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PUBLISHER’S LETTERBy Myrna James YooNEXT-GEN MAPPINGBy Natasha Léger & Craig BachmannPOLICY WATCHBy Ray Williamson, PhD, EditorEARTH SCOPEBy Tim Foresman, PhD HINDSIGHT: GUEST EDITORIAL By Ray Clark China & Brazil’s PartnershipBy José Carlos N. Epiphanio, INPE In a Changing Political ClimateBy Dan Stillman, IGES ArcGIS Image ServerBy Karen Richardson, ESRI Software Companies Expand and ConsolidateBy Rod Franklin, ReporterIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM3

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Dear Reader,Geospatial technologies have beenacknowledged in the past few years asinstrumental in assessing climate changeand environmental issues. Now, basedon the release this spring of several majorreports, we find that a strong and importantlink exists between climate and nationalsecurity. As we reported inour April eNewsletter fromthe National Space Symposium,there is consensusthat many of the effects ofthe changing climate—suchas climate refugees, lackof fresh water and otherresources, and disease—willdestabilize not only the wayof life for those in developingcountries, but in the U.S. andother developed countriesas well.Ray Clark’s Guest Editorial,“The Security ThreatRequiring Rapid Response,”points out that the U.S.Department of Defense hasan opportunity to take thelead on addressing climatechange, and the responsibilityto do so as well. Rapidresponse is usually a termreserved for what is requiredafter a disaster. Ray arguesthat the federal governmentmust respond rapidly tothe changing climate, as amatter of national security.Dan Stillman from theInstitute for Global EnvironmentalStrategies brings us an updateon NASA budgets and renewed supportof Earth observations in this time of greatneed for continuity in data gathering.Also in this issue, we report on theexpanding partnership between Chinaand Brazil with their CBERS satelliteconstellation, and on software innovationsas companies expand and consolidate,offering better solutions in data integrationfor their customers.“Many of the effectsof the changingclimate—such asclimate refugees, lackof fresh water and otherresources, and disease—will destabilize not onlythe way of life for thosein developing countries,but in the U.S. and otherdeveloped countriesas well.”In Next-GenMapping, columnistsNatasha Léger andCraig Bachmanndiscuss a new offering ofgeospatial companies totheir customers: a returnon their investment!This key issue of howto “monetize the data”will be addressed inupcoming issues as well.In fact, movingforward, we will be more focused on thebusiness side of geospatial technologiesand location-based services. You’ll seemore articles like those found in Next-GenMapping throughout the publication. Itis the responsibility of media to changewith the times and the industries that theycover, so we’ll be making some changesto the publication.In addition to becoming more focusededitorially on what readers need to know,we will be doing many things the same. Wehave always been committed to editorialintegrity, which means that we publisharticles based on what’s most importantfor our readers, not for the benefit ofadvertisers. This way, our readers knowthat they can trust what they read; it’s not“sponsored.”This integrity combined with our in-depthreporting style and the timeliness of ourarticles has won us several media coups.Imaging Notes was credited on the frontpage of The Washington Post when wepublished the first images of China’s onlynuclear submarine. We scooped The NewYork Times last fall when we published apreview of a report written for the U.S. AirForce about the 2006 war between Israeland Hizbollah that took place in Lebanon.We will continue to bring you timely articlesthat are relevant to your work.Please glance through the namesof those industry leaders serving onour Editorial Advisory Board on page4. Let them know, when you see them,that you appreciate their involvementin the geospatial industry’s media. Youdeserve the best information that we canprovide, so their service to you and to usis important.— Myrna James YooPublisher/Managing EditorIMAGING NOTES // SUMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM7

LOCATION-BASED DATA: COST, REVENUE DRIVER OR TABLE STAKES?Treasure maps were the prized strategic assets of pirates,who fought fiercely over crudely drawn maps with directions to where the treasure wasburied. Although the X was clearly marked, rarely did the map provide precise directionsto the gold. It took luck, timing, perseverance, and the occasional skullduggery.Mapping has become quite sophisticated since the days of high seas piracy. Computerizedmapping in particular has enabled an unprecedented documentation of the world.When it comes to searching for new fortunes in the world of modern capitalism, a “treasuremap” may offer more clues than charts, excel spreadsheets, business intelligence reports,and intricate layers of geographical data.are partners in ITF Advisors, LLC, anindependent consulting firm with a focuson next-generation strategy and ontranslating the increasingly complex newmedia business environment’s impact onbusiness models, markets and users.Many organizations have becomeparalyzed by bureaucratic inertia. Rigidprocesses, procedures, financial metricsand IT structures dictate decision making.As storage costs have declined, datawarehouses have become more affordable.Managers now find themselvesincreasingly overwhelmed by tsunamis ofdata—both internal and external data.In the information age, market researchcompanies, the media, and data companiesfeel compelled to push more andmore data to people. With the ability tocrunch massive volumes of data and tosplice and dice consumer behavior andAS DATA-DRIVEN MANAGEMENTSTRATEGIES INFILTRATE THEEXECUTIVE SUITE, MANAGERSARE TRYING TO BALANCEINFORMATION OVERLOAD WITHTHE OPPORTUNITY FINALLY,AFTER TWENTY YEARS OFPOURING MILLIONS OF DOLLARSINTO EXPENSIVE IT SYSTEMS, TOMONETIZE THE DATA THAT HASBEEN SO COSTLY TO ACQUIRE,STORE, AND MANAGE.transactions, companies feel compelled toacquire more and more data in their questfor competitive advantage. As data-drivenmanagement strategies infiltrate the executivesuite, managers are trying to balanceinformation overload with the opportunityfinally, after twenty years of pouring millionsof dollars into expensive IT systems, tomonetize the data that has been so costlyto acquire, store, and manage.Maps that tell stories of the past,present, and future are the most effectivefilters for understanding complexinformation. It’s one thing to know (fromcolumns and tables) that you have 7.5million customers across the U.S., butanother thing to drive that point by seeingit on a map. Companies like Netflix, withgeographically dispersed customersoperating in a hypercompetitive landscape,recognize that location data projected ona map increases the speed of insight andreduces the time required for action.“Most maps [are] created for anintended purpose and an intendedaudience. They include the details thatare, or were, deemed significant and omitthe ones that are, or were, not. No maphas ever, nor can ever show ‘everything’,”states Lez Smart in Maps that MadeHistory. This is where IT may have takenthe mapping business astray—as itrelates to the enterprise market. Indexinggeographic information (lat/long data)has been traditionally costly due to dataacquisition, maintenance, and integration.In particular, it has been presumed thatwith more data catalogued, virtually anybusiness question could be answered asit relates to location. The costs of doingso are passed on to the customer. This8IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

is an important and noble exercise whenfunding is not an issue and when the goal isresearch, health, safety, and security-relatedanalysis. Infrastructure companies such asutilities and telecommunications providerswith regulatory mandates have justified thecosts in the past. However, in today’s costcuttingenvironment, passing these costs tothe customer is no longer acceptable.Although most companies recognizethat 80% of their business intelligencedata is location oriented, they have yetto find a way to leverage that data in asystematic way. ERDAS CEO Bob Morrisacknowledges, “The business world isdriven by ROI, and traditional geospatialtechnologies have been limited todepartmental deployments within an organization.”Instead of dealing with IT andall the costs associated with acquiring,maintaining, and integrating the locationdata, many analysts and managers areexperimenting with data and services thatare freely available on the Internet.Right now, “free” seems to offer apretty good ROI. Morris believes, “Bydeploying geospatial technologies withina Service Oriented Architecture (SOA),the utilization of geospatial businesssystems will increase and will also drive ahigher ROI for our customers.” This ROIdilemma constantly reminds us that enterprisesdo not necessarily understand howto approach mapping, spatial imageryand location data as a systemic strategicasset. For business to leverage location,a new approach to cost, revenue or theperception of value is needed.For business to leverage location, anew approach to cost, revenue or theperception of value is needed.PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW STERNARDMaps have served many differentpurposes over the years, from explorationto navigation to documentation toIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM9

visualization, with varying levels of detailand sophistication. However, piratetreasure maps, with their crude sophisticationand simple objective, are exactlywhat businesses need to provide contextto an increasingly complicated businessenvironment. Where’s the gold? Howdo we find it? In the days of high seaspiracy, a big “X” on a map meant gold.In today’s modern economy, the questfor new fortunes may take several formsas companies and financiers implementvarious performance scorecards.Nonetheless, if “X marked the spot”for the location of guaranteed revenue,customers, or other ROI, all organizationsand individuals would be in the mappingbusiness—or at least would be loyalmapping customers.Two key trends are changing theperceived value and cost of location data.First, companies like Netflix, Amazon,Ebay, Harrah’s Casino, and Disney recognizethat data are now part of a basicbusiness infrastructure that needs to bethought of as core and centric to doingbusiness. They claim data are the tablestakes of doing business today. If 80% ofdata is location-oriented, then are locationdata also now “table stakes”? Is it justanother part of the tool set that is neededto play the game? If they’re table stakes—no different than, for example, accountingsoftware or a point of sale system—thenthey’re no longer a discretionary expensethat merits the same ROI analysis.Second, the perception of the “cost”of spatial imagery and location data ischanging, but not because it appears“free” on the Internet. (What’s availablefor free on the Internet are map viewers,imagery and geocoding services. TheseIF LOCATION DATA ARE TABLESTAKES—NO DIFFERENT THAN,FOR EXAMPLE, ACCOUNTINGSOFTWARE OR A POINT OF SALESYSTEM—THEN THEY’RE NO LONGERA DISCRETIONARY EXPENSE THATMERITS THE SAME ROI ANALYSIS.consumer tools are not designed tohandle, in a secure fashion, large volumesof enterprise data, and they most certainlydo not address the costly issue of dataacquisition, maintenance and integration.In addition, the timeliness, source, andaccuracy of the data are not always clear.)Instead, the value and cost of locationdata are changing because the data canbe monetized.Data are generally monetized whencompanies derive revenue streams fromsale of the data. The sale of customerlists has been a longstanding practicein profiting from data. However, whena “long tail” of fragmented customersare nested in what seems like a “findFIGURE 1Waldo with $” exercise, location datacan create new value for the company.(See “Monetizing the Spatial Mashup,”Summer 2007.) Imagery and location dataon their own are costs. When combinedwith other business intelligence informationsuch as internal sales activity, marketdynamics, and demographics, companiescan suddenly see new opportunities forrevenue (otherwise called data mining,revenue mining or revenue mapping).The objective of a business is tocreate a customer. Once a customer iscreated, value is created and investmentsare monetized. In the past, direct mail,blanket advertising, nationwide marketingand direct sales provided brand recognition,but not a verifiable customer. Addinga mapping component to the sales andmarketing budget appeared to be simplyadding cost. Where was the treasure?Robert Quist, solar consultant forVibrant Solar, a solar engineering andconsulting company, and Xcel Energy’simplementation contractor for their10IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

Google Maps, MyLoki, TomTom,Magellan, and other location-basedservices are demonstrating thatindividuals are also finding that treasuremaps are now part of contemporarylifestyle: Where’s the party? Where’s the poisonous shrub? Where are the kids?Solar Rewards program, uses imageryfrom Microsoft Live Search and GoogleEarth to speed up the qualifying processwhen customers call inquiring aboutsolar options. “What I’m looking for inthe imagery is an idea of roof slopes,which is key to determining solar access.The image resolution isn’t perfect and itdoesn’t give me the ability to measure theslope, but it’s enough to give me a roughidea of the opportunity, which maximizesthe efficiency of sales calls and eliminatesthe need for unnecessary trips—whichis particularly important with gas pricessoaring,” said Quist. (See .)To better maximize the inbound salesqualification process, what Quist wouldlike to have is the ability to measure theslope and better resolution. However,what Quist would find to be particularlyvaluable is an image-based, aerial mapthat points him to a qualified customerlead by showing rooftop slopes thatwould work for solar power. “That wouldbe worth shifting marketing dollars fromdirect mail to a subscription and datamining service,” said Quist. Locationbasedbusiness intelligence is thenext-gen treasure map!Location data is the bridgebetween top-line revenue developmentand bottom-line cost management.Small companies are most adept at thebalance of costs and revenue. Largecompanies, in contrast, have a number ofbusiness units, and product and servicelines with their own P&L, which makes itincreasingly difficult to balance. (Internalturf wars don’t help, either.)Information technology has been usedover the last twenty years to managecosts—ERP systems and cost accountinglook for the cost of inventory, supply chainmanagement, and human resources, forexample—whereas topline revenue growthis generally a function of marketing andsales, with marketing relying on marketresearch and demographics to targetcustomers, and sales being incentivedriven. Location-based business intelligencecombines top-line revenue issueswith bottom-line cost issues to deliver acontext-aware business map—a next-generationtreasure map for creating customers,growing businesses, and developing value.There are exciting new ways to put locationdata into operation, but first it has to beseen as a search question, not a bottom-upmapping exercise. One needs to demand,with the pirates of old, “ARGGG…I need amap where X marks the spot!”PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW STERNARDIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM11

SOME IMPORTANT NEEDS REMAINImages from satellites and the software used to analyzethem have added an important set of tools to responders’ ability to provide help andsuccor to victims of natural disasters. The earthquake that rocked Sichuan Province inChina this May and the earlier tropical cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma’s coastalregions, illustrated once again the power of this imagery to reveal the extent of damage.Nevertheless, much work still needs to be done to use the imagery effectively.Immediately following the 7.9 Sichuan primary shock in May, Chinese officials activatedthe International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, requesting earthquakedata from other members of the Charter to assist them in assessing the geographicalextent of damage and to guide them toward areas of greatest concern. China’s NationalSpace Administration joined the Charter in 2007, after being the recipient of satellitederivedinformation during an earlier flooding disaster and seeing how useful it was.In an ironic twist, the island of Taiwan, which the Peoples Republic of China claimsas its own, even provided some of the first satellite data to the mainland. Taiwan operatesFORMOSAT, a very capable multispectral satellite, which senses details as small as twometers in black and white and eight meters in color. These data were used to monitorpossible flooding from lakes formed when massive landslides blocked some of the rivers inthe Sichuan region following the earthquake.Yet according to many who have assisted in the process of placing imagery intothe hands of the disaster responders, the process of moving from raw satellite data tousable information in the hands of first responders is slow and cumbersome, despitethe ready availability of satellite imagery from a number of sources. Countries generallylack the necessary institutionalarrangements, interpretive capacity,and distribution mechanisms making itpossible for the needed information toreach responders quickly and in a formthat they can use effectively.Even in the United States, with itsrobust commercial and governmentalcapacity for collecting and distributingimagery from satellite and aircraftplatforms, the government is not fullyprepared to distribute data or processedimagery to affected communities. HurricanesKatrina and Rita proved that.Shortly after the storms had struck,television and print media were full ofoverhead pictures of the disaster, someis editor of Imaging Notes and ExecutiveDirector of the Secure World Foundation, an acquired by satellite, many more by aircraft.organization devoted to the promotion of However, people in the local communitycooperative approaches to space securitycharged with responding in times of natural(http://www.SecureWorldFoundation.org).disasters had a hard time getting what theyneeded to save lives and assess the extentof damage. Power lines were down, cellphones did not work, and in most cases,the only way to receive the necessarydigital imagery was by hand delivery.Yet, even if the data were delivered tooffices that had the necessary digital toolsto process them, they were seldom in auseable format, and they might also lackthe necessary geo-registration to link themto the areas they imaged. As a result, theutility of the imagery was severely blunted.In remote areas with few of the moderncomputer tools prevalent in the UnitedStates, the problem is even more serious,because first responders there generallyneed very simple paper maps with captionsin the local language. Besides, computersare difficult to use in the field whereadequate sources of electricity or protectionfrom the elements seldom exist.The International Charter—which wasstarted in 1999 to provide satellite-derivedinformation to States affected by severenatural disasters—has done a commendablejob in tasking partner countries toprovide satellite data to countries in need.However, the Charter still lacks the meansand mechanisms to assure timely deliveryof useful information to the affected areas.The supply chain is generally long andcomplex, and because disasters often strikewith limited warning, delivering neededinformation quickly enough to disaster sitesor even to crews heading into them is ahuge logistical problem.The international community needs tospend the money and time to develop waysto collect and deliver the needed informationto first responders. This part of the jobis not as sexy as collecting data from space,but is just as important in making sure thatthe many operating Earth observing satel-12IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

WINNING TOOLS FOR SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN THE ENERGY WARIf you aren’t tuned in to the spectacular mass decapitationof 470 summits along the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee,and Kentucky, you are really missing out on one of the most dramatic changes in theAmerican landscape . The coal industry has determined that this action isnecessary to access the underlying coal.Unfortunately, accompanying this shearing off of the rough mountainous topography arethe fantastic losses of endemic and remnant ecosystems that have survived along theserugged terrains since long before the arrival of European settlers. And to add further injuryto insult and injury, the mountain top mass is shoveled into the mountain drainage ravinesand stream beds. Since 1985, according to scientists investigating this social-ecologicalblitzkrieg, 1200 miles of streams have been irreparably harmed, inflicting excessive pollutionfrom waterborne toxins impacting both human and environmental health (EPA, 2003).Not since Manhattan was paved over to create New York City has an American landscapeshifted so radically, but this devastation has occurred in a much shorter period oftime. The image of a single mountain top removal area at the West Virginia Hobet MineComplex transposed as a red overlay over N.Y.C. provides a hint at the aerial magnitudeof the coal industries’ ecological footprint .Appalachian Voices (www.appvoices.org) is an organization whose members are crying inthe wilderness – real Americans with real concerns about the rampant destruction by the coalindustry of their treasured natural resourcesand their impacted communities. ThisDavid-versus-Goliath challenge has beenblessed with the advent of remote sensingand its prowess on the Internet with GoogleEarth visualization platforms, where it is alayer within Global Awareness on all versionsof Google Earth. The sling that is rocking thecoal industry is the audacity of the puny localsto use satellite imagery of the landscapedesecration to stir up the affected population.“In the beginning, we used to take peopleup in airplanes to show them what is goingon just over the next ridge,” says Mary AnneHitt, Appalachian Voices founder. “Peoplewere shocked at the magnitude. But now,we simply use satellites, remote sensing,and virtual globes to get the message outand let our neighbors view these ravagedmountains. The proof is in the image. A 3-Dview has really transformed this issue andthat wakes people right up. This is one ofthe most powerful tools ever for our effort.”This visualized villainy of the Appalachianlandscape has raised a clarion call to actionas area residents see one mountain top afteranother sliced off to quench the country’sinsatiable appetite for coal in the genera-is President of the International Centrefor Remote Sensing Education. Hehas been director of United NationsEnvironment Programme’s Division ofEarly Warning and Assessment (Nairobi,Kenya) and national program managerfor NASA’s Digital Earth (Washington,D.C.). He is editor of The History ofGeographic Information Systems, 1998,Prentice Hall. Dr. Foresman wasthe Director-General for the 5thInternational Symposium on Digital Earth(www.isde5.org) and is author of thechildren’s book, The Last Little Polar Bear:A Global Change Adventure Story.14IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

tion of electricity. Appalachian Voices andincreasing numbers of collaborating groupsand individuals have banded together to findsolace and strength in their common causefor sanity while working to define a sustainablepath for the future.Environmental justice and a host ofsocial-economic-environmental issues areintertwined with the Mountain-Top Removal(MTR) saga. When we turn on the lightsin McLean, Virginia, we are supporting thecoal industry pipeline and providing thefinances for MTR. “We show people howthey are connected to MTR,” explains MaryAnne Hitt. “Using the virtual globe technologies,we can show the connection of miningoperations to the delivery of electricity intopeople’s homes.” And assessing the linksto social-economics for these areas beingbulldozed over is another requirement toensure environmental justice to the poorestof our citizens .The energy deciders held secret meetingsin the White House from 2001 and launcheda new set of liberal policies for MTR. Whetherthey will ever have to explain their actionsto the citizens of ravaged landscapes is apolitical question (Union of Concerned Scientists,2008). But it is increasingly importantthat all citizens become educated as to thedirect and indirect impacts that MTR is havingthroughout the Appalachians. It is everyone’sbusiness to become concerned with theconnections we all have to the policies andlifestyles that result in the horrific desecrationof our precious natural resources.Appalachian Voices does not have astaff of scientists with expertise in remotesensing, landscape ecology, or other criticaldisciplines that are needed in the MTRdrama. What better class project or Master’sthesis could there be than to focus on oneof the many areas that have been destroyed,or better yet, to pre-position the imagery andenvironmental analysis to head off furtherlosses? Hitt points out, “We are going to bedoing a lot of looking at mountains that arestanding but threatened. We need modelersto help us look at the spread of MTR andmodelers to study the extent of pollution alongrivers and communities. We are working withSky Truth and would certainly welcome helpfrom the remote sensing community.”John Amos’ team at Sky Truth (www.skytruth.org), led by Dr. David J. Campagna(Adjunct Professor in West VirginiaUniversity’s Remote Sensing Lab in theDepartment of Geology and Geography), hasbeen a pioneering partner in helping Hitt andher colleagues assess and communicate thedisturbing images of mountain destruction.“We are working to determine and map theareas most likely to be mined in the nearfuture,” explains Amos. “We are launching theWeb-based Adopt-A-Mountain tool to enableaverage citizens to help us with ground-truthand field verification prior to the destruction,”he adds, “and are looking for talented GISand remote sensing professionals.”It would appear that these true heroes ofAmerica’s landscape could use a lot of help. Itseems patently unfair to place the continuedbattle against MTR on their shoulders alone.I wonder what our talented and capableremote sensing community can do to helpthis chorus of Appalachian Voices.FIGURE 1FIGURE 2FIGURE 3REFERENCES_IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM15

REMOTE SENSING COOPERATION BETWEEN BRAZIL AND CHINARemote sensing is a continuously evolvingprocess. Technology has made the satelliteimages available to everyone, not only tospecialized people. Thus, we are beginninga real transformation of remote sensing allover the world. Many new applicationsand uses of satellite images are expectedto appear as remote sensing becomes moreand more popular.In the beginning, satellite availabilitywas restricted to a few countries. Thecapabilities and characteristics of thepayloads were not very large. Currently,spatial resolutions are very diverse, froma few centimeters to hundreds or thousandsof meters; swaths are as narrowas a few kilometers to as wide as twothousand kilometers. There are missionswith only one instrument, and missionswith various instruments. This diversityof resolutions is important for users, as16IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

FIGURE 1FIGURE 2they can choose the best combination ofsensors, satellites, and data policies to fittheir needs. At the same time, more andmore countries are becoming part of theclub of satellite owners.Brazil was one of the first countriesto build and operate a ground stationto receive Landsat-1 data back in 1973.Since then, remote sensing has becomestrong there, counting on the supportof educational programs at various levels,including graduate courses at mastersand doctoral levels. Based on thesefoundations, a number of remote sensingresearch and application programswere developed.As Brazil is large geographically—more than 8.5 million km 2 —and hashigh biodiversity, special ecosystemssuch as the Amazonian and Pantanalregions, an ever-growing agriculture, afast-changing land use and land cover,and a long coastline, it is especiallysuited for space-based remote sensingdevelopments. Thus, it was natural thatBrazil would envisage its own remotesensing satellite development.Coordinator of the CBERS ApplicationProgram, Sr. Researcher at INPE(National Institute for Space Research)São José dos Campos, Brazilwww.cbers.inpe.brAt the end of the 1980’s, Brazil beganthe development of a civilian remotesensing satellite program with China.This cooperation is now 20 years oldand has launched three satellites successfully.It was one of the first programs inthe world involving two countries underdevelopment striving to build andlaunch a satellite – an effort that bringsdifficult technological challenges. To besuccessful, the cooperative effort had toovercome many obstacles. The first onewas the language; since the two countrieshave languages that are very different,a third one had to be chosen to workas a common language. The culturesare very different also, and adaptationsfrom both sides had to be done so thatboth teams could work together. Manyother obstacles had to be overcome asthe project evolved.The initial signed agreement was forthe development and launch of two remotesensing satellites. In October 1999,the first satellite, CBERS-1, was launchedfrom Xi’An (a Chinese launching base),and was carried by Long March-IV launchvehicle. The second CBERS was launchedfour years later, in October 2003. In 2002,IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM17

FIGURE 3FIGURE 4FIGURE 5before the launching of CBERS-2, a newagreement was signed for the continuity ofthe CBERS mission, which included twonew remote sensing satellites, with newcharacteristics and payloads. However, asCBERS-3 would be launched only arounda 2010 time frame, after the de-commissioningof CBERS-2, both countries decidedto sign a third agreement in 2004, forthe development of CBERS2B, very similarto CBERS-1 and -2, using as much as possibleengineering parts from the first twosatellites. CBERS-2B was successfullylaunched in a very short time, in September2007.The cooperation between Brazil andChina for development of remote sensingsatellites has been so successful and usefulfor both countries that a new CBERSfamily is under way, with CBERS-5 and-6. The continuity of the CBERS Programis viewed as strategic for the environmentalmonitoring of both countries.The orbit of CBERS satellites is asun-synchronous, quasi-polar, 26 daysphased and circular orbit, at 744-kmaltitude, and 10:30 Equator crossingtime. The main payload of the first threeCBERS satellites is a CCD camera with20-m GIFOV (ground instantaneousfield of view), five bands (blue, green,red, NIR, pan), 8 bits, 113-km swath,and ±32° across-track viewing capability.The second important payload presentin these three satellites is a Wide FieldImager (WFI), with two bands (red andNIR), 260-m GIFOV at nadir, 890-kmswath. As part of CBERS-1 and -2,there was an Infrared Scanner (IRMS)with four bands (pan, TIR, and two inSWIR), 80-m (160-m TIR) spatial resolution,120-km swath. For CBERS-2B, thisscanner was replaced with a High ResolutionCamera (panchromatic, 2.7-mspatial resolution, 27-km swath). depicts an HRC image. CBERS-2 is stilloperational, but only the CCD camera isworking; CBERS-2B is fully operational.All CBERS satellites have onboard recordingcapability. shows a fieldcampaign to calibrate CCD/CBERS-2.The CBERS second generationis composed of two new satellites:CBERS-3 and -4. The orbital characteristicsare the same as for CBERS-1,-2 and -2B. The multi-payload is composedof a Multispectral Camera similarto the CCD from previous CBERS.A second camera is a Panchromatic-Multispectral Camera (10-m XS-ñ blue,green, red, NIR, 5-m Pan), with 60-kmswath and across-track viewing capability.The WFI was improved: four bands(blue, green, red, NIR), 70-m spatialresolution at nadir, 860-km swath. Thescanner was also improved: four bands(pan, two SWIR, one TIR), with 40-m(80-m TIR) spatial resolution. The onboardrecording capability is 15 minutesfor all instruments altogether.One of the main aspects of the CBERSProgram is the data policy adopted afterthe CBERS-2 launch. Brazil adopted thefree-of-charge CBERS data distributionpolicy when data are requested in electronicformat. Initially adopted for Brazilianusers, it was extended for neighboringcountries, and then to the world.Currently, all CBERS data gathered atCuiaba, the Brazilian ground station,is distributed free of charge to everyone(www.dgi.inpe.br/CDSR).Each year, more than 100,000 CCDscenes have been distributed inside thecountry to thousand of users and institutions.The processing system is veryfast and it takes only a few minutes forthe user to have his request for a fullresolutionscene fulfilled. This kind ofdata policy and easy distribution systempromoted a strong increase in thenumber of users and applications.Today, there is no organization relatedto agriculture, environment, geology,or hydrology in the country that is nota CBERS user. Hundreds of businessesin remote sensing were opened after theadoption of the current data policy. Theenvironmental control by the societywas also increased. shows theCCD/CBERS images requested in justone month. Almost all of Brazil andparts of other countries covered by theCuiaba ground receiving station haverequested data at least one time in thatparticular month.In general, governmental institutionshave difficulty in acquiring up-to-dateremote sensing data. This problem isworse in developing countries. For instance,the deforestation in the Amazonregion is a main environmental issue inBrazil. Actions from the governmentalenvironmental protection agency dependon monitoring, based on remote sensing18IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

data. The fast and free access to CBERSdata allows the agency to use up-to-datesatellite data to map and measure deforestedareas. The map and figures ofdeforested areas in the Amazon regionon an annual basis used to be based onLandsat data, and now the map has thehelp of CCD/CBERS data (www.obt.inpe.br/prodes/index.html).Another important activity in Amazoniais the project called DETER (Detectionof Deforestation in Near RealTime; www.obt.inpe.br/deter/metodologia.pdf),which is aimed at detectingearly signs of deforestation and atalerting the environmental agency intime to take action. This is a permanentmonitoring system based on MODISand WFI/CBERS data.Brazilian legislation requires thateach farmer identify and notify the environmentalagency about areas to beprotected on each farm. This procedureis called environmental licensing andhas been adopted in many states aroundthe country. Currently, most of thisprocedure is done based on CBERS imagesand has opened hundreds of smallbusinesses specializing in this kind ofservice. As CCD/CBERS has stereoviewingcapability, its data can be usedfor feature extraction .An interesting application of CBERSimages is in tax enforcement .Some states use CBERS to help them tomonitor farms to assure that all declarationsmade by farmers are in accordancewith the tax law. More examplesof applications of CBERS data in Brazilcan be found at www.dsr.inpe.br/seminariocbers/.As part of the objective of makingthe CBERS Program as useful as possibleto mankind, Brazil and China decidedto launch the project CBERS forAfrica, which will distribute CBERSimages for African countries to helpthem control deforestation and protectthe environment. This project is partof the contribution of both countriesto the GEO (Group on Earth Observation).At least two ground receivingstations in Africa will be able to havedirect downlink of CBERS remote sensingdata beginning later this year.The CBERS Program, developedunder a Chinese and Brazilian cooperation,is an important and very usefuldata provider to both countries and theirneighbors – and now to Africa. The datapolicy that assures free access to CBERSimages brought new remote sensing users,applications and business. Applicationsrelated to environmental protectionwere improved with CBERS dataavailability and free access.EDITOR’S NOTEIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM19

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IN A CHANGING POLITICAL CLIMATE a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, acatastrophic earthquake in China, anda tornado season off to a record-settingpace and massive flooding in the UnitedStates—has demonstrated like never beforethe importance of environmental informationto protecting life, property andeconomic well being .This being a presidential electionyear, interest is building within the U.S.Earth-observations sector, and in sectorsthat depend on observational data, as tohow high a priority the next administrationwill assign to observing the planet,especially as many of the nation’s Earthobservinginstruments approach the endof their operational lifetimes.Institute for Global EnvironmentalStrategies, Arlington, Va.www.strategies.orgFIGURE 1IMAGING NOTES // SUMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM21

“The playing field for Earth observationshas changed. Not only are U.S. observingsystems in decline, but the demandfor climate and environmental informationis greater than it’s ever been,” said NancyColleton, executive director of the Alliancefor Earth Observations, a group of industry,academic and nongovernmental organizationsthat promotes the use of Earthobservations for societal and economicbenefit. “You can’t have sound climate orenvironmental policy, mitigate risk or developadaptation strategies without credibleand timely Earth observations. This has tobe a priority for the next administration.”Earlier this year, a group of organizationsled by the University Corporationfor Atmospheric Research (UCAR) urgedthe next administration and Congress to“take actions to make our nation resilientto severe weather and climate change.”Its recommendations included increasingfunding for satellites and land-based instruments,increasing the computer poweravailable for Earth science research andweather and climate forecasts, and supportingeducation and training to use observations,models and related tools.Anything less will put both individualsand the country as a whole at risk, saysUCAR president Rick Anthes. “Earth andits life support systems—and its ability toprovide people with the rapidly increasingdemand of clean fresh water, food, energyand other vital needs—are under severeand increasing stress, which threatens nationalsecurity on many fronts,” Anthessaid. “We must move Earth observationsand related information systems to a muchhigher priority.”There’s been plenty of talk in recentyears about the need for U.S. investmentin sustained observations of the Earthsystem, and about the potential social andeconomic consequences of failing to do so.FIGURE 222IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

FIGURE 6EARTH MISSIONS BY DISCIPLINE (2000-2020)measurements by providing informationon how clouds influence the Earth’senergy balance and the role they play inregulating climate.Charles Kennel, formerly the directorof Scripps Institution of Oceanographyand associate administrator for NASA,warns that the restoration of a few sensorsand implementation of the NationalAcademies recommendations may still fallshort of what is needed.NASA and NOAA Earth-observingsatellites “are aging and the replacementplans are fragmentary, inadequate andwere started much too late,” said Kennel,who heads the Environment and SustainabilityInitiative at the University of California,San Diego. “On the NASA side,there is no plan to explicitly replace EOS,and what the decadal survey has recommendedis only a down payment on whatwill be needed.”The Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies (CSIS), a policy researchinstitute in Washington, D.C., is due torelease in mid-July a report assessing thecurrent state of Earth observations. Thereport was to identify the gap betweenuser requirements and the current andplanned Earth-observation capabilities,and to recommend long-term strategiesfor acquiring the data needed to understandand respond to global environmentalchange.“In order for the U.S. to derive fullbenefits from its past investments in Earthobservations and deliver on their potentialfor its citizens and people around theworld, it is critically important that theU.S. set a long-term strategy for Earth observations,”said Lyn Wigbels, senior associatefor CSIS’s Space Initiatives Programand primary author of the report.Many of the deficiencies expected tobe highlighted in the CSIS report weresupposed to be addressed by the U.S. IntegratedEarth Observation System (IEOS),the U.S. component of the Global EarthObservation System of Systems (GEOSS),an international initiative of more than 70countries and the European Commissionto link observing instruments around theworld. A strategic plan for IEOS releasedin 2005 set goals and requirements forU.S. observing systems organized aroundnine societal benefit areas, ranging fromimproved weather forecasting to themonitoring and managing of water andenergy resources.But some Earth-observation advocatessay privately that IEOS and GEOSShave not lived up to their billing, in partbecause the Bush administration has notmade either a high enough priority, evenas it acknowledged in a scientific assessmentreleased in May that a changing climate“is very likely … to have significanteffects on” U.S. water resources, agriculture,land resources, biodiversity, and humanhealth and other resources over thenext few decades and beyond.Kennel still sees a bright upside forGEOSS, albeit slow in the making. “Allinternational voluntary efforts are necessarilyslow, and GEOSS is only now beginningto show results that affect actual observations,”he said. “It is important thatthese efforts continue, as there is nothingbetter on the horizon. GEOSS has notfailed, but it has not yet succeeded.”The slow pace of efforts to improveEarth observations and to enable more informeddecision-making poses an increasingrisk to lives, livelihoods and economiesin the United States and around the worldas weather becomes more extreme in someplaces, natural disasters pile up, and evidencefor climate change mounts. The refrainis much the same every time naturestrikes, says Michael Keebaugh, presidentof Raytheon Intelligence and InformationSystems, which is working on ground segmentsof NPOESS.“We hear almost daily about the devastatingand deadly impacts of floods,droughts, forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes,tsunamis, earthquakes or volcanoesaround the world,” Keebaughsaid. “A recurring theme in each of thesenatural disasters is the need for better andmore timely information, both pre- andpost-disaster, greater accessibility to thatinformation, better integrated and moreaccurate forecast models, and improveddecision support tools.”IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM25

ARIZONA DOT AND SANBORN USING ArcGIS IMAGE SERVERBoth public and private organizations are findingthat the volume of imagery available tothem is growing at a rapid rate. At the sametime, however, the importance of updated andcurrent imagery, including aerial and satellite,is also growing. Decision makers in manyorganizations need the latest high-quality imagesto visualize and analyze activities such asland use, forest quality, military operations,and emergency situations.Geographic information system (GIS)users are especially interested in the increasingavailability of imagery. Whetherserving as a natural background forGIS applications, as a vehicle for directinterpretation of data, as a basis for statisticsand analysis, or as the source formany vector maps, imagery has manydemands placed upon it. While hugevolumes of imagery from many sourcesexist today, accessibility to this data isa challenge, and as a result only a fractionof what is available is actually accessed.Increasing access to the imageryincreases its value, and since images area snapshot in time, the faster they aremade available, the more useful theyare to those who need them.Arizona’s Multimodal PlanningDivision (MPD) of the Arizona Departmentof Transportation (ADOT)provides high quality transportationresearch, plans and programs to thepublic. “GIS is a necessary tool forArizona to plan, analyze, model andmanage our information,” says JamesMeyer, Senior GIS Analyst, ADOT. “Ithas really helped us provide a visualarray of information that allows ourusers to understand easily the complexenvironmental, economic and social issues.GIS is also useful as an effectivetool for bringing people together on thesame page when discussing programsand policies in the state.”The central objectives of MPD are tohelp identify current significant transportationissues in Arizona and to improveexisting systems. MPD is alsocommitted to cost effectively maintain-Writer, ESRIRedlands, Calif.www.esri.com/imageserver26IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

FIGURE 1FIGURE 2.ing and expanding the state’s transportationinfrastructure. An ESRI GIS userfor many years, the ADOT geographicinformation system and transportationsection maintains the statewide streetcenterline GIS database and coordinatesGIS issues for ADOT. Primarily focusedon the more than 6200-mile state highwaysystem, the section maintains theGIS database, also known as the ArizonaTransportation Information System(ATIS Roads), and is the foundation formany planning studies and programs,including supporting the Federal HighwayPerformance Monitoring System(HPMS) for the state of Arizona.ATIS Roads originated from the AccidentLocation Information SurveillanceSystem (ALISS) map base thatwas maintained using photogrammetryand mapping until its conversion toGIS in the early 1990s. What began asa simple drawing tool has now growninto a full GIS.One of the ongoing projects of ADOTis the ATIS Roads Update, which is themost important work of the group, sinceit is the basis for all the GIS data at the organization.This street centerline file forthe state of Arizona is used to referenceroutes and mileposts that are geocodedto the Linear Referencing System and displayedon the maps. All data in ADOTuses the standard ATIS nomenclature forreferencing location. See .To assist in this update, ADOT adoptedArcGIS Image Server. “Usingimagery, it is easy for us to identify areaswhere the streets in our databasedon’t match up with real-world information,”says Meyer.Four terabytes of imagery are usedto verify ground data. Once an ominoustask for the department, today using thismuch raster data is an efficient means ofviewing and analyzing its information.“Before ArcGIS Image Server, looking atimages of the road network meant hookingup an extra hard drive and siftingthrough 8,000 tiles,” says Meyer. “UsingImage Server, we are able to viewone continuous image quickly throughoutthe department on our network.”This usage is possible because of Arc-GIS Image Server mosaics and because itprocesses imagery on the fly, providingusers with the seamless image productsthey need without having to save multiplecopies of the same image or performtime-consuming image pre-processing.ADOT is able to let users throughout theplanning department access the most currentimagery available. “This has takenout any reason to have data redundancythroughout the agency,” says Meyer. “Italso means we save money by not havingto deal with extra storage requirements.”Many users at ADOT are new toGIS, so they are unfamiliar with the traditionalmeans of loading and lookingat images. “ArcGIS Image Server makesit easy for non-GIS users to view data inthe way they are used to—quickly andintuitively. They don’t think twice aboutthe amount of data they are viewing orhow quickly they can access it. This hashelped us to support many more usersthan previously and to expand the useof GIS data throughout the whole organization,”says Meyer.MPD’s goal is that ArcGIS ImageServer will be adopted by other non-GIS departments such as the CAD Department.Potentially, CAD users willbe able to perform quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) on their surveydata and measure the ground truth withthe images. “We are hoping that ArcGISImage Server will support all of ADOT’saerial image needs,” says Meyer.ArcGIS Image Server is also importantin supporting the continuing efforts of theHighway Performance Monitoring System(HPMS) submittals. A requirementIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM27

of each state, the HPMS is America’s nationaldatabase of highway information.Roadway extent, use, condition, andperformance data are collected by andfor the states and submitted to the FederalHighway Administration (FHWA)each year. See . From a nationalperspective, the FHWA’s primary intentwith this program is to provide Congresswith a policy tool for major highway legislationand funding decisions.ArcGIS Image Server is an integraltool that allows ADOT to continue toprovide the best administrative, financial,and clerical support possible. Thesoftware has proven valuable for planning,traffic, and feature inventory, andthe agency plans to continue expandingits use to more departments.“The value of imagery is highest whena large number of users have access to thedata quickly,” says Clark Coffey, ArcGISImage Server Product Marketing Manager.“With conventional solutions, imageprocessing and distribution are difficultand time-consuming, and end users havedifficulty accessing and using the imageryin their standard applications. Arc-GIS Image Server is one component tothe image solution, providing a new approachto storing, managing, processing,and distributing geo-imagery.”A company whose staff understandthis well is Sanborn (Colorado Springs,Colo.). Sanborn first became knownback in 1866 through its finely detailedfire insurance maps—maps so well createdthat they are actually still used today.Now part of the DMG InformationGroup of companies, which is ownedby the United Kingdom-based DailyMail and General Trust, Sanborn continuesto provide geospatial solutionsto its clients. Government agencies andcompanies in environmental management,national mapping, utility, andenergy markets rely on them for theirmapping needs.Sanborn was the first commercialmapping firm to develop and implement asystem for producing digital orthophotoimagery without distortion. Sanborn’simages include surrounding streets andother cultural features that are not ordinarilyvisible in standard orthophotos,using a method they developed calledMethod for the Elimination of Terrainand Relief Displacement in Orthophotography(METRO).This type of imagery is being usedby a significant number of GIS users asa useful database layer for topographic,planimetric or cadastral mapping, utilitydata capture and accurate projectanalysis and design implementations.These images are created as both second-generationimagery for clients requiringgeo-referencing to their originalGIS data, and as first-generationorthophotos of the highest accuracy.Many of Sanborn’s imagery projectscover large areas with many customerstakeholders. Customers include largecounties such as Maricopa County,Arizona, as well as councils of governmentand statewide initiatives. Theaverage delivery range of imagery projects’size is 144 Gigabytes for one areato 4.4 Terabytes for up to 30 deliveryareas, based on an average tile size of2000' x 3000' for a delivery area sizeof 2000 tiles—the equivalent of 400square miles. Sanborn’s delivery formatis RGB with a six-inch pixel size.Processing hundreds of terabytes oforthophotos per month for customerslike these required Sanborn to find aninnovative solution for clients who needmassive amounts of imagery for theirapplications without extensive preprocessingor alteration of source data.Sanborn chose ArcGIS Image Serverbecause it provides rapid access to largequantities of file-based imagery, and theability to process on the fly and on demand.The specialties of the two companiesled Sanborn to become an ESRIimplementation partner. “Image Serverallows Sanborn to offer our clients a solutionthat gives them the images theyrequire immediately and with consistency,”says John Copple, chief executiveofficer of Sanborn.Sanborn uses ArcGIS Image Server28IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

to diminish the interval between thecollection of an image and its availabilityto users. Traditionally, image processingand distribution have been considered twoseparate stages in image utilization. Imagerywas first processed and mosaickedinto a large dataset, then put on servers fordissemination.This separation has caused manyproblems: long preprocessing and loadingtimes and data redundancy that exacerbatesdata storage issues and hinders efficientdata management. With ArcGIS ImageServer, these two stages are combinedinto one. The data received from an imagerysupplier can be directly served. Thisability enables administrators to maintainthe primary imagery, while creating multiplespecialized products on the fly whenrequired. This is a significant and uniqueparadigm shift in how imagery is managed,processed, and distributed.Using ArcGIS Image Server, Sanborncreated Sanborn Quality Assurance(QA), a client imagery interfacethat facilitates Web-based qualitychecking of Sanborn-created orthophotoimagery products. Clients can viewimagery through a standard Webbrowser as the image is being processedand add digital ‘issue points’ to areaswithin the imagery that they feel mayrequire attention. This real-time errorreporting while Sanborn is processingthe imagery makes data managementmuch more simplified and reduces dataredundancy and the delay in makingthe imagery accessible.Clients can review orthoimagery assoon as they are available on Sanborncomputer systems. Users are grantedentry to the image Web application viasecure login privileges to access a particularproject. Clients may add QAflags to the project to indicate items requiringadditional review, and these becomeimmediately available inside themain GIS for viewing by Sanborn’s productionstaff. There they are immediatelyavailable for technicians to reviewand resolve. These digital issue pointsgive clients the ability to describe errorsefficiently, and in turn, users are ableto make fast, responsive changes suchas color balancing and edgematchingto the imagery. There is also a reportingtool to give up to the minute qualitycontrol status of the project. This toolmakes the problem resolution processmore streamlined and problem-free.All imagery is served from a centralimage server to the client-side computerwithin a mapping interface in a standardWeb browser format. ArcGIS Server 9.2authors map documents that contain theimage server data and QA/QC featuresclasses. ArcSDE technology provides accessto the data. Using this solution, theQA/QC points are immediately readyfor status and resolution, and updates tothe points by the QA team are immediatelyavailable online.Built on fully scalable enterprise client/serverarchitecture, ArcGIS ImageServer offers multiplatform GIS/CAD/Web client access and direct access tomany file formats and compression. Usingthe software, multiple imagery projectscan be created from a single source.Client visibility is granted into projectmanagement with macro-level accessusing a log-in access control with granularsecurity role assignment. A customASP.Net application adds robust security.Resource assignments are now veryeasy and flexible. Users of the system login online using a standard Web-basedbrowser to access their projects.Once logged in, the QA users areshown a list of projects they are able toaccess. By clicking a link from a pulldownmenu called ‘Map,’ the users openthe QA environment for their projects.The initial map that is displayed showsthe individual project status throughcolored pixels, green specifying tilesavailable for review, red for areas notyet available. The user of that projectcan then add and view the current issuepoints for the project.Sanborn prototyped the system withcustomers from Colorado and Texas.Based on their positive prototype experienceand customer feedback, thecompany is releasing a next-generationsystem for use by Maricopa County,Arizona. This county is approximately9200 square miles, with an expecteddata delivery size of around 4.4 terabytes.See .Implementing the system took approximately150 man hours from theIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM29

initial design, including determining requirements,purchasing and implementingthe software, customizing, testingand, finally, releasing the system. SanbornQA requires nothing more than astandard Web browser and high-speedInternet connection. After clients utilizethe system and are satisfied withthe quality of the imagery, the projectis delivered through either turnkey ESRIImage Server delivery, on demand datastaging for after flight review, traditionalhard drive or DVD delivery.Says Copple: “The instant online imageryreview accelerates our quality assuranceand quality control review. Wehave given our customers the option tocompletely eliminate physical shippingrequirements for QC purposes.” Sanbornhas also found they have successfullyreduced their clients’ IT involvementand provided for a secure solutionfor project management. Using thissolution, Sanborn clients get fast imageaccess optimized to their requirementswith improved image quality and imagemetadata. By serving data to their clientsdirectly, Sanborn has realized an overallproduction–to-delivery time decrease ofapproximately 66% in some cases.Due to the schedule savings and theFIGURES 3-5increased QC accuracy, Sanborn is ableto improve its responsiveness while savingthe customer costly edit and deliverable delays.“It’s now easier for us as a companyto assign our resources and offer flexible,efficient delivery options to our clients,”explains Melinda Brown, Vice Presidentof Corporate Marketing at Sanborn.Both MPD and Sanborn are lookingforward to the upcoming releaseof ArcGIS Server 9.3 that will add newfunctionality, including a new RepresentationalState Transfer (REST) API.Organizations like these will be able tobring together quickly the detailed roadinformation and imagery into additionalweb applications such as GoogleMaps and Microsoft Virtual Earth usingthe appropriate ArcGIS JavaScriptExtensions for each application. TheJavaScript APIs are powered by backendREST services that can be hostedon any Java or .NET installation of Arc-GIS Server. These new Image Serviceswill enable clients to utilize the imageryservices not only as background intheir GIS applications, but to access thepixel values, enabling the image and elevationmodels to be used in differentanalysis applications.30IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

OGC/ISO committees, and on the OGCBoard of Directors.The IONIC deal was just one of threethat the company negotiated to diversifyits product portfolio. The purchase ofAcquis Inc. gave it a foothold in multiusertopological editing, with supportfor mobile, web and rich client desktopenvironments. The acquisition of a thirdfirm, ER Mapper, drew Image WebServer into the ERDAS product line.The latter deal also brought ownershipof ER Mapper Professional to ERDAS,strengthening its presence in the remotesensing image processing arena. ERMapper Professional is now co-marketedalong with the existing three-tier suiteof ERDAS IMAGINE tools.Senior Vice President of ProductManagement and Marketing, MladenStojic explained that the companywill adhere to a multi-phased developmentplan aimed at solidifying itspresence in the enterprise market.Phase One commenced earlier thisyear with the release of ERDAS ImageManager, a tool that addressesthe challenge of discovering, describing,cataloging and serving imagedata. See .Phase Two will extend thissame functionality into a morefully consolidated package consistingof three elements: the OGC/ISO-compliant enterprise applicationERDAS Apollo, a geo-portaltoolkit customers can use todevelop custom Web applications, andan integrated Web client that will permitthe completion of geospatial workflowsin a browser format. Full integrationof vector topology in the company’score products, and improvements in theautomation of support for on-demandgeoprocessing, are among the goals targetedin Phase Three. Finally, ERDAShopes to refine its geospatial platformby developing market-focused solutionsthat address specific needs identified bymembers of its partner network. Particularfocus will be directed towardthe resolution of issues in the utilities,natural resources, defense and oil/gassectors.ERDAS emphasizes how geospatialinformation can increase in value as itevolves through the progressive stagesof authoring, management, sharing anddelivery. Last year’s ERDAS TITANnetwork debut was something of afunctional glamorization of the datasharing phase. TITAN is an online solutionthat permits the discovery, visualizationand retrieval of geospatial datawithin a secure environment. Desktopand Internet applications, as well asthree-dimensional virtual globes, maybe used to display content interactivelyand collaboratively, and users are encouragedto create personal, permissions-controlled“MyWorld” spacesinto which they can upload geospatialdata for others to view. With this controlledstructure, ERDAS is offering adata sharing environment that ensuresthe protection of digital ownershiprights. See on page 33.ITT’s ENVI updates bring new automatedworkflows and data integrationoptions for ESRI’s ArcGIS. ENVI 4.4delivers new functionality that streamlinesimage analysis workflow (such asworking with vector layers, pan sharpeningimages and performing change detection)and provides advanced spectralprocessing and analysis capabilities.ENVI 4.5 delivers seamless integrationof ENVI and ArcGIS, for file exchangebetween the ENVI and ArcGISgeodatabases. It delivers direct access tothe full suite of map composition toolsavailable with ESRI’s ArcMap, providinga complete image processing workflowfrom data access and analysis, to acompleted map product. Image processingand analysis done in ENVI can thenbe launched in ArcMap from withinENVI to generate reports and map compositions.In Seattle, LizardTech engineers havededicated themselves to slimming thecumbersome heft of geospatial files inthe interests of optimized workflow, reducedstorage requirements and speedierimage delivery to internal and onlineusers. Early this year the firm releasedGeoExpress 7, its newest version of theapplication customers use to shrink giantraster files by as much as 95 percentusing LizardTech’s patented mrSID compressionformat. See .“Not only can you compress thoseimages, but you can take existing imagesand you can combine them togetherinto larger datasets,” explainedSenior Product Manager Jon Skiffington.“So a typical workflow for one ofour customers might be that they havea thousand GeoTiff files and they wantto combine those over to one large imageand maybe project it to a coordinatesystem, or maybe do some color balancingand then compress. They can do allthat in GeoExpress very easily.”In a fully implemented LizardTechstorage and server network, two additionalproducts would be installed—Spatial Express for storage and ExpressServer for image delivery—and GeoExpresswould act as a command center to34IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

FIGURE 3configure both of them. Customers whoprefer archiving their data in an OracleSpatial database, thereby eliminatingtime-consuming image pyramiding, canrun the Spatial Express extension. Theproduct allows gigabyte-sized images tobe stored in Oracle as native mrSID orJPEG 2000 files. Both of these file formatssupport selective decompression.“Rather than having to decompressthe entire image, you can just requestthe region of interest that you want.”Skiffington said. “Spatial Express willreturn that area, so it saves a lot ofspace, and it’s a lot faster.”For most customers, easier storageand image access is likely to comprisejust a portion of the workflow optimizationplan. So LizardTech rounds out itsproduct offering with Express Server, adistribution solution which links to Geo-Express and allows for the catalogingof geospatial images without using commandline prompts or manipulating complexXML files. Imagery delivered byExpress Server can be viewed simultaneouslyin Web Map Service clients, ESRI’sArcIMS (Internet Mapping Server), OracleMapViewer, or with any number oflower-bandwidth mobile applications.However, enterprise-level data exchangeisn’t always about open interfacesand brokering peace between file extensions.Strategic alliances that acceleratethe assimilation of next-generationtechnologies by linking them to familiarproducts are additional factors toconsider in the subjective judgment ofthe fully “tricked-out” geospatial enterprise.A case in point is Definiens Inc. ofMünchen, Germany. When this companyjoined the ArcGIS Integration Partnerprogram last year it exposed its productsto ESRI’s installed base, and a considerablylarger market, in one fell swoop.Definiens specializes in automatedimage analysis for feature extractionand change detection at any scale—acapability of interest for organizationsthat manage natural resources, plan infrastructureor specialize in security andemergency response. Its eCognition NetworkTechnology goes beyond the mereassessment of color and intensity in animage and looks at pixels in a wider contextualsense. By recognizing groups ofpixels as objects and analyzing shape,texture, size and pixel group relationships,the Enterprise Image Intelligencesuite of products seeks to emulate theskills of a trained image analyst.This automation of feature extractionin a nuanced fashion allows users to distinguish,for example, between trees thatmake up a park and trees in a forest. TheGerman Remote Sensing Data Center hasused platform technology by Definiens toclassify automatically bog habitats using anobject-based approach that extracts featuresaccording to their actual shape, ratherthan as parcels. Another project funded bythe European Space Agency resulted in aprototype application that fuses multipleinput data to examine the suitability ofland use for pipeline construction.Distribution collaborations are pushingadvanced capabilities like these deeperinto the enterprise environment. PCIGeomatics, a Canadian vendor of geospatialdecision support technology for theearth sciences market, agreed recently tomarket and provide technical support forDefiniens’ solutions in North America.PCI’s Geomatica platform works with remotesensor data, GIS, digital photogrammetry,cartography and data visualizationto provide image preprocessing technologythat “complements our product suite forearth sciences,” said Gregg Westerbeck,vice president of sales and general managerfor Definiens’ Americas operations.Another partnership announcedon July 9 is between Autodesk andBentley Systems. They will expandinteroperability between their portfoliosof architectural, engineering,and construction software. The companieswill exchange software libraries,including Autodesk RealDWG, to improvethe ability to read and write thecompanies’ respective DWG and DGNformats in mixed environments. Theywill facilitate work process interoperabilityto improve AEC workflows byenabling broader reuse of informationgenerated during the design, construction,and operation of buildings andinfrastructure.These trends and developmentspoint to some of the ways that openstandards, industry consolidation andmarketing alliances are helping to fillthe data integration and image processingneeds of enterprise-level GIS experts.More and more, customers wantto abandon the fragmented outsourcingmodel of earlier years and work withturnkey solutions that ease the methodsby which spatially relevant informationis commingled with existing businessdata and operational or decision supportintelligence.IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM35

GUEST EDITOR IALFIGURE 1(continued from page 38)year for a period of six to 10 years,” (Guam’srepresentative in Congress, Madeleine Z.Bordallo) said.”Consider having to repeat that majormove because of the effects of rising sealevel in Guam. As the “National Securityand the Threat of Climate Change” reportby the CNA points out, “Lack of planningfor (critical defense installations) cancompromise them or cause them to beinundated, compromising military readinessand capability.” See .In fact, Pacific Island lawmakers whoattended a three-day general assemblyof the Pacific Island legislature on Guamin early May are very concerned fortheir own sustainability in light of globalwarming, and plan to meet again inNovember to discuss the effects of globalwarming on Pacific Islanders. Generalassembly delegate Alik J. Alik, vicespeaker of the Marshall Islands’ Nitijela(Parliament), said concerns about risingsea levels have prompted some peoplein the island republic to relocate, or toconsider relocating.The Army alone has more than 14 millionacres and over 2000 Installations, 12,000historical structures, a multi-billion dollarmilitary construction program, and a baseoperations program. Not only should theArmy be preparing for the effects of globalclimate change, but also it should examinehow its institutional processes are creatinggreenhouse gases, what the installationscan do to be a part of local, regional andnational solutions, and how the Army isgoing to adapt the 21st century base structureto the new realities of climate change.The defense authorization committeesare well aware of the need to engage themilitary in the new realities of climate change,and they are hard at work with authorizing theservices. However, the services themselvesmust embrace new ways of thinking aboutthis issue and about tackling those reformsto change the way the bureaucracy works.I offer the following six suggestionsonly as a starting point:Fund the New Energy TechnologiesThe Logistics Management Institutesaid in their review of “Winning the OilEndgame” that “Aggressively developingand applying energy-saving technologiesto military applications would potentiallydo more to solve the most pressing longtermchallenges facing the Department ofDefense (DOD) and our national securitythan any other single investment area.Recently, the Secretary of Defense calledupon the services to be more innovativeas they look at the technology, andmany have said the services have fallenwoefully behind in innovation. Yet, theirvery engagement can improve the entiremarketplace for technology. The EnergyIndependence and Security Act of 2007sets a standard for cutting greenhousegases, and both DOD and the privatesector have stated that the technology isavailable to meet these greenhouse gasrequirements.” Specialized programs ineach of the military services have shownimpressive results that need to be morebroadly implemented throughout DOD.Fix the Installation Organization StructureWhile the Department of Defense is in theprocess of developing a comprehensiveenergy strategy, there remains a lack ofintegration of environmental and energypolicy. Currently, the Army Installationsand Environment organization separatesenvironmental policy and practice from theenergy organization into two stovepipe organizations.While both of them are under thesame Assistant Secretary, they have almostno lines of communication, and the energyorganization sees their mission as getting thebest price of electricity for the installations. Ifthat price is dependent on coal, so be it. If itis delivered on a vulnerable antiquated grid,that is the problem of the energy provider.The environmental and energy teammust see their mission as a nationalsecurity mission, and it must be integrated.Ongoing information and trainingprograms like those started at theNational Defense University need to beexpanded to all service academies andoffered throughout the training infrastructurein the services.Deploy more versatile fuelsDuring my tenure with the Army, there wasgreat resistance to looking at renewableenergy or distributed systems. While theinstallations planners have developed36IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

a program called Enhanced Leases tobetter utilize land capacity, still the ideaof leasing for solar or wind was resistedbecause of the long-term power agreementsthe Army entered into. Perhaps thisis inherent in the process of change.The Senate Armed ServicesCommittee has recommended that theservices enter into multiyear contracts,for a period of up to 10 years, for thepurchase of alternative or synthetic fuels.The services ought to be buying at least25 percent of their electricity from wind,solar, biomass, geothermal or otherrenewable energy sources by 2025. Noplace is better suited for plug-and-drivevehicles than military installations. Asmilitary facilities expand and are upgradedand realigned, greater use of highperformance buildings, on-site distributedgeneration, and the most advancedenergy-saving technologies need to beaggressively deployed.Assess the Vulnerability of InstallationsInsurance companies have alreadyperformed risk assessments on coastalhousing and may have decided to pullout of that market. The military too shouldassess the risks and begin planning forthe next round of base closures and beginto build a base structure that takes intoaccount a warming planet and a risingsea level.Fresh water will become scarcerin more places due to warming. Justrecently, the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee, concerned with vulnerabilityof the grid, found that, “despite numerousvulnerability studies, the extent of technicaland operational risks to specific criticalmissions is not adequately assessed,or plans for its mitigation programmed.”This incomplete assessment,coupled with the trend overthe last several years to placemore defense installationsonto the commercial powergrid, suggests that departmentinfrastructure energy plansmay not be synchronized withan up-to-date technical andoperational risk evaluation.Efforts by DOD to back upcritical base functions withon-site renewable generationneed to be expanded.Change the way the services dobusiness at the installationThe department should require a fullaccounting of the cost of energy at theinstallations. This should include the costto the environment from exploration totransportation to clean up of the residue.There should be a department-wide energyefficiency target and authorization for theinstallations to modify existing contractsto take account of the full cost of energyto the installation and to create energyindependence at the installation level.Work with local communities, includingtribes, to develop a smart gridThe military installations should moveaggressively toward a web-enabled,digitally controlled power delivery systemthat efficiently distributes electricity andprotects from blackouts and excessenergy consumption.No group of Americans has a larger stakein managing the effects of climate change,and perhaps no government body has amore significant responsibility, than DOD.The department also has the structure,FIGURE 2the discipline, and the resources to playone of the most valuable leadership rolesin one of the greatest challenges facingthe next three generations. The incomingAdministration will have an opportunity toappoint a defense leadership who understandsthe national security implicationsof climate change and should ask eachpotential appointee what he or she woulddo to ensure that the DOD trains, equipsand deploys the department to lead onthis national security issue.IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM37

GUEST EDITOR IALCLIMATE CHANGE IS OPPORTUNITY FOR DOD LEADERSHIPRay Clark is Senior Partner at The ClarkGroup, a Washington D.C. environmentaland energy consulting firm. In 1999he was appointed Principal DeputyAssistant Secretary of the Army andserved as the Acting Assistant Secretaryfor Installations and Environment duringthe transition between administrations.From 1992 to 1999 he was the AssociateDirector in the White House Council onEnvironmental Quality. He has a MastersDegree from Duke University where hecontinues to serve as adjunct faculty.Recently he formed the Conservationistsfor National Security to provide a forumto address the impacts of climate changeon national security. He is editor of twobooks on environmental policy.EDITOR’S NOTEBy now, there are only ahandful of people who doubt that globalwarming is occurring, and most agreethat it is happening at such a pace thatadapting and managing it could outstrip ourinstitutional skills and abilities. The mostcharitable description of the Bush Administrationleadership on this issue is lackluster.Not only are citizens not prepared — neitheris the federal government.Increasing concerns about thenational security implications of climatechange have been well documented withnumerous studies, including the Centerfor Naval Analyses (CNA) report led by 11retired flag officers, and others by The U.S.Army War College, the Defense ScienceBoard, and the Pentagon. The securitythreats include increased tensions overcompetition for resources like fresh waterand food, as well as large-scale migrationof refugees, and disease. It is the U.S.military that is often called upon to bringstability to regions in turmoil and conflict.While instability is a major nationalsecurity concern, the full scope of climatechange impacts on national security couldgo beyond instability to include the loss ordiminishment of U.S. military installations,and even the inability to deploy weaponsbecause of dramatic changes in oceantemperatures and intensity of local climateconditions.These senior flag officers of theCNA report have not gone daffy; theyhave looked at serious data and theyare suggesting the deployment of theinstitutional planning associated withthe complex system of the biggest andmost sophisticated planning system inthe United States government. They aresuggesting that the Quadrennial DefenseReview assess the capabilities of the U.S.military to respond to the almost certainevents that will be caused by climatechange. Thus, climate change will becomea threat addressed in both the NationalSecurity Strategy and the NationalDefense Strategy. The officers are askingthe intelligence community to integrate theconsequences of climate change into theNational Intelligence Estimate.The traditional tools of the military,like war games and scenario planning,are overdue in the matter of climatechange and would certainly help the nextAdministration begin the institutionalreforms needed to deal with this threat, ifthey were put into place.A particularly vulnerable aspect of themilitary structure that often is overlooked isthe fact that installations are not often seenas the “tip of the spear.” But climate changewill bring major effects to defense installations,particularly the ones in low-lying areasnear shorelines and in the Indian Ocean andthe Pacific Islands. See .The 2006 agreement between theUnited States and Japan to move 8,000U.S. Marines from bases in Japan to theisland of Guam by 2014 is clearly aboutmore than just relocating Marines. Guam isabout to become once again an importantforward position in the U.S. Defenseposture.The FY 2007 National Defense AuthorizationAct includes a $193 million MilitaryConstruction authorization fund for Guam,a $31 million increase over 2006 funding.“Guam is likely to see between $400 millionand $1 billion in military construction each(continued on page 36)38IMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM

platinum sponsors gold sponsors silver sponsorbronze sponsorScanX R&D CenterEverything is Connected TMInfrastructure: Local to GlobalJuly 21st-25th, 2008Vancouver, B.C., CanadaBe there when GIS and the Web unite at GeoWeb 2008.Discover, learn and discuss today’s most innovative geospatial technologies!8· 3 Keynote Speakers· Over 50 Paper Presentations· 2 Spark Panels· GeoWeb’s 1st Student Contest· 3 Invited Speakers· 16 Workshops· Vendor Exhibit Hall & Reception· Networking Reception & FireworksDon’t miss this opportunity to register and hear from industry leaders asthey share their knowledge and to network with your fellow peers.www.geowebconference.orgConference OrganizerConference SupporterIMAGING NOTES // S UMMER 2008 // WWW.IMAGINGNOTES.COM39

MYANMAR CYCLONE FLOODING