Map Asia 2003 reporting by GIS Development

Dear Readers,

As you read through, an eventful convergence of heads is happening in Kuala Lumpur. Heads that are constructive, important and strategic are together – geospatially at the same location – Map Asia 2003. And perhaps along with the tides of the recent times. A time for the Asians to emerge.

In the past, Asia mostly looked at the West for business and innovation, but now the situation is changing. There are signs of movement towards the formation of economic and political collaborations. Economies are bouncing back in this part of the world in a situation of otherwise global downslide. Trade, good weather and policies are pouring in positive effects. The recent signing of the Bali Concord II, envisioning a single market eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers within an economic grouping throws thought provoking lights. In short, the time is apt. Timely enough, there is the Map Asia – with a convergence of hundreds of delegates, about 32 industry and government exhibitors and over 200 technical papers spread out in 3 days.

In its continued effort to foster the growth and sharing of important happenings in the world of GIS and related technologies, GIS Development strives again to bring you the latest, in the most transparent attire. We bring you a live update from Kuala Lumpur of Map Asia 2003 as it unfolds.

Regards,
Ayon Tarafdar
Assistant Editor
GIS Development
Ayon@GISdevelopment.net

Inaugural Ceremony

'Hall Diwan Tun Hussein Onn' of the Putra World Trade Centre was thronging with heads in the early hours itself. The attendance was tight, perhaps slightly above 600 persons. The ambience was almost perfect. The inaugural session started off soon after the arrival of The Honourable Dato’ Haji Zainal Dahalan, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Malaysia and Mr. Bachi Singh Rawat, Minister of State for Science and Technology, India. Two multimedia presentations on Map Asia 2003 and MACRES with impressive sound and visual effects captured the hall for some moments. Then Y. Bhg. Dato’ Nik Nasruddin Mahmood, Director of Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing (MACRES) and Chairman of the Organizing Committee gave a welcome address to all attendees. This was followed by a brief speech by Dr. M. P. Narayanan , President of Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS), India and Co-Chairman of the Organizing Committee .

Dato’ Nik emphasised the need for greater cooperation in the region coupled with the need for policy level thrusts. He also talked on the birth and growth of MACRES and its importance today. Dr Narayanan elaborated upon aspects of opening up of the geospatial market for information dissemination. He reminded the need for the meeting of minds and forums like this which can leverage action at the regional level.

This was followed by opening address speeches by Bachi Singh Rawat and Dato’ Haji Zainal Dahalan. Bachi Singh spoke on the various advancements and developments happening in science and technology that is supporting and augmenting decision making. He also emphasized the role and need of technical and rational support from the geospatially enabled organization to further enable governments and institutions that are yet to catch up.

Dr Nitin Tripathi , AIT followed with a lucid speech with vote of thanks to the organizers, to Sanjay Kumar, Convenor of Map Asia 2003 and CEO, GIS Development, to the participants and every person involved. After this, The Honourable Dato’ Haji Zainal Dahalan, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Malaysia, invited everybody to the Exhibition and declared the conference and the exhibition open.

Keynote Session I – National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)

The keynote session right after lunch was chaired by Prof Karl Harmsen, Director, Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific . He started with a brief introduction to the concept of NSDI and its relevance in every nation. His emphasized that whether developing or developed, most geographic communities will need geospatial data soon for efficient implementation of its activities. Data infrastructure is a need to be realized sooner or later. He invited the speakers for elaborate yet briefly timed overviews of SDIs in their respective regions.

Dato Nik Nasruddin Mahmood, started with MACRES , its arena and mandates. This emerged into how organizations in a region can eventually develop spatial databases, gather the needs of different departments of the country and build up a whole database infrastructure in the longer run. His words spelt out that geoinformatics is already there in the region and especially in Malaysia. It is being widely used in environmental, urban planning and disaster reduction activities. The government is also supportive and a lot of efforts are in place. There are also steps taken on training of skilled manpower. Things definitely are promising and SDI seems dawning brightly in the horizon.

Ed Parsons of Ordnance Survey followed up with a thought provoking presentation. He elaborated on the manner geospatial information is aggregated, built up and managed in UK and how in the process a massive yet extremely structured spatial data infrastructure is in the make. Refined process that ensures the right capture of data, for the right purpose and by the most appropriate persons is what makes a SDI happen. Dr Thongchai Charuppat of GISTDA followed with information of the status and progress of NSDI in Thailand. He stated that Thailand is ardently in the lines of NSDI implementation. Some key strategies by the government are – developing best practices database, developing a one stop geospatial portal, evolving a roadmap with detailed minute strategies for NSDI implementation and executing this whole as a project. He concluded that NSDI in his country is seen as an indispensable tool for proper governance in the future and social and economic development.

This was followed by a presentation by Ravi Gupta , Director, Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS) , on ‘Regional SDIs; Can we dream of one?’. His speech took the discussions a step further, where he raised questions of whether an Asian SDI is a possibility or not. Interestingly, he pointed out that perhaps this possibility lies in the economic recession evident in the last 4-5 years globally. This recession has emerged with a few truth that clearly shows the future of Asia as an independent, self reliant and a formidable massive force in its own. Coupled to these facts, the recent developments towards conglomeration in the region perhaps points to this potential. He painted the possibility of Asia as one bloc that will soon relate to, develop and solve its own’s issues with geospatial expertise. He foresaw a big role for regional SDI in such a positive case. Amidst a big applause, he left the audience to dream big.

Karl Harmsen concluded the session thanking everyone. He summed up by stating that prospects of SDIs in Asia are of equal stature as in the West and work has been in progress to a great extent. He ended on a positive and hopeful note that the work needs leverage and perseverance in the long run to be a reality.

Keynote Session II – Technology Trends

After a short tea break, crowds moved in, in greater numbers for the Technology Trends keynote. The session was chaired by Dato’ Hashim Hasan, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, Malaysia. The session started with presentation by Arthur Spencer, Intergraph. He spoke elaborately on two principle themes – Open data and Geospatial Resource Management.

"Only SQL should be between you and your data". This was the punch line that made the session. His emphasis on Return on Investment (RoI) and its direct proportion with increasing of application and users threw light upon cases of how investing on vertical applications have actually returned on the investment increasingly. Examples of Intergraph projects in Florida, Hong Kong, KPN Netherlands, Puerto Rico, etc were touched upon. He concluded in stating that one needs to invest in database and new technologies, for investment shall essentially give returns.

Dr Stewart Walker from Leica talked upon photogrammetric development over the years. His presentation focused in the subject of photogrammetry and its increasing scope and need. He spoke on how aspects of quality and quantity of data and its relation in being transferred from different sets of working. The ease of orthorectification, different workflows associated with working on LIDAR, photogrammetric techniques, and simple scanning processes were weighed against each other. He pointed out the near possible convergence of photogrammetry with Remote Sensing. He summed up saying that ‘integrated seamless and streamlined flowline is the key to any data capture – which is the driving force and motive of his organisation’s work.

Styli Camateros from Bentley Systems, spoke on a different note, but a very critical and important theme – interoperability. AEC and GIS interoperability is a need that remains unaddressed. AEC is what Bentley focuses on. Architecture, Engineering and Civil Engineering (AEC) mainly has its roots in proper presentation and detailed data representation to be read properly and built upon. GIS on the other hand is more data centric that has spatial analysis attached to it. When these two meet, Styli emphasized, they do in the least common demoninator, which results in massive data loss or data redundancy. He spoke on how AEC and GIS need to develop technical ways to see that they can work in every manner that can reinforce each other application areas.

The last presentation by Dr Koji from Hitachi touched upon the topic of Orthorectification of Satellite imagery, especially in the case of DEM generation. The presentation was well received as it traversed a well structured manner that described the process in which Hitachi is developing modules that rectify satellite imagery to the best possible output that can used almost on everything as overlays.

The session was summed up by the chair at the end in an eloquent manner when he stated that technical changes and upgrades in the field of GIS are obvious reality. However, what needs to be brought out is the need to see that the technology trends meet the speed and need of the region to which it caters to. In other words, keeping the longer goal in mind is essential in any technological endeavour if seen to be effective at the local level.