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Geoinformatics_06-2009
event smart grids dr. krishnaswamy kasturirangan receives the making a difference award from jack dangermond, esri president, at esri s 29th annual international user conference. also shown was the most recent version of esri s gis-viewer arcgis explorer, entitled arcgis explorer 900. here, collections of map layers (called layer packages) can be imported in arcgis explorer and visualized in both 2d and 3d. with a number of presentation tools inside explorer 900, a user can make presentations that enable one to search and view maps interactively, with arcgis server running in the background. sharing data within a gis environment with groups of users will become much easier with arcgis 9.4: by defining user groups, it will become possible to edit data or maps from a distance. the same goes for searching geodata on the internet. with crawling techniques, gis users will be able to search for geodata on the web and share their work in the form of user-generated content (such as mashups) with others. arcgis maps can be exported to other file types such as geo-pdf s, .html, .xms and others. spatial analysis in 9.4 will have a number of extensions as well: from now on, it will be possible to visualize changes in time and analyze these on a map, for instance climate changes in a certain area. the extension of 3d visualizations and analyses offers interesting opportunities for users. you can edit spatial objects not only above ground, but also beneath it. scenario s can be calculated in time and visualized directly, such as the epicenter of an earthquake in san francisco. a video of an eruption was generated and added to the legend as a separate map layer, to show maps latest news? visit www.geoinformatics.com becoming fully 3d, dynamic and interactive. new was esri s announcement of a non-gis product called mapit. this product is not meant for esri users but microsoft users who want to host their spatial data (sql server 2008) without having to use esri s software. the software was not demonstrated but could be downloaded the very same day the announcement was made. on the exhibition floor however, i was able to toy around with the software. tuesday july 14 started off with a very interesting session entitled enterprise gis powers the smart grid . in this session, the role of enterprise gis was examined and demonstrated as one of the key technologies of the next generation of electric utilities. a smart grid is a grid that is more intelligent , allowing customers to have a better understanding of their electric use, to better integrate renewable energy and to reduce outages. according to bill meehan, director of esri s utility solutions, gis can play a strong role in helping utilities implement smart grid technologies, including self-healing systems, smart meters that control devices within homes and businesses to manage loads, and phone home technologies that detect weaknesses in the system. smart grid is a term used for a lot of things. here, a smart grid consists of two systems, namely the electronic power delivery system and the telecommunications system including smart meters. these two systems have to be fully integrated to make a smart grid work well. in delivering a smart grid, the requirements of both systems need to be understood. gis can provide an information framework for corporate decision making, of which smart grid is a part. it can also provide and receive real-time data from the smart grid for modeling, visualizing, planning and analyzing the smart grid. gis cannot do everything, however: it will not control and monitor the smart grid, or process sensor data, or manage smart meter data. eric van rees is editor in chief of geoinformatics. for more information on the esri uc 2009, have a look at http://www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html. dr. henk scholten receives the lifetime achievement award from jack dangermond, esri president, at esri s 29th annual international user conference. 65 september 2009
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