The Institute of Geomatics (IG) was a public consortium made up of the
Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Ministry of Territory and Sustainability, and the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge) and the
Polytechnic University of Catalonia
The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...
, created by Decree Law 256/1997 of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, on September 30, 1997. It was a founding member of the Associació Catalana d'Entitats de Recerca (ACER).
The Institute of Geomatics was dissolved on December, 31st 2013, following the Government Agreement of Dissolution signed on December, 23rd 2013. The institute, including personnel, equipment and developments, was integrated as the Geomatics division of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya.
Activities
The institute's mission was the "promotion and development of Geomatics, through applied research and teaching, for the benefit of society".
Within the framework defined by its mission, the institute mainly conducted the following activities:
*Basic research activities
*Applied research activities
*Technology and knowledge transfer activities and projects
*Teaching, specialized training, course and conference activities
*Organization of congresses and other scientific dissemination activities,
Vision on Research
The Institute of Geomatics was a public non-profit research center. Since 1999 it worked intensively on research, knowledge transfer and dissemination of geomatic science and technology.
Geomatics is a variety of techniques that integrate sensors capturing data and
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
s (mainly
cameras, but also from other remote sensors) with methods for the treatment, analysis, interpretation, diffusion and storage of geographic information.
Geomatics connects various traditional disciplines, like
geodesy
Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...
or
cartography with more recently developed fields like
remote sensing,
satellite navigation and latest information and communication technologies. As a result, geomatics allows us today to obtain information about the
Earth and its
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
globally and within very short time.
The Institute centered its activities around two main areas: the area of
positioning and navigation, focused on techniques to improve
precision, and the area of remote sensing, which means
Earth observation through images and data collected by sensors on-board of
satellites, aircraft and ground platforms.
More specifically, the IG research lines entailed:
*Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry, including ground, airborne and/or satellite observation systems, sensor and acquisition systems' technology, geometric and radiometric
data normalization
In mathematics and computer science, a canonical, normal, or standard form of a mathematical object is a standard way of presenting that object as a mathematical expression. Often, it is one which provides the simplest representation of an obj ...
, and information extraction and fusion from data
*Geodesy, including spatial and inertial geodesy, high precision static and kinematic positioning, and gravity field determination
*Cartographic modelling and representation, including technology and application of
Geographic Information Systems
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a br ...
for spatial data integration and exploitation
*Navigation, including
Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Inertial Measurement Units, and multi-sensor integration for applications in transportation, agriculture, search-and-rescue and airborne remote sensing
The IG participated in a wide portfolio of research projects, covering areas such as cartography, topography, search-and-rescue, civil engineering, agriculture, mobile mapping, location-based services, unmanned aerial vehicles,
and many others.
References
{{reflist
External links
Official website of the Institute of Geomatics (redirects to the webpage of the division of Geomatics in CTTC)
Technology consortia
Research institutes in Catalonia
Geomatics organizations