Towards an Advanced Geospatial Computing Platform

by Jun Chen
ISPRS President

We are now entering a data-intensive world or an era of so-called big data. Every day, vast amounts of data are being produced, stored, accessed and utilized with the advanced space/ground-based sensing and crowd-sourcing technologies. It is becoming more and more difficult to handle the very huge data sets with a great diversity of types by using traditional computational or processing platforms. Advanced geospatial computing platforms need to be set up to enable easy data access, effective geospatial analysis and advanced visualisation and simulation.

First of all, the discovery and collection of geospatial data (including spatial images) is a time consuming and difficult task for scientists and practitioners. It is desirable to have easy access to the existing massive quantities of data resources which are distributed across regions. However, many land related data products, at the global scale, are mostly scattered, not well-connected and difficult to find – existing in many fragmented, isolated “information islands”. Secondly, deriving meaningful information or knowledge from big data sets presents specific research problems. New computational techniques and tools are in demand for filtering extraneous information and revealing previously unseen patterns. One critical issue is whether we can have a flexible deployment and integration of existing data analysis algorithms and models.

During the past few years, ISPRS, GEO and various other international organisations have discussed the above challenging issues intensively. For example, it was proposed to establish a Collaborative Global Land Information Platform (CoGland) during the ISPRS workshop on ‘Supporting Future Earth with Global Geospatial Information’ held from June 9-10, 2015. CoGland will enable easy access to diverse and distributed data, facilitate the on-demand information extraction or analysis from the intensive data world, and provide the required knowledge and support to accelerate our transformations to a sustainable world. Such development cannot be accomplished by any single organization and country. It requires a close collaboration of all interested parties on the basis of the concepts of co-design, co-development and co-operation.

The ISPRS Foundation is very pleased to announce for the first time the

White Elephants Restricted "Kennert Torlegård" Travel Grant Fund

A White Elephants Restricted "Kennert Torlegård" Travel Grant Fund has been established in The ISPRS Foundation to support young people to attend ISPRS events and especially the quadrennial ISPRS Congresses. This restricted grant category will be funded by senior members of ISPRS who are members of the White Elephants group, and who wish to demonstrate their continued commitment to the aims and goals of ISPRS. It is named after the past Prof. Dr. Kennert Torlegård, a great Swedish Photogrammetrist and ISPRS President 1988-1992.

» Read more

The ISPRS Foundation (TIF) offers travel grants for most of the ISPRS Workshops, Symposia and Conferences. A very successful was the Geospatial Week 2015 in La Grande Motte, France, Sep 28 - Oct 3, 2015.
Please find enclosed the reports of ten of the TIF Travel Grant Recipients.

Dieter Fritsch, John Trinder and Marguerite Madden

Report by Gianluca Boo
Report by Simon Lhoest
Report by Kuldeep
Report by Mahmoud Awadallah
Report by Ahmed Loai Ali
Report by Jari Vauhkonen
Report by Mahamadou Keita
Report by Parvez Rana
Report by Emil Bayramov
Report by Kan Huang

The ISPRS Foundation (TIF) supported as well the ISPRS Summer School 2015 in Dehradun, India, July 6-10, 2015.

Report by S.K. Srivastav, Secretary, ISPRS WG VI/2 & Overall Coordinator of the ISPRS Summer School

ISPRS Travel Grants for Congress Available

Travel Grants from ISPRS and from TIF - The ISPRS Foundation - to participate in XXIII ISPRS Congress 2016 in Prague are now available. Interested individuals can apply for financial assistance on the Congress website, www.isprs2016-prague.com/fees/ (press yellow button).

Deadline for financial assistance applications: March 20, 2016.

Two New Events at the Congress:
Space Agency Forum and National Mapping and Cadastre Agency Forum

As an integral part of the upcoming ISPRS Congress, two Fora will take place addressing the space and the national mapping sector as well as their mutual overlap. The two Fora are particularly designed for participants with practical applications in mind.

Find more information here and watch out for the detailed programme which will soon appear at the Congress web site, www.isprs2016-prague.com/program/forums.

CATCON7 2016 @ Prague Congress

The seventh Computer Assisted Teaching Contest, CATCON7, will be organized at the XXI ISPRS Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 12th - 19th July 2016. The main objective is to promote the development and dissemination of effective, educational and user-friendly multimedia tutorials, simulations and virtual environments, information packages, data sets and application software, designed and used specifically for computer assisted teaching in photogrammetry, remote sensing or spatial information science.
Enrolment for CATCON 7 is now available on the Prague Congress online registration system. Please register at http://www.conftool.pro/isprs2016/ and follow the steps for submission of a conference contribution. Select CATCON as submission type and complete the form adding your details.

More information: http://www2.isprs.org/commissions/comm6/wg2/catcon7.html
Deadline for registration: June 30, 2016.

New Benefit for Sustaining Members: 10% Discount on GNSS Training Courses

As a new benefit to ISPRS Sustaining Members, ISPRS is proud to offer a discount for attending GNSS Training Courses run at the University of Newcastle, UK. ISPRS Sustaining Members are eligible for a 10% discount, for details please email ceg.cpd@ncl.ac.uk

GNSS & Network RTK
June 13-15, 2016
www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/gnss.php

This basic/intermediate course, developed in association with Ordnance Survey, introduces delegates to the theory and practice of using Network RTK GNSS for centimetre-level positioning. The programme includes a mixture of lectures, field and computer practicals, and group discussion.

High Precision GNSS using Post-Processing
June 16-17, 2016
www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/gnsspostprocess.php

This two day course explores, in detail, the various GNSS error sources that inhibit precise coordinate determination and examines ways of mitigating these errors using additional data and methods available in post-processing mode. Extensive practical examples are designed to immediately reinforce theoretical concepts and rely on specially designed data sets, covering a wide range of real-world conditions and problems.

ISPRS Scientific Initiatives 2015

The reports of the ISPRS Scientific Initiative 2015 have been submitted. Executive summaries as well as the full reports can be found at
http://www.isprs.org/documents/reports/SI-2015/default.aspx.

ISPRS Biennial Report 2014/15 published

The second edition of the ISPRS Biennial Report, covering the years 2014 and 2015, has been published. A pdf version can be found at
www.isprs.org/documents/pdf/ISPRS_Biennial_Report_2014-15.pdf,
Printed copies are available upon request from the Secretary General.

Society News

Quick Links

Sr LAU Chun Kong Elected as HKIS President for 2015-2016.

The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) is the ISPRS Ordinary Member for Hong Kong. Results of their election of office bearers to the General Council for the Year 2015-2016 and newly elected General Council 2015-2016 can be found at the following link:
http://www.hkis.org.hk/en/hkis_council_2a.php?year=2015-2016&nid=4

ISPRS congratulates the new president LAU Chun Kong, to his new position and welcomes him in the ISPRS community. At the same time we are grateful to the previous president, HO Kui Yip (Vincent), and all of HKIS, for their continuous support of ISPRS.

Dr. Julio A. Santaella Castel New President of INEGI Mexico

As of January 1st, 2016, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) - the ISPRS Ordinary Member of Mexico - has a new President and Chairman of the Board of Governors. Dr. Julio A. Santaella Castell was appointed to his new position by the President of Mexico.

ISPRS congratulates Dr. Santaella and hopes to continue the excellent cooperation. At the same time we are grateful to the previous INEGI president, Eduardo Sojo Garza Aldape, for his continuous support of ISPRS and wish him well.

Shake-up at ICSU
(from SciDev.Net)

South Africa-born social scientist Heide Hackmann took the reins of the International Council for Science (ICSU) in March last year. In an interview with SciDev.Net Hackmann talks about the future of ICSU and explains the truth behind rumours of a merger between the organisation and the International Social Science Council, which she directed from 2007 until she moved to ICSU.

Read more at: www.scidev.net/global/governance/feature/shake-up-governance-icsu.html#sthash.JGwcEp9p.dpuf

New Multi-View Stereo Code Released

We are happy to announce the release of the open-source GIPUMA/FUSIBILE multi-view stereo toolkit, https://github.com/kysucix/gipuma https://github.com/kysucix/fusibile

Looking for a fast, high-quality multi-view stereo software? Try GIPUMA!
- true multi-ray matching, good robustness against oclusions
- PatchMatch-style normal estimation, no fronto-parallel bias
- massive parallelization on Nvidia GPUs, very fast
- state-of-the-art performance on DTU and Middlebury datasets
- reads plain text, Middlebury and VisualSFM/PMVS formats

For technical details, see the accompanying ICCV paper, http://www.prs.igp.ethz.ch/research/projects/gipuma.html

Silvano Galliani, Katrin Lasinger, Konrad Schindler ETH Zurich, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Research Conference
June 28-29, 2016
University of Worcester, UK
http://www.worcester.ac.uk/discover/uav-conference.html

Call for abstracts

Summer School Satellite Image Processing with Open Source Software
July 4-8, 2016
ENSG - Marne-la-Vallée (close to Paris), France

English and French (one track in each language).

CAMUSS 2016
September 21-23, 2016
Quebec City, Canada

The Second International Symposium on Cellular Automata Modeling for Urban and Spatial Systems will be held in Quebec City, Canada from 21 to 23 September, 2016

More information can be found here here.

EuroMed2016
30 October - 5 November, 2016
Nicosia, Cyprus

EuroMed2016 is a leading bi-annual conference on Digital Heritage Documentation, Preservation and Protection. The 2016 event is a special Milestone as we celebrate a decade of EuroMed Conferences on Digital Heritage. This special event will be held on the magical Island of Cyprus from the 30th of October until the 5th of November 2016. We are expecting seven leading Keynote speakers and more than 400 participants from all the continents. This reputable and exciting one week long conference has been recognized worldwide as the most leading event in the area of digital Cultural Heritage documentation, preservation and protection and will be co-organized together with the European Commission, ICOMOS, CIPA, ISPRS and a number of EU FP7/H2020 innovative research projects.

For more information regarding Call for Papers and your active participation: www.euromed2016.eu

ISPRS Workshop on Mobility and Land Cover Change Mapping (MLCCM 2015)
December 5-6, 2015
Changsha, China
by Xiaoguang Zhou and Bin Zou

Read more

SkyTech 2016 Post-Event Report
January 27-28, 2016
Business Design Centre, London, UK

Read more

ISPRS Mourns the Loss of Former ISPRS President Prof. Dr. Kennert Torlegård

It is with deep sorrow that I bring you this sad news: our colleague and friend Kennert Torlegård, ISPRS president 1988 - 1992 and Council Member 1984 - 1992, passed away Thursday (Jan 28, 2016) after a courageous fight with cancer.

Full obituary and condolences from the ISPRS community

Atef Ahmed El Sayed Elassal
 
(1933 – 2015)

New publications in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Volume 111 (January 2016)

Surface-based matching of 3D point clouds with variable coordinates in source and target system
Xuming Ge, Thomas Wunderlich
Pages: 1-12

Advanced spatio-temporal filtering techniques for photogrammetric image sequence analysis in civil engineering material testing
F. Liebold, H.-G. Maas
Pages: 13-21

Changes in thermal infrared spectra of plants caused by temperature and water stress
Maria F. Buitrago, Thomas A. Groen, Christoph A. Hecker, Andrew K. Skidmore
Pages: 22-31

Fusion of space-borne multi-baseline and multi-frequency interferometric results based on extended Kalman filter to generate high quality DEMs
Xiaojie Zhang, Qiming Zeng, Jian Jiao, Jingfa Zhang
Pages: 32-44

Combining spaceborne SAR images with 3D point clouds for infrastructure monitoring applications
Andrei Anghel, Gabriel Vasile, Rémy Boudon, Guy d’Urso, Alexandre Girard, Didier Boldo, Véronique Bost
Pages: 45-61

New publications in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Volume 112 (February 2016)

SGM-based seamline determination for urban orthophoto mosaicking
Shiyan Pang, Mingwei Sun, Xiangyun Hu, Zuxun Zhang
Pages: 1-12

Optimising the spatial resolution of WorldView-2 pan-sharpened imagery for predicting levels of Gonipterus scutellatus defoliation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Romano Lottering, Onisimo Mutanga
Pages: 13-22

Large-scale road detection in forested mountainous areas using airborne topographic lidar data
António Ferraz, Clément Mallet, Nesrine Chehata
Pages: 23-36

The Costa Concordia last cruise: The first application of high frequency monitoring based on COSMO-SkyMed constellation for wreck removal
Andrea Ciampalini, Federico Raspini, Silvia Bianchini, Dario Tarchi, Michele Vespe, Sandro Moretti, Nicola Casagli
Pages: 37-49

Rotation-and-scale-invariant airplane detection in high-resolution satellite images based on deep-Hough-forests
Yongtao Yu, Haiyan Guan, Dawei Zai, Zheng Ji
Pages: 50-64

New publications in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Volume 113 (March 2016)

Optimal seamline detection for multiple image mosaicking via graph cuts
Li Li, Jian Yao, Xiaohu Lu, Jinge Tu, Jie Shan
Pages: 1-16

Correction of terrestrial LiDAR intensity channel using Oren–Nayar reflectance model: An application to lithological differentiation
Dario Carrea, Antonio Abellan, Florian Humair, Battista Matasci, Marc-Henri Derron, Michel Jaboyedoff
Pages: 17-29

Classified and clustered data constellation: An efficient approach of 3D urban data management
Suhaibah Azri, Uznir Ujang, Francesc Antón Castro, Alias Abdul Rahman, Darka Mioc
Pages: 30-42

Automatic registration of large-scale urban scene point clouds based on semantic feature points
Bisheng Yang, Zhen Dong, Fuxun Liang, Yuan Liu
Pages: 43-58

Octree-based segmentation for terrestrial LiDAR point cloud data in industrial applications
Yun-Ting Su, James Bethel, Shuowen Hu
Pages: 59-74

Wind speed estimation using C-band compact polarimetric SAR for wide swath imaging modes
Michael Denbina, Michael J. Collins
Pages: 75-85

Annual dynamics of impervious surface in the Pearl River Delta, China, from 1988 to 2013, using time series Landsat imagery
Lei Zhang, Qihao Weng
Pages: 86-96

Calibration of a catadioptric omnidirectional vision system with conic mirror
J. Marcato Junior, A.M.G. Tommaselli, M.V.A. Moraes
Pages: 97-105

Bag-of-visual-phrases and hierarchical deep models for traffic sign detection and recognition in mobile laser scanning data
Yongtao Yu, Jonathan Li, Chenglu Wen, Haiyan Guan, Huan Luo, Cheng Wang
Pages: 106-123

Benchmarking of data fusion algorithms in support of earth observation based Antarctic wildlife monitoring
Chandi Witharana, Michelle A. LaRue, Heather J. Lynch
Pages: 124-143

Improving spatial representation of soil moisture by integration of microwave observations and the temperature–vegetation–drought index derived from MODIS products
Jun Wang, Ziwei Ling, Yang Wang, Hui Zeng
Pages: 144-154

Learning multiscale and deep representations for classifying remotely sensed imagery
Wenzhi Zhao, Shihong Du
Pages: 155-165

New publications in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Open Access Journal
Volume 4, Issue 4 (December 2015), Pages 2821-2904

An Approach for Indoor Path Computation among Obstacles that Considers User Dimension
Liu, Liu, Zlatanova, Sisi
Pages: 2821-2840

Applications of 3D City Models: State of the Art Review
Biljecki, Filip, Stoter, Jantien, Ledoux, Hugo, Zlatanova, Sisi, Çöltekin, Arzu
Pages: 2842-2889

The Building Blocks of User-Focused 3D City Models
Sargent, Isabel, Holland, David, Harding, Jenny
Pages: 2890-2904

New publications in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Open Access Journal
Volume 5, Issue 1 (January 2016), No 1-7

What is an Appropriate Temporal Sampling Rate to Record Floating Car Data with a GPS?
Ranacher, Peter, Brunauer, Richard, van der Spek, Stefan, Reich, Siegfried
No 1

Remote Sensing and GIS Applied to the Landscape for the Environmental Restoration of Urbanizations by Means of 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization (Salamanca, Spain)
Martínez-Graña, Antonio Miguel, Valdés Rodríguez, Virginia
No 2

Visual-LiDAR Odometry Aided by Reduced IMU
Balazadegan Sarvrood, Yashar, Hosseinyalamdary, Siavash, Gao, Yang
No 3

An Extended Semi-Supervised Regression Approach with Co-Training and Geographical Weighted Regression: A Case Study of Housing Prices in Beijing
Yang, Yi, Liu, Jiping, Xu, Shenghua, Zhao, Yangyang
No 4

Temporal Analysis on Contribution Inequality in OpenStreetMap: A Comparative Study for Four Countries
Yang, Anran, Fan, Hongchao, Jing, Ning, Sun, Yeran, Zipf, Alexander
No 5

Segmentation of Façades from Urban 3D Point Clouds Using Geometrical and Morphological Attribute-Based Operators
Serna, Andrés, Marcotegui, Beatriz, Hernández, Jorge
No 6

Acknowledgement to Reviewers of ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information in 2015
IJGI Editorial Office,
No 7

New publications in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Open Access Journal
Volume 5, Issue 2 (February 2016), No 8-21

Integrated WiFi/PDR/Smartphone Using an Adaptive System Noise Extended Kalman Filter Algorithm for Indoor Localization
Li, Xin, Wang, Jian, Liu, Chunyan, Zhang, Liwen, Li, Zhengkui
No 8

A Geosimulation Approach for Data Scarce Environments: Modeling Dynamics of Forest Insect Infestation across Different Landscapes
Anderson, Taylor, Dragicevic, Suzana
No 9

A Spatio-Temporal VGI Model Considering Trust-Related Information
Zhao, Yijiang, Zhou, Xiaoguang, Li, Guangqiang, Xing, Hanfa
No 10

An Assessment of Urban Surface Energy Fluxes Using a Sub-Pixel Remote Sensing Analysis: A Case Study in Suzhou, China
Liu, Kai, Fang, Jun-yong, Zhao, Dong, Liu, Xue, Zhang, Xiao-hong, Wang, Xiao, Li, Xue-ke
No 11

A Hybrid Method for Interpolating Missing Data in Heterogeneous Spatio-Temporal Datasets
Deng, Min, Fan, Zide, Liu, Qiliang, Gong, Jianya
No 13

A Generic Model to Exploit Urban Regulation Knowledge
Brasebin, Mickaël, Perret, Julien, Mustière, Sébastien, Weber, Christiane
No 14

Detection of Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Urban Sprawl in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia: An Analysis of Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data
Rahman, Muhammad Tauhidur
No 15

Assessing the Distribution of Urban Green Spaces and its Anisotropic Cooling Distance on Urban Heat Island Pattern in Baotou, China
Bao, Tongliga, Li, Xueming, Zhang, Jing, Zhang, Yingjia, Tian, Shenzhen
No 12

Towards Automatic and Topologically Consistent 3D Regional Geological Modeling from Boundaries and Attitudes
Guo, Jiateng, Wu, Lixin, Zhou, Wenhui, Jiang, Jizhou, Li, Chaoling
No 17

Opening up Smart Cities: Citizen-Centric Challenges and Opportunities from GIScience
Degbelo, Auriol, Granell, Carlos, Trilles, Sergio, Bhattacharya, Devanjan, Casteleyn, Sven, Kray, Christian
No 16

Laser Scanning and Data Integration for Three-Dimensional Digital Recording of Complex Historical Structures: The Case of Mevlana Museum
Altuntas, Cihan, Yildiz, Ferruh, Scaioni, Marco
No 18

The Dual Half-Edge—A Topological Primal/Dual Data Structure and Construction Operators for Modelling and Manipulating Cell Complexes
Boguslawski, Pawel, Gold, Christopher
No 19

3D Cadastral Data Model Based on Conformal Geometry Algebra
Zhang, Ji-yi, Yin, Peng-cheng, Li, Gang, Gu, He-he, Zhao, Hua, Fu, Jian-chun
No 20

Amateur or Professional: Assessing the Expertise of Major Contributors in OpenStreetMap Based on Contributing Behaviors
Yang, Anran, Fan, Hongchao, Jing, Ning
No 21