GIS

Spatial ETL with Talend

Disy Informations systeme GmbH has enriched the Spatial ETL plugin „GeoSpatial Integration for Talend“ with new functionalities to suit the latest Talend version 7.2. Companies and authorities using the linear reference system for calculations and map presentations can now use the Talend platform, including the spatial add-on for calculations, in the data integration process. It includes functionalities for linear referencing (LRS) as of version 2.1. www.disy.net/geospatial-en

Esri ArcGIS QuickCapture supports Arrow GNSS Receivers on iOS, Android, and Windows

Eos Positioning Systems, Inc.® (Eos), the leading manufacturer of highaccuracy Arrow GNSS receivers for GIS users and field mappers recently announced that Esri’s ArcGIS QuickCapture GNSS receiver support includes all Arrow Series™ models for iOS, Android and Windows.

ArcGIS QuickCapture is location intelligence world leader Esri’s simple, high-productivity rapid-data collection mobile app. Users in the office configure simple interfaces before data-capture begins, so that users in the field need only to tap large buttons, initiating the capture of feature categories (e.g., points, lines, polygons) loaded with pre-configured attributes. Arrow GNSS receivers provide survey-grade accuracy to ArcGIS QuickCapture as frequently as 10 (or 50Hz) positions per second. esri.com.

Ordnance Survey in machine learning coup

Ordnance Survey (OS) is on the verge of a quantum leap in its data capture after being granted access to a supercomputer to develop machine learning techniques that will extract extra information and features from aerial imagery and mapping.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre’s supercomputer being used is, appropriately for OS, named Scafell Pike. It is expected that if successful this will lead to new business opportunities for OS at home and internationally.

This news builds on OS’s already successful work with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to date. It was used to capture and accurately map 373, 919km of England’s farmland hedges to create a new digital dataset for the Rural Payments Agency, and was deployed in a joint project with Microsoft that saw a machine learn and identify different roof types – it went from zero to 87% accuracy in just five days.

New Context and INL to Develop Operational Cybersecurity Technology

New Context, a leading innovator in cybersecurity research for highly regulated industries, has announced its ongoing collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to research and develop next-generation operational technology (OT) cybersecurity tools. These technologies will strengthen the protection of U.S. critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, from cyber threats. info@newcontext.com

GeoTIFF v1.1 adopted as an OGC Standard

The membership of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has approved version 1.1 of the GeoTIFF Encoding Standard. It formalizes the existing GeoTIFF specification version 1.0 by integrating it into OGC’s standardization process. Additionally, v1.1 aligns GeoTIFF with the on-going addition of data to the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset while maintaining backward compatibility with GeoTIFF 1.0. The GeoTIFF format is used throughout the geospatial and earth science communities to share geographic image data.

Christopher Lynnes, NASA/GSFC, System Architect of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System, commented “With the approval of GeoTIFF 1.1 by the Open Geospatial Consortium, NASA has approved GeoTIFF as a standard format for Earth Observation standard products. This will allow production of appropriate NASA data products in GeoTIFF, a format that has been requested by the many GIS users in the user community.”

Emmanuel Devys, IGN and DGIWG Imagery and Gridded Data Technical Panel lead, commented “GeoTIFF 1.1, as an international standard, allows the DGIWG GeoTIFF profile to rely on a standardized GeoTIFF standard inline with the modern EPSG register for the production of its elevation data, orthoimages, and raster maps products, or for such production by DGIWG nations. IGN and, more generally in Europe, all mapping agencies may now rely on a modernized and maintained specification for their raster or gridded products, such as the INSPIRE Orthoimagery and Elevation data specifications.”

The Geographic Tagged Image File Format (GeoTIFF) specifies the content and structure of a group of industrystandard tag sets for the management of geo- referenced or geocoded raster imagery using Aldus-Adobe’s public domain Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). GeoTIFF defines a set of TIFF tags provided to describe all “Cartographic” information associated with TIFF imagery that originates from satellite imaging systems, scanned aerial photography, scanned maps, digital elevation models, or as a result of geographic analyses. The goal is to provide a consistent mechanism for referencing a raster image to a known model space or earth-based coordinate reference system, and for describing those coordinate reference systems.

Approval of this GeoTIFF 1.1 standard begins the process of integration of the GeoTIFF standard into other parts of OGC’s standardization process. The Libgeotiff development version (future version 1.6.0) and the GDAL development version (future version 3.1.0) both support this GeoTIFF 1.1 version.

The evolution of GeoTIFF after this version 1.1 depends upon community requirements, with several potential evolutions already under consideration by OGC.