PositionIT e-News

GIS, GPS, surveying and spatial applications in Southern Africa

Issue 53, Jan/Feb 2014

Zuma orders investigation of Project Vulindlela
by Clare van Zwieten, editor

President Zuma has issued a proclamation calling on the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the State Information Technology Agency and its service providers for alleged fraud, corruption and maladministration relating to the e-cadastre project, also known as Project Vulindlela, and the processing of deeds on the Deeds Registration System... (more)

From the Plato Act to the Geomatics Profession Act

by Paul Marshall, Plato

Paul Marshall With limited variations this Act is still a clone of the "Planning Profession Act" and it is, at a glance, not very different to the original "Surveying Profession Bill" first published in late 2005. However there have been several meaningful compromises and concessions, culminating in the final version now known as The Geomatics Profession Act No. 19 of 2013... (more)

Utilising BIM to its full capacity

Information from Aurecon

John Hainsworth, Quentin Jackson and Stephen Logan talk about Building Information Modelling (BIM). All three are authorities with long experience in various aspects of this field. They agree that BIM is advancing so rapidly that it tends to leave a trail of buzzwords and misconceptions in its wake... (more)

Surveyors object to reservation of work for planners
by Clare van Zwieten, editor

Land surveyors are up in arms about a notice issued by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. Their objections focus on the exclusive reservation of work for professional and technical planners and requirement for land surveying professionals to obtain certification from the South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN) to undertake specified planning work... (more)

Reopening of the "Grandfather" clause and other registration opportunities

Information from Plato

The South African Council for Professional and Technical Surveyors, at its annual meeting in October 2013, took the decision to reopen the "Grandfather" clause opportunity for people applying for registration with the council in the category of Professional Geoinformation Science Practitioner... (more)

PositionIT Inbox

Letters to the editor

This month's winning letter, from Glen Sutton, adds to the subject of trig beacon maintenance, while others focus on the Legal Metrology Bill, and the passing of Madiba... (more)

Mobile scanning for stockpile volume reporting

by André Oberholzer, EPA Survey

The versatility and speed of mobile lidar scanning as well as its ability to survey large and difficult areas has seen the technology being used extensively on mines for stockpile volume reporting. This article compares mobile laser scanning with conventional methods... (more)

Land tenure administration and GIS: trends and challenges

by Dr. Michael Barry, University of Calgary, Canada

While GIS has become a multi-billion dollar market, the majority of land interests around the world are yet to be recorded. The article describes some of the major land challenges, and briefly critiques some of the responses to them by international agencies... (more)

A pro-poor land adjudication procedure for communal land

by Edward Kurwakumire, Tshwane University of Technology

Current studies within the land administration domain require that all sorts of rights whether formal or informal be registered. This is in line with pro-poor land management practices in which the poor and people dwelling in communal areas are often excluded from the formal land administration system... (more)

Creating a national online GIS repository

Information from 1Map Spatial Solutions

GIS is indispensable but the cost of processing and maintaining the data makes the enterprise prohibitively expensive. So data that could be used to the benefit of the country, industry and business is simply left unused on state servers... (more)

Probabilistic graphical models for feature-based detection

by Wisdom Dlamini, Swaziland National Trust Commission

This article describes the use of probabilistic graphical models, in particular Bayesian networks, for detection of 4 problem invasive alien plants, Chromolaena odorata, Eucalyptus grandis, Lantana camara, and Pinus patula from 8-band WorldView-2 satellite imagery acquired over two characteristically different sites in Swaziland... (more)

Satellite for early fire detection

by Robert Sanders, University of California

As firefighters emerge from another record wildfire season in the Western United States, University of California, Berkeley, scientists believe it is time to give them a 21st century tool: a fire-spotting satellite... (more)

Using geospatial analysis to support targeted sales strategies

by Judy Cronje and Chris Davies, TNS

A prominent South African business wanted to investigate the purchase-specific incidence of their product to gain insight into areas where marketing could be more impactful. A GIS was used to represent and interrogate the data at a spatial level... (more)

Hydro surveying solutions for sludge dam monitoring

by Pierre Potgieter, EE Publishers

Hydro surveying of mine sludge dams has become necessary due to increasing levels of mine waste, stricter environmental regulations and a growing demand for more data for efficient mine management... (more)

Views, comment and opinion

PositionIT Inbox, Jan/Feb 2014

Utilising BIM to its full capacity

Industry and institute news

Western Cape Symposium highlights geospatial initiatives

Top keynote speakers for AfricaGEO 2014

Winning letter prize

From the Plato Act to the Geomatics Profession Act

South African Council for Professional and Technical Surveyors 2013

Transformation well underway

Spatial data SIG launched

Reopening of the "Grandfather" clause and other registration opportunities