Fleet sensors being leveraged into smart city initiatives as another source of geospatial information that can enrich GIS systems.

For harbors, shipping companies, oceanic exploratory expeditions and others, there is now affordable drone-based technology that can unlock the secrets of the sea with stunning imagery.

The goal of low-cost, high-accuracy positioning is now within reach.

The most important aspect a land surveyor adheres to is “honoring the point.” This means keeping the integrity of what is found in the field.

You can build your map around the story you want your data to tell. Form can now fit function, instead of the other way around.

NASA UAS exercises continue, setting the stage for commercial drone airspace advances.

The innovations that impact the geospatial profession don’t just raise questions about tool relevance; they raise questions about people relevance. Photogrammetry is just one example of a geospatial specialty that is becoming simplified due to automation in hardware and software.

Small surveying shops or in-the-field companies in industries like construction often operate with skeleton crews at their home offices. They ask office managers to load software and take care of the computers and the Internet, and they often operate without a trained IT person on staff.

While there is a tendency to think that historical big GIS users like construction, civil engineering and surveying are in the vanguard of this new application development, it is actually new users of GIS and GPS that are paving the way to innovation.