The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, hosted the National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) Indaba on 12 April 2019 at Gallagher Estate, Midrand under the theme: “Moving South Africa forward, towards the desired Spatial Future”. Addressing the delegates, she said that spatial planning is important in a young democracy. “As a […]
The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA), the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) and the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology recently launched the 2019 edition of Green Building in South Africa: Guide to Costs & Trends. It provides trends and valuable insights about the influence […]
The SAR Handbook: Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation is the culmination of a two-year collaboration between NASA, Servir and SilvaCarbon. The book can downloaded free of charge in its entirety, or explored as individual chapters, trainings and one-pager quick reference guides which highlight key concepts derived from the book. Five trainings, led […]
Twenty five years ago Africa was faced with severe drought, resulting in famine across the continent and challenges for governments as they struggled to cope with the disaster. In response, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) pioneered the African Desk – a US contribution to the World Meteorological Organization […]
The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) is developing Version 2.0 of the Open Mining Format (OMF), an open-source file specification for 3D data interoperability. Mining requires a wide range of spatial data, and new technologies are adding to their complexity. While these changes create better representations of geological phenomena, moving complex data between proprietary software […]
Farmers, investors and entrepreneurs in agriculture are not new to digital technology, but the recent NAMPO Harvest Day trade show held this week in Bothaville, Free State, indicates how advanced and popular these solutions have become. The term “precision farming” describes the important role that geospatial technologies such as GNSS and satellite imagery play in […]
In April, the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence presented their ethics guidelines for trustworthy artificial intelligence. This follows the publication of the guidelines’ first draft in December 2018 on which more than 500 comments were received through an open consultation. According to the guidelines, trustworthy artificial intelligence should be: Lawful – respecting […]
South Africa and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have signed an accord to establish an affiliate centre of the WEF’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Centre (C4IR). The WEF established the C4IR in San Francisco in the USA in March 2017, as a hub for global, multi-stakeholder cooperation to develop policy frameworks and advance collaborations that accelerate […]
The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) has published the Guideline for the Implementation of Autonomous Systems in Mining. The document offers a broad view of the implementation of these systems, which are being used more and more frequently due to their potential for making the mining industry safer and more productive. It covers all aspects […]
