PositionIT e-News

GIS, GPS, surveying and spatial applications in Southern Africa

Issue 69, Sept 2015

Geomatics and strategic infrastructure planning

by Peter Newmarch, SAGI President

Given the new Geomatics Act, the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) and activities around the Spatial Data Infrastructure Act (SDI), the development of the Geomatics industry will require concerted efforts on the part... (more)

RPAS - risks, regulations and rewards

by Subash Devkaran, South African Civil Aviation Authority

Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) are a relatively new entrant to the civil aviation sector. This technology has seemingly endless benefits, with new benefits and applications being discovered almost daily. These discoveries include... (more)

Statistically speaking: A memory lane for numbers

by Dr. Vincent Micali, Stats4Buz

Statistics don't lie; people lie and in that process they use anything they can get hold of, including statistics. In fact there seems to be evidence that the original interpretation (before Twain and Disraeli) was in opposition to the "lies", there were... (more)

Big data analytics leads to better water network management

by Eckart Zollner, Jasco

With the energy crisis being top of mind at the moment, many South Africans are unaware that water is a growing problem and should be on everyone's radar. In fact, according to an article published in Business Day in February... (more)

Does CPD have teeth?
Information from Plato

CPD for registered geomatics practitioners has now been in operation for three years. Some people, though, may ask whether CPD actually has teeth because it appears that many of these practitioners ignore it or do not make any attempt to meet the requirements for professional development in order... (more)

Debating the smart city concept and its role in South Africa
by Clare van Zwieten, EE Publishers

The internet of things and big data have popularised the smart city vision, and smart cities are increasingly being seen as the solution to addressing the challenges of rapid urbanisation. However, the smart city concept also conjures up images of data being used as a big brother governance tool, rampant corporatisation of the... (more)

Using satellites to monitor bridge safety
Information from the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is working with the UK's University of Nottingham to monitor the movements of large structures as they happen using satellite navigation sensors. The team fixed highly sensitive satnav receivers for detecting movements as small as 1 cm at key locations on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland... (more)

Teaching surveying
by Hennie Hugo, Registered Surveyor

With the technological changes in the surveying and geomatics industry, common questions to educators often include: "Now that everyone can buy his or her own GPS and do their own surveys, what do you teach students about surveying?" or sometimes even "what is there to teach students about surveying?... (more)

Using earth observation to assist with Operation Phakisa

Information from the CSIR

The SA government has asked the CSIR to assist with the first phase of its accelerated development project, called Operation Phakisa, which will include the utilisation of earth observation technology to help unlock the economic potential of the country's oceans. According to its official website the idea for Operation... (more)

Standards and smart cities

Information from the Open Geospatial Consortium

Effective integration of human, physical and digital systems operating in the built environment holds the promise of improving the quality of life of urban residents, improving the governance of cities and making cities prosperous, inclusive, sustainable and resilient... (more)

Creating energy from images

by John Stenmark, Writer and Consultant

Going beyond the traditional spatial information of position and description, data can help develop answers to the deeper questions of the status and condition of facilities and equipment, how to maintain and repair them, and how to do so safely. Scanning and surveying a facility for both engineering and operations delivers a... (more)

Big data maps world's ocean floor

Information from the University of Sydney

Scientists from the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences have led the creation of the world's first digital map of the seafloor's geology. It is the first time the composition of the seafloor has been mapped in 40 years... (more)

VRS technology as densification to RTK for GPS/GNSS

by Teboho Maphakisa, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform

This article demonstrates the accuracy comparisons of GPS/GNSS survey techniques in SA and, to an extent, the efficiency and reliability of the virtual reference station (VRS) technology as a densification method/technique to the GPS/GNSS Real Time Kinematic (RTK) technique... (more)