2011 - Geoinformatics

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.
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