A bird’s eye view

What used to be a specialised and little known discipline has rapidly become a technology that is both widely recognised and accepted and relied upon for a wide variety of applications in global infrastructure planning and management. EI speaks with two experts in the field of ggeospatial technologies to discover more about how the market has evolved over the years and the untapped potential that is yet to be realised.

With Frank Ostyn Sales Execution Director for Autodesk in EMEA, and Rolf Schaeppi, VP European Operations, ITT, Visual Information Solutions, RSI.

What role are geospatial technologies currently playing in the cost-effective and strategic advancement of infrastructure?

FO. I see clear trends in infrastructure design, construction and management that point toward an expansion of the business worldwide. First, there is an abundance of new projects, both in the developed world and in emerging markets. We also see a scarcity of resources (the average age of staff working for infrastructure companies is increasing rapidly) and more subcontracting than ever before. Infrastructure players are expanding their activities and we are now seeing customers increase the return on their IT investment by integrating separate systems and streamlining their operations.

Infrastructure follows a specific lifecycle – planning, design, construction, operation and management – which triggers a flow of information, during the different phases, of any infrastructure project. Today, this flow of information is mainly paper driven, or if digital is so constrained that it becomes a bottleneck.

However, several breakthroughs are emerging in this area. Firstly, there is a merging of traditional engineering (CAD) and management technologies (GIS) technologies integrating into a common spatial technology. This will help organisations to avoid maintaining several separate information silos, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Secondly, alliances between industry leaders, such as Autodesk and Oracle, are facilitating a more open architecture and avoid vendor lock-in. Model based design of infrastructure will facilitate the design but also the construction and maintenance of that infrastructure. 3D visualization engines, like those used in the game industry, will set the standard for how we want to visualise infrastructure information.

Lastly, the popularity of games such as Sim City or web services like Google Earth are leading to the dissemination of geospatial concepts to a wider group of people than ever before and has triggered demand for use of geospatial technologies.

High resolution satellite imagery has been a major driver to increasing the awareness of geospatial information and its applications. Rolf, how have you seen the field change over the years?

RS. It’s easy when speaking of remote sensing to assume that we’re talking about satellite acquired data sets in the earth observation field. However, while this was largely true in the early 1990s, fields have now adopted remote sensing techniques using a large variety of different sensors. The non-destructive testing and medical imaging markets are good examples of that technology transfer.

In the traditional earth observation market there used to be a smaller number of players in a very niche market. Over the years, however, we’ve seen a merging of technologies and a wider acceptance of the remote sensing technologies. What used to be a specialised discipline has increasingly become a technology that is accepted and used by a wide variety of professionals throughout the geospatial industry.

The availability of a growing array of satellite sensors, the ease of use of the software tools and the increased awareness of the benefits of earth observation technologies, with its political support, are major factors supporting this trend. The GEOSS and GMES initiative are very good examples of this trend in action.

And how has the technology advanced over the years?

FO. Geospatial professionals pioneered the use of intelligent computer models that manufacturing, architectural and now civil engineering professionals are exploiting. Model based information systems are easier to understand for non-technicians. Objects in models interact with each other based on events or business rules. In that way, producing new designs, extensive updates or what-if scenarios become more efficient. Given the cost of building and operating infrastructure, there is a huge opportunity by putting more energy into the planning and design phase. Much of this design and CAD information finds its way into a GIS eventually, so it is much better to start the process using an intelligent model.

In addition, professional measuring devices such as GPS navigation systems and satellite images are becoming increasingly available at reduced cost. This has led to an exponential growth in location related information and leads to the democratisation of geospatial information. Google Earth will undoubtedly further expand the reach of spatial information, also growing the market for the professional software.

RS. The entrance of very high resolution satellite imagery in the late 1980s has been a major driver to increasing the awareness of geospatial information and its applications. As these and satellites have advanced and brought the cost of imagery down, it now appeals to a broader user community. With this expanded use of satellite imagery came the need for more, and easier to use, processing tools, that would allow users to explore the spectral content of those images, maximizing the value of the information that could be extracted from the image pixels.
This demand has driven rapid improvement in the software tools being provided within the industry. Companies very quickly developed tools for GIS professionals that made it easier for them to obtain geospatial information from imagery, using remote sensing techniques, without requiring an in depth understanding of the underlying methods used to produce those results.
This was then combined with photogrammetric processes to extract 3D information from imagery. Today we see the three disciplines – remote sensing, photogrammetry and GIS – having fully merged into one process within the earth observation field. ITT VIS’ ENVI based solutions are a good example for this.
The global earth observation market is also seeing some of its traditional solutions migrating to the internet with the new Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth ventures. These have significant potential to create new paradigms for the future of the earth observation industry.

In what applications in particular are geospatial technologies having most impact? Where is the untapped potential?

FO. Within E&C companies, increased competition leads to shrinking of operating margins. The operational penalties and costs linked to working with imprecise or incorrect data can be considerable, especially during the construction phase. For the same reason, E&C firms want to expand their activities with high margin operating or management services, and are now expanding outside of their traditional activity areas to become providers of management and operating services.

Transportation agencies in the developed world face huge investments in order to rehabilitate existing infrastructure. In addition, limited financial resources and strict government regulations force them to provide new services with existing infrastructure. By integrating traditionally separate technologies of CAD and GIS into a cohesive system, these agencies can better reduce costs, shorten schedules and streamline their operations.

Local governments are required by the public to provide current and easy access to city information. Government administrations have not exploited technology to provide better services by integrating their engineering and public works departments that employ CAD with their planning departments that typically use GIS.

The ultimate result of driving this integration becomes clear in the Virtual City concept. Besides the increased efficiency of working within a model-based design environment, new services will be available. An overview of a city (similar to Google Earth) will allow you to zoom into a building and to see the construction plans (construction and engineering), the space occupancy (facility management) and the emergency exit routes (emergency procedures). It also helps city government to model the impact of a new street on traffic flow, a new fire exit during an evacuation or a power failure at the main power station.

RS. Remote imaging has always been a very important component of Geospatial Information Systems, starting with aerial photography as far back as the 19th century, when they used pigeons with small cameras strapped to them! Extracting information, mainly vectors, using airborne imagery and photogrammetric techniques was the primary objective until the first satellite images became available. It was with the first multi-band satellite imager2 (multi and hyperspectral imagery) that we started to ‘look’ inside the pixel and extracted additional information from the spectral bands.

While photogrammetry continues to be an important source of geospatial information, we will see extraction of information using remote sensing techniques become increasingly important. This will be driven partly by the deployment of new sensors (radar, multi spectral and hyperspectral satellites), some of which will be launched in the coming months and years, as well as a growing demand from the user community.

Hyperspectral satellite imagery, in particular, has great untapped potential and promises to open up new markets. ITT Visual Information Solutions is the market leader in offering solutions for processing of multi spectral and hyperspectral imagery and we anxiously await the deployment of these new sensors.

From an applications perspective, remote sensing is proliferating broadly. Just a few examples are defence and security for target detection, forestry and agriculture for disease detection or pest infestation, mapping and detection of natural resources, and state and local government use for planning purposes.

Remote sensing techniques will also play a major role in key space programmes, such as the six new Earth Explorer missions, recently shortlisted by ESA for further study. These six missions plan to cover a range of environmental issues with the aim of furthering our understanding of the Earth and its changing climate.

These applications will benefit citizens both in Europe and globally and as the benefits of these missions grow it will only gain in importance and value over the coming years.

What factors are currently limiting the full realisation of this potential and how can these barriers be removed?

FO. Today, infrastructure information resides in different departments and in different IT environments. Moreover, these information systems are rigid and designed for a single purpose. New technologies and systems require that this information move quickly and efficiently to support the organization, but this is often difficult with legacy systems.

It is crucial to think company-wide, and to manage information as a company asset, structuring and storing it in a way that unleashes its full potential.

A lot of infrastructure information is stored in analogue form, and if data is available digitally, it is often structured with one specific application in mind. In contrast, professionally engineered data models support the use of data for several applications.

One way to remove these barriers is to measure and demonstrate the revenue gain or cost savings. This will help to show that data and information should not belong to a single department. Some infrastructure players understand this, and will evolve fast in a growing competitive world where investment in Infrastructure will be financed in part by operating revenues.

RS. In my view, the untapped potential lies in web based deployment of this critical information. Internet technology and its ability to provide global reach will enable proliferation of these new data types and information products to users all over the world. To that end, Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth have already helped to raise the awareness of geospatial information, bringing basic tools to the everyday user through simple location based services (LBS) offerings.

Interoperability standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), such as web map services (WMS) and web coverage services (WCS), are other key drivers in the market that will speed up the process of creating geospatial information products and making them accessible over the web. We must provide software tools that adhere to these standards, are web accessible, and so easy to use that a wider number of people can benefit.

However, these developments alone will not be enough. If we want to see many new applications being developed, such as those as part of the GMES program, a key hurdle will be improving the accessibility of the imagery data through simpler, cheaper means of licensing. It is our view that as long as data sets have to be purchased, the industry will remain within its current ‘circle’ and services will be offered only on a project by project basis. Without more flexible licensing mechanisms, the market simply will not grow as substantially or as quickly as it could or should.

To what extent is there currently regionwide and global collaboration in the GIS field and in sharing of geospatial information?

FO. The need to standardise the way we store geospatial information grows as the amount of information grows. The OGC and the ISO produce important standardisation specifications that find more and more adoption in government and military markets.

More recently, there is an international foundation, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (www.osgeo.org), which supports and promotes the growth of open source GIS software. The traffic to their website grows along with the thousands of users who are downloading their free software to test on their own applications.

The EU is proposing a directive to establish a system for spatial information (INSPIRE) targeting to deliver integrated spatial information services. These services should allow users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global level, in an interoperable way for a variety of uses. The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at the European, national and local levels.

RS. Satellite imagers lend themselves very well to data collection on a global scale. As such, it makes a lot of sense to try to expand the various services regionwide or globally. A number of programmes already exist that aim to encourage cross-border collaboration, GMES (Europe-wide) and GEOSS (global) being the two best known. However, those programmes simply provide the political will and funding to ‘kickstart’ an effort that it is hoped will result in a self-sustainable system. As mentioned before, broader data availability is key to making this a reality, and we are not quite there yet.

In certain parts of the world, satellite imagery and aerial photography are still hard to come by (mainly for reasons of national security) and is partially controlled by the relevant governments. This will remain the case for the near future, but over time, we believe we will see those restrictions lifted.

What are the barriers or challenges when it comes to achieving better interoperability of systems and processes?

FO. Primarily this is about adoption of industry specific data models that include the geospatial concept as a core element. These models need to provide information for a variety of users, from the legal department, to the maintenance department, all the way through customer care.

We also need to focus less on where the data are physically stored. Users no longer need to know the exact location of all information. Instead, information lives on the network and is available to users based on their credentials. A central repository will guide users to where information is available.

RS. I think the industry has made much progress where interoperability is concerned. The exchange of geospatial information is therefore probably less of an issue and will become even better in the future as programmes initiated within organisations like OGC gain more traction.

How do you predict this sector will look in 10 years’ time? What role do you hope that your company can play in that development?

FO. Geospatial information will become a natural component in an IT environment and sharing it will be taken for granted. The 3D (and even 4D) information harnessed by the models will be available ‘on the network’ through network services and virtual reality interfaces.

To protect access to sensitive information, Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology will allow content owners to determine and control who and how users can view content.

Geospatial analysis will be open to the wider public (web applications) and will move the majority of users from specialised creators and GIS analysts to broader consumers of geospatial information. We will see a new profession in the infrastructure industry: information product marketing. These professionals will specialise in packaging different sources of infrastructure data into useful information, facilitating new services and revenue based on that infrastructure.

Customers will demand that vendors create open and valuable geospatial tools that interoperate with multiple systems. They will reject proprietary systems that do not cooperate with other data formats or offer links to other systems.

Autodesk’s unique value is the high and very rapid ROI that we provide. By providing CAD and GIS functionality in a single offering, we deliver a great deal of functionality to our customers, at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. Our geospatial solutions lower the total cost of ownership by providing CAD and GIS functionality in a single offering, by leveraging existing geospatial data, and integrating directly with the most popular relational databases. Our new model based technology is transforming the civil engineering industry by creating order of magnitude time-savings in the design development and documentation process.

RS. Looking forward, we believe that most of the geospatial information available now on a business-to-business or service level basis will become available on the web. This may partially be free of charge or may come at a cost, depending on what data sets and services the user accesses.

Imagine, for example, the purchase of a house or property. Apart from its location in relation to facilities such as schools, doctors, etc., prospective buyers may want to know things like the susceptibility to flooding or landslides, the amount of noise pollution or levels of pollen at that location over the year. To answer any of those questions, a multitude of different data sets will need to be available and accessible. In order to make this accessible to the general public, we envision a number of web portals providing this type of information in an e-commerce system. At ITT Visual Information solutions, we see our role as providing the necessary tools and solutions to help our customers turn remotely sensed data into valuable information. We want to provide such tools along the entire value chain, from the researcher to the professional data service providers, and all the way down to the end user on the web.

Rolf Schaeppi

In his current position as Vice President and Managing Director of European operations for ITT VIS, Schaeppi is responsible for ITT VIS’ sales and operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining ITT VIS (ITT formerly known as RSI Inc.) in 2004, Schaeppi gained over 15 years of experience in the industry, holding a number of senior sales and marketing positions in Russia, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Frank Ostyn

As Sales Execution Director for Autodesk in EMEA, Frank is responsible for the company’s business in the infrastructure market throughout the region. In this position, Ostyn drives the sales and marketing of Autodesk Civil Engineering and GeoSpatial solutions in EMEA.

Prior to joining Autodesk in 1997, Ostyn has held a range of positions within the company, including regional sales development manager, GIS (EMEA NW region), EMEA sales execution director for the Civil market and EMEA sales execution director for the Infrastructure Solutions Division.