Read the Next Issue | Subscribe to Geospatial Canada | Suggestions or Comments?
Quarter 3 2010 Issue: Table of Contents
Better Sharing of Geospatial Data: Moving Your Region toward a Spatial Data Infrastructures
New!
GeoMedia Feature Cartographer 6.1.2 Release
Case Study: City Of Winnipeg Leverages Geospatial Solutions for Infrastructure Management
Application Profile: GeoMedia® Transportation Manager
Across Intergraph
Stay in Touch
Better Sharing of Geospatial Data:
Moving Your Region toward a Spatial Data Infrastructures
Local government departments benefit from current, accurate geographic information to make better decisions in multiple areas. Geospatial data in some form probably helps your city or town manage:
- Emergency management, involving prevention planning, civil protection, monitoring, and analysis of natural disasters and large public events
- Infrastructure management for water and wastewater systems, transportation systems, city services (garbage, snow, parks), field equipment, and some utility systems
- Land information management, including cadastre, forestry, agriculture, natural resources, urban planning, environmental protection, and economic development
- Mapping and cartographic production
- Public services (e-government), including businesses and citizens purchasing government information, accessing government information, and requesting services
Municipal and national governments worldwide have started to leverage existing geospatial data and sharing access among departments, private businesses, and organizations. This collaborative sharing gives everyone involved a more holistic picture of their cities and provinces. A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), the term for the backbone technology collection used to provide a collaborative structure, includes:
- Geospatial data resources
- Network
- Geographic information system (GIS) services in the form of Web services
- A set of common standards to ensure interoperability
Geospatial data, however, is an expensive resource and many organizations or smaller towns and regions do not have access to the appropriate resources needed to fully leverage this data. Many national and international programs and projects are underway to improve access to available geospatial data, promote its re-use, and ensure that additional investment in geospatial information collection and management results in an ever-growing, readily available pool of data. These initiatives include an emphasis on harmonizing standards for spatial data capture and exchange, the coordination of data collection and maintenance activities, and the use of common data sets by different agencies.
In Canada, the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (http://cgdi.gc.ca) is helping organizations and municipal departments collaborate and share images, Web map services, and datasets. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is working to manage similar standards and programs in the United States. In Europe, the European Commission established the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) initiative (http://inspire.jrc.it/home.html) to coordinate activities and improve utilization of geographic information. In the future, the United Nations will launch an SDI system to help developed countries integrate with other nations to promote information sharing.
By working toward establishing an SDI today within your city or region’s departments, you allow your organization to become “SDI ready” for the next step of sharing geospatial assets nationally with other Canadian provinces and organizations.
One of the simplest places to start your SDI process is to consider the geospatial datasets that your region has for roads, bridges, electrical grids, water systems, buildings, and similar infrastructure. Then, consider:
- Who are the related parties and persons within your region that could have an interest in the data (public safety and security organizations? The public health community? Environmental management? Sustainable development?)
- What processes can the SDI benefit? (Permit approvals? Emergency calls? Disaster management?)
- What types of GIS collection and distribution systems currently manage the geospatial data, and what may need to be done to upgrade these systems to manage an integrated, open, and collaborative network?
Many municipalities reach the third consideration and stop short. Limited budgets and often separate buying processes among different areas of a government may mean multiple, disconnected GIS solutions from a variety of vendors and production years/upgrade cycles across the region. Some departments may be very interconnected, with Web-based solutions and mobile reporting infrastructure, while others may rely on outdated GIS cataloging solutions that offer no outside connectivity.
However, enterprise solutions from qualified vendors can help you leverage your existing software – even from multiple vendors – and overlay them with Web and interconnectivity technology. This extension of your existing technology fulfills the core requirements of sustainability, interoperability, and flexibility necessary to create an SDI.
When investigating an enterprise GIS solution that offers SDI-ready technology, start by looking for a vendor that is an active participant and thought leader in international and established SDI organizations, such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®), INSPIRE, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Also, look for a vendor whose enterprise GIS/SDI solution has been selected and implemented successfully in European countries. Geospatial data sharing is required by law in Europe; these early adopters have much more rigorous evaluation and selection procedures that ensure selection of the most scalable, flexible, and interoperable solution. As a result, vendors who have successfully implemented SDI solutions in Europe have proven technology and solutions.
An SDI software solution that provides the best long-term value for your enterprise dollar will also provide:
- Data harmonization: The technology you choose should harmonize and secure the geospatial data exchange. This ensures better collaboration and productivity, as well as easier maintenance and administration, all within the context of a secured environment.
- Legal compliance: The best SDI software solutions follow established industry standards, such as those set by INSPIRE, ISO, and OGC. National mandates for data sharing will comply with these over time, so you can save money in the long run by standardizing now.
- Operator productivity: An ideal SDI solution looks beyond government mandates and enables portal management, security compliance, application services, and other key functions, so your region can maximize value.
- Public distribution: The best applications allow for intelligent and simple distribution of geospatial data to the non-geospatial world, such as the general public. Features like this ensure you have the ability to share information in the future if it becomes a government objective, without having to rebuild the system or purchase a different solution.
- Open architecture: Technology that uses open standard programming languages allows you to share a wide variety of geospatial data, regardless of originating source. It can also save you vast amounts of time and money when creating future customizations or system improvements.
- A strong geospatial platform: The core of the SDI solution should be a GIS system that is designed for enterprise-level deployment, embraces open standards, and provides a service-oriented architecture. The solution should easily work with best-of-breed software (Microsoft®, Oracle, and others)
Finally, consider the overall flexibility of the solution. Flexible solutions will easily integrate into your organization’s IT environment, adopt security policies, and adapt to regional and international standards. Flexible and scalable solutions can also adjust to multiple types of user-profiles and demands. All levels of governmental organizations (federal, state, regional, local), or even pan-national governments, must evaluate the appropriate needs of an SDI implementation in size, scale, availability, accessibility, and functional requirements of possible beneficiaries in services.
Spatial Data Infrastructures can be seen as a next step within the evolution of GIS by supporting all different aspects of open, standards-based architecture so organizations can share geospatial assets in a global context internally and externally using Web technology. The coming years will see a trend toward integration within other (non-spatial) business systems and integration with complete, end-to-end on-line services. Forward-thinking Canadian regions are wise to begin the SDI journey, reducing overhead long-term and improve the efficiency, quality, flexibility and accessibility of services today.
Author: David Monaghan has specialized in recommending and designing enterprise-level GIS solutions for over 12 years. He currently works for Intergraph Canada as a Business Development consultant for the federal and provincial governments. David can be reached at david.monaghan@intergraph.com. Return to menu
New! GeoMedia Feature Cartographer 6.1.2 Release
The 06.01.0200 release of Feature Cartographer includes the following enhancements:
- MGCP Derived Graphics Support
The Goal of MDG is to provide rapid hard copy output from MGCP data cells stored in the International Geospatial Warehouse (IGW). This release contains schema mapping, initialization data and optimizations to facilitate hard copy output of MGCP Derived Graphics.
- LTDS (Local Topographic Data Store) Support
GeoMedia Feature Cartographer has been updated to include the new LTDS structure that is being used for hard copy map production. The schema convert transformation file (.dwt) has been refactored to support the new schema.
- Marginalia generation has been enhanced to run in batch mode.
Overview: GeoMedia® Feature Cartographer for defense and Intelligence
GeoMedia® Feature Cartographer is a key component of Intergraph®’s Geospatial Intelligence Production solution (GIPS), our enterprise-wide production system for the creation and maintenance of geospatial data and hardcopy products for national and multinational production. A member of Intergraph’s GeoMedia product family, Feature Cartographer is part of an integrated software environment encompassing data collection, data management, and cartographic product generation. 
Automated Production
When it comes to map production, standalone software tools are inefficient, requiring you to progress through a series of steps, adjustments, and translations to produce hardcopy maps. GeoMedia Feature Cartographer’s processes and workflows increase productivity in the cartographic production environment, providing a complete set of initialization data based on stringent military specifications for the production of topographic Line Maps (tLM), Joint operations Graphics -Air (JoG-A), and Multi-national Geospatial Co-Production Program (MGCP) maps.
When producing maps to specification, it is critical to ensure compliance and accuracy, both of which are key challenges. GeoMedia Feature Cartographer is delivered with specification parameters pre-loaded. this eliminates the need to manually key in those values and reduces the chance of error. GeoMedia Feature Cartographer uses built-in rules to ensure that cartographic features conform to the appropriate specification.
Elevation Artifact Processing
Military and intelligence personnel must have accurate information about conditions on the ground to support the mission and reduce risks. GeoMedia Feature Cartographer provides an accurate picture of the landscape represented in standardized formats. Capabilities include:
- Cartographic quality contours
- Computer-assisted spot height creation
- Hill shading
- Tint bands
- Spot heights
- Maximum elevation figures (MeFs)
- Interactive tools for additional contour adjustment
Cartographic Editing
GeoMedia Feature Cartographer automates production-oriented tasks performed to generate hardcopy output from a geospatial database. the product references the selected specification to assign standard symbology, so all map users have a common understanding of map representations. the software offers:
- Product-specific feature selection and validation
- Extraction of required labeling information
- Delineation conversions based on product specifications
- Schema conversion to map symbology
- Interactive generalization tools
Automatic Map Sheet Generation
Based on the selected specification, map size, and other user-defined criteria, GeoMedia Feature Cartographer automatically generates a complete map sheet. each hardcopy product includes:
- Complete marginalia using user-defined templates
- Automatic population of all sheet-specific information
- Scale bars, slope guides, conversion charts, etc.
- Generation of adjoining sheet diagram
- Generation of elevation guide box for TLM specifications
- Generation of MEFS for jog-A specifications
- Elevation Guide Box (EGB) for TLM specifications
- Complete cartographic grids and graticules, including grid labels and ticks
Data Verification and Output
GeoMedia Feature Cartographer automatically validates all data to ensure compliance with the appropriate specification. the software supports color separation for hardcopy output, with color tables to provide cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black (CMYK) and special-purpose cartridge (SPC) colors for color separation of GeoPdF files. Complete initialization data and supporting workflows enable the following hardcopy products:
- TLM – 1:50,000
- JOG-A –1:250,000
- MGCP – 1:50,000
Our GIPS Solution
Intergraph’s GIPS solution, including GeoMedia Feature Cartographer for hardcopy output, provides an end-to-end, integrated software environment for the automated production of geospatially accurate products for military and intelligence applications. GeoMedia Feature Cartographer delivers higher productivity by automating the complex tasks involved in converting geospatial data into hardcopy output for cartographic production. Return to menu
Case Study:
City Of Winnipeg Leverages Geospatial Solutions for Infrastructure Management
Intergraph solutions provide city employees with improved access to geospatial information
The Challenge:
As a growing metropolitan area, the City of Winnipeg realized the value of geospatial technology as a tool for municipal infrastructure management. Winnipeg wanted to implement an information system that would streamline infrastructure management for the city’s water and waste department. In addition, the city also needed a flexible geospatial solution it could leverage across the enterprise for land information management, public information services, and other areas.
The City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department is a large civic department consisting of three distinct areas – water, wastewater, and solid waste disposal. The department provides tax-supported services for land drainage, flood control, and solid waste collection. The Water and Waste Department contributes to the high quality of life the citizens of Winnipeg enjoy by protecting public health, property, and the environment; collecting and treating wastewater; managing land drainage and flood control; and providing collection, disposal, and waste minimization programs, and facilities for solid waste. The department’s network database includes information from a service area of 178 square miles, contains more than 200,000 pipe segments, and more than 1,000,000 additional features. Winnipeg was faced with the challenge of finding a solution that would improve access to the city’s asset information and allow all city departments to share and integrate geo-referenced information.
The Project Objectives:
- Provide an off-the-shelf solution for the replacement of the existing rules-based application and preserve the accuracy and integrity of existing and new data
- Store data efficiently in a non-proprietary format using industry-standard databases, such as Oracle
- Develop new advanced analysis functions for engineering and technical personnel
- Allow for easy integration with third-party applications, such as work management and asset management
The Solution:
Intergraph® geospatial solutions facilitated the integration of GeoMedia® and GeoMedia WebMap into the existing system, so the Water and Waste Department could share and integrate geo-referenced information with all city departments. Winnipeg employs Oracle and Oracle Spatial for its enterprise wide database with the municipal infrastructure management system. The system enables the department to effectively maintain and update the city’s water and sewer facilities, all within a single environment. By employing the open technology of GeoMedia PublicWorks Manager and GeoMedia Professional, the department can maintain the city’s massive database.
Using GeoMedia WebMap Professional and a corporate staff-developed intranet application, iView, city employees can access all spatial information in a format customized for each department. The department has made great use of this application throughout the city to enable quick-and-easy access to facility information through its internal network.
Ken Dalton, the supervisor of drafting and graphics services at the City of Winnipeg Water and Waste Department, says, “GeoMedia technology allowed us to integrate directly with Oracle, which has improved access to our asset information for both our engineering and technical staff, as well as our field personnel. With the tools available in GeoMedia Professional and GeoMedia PublicWorks Manager, the data entry workflow is much easier, and the accessibility of the spatial and attribute information has also improved. GeoMedia’s tight integration with AutoCAD allows for easy digital submission of as-built information directly into the system, further improving efficiency.”
The City of Winnipeg also uses GeoMedia’s commercial off-the-shelf technology for additional infrastructure management solutions and to meet other unique needs. For example, the city’s Insect Control Branch uses a configured GeoMedia application to track trucks and crews. The system was initially rolled out with two dispatchers and eight trucks. Today, it manages daily schedules for about 100 trucks. In addition to getting the right people and right equipment to areas identified for spraying, the department can prevent duplicate trips to the same site. The system also identifies the best routes to job sites, and dispatchers can locate trucks that are closest to target areas, providing significant time and cost savings.
The Future:
Winnipeg continues to leverage Intergraph solutions as other departments recognize the benefits of implementing geospatially powered solutions for asset management. The Water and Waste Department plans to add meter data to all households with water service connections. Other projects include integrating aqueduct information into the system, as well as building a water treatment facility. The department is also considering automated meter reading, which would allow electronic control of valves and other functions from a desktop.
The Insect Control Branch wants to expand the system by adding dynamic tracking and automatic vehicle location capabilities. There are also plans to integrate the system with GeoMedia WebMap to provide public visibility to insect control activities. This will provide citizens with direct, real-time access to department information and geospatial data. Return to menu
Application Profile: GeoMedia® Transportation Manager
The transportation industry’s job is to move people and products without delay. With an efficient management system in place, supervising agencies can build and maintain the transportation infrastructure required for getting travelers and products to their destinations safely and on schedule, placing repair and construction teams in the right place at the right time, and determine where agency funds should be spent. Intergraph’s GeoMedia Transportation Manager provides the key geospatial technology to help professionals in departments of transportation (DOTs), rail companies, waterway agencies, and pipeline operations to efficiently analyze and maintain the transportation infrastructure. Functionalities are included for building a linear network model that will support both linear referencing system (LRS) and vehicle routing applications.
Analyze Data Quickly and Easily
A linear referencing system defines a feature or location by its linear distance from known points on a linear network. Using GeoMedia Transportation Manager’s LRS Analysis, you can determine, for example, the location of dangerous traffic conditions, analyze the root cause, and make appropriate improvements.
Rail transportation providers can use LRS Analysis to highlight track segments that need priority maintenance. A municipal or provincial road department can take advantage of GeoMedia’s dynamic pipe technology to see a combined result from two or more sets of data – often maintained in disparate formats by separate divisions. In this way, they can determine the surface condition of a section of highway and see whether any pavement repair projects are scheduled for the near future.
Dynamic segmentation, a powerful tool for analyzing tabular data referenced to linear features on a map, is one of the capabilities pro-vided by GeoMedia Transportation Manager. Dynamic segmentation allows you to see a row of data from a spreadsheet plotted as a dot or line on a map. You can then employ this map data – depicting assets, incidents, and activities – as you would any other geospatial data.
Routing analysis provides previously unavailable flexibility and efficiency in the use of mobile assets. You can optimize the value of vehicles and personnel in the field, plan contingencies for problems such as damaged pipelines, assure proper coverage for emergency response services, and find the most efficient route to the facility you are looking for. Capabilities include finding best path and closest facility, analyzing coverage of emergency services for a portion of the network, and creating navigation directions between stops.
Multilevel Linear Referencing System
Intergraph meets the challenge transportation agencies face when using different linear referencing methods and geometric representations with the industry’s first off-the-shelf multilevel linear referencing system (MLRS). GeoMedia Transportation Manager provides a cohesive LRS that has capabilities far beyond those offered by a traditional, single-level LRS. Often, the sub departments of a transportation agency each collect data using different measurement methods and even different road-naming conventions. For example, if accidents are located by distance and direction from intersections and guardrail inventory is located by milepost, you would need to be able to use these different location methods together in order to locate run-off-the-road accidents that occurred where there is no guardrail. Intergraph’s Multilevel LRS makes this simple.
With the added functionality of MLRS, you will have the ability to perform analysis with data collected using multiple linear referencing methods, to view analyses using your choice of geometric representation, and perform temporal analysis when used in conjunction with GeoMedia Transaction Manager.
Define Network Characteristics
LRS Data Maintenance provides tools for developing consistent attributes for the transportation network. LRS Validation performs an in-depth review of a transportation network to find errors and unusable information. Anomalies are queued for review and are automatically deleted once they are corrected. LRS correction tools handle difficult problems such as incorrectly ordered segments in a geometry collection.
LRS Calibration automates the population of measure and route name attribution – a capability critical to the operation of an LRS. This command can save time and effort in projects when, for example, a state DOT incorporates local roads in the state system. If the sources for the local roads are without measurement attribution, the LRS Calibration command can calibrate the entire feature or query class in a matter of seconds.
Integrate Data without Translation
Transportation network and asset data can come from a variety of sources, in a variety of formats. GeoMedia technology enables you to bring data from disparate databases into a single GIS environment for viewing, analysis, and presentation. GeoMedia’s data server technology supports open standards, providing direct access to business and project data from virtually any geographic data objects (GDO)-compliant data server within your enterprise. These include Oracle®, Microsoft® Access, Microsoft SQL Server™, MGE, MGSM, IBM® DB2®, ArcInfo, ArcRoute, and ArcView.
Bridge the Gap between Technology and Productivity
Intergraph helps you get the most from your investment by providing a comprehensive set of services for the open computing environment, including system integration, consulting, project services, and implementation. GeoMedia Transportation Manager is ready to use right out of the box; however, where customization is required, a documented public API to software capabilities facilitates open customization with industry-standard tools such as Microsoft Visual Basic®.
Why Transportation Leaders Choose Intergraph
Road, rail, pipeline, and waterway agencies around the world depend on Intergraph for advanced geospatial transportation solutions. Benefits include:
- Improved planning and decision making
- Data sharing across the enterprise and around the world
- Quick access to data no matter where it resides or what format it takes
- The industry’s best analysis and display capabilities
- An empowered mobile workforce
- Third-party partners to develop a complete industry solution
- Merger of geospatial data with information technology and business process improvement tools to create efficient workflows
The LRS Validation command provides a list of anomalies found when the linear referencing sys-tem is verified. As you correct errors from the list, they automatically disappear from the data and map windows.
Merging linear referencing system (LRS) and routing capabilities, GeoMedia Transportation Manager’s Best Path command shows the safest route for over-sized vehicles. Taking advantage of the command’s Edge Restrictors, the route avoids roads with
low-capacity bridges that could collapse under extra weight. Return to menu
Across Intergraph
Intergraph is hitting the road this fall to bring our newest solutions to your home town. Check out Intergraph's Event Page to see when we will be close to you and to learn how to register.
Intergraph launched a new video featuring our Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) application. The video highlights our capabilities and features a customer testimonial from Dutch Kadaster. Watch now!
Watch for Intergraph Canada at the Transportation Association of Canada's 2010 Conference (Halifax, NS: Sept. 27-28)
Stay In Touch
We encourage your questions, comments and ideas for future geospatial newsletters. We’d love to feature your Intergraph installation / innovations! Contact us at marketing@intergraph.ca .
Did you know that we also publish a general SG&I Division Customer Newsletter, as well as a Canadian Public Safety Newsletter? Contact marketing@intergraph.ca to be subscribed to either or both newsletters.
If you need assistance with your Intergraph installation or product, or would like to find out more about a product, contact sales@intergraph.ca to be connected to a representative closest to you.