Demystifying Geospatial Technology II

In the first part of this article, the concept of geospatial technology was explained. The focus was on its evolution through the year, and the increased acceptance of the technology across several industries was established. In this article, we will focus on how geospatial technology is being incorporated at different scales across industries.

It is widely considered that 80% of data is geographic. This statement arguably cuts across commercial businesses, agriculture, healthcare, and many other sectors. Notably, a closer look at the activities of several firms in existence gives us insight into how they could have geographic data at the core of their operations. Data such as customer location, transaction history, commercial hotspot location all have geographical references and are common to almost all operational sectors.

Geospatial technology and its applications

It is difficult to exhaustively outline the recent applications of geospatial technology in an article as its use continues to grow at a great level. However, notable applications can still be highlighted to show the current capabilities of geospatial technologies and their future potentials. More so, the consistent evolution of geospatial technology can be attributed to the recent expansive development in ICT. A few applications of geospatial technology are discussed below:

Healthcare Emergency

Geospatial technologies have seamlessly fitted into the healthcare sector. It has proven pivotal in emergency management, precise endemic response, and disease hotspot mapping. With several applications being incorporated, city managers can now understand health trends based on location, age group, and other important demographics. The role of geospatial technology is not limited to understanding healthcare trends or endemic management, as it is highly efficient in identifying areas where the diseases are most likely to spread next. These data are important in the healthcare sector as it gives room for adequate planning and impact preparation.

Geomarketing

Today, business organizations are more interested in the ‘where’ question than ever before. The ‘where’ question is also one of the prime rationales of geospatial technology and its prime applications. Geomarketing combines GIS and marketing, and can be defined as a tool based on geospatial technology that strengthens marketing processes through the use of geographical data within the company’s in-house and external data. In time past, most of the data inside organizations with geographical references are often neglected. However, through the advancement of technology, marketers observed the potentials of these data and began to use GIS tools to target their marketing actions more efficiently. Geomarketing helps to reach a particular audience based on their geographical footprint. Several sectors now combine geospatial technology, marketing, specialized audience analysis through software to develop marketing information systems that have proven beneficial in reaching their target audience to yield greater marketing results.

Agriculture

GIS in agriculture is not a new phenomenon anymore. With the increasing incorporation of technology in agricultural practices, GIS continues to gain more acceptance in the sector. More so, since the future of agricultural growth lies in cost-effective technologies that help to improve production; geospatial technology possesses the edge to become the prime technology in the sector.

Geospatial technologies have substantially helped in crop yield estimates, plant health information, soil modification analysis, and erosion susceptibility information. All these information are consistently helping farmers to make better decisions and thus, increase their output. Through precision agriculture methods, farmers can now obtain accurate estimates of precipitation and temperature for their farmlands all year-round.

Although natural inputs in farming cannot be controlled by farmers, they can be better managed through geospatial technologies.

Transportation and Logistics

Geospatial technology has become an integral part of the transport and logistics industry. Notably, GIS-T (geographical information system in transportation) has become a fascinating area of study and research with several big names across the globe incorporating it into their operations on a large scale. Geospatial technologies have revolutionized transport to become more technology-inclined through route planning and analysis, navigation and path optimization, location analysis, and many more.

In operational logistics, time is of the essence. The route used to move from point A to B is less important than the time it takes to move between the two positions. Through maps, drivers can obtain the shortest route based on traffic information and road network. Geospatial technology also helps business owners to achieve better fleet management, through car tracking and short-routing.

Incorporating the Game Changer

It is of no surprise that geospatial technology is gaining a wide acceptance across industries. With more location data to be leveraged in the next decade, geospatial technology is poised to rise to become the primary technology for business development, nation building and sector expansion