Through a shift to in-space compute, PCI Geomatics (DBA CATALYST) unveils a capability that outputs precision-corrected imagery aboard the vehicle, accelerating insight for operators. By moving heavy workloads upstream, missions allocate power and CPU more wisely while preserving imaging quality. The approach brings photogrammetric rigor to the edge without sacrificing fidelity.

Instead of beaming unrectified frames for later correction to faraway analysts, operators can receive geo-ready maps that reach Earth already corrected. The earlier ground-heavy model demanded expansive facilities, high‑rate links, and specialty staff, stretching timelines. Distortions from terrain and the sensor model are corrected before delivery. Within this flow, the step list includes terrain rectification, and only after several passes does orthorectification happen upstream of transmission.

The legacy path also leaned on large antenna farms and compute clusters, which drove up costs and turnaround time. As fleets continue to grow, scarce spectrum must serve many modern platforms in space, which lengthens queues. When capacity is rationed among many vehicles, the effect is amplified for large satellite platforms.

Inside the CATALYST software chain, two core operators—responsible for terrain correction and precise positioning—run in a lean in‑space pipeline tuned for modern rad‑hard processors. Because compute happens prior to sending data home, delay is cut drastically and insights flow while events are unfolding. With this approach, operators act immediately during time‑critical scenarios, including on‑orbit detections and rapid tasking. Applications range from disaster response to monitoring infrastructure, with algorithm support for onboard analytics. Because compute now runs aloft, a cascade of corrections executes first—map alignment, sensor model updates, and only then orthorectification and geolocation—so users act faster.

During emergencies, a cloud and shadow filter can run on multispectral collections before the pass ends, pushing alerts in minutes and cueing aerial assets.

Articles

Orthorectification at The Source For Satellite Missions

Editor's Note: In a field that evolves as rapidly as geospatial information science and technologies, the idea of “getting a GIS job” may not be as straight-forward as it sounds. What are employers looking for, and how do you know that your training and education will get you there? Join Directions Magazine as we begin a short series of articles examining these topics.

Was there really ever a time when all you needed to know to get a GIS job was how to do a few software tasks and design a map or two, or is that as overly idealistic and unrealistic as the image of every 1950s household having an apple pie cooling on an open window sill?

If you did manage to get a job on that "lick, spit and promise," are you still in that position? What daily tasks are expected of you now that didn’t even exist 15 years ago?

New GIS degree and certificate programs continue to launch each year. Keeping curricula current, and instructors both confident and competent, is a perpetual challenge. There are also more numerous and diverse approaches to professional development than ever before. Is there validity in the Monday-morning-quarterback statement that what employers want, what degree programs provide, and what students actually learn are always out of synch?

In an effort to understand distinctions and requirements of GIS jobs, Jung Eun (Jessie) Hong, an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of West Georgia, recently completed a content analysis of GIS job advertisements. She compiled almost 1000 GIS job postings, spanning 2007 – 2014, from GIScareers.com, GISjobs.com and the GIS Jobs Clearinghouse. The titles of the jobs were used to sort the positions into five different job categories:

Though programmers, developers and engineers differ in training and expectations, their primary job tasks are similar enough to be grouped at this scale. The “Other” category included GIS coordinators, instructors and the like.

Then, individual skills specified in each ad — such as data mining, web mapping, programming or project management, for example — were all coded into four technical areas:

Hong then used this coded information in NVivo, a product designed for analyzing text-based content.

What were the similarities and differences in skills among the five job categories? The most requested skill set across all jobs involved analysis and modeling, with over 56% of all job ads specifically referencing such needs. This includes such tasks as aerial image interpretation, data analysis, database development, data mining, network analysis and/or the use of spatial statistics. The second most requested skill set was a general one: communication, interpersonal skills, and self-motivation and independence.

Within job categories, the similarities were more interesting than the differences. Not surprisingly, the number one most requested skill for a programmer/developer/engineer was web or mobile application development; 57.4% of all job postings within that group identified that skill. But what was the most frequently expected skills for the other four categories of GIS jobs positions? Communication skills, above all other technical or more job-specific needs, with up to 45.9% of the postings specifying that skill set.

Another revealing result from within each job category was that database development was ranked as the second most frequently desired skill across all five job type categories. Within the domain of GIS&T, "database development" can have a specific meaning for a specific use case, but those two words are also common and important on their own within the fields of computer science and information technology. Their high frequency designation as a skill across all of these GIS job postings may reflect diverse and different interpretations of what “database development” actually means in a given scenario...which makes us wonder about the myriad ways that “communication” itself plays out in the world of GIS&T.

In practice, communication skills can include everything from accurately representing one’s self on a resume to finding out during an interview that everyone is interpreting “database development” in distinctive ways. In the Venn diagram world of database development, surely there is overlap with data manipulation, programming, and/or database design. Are you ready for that? Or, does the new boss really just need someone to populate an Excel spreadsheet and join it to a shapefile? Either way, whether you are a wise boss or an eager job seeker, are you prepared to listen carefully enough to the other person so you could tactfully, professionally and courteously adjust and address the miscommunications? Voila, now you get points for interpersonal skills as well!

If the ubiquity of “database development” may reflect instances of commission, Hong’s research also illustrates an example of omission with the absence of the term “geocomputation” in any of the job ads. She had been prepared to code the term as an example of a required or desired skill within the analysis and modeling set, based on the fact that geocomputation had been identified as an entire knowledge area in the 2006 GIS&T Body of Knowledge, one of the sources for her coding information. Geocomputation had been described in the BoK as the "development and application of computationally intensive approaches to the study of complex spatial-temporal problems.” The complete absence of the term from job ads does not mean that those complex spatial-temporal problems are no longer an issue! Instead, I would suggest that the high performance computing, cellular-automata and agent-based models, and simulation modeling that once differentiated a geocomputational approach have now become expected and necessary, and thus have been integrated into analytical approaches in general. Perhaps “Big Data analytics” is more likely to be the nom du jour in a job ad of today, but these are of the same ilk.

Overall, Hong’s findings confirm what many of us have experienced over time: that technical skills will always be critical on a particular day for a particular task, but those must be complemented with a life-long ability to unravel problems. When the Department of Labor’s Geospatial Technology Competency Model was revised in 2014, the bulk of the changes were specific technical competencies in Tier 4 and above. Personal effectiveness, academic and workplace competencies, largely the "general" skills in Hong’s study, have remained as solid and important as ever.

In psychological and human resources parlance, skills are things which we can acquire and learn, while abilities are things that we have naturally. Importantly, both can be refined through training and education. To increase your employability, hone your skills as well as your abilities, and develop your competence and confidence to communicate about them both. Consider these 20 Challenging GIS Interview Questions, which are as relevant today across all types of GIS positions as when they were first published; effective communication is central to them all. 

GIS Jobs of Today: Which GIS job skills are in highest demand?

Geospatial technology has become a fundamental component of modern information systems. As societies generate growing volumes of data, the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret information through geographic context has transformed how organizations understand the world around them.

Mapping is no longer limited to visual representation. Today, geospatial tools support analysis, prediction, and strategic planning across a wide range of industries.

From Geographic Data to Spatial Understanding

At its core, geospatial technology connects data to place. This connection allows users to explore relationships between location, time, and human activity. By layering multiple datasets within a geographic framework, analysts can identify trends and interactions that are difficult to detect in non-spatial data.

Spatial understanding enables organizations to move beyond isolated data points and toward holistic views of complex systems.

Location-based analysis improves decision quality by providing context. Whether assessing infrastructure investments, managing natural resources, or analyzing market behavior, geography plays a critical role in shaping outcomes.

Geospatial technology helps decision-makers:

These capabilities support evidence-based decisions grounded in real-world conditions.

Modern geospatial platforms integrate data from diverse sources, including remote sensing, field surveys, and operational systems. Bringing these datasets together within a unified spatial environment enhances consistency and analytical depth.

Effective integration also improves collaboration, allowing teams from different disciplines to work with shared spatial information and a common geographic perspective.

Challenges in Managing Geospatial Systems

As geospatial technology evolves, organizations face challenges related to data quality, scale, and interoperability. Spatial datasets often vary in resolution, accuracy, and update frequency, requiring careful management and validation.

Addressing these challenges involves adopting standardized workflows, investing in data governance, and ensuring transparency in analytical methods.

The future of geospatial technology lies in greater automation and intelligence. Advances in analytics and computational methods are enabling systems to detect patterns, generate insights, and support decisions with minimal manual intervention.

As the world becomes more interconnected, geospatial technology will continue to play a vital role in helping organizations understand change, manage complexity, and plan for the future through spatial insight.

The Role of Geospatial Technology in a Rapidly Changing World

The City of Honolulu is embarking on a new way for citizens and visitors to travel using an elevated transit rail system. As with any new transportation system, the rail project will significantly change the way communities develop along the new transit line. In urban planning, the use of carefully planned transit facilities and accesses to promote optimum mixed-use communities is known as Transportation Oriented Development (TOD).

The City of Honolulu TOD was showcased at the Annual Esri User Conference Plenary Session. Zebra Imaging® collaborated with Esri® and the City of Honolulu to demonstrate to over 14,000 conference attendees how TOD can positively impact the communities surrounding the transit line. Esri and Zebra Imaging presented the planning approach in an innovative way, using 3D GIS analysis and visualization technologies. The use of 3D allows city planners to best communicate with public and private community stakeholders to gain buy-in for major urban infrastructure projects.

Esri has been focusing on GeoDesign process and are evolving their 2D/3D design tools within ArcGIS. Esri® used CityEngine, 3D Analyst and Spatial Analyst within the GeoDesign framework to develop urban growth and 3D density models representing different scenarios of Honolulu’s TOD development. From these models, Zebra Imaging produces a series of full color, 3D holographic images to be used in public outreach forums. Holograms provide accurate, visually compelling 3D views of the GIS analysis results and achieve fuller understanding and better evaluation by the public of the development alternatives of the TOD. Using the Esri models, Zebra Imaging’s 12 foot long hologram conveyed a true and easily understood 3D picture of how the rail will visually impact Honolulu’s downtown and surrounding communities.

Zebra Imaging also created additional channel-type images depicting Esri urban growth and density scenarios before and after the TOD. Zebra’s channeled holograms fuse two or more images into one hologram such that the picture changes as the viewer moves around the hologram. The City of Honolulu will share the 3D visualizations created from this GeoDesign collaboration project in a series of meetings and community workshops to share information with the public.

Esri UC Plenary showcases Honolulu’s Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in a 3D Hologram

CityGML is an open data standard designed to represent three-dimensional city models in a consistent, interoperable format. As urban environments grow more complex, traditional 2D mapping no longer suffices for detailed planning, simulation, and analysis. CityGML enables the storage, exchange, and visualization of rich urban information — including buildings, terrain, transportation networks, and infrastructure — in a structured way that supports advanced spatial applications. This level of detail helps cities understand physical context, promote smart growth, and integrate geospatial intelligence into planning workflows.

The standard facilitates the representation of geometry, topology, semantics, and appearance attributes, so that urban objects can be interpreted meaningfully by different software systems. By defining common rules for 3D urban data, CityGML fosters collaboration between planners, engineers, developers, and analysts who need consistent and reliable city information.

Enhancing Urban Planning and Smart City Applications

CityGML supports a wide range of planning and analysis tasks that benefit from three-dimensional context. Urban planners use CityGML models to visualize proposed developments in relation to existing infrastructure, evaluate shadow effects, and test the impact of zoning changes. Transportation specialists can analyze 3D representations of road networks and transit corridors to improve accessibility and connectivity. The ability to integrate semantic information — such as building usage or material properties — also enhances modeling precision and decision support.

As cities adopt smart city initiatives, CityGML becomes a foundation for location intelligence that spans sensor networks, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and real-time operational data. By linking 3D urban models with live data streams, municipalities can monitor infrastructure health, manage utilities more effectively, and respond dynamically to events such as traffic disruptions or extreme weather.

Interoperability and Data Integration Benefits

One of CityGML’s key strengths is interoperability. Because it adheres to well-defined schema and data structures, CityGML models can be shared across platforms, applications, and organizational boundaries without loss of meaning. This fosters efficient collaboration between stakeholders who may be using different GIS, CAD, or simulation tools, helping reduce data translation challenges and promote consistency in urban datasets.

CityGML also integrates well with other open standards, enabling organizations to build comprehensive geospatial solutions. When combined with geographic information system platforms, analytical engines, and 3D visualization tools, CityGML models become powerful assets for spatial analytics, scenario testing, and stakeholder engagement. The result is a coherent urban dataset that enhances insight and supports evidence-based decisions.

CityGML is increasingly used to support sustainability goals and environmental analysis. Planners can simulate energy use, assess shading and solar exposure, and evaluate environmental impacts of proposed developments using 3D models. Public safety agencies leverage 3D data to improve evacuation planning, risk assessment, and emergency response simulations. These applications illustrate how CityGML contributes to resilient and adaptive urban environments that respond better to changing conditions and community needs.

By embedding semantic richness and spatial precision, CityGML transforms urban datasets into actionable intelligence that supports long-term planning, operational efficiencies, and stakeholder communication. As cities embrace digital transformation, open standards like CityGML provide a scalable, interoperable foundation for next-generation spatial analysis and urban innovation.

CityGML: An Open Standard for 3D City Modeling and Urban Data Exchange

Accurate postal addresses play a vital role in most business analytics. Whether your aim is to understand your target customers, the physical infrastructure of an area, traffic flows, or even weather patterns, an accurate address is an essential first step toward linking meaningful datasets. By leveraging addresses, that place provides important context to how and why things occur as they do.

For example, most data points exist within some kind of geospatial context. For instance:

        Consumers almost always have a primary residence address.

        Businesses can have an office address, one or more warehouses, satellite offices, and more.

        Products you buy must first move through a supply chain, stopping at multiple physical locations along the way.

Most of the data that matters can be associated in some way with one or more addresses, which is why address data is an important link in providing the context you need to understand the relationships between multiple entities. A customer’s home address can offer clues to their income level, lifestyle, and what services are around them, for example. Businesses operate in the context of a broader economic environment, and location may offer clues as to a company’s competitive climate, its physical plant, and potential environmental risks.

Location unlocks a world of contextual detail about customers, competitors, markets, and opportunities. But you can only gain access to that information with accurate location data. Accurate, standardized addressing can be a meaningful first step in that process.

But on the road to achieving all those benefits, there’s a common challenge we see across industries: address verification and accurate geocoding (adding latitude and longitude coordinates).

Postal addresses can be the common thread to join disparate datasets together, but working with postal data, especially across multiple countries, can be a real challenge. It is extraordinarily difficult to standardize addresses due to variations among street names, spellings, abbreviations, numbering systems, and formatting options – especially across multiple countries. And without a verified address, it’s virtually impossible to join datasets and analyze information in its full context.

Some of the common sources of confusion and issues we see include:

        One street with multiple names, such as “Amherst Street” and “Route 101A”

        Abbreviations that lead to multiple variations of a single address

        Names and numbering schemes that may be subject to change

That’s why you need the right address verification and geocoding technology, or geo addressing – to ensure accurate and standardized address data that meets your application requirements and budget.

The solution to common addressing challenges is access to complete, accurate, and contextual data. This is accomplished using a combination of geocoding and address verification, which we at Precisely call geo addressing.

We offer the world’s leading solutions for both geocoding and geo addressing, and curate one of the largest, most accurate address databases on the planet. Our geo addressing algorithms resolve addresses to a highly accurate location, even in many cases where basic information has been omitted. We can correct errors in addresses and assign a latitude and longitude coordinate based on our vast global database of address locations.

In addition to inaccuracies, addresses are highly complex and constantly changing, and our Geo Addressing solution is built to tackle errors and complex formatting issues head on – thanks to the ability to:

        Match and validate the accuracy of addresses with Address Verification

        Associate latitude and longitude coordinates with Address Geocoding

        Enable easy and efficient look-up with Address Autocomplete

        Append a unique and persistent identifier also known as the PreciselyID for ease of enrichment

Let’s talk about that last point a bit more.

At Precisely, we don’t simply see an address as a random collection of text fields. Instead, we standardize, geocode, and verify that address, making it possible to link that information to a trusted unique and persistent ID.

The PreciselyID is a unique and consistent identifier attached to each address during geocoding. In the same way a DUNs number removes ambiguity about a business’s identity, a unique identifier resolves questions about a location.

While the PreciselyID can help to manage and organize data, it also brings greater context to data by linking an address to location-based information in one of our 400+ enrichment datasets. The unique and persistent nature of the PreciselyID facilitates this seamless data interoperability for data enrichment.

More than ever before, your address data can help you discover critical relationships in your data.

No need to rely on applications or on-prem solutions, simply access our Geocode API to integrate these industry-leading capabilities into your application or existing architecture. Your application will have ongoing access to up-to-date and accurate geocoding and address verification services.

And it’s simple to do; Precisely customers are leveraging the power of location to drive game-changing insights. Using our Geocode API for Snowflake, for example, one Data Integrity Suite customer achieved a 10% uplift in geocoding performance, with an implementation time of only 5 minutes.

Precisely’s Geocode API capabilities build data that is trusted and rich in context, when and where it’s needed most.

Addresses are as complex as they are valuable. But to fully realize that value, you need to tackle those complexities with reliable geo addressing solutions, building data that’s complete, accurate, and contextualized. Our APIs are easy to use and fit for any budget. As a result, you’ll spend less time fixing errors and missing opportunities, and more time making better decisions for your business.

Unleash the Power of Addresses without the Hassle of Managing Software

In February 2015, IEEE-USA, "the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity," released a position statement urging US government officials to support and incentivize development in the space-based remote sensing industry, for fear of falling behind foreign governments and other global commercial organizations. Although the U.S. pioneered the industry in the 1970s, Europe and Asia have surpassed our capabilities over the last decade.

"Carefully targeted investments in space-based remote sensing and geospatial imaging technologies are urgently needed to enhance the operational effectiveness of public and private sector earth observation programs that advance scientific knowledge, promote economic growth, improve public safety and ensure national security in increasingly competitive global markets," the report stated.

IEEE-USA's concerns are well-grounded. The U.S. cannot afford to fall behind since space-based remote sensing is already a major component of growth in a wide range of commercial industries. Today, remote sensing is being used to locate sub-surface commodities such as natural gas and oil; improve agricultural yields by measuring soil moisture and crop growth; and aid environmentalists in detecting air, ground and water pollution—just to name a few of its many applications. Military, national security and international crisis management applications are also increasing. And thanks to a unique convergence of economic and technical factors, the industry appears to be on the verge of an enormous growth spurt.

"The [earth observation] industry is about to get merged into the much larger big data industry in terms of geoanalytics, at which point the economic impact of the industry increases from being a few billion dollars in size to potentially tens of billions of dollars.  There are numerous indications and studies suggesting that that transition is already underway," Wade Larson, President and CEO of UrtheCast, recently told Directions Magazine.

BBC Research recently released a report on the state of the industry. The organization and report agree with Larson predicting that the global market for remote sensing products should reach nearly $8.9 billion this year and grow to $13.8 billion in 2021. The space-based conventional platforms segment of the industry is expected to grow from $3.3 billion this year to $4.3 billion in 2021.

While the industry grows, it will also continue to transform from one largely controlled by a small number of "government space, maritime and weather forecasting agencies" to one in the hands of "hundreds of small entrepreneurially driven enterprises," according to a quote in MarketWired from BBC research analyst, James Wilson.

UrtheCast is one of the entrepreneurial companies already leading the industry's transition. The Vancouver-based, Canadian company currently operates "the world's only Ultra HD 1m, full-color video camera in space"— known as Iris— and a multi-spectral sensor, Theia, from the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The company also owns and operates the Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 satellites through a Spanish subsidiary, Deimos Imaging.

UrtheCast's imagery is transmitted to a series of ground stations. Individuals, companies and government agencies can then order that video and imagery via customer service agents, or access imagery on the company's web platform APIs — in some cases, very close to realtime. Clients may request specific data and imagery over specific coordinates, and have access to open source code to create their own applications — all at a surprisingly affordable price.

The company's first space-based data began transmitting in 2014. Since then, its clientele has put the data to very innovative use:

Last year, UrtheCast partnered with the United Nations to task and deliver imagery of Palmyra's Temple of Belin Syria. "That image was used for UN-led analysis, which confirmed that the temple was indeed demolished by the extremist group ISIS," Larson said. "We also anticipate that this will be possible for missions like refugee crisis monitoring." He added, “Global Forest Watch (a World Resources Institute initiative) has begun ingesting UrtheCast data into its platform, which allows people to monitor forests across the world. This is a very admirable program, and we’re happy to have partnered with them in the name of planet stewardship.”

Some companies have used UrtheCast's imagery for some plain old fun and straight-forward advertising, as well. "The Pepsi video that featured about a dozen UrtheCast videos and the Heineken space selfie that was snapped with help from Deimos-2 [are memorable]. Those were two crowd-pleasers, and both presented unprecedented brand-driven uses of video and imagery from space," Larson shared.

What motivated the pioneering company to get into the business back in 2010, when it first unveiled its single-minded mission "to provide a high-resolution video data platform for internet users, app developers, educators, media outlets, government bodies, humanitarian relief organizations, and environmental monitoring services?"

"First, we are keen Earth Observation enthusiasts; like many others in the business, we want to see the use cases and applications of EO expand and gain far broader application and utility in society and the economy.  We think there are numerous big, important global problems that can benefit in really significant ways from the broader and more systematic application of space-based remote sensing.  And what we are doing, along with others around the world, is helping pioneer that democratization of EO data in order for it to have a huge impact upon areas as diverse as deforestation, disaster relief, agriculture, desertification, security, water management, and many other areas besides.  

Second, we believe that the industry is entering an exciting period of profound growth and change, driven by a number of important converging trends:

a reduction in the cost of building satellites thanks to new, ultrafast space-qualifiable micro-electronics

a reduction in launch costs thanks to a newly competitive international commercial launch industry

the emergence of massive, low cost cloud computing services

the maturation of the Internet for large-scale global data distribution

the emergence of many new and powerful “big data” predictive analytics and geoanalytics algorithms

the massive growth in hand held devices that provide near ubiquitous mobile and in-situ computational decision support to governments, businesses, and consumers

the rapidly accelerating growth in demand for “big data” information solutions in a wide variety of domains, including agriculture, forestry, water management, mining, infrastructure planning, environmental monitoring, transportation, shipping, security, taxation, industrial production growth prediction, urban planning, traffic, and insurance, to name a few. 

Third, we are a business and we think these new trends present an amazing opportunity to create value for our customers and our shareholders, " Larson said.

The converging trends Larson mentioned are driving the growth of the industry word-wide, so just how does his company plan to stay ahead of the competition? By releasing several more innovations currently in the works, of course. According to Larson, GIS professionals should be on the lookout for these developments coming soon:

"In addition to fully launching our UrthePlatform, UrtheCast’s 16 satellite OptiSAR™ Constellation is right now being designed to bring something very unique and special to the EO and GIS industries by offering for the first time, a fully-integrated SAR and optical imaging capability.”

OptiSAR™ will be theworld’s first fully-integrated, multispectral optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar commercial constellation of Earth Observation satellites, and more than commercial industries are interested in its capabilities. Just days ago, April 4, UrtheCast announced that it had established a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. According to the press release, OptiSAR™"is expected to provide unmatched space-imaging capabilities, enhancing support to NGA’s national security mission and the broader global remote sensing community."

"As well, our recently-announced 8 satellite UrtheDaily™ constellation has been designed to offer unprecedented coverage of the world’s landmass — the entire planet imaged at 10:30 am, everyday, with high quality multispectral imagery at 5 meter GSD.”  

To prepare for the future, you can get familiar with what UrtheCast already offers on its website. View the gallery of images; sign up for a developer's account or subscription services; or check out the company blog. If you happen to be in Vegas, stop by the National Association of Broadcasters Show this week to meet the UrtheCast Crew in person. 

Rapid growth, change predicted for remote sensing industry: Urthecast leads way

There are nearly 50,000 community and 200,000 public and private water systems in operation today.Concerns have been raised over protecting the nation's water supply from terrorist attacks.While many believe that the threat of contamination of drinking water through terrorist activities is low (those that are out of touch with reality), a grim warning from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson acknowledges the threat.In his resignation speech he stated that an attack on our food or water supply would be 'so easy to do.' However, it should be noted that there are no specific, credible threats to the nation's drinking water at this time.

In October 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began working with other government agencies and water suppliers to ensure that the nation's water supply continues to be protected from terrorist attacks.The EPA is providing local water utilities with the best scientific information as well as technical training, on conducting vulnerability assessments and enhancing emergency response plans should an attack occur.To further protect the nation's drinking water supplies, the EPA has set up a special task force to enhance protection efforts already underway.

Protecting the water supply from terrorist attacks is a very large task.With all the attention and activity since 2001 why is the water supply still a likely area of attack? How real is the threat? How difficult would it be for terrorist to strike? These questions and more will be addressed in this article.

Let's look at the characteristics that make the nation's water supply a primary target.

In the U.S.the water supply systems are owned and operated by many different entities.Some by State or local government and others by private companies.The water systems throughout the nation are highly distributed by design.A distributed design allows flexibility when the system suffers equipment failures or routine maintenance.It is this type of design that makes safeguarding the water supply highly complex and extremely costly.The nation's water system is comprised of interlocking components that include: the water supply system (dams, reservoirs, natural lakes, wells, etc.); water treatment and filtration system; the water distribution system (pipes, pumps, valves storage tanks, etc.); and of course control systems often run by computers. These systems are mostly aging and in urgent need of upgrading, not simply to protect them from terrorist attack but to keep them handling the growing water needs of the nation.

Where could attacks occur? Our nation's water systems are set up to deal with contaminants.Many feel that a terrorist attack which places chemicals or even biological agents in the water supply is unlikely to be successful.Contamination of a reservoir with a biological agent would not likely produce a large risk to public health because of the dilution effect.These reservoirs contain hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of gallons of water.A massive amount of contaminant would be required for a successful terrorist attack at this point.If agents were to be introduced at this point they are likely to be detected and unlikely to survive the chlorination process. Even so, filtration and disinfection of the water may occur down stream mitigating the contamination.However, if the point contamination is after a treatment facility where filters, chlorination and other preventative measures would no longer be effective, the likelihood of success is much greater. Fortunately, this type of act is still subject to the dilution issue which would lessen the severity of such an attack.There are scenarios that have been discussed where the likelihood of success is high and for obvious reasons we will not go into any further details about those specific scenarios.

Attacks on the nation's water supply can come in many forms.Contamination from chemical or biological agents or merely disruption to the processing, filtration and distribution are two types of attacks.The primary threats to the nation's drinking water supplies are contamination by chemical, biological or radiological agents; damage, destruction, or sabotage of physical infrastructure; and disruption to computer systems.

Did you know - The first documented use of a biological or chemical agent occurred in the 6th century B.C.

Contamination can be caused by chemical, organic or biological materials.There are laws governing the acceptable amounts of contaminants, measured in parts per million or parts per billion in the nation's drinking water.We are examining the intentional contamination of drinking water as an act of terrorism.

Did you know - Biological agents occur naturally and that the parasite Cryptosporidium in Milwaukee's drinking water resulted in about 100 deaths and made 400,000 other people ill in 1993.Cryptosporidium is a naturally occurring microbiological parasite commonly found in lakes and rivers that can infect humans and cause gastrointestinal illness.

The U.S.water supply is one of the best in the world.Equipment is in place to filter and chemically treat the water to make it suitable for human consumption.These facilities are required by law to monitor and report all levels of contamination on a regular basis.At this time water treatment facilities are not capable of testing for all known chemicals or biological contaminants.In fact, the detection technology to do so is costly and does not address the wide spectrum of possible biological and chemical agents. Real-time monitoring is critical to minimize the impact of a terrorist attack.At present there is currently no real-time detection capability for biological pathogens in water and only a limited capability for chemicals.

Impeding the ability of the water supply to reach the populace can have far reaching implications.Businesses would not be able to conduct operations, process manufacturing would be halted, restaurants would close and our daily routines would be thrown into disarray.In many areas drinking water is also used to supply fire hydrants.Without adequate water supply, the fire department's ability to fight fires would be all but neutralized. Attacks on holding tanks, major distribution arteries, pumping stations or filtration and treatment facilities could cause significant disruption to the water supply.

Cyber-terrorism is another potential threat to disrupt service.Computer networks and digital monitoring technology play a key role in the management of our nation's water supplies.In theory, a skilled hacker could create all kinds of havoc either from within or from beyond our borders.

Did you know - Authorities previously have found a computer belonging to a person with indirect ties to Osama bin Laden that contained architectural and engineering software related to dams and other water-retaining structures, according to the FBI.

The highly distributed nature of local water supplies places pumping stations, holding tanks, electronically controlled valves and miles upon miles of piping in remote and often obscure locations making them prime targets for terrorists.The ability to continuously monitor this vast distribution is not economically feasible.Even if it could be accomplished economically, the time to design, install, test, and train the operational staff of the security equipment could reach into the decades.

In looking at this problem we used the TIE (Transdisciplinary Intelligence Engineering) framework to rate the water supply threat, protection and impact.The output of this framework is represented in the following graphic.

So what security measures have been taken? Rapid detection and quantification of a chemical or biological attack on a water supply is difficult at best.Organizations responsible for water distribution systems have increased the physical security of each of facilities.However, one in-ground holding tank had a padlock on the door leading to the water contained in the tank.A simple pair of bolt cutters could have defeated that security. For the most part, water supply security has focused on access control and intelligence, with minimal attention being given to enhanced sensors that detect chemicals or biological agents.Indications are that in the coming years this will change and more R&D dollars will be spent on monitoring and detection.

Damage to or destruction of the nation's water supply and water quality infrastructure by terrorist attack could disrupt the delivery of vital human services, threatening public health and safety as well as the environment.It could even cause loss of life.The entire water treatment and distribution system must be protected not just the treatment or storage facilities.A real-time chemical biological detection system with remote sampling and sensing capabilities coupled with GIS will significantly improve the safety of the nation's water supply.Engineering changes in water distribution system design and metering must also take place.We should not forget the SCADA systems.SCADA is the acronym for SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION.SCADA systems are a critical component and are at risk from cyber terrorism.The entire software industry must be made to rethink software security and be held accountable.Security is designed in; not bolted on.This holds true in the physical world and in the software world.

Protecting the Water Supply from Terrorism

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Articles from Directions Magazine

Description: Image used for land cover and Glacier Mapping for forthcoming American Alpine Club map of Ala Alrcha National Park, Kyrgyzstan. Image Combines a NDVI, Decorellation Strech 3 and band 2 + band 1 as RGB. Allows for distinguishing ice from snow and different land cover types.

Geographic location:  Ala Archa National park, Kyrgyzstan

Commercial image processing software used:  PCI Geomatica Focus

Image processing technique employed:  Decorellation Stretch, NDVI, Band math

Contest category: Unique Geomorphologic Images

Description: This IKONOS satellite image of Ayers Rock was collected Jan. 17, 2004. Ayers Rock is located in Kata Tjuta National Park, 280 miles (450 km) southwest of Alice Springs, Australia. It is the world's largest monolith, an Aboriginal sacred site and Australia's most famous natural landmark. Also called Uluru, the giant monolith is 1,142 feet (348 meters) high and 5.8 miles (9.4 km) around. Even though the colors in this image are stunning, the image is a true-color image.

Commercial image processing software used:  ERDAS IMAGINE 8.7 and Sensor Systems RemoteView 2.4.1

Application areas:  Public Safety, Exploration / Mining, Urban and Regional Planning

Description: Image Landsat-7 August 1999 colored composite 5-8-3 (RGB).

You can see on upper left the eagle head. At the bottom left, you can see the attack position of the eagle ready to catch the prey.

Geographic location:  In the middle of the St-Lawrence Gulf

Commercial image processing software used:  PCI

Image processing technique employed:  Colored composite multiresolution. Orthorectified image with DEM. UTM Zone 20 NAD83 projected. Panchromatic band has received a high pass filter home made.

Sergio Menichetti and Mark Patterson were randomly selected from among the voters to receive the prizes.

Thematic Imagery: Blue Marble by Reto Stockli at NASA

This 3D rendering of the earth features data from the MODIS sensor onboard NASA’s TERRA spacecraft. The image was created using the Blue Marble dataset (Stockli et al., 2002) found on http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov and shows our planet as an integral and seamless composite of three ecosystem layers, the land, ocean and the atmosphere: The land surface in true color with its vegetation covered and deserted areas together with snow areas in high latitudes and in elevated terrain. The ocean as a false color SST visualization, red colors are warm water areas and blueish colors show cold water areas. The atmosphere is visualized by rendering a single day snapshot of the earth’s clouds in 3D space, with the height derived from the cloud’s top temperature and the transparency derived from the cloud’s reflectance in the visible spectrum The image as well as the used datasets at global 1km resolution... More...

Image Maps: Around the World in 180 Million Years by Harold McMahon at ER Mapper

The theme of this map is tectonic activity of our planet. It shows fault lines and continental plates over a colour coded image of the age of the sea floor. Other data is integrated to make the map "pretty", such as GTOPO30 (30 arc second/1km) height data from USGS, and "The Living Earth" produced by The Living Earth, Inc... More...

Geomorphologic Images: Around the World in 30 Seconds by Harold McMahon at ER Mapper

"Around the World in 30 Seconds" is a map using GTOPO30 (30 arc-second/1km) height data and The Living Earth to present various views. It is the first in a series of global themed maps used to demonstrate ER Mapper. See text on the map for more details... More...

Monica L. Gerberding, Michael Wilton, and Bernard Cornelis were randomly selected from among the voters to receive the Jump drive, cordless mouse and keyboard, or MP3 player.

2005 Winners

The Association of American Geographers and Dr. Duane Marble recently announced the third annual William L. Garrison Award. The purpose of this award is to encourage doctoral-level students to "increase their knowledge of computer science and to apply this knowledge to their research in geographic science." Nora Parker asked Marble to provide further background and information about the award.

Nora Parker (NP): Can you help Directions readers understand the purpose of the William L. Garrison award? Do you feel there's a lack of understanding of the "important role that advanced computation can play in solving the complex problems of space-time analysis that are at the core of geographic science"?

Duane Marble (DM): The development half a century ago of digital computing technology provided an opportunity in geography to create powerful new modalities or ways of looking at and solving complex spatial problems. Although immensely challenging, it was not a pleasant experience for many of us since, quite frankly, we had little notion of what we were doing and computer technology was very expensive and not generally accessible. We quickly learned that attempting to get computers to do anything at all for us involved knowing how they worked and, most importantly, what they were and were not capable of doing.

After 50 years, this is no longer the case. There is a general feeling, even within major segments of the scientific community, that geospatial computing is nothing more than a pervasive utility much like electric power - as long as I flip the light switch and get the desired result, I do not need to understand what goes on behind the scenes. Modern geospatial computer technology is far more than just some icons on a screen. Much of it is object-based and, for example, by rearranging and linking the basic objects you can create new specialized tools of substantial power. If you do not understand that, or even if you do and are incapable of such manipulation, then you are operating at a professional level that does not reflect the inherent possibilities of what you could be doing.

On a more conceptual level, computers have assisted us in discovering that geography is far more than static maps or even comparative statics (e.g., map overlay). What we see spatially at any moment is only a snapshot of a very complex continuous space-time process. This has raised the complexity of what we need to comprehend by several orders of magnitude. As the people in physics have known for some time, formal mathematical models of space-time processes are very difficult. However we have been forced in our practical work (largely by the massive amounts of spatial data represented by our planet and all the things on, in and above it) to utilize computer approximations based upon heuristic algorithms and specialized and efficient data structures. However the ability to apply such thinking to advanced conceptual development is severely hampered by many scientists whose education has taken place in the "icons on the screen" environment with little formal knowledge of computer science and its potentially substantial contributions.

The purpose of the Garrison Award is to try to provide an incentive for young scholars at the doctoral level - in any discipline and in any part of the world - to increase their knowledge of computer science and to apply this knowledge to their research in geographic science. It is, of course, difficult to do this if you have not acquired such geographic science/computer science knowledge earlier in the education process. This reflects a very real problem with a significant number of bachelors and masters level graduates in geographic science who have had only a minimal exposure to formal computer science concepts. (There are a small number of excellent exceptions to this, as can be seen in programs supported by the Departments of Geography at the University of Utah, Penn State and a few other places.)

To help address this problem, the AAG's Marble Fund (with the assistance of a generous contribution from my friend Jack Dangermond) will shortly announce a program of annual undergraduate achievement awards to help encourage excellent students from the U.S. and Canada to complete programs that strongly emphasize integrated education in geographic science and computer science.

NP: How long has the Garrison Award been active?

DM: The award was established about three years ago and we have now gone through the first biannual award cycle and have recently announced the second. The winner of the first award was Dr. Stephane Joost, whose dissertation was entitled The Geographical Dimension of Genetic Diversity: A GIScience Contribution for the Conservation of Animal Genetic Resources which he did at the Laboratory of Geographical Information Systems of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Information on Stephane's research may be found in the article, "A spatial analysis method (SAM) to detect candidate loci for selection: Towards a landscape genomics approach to adaptation" that appeared in Molecular Ecology (2007) 16, 3955-3969. Stephane's work not only demonstrated the value of advanced computational approaches in geographic research but has also provided groundbreaking insights into the operational links between geography and genetics.

DM: Bill Garrison is, in my mind, one of the most important geographers of the 20th century. After service in World War II, he completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and then joined the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Washington. While there, Bill exerted an enormous influence upon a number of graduate students who were interested in scientific approaches to spatial problems. In addition to me, he worked closely with other Ph.D. students such as Brian Berry, John Nystuen, Michael Dacey and Dick Morrill, as well as significantly influencing others such as Waldo Tobler. In addition to stressing the value of scientific approaches to spatial problems and the value of interdisciplinary work, Bill was one of the first to see the potential of the primitive digital computers of that day for enhancing scientific approaches to geography. He now is retired and is currently Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Emeritus Research Engineer in the Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

NP: Who are the trustees of the Marble Fund for Geographic Science of the Association of American Geographers?

DM: The Marble Fund has three trustees who are responsible for decisions regarding its operation. These are Dr. Randall Jackson, who is Director of the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University; Dr. Donna Peuquet, who is Professor of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University; and Dr. Jay Sanhu, who is a senior software developer for ESRI. Randy is a valued colleague whom I have known for many years. Donna and Jay are two of my former Ph.D. students who are well known for their work in geographic science and GIS.

The AAG and I have set up the Marble Fund to continue indefinitely, with half of the growth in the Fund each year being directed toward further growth of the Fund's capital while the other half is made available to the trustees to support the Fund's award programs. This will permit the amount of the awards to be increased from time to time and hopefully, with the help of further donations to the Fund, to be extended to other aspects of geographic science.

NP: I understand you retired recently? Can you provide highlights of your career?

DM: I retired from formal teaching a decade ago but I have managed to keep myself busy professionally in other ways (my wife feels far too busy ...). These include some research on human mobility in the natural environment as well as continuing to support (with the kind assistance of ESRI) the free on-line bibliography in geographic science and GIS that now contains about 57,000 references. Working to set up the Marble Fund for Geographic Science and assisting the AAG in getting it to an operational level has been one of my personal retirement pleasures.

Dr. Duane Marble Explains William L. Garrison Award

Location intelligence has emerged as one of the most influential developments in the geospatial industry. As organizations face increasing complexity in their operations, the ability to understand data within a geographic context has become essential for accurate analysis and effective decision-making.

Rather than serving solely as a visualization tool, spatial data now plays a central role in analytical workflows, helping organizations identify patterns, assess risk, and plan for the future with greater confidence.

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