Written By: Cemal Özgür Kıvılcım

Question: Hello, how was your day at work, Dear?
Cemal: Hmmm, well, once more I saved the world today!

This unexpected conversation above may remind you of a common theme; Hollywood action movies. Perhaps a dialogue spoken just after stopping a nuclear war or an invasion of aliens, and still you are confused as to how heroes can be related to this article. Well, you will find out more as you continue to read.

As you may already know, surveyors - who are currently switching their names to Geomatics Engineers in some parts of the world - have always played a significant role in the history of civilization. How? As we go back in time, we find out that our profession has deep roots in the history of civilisation. For instance, the first known city plan was made on a wall of a house in Hattians’ Çatalhoyuk settlement in Central Anatolia, dated 6200 B.C.1 One should have already heard about the seven wonders of the ancient world, have seen a few pictures of the precisely constructed and still standing ancient Egyptian Pyramids, and possibly heard about the ancient surveying sessions for determining the exact borders of the fields on the path of the river Nile. Let’s come back closer in time and think about today; bridges built to connect continents, tunnels constructed under the surface of the Earth, skyscrapers rising to the limits of the sky, delivering every kind of location-based information to authorities; satellite and rover missions dedicated to learning more about Space, observing climate change for a sustainable world, and more. In all of these, you will find the contribution of Geomatics.

My story is a little bit different from the ones above. My daily alarm clock goes off at 07:00, when I get out of bed in Istanbul. After a short shower and breakfast my journey begins. I rush to the ferry which will lead me from Asia to Europe. Modern Istanbul is a city settled on two continents, dating back 8000 years2 according to the shipwrecks found last year during the excavation of a metro tunnel. The modern Istanbul finds its written history with the settlement of Romans at Constantinople, which became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). In 1453 the Ottomans took control of the city and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Today, Istanbul is named as the most crowded European city with the number of registered citizens standing at 12.5 million3, and it is still a very attractive crossroad for civilisations in the modern Turkish Republic. It has been selected as the European capital of Culture in 2010 and every year Istanbul welcomes millions of tourists to see its unique landscape silhouette, drawn by the natural beauties and ancient architectural treasures.

My daily life story is exactly in the middle of all of these; beauty, history, noise, crowded bazaars and narrow streets. I work in the ancient peninsula of Istanbul, in a renovated Han† neighbouring ancient Byzantium Sea Walls by Golden Horn. I am employed by the historical Sites Protection Deputy of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, where I deal with various demands coming from different disciplines for the documentation, restoration, renovation and protection of historical structures and landscape.

(†Han: Buildings dedicated to commercial activities and rest houses for travellers in old times.)

My general duty, as the only Geomatics engineer of the department, is to provide any required information acquired from various kinds of georeferenced data. Documentation projects of historical structures are one of the most challenging tasks and this is where we use the latest surveying technology to produce unique architectural façades, 3D models of structures and more. The conventional geodetic techniques and networks are used with integrated different data acquisition techniques; total stations, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) from satellites, terrestrial laser scanners which provide accurate 3D point clouds based on the principle of LIDAR-Light Detection and Ranging Technologies, IMU-Inertial Measurement Units, and calibrated video images. All are integrated to obtain maximum information from surveys. This system is built on a van for mobile documentation as well as static method.

[A detail from integrated data acquisition technologies, GPS, TLS, IMU, calibrated cameras 4]

With sophisticated software solutions the acquired data is used to produce orthophotos and wireframe CAD drawings of façades, and 3D Models of structures can be generated as first class documentation. This spectacular effort and workflow is mostly handled by Geomatic Engineers and Technicians. At the end of the day another historical structure is saved and secured digitally in georeferenced form to be used in analysis, visualisation and restoration needs.

[An example of products; architectural survey- Istanbul University Main Portal 2]

After a hard day’s work, I enjoy my Turkish coffee and relax with my friends under a glorious sunset on the hills of the Istanbul Peninsula. With my skills and knowledge as a geomatics engineer, I am always happy and excited to be among the heroes who work to save the heritage of mankind!

[Sundown on Historical Peninsula of Istanbul from Bosphorus 3]

Bibliography
1-Grün Armin, ISPRS Student Consortium 3rd Summer School “3D Modelling and Data Acquisition” Lecture Notes, Nanjing, China, July 2008
2-http://www.arkitera.com.tr/h18650-metropol-8-bin-yasinda-cikti.html (accessed on 20th August 2008 in Turkish)
3- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul (accessed on 20th August 2008)
4-Kivilcim C. O., Architectural Survey for the documentation of cultural heritage with the new sensor technologies, 28th EARSeL Symposium, Istanbul, June 2008.

Personal Information:
Cemal Özgür Kıvılcım is a MSc. Student at Istanbul Technical University Geomatics Program. He is currently a Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineer at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Directorate of Historical Sites Protection. He is the Chair of International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), Student Consortium, and a board member of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Young Surveyors Working Group.

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