With an unprecedented number of image data sources coming on line and new target markets opening to applications of the GeoTechnologies, many value-added firms are finding success catering to niche markets and specializing in certain data products. One company, however, has decided that generalization, not specialization, best satisfies the needs of its clients.
      Intera Information Technologies Ltd. of Ottawa, Ontario, views itself neither as bucking an industry trend nor starting a new one. Rather, the company's Image Mapping Services Division sees integration of data and technologies as the most logical and effective solution to the geographic information challenges its customers face.
      "We treat a pixel as a pixel, and we really don't care where it comes from; Landsat, SPOT, Radarsat or a GIS - it doesn't matter as long as we get the information our client needs," said Garth Lawrence, Intera vice president of operations.
      Whether Intera's traditional lean towards generalization has been a conscious decision or not, Lawrence believes there is a tremendous advantage for a value-added firm to offer as many GeoTechnical services as possible.
      "Most of our clients require integration of different types of imagery and other data into a GIS environment," said Lawrence. "Data fusion is no longer the exception. It's the rule."
      Intera's involvement with many data sets and technologies has allowed its business to run the full gamut of private and public sector customers. The Image Mapping Division has an on-going contract with the Canadian government to assist Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) in transferring remote sensing technology to commercial applications. It also supervised the GlobeSAR training program which was aimed at preparing worldwide markets for Canada's Radarsat launch.
      In addition, the division offers clients complete orthorectification capabilities, image processing, GIS development, and hands-on training in emerging GeoTechnologies.

Ready for RADARSAT
Intera's involvement in the GeoTechnologies began in 1974 as an environmental services company. Its focus on mapping quickly expanded to include collection of aerial photography and processing of satellite imagery.
      Intera regularly uses Landsat and SPOT imagery in mapping and GIS projects for clients involved in petroleum exploration, natural resource management and urban planning. But some of the company's most important influences in remote sensing have come under its contract to CCRS. Numerous operational applications of Landsat and SPOT imagery have been developed by Intera employees working at CCRS.
      Through this contract, for instance, Intera and CCRS developed a crop monitoring scheme that uses the normalized differential vegetation index from Landsat TM imagery to assess the health of crops. This program has become a major facet of the Canadian government's efforts to monitor and predict agricultural yield estimates.
      Close association with CCRS positioned Intera to play a key role in Canada's development of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) applications - projects that laid the foundation for the Radarsat program. Radarsat is the first commercial remote sensing satellite to carry SAR.
      "Canada's interest in radar imaging extends back into the mid-1970s," said Robert Fowler, Intera's director of marketing. "SAR's ability to image night or day in all weather conditions made it extremely appealing for applications in Canada's high latitude regions where clouds and darkness prevent optical imaging."
      For Canada, the safety of its cargo vessels carrying vital resources to and from the Arctic regions is a chief concern. SAR development focused on detecting sea ice and icebergs that pose a threat to high latitude shipping. In 1978, Intera worked with CCRS to develop sea ice detection and other applications for airborne SAR in the SURSAT program.
      By 1982, Intera had developed STAR-1, the first of two airborne SAR systems it would own and operate. STAR-1 is an X-band digital system flown aboard Intera's Cessna twin turboprop and capable of either 6 meter resolution at 23 kilometer (km) swath or 12 meter pixel resolution at 46 km.
      STAR-1 rapidly became popular among governments outside of Canada and has mapped more than 50 million square kilometers of the world. Most of its utility has come in the tropical equatorial regions where foresters and geologists need to peer through dense clouds that thwart optical imaging.
      Last year, Intera completed a major forest mapping project in the Kalimantan Region on the Indonesian island of Borneo. STAR-1 mapped the rugged terrain so that logging companies would have accurate basemaps with which to plan cutting and conservation for the next two decades. The SAR maps will be incorporated into a GIS for a variety of resource planning activities.
      The STAR-2 system is similar, but has dual viewing capability from both sides of the aircraft, giving it a combined 200 kilometer swath. STAR-2 has been used exclusively for real-time sea ice mapping under contract to the Canadian Ice Centre. Images are acquired by the system and processed on board for transmission to ships at sea. With Radarsat filling the data collection role of STAR-2, the system has been decommissioned and is offered for sale.
      With so much groundbreaking SAR experience in hand, Intera was assigned a key responsibility in GlobeSAR - a 15 country Radarsat applications program involving airborne SAR data. Intera planned most of the aerial SAR missions that simulated collection of Radarsat imagery.
      "GlobeSAR and other SAR projects have shown that radar is an important imaging tool in many applications beyond those traditionally associated with SAR," said Fowler. "Aside from sea ice detection and ocean monitoring, Radarsat will have applications in agriculture, forestry, and geologic interpretation."

Orthorectification
The Image Mapping Division built its business on photogrammetry and has not abandoned it. In the past six years since the division began offering orthorectification to its customers, that service has grown to account for 70 percent of its mapping business, said Fowler.
      Intera performs orthorectification on virtually any type of imagery - aerial photos, Landsat, SPOT, and SAR. For SAR images, Intera has developed a proprietary orthorectification software called STARMAP. All other types of images are orthorectified with the commercially available package from I2S of Milpitas, Calif.
      Division map technicians have found they can improve the quality of any type of orthorectified images using the STARMAP system for mosaicking after orthorectification. This technique eliminates the seams that otherwise exist in mosaicked images and photos.
      "Demand for orthorectified products are coming from two main areas - local governments and developing countries," said Fowler.
      Local governments, such as the city of Winnipeg, are using orthorectified aerial photos as the basemap for their property and parcel maps. The advantage of orthophotos for these municipal projects is that they already contain building and land condition detail, and they are accurate enough for mapping property boundaries.

GIS Development
The importance of data integration may be best demonstrated in the Image Mapping Division's GIS development services. In the Kalimantan forestry project, for instance, Intera needed to introduce orthorectified SAR images into a database already built upon aerial photographs. The objective was to devise a system in which all of the data elements still contributed valuable information.
      Projects like the Kalimantan forest mapping, with a GIS already in place, are becoming less common, said Bruce Baker, an Intera GIS/Remote Sensing Applications specialist. "Most organizations want fully loaded GISs now."
      In these situations, Intera builds the GIS from the ground up based on the output needs of the client. And the data has to be presented properly for the client to extract information from it - which is where sound mapping techniques are crucial, added Baker.
      He cites as an example a GIS Intera is building for Heritage Canada, the federal agency that oversees the country's extensive system of parks and recreational areas. The overall goal of the project is to build a GIS for planning purposes in the Auyittuq National Park on Baffin Island. One specific goal is to learn how hikers and campers are impacting the fragile lichen and moss vegetation in the park.
      Classified Landsat imagery has been used to create the vegetation basemap so that human impact may be studied. But the basemap development became much more complicated because of the island's high latitude. The Universal Transverse Mercator is the commonly accepted map projection by Heritage Canada, but it would have resulted in significant distortions of Baffin Island, half of which lies inside the Arctic Circle. Intera converted all of the various data sets into a common map projection that represented the polar area without distortion.

Educating Customers
Building a GIS, providing SAR imagery, and creating digital orthophotographs all have a common requirement among most GeoTechnology consumers, explained Garth Lawrence: Each service must be accompanied by education for the client to get the most from it.
      From the very start, Intera offered training and technology transfer seminars as part of its projects. In the past, Intera focused on training existing clients, but changed that philosophy to include educating potential clients. In 1993, the Image Mapping Division established its Image Mapping and Geomatics Education Centre to formalize its training programs. These training courses are offered as a separate service by the division.
      "Our approach in education is to train the trainer," said Lynn Moorman, assistant director of the training center. She explained that many of the seminar attendees will return to their organizations to pass on what they have learned.
      The courses and workshops focus on a variety of topics, including SAR applications, introduction to GIS, digital orthoimaging, digital mapping, and several related topics tailored to specific application areas. Intera conducts the courses at its location in Ottawa and at client offices around the world.
      The value of education in the GeoTechnologies can never be overestimated, explained Lawrence. Many clients incorrectly view the GeoTechnologies as a series of unrelated technologies. Through training, however, Intera believes clients and potential clients will understand that the technologies complement each other and that the integrated solution is usually the best solution.

About the Author:
Kevin Corbley is the principal in Corbley Communications, which provides public relations and marketing services to remote sensing, GIS, and GPS firms. He is located in Lakewood, Colo., and may be reached at 303-987-3979.

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