In a world facing unprecedented challenges, the significance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in fostering global connections and solving complex problems has never been more evident. The 2024 ESRI User Conference, held in San Diego, brought together visionaries, experts, and leaders from various fields to discuss the transformative power of GIS in creating a sustainable and resilient future. The plenary sessions highlighted the diverse applications of GIS, from improving urban planning and addressing climate change to enhancing humanitarian efforts and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Power of GIS in Addressing Global Challenges
In an interconnected world, where the complexities of global challenges grow ever more intricate, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) emerge as a pivotal tool to navigate these multifaceted issues. The 2024 ESRI User Conference highlighted the profound impact of GIS across various sectors, illustrating its capacity to foster understanding, drive actionable insights, and facilitate transformative change. By bridging spatial and temporal gaps, GIS helps to unravel the layers of data that shape our world, enabling more informed decisions and targeted interventions.
At the heart of the Esri Federal GIS Conference, Jack Dangermond, Esri’s founder and president, delivered a compelling keynote that not only celebrated the advancements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) but also charted a visionary path for its future application. The conference theme, “Creating the World You Want to See,” was not just a call to action for GIS professionals but a reflection of the profound impact that GIS technology has on global challenges. This expanded article delves into the insights shared during the session, emphasizing the transformative power of GIS in creating sustainable solutions for our planet.
GIS: A Catalyst for Change
Dangermond’s keynote underscored GIS as more than just a tool for mapping and spatial analysis; it’s a critical instrument for change, driving decisions that shape the future of our environment, communities, and global policies. By leveraging the vast capabilities of GIS, professionals across sectors are empowered to visualize complex data, predict outcomes, and plan strategies that lead to a sustainable future. Dangermond highlighted several areas where GIS is making a significant difference:
Environmental Conservation and Climate Action: GIS technology plays a pivotal role in monitoring climate change, assessing environmental impacts, and planning conservation efforts. Dangermond pointed out the collaboration between various federal agencies and non-governmental organizations in creating detailed environmental assessments and climate models. These efforts are crucial in formulating policies and strategies to mitigate climate change and preserve biodiversity.
Urban Planning and Smart Cities: As cities grow, so do their challenges. GIS provides urban planners and decision-makers with the tools to design smarter, more sustainable cities. Dangermond showcased projects where GIS facilitated the management of natural resources, optimization of public services, and planning of green spaces, contributing to the overall resilience and quality of urban life.
Public Safety and Disaster Response: In times of crisis, timely and accurate information can save lives. Dangermond highlighted the use of GIS in disaster preparedness and response, demonstrating how mapping and real-time data tracking enhance the efficiency of emergency services. From tracking wildfires to coordinating relief efforts, GIS proves indispensable in managing disasters and reducing their impact on communities.
Geospatial data is one of the most critical elements for infrastructure improvement projects and asset management. The GIS provides context for where infrastructure is placed, its attributes, topography, maintenance history, and much more. These attributes track an asset’s performance and catalog its proximity to other assets. Trimble Cityworks adds to this context by providing historical activity of when and how the infrastructure was placed, what type of work has been performed against the infrastructure, and the ability to identify the encompassing business risk should that infrastructure fail. With its platform architecture, Cityworks is able to consume various sources of data which inform organizations and assist with smart and efficient planning as stewards within their communities.
Cityworks was acquired by Trimble in 2019. It is built as a GIS-centric, platform-based software for asset management and permitting across the asset lifecycle with added capabilities for project management, contract management, and activity-based solutions. Cityworks, alongside e-Builder, a Trimble Solution that integrates on the platform, provides comprehensive asset management from the permitting phase through building and inspection into operations and maintenance.
Recently within Trimble, a new sector was created that is specifically focused on owners of infrastructure and the public sector. The Owner & Public Sector includes Cityworks and e-Builder along with Trimble Utilities and AgileAssets, which specializes in pavement management. These solutions are positioned as part of the construction sector with a focus on the public sector to and are focused on completing and fulfilling the different stages of the design, build, and operate process to provide a comprehensive GIS-centric solution for the public sector. (more…)
GISCafe CEO Sanjay Gangal recently interviewed Suzi Shoemaker, President and Chief Operating Officer at AerialSphere and owner of a Australian Shepherd/heeler mix, about AerialSphere, a 360-degree aerial panoramic imagery provider.
Sanjay: Suzi, tell us about AerialSphere.
SS: AerialSphere is a 360-degree aerial panoramic imagery provider, which includes geolocated information within every pixel of the image, giving the viewer the opportunity to overlay any type of data that has location information included.
SG: Okay, and how did AerialSphere get started?
SS: AerialSphere got started when two aerial photographers and entrepreneurs, one of those aerial photographers was an inventor, were introduced to each other right about the time Google Street View became popular. One of the entrepreneurs took a look at that and said, “Hey, I’ve done some drone work with some 360-cameras, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this with aerial imagery and be able to provide a mass capture imagery over major metropolitan areas, so that you could utilize the imagery to be able to do something very similar, but from a different perspective?”
Methods of tracking Covid-19 are becoming more specific and exact as time goes on. With concerns of the spread of the COVID- 19 and its variants as well as the lack of comprehensive testing programs, many locations are turning to wastewater testing to effectively track the “viral load” of COVID-19 in their communities and help guide the battle against the spread of COVID-19. In the state of Missouri, officials are using GIS and mapping to track all the data around the spread of COVID-19 and guide policy and planning decisions.
In the state of Missouri, officials are using GIS and mapping to track all the data around the spread of COVID-19 and guide policy and planning decisions.
Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, maximizing the value of Digital Twins, higher refresh rate on satellite data, and a new group of users: geospatial immigrants are among this week’s 2022 Industry Predictions. The industry needs to ensure two things for this category of users who don’t care if the data is geospatial or anything about it – firstly that users are getting the right data for their needs, and secondly that they are able to access it easily.
Much of 2021’s important news had to do with digital twin technology, responding to climate change and artificial intelligence, as well as Covid-19 response for businesses. Reducing the world’s carbon footprint is a major priority for most organizations and technologies are being lined up to address this priority.
CEO Jensen Huang presented the keynote at the recent GTC21 NVIDIA Conference, November 8-11, sharing with the audience the importance of accelerated computing and much more. The announcements were so prolific and many of interest to the GIS/geospatial industry, thus I will share those that would be of most interest to our audience. One of the most profound announcements came at the end of the talk, wherein Huang announced that they are building a digital twin of the earth.
Danny Petrecca, VP of Business Development at Locusview conducted an interview with Sanjay Gangal, president of GISCafe, recently to discuss the topic of digital construction management that Locusview pioneered to address the challenges of telecoms and utilities worldwide. Primarily, the solution aims to get as-built construction information in from the field back to the systems of record on time.
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