Commercial Data Providers Research Articles

Are measured InSAR displacements a function of the chosen processing method?

The benefits of InSAR to the civil engineering industry have been demonstrated on many occasions, however there is still a limited uptake by end-users, due to perceived differences between data providers and uncertainty around how to interpret results. This paper critically compares three datasets for London: Radarsat-2 (RS2) from 2011 to 2015, TerraSAR-X (TSX) from 2011 to 2017, and Sentinel-1 (STL1) from 2015 to 2017. Two of the datasets (TSX & RS2) were processed by commercial data providers, while the STL1 data were processed using ENVI ® SARscape ® by the authors. The results show an inverse relationship between the Pearson Correlation Coefficient and absolute total displacement of Persistent Scatterers (PS). There is a strong correlation between datasets for total displacement greater than 5 mm, but a weak or no correlation in the 0–3 mm range. Consequently, standard commercial InSAR datasets, processed with no a priori knowledge of the area of interest, have error margins below 3–5 mm but correctly detect all deformation phenomena exceeding this threshold. RS2-TSX both capture the spatial extent of the investigated area of dewatering induced subsidence, however STL1 measures a much broader, less pronounced zone of heave than TSX. Thematic collection: This article is part of the Remote sensing for site investigations on Earth and other planets collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/remote-sensing-for-site-investigations-on-earth-and-other-planets

Private firm accounting: the European reporting environment, data and research perspectives

This study provides a guide to accounting research on private firms with an emphasis on the European setting. We start by providing an overview of private firm financial reporting regulation in Europe and indicate how this institutional framework can be used to identify promising research settings that in part generalise beyond the European setting. Next, we discuss the availability of private firm accounting data and the underlying data generating process that involves private firms’ original reports, governmental and private data aggregators, and commercial data providers. We show how this process generates insightful data, but at the same time causes complex sample selection issues that researchers should take into account when assessing prior findings and developing new research projects. Finally, we identify potential areas of future work by reviewing the extant literature along the three main motivations for conducting private firm work: (i) to learn more about private firms per se, (ii) to learn more about what distinguishes private firms from public firms, and (iii) to obtain insights from private firms that generalise across all firms.

Let’s get physical: Comparing metrics of physical climate risk

Investors and regulators require reliable estimates of physical climate risks for decision-making. While assessing these risks is challenging, several commercial data providers and academics have started to develop firm-level physical risk scores. We compare six physical risk scores. We find a substantial divergence between these scores, also among those based on similar methodologies. We show how this divergence could cause problems when testing whether financial markets are pricing physical risks. Hence, financial markets may not adequately account for the physical risk exposure of corporations using available risk scores. Finally, we identify key sources of uncertainty for further investigation.

Let's get physical: Comparing metrics of physical climate risk

Investors and regulators require reliable estimates of physical climate risks for decision-making. While assessing these risks is challenging, several commercial data providers and academics have started to develop physical risk scores at the firm level. This paper compares six physical risk scores, which rely on either model-based or language-based methodologies. We find a substantial divergence between these scores, also among those based on similar methodologies. Risk scores also lead to different rankings within and across sectors. We show how this divergence causes problems when testing whether financial markets are pricing in physical risks. Our results imply that financial markets may currently not be able to adequately account for the physical risk exposure of corporations using available risk scores. We identify six primary sources of uncertainty that drive the divergence of scores and offer recommendations for improving firm-level physical risk scores.

Benchmarking Venture Capital Databases

There has been an increasing asymmetry between the rising interest in private companies and the limited availability of data. While a group of new commercial data providers has identified this gap as a promising business opportunity, and has started to provide structured information on private companies and their investors, little is known about the quality of the data they provide. In this paper, we compare detailed and verified proprietary information on 339 actual venture capital (VC) financing rounds from 396 investors in 108 different (mostly European) companies, with data included in eight frequently used VC databases to help academic scholars and investors better understand the coverage and quality of these datasets and, thus, interpret the results more accurately. We find that greater financing rounds are more likely to be reported than lower ones. Similarly, financing round sizes and post-money valuations are more likely to be reported for greater financing rounds than for lower ones. Our analysis reveals that VentureSource, Pitchbook and Crunchbase have the best coverage, and are the most accurate databases across our key dimensions of general company data, founders and funding information. We describe our findings in detail and discuss potential implications for researchers and practitioners.

Advancing new collaborative mechanisms for the profiling of MNEs in national, regional and global group registers

The importance of Multi National Enterprise Groups (MNEs) on the economy is ever-growing and at the same time, it becomes more complex to capture their activities and structures accurately in official national statistics. The establishment of Large Case Units and the introduction of profiling of MNEs are measures to capture the activities of MNEs correctly so that consistency between statistics can be achieved. At international level, the same challenges can be found. In Europe the existence of the European Statistical System and accompanying legal frameworks make it possible to organize European collaboration, resulting in a EuroGroups Register and European profiling and the Early Warning System. The benefit from a Global Group Register (GGR) seems evident: providing unique identification of MNEs and insight in the structure of internationally operating MNEs helps to create valuable information for policymakers on many different economic themes. At a global level, we do not have legal facilities like those in the EU, which makes it important to look for other solutions. An initial GGR has to be built upon publicly available sources and upon sources from commercial data providers. The benefits of establishing a Global Group Register are multiple and work in this area should be encouraged.

Accounting by Private Firms: Empirical Evidence, Data, and Research Perspectives

This study provides a guide to accounting research on private firms with an emphasis on the European setting. We start by providing an overview of private firm financial reporting regulation in Europe and indicate how this institutional framework can be used to identify promising research settings that in part generalize beyond the European setting. Next, we discuss the availability of private firm accounting data and the underlying data generating process that involves private firms’ original reports, governmental and private data aggregators, and commercial data providers. We show how this process generates insightful data, but at the same time causes complex sample selection issues that researchers should take into account when assessing prior findings and developing new research projects. Finally, we identify potential areas of future work by reviewing the extant literature along the three main motivations for conducting private firm work: (i) to learn more about private firms per se, (ii) to learn more about what distinguishes private firms from public firms, and (iii) to obtain insights from private firms that generalize across all firms.

Evaluación de la exactitud posicional vertical de una nube de puntos topográficos lidar usando topografía convencional como referencia

Lidar is an active remote sensing technology that reduces the cost and time required to collect topographic data. The vertical accuracy of lidar data is normally set by commercial data providers at a maximum root mean square error of 0.150 m. However, the results of accuracy assessments where field data at least three times more accurate than lidar data have been used suggest that that accuracy is only met when the density of the lidar data is higher than 1 ground points per square meter. Unfortunately, the number of these studies is limited and more accuracy assessments are needed in order to establish the vertical accuracy of lidar data. In this paper, the vertical accuracy of a topographic lidar cloud point with a density of 1.02 ground points per square meter is assessed for different types of terrain. Reference data was collected on the field using a total station with millimeter accuracy in order to meet the asprs requirements for the accuracy assessment of lidar data. The results suggest that the vertical accuracy of topographic lidar data exceeds the accuracy specifications of commercial data providers and, also, are consistent with previous studies where the vertical accuracy of lidar was assessed under similar conditions. Therefore, it is suggested to set the vertical positional accuracy (EPV, after its Spanish acronym) of the lidar point cloud in 0.200 m for mixed terrain with constant changes and in 0.150 m for areas with smooth topographic changes. However, under the presence of systematic errors, the EVP does not convey the magnitude of 95% of the vertical errors, as intended; therefore, it is recommended to include the 95th error percentile in the documentation of lidar data.

Performance Characterization of Arterial Traffic Flow with Probe Vehicle Data

Extensive literature in the adaptive control field uses local detection available from the traffic controller as input to various control models to adjust splits, cycle lengths, and offsets. All these models have implicit control objectives, which include facilitated progression, minimized stops, minimized delay, and equitable allocation of green time. Enormous opportunities exist to incorporate probe data into the decision process with respect to when and where adaptive control can be used and which operating objectives are most applicable to a corridor as well as to an outcome assessment tool to evaluate the effectiveness of adaptive control. The research reported in this paper compared how probe data sources could be used to identify appropriate adaptive control objectives and to assess the performance of adaptive systems. Four case studies demonstrated how travel time data could be used to evaluate existing conditions, to evaluate the outcome of a traditional signal retiming, and to assess the feasibility of adaptive control opportunities. Currently, the richest probe data sets are provided by agency-installed equipment. Given the increasing penetration of crowd-sourced probe data devices and the onset of connected vehicle infrastructure, however, these sources could provide similarly rich data. This paper recommends that commercial data providers begin to develop more detailed base maps. These maps would provide richer probe data information, such as hour-by-hour statistical distributions and approach delay for signalized arterials for which the segments did not span multiple intersections. This recommendation should motivate agencies to develop more detailed specifications for probe data that will better serve their needs.

Evaluation of Wide-Area Traffic Monitoring Technologies for Travel Time Studies

Road agencies typically collect travel time information from their network to identify traffic bottlenecks and to quantify the effects of road improvement investments in terms of travel time improvements. Road agencies can benefit from newly emerging automated data collection technologies that acquire travel time information for a large geographical area at lower costs. The objective of the study presented in this paper was to evaluate travel time data obtained from three technologies (i.e., Bluetooth, in-vehicle navigation systems, and mobile phone probes) compared with travel time obtained from probe vehicles equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPSs). Traffic data were obtained for road types (e.g., freeways, arterials, ramps) in the study area from commercial data providers for a relatively large study area in the Province of Ontario, Canada. A multicriteria methodology was developed to evaluate data from each data provider on the basis of accuracy, coverage, number of observations, and capability to provide data for special facilities such as high occupancy vehicle lanes. The findings of this research suggested that all three technologies could replace traditional, GPS-equipped probe vehicles. This paper offers several recommendations on the use of travel time data from different data providers.

Geohazard information to meet the needs of the British public and government policy

Environmental information is increasingly valued and understood by government, commercial business and the general public. At the same time, the Environmental Information Regulations enable access to a huge amount of information, which may not be in a user-friendly format. Since 2000, the British Geological Survey has been developing nationwide geo-environmental datasets that identify the potential for subsidence and geochemical hazards. This information is provided as GIS datasets or in easy-to-use report format to meet the different needs of local and central government, commercial data providers and individuals. The information is geared to answer questions posed by the UK Planning Guidance, the EU Water Framework Directive and the UK Home Information Pack. New developments aim to provide information on groundwater flooding, soil erosion potential and mining hazards to meet growing concerns about the impact of climate change and in response to incoming mine waste regulations. The provision of digital geohazard information has enabled BGS to inform the British public and policy makers of potential hazards, and helped them to understand the relevance of environmental information to their lives.

The nation’s data? The UK census – guaranteed confidentiality but only limited information

English In the UK, the census is one of the key resources for policy makers, determining planning and resource allocation at both the national and local level. Recent disputes between the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and a number of local authorities concerning the accuracy of the 2001 Census population counts have highlighted the importance of the census in funding allocation terms. Drawing on research into the 1991 and 2001 Census programmes and discussions with census users and commercial data providers, this article explores the complex relationship between the needs of policy makers and researchers and the issues of data access and confidentiality. The analysis is placed within the wider context of ongoing developments in both the public and commercial sectors with respect to data collection, storage and data release in and outside the UK. While consultation on the 2011 Census is ongoing, we argue that, in the context of the increasing demands for accurate data to inform evidence-based policy making and service provision, there is a pressing need for a more radical review of the current approaches to census content and census data access in the UK.

A Data Provider’s View of <I>The National Map</I>

For over a century, our national map consisted of the thousands of paper topographic quadrangle maps created and maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at scales ranging from 1:250,000 to 1:24,000. As long as the Nation’s spatial data were embodied in paper maps, the linkage between private sector data providers and the USGS was tenuous: the USGS contracted for mapping services and map publishers might use quadrangle maps as the basis for a commercial map, but the relationship rarely went further. As the computer age impinged on mapping of the Nation, the linkage between public and private mapping grew tighter. Private companies became important resources in public map database compilation, and public digital maps seeded new private data products. The National Map vision promulgated in 2001 by the USGS opens new avenues for public-private collaboration on this vital resource. Commercial data providers can work with government at all levels to their mutual benefit to achieve The National Map vision.