Hello, and welcome to this Asia-Pacific themed GeoSpatial Stream. I’m your host, Todd Danielson, and today’s Lead Sponsor is Autodesk University.
Today’s Top Story is GPS, the U.S. satellite system that has been a mainstay of navigation for decades. But its monopoly on satellite-based positioning is steadily decreasing, after first Russia, then Europe, and then China created their own location networks. And now India is creating its own system, with the launch on January 20th, 2016, of the IRNSS-1E navigation satellite aboard the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. These are some really beautiful pictures from the Indian Space Research Organization.
This is the fifth of seven satellites planned for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, which provides reliable position, navigation and timing services over India and its neighboring area. Although the system became functional after the fourth satellite was launched in March 2015, the newest and remaining two satellites, expected to launch in March 2016, will make the system stronger and more reliable.
So if you’re still using the term GPS, know that it’s soon, if not already, going to be one of those branding relics that no longer refers to a specific product, like Aspirin or Band-Aid or Jacuzzi.
That was today’s Top Story. I’ll be back with more news after this interview clip from Autodesk University that discusses 3D modeling projects in Australia.
Speaking of Australia, a collaboration among its national science agency, Bureau of Meteorology, and Intersect created TAPPAS, an online software tool for modeling the wind dispersal of living organisms. The visualization you see was created to determine if an exotic pest found in Kalumburu, Australia, could have travelled from Indonesia on the wind.
And speaking of Indonesia, its new Peatland Restoration Agency has completed the mapping of damaged peatlands that have been destroyed by forest fires. The agency will be taking steps to restore the more than two million hectares that were damaged in forest fires between June and October 2015.
In industry headlines, Australian company geoshepherds created a complete Landsat 8 Mosaic of Australia, consisting of more than 7.6 million square kilometers of imagery that has been orthorectified, radiometrically color balanced and pansharpened.
Ordnance Survey signed a deal with the Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Defence to help its National Survey Authority create a new online geospatial manual.
And Esri Indonesia is working with the city of Depok, the 2015 winner of the Indonesian Smart Cities Award, to equip the city’s local planning and development agency with GIS technology to improve processes and programs.
Today’s Final Thought concerns the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, the basis of several Top Stories and Final Thoughts last year. But this time there’s some good news, as scientists with the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space network, an international consortium of glaciologists, used satellite imagery to search for landslides after the earthquake that claimed more than 9,000 lives in four countries.
According to their research, the 4,312 landslides that happened within six weeks after the quake were far fewer than occurred after similar-magnitude quakes in other mountainous areas. In addition, few glacial lakes were affected, with no signs at all of flooding.
This news won’t save the lives lost or replace the cultural heritage structures destroyed, but sometimes you do have accept small victories.
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I’m Todd Danielson, and this … was your GeoSpatial Stream.
