Women make up more than half of NV5 Geospatial’s eGIS business unit, which collects and analyzes data to develop custom applications for government clients.
Women make up more than half of the company’s team. From left are Alexa Ramirez, Nicole Wigston, Danielle Comely and Cherie Jarvis. (Image: NV5 Geospatial)
Even though women make up nearly half of the workforce, they are still highly underrepresented in the science, technology, engineer and math (STEM) field. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that while women have made gains since the 1970s, they still only account for about 27% of STEM workers.
But one company bucking this trend is NV5 Geospatial, which was formed with the 2019 merger of global engineering firm, NV5 Global, and Quantum Spatial Inc., North America’s largest geospatial data firm. Quantum Spatial brought with it a long history of providing innovative remote sensing, acquisitions and analytics solutions that answer some of the toughest questions and deliver unique insights. It has become the go-to provider of geospatial services for a wide range of clients, including major government agencies, the military, utility companies, engineering and construction firms, and corporate organizations. These clients value the organization’s proprietary and ground-breaking approach of using geospatial information to plan, manage resources, mitigate risk and contribute to scientific understanding.
Women make up more than half of NV5 Geospatial’s enterprise GIS (eGIS) business unit, which is responsible for collecting and analyzing data to develop custom applications for key government clients.
In 2020, the company named Cherie Jarvis as director of the eGIS team, which has grown to include three female project managers and four analysts that bring diverse backgrounds – from marine biology and zoology to environmental science to geology – to their work.
“Seeing so many women in GIS is not unusual for me because I think strong women attract other strong women,” Jarvis said. “The women on our team are not only experts in their field, but they are very detail oriented and have the technical, organizational and people skills to adeptly handle all the variables that come with the complex eGIS projects we manage.”
Jarvis, a PMP, Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner, has led several award-winning projects, including a decision support tool to guide environmentally sound dredging of offshore sand shoals for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and a portal to access navigation-related data and tools for sediment and ecosystem management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
Others on the team include:
Alexa Ramirez, senior project manager, PMP, GISP is a 13-year veteran of NV5 and its predecessor companies, where she previously specialized in lidar processing. She transitioned to the GIS team to create the data model for the BOEM Marine Minerals Information System (MMIS).
Danielle Comely, senior project manager, PMP, CSPO is an environmental scientist who recently joined NV5 from NOAA to work on BOEM, USACE and Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) projects.
Ashley Reade, GIS analyst and one of the newest in the eGIS group, moved from the NV5 acquisition team to help manage MMIS and leverage her marine biology background to help assess fish habitat during dredging as part of the USACE South Atlantic Regional Biological Opinion (SARBO).
Liz Rodgers, senior GIS analyst, leveraged her degree in zoology to help build an environmental sensitivity index tool for NOAA and has been supporting work on USACE SARBO.
Emily Sandrowicz, GIS analyst, joined to work on MMIS, but moved to the geoESPIS (Environmental Studies Program Information System) project. She’s now pursuing her Master’s degree in GIS.
Maggie Satterfield, senior GIS analyst, brings a background in forestry to her work on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Cultural Resources Information Management System (NCRIMS).
Nicole Wigston, senior project manager, PMP, CSM, brings a strong geography and technology background having previously worked for ESRI. She manages national data standardization projects for BLM and on projects automating NV5G internal data pipelines.
The physical and digital world are integrating. We are nearing the edge of the analog universe. Physical immersion is giving way to virtual immersion. It is the virtualization of products and services in the evolution of technology. Michael Saylor calls it the sixth wave of software engineering. We are moving away from externally experiencing data and are moving towards actively interfacing with data directly in virtual space.
“You can Zoom anywhere at the speed of light and bend time and space.” — Michael Saylor
The world of tomorrow is already here. We are waking up to it. The blips of information at the fringes are coming nearer. The horizons of time are as far as one can see into the future and the past. How far can you see? From wherever you are there are others who can see a little further. Look forward. Look back. Others are ahead and behind. They exist where time is most comfortable for them. Some take up positions living in the past. Some stake their place as far into the future as they are able. Look towards those early adopters. Ask them what they think. They see more clearly the blips of information out on the horizon.
What are those blips? How will they impact the geospatial community? How can you position yourself to take advantage of the coming trends?
America needs to go back to work and America’s infrastructure is old and in disrepair. In 2019, Congress introduced H.R.4687, the SMART Infrastructure Act, a $2 trillion bill but it never made it out of the House. However, that bill is being reintroduced. This time it will become a bill putting America back to work and its price tag will likely eclipse the previous bill. It will address infrastructure — all types of infrastructure: physical, data, cybersecurity, health, financial, transportation, energy, and communications. It will be a primary theme for the next two decades. Get ready! Change can happen fast and it’s about to accelerate.
“The future happens slowly and then all at once.” — Kevin Kelly
Rebuilding this infrastructure will require geospatial technologies. STEM has been the siren call for the past 30 years and for good reason. Those who heeded the call and invested their education into coding, engineering, data science, geospatial technologies, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and other STEM related fields are going to lead the coming workforce. Now is the time to get certified and establish your credentials.
Take the case of architectural design and construction. It used to be blueprints drawn on light tables. That is how I learned to do it back in the 1970s. Then it all moved to computer aided design (CAD) drawings. Now, urban planners and architects create immersive 3D virtual reality (VR) visualizations. That is becoming standard practice.
Project managers used to spend their day making their rounds walking the site ensuring the project was being built to specifications. However, that is changing. Soon, each worker’s safety glasses will have built-in augmented reality (AR). They will build their portion of a project exactly to plan. Project managers will connect with workers in the field and see the project they are working on progress in real-time while in their office on 3D models.
When the project manager does walk the site he or she will be wearing augmented reality (AR) head-up displays and able to compare the physical construction to the digital model in real-time. Backhoe and excavator operators will grade to exact precision. Robots will be common at construction sites assisting operations and enhancing current capabilities. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will fly regular patterns over construction sites. Heavy-lift UAVs will supplement cranes for some operations. Subsurface structures, whether buried beneath the ground or behind a wall will be digitized with precise location data making future replacements and repairs swift and easy. The uses of geospatially dependent technologies will continue to grow. The construction worker of tomorrow will be very different than the one of today.
Photo: Trimble
The new infrastructure will be built with smart technologies and incorporate renewables and “green energy” initiatives with a responsible approach to sustainability; for example, roadways will have embedded peizo-electric crystals in the asphalt to generate electricity from passing vehicles. The electricity will charge batteries that will power smart sensors embedded in the street and provide power to street lights with sensors and 5G networks along the roadways. Excess power will transfer to other microgrids for use elsewhere. Energy will also come from capturing wind on top and along the sides of buildings, along roadways, and at tunnel exits and entrances. Thermocouples will capture heat and generate electricity.
Solar power will be generated from panels, windows, films, and even paint surfaces. All of these sources together will feed into microgrids. Some of this renewable energy will convert water to hydrogen for fuel cells, and some will power carbon dioxide (CO2) converters to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and create synthetic fuels. In 2010, Sunexus submitted a geospatial study of the solar reforming process to the Office of Scientific & Technical Information (OSTI). The study showed that nearly 58% of industrial CO2 waste from power plants, cement plants, ethanol production, and natural gas processing could be converted to synthetic diesel fuel.
Image: U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Besides energy, other smart materials will be used such as small sensors that are geospatially sensitive nanodevices embedded in roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings and other structures. They are wirelessly connected to one another creating a 3D mesh network. These nanodevices continuously report their structural health. This 3D mesh network can detect vibrations passing through it that cause distortions in the mesh framework.
Geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) will profile devices based on their normal statistical ranges. If any data such as location, temperature, humidity, pressure, acoustics or health status exceed the device’s standard deviation the GeoAI will analyze surrounding nodes in the mesh network to depict patterns. Suspect events will immediately come to the attention of emergency services. These microdevices can provide early detection of cracks in a structure or deterioration of a surface protection layer.
The use of these devices extends beyond structural monitoring. More broadly, they have societal applications too, such as for security purposes. When fitted with acoustic sensors they can detect sounds, and by geospatially analyzing the data from many thousands of devices the epic center of a noise event can immediately be located. Take for example a gun shot, fireworks, an explosion, or a vehicle accident. The increased acoustic signal would trigger the GeoAI monitoring the devices to plot a spatial analysis of the acoustic report. The map would alert area would flash red on the monitor at the control center and nearby cameras would zoom in on the location providing images and live video feeds all within moments of the triggering event. The analysts at the control center could immediately assess the situation and dispatch the proper response units.
Embedded devices also serve as seismic sensors blanketing broad areas and are able to record surface vibrations moving through the mesh network. An earthquake would appear as a moving wave field along the network.
Additionally, data from the mesh network can integrate with other devices. It can provide smartphones with precise location data. Imagine no longer standing on a street corner turning in circles trying to figure out which way to go. When connected with the mesh network and looking through AR glasses or the smartphone view screen the path will be illuminated. Autonomous vehicles will connect with the mesh network and have absolute positional accuracy and have awareness of other vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians ensuring a more safe and efficient experience for everyone.
The mesh network can be used as a base layer for georeferencing the world. Notifications, warnings and requests for information can be sent to smartphones within an exact georeferenced location. Imagine being in your third-floor apartment sitting in your chair, listening to music on your headphones and reading an ebook. You are oblivious to the noise outside. An audible alert is sent to your phone and calls your attention. You look at your phone and a message is requesting information related to a possible gunshot at DD°MM’SS.sss N, DD°MM’SS.sss W. You click on the notification and a map opens up. You see it is right outside your window. You go to the window, look outside and see two people duck into a car. You watch as red tail lights drive away. You look back at the location on the street where the vehicle had been and a person is slumped over leaning against a stairwell.
On your phone you press the red alert button on the map application triggering a distress signal and confirming the incident may have been a gunshot and someone has possibly been injured. Emergency services immediately dispatch. Others nearby received the same alert message because it was automatically generated and sent out to all phone numbers within the area defined by the geospatial acoustic solution. Surveillance cameras on the corner of buildings were also triggered by the alert and automatically focused on the origin of the noise. Images of the assailants were captured along with the license plate of the vehicle. As the vehicle drove away a network of surveillance cameras continued following it turn by turn until it was finally intercepted and the occupants apprehended.
This world is nearer than it seems. The technologies are already here. Once the infrastructure bill is passed construction projects will begin and our physical world will begin to integrate with the digital world. The engineers design it. The construction workers and robots will build it. And it will be geospatial technologies holding it all together.
William Tewelow works for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is a graduate of the FAA management fellowship program. He served on special assignment to the U.S. Department of Transportation leading a national strategic geospatial initiative for the White House Open Data Partnership. He is a Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and a speaker for the Maryland STEMnet Scholar program. He was among the first in the nation to earn a Geospatial Specialist Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor while working at NASA Stennis Space Center. He has degrees in Geographic Information Technology, Intelligence Studies, and is completing a masters degree in Organizational Management. William is a 23 year veteran for the U.S. Navy serving as a Geospatial Specialist, Imagery Intelligence Specialist, a Naval Aviator, a Meteorologist, and a Tactical Oceanographer. He is married, enjoys writing and traveling. His favorite quote is, “A man’s mind changed by a new idea can never go back to its original dimension.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The benefits of geospatial technology are truly untold. However, when our federal agencies use geospatial data, different agencies can acquire duplicative information and waste precious taxpayer resources in the process. I am glad House leadership listened to industry stakeholders and included the Geospatial Data Act in the FAA Reauthorization Bill of 2018. This will streamline the collection of this data across the federal government while saving money, improving information accuracy, and providing a more modern system for collecting and sharing geospatial data.”
— Rep. Bruce Westerman, Arizona, introducing the Geospatial Data Act to the House of Representatives, 115th Congress
On Oct. 3, I was at a crowded after-hours event with friends in Washington, D.C., standing in a darkened corner of the room where I could both see and hear the speaker. A man approached me, a featureless silhouette in the dark tapping me on the shoulder. He introduced himself as an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey, and said he heard I was with the Federal Aviation Administration.
He asked if I knew anything about the FAA Reauthorization Bill because it had language from the Geospatial Data Act in it. His mention was the first I had heard of it. It came as a surprise. I expected a few passages from the Bill but nothing more; and, in fact, I did not expect it to even come up for a vote this year because of the divisive political atmosphere.
Two days later, on Friday, Oct. 5, President Donald Trump, along with 11 high ranking officials, signed the FAA Reauthorization Bill into law with overwhelming support. The Senate passed it 93-6, and the House passed it 398-23. The bipartisanship of this bill should have made the news – both sides of the contentious isles coming together to pass so important a piece of legislation. It happened without fanfare or recognition aside from certain circles, but within H.R. 302 was contained the entire Geospatial Data Act 2018.
An email from the Maryland State Geographic Information Committee (MSGIC) alerted me. Not even the FAA sent an email praising the aspects of the bill beyond what immediately applied to the FAA. If the stranger from USGS had not forewarned me I would not have been keen to the press release and overlooked its significance.
Most people are unaware that the Geospatial Data Act (GDA) is now law. Even fewer realize that the GDA applies not only to the FAA, but to all government agencies except for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.
The Long and Winding Road of the Geospatial Data Act
Attempts at creating a unifying federal geospatial policy can be traced to shortly after the Civil War. There was no powerful, central, national unifying authority before then. The states were sovereign entities with their own maps, and place names did not have to be agreed upon between states.
This is visible today in the names of Civil War battles, many of which are named differently by each warring side; for example, the bloody Battle of Antietam is the same as the Battle of Sharpsburg, and the Battle of Bull Run is the same as the Battle of Manassas. Upon those hallowed grounds so many died that the dual names exist because they were paid for in blood.
War drives the need for intelligence. Geography is of paramount importance for generals. The 1860s was a boom time for surveyors and cartographers because of the Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Additionally, in the 1860s Alaska was purchased from Russia and America built the first transcontinental railroad. Those geopolitical events changed the country, and the government needed to inventory the emerging nation.
Many companies were employed to do the work, but they were not coordinated, costing excess amounts of money. This prompted the establishment of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879 to oversee the survey companies.
Roosevelt on a digging machine during construction of the Panama Canal, circa 1908. (Photo: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
Problems were identified among the many maps created. Place names and spelling changed from map to map. The country needed a coordinated effort to deal with these discrepancies. President Benjamin Harrison addressed this with Executive Order 28 (27-A) in 1890, establishing the Board of Geographic Names.
In 1906, during the middle of building the Panama Canal, President Theodore Roosevelt — who had direct experience with survey and mapping companies — signed Executive Order 493 renaming the Board of Geographic Names to the U.S. Geographic Board and adding to its purpose reducing duplicative survey and mapping efforts.
In 1956 the National Interstate and Defense Highways Bill was signed, beginning the interstate network we enjoy today. Building the interstates was a huge expense, and like before, many survey companies were involved. Anticipating these challenges in 1953 President Eisenhower, the Office of Management and Budget wrote Circular A-16, which identified better coordination acquiring geographic information and reducing duplicate efforts as ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
In 1990 during the months leading up to Gulf War I, which showed geospatial precision’s awesome power and forever changed the face of war, also brought changes to OMB Circular A-16 for more domestic purposes. The circular was revised, reflecting the influence of the digital era and establishing the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to promote the coordination of geospatial data.
Recognizing the importance of geospatial information systems (GIS), on April 11, 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12906: Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The executive branch continued to lead the government’s efforts to advance a unified geospatial policy.
When 9/11 Happened
Seven years later, in June 2001, Congress attempted to pass its first federal geospatial policy, but Sept. 11 changed everything. The greatest terrorist attack in U.S. history made everything else pale by comparison. National security and intelligence became the focus.
Congress tried again in 2003, the same year the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) changed its name to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), but Gulf War II and the Global War on Terrorism stole center stage.
In 2005, Congress tried again, but to no avail. The bill changed names several times. The contents evolved. Attempts to introduce the bill went dormant until 2012 when it stalled again without support. Proponents continued reintroducing the bill under various names in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
In 2015 it made a second debut with the name Geospatial Data Act (GDA) and maintained that name going forward. The GDA was reintroduced in 2016, twice in 2017 and again in 2018. In total, the bill was introduced more than a dozen times since 2001. Finally, 139 years since the founding of USGS, a federal geospatial policy is now the law of the land.
You Have an Opportunity
“This legislation will significantly address how location intelligence is organized and disseminated and will foster continued strength in our industry’s partnership with government users.” — Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and CEO
It takes courageous leadership to get legislation passed. We can all breathe a sigh of relief. This great “tech-tonic” shift happened during our working lives. We can all say we were there when the world changed. This is a golden opportunity. Knowledge is power; however, knowledge is only potential power — real power is action. Step up, volunteer, and lead the change. Your agency needs you. The country needs you. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
Your first step is to read the Geospatial Data Act 2018 contained within the FAA Reauthorization Act, Title VII, Subtitle F: Geospatial Data, Sections 751-759. Become familiar with the GDA. Learn who the points of contact are for your agency. Make yourself known. Be a leader. When others see chaos, leaders see opportunity.
Economic Impact of the Geospatial Data Act 2018
“The economic benefits of smart infrastructure investment are long-term competitiveness, productivity, innovation, lower prices, and higher incomes, while infrastructure investment also creates many thousands of American jobs in the near-term.”
— White House, National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, July 2014
Since Roger Tomlinson first created a geographic information system in the 1960s, GIS has become a multi-billion dollar global industry. By 2020, it is forecast to be nearly a half-trillion dollars annually. The global GIS market is expected to double in seven years.
GeoBuiz estimates that GIS influences 20 percent the world’s entire $80.7 trillion global annual production. According to the Countries Geospatial Readiness Index, the United States leads the world in GIS. What is amazing is that all these estimates were made prior to the passage of the GDA — the gale force winds that have thus far blown will soon become a hurricane.
The sweet spot of opportunity is the forward edge of a growing industry. In the mid-90, the growth of the geospatial industry was led by state and local government (See GeoIntelligence Insider: In Jack Maple’s Steps – Fighting Crime with GIS, May 2018). In the mid-2000s, growth accelerated due to the intelligence and military communities. The next big boom in GIS begins now as the federal government complies with the GDA. There will be an even longer growth trend internationally as other countries make their own conversions.
It is a common adage that forecasts usually overestimate the near term and underestimate the long-term, especially in regard to technology. Consider how one man’s idea to sell books online in 1995 made him the wealthiest man in the world 23 years later, or how a simple search engine in 1998 is now a global behemoth. Of course, those references are to Jeff Bezos of Amazon and to Google.
And, consider the impact GPS has made since May 1, 2000, when President Clinton discontinued Selective Availability, opening GPS to the masses. Four years later, in June 2005, Google Earth was launched. The iPhone came out two years later. Then, a year later, Google Maps with real-time navigation was released.
Businesses like Uber that depend on GPS and GIS began in 2012. Now, industries such as drones and autonomous vehicles are on the verge of exponential growth.
Apply a similar trajectory to GIS and combine it with smart technologies like the internet of things (IoT), open data, data science, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and other emerging technologies and the growth potential is unprecedented, not to mention the infrastructure rebuild of America about to take place.
An Economic Analysis of Transportation Infrastructure Investment – White House, July 2014, National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. (Image: WhiteHouse.gov)
Smart technologies will play a huge role in rebuilding the United States infrastructure like sensors, advanced materials, self-aware neural networks, IoT devices, energy recapture systems, smart lighting, and more; many such technologies will be connected geospatially.
This will require an advanced 3D Smart Grid Reference System (3D SGRS), a term I coined in 2015 when I worked at the Department of Transportation and began developing a crowdsource application for the National Address Database. I saw it becoming the framework for a 3D SGRS, enabling pinpoint accuracy of locations in X-Y-Z.
I can cover the 3D SGRS in a future article. I write about it here because it will be required in order to modernize America’s infrastructure.
Before passing any infrastructure bills, it is necessary to have a sound geospatial policy to avoid the misspending identified by the previous administrations mentioned earlier. The GDA, in essence, is the first step to modernize America. A brief overview of proposals sitting before Congress is an indicator of the economic tsunami about to be unleashed now that the GDA has been established.
Legislation has been introduced for establishing infrastructure bonds and banks for investing in infrastructure projects. Individual bills are for railroads, land, air, and sea ports; intermodal freight transfer stations, highways, critical infrastructure, rural development and stormwater systems, including water retention ponds and reservoirs that make up a large part of city and suburban green space. There are bills to fund pollution prevention programs.
Infrastructure cybersecurity is also addressed. There are bills for job creation, including employing disabled veterans in transportation. There is even a bill for proclaiming a National Infrastructure Week.
Once these legislative efforts begin getting passed, a tsunami of economic growth will be released unlike few alive have ever seen.
The Geospatial Data Act – A Matter of Necessity
“The Geospatial Data Act will save taxpayer dollars, increase government efficiency, and unlock innovation in the public and private sectors.” — Congressman Seth Moulton, Massachusetts, co-signer of the Geospatial Data Act to the House of Representatives, 115th Congress
Rebuilding America is one of the boldest, grandest and costliest undertakings the country has seen. Being one of the costliest, one has to ask where the money is going to come from.
The GDA will create entrepreneurs, new products and services, and job growth, which will generate revenue. Many infrastructure-related bills have tax incentives built into them. Money will come from the economic restructuring of trade deals currently taking place with many of the United States’ trading partners. Money will also come from America’s oil and gas renaissance.
Outline of the Geospatial Data Act 2018
This article put the Geospatial Data Act into context, but it would not be complete if it did not at least outline the major provisions of the new law.
These are the primary tenets of the GDA:
It establishes the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
It establishes the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC)
It establishes the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
It establishes the National Spatial Data Asset data themes (NSDI-dt)
It establishes GeoPlatform as the clearinghouse for geospatial data
It sets Geospatial Data Standards.
Senator Orrin Hatch, who introduced the bill to the Senate four times since 2015, called it, “…a good-governance bill that will bring structure and Congressional oversight to federal geospatial data spending, accounting, and usage. The GDA will:
Dramatically reduce duplicative spending and, according to the Government Accountability Office, save the federal government billions of dollars;
Bolster federal emergency response capabilities by enabling smarter, more efficient disaster relief;
Improve infrastructure planning nationwide by providing state and local governments with access to higher-quality, more robust data.
The bill is supported by over 65 universities, industry groups, trade associations, companies, and state and local stakeholders, including the National Association of Counties and National League of Cities.”
Some of the stakeholders Sen. Hatch referred to are Bert Granberg, president of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), who stated, “From transportation, to natural resources, to homeland security, map-based digital information has quietly become mission critical to how work gets done and to future economic growth. We need an efficiency and accountability framework to build, sustain and share geographic data assets for the entire nation. The GDA delivers just that, and our members appreciate Representative Westerman’s leadership.”
Molly Schar, executive director of NSGIC, shared her thoughts, saying, “The Geospatial Data Act has been a top legislative priority for NSGIC for several years. We have worked with state governments, Congressional offices, federal agencies, and many other stakeholder groups committed to building more resilient communities by ensuring they will have access to the consistent high-quality data they need to do their jobs,”
And, after the bill’s passage she proclaimed, “It was a big win for the entire geospatial community and quite a team effort!”
For more information
This report has given you the background and the context of the Geospatial Data Act. To become intimately familiar with the GDA, I highly recommend reading the Congressional Research Service Report about GDA 2018, released Oct. 22.
GIS specialists are much more than mapmakers. Make sure your organization and customers understand how spatial analytics can help them succeed.
By Adam Carnow
Most non-GIS users hear the term “G-I-S” and think “M-A-P.” That is, they think of GIS, and GIS practitioners, as mapmakers. Most GIS practitioners have unknowingly perpetuated this image. Ask any GIS practitioner what they do for a living and most will say, “I make maps;” however, the reality is that what they do for a living is help people make better decisions through the power of location. This is what I call location intelligence.
There is a tremendous growth opportunity for GIS in government across the enterprise. GIS was created to perform spatial analysis. GIS can often be underutilized because non-GIS users sometimes don’t understand the reach of spatial analysis and how it can help them. GIS practitioners need to market and evangelize the power of spatial analysis to help change that image.
Photo: rmnoa357/Shutterstock.com
You can break down location intelligence into six categories. As you move down this list, the value of the location intelligence increases:
Understanding Where. A map (could be paper or PDF, but should be an interactive web map) showing where the fire stations are located across a city.
Measuring Size, Shape and Distribution. A map showing the size, shape and distribution of wetlands across an area would help with wetland protection and preservation.
Determining How Places Are Related. Showing how certain soil types correspond to flood zones.
Finding the Best Locations and Paths
To find the best location for a new fire station, run a drive-time polygon process to show the coverage area for each fire station. The areas that are uncovered are where a new fire station is needed.
To find the best path for field inspectors: We have 50 inspections to do today and three inspectors. Divide the inspection locations among each inspector and create the most efficient route to get their work done.
Detecting and Quantifying Patterns. Crime analysts look at crime data to try to predict where the next one may occur and to help identify known perpetrators. (See also An inside look at fighting crime with GIS.)
Making Predictions. Modeling a watershed can allow for flood predictions based on anticipated rainfall.
Another way to help break the mapmaker image is to rebrand. Most staff in any organization use spreadsheets daily for a multitude of things that bring value to the organization – some say it’s the number one business intelligence (BI) tool.
There are GIS software tools that are as easy to use as a spreadsheet; in fact, you can use GIS inside of spreadsheets.
Wetlands map, Oregon’s Klamath Lake. (Map: USGS)
Even though spreadsheets are such a useful tool, you don’t see a Spreadsheet Department. Spreadsheet is just the name of the tool, so you don’t have, or name, a department for it. A department should be named based on the function, or value, it serves.
GIS should be thought of as BI with location data and spatial analysis, or location intelligence. A great way to get people to understand the real value and power of GIS is to rebrand your GIS department to something like Enterprise Location Intelligence.
One such example of this is Walgreens. As the drugstore chain’s GIS department became more strategic and tied to the analytics of the organization, the company rebranded it as Enterprise Location Intelligence.
If your organization has a BI group, they should consider reorganizing to put GIS with that BI group. I’m seeing real-world examples of this rebrand:
GIS job title changes to things like:
Data Analytics Manager
Content Delivery Manager
Business and Location Intelligence Manager
Reorganization putting GIS with BI: A major city has a Smart City initiative, and in response the city has reorganized its IT group — they now have a Data Analytics Group that consists of a BI team and their GIS team.
This rebrand, and expansion of the understanding of the true purpose and value of GIS, will not just help the organization realize more return on investment (ROI) for their GIS investment, it will help the GIS practitioners elevate their value to the organization and hence their careers.
What can you do? If you’re a GIS practitioner:
Explore rebranding your title and your GIS group as a start to changing your image from mapmaker to solution provider.
Evangelize the power of location intelligence. This is actually pretty easy to do. When someone asks for a map, ask them why they need it, probe to find out more about their project; you will probably uncover a need for spatial analysis.
Start to enable others in your organization to become GIS users via easy-to-use web maps and apps. As they use GIS, they will realize its full potential and seek to utilize it more often.
If you’re not a GIS practitioner, seek out your GIS team to learn more about their capabilities and how they can help you. And, become a GIS user, there are plenty of GIS tools available that are easy to learn and use.
This article originally appeared on Govloop.com and is reprinted with permission.
Adam Carnow is an Esri community evangelist and part of the GovLoop Featured Contributor program.
