PERSPECTIVES

 What is a spatial data model and why are they important to understand?

"The spatial data model is the heart of a GIS and CAD system. It is more than data alone. More than format. The data model governs how well your software will perform useful functions because it represents your depth of understanding of the process(s) that you are attempting to apply spatial data and associated geoprocessing functions toward.  It is not a random happening that modeling and simulation lie so close to GIS - they are a manifestation of this realisation.  This also explains why data translation is an art - not a simple database operation."

Jeff Thurston, Editor, EMEA and Russia, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

"A well thought out spatial data model is critical to get the most out of geographic information systems (GISs), because it dictates how spatial data are stored and represented within the database, and the rules for how the data can be analyzed and manipulated. In addition to different data models to represent vector or raster data, the data model is also the means to create a common set of attributes, rules and workflows for specific application areas."

Matt Ball, Editor, Americas/Asia-Pacific, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TOP STORIES

FEATURES

• Bentley Appoints Baker Egerton Vice President, Lead Generation
• Hexagon Expands within Agriculture Machine Guidance
• ERDAS Announces Automated Feature Extraction Solution: IMAGINE Objective
• Europe’s Top Geographic Experts Meet in Cardiff
• California’s Fifth Largest City Adopts MWH Soft Advanced Engineering GIS Modeling Technology
• Cadcorp GeognoSIS web-based GIS software selected by University of Connecticut
• SSTL earns ESA Award for its Role in Galileo
• ESRI Publishes Open Data Model for Managing Information about Assets and Operations
• Renowned Economist to Speak on NASA's Role in Sustainable Development
• Petrobras Standardizes on Intergraph 3D Technology

In Zhejiang province in the southern part of the Yangtze River Delta on the southeast coast of China, the Surveying and Mapping Bureau of Zhejiang contributed to the completion of digital line graphs covering the entire 101,800-square-kilometer province. All together, 17 maps in scales of 1:250000, 330 maps in scales of 1:50000, 4,107 maps in scales of 1:10000, and 226 maps in scales of 1:5000 are now accessible to government departments involved in land development, water conservation, transportation, telecommunications, and other areas.

TOP FIVE LINKS OF THE WEEK 

Jeff's Top Five Links of the Week

1. Welsh Assembly Government - Environment : Read the latest Environment Strategy Action Plan published this week.
2. Pan American Institute of Geography and History
3. OzClim - Exploring climate change scenario's for Australia.
4. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism - Japan
5. RailNET Europe
   

Matt's Top Five Links of the Week

1. Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria
2. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
3. Scottish Center for Carbon Storage - An interactive map with commercially significant carbon sequestration sites.
4. Conservation Commons - A global community of conservation practice that's aimed at removing barriers to information and data.
5. Renewable Energy on Contaminated Land and Mining Sites - An effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that encourages the development of renewable energy sites in brownfields (includes maps).

   
Reader´s Links of the Week

Submit suggested links to anything you would like to recommend that fellow readers do, see or read via e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. '; document.write(''); document.write(addy_text66298); document.write('<\/a>'); //-->\n This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

INTERVIEW

A GIS Guru Explores the BIM Opportunity

James Fee is well known in the ESRI development community, on the GIS blogosphere for his own blog, and as the person behind the blog aggregation site Planet Geospatial. James recently joined an architectural and engineering firm that is focusing a good deal of effort on building information models. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Fee about the growing opportunity of BIM, and the implications that this modeling software will have on the GIS industry.

HEADLINE NEWS

CALENDAR

• Commissioner Hübner Salutes Renewable Energy and Cross-border Success Story
• EU-15 on Target for Kyoto, Despite Mixed Performances
• Britain to Pledge Legally-binding Emissions Cut
• California Releases Global Warming Plan
• Satellite Tech for Mapping Cultural Roots
• Bulgarian-Portugese Firm to Build Six Biomass Plants
• The First Open Sustainability Network Unconference
• Plastic Electronic Newspaper in UK Next Year
• EU Car Nations Close to Agreeing Slower CO2 curbs
• Kongsberg Acquires Space Contract
• George Soros on the Clean-Energy Economy
• China Needs Sharper Eyes in Space
• Rich Countries to Keep Up Climate Funds
• World’s Biggest Country Becomes a Little Bit Smaller
• Network Tool Can Help to Clean Up Space Junk
• Wind Farm Gets £22m of Extra Turbines

EVENTS

INTERGEO 2008 – Bremen, Germany

INTERGEO 2008 opened under rainy skies in the northern city of Bremen, Germany with the theme ‘Knowledge and action for planet earth’. With 478 exhibitors from 29 countries in attendance, presentations included reference to the changing world, climatic threats and the need for authoritative data to meet these challenges - a theme V1 Magazine has also been promoting over the last year.
 

TOP FIVE BLOG POSTS OF THE WEEK 

VECTOR ONE

SPATIAL SUSTAIN

1. GIS Need Background Change Over Time Function
2. GPS Revolution
3. Egypt: Commercial Use of GPS Banned
4. Air France to Offer Train Service Through Channel
5. V1 Energy is coming...

1. First Global Carbon Dioxide Map Released
2. Putting the "E" Back in ESRI
3. Who Owns Neighborhood Data?
4. Free Course: The Geography of U.S. Political Elections
   
5. Current in Trees Tapped to Power Sensors

The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking (2007)

By Jay Walljasper

Neighborhoods decline when the people who live there lose their connection and no longer feel part of their community. Recapturing that sense of belonging and pride of place can be as simple as planting a civic garden or placing some benches in a park.

Creating Walkable Places (2006)

  By Adrienne Schmitz and Jason Scully

Richly illustrated with color photographs, site plans, and diagrams, this new book explains how to create pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments.

The World's Protected Areas: Status, Values and Prospects in the 21st Century (2008)

  By Stuart Chape, Mark Spalding, Martin Jenkins

Extensively illustrated with maps, color photographs, and graphics, this state-of-the-art reference offers a comprehensive and authoritative status report on the world's 100,000 parks, nature reserves, and other land and marine areas currently designated as protected areas.