Michigan School District Administrative Planning GIS Developed with TatukGIS SDK

Wayne County (Michigan) Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) developed the Polyplot Mapping System, a client server application for school district administrative planning which is implemented in over 100 school districts throughout Michigan and Ohio. Polyplot is a unique, powerful tool designed for school districts to analyze student information interactively and graphically on a computerized map. RESA developed the Polyplot Mapping System using the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (for VCL edition) with the Embarcadero Delphi development platform.

Polyplot provides a broad range of formats for displaying school district information. The transportation office can develop and maintain complete, detailed route schedule information. For school district administrative planning, Polyplot can be used in building/classroom utilization studies, boundary analysis, voting precinct information or any other map-oriented study. Program features include:

• Multiple day-of-week routing
• Student daily schedule
• Track students on shuttle/transfer stops
• Comprehensive student selection criteria including school, grade, ethnic code, busing eligibility
• A wide variety of graphic display formats
• Route schedule time graph analysis
• Detail route/run/bus stop development tools
• Distance measurement
• Flexible map presentation—any map view can be shown from 50 feet to 50 miles
• Satellite image overlay
• Ability to build and store customized boundaries or "polygons"
• Comprehensive polygon tools such as union, intersection, inside/outside processing
• Complete reporting facility

Internet: www.resa.net

High Accuracy and Advanced Field Work with Latest SuperSurv

To meet the great needs of high accuracy field data collection and better workflow via modern GNSS technology, Supergeo, the leading GIS software and solution provider, announces the latest SuperSurv (Android), the GIS mapping app, which not only allows users to connect with and operate external Bluetooth GNSS devices, but also elevates field work efficiency with new averaging algorithms.

SuperSurv is a mobile GIS App designed for field data collection on Android and iOS-powered devices. Integrating with GIS and GPS technologies, SuperSurv provides the functions like Map Display, Query, Measure, etc., and supports to overlay OpenStreetMap as the basemap. Also, users may capture point, line and polygon features and attribute data, and save the data as SHP or GEO format in both offline and online modes.

With the newly added external GNSS device connection function, users are now capable of choosing between internal positioning information and outer GNSS source via Bluetooth communication. Simply pairing the GNSS receiver with Android device, SuperSurv allows users to fully control and present detailed messages of navigation within system status. In addition, data collection via GNSS is also enhanced via more options such as coordinate data averaging function or vertex collecting threshold, bringing users modernized and highly accurate field survey experience.

The external GNSS device connection and advanced data collecting functions are fully supported and available with SuperSurv Pro version. For SuperSurv M3 users, the newly added functions come as an optional plug-in which allows users to purchase and download for powering up.

Internet: www.supergeotek.com/ProductPage_SuperSurv.aspx

Drones can save lives in search and rescue mission after avalanche

Drones can save lives in search and rescue mission after avalanche

Rescue agencies gathered in Bykle Setesdal in freezing winter snow as a drone was used for the first time in an extensive search and rescue avalanche exercise in Norway.

With cold winds pounding at 20 metres per second, producing a wind chill of -15 degrees Celsius in three metres of snow, the exercise was a major undertaking. The police, fire department, International Red Cross, army and air force all played their part as they would if it were for real.

More than 250 people took part in the avalanche exercise 15 kilometres from the nearest road using the Aerialtronics Zenith Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) equipped with an Aerialtronics Dupla Vista, dual-sensor camera.

The Altura Zenith needed to provide aerial overwatch with optical and thermal cameras and transmit these images to on-site leaders, base camp and the police command using mobile networks. Drone pilot Yannic van Moerkerk mastered the winds and poor visibility, flying back-to-back sorties. In fact, the drone flew itself. A lot of power and precise GPS saw to that. The camera never failed. The pilot could switch between optical and thermal view, an easy victory for the dual-sensor camera.

The video transmission could be viewed anywhere on earth within five seconds of capturing it using 4G, 3G and even EDGE. When switched to satellite communications, everything was received in an intuitive web interface, allowing people to watch simultaneously. However, if the authorities are to gain from using drones, they must start viewing them like police dogs that are handpicked, paired with the best officer and trained every day for two years. The lack of training creates a vacuum where the drone operator is not part of the fabric of law enforcement.

Internet: www.aerialtronics.com

Futuristic 3D city technology unveiled

Australia: A new 3D technology that is transforming the urban development of major cities around the world has hit Australian shores. Eric Wittner, a lead software engineer at Esri, unveiled CityEngine – a technology that enables users to foresee how cities will look as they grow and develop.

Wittner said many Australian urban centres, including Sydney and Melbourne, already had the geographic data needed to start generating detailed 3D digital cities with the technology. “This new generation of smart 3D GIS enables us to represent, design, build and develop with clarity and understanding,” he said.

“For the first time, we can do more than just speculate on the alternate futures of our cities. This technology gives us the ability to depict, visualise, and assess the future to find the best possible design,” he added.

“CityEngine has a range of advanced features that has already made it a powerful tool in the transformation of major cities in China, the US and Europe. For example, the city models created can be used to assess heat island effects of yet unbuilt developments, as well as visualise their impact on the existing skyline from multiple points of view,” he explained.

“The good news is Australia’s cities are amongst the most advanced in the world when it comes to using GIS technology for planning, and many – including Sydney and Melbourne – are in a position to start using this technology today,” he said.

Wittner said a key advantage of the technology – which is also widely used in architecture, simulation, game development and film production – is it gives urban designers the tools to construct ‘what-if’ scenarios.

“As population rates boom, planners are being forced to make cities denser and incorporate more mass transit system capabilities,” Wittner said.

“Smart 3D solutions such as CityEngine can produce a ‘real life’ visualisation of how a city would look before and after urban developments, such as light rail infrastructure or higher residential buildings, to show the impacts on a range of areas including carbon footprints, water usage and traffic congestion.

“Multiple scenarios can be played out to see what would happen if certain development paths were taken or not taken – which helps to refine decision-making and choose the most successful path forward.

“This approach also helps improve community and stakeholder engagement – as the results can be shown before development takes place, to gauge response and feedback,” he said.

Source: Esri