GISCafe Voice Industry Predictions for 2021 – Part 2

This week, our Geospatial Industry Predictions includes Linda Loubert, Interim Chairperson and Graduate Coordinator, Economics Department, Morgan State University; Seb Lessware, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of 1Spatial; and George Mastakas,  Vice President of Enterprise Solutions & Corporate Partnerships at Cityworks. These industry spokespeople cover where they see the industry going – and how to apply geographic knowledge to economics, politics, data sharing, visualization, city and country planning using sensors, Digital Twins, machine learning and artificial intelligence and much more. With GIS and geospatial, the matter of being able to provide accuracy and validity in data is paramount. The technology is already there; yet finding the ways to use the technology in even more promising ways is the way of the future.

Nearmap Aerial Image of the Presidential Inauguration January 20, 2021

Morgan State University

“As our world becomes more unsteady with upheavals, unrest, and health-crises driven, the call for analyzing it will increase.  Geographic Information Systems (GIS) stands poised to answer the call.  Researches from academia, think-tanks, and the private sector will look to find meaning to our political and socio-economic stronghold.

After attending the Allied Social Science Association, where economists across the broad and others from related disciplines meet once a year, it was a delight to see the amount of GIS presented.  Many of the sessions I attended incorporated GIS in some manner in their research.  It was often just a map or two, but on other occasions, there were spatial analyses undertaken to understand the correlation or significance of a particular variable of interest.  There were also sessions dedicated to spatial analysis.  Showcasing a presenter’s work with GIS would not have been the case a few years ago.  Economists understand how location matters in the policy arena, the financial sector, and all aspects of their research make GIS a critical tool for presenting outcomes.  No longer will statistical computation programs be all that is used in analyzing and presenting data to audiences.  Tables and graphs are great, but the pictures from using GIS can say so much more quickly to an audience.

As economists and policy-makers are plunging more deeply into using GIS as a tool for analyzing our society and all the conditions that lie therein, those tasked with producing the GIS tool will also enhance the software’s functionality.  Machine-Learning (ML) has rapidly become a hallmark for software like GIS and its use.  Utilizing ML in GIS  will facilitate not only a better tool but hopefully more use of it.  Students in classrooms, from primary and secondary schools to undergraduates and graduates, are learning this tool so that a natural inclination for its use is growing.  Having a steady growth in the stream of users and those who understand the value of GIS will continue this year as GIS becomes more and more dominant in understanding our world.”

Linda Loubert, Ph.D., GISP
Interim Chairperson and Graduate Coordinator
Economics Department
Morgan State University

Seb Lessware, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

1Spatial

“Spatial is the key and needs to become more mainstream – how often have we heard this plea within our industry, but we are seeing this happen now.

If 2020 was the year spatial moved center stage due to its high profile use in the pandemic response, 2021 will see it amplified further still as we continue to leverage its value in automating data and business processes. For example, the official Irish Covid data portal was rapidly implemented by our customer, Ordnance Survey Ireland, to enable vital collaboration through public data sharing, visualisation and analysis because of their high quality data and spatial engineering expertise.

Scientific American’s top 10 trends for 2020 placed ‘spatial computing’ at number three. ‘Spatial computing’ might sound exotic but is essentially describing detailed spatial data use cases and the techniques we as a community employ every day, albeit at scale.

The past 12 months have focused and accelerated existing trends that we predicted last year: The continuing surge to cloud services, the importance of automation, data quality, and the growth of the data economy. As we head into 2021, we’ll also see the importance of portals, platforms and hubs really coming to the fore, particularly in realising the much-promised benefits of machine learning.

The prediction last year of a growing ‘data economy’ was borne out by several launches, from the open standard Placekey API for what is essentially a global postcode to IGN France’s open data release. In Great Britain, Ordnance Survey’s (OS) live on-demand pay-per-use data hub not only makes it easier to consume data (no need to store it locally or keep it up-to-date) but also unlocks innovative uses. At 1Spatial, it enables us to access data, and apply rules and processing to deliver services that extract value and give our customers that competitive advantage. For example, we use it for building cloud solutions, such as automating the creation of Traffic Management Plans.

Another example is the launch of Amazon Location to compete with spatial services from other cloud providers such as Google and Microsoft. These create a cloud-based commodity for the simpler use cases of the storage, query, and tracking and map display of location data. The common thread is automated capture, processing and flow of data being empowered by the cloud to unlock more value by easily connecting data and services into a value chain.

Whether in drones, vehicles or phones, location data is being captured by sensors and devices and is also used for their tracking and navigation and this will continue to grow. Meanwhile, management of more static physical assets, such as utilities or transport networks, will rely more and more on live sensor data to support the ‘Digital Twin’ approach, with meshes of devices connecting to the Internet of Things. Even traditional surveying will increasingly rely on sensor-based automation for example Point clouds from LIDAR sensors or vector data classified from imagery using machine learning. There are growing numbers of tools to automate the transformation of unstructured sensor data into structured information, but even this will need to be carefully managed using rules to merge the partial snapshot of new data into a usable update applied to existing data.

These sensors also drive the need – and hasten the ability – to manage data in 3D and we expect this trend to increase in 2021. As customers who have traditionally managed in 2D (or ‘2D with heights’) are increasingly moving to full 3D solids for their data, they are requiring the full 3D capabilities that we are adding to our products.

To deal with the sheer quantity of data available, automating these processes will be key but will require more than simple scripting. To be successful and useful, automation needs to be context sensitive and spatially intelligent. Applying a Master Data Management approach (or LMDM as we call it – with L for Location) enables users to compare 3D or sensor data with existing data repositories and propagate or synchronise the changes so that the structured information can then be synchronised into existing data.

Machine learning will continue to find its place in helping improve artificial intelligence techniques (especially when combined with other AI-based techniques such as rules-based and knowledge engineering) to drive automation within projects, and success will depend on the data used to ‘train’ the models. Whilst we foresee increased use in 2021 – driven by cloud-based machine learning services –  automated management of both the quality of the input data as well as the management of the output data will play a key role here, for 1Spatial that means using our rules-based engine, 1Integrate, to verify, clean and merge the data.

The journey for spatial in 2021 is full of opportunities. To fully realise them, we need to continue to carefully manage data using automation techniques that drive efficiency whilst also instilling confidence and trust in the data and hence the systems that use it and the decisions that are made from it.”

With a degree in Cybernetics and Computer Science, Seb Lessware, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) joined Laser-Scan (which became 1Spatial) in 1997 as a Software Engineer. After working on many projects and a broad range of software as a Senior and then Principal Software Engineer, he then moved into Consultancy and then Product Management which provided insight into customer and industry needs and trends.

After leading Product Management for a number of years, Seb is now Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at 1Spatial.

George Mastakas, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions & Corporate Partnerships at Cityworks.

Cityworks

“The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for geospatial solutions that enabled local governments and utilities to be resilient. GIS has always played a key role in helping these organizations gain awareness and understanding, and going into 2021, the importance of solutions centered in GIS will be critical in helping them carry out their operations safely and in a more coordinated manner.

3D GIS

We will see an increased demand for 3D GIS datasets in operations. For example, while BIM and CAD can give us a view of a building, workers require more detailed models to analyze data, locate assets, route resources, and plan scenarios. They need a total view of their inspection and monitoring programs that is accessible across the organization and resides in a single system of record alongside their network assets. As organizations continue to reopen, 3D GIS will also be vital in ensuring proper staff spacing and that building capacity isn’t exceeded through the monitoring of pedestrian flow. 3D mixed reality models will enable local governments and utilities to address infrastructure issues more efficiently and proactively. For example, electric utilities can use 3D GIS to see where tree growth is endangering powerlines, and city water departments can get a more complete view of the infrastructure underground to more accurately plan their repairs with the necessary equipment and safety considerations.

Digital Twins

As local governments and utilities are being expected to maintain and even increase service levels, all while funding and personnel are being reduced, their operations can become more effective by moving away from paper and siloed systems. By creating a digital replica of their assets in GIS and by defining their processes in a GIS-centric enterprise asset management system, organizations can consolidate and synchronize the activities among their staff with much greater efficiency. And by adopting cloud technology, deploying mobile solutions, and developing more sustainable API-based integrations, organizations can operate without interruption as information is readily available to workers regardless of their location and without requiring them to return to an office.

Real-time Sensor Data and IoT

Real-time sensor data combined with GIS and GIS-centric enterprise asset management saves utilities and local governments considerable operational expense by not requiring field workers to inspect large quantities of assets individually that are in otherwise good working condition. For example, by instituting a maintenance process that places IoT devices throughout a water system and monitoring asset performance, a water utility can see current and historic trends across the entire system. Additionally, these sensors can pinpoint emerging problems so they can be addressed before they occur. Because the devices transmit information to the asset management system, the possibility of key data being missed during traditional maintenance is eliminated. Automated data allows for more accurate decision-making because it is consistent, and solutions that can analyze it through artificial intelligence become more effective at helping organizations see trends not otherwise apparent through human observation alone. And since all of the data is underpinned by location, once again, GIS is the tool through which important connections and dependencies in every part of the network are displayed.”

George Mastakas, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions & Corporate Partnerships at Cityworks has over 25 years experience bringing GIS-centric asset management & permitting solutions to local government and public service organizations. George is committed to providing GIS-centric solutions that help communities be more resilient, sustainable, and safe—while increasing their levels of service and reducing costs along the way. The culmination of these efforts is reflected in the Cityworks software platform, where he has been involved in its inception, growth, and expansion since 1996.

Tags: air pollution, autonomous vehicles, Cityworks, climate change, cloud, crowdsourcing, data, geospatial, GIS, GNSS, Google, Google Maps, health, imagery, indoor mapping, Infrastructure, intelligence, laser scanner, LiDAR, location, mapping, mobile mapping, reality modeling, remote sensing, satellite imagery, social media

Categories: 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), 3D Cities, 3D designs, agriculture, aircraft tracking, airports, analytics, asset management, autonomous driving, Big Data, citizen science, cloud, cloud network analytics, conversion, developers, disaster relief, drones, election maps, emergency response, field GIS, geomatics, geospatial, geotechnical, government, GPS, indoor location technology, laser radar, location based sensor fusion, location based services, location intelligence, mobile, photogrammetry, public safety, remote sensing, resilient cities, satellite based tracking, satellite imagery, spatial data, storm surge, subsurface utilities, survey, UAS, UAV, UAVs, utilities, wildfire risk, wireless networks

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2021 at 12:01 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.