SDI Snapshot – September 2018
How is wildfire smoke impacting air quality in Alberta? When and where is the next Spatial Data Infrastructure Summit? How is Europe’s SDI implementation (INSPIRE) coming along? Find answers to these and learn more about what’s happening on the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) front in Canada and the world. This post contains a collection of the latest and most significant SDI news, data and products.
SDI News
CCOG hosts Spatial Data Infrastructure Summit 2018
The Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG) and the Open Geospatial Consortium are hosting a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Summit on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, in Whitehorse, Yukon. This meeting will explore the state of Canadian SDIs and related geospatial work in Canada. Building on previous summits, the goal this year is to help foster the establishment of a network of SDIs across Canada.
Alberta Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) map
The wildfires in western Canada have greatly impacted the air quality this year. With the smoke being transported hundreds of miles and affecting distant communities, governments have become proactive in educating the public on air quality in their area. Alberta has published the Alberta Air Quality Health Index map (AQHI), which provides a number from 1 (low risk) to 10 (very high risk) to indicate the level of relative health risk associated with local air quality.
OpenNorth releases Open Smart Cities Guide
OpenNorth, with funding from Natural Resource Canada’s GeoConnections program, has released the Open Smart Cities Guide. This year-long collaborative research project aimed to create a guide that envisions an ‘Open Smart City’, an urban space that integrates innovative digital solutions based on public engagement and open government practices. The guide is available for free.
The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) now available via web map
Esri has developed an online web map viewer application to explore REMA data, which is a high resolution, time-stamped Digital Surface Model (DSM) of Antarctica at 8-metre spatial resolution. With this web map, users can visualize the REMA data, preview the spatial coverage, and download simple exports.
The first seven years of Europe’s SDI (INSPIRE) implementation
The INSPIRE Directive has had a massive impact on the provision of European geographic information and hence on software developers and users. The mid-term evaluation report on INSPIRE implementation is aimed at the European Parliament and Council. It evaluates progress towards achieving the original objectives and considers the need for policy action to align existing approaches better to changing circumstances.
SDI Data
BC releases agriculture capability map dataset
The Agriculture Capability mapping dataset is the digitized equivalent of the legacy Agriculture Capability Scanned Maps, also known as 'Soil Capability for Agriculture' and 'Agricultural Capability' mapping. It is an interpreted mapping product based on soil and climate information. The agriculture capability maps were redrawn from soil surveys that were mapped on air photographs using mirror stereoscopes.
GeoBase National Road Network (NRN) – now under the responsibility of Statistics Canada
In the context of ongoing federal government-wide Web Renewal efforts, the GeoBase Series data known as the National Road Network (NRN) has been transitioned to the responsibility of Statistics Canada. The NRN product contains provincial and territorial transportation datasets of road segments and ferry crossings plus associated descriptive attributes.
SDI Products
Capturing centimetre-accurate 3D data now possible
Eos Positioning Systems, Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of affordable high-accuracy GNSS receivers for any device or app, released the world’s first laser offset solution within the Esri Collector for ArcGIS workflow. When combined with Laser Technology, Inc.’s (LTI) laser rangefinders, field crews can capture centimetre-accurate 3D locations of hard-to-reach assets and in GNSS-impaired environments.
North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83) and a new horizontal datum in 2022
NAD83 is an international horizontal reference frame for Earth that allows users to consistently and accurately map out locations on Earth with latitude and longitude locations. In Canada, we also use WGS-84 plus we have NAD83 updates called the Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS) and Canadian Active Control System (CACS). The US National Geodetic Survey has indicated that it will be replacing NAD83 in 2022 because NAD83 is non-geocentric by about 2.2 metres.
ArcGIS Enterprise in the cloud
Running ArcGIS Enterprise on a cloud platform has been popular for years. The use of cloud platforms has helped many organizations by providing reliable, easily accessible infrastructure. Find out more about the options available for migrating your existing on-premises infrastructure to the cloud or for starting fresh in the cloud.
Delivering your Common Operating Picture with 3D
3D GIS is evolving quickly and changing expectations for engagement, decision support and operational planning. 3D GIS adds value to your investment in 2D GIS by providing an immersive and intuitive experience with new potentials for visualization and content. Advances in 3D GIS offer an exciting opportunity to adopt and present a new way of thinking about the ArcGIS platform.