BE Magazine Volume 5, Issue 2 - (Page 47) VIEWPOINT viewed by everyone in the project team whatever their area or level of expertise, preferred software tool, or geographic location. The relatively small file size and universal access to PDF document readers provides immense and immediate benefits. Gigabytes and terabytes of geospatial data can be subset, rendered, packaged, and visualized easily by all project team members. This short article contains some significant caveats for project managers from a survey angle, specifically about the benefits of early involvement of land and aerial survey advisers and companies armed with the latest technology. Unfortunately, project experiences are not always positive. When projects lose their way or are not right the first time, the cause can often be traced to one or more fundamental principles of practice being overlooked—or even forgotten. It is for the goal of continuous improvement that the framework of the ABC principles was originally compiled. GWMWater saw the airborne LiDAR and air photo data capture and delivery program contribute significantly to the speed at which the design was completed and the timely commencement of construction. Lesson two illustrates the benefits of thorough knowledge of challenges and goals by the geospatial adviser that ensures a range of methods and products are considered and offered. There is a story of relevance from the 1960s by an Australian survey and mapping company. The project was the development of a high-performance railway. Route selection and preliminary design were conducted in a short timeframe. Final design changes were made during construction. The first phase was easily satisfied with low-cost, wide-area route mapping. The second phase was to be satisfied with limited width very detailed terrain modeling. The question was asked of the client, “What are your overall operational objectives?” The response was definition of a construction timeline and a desire for an argument-free construction contract. As a result, the survey consultant proposed a new approach for the second stage. The approach was to introduce more rigorous processes for the limited-width terrain model to achieve a level of confidence in the computed earthworks volumes such that they could be agreed between the contractor and principal well before the commencement of physical work without the contractor feeling the need to do its own volume surveys. Another lesson is associated with geographically distributed teams and the huge volumes of data often involved in projects. It has been found that early visualization of the site and key data sets has immense benefits early in the design phase. Early visualization of the project site and context ensures the team has a common view of the site without the issues of team members having to go to site, providing savings in travel and safety induction. A range of simple visualization tools are increasingly used to support the diversity associated with project teams. Merely delivering a digital terrain model as ASCII x,y,z points or ortho-imagery as a large file on a DVD delivers no immediate benefits to the project team. Simple products such as interactive GeoPDFs, 3D PDFs, and mp3 flythroughs are easily distributed and GWMWater v Pipeline construction in Victoria Dr. Gail Kelly is the business development About Gail Kelly manager at AAMHatch Pty Ltd and Patron of the Spatial Sciences Young Professionals in Australia. The “ABC of x,y,z” concept was founded on work created by an engineering survey colleague, Peter Byrne. Byrne and Kelly have been collaboratively developing this ABC framework as a personal endeavor for several years. Volume 5, Issue 2 | BE MAGAZINE 47
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