The Influence of Technology on the Land Surveying Profession

Land surveying has grown from a technical occupation into a profession. This study traces the rise of professions and the criteria that defines the requirements for an occupation to be granted such status. It then recognises the origins and importance of accurate measurement in antiquity before following the developments in land surveying that changed the occupation in late medieval England from that of an estate manager or overseer to one of an expert in land measurement. The research identifies this period as a paradigm shift, the first, making the following period the 2nd paradigm in land surveying. There follows a comparison between the present institutional arrangements for surveying and the criteria established for the status of a profession. It concludes that land surveying in its current form meets the requirements of a profession. Following a discussion on the nature of modern surveying, consideration is given to the changes that have taken place in the last 60 years. The challenges faced as a result of technological change, through first the electronic age and then the digital age, are identified. The question of whether these challenges and their resultant developments have fundamentally changed the profession, heralding a 3rd paradigm, is then addressed. The views of land surveying academics, practitioners, senior government employees and staff of professional institutions in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are addressed through exploring their views, by in-person interviews, of what sits at the core of land surveying today. Specifically they are asked to address the changes that have taken place by considering what has been abandoned as obsolete in degree programmes and in practice, and what has taken its place. It is concluded that land surveying remains a profession with unique expertise in the management of all aspects of measurement data, its gathering, its analysis, its presentation and its storage. No new paradigm is identified. Using methodology based in grounded theory, the research identified related issues for the profession. The first was the belief that land surveying, as a profession, had a poor public image and was identified with only the field aspects of the profession. It was apparent that the poor public image was linked to a poor self-image by surveyors themselves. Attempts to change that image by the adoption of a new term, geomatics, in the late 20th century has not delivered the anticipated improvements, and dissatisfaction with the term was identified in all of the jurisdictions visited. In the meantime it was apparent that the term “geospatial’ was gaining popular use and was replacing, by stealth, references to geomatics

Journal of Applied Hydrography

Fokusthema: International Issue: Joint publication by AFHy and DHyG for HYDRO 2

A Foundation for Spatial Thinking: Towards a Threshold Concept Framework in GIScience and its Implications for STEM Education

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is a fairly modern, rapidly emerging multidisciplinary field, addressing the theories and concepts behind the spatial technology called Geographic Information Systems (GIS). With the proliferation of this technology, the demand for GIS professionals has also increased, as has pressure to support their competency in the community of practice. This study investigates a framework of threshold concepts to provide insight into the learning process for distinctive ways of thinking and practising within GIScience. Despite some theoretical investigations of this framework, no empirical studies have explored learner insights on this topic and its implications. The main goal of the study is to investigate empirical evidence of a threshold concept framework in GIScience and its potential implications for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The investigation relied on data collected through survey questionnaires and personal interviews, administered in an introductory GIS course at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The qualitative assessment of the study was based on a phenomenographic approach to examine different ways in which students experience GIS learning. First, threshold concepts were explored and examined based on their transformative, irreversible, integrative, bounded, and troublesome characteristics. In addition, statistical analyses were employed to identify important factors promoting student proficiency in GIScience. These factors were further examined with respect to variations in students’ discipline-specific ways of thinking and practising. The implications for STEM education were also discussed, in terms of shared misconceptions, spatial thinking abilities, and academic and career competencies. Findings from this study suggest that the most prominent threshold concepts perceived by GIScience students are map projections and advantages and disadvantages of raster and vector data models, which are likely to open up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking (i.e., ways of looking at a map). Important factors for students to acquire an understanding of such concepts were also identified, including academic preparedness, educational status, major field of study, type of academic background, ArcGIS software experience, GIS learning resource, and prior subject learning experience in mathematics, GIS, programming, or computer science. The implications include enhanced spatial thinking ability, as well as creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, all of which can help to promote interest and self-confidence in pursuing STEM fields. Overall, results from this study offer valuable insights for enhancing the efficacy of teaching and learning in GIScience

Senseable Spaces: from a theoretical perspective to the application in augmented environments

openGrazie all’ enorme diffusione di dispositivi senzienti nella vita di tutti i giorni, nell’ ultimo decennio abbiamo assistito ad un cambio definitivo nel modo in cui gli utenti interagiscono con lo spazio circostante. Viene coniato il termine Spazio Sensibile, per descrivere quegli spazi in grado di fornire servizi contestuali agli utenti, misurando e analizzando le dinamiche che in esso avvengono, e di reagire conseguentemente a questo continuo flusso di dati bidirezionale. La ricerca è stata condotta abbracciando diversi domini di applicazione, le cui singole esigenze hanno reso necessario testare il concetto di Spazi Sensibili in diverse declinazioni, mantenendo al centro della ricerca l’utente, con la duplice accezione di end-user e manager. Molteplici sono i contributi rispetto allo stato dell’ arte. Il concetto di Spazio Sensibile è stato calato nel settore dei Beni Culturali, degli Spazi Pubblici, delle Geosciences e del Retail. I casi studio nei musei e nella archeologia dimostrano come l’ utilizzo della Realtà Aumentata possa essere sfruttata di fronte a un dipinto o in outdoor per la visualizzazione di modelli complessi, In ambito urbano, il monitoraggio di dati generati dagli utenti ha consentito di capire le dinamiche di un evento di massa, durante il quale le stesse persone fruivano di servizi contestuali. Una innovativa applicazione di Realtà Aumentata è stata come servizio per facilitare l’ ispezione di fasce tampone lungo i fiumi, standardizzando flussi di dati e modelli provenienti da un Sistema Informativo Territoriale. Infine, un robusto sistema di indoor localization è stato istallato in ambiente retail, per scopi classificazione dei percorsi e per determinare le potenzialità di un punto vendita. La tesi è inoltre una dimostrazione di come Space Sensing e Geomatica siano discipline complementari: la geomatica consente di acquisire e misurare dati geo spaziali e spazio temporali a diversa scala, lo Space Sensing utilizza questi dati per fornire servizi all’ utente precisi e contestuali.Given the tremendous growth of ubiquitous services in our daily lives, during the last few decades we have witnessed a definitive change in the way users' experience their surroundings. At the current state of art, devices are able to sense the environment and users’ location, enabling them to experience improved digital services, creating synergistic loop between the use of the technology, and the use of the space itself. We coined the term Senseable Space, to define the kinds of spaces able to provide users with contextual services, to measure and analyse their dynamics and to react accordingly, in a seamless exchange of information. Following the paradigm of Senseable Spaces as the main thread, we selected a set of experiences carried out in different fields; central to this investigation there is of course the user, placed in the dual roles of end-user and manager. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the definition of this new paradigm, realized in the following domains: Cultural Heritage, Public Open Spaces, Geosciences and Retail. For the Cultural Heritage panorama, different pilot projects have been constructed from creating museum based installations to developing mobile applications for archaeological settings. Dealing with urban areas, app-based services are designed to facilitate the route finding in a urban park and to provide contextual information in a city festival. We also outlined a novel application to facilitate the on-site inspection by risk managers thanks to the use of Augmented Reality services. Finally, a robust indoor localization system has been developed, designed to ease customer profiling in the retail sector. The thesis also demonstrates how Space Sensing and Geomatics are complementary to one another, given the assumption that the branches of Geomatics cover all the different scales of data collection, whilst Space Sensing gives one the possibility to provide the services at the correct location, at the correct time.INGEGNERIA DELL'INFORMAZIONEembargoed_20181001Pierdicca, RobertoPierdicca, Robert

Curriculum and pedagogical developments within university surveying & geomatics courses

In the last three decades there have been major changes in how surveying is practiced, and what surveyors have been trained and educated to do with the new expertise that technological advancements offer. Within surveying communities it is generally acknowledged that the changes in the profession have brought about an urgent need for change in educational programmes if they are to have relevance to contemporary practice. The thesis reports on a research study which explored the nature and impact of the educational strategies used in university surveying courses. The study employed a nested case study approach at two levels. Firstly, fifteen initial case studies of university programmes from thirteen countries provided a broad perspective of surveying education across the world. Secondly, two of these programmes were selected for in-depth comparative case studies to provide deeper understandings of the educational systems in two distinct contexts. The inquiry methods for the initial case studies included documentary analysis and interviews of senior academics and representatives of professional surveying bodies. For the two in-depth case studies, the inquiry methods included observations of pedagogical activities, focussed group discussions and interviews of university staff and students as well as professional surveyors. The interviews were recorded and thematically analysed. Some concepts from Bourdieu’s theory of practice were useful in coming to understandings about the interrelationship between the field of surveying education and the field of surveying practice. The study identified tensions and prospects within and between the programmes studied and between them and the profession. The key issues that emerged were: the predominance of highly discipline specific curricula with some indication of a shifting to a more broad-based education; tensions between industry expectations and the academic focus; a high level of interest in the university courses from the profession and uncertainty about the real meaning of geomatics and its relevance to local surveying communities. The findings have critical implications for how surveying/geomatics educational courses are developed in the future. The empirical evidence led to the development of a proposed improved model for contemporary surveying/geomatics education

Senseable Spaces: from a theoretical perspective to the application in augmented environments

Grazie all’ enorme diffusione di dispositivi senzienti nella vita di tutti i giorni, nell’ ultimo decennio abbiamo assistito ad un cambio definitivo nel modo in cui gli utenti interagiscono con lo spazio circostante. Viene coniato il termine Spazio Sensibile, per descrivere quegli spazi in grado di fornire servizi contestuali agli utenti, misurando e analizzando le dinamiche che in esso avvengono, e di reagire conseguentemente a questo continuo flusso di dati bidirezionale. La ricerca è stata condotta abbracciando diversi domini di applicazione, le cui singole esigenze hanno reso necessario testare il concetto di Spazi Sensibili in diverse declinazioni, mantenendo al centro della ricerca l’utente, con la duplice accezione di end-user e manager. Molteplici sono i contributi rispetto allo stato dell’ arte. Il concetto di Spazio Sensibile è stato calato nel settore dei Beni Culturali, degli Spazi Pubblici, delle Geosciences e del Retail. I casi studio nei musei e nella archeologia dimostrano come l’ utilizzo della Realtà Aumentata possa essere sfruttata di fronte a un dipinto o in outdoor per la visualizzazione di modelli complessi, In ambito urbano, il monitoraggio di dati generati dagli utenti ha consentito di capire le dinamiche di un evento di massa, durante il quale le stesse persone fruivano di servizi contestuali. Una innovativa applicazione di Realtà Aumentata è stata come servizio per facilitare l’ ispezione di fasce tampone lungo i fiumi, standardizzando flussi di dati e modelli provenienti da un Sistema Informativo Territoriale. Infine, un robusto sistema di indoor localization è stato istallato in ambiente retail, per scopi classificazione dei percorsi e per determinare le potenzialità di un punto vendita. La tesi è inoltre una dimostrazione di come Space Sensing e Geomatica siano discipline complementari: la geomatica consente di acquisire e misurare dati geo spaziali e spazio temporali a diversa scala, lo Space Sensing utilizza questi dati per fornire servizi all’ utente precisi e contestuali.Given the tremendous growth of ubiquitous services in our daily lives, during the last few decades we have witnessed a definitive change in the way users' experience their surroundings. At the current state of art, devices are able to sense the environment and users’ location, enabling them to experience improved digital services, creating synergistic loop between the use of the technology, and the use of the space itself. We coined the term Senseable Space, to define the kinds of spaces able to provide users with contextual services, to measure and analyse their dynamics and to react accordingly, in a seamless exchange of information. Following the paradigm of Senseable Spaces as the main thread, we selected a set of experiences carried out in different fields; central to this investigation there is of course the user, placed in the dual roles of end-user and manager. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the definition of this new paradigm, realized in the following domains: Cultural Heritage, Public Open Spaces, Geosciences and Retail. For the Cultural Heritage panorama, different pilot projects have been constructed from creating museum based installations to developing mobile applications for archaeological settings. Dealing with urban areas, app-based services are designed to facilitate the route finding in a urban park and to provide contextual information in a city festival. We also outlined a novel application to facilitate the on-site inspection by risk managers thanks to the use of Augmented Reality services. Finally, a robust indoor localization system has been developed, designed to ease customer profiling in the retail sector. The thesis also demonstrates how Space Sensing and Geomatics are complementary to one another, given the assumption that the branches of Geomatics cover all the different scales of data collection, whilst Space Sensing gives one the possibility to provide the services at the correct location, at the correct time

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio