkabout in cities, based on panoramic photographs of 

various urban canyons. The panoramic photographs are stitched together 

by geo-referencing their position, resulting in a continuous walkable 

Figure 4: AR extends the street-view mode into the real-time and mobile paradigm 

50 

map for the user. In so doing it applies a location-based view as well, 

however, a view not referring to the actual position of the user, but to 

his viewing position on the map. Additional layers can be superimposed 

using coordinates to match the panoramic views. These means 

of representing space still rest on geographic coordinates. Technically 

though, meaning is not attached to points, lines or areas, but rather to 

the spliced panoramic photographs. 

Augmented Reality (AR) applications, such as Wikitude.com, Layar.com 

or Wayfindermobile.com, extend the street-view mode of representing 

space towards a real-time and mobile paradigm, with additional information 

and graphics being superimposed on the mobile’s camera 

screen. Today’s popular smartphones all have integrated cameras, GPS 

modules, large screens and enough computing power to do Augmented 

Reality. Furthermore, fast mobile broadband Internet allows these smartphones 

to connect to major geo-referenced information databases such 

as Bing Maps, Google, Qype or all the geo-tagged articles of 

Wikipedia. In contrast to direction signs and memorial plaques that tell 

everyone the same story, AR is considered to have the potential to 

replace those analogue locative media and customize information sticking 

to physical space and even overlaying historical, future or fictional 

layers (e.g. www.augmentedrealitycinema.com). 

Modern Mappings: From Paper to Software – from 

Object to Practice 

All these new modes of representing space provide a different way for 

users to make sense of the geographic world. Concurrently the rise of 

the GeoWeb, the shift from maps towards interfaces, and the new mappings 

show that we need to reconsider the nature of the map in some 

ways. In GIScience, mapping space is normally considered a method 

only. Roughly speaking, it follows a rather process-oriented approach. 

While production and consumption melt into prosumption, driven by 

lay-persons rather than professionals (who are still involved in the backend) 

maps might rather be viewed as practices that emerge from their 

producers, and users who appropriate those maps, having certain intentions 

and uses in mind. Moreover the map as an holistic and stable 

framework of spatial representation, including 

certain elements of communication 

seems to dissolve, being recombined with 

new elements, new views and methods of 

linking information to space next to a purely 

distance-based mode. An appropriate 

view on maps in the age of the GeoWeb 

might be a view on their functionalities and 

components (e.g. user-profiles, rankings, 

proximity search as in Figure 2) and how 

they codify the world thus. This perspective 

reflects a broader shift from media studies 

to software studies, asking how functionalities, 

components and codes work in the 

world instead of asking how the map 

relates to the world. 

Ron, Lior: Google Maps = Google on maps. Lecture at the Where 

2.0 Conference, 14 May: http://blip.tv/file/969411 

Florian Fischer, GIS Editor and Research Assistant at the Austrian 

Academy of Sciences, Institute for GIScience in Salzburg, Austria. 

He has a blog with small essays on the Geographic Information 

Society, Locative Media, Geobrowsers and the like: 

www.ThePointOfInterest.net 


E v e n t 

Digital Photogrammetric Technologies 

Racurs Conference 2011 

Tossa de Mar, Spain, was the location for the 11th Racurs conference. As always, this four-day conference 

hosted two days of presentations about digital photogrammetric technologies, PHOTOMOD 

software workshops and an excursion. The conference was attended by over 100 managers and specialists 

from industrial enterprises and academic institutions from 21 countries which are using remote 

sensing data and photogrammetric processing in their day-to-day operations. 


Introduction 

The 11th International Scientific and 

Technical Conference «From Imagery 

to Map: Digital Photo grammetric 

Technologies» was held in Spain in 

the town of Tossa de Mar, which is 

located approximately 90 km northeast 

of Barcelona. The conference 

provided ample opportunities for discussion, 

learning and sharing experiences 

in the field of digital photogrammetric 

technology and remote 

sensing. The conference was attended 

by over 100 managers and specialists 

from industrial enterprises and 

academic institutions from 21 countries 

which are using remote sensing 

data and photogrammetric processing 

in their day-to-day operations. 

The Conference organizer was 

Racurs Co., (Moscow, Russia) supported 

by the International Society of 

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 

(ISPRS), Russian GIS-Association, and 

the Society of Friendship, Cultural and 

Scientific Relations with Spain. This 

year NP AGP «Meridian+» (Russia) 

came onboard as the Platinum sponsor 

to the Conference. Gold sponsors 

to support the Conference were: 

VisionMap (Israel), Consulting Center 

Zeminform of the State University of 

Land Management (Russia), GeoEye 

(USA), Sovzond (Russia), Innoter GIA 

(Russia). Video Broadcast Sponsor 

was ScanEx (Russia). 

The conference offered a two-day 

program of presentations, followed 

by a day of masterclasses with DPS 

PHOTOMOD. As always, this was followed 

by a social program which 

included a sports event, gala dinner 

and lastly, an excursion to Barcelona 

by bus. 

Victor Adrov, managing director of Racurs 

Armin Gruen asking a question of the presenter 

Conference audience 

52 

A selection of the 

Conference presentations 

The first conference day tackled four 

different themes: General photogrammetric 

and cartographic problems, 

Digital cameras and aerial equipment, 

Photogrammetric processing of digital 

aerial imagery, and UAV aerial photography 

and processing. 

The second conference day consisted 

of presentations on the following topics: 

Modern space remote sensing 

data, Photo gram metric processing of 

space remote sensing data, Geo - 

portals and SAR Surveys. 

The conference was opened by Victor 

Adrov, managing director of Racurs. 

He introduced his Racurs team and 

laid out the schedule of the conference, 

as well as the themes to be discussed 

during the presentations. A number of 

presentations were to be delivered by 

Racurs’ staff, mostly about the company’s 

PHOTOMOD software, but also UAV 

image processing capabilities and a 

corporate administrative geoportal. 

PHOTOMOD 5.2 

Alexandra S. Kiseleva, Manager of 

Technical Support Department, Ra - 

curs, Russia spoke about the new 

capabilities of PHOTOMOD 5.2, re - 

leased last September. New opportunities 

offered in this version included 

special aerial triangulation tools for 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle data processing, 

direct work with JPEG images 

without conversion, orthorectification 

“on-the-fly”, 3D models with textures 

in 3D-Mod module and support for 

GLONASS data. Also, just released 

in September, was PHOTOMOD Lite, 

which dramatically increases the 

allowed data volume. 


Institut Cartografic de Catalunya 

David Sanchez i Carbonell, International 

Sales Manager of the Institut Cartografic de 

Catalunya, held a presentation on the Institut 

Cartografic de Catalunya, the Catalan 

Mapping Agency. The presentation focused 

mainly on the cartographic products that the 

institute produces, such as topographic base 

maps and derived maps, and how they are 

produced. City models and vegetation maps 

are examples of derived maps. The institute 

generates large area orthophotos and true 

orthos from 10 cm resolutions, the last one taking 

seven years to complete. The institute is 

not only active in Spain, but also undertakes 

a number of successful international projects, 

such as one in Argentina, a project for the 

army with satellite imagery. In Venezuela, 

orthophotography was performed from radar 

images at the south of the Orinoco River. In 

France, the institute performed precision farming 

projects, using the CASI (hyperspectral) 

sensor. Different data are used for different 

scale levels of the produced maps, but in 90% 

of all cases, orthophotos are used. 

Remote Sensing Serving 

Regional Development 

Gottfried Konecny, Leibniz University 

Hannover, Germany, spoke about Remote 

Sensing Serving Regional Development. His 

presentation provided an overview of the 

history of remote sensing as a discipline 

from its origins in quantum physics up to the 

present day. Not only were the current satellite 

applications and capabilities mentioned 

by Konecny (up to half a meter range), such 

as the integrated use of remote sensing in 

programs like the Corine land cove, but he 

also pleaded for creation of SDI (‘this is a 

must’) and the establishment of an institutional 

framework for remote sensing data, 

as working in the cloud is now becoming a 

reality. 

Leica Geosystems – Z/I Imaging 

Mikhail I. Petukhov, Development Director, 

Intergraph Z/I Imaging Moscow Office, 

Russia, spoke about the new organizational 

structure of Z/I Imaging within Hexagon. His 

presentation was entitled “Leica GeoSystems 

— Z/I Imaging combined portfolio of airborne 

sensors for a wide range of applications”. 

This talk featured product presentations 

of airborne sensors from both Leica 

and Intergraph, who used to be competitors 

but are now both part of the Hexagon 

brand. In terms of organization, ‘everything 

will have to be harmonized in the future’, as 

Petukhov stated during his presentation. It is 

apparent that the new organizational structure 

offers a lot of different products and services 

for various applications, and different 

options are available per application, with 

combinations of different brands (Erdas, 

Intergraph and/or Leica). 

Advances in UAV 

Photogrammetry 

Armin Gruen, Prof. Institute of Conservation 

and Building Research, Switzerland, spoke 

just as he did last year about UAV’s 

(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), a topic that is 

of great interest these days. Interestingly 

enough, there were no less than six presentations 

on this topic during the first confer- 

Sports event 

E v e n t 

ence day. His presentation was entitled 

‘Advances in UAV Photogrammetry’ and 

gave an update on the ongoing and future 

R&D work on UAV’s, having just visited a 

conference on UAV’s (also covered in this 

magazine). UAV’s have a number of advantages, 

such as when deployed in high-risk 

situations. Also, the production of vertical, 

oblique and horizontal images have a high 

educational value as well, allowing students 

to perform a project in its totality, that is controlling 

a complete workflow from data capture 

to end product. They are also very inexpensive, 

which makes UAV’s popular these 

days. Unfortunately, there are also a number 

of disadvantages in the use of UAV’s, 

such as the requirement for flight permission, 

which can take a long time to obtain. 

Weight restrictions, limited operating distance 

and the inability to cope with unexpected 

obstacles are also seen as shortcomings. 

Gruen mentioned a number of projects 

with UAV’s, mainly for archeological purposes 

but also other applications as well. In 

terms of data processing methods, there is 

much room for improvement, but without 

doubt UAV’s have a number of advantages 

that make them attractive to use. He concluded 

his presentation with a discussion on 

how people deal with 3D, as opposed to 

how computers perform image analysis. 

Gruen stated that image understanding is 

based on experiences and emotions, something 

which computers cannot duplicate. 

Understanding how the brain understands 

imagery will be the next step in the developments 

of image analysis in photogrammetry. 

Internet: www.racurs.ru. 

Many thanks to Andrey Pirogov for 

providing imagery of the Conference. 


53

C a l e n d a r 2 0 1 1 / A d v e r t i s e r s I n d e x 

October 

20 October myWorld UK & Ireland Roadshow 

Wembley Stadium, London, U.K. 

E-mail: myworldroadshow@leica-geosystems.com 

Internet: www.myworldroadshow.co.uk 

20-21 October 8th International Workshop of the 

EARSeL Special Interest Group (SIG) on Forest 

Fires 

Stresa, Italy 

Internet: http://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/earsel 

26-28 October 2011 Esri European User 

Conference EFEMA 

Feria de Madrid, Spain 

Internet: www.esri.com 

November 

01 November Global to Local: Space Innovations 

in Mapping 

The National Space Centre, Leicester, U.K. 

E-mail: dg125@le.ac.uk 

Internet: http://spacedata.eventbrite.com 

01-02 November Introduction to Open Source 

E-mail: ceg.cpd@ncl.ac.uk 

Internet: www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/introgisos.php 

01-03 November Aquaterra, International Water 

Week Conference 

RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Internet: www.aquaterraconference.com 

01-04 November GIS-Pro 2011: URISA's 49th 

Annual Conference for GIS Professionals 

Indianapolis, IN, U.S.A. 

E-mail: wnelson@urisa.org 

Internet: www.urisa.org 

02-03 November 3th Annual Blue Marble User 

Conference 

Denver, CO, U.S.A. 

E-mail: bmuc@bluemarblegeographics.com 

Internet: www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/user_conference.php 

07-09 November GNSS and Network RTK 


Internet: www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/gnss.php 

08-09 November Be Inspired: Thought Leadership 

in Infrastructure event 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

E-mail: beinspired@bentley.com 

Internet: www.bentley.com/BeInspired 

08-09 November SPAR Europe/Plant-Tech 2011 

World Forum, The Hague, The Netherlands 

Internet: www.SPARPointGroup.com/Europe 

Advertisers Index 

Blom www.blomasa.com 13 

CycloMedia www.cyclomedia.com 51 

ERDAS www.erdas.com 29 

Esri www.esri.com 9 

FOIF www.foif.com.cn 41 

Leica Geosystems www.leica-geosystems.com 56 

Microsoft UltraCam www.iFlyUltraCam.com 20 

NovAtel www.novatel.com 17 

Optech Inc. www.optech.ca 22 

08-11 November Intelligent Cities Expo 

Hamburg, Germany 

E-mail: info@intelligentcitiesexpo.com 

Internet: www.intelligentcitiesexpo.com 

14-17 November ASPRS 2011 Fall Pecora 

Conference 

Hilton Hotel, Herndon, WV, U.S.A. 

Internet: www.asprs.org 

14-18 November UGI 2011 Regional Geographic 

Conference 

Escuela Militar, Santiago, Chile 

Internet: www.ugi2011.cl 

15-17 November spatial@gov® Conference 

National Convention Centre, Canberra, Australia 

Internet: www.cebit.com.au/2011/conferences/spatial-atgov 

15-17 November IGNSS 2011 

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 

Internet: www.ignss.org/Conferences 

15-18 November 15th ASITA National Conference 

Reggia di Colorno, Italy 

Internet: www.asita.it 

16 November GISDay 'Discovering the World 

Through GIS' 

Internet: www.gisday.com 

16-18 November 2nd International Workshop on 

3D Cadastres (organized by FIG, EuroSDR and 

TU Delft) 

Delft, The Netherlands 

Internet: http://3dcadastres2011.nl 

21-23 November 8th International Symposium on 

Location-Based Services 

Vienna, Austria 

E-mail: info@lbs2011.org 

21-25 November Surveying & Spatial Sciences 

Conference 2011 

Wellington Convention Centre, Wellington, New Zealand 

E-mail: convenor@sssc2011.org 

Internet: http://sssc2011.org 

22-23 November Geoimagery Malaysia 2011 

The Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

E-mail: maz@geoimagerymalaysia.com 

Internet: www.geoimagerymalaysia.com 

27-30 November Saudi Planning and Geodesign 

Forum 

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 

Internet: www.saudiplanningandgeodesign.com 

28 November–01 December 5th International 

Conference "Earth from Space - the Most 

Effective Solutions" 

Moscow, Russia 

E-mail: conference@scanex.ru 

Internet: www.conference.scanex.ru/index.php/en.html 

Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to:calendar@geoinformatics.com 

54 

29-30 November European LIDAR Mapping Forum 

(ELMF 2011) 

Salzburg, Austria 

E-mail: info@lidarmap.net 

Internet: www.lidarmap.org 

29 November-02 December The 5th International 

Conference "Earth from Space - the Most 

Effective Solutions" 

Moscow Region Vatutinki recreation center, Russia 

E-mail: conference@scanex.ru 

Internet: www.conference.scanex.ru/index.php/en.html 

30 November- 01 December GIN Congres / Geo-Info 

Xchange 2011 

Utrecht, The Netherlands 

E-mail: info@geo-info.nl 

Internet: geoinfo.kingsquare.nl 

30 November-02 December 7th International gvSIG 

Conference 

Centro de eventos, Feria Valencia, Spain 

E-mail: conference-contact@gvsig.com 

Internet: http://jornadas.gvsig.org/presentacion/ 

objetivo-en/view?set_language=en 

December 

05-09 December AGU Fall Meeting 2011 

San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. 

Internet: www.agu.org 

05-09 December FMEdays 2011 

Factory Hotel, Muenster, Germany 

E-mail: info@fmedays.de 

Internet: www.fmedays.de/index_en.shtm 

2012 

09-10 January Introduction to GIS 


Internet: www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/gis.php 

11-12 January Intermediate GIS 



13 January Spatial Analysis 



17-19 January Least Squares Adjustment for 

Offshore Survey 


Internet: www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/lsadjust.php 

23-25 January Symposium GIS OSTRAVA 2012 

VSB-TU, Ostrava, Czech Republic 

Internet: http://gis.vsb.cz/gis2012/authors.php 

Orbit Geospatial Technologies www.orbitgis.com 25 

Pacific Crest www.pacificcrest.com/adl 55 

RACURS www.racurs.ru 49 

RIEGL www.riegl.com 35 

Sokkia www.sokkia.net 45 

SPAR Europe www.sparpointgroup.com 8 

Spectra Precision www.spectraprecision.com 33 

SuperMap www.supermap.com 39 

Topcon Europe BV www.topcon.eu 2 


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2011 - Geoinformatics

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