New Global Navigation Satellite System Developments and Their Impact on

The surveying and mapping industry has been revolutionised by the use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), involving satellites, ground reference station infrastructure and user equipment to determine positions around the world. The Global Positioning System (GPS) from the USA is the best known, and currently fully operational, GNSS. Russia also operates its own GNSS called GLONASS. Fuelling growth in the coming decade will be next generation GNSS, and space augmentations of these that are currently being developed. The USA is modernizing GPS, Russia is revitalising GLONASS, and Europe is moving ahead with its own Galileo system. Watershed advances in a major technology like GNSS only occur in 20 to 30 year cycles. Therefore it is now an opportune time to explore potential opportunities and issues for the spatial information industry. The first part of the paper outlines how the next generation of GNSS will bring extra satellites and signals to deliver better accuracy, reliability and availability. Extra satellites will make possible improved performance for all applications, and especially where satellite signals can be obscured, such as in urban canyons, under tree canopies or in open-cut mines. In its various modes, modernized GNSS will also deliver higher accuracy and improved speed-to