Land administration and ict Over the past thirty years, considerable progress has been made since the initial work on first registration programs using largely analogue, methods of data capture, presentation and records management. The early adoption of total stations and electronic data recording by land surveyors, post processing using computer-aided drafting (CAD) and GIS, as well as data storage in relational database management systems have been highly successful.

Since taking over the position of president of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG – http:// www.iag-aig.org) on the 6th July 2011, I have had on occasion mused on what geodesy “is” and how to explain this arcane field to those who are not acquainted with it. For example, how do I tell the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia), that I, the head of a department within his faculty which has its primary objective the education of undergraduate students in “surveying” (or more broadly in “geomatics”), now occupy an important position in the geoscience field of “Geodesy and Geophysics”? (This is not an idle exercise, as the Dean will be asked to approve my increased travel commitments over the next four years

LightSquared is a gem! I am not only talking about its nationwide high-speed 4G capabilities and that it will be a boost to our lagging IT industry which has fallen behind 18 other nations. I am focusing on how it can beautifully complement high precision applications of GPS. It is a gem for GPS high precision users and for RTK.

After the three-day INTERGEO event in Nuremberg, one thing was clear: “INTERGEO is a platform for dialogue between technology users from a variety of sectors – dialogue that gives rise to new approaches and applications. The resultant scope of possible new uses is considerable,” stated Olaf Freier, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH and INTERGEO organiser. “There is quite simply no better specialist platform for suppliers and users to network than this leading international trade fair,” said Professor Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of INTERGEO patron DVW e.V. – the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management.

USTDA helps countries expand economic growth by utilizing U.S. expertise, technology, and investment. The Agency’s objectives are to help build the infrastructure for trade, match U.S. technological expertise with overseas development needs, and help create lasting business partnerships between the United States and emerging market economies.

Hemisphere GPS is focused on building rugged GNSS products for a variety of industries including surveying, marine and original equipment manufacturing (OEM). In the surveying industry, we manufacture a wide range of products from high-accuracy GNSS receivers to geodetic grade antennas. In addition, we offer an exclusive line of Vector GNSS Compass products for professionals heading and positioning. Our customers use these unique all-in-one compasses for everything from hydrographic surveying to yachting and dredging to autonomous machine control. On the OEM side of our business, we supply system integrators with our proprietary Hemisphere GPS technology for them to integrate into their own finished products. In fact, nearly every Hemisphere GPS finished product is broken down to its core board level and offered to original equipment manufactures for integration into their custom applications.

It is about Galileo. It is about successful launch of its two satellites. It is about rising optimism.
It is about conviction. It is about milestones achieved. It is about aiming and achieving.

November 2011:
ENC 2011, 29 Nov – 1 Dec, London, UK, www.enc2011.org;
ELMF 2011, 29 Nov – 30 November, Salzburg, Austria, www.lidarmap.org/ELMF/

Juniper Systems has partnered with Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) and will manufacture the Topcon Tesla™, the newest data collector in Topcon’s full lineup of rugged handheld computers and solutions for the survey industry. The Tesla features the advantages of both a rugged handheld and a tablet PC, without the disadvantages of either.

Europe has taken a major step in its history by launching the first two operational Galileo satellites with a Soyuz launcher to reach their orbit at 23.000 kilometres. From 2014, the new constellation will enable improved services ranging from more precise in-car navigation, effective road transport management, search and rescue services, more secure banking transactions as well as reliable electricity provision, which all rely heavily on satellite navigation technologies to work efficiently. The overall economic impact is estimated to be around 90 billion euro over the next 20 years.