GIS

Pampady, Kerala completes mapping of water bodies

Pampady in Kottayam has become the first block panchayat in the state of Kerala, India to complete digital mapping of all its water courses.

An official statement said 174.3 km-long water courses including streams and canals across eight grama panchayats within the block panchayat had been mapped with active public participation. Initiated by the Kerala State Information Technology (IT) Mission, these maps have been created using satellite images and have a resolution of up to two meters.

Alongside the maps, a study on the feasibility of various water conservation projects such as check dams, bunds and regeneration of water bodies too has been carried out.

According to officials, the maps will help people learn about even the smallest features of the water bodies there, besides playing a key role in the water conservation programmes of the various local bodies. The public, meanwhile, will be able to understand the status of streams and creeks in their neigbourhood during flood situations. www.thehindu.com

UNESCO Shipwreck Mission in Mediterranean Successfully Completed

An archaeological mission under the auspices of UNESCO has concluded its 14-day exploration of the Skerki Bank (Tunisia) and the Sicilian Channel (Italy) in the Mediterranean. For the first time, international scientists from eight Member States have modelled the shipwrecks and improved the mapping of the area in order to protect important underwater cultural heritage in the long term.

Researchers from Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia collaborated for this mission. It took place aboard the French scientific vessel the Alfred Merlin in international waters, first on the Italian continental shelf under the coordination of Italy, then on the Tunisian continental shelf under the coordination of Tunisia.

The archaeologists led a survey using two different robots, or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which adapted to the geographical and morphological submerged areas. The robot Arthur, designed especially for archaeological surveys in deep waters, was used to document shipwrecks on the Italian continental shelf.

Arthur documented three Roman shipwrecks discovered by American expeditions (Ballard-McCann) in the 1990s. Archaeologists were happy to find that the state of conservation of these shipwrecks and artefacts is almost the same as it was nearly 30 years ago, and that they had not been impacted by sedimentation, bio-erosion or human activities (e.g. fishing nets).

The new data collected allows for higher resolution photos and videos that help to characterize and date the ships’ cargo. Documenting these sites has uncovered substantial new evidence.

Teledyne Geospatial partners with Seabed 2030

Teledyne Geospatial have partnered with Seabed 2030 in the Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP). In April this year, New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and The Nippon Foundation announced a mission to discover the undersea impacts of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HT–HH) volcanic eruption, which produced the biggest atmospheric explosion recorded on Earth in over a century. Supported by The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, TESMaP had two phases, led by NIWA: phase one saw scientists survey the area around the volcano with RV Tangaroa. As part of phase two, SEA-KIT International’s Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer was used to conduct further mapping inside the caldera. For the duration of TESMaP, Seabed 2030 and Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Ocean Mapping Fellows utilized software provided by Teledyne CARIS. teledyne.com

Bentley Systems and Genesys International Collaboration

Bentley Systems and Genesys International have announced that Genesys’ 3D City Digital Twin Solution for Urban India – the first city digital twin project launched by any Indian company – will be powered by OpenCities 365, Bentley’s infrastructure digital twin solution for cities and campuses. This massive mapping and surveying project has begun and will capture most of urban India. www.bentley.com

Bluesky to capture more oblique views of UK cities

Aerial mapping company Bluesky International, is using its advanced hybrid sensors to expand its library of highdefinition oblique photographs of UK cities to reveal more detail than ever before of building facades and street level furniture, providing a 360-degree view of buildings, structures, or sites. With 20 cities already acquired it plans to expand this further in the second half of 2022, including Irish cities like Dublin and Belfast and the UK cities of Leeds and Sheffield. The cities have been captured using a Leica CityMapper camera, which as well as capturing oblique images, also simultaneously captures vertical images and LiDAR. www.bluesky-world.com

Global Mapper Pro version 24

Blue Marble Geographics® has release Global Mapper Pro® v24. It expands functionality with kriging analysis and more accessible workflow optimization through Global Mapper Script. It provides a set of advanced tools for all GIS users. With terrain and point cloud analysis, Python script integration, and Pixels to Points for drone-collected image photogrammetry, it has become an essential tool throughout many industries. www.bluemarblegeo.com

Unlocking agricultural field data at global scale

CGIAR and the Linux Foundation have formed a research partnership to develop a standard way of sharing data about agricultural fields at scale, which could deliver global benefits, including for the estimated 500 million small holder farmers that produce about a third of the world’s food. Accurate data on the location and size of agricultural fields is important for almost all kinds of agricultural analysis. This new partnership will unify data standards and standard operating procedures to support the sharing and use of field boundary data at scale. The project will support the responsible use of agricultural field data, strengthening analytics for global farming. www.cgiar.org

Improving emergency response with 3D mapping

Fugro has partnered with RapidSOS in the US to deliver emergency dispatchers and first responders the dynamic, locationbased information needed to speed incident response and improve situational awareness. The solution integrates a patent pending version of the company’s Fugro SIMmetryTM 3D mapping and visualisation technology within RapidSOS’s intelligent safety platform. This partnership enables Fugro to aid the work of more than 5300 emergency communications centres (ECCs) across the country, which together serve 95 % of the US population. www.fugro.com

Intermap wins IDIQ contract to support US Air Force

Intermap Technologies was named a subcontractor on the FGS LLC Team for the U.S. Air Force Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) contract for the maturation, demonstration, and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software, and algorithm development to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and accurate Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). www.intermap.com