Presented annually by the Australian Museum, the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes reward excellence in the fields of research & innovation, leadership & commercialisation, school science and science journalism & communication.

Full details from Australian Museum...

Geoscience Australia is a world leader in providing first-class geoscientific information and knowledge enabling the Australian government to make informed decisions about the use and management of resources, the environment, community wellbeing and sustainable energy.

The IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) is truly a global event which promises to bring together experts engineers, researchers, teachers, scientists and students from around the world to review the latest issues and studies utilising remote sensing technologies for observations of the Earth, oceans, atmosphere and space.

This event presents excellent promotional and networking opportunities for companies, government agencies, educational institutions, research facilities, scientific societies, and others exhibiting the latest in geoscience instruments, equipment, software, books and journals, and scientific programs at the world's premier annual remote sensing symposium.

Exciting sponsorship opportunities are still available for interested parties...

The following information is a summary of the update available online...

What is AusGOAL?

AusGOAL, the Australian Governments' Open Access and Licensing Framework, has been endorsed by the Western Australian Government to provide support and guidance to facilitate open access to publicly funded information where appropriate. AusGOAL makes it possible for agencies to manage their risks when publishing information and data in a way that drives innovation and entrepreneurial activities; providing enhanced economic and social benefits to the wider community. AusGOAL is also aligned with numerous open government initiatives around the world.

We now have the technical capability to build a 'true-to-life' 3D computer model of the natural and built environment (above and below ground, inside and out) for use in all stages of the property cycle.

The VANZI Conference 2013 will consider the major challenges we face in achieving this vision over the next decade - and to hear about the Virtual Australia and New Zealand Initiative which offers a way to meet them.

Victorian Technology Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips officially opened the office, and led a large contingent of Victorian-based ICT companies as part of the Victorian Coalition Government’s Super Trade Mission to India last week.

Join Geoimage and PCI to better understand the variety of offerings from PCI Geomatics, and how you can use the software to gain operational efficiencies.

The company based in Leuven, Belgium announced on March 12 that it performed a first autonomous real-time Galileo position, velocity, and timing (PVT) calculation, based on live Interface Control Document (ICD)-compliant Galileo messages from the four Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites.

Manuscripts can be submitted online on our journal website. Articles are reviewed on fast track system with a decision of acceptance /Rejection in 15 days.

For any info please free to contact SM Kadri.

We also echo the NZGO's announcement that ' Mary Sue has been a driving force behind lifting CRCSI’s profile and government, academic and industry participation in CRCSI activities. The Engagement Leader role is a natural progression for her, where she can use her strengths in communication, relationship management and analysis towards implementing the Geospatial Strategy.'

Clive was awarded for his development and production of the digital camera calibration program 'Australis'.

Further information...

Launching the policy at ANU’s Stromlo Observatory, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation Senator Kate Lundy said on-going, cost effective access to satellite capabilities was essential to Australia’s future.

“Australians, whether they know it or not, rely on satellites every day,” Senator Lundy said.

Find the policy here or read the rest of the release from Senator Lundy...

The information accessible includes best available imagery, property and electoral boundaries, property addresses, instant access to SmartMaps, areas affected by floods, and more.

The combination of the two companies, announced at last week’s SSSC 2013 in Canberra, positions AAM as one of the largest geospatial services providers in Australasia and the Asia Pacific Region.

The preliminary report is the culmination of a collaborative effort between Australia’s councils, SSSI and Esri Australia. This Report, which contains the Study findings, was compiled by an independent research agency.

Simpson brings a wide array of experience to SIBA, having previously enjoyed lead roles on some of the largest digital urban infrastructure projects ever undertaken in cities such as Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok.

Find them and the rest of the 2013 APSEA awards here.

Two reports on Australia’s use and investment in SAR satellites have been released, which have also influenced the new Australian Space Utilisation Policy released earlier in the month.

Find the reports and the policy on the Radar Research Facility page.

The project’s goal is to develop the capacity within each Pacific Island to manage and use LiDAR data to support local sea-level rise planning and decision making in Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Samoa.

Full Position Profile available from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. The position is open until 13 May.

The announcement follows AAM’s merger with Vekta Pty Ltd in April, and represents another significant investment in Australia’s fast-growing geospatial sector.

The coveted prize was presented during the Geospatial World Forum which has been held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The GDE Atlas was developed by a team consisting of leading projects firm, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), and Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.

In years to come it may make your smartphone even smarter and help your car drive itself, with scientists believing basic global positioning technology can be accurate to the centimetre by the end of the decade.

The robotic arm will work to calibrate antennae used to track satellites in the Global Navigation Satellite System - including the American GPS, European Galileo, Chinese Compass and Russian GLONASS systems - so they can give more accurate co-ordinate readings when placed in sites around the country.

• Coordinate geospatial research and development activities in New Zealand
• Drive the implementation of the NZ Geospatial Research Strategy
• Collaborate across government, industry and academic sectors

Applications close 5pm Friday 14 June 2013.

The Australian Government awards five prizes annually for outstanding scientific achievements and excellence in science teaching. These awards are the most prestigious and significant of their kind in Australia. Each award comprises a solid embossed gold/silver engraved medallion, with matching lapel pins, and tax-exempt cash components totalling $500,000

The ABS is introducing a new Statistical Geography Standard from July 2011 and you are invited to participate in Information Sessions that are being held in each State during May and June.

Several metropolitan newspapers carried unattributed speculation yesterday and today that "senior ministers are targeting industry assistance and research programs, including the $650 million Co-operative Research Centre scheme, for major savings."

Professor Tony Peacock, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centres Association, responded on ABC radio saying that he "wished the CRC Program was $650 million".

"Whoever is backgrounding the media obviously doesn't understand the program, which is currently about $180 million from the Federal government, not $650 million. In fact, every Federal Government dollar draws industry funds to Cooperative Research Centres and that is exactly the policy outcome the Government wished to achieve. The industry proportion of CRC budgets has grown steadily over the life of the CRC Program, in contrast to industry participation in other research programs.

Source: CRC media release

Here is a summary and some highlights from Geoff Zeiss...

The information includes maps which identify the potential future impacts of sea level rise on the Adelaide region. These maps complement maps released previously for Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Hunter and Central Coast, and south east Queensland.

Article by Fran Foo, The Australian
May 03, 2011

Queensland utility Ergon Energy is quietly testing technology that could pinpoint the location of people stuck in emergency situations.

iVEC is pleased to announce the 2011 Small Business Technical Assistance Scheme, promoting the use of supercomputing, visualisation, high speed networks and research collaboration technologies.

The complete list runs to more than 4,000 titles. A search function is available from http://www.nap.edu/.

Source: Spatial Source article, 14/6/2011

Australia has again joined the competition as an official partner region.

http://www.galileo-masters.eu/

Today saw the release of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) cookbook for New Zealand.

This initial version of the NZ SDI cookbook has been developed to provide guidance for the early stages of implementing SDI, with the chapters based on what is currently known about the elements typically underpinning SDIs, and guided by developments and experiences in jurisdictions internationally.

"The discovery potential of the future international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope has been glimpsed following the commissioning of a working optical fibre link between CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia, and other radio telescopes across Australia and New Zealand."

[ Source: spaceinfo.com  (photo: Terrace Photographers) ]

Critchlow took on three Victoria University graduates last year as part of its pilot programme, all with science and technology backgrounds.

The Warren's Centre's annual Innovation Lecture and associated Innovation Hero Awards put successful Australian innovators in the public spotlight.

Scanalyse's "MillMapper" laser scanner of liners in grinding mills and specialised software extracts information, reduces operating costs, increases production levels and reduces energy costs, with a large reduction of CO2 emissions.

NGIS, along with the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and CRC for Spatial Information, created VisTool, an online scenario planning tool to visualise and communicate the effects of sea level rising.

Scanalyse, along with Curtin University and CRC for Spatial Information, commercialised MillMapper, an innovative terrestrial laser scanner technique for safely measuring the rate of wear of mineral processing mills for improved efficiencies and productivity.

The standard of the entries considered for the 2011 WA Spatial Excellence was very high, and judges made the point that determining a clear winner was difficult in several award streams. It was pleasing to see the awards shared variously by the spatial industry business, private/ industry sector, and government sector, with several of the awards going to partnerships formed across these sectors.

The report - The incidence and severity of bushfires across Australia - includes 15 recommendations aimed at reducing the incidence and effects of catastrophic bushfires in Australia.

Data from all sites were streamed in real time to Curtin University in Perth (a node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research) and there processed to make an image.

Organised by leading GIS and location intelligence specialists Esri Australia, Ozri 2011 will bring together GIS professionals from the U.S.A., Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Geoscience Australia says the device will be able to track earthquakes off Indonesia in real time, which will make accurate tsunami predictions possible.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-30/tsunami-warning-system/2817264

The LINZ sponsored category calls for the development of an application that best supports the Canterbury earthquake recovery using at least one piece of New Zealand central or local government data. LINZ encourages the applications to combine or remix data from its recently launched LINZ Data Service.

More

Woodgate: The CRCSI has been set up as a long-term research engine to tackle grand challenges that can only be addressed through the unique cooperation of the private, public and research sectors.

More

Internships run for approximately 10 weeks during the period December through February, although dates and exact length of the internship are negotiable. The award is for up to $6,000 per student (tax free), dependent on the length of the project.

More

“The conference was very productive, and really showed the shift of thinking into the next generation of modelling, simulation, optimisation and visualisation using spatial information,” said CRCSI CEO Peter Woodgate.

CRCSI was recognised as a key participant, integral to the preparation and operation.

At an exciting 2011 GITA ANZ Geospatial Solutions Conference in Sydney last week, Mark Volz of Ergon Energy gave a fascinating presentation on how Ergon monitored flooding and managed electric power during the Decemeber 2010/January 2011 flood season in Queensland, Australia.

2 weeks to go - $50,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs!
Entries close 15 September 2011

Manfred is Full Professor for GIS and Remote Sensing at the University of Osnabruek, Germany, and is the Director of the University's Institute for Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing. He is President of the 'Society for Geo-informatics' (German) and Chairman of 'The Centre of Excellence in Geoinformatics in North Germany' and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Digital Earth.

The 2011 scholarship is now open for nominations. Please complete your nomination on the form provided below. Nominations close on the 30th of September 2011.

Please note that this scholarship is open to both members and non-members of the SSSI.

More

Through structured workshopping and reporting the main issues were identified and potential solutions canvassed.

The program, which is being funded under the Gillard Labor Government’s Australian Space Research Program, will teach space science to 400 students and provide expert support and resources for 40 teachers.

Opening the program on behalf of Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr, Senator for South Australia Alex Gallacher said Australia’s excellent research base and expertise in the area of space presented huge opportunities for Australia.

The concept, devised by the nation’s leading location intelligence specialists Esri Australia, would show riders the most scenic track to take, where they could undertake emergency repairs, or even help them locate the nearest pub for those with a hard-earned thirst.

Even today, some five months later, a significant area of the inner city is still inaccessible. The CHC X91 GNSS receiver deployed by a Paterson Pitts Group survey team on two key projects has contributed to enabling decisions about how the planned reconstruction of Christchurch should proceed.

ROAMES - Remote Observation Automated Modelling Economic Simulation - will enable geo-spatial modelling of Ergon Energy's electricity network for the first time.

Releasing a roadmap for the future of Australia’s research infrastructure, Innovation Minister Senator Carr said world-class research was the key to a thriving innovation system and world-class research required world-class tools.

International Journal of Digital Earth

Special Issue on “Analytical Geospatial Digital Earth”

Guest Editors: Bert Veenendaal, Songnian Li, Suzana Dragicevic and Maria Antonia Brovelli

Important deadlines

Submission of manuscripts February 15, 2012
Notification of acceptance/rejection June 15, 2012
Submission of final version September 15, 2012
Planned publication of special issue: Early 2013

Please provide an early expression of interest through email to b.veenendaal@curtin.edu.au

There is a growing national consensus, reinforced by recent studies and the recently prepared Australian Strategic Plan for Earth Observation from Space, as well as the federal government’s new Principles for a National Space Industry Policy, that Australia has a strong dependency and reliance on foreign Earth Observation (EO) satellites, in particular for environmental and disaster monitoring, and that it wishes to grow its regional prominence and international participation in global remote sensing programs.

Read the paper here

An executive level Implementation Group is being established to extend agency representation in WALIS to Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of State Development, Department of Regional Development and Lands and Department of Transport.

Recent advances in DNA sequencing have allowed scientists to accurately track the spread of some diseases by measuring mutations in the pathogen's DNA when the DNA replicates.

The advance, outlined by the Geological Society of America, is just one of the latest innovations with this laser technology, the use of which has mushroomed in recent years in the study of everything from earthquakes and tsunamis to beach erosion and road construction.

Releasing the Focusing Australia's Publicly Funded Research Review, Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said the Labor Government had increased its support for research, science and innovation since taking office by 43 per cent to $9.4 billion this financial year.

Queensland University of Technology's Dean of Research and Research Training Professor Paul Burnett said the postgraduate degree would train future leaders in research and commercialisation. "For some time now, we have recognised a significant need for a formal postgraduate award which provides training in best practice management skills and commercialisation to the research sectors," he said.

The content, relevant to all technical disciplines, will be provided fully online and presented as a choice postgraduate degree for all professional research managers/administrators, researchers and innovators wanting to further their careers.

1. GGC 2012 Commercialization Support Services Award (CSS)
$50,000 non-repayable grant to be used with TECTERRA's Approved Service Providers (ASPs)
Deadline: April 6, 2012

2. GGC 2012 Exhibition Award
$4,000 sponsorship for exhibit space at the GGC trade show
Deadline: February 23, 2012

The conference, held in Noosa from 6th-8th December, is the main Australian Conference on computer vision, image processing, pattern recognition, and related areas.

The Hon Greg Combet will become the Minister for Innovation and Industry whilst also retaining his responsibilities for Climate Change. Senator the Hon Chris Evans will take over as Minister for Science and Research, presumably assuming responsibilities for CRCs. The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research will have Higher Education and Skills incorporated into it, so it will take a few days to determine exact arrangements. In her press conference, the Prime Minister indicated that she assumed Dr Don Russell, the present Secretary of DIISR, will be the head of the new, expanded Department.

The capture includes some major developmental hot spots in the area, including Barrow Island (home to the $43 billion Gorgon Project), Karratha, Dampier, Burrup Peninsula, James Price Point (gas precinct), Onslow's Ashburton North facility (Wheatstone project), South Hedland, Port Hedland, Roebourne, Cape Lambert and Broome.

Please find the eNews here.

The impetus for this survey came from the OGC Business Value Committee that has been tasked with three primary goals:

1. Assess the effort (costs) and outcomes (benefits) required to successfully use geospatial standards
2. Understand and articulate the advantages of developing and using OGC standards
3. Enable the wider community of stakeholders to leverage business value as a tool to foster investment and implementation

From the OGC announcement: The survey is a joint effort by two academic researchers who are OGC members and by the OGC Business Value Committee. Dr. Mu Xia at Santa Clara University and Dr. Kexin Zhao at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte developed the survey based on requirements from the OGC Business Value Committee to support their studies on standards effectiveness. The OGC Business Value Committee will use a summary of the results to help the OGC better understand the value of the OGC’s open standards and improve its programs for geospatial standards development, compliance testing and outreach.

As an output from the discussion meeting, a paper has been published on the International Journal of Digital Earth (IJDE), which is freely accessible from IJDE website (for a month). For Free Access to the paper entitled “Digital Earth 2020: towards the vision for the next decade”, published in Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012.

www.tandfonline.com/r/DE2020

Business planning and operations planning took a major step forward at the last GSN board meeting. Discussions focused on strengthening international research initiatives and leveraging new technologies and education opportunities.

In addition the GSN website is ready for launch in the coming weeks.

The mission of the GSN is to leverage global partnerships for geomatic engineering and spatial information science research, to facilitate education and training, to bid for funds for use by partners, and to help establish other such networks.

Founding members are CentroGeo (Mexico); CRCSI (ANZ), Future Position X (Sweden); GEOIDE (Canada); KSLG (Korea).

Media enquiries: Peter Woodgate, CEO CRCSI pwoodgate@crcsi.com.au or + 61 408 252 083

See the list

1) Singapore Uses GIS as an Enabler to Build a Networked Government

2) What Does An Integrated Geospatial Strategy Mean?

3) Australia Takes a Sustainability Approach to Urban Planning Reform

4) Ocean Exploration: Spatial Challenges in the Sea

5) The Future of the Global Navigation System of Systems

Full Story

She has developed an online survey to test some ideas which have come out of two rounds of interviews and an in-depth literature review. Brenda urgently needs interested participants to do her survey several times over the fire season — it takes about 20 minutes the first time and 15 minutes thereafter. The survey would be sent out during the last week of January.

The people for whom her survey is designed would be either gender and:

1. be over 20 and under 60
2. have lived for 3 years (or more) in a semi-rural or rural area
3. are internet-savvy
4. Optional (but nice to have) Are not overly involved in local CFA or community fire-mitigation groups.

Please contact Brenda by email: bmackie10@gmail.com

The proposed open-source version of HealthTracks and datasets will help urban researchers and policy developers in answering a multitude of urban health and well-being research questions.

Read the full list

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Geologist Dr David Huston says the history of supercontinents could indicate where large mineral, petroleum and coal deposits may be found in the future.

Researchers collecting rock samples in Western Australia's remote Pilbara region have stumbled across a mineral previously believed to exist only on the Moon.

If you are an SME with a great idea, your project could be worth up to $20 000!

Applications are open now: www.innovation.wa.gov.au/vouchers

There are five award categories:

• Applications Development
• Geospatial
• Government 2.0
• Project Management
• Service Delivery

Professor Chris Rizos has been elected for sustained contributions to the practice and management of satellite navigation research; and for leadership representing the satellite navigation community in Australia.

The deadline for entries will be 20 April 2012, however entries can be submitted at any time.

• Landsat 5 Suspension of Operations Extended
• Esri Updates - ArcGIS in more languages
• Announcing the 2012 Esri #DevMeetup Schedule
• Checkin to Google Places
• The new Nokia Lumia smart phone
• PhoneGap OpenSource deploys to 7 mobile platforms
• USGIF opening its 2012 Scholarship Program
• Latitude Geographics featured in Canada's national newspaper
• Registration open for the 2012 Washington GIS Conference
• Carnival of the Geospatialists 4

Story and images from GPS World

Full story

Full story from Directions Mag

The concept was included in the independent’s written agreement with Prime Minister Julia Gillard - the $10 billion deal for regional Australia.

Full story from Queensland Country Life

Full story from SpatialSource

Full story from SpatialSource

Full story from SpatialSource

Entry form [PDF]

Full story from SpatialSource

Western Power, VicRoads, the Department of Fisheries and Hobart City Council are amongst the organisations that will be sharing their GIS experiences at Directions 2012: Esri Australia’s Tour de Force.

Professor Wright began his career at Curtin University in 1991 as a lecturer in spatial sciences, before obtaining his PhD in 2000. In 2004, he was appointed head of spatial sciences.

Read the further information and call for applications.

The applications close at COB 30 March 2012.

Early career researchers are invited to enter one only of two categories:

• Research Presentation, a ten minute presentation allowing visual aids
  or
• Three Minute Thesis, which does not allow visual aids

This KCA Masterclass will explore various approaches to improve research partnerships and interactions between the public research sector and industry. What works well and what doesn’t? How can we better understand each others needs in this process? What are some of the issues and deal-breakers in such interactions?

Wellington City Council and Land Information New Zealand have partnered to bring the 4th Digital Earth Summit to Wellington. The Summit will bring the best speakers from overseas and from New Zealand to exchange knowledge and explore technology advancement in this exciting area.

The Summit will focus on digital earth science and technology, including advanced earth observation systems, augmented reality and visualisation, high-performance computation and simulation, and spatial data infrastructures.

Full information

To enhance collaboration, CEODE has offered to host Australian researchers in Beijing for 1-2 months to work on targeted projects with Chinese colleagues.  Our understanding is that CEODE would be willing to cover expenses for Australian researchers to travel to Beijing, and there would be an expectation that Australia would be willing to reciprocate.  To that end, the CRCSI has decided to make available $5,000 to cover the cost of a Chinese visitor spending 1-2 months in Australia.

The four speakers include:

• Jack Zhao from Small Multiples: Are casino operators targeting vulnerable community groups?
• Andrew Cook: 10 good reasons to share data
• Kathryn Howard from Bookcrossing: Books just wanna be free!
• Paul Wither: Set your data free from the typing pool

The revamped WASSIC 2012 event will also be run for the first time in conjunction with the Western Australian Spatial Excellence Awards (WASEA) dinner.

This conference continues and expands upon the tradition of national Australian surveying conferences as previously organised by the Institution of Surveyors Australia.

“Over the past 14 months, board members have been working very hard to produce a strategy that has relevance to our members, stakeholders and staff while also articulating a pathway of sustainability and a vision of leadership,” said Gary.

The strategy is divided into six priority areas and 21 broad strategies with deliverable targets.

UAVs – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have recently become a strong focus of attention, since fairly inexpensive platforms, navigation and control devices and sensors for instantaneous digital data production have become available.

Please read the attached letter from Dr Winter.

The second project aims to develop driverless vehicles. With the availability of better weather predictions, earth movement modelling and real-time data, this concept can be converted into a reality.

Under the third project, also initiated by University of Canterbury, Prof Simon Kingham and his team from the Geohealth Lab will conduct research on the spatial relationships between stress-related health outcomes and the level of neighbourhood damage.

Its purpose is to ensure the a comprehensive geospatial 'database' (and it defines what should be in the database) is available to improve service delivery, reduce costs and duplication  and foster the growth of private geoispatial firms.

It identifies that geospatial information is necessary and has broad economic value and goes on to highlight some interesting areas it will assist with:

• Preventing future disruptions in home mortgage system
• Implementation and development of smart energy grid
• Deployment of national broadband service

It details a funding strategy that includes the use of government appropriations and also (unusually for the US) user fees for access to the database.

The scholarships are valued at $27,000 per year (tax free), with funding coming from the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI).

Full story from Spatial Source

Full story from Spatial Source

The Geospatial World Policy Award for Exemplary Implementation of Geospatial Policies and Programs was awarded to PSMA Systems in recognition of the technology’s role in significantly improving and streamlining the mechanism for collection, assembly and delivery of fundamental geospatial information for Australia.

AllDayRTK is a Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network.

Read the report here

Read the annex to the report here

Discussion in the Geothought blog

McMullen Nolan Group recently collected several awards during the 2012 Western Australian Spatial Excellence Awards, including ‘Overall,’ ‘Industry’ and ‘Individual’ category awards.

Last week, however, Google announced a name change via its enterprise blog.

“We didn’t think “Earth Builder” reflected the true capabilities of the product or vision that we have for easily accessible geospatial data. So, today we're renaming Google Earth Builder to be called Google Maps Engine.”

The research is part of an initiative to support the health sector with improved service delivery following natural disasters.

Funded through the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI), the research will investigate if people living in red zoned areas of town are suffering more health problems than those in other areas or if they are all equally affected due to the city-wide uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next.

The South American species measures only 2-6mm in size, yet poses serious social, economic, and environmental threats. The ants were first detected in Brisbane in February, 2001.

The computer models draw on about a hundred thousand million current weather observations, including data from 30 to 40 complementary satellite instruments, to generate the information used by meteorologists to prepare weather forecasts.

The deal sees Wellington-based Critchlow become the preferred reseller for a range of specialist NAVTEQ Map data and services.

Not only does the agreement introduce datasets not currently available in New Zealand – like sophisticated 3D city models and comprehensive traffic pattern data – the deal also allows Critchlow to resell NAVTEQ Map data to New Zealand- and Australian-based organisations that need multi-national datasets.

A civil engineer with over 20 years’ experience in management, design and construction of water infrastructure projects, Richard joined SKM in 1996 in Auckland, New Zealand, after emigrating from the United Kingdom.

The National Research Investment Plan will consider, among other things:

• an overview of the location and capabilities of Australia's excellent researchers and innovators;
• areas of world class collaborative research activities;
• areas of demand by industry, government and other end users; and 
• future priorities for major strategic research investments.

It will consider , at the system level, priorities for investment through two lenses:

• the key policy challenges for Australia over the next decade and the priority areas for research investment to provide assistance in addressing these challenges; and
• the investments required to sustain an effective research system.

The WA meeting will be chaired by Professor Lyn Beazley, Chief Scientist of Western Australia and will take place on Friday 20 July, from 9.30am - 12.30pm.

Please contact ARCom Secretariat, Science Policy Branch at arcom@innovation.gov.au or on 61 2  6213 7253 for details of meetings in other states.

There are a number of approaches to drive to the solution of the Big Data problem currently in development that leverage geospatial tools in ways ranging from business as usual, to innovative, novel, and revolutionary. If anything is clear, it is that the eventual solution will use components from each of these different approaches, but more importantly, it is that geospatial technology – while a major contributor to the Big Data problem – is also a key part of the solution.

The GSC program is currently requesting expressions of interest in attending the upcoming Roadshow event tentatively scheduled for October 2012 at various locations around Australia. The intent of the Roadshow is to promote program awareness and its related benefits, as well as to allow the opportunity for industry to meet with multinational defence Primes and representatives from State Governments, DIIC, DTC, DMO, the Defence Export Unit and more.

In order to make this event as successful as possible, we intend to issue a consolidated booklet to the Primes with SME information quad charts prior to the activities in order for Primes to pre-select SMEs that they may wish to have a more in-depth discussion with at the various industry forums in each city.

To assist with the consolidation of quad charts we are requesting that all SMEs who will be attending provide a company quad chart, using a set template. Please review and update the attached template.

Once completed, please send your quad chart and expression of interest to GSC.INFO@defence.gov.au

To learn more come along to one or more of the talks being offered during Spatial Health Month.

Lunch & Learn Series

WA Department of Health Theatrette

189 Royal Street, East Perth, 12 – 1pm

1. Thu 12 July Tarun Weeramanthri, Executive Director, Public Health and Clinical Services Division
       “Is health the final frontier for spatial science?”
2. Thu 19 July Dan Goldberg, Research A/Prof Spatial Science, University of Southern California. Dan’s research is focused on GIS tool development, geocomputation, environmental exposure assessment, and uncertainty analysis.
       “Uncertainty in geocoded data and its effects on environmental health studies”
3. Tue 24 July Grace Yun Senior Research Analyst GIS & Geoff West CRCSI P3 Manager & P2.01 and P4.41 Leader
       “Spatial health in action”

RSVP: nmullan@crcsi.com.au

spatial@gov is the only geospatial conference and technical expo organised in conjunction with the peak organisations representing the public, private, research and professional sectors of the spatial community in Australia and New Zealand.

In three hours of mobile scanning, 16.7 km of roads were captured, consisting of 154 GB of point clouds, with 8,166 video street images at 34 GB. This MMS data will be added to the already existing 800 aerial images produced with a UAV (octocopter) in February 2012. The final aim is to produce a very high resolution 3D model of the NUS campus.

The International Map Trade Association (Australia & New Zealand) presented the 2012 Gold Award for Best Internet Website to PSMA Web Map Tiles at an award function held at the association’s conference in Brisbane on Monday 9 July.

The awards aim to engage and involve the NSW research community and the public in promoting the value of science and engineering and to encourage careers in both fields.

Scientists, engineers and teachers are encouraged to read the guidelines and nominate for the awards.

Run by The Australian in association with Shell and supported by the federal Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, the awards will help drive some of the nation’s best ideas to commercialisation or execution.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR: Geo-information management for Remote Sensing in Natural Resources.

Full details.

A PERTH science luminary is the recipient of the 2012 national Pearcey award for his contribution to the growth and development of the internet industry in Australia.

Awarded last week, the prestigious information and technology award was presented to Dr Mal Bryce for recognition of his distinguished lifetime achievement within the Information and communications (ICT) industry.

The Exemplary Systems in Government Awards, presented in the USA by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), recognises extraordinary achievement in the use of automated information systems.

Attracting 2,000 visitors from across the world – including around 500 from Australia – the Congress ran for a week from 25 August at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and included over 700 presentations from the many special and themed sessions, as well as a thorough technical program.

Under the agreement, FARO will provide Trimble with an OEM differentiated product based upon its successful FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D platform. Trimble will offer the OEM product throughout its worldwide survey and building construction distribution networks, serving the needs of surveyors, contractors, engineers and geospatial professionals. As part of the strategic relationship, future versions of the FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D platform will also be made available to Trimble.

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips, who announced the new DataVic Access and Intellectual Property policies last week at the 8th Annual Victorian Spatial Excellence Awards, said that Victorian Government data was one of the state's most important public assets.

$50,000 Technology Development - (incorporating STIUP Technical voucher)

$250,000 Technology Implementation - (incorporating STIUP Trial voucher)

$10,000 Technology Student Accelerator

Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips, who spoke at the awards, congratulated the winners for the quality and innovation obvious in their work.

Victorian Spatial Excellence Award winners

• Community Contribution Award - Iconyx
• Innovation Award - SKM
• Spatial Enablement Award - Spatial Vision & SKM (Joint category winners)
• Export Award - Cohga
• Victorian Government Award for Spatial Excellence - Spatial Vision
• Professional of the Year Award - Neil Smith
• Service to the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Community Award - Robyn McCutcheon
• Young Spatial Professional of the Year Award - Joanne Poon
• Education Professional Development Award - Cliff Ogleby
• Education Professional Development Award - Dr David Silcock
• SSSI Undergraduate Student Award - Matthew Louden
• SSSI Postgraduate Student Award - Marcos Nino-Ruiz
• Excellence Award for Cadastral Surveying - Andrew Lovelock
• Melbourne University Thornton Smith Medal - Professor William Cartwright

Barely a day goes by without the news including something from organisations like Apple, Google, Nokia or Microsoft accessing better, more appropriate or more detailed and accurate location or “spatial” information and delivering it to their users.

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TET-1 will test infrared image technology which will be used by RMIT disaster management researchers.

Dr Suelynn Choy from RMIT ’s School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences will use the Malcolm Moore scholarship to see if data from Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) can be combined to give a record of atmospheric water content.

CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology led the development of the new international water information exchange standard, which has already been adopted by a number of organisations, including the United States Geological Survey, KISTERS, Deltares, San Diego Supercomputer Center (University of California) and GeoConnections - Natural Resources Canada.

The two agencies will combine resources and consolidate information from their separate data sets into one database, to provide a single source of topographic data for the State. Implemented using Esri’s 9.3.1 software, the project will reduce costs, duplication, inconsistencies and time spent on maintenance.

The Geo 5 provides only the essential functions for all day, submeter productivity in a smaller package than Trimble’s flagship GeoExplorer 6000.

Key Dates

• 15 September 2012 Call for Abstracts Open
• 31 January 2013 Ear ly Bird Registration Opens
• 02 February 2013 Abstract Submission Deadline
• 28 February 2013 Not if ication of Abstract Acceptance
• 30 June 2013 Full Paper Submission
• 30 June 2013 Ear ly Bird Registration Ends
• 01 July 2013 Late Registration Opens
• 26-29 August 2013 8th ISDE Symposium

PrecisionAgriculture.com.au is a privately owned company primarily offer consulting services to key agricultural sectors across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally.

Our focus is on getting the most from new technologies for agricultural industries – which includes farm planning, yield mapping, soil mapping, satellite imagery, remote mentoring, Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Known as the SLIP Future project, the redevelopment will be managed by Landgate through the Western Australian Land Information System. The project is a key initiative under the State Government’s $23 million Location Information Strategy to be delivered between 2012 and 2015.

Landgate Chief Executive Mike Bradford congratulated NGIS Australia and said the company will play a crucial role in developing a robust, user-driven infrastructure to improve the way location knowledge is accessed across the State.

In launching the National Flood Risk Information Portal with Geoscience Australia, Attorney-General and Minister for Emergency Management Nicola Roxon and Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson said the Portal will be a critical tool in our disaster preparedness kit.

“We’ll be using OGC and other open standards in our research to help direct development of the next generation of spatial infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand”, says Dr Geoff West, Science Director of the CRCSI’s Spatial Infrastructures research program.

Full story from Spatial Source

Earth observation is now used  more widely than traditional spatial sciences or geomatic engineering areas, and has become a critical resource for ecological, atmospheric, oceanographic and social sciences, as well as development and maintenance of critical government and private infrastructure.

As a consequence of recent advances in Australia’s policies and activities using satellite image data, a need has been established for a coordination group enabling the wider earth observation community to engage with Australian government policy, planning and operations.

The Earthquake Hazard map of Australia 2012 has been developed by seismologists at Geoscience Australia following investigations into the continent’s earthquake history.

• Work with leading academics
• Innovative and Supportive Environment
• Excellent working conditions with an added 17% superannuation

The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) allows farmers and other land managers to earn carbon credits by storing carbon or reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the land. Participants can earn carbon credits by setting up a project under an approved CFI methodology, which sets out the ground rules for the activity.

The vast majority of the calculations required in the savanna fire management methodology can be automated into a simple to use web based tool.

Mr Day said the State Planning Strategy, first published in 1997, had become an integral part of the State’s planning system, designed to inform planning and development decisions throughout WA.

The initial build of SLIP Future is on schedule for completion by February 2013.

SLIP Future workshop (mini-forum) was held on 19 November to discuss the roll-out with 27 State agencies and several Local Governments represented.

Although the WALIS Office may be consulted year round to discuss agency requirements, applications should be received by the WALIS office by 15 March 2013, to ensure consideration for the funded program. For further information, please visit the WALIS website or contact the WALIS Office.

The report should be useful to Landgate for review work under consideration for the State Cadastral Data Base. Thanks to participant to the workshop for their support and input.

The strategic needs identified at the workshop distilled down to 8-10 preferred options. Among other findings, the workshop recognised that availability of resources to maintain cadastral-related datasets was a key problem, and efficiencies need be further explored to address this, including crowd-sourcing, eg from trusted stakeholders.

An award-winning Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP) is being upgraded with the expanded use of spatial technology. This upgrade makes location-based knowledge easier to access, share and use across the state.

Information such as soil depth, acidity, salinity, soil carbon, soil water holding capacity and other attributes will help land managers, farmers and rural advisors make on-the-spot, decisions about how to more effectively manage their land.

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope, unveiled today, Friday 30 November, will give the world a dramatically improved view of the Sun and provide early warning to prevent damage to communication satellites, electric power grids and GPS navigation systems.

The $51 million low-frequency radio telescope will be able to detect and monitor massive solar storms, such as the one that cut power to six million people in Canada in 1989 during the last peak in solar activity.

The National Foundation Spatial Data Framework defines the ten data themes that form the authoritative geographic data layers that underpin other data and decision making. The policy recognises these as so critical that government will focus its energy and resources on ensuring its authoritative, reliable supply.

LatLonGO distributes GIS information to mobile devices, including iPad, Android and Windows 8 tablets. It compresses and packages the data for mobile tablet devices, allowing them to work offline without network access, important in remote areas. To ensure broad compatibility, it can load data from a variety of GIS formats.

The research by Curtin University’s Professor Peter Teunissen and Dr Dennis Odijk, from the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), is the first in Australia to show how two systems can be combined, a capability that is becoming essential as a growing number of next-generation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) emerge from several countries around the world.

Contact Prof Geoff West for more information.

Further details of the conference...

The newest stage of the project involves sea level rise-related GIS training and capacity building. For populated coastal areas of low gradient elevation, such as Nuku’alofa in Tonga and the north coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG), sea-level rise is a major concern.

The project uses laser equipment to create a 3D map of the islands showing ground elevation, vegetation, canopy height and building placement.

The technical advisor from the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Dr Nathan Quadros, said the project will ultimately allow locals to plan for changes in the coastal environment.