geomaticsworld september | october 2010 · ben bennett recounts how digital surveys completed a...

GeomaticsWorld SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2010

Issue No 6 : Volume 18

Computationsand results for

Bermuda’s geoid

Scanning on deckfor the Wave Hub

Cable Layer

Marking the laser’s50th anniversary.

But what next?

Casting a flyunder the eye ofStorm Geomatics

For those whomust go out in

the noon day sun

Surveying for geographical and spatial information in the 21st century

www.topcon.eu

IP-S2: Capture geo-referenced 360 degree images and point clouds with any car in your fleet

SURVEY AT SPEED

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Köln · 05. - 07.10.10 · Halle 11.2INTERGEO 2010

The next issue of GW will be that for November/December 2010.Copy dates are: Editorial: 04 October Advertising: 20 October

Next issue

p.5 Editorial

p.6 News & People

p.9 Calendar

p.11 Chair

p.12 Undercurrents

p.27 Legal Notes

p.32 Overcurrents

p.35 Downunder Currents

p.36 Products & Services

p.38 Classified

Regulars

Geomatics World is published bi-monthly by PV Publications Ltd on behalf of the Royal Institutionof Chartered Surveyors Geomatics Faculty and isdistributed to faculty members and other subscribingprofessionals.

Editor: Stephen BoothTechnical Editor: Richard GroomNews Editor: Hayley TearAdvertising: Sharon RobsonSubscriptions: Barbara Molloy

Editorial BoardPat Collins, Professor Michael Cooper, Richard Groom,Alan Haugh, James Kavanagh, Professor Jon Mills,Dr Stuart Robson, Dr Martin Smith, David A Wallis

Overseas SourcesRoy Dale – New ZealandNick Day – USA

Editorial and advertising:e-mail: [email protected]: www.pvpubs.comT: +44 (0) 1438 352617F: +44 (0) 1438 351989Mailing: PV Publications Ltd2B North RoadStevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 4ATUnited Kingdom

Material to be PublishedWhile all material submitted for publication will behandled with care and every reasonable effort is madeto ensure the accuracy of content in Geomatics World,the publishers will have no responsibility for any errorsor omissions in the content. Furthermore, the viewsand opinions expressed in Geomatics World are notnecessarily those of the RICS.

Reprints: Reprints of all articles (including articlesfrom earlier issues) are available. Call +44 (0)1438352617 for details.

Advertising: Information about advertisement rates,schedules etc. are available in the media pack.Telephone, fax or write to PV Publications.

Subscriptions: Yearly subscription (six issues) is £45(UK) £49 (worldwide). For more details, includingspecial offers, go to: www.pvpubs.comNo material may be reproduced in whole or in partwithout written permission of PV Publications Ltd.© 2009 ISSN 1567-5882

Printing: The Manson Group, St Albans, UK

September / October 2010 Geomatics World 03

Contentsp.06 News

– Storm Geomatics casts an eye on the fly

– TSA hosts awards ceremony

– Kings’ tombs scanned

– VRS Now Covers 100km of M25

p.10 Harry Glennie, 1939-2010Former friends and colleagues offer their appreciation of one of thegreat engineering surveyors.

p.14 Life begins at fifty for the laser!Now in its fiftieth year, the laser has become an integral part ofsurvey’s daily kit. But is the best yet to come for this technology?

p.16 3D City Models – brains v. beauty!Photorealistic 3D city models are ubiquitous these days but Kilian Ulm isconvinced that sustainability is the key over good looks.

p.19 ISPRS Commission V: a world-class symposiumIda Jazayeri reports on the 2010 symposium where delegatesreconnected with old colleagues and met new friends.

p.20 Dimensional Control for Wave Hub ProjectBen Bennett recounts how Digital Surveys completed a scanningcommission that formed part of the prestigious Wave Hub Development.

p.24 Crosstalk: life after GeomaticsPaul Cross reflects on his career’s achievements, disappointments,today’s students and ponders on whether Galileo is really necessary.

p.28 A new Geoid Model for Bermuda – Part IIIn the final part, the authors look at the computations and review theresults and achievements of all involved.

p.30 Book Reviews: ticking all the boxes?Two in-depth reviews from Richard Groom on Surveying forEngineers (5th Edition) and the latest issue of Survey Review.

COVER STORYTopology andsustainability areessential in buildinghigh-resolution 3Dcity models. To learnmore, turn to page16 of this issue. Theimage shows part ofthe city of Geneva.© République etcanton de Genève /SEMO - hepiaHESSO

PV Publications Ltd2B North Road,Stevenage, Herts SG1 4ATT: +44(0)1438 352617W: www.pvpubs.com

C

CONNECTIONS THAT WORK FOR YOU.

To find out more about Dimensions 2010, visit www.trimbledimensions.com

Don’t miss Trimble Dimensions 2010—the positioning event of the year! It’s the one place where you can make connections and gain insight into positioning solutions that can transform the way you work. Be inspired by our panel of visionary guest speakers. Increase your knowledge base from hundreds of educational sessions that focus on surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geospatial, infrastructure, utilities and mobile resource management solutions. Register now and you’ll learn how the convergence of technology can make collaborating easier and more productive to gain a competitive edge.The Mirage, Las Vegas

November 8–10, 2010

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Editorial


used to screen reading only, makes printpublishing a risky and expensive business. Tohelp those who want to read on screen andwant it as quickly as possible, we arelaunching GW online, a much strengthened,web-based version of what we have previouslyoffered to subscribers and RICS and IISmembers. As an RICS/IIS member you will beable to read a new issue of GW as soon as ithas gone to press provided we have youremail address. You will be able to browse andsearch the entire publication plus issuesstretching back up to ten years.

Shortly after the issue has gone to press wewill email you a link that will take you straightto the latest issue but do make sure we haveyour latest contact by completing the form onthe postal carrier sheet with this issue or go tothe web link provided.

Because of the high cost of postage we areasking RICS members living overseas toconfirm that they wish to continue receiving aprinted copy of GW otherwise they will receiveonly the online edition. Please note that theonline edition is only available to RICS/IISmembers and bona fide subscribers. Thesearchable archive of ten years of GeomaticsWorld is a useful resource and a significantmembership benefit.

Enjoy the issue and stay in touch!

The autumn always marks the start of anew period in the annual cycle, whether inbusiness or education. Exhibitions and

events programmes resume. New products andservices appear. People move on. But it can alsobe a time to take stock and maybe plan achange of direction for your career or business.This issue of GW has two articles that may helpinform that process. They again emphasise the3D revolution that is sweeping throughgeomatics and the wider design business.

Ben Bennett of Digital Surveys explains howthey’ve been working aboard ship with a laserscanner (page 20). Ben has discovered, as haveothers, that by using a scanner you can offerfar more to clients than just the contracteddeliverable. Similarly, Kilian Ulm of COWI writesabout the rise of 3D city models (page 16)which increasingly local governments aredeveloping as a planning and managementtool. But he offers a cautionary word too aboutcapturing the raw data in the right format tostart with to avoid expensive re-engineering.

Meanwhile, to review where we’ve comefrom, our story of the first fifty years of thelaser (page 14) provides a ready benchmark ofhow the technology has influenced ourprofession, while the interview with ProfessorPaul Cross (page 24), who retires this autumn,provides enormous insight into our evolvingprofession and the profound changes ineducation of the last four decades.

I must also apologise for not including ourreport of the excellent symposium that markedthe retirement of Professor Ian Dowman fromUCL. Pressure on available space has meantthat we have had to hold it over until the nextissue. Rest assured it will be a good read whenwe publish it.

Update your contact detailsfor speedy delivery!Like many survey and supplier companies tothe geomatics business, we publishers areexperiencing lean times. We survive on a smallsubsidy from the RICS and the Irish Institutionof Surveyors (IIS) plus a few hundred payingsubscribers and of course advertising. But thelatter is always a barometer of the economy.Popular marketing teaching says you mustmaintain or increase advertising spend intough times to keep your market share: alasexperience always seems to be to cutadvertising spend first. Our income fromadvertising is running at about half what wasin the recent past.

As I’ve mentioned before on these pages,we face a double whammy. A sharp recessionand the rise of the web as an informationresource serving a generation of graduates

The autumn is atime to take stockbut things do notstand still. To staybang up to datewith GW check thatwe have yourcurrent emailaddress.

Time to review and renew

The editor welcomes yourcomments and editorialcontributions by e-mail:[email protected] by post:Geomatics WorldPV Publications Ltd2B North RoadStevenageHerts SG1 4ATUnited Kingdom

Ten years agoThe autumn of the millennium year marked thelaunch of several technologies which have nowbecome mainstream. LH Systems, then a jointventure between Leica and BAE, had just announcedthe first sale of it ADS40 digital airborne camera;Spectra Precision (now Trimble) had just launchedtheir “Direct Reflex” 200m range EDM; Leica wasnow backing Cyrax and the Mark II scanner wasbeginning to look like something that had actuallybeen manufactured as opposed to knocked up in ashed; Dr Jonathan Iliffe had just produced the firstedition of his Datum & Map Projections, one of themost popular books in our bookshop. And MalcolmDraper’s Undercurrents was pondering how youcould set up the gnomon of a sundial so that itpointed towards true north in the days before GPS.

The world was abuzz with talk of how the Internetwas going to transform the way we work and usesoftware, but cautious hands warned it wouldn’thappen until we had more bandwidth. It has taken adecade for Software as a Service (SaaS) to emergeand even now we are only at the beginning of ajourney that may take another decade before we seeall major application software migrate to the web.

Stephen Booth, Editor

NEWS

06 Geomatics World September / October 2010

PSMA Transition Plan The Department of Communitiesand Local Government (CLG) haspublished its road map for theimplementation of a single PublicSector Mapping Agreement(PSMA) which will take effectfrom April 1st 2011. Theagreement will cover central andlocal government departmentsand agencies and the NHS inEngland and Wales. The publicsector in Scotland already has anequivalent agreement withOrdnance Survey.

CLG has reached agreementwith Ordnance Survey regardingfunding to make available OSMasterMap Topography Layer,ITN and other products includingaddressing datasets free at pointof use for "core" governmentactivities. The PSMA will alsocome with wider rights in relationto derived data.

The deal comes with technicalsupport from OS, periodic reviewsof data specifications andagreement to explore the optionsfor working in partnership toproduce a National AddressGazetteer.

The purpose behind PSMA isto encourage better use of OSdatasets for more efficientgovernment and to removebarriers to moving data betweendepartments. A new GI Group willrepresent the interests of thepublic sector in advising CLG onstrategic management of the PSMA.

10k run for GW’s manGW's technical editor RichardGroom has been dusting downhis running shoes and enteringhimself for several 10-km runs.So far he's managed a time of52' 28" - 28 seconds better thanlast year, he tells us, but now hehas two more in front of him. TheRainforest 10km Run on 5th Septat Finsbury Park in North Londonis organised by The RainforestFoundation:www.rainforestfoundationuk.org'This is a cause very close to myheart, having worked inKalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)before it was turned into an oilpalm "paradise" and morerecently in the delta area ofNigeria' explains Richard. If youwould like to support that one,the site is:

http://my.artezglobal.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=305188

Richard's third run isorganised by Cancer Research on26th Sept at Blenheim Palace. 'I'llbe supporting my sister who hasrecently gone through treatmentfor bowel cancer' says Richard.The site for that one is:http://www.run10kforbobbymoorefund.org/richardgroom

Thanks for your support. So, ifyou would like to join Richard foreither of the remaining races - youcould make a team for therainforest 10k - please let him knowat: [email protected]

Research into Ireland’sboundary disputesDaragh O’Brien from DublinInstitute of Technology(Department of SpatialInformation Science) isundertaking a PhD researchproject to investigate the causesand incidence of boundarydisputes in Ireland. The researchwill attempt to identify the causesof disputes and develop solutionsto minimise their incidence in thefuture, together with examinationof case studies and analysis offinancial cost to the economy.

As part of the researchDaragh says he is conducting asurvey of Irish land/propertyowners to collect information onthe landowner’s knowledge oftheir boundaries and an overallperspective of how propertyboundaries are perceived. If youare interested in completing aQuestionnaire to assist in theresearch, visitwww.boundarydisputesireland.comInformation received will be heldanonymously and will be storedand used in strict confidenceexclusively for this research.

GeoWorld10Dates and venues have beenannounced for Leica Geosystems’annual series of roadshows in theUK. GeoWorld10 will run overOctober and November, visiting11 venues in the UK and one(Dublin) in Ireland. Details are:

Monday 11 October – DuxfordWeds 13 October – LondonFriday 15 October – SurreyTuesday 19 October – ExeterWeds 20 October – Cheltenham

The Salmon & Trout Association organise the castingchampionships at the annual Country Landowners Association(CLA) Game Fair, which this year took place at Ragley Hall,Warwickshire in July.

Mike Hopkins, MD of Storm Geomatics and himself a keen flyfisherman, has been helping the Association measure castingdistances using modern surveying equipment. His services wereneeded for all classes of rod, line and casting style butparticularly for the Spey casting class - a highly competitive eventwhere top casters cover long distances and the results are usuallya close call as time is of the essence and each caster has adesignated period within which to cast their longest line.

Traditionally, the line judge sits in a boat next to a line of buoysthat are set at one-metre intervals along a rope and estimates thelength of cast against the buoys. But casts do not always landclose to the buoys and so, the further the cast is from the line ofbuoys the less accurate will be the judge's eyeballing.

Mike used a Leica TCRP1205 R300 total station to measure thecasts. The fly-caster's platform position and the total stationposition were co-ordinated and the water level in the lake wasestablished as a reference plane. Then for each cast he couldsight the point where the fly hit the water, calculate the co-ordinates of the cast and the distance from the competitor - withthe help of a little piece of real-time co-ordinate geometrysoftware. 532 casts were measured over the three days of theevent with approximately 95% survey success rate.

Geomaticscasts aneye on thefly forfishermen

RICS Geomatics lectures are CPD relevant andcounts towards your CPD/LLL quota as specifiedwithin RICS regulations. All lectures are free andopen to all (especially students) unless otherwisespecified. All lectures take place at RICS GreatGeorge Street lecture hall and are timed at 17.30for 1800 unless otherwise stated.

Thursday 21 October, (time1300-1700)Rights of Light GN - launch event. Half-dayseminar, 3 speakers (legal and technical).

Thursday 28 OctoberSubject tbc, venue: Newcastle upon Tyne

Thursday 11 November“MapAction - field mapping experiences”–Naomi Morris - field mapping coordinator.

Thursday 9 DecemberXmas lecture 2010 & Michael Barrett award.Martin Pratt, Director International BoundariesResearch Unit, University of Durham.

Geomatics Evening Lectures 2010

G

NEWS


Thurs 21 October – LiverpoolFriday 22 October – LeedsMon 8 November – DublinTue 9 November – BelfastThurs 11 November – InvernessFriday 12 November – Edinburgh

Attendance is free of charge butyou should register by emailingyour interest to: geoworld@leica-

geosystems.com

UKHO scoops top awardThe United KingdomHydrographic Office (UKHO) hasbeen awarded the InternationalInstitute of Marine Surveying’s(IIMS) highest award. The CrystalAward recognises UKHO’scontinuing work on safety at sea

and innovation in navigation. TheUKHO was nominated not onlyfor its Admiralty Paperpublications and Charts butspecifically for its work on and insupport of ENCs, in particular theAdmiralty Vector Charts Service(AVCS) and the progress beingmade in official digital navigationservices.

LIP helps make it rightGW recently had the opportunityfor a briefing on Leica’s researchand development process. Knownas “LIP”, Leica’s InnovationProcess applies the familiarcompany strapline – “when it hasto be right” – across the board.But, as Leica Geosystems UKmanaging director David Price

TSA hosts awards ceremonyGW was again delighted to be invited to attend the The SurveyAssociation’s Student Awards ceremony. Since the inception of the"Introduction to Surveying" course in November 2001, 227 students(including this year's graduates) have completed the two-yeartraining programme.

Prizes are sponsored by the Chartered Institution of CivilEngineering Surveyors (ICES), TSA and Leica Geosystems Ltd, whoserepresentatives form an award panel. This year’s winners were:James Pike of Severn Partnership – Best Student, sponsored by theTSA and Leica Geosystems and winning a plaque, shield and £300.Gemma Morrison of Site Engineering Surveys – Best Assignment,sponsored by CICES and winning a shield and £150.

This year 26 students graduated from the course, each gaining acertificate and a year’s free subscription to Geomatics World.RICS recognises that successful completion of the course provides50 points towards the 100 points required for technicalmembership of the Institution.

Above: some of the classof 2010. Right: Prize-winners and panelists.From left to right: TSA

President Graham Mills,Gemma Morrison, ICES

President Ken Hall, JamesPike and Leica Geosystems

MD David Price.

NEWS


says, ‘this doesn’t mean it isalways right first time but you dohave to focus until it is right’. Youcan read more about LIP in theOctober issue of EngineeringSurveying Showcase.

Contracts & Projects

Hexagon addsIntergraph to portfolioThe Swedish measurement group

Hexagon AB has announced thatit is to acquire the CAD and GIScompany Intergraph in a US$2,125m deal. The US softwaredeveloper, which also has ahardware arm that produces adigital aerial camera, will add toHexagon’s growing portfolio ofcompanies offering measurementand spatial data capturetechnologies, which also includesLeica Geosystems. How the move

will affect Leica’s digital aerialcamera offering remains to beseen but it is interesting thatHexagon also owns GeoMax, asurveying instrumentmanufacturer that offers totalstations and other equipmentthat may compete with Leica insome markets.

ITM wins Crossrailmonitoring contractITM Ltd has been awardedcontract C701 for the instrument-ation and monitoring forCrossrail. Included are the supplyand installation of automatedmonitoring instrumentation andmonitoring of existing tunnels,buildings and infrastructure alongthe Crossrail route. ContractC701 is considered to be thelargest single contract forgeotechnical instrumentation andmonitoring ever undertaken inthe UK. The scope of worksinvolves extensive monitoring ofexisting buildings, above andbelow ground structures and atstreet level for ground movementalong the length of Crossrail’scentral section.

Laser scanner developer Farohas announced a collaborationwith Autodesk that will seethe direct integration of pointcloud data from the FaroPhoton scanner into AutoCAD2011 as well as AutoCAD Plant3D. The move should helpusers seamlessly integratepoint clouds into AutoCAD.

GeoAcoustics Ltd of GreatYarmouth, UK, (a KongsbergMaritime company) has mobiliseda GeoSwath Plus wide swathsonar in Wellington, NewZealand, marking the start ofsurveying for the CommonDataset for Shallow Survey 2012,the 6th International Conferenceon High Resolution Surveys inShallow Water. The survey giveshydrographic researchers andscientists a chance to test thelatest processing algorithms andmake rigorous comparisons.

SapuraAcergy is the firstcompany in South East Asia totake advantage ofSonardyne’s sixth generationacoustic positioning

technology for navigation,positioning andcommunications. The subseaengineering and installationcontractor has taken deliveryof over £1 million worth of6G® products that offer ultra-wide bandwidth signalarchitecture with significantlyimproved ranging andtelemetry performance.

Marine Electronics Ltd ofGuernsey, UK, has delivered a highperformance sediment imagingsonar to the ProudmanOceanographic Laboratory inLiverpool. The sonar is the first ofits kind and is capable of providingreal-time video images that showthe movement of individual grainsof sand.

Fugro-Geoteam AS has signeda contract with TGS-NopecGeophysical Company ASA toacquire a series of 3D surveysin West Africa. The projectswill take approximately sevenmonths and Fugro will deployits C-Class vessel Geo Caribbeanto ensure efficient productionon the large seismic spreadprograms.

BRIEFS

MapAction volunteers HelenCampbell and James Steel havedeployed to Pakistan to help theUnited Nations DisasterAssessment and Co-ordination(UNDAC) team based inIslamabad, following the ongoingdevastating floods. A secondteam is on its way to support theInternational Federation of theRed Cross/Crescent (IFRC).

Trimble has announceddetails of Dimensions 2010,which will take place in LasVegas 8-10 November. Morethan 250 industry expertspeakers are expected toparticipate in the popularevent that regularly attractsover 2000 surveyors andusers of Trimble technology.This year featurescomprehensive educationaltracks with cutting edge,innovative sessions featuringseasoned and experiencedpresenters and panelists.

Founded by laser scanner inventor Ben Kacyra, CyArk is a not-for-profit entity focused on preserving the world’s cultural heritage bycapturing and archiving point cloud information. The image showsthe Kasubi Tombs in Uganda, a World Heritage Site. The tombs arethe resting place of the Buganda Kings but were destroyed by fireearlier this year. Fortunately a CyArk partner had scanned the datawhich is now being used by experts to help in the restoration. Thework will be helped by the use of Pointools by CyArk to renderand create 3D visualisations for experts.

Kings’ tombs scanned

KOREC has announced that Skanska Balfour Beatty JV has taken upa Trimble VRS Now site licence for the M25 Road Widening Scheme.The licence for GNSS RTK correction services provides coverage forthe entire job, which is over 100km long. Senior land surveyor MarkLawton explains: ‘This is a high profile contract and the perfectshowcase for exploring new technology to enhance quality,production and safety issues. Our decision to go with Trimble VRSNow was based on end-user feedback – a simple evaluation processthat entailed users (mainly land surveyors and engineers) triallingsimilar packages and completing a comparative questionnaire.

The JV has also opted to use Trimble VRS iScope, an add-onservice that offers Trimble VRS Now subscribers the ability totrack and manage their assets in real-time as well as view theirsession history and rover information.

Coverage for100km of M25

PEOPLE


OBITUARIESSince the last issue of GWseveral leading surveyors haveleft us.

Michael CobbColonel Michael Cobb, whosegaining of a PhD from Cambridgeat the age of 91 we reported two

years ago, has died. The subject ofhis thesis was a definitivehistorical atlas of the railways ofGreat Britain, a remarkable worknot least because its author wasthe oldest person ever to gainsuch an award.

The Railways of Great Britain:A Historical Atlas was publishedas a two-volume boxed set of 434pages by Ian Allen in 2004.Despite the high cost of £150 itquickly ran to a second edition. Itis an extraordinary work contain-ing just about everything youcould possibly want to knowabout railways, from railwaycompany family trees to nearlyfive pages of junction names andfour pages covering water troughsand incline names.

Cobb studied mechanicalsciences at Cambridge before warservice found him at Dunkirk andwas one of the last to leave. Heended the war in Burma buildingairstrips before commanding 42Survey Engineer Regiment inEgypt. He qualified as a Fellow ofthe RICS in 1949, and completedthe Army Survey Course and StaffCollege. From 1956 to 1959 hewas commandant of the RoyalSchool of Military Survey. Retiringin 1965, he worked as acartographer with Geographiauntil his retirement in 1971.

Ian MathiesonIan Mathieson, who has died

We welcome advance details of events likely to be ofinterest to the Geomatics community. Please send details to:

e d i t o r @ p v p u b s . d e m o n . c o . u k

Events Calendar 2010Events Calendar 2010• SEMINARS � CONFERENCES � EXHIBITIONS � COURSES� SEMINARS � CONFERENCES � EXHIBITIONS � COURSES

For more events, visit our online calendar atw w w. p v p u b s . c o m

Magnificent Maps: Power,Propaganda and ArtFinishes 19 September,PACCAR Gallery, British Library.Contact:www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/magnificentmaps/index.html

E. H. Thompson CentenarySeminar and A Celebration of60 years of Geomatics at UCL17 September, UniversityCollege London, UK.Contact: www.cege.ucl.ac.uk/events/uclgeo60

XIV International Congress forMine Surveying20-24 September, Sun City,South Africa.Contact: www.ism2010.co.za

AGI GeoCommunity'1028-30 September, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK. Contact:www.agigeocommunity.com

Leica Geosystems' GeoWorld10 RoadshowMultiple dates and venues.Contact: www.geoworld10.co.uk

Intergeo 20105-7 October, Cologne, Germany.Contact: www.intergeo.de

Leica Geosystems & McCarthyTaylor Systems LSS Training18 October, Southern England.Contact: www.leica-geosystems.co.uk

ENC GNSS – The EuropeanNavigation Conference onGlobal Navigation SatelliteSystems19-21 October, Braunschweig,Germany.Contact:www.enc-gnss2010.org

Leica Geosystems &Applications in CADD Training20 October, Southern England.Contact:www.leica-geosystems.co.uk

Geomatics Atlantic 201028-29 October, Delta Hotel,Fredericton, New Brunswick,Canada. Contact:www.geomaticsatlantic.com

Hydro20102-5 November, Rostock,Warnemünde, Germany.Contact: www.hydro2010.com

Trimble Dimensions 20108-10 November, The Mirage, LasVegas, USAContact: www.trimbledimensions.com

GeoDATA 2010 Seminar10 November, Trades Hall,Glasgow.Contact: www.training4gis.com

Leica Geosystems &Applications in CADD Training10 November, Northern England.Contact:www.leica-geosystems.co.uk

Leica Geosystems & McCarthyTaylor Systems LSS Training11 November, Northern England.Contact:www.leica-geosystems.co.uk

GeoDATA 2010 Seminar16 November, Hastings StormontHotel, Belfast.Contact: www.training4gis.com

European Lidar Mapping Forum30 November - 1 December,World Forum, The Hague, Netherlands.Contact: www.lidarmap.org/ELMF/

StreetMapper 2010International User Conference2 December, The Hague,Netherlands.Contact: www.3dlasermapping.com/uk/index.htm

SPAR Europe 20107-8 December, Amsterdam RAIConvention Centre, The Netherlands.Contact: www.sparllc.com

More athttp://www.trimbledimensions.com

Leica has recently invested in anumber of updates for the UK’sSmartNet RTK GNSS service. ‘It’spart of a programme of continuousinvestment’ explains Leica’s SimonMears. Improvements include adedicated line between OrdnanceSurvey – the source of the GNSSraw data – and RedBus, Leica’shosting company in London’sDocklands. The line helps toreduce latency – the time delaybetween receivers and delivery ofthe correction to the user.

UK based laser scanningspecialists 3D Laser Mappinghas opened new headquartersin Nottingham. The newpremises allows space for a

dedicated R&D facility as wellas equipment testing andcalibration. New contactdetails are Unit 1 MoorbridgeCourt, Moorbridge Road East,Bingham, Nottingham, NG138GG, UK. Phone and faxnumber remain the same.

Leica has announced updates toits Athena programme, designedfor not-for-profit organisationsengaged in research that usesGNSS for structural monitoring.The latest receivers availableunder the programme are thefully internet-enabled GR10 unitsthat can track Glonass andGalileo signals as well as GPSL2C and L5 signals. Athenastands for ‘Advanced Technologyfor Higher-Education and Non-profit Associations.’

PEOPLE

Hayes heads for IndiaDoug Hayes, formerly chiefsurveyor for the Burj Dubai hasmoved to Mumbai to work aschief surveyor for developer DBGroup who are buildingMumbai's 700m India Tower andother projects across India.

Holden joins BlomBlom has appointed Ian Holdenas senior project manager fortheir bathymetric LiDAR surveyteam. A well known IHO/FIGCategory A hydrographer ofconsiderable experience, Ian’sfirst assignment is to oversee theremaining production of datarecently surveyed in Europe, USAand the Indian Ocean.

PEOPLE


In the last issue of GW wewere saddened to report thedeath of Harry Glennie. Anumber of his former friendsand colleagues have puttogether an appreciation ofHarry which was published inCivil Engineering Surveyor. Thefollowing is an abridgedversion with special thanks toDarrell Smart withcontributions from JamesFitch, Ken Hall, Mark Hudson,Paul MacArthur, DouglasOakervee, Ellen Jackson, MarkJackson, Steve Jackson andDavid Sharrocks.

HARRY GLENNIE won ascholarship to ManchesterGrammar School, the first child inhis village to do so. He went onto win another scholarship tostudy English literature atuniversity but instead chose to dohis national service, as he hadalways wanted to train as a landsurveyor since childhood cyclingtrips to Derbyshire. Whilst in thearmy he trained as an interpreterin German, a language for whichhe was also able to use as aprofessional technical translator.

After the army, he joinedHunting Surveys and went

straight out to Saudi Arabia towork on the geodetic survey, oneof the landmark survey projects ofthe late 1960s. His family say thatHarry remembered his time inSaudi as one of the formativeexperiences of his life. Thesurveyors he worked withremember him equally vividly. Itwas clear from the start thatHarry was a colourful character,with a wonderful sense ofhumour and an imagination thatsometimes wandered beyondreality. Harry and his colleaguesat Huntings had to deliver storesto the scattered field camps. Onone such mission, as the lightfaded, Harry and a colleaguedecided to pull off the track,break out their beds, grab somefood and get down for the night.As the truck left the track it sankits axles into a quagmire. Duringa long, cold, hungry anduncomfortable night, Harry’ssense of humour prevailed.Rescue came the followingmorning in the form of a hugeearthmoving vehicle whose driver,for a packet of fags, pulled themout of the morass. A night one ofhis friends will never forget.

After two seasons in Saudi,Harry set off for pastures new. A

decision that saw him travel theworld, working on some of itsmost prestigious projectsincluding the Mass TransitRailway (MTR) in Hong Kongduring the 1970s where he waschief land surveyor. Engineeringsurveyors in Hong Kong willalways remember andacknowledge that Harry did muchmore for them than anyone elsein the profession. He pulledtogether a group of individuals,who all had different standardsand ways of working, to createone of the finest teams ever andhis protocols and procedures arestill followed today by surveyorsin Hong Kong, the majority ofwhom he trained.

When he returned to the UKin the 1980s he was appointedchief surveyor for theconstruction of Canary Wharf. Heloved the challenges that bigprojects threw at him. Havingspent 15 years overseas ontunnelling he was now workingon the largest construction site inEurope, which also boasted thecontinent’s tallest building.

After Canary Wharf, Harrywent back into tunnelling andhelped set up DocklandsProfessional Services. Employedby Taylor Woodrow CivilEngineering, he was hired byLondon Underground to work onC104, London Bridge Station, theJubilee Line extension andNorthern Line interchange/stationupgrade as chief surveyor. WhenTaylor Woodrow was disbandedin 2000, Harry and a few othersenior members went on to formLondon Bridge Associates (LBA)where having admitted to a littleknowledge of VAT, he wasinstantly appointed companysecretary and one of the threedirectors.

Next came Dublin in 2002, towork for Kellogg Brown and Rooton the Dublin Port Access Tunnel,

acting as tunnel surveyconsultant, seconded from LBA.Harry oversaw everything thatthe contractors did in relation totunnel surveying and monitoring.Once the tunnel was completed,he returned back to London in2005, to work on the ChannelTunnel Rail Link, specificallyoverseeing the London tunnelsand Stratford box.

Throughout his illustriouscareer, Harry maintained his linksand affiliations with the nowChartered Institution of CivilEngineering Surveyors, eventuallyleading him to become presidentin 2001-2002. Humbled by therole, Harry loved the institution, itwas a well deserved recognitionof a real surveyor and a realleader in the profession he wasso proud of. In December 2009,Harry was presented with theprestigious institution medal forhis outstanding contribution toICES – he had been a stalwartmember from the very early dayswhen he joined in 1974, devotingmuch of his life to the affairs ofthe institution. Throughout histireless involvement with ICES,Harry served on variouscommittees and even took overthe reign as interim CEO between2008-2009.

Harry Glennie was a man ofculture, considerable intellect,articulate, eloquent and, above all,he had remarkable vision. He wasself-effacing, a great raconteurand was able to hold theattention of a group of people forhours with his endless stream ofstories from his days in the armyand as a surveyor abroad, but hisjokes were appalling!

Harry, affectionately known tohis family as Hals, was a greatman, a great husband to wifeCoral, a great father, a greatstepfather, a great grandfather...And lest we forget, a greatsurveyor. He will be sorely missed.

Harry Glennie1939-2010– former ICESpresident and one ofthe great engineeringsurveyors

aged 83, was a land andengineering surveyor who inretirement spent his timeinvestigating the ancientEgyptian site at Saqqara wherehe pioneered the use of groundpenetrating radar to revealstructures beneath the surface.

Mathieson was a qualified

mining surveyor and geologist andworked as the area surveyor andgeologist for the National CoalBoard in eastern Scotland beforejoining Hunting Surveys. He leftHuntings to become a partner atSurvey and Development Services(SDS) where he was also technicaldirector.

Henry HatfieldCommander Henry Hatfield, whohas died aged 88, was responsiblefor the Admiralty Manual ofHydrographic Surveying as well asa photographic atlas of the Moon.War service found him in theMediterranean where in error hewas responsible for directing a shell

on Genoa Cathedral. Its unexplod-ed remains can still be seen.

As Hydrographer, he surveyedthe waters of Cyprus, the PersianGulf, Oman, and the SouthPacific, including Fiji and theSolomon Islands, commandingthe survey ships, Scot, Cook andDalrymple.

G


output quality guidance for us;• And, of course, my family who have seen

far less of me these past three years thanthey would like. I look forward to spendingmy annual leave with them now instead ofthe RICS.

I am still not sure what my future in the RICSholds, but I know I will remain committed toall things geomatic. My passion for all thingsgeo remains undiminished and perhaps withmy ‘free time’ I can indulge myself with moretrig pillar hugging. I also am planning to visitthe Great Theodolite in India.

And I now leave you in the capable handsof Stuart Edwards our new Geomatics Chair. Ihave no doubt he has great ideas forGeomatics. Over to you Stuart.

Introducing StuartThanks Ruth and my first action is to expressthe sincere thanks of the GeomaticsProfessional Group for your unrelentingcommitment and dedication over the pastthree years. I would also like to add mypersonal thanks to you for agreeing to stay onin post for the past six months whilst I dealtwith some large work related milestones.

So, just a very few words about StuartEdwards. Born 1962 and spent my formativeyears growing up in rural Shropshire. In 1982 Iwent to Swansea University to study physicalgeography but following an in-sessional coursein surveying I saw the light and switched tosurveying and geography. Following graduationin 1985, I worked briefly for the oil industrybefore joining what was then the National CoalBoard as a graduate surveyor where I spentaround ten years working as a professional landsurveyor, literally at the 'coal face'.

In 1994 I joined the Department ofSurveying, now the School of Civil Engineeringand Geosciences, at Newcastle University whereI have lectured in the vast majority of Geomaticsrelated subjects. Now a Senior lecturer inGeomatics, I split my time between teaching,GNSS focused research applications andatmospheric modelling, continuing professionaldevelopment (CPD) and strategic undergraduateprogramme development and management.

Outside university life my main interests arenot dissimilar to Ruth's in that they generallyinvolve getting outdoors and walking up steephills/mountains at home and abroad, althoughI shy away from actually 'hugging' the trigpillars that I visit! In the past year I have alsotaken up growing my own vegetables butperhaps more of that another time.

Following in Ruth's footsteps is going to bechallenging but I hope that I'm able to servemembers’ needs and raise the profile ofGeomatics both within and outwith the RICSeven further during my term in office.

It is with a touch of sadness that I write my lastChair’s column for GW. By the time you readthis I will have handed over the reins of Chair

to Stuart Edwards. I have been Chair of theGeomatics Professional Group since December2007 so you can imagine how significant theRICS has been to my life during that time.

As I reflect on my tenure in the driving seat Irealise how far we have come. For sure,Geomatics has not changed beyond recognitionand there are many things that have notprogressed as fast or as far as I would haveliked. However, here are some of the highlights(and I know that as soon as I press ‘send’ to e-mail off this article I’ll think of many more). . .� Refocusing the Geomatics board on our

raison d’etre. We are clearer now why weexist and how we contribute to thegeomatics membership.

� Raising the profile of the marineenvironment within RICS. This was a keygoal for me, as you know. The marinetechnical qualification is now indevelopment, backed by industry – fantasticnews. RICS Geomatics attended both the2008 and 2010 world-class OceanologyInternational exhibitions and Hydro08. Ihope it continues to support these.

� Winning Professional Group of the year in2009.

� Changing from Faculty to ProfessionalGroup (PG) in 2009, and then becoming aWorld Regional PG this year.

� Forming a smaller board, in light of theabove, to enable easier decision making -doing away with the Exec Board and ‘Full’Board structure - however ensuring that westill retain the mix of expertise to cover thebreadth of Geomatics.

� Nearly (!) launching Assoc RICS for Geomatics.

And some things continue to concern me:� Although Geomatics does punch above its

weight it is still hard to get our voice heardand understood at the higher echelons of theRICS. Of course, we have Rob Mahoney asHon Secretary but ultimately we are a smallPG surrounded by ‘property professionals’.

� How can we get our message heard more?

I cannot thank enough everyone who hassupported me whilst I’ve been Chair:� the Geo Board (both past and present),� RICS staff particularly James Kavanagh, for

his tireless devotion to Geomatics; AndyHowes, RICS Education, for embracing thelanguage of hydrographers and Valaried’Silva, for putting up with Geomaticssurveyors well beyond the call of duty;

� The Mapping And Positioning Practice Panel,MAPPP, and the Boundaries and Party WallsWorking Group, B&PWWG, who continue to

As Ruth Adamsprepares to handover as chair of theGeomatics Group toStuart Edwards, andspend more timewith her trig points,she reflects on herthree years as chair,highlighting thechanges andsuccesses duringthat time as well asher concerns overongoing problemsfor the profession.

It’s farewell from me and hello from him

Chair

Page 1

Undercurrents


demonstrating the wonders of Frenchdentistry. More recent favourites included aSpitting Image Mrs T and works by Steadman,Scarfe, etc plus excerpts from that uproariouslybawdy Geordie comic Viz whose Roger Mellie,the Man on the Telly, has added his commentsaround the various displays. There are alsoseveral collations or static displays that youcould loosely call sculpture.

One of my favourite cartoonists was HeathRobinson whose work concentrated onextraordinary machines to solve contemporaryproblems. His cartoon from the First WorldWar on how to deal with the “ZeppelinMenace” is only equalled by another from theSecond World War showing suggestions forcamouflaging military equipment. Hilarious.But for sheer British comic lunacy you do haveto go a long way to beat a short video titled“Man dancing in a cheap gorilla suit” (youcan watch it whilst sitting on a giant blackbanana). Entirely silent, the bloke leaps up anddown in the suit and gradually it dischargesthe pieces of screwed up newspaper used forstuffing it until the whole edifice falls downaround his ankles. Mad, but brilliant.

The Tate Britain also has a rather goodrestaurant (Rex Whistler’s). The room isdecorated all around with a greenish muralpainted by Rex Whistler in the 1920s depictingrural scenes. Whistler took so long at the taskthat the gallery sacked him before he couldfinish, which is why one side of the room hasfewer people in the countryside than the other!

Sunny side of the street I’m a bit of a sucker for technology. I love theiPhone and other gismos. But occasionally yousee something that you really do say, Wow!Why didn’t they think of that before, orbetter, why don’t they get on and do that?This was how I felt when someone sent me alink to a short video on a small US companycalled Solar Roadways (http://www.conscious-medianetwork.com/video/2010/ 061810.htm).What they propose is both mind blowing anda serious challenge to the dominance of bigmessy oil.

By using hardened solar panels embeddedwith LEDs and sensors, the founder ScottBrusaw wants to replace asphalt on roads withthe panels. Mad? Impossible? Scott isconvinced the basic technology is already

This summer has seen several brilliant artexhibitions in London. The Royal Academy’sSummer Exhibition is always worthwhile,

not least for the regular fun element and thefact that many pictures are available asaffordable prints. The fun element this year wasin abundance with a giant “King Kong” gorillamade out of coat-hangars welded together. Icannot think of a better use for those cheapwire hangars beloved of dry cleaners and thosewho’ve had their car radio aerials snapped.

The exhibition also includes architecturalmodels and drawings and I was very attractedto one free-hand drawing by Lord Fosterhimself that stood out from across the gallery.They really were superb with every linebeautifully drawn.

Rude Brittania at the Tate Britain is alsogreat fun. This traces Britain’s history oflampooning and satirical cartooning over 300years or more through comic art, some of itvery rude indeed. Many well-knowncartoonists works were on display includingHogarth and his grim drawings of 18th centuryLondon and the depravities of drink (theeditor says they reminded him of StevenageHigh Street on a Friday night) together withGillray and his grotesque drawings of the thenPrince of Wales and a woman’s mouth

There’s been plentyto keep theinquisitive occupiedthis summer butcould solar panelsbe the answer tothe problems of ourroads?

Exhibitions: fun and rudeBy Malcolm Draper

I was surprised to discover that the island of Malta still retains thatexcellent tradition from days of Empire of firing the noon-day gun. Inthis case it’s a whacking great ancient canon that looks like it mighthave seen service at the Battle of Trafalgar. Well done plucky Malta.

Noon Gun Fun

Undercurrents


some. However, our Overcurrents man, Nick Dayis not impressed. When we sent him the imagehe harrumphed and referred us to his owncolumn not so long ago. So if you’re interested,do look up GW Overcurrents July/August 2006(“That old time Bama Lama Loo!”) wherein Nickreflects on “Camelboys and Indians”.

Nick has also copied me in on a selection ofhis fabulous photos of bridges from around theworld. Some of them you will have seen in hiscolumns over the years and they really are, quiteoften, special, capturing them from unusualangles. But Nick tells me his next photographicproject is “Toilets of the World”. Hmm, not sureon that one Nick; perhaps we should try andintroduce you to Lucinda Lambton next timeyou’re in London. Lucinda presented a greatseries of programmes some years ago on thehistory of toilets, dwelling long on the man whoreally made the difference to modern flushing,the aptly named Thomas Crapper, who tested themechanism by depositing 5lbs of Cox’s Pippins.

Flying for the green and inquisitiveEver wondered what the various partsare of an airliner? Well the SouthAfrican airline Kulula has helpfullylabelled all the key parts and added afew comments along the way. I just love it.

The same airline reportedly has a

here. But it’s the benefits that are astounding.Using solar panels of 15% efficiency – currenttechnology – if the whole US road systemwas replaced with panels it would generatethree times more electricity than the countrypresently uses. There are more benefits. Theroadway system could carry cable tv, phonelines and of course electricity. By embeddingLEDs in the panels signs and notices could betransmitted to drivers eliminating thoseunsightly and in the UK incessant andgrowing, road signs. A contact strip either sideof the road or on lane edges could instantlysend a warning to a sleepy or inattentivedriver. Is this a viable idea?

Skeleton staffFormer students and teachers of UCL will recallthe University’s founder Jeremy Bentham, aremarkable man whose legacy lingers if for noother reason than he bequeathed his body, orrather skeleton, to the University where itcontinues to be displayed fully dressed withfloppy hat. Undercurrents was remindedrecently of a great tradition that ran for yearsafter Bentham’s death when University Councilmeetings took place in the same room as thatwhere his skeleton was displayed. The meeting’sminutes always recorded his name and after it,“present but not voting”.

All the threes

David Powell has been touring America andhas sent a rather interesting example of theUS’s small towns’ and settlements’ obsessionwith announcing their height above sea level.This one from Kingman in Arizona nicelyshows the dual use of the Imperial and metricsystem – a use many Brit surveyors who cuttheir teeth before metrication will be familiarwith. I do wonder however if they had tomove the staff (or GPS) around a bit to findthat sweet spot where all the lemons came up?

Got a tale to tell?Please send letters forpublication by e-mailto the Editor: [email protected] contactUndercurrents, instrictest confidence ifyou wish (we promiseto change names,places, etc toprotect the guilty!),via e-mail:[email protected]

Could solar panels helpeliminate sign congestion?

Camels in Surveying?

David has also sent in this pic of cowboys usingcamels, an application that may be news to

nice line in intercom announcements topassengers. A flight attendant's comment ona less than perfect landing: "We ask you toplease remain seated as Captain Kangaroobounces us to the terminal.

Fairey / Clyde ReunionThe annual reunion of former employees ofFairey Surveys and Clyde Surveys took placethis year on July 30th at White WalthamCricket Club near Maidenhead. This year’sevent marked Roy MacDonald’s 90th birthday.Mac’s career started on Bomber Commandsorties in the Second World War. Afterhostilities he had a spell at Ordnance Surveyand then many years with Fairey and Clyde,where he started as a surveyor and ended upas “king” of repro. Any ex-Faireys who wouldlike to come to next year’s reunion shouldcontact John Tompkins:[email protected]


Lasers

Laser technology is now routinely used intotal stations for reflectorless measurementand for mass point cloud data capture in aerialand terrestrial scanners.

But the scanning revolution has alsochanged the way in which surveyors managedata. Traditionally, we laboriously selectedthe minimum number of points that weneeded to survey and then observed theirposition. With laser scanning we now scanthe position of everything that is visible fromthe instrument including static and movingobstructions - all potentially at very highresolution. This vast quantity of data is theninterpreted back in the office. Although thelaser is at the heart of these scanners, itwould be impossible to manage these vastdatasets without parallel strides in thedevelopment of computer hardware andsoftware that has helped with the massivefiltering and interpretation task.

Next stepsOn the laser’s fiftieth birthday, physicists assertthat the discovery’s usefulness has much furtherto go, despite already underpinning some ofthe last half century’s most disruptivetechnologies (not least, the optical fibres whichmake today’s high speed internet possible).

The Institute of Physics (IOP), theEngineering and Physical Science ResearchCouncil (EPSRC) and the Science andTechnology Facilities Council (STFC) are usingthe laser’s fiftieth birthday as an opportunityto highlight how ubiquitous this fundamentalphysics discovery has become and its potentialfor future applications. We can now find lasersin every industry from manufacturing, retailand medicine to entertainment andcommunications. Lasers are also beingdeveloped for much more, such aspersonalised medical treatment and theproduction of virtually infinite, clean energyfrom nuclear fusion.

With laser sales around the worldamounting to approximately £5 billionannually, we have come a long way in the halfcentury since the creation of the first rubylaser by Theodore Maiman at Hughes ResearchLaboratories in California – which, at the time,experts presciently referred to as a ‘solutionlooking for a problem’.

A packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum becamethe first ever product to be purchased using alaser barcode reader in 1974 and in 1982, BillyJoel’s 52nd Street became the first album tobe etched onto a compact disc for CD players’lasers to read.

The fine visible line emitted by lasers hasnow been used for around 40 years to setout alignments on construction sites

around the world. On larger projects, they have, for example,

been used to guide tunnel boring machinesfor city metro systems and mainline railtunnels and for laying concrete pipes such asthe massive 4m diameter pipes that nowconvey water on Libya's Great Man-madeRiver Project. On smaller sites, alignmentlasers continue to be used to set outdrainage runs whilst rotating lasers are usedto mark site datums for foundations, floorsand suspended ceilings.

Soon after they were invented, lasers wereused for metrology using laser interferometersin the laboratory. But it has only been in thepast 25 years that lasers have become centralto the work of survey data gatherers.

The Wild DI3000, launched back in the1980s, was one of the first laser EDMs to usereflectorless measurement. By the early1990s, reflectorless lasers were appearing intotal stations and the now ubiquitoushandheld Disto revolutionised internalbuilding surveying.

The little red dot(occasionallygreen!) has beenwith us for 50years. From humblepipelaying, thelaser has becomean integral part ofsurvey’s daily kit aswell as at the heartof high precisionrapid measurementsystems like lidar.

Life begins at fifty for the laser

Left: the Wild DI3000 wasthe first laser-based EDM.Below left: pipelayingwas one of the firstapplications inconstruction for the laser.Below: grade and levelcontrols are now suppliedby lasers acrossconstruction activities.

Lasers


his company’s business and a focus forresearch and development. Over the next fewyears he says we can look forward to “smallermore symmetric beam shapes, higher energyefficiency and less heat generation, which willultimately bring better accuracy and moreapplications to the market.”

Not satisfied however with giving birth tothe CD and DVD industry, nor revolutionisingour supermarket shop, lasers have alsobecome integral in even more impactful ways.Laser beams have become the channel for alloptical fibre-based communications.

The last 50 years have, arguably, been morealtered by the discovery of the laser than anyother discovery and, as today’s laser physicistsare keen to stress, the next half century is setto be just as affected by the uses of laser asthe last.

Lasers will help humankind out of its energyquandary – either by directing renewableenergies towards greater efficiencies by, forexample, detecting changes in the wind toensure wind turbines are in the most efficientposition or, as part of the world’s mostpowerful laser facility, HiPER, to demonstratethe feasibility of laser driven fusion as a futureclean and affordable energy source.

In medicine, dyes are being used alongsidelasers to identify misbehaving moleculespersonal to any individual’s ailment, which willgive doctors the information required to createindividual medicines that meet each patient’sneeds.

And lasers are also being used by thepioneers on the frontiers of humanknowledge to try and detect gravitationalwaves, to create star-like conditions on Earth,and to make desk-size particle accelerators.These mini versions of the Large HadronCollider at CERN could be coming to a toystore near you!

The UK is host to two major laser researchfacilities. The Vulcan laser at the RutherfordAppleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire is one ofthe highest intensity lasers in the world andgives UK and international researchers accessto the best facilities available in the field. TheUK’s highest power fibre laser – with anoutput of 8 kilowatts – is at EPSRC’sInnovative Manufacturing Research Centre atCranfield University.

So, what about the future for lasertechnology in surveying? David Price, LeicaGeosystems managing director in the UK andIreland confirms that lasers are at the heart of

Right: Leica’s Disto was a game-changer. Earlymodels bore some resemblance to a house brick

but the latest range is small and sleek.

Below: This Stolz high-precision tunnel laserwas one of two supplied by Hall & Watts at a

cost of £12,000 for the Channel Tunnel.

What is a laser?LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser light sourceemits light of identical frequency, phase and polarisation - a beam of high spectral purity.

Imagine a tube, surrounded by reflective material, with a mirror at one end and a semitransparent mirror at the other end. Light can bounce between the mirrors and some can escapethrough the semi-transparent mirror to form the beam. Inside the tube is the ‘gain material’,which may be solid, liquid or gas. The gain material has the property that it can amplify the lightas it is reflected through the material many times. The energy for the amplification comes froman electrical current or light of a different wavelength – a process known as ‘pumping’.

The laser output may be ‘continuous wave’ which has constant amplitude or ‘pulsed’, in whichcase there will be pulses of higher peak power. Continuous wave lasers are generated using asteady pump source. Pulses can be produced by pulsed pumping or by Q-switching orModelocking. Source: WikipediaAbove: the latest Leica Disto, the D2.

Lasers have been helpingconstruction machines dig

or stay on grade since atleast the 1990s.


3D City Models

block model, LoD 1, may not be sufficient andmore geometric details like roof structures oreven dormer windows have to be modelledusing the next level-of-detail, LoD 2.

For any applications where the visualappearance is crucial, facade texturing has tobe applied, such as for the automotive marketwhere, besides the large 3D city models,photo-realistic 3D landmarks are alsorequested. And then some applications imposeother demands on the system designer: forexample, car navigation systems also have totake into account the demand for largeamounts of data to be used in a lowperformance device mounted in a car, andweb-based 3D visualisation demands data thatcan be streamed over the Internet to astandard computer using standard bandwidth.

COWI is addressing these challenges bydeveloping its own production and QC tools,which makes them independent of theconstraints of commercial software products aswell as flexible in developing new functionalitiesfor special customer requirements to createunique 3D city models. Typically, 3D reality-based city models are generated using stereoaerial images and 3D feature extraction(photogrammetry). But already the integrationof cadastral 2D building foot-prints to thephotogrammetrically derived 3D model requiresvery specific tools, also because these footprintsdiffer from country to country. Furthermore the3D city model needs to comply with variousquality requirements and each client appliesdifferent tests to fulfil his needs.

Oblique aerial images- automatic texturingLeaving the creation of the 3D geometry, weneed to focus on an important aspect of avisual 3D model: the texturing. COWI startedgaining experience with oblique aerial imageslong before its breakthrough in Microsoft BingMaps. As a result, we have been operating ourown oblique systems for more than a decadeand offer oblique aerial images for web-basedmap solutions and the automatic texturing of3D city models such as those used in our 3Dmodel for Munich in Google Earth. Theacquisition of such oblique images is offered asa service and the unlimited ownership of theoblique images are transferred to the client.

Mobile Mapping System – adding façadedetailsIn recent years, the demand has been to

When the first large 3D city modelswere created commercially aroundturn of the millennium, production

tools were limited, smooth work-flows not yetestablished and there were no standard 3Dformats. This made the management of 3D citymodels in a relational database nearlyimpossible, or at least costly. During the pasteight years, COWI has invested in its 3Dsolutions and set up an efficient workflow toproduce large 3D city models cost-efficiently –not only the pretty ones like Munich 3D forGoogle Earth, but also GIS-suitable 3D modelsfor management in a relational database. It isthis that makes a 3D model sustainable.

Why 3D?It is not just fun to fly around in a high-resolution 3D scene as if in a computer game– there is also a clear and undisputable benefitfrom 3D. Our world is three-dimensional andmost people are not used to orientatingthemselves on a 2D map. In this article wewant to focus not only on these visual aspects,but also highlight key aspects of 3D citymodels and relevant applications.

The birth of a sophisticatedproduction workflowA major challenge in 3D city modelling is thewide range of very specific requirements, whichare needed by various clients in differentmarkets. Typical aspects are the geometric level-of-detail (LoD) and the texture quality. LoD is themeasure of geometric complexity and texture isthe photograph that is mapped onto a virtualbuilding wall to increase the level of photo-reality. To perform noise propagation, a simplenon-textured block model with flat roofs (LoD 1)may be good enough, but for use in the analysisof potential for solar energy generation, the

Photorealistic three-dimensional citymodels areomnipresent thesedays, not only in theworld of geomaticsbut also in nearlyany household,thanks to GoogleEarth and BingMaps. But is it onlythe good looks thatcount? Kilian Ulmis convinced thatthere is more thanjust beauty in 3Dcity models.

Virtual 3D City Models –satisfaction through sustainability

Below: West Baydevelopment, Doha.

© The Centre for GIS (CGIS) - Stateof Qatar

Left: Image © The Centre for GIS (CGIS) - State of Qatar

18:20 Page 2

3D City Models


model suitable for a GIS. Unfortunately, thishas been the case with some city models thatwere produced during the pioneering days atthe beginning of the millennium, when therewas not only a lack of experience, but also alack of software that was actually able tohandle large 3D city models. The consequenceis that there may be 3D models around in CADformats like DXF, but re-engineering them to aGIS-suitable format like ESRI geodatabase islikely to be more expensive than capturing thewhole data again and making it topologicallyconsistent from the (second) beginning.

Being able to use 3D models in a GIS isvery much linked to storing them in arelational database and therefore supportingthe sustainability of such data. This brings usto another key aspect: Standard formats suchas CityGML.

CityGMLCityGML is accepted by the Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC) as a standard format for3D city models. It facilitates the exchange of3D data and supports the sustainability andinteroperability of 3D city models. Asignificant open source movement behindCityGML provides software solutions to viewdata in CityGML as well as store city models ina relational database. More information canbe received on www.citygml.org.

Return on InvestmentThere are many ways to get a return oninvestment for the creation of a 3D city model,but let’s focus first on the investment, and atthis point there is some clear advice: share theinvestments. Assuming a municipality as atypical public client, there is always more thanone department within the municipality thatwould benefit from 3D data. Therefore it isimportant that the survey departmentexchanges with the planning department, theGIS department, the police, the fire departmentetc. to define the different needs and toperform a common cost-benefit analysis.

Typical RoI’s are:• Licensing. The increase of earnings through

licensing of 3D data and down-stream-products like solar potential maps to

improve the geometric level-of-detail of 3Dfacades. COWI now operates its own MobileMapping System to acquire terrestrial, high-resolution 360° images and laser-scannerdata during an efficient car-based survey. Thisdata is used for adding façade details to 3Dcity models, as with a project for thePrincipality of Monaco, where detailedfacades including balconies and stairs wererequested. Mobile mapping data is alsoapplied for cost-efficient and safe dataregistration for road management systemsand the documentation and identification ofassets for asset management.

Applications – more than modeThe major application of virtual 3D citymodels can be found in urban planning andweb-based 3D visualisations for citymarketing and tourism. In urban planning themain goal is to communicate planningprojects to the public or decision makers andtherefore to make them happen. Whenmarketing a city through a web-visualisationthe objective is to reach the Internet usersand attract them as potential tourists andvisitors. For both applications, visuallyappealing 3D city models are needed; simplybecause it is a matter of communicatingvisions, ambiances and experiences. Whilstthese models may be visually appealing, wemust keep in mind the long-term value that a3D model may have, when it is createdintelligently from the very beginning.

The key words are: data model andtopology. A 3D model may look nice in avisualisation, but may be absolutely useless ina GIS if it only consists of polygons andtexture files, and no topology was followedduring the model production. In simple words,topology means that a polygon on the roof ofthe building knows that it belongs to a roofand also knows to which specific building thatroof belongs, for example by using a uniqueidentifier (ID). The data model must be well-defined and set the basic rules for thetopology of the city model.

Furthermore, by using 2D cadastralfootprints, a 3D model fits to the official 2Ddata and is consistent with it. This simplifiesthe update of such datasets. The uniqueidentifier from the cadastre is used to givethe entire 3D building its unique ID andthereby a building-related dataset is created.Topology also allows calculation of geometricattributes like volumes or average roofinclination on a per building basis andtherefore facilitates the use in a GIS.

A 3D model may become a one-way streetif the production is not well thought through.You can always improve a GIS-suitable 3D citymodel and make it pretty for a visualisation byadding textures, but you will never be able tore-engineer a massive collection of polygonsand textures, which may look nice in apresentation, into a topologically correct 3D

Right: view of the cityof Geneva inSwitzerland.

© République etcanton de Genève /

SEMO - hepia HESSO

A 3D modelmay look nice ina visualisation,but may beabsolutely uselessin a GIS. . .

‘‘

’’

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3D City Models


to reduce the investment and increase thereturn. This can only be facilitated by focusingfrom the beginning on topologically correctand sustainable 3D city models. These aresuitable for GIS and can be managed in arelational database through user-friendlyinterfaces provided by GIS providers (e.g.ESRI). It is always possible to improve andbeautify a topologically correct 3D model, butnearly impossible to re-engineer an intelligentstructure from a dazzling 3D beauty. Followthe road to satisfaction!

About the author

Kilian Ulm has long-termexperience in 3D citymodelling andvisualisation. Beforejoining COWI as a salesmanager for geodata in2008, he was a sales &marketing manager atCyber-City, a spin-offcompany of the ETH

Zurich University that specialised in 3D citymodelling. Kilian is and was involved in manyinternational 3D projects like the 3D modelsof Zurich, Monaco, Geneva and Doha as wellas Hamburg, London, Zurich InternationalAirport etc.

various end clients. Other important clientsare architects, yellow pages,telecommunications, energy suppliers etc.

• Project Communication. The successfulacceptance of major development projectsthrough project visualisation help to avoidmonetary loss through project delays.Furthermore, such visualisations help tovirtually assess projects and identifyplanning errors at an early stage to avoidcostly corrections in the construction phase.

• Virtual site visits. Project sites can bevirtually inspected through real-time 3D fly-throughs, which help to avoid time-consuming and costly project site visits.

• Return through tourism. Through a web-based visualisation any Internet userbecomes a potential tourist and thereforemay invest in the region.

Focus on the topologyLong-term experience and know-how as wellas semi-automatic production workflows allowthe making of 3D city models in a cost-efficient way. It is key to understand thatdifferent applications request different 3D citymodels and therefore when talking about 3Ddata, nearly any user has a differentexpectation and image in their mind.Nowadays it is crucial, that a 3D city modelfulfils the requirements of various applications

A significantopen sourcemovement behindCityGML providessoftware solutionsto view data inCityGML. . .

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18:20 Page 4


ISPRS Symposium

focusing on the advancement of new andintegrated imaging sensor technologies, theprocessing and modelling of two and threedimensional image data, and the analysis ofderived information in support of best-practiceapplications in a broad range of disciplines.

In addition to the core symposiumprogramme, two one-day workshops –“Heritage 3-D” and “Close-range sensors andtechnologies” – were available to delegateswishing to attend tutorials to learn about newtechniques in various aspects of close-rangeimage measurement or to brush up onforgotten knowledge ahead of the mainSymposium itself. The workshops werecoordinated by Dr Fabio Remondino (FBKTrento, Italy), and presented by leadingscientists from across Commission V WorkingGroups. The feedback indicated an excellentprogramme that was well organized, providinginvaluable knowledge for attendees.

The Student Consortium, led by MatthiasKunz, organized a very successful barbeque inthe gardens of the University. Definitely one ofthe highlights of the programme, it was agreat opportunity for students from aroundthe world to meet and mingle.

The conference dinner was held at therecently refurbished Great North Museum,Hancock. This was a lovely evening, where thedelegates enjoyed a three-course dinner, folkdance, and were able to peruse through thefascinating exhibits, including a large-scale,interactive model of Hadrian’s Wall, aplanetarium and a life-size T-Rex Dinosaur. Ascreening of the 2010 World Cup was alsomuch appreciated by the many anxiousGerman and Australian delegates.

Newcastle upon Tyne was a delightfullocation for the Symposium. The people mostdefinitely lived up to their world-renownedreputation of warmth and hospitality. We werealso blessed with warm sunny days for thewhole duration of the event. For those of uswho stayed at the Castle Leazes accomm-odation, it was a lovely walk through thebotanical gardens each morning, on our way toSt James’ Park, sometimes even crossing pathswith cows grazing in the fields. St James’ Park,home of Newcastle United, was an ideal venue,not only because the 2010 World Cup wasrunning concurrently with our event, but alsofor its facilities and its location, being spatiallysituated adjacent to Science Central, a 24-acredevelopment in the heart of the city centre.

The 2010 ISPRS Commission V Symposiumwas a vibrant and enjoyable meeting, a tributeto the commendable organizing committee,led by Prof. Jon Mills, which has ensured thecontinued success of ISPRS Commission V.

The Symposium was officially opened by theHonourable Lord Mayor of Newcastle, andthe Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle

University, at the Newcastle Civic Centre. Thiswas a wonderful way to start proceedings,where the delegates were given the opportunityto reconnect with old colleagues and meet newfriends over drinks and canapés.

In his opening keynote, Prof Clive Fraserfrom The University of Melbourne, Australia,reviewed developments in close-rangephotogrammetry over the past 25 years anddiscussed the ‘unfinished journey’ towards thegoal of full automation. Clive’s presentationwas an insightful and engaging start to theSymposium, tracing along the maindevelopment route, which has been heavilyinfluenced by requirements for metric quality.He considered just where the journey mightlead from the current state of the art inimage-based 3D measurement, giving aglimpse of what the future may hold for fullyautomatic close-range photogrammetry.

The closing keynote from Jean-AngeloBeraldin of the National Research CouncilInstitute for Information Technology in Canada,was entitled “Cooperation, the key to success:people and technology make the difference”.This was an effective conclusion to theSymposium as Jean-Angelo discussed how wecan all foster innovation and make a differencethrough co-operation and openness.

A total of 125 presentations were made,

The 2010 ISPRSCommission VSymposium was heldin Newcastle uponTyne, UK, from the22nd to the 24thJune. The committee,led by Prof. Jon Millsorganised a world-class symposium,attended by 230participants from 34different countriesaround the world,reports IdaJazayeri from TheUniversity ofMelbourne,Australia.

ISPRS Commission V Symposium

Right: theconferencedinner was

anotheropportunity forstudents to mix

and mingle withleading expertsand academics.

Left: Ida Jazayerienjoys a glass ofNewcastle’s finestwith, left, ChristosStamatopoulos,The University ofMelbourne andright, FabrizioGirardi Universityof Bologna.


asked to carry out an initial as-built laser-scansurvey of the ship to allow CTC engineers todesign the grillage shims and enable precisepositioning of the grillage to the deck.Traditionally this survey would have beencarried out with a digital level and haveconsisted of basic points taken where thegrillage would sit. It was decided that farmore detail could be captured using laser-scanning technology.

Flying BaggageDigital Surveys opted to use their ScanStation2 for the project. They have since invested in aphase-based solution but, although theScanStation is slower, it produces very cleandata and is a very versatile instrument.

The logistics of flying the equipment out toNorway were the hardest part of the project.Even though protected by a heavy-duty flightcase, it did not instil much confidence for thesurvey team to watch over-zealous baggagehandlers throwing bags off the plane. Therewas a collective sigh of relief all around whenthe instrument was opened undamaged andfired up on the ship!

Collecting dataThe team had hoped that the deck of the shipwould be clear of obstructions, butunfortunately a lot of welding andmaintenance work was going on, which hadto be worked around. It was decided to scanthe centre of the deck where the grillagewould sit first and then, if time allowed, pickup any additional detail later. Scanning wascarried out at a density of 10mm at 25mrange. As the ship was in the water it wasdecided to switch off the Scan Station’s dual-axis compensator. The compensator is used toadjust for any small movements off vertical,making it a very accurate survey tool but if itis moved too far off level it kills the scanningprocess. As the ship was sitting in water and

CTC marine of Darlington (part of the TricoGroup) were awarded the contract toprovide installation and trenching services

for the Wave Hub. The project involves usingCTC Marine’s 2000 ton carousel lay system andT2 trencher to install the 25km subsea powercable, the wave hub and its 300m connectiontails. The subsea power cable is then connectedto the wave hub, which allows developers ofwave energy converters (WECs) to plug into thenational grid and so conduct full scale trials oftheir devices.

From icebreaker to cable layerCTC marine operate their own fleet of vesselsbut due to a high workload they chartered theNordica from the Finnish Government for thisproject. The Nordica is an ice-breaking ship inwinter but also functions as an offshoresupport vessel during the summer months.

To equip the Nordica for the project, theCTC Marine carousel cable-laying system hadto be attached to the ship’s deck. Thecarousel, which weighs approximately 50 tonsand is capable of carrying 2000 tons of cable,needed to be precisely positioned on the ship’sdeck on a fabricated reinforced grillage.

Digital Surveys, who have worked withCTC on numerous similar projects, were

Digital Surveys, a geospatial and laser-scanningfirm based in North East England, has justreturned from Kristiansund, Norway after ascanning commission that formed part of theprestigious Wave Hub Development. The projectalso provided the client with additionaldeliverables of as-built data. Ben Bennetttakes up the story.

Above: Chartered from theFinnish Government, The

Naudica is normally an ice-breaker but is spending the

summer cable laying.

Dimensional Control for Wave Hub Cable Layer

by Ben Bennett

Dimensional control

Below: Scanned image ofthe Naudica’s deck alsoprovided client with acurrent “as-built” record.

Page 2

Dimensional control


used to create a TIN mesh of the deck. Fromthis, a grid of vertices was generated at 0.8mintervals – the same spacing as the deckmarkings.

This grid of points could then be exportedas a .DXF file back into AutoCAD and overlaidon the existing design plans. The design planswere also updated to more accurately reflectthe as-built conditions of the ship, as anumber of vents and hatches were not shownin their actual locations.

The client interfaceDigital were keen to present the results of theproject to CTC and show them some of theadditional deliverables that had beengenerated from the laser-scan data.

One of the real benefits of laser scanningto surveyors, is the additional information thatcan be offered to the client, bringing addedvalue to a project.

As 360° images and scans had beentaken at each set-up, it made sense togenerate a “TruView” of the project.TruView is the Leica collaborative, onlinesystem for viewing, measuring and marking-up scan data. Requiring just a simple

had a large crane operating on deck,it was obvious there would be somemotion. By scanning without thecompensator on, the instrumentwould move with the ship and alsohave the added bonus of scanning ata faster speed.

As there would be plenty ofoverlap between scans, it wasdecided to use cloud-to-cloudregistration, thus speeding up thedata capture process. In all, six 360°scans with colour images were takenin approximately five hours onboard,giving a very good coverage of thewhole deck.

Extracting informationThe scan data was cleaned and registeredusing Leica’s Cyclone 7 software. The maindeliverable required by the client was a gridof levels across the ship’s deck. To achievethis, the point cloud was first opened up inAutoCAD using Leica Cloudworx 4.1 plug-in.The deck needed to be levelled first to takeinto account the declivity of the ship sittingin the water. This was done by drawing ahorizontal and a vertical line across the deck,intersecting on the centre line of the ship.

As-built plans were then imported andoverlaid and aligned so that the origin of thescan data could be set to the ship’s datum andthe intersection of the polylines that had beendrawn.

The two intersecting polylines created inAutoCAD were then exported using theCyclone Object Exchange (COE) plug-in backto Cyclone. These polylines could now be usedto create a new coordinate system in Cyclone,setting the origin in Cyclone to the datum ofthe ship.

Once the coordinate system was set, allthe unwanted information on the deck wasstripped away giving a relatively smoothsurface. Cyclone’s mesh option was then

Above: TIN mesh of thedeck in Cyclone with asample grid generated at0.8m intervals.

One of the realbenefits of laserscanning tosurveyors, is theadditionalinformation thatcan be offered tothe client. . .

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’’

The Wave Hub ProjectThe Wave Hub is a groundbreaking renewable energy project to create the UK’sfirst offshore facility to demonstrate the operation of arrays of wave energygeneration devices. The project is funded by the European Regional DevelopmentFund and the South West Regional Development Authority. It will provide a testbedfor many different devices that are being developed in the UK and elsewhere togenerate electricity from the power of the waves. After the devices have beentested as prototypes elsewhere, the Wave Hub will provide an area of sea withpower grid connection and planning consent where arrays of devices can beoperated over several years.

Power will pass via 11kV cables from the wave energy conversion arrays to asubsea cable termination and distribution unit and thence via a 24kV cable to asubstation on shore. The Nordica is currently (12th August) laying the 24kV cablebut the initial floating out of cable from the Nordica to shore ran into problemswhen some cable floatation bags deflated. After laying the cable, Nordica willlower the cable termination and distribution unit to the sea floor which will thenundergo a testing programme.

Page 3

Dimensional control


back to the ship. Using this system they wereable to identify a number of penetrations andprotrusions on the deck that they hadn’tknown about. If these had not been identifiedduring the design phase it could havesignificantly slowed down mobilisation of thevessel.

The client’s viewpointSam Taylor, an engineer at CTC, commented:“It is the first time that CTC Marine has useda 3D scan for this type of work, opting fortraditional survey methods in the past, butbecause of the amount of useful dataretrieved, CTC is considering scanning morevessels using 3D laser scanning to create alibrary of information that will aid futureprojects.”

The point cloud data was also madeavailable to CTC and they were set-up with ademonstration of CloudWorx. With time,hopefully they will gain more confidence andintroduce laser scanning into their currentworkflows.

Renewable futureIn the future, the offshore renewable energysector is certainly looking like a growth areafor dimensional control using 3D laserscanning. Digital Surveys have recently carriedout scans of wind farm platforms in Denmarkand have been commissioned for similarprojects in Holland and Sweden. Fromproviding accurate as-built plans and modelsto the final QA in fabrication, many engineersand contractors are finally embracing laser-scanning technology and the benefits which itbrings.

About the author:Ben Bennett is the 3D Survey Manager atDigital Surveys specialising in laser scanning,3d modelling and visualisation. He has beenwith the company for two years following acareer in IT, web and multimedia. Ben iscurrently developing the laser-scanning side ofthe business with an emphasis on improvedworkflows for scan to Revit and as-builtmodelling.

download from the Internet, it puts the userin the scanner location and allows full viewof all the captured information. Theadvantage of this is that you don’t need anexpensive plug-in (it is free for users) andyou don’t have to be an expert in CAD toview the results.

Previously CTC would take photos todocument a new vessel. Although a valuablereference they don’t give the immersivefeeling, that TruView provides, of actuallybeing on the ship and seeing areas inrelationship to each other. If there was an areaof the deck that was not documented, asurveyor would have to be flown out to thevessel, which could be anywhere in the world,just to check a few measurements. UsingTruView, CTC were able to virtually inspect thedeck without the need for any additional trips

. . . the offshorerenewable energysector is certainlylooking like agrowth area fordimensionalcontrol. . .

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’’

Above: A total of six 360° scans were necessary to capture the ship’s deck.

Page 4

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Interview

own special place in my memory – not leastbecause of the many people that I met andworked with, and the many different ways inwhich they influenced me, and the direction inwhich my career went. If I had to characterisemy experiences I would say that in Nairobi Igrew up as a person (I was only twenty threewhen I went there as a lecturer) and gainedthe confidence to teach large groups ofstudents. I also had the pleasure of interactingwith students who realised how hugelyprivileged they were to be at university andwho were desperate to learn.

At UEL (or NELP as it was then) I learntabout surveying in its widest sense. Beforethen I really didn’t know any more than justgeodesy and engineering surveying – myknowledge really was incredibly limited. UELopened my eyes to the breadth of the subjectand gave me access to the major industrialplayers and some key mapping agencies. Itwas there that my interest in hydrographicsurveying developed and where I learnt towrite practically useful geomatics software.UEL also gave me access to the RICS, whichwas massively important to me as an academicwith no real practical experience.

Stuttgart was a much needed sabbatical forme. I was able to re-evaluate what I was doingand it was there that my interest in GPSdeveloped. I will forever be grateful to ProfessorErik Grafarend for encouraging me to apply fora Von Humboldt scholarship and to thefoundation for the support it gave me and myfamily during the year we spent in Germany. AtNewcastle my research really got going. I wasincredibly proud to be the University’s firstprofessor of surveying and I relished theopportunities to bid for large research counciland EU grants. Also as a head of department Ibelieve my skills in dealing with people and inmaking strategic plans developed. Moreover Igained some hugely valuable experiences thathelped me decide how I wanted to spend therest of my working life.

In particular, three years as Dean of Sciencehelped me to realise that my future lay ingeomatics and not in universityadministration! Finally at UCL I’ve had the

You are retiring after 43 years in universityresearch and teaching. It all started when yougraduated with a BSc in Civil Engineering fromUniversity of Nottingham in 1967. A wide field,so what motivated you to decide to study for aPhD in Geodesy?

I went to university not really knowing what Iwanted to do. Civil engineering felt right as Ienjoyed mathematics and physics but I felt Iwanted to do something practical andsomething that would get me outdoors. Idon’t think I’d ever heard of surveying – letalone geodesy! I just thought civil engineeringwas about building bridges and dams!

I suspect that, once at university, whatattracted me to surveying was the fact that itinvolves such a logical application ofmathematics and physics. At that time (earlysixties) the rest of civil engineering was highlyempirical, with lots of the design proceduresbeing based on extrapolations fromexperiments rather than fundamental scientificprinciples – at least that’s how it seemed to me.

However, what really got me into doing aPhD in geodesy was an inspirational andcharismatic teacher called Vidal Ashkenazi –someone who will be very well-known to yourreaders. He truly made the subject come alivefor me and his ideas sparked my imagination. Iconsider myself both privileged and extremelylucky to have been an undergraduate atNottingham when he arrived there and tohave had him as my tutor. There is no doubtat all in my mind that had it not been forVidal Ashkenazi I would, on graduation, havetaken the junior engineer post that I wasoffered by Taylor Woodrow and I would mostcertainly not have done a PhD and become anacademic. I owe everything I have achieved tohis vision and to his faith in me at that time.

After gaining your doctorate you worked at theUniversities of Nairobi, UEL, Stuttgart andNewcastle upon Tyne, before joining UCL in 1997.Is there any one period that stands out for you asparticularly satisfying or enjoyable?

They all stand out for me – each with its

After a life in academia Paul Cross talks to Richard Groomabout his formative experiences, his achievements anddisappointments, the risks of predicting, what he thinks oftoday’s students and ponders whether Galileo is reallynecessary.

Crosstalk– Professor Paul Cross talks to GW aboutGeodesy, Academia and Life after Geomatics

. . . had it notbeen for VidalAshkenazi Iwould, ongraduation, havetaken the juniorengineer post thatI was offered byTaylor Woodrow. . .

‘‘

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Interview


profile of our subject in schools (especiallywhen I was in Newcastle). There have alsobeen several well-funded nation-wideinitiatives to do this but their effects havebeen both limited and transitory. I think it’ssuch a pity as I truly believe that anundergraduate geomatics experience is asgood as any, and is far better than most othersubjects. The combination of skills andexperiences gained by geomatics graduates issecond to none and is fully transferable tomany walks of life – much more so than someof the subjects studied by many who go on toplay important roles in modern society.

At UCL we tried to start an undergraduatecourse in geomatics but it failed as wecouldn’t attract enough students who couldmeet the UCL entry requirements. This wasour way to make the department financiallyviable and its failure was the single mostimportant reason for UCL deciding to mergethe department with Civil Engineering – amove that was certainly not without itsbenefits but to be brutally honest, not onethat I personally welcomed. This failure tomake geomatics work as an independentdiscipline within one of the world’s top tenuniversities has been the biggestdisappointment of my professional life.

Having said that, I’m still very upbeat aboutthe future of geomatics in UK universities,especially as right now we have a hugelytalented set of academic staff carrying outground-breaking and world-beating research.Also developments in GNSS and locationbased services are gradually impacting on thegeneral public and raising awareness of whatwe do; and opportunities for collaborationwith other disciplines have never been greater.

What about the students – are they gettingbrighter or dimmer!

I would judge that students today are ofsimilar intelligence to those of the past(although I’ve no formal evidence for this!).However, I think there are some significantdifferences. I’m sure that students today cometo university with less knowledge of some ofthe basic principles and rules of science,mathematics and language. I know this, as wehave to teach first year students some quitebasic things that I remember learning atschool. On the other hand students are ingeneral more confident and better prepared tolearn on their own. They have had moreexperience of giving oral presentations, aremore able to interact on an equal footing withacademic staff and are more prepared to ask‘why?’. I think students increasingly, andrightly, consider themselves as customerswhereas, in general, my generation were justgrateful to be at university and more willinglyaccepted whatever was offered.

Your research has primarily been on GNSS. For

experience of working at one of the world’sleading research universities and interactingwith some of the world’s leading researchersin a wide range of subjects. Leica Geosystems’support of my post in its early years wascritical to much of what we achieved and I willalways be grateful to the company forproviding it. However at UCL I also learntsome of the harsh realities of trying to grow asmall subject such as geomatics in a highlyprestigious environment, where competitionfor resources was much fiercer than I hadpreviously experienced.

I expect the way universities operate has changeddramatically during your career. What do youthink has improved and what changes do youthink are regrettable?

Actually it’s harder than you might think forme to judge this as the universities I’veworked out of are all very different and it’shard to disaggregate the kind of changes youmention from differences that have alwaysexisted between them. I do, however, thinkthat some of the modern pressures onacademics are regrettable as they stifle freethinking and force people to achieve targetsthat, whilst helping governments makemeasurements do not, in the main, improvethe quality of either teaching or research.Things are beginning to go into reverse nowso I believe the next decade will be betterthan the last two from this perspective.

Also, whilst there have always beenfinancial pressures on universities I do fearthat in future years life for both students andacademics is going to be harder. Whilstperhaps not being a fashionable thing to say, Iam convinced that right now we have toomany universities in the UK and that themoney that the nation can afford to spend onhigher education is spread too thinly. Theresult is that many students really do not getvalue for money and too many young peoplelargely waste three or more of the mostimportant and formative years of their lives. Igenuinely believe that getting to universityshould be more competitive and that theexperiences of the fewer who make it shouldbe better. There’s nothing wrong with anelement of elitism in higher education. I oftenreflect on the fact that it was my generationwho benefitted from free university educationand generous maintenance grants (I was thefirst person in my family ever to go touniversity) but it is we that are denying it tomany of the most deserving today.

What threats and opportunities do you foreseefor surveying at university level?

The biggest problem, as I see it, is attractingthe most able students onto geomaticscourses in significant numbers. I tried – largelyunsuccessfully – for many years to raise the

. . .I am convincedthat right now wehave too manyuniversities in theUK and that themoney that thenation can affordto spend onhigher educationis spread toothinly.

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Interview


predicted before their arrival. And the thingsthat we can predict with confidence such asthe paperless office, routine use of locationbased services etc seem to be taking a lotlonger to arrive than most pundits expected.

Is there a single piece of advice (on any subject)that you can pass on to us?

You’ve asked for only one, so I’ll keep to thatalthough I feel a little uncomfortable as it mayappear somewhat negative. It’s advice that Inever fully took myself and in many waysregret. It’s something that I first came acrosswhen I arrived in Newcastle. I paid a visit tothe office of the then professor of geology (Iwas just beginning my interest in using GPSfor geodynamics) and I saw that he had alarge notice on the wall that was facing himwhenever he spoke on his telephone orchatted with a visitor. It consisted of the twowords: ‘say no’! Of course it doesn’t mean sayno all the time but it’s a reminder that if youtake on everything that comes your way you’llbe overwhelmed and not manage to do theimportant things as well as they should bedone. I found it particularly easy to agree todo things some months ahead, forgetting justhow busy I would be by the time it came todo them! So what I’m trying to say here is:focus on what’s important and try to do itwell! Indeed the skill of recognising what’simportant is probably the most useful oneanybody can learn. Linked to this is the advice(I realise that this is a second piece of advice!)to ‘enjoy the journey’. It’s so easy when you’restriving to get somewhere, or to achievesomething in your work to forget to live in thepresent and to enjoy your family. It’s onlywhen you get to retirement that you realisehow fast time really goes!

Do you have any plans for retirement?

I’ve no idea what I’m going to do other thanspend more time with my family (I have fivegrandchildren) and pursuing some of myhobbies and interests. I have made a decisionnot to continue with any activities related togeomatics or academia. I went to university asan undergraduate in 1964 and have never leftuniversities! What’s more I’ve stayed ingeomatics all that time. That’s 46 years ofmore or less the same kind of thing! I’m stillonly 63 and young enough to find somethingelse to do with my remaining years. I don’t yetknow what is it but I do know that I have toextract myself from what I’m doing now tofind it. I do, however, hope that there will besome way that I can still keep in touch withthe many friends I have made in geomaticsand universities over all of these years – themaking of these friendships and theaccomplishments of the many hundreds ofstudents that I have taught are theachievements that I value most in my career.

what applications do we actually need Galileo?

A good question and one that is of coursereally proper to ask. Galileo is expensive; it willprobably end up costing around 10 billioneuros – about 20 euros for every person in theEU. Actually I think it’s quite difficult to arguethe case for Galileo based on need alone.There are very few applications that Galileoenables that couldn’t be done with existingGNSSs such as GPS and GLONASS. Having saidthat it is true that the signal structure ofGalileo, and the fact that it will increase theGNSS constellation of spacecraft by over 50%,will lead to some significant advances inperformance – something that will be ofspecial benefit to the geomatics community.

I’m of the opinion (speaking as a taxpayerrather than a geomatics and navigationprofessional) that the case for Galileo can onlyreally be made on political grounds. So much ofour current infrastructure is already based onGNSS and the rate of increase of thisdependency is accelerating. Also I believe thatGalileo will offer unprecedented opportunitiesfor efficiency gains in transport and energyconsumption. It’s simply too risky to rely onGNSS always being provided for free by foreigncountries. Who knows whom our political andfinancial allies will be in twenty years time? Thisis an incredibly strong argument for a EuropeanGNSS and I am therefore fully in favour ofGalileo. It is a pity that the complexmachinations of the European Union, and theinability of some politicians to come todecisions, have led to Galileo taking such anenormously long time to come to fruition.

What do you expect to be the next developmentsfor navigation and surveying?

If I’ve learnt one thing in my long academiccareer it’s to avoid speculation and prediction. Irecollect giving a lecture at the RICS HQ inaround 1979 in which I predicted that inertialtechnology was the future of geomatics (Iwould have said surveying then). TheHoneywell, Litton and Ferranti land surveysystems were just beginning to be used anddelivering several decimetre accuracies and I’dcarried out some research at UEL funded byHunting Surveys Ltd that had produced somereally encouraging results. Although eachsystem cost around a quarter of a millionpounds (equivalent to about one million today),I could only see them getting cheaper andmore accurate. I recognised their enormousadvantages: no need for line of sight, norefraction, no reliance on externalorganisations, potentially no post processing,etc but completely failed to see what an impactGPS would have (the first satellite had beenlaunched a year earlier)! Actually I think thatmost of the technology advances that have hadreally big impacts on our lives (internet, texting,GNSS etc) have not had that influence

Cross: ‘I think it’s quitedifficult to argue the casefor Galileo based on needalone.’

I’m of theopinion (speakingas a taxpayerrather than ageomatics andnavigationprofessional) thatthe case forGalileo can onlyreally be made onpolitical grounds.

‘‘

’’

Legal Notes


of PSI is a result of the law on access to thedata and also its accessibility limited by theeffect of IPR on that access and amelioratedby the level playing field of fair access. Or insimple terms – whatever the law, if the data isunobtainable because of technical means orbureaucracy, then you have an uphill struggleto obtain it.

Examples are given in the article about IPRproblems such as that of The Dutch NationalRoad Register which is freely available butthere is a caveat on re-use; one cannot re-useit, so maybe European (competition) law andthe Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) need toset and maintain the boundaries.

The Consolidated Version of the Treaty onthe Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)has at Article 106 (previously Article 86 EC)the statement that public undertakings shouldnot abuse their dominant position contrary toArt 101 (dominant position laws). In anyevent, under Art 4(3) TEU (which is theconsolidated version of the Treaty onEuropean Union) Marc de Vries says that thereis a ‘principle of sincere cooperation.’ My ownview is that in any event the drive towardsharmonisation, and the review of 7.5.2009 onthe implementation of the PSI Directive maywell drive Member States to terminateexclusive licences and promote quick, effectiveand inexpensive conflict resolution methods.The matter of Intelligent Addressing (IA) andthe Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)and then the contrary opinion by the AdvisoryPanel on PSI (APDSI), may have been anexample of the antithesis of a quick andinexpensive conflict resolution method.

No good academic article should fail to givea succinct conclusion and Mr de Vries’s articlefinishes with two main conclusions. The first isthat the Commission has launched LegalAspects of PSI (LAPSI) with the objective tostudy the legal impediments to the re-use ofPSI and, secondly, that it is up to us to makethings work.

So, what of the UK? I recently attended aBCS lecture given by Ordnance Survey on OSOpen Data and the licence for that dataoccupies less than two sides of A4 whilst thePublic Viewing licence is nine lines long andone of those lines just contains the word‘and’. So it seems that whatever challengesMarc de Vries has in the Netherlands theyseem to be greater than we have on this sideof the North Sea.

Our editor passed me a copy of the paperReverse engineering Europe’s PSI re-userules – towards an integrated conceptual

framework for PSI use by Marc de Vries, who inthe spirit of re-use has waived all his rights in hisarticle under the condition that he is cited asthe author, which seems fair enough.

So what is this article and how does itaffect us? Well, first of all PSI has been seenas a growing market both as an economicasset and a commodity. The EU Directive2003/98/EC reflected that reality in directingre-use of PSI. However, the article deals withthe tensions between those holding PSI andthose who wish to benefit from it and ninereasons are given although these can bebroadly divided into three categories:

• Public Sector Bodies (PSB) are witholdinginformation for whatever reason;

• Existing licensed users of PSI arethreatening legal action against PSBs whogranted exclusive licences;

• Information in the public sector is beingwithdrawn by PSBs and privateorganisations claiming Intellectual PropertyRights (IPR) in that data.

It is claimed that the complex nature of thelegal framework is a large part of theproblem; hardly surprising as there are fourmain areas; Freedom of Information; IPR;Information and Computer Technology(ICT)and Competition law. These have thefollowing effects:

– Is there access to PSI? If so then. . .– Is it accessible? If so then. . .– Can the PSI be re-used? If so then. . .– Are the terms and conditions of re-use

fair?

Marc de Vries postulates an equation todetermine the utility of PSI:

This is probably the first and last time that Iput an equation into the legal column.However, I cannot resist the temptation tounravel it into words. It is this. Successful use

A recent paper by aDutch author hashighlightedproblems on the re-use of public sectordata. This is one ofthe most complexareas of EC law butsome organisationsare coming to gripswith it whilst forothers the barriersare up. Carl Calvertexplains.

Public Sector Information– it’s still limited by availability and IPR

By Carl Calvert

• Carl Calvert MA MScPgDLaw MRICS CITPMBCS, is the sole principalof Calvert Consulting,specialising in Boundarylitigation. He also lecturespart-time in GIS law. www.calvertconsulting.co.ukEmail: [email protected] 023 8086 4643.

PSI Utility =

Access & Accessibility × Fair re-use conditionsRe-use limitations

14:40 Page 1


a rather more satisfactory procedure is to fit asurface that acts rather more like a stiff metalsheet, and shows some resistance to beingfitted onto data points that are out of keepingwith the surrounding data.

After several experiments, the surface thatwas adopted for this project was fitted to thedata points with a “stiffness” defined by itscorrelation length of 4.0km (this being ameasure of the distance over which theinfluence of an individual data point is exerted).Since this is considerably larger than the typicaldistances between the benchmarks, it enablesus to flag up points that do not fit with theoverall pattern. In this way, five points wereidentified as being outside the acceptabletolerance, with residuals over 0.02m. Thesegenerally turned out to be points that hadalready been identified as problematic – forexample being GPS points on the tops ofbuildings, with an inaccurate determination ofthe orthometric height associated with them –and they were therefore rejected. Once this hadbeen done, the overall root mean squareagreement between the surface fitted and theoriginal data points was 5mm. The latter figureis a slight over-estimate of the accuracy withwhich the fitted surface reproduces the levelledvalues as it incorporates a certain amount oftailoring to the information available, andtherefore a bias. A better estimate of theaccuracy of the surface comes from the statisticsof the derived covariance function, in which thenoise level was estimated as 12mm.

After the interpolation of the residualvalues onto a regular grid, the EGM2008values were added back in, and the surfacedelivered to the Bermuda Survey Section. Inprinciple this meant that they had a means ofconverting between ellipsoidal heights andthe orthometric height datum that should bedelivering accuracies of around 12mm.

Testing the modelWhile Dr Iliffe was busy number crunching, theSection was able to perform additionalfieldwork on a number of quality tests, designedto check if the computed model reached thedesired specification of ±20mm. To this end, tengeodetic benchmarks that had not beenincluded in the geoid model calculation wereobserved by GPS to near-geodetic standardsprovided by the USNGS “Memo 57”methodology. Such is the small size of Bermudathat the Section’s existing single frequencyTrimble 4600LS instruments proved perfectlyadequate for this task and, when observations

Right: Figure 1.Control Pointsused to model

the VerticalDatum

Separation. Thebackground

image isreproduced with

permission of theBermuda

Zoological Society.

A new Geoid Model for Bermuda – Part II

By Peter Hopkin and Dr Jonathan Iliffe

Examining the values of the geoid separationthat were determined by GPS and levelling,the maximum range across the island was

0.64m. When this was compared to EGM2008,an average difference of 0.21m was found –again, this is mostly due to the use of a localdetermination of mean sea level, rather than aglobal one. More significantly, once the pointvalues had been re-based on the EGM2008geoid surface, the residual values had a range ofjust 0.25m and a standard error of 0.08m. Thisis an indication that on the whole, EGM2008 isdoing a pretty good job of describing the maintrends in the form of the geoid in Bermuda.Examined in more detail, these differencesexhibit a very strongly correlated pattern acrossthe island: potentially this could be caused bysystematic errors in the levelling, but the morelikely explanation is that it represents a finerstructure to the geoid that has been revealed bythe GPS and levelling data. Either way, it bodeswell for our ability to interpolate a referencesurface that is a good fit to the valuesdetermined at the benchmarks.

Canvas or steel sheetsThe next step was to use the least squarescollocation process to interpolate the residualgeoid values (the differences between thevalues implied by GPS and levelling and thosefound from EGM2008) onto a regular grid.This can be thought of as rather like draping asurface across the area and tying it down atthe benchmarks. It is possible to do thisexactly, in which case it is akin to tying downa flimsy canvas at the control points, and thesurface found is little more than a simpleinterpolation. This is dangerous if there areany errors present in the original data, since itimplies trusting the input data completely, and

EGM2008 isdoing a prettygood job ofdescribing themain trends in theform of the geoidin Bermuda.

‘‘

’’

New Geoid Model

In the first part ofthis article publishedin the July/Augustissue, the authorsdescribed thehistorical backgroundto the BermudaGeoid Model Projectand the additionalfield observationsrequired to closegaps in the data.Here they look at thecomputations andreview the resultsand theirachievements. DrJonathan Iliffetakes up the story.

New Geoid Model


were made over several days with differentsatellite constellations, provided remarkablyconsistent results. Compared with the predictedlevels from the vertical separation modelcalculated by Dr Iliffe, the results wereencouraging, with only one point outside 20mmand eight less than 10mm (Table 1).

In fact, with a root mean square value of11mm, the results are consistent with thepredicted accuracies.

This test gives a quantitative value to theinternal integrity of the new BermudaGeodetic framework, and is sufficient for avertical separation model to be embeddedinto the Section’s RTK GPS equipment.Nothing beats contours for visualizationhowever, and the final task was to build areal model of the final product (Figure 2).

Quality not compromisedLooking back, the success of this project camefrom several factors. With limited geodeticknowledge and expertise on the island, theproject was always going to be risky, but thekey success factors were the wealth of historicalinformation available to us and the ability tocreep the scope of the project due to the lackof significant time pressure.

Delays in the implementation of landregistration allowed us to avoid a demand forhigher accuracy survey work, and enabledthe focus of the project to remain on thequality of the final product, rather than becompromised by tight deadlines. In truth, wewere also lucky: lucky to have sufficient 1962benchmarks surviving intact, lucky to havethe complete set of original fieldbooks, andlucky to be able to source two excellenttheodolites from the United Kingdom withwhich to close major level loops.

The success of the project was also due tothe significant input from all the Section staff,who understood that long nocturnalobservations, monotonous levelling up verylong hills on hot, sweaty days, and theapparently endless nailing of change-pointsreally was worth the effort. Their reward is thedeployment of an RTK CORS base station thatdelivers near centimetre-level results, twenty-four hours a day, throughout the island. This inturn has created work efficiencies, which cannow be invested into further upgrade andmaintenance of the geodetic model as timeallows. The involvement of Bermudian surveyorsand technicians will also ensure that the modelis sustainable over a long period.

About the authors:Peter J Hopkin, BA, MRICS, PgD GIS is SeniorLand Surveyor at the Ministry of Works andEngineering, Government of Bermuda – email:[email protected]

Dr Jonathan Iliffe, BSc, PhD, FRICS, FRAS isSenior Lecturer at University College London –email: [email protected]

Right: Figure2. A model

of the model.Each contour

represents0.10m of

correction.

Table 1. Accuracy checks on the Vertical Separation Model

Published by Maney Publishing,ISSN 0039-6265, 4 issues perannum, cost: £98 annualindividual subscription.

Survey Review has beenpublished without a break since1931. To many surveyors it maybe perceived as accessible onlyto academics. True, there areplenty of formulae, but it is stillpossible for practical field folk togain some useful knowledgefrom its pages. The July issue

BOOK REVIEW


The introduction to this book isstraightforward up to the pointwhere its aims are stated. At thatpoint I felt things got ratherconfused. The terms geomatics,geospatial, engineer, engineeringsurveyor are all mentioned but Idid not see “setting-outengineer” anywhere. The purposeof surveying within engineering isstated as the “means by whichthey (engineers) can carry outtheir work”.

Surveying for an engineer isthe process of collecting data fordesign and then setting out thedesign on the ground. The peoplewho usually do the fieldwork aresurveyors or setting-outengineers. Indeed, surely 90% ofsurvey work in the UK must beclassified as engineeringsurveying. If the book is actuallyaimed at “engineers”, their primefunction is to specify andsupervise surveys, but I do notthink this is fully covered by thetext. The text also lists thefunctions of the “engineeringsurveyor” but several of thesetasks (e.g. deformationmonitoring) were inadequatelycovered in the text.

The second part of theintroduction covers surveyinstitutions and organisationsincluding the RICS, CICES andTSA. As with several other areas,I do not think the book adds anyvalue to the student over what

can be found by visiting theseorganisations’ websites.

The rest of the book returns tothe conventional ground ofengineering surveying – or justplain surveying. Whilst the text isgenerally easy to follow withplenty of diagrams and images,the structure could have beenrevised to reduce repetition andremove some illogicality. Forinstance, theodolite collimationerrors are covered in both thetheodolite and total stationchapters.

There is a significant sectionon OS benchmarks. We love themand they do deserve a mentionbut shouldn’t we all be usingGNSS to make our ownbenchmarks these days? Thispoint is made, but only in the lastfew sentences of the section andthe student would have to readthe references to discover thecaveats associated with GNSSheighting. I was even moresurprised to see an extensivediscourse on OS trig stations.

My only criticisms of the GNSSsection are firstly, that I am notconvinced that readers appreciatethe importance of relative andabsolute accuracy when usingGNSS and conventional spiritlevelling when surveying on site.Secondly, I thought the book lostits way in the last section or twowhich are devoted to co-ordinatesystems and projections. This partof the text was therefore rathertortuous. But not for long, asthese topics are covered in detailin the following chapter. Andthen, apparently tacked onto theend of the chapter, I found asection entitled “satellitevisibility”. Should that not havebeen covered much earlier?Surveyors who use GNSS undertrees are the bane of my life!

And so, on to detail surveying.The introduction to this chapterincludes a section on “contouredplans”. Such terminology seemsto echo from a pre-digital ageand at first I thought it referredto a drawing graced only withcontours. I was similarly surprisedto see a sub-chapter oncontouring located miles awayfrom the section on DTMs, where

it surely belongs. The authorshave deliberately emphasised theproduction of survey plans byhand as a bridge tounderstanding computer aideddraughting. I felt this made thechapter seem dated, despite thefact that it is in most respects up-to-the-minute. In the section ontotal station tachy I was a bitconcerned that recording detailpoint data as co-ordinates didnot come with caveats and thatthe authors do not advocate theobservation of common pointsbetween stations as essential forchecking. The section on networkRTK detail surveying does notmention PPK.

There are half a dozen pageson terrestrial laser scanning. Thebook would benefit from moredetail in this area, particularly inits coverage of point cloudregistration. The last part of thechapter covers undergroundutilities. This subject, about whichengineering surveyors should beknowledgeable, is glossed over infour pages. The use of sondes totrace drainage is not evenmentioned. The TSA guidance ishowever in the references. Onecould argue that little more thana link to the TSA guidance wouldbe better than dispensingknowledge that is so skimpy thatit is almost dangerous –especially when given toengineers!

Surveying for Engineers comesinto its own with its coverage ofsetting out. One hundred andtwenty pages are devoted to thetopic, which covers everythingfrom conventional setting outusing offset pegs and profileboards through to setting-outfrom co-ordinates and machinecontrol. Not only does it tell youeverything about the techniquesinvolved but it puts setting outinto its site context, explainingthe roles of the people involvedand their contractualresponsibilities.

I’ve reached page 797 andhow do I feel? It’s a long book,which could be shorter with a bitof reorganisation and removal ofrepeated material. It is also veryanglo-centric which could leave

surveyors working overseasfeeling homesick. As a studenttextbook I expect it ticks most ofthe boxes. Each chapter startswith a statement of aims andends with references for furtherreading. Within the chaptersthere are reflective summaries toreinforce the points from eachsection and frequent exercises.But as a reference book for theprofession it would benefit frommore input from practitioners.Finally, returning to the booktitle, perhaps I am guilty ofmisinterpretation and should readit as ‘surveying as a service forengineers’. I did feel the presenceof a glass ceiling, confined underwhich the engineering surveyortoils away turning angles.

Richard Groom

By John Uren and Bill Price,Palgrave Macmillan. 797 pp,p/back, £40.99, ISBN9780230221574

Surveying forEngineers (5thEdition)

easy to follow text that ticks all the boxes and comes into its own with setting out

Survey Review:Something forEveryone in theJuly Issue

BOOK REVIEW


was particularly interesting andcovered a wide range ofsubjects.

Clarke and Penna’s paperon the effects of ocean tideloading on relative GNSSconcludes that the verticalcomponent can reach 10mm inmany locations in the UK. Worthmodelling, methinks. Their workfollows on from a paper in theprevious issue by Edwards et alon the network RTK testingcarried out by NewcastleUniversity for The SurveyAssociation last year. TSA havefollowed this up by ordering afurther study which will becarried out over the summer andtest network RTK usingcombined GLONASS and GPScorrection services.

Ocean tide loading wasfollowed by a paper on thegeodetic datums in Sri Lanka byPGV Abeyratne et al. Those ofus who have worked overseaswill have got worked up aboutthe sense of secrecy and lack of

written geodetic history formany countries, exasperated bysome of the strange decisions ofour predecessors, and almosttearful when faced with a dustyheap of neglected nationalcontrol data in a governmentoffice. Of course hindsight is awonderful thing, especially whenGPS-assisted! The history makesinteresting reading and theauthors come up withrecommendations forimprovements to Sri Lanka’sgeodetic infrastructure.

Multipath mitigation shouldbe of interest to all GNSS users.Dammalage et al carried outexperiments to simulate theeffect of multipath in GPSreference stations. My firstreaction was to questionwhether it might be moreeffective to move the referencestations to locations free ofmultipath. None-the-less, theresearchers found that it ispossible to improve the accuracyof C/A code DGPS observations

using their method.Ballantyne and Rogers

have invented the term‘Monument Utility Index’. Theidea is to evaluate the reliabilityand usability of boundarymonuments in Canada and thenconclude whether they are, orare not, a ‘public good’. To be apublic good, they have to bereliable. Not surprisingly they aremore reliable if established laterduring site construction work,rather than earlier. The authorshave noted some resistance fromthe local surveying profession tothe notion that monuments areanything less than sacrosanct.General boundaries surveyorsmight wonder what all the fussis about.

Jian Wang and Feng-XiangJin have an article on mobilelaser scanning that features avan with three GNSS sensors butno inertial navigation system.The authors claim a horizontalaccuracy of 10mm butunsurprisingly, less in the

vertical mainly due to theaccuracy of attitude derived fromGNSS. A major source of errorcomes from interpolationbetween different sensorsobserving at different rates. Ofmore value is perhaps an articleon INS by Kai-Wei Chiang etal. They have devised a means ofreducing the time taken for INSto initialise. It’s all done with aKalman filter and some fuzzylogic. The results are impressive.

The issue closes with onepaper of recollections from DDMcCormack on his work inKenya around the time ofindependence and an article onlow cost modelling ofarchaeological sites by Aguileraand Lahoz. The method makesuse of photography takensuspended below a balloonusing the Picavet system.

For more information aboutSurvey Review, visitwww.surveyreview.org

Richard Groom

Overcurrents


now paved – still exists, once the only waythrough the northern Sierra Nevada for theearly settlers, bringing their wagon trains fromeast to west over deeply rutted dirt roads andweathered granite. One area is still known asEmigrant Gap.

I-80 skirts Donner Lake on its north side,and from it you can see the existing and oldtranscontinental railroad high above the lakeon the south side. A 6.7-mile stretch wasabandoned in 1993 and re-routed about onemile south of Donner Pass through a 10,322-foot long tunnel (aka “The Big Hole”) runningunder Mt. Judah between Soda Springs andEder. The then operator, Southern Pacific(SPRR) considered this route far easier and lessexpensive to maintain and keep open duringwinter snows. It was on this new portion thatI took the train in Summer 2002 from SanFrancisco to Denver, (see “Rocky MountainHigh”, GW Sept/Oct 2002). But, it was theabandoned section I was curious to explore.

The climb to engineering historySo, early next morning, I took off with Mark’ssketch map, not unlike those in old piratestories where “X” marks the treasure. After agorgeous drive along the north side of DonnerLake, I started to climb, through switchbacks,leaving most of the pine trees behind and nowstaring at huge rugged granite rocks – aclimber’s paradise. I found “X” a little furtheron by a lay-by, left the car, carrying trusty GPS,camera, torch, and water bottle, andscrambled up the weathered granite, partlycovered by inhospitable low-level brush,towards the first historical landmark – the twoChinese Walls. The 75’ high lower wallsupports the railroad grade built to fill theravine between what were known as tunnels#7 and #8. The upper wall can be seen abovethe western portal of tunnel #8. At somepoint, SPRR removed the top of tunnel #7 onlyto discover that it needed to be covered againto keep the tracks clear of snow. So, aconcrete snow shed was constructed.

A small tunnel under the railroad – part ofthe old road, opened in 1914 – allowed meaccess to the original railroad bed atop thelower Chinese wall, at the 7000’ level. All railsand railroad ties (sleepers in English!) had beenremoved – not unusual for abandonments. Theview all around is breathtaking, and the air isclear. The Chinese Wall is a remarkable piece of

Irecently bumped into writer and historian,Mark McLaughlin, four years after I’d last methim, again while enjoying a few days in the

high Sierras at Squaw Valley. Mark had givenme ideas for a piece in Overcurrents whichbecame “Camelboys and Indians” (July/Aug2006). I’ve been going up there, on and off, forthe last 33 years, so you’d think I’d seeneverything there was to see in the area. But,when Mark asked if I’d ever hiked/driven the oldDonner Pass road and railroad with itsfascinating history, I confessed with someembarrassment that I hadn’t. However, if Markrecommended it I knew it would be well wortha visit.

Setting the sceneDriving up to the northern Sierras and LakeTahoe, one usually takes Interstate Highway80 (I-80) from San Francisco, branching off atTruckee. I-80 continues on to Salt Lake City,Cheyenne, and eventually Chicago. Part of theUSA’s great interstate highway system, it waschampioned by President Dwight DEisenhower in the mid-1950s. Beforedescending into Truckee one climbs up overDonner Pass (elev.7085 feet) on what is mostlya divided four-lane highway, and occasionallysix-lane. However, the original winding road –

Those old timesurveyors knewwhat they weredoing when theyrecced for thetranscontinental railline through theSierras, explainsNick Day, afterhe’d hiked the oldDonner Pass road.

Routing the high SierrasBy Nick Day

Above: Rainbow Bridge and Donner Lake. I-80can be seen top left; railroad is off photo to the

right.Right: a rock climber looks into the abyss.

Below: Looking south at lower Chinese Wall.Upper wall is top left.

Overcurrents


wagon party of 50 men, women, and childrenfrom Council Bluffs, Iowa, across this rocky pass,blazing the first emigrant trail. Nearly 300,000people crossed the Sierra Nevada during thiscovered wagon movement, including the ill-fated Donner Party in 1846-47. Briefly, 33people set out in nine covered wagons, whichlater swelled to 87 with 23 wagons, but theyencountered one of the most vicious winterstorms ever. To give you a flavour, winterweather in Donner Pass can be brutal. With anaverage of 415 inches a year, it’s one of thesnowiest places in the USA. Wind gusts in thepass often exceed 100 mph during winterstorms, and temperatures can sink to –45°F. Theparty split into three groups, taking differentroutes. They killed their oxen for food assupplies ran out, some resorting to cannibalismto survive. Forty-eight made it, 39 died.

Incorporating portions of the emigrant trail,the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road(DFDLWR) was completed in 1864, openingthe area to permanent settlement. In 1861,the State of California allowed DFDLWR tocollect road tolls for ten years. Toll trafficbegan in 1864 and between then and 1868 itwas so profitable that its owners could use theprofits to support railroad construction. Thesurveyors had already chosen the best path inthe narrow Truckee River Canyon, so work gotunderway. The California Surveyor Generaldidn’t contract with surveyors in the early1860s to locate section lines, and the onlymaps that existed in 1861 showed only theold road, with minimal references—just riversand peaks, etc. Better mapping didn’t comeuntil the mid-1860s, when additional trails,wagon roads, logging roads, and flumes, etcwere built. Once the railroad was built, freightand passengers to Reno could move faster,cheaper, and in greater comfort, so for thenext 40 years the road was little used andmaintenance neglected.

Formed by the “Big Four” in 1861, theCPRR became the western portion of the FirstTranscontinental Railroad in North America.The four pioneering entrepreneurs were: MarkHopkins (famous hotel in San Francisco namedafter him), Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford

work, all dry stone local granite; no cement. Iheaded east through tunnel #8, high withminimal concrete lining, and sporting aninteresting and esoteric assortment of graffiti inthe Banksy genre. Further into the tunnel itstarted getting almost too dark to see before afew rays of sun came streaming through whatmust have been an old emergency exit upahead. Piled up just outside the exit, and beforea precipitous drop-off into the canyon below,were an assortment of ties, rails, and otherequipment. Turning around I then walked westthrough tunnel #7, also amply adorned withgraffiti. Soon after exiting that one I enteredthe pièce de résistance – Tunnel #6.

Great Summit Tunnel of the Sierra NevadaThe 1659-foot long summit tunnel (#6) tookover 15 months of Chinese blood, toil, tears,and sweat to build. They painstakingly handdrilled, then blasted, the granite rock withblack powder and newly inventednitroglycerine. A vertical shaft, that took 85days to complete, allowed tunnel constructionto proceed from the centre as well as from theportals. The most difficult obstacle facing theCentral Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was overcomewhen this tunnel was completed in August1867. The first passenger train passed throughthe tunnel on June 18, 1868, the last in 1993.

Exiting the west portal, after a somewhatdark walk, with water dripping on my headfrom the tunnel roof, I passed under the newroad to Sugar Bowl ski resort and the meadowbeyond where the railroad re-route starts. Onthe way back, this time above ground, I found asign marking the old Emigrant Trail, Indianpetroglyphs, and an adit for the tunnel’s verticalshaft, now sealed by a heavy metal plate. Hikingback to the car, this time down the old DonnerPass road (Hwy 40), took me over the gracefulRainbow Bridge (N39° 19’ 10.7”, W120° 19’08.7”), with stunning views over the lake.

Historical backgroundFor those driving effortlessly today across theSierras from Nevada and other points east, orflying into San Francisco from Europe, it mightbe difficult to imagine the incredible hardshipsendured by the early emigrants as they clawedtheir way over seemingly impenetrable terrainin their wagon trains, paving the way forroads and railroads, and the opening up ofCalifornia. The order of conquering theelements was first on foot, then by wagon,next by train, and finally by automobile. It’sone amazing story!

Long before its “discovery” by Euro-Americans, the Washoe Indians trekked overDonner Pass from their Great Basin home en-route to the foothills of California, to gatheracorns and to trade. They brought items suchas salt, obsidian, rabbit skins and pine nuts totrade with the Californian Indians for otherfood items, animal skins and seashells.

Then, in 1844, Elisha Stephens led the first

Theypainstakinglyhand drilled, thenblasted, thegranite rock withblack powder andnewly inventednitroglycerine.

‘‘

’’

Above: The concrete wall lining hasproved too tempting for graffitiartists.Left: Inside tunnel 7; note the baregranite walls.

Overcurrents


Route considerationsIn July 1865, Leland Stanford wrote to George EGray, chief engineer for the New York CentralRailroad, asking him to evaluate the workalready completed and the proposed alignment.Three weeks later Gray had already walked theroute, checked the maps, and provided athorough report back to Stanford. He comparedthe two surveyed routes of S.S. Montague, Esqand T.D Judah Esq. Judah was chief surveyor forCPRR and only 37 when he died in 1863;perhaps testimony to the harsh life of a surveyorthen. While complimentary of large portions ofthe work, Gray noted that Montague’salignment was superior in every respect,reducing the number of tunnels, lessening steepgrades, shortening the overall alignment, andcutting construction costs considerably. It shouldbe pointed out that Judah did the initial hardwork, Montague the refinement. It all points to amaxim drilled into every self-respecting surveyorat an early age, and a perennial exam question –“Time spent in recce is seldom wasted. Discuss!”

The railroad is now owned by Union Pacific,who in late 2009 opened the new Donner Passtunnel to double-stack intermodal containerfreight traffic. This, and other upgrades allowsthem to operate up to 9,000-foot long trains,thereby taking up to 300 lorries off America’scongested highways, cutting repair costs, andreducing greenhouse gas emissions.

(Stanford University), and Charles Crocker.Crocker became the construction chief, andwent on later to found Crocker Bank in SanFrancisco, swallowed up in 1986 by WellsFargo. It was Crocker who contracted for aworkforce of about 12,000 Chinese labourersto push the CPRR tracks over its Trans-Sierracrossing on the race eastwards to meet withUnion Pacific at Promontory, Utah. From 1866to 1868, the Chinese, and thousands of otherlabourers, drilled and blasted through granitecliffs, making way for the railroad. Theconstruction of four tunnels, several miles ofsnow sheds, and the two Chinese Walls,necessary to breach Donner Summit,constituted by far the most difficultengineering and construction challenge of theentire original Sacramento to Ogden CPRRroute. Because of this link, travelling acrossthe nation became comparatively quick andeasy. The CPRR then lured more than justemigrants out west, marking the beginningsof the tourist economy.

By 1909, motorists were ascending DonnerPass via a primitive unpaved road. In 1913,this Sierra route was incorporated into theLincoln Highway – the first driving routelinking the east and west coasts. This sectionwas replaced by Highway 40 in 1926, andserved as the major driving route over DonnerPass until I-80 was completed in 1964.

Nick Day, FRICS, FRGS, PLS,is retired from the CaliforniaDepartment ofTransportation (Caltrans).He can be reached [email protected]

. . . it does pointto a maxim drilledinto every self-respectingsurveyor at anearly age. . .

‘‘

’’About the author

Downundercurrents


to Norfolk Island again in July it wasimpossible to resist. Kerima-Gae and I spent abrilliant week attending the ProfessionalHistorians Association Conference on thisidyllic part of the world. Emphasis was puton the significant contribution of convicts toAustralia’s development and the earliersettlements on Norfolk. How opportune thisvisit was, as the nomination to include 11Australian convict sites on the UNESCOWorld Heritage List was approved on 31 July,with one of them being the Kingston andArthur’s Vale Heritage Area of Norfolk Island.What a brilliant result for all sites concernedfor what all of we Australians would declareto be a most astute bit of judging by thepanel of world experts who gave theaffirmative nod.

Whilst on the island we were treated likeroyalty being privileged to be hosted by theAdministrator Owen Walsh and his wife Biancato a reception in the eminently historicGovernment House. The various presentationswere excellent with one particular topic by TimSmith, which illustrated the discovery of theAustralian submarine AE-2 in the Dardanelles,being amazing. This sub had been lying at thebottom of the Sea of Marmara since it wassunk during the Allied landing at Gallipoli in1915. Tim also showed the other manyremains of this legendary battleground fromWorld War One with archival images from thetime of the conflict to compare with thosewhich his team has now rediscovered. Manythanks are extended to resident custodians ofthis jewel of the Pacific especially its veryproud and most knowledgeable chief ministerThe Honorable David Buffet who greeted us tohis island with the warmest hospitality.

Colonial Surveyor book launchOn Wednesday 27 July I attended the booklaunch of Frederick Robert D’Arcy – ColonialSurveyor, Explorer and Artist c.1809-1875 byhis descendant Andy Macqueen. A full houseat the office of the Institution of SurveyorsNSW Inc. listened to the NSW surveyor-generalWarwick Watkins précis the book as helaunched it. The author is a great guy and veryproud of his demonstrably difficult-to-controlancestor for whom his brilliantly producedbiography is a snapshot of life for theenduring surveyors who worked under thesomewhat tyrannical NSW surveyor-generalMajor Thomas Mitchell.

Trying to come to grips with the fifthsuccessive loss of the State of Origin RugbyLeague series by New South Wales, I was

able to immerse myself in other activities likegiving talks on the naming of Australia, theGreat Zig Zag Railway and the Ancient Wondersof the Holy Land plus tours to many interestingplaces.

Sydney sandstone tourWe joined the Historic Houses Trust tour ofsandstone buildings Sydney Mint (1816),Sydney Hospital (1880’s), as well as colonialstone quarries from where the high qualitySydney Sandstone was extracted to create themonumental fabric of Sydney’s earliest edifices.

We were also privileged to have a guidedinspection of the Heritage Services Stone Yardin Sydney, where I was most fortunate to meetthe sculptor of the James Meehan statue, PaulThurloe, who is making the final carving ofthis brilliant tribute to one of our earliest Irishcolonial surveyors who was transported for 14years to New South Wales (NSW) in 1800 forhis allegiance to Irish Republicanism.

Surveyor-General Twynam grave restoredThe Seniors Group of the Institution ofSurveyors NSW Inc. performed a jointrestoration of the grave of the NSW chiefsurveyor Edward Twynam (1832-1923) in

Goulburn Cemetery with theNSW Department of Lands.Joined by four descendants ofTwynam, Audrey Horn, hersons Stephen and Mark andgranddaughter Emily RoseHorn, an accompanyingplaque was dedicated onThursday 1 July in thepresence of current NSW chiefsurveyor Paul Harcombe.National Trust property“Riversdale”, which wasowned by the Twynam familyin the late 1800’s, was thenthe venue for sumptuousrefreshments in a most historichomestead of a formerrenowned NSW chief surveyor(1888-1901).

Norfolk Island snap visitWhen a bargain last minuteopportunity popped up to go

While NSW’ssurveyor-generalsare revered,Australia’s convictsare ahead onUNESCO’s WorldHeritage list,explains our down-under columnist.

NSW surveyor-generals and convictshonoured plus a snap visit to Norfolk IslandBy John Brock

Below: Sculptor PaulThurloe with hismonumental statue ofJames Meehan.

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Intergeo launchesWatch out for a number ofsignificant launches at Intergeo,which we will report on in thenext issue of GW. In themeantime expect a major newproduct from Leica Geosystemsas well as Faro, which theydescribe as “a revolutionary 3Dlaser scanner technology”. Intergeois held in Köln, 5-7 October.

New software formobile mappersSpatial Factory is a new softwarefrom Topcon that allows users of

the IP-S2 3D mobile mappingsystem to easily work with thecombination of point cloud,trajectory and panoramic imagedata that the system captures.The IP-S2 system incorporateshigh-precision GNSS receivers,IMU (inertial measurement unit),vehicle wheel encoders, 360°digital camera and laserscanners. It is designed so userscan collect precise vehicleposition/bearing data andcapture spherical imagery ofroadside objects such assidewalks, buildings, tunnels,

bridges and overpasses, whiledriving the system-mountedvehicle at normal traffic speeds.

IP-S2 data can be viewed inSpatial Factory on a backgroundmap, in 3D or in a panoramicview of images overlaying pointcloud data. Control pointregistration can be achieved toincrease the accuracy of collecteddata over long distances. Marble’sGeographic Calculator is bundledwith the software to help withcoordinate transformations sodistances between features caneasily be measured and featuresand attributes can be extractedand exported into shapefile orASCII formats in variouscoordinate systems.

Spatial Factory software alsosupports the import of shapefilesfrom existing geodatabases andthe import and export ofcollected point cloud data to CSVand LAS formats. Trajectoryinformation can be exported toKML for use in Google Earth,GML, a portable file format forgraphs and ASCII.

GeoMax’s Zoomtotal stationsHexagon owned companyGeoMax has launched theGeoMax Zoom30 and Zoom20total station series. Designed inSwitzerland the GeoMax Zoom30and Zoom20 series come withreflectorless measurementtechnology measuring up to 600metres, integrated Bluetooth, USBport, up to 36 hour operationtime with one Li-ion battery,operating temperature down to -30°C. The Zoom30 hasquadruple-axis compensation forangle measurements of up to 2”accuracy while the Zoom20 hasshorter reflectorless EDM range.

Plug & play GNSS The new Leica GR10 GNSSreceiver offers a streamlinedplug-and-play workflow. The set-up uses a unique receiverhostname and DHCP supportmeans no pre-configuration ofthe IP address. The web interfacemakes configuration easy,reducing time and trainingrequirements. Key statusinformation including the“unique event” log is availableon every page. System monitortools, system back-up andrestore, configuration wizardsand comprehensive online help,tool tips and multiple languagesupport make the GR10 easy tomanage and maintain.

Side scan sonar intowfishThe Sonar 2094 Digital is thelatest towfish side-scan sonar fromGeoAcoustics. The unit hassimultaneous dual-frequency, 114kHz and 410 kHz; 24-bit dataacquisition; extended rangeperformance through 20 MHz rawdata sampling and dynamic digitalfiltering techniques and very longcable operation. Sonar 2094Digital incorporates theestablished 159D towfish design,which now has fully digitalelectronics, supported by a widebandwidth link to a newtransceiver deck unit incorporatinga Windows PC. The towfish can besupplied with GPS interface,attitude and/or depth sensorsoptions as well as an RS232channel for a magnetometerinterface. Its standard depth ratingis 1000 m with a 2000 m ratedtowfish available.

Power to the machinesTwo new versions of Leica’s

3D data capture in a pod Trimble has launched the MX8 Mobile Spatial Imaging System, an advanced mobile data capturesystem that combines imaging and laser scanning to measure objects in 3D to produce 3D, 4Dand 5D (sic) datasets. The system is ideal for as-built modelling, inventory, inspection,encroachment analysis, and asset management of infrastructure.

‘Mobile mapping users are seeking answers to the persistent problems of under-utilised systemsand low productivity,’ said Ken Spratlin, general manager of Trimble’s GeoSpatial Division.Integrating imaging and laser scanning with GNSS plus inertial positioning, the MX8 collects datafast and accurately. Featuring a pod-type design, it is easily redeployed and installed on a varietyof vehicles as project demands change. A scalable system configuration and sensor upgradeoptions allow owners to address evolving needs. The system operates at highway speeds andcombined with Trimble Trident Analyst for Spatial Imaging software, automated extraction of roadsigns, road geometry, break lines and lane markings is possible.

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machine control systems havebeen announced. PowerDigger 2Dallows the machine to work onmultiple elevation and slopes atany orientation. There is also afeature to maintain verticality fordrilling applications and“PowerSnap” enables easytransfer from machine to machine.

Meanwhile, PowerDigger Liteis an entry-level guidance system.A control panel features a fullcolour graphical display with anintuitive interface. Both systemscan be interfaced with Leica’sEZiDIG cable sensor that gives anaudible warning to the operatorwhen a cable is detected.

BRIEFSLeica has updated its GNSSreference station software,SpiderQC. Version 4.0 supportsQC and data analysis of Galileoand Giove data as well as GPSand Glonass. The software alsosupports other sensors like theLeica Nivel200 inclination sensor.

3D Laser Mapping’sStreetMapper system is nowavailable in four different

configurations including a fullyportable system that can bechecked in as standard luggageat airports. Other versionsinclude a “Pod” version with anIP65 environmental protectionrating. A new rotating sensormounting has also been addedto improve coverage fromsingle-scanner systems.

Scene 4.7 is the latest version ofFaro’s software for its laserscanners. Using 64-bitarchitecture, the version includesa native one-click web sharingfunction. Other features include“Documentation” object thatallows users to mark points ofinterest within the point cloud,adding comments and attachingother documentation if needed.

POS LV V5 is the latest versionof Applanix’s positioning andorientation system for landvehicles. The system includesan inertial measurement unit,Trimble GNSS receiver, wheel-mounted distancemeasurement unit and a GPSazimuth measurement system.

Leica has announced CloudWorx-VR for 3ds Max, 3ds Max design,and Maya. The plug-ins provide a convenient way to create morephotorealistic and compelling models, renderings, and animationsbased on rich, high-definition survey data collected by 3D laserscanners. The plug-ins provide more efficient processing of pointclouds for multi-media applications.

Dr-Ing Christian Hesse of Dr Hesse und Partner Ingenieure,Germany reports, ‘We were impressed by point cloud animationsof an historic ship that we saw at the 2009 Leica Geosystems HDSWorldwide User Conference in San Ramon, CA, and discussed thepoint cloud plug-in for 3ds approach with the presenter. We’vesince changed over from another vendor’s software to deploy thistechnology and we have been very pleased to quickly expand ourbusiness into this exciting area with excellent results.’

CloudWorx plug-in helps engineers

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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX12d p.373D Laser Mapping p.18 FOIF p.39Intergeo p.31Korec p.07 Latimer CAD p.22Leica Geosystems p.23 Portable Power Technology p.26 Positioning Resources p.29SCCS backcoverSurvey Review p.34Topcon Europe inside frontcover Trimble p.04

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