For industries already familiar with spatial technologies,it has been easy to adapt to new processes and systems.But then there are a lot of sectors not accustomed to geospatial. A lot needs to be done to introduce them to the spatial component.
Over the years, we have experienced that it’s quite difficult to introduce geospatial features to those who have got no idea of it. For instance, there are different department in cities, such as health, education etc that lack the relevant geospatial know how.
Data provided by the people is related to their perceptions of the living environment and comes embedded with their ideas and hopes
Community Outreach
Geospatial data is crucial for enabling people to understand what’s happening in their neighborhood and immediate environment. At the same time, grassroots data from local people is needed in various city planning and development projects — preferably, in geospatial format.
Maptionnaire enables planners, and cities in general, to collect geospatial data from residents and stakeholders about their experiences with the built environment, a vital piece of data often lacking from the urban geospatial ecosystem.
Data provided by the people is related to their perceptions of the living environment and comes embedded with their ideas and hopes. For projects related to, for example, renewable energy, infrastructure, and urban planning, this information is vital. It is also essential to use local insights as a source for crucial background information at the early stages of a project.
Today, climate change has taken center stage in various government policies. Another challenge is economic slowdown and the need to design resilient systems. Existing technology is rapidly evolving to meet user needs and demands.
New advancements will help tackle a lot of current challenges such as climate change from a broad perspective. However, we also need to be careful while communicating with people – it should not be assumed that they will easily adapt to the evolving changes. Instead they need to be involved and engaged well in advance, before these changes took place.
This is why there is a need to make people understand local challenges and connect with them regarding sustainability goals.
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Gamification all the way
When we started in 2005 as a service for collecting geospatial data from local people, not many organizations seemed to be interested in it, but nowadays it has become a fairly common concept.
A lot of players have entered the market with similar offerings, giving a great choice to the consumers. Maptionnaire has developed into a citizen engagement platform with multiple functionalities, but geospatial data is still at its heart.
On the innovation front, there is an increasing demand and usage of digital twins, which is a key technology trend. Cities have started building them and using multi-purpose technology applications.
While this is just the first step, their use and scope will increase rapidly in the future. At the same time, we need a mechanism to evaluate their benefits, and determine the value of 3D models.
Gamification is another trend in citizen engagement. Gamification helps us make everything more connected, appealing, and interactive. What’s more, AI is going to be vital for connecting different kinds of data sets, analyzing enormous amount of data, and bringing it together.
Even though the business model for SaaS services is very good and valuable, there are factors that hinder its success such as the implications of data storage, security, user privacy, and the localization debate.
Disclaimer: Views Expressed are Author's Own. Geospatial World May or May Not Endorse it
