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We will celebrate this year the twentieth anniversary of our Association. Twenty years ago, in 1989, remote sensing was already somewhat mature in terms of technologies and there were strong hopes for a rapid market development. This led several companies with the support of European institutions to create EARSC.

We all know quite well that it took many more years for the market itself to mature pushing many to forget some of their illusions on the way. However realizing that maturity and market expansion could only happen little by little in this complex domain EARSC has been sticking to its goal of helping develop the European remote sensing industry, reaching close to one hundred members, and being a recognized association worldwide with in particular solid links with its American counterparts. All the major European industrial actors of remote sensing are EARSC members and are involved in numerous ways to foster the development of the domain together with European institutions. Lately the EARSC strategy has evolved one step further to account for the geospatial information revolution of the 21st century.

These evolutions have been accompanied in the last five years by a stepping up of our capabilities, in particular hiring an Executive Secretary in September 2004, opening an office in Brussels in October 2008 and hiring a Secretary General in January 2009. In the same period thanks to the dedication of our Executive Secretary we have in particular started this regular Earth Observation magazine (EOMag), we have setup yearly symposia gathering EARSC members as well as non-members from the Earth Observation community at large, have set up specific working groups to increase our influence and benefits for our members, and held numerous meetings with European institutions representatives. Our EOVOX project, realized thanks to ESA support has been seminal for our present and future evolution and will soon lead to one of our dearest achievements which the set up of a Directory of European Industrial capabilities in this field.

All of this has been possible only thanks to the continuous and increasing support of our members and of European institutions, motivating us even further to do ever more to improve the market presence of European industry. We thus look forward to welcoming you all at our 20-year anniversary celebration which will take place in Brussels next May simultaneously with our 2009 event dedicated to GMES governance.

A final note: due to my recent assignments in another European Association I am handing the EARSC chairmanship over to Han Wensink from ARGOSS this January 2009. It is a great pleasure and a great satisfaction for us to see the CEO of a “small” company leading our association. Han will first act as interim Chairman until the next election in June 2009. It has been an exciting period for me to work with all of you and to share with you so many interesting developments during the past few years and I would like to thank all of you for these opportunities.

With my best wishes to you all and to our association!

In the mean time we encourage you to go on reading our magazine, visiting our web site and…now our new office in Brussels

With best regards,



Paul Kamoun
EARSC Chairman

More than 200 scientists from around the world have attended the weeklong POLinSAR 2009 workshop hosted at ESRIN, ESA’s Earth Observation centre in Frascati, Italy. Discussions among the participants include new techniques for providing vital information on our planet that could help to combat global warming through carbon accounting, wetland preservation and improve climate models.

Using the novel polarimetric mode of the PALSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) aboard Japan’s ALOS satellite, Dr Shane Cloude of the UK-based AEL Consultants has mapped the biomass of Scotland’s forests. This marks the first time biomass data has been extracted over a large area using this sensor mode.

Forests are one of the most significant onshore stores of carbon, absorbing carbon dioxide that would otherwise increase global warming. Mapping biomass – a quantitative estimate of the organic material in a forest – is important because it allows scientists to determine the forest’s capacity to store carbon.

This information will assist politicians and non-governmental organisations in planning strategies for combating global warming through international monitoring and carbon sequestering.

“Carbon trading is upon us, which means there is going to be a value to carbon and countries will be able to offset their emissions against carbon which is stored in their forests, for example,” Cloude explained. “There is going to be a need for a third party to assess or validate the estimates given by countries as well to monitor any changes in them such as deforestation or degradation.”

“Since one of the important variables for predicting climate change is to know what the balance between carbon sinks and sources will be, this kind of information can be fed directly into models to help improve predictions of climate change,” he said.

Cloude used the polarimetric mode with ALOS radar data from April to June 2007 to produce the biomass map, which he will update this year. ESA is supporting ALOS as a ‘Third Party Mission’. This means ESA uses its multi-mission European ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite to its wide scientific user community.

Cloude’s findings are now undergoing validation by being compared with data from Forest Research, Great Britain’s governmental department responsible for the protection and expansion of forests.

Another Earth Observation satellite in orbit equipped with the polarimetric mode is Canada’s Radarsat-2.

Dr Ridha Touzi, a Senior Research Scientist at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, is working in collaboration with Parks Canada to use the polarimetric mode aboard Radarsat-2 to map and monitor the wetlands in the Wapusk National Park.

Using the Convair 580 airborne SAR, he demonstrated that polarimetric data could distinguish fens from bogs in the Mer Bleu wetlands near Ottawa, Canada. Fens and bogs are two classes of wetlands, present in northern regions. The water level in fens is around 20 cm below the peat surface, while the water level in bogs is 45 cm below the peat surface.

It is well established that a lot of bogs in the Northern regions have reverted to fens because of global warming. Distinguishing this transformation is very important because the park’s bogs are a critical habitat for polar bears, with more than 1 500 living there.

Using the polarimetric technique with radar data, Touzi is able to detect the level of water, which is used to characterise the wetland’s type. With continued Radarsat-2 monitoring, it will be possible to detect changes that represent transformation and allow park officials to take action and minimise the threat.

Along with applications, scientists discussed the latest developments in SAR polarimetry and polarimetric interferometry and the need for the next generation of radar satellites to be equipped with advanced polarimetric modes.

More info at ESA

Like most sub-Saharan African countries, Niger faces problems meeting its water needs. As part of ESA’s TIGER initiative, satellite data are being used to identify underground water resources in the drought-prone country.

Due to the rainfall variability in time and in space, during recent years the rain-fed agriculture struggles to meet the requirements of food security in the Sahel area.

ESA’s WADE (Water resources Assessment using SAR in Desert and arid lands in West African Ecosystems) project, funded by the Data User Element (DUE), uses ERS and Envisat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery to map and monitor the location and extent of surface water bodies and to identify potential areas for water infiltration.

Having access to these maps will help local water authorities to better manage their water resources, lead livestock to water and improve their water storage capacity.

The Advanced Computer Systems (ACS spa) in Rome, Italy, developed the WADE processing system in conjunction with local users, represented by AGRHYMET (the Regional Centre of the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel).

To demonstrate the technology, ERS and Envisat SAR data from 1993 to 2007 were integrated with in-situ data over an area of about 100 000 km² in the west part of Niger. Based on these data, a water body classification map was generated for each year. Results have been validated against 90 sampling points collected in the field by AGRHYMET during summer 2007 and showed an overall accuracy of 100% for permanent water bodies and above 75% for semi-permanent water bodies.

“Permanent and semi-permanent water body monitoring is an essential resource for rangeland activities and irrigated agriculture areas in the semi-arid zone,” said Issifou Alfari, AGRHYMET’s Head of Water Resources Management and Desertification Division. “We are very happy with the project’s scope and outcome, as we believe this source of information will be fundamental for water management activities.”

In November 2008, WADE software and data were installed in AGRHYMET’s facilities in Niamey, Niger’s capital city. Following extensive training sessions, AGRHYMET employees are now using the system to carry out their monitoring.

“The WADE system fits well into AGRHYMET general activities, particularly providing accurate water resource management information at regional and national levels,” Alfari said.

ESA launched the TIGER initiative in 2002 to exploit Earth Observation (EO) technologies in order to respond to the urgent need for reliable water information in Africa.

WADE is one of five TIGER Innovator projects, which use the latest EO technology to develop innovative, low-cost solutions to support African water authorities in the conservation and monitoring of scarce water resources.

SOURCE ESA

With three Earth Explorer satellites set to launch this year, another three under construction and up to three more about to be selected for feasibility study, 2009 promises to be a significant year for ESA’s contribution to Earth science – paving the way to a clearer understanding of how our planet works.

Understanding how the Earth works and the way in which natural processes respond to global climate change is a major challenge facing science today. Encompassing a new approach to observing the Earth from space, ESA’s Earth Explorer missions are developed in direct response to a range of Earth-science challenges identified by the scientific community.

The fundamental principle of defining, developing and operating missions in close cooperation with the scientific community aims to provide an efficient tool with which to address pressing Earth-science questions as effectively as possible. In addition, the scientific issues addressed also form the basis for the development of new applications for Earth observation data.

This user-driven approach has so far realised six Earth Explorers, three of which planned for launch this year, as well as another six concepts for new missions that are being presented to the scientific community next week in Lisbon, Portugal. The six candidate missions will subsequently undergo a selection process to enter the next phase of development.

The first Earth Explorer to launch is ESA’s gravity mission GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer), which although delayed last year due to a problem with the Russian launcher, is scheduled to lift-off in March. GOCE will map global variations in the gravity field with extreme detail and accuracy. This is crucial for deriving accurate measurements of ocean circulation and sea-level rise, both of which are affected by climate change.

Next up is SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity), which is planned to launch in July. Currently, the satellite is in storage at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France. Once launched, SMOS will deliver data to address the current lack of global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity. These data are needed to further our knowledge of the water cycle and contribute to weather, extreme-event forecasting and seasonal-climate forecasting.

Towards the end of 2009, ESA’s ice mission CryoSat-2 will launch. With diminishing ice cover a reality, CryoSat-2 has been designed to measure the exact rate of change in the thickness of ice floating in the oceans and ice sheets on land. This will help explain the connection between the loss of polar ice, the rise in sea levels and climate change.

It is planned that the launches this year will be followed by the Atmospherics Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus and the magnetic field mission Swarm, both in the 2010 timeframe.

ADM-Aeolus will be the first space mission to measure wind profiles on a global scale. It will improve the accuracy of numerical weather forecasting and advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and processes relevant to climate variability and climate modelling. Swarm will provide high-precision and high-resolution measurements of the strength and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Then in the 2013 timeframe, the* EarthCARE mission (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer)* is planned for launch. EarthCARE will address the need for a better understanding of the interactions between cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that play a role in climate regulation.

As part of the on-going user-driven approach to implementing new science and research Earth observation missions, six new concepts have just completed their two year-long assessment studies. On 20-21 January, over 250 leading members of the science community will gather in Lisbon, Portugal to attend the Earth Explorer User Consultation Meeting to review these six mission concepts, which comprise:

A-SCOPE – to observe atmospheric carbon dioxide for a better understanding of the carbon cycle
BIOMASS – to observe global forest biomass for a better understanding of the carbon cycle
CoReH2O – to observe snow and ice for a better understanding of the water cycle
FLEX – to observe photosynthesis for a better understanding of the carbon cycle
PREMIER – to observe atmospheric composition for a better understanding of chemistry-climate interactions
TRAQ – to observe tropospheric composition for a better understanding of air quality.

Following the meeting and taking into account opinion from the science community, ESA’s Programme Board for Earth Observation will select up to three missions for feasibility study – the next step of the implementation cycle. A further down-selection will lead to ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission – envisaged to launch around 2016.

In conclusion, the launch of three Earth Explorer satellites, the further selection of three missions to go to the next phase of implementation and the on-going development of three Earth Explorers means that 2009 is set to be a challenging year for the science and research element of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes.

SOURCE ESA

European cities and municipal authorities face significant new challenges for future urban planning in the coming years and this project provides a practical and cost-effective solution for their needs.


Through the use of European space technology we will open up possibilities for mutual learning from a land use perspective and help cities to make more informed investment decisions. The Urban Atlas demonstrates the benefit of an integrated European approach and is an excellent example of how space based applications contribute to local solutions across Europe.”

_
What do Prague, Leipzig, Cork, Ljepaja, Poznan, Nice, Glasgow, Venice or Gozo have in common? Whether big or small, European cities need reliable and comparable urban planning information for safe, sustainable and prosperous development. This year, for the first time, 185 cities from all 27 EU Member States, will benefit from the “Urban Atlas”, which has been produced by the European Commission and Member States with the support of European space technology. Compiled from thousands of satellite photographs, the Urban Atlas provides detailed and cost-effective digital mapping, ensuring that city planners have the most up-to-date and accurate data available on land use and land cover. The Urban Atlas will enable urban planners to better assess risks and opportunities, ranging from threat of flooding and impact of climate change, to identifying new infrastructure and public transport needs. All cities in the EU will be covered by the Urban Atlas by 2011._

Other links
GMES
European Space Policy

Source

Even when the food crisis does not make the headlines, the world’s poorer countries suffer from scarcity the most. However, advanced technology in the sky can help on the ground.


By collecting data on the climate, vegetation and humidity, the European Space Agency’s earth observation satellites give a better understanding of the conditions that effect crops and grazing lands.

These are both vital components in agricultural production.

Sitting at an altitude of more than two thousand metres is the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa – the operational centre of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation for the whole of Eastern Africa.

Mafa Chipeta is the Sub-regional coordinator for the FAO for Southern Africa. He says that satellite data has helped increase cereal production in Ethiopia. But production is fragile and with a failure of the short rains, which account for 15 % of grain in the country, the total for the whole sub region is suffering. Since 1986 the price of basic food commodities has gone up by 56% hitting one of the most fragile countries head-on.

Pack animals and cattle are among the main resources for the population.

Potentially satellite imagery could assist in identifying potential pastureland, even at the end of the dry season.

Knowledge of the weather is also vital. Previously the nomads had to rely on experience to survive in this sometimes-hostile environment, but now meteorological data from satellites can help predict conditions.

Whether it’s drought, thundering floods, swarms of locusts or parasitic plants, all make for a fragile ecosystem.

But there’s an unseen eye keeping constant watch over Africa – and indeed other continents – from way above their heads: satellites.

And Europe is contributing with ENVISAT, the huge earth observation satellite from the European Space Agency.

At the Food and Agriculture Organisation headquarters in Rome, they use satellite data to follow coverage of vegetation and weather conditions virtually in real time.

That gives scientists a valuable forecasting tool and to some degree, an early-warning system.

Jeff Tschirley is the Chief of the Environment and Climate Change Unit at the FAO. He concedes that satellite data could go a lot further and that sometime is would be useful to have even more of the information that they provide.

Just outside Rome, in Frascati, data from different ESA satellites converge at the Centre for Earth Observation, ESRIN.

ESRIN’s have receivers for the European satellite Artemis, which relays data from an instrument called MERIS on board the earth observation satellite ENVISAT.

The satellite takes pictures of global vegetation every two or three days.

By analysing these images we can create a map showing how the ground is covered on a scale never before achieved.

By comparing the maps chronologically, scientists can study the development of ground coverage, humidity and the climate.

This data can then be used to create models for more accurate forecasting.

Africa needs to feed an ever-expanding population.

In Ethiopia, the population was 27 million in 1970, it’s 80 million today, and it’s reckoned to become 120 million in 15 years.

In a country with a high dependency on agriculture and pastoral grazing, satellite data that helps in the prediction of conditions becomes an invaluable tool in the fight against food scarcity.

AP

Source 3News

EARSC had the excellent opportunity of including a short interview with Mr. Hervé Buret, the Solutions & Applications Director from the Navigation & Integrated Communications Business Unit of Thales Alenia Space to talk about some aspects relevant for the European and International Navigation/LBS sector and possible links with geo-information.


INTRODUCTION

Please tell us something generic about your company development on navigation and LBS Thales Alenia Space is leading the Assisted-based infrastructures based on EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) and is providing advanced GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) solutions to the whole Thales group for transport, defence and security

BUSSINESS

What expectations do you think customers have on navigation products?

Simplicity, high level of performances (TTFF (Time to First Fix), light indoor coverage, good behaviour in urban canyon)

MARKETS, TRENDS & MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

In your opinion, how is the market reacting to merging technologies?

The PND (Portable Navigation Device) market in Europe should decrease in the coming years to let the room to mix GSM/GNSS market (Global System for Mobile Communications/Global Navigation Satellite Systems). Also, new markets will develop on Transport, Security and Defence

What countries are showing the most growth potential on these technologies?

US, Japan, France, UK

LBS)

What trends your foreseen for the wider availability of low-cost and easy to base LBS and geo-information?

-Mobile operators with their strong custormer based assets should push for use of LBS services
-Institutionnal entities should push for the use of EGNOS/Galileo through regulation (dangerous goods, road-tolling, multimodal, precise e112)

How are technologies like Galileo having an impact on the geo-information market?

Galileo introduction should offer improved GNSS performances such as data integrity

INTEROPERABILITY, QUALITY & STANDARS

As we see on A-GPS, standard adoption was a pre-requisite to market development. Same should happened and be encouraged on other segments, particurlaly to prepare the introduction of Galileo (to be used as a differentiator vs GPS).

Coming to the interoperability issues how do you compare your products with others?

Terminal vendors are performing full inter-operability testing with TAS products to assure a high level of performances. It is a key issue for them

Mr. Buret, thank you for your time, and for sharing your thoughts and comments with the EOmag readers

Interview Contact
Hervé Buret
Solutions & Applications Director
Navigation &Integrated Communications Business Unit
Thales Alenia Space
email: herve.buret@thalesaleniaspace.com
Tel: +33 (0)5 34 35 7035

In this issue of EOMAG, EARSC had the opportunity to feature an interview with: Rob van Essen, VP Research & Development at TeleAtlas and Simon Glassman, Segment Marketing Director Wireless at Tele Atlas


INTRODUCTION

Please tell us something about your company: your business focus, your market share and strategy for growth

Rob: Tele Atlas delivers the digital maps and dynamic content that power some of the world’s most essential navigation and location-based services (LBS). Through a combination of its own products and partnerships, Tele Atlas offers map coverage of more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, including nearly 29 million kilometres of roads, nearly two billion inhabitants, and 30 million Points of Interest (POIs)

Collaborating with an expanding universe of pioneers in personal navigation, Internet, wireless, automotive, enterprise and public service markets, Tele Atlas delivers valuable products and services that help users find the people, places, products, and services they need, wherever they are.

Today, Tele Atlas maps are developed with the insight of a community of millions of GPS system users worldwide, who are adding to the company’s unmatched network of sources to track and validate changes in real time, and deliver the best digital maps and dynamic content.

Tele Atlas is a subsidiary of TomTom N.V. For more information: www.teleatlas.com

What is your company like to work for?

Rob: We are a global company that operates in a rapidly evolving market. Tele Atlas was founded in 1984 and currently employs more than 2,000 full-time and contract cartographers in 24 countries around the world. In a sense, “multi-cultural” is what best describes our company culture.

Working at Tele Atlas means working in a challenging environment, where everyone is encouraged to contribute their ideas, knowledge and efforts in order to achieve a shared goal and sustain our culture.

The Navigation Destination
Tele Atlas delivers the digital maps and dynamic content that power some of the world’s most essential navigation and location-based services. The information is the foundation for a wide range of personal and in-car navigation systems and mobile and Internet map applications that help users find the people, places, and services they need, wherever they are.

BUSSINESS

What expectations do customers have for product development and marketing?

Rob: Our customers also expect that our maps are the mirror of reality, with high-quality content and map coverage around the world. Community feedback enables Tele Atlas to update its maps quicker and to get reality into the database faster.

How do you strategise your business especially in the current scenario of competitiveness?

Rob: Tele Atlas believes that current customer requirements with regards to more coverage, more content and higher quality can only be met under the current and future business context by a rationalisation of the map production process. The acquisition of Tele Atlas by TomTom N.V. enables Tele Atlas to do that in a revolutionary way – providing Tele Atlas access to customer input of TomTom users regarding what they encounter while using the map. For this, TomTom has developed its proprietary Map Share technology which enables TomTom customers to very easily correct map errors directly on their devices and provide reports to TomTom and other users of the Map Share community on their feedback. The size of the TomTom community input at this moment already indicates that it will enable Tele Atlas to deliver the freshest maps possible. Tele Atlas also invites its other customers to contribute to the community via additional channels.

What are the forthcoming products/services from your company in next couple of years?

Rob: Community Input enables Tele Atlas to revolutionize navigation. Through the cooperation with TomTom it has been possible to generate and develop Tele Atlas Speed Profiles, which provides highly accurate speed profile information to allow end-users of navigation systems to better estimate their travel time and to find the most optimal routes to their destinations. In practice Speed Profiles can save minutes or even hours as opposed to the existing methods of routing calculation.

Tele Atlas will also make navigation dynamic, taking the actual traffic situation into account, deriving information from even more detailed and extensive sources than traditional traffic information. As a consequence, many more roads will be covered with much more detail.

MARKETS, TRENDS & MERGING TECHNOLOGIES

What is the market reacting to merging technologies?

Simon: It’s an exciting time for the LBS market right now. Many major players, including Apple, Google and TomTom, together with the major mobile operators and device manufacturers are investing. The arrival of mainstream mobile phones with integrated GPS and other location technology is enabling compelling services such as navigation and mobile local search to be readily available to a wide range of consumers. We expect that the next generation of LBS applications will be characterized in a number of ways:

There will be more LBS applications for the consumer and the enterprise.

This is a result of both technology and commercial barriers disappearing and application developers gaining access the tools and enablers they need to build LBS applications. Additionally, consumer awareness, usability, quality and price are all influential factors that are now being addressed.

Location ‘enhanced’ applications are starting to appear.

Whereas LBS services such as navigation have location and mapping at the core, there will be new mobile application categories that have yet to exploit location in a significant way. For example, many of the latest Web 2.0 social networking applications that have seen major uptake on the internet are moving to mobile, and these are being enhanced with location, maps and presence in innovative ways. Similarly, mobile gaming, friend-finders, geo-tagging, blogs and travel guides, as well as business / enterprise oriented services in areas such as fleet management and logistics will become increasingly prevalent. At Tele Atlas we are working hard to build additional layers of content and attribution to further enhance our maps and ensure that there is plenty of opportunity for LBS application developers to innovate. For example, we have an extensive database of Points of Interest (POIs), 2D and 3D City maps, 3D landmarks, and aerial and satellite imagery that provide options for developer creativity. In addition to GPS and a variety of other location determination mechanisms, the latest mobile devices now have the necessary processing power and display capabilities to take advantage of many of these new digital map features. We are also collaborating with the major chipset manufacturers and specialized technology providers to ensure our products deliver the consumer electronics-quality user experiences on mobile devices.

In your opinion, what countries are showing the most growth potential?

Simon: The US and Asia are currently the most mature markets in terms of LBS application deployment but we see major growth potential in Europe and also emerging markets including China, India and Latin America.

What are your target markets? What is your marketing and sales model?

Simon: Tele Atlas serves a diverse range of markets including Automotive, Internet, Wireless, Personal Navigation, Enterprise and Government. We collaborate with partners to build marketing and business models and are frequently flexible to our approach in this area. For example, in wireless, which is still a nascent market, we see scope of a wide variety of business and licensing models including those based on subscription, transactions, ‘try-and-buy’ and, in future, advertising subsidised. We are part of the ecosystem that is helping to create the LBS market, and all players need to be flexible to ensure models are implemented that meet the needs and expectation of suppliers, and also increase the uptake of applications and services by consumers.

LBS

What trends do you foresee for the wider availability of low-cost and easy to base LBS and geo-information?

Simon: We see increasing use of community input as key to enhancing the quality, richness and value of map data and other forms of geo-coded content. At Tele Atlas, we are already embracing community input in a number of ways. For example, we enable consumers to feedback on anomalies they find in the road network or to inform us if they come across interesting new points of interest. We are also using the large installed base of TomTom personal navigation devices as real time probes in interesting ways. Both to identify and verify changes in the road network, and also as a means to build highly detailed profiles of actual road speeds. This data in turn leads, for example, to the availability of more accurate routing calculations in the products developed and sold by our customers. We also foresee wider use of mobile devices as a valuable source of community input, as consumers interact with the environment around them in different ways – capturing and geo-tagging photos of interesting POIs, for example. We also expect to see demand for more content to support out-of vehicle use cases – for example, data for use by pedestrians. 2D and 3D imagery – used not so much for navigation, but more for user orientation when out walking around cities, will become increasingly relevant.

Where do you think the location based technology or industry is heading for?

Simon: Location is moving from becoming just a discrete application to an enabler for a wide range of new applications and services. Turn-by-turn navigation will remain a key component of the LBS market proposition, but the convergence of web, mobile and even automotive propositions will bring about whole new categories of solutions that use location, presence, mapping data and a rich variety of geo-coded content to deliver new services to consumers. Also, as more devices start to include new technologies, including electronic compasses, accelerometers as well as A-GPS and other location determination mechanisms, this will open up opportunities for even more innovative LBS applications.

How are technologies like Galileo having an impact on the geo-information market?

Rob: Galileo is well poised to be an important stimulant to the LBS and navigation sector. It should give rise to a large number of Government based applications (e.g. road pricing) and safety critical applications. Based on this, also new types of commercial applications will develop. These all will contribute to a fast expanding geo-information market.

FUTURE & SOCIETY

At the end of the interview, here is the opportunity for your final thoughts on latest developments In general which is your vision for the future? What do you see as the task ahead?

Rob: We are commited to driving industry innovation – to the next era in digital mapping which will be a world where community based input and real time data help create the best experience for digital map users by providing much fresher maps and more dynamic content. Our products will deliver and set the standard for a completely new level of quality, content and innovation that helps our partners deliver the best products. We’re very excited about the possibilities of what is to come next!

CONTACT
Sandra Van Hauwaert
Global Communications Specialist
Gaston Crommenlaan 4, bus 0501, 9050 Gent – Belgium
+32(0)9 244 92 22 direct
http://www.teleatlas.com

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Information about YDO scheduled events
Second International Conference
Advanced Space Technologies for the Humankind Prosperity
Start Date: April 15, 2009
End Date: April 17, 2009
Venue: Palace of Students, Shevchenko Park,
Dnepropetrovsk, 49027, Ukraine
E-mail: info@dpukrconfiaa.org
http://www.dpukrconfiaa.org
Third Space and Society Conference
Space: the Human Dimension
Start Date: April 15, 2009
End Date: April 17, 2009
Venue: Palace of Students, Shevchenko Park,
Dnepropetrovsk, 49027, Ukraine
E-mail: info@ yuzhnoye.com
http:// www.space-humandimension.org