Predicting the Future of Global Geospatial Information Management

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Information Management (GGIM) recently organized a meeting of thought-leaders and visionaries in the geo-spatial world to identify the future of this space over the next 5-10 years. These experts came up with some 80+ individual predictions. I’ve included some of the more interesting ones below.

• The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a tool for rapid geospatial data collection will increase.

• 3D and even 4D geospatial information, incorporating time as the fourth dimension, will increase.

• Technology will move faster than legal and governance structures.

• The link between geospatial information and social media, plus other actor networks, will become more and more important.

• Real-time info will enable more dynamic modeling & response to disasters.

• Free and open source software will continue to grow as viable alternatives both in terms of software, and potentially in analysis and processing.

• Geospatial computation will increasingly be non-human consumable in nature, with an increase in fully-automated decision systems.

• Businesses and Governments will increasingly invest in tools and resources to manage Big Data. The technologies required for this will enable greater use of raw data feeds from sensors and other sources of data.

• In ten years time it is likely that all smart phones will be able to film 360 degree 3D video at incredibly high resolution by today’s standards & wirelessly stream it in real time.

• There will be a need for geospatial use governance in order to discern the real world from the virtual/modelled world in a 3D geospatial environ-ment.

• Free and open access to data will become the norm and geospatial information will increasingly be seen as an essential public good.

• Funding models to ensure full data coverage even in non-profitable areas will continue to be a challenge.

• Rapid growth will lead to confusion and lack of clarity over data ownership, distribution rights, liabilities and other aspects.

• In ten years, there will be a clear dividing line between winning and losing nations, dependent upon whether the appropriate legal and policy frameworks have been developed that enable a location-enabled society to flourish.

• Some governments will use geospatial technology as a means to monitor or restrict the movements and personal interactions of their citizens. Individuals in these countries may be unwilling to use LBS or applications that require location for fear of this information being shared with authorities.

• The deployment of sensors and the broader use of geospatial data within society will force public policy and law to move into a direction to protect the interests and rights of the people.

• Spatial literacy will not be about learning GIS in schools but will be more centered on increasing spatial awareness and an understanding of the value of understanding place as context.

• The role of National Mapping Agencies as an authoritative supplier of high quality data and of arbitrator of other geospatial data sources will continue to be crucial.

• Monopolies held by National Mapping Agencies in some areas of specialized spatial data will be eroded completely.

• More activities carried out by National Mapping Agencies will be outsourced and crowdsourced.

• Crowdsourced data will push National Mapping Agencies towards niche markets.

• National Mapping Agencies will be required to find new business models to provide simplified licenses and meet the demands for more free data from mapping agencies.

• The integration of crowdsourced data with government data will increase over the next 5 to 10 years.

• Crowdsourced content will decrease cost, improve accuracy and increase availability of rich geospatial information.

•  There will be increased combining of imagery with crowdsourced data to create datasets that could not have been created affordably on their own.

• Progress will be made on bridging the gap between authoritative data and crowdsourced data, moving towards true collaboration.

• There will be an accelerated take-up of Volunteer Geographic Information over the next five years.

• Within five years the level of detail on transport systems within OpenStreetMap will exceed virtually all other data sources & will be respected/used by major organisations & governments across the globe.

• Community-based mapping will continue to grow.

• There is unlikely to be a market for datasets like those currently sold to power navigation and location-based services solutions in 5 years, as they will have been superseded by crowdsourced datasets from OpenStreetMaps or other comparable initiatives.

Which trends have the experts missed? Do you think they’re completely off on any of the above? The full set of predictions on the future of global geospatial information management is available here as a PDF.