Financial Times

New generation tools for agriculture and urban planners
Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS), a software containing a collection of seamlessly integrated providing accurate and production oriented tools for a broad range geospatial imaging applications, is the next generation tools that will help transform imagery into reliable geospatial content, said David Hughes, Regional Sales Manager, Leica Geosystems GIS and Mapping (LGM) of Switzerland.

Hughes, explaining the introduction of LPS software into the Sri Lankan market recently, said this software could be used to obtain geographical information, mapping data and spatial data. It was being used by the Agricultural Department to study the growth pattern of paddy growth etc, urban planners and architects, military applications and a host of other uses.

The presentation was arranged by the Environmental Science Division of EMSO Ltd, authorized distributor for LGM. Thillal Nadarajan, Geospatial Imaging Specialist, EMSO told The Sunday Times FT that they have around 18 to 20 intensive users of their products and had found various application based on these by another about 100 various Sri Lankan agencies with the market is expanding.

He said that processing satellite data would be costly by individual organizations but if the data is distributed among the users then the cost could be shared. Hughes said that geospatial imaging was the science of collecting information from images of the earth's surface, then turning this information into knowledge to help professionals make more informed decisions.

He said that the users' geospatial information must first be captured through aerial photographs or satellite images. Using sophisticated cameras, digital sensors, airborne sensors, satellite imagery, and post-processing software systems raw geographic and topographic data can be obtained, recorded and achieved as a permanent record of the earth's surface.

Once captured, raw data must be tied to the earth's surface and related to ground reference system. This process is undertaken to ensure the data accurately corresponds to a known location on the earth's surface. The subsequent measurement, analysis or utilization in a geographic information system (GIS) is completely dependent on the Reference link in the Geospatial Imaging Chain.

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