| His Coordinates | |
“We need to increase the visibility of Geodesy”
Says professor Chris Rizos in an interview with Coordinates magazine. He shares his insights on various topics, including the role of the International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics, as well as the importance and current status of Geodesy. |
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As the serving president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), how do you envisage global collaboration, especially in developing countries?
Global Collaboration is the raison d’etre of international scientific organisations such as the IUGG, established as they were in the aftermath of WWI. For its eight semi-autonomous international geoscience associations (representing most Earth and Space Science disciplines) the IUGG provides the platform upon which global and regional research collaboration can be launched. The IUGG makes it possible for scientists (acting as individuals or as representatives of research centres and government agencies) to propose and execute collaborative projects from local, through regional, to global scales. Formal engagement with developing countries (through government agencies, research institutes, and the like) has always been problematic due to scarcity of human (and other) resources in these countries. Yet many of the research topics of interest to IUGG scientists (and the projects they focus on) are extremely relevant to developing countries – for example measuring, monitoring and understanding changes in the Earth System due to climate change, natural processes and societal effects, many of which negatively impact on those communities and the environment. The IUGG (primarily through its associations), in the last decades, has made modest progress beyond treating developing countries simply as “open-air laboratories”. We have found that the most effective means of encouraging the development of Earth and Space Science research capability is to sponsor travel grants for young scientists from developing countries to attend conferences and workshops. We believe that the individual that is given this opportunity to “rub shoulders” with their discipline’s leading researchers will make the most of it, and in the process advance the research capability of their home country. It is estimated that 75-90% of the IUGG’s budget is used to support young scientists from developing countries.
How do you envision the IUGG’s evolving role in addressing emerging global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, and sustainable development?
The IUGG’s scientists are mainly focused on the Earth – solid, atmosphere and oceans – although some are engaged in “off-Earth investigations, including other planets, and even distant galaxies. Because the IUGG is very much a scientist-driven organisation (at least as far as the research output, outreach and collaboration aspects are concerned) the research agendas of the various IUGG associations evolve all the time. Most scientists have “day jobs” that are very much focused on addressing Global Challenges – such as the sustainable extraction and consumption of natural resources, disaster risk reduction, changes in the Earth system (such as, but not restricted to, Climate Change), including a variety of anthropogenic impacts. Why is the IUGG’s research agenda continually changing? Because the DNA of all scientists (and not just those associated with the IUGG) is to seek understanding of geoscience phenomena, through the application of the “scientific method”, to create new knowledge. The Global Challenges listed above are a fertile source of problems for scientific attention.
There are not many experts and educators in Geodesy globally. Do you have any insights into why this might be the case? How do you think we could raise awareness and promote the field?
That is an interesting statement. In my opinion it is not strictly true. There are many scientists who work in Geodesy who never had a formal geodetic education (at undergraduate, or even postgraduate level). They are drawn to Geodesy for a number of reasons, including: the relevance of the geodetic problems or challenges, the opportunity to use cutting-edge space-based technologies, the application of advanced mathematics and associated computer algorithms, and the close links with other geoscience disciplines – which collectively are expanding our understanding of the Earth System. I therefore do not believe there is an education crisis. However, I do feel very strongly that we need to increase the visibility of Geodesy, and to promote it more to decision-makers and to the public in general. (Having said that, this awareness challenge applies to many scientific disciplines, and certainly is an issue that must be addressed in the geosciences.) In the case of Geodesy there is now a call for continued government investment in the global geodetic infrastructure.
Your career has spanned over four decades in the field of geodesy and GNSS. What key moments or advancements in the field have most influenced your work and the direction of the industry?
I must say that there is a significant element of luck in my career. I was lucky in having an extraordinary PhD supervisor in Professor Ron Mather. I was lucky that my PhD topic dealt with data analysis of a brand new space geodetic technology: Satellite Altimetry. I was lucky in having the opportunity to do postdoctoral work at the Deutches Geodetisches Forschungs Institut (DGFI), in Munich, Germany, under the mentorship of Professor Chris Reigber. But perhaps the greatest piece of luck was discovering GPS in the mid-1980s, and then being able to initiate GPS research projects at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), in Sydney, Australia. Becoming engaged in education, outreach and research activities on the precise positioning technology and applications of GPS at such an early stage has been a career boost. (I contend that Geodetic Surveying was the first civilian GPS application, that has required significant academic and commercial innovation.) My 40 years as an academic has introduced me to talented graduate students that I had the privilege of supervising, and to many colleagues in academia, government and industry. Being an “early GPS researcher” has opened the doors for me to become involved in many global organisations, and international committees and institutions, of which perhaps the most important have been the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), the International GNSS Service (IGS), and the International Committee on GNSS (ICG).
Your aim through your research has been to “spatially enable” all aspects of life. Can you elaborate on how this concept is being realized in real-world applications, and where do you see the most promising opportunities?
Many professionals are enthusiastic users of geospatial technologies, and they understand the enormous value to society of “spatially enabling” many functions of government, improving the operations of businesses, managing the environment and resources, and assisting citizens and society in their daily activities. The obvious ones are surveyors, civil engineers, geographers, architects, urban planners, and more. Increasingly the spatial “world-view” is recognised as being a fundamental one. Fundamental to improving the quality of our lives, to sustainable development, and to our measurement and monitoring of relationships and interactions between disparate objects and land features in the built and natural environments.
Such recognition is driving governments and large corporations to adopt practices that further the “spatial enablement” of all aspects of modern society. Today we expect to know where we are, where “things” are, how to navigate from A to B, what the spatial connections are, and how to use geospatial tools and data to make better decisions. It is an unmistakeable trend, though it is very difficult to make predictions on many future developments and opportunities. However, one development that is certainly going to require even greater degrees of “spatial enablement” is Automation of transport, logistics and mobility in general. Just consider the challenges of safe navigation, and spatial awareness, of autonomous land, air or marine platforms.
As a big picture thinker, you have watched Geodesy, rapidly evolve with its tools and datasets. How do you see satellite-based geodesy contributing to the global response to the challenges such as climate change, environmental shifts, and geohazards?
The geosciences represented by the IUGG’s associations all have a set of common goals. These include measuring physical parameters that are the “fingerprints” of faint signatures of Earth System changes, understanding the fundamental causes of such changes, and addressing the impacts through engineered solutions such as early warning systems, scientific services, advice to decision-makers, and others. Geodesy provides the (mostly space-based) tools, the methodology, the framework, and the operational systems that can address many of the Global Challenges referred to earlier. I therefore believe that Geodesy can no longer be considered a niche geoscience discipline, but rather it is a capability used by geoscientists, by geospatial professionals, and, increasingly, by the general public. Its importance is not just its cool satellite-based tools – for Earth observation, or even GNSS positioning and timing – it is the framework by which every spatial tag or coordinate can be unambiguously connected to the Global Geodetic Reference Frame (GGRF). Geodesy’s unique role is to provide the foundations for a “spatially enabled” society.
With the rise of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and autonomous vehicles, what breakthroughs are needed in GNSS to ensure safe and reliable navigation in these advanced systems?
As I mentioned in an earlier response, Geodesy provides tools, methodology, operational systems (such as the IGS), and a highly-stable framework (the GGRF). However, GNSS provides the unique capability to determine Position, globally, continuously to appropriately equipped users. Furthermore, as a result of many innovations over the last four decades, the accuracy of position (i.e. of coordinates expressed in the GGRF) can be “tuned” to an application requirement. The GNSS user hardware, software and algorithms, operational procedures, and service provider augmentation systems, can be selected to address accuracy requirements from dekametre (as in mobile phones), to metre-level (transport applications), sub-metre-level (mapping), centimetre-level (surveying, construction and precise navigation of autonomous platforms), down to sub-centimetre-level (geodesy, datums, meteorology). GNSS is the most important geodetic tool ever developed. However, by virtue of its versatility (see accuracy requirements above) GNSS has revolutionised many aspects of modern society. GNSS is the first-choice Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technology for all outdoor applications. Therefore, it is no surprise that GNSS is a core technology for autonomous vehicles, and ITS in general. There is currently no alternative to GNSS for precise Positioning and Timing, that is readily available on a global basis at reasonable cost. (Note that the Navigation task of PNT can be undertaken using non-GNSS technologies, such as imaging and radar systems, in a “sense-and-avoid” mode of navigation that also maps the moving platform’s immediate environment using the principles of Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping – SLAM.) However, GNSS is vulnerable to intentional and unintentional jamming or spoofing, which can degrade its PNT solutions, or deny PNT capability entirely. The “hunt” is therefore on for a complementary or alternative technology to GNSS that can provide resilient PNT capability. That is, provide PNT solutions in environments where there are GNSS signal blockages, cyber attacks, or RF interference. The coming decade will see a number of technology and service options being offered. The most promising is using a constellation of ultra-small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to augment GNSS, so as to increase PNT resilience.
Non-satellite-based systems such as Locata are becoming more prominent. How do you foresee these technologies complementing GNSS in critical applications like autonomous vehicles or indoor positioning? What are your views on e_Loran?
As I have mentioned above, the search for resilient PNT is driving the development of complementary GNSS PNT technologies. The deployment of CPNT technologies assumes the continued use of GNSS for all military and civilian applications when it is available, and its accuracy and continuity is assured (or can be “trusted”). However, there are environments where GNSS cannot be used, even when augmented with CPNT technologies such as LEO-based PNT. These include indoors, underground and where there are many (metallic) reflective surfaces that degrade GNSS or LEO-PNT signals due to “multipath”. High accuracy PNT (Positioning at the centimetre-level accuracy, and Timing at the sub-nanosecond accuracy) is particularly challenging for autonomous vehicles in warehouses, open-cut mines, and container ports. CPNT technologies to address these challenges are unlikely to be the same as those intended to be used for resilient PNT in open-air operational environments. Locata was designed for the former, eLoran can be considered a candidate for the latter – although its accuracy is far less than can be achieved with even the most basic GNSS user equipment. (Personally, I see no sense in resurrecting eLoran, except if one is preparing for an “armageddon” scenario!) I acknowledge that I have been assisting in the development of the Australian Locata technology for over two decades, through joint projects, trials, graduate student research, and publications, hence I may be biased! Locata is an amazing invention as it tackles the CPNT problem at several levels. It has its own infrastructure of signal transmitting towers that are synchronised to picosecond-level. This means that the user positioning mode is in many ways identical to GNSS’s “precise point positioning” technique. Locata has multi-antenna element multipath mitigation that is far superior to anything available on the market. However, Locata is a “local” PNT system, intended for “hot-spot” type deployments in, for example, container ports. Furthermore, its time transfer accuracy makes it a candidate for a non-GNSS terrestrial time-dissemination backbone for a city or country.
You’ve mentored over 35 PhD students. What advice do you have for young researchers entering the fields of GNSS and geodesy today, and what areas do you think hold the most potential for future research?
Geodesy offers many fields of research. New sensor technologies, on satellite missions, can map the Earth’s solid, ice and ocean surface, and its changes over a range of time scales, information that can be used to improve our understanding of the Earth System, in both its natural state and as it is impacted by anthropogenic processes. The use of AI for geodetic data processing and pattern identification is an exciting research opportunity. As is sensor systems based on Quantum Principles. Furthermore, most of the geodetic tools and methodology can be applied to other planets and their moons! Even GNSS will be used for PNT applications on the Moon. GNSS-Reflectometry is an Earth Observation technique that uses reflected GNSS signals to sense the state and composition of the solid, ice or ocean surfaces. Resilient GNSS, especially LEO-based, is another topic ripe for academic research. There are also many CPNT research topics. Finally, research in Geodesy and GNSS fields also has commercial value, offering prospects to apply graduate research training in startup companies.
Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the most significant innovations in GNSS in the next 10-20 years, and how will they shape our daily lives?
Where do I begin? Lists of “mega-trends” are an obvious place to look for future applications that could benefit from innovations in GNSS. (Of course, given the utility of GNSS for military and security operations, we can expect considerable R&D to address this application space.) GNSS innovations in the coming decade include an increased focus on GNSS receiver, signal and measurement processing algorithm design to support high integrity and high accuracy applications. There is very likely to be continued interest in multi-sensor integration of the “GNSS plus” variety, including GNSS+LEOPNT, and even of the perennial GNSS+INS (Inertial Navigation System) type, as the INS technology itself evolves. GNSS will therefore continue to be an indispensable technology embedded in our mobile phones, our automobiles, wearables, health monitors, and – as an “Internet-of-Things” (IoT) technology – in many mobile devices and objects, that may be valuable, critical sensors, or perishable (e.g. foods, medical supplies, etc). Robotic applications will be important, even on the Moon. Non-PNT applications of GNSS will mature, and GNSS will become also a highly efficient Earth Observation technology, using the principles of GNSS-Reflectometry and GNSS Radio Occultation, to sense not only the Earth’s surface but also the Troposphere and Ionosphere.
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