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Esri Joins World Ocean Council

Esri has joined the ocean business alliance World Ocean Council (WOC) and will support its international initiatives for sustainable development and conservation of the ocean. Esrichief scientist Dawn Wright will share her geospatial expertise with WOC’s Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) and Ocean Science working groups. WOC members are oil and gas, seafl oor mining, shipping, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and offshore renewables companies. esri.com/news

GIS installing new number plates in all buildings

New number plates have been installed on 90% of buildings in Qatar as part of the unified number project undertaken by the Centre for Geographical Information System (GIS). The project is conducted in two phases: First external number plaques are to be installed on all buildings, whether residential, commercial, services or towers. In the second phase, sub-numbers will be given for the units within the buildings whether they were apartments, offices or shops, which would be normally linked to the external number. This second phase is estimated to take two years and would be launched shortly. All new plaques have RFID data chips hidden in them. These include all the related numbers and data of the building and directly linked with the GIS data base. These chips can be read through PDA appliances. These employ information safety standards to avoid any misuse. http://www.gulf-times.com

Delhi-Jaipur Expressway route mapping complete

Route identification for 265 km Delhi- Jaipur Expressway has been completed, the Road Transport and Highways Minister, Mr C. P. Joshi, has said. “We want an expressway on the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model”. The starting point in the national capital for the expressway, for which the detailed project report has been finalized, would be the Indira GandhiInternational Airport. He said that alongside the expressway, with controlled access, will be a few nodes where real estate hubs would be developed.
http:// www.thehindubusinessline.com

New initiative to help 10 central African countries in monitoring: FAO

A new regional initiative will help 10 central African countries to set up advanced national forest monitoring systems, according to FAO. The 10 countries are part of the Congo Basin and include Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and São Tomé and Principe. The forestry project will be managed jointly by the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and FAO in close collaboration with the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The Congo Basin Forests Fund, launched by the Governments of Norway and the United Kingdom through the African Development Bank, is funding the initiative with €6.1 million. http://www.fnbnews.com

Jamaica to develop NSDi

The Government is working to build a national spatial data infrastructure (NSDi) for Jamaica, announced Robert Pickersgill, Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change. “This is necessary to facilitate sectoral growth, and for us to keep up with technological advancements and of course, provide for the geospatial data needs of the government and our people”. He informed that work is currently underway on a metadata policy, which will make it mandatory for all creators of geospatial data to collect and maintain metadata, adding that all creators and users of geospatial data need to collect and manage metadata. http://www.jis.gov.jm

Find “1”, Get “1”, Use “1”

What’s “1”? It’s the new set of digital cartographic frameworks from The National Atlas of the United States of America®. Prepared at one million-scale (where an inch on a map is nearly 16 miles) this authoritative and integrated national dataset has twice the detail of previous versions. Users can now easily find “one” using popular search engines or portals like Data.Gov; get it as documented data or Web map services from nationalatlas.gov and other sources; and use “one” in their geospatial analyses, maps, or map mashups. This new release serves as the foundation for small-scale maps and datasets on the Nation’s people, heritage, and resources. http://nationalatlas.gov

Namibia: Ministry Launches Vital Aerial Photo-Imaging Exercise

The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement launched a N$19-million project that entails the gathering of aerial and orthophoto images of the country. The project will cover central Namibia between 20 degree south latitude and 24 degree 10 minutes south latitude, covering an area of 320 000 square kilometers. The project will deliver full-colour digital, imagery including panchromatic and infra-red, with applications such as map revision, land-use planning, archeology, movie production, environmental studies, surveillance and environmental site assessments. http://allafrica.com

Kuwait to monitor encroachment of state properties via g-tech

The Ministry of Finance, Kuwait, signed an agreement with an international consultancy company, Jiscon, to set up a GIS database for the state. Under the agreement, a GIS database will be developed which will store all important maps and documents. Such kind of database will help relevant authorities to pin point any kind of infringement on state properties, degree of such breaches and cost of removing and restoration of illegally build structures. http://www.kuna.net.kw

SriLanka eyes PHL land admin and management reforms

Officials of the Democratic Socialist Republic of SriLanka recently visited the Philippines to study the country’s land administration and management system, including the property valuation and taxation, intending to learn from the Philippines’ successful experience under the Second Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP2) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of Finance (DOF).

In 2011, the UN Special Unit for South-South Cooperation recognized the LAMP project as an “example of successful solution to support rural and agricultural development, and that the experience of the Philippines offers a comprehensive solution to improving land tenure regulation and land rights”. LAMP2 is a long-term commitment of the government to address poverty alleviation and promote economic growth through secure land tenure and equitable property valuation. dof.gov.ph, http://www.gov.ph

BAE Systems merges multiple geospatial technologies

BAE Systems developed SOCET GXP® v4.0 which merges the full spectrum of mapping and analysis capabilities into a single package. Commercial, defense, and government customers worldwide can now use the same tool to create and share a wide range of products, from complete 3-D city models to GeoPDF intelligence reports. http://www.marketwatch.com

Bangalore: City’s property ID model

In a major boost to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the Union government of India has decided to mandatorily implement the Bangalore model of GIS based on the Unique Property Identification Number (UPID) in all the municipal corporations across the country.

The officials at the Union Ministry of Urban Development were so impressed with the UPID that they wanted it to be linked with Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme. It is pushing a proposal wherein it will be mandatory for states or cities to implement the GISbased UPID to avail funds under the scheme. http://www.deccanherald.com