The development of geospatial technologies has been exploding in the government and consumer markets, creating social impacts ranging from user-generated maps for mobile applications to solutions to disaster management[1]. Although until the recent past it was majorly specialists that used GIS to create maps in the back room, today untrained users can also routinely access sophisticated GIS via the Internet on their PCs, laptops, mobile phones or dedicated geospatial devices. Mark Reichardt, president of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), said that they’re “seeing this movement of geospatial and location-service functionality seamlessly into the business decision cycle and business tools and consumer services” and that it’s the crowd and the cloud leading that movement. On the consumer market end, GIS application is often combined with Global Positioning System, better known to us as GPS, and is heavily used for mobile applications to add maps to their services so users can find nearest restaurants or gas stations. The government is also beginning to use the GIS technology outside their back room, for projects such as Pacific Disaster Center that created DisasterAware Platform, which “continually monitors information feeds from meteorological and geological agencies and delivers information and alerts in real time to subscribers. Users can share analyses and situation reports and can query the underlying databases of DisasterAware, which has a presence on Twitter.” Other similar devices such as WebMapSolutions is built to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results through coordinated multi-agency response system, where the relief activities include rescue, relocation, service repair, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care, as well as suggesting recovery solutions focusing on rehabilitation through providing detailed pictures of the disaster and its impact and its assessment. Jack Dangermond, president of Esri, a geographic information system company, said, “GIS is being exposed on the Web, through browsers and through mobile phones. That’s making it more accessible and usable. It will spread through whole new audiences. Executives who want to look at sophisticated geographic information and do sophisticated geographic analysis can do so through a mobile device.” The GIS technology today isn’t limited to specialists and engineers, and the crowd learning to use the system to apply it to user-generated contents, bringing it into the consumer market end, is reshaping the future and bringing the places closer and smarter, making it available for day-to-day use.
References:
- GIS’ future is with crowds, clouds … and 4-D By Patrick Marshall
- http://www.webmapsolutions.com/gis-solutions-disaster-management
[1] New GIS Colutions for Disaster Management