Presentation given at IRLOGI Workshop 1 October and GIS Ireland Conference 2015 2 October in Dublin, Ireland

1. GLOBAL SPATIAL DATA -
CHALLENGES, ISSUES AND TRENDS
Roger Longhorn
Secretary-General, Global SDI Association (GSDI)
gsdi.org / rlonghorn@gsdi.org
Principal SDI Consultant, Compass Informatics Ltd, Dublin
External expert, International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Marine SDI W.G.
Steering Group, International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) IOC IODE Project

2. GSDI’S GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
• GSDI Special Consultative status with UN ECOSOC, May 2014
• GSDI links to UN GGIM (UN Committee of Experts on Global
Geospatial Information Management)
• GSDI supports and promotes the GEO Data Management
Principles
• GSDI on Joint Board of GI Societies (JBGIS)
• MoUs with FIG, ISPRS, ICA, ISDE, OSGeo (forthcoming)
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3. FUTURE VISIONS INSPIRATION
UN “Future Trends in Geospatial Information Management: The
Five to Ten Year Vision” - Second Edition, 2015
• First edition produced in 2012/2013
• Trends are supported by similar studies conducted at regional
(trans-national) and national level
• e.g. RICS – ‘Our changing world: let’s be ready’ - April 2015
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4. TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY
AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
 Data creation, maintenance, management – and use
 ‘Everything happens somewhere’ (events) and ‘happens some time’ (temporal) and
‘everything is somewhere’ (location-based ‘things’ – tangible and intangible).
 ‘Cloud computing – benefits and risks – “bring processing to the data, not data to the
processing.”
 Open Source – spreading ever more widely (cost, training and support issues)
 Open Standards – issues resolved in the geo world?
 Professional data creation and maintenance
 Non-professional data creation and use
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5. “FUTURE TRENDS IN GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT: THE FIVE TO TEN YEAR VISION”
“Governments need to see foundation geospatial information for
its ‘value’, not for where it has come from or who owns it.”
“Geospatial information needs to be treated as an essential
component in decision-making processes, not just as a
commodity that can be sold.”
• Many mind-sets still need changing.
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6. microUAVs – a disruptive
technlogy
 Growth of use in past 12 – 24 months & forecast growth (2010-2020):
o global market for UAVs in 10 (2020) years will be approximately
$22 billion (U.S. = 75–80% of the market).
 Impediments:
o Regulation and policy disparity across nations (commercial use
prohibited).
o Privacy issues still not addressed or resolved.
o Safety issues not addressed (yet – see collision stories).
o ‘Official’ use versus ‘private’ use is confusing policy makers & impeding
policy development.
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7. SATELLITE IMAGERY
• Imagery is down in price.
• Improved coverage, resolution, and timeliness – more players.
• Advances in automated image processing methodology and
software.
• Technology offers global coverage & near 24/7.
• Impact of microsatellites and clusters, example: DMCii.
• Imagery companies become information companies.
• “there is no value in a pixel”
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8. SPATIAL APPS DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
• Lack of underpinning spatial knowledge of developers leading
to unintended results.
• Lack of knowledge of IPR in data, software & services – or
paying attention to licensing issues.
• IPR in Open Source & Open Data
• Apps development is an uncontrolled aspect of the software
industry – both good and bad aspects.
• New tools put apps development into the hands of everyone.
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9. TECHNOLOGY VERSUS POLICY GAP
FOR SPATIAL DATA
• Technology advances much more rapidly than ability of policy
and regulation to keep up.
• Policy makers do not always fully understand the technology –
or take trends (rapid and near future evolution of technology)
into account when changing policies or making new
regulations.
• Regulating ‘technology’ is not the same as regulating ‘data’ or
products or services created using the technology.
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10. SMART CITIES AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS
• Global challenges created by increased urbanisation
in radically different environments
• By 2050, 80% of a forecast global population of 9
billion will live in cities.
• “The greatest challenge to mankind since we became
social”.
• Connectivity through the Internet of Things (IoT) and
social media.
• Need Open Data & Open Platforms to permit ready
integration of datasets from multiple sources and
disciplines – hence – ‘citySDI’.
• Data integration issues are yet to be resolved, but will
be both standards and software dependent.
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11. INTEGRATING GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION
• Integrating from multiple data sources (and types)
• Radically different types of data can be ‘spatial’
• Integrating from multiple data owners/custodians (access & IPR)
• Standards required – what standards & who produces these?
• Statistical data as a driver
• Global involvement of statistical offices in SDI development
• Integrating for the global 2020 Round of Censuses
• Other drivers (e.g. disaster monitoring and management)
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12. BIG DATA CHALLENGES
• IDC report forecasts a forty to fifty-fold increase in data we
capture between 2010 and 2020, to 40 zettabytes (a zettabyte =
21 zeros!)
• or … “six terabytes of data will be stored for each of the world’s inhabitants
by 2020, equivalent to the text contained in three million books”
• How is different data collected? (vastly different data types
involved)
• Can it be combined? (integrating methodologies)
• Who owns it or is official custodian? (for access and permission
to use; licensing; preservation; maintenance; …)
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13. GLOBAL RESPONSE TO BIG
DATA CHALLENGES
• RDA (Research Data Alliance)
• Big Data Analytics Interest Group (130 members globally)
• Big Data Analytics (methodologies and tools needed)
• Big Data skills shortages – arrival of the ‘Big Data Scientist’
• Advances in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning
• Research funding!
• Encouraging Public Private Partnerships (PPP)
• Moving from Big Data to Smart Data.
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14. BIG DATA INITIATIVES IN EUROPE
• Socio-economic targets:
• up to 30% of the global data market for European suppliers,
• 100,000 new data-related jobs in Europe by 2020,
• 10% lower energy consumption, better health-care outcomes
and more productive industrial machinery.
• European Big Data Value Association includes data providers,
data users, data analysts and research organisations.
• 2.5 billion euro PPP partnership agreement, operational from
January 2015
• Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)
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15. LEGAL AND POLICY ISSUES &
DEVELOPMENTS
• Awareness of the data issues within the GI community.
• Funding in a changing world – government v. industry v. PPP.
• Open Data and Open Source software – impact.
• Licensing, pricing and data ownership/custodianship.
• Privacy challenges – relating to technology (microUAVs) and data use.
• Liability and data assurance (data quality challenges).
• Global disparities between legal and policy frameworks.
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16. SKILLS REQUIREMENTS AND TRAINING
MECHANISMS
• Skills for effective organisations
• ‘Information Management’, not just ‘GIS’
• Analytical skills, not just programming
• Extracting value from Big Data (analytics challenges) – Big Data
Scientists
• Education and advocacy
• When to start skills development – primary, secondary, tertiary schooling?
• Educational funding requirements.
• Investing in research and development – very uneven playing
field globally.
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17. ROLE OF THE PRIVATE INDUSTRY AND
NON-GOVERNMENTAL SECTORS -
ACADEMIA, NGOs, CITIZENS
• Mapping & services that are for - and accessible to - the masses.
• Citizen-centric mapping and location services.
• Future role of the Private Sector?
• Open Data / Open Source issues.
• Value adding, IPR and the ‘bottom line’.
• Apps development.
• Standards development and adoption. (e.g. OGC as an example)
• Future role of civil society (VGI and crowdsourced geospatial data)?
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18. FUTURE ROLE OF
GOVERNMENTS IN
GEOSPATIAL DATA
PROVISION AND
MANAGEMENT
• Bridging the gap: coordination and collaboration with industry, academia
and citizens.
• Marine spatial information (IHO Marine SDI Working Group & S-100).
• Developing national SDIs – the scorecard today.
• Maintaining accurate, detailed and trusted ‘official’ geospatial information.
• Ensuring accessibility to spatial data for all sectors of society – businesses,
citizens, academia.
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19. FUTURE TRENDS – MY PREDICTIONS
• Crowdsourcing will continue to grow as advances in technology and apps
development permit ever more data to be collected by ‘non-professionals’.
• microUAVs and associated image processing technology will transform access to and
use of spatial data globally – while adding to the glut of Big Data!
• User-friendly apps development tools will lead to exponential growth in apps,
especially for mobile devices.
• Ever more government data will become fully ‘open’, globally – free and unrestricted
access and use (by popular demand).
• IPR issues will continue to plague the geo information industry.
• AI developments in other disciplines will be taken up by spatial tools developers.
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20. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
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Roger Longhorn
Secretary-General, Global SDI Association (GSDI)
gsdi.org / rlonghorn@gsdi.org

21. RESOURCES / REPORTS – FUTURE TRENDS
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• UN GGIM Report: “Future Trends in geospatial information management: the
five to ten year vision” - Second Edition, 2015
http://ggim.un.org/docs/meetings/GGIM5/Future%20Trends%20in%20Geosp
atial%20Information%20Management%20%20the%20five%20to%20ten%20yea
r%20vision.pdf
• RICS report - Our changing world: let’s be ready - April 2015
http://www.rics.org/be/knowledge/research/insights/futuresour-changing-
world/

22. RESOURCES / REPORTS - BIG DATA CHALLENGES
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• RDA (Research Data Alliance) - Big Data Analytics - https://rd-
alliance.org/groups/big-data-analytics-ig.html; https://rd-
alliance.org/groups/big-data-analytics-ig/wiki/rda-big-data-analytics-interest-
group-charter.html;
• Worldwide Big Data Technology and Services - 2012-2015 Forecast -
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/worldwide-big-data-
technology-and-services-2012-2015-forecast (PDF report)
• NESSI - Networked European Software and Services Initiative -
(http://www.nessi-europe.eu/default.aspx?page=home)
• Data Value Chain - https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/elements-data-
value-chain-strategy
• (UK) Big Data Analytics - An assessment of demand for labour and skills, 2012-
2017 - http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/big-data-analytics-
assessment-demand-labour-and-skills-2012-2017

23. RESOURCES / REPORTS - BIG DATA TO SMART DATA
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• http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-
future/digitalization-and-software/from-big-data-to-smart-data-why-big-data-
has-to-become-smart-data.html
• http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-
future/digitalization-and-software/from-big-data-to-smart-data-facts-and-
forecasts.html

24. RESOURCES / REPORTS - microUAVs
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• Links: http://unmanned-aerial.com/small-uav-coalition-pushes-congress-for-micro-uav-
provision/; http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=18295;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/12/22/industry-proposes-a-micro-
drone-rule-as-regulatory-deadline-looms/
• UK - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11541504/Where-is-the-legal-line-in-
flying-drones.html
• Canada - http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/standards/general-recavi-uav-
2265.htm?WT.mc_id=21zwi
• George Cho paper (34 pp) on UAV policy (2013):
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/JlLawInfoSci/2013/10.html.

25. RESOURCES / REPORTS - SATELLITE IMAGERY
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• http://www.space.si/en/automatic-optical-satellite-data-processing-chain/
• http://www.gdacorp.com/satellite-image-processing
• https://www.gaf.de/content/data-processing
• DMCii - http://www.dmcii.com/?page_id=9275

26. RESOURCES / REPORTS - EU POSITION ON OPEN DATA
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 http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/open-data-0
 Communication on Open Data - http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0882:FIN:EN:PDF
 Legislation on re-use of public sector information (PSI) -
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/legislative-measures
 Non-legislative measures supporting open PSI - https://ec.europa.eu/digital-
agenda/en/non-legislative-measures-facilitate-reuse
 Open Data Portals - https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/open-data-
portals

27. RESOURCES / REPORTS - OECD OPEN DATA
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• OECD Open Government Data project
http://www.oecd.org/gov/public-innovation/opengovernmentdata.htm
• Working Paper “Open Government Data: Towards Empirical Analysis of
Open Government Data Initiatives” –
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/open-government-
data_5k46bj4f03s7-en