PERSPECTIVES

What is the promise of the model-based future for multi-disciplinary planning projects?

This column is sponsored by

"Multi-disciplinary projects and modeling will be critically important in the future. The need for increased transparency, more legislation, distributed workflows and processes as well as a desire to embrace and include professional experience and knowledge to deal with complex problems are all key factors involved.  A large hurdle will be in learning to work together in new ways and applying spatial tools in convergent - integrated ways. We are moving swiftly toward a model-based future."

Jeff Thurston, Editor, EMEA and Russia, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

"There’s such great promise for the model-based future for projects that incorporate multiple disciplines and have sustainability as their goal. When the interdisciplinary approach meets a collaborative model-based interface, where all inputs become a shared model, expertise and insight into complex systems will be greatly enhanced."

Matt Ball, Editor, Americas/Asia-Pacific, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

TOP STORIES

FEATURES

  Read all our Top Stories during the last week.

Breaking the Accuracy Mold

Imagine a scenario in which street centerlines are stored in a GIS database with an accuracy of ±5 feet.  In the same database, parcel data are stored with an accuracy of ±0.10 feet.  And what if environmental data are stored at ±50 feet? Is that doable? As a matter of fact, presently this scenario is more the rule than the exception.  

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 369 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. Several of these members originate from Europe and that is where Vector1 Media editor Jeff Thurston met with Mark Reichardt, president and CEO, Martin Klopfer, European Programs Director and Athina Trakas, OGC business development Europe for this interview at the recently held OGC Interoperability Days meetings.

TOP FIVE LINKS OF THE WEEK

 
Jeff's Top Five Links of the Week

4)' 'Dam' Bureaucrats - a touch of humor to keep you smiling!

5)  The Environment for Europe Process - An information resource service supported by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)

Matt's Top Five Links of the Week

1) Ecosystem Marketplace - A site that documents the economic value of environmental services.

2) Earth Knowledge - Consolidates scientific information about the Earth for sound decisions.

3) ODT Maps - Maps of many projections that offer many ways to see the world.

4) 11th Hour Action - A community for action to meet sustainability goals.

5) New American Dream - A non-profit organization that aims to conserve natural resources, counter the commercialization of our culture, and promote positive changes in the way goods are produced and consumed. 

Reader´s Links of the Week

Submit suggested links to anything you would like to recommend that fellow readers do, see or read via e-mail to mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

INTERVIEWS

Autodesk Embarks on a Digital Cities Initiative

Autodesk has outlined a vision for highly detailed 3D digital cities that would become collaborative environments for secure integration of CAD, building information modeling (BIM), and geospatial information. V1 Magazine editor Matt Ball sat down with Doug Eberhard, Autodesk’s senior director and industry evangelist for digital cities, to discuss the digital cities idea, and how these systems could help foster a holistic approach to city management.

CityGML - Modeling the City for the Future

CityGML is emerging as a model for defining the structures for organising urban information. It aims to identify the meaning and function of objects in a city. Thomas Kolbe became initially involved in CityGML from the beginning. Vector1 Media editor Jeff Thurston met up with him at the recently held Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Interoperability Day in Potsdam, Germany for this interview on the topic of CityGML.  

EVENT COVERAGE

Intergraph 2008: Experience the Power

The 2008 Intergraph 2008 International Users' Conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada from June 2-5. More than 2,600 attendees gathered from more than 60 countries, making the event one of the largest ever. The theme of the event was "Experience the Power," with strong connections to Intergraph's power business, but also a connection to the resurgence of the company after extensive restructuring.

BOOK REVIEW 

Analyzing Urban Poverty 

When I picked up this book I did not know what to expect. It is not a topic that is often discussed or written about. Authors Rosario C. Giusti de Perez and Ramon A. Perez take us on a journey inside the world of urban development for developing nations. As two of the earliest users of GIS, dating back to 1976, even before 'GIS' was used a term, they describe their award winning efforts using GIS in the squatter communities of Venezuela – known as barrios.

HEADLINE NEWS

CALENDAR

• Midwest Floodwaters Tainted With Sewage, Chemicals
• India Infrastructure Growth Slumps to 3.6% in April
• German Government Passes More Climate Protection Laws
• One Step Closer to Clean, Healthy Water
• Russia to Launch Its First Weather Satellite
• Norway and UK Commit GBP 100 million to Rainforest Fund
• Architects and Planners Ponder a Baltimore City Design Center
• Space Technology Helps Norfolk Farmers
• Pentagon to Consult Academics on Security
• Satellite on Mission to Catch Speeding Tide
• Cameron: We Must Lead the Way in Tidal Energy
• State May Park Free Parking
• Qatar’s Green Credentials Given Boost by UN
• Demand for Data Puts Engineers in Spotlight
• Worst U.S. Cities for Global Warming
• Global Warming's Good Side
• The Tropical Biodiversity Data Gap: Addressing Disparity in Global Monitoring
• Climate change: civil society Agora Calls On The EU To Act Fast
• Africa's Congo Basin Forest Aided by Satellite Tree-felling Survey
• The Rise of Indian Wind Power
• Walking on a Wire
• What is carfree?

TOP 5 BLOG POSTS OF THE WEEK 

VECTOR ONE

SPATIAL SUSTAIN 

1. Portugal Meterological Institute: GIS Web Mapping and SensorWeb
2. What Does 'No' in Ireland Mean to Europe
3. Ecopolis Floating City
4. Smart Growth City Toolkit
5. Roman Topography: Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome
   

1. Iowa DOT Offers Real-time Road Map
   
2. Skyline Incorporates Underground Modeling
3. New Tornado Path Website Launched
4. $4 Gas and the Infrastructure Catch-22
5. The Changing American Dream

BOOKSTORE

Generative Social Science (2007)

By Joshua Epstein

A landmark publication in the emerging field of multiagent-based simulation of dynamic social systems

Spatial Analysis: A Guide for Ecologists (2005)

  By Marie-Josée Fortin and Mark Dale

This book provides an overview of the wide range of spatial statistics available to analyze ecological data, and provides advice and guidance for graduate students and practicing researchers.

Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice  (2003)

By Monica Turner, R. H. Gardner, R. V. O'Neill

Landscape ecology has emerged during the past two decades as a new and exciting level of ecological study. n this new text book this new field of landscape ecology is given the first fully integrated treatment suitable for the student.