Clark Labs at Clark University Strengthens Collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Society

Clark Labs at Clark University has teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to provide a research seminar geared specifically for real-world conservation projects. The seminar, entitled “Wildlife Conservation Research Seminar,” will explore various remote sensing techniques and spatial analytical tools for different patterns of environmental degradation in different landscapes. The four landscape areas to be explored are all locations that WCS has been working on with local partners: South American Flamingo Habitat, Western Madagascar, Adirondack State Park, and Mongolian Grassland.

This relationship will contribute to Clark University’s newly launched Liberal Education and Effective Practice [LEEP] initiative. Clark University is committed to helping students make the link between knowledge and action more explicit, thereby preparing them to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

This Wildlife Conservation Research Seminar provides invaluable applied research experience. Not only will the students gain an education in GIS, remote sensing and conservation practices, they will also be provided with a skillset for the real world, including project management, professional presentations and networking.

The use of remote sensing for conservation purposes is on the rise. Clark Labs’ IDRISI Selva software will be utilized for these projects. Students will explore the analytical potential of both the Earth Trends Modeler and Land Change Modeler applications integrated within IDRISI. The Land Change Modeler was purpose-built for land change and its impacts on conservation and biodiversity, while the Earth Trends Modeler facilitates the analysis of changes over time in image time series.

Students will work in small groups on collaborative conservation projects for four distinct regions: Madagascar, South America, New York State and Mongolia. Each of these projects has specific conservation challenges. Specifically, the students will study general landscape dynamics including land cover change, interannual variations in productivity, soil erosion, coastal sedimentation, and localized habitat changes.

Clark Labs and the Wildlife Conservation Society have had a long-standing relationship and have collaborated on several projects. This new endeavor will expose Clark University students to the real challenges that conservation organizations such as WCS manage and monitor on a daily basis.

Clark Labs is based within the world-renowned Graduate School of Geography at Clark University and is the developer of the IDRISI Selva geospatial software for monitoring and modeling the Earth system.

Providence GIS Solutions Announces Partnership with Topcon Positioning Systems

Flagship Enterprise Center client, Providence GIS Solutions, has signed on as a GIS Software Integrator for Topcon Positioning Systems. Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) is the global leader in the development and manufacturing of precision positioning equipment. The company offers the largest selection of innovative precision GPS and GNSS systems, commercial lasers, optical instruments for surveying and civil engineering applications, machine control, and agricultural products.

Providence GIS Solutions as a GIS Software Integrator will be able to integrate software and resell software, while working with TPS to develop GIS software to meet the needs of the TPS customers.

Jason Tuck, Founder and CEO of Providence GIS Solutions said, “This is a big deal for Providence GIS Solutions. We desire to meet the GIS and GPS needs of our clients. This is one more avenue where we can benefit our clients. Topcon has proven the willingness and desire to put their customers first with solutions which make sense and are cost beneficial to the customer. There is a great support network for the Topcon product which we are extremely excited about as well.” Tuck explained that Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are just one vital layer to a Geographical Information System. GPS aids in the accuracy and collection of data for all industries. GPS also allows for the increased efficiency of work flows inside of an organization. This lowers the cost for purchasers of TPS units.

Adam Hoeksema, Client Services Manager at the Flagship Enterprise Center said, “Again we are excited to see Providence expand their product and service offerings through strategic partnerships. It is great for our state and our community to have an emerging GIS startup that has the opportunity to take part in the explosive growth coming to the smart grid industry.”

Providence GIS Solutions is a full service GIS Consulting firm focused on providing the expertise required to design and maintain effective and cost efficient Geographic Information System (GIS) solutions to electrical utilities.

Located at Exit 22 on I-69, the Flagship Enterprise Center is a new-business incubator and growth-stage business accelerator. The FEC is the result of a partnership between Anderson University and the City of Anderson, and has been instrumental in the launching of over 60 companies with the creation of some 1500 jobs since its inception in 2005. For more information on the FEC, contact Adam Hoeksema at (765) 622-7960 or visit the FEC website at www.flagshipenterprise.org

Providence is a leading provider of Geographic Information System (GIS) services for the electrical utilities. Providence is here to provide a cost efficient GIS solution for electrical utilities.

Numerex Announces New Flexible Location-Based Services Platform

Atlanta - April 5, 2012 - Numerex Corp, a leading single source provider of secure machine-to-machine (M2M) products and services, today unveiled its new Location-Based Services (LBS) platform, which provides enterprises with secure, scalable solutions for monitoring, tracking and recovering a wide variety of mobile assets.

This new platform addresses the needs of agriculture, transportation, construction and many other industries seeking to rapidly implement cost-effective tracking and monitoring solutions for mobile or semi-mobile assets. Numerex's LBS platform provides asset visibility and control from one easy-to-use, multilingual, web-based portal. It supports highly configurable applications, integrating to several long-life battery- and vehicle-powered M2M devices connected through both cellular and satellite networks.

Numerex platform users benefit from key features such as:

"Slap and Map" Simplicity: Tracking devices can be installed, activated and visible on a mapping application in minutes.
Satellite and Cellular Options: Connectivity is tailored to meet budget and geographic needs.
Motion Alert: User knows when the asset goes in motion, and can track its movement.
"Knowing where mobile assets are at any point in time, and when they move unexpectedly, is a top-of-mind issue across a number of industries. The cost of setting up and deploying a solution requiring cellular or satellite coverage used to break the business model except for very high value assets. With our new LBS platform users can show a return on investment even for assets worth only a few thousand dollars. Numerex is opening a new segment of the market with a horizontal platform approach, making economical solutions available for a broad array of needs and markets - from tracking a shipping container, to a construction site generator, to a snowmobile trailer, to almost anything," said Darren Koenig, vice president of marketing and products at Numerex.

Built on Numerex FAST® - the company's horizontal service delivery platform which includes Network as a Service (Numerex NaaS™) managing disparate wireless connectivity options; Platform as a Service (Numerex PaaS™) enabling data consolidation, manipulation, and delivery; and Software as a Service (Numerex SaaS™) providing intelligent, web-based applications – this LBS Platform enables enterprises to add new capabilities to their existing infrastructure quickly and efficiently.

As a single source provider for M2M solutions, Numerex can manage the entire process from development through deployment, allowing customers to focus on their core business. In addition to its robust platform and connectivity infrastructure, Numerex provides end-to-end support including application development, integration and implementation. Customers benefit from flow-through account management, 24/7 call-center support, and dedicated project launch resources to ensure smooth deployments and overall reliability.

Numerex Corp (NASDAQ: NMRX) is a leading provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) business services, technology, and products used in the development and support of M2M solutions for the enterprise and government markets worldwide. The Company offers Numerex DNA® that includes hardware and smart Devices, cellular and satellite Network services, and software Applications that are delivered through Numerex FAST® (Foundation Application Software Technology). Customers typically subscribe to device management, network, and application services through hosted platforms. Business services enable the development of efficient, reliable, and secure solutions while simplifying and speeding up deployment through streamlined processes and comprehensive integration services. Numerex is ISO 27001 information security-certified. "Machines Trust Us®" represents the Company's focus on M2M data security, service reliability, and round-the-clock support of its customers' M2M solutions. For additional information, please visit www.numerex.com.

Geosparc Launches Online Store for webGIS Software Geomajas

Geosparc, the company professionally supporting the open source webGISsoftware Geomajas, is pleased to announce its online store for products and services related to the software.The online store is set up to make it easier for software developers of web- and cloud-based GIS applications tobuy off the shelf, fully tested and supported products enabling them to get to work more quickly and efficiently.The online store currently offers 12 products including Developer Licenses, Developer Support Packs andCommercial Licenses for Geomajas.

The Developer Licenses temporarily free the developers of Geomajas based webGIS applications from complying with AGPL terms & conditions. This enables them to work, during the course of a project, on a demo, proof of concept, development or testing of the application without having to share or release the software code.

The purpose of the Commercial Licenses is to enable developers to embed the Geomajas technology into their own software solutions and to be able to resell them to other parties or, for end-users, to use the technology in a closed environment.

Developer Support Packs are aimed towards webGIS developers that are looking for professional support for technical matters during development and/or when bringing an GIS application into production at the customer’s site.

Geomajas is the open source client-server webGIS and cloudGIS software framework enabling developers to build complete GIS solutions. The software, which seamlessly integrates a powerful server into the web-browser, enables users to share, edit and update in a secure way geospatial data. What makes Geomajas unique is its strong server side focus. The processing, styling, filtering, caching etc. of geo-data always happens within a secure context. This all makes Geomajas applications scalable and performing, keeping the thin client a real thin client. Geomajas is developed, tested and supported by a team of professionals at Geosparc while also being an open source community project.

Geosparc is the company professionally supporting the open source webGIS software Geomajas, coupling the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class application framework. Geomajas was built with today’s Internet and cloud architectures in mind. The software seamlessly integrates a powerful server into the web-browser enabling users to share, edit and update in a secure way geospatial data. Geomajas has a unique and strong server side focus making its applications scalable, performing and secure. All this truly differentiates Geomajas from other GIS software. The open source model furthermore enables Geosparc to use best-of-breed open source technologies and contributions from the open source community to get higher quality software produced more quickly at much lower cost. Geosparc’s goal is to not only provide an open source offering but to complement it with professional services and offerings such as service level agreements, commercial licenses, project development support, consulting services, training services and support services for configuration and implementation.

Safe Software Commences International Tour to Introduce Latest Version of FME

Vancouver, BC - Safe Software, the global pioneer and leader in spatial data transformation, kicks off its FME 2012 World Tour on April 4th in Paris, France, and continues on to 30+ cities worldwide. The series of free, one-day events aims to educate and empower users by introducing the advancements in FME 2012, and by providing them with the opportunity to further develop their FME skills through technical sessions and interaction with FME experts and fellow users.

Attendees of FME 2012 World Tour events will discover how the new capabilities of FME 2012, such as real time data delivery, enhance the user experience by providing faster and simpler ways to use and share their spatial data. The events will feature how-to and best practice sessions that will allow participants to build upon their FME skills.
The tour will have an interactive element, giving attendees access to assistance from FME Certified Professionals, as well as a platform to network with FME users from other organizations.

“As a company we are committed to equipping our clients with the skills they need to use FME to overcome data challenges,” says Dale Lutz, Vice-President of Development at Safe Software. “FME 2012 features usability enhancements, speed improvements, and real time data delivery to enable more efficient data transformation and easier sharing of the most up-to-date data.”

Those unable to attend an event in person can sign up to participate in an interactive live stream of the FME User Meeting being held in Vancouver on April 27th, where they can watch the presentations and ask questions directly. The FME 2011 World Tour held a similar live stream event that was well received by participants.

The theme of the tour centers around attendees joining Geography Jones, a data adventurer, on a journey to overcome spatial data interoperability obstacles and unleash the power within their “Temple of Data”.

The tour appears in 17 cities across North America and will touch down in close to 20 locations throughout South America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The events are free and are open to both current FME users and those interested in learning more about FME technology. Those interested in more information on locations, dates and registration are directed to www.safe.com/WorldTour2012

Safe Software is the maker of FME and the pioneering global leader in spatial data transformation technology. FME empowers users to confidently transform spatial data so it can be used and shared - where, when and how it's needed. Available in seven languages, FME's unmatched transformation capabilities and support for 275+ spatial and non-spatial formats enables you to quickly overcome data challenges so you can focus on your objectives. Discover why organizations and leading vendors worldwide rely on FME to quickly overcome barriers to using and sharing spatial data. Visit www.safe.com

Western University Professor Recognized for Creating Children's Health Atlas

Esri Canada today presented an Award of Excellence to Dr. Jason Gilliland, a professor at Western University and a scientist for the Children's Health Research Institute, for his outstanding application of geographic information system (GIS) technology to help improve children's health in Southwestern Ontario. Dr. Gilliland led a multidisciplinary team in a research study of environmental factors affecting children's health in the region. The results have been compiled into “Opportunities for Healthy Living in Southwestern Ontario: A Focus on Children's Environments, First Edition,” a 400+-page atlas that will be used by local planners and public health agencies to improve children's health and well-being. The project was commissioned by the Children's Health Research Institute and funded by the Green Shield Canada Foundation and the Children's Health Foundation.

“Our environment and the way we build our communities have a significant impact on our health,” says Alex Miller, president, Esri Canada. “Dr. Gilliland's research project is an excellent example of geomedicine, which delivers a new type of medical intelligence by combining environmental and health information. The atlas his team produced will help advance children's health in Southwestern Ontario by providing better guidance on the development and delivery of quality health services.”

“In managing population health, where people live matters,” says Dr. Gilliland. “Public health professionals are beginning to understand the importance of geography and geographic analysis to inform decision-making, and this type of analysis can only be done with GIS. It allows us to easily integrate and visualize vast amounts of data to determine the link between children's health issues, such as asthma and obesity, and their environment, resources and accessible services. The atlas provides a preliminary body of research that can be used for future studies of numerous health issues.”

Dr. Gilliland and his team used Esri's ArcGIS 10 technology to map the distribution of child populations and environmental features in the region. They combined hundreds of datasets including socio-demographics and environmental data associated with children's health and well-being. The geographic data on People, Places and Patterns represented in the atlas is also being integrated in the lab with millions of records on children's health and health-related behaviours.

Several ArcGIS extensions were used to conduct various types of analysis and study spatial trends and patterns over a large territory. The system allowed them to raise and test hypotheses on the fly and zoom in and out of a particular area on the map, leading to more advanced analyses. They studied numerous factors affecting children's health including access to parks & recreational facilities, healthy eating places and schools, and the walkability of neighbourhoods. They were also able to identify “food deserts”, disadvantaged areas in the region with limited access to food or services.

The atlas is being used to develop several scientific journal articles. It is also serving as the foundation for new projects funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The maps will be distributed to local health practitioners, researchers and municipalities in Southwestern Ontario via a new Web site being developed. The atlas will be frequently updated as new data and research becomes available. Dr. Gilliland's team is also doing related mapping work in cooperation with several local municipalities, health units, and the Children's Hospital of Southwestern Ontario, including tracking the health of 1,200 children in the region using GPS technology.

Biography: Professor Jason Gilliland

Jason Gilliland is Director of the Urban Development Program, and Associate Professor of Geography, Health Sciences, and Paediatrics at Western University. He is also a Scientist with both the Children's Health Research Institute and the Lawson Health Research Institute. He is a regular consultant for municipal and provincial departments of planning, transportation, housing, children's services, food & agriculture, and public health, as well as an active volunteer, currently serving on nearly two dozen boards and committees of non-profit organizations. Dr. Gilliland is widely recognized for his efforts to improve children's health and quality of life, and in 2009, received the Julian M. Szeicz Award from the Canadian Association of Geographers for outstanding achievement by an early career scholar for his contribution to the geography of children in the city. He holds a BA in Geography from McMaster University, as well as a Master of Arts, Master of Architecture and Doctorate in Geography from McGill University.

Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography.  The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from Esri, Telvent, Cityworks – Azteca Systems, Inc. and other technology partners.  Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada and has been named as one of the top 250 Canadian IT companies and top 25 IT professional services providers in Canada by the Branham Group.  Information about Esri Canada can be found at esri.ca.

GEO-12 a ‘Sell out Success’

Geo-12, the UK’s only geospatial trade exhibition, has closed its doors for another year with organisers declaring it a huge success! The exhibition was sold out weeks before the popular event with many first time exhibitors contributing to the show floor buzz together with long term supporters of the event such as FARO, Leica Geosystems, Opti-Cal Survey Equipment and SCCS. Nearly all of the accompanying seminars and workshops were reported as ‘standing room’ only with topics including Building information Management (BIM) and crowd sourcing proving popular. Registrations and attendances were both up on last year and more than 160 guests attended the Gala Dinner sponsored by KOREC and Trimble.

The sell-out GEO-12 exhibition, took place on the 21st and 22nd of March 2012 at the Holiday Inn, London Elstree. Visitor registrations were up more than 20 per cent on last year and well over 500 people were attracted by a delegate package that included free entry, free onsite parking and refreshments, a stimulating programme of free seminars and workshops as well as live product demos. Those lucky enough to have secured a ticket for the event’s sell-out Gala Dinner were treated to a great evening beginning with a drinks reception, four-course dinner and a grand audio-visual presentation from Australian John Brock on “Hollywood Movie Surveyors!”

“Anecdotal feedback suggests that not only was the quantity of visitors an improvement on last year the quality of those attending was also better,” comments Stephen Booth of PV Publications, organisers of the event and publishers of Geomatics World, GIS Professional and Engineering Surveying Showcase. “There was a genuine interest in purchasing and ‘deals were done’ on the show floor. There also appeared to be a real buzz to the whole event reflecting what I believe to be a growing confidence in the UK geomatics sector that has been missing for several years.”

Some initial feedback from those attending Geo-12 included: “… a good show at which we gathered good leads …”, “Thanks a lot for taking good care of us during GEO12. I enjoyed it and it was very useful start in business for us in UK,” and “It was good to meet everyone. Well done for running another successful GEO event.”

“Following on from this year’s success we are already making plans for next year,” continued Booth. “2013 will see not just one GEO event but two; so watch this space for further information.”

The GEO events are designed for everyone involved in the capture and application of geospatial information for construction, civil engineering, development, local / national government agencies, professional survey practice and consultancy. Attracting exhibitors demonstrating the latest technology and developments in the fields of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Satellite Positioning and Navigation systems (GNSS), laser scanning, data modelling and analysis and mapping together with leading trade organisations and academic institutions, GEO events are a ‘must attend’.

SuperGeo to Launch Upgraded SuperGIS Data Management Tools

SuperGeo Technologies, the leading global provider of complete GIS software and solutions, introduces the newest SuperGIS Data Management tools including SuperGIS DataManager 3.1, SuperGIS DataConvertor 3.1, and SuperGIS DataRectifier 3.1. These enhanced SuperGIS Data management tools will be built in SuperGIS Desktop 3.1.

SuperGIS DataManager 3.1 is a map data management tool supporting diverse formats of vector and raster data, such as GEO, SHP, DXF, DWG, DGN, ECW, SID, TIF, JPEG, etc. Featuring improved efficiency of GIS management, SuperGIS DataManager 3.1 enables users to freely copy, preview, and delete the existing layers.

With SuperGIS DataConvertor 3.1, users can convert the vector data or image data into the specified format that is defined by SuperGeo Technologies. In this new version, TIN and NRT formats are increased to support SuperGIS 3D Analyst 3.0 and SuperGIS Network Analyst 3.0 separately.

SuperGIS DataRectifier 3.1 provides vector and image data rectifying functions. Users can apply vector or image layers with correct Geodic Datum values to rectify the data without real coordinate values by 6-parameters conversion method. The new version of SuperGIS DataRectifier 3.1 brings greater stability when processing data rectification.

For manipulation, these new SuperGIS Data Management tools require SuperGIS Desktop 3.1. After completing the installation of SuperGIS Desktop 3.1, users can freely run the features of SuperGIS DataManager 3.1, SuperGIS DataConvertor 3.1 and SuperGIS DataRectifier 3.1.

For more information about SuperGIS Desktop 3.1 , please visit http://www.supergeotek.com/productpage_SG3.aspx

Free trial is available at http://www.supergeotek.com/download_6.aspx

SuperGeo Technologies Inc. is a leading global provider of GIS software and solutions. Since the establishment, SuperGeo has been dedicated to providing state-of-the-art geospatial technologies and comprehensive services for customers around the world. It is our vision to help users utilize geospatial technologies to create a better world.

SuperGeo software and applications have been spread over the world to be the backbone of the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. SuperGeo is the professional GIS vendor, providing GIS-related users with complete GIS solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

LizardTech MrSID Generation 4 Files Now Supported in CartoMobile

LizardTech®,a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, announced the integration of its MrSID® Generation 4 Decode SDK (MG4 DSDK) into ClueTrust’s CartoMobile® version 1.2 for iOS®.

ClueTrust, based in Reston, Va., specializes in developing geospatial tools for the Macintosh and iOS devices. With the integration of LizardTech’s MG4 DSDK, CartoMobile customers will have the ability to easily view their MrSID formatted imagery on their iOS devices such as the iPhone® and the new iPad® without the need for any external conversion prior to loading. Optimized for the retina display of the new iPad, CartoMobile enables users unparalleled access to their high resolution imagery for the most detailed data collection expeditions.

Gaige B. Paulsen, CEO at ClueTrust, anticipates this integration will be very well received by users of CartoMobile. He notes, “As the first mobile GIS vendor to support viewing of MrSID Generation 4 files, we’re thrilled at the opportunity to work with LizardTech to provide broader access to high resolution imagery for iOS users.”

“We’re pleased with this integration as it confirms LizardTech’s commitment to our customers in enabling them to use our product in as many other applications as possible,” said Jon Skiffington, director of product management. “Now CartoMobile users will be able to use MrSID compression to carry imagery of larger areas and at higher resolution in the same space.”

ClueTrust relaunched commercial GIS on the Macintosh in 2009 by releasing Cartographica®, an OS X-native GIS which is available at macgis.com. Cartographica provides extensive import and export, integrated projection management, intuitive exploration, and powerful analysis. In January 2011, ClueTrust brought interactive GIS and geospatial field data entry to the iPhone and iPad with CartoMobile® which is available on the App Store® and is available in English, French, and Spanish. More information about Cartographica and CartoMobile are available at macgis.com.

Since 1992, LizardTech has delivered state-of-the-art software products for managing and distributing massive, high-resolution geospatial data such as aerial and satellite imagery and LiDAR data. LizardTech pioneered the MrSID technology, a powerful wavelet-based image encoder, viewer, and file format. LizardTech has offices in Seattle, Denver, London and Tokyo. For more information about LizardTech, visit www.lizardtech.com.

Avenza® Releases Geographic Imager® 3.5 for Adobe® Photoshop®

Toronto, ON - April 2, 2012 - Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher®cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator®and PDF Maps for Apple iOS, is pleased to announce the release of Geographic Imager 3.5 for Adobe Photoshop. This release is encompasses new support for import and export of spatial imagery formats.

"We're delighted to release Geographic Imager 3.5 with even more format support,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “We've included several new formats to import and export that our users will find very useful. We've also added some priority fixes based on user requests and feedback,” he added.

Additional Geographic Imager 3.5 features

New import support for MrSID/MG4 LiDAR (*.sid) format [raster and LiDAR data (as DTM)].
New export support for ERDAS IMAGINE (*.img) raster format.
Channel management dialog box for easy control of channel mapping and assignment of color roles for false-composite multiband imagery.
More about Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop

Geographic Imager is powerful software for working with spatial imagery in Adobe Photoshop that leverages the superior image editing capabilities of this raster-based image-editing software and transforms it into a powerful spatial imagery editing tool. Work with satellite imagery, aerial photography, orthophotos, and DEMs in GeoTIFF and other major GIS image formats using Adobe Photoshop features such as transparencies, filters, and image adjustments while maintaining georeferencing and support for hundreds of coordinate systems and projections.

Geographic Imager 3.5 is available immediately free of charge to all Geographic Imager Maintenance Program members and at prices starting at US$319 for non-maintenance members. Academic and volume license pricing are also available.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac,  Windows and Apple mobile device users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

Helix S.R.L. Presented SuperWebGIS in the GOES Project at the OPEN DAYS

SuperGeo Technologies, the leading global provider of complete GIS software and solutions announced that Helix S.r.l., SuperGeo’s exclusive reseller in Italy, presented the GOES project at the OPEN DAYS. The project aims to create local networks gathering daily all relevant information about road conditions related to any criticisms and suggestions on alternative routes which are the important sources to prevent any accidental injury while a serious road emergency happened.

The company utilized SuperWebGIS, the Internet map server software, to help organizations deliver dynamic maps and GIS data via the web. The system developed by Helix S.r.l. is primarily to collect and transmit information about natural disasters that may result in negative impact on the feasibility of the roads.

Through accessing the system, it enables users to easily deliver dynamic maps and spatial data and to share geodata with the related staff to accomplish tasks. The grid survey reports are also designed and presented for specific web applications. For example, Grid User Survey Report can show on-time news about Road accident, Fallen trees, and Landslide, etc.

Since the collaboration with SuperGeo, Helix S.r.l. has been marketing SuperGIS to several government agencies and private sectors. Many success stories and sales performance are already seen. Helix S.r.l. team has very high technical ability in GIS applications and customization, and will keep promoting SuperGIS in vast EU market under the professional support from SuperGeo.

SuperGeo Technologies Inc. is a leading global provider of GIS software and solutions. Since the establishment, SuperGeo has dedicated to providing state-of-the-art geospatial technologies and comprehensive services for customers around the world. It is our vision to help users utilize geospatial technologies to create a better world.

SuperGeo software and applications have been spread over the world to be the backbone of the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. SuperGeo is the professional GIS vendor, providing GIS-related users with complete GIS solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

Weyerhaeuser Solutions President to Speak at Esri

Redlands, California - April 02, 2012 - Marvin (Ray) Risco, president, Weyerhaeuser Solutions, Inc., and vice president, Weyerhaeuser Timberlands, will give the keynote presentation at the Esri Forestry GIS Conference at Esri headquarters in Redlands, California, on May 1, 2012.

Notable in the forestry industry for his contribution to global operational management, Risco will talk about how business and technology are changing because of new demands such as renewable energy and conservation. Weyerhaeuser Solutions is modifying business models and some of its tools to adjust to the changes in global trends.

"By taking a holistic approach, foresters can grow their forest-based products to include renewable energy and managing landscapes for water supply and quality," said Risco. "Foresters and land managers are making headway in their understanding of the value and location of these opportunities and sustainably maximizing acre returns. This Forestry GIS Conference is unique because it is specific to GIS and to foresters. I am looking forward to speaking with this important community about helping its executives and investors understand how Weyerhaeuser sees the future and its impact on forestlands and timber assets."

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest forest products companies, has been a longtime Esri customer. It has used ArcGIS for timber operations, land management, the development of its roads network, and forest planning.
Risco has more than two decades of experience operating international businesses in executive, general management, and financial roles. Currently, he is responsible for launching and leading the new Weyerhaeuser Solutions client-facing business focused on proprietary technical timberlands products, forestry consulting, alternative energy supply, implementation, and management services. He was responsible for Weyerhaeuser's international timberlands operations, including strategic direction setting, merger and acquisitions, and managing the international forest products operations. Prior to joining Weyerhaeuser in 1998, Risco worked with ARCO and Gillette in various US and international functions primarily focused in financial leadership roles.

The Esri Forestry GIS Conference will be held May 1–3, 2012. Hosted by the Esri Forestry Group, this conference will give forestry professionals from around the world the opportunity to learn from GIS experts and other foresters how to grow their systems for efficiency, value, and decision making. For more information, visit esri.com/forestry.com.

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news

Old Aerial Photos Provide Crucial Evidence in ‘Village Green’ Dispute

Coalville, Leicestershire, UK - 3 April 2012 - Aerial images dating back more than twenty years have been used to resolve a dispute in the English seaside town of Broadstairs, Kent. Local residents had campaigned to have an area of wooded land close to the cricket club adopted as a village green. However, using aerial photographs from the OldAerialPhotos archive, an experienced photographic interpreter was able to dispute the claim by demonstrating insufficient evidence of use.

Bluesky supplied the accurately dated historic aerial photography from their OldAerialPhotos archive providing factual and unbiased evidence for further investigation by Bud Young of the practice Airphoto Interpretation.

Working on behalf of the owners of the two plots of contended land, Young presented evidence to the Planning Inspector, appointed by Kent County Council, at a Public Inquiry. A Chartered Landscape Architect and photographic interpreter with more than forty years’ experience of land use, Young was able to show, using the historic images, dense unusable woodland on one site and scarce evidence of path lines or other signs of public use that would be exhibited if the claim was valid. Other evidence came from documents and those who claimed to know the site; however invaluable detail was derived from the aerial images.

“By viewing the images in 3D you can get a real view of the past and uncover, or not, evidence to support claims of specific ownership or use,” commented Mr Young. “The Bluesky images are invaluable in cases such as these as they allow me to piece together all available clues without relying on hearsay or potentially biased witness statements. In this case there was simply not enough user evidence to support the claim on the land as a village green and the Inspector ruled in favour of our clients.”

The imagery supplied by Bluesky forms part of historically important archive that includes some of the earliest commercial aerial survey images, military photography from World War II and many national archives. Offering a record of most major UK cities and towns, transport and utility infrastructure and commercial property developments, the images are an invaluable resource for anyone with a personal or professional interest in local studies, genealogy, boundary disputes, environmental land use research or town planning.

Mr Young concluded, “In this instance we were able to secure a positive outcome for our clients using seven sets of photography. Ideally one would wish to find that a site has been photographed every year but that is a rarity though one recent case used 16 year dates most from OldAerialPhotos.”

OldAerialPhotos is a division of Bluesky International Ltd. Holding the largest collection of historically significant commercial aerial photos in the UK, OldAerialPhotos' remit is to preserve, enhance and make these archives available. OldAerialPhotos understands the national importance of such images as a unique record of the development of the UK and has a mission to continue to make them accessible for future generations.

Visitors to www.oldaerialphotos.com can search by simply entering a postcode, address or grid reference. Detailed search results, including the age and ground coverage, of every image that matches the search criteria are displayed and the visitor can choose to purchase a hard copy print, digital image file or photopack which includes historical and current day photos as well as certificates of authentification.

Bluesky is a UK-based specialist in aerial imaging and remote sensing data collection and processing.  An internationally recognised leader with projects extending around the globe, Bluesky is proud to work with prestigious organisations such as Google, the BBC and Government Agencies. Bluesky has unrivalled expertise in the creation of seamless, digital aerial photography, 3D landscape/cityscape visualisations and prints and also runs a national mapping centre, providing digital mapping, satellite imagery and aerial photography including ultra-high resolution imagery of cities and towns.

Airphoto Interpretation is a small, well equipped practice with more than thirty years’ experience in the use of aerial photographs in litigation. With experience of High Court, County Court and planning inquiries, Airphoto Interpretation can provide advice and support in case of adverse possession, boundary disputes, land use and public access claims and other types of land based disputes.

Obama Administration Unveils “Big Data” Initiative: Announces $200 Million in New R&D Investments

Aiming to make the most of the fast-growing volume of digital data, the Obama Administration today announced a “Big Data Research and Development Initiative.” By improving our ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data, the initiative promises to help solve some the Nation’s most pressing challenges.

To launch the initiative, six Federal departments and agencies today announced more than $200 million in new commitments that, together, promise to greatly improve the tools and techniques needed to access, organize, and glean discoveries from huge volumes of digital data.

“In the same way that past Federal investments in information-technology R&D led to dramatic advances in supercomputing and the creation of the Internet, the initiative weare launching today promises to transform our ability to use Big Data for scientific discovery, environmental and biomedical research, education, and national security,” said Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

To make the most of this opportunity, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)—in concert with several Federal departments and agencies—created the Big Data Research and Development Initiative to:

Advance state-of-the-art core technologies needed to collect, store, preserve, manage, analyze, and share huge quantities of data.
Harness these technologies to accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen our national security, and transform teaching and learning; and
Expand the workforce needed to develop and use Big Data technologies.
Today’s initiative responds to recommendations by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which last year concluded that the Federal Government is under-investing in technologies related to Big Data. In response, OSTP launched a Senior Steering Group on Big Data to coordinate and expand the Government’s investments in this critical area. Today’s announcement describes the first wave of agency commitments to support this initiative, including:

National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health - Core Techniques and Technologies for Advancing Big Data Science & Engineering

“Big Data” is a new joint solicitation supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will advance the core scientific and technological means of managing, analyzing, visualizing, and extracting useful information from large and diverse data sets. This will accelerate scientific discovery and lead to new fields of inquiry that would otherwise not be possible. NIH is particularly interested in imaging, molecular, cellular, electrophysiological, chemical, behavioral, epidemiological, clinical, and other data sets related to health and disease.

In addition to its funding of the Big Data solicitation, NSF is also:

Encouraging research universities to develop interdisciplinary graduate programs to prepare the next generation of data scientists and engineers;
Funding a $10 million project based at the University of California, Berkeley, that will integrate three powerful approaches for turning data into information - machine learning, cloud computing, and crowd sourcing;
Providing the first round of grants to support “EarthCube” – a system that will allow geoscientists to access, analyze and share information about our planet;
Issuing a $2 million award for a research training group to support training for undergraduates to use graphical and visualization techniques for complex data.
Providing $1.4 million in support for a focused research group of statisticians and biologists to tell us about protein structures and biological pathways.
Convening researchers across disciplines to determine how Big Data can transform teaching and learning.
Department of Defense – Data to Decisions:

The Department of Defense (DoD) is “placing a big bet on big data” investing $250 million annually (with $60 million available for new research projects) across the Military Departments in a series of programs that will:

Harness and utilize massive data in new ways and bring together sensing, perception and decision support to make truly autonomous systems that can maneuver and make decisions on their own.
Improve situational awareness to help warfighters and analysts and provide increased support to operations. The Department is seeking a 100-fold increase in the ability of analysts to extract information from texts in any language, and a similar increase in the number of objects, activities, and events that an analyst can observe.
To accelerate innovation in Big Data that meets these and other requirements, DoD will announce a series of open prize competitions over the next several months.

In addition, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is beginning the XDATA program, which intends to invest approximately $25 million annually to develop computational techniques and software tools for analyzing large volumes of data, both semi-structured (e.g., tabular, relational, categorical, meta-data) and unstructured (e.g., text documents, message traffic). Central challenges to be addressed include:

Developing scalable algorithms for processing imperfect data in distributed data stores; and
Creating effective human-computer interaction tools for facilitating rapidly customizable visual reasoning for diverse missions.
The XDATA program will support open source software toolkits to enable flexible software development for users to process large volumes of data in timelines commensurate with mission workflows of targeted defense applications.

National Institutes of Health – 1,000 Genomes Project Data Available on Cloud:

The National Institutes of Health is announcing that the world’s largest set of data on human genetic variation – produced by the international 1000 Genomes Project – is now freely available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) computing cloud. At 200 terabytes – the equivalent of 16 million file cabinets filled with text, or more than 30,000 standard DVDs – the current 1000 Genomes Project data set is a prime example of big data, where data sets become so massive that few researchers have the computing power to make best use of them. AWS is hosting the 1000 Genomes Project as a publically available data set for free and researchers only will pay for the computing services that they use.

Department of Energy – Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing:

As part of its Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing program, the Department of Energy will provide $25 million in funding for the Scalable Data Management, Analysis and Visualization Institute. Led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Institute will bring together the expertise of six National Laboratories and seven universities, with the goal of developing new and improved tools to help scientists manage and visualize data. The need for these new tools has grown as the simulations running on the Department of Energy’s supercomputers have increased in size and complexity.

US Geological Survey – Big Data for Earth System Science:

USGS is announcing the latest awardees for grants it issues through its John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis. The Center catalyzes innovative thinking in Earth system science by providing scientists a place and time for in-depth analysis, state-of-the-art computing capabilities, and collaborative tools invaluable for making sense of huge data sets. These Big Data projects will improve our understanding of issues such as species response to climate change, earthquake recurrence rates, and the next generation of ecological indicators.

DigitalGlobe Provides Superior Precision Aerial Imagery for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

DigitalGlobe a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced their agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide statewide Precision Aerial imagery that exceeds the requirements of the Massachusetts state Geographic Information System (MassGIS) Department.

In order to improve response time and preparedness for natural disasters and to enhance information about state geography, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency will use DigitalGlobe's Precision Aerial imagery to create superior baseline maps at a lower cost and higher resolution.

"DigitalGlobe's aerial imagery can be shared across any state agency under this agreement, enhancing its value to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," said Rafay Khan, senior vice president at DigitalGlobe. "Using this model, these images can offer the flexibility to benefit any state government for land management, disaster relief, and zoning and elevation data."

DigitalGlobe's Precision Aerial product offers complete leaf-off coverage, meaning that before the spring leaves arrive, the imagery displays a clear view of buildings, new developments and transportation routes. This off-the-shelf product delivers the most recent imagery with a faster turnaround rate and delivery. These features make procurement easier within the state, speeding the procurement process and lowering the overall cost.

The Precision Aerial product has a 30 cm resolution and 60 cm color infrared aerial mosaics with seamless coverage in the U.S. and Western Europe. Complete coverage of the U.S. will be mapped by June 2012, with additional refreshed coverage over the next few years. It integrates directly into any GIS workflow to provide application-ready imagery with high-resolution and best-in-class accuracy levels. With current, relevant, and broad coverage, Precision Aerial imagery becomes the one-stop-shop for any government agency or enterprise looking to tackle tough issues, from land use and zoning, to transportation and the environment.

DigitalGlobe is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, Internet portals and navigation technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive ImageLibrary (containing more than two billion square kilometers of earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and off-line products and services designed to enable customers to easily access and integrate our imagery into their business operations and applications. For more information, visit www.digitalglobe.com.

GISCI 2012 Poster Contest

The 2nd Annual GISCI Poster Contest is open through April 15, 2012.  Maps should be created from the GISP database available on the GISCI website at http://www.gisci.org/secure/members/directory/results.asp.  A complete set of rules are available at http://www.gisci.org/PDFs/Rules-mapcontest.pdf.

Maps are to be submitted to postercontest@gisci.org.

The GISCI Outreach Committee will choose the top 12 posters.  A panel of preeminent geospatial judges will select the top three winners, and the geospatial public will vote on a People's Choice Award.

Prizes include:

1st $500, 2nd $250, 3rd $100, People’s Choice $500 and Honorable Mentions.
Each winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and People’s Choice) will also have their initial certification fee waived if the application is submitted within one year of the date the winners are announced.  Current GISPs will have their renewal fees waived at their next recertification date.
Map submittal earns / qualifies for 1 point under the Contribution to the Profession category.
All three of last year’s winners have been exhibited at conferences and in poster contests around the country.  Two of last year’s winners have been included in the soon to be published Esri Map Book, earning them points for published maps in the Contribution to the Profession section of the GISP application.

iLOC Announces New TRiLOC™ GPS Locator for Autism and Alzheimer’s

iLOC Technologies Inc. (iLOC) announced today (World Autism Awareness Day) the upcoming launch of its newest product, the TRiLOC™ GPS locator. Over 2 years of research resulted in a unique blend of cellular, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technologies, while maintaining an aesthetic design, simplicity and long battery life. Designed specifically to be wrist worn by individuals with special needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Alzheimer’s disease, the TRiLOC™ GPS Locator can also be used by women in distress, lone workers, cruise ship & theme park patrons and many other applications.

“The reasons for developing the TRiLOC™ GPS Locator resulted mainly from discussions with parents who also have a child with ASD. They often expressed how they couldn’t find a suitable GPS tracking product and described the stress felt every day that their child may become lost, run off or wander, possibly getting injured or worse. Some spend hundreds of dollars in gas every month looking for their child. The features, functions and technologies implemented into TRiLOC™ were carefully chosen based on the direct feedback and recommendations from parents and care givers who live with these stresses on a daily basis” says Tony Fama, iLOC President and CEO.

In the USA and Canada, there are over 500,000 individuals with ASD (1 in 88 children), and over 5.5 million seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, growing by 5 and 10 percent year over year respectively. Globally, over 30 million individuals suffer from ASD or Alzheimer’s disease. According to an on-line poll, over 90 percent of children with ASD will elope from a safe environment (AWAARE) and over 60 percent of people with Alzheimer’s disease will wander, which can lead to situations endangering their lives. On average there’s a little more then 2 persons providing care for every special needs individual, amounting to over 60 million parents and care givers worldwide. The intent of the TRiLOC™ GPS Locator is to provide those care givers and parent’s peace-of-mind, allowing them to reduce or minimize the need for constant supervision, allowing children to play more freely, or teenagers and adults to enjoy more autonomy and independence.

“We’ve managed to combine a high level of wireless data and voice technology into a small package while meeting regulatory and wireless industry standards”, says Yves Messier, iLOC CTO. The TRiLOC™ GPS Locator provides advanced outdoor and indoor locating capability and incorporates Bluetooth 4.0 technology to communicate with remote health monitoring, smart home and electronic security devices. The locator also supports bi-directional voice communication so that in an emergency, the parent or care giver can call the individual wearing the locator to rapidly assess the situation.

iLOC Technologies Inc. is a privately held corporation located in Montreal, Canada. Its mission is to provide leading edge, cost effective and innovative personal safety & security products and services that promote end user peace-of-mind. iLOC value’s its customers and reseller’s and communicates its appreciation through continuous product innovation, consistent quality and outstanding service that exceeds customer expectations. The iLOC Executive Management Team members are all directly or indirectly connected to persons with special needs and are committed to making a difference for them and for the parents and care givers of those persons.

Annual Utility Spending on GIS Tools and Services Will Reach $3.7 Billion by 2017

Spatial data underlies everything an electric utility does. An intelligent power grid requires deep situational awareness of power generation, transmission, distribution, and customer assets in order to optimize performance and to meet reliability commitments. Land-based and street-level data, ownership/real estate, vegetation, network topology, GPS location data, census data, and many others forms of geospatial information are critical to the successful performance of the smart grid. The geographic information system (GIS) is a foundational technology linking every activity of an electric utility - including design and construction, asset management, workforce management, outage management, and, increasingly, real-time grid operations. The adoption of smart grid technologies by electric utilities is driving renewed attention and increasing investment in GIS and related applications. According to a new report from Pike Research, utility spending on GIS services, software, and tools will increase steadily over the next five years, reaching $3.7 billion in 2017.

“The smart grid has energized electric utilities to think creatively about how to improve the delivery of electrical power and the business and workflow processes that enable it,” says vice president Bob Gohn. “As the deployment of intelligent field equipment, particularly advanced metering infrastructure, has surged, the applications leveraging this infrastructure are increasingly dependent on GIS-based data for critical real-time performance.”

Broadly speaking, there are eight core GIS-related utility applications in use or nearing deployment today, and they fit into three categories of market maturity: applications already adopted by a majority of utilities, including automated mapping and facilities management, back office, and plant and facility design and construction systems; applications experiencing wide-spread adoption over the next few years, such as asset, mobile workforce, and outage management; and newly emerging GIS-integrated tools, such as advanced distribution management and advanced metering infrastructure. The challenges to the effective adoption and use of these systems in the electric utility market involve data complexity and quality, mobile workforce requirements, loss of existing GIS knowledge and skills through retirement, organizational structure, and the GIS vendor ecosystem.

Pike Research’s report, “Utility Geographic Information Systems”, analyzes the global market opportunity for GIS across four key application segments: GIS tools and GIS workflow applications for both architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and operations applications. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the demand drivers, business models, and technology issues associated with this rapidly growing opportunity. Key industry players are profiled in depth and worldwide software and services revenue, segmented by region, are provided through 2017. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.

City of London Improves Water Network Information Management with Esri Technology

LONDON, ON – April 2, 2012 – Maintaining a city's water infrastructure involves mapping all the components of the water network including thousands of pipes, valves and water mains. City planners and engineers rely on these maps to effectively plan new development, and maintain and repair existing infrastructure. To improve the management of its water network data, the City of London in Ontario has deployed ArcGIS 10, the latest version of Esri's enterprise geographic information system (GIS) technology. The solution allows the City to accurately map the location of assets and analyze them in a spatial context. The City has also developed a customized tool that enhances the data editing functionality of the ArcGIS solution.

According to  John Bontje, Technology Services Manager, City of London, “Using the latest GIS technology from Esri enables us to maintain data quality while significantly improving productivity.  The users get better data quicker.”

Previously, the City managed water network data using a customized computer-aided drafting (CAD) system. While the system provided tools for creating network drawings, it required customized translation processes to place the data in their corporate GIS.

To further increase efficiency, the City's IT and water departments worked together to develop a customized ArcGIS tool that automates numerous steps of the data entry and editing process. The editing tool automatically populates some of the required information fields in the system when adding new asset data and finds the closest address point to assign maintenance of the asset to the right group.

“New subdivisions require thousands of new assets such as pipes, hydrants and water mains to be installed and entered into the system,” notes Steve Robinson, Water Operations Technologist & Data Steward, City of London. “This can be time consuming as it takes numerous steps to accurately reflect each asset on the water network map. With our customized ArcGIS editing tool, we've tripled the speed of updating data into the GIS.”

In addition to water network data, the City now manages sewer information with the customized tool. The tool's enhanced editing functionality is also expected to deliver valuable benefits as the City completely migrates water and sewer inventory data maintenance from their CAD system to ArcGIS.

Midway between Detroit and Toronto, London is at the heart of Southwestern Ontario. As Canada's 10th largest city centre, London has a population of over 492,000 and serves as a regional hub for surrounding communities. The City has developed a strong focus on life sciences, renewable technologies, information technology and manufacturing. More information is available at london.ca.

Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography.  The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from Esri, Telvent, Cityworks – Azteca Systems, Inc. and other technology partners.  Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada and has been named as one of the top 250 Canadian IT companies and top 25 IT professional services providers in Canada by the Branham Group.  Information about Esri Canada can be found at esri.ca.

URISA Connect Webinar Events Announced

Des Plaines, IL (April 2, 2012) - URISA, the Association for GIS Professionals, has added several significant webinar events to the 2012 URISA Connect calendar. The next event, "I’ve seen the Future and it’s my Browser: GIS Development in the Mobile Era", will be presented on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. Presenters Dave Bouwman and Brian Noyle of DTSAgile will discuss trends in web and mobile development with a focus on how the GIS community can leverage these technologies in the delivery of maps and “geo” functionality to a wide audience. For details and registration information, please visit http://www.urisa.org/URISAConnectGISinMobileEra.

Then on April 12, a URISA Leadership Academy Virtual Information Session will take place. The ULA is URISA's popular five-day training program for GIS leadership (the next offering in Savannah, Georgia, June 11-15). If you've considered attending the ULA, this free session will provide an opportunity to learn more about the program with input from instructors and recent graduates (http://www.urisa.org/ULAInfoSession).

Other upcoming URISA Connect events include a three-part LiDAR Webinar Series and the return of the popular Asset Management series. For more information, or to register for these upcoming events, please visit www.urisa.org/urisaconnect.

URISA Connect is an effective way to develop your professional skills and even work towards GISCI Certification Education Hours. URISA Webinars count towards the EDU-2 section of the application.

GeoPlace Enables Local Authorities to Meet INSPIRE Transport Data Requirements

London - 02 April 2012 - GeoPlace has developed an INSPIRE compliant view service to publish data from the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) as part of the INSPIRE Transport theme. Through this publishing service local authorities will meet the INSPIRE publishing requirements for the transport theme.

Having previously worked on the European Address and the Buildings Thematic Working Groups that originally defined the themes, GeoPlace has now been leading on INSPIRE regulations for the Address and Transport themes within the UK Location Programme. The NSG has been registered as an INSPIRE dataset on data.gov.uk alongside the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and AddressBase.

The NLPG and NSG are national compilations from individual local authority address and street datasets and are managed by GeoPlace. AddressBase combines the NLPG with a range of spatial address and property information from the Ordnance Survey, Royal Mail and Valuation Office Agency and is distributed by Ordnance Survey.

GeoPlace has responsibility to provide the NSG as a ‘reference dataset’ as defined in the INSPIRE regulations, on behalf of all 174 local highway authorities responsible for street data in England and Wales. The provision of reference datasets removes the need for individual local authorities to publish this data as the information is held centrally by GeoPlace. Rather than 174 datasets published individually, it is more efficient and cost effective for a single body to publish the data. This provides the sector with substantial savings.

GeoPlace has developed an INSPIRE compliant web mapping service (WMS) to view NSG data as part of the INSPIRE Transport theme. This allows a user to make a request to view data via a web mapping service or GIS application. An image of the street network is served up allowing an overlay within the user’s own data. Access to the service is via a secure login for registered NSG users only.

Whilst GeoPlace compiles the address data from local authorities in England and Wales, Ordnance Survey has the sole distribution rights to the NLPG and AddressBase products. This means that Ordnance Survey is responsible for publishing these address reference datasets.

Further developments are planned by GeoPlace to help meet the next stages of the INSPIRE initiatives due in mid-2012.

National Address Gazetteer Database

The National Address Gazetteer database is managed by GeoPlace. It brings together data from local authorities’ Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs) Ordnance Survey, Valuation Office Agency and Royal Mail. AddressBase products are produced from the National Address Gazetteer Database and made available by Ordnance Survey. To find out how the National Address Gazetteer Database can make substantial savings for your organisation, please visit www.geoplace.co.uk

GeoPlace

GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. GeoPlace’s role is to create and maintain the National Address Gazetteer Database and the National Street Gazetteer for England and Wales, the definitive sources of publicly-owned spatial address and street data. Through agreement with Scotland’s Improvement Service Company, the plan is to extend coverage to Scotland.

Local Government Association

The Local Government Association is here to support, promote and improve local government. The LGA is an organisation that is run by its members and covers every part of England and Wales and includes county and district councils, metropolitan and unitary councils, London boroughs, Welsh unitary councils, fire, police, national park and passenger transport authorities.

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals. Ordnance Survey utilises the National Address Gazetteer Database to create the AddressBase range of products which are available for use in both the public and commercial sectors.