In the spirit of end-of-year reflections, Vector1 Media editors Jeff Thurston and Matt Ball looked back over the past 12 months to come up with the top developments of 2008 that will have strong implications for geospatial industry growth and diversity in the coming years. Making the list are software updates, bold initiatives, mapping-oriented geopolitical wrangling, policy directives and imagery platforms. Read the full list and please add your own observations via comments.

Geographic Design - ESRI founder and chief executive officer, Jack Dangermond, has been promoting the idea of the geographic approach and 'Geographic Design Systems.' The ArcSketch extension is the first foray into this capability to quickly lay out the design of places based on layers and underlying rules. The concept of geographic design further blurs the line between CAD and GIS, and provides a new workflow that may eliminate the need to use both CAD and GIS tools for some users.

RapidEye Launched - The RapidEye constellation of 5 satellites were launched in 2008 using a Russian launch rocket. These satellites had been planned for quite a while, so it was eventful when they became reality.  We interviewed RapidEye about the launch and the new satellites earlier in the year.  As planned, the information gathered and produced from the satellites will be used primarly for landscape change.  

Digital Cities Pilot Program - The launch of Autodesk's Digital Cities initiative, and the pilot cities program that aligns this technology development with the mission of a diverse group of cities, will effectively jump-start the creation of high-resolution, engineering-grade and city-wide models for the better management of urban areas. The alignment with different cities around the globe, each with their own distinct objectives, provides compelling story material for the promotion of the initiative, while testing the concept against a broad range of criteria and goals.

Completion of NEXTMap Europe -  NEXTMap Europe signifies the first completed digital terrain model (DTM) for Europe that has been collected in high resolution accompanied by homogenous data processing accuracy. While many users of this kind of data product may have previously used SRTM data, NEXTMap Europe is much higher quality and is being marketed in such a way as to capitalise on associated product development. As the geo-community moves toward a 3D future, NEXTMap Europe is likely to become more widely used across Europe. 

Bentley V8i - Bentley Systems released its V8i portfolio in 2008. It is designed to deliver, perform and integrate geospatial across the infrastructure lifecycle. Based on the MicroStation platform, V8i has several significant improvements in the areas of interoperability, geo-coordination, modeling and dynamic views. With infrastructure issues rising on the international agenda around the globe, V8i is a strong candidate to deliver the goods. 

ArcGIS Online Open APIs - With the release of the ArcGIS Server REST API, JavaScript API, the Flex API, the .NET Web ADF, the Java Web ADF and even the JavaScript extenders for Google Maps and Virtual Earth, ESRI is making in much easier for developers to create compelling web mapping applications that are both fast and beautiful. The flexibility of design is evident in the applications that are coming forward. Web mapping just got a lot more interesting with some stunning design options and fun and intuitive interfaces. (Thanks go out to James Fee for his continued coverage of these technology developments.)

EU Gives Final Approval of GALILEO Satellite System - The GALILEO GPS system has endured a long and varied history in Europe as it moved from an idea to a plan, then became widely debated. As 2008 opened, GALILEO emerged from a political debate that saw the program switch from commercial ownership to become fully supported through the European Commission. The project deal was finalised in the spring of 2008 and the first workable constellation of four satellites should appear around 2010 with the full satellite constellation (27 sats) planned by 2013. 

Undersea Mapping - The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has a May 13, 2009, deadline for countries to declare the extent of the continental shelf from their country border. This new definition of country borders means that there's a flurry of undersea mapping taking place, with implications for natural resource exploitation and added friction between countries as the rush to claim the seabed heats up.

Obama Becomes President - The watershed election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States comes with promises for investment in infrastructure and green technologies that will require considerable investment in geospatial technologies. The focus on sustainability, and the embrace of the challenges of global warming, also hold promise for greater investment in earth observation and science-based solutions.

OGC Spatial Data Quality Working Group - This working group continued to develop, deliver and summarise survey results regarding spatial data quality in 2008. In principle this work is critical to the development of geospatial applications into the future. Many of the products and services we list above are highly dependent upon spatial data quality. Survey results are now providing useful information as they identify needs and issues moving forward. 

 

 

 

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