GEO: connexion articles from September 2003

GEO: connexion archives from September 2003

Seizing the initiative.(upfront)
September 1, 2003... Although delayed by a re-shuffle, Britain's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) duly announced that 'Geography Colleges' would be an option under new guidelines pertaining to its Specialist Schools initiative...

STAR buys APIC.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... STAR INFORMATIC (Liege, Belgium) has acquired a majority shareholding in APIC SA, the GIS software company, from EADS and LYONNAISE DES EAUX France. Together APIC & STAR INFORMATIC aim to leverage each other's strengths and become Europe's...

Fugro acquires Svitzer survey companies.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Fugro Survey N.V. (Leidschendam, the Netherlands) has agreed with A/S Em. Z. Svitzer, (Copenhagen, Denmark) to acquire Svitzer Ltd. (Great Yarmouth, UK) and Svitzer Surveys (Esbjerg, Denmark). Since 1987, Svitzer Ltd in Great Yarmouth has...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... Our apologies for incorrect URLs attributed to APIC on pages 6 and 42 of the June issue. These should have read www.apic-eads.com in both cases. Similarly the URL cited at the end of the article on page 53 of the July/August issue should...

MBO gives laser-scan new lease of life.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Laser-Scan of Cambridge, England, placed into receivership by parent Yeoman Group, has been the subject of a successful Management Buy Out (MBO) by a group of investors led by md, Dr. Michael Sanderson (see also :up front this issue--Ed)...

NPA consortium selected by European Space Agency.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected ten consortia to participate in its environmental monitoring programme (See also 'ESA selects GAF for GMES, p10 of June issue) of which one is Terrafirma led by Nigel Press Associates (Edenbridge,...

Telespazio teams with GAF.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Telespazio SpA (Rome, Italy), a Finmeccanica Company, has acquired a majority shareholding in GAF AG, thereby creating a new global market force in the Earth Observation sector. Eurimage, a joint enterprise between Telespazio and Astrium, will...

SOCET SET returns home.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... BAE SYSTEMS (San Diego, California) has initiated worldwide distribution of its SOCET SET[R] photogrammetric for software for digital mapping, GIS and 3D visualisation applications. (see also pp56-57 this issue--Ed) New offices in Cambridge,...

IONIC launches RedSpiderWeb 3.0.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... IONIC (Liege, Belgium) has released RedSpiderWeb 3.0, an out-of-the-box, configurable portfolio of OpenGIS spatial web services. RedSpiderWeb includes the functionality to build interoperable spatial data infrastructure to spatially-enable an...

IKONOS ground station for Europe.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... European Space Imaging (EUSI) officially opened the IKONOS ground station at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich in Bavaria. Since March 2003 EUSI has been a directly tasking the IKONOS satellite that orbits at an...

Cadcorp heads for the sun.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... KNOSOS (Barcelona, Spain) has been appointed as Cadcorp's (Stevenage, England) partner in Spain. KNOSOS specialise in bespoke applications for the transport industry, especially those using GPS and real time communications. Two systems already...

MapInfo developments.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... MapInfo (Troy, New York) has announced its Insurance Decision Solution Suite (IDSS), a mapping and risk management solution for the insurance industry worldwide. MapInfo IDSS includes country specific-data and is immediately available for...

Intergraph awards grants in Europe.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial (Huntsville, Alabama) has announced the first 20 grants (of 100 available) through the international Intergraph Open Interoperability Program, established to promote and emphasise the use of OpenGIS[R]...

Surveying the rail network.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Omnicom Engineering Limited (York, England) has won a three year contract from Network Rail to use the OmniSurveyor3D[R] system to provide a consistent, up to date visual and positional record of the rail infrastructure and thereby to...

See-maps for regional policies.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... The South East England Regional Assembly recently commissioned Aligned Assets (Guildford, England) to design, develop and maintain a web-based mapping facility for its website. The challange was to find a clear and concise method of...

New image engineering group formed.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... A new group, the Consortium for Progressive Image Engineering (CONSPIE), has been formed to exploit Digital Terrain Models and orthophotos. Founder members are Hansa Luftbild AG (Muenster, Germany), Institut Cartografic de Cataluna...

Adam launch GeoProcessor[TM].(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... The ADAM Systems Group of Advanced Software Resources, Inc. (San Jose, California) has launched the GeoProcessor[TM], a standalone Solaris-based application for satellite and aerial imagery data processing. The system retrieves metadata...

eSpatial goes mobile.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... eSpatial (Dublin, Ireland) has launched iSMART[TM] Mobile, a fully functional spatial client for occasionally-connected users. It is designed to be tightly integrated with field service solutions enabling mobile workers to access and update...

Italian maps & photos on line.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... The Italian Ministry of the Environment has developed a public web site with Planetek Italia (Bari, Italy) as part of the Italian Cartographic Reference System. This enables unrestricted Internet access to various types of maps and photographic...

The world on a disk.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Earthstar Geographics (San Diego, California) has released TerraColor World version 2.0 with colour shaded terrain and bathymetry images of the earth and a version of NASA/GSFC's Blue Marble world satellite mosaic image created from MODIS data....

INSPIRE consultation results.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... The results of the Internet consultation on the EC's INSPIRE initiative have been published Nearly 200 respondents are claimed to constitute a representative sample of stakeholders from government, commerce, academia and individuals. There was...

Definiens Imaging in Poland and Mexico.(GEO: news)
September 1, 2003... Definiens Imaging (Munich, Bavaria) has appointed Geosystems Polska (Warsaw, Poland), to distribute its eCognition object-oriented image classification software. The news was announced at the 3rd Geosystems Polska User Meeting in Warzawa, in...

Successful CPS Matrix trial in London.(LBS News in Brief)
September 1, 2003... Cambridge Positioning Systems (Cambridge, England) has succesfully trialled its Matrix high accuracy location technology for mobile phones on a major GSM network in London. Over a 100 sq km area the results showed consistently high accuracy and...

Ubisense inside or out.(LBS News in Brief)
September 1, 2003... Ubisense (Cambridge, England) has developed a local positioning system (LPS) that can determine the precise location of people or objects in buildings or built up areas. It offers real time tracking to an accuracy of better than 15 cm within...

Webmaps will change our lives.(LBS News in Brief)
September 1, 2003... Nielsen/NetRatings (Oxford, England) research reveals that use of online map websites in Europe has risen by nearly 300% in the last 12 months. Websites such as multimap.com and streetmap.co.uk in the UK, mappy.com France, map24.com in Germany...

Multimap offers new developer programme.(LBS News in Brief)
September 1, 2003... Multimap.com (London, England), provider of Internet mapping services, has announced a new programme to help developers build powerful geographic and location-based applications and services for their customers. The Developer Programme includes...

blue 8 improves emergency services.(LBS News in Brief)
September 1, 2003... blue B (Nottingham) has launched blue 8 LVM (least vehicle moves), a software tool that enables emergency services resources to be planned dynamically to respond to immediate changes on the ground. LVM makes dynamic dispatching a reality for...

The Council of the European Union requires a GIS capability to support its operations.(European Commission)
September 1, 2003... The Council of the European Union requires a GIS capability to support its operations. The contract is in two lots, the first covering a framework contract for the supply of the GIS for an initial one-year period. The second lot covers a...

The GIS Headquarters of the Steiermark State Government has advertised a major digital mapping contract.(Austria)
September 1, 2003... The GIS Headquarters of the Steiermark State Government has advertised a major digital mapping contract. To be let in two lots, it includes 7500km2 of aerial photography and 880km2 of aerial triangulation and digital orthophoto production

Electrabel SA requires data collection, collation and conversion services.(Belgium)
September 1, 2003... Electrabel SA requires data collection, collation and conversion services to support its creation of a topographical databank for the Wallonne region

The authorities in Le Havre require aerial mapping.(France)
September 1, 2003... The authorities in Le Havre require aerial mapping, subsurface and topographic surveys to assist the production of an updated topographic map as well as 3D digital data

The Road & Transport department of the Versailles region wishes to place two linked topographic mapping.(France)
September 1, 2003... The Road & Transport department of the Versailles region wishes to place two linked topographic mapping and photogrammetric services contracts

The Bavarian Office of Land Survey requires the collection of height data.(Germany)
September 1, 2003... The Bavarian Office of Land Survey requires the collection of height data for its development of digital models, both DGM and DSM

The Eberswalde Water and Navigation authority seeks survey services.(Germany)
September 1, 2003... The Eberswalde Water and Navigation authority seeks survey services to provide vital information for planned canal construction in the region

The Community of Montana has advertised a contract for aerial photography.(Italy)
September 1, 2003... The Community of Montana has advertised a contract for aerial photography and the production of colour digital orthophotos, plus a topographic survey with detailed height information using GPS for loading into a GIS

The Geodetic Institute of the Norwegian Mapping Authority needs a dual frequency 12-channel GNSS receiver.(Norway)
September 1, 2003... The Geodetic Institute of the Norwegian Mapping Authority needs a dual frequency 12-channel GNSS receiver with a sample rate of at least 1 Hz, complete with antenna, cables and power supply

The Ministry of Housing has advertised a contract.(Spain)
September 1, 2003... The Ministry of Housing has advertised a contract to update the urban cadastral plan of Barcelona using digital methods

The Ordnance Survey seeks a specialist web developer.(United Kingdom)
September 1, 2003... The Ordnance Survey seeks a specialist web developer to help it deliver new content to its existing children's web site, MapZone and main educational web site

Britain's Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency has awarded a 450,000 [euro] contract to ESRI.(Awards)
September 1, 2003... Britain's Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency has awarded a 450,000 [euro] contract to ESRI for software and related services respect of ESRI and ERDAS products

The authorities in Hyeres, France, have awarded a 55,000 [euro] contract to Imagis Mediterranee.(Awards)
September 1, 2003... The authorities in Hyeres, France, have awarded a 55,000 [euro] contract to Imagis Mediterranee to digitise the regional cadastral plan

Britain's Environment Agency has awarded contracts to Gardline Surveys Ltd and Andrews Surveys.(Awards)
September 1, 2003... Britain's Environment Agency has awarded contracts to Gardline Surveys Ltd and Andrews Surveys for bathymetric surveys and monitoring

The EC Joint Research Council of Europe based in Ispra, Italy, has announced the following successful tenderers for the supply of satellite remote sensing data to European Institutes.(Awards)
September 1, 2003... The EC Joint Research Council of Europe based in Ispra, Italy, has announced the following successful tenderers for the supply of satellite remote sensing data to European Institutes: IRS-EUROMAP (Germany), LANDSAT-Eurimage SpA (Italy),...

Planning ahead in Cape Town.(GEO: Africa)
September 1, 2003... The Spatial Planning Department, City of Cape Town, is using GIS to help councillors make decisions and to inform the public about the decision-making process. The GIS is used to synthesise complex data and ensure that the derived information...

DMC partners meet in Nigeria.(GEO: Africa)
September 1, 2003... Hosted by the Nigerian Space Agency (NASRDA), members of the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) consortium from Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and the UK met in Abuja in April 2003. The consortium led by Surrey Satellite...

SDI-Africa newsletter.(GEO: Africa)
September 1, 2003... For those of our readers with an interest in Africa we would to draw attention to the Spatial Data Infrastructure Africa (SDI-Africa) free email newsletter. Compiled and edited by Kate Lance from the USGS EROS DATA Center/International Program,...

New Intergraph partner in S. Africa.(GEO: Africa)
September 1, 2003... Software Engineering Consulting cc (SEC of Pretoria, S Africa) are the first African company to join Intergraph's Team GeoMedia Registered Solutions Center (RSC) programme. With more than 21 years of experience SEC integrates strong Oracle...

STAR shines bright in Tripoli.(GEO: Africa)
September 1, 2003... The city of Tripoli in Libya has chosen STAR software from STAR INFORMATIC (Liege, Belgium) to implement its GIS. Worth 140,000, [euro] the initial contract provides software and services including the deployment of a STAR NeXt solution to...

Imagins adds value with Maporama.(GEO: Middle East)
September 1, 2003... Maporama (Paris, France) has announced that detailed street level maps of major Turkish cities will soon be available, thanks to a collaboration with IMAGINS Interactive Media and and Geographic Information Systems (Istanbul, Turkey) a leading...

JEODIJITAL to resell eCognition.(GEO: Middle East)
September 1, 2003... Definiens Imaging (Munich, Bavaria) has signed and reseller agreement with JEODIJITAL Informatics Technology Limited (Ankara, Turkey.) The agreement allows JEODIJITAL to sell Definiens object-oriented image classification software, eCognition,...

Srebro takes charge at SOI.(GEO: Middle East)
September 1, 2003... Haim Srebro has been appointed Director General of the Survey of Israel (SOI) in succession to the late Aviel Ron [see Middle East News, May 2002 issue--Ed]. Srebro, 56, obtained a Master's Degree in geodetic engineering from the Haifa Technion...

GAF success in Oman.(GEO: Middle East)
September 1, 2003... In Oman, GAF has won a contract with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to generate Uplift Probability Maps based on remote sensing and other data to detect potential hydro-carbon bearing structures. The contract will last for a year from June...

New GEO resource for Dubai.(GEO: Middle East)
September 1, 2003... Sun Microsystems (Middle East & Africa) and Orion Technology Inc. (Richmond Hill, Ontario) have successfully completed a GIS project for the Dubai Municipality that makes accurate, detailed and up-to-date geographic and address-based...

Caring & sharing in San Diego: information and inspiration combined in equal measure to make ESRI's 23rd international user conference another memorable event. GEO:connexion sets the scene in the first of two special reports.(GEO: connect)
September 1, 2003... Attempting to precis an event that attracts a five-figure attendance, hosts 800 paper presentations, workshops and user group meetings, to say nothing of a major trade exhibition, and holds interest for a million individuals working with...

San Diego 2003 gallery.(GEO: connect)
September 1, 2003... From baseball to chili cook-off, from beach ball bash to tennis, and from fun run to kids camp to golf, the ESRI social programme had something for everyone It's a great game--if you understand the rules! British delegates pictured in...

Cambridge Conference 2003.(GEO: connect)
September 1, 2003... Mapping chiefs from 71 countries charted a course to the prestigious Cambridge Conference at the end of July. More than 170 delegates from six continents spent a week at the quadrennial gathering, hosted by Britain's Ordnance Survey. Its...

INSPIRE gets the AGI thumbs-up.(AGI View)
September 1, 2003... September is a always a busy month for the AGI due to the AGI Conference and GeoSolutions exhibition in London. And while more details of these are carried in this month's inaugural issue of GEO:connexion UK for readers in the British Isles,...

Wise succeeds Taylor at Intergraph.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Intergraph Corporation (Huntsville, Alabama) has announced that Halsey Wise has been appointed the company's new president and CEO in succession to Jim Taylor, who announced his intention to retire last year. Wise joins the Intergraph Board of...

New crime team for Infotech.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Infotech Europe (London, England) has unveiled an augmented Crime and Disorder Team. Andy Gill has been promoted to senior consultant with expertise in crime data analysis. Lisa Thomas joins Infotech as a Consultant from the Project Jupiter...

Space Imaging appoints Stees, Brender.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Space Imaging (Denver, Colorado) has appointed Charles Stees to the position of chief financial office and named Mark Brender as vice president of corporate communications. Stees will be primarily responsible for the overall management and...

Mohr moves to Intermap.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Intermap Technologies Corporation (Denver, Colorado) has announced the appointment of Richard Mohr as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He brings more than 30 years of experience of financial management in the high-tech sector...

UCL fellowship for Lawrence & Tomlinson.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Vanessa Lawrence, Director General and CEO of Ordnance Survey, and Dr Roger Tomlinson, the 'father' of GIS, were among those receiving fellowships from University College London in May. Lawrence has been elected as an Honorary Fellow in...

New OS finance director.(GEO: people)
September 1, 2003... Alastair Matthews is to be the new director of finance for Ordnance Survey, (Southampton, England) Britain's national mapping agency. He took up his post in July, becoming responsible for the finances of the public sector Trading Fund with its...

Project EARTHSHIP: conservation and GIS education in the Caribbean: want to put your GIS skills to practical use in a worthy cause?(Focus On ...)
September 1, 2003... Seascape Research and Education, a non profit organisation, has organised volunteer-based marine conservation projects in the Eastern Caribbean for several years. During the course of this work, it has created new environmental monitoring...

AGILE.(Newsround)
September 1, 2003... Recipients of best paper awards at this year's Conference of AGILE (Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe) were: first place: Professors Werner Kuhn and Martin Raubal for their paper Implementing Semantic Reference...

Autodesk.(Newsround)
September 1, 2003... Autodesk has introduced a scheme that, for the first time, offers educational users across the EPIEA region automatic software updates in return for a small annual fee, The scheme applies to Autodesk's new 2004 family of products including...

ESRI.(Newsround)
September 1, 2003... ESRI president Dangermond recently presented 100 K-12 GIS kits, which include GIS software, a community teaching guide, and student handbooks, to Thailand's ideal Schools program. The award complemented the company's US$50,000 grant to...

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions.(Newsround)
September 1, 2003... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (IMGS) has launched an online education training program, "Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)" that equips students with both a theoretical and hands-on understanding of GIS. ...

Is time on your side? Nigel Benham explores at the benefits of maintaining OS MasterMap within a temporal mapping database.(viewpont)
September 1, 2003... Major developments such as new roads and housing invariably impact on all aspects of our environment, e.g., the demand for new roads often conflicting with the need to conserve wildlife habitats and sites of historic importance. ...

Addressing. The crisis: 'to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive' may be an old saying, but it is not one to which Robert Barr subscribes, particularly when navigational data bases lead him astray.(dangling segment)
September 1, 2003... I suppose I should be sorry about returning so often to addressing as a geographical referencing issue, yet things appear to be getting worse rather than better, so I offer no apologies for coming back to this topic yet again. As is often...

GI: hope for Germany's economy? Wolfgang Steinborn concludes by putting his finger on what makes Switzerland 'tick' when it comes to geographic information.(Germany)
September 1, 2003... On 15.4.2003 Nice Matin corned the following comment: With a sick metal industry, a suffering chemicals sector, and so forth, nothing holds Germany together any more. The reasons are: inflexibility, lack of innovation, low productivity and high...

Triple A concept promises a bumper German harvest: a 78,000-strong workforce engaged in Federal and State mapping and surveying is watching the growth of new standards-based tools with keen interest.(Germany)
September 1, 2003... Expert teams from the Working committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States or the Federal Republic of Germany (AdV) are currently collaborating with GIS vendors and geodata users to develop a new administrative concept. To be...

IKONOS: closer than you think: champagne flows in Oberpfaffenhofen as European Space Imaging inaugurates its new ground station.(News Story)
September 1, 2003... March of this year ushered in a new era in Earth Observation when European Space Imaging's IKONOS ground station at Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich commenced operation. For the first time, European customers were directly served by a regional...

Visions of the future: Germany's Center for Geoinformation unveils the latest in 3D spatial visualisation.(INTERGEO 2003)
September 1, 2003... Encouraged by its attendance at INTERGEO 2002, Germany's Center for Geoinformation GmbH (CeGi) mounts an even stronger presence at this year's event in Hamburg. As an operational coordination centre for the Geodata Infrastructure...

Bucking the trend: bigger and better than ever. That's the promise from the organisers of INTERGEO, the world's premier surveying-related trade fair, which opens its doors in Hamburg this month. GEO:connexion sneeks a preview.(INTERGEO 2003)
September 1, 2003... The global economy might be experiencing something of a downturn, but one would never guess this from the optimistic noises emanating from organisers of the world's biggest exposition for those with interests in geodesy, geoinformation and land...

What's new? What's hot?(INTERGEO 2003)
September 1, 2003... AED-SICAD of Munich showcases its latest solutions for land management, utilities and local government--all based on ESRI ArcGIS technology--on Stand 10D21 Hall 10. The 3A product line, which caters for AFIS-ALKIS-ATKIS requirements, will...

Turning brown into green in Flanders: Kevin Corbley reports on a Flemish initiative that tackles problems of industrial pollution--using a customised GIS solution to turn brownfield sites into green.(cadastre/LIS)
September 1, 2003... Home to nearly six million inhabitants, Flanders in Belgium has long been a centre for the metallurgy industry. More recent growth in petrochemical and other petroleum-based industries has, however, led to a rise in soil contamination from...

Creating a land parcel information system for ARAD, Wales: in the first of a three-part article, Rajesh Kalra, Giles D'Souza and Graham Rees relate how Welsh farming is set to reap new benefits from geoinformation, thanks to a Public-Private Partnership.(cadastre/LIS)
September 1, 2003... In 2001, the Welsh National Assembly's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department (ARAD), formerly known as NAWAD, embarked on an ambitious project involving the latest practices in digital mapping technology. Its goal was to improve the...

SOCET SET[R] alive and kicking! The venerated and, arguably, the world's best-known photogrammetry suite has acquired a new lease of life. GEO:connexion spoke to John Allan of BAE SYSTEMS to find out more.(Photogrammetry)
September 1, 2003... GEO:connexion: What are the prospects for SOCET SET, given its somewhat turbulent recent history? John Allan: well, the turbulence has realty only been within the distribution channel and not within the product itself! With BAE SYSTEMS,...

The tortoise & the hare: Colin Bates studies form in the GPS-LBS handicap.(location based services)
September 1, 2003... With the total addressable market of location-enabled subscribers set to top 1.3 billion by 2006, GIS providers are currently racing to gain marketshare. And while the most publicly recognised tracking technology is the satellite-based Global...

3.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2003... UK mobile operator 3 (Maidenhead, England and formerly known as Hutchison 3G) has introduced Store Locator and Coverage Checker to its website, based on ESRI's ArcIMS Internet web server solution. These enable customers and potential service...

Autodesk.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2003... Autodesk (Farnborough, England) has announced a new product scheme across EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), which enables educational users to participate for the first time in the Autodesk subscription programme. For a small annual...

datafactory AG.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2003... Novasys (Lausanne, Switzerland) is now marketing WEBfleet from datafactory AG (Leipzig, Germany) in Switzerland. Novasys is active in fleet tracking solutions and LBS and has developed Maponair[TM] an ASP platform for Mapping and Routing on the...

European Space Agency.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2003... The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that Envisat and ERS radar imaging satellites are being used to alert authorities to changes in land use in the mountain gorilla habitats of central Africa. Building on this, ESA has agreed with...

Eurimage.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2003... Eurimage (Rome, Italy) has announced a new pricing for ERS and Envisat data. This includes a special offer of 500 [euro] per scene for all single orders for a minimum of three full resolution ASAR or SAR products placed by 15 September 2003....