The following tutorial video is done with GEOS 3.2.0, compiled in gcc 4.3 and g++ 4.3 depending on Xerces C headers and libraries 2.8, pam-devel, pax, jam, on a Debian server as a non root user.

For more details, please visit: http://i-wa.blogspot.com

I am pleased to announce the new release (20091114) of the OSM-PH Garmin GPS Map. This release is another important milestone for the OSM-PH Garmin GPS Map project.

Get the map here

This is the third release who graduated from our new release cycle with several major improvements. The general release cycle is every two months (1 month for pre-release testing and 1 month for the regular release). Big thanks to all those who tested and provided feedback.

What’s new in this release

• data as of 20091114, thanks to all the 350 contributors
• 45,000 ++ kilometers of roads
• Sea  polygon!
• Beta of Address search!

Known bugs

• Full address search may not work as expected
• Some islands are “flooded” (coastline data issue)
• POI icons not visible using 3D mode in some units

Read on for the visual release log of this map.

Visual Release Log

Can you see the sea?

Sea areas now rendered as dark blue polygon

Address search

You can now use that “Find Places” search window.

Choose your own style

A new map style is added in the installer. Big thanks to Rally for providing additional TYP styles. You can find in the c:\Program Files\OSM-PH Garmin maps\” these files:

• OSMPH_MINIMAL_TYP.exe
• OSMPH_RALLY_TYP_v2.6.exe

To load any of the map style, simply double-click either of the file and then open MapSource.

Different map styles rendered in QLandkarte GT. Default map style (right), OSM-PH Minimal (lower left), Rally’s map style (upper right).

That’s it! Enjoy! As we prepare for the next batch of improvements, please continue updating the map and report bugs. Happy GPSing!

Get the map here

ABB has selected Intergraph^®, provider of enterprise engineering and geospatial software, for the development of an oil and gas pipeline network and relevant facilities in North Africa. The pipeline network will be built in the El Merk field, a remote, harsh desert location in Algeria.

            Geospatial-based pipeline infrastructure management solutions from Intergraph enable companies to design, construct and maintain pipelines and assets more effectively and demonstrate a comprehensive pipeline integrity program while reducing the cost of maintaining records. By storing records in a central geographic information system (GIS), the solution makes information readily available for a variety of applications, improving record keeping productivity while assuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

            Geospatial technology from Intergraph will play a significant role in the design and installation of the pipeline, field gathering stations, gas distribution manifolds, flow and trunk lines and water and gas re-injection facilities in El Merk. The technology will support the Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS) model, the most widely implemented pipeline data model in the industry, and all data will be stored in an Oracle Spatial database. The implementation will also include a portal component for the seamless distribution of data to all parties, including field and remote users.

            “An accurate, up-to-date view of all critical assets at any given time is a crucial component of any pipeline implementation project,” said Sergio Casati, ABB Project Manager. “Especially in such challenging terrain conditions, we need to keep our pulse on the status of all assets in near real-time. The strength of Intergraph technology and its more than 40 years of experience in the utilities sector, as well as market leadership in enterprise engineering software, were key factors in our decision to partner with the company on this project. Intergraph’s open, flexible technology platform was also desirable for an initiative like the El Merk project, which involves a consortium of multiple vendors.”

            “The collaboration of Intergraph with ABB Italy on this project marks a significant milestone in Intergraph’s involvement in the oil and gas pipeline industry,” said Maximilian Weber, Utilities & Communications manager for Intergraph in EMEA. “Intergraph has worked with leading pipeline providers around the world including Spectra Energy and Northwest Energy in the US, E.ON Ruhrgas in Germany and Chongqing Gas in China. We are pleased that ABB has recognized our strength in this industry and has chosen us to ensure the accurate, efficient management of assets, as well as play a key role in protecting this infrastructure.”

www.elmerk.com

www.abb.com

www.intergraph.com

In the United States, ZIP +4 assists marketers in targeting customers by city, neighborhood, or street, but geospatial location intelligence can help marketers perform much deeper analysis. And “analysis” is where the real value of geospatial lies.

A ZIP + 4 code according to Wikipedia; “uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, or a group of apartments.” And since the introduction of ZIP + 4 in 1983, this feature has assisted direct marketers (not to mention the USPS) in saving millions of dollars in costs.

While some marketers may decide that ZIP +4 is enough for customer targeting purposes, they’re missing out on a whole level of analysis available from geospatial that can help squeeze more return on investment from scarce marketing dollars.

The term “geospatial” describes a specific type of analytical software combined with geographic data. Going much further than simple ZIP +4 formats, geospatial comes to life via the transformation of a customer address into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude). With geospatial, a whole host of marketing analytics is now available to marketers. Examples include:

• Map locations. By overlaying geospatial data types with a mapping tool (such as Google Earth) marketers can pinpoint store or office locations in proximity to customers.
• Calculate distances between locations. Stores, offices or distribution centers can be precisely calculated and then evaluated to examine if they are too close or too far apart. For example, marketers can determine the midpoint between two stores to meet the needs of an under-served customer segment. With geospatial, there’s no guessing, whereas it’s pretty difficult to calculate the distance between locations with ZIP +4.
• Marketing by the mile (or less). Suppose you have a specific store location and you want to market to households 5.1 miles to the north, 2.5 miles to the south, etc; essentially building your own polygon for direct marketing purposes. With geospatial capability, you can do this exercise; ZIP +4—not so much.
• Disaster planning. When an event occurs, let’s say a hurricane is brewing, will you be able to see which stores will be in its path? How about households? How might this event affect your ongoing or future marketing campaigns?
• Risk management. Customer concentration or density analysis (Fig 1) can identify specific areas in which you may be taking on too much risk.

Figure 1. A visual example of density analysis. Source

Some marketers want to know, in comparing ZIP +4 vs. geospatial—which is best? The answer depends on your specific problem, resource constraints, and level of analysis required.

ZIP +4 can help a marketer drill down towards a fairly small area for targeting and the process of converting a mailing list to ZIP +4 is relatively inexpensive. Whereas, adding geo-spatial capabilities usually involves use of an analytical infrastructure (database and hardware), software applications (i.e. data integration and visualization tools), and both technical and business know-how to perform analysis and act upon newly discovered information.

ZIP +4 may work best as an inexpensive way to improve customer targeting. However, as seen from the above marketing examples, geospatial capabilities open a whole host of analytical options for marketers that ZIP +4 just cannot match.

Questions:

• With three billion mobile phone users in the world (and growing) will “location” become an increasingly important component of marketing in the next 3-5 years?
• A business intelligence infrastructure is a necessary pre-cursor to geospatial analysis. What does this say about the skill sets marketers will need in the future to perform such analysis?

I am proud to announce that OSM-PH received Quickbird high resolution images from DigitalGlobe.  This data donation is part of DigitalGlobe’s assistance to our humanitarian efforts.

Thanks to the Openstreetmap community (especially Andy) for helping us create map tiles and host them in OSM’s dev server.

Estimated boundingbox of the imagery

You can now use these images to trace roads and other geographic features using OSM’s data editors.

In JOSM (OSM’s offline java editor)

In Potlatch (OSM’s web-based flash editor)

This project is OSM-PH’s contribution to provide updated geospatial data to assist disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts.   Join the OSM-PH mailinglist for details on how to use the imagery.

Funding Source: Geological Survey
Funding Type: Discretionary, Cooperative Agreement
Total Available: $1.3 Million
Award Ceiling: $75,000
Deadline: 01.07.10
Eligibility: Unrestricted

Description:

The purpose of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Cooperative Agreements Program (NSDI CAP) is to fund innovative projects in the geospatial data community to build the infrastructure necessary to effectively discover, access, share, manage, and use digital geospatial data. The NSDI consists of the technologies, policies, organizations, and people necessary to promote cost-effective production, ready availability, and greater utilization of geospatial data among a variety of sectors, disciplines, and communities. Specific NSDI CAP areas of emphasis include: documenting, implementing, and providing outreach for FGDC geospatial standards including metadata; expanding geographic information coordination across and between organizational levels; promoting geospatial best practices; advancing geospatial related Web services; framework development; and clearinghouse establishment.

My daughter in Chico sent me a notice of a Geospatial Workforce Training Program being conducted by CSU Chico and the One-Stop (employment) office in Chico, CA. The training course run 16 week, 8 hours a day, five days a week. Combined with 120 hours of paid internship it will result in a GIS Tech certificate.

Prerequisites and Qualifications:

• To apply you must be on or eligible for unemployment.
• 3 or more years of full‐time workforce experience
• Basic Computer Literacy: experienced user on PCs with Microsoft Windows Operating System.
• Medium to strong Microsoft Office skills (Word and Excel)
• Ability to work at a computer for long periods of time
• Solution‐oriented and enjoy solving problems

It’s a fascinating subject and since I’m already taking a GIS course at the local community college I applied. and found out yesterday (10/13) that I’ve been accepted. The program starts Oct 27 and runs thru Feb 18.

Imagine, if we have a facility providing real time rainfall and water level data. The rainfall gauges are installed on mountains within the major headwaters while water level monitoring devices are installed along major waterways.

Imagine, if these devices transmit regular (every minute, every hour) reports to a centralized communication channel (via radio frequency). The central communication HQ would then process this data and generate near-realtime flood forecasts.

Imagine, if these flood alerts were communicated to affected communities (for pre-emptive evacuation), pumping stations and flood gate operators (to regulate the water level).

Imagine how many lives and properties could have been saved if such a Flood Forecasting System exist?

You don’t have to (imagine), a  flood forecasting system existed for Metro Manila more than ten years ago.

We live in a flood prone area.

Metro Manila is covered by former tidal flats along Manila Bay including portion of Manila, alluvial plain from Marikina to Laguna and tuff plateau from north to south in the middle part. Marikina River drains 506 km2 basin area down to Pasig River and finally to Manila Bay during normal river discharge. Network of esteros drains the urban watershed except those directly emptying to Pasig River or to Manila Bay. Discharge exceeding 600 m3/s inundates the low lying areas of Manila aggravated by the tidal fluctuation in Manila Bay. (Felizardo, undated)

River basins in Metro Manila (Felizardo, undated)

During flood time, the Laguna Lake becomes the temporary storage of excess flood waters from Marikina River via Mangahan Floodway and Napindan Channel. It also helps drain flash floods from the upper Marikina River. (Felizardo, undated)

Manggahan Floodway and Napindan Channel (Felizardo, undated)

Controlling flood waters and flood warning system in the Metropolis
When the Manggahan Floodway was constructed (June 1984) , a system was installed to provide early warning to local residents that maybe affected by artificial flooding of the caused by the operation of the weir. The DPWH implemented the non-structural project (Nationwide Flood Control and Dredging Project, Part B, an Effective Flood Control Operation System including Telemetering and Flood Warning System in the Pasig-Marikina-Laguna Lake Complex: the EFCOS Project) financed by OECF from a loan package amounting to ¥1.036 billion (JICA, 2001 ).

The project includes:

1. establishment of hydrologic gauge stations (2 rain gauge stations, 5 water level gauge stations);
2. installation of flood warning equipment (warning posts, patrol cars) and;
3. installation of telecommunication facilities (telecommunication network covering gauge stations, warning posts, Rosario, weir operation station, and the total controlling office at the head office of DPWH in Manila.

EFCOS Communication Sytem (JICA, 2001)

Through this system, EFCOS personnel was able collect hydrologic data and transmit warnings to areas near the floodway. The information received by DPWH is automatically transmitted to PAGASA via the existing communication line. The project was completed October 1993.

Additional grant was provided to rehabilitate the EFCOS project (philstar.com). The improvements includes:

1. installation of hydrological observation stations for collecting more accurate data on rainfall and water level;
2. introduction of the digitized telemetry system as well as on-line data processing system by computers; and
3. deployment of radio communication equipment at the pumping stations along the Pasig River as a means of strengthening flood control management.

The second phase project was completed 2002. (philstar.com). MMDA later took over the project operation (abs-cbnnews.com).

From the JICA evaluation report, the system was well received by the surrounding communities although “warnings were late in some cases, the warning system was generally given a favorable evaluation. Residents recognized the importance of the warnings in saving their lives and acted properly.” (JICA, 2001)

Communities responding to disaster reduction need up-to-date information
For many disaster prone communities, instituting a community-based disaster management system is the only defense. A bottom-up approach was necessary given the ill-capacity of LGUs to respond to the needs of the community during times of disaster.

Buklod-Tao is one community organization in Barangay Banaba, San Mateo, Rizal that implements community initiated disaster response mechanism. Through the years, numerous projects and activities were initiated towards disaster response, rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. A good success indicator is while they where ravaged by several flooding events the past 5 years, human fatality remains minimal.

During my integration with the community (years ago), Buklod-Tao leaders shared that although Barangay Banaba have proven resilience towards the annual flooding events, forecasting flooding is the missing component in their disaster response and mitigation system. If they can predict the time and volume of floodwaters before they arrive in the community, more lives and properties can be saved.

Access to the EFCOS data at that time, seems to be a very viable option to strengthen Buklod-Tao’s community-based flood forecasting system. During 2005-2006, Buklod-Tao initiated partnership with EFCOS personnel which in turn provided training on interpreting EFCOS data and integrating the data to the community-based disaster response and mitigation system.

During a period of extensive rain, Buklod-Tao would call EFCOS Control Station to request near real-time information on rainfall intensity and water levels of Nangka and Marikina River. These data were plotted on a blackboard and and then radioed to the rescue teams. When “critical” rainfall intensity was recorded rescue teams would roam around the community to alert them of a possible evacuation. This system looks “crude” but it has proven its effectiveness during Typhoon Gemma in 2006.

Last year (2008), Buklod-Tao leaders tried to contact EFCOS Control Center but the usual phone number was unanswered. Later, they discovered that EFCOS is not updating it’s data with the usual frequency as before. The rain gauge station located in Nangka River was visited less than usual and they can’t get the regular updates from the EFCOS Control Station anymore.

When flood waters hit Barangay Banaba because of Typhoon Ondoy, residents where surprised to see flood waters as high as a two-storey building smashing through their houses. Fortunately, Buklod-Tao’s advocacy and continuous reminders once again ensued ZERO fatality in the community.

Ondoy sparked finger-pointing
The enormous flood waters because of Ondoy lead to questions why the EFCOS System wasn’t utilized to provide updated flood warnings which could have prevented massive loss of life and properties along communities surrounding Marikina River. Several newspapers have reported this (here and here).

I won’t comment on the news articles anymore to prevent this post from becoming a rant to government inefficiencies.

What should be done?
I believe the EFCOS project is a critical infrastructure towards adapting to living in a flood-prone area like Metro Manila. We need to strengthen our monitoring system and pro-actively involve local communities towards an effective disaster response and mitigation system. Several suggestions:

Rehabilitate and expand the EFCOS System - We need rehabilitate the existing system, we need to add more monitoring stations. I don’t think it would cost us 100M Php for repairs. There are several alternatives. UP scientist are developing a cheaper SMS based rainfall monitoring devices. Schools can be used as rainfall monitoring stations.

Provide near real time access to rainfall and water level measurements – how much would it cost to set-up a webserver? Use [insert whatever programming language] to automate consolidation of data. Publish it as csv, kml, georss, or whatever open format humans and computer can access. Allow scientist and ordinary folks alike to access real time data.

Who knows what application we can create if the public is allowed to consume the data?

Maybe Dr. Lagmay can integrate the data generated from his citizen based flood height map into the rainfall measurements of EFCOS during Typhoon Ondoy and create a better flood simulation and forecasting model.

Integrate flood forecasting to community-based disaster response and mitigation initiatives – Activate local communities. Disaster response is successful if there is support to local initiatives. Local (barangay) and community organizations are our first line of defense. We need to provide these frontliners the necessary information to interpret and adapt to local conditions the rainfall and water level measurements. We need to provide them easy to use (blackboard, pencil and paper) tools to interpret data. Provide a feedback loop so that communities can report back to EFCOS the data they were able to collect locally.

A concerted and integrated effort is necessary. Flooding is not an isolated event constrained by administrative boundaries or local jurisdictions. In this era where uncertainty is becoming the norm rather than the exception, PUBLIC access to information (raw and processed) proves to be one of the critical factor towards saving or losing lives and properties.

Last July, I received an announcement from Yahoo! regarding the scheduled closure of Yahoo! Geocities.

I hosted two html pages in my Geocities site. One was a webform for an online reservation request of students. The other one was my very first webmap.

The map (visit now since it won’t be online next month), shows bird sightings in the Philippines classified according to IUCN’s category. The map is powered by worldkit, data in xml format, and the background map from NASA’s OnEarth WMS.

The cartography and page design was so poor it deserves an entry in Daniel Huffman’s blog. Nevertheless, this map is important to me because a lot of “first” happened when I made this map.

• My first webmap, and the only webmap of Philippine birds back then.
• My first dive to XML.
• My first introduction to HTML editing.
• My first to understanding Web Mapping Service.

A lot of new technologies emerged since 2005, and this experiment help me get started to pursue other online mapping projects.

I bought a DeLorme PN-30 GPS receiver during Labor Day weekend and put the unit to a test while geocaching a couple of days ago.  I got the unit for $200 during REI’s Labor Day sale.  At the time, it was going for $260-300 everywhere else.  Now Wal-Mart has it for $225.  My well-worn Magellan eXplorist 400 still works fine, but the $200 price was pretty good for a modern unit with a color screen, paperless geocaching, current-generation receiver, and maps.  I bought the PN-30 with an eye on the future.  I plan on replacing my 5-year-old computer sometime in the next year with a system running Windows 7 64-bit.  From what I have read, Palm will not support Palm Desktop on 64-bit Windows.  That means I would no longer be able to use my Palm IIIxe to carry geocache descriptions.  I also would have had to get a motherboard with a serial port or install a card with a serial port for the Palm.  The time and price seemed right for me to get a new GPSr.

The PN-30 is not the best GPSr on the market right now, but I think it is one of the best deals.  No other receiver was available for $200 that could handle paperless geocaching and included maps.  I looked at the Garmin Dakota, Garmin Oregon, and Lowrance Endura models.  The Endura is having growing pains right now, so it was quickly removed from the short list.  The Dakota and Oregon seemed like nice units, but they cost more than the PN-30 and I would have to pay another $70 for maps.  I haven’t handled a Dakota or Oregon, but from seeing photos and reading the manuals, I liked their user interface better than the PN-30.  Price was my primary consideration, so DeLorme won.  As an aside, there is a Dakota 10 on sale right now for about $200 at Amazon that includes City Navigator maps and a bike mount.  Nice deal, but too late for me.  I have read the Garmin touchscreen is difficult to read in sunlight anyway.

Now for my early opinion about the DeLorme PN-30.

Likes

Got a position fix in my house.  Received WAAS corrections using firmware v2.6.  Much better GPS and WAAS reception than on a PN-40 I used last year.

Screen is very readable.  Size was not an issue for me – it’s the same size as my eXplorist’s screen.  In sunlight, I don’t even need to use the backlight to read the screen.

Paperless geocaching on the handheld is nice.  I used geocaching.com’s Send to GPS feature since I didn’t feel like installing the Topo 8 mapping software or buying the Cache Register geocaching program yet.  I was able to see the essential info about the cache plus the last five logs.  I am a fan of the Field Notes capability as well.  I can mark a cache as found/not found/note/needs maintenance in the field and enter some notes.  Back at home, I can connect the GPSr to the computer and upload the Field Notes to geocaching.com.  The Field Notes are kept in a queue and I can edit the notes and post my logs.  The notes are shown in the order that you created the Field Note.

Maps were included with the unit.  The unit has the ability to display aerial imagery from DeLorme’s $30/yr Map Library subscription service or a user’s own aerial imagery run through Delorme’s XMap software.  I wanted detailed maps with my GPSr so I could view geocaches in context with streets and parks and know where I am.  I almost always have a handheld GPSr on me, but don’t always have my nuvi, so I thought it would be good to have a handheld unit with full-mapping in case of an emergency.

Dislikes

The maps are not as accurate as the NAVTEQ maps on my Garmin nuvi 200.  DeLorme’s maps appear to be based on the Census Bureau’s TIGER maps.  My street’s name was misspelled in TIGER, and my street has the same misspelling on DeLorme’s maps.  I don’t plan on using DeLorme’s maps for routing unless I am in a pinch.

The PN-series isn’t very good at routing.  They route faster than my eXplorist, but slower than my nuvi.  Their routes aren’t as direct as those created by the eXplorist or nuvi either.  For example, Google Maps calculated a route from my office in Geneva to my house in Elgin that would cover 14.7mi in 28mins.  This evening my PN-30 calculated a 16.2mi route that would have taken me out of my way and would have taken longer than 28mins.  My eXplorist and nuvi offer routes similar to the one produced by Google Maps.  So the PN-series will get you do your destination, just not with the most efficient route.  If I need in-car navigation, my nuvi or Google Maps on my BlackBerry will be my tool of choice.

During a trip to work, the PN-30 only had a 2D position fix for a good deal of time, and the signal environment should not have been that challenging.  It never lost the position fix, but it should have had a 3D fix.  Might be a one-time oddity because reception has been OK otherwise.

I don’t like how the data cable slides onto the back of the GPSr.  I’m worried I may snap the connector out of the receptacle if I pull on it from the wrong angle.

A geocache’s coordinates aren’t shown on the same screen with the cache description and previous logs.  Minor issue, as the cache coords can be pulled up from a menu.

Summary

So far, I am satisfied with the performance of my PN-30.  It got me through a day of geocaching without any problems.  My 16GB SD card came in today, so I will soon be loading the GPSr with maps of the surrounding states, and hopefully loading some aerial imagery before too long.  I am postponing use of the Topo 8 mapping program because I have read that it is not intuitive to use.  Considering I have been using computers for 25 years and have been working with GIS software for the last 10, it shouldn’t prove too much of a challenge for me.

There are no GPS receivers on the market right now that do everything the way I would like.  I like the value the PN-series provides, along with their ability to show aerial imagery.  However, I like the different profiles (driving, geocaching, etc.) on the Garmin units.  I also like their touchscreen interface and more accurate maps.  Those units don’t have a good waypoint management system, though.  My eXplorist lets me hold an unlimited number of geocaches and waypoints in files of 200 or 500, depending on the type of point of interest.  No current GPSr lets you have more than one batch of waypoints/geocaches installed with the ability to choose which batch is actively being used.  The PN-30 isn’t the best at everything it does, but it does a lot of things for the money.

At work we recently completed a task to generate a datafile of locations mapped to nearby locations. Our input is a Postgres table of location data, including name, latitude and longitude. Our target output is a YAML file of each location mapped to those locations which are geographically close.

With the PostGIS extension, PostgreSQL has excellent support for calculating the distance between locations, so our calculations were delegated to the SQL queries. Essentially the query joined each location with every other location and excluded those which exceeded our distance threshold (for example, 25,000 metres).

The task was implemented in Rake. The execution time was in the order of 8 hours. It was assumed that the majority of time was needed for Postgres to perform the GIS calculations. Not so.

I reimplemented the task in Scala using Scweery. The Scala version differs from the rake task in several ways. It is strongly typed (as necessitated by the language) and, apart from IO operations, purely functional (my personal preference). It also used JDBC instead of ActiveRecord. Apart from these differences the algorithm is identical to its Ruby counterpart.

So did the Scweery/Scala version outperform Rake? Yes, without a doubt. /usr/bin/time reports that the Scala version was completed in 8m, 55s. That’s at least 50 times quicker. Importantly, it turns what was an overnight task into what is now a coffee break task.