September 20

Contents

Editor's Introduction

This week, I report on Safe Software's expansion of its coverage of European GIS formats and review a new book on marine GIS. Plus, fifteen press releases.

— Matteo Luccio

Safe Software Expands Support for European GIS Formats

• New European Formats

  In June, Safe Software released FME 2007, the latest version of its spatial ETL (extract, transform, and load) platform that enables users to extract, translate, transform, integrate, and distribute spatial data in GIS, CAD, and database formats. The release's main focus was support for raster formats. However, it also included support for national data models and country-specific formats and coordinate systems. According to the company, these formats make up more than 30 of the 190 formats supported by FME.

  In conjunction with two European user conferences — one in Germany this week and one in Sweden next week — last week, Safe Software issued a press release highlighting FME 2007's support for European formats. Here are some highlights of that press release:

  Sweden: In January, Sweden changed the national standard coordinate reference system from RT90 to SWEREF99 to accelerate the implementation of their national geodata infrastructure. FME 2007 included, for the first time, the Gtrans reprojection engine, approved for national use by Lantmäteriet (the National Land Survey of Sweden).

  Germany: The country is implementing ETRS89 as the new standard coordinate system, in conjunction with the adoption of the NAS GML format as a national standard for data exchange. Adopting ETRS89 will address past complications created by simultaneous use of multiple coordinate systems and facilitate exchange with other European countries, most of which are already using ETRS89. Safe Software first introduced read-only support for NAS GML in FME 2006. In FME 2007 it has added beta support for the NTv2/BeTA2007 grid shift file, which is recommended for the transformation of ATKIS (Authoritative Topographic-Cartographic Information System) data, the country's official administrative database of topographic data. FME 2007 allows German FME users to convert data to ETRS89 from the pervasive DHDN90 coordinate system, as well as other coordinate systems based on the DHDN, Potsdam, and Pulkovo datums.

  France: FME 2007 includes nine new projection systems (Lambert coniques conformes) that the French government published a few months ago. Within the last two years, Safe has also added read and write support for GeoConcept, a proprietary format, and read-only support for EDIGéO, a standard established by the Direction Générale des Impôts for managing land registry information for taxation purposes.

  Netherlands: FME provides read and write support for Top10NL. Originally developed by the Dutch National Mapping Agency (Topografische Dienst Kadaster), this format is replacing Top10 Vector as the new standard for exchanging topographic data with Kadaster. Top10NL was first supported in FME 2006 GB, followed by enhancements in FME 2007.

  Great Britain: the Digital National Framework model (DNF) is emerging as the national standard for exchanging spatial data. DNF requires a set of base reference objects that can be taken from OS MasterMap, a geographic database maintained by Ordnance Survey, Great Britain' national mapping agency. FME included a reader for OS MasterMap data, which it developed in consultation with Dotted Eyes in 2002. The reader supports three data layers available from Ordnance Survey, including Topography, Integrated Transport Network, and Address Layers. (A fourth layer — the Imagery Layer — is supported by other readers within FME that manage raster data.) With updates to FME's OS MasterMap reader made in FME 2006 GB and FME 2007, FME now supports the new OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, a layer that identifies the location of more than 27 million postal addresses as well as a million real-world properties that do not have postal addresses.

  Norway: Safe Software is working with Geodata AS to make a reader for SOSI, the national data exchange standard proposed by the Norwegian Mapping Authority. The company plans to make the reader available as an extra cost option for FME 2008.

  Here is a partial list of European formats (please point out any errors or omissions and I will publish a revised version in the future):

  Country	National Format	Organization that Established or Maintains the Format	Supported in FME 2007	Considered a National Standard
  Sweden	Interface 2000 (G2K)	Lantmäeteriet (National Land Survey of Sweden)	Yes - reading and writing	Yes
  	INTERLIS	Swiss	Yes - reading and writing	Yes
  	KF85	Lantmäeteriet (National Land Survey of Sweden)	Yes - reading and writing	Yes
  	AutoKa FF		Yes - reading and writing
  	Masik		Yes - reading and writing
  Germany	German AAA GML Exchange Format (NAS)	The Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States of the Federal Republic of Germany (AdV)	Yes - read only	Yes
  	EDBS		Yes - read only
  	GTI/RDB GTI/Restore format		Yes - read only
  	SICAD	AED-SICAD	Yes - reading and writing
  France	GeoConcept	GeoConcept SA (commercial software developer)	Yes - reading (writing also supported if GeoConcept application is installed)	Yes
  	EDIGeO	French Standards Association — IGN (The French Mapping Authority) is the primary custodian	Yes - read only	Yes
  Netherlands	TOP10NL	Dutch National Mapping Agency Kadaster (Topografische Dienst Kadaster)	Yes - reading and writing
  Belgium	Danish DSFL		Yes - read only
  	Danish UFO		Yes - reading and writing
  	XDK		Yes - reading only
  Great Britain	OS MasterMap (DNF)	GML Based - Ordnance Survey	Yes - read only	Yes
  	NTF	Ordnance Survey	Yes - read only	Yes
  Switzerland	SPANS Data Interchange Format (VEH/VEC/TBA)	Tydac	Yes - reading and writing
  Austria	MXF	rmDATA GmbH	Yes - reading and writing
  	MZK		Yes - reading and writing
  	OeNORM A2260		Yes - reading and writing
  	VALIS	rmDATA GmbH	Yes - read only
  Other Standards Widely Used Across Europe	GDF	The Central European Normalisation (CEN) Standard format established by European Committee for Standardisation	Yes - reading and writing
  	NATO GML	GML Schema for NATO	Yes - reading and writing
  	S-57	S-57 (A standard model for electronic navigational charts widely used in Europe. Specified by the International Hydrographic Organization.)	Yes - read only

• Interview with Dale Lutz and Marcel LeBlanc

  I discussed the significance of these new formats with Dale Lutz, Safe Software's Vice President of Software Development, and Marcel LeBlanc, its Director of Business Development.

  1. You released FME 2007 in June. Why did you wait until now to make this announcement?

     DL: We are having two European user conferences next week. We have a bunch of things that we have never announced separately, so we thought that we would package them all into one announcement to highlight the fact that we are having an active user meeting in Europe and all the things that we've done for the different communities there.

  2. What's new in FME 2007, aside from support for European formats and coordinate systems?

     DL: For many years FME did vector forms and types, but in FME 2007 we finally came out with a raster set of formats and a full and complete subsystem for translating and manipulating raster data. Our European initiatives play into that because, as a result of our support of a number of European coordinate systems, we end up being one of the few tools that can re-project imagery according to the algorithms that are used in some of these specific places, such as Sweden and Germany. One of the things we highlighted was this German BETA datum shift business. It came out just subsequent to the release of FME 2007 and we made it available as an update. It wasn't quite there, finalized, when 2007 shipped, but we've updated the product for that as well. Some of the work with Geoconcept is ongoing as well. There will be some additional announcements regarding some of the French formats too.

     ML: Many of these formats are native to European countries. GeoConcept, from France, has really shown a lot of interest in wanting to be able to create an interoperable solution between their tools and those of other GIS vendors. That's where we have some pretty exciting announcements to make. We support their format. We will be able to demonstrate that in October at the GeoConcept user conference and also at ESRI France.

  3. With whom did you work, in Europe, on each of these components and how did that collaboration work?

     DL: We've had very good relationships with many different companies, a lot of very talented individuals and organizations, for many years. The National Land Survey of Sweden was actually first European customer. In Germany, we had some key reseller partners; in particular, Conterra helped us by connecting us with the right people in the German government.

     ML: In France, we have worked very closely with GeoConcept — they are a strong leader in the French market with GIS tools — and with ESRI France. Because we have licensing agreements with ESRI, there is a lot of interest in creating a French version over time. That is part of our long-term investment in FME in France. We have an existing re-seller has a localization, a French version, and that is helping in that market.

     DL: He hooked us up with the appropriate people in the French mapping agency, the IGN, and they worked with us and we were almost the first GIS company out of the gate to support the whole set of new French coordinate systems. I think it is by having these partners that we have a great relationship, that we work hard to meet their needs and be responsive to them and as a result we are able to roll all of this functionality together into one product.

  4. Which countries are next? How do you plan to proceed?

     DL: Strategically, we've done lots of work in Europe and we want to continue to foster that, but we also want to start looking in the other direction, toward Japan and China. We have similar initiatives underway in both of those countries. We are also looking to emerging markets in South America. The North American market is our home base and we've always worked hard to be on top of that as well. It seems that in this industry there is always a new twist coming — whether a new version of Tiger GML or different, more accurate datums in North America, as a result of GPS becoming more accurate. So all these things keep us on our toes and keep our development staff sweating continuously, it seems.

  5. Besides the difference in national and regional projections, what are some of the other differences in standards and formats between countries?

     ML: From a business requirements side, what seems to drive a lot of GIS requirements are national standards. They normally tie in with either cadastral requirements or taxation issues. So, each country seems to be delivering its own unique flavor or format, using existing formats, and that is where FME probably shines. We are working very closely with many of these countries — with SOSI in Norway, with EDBS in Germany. Dale worked very closely on the Dutch standards. The other business driver behind this is raster. More and more people are using GIS and particularly raster, as it becomes more accessible, in all types of solutions.

  6. To what extent are these national agencies converging on standards, formats, etc.?

     DL: Long ago, it seemed like most countries developed some form of custom national format and data model, with varying degrees of complexity. The Scandinavian countries adopted relatively complex ASCII formats. The second generation of those formats — the ones that have come out in the last, say, three years, as those formats and systems start to become modernized — are based almost without exception on GML, so that is a definite trend. Of course, at Safe, we have a heavy investment in supporting GML. So, that's the place where we can add value. The GML specification does allow for fairly wide variation in implementation, so we make sure that we do a very good job with each specific variation. The German NAS GML and the Swedish G2K GML are quite radically different. So the trend is that they are becoming GML-based, but there is still a wide variation and that gives us something to work on and add value to.

     ML: That is part of our value proposition: on FME, because of the open approach you can take to supporting a format, you have quite a bit of ability to modify it. Specifically, with GML, we often call it "flavors of GML," because each one is unique enough. FME does a very good job of supporting them.

  7. What does all of this mean for users in the United States?

     DL: If a U.S. user needs to integrate data world-wide, they don't have to fight with anything if they, say, wanted to get the latest German survey data. We've done a thorough job in FME of supporting Unicode, so that we can preserve the special characters, like the umlauts. Certainly, as we head toward Eastern countries, like the Asian countries, that ability to deal with Unicode properly means that on a North American computer users can import data that has Chinese characters, write it out to a modern database system and everything is preserved. So, if somebody in North America has to deal with data from outside, they have no worries ahead of them.

     ML: Defense organizations, such as NATO, and rescue groups often need to share data sets. This is where some of these standardizations are helpful and significant and we are working on some that are involved at the international level. With aviation, for instance, different formats are being developed as we speak. There is certainly a high value in being able to use a common tool that can then make that data manageable in different countries that have different standards.

     DL: If you are putting together a global dataset for consumer mapping purposes, it might be useful to you to be able to bring in data from all over the world.

Book: ArcMarine: GIS for a Blue Planet

Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet, by Dawn J. Wright, Michael J. Blongewicz, Patrick N. Halpin, and Joe Breman; foreword by Jane Lubchenco (Redlands, California: ESRI Press, 2007), paperback, 202 pages

If you think that mapping physical features, land coverage, and human activity on dry ground is complex, try mapping the ocean! While most land mapping is two-dimensional — street maps, for example, usually ignore elevation — nearly all marine features and phenomena worth mapping are at least three-dimensional — with depth (–z) replacing elevation (z). Furthermore, most features on land — and land masses themselves — move only a few centimeters a year, so these movements can be safely ignored for most applications. Compare that with twice-daily tides, rapidly changing shorelines, and the constantly shifting and inherently fuzzy boundaries of ocean regions and you will begin to understand the complexity of mapping the two thirds of the planet that are covered by water.

Yet this is a vital and urgent task, notes Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University, in her foreword, citing some alarming statistics: a quarter of the world's most important fisheries are vastly depleted; 90 percent of the large fishes have disappeared due to overfishing; hundreds of "dead zones" have appeared in the last few decades due to nutrient pollution from agriculture, livestock operations, and sewage; oceans are becoming warmer and more acidic; and so on. To help understand these phenomena and devise solutions, scientific surveys are gathering datapoints by the billions. Marine science, the authors write, "has progressed from applications that merely collect and display data to complex simulation, modeling, and the development of new coastal and marine research methods and concepts."

GIS plays a key role in organizing and presenting this data. To support better management of complex spatial analyses within marine applications and a wide range of marine objects — from fish to autonomous underwater vehicles, from wave sensors to current meters, from acoustic dopplers to nutrient monitors — a team of subject-matter specialists developed the marine data model initiative, aka Arc Marine.

"Data models," the authors write, "lie at the heart of GIS, determining the ways in which real-world phenomena may best be represented in digital form." This book reports the initial results of this effort. It describes database projects focused on mapping the ocean floor, fisheries management in the water column, marine animal tracking in the water column and on the sea surface, nearshore and shoreline change, temporal analysis of water temperature, and the integration of numerical models.

"Our goal," the authors write, "has been to create a database design that facilitates the collection of dynamic and multidimensional data from the oceans, seas, and coasts, and to provide a more logical way to represent these in the object-oriented world of the geodatabase." Arc Marine provides users a template to implement a marine GIS project, facilitating data input, formatting, geoprocessing, and analysis, and the process of extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL). The model provides developers a framework for writing program code and maintaining applications.

In order to adapt GIS to the needs of the marine community, the Arc Marine team considered examples of a wide variety of marine observations and geographic features. Whenever a standard geographic feature class (points, lines, areas, rasters, etc.) did not accurately represent a given marine feature, they created a new generic data type. One example is the time series point, used for points that are in a fixed position but record attribute data over time — such as weather buoys recording wave heights and wind speeds, a sea turtle nesting beach where observers record the number of hatchlings each season, or a gauging station in an estuary that records changes in salinity. Such a feature has a feature ID; x, y, z (or Δz) coordinates; and field measurements, each with a date and time stamp.

After discussing the need for a marine data model and laying out the objectives and scope of Arc Marine, the book introduces the concept of Common Marine Data Types — which defines broad categories of coastal and marine data representations — and summarizes the main thematic layers of Arc Marine. Subsequent chapters describe the main components of the core data model: feature and object classes for various kinds of marine surveys, location series and time duration lines and areas, time series and measurements, nearshore and coastal/shoreline analysis, and model meshes. They present the feature classes, attributes, relationships, and object tables used for these components, illustrating them with case studies contributed by a variety of organizations.

Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet also presents 13 case studies that explain how marine scientists and researchers are using the data model in real-world applications. They've customized the geodatabase template for projects such as whale, turtle, and seal tracking and seafloor mapping, coral reef conservation, and investigations into coastal flooding and rising sea levels. The data model also supports fisheries management, shoreline change monitoring, and water temperature analysis.

The book, which can be used as a reference or laboratory manual, is accompanied by many online resources, including the core Arc Marine data model, design templates, a reference poster, a tutorial, sample datasets, and background documents. Related titles from ESRI Press include Arc Hydro: GIS for Water Resources, Undersea with GIS, and Marine Geography: GIS for the Oceans and Seas.

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