FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
The National Survey Authority aims to keep abreast of the latest
developments in the map production industry, and to use new technology
where appropriate in its progressive efforts to anticipate and meet
customers’ needs for geomatic information.. To this end, the NSA is
preparing to scan the Sultanate of Oman’s aerial photography archives,
in addition to the national repmat archive to hold these in a digital
format. The NSA is examining the potential use of image based hard copy
products such as orthophotomaps with some limited enhancement as an
alternative to 1:50,000 scale line maps. A pilot sheet is under development
and will be circulated to selected users for their comments in the near
future. The NSA will continue to upgrade
existing systems to enhance overall capabilities.
Modern mapping production systems are computer-based, using high performance
hardware with highly complex applications software. Very large amounts
of geographic data are created during the various stages of the production
process. These need to be safely and securely managed and archived.
A variety of techniques for collecting source information and compiling
final products are employed that include vector digitizing, raster scanning,
raster-to-vector conversion, and semi-automated map generalisation and
symbolisation. Restitution of aerial photographs (digital or softcopy
photogrammetry) and satellite images is now carried out by digital image
correlation and digital processing techniques.
The current trend to use computer-assistance to improve the automation
of many manual steps in the mapping production process will undoubtedly
continue well into the future. We will see this in the greater use of
knowledge-based systems to provide improved automation of the feature
recognition process, in generalisation of map details and in map publishing
capabilities. As the speed and power of computer processors increases,
the performance (and the complexity) of the applications will similarly
increase.
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