International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004 
  
4. OVERVIEW TO DEVELOPMENT OF GIS AND 
DIGITAL MAPPING 
The National Land Survey of Finland (NLS) is responsible for 
Finland’s general mapping assignments. It also promotes the 
shared use of geographic information. Besides the National 
Land Survey of Finland there are private surveying companies 
and municipal surveying organizations producing maps. They 
produce normally large-scale maps for purposes like land use 
planning and road building. GIS has increased the need and 
production of digital map-data in cities and other municipalities. 
Private companies add value to the existing digital databases 
and produce high-class products for customers. 
Classical cartography has been transformed mostly into digital 
cartography, and more generally into GIS. Map making has 
become more like just a part of the GIS data visualization 
process. To be useful GIS databases must be updated 
continuously. For example the National Land Survey of Finland 
uses digital orthophotos to update their land information. Stereo 
blocks are produced by National Land Survey Aerial Image 
Centre and delivered to local district survey offices, where to 
stereo blocks are compared to digital map database. All map 
data that the National Land Survey of Finland produces is 
nowadays in digital format. Digital map data is used for 
example for planning, follow-up, documentation, navigation, 
positioning, optimization, and in newspapers. 
The Finnish Maritime Administration produces naval charts in 
Finland. Digital naval charts are now covering northern parts of 
the Gulf of Finland and the lake Saimaa. These naval charts can 
be used with GPS devices for real-time navigation. 
S. EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 
5.1 Education in Finland 
Education in surveying at the university level is centred to the 
Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) at the Department of 
Surveying. There are two separate degree programs: Geomatics 
and Property Economics. The Geomatics include Geodesy, 
Photogrammetry, Remote sensing and GIS. Total intake is 90 of 
which 40 will study geomatics and 50 property economics and 
law. 
During the period in question two doctoral, three licentiate and 
ten M. Sc. thesis have been accepted at the Institute. of 
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at the Helsinki University 
of Technology. The dissertations were: 
eo Nini, Ilkka: Photogrammetric Block Adjustment 
Based on Singular Correlation, Acta Polytechnica 
Scandinavica, Civil Engineering and Building 
Construction Series 120 2000 
e Jokinen, Olli: Matching and Modelling of Multiple 3- 
D. Disparity and Profile Maps, Acta Polytechnica 
Scandinavica, Mathematics and Computing Series 
104 2000 
e 
There are also a number of other institutions, which are 
selectively active in photogrammetry, remote sensing and GIS 
education. Laboratory of Space Technology at the Helsinki 
University of Technology has professorship in remote sensing, 
University of Helsinki has two professorships in geoinformatics, 
in Department of Geography and Department of Forest 
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Resources Management. Department of Forestry at the 
University of Joensuu is also active in remote sensing. Courses 
in photogrammetry are available in University of Tampere. 
5.2 Research activities 
5.2.1 Finnish Institute of Marine Research (IMR) 
The research areas at Finnish Institute of Marine Research 
(FIMR, http://www.fimr.fi) are remote sensing of the Baltic Sea 
ice using SAR data, remote sensing of oil slicks in the Baltic 
Sea, and remote sensing of clorophyll (algae blooms) from 
optical/IR data. The Finnish Ice Service (FIS), an operational 
part of FIMR, uses remote sensing data from multiple sources 
(e.g. NOAA AVHRR, Radarsat-1, Envisat ASAR) to produce 
the daily ice charts over the northern Baltic Sea during the ice 
season (typically from February until May). These ice charts are 
also available in digital form, and can thus easily be compared 
to SAR data, and be used in validation of the automated sea ice 
products. 
FIMR has an automated operational sea ice thickness 
monitoring system based on Radarsat-1 ScanSAR wide mode 
data. The resulting ice thickness charts are automatically 
transmitted to end-users after a SAR image has been received 
and the processing. We have also developed a wavelet-based 
compression algorithm for the SAR images, such that the data 
can be transmitted to end-users in high resolution. 
Remote sensing research at FIMR is concentrated on utilization 
of the Envisat ASAR and Radarsat-2 data in operational sea ice 
monitoring (projects: ESSI, EnviSat and Baltic Sea Ice 
conditions, funded by the National Technology Agency, Tekes, 
2000-2001 (phase I), 2003-2005 (phase II); ICEMON, sea ice 
monitoring for climate research, environmental management, 
resource exploitation and marine operation safety in Polar 
Regions, funded by ESA under GMES/GSE Consolidation 
Phase, 2003-2004; IWICOS, Integrated weather, ice and ocean 
service system, funded by EU, 2000-2002), remote sensing of 
oil slicks from SAR images to develop an operational oil spill 
monitoring system (project: OILI, Oil spill detection 
information in the Baltic region, funded by Tekes, 2003-2005) 
and defining the ice ridging parameters from SAR images 
(project: IRIS, Ice Ridging Information for Decision Making in 
Shipping Operations, funded from the EU 5th framework 
programme, 2003-2005). These projects are performed in co- 
operation with several partners. The most important domestic 
partners are Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), 
Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Finnish 
Environment Institute (SYKE). 
In ESSI the use of Envisat ASAR data have been studied for 
operational use in Baltic Sea ice monitoring, and the 
classification algorithms are developed based on both Radarsat- 
| and Envisat ASAR data combined with field measurements. 
An improved operational sea ice classification algorithm for the 
Baltic Sea ice will be developed and adjusted for both Radarsat 
and Envisat ASAR data. Also the possibilities of dual 
polarization will be studied based on Envisat ASAR data. 
In OILI the possibilities to use SAR data for oil spill monitoring 
are studied, the limits of the wave conditions in which oil spills 
can be detected from SAR images will be defined, and an 
algorithm for these conditions will be developed, to be 
integrated as part of an operational monitoring system.