geoinformatics 2009 vol03

8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2009 vol03

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Trimble Juno SC Handheld Integrating Utility Asset Information

Fugro-BKS PostGIS

M a g a z i n e f o r S u r v e y i n g , M a p p i n g & G I S P r o f e s s i o n a l sApril/May 2009

Volume 12

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Whats below the Surface

Some weeks ago, a new version of Google Street View was introduced in the Netherlands.Aside from privacy issues, responses from users were positive and enthusiastic. What willGoogles next step be? We can expect to see more cities in Street View before too long. Also,people want to see whats under the surface. For example, sea floor mapping is currently ahot topic, and we are happy to announce that readers of GeoInformatics can expect someinteresting content on sea floor mapping in the near future.

But lets stay on the mainland for a minute, and have a look at whats below the surface ofthe earth: theres a whole world that has not been mapped yet, or only on paper, like net-

works of all sorts of wires. More and more national initiatives are taking place as a responseto the need for a single source of digital information that contains this underground informa-tion, like a Google Underworld, as one contribution calls it.

Will there ever be a Google Underworld? Im sure there is still a long way to go, but nation-al initiatives are popping up everywhere that indicate a need for data exchange and harmo-nization and integration.

On the other hand, we see more and more 3D models being used. One particular area Imvery enthusiastic about is the gaming industry, since 3D modeling techniques from the geospa-tial industry are used successfully in gaming environments. I have heard many critical remarksthat border on jealousy, saying that gaming is for kids and geospatial matters are seriousbusiness. This distinction is no longer valid, as you can read in Florian Fischers contributionin this issue. And its not about geo-caching. We have gone beyond that: the geospatial

industry seems to be integrating the best of both worlds, and coming up with solutions thathave a significant impact on the spatial perceptions of gamers. Now thats something youcan call serious gaming.

Eric van [email protected]

April/May 20093

GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis andcommentary with respect to the international surveying,mapping and GIS industry.

PublisherRuud [email protected]

Editor-in-chiefEric van Rees

[email protected]

EditorsFrank [email protected] [email protected] van [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

ColumnistsAndy CooteJames Fee

Contributing WritersFlorian FischerGordon PetrieHuibert-Jan LekkerkerkJoc TriglavAngela BakerPierre-Philippe Mathieuzgr ErtacStephan HollHans PlumKristine CarberAdam SpringCaradoc PetersAnthony BeckGraham Stickler

Account Manager

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SubscriptionsGeoInformatics is available against a yearlysubscription rate (8 issues) of 89,00.To subscribe, fill in and return the electronic replycard on our website or contactJanneke Bijleveld [email protected]

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Copyright 2008. GeoInformatics: no material maybe reproduced without written permission.

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Urban GamesDuring a workshop at the EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009 in

Bingen a group of graduate and post-graduate students from all over

Europe gathered to fathom the phenomenon of Urban Games. Alongside

a possible categorisation of urban games, the adoption of geospatial

technology for gaming and its impact on spatial perception has been

discussed and deepened during a hands-on exercise facilitated by Daniel

Schober from ESRI Germany.

C o n t e n t

April/May 2009

ArticlesUrban GamesThe Future Role of Geospatial Technology

for Urban Gaming 10

Standards in PracticePart 10: CityGML 24

GIS In Schools EducationOverview of GIS education landscape today,

some of the issues and challenges 20

The View from SpaceTaking Corporate Sustainability to New Heights 26

Integrating GIS & GridComputing for Disaster Management

The SCIER Project 46

Essays on Geography and GISFree ESRI Publication on Best Practices 32

PostGISPowerful GIS Functions in the

Database System PostgreSQL 34

The Current Climate for Data Capture,Processing and ArchivingDigital Preservation Processes within Cultural Heritage 54

Integrating Utility Asset Information

Data Integration Challenges for Reducing Street Works 58

Product ReviewTrimble Juno SC HandheldGPS Product Review 6

InterviewsERDAS - The Earth to Business CompanyAn Interview with Jergen Dold 14

Fugro-BKS: Part of Fugros Survey Division

Interview with Lynn Neill 38

The GeoInformation Group

Page 10

The SCIER ProjectThe EU-funded SCIER project (Sensor & Computing Infrastructure for

Environmental Risks) introduces a new approach to GIS-based disaster

management. Its goal is to make the much-neglected urban-rural-inter-

facing zones safer for European citizens faced with natural hazards and

environmental accidents. After mobilizing partners from research

institutes, academia, public authorities and service providers from seven

EU countries, its time for a look at the final implementation.

Page 46

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GPS Product Review

GPS is becoming more and more the standard tool for data collection, but also

for navigating to a certain object in the field. Whereas for data collection the

required accuracies need to be relatively high to create a dataset that is

positionally correct, this does not have to be the case for simply updating

attribute data in the field or in order to navigate to a certain object.

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

With the price of survey grade receivers rel-atively high it is an expensive job to equip

everybody with his / her own personal GPS unit.

An alternative would be to purchase consumer

type receivers but these rarely support the soft-

ware needed. As an alternative, manufacturers

develop low-end GPS units that still suit pro-

fessional needs. One of the latest of these to

come to the market is the Juno handheld from

Trimble. This review will focus on the Juno SC

handheld version, which is identical to the less

expensive Juno SB handheld that lacks the 3.5G

cellular communications options provided with

the Juno SC handheld. The unit has been test-

ed together with Trimble TerraSync software.

ReceiverThe receiver is based on a typical PDA type

handheld. As a result, all controls and interfaces

are quite familiar to any other windows based

PDA. As a result the main user interface is the

colour touch screen in addition to a few hard-

ware keys. As a result typing has to be per-

formed using the on-screen keyboard.

The Juno SC handheld is equipped with just

about any form of communication one needs

nowadays. There is no RS232 port, but these

can be considered obsolete by now. The Juno

SC model is equipped with a 3.5G cellular

modem, which we did not test. The SIM card

for this slot can be easily inserted / extracted

as it is located under a rubber cover next tothe micro SD card that Trimble has chosen for

memory expansion.

The upside of using a high capacity microSD

card is that you, when using the Juno SC hand-

held for mapping, will probably never run out

of memory. The downside is that the microSD

card requires an additional adapter when insert-

ed into e.g. a PC.

CameraThe Juno SC handheld is equipped with a 3

Megapixel colour camera with auto focus. The

camera is of the type typically found in mobile

devices and has no flash. As a result it is hard-

ly usable under dark conditions, but outside in

broad daylight it functions well enough. The

6

Product review

April/May 2009

Trimble Juno SC Handheld


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main problem with this type of camera is the

so-called shutter lag.

I consider myself a relatively experienced pho-

tographer, but I could manage to have a sharp

picture one out of five times. This is the result

of the situation that the camera requires about

6 seconds between pressing the shutter release

button and taking the photograph. Cameraquality is what one would expect and decent

enough (if sharp enough) to be used for GIS

type data collection.

Apart from the above I only experienced a few

minor problems with the camera. One was that

after taking a few photographs the colour rep-

resentation went wrong (all green image,

striped etc). After turning on/off the camera it

worked correct again however. According to

Trimble the problem experienced here might be

related to the specific I tested unit and will be

investigated. The other was that I inadvertently

turned the unit off while taking a photograph

in landscape mode. This was because the on/off

switch is exactly in the spot where you would

normally hold the camera to steady it.

rect any features in the field and mark them as

changed so that on re-import these objects can

be selected easily.

The downside to the procedure used by Trimble

is that when e.g. a shape file is used as basis

for the updating process, the import is good

enough but certain information from the origi-

nal file can be lost. An example is e.g. when a

menu list has been defined (and used). The val-ues are then, by default, imported as text and

not as a menu item. If however a so-called data

dictionary is available or if the data was origi-

nally collected using TerraSync then GPS

Pathfinder Office software offers the opportuni-

ty to match the values from the input file This

way menu entries can be created and certain

specific fields such as auto numbering can be

inserted that are not available in e.g. the shape

format used for the updating.

AcquisitionData acquisition or updating in the field is sim-ple enough. Select the correct feature on the

map and start logging or editing until the receiv-

er indicates enough data has been collected. It

is possible to edit the data dictionary in the

field using the TerraSync software, although

most people will want to avoid this consider-

ing the relatively small screen and on-screen

keyboard.

When mapping features with a point or line

geometry, the software offers the option to sur-

vey with an offset. This feature can be quite

handy when mapping e.g. a building or a tree.

One can simply stay away from those ever-

shielding walls and canopies and still be able

to accurately survey the position of the tree or

building.

ProcessingData is, as is usual with Windows Mobile

devices, transferred using ActiveSync. When

transferring measurement files, the connection

manager of GPS Pathfinder Office software has

to be used instead of the more generic file

explorer from Windows. This is necessary sinceduring transfer the software combines various

files from the receiver into a single data file on

the office computer; something that is not pos-

sible without GPS Pathfinder Office. If the GPS

Pathfinder office software is not available, then

the TerraSync software offers the possibility of

shape file export.

After transfer, the data can be viewed, edited

and exported from the GPS Pathfinder Office

software. The TerraSync software has only lim-

ited export options (to shape file), but GPS

Pathfinder Office has a myriad of export formats

available. All export formats can be tuned to

the user needs with regard to which features,

attributes and metadata is exported to the out-

put file.

Otter BoxThe Juno SC handheld is

not watertight by itself. It

is slightly shockproof, but

since it is essentially a

PDA it has the same type

of resistance to water

and shocks as any com-

mon PDA. Trimble real-izes this and offers a more sturdy housing as

optional. The OtterBox Defender Series case

does make the device more sturdy (and

bulky).

With the box in place the unit does not

become fully waterproof but will withstand a

heavy rain shower without much problem. The

unit is waterproofed using rubber flaps and a

silicon plastic covering around the front and

backside of the unit. The downside is that the

touch screen becomes much harder to read

and touch and that the image quality fromthe camera suffers from the additional layer

of plastic. Also, the waterproofing is not IP

rated and as such gives no guarantee to abso-

lute water tightness in any way.

All ports, with the exception of the battery

cover are however still accessible with the

cover on the unit.

SoftwareSince the Juno SC handheld runs on Windows

Mobile, one could use any software that is com-

pliant with that operating system. Trimble deliv-

ered the unit together with their standard

mobile GIS acquisition package, TerraSync soft-

ware. The software is relatively easy to under-

stand although one has to get used to the oper-

ation of the menus. Instead of using a menu

bar with pull down menus for the main menu

items, the software has two pull down menus.

The top one is to select the main menu item

whilst the bottom one is to select the specific

operation to be performed. Once one is used

to it, operation is no problem.

When using TerraSync, a feature can have an

attribute defined that will link an image fromeither the onboard camera or the memory to

that feature. Positional information taken from

TerraSync is also stored in the so-called EXIF

meta information layer of the photograph.

PreparationAs the main purpose of this type of receiver is

the location of objects or the updating of their

attribution, most users will want to download

their information to the receiver for updating.

Existing file types can be converted using the

Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office software to a for-

mat that TerraSync software can handle. GPS

Pathfinder Office is a collection of useful pro-

grams including a viewer and processing

options. Using this software it is easy to cor-

Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com

Product review

7April/May 2009
http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/


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For ESRI locations worldwide, visit www.esri.com/distributors.

Czech Republic

www.arcdata.czDenmarkwww.informi.dk

Estonia, Latvia,and Lithuaniawww.hnit-baltic.lt

Finlandwww.esri-nland.com

France

www.esrifrance.frF.Y.R.O.M.www.gisdata.hr

Germanywww.esri-germany.de

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Greece and Cypruswww.marathondata.gr

Austria

www.synergis.co.atBelgium and Luxembourgwww.esribelux.com

Bosnia and Herzegovinawww.gisdata.hr

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www.esrihu.huIcelandwww.samsyn.is

Israelwww.systematics.co.il

Italywww.esriitalia.it

Maltawww.geosys.com.mt

Moldova

www.trimetrica.comThe Netherlandswww.esrinl.com

Norwaywww.geodata.no

Polandwww.esripolska.com.pl

Portugalwww.esri-portugal.pt

Romania

www.esriro.roRussiawww.dataplus.ru

Slovak Republicwww.arcgeo.sk

Sloveniawww.gisdata.hr

Spainwww.esri-es.com

Sweden

www.esri-sgroup.seSwitzerlandwww.esri-suisse.ch

Turkeywww.esriturkey.com.tr

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UK/Irelandwww.esriuk.com
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9/68

Differential Positioning

The Juno SC handheld has a built-in SBASreceiver, allowing it to receive corrections from

the available WAAS and EGNOS satellites. The

downside to using SBAS is that the satellites

visible in Europe (EGNOS) are relatively low on

the horizon resulting in potential obstruction of

the differential signal in build-up areas or under

tree canopies. Trimble however offers a post-

Comment from TrimbleTrimble Mapping & GIS division thanks

GeoInformatics for conducting this product

review and for providing the opportunity to

comment on their findings. As Mr.

Lekkerkerk points out, the Juno SC well

suited for mobile workers engaged in data

collection and attribute update who require

connectivity in the field. To support thesetypes of users, TerraSync does manage

information from the internal camera,

including GPS location, when a data dictio-

nary is created that contains a picture

attribute. Furthermore, the camera issues

noted, including the long shutter lag as well

as several image colour problems, are due

to be resolved in an April update of

Windows Mobile 6.1.

processing option in GPS Pathfinder Office soft-

ware. Using data from fixed reference stations

around the world, the data collected in the field

is post-processed. Earlier tests with the GeoXT

handhelds performed by this magazine indicat-

ed that the results of code post-processing are

similar to those with SBAS collection.

ConclusionThe Juno SC handheld is an affordable alterna-

tive to its bigger brothers, but do not expect

miracles from it in the sense of accuracy. It is

however a good alternative for attribute updat-

ing or object recovery, especially when using

TerraSync software.

One thing that disappoints me is the camera

since it is very hard to use due to the shutter

lag. The method chosen by Trimble for trans-

ferring data files helps to keep the paths in the

data to the photograph correct whenever

Pathfinder Office is used for data processing.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

[email protected] isfreelance writer as

well as project manager at IDsW. This review was

done in cooperation with the students from the fifth

Skilltrade course Hydrography B in Rotterdam.This

article represents their personal views. For more

information on the GPS: www.trimble.com.


Product review

9April/May 2009

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The Future Role of Geospatial Technology for Urban Gaming

During a workshop at the EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009 in Bingen a

group of graduate and post-graduate students from all over Europe gathered to

fathom the phenomenon of Urban Games. Alongside a possible categorisation

of urban games, the adoption of geospatial technology for gaming and its

impact on spatial perception has been discussed and deepened during a hands-

on exercise facilitated by Daniel Schober from ESRI Germany.

By Florian Fischer

Linking Space and Gaming byGeospatial TechnologyUntil now a great variety of different games

exists that combine space and gaming.An

example of this is geo-caching, where people

all over the world search for hidden treasures

by hunting places that are only described by

their coorditantes with the aid of GPS receivers.

More and more of these types of games make

use of ever more sophisticated geospatial tech-

nology like GPS, digital mapping in combina-

tion with mobile communication. The conver-

gence of these technologies allow for the pro-

duction of particular settings for urban games

by mixed-reality. A term that describes the direct

link up of material space with media-space by

geo-references. Thus the player acts in material

space as well as in media-space during the

game.

During a workshop at the EGEA Western

Regional Congress 2009 in Bingen a group of

graduate and post-graduate students from all

over Europe gathered to fathom the phe-

nomenon of Urban Games. Alongside a possi-

ble categorisation of urban games, the adop-

tion of geospatial technology for gaming and

its impact on spatial perception has been dis-

cussed and deepened during a hands-on exer-

cise facilitated by Daniel Schober from ESRI

Germany.

Why Do We Play?Games fulfil various personal aims for players

such as having fun, action, teambuilding, win-

ning or simply getting a prize. Media-scienceprovides a building of theories to describe why

we play. Likewise simulations, gaming has a

close connection to real-life - in contrary to com-

mon opinion that says gaming is out of real

life. According to widely accepted action theory

gaming serves the purpose to trial and error

the effectiveness of procedures, strategies,

methods and instruments of acting. The player

can establish individual knowledge for future

actions and evaluate his knowledge continu-

ously within a game.

Hence urban games promote different settings

and typologies of acting to practice for reality

and build up knowledge within the context of

urban space. Exemplary two games show how

action typologies and settings vary by the inte-

gration of the environment and the appropria-

tion of mixed-reality using geospatial technolo-

gy.

The TargetWhereas the material setting is an important

factor of an urban game many games tend to

have a strong focus on the virtual setting

recently. One example is The Target, a copsand robbers game that exhaustively makes use

of GPS- and mobile technology.

There are three policemen who hunt for one

gangster in this game. Their weapons are a

mobile phone and the satellites that are hang-

ing above the city that is, the GPS-satellites.

The gangster has to steal virtual objects that

are located all over the city to be able to com-

mit crimes. Virtual objects appear on the screen

of the mobile phone an can be grabbed as soon

as the gangster is within a 30 meter radius of

the object. The objects can be knives, a rope

ladder or explosives. Every time the gangster

steals an object or commits a crime the police-

men get a signal and can locate him on their

mobile phones. Thus they have a track of the

10

Art icle

April/May 2009

Figure 1: The convergence of technologies -- communications, internet and geospatial -- enables the

production of particular settings for mixed-reality urban games

Urban Games


11/68

gangsters activities in the city that can be fol-

lowed. Furthermore the policemen automatical-

ly get a signal from the gangster every six min-

utes. Hence they can continuously check fortheir target. Both parties can shoot virtually

each other if they are within a radius of 25 m

from the other party but they only have three

bullets. The game ends when the policemen

have shot the gangster. Every shoot is calculat-

ed by the relative GPS-position of the parties

taking into account the material structure of the

urban environment. The gangster himself has

all the same information on his mobile phone

and can use a bunch of virtual tools to shake

off any police pursuit. He can use the radio jam-

mer to hide his GPS-signal, a bullet-proof west

to be protected from shoots and a mine to set

a snare for policemen. The game is appropriate

for three to thirty-six players and is available in

many cities in the Netherlands, Belgium and

France. Eventually it is more like a video game

that has been adapted to the urban environ-

ment as a play board.

The virtual setting becomes very important for

this game. GPS- and mobile communication

technology are essential to make the game

work and connect players, the material struc-

ture of a city and the virtual objects with each

other. The Target could not work without loca-tion and mobile communication technology as

game flow is inextricably intertwined with the

moves of players that is, all players need to be

informed about the movements and actions of

the other party in real time to be able to play

the game. Thus the level of location awareness

is an essential element for all players being

enabled by GPS-technology and mobile com-

munication.

4816 Confluence Project in ViennaConfluence games are taking a different

approach of playing. Confluence points are the

intersection points within a coordinate system.

These points are purely virtual objects as they

do not have any material appearance on Earth.

to the points to be found. Although the players

are in competition, they don not know who

might be their competitor. There is nothing to

win but to cope with a personal challenge.

Location Awareness an Enabler forUrban GamesFor many urban games the adoption of media

tools is a requirement. Websites usually accom-pany the game or provide important functions

for the game. Mobile communication is a key

element if real-time information or the connec-

tion to a control centre has a crucial role for

the flow of the game. A digital camera is an

important part of the equipment for many urban

games to fix a moment and have a proof for

the reaching of a location, a finished task or

the documentation of actions in general. GPS

technology is already a familiar element in many

urban games because many of them have their

roots in a geo-caching-like mode of playing.Maps have been used in many urban games

already, normally for orientation, remarks or to

give a route for the players. Digital mapping

and the integration of geo-browsers broaden

the adoption of maps in urban games. In com-

bination with mobile- and GPS-technology, dig-

ital mapping can be used to intertwine the

video game, a virtual space, with the urban

game and thus with the material space. Digital

mapping and mobile communication allow for

the visualisation of living maps in real-time and

thus players can react on the actions of other

players even when they are out of sight, like in

a video game but normally impossible in mate-

rial urban space. Now the creators of games

can draw from both worlds and put together

games that can be an urban intervention, a dis-

In fact sometimes they are marked or a sign is

put on confluence points but eventually they

are fictitious points. The aim of confluence pro-

jects is a hunt for these points to make them

visible. Thus every player and it can be every-

body with a GPS-device and a camera is in

competition with others to be the first discov-

erer of a confluence point. The project 4816 is

a confluence project dedicated to the Austriancapital Vienna to find and take a photo of all

minute intersection points within the adminis-

trative borders of the city. Looking at the matrix

of minute intersections in Vienna unfolds the

number of 185 points to be discovered. A web-

site accompanies the project that displays all

intersection points on a map and displays those

which have already been found.

When a point is found, a picture of the point

including the GPS-device with correct coordi-

nates as evidence should be taken. This picture

can then be uploaded to the website of the pro-ject. Many points have been visited already,

some even more than once, e.g. once in sum-

mer and once in winter. But there are still some

left which are very tricky such as points within

waterbodies.

Some points are even impossible to be discov-

ered legally as they are on private property, in

factory buildings or military zones. The game is

not about teambuilding and neither about hunt-

ing someone else but being a discoverer. The

intersection points as virtual and fictitious for-

mations of a geospatial coordinate system con-

nect the player by their georeference to unex-

pected and in fact unforeseen places in the

material world. The GPS-device becomes the

decoder for the coordinate system, guiding the

player within the urban environment of Vienna


Art icle

11April/May 2009

Figure 2: Location awareness in the urban game

The Target

Figure 3: The map of all intersection points in Vienna as shown on the website of Project 4816.


12/68

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covery a challenge or a robber and cop game,

merging real and virtual spaces. Eventually loca-

tion awareness seems to be a key element of

many urban games and I expect it to become

the most important element of many urban

games in the near future. Location awareness

that is, using devices that know and display the

position of all players and objects to a certain

degree, enables the players to react on other

players movements. In most urban games loca-

tion awareness will be only given partially and

depending on the role a player has. The actualchallenge of most urban games will then be to

guess where others are going and what other

players are doing while they only have a par-

tial knowledge about their location and move-

ment. Furthermore it is still an open question

how the location awareness of the device has

an effect on the spatial perception of the play-

ers. Many urban games have an educational

purpose as they want to communicate the his-

tory of a city or the establish knowledge for the

orientation within a city or educate about a cer-

tain local topic. Some research points out that

the effect of using location aware devices is not

necessarily a broadened location awareness of

the player. In contrary, in some cases the play-

ers in urban games totally forget about the spe-

cific meaning of the materiality of urban space

and do hardly realize anything else than the vir-

tual setting.

While partial location awareness for different

roles of players allows the creation of interest-

ing challenges in space, the game itself has full

location awareness. In fact all location informa-

tion can be stored continuously which opens

new possibilities for the review and scoring ofgames.

GIS for Gaming AnalysisGIS software provides a huge tool box not only

to conduct urban games but to analyse them

as well. I will take the product portfolio of ESRI

for example. ArcPad as a mobile client runs on

most PDAs with a Windows Mobile operating

system. Thus ArcPad could act as the client for

the game to show an actual map with interest-

ing objects for the player, record a GPS-track

and even allow for input within the game. The

desktop GIS ArcMap can then be used to anal-

yse and visualize the game afterwards. This

could be average speed, longest way or high-

est total difference in altitude or a spatio-tem-

a message. In fact many urban games that we

know nowadays have their roots in an artistic

initiative.

It is still a question which effects games have

on spatial perception and spatial experience. At

least they seem to be a perfect opportunity to

try out action and evaluate individual know-

ledge and thus prepare for real life. Probably

that is why they used for team-building often.Finally if you once played an urban game you

immediately get addicted to this mixture of

playing, using geospatial technology and being

outside. Addicted like all the participants of the

workshop on Urban Games were in the end of

the EGEA Western Regional Congress.

Contact:

Florian [email protected],GIS

Editor Geoinformatics and Research Assistant at the

Austrian Academy of Sciences GIScience research

facility in Salzburg, Austria.

The author would like to thank the following

workshop participants for their contributions: Matyas

Rajnai (Hungary), Elisabeth Gruber (Austria),

Martinus Everhardus Spoelstra (The Netherlands),

Stefanie Rieger (Germany), Andrei Molnar (Romania),

Christine Ornetsmller (Austria), Vlad Dumitrescu

(Romania), Sylvain Rigollet (France), Dick De Munter

(the Netherlands); thank you to my co-workshop lead-

er Elisabeth Wimmer from the Ludwig-Maximilians-

Universitt Mnchen; and last but not least thank

you to Daniel Schober from ESRI Germany for

providing the hardware and software for the

workshop and for dedicating so much of his time

to the preparation and the performance duringthe workshop.

Links:

Frisse Wind Events The Waddengame:

www.frissewind.com

La Mosca Citygames The Target:

www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htm

4816 - Confluence Project Vienna: http://4816.nsew.at

EGEA Western Regional Congress 2009:

www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09

poral analysis of the players movements with

the tracking analyst extension. ArcExplorer is

another tool to be used for visualising the game

flow and additionally adding photos to certain

point features. During the EGEA Western

Regional Congress a urban game has been

played using the product portfolio of ESRI. The

competing teams had to find ten places given

on ten pictures and then make a photo and seta place-mark with their PDA. Every group had

a GPS-enabled PDA with ArcPad installed. It has

been used to create the place-marks and to log

their track through the city. Afterwards the game

has been analysed in ArcMap and ArcExplorer.

This is still an easy way to use available GIS-

software for urban gaming. The adoption of

ArcGIS Server and mobile communication

seems to be a very powerful instrument for the

creation of urban games that also can take real-

time location awareness into account. Location

signals of various players can be sent by mobileconnection to the ArcGIS Server that does the

real-time server-side processing and forwards

necessary location information about the state

of play on the mobile maps of all players. It

seems that ESRI already provides all compo-

nents to set-up and urban game, do they.

Maybe this can be a future business case for

ESRI? ArcGIS Server might be too powerful to

only use it for gaming as some of you might

think. Of course more than simple urban games

could be done with ArcGIS Server but neverthe-

less: Why shall we not think about it.

GIS and Games much more thanScavenger HuntConcluding urban games are empowered by

geospatial technology and often enabled only

by it. I expect urban games to develop in the

direction of locative media games in the near

future. Mapping, mobile communication and

location services will be key technologies for

urban games then. The technology already

exists but it has to be simplified

because gaming is not about

reading a 500 page manual. Sofar most urban games have their

roots in three archetypes.

Games in the robber and the

cop category are mostly about

fast action like running, about

chasing each and to foresee the

next steps of your competitors.

Games like geo-caching are usu-

ally a scavenger hunt for places

or objects. Their aim is to cope

with a row of tasks in order to

find a location or be guided

along interesting tour. Still there

are also many artistic urban

games that do not follow a cer-

tain aim but want to transport


Art icle

13April/May 2009

Figure 4: Some intersections points are really difficult

to find, like the point N48 14 E16 24.

Figure 5: Visualizing resultsof an urban game via

ArcExplorer
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.frissewind.com/http://www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htmhttp://4816.nsew.at/http://www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.egea.eu/congresses/wrc09http://4816.nsew.at/http://www.lamosca.be/thetarget_en.htmhttp://www.frissewind.com/mailto:[email protected]


14/68

An Interview with Jergen Dold

ERDAS-The Earth toBusiness Company

GeoInformatics editor Joc Triglav teams up with Mr. Juergen Dold, President

Geospatial Solutions Division at Leica Geosystems AG. In this interview,

he explains all about how the new ERDAScame into being, as well as its

current philosophy of transforming data into geospatial information.

Special attention is paid to improvements in the methods of sensor data

acquisition, analysis and data modeling, as well as ERDAS strategic

OGC membership.

By Joc Triglav

Mr. Jrgen Dold joined Leica Geosystems in1995. At Leica Geosystems he managed as

product and general manager several product

and business lines that included high-tech

hardware and software solutions. In 2008 Mr.

Dold was appointed as President of the

Geospatial Solutions Division which is respon-

sible for Leica Geosystems Terrestrial Laser

Scanner and Airborne Sensors business as wellfor ERDAS the solution provider for authoring,

managing, connecting and delivering geospa-

tial information.

JT: To represent ERDAS briefly to ourreaders please give us a shortoverview of your company, its recentactivities and goals. How is ERDAS aswe knew it a decade ago differentfrom the ERDAS today?

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, ERDAS Inc. wasestablished in 1978. A small start-up initially

located on Georgia Tech's campus, ERDAS devel-

oped software to process Landsat imagery into

maps, utilizing remote sensing and GIS tech-

niques. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the

geographic imaging market rapidly developed,

with ERDAS as an industry leader.

In 2001, ERDAS and LH Systems were acquired

by Leica Geosystems, and this division became

Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping (later

renamed to Leica Geosystems Geospatial

Imaging). ERDAS was a remote sensing and

geospatial imaging software company and LH

Systems was a provider of aerial survey and

photogrammetry solutions. The combination

of these two entities created a comprehensive

solution provider, addressing the entire imag-

ing process from capturing raw data to pre-

senting 2D and 3D maps. In essence, Leica

Geosystems defined and powered the geospa-

tial imaging chain, as the experts in imagery.

Hexagon purchased Leica Geosystems in 2005,

maintaining the company's name and identity.

In 2007, the division acquired Acquis, ER

Mapper and IONIC, providing the companywith new technology and strengthening its

global presence. With these acquisitions, the

company broadened its offerings, appealing

to much larger web and enterprise wide, non-

traditional markets. In 2008, the company

became the new ERDAS, expanded to provide

the most dynamic geospatial solutions to meet

everyday business needs.

Today, ERDAS provides solutions that meet the

full spectrum of an organization's require-

ments, transforming geospatial data into infor-

mation useful for decision-making processes.

Incorporating standards-based interoperability

for authoring, managing, connecting and deliv-

ering geospatial information, ERDAS ensures

that data is seamlessly integrated for enter-

14

Interview

April/May 2009


15/68

prise, web-based, mobile and desktop clients.

For over 30 years, ERDAS has been an indus-

try leader in image exploitation, processing,

visualization and geospatial data manage-

ment. With Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

and International Organization for Standar-

dization (ISO) interoperability, ERDAS develops

standards-based solutions with the most

advanced service-oriented platform available.Building on the company's rich history and

expertise in geospatial imaging, ERDAS is now

a leader in the broader geospatial information

market.

JT: The ERDAS philosophy of trans-forming data into geospatial informa-tion is structured in four essentialsteps author, manage, connect anddeliver. Please, explain in detail themeaning and the contents of these

four steps.

The four steps are based upon the under-

lying premise that the earths geography is

continuing to change at a rapid pace. As a

result, there is an increasing need for geo-

graphic information to understand the earth.

This spark fuels the lifecycle of geographic

information. The lifecycle is broken down into

four primary components: Author, Manage,

Connect and Deliver. As the earth changes, we

have an increasing need to sense the earth.

Data can be captured from a variety of sen-

sors, including airborne, satellite and terrestri-

al. As the raw data is captured, it needs to be

authored in a form that is useable to derive

information. As the volume of data increases,

organizations experience a data management

problem. Enterprise solutions are needed to

manage the large volumes of data that have

been sensed. Once the data has been cen-

trally managed, there is often a need to share

that information with others distributed across

an organization. Delivering all this information

to end users is the final step. With an increas-

ing need to understand our dynamic world,this is an ongoing, recurring lifecycle. Our thirst

for understanding the earth ultimately pro-

vides us with more knowledge. This knowl-

edge enables us to take necessary precautions

to protect our planet and ensure a viable

future. Each of the components of the lifecy-

cle and our product portfolio are explained in

more detail below:

Author Transform source data into products,

including orthos, 3D data, land cover data and

processing models. ERDAS offers a full suite of

authoring products including ERDAS IMAGINE,

ERDAS ER Mapper, LPS and extensions for

ArcGIS.

Manage By centrally managing authored or

LIDAR systems now have a medium-format dig-

ital camera fully integrated.

With respect to airborne digital imaging, we

have seen improvements in maximizing area

coverage so that less flight lines have to be

flown to cover more area. Line staggering with

pushbroom sensors enables high-resolution

acquisition of up to 24,000 pixels acrossswath, increasing productivity up to 50%. This

allows faster flying times, acquiring more data

for photogrammetric and remote sensing

applications. The Leica ADS80 can capture

2,000 megapixels per square scene.

Increasingly, airborne data is being used for

thematic interpretation and classification as

well, replacing some satellite data. Sensors

that acquire data without requiring pan sharp-

ening during post-processing and provide

good radiometric calibration deliver superior

performance in feature extraction and classifi-cation.

Increasing the amount of data acquired dur-

ing a mission requires processing techniques

that provide fast post-processing without the

loss of accuracy. We believe workflows that

deliver high accuracy at the "speed of flight"

(with minimum interaction) will become more

important, particularly as we collect more data.

After the data is captured, ERDAS provides work-

flow driven solutions for authoring the data.

ERDAS has products such as LPS and ORIMA to

produce the data as it comes out of the sen-

sors, including block triangulation, automatic

point matching, automated terrain extraction

and ortho-mosaic production. ERDAS IMAINE is

also used to extract derivative information

products from this data, thereby increasing the

overall return on investment while maximizing

the depth of information contained within the

source data. ERDAS also has software to cen-

trally catalog and manage the data, as well as

high-speed internet delivery solutions for

rapidly incorporating the data into businessapplications. ERDAS seamlessly transitions that

data from the sensors into a variety of appli-

cations for authoring, managing, connecting

and delivering geospatial information.

JT: How do geospatial disciplines anddomains relate to Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC) web services andwhich are the benefits from OGCinteroperability? Which steps is ERDASmaking in implementing OGC compli-ance? How are the tasks of variousdata conversions implemented inERDAS technologies? How OGC strate-gic membership benefits ERDAS cus-tomers?

purchased data, the data is organized for quick

and efficient discovery. With ERDAS solutions,

users can easily manage their information,

including finding, describing, cataloging and

serving data and web services. Products

include ERDAS APLOLLO and ERDAS ADE.

Connect Organizations need to connect their

users to share data. ERDAS TITAN securely con-

nects users to rapidly share content through-out an organization or business-to-business.

Deliver After data has been provisioned,

users need to be able to deliver the data cus-

tomers need, the way they want it and when

they need it. ERDAS provides the industry lead-

ing solution for quickly delivering large

amounts of imagery that can be easily inte-

grated into CAD, GIS, mobile, web and desk-

top geospatial or business applications. ERDAS

Image Web Server efficiently distributes mas-

sive amounts of geospatial imagery to thou-

sands of users, all on a single server. Solvingthe infrastructure congestion problems tradi-

tionally associated with deploying large

amounts of image data, users quickly access

the information they need.

JT: In your opinion, which are themajor recent improvements in themethods of sensor data acquisition,quality analysis of the acquired data,combined use of various sensor dataand data modeling? How can ERDAStechnologies be helpful in these pro-

cesses?

With respect to LIDAR data acquisition,

there have been major improvements in point

density and accuracy. Since its introduction,

LIDAR systems have drastically increased in

accuracy. Both accuracy and point density

must increase together to avoid "fuzzy look-

ing" data with details masked by "noise.

Today's LIDAR systems deliver 40 times as

many data points per square meter of terrain

as systems did ten years ago, capturing finer

features in the terrain.

Leica incorporates various technologies in its

LIDAR product. System accuracy has improved

from tenths of meters in the late 1990s to

three to five centimeters today. Quality analy-

sis has also progressed, and there are now a

significant number of accepted practices used

to analyze the accuracy ofLIDAR data, even over

very large project areas. In many cases, the

techniques borrow from conventional tech-

nologies, adapting to meet the strengths

inherent in the LIDAR capture method. You can

now also combine various data acquisition

technologies. We have a number of customers

flying large-format imaging systems concur-

rently with LIDAR. In addition, 50% of all Leica


Interview

15April/May 2009


16/68

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20/68

Overview of GIS Education Landscape Today, some of the Issues

GIS In Schools EducationAt a time when floods, climate change and traffic management should be

making geography one of the most important subjects in schools worldwide,

the Office for Standards in Education, Childrens Services and Skills (OFSTED) in

the United Kingdom last year reported a drop in the number of pupils taking

Geography for high school GCSE and A-Level studies. What role does

technology namely GIS - have in engaging students, giving the next

generation the skills it needs to meet the major global challenges

that lie ahead?

By Angela Baker

GIS became part of the curriculum inEngland at Key Stage 3 in September 2008

and is now also mentioned in various A level

and GCSE specifications. As well as assisting

teachers, students and their schools to

answer geographic questions, and to foster

critical thinking and problem solving, GIS can

help to prepare our 21st century workforce

with the skills and geographical awareness to

sustain our fragile world.

GIS brings real life examples into the class-

room, engaging children who are now famil-

iar with internet access, mobile phones and

electronic games consoles at home and

encouraging young students by showing them

20

Art icle

April/May 2009

The Grammar School at Leeds embeds GIS training and exercises into its wider curriculum and believes that its

use of GIS engages students and challenges them to think.


21/68

that geography is far from the boring subject

they may think it is.

Pupils are being entertained using creative

mapping software in activities such as time

travelling to analyse electronic historical

maps compared to modern day geographies,

investigating how rivers and shorelines move,

or writing newspapers and podcasts about

their geography-based findings. Mapping

software helps pupils learn concepts and

skills in a way that goes beyond traditional

worksheets and appeals to children via the

media that they habitually use.

One of the major challenges is trying to sup-

port teachers to bring this technology into

Institute of British Geographers (RGS with

IBG).

This programme has recently won funding

for a further three years.

The APG's goal is to provide everyone -

opinion formers, policy makers, parents

and pupils - with a clear vision of geogra-

phy as a relevant, powerful 21st century

subject; and to equip teachers with theprofessional skills and support they need

so that pupils can enjoy and succeed in

geography.

The APG supports various initiatives that

are promoting geography within schools

including GIS and mapping. The GA and

RGS both promote GI to their members

and have a keen interest in helping

teachers learn about how to implement

GI into their classrooms.

However it is the responsibility of theGI industry as a whole to encourage

schools, teachers and children to be

interested in geography and encour-

age them to develop their own spa-

tial awareness. A number of UK-

based and international GI

companies are already involved in

promoting education and the

Ordnance Survey, Great Britains

national mapping agency, are lead-

ers in this field.

Why GIS is a useful Tool forTeachers and ChildrenGIS helps students to become bet-

ter geographers because it cuts to

the heart of what geography is about; the

visualisation and analysis of spatial informa-

tion. GIS provides new opportunities for stu-

dents to develop their skills of geographical

analysis to a level not previously achievable

in schools. In this way, GIS in the classroom

can enhance the sophistication of geographi-

cal learning by allowing pupils to access real

data to tackle real problems. This helpsGeography to remain relevant and gives stu-

dents opportunities to use the subject in a

way that stretches and challenges them.

New technologies like GIS give a boost to the

subject of geography, helping to arm young

people with a new set of skills not just ICT-

related but the mental skills needed for data

analysis and problem solving, highly relevant

to a whole host of educational paths and

occupations.

Geography as a subject has always produced

students with very strong transferable skills.

In the near future, GIS skills will be expected

from employers in the same way spreadsheet,

word processing and email skills are today.

If we are going to arm our young people with

their classroom.

They are not GIS experts and do not have

the time to learn the software so there is a

responsibility on the GI industry to support

this new set of users, to help them integrate

the software into their teaching. One of the

other key challenges is communicating thatGIS is not just a visualisation tool, but a

strong analytical tool that can aid learning of

geographical techniques. Making the software

and data accessible and then supporting

teachers to integrate this into their teaching

will really help them bring GIS to the next gen-

eration.

Who's doing what to helpIn March 2006, Lord Adonis, the Schools

Minister, and Michael Palin announced the

Action Plan for Geography (APG). The APG was

a two-year programme of support and devel-

opment for school geography led jointly and

equally by the Geographical Association (GA)

and the Royal Geographical Society with the


Art icle

21April/May 2009

and Challenges

Tocoincidewithitsentryint

otheGeographyAlevelcurriculum,

ESRI(UK)andtheGeograph

icalAssociation(GA)joinedf

orcesto

publishthefirstEuropeanG

ISA-Leveltextbook.


22/68

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these skills we need to bring GIS and

industry-standard training into the class-

room.

Who is teaching GIS well?Education isnt just about teaching students

facts. Its also about teaching them how to

reflect, analyse and problem solve. That, cer-

tainly, is the view of The Grammar School at

Leeds who are one of the schools who haveintegrated GIS into their teaching. This pro-

gressive school embeds tailored GIS lessons

into several subject areas, including Geo-

graphy, Biology, History and Religious

Studies, and believes that its use of GIS

engages students and challenges them to

think. They find that their students start to

use GIS as a tool to help fieldwork and

coursework, and as they use it more they

understand the techniques and are able to

undertake quite advanced GIS analysis as

they reach GCSE and A Level. In one project,students took raw data about childhood

health and living conditions from the Internet

and joined it to the Primary Care Trust

Boundaries base map. They then created

choropleth maps to help them identify

potential links between unfit housing and

asthma. These real-life exercises equip young

people with practical GIS skills that they can

employ in their future occupations. But,

these exercises also help students to develop

analytical skills that will benefit them in many

ways, throughout their lives. GIS is also being

taught in universities not just in Geography

Departments but in many different subjects

both at under-graduate and post-graduate lev-

els. It is also used in various research teams

ranging from Zoology to Archaeology, from

Geology to Sociology.

Why there is a Need for the A LevelBookTo coincide with its entry into the Geography A

level curriculum, ESRI (UK) and the Geo-

graphical Association (GA) joined forces to pub-

lish the first European GIS A-Level textbook;previously, GIS text books in English were only

published in North America. Consisting of a text

book, exercises and ESRI GIS software, teach-

ers and students now have access to a com-

prehensive GIS teaching aid - a complete guide

to the theory and applications of GIS, with five

practical exercises described step-by-step.

Written by Dr Peter OConnor, Head of

Geography at Bishops Stortford College in

England and a member of the Geographical

Association ICT Working Group. The book is

written from a teachers point of view and

describes how governments, organisations and

individuals are using GIS to grapple with

increasingly complex social, economic and envi-

ronmental problems. It then develops students

ing. With todays children being more famil-

iar with technology and the digital environ-

ment than ever before, they just need to be

pointed in the right direction and given the

opportunity to explore the software as they

progress through their work.

Lesson plans that link into the curriculum are

vital if we are to encourage teachers to use

GIS. They need to be able to learn the soft-ware, download something and use it

straight away. In time, the ideal scenario

would be to encourage teachers to share les-

son plans thus building an evolving resource

and library that links into the UK curriculum

across many subjects, written by teachers for

teachers.

ESRI (UK) is committed and passionate about

supporting GIS within both the school and

further / higher education arena. Putting

something back into our community and

working with the next generation is an idealway to do this. While we have supported var-

ious initiatives in the last few years that help

promote the use of GIS within schools, we

are now looking at how we can improve on

this. During this year we intend to launch a

project that will help teachers integrate GIS

into their teaching. It is all about Community

- how to build a modern community which

obviously means an online community and

about using the power of the technology to

help children learn, building a skilled workforce

for the future.

GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week are

international campaigns that promote geogra-

phy, inspire future careers and encourage the

learning of new geographical skills by both

teachers and pupils. GIS Day is aimed at show-

ing students the vast extent to which geo-

graphical information underpins daily life, with

activities taking place in over 80 countries. This

year GIS Day is 18th November and everyone

is invited to take part visit www.gisday.com

for details. Good geographical knowledge and

skills are vital for all of us, as responsible citi-

zens, if we are to fully understand the natureof change in the worlds people, places and

environments. We can and must - support

the next generation to foster these skills.

Angela Baker is Community Programmes Manager at

ESRI (UK). Go to www.esriuk.com/educationfor more

information or to learn more about the work being

done in promoting GI in education see the following

links:

Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) www.rgs.org

Geographical Association www.geography.org.uk

Action Plan for Geography -

www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk

ESRI (UK) GIS Day resources

www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresources

MapZone -

http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone

GIS skills through the use of GIS software.

An understanding of GIS plays a crucial role in

introducing students to modern methods of

spatial data capture, processing, analysis and

presentation. Many chapters in the book can

be used as case study material to reinforce stu-

dents learning about the different stages of a

geographical investigation.

Through this resource teachers have the exer-

cises, data and software all provided in one

place along with the theory. It allows teachers

to integrate GIS into their lessons in a very

straightforward manner. The book is inexpen-

sive and so allows the teacher to trial the con-

cepts without a large financial outlay.

For sample pages of the book please see:www.geography.org.uk/post16he/

What does the Future hold?The schools market requires something that will

make GIS much more accessible to teachers

and therefore to children. They do not need

professional GIS, but GIS software that is easy

to use and relevant to the curriculum. This

means they need more than a piece of soft-

ware.

Data is very important, especially for their local

and fieldwork areas. This needs to be access-

ible and easy to import into the GIS. They must

also have lesson plans which show how the

software is relevant to what they are teaching

and links into the curriculum they are follow-


Art icle

23April/May 2009

At last year's ESRI EMEA User Conference, students from The

Grammar School at Leeds took to the podium alongside teachers

to demonstrate how they have been using GIS in their studies.
http://www.gisday.com/http://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.rgs.org/http://www.geography.org.uk/http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/http://www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresourceshttp://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzonehttp://www.geography.org.uk/post16hehttp://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geography.org.uk/post16hehttp://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzonehttp://www.esriuk.com/gisday/ideasresourceshttp://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/http://www.geography.org.uk/http://www.rgs.org/http://www.esriuk.com/educationhttp://www.gisday.com/


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Part 10: CityGML

Over the last few years, the geo-industry has become increasingly aware that

the world is a 3D place. In the past, cities, landscapes, etc. were always

displayed as 2D chart representations. The best 3D that could be offered was a

DTM of heights or depths. At the other end of the spectrum, there have always

been those who did cityscaping and landscaping. Although they viewed the

world as a 3D place, their models were not anchored in the real world and,

as such, could not be combined with other sorts of information. They were

defined as purely graphical or geometrical models, thereby ignoring semantics

and topology. CityGML is an attempt to resolve these aspects in a coherent way.

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

CityGML is an extension of GML version 3.1.1to allow the exchange of common semantic

information models for the representation of

3D urban objects. CityGML is based on a num-

ber of standards from the ISO 191xx family, the

Open Geospatial Consortium, the W3C

Consortium, the Web 3D Consortium, and

OASIS. CityGML defines the classes and rela-

tions for the most relevant topographic objects

in cities and regional models with respect to

their geometrical, topological, semantic and

appearance properties. City is broadly

defined to comprise not just built structures,

but also elevation, vegetation, water bodies,

city furniture, and more. CityGML is applica-

ble for large areas and small regions and can

represent the terrain and 3D objects in differ-

ent levels of detail simultaneously.

CityGML has been developed, starting in 2002,

by the members of the Special Interest Group

3D (SIG 3D) of the Geodata Infrastructure North

Rhine-Westphalia (GDI NRW) initiative in

Germany. The SIG 3D is an open group con-

sisting of more than 70 companies, municipal-

ities, and research institutions from Germany,

Great Britain, Switzerland, and Austria. In 2008version 1.0.0 was established as an Open

Standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium

(OGC).

ModularizationCityGML consists of a wide variety of object

classes. However, implementations are not

required to support the overall data model in

order to be conformant to the standard, but

may employ a subset. For this, the CityGML

data model is thematically decomposed into

a core module and thematic extension mod-

ules. The following eleven thematic extension

modules are available: Appearance, Building,

CityFurniture, CityObjectGroup, Generics,

LandUse, Relief, Transportation, Vegetation,

WaterBody. CityGML compliant implementa-

tions may support any combination (or pro-

file) of extension modules in conjunction with

the core module.

CityGML does not define very specific infor-

mation on objects. In fact there are objects

not covered by the thematic extensions. In

reality it is on this information that analyseswill usually take place. Extension of the model

is allowed in CityGML through two different

processes: generic objects and attributes and

Application Domain Extensions.

Generic objects allow extension of existing

objects with new attributes at runtime with-

out changing the CityGML schema. The gener-

ic extensions are covered in the thematic

extension Generics.

Application Domain Extensions (ADE) speci-

fies additions to the CityGML data model that

allow not only new attributes but also new

object types. The ADE is defined in its own

XML schema, thus allowing for validation of

the extension together with validation against

the regular CityGML schema.

24

Art icle

April/May 2009

Standards in PracticeCityGMLWhat it is for: Semantic description of cities,

landscapes and buildings

Relevant standards: GML, ISO 191xx series

Technical implementation: GML

Legal basis: None; OGC standard

Stadt Ettenheim CityGML model in Autodesk LandXplorer CityGML viewer with Google Maps inset of the same area.


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Level of Detail

In CityGML, the Level Of Detail reflects differentapplication requirements and facilitates efficient

visualization and data analysis. The available

levels of detail (LOD) range from LOD 0, which

is essentially a digital terrain model with an

aerial image draped over it, to LOD 4 which

details buildings with all their architectural

details and interiors, stairs and furniture.

In a CityGML dataset, the same object may be

represented in different LOD simultaneously,

enabling the analysis and visualization of the

same object with regard to different degrees of

resolution. Furthermore, two CityGML data sets

containing the same object in different LOD may

be combined and integrated.

While in CityGML each object can have a differ-

ent representation for every LOD, often differ-

ent objects from the same LOD will be general-

ized for representation by an aggregate object

in a lower LOD. CityGML supports this aggrega-

tion / decomposition.

Combining Buildings with DTMBuildings do not stand on their own; often this

information is integrated with Digital Terrain

Models (DTM). Problems arise if 3D objects floatover or sink into the terrain. This is particularly

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the case if terrains and 3D objects in different

LOD are combined, or if they come from differ-ent providers. To overcome this problem,

CityGML allows what it calls a Terrain

Intersection Curve (TIC) to be modeled on every

building. When combining the building with a

DTM, the TIC allows the building to be correct-

ly positioned height-wise in the DTM.

Prototyping ObjectsIn CityGML objects of equal shape like trees and

other vegetation objects, traffic lights and traf-

fic signs can be represented as prototypes,

which are instantiated multiple times at differ-

ent locations. The geometry of prototypes is

defined in local coordinate systems. Every

instance is represented by a reference to the

prototype, a base point in the world coordinate

reference system and a transformation matrix

that facilitates scaling, rotation, and translation

of the prototype.

Exchange of DataOne of the main drawbacks of CityGML is prob-

ably also its strongest point: the use of GML.

The advantage of using GML is, of course, that

the files can be validated against a schema andthat semantic coherence between the various

objects is clear. The main downside to using

GML is the size of the resulting files; for exam-

ple, Castle Herten as featured in this article com-

prises a dataset of 5 Mb. The model of the city

of Ettenheim is already 42 Mb. Packaging the

files in a zip archive helps, but the sheer size

of the files will hamper normal XML validation

as well as their use in a WFS.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

[email protected] isproject manager

at IDsW and freelance trainer and writer. For more

information: www.ogcnetwork.net;www.citygml.org

Latest News? Visitwww.geoinformatics.com25

April/May 2009

Conceptual model of CityGML (source: www.citygml.org)

Levels of detail in CityGML (source: www.citygml.org)
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.ogcnetwork.net/http://www.ogcnetwork.net/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.citygml.org/http://www.ogcnetwork.net/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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own needs (Our Common Future, report of

the World Commission on Environment andDevelopment headed by Gro Harlem

Brundtland in 1987). The all-embracing view

from space helped pioneer the emergence of

the concept of Sustainable Development,

whereby economic growth should ensure at

the same time long-term quality of life and

respect for the environment.

Over the last decades, the principles of sus-

tainability were progressively adopted by

world leaders on the occasion of a series of

Earth Summits (e.g. Stockholm, 1972; Rio,

1992), culminating in 2002 at the World

Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

held in Johannesburg. At this summit, world

leaders called upon business and civil soci-

ety to contribute to the Millennium

global environmental and social impact of

human activities. EO data is well suited to thistask as it delivers global and consistent data

on a wealth of environmental parameters

(ranging from land cover and oceanic condi-

tions to atmospheric composition), at a vari-

ety of scales, and even in regions physically

or politically inaccessible to traditional sur-

veying. Just by virtue of being global, EO data

nicely complement traditional point-based

observations based on in-situ surveys, which

are often sparsely distributed, or even com-

pletely missing, particularly in remote regions.

The capability of a space-based asset has

been recognized in the WSSD statement call-

ing for wider use of earth observation tech-

nologies to support water and disaster man-

agement.

Development Goals and to the implementa-

tion of sustainable development principlesthrough the Agenda 21 plan.

Meeting these objectives involves many chal-

lenges. The first one is the ability to quantify

sustainability by assessing the overall envi-

ronmental and societal impact of human activ-

ities, as well as its evolution in time compared

to a baseline. This is not an easy task, given

the complex nature and global scale of the

problem.

In this context, this paper will examine how

Earth Observation (EO) satellites in orbit

around the Earth - in particular from ESA mis-

sions and Third Party missions - can con-

tribute to meeting this challenge by provid-

ing a quantitative tool, going well beyond

simple imagery, to assess the cumulative


Art icle

27

Figure 1. Monitoring change within oil sands development areas in Canada. Rapid expansion of mine footprints between 2004 (left panel) and 2006 (right panel), as seen by

ENVISAT ASAR. Service providers are Hatfield Consultants and ACRI-st.

April/May 2009
http://www.geoinformatics.com/http://www.geoinformatics.com/


28/68

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Art icle

29

The focus of this paper will be on the imple-

mentation of Corporate Sustainable

Development (CSD) within business practices,

also sometimes referred to as Corporate

Social Responsibility (CSR). Following increas-

ing pressure from stakeholders, a series of

corporate leaders in CSD have adopted a new

business ethic based on the principles of sus-tainable development. This has resulted in the

creation of new types of non-financial audit-

ing and reporting practices along the tripl

geoinformatics 2009 vol03

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