May 2007

International Conference on Integrated Navigation System

28-30 May, Saint Petersburg,

Russia elprib-onti@telros.net

Geoinformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM2007)

23-25 May, Toronto, Canada

junli@ryerson.ca

5th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology

28-31 May, Padova, Italy

naser@geomatics.ucalgary.ca

June 2007

Navigation Europe 2007

6-7 June 2007 in Amsterdam.

www.telematicsupdate.com/naveurope2007/

21st Pacific Science Congress

12-16 June, Okinawa, Japan

psc21@to.jim.u-ryukyu.ac.jp.

Spatial Data Quality 2007 5th International Symposium

13-15 June, ITC, Enschede,

The Netherlands

issdq2007@itc.nl

27th …

Galileo – the European Programme for Global Navigation Services for civil purposes is an initiative led by European Union. We provide regular updates to our readers on the Galileo programme.

Consumer demand for GPS increasing: CEA report
According to a research report by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), GPS – Exploring Ownership and Interest revealed an 80 percent owner satisfaction rate, which was strongly influenced by the ease of use and display quality of the devices, which are used primarily for navigation assistance in a vehicle. While GPS ownership is still relatively small at 18 percent of online consumers, the research demonstrates shipment revenues nearly tripling between 2005 and 2006. Nearly 24% of online consumers are planning to purchase a GPS device within the next year, spending an average of $410 resulting in sales reaching $4.1 billion in 2007. The study shows that 33 percent of future GPS buyers are interested in owning a cell phone with a GPS. Rest of the other uses are hiking 18%, walking16%, boating 14% biking 7%, running 6% and flying 4% www.webwire.com

NRCan offers digital topographic data for free
As of April 1, 2007, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) began offering its electronic topographic mapping data for free over the Internet. It is now permitting people to freely redistribute this data, helping to ensure that users receive accurate and consistent information. It will make its data collections available through GeoGratis (geogratis.gc.ca), which is a portal, provided by the Earth Sciences Sector of NRCan.

Mobile industry set to boom with GPS technology
As per the RNCOS report, “Globally, the GPS market is expected to exceed US$ 30 Billion by 2008. The two segments under this technology namely people tracking & handset market will have maximum growth rate, about 9%.” Mobile industry is set to boom in 2007 with mobile giants, application developers, and OS managers planning to introduce various large-scale rollouts of GPS technology. Most phone manufacturers will introduce devices enabled for navigating with a GPS like Nokia has plans to introduce a personal mapping program that’ll let users to send messages to each other and also have instructions on how to congregate, delivered to the handset. www.rncos.com

Sunderban, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, is located in the deltaic region of Ganga and Bramhaputra rivers in India and Bangladesh. The impact of biotic and abiotic factors on Sunderban is enormous (Rao, 1959), due to which the area has got reduced to nearly half during the past few centuries (Blasco, 1975; Naskar and Guha Bakshi, 1982; Naskar, 1985).
The mangrove-forested area of Sunderban (including portions in Bangladesh) was recorded to be 20,000 km2 by Clark (Annon., 1895), and 17,500 km2 by Prain in 1903. Grif?th (1982) reported that mangrove forests in the Sunderban covered over 4264 km2 and 4109 km2 respectively in India and Bangladesh during early eighties. The present area of Sunderban is 2081 km2 (Anon., 2001).

The debate is intense.
So are interests, and the clash of interests.
Conflicts are visible.
Equally visible is the cynicism displayed by some.
We could see all these forces at play in the Munich
Satellite Navigation Summit last month.
Still, there is a hope.
There is also a strong sense of conviction, commitment and confidence.
Galileo will happen.
It has to.
It is just a …

The ionosphere represents one of the most important error sources that affecting GPS positioning. It is strongly related to solar activity and geomagnetic ?eld. The GPS satellites and dual frequency receivers can be used to measure the Total Electron Content (TEC) of the Earth’s ionosphere. Global electron content maps have been produced by various research centers using the world-wide permanent network of GPS receivers. In this study a rapid method of monitoring the ionospheric disturbance using dual frequency GPS data of the Aristotle University Thessaloniki (AUT1) permanent station is presented. The Total Electron Content can be determined using the so called Single Layer Model (SLM) of the ionosphere. The SLM is based on the assumption that all free electrons are concentrated in a spherical layer of in?nitesimal thickness (single layer) at height H above the earth’s surface. The Total Electron Content is modeled as a truncated Taylor series with the geographical latitude and the hour angle of the sun as independent variables, using the L4 – geometry free linear combination. The results are con?rmed using global information for Sun spot and geomagnetic activity from NOAA and Kyoto University respectively.

The onset of the 21st century marked the beginning of the Asia-Paci?c era. This is the region where most of the world’s growth and economic development will occur over the next twenty years. The new millennium also signaled the birth of the urban era. Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and that number is growing rapidly. In fact, the rate of urbanization in the Asia/Paci?c is alarming. The region currently has a population of 3.5 billion people; with that number expect to grow to 5 billion within the next 20 years. Most of that growth will occur in Asia’s cities.

This rapid urbanization presents staggering challenges for the region’s city governments. Up until now, most cities have not developed in a sustainable way. Economic development, land use planning, urban infrastructure, sewers, potable water systems, solid waste handling, and transportation systems are all inadequate to meet current needs let alone the rapid growth that lie ahead.

although distribution mechanisms and types of products available may change

 
IMTA claims to be “the voice of the industry worldwide”. Please comment.
The IMTA was established over 25 …