March 7, 2017 / Le 7 mars 2017

In the Media / Dans les médias

GNSS and the Surveyor: Take Me to School GPS World The adaptation of GPS for civilian use is the single greatest step taken by  the land surveyor, more specifically the advance to  real-time kinematic networks. Now unmanned aerial vehicles enable data collection in places thought impossible previously, and laser/LiDAR scanners are on the horizon as the next game-changer. But how did we get here? An understanding of our history can be help us prepare for the future. Read more

Are you Flood Ready? Government of Canada Learn the 10 tips to make your home Flood Ready and more at the Government of Canada's Flood Ready site. Est-ce que vous êtes prêt en cas d’inondation? Gouvernement du Canada Apprendre les  10 conseils pour mettre votre maison en mode prévention inondation et plus au site Web Prévention Inondation du Gouvernement du Canada.

The town that should be Canadian: How a surveying error put Sumas, Washington on B.C. soil National Post It was on Sept. 11, 2001, of all days, that a Washington State courtroom convened to hear one of the state’s most outlandish attempts to evade a drug charge....— their lawyer solemnly argued that Sumas was a lawless Wild West that wasn’t actually part of Washington. And indeed, it shouldn’t have been. To this day, a large chunk of the 1,300-person town sits atop ground north of the 49th parallel that should rightly have been Canadian soil. Read more

Japanese beer company handpicks SA barley crop to star in million-dollar campaign ABC South East SA News With a little help from some expert surveyors, a Hatherleigh barley crop has become the star of a million-dollar advertising campaign by a major Japanese brewing company. Mount Gambier's Mike Cameron thought it was a prank when he got a phone call just before Christmas last year, with a highly unusual request. "It was pretty out of the blue, asking us if we could put a beer logo into a barley crop," said the director of Cameron Lock Surveying. Read more

BIM: A New Model for Surveyors Important Opportunities and Challenges for Surveyors GIM International Building information modelling (BIM) is one of the most intriguing opportunities for surveyors to come along in years. This model-based approach combines technologies and processes to support the efficient creation and use of information for building construction and operations. Because of its strong ties to spatial information, BIM offers a familiar landscape and rich possibilities for surveyors and other geospatial professionals,... Read more

Land surveys describe pre-settlement landscapes Wisconsin State Farmer Ever wonder why there's a gentle curve in the roadway when crossing a township line in Wisconsin?... The surveyor's task was to measure every one mile with a 66-foot chain — 80 such measurements for one mile. For accuracy, this meant that the chain had to be taut and level for each of the 80 placements, Nurre explained. On a good day, a surveyor team could cover 10 miles.... Despite the efforts of the surveyors, there were some instances of mischief, Nurre indicated. There were cases in which the early settlers removed the surveyor's marking posts in order to acquire more land, he observed. Read more

Where did we go? P.E.I. not labelled on CAA map of Canada CAA admits it's 'embarrassed, shocked' that P.E.I. isn't among historical spots highlighted CBC News If you're advising people on where to go to see important places in Canadian history, you'd think P.E.I. would be right up there. But the Cradle of Confederation has been inadvertently snubbed, and by a surprising source, the Canadian Automobile Association. CAA is known for its maps and tourist tips, but the spring edition of CAA Magazine had a glaring omission. Read more

L'Î.-P.-É. « oubliée » sur une carte publiée par la CAA Radio-Canada L'Île-du-Prince-Édouard a beau être la plus petite province du Canada, elle peut se targuer de porter le titre de berceau de la Confédération. Il est donc étonnant qu'une carte publiée par le magazine de l'Association canadienne des automobilistes (CAA) à l'occasion du 150e anniversaire du pays omette complètement le nom de la province insulaire.  Lire plus

Augustus Jones determined present-day county boundaries The Wellington Advertiser The County of Wellington, in co-operation with the affected municipalities, is in the process of establishing a consistent name for the road along the western boundaries of West Garafraxa and Eramosa Townships (this took place in 1995). The proposed name, Jones Baseline, recognizes Augustus Jones, the surveyor who laid out this line in the fall of 1792. Few people are aware of the importance of Jones, or the significance of this line, which is the basis of all later surveys in this area. Read more

The Advancing Industry of Geoinformation Survey of Geomatics Professionals Reveals Valuable Insights GIM International At the start of this year, 'GIM International' conducted a readers’ survey aimed at gaining a clear picture of the current state of the geospatial industry.... Now, just a few years later, the UAV has become a major tool for the professional surveyor.... For the purpose of the survey, GIM International identified IT, robotics/autonomous vehicles, apps/mobile devices, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain as all being potentially disruptive technologies. Read more

L'avancée et les ratés de la technologie en matière de GPS Radio-Canada La semaine dernière, le sud du centre-ville de Toronto a été paralysé pendant quelques heures à cause d'un véhicule qui s'était engagé sur les rails du tramway et qui s'était ensuite retrouvé bloqué dans le tunnel qui mène à la gare Union. Ce sont des centaines d'usagers des transports en commun qui ont alors dû trouver une autre solution pour se déplacer. Le conducteur du véhicule en infraction a déclaré « avoir suivi son GPS », une excuse un peu facile, mais qui nous permet de nous interroger sur l'avancée et les ratés de la technologie en matière de GPS. Stéphane Roche, professeur titulaire de sciences géomatiques, vice-doyen à la recherche à la Faculté de foresterie, de géographie et de géomatique de l'Université Laval, fait le point. Ententre plus

Middleton geomatics researchers focus on Canadian coastline Annapolis County Spectator Canada is the country with the longest coastline in the world. Earlier this month the Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) in Middleton hosted a two-day workshop on High Resolution Mapping along the Coastal Zone. Tim Webster and his team have been applying new topo-bathymetric LiDAR and other technologies (e.g. drones, high resolution satellite imagery) to map the near shore zone of Canada's coastline for the last five years. Read more

Infrastructures: du concret pour repartir sur de nouvelles bases La Presse Après des années de scandales dans l'attribution de contrats publics, la commission Charbonneau et ses recommandations, le gouvernement québécois passe à l'action. Si l'Association des firmes de génie-conseil (AFG) voit certaines lacunes dans les solutions proposées, elle se réjouit de voir le gouvernement aller de l'avant alors qu'il investira prochainement des milliards en infrastructures. Lire plus

New handbook for surveyors and survey engineers GPS World GNSS Survey & Engineering, a 238-page primer for the professional user, has just been published by Geomares. Four opening chapters deal with the general layout of GNSS, its errors and its practical use. Geared to the everyday professional GNSS user, this section does not give in-depth theoretical background. The second group of four chapters discusses topics such as geodesy, satellite signals and positioning theory. Filling in the background of  subjects in the first part, this section is aimed at the more specialized professional user or student who needs an in-depth knowledge of GNSS positioning. Read more

Nigerian surveyors seek government support on adoption of building modelling technology Techpoint Developed countries have adopted the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies in both small and large scale capacities. BIM is an intelligent 3D model-based process that equips architecture, engineering and construction professionals with the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, manage and construct buildings and infrastructure.... In a bid to embrace the global construction trend, the Nigeria Institute of Quality Surveyors (NIQS) has called upon the government to support the development of Building Information Modelling technologies through funding and implementation of laws for the construction industry. Read more

Effective Surveying Tool for Shallow-water Zones Satellite-derived Bathymetry Hydro International A recent article provides an overview of satellite-derived bathymetry methods and how data can be integrated into survey campaigns, and showcases three use cases. Bathymetric data in shallow-water zones is of increasing importance to support various applications such as safety of navigation, reconnaissance surveys, coastal zone management or hydrodynamic modelling. A gap was identified between data demand, costs and the ability to map with ship and airborne sensors. This has led to the rise of a new tool to map shallow-water bathymetry using multispectral satellite image data, widely known as satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB). Read more

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Stolen Equipment / Équipement volé

Survey gear swiped North Shore News North Vancouver RCMP are on the hunt for some stolen pieces of land surveying equipment worth about $15,000. Read more

Tech News / Nouvelles techno

Drone rental marketplace Up Sonder goes national Now you can rent your neighbor's drone or hire a certified pilot for one-time commercial jobs. ZDNet Drones are joining the sharing economy. Today, drone rental marketplace Up Sonder is expanding nationwide. It is the AirBnB of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- anyone who owns a drone can list it to make some extra cash. Plus, certified pilots can offer their services. Up Sonder earns a percentage on every rental transaction, and as a nice bonus, a small portion of the revenue is donated to help deliver access to clean drinking water to Africa. Read more

The Invisible Fence That Keeps Drones Away From the President The Atlantic A drone flying through the air in southwest Baltimore might, if it wanders too far in the wrong direction, stop suddenly in midair, as if running into an invisible force field. The obstacle isn’t physical—it’s been programmed into the software that helps the drone fly. A ring with a 30-nautical mile radius centered on the Ronald Reagan National Airport, delineates the D.C. Special Flight Rules Area, where drones aren’t allowed—and so many consumer drones obediently stay away. Read more Technology that keeps drones from entering restricted airspace is called geofencing.  Read more

Building a Road Map for the Self-Driving Car The New York Times How do you create a map showing every road in the United States, with the precise location of every stop sign, all the lane markings, every exit ramp and every traffic light — and update it in real time as traffic is rerouted around construction and accidents? Read more

Data Sharing is Smart: Geo-related Trends in Engineering & Construction GIM International There could be many keywords representing important trends in the capture and use of spatial data in the engineering & construction industry, but 3D, BIM, AR and UAV are definitely high on the list. Uniting them all is one major cross-industry challenge: interoperability and data integration in support of much-needed higher workflow efficiency in the whole value chain. Read more

5 Questions to...Jimmy Pewtress (Kullasoft) GIM International Mobile apps have been identified as one of the new disruptors in the geomatics industry. To what extent do you agree? I wouldn’t say that mobile apps are disruptive to the extent that say Uber or Airbnb have revolutionised their respective industries. I think it will be a while before anybody who wants to can simply set themselves up as a surveyor armed with just a smartphone! I do agree, though, that there’s scope for large-scale disruption of the traditional working processes of the geomatics industry when it comes to things like data capture and transfer in the field, providing easy access to information, interacting with equipment and so on. Read more

Upcoming Events / Prochaines activités

LandPRO Conference 2017 March 7, 2017  Le 7 mars 2017 Paramount Conference Center Woodbridge, ON

Advertise with PSC Annoncez par l’entremise GPC Please contact  Helen Derry, Administrative Coordinator for information. Pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez communiquer avec Helen Derry, Coordinatrice administrative.

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