Successful conclusion of ESDIN project delivers data quality follow-up work for 1Spatial

Cambridge, UK, 27^th April 2011. 1Spatial is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the European Spatial Data Infrastructure with a Best Practice Network (ESDIN) project and the company’s new engagement with EuroGeographics to assist with the data quality assurance of their EuroRegionalMap (ERM) data.

The ESDIN project, funded under the eContentplus programme and coordinated by EuroGeographics, was a collaborative programme to provide best practice guidance for harmonising geographic digital content from across Europe and assist countries in meeting their INSPIRE obligations.

During the project 1Spatial was primarily engaged in four work packages developing procedures and guidelines for data quality evaluation, edge matching and generalisation. The development of pilot service environments enabled the demonstration of the benefits that automation can bring to organisations’ data management strategies when deployed in the context of well-defined process models.

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1Spatial delivers real-time counter-piracy alert service extension to Pole Star’s Ship Security Reporting System (SSRS)

6^th April 2011, Cambridge, UK.  1Spatial, provider of intelligent data quality and integration solutions, has delivered to Pole Star Space Applications Limited (UK) a real-time alert service extension to Pole Star’s counter-piracy ‘Ship Security and Reporting System’ (www.ssrs.org),  originally developed by 1Spatial for Pole Star in 2009 and operational since the beginning of 2010.

The current form of the ‘Ship Security Alert System’ (SSAS) regulation (SOLAS XI-1/6) requires ship security alerts to be routed only to the shipping company and the Flag. However, one or both of these organisations may not have an effective 24/7 monitoring operation in place or have only manual escalation procedures to communicate the piracy attack to the relevant naval coordination centre (e.g. MSCHOA / UKMTO). As a result, a critical delay may be introduced before the relevant naval forces operating in the area are informed of a piracy attack (e.g. EUNAVFOR).

Pole Star’s SSRS continuously and automatically monitors security alerts transmitted by subscribed ships.  This uses the SSAS and compares the location with pre-defined Areas of Operations (e.g. Gulf of Aden / Horn of Africa). The system then routes the associated SSRS alert, enhanced over the original SSAS alert with other relevant details such as freeboard, speed and communication terminal details, to the relevant naval coordination centre in a digital format the related agencies involved can use. The system thus provides Naval forces with immediate location-information knowledge of a piracy attack and other relevant ship specific information.

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1Spatial “Mapping on Demand” for German State Mapping Agency

Cambridge, UK, 31^st March 2011. 1Spatial, provider of intelligent data quality and integration solutions, is delighted to announce that the Federal State Mapping organisation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany have purchased 1Spatial’s flagship Radius Studio solution.

Baden-Württemberg will be using Radius Studio in their TFIS (Special Tourist Map) production workflow. The rules-based technology, at the heart of Radius Studio, will enable previously time-consuming, manual tasks to be automated. This will not only deliver new levels of efficiency within the production workflow, but will also mean that Baden-Württemberg can attain more consistent and high quality map production with regular updates and a ‘mapping on demand’ service to their customers.

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UK joint team complete EC sponsored project

RSW Geomatics, 1Spatial, and Rob Walker Consultancy have recently completed the EC sponsored Technical Guidance for anyone faced with implementing a Schema Transformation Network Service.  This guidance captures key use cases and recommends an architecture.

It has now been published at http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm/newsid/10241  and includes comprehensive documentation, a report on the prototype web service – demonstrated at last June’s INSPIRE conference in Krakow – and an introductory video in three languages. 

In a detailed state-of-the-art analysis (already published) current tools and standards were reviewed but found lacking in openness and usability. The Technical Guidance recommends that implementations should be based on open standards; should be vendor neutral and interoperable; based on rigorous internationally proven standards; and capable of effective and automatic operation.

Part of the prototype is now being incorporated into the Humboldt project software – as an extension to the HALE alignment editor – to provide Rule Interchange Format (RIF) output. RIF has recently been accepted as a W3C standard.

For further information on the technical guidance, visit www.1spatial.com or contact Robin Waters at robin.waters@rswgeomatics.com .

Building stronger INSPIRE based community networks: Extending HUMBOLDT outcomes for INSPIRE schema transformation services

1Spatial, including other consortium members; RSW Geomatics and Rob Walker Consultancy, has just completed a project for the Joint Research Council (JRC) on Schema Transformation Network Services for INSPIRE. The project involved a review of the current tools and standards available to the community to achieve schema transformation into INSPIRE compliant data structures. The primary objective was to develop Technical Guidance for the practical implementation of the INSPIRE Implementing Rules for schema transformation. 

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