3-D Global Spatial Data Model

Traditional methods for handling spatial data are encumbered by the assumption of separate origins for horizontal and vertical measurements, but modern measurement systems operate in a 3-D spatial environment. The 3-D Global Spatial Data Model: Principles and Applications, Second Edition maintains a new model for handling digital spatial data, the global spatial data model or GSDM. The GSDM preserves the integrity of three-dimensional spatial data while also providing additional benefits such as simpler equations, worldwide standardization, and the ability to track spatial data accuracy with greater specificity and convenience. This second edition expands to new topics that satisfy a growing need in the GIS, professional surveyor, machine control, and Big Data communities while continuing to embrace the earth center fixed coordinate system as the fundamental point of origin of one, two, and three-dimensional data sets. Ideal for both beginner and advanced levels, this book also provides guidance and insight on how to link to the data collected and stored in legacy systems.

"As a practicing surveyor responsible for producing 3D geodetic survey control to establish and define the NSRS relationship on large transportation and infrastructure projects involving cutting edge state of the art geospatial technology such as Mobile Lidar and UAV Lidar / Imagery Acquisition, I am utterly astounded that we are still working in the dark ages using State Plane Coordinates, and so dissatisfied with the outcome, we scale them back to the ground where we made the measurements in the first place. Seriously, how much longer must we endure the Grid vs. Ground non-solution? How many more classes and workshops on Grid vs. Ground must there be? A better solution, the LDP still lingers with only some limited examples of implementation. With the problems caused by the improper use of the SPCS over the past several decades, it is unlikely that a more sophisticated solution like the LDP will replace the former. The NSRS will be redefined shortly, only a few years away, including a new gravimetric vertical datum. The time for the GSDM is here right now. Read this book today. Become an advocate and a voice promoting the GSDM. Your children will thank you for it and your grandchildren will remember you for it." —Jesse Kozlowski, Geodetic Surveyor, Maser Consulting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA"The 3-D Global Spatial Data Model: Principles and Applications, 2nd Edition is remarkable in its complete and comprehensive treatment of the geocentric Cartesian coordinate system, which is the basis for modern geomatics. Earl Burkholder has delved deeply into every aspect of this coordinate system and used it to produce a unified approach to handling all aspects of geospatial data. The book is essentially self-contained, including fundamentals such as number systems, logic, arithmetic, algebra, and geometry; plus more advanced topics in geometric geodesy, physical geodesy, and error theory. The treatment includes worked examples so it is accessible

A native Virginian, Earl F. Burkholder grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and graduated from Eastern Mennonite High School in 1964. He earned a BS in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1973 and an MS in civil engineering (Geodesy) in 1980. From 1980 to 1993, he taught upper division surveying classes at the Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, Oregon. After five years of being self-employed, he taught in the Surveying Engineering program at New Mexico State University from 1998 to his retirement in 2010. His professional career began as a draftsman with Gould Engineering, Inc. of Flint, Michigan in 1968. Following graduating from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, he worked five years for Commonwealth Associates, Inc. of Jackson, Michigan, an international consulting firm for the utility industry. Assigned to the Transmission Line Engineering Division at Commonwealth, he was responsible for surveying related computations on projects in numerous states and was promoted to Survey Project Manager prior to leaving in 1978 to attend Purdue University. While teaching at Oregon Tech, he became editor of the ASCE Journal of Surveying Engineering and served two separate four-year terms; 1985–1989 and 1993–1998. He also became involved in ABET accreditation activities while at Oregon Tech and went on to serve on the Engineering Related Accreditation Commission (now known as the Applied Science Accreditation Commission) culminating as chair of the RAC in 2000/2001.While self-employed, he completed three major projects for the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), Waukesha, Wisconsin. The first project was to develop a reliable bidirectional algorithm for transforming data between the NAD 27 datum being used by SEWRPC and the new NAD 83 datum published by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS). Upon successful completion of the horizontal transformation