If 2020 was a year of shock, 2021 was one of reckoning. Even as the virus continued to play havoc, vaccines brought some hope and order in the later part of the year. However, 2021 also threw up many challenges that the human society is now collectively facing.
As extreme weather events and climate change took centerstage in 2021, scientists are unequivocal that these events are distinctly more severe now and not due to natural causes.
Amid all this, geospatial technologies continued to play a critical role — in managing the pandemic and climate events, and even in initiatives around re-building for the better. Technologies and business models also continued to evolve, throwing up solutions that will best confront the unique challenges of our century.
Geospatial World magazine’s annual exercise of interacting with a range of industry thought leaders across geographies and technology spectrum reveal the overlook is very positive, and the industry is well poised to leverage the opportunities that the multifold crises places before it.
Recent advances in sensor-data fusion capability and location-based technologies, increasing digitalization and workflow integration, and emerging business models are driving the ubiquitous penetration of geospatial information and technologies to benefit the entire ecosystem of user networks — from governments and businesses to individuals.
Alternatively, rising user demand for accurate, current, precise, detailed, and insightful geospatial data to create Digital Twin and Metaverse environments has led to the emergence of a dynamic geospatial start-up ecosystem globally — revolutionizing and driving the growth of the global geospatial market (GeoBuiz 2022: Global Geospatial Industry Outlook, GW Consulting).
GW Consulting estimated the global geospatial market to be worth approximately USD 395 billion in 2021, compared to USD 365 billion in 2020. The numbers are expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.61 percent between 2021 and 2025, to touch USD 680 billion.
As has been often repeated in the past two years, there has perhaps never been a more illustrative need for taking a geographic approach than the current pandemic.
“We have been able to watch and better understand the spread and impact of this virus on dashboards and maps. We can also better understand disruptions to the global economy, whether evidenced by supply chain struggles or labor shortages,” says Jack Dangermond, President, Esri.
All this is tied to location. So are the solutions.
In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated not only the mainstream uptake of geospatial data and technologies, but also resulted in a wider recognition of the advantages of using location as an organizing principle when undertaking data integration and analysis.
“The pandemic has made us recognize the value of putting location at the center of all data analyses; people, cities, states, countries, and organizations are all asking questions related to ‘where’,” says Nadine Alameh, CEO and President, Open Geospatial Consortium.
There was already a move towards digitalization and the pandemic has only accelerated those trends many times over; many of these changes are permanent.
As Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems, underlines, “Going digital has been the saving grace in enabling economic productivity to largely continue, and even gain new momentum.” He also sees this as an opportunity to institutionalize the digitalization process not only within organizations but also towards ‘future-proofing’ our world’s assets with respect to economic and environmental dependencies.
This is but natural when we see the explosion of growth in data that brings the physical to the virtual information world. “This enables an efficiency boost so that the physical world can be analyzed better and faster — independent of location — and shared with practically any stakeholder. This moves organizations and economies to higher performance through less waste and cost,” says Michael Burger, CEO, FARO Technologies.
In the future, geospatial data will hold greater significance than ever before. Ola Rollen, CEO, Hexagon AB, sees a dynamic GIS at the core of everything, combining base maps with sensor information in real time, for example, to optimize last mile delivery routes hour by hour.
However, Rollen also points out that the deployment of dynamic GIS will happen only if there is greater collaboration between different companies, although there will be a lot of consolidation. Historically, the companies that made money in GIS were the ones dealing in hardware and software. In the future, the biggest revenue stream is going to come from data itself.
In the future, geospatial data will hold greater significance than ever before. There will be a dynamic GIS at the core of everything, combining base maps with sensor information in real time.
Digital Twins: The concept of ‘Digital Twin’ has been around for more than a decade, although it has become a buzzword only lately. More companies and cities want Digital Twins, that is, digital representations of their physical reality. This technology can be utilized for more disciplines by adding non-spatial data and information to the 3D models, to digitally support the operation and maintenance of businesses and communities.
“Digital Twin technology is essentially an easier form of abstraction to explain the challenge of accurate digital data in all representation forms, which needs to be as current as possible. Ultimately, we should come to a point where the network inventory system is warned about a data anomaly within seconds so corrective measures can be taken,” explains Geert De Coensel, CEO, Merkator.
Fusion of sensors: The fusion of different kinds of sensors and technologies allows for positioning accuracy in the millimeter or centimeter range. Some years ago this was completely GNSS based but today it is hybrid positioning solutions that merge the strengths of GNSS, MEMs (micro electro mechanical systems), IMUs (inertial measurement units), LiDAR and optical data.
“Industry platforms are driving geospatial innovation by connecting people, technology, tasks, data, processes, and industry life cycles. Cloud services enable survey companies to deliver on the Digital Twin through the software driving data capabilities,” says Ronald Bisio, Senior Vice President, Geospatial Sector, Trimble.
Also, changes in data collection and processing are broadening the surveyor role beyond simply capturing information in the field. “Three decades ago, surveyors used either optical instruments or GNSS. Now, increasingly, they need experience in other technologies, including UAVs, scanning, and augmented reality visualization tools,” he adds.
As George Zhao, CEO, CHC Navigation, points out, the result is greater availability, reliability and accuracy of position, navigation and timing (PNT) data. The demand for hybrid GNSS, IMU and MEMS fusion systems applied to assisted and autonomous driving to ensure reliable lane-level accuracy is constantly growing.
LiDAR: The use of LiDAR in infrastructure systems and 3D mapping is central to making digital cities a reality, as the technology allows for efficient and cost-effective ways to map large areas in hours, rather than weeks.
“LiDAR also has the power to dramatically improve the safety, sustainability and efficiency of a world in motion. There has been tremendous work done by industry to support advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles, as well as the infrastructure that will support integration of connected vehicles. While we cannot speak to when fully self-driving vehicles will be deployed at scale, updates to performance standards and testing will be critical to progress,” says Dr. Ted Tewksbury, CEO, Velodyne.
PNT: The vulnerabilities of GPS have been discussed often. Even when GPS and other alternative GNSS services are available, for cities defined by multi-level structures, vertical location is necessary for safety and efficiency. PNT technology plays a major role in building more immersive augmented and virtual reality capabilities.
“The digital layer that will live on top of the physical world is not two dimensional. Z-axis capabilities will need to be involved, especially in urban areas where skylines are populated with multistory buildings. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) games like Pokemon Go will continue to develop further as 3D geolocation becomes more widely adopted and, with it, even more realistic digital worlds will be made,” says Ganesh Pattabiraman, CEO, NextNav.
In many ways, the pandemic has emphasized the role of Space tech and Earth Observation (EO) more than ever before. Suddenly, we can see the stark impact of the drop in human activity during lockdowns. Again, the focus on digital technologies has brought to the fore every aspect of Spacetech — from communication to EO to positioning and navigation, every human activity on Earth today is directly or indirectly impacted by Space technology.
“We are pushing the technology frontier — from launchers, EO, and telecommunications to quantum communication and navigation,” says Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General, European Space Agency.
He sees artificial intelligence (AI) on board satellites as the future. Cognitive Cloud computing — with AI and machine learning (ML) on the one hand and systems of interconnected satellites on the other — builds a mesh of network capabilities and then transmits the data down to individual users. All of this basically amounts to personalization of acquisition, processing, and dissemination.
“There’s a palpable excitement about Space these days,” says Mike Greenley, CEO, MDA. It stems in part from a growing understanding of the economic impact of Space — high-quality jobs, strong supply chains, strong economic benefits with very strong economic growth multipliers, and new business opportunities in areas like Space-based manufacturing or Space-mining, he explains.
Stephane Germain, CEO, GHGSat, points to some pathbreaking innovations: “Several companies have cracked the code and managed to package powerful synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payloads, once the specialty of governments and space agencies, into small packages. Innovative sensors to look at radio frequency (RF) signals on Earth are providing invaluable insights into human activity patterns.”
In a report published last year, Space Capital said, “In the same way that every company today is a technology company, the companies of tomorrow will all be Space companies.” This rings so true even today.
As governments around the world have made major stimulus investments in their infrastructure, primarily to create jobs and keep their economies moving forward, the industry sees this as further accelerating the digital transformation of the infrastructure industry.
What is exciting about all these stimuluses is not just the amount of money that is being poured into the sector, but the fact that finally digital technologies and solutions are getting recognition. For instance, in the United States alone, USD 100 million investment is going into digital construction programs, says Theo Agelopoulos, Senior Director, Architecture & Engineering Design Strategy, Autodesk.
“Historically, we have seen stimulus investments drive an early uptick in construction for shovel ready projects; we should also realize the benefits of digital innovation to execute them better. As we continue forward we will also see new projects entering the planning and design phase, driving more adoption of digital technologies, leveraging design automation through AI/ML to design better, more high quality and sustainable assets,” he adds.
The concept of Metaverse is powered by a desire to improve today’s online social experiences by making them feel more immersive and natural. However, just as location was central to understanding the pandemic, it is also central to the concept of the Metaverse, points out Alameh of OGC.
“The Metaverse helps in driving digitalization, thereby driving new business models in the consumer market,” says Juergen Dold, President, GSI, Hexagon AB.
The idea of a smart digital reality goes beyond Digital Twins and can be likened to a Metaverse. “Smart digital realities bring together people, places and things in a 3D representation of the physical environment where people can interact through information-sharing to create new processes that solve some of our most challenging business problems. A smart digital reality is a part of the Metaverse that will always have a real, one-to-one connection with the physical world,” he adds.
“The next evolution in geospatial intelligence will lead to an integrated geospatial ecosystem that will combine Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure with the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework and Industry 4.0 components,” says Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, Executive Director, Strategic Consulting & International Relations, Spatial Vision.
This will pave the way for a consolidated and holistic approach for geospatial advancement.
The World Economic Forum’s The Global Risks Report 2022 has listed climate action failure, extreme weather, biodiversity loss, livelihood crises, and social cohesion erosion as the top five risks for the global economy.
Geospatial data and technologies are at the forefront of monitoring and addressing each of these risks — especially for climate change monitoring and disaster mitigation.
Real-time data collection and analytics will vastly improve all aspects of our lives, especially in smart cities, and improve the lives of the growing urban population. The move from megabit to gigabit broadband will also see petabytes of data. So, the capacity of having to store this data and make sense of it will be the main issue in the near future.
In the coming years, billions of dollars will be spent on combating future hazards and disasters, and building resilient infrastructure. Placing geospatial at the core of these requires a more generalist thinking than most traditional players have historically considered.
But now, the industry looks poised for change and is ready to seize the moment.
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