ASM
TeleAtlas and the New World of DIY
Thursday, 19 Jun 2008 03:14 PM
The problem with in-car mapping systems is no longer the coverage of the data. If a mapping van hasn't driven down your steet, it will soon, no matter where you live. Today, the big issue is currency. You need to know this in order to understand one of the most remarkable events in the industry in the last few years – the sale of Tele Atlas to the personal navigation device manufacturer, TomTom, for $4.5 billion.
More...Earthquake Prediction Post-Sichuan
Tuesday, 17 Jun 2008 10:43 AM
Australian scientists may have found a practical way of predicting earthquakes using space-based radar interferometry to map ground movement. However, they are not the only ones offering hope after the Sichuan earthquake. Scientists in Britain, Taiwan and the US are proposing an earthquake warning system based on electrical disturbances that precede quakes on the ground below.
More...Temporary CORS Networks for Tsunami Relief: Aceh
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 05:14 PM
Researchers have recently established a temporary reference station network to test the potential of using high-precision GPS surveying techniques to re-establish land boundaries when survey monuments and other marks have been destroyed. They reported on their experience in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami in Aceh at last year's conference of the International GNSS Society.
More...Tackling the Skills Shortage in Indonesia
Monday, 12 May 2008 05:12 PM
A shortage of skilled surveyors is biting across the region. In Indonesia, where the need is especially severe, the many competing forms of land tenure are an open invitation to corrupution and abuse. Training more graduates in land information may be one way to tackle the issue.
More...Can Thailand’s Rice Cartel Stop World Hunger?
Friday, 09 May 2008 05:31 PM
It seems that the crisis in rice production will start to influence land use patterns across Asia as the Thai government plans a new series of regulation measures to protect its rice-growing regions. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech on 5 April that a rice cartel proposed by Thailand would ensure global food security, rather than increase hunger and poverty as critics say.
More...Australian Maritime Boundaries Impact on Indonesia
Friday, 02 May 2008 04:08 PM
The UN has approved the extension of Australia’s maritime boundaries, adding about 2.5 million km² of continental shelf. While the announcement has caused some satisfaction in Australia, it also prompted governments in adjacent countries to consider their options. Other coastal states such as Indonesia are also entitled to an extended continental shelf.
More...Inside Razaksat
Monday, 07 Apr 2008 04:54 PM
Sometime in the next few months, Malaysia will finally launch its Razaksat-1 satellite, its first attempt at an Earth observation vehicle join up. At least, it will if plans go according to schedule. It’s a big ‘if’. The original plan was to launch the satellite in 2005, but that was delayed due to problems with the launch vehicle and with the satellite itself.
More...Integration of CAD and GIS
Monday, 07 Apr 2008 04:21 PM
The concept is familiar: take data from one environment to another without losing integrity, information or intelligence. However, the integration of CAD and GIS environments continues to be an issue, especially in local government and in other agencies where information from designers needs to be placed in its true geographic context.
More...Fighting Global Warming, Securing Sovereignty
Tuesday, 01 Apr 2008 03:59 PM
Rising sea levels have grave implications for the future of small islands, maritime boundaries and ultimately, national sovereignty. Indonesia, for instance, is predicted to lose 92 small islands of great strategic value. This will alter the status and extent of Indonesia's maritime area.
More...Singapore Plants Trees in GIS
Friday, 21 Mar 2008 10:46 AM
In 1963, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew launched a tree planting campaign. But it is only with the use of GIS that it has been possible to fully realise his vision.
More...Asian Infrastructure Growth in a Greener World
Wednesday, 27 Feb 2008 05:35 PM
Asian infrastructure growth will continue to drive the market for spatial information over the next decade. This would seem to be the take home message from an address to World Press Day in Sydney from Patrick Williams, head of Autodesk operations in the Asia Pacific. The event is an opportunity for executives in the company to inform the public about its long-term plans.
More...Iran's Space Ambitions Ride on Safir
Friday, 22 Feb 2008 12:41 PM
On 4 February, the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully launched a sub-orbital rocket called Safir (Envoy) from its newly opened domestic launch site in the northeast of the country.The communications payload on Safir sent real-time data back to earth from about 250 km.
More...Vertical Definition
Friday, 22 Feb 2008 12:36 PM
Staff at Anzlic, the Australian national mapping council, have been working towards a National Digital Elevation Model to improve the definition of heights across the continent since 2006. A meeting next month will move the process along.
More...Re-Visioning Spatial Data and Knowledge for Sustainable Development
Thursday, 14 Feb 2008 02:59 PM
Sustainable development principles are now an accepted part of the planning process. The use of spatial data technologies to enable those processes is commonplace. This means changing the output of a spatial information system from maps to digital forms.
More...Building Geo-games
Thursday, 07 Feb 2008 12:45 PM
Location-based gaming is growing. These are the games in which play centres around players’ geographical movements. However, the technical challenges facing the developers of these location-based games is inhibiting their commercial success
More...Cheap Data Helps Build the Industry
Thursday, 07 Feb 2008 12:06 PM
Spatial data is an indispensible tool for anyone trying to develop an economy. But attempts to recover the price of creating the data are often counter-productive.
More...Internet Map of Sea Level Increase
Wednesday, 06 Feb 2008 10:07 AM
Want to see how your local coastline will change if sea levels rise? See which streets will be submerged and which ones will have waterfront views. A new website shows the impact of sea water rises from one to 14 metres in one metre intervals.
More...ERP for Freight Transport
Sunday, 13 Jan 2008 09:44 AM
An ERP system is not just another computer application. It changes the way that enterprises work. The GIS Research Centre at Feng Chia University has developed a prototype system that uses ERP principals.
More...Researchers Use GIS to Study Landslide Causes
Thursday, 10 Jan 2008 02:04 PM
Torrential rainfall in the summer of 2004 caused a series of natural disasters in the Niigata region of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. The heaviest downfall occurred on 13 July, flooding Japan’s longest river, the Shinano-gawa. A little over three months later, on 23 October, intensive earthquakes shook another hilly area.
More...The Aftermath
Wednesday, 09 Jan 2008 06:55 PM
On 26 December 2004, a devastating tsunami was triggered by the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake hit Banda Aceh. The wave killed more than 186,000 people, but the UN puts the overall casualty count at 229,866. Whatever the final toll, it was this district, at the northern end of Indonesia, that bore the brunt of the wave and its aftermath.
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