User adoption is tricky. Users adopt any product or technology only if it is relevant to them and meets their specific need. Users adopt geospatial mostly because geospatial data adds value to businesses quickening the decision-making process. When users adopt geospatial as a part of their workflow management, they enrich a country’s technology, economic and cultural growth. Thus, the user adoption of geospatial in a country happens at five levels: the mapping or service level, business process modeling, analytics, and workflow level, system integration level and enterprise level. Let’s find out which country is ahead in terms of geospatial adoption and at what level.
Geospatial is being adopted and used in every country and in various industry verticals. The use of geospatial in an economy pertains to automating the process of spatial data collection while simultaneously carrying out real-time observations and measurements leading to the integration of geospatial in the entire enterprise. Integrating geoinformation or spatial data for workflow management to deal with all aspects of planning and management helps users to achieve higher levels of productivity and efficiency.
The Global Geospatial Industry Outlook, an exclusive study by Geospatial Media and Communications, studies 50 economies on the user adoption of geospatial. The report also explains how geospatial technologies function within the digital platform and also the changing product landscape of the geospatial industry fabric.Media
Not surprisingly, the top 10 countries where geospatial adoption at the user level is high are all developed countries. Almost all users of these countries have adopted geospatial at system integration level for more than three decades now while many are using geospatial at the enterprise level. These countries use geospatial data for almost all developmental activities, are bringing in a revolution in geospatial technologies and, thereby, leading to creation of innovative geospatial applications and solutions in nearly every industry vertical.
User Adoption of Geospatial: Key Takeaways
In United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, for more than two decades now, geospatial is being inculcated at all levels of the organization for informed decision making and to increase the return on investments. The users in these economies realize that the adoption of geospatial at the enterprise level requires seamless integration of businesses and technology systems to deliver innovative solutions efficiently. It is also interesting to note that unlike the emerging economies, geospatial is not only being used in defense and disaster management sectors but in almost all industry segments, such as infrastructure, urban planning, forest and environment, agriculture, climate change management, transport, and logistics, etc. For instance, the on-site data collected at the Los Angeles airport, United States has been seamlessly integrated with GIS and CAD to deliver accurate, high-quality information on airport assets. This has resulted in significant savings in time and cost. Similarly, the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) uses geospatial to map the current condition of roads using sensor technology. This helps engineers and asset managers to effectively maintain the transport infrastructure in the United Kingdom.
Strikingly different is the condition in developing countries and more so in the emerging economies. The user adoption of geospatial in countries like UAE, India, and Malaysia is at a high level for the importance of spatial data is being increasingly realized but at present, system integration and enterprise level of adoption is insignificant. These countries rank high for the adoption of geospatial at the asset management level because it is used for applications like disaster management, utilities, climate change, etc. An interesting transition that is happening is the steady move of these countries towards using geospatial technology for high-quality analytics and productive workflow management. For instance, users of geospatial in India have begun to use geospatial for business intelligence, supply chain management, customer relationships management, etc., but it is still at a very nascent stage.
Lastly, the gap between the developed economies and emerging economies persists. Emerging economies like Costa Rica, Kyrgyz Republic, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, etc., are lagging behind in the user level adoption of geospatial. While these countries recognize the need of using spatial data, it will take them considerable time to reach the progressive levels of adoption as that of developing and developed countries.
In conclusion, while the user adoption of geospatial in the developed economies is at a very advanced stage i.e. at the enterprise level, the same is not true for the developing economies and the emerging ones. Developing economies are moving towards analytics and workflow management level of adoption while emerging economies are starting out with the mapping level. There is still a long way to go for the gap to subside between the user adoption level of the developed economies and the emerging ones.
Also read: Which country has the most diverse geospatial industry presence?
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