5
Who Uses Geospatial Technology?
City Planning
Utilities, waste water, green space, traffic, roads, zoning, and housing are all
topics that urban planners deal with. Geospatial technology provides a means
of working with all of these entities together for planning purposes. Strategies
for smart urban growth and managing and updating city resources can be examined through a variety of different applications.
Environmental Monitoring
Processes that affect the Earth’s environment in a wide variety of ways can be
tracked and assessed using geospatial technology. Information about landuse change, pollution, air quality, water quality, and global temperature levels is vital to environmental research ranging from monitoring harmful algae
blooms to studies in climate change (see Figure 1.3).
Forestry
All manner of forest monitoring, management, and protection can be aided
through the use of geospatial technology. Modeling animal habitats and the
pressures placed upon them, examining the spatial dimensions of forest fragmentation, and managing fires are among the many different ways that geospatial technology is utilized within the field of forestry (Figure 1.4, page 6).
Homeland Security
Geospatial technology is a key component of examining vulnerable areas
with regard to homeland security. Risk assessment of everything from
FIGURE 1.3 Global
carbon monoxide
concentrations as
monitored by NASA
remote sensing satellites.
(Source: NASA GSFC Scientific
Visualization Studio, based on
data from MOPITT (Canadian
Space Agency and University
of Toronto))
Who Uses Geospatial Technology?
City Planning
Utilities, waste water, green space, traffic, roads, zoning, and housing are all
topics that urban planners deal with. Geospatial technology provides a means
of working with all of these entities together for planning purposes. Strategies
for smart urban growth and managing and updating city resources can be examined through a variety of different applications.
Environmental Monitoring
Processes that affect the Earth’s environment in a wide variety of ways can be
tracked and assessed using geospatial technology. Information about landuse change, pollution, air quality, water quality, and global temperature levels is vital to environmental research ranging from monitoring harmful algae
blooms to studies in climate change (see Figure 1.3).
Forestry
All manner of forest monitoring, management, and protection can be aided
through the use of geospatial technology. Modeling animal habitats and the
pressures placed upon them, examining the spatial dimensions of forest fragmentation, and managing fires are among the many different ways that geospatial technology is utilized within the field of forestry (Figure 1.4, page 6).
Homeland Security
Geospatial technology is a key component of examining vulnerable areas
with regard to homeland security. Risk assessment of everything from
FIGURE 1.3 Global
carbon monoxide
concentrations as
monitored by NASA
remote sensing satellites.
(Source: NASA GSFC Scientific
Visualization Studio, based on
data from MOPITT (Canadian
Space Agency and University
of Toronto))