Congress has passed the first NASA authorization bill in five years. The bill, part of the 1,054-page CHIPS and Science Act 2022, passed on Thursday, July 28, formally extends NASA’s authorization to operate the ISS from 2024 to 2030, and supports the Artemis campaign which includes lunar exploration and eventually human missions to Mars.
However, the bill does not spell out the exact amount of funds set to be given to NASA to make it all happen. The last time Congress passed funding for NASA was back in 2017. As part of the NASA Transition Authorization Act then, the space agency received USD 19.5 billion in funding.
“I am incredibly pleased Congress has passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2022 – the first authorization for our agency in five years. This act shows continued bipartisan support of NASA’s many missions, including our Moon to Mars approach, as well extension of U.S. participation in the International Space Station to 2030,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement As a senator, Nelson had earlier worked on several NASA authorization bill.
“With strong support from the Biden-Harris Administration as well as this authorization, NASA will continue to advance scientific discoveries, enable sustainable aviation, address climate change, and much more,” Nelson added, as he also recognized several Senators and Representative of both parties.
President Joe Biden has already said he supports the bill and is expected to sign it by the end of the week.
The CHIPS and Science Act, H.R. 434, provides for USD 280 billion aimed primarily at semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research through the National Science Foundation to help the United States compete with China. Interestingly, none of this USD 280 billion is directed towards NASA.
The bill passed by a vote of 243-187-1, with 219 Democrats (all but one) and 24 Republicans voting in favor, and 187 Republicans voting against.
The move was welcomes by industry associations as well. “Continued American leadership in space is also essential to our competitive edge. It is encouraging to see Congress prioritize the enhancement of NASA technology, infrastructure, and workforce in this legislation, while also authorizing key programs including Artemis, ISS extension, sustainable aviation x-plane demonstrators, space nuclear systems, and a wide range of science missions. AIA is committed to continuing to work with Legislators on the full breadth of NASA’s authorizations,” the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) President and CEO Eric Fanning, said in a statement.
“Today’s action by the Senate on the CHIPS Act comes at a critical time for American competitiveness, and we urge the House to take up the legislation without delay. Strategic investments to address the global semiconductor chip shortage, support American jobs, and strengthen our global leadership in chip technology are important steps forward for our country,” he added.
“While this legislation is an important step forward, the fact that it does not include the reversal of a detrimental research and development (R&D) amortization tax law change is a lost opportunity. At a time when China is doubling down on R&D incentives and inflation is putting pressure on businesses and our economy, lawmakers must find a way to encourage private investment in innovation before the end of the year,” he said.
USD 7.3-bn new program is part of the Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and seeks to help communities combat the effects of extreme weather events in face of climate change
In yet another step to help communities combat the effects of climate change and address the growing costs of extreme weather events, the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a new program on Friday, July 29 to build resilient infrastructure. The first-of-its-kind program is part of the Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that came in effect in November last year.
As part of the new Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program funding, states will have USD 7.3 billion in funding available over five years to make transportation infrastructure more resilient to future weather events and other natural disasters. There program spells out that there is a need for focusing on resilience planning, making resilience improvements to existing transportation assets and evacuation routes, and addressing at-risk highway infrastructure.
“In every part of the country, climate change is impacting roads, bridges, and rail lines that Americans rely on–endangering homes, lives and livelihoods in the process,”US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Using funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re launching this unprecedented effort to help communities protect their transportation infrastructure from extreme weather and improve routes that first responders and firefighters need during disasters.”
Climate change has been top of the current administration’s agenda. Earlier this week, an unexpected deal reached by Senate Democrats, announced late Wednesday, July 27, is said to be the most ambitious action ever taken by the United States to address global warming. The deal will also help President Joe Biden come close to meeting his pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. It entails nearly USD 370 billion over 10 years to boost electric vehicles, jump-start renewable energy such as solar and wind power and develop alternative energy sources like hydrogen.
The United States has been witness to increasing extreme weather events and natural disasters, much like the rest of the world. In addition to lives and livelihoods, the cost to GDP has been steadily rising. In 2021, the country experienced 20 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Year 2021 was only in second place for the most disasters in a calendar year, behind the record 22 separate billion-dollar events in 2020. What really made 2021 stand out was the diversity of disasters. The NOAA report also found that 2021 was also unusually deadly — the 20 events caused at least 688 fatalities, making it the most disaster-related fatalities since 2011 and more than double last year’s number of 262.
The announcement for PROTECT program builds on other actions of the transportation department to address the climate crisis, and also support the Administration’s whole-of-government approach to reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.
Transportation is the leading source of GHGs in the US, contributing to 27 per cent of the country’s total GHG emissions in 2020, according to the Environment Protection Agency. The Biden Administration has put forward an integrated approach to reducing emissions from the transportation sector, which entails the use of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to help state and local governments meet their GHG reduction targets.
Just recently, USDOT announced an emission reduction framework for transportation departments at local levels to help states and municipalities to track and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.The new set of rules comes a day after the DOT announced alternative fuel corridor designations to build a national EV infrastructure.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program will provide USD 5 billion to states to build out a national electric vehicle charging network, an important step towards making electric vehicle charging accessible to all Americans. Other initiatives from the USDOT include the Carbon Reduction Program, which will provide USD 6.4 billion in formula funding to states and local governments to develop carbon reduction strategies.
What does PROTECT entail?
Eligible projects under PROTECT include highway and transit projects, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and port facilities including those that help improve evacuations or disaster relief, and states are encouraged to work with regional and local partner organizations to prioritize transportation and emergency response improvements, as well as address vulnerabilities.
“We see the effects of climate change and extreme weather play out across the country every week, with extreme temperatures and rainfall and resulting flooding and wildfires that damage and in some cases destroy roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “The PROTECT Formula Program will help make transportation infrastructure more resilient to current and future weather events and at the same time make communities safer during these events.”
Improving resilience could involve both adapting existing transportation infrastructure and new construction, and could include the use of natural or green infrastructure to buffer future storm surges and provide flood protection, as well as aquatic ecosystem restoration. The ultimate aim is bolstering the infrastructure’s ability to withstand extreme weather events and other physical hazards that are becoming more common and intense.
Prototype L4 autonomous truck co-developed by Pony.ai and SANY (Photo: Business Wire)
Prototype L4 autonomous truck co-developed by Pony.ai and SANY (Photo: Business Wire)
Pony.ai, a leading global autonomous driving technology company, today announced a strategic joint venture with SANY Heavy Truck (SANY), a subsidiary of SANY Heavy Industry, China’s number one heavy equipment manufacturer and the third largest heavy equipment manufacturer globally.
Pony.ai and SANY will collaborate to create a world-leading autonomous truck brand. The two companies will deeply integrate Pony.ai’s “virtual driver” with SANY’s technical accumulation in the field of wire-controlled chassis and vehicle development to jointly develop high-end heavy trucks that are automotive-grade and have L4-class redundancies. These trucks will inaugurate the future of truck logistics transportation.
The joint venture plans to start small-scale deliveries of the robotrucks in 2022 and 2023. Mass production of the L4 truck will commence in 2024 and within a few years will reach an annual production of around 10,000 trucks.
The first prototype of the autonomous truck was built on SANY’s new EV truck platform and has already conducted road testing. The JV’s autonomous truck product portfolio will include a mix of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and fuel-based, with the aim to increase the proportion of NEV trucks in the future.
The addressable market for trucking is substantial; in 2021 alone, heavy truck sales in China exceeded 1.3 million units. Once mass production is achieved, the partners expect the penetration rate of L4 trucks in China’s heavy truck market to increase steadily.
“SANY has industry-leading heavy truck manufacturing technology and is pioneering the architecture of ‘new energy’ heavy trucks, intelligent network connections, and other key areas,” said James Peng, Pony.ai’s co-founder and CEO. “Integrating Pony.ai’s core autonomous driving technologies with the capabilities of SANY enables our joint venture to create a successful intelligent truck and logistics ecosystem for L4 autonomous trucking.”
“This partnership between SANY and Pony.ai is the ultimate collaboration between truck ‘body’ and truck ‘brain’ and thus makes it possible to mass produce high-level autonomous trucks. This partnership, which features complementary strengths and competitive advantages, will advance autonomous trucking and logistics well into the future and will lead to a safer, more efficient, intelligent logistics system,” said Liang Linhe, Chairman of SANY Heavy Truck.
Pony.ai has always been committed to developing autonomous driving software and hardware solutions in-house. In June, Pony.ai released its autonomous driving controller (ADC) designed for automotive-grade mass production. The ADC is built on the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-chip and will fully enable the trucks produced by the joint venture.
“The establishment of this new venture between Pony.ai and SANY is a significant milestone for the trucking industry,” said Rishi Dhall, vice president of Automotive, NVIDIA. “Powered by NVIDIA DRIVE, this next-generation of new-energy autonomous trucks will enable the delivery of goods to address ever-growing e-commerce demands without compromising safety and reliability — while reducing the transportation industry’s dependence on fossil fuels.”
Telit, a global leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), and Thales (Euronext Paris: HO), a global leader in Aerospace, Defense, Security & Digital Identity, today jointly announced they have entered into an agreement under which Telit intends to acquire Thales’ cellular IoT products. The intended transaction includes Thales’ portfolio of cellular wireless communication modules, gateways, and data (modem) cards, ranging from 4G LTE, LPWAN to 5G.
The intended transaction establishes California-based Telit Cinterion, as a leading Western provider of IoT solutions, expanding the company’s presence in growing industrial IoT segments and end markets including payment systems, energy, e-health, and security. It also enhances the company’s ability to respond more expertly to growing demand for cybersecure IoT solutions in modules and cellular connectivity, thanks to leading technologies from Thales.
Paolo Dal Pino, Telit’s CEO, remarked: “Innovation, scale and efficient IoT solutions are key for success. This transaction with Thales is arguably the most impactful one for Telit competitiveness. While it will boost our ability to address customer needs more precisely from a richer portfolio, it will also enable us to deliver all new offerings derived from the experience, expertise, and the DNA of two companies that have made security and quality part of their brand promise from the very beginning.”
Philippe Vallée, Thales’s EVP Digital Identity and Security, added: “The Thales and Telit combination brings together complementary strengths. The business will provide a unique value proposition in a highly competitive global IoT market and will allow Thales to focus its investments on its three core activities in aerospace, defence and security and digital identity and security. The new combination will rely on a unique set of expertise brought by Thales and Telit employees. It will also benefit from leveraging both companies’ strong and complementary product portfolio and Thales’s experience in cellular connectivity.”
A Conversation with Pawan Goenka
Chairman, IN-SPACe
IN-SPACe is an independent nodal agency under the Department of Space for allowing space activities and usage of DoS owned facilities by non-government private entities. The headquarters of the agency, located in Ahmedabad, was inaugurated on June 10, 2022, and a closed-door meeting held between IN-SPACe and several entrepreneurs on June 11, 2022. On this occasion, in an exclusive interview, Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairperson of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Board, IN-SPACe, spoke with Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editor, Geospatial World, about IN-SPACEe and how it will enable a level-playing field for private companies and start-ups in the Indian Space sector.
What are the takeaways from the 11th June meeting?
The meeting was held with almost 100+ people from the industry, both vendors as well as new space technology companies. Everyone was very excited with the previous day’s event because it was clear that, at the Prime Ministerial level, there is a tremendous desire to see industry enter the Space sector in a much bigger way than before. The PM clearly mentioned that he did not want to see the industry only as vendors but as leaders in Space development, and that he is looking for Space activities to go far with the backbone of industry participation.
Space Policy 2022
The industry is very keen to know when the Space Policy, which has been in the making for quite some time, will be released. We have had several consultations with industry so there are not too many concerns, barring one or two new questions. Most of the heavy lifting has been done, such as, approvals from the various concerned departments. The final compilation of all suggestions and comments is going on, so it shouldn’t be too long before the Policy is announced.
Role of IN-SPACe
IN-SPACe will play a major role by creating confidence in the industry that the government is serious about them entering this domain. The government is very open to sharing its infrastructure and technology with the industry. The regulatory environment defined in the Policy, and its implementation by IN-SPACe, is conducive to private sector participation and will provide a level playing field to the industry.
We have to convince the industry through our actions that we mean business. We are very serious about the private sector coming into Space and playing a lead role, along with ISRO. Private sector start-ups are bringing in their sweat equity in the form of knowledge, aspirations, and an ability to take risks.
Role of ISRO
We have to convince the industry through our actions that we mean business. We are very serious about the private sector coming into Space and playing a lead role, along with ISRO. But, at the same time, as the Prime Minister mentioned, it is very important that nobody should feel that ISRO is now sidelined and the private sector can move forward alone. ISRO is still at the core of whatever happens in the Space sector. The industry will clearly be getting the benefit of and access to the technology that has been developed by ISRO over 50-60 years.
Private investment
Right now, we want to see how the private sector can become interested in participating in Space. Private sector start-ups are bringing in their sweat equity in the form of knowledge, aspirations, and an ability to take risks. Private equity firms and venture capitalist firms, however, have not yet warmed up to investing in Space in India. They need to see success stories. We have to signed 10 MoUs with industry for projects and all these projects will be executed and completed in the next eight to ten months. This will demonstrate to investors the potential return on investment.
Government as an investor
In terms of direct funds and support from the government, we have not so far made any formal policy. We are going to keep looking at it as things develop. Right now, we are not even at a point where the industry can ask for a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. PLI comes in when we have a manufacturing industry in the country that is not cost-competitive globally and, therefore, the government shares some of the cost burden. There are hardly one or two companies that are planning to make satellites for global application; they’re not saying that they won’t be able to do so because the costs are too high. India has an inherent advantage because manufacturing costs here are lower compared to the US or Europe.
Creating a fund for Space investment, which will come from the Government of India Fund, is something that we can look at in the future. Right now, if some industry comes to us and says, ‘Look, I’m not able to do something because I don’t have funds’ or ‘I’m not able to compete in the global market because my costs are too high’, then we can think about funding, and about PLI. Right now, that’s not the request; right now it is “I have a technology, which I need to demonstrate, so help me demonstrate it”.
PM Modi inaugurates Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) headquarters in Ahmedabad
Immediate focus
So you are only at the demonstration stage right now and not looking to scale up further?
Yes. Right now, the entire focus is on putting a system in place for how ISRO gets involved in terms of the use of facilities by the private sector, how ISRO gets involved in hand-holding, how IN-SPACe develops its own expertise to be able to help the industry, and what kind of authorizing process do we put in place. Don’t forget that IN-SPACe is also a regulator. This is where the focus will be for the next 12 months.
Interplay of ISRO, NSIL and IN-SPACe
IN-SPACe is an autonomous body under the Department of Space (DoS). NSIL is a commercial arm of DoS, and ISRO is the technology developer and owner of all the infrastructure. The role of IN-SPACe is to provide all the facilities, technology, and authorization to industry, through liaison with ISRO.
When NSIL was formed (in 2019), there was a sharing of responsibilities between ISRO and NSIL. Although IN-SPACe was announced two years ago, its actual operations started only in April. As we evolve we need to make sure that we do the right thing from the viewpoint of the government and the industry.
NSIL is the commercial arm of DoS. If company X plans to launch a satellite using ISRO facilities, authorization is done by IN-SPACe. The actual launch is handled by NSIL; they will execute a commercial agreement with the company to manage that launch. On the other hand, if the industry makes its own arrangements, NSIL is not involved. Technology transfer will happen through NSIL. IN-SPACe’s role is to facilitate the transfer of technology ISRO is providing and NSIL is transferring. In our minds, we are 95% clear about our roles but people outside are probably only 70% to 75% clear.
The Government has recently transferred ten of the INSAT satellites to NSIL who will market their transponders. ISRO’s Master Control Facility is managing these satellites. How will NSIL compensate ISRO for the use of those facilities?
That’s outside my sphere so I don’t think I should comment on it. I’m not even fully aware of it because this is between ISRO and NSIL. IN-SPACe has no involvement in that.
Satellite data policy
Indian satellite data is very useful for the purpose of applications but is expensive. Most industry people don’t use this data. They use freely available data from Landsat and Sentinel.
Policy will fix that. We are defining three layers. In one layer, data is available for free, in the second layer data is available freely but for a cost, and in the third layer it is available only if approved by the concerned authorities.
The policy says data greater than or equal to 0.5 meters is free.
No, it is 0.3 meters. This was the input that came to us from the industry interaction, and we made it 0.3 meters.
The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) is a canalization institution for data from foreign data suppliers like Maxar and Planet. An Indian entity wanting to buy such data has to put in a request to NRSC, which, in turn, does the procurement and passes it on to the entity. What will be the procedure under the new policy?
I’m not very familiar with this. What you’re asking is why do they need to go through NRSC? I will make a note of this and see if the current process can continue or whether we need to simplify the process.
Have the Geospatial Guidelines, which were issued in February 2021, been reflected in the Space Policy?
The Space Policy is fully compliant with whatever is in the geospatial policy. The data you collect from Space is wide ranging and you need to be careful that in the process of freeing it up you don’t compromise on the security aspects. One could say that it is impossible to stop anybody from collecting data but we can stop dissemination of the data where we think it’ll come in the way of security.
But are we allowed to freely use the data? That’s where we have to be a little careful. All I can say right now is that since the geospatial guidelines have preceded the Space Policy, the Space Policy has to fully align with them. If they have raised the bar higher, then we cannot be lower. Of that we are sure.
Space Policy, Space Act,
and Decadal Plan
Decadal Plan is basically a strategy that ISRO and IN-SPACe are working on. We are a seven billion dollar (Rs. 557 billion) economy today. In ten years, where should we be? If we just say let’s become bigger, that’s not a target. To say let’s become a 70 billion dollar (Rs. 5.5 trillion) economy without thinking as to how, is also just kite flying. So a Decadal Plan will say where we want to be 10 years from now. And how do we get there.
What are the areas that we will work on? What are the low hanging fruits? What are the early harvests? That’s the strategy that we are working on at IN-SPACe and ISRO together; this has nothing to do with the Government of India, per se.
Space Policy is something you are familiar with. That’s the one that will get released quickly, and that’s what will guide the Act of IN-SPACe in terms of how we authorize, what we authorize, what we can do, what we cannot do, and so on. The Space Policy is approved by the Cabinet.
The Space Act will be approved by the Parliament. Even I didn’t know of this distinction till I came into this role. The Act will address a few other things beyond the Policy, because those have to be approved by the Parliament, not the Cabinet. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for example, is one such body.
If there is a Space Act, will there also be a Geospatial Act? There is a lot of overlap between the two.
I don’t know because that is handled by a different ministry. Therefore, coordination is definitely required between the two. There is no equivalent of IN-SPACe in the Department of Science and Technology. IN-SPACe is special. So I think the Act is required because of this.
I’m not very familiar with these things since I am from the private sector, but I think it’s because the Act gets into what can and cannot be done. For example, what are the liabilities? Policy does not talk about liability. What are the consequences of something that is not aligned to the Policy? All these things come under the Act.
About international commitments and Space Policy
Obviously, the Policy ensures that nothing in it is in contradiction with the international treaties we have signed. And IN-SPACe, while giving approvals, will have to ensure that we do not violate any international treaty. For example, the liability for any damage done in Space lies with the country, not the company.
Therefore, if the country is liable for a company’s actions, how does IN-SPACe pass on that liability to the company? Between the Policy and Act that’ll get resolved.
Legal Directorate
Are you thinking in terms of having a director for legal affairs?
Yes. It’s not a directorate per se, right now. We have legal affairs. We have three directors and legal, finance and administration together as a unit. In the original Cabinet Note, there is mention of a Legal Directorate.
I have put that on hold because we don’t have enough activities in that area. Once we build ourselves up to a level where we need a Legal Directorate, we have the approval for it.
Many companies today are struggling with a host of challenges. From trying to provide engaging and personalized customer experiences, that make customers come back and buy more products, to trying to achieve higher levels of operational efficiencies that help in maintaining profit margins in today’s exceedingly competitive market, the complexities are aplenty.
If wondering how can these issues be addressed, the answer lies in geospatial data, and the amplification provided by enabling technology such as communications, cloud, analytics, mobile, etc.
Garnering deeper data-driven insights into consumer demographics and preferences, in conjunction with mapping and geospatial data can enable companies to optimize their operations so as to better address the customer’s needs, which include pricing, products as well as service delivery.
When it comes to the real estate market there is immense pressure to unlock the potential of location data and incorporate machine learning along with evidence-based approaches in workflows.
In the current fiercely competitive environment, the real estate market has to rely on the efficient location of profitable sites, matching of tenants to available properties, market expansion and contraction for commercial real estate, keeping track of changing consumer tastes and also competition.
Lack of data availability can make it extremely difficult to assess whether a high-end real estate property is going to be profitable and experience footfall. This implies that without human mobility data, any applied approach would lack precision and could lead to unreliable findings which ultimately result in significant business losses.
How Human Mobility Data Works?
Generally, human mobility data can provide insights on the number of people visiting a grid cell covering the entire concerned territory. With the anonymized, aggregated and extrapolated data measured in the network, insights can be gained that represent the overall population. In addition to this, the data that is generated can provide insights into the origins of the visitors that are aggregated at different levels in accordance with the distance to the destinations cell. This means that visits can be aggregated at the municipality level, helping distinguish between visitors that are visiting from various areas and the native population.
The collected data can be aggregated by the type of activity at the origin, which helps in delineating between whether it’s home or work, the day of the week or even the time of the day and also socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, economic status – all of which are very important to consider when it comes to high-end real estate.
By disaggregating the collected data among other variables, a lot of flexibility can be achieved depending upon the sector or use case and can be used for building tailored high-end real estate projects. Having access to detailed granularity aids in garnering powerful business insights, which means that any real estate firm utilising human mobility data, can provide more details to potential investors.
Apart from this, socio-demographic variables can help focus on a target customer profile which is where high-end retail draws most of its business from – ultimately crucial to their success.
Targeting audiences quickly and efficiently with the help of in-depth market research and human mobility data can help in determining the perfect demographic.
This, in turn, can help in building custom territories and also sending marketing materials to where the highest density of qualified target audience resides. As an investor, you can save a lot on marketing costs while also gaining an edge in producing profitable marketing campaigns that can give you a measurable ROI.
While looking at visualizing points of interest data near any potential real estate investment opportunity, gives a basic understanding of the area at hand and its possible audience, it will not give definitive insights regarding the potential footfall and traffic that can have a major impact on the location.
This is precisely why human mobility data is necessary as it can give a much deeper understanding of visitor patterns. The data generated hence can help in predicting sales for commercial real estate investment or if you’re looking at it from the point of view of investors for multiple tenant properties it can help in understanding the desirability of the high-value investment.
Successful real estate companies must today realize the opportunities that arise from detailed understanding of insights of areas and mobility patterns.
Using advanced location-based intelligence services, and human mobility data, real estate professionals can gain a competitive edge when it comes to showcasing high-end properties to prospective buyers or investors. As the real estate industry continues to become more advanced and data-driven, location-based technology becomes the driving force behind any new trend.
Thus, human mobility data becomes essential for providing insights that can aid in targeting the right audience generating lucrative business for high-end real estate, without which any real estate market analysis would be incomplete.
Spire Global, Inc., a leading global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, today announced that it has been awarded a Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) space weather contract as part of the Commercial Data Program (CDP) issued by the National Oceanographic and Oceanic Administration (NOAA). Spire will provide near real-time radio occultation (RO) data for NOAA’s space weather forecast models to measure ionospheric conditions that impact activities such as aviation, satellite operations, navigation, and communications.
“NOAA’s focus on space weather data has allowed commercial providers opportunities to showcase the growing quality and impact their data can have on ionospheric weather models and applications,” said Chuck Cash, Vice President of Federal Sales, Spire. “Spire is honored to continue working with NOAA to provide radio occultation measurements that will help NOAA meet its objectives and ultimately safeguard society.”
The award, valued at $1.7 million, represents Spire’s continued ability to provide high quality commercial data for NOAA’s weather forecast models. NOAA’s CWDP studies using Spire’s data are expected to last 12 months.
Spire has provided data to NOAA since 2016, demonstrating the value of commercial satellite data in weather forecasting models. Earlier this year, NOAA awarded Spire an $8 million contract to increase the number of RO profiles it provides from 3,000 to 5,500 for use in operational weather forecasts. The award represented the single largest U.S. government purchase of commercial, operational RO data.
CGI announces CGI Sense360, its cloud-based, smart analytics platform that gives emergency responders holistic and accurate situational awareness in the event of a disaster.
Using comprehensive data sources and augmented reality, the platform creates a visual situation overview that helps organizations more efficiently organize and accelerate rescue operations.
Whether a disaster is caused by natural or human hazards, up-to-date information is critical to safe and successful rescue efforts. CGI Sense360 creates a holistic picture of a disaster using data from a variety of sources across the ecosystem, such as satellites, drones and maps; infrastructure, geospatial, weather and environmental data; and online databases, blogs and social media.
The platform’s integrated and secure communications system combines augmented reality, situational images and other data to create a visual overview that is shared with emergency responders in a context-aware manner to enable faster, safer rescue operations.
International aid organization I.S.A.R. (International Search and Rescue) inGermanyis a project partner in the design and development of CGI Sense360. I.S.A.R. is certified by the United Nations for international rescue operations.
“We provide international assistance in humanitarian missions; for example, after natural disasters and accidents or in war zones,” says Dr.Steven Bayer, Project Coordinator at I.S.A.R. “The immediate availability of detailed situation images and current data is crucial for efficient, rapid rescue measures. And, it is precisely this information that the new cloud-based data analytics platform CGI Sense360 can provide.”
Development of the platform also is supported by the European Space Agency (ESA). CGI space experts have worked closely with the ESA for about 40 years, including in Bochum and Darmstadt,Germany. CGI’s current projects include the development of a centralized “pooling and sharing” system for secure satellite communications services.
“In rescue operations, analog processes still dominate in many cases,” notesStefan Wichert, Senior Vice President of CGI’s operations inNorthern Germany. “However, an exact situation picture and an unrestricted flow of information are indispensable in the event of a crisis or disaster.
In addition, the time factor is important. With CGI Sense360, we offer a high-performance, intelligent and secure platform that meets these criteria. It delivers all the information needed for time-critical coordination and relief operations in near real-time. We see a very large market potential for our new platform, which takes the benefits of digitalization a decisive step forward.”
The recently releasedfirst images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed new views of the cosmos in exquisite, never-before-seen detail. Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of the vast universe.
The image reveals the depths of the universe and is a window through time. The very faintest, smallest blips of light in these photos are images of galaxies as they existed more than 13 billion years ago, near the very beginning of time. The telescope has not only allowed us to glimpse into the past but will also help answer gaping questions from how galaxies evolved to the composition of exoplanet atmospheres.
According to NASA “Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.”
However, while the JWST will enable us to look into the past and enlighten us about the origins of the universe, our future on this planet remains uncertain. With rising global temperatures, the past few decades have observed a marked aggregation in the propensity and intensity of extreme climatic events.
Climate change has emerged as one of the most critical problems of our age, and the solution to this problem requires a lens into the future. The developments and innovations in remote sensing technology have allowed satellites to serve as this lens and prove instrumental in helping solve climate change.
Satellite Data and Climate Change
The role of satellite data in the continuous monitoring and measuring of climate change is identical to the role of the JWST in monitoring the depths of the universe.
In fact, according to the Global Climate Observing System, more than 50% ofEssential Climate Variables, which are key indicators of the earth’s changing climate, can only be tracked via satellites.
For instance, the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s)Climate Change Initiative generates reliable and long-term data for 21Essential Climate Variables. This wide array of satellite data helps identify our vulnerability to climate change by monitoring and predicting extreme climatic events, such as floods, wildfires, droughts, heatwaves and melting of glaciers, among others.
Assessing Climate Indicators
To mitigate and manage the growing threat of extreme climatic events to various aspects of our society and businesses, data-backed climate intelligence is becoming crucial.
As most climate variables can only be monitored by space, satellites provide a wealth of valuable information to understand the drivers and impact of climate change. Currently, there are around162 satellites in orbit that are continuously monitoring various climate variables. Some of the climate variables that can be continuously monitored by satellites are as follows:
Wildfires
There has been a sharp rise in the occurrence and intensity of wildfires in recent years. As wildfires are closely associated with climate change, they tend to reinforce each other. Accordingly, as the climate crisis worsens, monitoring fires could play a huge role in minimizing risks.
Satellites in this regard have emerged as an effective monitoring tool that make it possible to observe extensive areas in real-time. Data from satellites also provide valuable insights into wildfire behaviour, such as patterns and likely courses. This along with otheressential information such as vegetation in the region, weather conditions that instigate fires, etc can help in creating maps of potential fire hotspots and even help in predicting fires.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase the heat in the atmosphere, which leads to global warming. As long as emissions continue, global temperature will also continue to rise. Thus, monitoring and mapping GHG emissions is crucial in developing strategies to reduce them. Satellite data in this regard plays a prominent role as it has the ability to pinpoint emissions.
In 2009, Japan launched the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), the world’s first satellite to monitor greenhouse gases. Since then, several more sophisticated satellites have been launched for the same purpose. At present, the Copernicus Sentinel-5P, launched in 2018 by the European Space Agency (ESA), is known to be the most advanced pollution monitoring satellite in the world. More recently, in 2021, ESA announced their new space mission, which will be able to track human-caused GHG emissions from space.
Climate change is causing floods to become increasingly intense and frequent. Accordingly, credible data is of utmost importance as it can help in mapping and managing floods and potentially even accurately predicting them. Owing to its vantage point, satellites provide information on the global occurrence and footprint of floods in near real-time. It also helps in understanding the scale and extent of flooding. For example, researchers used NASA’s TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and ESA’s ENVISAT satellite to calculate the height and extent of flooding in various regions.
Satellite imageries are also helpful in creating predictive models that could help in tentatively forecasting floods. Here, satellites use weather patterns to calculate the tentative amount of rain each area might receive. Spatial images of the ground also enable the calculation of the water retention capacity of the ground.
In addition, NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite provides scientists with insights into the amount of moisture content in the soil. This is a key factor which helps in estimating the chances of the occurrence of floods. These crucial bits of information cumulatively help in developing flood risk maps. This further helps authorities to predict floods and be better prepared to manage them.
Satellites help monitor the 2019 Arkansas River floods. Source: NASA Landsat 8
Droughts
Climate change is causing droughts to become more frequent and severe. As the impact is far-reaching, ranging from affecting water quality, public health, economy and public infrastructure, among others, monitoring and predicting droughts has become vital in managing the crisis. Satellites can play an important role in predicting droughts. They do this by measuring radiation, which helps in accurately measuring soil moisture levels.
This provides beneficial insights into weather conditions. For example, if satellite measurements find that soil is getting increasingly wet, it may indicate that a flood is imminent.
Likewise, if it finds the moisture content in soil drying up, it could be an indicator of a potential drought. For instance, the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on board EUMETSAT’s polar-orbiting Metop satellites measure moisture content in the soil, among other things.
Remote sensing also tracks factors such as weather patterns and wind speed which influence weather conditions such as droughts. In addition, satellites also help in assessing the impact of droughts on vegetation. The satellite-based Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) in this regard helps in assessing the impact of droughts.
Additionally, it is essential to monitor various surface water bodies continuously for effective and sustainable water management and preempting droughts. For instance, water levels of lakes going down may indicate the first signs of impending droughts.
Satellite image captures the shrinking of Lake Milh in Iraq over the past two decades. The red outline showcased the lake in 2000, and the blue outline showcases the lake in its current state Source: Google Earth Engine
Deforestation
Deforestation is one of the most pressing challenges we face today, as the world’s tropical rainforests were estimated in 2019 to disappear at the rate of one football pitch every six seconds. Deforestation and land degradation act as a double-edged sword as they not only rob the world of naturally occurring carbon sinks but also result in the release of the stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
The severity of this problem was highlighted in 2021 when scientists alarmingly confirmed for the first time that the Amazon rainforest emitted more carbon dioxide than it was able to absorb (close to 1 billion tonnes) primarily due to deforestation, fires, degradation, etc. As the crisis worsens, monitoring deforestation has become extremely vital.
With traditional methods such as forest guards having been found to be expensive and time-consuming, satellite data has revolutionized the monitoring of deforestation with high-resolution data.
Satellites in this regard present imageries of earth on a daily basis which help in mapping deforested areas over a period of time and in identifying hotspots.
In fact, a new study has found that satellites are helping in reducing deforestation. Earth-orbiting satellites were found helpful in bringing down deforestation by 18% over two years in 22 African countries.
The countries took the help of systems that used up-to-date satellite data to send out alerts regarding decreases in forest cover in the tropics. Similarly, the Brazilian government established a data-collection system called PRODES, which uses high-resolution data from Landsat 5 and 7 satellites to monitor and map deforestation.
Satellite data shows forest loss in the Amazon basin between 2001 to 2020. Source: ESA
What does the future hold?
Satellite data has inevitably emerged at the forefront of climate action and the climate intelligence landscape. It not only addresses the shortcomings of traditional monitoring tools such as IoT monitors, forest guards, etc., but rapid technological expansion has also enabled it to provide unique and precise solutions to various challenges.
For example, a major limitation of optical satellites was the lack of clarity due to obscurement by clouds and darkness in mountainous regions. New radars developed can surpass these limitations. New generation satellites also have enhanced optical and temporal resolutions that have improved climate modelling and have capabilities to obtain real-time details.
The expansion of technology and innovation in the field thus holds tremendous promise. New satellite missions such as Eumetsat’s second-generation polar-orbiting satellites and third-generation Meteosats are expected to have immense value in the coming years.
With several path-breaking space 2.0 systems due to be launched in the coming years, clubbed with innovations in artificial intelligence and IoT, the scope of space-based technologies in transitioning into a more sustainable future is immense.
While geospatial data has emerged as a near-perfect solution to monitoring indicators of climate change, acquiring insights from its raw form is impossible. Before satellite data can be applied to climate mitigation, it needs to be processed.
This is true for any big data and today, less than 1% of global data is analysed. However, this process of extracting relevant insights from terabytes of satellite data comes at a high cost in both expertise and computing infrastructure; a key reason this information is under-utilized for understanding environmental challenges.
Hence, organizations with strong analytical skills and computational capacity will play an important role in this regard in integrating valuable data from various sources and disseminating insights through APIs.
Innovation in this sector would be key to unlocking the true potential of satellite data and successfully solving the climate crisis. After all, the images from the JWST also, are only as good as our understanding of them.
Athenium Analytics, a leader in climate intelligence for insurance carriers, today announced the launch of a new historical tornado data set available through theEsri ArcGIS Marketplace.
This first-of-its-kind offering provides seamless access to 25 years of historical tornado insights, including two-dimensional damage swaths from all confirmed tornadoes in the contiguousUnited Statesbetween 1995 and 2019.
The new Marketplace offering from Athenium Analytics expands its Esri Partner Network (EPN) Bronze partner relationship.
Esri is the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence and mapping. ArcGIS Marketplace is a curated digital geospatial channel of system-ready apps, content, solutions and professional services for ArcGIS users.
The comprehensive new tornadic data set allows Esri users to integrate high-resolution tornado insights within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online to better analyze and predict catastrophic losses.
This listing helps Esri customers expand their access to patented weather-risk insights and satisfy the growing demand for enterprise climate intelligence.
“We’re pleased to welcome Athenium Analytics to Esri’s ArcGIS Marketplace,” saidRobert Laudati, Director of Global Partners and Alliances at Esri. “Athenium brings a decade of risk analytics expertise, including leading-edge weather and climate intelligence solutions that enable public and private organizations to mitigate the risks associated with climate change.”
Launched in April 2020, the Ordnance Survey (OS) Data Hub supports businesses, developers and new and emerging markets and users. It was one of the first outputs from the Geospatial Commissions Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), which aims at sharing location insights with governments around the world to help them make informed decisions.
With 8,210 developers and 1.2 billion transactions in the last financial year, both the public and private sectors prefer the OS Data Hub for their work now, given the way OS location data is accessed and used.
The evolution of the OS Data Hub has benefited thousands of users of OS data by sorting out issues regarding accessibility, usability and licensing. In addition, the hub has attracted a new influx of developers and organizations, from a range of sectors and markets, to work and innovate with OS data.
API a time savior
The Application Programming Interface (API) not only helps save time but also resources. It allows users to focus on using accurate geospatial data to underpin decisions, gain insight, support public services and drive innovation. Another significant benefit is a reduction in data management overheads removing the need to spend time downloading and managing data.
“In the last year, we have completed five releases, mainly around premium data download functionality for the public sector and our partners. Plus, enhancements for various APIs and other services, such as our error reporting tool. This has significantly enhanced the OS Data Hub’s functionality and experience for customers. In terms of customer adoption, we have nearly doubled the number of users who have signed up to the OS Data Hub,” says Michael Gordon, Strategic Product Manager at Ordnance Survey.
What numbers state
The second year has seen public sector organization sign-ups to the OS Data Hub increase by 96%. There was also a 56.6% increase in partner organizations, and a staggering 114.2% increase in Open Plan users.
“In addition to analyzing discovery to withdrawal, our main focus has been discovery, prototyping, and delivery for the PSGA,” Michael adds.
Tackling COVID-19
In the public sector, OS data played a critical part in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. OS addressing data, via the OS Places API, was vital for accurately delivering over 250 million home testing kits, and supporting test and trace.
Location data was also used to map vulnerable citizens in the community who needed extra support during the lockdown.
For example, Barnsley Council was able to create a local COVID-19 test and trace system and developed a vulnerability index at a household level helped by OS data products.
Startup support
In the private sector, prop-tech organizations such as PropertyData and HomeFinder use OS API’s for better decision making and gaining actionable insights. PropertyData, the UK’s most comprehensive and wide-ranging array of residential property market data and analytics functionality, also use OS Maps API, OS Features API, and OS Places API.
“OS MasterMap is the gold standard for web maps that adds significant value to products,” says the founder Michael Dent.
In the developer space, start-up and Geovation member Paua, which aim to simplify electric charging for business and fleet solutions, recently took part in OS Map and Hack. Using the OS Maps API for their basemap, Paua also used the OS Features API to identify geographic features such as local amenities, including cafes and restaurants that are located at various charging stations.
On this, André Pinho, Co-founder and CTO at Paua Tech who led the hack team, says, “The OS expertise in mapping, combined with the digital tools on offer, enabled us to start demonstrating new features that we will be building into our solutions.”
Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & VP, Google India; Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences; C P Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra.and Sajid Malik, Managing Director of Genesys International Corporation Limited
Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions and Google today announced a strategic partnership that licenses street-level imagery to Google toward the launch of their Street View feature in the country. The partnership will leverage output from Tech Mahindra’s ‘Gullyfy’ project done in collaboration with eco-system partners, and is being carried out by Tech Mahindra in accordance with the accuracy thresholds laid out in the geospatial guidelines.
As a part of the partnership, Tech Mahindra will be responsible for GIS processes from data creation, resourcing, insights generation, and the actual collection of the street-level imagery. The GIS framework gathers, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of vital datasets used across sectors and industries for cartography, administration, relational database management, programming, and spatial analytics, among others.
Birendra Sen, Business Head, Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra, said, “Technology is not just the backbone of the global economy, but is also a strategic tool which can turn insights into solutions, uncover trends and predictions, and transform businesses in a sustainable manner. Today, there is an increasing need for technologies that turn insights from GIS (Geographic Information Systems) into ready products that can be utilized by customers. The GIS industry has only grown manifold with time, owing to increased data availability and the development of smart cities all over the world. In line with this, our partnership with Google is another step toward delivering high-quality and immersive mapping experiences to the people of India.”
Over the past few years, Tech Mahindra has partnered with Google in the areas like Google Cloud, Engineering, Content Management, Contact Center Operations, Network Services, etc. to providing benefits to customers all over the world. This collaboration will further strengthen our long-standing partnership with Google.
Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences, said, “We are pleased to partner with Tech Mahindra, and deeply appreciate their immense efforts toward facilitating the launch of Street View in India. At Google Maps, we have over the past 14 years continued to work on ways to bring helpful, local, and high-quality experiences to people across the nation. This launch is only possible through collaborations with local partners, and we look forward to finding more ways to deliver even more useful features and information on Maps.”
This partnership is in line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance ‘Human Centric Experience’, and focuses on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enables digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer.
U.S. Army Soldiers, assigned to 374th Chemical Company took part in a Virtual Battle Simulator 3 (VBS3) at the Virtual Battlespace building on Fort Dix, NJ. Jun. 13th, 2019. VBS3 is a combat simulator that educates soldiers on the importance of communication, teamwork, and reaction to enemy contact. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Luke Baker/Released)
Innovations on Military Side is a Microcosm for What Could Become of the Metaverse, feels Pete Morrison, CCO at BISim
For years, different military programs have worked to combine, “models, simulations, people and real equipment into a common representation of the world.” The US Army has established the STE Cross-Functional Team to develop a “common synthetic environment” for simulations and training.
Pete Morrison, CCO at BISim, believes this military innovation is a microcosm for what could become of the metaverse. “A military metaverse will focus on training, experimentation, and mission rehearsal. The fundamental difference to other commercial metaverses will be that it aims to deliver a high-fidelity digital twin of the real world,” he says.
BISim, or Bohemia Interactive Simulations, has been focused on the ‘under the hood’ of developing the military metaverse, helping different technologies on separate terrain data interact more seamlessly. The company is involved with both the US Army STE and UK MOD SSE, converting its military simulations to run on new scalability architectures. It also provides its flagship products, VBS4 and VBS Blue IG, for trainee interaction within the military metaverses.
Further, BISim’s Mantle Enterprise Terrain Management platform allows developers to import, manage, combine, procedurally enhance and stream high fidelity, geo-specific terrain into military or enterprise metaverses. This new terrain technology is already commercially available and will address some of the roadblocks to the military metaverse by helping move procedural generation onto the cloud.
We caught up with Morrison about how traditionally the military has been using the modelling and simulations as a representation of real life, what is military metaverse and how different it is from a commercial metaverse.
Military programs have for some time now combined models, simulations, people and real equipment into a common representation of the world, for training purposes. Please tell us more about it.
The military uses many different types of simulations, covering land, sea, air and space. Flight simulators, tank simulators, forward air control simulators and many others have been built over the years to provide training in a safe and repeatable manner. It has been possible to integrate these simulators for combined arms training for decades. For example, we may connect a flight simulator with a forward air control simulator so that the ground and air operators can practice working together. While these types of integrations have become commonplace, they have major limitations. For example, it is difficult to represent a dense urban environment in a simulation. Representing more than a few thousand people and vehicle entities is expensive and time-consuming. Additionally, each simulation uses its own format for terrain data, making it challenging to build perfectly correlated terrain. While an integrated federation can certainly work, the military metaverse will deliver greater scale with greater efficiency. This is why the U.S. Army is investing so heavily in programs like STE.
Simulations in STE will run as scalable services on cloud architecture, and they will automatically use all available resources to support the simulation of millions of entities. A central terrain server will host a 1:1 digital twin of Earth, which will stream terrain data to connected simulations as needed. The user interface for building training content will be web-based and use web-native rendering engines like Cesium. STE will replace all legacy U.S. Army simulation programs, meaning that in the future, any U.S. Army simulation will be able to connect to this military metaverse for combined arms or joint training.
You say military innovation is a microcosm for what could become of the metaverse. Could you elaborate?
Ultimately, the military needs a digital twin of the Earth with real-world fidelity and real-world density. Many of the same technologies that apply to commercial metaverses apply to the military metaverse, such as cloud scalability or VR/XR/AR. Military programs like the US Army STE and UK MOD SSE are driving innovation in this area, with a well-defined goal—to better train the service personnel who are charged with protecting us. While we don’t know the timeline for commercial metaverses, the US Army has a clear schedule for STE and is actively funding prototypes to achieve its vision. If the US Army STE is successful, they will be the first to clearly demonstrate that the metaverse is not purely science fiction or marketing from big tech. It will be a real, shared experience delivering tangible benefits.
US Army Soldiers, assigned to 374th Chemical Company took part in a Virtual Battle Simulator 3 (VBS3) at the Virtual Battlespace building on Fort Dix, NJ. Jun. 13th, 2019. VBS3 is a combat simulator that educates soldiers on the importance of communication, teamwork, and reaction to enemy contact. (US Army photo by Pfc. Luke Baker/Released)
So how is military metaverse different from what we envision the commercial metaverse to be?
A military metaverse will focus on training, experimentation, and mission rehearsal. The fundamental difference to other commercial metaverses will be that it aims to deliver a high-fidelity digital twin of the real world. Very few commercial uses will require a digital twin of the entire earth. For example, consumers won’t need their local shopping mall represented in an accurate 3D metaverse. However, for mission rehearsal in a highly sensitive environment, an accurate 3D representation of a target area is vital.
How is the metaverse we are talking about today different from the past virtual worlds we have so far been talking about?
The language around metaverses is a bit confusing since past virtual worlds created for gaming could be considered metaverses. For example, in this article, Josh Liddle of Game Rant argued that the game Second Life is “essentially an example of a metaverse with a centralized authority”.
While Second Life wasn’t intended to change real lives, it still demonstrates many of the concepts present in Meta’s idea for the metaverse, among others. Second Life has built an enduring community of millions who are “living” together in virtual spaces.
I lean more toward a metaverse built upon new cloud architectures with native support for cloud scalability, e.g. SpatialOS or Hadean, for enterprise utility. Cloud architecture will enable more players, AI and a generally more immersive experience. While it could be argued that a metaverse will be better suited to VR than a traditional virtual world, the broad definition of a metaverse doesn’t necessarily demand VR.
These definitions are still evolving. Our current conceptions are heavily influenced by marketing from companies like Meta that want to steer the metaverse conversation toward their own technology. Meta owns Oculus so they want to push their customers in that direction to sell more headsets and keep people within the Meta ecosystem.
The metaverse will not necessarily be a digital twin. While some metaverses will represent the real world to-scale (digital twin), many will not. Even enterprise organizations might want a metaverse with fictional terrain. An “immersive AR/VR experience” is optional. In the military, for example, the benefits of VR over traditional keyboards will need to be substantiated before we buy every soldier a headset.
How far have we traveled in terms of technology in building a metaverse?
The US Army Synthetic Training Environment (STE), followed by UK MOD Single Synthetic Environment (SSE), has traveled the furthest in terms of modern scalability architecture needed to build the metaverse. These programs differ from traditional approaches through their use of web architectures that support scalable entity-level simulation. STE uses One World Terrain to stream correlated terrain from a central repository to all of the services that need it. Both support VR/XR/AR interaction as needed.
For example, the Apache helicopter simulators within STE support XR or AR headsets, but not traditional dome displays. Both strive to represent the real-world complexity of population density and accurate 3D visuals of terrain.
However, military metaverses are expensive. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on building US Army STE prototypes already, and they are still several years from a production contract. I expect we’ll see military metaverses used in daily training by 2030, with the US Army leading the way.
What do you think of the commercial metaverse landscape?
Outside the military, the picture for metaverse development is still unclear. Big players such as Meta and Microsoft are investing billions to figure out how to commercialize their metaverses. Unless a commercial model supporting a single metaverse comes along, in the short term, we’ll see a number of competing “free” metaverses that rely on a traditional ad revenue model.
In parallel, I anticipate a push for Web 3.0 to create a much more open-source leveraging blockchain technology and offering digital ownership of assets in the metaverse. The idea behind Web 3.0 is to not allow a small number of commercial entities to dominate ownership of the web. This idea will need to translate to an open metaverse.
The big winners will obviously be cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google. The massive investment in VR/XR/AR will continue as headset manufacturers strive to make these head-mounted displays more practical and less stressful to use. With current-gen technology, most people tire of headset use after a few hours, at most. Many startups striving to make blockchain more efficient and useful will appear, then disappear as they are bought out by big technology firms.
Only many years from now will there be business opportunities within the metaverse itself, and these opportunities very much depend on who “wins” the metaverse race—Web 3.0 or the tech giants.
120+ Best-in-class organizations have confirmed their support for the 2023 edition of Geo Week
120+ Best-in-class organizations have confirmed their support for the 2023 edition of Geo Week
Organizers of Geo Week, the premier event that champions the coming together of geospatial technologies and the built world, have announced an impressive list of more than 120 supporters from 6 continents for the 2023 event, which will take place February 13-15, 2023 in Denver, CO.
“Leading industry organizations from around the globe have signed on to support Geo Week, recognizing it as the premier event for increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies,” said Lee Corkhill, Group Director at Diversified Communications, organizer of the event. “Geo Week provides industry professionals with the tools and insights to realize their digitalization goals. The technologies at the event provide data for understanding the world around us, creating more efficient workflows and aiding in decision-making based on real-world data.” Geo Week will soon be announcing more than 100 exhibitors who have already confirmed booths on the show floor.
Current supporters of the 2023 event, including trade media, portals, associations, user groups, government entities, and non-profits, are as follows:
The 2022 edition of Geo Week drew 1,890 verified professionals out of more than 2,100 registrants, and 140+ exhibitors, representing 49 U.S states and 25 countries. The full list of supporters and attendees who took part in the event can be found here. Special features of the 2022 event included a Pitch the Press event, the Geo Week Awards Ceremony, and numerous networking events.
Full event information, including workshops, conference programming, networking events and more will be available soon. Registration for the 2023 event will open in October – stay in the know.
About Geo Week
Geo Week is part of a network of events and media for the global geospatial and built markets organized by Diversified Communications, a leading organizer of conferences, trade shows, and online media with 16 years in the technology arena. Geo Week, taking place February 13-15, 2023, reflects the increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies. Powerful partnership events will also take place at Geo Week, including ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) Annual Conference.
Diversified Communications also produces Lidar & Geospatial Newsletter, 3D Technology Newsletter, AEC Innovations Newsletter, GeoBusiness Show (UK), Digital Construction Week (UK), Commercial UAV Expo and Commercial UAV News. For more information, visit www.geo-week.com.
The journey of Roter company intertwined with different wars of the 20th century. It was conceived and flourished during different wars, with each generation adding and resorting to new technologies, helping the country update its surveying technology. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, 85, a second-generation entrepreneur, discussed its indispensable role in modernizing India's survey and mapping sector with Geospatial Artha.
Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari tries his hand at his first manufacturing unit.
Our journey started at the fag-end of World War-I, and business boomed during World War II. My father, Bashir Ahmad Ansari, mastered the art of nickel-chrome plating technique at an early age.
The British brought a batch of Italian prisoners of World War-I and jailed them near Roorkee. They use to come out of the camps on weekends and get their cigar lighters, chains & watches chrome plated. This polished his plating skills, and he made some good money by providing services to the POWs. Shortly after, my father was invited to work at an irrigation workshop known as “Iron Foundry and Canal workshop-I”, Roorkee.
At the workshop, old equipment used for maintenance of the Ganga Canal – one of the costliest man-made structures – were repaired. He learnt how to repair and service Drawing, Surveying and Mathematical instruments. That piqued his interest in Mapping & Drawing equipment such Divider, Pencil compass and Drawing pen.
After sometimes he left the foundry unit and opened his workshop at home. Later, he started supplying equipment to various stationery shops of different parts of the country. In 1936, we registered a partnership company named as B.A. A. & Sons.
Embargo on imports & exports
In 1957, we set up our first factory to meet the rising demand. As a second-generation, I formally joined this enterprise. We hired qualified engineers and started manufacturing Drafting Machines; Mini-Drafters for drawing different lines such as horizontal, verticle, inclined, parallels, perpendiculars; Planimeters to measure irregular shapes; Sextant for determining angles.
Besides, I came up with an instrument box product, branded as BASLER that created a storm in the market and made us market leader in the mapping and surveying instruments market. We made a range of instrument boxes. A box offered a complete choice of products related to surveying and mapping. It was made up of a mixture of wood and plastic.
At that time, Kolkata-based British company, Kilburn, was entrusted with marketing and sales of our products nationally. Since then, demand of products shot up and I could finally buy a car in the 1960s.
Recognition from PM
The Prime Minister’s office sent a Letter of Appreciation to my father recognizing his contribution to the 1965 war. We supplied our surveying equipment for tactical mapping of the war zone.
Besides, he was a philanthropist, social worker, president of the city Congress, Municipal Board member, etc.
Coinage of Roter
In 1978, we renamed our company as Roter, where one could get a solution for queries related to surveying and mapping. The name was derived from Rotating Compass, a drawing instrument which used to make different sizes of circles. Roter Group is a unique company, offering surveying solutions and services through its own portfolio and partner network.
The PMO sent a letter of appreciation to Ansari's father, recognizing his contribution to the 1965 war.
Dawn of new sun (son)
When my son joined our business in the early 1990s, he introduced modern surveying instruments such as Digital Theodolite, Electronic Distance Meter (EDM), Opto-electronics systems, GNSS, LiDAR, Surveillance System, etc along with strong software solutions for various ground applications.
When the Directorate of Technical Education kicked off the modernization plan for Polytechnics, we helped supply modern surveying system, including the EDM, Theodolite EDM, and software for data processing. We also helped in the modernization of the Central Water Commission.
We supplied and installed required modern equipment and trained their staff of all 26 centers. After setting up our software development unit in Bengaluru, we start developing algorithms for all kinds of imported equipment from abroad. We entered the geospatial realm to design our solution to address Indian-specific challenges.
Later, we engaged with the GoI in National Land Record Management Program in 1998, where we provided a solution to different state governments for the digitization of land records, which included supply of instruments, software, end-to-end data acquisition, and processing and map generation.
In the meantime, we developed India’s first Surveying integrated computer-aided design (CAD) software to get data directly from any branded instrument. Later, we also started offering solutions while using the latest technologies like GPS, GNSS, and LiDAR.
We worked on some unique cases such as mapping of freshwater streams in the Shivalik Range of the Himalayas, Crocodile Mapping & Tiger Tracking for Wildlife Research Institute and Road Asset Management for MoRTH. We also came up with a rescue radar. The radar that syncs with live people heartbeat below 30 meters of earth and help save their lives timely. We have supplied it to the NDRF and the SDRF.
Leveraging drones
We are also helping the government in habitation land surveying under SVAMITVA project. We provided more than 300-long endurance drones – capable of staying in the air for 1.5 hours, covering up to a 5 sqkm area and producing a high-spatial level of resolution.
We are building first internet of things (IoT) for the Ministry of Mines in collaboration with the CSIR lab, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and Coal India. We designed a FLP battery for a laser scanner with casing that got us India’s first DGMS Certificate (Director General of Mines Safety) for intrinsically safe underground flameproof scanners. We now can provide 3D maps in hazardous mines which were not possible till now, while doing crack detection, asset mapping, labour navigation etc.
Now, we are only company providing complete solution with laser scanners to work in underground mines. We are also engaged with flagship project of the GOI – Namami Gange.
We are providing technology to study the underwater bathymetry, depth of river floors (seabed topography) to know level of silt and plan accordingly to dredge or remove it. Also, we have launched intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone this year, streaming live from 30km.
Innovation at its best
The future of surveying is going to be autonomous. From cars to drones everything has to be fully autonomous. On the instrument side LiDAR will rule over traditional instrument as it gives more number of information in shorter period of time.
The role of the government agency such as Survey of India will soon become irrelevant. After the introduction of the new geospatial policy of the GOI – which promotes innovation – Citizen Mapping will be the future. Every citizen will map, with the government agency relegated to a secondary role.
Kodiak Robotics announced that it has expanded its autonomous freight service to Florida with 10 Roads Express, a provider of time sensitive surface transportation for the U.S. Postal Service.
Kodiak Robotics, Inc., a leading self-driving trucking company, today announced that it has expanded its autonomous freight service to Florida with 10 Roads Express, a provider of time sensitive surface transportation for the U.S. Postal Service.
To launch this partnership, Kodiak completed a round trip consisting of four commercial deliveries, including a coast-to-coast commercial run.
A Kodiak autonomous truck carried 10 Roads Express freight nearly 5,600 miles fromSan Antonio, Texas; to theSan Francisco Bay Area; toJacksonville, Florida; and back toSan Antonio.
The route was completed in just 114 hours. Using its unique lightweight mapping solution, Kodiak mapped more than 5,400 new miles in a single mapping run to bring the new route online.
“We are focused on servicing routes that fit the real-world needs of our customers,” saidDon Burnette, Founder and CEO, Kodiak.
“10 Roads Express’s network of long length-of-haul routes makes it an ideal partner for Kodiak. Our unique lightweight mapping system allowed us to expand intoFloridain a fraction of the time it would take to build traditional AV maps, enabling us to service some of the nation’s busiest coast-to-coast freight lanes. This expansion further demonstrates the scalability and flexibility of our autonomous solution, the Kodiak Driver.”
As part of the partnership, 10 Roads will join Kodiak’s Partnership Deployment Program to evaluate the potential of integrating Kodiak’s autonomous solution into its fleet in the coming years.
“10 Roads Express carries some of the most high-priority freight in the trucking business,” saidWayne Hoovestol, CEO, 10 Roads Express.
“We are committed to exploring all opportunities to create better jobs for our drivers while providing exceptional service to our customers. This partnership is an opportunity to stay abreast of this technology’s progress and evaluate its benefits. By partnering with Kodiak now, 10 Roads can build the operational expertise we need to efficiently integrate autonomous trucks into our fleet in the coming years.”
GeoSLAM’s handheld LiDAR technology has been utilised to document informal settlements in one of India’s largest cities, Bengaluru, as part of a large-scale urbanisation project.
With new phases of urbanisation and expansion of the city limits planned by the Bengaluru local government, geospatial mapping services company, Nakshatech, surveyed the area and digitally mapped the informal settlements.
Nakshatech used GeoSLAM’s ZEB Horizon handheld scanner due to its potential to map the complex maze of around 500 residential buildings as well as lanes which were narrow and difficult to access.
With around 16% of Bengaluru’s population living in informal settlements, the intricate streets are frequently bustling with people, adding another complex challenge for the surveyors.
The ZEB Horizon’s walk-and-scan method of data collection allowed the team to move around the informal settlements freely. The handheld scanner captures 300,000 points per second providing the surveyors with a high quality point cloud, and with an accuracy of up to 6mm they were able to extract the accurate measurements needed to create their report.
Over the course of the three day project, Nakshatech collected data from more than 40 different areas of the settlements, automatically processing each dataset in GeoSLAM’s software.
Once compiled, orthophotos were created using the point cloud in GeoSLAM Draw, allowing the team to extract further information such as encroaching settlements.
As the home to the largest number of high-growth companies in the country, and regarded as the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India, Bengaluru’s growth is only expected to continue, increasing the importance of highly accurate digital replicas of the city’s informal settlements, to progress its urbanisation plans.
PlanetScope ESA archive and SkySat ESA archive collections are available worldwide throughESA’s Third Party Missions programmevia Fast Approval Registration.
The ESA archive collections consist of products requested by ESA-supported projects worldwide and that ESA collected over the years.
Three product lines forPlanetScopeimagery are offered under the PlanetScope ESA Archive collection. For all of them, the Ground Sampling Distance at nadir is 3.7 m (at reference altitude of 475 km).
At theSkySatESA archive collection, two different product types are offered. Ground Sampling Distance at nadir up to 0.65 m for panchromatic and up to 0.8 m for multi-spectral.
Prestwick Spaceport has welcomed two industry leading rocket businesses to work with Astraius, its launch service provider, as the site gears up for the first launch in 2024.
Astraius, the UK-based, horizontal launch company, has partnered with two new ‘best-of-the-best’ industry leaders and strategic suppliers as part of its innovative launch solution, accelerating plans for the first satellite launch from PrestwickSpaceport from spring 2024.
Northrop Grumman has been selected as the first and second stage motor supplier, and Exquadrum will provide the upper-stage motor. Northrop Grumman’s Orion solid rocket motors will boost the Astraius launch vehicle after its extraction from the unmodified C-17 carrier aircraft. Completing the mission, Exquadrum’s bespoke Astraius upper stage will precisely place satellites in their intended orbits.
PrestwickSpaceport will play an important role in the creation of up to 4,000 local aerospace and space jobs for Scotland and will help nurture and develop the skills needed to keep the UK at the forefront of what is a globally growing industry for years to come.
Glasgow PrestwickAirport is a highly significant infrastructure asset which helps to support more than 4,000 jobs in the west of Scotland.PrestwickAerospace is the heart of Scotland’s aerospace industry, with over 50% of the country’s aerospace workforce employed at the site. PrestwickAerospace is already the largest aerospace cluster in Scotland providing extensive employment for the local community.
The new partnerships announced by Astraius moves PrestwickSpaceport one step closer to being fully operational as the team continues to build upon its offers.
Mick O’Connor, Programme Director ofPrestwickSpaceport, said, “This move is intrinsic in our plans to build a truly global space industry here inPrestwick.Collaborating with two heavyweight, industry leading companies to work alongside Astraius in developing our spaceport offerings shows real confidence and that we really mean business.This partnership will ensure that we are offering state-of-the-art launch capabilities which will drive investment and jobs into the area.We remain firmly on track to have the first launch ready for 2024 and the potential for this spaceport to completely reinvent the economies of both Ayrshire and Scotland.”
Sir George Zambellas, Chairman ofAstraius, said, “This is a hugely exciting moment for Astraius. We have a winning combination of proven launch and propulsion systems paired with exquisite rocket motor technology to produce a world-class capability. When coupled with PrestwickSpaceport’s state-of-the-art launch vehicle and payload integration facilities, Scotland will be the UK’s leader for responsive space launch.”
IanAnnett, Deputy Chief Executive of the UK SpaceAgency said, “It is great to see these exciting new collaborations and this major milestone towards horizontal launch at PrestwickSpaceport with Astraius. Scotland’s space sector is booming and this partnership demonstrates the growing launch market, which will create jobs and opportunities and attract international investment.”
Jumping onto the drone bandwagon to scale up physical verification of its mining sites and boost productivity, Tata Steel has inked a pact with Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS), a Bengaluru-based start-up.
With drone-based mining solutions, such as geotechnical mapping and mine analytics, an added plus, the metals and mining major aims at leveraging opportunities arising out of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan and regulatory changes to meet raw material requirements beyond 2030 by creating a sustainable mining business.
The AUS has also been tasked with ensuring higher regulatory fulfillment and safety, with the focus of this collaboration being efficiency, safety and productivity of open cast mining operations.
Economical solutions
Tata Steel signs MoU with AUS, a Bengaluru-based drone start-up to jointly create sustainable end-to-end Mining solutions
On the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on July 22, 2022, D. B. Sundara Ramam, Vice-President, Raw Materials, Tata Steel, said: “We are excited to work with AUS again, this time for a longer duration and with a broader vision of sustainable development. Drone survey enabled digitalization and other technology will assist in gathering impactful and actionable insights. We see enormous potential in redefining core mining processes such as exploration and mine planning using drone data and adequate analytics.
“These end-to-end mining solutions are economical, demand fewer on-foot exploration requirements, and improve production, efficiency, and site safety. We also intend to offer our learnings to the rest of the world’s mining companies as a professional solution from our fully owned unit, Tata Steel Industrial Consultancy Limited.”
Remote monitoring
As for AUS, which has been working closely with the steel sector to provide state-of-the-art drone technology to modernize its mining operations, the job at hand will be to lay emphasis on using remote mine monitoring.
Commenting on the partnership, Vipul Singh, Founder and CEO, Aarav Unmanned Systems, said: “Tata Steel is one of the world’s leading steel companies and it has been an honor to provide our sustainable and integrated mining solutions for their operations. The accuracy, reliability and consistency of data is critical in the mining sector, and our solutions will be able to improve Tata Steel’s productivity & efficiency and contribute to modernize their mining operations.
“Tata Steel’s trust in us to create end-to-end solutions jointly with them, for the domestic and global mining industry, directly reflects on the vision we share and openness of a behemoth like Tata Steel to partner with a startup to derive the most effective solution.”
Last year, AUS and Tata Steel had acquired exemptions for drone operations from the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a year across all the 23 mines, plant and raw material locations. The DGCA had approved AUS’ SOP for one year to operate drones at Tata Steel entities to ensure that all operations for Tata Steel are carried out with 100% regulatory compliance.
Survey across 23 locations
Tata Steel Limited is the first private metals and mining major company to use drones. The AUS will deploy drones to survey the mining locations of Tata Steel Ltd. and deliver advanced Mine Analysis every month.
In another contract awarded by the Tata Steel Corporate Audit division, AUS will carry out a drone survey for physical verification of bulk inventory at all the 23 locations across multiple Tata Steel entities for two years.
In the third engagement with the expansions and projects team, AUS’s drone solution is being deployed to monitor the progress of construction in the Tata Steel Kalinganagar steel complex, which will be India’s largest integrated steel complex upon completion. Tata Steel Ltd. has also awarded a contract to procure 3 survey grade drones from AUS for their internal surveys.
Google Maps to provide 360-degree panoramic street images through its newly launched feature Street View
Google announced the launch of its Street View experience in India in partnership with Genesys International, an advanced mapping solutions company, and Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions.
Starting today, Street View will be available on Google Maps with fresh imagery licensed from local partners covering over 150,000 km across ten cities in India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.
Google, Genesys International, and Tech Mahindra plan to expand this to more than 50 cities by the end of 2022. This launch marks the first time in the world that Street View is being brought to life completely by local partners.
Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & VP, Google India; Sajid Malik, Managing Director of Genesys International Corporation Limited; Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences, and C P Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra.
“Over the past 14 years we have innovated to bring helpful, local, and high-quality experiences to people across the nation. We believe the launch of Street View in India will be instrumental in delivering a more helpful user experience, from virtually visiting locations to getting a better sense of local businesses and establishments”, says Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences.
“We remain committed to collaborating with local organizations and the government as we work toward delivering even more useful features and information on Maps. We will continue to do this responsibly, enabling accurate, authentic, and trustworthy information. We look forward to extending our technology and expertise to the local ecosystem,” adds Miriam.
Technology and data collection
Genesys used specialized camera installed on top of four-wheelers, three-wheelers, two-wheelers as well as on bag packs to run on the streets and capture the data, which were then segregated and used to create accurate maps. These data will help citizens to make real-time informed decisions, such as which restaurant to visit for a dine-in experience or to order in to avoid parking problems.
The data will also provide more accurate and reliable maps and help in figuring out the road signs for those who are not familiar with them such as tourists or layman. It will also help to analyze the property and locality before starting a business or investing in it.
The Genesys constellation will now serve to bring to life India’s lively streets and lanes, where citizens will be able to explore sites and view man-made wonders from the comfort of their own home or anywhere else, using their mobile device.
“We were the first Indian firm to perform street imaging of all major cities in India. Our fleet is still swiftly photographing Indian cities, bringing to life our city’s amazing tapestry of streets and landmarks and allowing us to comfortably visit our old neighborhoods or plan our trips”, says Sajid Malik, Managing Director of Genesys International Corporation Limited
“Thanks to the progressive move made by the Government of India, the new geospatial policy that was announced in 2021, which encourages entities to invest and collect geospatial data. Following that we collect the data and offer license to Google to further use it in their service,” adds Malik.
The partnership will leverage output from Tech Mahindra’s ‘Gullyfy’ project done in collaboration with eco-system partners, and is being carried out by Tech Mahindra in accordance with the accuracy thresholds laid out in the geospatial guidelines.
As a part of the partnership, Tech Mahindra will be responsible for GIS processes from data creation, resourcing, insights generation, and the actual collection of the street-level imagery. The GIS framework gathers, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of vital datasets used across sectors and industries for cartography, administration, relational database management, programming, and spatial analytics, among others.
“Technology is not just the backbone of the global economy, but is also a strategic tool which can turn insights into solutions, uncover trends and predictions, and transform businesses in a sustainable manner. Today, there is an increasing need for technologies that turn insights from GIS into ready products that can be utilized by customers”, says Birendra Sen, Business Head, Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra,
“The GIS industry has only grown manifold with time, owing to increased data availability and the development of smart cities all over the world. In line with this, our partnership with Google is another step toward delivering high-quality and immersive mapping experiences to the people of India”, he adds.
Another important factor that has been added in the feature is that the people who are exposed to the 360-degree panoramic image view have been blurred on the screen, as well as the vehicle numbers. And anyone who is not willing to get their residential revealed can write to Google Maps and their residential area will be blurred out as well, adds Miriam.
This partnership is in line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance ‘Human Centric Experience’, and focuses on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enables digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer.
Future use
With time the Google search experience has also changed. Due to social media, the youth have evolved and they no longer search for usual touristy places. They take cue from social media likings and look for similar places like live music or night life, this is where the Street View is headed towards to bring all these syntactic in its feature soon, added Miriam.
The feature is similar to using Google maps, once you open Google maps, you zoom into a road in any of these target cities, and tap the area you want to view. Get to know the local cafes, and cultural hotspots, or check out the local neighborhood. Street View will help people navigate and explore new corners of the country and the world in a more visual and accurate way, enabling them to fully experience what it’s like to be in these places, right from their phone or computer.
Street View APIs will also be available to local developers enabling them to deliver richer mapping experiences in their services.
“Google Maps has always been at the forefront of geospatial technology, and we are honored to be an enabler of their efforts by offering the best technology to India and its people”, adds Malik.
Late entry to India
Google unveiled this feature globally 15 years ago and it’s used in more than 100 countries today. Street View was earlier slated for launch at least twice in the last decade in India but was banned due to security concerns, particularly around sensitive border areas.
It has finally been relaunched after a long wait. This time the local partners, Genesys and Tech Mahindra, are engaged in data collection, made possible with the revised geospatial policy.
Both the companies confirm that they are adhering to the new geospatial policy and are not mapping high-security areas like the Parliament, official residential areas as well as the borders.
Navigating peak rush hour traffic has become a familiar fixture of city life, leading to interminable gridlocks, frustrating congestions and severe pollution, along with crucial hours lost daily. The problem is quite acute in Bengaluru, where, as per a 2019 TomTom report, residents lose over 243 hours every year due to traffic.
In order to mitigate this using real-time information sharing and location intelligence, local traffic authorities in Bengaluru and seven other Indian cities have partnered with Google. Speed limits data shared by the traffic authorities will now be visible on Google Maps in these places.
For better optimization of traffic light timings, Google has also joined hands with Bengaluru traffic police, so that they can efficiently manage road congestion at key intersections across the city.
“We are proud to partner with Google to use technology to help reduce traffic congestion and improve road safety for the people of Bengaluru. We are the first Indian city to have started a pilot with Google to optimize the traffic light configuration in Bengaluru to reduce signal wait time for commuters”, says Dr. Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru.
“The revised plan by Google resulted in an average 20% wait time reduction per driver going through the pilot intersection during the day. We are excited by the positive impact this can have on reducing traffic congestion, road rage, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions”, he adds.
Apart from Bengaluru, Google has partnered with traffic authorities and aggregators in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, and Agra. This partnership would enable the city dwellers to avoid congestion zones as they will have accurate information on road closures and related incidents.
How location helps in traffic decongestion?
As per a study by World Economic Forum, the number of cars globally would double by 2040 even if public transportation networks expands.
This is where location technology gets into the picture for decongesting roadways, curtailing emissions, and enabling smart mobility. As per Mckinsey, smart mobility solutions can cut down on time taken to commute, so cities that efficiently use these technologies would be ahead of others.
Location intelligence, real-time information sharing and visualization is at the core of building resilient infrastructure and enabling the smart mobility experience. By sharing reliable location data, everyone from drivers to traffic authorities are able to make more informed decisions.
Pollution Control
As per the World Air Quality Index report 2021, 10 out of 15 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Over the years, pollution levels haven’t shown any significant improvement. In 2018, 14 out of 15 most polluted cities were in India. North West India witnessed record breaking heat this year due to increased global warming.
Google recently piloted its Environmental Insights Explorer, a free tool designed to help cities and local governments measure emissions and identify reduction strategies with the help of public transport activity data.
Four cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Aurangabad – are using transport emissions data from EIE to develop their Climate Action Plans. Google also publicly launched Aurangabad’s EIE data, making it accessible to research organizations to help propose sustainable solutions to the city.
Google has also entered into a partnership with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to provide people with reliable air quality information.
Google is actively helping local entities towards climate change mitigation and reducing carbon footprint. Till now, it has collaborated with 250 NGOs, 60 Universities, 30 government agencies, and 15 research organizations who use its geospatial products to gain actionable insights.
Geospatial and Earth observation data are a prerequisite to monitor and track emissions, ensuring that there is widespread awareness and proper policy mechanism for effective action.
Government and technology companies like Google coming together can have a transformational impact on the society, adds Dr. Gowde.
