Geospatial Engineering Key issues & challenges

Following a meeting in October 1992 between Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES) a series of discussions took place to explore the future relationship of the two Institutions and the lack of activity and knowledge at ICE on the subjects of surveying and remote sensing. Consultations involving both institutions and the Engineering Council culminated in agreement to establish a Joint Engineering Survey Board, with members drawn from both institutions, and for the ICES to become a formally associated institution of the ICE. September 1999 saw a further strengthening of the relationship between the two Institutions with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement. Following on from the Memorandum the Joint Engineering Survey Board was renamed the Geospatial Engineering Board in November 1999 and has 5 ICES and 5 ICE members working together on it. A new ICE/ICES board was formed called the Commercial Management Board which will serve the Management Board of the ICE and the Commercial Management Practices Committee of the ICES.

Although the role of the civil engineering surveyor may not have altered much per se the has dramatically changed in recent years. Traditional skills of setting out and detail surveying have been simplified by the development of intelligent data collection equipment like robotic total stations or through equipment which use the Global Positioning System. The surveyor has adapted by widening his skill base to encompass a broader spectrum of data collection techniques including remote sensing and, more importantly, by developing the management of this data. Modern survey equipment helps the traditional engineering surveyor but skill and experience is still needed to provide the dimensional control and setting out of all large construction projects. The title of Geospatial Engineer, which is being considered by the ICES, defines this wider role. He can advise the Civil Engineer on all aspects of geospatial data collection and conversion. This wider skill base is brought to the ICE through the JESB.

One of the key challenges facing the Board is raising the Civil Engineers awareness of the latest mapping technologies. Examples of recent developments include:

• one metre resolution satellite data imagery- the ability to map any part of the world to 1 metre accuracy;

• high accuracy lasers, controlled by GPS, to rapidly map large areas of land from helicopters;
• the use of digital video systems to map assets on roads;
• automated vector mapping in digital photogrammetry.

The Global Positioning System has been an underestimated and misjudged system. Properly utilised, it can offer enormous benefits to the skilled practitioner. These include monitoring of movements on bridges, dams or even plate tectonics. It can also be used as a tool for rapid setting out and mapping. 

Background

The first meeting of the 1999-2000 session marked a change in name and Chairman.  The Joint Engineering Survey Board was renamed the Geospatial Engineering Board and Colin Clinton passed on the chairmanship of the Board to John McCreadie, a director of Scotland-based Survey Development Services. 

The technical advances in the surveying and mapping sciences meant that civil engineering surveying (CES) no longer adequately defined those working in the profession.  Geospatial Engineering is the new term for (CES) and the Board is trying to get the Oxford English Dictionary to include it in the next publication.  A short definition of Geospatial Engineering is:

“The professional discipline of those people, working within the built & natural  environments, involved in the construction of, maintenance of and output from the Geospatial database.  It encompasses the specialisms of engineering surveying, land/hydrographic survey, photogrammetry and remote sensing, geographic information systems and cartography/visualisation.”

Board composition

The board members for this joint Institution of Civil Engineers/Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors Board are: 

• John McCreadie (ICES)
  – Chairman of the GEB;
• Colin Clinton (ICES)
  – Vice Chairman of the GEB and a director of Ove Arup;
• Edmund Brew (ICE)
  – partner a t Pick Everard and ICE Council member for the East Midlands;
• Teresa Coyle (ICE)
  – technical officer at the Institution of Highways and Transportation and member of the Graduates and Students National Council;
• Martin Cullen (ICE)
  – lecturer at Glasgow and Caledonian University;
• David Fulton (ICE)
  – works for the highway department of a local authority;
• Harry Glennie (ICES)
  – Junior Vice-President of the ICES, Chairman of the Geospatial Engineering Practices Committee and a chief surveyor at Taylor Woodrow;
• Tony Marshall (ICE)
  – associate director of Ove Arup;
• Bert Palmer (ICES) –
  first Joint Engineering Survey Board Chairman and past Chairman of the ICES Council;
• Paul Shaw (ICES)
  – geospatial engineering consultant;
• Alan Wright (ICES)
  – Managing Director of his own company, Global Surveys Ltd. top
  

Board objectives / action plan

The Board objectives for the following year are:

1. To be the focal point for geospatial engineering knowledge within the Institution of Civil Engineers
2. To promote the profession of geospatial engineering within the ICE, within the civil engineering profession and to the general public;
3. To provide literature and guidelines on geospatial engineering topics for the civil engineer and other industry professionals;
4. To promote the role of the geospatial engineering specialist as a member of the design/management iteam on major infrastructure projects;
5. To comment on geospatial engineering matters in the public interest;
6. To sponsor the ICES Geospatial Engineer Award for the purpose of promoting and rewarding innovative applications of geospatial engineering.

A selection of the activities and actions that the Board will be undertaking to meet the 6 main objectives are:

• Producing a PowerPoint presentation to give the uninitiated some background information on what geospatial engineering actually is.  This will be in a CD format for ease of distribution to interested parties.   (Please contact the Board secretary if you would like a complementary copy of the presentation).
• Geospatial engineering case studies are to be included in the Television Education Network video, together with an interview with the Board Chairman;
• A booklet of geospatial case studies of real interest to the civil engineer are to be made available and also published on ICEnet;
• On 22 May Professor Ashkenazi of Nottingham Unviersity ids going to give a lecture entitled ‘Planes, trains, automobiles ……and navigation satellites’.  This free event will undoubtedly be popular if the Professors past lectures are anything to go by;
• On 17 October will be the first annual public meeting which will discuss how the pyramids were made and could they be built now using geospatial engineering techniques;
• On 22 November there will be a half day meeting entitle ‘Geospatial engineering –its role in the civil engineering process’;
• In autumn 2000 there will be an evening meeting on the impacts of the IKONOS satellite on the geospatial database;

‘Looking down on the Millennium Geospatial Engineering
- the new profession’ 

The new term of Geospatial Engineering owes its existence to the staggering technological advances which have swept through the surveying and mapping profession in recent years, making the term civil engineering surveying largely redundant.  Geospatial Engineering brings together the plethora of professionals who produce, maintain and use the geospatial database.  In the words of the Geospatial Engineering Board’s very own Chairman, John McCreadie, Geospatial Engineering is: 

“The professional discipline of those people, working within the built & natural environments, involved in the construction of, maintenance of and output from the Geospatial database.”

The range of specialisms which come under the umbrella term of Geospatial Engineering include:

• land surveying – a major change in this discipline has been the proliferation of navigation satellites orbiting the earth whose images are now available on the open market rather than just being the preserve of the US and Russian militaries.

   

• hydrographic surveying – sea level is no longer being used as a reference point thanks to Global Positioning Satellites which provide a uniform reference across the globe.
• photogrammetry and remote sensing – the prohibitive costs of conventional mapping using air photographs and ground reconnaissance to produce paper maps mean that only 50% of the globe have been mapped.  Navigation satellites have revolutionised global mapping by providing the necessary data to produce 3D ground maps quickly and cheaply.

   

• geographical information systems (GIS) – this is the method by which geospatial data is portrayed e.g. a photographic image is draped over a digital ground model to produce a virtual 3D landscape.
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IKONOS Satellite

The Ikonos satellite was launched successfully on 24 September 1999 after a failed attempt earlier in the year.  Space Imaging, the company that operates Ikonos, will point the satellite at any area requested and the resultant image e-mailed to the customer within a day.  This is the first time that high-resolution satellite images have been freely available on the world market. 

The Ikonos satellite orbits the Earth 14 times a day from a distance of 420 miles and covers virtually the entire globe in a mere a three days.  It takes black and white images at up to a resolution of 1 metre making it the provider of the most detailed images of the Earth available to the public.  Below is a picture of London Eye being raised which was beamed down from the Ikonos satellite at the end of last year:

The detailed images will be an invaluable tool to a variety of people including civil engineers, town planners, pollution monitors, traffic managers and the media.  However, Space Imaging has already run into trouble with the US military, which previously had a monopoly on high-resolution images and hence didn’t make any available for non-military use.  The Ikonos images will have great military value for countries that do not have access to spy-satellite images and the US Congress has already passed a law restricting the imaging of Israel.

Space is set to get slightly more cluttered in the near future with Ikonos being joined by two more imaging satellites Orb View 3 of the Orbital Imaging Corp and Earthwatch's Quickbird.  This will hopefully drive down the price of high-resolution images and thus rapidly expand input of information into to the geospatial database.  However if a truly worldwide geospatial database is to be a reality there needs to be standardisation of mapping in all countries.

Final thought

Civil engineers may ask the question ‘What does Geospatial Engineering and the geospatial database have to do with my job?’  The database has a wealth of uses to the modern civil engineer especially at the design stages of a project e.g. assessing damage to water pipes after the recent earthquakes in Turkey prior to the rebuilding programme.  Civil engineers have a major role to play in adding data to, and utilising data from the 3D geospatial database – a tool which is set to revolutionise the entire civil engineering profession in the new Millennium. 

Useful links:
http://www.spaceimage.com - Space Imaging
http://www.digitalglobe.com - Earthwatch Inc
http://www.orbimage.com - Orbital Imaging Corp.
http://www.sds.co.uk - Survey Development Services
http://www.veximg.com - Vexcel Imaging Corp.

Also see the ICE information on the Geospatial Engineering Board.