A new report setting out the five to ten year vision of the rapidly growing geospatial information industry has been published by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM):
Executive Summary
This 2015 edition of the Future Trends report recognises that the most significant changes in the geospatial industry will come not through a single technology, but rather from linking multiple technologies and policies. The first part of the report, which has been produced through a global consensus process, focuses on the new and emerging trends; these are explored through a series of themes covering one or more topics. The second half of the report incorporates, where relevant, changes that have occurred in the trends identified in the first edition.
Due to increased global urbanisation, it is expected that more focus will be placed on urban environments. The integration of smart technologies and efficient governance models will increase and the mantra of ‘doing more for less’ is more relevant than ever before. The emerging trends of Smart Cities and the Internet of Things, coupled with of smart resource management and interoperable services, will lead to a focus on citizen services, better land management, and the sustainability of resources.
The development of intelligent information‑processing technologies, will provide easier access to a wide range of different services which were previously used for separate applications. These include home and industrial automation, medical aids, mobile healthcare, intelligent energy management, automotive and traffic management, to name only a few.
The next five to ten years will see significant developments in the architecture of the internet. Currently the internet is human‑orientated; the shift towards machine learning and the adoption of the Internet of Things will bring into play devices which are, to all intents and purposes, autonomous and act independently whether or not anyone, or any system, is actively using them.
There is an increasing tendency to bring together data from multiple sources: official statistics, geospatial information, satellite data, big data and crowd‑sourced data among them. For the full potential of these data sources to be realised, it is agreed that data needs to be accessible, interoperable and standardised. This theme is recognised throughout the chapters of this report, and stems from this need for users to be able to integrate different sources and types of information.
The role of National Spatial Data Infrastructures is more important than ever before. They can provide the means to organise and deliver core geographies for many national and global challenges including sustainable development. The paradigm of data availability is changing; there is a huge increase in the tracking and availability of real‑time data. It is no longer just for mapping and delivery, but for integration, analytics, modelling and aggregation.
Work continues at a global level with international standards. The widespread and effective application of standards in many digital information fields is crucial not only for the continued effective use of internet‑based products and services, but also for collaborations between different data organisations.
Although views on policies for the use of authoritative data are fairly consistent around the world, culture has a big influence. Governments are moving towards being commissioners of information rather than creating it themselves. They are working increasingly closely with private sector organisations and are able to add a stamp of authority to data and services provided through public-private partnerships.
New data sources and new data collection technologies must be carefully applied to avoid a bias that favours countries that are wealthier and with established data infrastructures. The use of innovative tools might also favour those who have greater means to access technology, thus widening the gap between the ‘data poor’ and the ‘data rich’.
Governments remain in a unique position to consider the requirements for geospatial information for society as a whole and will continue to play a key role in providing a reliable, trusted and maintained geospatial information base. The exact role a government chooses to take in geospatial information management, the challenges faced, and the changes made will vary from country to country.
Governments retain a key role in ensuring that comprehensive and robust frameworks are put in place with related policies, resources and structures to ensure that geospatial information is easily accessible to decision makers in a coordinated way.
Source: http://ggim.un.org/docs/UN-GGIM-Future-trends_Second%20edition.pdf