OASIS Emergency Management TC

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Re: [emergency] RE: Notes form last GIS SC meeting

  • 1.  Re: [emergency] RE: Notes form last GIS SC meeting

    Posted 03-29-2004 19:21
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    Subject: Re: [emergency] RE: Notes form last GIS SC meeting


    Ahhh, ok. I am following you. Now, I have one question based on what  
    you both said. And just so there is no confusion, because I know this  
    email came before another one I sent, I am NOT talking about CAP 1.0 -  
    I am talking about something to put in CAP 1.NEXT.
    
    Dave, you said in #3 below that this is "what the US military does/is  
    trying to do - after learning the hard way." Does that mean, in your  
    opinion, that #3 is better than #2 for CAP 1.NEXT? After reading the  
    posts that both of you provided, architecturally, it seemed that #2  
    would represent a more flexible and accurate design, but would take  
    some extra coding. Extra code that at least seemed like would be worth  
    it.
    
    Allen
    
    On Mar 23, 2004, at 6:22 PM, David Danko wrote:
    
    > There are three ways of doing this - from the very beginning we've  
    > followed
    > the KISS principle - simple and unambiguous communication.
    >
    > 1. allow people to use any coordinate reference system and make them
    > identify the one they used. The problem is not everyone receiving the
    > message will be using a GIS and may not be able to handle that  
    > particular
    > CRS. If they knew ahead of time what CRS will always be used they will  
    > be
    > prepared for it.
    >
    > Or
    > 2. (as Carl mentions below -Recommended XML Encoding of
    > CRS Definitions) have the people use whatever they want and include the
    > whole description of the CRS - Then there is no miscommunication about  
    > the
    > definition of all the parameters in the CRS, trouble is, half the  
    > people
    > wouldn't know what to do with them.
    >
    > Or
    >
    > 3.  Make everyone use the same coordinate reference system - so there  
    > is no
    > mis-communication - users would know what to expect, that's what we've  
    > done
    > in this version of CAP. That's what the US military does/is trying to  
    > do -
    > after learning the hard way.
    >
    >
    > Dave
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Carl Reed
    > To: R. Allen Wyke
    > Cc: emergency TC lists Oasis
    > Sent: 3/23/04 11:47 AM
    > Subject: Re: [emergency] RE: Notes form last GIS SC meeting
    >
    > Allen -
    >
    > The key point is that the GIS SC recommends that the use of WGS 84 is
    > fine for CAP 1.0.
    >
    > Moving forward, it is my personal feeling - and I know that others  
    > share
    > the same feeling - that CAP version 1.x will need to be enhanced to use
    > what you termed a coding identifier. One possible route (and the one I
    > would favor) would be to use the work of the OGC on Coordinate  
    > Reference
    > Systems (CRS). The OGC CRS abstract and encoding specifications are
    > fully grounded in and supplements the ISO TC 211 document ISO 19111:
    > Geographic Information - Spatial Referencing by Coordinates. The basic
    > premise is that we use a standard "model" for expressing a CRS and that
    > this model is "well known".
    >
    > From the OGC Abstract Model document for CRS:
    >
    > This part of the OGC Abstract Specification defines the conceptual
    > schema for the
    > description of spatial referencing by coordinates, optionally extended
    > by temporal
    > referencing. It describes the minimum data required to define 1-, 2-  
    > and
    > 3-dimensional
    > coordinate reference systems with an extension to merged
    > spatial-temporal coordinate
    > reference systems. It allows additional descriptive information to be
    > provided. It also
    > describes the information required to change coordinate values from one
    > coordinate
    > reference system to another. It is applicable to producers and users of
    > geographic
    > information. Although it is applicable to digital geographic data, its
    > principles can be
    > extended to many other forms of geographic data such as maps, charts,
    > and text
    > documents.
    >
    > So, how is this abstract model actually implemented? The OGC membership
    > has approved a recommended normative approach for encoding CRS
    > information. This can be found in a document titled
    > <http://www.opengis.org/docs/03-010r9.zip> Recommended XML Encoding of
    > CRS Definitions . A basic description of this document is:
    >
    > This OpenGIS Recommendation Paper specifies basic XML encoding of data
    > defining coordinate reference    systems and coordinate operations.  
    > This
    > encoding is expected to be adapted and used by multiple OGC
    > Implementation Specifications, by the separate specification of
    > Application Schemas. This document is a Recommendation Paper because  
    > the
    > specified encoding is more general than an OpenGIS Implementation
    > Specification and more specific than the OpenGIS Abstract  
    > Specification.
    >
    >
    > The actual normative/best practices coding scheme that we recommend is
    > EPSG 6.0
    >
    > Hope this is not all too geo-geeky, but CRS is one of the big
    > misunderstood areas of spatial processing that is often minimized or
    > ignored by the larger information processing community. This is very
    > unfortunate as a properly expressed and used approach to dealing with
    > reference systems reduces error, increases accuracy, is fully
    > international, is extensible, is legally defensible . . . need I go  
    > on??
    >
    > Cheers
    >
    > Carl
    >
    > PS: One last thing - the definition of a coordinate reference system:
    > coordinate system which is related to the real world by a datum. So,  
    > the
    > datum is only one piece of the equation :-)
    >
    > And the definition of datum: parameter or set of parameters that
    > determine the location of the origin, the orientation and the scale of  
    > a
    > coordinate reference system.
    >
    > Now, if you want to really get into the issue of defining elevation -
    > what Dave was alluding to - elevation: distance of a point from a  
    > chosen
    > reference surface along the direction of the gravity vector from the
    > point to that surface.
    >
    > NOTE 1 See ellipsoidal height and gravity-related height. It should be
    > noted that ellipsoidal height is defined w.r.t. an ellipsoidal model of
    > the shape of the earth. Ellipsoidal height is measured from the point
    > along the line perpendicular to the ellipsoid's surface.
    >
    > NOTE 2 Height of a point outside the surface treated as positive;
    > negative height is also named as depth.
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "R. Allen Wyke" < emergency-tc@earthlink.net
    > <mailto:emergency-tc@earthlink.net> >
    > To: "Carl Reed" < creed@opengis.org <mailto:creed@opengis.org> >
    > Cc: "emergency TC lists Oasis" < emergency@lists.oasis-open.org
    > <mailto:emergency@lists.oasis-open.org> >
    > Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 7:06 AM
    > Subject: Re: [emergency] RE: Notes form last GIS SC meeting
    >
    >> On Mar 22, 2004, at 4:39 PM, Carl Reed wrote:
    >>
    >>> At the last GIS SC meeting we discussed the issue of whether WGS 84
    > -
    >>> Lat/Long is adequate for this go around of the CAP specification.
    > The
    >>> issue was raised with regard to using USNG-NAD83. The unanimous
    >>> consensus of the group was that USNG is for use at the user
    > interface
    >>> level. Therefore, for a message protocol, such as CAP WGS 84 -
    >>> Lat/Long is adequate and CAP spec should remain the way it is.
    >>> Further, by leaving CAP with WGS 84 - Lat/Long, the CAP spec remains
    >
    >>> more international in nature and not restricted to the US market
    >>> space.
    >>>
    >>> Also, by way of clarification, Dave Danko (ESRI) added:
    >>>  NAD 83 vs WGS 84: Technically these are the same for mapping,
    >>> charting, and navigation purposes. Geodetically, of course they are
    >>> different but I think they are the same for our purposes. To keep
    > this
    >>> standard international we should use WGS 84. Perhaps in a users
    > guide
    >>> for the US it could be mentioned that NAD 83 coordinates work fine
    >>> here and that NAD 83 coordinates could be used. However (Carl's
    > note),
    >>> this would mean that we would need some code to allow the receiving
    >>> application to know that the coordinates are NAD 83 and not WGS
    >>> Lat/Long.
    >>> As we are working at an accuracy level of many feet/meters, the
    >>> geodetic differences are not important.
    >>
    >> While I am certainly no geocoding expert, would Dave's comments not
    >> imply that the "best" way to handle this is to "facilitate the use of
    >> various geocoding standards through the use of a coding identifier
    >> (e.g.: specified in an attribute)"? What we have make work for us, but
    >
    >> that is not the question. Does it work for the target implementers is
    >> the question. Saying that it is "adequate" gives to much of a feeling
    >> like that is what we ended up with because we didn't take the time to
    >> do it right.
    >>
    >>> We then went on to discuss the issue of "altitude" and "ceiling"
    > notes
    >>> section. We think the words "per the WGS 84 datum" should be
    >>> removed. We think that this phrase will add communication confusion,
    >
    >>> especially for the geographically literate.
    >>
    >> I would assume this also means reworking the last sentence of section
    >> 1.3.4 (<area>) as well, correct?
    >>
    >>> The WGS ellipsoid is a best fit around the world and differs from
    > MSL
    >>> by varied amounts around the world. So does one put a value
    >>> here, including/excluding the delta from the WGS-84
    >>> ellipsoid, a height referenced to the ellipsoid? What is the meaning
    >
    >>> of the value here? I think we should just have it from (local) MSL
    > for
    >>> the area of interest. (With ellipsoid heights there is a danger of
    >>> having to provide negative values for areas above sea level). This
    >>> would be plenty specific for the purposes intended for this
    > standard.
    >>> Perhaps this should be corrected in a future version of the
    > standard.
    >>
    >> You lost me here in geo-lingo. What, specifically, does this paragraph
    >
    >> pertain to (section in spec, what would a rough first stab at the
    >> proposed language look like, and how will that language address the
    >> section of concern?
    >>
    >> Allen
    >>
    >> --
    >> R. Allen Wyke
    >> Chair, OASIS Emergency Management TC
    >> emergency-tc@earthlink.net <mailto:emergency-tc@earthlink.net>
    >>
    >>
    >
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    >
    --
    R. Allen Wyke
    Chief Technology Officer
    awyke@blue292.com
    919.806.2440
    
    


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