By Jonathan Houde , CTO, Korem
Jonathan Houde
Navigating Geospatial Trends, Cloud, Data, and AI Innovations
As we delve into the intricate landscape of geospatial technology in 2024, it’s essential to reflect on the dynamic shifts that unfolded throughout 2023. Many of Korem’s 2023 predictions have come to fruition, while others are still unfolding, shaping the trajectory of the industry. This article will focus on 5 key trends on the evolution of geospatial within the enterprise ecosystem.
Data Privacy and Mobility Data, Still in Evolving Canvas
In the realm of data privacy, the landscape remains in constant evolution. New federal and provincial regulations are still emerging, in the US, Canada, and various other countries. This has contributed to maintaining volatility in the mobility-derived data market landscape. As a result, many vendors have started to shift from offering raw mobility trace data, to anonymized and pre-aggregated data. For customers, using these types of pre-aggregated mobility data allows transferring both the complexity of dealing with mobility data quality, the challenge of dealing with privacy compliance, and ultimately a faster time to value.
By Jodie Gosselin, GISP, is the GIS director at Dawood Engineering (Dawood),
As I look forward to 2024, my industry predictions revolve around the immediate changes I see occurring in AEC firms like Dawood Engineering. Changes that are right in front of me and that I’m working with my team to solve.
In a recent LinkedIn post, I touted how pleasantly surprised I was with ArcGIS Pro’s functionality and capabilities after needing to get into the weeds and use it for data analysis, map production, web sharing, and data management. Having been a die-hard ArcMap user my entire career, I was stubborn in my resistance to change. What I learned from publicly announcing my new-found admiration for ArcGIS Pro is that there are a lot of “closed-door” ArcGIS Pro fans out there.
Although the migration to ArcGIS Pro has been steadily occurring in our community, I predict 2024 to be the year a culture shift occurs and ArcGIS Pro becomes the primary software of all AEC Esri users, and the beginning of ArcMap being phased out by GIS users. A lot of advancements have been made to Pro since it was originally released years ago and the need to toggle between ArcMap and ArcPro is now unnecessary. With the prevalence of ArcGIS web applications and data sharing workflows, ArcGIS Pro has hooked many users with its level of integration into these tasks. More users will start to see and appreciate the other advances that have been made to Pro in other areas like linear referencing, map layouts, and data editing.
By Mark Zeman, Marketing Manager, Surdex Corporation
Surdex has seen a moderate yet notable shift in market demand that indicates a trend in future buying of geospatial products. It is clear that the overall drive for efficiency in data collection and processing is driving more refined products.
- Growth in Elevation-Derived Hydrography (EDH). Fueled by the USGS 3D National Hydrography Program (3DHP), EDH has seen a significant increase in volume as part of the USGS Geospatial Products and Services Contracts (GPSC4). The implementation of 3DHP marks the start of a new era of water data – the first systematic remapping of the nation’s hydrography. We anticipate significant demand and growth in production through 2024 and beyond.
- Increase in image resolution. The history of aerial photography has been one of progressive demand for increased resolution. Over the past decade, the base product, in general, has been 12” GSD for rural areas and 6” GSD for urban areas, and 3” GSD was generally only considered for small important areas of interest such as airports. As competition has driven the industry to develop increasingly more cost-efficient acquisition processes, Surdex has seen a gradual yet progressive interest, a shift from 12” to 6” GSD for more rural areas and from 6” to 3” GSD for urban areas, particularly in larger cities. We envision this trend will continue and become the new standard.
By John L. Kelley, President and Co-founder, GeoSapient, Inc.
Top GeoSapient, Inc. 2024 Predictions for GISCafé
GeoSapient looks beyond the growing space- and aerial-borne assets into the deeper aspects of geocomputing data, workflows, and use cases.
Theme: Responsible GHG Emissions for GIS
- The New National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Strategy Provides Unique Opportunities for Satellite Remote Sensing Systems
Before COP28, the administration announced a new GHG emissions strategy this past November.
The strategy commits the US to ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets as part of the Nation’s agenda to tackle the climate crisis. Enhancing GHG measurement and monitoring capabilities is foundational to achieving these ambitious goals. Doing so will improve the Nation’s ability to track progress toward GHG emissions targets and assess the effectiveness of climate policies and actions. Numerous GHG measurement, monitoring, and data capabilities exist but are spread across various federal and non-federal entities. The Nation can enhance the coordination and integration of these capabilities, make more efficient use of resources, and leverage recent scientific and technological advances to provide more comprehensive, granular, and timely data to support climate action.
By Marc Prioleau is the executive director of Overture Maps Foundation,
Marc Prioleau
! v>Charting the Path Forward: Open Map Data’s Role in Enriching Mapping Experiences
In the last 2 years, I have talked to over 250 companies and organizations that are involved in mapping, location services, and map data building. There is amazingly consistent consensus across the industry: we, as a group, need to move to open map data, especially for the base layers that must support the ever-growing metadata that drives richer map experiences.
The demand for those richer experiences seems insatiable, which means that application developers need new, more accurate, more timely data. Trying to support all that data on multiple versions of basemaps is becoming unsustainable.
My prediction is that, in 2024, developers will increasingly opt for open map data to build the foundation for their applications.
Today, map data underpins applications for everything from search, to routing, to logistics, to autonomous driving. As the metaverse builds, and the digital and physical worlds merge, map services will underpin augmented reality and its many expected applications from search to games to software for enterprises.
