PositionIT e-News

GIS, GPS, surveying and spatial applications in Southern Africa

Issue 79, Sept 2016

GIS and its role in crime prevention

by Prof. Greg Breetzke, University of Pretoria

On Friday, 2 September, the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, released the latest national crime statistics for 2015/16 which again painted a rather bleak portrayal of the current crime situation in the country... (more)

Pokémon Go reveals a new battleground for virtual privacy

by Dr. Andres Guadamuz, University of Sussex

This article looks at the issue of popular augmented reality games such as Pokémon Go, their implications for location-based data applications, and the question of protecting virtual privacy... (more)

New perspective on urbanisation

by Jamie Abbas, Aurecon

As urbanisation increases, cities around the world are becoming congested and overcrowded. Inhabitants are fed up with hours in traffic and paying extortionate rates for accommodation. Against a backdrop of Brexit... (more)

SA geomatics industry showcases technology and tackles skills concerns

by Clare van Zwieten, EE Publishers

The South African geospatial industry's annual gathering, Geomatics Indaba 2016, saw over 700 delegates attending the two day conference at Emperors Palace, and 400 delegates participating in the Technology and... (more)
See Day 1 & 2 (conference) picture gallery
See Day 3 (field day) picture gallery
See Exhibition (Day 1, 2 & 3) picture gallery

PositionIT Inbox

This month's letters concern the mini-bus taxi industry and GIS as a field of study... (more)

Structured slope monitoring in the mining industry
by Mariska de Lange, 3D Laser Mapping

Slope movement is most common in open-pit mines. A number of mines, where slope movement is detected, operate safely with the help of monitoring. Slope monitoring forms an integral part of slope management in open-pit mines... (more)

Surveying and monitoring systems for tunnel construction
Information from Leica Geosystems

Surveying and monitoring systems made the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps possible. The tunnel was inaugurated on 1 June 2016, and the breakthrough on 15 October 2010 was due to highly precise surveillance... (more)

Planning water supply for basic services in rural areas
by Monja Esterhuizen, UWP Consulting

Access to basic (at least 200 m from homestead) water supply is still a challenge in rural and developing areas of South Africa. A study was commissioned to investigate the backlog in supplying water to all areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province... (more)

Using drones for urban mapping and flood prevention
Information from IQ Laser

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, the World Bank is working with government departments on a range of development projects, including transportation projects, flood mitigation schemes, and other preparedness and assessment projects... (more)

Mapping light pollution and dark skies
Information from Campaign to Protect Rural England

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has long fought for the protection and improvement of dark skies, and against the spread of unnecessary artificial light. Having last published a major mapping project on light pollution and dark skies in 2003... (more)

Aircraft alignment and symmetry checks
by Erik van Duffelman, Initio Earth Sciences

Aircraft symmetry and alignment checks are part of the regular maintenance regime so as to localise and identify any structural damage. In this case study an electronic total station and automatic level were used in the lateral... (more)

Wind Atlas for South Africa: A tool to aid wind farm developers
by Eugéne Mabille, CSIR

With the increasing development of wind farms in South Africa as a renewable energy source, it has become ever more important to identify and map the country's wind resources. The Department of Energy, the CSIR... (more)

Can geographic coordinates be replaced?
by Emmanuel Stefanakis, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Geocoding is the process of converting a street address into a physical location that can be described with a pair of geographic coordinates. It is estimated that over 40% of the world population is physically disconnected due to the lack of a street... (more)

A GNSS-based approach to demolition and deconstruction
by André Kress, Jonathan Staufer and Peter Rausch, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg, and Fritz Schreiber and Michael Stumpf, Schreiber Geoinformation

The reliability of GNSS renders it useful in construction applications, and makes this technology a good option for improving the transparency of demolition and deconstruction processes as well as to optimise the supply chain. GNSS technologies... (more)

Geospatial round-up
by Clare van Zwieten, EE Publishers