Surveying, Mapping and GIS

I got a mailing today, probably several others of you did as well - announcing the Trimble VX Spatial Station. I had to chuckle, looking at the Matrix theme they put together for the ad campaign, considering the target as the typical pragmatic, grizzled, muddy-boots, over-50 demographic of surveyors... "wake up, Neo..."



I shouldn't tease Trimble - it is probably a lot more reflective of their own young and forward-looking demographic within Trimble, given their leadership and innovation in many other areas recently. Looks like a great product, and the next natural sequence of evolution as the Robotic/Reflectorless Total Station fuses with the 3D Scanner. It's the sort of thing that gets people like me thinking, what is the next phase of evolution.

For example, I was interested to see such things as fellow SDVOSB Penobscot Bay mounting scanners on robots, as well as another firm that we've worked with in the past, Spatial Integrated Systems / SIS, who has stripped-down scanners for confined spaces, such as on submarines.

So what's next in the far, or maybe not-so-far future? Perhaps a fusion of GPS and other technologies as well - a device you can carry in your pocket, which, when whipped out, establishes its geodetic position to centimeter level, scans the environment, and instantly constructs a georeferenced, 3-D spatial and temporal virtual environment, and stitches it in with other models already captured for a seamless database. Perhaps hyperspectral sensors, spectroscopy to determine the materials of the environment and more...

Imagine the design tools - you capture the environment, then don a headset which lets you mold and sculpt the environment in 3-D almost like it was wet clay. As you modify things, a number of models run simultaneously - finite elements analysis examining the structural details, other routines running to examine other impacts - stormwater and erosion, traffic, you name it.

Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

The National Geodetic Survey, in keeping with quite a few innovations and revelations to coincide with their 100th anniversary, has unveiled a copy of their 10-year plan, and are soliciting comment:

During the last year, NGS has spent considerable effort refining its mission, vision and strategy for the future. The result of this effort is the NGS 10 year plan. Because any plans for the future will affect the NGS stakeholders and the general public, NGS is releasing this plan in draft form for a public comment period lasting until March 31, 2007. NGS is interested in hearing all feedback on the proposed plan over the next few weeks. NGS will also discuss and take comments on the 10 year plan at the ACSM conference in St. Louis. This will take place during the first half (8:30 a.m. - Noon) of the "National Geodetic Survey and Partners" meeting on Sunday, March 11.

Please note that this document is in draft form. At this time NGS is seeking comments on the content of the plan. Once those comments have been received and incorporated into the plan the document will undergo a professional editorial review to address administrative (spelling, punctuation, etc.)
issues. Following the public comment period, NGS will consolidate all feedback and issue a final copy of the 10 year plan some time in April 2007.

Click here to download the draft of the NGS 10 year plan.
Click here to go to the comment template for providing feedback on the plan.Comments will be mailed to the NGS 10 year plan working group.

"...the gravimetric geoid used in defining the NSRS should have an absolute accuracy less than 1 centimeter anyplace at any time."

"NGS will publish all coordinates of defining points of the NSRS with an epoch tag and will furthermore publish velocities relative to that epoch-tagged set of coordinates."

"NGS will therefore publish all coordinates and velocities of NSRS defining points in both the most recent official U.S. Datums and the most recent realization of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Furthermore, NGS will provide simple transformation tools between all historic and current datums and reference frames used by NGS, in 4 dimensions if possible."

and...

"NGS will validate local capacity for accurate positioning through direct interaction with a county geospatial representative and evaluation of that county’s access to the NSRS."

Thanks to John Halleck for pointing some of these out, to pique everyone's interest. Some very lofty goals indeed...

I just came across a spanish-language blog, called TopoNorte - the author features a wide variety of great geospatial and surveying content. Some items I thought were particularly great:
Cadastral mapping of Spain, using Google Maps: http://www.goolzoom.com/


And here, a publication on geodesy and UTM grids by Professor Ignacio Alonso Fernández-Coppel at the University of Valladolid:

http://www.elagrimensor.com.ar/elearning/lecturas/Las%20coordenadas%20geograficas.pdf

Thanks to Gene Kooper for this great illustration of a theodolite from J. Johnson's 1886 text, "Theory and Practice of Surveying".

I am looking forward to spending some time over the next few days at the Pennsylvania Surveyors' Conference. It's always a great time to catch up with old friends, as well as get some updates on various things going on in the world of surveying and mapping. This year I am going to focus on the GPS track, something I have not been doing my due dilligence on of late.

On another note, it's beginning to amaze me how many geospatial-related conferences are cropping up of late. I just got a notice of the Rocket City conference in Huntsville, and there have been several others in the last few months and more upcoming. I can certainly understand thematic conferences, regional ones, vendor-
oriented ones... but are we getting to the point where there are just too many?