Client Success Story

One of the greatest challenges to the spatial industry is for leading companies to stay abreast of new technologies. Whilst this column is usually dedicated to an article from one of our Clients, this issue we hear from Glenn Cockerton, our Managing Director, who talks about how Spatial Vision ensures that it keeps its skills and knowledge relevant in today's fast moving world by commissioning a range of internal research and development projects.

Every year Spatial Vision invests in exploring new technology directions: be they related to software, services, devices or standards. Our objectives for this R&D activity are to keep abreast of these emerging technologies and to explore their potential contribution to the range of services and products we offer and, more importantly, to our clients'; businesses.

At any given time, there are many more potential areas to review than is practical. Consequently, we need to choose where to best invest our time. Our selection is based on a range of criteria and typically is geared to furthering our industry or technical knowledge but often relies on feedback from clients and staff.

Having carefully selected areas of focus, we may elect to engage in a range of activities including: developing internal expertise and knowledge; building specific capabilities and services; initiating or facilitating demonstrators; and/or producing prototype products.

In 2007, we doubled our investment in R&D, and pursued a number of key projects, some of which are reviewed here.

In late 2006, Spatial Vision joined the CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) and, during most of 2007, has undertaken development of a sophisticated demonstration application, 'Platform for Environmental Modelling Support' (PEMS). PEMS is a system for storing, serving and analysing raster based data. It is a collaborative project bringing together the Victorian Departments of Sustainability and Environment, Justice, and Primary Industries, and Geoscience Australia.

To explore and demonstrate the capabilities of ESRI's new ArcGIS Server platform, Spatial Vision designed and developed a 'Consequence of Loss' modelling application. This interactive modelling tool draws on outputs of the Wildfire Asset Identification and Consequence of Loss Evaluation project, commissioned by the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC) in Victoria and delivered by Spatial Vision in 2006. This web application allows users to interact with and assess the consequences of the loss for a wide variety of assets.

Users are able to:

• Review the assessed consequences arising from the loss of assets on a state-wide basis using the methodology developed by the Wildfire Project
• Assign modified weightings for various assets for their Local Government Authority, and recalculate the overall consequence for loss of assets
  

This project has profiled many of the advantages, and some of the operational issues, associated with the ArcGIS Server platform.

We have known for some time that many organisations with dispersed regional networks and a need for up-to-the-minute data (such as emergency response management) would benefit substantially from a cost-effective web-based spatial data editing application. To explore how this type of application might be developed using 'free' open source technologies, Spatial Vision built, earlier this year, a prototype application offering comparatively sophisticated on-line data editing functions.

This application demonstrates the ability of WMS/WFS open source technologies to support on-line editing of corporate spatial data. Users are able to add, amend or delete spatial features and modify their attributes. For example, users can select an existing point of interest such a building and re-classify its primary use. Alternatively, users can locate a new feature such as a water collection point, and classify the nature of the water source. Two types of user have been anticipated: 'general users' who are able to add/edit/delete points and attributes; and 'authorisers' who confirm or verify the edited data before the updates are 'committed' to the underlying database. It is expected that this type of functionality will prove of great value for distributed staff to maintain business data.

These projects demonstrate the more tangible technology developments that have been pursued by Spatial during the last 12 months. They have delivered significant benefits to our organisation and a number of our clients already. Now all we have do to do is develop our R&D plans for next year!

If you are interested in learning more about these technology platforms or trying out the demonstration applications, please contact

SPATIAL VISION
Innovative Geospatial Solutions
Level 2, 170 Queen Street Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Phone: +61 3 9691 3000 Fax: +61 3 9691 3001
E-mail: info@spatialvision.com.au http://www.spatialvision.com.au

Copyright © Spatial Vision, Friday, 31-October-2007