Dynamic world

by Ilse Genovese

What do we expect from a dynamic world?
Geospatial technology is changing with time. Over time, the reasons for which we use technology change too. We are presented with challenges, we learn, we grow, and we develop new thoughts about spatial data and their applications. New expectations for and of geographic information systems drive a multitude of different “geo” applications, many of which require data of survey grade accuracy. Suddenly, a new role emerges for surveying and mapping. It’s the role of innovator in the way geographic data are collected, stored, and disseminated in an increasingly smarter geospatial technology environment. Several articles in this issue bear witness to this transformation, but none does it better than Bill Rushing’s account of how his company, Berntsen International, a name in survey marker manufacturing, has positioned itself with its new “smart monuments” as an innovator in the dynamic world of geospatial technology.
The dynamic nature of our world has spurred a whole new way of thinking among surveying and mapping professionals. The unrelenting self-examination of surveying education—by Bill Hazelton and other prominent surveyor–academics—is a potent manifestation of this new thinking. Theory is at its best when it finds itself validated in practice. The earthquakes which have recently shattered Haiti and Chile, or the unexploded ordinance in Vietnam, have two things in common: they prevent people from making the best use of their land. Land and its uses were, are, and will continue to be the major focus of surveying and mapping. A mark made on a rock on the edge of the Chattooga River in 1811 to this day demarcates the border between Georgia and North Carolina. William Morton’s recounting of this uniquely American piece of surveying history is juxtaposed by Frank Lenik’s field notes capturing surveying’s expanding role in freeing land from the dangers lurking subsurface in exotic Vietnam. The reports coming out of Haiti spoke of the difficult job of urban rescue teams, the suffering witnessed by medical missions, the future rebuilding of a country’s infrastructure from scratch... These reports, understandably, focused on people—those affected and those who came to their assistance. Missing was the other story—about flight simulation training helping pilots land planes on severely damaged runways; about GIS maps, constructed “on-the-fly” to help rescue teams find people buried in rubble; about the geospatial technology and information without which future rebuilding is unthinkable.
Surveying and mapping technology has indeed changed over time; and it has a new name—geospatial technology. But the principle on which this technology is built—to deliver quality geographic information, and through it value, stability, mobility, and interoperability in a variety of situations and work flows—endures. These are the key drivers of a dynamic profession in a dynamic world. Keep your eyes on them.