GISCafe Industry Prediction – Global Insights

By Dr. Shawana P. Johnson, GISP

Dr. Shawana P. Johnson

In the geospatial world there are many places to focus on for industry predictions in 2023 from the ever-growing impact of 5G and the ownership of that market space by China effecting both commercial and national security sectors; to the continued commoditization of space with satellites, imaging sensors, ground stations, and launch vehicles opening the industry up to even greater market fragmentation as more and more data are accessible at lower prices. For the purposes of this prediction, however I will briefly address Digital Twins and if there were more time and space, I would include the Metaverse as well.

With the advent of global and continentally focused “Digital Twins” such as the Esri Digital Twin for the natural and built environments,  NASAs Earth System Digital Twin, Digital Earth Africa; Destination Earth (“DestinE”) moonshot project which will create multiple digital twins of Earth, including one digital twin for extreme natural disasters and another for climate change adaptation the already complex geospatial field becomes even more so for developing nations.  These massive digital twins however come at a price. For instance the DestinE will also provide a focus on developing a “configurable climate information system” enabling global climate simulations at multidecadal timescales. To accomplish this they will utilize a Finnish supercomputing center CSC and The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) to develop that digital twin, harnessing the capabilities of their  LUMI supercomputer (which is number three on the  Top500 list of fastest supercomputers in the world) list and is powered almost entirely by renewable energy).

The utilization of supercomputers, massive amounts of all types of data along with the need for advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms and model development leaves the bulk of  digital twin large project development work to well-resourced and well-funded private companies and government agencies.

Where does this leave small geospatial companies, not to mention developing nations which are well educated in Geospatial studies and still must endure the challenges of low bandwidth and power availability along with other financial and opportunity risks?

My prediction is that the call for Digital Twins in every market sector will continue to increase (along with Metaverse views as well) and the geospatial professionals and industry cannot ignore it. My caution is that in many technical respects we in the geospatial world  have been creating analytical digital twins since the dawn of remote sensing in some form or another, land use, supply chain, battlefield management, etc. so keep in mind your basic business and project principles and focus on profitable projects in keeping with your organization’s capabilities  in accessible market sectors.

About Author:

Dr. Shawana P. Johnson, GISP, is a global commercial remote sensing  subject matter expert providing Geospatial Business Intelligence Expertise™ assisting government clients with the vast range of data available from open source intelligence and commercial Spaceborne, Airborne and Terrestrial based Sensors and their Interoperability with the Government and Global Business community focused on AI/ML usage of sensors for 5G and Communications, National Security, Climate, Energy Resources, Agriculture and Water Sustainability; and Logistics and Supply Chain.

As Founder and CEO of GEOBusInt™ (Global Marketing Insights, Inc.) Dr. Johnson has spent 2 decades working with 2 person startups and spin offs from National Labs to 1000-person geospatial defense contractors,  supporting and training them for government programs focused on 5G, Comms, AI/ML and Geospatial Intelligence Provisioning inclusive of all Remote Sensing programs. Her companies database consists of over 1million current geospatial contacts globally which provides real user input for client sensor access and application success. Her expertise encompasses interacting with global ground stations, launch providers, satellite developers, defense contracting and acquisition organizations, National Labs, and hundreds of small and mid-sized geospatial value-added organizations. Dr. Johnson was a 2022 finalist as a Tradecraft Specialist for the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation GEOINT 2022 main stage presenter. She was awarded a certificate of completion for the Senior Managers in Government Program,

8/2019, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education and received her Doctorate Degree in Management from Case Western Reserve University, The Weatherhead School of Management; Cleveland, Ohio in 1998 focused on Economics and Technology Transfer and is currently certified by The GIS Certification Institute, Park Ridge, Illinois – as a Geographic Business Information Systems Professional (GISP), 2007, 2012, 2018.

Category: Industry Predictions

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 12:59 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.