MEA493V Current Environmental Issues

CURRENT TRENDS IN GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY FOR ENVIRONMENT

H. Mitasova, M. Kimberley Dept. of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, NCSU

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"US Dept. of Labor identified geotechnology as one of the three most important emerging and evolving fields, along with nanotechnology and biotechnology." Nature, vol. 427, Jan. 2004, p. 376.

• Revolution in mapping technologies (laser scanning: ground, airborne, vehicle mounted, interferometric radar, multibeam sonar, 3D digital photogrammetry, multispectral imagery, real time kinematic surveys);
  

  from contours to interactive 3D views based on lidar.

  rapid response 3D mapping for hurricane Isabel Geodynamics llt

• Continuous monitoring using automated monitoring stations: meteorology, oceanography, surface water (Rivernet, USGS, DOT), groundwater, transportation (Wolflink) etc.

• On-line distribution of data, near real time data availability, WebGIS: Sample on-line data distribution and WebGIS sites Earth Google (ArcGlobe on-line)

• Parallel and distributed computing (GRID) technologies are being implemented for processing of large-scale GIS datasets and for simulations

• Multidimensional dynamic GIS highly automated 3D mapping technologies lead to replacement of 2D static representation of landscape by a 3D dynamic representation;

At the core of the current geospatial technology is Geographic Information System: integration of data, hardware, and software designed for management, processing, analysis and visualization of georeferenced data.

cited from: Mitasova H. and Neteler M. 2002 Freedom in geoinformation science and software development: A GRASS GIS contribution. In: Proc. of Open Source Free Software, GIS GRASS users conf., B. Benciolini and M. Ciolli and P. Zatelli (Eds), Trento.