1973: US DoD Develops G.P.S. and Geospatial Tech - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the year 1973 G.P.S. was developed in the United States by the Department of Defense. The definition given to geospatial technology refers to the equipment that is usually used for the analysis and measuring of the features and the land on earth. Various technological systems use these structures, and they consist of Geographical Information System (G.I.S.) and Global Positioning System (G.P.S.), and they are used in geospatial work (De Smith, 2007). Geospatial is a word that comes from Greek with 'Geo' meaning earth and 'Spatial' used to indicate about space.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The U.S. launched G.P.S., the launching of the first satellite was done in 1978 in which it was initially developed to aid in the military efforts by its service members as they moved cargo or ships vehicles and planes all around the globe to the correct location as instructed by the Department of Defense. In today's world G.P.S. have come to have numerous different uses that range from the navigation of planes cars and boat, it can also be used in recreational activities that mainly take place outdoors that includes fishing boating hiking and kayaking (Gruenewald, 2006, 666). The essential purpose of this paper is a discussion of the various ways of utilizing geospatial information. It adds the techniques used in the conducting of geospatial analysis and how this geospatial technology is used in Sri Lanka compared to other countries.

Global Positioning System and System Geographic Information

The Global Positioning System (G.P.S.) is essential in various other ways, like in the scientific community. It plays many roles in earth sciences . The example is the meteorologists who use it for global climate research and weather forecasting. Geologists mainly use G.P.S. for measuring tectonic signals that can be seen during earthquakes (James, 2012, 181). Many people think G.I.S. and geospatial technology are the same things and in numerous times the two terms can be used interchangeably, the Geographical Information System (G.I.S.) is a system that the information of geographical features are stored in layers and joined with the software programs of geography so that the data of spatial can be analyzed stored visualized created and manipulated (Shelestov,2013, 124). However, geospatial technology a phrase that has recently gained popularity and can be defined as aggregate data and technology that is associated with locational and geographical components with studies showing the term geospatial only entered the English language in the late 1980s and has quickly grown into what it is now.

During the past, 25 years or so technology and the relying upon information that commonly found in digital data form has become the norm for which organizations governments and industries make their decisions. In the world today there is an overflow of data that increases exponentially every single day, each company and institutions nowadays have come to have the knowledge that they must have contact to the actual data at the right time and must also have the connection to the analysis of data that is raw so as to make correct decisions with it (Butkiewicz,2008, 1165). The proper collection usability and analysis of relevant and timely data can be used to explain the difference between failure and success.

Geospatial Data

An article written by "Harvard Business Review" explains how numerous companies have used data analysis and collection an organizational and strategic priority and reflect data as a critical asset to management. Geospatial data has grown to render information that can be in two or three dimensions as the key to visualizing data and this is the core reason why organizations become interested in seeking this form of data (Mitasova,2005, 204). In the olden time, the use geospatial data was only for the intelligence and military agencies aeronautical or maritime organizations while in today technological world the use of geospatial data has extended into every institution and business market across the globe with the encounter of providing new levels of information and insights.

Data Input Technique

There are various techniques that are typically used in the analysis of geospatial data, one is data input in relation to geospatial data, with data input or data entry being defined as various terms contained in any chore that has a requirement of information entered into a computer system in a selection of methods (Graser,2015, 2219). The simplicity of data input makes the discussion of data entry techniques to be limited to spatial data only, and there is no one method of inputting the spatial data into G.I.S., but they are numerous mutually compatible methods that are known to be used singly or in combination. Studies have shown that the choice or the preference of the process of data entry used is primarily overseen by the application (such as Q.G.I.S., Google Maps or Open Street Maps), the budget that is obtainable in the complexity and type of data being entered into the system.

Quantum G.I.S.

Having numerous data entry techniques being primarily governed by the application used, one of the form is "Q.G.I.S." which was previously known as 'Quantum G.I.S. can be said to be an open and free source or cross-platform in a computer's desktop geographic information system (G.I.S.) software that maintains editing analysis and viewing of geospatial data. This Q.G.I.S. function as an application of the G.I.S., giving consumers the right to modify and analyze the spatial information, furthermore, it exports and composes graphical maps (Barik, 2018, 733). Q.G.I.S. application supports both layers vector and raster data.Vector data is kept at either point on the line while for rater images or data for multiple formats are recommended to allow external sources use of data.

From the start of July 2015, all versions of the existing Q.G.I.S. platform are incompatible with the data contained in the Open Street Maps (O.S.M.), and this includes all new and existing 64 bit nodes and the data retrieved from these databases would say b contained in the 32-bit nodes. The application of Q.G.I.S. may be integrated to the importing of Open Street Maps which is a crucial functionality and to get the O.S.M. data the following methods may be used:

• Load data and therefore connecting to the O.S.M. server while downloading the information
• Import the topology node from an XML file and this covert your O.S.M. file into a database known as a spatialite file and then create a D.B. connection
• Export the topology node to the spatialite database and thus allowing one to open the relationship in the database and hence select the type of data needed by choosing tags t import and click this to create three spatialite geometry layers.
• Add the created layer the produced project through the addition of a spatialite layer menu.

ArcGIS Online

For data input to apply in geospatial data, it has to rely on various applications, and one of these software's is "ArcGIS Online" which is a mapping and analysis solution that is cloud-based (Hare,2018,36). Its mainly used to analyze data make maps and also to collaborate and share these data, moreover, getting access to specific apps workflow that uses data collected and plans from all around the world with specific tools that are portable in the field. Other roles include maps and data stored in a private and secure infrastructure that is mainly configured to meet I.T. and mapping requirements. For data entry purposes it is useful to "EXPORT INFO" in the export format as an exchange format that consists of attribute and descriptive data that has the intention of transferring the "ARC /INFO" data from one platform in hardware or a website to another platform or website.

There is also another use which has frequently been known to be for archiving the ARC/INFO data (Hofer, 2015, 901). This data format is not publicly published however the G.I.S. and some desktop mapping vendors offer translators in the application; it has an EXPORT format which comes in several methods which can be either partially compressed uncompressed or fully compressed format. The format of spatial analysis it's the most exciting and fascinating feature of G.I.S. y using the geographic information system (G.I.S.) by the method of spatial analysis can link information from various sources and disclose new sets of data by the application of a complex set of spatial operators.

The sophisticated collection f data from spatial analysis tools expand larger to one's ability to answer difficult spatial questions (Liu,2015, 395). The spatial analysis helps t solve hard location related queries with the help of an ArcGIS Pro someone may better understand what and where is going on in the globe. It has various functions that consist of mapping the crime-infested areas in your city, trying to figure out locations of schools, parks and other demographics in a particular area and lending new perspectives to one's decision making.

Open Street Maps

Another application that can be useful in the data input technique is the "Open Street Map" which can be defined as a free (well mostly free) editable map of the whole globe that has been built by volunteers mostly from scratch and later released with a license that is of open content. Having defined the open street map, the explanation is given for "Open Street Map License" is that it allows almost free access to known plans images plus all the underlying data in the maps. The key objective of this application is that it aims to provide exciting and new uses of the data.

Most of the open street maps are built by a group of mappers that maintain and contribute to data about trails roads cafes and railways stations all over the world (Gibin,2008, 85). The only thing one needs to know in their application is that mainly emphasizes on local knowledge that makes local contributors use aerial imagery for their devices that support G.P.S. and also fields that are in low tech features for the verification of maps that O.S.M. is correct and even up to date with current characteristics.

Using Open Street Maps

Most of the people that use open street maps are very diverse, passionate and ever-growing in the current world economy. The applications local contributors consist of several members such as their passionate mappers, engineers that run their O.S.M. servers, G.I.S. professionals and mapping of disaster-affected regions by their trusted humanitarians. The sites where one visits to learn more about their community consists of user diaries, O.S.M. Foundation website, community blogs and the Open Street Maps blog (Boroushaki,2010). When a consumer wants to use the application, and they aren't part of the copyright or the license criteria, they have to use its open data. Which is free for use and any purpose as long as you recognize Open Street Maps and their contributors. If someone builds or alters the data given in specific ways, one may only distribute this data and its results under the regulations of the same license.

Google Maps

The next application to learn is google maps and how it helps with geospatial analysis. With the definition of google maps given as a web service base that offers information that is detailed in geographical areas and locations all around the world. Moreover, for local road plans, these google maps provide satellite and aerial views of numerous sites while for some cities and towns these maps give views on streets that contain images (mostly photographs) that have been taken from moving vehicles. Google research team has studies that show that roughly 80 per cent of all the collected data by corporations have a hard time capturing the context in spatial form, the popularly known 'Flat sheets' with the numerous known rows and c...