The Geospatial Web and Revolution: a Synopsis
by Bob Sharpe, November, 2011
The geospatial web refers to the convergence of geographic
information and geotechnologies with the services and data provided by the
Internet. In essence, the geospatial web
enables anyone with access to the Internet to collect, search, share, analyze
and display location-based information.
The unique aspect of the geospatial web is its potential to
aggregate multiple, disparate data sets on the basis of their geographic
coordinates. These data can be drawn
from government agencies, private industry, and most importantly, from the
general public.
Several observers argue that this powerful new human
capability is bringing about revolutionary change (e.g. Penn State Public
Broadcasting, 2010; Scharl and Tochtermann, 2007).
Why is the geospatial
web revolutionary?
The geospatial web might be characterized as revolutionary
for several reasons:
- the rapid adoption of this technology has led to innovation and the widespread disruption of many existing practices;
- the public has a freely available, comprehensive map of the world, rich in information content;
- individuals can create and contribute their own information, and engage with others to this public map of the world
The geospatial revolution was a long time in making and the
product of developments in geodesy, geography, cartography and geographic
information science. From these sciences
were developed the tools and techniques of remote sensing, global positioning
and satellite navigation systems, and geographic information systems, which
together form the infrastructure of the geospatial web. The Internet and the proliferation of a range
of mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and smartphones
have made this infrastructure available to the public.
Along with the development of this infrastructure was a
rapid expansion of geospatial digital content.
This now includes access to vast libraries of geospatial data, much of
it of high quality. Access to remote
imagery for the globe, transportation networks, elevation data, and more
enabled the development of online mapping services such as MapQuest and Google
Earth.
Significantly, the development of GML and KML,
enabled the further ability for users to share their own geospatial data. Such data can be collected from coordinates
determined by a GPS-enabled smartphone, from
coordinates assigned by geotagging an image or text file, and from geoparsing
or assigning geographic identifiers to words, phrases, and other media
references to place.
It is probably the involvement of the general public in
generating and using geographic information, which fuels the geospatial
revolution. This type of information has
been rapidly developing across various domains and includes voluntary
geographic information, crowd sourced data, user generated maps, social
networking.
What are the benefits
of the geospatial web?
The geospatial web has already demonstrated, through several
applications, the potential for revolutionary societal benefit in terms of
saving lives, creating efficiencies and business opportunities, and enhancing
access to various services. The most
prominent recent examples of such applications are those used to assist in
emergency response (e.g. mapping, operations, communication) to natural
disasters and crises, such as the aftermath of Katrina, the Gulf oil spill, and
the Haiti earthquake.
A wide range of other types of applications are increasingly
popular. Students in a undergraduate
cartography class selected and reviewed over 30 geospatial applications, the
summaries of which are posted on the Map Rap Blog (http://scrubbrush-maprap.blogspot.com/).
These applications have been grouped below into categories based on the
main function of the application.
- Find directions, plan routes and map trips, map activities, geotag photos (EveryTrail, TripWiser, MapMyFitness, CapSpotter, Cycling the Alps, EveryTrail, TravelPod, MapMe, WalkJogRun, Picasa Web Albms, TripGeo, MapMyRide)
- Provide a wide range of location-based services to consumers (e.g. identifying and locating services and friends in proximity to the user) Facebook Places, Trapster, Foursquare, Gowalla, Poynt, Yellow Pages, SitorSquat)
- Use online tools for manipulating geospatial data (GPS Visualiser)
- Map and monitor the activities or locations of wildlife (PolarBearTracker), roadkill (California Road kill Observation System), currency (Where’sWilly?), sex offenders (Family WatchDog), and solar energy installations (San Francisco Solar Map).
Note that these applications and their categorization are
just a start.
Another benefit of the demand for these geospatial
applications is that it reflects increased interest in, and value for,
geographic information, geographic literacy and spatial thinking. It raises new questions for geography
educators that relate to:
- the capacity of people to use these services,
- the effect of these services on spatial cognition,
- the means to educate people about these services,
- the longterm effect of these services on geographic literacy
What are some concerns with the geospatial web?
Although geospatial applications clearly are of some
benefit, a critical perspective reveals a number of concerns and issues worth
further investigation. Here is an
initial list of concerns:
- The concern mentioned most often is that of personal privacy. Information uploaded to the Internet is publicly and permanently available and can result in a loss individual privacy and autonomy. It is interesting to note that most students do not see this as a major problem.
- Although geotechnologies are increasingly pervasive, their uptake has been uneven and characterized by complex geographic and socioeconoimic disparities (i.e. the digital divide). Social justice issues emerge around inequities in access to these technologies.
- For many individuals, the technologies have become incorporated into everyday life, and have thus influenced their scheduling, workflows and behaviours. (Again, social justice issues arise around inequities in access and usage). The implications of the usage of these technologies for some groups are not well researched or understood.
- An increased societal dependence on technologies (including virtual globes) that are both fallible and controlled by corporate interest.
- An effect on cognitive skills such as a loss of map reading, spatial reasoning and geographic knowledge. Related to this is the limited perspective to which the public is now conditioned. Geobrowsers, virtual globes and online mapping services provide a bird’s eye view or street level view. These are constrained perspectives which are not always the most effective way of seeing the big picture, as would be revealed by casting one’s eye over an entire large-format map.
- Applications vary widely in their user base and geographic coverage. There seems to be a clear bias for sites originating in large cities, especially in the USA.
- There are problems with data on many sites, ranging from too much data – (i.e. how to display and retrieve it), to issues of data accuracy and currency.
- Restrictions on access, for example, personal accounts for some sites can be accessed only by citizens of USA.
Selected References
Elwood, Sarah 2010
Geographic information science: emerging
research on the societal implications of the geospatial web. Progress in Human Geography 34 (3) pp.
349-357.
Penn State
Public Broadcasting 2010
Scharl, Arno and Klaus Tochtermann
(eds.) 2007 The Geopspatial Web: Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping
the Network Society Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing Series
2007, London: Springer, ISBN
1-84628-826-6
Sui, Daniel Z.
(ed.) 2008 Geospatial
Technologies and Homeland Security: Research Frontiers and Future Challenges. The GeoJournal Library, Volume 94, London:
Springer, ISBN 978-1-420-8339-6
Turner, Andrew and Brady Forrest 2008 Where 2.0:
The State of the Geospatial Web, An
O’Reilly Radar Report (see downloadable excerpt)
