GIS Development News Update 15th April 2004

Applications

The potential of GPS and related technologies also extends to darker shades!

Two instances supported this fact where criminals showed their familiarity or faith in such technologies. French anti-terrorist police were questioning three people including an amateur pilot and an antiques dealer in connection with a series of bomb threats made by a mysterious group calling itself AZF. Specialists startled over the professionalism of the first bomb as well the group's familiarity with GPS satellite technology for fixing the location of its proposed ransom drops.

In another case, fishing authorities in Australia say that the discovery of a GPS on an Indonesian fishing boat shows illegal fishing is becoming more sophisticated. The GPS was discovered in a bag of rice on a boat apprehended by the Navy, off Broome in Western Australia. It is the second such case to be caught in Australian waters. Federal Fisheries Minister says the discovery shows that fishermen know what they are doing is illegal.

In more peaceful endeavours, Utah State University professors are using a satellite to map urban areas and the impact they have on water quality. Increased urbanization can cause water quality problems, because artificial surfaces such as asphalt are causing water pollution because these surfaces don’t let rainwater flow properly.

According to NASA-funded researchers, 'developed land' in the greater Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area is projected to increase 80 percent by 2030. Scientists used a computer-based decision support model loaded with NASA and commercial satellite images to simulate three policies affecting land use.

In India, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has zeroed in on a method to catch property tax defaulters. Municipal Commissioner of Delhi, Mr Rakesh Mehta met with officials of an Indo-French concern, SCE Creocean, to inspect a GIS mapping system, which will electronically account for the covered area of every property in the city. In another news from India, a rainwater-harvesting project being developed by the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) promised to bring succour to the parched lands of Rajasthan.

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Business News

Four important news dotted the business section other than the ones listed below.

Hugin GmBH, a German satellite imaging company, has finalised plans to set up a plant in Nairobi, Kenya, at a cost of Sh 47.5 million. The plant, scheduled for construction in July 2004 in Nairobi’s industrial area, will offer imaging and mapping services to Kenya’s institutions.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded a multi-year ClearView contract to Virginia-based ORBIMAGE Inc. The ORBIMAGE contract continues NGA’s commitment to implement a significant level of partnering between the U.S. Government and the remote sensing industry. This contract covers a 22-month period, has a minimum guarantee of $27.6 million and involves the company providing high-resolution satellite imagery to NGA. Two additional years may be added if funds are available in future budgets.

Intergraph Corporation announced that the company has resolved its patent infringement claims against Dell Inc. with regard to its Clipper patents. In addition, the settlement resolves Intergraph’s dispute with Intel Corporation regarding the company’s Parallel Instruction Computing (PIC) patents. Under the settlement agreement, Intel will pay Intergraph $125 million on April 5, 2004. Four subsequent $25 million cash payments will be made by Intel on July 5 and October 5, 2004 as well as January 5 and April 5, 2005. Intergraph estimates its total intellectual property income for the first quarter of 2004, net of all fees and expenses, will be approximately $203 million.

Harris Corporation signed a contract with DigitalGlobe to support its Satellite Control System Upgrade and Expansion program. Harris will provide the satellite command and control system for DigitalGlobe's currently operational QuickBird remote sensing satellite and for its new WorldView satellite.

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Products

A very prized product release this fortnight was the new map from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Central United States Earthquake Consortium that shows that Central States, including Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana are among the most seismically active states east of the Rocky Mountains. More than 800 earthquakes are catalouged on this map that depicts the locations of earthquakes large enough to be felt, since 1699

Cadcorp, the developer of the Cadcorp SIS - Spatial Information System - digital mapping / GIS software suite announced the release of Cadcorp SIS Map Browser. The announcement was made on Cadcorp’s demonstration booth at the Geotec event in Toronto, Canada. Cadcorp, also announced the availability of Cadcorp SIS Book Plotter. A new, free application that works with Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller V6.0 & V6.1

The United States based Benthos Inc. has won a contract to supply one of its new C3D(TM) 3-Dimensional Side Scan Sonar systems to the National Institute of Ocean Technology of India.

Himachal Pradesh in India is set to create a databank of its natural resources after the central government cleared a Rs.25.2 million joint centre-state project. Information about natural resources of the hill state would be computerised for dissemination to assist planners and researchers

Other key product related news were,

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Miscellaneous

A very interesting news is worth putting up. Private surveyors seek recognition in Nigeria where the Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria (APPSN) Lagos State branch, has called on both federal, state and local governments to review their policies on land matters with a view to accord more Nigerian surveyors adequate and proper representation in committees, agencies, and execution of projects on land related matters.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), within the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, organized a five-day Regional Workshop on the Use of Space Technology for Natural Resources Management, Environmental Monitoring and Disaster Management in Khartoum, Sudan, from 4 to 8 April 2004. The Workshop was organized in co-operation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Government of Sudan, and was hosted by the National Centre for Research of Sudan.

In another amazing display, visitors to the recent Geoevenement 2004 show in Paris were queuing in the isles to access 8 Terabytes (8,000GB) colour orthophoto data in the ECW compressed image format, covering the whole of France. In addition to the numerous interactive web browsers permitting multiple views of this massive dataset, was a new kiosk style concept in on-line digital access, by DIGIBORNE.

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