I am writing on behalf of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in response to your call for evidence on Galileo, dated 16th July 2004. RICS is the world's leading professional body on all aspects of property, construction and associated environmental issues. It represents, regulates and promotes the work of property professionals across the world and has over 110,000 members in 120 countries. It is an independent, not-for-profit organisation committed to providing impartial, authoritative advice on major issues affecting business and society. Under the terms of its Royal Charter RICS is required to act in the public interest.

A RESPONSE TO THE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE FROM RICS

  Although RICS feels that it cannot comment with authority on all of the questions asked within your press notice dated 16th July 2004, we believe that HM Government should fully support the Galileo satellite navigation initiative.

What benefits will Galileo Phase II bring that EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) will not?

  The benefits are primarily technical but with a multitude of possible applications. Others will delve into the minutia of the technical aspects of EGNOS/Galileo compatibility but essentially EGNOS is a EU centred GPS augmentation system that seeks to "piggyback" on already existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS and Glonass and is therefore dependent on the operational integrity of said systems. Galileo will not only provide another signal platform for EGNOS to operate on but will also provide redundant positional information that is essential, in say, the emergency services and aviation environments. EGNOS has also been designed to perfectly augment and improve the accuracy of Galileo signals (through differential corrections). It should also be remembered that EGNOS is EU wide whilst Galileo gives a global remit to possible commercial services.

How important is it for the EU to be independent of the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)?

  Others will be better able to comment on this issue. Suffice to say, that in 2000 President Clinton turned off "selective availability s/a" and at a stroke improved GPS accuracy (for public users) by a factor of ten to +/- 10 metres. The US can easily turn it on again. The Russian system is in a varying state due to economic difficulties. Galileo is needed to supersede and augment these already existing systems, in particular, for aviation purposes.

What are the potential benefits of the Public Regulated Service (PRS) system? Is it realistic to expect that Member States will not want to cross-subsidise PRS from commercial services?

  Others will be better able to comment on this issue, however we believe that the question is unclear.

Are the arrangements to prevent military use of Galileo sufficiently robust?

  Others will be better able to comment on this issue.

Are arrangements to oversee the security aspects of Galileo appropriate?

  Others will be better able to comment on this issue.

What are the potential benefits of the programme to UK industry, and to UK users of Galileo, such as NATS?

  RICS believes that the possible future benefits of high accuracy Galileo positional information are myriad and very far-reaching. Many high quality and very in depth documents already exist on this subject and other organisations will probably go into more technical details. From high precision farming to the tracking of animals (witness the confusion during the recent Foot and Mouth epidemic here in the UK) to the registration of GM crops, Galileo will serve to aid the rural economy to reach a more efficient model. Within the realms of transport; road charging, congestion charging, vehicle/fleet management and tracking, toll charges, bus/tram/rail safety and tracking will be improved.

  Safety within aviation is defined by accurate navigation. The availability of high precision Galileo signals will further augment existing navigation services.

  Environmental programmes, flooding alert systems, supra national geographic information initiatives such as Inspire will all benefit.

  Highly accurate clock (timing is one of the "hidden" successes of GNSS) transmissions will allow more efficient and faster data transactions, improving internet and intranet capabilities.

  As an island, the UK is highly dependent on marine navigation, particularly in high density/use areas such as the English Channel, Galileo will further aid navigation systems employed by mariners, natural resource (oil/gas) companies and commercial operations.

  As already mentioned the Galileo has a great multitude of potential benefits, we would like to again state that RICS fully supports this EU initiative.

James Kavanagh BSc(Hons) C.Geog MInstCES

Geomatics Faculty

Assistant Director, Faculties and Forums

September 2004