Irvine, California company CoreLogic®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, released at the end of January its annual Catastrophe Report highlighting the value of modern insurance and mortgage solutions in addressing the increase in climate change-induced hazard events and impact on the real estate economy.
Better cloud and remote GIS tools, virtual and augmented reality have now blossomed in response to the demands put forth on our industry by the pandemic. Gaining access to analysis-ready geospatial data at a scale and with granularity never before possible is on the horizon. We thought we already knew about digital twins, but now we find out they are finally born? This is the way of the future and much more, we learn by checking in with companies Blue Marble and Omnisci, two companies with a finger on the pulse of what to watch for in geospatial.
Thematically, this week’s group of industry predictions can be boiled down to one topic: delivering the data that people need, in a format that they can understand to enable them to make the best possible evidence-based decisions quickly and confidently.
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
Looking forward to 2021 brings with it a necessary looking backward at what geospatial organizations and providers have had to deal with in 2020. On a regular basis throughout the next two months, GISCafe Voice will post industry predictions from professional geospatial organizations, looking at what vectors are influencing the industry and what directions the technologies will take. This week we will hear from spokespeople from Maptek, Nearmap, Septentrio and Sinclair Industries. Autonomous solutions, partnering with other technology providers, mapping critical care centers such as testing centers, cybersecurity and increased accuracy and analytics are all areas that geospatial and mapping have stepped up to as a result of Covid-19. The technology was there, ready to meet the sudden and unanticipated demand. What does that mean going forward? Greater resilience and growth, innovation at a more rapid pace, and much more, according to these industry professionals.
While many industry markets saw a decline during 2020, geospatial and GIS remained steady and are projected to grow. According to Research and Markets’ report, “Geospatial Analytics Market – Global Forecast to 2025” the Geospatial Analytics Market Size is Projected to Grow from USD 52.6 Billion in 2020 to USD 96.3 Billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.9% During the Forecast Period.
Tammy Owen, Global Director of the Defense and Intelligence business area for L3Harris Geospatial, introduced speakers on the first day of the 6th annual ENVI Analytics Symposium held August 25-27th, which for the first time, was held virtually rather than in person in Boulder, Colorado as had been initially planned.
In a webinar recently presented by Emesent, the discussion was entitled “Smarter Lidar Technology for Infrastructure and AEC: better data, greater insights.”
Peter Dickinson, project manager for Emesent and Business Development manager for the Americas Dave Jaunay introduced customers who were using Emesent’s Hovermap sensor system for various challenging environments. It has been used extensively in mining and underground environments and land surveying.
The company Emesent is based in Brisbane, Australia with a staff of 38 but rapidly growing to meet global demands. The company aims to solve the problem of collection of data – in GPS-denied or challenging environments. The need to automate the collection of data, gave birth to the Hovermap for mine and roads, tunneling, indoor mapping and search and rescue, anywhere where maintaining a signal for GNSS solutions is problematic.
IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno & Jack Dangermond, president of Esri, discuss how GIS can help solve some of the world’s biggest problems, namely, Covid-19 and climate change at the recent Esri Virtual User Conference 2020.
Normally approximately 17,000 people attend Esri User Conference held in San Diego, California but this year, the conference has attracted upwards of 80,000 people online as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. While it is sad not to be gathered in San Diego, the sheer volume of people who are able to participate online makes it quite a phenomena for Esri, a 50-year-old company spearheading the GIS movement globally.