AUTHOR
Ronald E. Elsis
PAPER TITLE
"Visualizing Your Landbase"
ABSTRACT
Defining Issue:
One-meter satellite-based digital orthoimagery, along with other various satellite sensor information, provides more than traditional landbase solutions. Space Imaging EOSAT is developing applications that take advantage of a variety of satellite imaging platforms that allow users to "visualize" their landbase.
GIS Solution:
Space Imaging EOSAT, in coordination with several utility companies, government agencies and insurance companies, is developing temporal applications derived from the digital orthoimage landbase. Right-of-way management, hazard/disaster management, and change detection analysis are just a few of the time-critical services that can be provided.
Application or Methodology:
The new constellation of one-meter satellites to be launched beginning in December 1997 provides the capability to create a digital orthoimage landbase significantly faster than previous methods. In addition, because of the frequent revisit capability of these satellites, time-critical services can now be provided. Satellite imagery can be used as an effective emergency preparedness tool. An accurate digital landbase allows utilities, insurance companies, and emergency services personnel to assess the potential damage and exposure after disaster strikes.
For example, if a hurricane hits the Florida coastline, imagery of the area taken before and immediately after the natural disaster can be used to get a visual depiction of the area in order to compare and assess the damage. This information will be used by utility companies, government agencies and insurance companies to dispatch the necessary services, enabling quick decision making and problem solving.
Software:
Space Imaging EOSAT is developing proprietary high-speed image processing algorithms and integrating necessary spatial attribute information that will allow ArcView and ArcInfo users to visualize their digital orthoimage landbase. The purpose of this paper is to outline the various applications that can be derived from the existing landbase.
PAPER BODY
The capabilities of and applications for satellite-based digital orthoimagery (commonly referred to as space imagery), used in the creation and maintenance of today’s digital landbase maps, will take a quantum leap forward in December 1997. That is when the world’s first commercial one-meter resolution remote-sensing satellite is launched by Space Imaging EOSAT of Thornton, Colorado. The high-resolution imaging capabilities of this advanced satellite, previously only possible from aerial photography, will open the door for a multitude of new commercial applications for space imagery. Government agencies, utility companies, oil and gas companies, agribusinesses, insurance companies and various consumer service businesses alike are finding new ways to apply space imagery to create information-rich digital landbases that allow users to solve real-life problems and make good business decisions. When combined with today’s advanced GIS systems and software products, Earth information technologies like space imagery are enabling users to visualize their landbases in a way never before possible.
Benefits of Space Imagery
Digital landbase maps, derived from high-resolution space imagery, have several distinct user advantages over traditional vector maps, including:
Frequent Updates – Space Imaging EOSAT satellites can revisit and repeatedly collect imagery with consistent quality for a large geographic area as frequently as every few days. This capability allows users to regularly monitor land areas of interest, identify changes and update their digital landbases as frequently as desired. By comparison, creating or updating a vector landbase using traditional data collection methods can take weeks or even months to collect and process the necessary information. By that time, the new information is often already outdated. Today, users can access Space Imaging EOSAT’s globally-distributed CARTERRA (TM) information archive which provides immediate access to a comprehensive inventory of imagery and derived geographic products and services from multiple sources. This archived information is available in a variety of formats and can be delivered within hours or days of image collection.
Cost Savings -- At costs ranging from approximately $150-$250 per square mile, users can now acquire high-resolution space imagery at a fraction of the cost of other imagery sources. Lower cost means users can afford to update their landbases much more frequently than in the past. The cost savings is achieved in part due to the imagery archive concept, whereby the multiple usage of stock imagery keeps costs to any single user down.
Efficient Interpretation of Features and Changes -- With the extremely high resolution and accuracy of today’s space imaging technology and the ability to acquire updated information more frequently, users can more easily identify and monitor features and changes that occur within an area of interest. A new generation of feature extraction products currently in development will provide a level of land information detail to users that has never before been available. This enhanced, digital information will allow users to perform automated change detection, land use classifications, and other layer analysis more quickly and accurately than ever before. As a result, landbase maps will become a more valuable and reliable information tool on which to base important business decisions.
AM/FM/GIS Compatability -- Today’s space imagery products can be provided to users in most GIS-compatible formats, especially since most major GIS software vendors have integrated raster handling capabilities in their systems. Users of industry standard GIS software products like Esri’s ArcInfo and ArcView GIS are finding they can now use space imagery to visualize their digital land base maps in a way they never thought possible.
Commercial Applications for Space Imagery
How will organizations make effective use of high-resolution space imagery and today’s related Earth information products and services? Here are some examples:
Government
Local, state and federal government agencies have evolved numerous applications for space imagery -- from maintaining more accurate landbases that provide valuable information for urban planning and tax assessment to assessing the impact of natural disasters on a stricken community.
"A high-quality orthorectified landbase on which to overlay other types of vector data is critical to maintaining the high level of accuracy necessary to make good business decisions," said Dave Gallaher, director of GIS, Jefferson County, Colorado, a user of both Space Imaging EOSAT and Esri products and services. "High-resolution space imagery allows us to update our landbase more frequently and at a substantially lower cost than doing so with traditional aerial photography."
In urban planning applications, space imagery and related information is used to help governments determine the condition of existing infrastructure and identify high-growth residential and business areas so that adequate support services can be planned. This information can be used to identify and map the most effective and least costly routes for new roads, light rail lines, bus routes and other forms of public transportation. This information can also be used for rezoning, tax assessment, and economic development applications.
Federal and state government agencies are also using space imagery to help in pre-planning that will effectively direct disaster management activities resulting from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. The imagery is used to help rescue personnel be more efficient in victim recovery, damage assessment and transportation control.
County tax assessors are using space imagery to help identify unreported property improvements (home additions, decks, swimming pools, etc.) in residential communities. This information is extremely valuable in improving the accuracy of property tax assessments and maximizing tax revenue collections.
Utilities
The utility industry is potentially one of the largest and fastest growing markets for the application of high-resolution space imagery for digital landbase mapping. A digital landbase serves as the basis for locating the position of a utility’s facilities and infrastructure throughout its service network. Since the vast majority of information needed for utilities to operate efficiently is location-related, and since precise location is determined by the quality of the landbase, utilities give high priority to developing and maintaining the highest quality and most accurate landbases possible.
Major gas and electric utility companies are using high-resolution space imagery in corridor planning applications to reduce the cost of on-site field work and efficiently plan the most cost-effective routes and locations for infrastructure in a corridor. In right-of-way management applications, these same companies are using space imagery to monitor vegetation overgrowth in utility right-of-ways and schedule tree trimming operations as needed to prevent vegetation-caused service outages. Leak detection in gas transmission and distribution lines using stressed vegetation is also being researched.
Water and sewer service providers utilize space imagery in a variety of applications including watershed management, the development of run-off projections, environmental impact analysis studies, the determination of snowpack projections and floodplain analysis, to name a few.
Telecommunications companies are using space imagery and related Earth information products to evaluate terrain and land cover in an area in order to optimize thelocation for cell sites, microwave stations and other field facilities necessary to operate an efficient wireless telecommunications network.
Oil and Gas Exploration
Oil, gas and mineral exploration companies are using space imagery to scout and map remote fields, evaluate a site’s production potential based on stratigraphy, plan shot line layout, and determine where additional field work is necessary before a lease is secured and drilling begins. Space imagery also is being used in environmental applications to identify and track both naturally occurring and man-made spills, leaks and other potential hazards. In addition, by taking advantage of a temporal archive site, remediation and restoration efforts are enhanced.
Agribusiness
Space imagery is a major contributor to the successful implementation of today’s precision farming techniques that allow growers to achieve tangible, repeatable improvements in crop yield and quality from year to year. Space imagery is a particularly important application in less developed foreign nations where overcoming food shortages and feeding ever-growing populations continues to be a significant challenge.
Yield forecasting, climate and crop growth monitoring, loss adjustment, stress and anomaly identification, inventory analysis, and futures modeling are just a few of the agricultural applications for space imagery that are under development.
Insurance
Insurance companies can act more quickly and efficiently in determining the extent of damage to an area and resolving policyholder claims during natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.) by comparing imagery of an area before a disaster strikes with just-taken imagery of the location after the disaster has occurred. This will help insurance adjusters identify areas that were hardest hit, allowing them to immediately provide claims services to those communities that are most in need.
Consumer Services
There is considerable untapped potential for consumer applications of high-resolution space imagery, especially as the technology becomes more widely available and affordable. By using the Internet to browse available imagery in Space Imaging EOSAT’s CARTERRA archive, consumers will eventually be able to select imagery by the square mile or kilometer from virtually anywhere in the world and download it on their home computer for a fee.
What does this mean to consumers and related service businesses? Real estate agents will be able to show prospective out-of-town buyers imagery of a particular neighborhood and its surroundings, including shopping malls, parks, schools and other amenities. Travel agents can show their clients what a particular beach or resort property looks like and its proximity to other nearby tourist attractions before a vacation is booked. Homeowners associations can easily monitor their neighborhoods on a regularly scheduled basis to ensure that community covenants are not being violated.
Space Imagery -- Today and Tomorrow
Five-meter panchromatic imagery derived from the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS-1C) satellite is currently the highest resolution space imagery commercially available. For those applications with lower resolution requirements, archived and/or custom collected space imagery from several other foreign and domestic satellite constellations also is available through Space Imaging EOSAT. These include the U.S. Landsat satellite, the European Space Agency’s ERS satellite, Japan’s JERS satellite, and several other IRS satellites.
Despite its recent technological advances, space imagery is not the sole solution for all Earth information requirements. Some applications require higher resolution imagery than existing remote sensing satellites can currently provide. Aerial photography has been the primary source for the highest resolution imagery in the past, particularly for those applications requiring sub-meter resolutions. To position itself as a one-stop source of advanced Earth information products and services, Space Imaging EOSAT has recently formed alliances with several leading aerial services and mapping companies in the U.S. to offer users a broad array of high resolution Earth information products. This Mapping Alliance Program (MAP) provides aerial products from these partners and co-markets the products with space imagery derived from Space Imaging EOSAT’s satellite constellation to satisfy a broad range of customer information requirements.
What new space imagery products and services will be available to the commercial marketplace in the near future?
In addition to the soon-to-be-launched Space Imaging EOSAT one-meter satellite, at least five new IRS satellites with new and enhanced capabilities are planned for launch over the next seven years. Also, new enhanced CARTERRA Earth information products and value-added services are in development and will be introduced for commercial applications over the next several months. These products can be integrated with a digitally-derived landbase map to provide enhanced information about changes in land features and uses, street centerlines, and other elements important to developing and maintaining accurate landbase maps.
Conclusion
The integration of high-resolution space imagery with today’s advanced GIS software products and systems is bringing the digital landbase map into a whole new era of user acceptance. This is true across a variety of industries and market segments where keeping detailed land information current at a reasonable cost is a top priority. With commercially available one-meter space imagery and related value-added GIS products and services just around the corner, users will soon have the tools necessary to visualize their landbase in a way never dreamed possible even a few years ago.
REFERENCES
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Ronald E. Elsis
Market Segment Manager
Space Imaging EOSAT
9351 Grant Street, Suite 500
Thornton, Colorado 80229
Tel: 303-254-2057
Fax: 303-254-2215
E-mail: relsis@spaceimage.com
Home Page: www.spaceimage.com