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"A significant amount of spatial and geodata related work is related to urban activity. This involves all kinds of geodata including cadastral, topographic, infrastructure, demographic, transport and many other types of information. At the same time we can find similar levels of activity related to rural environments. While modelling for each may take on different characteristics, there are connection points between urban and rural areas. Should Rural and Urban Spatial Models Link Together?"
-- Jeff Thurston, editor - Europe, Middle East / Africa

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. GDI 3D - city models and spatial data infrastructure from the University of Heidelberg.
2. SEAREG - tool for assessing sea level rise in the Baltic.
3. NZCPA - New Zealand Centre for precision farming.
4. Berkeley/Penn Urban and Environmental Modeler’s Datakit - website and the accompanying data were constructed as part of the Urban & Environmental Footprint 2050 Project
5. Maritime Affairs - EU maritime affairs.

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Open Topography - a portal to high-resolution topography data and tools
2. Popular Science - the entire 137-year archive of the magazine has been opened for free browsing.
3. Green Trails Maps - makers of detailed topographic recreation maps in the Northwestern United States
4. The Future of Games - a presentation by Jesse Schell at DICE 2010
5. Restore America's Estuaries - hope for coastal habitats

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

•  UK Green Building Council - to dramatically improve the sustainability of the built environment, by radically transforming the way it is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated.
• Utah GIS Portal

The International LIDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) took place in Denver, Colo. from March 3-5, 2010. The event drew more than 500 attendees and 60 exhibiting companies. The program placed both an emphasis on research and innovation as well as application, with a mix of process oriented sessions, the strategies and hurdles of collection, and innovative LIDAR applications.

Imagina 2010 - Part 2

The Open Geospatial Consortium has been hard at work on many fronts to realize the full promise of geospatial technology. David Schell, the organization's founder and chairman of the board, spoke with V1 editor Matt Ball about the organizations inroads with the AECOO community and the promise of greater software interoperability.

1.  GIS in 3D and OGC Discussion on the WVS Pipeline
2.  OpenStreetMap 3D
3. Mini-Copter for Aerial Agriculture Monitoring
4. Is 4D GIS Near?
5. IKEA Homes Arrive in Germany
   

1. Mapping the Affordability of Housing and Transportation
2. Senator Files Bill to Stop FEMA Flood Mapping
3. Fusion of Hyperspectral and LIDAR Yields More Realistic Model for Visualization and Simulation
4. LIDAR for Earthquake Planning and Post-Event Assessments
5. LIDAR is a Key Tool for the Measurement of Ecosystem Services

A chronology of 15 years of research and documentation in northwest Mongolia, this book spans the 12,000 year history of the region and the cultural heritage of the people that live there. The location borders both the China  and Russian border areas and the book is the first of it's kind oriented toward archaeology and culture in the region.

[CONTENT]

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"A significant amount of spatial and geodata related work is related to urban activity. This involves all kinds of geodata including cadastral, topographic, infrastructure, demographic, transport and many other types of information. At the same time we can find similar levels of activity related to rural environments. While modelling for each may take on different characteristics, there are connection points between urban and rural areas. Should Rural and Urban Spatial Models Link Together?"
-- Jeff Thurston, editor - Europe, Middle East / Africa

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. GDI 3D - city models and spatial data infrastructure from the University of Heidelberg.
2. SEAREG - tool for assessing sea level rise in the Baltic.
3. NZCPA - New Zealand Centre for precision farming.
4. Berkeley/Penn Urban and Environmental Modeler’s Datakit - website and the accompanying data were constructed as part of the Urban & Environmental Footprint 2050 Project
5. Maritime Affairs - EU maritime affairs.

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Open Topography - a portal to high-resolution topography data and tools
2. Popular Science - the entire 137-year archive of the magazine has been opened for free browsing.
3. Green Trails Maps - makers of detailed topographic recreation maps in the Northwestern United States
4. The Future of Games - a presentation by Jesse Schell at DICE 2010
5. Restore America's Estuaries - hope for coastal habitats

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

•  UK Green Building Council - to dramatically improve the sustainability of the built environment, by radically transforming the way it is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated.
• Utah GIS Portal

The International LIDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) took place in Denver, Colo. from March 3-5, 2010. The event drew more than 500 attendees and 60 exhibiting companies. The program placed both an emphasis on research and innovation as well as application, with a mix of process oriented sessions, the strategies and hurdles of collection, and innovative LIDAR applications.

Imagina 2010 - Part 2

The Open Geospatial Consortium has been hard at work on many fronts to realize the full promise of geospatial technology. David Schell, the organization's founder and chairman of the board, spoke with V1 editor Matt Ball about the organizations inroads with the AECOO community and the promise of greater software interoperability.

1.  GIS in 3D and OGC Discussion on the WVS Pipeline
2.  OpenStreetMap 3D
3. Mini-Copter for Aerial Agriculture Monitoring
4. Is 4D GIS Near?
5. IKEA Homes Arrive in Germany
   

1. Mapping the Affordability of Housing and Transportation
2. Senator Files Bill to Stop FEMA Flood Mapping
3. Fusion of Hyperspectral and LIDAR Yields More Realistic Model for Visualization and Simulation
4. LIDAR for Earthquake Planning and Post-Event Assessments
5. LIDAR is a Key Tool for the Measurement of Ecosystem Services

A chronology of 15 years of research and documentation in northwest Mongolia, this book spans the 12,000 year history of the region and the cultural heritage of the people that live there. The location borders both the China  and Russian border areas and the book is the first of it's kind oriented toward archaeology and culture in the region.

[CONTENT]

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"Intelligent infrastructure combines sensors, network connectivity and software to monitor and analyze complex systems to uncover inefficiency and inform optimal operations. The sensor component collects operational detail over time as well as providing real-time inputs on current conditions. The network connectivity ensures the flow of information between systems, other sensors, and practitioners. The software component provides oversight and analysis, integrating insight from various systems and personnel. The approach incorporates the management of multiple processes for more collaborative and multidisciplinary workflows. Intelligence is constantly improving from such a system through incremental improvements that are informed through constant monitoring and analysis."
-- Matt Ball, editor - Americas / Asia Pacific

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Cryosat - a radar altimetry mission dedicated to the observation of the polar regions,
2. WAsP - WAsP is a PC program for predicting wind climates, wind resources and power productions from wind turbines and wind farms.
3. Citing Geospatial Resources - explains how to cite geospatial resources.
4. EURECA - will assess the state of ecosystems in Europe in 2010 and their possible development beyond 2010.
5. UKGEOforum - group of societies and associations that represent the core interests that encompass geography, mapping and the geospatial information handling industry.

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Subversive Cartography - Challenging the accuracy of the official map.
2. Marine Map - Decision suppor for marine spatial planning.
3. C-CAP Land Cover Atlas - Regional land cover and land cover change information from NOAA's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP).
4. Points of View -- Swiss artist Felice Varini utlilizes the power of perspective and vantage points to create unique paintings.
5. The Smarter City - IBM's vision for a more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent city.

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

• Master on Earth Remote Sensing and Observation Systems
• Geoconnections Canada - Discovery Portal
• Second Wind - Sensors for wind measurements.

The SPAR 2010 Conference took place in The Woodlands, Texas from Feb. 8-10. This gathering of vendors and practioners in a hot technical topic drew an enthusiastic crowd of roughly 750 people, despite a travel-hampered week due to East coast weather. This year's event placed a focus on practical use of the technology, with apllication-centric conference tracks on topics such as security, industrial plant, foensics, scan to BIM and mobile surveying.

Imagina 2010 - Part 2

Fred Limp has been on the forefront of spatial technology research and development projects as the founder and past director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas. Limp has written several prescient articles about the growing importance of 3D in the geospatial sphere, and continues to work on interesting research projects that involve the application of 3D data collection, integration and analysis tools to pressing problems. V1 Magazine editor Matt Ball spoke with Limp about his work and the trends in the 3D space.

1. Vertical GIS: Layered Sideways
2. Tupolev 144 Up Close
3. Urban Processes and Food Geography
4. METRICITY - Urban Measurement Density Project
5. Mini-Copter for Aerial Agriculture Monitoring
   

1. PhotoCity Project Pushes Creation of Large 3D City Models within a Game Framework
2. Is an Infrastructure Spending Bubble Coming?
3. Marine Spatial Planning is on the Rise in the United States
4. Department of Interior Uses Geospatial Tools to Communicate Water Policy Direction
5. Mapping Tool Explores the Olympics as a Conduit for Disease and Infection

A chronology of 15 years of research and documentation in northwest Mongolia, this book spans the 12,000 year history of the region and the cultural heritage of the people that live there. The location borders both the China  and Russian border areas and the book is the first of it's kind oriented toward archaeology and culture in the region.

[CONTENT]

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"New mobile prod­ucts are arriv­ing in the mar­ket­place daily. Along with them come new appli­ca­tion pro­gram­ming inter­faces (APIs). Each of these is used to access soft­ware pro­grams of dif­fer­ent types. Geospa­tial and design inter­ested par­ties have never had a greater oppor­tu­nity to access pow­er­ful spa­tial data so read­ily — and sim­ply. The growth in APIs is expand­ing rapidly. Dif­fer­ent mobile phones, more spa­tially related Apps — how do we wade through it all?"
-- Jeff Thurston, editor - Europe, Middle East and Africa

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Taco Shed - do you know where your taco comes from?
2. Conefor Sensinode - software package that allows quantifying the importance of habitat areas for the maintenance or improvement of landscape connectivity.
3. SAWRC - South African water research commission.
4. Alterra - combination of practical and scientific research in a multitude of disciplines related to the green world around us and the sustainable use of our living environment.
5. NZ Soils Portal  - window into all things about New Zealand's soils.

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. Illinois Farm Sustainability Calculator
2. Tile Drawer -- Allows you to run your own OpenStreetMap server.
3. Corridor Design - GIS tools and information for designing wildlife corridors.
4. dataviz -- Improving data visualisation for the public sector.
5. TED Talk: Parag Khanna Maps the Future of Countries with a geopolitical analysis.

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

• Creatmosphere - exploring light in spaces.
• GDI-3D - spatial dfata infrastructure for 3D geodata in Heidelberg, Germany
•  amMap - An interactive flash-based mapping tool

Imagina 2010 - Part 2

New tools and products are emerging in the LiDAR, photogrammetry and satellite imaging fields today as 3D environments and 3D city modeling gain wider acceptance. These are impacting work related to digital surfaces, object extraction - recognition and leading to additional research and applications. Sweden based Håkan Wiman has been centrally involved in this work including the development of Metria CityModeler and WiMap BM (building modeler). V1 Magazine editor Jeff Thurston interviewed him with respect to his work related to 3D city modeling, visualisation, LiDAR and digital surface modeling.

1. GeoDesign: A GIS Perspective
2. Watch a Bear Hibernate
3. Earth Conservation and Landscape Tools
4. Thesis: Virtual globes as a platform for developing spatial literacy
5. Report: Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy
   

1. Suspicious Map Triggers Whistler Olympic Village Search
2. ClearEdge3D Proves the Worth of Their Edgewise Technology
   
3. Update on the Earthmine Photo Pointcloud Collection
4. Spatial Industry Association in Australia Declares the Country the World Leaders
   
5. Stanford Set to Open a New Facility to Study Detailed Census Data
   

Land administration plays a unique role in solving sustainability issues. It involves an integrated approach that includes several common factors that can be applied around the world, even though their actual implementation can differ from country to country. Our relationship to the land includes both physical and cognitive factors and these connect to wider topics related to law, regulation and legislation. The authors of this book provide a wealth of information for understanding land administration systems and how future spatial data infrastructure may incorporate new processes leading toward sustainability.

[CONTENT]

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"Since the technology’s first inception in the late 1960s, LIDAR has been applied to atmospheric studies of air quality, marine and hydrographic studies, for bathymetric studies and water quality issues, surveying and mapping, as well as positioning and guidance. The technology has been tweaked and fine tuned for each subsequent application area, lending improvements back to the technology development as a whole. While all of these applications and their insight have been impressive, we’re still just scratching the surface with the capabilities of this technology."
-- Matt Ball, editor - Americas / Asia Pacific

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. EU Agri-Env Action: horizontal integration of sectoral policies, such as environmental, agricultural or those relating to rural development.
2. Excel to KML - display Excel data files in Google Earth 
3. CSTB France - building and design tools for engineers
4. ICIMOD - mountain geoportal
5. Nile Basin Initiative - Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a partnership initiated and led by the riparian states of the Nile River through the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin states.

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. ECOS Magazine - An Australian publication focused on sustainability.
2. Understanding the Deep Ocean Circulation and Climate Modeling - A feature in Ars Technica.
3. The City Beneath the City - An exploration of the salt mines beneath Detroit.
4. GEOweb - The District of North Vancouver's GIS Website.
5. The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discover - A free book from Microsoft Research.

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

• Community Information Need - A project of the Knight Foundation
• ESRI's Online Database of Academic GIS Programs
• Cicada Design - CAD architectural design from Toronto
• Dept of Earth Sciences - University of Oxford, UK
   

Imagina 2010 - Part 1

New tools and products are emerging in the LiDAR, photogrammetry and satellite imaging fields today as 3D environments and 3D city modeling gain wider acceptance. These are impacting work related to digital surfaces, object extraction - recognition and leading to additional research and applications. Sweden based Håkan Wiman has been centrally involved in this work including the development of Metria CityModeler and WiMap BM (building modeler). V1 Magazine editor Jeff Thurston interviewed him with respect to his work related to 3D city modeling, visualisation, LiDAR and digital surface modeling.

1. Infoterra Skape - Online 3D & Visualisation
2. How Much is the UK Space Industry Worth?
3. Olympic Spirit - Maps for the 2010 Winter Olympics
4. 2D=solos - 3D=freedom
5. Geospatial Tools: Virtual Water Trading Credits

1. Alice Labs Focuses on High Resolution Virtual Reality
2. Microsoft Adds Streetside Photos to Bing Maps
3. Open Source as a Mission for Social Good
4. Bentley Acquires Two Infrastructure Management Companies and Launches AssetWise
5. LIDAR Pioneer Speaks to Technology Advancement

Land administration plays a unique role in solving sustainability issues. It involves an integrated approach that includes several common factors that can be applied around the world, even though their actual implementation can differ from country to country. Our relationship to the land includes both physical and cognitive factors and these connect to wider topics related to law, regulation and legislation. The authors of this book provide a wealth of information for understanding land administration systems and how future spatial data infrastructure may incorporate new processes leading toward sustainability.

[CONTENT]

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"The devel­op­ment and release of 3D GIS is a major step for­ward into the future. It will undoubt­edly cause a stir, sev­eral peo­ple to scratch their heads and unleash a wave of new think­ing that we have not expe­ri­enced in the geo­com­mu­nity for quite some time. It will cross dis­ci­plines, open doors and stir the pot of con­tented indi­vid­u­als who thought we had gone as far as we could go. Visu­al­iza­tion is poised to sky rocket in terms of activ­ity due to new ways for inter­pret­ing prob­lems, under­stand­ing their nature and rep­re­sent­ing their inter­ac­tions. Is 3D GIS about to rev­o­lu­tion­ize visualization?"
-- Jeff Thurston, editor - Europe, Middle East & Africa

Jeff's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. SafeLand - Living with landslide risk in Europe: Assessment, effects of global change,
   and risk management strategies.
2. Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture
3. Digital Soil Mapping - IUSS working group on digital soil mapping.
4. Map Projections for Europe
5. Forests, landscapes and governance: multiple actors, multiple roles

Matt's Top 5 Links of the Week

1. AvantGame - Game design and game theory for real life.
2. DigitalNode - A business that specializes in training materials for Autodesk geospatial products.
3. Satellites Orbiting the Earth - An infographic on Flickr showing global makeup of satellite constellations.
4. The Secret Life of Things - Website with EcoDesign resources.
5. Wide Noise - Noise detection in realtime worldwide.

Reader's Top Links of the Week (Submit your links to top5@vector1media.com)

• Geolenz - contextual geotagging
• Book: A Practical Guide to Geostatistical Mapping

Paul Ramsey has been an open geospatial advocate for some time and is deeply involved in PostGIS and MapServer development and project consulting. Paul was the keynote speaker at last year’s Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference (FOSS4G), and teaches many workshops to help others develop solutions with this technology. He works for OpenGeo, a company that has just released the OpenGeo Suite, a productized stack of optimized open geospatial technologies. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Ramsey regarding this new suite of tools, and about the status of open geospatial tools in general.

1. imagina 2010: Dassault Systems Moving into the Digital City
2. imagina 2010: 3D Digital Towns and Cities
3. imagina Round Table : The Benefits of 3D fr Architecture, Sustainable City Mgt, Urban Design
4. Avatar Stereoscopy Imaging 3D at imagina
5. Korea Spatial Data Infrastructure - GIS

1. USGS Budget Cuts Hit Geospatial
2. Autodesk's Purchase of Dynamite Unlocks Civil3D Visualization Workflows
3. USGS Budget Justification Laments the Mapping Partnership Loss
4. Microsoft and ESRI Address Need for Fused Data
5. The Land Change Modeler from Clark Labs Gets Support from Google.org

Land administration plays a unique role in solving sustainability issues. It involves an integrated approach that includes several common factors that can be applied around the world, even though their actual implementation can differ from country to country. Our relationship to the land includes both physical and cognitive factors and these connect to wider topics related to law, regulation and legislation. The authors of this book provide a wealth of information for understanding land administration systems and how future spatial data infrastructure may incorporate new processes leading toward sustainability.

[CONTENT]

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"The unfolding events in Haiti have underscored the fact that accessibility to map making tools and open spatial data can make anyone a mapmaker. Mapping is an activity that provides a tangible means for concerned citizens to reach out and help make sense of a very complicated and evolving situation where the more that is known, the more that can be done, and the quicker the mapping response, the quicker aid will reach the effected population."
-- Matt Ball, editor - Americas/Asia Pacific

Safe Software is one of the most respected businesses in the geospatial technology industry due in large part to their customer-centric attitude, their stability and longevity (going on 16 years), and their enthusiasm for tackling tough technical challenges. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with the company founders, Don Murray and Dale Lutz, about the latest improvements in their FME 2010 release, focusing most on improved visualization and analysis.

1. Executive Becomes Executive at 1Spatial
2. PixelActive CityScape - Visualization and Design Prototyping
3. Geospatial Web Services - Standards - Interoperability
4. TerraSAR-X 2-D Motion Map Haiti
5. The 3D Ethics Charter

1. Connecting Place History to Health
2. Reminder About Map-Based Assumptions
3. The Dynamic Duo of Data and Dimensions
4. Mapping the Route of Salinger's Famous Character
5. City Picks Projects Over Mapping

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What Do We Expect from GIS, CAD, Surveying and Visualization Today?

"Time changes and tech­nol­ogy does as well. Over time the rea­sons we pur­chased a prod­uct also change. We learn, we grow and we devel­op­ment new thoughts about spa­tial data, maps and how new designs and appli­ca­tions can be cre­ated. Growth leads to new ideas and per­cep­tions, sud­denly what was accept­able appears blurs and becomes re-established at another level and in a dif­fer­ent form. New expec­ta­tions for our geo­graphic infor­ma­tion sys­tems (GIS) arise and we expect our CAD sys­tems to deliver some­thing more."
-- Jeff Thurston, editor - Europe, Middle East and Africa

Safe Software is one of the most respected businesses in the geospatial technology industry due in large part to their customer-centric attitude, their stability and longevity (going on 16 years), and their enthusiasm for tackling tough technical challenges. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with the company founders, Don Murray and Dale Lutz, about the latest improvements in their FME 2010 release, focusing most on improved visualization and analysis.

1. LIDAR - InSAR: A Comparison
2. Why Nokia Could Have a Leading Geospatial Position
3. Haiti Earthquake Damage Assessment Map
4. BlomURBEX - Markup and Measurement on the GeoServer
5. OGC Interoperability: Environmental Modeling

1. Dangermond Discusses the Integration of GIS and BIM
2. Simplified Bing Destination Maps Are Genius
3. Reflecting on My Open Source Experience
4. HP Labs Announces Central Nervous System for the Earth
5. Vancouver Updates their Open Data Website

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How does the evolution of geospatial technology impact the future approach of a land developer?

"The demand for new housing will not go away anytime soon. However, new development plans are under increasing scrutiny regarding the value that they bring to communities, and the impacts that they’ll have on quality of life. This growing sentiment of more reasoned development plays neatly into the hands of evolving design and planning approaches as well as supporting geospatial technologies."
-- Matt Ball, editor - The Americas / Asia Pacific

ESRI Enables the Intelligent Query and Analysis of Virtual Cities

ESRI, the leading mapping software company, was started more than forty years ago. As a pioneer of geographic information systems, the company has been at the forefront of new technology developments that have broadened the use of the geographic approach. V1 editor Matt Ball shared the following questions with Jack Dangermond, ESRI's founder and president, at the GeoDesign Summit in Redlands, Calif. This event marked a growing emphasis on the broader use of geospatial technology for design and planning, and the following questions focus primarily on these aspects of ESRI's operations.

1. SDI - Canadian Spatial Data Infrastructure 2005 - 2009
2. Editorial: Putting Your Finger on the Spatial Pulse of Design
3. Satellite Imagery for Crop Loss Insurance
4. U.S. National Soil Survey 2009
5. PSMA - Delivering Spatial Data Across Australia

1. Geo Community Pours Effort into Haiti Quake
2. A Call for a Coordinated and Conflated Effort
3. Vancouver Embodies GeoDesign
4. The Fresh Start that GeoDesign Offers
5. India Reports Loss of Land to China