FIG Article of the Month

Article of the Month in 2014

FIG publishes each month the Article of the Month. This is a high-level paper focusing on interesting topic to all surveyors. This article can be picked up from an FIG conference or another event or it can be a paper written directly for this purpose.

December 2014 - Talia Dror, Sagi Dalyot, Yerach Doytsher, Israel: A Quantitative Geo-Evaluation of Crowdsourcing and Wisdom of the Crowd. This paper was presented at the commission 3 meeting, 4-7 November 2014 in Bologna, Italy. The paper aims at distinguishing between the Crowdsourcing and Wisdom of the Crowd, via the quantitative and theoretical examination of two widely used location based services: OpenStreetMap (OSM), and Waze.
November 2014 - Tajul Ariffin Musa, Abdullah Hisam Omar, Ivin Amri Musliman, Siti Syukriah Khamdan, Yip Kit Mengand Kamaludin Omar, Malaysia: A Prototype of RFID-Based Cadastral Boundary Mark System (RCBMS) in Malaysia. This paper is peer reviewed and presented at the 2014 FIG Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The paper discuss an RFID-based cadastral boundary mark system (RCMBS). The aim of the RCBMS is to modernize the conventional cadastral boundary marks with marks that are lighter, robust, and easy to locate, and which offer the capability to perform spatial/non-spatial cadastral information on site.

October 2014 - Don Grant, Mark Dyer, Anselm Haanen, New Zealand: A New Zealand Strategy for Cadastre 2034. At the XX FIG Congress 1994 in Melbourne, commission 7 initiated a working group looking at trends and developments in the field of cadastre. It projected the trends and developed visions of what cadastral systems might be in 20 years' time – thus today! Today we look at the visionary date of 2034 which has been proposed for an update of the FIG Cadastre 2014 strategy. This paper was presented at the XXV FIG Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and focuses on the cadastral strategy for New Zealand and proposes a number of significant changes to the cadastre. More information about Cadastre 2014, click here.

September 2014 - Daniel Roman and Xiaopeng Li (United States): GRAV-D: Using Aerogravity to Produce a Refined Vertical Datum. This paper focuses upon the aerogravity science necessary to support the production of a cm-level accurate geoid height model. The background is the Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) Project in 2008 with a goal of developing a new vertical datum realized through a regional (continental scale) geoid height model. The paper was presented at the 2014 FIG Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
August 2014 - Gary Strong and David Pilling (United Kingdon): Why Technical Standards are not enough for Professionals Working in Land, Property and Construction and the Importance of International Standards on Ethics. This article was presented at the FIG Congress 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The paper explores the opportunities and very real benefits that could be afforded not only to professionals working in land, property and construction but also to clients, the public and society more generally by the setting, promotion and monitoring of international standards on ethics.
July 2014 - Ken Harima et al. (Australia): Performance of Real-Time Precise Point Positioning Using MADOCA-LEX Augmentation Messages. This article is a peer reviewed article presented at the FIG Congress 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The topic covers the Asian-Pacific area but is relevant and important internationally as well. The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is a satellite-based augmentation system for the GPS, GLONASS and Galileo constellations, transmitting navigation signals that are compatible and interoperable with the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The enhanced capacity allows augmentation messages aimed at centimeter-level Precise Point Positioning (PPP) to be broadcasted over the QZSS wide area of coverage.
June 2014 - John Brock, Australia: The Great Wall of China: The World’s Greatest Boundary Monument! This paper investigates which portions of The Great Wall(s) of China were mainly erected as boundary demarcations and the others put up as protection as well as attempting to highlight early techniques and equipment used by the Chinese surveyors of antiquity hopefully supplemented by some translated texts and historic art. The paper will be presented Friday 20 June 2014 at the History Symposium held in conjunction with the 2014 FIG Congress in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The History Symposium is organized by the International Institution for the History of Surveying and Measurement, a Permanent Institution within FIG, http://www.fig.net/fig2014/history.htm.
May 2014 - Chee Hua Teng, Mohd Yunus Mohd Yusoff and Nur Zurairah Abdul Halim, Malaysia: The Development of 3D City Model for Putrajaya MPC Database.This paper is a Malaysian Peer Review paper, which will be presented at FIG Congress 2014 16-21 June, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The leading agency in Malaysia on Cadastral Survey, the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (JUPEM) has experienced a need to move from a single purpose cadastre to a multipurpose cadastre (MPC) environment. A pilot study was conducted at the Federal Territory (FT) Putrajaya. This paper highlights the main component of the pilot study which is the FT Putrajaya MPC database development and basics of 3D city model generated from the 3D point-cloud data acquired through Mobile Terrestrial Laser Scanning (MTLS) technology. A general requirement for setting up an MPC database for Malaysia has been established in this study and it was concluded that the FT Putrajaya MPC Database and its 3D city model have the potential as a spatial enablement to the government, private sectors, and society in general based on the spatial accuracy achieved in this study.
April 2014 - Meng Chan Lim and Halim Setan, Malaysia: A Practical Deformation Monitoring Procedure and Software System for CORS Coordinate Monitoring. This paper illustrates the combination of continuous GPS measurement with robust method for deformation detection to GPS station position change. A window-based software system for GPS deformation detection and analysis via robust method, called Continuous Deformation Analysis System (ConDAS), has been developed at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. This paper describes the design and architecture of ConDAS and highlights the deformation analysis results from two assessments. The paper is a Malaysian Peer Review paper, which will be presented at FIG Congress 2014 16-21 June, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
March 2014 - Alexander Kohli, Switzerland: Adjusting Laws to meet the Requirements of Urban
Expansion in a Sus-tainable Property System. The paper of the month presents a concept for Sustainable Land Management to secure a long term successful development of informal urbanization. To create good conditions for improving the property and planning situation, a solid legal base has to be put in place before further land management activities are undertaken. The author asks for the initialization of an intermediate legal frame-work as an initial step to be applied to a special perimeter of action, the so-called 'temporary development zones' TDZ. This paper was presented at the Annual World bank Conference on Land and Poverty, in Washington DC, April 8-1, 2013. You can hear Dr. Alexander Kohlis presentation at the XXV International FIG Congress 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
February 2014 - Kien Hwa TING, Malaysia: Retail Market Studies for the Capital Market: Form versus Substance. This paper is a Malaysian Peer Review paper, which will be presented at FIG Congress 2014 16-21 June, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We are pleased to share this Peer Review paper with you already now prior the congress to highlight one of the topics - real estate - covered at the congress. On the 19 and 20 June the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia has been invited to participate in the Congress. and together with FIG Commission 9 and 10 special sessions on valuation and estate management are being prepared i.e. the launch of the International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS). Mr. See Lian ONG, Chair Elect of FIG Commission 10, is furthermore facilitating a high-level session on Building Information Management, BIM.
January - 2014 - Volker Schwieger, Germany and Mikael Lilje, Sweden: Innovative and Cost Effective Spatial Positioning. This paper was presented at FIG Working week, 6-10 May 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria.This paper focuses on surveying of land and the base infrastructure needed for surveying task. It shows how geodetic marks may be replaced by new infrastructures like active control networks. Apart from the technical basics, it outlines the economic benefits with respect to costs and surveying instruments available to local surveyors.