Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/103965
NEWSLINK Massive Geospatial Project for Navajo Nation Draws Praise A project to lay a geospatial "foundation" for the sprawling Navajo Nation's housing authority earned a Wisconsin geospatial company accolades from a national mapping association. AeroMetric undertook an effort to collect data over 19.2 million acres in the Navajo Nation—primarily for use in a land information system for the Navajo Housing Authority (NHA). The work earned the company the Geospatial Services Excellence Grand Award from the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS), a national association of firms working in the fields of remote sensing, spatial data and GIS. The win marks the second year in a row that the company snagged the MAPPS award. "There were several major challenges associated with this project: dealing with the complexity of five state-plane coordinate systems and two UTM zones, coordinating image acquisition over a vast area in a very short timeframe, and addressing the rugged terrain and unforgiving variations of reflectivity in the desert surface," said Marvin Miller, senior vice president at AeroMetric. "Our team developed a solution based on a custom map projection, created specifically for the Navajo Housing Authority, setting 73 control monuments across the rugged 19.2-million-acre area. We utilized five aircraft systematically coordinated to cover the project area in record time." For the NHA and the U.S. Army officials helping to coordinate the project, the work should give the Navajo Nation—the largest U.S. tribe—a solid geospatial foundation to use for housing, management, development and economic growth. "The NHA-specific map projection, detailed digital elevation data and four-band orthoimagery provide a comprehensive digital land base for the authority's new land information system," said Ted Stanton, administrator of the Navajo Housing Authority project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Not only did this project deliver a tool to help the Navajo Nation improve the delivery of its public services, it also provides a model for how other public-sector entities can partner with the geospatial profession to cost-effectively deliver very large, complex projects," added Robert Burtch, Ferris State University professor emeritus and chairman of the MAPPS judges' panel. Topcon and Vatican Team on African Agriculture Training AEROMETRIC Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) is working with the Vatican to develop a program for introducing young people in developing countries to precise positioning for agriculture. Cameroon, Ethiopia and Ghana are among the countries targeted for the program's first projects, and initial training will take place at a TPS location in Italy. Classes will consist of 12 students, with students being chosen by clergy in their respective diocese and trained in agriculture technologies by TPS staff. Company officials envision the new initiative as having global appeal and say that, after the program is established, other companies—such as equipment makers and seed suppliers—will be invited to participate. "By using the most sophisticated technologies in the marketplace today, the project focuses the importance of using the most sustainable and respectful use of environmental resources," said Ivan Di Federico, TPS chief strategy officer. "The key to success in agricultural endeavors is not the quantity of the land available, but how to achieve the greatest efficiency in the land's use. In many countries, agriculture is a step to mere survival. The use of modern technologies to enhance yields, while saving time and money, Imagery from AeroMetric's work for the Navajo Housing Authority shows collected will go a long way to help struggling planimetry and orthophotography from digital mapping camera photography. nations grow and prosper." 8 G E O W O R L D / J A N U A R Y 2 O 1 3 Imagery/LIDAR Special Issue