Bridge Collapses in Taiwan; Oil Truck Plunges Moments Away From Crossing
Several fishing boat workers were among at least a dozen people injured when the bridge, fell into a waterway in a fishing village.
A 2016 report on bridges in Yilan county had found problems with the expansion joints on the Nanfang’ao bridge, which was completed in 1998 and collapsed Tuesday morning, the official Central News Agency reported. The joints are designed to absorb changes in temperature.
The bridge – although only 20 years old – had previously undergone remediation work after a 2016 report found that the expansion joints were “obviously warped, damaged and sagging”.
CNA cited the report as saying that motorists could sense a difference of levels on either side of the joints, possibly as a result of warping or other problems.
Independent bridge consultant Simon Bourne said that the Nanfang’ao bridge collapse raises questions around the robustness of maintenance regimes in the aftermath of problems that triggered the recent closure of Hammersmith Bridge in London and the fatal collapse of the Polcevera viaduct in Genoa, Italy which claimed the lives of 43 in August 2018.
The company responsible for managing the bridge, Taiwan International Ports Corporation Ltd., earlier said it cleaned the joints and fixed other problems such as rusted steel reinforcements and guardrails in 2017 and 2018.
Experts are also looking into the condition of the bridge’s steel cables, including the possibility of dangerous levels of corrosion.
The 140-meter (460-foot) -long, 18-meter (nearly 60 feet) -high bridge collapsed into a bay on Taiwan’s lightly populated east coast, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Taipei. A typhoon swept by the island earlier, but the weather was sunny when the bridge collapsed, and it wasn’t clear if the storm was a factor.
If you’re looking forward to a career that gives you the opportunity to build bridges, design tunnels and maintain and construct other infrastructure projects, then a career in civil engineering is an ideal career path to pursue.
The job of a civil engineer involves checking the site to make sure it is appropriate. There are many branches under this filed and each of them deals with different tasks, some of the branches are as follows:
Civil Engineering Fields:
Construction Engineering
Geo-technical Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Transportation Engineering
Structural Engineering
Coastal Engineering
Earthquake Engineering
Water Resource Engineering
Surveying
Municipal Engineering
Tunnel Engineering & more…
That’s because civil engineering jobs are all over the world. But it’s a good idea to know how much money civil engineers around the world earn on average to get a sense of what you can expect when negotiating a civil engineering salary. Here are some important factors to consider:
What Affects Your Civil Engineering Salary?
Several elements may impact your civil engineering salary including the location of your company, your level of education, your level of expertise and the amount of experience you have.
Salary based on experience
Salary Based On Level Of Education
For instance, civil engineers in the United States make an average annual salary of $65,189, according to PayScale. However, PayScale reports that civil engineers in Australia make an average of $73,051 AUD—about $50,798 USD—per year. Even the city, county, state or province where civil engineering jobs are may impact pay. For example, ZipRecruiter reports that civil engineers in Ontario, Canada make an average of $62,498 USD per year while civil engineers in Quebec bring in an annual salary of $77,011 USD.
Your experience may also impact how much you make as a civil engineer. For example, senior civil engineers in the United States make an average of $119,600, according to Glassdoor. But PayScale reports that senior civil engineers in Toronto, Canada, make an average of $100,964 CAD or about $76,697 USD. So, it’s worth considering the trajectory of your career path as a civil engineer.
The type of civil engineering role you hold also impacts how much you make. Some of the top three jobs for the highest civil engineering salary include engineering project managers, engineering managers, and senior civil engineers, making as much as $196,000 per year in the United States. Your industry may impact your pay, too. For instance, data from the May 2018 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports civil engineers made the most working for the federal government excluding postal service jobs, bringing in a median annual salary $95,380.
You may also notice that different sources provide various ranges of salaries for civil engineering jobs. For instance, data from PayScale highlights that civil engineers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) make an average annual salary of 74,604 AED or $20,311 USD. On the other hand, data from the Economic Research Institute (ERI) reports that civil engineers in the UAE make an average of 269,209 AED per year or $73,294 USD. This amount can also look different on a monthly basis. For instance, ZipRecruiter reports the U.S.-based civil engineers bring in an average of $6,418 per month. So, it’s a good idea to consult different sources to get an idea of how much to expect from your engineering salary.
What Do Salaries for Civil Engineering Jobs Look Like Around the World?
If you want a sense of what to expect from a civil engineering salary in a country you’re considering working in, it’s worth comparing salaries for civil engineering jobs around the world. Here are some common annual salaries for civil engineers worldwide, according to ERI:
The demand for civil engineers is bound to increase as the population increases. This is because of an increase in demand for infrastructures such as housing, highways, water supplies and sewerage. However, Civil engineering, like most fields, depends on the economy with the demand being high when the economy is doing well.
New Genoa bridge expected to be completed by April 2020
REGGIO EMILIA, Italy – Rebuilding work on a bridge that collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa last year killing 43 people is expected to be completed by next April despite demolition works running late, the special commissioner for the reconstruction said on Wednesday.
The demolition of the Morandi bridge, which gave way last August sending dozens of vehicles into free-fall, began in February. Italy’s populist government has made its reconstruction a priority, promising a new bridge would be inaugurated next year.
Commissioner Marco Bucci, who is also Genoa’s mayor, said demolition works were running late by two to three weeks, but reconstruction had already begun.
“We’re racing ahead (…) and we’re still proceeding according to plan, which is to have the new bridge ready by April 2020,” he said.
Renowned Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano, who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris and The Shard skyscraper in London, donated a proposal for the new viaduct and has agreed to supervise the works.
The reconstruction contract has been awarded to Italy’s biggest builder Salini Impregilo and shipbuilder Fincantieri.
The collapse of the bridge has made access to the busy port in the northwestern city more difficult and also meant a lengthy detour for drivers wanting to head onwards to southern France.
Dam at Brazil Mine Could Burst Soon, Officials Warn
By Ernesto Londoño and Shasta Darlington
RIO DE JANEIRO — A dam in southern Brazil that contains tons of toxic waste from mining operations could burst imminently, prosecutors said on Friday, raising alarm in a region still reeling from a dam burst in January that killed more than 240 people.
Prosecutors in the state of Minas Gerais said they had been informed by Vale S.A., the mining giant that operates both sites, that the dam built to contain waste from the Gongo Soco mine could burst as early as Sunday. They issued the warning based on information gathered by radar.
The possible breach has led Vale and local officials to relocate hundreds of residents from the dam’s vicinity and to carry out emergency drills. The Gongo Soco mine, in the town of Barão de Cocais, has been inactive since 2016.
Those precautionary steps come as prosecutors continue to investigate Vale executives for criminal negligence over the previous dam burst, on Jan. 23 in Brumadinho. That disaster has crippled Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies, resulting in estimated losses of $4.8 billion.
The Brumadinho disaster has brought renewed attention to Vale’s safety standards, which had already come under scrutiny when one of its dams collapsed in 2015, killing 19 people.
Under pressure from federal and state prosecutors, the company’s chief executive and several other senior officials stepped down in March.
The Brumadinho disaster has led to a debate about Brazilian environmental regulations and their enforcement. In addition to the 240 confirmed casualties, 40 people who remain missing are presumed dead, making it one of the deadliest mining disasters in recent history.
The Gongo Soco dam is one of 87 mining dams in Brazil built like the one that failed in January. All but four have been rated by the government as equally vulnerable or worse.
President Jair Bolsonaro has called government agencies that enforce environmental laws overzealous and has vowed to open up protected areas of the country to mining and other industries.
In a statement on the threat posed by the Gongo Soco dam, Vale said it was “reinforcing the alert and readiness level for a worst-case breach scenario.”
The area surrounding the structure has been on high alert since February, when Vale disclosed a list of dams that were at risk of collapse. Roughly 400 people were evacuated in early February as officials took steps to ascertain the level of risk.
Since then, local officials and the company have carried out evacuation drills for more distant communities.
Prosecutors in Minas Gerais — who have accused company officials of minimizing the risks the dams posed — called on Vale to give residents in the area “clear, complete and truthful information” about the current state of the dam.
How LiDAR is Being Used to Help With Natural Disaster Mapping and Management
Michael Shillenn, vice president and program manager with Quantum Spatial outlines three projects where LiDAR data from the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) has been used to assist in planning, disaster response and recovery, and emergency preparedness.
This month the United States Geological Survey (USGS) kicks off the fourth year of its grant process that supports collection high-resolution topographic data using LiDAR under its 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). The 3DEP program stemmed from the growing national need for standards-based 3D representations of natural and constructed above-ground features, and provides valuable data and insights to federal and state agencies, as well as municipalities and other organizations across the U.S. and its territories.
With geospatial data collected through 3DEP, these agencies and organizations can mitigate flood risk, manage infrastructure and construction projects, conserve national resources, mitigate hazards and ensure they are prepared for natural and manmade disasters.
Here’s a look at three projects undertaken by Quantum Spatial Inc. on behalf of various government agencies, explaining how the LiDAR data collected has been used to support hurricane recovery and rebuilding efforts, provide risk assessments for potential flooding and address potential volcanic hazards.
Hurricane Sandy Disaster Response and Recovery
Hurricane Sandy was one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, impacting 24 states, including the entire Eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine. The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 enabled the USGS and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support response, recovery and mitigation of damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.
As a result, USGS and NOAA coordinated the collection of high-resolution topographic and bathymetric elevation data using LiDAR technology along the eastern seaboard from South Carolina to Rhode Island covering coastal and inland areas impacted by the storm. This integrated data is supporting scientific studies related to:
Hurricane recovery and rebuilding activities;
Vulnerability assessments of shorelines to coastal change hazards, such as severe storms, sea-level rise, and shoreline erosion and retreat;
Validation of storm-surge inundation predictions over urban areas;
Watershed planning and resource management; and
Ecological assessments.
The elevation data collected during this project has been included in the 3DEP repository, as well as NOAA’s Digital Coast — a centralized, user-friendly and cost-effective information repository developed by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management for the coastal managers, planners, decision-makers, and technical users who are charged to manage the nation’s coastal and ocean resources to sustain vibrant coastal communities and economies.
In this image, you’ll see a 3D LiDAR surface model colored by elevation centered on the inlet between Bear and Browns Island, part of North Carolina’s barrier islands south of Emerald Isle in Onslow Bay. The Back Bay marshlands and Intercostal Waterway also are clearly defined in this data.
3D LiDAR surface model colored by elevation centered on the inlet between Bear and Browns Island, part of North Carolina’s barrier islands south of Emerald Isle in Onslow Bay.
Flood Mapping and Border Security along the Rio Grande River
Not only is flooding one of the most common and costly disasters, flood risk also can change over time as a result of development, weather patterns and other factors. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) works with federal, state, tribal and local partners across the nation to identify and reduce flood risk through the Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) program. Risk MAP leverages 3DEP elevation data to create high-quality flood maps and models. The program also provides information and tools that help authorities better assess potential risk from flooding and supports planning and outreach to communities in order to help them take action to reduce (or mitigate) flood risk.
This image depicts a 3D LiDAR surface model, colored by elevation, for a portion of the City of El Paso, Texas. U.S. and Mexico territory, separated by the Rio Grande River, is shown. Centered in the picture is the Cordova Point of Entry Bridge crossing the Rio Grande. The US Customs and Border Protection, El Paso Port of Entry Station is prominently shown on the north side of the bridge. Not only does this data show the neighborhoods and businesses that could be impacted by flooding, but also it provides up-to-date geospatial data that may be valuable to border security initiatives.
3D LiDAR surface model, colored by elevation, for a portion of the City of El Paso, Texas. U.S. and Mexico territory, separated by the Rio Grande River
Disaster Preparedness Around the Glacier Peak Volcano
The USGS has a Volcano Hazards Program designed to advance the scientific understanding of volcanic processes and lessen the harmful impacts of volcanic activity. This program monitors active and potentially active volcanoes, assesses their hazards, responds to volcanic crises and conducts research on how volcanoes work.
Through 3DEP, USGS acquired LiDAR of Glacier Peak, the most remote, and one of the most active volcanoes, in the state of Washington. The terrain information provided by LiDAR enables scientists to get accurate view of the land, even in remote, heavily forested areas. This data helps researchers examine past eruptions, prepare for future volcanic activity and determine the best locations for installing real-time monitoring systems. The LiDAR data also is used in the design of a real-time monitoring network at Glacier Peak in preparation for installation in subsequent years, at which time the USGS will be able to better monitor activity and forecast eruptions.
This image offers a view looking southeast at Glacier and Kennedy Peaks and was created from the gridded LiDAR surface, colored by elevation.
3D LiDAR surface model of a view looking southeast at Glacier and Kennedy Peaks.
FROM humble beginnings in Chicago and New York in the late 19th Century, skyscraper construction has proliferated.
Now appearing in almost every major city on our planet, these remarkable vertical structures enable us to live and work in densely developed urban areas, maximising value from their sites.
But with engineering techniques and technology advancing, the next generation of skyscrapers take things to a different level.
To celebrate these structures and demonstrate their impact across the world, we have travelled from east to west and looked at the tallest skyscraper currently under construction on each of the six inhabited continents.
It’s important to recognise that the status of development projects can change quite regularly prior to construction work commencing – and, as you will you see in several instances in this video, even thereafter.
To select projects, we have stipulated that each scheme must have at least broken ground at the time of publication.
OCEANIA – AUSTRALIA 108
We begin our journey down under with Melbourne’s supertall Australia 108 tower.
Originally intended to stand 388 metres high, the scheme was scaled back to meet aviation requirements and is now set to be 317 metres tall when completed in 2020.
Above: Australia 108 will be the first building in the Southern hemisphere to contain 100 floors (image courtesy of Fender Katsalidis Architects).
Built in the historically swampy area of the city’s Southbank, Australia 108 required more than 150, 2.1 metre diameter piles to be drilled to depths of up to 45 metres.
Passing the 200-metre mark in October 2018, the building is now two thirds complete. Remarkably, the first residents began to move into the lower levels of the tower in June 2018 with more than 50 storeys still to be constructed above them.
Above: The first residents began to move into the tower in 2018 while the upper levels were still under construction (image courtesy of Redden).
Once fully completed, Australia 108 is set become the country’s second tallest building – after the 322 metre Q1 on the Gold Coast – and the first building in the Southern hemisphere to have 100 storeys.
ASIA – JEDDAH TOWER
Quite literally topping the list – not just in Asia, but worldwide – the Jeddah Tower is currently under construction in Saudi Arabia.
While its official height is being kept under wraps, the structure is expected to stand over a kilometre tall, surpassing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa to become the world’s tallest building when it competes in 2021.
Above: At more than a kilometre tall the Jeddah Tower will become the tallest man-made structure in the world upon completion (image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture).
Designed by the same architect, the design of the Jeddah Tower features a number of similarities to the Burj Khalifa; including a three-point base, tapered profile and an impressive spire.
The project has proven controversial since inception. Despite construction work commencing in 2013, progress has been very slow and the tower remains unfinished.
Like other schemes on our journey, the Jeddah Tower’s completion has been plagued with doubt and the scheme was recently placed on-hold due to a number of factors, including two of its backers being caught-up in Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption purge and financial difficulties resulting from a 70% drop in the value of the tower’s main developer, the Kingdom Group, since 2014.
Above: Despite construction commencing in 2013, the tower has only managed to rise to around 300 metres (image courtesy of the Jeddah Economic Company)
Currently standing around 300 metres high, the official word from developers is that the project is still progressing. But with little movement seen over recent months – aside from the construction of some ground-level amenities – the tower’s 2021 completion date could be delayed.
AFRICA – THE PINNACLE
Giving Africa its first supertall skyscraper, the Pinnacle is set to rise 320 metres above Nairobi in Kenya, surpassing the 222 metre Carlton Centre in Johannesburg and becoming the continent’s tallest building.
With the wider development, in fact, consisting of two towers, the 67 storey structure will provide office space, luxury residential apartments and amenities including a helipad for residents and commercial tenants.
Above: The Pinnacle is set to become the first supertall skyscraper in Africa upon its completion (image courtesy of White Lotus Group and Hass Petroleum)
With initial pilling and foundation work commencing in 2017, the project was halted early in 2018 due to disputes over land ownership.
Though not officially on-hold, the project is currently postponed until at least February 2019 when the case is set to go before the courts.
Should the project be cancelled, the 250 metre Bank of Africa Tower in Morocco, which commenced construction in November 2018, would take the title of Africa’s tallest building.
EUROPE – AKHMAT TOWER
With the topping-out of the Lakhta Center in St Petersburg, the 435-metre Akhmat Tower in Chechnya officially became the tallest building under construction in Europe according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).
Though officially under construction and enjoying strong support from the Chechen government, the project remains postponed, with only the foundation works completed to date.
Above: The Akhmat Tower is set to rise 435 metres over the Chechen city of Grozny (image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture).
The project is facing a range of challenges from questions over the disclosure of its investors and the need for a building of this scale in a city of only 270,000 people, to rumours of costs soaring from USD $500M to more than USD $1BN and the completion date slipping back from 2020 to 2024.
With the project looking uncertain, Warsaw’s Varso Tower could be considered the tallest skyscraper currently under construction in Europe with its final height set to reach 310 metres.
SOUTH AMERICA – YACHT HOUSE RESIDENCE CLUB
Heading to South America, the twin towers of the Yacht House Residences Club in Brazil are expected to complete in 2019.
Though not reaching supertall status these 271 metre, 81 storey towers will become the tallest buildings in Brazil and second tallest on the continent once completed.
Above: Brazil’s twin-tower Yacht House Residence Club will are due for completion in 2019 (image courtesy of Pininfarina).
With a comparatively small population of just under 400,000, the beachside resort of Balneario Camboriu is soon to be home to 6 of the 10 tallest buildings in Brazil and will have the same number of skyscrapers – that is, buildings exceeding 150 metres in height – as Rio and Sao Paulo combined.
NORTH AMERICA – CENTRAL PARK TOWER
Finally, in North America, New York’s Central Park Tower is set to become the second tallest building in the United States after One World Trade Center and world’s tallest residential building when it completes in 2020.
First breaking ground in 2014, the tower will feature 95 habitable floors.
Above: The Central Park Tower cantilevers over a neighbouring building to increase the size of its floor plate (image courtesy of Andrew Nelson).
Retailer Nordstrom is set to occupy the first seven levels, while the summit will feature a three-storey penthouse priced at USD $95M.
As the tower clears surrounding buildings, it increases its floor area by cantilevering over the Art Students League of New York building; a move made possible after developers purchased air rights from the neighbouring property.
Above: Upon completion, Central Park Tower will become the tallest residential building in the world (image courtesy of Extell).
Having surpassed the halfway mark, Central Park Tower is the now the latest is a series of super-slender residential towers to appear on the Manhattan skyline, as developers seek to drive value from small parcels of land in one of the world’s most densely populated cities.
Footage and images courtesy of the United States Library of Congress, Rand McNally, Google Earth, Fender Katsalidis Architects, Redden, World Class Land, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, J. Eduardo Segundo Hernandez, Jeddah Economic Company, Earthcam, White Lotus, Hass Petroleum, Ron Gaigu, Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos, Maxidron, Smart Building Group, Foster + Partners, JC Drones, Pininfarina, Extell, Andrew McKeon, Nordstrom, Andrew Nelson, Christopher Estevez, AKF Group LLC and EB-5.
3D Laser Scans Saved in 2015 Could Help Rebuild The Notre Dame
The world watched in horror Monday night while flames tore through the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. As fire consumed the roof and toppled its iconic central spire, it seemed as though the historic church could be lost forever – but it’s possible, thanks to cutting-edge imagining technology, that all hope may not be lost.
Thanks to the meticulous work of Vassar College’s art historian Andrew Tallon, every exquisite detail and mysterious clue to the building’s 13th-century construction was recorded in a digital archive in 2015 using laser imaging.
These records have revolutionized our understanding of how the spectacular building was built – and could provide a template for how Paris could rebuild.
According to Wired, “architects now hope that Tallon’s scans may provide a map for keeping on track whatever rebuilding will have to take place.”
In 2015, National Geographicprofiled Tallon and his unique scanning process, highlighting his digital imaging of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
For centuries, the only tools we had to measure medieval buildings and structures were primitive – strings and rulers, pencils and plumb bobs – but by turning to 21st-century technology, Tallon was able to tease out the secrets of this miraculous structure.
“If I had texts at every point, I could look in the texts and try to get back into the heads of the builders,” Tallon told Nat Geo. “I don’t have it, so it’s detective work for me.”
For his scans of Notre Dame, Tallon recorded data from more than 50 locations in and around the cathedral, resulting in a staggering one billion points of data.
Each scan begins by mounting the laser onto a tripod and placing in the center of the structure. The laser sweeps around the area in every direction, and as it hits a surface, the beam bounces back, recording the exact placement and surface of whatever buttress or column it landed on by measuring the time it took the beam to return.
Every measurement is recorded as a colored dot, combining together into a detailed picture, like the color pixels of a digital photograph.
Eventually those millions of dots form a three-dimensional snapshot of the cathedral, and the resulting images are meticulously precise; if the scan is done properly, Tallon told Nat Geo, it should be accurate within 5 millimeters.
According to The New York Times, it took less than an hour for the fire to spread from the attic of the cathedral and engulf the roof, toppling the central spire.
Construction on the cathedral began in the year 1163 and finished in 1345, according to an NYT piece about the history of the cathedral, and the wooden roof contained historic beams from the year 1220, all of which were destroyed by the blaze.
Support for the recovery efforts have begun pouring in, with wealthy Parisians and companies pledging more than US$450 million in donations to Notre Dame’s restoration.
Despite the extensive damage, the NYT reports that most of the priceless artifacts and the stone structure of the cathedral remain intact – though only time will tell how long it’ll take to restore the beloved structure to a semblance of its former glory.
In this latest release of InfraWorks, you are now able to make changes to GIS data that was imported from ArcGIS Online and Enterprise. With proper permissions to ArcGIS, those changes made in InfraWorks can be saved back to the ArcGIS Feature Service. For example, you may have brought sanitary sewer manhole and pipe data from ArcGIS into InfraWorks. Within your InfraWorks model, you may wish to change the location of that manhole and pipe location to meet your design requirements. Once you make that change, you simply select the data source from ArcGIS Online and select to ‘save back’ to save those changes back to ArcGIS. Now in ArcGIS Online, we simply refresh the web browser and the new locations of the manhole and pipe are shown.
Enhanced control of design manipulations
Extended Schema Tool
In order to meet BIM requirements, an aggregated model with deep metadata is often required and the schema tool helps simplify the process of managing this data. The new release of InfraWorks allows users to add new properties and information to the elements of their project. Customize data for objects in a model through the extended schema transfer tool. The data can be expanded with multiple fields and each element can be documented as needed. The schema tool can be applied to buildings, parcels, roadways, utilities, and a host of other InfraWorks elements.
Cut and Fill Display
InfraWorks now allows the user to control the cut and fill display on roads. Selecting the material display in the grading option, allows the user to specify the color or material by the impact, cut or fill. Clearly view impacted areas and make design revisions as needed. This feature will greatly help to enhance roadway and concept layouts within InfraWorks.
Spreadsheet-based edits
It is now possible to make adjustments to bridge structures using a convenient spreadsheet technique. The structure parameters are saved to a spreadsheet where multiple edits can be made to multiple areas of the structure at one time. These changes are then saved back into the spreadsheet and the structure model can then be updated. This method of making multiple changes across is particularly efficient for customers working on large bridge projects where changes in many areas of the structure may be required.
New year, new opportunities to advance your project management career. There’s always room to better oneself, make connections and get a picture of the industry: all good reasons to take time to visit one of the many project management conferences held in 2019.
As you start to plan your calendar for the year, we’ve offered a rundown of the best project management conferences in 2019. See you there.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which accredits professionals in land, property and construction industries, offers this full-day conference designed for valuers. This event features topics relevant to professional development, with industry speakers.
The Association of Change Management Professions (ACMP) holds its annual conference, which is one of the largest in the industry and offers a chance to meet with colleagues from around the world. It supports professional growth, with many sessions to focus on your personal interests.
The Scrum Alliance offers its annual networking and learning opportunity, with new solutions and tools to help deepen your knowledge of Agile. It features over 1,000 Scrum and Agile practitioners coming together to discuss new ideas, create community collaboration and make connections.
Part of a series of national conferences for project managers and business analysts accredited by both PMI and IIBA, where participants can earn PDUs/CDUs. There are industry experts and education sessions, workshops and keynotes. Check the website for more conferences.
Organized by the Research Institute of the Project Management of the Faculty of Business, Management and Economics, University of Latvia, in cooperation with the Professional Association of Project Managers, the aim of this conference is on scientific research. There is an opening plenary session, parallel sessions, and all abstracts have been double-blind reviewed. The conference is in English.
This must-attend event for the Agile community speaks to new Agile tools and techniques, patterns and practices emerging in the field. Participants learn how to support and evolve their Agile engineering practices as they relate to advances discussed. The three-day conference explores topics such as DevOps approaches, UX design and cloud computing.
“Delivering Value in a Transforming World” is the theme of this year’s APM Project Management Conference. The one-day event has a program of influential speakers who will discuss how project management can better deliver value with innovative methods, tools and techniques.
Hosted by the accrediting agency PMI, the EMEA Congress gathers project, program and portfolio managers from around the globe. They are there to discuss best practices, identify new trends and reinforce core industry skills.
Agile & Beyond is a grassroots and volunteer-run event that serves to educate on Agile principles and practices. It also covers topics related to Agile. There are approximately 100 sessions packed into the two-day conference, suitable for those new to Agile and the Agile experts.
The 13th annual conference caters to newcomers and certified practitioners alike. Topics range the gamut, from Agile to strategic project management, including soft skills and behavioral competency. The two-day conference is also available online, and PDUs are available for attending.
An international forum for the discussion and debate of all project management and engineering companies and professionals, the conference is geared towards experts, researchers and trainers who are focused on educating future professionals in the field. However, all interested persons are encouraged to attend.
This PMI-hosted event focuses on the evolving role of project management, this conference is open to project, program and portfolio professionals and will discuss new ideas and approaches, while giving participants the opportunity to make new relationships and strengthen existing ones.
This PMO conference is created by Wellingtone, a PPM consultancy that works with clients across the UK. The organization is both a Microsoft Gold Partner with PPM Specialization and an APM accredited training provider. This one-day conference is for practitioners at all levels and brings together leading project management experts from across the industry.
The Digital PM Summit is a three-day conference of presentations, breakout sessions and talks. It welcomes all methodologies and approaches, from Agile to waterfall and hybrid, offering new perspectives in a social networking-friendly environment.
The PMO Symposium gives participants access to executive-level networking, workshops and discussions. Learn actionable insights for organizational executives, PMO leaders and senior decision-makers. The details for the 2018 event have yet to be posted.
USGS 3DEP Lidar Point Cloud now available as Amazon Public Dataset
The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) announced the availability of a new way to access and process lidar point cloud data from the 3DEP repository. 3DEP has been acquiring three-dimensional information across the United States using light detection and ranging (lidar) technology- an airborne laser-based remote sensing technology that collects billions of lidar returns while flying- and making results available to the public.
The USGS has been strategically focused on providing new mechanisms to access 3DEP data beyond simple downloads. With 3DEP’s adoption of cloud storage and computing, users now have the option to work with massive lidar point cloud datasets without having to download them to local machines.
Currently, there are over 1.77 million ASPRS LAS tiles compressed using the LASzip compression encoding in the us-west-2 region, which equates to over 12 trillion lidar point cloud records available from over 1,254 projects across the United States. This resource provides users a mechanism to retrieve and work with 3DEP data that is quicker than the free FTP download protocol.
“The 3D Elevation Program was founded on the concept that high-resolution elevation data should be provided unlicensed, free and open to the public,” explained Kevin Gallagher, Associate Director for USGS Core Science System. “This agreement with Amazon helps to fulfill that promise by providing cloud-access to the trillions of data points collected through the Program.
The democratization of elevation data is a tremendous achievement by the community of partners leading this effort and promises to revolutionize approaches to applications from flood forecasting and geologic assessments to precision agriculture and infrastructure development.”
Hobu, Inc. and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) collaborated with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Datasets team to organize these data as Entwine Point Tile (EPT) resources, which is a lossless, streamable octree based on LASzip (LAZ) encoding. The data are now part of the Open Data registry provided by AWS, similar to the Landsat archive.
