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Need and relevance of Geomatics education at C-DAC
Dr. Ashok Kaushal
Programme Coordinator, Geomatics Solutions Development Group
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)
IntroductionDr. Ashok Kaushal
Programme Coordinator, Geomatics Solutions Development Group
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)
Geomatics (Geographic Informatics) is the synergy of multiple disciplines, namely, Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Image Processing, Photogrammetry, Cartography, Terrain Visualization, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Geodesy and Map Projections, Database Management Systems (DBMS), Data Warehousing (DWH) and Data Mining, Statistics, Cognition, Internet and others. It addresses the vital elements of any Information System, viz. geographic measurement, geo-accounting, spatial analysis, spatial modeling, integrated decision-making and information dissemination. Geomatics is the key to building Global Information Infrastructure (GII) by suitably integrating spatial data/information and making it available over Internet for decision-making. It is fundamental to the major forces of the current millennium, viz. population growth, management of natural resources, infrastructure development, global warming, monitoring and mitigation of natural and man-made disasters and new discoveries in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Status
During last two decades, the growth in the development, acquisition, and implementation of information systems using Geomatics has increased many folds. It has become multi-billions industry, which in turn needs skilled manpower with necessary expertise in various aspects of Geomatics. However, education opportunities in Geomatics are available in a few institutions only. Prominent have been ITC Netherlands and AIT Thailand etc. abroad, along with IIRS-NRSA (formally IPE), STI-SOI, Anna University, IIT-Mumbai, and few others within India, which have conducted specialized courses in Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry, Survey, Cartography and others. Professional bodies including Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG), Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) have conducted short-term workshops/tutorials in GIS, Cartography, and Geodesy etc. A few software vendors have conducted specialized courses primarily to train the personnel on their respective software products. Similarly, corporate training institutions have made a few efforts, but they have been restricted to training on multiple Commercially Off The Shelf (COTS) software products. Short-term courses/workshops were common during the early period of Geomatics growth. Only recently, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has introduced courses at under-graduate and post-graduate levels in Geomatics.
Geomatics needs specialized consistent efforts to identify clearly the type and content of education vis-à-vis user’s requirements. The courses developed by multiple institutions have addressed broadly the requirements of Government R&D and academia. They have addressed Geomatics with application background in agriculture, forestry, geology, soil, etc. without significant exploitation of technology. This has resulted in ineffective use of Geomatics Technologies (GT) for the said applications. The courses remained short of necessary skill-sets desired by the industry, which has been executing multiple jobs from within and overseas market. There is a substantial demand to orient these courses catering to the industry. Government initiatives, threats of competition from similar organizations, leadership interests and reach are few other driving forces.
Trend
Geomatics has evolved through various landmark developments such as:
- Change in emphasis from:
- Analogue computing to digital computing
- Visual interpretation to automatic classification
- Hardcopy maps to softcopy maps
- Manual digitization to semi-automatic digitization
- Large scale aerial photographs to high resolution satellite imagery
- Analytical plotters to softcopy photogrammetry
- Mainframe to desktops
- Standalone desktops to LAN, WAN or Grid based systems
- Proprietary devices (printer, scanner & others) to plug & play
- Command based interface to Windows menu based with pick & click
- Proprietary software to COTS software
- Proprietary data formats to interoperable data formats
- Hardcopy manuals to HTML based on-line help
- Theoretical concepts to live applications
- Isolated tools to turn-key solutions
- Development of mere spatial database to spatial analysis/modeling
- Vector models to hybrid models (for spatial analysis)
- Conventional surveying techniques to high-resolution RS for map updation
- RS satellites with multiple spatial, temporal, radiometric, and spectral resolution
- Airborne laser terrain modeling (ALTM) for terrain mapping at high resolution
- Availability of microwave RS with multiple look angles, bands and polarizations
- Emergence of hyper spectral remote sensing with satellite based systems
- Extensive usage of smaller, affordable and precise GNSS for ground truthing
- Availability of high-end scanners for conversion of paper maps to digital
- Improved solutions in CAD, cartography and dynamic terrain visualization
- Availability of sophisticated image processing algorithms and analytical techniques within COTS software in a user-friendly environment
- Exploitation of digital computers for generating quality cartography outputs.
- Support for spatial data types from major database vendors
- Availability of Open Source Software (OSS) in Geomatics
- Development of Location Based Services (LBS) using ICT and GT
- Definition of national data policy and development of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
- Availability of more and more information on Internet
Need
In Information Technology (IT), 20% is technology and 80% is information. This information should be demand driven and relevant in terms of time and space. In the era of IT, it should include diversification of existing practices and resources prevailing within the government. 80% - 90% of government data is geographic in nature - containing an address, service area, pin code, or latitude/longitude co-ordinates. In fact, decision invariably considers geographical parameters such as location, distance, direction, proximity, adjacency, topography etc. With the availability of spatial data at regular intervals with sufficient details using high-resolution RS data in the recent past and development of NSDI in near future, there is a significant shift from ‘conventional’ Decision Support System (DSS) to the ‘spatial’ DSS (SDSS).
Geomatics can link government departments, enterprises and users to a common and shared multi-dimensional (spatial) database so that everyone can have access to the same set of files on Internet at the same time for different applications. Easy access to data/information with common geographic-reference using high-speed communication network can help citizens to improve their efficiency and government to make better decisions. These applications/services are becoming high in demand and would have positive impact on the community and environmental aspects of life.
Accordingly, there has been a need for integrated course in Geomatics with emphasis on recent advances and future trends. The course needs to be oriented towards R&D, corporate and academia. It should have emphasis on strengthening basic concepts in Geomatics and independent of any particular product. It needs to be modular, facilitate awareness in Geomatics through smaller (introductory) capsules and build capacity among administrators to use spatial data for decision-making. The course needs to be a suitable mix of both technologies and applications.
Diploma In Geo-Informatics (DGI)
The Geomatics Solutions Development Group (GSDG) of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) offers services in the fields of remote sensing, image processing, photogrammetry, spatial analysis and modeling, content based image retrieval, web GIS, software customization and others. ‘Development of SDSS’ is the niche area of its activities. The Group is engaged in the implementation of Geomatics projects on a 'Turnkey' basis in the application areas of e-Governance, natural resources management, environment, health, infrastructure and land management, defence and natural disaster management.
Starting 1994, the Group had been active in organization of a series of short-term workshops in Digital Image Processing, Digital Signal Processing, Remote Sensing, GIS, Digital (softcopy) Photogrammetry and Digital Cartography. Since 2002, it offers ‘Diploma in Geo-informatics’ (DGI) through its Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS). The course has been designed based on the feedback from participants of the workshops. It has been one among the firsts, if not the first, within the country for conducting integrated course of moderate duration in Geomatics. Experienced faculty drawn from multiple disciplines of Geomatics with exposure in technology and applications conducts the course.
DGI is a 10 weeks full time course consisting of 10 mandatory modules (Annexure) and an industry relevant project of 4 weeks, with evaluation at the end of each module. It aims at conceptual knowledge and hands-on training in Geomatics through lectures, tutorials, case studies, discussions and group work. Hands-on training is provided on Geomatica (including OrthoEngine, Fly! and Geomatica WebServer) under Windows environment. Geomatica is a complete geomatics solution that integrates technologies from GIS, remote sensing, digital image processing, digital cartography, and photogrammetry into a single modular environment. (Geomatica is used for hands-on, as it is the only COTS software in the market with integrated functionality.) Trimble GPS is used to familiarise with GNSS technology.
A series of group discussions are arranged for further strengthening the concepts taught during the theory lectures. Feedback is very important component of the course, which helps to enhance/dilute certain components of the course. In the past, module on customisation was diluted while module on map projection was strengthened with addition of component on geodesy and photogrammetry was improved with addition of components on LIDAR (ALTM) and Dynamic Terrain Visualization. Application of Geomatics in various development contexts are analysed through appropriate case studies sharing the live projects. Industry relevant projects are assigned to the students during the course. The project, in general, is related to one or more modules covered in the course, and is contemporary to the requirement within the industry.
The contents of DGI have been designed keeping in view the emerging trends in the field of Geomatics and the emerging needs of skilled manpower in the background of significant developments in ICT. It has been conducted for personnel from R&D, corporate and academia along with individuals looking forward to adding skills from Geomatics to their profile. Placement Cell at ACTS assists bringing the companies to the campus and enable interested individuals to go through the campus recruitment process.
Challenges
The students undergoing DGI come with the background in diversified areas including geography, engineering and science. Most are conversant with the basics in computer, but are not always exposed to the basics in either geodesy or programming or digital signal/image processing or communication. Though it is preferred to have homogeneous batch in terms of background, but it is a challenging task to keep sessions interactive and learn from heterogeneity in the interdisciplinary batch. For some modules (e.g. map projections and geodesy), there is a need to develop few components using animation for better understanding.
Last two decades have seen full of new discoveries in electronics and ICT. GT has been always in the forefront to embrace these advances in technology and there is a need for continuous research in education including updation of course curriculum, hardware and software.
Although the drive in ICT is for either interoperability or Open Source Software (OSS), many industries have been successful in promoting select brands of products, hence constraining the job opportunities with exposure to alternate products. There is a need for aggressive drive to spread awareness among R&D, corporate and academia to advertise the opportunities along with the job expectations specific to the application requirements.
Future
With recent sophistications in both sensors and communication technologies, the Embedded Technologies (ET) offer GT the additional potential to be included in Location Based Services (LBS) on mobile computers, embedded within standard software that enable spatial analysis. As per ABI Research, N.Y. worldwide revenue from LBS is expected to increase from USD 500 million in 2004 to more than USD 3.6 billion by 2010. Another study carried out by Industry Canada and Transport Canada forecasts the world market for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies to reach USD 66 billion in 2011, a significant proportion of which are geomatics-related. Accordingly, geomatics education will get reflection in general technical expertise and often in the practical experience of mainstream ICT.
With the availability of Internet bandwidth, GT are transiting from standalone solutions to web based services. They are being realized as spatially enabled data services embedded into an organization’s mainstream computing architecture and afforded through networks such as the World Wide Web and client server (grid) applications. This has put special impetus in inclusion of Web customization, enterprise wide database development and others within Geomatics education.
Synergy of ICT and GT has exerted substantial emphasis on development of open standards for vocabulary and seamless integration of technologies. Vendors have integrated their RDBMS technologies with spatial data types (using standards developed by Open Geospatial Consortium), facilitating further integration of applications for enterprise wide implementation. This will have impact on future courses in Geomatics education.
With the availability of affordable hardware (PC/Workstations/Internet) along with COTS (and Open Source/Freeware) software, it is expected that, more undergraduate colleges offering subjects like earth sciences, geography and others will set up laboratories in Geomatics which will further help to create awareness in the subject and build capacity desired by the R&D, corporate and academia.
Distance learning, for those who do not have the opportunity to attend a scheduled course, is yet to become popular in Geomatics education, primarily for lack of suitable content. However, the same has bright future.
Acknowledgement:
Author acknowledges herewith members GSDG and ACTS, C-DAC who have contributed significantly in development and execution of DGI referred in this paper.
Annexure
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Geographic Information Systems Introduction History Components Functionality Applications Geographic Data Data models Data structures Data compression Data transformations Data sources Data conversion Data editing Linking spatial and non-spatial data Edge matching Errors and quality control Database concepts Data storage Data formats Data import/export Database management in GIS Map Projections Basic geodesy Earth geometry Geoid/Datum/Ellipsoid Coordinate systems Scale factor Distortion on map projections Classification of map projections Choosing a map projection Map projection transformation Surveying Global Navigation Satellite Systems Basic concepts GPS, GLONASS and Galileo systems GNSS receivers Single point positioning Measuring distance and timing GNSS accuracy Errors and error corrections Differential GNSS Applications Carrying out a GPS survey Photogrammetry Elements of photogrammetry Aerial photogrammetry Satellite photogrammetry Ortho-rectification Aero-triangulation Measurements from photos/imageries Project planning Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) Dynamic Terrain Visualisation Remote Sensing Electromagnetic radiation Spectral response patterns Resolutions – spatial, spectral, radiometric and temporal resolutions Multi-spectral remote sensing Thermal remote sensing Hyper-spectral remote sensing Microwave remote sensing Earth resource satellites Applications |
Digital Image Processing Visual image interpretation Image rectification and restoration Image enhancement Image statistics Overview of DIP Systems RS and GIS integration Image transformation Image classification Neural networks Context analysis Spatial Analysis and Modelling Mathematical operations Statistical analysis Measurement Query Proximity analysis (buffering) Overlay analysis Classification Network analysis Multi-criteria analysis Nearest neighbor analysis Map modeling Surface mapping Density mapping Gravity modeling Change detection Regression and correlation analysis Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) Digital elevation model (DEM) Terrain reclassification Visibility analysis Digital Cartography History Categories of maps Cartographic objects and databases Data measurement Map transformations Cartographic design Color and pattern Map lettering Map compilation Map scale Generalization Symbolization 3D, multivariate and dynamic mapping Map production Output devices (printers, plotters) Cartographic analysis Trends in GIS Object Oriented GIS Knowledge-based GIS 3D GIS Mobile GIS Location-based services Metadata Data interoperability Open GIS consortium Spatial data warehousing Spatial data mining Web GIS GIS customization GIS design and implementation Applications of GIS Case study - Public administration Case study - Urban planning Case study - Utility management Case study - Disaster management Case study - Natural resources Case study - SDSS |