Anand Kashyap
Sub-editor,
GeoIntelligence Asia 2010 brought together experts and visitors from around the world
After bringing the armed forces of India together for three consecutive years successfully, GIS Development expanded its footprint with GeoIntelligence Asia 2010. Inaugurated by India’s Chief of Army Staff , General VK Singh PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC, GeoIntelligence Asia made a strong statement in connecting the defence and internal security forces from the region. Building upon the past events, GeoIntelligence Asia 2010 created an impressive agenda and brought in specialist speakers from across the world who shared their unique perspectives and insights on the geospatial intelligence community’s role in making the world a safer place to live. Th e two-day event held at hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi, India, witnessed about 450 delegates and visitors from eight countries in the region.
In his inaugural address, General Singh observed that India’s boundary includes high altitude mountains, deserts and coastal zones and geospatial intelligence has a signifi cant role to play in tackling security threats from the porous boundary. According to the General, geospatial technology provides situational awareness and helps armed forces in precision operation. In today’s network centric environment, geointelligence is an able tool that works as a force multiplier and enables effi cient combat. He agreed that the ongoing research in imaging, modelling and other geospatial activities all over the world ultimately helps the armed forces.
Earlier, Lt. Gen. Ajay Kumar Singh Chandele, PVSM, AVSM, ADC; Director General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering, Indian Army, welcomed the gathering. He noted that emerging security threats can be addressed by developing geospatial capabilities. Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Development, in his introductory remarks, highlighted the need to strengthen spatial infrastructure to better internal security. Th e inaugural session witnessed the release of bi-monthly magazine GeoIntelligence, a publication of GIS Development. Th e General also inaugurated the exhibition.
Plenary sessions
The first plenary session was chaired by Dr MP Narayanan, Chairman, GIS Development. Lt. Gen. A K Nanda explained the functionality and importance of Defence Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSDI). He highlighted how GIS prevents duplication of efforts and discussed the need for geointelligence in defence. In his presentation, GeoImagery and GIS Integration, Lawrie Jordan, Director – Imagery, Enterprise Solution, ESRI, demonstrated how one can maximise the value of imagery by intelligently integrating it with GIS. He also emphasised the need to share and collaborate.
Lt. Gen. S P Singh, VSM, Director General of Information System, India, while observing that majority of military information has a spatial component, discussed how geospatial technologies can be exploited for operational information. He emphasised on the development of indigenous GIS software and issues related to data interoperability.
The second plenary session was chaired by Rajesh C Mathur, Vice Chairman, ESRI India. During the session, Chhavi Gupta, Senior Solution Manager, Technology Solutions, Oracle India, explained how Oracle solutions are helpful in lawful interception project, battle space awareness and crime statistics analysis. She also acquainted everyone with location-enabled Oracle technologies. Kaushik Chakraborty, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, ERDAS, recalled Art of War by Sun Tzu and Clausewitz.
“Art of war,” as defined by Sun Tzu, “is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.” Chakraborty said that while the Pearl Harbour incident is a perfect example of art of war, September 11 attacks explain Clausewitz’s theory of war. According to Clausewitz, “War is not merely a political act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of political relations, a carrying out of the same by other means.” In both cases, Chakraborty stressed about the need of geointelligence in warfare and maintained that without geointelligence, modern day wars cannot be won.
The third plenary session was chaired by Maj. Gen. Manoj Tayal, Addl. Survey General, Survey of India. In this session, Maj. Gen. Girish Kumar, Project Director, Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSSDI), elaborated how DSSDI is using geospatial tools in developing a digital map for the Delhi State. He informed that approximately 337 features (above and beneath the ground) have been mapped under this project. John Allan, Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, ExactEarth, Canada, regretted that there are very few activities in marine field although oceans cover earth’s 70 per cent area. The Mumbai incident was a grim reminder that coastal areas require more attention. Mark Reichardt, President and CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), USA, demonstrated how OGC standards are driven by community resources, integration of sensor web enabled operation concept with UAVs and so on. In addition, he explained compliance testing and certification by OGC.
Workshops and sessions
During the session Geospatial for Defence and Border Security, Maj. Gen. P N Koul, Addl Survey General, Survey of India, discussed the necessity of formulation of optimum data standards for efficient data dissemination in defence environment. The paper ignited a debate on data standards especially on cartography data standards versus GIS standards.
M Rajathural, Technical Director, Bentley Systems, India, informed that Bentley has developed a tool which can convert CAD data into GIS data and also gave a demonstration of the same. While discussing his paper, Managing Mission Critical Information in Geo-enabled Environment, Rajathural noted that even GIS data should be indexed in the same manner as Google indexed bundle of information and made it accessible to all. He presented various solutions offered by Bentley including intelligent property management, multi-user editing with versioning and intelligent distributed plotting and publishing.
During the session Geospatial for Homeland Security, Maniesh Kulshrestha, Head – Business Development, SiRF Technology, India, introduced a micro electro mechanical sensor (MEMS) and compared it to GPS. He demonstrated how MEMS can track people in malls or other indoor places with better accuracy than GPS. He also emphasised on public privacy and the need of Building Management Mapping as most of the heritage centres are being targeted by terrorists and anti-social elements.
Andrea Cook, Senior Sales Manager, GeoEye, USA, highlighted some of the features of GeoEye 1 and how it can play a pivotal role in homeland security. She presented a few latest images shot by GeoEye 1 and explained their key features. Talking about the satellite, Cook said that it is not only useful in capturing images, but also in providing image-based solutions like 3D modelling and digital maps.
Col. G.S. Mehta (retd), Chief General Manager, Northern region, RSI Softech, India, demonstrated RSI’s latest product for disaster mitigation, Skyline. Col. Sunil Mishra, Director Battlefield Management, System Cell, Directorate General of Information System, India, said that GIS is yet to be optimally exploited. He presented the satellite map of Dantewada, India, which was just mute in the absence of attributed information like roads, villages, language and so on. Dantewada is a district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh and is one of the strongholds of Naxals.
T.B.J.S. Rajappa, Deputy Director, Directorate of Coordination (Police Wireless), India, spoke about ‘Albedo of Geointelligence connected GIS’. He talked about the use of GIS methodology in earlier times as well and explained how over time, human approach has changed towards the subject even as the ultimate aim remains the same. He established his point with the help of a few examples from Ramayana and Mahabharta.
During the session Image Intelligence and Maritime Coastal Security, Col. Kailash Tiwari, Corps of Engineers, Indian Army, explained target detection using optical and microwave remote sensing. Sowmya Gopal, Radar Scientist, Intermap technologies, Germany, explained the significance of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) mapping for geospatial intelligence in India.
During the series of workshops, Dr Christopher Tucker, Member, Board of Directors, US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, talked about human geography and intelligence. Dr M.K. Munshi, GIS Development, India, spoke about standards and interoperability and Dr V. V. L. N. Sharma, Civil Hydrographic Office, India, explained electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) compliant, electronic navigational charts (ENC) and issues of interoperability. Col. Sunil Mishra, Director Battlefield Management, System Cell, Directorate General of Information System, India, discussed ways to exploit geointelligence to strengthen our internal security.
A workshop on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) was conducted by Mike McGill, President, Surveil, United States. He said that market demand for UAVs is almost same as that was for cars in 1920s and computers in 1980s. “UAVs were like a predator in 1990s and still, advancements in this field are consistently happening like UAVs with liquid hydrogen propulsion and hybrid UAVs with Gas/Electricity propulsion. In addition, UAV market is driving advancement in new and innovative ways to apply carbon fibre composite materials,” said McGill. In terms of business, he said that US Navy alone made an order of USD 2.2 billion to Northrop Grumman.
The event witnessed several interactive sessions and was a huge hit among paricipants. The seminar will return soon.
