Multimap, one of the online mapping providers, announced the implementation of its online mapping services for the Commonwealth Travel Services Corporation (CTC), at the Travel Distribution Summit in Singapore (14th & 15th February, 2006). Now, customers of one of the largest and most trusted travel and tour operators in Singapore can access content-rich, easy-to-read interactive maps of their hotel destinations. The site enhancement is expected to increase the conversion rate of lookers to bookers, by lowering the barriers to booking online.
www.multimap.com

The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC) membership has approved the OpenGIS(R) GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery (GMLJP2) Implementation Specifi cation. It is available for downloading from www.opengeospatial.org/specs/ ?page=specs. The Geography Markup Language (GML) is an XML grammar for the encoding of geographic information. JPEG 2000 is a wavelet based image compression standard that provides the ability to include XML data for description of the image within the JPEG 2000 data file.
www.opengeospatial.org

From early September to mid-October of 2005 Aerodata International Surveys recorded digital aerial photos of the Netherlands on their own initiative. The imagery was completely acquired with the company’s 90 megapixel UltraCam-D large format digital frame camera, mounted in their fast Fairchild Merlin survey aircraft. This project is unprecedented in the Netherlands, since it is the first time aerial photos of the entire country have been acquired completely digitally.
www.aerodata-surveys.com

Ordnance Survey’s presidency of a European geographic committee on behalf of the UK has reinforced ties between national mapping and cadastral agencies across member states. The key focus of Ordnance Survey’s six-month tenure chairing the Permanent Committee on Cadastre in the European Union (PCC) was closer collaboration on land use management, sustainable development and other key issues involving geographic information.
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

China has completed a 1:50000 database for the national fundamental GIS, said Lu Xinshe, Director- General, State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in a press conference recently. This database is a national basic geographic information database that covers all of China with the largest scale and highest precision up to date. http://english.people.com.cn

The local governments of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato have tied up with a Manila-based environmental consultancy firm for the conduct of resource mapping and community-based resource assessment of the Allah Valley watershed areas.
www.mindanews.com

The Master Plan 2020 for Karachi City is likely to be ready by August this year for which various agencies have been contacted to provide maps/drawing of likely underground passages, a senior official has said. Divisional Coordination Officer Karachi, Fazlur Rehman said all the federal and provincial agencies besides those working in Karachi have agreed to provide their route maps. About 30 per cent land use survey has been completed based on a map prepared by the local consultant using satellite imagery.
www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

LeadDog Consulting, LLC recently announced the release of a detailed Tehran GIS vector map. LeadDog map products provide accurate base level mapping featuring numerous vector layers and attributes such as detailed streets at 1:10,000 scale, street names, street classifications, extensive points of interest (government offi ces, commercial building, etc.), neighborhood points, park, water & landmark polygons and railroads. Tehran City Streets is available in all major GIS formats. www.goleaddog.com

GIS will be applied to healthcare emergency services during the first quarter of 2006 in Hanoi, capital city of Vietnam. GIS will be used to manage city ambulances and first aid response and provide health units with more and faster information about the location and nature of emergency situations.
http://vietnamnews. vnagency.com.vn

The Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) has come out with a Composite Risk Atlas to help various departments concerned in disaster mitigation planning. The GSDMA had engaged Taru Leading Edge Consultants, a Delhi-based fi rm with expertise in data collection for disaster mitigation planning, to prepare the atlas, a copy of which was released by Chief Minister Narendra Modi recently in the presence of Chief Secretary Sudhir Mankad and secretaries of various departments concerned.
http://cities.expressindia.com