Geospatial Data is Driving the #GIS Revolution.
There are a lot of changes going on in the #geospatial market. Most of the focus is on technology such as new spatial analysis tools for 3D or apps for visualizing information on a map. But one critical component keeps coming up in all these discussions. That critical component is data. Spatial data often called “special,” has its own characteristics. These have to be managed but at the same time, the industry is starting to look at geospatial data differently. How can spatial data help integrate disparate data in ways that can help develop a solution or discover new patterns?
Data are a critical component to solving a wide variety of problems and clever companies are finding new ways to exploit emerging technologies to provide new streams of geospatial data offerings. Others are figuring out how to create tools for data collection that meet the growing demand for geospatial data.
Below are categories and a few examples of how geospatial data is changing and driving change far beyond the reach of #GIS.
Big Data — Imagery, Satellites, and Sensors
The availability of data from satellites, drones and sensors have grown faster than the market knows what to do with it. Data is now available in realtime and in many different formats. Sensors are being installed at a crazy pace and being deployed to capture data from many different locations.
Google Earth — https://www.techradar.com/news/is-a-live-google-earth-coming
Real-time geospatial data — www.liveearth.com
Basemaps — Governments, Silicon Valley, and GeoSpatists
Geospatial data is being collected for specific, target tasks. The autonomous car use is an obvious example but there is also data sets for curb-to-curb routing and crowdsourced social media enhanced information.
MapBox — https://www.mapbox.com/maps/
Coord — https://coord.co/
Business Data — Getting Savvy to Location
Geospatial data is becoming even more critical to smart business. Vendors are recognizing that flexible and on-demand data will drive the adoption of geospatial technology even faster. Combining technology with data for targeted Location Intelligence solutions makes more sense than generic geospatial platforms.
Pitney Bowes — https://geomarketing.com/pitney-bowes-opens-up-geospatial-analytics-software-for-immediate-online-purchase
Geospatial Data — Free or for Fee
The discussion continues on how to pay for data collection and maintenance. Government agencies continue to struggle with how to pay not just for the collection of data, but the cost of making that data easily available. With Cloud options more readily available, many government agencies are opting to provide online services to their data.
Ordinance Survey — https://www.ft.com/content/f337e75a-b4df-11e8-bbc3-ccd7de085ffe
Koordinates — https://koordinates.com/about/
Data as an Asset
Smart organizations know that data is one of their most critical assets. For many years, organizations have implemented GIS to build and maintain their geospatial data. Satellites, drones, sensors and other efforts such as social media, have made data more available by geography and time. This influx of data, in addition to easily available basemap data, creates a ripe environment for innovation.
The uniqueness of geospatial data lies not just in mapping. Geospatial data is a tool that allows integration and analysis over time and space to see new patterns and discover new solutions. This is where and when geospatial revolutionizes how we think about our world and solve some of our most complex problems.
What are interesting geospatial data companies or trends that you are seeing?
