Future of GIS

GIS & the Internet  Access spatial data interactively anywhere in the world

Software as a Service  Everyday the Internet is becoming more important in our lives  Today I shop, get traffic conditions, compare products, buy tickets, and read product reviews  Today I can’t find restaurants in my area that serve a particular cuisine that can take a reservation at 7PM  Today a business can’t find a vendor that has an item in stock or which vendor is cheapest or which can ship it to me the soonest  There are 2 main reason why services like this don’t exist today –No standard for integrating information (XML Schemas fix this) –It’s too complex to integrate such services

Web Services  Provide a mechanism for packaging functionality across the Internet –Maps with – –Local services with –ESRI’s Web Services Web ServicesWeb Services

Standards  OpenGIS –Based on XML  XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language  XML is a markup language much like HTML.  XML was designed to describe data.  XML tags are not predefined in XML. You must define your own tags.

XML  The motto of HTML is: "I know how it looks," whereas the motto of XML is: "I know what it means, and you tell me how it should look." Said another way, HTML is about making pretty presentations (bold text and neatly formatted tables, etc.) while XML is a semi-structured document that holds "content."

I-495 Rt.50 Braddock Road Element “start” tag Element “end” tag Element “content” Nested elements must nest completely Attribute Attribute value - must be quoted Sample XML Document Fragment

Different XML Schemes  GML –GML provides a standard means to encode Geographic Information (position, location, extent etc.) in XML.  ArcXML –ESRI’s version of XML ESRI’s version of XMLESRI’s version of XML  LandXML LandXML

Popular Mechanics, 1954

Changing Emphases: From Data to Analysis 75% Data Conversion: 10-15% Attribute Tagging Spatial 5% Analysis Data Conversion Spatial Analysis Attribute Tagging Past Future

Changing Emphases From Description to Simulation & Modeling Past Picture worth a thousand words: maps & diagrams of how is, or how was Future Visual simulation & virtual reality: real time display of how is, and how might be -forest fire -freeway traffic flow Iconic models: scaled down representations of the real thing Symbolic models: based on logical relationships in mathematical or statistical form

Changing Emphases from 2-D description to 4-D interaction Past  2-D flat map displays Future  Effective 3-D  4-D incorporation of time

LIDAR and Digital Imaging A LIDAR system that collects elevations every meter on the ground at a rate of 30,000 times per second or more while a digital camera produces six-inch-pixel data equates to mass quantities of instantaneously available data never dreamed of until recently.

Imagery Processing and Distribution  Promise –Cheaper Cheaper –better resolution  Problems –image- processing software isn't easy to learn or use; –most geotechnology users don't have access to image-processing software; and –the raw datasets required for image processing can be many gigabytes in size.  Covering the world at one-meter resolution requires a staggering 1,800TB or 1,800,000GB of uncompressed imagery.

Hardware  Cost drop for PC’s –$1,000 -$1500  Notebooks also much cheaper  PDA’s  Wireless Technology –G1 GSM/GPRS Kbps –G3-Data rate (up to 2Mbps) –G4-Higher bandwidth (up to 100Mbps).  Support interactive multimedia services: teleconferencing, wireless Internet, etc.  Deployed around 2010  New 64 bit chips –Intel March 21, 2005 –AMD 18 months ago

Interoperability  Open GIS Consortium (OGC) specifications mature Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Open GIS Consortium (OGC)  Normalizes playing field, independent of: –Operating System –Programming Languages –Development Environments

Open Source  Open Source Software –Open Source programs are applications of which you can access the source code. – –OSGeo OSGeo

WMS & WFS  WMS: Web Map Service –Scope: geographic data rendered as images ("maps"), no actual data values  WFS: Web Feature Service –Scope: storage & retrieval of geographic vector feature data (point/line/polygon) –