English

Foundation
Brief overview of business
Achievement of ordinary business
Events and plan for future
Publications
Other business

Foundation

Since its foundation in 1980, the Association of Precise Survey and Applied Technology (APA) has been committed to:
research and development of precise survey and mapping;
examination and test of leading-edge survey technologies;
innovation of applied survey technology;
active commitments to projects of the national and local governments.
The original intent of the APA foundation is to stimulate achievements in the geospatial industry.
APA is supported by the investment and membership dues of the member companies, who recognize the significance of the above-mentioned activities.
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Brief overview of business

To achieve the objectives mentioned above, APA has performed the following business:
comprehensive research and development of precise survey, mapping and applied survey technology;
planning and holding of conferences, forums, workshops and training courses for geospatial professionals;
implementation of precise survey, mapping and applied technology and enhancement of availability of the advanced technology for practical use;
undertaking the required business to commit to the goal of APA.
APA has been widely promoting the research on advanced technology in the field of survey and mapping of the nation's land, since APA was founded in 1980. A number of studies have been performed by APA members themselves and several research activities have been collaborated with the national governments such as Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. A number of funded researches are carried on as well as independent studies. As the result of applied research of GPS and/or practical application of airborne laser, for instance, APA has made technical contributions to respond to large-scale disasters and to the global warming.

As a significant activity regarding geospatial information, APA has contributed to the work of ISO/TC 211 on Geographic information/Geomatics as the only domestic deliberative body in Japan appointed by Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) since 1995. And also APA has been in charge of Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) in the field of geographic information with providing the Japanese Standards for Geographic Information (JSGI) and disseminating the standards proactively. JSGI, largely based on the international standards, is being examined for a practical use to meet the Japanese conditions. APA starts to test the conformance of Product Specification, Metadata and Software to JSGI and is providing certification since 2006.

APA will make sustained efforts in research and development of precise survey, mapping and applied technology so that the national geospatial data infrastructure, which supports a more affluent society, will be utilized widely.
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Achievement of ordinary business

The recent achievements of APA's ordinary business include the following.
a) Activities related to ISO/TC 211 on Geographic information/Geomatics and JIS
APA has been involved with deliberating the draft international standards in ISO/TC 211 as the domestic deliberative body as well as compiling the relevant drafts of JIS.
Published standardsas of July 31, 2019
ISJIS
Project No.Title 
ISO 6709:2008 Standard representation of geographic point location by coordinates  
ISO 6709:2008/Cor1:2009 Standard representation of geographic point location by coordinates-Technical Corrigendum 1  
ISO/TS 19101-1:2014 Reference model - Part 1: Fundamentals (Revision of ISO 19101:2002)  
ISO/TS 19101-2:2018 Reference model - Part 2: Imagery (Revision of ISO 19101-2:2008)  
ISO 19103:2015 Geographic information - Conceptual schema language (Revision of ISO/TS 19103:2005)  
ISO/TS 19104:2016 Geographic information - Terminology (Revision of ISO/TS 19104:2008)  
ISO 19105:2000 Geographic information - Conformance and testing JIS X 7105:2001
ISO 19106:2004 Geographic information - Profiles  
ISO 19107:2003 Geographic information - Spatial schema JIS X 7107:2005
ISO 19108:2002
ISO 19108:2002/Cor1:2006
Geographic information - Temporal schema JIS X 7108:2004
ISO 19109:2015 Geographic information - Rules for application schema (Revision of ISO 19109:2005) JIS X 7109:2009(ISO 19109:2005)
ISO 19110:2016 Geographic information - Methodology for feature cataloguing (Revision of ISO 19110:2005) JIS X 7110:2009(ISO 19110:2005)
ISO 19111:2019 Geographic information - Spatial referencing by coordinates JIS X 7111:2014(ISO 19111:2007)
ISO 19112:2019 Geographic information - Spatial referencing by geographic identifiers(Revision of ISO 19112:2003) JIS X 7112:2006(ISO 19112:2003)
ISO 19115-1:2014
ISO 19115-1:2014/Amd.1:2018
Geographic information - Metadata - Part 1: Fundamentals (Revision of ISO 19115:2003) JIS X 7115:2005(ISO 19115:2003)
ISO 19115-2:2019 Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for acquisition and processing (Revision of ISO 19115-2:2009)  
ISO/TS 19115-3:2016 Metadata - Part 3: XML schema implementation of metadata fundamentals (Revision of ISO/TS 19139:2007)  
ISO 19116:2004 Geographic information - Positioning services  
ISO 19117:2012 Geographic information - Portrayal (Revision of ISO 19117:2005)  
ISO 19118:2011 Geographic information - Encoding (Revision of ISO 19118:2005)  
ISO 19119:2016 Geographic information - Services (Revision of ISO 19119:2005)  
ISO/TR 19121:2000 Geographic information - Imagery and gridded data  
ISO 19123:2005 Geographic information - Schema for coverage geometry and functions JIS X 7123:2012(ISO 19123:2005)
ISO 19125-1:2004 Geographic information - Simple feature access - Part 1: Common architecture  
ISO/TS 19126:2009 Geographic information - Feature concept dictionaries and registers  
ISO/TS 19127:2019 Geographic information - Geodetic codes and parameters(Revision of ISO/TS 19127:2005)  
ISO 19128:2005 Geographic information - Web map server interface  
ISO 19129:2009 Geographic information - Imagery, gridded and coverage data framework  
ISO/TS 19130-1:2018 Geographic information - Imagery sensor models for geopositioning - Part 1: (Revision of ISO/TS 19130:2010)  
ISO/TS 19130-2:2014 Geographic information - Imagery sensor models for geopositioning ? Part 2: SAR, InSAR, Lidar and Sonar  
ISO 19131:2007
ISO 19131/Amd.1:2011
Geographic information - Data product specifications JIS X 7123:2012(ISO 19131:2007, Amd.1:2011)
ISO 19132:2007 Geographic information - Location-based services - Reference model  
ISO 19133:2005 Geographic information - Location-based services - Tracking and navigation  
ISO 19134:2007 Geographic information - Location-based services - Multimodal routing and navigation  
ISO 19135-1:2015 Geographic information - Procedures for item registration - Part 1: Fundamentals (Revision of ISO 19135:2005)  
ISO 19136:2007 Geographic information - Geography Markup Language (GML) JIS X 7136:2012
ISO 19136-2:2015 Geographic information - Geography Markup Language (GML) - Part 2: Extended schemas and encoding rules  
ISO 19137:2007 Geographic information - Core profile of the spatial schema  
ISO/TS 19139:2007 Geographic information - Metadata - XML schema implementation  
ISO 19141:2008 Geographic information - Schema for moving features  
ISO 19142:2010 Geographic information - Web Feature Service  
ISO 19143:2010 Geographic information - Filter encoding  
ISO 19144-1:2009 Geographic information - Classification Systems - Part 1: Classification system structure  
ISO 19144-1/Cor.1:2012 Geographic information - Classification Systems - Part 1: Classification system structure - Technical Corrigendum 1  
ISO 19144-2:2012 Geographic information - Classification systems ? Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML)  
ISO 19145:2013 Geographic information - Registry of representations of geographic point location  
ISO 19146:2018 Geographic information - Cross-domain vocabularies (Revision of ISO 19146:2010)  
ISO 19147:2015 Geographic information - Transfer Nodes  
ISO 19148:2012 Geographic information - Linear Referencing  
ISO 19149:2011 Geographic information - Rights expression language for geographic information-GeoREL  
ISO 19150-1:2012 Geographic information - Ontology - Part 1: Framework  
ISO 19150-2:2015 Geographic information - Ontology - Part 2: Rules for developing ontologies in the Web Ontology Language (OWL)  
ISO 19150-2:2015/Amd 1:2019 Geographic information - Ontology - Part 2: Rules for developing ontologies in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) Amd.1  
ISO 19150-4:2019 Geographic information - Ontology - Part 2:Service ontology  
ISO 19152:2012 Geographic information - Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)  
ISO 19153:2014 Geographic information - Geospatial Digital Rights Management Reference Model (GeoDRM RM)   
ISO 19154:2014 Geographic information - Ubiquitous public access - Reference model  
ISO 19155:2012 Geographic information - Place Identifier (PI) Architecture  
ISO 19155-2:2017 Geographic information - Place Identifier (PI) architecture - Part 2: Place Identifier (PI) linking  
ISO 19156:2011 Geographic information - Observations and measurements  
ISO 19157:2013 Geographic information - Data Quality (Revision of ISO 19113:2002, ISO 19114:2002 and ISO/TS 19138:2006) in preparation (Revision of JIS X 7113:2004 and JIS X 7114:2009)
ISO 19157:2013/Amd.1:2018 Geographic information - Data Quality - Amendment 1: Describing data quality using coverages  
ISO/TS 19157-2:2016 Geographic information - Data Quality - Part 2: XML Schema Implementation of ISO 19157 
ISO/TS 19158:2012 Geographic information - Quality assurance of data supply 
ISO 19159-1:2014 Geographic information - Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors - Part 1: Optical sensors 
ISO/TS 19159-2:2016 Geographic information - Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors - Part 2: Lidar 
ISO/TS 19159-3:2018 Geographic information - Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors - Part 3:SAR/InSAR 
ISO 19160-1:2015 Geographic information - Addressing - Part 1: Conceptual model  
ISO 19160-4:2017 Geographic information - Addressing - Part 4: International postal address components and template languages  
ISO 19162:2015 Geographic information - Well known text representation of coordinate reference systems  
ISO/TS 19163-1:2016 Geographic information - Content components and encoding rules for imagery and gridded data - Part 1: Content model, as sent to ISO for publication  
ISO 19165-1:2018 Geographic information - Preservation of digital data and metadata -- Part 1: Fundamentals 
(IS: International Standard, TS: Technical Specification, TR: Technical Report)
For deliberation, APA organized "Japan National Committee for ISO/TC 211", "JIS Drafting Committee for Geographic Information" and their working teams respectively. In these committees the members have sufficient discussions and a number of members are delegated to the ISO/TC211 plenary meetings held twice a year. Needless to add, the members consist of experienced engineers and academic experts related to GIS.
b) Research and development on new technology

APA accomplished a lot of research and development as follows:
study on geomorphological measurement and slope analysis using ground-base laser system;
study on topographical map revision using inertial measurement system;
study on damage distribution map (hazard map) against natural disaster;
research on monitoring system for global thermal environment using earth observation satellite;
study on correction for network-base RTK-GPS variations due to diastrophism.
c) Standardization in precise survey and mapping technology

APA has worked on validation and standardization regarding advanced survey technology. Operation manuals and specifications are provided as follows:
draft specification for generating DEM by airborne laser system;
draft manual for procedure of digital orthophoto;
draft specification for 1:2500-scale topographic spatial data product;
manual of survey using network-based RTK-GPS.
d) Dissemination and education of new technology

APA members present annually their research achievement at "Geoinformation Forum, Japan" organized by APA. Through the forum, APA promotes dissemination and education of the advanced technology regarding precise survey and mapping.

Other educational seminars and symposia are as follows;
digital orthophoto seminar for dissemination of "The manual for procedure of digital orthophoto";
practical training of JPGIS* (Japan Profile for Geographic Information Standards).
*Geographical Survey Institute (GSI), Japanese national survey and mapping organization, makes efforts to raise awareness of specifications for geographic spatial information (data) - geographic information standards - in order to improve the distribution and sharing of information. In May 2005, GSI announced JPGIS as a more practical standard rule for geographic spatial information.

JPGIS is a profile of JSGI. It is a practical standard that organizes minimum elements extracted from massive documents of JSGI. The government recommends each agent to use JPGIS.
e) Other activities

Since April in 2004, APA has organized five technical working groups as follows:
aerial measurement and mapping;
positional information and applied measurement
GIS
national land management
promotion and dissemination
Each working group is encouraging and accelerating development of advanced survey technology and of national land management by use of the national geospatial data.
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Events and plan for future

APA continues with providing following forums and seminars for geospatial professionals and experts to exchange ideas, experiences, and visions-finding new ways to use advanced technology:
R & D forum on precise survey and applied technology (once a year / 500 participants);
technical seminar (once or twice a year / 50-100 participants each);
GIS education and practical training (about ten times a year / 20-200 participants each);
co-sponsoring of events related to "Survey Day", map exhibition, etc.
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Publications

a) Journal

Journal of Advanced Surveying Technology (issued quarterly).
Journal of Advanced Surveying Technology No111 CoverJournal of Advanced Surveying Technology No112 Cover
b) Website (/)

Information service related to APA business.
c) Edition and distribution of technical documents

Guide of Japanese Standards for Geographic Information - 2nd edition (supervised by Geographical Survey Institute of Japan).
The story of JSGI - getting started on JSGI - (supervised by Geographical Survey Institute of Japan).
The airborne laser scanning survey handbook (English version available).
Introduction to GIS.
GIS answer book for beginners.
Handbook of public survey planning.
First step of JPGIS.
First step of JPGIS Front cover Guide of Japanese Standards for Geographic Information - 2nd edition Front cover The story of JSGI Front cover The airborne laser scanning survey handbook Front cover
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Events and plan for future

In accordance with the progress of standardization of GIS, APA established particular department "GIS Center" in 2003 and got officially started on JPGIS dissemination and educational mission related to JPGIS.