The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) has launched its latest foresight report, which makes predictions and gives insights into how data will impact on the built environment over the next five years.
Sponsored by global consultancy Atkins, the Ordnance Survey and mapping software company Esri UK, the report – available here – brings together 60 diverse future-gazing papers authored by BIM and geospatial experts.
The papers focus on five themes – Open, Big Bata, BIM and Future Cities, Innovative Technologies, and Policy – with contributions from the Office of National Statistics, the Crown Estate, Arup, ThinkBIM (a think tank based at Leeds Beckett University), Network Rail and Tesco.
The report aims to put geographic information (GI) at the centre of these issues, with a key finding being the need for the geospatial community to work with infrastructure and other industries to tackle issues of data quality and security so that they can improve their decision making and planning.
The report states that “the geospatial industry has to understand how to switch from being a data provider, to being a data service”.
Anne Kemp, chief editor of the report, and a director at global consultancy, Atkins said: “Forbes predicts that over the next five years the number of hand-held devices in the world will increase from 10.3 billion to 29.5 billion. This will mean a huge increase in data, and a phenomenal surge in the amount of noise we will need to sift through to find the information we need to make good decisions.”
She continued: “The role of the geospatial community in managing this data is vital. The management of big data through geospatial analysis helps us to visualise patterns of information, create better understanding and dialogue, and make more informed decisions.”
“There is far more to geospatial than maps. For geospatial practitioners, it’s really all about data, what you do with it and what outcomes you can provide.”
Key papers that will be of interest to the BIM community include:
- SIM cities: Why BIM and GIS fit together
- BIM for the sub-surface: challenges
- BIM and spacial data; working together for effective infrastructure development
- Autonomous vehicles, a future of opportunities
- Realising the potential of BIM. Is competition restricting efficiency opportunities from collaboration?
- The value chain of BIM data in a smart city context
- BIM4Infrastructure – rather than answers do we know the right questions yet?
- Big data in future proofing cities
- The future of drones and the development of micro-robotic UAV technology
- To CAD or not to CAD that is the question?
- BIM adoption within infrastructure using a risk-based approach.
