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Industry News
GeoDesign Summit 2011 in Review
By Susan Smith

The GeoDesign Summit 2011 held in Redlands, California was an interesting event to attend from several perspectives. First of all, this was its second year of existence. Secondly, it is hosted by a GIS company.

The event brought together GIS professionals, architects, landscape planners, professors from various universities, and vendors from both GIS and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) to consider the possibilities of a conceptual framework for GeoDesign, Esri's term for the convergence of GIS and design. There was a sense of brilliance, of opposing viewpoints, of incredible clarity, balanced by confusion.

In the past, AEC companies have pushed efforts at connecting GIS and AEC data, but GIS companies have complied with some efforts but not promoted it. Products have been produced that simplify the process of bringing GIS into engineering data.

An architect at the event wondered why a company like Esri would invest in such a Summit - what is in it for them?

It would seem from the tone of the event and from the state of the world today, that it is important for engineering and facilities management data to be accessible in GIS databases. There are several possible reasons for this. Today, there is a greater need for accurate facilities management data, and for extending mapping to the indoor environment. The prevalence of building information modeling (BIM) makes it possible to have detailed structural models of buildings, bridges and roads, which enhance the GIS database that may be used in 3D city planning. The availability of greater computing power, the cloud and ability to display 3D even down to a small mobile device open up extraordinary possibilities for design in a geo context. And finally, the need for sustainable design - Esri has “environmental science” as part of their name - doesn't it make sense that the company would want to support an industry that is trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from construction materials for buildings (accounting for 48% of the total) and help in that effort? Since Esri is involved in numerous environmental projects around the globe, why not take it down to the basic level - where people live?

On the AEC side, the industry has changed over the years. While not much building growth is occurring in the U.S., China, Southeast Asia, Brazil and India are not suffering a recession and are building infrastructure at a high pace. Esri may also want to take advantage of that industry growth.

It also may not be spoken about too much, but AEC really knows how to do 3D. Companies such as Autodesk have robust 3D and animation products that are used in the film and gaming industries, and are made available to the AEC segment of the industry. Bentley, too, has powerful 3D tools for visualization and animation. The powerful 3D visualization and satellite imagery data from geospatial adds a rich dimension to be able to visualize the world better.

Beyond all of these technologies, I think the conference was not just about connecting technologies, it was about connecting people. People who ordinarily wouldn't sit down and talk to each other perhaps, whose way of approaching their problem sets did not open up to this type of discussion.

The Event

What I heard at the conference were numerous surprises: one professor from a local university had never heard of building information modeling (BIM) until coming to the Summit this year. An architect was happy to be acknowledged by the GIS community and joked that many people think they can do the same thing he does without training, because they can design in SketchUp.

I had not thought the concept of GeoDesign as fragile as it seems to many. Perhaps because I knew that it was possible just from a data standpoint, to bring CAD and GIS data together.

I covered the event on a daily basis in GISCafe Today but here are my thoughts on the climate of the experience and what it may mean going forward.

Questions Asked:

I was surprised also that each talk seemed to consist of a lot of questions, perhaps because there is so much unknown about the concept of GeoDesign.

Jack Dangermond: How do you want to interact in the future to make things better?

“Why is it when all we measure is quantities we end with bad designs?” Carl Steinitz, research professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard.

He said he thinks that “what is GeoDesign?” is a social question and that GeoDesign is here to answer questions that are not easily defined.

AECOM gave a talk about their SSIM Framework methodology for spatial urban design analysis, which begs the question: What makes a plan inherently more sustainable than another?

Rather than rely purely on intuitive judgment, the company's SSIM Framework methodology asks the following questions -
-Which scenario has the least adverse impact on the environment?
-Which scenario has the greatest potential for sustainability?

Stu Rich, CTO of PenBay Solutions asked the question, why GIS for facilities?

“How should geography be changed, what are consequences of change, what are the alternatives scenarios?”

“How do we drive better performance out of this facilities fabric at all levels?”

Participants in the BIM/GIS integration Idea Labs asked the questions: “What are use cases, what are problems we are going to solve, and what are we going to pull out of BIM to put in GIS and vice versa?”

GeoDesign: Is it here already or is it under way?

To some, GeoDesign is already under way. To others, it seems as though it is only just beginning, or hasn't begun yet.





The speakers approached the topic from different directions, but then again, perhaps they were more similar than most realized. Michael Goodchild, professor of Geography at the University of California said we need to close what have many have perceived as a growing gap between GIS and design. He spoke of geospatial innovation - when architectures become service oriented as in GIS in the cloud - this will cause GeoDesign to become collaborative.





Architect and founder of Onuma, Inc., Kimon Onuma, whom many in geospatial had not heard of before, demonstrated in his keynote how a building could be designed quickly with many different sources of input, over the internet, using a unique integrated design approach.

On the contrary, Steinitz felt that we should not try to do things too quickly. Steinitz talked about the cultural aspects of GeoDesign and how different designers and scientists are in their thinking, that this must be understood before a harmonious conversation can be had between the two, and before we actually have “geodesigners.” He summarized by saying that design and geo are complicated - “geodesign is an art, not a science but depends on science.”

In a later conversation, Safe Software's Dale Lutz said he thought that many of the things that were talked about at the conference were things that had been going on for a long time. Lutz quoted one of the speakers who said- “GIS is about what is, Geodesign is about what could be.”

“I had a few people almost pleading with me to spend effort on our ability to bring building models into GIS for some scenarios so we will spend some more time talking with some of those folks, figuring out what their needs are and doing something,” he said. “We have it in our product already, so what I'm gathering from these people is it's something that is too hard to use, or if we only did this thing or that it would be better for them.”

“We've been working on this BIM to GIS product for at least three years now, and there are people doing some things with our stuff.”

Urban Form

Among the speakers and Lightning Talks were many presentations about “Urban Form.”

Vishal Bhargava, senior associate, Urban Designer for AECOM, said that Urban Form is the single largest determinant of GHG emissions.

Nicholas de Monchaux, assistant professor of Architecture and Urban Design UC Berkeley talked about “creating a robust nervous system for the cities of today.” The digital tools of today allow us to contemplate this new paradigm.

Constance Bodurow, Lawrence Technological Unviersity, Studio [Ci] a design lab in the College of Architecture, said we are urbanists, and interested in the future of urban form, and they believe cities should be the most desirable place for human habitation.

Carsten Roensdorf, Ordnance Survey, GB Chair CityGML SWG, OGC talked about “CityGML and Linked Data - An Integration Platform for GeoDesign.”

He said that the city of Berlin is an urban information system with a topo map and 3D model, based on CityGML - a standard and exchange format created by the OGC. “It allows you to exchange information,” said Roensdorf, “if you are an architect creating a BIM can export it in CityGML, you can integrate it into larger CityGML environment through levels of detail (LOD).”

CityGML is supported by about 30-35 software vendors. Most cities in Germany have a good CityGML model. The model also allows you to link land ownership and planning, etc. and accepts information from authoritative sources and the web.

Facilities Management

Many years ago I attended an International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) conference, my first introduction to the study of facilities management. The organization was then about three years old and the event was held in the conference center of a Scottsdale, Ariz. resort.

Today, the organization's members manage collectively more than 37 billion square feet of property and annually purchase more than US$100 billion in products and services.

Stu Rich CTO PenBay Solutions talked about “Taking GIS Inside Buildings -
Facilities Management and Analysis” at the Summit.

Rich asked the question, why GIS for facilities?

“We're seeing tremendous growth in urban environments, tremendous building boom, and witnessing the greatest migrations of humanity the world has ever seen,” said Rich. In 2000, we became a predominantly urban species, more people for the first time were living in urban environments than in rural. “It looks like we are going to be doing this for a longer time. This takes pressure off our agricultural lands, but the implications for urban infrastructure are profound.”

Rich pointed out that 48% of emissions are due to the consumption of raw materials for construction materials. ”The greenest building is the one we never build.”

“We need to think about how to address that existing building stock which is unlikely to have the BIM data sets we've been talking about,” said Rich. “How do we apply geodesign to that problem?”

In a nutshell, Rich said we need to extend our thinking to the interior environment - it's not just about buildings, it's about processes.
-We need to think of ways to not have to build a new building
-We need to extend geographic scale to interiors of buildings

Public safety committees need to understand the inside of buildings, said Rich. And they have spatial data infrastructure that needs to be repurposed.

Rich proposes taking the visualization and analysis tools that GIS gives us, the conceptual tools of geodesign and apply them across the facility lifecycle. Extending geography into the 3D environment of offices and space is the way to go.

He showed data of the Esri campus gathered with a mobile lidar unit, that gathers floor space as it goes. Harvesting from CAD and BIM is better, he said, if you have it.

BIM/GIS Idea Lab

In the BIM/GIS Idea Lab that I attended the discussion addressed an ongoing debate about Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs), an object oriented file format for interoperability between CAD and now Building information modeling (BIM) files. Now they are working on an interoperability platform between BIM and BIM, and want to use it to apply to the BIM/GIS conversation.

One participant suggested lobbying for more planning content added to BIM model.

Kimon Onuma suggested asking Esri to create an extraction engine, and to define geodesign levels of detail for extraction, doing away with divisions between BIM and GIS. Currently you have to build a lot of widgets to extract information from GIS. The data could be extracted and used in a GIS planning model and saved with ModelBuilder.

What if we could open the shell of a building in GIS? One participant asked, in order to be able to do another kind of related analysis. Places where this would be useful might also be in transportation and spaces. The infrastructure is compatible with coordinate systems.

In Europe there are micro-coordinate systems being created to marry data as the vendors aren't communicating with one another. According to Chris Andrews of Autodesk, this is “pure protectionism” and wouldn't be a problem if the vendor betters supported the LODs in CityGML. “Vendors don't want to support the standards first because of protectionism.”

Wrap-Up

The many questions asked were not all answered, but it did seem that there was a glimmer of understanding growing in the participants - of the breadth of the undertaking of GeoDesign, if nothing else. It is the start of a conversation. It was also heartening to see that a lot of GeoDesign work is already under way, so that the work itself can create a map of where we might need to go with the technology.

Perhaps Carl Steinitz sums it up best by saying, “Most of the work we're doing and demonstrating involves problems that are marginally understood and that we presume to understand in a framework with many actors and views. People need to understand the complexity, because we don't know everything.”

The brainstorming Idea Labs were definitely a place to pose questions and get a number of knowledgeable responses from professionals. The Lightning Talks could have been shorter and there could have been fewer of them. Some of them were very good, and others not as pertinent. I understand that the event may be held at a different venue next year.

But as Michael Goodchild said, GeoDesign is like an infant: it has survived its first year, is not quite weaned yet. I think it has teeth and is starting to talk.

Esri covered some travel expenses for this author for the GeoDesign Summit.

Top News of the Week

Microsoft Windows Phone users can access sophisticated mapping capabilities on their phone with the ArcGIS for Windows Phone app. ArcGIS for Windows Phone lets you find, use, and share maps as well as deploy GIS data and functionality on Windows Phone devices. The free app is now available and can be downloaded directly from the Windows Marketplace.

ArcGIS for Windows Phone serves as a mobile gateway into the ArcGIS system to:

 

• Explore and navigate maps.
• Find places and addresses.
• Query map layers and data.
• Collect, edit, and update features and attribute information while performing field data collection and inspection projects.

GeoEye, Inc. announced it has won a contract from the Republic of the Maldives for a vessel monitoring system that is being developed for fisheries management and safety. This information services project expands GeoEye's expertise and presence in location-based information products and services.

CloudMade, the provider of development tools for the emerging location-based app market, has acquired OneStepAhead (OSA), a global provider of next-generation navigation software.

This acquisition brings together OneStepAhead's on-device map database and rendering engine with CloudMade's unique approach of delivering highly customized maps and location data, developers gain even more flexibility and control of the user experience that they deliver to their customers -- creating unique apps that perfectly match the needs of their users.

Acquisitions,Agreements,Alliances

IDV Solutions announced a new partnership with Blueprint, a specialist consultancy that creates business intelligence, performance management and financial planning systems, and data warehouses. Blueprint is headquartered in London, England.

1Spatial announces that it has been awarded a contract to provide software and services to support the delivery of Ordnance Survey's Multi Resolution Data Programme (MRDP). This contract win follows a procurement process lasting over six months which included three days of benchmarking workshops against a set of demanding generalization scenarios.

Ashtech has named ARVAtec SRL, distributor for Ashtech GIS mapping products in Italy. ARVAtec SRL is headquartered in Rescaldina, Province of Milan.

With more than a dozen GIS software and laser equipment retailer partnerships in Italy, ARVAtec will sell and support the full range of Ashtech GIS solutions, including the MobileMapper 100, MobileMapper 6 and MobileMapper CX.

Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) and DICKEY-john Corporation, which designs, manufactures, markets and supports sensors, monitors, and control systems, have formed a strategic relationship in the agriculture industry.

Topcon, with headquarters in Livermore, California, recently unveiled its System 350 machine control system, which utilizes the new X30 control console and its AGI-3 receiver for autosteering functionality.

Manatron, Inc., a leader in integrated property tax and records management software for state and local governments, announced it has acquired International Land Systems (ILS) Inc., creating a new division: Manatron International. The acquisition was led by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., ILS provides land management and land administration software systems and professional services to government clients in the U.S. and internationally, as well as private sector and non-governmental organization (NGO) clients worldwide.

SuperGeo Technologies is pleased to announce that the latest SuperNetObjects is going to be released. SuperNetObjects 3 is a set of development objects allowing developers themselves to design the network analysis functions. Developed with program languages, like Visual Basic, Delphi, Visual C++, Visual Studio.NET, etc., SuperNetObjects 3 can define, store, traverse, and analyze the network conditions in the real world. Thus, users can have various analyses and solve the issues related to network.

Announcements

Trimble launched the Trimble Mobile GIS Developer Community. The new site provides a rich and growing selection of developer tools and services, hosted within the Trimble Connected Community (TCC) portal. The online community provides members with access to software tools and services as well as documentation, a developer forum, knowledge base and support resources.

The software development kits (SDKs) available to members of the Mobile GIS Developer Community include:

• The GPS Pathfinder Field Toolkit: Designed for rapid development of standalone GPS-enabled applications for Win32 and Windows Mobile platforms.
• The MobileGNSS Field and Office Tools: Allows developers to create Esri ArcGIS Mobile applications with GNSS postprocessing capability.

According to an ABI Research report, industry experts have long ago decided which side of the “software is killing the dedicated in-car navigation device” debate they are on. However, in a market with traditionally long product life-cycles the rate of change is impressive, as is the swing in revenues.

• In 2009, almost 95% of revenues came from established, hardware-based technologies such as factory-fitted navigation and unconnected PNDs. Software-focused markets such as handset-based navigation and connected PNDs were negligible.
• By 2014, more than 60% of the installed base will consist of software-based navigation solutions, and the off-deck location-based services (LBS) market will be primarily funded by advertising rather than direct fees.
• By 2016, revenues will to all intents and purposes be a 50:50 split.

3D Laser Mapping and IGI have announced the first ever StreetMapper USA User Conference. Organized in conjunction with partners GeoDigital and Terrametrix the inaugural event will take place on the 10th February 2011 at the Astor Crowne Plaza in New Orleans and will follow on directly from the world's premier LiDAR event the International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF), which is being held on the 7-9th February at the same venue.

For further information or to express an interest in attending the StreetMapper International User Conference please email info@3dlasermapping.com, visit www.3dlasermapping.com or call 00 1 402 618 3165.

Awards

Michael Baker Jr., Inc., an engineering unit of Michael Baker Corporation has been selected as Grand Award winner by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) in its 4th Annual Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards competition. The award was presented to Baker at the MAPPS Fall Policy Conference on November 17 in Kissimmee, Florida, for its performance on the U.S. Bureau of Census - Accurate Coordinate Datasets Collection (ACDC) project.

People

GeoEye, Inc. announced that it has appointed Steven P. Wallach to the new position of senior vice president of Product Integration. Mr. Wallach joined GeoEye on Jan. 3, 2011, and is located at the Company's St. Louis value-added production facility.

New Products






Students and faculty at the University of Oregon use the ArcGIS API for iOS.

Coming off a successful early adopter beta program, Esri recently released the ArcGIS API for the Apple iOS platform. ArcGIS API for iOS enables developers to build and deploy custom iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad applications. This API uses the powerful mapping, geocoding, geoprocessing, and editing capabilities that ArcGIS Server provides.

NAVTEQ unveiled demonstrations of how it is transforming the driving experience through connected location content. NAVTEQ demonstrated next generation uses of its content at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES):

 

• Teen Driver Application. This demo app provides teens-and their parents-with insights into how, how fast, and where teen drivers are driving.
• Electric Vehicle Application. This electric vehicle demo app uses NAVTEQ's advanced vehicle map attributes to estimate the vehicle's driving range in less-than-flat terrain, city versus highway driving, or driving in heavy traffic.

TomTom announced the introduction of the VIA Series into the United States and Canada. The new TomTom VIA devices will offer consumers a powerful navigation experience with a sleek new design, an enhanced software platform, and premium safety features such as Intuitive Voice Recognition and Bluetooth® Hands-Free Calling.

Urban Mapping, Inc (UMI), a provider of web services and on-demand data for interactive mapping applications, announced new data available within Mapfluence, the company's web-based mapping platform. US Federal Court Jurisdiction data are now accessible through the industry's leading on-demand data catalog.

ERDAS proudly announces the official release of ERDAS APOLLO 2011, now available for download on the ERDAS website.

ERDAS APOLLO server-based offering is available in three product tiers to suit a wide spectrum of organizations - from those that simply need a very low-cost, remarkably fast image server to those requiring a comprehensive data management system.

In 2010 the German company GTA produced with inhouse developed the software tridicon 3D more than 180 3D European city models in level of detail 2 (LOD 2) with a total area of more than 5.000 square kilometres.

Tridicon 3D delivers high quality models from stereo aerial imagery. Other suitable data sources are LiDAR data (airborne laserscanning) and stereo satellite imagery. Furthermore a digital terrain model and building footprints are used.

Blue Marble Geographics announced that GeoCalc is now in beta testing for Java users. Blue Marble will be adding Java interface support to the existing GeoCalc libraries. GIS software developers will be able to incorporate Blue Marble GeoCalc libraries into their software in a Java development environment. Blue Marble's geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

Envista Corporation announced the release of Envista R2 2010, which includes powerful new products and features that will help all organizations with a vested interest in the public right-of-way to communicate and coordinate more efficiently and effectively. This latest release extends and enhances Envista's suite of map-based coordination solutions, Smarter Streets, a software-as-a-service offering that enables proactive management of utility projects, public works, permitting, incidents, traffic, and events to optimize street performance, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impact.

C3 Technologies released its first software development kit (SDK) for creating search, navigation and geo-location desktop and mobile applications that utilize the company's photo-realistic 3D maps. The C3 SDK comes with 3D maps of San Francisco and London for developing and testing applications that can work with the more than 100 maps in the C3 database of cities and regions in the U.S., U.K., central Europe and Scandinavia.

Avenza Systems Inc. announced the release of USGS (United States Geological Survey) topographic maps for use on the PDF Maps app, the first and only geospatial PDF reader for Apple iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Around the Web

GISCafe Today Blog

Esri Ireland GIS solutions recognized at 2010 chambers ireland awards New Design World Press Center

Cobb DOT Launches Road-Closing Web Tool January 10, 2011, SmyrnaVinings Patch

Getmapping Launch 'WFS' - Web Feature Service for OS MasterMap® January 10, 2011, Realwire

System to make transactions with Mandaue City easier January 10, 2011, Global Nation Inquirer

Australia.. Navico cartography toolkit for third-party developers BYM Product & Industry News

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Begins Transition Out of Bethesda This Month Bethesda Patch

Costa Rica Surf School "Making a Difference" Through Action January 9, 2011, PR Leap


Events

 


You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.


-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.