30 June 2008, 10:27am
Rijekaprojekt d.o.o began a project in the seaport town of Rijeka, Croatia. The small town had very few traffic circles, and the citizens had very little experience using them, so Rijekaprojekt used RDV Systems’ visualizations to demonstrate exactly how the roundabout would work.
19 June 2008, 12:39pm
The United Nations has held its first debate on road safety amid warnings that the problem is a 'public health crisis' on the scale of Aids, malaria and tuberculosis. The World Heath Organisation predict that between 2000 and 2015 road accidents would cause 20 million deaths, 200 million serious injuries and leave more than one billion people killed, injured, bereaved or left to care for a victim.
18 June 2008, 11:06am
Thick smoke from two large fires in North Carolina and Virginia traveled up the East Coast in mid-June 2008, affecting air quality in numerous cities and towns, including the nation’s capital. The Evans Road Fire had burned over 41,000 acres of the Pocosin National Wildlife Refuge as of Sunday, June 15, while the South 1 Fire in the Great Dismal Swamp had burned about 1,500 acres.
03 June 2008, 3:15pm
Addressing the global issue of biodiversity loss, participants from all over the world recently gathered in Germany to attend the UN's Convention of Biological Diversity Conference of Parties. During the conference, data from Earth observation satellites was highlighted as playing a crucial role in the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable development.
13 May 2008, 10:00am
Underground surveys at a major US gold mine are being carried out more effectively by using a Cavity Autoscanning Laser System (C-ALS) from laser measurements specialists, Measurement Devices Ltd (MDL). Cavity and stope surveys are being made faster and more cost-effective for Newmont Midas Operations, Nevada, thanks to a C-ALS acquired from Measurement Devices Ltd, York, last year (2007).
09 May 2008, 8:59pm
WINSOC (Wireless Sensor Networks with Self-Organization Capabilities for Critical and Emergency Applications), a project funded by the FP6 Information Society Technologies programme of the European Union is already delivering results. WINSOC started in September 2006 and will run till the end of February 2009. The project goal is to improve the performance of sensor networks by using a biologically inspired design –inscribed in the frame of the so called bioinspired science that basically consists of looking at nature to solve problems, that is, using living organisms as a model to study and conceptualize problems in a variety of fields as engineering and design, materials or sociology for example. Now, WINSOC first results have been obtained and reported in journals as IEEE Signal Proc. Magazine and IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing among others as well as in conferences—the papers, deliverables and other informative material can be downloaded from the project website at www.winsoc.org.
07 May 2008, 3:30pm
Envisat captured Cyclone Nargis making its way across the Bay of Bengal just south of Myanmar on 1 May 2008. The cyclone hit the coastal region and ripped through the heart of Myanmar on Saturday, devastating the country.
05 May 2008, 3:30pm
Chile’s Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina’s Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008.
24 April 2008, 11:22am
ScanEx R&D Center together with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “East Siberian R&D Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources” published the second edition of the reference guide “Power of federal and local governmental authorities to perform environmental monitoring and to promote nature protection activities based on Earth observation from space”.
14 April 2008, 3:09pm
14 April 2008 ESA PR 22-2008. The European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space today signed a €305 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-3 earth observation satellite, devoted to oceanography and land-vegetation monitoring, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the satellite’s design, development and integration.
08 April 2008, 9:01am
New Boliden - the owner of Europe’s largest open pit copper mine Aitik in Gällivare, Sweden - discovered that the lands surrounding the mine also contain many valuable materials. So they simply decided to widen the entire open pit mine - to twice its current size - to enable access to these materials. Only problem: their current buildings are still on the ground they want to widen the mine to.
01 April 2008, 11:41am
The Earth's largest ecosystem, the ocean, is studied by specialists from a range of scientific disciplines. Despite the ocean's apparent vastness, human activities have had a profound effect on ocean systems, and in turn changes in the ocean system have comparably profound effects on the weather and climate. Mark Reichardt, President & CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) explains why "the oceans research community is aggressively implementing and using OGC standards..."
25 March 2008, 5:36pm
Shell Canada has incorporated Earth Observation data into its Sustainable Development Report, demonstrating the potential of satellites to provide a global and cost-effective way to measure objectively the sustainability of business activities.
21 March 2008, 5:37pm
TopoSys has virtually eliminated the need for calibration flights or “Boresighting” for aerial LIDAR surveys with their line of LiDAR sensors which are highly stable, completely integrated, turn-key systems of IMU, GPS, LIDAR sensor and digital imaging systems.
18 March 2008, 2:05pm
A new global portrait taken from space details Earth’s land cover with a resolution never before obtained. ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, presented the preliminary version of the map to scientists last week at the 2nd GlobCover User Consultation workshop held in Rome, Italy.
10 March 2008, 11:02am
The amount of information being generated about our planet is increasing at an exponential rate, but it must be easily accessible in order to apply it to the global needs relating to the state of the Earth.
07 March 2008, 12:32pm
East Sussex Case Study by Roger Williams on "Parity Between Utilities and Local Authority in East Sussex"
06 March 2008, 12:43pm
For the first time the explorers Matvei Shparo and Boris Smolin started their trip to the North Pole during the polar night. Within two-month period they are supposed to cover 980 km from Arctic Cape (Severnaya Zemlya) to the North Pole. The expedition is supported by the Moscow Government and ScanEx R&D Center. It started on December 22, 2007 and is to be completed by March 10, 2008. The explorers have already covered half the way.
26 February 2008, 7:11pm
A unique set of maps has been launched today to fill the gaps that exist between layers of Ordnance Survey historical mapping, enabling environmental consultants to make site assessments with a greater degree of accuracy.
18 February 2008, 10:52am
New SPIN-ALP research project explores the potential of shifting freight from road to rail. PTV takes charge of SPIN-ALP research project and develops software for intermodal transport planning. The project started in December 2007
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Each month we select a hot topic and a leading figure in the industry to write about it.What message are we sending to senior level decision makers about the importance and value of Spatial Data Infrastructure - SDI - if we keep misrepresenting what SDI is or is all about?
In previous editorials in this magazine I have touched on various SDI issues, especially now that the pan-European SDI has achieved a legally mandated status within the European Union's 27 Member States. Yet I fear that the Geographic Information community - or communities, for there are many - continue to… More…
Roger Longhorn