Geospatial technology with the combination of advanced techniques is making an important contribution in serving the solution of interdisciplinary problems and territorial and resource management.
Emphasizing that the movement of nature is changing geographical phenomena regularly and continuously, experts said that in the coming time, Vietnam needs to continue to focus on investing in and applying "new technology in collecting, processing, updating and sharing geospatial data" to develop the economy - society; prevent and combat natural disasters, rescue, as well as overcome environmental incidents, and respond to climate change more effectively.
To better understand this issue, TN&MT Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Nguyen Phi Son - Director of the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography about the role of geospatial data as well as some tasks and solutions for research and application of new technology in collecting, processing and updating geospatial data in the coming time.
Mr. Nguyen Phi Son: Geospatial data plays a very important role in all national economies, especially in the 4.0 era. With the development of digitalization programs, geospatial data is the input data for fields, sectors, and levels in state management, social management, economic development, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, and ensuring national defense and security.
The national geographic database (DB) consists of 7 basic data packages (Topographic data, hydrological data, traffic data, vegetation cover data, population data, administrative boundary data, survey data) with large-scale series characteristics, high spatial detail, along with the attributes of the objects collected at the maximum level, ensuring the maximum requirements for information exploitation of many ministries and branches, contributing significantly to the management, design, and construction activities of survey sectors, and the establishment of specialized and specialized maps of the fields. Along with that, depending on the territorial scale and scale of the national geographic database, localities apply the national geographic database in territorial management, administrative management, and social management.
In addition, geospatial information also plays an important role in natural resource management and environmental protection. Geographical data is the basis for supporting environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, environmental status at all levels, ecosystem management, conservation and sustainable development of natural landscapes; supporting the establishment of climate, meteorological and weather conditions in space and territory. Having geographic data will help determine the scope of impact in each locality and territory due to climate change, the scope of sea level rise, natural disaster risk assessment, vulnerability of ecosystems... and also plays a role in many applications of 9 fields in the natural resources and environment sector.
Mr. Nguyen Phi Son: In our country, the Government and state management agencies have soon recognized the importance and great benefits of geospatial data. Over the past years, ministries and branches in general and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in particular have focused on investing in building a geospatial data system to serve the needs of state management, socio-economic development, and ensuring national defense and security.
From 2008 to 2012, the Government has paid attention to investing in the surveying and mapping sector, including two Government projects: "Establishing a geographic information database at a scale of 1:10,000 associated with a digital elevation model covering the whole country" and "Establishing a geographic information database at a scale of 1:2,000, 1:5,000 for urban areas, industrial zones, and key economic zones". Up to now, the data serving the construction of the national geospatial data infrastructure currently includes a set of framework data and specialized data.
Basic information and data on surveying and mapping, including the national surveying base point system, national surveying networks, national geographic background, types of topographic, border, and national administrative maps, aerial photos, remote sensing data, and place name data are fully developed according to unified data standards.
In addition, many specialized data sets have been created by various fields such as: land data, water resources, marine resources, forest resources, mineral geology, hydrometeorology... all of which are basic survey data associated with location information that will form complete geospatial data, thereby helping management agencies make correct, timely and complete decisions.
Among the basic measurements in the field of geodesy and cartography, the measurement of "gravitational acceleration" or "gravity" is a measurement that requires complex measuring methods and equipment. In recent times, the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography has successfully implemented gravity measurement projects such as: "Building and completing the State gravity system"; Building a network of absolute gravity points on islands and along the coast of Vietnam to serve the work of monitoring the rise of average sea level; "Measuring the basic gravity and satellite gravity of the basic gravity point in the period 2016 - 2018 in the national gravity system to serve the determination of changes in the gravity field in the territory of Vietnam".
Currently, the Institute is participating in the project of detailed gravity flight measurement in mountainous areas using the aeronautical gravity method... This is an important task of basic investigation work in our country in parallel with other basic investigation projects. Gravity projects contribute to the completion of basic national data, which will serve many industries, many fields, many purposes... The results of gravity measurement projects implemented by the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography effectively serve the fields of research in Earth sciences.
Mr. Nguyen Phi Son: The process of socio-economic development and the movement of nature changes geographical objects and phenomena regularly and continuously. This leads to the national geographic database not being updated in time and becoming outdated over time. In order to have a set of basic data that is updated promptly, uniformly, and synchronously nationwide, serving socio-economic development, national defense, security, resource and environmental management, disaster prevention and control, rescue, response to climate change, and improving people's knowledge, the solutions in establishing and updating changes have gradually moved towards automation in the production process to replace the previous traditional methods.
In recent times, the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography has promoted research and application of new and modern technologies in collecting, processing, updating and sharing geospatial data such as combining data from multiple sources, applying quality control measures, collecting, processing and extracting data using AI technology and volunteer geographic information systems (VGI)... These technologies help increase speed, accuracy, reliability and reduce costs for updating.
In the coming time, with the strong development of modern technologies in data acquisition, the Institute will continue to research, focus on investing and upgrading new technologies in sharing geospatial data. Along with that, the Institute will continue to form high-level specialized research groups in a number of complex and technology-oriented research directions for the industry; strengthen research links between state management agencies, research organizations, schools, businesses and independent experts in scientific research to research and develop technology in the world and suitable for Vietnam's conditions.
Nguyen Thuy (performed)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are becoming increasingly important in many fields. However, as the amount of spatial data increases exponentially, traditional GIS methods face challenges in processing and analyzing such large data sets. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has developed rapidly, especially the combination of AI and GIS (GeoAI), which is opening up enormous possibilities, improving productivity and quality of work, quickly responding to user requirements, bringing about amazing applications in many different fields.
According to MSc. Nguyen Van Thao - Vietnam Association of Geodesy - Cartography - Remote Sensing, GeoAI orientation is a suitable choice for the field of basic investigation and providing basic data such as Surveying and Cartography. Researching and building a system to support automatic updating of geographic database is a necessary and highly topical direction for Vietnam, especially for units with functions and tasks of establishing and updating large-scale national geographic database in the context of national digital transformation.
AI is transforming spatial data analysis by providing advanced tools and techniques for processing and analyzing large amounts of spatial data, including information about the Earth's surface, such as remote sensing images, aerial photos, and GIS data. AI algorithms and computer vision techniques are used to detect and extract meaningful features from spatial data. These techniques enable automated data processing, pattern recognition, and advanced analytics, significantly improving the efficiency and accuracy of spatial data analysis.
In particular, the use of AI in GIS is a new development direction in the 4.0 Revolution, bringing practical and great effects in geographic science to improve the efficiency of data processing, analysis and making decisions quickly and accurately, bringing sustainable benefits to commercial organizations and the Government to promote innovation and maintain sustainable development of the world.
In the field of natural resources and environment, the use of technology to integrate data from geographic information systems, remote sensing, and global positioning systems allows for the creation of a solution to update, build data, analyze changes effectively, and support quick decision making on a large scale at the lowest cost compared to traditional measures in the field of land management and environmental resources.
The combination of AI and geographic information (GeoAI) is opening up enormous possibilities. Seizing that opportunity, in recent times, the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography has researched and developed new applications and new products in the field of surveying and mapping. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Thuy - Head of the Department of Science, Training, International Cooperation and Magazines, Institute of Geodesy and Cartography said that through scientific topics, experts and scientists have established practical theories, which are the basis for science and technology in the field of Surveying and Cartography to take the right steps to ensure that it is consistent with the general development of GeoAI in the world associated with socio-economic development, resource management, and environmental protection.
In Vietnam, the Strategy for the Development of Vietnam's Surveying and Mapping Industry and the Construction of a National Geospatial Data Infrastructure to 2030, with a Vision to 2045, has been approved by the Government in Resolution No. 40/NQ-CP dated March 27, 2023. The Strategy has mentioned the priority selection of research on a number of core technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analysis in the collection, updating, processing and provision of information, data, surveying and mapping products and national geospatial data infrastructure - this is an important orientation for developing a national geospatial data infrastructure as an important and fundamental foundation, providing geospatial data services for sectors and fields to meet the requirements of state management, serving digital transformation, building e-Government, towards digital Government, digital economy, digital society and smart cities. Therefore, researching the use of AI in GIS in Vietnam is a top priority task that scientists are interested in, researching and promoting implementation in the coming time.
In the immediate future, Master Nguyen Thanh Thuy believes that the top priority is to train and develop high-quality human resources for the surveying and mapping industry to access high technology in the world. In addition, businesses, organizations and individuals need to innovate technology, invest resources to keep up with trends... To do this, it is necessary to combine effectively and quickly between the "three houses": Science and Technology - State - Enterprise".
Vietnamese English
Regulations on the establishment and updating of the national geographic database have been specifically stipulated in the 2018 Law on Surveying and Mapping in Articles 10, 15, and 16. Accordingly, the national geographic database and national topographic maps must be fully and accurately updated according to national technical standards and regulations, promptly meeting the state management requirements of ministries, branches, and localities; serving economic and social development, national defense, security, and natural disaster prevention.
According to the provisions of the Law on Surveying and Mapping 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is the focal agency to assist the Government in performing state management of surveying and mapping nationwide. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is responsible for managing, storing, providing information, data, and products of the national geographic database and national topographic maps; responsible for building and updating the national geographic database on land, the national topographic map system on land, the national database and topographic maps of islands and archipelagos, and seabed topographic maps at a scale of 1:10,000 and smaller scales; and operating the national geographic database under its management.
Accordingly, the process of establishing and updating the national geographic database is carried out based on the use of satellite images, aerial photos combined with field drawings. On the other hand, due to the social requirements for geographic information, it is faster and more timely, that is, data must always be updated, ensuring the timeliness of information. Therefore, the process of updating geospatial data and the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is currently shifting to being event-based - rather than cyclical time-based.
Furthermore, the regulations on the establishment and updating of national geographic database and topographic maps have been specifically stipulated in the Law on Surveying and Mapping. The national geographic database must be updated every 5 years, with traffic and population data updated periodically, updated immediately for areas with unusual changes... or renewed when the fluctuation is greater than 40%.
Although there have been specific regulations on the establishment and updating of national geographic databases and topographic maps, in recent times, the work of updating national geographic databases and topographic maps has not been updated promptly. Many information areas of the national geographic databases and topographic maps have become outdated, no longer relevant, lacking new information, and ineffective...
The surveying and mapping industry has the responsibility to provide timely, accurate, and complete information to society, all levels, sectors, and economic sectors, thus requiring technological solutions to make the update process faster, more timely, more continuous, and especially reduce product costs. This requires the Institute of Surveying and Cartography to prioritize research in the direction of gradually "automating" the update process based on technologies such as digital images, point clouds, machine learning, deep learning, etc.
To gradually "automate" the process of updating the national geographic database, the Institute is also focusing on researching and applying advanced methods and technologies to build systems for collecting, processing, integrating, storing, and providing information on surveying and mapping data, and a national geographic information system to ensure the construction of a map database that meets the needs of socio-economic development and national security and defense.
Minh Khang
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