PERSPECTIVES
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Small drones are set to fill earth observation gaps at a very low cost, with low barriers to purchase and operate, and great flexibility in terms of the sensors they can carry, where they can travel, and how quickly they can be deployed. While in most cases the image quality won’t be equal to the task of professional commercial systems, there are a wide range of applications that will benefit without the need for high resolution or a mapping-grade view. On the other end, field data collection for mapping and surveying stands to benefit greatly from this technology for the same reasons of inexpensive operation and added flexibility, with sensors improving as the demand grows.
- Matt Ball, editor, Americas and Asia/Pacific
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FEATURES
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TOP 5 LINKS OF THE WEEK
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Jeff's Link
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- ICT-AGRI: ICT and Robotics in Agriculture - Environmental Issues
- Cult of Mac - Worldwide iPad 3G / LTE Coverage Map
- Sharp Map - latest Map of Everything
- Information Design - NASA's Insanely High-Res Map Of America’s Trees
- Sensorpedia - Sensorpedia makes it easy to find and share sensor data
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Reader's Links (submit links to
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COLUMN
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Vast Sensors, Big Data: Big Opportunities
 Every ten years or so, we achieve a technological breakthrough that drives innovation for the next decade. We are coming out of the age of emergence of the Internet, which has seen this enabling technology move from novel to ubiquitous. By 2010, cell phones and smart phones were on the path to becoming standard, with nearly always-connected Internet capabilities. Suddenly, we have the wealth of information at our fingertips, from maps to phone books, from web browsers to media players. And we’re not only consuming information with our smart devices, we’re generating information at amazing rates.
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INTERVIEWS
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Procedural Modeling for 3D - GIS City Modeling
 The use of 3D in urban planning, digital cities and 3D city model development is growing rapidly. Planners are interested to connect databases with city information to these 3D visualizations. Esri has been developing the CityEngine software that provides a 3D visualization connection to these databases. 3D Visualization World editor Jeff Thurston recently interviewed Gert van Maren, 3D Product Manager at Esri R&D Center in Zürich, Switzerland to learn more about these developments and how procedural modeling is being used for 3D city planning and simulation. |
TOP 5 BLOG POSTS OF THE WEEK
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BOOK REVIEW
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Integrated Design of Sustainable Buildings
 Sustainable design aims to improve building efficiency. It includes both individual buildings and neighbourhoods. Urban planning, architecture and spatial design are key aspects of sustainable design and energy plays a major role. This book looks into United Kingdom and international experiences, building discussion upon case study examples taking through planning, construction, operations and maintenance phases of sustainable design. Environmental, social and economic considerations are included in the discussion and presentations. |
EVENT COVERAGE
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imagina 2012 Monaco: 3D Visualization, Architecture & Urbanism
 imagina 2012 - The European 3D Simulation and Virtual Technology Event was held in Monaco February 7-9, 2012. This annual event brings together pioneering indivudals and organisations developing a wide range of 3D related products in the areas of design, processing, diagnostics, decision making, consultation, demonstration and communication. Architecture, urbanism and landscape design are key roles in the conference, and several workshops in a 'Industry and Virtual Technologies' forum were held. This year, 3D & Augmentaiton Reality for Mobility was also a popular theme.
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TOP STORIES
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HEADLINES
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The Future of the City: Crowd-sourcing and Gamification for City 2.0
How IBM's Deep Thunder Delivers "Hyper-local" Forecasts
Urban Planning Expert: ‘Cities are for People, Not Vehicles’
The Promise of Big Data for Cities
China to Expand Its Pollution Monitoring to Rural Areas |
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EVENTS
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Planet Under Pressure, March 26-29, London, UK
Where Conference, April 2-4, San Francisco, Calif.
SPAR International, April 15-18, Houston, Texas
AGILE International Conference, April 24-27, Avignon, France
Geo-Siberia, April 25-27, Novosibirsk, Russia
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Geographies of the World's Knowledge (2010)
By Mark Graham, Monica Stephens, Scott A. Hale, Kunika Kono
Who owns the world's knowledge? Who produces it? Who is able to consume it? Has the Internet democratized geographies of information? This free interactive book containing accessible, informative and beautiful maps and graphics illustrates geographies of knowledge in our Internet Age.
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By Jordan Yin
With new studies conclusively demonstrating the dramatic impact of urban design on public psychological and physical health, the impact of the urban planner on a community is immense. This book provides a useful introduction and lays the groundwork for serious study.
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Location Based Services and TeleCartography (2009)
By Georg Gartner, Karl Rehrl
This book gives a general view of research-driven activities related to the location and map-based services.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
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