GEOmedia 3 2017
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Rivista bimestrale - anno XXI - Numero 3/<strong>2017</strong> - Sped. in abb. postale 70% - Filiale di Roma<br />
LAND CARTOGRAPHY<br />
GIS<br />
CADASTRE<br />
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION<br />
PHOTOGRAMMETRY<br />
3D<br />
SURVEY TOPOGRAPHY<br />
CAD<br />
BIM<br />
EARTH OBSERVATION SPACE<br />
WEBGIS<br />
UAV<br />
URBAN PLANNING<br />
CONSTRUCTION<br />
LBS<br />
SMART CITY<br />
GNSS<br />
ENVIRONMENT<br />
NETWORKS<br />
LiDAR<br />
CULTURAL HERITAGE<br />
Mag/Giu <strong>2017</strong> anno XXI N°3<br />
La prima rivista italiana di geomatica e geografia intelligente<br />
Numero<br />
dedicato a<br />
INTERGEO <strong>2017</strong><br />
completamente<br />
in Inglese<br />
Emerging<br />
Technologies<br />
the digital revolution around and above us<br />
NEW TRENDS IN<br />
GEOMATICS<br />
IMPROVING RESILIENCE TO<br />
EMERGENCIES<br />
VGI AND MAPPING IN<br />
EMERGENCY
(c) <strong>2017</strong>, Trimble Inc. All rights reserved. GEO-140 (05/17)<br />
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TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS
20 years of <strong>GEOmedia</strong><br />
I would like to remember to our readers that <strong>GEOmedia</strong> started in Italy more than twenty years<br />
ago, while the revolution of Geomatics was approaching to the field of interest and development<br />
of topography, remote sensing and photogrammetry. At the same time the University of Calgary in<br />
Canada began the first course and experimental programs on innovation of geomatics engineering<br />
in the world.<br />
We are proud to announce in this publishing, completely in English to celebrate the INTERGEO<br />
Fair in Berlin, the start of the first Italian MSc in Geoinformatics engineering at the “Politecnico di<br />
Milano”, about what you’ll read inside our papers, among the others, specifically in the short article<br />
by Ludovico Biagi.<br />
During last years <strong>GEOmedia</strong>, the Italian magazine on Geomatics, occasionally accepted for<br />
publication English insert or special issue, especially when the review has been regarding papers for<br />
the annual trade INTERGEO, the global hub of geospatial Community.<br />
GEOSPATIAL 4.0, BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING, BIG DATA, SMART<br />
CITIES, OPEN DATA are among the INTERGEO’S important issues we all need to address.<br />
At today the geo industry is claimed as one of the sectors with the biggest shortage of skilled labour,<br />
moreover the request to recruit competent young professionals is growing mainly in the public<br />
interest. In INTERGEO event the employers and the skilled professionals are together with many<br />
geo-technology experts of the public services, to explain this changing world to young workers.<br />
Europe needs not only good recruitment strategies, but also new ideas to overcome bottleneck<br />
problems and meet the needs of an ageing workforce.<br />
In the very next future we’ll need both spatial data analysts and geodesists. INTERGEO <strong>2017</strong> is an<br />
inspirational experience and surely an initiative that will give us new insights.<br />
For this <strong>GEOmedia</strong>, now as official media partner of the event, is in the distribution desk of the<br />
Conference Hall, for dissemination of the Italian knowledge and experience in the geospatial field,<br />
that we consider as one of the main cornerstone for land management, territory, environment and<br />
development of our smart (historic) cities.<br />
The Italian contribution to Geomatics has a long tradition for advancing purposes in the field of<br />
topography, photogrammetry, remote sensing and mapping. Floods, marine coasts, hydrogeological<br />
hazards, volcanic and earthquake risk monitoring and management are at the daily information<br />
of the citizens and attention of all people involved in the organizations appointed. Across a fragile<br />
territory to be protected, rich of Monuments, Sites and Archaeological remains, we extend a field<br />
where the Geomatics methods and technologies are almost indispensable and so necessary.<br />
For this aim too, some years ago we imagine Archeomatica, a magazine oriented to a wide<br />
dissemination of changing technologies for Cultural Heritage throughout the times. The<br />
internationalization of Archeomatica is one of our future goal for which we hope to excite all the<br />
interest we can among our readers so as to get additional collaborations.<br />
Enjoy your reading,<br />
Renzo Carlucci
In this<br />
issue...<br />
FOCUS<br />
REPORT<br />
COLUMNS<br />
36 NEWS<br />
New Trends in<br />
Geomatics, in the Era<br />
of Lowcost Sensors,<br />
Free and Open<br />
Source Software and<br />
HPC GeoBigData<br />
infrastructures<br />
by Roberta Ravanelli, Martina<br />
Di Rita, Valeria Belloni,<br />
Andrea Nascetti, Augusto<br />
Mazzoni, Mattia Crespi<br />
6<br />
46 AGENDA<br />
The image on the background is<br />
a Sentinel-2A satellite taken over<br />
the peninsulas and islands of the<br />
Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar.<br />
With a length of over 2200<br />
km, the Irrawaddy River is the<br />
country's largest, flowing northto-south<br />
before fanning out into<br />
the delta and emptying into the<br />
Andaman Sea.<br />
Evident by the brown colour of<br />
the rivers and streams, sediments<br />
carried by the water are deposited<br />
in the delta. These deposits make<br />
the area very fertile, and the accumulation<br />
of deposits over time<br />
causes the coastline to advance.<br />
Owing to the rich soils, the region<br />
is the country’s largest rice producer.<br />
This image was captured in<br />
March <strong>2017</strong> after the harvesting<br />
season but before the planting, so<br />
bare ground appears beige.<br />
This image, also featured on the<br />
ESA Earth from Space video programme,<br />
combines two acquisitions<br />
by the Copernicus Sentinel-<br />
2A satellite in March <strong>2017</strong><br />
On the cover image of Autonomous<br />
Driving. Significant advancements<br />
in satellite-based positioning are<br />
contributing to the development of<br />
better transport services and new<br />
applications for safe transport and<br />
smart mobility. With its flexibility, fast<br />
growing capability, low infrastructure<br />
costs and long-term sustainable use,<br />
GNSS is an important asset in the<br />
design of new Intelligent Transport<br />
System (ITS) infrastructures.<br />
Significant advancements in satellitebased<br />
positioning are contributing to<br />
the development of better transport<br />
services and new applications for safe<br />
transport and smart mobility. With<br />
its flexibility, fast growing capability,<br />
low infrastructure costs and longterm<br />
sustainable use, GNSS is an<br />
important asset in the design of new<br />
Intelligent Transport System (ITS)<br />
infrastructures.<br />
12<br />
18<br />
Emerging<br />
Technologies: the<br />
digital revolution<br />
around and above us<br />
by Marco Lisi<br />
Improving<br />
Resilience to<br />
Emergencies<br />
through<br />
Advanced Cyber<br />
Technologies: the<br />
I-REACT project<br />
by Claudia Maltoni, Claudio<br />
Rossi, Guzmán Sánchez<br />
geomediaonline.it<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong>, published bi-monthly, is the Italian magazine for<br />
geomatics. Since 20 years is publishing to open a worldwide<br />
window to the Italian market and viceversa. Themes are on<br />
latest news, developments and applications in the complex<br />
field of earth surface sciences. <strong>GEOmedia</strong> dial with all activities<br />
relating to the acquisition, processing, querying, analysis,<br />
presentation, dissemination, management and use of geo-data<br />
and geo-information. The magazine covers subjects such as<br />
surveying, environment, mapping, GNSS systems, GIS, Earth<br />
Observation, Geospatial Data, BIM, UAV and 3D technologies.
ADVERTISERS<br />
3D Target 45<br />
AerRobotix 38<br />
26<br />
The new MSc in<br />
Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering at<br />
Politecnico di<br />
Milano<br />
by Ludovico Biagi<br />
Aeronike 23<br />
Codevintec 34<br />
E-geos 24<br />
Epsilon Italia 37<br />
Esri Italia 39<br />
Geogrà 41<br />
Geomax 29<br />
INTERGEO 35<br />
ME.S.A 17<br />
Planetek Italia 48<br />
Stonex 40<br />
VGI and crisis 30<br />
mapping in an<br />
emergency situation<br />
by Lucia Saganeiti, Federico<br />
Amato, Gabriele Nolè,<br />
Survey Lab 44<br />
TECHNOLOGY for ALL 36<br />
Teorema 46<br />
Topcon 47<br />
Trimble 2<br />
Beniamino Murgante<br />
42<br />
Rheticus: Dynamic<br />
and continuous<br />
geoinformation<br />
service for critical<br />
infrastructure<br />
and enviromental<br />
monitoring<br />
VERTISER<br />
by Giuseppe Forenza<br />
Chief Editor<br />
RENZO CARLUCCI, direttore@rivistageomedia.it<br />
Editorial Board<br />
Vyron Antoniou, Fabrizio Bernardini, Mario Caporale,<br />
Luigi Colombo, Mattia Crespi, Luigi Di Prinzio,<br />
Michele Dussi, Michele Fasolo, Marco Lisi, Flavio Lupia,<br />
Beniamino Murgante, Aldo Riggio, Mauro Salvemini,<br />
Domenico Santarsiero, Attilio Selvini, Donato Tufillaro<br />
Managing Director<br />
FULVIO BERNARDINI, fbernardini@rivistageomedia.it<br />
Editorial Staff<br />
VALERIO CARLUCCI, GIANLUCA PITITTO,<br />
redazione@rivistageomedia.it<br />
Marketing Assistant<br />
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Account manager<br />
ALFONSO QUAGLIONE, marketing@rivistageomedia.it<br />
Design<br />
DANIELE CARLUCCI, dcarlucci@rivistageomedia.it<br />
MediaGEO soc. coop.<br />
Via Palestro, 95 00185 Roma<br />
Tel. 06.64871209 - Fax. 06.62209510<br />
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ISSN 1128-8132<br />
Reg. Trib. di Roma N° 243/2003 del 14.05.03<br />
Stampa: SPADAMEDIA srl<br />
VIA DEL LAVORO 31, 00043 CIAMPINO (ROMA)<br />
Publisher: mediaGEO società cooperativa<br />
Science & Technology Communication<br />
Paid Science subscriptions<br />
& Technology Communication<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> is available bi-monthly on a subscription basis.<br />
The annual subscription rate is € 45. It is possible to subscribe<br />
at any time via https://geo4all.it/abbonamento. The cost of one<br />
issue is € 9 €, for the previous issue the cost is € 12 €. Prices and<br />
conditions may be subject to change.<br />
Magazine founded by: Domenico Santarsiero.<br />
Issue closed on: 20/08/<strong>2017</strong>.
FOCUS<br />
New Trends in Geomatics, in the Era of Lowcost<br />
Sensors, Free and Open Source Software<br />
and HPC GeoBigData infrastructures<br />
by Roberta Ravanelli, Martina Di Rita, Valeria Belloni, Andrea Nascetti, Augusto Mazzoni, Mattia Crespi<br />
This review briefly presents some<br />
methodologies and applications developed at<br />
the Geodesy and Geomatics Division (DICEA) of<br />
University of Rome “La Sapienza”.<br />
Directly related to the current and increasing<br />
availability of new and innovative software and<br />
hardware, they are already ready for industrial<br />
applications and hopefully can broaden the<br />
interaction between Geomatics and other<br />
scientific and technological disciplines.<br />
Fig. 1 - Real-time tracked movements with VADASE using GALILEO E1 observations acquired<br />
by a low-cost single frequency receiver with a patch antenna<br />
The present and continuously<br />
increasing<br />
availability of more<br />
and more low-cost sensors (in<br />
the frame of the Internet of<br />
Things (IoT)), Free and Open<br />
Source Software (FOSS) and<br />
High Performance Computing<br />
(HPC) infrastructures for<br />
managing GeoBigData has<br />
obviously a strong impact in<br />
Geomatics. The availability of<br />
these hardware and software<br />
tools enables both to develop<br />
new applications but also to<br />
stimulate new challenging<br />
investigations related to the<br />
modeling of the observations<br />
supplied by these sensors, in<br />
the well known circular fashion<br />
between science and technology<br />
(Sansò and Crespi, 2015).<br />
Exploiting GALILEO for realtime<br />
displacements detection<br />
with low-cost single frequency<br />
receivers<br />
In last years, mainly thanks to<br />
their low cost, single frequency<br />
GNSS receivers started to be<br />
used in many applications.<br />
Evaluation kits, based on this<br />
kind of hardware, are nowadays<br />
available at few hundreds of<br />
Euros. Most of them are able<br />
to collect code and phase single<br />
frequency observations not<br />
only from GPS systems but also<br />
from other GNSS constellations<br />
like GLONASS, GALILEO<br />
and BEIDOU.<br />
On a technical point of view,<br />
these kits are quite easily usable<br />
and it is possible to set them<br />
up in order to broadcast both<br />
real-time streams (for real time<br />
precise positioning application)<br />
and collected observations in<br />
RINEX format (for post processing<br />
analysis).<br />
Our research group carried<br />
out many experiments on this<br />
topic. In particular, we investigated<br />
also through low-cost<br />
receivers the potentialities of<br />
GALILEO system, starting<br />
from the very first availability<br />
of GALILEO signals. Thanks<br />
to these research, the VADASE<br />
team was awarded by ESA on<br />
1st April 2014 as one of the<br />
first 50 users worldwide able<br />
to get a “fix” with GALILEO<br />
system (Branzanti et al., 2014).<br />
Through the application of<br />
the VADASE variometric approach<br />
(Benedetti et al., 2015),<br />
we managed to reconstruct the<br />
movement of a low-cost NVS<br />
patch antenna, suitably fixed<br />
to a bike wheel, processing E1<br />
phase observations in a realtime<br />
scenario, achieving 1 cm<br />
accuracy; this experiment clearly<br />
showed the relevant potential<br />
of the low-cost single frequency<br />
receivers for real-time movements<br />
detection (Fig. 1).<br />
Moreover, many tests were performed<br />
in order to evaluate the<br />
potentialities of low-cost single<br />
frequency receivers also in<br />
Network Real Time Kinematic<br />
(NRTK) positioning. It was<br />
demonstrated that, using u-<br />
Blox receiver with GPS, it is<br />
possible to achieve fixing times<br />
6 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
FOCUS<br />
(less than a minute) and accuracies<br />
(few centimetres) not so far<br />
to double frequency approach,<br />
provided good surveying conditions<br />
(full sky visibility, stable<br />
and reliable Virtual Reference<br />
Station augmentation needed<br />
to handle ionospheric delays<br />
through double differentiation<br />
with very short baselines)<br />
are guaranteed and an external<br />
topographic antenna is used.<br />
The contribution of GALILEO<br />
E1 observations in NRTK<br />
positioning is currently under<br />
investigation.<br />
Finally, in the last months, a<br />
focus on GPS and GALILEO<br />
interoperability with VADASE<br />
was undertaken. VADASE<br />
routines have been extended to<br />
make it possible to use GPS and<br />
GALILEO phase observations in<br />
a twin fashion mode: independent<br />
solutions or staked observations<br />
combined solutions. Some<br />
tests have been carried out in<br />
collaboration with the University<br />
of Trento (Tesolin et al., <strong>2017</strong>)<br />
using u-Blox receivers.<br />
Also in this application, results<br />
are very promising, paving<br />
the way to a wider use of single<br />
frequency receivers also as<br />
multi-constellation low-cost<br />
permanent stations. For these<br />
purposes a single frequency<br />
low cost GNSS permanent<br />
station, named LOW1 (Fig.<br />
2), has been installed and activated<br />
at the Faculty of Civil<br />
and Industrial Engineering<br />
- University of Rome “La<br />
Sapienza”. Single frequency<br />
observations are routinely collected<br />
and archived at 1Hz observation<br />
rate since doy 100 of<br />
<strong>2017</strong>; all the data are available<br />
to the scientific community.<br />
3D Modelling of<br />
Archaeological Small Finds by<br />
Low-Cost Range Cameras<br />
Nowadays 3D models may play<br />
a key role in archaeology and<br />
cultural heritage management<br />
in general, since they can easily<br />
provide answers to scientific<br />
needs in the field of conservation,<br />
monitoring, restoration<br />
and mediation of architectural,<br />
archaeological and cultural heritage.<br />
It is thus essential to identify<br />
new techniques, capable of<br />
easily providing low-cost and<br />
real-time 3D models of cultural<br />
heritage objects, with the required<br />
accuracy. Range cameras<br />
can give a valuable contribute<br />
to achieve this goal: they are active<br />
imaging sensors, low-cost<br />
and easy-to-use, able to natively<br />
measure the distances of several<br />
points at high frame rate<br />
(30 - 60 Hz) and can be used<br />
as 3D scanners to easily collect<br />
dense point clouds practically<br />
in real time. Furthermore,<br />
Simultaneous Localization And<br />
Mapping (SLAM) algorithms,<br />
such as KinectFusion (Izadi et<br />
al., 2011; Newcombe et al.,<br />
2011) leverage the depth data<br />
and the high frame rate that<br />
range cameras offer, in order to<br />
fuse the depth maps captured<br />
from different view points as<br />
soon as they are acquired. In<br />
this way, through the use of<br />
user-friendly scanning apps<br />
(through Augmented Reality,<br />
the 3D model appears in real<br />
time on the tablet/smartphone<br />
connected to the device, guiding<br />
the user during the scanning),<br />
range cameras can collect<br />
Fig. 2 - Low-cost GPS permanent station LOW1<br />
easily and practically in real<br />
time the overall 3D model of<br />
the scanned scene. In addition,<br />
such sensors are continually<br />
evolving and they will be soon<br />
integrated in consumer grade<br />
smart devices, enabling their<br />
use together with other sensors.<br />
Thanks to all these features,<br />
nowadays this technology is sufficiently<br />
ripe to play an important<br />
role for modelling archaeological<br />
objects. Indeed, range<br />
cameras can be easily used for<br />
documenting small finds, thus<br />
representing a valid alternative<br />
to the often time consuming<br />
traditional techniques, and<br />
preserving at the same time the<br />
mental energy of archaeologists<br />
for the study and interpretation<br />
of the artefacts discovered during<br />
excavations.<br />
Therefore, our research group<br />
has investigated the 3D modelling<br />
capabilities of a promising<br />
low-cost range camera,<br />
the Structure Sensor TM by<br />
Occipital TM for rapid modelling<br />
Fig. 3 - Comparison<br />
between the model of a<br />
globular jug obtained<br />
with the Structure<br />
Sensor and with<br />
photogram-metry: the<br />
first can be easily<br />
obtained in real-time by<br />
a not ex-pert user<br />
(archaeolo-gist, etc.), the<br />
second required a high<br />
level of competence for<br />
processing the im-ages<br />
with a dedicate software<br />
(Cypro-Phoenician juglets<br />
from Achzi b ( Inv.<br />
M677 ; courtesy Museum<br />
VOEM , Sapienza<br />
University of Rome).<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 7
FOCUS<br />
Fig. 4 - Example of measurements that can be taken on models (in meters). Canaanite Jar from the<br />
Necropolis of Bardhaa (BL1536, Al-Bad Giacaman Museum, Bethlehem - Palestine : Nigro et al.<br />
<strong>2017</strong>, fig. 42)<br />
archaeological objects, in order<br />
to assess the metric quality of<br />
their 3D geometry reconstruction<br />
(research group of Prof.<br />
Nigro, Ravanelli et al., 2016,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>a, <strong>2017</strong>c). In general, the<br />
performed analysis shows that<br />
Structure Sensor is capable to<br />
acquire the 3D geometry of a<br />
small object with an accuracy<br />
comparable at millimeter level<br />
to that obtainable with the<br />
more traditional photogrammetric<br />
method, even though<br />
the finer details are not always<br />
correctly modelled (Fig. 3). The<br />
obtained results are therefore<br />
very promising, showing that<br />
the range camera used for this<br />
work, due to its low-cost and<br />
flexibility, is a suitable tool for<br />
the rapid documentation of<br />
archaeological small finds, especially<br />
when not expert users are<br />
involved.<br />
Finally, it is worth underlining<br />
that a “geomatic” 3D model,<br />
showing therefore a geometry<br />
with a real metric, provides<br />
all the necessary information<br />
to completely describe the<br />
archaeological small finds.<br />
Furthermore, it allows to take a<br />
posteriori in depth measurements,<br />
such as the volume<br />
computation and section<br />
visualization (Fig. 4).<br />
Digital Image Correlation<br />
Software for Displacement<br />
Field Measurement in<br />
Structural Monitoring<br />
Applications<br />
Recently, there has been a growing<br />
interest in studying noncontact<br />
techniques for strain<br />
and displacement measurement<br />
in structural monitoring applications.<br />
For this reason, a free<br />
and open source 2D Digital<br />
Image Correlation (DIC)<br />
software, named py2DIC and<br />
completely written in Python,<br />
was developed at the Geodesy<br />
and Geomatics Division of<br />
DICEA, University of Rome<br />
"La Sapienza" (Ravanelli et al.,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>b).<br />
In particular, DIC is the term<br />
used in structural engineering<br />
applications to refer to the<br />
well-known template matching<br />
method, generally used in<br />
photogrammetry and computer<br />
vision to retrieve homologous<br />
points. DIC is indeed an optical<br />
technique able to measure<br />
full field displacements and<br />
to evaluate the corresponding<br />
strain field, by comparing<br />
digital images of the surface of<br />
a material sample at different<br />
stages of deformation.<br />
The potentialities of py2DIC<br />
were investigated by processing<br />
the images captured during<br />
a tensile test performed in the<br />
Lab of Structural Engineering,<br />
where three different Glass Fiber<br />
Reinforced Polymer samples<br />
were subjected to a controlled<br />
tension by means of a universal<br />
testing machine.<br />
The results, compared with the<br />
values independently measured<br />
by several strain gauges fixed on<br />
the samples, denote the possibility<br />
to successfully characterize<br />
the deformation mechanism of<br />
the analyzed material (Fig.s 5<br />
and 6). Py2DIC is indeed able<br />
to compute displacements at<br />
few microns level, in reasonable<br />
agreement with the reference,<br />
both in terms of displacements<br />
(again, at few microns in the<br />
average) and Poisson's module<br />
(Fig. 7).<br />
Fig. 5 - Comparison between the vertical displacements obtained by the py2DIC software and the strain gauges measurements<br />
8 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
FOCUS<br />
Fig. 6 - Comparison between the horizontal displacements obtained by the py2DIC software and the strain gauges measurements<br />
A New and Unified Approach<br />
for Digital Surface Models<br />
generation from optical and<br />
SAR satellite imagery: DATE<br />
FOSS4G<br />
By now, satellites are overwhelmingly<br />
present in our daily<br />
life, for a big variety of different<br />
services and applications<br />
(weather report, navigation system,<br />
Earth observation, ect.). In<br />
particular, remote sensing data<br />
obtained from space, complement<br />
and complete Earth-based<br />
measurements: they are essential<br />
if a global view of our Earth is<br />
required.<br />
One of the most important<br />
applications of remote sensing,<br />
is the generation of Digital<br />
Surface Models (DSMs), that<br />
have a large relevance in many<br />
engineering, environmental,<br />
surveying, Earth sciences,<br />
safety and security applications.<br />
DSMs can be derived<br />
with different approaches, the<br />
stereoscopic approach, starting<br />
from satellite images, is a wellestablished<br />
one. Every day, a big<br />
amount of images are acquired<br />
by the thousands of satellites<br />
orbiting around the Earth, creating<br />
a multi-view and multitemporal<br />
bunch of images,<br />
that allow to obtain redundant<br />
information for monitoring and<br />
analysing our world.<br />
The development of a Free and<br />
Open Source Software (FOSS),<br />
able to generate DSMs from<br />
such satellite images, is therefore<br />
a topic of great interest. In<br />
the framework of 2014 Google<br />
Summer of Code, our research<br />
group developed DATE, a<br />
Free and Open Source for<br />
Geospatial (FOSS4G), having<br />
as early purpose a fully automatic<br />
DSMs generation from<br />
high resolution optical satellite<br />
imagery acquired by the most<br />
common sensors (Di Rita et al.,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>a, <strong>2017</strong>b). Nowadays, it<br />
is also able to exploit Synthetic<br />
Aperture Radar (SAR) images<br />
Fig. 7 - Comparison between the Poisson’s ratio obtained by the py2DIC software and the<br />
strain gauges measurements<br />
for radargrammetric applications<br />
(Di Rita et al., 2016). As<br />
a matter of fact, SAR satellite<br />
systems may give important<br />
contribution in terms of Digital<br />
Surface Models (DSMs) generation<br />
considering their complete<br />
independence from logistic<br />
constraints on the ground and<br />
weather conditions (Nascetti et<br />
al., 2015). In recent years, the<br />
new availability of very high<br />
resolution SAR data (up to 20<br />
cm Ground Sample Distance)<br />
gave a new impulse to radargrammetry<br />
and allowed new<br />
applications and developments<br />
(Capaldo et al., 2011).<br />
The main idea behind DATE,<br />
is to overcome the issues related<br />
to epipolar resampling<br />
for satellite images, for which<br />
epipolar geometry achievement<br />
is not straightforward (Di Rita,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>): epipolarity is achieved<br />
in the object space (Ground<br />
quasi-Epipolar Imagery (GrEI))<br />
(Fig. 8) thanks to the images<br />
ground projection. Moreover,<br />
DATE key features include also<br />
the capability to handle a large<br />
amount of data since it manages<br />
to process different images in a<br />
sequential and totally automatic<br />
way; the use of computer vision<br />
algorithms in order to improve<br />
the processing efficiency and<br />
make the DSMs generation<br />
process fully automatic; the free<br />
and open source aspect of the<br />
developed code (https://github.<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 9
FOCUS<br />
com/martidi/opencv_dsm/tree/<br />
imageStack). An innovative<br />
approach based on a coarseto-fine<br />
pyramidal scheme is<br />
adopted to take advantage of<br />
iterative solutions at gradually<br />
increasing resolution in order<br />
to refine the epipolarity constrain<br />
between the image pair:<br />
raw satellite images resolution<br />
is initially reduced by a downsampling<br />
factor, then these<br />
sampled images are projected<br />
in a ground geometry using an<br />
a-priori (freely available and<br />
even coarse) DSM, in order to<br />
generate orthorectified images<br />
with a transversal parallax error<br />
below the initial reduced<br />
resolution. These orthorectified<br />
images can act as GrEI and can<br />
undergo a dense image matching<br />
procedure at the chosen<br />
reduced resolution, obtaining<br />
the initial DSM corresponding<br />
to the first pyramidal level; this<br />
DSM becomes the input for<br />
the next pyramidal level.<br />
The achievable results are good<br />
in terms of statistical parameters,<br />
and they are comparable<br />
with those obtained through<br />
different software (even commercial)<br />
by other authors on<br />
the same test sites, whereas in<br />
terms of efficiency DATE outperforms<br />
most of them.<br />
Google Earth Engine potentials<br />
and capabilities for<br />
GeoBigData management and<br />
analysis<br />
Google Earth Engine (GEE)<br />
is a computing platform recently<br />
released by Google “for<br />
petabyte-scale scientific analysis<br />
and visualization of geospatial<br />
datasets” (Google Earth Engine<br />
Team, 2015). The GEE can be<br />
used to run geospatial analysis<br />
using a dedicated HPC infrastructure.<br />
GEE enable users to<br />
access geospatial information<br />
and satellite imagery, for global<br />
and large scale remote sensing<br />
applications. The free and<br />
public data archive includes<br />
more than 30 years of historical<br />
imagery and scientific datasets,<br />
daily updated and expanded:<br />
it contains over than two petabytes<br />
of geospatial data instantly<br />
available for analysis.<br />
The main idea behind GEE<br />
is that, also for the analysis of<br />
satellite and geospatial data, we<br />
are now moving towards the<br />
Big Data paradigm and consequently<br />
it is necessary to change<br />
the processing way from the<br />
standard procedure “bring data<br />
to users” to the opposite “bring<br />
users to data”: as a matter of<br />
fact, users can directly upload<br />
algorithms to the dedicated<br />
infrastructure removing the<br />
required time for data transfer<br />
and allowing the development<br />
of innovative applications. The<br />
platform supports generation<br />
of spatial and temporal mosaics,<br />
satellite imagery composites<br />
without clouds and gaps, as well<br />
as a variety of spectral indices,<br />
and can also be expanded and<br />
modified by the user even for<br />
customized applications (Pekel<br />
et al., 2016; Donchyts et al.,<br />
Fig. 8 - Comune di Fiumicino: confronto tra le sezioni di Censimento 1991 e quelle del 2001 e tra<br />
le sezioni di Censimento 2001 e quelle del 2011 (Fonte : Istat, Portale Cartografico Nazionale).<br />
2016). Indeed, GEE also includes<br />
an application programming<br />
framework that allows<br />
scientists to access to computational<br />
and data resources, to<br />
scale their current algorithms or<br />
develop new ones.<br />
As a significant example of<br />
GEE potentials, we analyzed<br />
the possibility to implement<br />
and deploy a tool for large-scale<br />
DSMs comparison, with a focus<br />
on two available free global<br />
DSMs (SRTM and ASTER<br />
GDEM) precision and accuracy,<br />
with respect to a more<br />
accurate reference DSM, that is<br />
the National Elevation Dataset<br />
(NED) for the American States,<br />
and a LiDAR DSM for the<br />
Italian region (Nascetti et al.,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>). Over the years, several<br />
studies have been conducted to<br />
evaluate the accuracy of both<br />
SRTM and ASTER DSMs,<br />
but in most of the cases the accuracy<br />
has been evaluated only<br />
on limited areas (Colmano et<br />
al., 2007; Koch et al., 2001).<br />
The main goal of this analysis<br />
was to perform a more global<br />
assessment exploiting the potentialities<br />
of GEE, and to demonstrate<br />
its capability for a nearly-global<br />
assessment of SRTM<br />
and ASTER accuracy. Proper<br />
routines to evaluate standard<br />
statistical parameters to represent<br />
DSM precision and accuracy<br />
(i.e. mean, median, standard<br />
deviation, NMAD, LE95)<br />
were implemented inside the<br />
GEE Code Editor. Moreover,<br />
the routines were used to characterize<br />
the accuracy of the<br />
input DSM within different<br />
slope classes. The evaluation has<br />
been performed on five different<br />
wide areas: four American<br />
States (Colorado, Michigan,<br />
Nevada, Utah) and one Italian<br />
Region (Trentino Alto-Adige,<br />
Northern Italy). The selected<br />
areas provide different land use,<br />
land covers and slopes, and are<br />
10 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
FOCUS<br />
therefore suited for a comparison<br />
aimed at accuracy and reliability<br />
understanding.<br />
Overall, all the results achieved<br />
(Fig. 9 represents the results for<br />
Colorado) are pretty consistent<br />
showing a good accordance<br />
in their behaviour: SRTM and<br />
ASTER achieve almost the<br />
same results when compared<br />
both to NED and to LiDAR.<br />
In particular, the accuracies<br />
decrease with the increase of<br />
the slopes, with better results<br />
generated with SRTM for the<br />
first classes and, instead, a better<br />
behaviour shown by ASTER<br />
for the higher classes. This is<br />
due essentially to the different<br />
nature of the two DSMs<br />
(SRTM is SAR-based, ASTER<br />
Fig. 9 - Colorado: SRTM and ASTER assessment results<br />
is optical-based) and it could<br />
lead to make some assumptions<br />
about an optimum free nearlyglobal<br />
DSM: starting from the<br />
knowledge of the slope classes<br />
where they present a better accuracy<br />
with respect to the other,<br />
a more accurate global DSM<br />
can be generated as a result of<br />
an integration of both<br />
REFERENCES<br />
Benedetti, E., Branzanti, M., Colosimo, G., Mazzoni, A., Crespi, M. (2015) VADASE:<br />
State of the Art and New Developments of a Third Way to GNSS Seismology. In: Sneeuw<br />
N., Novák P., Crespi M., Sansò F. (eds) VIII Hotine-Marussi Symposium on Mathematical<br />
Geodesy. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 142. Springer<br />
Branzanti, M., Benedetti, E., Colosimo, G., Mazzoni, A., Crespi, M. (2014). Real-time<br />
monitoring of fast displacements with VADASE: new applications and challenges with<br />
Galileo. ENC – GNSS 2014 Proceedings (Session C7) (online only).<br />
Capaldo, P., Crespi, M., Fratarcangeli, F., Nascetti, A. and Pieralice, F. (2011), Highresolution<br />
SAR radargrammetry: a first application with COSMO-SkyMed SpotLight<br />
imagery, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 8(6), pp. 1100-1104.<br />
Colmano, D., Crespi, M., Fabiani, U. and Zebisch, M., 2007. “Quality assessment of<br />
commercially available DEMs in mountain areas”. Geologic Hazards in Mountainous<br />
Areas.<br />
Di Rita, M., Andrea Nascetti and Mattia Crespi (<strong>2017</strong>a) Open source tool for DSMs<br />
generation from high resolution optical satellite imagery: development and testing of<br />
an OSSIM plug-in, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 38:7, 1788-1808, DOI:<br />
10.1080/01431161.<strong>2017</strong>.128830<br />
Di Rita, M., Nascetti, A., Fratarcangeli, F., Crespi, M. (2016). Upgrade of FOSS DATE<br />
plug-in: implementation of a new radargrammetric DSM generation capability, International<br />
Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences.<br />
41(B7): 821-825<br />
Di Rita, M., (<strong>2017</strong>). New trends for DSMs generation from optical and SAR satellite<br />
imagery: definition and implementation of an innovative strategy, PhD thesis, University<br />
of Rome “La Sapienza”.<br />
Di Rita, M., Nascetti, A., Crespi, M. (<strong>2017</strong>b). FOSS4G DATE assessment on the ISPRS<br />
optical stereo satellite data: a benchmark for DSM generation, International Archives of<br />
the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-1/W1.<br />
Donchyts, G., Baart, F., Winsemius, H., Gorelick, N., Kwadijk, J. and van de Giesen, N.,<br />
2016. “Earth’s surface water change over the past 30 years”. Nature Climate Change 6(9),<br />
pp. 810–813.<br />
Google Earth Engine Team, 2015. Google Earth Engine: a Planetary-scale Geospatial<br />
Analysis Platform. https://earthengine.google.com.<br />
Izadi, S., Kim, D., Hilliges, O., Molyneaux, D., Newcombe, R., Kohli, P., Shotton, J.,<br />
Hodges, S., Freeman, D., Davison, A. and Fitzgibbon, A. (2011) KinectFusion: real-time<br />
3D reconstruction and interaction using a moving depth camera. In Proceedings of the<br />
24th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.<br />
Koch, A. and Heipke, C., 2001. “Quality assessment of digital surface models derived<br />
from the shuttle radar topography mission (srtm)”. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,<br />
Vol. 6, pp. 2863–2865.<br />
Nascetti, A. et al, (2015), Radargrammetric Digital Surface Models Generation from High<br />
Resolution Satellite SAR Imagery: Methodology and Case Studies, International Association<br />
of Geodesy Symposia.<br />
Nascetti, A., Di Rita, M., Ravanelli, R., Amicuzi, M., Esposito, S., and Crespi, M. (<strong>2017</strong>).<br />
Free global DSM assessment on large scale areas exploiting the potentialities of the innovative<br />
Google Earth Engine platform. International Archives of the Photogrammetry,<br />
Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-1/W1, pp. 627-633.<br />
Newcombe, R., Izadi, S., Hilliges, O., Molyneaux, D., Kim, D., Davison, A, Kohli, P.,<br />
Shotton, J., Hodges, S., and Fitzgibbon, A. (2011) KinectFusion: Real-time dense surface<br />
mapping and tracking. In Mixed and augmented reality (ISMAR).<br />
L. Nigro - D. Montanari - A. Guari - M. Tamburrini - P. Izzo - M. Ghayyada - I. Titi -<br />
J. Yasine, "New archaeological features in Bethlehem (Palestine): the Italian-Palestinian<br />
rescue season of November 2016": Vicino Oriente XXI (<strong>2017</strong>), pp. 5-57.<br />
Pekel, J.-F., Cottam, A., Gorelick, N. and Belward, A. S., 2016. “High-resolution mapping<br />
of global surface water and its longterm changes”. Nature 540(7633), pp.<br />
418–422.<br />
Ravanelli, R., Di Rita, M., Nascetti, A., Crespi, M., Nigro, L., Montanari, D. and Spagnoli,<br />
F. (<strong>2017</strong>a). Penguin 3.0 - Capturing Small Finds in 3D. Mediterranean Archaeology<br />
and Archaeometry, Vol. 17, No 2, (<strong>2017</strong>), DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.581720 (in press).<br />
Ravanelli, R., Nascetti, A. and Crespi, M. (2016). Kinect v2 and RGB Stereo Cameras<br />
Integration for Depth Map Enhancement. International Archives of the Photogrammetry,<br />
Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B5, pp. 699-702.<br />
Ravanelli, R., Nascetti, A., Di Rita, M., Belloni, V., Mattei, D., Nisticò, N., Crespi, M.<br />
(<strong>2017</strong>b). A New Digital Image Correlation Software for Displacements Field Measurement<br />
in Structural Applications. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote<br />
Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-4/V2, pp. 139-145.<br />
Ravanelli, R., Nascetti, A., Di Rita, M., Nigro, L., Montanari, D., Spagnoli, F. and Crespi,<br />
M. (<strong>2017</strong>c). 3D modelling of archaeological small finds by a low-cost range camera: methodology<br />
and first results. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing<br />
and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-5/W1, pp. 589 -592.<br />
Sansò, F. Sciences, Volume XLII-5/W1, pp. 589 -592. Crespi, M. (2015). Geodesy and<br />
Geomatics to the edge - Foreword, M. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei (2015) 26 (Suppl 1): 1.<br />
doi:10.1007/s12210-015-0433-2.<br />
Tesolin, F., Vitti, A. and Mazzoni, A. (<strong>2017</strong>). Variometric approach for displacement analysis<br />
using Galileo data: first results. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 19, EGU<strong>2017</strong>-<br />
5195, <strong>2017</strong> EGU General Assembly <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
Nowadays, the increasing availability of low-cost sensors, Free and Open Source Software<br />
and High Performance Computing infrastructures allows Geomatics to widen its<br />
application scope, by stimulating new challenging investigations related to the modeling<br />
of the observations provided by these new tools.<br />
In this review, some methodologies and applications, developed at the Geodesy and<br />
Geomatics Division (DICEA) of University of Rome “La Sapienza”, are shortly presented.<br />
Directly related to the mentioned software and hardware new availability, they<br />
are already ready for industrial applications and hopefully can broaden the interaction<br />
between Geomatics and other scientific and technological disciplines.<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
Geomatics; Low-cost Sensors; Open Source Software; GeoBigData infrastructures<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Roberta Ravanelli, roberta.ravanelli@uniroma1.it<br />
Martina Di Rita, martina.dirita@uniroma1.it<br />
Valeria Belloni, belloni.1489430@studenti.uniroma1.it<br />
Andrea Nascetti , Andrea.nascetti@uniroma1.it<br />
Augusto Mazzoni, Augusto.mazzoni@uniroma1.it<br />
Mattia Crespi, Mattia.crespi@uniroma1.it<br />
Geodesy and Geomatics Division - DICEA - University of Rome “La Sapienza”<br />
via Eudossiana, 18 - 00184 Rome, Italy<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 11<br />
View publication stats
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Emerging Technologies: the digital<br />
revolution around and above us<br />
by Marco Lisi<br />
Fig. 1 - GNSS Multi-Constellation Scenario<br />
The article describes the<br />
main trends which are at the<br />
basis of the digital revolution<br />
affecting our society.<br />
Internet of Things (IoT),<br />
broadband and ubiquitous<br />
wireless communications<br />
(5G), ubiquitous Positioning,<br />
Navigation and Timing (PNT):<br />
they are different facets of the<br />
“New Digital World” ahead of<br />
us, characterized on one side by<br />
the integration and fusion of<br />
different technologies, aiming<br />
at a new, enhanced representation<br />
of our physical world; on<br />
the other side by a progressive<br />
dematerialization of products<br />
and by their transformation in<br />
services.<br />
This epochal process will also<br />
require a change in the way<br />
we approach engineering: a<br />
more systemic, concurrent and<br />
through-life perspective.<br />
We are at the dawn of the discovery<br />
of a “New World”: not<br />
a virtual one, but the digital<br />
representation, in all its minute<br />
details, of our physical world,<br />
of planet Earth. But also the<br />
world of manufacturing is going<br />
to be radically transformed,<br />
both in terms of organizational<br />
paradigms (Industry 4.0) and in<br />
terms of radically new technologies<br />
(Additive Manufacturing).<br />
This epochal transition is being<br />
triggered by four main technological<br />
trends:<br />
1. Ubiquitous Localization and<br />
Timing: Global Navigation<br />
Satellite Systems and<br />
other similar Positioning,<br />
Navigation and Timing<br />
(PNT) infrastructures make<br />
possible a very accurate localization<br />
in space and time<br />
of both people and things;<br />
2. Ubiquitous Sensing: from 1<br />
to 10 trillion sensors will be<br />
connected to Internet in the<br />
next decade (a minimum of<br />
140 sensors for every human<br />
being on the planet;<br />
3. Ubiquitous Connectivity:<br />
2.3 billion mobile broadband<br />
devices and 7 billion mobile<br />
cellular device in 2014. In<br />
the next years 5G will dramatically<br />
increase both connectivity<br />
and data rates;<br />
4. Progressive and ever detailed<br />
3D modeling of our surroundings.<br />
Enormous amounts of data are<br />
being collected daily and at an<br />
exponentially increasing rate.<br />
99% of them is digitized and<br />
50% has an associated IP address.<br />
We are practically going for a<br />
detailed digital representation<br />
of the world around us. It is an<br />
entirely New World we are facing,<br />
but we have not learnt yet<br />
how to navigate and explore it.<br />
Ubiquitous Localization and<br />
Timing<br />
Global Navigation Satellite<br />
Systems, such as GPS,<br />
GLONASS, Galileo and<br />
Beidou, constitute together a<br />
potentially interoperable and<br />
coordinated infrastructure,<br />
supporting in a vital way most<br />
industrial and economic aspects<br />
of our society (fig. 1).<br />
GPS in particular is nowadays<br />
considered a worldwide utility,<br />
tightly interconnected with all<br />
other critical infrastructures,<br />
from electric power distribution<br />
systems to air traffic management<br />
systems, from railways to<br />
water and oil piping networks.<br />
In the mind of the average user<br />
(but also in that of many engineers)<br />
the main contribution<br />
of GNSS’s, their true “raison<br />
d’être”, is in providing one’s accurate<br />
position and in allowing<br />
a reliable navigation, be it by<br />
Fig. 2 - the global PNT infrastructure.<br />
12 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
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car, by airplane, by train or by<br />
boat.<br />
Precise timing is understood,<br />
at least by engineers, as an enabling<br />
feature of GNSS’s and a<br />
very useful by-product, after<br />
positioning and navigation.<br />
The reality, as shown by studies<br />
performed e.g. by the US<br />
Department of Homeland<br />
Security (DHS), is that in fact<br />
timing is the most strategic and<br />
essential of the services offered<br />
by GNSS’s, and the one most<br />
affecting all critical infrastructures<br />
of our society.<br />
Non-GNSS PNT systems and<br />
technologies are also being developed<br />
worldwide.<br />
In the not so far future, a PNT<br />
system of systems, including<br />
GNSS and non-GNSS infrastructures,<br />
is likely to take<br />
place, while, at user receiver level,<br />
a fusion of data from GNSS<br />
and other sensors (such as inertial<br />
platforms, Wi-Fi, GSM,<br />
signals of opportunity, etc.) will<br />
become normal practice (fig. 2).<br />
Data deriving from different<br />
systems and platforms will<br />
be seamlessly “fused” at user<br />
receiver level, guaranteeing a<br />
high degree of availability and<br />
continuity.<br />
Ubiquitous Sensing<br />
(Internet of Things)<br />
The Internet of Things (IoT)<br />
envisions many billions of<br />
Internet-connected objects<br />
(ICOs) or "things" that can<br />
sense, communicate, compute,<br />
and potentially actuate, as well<br />
as have intelligence, multimodal<br />
interfaces, physical/virtual identities,<br />
and attributes.<br />
The IoT is likely to revolutionize<br />
all aspects of our society and<br />
daily life (fig. 3).<br />
Its exponential growth will<br />
actually imply the practical<br />
feasibility of an Ubiquitous<br />
Sensing: from 1 to 10 trillion<br />
sensors will be connected<br />
to Internet in the next decade<br />
(a minimum of 140 sensors<br />
for every human being on the<br />
planet).<br />
Ubiquitous sensing, or ubiquitous<br />
“geo”-sensing to emphasize<br />
the spatial dimension, as deriving<br />
from IoT and from mobile<br />
broadband communications,<br />
will mean that we will be able<br />
to probe, even in real time,<br />
the phenomena around us, the<br />
surrounding reality, with capabilities<br />
far beyond those made<br />
so far available by our senses.<br />
Enormous amounts of data will<br />
be available for our analyses, all<br />
of them referenced in space and<br />
time.<br />
Fig. 3 - IoT impacts on business and society<br />
Ubiquitous Connectivity (5G)<br />
5G, the forth coming wave in<br />
mobile communications, will<br />
realize a quantum leap towards<br />
the goal of ubiquitous connectivity<br />
(fig. 4).<br />
As a matter of fact, 5G will not<br />
simply extend in a linear way<br />
the capabilities of the previous<br />
four generations of mobile<br />
networks. Its dramatically enhanced<br />
performance in terms<br />
of flexibility and throughput<br />
will make fully feasible those<br />
“smart” applications and infrastructures<br />
that require networking,<br />
high data rates, real<br />
time processing. It is evident<br />
how 5G will become the natural<br />
complement of the IoT, its<br />
technological enabler (fig. 5).<br />
Fig. 4 - 5G infrastructure architecture.<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 13
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Fig. 5 - 5G and the Internet of Things.<br />
Additive Manufacturing (3D<br />
Printing)<br />
Additive Manufacturing (AM,<br />
also known as “3D Print)<br />
enables the fabrication of objects<br />
through the deposition<br />
of material in order to obtain<br />
fit-for-purpose hardware, as<br />
opposed to traditional subtractive<br />
processes, where material<br />
is removed from larger, semifinished<br />
products (fig. 6).<br />
Like many new manufacturing<br />
processes, 3D printing arose<br />
from the merging of previously<br />
existing technologies: the<br />
coming together of Computer<br />
Aided Design (CAD), inkjet<br />
nozzles and automated machine<br />
systems.<br />
AM includes a large family<br />
of processes and technologies<br />
Fig. 6 - 3D printer at work<br />
and can be applied to a wide<br />
range of materials ranging from<br />
metals, polymers and ceramics<br />
but also food, living cells and<br />
organs.<br />
Today, AM is a standard manufacturing<br />
process in a significant<br />
number of industrial applications<br />
and high potential is<br />
anticipated (and in many cases<br />
already demonstrated) in high<br />
end technology sectors, including<br />
aerospace, turbine industries<br />
and medical applications.<br />
The increasing availability, at<br />
affordable prices, of 3D printers<br />
for personal use, is likely<br />
to revolutionize the world of<br />
manufacturing as well as that of<br />
retail commerce of goods: in a<br />
not so far future (applications<br />
are already available on the<br />
Web) people, by clicking on a<br />
specific product in a specialized<br />
catalog online, will purchase<br />
and download digital files allowing<br />
the manufacturing of<br />
chosen products at their own<br />
premises, with their personal<br />
3D printers.<br />
In this way, the progressive<br />
dematerialization of products,<br />
that has already conquered the<br />
music and books markets, will<br />
further extend to many other<br />
consumer goods, such as, e.g.,<br />
housewares, toys and tools.<br />
As a matter of fact, in the future<br />
we will be exchanging and<br />
trading not physical goods,<br />
but rather their Intellectual<br />
Property Rights (IPR’s).<br />
Autonomous Driving<br />
Significant advancements in<br />
satellite-based positioning are<br />
contributing to the development<br />
of better transport services<br />
and new applications for safe<br />
transport and smart mobility.<br />
With its flexibility, fast growing<br />
capability, low infrastructure<br />
costs and long-term sustainable<br />
use, GNSS is an important<br />
asset in the design of new<br />
Intelligent Transport System<br />
(ITS) infrastructures.<br />
Smart mobility applications<br />
improve the efficiency, effectiveness<br />
and comfort of road<br />
transport through:<br />
• Navigation, the most widespread<br />
application, provides<br />
turn-by-turn information to<br />
drivers via portable navigation<br />
devices (PNDs) and invehicle<br />
systems (IVS).<br />
• Fleet management on-board<br />
units (OBUs) transmit GNSS<br />
positioning information<br />
through telematics to support<br />
transport operators in monitoring<br />
the performance of<br />
logistic activities.<br />
• Road traffic monitoring<br />
services collect floating car<br />
location data from vehicles<br />
through PNDs, IVS and mobile<br />
devices to be processed<br />
and distributed to users and<br />
other interested parties.<br />
Safety-critical applications leverage<br />
precise, reliable and secure<br />
positioning in situations posing<br />
potential harm to humans or<br />
damage to a system/environment:<br />
• Advanced Driver Assistance<br />
Systems (ADAS) support the<br />
14 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
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Fig. 7 - Autonomous Driving.<br />
Fig. 8 - Technology adoption curves.<br />
driver during the driving process<br />
and act as a first stepping<br />
stone towards Autonomous<br />
Vehicles.<br />
• In cooperative ITS and<br />
connected vehicles, GNSS<br />
positioning is a key element<br />
for providing situational<br />
awareness through vehicleto-vehicle<br />
(V2V) and vehicleto-infrastructure<br />
(V2I) communications,<br />
enhancing the<br />
safety and comfort of the<br />
driver.<br />
• Dangerous goods can be<br />
tracked by transmitting<br />
GNSS-based positioning data<br />
on the vehicles carrying them,<br />
along with other information<br />
about the status of the cargo.<br />
Liability- and payment-critical<br />
applications can have significant<br />
legal or economic consequences<br />
depending on positioning data:<br />
• In Road User Charging<br />
(RUC), GNSS-based solutions<br />
are designed to charge<br />
motorists for the actual distance<br />
travelled, without barriers<br />
or gantries, and provide<br />
interoperability between national<br />
cross-border schemes.<br />
• In Pay-As-You-Drive<br />
(PAYD), insurance telematics<br />
rely on GNSS data to increase<br />
the fairness of motor insurance<br />
for both insurers and<br />
subscribers.<br />
Regulated applications apply<br />
the transport policies introduced<br />
by national and international<br />
legislation:<br />
• GNSS-enabled IVS are used<br />
in the pan-European eCall,<br />
which accelerates emergency<br />
assistance to drivers and passengers<br />
by sending an emergency<br />
call to 112 and also<br />
providing positioning information<br />
in the unlucky event<br />
Fig. 9 - The Moon Village<br />
of accident.<br />
• Smart tachographs leverage<br />
GNSS positioning to support<br />
road enforcers, recording the<br />
position of a given vehicle at<br />
different points during the<br />
working day.<br />
The emerging technology that<br />
is going to act more disruptively<br />
in our everyday lives, showing<br />
in a most evident way how the<br />
fusion of other technologies can<br />
make new services available, is<br />
Autonomous Driving (fig. 7).<br />
Autonomous vehicles can take<br />
over activities traditionally performed<br />
by the driver, thanks<br />
to their ability to sense the environment,<br />
navigate and com-<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 15
FOCUS<br />
municate with other vehicles<br />
and road infrastructure when<br />
combined with connected vehicle<br />
solutions. Widespread adoption<br />
of autonomous driving can<br />
reduce traffic accidents, reduce<br />
fuel consumption and improve<br />
traffic flow, as well as improve<br />
driver comfort.<br />
Autonomous vehicles are enabled<br />
by the combination of different<br />
technologies and sensors,<br />
allowing the IVS to identify the<br />
optimal path of action.<br />
The adoption of Autonomous<br />
Driving is going to happen<br />
much faster than everyone<br />
thinks, following adoption<br />
curves closer to those typical for<br />
digital technologies, rather than<br />
to those typical for transportation<br />
systems (fig. 8).<br />
In other words, while cars took<br />
decades to be widely adopted,<br />
Autonomous Driving will have<br />
a worldwide spread in just a few<br />
years.<br />
Many believe that Autonomous<br />
Driving will probably be the<br />
single largest societal change<br />
after the Internet. One thing is<br />
for sure: Autonomous Driving<br />
will destroy the traditional<br />
concept of the car as a personal<br />
good to be owned, moving to<br />
the paradigm of transportation<br />
Fig. 10 - Moon Communications and PNT infrastructure.<br />
as a service and hence confirming<br />
the transition from products<br />
to services mentioned in<br />
the introduction.<br />
Emerging Technologies in<br />
Space<br />
The Director General of ESA,<br />
prof. Woerner, set forth the<br />
idea of a “Moon Village”, a village<br />
on the moon built by huge<br />
3D printers and inhabited for<br />
months at a time by teams of<br />
astronauts. The plan outlined<br />
by the ESA is that, starting<br />
from the early 2020s, robots<br />
will be sent to the Moon to begin<br />
constructing various facilities,<br />
followed a few years later<br />
by the first inhabitants (fig. 9).<br />
Back in 2013, ESA teamed up<br />
with building companies to<br />
start testing out various Moon<br />
base-building technologies, and<br />
determined that local materials<br />
would be the best for constructing<br />
buildings and other<br />
structures, which means no<br />
need for transporting resources<br />
from Earth at an astronomical<br />
cost. But the problems to<br />
be solved for the realization<br />
of such stable manned infrastructure<br />
on the Moon (a true<br />
follow-on of the International<br />
Space Station) involve much<br />
more than just building technologies.<br />
The Moon Village will<br />
be a large and complex system<br />
where requirements related to<br />
operations and safety of life will<br />
be of paramount importance.<br />
Moreover, from an architectural<br />
viewpoint the “village” will have<br />
to be expandable and “open”<br />
to the integration with other<br />
systems, hence integrability<br />
and expandability will be two<br />
key issues. But first and above<br />
all, the Moon Village will have<br />
to be affordable and sustainable,<br />
i.e., its cost will need to<br />
be assessed over its life-cycle.<br />
As a “Wild West” town in the<br />
old times, “Moon Village” will<br />
have to provide a number of<br />
essential infrastructures. In particular,<br />
the exploration of the<br />
Moon with human and robotic<br />
missions and its colonization,<br />
through the establishment of<br />
permanent bases, will require<br />
planetary communications and<br />
navigation infrastructures.<br />
Even in space, emerging communications<br />
(5G) and PNT<br />
technologies will provide reliable<br />
and affordable solutions<br />
for a communications and navigation<br />
infrastructure (fig. 10).<br />
Conclusion<br />
Ubiquitous Localization and<br />
Timing, Ubiquitous Sensing,<br />
Ubiquitous Connectivity, 3D<br />
Digital Modeling: these four<br />
main technological trends are<br />
triggering an epochal transition<br />
in the history of mankind,<br />
characterized by an increasing<br />
predominance of services in our<br />
economy.<br />
We are practically going for a<br />
detailed digital mapping of the<br />
world around us, for an evolution<br />
of reality as we can sense<br />
it today towards an enriched,<br />
augmented reality.<br />
It is an entirely New World we<br />
are facing, but we have not yet<br />
learnt how to navigate and explore<br />
it.<br />
16 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
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Moreover, the emerging technologies<br />
will cause radical transformations<br />
of our society, such<br />
as those related to Autonomous<br />
Driving.<br />
Our space exploration activities<br />
are also going to be affected, a<br />
good example being ESA’s vision<br />
of a Moon Village, a stable<br />
base on our natural satellite<br />
from which to start the commercialization<br />
of Space.<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
Ubiquitous Localization and Timing, Ubiquitous<br />
Sensing, Ubiquitous Connectivity, 3D Digital Modeling:<br />
these four main technological trends are<br />
triggering an epochal transition in the history of<br />
mankind, characterized by an increasing predominance<br />
of services in our economy.<br />
These emerging technologies will cause radical<br />
transformations of our society: it is an entirely New<br />
World we are facing<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
Digital era; technological trend; GNSS; PNT;<br />
5G; autonomous driving; 3D modeling; Galileo;<br />
Additive Manufacturing; IoT<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Dr. ing. Marco Lisi<br />
marco.lisi@esa.int<br />
European Space Agency<br />
Keplerlaan 1, 2200AG Noordwijk,<br />
The Netherlands<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 17
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Improving Resilience to Emergencies<br />
through Advanced Cyber<br />
Technologies: the I-REACT project<br />
by Claudia Maltoni, Claudio Rossi,<br />
Guzmán Sánchez<br />
Society as a whole is increasingly<br />
exposed and vulnerable to natural<br />
disasters because extreme<br />
weather events, exacerbated by<br />
climate change, are becoming<br />
more frequent and longer. In<br />
this context, the access to an<br />
integrated system providing the<br />
main emergency management<br />
Fig. 1 - The I-REACT project integrates a large number of data sources to fight disasters.<br />
information and data coming from<br />
multiple sources is even more<br />
critical to successful disaster risk<br />
management.<br />
In the last ten years, natural<br />
hazards 1 have caused 2 billion<br />
causalities and costed<br />
up to $1.4 trillion worldwide,<br />
as registered in the Emergency<br />
Events Database (EM-DAT,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>). In Europe, disasters<br />
caused around 7 million causalities<br />
and up to €113 billion of<br />
overall economic losses in the<br />
decade 2007-<strong>2017</strong>. In this period,<br />
flood is the biggest hazard<br />
in terms of occurrence, affected<br />
people and economic damage<br />
in Europe, while the deadliest<br />
hazard remains extreme temperature,<br />
followed by flood and<br />
earthquake. Wildfires are less<br />
impacting; however, it ranks<br />
second in affected people.<br />
Worryingly, extreme weather<br />
events will be even more frequent<br />
and last longer in the<br />
future, mainly due to climate<br />
change. Greater evaporation<br />
will lead to increased water<br />
vapour in the atmosphere,<br />
producing more intense precipitation.<br />
This, together with<br />
rapid snow melting, intensifies<br />
the likelihood of floods.<br />
Also, higher temperatures<br />
will increase the frequency of<br />
wildfires as well as other natural<br />
disasters. According to the<br />
Intergovernmental Panel on<br />
Climate Change (IPCC, 2013),<br />
the surface temperature is projected<br />
to rise over the 21st century<br />
under all assessed emission<br />
scenarios.<br />
The European Commission's<br />
Humanitarian Aid and<br />
Civil Protection department<br />
(ECHO) and the Federal<br />
Emergency Management<br />
Agency (FEMA) of the United<br />
States agree upon the need to<br />
invest in disaster prevention.<br />
One of the key message in the<br />
<strong>2017</strong> ECHO Factsheet stats<br />
that “for every €1 invested in<br />
disaster prevention, €4 to €7<br />
are saved in disaster response”<br />
(ECHO, <strong>2017</strong>). According to<br />
the “Nature Climate Change”<br />
journal, improving flood defences<br />
across the EU to prevent<br />
100-year flood would save €7<br />
billion a year by 2050 but cost<br />
only €1.75 billion to implement<br />
(Jongman, 2014).<br />
Despite that, current systems<br />
for risk management are still<br />
limited in their effectiveness.<br />
Even if technological progresses<br />
are registered and large amounts<br />
of data are available, there is<br />
no platform that integrates and<br />
analyses in real time all the useful<br />
data to improve prediction<br />
and management of natural<br />
disasters. On the other hand,<br />
the need for systematic data for<br />
disaster mitigation and prevention<br />
is an increasing concern for<br />
both development and response<br />
agencies. In the past, data needs<br />
18 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
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Fig. 2: The I-REACT partners, advisors and end-users at the International User Requirements Workshop (IURW)<br />
were addressed on an ad hoc<br />
basis, which included collecting<br />
the information at the time of<br />
the emergency. However, there<br />
is a growing understanding that<br />
data collection, analysis, and<br />
management can help both<br />
short and long-term development<br />
goals and support to<br />
identify and address disaster<br />
risks. The I-REACT project has<br />
been conceived in this context,<br />
considering that “you cannot<br />
manage what you cannot measure”,<br />
as stated by Margareta<br />
Wahlström, the United Nations<br />
Special Representative of the<br />
Secretary-General for Disaster<br />
Risk Reduction.<br />
The project: I-REACT in brief<br />
I-REACT (Improving<br />
Resilience to Emergencies<br />
through Advanced Cyber<br />
Technologies) is a Horizon<br />
2020 3-year project (2016-<br />
2019) funded by the European<br />
Commission under the Secure<br />
Society Work Programme<br />
(DRS-1-2015).<br />
I-REACT integrates existing<br />
services, both local and<br />
European, into a platform that<br />
supports the entire emergency<br />
management cycle. In particular,<br />
I-REACT will implement a<br />
multi-hazard system with a focus<br />
on floods, fires and extreme<br />
weather events, as they are the<br />
most impacting natural hazards<br />
driven by climate change.<br />
To reach this objective,<br />
I-REACT brings together a<br />
multidisciplinary team of 20<br />
European partners. From researchers<br />
and technologists to<br />
industry leaders, UN officials,<br />
consultants or communicators,<br />
these partners are working<br />
collaboratively on the<br />
different tasks of the project<br />
providing their experience<br />
and expertise to generate the<br />
best solution against disasters.<br />
The project is coordinated by<br />
the Istituto Superiore Mario<br />
Boella of Turin. Consortium<br />
partners include: Geoville,<br />
Eoxplore, Terranea, Alpha<br />
Consult, UNESCO (Regional<br />
Bureau for Science and<br />
Culture in Europe, Venice),<br />
Politecnico di Torino, Celi,<br />
JoinPad, Fondazione Bruno<br />
Kessler, Finnish Meteorological<br />
Institute, Meteosim, Bitgear,<br />
Ansur Technologies, Technical<br />
University of Vienna,<br />
Scienseed, CSI Piemonte,<br />
Aquobex, Answaretech, and<br />
Joint Research Centre (JRC) of<br />
the European Commission.<br />
The project will broaden the<br />
scope of its predecessor, a<br />
FP7-funded initiative named<br />
“Integrating GMES Emergency<br />
Services with satellite navigation<br />
and communication for<br />
establishing a flood information<br />
service” (FLOODIS 2 ),<br />
which already involved some of<br />
I-REACT partners. Ended in<br />
2015, FLOODIS focused on<br />
implementing a crowd-sourcing<br />
approach to support the emergency<br />
response in case of floods<br />
with dedicated demonstrations<br />
carried out in Italy and<br />
Fig. 3 - The project empowers different stakeholders with several new technologies and essential information<br />
to improve the fight against disasters.<br />
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in Albania. FLOODIS implemented<br />
a smartphone application<br />
to collect real-time reports<br />
from both citizens and civil<br />
protection agents, and to provide<br />
short and long-term projections<br />
of the flood extent for<br />
supporting in-field emergency<br />
rescue units. I-REACT extends<br />
this approach, multiplying the<br />
opportunities and serving as a<br />
tool during all the three emergency<br />
management phases, i.e.<br />
prevention, preparedness and<br />
response phases.<br />
The first one mainly deals with<br />
the preparation of a community<br />
to eliminate or reduce the impact<br />
of future disasters. For this,<br />
the I-REACT platform will<br />
integrate historical data, realtime<br />
reports, weather data and<br />
satellites observations to derive<br />
detailed statistics and accurate<br />
risk maps. These maps, coupled<br />
with a decision support system,<br />
will allow decision makers to effectively<br />
plan prevention measures<br />
aimed at increasing the<br />
resilience to future disasters.<br />
The second is the preparedness<br />
phase. During this phase, the<br />
coordination between governments,<br />
civil organizations and<br />
citizens will be promoted to be<br />
prepared in case of an emergency.<br />
To reach this objective,<br />
I-REACT will analyse weather<br />
Fig. 4 - The I-REACT workflow infographics.<br />
forecasts, data from both local<br />
and European early warning<br />
systems, such as the European<br />
Flood Awareness System<br />
(EFAS) and the European<br />
Forest Fire Information<br />
(EFFIS), and warnings extracted<br />
from social media or<br />
received through crowdsourced<br />
reports from authorities and<br />
citizens, as well as using the<br />
I-REACT mobile application.<br />
The third one is the emergency<br />
response phase, in which an<br />
effective reaction, first aid and<br />
evacuation are crucial. To help<br />
on-site operators, I-REACT<br />
will allow to get a quick and<br />
complete operational picture<br />
thanks to the ingestion of realtime<br />
reporting (from mobile<br />
phones or wearable devices)<br />
and its integration in nowcast<br />
and forecast models. To improve<br />
self-protection behaviour<br />
and reduce exposure, I-REACT<br />
will support public authorities<br />
to immediately warn citizens<br />
with real-time information and<br />
instructions.<br />
Where we are: I-REACT at its<br />
second year<br />
The project officially started at<br />
the beginning of June 2016 and<br />
it is now entering its second<br />
year.<br />
The innovation design phase,<br />
based on a user-centred design<br />
and including the requirement<br />
definition, is concluded.<br />
Within this activity, the international<br />
workshop “Increasing<br />
Resilience to Natural hazards<br />
through Information and<br />
Communication Technology”<br />
was organised on 14-15<br />
September 2016 at UNESCO<br />
Headquarters in Paris. It<br />
brought together policy-makers,<br />
emergency service providers and<br />
science and technology experts<br />
from different European countries.<br />
The workshop aimed at<br />
gathering their needs, assess the<br />
implementation gaps in their<br />
operational procedures, and<br />
co-design some key features of<br />
the I-REACT system, e.g. the<br />
data collection and visualization<br />
process. Also, a survey to gain<br />
knowledge on citizen’s perception<br />
of risks was launched. The<br />
results have been used to design<br />
tips and quizzes that will be<br />
inserted in the mobile application<br />
to improve citizen’s risk<br />
awareness in all phases of the<br />
emergency.<br />
The three main technical work<br />
packages, based on a “Plan-<br />
Do-Test” agile approach, are<br />
still on-going. More in detail,<br />
they foresee the integration of<br />
external services and data, such<br />
as the Copernicus Emergency<br />
Management Service (EMS),<br />
open data, Sentinel satellites,<br />
EGNSS and historical information.<br />
At the same time,<br />
up to March 2018, the team<br />
will deliver all main models<br />
of I-REACT (modelling and<br />
engines), including weather<br />
and climate forecasts, extreme<br />
weather event detection, flood<br />
and fire nowcast and forecast,<br />
risk forecasts, and a social media<br />
data engine. Last, but not<br />
least, the service oriented architecture<br />
stage has started, which<br />
is aimed at the implementation<br />
of the centralized system archi-<br />
20 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
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tecture and of all in-filed technologies<br />
for data collection.<br />
Since June <strong>2017</strong>, the team is<br />
approaching other two main<br />
activities. First of all, to achieve<br />
a full system integration and<br />
consolidate the performance of<br />
the I-REACT solution, simulations<br />
and direct involvement<br />
of end-users and emergency<br />
responders are foreseen during<br />
the validation and demonstration<br />
phase. At the moment,<br />
five demonstrations (in Italy,<br />
Spain, Finland, UK, Malta)<br />
have been planned. After each<br />
demonstration, a user workshop<br />
will be organized to gather<br />
feedback that will be used to<br />
improve (tune) the system.<br />
Second, the business assessment<br />
and exploitation phase recently<br />
kicked-off, including a costsbenefits<br />
analysis, business plan,<br />
implementation roadmap and<br />
exploitation activities aimed<br />
at assessing I-REACT socioeconomic<br />
impact and preparing<br />
its roll-out.<br />
The project workflow is completed<br />
by the overall project<br />
management and the dissemination,<br />
communication and<br />
engagement phase, both lasting<br />
for the overall project duration.<br />
Thanks to this second activity,<br />
I-REACT is now present<br />
in different on-line channels<br />
(e.g. website, Facebook, Twitter,<br />
YouTube) and promoted<br />
through several materials (e.g.<br />
videos, infographics).<br />
Where we want to be:<br />
I-REACT final goal<br />
“By 2018, I-REACT will implement<br />
a European-wide platform<br />
that integrates emergency<br />
management data coming<br />
from multiple sources. In this<br />
way, we will be able to produce<br />
information faster and allow<br />
citizens, civil protection services<br />
and policymakers to effectively<br />
react to natural disasters and<br />
Fig. 5 - 3D model of the fisrt responder's wearable for improved positioning and environmental sensing.<br />
mitigate their impact on the<br />
society”, says Claudio Rossi,<br />
Project Manager at ISMB,<br />
who is in charge of the project<br />
management and the technical<br />
coordination. How?<br />
Leveraging on innovative cyber<br />
technologies and ICT systems,<br />
the I-REACT platform will be<br />
designed as an articulated and<br />
modular system based on different<br />
components. As mentioned<br />
before, it will integrate many<br />
different information sources,<br />
including Copernicus EMS<br />
maps, early warnings from the<br />
EFAS and EFFIS, satellite data<br />
(Sentinel), social media streams<br />
and crowdsourced information<br />
from emergency responders<br />
and citizens. All this information<br />
will be merged to provide<br />
added-value products, such as<br />
a decision-support system for<br />
authorities and an app for citizens.<br />
Also, wearable devices and<br />
smart glasses will be provided<br />
to first-responders, who will<br />
benefit from high-precision<br />
positioning thanks to Galileo<br />
and EGNOS and Augmented<br />
Reality to make hands-free reports.<br />
Thanks to this architecture,<br />
I-REACT will be able to provide<br />
greater emergency anticipation<br />
through accurate weather<br />
forecasts that, coupled with<br />
historical knowledge, satellite<br />
and risk maps, crowdsourced<br />
reports, and social media information<br />
will allow to better anticipate<br />
extreme weather events,<br />
floods, and fire. The modularity<br />
of the system, and its interoperability<br />
with existing systems,<br />
will allow a strong flexibility of<br />
the platform in terms of future<br />
exploitation, making it able<br />
to answer to different market<br />
needs.<br />
Our target: I-REACT as a<br />
multi-user platform<br />
“At I-REACT we want to<br />
gather all the participants involved<br />
in the different phases<br />
of the emergency management,<br />
to translate their needs and<br />
ideas into effective solutions<br />
with a real social impact. We<br />
collaborate with groups of end<br />
users that will benefit from the<br />
I-REACT technology and can<br />
provide first-hand experience.<br />
We also have a strong advisory<br />
board that provides valuable<br />
counselling and support” explains<br />
Claudia Maltoni, Project<br />
Manager at Alpha Consult, the<br />
SME in charge of project business<br />
assessment and exploitation.<br />
Even if mainly addressing<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 21
REPORT<br />
emergency management, the<br />
proposed system has been conceived<br />
as a multi-user platform<br />
as well. It mainly targets public<br />
administration authorities, but<br />
also private companies, as well<br />
as citizens in order to provide<br />
increased resilience to natural<br />
disasters.<br />
A Costs-Benefits Analysis<br />
(CBA) conducted by ALPHA<br />
Consult during the FLOODIS<br />
project and based on tests undertaken<br />
together with Civil<br />
Protections, namely in Veneto<br />
Region and Albania, provides<br />
some interesting preliminary<br />
inputs. Key impacts 3 has been<br />
described and quantified with<br />
respect to the functionalities of<br />
the system for both emergency<br />
managers and the society as a<br />
whole. Specifically, in the two<br />
case studies 4 , a final saving of<br />
c. €15,8 million for Albania<br />
and €1,9 million for Treviso<br />
could have been achieved, in<br />
case of having FLOODIS in<br />
place. These benefits are mainly<br />
driven by decreasing costs for<br />
emergency management operations,<br />
less damages to productive<br />
sectors, assets, properties<br />
and infrastructures, together<br />
with a reduction of affected<br />
people. It is worth noting that<br />
these estimations are not negligible.<br />
As a consequence of<br />
the overall project results and<br />
impact assessment, FLOODIS<br />
has been finally integrated with<br />
DEWETRA, a real-time system<br />
for hydro-meteorological and<br />
wildfire risk forecasting, monitoring<br />
and prevention in use in<br />
Albania. At the same time, these<br />
impacts are clearly conservative<br />
with respect to the much higher<br />
potential of I-REACT.<br />
Besides the benefits brought<br />
by the proposed solution to organisations<br />
in charge of disaster<br />
management, governments and<br />
society as a whole, I-REACT<br />
could foster market growth and<br />
produce impacts for other private<br />
stakeholders, such as current<br />
system providers, insurance<br />
companies and third parties<br />
with an interest on information<br />
produced by I-REACT. For this<br />
reason, “a set of interviews are<br />
being carried out with different<br />
types of private actors, from<br />
insurance companies to firms<br />
specialised on business continuity<br />
and disaster recovery, in<br />
different countries in Europe<br />
to assess their requirements and<br />
interest in I-REACT. A dedicated<br />
CBA could be undertaken<br />
to quantify potential benefits<br />
also in some relevant private<br />
sectors”, concludes Maltoni.<br />
NOTES<br />
1 Drought, earthquake, extreme temperature, flood,<br />
landslide, storm, volcanic activity, mass movement<br />
and wildfire are considered<br />
2 www.floodis.eu<br />
3 Reduction of costs for emergency management operations,<br />
human losses, affected people, infrastructure<br />
damages and damages to private sector activities, environment,<br />
housing and education buildings and cultural<br />
heritage have been all assessed.<br />
4 The 2015 flood in Albania and water bomb in Treviso.<br />
BIBLIOGRAPHY<br />
Emergency Events Database, EM-DAT, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013),<br />
Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution<br />
of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report<br />
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC<br />
report.<br />
European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil<br />
Protection department (<strong>2017</strong>), European Disaster Risk<br />
Management, ECHO Factsheet<br />
Brenden Jongman (2014), Increasing stress on disasterrisk<br />
finance due to large floods, Nature Climate Change<br />
journal.<br />
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Disaster<br />
Statistics, UNISDR website.<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
I-REACT; natural hazards; climate change; disaster<br />
management; Copernicus<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
Due to climate change, floods, wildfires and other extreme<br />
weather events are becoming more frequent and<br />
intense. This scenario poses a challenge for current risk<br />
management systems. I-REACT project aims to develop<br />
a solution through the integration and modelling<br />
of data coming multiple sources. Information from European<br />
monitoring systems, earth observations, historical<br />
information and weather forecasts will be combined<br />
with data gathered by new technological developments<br />
created by I-REACT. These include a mobile app and<br />
a social media analysis tool to account for real-time<br />
crowdsourced information, wearables to improve<br />
positioning, as well as augmented reality glasses to facilitate<br />
reporting and information visualisation by first<br />
responders. With this approach, I-REACT will be able<br />
to empower stakeholders in the prevention and management<br />
of disasters. Citizens will be involved in reporting<br />
first-hand information, policymakers will be supported<br />
in the decision-making process, and first responders will<br />
be equipped with essential tools for early warning and<br />
response. At the same time, private companies could<br />
leverage specific set of I-REACT components to improve<br />
their business, when linked to disaster management.<br />
Overall, I-REACT aims to be a European-wide<br />
contribution to build more secure and resilient societies<br />
to disasters.<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Claudia Maltoni<br />
cm@alphacons.eu<br />
Alpha Consult<br />
Claudio Rossi<br />
rossi@ismb.it<br />
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella<br />
Guzmán Sánchez<br />
guzman.sanchez@scienseed.com<br />
Scienseed<br />
22 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
Aeronike introduces City Explorer 3D:<br />
know how e innovation<br />
REPORT<br />
Aeronike, is operating in the aero photogrammetry<br />
market since 1966.<br />
During its 40 years of operations a complete<br />
portfolio of aero surveys activities<br />
and services have been developed, from a<br />
high detailed digital cartography to the<br />
core competence of the 3D restitution of<br />
aerial images.<br />
City Explorer 3D is a technological<br />
platform which integrates a 3D virtual<br />
model with data and aero photogrammetric<br />
surveys from different sources (plane,<br />
drone, terrestrial) to give a tool to public<br />
administration, associations, consortiums<br />
to satisfy their respective specific needs.<br />
With City Explorer 3D the user can experience<br />
an immersive 3D visit to his city or<br />
territory, of a site or monument of<br />
interest. Specific touristic itineraries can<br />
be designed with additional contents as<br />
Multilanguage narrator voice to enter<br />
within the context at 360° with a fly through<br />
approach. (Virtual Tours).<br />
This platform represents a very useful tool<br />
to boost promotional activities and can<br />
be integrated with more standard tools as<br />
paper guides, web site, etc...<br />
The user can access the 3D immersive<br />
virtual tour via WEB, mobile APPs with<br />
devices as Google Cardboard or via<br />
Totem/Monitor Touch Screen which<br />
could be available along different Point of<br />
Information with Virtual and Augmented<br />
Reality integrated contents.<br />
BERLIN<br />
26/28 Sept.<br />
Hall 4.1 | B4033<br />
VISIT US AT INTERGEO <strong>2017</strong><br />
Additional application fields of the 3D Territory Model<br />
Analysis & Planning<br />
Support to Design<br />
4D Analysis<br />
3D environment to build the final design<br />
GIS 3D<br />
Cartography integration<br />
Dimensional checks<br />
CAD BIM models integration<br />
Spatial relation analysis<br />
(void/full report)<br />
Export<br />
to<br />
CAD<br />
format<br />
Cartography obtained from the 3D model<br />
Mock up<br />
Support for environmental impact assessment<br />
Simulations (Hydrogeological, acoustic, CFD)<br />
Street Profiles<br />
www.aeronike.com<br />
Aeronike <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> City Explorer 23D
NEWS<br />
IN THIS PICTURE THERE IS A<br />
MULTITEMPORAL COMBINATION<br />
BETWEEN 2 SCANSAR WIDE<br />
ACQUISITIONS OF THE LARSEN- SEA BY<br />
THE SAME COSMO-SKYMED SATELLITE<br />
WITH ONLY 1 ORBIT DISTANCE (ABOUT 96<br />
MINUTES)<br />
N<br />
24 COSMO-SkyMed <strong>GEOmedia</strong> composite n°3-<strong>2017</strong> image. ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana - processed and distributed by e-GEOS
NEWS<br />
e-GEOS, an ASI (20%) / Telespazio (80%) company, is a<br />
leading international player in the Earth Observation and<br />
Geo-Spatial Information business.<br />
e-GEOS is the global distributor for the COSMO-SkyMed<br />
data, the largest and most advanced Radar Satellite<br />
onstellation available today.<br />
e-GEOS offers a unique portfolio of application services,<br />
specially thanks to the superior monitoring capabilities of<br />
COSMO-SkyMed constellation, and has acquired a leading<br />
position within European Copernicus Program.<br />
Covering the whole value chain, from data acquisition to<br />
the generation of analytics reports, e-GEOS is working in<br />
the field of big data analytics based on the integration of<br />
different sources. This approach is one of the key assets<br />
for the new services and products offered by the company.<br />
DEFENCE AND INTELLIGENCE<br />
RISK AND ASSET MANAGEMENT<br />
10+<br />
SATELLITE MISSIONS<br />
DATA ACQUIRED.<br />
750+<br />
MARITIME REPORTS/ YEAR<br />
9+<br />
COMMERCIAL USER TERMINALS<br />
AROUND THE GLOBE<br />
206+<br />
ACTIVATIONS OF THE e-GEOS<br />
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICE<br />
MARITIME SOURVELLIANCE<br />
AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONIOTORING<br />
2500+<br />
MAPS PRODUCED<br />
IN 4 YEARS<br />
70Millions<br />
AGRICULTURAL PARCELS<br />
FORESTRY AND CLIMATE<br />
LAND MANAGEMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURES<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 25
REPORT<br />
The new MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering at Politecnico di Milano<br />
by Ludovico Biagi<br />
This paper describes the first<br />
italian MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering started in 2016 at<br />
Politecnico di Milano.<br />
Fig. 1 - Four examples of Geoinformatics expertizes.<br />
Upper, left. Positioning by GNSS (a GPS III satellite, United States Government).<br />
Upper, right. Analysis of remote sensed images (LandSat multispectral image of Como<br />
lake, GeoLab of Politecnico di Milano). Lower, left. Creation and analysis of digital<br />
elevation models (example of high resolution DEM from LiDAR, GeoLab of Politecnico<br />
di Milano). Lower, right. Advanced environmental analysis (4D modelling of temperatures<br />
in the Mediterranean sea, GeoLab of Politecnico di Milano).<br />
The vision of Digital<br />
Earth was proposed by<br />
Al Gore in 1998 as a<br />
multi-dimensional and multiresolution<br />
model of the planet<br />
to contextualize the huge<br />
amount of spatial information<br />
relating to the physical and<br />
socio-economic environment.<br />
Every day humans generate<br />
more than 2.5 trillion (10 18 )<br />
bytes of data: 80% of them are<br />
spatial data. In the ‘80 of the<br />
last century, first digital spatial<br />
data were acquired by scanning<br />
hardcopy archives; now they are<br />
endlessly acquired in massive<br />
quantities from fixed and mobile<br />
in-situ sensors, from sensors<br />
on satellites, on aircrafts, on<br />
UAVs or on land vehicles, from<br />
digital documents and social<br />
media. Such a massive flow (Big<br />
geodata) generates new challenges<br />
since stored data have to be<br />
analyzed and processed, often<br />
in real-time, to extract information.<br />
Therefore, a new scientific<br />
and technical figure who combines<br />
expertizes in Computer<br />
Science, Environmental<br />
Engineering and Geomatics is<br />
needed.<br />
Geoinformatics engineers are<br />
high level experts in technologies<br />
for measuring, georeferencing,<br />
managing, analyzing,<br />
visualizing and publishing<br />
spatial and time varying information,<br />
with a particular<br />
concern to environmental data.<br />
Geoinformatics engineers will<br />
thus be involved in the design,<br />
implementation and management<br />
of geodata projects to<br />
support the new paradigms<br />
of Participative Digital Earth,<br />
Smart City and Smart Society<br />
as well as a variety of decisions<br />
at regional, country and global<br />
level. Urban and agricultural<br />
land planning, monitoring and<br />
management, infrastructure design<br />
and building information<br />
management, transport and<br />
traffic monitoring and management,<br />
environmental modeling,<br />
geography, Earth sciences are<br />
the main application fields of<br />
Geoinformatics Engineering.<br />
All those fields attain to the general<br />
context of sustainable management<br />
of environment and<br />
land. In Figure 1, few examples<br />
of Geoinformatics expertizes are<br />
shown.<br />
As the academic teaching is<br />
concerned, some universities<br />
in Europe propose courses in<br />
Geoinformatics. In Italy, in<br />
2016 Politecnico di Milano<br />
planned and started the first<br />
Italian MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering.<br />
26 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
The new Master of Sciences<br />
in Geoinformatics Engineering<br />
at Politecnico di Milano<br />
The MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering at Politecnico<br />
di Milano aims at preparing<br />
technicians who possess deep<br />
preparation and strong attitude<br />
to solve problems relevant to<br />
geospatial information. The following<br />
skills are needed on the<br />
methodological and the practical<br />
points of view:<br />
1. spatial information managing:<br />
a. acquisition and georeferencing,<br />
b. analysis, classification and<br />
processing,<br />
c. archiving, representation,<br />
publication and distribution;<br />
2. computer infrastructures:<br />
design and implementation of<br />
infrastructures to<br />
a. acquire, model and analyze<br />
spatial data and phenomena,<br />
b. manage, publish and share<br />
the spatial information;<br />
3. methodologies and instruments<br />
to model and analyze<br />
environmental phenomena;<br />
4. advanced technologies for<br />
Big Geodata and internet of<br />
Places.<br />
The acquisition of these capabilities<br />
requires the knowledge<br />
of all the methodological and<br />
practical topics that allow to<br />
identify, model, and solve the<br />
relevant problems. In particular,<br />
at the end of their Master’s<br />
degree, students must have a<br />
wide knowledge of methods representing<br />
the state of the art of<br />
the discipline. Moreover, they<br />
not only gain the knowledge<br />
but also the habit to autonomously<br />
and creatively face and<br />
solve Geoinformatics problems,<br />
which are often unusual and<br />
new at a level that is both<br />
methodological and practical.<br />
Indeed, a main aim of the<br />
Master is to make students able<br />
to autonomously face cutting<br />
edge and original subjects,<br />
with a pro-active attitude to<br />
problem solution. Accordingly<br />
to this mission, the Master at<br />
Politecnico di Milano has been<br />
designed as follows.<br />
The study programme<br />
The MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering is a two years<br />
international master course<br />
taught in English for Italian<br />
and foreign students. The<br />
study program satisfies both<br />
the Italian Ministerial classes<br />
LM-32 (Computer Science<br />
Engineering) and LM-35<br />
(Environmental and Land management<br />
Engineering). At the<br />
enrollment the student must<br />
choose his Ministerial class: the<br />
choice can be modified during<br />
the first year of study.<br />
Students having mainly a<br />
background in Environmental<br />
Engineering find an introductory<br />
course in Computer<br />
Science, while those with a<br />
computer oriented first level<br />
degree follow a basic course on<br />
Geomatics and Environmental<br />
issues. In the geomatic / environmental<br />
field, the mandatory<br />
courses cover topics such<br />
as Geospatial data analysis,<br />
Geographical Information<br />
Systems (GIS), Positioning and<br />
Location Based Services; in the<br />
Computer Science field, mandatory<br />
courses cover topics like<br />
Databases, Software engineering,<br />
Computer Infrastructures.<br />
In the first year, the plan of<br />
mandatory courses allow the<br />
students to modify the choice<br />
of the Ministerial class. In the<br />
second year, mandatory courses<br />
alternate with elective courses,<br />
that allow students to deepen<br />
their expertise.<br />
Elective courses are specifically<br />
proposed for Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering students. They are<br />
either in computer programming<br />
and computer systems<br />
design, dealing for instance<br />
with multidimensional and<br />
mobile applications; or in environmental<br />
management and<br />
sustainability issues dealing for<br />
instance with Earth observation<br />
techniques and geophysical data<br />
processing.<br />
The ability to autonomously<br />
face problems and implement<br />
solutions is achieved through<br />
laboratories and projects that<br />
are paired to traditional courses<br />
lectures; the final thesis on an<br />
original scientific topic further<br />
stimulates it.<br />
More details are given in the<br />
official study rules that are published<br />
at www.geoinformatics.<br />
polimi.it.<br />
Access requirements<br />
The access to the MSc in<br />
Geoinformatics Engineering<br />
implies prior acquisition of a<br />
Bachelor of Science, obtained<br />
from the Politecnico di Milano<br />
School of Engineering or other<br />
Italian or international universities.<br />
Admissions are evaluated<br />
by a commission, accordingly<br />
to the previous career, the adequacy<br />
of personal preparation<br />
and the knowledge of English.<br />
Access requirements are differentiated<br />
according to the acquired<br />
Bachelor of Science.<br />
Fig. 2 - The logo of the MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering at Politecnico di Milano.<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 27
REPORT<br />
Graduates in Environmental<br />
and Land planning<br />
Engineering, Computer<br />
Science Engineering and other<br />
Engineering courses at the<br />
Politecnico di Milano, must<br />
pass a selection that is based<br />
on results (marks and time<br />
taken) of their Bachelors.<br />
Graduates from other Italian<br />
or international universities<br />
must pass a selection that is<br />
based on the final marks of<br />
the Bachelor of Science degree<br />
together with an analytical<br />
evaluation of their prior curriculum.<br />
A limited enrollment is<br />
planned for the MSc in<br />
Geoinformatics Engineering<br />
at Politecnico di Milano, with<br />
a maximum number of 50<br />
students. In particular, 30<br />
places are reserved for non-EU<br />
students, the remaining 20 are<br />
available for Italian students,<br />
EU students and non-EU students<br />
resident in Italy.<br />
Career perspectives<br />
According to the selected<br />
study track, the graduated<br />
Geoinformatics engineers<br />
can participate to the Italian<br />
state certification exam to<br />
enter either the Civil and<br />
Environmental Engineers’<br />
register (LM-32) or the<br />
Computer science Engineers’<br />
one (LM-35).<br />
Accordingly to the cultural<br />
and technical organization<br />
of our MSc, Geoinformatics<br />
engineers from Politecnico di<br />
Milano find a job where an<br />
Environmental engineer with<br />
strong expertize in Computer<br />
Science is needed, for example,<br />
a technician for the management<br />
and analysis of a network<br />
of environmental sensors. On<br />
the opposite, they find a job<br />
in the branches of Information<br />
Technology finalized to the design<br />
and implementation of<br />
tools for the Environmental<br />
and Land management.<br />
Consequently,<br />
Geoinformatics engineers<br />
find a placement in all the<br />
branches that directly manage<br />
and develop environmental<br />
and spatial information.<br />
Furthermore, nowadays spatial<br />
information is everywhere:<br />
therefore, Geoinformatics<br />
engineers find job also in<br />
big companies or agencies<br />
that need and use spatial<br />
information. In summary,<br />
Geoinformatics engineers<br />
find employment in:<br />
• small and medium-sized<br />
companies working in the<br />
field of GIS development<br />
and management, of<br />
Computer Science applied<br />
to spatial data-base management,<br />
to logistics and<br />
land planning,<br />
• public and private, national<br />
and local companies working<br />
on territorial mapping,<br />
on cadaster, on spatial data<br />
infrastructure, on territorial<br />
data collection, on environmental<br />
data management<br />
and analysis,<br />
• big industry (e.g., for telecommunications)<br />
and big<br />
companies which needs<br />
experts for spatial information,<br />
• companies developing systems<br />
for the analysis and<br />
management of networks of<br />
environmental sensors,<br />
• companies developing<br />
hardware and software for<br />
environmental applications,<br />
• advanced research institutes<br />
or companies working<br />
on the Internet of Places,<br />
Big Geodata, Sensor<br />
Enablement, Urban Data<br />
City Analytics, Earth<br />
Observations.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
Webpages of international MSc in<br />
Geoinformatics<br />
Aalto, http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies/<br />
education/programme/geoinformatics_<br />
master/<br />
ETH, https://www.ethz.ch/en/studies/<br />
prospective-masters-degree-students/<br />
masters-degree-programmes/mastersdegree-programmes-architecture-and-civilengineering/master-geomatics.html<br />
KTH, https://www.kth.se/en/studies/master/<br />
transport-and-geoinformation-technology/<br />
description-1.198559<br />
TU Delft, http://www.tudelft.nl/en/study/<br />
master-of-science/master-programmes/<br />
geomatics/<br />
TU Twente, https://www.utwente.nl/<br />
en/education/master/programmes/<br />
geo-information-science-earthobservation/#masters-programme<br />
TUM,https://portal.mytum.de/<br />
studium/studiengaenge_en/geodaesie_<br />
und_geoinformation_master?ignore_<br />
redirection=yes<br />
Twente, https://www.utwente.nl/<br />
en/education/master/programmes/<br />
geographical-information-managementapplications/#masters-programme<br />
UCL, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospectivestudents/graduate/taught/degrees/spatiotemporal-analytics-big-data-mining-msc<br />
UCL, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospectivestudents/graduate/taught/degrees/<br />
geoinformatics-building-informationmodelling-msc<br />
UCL, http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/study/<br />
graduate-taught/msc-geospatial-analysis<br />
Webpage of Politecnico di Milano<br />
www.polimi.it<br />
Webpage of the MSc in Geoinformatics<br />
Engineering of Politecnico di Milano: www.<br />
geoinformatics.polimi.it<br />
Webpage with information for international<br />
students at Politecnico di Milano<br />
http://www.polinternational.polimi.it/howto-apply/<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
Geoinformatics; Digital Earth; Big<br />
Geodata;<br />
Master of Science<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
In the new digital scenario, new professional<br />
figures are needed to manage the spatial and<br />
environmental information: geoinformatics<br />
engineers are high level experts in technologies<br />
for measuring, georeferencing, managing,<br />
analyzing, visualizing and publishing spatial<br />
and time varying information, with a particular<br />
concern to environmental data. As the academic<br />
teaching is concerned, some universities<br />
in Europe propose courses in Geoinformatics.<br />
In Italy, Politecnico di Milano started in 2016<br />
the first national MSc in Geoinformatics Engineering:<br />
this paper describes it.<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Ludovico Biagi<br />
ludovico.biagi@polimi.it<br />
Politecnico di Milano, DICA,<br />
P.zza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133<br />
Milano<br />
28 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
Bring #fresh surveying to your business with<br />
unique and practical innovations by GeoMax<br />
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geomax-positioning.com<br />
works when you do<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 29
REPORT<br />
VGI and crisis mapping in an<br />
emergency situation<br />
Comparison of four case studies: Haiti, Kibera, Kathmandu, Centre Italy<br />
di Lucia Saganeiti, Federico Amato, Gabriele Nolè, Beniamino Murgante<br />
Fig.1 - Sequentially mapping<br />
OSMs to Port-Au-Prince:<br />
the first concerns the pre<br />
earthquake situation, the<br />
second situation as of January<br />
29, 2010 and the latest<br />
situation in December 2016.<br />
Source: http: www.openstreetmap.org;<br />
www.hotosm.org<br />
Over the last decade<br />
new voluntary<br />
mapping patterns are<br />
commonly known as<br />
VGI – Volunteered<br />
Geographic Information<br />
– that is, geo-localized<br />
information created<br />
voluntarily and<br />
consciously by web<br />
users. These are<br />
supported by platforms<br />
such as OpenStreetMap<br />
that have been shown<br />
in many emergency<br />
cases and not, a valid<br />
source of data, such<br />
detailed to be used for<br />
rescue operations.<br />
In recent crisis contexts,<br />
the use of geo-spatial data<br />
analysis has been a precious<br />
resource in coordinating of<br />
rescue operations (Boccardo<br />
& Pasquali, 2012). As a<br />
consequence, numerous Open<br />
Source platform born to<br />
answer to the growing demand<br />
for geo-information. Crisis<br />
Mapping (CM) consists of<br />
the spontaneous process of<br />
gathering and geo-locating<br />
data from different sources,<br />
including closed/open-data, or<br />
crowdsourcing databases. These<br />
data are verified, catalogued and<br />
finally made visible in ad hoc<br />
platforms (Poser & Dransch,<br />
2010).<br />
With the overwhelming of<br />
technology, the spread of<br />
smartphones and mobile<br />
or fixed connections,<br />
humanitarian aid management<br />
during the post-emergency<br />
phases has radically changed.<br />
Today, even in less developed<br />
countries, most people have<br />
a mobile phone and they are<br />
able to send at least a simple<br />
SMS. Therefore, the term<br />
Crisis Mapping is often used<br />
to identify mapping activities<br />
during humanitarian crises. The<br />
activity of CM is targeted at<br />
collecting, displaying, updating<br />
and analysing real-time data<br />
in emergencies due to natural<br />
disasters such as earthquakes,<br />
floods, tsunamis, hurricanes,<br />
or anthropic disaster such as<br />
landslides, terrorist attacks or<br />
serious industrial accidents.<br />
When a disastrous event occurs,<br />
local or remote people (Crisis<br />
Mappers via web) mobilize<br />
themselves to update maps,<br />
report emergencies and spread<br />
news. This participation also<br />
helps to increase awareness of<br />
the event. Crisis Mappers are<br />
generally (unpaid) voluntary<br />
with or without specific skills.<br />
Indeed, a group of mappers is<br />
generally composed by simple<br />
resident of the area affected<br />
by the disaster who want<br />
to contribute to the rescue<br />
activities, computer science<br />
experts, web programmer<br />
who want to provide their<br />
30 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
scientific contribution to<br />
the coordination operations.<br />
To this purposes, a number<br />
of online groups have been<br />
created. Among them, one<br />
of the most important is<br />
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap<br />
Team (HOT), which supported<br />
OpenStreetMap (OSM)<br />
mapper activity in the first<br />
use of the application for an<br />
humanitarian goal: he Haiti<br />
earthquake in 2010 (Soden &<br />
Palen, 2014). Another example<br />
of Crisis Mapping is Ushahaidi,<br />
a web platform that uses OSM<br />
maps and is updated through<br />
the geo localization of messages<br />
from SMS, tweets and emails<br />
that contain certain keywords,<br />
called alert.<br />
Other experiences adopted<br />
during the Hurricanes Sandy<br />
and Irene classified tweets on<br />
maps based on hashtags (http://<br />
faculty.washington.edu/kstarbi/<br />
TtT_Hurricane_Map_byEvent.<br />
html).<br />
The availability of free satellite<br />
data and the experimentation<br />
of ever-new remote sensing<br />
techniques played a primary<br />
role in the spread of these<br />
approaches. CM activities<br />
can be considered as open<br />
participatory policies. Indeed,<br />
anyone join these communities,<br />
update their country map or a<br />
distant country one that they<br />
do not know, report discomfort<br />
launching a crisis map or report<br />
the quality values of a region<br />
through a map showing all the<br />
parks in the area, the paths<br />
without architectural barriers,<br />
or anything else.<br />
This article proposes an<br />
analysis of several case in<br />
which volunteering activities<br />
were carried out in some postemergency<br />
phases to contribute<br />
to the rescue operations and to<br />
build a previously non-existent<br />
cognitive framework.<br />
The analysed web platforms are<br />
OpenStreetMap e Ushahidi.<br />
Four case studies are considered:<br />
the Haiti earthquake of 2010,<br />
the post election crisis of Kibera<br />
in 2007/2008, the Kathmandu<br />
experience with the Nepal<br />
earthquake of 2012 and the<br />
central Italy earthquake of<br />
2016. These four cases show<br />
substantial differences:<br />
Haiti<br />
With the disastrous earthquake,<br />
affecting Haiti in 2010, begins<br />
the spread of OSM in a natural<br />
emergency situation. Here<br />
the OSM community has<br />
had to endure a hard work to<br />
gain credibility before being<br />
recognized as an association.<br />
This is the first striking case in<br />
which is the population with<br />
SMS, Tweet e App, direct the<br />
rescue. The rescuers, with the<br />
support of platforms such as<br />
OSM and Ushahidi, receive<br />
updates without any third party<br />
intermediation (Neis, Singler,<br />
& Zipf, 2014) (Fig.1).<br />
Chart 1a - utilization crowd mapping<br />
platforms Haiti<br />
Chart 1c - utilization crowd mapping<br />
platforms Kibera<br />
Kibera<br />
Ushahidi is born in a contest<br />
of electoral violence. In Kibera,<br />
following the presidential<br />
elections in 2007, there was a<br />
climate of civil violence and a<br />
part of the population felt the<br />
need to make the whole world<br />
aware of the situation that was<br />
affecting their country. This<br />
led to the birth of Ushaihdi,<br />
which in swahilli means<br />
“witness” (Goldstein & Rotich,<br />
2008). This case highlights<br />
how technology can be used<br />
not only as an evidence of the<br />
violence suffered but also to<br />
spread messages of hatred and<br />
violence.<br />
Kathmandu<br />
In Nepal, a country with a high<br />
seismic and tsunami risk, the<br />
OSM community started to<br />
take shape since 2012, helping<br />
to update the cartography<br />
of the country and to create<br />
information and interest toward<br />
the topic of disaster risk,<br />
Chart 1b - utilization crowd mapping<br />
platforms Kathmadu<br />
Chart 1d - utilization crowd mapping<br />
platforms Centro Italia<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 31
REPORT<br />
especially in schools (Soden,<br />
Budhathoki, & Palen, 2014).<br />
In 2015, when the earthquake<br />
occurred, the country was not<br />
taken unprepared by the fact<br />
that the OSM community<br />
had long been consolidated<br />
and could therefore act more<br />
easily (Poiani, dos Santos<br />
Rocha, Castro Degrossi, & de<br />
Albuquerque, 2016).<br />
Central Italy<br />
Following the earthquake<br />
swarm hitting the territory of<br />
Central Italy since 24 August<br />
2016, the OSM community<br />
has been working hard to<br />
update local maps and make<br />
them available to everyone.<br />
This promptness with which<br />
the community developed a<br />
huge quantity of useful geoinformation<br />
has aroused the<br />
interest of the Copernicus<br />
project, that has acquired OSM<br />
data and redistributed them<br />
to the rescuers, i.e. the italian<br />
civil protection. Therefore,<br />
there was not a direct passage<br />
between OSM and rescuers,<br />
as Copernicus mediation was<br />
needed.<br />
To correctly evaluate and<br />
compare these experiences,<br />
an evaluation of the temporal<br />
continuity of the projects would<br />
be necessary. Indeed, they<br />
sometimes produce the highest<br />
results right after the disasters<br />
to face an emergency, except<br />
Chart 2 - Comparison chart between the four<br />
case studies analyzed.<br />
Character of the<br />
event<br />
then die with the same speed<br />
when the emergency ends.<br />
The different cases were first<br />
evaluated individually, each<br />
from the OSM platform’s<br />
birth year (2004) up to the<br />
end of 2016 (Chart 1a-d).<br />
Subsequently, they were<br />
compared through a qualitative<br />
graph based on the period<br />
before the emergency event, the<br />
period of the emergency event<br />
and the next one.<br />
Therefore, analyzing the preemergency,<br />
emergency and<br />
post-emergency were given the<br />
following scores:<br />
Haiti (Chart 1a): as far as<br />
the pre-emergency period<br />
is concerned, a score of 0<br />
is assigned. This is because<br />
there was not an active<br />
technological community in<br />
the area before the seismic<br />
event. For the emergency<br />
period, the maximum score<br />
of 10 was assigned. In fact<br />
the OSM community is<br />
formed during the emergency<br />
period (seismic event) and the<br />
emergency responders directly<br />
use the datasets created by it.<br />
For post-emergence a score<br />
ranges from 9 to 5. Numerous<br />
initiatives and coordination<br />
Haiti Kathmandu Kibera Centro Italia<br />
Natural Natural Anthropic Natural<br />
Type of event Earthquake Earthquake, Tsunami<br />
Main open source<br />
platforms used<br />
Main closed source<br />
platforms used<br />
Web and social<br />
Developed projects<br />
and<br />
non-profit<br />
organizations<br />
Direct relationship<br />
between rescuers<br />
and the technology<br />
community<br />
OSM, HOT,<br />
Ushahidi, Sahana,<br />
Crisis Commons<br />
Google<br />
Mapmaker,<br />
DigitalGlobe<br />
GeoEye<br />
Facebook, Twitter<br />
HOT<br />
OSM, Ushahidi,<br />
HOT<br />
Post-elettoral<br />
violence<br />
Ushahidi, OSM<br />
Seismic swarm<br />
OSM, HOT<br />
Google Maps Google Maps Copernicus, DigitalGlobe<br />
Facebook, Twitter,<br />
Skype<br />
Open Cities<br />
Kathmandu,<br />
Kathmandu Living<br />
Labs (KLL), MapGive<br />
Facebook,<br />
Twitter<br />
Map Kibera,<br />
Voice of Kibera<br />
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr<br />
terremotocentroitalia.info<br />
YES YES YES NO<br />
Tab. 1 - A comparison table between the various case studies reveals the platforms used<br />
and the relationships between the data produced and the rescuers.<br />
operations with humanitarian<br />
organizations took place in the<br />
years after the event; today the<br />
OSM community continues to<br />
work on Haiti territory and is<br />
very active.<br />
Kibera (Chart 1b): as far as<br />
the pre-emergency period<br />
is concerned, a score of 0 is<br />
assigned. This is because there<br />
were not an active technological<br />
community in the area before<br />
the emergency event (electoral<br />
violence). For the emergency<br />
period a score ranges from 5<br />
to 7. The score is increasing<br />
in this period since during<br />
the emergency phase, several<br />
crowd mapping groups started<br />
to spread in the area; Ushahidi<br />
is born in this period and<br />
news are spread through crisis<br />
maps. For post-emergence<br />
a score ranges from 9 to 6,<br />
since immediately after the<br />
emergency, all site maps are<br />
updated to allow humanitarian<br />
organizations to be in direct<br />
contact with local events.<br />
Kathmandu (Chart 1c): as far<br />
as the pre-emergency period is<br />
concerned a score ranges from<br />
0 to 8. In a period of peace,<br />
in fact, Kathmandu (Nepal)<br />
becomes an active community.<br />
32 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
Tab. 2 – Assign score from 0 to 10 to<br />
four case studies with relative legend.<br />
The OSM community starts<br />
to update maps and spreading<br />
knowledge about seismic<br />
risk, especially in schools. For<br />
the emergency period, the<br />
maximum score of 10 was<br />
assigned. Thanks to the work<br />
done by the OSM community<br />
during the pre-emergence<br />
period, the emergency period<br />
becomes an opportunity to<br />
test the efficiency of crowd<br />
mapping. In fact, it is the<br />
time of maximum efficiency<br />
of the platforms thanks to a<br />
well-established community,<br />
ready to face the event. For<br />
post-emergence a score of 5<br />
is assigned. Today the OSM<br />
community continues to<br />
persist.<br />
Central Italy (Chart 1d):<br />
as far as the pre-emergency<br />
period is concerned a score<br />
ranges from 0 to 4 with a<br />
peak of 5 in 2009. The OSM<br />
community starts working<br />
already before the events. In<br />
2009, the score increases to 5<br />
as after the earthquake striking<br />
Abruzzo, the OSM community<br />
worked to update the maps<br />
of L’Aquila. Nevertheless,<br />
they only worked on the<br />
maps after the earthquake (to<br />
support the reconstruction).<br />
For the emergency period a<br />
score of 7 is assigned. In fact,<br />
during the emergency, the<br />
OSM community appears<br />
to be efficient in updating<br />
the maps. Despite that,<br />
the use of the data by the<br />
rescuers was only possible<br />
through the intermediation<br />
of other entities. For the post<br />
emergency period a score of<br />
6 or 5 is assigned. This score<br />
is indicative, it is only an<br />
estimate of what could happen<br />
considering that Central<br />
Italy is still in the state of<br />
emergency (January <strong>2017</strong>).<br />
The qualitative chart represents<br />
the four case studies<br />
compared. The yellow zone<br />
represents the period before<br />
the event, the red zone the<br />
event and the green zone the<br />
following period. It showed<br />
that: In cases where prior to<br />
the event (seismic or other)<br />
there was a already stable and<br />
already active crisis mapper<br />
community, the use of the<br />
platforms and datasets made<br />
available was immediate. It<br />
is also evident, under some<br />
circumstances, that these<br />
platforms are being used<br />
most in the emergency period<br />
by reaching high peaks,<br />
and are left out in pre and postemergence<br />
periods.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Boccardo, P. & Pasquali, P. (2012), Web mapping services in<br />
a crowdsource environment for disaster management: state of<br />
the art and further development, International Archives of the<br />
Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information<br />
Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B4, 2012 XXII ISPRS Congress, 25<br />
August – 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 543-548<br />
2. Goldstein, J. & Rotich, J. (2008), Digitally Networked Technology<br />
in Kenya’s 2007–2008 Post-Election Crisis. Berkman Centre<br />
Research Publication No. 2008-09. The Berkman Centre for<br />
internet & society at Harvard University. http://cyber.harvard.<br />
edu/sites/cyber.harvard.edu/files/Goldstein&Rotich_Digitally_<br />
Networked_Technology_Kenyas_Crisis.pdf.pdf last access<br />
20/05/<strong>2017</strong><br />
3. Neis, P., Singler, P. & Zipf, A. (2010), Collaborative mapping and<br />
Emergency Routing for Disaster Logistics - Case studies from the Haiti<br />
earthquake and the UN portal for Afrika. In Proceedings of the<br />
Geospatial Crossroads@ GI_Forum, Salzburg, Austria, 6–9 July<br />
2010; Volume 10<br />
4. Poiani, T.H., Rocha, R.d.S., Degrossi, L.C. & de Albuquerque,<br />
J.P (2016) Potential of Collaborative Mapping for Disaster Relief:<br />
A Case Study of OpenStreetMap in the Nepal Earthquake 2015, In<br />
Proceedings of the 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference<br />
on System Sciences (HICSS), Washington, DC, USA, 5<br />
January 2016; pp. 188–197.Poser, K., & Dransch, D. (2010).<br />
Volunteered Geographic Information for Disaster Management<br />
with Application to Rapid Flood Damage Estimation. Geomatica,<br />
Vol.64. n.1.<br />
5. Soden, R. & Palen, L. (2014), From Crowdsourced Mapping to<br />
Community Mapping:The Post-Earthquark work of OpenStreetMap<br />
Haiti, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on the<br />
Design of Cooperative Systems COOP 2014, 27-30 May 2014,<br />
Nice (France) , Springer International Publishing Switzerland<br />
2014, pp 311-326, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-06498-7_19<br />
6. Soden, R., Budhathoki, N. & Palen, L. (2014), Resilience-Building<br />
and the Crisis Informatics Agenda: Lessons Learned from Open Cities<br />
Kathmandu, Proceedings of the 11th International ISCRAM<br />
Conference – University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, May 2014<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
Crowdsourcing; OSM; Ushahidi;<br />
Crisismapping; VGI<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
Over the last decade new voluntary mapping patterns are commonly<br />
known as VGI – Volunteered Geographic Information –<br />
that is, geo-localized information created voluntarily and consciously<br />
by web users. These are supported by platforms such as<br />
OpenStreetMap that have been shown in many emergency cases<br />
and not, a valid source of data, such detailed to be used for rescue<br />
operations. Another completely open source platform that has<br />
revolutionized the world of geographic information and how to<br />
make reports is Ushaidi that through interactive maps represents<br />
testimonies, reports, diaries, and citizen reports.<br />
Tab. 3 - utilization crowd mapping platforms since birth of OSM in 2004.<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Lucia Saganeiti, lucia.saganeiti@gmail.com<br />
Federico Amato, federico.amato@unibas.it<br />
Beniamino Murgante,<br />
beniamino.murgante@unibas.it<br />
School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale<br />
dellAteneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy<br />
Gabriele Nolè, gabriele.nole@imaa.cnr.it<br />
Italian National Research <strong>GEOmedia</strong> Council, n°3-<strong>2017</strong> IMAA C.da Santa 33<br />
Loja, Tito Scalo, Potenza 85050, Italy
NEWS<br />
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Here the list of the options we will release in the next months:<br />
RGB Camera<br />
a 5 Megapixel Global Shutter camera would be available to add the RGB<br />
value to the pointcloud.<br />
SmartSurvey SCANFLY - new features<br />
• The remote control through a dedicated pc software;<br />
• The real-time point-cloud streaming on the pc;<br />
• The RTK correction of the position/trajectory in real-time.<br />
Backpack<br />
this solution will allow the indoor use of SCANFLY. Our R&D team developed a hybrid solution to allow an INS<br />
mode (with Inertial System and GNSS) and a SLAM mode for automatic indoor localization and mapping. A further<br />
option is an high resolution 360° panoramic camera.<br />
Universal Mounting Plate<br />
we would increase our mounting plate portfolio so we studied a universal solution to let the customer switch from<br />
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34 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong><br />
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<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 35
NEWS<br />
36 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
NEWS<br />
I.MODI - Structural Monitoring<br />
through an advanced use of the<br />
satellite remote sensing<br />
I.MODI (Implemented MOnitoring system<br />
for structural DIsplacement) is a value added<br />
service, co-funded by European programme<br />
H2020, that integrates Earth Observation<br />
technologies, ground based data and ICT to<br />
develop services for monitoring the stability<br />
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Monitoring urban areas and critical infrastructure<br />
networks is a dominant socio-economical<br />
issue for the safety of the population.<br />
Structural deterioration with aging and effects<br />
of natural and man-made ground settlement<br />
processes pose a threat to structures and<br />
building strength.<br />
To guarantee a systematic and comprehensive<br />
control over large areas, satellite remote sensing<br />
can be effectively adopted. Differential<br />
Interferometry SAR (DInSAR) technology<br />
exploited by I.MODI represents an adequate<br />
alternative solution can be fully assimilated<br />
within the ground-based monitoring.<br />
Through multiple levels of services, I.MODI<br />
examines structural displacements and performs<br />
assessments on the level of damage and<br />
of its possible evolution. Reports are provided<br />
using WebGIS viewer or by user-friendly<br />
technical reports, allowing non-experts to utilize<br />
outcomes of a DInSAR analysis.<br />
The I.MODI monitoring system has a primary<br />
role in setting up mitigation and prevention<br />
actions based on the capability to<br />
perform back analysis using data archived<br />
since early 1990s and to be customizable for<br />
different monitoring end-user needs.<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 37
NEWS<br />
City Explorer 3D<br />
Aeronike will participate to this year's InterGeo edition to be held in Berlin from the<br />
26th to the 28th of September within the booth acquired by EuroMed Mapping, a<br />
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another Italian company operating in the sector of photogrammetry and remote sensing.<br />
EuroMed Mapping's booth will be located in Hall 4.1 with number B4033 where<br />
demos and some of the most innovative, recently developed tools and instruments<br />
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38 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
NEWS<br />
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<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 39
NEWS<br />
40 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
NEWS<br />
GIS for regional analysis.<br />
The Local Innovation Map<br />
The Local Innovation Map in the<br />
Sicani Area is the result of a didactic<br />
experimentation conducted in the field<br />
of GIS applied to Regional and Urban<br />
Planning, held by the writer in the context<br />
of the degree course in Regional,<br />
Urban and Environmental Planning at<br />
the Polytechnic University of Palermo.<br />
Inner areas are the focus of the<br />
National Strategy for Internal Areas<br />
(SNAI), which provides for significant<br />
investments both for the enhancement<br />
of services and infrastructures and for<br />
local development projects aimed at<br />
promoting entrepreneurial ideas in the<br />
sector of agriculture, sustainable tourism,<br />
handicraft, landscape and cultural<br />
values.<br />
The research arises from the belief that<br />
in inner areas, which can be defined as<br />
territorial suburbs but also as great reserves<br />
of local identity resources, there<br />
are marks of change that can produce<br />
new life cycles in rural and urban areas<br />
through investment in environmental<br />
and cultural heritage and local food.<br />
In spite of the critical features of a marginal<br />
area, some isolated experiences<br />
can be identified in the Sicani Area as<br />
evidence of the presence of creative talent<br />
in this "depopulated" inner territory.<br />
Some examples are: a innovative<br />
ICT start-up, a co-working space, some<br />
cultural associations, companies in the<br />
industry of renewable energies, manufacturing<br />
specialization and innovative<br />
food and wine production.<br />
By means of QGIS, the research work<br />
has been conducted in order to detect<br />
territorial distribution of innovative<br />
activities in the Sicani Area and recognize<br />
the connections or the absence of<br />
relationships between concentration/<br />
fragmentation/lack of innovation activities<br />
with demographic dynamics,<br />
infrastructure, cultural resources and<br />
local productivity.<br />
The Local Innovation Map, implemented<br />
on the basis of updating the<br />
innovative activities progressively settled<br />
in this area, could be a useful tool<br />
for local administrations to understand<br />
progressive localization reasons and to<br />
direct future development policy aimed<br />
at the promotion of cultural/productive<br />
activities in the inner areas.<br />
By Marilena Orlando<br />
Phd Regional and Urban Planning,<br />
Professor in Charge of “GIS applied to<br />
Urban and Regional Planning” at the<br />
Polytechnic - University of Palermo.<br />
Via Indipendenza, 106<br />
46028 Sermide - Mantova - Italy<br />
Phone +39.0386.62628<br />
info@geogra.it<br />
www.geogra.it<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 41
REPORT<br />
Rheticus: Dynamic and continuous<br />
geoinformation service for critical<br />
infrastructure and enviromental monitoring<br />
by Giuseppe Forenza<br />
Fig. 1 - Screenshot of the Rheticus platform.<br />
The article describes some activities<br />
of the Rheticus geoinformation<br />
service for both critical<br />
infrastructure and environmental<br />
monitoring. Two particular<br />
applications of the cloud based<br />
platform are shown below.<br />
Land and infrastructure<br />
monitoring is a key activity<br />
to ensure people’s safety,<br />
environmental protection<br />
and the safeguarding of assets at<br />
all stages of the life cycle of infrastructure<br />
design, production<br />
and management.<br />
Traditional campaigns for the<br />
regular monitoring of large and<br />
remote areas, however, employ<br />
considerable financial resources<br />
and time and are often complex<br />
to implement. The use of<br />
satellite technology allows overcoming<br />
these limitations and<br />
obtaining frequent,<br />
accurate and accessible<br />
information<br />
thanks to the wide<br />
availability of spatial<br />
information, even in<br />
open data mode.<br />
Among the different satellite<br />
technologies available, GPS<br />
and satellite images are widely<br />
used. In this context, Europe<br />
has decided to launch two constellations<br />
of satellites: Galileo<br />
and Sentinel. Galileo, currently<br />
under construction, which will<br />
have 30 GNSS satellites (Global<br />
Navigation Satellite System,<br />
the European GPS). The Sentinel<br />
satellites, of which four are<br />
already operational, are dedicated<br />
to Earth observation in the<br />
context of the Copernicus program<br />
and the data they collect<br />
are made available as open data.<br />
Rheticus platform<br />
and Displacement<br />
Images captured by the Sentinel<br />
satellites are at the basis of the<br />
monitoring services provided<br />
by the cloud platform Rheticus<br />
(www.rheticus.eu). Main<br />
application of these services are<br />
dedicated to the monitoring of:<br />
the stability of infrastructures<br />
(dams, roads, pipelines, etc.);<br />
slope stability and subsidence;<br />
the quality of coastal marine<br />
waters; forest fires; anthropic<br />
changes of the territory.<br />
The Rheticus cloud-based platform<br />
provides continuous monitoring<br />
services of the Earth’s<br />
surface. Shifting from data provision<br />
to geospatial knowledge<br />
and geo-analytics, its services<br />
are delivered by subscription<br />
and worldwide.<br />
Rheticus Displacement is one<br />
of the services provided through<br />
the www.rheticus.eu cloud<br />
platform.<br />
The Rheticus Displacement<br />
geoinformation service offers<br />
monthly monitoring of<br />
millimetric displacements of<br />
the ground surface, landslide<br />
areas, the stability of infrastructures,<br />
and subsidence due<br />
to groundwater withdrawal/<br />
entry or from the excavation of<br />
mines and tunnels. The service<br />
also provides information on<br />
anthropic changes and infrastructural<br />
dynamics over the<br />
area where the infrastructure is<br />
established.<br />
Rheticus Displacement provides<br />
a yearly historical analysis with<br />
monthly updates.<br />
The mapping activity is made<br />
through the monitoring of<br />
points on the ground with<br />
high stability called Persistent<br />
Scatterers (PS). The PS is produced<br />
through the processing<br />
of the European Copernicus<br />
42 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
Sentinel-1 satellite images or<br />
COSMO-SkyMed satellite data.<br />
Already used by main European<br />
infrastructures and transportation<br />
engineering companies, the<br />
service is targeted to: Infrastructures<br />
and works managers and<br />
builders; Public Administration;<br />
Planners & professionals in the<br />
territory.<br />
This service was adopted by<br />
numerous customers in various<br />
application areas after only its<br />
first months of operation.<br />
Two success stories:<br />
• ANAS S.p.A. (National<br />
Autonomous Roads Corporation):<br />
analysis of slope<br />
stability to support the planning,<br />
design and monitoring<br />
of roads.<br />
• MM S.p.A. (former Metropolitana<br />
Milanese): analysis<br />
of the instability of roads<br />
overlying pipelines for the<br />
detection of leaks in the<br />
water and sewage supply network.<br />
Monitoring displacements of<br />
the sewer network in Milan<br />
(Italy)<br />
The public sewerage network<br />
of Milan runs for approximately<br />
1500 km. MM SpA (former<br />
Metropolitana Milanese<br />
SpA), the managing company<br />
of Integrated Water and<br />
Wastewater Services of the City<br />
of Milan, had been searching<br />
for a method to quickly detect<br />
ground surface movements caused<br />
by the structural defect of<br />
its collector that could affect the<br />
area above the primary network<br />
and adjacent areas.<br />
Satellite radar interferometry<br />
was considered the most accurate<br />
and affordable survey method<br />
to prevent and identify possible<br />
failures of the sewage system,<br />
even in relation to the high<br />
traffic volume of metropolitan<br />
cities like Milan.<br />
Thanks to the Rheticus platform<br />
(www.rheticus.eu) and its<br />
geoinformation service Rheticus<br />
Displacement, which processes<br />
the interferometric data of<br />
Sentinel satellites, 50 points<br />
with sensitive sub-vertical movements<br />
on 24 roads with heavy<br />
traffic were identified and will<br />
be investigated in a detailed<br />
field survey.<br />
Rheticus Network Alert -<br />
A new user experience for water<br />
& sewer networks<br />
Powered by Hexagon Geospatial’s<br />
Smart M.App technology,<br />
Rheticus Network Alert has<br />
been lauched at HxGN Live<br />
Conference – June <strong>2017</strong>- Las<br />
Vegas.<br />
The objective of Rheticus Network<br />
Alert is to assist integrated<br />
water and sewer networks<br />
managing companies in their<br />
maintenance and inspection<br />
activities.<br />
Rheticus Network Alert simplifies<br />
the analysis of the Persistent<br />
Scatterers processed by Rheticus<br />
Displacement, providing information,<br />
filtered and applied<br />
directly to the network. Maintenance<br />
activity and inspection<br />
Fig. 2 – Displacements over the sewer Network in Milan, Italy.<br />
priority, are simplified and the<br />
Network Alert Smart M.App<br />
provides the level of warning on<br />
each pipelines.<br />
A growing network<br />
of Authorized Resellers.<br />
The distribution of Rheticus<br />
services is global. To guarantee<br />
assistance to organizations, professionals<br />
and decision makers<br />
in any part of the globe, Planetek<br />
Italia is building a network<br />
of valued Authorized Distributors.<br />
Several companies in<br />
Europe, Central America, Africa<br />
and Asia have already joined its<br />
innovative business model and<br />
started offering Rheticus services<br />
to their markets. To be part<br />
of this network write at info@<br />
planetek.it<br />
Rheticus awards<br />
Developed by Planetek Italia,<br />
Rheticus has been already awarded<br />
in several competitions and<br />
prizes at Italian and international<br />
level, for the idea of shifting<br />
from the provision of data to<br />
the provision of services, intended<br />
as continuous access to<br />
information from the users.<br />
A few months after its official<br />
launch in April 2016, Rheticus<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 43
REPORT<br />
was awarded:<br />
4As “Application of the Year<br />
2016” by OpenGeoData<br />
Association<br />
4the “TIM Telecom Best<br />
Practices for Innovation<br />
2016” during the Premio<br />
Best Practices for Innovation<br />
ceremony organized by<br />
Confindustria Salerno, Italy.<br />
4It was also listed among finalists<br />
of the European EO<br />
product of the Year 2016<br />
by the EARSC Association,<br />
and finalist of Hexagon<br />
Geospatial’s 2016 IGNITE<br />
Competition.<br />
Rheticus was recently presented at<br />
ENGAGE <strong>2017</strong>, the DigitalGlobe’s<br />
forum, in London, UK, and<br />
at HxGN Live Conference <strong>2017</strong>,<br />
Las Vegas, Nevada.<br />
Rheticus information and DEMO<br />
on http://www.rheticus.eu<br />
Fig. 3 - Dynamic geoinformation about displacements over the sewer Network in Milan, Italy.<br />
KEYWORDS<br />
geoinformation service; critical infrastructure;<br />
environment monitoring; rheticus network alert<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
Using free & open images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, the Rheticus cloudbased<br />
platform delivers industry-focused geoinformation services, in form of dynamic maps,<br />
reports, geo-analytics and alerts for professionals, private companies and Public Authorities,<br />
involved in engineering, utilities, energy, mining, land planning, environment and land monitoring.<br />
Subscribed users can receive contiuous information and analytics on the stability of infrastructures<br />
(dams, roads, railways, pipelines, etc.), slope stability and subsidence, the quality of<br />
coastal marine waters, forest fires and anthropic changes of the territory.<br />
AUTHOR<br />
Giuseppe Forenza<br />
forenza@planetek.it<br />
Planetek Italia<br />
44 <strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong>
REPORT<br />
<strong>GEOmedia</strong> n°3-<strong>2017</strong> 45
AGENDA<br />
4 - 7 September <strong>2017</strong><br />
UAV-g <strong>2017</strong> International<br />
Conference on Unmanned<br />
Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics<br />
Bonn (Germany)<br />
www.geoforall.it/k9cwq<br />
5 - 8 September <strong>2017</strong><br />
RSPSoc<strong>2017</strong> - Annual<br />
Conference Earth and Planets:<br />
Making the most of our<br />
observations<br />
Londron (United Kingdom)<br />
www.geoforall.it/kw3ua<br />
6 - 8 September <strong>2017</strong><br />
Strasbuorg (France)<br />
INSPIRE <strong>2017</strong> Conference<br />
www.geoforall.it/kwaky<br />
11 - 15 September <strong>2017</strong><br />
56th Photogrammetric Week<br />
<strong>2017</strong><br />
Stuttgart (Germany)<br />
www.geoforall.it/k9cwr<br />
26 - 28 September <strong>2017</strong><br />
INTERGEO <strong>2017</strong><br />
Berlin (Germany)<br />
http://www.intergeo.de/<br />
27 - 29 September<br />
Digital,Design and<br />
Development Fair <strong>2017</strong><br />
Hamburg (Germany)<br />
www.geoforall.it/kwawr<br />
9-10 October <strong>2017</strong><br />
EuroSDR / ISPRS Workshop<br />
on "Oblique Aerial Cameras -<br />
Sensors and Data Processing"<br />
Barcelona (Spain)<br />
www.geoforall.it/kwafq<br />
17 - 19 October <strong>2017</strong><br />
TECHNOLOGY for ALL<br />
<strong>2017</strong><br />
Rome (Italy)<br />
www.technologyforall.it<br />
23 - 25 November <strong>2017</strong><br />
12th International<br />
Conference on Non-<br />
Destructive Investigations<br />
and Microanalysis for the<br />
Diagnostics and Conservation<br />
of Cultural and Environmental<br />
Heritage (AIPnD)<br />
Turin (Italy)<br />
www.aipnd.it<br />
16-19 January 2018<br />
Geospatial World Forum<br />
Hyderabad (India)<br />
www.geoforall.it/kwacw<br />
6 – 11 May 2018<br />
FIG Congress<br />
Istanbul (Turkey)<br />
www.geoforall.it/k9cwx<br />
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