Between the Poles

Quebec protects 50% of boreal forest

According to Manitoba Wildlands, Quebec has announced protection for 50 percent of the boreal forest above the 49th parallel from mining, hydroelectric and forestry development.  The boreal forest stretches from Newfoundland to Alaska and holds about 186 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to 27 years worth of global carbon emissions.  The boreal forest is larger than the Amazon and stretches across 566.6 million hectares.  The boreal forest is in good condition, and a group of scientists, the International Boreal Conservation Science Panel, is working to protect Canada's boreal forest from development.  Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who just won re-election, pledged to support this initiative during the election campaign.  Charest pledged to protect at least 50 percent of northern Quebec from mining, hydroelectric and forestry exploitation and to create five provincial parks.

3D Urban Modelling: No Longer Just for the “Big Cities”

The World is facing serious challenges including global climate change, aging infrastructure, a shrinking workforce, and lagging productivity.   To enable architects, engineers, construction companies,and  owners and operators of buildings and infrastructure to address these challenges, new technologies are being developed and applied including model-driven design, geospatial-enabling, new acquisition technologies such as high resolution photogrammetry and laser scanning, and 3D visualization and simulation.  These new technologies provide the foundation for convergence, the integration of architectural and engineering design, geospatial, and 3D simulation technologies.  The business drivers for this transformative technology advance are productivity and efficiency in the construction and facilities management industry, and improving the performance of facilities over their full life-cycle.  But these new technologies are not only changing how we design, manage, and operate buildings and infrastructure, but enable intelligent 3D precision simulation of urban environments.  For people and organizations involved in the planning, design, construction and operations lifecycle of our cities, the ability to model a city with engineering precision including inside and outside of buildings and network infrastructure such as utility, telecommunications, and transportation networks will enable city governments to better involve citizens in making collective decisions in the areas of urban planning, economic development, emergency planning, and security. 

In the past 3D urban modeling was generally difficult, requiring sophisticated modeling skills, as well as being expensive and was undertaken only by the largest urban municipalities.  Technical advances are now making 3D urban modeling available to a much broader market including small to medium sized municipalities who may have felt that in the past that 3D urban modeling was out of reach. As part of this industry initiative Autodesk has announced the release of Autodesk LandXplorer Studio 2009 / LandXplorer Studio Professional 2009 in English, German and French. This release enables users to create digital cities from various geospatial data sources, visualize and explore urban environments and analyze urban design projects before they’re built.

 

Contribution of Spatial Information to the National Economy

I have just returned to Ottawa after attending a GITA Board of Directors meeting in California.  I chanced to chat with Daniel Shannon of Telus about some interesting macroeconomic reports that I had come across. In Australia the CRC-SI has estimated the contribution of spatial information to the national economy,  the reduction in the contribution to the national economy arising from restrictions on access to spatial information, and the potential contribution of spatial information to the economy.  In the UK a much more restricted study estimated the benefit to the UK economy of less restricted access to Ordnance Survey (OS) data.

Australia

The report The Value of Spatial Information, The impact of modern spatial information technologies on the Australian economy was prepared for the CRC for Spatial Information & ANZLIC – the Spatial Information Council by ACIL Tasman in March of 2008, estimated the impact of spatial information on a number of key indicators of the Australian economy for 2006-2007. The report estimates that the spatial information sector contributed between $6.4 billion and $12.6 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP), which represents between 0.6% and 1.2% of the GDP.

Secondly, it estimates that restrictions on access to spatial data reduced productivity in some economic  sectors by between 5% and 15% which could have reduced the GDP by about 7% in 2006-2007.

Thirdly, it estimates that with the right policies the contribution of the spatial information sector to the national economy in the medium term had the potential to be up to 50% higher than in 2006-2007.  In other words, instead of a contribution of about 1%, the spatial information sector could have contributed 1.5% of GDP.

United Kingdom

The report Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds by Professors David Newbery, Lionel Bently, and Rufus Pollock all of Cambridge University analyzes six UK trading funds, which for people unfamiliar with this term, are companies wholly owned by the UK Government, but which are expected to be run as a private company and generate a return to their single share holder.  In Canada the closest thing is a Crown Corporation.  The six that were studied are the the Met Office, Ordnance Survey (OS), the UK Hydrographic Office, the Land Registry, Companies House and the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency.

The study was released in February, 2008.  It estimates the benefits to the UK economy if spatial data were available at no cost instead of the current relatively high cost as compared to the US, for example.  The study estimates that the gross  benefits to the UK economy would be around £168 million a year while a government subsidy to the OS of something between £12 million and £85 million would be required. Overall this implies a net benefit to the UK economy of between £83 to £156 million.  As Ed Parsons, ex-CTO of the OS, points out, turning the OS into purely government agency has risks, witness the USGS, but there are other alternatives.

California State CIO Teri Takai on California's IT Priorities

One of the most interesting presentations at the National Guard's JIMC conference in San Diego was the California State CIO Teri Takai's keynote on the challenges facing the state government's IT folks. In 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger decided that the state needed a cabinet level CIO position to oversea the state's 10 000 IT employees, $3 billion annual IT budget, and 130 departmental CIO's and Teri Takai, who was then State CIO of the State of Michigan, was brought on board.

Top Technology Challenges 

The top technology challenges for the state government in California are driven by a few key principles, consolidation (turf battles are no longer cool), focus on the customer (helps get around turf battles), and collaboration (no longer a luxury).

Among the top technology challenges for the State of California is geospatial technology.

Governor Schwarzenegger's Geospatial Strategy in California

In May, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger called for the creation of a task force to develop a statewide strategy to enhance geospatial technology for

• environmental protection,
• natural resource management,
• traffic flow,
• emergency preparedness and response,
• land use planning and
• health and human services.

and tasked the State CIO for a strategy and plan to accomplish this. To get the ball rolling, in June 2008 Teri Takai sponsored the More than a Map geospatial forum which was held in Sacramento, and where I had the opportunity to present.  The next step that Teri Takai announced at the JIMC conference was that within the next few months the State of California will be announcing its first Geospatial Information Officer (GIO).

National Guard JIMC Conference

Lat week I was very fortunate to be able to attend and present a keynote at the National Guard's annual Joint Information Management Council (JIMC) conference in San Diego.  (Colonels Tresh and Seitz with the platinum sponsors including Sean Coombs of Autodesk in the picture.)

National Guard's Changing Role

I really had no idea how much ends up on the National Guard's plate.  General McCann, head of IT at the National Guard Bureau (NGB) in Washington, mentioned that on any given day, 17 governors have called out the National Guard.  General Wade, the Adjutant General of the California National Guard, said that because in California there are four seasons, earthquakes, fires, riots, and floods, 50% of National Guard callups across the US are in California.

The National Guard's role has changed in the last year as a result of legislation that was passed at the end of 2007, which gives the National Guard a much more important place at the table in the Pentagon in decision making, elevates the Chief of the National Guard from a three star general to a four star general making the Chief the prime military advisory to the Defense Secretary and to the Joint Chiefs, and directs the Pentagon to work with the Guard in planning on homeland defense.

Common Operating Picture and the Importance of Data Sharing

One of the major threads through out the conference was the importance of information sharing.  General McCann described the vision of the NGB's IT group which is to "provide responsive, reliable, integrated, and interoperable information and communications systems for collaboration and information sharing for National Guard domestic operations."

DoD has a program called DISDI that is an oversight program responsible for leveraging spatial information across DoD to better manage DoD's global installation and bases.  Each of the services has a similar program.  The Air Force was the first to implement a spatial information sharing program called GeoBase, the Army has Army Mapper, the Marines GeoFidelis, and the Navy GeoReadiness.  The National Guard is in the processs of setting a standard for geospatial enabling, integrating spatial data into the technical and business processes of the National Guard, which will require focussing on key issues including governance, data standards, data interoperability, a financing model, and full integration with the IT community.  The major benefits that the NG expects to gain are increased efficiency and productivity, reduced redundancy, inproved information/communication flow, and a better ability to meet the NG's mission, very similar to what other organizations in the utility and telecommunications sectors are targetting.

Electric Utility Industry Needs to Invest $1.5 to $2.0 Trillion in Infrastructure

The electric utility industry in the U.S. is facing challenging times.  To put this in context the U.S. is responsible for 1/4 of global CO₂ emissions, and the electric power sector is responsible for 1/3 of U.S. CO₂ emissions.

A recent survey, the 2008 THIRD ANNUAL STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS IN THE ELECTRIC UTILITY INDUSTRY SURVEY for Black & Veatch by Sierra Energy Group, identified some of the top priorities for the electric utility industry, which includes reliability, environment/global warming, aging infrastructure, aging workforce, and fuel policy as the top priorities.  If you add trying to forecast energy demand in a rapidly changing economy, you have a pretty good list of what is keeping utility folks up at night.

Electric power demand has been growing about 1 to 2% per annum, but recently there have been signs of a downturn in demand, that could have important implications for utilities if it turns out to be driven by something other than the economic downturn (Wall Street Journal Nov 21, 2008).  

The cost of building electric infrastructure, whether coal, nuclear power, natural gas, or renewable, has been going up. Global climate has motivated the industry to invest in more energy-efficient technology including energy efficiency and demand response (EE/DR) programs, carbon capture and storage (CCS), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and distributed energy resources (DER).

To try to forecast the impact of these challenges, The Edison Foundation asked The Brattle Group to "examine the total investment that would be required to maintain today’s high levels of reliable electric service across the United States through 2030, net of the investment that could be avoided through the implementation of more aggressive energy efficiency and demand response."  The result was the report Transforming America’s Power Industry:The Investment Challenge 2010-2030.

The scenarios that Brattle was asked to look at are

1) Reference Scenario  Basically the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) forecast published by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), but adjusted for higher fuel ( with oil down to approximately $50/barrel now, this may not be realistic ) and construction costs.  Brattle estimated that with this scenario, 214 gigawatts (GW) of new generation capacity would be required by 2030, which would require an investment of $697 billion under existing EE/DR programs and state renewable programs and carbon policies.

2) RAP Efficiency Base Case Scenario: This adds the impact of realistically achievable potential (RAP) for EE/DR programs, but does not include a new federal carbon policy.

3) MAP Efficiency Scenario: This is the maximum achievable potential (MAP) for EE/DR programs.

4) Prism RAP Scenario: The Edison Foundation was particularly interested in the investment required for of one projected generation mix called the “Prism Analysis”  developed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit centre for public interest energy and environmental research. The EPRI’s Prism Analysis projects the generation investments in a number of programs and technologies including efficiency, renewables, nuclear generation, advanced coal generation, CCS, PHEV, and DER, that will be required to reduce the growth in carbon emissions.This scenario further assumes there is a new federal policy to reduce carbon emissions.

The report predicts that no matter which of these scenarios is followed, the electric power utility industry will require an investment ranging from approximately $1.5 trillion to $2.0 trillion by 2030.  But as I said at the beginning if demand is entering new territory, these forecasts will require a reassessment, because they assume that demand will continue to increase 1-2% per annum.