Welcome to ISPRS Geospatial Week 2017
by Chen Jun
ISPRS 1^st Vice President

The ISPRS Geospatial Week 2017 (ISPRS GSW 2017, http://gsw2017.3snews.net) will be held in Wuhan, China, from September 18th – 22nd, 2017. This third ISPRS Geospatial Week will be organized by Wuhan University and will be the most important ISPRS event in the year 2017.

The ISPRS GSW 2017 will be focused on the recent research developments and future trends related to geospatial information acquisition, extraction from point clouds, optical/SAR imagery, and ubiquitous sensors, Smart City and global changes, geospatial information mining, quality control and Geo-Big data processing, indoor 3D mapping and navigation, and UAV/UAS innovation applications. With a five-day colorful scientific program, people from geospatial academia and industry will be able to share research ideas, present latest research achievements, and discuss possible collaborations. It will be a very good opportunity for you to meet with top scientists, experts, researchers, and users in the field of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Information Sciences. A number of awards and competitions will also be organized during this ISPRS GSW 2017, including awards for best papers, and best posters, as well as benchmark competitions. Several technical/industrial exhibitions will be organized, which will present to you the advances of new geospatial technologies and solutions (e.g., Smart Cities, UAV/UAS). In addition, you will enjoy the splendid Chinese culture blended with modern technology through social events during the GSW 2017.

On behalf of ISPRS council, I would like to invite you to join the ISPRS GSW 2017. You are warmly welcomed to Wuhan and China!

↑ Up

The ISPRS Foundation (TIF), a non-profit entity established in 2003 and managed by a Board of Trustees responding to ISPRS grant needs that are identified by the ISPRS Council, offers Travel Grants to students and young professionals from developing countries to attend ISPRS-sponsored events such as the ISPRS Congress held 12-19 July 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic (http://www.isprs.org/foundation). A total of 60 students and regional representatives largely from developing countries and demonstrating activity in the Congress by presenting research and/or participating in the General Assembly were selected to receive ISPRS/TIF Travel Grants financially supported by ISPRS, TIF donations and Congress waivers of registration fees. The recipients of these Travel Grants are requested to submit a report to the TIF Board of Directors summarizing their experience at the ISPRS event and featuring benefits they gained for furthering their research and/or professional careers. One such report, provided below, was submitted by Mr. Adedayo Kelvin Adeleke, Ph.D. Candidate in the Geomatics Division of University Cape Town, South Africa. He is shown in this group photograph of some ISPRS/TIF Travel Grant recipients at the Prague Congress this past July.

Preparations are underway for 2017 ISPRS/TIF Travel Grant opportunities to be announced in the next ISPRS eBulletin. The ISPRS Foundation depends on individual donations and contributions from ISPRS and ISPRS-sponsored events. Donations to the non-profit TIF may be mailed directly to TIF Finance Officer, Marguerite Madden (Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 30602,  mmadden@uga.edu for details) or via the TIF PayPal donation link on the TIF website:
http://www.isprs.org/foundation/donations/make.aspx

↑ Up

MoU with University of Stuttgart Signed

Council is very pleased to announce that with the signing of a new MoU with the University of Stuttgart the next four years support for the ISPRS web site and the excellent work with our web master, Markus Englich, is secured. The director of the Institute for Photogrammetry, Uwe Soergel met with ISPRS president, Christian Heipke in December in Hannover where the document was signed.

ISPRS is very grateful to the University of Stuttgart for the extremely generous continuing support which includes the complete infrastructure for the web site, along with the competent and efficient service provided by our web master.

ISPRS Book Series

The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Book Series comprises significant scientific publications in photogrammetry and remote sensing, and related disciplines. Each volume in the series is prepared independently and focuses on a topical theme. Volumes are published on an occasional basis, according to the emergence of noteworthy scientific developments. The material included within each volume is peer-reviewed rigorously, ensuring strong scientific standards.

The latest edition was published in 2016:
Spatial Context: An Introduction to Fundamental Computer Algorithms for Spatial Analysis
by Christopher Gold

• Introducing fundamental computer algorithms for spatial analysis
• Catering to needs of the Geographic Information Science (GIS) community
• Aimed at non-computer-experts in the Spatial Sciences
• Integrating methods from many (spatial) disciplines
• Offering an easy read and many illustrative diagrams

For information on the ISPRS Book Series visit:
www.isprs.org/publications/bookseries.aspx
Note: Discounts on books apply to ISPRS members.

↑ Up

Knowledge-sharing Platform RS-EDGES Created

To facilitate on-line and off-line learning and knowledge sharing, a website, named “Remote Sensing E-community for Digital imaGe procESsing (RS-EDGES)”, has been created for sharing computer codes, algorithms, systems, products, and publications that support remote sensing observations and applications, digital image processing, and the extraction of geophysical and biophysical information. Through co-learning, sharing, and collaborating, a virtual community is hoped to be built among researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students. Initially, RS-EDGES focuses on the time dimension of remote sensing optical imagery. Technical sponsorship is sought among pertinent professional societies, which are asked to make an announcement in their websites, email lists, and newsletters. Individuals are invited to endorse the project by offering their computer codes, algorithms, products (datasets, models, platforms, systems) and publications, and to become the project partners. It is expected that by sharing of codes, algorithms, products and publications, researchers will disseminate their results more efficiently and learners can save much precious time to avoid re-inventing the existing techniques and models. Furthermore, the collaboration and cooperation among researchers with similar interests can foster future inventions and discoveries.

For full details visit: http://rs-edges.net/dokuwiki/doku.php

The 2017 Series of E-learning Courses from EuroSDR is Open for Registration

Topics of four e-learning courses will be introduced during a seminar hosted by the 3D Geoinformation Research Group, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands from 6th to 7th March 2017. These are:

• 3D city modelling (13th -24th March 2017)
• Synthetic aperture radar for mapping applications (27th March -7th April 2017)
• Oblique Aerial Camera Systems for Mapping Purposes (24th April -5th May 2017)
• Terrestrial Point Cloud for Forest Modelling (15th - 26th May 2017)

EduServ courses can be followed over the Internet from any location and require about thirty hours of online study. See the flyer here…

For more information and updates visit the website: www.eurosdr.net/education/current

Launch of the First MIGRATE Challenge
Open until January 5, 2017

MIGRATE – MIGRation pATterns in Europe \[see 1, below\] is a Web mapping gaming application aimed at educating and raising awareness about the phenomenon of migration in Europe. MIGRATE has been developed by a team of researchers from Politecnico di Milano (Martina Aiello, Maria Brovelli, Candan Eylul Kilsedar, Marco Gianinetto, Marco Minghini and Mayra Zurbaran Nucci) \[see 2, below\] within the third call of MYGEOSS project \[3\], which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

This challenge allows you to win prizes while becoming informed about the hot topic of migration in Europe. Joining the challenge is very easy: you just need to create an account and play the game as much and as best as you can! At the end of the challenge, the top 10 players in the user ranking will be awarded with Amazon vouchers. See \[4\] for the details about the prizes and the rules used to compute users' scores.

The application makes full use of open data \[5\], is fully developed using open source software and is released as open source (code available at \[6\]) under the EU Public License (EUPL).

\[1\] http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/migrate
\[2\] http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/migrate/team
\[3\] http://digitalearthlab.jrc.ec.europa.eu/mygeoss
\[4\] http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/migrate/challenge
\[5\] http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/migrate/data
\[6\] https://bitbucket.org/kilsedar/migrate/

Special Issue: Geospatial Technology in Environmental Health Applications

Based on its research theme, the ISPRS WG on Environment and Health (ICWG III/IVc) has arranged publishing a special issue. 
Special Issue: Geospatial Technology in Environmental Health Applications
Journal: Environmental Monitoring And Assessment
Publisher: Springer
Cost: No cost to make it available to the subscribing institutes
Deadline: February 28, 2017
Suggested Topics:

• Air pollution
• Climate change and variability
• Ecological approach to public health
• Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases
• Environmental exposure assessment as a disease risk factor for clinical practices
• Infectious disease ecology
• Landscape ecology
• New analytical tools for environmental health studies
• New Earth observation resources for environmental monitoring for health impacts
• Technological advancements in environmental health research
• Vector borne diseases
• Water and land pollution

Submission Instruction:
Journal Website: http://www.springer.com/environment/monitoring+-+environmental+analysis/journal/10661

When you click on “Submit Online” on the journal’s website as an author, you will be taken to the Editorial Manager page for Login information. https://www.editorialmanager.com/emas/default.aspx.

After creating your account and beginning the submission process, you will be asked to choose an article type. You need to select “SI: Geospatial Technologies in Environmental Health Applications” from the drop down menu.

For further assistance, contact Publishing Editor, Sherestha.Saini@springer.com

↑ Up

Global Space Congress
Abu Dhabi, UAE
January 31 – February 1, 2017

For further information, see the congress web site http://globalspacecongress.com

International Conference on Urban Geoinformatics (ICUG)
TERI University, New Delhi, India
February 22-23, 2017

The International Conference on Urban Geoinformatics (ICUG) will be organized at TERI University, New Delhi, and partnered by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) and the Indian Geographical Society (IGS).

Challenges of rapid urbanization, ranging from governance, infrastructure and environment, can be effectively solved by integrating many varied multi-disciplinary fields – including Geoinformatics. Integration of spatial information with spatial data relating to complex problems in urban sciences and urban engineering is rapidly gaining acceptance as a means of making future cities 'smart' as well as sustainable. With rapid urbanization poised to take off in India, the need for harnessing all means – including geoinformatics – towards growth of well-planned, smart and sustainable cities needs no emphasis.  India is also being looked at by its neighbors to take a leadership role in the region so as to effectively partner with neighboring countries for sustained regional growth. International collaboration is therefore also one of the aims of the conference.

For further information see the conference brochure here, and visit:http://icug.teriuniversity.ac.in

ISPRS International Workshop "Photogrammetric and computer vision techniques for video Surveillance, Biometrics and Biomedicine" – PSBB17
Moscow, Russia
May 15-17, 2017

The 2nd International Workshop “Photogrammetric and computer vision techniques for video surveillance, biometrics and biomedicine” is intended to offer presentations and discussions of novel achievements in photogrammetric researches for surveillance and medicine.

Important dates:

• Abstract due date: January 15, 2017
• Authors notification: February 15, 2017
• Camera ready paper due date: March 31, 2017

For more information see here .

ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2017
Hannover, Germany
June 6-9, 2017

Sensor calibration, image orientation, object extraction and scene understanding from images and image sequences are important research topics in Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Computer Vision and Geoinformation Science. In these tasks, geometry and semantics both play an important role, and high quality results require proper handling of all these aspects. While individual algorithms differ according to the imaging geometry and the employed sensors and platforms, all mentioned aspects need to be integrated in a proper workflow to solve most real-world problems.

This observation has led to launching a common event for a number of well-established scientific meetings under the roof of the ISPRS Hannover Workshop. While HRIGI and EuroCOW are more on the geometric side, CMRT and ISA have a legacy in automatic object reconstruction and trajectory computation.

The deadline for full papers is Jan. 31, 2017 and for abstracts, Feb. 28, 2017. More information is available at https://www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/hrigi17.html.

ISPRS Innsbruck Summer School of Alpine Research 2017 Close Range Sensing Techniques in Alpine Terrain
Obergurgl, Austria
July 16-22, 2017

Deadline for applications: December 30, 2016
More info & application: https://www.uibk.ac.at/geographie/summerschool/
Intended audience: early stage researchers (e.g. starting PhD students)

For an impression of the 2015 edition consult:
http://www.isprs-ann-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/III-6/15/2016/

Geospatial Week 2017
Wuhan, China
September 18-22, 2017

More information you will find under: http://gsw2017.3snews.net

GIS & Remote Sensing Annual Scientific Forum (GRASF 2017)
Call for Papers
Dubai, UAE
March 6-8, 2017

ISPRS Workshop WG IV/7 – WG IV/1 - WG III/IVb
Reading & Spatial Knowledge - Quality of Life and Smartness
 
For further information see here ….

↑ Up

Report from Global Partnership on Space Technology Applications for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP-STAR)
United Nations for Outer-Space Affairs (UNOOSA), UNSPIDER Bonn
December 1–2, 2016

Lena Halounová attended the meeting as ISPRS representative. Read her report here….

The official report from the meeting can be found at the following link: http://www.un-spider.org/news-and-events/news/unspider-carries-out-its-annual-bonn-international-expert-meeting

Report from the Thirteenth Plenary Session – GEO-XIII
St Petersburg, Russia
November 9–10, 2016
by Lena Halounová

Read the report here…

↑ Up

ISPRS mourns the loss of Prof. Einari Kilpelä, 1937-2016

Einari Kilpelä passed away on December 1, at age of 79 years, after a long illness.
Prof. Kilpelä was chair of the Photogrammetric Institute of the Helsinki University of Technology from 1976-1993 and served ISPRS in many functions. He was President of Commission III for two successive periods (1980-88) and Chair of the Financial Commission. He also designed two prestigious ISPRS awards, the Helava medal and the medal for the Doyle Award.

A detailed obituary will be published in the next eBulletin.

↑ Up

Special Issue Call for Papers

A Special Issue on "Smart Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction: Big Data Concepts for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)" is to be published and the call for papers is out. This Special Issue aims to promote innovative concepts, methods and tools that help in solving current and future problems in DRR, assisted by space and (geo)spatial technologies, approaches in GI Science, and mapping.

The deadline for manuscript submissions is 31 January, 2017.
For information on the Special Issue please visit:
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/disaster_risk

New publications in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Open Access Journal
Volume 5, Issue 11 (November 2016), No 216-218

Belgium through the Lens of Rail Travel Requests: Does Geography Still Matter?
Jones, Jonathan, Cloquet, Christophe, Adam, Arnaud, Decuyper, Adeline, Thomas, Isabelle
No: 216

Towards a Protocol for the Collection of VGI Vector Data
Mooney, Peter, Minghini, Marco, Laakso, Mari, Antoniou, Vyron, Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria, Skopeliti, Andriani
No: 217

Assessing Essential Qualities of Urban Space with Emotional and Visual Data Based on GIS Technique
Li, Xin, Hijazi, Ihab, Koenig, Reinhard, Lv, Zhihan, Zhong, Chen, Schmitt, Gerhard
No: 218

New publications in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Open Access Journal
Volume 5, Issue 12 (December 2016), No 219-244

Geospatial Analysis of the Building Heat Demand and Distribution Losses in a District Heating Network
Törnros, Tobias, Resch, Bernd, Rupp, Matthias, Gündra, Hartmut
Pages: 219

Indoor Multi-Dimensional Location GML and Its Application for Ubiquitous Indoor Location Services
Zhu, Qing, Li, Yun, Xiong, Qing, Zlatanova, Sisi, Ding, Yulin, Zhang, Yeting, Zhou, Yan
Pages: 220

Spatiotemporal Information Extraction from a Historic Expedition Gazetteer
Bekele, Mafkereseb Kassahun, de By, Rolf A., Singh, Gaurav
Pages: 221

Adjustment and Assessment of the Measurements of Low and High Sampling Frequencies of GPS Real-Time Monitoring of Structural Movement
Kaloop, Mosbeh R., Hu, Jong Wan, Elbeltagi, Emad
Pages: 222

A Novel Evaluation Approach for Line Simplification Algorithms towards Vector Map Visualization
Song, Jia, Miao, Ru
Pages: 223

An Improved WiFi/PDR Integrated System Using an Adaptive and Robust Filter for Indoor Localization
Li, Zengke, Liu, Chunyan, Gao, Jingxiang, Li, Xin
Pages: 224

A Biophysical Image Compositing Technique for the Global-Scale Extraction and Mapping of Barren Lands
Sharma, Ram C., Tateishi, Ryutaro, Hara, Keitarou
Pages: 225

Correction: Yin, J., et al. Exploring Multi-Scale Spatiotemporal Twitter User Mobility Patterns with a Visual-Analytics Approach. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2016, 5, 187
Yin, Junjun, Gao, Yizhao, Du, Zhenhong, Wang, Shaowen
Pages: 226

Closing the Skill Gap of Cloud CRM Application Services in Cloud Computing for Evaluating Big Data Solutions
Chen, You-Shyang, Lin, Chien-Ku, Chuang, Huan-Ming
Pages: 227

Retrieval of Remote Sensing Images with Pattern Spectra Descriptors
Bosilj, Petra, Aptoula, Erchan, Lefèvre, Sébastien, Kijak, Ewa
Pages: 228

Describing Geospatial Assets in the Web of Data: A Metadata Management Scenario
Fugazza, Cristiano, Pepe, Monica, Oggioni, Alessandro, Tagliolato, Paolo, Pavesi, Fabio, Carrara, Paola
Pages: 229

Evaluation of River Network Generalization Methods for Preserving the Drainage Pattern
Zhang, Ling, Guilbert, Eric
Pages: 230

Extraction and Simplification of Building Façade Pieces from Mobile Laser Scanner Point Clouds for 3D Street View Services
Li, Yan, Hu, Qingwu, Wu, Meng, Liu, Jianming, Wu, Xuan
Pages: 231

Tagging in Volunteered Geographic Information: An Analysis of Tagging Practices for Cities and Urban Regions in OpenStreetMap
Davidovic, Nikola, Mooney, Peter, Stoimenov, Leonid, Minghini, Marco
Pages: 232

A Global Inventory of Urban Corridors Based on Perceptions and Night-Time Light Imagery
Georg, Isabel, Blaschke, Thomas, Taubenböck, Hannes
Pages: 233

“Contextualized VGI” Creation and Management to Cope with Uncertainty and Imprecision
Bordogna, Gloria, Frigerio, Luca, Kliment, Tomáš, Brivio, Pietro Alessandro, Hossard, Laure, Manfron, Giacinto, Sterlacchini, Simone
Pages: 234

Past and Future Spatial Growth Dynamics of Chihuahua City, Mexico: Pressures for Land Use
Prieto-Amparán, Jesús A., Pinedo-Alvarez, Alfredo, Villarreal-Guerrero, Federico, Pinedo-Alvarez, Carmelo, Morales-Nieto, Carlos, Manjarrez-Domínguez, Carlos
Pages: 235

Dam Deformation Monitoring Data Analysis Using Space-Time Kalman Filter
Dai, Wujiao, Liu, Ning, Santerre, Rock, Pan, Jiabao
Pages: 236

Observational Analysis of Variation Characteristics of GPS-Based TEC Fluctuation over China
Liu, Xifeng, Yuan, Yunbin, Tan, Bingfeng, Li, Min
Pages: 237

Detection of Catchment-Scale Gully-Affected Areas Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on the Chinese Loess Plateau
Liu, Kai, Ding, Hu, Tang, Guoan, Na, Jiaming, Huang, Xiaoli, Xue, Zhengguang, Yang, Xin, Li, Fayuan
Pages: 238

Typification for Façade Structures Based on User Perception
Shen, Jie, Fan, Hongchao, Mao, Bo, Wang, Menghe
Pages: 239

Portraying Temporal Dynamics of Urban Spatial Divisions with Mobile Phone Positioning Data: A Complex Network Approach
Zhou, Meng, Yue, Yang, Li, Qingquan, Wang, Donggen
Pages: 240

Discovery of Transition Rules for Cellular Automata Using Artificial Bee Colony and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms in Urban Growth Modeling
Naghibi, Fereydoun, Delavar, Mahmoud Reza
Pages: 241

Integrating Multiple Spatial Datasets to Assess Protected Areas: Lessons Learnt from the Digital Observatory for Protected Area (DOPA)
Dubois, Grégoire, Basti, Lucy, Bertzky, Bastian, Mandrici, Andrea, Conti, Michele, Saura, Santiago, Cottam, Andrew, Battistella, Luca, Martínez-López, Javier, Boni, Martino, Graziano, Mariagrazia
Pages: 242

Simulation of Dynamic Urban Growth with Partial Least Squares Regression-Based Cellular Automata in a GIS Environment
Feng, Yongjiu, Liu, Miaolong, Chen, Lijun, Liu, Yu
Pages: 243

Automatic Pose Estimation of Uncalibrated Multi-View Images Based on a Planar Object with a Predefined Contour Model
Li, Cailin, Zhou, Langming, Chen, Wenhe
Pages: 244

↑ Up

New publications in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Volume 122 (December 2016)

Automatic detection of blurred images in UAV image sets
Till Sieberth, Rene Wackrow, Jim H. Chandler
Pages: 1-16

Spatial variability of chlorophyll and nitrogen content of rice from hyperspectral imagery
Shreedevi Moharana, Subashisa Dutta
Pages: 17-29

Development of an improved urban emissivity model based on sky view factor for retrieving effective emissivity and surface temperature over urban areas
Jinxin Yang, Man Sing Wong, Massimo Menenti, Janet Nichol, James Voogt, E. Scott Krayenhoff, P.W. Chan
Pages: 30-40

3D change detection – Approaches and applications
Rongjun Qin, Jiaojiao Tian, Peter Reinartz
Pages: 41-56

Examining view angle effects on leaf N estimation in wheat using field reflectance spectroscopy
Xiao Song, Wei Feng, Li He, Duanyang Xu, Hai-Yan Zhang, Xiao Li, Zhi-Jie Wang, Craig A. Coburn, Chen-Yang Wang, Tian-Cai Guo
Pages: 57-67

Retrieval of forest leaf functional traits from HySpex imagery using radiative transfer models and continuous wavelet analysis
Abebe Mohammed Ali, Andrew K. Skidmore, Roshanak Darvishzadeh, Iris van Duren, Stefanie Holzwarth, Joerg Mueller
Pages: 68-80

Extracting building patterns with multilevel graph partition and building grouping
Shihong Du, Liqun Luo, Kai Cao, Mi Shu
Pages: 81-96

Multimodal registration of remotely sensed images based on Jeffrey’s divergence
Xiaocong Xu, Xia Li, Xiaoping Liu, Huanfeng Shen, Qian Shi
Pages: 97-115

Characterizing major agricultural land change trends in the Western Corn Belt
Yang Shao, Gregory N. Taff, Jie Ren, James B. Campbell
Pages: 116-125

A robust background regression based score estimation algorithm for hyperspectral anomaly detection
Rui Zhao, Bo Du, Liangpei Zhang, Lefei Zhang
Pages: 126-144

MRF-based segmentation and unsupervised classification for building and road detection in peri-urban areas of high-resolution satellite images
Ilias Grinias, Costas Panagiotakis, Georgios Tziritas
Pages: 145-166

A robust multi-kernel change detection framework for detecting leaf beetle defoliation using Landsat 7 ETM+ data
Asim Anees, Jagannath Aryal, Małgorzata M. O’Reilly, Timothy J. Gale, Tim Wardlaw
Pages: 167-178

A co-training, mutual learning approach towards mapping snow cover from multi-temporal high-spatial resolution satellite imagery
Liujun Zhu, Pengfeng Xiao, Xuezhi Feng, Xueliang Zhang, Yinyou Huang, Chengxi Li
Pages: 179-191

Urban land use extraction from Very High Resolution remote sensing imagery using a Bayesian network
Mengmeng Li, Alfred Stein, Wietske Bijker, Qingming Zhan
Pages: 192-205

Optimizing selection of training and auxiliary data for operational land cover classification for the LCMAP initiative
Zhe Zhu, Alisa L. Gallant, Curtis E. Woodcock, Bruce Pengra, Pontus Olofsson, Thomas R. Loveland, Suming Jin, Devendra Dahal, Limin Yang, Roger F. Auch
Pages: 206-221

A sub km resolution global database of surface reflectance and emissivity based on 10-years of MODIS data
Louis Gonzalez, François-Marie Bréon, Karine Caillault, Xavier Briottet
Pages: 222-235

↑ Up